On this day, those unfortunate or fortunate souls who had missed witnessing the spectacle at last year's Quidditch World Cup were finally granted the extraordinary and terrible privilege of seeing it again in all its devastating glory.
That golden sun which gives life to all things on the earth, that most dangerous and uncontrollable of all magical fires, had once more descended upon the mortal world!
The ambient temperature in the air began climbing at a rate the human body could distinctly, uncomfortably feel.
The countless puddles of water accumulated on the ground from the recent rainstorm vanished with shocking rapidity under the scorching heat radiating from above. The water didn't simply evaporate slowly—it literally boiled away in moments, sending up clouds of thick steam that obscured vision.
Even the moisture suspended invisibly in the very air itself was burned away clean and completely, leaving everyone's throats painfully dry and their lungs aching with each breath of the superheated air.
In a single instant, those still remaining on the battlefield felt as though they had been suddenly transported from the rain-soaked ruins of a British street to standing completely exposed in a desert somewhere beneath a blazing summer sun at high noon!
"Professor Watson!"
Without a second thought or moment's hesitation, Harry immediately recognized the blurred shadow within that rising golden sun. His fingertips were trembling with a combination of excitement and overwhelming relief, and he cried out instinctively, unable to contain himself.
That familiar voice snapped Hagrid out of his dazed state in an instant. He raised one hand to shield his already watering eyes from the agonizing light. Squinting painfully against the glare, his face scrunched up, he looked around frantically in growing alarm and rising dread.
"Harry?!"
It didn't take Hagrid's desperately searching gaze very long at all to spot that familiar scrawny figure among all the chaos and destruction surrounding them.
The very moment Harry's name had left his lips in recognition—Hagrid clamped his enormous mouth shut with an almost audible snap in sudden alarm. His eyes went wide with fear for the boy's safety.
Diagon Alley was no longer the safe, bustling shopping street filled with laughing children buying their school supplies.
Everything had changed.
If any of the surviving Death Eaters still lurking in the ruins or, even far worse, You-Know-Who himself noticed Harry's presence here on the battlefield, the boy's life would end in a second!
Both deeply shocked at finding Harry here and absolutely furious at such reckless stupidity from a boy who should know better, Hagrid charged forward through the thinning crowd without another word of warning.
Fortunately, everyone else's attention remained fixed on the phenomenon currently manifesting in the sky above their heads. No one paid the rushing half-giant much attention or gave him more than a passing glance.
"What in Merlin's name are you doing here, Harry!"
Spinning Harry around roughly by the shoulders to face him, meeting those alert eyes that had been startled by the sudden interruption, Hagrid hissed through tightly clenched teeth.
His voice was suppressed to an angry whisper despite the rage boiling inside him, trying not to draw attention.
"Oh, how could you come here of all places—who brought you to an active battlefield—Harry, do you think this is some kind of game?"
"Hagrid!"
Hagrid's obvious fury and fear did absolutely nothing to diminish Harry's joy at finding him alive, whole, and apparently unharmed.
After looking over carefully with anxious eyes, scanning him from his wild hair down to his enormous feet and determining with immense relief that the blood soaking Hagrid's clothes wasn't actually his own, Harry's delight and relief grew even stronger.
"I came to find Sirius!"
"You came all the way to a battlefield to find Sirius?!"
Hagrid was beside himself with rage at such a monumentally foolish reason, his voice was rising in volume despite his earlier efforts to keep quiet.
"I swear on Dumbledore's beard, if Sirius doesn't give you a proper thrashing for sneaking onto a battlefield where people are dying, I'll knock him flat myself with my own fists! And then I'll do the same to whatever idiot brought you here!"
Harry calmed slightly at the genuine concern that was so obvious in Hagrid's booming voice and worried expression. He looked up at Hagrid with a mixture of lingering fear and desperate longing for reassurance about his godfather.
"Never mind all that now, Hagrid—please, just tell me, have you seen Sirius anywhere? He should be here somewhere—I mean—is he—"
Harry couldn't quite bring himself to finish the question.
"He's alive, Harry."
Seeing Harry's entire expression shift in a single instant to one of overwhelming relief, Hagrid couldn't quite bear to scold him too harshly any longer despite his anger.
Besides, this was hardly the proper place or appropriate time for lengthy arguments and stern lectures about responsibility and safety.
"Your Invisibility Cloak, Harry—did you bring it with you?"
Hagrid read the negative answer clearly in Harry's guilty expression before the boy even opened his mouth to speak.
He was just about to stuff the reckless boy into his coat for concealment and protection when a calm voice, heavy with unmistakable command and absolute authority suddenly rang clearly across the entire battlefield.
"Everyone still here, get clear of this area immediately. Now!"
Bryan Watson's voice issued from somewhere within that suspended sun hanging in mid-air beneath the roiling sea of black mist still hovering above, radiating seemingly endless light and unbearable heat in all directions like a beacon of power.
The warned wizards snapped to attention, their survival instincts were suddenly overriding everything else.
The catastrophic clash between Bryan Watson and the Dark Witch Cliodna at last year's Quidditch World Cup had directly destroyed the massive stadium that the Ministry of Magic had spent half a year painstakingly constructing at tremendous expense—a monumental structure specifically designed and enchanted to safely hold a hundred thousand spectators was reduced to nothing but rubble and twisted metal in few minutes of battle.
If they stayed in the area any longer, lingering to watch or fight, they would almost surely perish horribly in the devastating aftershocks of the duel between two of the entire era's most formidable and powerful wizards!
"Don't you dare run, you despicable scum! Cowards, all of you!"
Moody cursed furiously, his face twisted with rage as Death Eaters began vanishing from the battlefield one by one via Apparition.
But even in his anger and frustration, even as he wanted to chase them down, he understood clearly and rationally—what mattered most right now, what absolutely everything depended on for their survival was that Bryan Watson could hold off You-Know-Who long enough for everyone else to evacuate to safety.
Otherwise, if Watson was overwhelmed, none of them from the Ministry or the Order of the Phoenix would survive the day!
"Everyone, evacuate immediately! Fall back to the perimeter now!"
Moody pointed his wand at his throat to magically amplify his voice, then shouted in a commanding tone that cut through the howling firestorm that was rapidly growing in intensity with each passing moment.
However personally unwilling he might feel about retreating, there was simply no point in staying just to die needlessly and accomplish nothing but adding to the body count.
The Ministry's Hit Wizards quickly began searching through the rubble for wounded companions who were unable to move on their own power, as well as carefully gathering those who had already fallen in battle, before rapidly withdrawing in organized groups via Apparition.
But not everyone chose to leave the battlefield completely and seek complete safety.
The core members of the Order of the Phoenix and You-Know-Who's most fanatically loyal Death Eaters, those who would gladly die for their respective causes without hesitation, both chose to remain in the general area despite the danger.
They Apparated in quick series to the outer edges of Diagon Alley, taking up positions at what they hoped were safe distances to watch the battle from afar, to bear witness to history.
"Let me help you, Master!"
In the pale red firestorm that was actively scorching the earth itself and turning thick mud into cracked, bone-dry clay, a completely drenched-in-sweat Bellatrix Lestrange actually pressed forward determinedly against the current of fleeing people.
Her wild, tangled hair whipped around her gaunt face, which was twisted with absolute madness, and her dark, sunken eyes were filled with fanatical, unshakeable devotion to the master she worshipped above all else.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Raising her wand arm with tremendous difficulty against the buffeting wind and oppressive heat that pressed against her like a physical wall, Bellatrix glared with pure hatred at the golden sun blazing above and fired a Killing Curse straight toward it!
Hssssss!
Like a single drop of water falling onto red-hot iron and instantly vaporizing into nothing but steam, Bellatrix's Killing Curse vanished the very instant it touched the blazing 'sun's' corona of swirling flames!
'Bellatrix—'
Strangely, Bryan's purple eyes merely flickered briefly in acknowledgment of her futile gesture, yet he did not immediately punish or strike down.
"Sirius!"
Once the massive evacuation was properly underway and most people had cleared out, leaving the battlefield area largely empty, Sirius became quite conspicuous lying there alone in the open among the rubble.
Harry immediately spotted him through the chaos—trying repeatedly to stand on badly shaking legs but falling painfully back down several times.
Harry cried out his name desperately and, while Hagrid was momentarily distracted scanning the area for other threats, slipped away from his presence.
Like Bellatrix, he ran directly against the scorching wind!
"Damn it!"
Hagrid roared in fury when he realized what had happened, when he turned and found empty space where Harry had been standing. He immediately charged after the reckless boy heedless of the danger to himself.
"You're all asking for death!"
Having successfully directed the Hit Wizards' retreat and preparing to leave the area himself via Apparition, Moody witnessed this scene of sheer stupidity unfolding and erupted in pure rage that nearly made his magical eye pop from its socket.
He Disapparated with a sharp crack and appeared instantly beside the fallen Sirius, startling the injured man. Without pausing for even a single second to catch his breath or explain, he Disapparated again with another crack and reappeared directly before the running Harry and pursuing Hagrid, blocking their path with his body.
"Harry Potter!"
Now that the battlefield had largely emptied, the four of them standing in the open were far too obvious. Bellatrix who was still near the center, spotted Harry at once through the heat haze and shrieked his name.
CRACK!
The sea of black mist shrouding the entire sky immediately roared in violent response to her cry. A bolt of green lightning struck down from above with terrifying speed!
Bryan's arm shot up instantly in response. A powerful stream of golden fire surged forth from his position like a geyser erupting, intercepting and scattering the deadly lightning before it could reach anywhere near its intended target.
Moody had been about to evacuate all of them immediately without another moment's delay, but seeing Bellatrix standing not far away—looking exhausted, apparently with very little magical strength left to resist, a moment of hesitation flickered in his eye.
Should he take this opportunity to eliminate this particularly dangerous Death Eater?
Bryan could clearly hold off You-Know-Who for a while longer. If he and Hagrid worked together, they might actually succeed in killing her before she could escape!
While Moody hesitated, Bryan's voice urged from above once more.
"Leave. Now. All of you."
The tone left no room for argument or discussion.
Grinding his teeth in frustration at the lost opportunity, Moody shot Bellatrix one last resentful glare. Then he vanished with Hagrid, Harry, and the wounded Sirius, reappearing moments later at the far edge of the ruins near open fields.
"Harry!"
Finally safe from the nearby danger and able to catch his breath properly, Sirius looked at Harry's delighted, relieved face and was utterly bewildered by the boy's presence here of all places.
He asked the question Harry had fully anticipated.
"How in Merlin's name did you end up here?"
BOOM!
The absolutely deafening roar that suddenly erupted drew the attention of everyone standing in the fields at the city's edge.
At a single glance, many people gasped.
To avoid harming any innocents who might be caught in the crossfire, Mr. Watson had clearly been far too 'restrained' in his power usage just moments ago!
Many different minds arrived at the exact same thought simultaneously.
Now that no living souls remained on the actual battlefield, the golden sun suspended majestically over the ruins suddenly began to swell in size.
It grew larger with each passing second, expanding in all directions.
Multiple streams of golden fire, strongly resembling the solar flares that leap from the actual sun's surface in massive arcs, continuously separated from the main 'sun' in looping formations. They traced beautifully twisted arcs through the air, wriggling like living serpents made of flame, before returning to merge with the central mass once more in an endless mesmerizing cycle.
Those flames contained literally unimaginable heat. The very ground they even briefly touched didn't even have the slightest opportunity to liquefy into flowing magma before vaporizing totally into superheated steam that rose in massive clouds!
The firestorm became several times more violent and intense than before. Layer after layer of earth was stripped away, the soil simply disappeared into nothing. The underground rivers and water channels exposed by this process of devastation never even had the opportunity to gush forth and flood the ruins before being evaporated completely by the hellish temperatures!
Those standing in the safety of the fields, thinking themselves at a safe distance, had to Apparate even farther away from the rapidly expanding destruction. They hastily raised magical shields for additional protection against the radiating heat that was making their skin tingle uncomfortably even from this range.
The purple tinge in Bryan's eyes rapidly faded within the swirling vortex of flames, revealing his original natural brown irises.
He tilted his face up, staring directly at the sky above without flinching or looking away, and his normally calm expression had turned grave with intense concentration and focus.
The sea of black mist shrouding the heavens above remained pitch dark and utterly impenetrable despite the inferno below.
The bright light of the golden flames, despite their tremendous intensity and heat, could never seem to penetrate that vast, horrifying, snarling black cloud sea!
Breath. In. Out.
Under the alarmed gazes of the watching crowd, that golden sun trailing multiple twisted flares from its surface finally moved once more.
It began ascending slowly toward the sky at first, rising almost gently from its position hovering over the ruins. But with each passing moment, its speed increased rapidly in an exponential curve!
Finally, amid the howling malicious wind, the great golden sun transformed itself into a blazing meteor. It dragged behind it a dazzling tail of flame, like a comet's tail burning across the sky.
With unstoppable momentum, it plunged headlong directly into the sea of black clouds hovering above!
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