Harry Potter and the Ultimate Battle

There were popping noises behind the Death Eaters as Ron apparated with a half-squad of Magical Law Enforcement officers on the other side of the circle of Death Eaters. Sirius, Remus, Ron and the half-squad yelled "Stupify!" as one. The Death Eaters as well as Harry and Draco dropped like stones to the floor.

Ron walked over Harry and Draco. He shook his head pointing his wand at Harry and Draco and said, "Ennervate!" Harry twitched and sat up. Draco moaned and stiffly lifted his head. Harry stood up and looked down at Draco offering his hand. Draco took the hand and Harry pulled him to his feet.

Harry looked at him as Draco said, looking at his hands, "Now do you believe me Harry?"

* * * * * * *

"Harry, how you can be so sure that the whole thing wasn't just staged to make us trust Malfoy is beyond me." stated Ron, "At Hogwarts he was a jerk to us, and every chance he got he made fun of us," Harry and Ron sat out in the front yard of the Burrow after a delicious dinner a la Mrs. Weasley.

"There's something about him that's changed," Harry answered, "sometimes you've just got to go with your gut instinct. You know? Like when Sirius told us about what really happened to my parents."

"Ron, how can you ask that?" Hannah's voice came out of the shadows behind Ron and Harry. "You saw him at the meeting, the way he broke down like that." Harry and Ron both jumped, having thought they were alone. Looking around Harry saw Hannah standing in the dark of the doorway. "At Hogwarts Draco was never able to hide his contempt of you guys; he wasn't a good enough actor. I don't believe he could have learned how to act well enough to fool Albus Dumbledore and Arthur Weasley in a little over a month," she stepped out of the doorway and into the star and streetlamp lit front yard, and sat on the grass near where Harry and Ron sat.

Ron looked at her horrified, "You believed that stuff he was saying in the meeting? Oh, I can't believe you two!"

Harry and Hannah looked at each other then looked at Ron. "Ron, you saw what happened at the Leaky Cauldron." Hannah said. "How can you question Draco's loyalty?"

"Yeah well I still say it could have been staged," answered Ron stubbornly.

"I think we all still have our doubts," Hannah said, not angrily, but with a note of finality, "but Draco saved Harry tonight just like Harry saved Draco; I think you should give him a chance."

"I talked to Hermione. She said that night when he came up to her he was on his hands and knees crying covered in dirt, mud and sweat and he called her Hermione, not mudblood like he used to at Hogwarts," Harry paused a moment before adding, "You didn't see his face when those bloody Death Eaters jumped us," he shuddered.

Ron growled under his breath but made no further comment on the subject. Whether or not it was because he didn't have a good argument or he was convinced Harry and Hannah were insane for trusting Draco they never found out because Sirius, Charlie, and Katie walked out into the yard talking in hushed voices. They appeared to be arguing about something. Sirius looked up and nudged Charlie. Charlie and Katie looked at Sirius who motioned to their audience, the hushed conversation - argument? - stopped.

"Come on Hannah we should be getting home," Katie said, looking at her watch. It was well past midnight. Hannah stood up, brushed herself off and went to her sister and they DisApparated with a pop.

"Ron, are you staying here tonight?" Charlie asked.

Standing up, Ron answered, "Yeah I think so," he yawned and walked inside with Charlie.

After Ron and Charlie had left Sirius asked, "Do you want to spend the weekend at my house Harry? We can catch up on things."

* * * * * * *

"What did you ask Draco after we left?" Sirius asked Harry shortly after breakfast the next morning.

"I didn't ask him much," Harry replied. "I basically asked how I could trust him to fight with us and not be a spy in our group for Voldemort."

Sirius looked at Harry for a long moment and sighed, "I thought you might ask him something like that." Sirius paused for a moment looking at Harry. Harry wasn't sure whether Sirius saw him or the parents Harry had never met, Lily and James. "Harry, when I first met you face to face in the Shrieking Shack, I told you what had really happened. You didn't believe me. You wanted proof, so I gave it to you in the form of Peter Pettigrew seen in the flesh for the first time in over thirteen years. You don't have to like Draco but at the Leaky Cauldron he did give you proof of his intentions. He fought with you," he paused. "Give the others time; they'll see him for who he is now, not the kid he was at Hogwarts."

Harry nodded and was about to say something when his scar burned and his head seemed to explode in bright stars and dark whirls. Harry slumped in his chair and fell to the floor with a dull thud....

"Harry!" Sirius ran to where Harry lay, forehead covered with blood from where he had hit his head on the table. Lifting Harry gently, Sirius took Harry to his room and put him on the guestroom bed. The gash on his forehead was bleeding and getting into Harry's hair and, consequently, gradually changing Sirius's white shirt sleeve to bright blood-red. Sirius sighed and went to get cold water and a towel to rinse the gore from his godson's face and hair. As Sirius was heading to the bathroom, he stripped off the bloodied shirt and threw it into his room.

In a few minutes, Sirius came back to Harry's room with a soft towel and a bowl of cold water. He dipped the towel in the water and began to wipe away the blood. Cursing Sirius threw the towel to the floor as it steamed, the water evaporating. After it stopped steaming the towel turned to ash slowly. Sirius cursed again as he saw that Harry's forehead was steaming as the blood evaporated leaving the dark red marks of dried blood. Sirius growled and pulled out his wand and performed the healing charm that he had been going to use on Harry after he had cleaned Harry up a bit. As soon as he finished performing the charm Sirius went down to the living room fire to contact Albus Dumbledore.

Sirius was in luck; Dumbledore was in his office. In blunt terms, Sirius explained the situation including the towel's fate, so to speak. Dumbledore frowned looking over his shoulder at something or someone, saying "I must see to this and I don't think that it would be a good idea for you to come along, Draco. There is still no love lost between the two of you."

Several seconds later, enough time for Sirius to wonder what in the world Voldemort could be doing for Harry to pass out, Dumbledore stepped through the fire into Sirius's living room. With out any ado Dumbledore said, "Lead on Sirius." Sirius quickly led Dumbledore upstairs to Harry's room quickly.

Striding rapidly to the bed Dumbledore sat in the seat that Sirius had been sitting into try ad clean Harry's face. Dumbledore looked Harry over, frowning slightly until he looked up at the still shirtless Sirius Black standing next to him. Dumbledore said, with a twinkle in his eye, "Sirius you haven't been eating very much lately, have you?"

Sirius quirked his eyebrow at Dumbledore, not knowing what he was talking about. Realization dawned on Sirius's face as he looked down at his bare chest and growled to Dumbledore, "Harry's forehead bled on my shirt and I took it off intending to put on a clean one right after I cleaned up his forehead. The towel I was using to mop up the blood was burnt to a little pile of ash," Sirius gestured to the pile of ash on the floor, "like I told you," Sirius stalked from the room to put on a clean shirt.

When he returned to Harry's room, Sirius found Dumbledore leaning back in his chair, with the oddest expression on his face. "What's up Albus? What's Voldemort done to knock Harry out like this?" Sirius asked concerned.

"Earlier this morning, about the time the pain in Harry's scar knocked him unconscious, Voldemort led an assault on Privet Drive. Harry's aunt, uncle and cousin were killed," Sirius, who had been leaning against the wall, slid down it to a sitting position with a look of absolute horror on his face, "and what's worse," Dumbledore continued, "Voldemort himself used Avada Kedavra on the Dursley's. I believe that this combined with their deaths is what caused Harry's reaction."

Sirius said nothing for several moments then asked in a hoarse voice that was little more then a whisper, "Does this mean that Voldemort knows that Harry's scar makes Harry feel pain every time that Voldemort kills or feel particularly murderous?"

"Yes, I do believe that Voldemort has figured that out, and perhaps he also guessed that Harry feels an even greater pain when he knows the person who is killed."

"Can Voldemort control how much pain Harry feels?" Sirius asked with a grim look on his face.

"I don't believe that Voldemort has any control over how much pain Harry feels. If Voldemort did have control over the pain Harry feels, then he would keep Harry in constant misery, trying to break him if he could."

Sirius growled but asked no more questions. He glanced at Harry's face; his eyes were open. Harry had heard most of the conversation, with a sinking feeling in his stomach he asked, "Albus why is Voldemort trying to kill me? I'm only seventeen years old. I'm barely out of school!" he started to sit-up only to be pushed down by Sirius. Harry scowled at his godfather, Sirius smiled back undeterred by Harry's anger.

Standing up, Dumbledore said, "I have matters that must be seen to." Sirius began to rise to show him out, but Dumbledore motioned for Sirius to sit in the seat that he had been sitting. "I know the way out, thank you Sirius."

* * * * * * *

Harry and Sirius were just sitting down for dinner when Harry realized something. "Hey how come Dumbledore never answered my question?"

Sirius snickered, "What? Oh that question. So you noticed that did you? He most likely had other things on his mind."

"Can you answer my question, Sirius?"

"Well..."

"Well what?"

"I can but not entirely." Sirius looked out the window, "your father and I were Aurors for the Ministry of Magic, and we worked together most of the time. Anyways, your father and I were always stopping Voldemort's loyal Death Eaters from finishing their missions, which really pissed Voldemort off, so one night he set up a trap for us...." Sirius shuddered, "well we actually ended up burning down the house that we were in. We were forced to kill about six Death Eaters with magic before James and I lost our wands. After that, it was all hand-to-hand. I'm decent with hand-to-hand and but your dad... well let's just say he came out rather the worse for wear. Broken arm, two broken ribs and a broken nose." Harry winced and Sirius looked Harry straight in the eyes, "Voldemort wanted us both for evading him so many times. He wanted James more because the Potter family is the oldest wizard family in England, maybe in Europe as well." Sirius grinned and sat back in his chair as Harry's jaw dropped open, "yeah didn't think you knew that one."

"The oldest...." Harry looked completely paralyzed. Sirius laughed at Harry's dumbstruck face. Harry tried to get up a convincing glare but couldn't in the face of this new information.

"And I think you're related to at least one of the Hogwarts four as well. But I'm not entirely sure which ones." Sirius added still grinning.