Chapter Five Fallen Warrior

"Hagrid?"
Harry struggled to raise himself out of the d e bris of metal and leather that su
r
rounded him; his hands sank into inches of muddy water as he tried to stand. He could not understand where Voldemort had gone and expected him to swoop out of the dar k
ness at any moment. Something hot and wet was trickling down his chin and from his forehead. He crawled out of the pond and stu
m bled toward the great dark mass on the ground that was Hagrid.
"Hagrid? Hagrid, talk to me Ц "
But the dark mass did not stir.
"Who's there? Is it Potter? Are you Harry Po t ter?"
Harry did not recognize the man's voice. Then a woman shouted. "They've crashed. Ted! Crashed in the garden!"
Harry's head was swimming.
"Hagrid," he repeated stupidly, and his knees buckled.
The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on what felt like cushions, with a burning sens a
tion in his ribs and right arm. His missing tooth had been r e grown. The scar on his forehead was still throbbing.

"Hagrid?"
He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a sofa in an unfamiliar, lamplit sitting room. His ruc k
sack lay on the floor a short di s tance away, wet and muddy. A fair-haired, big-bellied man was watc
h ing Harry anxiously.
"Hagrid's fine, son," said the man, "the wife's se e ing to him now. How are you fee
l ing? Anything else broken? I've fixed your ribs, your tooth, and your arm. I'm Ted, by the way, Ted Tonks Ц
Dora's father."
Harry sat up too quickly. Lights popped in front of his eyes and he felt sick and giddy.
"Voldemort Ц "
"Easy, now," said Ted Tonks, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and pushing him back against the cushions. "That was a nasty crash you just had. What happened, anyway? Som e
thing go wrong with the bike? Arthur Weasley overstretch himself again, him and his Muggle contraptions?"
"No," said Harry, as his scar pulsed like an open wound. "Death Eaters, loads of them Ц we were chased Ц "
"Death Eaters?" said Ted sharply. "What d'you mean, Death Eaters? I thought they didn't know you were being moved t o
night, I thought Ц "
"They knew," said Harry.
Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through it to the sky above.
"Well, we know our protective charms hold, then, don't we? They shouldn't be able to get within a hu n
dred yards of the place in any direction."
Now Harry understood why Voldemort had va n ished; it had been at the point when the m
o
torbike crossed the barrier of the Order's charms. He only hoped they would continue to work: He imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke, looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualized as a great tran
s parent bubble.
He swung his legs off the sofa; he needed to see Hagrid with his own eyes b e
fore he would believe that he was alive. He had barely stood up, however, when a door opened and Hagrid squeezed through it, his face co v
ered in mud and blood, limping a little but m i
raculously alive.
"Harry!"
Knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidi s
tra, he covered the floor between them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired ribs. "Blimey, Harry, how did yeh get out o' that? I thought we were both goners."
"Yeah, me too. I can't believe Ц "
Harry broke off. He had just noticed the woman who had entered the room behind Hagrid.
"You!" he shouted, and he thrust his hand into his pocket, but it was empty.
"Your wand's here, son," said Ted, tapping it on Harry's arm. "It fell right beside you, I picked it up…And that's my wife you're shou t
ing at."
"Oh, I'm Ц I'm sorry."
As she moved forward into the room, Mrs. Tonks's resemblance to her sister Bellatrix b e
came much less pronounced: Her hair was a lightТ s oft brown and her eyes were wider and kinder. Neverth e
less, she looked a little haughty after Harry's exclam a tion.
"What happened to our daughter?" she asked. "Hagrid said you were ambushed; where is Nymph a dora?"
"I don't know," said Harry. "We don't know what happened to anyone else."
She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the sight of their expre s
sions, if any of the others had died, it was his fault, all his fault. He had co n sented to the plan, given t
hem his hair . . .
"The Portkey," he said, remembering all of a su d den. "We've got to get back to the Bu
r row and find out Ц then we'll be able to send you word, or Ц or Tonks will, once she's Ц "

"Dora'll be ok, 'Dromeda," said Ted. "She knows her stuff, she's been in plenty of tight spots with the Aurors. The Portkey's through here," he added to Harry. "It's supposed to leave in three mi
n utes, if you want to take it."
"Yeah, we do," said Harry. He seized his ruc k sack, swung it onto his shoulders. "I Ц "
He looked at Mrs. Tonks, wanting to apologize for the state of fear in which he left her and for which he felt so terribly responsible, but no words o c
curred to him that he did not seem hollow and insi n
cere.
"I'll tell Tonks Ц Dora Ц to send word, when she . . . Thanks for patching us up, thanks for ever y
thing, I Ц "
He was glad to leave the room and follow Ted Tonks along a short hallway and into a be d
room. Hagrid came after them, bending low to avoid hitting his head on the door li n tel.
"There you go, son. That's the Por t key."
Mr. Tonks was pointing to a small, si l ver-backed hairbrush lying on the dressing t
a ble.
"Thanks," said Harry, reaching out to place a fi n ger on it, ready to leave.
"Wait a moment," said Hagrid, looking around. "Harry, where's Hedwig?"
"She . . . she got hit," said Harry.
The realization crashed over him: He felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung his eyes. The owl had been his companion, his one great link with the magical world whe n
ever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys.
Hagrid reached out a great hand and patted him painfully on the shoulder.
"Never mind," he said gruffly, "Never mind. She had a great old life Ц "
"Hagrid!" said Ted Tonks warningly, as the hai r brush glowed bright blue, and Hagrid only just got his forefinger
to it in time.
With a jerk behind the navel as though an invis i ble hook and line had dragged him fo
r ward, Harry was pulled into nothingness, spi n
ning uncontrollably, his finger glued to the Portkey as he and Hagrid hu r
tled away from Mr. Tonks. Second later
, Harry's feet slammed onto hard ground and he fell onto his hands and knees in the yard of the Burrow. He heard screams. Throwing aside the no longer glowing hai r
brush, Harry stood up, swaying slightly, and saw Mrs. Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on lan
d ing, clambered laboriously to his feet.
"Harry? You are the real Harry? What ha p pened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs. Weasley.
"What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.
The answer was clearly etched in Mrs. Weasley's pale face.
"The Death Eaters were waiting for us," Harry told her, "We were surrounded the m o ment we took off Ц
they knew it was t o night Ц I don't know what happened to an
y one
else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us Ц "
He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the plea for her to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but Ц
"Thank goodness you're all right," she said, pul l ing him into a hug he did not feel he d
e served.
"Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" asked Hagrid a little shakily, "Fer medicinal pu r poses?"
She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Ginny and she answered his unspoken plea for info
r mation at once.
"Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them," she said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby. "And that one," she pointed at an a
n
cient sneaker, "should have been Dad and Fred's, they were supposed to be second. You and Hagrid were third and," she checked her watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin aught to be back in about a mi
n ute."
Mrs. Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He u n
corked it and drank it straight down in one.
"Mum!" shouted Ginny pointing to a spot se v eral feet away.
A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Lupin and George a p
peared, spinning and then falling. Harry knew imm e diately that there was something wrong: Lupin was suppor
t ing George, who was unconscious and whose face was co
v ered in blood.
Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. T o g
ether, he and Lupin carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the living room, where they laid him on the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George's head, Ginny gasped and Harry's stomach lurched: One of George's ears was missing. The side
of his head and neck were drenched in wet, shoc k ingly sca
r let blood.
No sooner had Mrs. Weasley bent over her son that Lupin grabbed Harry by the upper arm and dragged him, none too gently, back into the kitchen, where Hagrid was still attempting to ease his bulk through the back door.
"Oi!" said Hagrid indignantly, "Le' go of him! Le' go of Harry!"
Lupin ignored him.
"What creature sat in the corner the first time that Harry Potter visited my office at Ho g
warts?" he said, giving Harry a small shake. "Answer me!"
"A Ц a grindylow in a tank, wasn't it?"
Lupin released Harry and fell back against a kitchen cupboard.
"Wha' was tha' about?" roared Hagrid.
"I'm sorry, Harry, but I had to check," said Lupin tersely. "We've been betrayed. Voldemort knew that you were being moved tonight and the only pe o
ple who could have told him were d i
rectly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor."
"So why aren' you checkin' me?" panted Hagrid, still struggling with the door.
"You're half-giant," said Lupin, loo k ing up at Hagrid. "The Polyjuice Potion is d
e signed for human use only."
"None of the Order would have told Voldemort we were moving tonight," said Harry. The idea was dreadful to him, he could not believe it of any of them. "Voldemort
only caught up with me toward the end, he didn't know which one I was in the beginning. If he'd been in on the plan he'd have known from the start I was the one with Hagrid."
"Voldemort caught up with you?" said Lupin sharply. "What happened? How did you e s cape?"
Harry explained how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognize him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have summoned Vold e
mort, who had appeared just before he and Hagrid had reached the sanctuary of Tonks's parents.
"They recognized you? But how? What had you done?"
"I . . ." Harry tried to remember; the whole jou r ney seemed like a blur of panic and conf
u
sion. "I saw Stan Shunpike . . . . You know, the bloke who was the conductor on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him instead of Ц well, he doesn't know what he's d o
ing, does he? He must be Imperiused!"
Lupin looked aghast.
"Harry, the time for Disarming is past! These people are trying to capture and kill you! At least Stun if you aren't prepared to kill!"
"We were hundreds of feet up! Stan's not hi m
self, and if I Stunned him and he'd fallen, he'd have died the same as if I'd used Avada Kedavra! Expe l
liarmus saved me from Vold e mort two years ago," Harry added defiantly. L
u pin was reminding him of the sneering Hu f
flepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach Dumbledore's Army how to Disarm.
"Yes, Harry," said Lupin with painful restraint, "and a great number of Death Eaters wi t
nessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under the imminent threat of death. R e
peating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!"
"So you think I should have killed Stan Shu n pike?" said Harry angrily.
"Of course not," said Lupin, "but the Death Eaters Ц frankly, most people! Ц would have expected you to attack back! Expellia r
mus is a useful spell, Harry, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!"
Lupin was making Harry feel idiotic, and yet there was still a grain of defiance i n side him.
"I won't blast people out of my way just because they're there," said Harry, "That's Vold e mort's job."
Lupin's retort was lost: Finally succeeding in squeezing through the door, Hagrid sta g g
ered to a chair and sat down; it collapsed b e neath him. Ignoring his mingled oaths and apologies, Harry addressed L
u pin again.
"Will George be okay?"
All Lupin's frustration with Harry seemed to drain away at the question.
"I think so, although there's no chance of repla c ing his ear, not when it's been cursed off Ц "
There was a scuffling from outside. Lupin dived for the back door; Harry leapt over Hagrid's legs and sprinted into the yard.
Two figures had appeared in the yard, and as Harry ran toward them he realized they were Hermione, now returning to her normal appearance, and Kingsley, both clutching a bent coat hanger, Hermione flung herself into Harry's arms, but Kingsley
showed no plea s
ure at the sight of any of them. Over Hermione's shoulder Harry saw him raise his wand and point it at Lupin's chest.
"The last words Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us!"
"'Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him,'" said Lupin calmly.
Kingsley turned his wand on Harry, but Lupin said, "It's him, I've checked!"
"All right, all right!" said Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak, "But somebody b e
trayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!"
"So it seems," replied Lupin, "but apparently they did not realize that there would be seven Harrys."
"Small comfort!" snarled Kingsley. "Who else is back?"
"Only Harry, Hagrid, George, and me."
Hermione stifled a little moan behind her hand.
"What happened to you?" Lupin asked Kingsley.
"Followed by five, injured two, might've killed one," Kingsley reeled off, "and we saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty quickly. Remus, he can Ц "
"Fly," supplied Harry. "I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and me."
"So that's why he left, to follow you!" said Kingsley, "I couldn't understand why he'd va n
ished. But what made him change targets?"
"Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shu n pike," said Lupin.
"Stan?" repeated Hermione. "But I thought he was in Azkaban?"
Kingsley let out a mirthless laugh.
"Hermione, there's obviously been a mass brea k
out which the Ministry has hushed up. Travers's hood fell off when I cursed him, he's supposed to be inside too. But what ha p
pened to you, Remus? Where's George?"
"He lost an ear," said Lupin.
"lost an -- ?" repeated Hermione in a high voice.
"Snape's work," said Lupin.
" Snape? " shouted Harry. "You didn't say Ц "
"He lost his hood during the chase. Sectumse m
pra was always a specialty of Snape's. I wish I could say I'd paid him back in kind, but it was all I could do to keep George on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood."
Silence fell between the four of them as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, uno b
scured by flying friends. Where was Ron? Where were Fred and Mr. Weasley? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundu
n gus?
"Harry, give us a hand!" called Hagrid hoarsely from the door, in which he was stuck again. Glad of something to do, Harry pulled him free, the headed through the empty kitchen and back into the sitting room, where Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were still ten
d ing to George. Mrs. Weasley had staunched his blee
d ing now, and by the lamplight Harry saw a clean ga
p ing hole where George's ear had been.
"How is he?"
Mrs. Weasley looked around and said, "I can't make it grow back, not when it's been r e
moved by Dark Magic. But it could've been so much worse . . . . He's alive."
"Yeah," said Harry. "Thank God."
"Did I hear someone else in the yard?" Ginny asked.
"Hermione and Kingsley," said Harry.
"Thank goodness," Ginny whispered. They looked at each other; Harry wanted to hug her, hold on to her; he did not even care much that Mrs. Weasley was there, but before he could act on the i
m pulse, there was a great crash from the kitchen.
"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!"
Harry had never heard Mr. Weasley shout like that before. He burst into the living room, his bald patch gleaming with sweat, his spectacles askew, Fred right behind him, both pale but uni
n jured.
"Arthur!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley. "Oh thank goo d ness!"
"How is he?"
Mr. Weasley dropped to his knees b e
side George. For the first time since Harry had known him, Fred seemed to be lost for words. He gaped over the back of the sofa at his twin's wound as if he could not b e
lieve what he was seeing.
Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and their f a ther's arrival, George stirred.
"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.
George's fingers groped for the side of his head.
"Saintlike," he murmured.
"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, loo k ing terrified. "Is his mind affected?"
"Saintlike," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see. . . I'm holy. Holey
, Fred, geddit?"
Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face.
"Pathetic," he told George. "Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor b e fore you, you go for
holey ?"
"Ah well," said George, grinning at his tear-soaked mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum."
He looked around.
"Hi, Harry Ц you are Harry, right?"
"Yeah, I am," said Harry, moving closer to the sofa.
"Well, at least we got you back okay," said George. "Why aren't Ron and Bill hu d dled round my sickbed?"
"They're not back yet, George," said Mrs. Weasley. George's grin faded. Harry glanced at Ginny and motioned to her to a c
company him back outside. As they walked through the kitchen she said in a low voice.
"Ron and Tonks should be back by now. They didn't have a long journey; Auntie Muriel's not that far from here."
Harry said nothing. He had been trying to keep fear at bay ever since reaching the Bu r
row, but now it enveloped him, seeming to crawl over his skin, thro b bing in his chest, clo
g ging his throat. As they walked down the back steps into the dark yard, Ginny took his hand.
Kingsley was striding backward and forward, glancing up at the sky every time he turned. Harry was reminded of Uncle Vernon pacing the living room a million years ago. Hagrid, Hermione, and L
u pin stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing upward in s
i lence. None of them looked around when Harry and Ginny joined their silent vigil.
The minutes stretched into what might as well have been years. The slightest breath of wind made them all jump and turn toward the whispering bush or tree in the hope that one of the missing Order me
m bers might leap u n
scathed from its leaves Ц
And then a broom materialized directly above them and streaked toward the ground Ц
"It's them!" screamed Hermione.
Tonks landed in a long skid that sent earth and pebbles everywhere.
"Remus!" Tonks cried as she staggered off the broom into Lupin's arms. His face was set and white: He seemed unable to speak, Ron tripped dazedly t o
ward Harry and Hermione.
"You're okay," he mumbled, before Hermione flew at him and hugged him tightly.
"I thought Ц I thought Ц "
"'M all right," said Ron, patting her on the back. "'M fine."
"Ron was great," said Tonks warmly, relinquis h
ing her hold on Lupin. "Wonderful. Stunned one of the Death Eaters, straight to the head, and when you're aiming at a moving target from a fl y
ing broom Ц "
"You did?" said Hermione, gazing up at Ron with her arms still around his neck.
"Always the tone of surprise," he said a little grumpily, breaking free. "Are we the last back?"
"No," said Ginny, "we're still waiting for Bill and Fleur and Mad-Eye and Mundu n
gus. I'm going to tell Mum and Dad you're okay, Ron Ц "
She ran back inside.
"So what kept you? What happened?" Lupin sounded almost angry at Tonks.
"Bellatrix," said Tonks. "She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, She tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely i n
jured Rodolphus . . . . Then we got to Ron's Auntie Muriel's and we missed our Por t
key and she was fussing over us Ц "
A muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw. He no d ded, but seemed unable to say an
y thing else.
"So what happened to you lot?" Tonks asked, turning to Harry, Hermione, and Kingsley.
They recounted the stories of their own jou r neys, but all the time the continued absence of Bill, Fleur,
Mad-Eye, and Mundungus seemed to lie upon them like a frost, its icy bite harder and harder to i g nore.
"I'm going to have to get back to Dow n
ing Street, I should have been there an hour ago," said Kingsley finally, after a last sweeping gaze at the sky. "Let me know when they're back,."
Lupin nodded. With a wave to the ot h
ers, Kingsley walked away into the darkness toward the gate. Harry thought he heard the faintest pop
as Kingsley Disapparated just b e yond the Burrow's boundaries.
Mr. And Mrs. Weasley came racing down the back steps, Ginny behind them. Both parents hugged Ron before turning to Lupin and Tonks.
"Thank you," said Mrs. Weasley, "for our sons."
"Don't be silly, Molly," said Tonks at once.
"How's George?" asked Lupin.
"What's wrong with him?" piped up Ron.
"He's lost Ц "
But the end of Mrs. Weasley's sentence was drowned in a general outcry. A thestral had just soared into sight and landed a few feet from them. Bill and Fleur slid from its back, windswept but u
n hurt.
"Bill! Thank God, thank God Ц "
Mrs. Weasley ran forward, but the hug Bill b e stowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking d
i rectly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead."
Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Harry felt as though something inside him was falling, fa l
ling through the earth, leaving him forever.
"We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort Ц h
e can fly Ц went straight for them. Dung pa n
icked, I heard him cry out, Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapp a rated. Vold
e mort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and Ц there was not
h ing we could do, not h
ing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail Ц "
Bill's voice broke.
"Of course you couldn't have done an y thing," said Lupin.
They all stood looking at each other. Harry could not quite comprehend it. Mad-Eye dead; it could not be . . . . Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor . . .
At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point of waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence they followed Mr. And Mrs. Weasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing t
o gether.
"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered, "What's happened? Who's --?"
"Mad-Eye," said Mr. Weasley, "Dead."
The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock. N o body seemed to know what to do. Tonks was cr
y ing silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, Harry knew, his favorite and his protйgй
e at the Ministry of Magic. Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.
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