"P..please… don't hurt her." came a shaky voice.
Harry turned his head slightly to see that Fleur had shifted herself between Gabrielle and himself and was hovering protectively.
Harry shook his head at the fear and plea in the voice, and he couldn't stop himself from replying. "Don't worry Miss Delacour. I'm not here to hurt you."
Without waiting for a reply, he lifted his head up above the wall only to duck it again as spells immediately flew right at him, causing him to growl.
The Death Eaters definitely weren't stupid, at least not all of them anyway. At the lull in the spells when he ducked his head back down, they realized they were only facing a single enemy. Harry heard one voice cry out, and though he couldn't be certain, it sounded an awful lot like what he remembered Lucius Malfoy sounding.
"It's only one! Spread out and take him down in our crossfire! Move out on each side and trap the bastard and those veela bitches." The group only took a few moments to begin moving and followed the shouted directions to spread out.
Harry continued crouching he could see spells coming in from wider angles, getting closer to moving around the wall and making it near impossible to move or shield against, while worrying about the Delacours as well.
It also made it impossible to fire at them in groups.
Harry knew he could, and probably should flame out of there. The only problem was that he'd never flamed with more than one person before and flaming with just one took a lot out of him. He wasn't sure why but unlike apparition where he could take two or three, flaming with even one wiped him out.
He might have tried it anyway, but his fury had well and truly been stoked. Seeing two people he knew and even would have considered friends before their deaths in his world set him off completely.
The anger of losing in "his world", the sense of confusion and reminder at his loss by being in a place he didn't know, and most of all his disgust at making such basic and simple mistakes and going into a battle arrogant and unprepared.
It was something he truly would have done when he was young and impulsively stupid with no consideration for consequences. It was something he would have done when he was truly the age he appeared now. A brief memory of a trip to the Department of Mysteries where he lost his godfather flashed through his head.
Suddenly he stood up completely, despite the spellfire, and pointed his wand at the ground. "Aegis Scruta Vortex!" he intoned as he cast a spell of his own creation at the ground around him. One again he felt his magic surge with eagerness in response.
Rocks, pieces of wood, and other objects immediately spun into the air around him, whirling around the small outcropping of wall that remained protecting Fleur and Gabrielle. It was much like a tornado, with the safe spot being the very eye of the storm.
The vortex had the benefit of having a high probability of intercepting any curses sent at him, from all the debris whipping around in the air. One of the two downfalls of the shield was that it made casting outward as hard as any spells getting in. Harry had long ago figured out a partial solution to this. He began banishing the pieces of debris one or two at a time in the direction of the Death Eaters the scattered pieces the whirlwind picked up became ammo to shoot out at them.
Harry hadn't come close to mastering aiming with the spell, since banishing things that were already moving at a high rate of speed was less than an exact science. It was a rather scattershot approach but he had discovered it was effective against groups since even near-misses tended to have people cowering behind shields or ducking for cover.
Harry saw through the haze of debris, the blasts of spellfire continue to come from the semicircle in front of him as he continued to banish pieces of debris, then he suddenly felt an explosion of agony connect with his left shoulder. He managed not to cry out loudly in pain, but he instantly felt his left arm become useless.
Harry wondered briefly if a moment of the cruciatus spell made it through the vortex, however the explosive pain quickly turned into dull agony. Then he grimaced, he could feel the bones in his shoulder each time his body shifted with his breathing. "Bone breaking hex, or maybe Boneshattering hex." He thought.
That was the other weakness of the spell he had created. It was nearly perfect against two of the three Unforgiveables. Avada Kedavra was a large and wide spell when shot, and it was almost inevitable that one of the rocks or pieces of debris would intersect at least part of the spell, rendering it useless. The Cruciatus curse was a line of sight and channeled spell, so on the rare occasion a momentary jerk of pain might get through, before something would interfere with the caster's line of sight, which would require them to recast the spell.
The shield was incredibly effective at protecting a small patch of area from attackers that had one surrounded. However it also kept that group pinned in place if they couldn't apparate out.
But the shield also wasn't a perfect defense; lucky shots could still get through it. And since Harry had stopped focusing on a protego shield while casting the vortex, apparently that spell did get through. He suppressed a groan as he banished several rocks toward his left hand side where the spell had come through.
Over the loud whirl of wind around him he heard a voice shout, "It's the dark mark! Which one of you cast it!?"
The first voice was followed shortly after by another, "No time! Aurors are here! Portkeys! Grab any wounded!"
A moment later all spellfire toward his shield stopped, and he couldn't see any figures in front of him. Harry cursed loudly. He knew portkey wards were up. So the Death Eaters must have had ones approved by the Ministry allowing them to get through.
"What a shock. Corruption in the Ministry." Harry said as he allowed the whirlwind shield to drop a few moments later, looking around cautiously. After being certain that the Death Eaters were all gone he finally dropped his guard a little.