A/N: I do not own the HP franchise. I understand that it's customary to begin stories this way, but there is a reason you're reading FAN fiction after all.

On the Road to Come What May

Ch 1

Department of Mysteries; Demolished

"Damn! Hermione! Seal that door off! Luna! You ok?" Harry shouted to his companions in haste. "Luna, look at me! Are you ok?"

The petite blonde girl had been banished into a desk and landed awkwardly. She was grimacing in pain and clutching at her chest, her breathing seemed a bit labored. He silvery grey eyes were also a bit unfocused, indicating a blow to the head. She did manage to give Harry a small grin though.

"I'm all right, I think." She then coughed a bit.

Harry was more than a little relieved. His grand plan to rescue his Godfather Sirius had turned into so much hippogriff dung soon after the six teens had arrived. Fortunately, nobody had died, yet.

"Harry! That seal won't hold for long. We need to move soon!" Hermione was pretty collected, but the strain in her voice was evident, and very understandable.

What was intended to be a quick grab Sirius and go had actually been an ambush. Rather than a handful of Voldemort's minions and a captured Sirius Black, the six teens had encountered eleven alerted Death Eaters; including Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix LeStrange. Harry considered himself very lucky that the practiced murderers had not managed to kill any of his friends so far.

The list of injured had mounted, however.

To his knowledge, only he and Hermione had so far escaped unscathed. Luna had been badly bruised (and possibly concussed) from being thrown into a desk. He was at present unaware of the locations of Ginny, Ron, and Neville; having been separated after the group had brought the Hall of Prophecies crashing down. When he had lost contact with the other three, he had noticed Ginny dragging an ankle; possibly broken. Neville was sporting a broken nose, but otherwise managing fairly well. Ron had managed to get himself tangled up in some sort of tentacle brains and was acting in an intoxicated and disoriented manner.

"Stupid Ron! Why in the world did he think casting an 'accio brains' was a good idea?"

"Harry! What are we going to do?" Hermione called to him again, breaking him from his momentary contemplation.

Wham! Something heavy had impacted the door from the outside. The Death Eaters were upon them. Unfortunately, their retreat through the Department of Mysteries had led them to a room with but a single entrance and exit (as well as separating them from the other three). The fact that the entire building was actually buried deep beneath London removed any sort of windows as a viable escape option as well. Their little group needed a plan if they were to avoid dying today.

Crash! The door shook heavily at the abuse.

"Think Harry! What do we need to do?"

His mind categorized their list of requirements.

Escape the dead end room they were in.

Locate the other half of their party

Escape this blasted Ministry building alive.

"Okay. What do we have to work with here?"

Wham! The door began to flex a bit with each blow.

He looked around the little room. He thought he might have recognized some of the hourglass shaped items in a cabinet on the wall, but he needed more info.

Wham! The door splintered a little.

"Hermione, where are we?"

"I think we're in a storage space just off of the 'Time' room."

He nodded to the hourglasses in the cabinet. "Are those what I think they are?"

Wham! The door shook heavily and splintered some more.

"Time Turners? I think so."

Wham! Crack! The door began to split along one of the panels near the jamb.

"Think we can use 'em?" Harry was trying to think.

"Spin back ten minutes. Set up a little ambush for the ambushers?"

Hermione took a look at the cabinet. She then shook her head negatively.

"No time Harry! They're partially disassembled! We'd need a good few minutes to get them working."

The door buckled a bit more with a loud crack. They had mere seconds, not a few minutes.

"Well, only one thing to do."

Harry may not have liked his choice, but he liked surrender even less.

"Hermione! Here's what I need you to do. Grab Luna and flatten up against the wall near the door. When I draw their fire, you two slip out."

Hermione looked horrified.

"No Harry! We have to get you out too!"

The door crunched loudly as a bit more of the wooden structure gave way. Their time was quickly running out.

He looked Hermione in her deep brown eyes. The terror was mixed with determination and desperation. He didn't want to leave her, but he would save her. At the cost of his life, if need be.

"It's the only way, Hermione. It's me they're after. You need to find the others and get out of here."

The door took another hit and splintered heavily. One more impact would most likely rend it completely.

"Go!" He pushed the hesitant girl towards the appointed spot. She managed to grip Luna's shoulders tightly as they crouched in hiding.

"When you see an opening, run for it!" He shouted. She looked about to cry, but she nodded in response.

Harry looked over the shattered remains of the door and leveled his wand. For them to escape, he had to make this good. A surprise was most definitely in order.

"Reducto!" Harry fired a massively overpowered blasting hex at the shattered doorframe.

Ka-wham! The door, having previously been abused from without, was devastated by the blast from within. It exploded outward, peppering the Death Eaters with large splinters. The shouts and screams issuing from someone out side indicated at least one casualty among the terrorists.

"Accio Death Eater!" Harry summoned one of the Dark Wizards from their spot outside the room, and banished them hard into the wall next to him with a meaty crunch. The ugly man was stunned into unconsciousness.

"Sell your life dearly, Harry. Those murdering scum need to buy this!"

He ducked a killing curse and fired back with a piercing curse that winged a Death Eater.

"Arrgh!" The man screamed, but fired back.

"Almost there! Have to lure them into the room a bit."

He backed up almost into the open cabinet and ducked again as more curses spattered around him.

He fired a bludgeoning hex through the doorway and managed to knock out the splinter-punctured wizard. His two companions stepped through the door in a crouch, hemming him in.

"Road's clear, go!" He nodded to Hermione and Luna. Hermione gave him a sad look, and scuttled through the doorway, hustling the stunned Luna in front of her.

Harry fired a slicing hex at the wizard to his left. The man had noticed Hermione's escape and had turned to investigate. The vicious slash he now sported along his right side seemed to quell his curiosity. Unfortunately, he was still in the fight.

"You guys are Voldie's best? You're losing to a schoolboy!" A little taunting might liven things up a bit in what were sure to be Harry's last moments.

"Shut your face Potter!" One of the masked terrorists said, firing a hex as he did so.

"Jeez, even your comebacks suck! Reducto!" Harry blasted the wall behind the wizard on his right, showering him in stone fragments.

This injures the man, but the effect was now both wizards were extremely angry.

"Reducto! Diffindo! Reducto! Confringo! Avada Kedavra!" Both men began raining curses down into Harry's general area. Their aim was off a bit, but they managed to blast the Time Turner cabinet into pieces. Harry was now being showered in glass shards and completely enveloped in some sort of strange dust.

"Damn! Can't see! What is this stuff?"

Harry could only duck and cough as whatever was contained within the hourglasses was wafted into a large cloud in his general area.

"Avada Kedavra!" The sliced wizard unleashed an overpowered killing curse into the cloud, his anger and the pain of his wound massively overcharging the normally powerful spell.

The green spell impacted the cloud, and a bright flash nearly blinded the Death Eaters, knocking them backwards.

Harry, while not hit by the killing curse, felt a strange tugging sensation similar to a portkey. It was unlike any portkey he had ever experienced though, as it seemed to hook him by the scruff of his neck and yank him backwards very briskly. He was briefly reminded of a Vernon Dursley collar-grab, before he was overcome by darkness. Harry's fight was over. For now, at least.

A/N: Sorry for the cliffie, but it seemed a good stopping point