Same Time,
Outskirts of Lambstead,
Lancashire
A bladed creature fell, letting off a horrible keening screech as its bones grew sharp spikes, tearing it apart from the inside. Nearby, several of its fellows were drawn together and compacted into a tightly packed ball of crushed chitin, broken bone, oozing blood, and stinking organs. A short distance beyond that, a trio of the ranged-weapon wielding beasts were consumed by malevolent flame, eating its way from their extremities inward until nothing was left but ash and a foul smell.
Needless to say, Bellatrix was displeased. And, unfortunately for the creatures, they were the vessel she chose to channel that displeasure into. According to Dumbledore's lackeys, the useless fodder that were currently acting as stress relief were hormagaunts and termagants, but it was the one called the Swarmlord that was the true focus of her rage. The beast not only had the temerity to attempt to kill her master, the great Dark Lord, but it had made her master displeased with her when she had attempted to aid him in his battle.
For now, she would satisfy herself with the Swarmlord's underlings that dared to think they could prevent her from carrying out her Lord's orders. And while she dearly wished she could vent her frustration on something a little more human, for the good of her master's noble purpose she would ensure that her subordinates left Lambstead safely. Afterwards, she would finally take Montague, make him believe he would be getting what he had lusted after for so long, and then torture him until he begged for the sweet mercy of death. The Dark Lord had never said she needed to keep them alive after they returned from the mission after all.
And, perhaps, once she was finished with Montague, she would begin work on Greengrass. It had been quite a while since she worked on a woman, and even longer since she considered letting someone actually get a taste of the delights she could offer. However, Greengrass had given her the chance to kill both her traitorous cousin and her filthy half-blood of a niece, and even though she had not been able to do so personally, the pair were trapped in the centre of a horde of bloodthirsty monsters that would be more than happy to do the work for her.
"Montague!" She snapped, enjoying the fact that the man still jumped at her voice, despite the presence of the hormagaunts and termagants. "How far until we reach the edge of the anti-apparition ward?"
In response to her question, Montague slowed, glancing down at the Divinator strapped to his wrist, which was currently displaying a small map of Lambstead overlaid in warning red to denote the reach of the wards.
"A hundred feet, Lady Lestr-AHH!" The respectfully worded reply devolved into a scream of agony as Montague was hoisted off the ground, skewered like a piece of roasted meat on the bladed arm of a 5-meter-long nightmare. It had a long, serpentine body, six arms, each ending in a sword-like blade, and a set of powerful jaws flanked by mandibles that were currently locking around Montague's weakly thrashing head.
"You filthy piece of pus-encrusted scum!" Bellatrix screeched, wand flashing up to point at the creature, there was no point trying to save Montague, he was as good as dead already. But that wasn't the point. The point was, she had wanted to unwind by killing him, and she had been ordered to get him out of Lambstead alive. This creature would pay for subverting her Lord's will. Even as she prepared to blow the beast to smithereens, however, two more of the foul creatures burst upwards from the ground, arms aiming to skewer Flint and Parkinson just as they had Montague.
Raveners. A voice whispered their name in her mind. She paid it no heed, instead, she whipped her wand around in a circle, conjuring a wave of concussive force that blew the two new raveners away from her remaining lieutenants and sent them smashing into walls. Then she levelled her wand at Montague's still weakly struggling form, with a savage grin, she fired a piercing curse straight through Montague's skull, pulping the brains of the ravener that had been holding him along with those of her former lieutenant. After all, the Dark Lord had said he had lost too many followers to these simple beasts, this way he hadn't lost any more to them.
Meanwhile, Flint and Parkinson had managed to dispose of one of the raveners she had blown away, and the other was bleeding out having been impaled with its own bladed limbs courtesy of Greengrass.
Looks like I've found my new lieutenant. Bellatrix thought approvingly, Cruel and efficient. She didn't verbalise her thoughts, instead, she growled, "Let's keep moving, before more raveners show up."
"Raveners?" She heard Flint mutter to Parkinson as the group followed their leader toward the outskirts of the town. At this point they were more or less wading through a sea of hormagaunts and termagants, having to keep up a constant stream of spells just to clear enough space to continue moving forward.
The creatures seemed to possess no sense of self-preservation, wave after wave of the creatures flung themselves against the knot of Death Eaters. Scores of the beasts died with every second, but that meant little when there were hundreds of the monsters bearing down on them from all directions.
Parkinson let out a choked shriek of pain, staggering back as one of the hormagaunts came close enough to slice her mask in two, the halves clattering to the ground as blood streamed down her face from the shallow cut the beast had made. The creature would have continued on to drive its blade through her skull, but Flint stepped forward and blasted the creature away. It crashed into the wall of a cottage with such force it's entire body compressed into a boneless puddle.
Flint paid for his moment of distraction, however, as another hormagaunt took the opportunity to stab him through the shoulder, eliciting a roar of pain from the large man as his wand arm fell limp at his side. Bellatrix dissolved the beast before it could tear its blade out of Flint and transform the injury into a fatal wound, but nearly lost her head as one of the termagants fired a barrage directly at her skull. Only a hastily erected shield by Greengrass prevented the projectile creatures from turning her brain into a finely pureed pulp.
"ENOUGH!" Bellatrix snarled, a blast of raw magic erupting from her, throwing the massed creatures away to slam into walls or skid along the cobblestones around them. The force wasn't great enough to kill the creatures, however, and within moments they were back on their feet and preparing to charge the Death Eaters again.
A deafening roar split the air, causing every hormagaunt and termagant to freeze in place as if petrified. Turning, Bellatrix saw a blaze of blue-white light erupting from the square, followed by a massive BOOM that shook the earth and sent up a plume of dust and pulverised stone. All around, the creatures spasmed. It was as if the beasts were having some sort of unified seizure as their bodies jerked wildly, some sprawling to the ground as if their brains had ceased directing their limbs.
The Death Eaters paused, disconcerted by the fits that seemed to have consumed their formerly implacable opponents. Bellatrix kept her wand raised, the light of a half-formed spell flaring at the tip. She hesitated in unleashing it, however, worried an attack would jolt the beasts out of whatever episode had seized them and prompt them to resume their relentless assault.
"Is this some kind of trick?" Greengrass asked hesitantly, her wand poised to resume firing on the creatures should they attempt to spring a surprise attack. Bellatrix had no answer, whatever method of silent unseen coordination the creatures had been using since they first appeared, it now seemed to be incapacitating them all.
"Whatever the case, we cannot allow that chance to delay us." She snapped, deciding that waiting to see what happened would do them no good. As one, the Death Eaters began to push their way through the crowd of spasming hormagaunts, careful not to allow themselves to be separated as they made their way through the press. They had only made it a half-dozen steps, however, before the creatures twitching suddenly ceased, and every single creature fixed its gaze on the Death Eaters who had obligingly waded even further into their midst.
"KILL THEM!" Bellatrix screeched, quickly taking her own advice by conjuring a ring of hungry violet flames around the group and allowing it to expand outwards, incinerating dozens of the creature before the sheer number of monsters surrounding them expended the magic of the spell.
All around her, her lieutenants followed her lead, lashing out with the most powerful spells they could muster in a desperate attempt to recreate the small buffer they had previously managed to impose between their group and the swarming beasts.
It was all to no avail.
Where before there had been hundreds of the creatures swarming them, there were now thousands. The alley they were retreating down had filled as far as they could see with the creatures, as had all the alleys branching off of it. More were climbing onto the rooftops, lunging from the buildings on either side, filling every conceivable inch of space in an attempt to annihilate the Death Eaters.
Bellatrix stumbled slightly, almost losing her head and several other extremities before she was able to clear some space with another blast of wild magic, an extremely draining technique the Dark Lord had taught her personally. At first, she thought she had merely slipped on blood or viscera, as there was plenty running down the street now, but then she realised the truth: the ground was moving. Beneath her feet the cobblestones had become to shift and groan, vibrating and warping as if something was trying to force its way up from beneath.
Something BIG.
Desperately, Bellatrix cast her gaze toward the end of the alley, the edge of the wards beyond which they could activate their emergency portkeys and escape the beasts that were beginning to overwhelm even her with the sheer weight of their numbers. Before whatever else that was coming could reach them to help.
The edge of town was tantalisingly close, perhaps three-dozen feet from their current position. She could normally cross that distance in seconds, but with every inch of that space taken up by ravenous beasts slavering to slaughter her and her underlings, and something even worse on its way somehow from underneath them? The distance may as well have been miles for all the chance they had of making it. She watched with a futile kind of fury as one of the hormagaunts drew its blade back, preparing to drive it through the back of Greengrasses skull as she struggled to regain her footing after losing her balance.
Just before the creature thrust its blade forward, it paused. As did every other creature around them. The ground stopped shaking. For a moment, nothing moved. Then, inexplicably, the creatures broke.
Every single creature fled as if suddenly seized with some awful terror. Or, more likely, as if they had somehow been ordered to retreat. The beasts streamed away down alleyways in every direction, vanishing into the empty buildings, clambering over roofs to drop down the opposite side, taking every possible avenue away from the Death Eaters and seemingly vanishing into thin air as suddenly as they had appeared.
Within moments, the Death Eaters were alone with the dead.
"Lady Lestrange?" Greengrass asked hesitantly, "What do we do?"
Bellatrix wanted to return to the square, to ensure her master was unharmed, his victory was unquestionable, but that he had emerged unscathed was a different matter entirely. However, she had her orders, and she was the Dark Lord's most loyal servant, "We follow our Lord's orders." She hissed, turning to continue leading the group out of Lambstead.
Pausing, she gestured to Greengrass, Parkinson, and the one surviving plain-masked Death Eater whose name she hadn't bothered to learn, "Each of you, levitate the corpse of one of these beasts, the Dark Lord may wish for them to be studied so we can learn more about these creatures."
The three nodded, before gingerly stepping closer to some of the more intact corpses, as if worried they might suddenly spring back to life and strike. Greengrass levitated the remains of the ravener she had dispatched earlier, Parkinson settled on two halves of a termagant -although whether they came from the same individual was anyone's guess-, and the plain-masked Death Eater collected a hormagaunt that had been dispatched by a killing curse. Their grisly prizes secured, the group followed Bellatrix out of the ruined town.
Moments Earlier,
Lambstead Town Square,
Lancashire
A bolt of brilliant blue-white energy lanced from Ginny's wand, blazing across the square and sailing directly through the leftmost of the three hormagaunts swimming before her eyes. Ginny swore. Not only had she been aiming for the rightmost hormagaunt, but the leftmost had been her second guess as to which of the three was real.
With difficulty, she steadied her shaking wand and fired off another bolt of magic. Again, she missed her target, but the spell impacted with the central hormagaunt, blowing it and the two doppelgangers her addled mind had conjured to smithereens.
Oh, Ginny's dazed mind thought, that's lucky. Her train of thought, such that it was, was derailed by the cool glass of a potion vial being pressed into her hand. Turning, she came face-to-face with Hannah, the healer's wand a blur as she protected the distracted and disorientated auror from the tide of creatures surrounding them.
"Drink it, Ginny, it'll help with the delirium and the shaking." Ginny frowned, uncomprehending. She could hear the words clearly, they just refused to slot into her mind in a way that made sense. She felt like a toddler trying to force a square block through a triangular hole.
Absently, another spell flew from her wand, transfiguring the front half of the hormagaunt that had been about to impale the distracted healer into a rather fetching double-pleated curtain. The creature collapsed, body going limp as the brain and vital organs located in its chest stopped existing.
"Fuck, Ginny!" Hannah exclaimed, looking as if she couldn't decide whether she was impressed or horrified. "If you can still do that when you're half out of your head, I'd hate to see what you do to guys who try to hit on you when you've had a few." Ginny giggled at that, Hermione had said much the same several times. Usually, after some poor sod had seen exactly what she did under those circumstances.
That was a nice thought: Hermione. Before she could continue in that vein, her mouth opened with an indignantly-surprised squawk as her nose was clamped shut. She was prevented from protesting when the glass of the vial was pressed against her lips, a foul-tasting liquid flowing out to fill her mouth.
She coughed, choked, then swallowed, gagging at the awful taste as her eyes watered from almost drowning in the stuff. Her stomach spasmed as the vile liquid slithered its way into her gut, but the vague detachment that had been colouring her perception since she attempted to legilimens the creatures had finally vanished.
Nodding her thanks to Hannah, who had already turned and started heading toward the prone form of Black, Ginny surveyed the carnage surrounding her with fresh eyes. The Death Eaters had vanished, she vaguely remembered Voldemort ordering their retreat shortly after she had almost fried her brain. She doubted the creatures had simply allowed them to leave, but the number of beasts in the square didn't seem to have diminished at all, even if you didn't count the almost innumerable corpses.
The big one, the Swarmlord, was bearing down on Dumbledore, swords batting away spells, eviscerating transfigured simulacra, and carving through obstacles as the creature continued its inexorable march toward the aged sorcerer. Despite his power and skill, it seemed as if nothing Dumbledore threw at the creature was enough to cause even a moment of hesitation.
The ground cracked open, attempting to swallow the creature, but the beast merely leapt forward, forcing Dumbledore to hop backwards hastily to avoid being impaled on an outstretched blade. A squadron of knights formed around the creature, leaping forward to try and hold it's arms in place long enough to provide their master with an opening. They fell in pieces before they had managed a single step, pieces that were then batted toward the former Headmaster like bludgers, only to bounce off a solid silver shield.
Despite not being the focus of the monster's attention, Voldemort was far from idle. It would seem the Dark Lord was more concerned with the prospect of facing the Swarmlord without Dumbledore than he was with assuring the demise of the leader of the light. Voldemort's wand was practically invisible, curses so dark she could feel bile rising in her throat flowing from its tip in a ceaseless torrent of sickly light.
Not a single one connected. Most were sent straight back at Voldemort, only to fizzle into sparks in mid-air as the Dark Lord was somehow able to counter his redirected spells without breaking his offensive barrage. The rest were sent toward Dumbledore, forcing the ancient wizard back toward the wall behind him, where he would no longer be able to avoid the Swarmlord's blades.
Recognising that his assault was not working, Voldemort ceased his direct attack. Instead, he began weaving his wand in a series of intricate patterns, one spidery hand thrusting up toward the suddenly darkening sky. Thunder boomed, first far away, then rapidly coming closer as ominous clouds began swirling in the sky above Lambstead, bright flashes of lightning illuminating their ebony depths.
Ginny couldn't help but be a little impressed, and more than a little horrified, at the sheer power Voldemort was displaying. Weather manipulation was some of the most draining and complicated magic in existence. It normally took at least seven warlocks to conjure even the weakest storm, let alone the tempest the serpentine Dark Lord had summoned. What's more, he hadn't so much as whispered an incantation.
With the clouds, came the return of the shadows Voldemort had used at the beginning of the confrontation, and he used them to full effect. Shadowy tendrils sprung from the ground, wrapping around the Swarmlord's legs and seizing hold of it's lower two arms. Unfortunately, the upper two were more than equal to the task of diverting Dumbledore's attacks and pressing the Swarmlord's own offensive.
Dumbledore took another step backwards, his back almost touching the wall as he desperately attempted to avoid disembowelment at the beast's hand. The wall and, Ginny now realised, the runic array she had vanished into it. She opened her mouth to shout a warning, but she was too late.
It happened in an instant. The Swarmlord let out a roar of awful triumph as it brought it's blade slashing toward it's cornered prey, only to miss by a hair's breadth when Dumbledore ducked, losing several strands of flowing white hair in the process. Despite having missed its intended target, the sword continued on to slice deep into the wall behind Dumbledore, triggering the runic trap.
The creature roared again, this time in agony, as the entire square was lit with the blinding light of a million volts of electricity coursing into its body. Even with the electricity surging into it, the Swarmlord was able to wrench its legs and lower arms free of Voldemort's shadows, preparing to tear its blade from the wall and break the connection with the rune.
Then, an enormous pillar of energy, easily 2 meters in diameter, blasted from the clouds, the Swarmlord almost disappearing within the massive lightning bolt as Dumbledore dove out of range of the blast. He landed on his side, already rolling over to face back toward the creature and aiming his wand at the beast that was, somehow, impossibly, still moving. A bolt of golden energy soared from Dumbledore's wand, careening straight for the Swarmlord's head.
A sword moved, it's speed blinding in defiance of the fact that the creature's muscles should've been locked by the over-a-billion volts being forced into its body. The sword's speed may have been blinding, however, but Dumbledore's spell was all but invisible.
The beam of golden power caught the very edge of the blade as it passed, diverting course a fraction of a degree before grazing the side of the Swarmlord's head with a BOOM that dwarfed even the crack of Voldemort's lightning bolt. The impact, grazing though it may have been, lifted the creature off its feet and sent it spinning away, crashing through the wall with the runic array and into the depths of the ruined cottage beyond. This was too much for the poor building, despite the spells imbued into the bricks, and it collapsed inward, burying the creature in a deluge of shattered masonry.
Everything in the square stopped.
Dumbledore lay on the ground, his chest heaving, face pale from the strain of the battle. Voldemort's normally immaculate black robes were torn, and his unnaturally white skin was streaked red with blood from a dozen shallow cuts. His normally glowing crimson eyes were dull, fogged with the telltale mist of magical exhaustion. The group of aurors were frozen in place, scarcely able to believe that the monster, the seemingly unstoppable beast that had almost broken the Ministry over 20 years ago, had really been vanquished.
The creatures stood immobile, several had crashed to the ground, having seemingly shut down mid-leap. Even more had simply collapsed, as lifeless as if they had been struck down by the Killing Curse. Every pair of eyes stared directly at the place the Swarmlord had disappeared.
Ginny scarcely dared to breathe, as if the very act of inhaling oxygen might somehow cause the creature to burst out from beneath the rubble, ready to slaughter the exhausted witches and wizards where they stood. But nothing happened. The pile of rubble remained immobile.
Then the frozen moment ended as the hormagaunts and termagants still filling the square exploded into action. The creatures rushed in every possible direction, completely lacking the seemingly preternatural coordination they had displayed since their initial appearance. Hormagaunts collapsed as they were accidentally struck by the projectiles from wildly firing termagants, others careened off their intended course after colliding with their fellows.
Despite their sudden confusion, the beasts were still focused upon their quarry, and Ginny was forced to duck as a hormagaunt attempted to disembowel her with one of its blades. She was saved from having to retaliate, however, when another hormagaunt's wild attack severed the first's head.
A swift Reducto dispatched the second hormagaunt, giving her enough time to take hasty stock of her surroundings. For the most part, the Order members were faring well against the now-disorganised beasts, but her heart plummeted when her eyes fell upon Dumbledore. The aged sorcerer was struggling back to his feet, desperately fending off a horde of hormagaunts and a barrage of projectiles from nearby termagants as he did so. While this wasn't exactly encouraging, she had faith in the aged sorcerer's ability to hold his own against the creatures, even while off balance.
What was currently filling her with dread wasn't the frantic assault of the creatures thronging around Dumbledore, it was the sickly green light flaring at the tip of the long, bone-white wand Voldemort was pointing toward his distracted nemesis.
"Avada-" the Dark Lord began, triumph lighting his inhuman features with horrifying glee, only to break off his spell and step back as a trio of spells nearly blew his head off. Hissing like an angry serpent, Voldemort turned to see who had dared interrupt his final victory over Dumbledore, only to pause when he saw Moody, Bones, and Tonks all aiming their wands at him.
Voldemort's crimson eyes swept over the square, taking in the enormous number of creatures still present, as well as the assembled aurors and Dumbledore, who had finally managed to regain his footing and was now on guard once more. His slit-nostrils flared angrily as his eyes flicked to-and-fro, taking a quick mental tally of his opponents and measuring them against his depleted strength, evidently not coming to a favourable conclusion regarding his odds of victory.
"Until next time, Minister." He sneered, before vanishing in a column of shadow, leaving the Order alone with the horde of hormagaunts and termagants.
Although the creatures' cohesion had all but collapsed, their numbers seemed to have only grown since the Swarmlord's defeat. Hundreds of the monsters poured from every conceivable entrance to the square, still more leaping from rooftops and bursting through windows having travelled over or through the buildings surrounding them. Even the creatures' coordination was beginning to reform, although still nowhere near the seemingly supernatural fluidity they had exhibited under the Swarmlord's leadership, they were rapidly regaining the effectiveness they had possessed at the beginning of the confrontation.
Their focus, however, had shifted. No longer were the creatures trying to eviscerate the Order to the exclusion of all else, now the monsters seemed desperate to reach the spot where the Swarmlord had disappeared.
"Aurors!" Dumbledore boomed, prepared to take command of his forces now that the immediate threat of Voldemort had been removed. "We must form a defensive perimeter around the house," He gestured toward the remains of the formerly grand cottage the Swarmlord had been blown into, although calling it a house was a tad generous given its current -demolished- condition.
"Why? You're not saying you think that Thing is still alive in there, are you?" Abbott sounded equal-parts incredulous and horrified by the suggestion.
"The creature's fellows certainly seem to believe as much," Dumbledore answered calmly, although his voice still carried easily over the chaos in the square. "It would be in our best interests to prevent them from reaching it and providing aid if that were the case."
Ginny spared a moment to give the remains of the house a proper inspection. The front and side walls had all but collapsed, only a few jagged fingers of splintered brick and cracked mortar thrusting upward from the ruin. Fortunately, however, the rear wall had been mostly spared, although the roof had collapsed and pulled the very top of the back wall with it, the rest remained standing. Whoever had built the house, probably someone close to Lamb given its central location, they had for some reason neglected to install a back door, or any windows in the rear of their home.
The decision was an odd one, but Ginny was grateful nonetheless, it would save them the trouble of attempting to encircle the house to prevent one of the creatures from entering through the back. Unfortunately, that was the only thing about the house's creator she felt grateful for. Whoever they had been, witch or wizard, they had clearly been talented and powerful, the wreckage of the house shimmered and warped constantly, seeming to expand and contract before her eyes. The constant movement stirred the wreckage ceaselessly, filling the air with a cacophony of groans, creaks, and crunches as wood, brick, and whatever else had been within the building were alternatingly stretched and crushed by the distortion.
The phenomenon was rare, but unmistakable, "Everyone!" She called, "Stay out of the wreckage! Whoever built that place had space-expansion charms on it and the magic was too tightly woven to break completely when the house was smashed!" The ring of aurors that had been slowly retreating back toward the ruins halted immediately at her warning. Space-expansion charms may be incredibly useful, but no one wanted to go anywhere near a portion of space that was engaging in a death-throes conflict with the fabric of space-time. The best-case scenario was either imploding or exploding as the rapidly fluctuating changes in between exactly how much space could be and actually was in a certain area dragged your body along with it.
No one really knew what the worst-case scenario was, as there was no definitive conclusion on where the extra space the space-expansion charm created actually came from, but everyone agreed that it was not somewhere anyone could survive.
Their inability to continue closing their defensive ring had its own problems, however. Without being able to approach closer to the house, they were forced to leave gaps in their line wide enough that the creatures could attempt to dive between them. Now the defenders not only needed to ward off attacks aimed toward them, but they also had to prevent any of the creatures from slipping past in the confusion. So far, they were managing, but only barely. Ginny could feel her muscles beginning to burn with the dull ache of over-exertion and she was finding it more and more difficult to force her magic into shape for her spells.
The creatures swarmed over them like a plague of locusts, the entire square choked with the beasts as they surged forward, attempting to overwhelm the fragile ring of defenders separating them from their goal. The bodies of the fallen creatures began to pile up swiftly as the onslaught continued, forming a macabre makeshift barricade between the aurors and their assailants. This barrier was more of a hindrance than a help, unfortunately, as it quickly grew high enough to block their view of the advancing creatures, but not so high that the unnaturally agile beasts couldn't leap over it.
With a demonic shriek, another hormagaunt launched itself over the bloody wall blades flashing in the early morning sun as it attempted to leap past her and carry on into the wreckage. Her wand flashed up, taking quick but precise aim, "Reduct-Ah" she was forced to break off her incantation with a gasp, causing the half-formed spell to fade from the tip of her wand, as the ground heaved beneath her with a deep rumbling groan. It sounded almost as if a thunderstorm had formed beneath the ground to match the vestiges of the one Voldemort had summoned in the skies above.
The sudden shift of the ground beneath her disrupted Ginny's balance badly, she attempted to adjust, but her fatigued legs simply wouldn't respond fast enough. She stumbled, landing hard on one knee, before frantically pushing herself back to her feet. It was too late, however, the hormagaunt was past the line and darted forward into the ruins of the house, making directly for the spot where the Swarmlord had disappeared.
"No!" Ginny cried, trying desperately to clamber to her feet and give chase. The ground had not ceased its rumbling upheaval, however, and the constant shifting and heaving turned her attempt at pursuit into a stumbling crawl. In an instant, a flash of black tore across the cobblestones before her, Black in his animagus form, the dog's four legs making it much more stable as it gave chase to the hormagaunt.
Behind the dog came a termagant, having seemingly made it past the defenders just like the hormagaunt moments earlier, probably through the hole either she or Black had left attempting to stop the first creature. Diving forward onto her belly to steady herself, Ginny let loose a powerful piercing hex, aiming for the creature's torso in the hopes of crippling it so she could deliver a killing blow.
As the burgundy light tore from her wand, it was mirrored by a flare of crimson light from within the ruined house. At almost the same moment, the termagant halted. The piercing hex that had been intended for the creature's chest instead pierced its skull as the creature's forward motion ceased. Beneath her stomach, the ground stilled, the groaning roar that had been growing louder with every moment dying away. The sound of spellfire also stopped, and she could no longer hear the wet thuds of dead hormagaunts and termagants slamming to the ground.
Scrambling to her feet, she exchanged cautious glances with her fellow aurors. The group waited, wands clutched tightly as they prepared for the creatures to resume their assault. The sounds of hooves clattering against cobblestone continued to reverberate from all around, but rapidly dwindling, Within moments, it had disappeared completely.
"Are they gone?" Katie Bell asked, sounding as if she hardly dared to believe it. With a wave of his wand, Dumbledore vanished the bodies that had piled up around the beleaguered group, revealing the square.
Empty. But for the bodies of fallen hormagaunts and termagants scattered all around. After the deafening roar of the creatures' ceaseless assault, the sudden silence was somehow even more oppressive. Then it was shattered. By laughter. Wild, almost insane, laughter.
Turning, Ginny saw Black bounding from the ruins of the house, his face split into a grin so wide she could scarcely believe it fit on the man's face. His eyes were streaming with tears, although whether with mirth or some sort of crazed sadness she couldn't say. Then she noticed what was in his arms. It was a body, dressed in torn, colourless rags, with long unkempt black hair, even worse than Black himself had possessed when he escaped from Azkaban.
Not a body, she realised abruptly, a living man. His chest was rising and falling steadily, although the hair on one side of his head was matted with blood from a nasty gash across his cheek. The motion of Black's run caused the man's hair to shift across his forehead, revealing a jagged lightning-bolt scar.
Distantly, she heard Moody growl, "Black! What in the name of Merlin's balls has gotten into you!?"
She already knew, even before the man shouted his jubilant response, "It's Harry! He's alive!"
Beside her, Dumbledore's legs gave out, the ancient sorcerer collapsing to his knees with one hand covering his mouth and the other stretched out toward the unconscious man in Black's arms.
"He's alive." Dumbledore half-sobbed, "Alive!"