Disclaimer: I may be a girl but my name isn't Johannes Katherine Rowling. So obviously I don't own the beautiful world of Harry Potter. I do own full collection of signed Harry Potter books though.
A beautiful bushy haired woman appeared out of no-where near the out-skirts of Luss in Scotland. She was slender with curves in all right places, oval face, almond brown eyes, roman nose and pouty lips. Behind her twenty members appeared all in dark black robes and hoods covering their faces. They are the members of Order of the Phoenix an organisation led by Albus Dumbledore who is hailed as greatest wizard of all time to combat Tom Marvolo Riddle otherwise known as Lord Voldemort.
It has been thirteen years since Lord Voldemort's resurrection in the graveyard of Little Hangleton and eleven years since the war have started. The arrest of her best friend Harry James Potter for joining the Dark Lord, just an year and half years before the war nearly caused morale to drop among the light who looked at him as a saviour. His betrayal and murder of his friend Rubeus Hagrid along with thirty students at Hogwarts marked him as a traitor to light and he was immediately sent to Azkaban.
It was not until five years ago; Harry's innocence was revealed.
In the front of the entirety of DMLE a red-haired Auror appeared with a cage which held a rat, dragging a man behind him. The Auror was well built with square jaw, light brown eyes, sharp Roman nose and high cheekbones with freckles scattered on his face. The man has onyx eyes, pointed chin and aristocratic face which has haunted look on it. Both of them stood over six feet except the Auror was bulky with pure muscle and the man was lean. Both of them are clean shaved and wore dark black robes.
After that traitor showed his true colours Dumbledore finally understood that they couldn't depend on him to vanquish Lord Voldemort. So, with help of goblins they warded Hogwarts with best of the best protections with helping hand of all the professors. They paid the goblins with that traitor's money and Dumbledore started training all the younger generations for battle. Along with above Dumbledore used the traitor's money to hire mercenaries from other nations.
The battle plan was simple. They'd fight to cripple the Death Eaters, and under tight conditions are allowed to kill those bastards. All the older members of Order of Phoenix trained the younger generation and the Headmaster's library along with restricted section opened for those who completed sixth year. They managed to mount a heavy counterattack against Voldemort's supporters and imprisoned them far away. When Voldemort arrives into the battle, they'd simply avoid confrontation and flee taking as many survivors as possible. They're given a distress beacon which recognises Voldemort's presence. When he arrives into the field, Professor Dumbledore would come into the frontlines and try to provide as much time as possible.
By this they'd weaken Voldemort and when he's alone they'd capture him and finally make the traitor push his master into the Veil of Death to fulfil the thrice damned prophecy. The Death Eater's causalities were high in the beginning but none of the Inner Circle were captured but recruit to them were all time low.
The Death Eaters grew smart and started bringing their allies into the battle. Acromantulas, vampires, giants, banshees, werewolves and several other dark creatures were sent to the frontlines. Thankfully the Dementors never absconded the Ministry but never participated in their side. Voldemort was spotted two months after the traitor's imprisonment in the Department of Mysteries trying to steal something and Fudge was sacked and his pet toad sent to the cell next to the traitor for illegal usage of Blood Quills. Madam Bones was made the Minister of Magic.
"Our next convict it seems is infamous Sirius Orion Black from House of Black." Madam Bones smirking at the convict who winked at her mischievously. "Please dose three drops of Veritaserum to the infamous convict who managed to escape Azkaban."
"No offence Minister Bones." Lord Hector Greengrass spoke calmly in the Wizengamot. "Sirius Black was one of the well-known Death Eaters. he has life-sentence in Azkaban for his crimes. Just throw him into a detention center till our war with You-Know-Who ends. Veritaserum is wasted on this scum. And Weasley why are you carrying a rat with you?"
"Don't be hasty, Lord Greengrass." Ron gritted out holding his temper. "Mr. Black here surrendered himself to me requesting to hold this dratted animal and said he'd something important to share about You-Know-Who. After rigorous checks, we bought him here in front of Wizengamot. There's no traces of Dark Mark on his body and he doesn't have any illegal traps on his body or on the rat."
Lord Greengrass was the leader of the Neutral Faction. The entirety of Dark faction was behind the bars except for inner circle of Death Eaters. They are now a small minority and almost have no say in politics unlike last fifteen years. Politically, only way they have to pass their idiotic laws was through Neutrals who occupy forty-seven percent of Wizengamot with Death eaters taking five percent and rest to the Light Faction. So Ron or any of them couldn't afford to piss off the leader of Neutrals.
Voldemort might be powerful but he didn't gain a foot in England due to collective efforts of Dumbledore and Order of the Phoenix. Each and every-one of Magical Britain went under Fidelius Charm. England, both Magical and Muggle was now under heavy surveillance and no one knows when a battle breaks out. The only reason why Voldemort didn't try to wage war is due to Dumbledore who despite his advanced age still invoked fear in the Dark Bastard. But even that is a hollow victory and no one knows when it'll end. Dumbledore is really old and the continued duels between him and Voldemort was taking their toll on both hisbuddy and his magic. For last few duels Ron and Hermione has to back up the old wizard in his duel which caused the Dark Bastard to lose his left hand and right leg before he apparated from the battlefield.
Surprisingly he never tried to break out the traitor. After his defeat they thought he'd seek out his old nemesis and current minion. Might be to punish the bastard for trouble he'd gone through. 'Serves that traitor right.' Ron seethed.
"Hmph…" Hector breathed out. "Hope that the information you provide is useful Black. Or you'd face the consequences."
"Loosen up, Greengrass." Sirius said grinning at the blond haired man. "It seems that you still hold grudge against me for experiencing the wondrous bliss of your fiancée's virginity twenty-nine years ago." He laughed howling at the rapidly reddening face of the leader of Neutral faction. "No need to call for Blood Duel. She was perfectly willing."
"Padfoot…" Ron hissed irritated in his ear. "Please try not to piss off Hector Greengrass or at least refrain till the end of the trail. We need his vote to get you out scot-free."
"But he is making it too easy." Sirius whined. Ron glared at him and shoved him into a chair and bound him with restraints on it. Shoving open his mouth, Ron poured three drops of Veritaserum down his throat. Sirius' face turned emotionless, his eyes glazed over, the effect of the truth potion clearly taking effect.
"If I may Minister, I want to interrogate this man." Hermione stated politely as Lucius Malfoy nearly stood up to ask for permission of his interrogation. "You don't mind that do you, Mr. Black?" she asked him. Sirius simply nodded in affirmative to the shock of Neutral faction who thought he'd insult her blood-status and decline.
"The Chair acknowledges Hermione Jean Granger, Senior Secretary to the Minister." Amelia Bones acknowledged causing Malfoy to back down with a growl.
"Please state your name and Date of birth" she asked ignoring the scoff of Hector Greengrass.
"Sirius Orion Black of Number Thirteen Grimmauld Place. I was born 3rd December, 1959." He replied.
"Since how long have you been working for You-Know-Who?" She asked
"I never worked for Dark Lord in my life." He replied causing the entire Neutral faction to scream in outrage claiming that he used some sort of spell or Dark arts to fool Veritaserum.
"Aren't you a Death Eater or sympathiser to his cause?"
"No," He replied tonelessly "I was never a Death Eater and hated his ideals." The court was now shell shocked.
"Why did you betray Potters then in 1980?"
"I never betrayed Lily or James." He replied. Hermione smirked inwardly when she heard the muttering of disbelief among the crowd.
"Weren't you their Secret-Keeper?" She asked. "It was well known fact that you were their Secret-Keeper and sold out their location to You-Know –Who."
"I was never their Secret-Keeper."
"Then who is their Secret-Keeper?"
"Peter Pettigrew." He replied.
"Non-sense." Hector Greengrass shouted. "I don't know how you are beating Veritaserum, but you are not innocent and trying to shift blame on some-one else. A dead person." He spat out. "Peter Pettigrew was a brave man who died at your hand, you damned traitor."
"Lord Greengrass." Ron spoke up calmly. "Mr. Black here was thoroughly checked by one of the members from our Department of Mysteries, Ms. Greengrass to be exact. I am not foolish enough to question her skills but if you have any "problem take it to her. Last I saw she's practicing blood boiler curse to warm up her tea. Bloody terrifying woman." He muttered.
"His Occlumency shields are negated and his entire magic is sealed before he's bought here. Let's hear his trail as I observed that he's never given one and chances are he might be innocent." He said ignoring murmuring of Neutrals and raged words of Dark Faction. "We, if we have to, will force open his mind and pull out memories if he did manage to fool Veritaserum."
"So you are saying that you killed Mr. Pettigrew and accidentally 20 muggles that day to avenge your friend?"
"No I didn't kill anyone that day." He said
"That's it. There's the proof he's resisting Veritaserum." Lucius Malfoy shouted and the looks of confusion of Neutrals were gone and Dark faction looked positively gleeful. Before they could gain any space Hermione continued.
"Mr. Black. You have been found by our Aurors in middle of a street with blood of Mr Pettigrew sprayed around your robes along with corpses of twenty muggles. And they reported that you are laughing maniacally at the scene. And the largest part they found of Mr. Pettigrew is his finger. And you are saying you didn't kill anyone? So what happened on that night?"
"Yes. I didn't kill anyone that night. I should've killed that rat but he made a scene that I betrayed Lily and James and used a Blasting curse to kill all those muggles. He then escaped after cutting off his finger."
"Nice story Mr. Black. But it really seems improbable that he'd escape that many Aurors without detection. How do you explain that?"
"He's a rat animagus." He replied. "He turned into a rat and jumped into sewers and escaped like a coward he is."
"An Animagus?" Hermione asked sceptically while inwardly laughing her ass off. "You'd make a nice story teller Mr. Black. Now are you going to say that the rat in cage was the long dead Mr. Pettigrew?" she asked humorously while Neutral faction were laughing their ass off while remaining are inwardly grinning or seething.
"Yes." He replied dully. The snickers were instantly silenced and all of them looked in shock.
"Mr. Black are you trying to pull a joke on Wizengamot? First you claim that you aren't Death Eater, then denied being Secret-Keeper of Potters, laid blame on a distinguished martyr. And finally saying that he's an animagus and alive as this normal garden rat. Am I wrong?" she asked injecting heat in her tone.
Sirius simply sighed. "Miss Granger." He said shocking everyone that Veritaserum has expired. "Just cast Hommuculus on the rat and if it's just a plain ole' garden rat you could arrest me and throw my ass into Azkaban."
The Neutrals stood raising their wands at still bound Sirius Black when Ron pulled the erratic rat out and stunned it. Along with Hermione, he cast the spell which came out as bright blue light and hit the rat at its center.
For the entire Wizengamot, it was like watching a speeded-up film of a growing tree. A head was shooting upwards from the ground; limbs were sprouting; next moment, a man was sleeping where the rat had been. The entire Wizengamot was stunned when they saw his profile. An extremely short man with grubby skin, small watery eyes, and a pointed nose, all of which were lingering attributes of his animagus rat form with balding colourless hair. He was wearing thread-bare clothes and has silver-hand. Even after many years it's easy to recognise one of the Marauders.
"Auror Weasley. Please could you check his hand for the Mark?" Amelia Bones requested.
Ron rolled up his sleeves and on his left inner-forearm a vivid green tattoo of snake coming out of skull was revealed. This confirmed that he is a Death Eater.
"Now let's call for a vote. "Those in favour of clearing the accused of all charges?" said Madam Bones' booming voice.
Sirius' head jerked upward. There were hands in the air, many of them … more than four-fifths! Breathing very fast, he tried to count, but before he could finish Madam Bones had said, "And those in favour of conviction?" The remaining members raised their hands.
"Well Mr. Black it seems that you've been dealt a harsh hand by Ministry of Magic. Miss Granger please could you send a letter to Daily Prophet stating public apology to Mr. Black here. And you'd be given 10,000 gallons per year of your stay in Azkaban. It's twelve years right?" Amelia Bones spoke calmly. "So after escaping from that prison you've been rat-hunting?" she added with small smile as Sirius grinned roguishly.
It was supposed to be the day of celebration. Sirius was released from his burden and that lying rat was to be thrown in prison but the testimony given by Peter destroyed the morale of Order of Phoenix. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts she waited for the patrol sent ahead of them.
"Granger…" A man with heavily scarred face, chunk of nose missing along with his left leg growled out. The most noticeable feature about him was his artificial eye which was electric blue opposed to his natural dark brown one. This is Mad-Eye Moody one of the most dangerous member of the Order. "There was a barrier of violet flames surrounding the village. My magical eye cannot see through the barrier but I estimated that there are around 70 snatchers with five members of Inner Circle Death Eaters. They bought seven giants and Tom himself graced his presence to this village it seems. We didn't know anything about the attack till half-an hour ago. He seemed to be pissed off as the entire Ministry and his non-supporters were out of his reach, so decided to destroy villages it seems."
"What about the barrier Alastor?" She asked calmly.
"Can't break it down lass." He replied gruffly. "It's back lash has a blast radius of a mile both outwards and inwards. Your friend Luna, Daphne and her sister are still trying to find a hole in the barrier."
"How on earth didn't we get the information where he's attacking this time?" Hermione growled out. "When Professor Snape escaped after being found as a spy, we managed to tag all the free Death Eaters on all their senses and managed to thwart his plans. So what went wrong this time?"
"It seems that the Dark Bastard lost faith even in the Inner Order. We'd have never known about this attack till they started attacking. They were ordered to follow him out of blue and were bought to this village. This barrier managed to block the tag on the Death Eaters. All we can hope is that they'd go away and rescue the survivors."
"Any wizards within this village?" Moody just shook his head in negative. "No bloody clue Granger. Just go and help those three. They could use a helping hand. Tonks and I would man the fort."
Hermione nodded at his words and went towards her friend Luna. A beautiful woman of around height of 5'4" with straggly, waist-length, dirty blonde hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant silvery eyes. Hermione remembered once the face which held dream-like eyes. But now they simply resembled molten silver without any emotion after her father's death. She too wore a black robe. "Hey Hermione. We managed to identify the barrier. But it's hopeless to break it from outside. The inside is easy and even Bombarda will make a hole… but can't say the same about outside."
"It seems that we lost this time Granger." A strawberry blond haired girl with cerulean eyes, heart shaped face, dainty chin and cute button nose said calmly. Another girl with same features but with brown hair looked down sadly. "Anyone who tries to destroy the barrier from outside will be consumed by cursed flames and it becomes a bomb after transporting the intended members outside the city. Only way is to kill or critically injure the castors for this to disappear or they have to simply leave out of their own violation."
Hermione just sat down on the conjured bench burying her face in between his hands in helplessness. Hopefully they might find a hole in the barrier and exploit it. It has been more than half an hour since the attack started and the city might be in ruins by now. They hoped to find at least few survivors for this thoughtless massacre of one of the most beautiful villages in England.
"ALL OF YOU GET READY THE BARRIER IS ABOUT TO COLLAPSE!" Moody shouted using Sonorous Charm. True to his statement the violet flames got reduced little by little and Hermione barked out orders to spread across the village and search for the survivors.
They expected carnage and heavy destruction. They came inside expecting a massacre. Oh yes there was a massacre but not what they'd expected.
The seventy snatchers were on the ground lying in the pool of their own blood. Each and every one of them are tortured in most gruesome manner imaginable before they died choking on their own blood. None of them have their bodies in one piece and they found giants in similar position. The body parts are scattered all over the city and blood flowed freely in streets. There are many buildings destroyed and few muggle corpses are found. The center of the city collapsed and there are no muggles in sight.
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?" Mad-Eye shouted. "Never mind… all of you divide and search for survivors. Among the dead or injured see if there's any wizards other than Snatchers here. To fight that with this level efficiency they must be highly skilled. You-Know-Who should have immediately left after coming here."
A few hours of search the entire causality count was tallied. Around 200 muggles, (ten of them are children) were killed and 150 are found injured 80 hiding from the devastation and the rest of the population were unaccounted. They didn't find any wizards among the dead bodies with exception for the Snatchers. But fascinating thing is that Ron found a pale white hand in the rubble with a letter in its grasp.
"Weasley…" A tall broad shouldered black wizard shouted at him. "What the hell are you doing with that arm? Put it down and help the injured."
"Kingsley…" Ron spoke in a reverent tone. "Please tell me you have recognised this." He said pulling out his wand and used Sonorous. "Except for those handling the injured get over here quickly."
"Weasley…" Mad Eye glared at him "what's so important that you stopped our work and called us."
"Please don't tell me I'm the only one who recognised this hand." All the members looked unimpressed till Hermione paled slightly and nearly slumped. Ron smiled at her and gave her the hand which was cut at the bicep.
"Work your magic Hermione." He grinned.
"Revlare Identitatem." She said smoothly. There was a shimmer and a ghostly representation of a man came into view. He had a chalk-white face that resembled a skull, snake-like slits for nostrils, and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers like spider's legs. He also has pale white skin, a skeletally thin body, and dark scarlet eyes with cat-like slits for pupils.
"Y-you-Know-W-who." Moody said shocked before composing himself on seeing the phantom. "Defeated by someone other than Albus Dumbledore…." His eyes picked up a small piece of paper in its grip. "There's a piece of paper in his hand. Greengrass, check for any traps and read it" he ordered sharply.
Going through the standard procedure, which revealed no traps, they opened the letter on which 'The survivors and the most of the injured are present in the Baron's villa. The Cristo Baron's villa can be found behind the park near the cemetery.' is written.
"Fidelius." Kingsley stated calmly neglecting near inaudible crack in the background. "All the groups go to that place and find the place. Check for any traps beforehand and bring out the survivors carefully. Don't obliviate them immediately. We need their testimony about these group of wizards."
It took them fifteen minutes to find out the villa. It's a three floor white building with swimming pool and was surrounded by trimmed green grounds with stone pathways. The interior of the house is done with light blonde wood and painted with soothing cream colour. It has marble Square flooring with granite rhombuses in between them.
The hall itself was enough to accommodate a ball for two hundred people. It has a sunken living room, stone fireplace and an outdoor kitchen and spa along with seven bedrooms and five bathrooms per floor. The floor to ceiling windows provide a beautiful view of the grounds.
That kitchen island is humongous and has a lot of storage. There's not only a formal dining area, but two different areas for bar stools. It also has beautiful French doors that lead to the backyard.
The entire house seemed to be filled with expansion charms stretched to their limit. Around four thousand people are present in the villa and they found another six hundred injured Muggles. The remaining are safe and sound. But all of them are murmuring about abominable creatures, horrible mutants etc.
"Ok then see their or get their testimonies and obliviate them. We need every information about the attack and possible identity of our potential allies. Moody be on lookout for any stragglers and don't interrogate anyone. They'll faint before they could say anything. Organise into teams of five and heal and interrogate the villagers." Kingsley barked out. "I'll support Moody, Tonks, Black and Lupin for look out."
Two hours later the entire work is completed and interrogations are done via Leglimacy and remaining by normal procedure. They modified their memories to make seem a violent storm hit the place. All of them looked pale when they approached their commanding officers.
"So did you guys find anything about them?" A black haired Auror with hazel eyes asked them calmly.
"Tonks…" Ron replied softly his face chalk white and frozen in shock. "From both the testimonies and Leglimacy we found that it's not a group of wizards. The counter-attack was done by two elves and one wizard."
"You mean to say that seventy Snatchers, six giants, three members of Dark Lord's Inner Circle and the Dark Lord himself were defeated by just two elves and one wizard?" she asked flabbergasted.
"No Tonks. I'm sayin' that all of them were defeated by a lone wizard while the elves evacuated the muggles. I even acquired a memory of full fight." All of them stood shell shocked at the message. "He might be wounded during the fight but the hell he'd put the Death Eaters through was terrifying. He was clearly stone-drunk when the attack happened. He might've walked out unscratched if not for that."
"J-just o-one wizard?" she asked while the all of them nodded. "And shit-faced drunk? You said he's injured didn't you? Spread out and search for him. Now how does he look like?"
"We don't know how he looks like Tonks. We saw him hit by few spells but it seemed that they didn't even faze him. He's like a damned machine and didn't stop till he killed the snatchers and chased off the Dark Lord."
"What do you mean you didn't know how he looks. At least few of the villagers might've him or known about him."
"No, Tonks. None of them knew how he looked like except for a woman, a certain Miss Kyle according to the villagers. He loves drinking and does drugs it seems. She's the one who delivers his stuff. It's rumoured that they had 'Friends with Benefits.' type of relationship." A round-faced heavily built man with short black hair and dark eyes replied. "She refused to say anything about the man and knows next to nothing about the elves. Just left after we modified her memories. Probably has strong compulsions around her mind. Leglimacy was not working on her as she had blocks placed on her mind about his appearance. Managed to delete presence of those elves and fight that occurred though."
"Then why didn't you consult Snape over here to get into her mind, Longbottom?" Moody growled out.
"I already tried it Moody and I won't recommend it." A thin man with sallow skin, a large, hooked nose and yellow, uneven teeth replied coldly. He was dressed in flowing black robes and had shoulder-length, greasy black hair which framed his face in curtains, curling lips and dark, penetrating eyes. "Unless you want to leave her like Longbottom's parents we shouldn't peruse that methods. I recommend Veritaserum."
"Think that Baron would've made arrangement for it?" Tonks wondered out aloud. "Something like that of…." She trailed off with grim expression mirrored by everyone around her.
"Severus do you have Veritaserum on you?" Sirius asked calmly. "And the counter-potion for that spell?" he asked dejectedly thinking of the spell which ruined his Godson's life.
"Yea give me few minutes though have to make adjustments so that it can be used by Muggles." Snape replied. "Or it'd poison her."
"Alright let's go meet the lovely friend of this village's defender." Neville spoke brightly.
They reached a rundown pub where a beautiful girl was cleaning the glasses. She was petite with moderate chest, small but soft curves, straight brown hair curled at the ends, blue eyes and beautiful heart shaped face. She looked at them and scowled "I said that I ain't telling you anything about the baron. Didn't I? Now why did you come back."
"No need to get uppity, lass. We're here to have few drinks and we'll leave." Moody replied covering his magical eye with a bowler.
"Oh… Pardon my rudeness." She said her face getting softer and smiled. "Welcome to the Moon's Bar then what'll you have sirs?" she questioned.
She took all of their orders and served them some drinks. "Please join us in drinks Miss Kyle." Astoria called her. "No need to get drunk. Just share one drink with us. You can put it on our tab"
The waiter looked suspiciously but sat down in the table occupied by Tonks, Greengrasses and Hermione after serving all of them with a glass of Whiskey.
Before she could drink Ron hit her with a Confundus which allowed Tonks to drop three drops of Veritaserum in her whiskey. When she drank it, Hermione after seeing that her eyes turned glazed performed a spell which made her glow blue. Thank God he didn't use that spell, so they started the interrogation.
"What's your name?"
"Emma Janet Kyle." She replied
"Do you know the name of the Baron?"
"He never told me his name. Just asked me to call him Cristo."
"How long has he been living here?"
"Around ten to eleven months."
"When did you first meet him and tell me about him?"
"He's a drunkard and drug addict. Came here on one fine day and asked the costliest and strongest bottle of wine. His face always was covered by hood and a mask. Due to his regal behaviour and clothes and the reason he's stayin' in that manor everyone called him a baron. Then he requested to have wine bottles delivered to the manor. Though I was initially afraid of him we became fast friends. Despite drunk he never mistreated me."
"Tell me about his character and habits."
"Frankly speaking he's a really nice man. Acts like an ass before everyone but I know for sure it's an act. Seemed to see war and betrayal too much. Without drinks, he is easily stable but has heavy nightmares. Loves children from what I saw and treats everyone here without taking out that mask. Never asked for money and never turned away anyone in need.
A highly skilled doctor I could vouch for it. Once he performed a surgery under heavy drug influence but his hands are steady and treated a patient without any side effects. Frankly speaking he's perfect husband material if you forget his addictions, closed heart and unwillingness to settle down. Never accepted anything less than highest quality drinks. But he's no snob I can say that certainly."
"Did you ever saw his face or slept with him?"
"Yes, after third month he stopped wearing that hood and mask around me and we fooled around sometimes."
All the members of looked gleeful when they heard the news. "Please can you describe him for us.
For a few minutes the girl remained silent as compulsion struggled against truth potion. "He's around early to mid thirties even though he speaks like old man. Around 5'11" with lean and fit body. Has aristocratic features like pointed chin, sharp cheekbones, thin lips, roman nose but has heavily scarred body." She stopped again.
"Most noticeable scars are one near his right shoulder. It looked as if someone drove spiked rod along his shoulder to middle of his chest. On his left bicep there are two puncture wounds which one of them looks like it's made by a small dagger and other by a large dagger." Hermione along with her peers got a really bad feeling. "And there's an odd tattoo on his right arm. It says something like 'I must not tell lies.'"
Hermione along with Ron paled considerably as they knew only person who matched this description. The remaining members too started to understand the individual they're describing. "Ah, the most important scar is on his forehead. It is shaped like lightening and he has piercing bottomless emerald green eyes and messy black hair."
"Harry Potter." Severus spoke breathily remembering the strong boy who they betrayed and left to rot in hell for eight years. All the members gathered there looked shell-shocked and tears started falling immediately. Snape's iron control over his emotions loosened as he dropped a glass from his shivering hands which shattered into many pieces
"Now Mr. Pettigrew." Amelia asked as she verified the truth with Veritaserum. "What are the names of the other murders you've committed?" she asked glaring at the rat-faced man.
"Bertha Jorkins, Cedric Diggory, Igor Kakaroff, Rubeus Hagrid, Dean Thomas, Daniel Warsh…" he stated without stopping
"Wait a second. Rubeus Hagrid and other students you've mentioned were killed by that traitor Harry Potter. Tell me how you're resisting Veritaserum or you'll be hauled to Department of Mysteries." Hermione growled.
"Harry Potter never killed anyone." Wormtail spoke in same monotone.
"What do you mean by he never killed anyone?" Ron shouted grabbing the rat by his collar lifting him off the chair seething as he remembered the day the traitor showed his real colours.
It's one of the trips to Hogsmade on a chilly December weekend in fifth year it happened.
Both he and Harry emerged from Honey dukes and headed towards the Three Broomsticks. Ron's teeth were chattering and he was looking forward to the nice warm butter beer. As they passed an alleyway, Harry had suddenly lurched sideways and pushed Ron into the darkness. Scrambling up Ron looked at Harry, "You ok? Why did you fall?" Ron's eyes widened, "It wasn't your scar, was it?"
"No it wasn't." Harry said and glanced around at the alleyway.
Ron, confused, looked around. As soon as Ron was no longer looking at him, Harry pushed Ron backwards into the side of a building. Ron fell through the wall of the building and landed in a dusty basement. A moment later Harry came through the wall.
"Harry? What is going on here?" Ron was starting to get angry. He stood up and pulled his wand out.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry disarmed Ron.
"Well done, Potter." A voice from the shadows spoke, "You have proven your loyalty to our master!" Ron shivered as he recognized the voice of Rudolph Lestrange.
With an unintelligible yell, Ron started towards the wall through which he had entered
"Crucio!" Harry said and Ron collapsed in screams. "I think I forgot something."
Few others appeared at the scene. It was Dean Thomas, David Warsh and Snuffles, followed by Hagrid with few other third to seventh years who ran there hearing Ron's screams. He immediately released Ron from the Cruciatus Curse and turned to the others. "Ah forgot to put up Silencing Charms."
Suddenly other people entered through the wall. Rudolph Lestrange and two other men who had not made their presence known before started firing curses at the newest arrivals. After a moment, Harry joined them. He shot a curse at Hagrid and then made a dash for the wall.
Hagrid, shocked and angry, moved to intercept the boy. "Avada Kedavra!" Harry shouted. The green light struck Hagrid in center of his chest and ended the life of the gentle giant. Then he disappeared through the wall, not before casting a curse that killed nearly all of the people gathered in that place. Ron, tears streaming down his face by this time fired off a Stunner at Rudolph Lestrange as hefell unconscious himself.
When he regained consciousness, he found himself in the Infirmary. He heard voices and turned toward their source. He saw the Headmaster and Remus Lupin talking quietly beside Sirius Black who is in his animagus form.
"Headmaster?" Ron called softly. Albus Dumbledore turned and walked quickly over to him.
"Mr. Weasley, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. What happened? Who was impersonating Harry? Why were they after me?"
Albus Dumbledore closed his eyes, "Ron, it wasn't anybody impersonating Harry. That was Harry."
"What! It can't be! Harry would never, he…" Ron trailed off at the defeated look on Dumbledore's face.
"Hermione saw the two of you leave from the Owl's Head. She happened to be nearthe Three Broomsticks waitingfor both you and Harry to study it and with sudden disappearance of both of you and screaming heard along with explosion, she floo-called Professor McGonagall.
Professor McGonagall went after Harry after he reached the school. For prank against Professor Umbridge, Mr Fred and George Weasley took the Marauder's Map and found him. But he turned on them and used Cruciatus curse on them. By hearing those screams Professor McGonagall reached there and tried to talk sense into him. But he laughed maniacally and fought her but she overpowered him and he fled.
She didn't catch him, but he dropped his wand on the way. If the owner of a wand is missing, you can locate them by using their own wand if they have touched it in the past twenty-four hours. We found Harry near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He has been charged with using the Cruciatus Curse, collusion with known criminal offenders and murdering Rubeus Hagrid and 30 students along with using Unforgivables on a student."
Ron lay there stunned in his bed. He couldn't believe it. He turned away from the headmaster, pulling the blanket over his head, wishing he had never regained consciousness.
The trail was scheduled a week later. Ron was called to testify, as had McGonagall with several other students in Hogsmade. They had used Priori Incantatem to prove that it was, indeed, Harry's wand that killed Rubeus Hagrid.
In the end, there had been no doubt that the Boy-Who-Lived had turned from the light and joined Voldemort.
Yet, Harry still sat there, pleading, proclaiming innocence. The judge hit him with a silencing spell. Because Harry was a minor, they could not sentence him to the Dementor's Kiss. Instead, he got two life sentences in Azkaban. Just for his closure Remus requested for use of truth serum.
"We even questioned that traitor under Veritaserum, bastard." Ron snarled. "He confessed killing them all. How do you explain that?"
"I was one of the creators of that map. Just three spells to fool the map that I'm Harry, to make him disappear from the map. And after I completed my work other spell to make me disappear and him to reappear. It's really easy to infiltrate Hogwarts, knock him out and leave him at the edge of Forbidden forest. Took a bit of hair and used it for Polyjuice potion. His wand didn't cooperate otherwise you too would've been killed." He droned out.
"At Ministry, it just took Lucius 500 galleons to 'suggest' the Minister perform rigorous check by Unspeakables. You might not have remembered the Unspeakable who looked over him. It's one of the Death Eaters, Rookwood who used a spell developed after the war by himself. It twists the Veritaserum so that except for his name it would cause him to speak lies."
The entire Wizengamot froze in their seats as they heard the testimony of Peter Pettigrew. Harry was never a traitor. And he never killed anyone. They tortured him physically and psychologically parading him in front of entire Wizarding world, humiliating him before sending him to Azkaban. Ron collapsed at the place he stood and tears flowed uncontrollably. Dumbledore and Hermione's eyes glazed over as they tried to process everything the rat spoke. All the Neutrals and Light Factions' heart clenched as they thought about the injustice done to their saviour
"Aurors. Release Harry James Potter, Prisoner ID: 31JON80, from Azkaban to St. Mungo's. Send the news to all major and minor Newspapers immediately. By tomorrow Mr. Potter will be a free man."
"Madam Bones. I'd like to go with your Aurors to retrieve my Godson." Sirius spoke his voice breaking slightly. "Please grant me this request." He begged. Many of them requested the same thing but Amelia allowed only Sirius, Remus and Dumbledore to follow the Aurors to bring Harry out of prison.
"All of you divide into groups and search if Potter is nearby. We'll try to find any clues about…" Anymore Moody was about to say was cut off by a loud crack signalling apparition and all members in the room immediately pointed their wands towards the source of sound.
"Calm down guys it's me snake." A man of around 6'1" who has his entire body covered by black cloak said lifting his hands up in surrender. His lower half of his face was covered by cloth and hair is covered by hood. "Geez Moody your paranoia has infected them."
"Prove that you are whom you claim to be." Hermione spoke sharply freezing every part of his body except for his head. Pointing her wand which was letting out green sparks ominously at him she barked out. "Tell me something only both of us knew."
"Geez Granger. Give the man a chance will ya. Well…" The stranger spoke in a slight drawl in his tone "You and me got into a drinking contest after failing to save Creevey's mother and got piss drunk. You got Potter's name tatted to your ass in Slytherin colours and…" he smirked at the rapidly reddening face of Granger not that anyone could see that under the cloth covering his face but his grey eyes showed amusement. "I got a free show, so not complaining. You have a nice ass with small..."
"STOP IT!" she shouted blushing at his words. After composing herself she sent a death glare at her snickering comrades. "Damned bastard you promised that you'll never mention it to anymore."
"I don't think you came here to flirt with Granger, Snake." Moody growled out. "I didn't think that your Lord let servants out of his sight after this recent failure. And I ordered not to come to us publicly. This is a public place last time I checked. Do you want your 'friends' to know that you are meeting us?"
"Maa... all of them have been terrified out of their minds and won't dare to come here. Nearly forgot to congratulate you and the ole' coot on utter lack of mercy. I got to see ol' Bella completely terrified that she jumped at every moment of her own shadow." He said musingly "Got kick from scaring crap outta' her even though had to dodge Entrails ripping curses and Blood Boilers. Now did something happen to the old bones? He's not anywhere here." He asked worry seeping into his tone. "He laid a devastating blow on the Dark Lord. Did anything happen to him? Last time he was slightly injured. Did it open up again?"
"Dumbledore didn't fight today Snake." Snape replied silkily. "Matter of fact, none of us did. We didn't even breach the barrier."
The hooded man was silent for few minutes most likely digesting the words. "What are you waitin' for? Search all the town and around for apparition traces. Signal us if you guys found something." Moody barked out bringing him out of his stupor. All of them raced out of the tent.
"Correct me if I'm wrong. You said that Dumbledore didn't fight today and none of you fought today, right?" he looked at them strangely as they nodded "And I know for a fact except for two muggleborn children who are yet to attend Hogwarts there are no wizards in this locality. You-Know-Who choose this village for that reason alone as any wizard could blow a hole from inside his latest barrier. THEN HOW THE BLOODY HELL DID THE DARK LORD WAS DESTROYED TO THE POINT WHERE OUR BEST HEALERS SAID THAT EVEN WITH ALL THOSE RITUALS AND ALL THE OTHER COCKSUCKING SHIT THE BASTARD WENT THROUGH IT'D TAKE ATLEAST AN YEAR TO FUCKING STABILISE HIM." He shouted incredulously. "ARE YOU SAYING THAT MUGGLES DELIVERED SUCH A DEVASTATING BLOW TO THAT KIN-SLAYER."
"It's just one wizard, Snake. Just one wizard did that." Nymphadora Tonks replied. "A wizard who left our world when we betrayed him and let him rot. It's Harry Potter"
"Scar-head?" Snake whispered out in disbelief. "You mean to say that wide-eyed naïve child who wouldn't dare to hurt anyone unless an other life is threatened, mercilessly butchered seventy Snatchers and six giants to the point that the most insane head-bitch of that bastard's followers was so terrified that she's jumpin' at her own shadow. You are saying that a man who didn't even complete his education, faced the greatest dark Lord of all time with his followers and messenger them to retreat."
"Azkaban changes people, Snake." Sirius spoke hollowly reminiscing his own stay at Azkaban. "Let's join others to search for him. And yes he did all that."
"Alright please go ahead guys. I'll obliviate this girl and will join you." Hermione stated.
The group walked out of the pub not before paying double amount of the bill they are to pay. Moody immediately spotted Ron arguing with others.
"I am pretty sure that he apparated to Godric's Hollow. It's the final resting place for his parents dammit." He shouted irritated at one of the newer Auror recruits. "He never visited their graves and he'll be there and we are wasting our time. He'll never go to Mungo's and anywhere near London."
"What's the problem Weasley." Kingsley asked calmly.
"From this apparition point there are four paths where he might've gone. The first one leads to Godric's Hollow, second one to Number 11 Grimmauld Place, third one to a shop in Central London and finally to Mungo's. I think Harry would've gone to Godric's Hollow to visit his parent's grave." He explained.
"But sir he might've gone to St. Mungo's to get his injuries treated." The rookie auror argued back.
"Just shut up and split into groups and search for him." Sirius barked out irritatedly. "Divide into four groups and try to track him down. If any of you guys find him offer him some help to heal his injuries. Try to persuade him to come back but if he resists just leave him alone. He has done more than enough for us and we repaid him by stabbing him in the back. We have no right to expect anything from him." He ended solemnly.
"I'll stay back here in case of other Death Eater attack. Snake might've said that they are terrified out of their wits but it's better to be safe than sorry." Hermione replied. "I'll send a signal if something happens here. Rest of you go on the search parties "
"Are you sure Hermione? I mean out of all of us you missed him the most. Do you not want to see him?" Ron asked with worry in his voice.
"I'll be alright Ron. Just... just try not to upset him and hold him till I come, if you find where he is." She said calmly her voice straining a bit. "I just want to beg his forgiveness one time in my life. Even if he doesn't I'll have to accept it. I wish to join the team but if any Death Eater comes back there would be bloodbath. So I'll stay here."
"Alright," he said apparating along with his team.
Few seconds later Luna, Snake and Greengrasses along with herself are left. Luna smiled a bit at her and skipped to the east end and rest of them left to the other ends. Hermione was left alone and walked through the streets.
Stopping a boy of eleven years old, she asked. "Hey kid, can you tell me from which building can we see the entire city?"
"That would be that church," the boy pointed out and skipped away. Hermione smiled and apparated to the outskirts of the church.
Immediately turning into her animagus form of an otter, she approached the church, clearly feeling Muggle, wizard and animal repelling wards around the church. If not for her skill in mind arts, she'd have turned back and left long ago.
'You haven't changed completely, Harry.' she thought wryly walking up the stairs of the church. 'Could've left after those bastards came here pillaging the town but chose to help them and even stay back to see if they're safe.'
Hiya guys! I do know that this is one of the overused 'Harry goes to Azkaban' cliché. I am a new writer and as this is my first story I picked up one of one of my favourite clichés. This is done to gain experience so please don't hold back your flames, suggestions yada, yada. Please do review.