The first coherent thought that crossed Harry's mind when he saw the ominous dark figures in the distance, was that Voldemort had come for him. But an instant later he realised that it just couldn't be. There was simply no way that Voldemort would have known that Harry was going to be here at Diagon Alley today. Harry himself hadn't even known it until that morning. No, Voldemort's appearance had to be a coincidence.

But no matter, he was there now and Harry had no idea what to do. His first impulse was to run to meet Voldemort and destroy him. He really, really wanted to do that. Then Voldemort would be gone. He would never hurt or kill anyone again.

And then Harry could be free...free from Voldemort, free to go and be with his family, and free from the slavery spell.

But how could he destroy Voldemort now? He wasn't ready. He'd only had one real dueling lesson and he'd barely beaten the dummy. Voldemort was the most powerful dark wizard in over a century, not to mention that he was surrounded by a dozen Death Eaters.

Harry wouldn't stand a chance against him.

All these thoughts flitted through his mind in seconds. Then beside him, Severus hissed in his ear. "We've got to get out of here."

The professor grabbed Harry's arm and started to twist around, but then out of the corner of his eye Harry caught a glimpse of a small child, a little dark-haired boy no more than two years old, standing lost in the middle of the street and weeping piteously as panicked wizards ran around him. There was no sign of his parents or of anyone else searching for him, and the Death Eaters were coming.

"Wait," Harry told Severus and broke away, sprinting into the street and sweeping the crying child into his arms.

He turned and started to race back to Severus, but just then a great wave of people rushed by, slowing him and making it difficult to get back to Flourish and Blotts. Harry tried to push his way through and had taken a couple of steps, but he was also being swept along with the crowd and before he could stop it, he and the child were well past the bookstore.

Then jets of red, purple, and green light whizzed by as Voldemort and his followers drew closer. Harry managed to take one more step back towards Severus and safety before a flash of green flew in front of him, missing him by a hairs-breadth. Abruptly Harry spun around and ran in the opposite direction, to the other side of the street.

He looked around frantically for Severus and saw him in the distance. For once, the professor's calm façade had cracked and he looked both frightened and angry as he jerked his head back and forth, searching for Harry. He held up his wand and an instant later three silver creatures, tall and four-legged, sprang from its tip and then vanished.

Harry's stomach clenched as he suddenly realised that he was seeing Severus...not the blond stocky man anymore. The Polyjuice Potion had worn off, which meant that his own disguise must have faded away, too.

He looked down at the child in his arms, who was still crying and clinging to him as if to a lifeline. "You can't stay with me," Harry muttered. He ran into the nearest shop, the apothecary where some people were trying to hide behind big barrels lined up on the floor. He saw an old woman kneeling behind the nearest one and managed to pry the little boy away from himself.

"Take him!" Harry thrust the child at her and then ran back outside.

He didn't see Voldemort, which was worrying, but the hooded Death Eaters were quite close, only a couple shops' lengths away. Many of the people in Diagon Alley were gone now. Most had run off, Apparated to safety, or were presumably hiding inside. Quite a few of the shops were burning...the Death Eaters must have set them on fire and the acrid smell of smoke and the crackle of flames filled the air along with shouts, cries, and taunting laughter. Harry could only hope there were no people trapped inside the burning buildings.

But though most had gone, there were a few brave souls fighting back. Harry saw the female clerk from Gladrags dueling. There was a young couple who had eaten at the same café for lunch taking on a huge Death Eater whose hood had slipped, revealing a shock of curly blond hair. Even old Mr. Ollivander was standing in the doorway of his shop and firing off hexes whenever he got a clear shot.

And then Harry saw two familiar redheads in the middle of the street, battling four of Voldemort's followers.

"Fred, George," he breathed, not daring to call out for fear of distracting them. He hesitated. A voice inside his head was telling him that he really should be trying to find Severus. The professor was going to be furious with him already.

But though the Weasley twins were talented, they were outnumbered and when Harry saw George get hit in the face with a curse and collapse to the ground, bleeding profusely, he didn't even think about the dangers of letting the Death Eaters see him...he just ran to help.

"Incarcerous!" He screamed, pointing his wand at the Death Eater who was closest to the fallen George. Thick ropes shot from the end and wrapped themselves tightly around the black-robed figure, pinning his arms to his side.

"Harry?" Fred couldn't help but pause and give him an incredulous stare.

Another Death Eater took advantage of his distraction. "Crucio!"

But Harry was ready. "Protego!" He shrieked wildly and the Shield flew up just in time to protect Fred.

"Thanks," Fred bit out, but there was no time for chatting. He and Harry stood back to back, trying to protect George and themselves from the Death Eaters. Spells flew back and forth as they dueled, but finally Fred managed to stun two of the Death Eaters and Harry disarmed the last one who ran off before he could be captured.

They immediately crouched by George's side, checking to see where exactly the blood was coming from.

It's his ear," Fred muttered, yanking his shirt off and pressing it hard against the side of his twin's head. Before he did, though, Harry saw that George's right ear was gone, leaving only a bloody hole where it should have been.

"Let's see if we can move him." Fred stuck his shirt in place with a charm so it could continue to staunch the flow of blood, and then he gently lifted his brother under his arms while Harry grabbed George's legs under his knees. Together they managed to get him off the road and over to relative safety behind a street vendor's cart.

"Is he going to be all right?" Harry asked anxiously as they knelt at George's side.

Fred checked the wound and nodded. "I think so. It looks like the bleeding's stopped. I don't think his ear can be replaced, though, not when it's been cursed off."

Fred pressed his hands to his face and was quiet for a moment. Harry hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder. It was so unusual to see one of the twins serious and upset that he almost wasn't sure what to do. He tried to think of something he could say, but nothing came to him, so he just kept his hand on Fred's shoulder and hoped his sympathy and concern would get through.

After a moment Fred seemed to pull himself together. He took a deep breath and looked up. "Well, he's alive and it could be worse. So Harry, what in Merlin's name are you doing here? Why aren't you at Privet Drive?"

Now Harry really didn't know what to say. "Um, well, it's a long story and I can't really explain now...I'm supposed to be looking for...."

"Harry Potter! I knew it was you! Master!" A wild, delighted voice interrupted them.

Harry spun around to see the face that he perhaps hated most in the world...a once-beautiful pale face with heavy-lidded dark eyes and a mass of long tangled black hair framing it. Bellatrix Lestrange.

He dodged the curse that shot from her wand just in time and it hit the ground instead, pulverising the cobblestones into a pile of gravelly rubble.

"Incarcerous!" Fred bellowed, but this time it was Bellatrix who twisted out of the way in time.

Before she could shoot any more curses at close range, or before Voldemort was drawn over by her call, Harry pushed the street vendor's cart into her and ran as fast as he could. He didn't know where he was going, just that he needed to lead her away from Fred and George and that somehow he had to find Severus.

He ran, making sure to leap to the right and left in an unpredictable pattern so she wouldn't be able to hit him with anything from behind. He heard Fred yelling after him, but couldn't stop. As he dashed down the street, Harry realised that at some point other wizards had arrived...Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks...they were all there, fighting. Severus had sent his Patronuses to call the Order of the Phoenix.

Where was Dumbledore? Surely he would be here, too. But Harry didn't have time to search for him. He was too busy trying to avoid Bellatrix Lestrange. He could hear her alternately cursing him and calling for her master. Harry ran past some more dueling wizards and heard another familiar voice.

"Potter? What are you doing..." It was Professor McGonagall, who was fighting alongside some of the other Hogwarts' professors. Harry glimpsed Flitwick and Sprout as he raced by, but he didn't stop. He needed to find Severus. The voice in his head was quite insistent. Finding Severus was the most important thing right now.

Behind him he heard Bellatrix shriek and the professors calling out. Hoping against hope that they'd managed to capture her, or at least delay her, Harry sprinted by a small side alley and then slid to an abrupt stop as his mind registered the horrifying sight he'd glimpsed from the corner of his eye. He turned and ran back.

Voldemort was in the alley, standing over a crumpled black heap on the ground.

"Did you really think you would get away with betraying me, Severus?" He asked in a silky malicious voice. "Surely you knew I would find out some day? And what have you given your life for? A weak little boy who's going to die as well? Because Harry Potter will die, make no mistake about that. I will crush him and then no one will stand in my way. So tell me, Severus, how does it feel to know you've thrown your life away for nothing?"

There was no response from the figure on the ground and for a terrifying second, Harry thought he was dead. But then Voldemort cast the cruciatus curse and Severus moaned as his limbs jerked and quivered.

Harry's heart beat wildly and his breath caught in his throat. He still didn't have a chance against Voldemort, but he also didn't have a choice anymore. He swallowed hard and hoped that if he died, he could at least manage to defeat Voldemort, too.

"Leave him alone!" Harry shouted. "It's me you want, not him!"

Voldemort froze. Then he stopped the Unforgivable and turned to face Harry. An evil smile slowly spread across his snake-like face and his scarlet eyes gleamed in triumph. "Why, Harry, it's so good of you to join the party," he purred. "It saves me the bother of having to hunt you down."

He raised his wand, but Harry was a fraction quicker.

"Avada Kedrava!" Green light shot from Voldemort's wand.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry screamed at the same instant, concentrating with all his might on his will to defeat the evil being in front of him.

The two spells intercepted with a crack that seemed to shake the ground. A bright golden light flared and when it faded, Voldemort was lying on the ground.

Harry just gazed at him, completely shocked. Surely it couldn't be? Surely he hadn't won? Had he? Voldemort couldn't really be dead, could he?

Suddenly Dumbledore was there, his wand in his hand and his blue eyes blazing. He glanced at Harry, who was standing still as a statue but was unharmed, and at Severus who was slowly sitting up, obviously in pain but alive, and then went past them to where Voldemort was lying.

He knelt beside the dark wizard's body and examined it carefully before looking back up. Dumbledore's gaze traveled between Severus and Harry, both of whom were watching him intently, hardly daring to breathe.

"Voldemort is dead."

"Dead," Severus repeated in a weak, scratchy tone. He looked over at Harry in wonder.

Harry didn't move. He should be happy. He would be happy, as soon as he could make himself believe it. But right now he was just too shocked to feel much of anything. The past hour seemed like a dream...or a nightmare actually. But if Voldemort were dead, maybe this nightmare could have a happy ending.

"NOOO!"

Harry turned to see Bellatrix Lestrange standing a short distance away. She stared at him in crazed fury and her face twisted. She pointed her wand at him and screamed again.

"Sectumsempra!"

Harry felt sharp pain explode all over his body. There was blood everywhere and he was falling.

Then everything went black.