Title from LotR

Bill shivered slightly in the early morning sunlight. After a summer in Egypt, England's crisp autumn breeze cut through his lightweight shirt and the wrought iron gate they were facing emanated a chill all its own.

"Carpathian Crypts or current resident, come forth by order of the king" Leo's voice was clear and calm. If he felt any nervousness at commanding a being which could put a coven of vampires to flight it did not show in his voice or relaxed posture.

The breeze died down. Through the gate the Spanish moss hung limply on the huge live oaks. The only movement was the flickering of the lamps on the house beyond.

Behind Bill Merak scrapped his boot against the gravel walk. The noise was smothered in the heavy air.

At Leo's nod Bill moved forward. He cast a general ward reveal spell on the gate followed by a specialized rune tap on each of the pillars. If the wards followed the 19h century American plantation style design of the house, which the southern exposure suggested they might, the gate would be protected by a separate diamond of protection from the rest of the grounds.

The wards were revealed in a shimmering blur, older strands of power matted with blood magic into a stagnant film. Compared to the ancient, yet brutal, elegance of Egyptian wards or even Regulus Black's utilitarian creations, the protections were overgrown and ugly.

They were not formed to allow maintenance, they couldn't be adjusted to accept new residents or guests, and there was no structure or finesse on display—just layer after layer of death built up over decades.

Even blood unwillingly given, however, left indelible impressions on the magic it was tied to. Master wardsmiths could take years scrubbing away blood magic.

Luckily his rune taps indicated another way.

18th century runes often relied on anchor points outside the diamond of protection to stabilize the powerful magic. Usually made of specially constructed balls of precious metal to maximize the magical conductivity, the anchor points would be buried deep underground and warded against human tampering. The ward crafting style had fallen out of modern favor due to the expense, the expertise required to imbue the anchors with their power, and the semi-domestication of the niffler.

With Leo and Marek watching the house, Bill moved to the side of the gate and waved at Aled to release their two nifflers. The animals immediately dove into the hard soil and Bill settled in to wait, wand at the ready.

Within moments the network of wards bulged outward as the anchor point moved. The older ward skeleton was pulled sharply into relief, stark blue against the deep reddish black of the blood magic.

Bill watched the point where the right side of the ward met the ground. For a flicker of an instant the corner where the old ward came together into the tether that lead to the anchor point was revealed. The blood magic ended before the join. Sloppy, but many amateurs didn't bother warding what was usually covered by ground or the outer wards.

He loosened his grip on his wand and waited. When the corner flexed into view once more he fired a pinpoint reducto into the interface then quickly tossed an agate rune catch at the gate to attract the cut magic ends.

Aled summoned the nifflers back with a whistle and the production of a tiara that rivaled Aunt Murial's in sheer gaudiness. Leo's whistle summoned Jack and Andy who took the niffler crates and dashed off again.

He took a couple centering breaths and waited for the boys to reach a safe distance. If something went wrong here it would go wrong quickly.

Bill summoned the rune catch taking note of how the magic stretched to follow it. As he hoped, a hole appeared around the cut and reconnected portion with the other sigils bunching up to allow the stretch. Bill smirked. That particular technique had been inspired by getting one of his Mum's jumpers caught on the rose bushes while sneaking into Amile Fortescue's backyard.

Marek ducked through first followed by Leo then Aled. As the smith reached the metal gate on the other side of the wards, Bill slowly reversed his grip on the rune catch and backed toward the gate, pulling the gap in the runes closed behind him.

When he caught up with the others, Leo had already picked the lock and scaled the nearest of the huge trees. Marek waited for him to be in position before strolling towards the front door, humming 'A cauldron full of hot strong love'.

Bill kept his wand at the ready. Marek darted to the side and Bill started forward, but he was only launching into a rather nice heel jump kick. Bill relaxed slightly as Marek danced up the porch stairs then backwards down then up them again. If something was hiding in the yard it had missed several obvious opportunities.

At Leo's signal Bill dashed for the front door with Aled. They too ascended the porch steps with no sign of resistance.

From this vantage point the residence didn't appear any more welcoming. The light from the dancing fire salamanders on either side of the door glinted oddly and even though Bill knew the sun had almost reached its zenith, the rays that filtered through the trees and moss were dusty and pale.

A few carefully chosen spells did not reveal any active wards on the front door. The vampires could have disabled them when they fled and who—or what—ever had taken over the house didn't have the ability to set them again. Or they wanted to lure any unwary visitors into a trap.

Leo stepped in front of him and slipped into the house. Marek didn't follow, so Bill crouched down near where Aled was rummaging through his pack and kept watch on the trees.

The hanging moss made it difficult to distinguish shapes, but he did see something two trees away-near the top. It wasn't moving, but even in the dappled light it was blacker than a shadow should be against the tree trunk. He fished out his pair of pocket omnioculars.

It was hanging upside down like a bat and had a bat's leathery wings, but it had its head tucked beneath its wing like a vulture and seemed to have feathers instead of fur. Its body probably came up to Aled's sternum.

"A wakwak, that." Bill started, but Marek didn't even sound amused when he continued, "Lucky we're here in daylight—nasty creatures. It's when you don't hear 'em that you should be worried."

Bill tilted his omnioculars up to study the huge claws. Like the rest of the creature they were pitch black, but he couldn't tell if they were caked with dirt or dried blood, or just naturally dark.

"I've never heard of it." Even discounting his extensive sanctioned and unsanctioned travel, that was surprising—this creature appeared to meld Charlie's two great loves: vampires and enormous flying things.

"I'd expect not. Extremely rare generally, but sailing through the Philippines one night a whole colony of 'em attacked. Sound closer the farther they are so half the crew was always turnin' in the wrong direction. Come morning three men were sucked dry and eight carried off."

Marek glanced back at the wakwak then turned away."Bout ready, Flint? Don't like leaving his highness alone in there too long."

Aled emerged from his pack with a spool of caterwauling thread, a handful of nails, and a pair of golden shears. He set everything on the ground to sling the straps back around his shoulders. "Quit trying to scare Will, Marek, you're making me jumpy."

"Got a bad feeling about this is all. House shouldn't be here, trees shouldn't be here, that-" He gestured at the wakwak. "-shouldn't be here. Those vampires been collecting and I don't want to think of what we'll find next."

At that encouraging pronouncement Bill followed Marek inside. Instead of the dust and spiderwebs he was half expecting, the wooden floor boards were well swept and the grand piano was gleaming in the light from a blue orb suspended above the doorway.

"Guess he's still alright then." Marek prodded the orb to turn it green and elaborated when Bill caught his eye, "Called a ghost light. Good for bout an hour. Naturally red and will be again if both of us stop concentratin'."

He gave the orb a chagrined look. "Tried for something a bit more respectable. Thief signs and such. Lad wouldn't have it. Said any creature worth its salt could smell us anyway and more light wouldn't hurt us." He shrugged. "Hasn't gotten us killed yet."

Aled spoke up from where he was crouched by the door. "More light certainly wouldn't hurt me. Shift yourselves and your shadows someplace else."

Bill shifted himself away to examine the fireplace. It was a proper wizard's with an arched entrance way, tightly fitting flagstones, and effective, if archaic, smoke vanishing spells, but while the ash seemed relatively recent, any trace of the floo network eluded his spells. Strange. With unalterable front gate wards they must have another entrance—surely they occasionally entertained vampires of a different bloodline or wanted human take out?

"Marek." Marek acknowledged his whisper with a wave but didn't take his eyes off the grand staircase and archways to the room beyond.

Bill moved closer. "When did you say this take over happened?"

"Found the first survivors 'bout two weeks ago. They weren't talking and were pretty beat up, but Leo figured they had been on their own maybe a week before that. Vampires don't die easy."

Marek was obviously trying to figure days while monitoring entry points and reflecting on previous gruesome encounters with vampires. Bill spent a second juggling the dates himself. "So within a handful of days of your tournament?" That was more than enough time for even the Ministry to get a floo connection set up.

"Sounds right. Would've gone in sooner, but Darroch is starting to feel his age and you know Rispah wouldn't trust Clytemnestra with a bent knut." Marek turned away from his watch to give Bill a lingering once over before continuing, "View would be a bit better though."

"I'll be sure to ask Rispah for some clothing recommendations."

"It would take a bit more than clothes, lad"

Bill flashed him a grin. "And here people are usually telling me it would take substantially less clothes"

Aled cleared his throat softly. "If you two lords are done whispering to each other, maybe you could point out which way we're going first so I could booby trap the rest of it."

Marek was unabashed. "Heading up first. Plan to start with the attics and work our way down"

As Aled turned away, Bill filled Marek in on the inalterable gate wards and lack of floo connection. "If there was a takeover how did they get in?"

"House like this has more than one fire." Merak paused and continued more thoughtfully, "We'd know if they connected to the alley floo network which they haven't. Could've connected directly to the Ministry's, I suppose, but most folk round here want privacy and Ministry connections are no good for that—trackers all over and can't even ward them properly since who knows when a kid with a lisp will show up and need to be returned in one piece."

Bill snorted. Fred and George had practically invented a new dialect to get 'Aunt Agatha's place' to take them anywhere else. His father's trip to the Ayrshire and Arran waste treatment center to collect them had been particularly memorable both for his mum's attempts to diplomatically explain what had happened to Aunt Agatha and for the subsequent Ministry investigation into just how the muggle facility came to be on the floo network.

Marek continued his own train of thought, "If not the floo they must have some other hidden exits. Keep a sharp eye out—wouldn't put it past the bloodsuckers to kill a few of their own and then ambush whoever comes to investigate."

On that cheery note, Bill left Marek standing sentinel and circled the room, drifting his fingertips along the wall to try to sense any lingering magical residue. It was possible for hidden passageways to exist without magic, but even then people would sometimes place a magic artifact just on the other side of the door. Dumbledore had likely done just that when the Gringotts team visited Hogwarts. It was just a bit too convenient how frequently the magic sensor would go off, Bill would pretend ignorance and fetch the Headmaster, and the Headmaster would open the passage to be reunited with his magiometer or favorite set of thermoregulating socks.

Bill cast a quick glance over the door on his way by. One short length of thread wrapped from the handle to a nail a short distance away on the door jamb while a second stretched between two nails at ankle height. It wouldn't prevent someone from flanking them, but if someone tried, well, it didn't take much to set caterwauling thread off.

His circuit of the room didn't reveal any secret stairs, loose floor boards, or so much as a pixie hidden inside the piano. Peering into the darkness beyond the stairs he could make out vague outlines of doorways. Deeper shadows twisted into unlikely shapes seeming to inexplicably move both forwards and backwards. Movement lingered just on the edge of his awareness and he slowed his breathing, straining his eyes and ears for the concrete motion that would reveal a pattern.

"Will" Bill shook off his trance and joined Aled in ascending the stairs.

The drawing room at the top of the stairs seemed as frozen in time as any freshly opened tomb at first glance—19th century settees, frozen portraits of long dead-or perhaps undead?-gentry, ebony and ivory chessmen muttering archaic insults at each other, locked into an indefinite ceasefire.

As he examined the chessmen, niggling doubts at the back of his mind crystallized. White had two white bishops and there was a black pawn on E8. The gilt cartel clock was set to 'stormy weather' for the next six centuries. None of the furniture aligned with the walls of the room. The paintings were crooked. The upholstery on the settee nearest him had the raised and discolored areas indicative of a semi-recent and sloppy reparo.

"Someone really wanted to find something." Aled had apparently come to the same conclusion as Bill.

Bill visualized what could be hiding in the disturbed areas. "Something small or very thin. Maybe paper? A key?"

Marek snorted. "Bet they're tryin to get into the coven's Gringotts vault. If I lived in a place like this for a few centuries I'd have a lot of gold stashed away."

Bill absentmindedly traced the fireplace carvings searching for any sign of hidden magic or a floo connection. "Vampires can't hold a Gringotts account. They betrayed the armistice in the 1352 goblin wars when they kidnapped a chieftain's son and goblins pride themselves on their grudges."

"So their treasure's still around here somewhere. If you keep a lookout here, Will, Me an Aled are going to take a gander round these bedrooms. A nice little chest of gold would do wonders for my equilibrium."

Bill waved them off and wound his way to the back of the room. Ancient magic was emanating from a standing globe. Priceless ancient magic.

He hovered his wand over North Africa. The globe elongated and flattened slightly, the Sahara and the Mediterranean sea growing to fill the available space. On a whim he placed his finger on Giza and globe shifted into a slightly convex plate as the pyramids rose out of the map.

Bill ran his finger up Khufu's pyramid. The casing was complete and smooth and the golden capstone gleamed. As he moved his hand away to better view the complex, a roc the size of a horsefly chased it away. The long extinct raptor was complete down to its pricking talons.

The roc wasn't the only sign of life. The Nile was dotted with white sails heading south while waves of now ancient people moved to and from the valley and mortuary temples, some trundling carts with offerings.

He expanded the map further. A boat was tying up at the dock with creek of timbers and a soft thud as it hit the piling.

Or rather the creek of a slowly opened portrait and thud of soft boots hitting the floor. It was too soon for Aled and Marek to have returned.

Bill abandoned magic in lieu of simple expediency. He slammed the half-opened portrait closed to stun the invader and sprang on them when they collapsed to their knees. Vampires were surprisingly weak in daylight.

Unfortunately this maneuver ended with his face pressed into the floor and his right arm twisted behind his back. He had managed to palm his wand with his left hand, however, and while he couldn't hit his attacker from this angle, the spell he had taught Ginny to turn her skin to fire was certainly apropos.

"Incr-"

"Will?"

The hold on him vanished and Bill raised himself to a wary crouch and then all the way up when he recognized Leo through the blood.

"What happened to you?"

Leo tightened the makeshift bandage running down his left arm. "Trap knives. Didn't expect even Tanit to have set snares in her own secret passage. Least they don't seem to be poisoned."

Bill vanished the blood on his hands anyway. Vampires might be interested in keeping blood clean for later use, but ancient Egyptians seemed capable of liquefying curses. Watching someone scream as they slowly shriveled up, immune to any magical intervention ingrained a healthy respect for foreign substances.

"Thought I heard something." Marek appeared at Bill's shoulder. He had sheathed his knife, but kept his wand leveled at Leo. "What always runs but never walks, often mummers, never talks, has a bed but doesn't sleep, has a mouth but doesn't eat?"

"Cora's insomniac vampire bunny under a babbling hex."

Marek lowered his wand. "Find anything interesting?"

"Tanit's definitely dead and not from natural causes. Found this in her pocket, however." He flipped Aled a small golden object.

Aled caught it one-handed and Bill leaned over to see a delicate key resting on his palm.

"That's not the only interesting bit," Leo continued, "Justine—" He gestured to the pretty witch in the portrait over the secret passage who smiled over the top of her book. "saw over a dozen wizards come through here during the day, but night after night she'd hear muffled screaming and some of the wizards who went into these bedrooms never came out again."

Aled pocked the key."That fits with the state of the rooms. Thought they might of gotten frustrated searching and tore the place apart, but no one in their right mind would smash a recently used chamber pot."

"So a bunch of wizards kill the Crypts, make themselves at home, then get picked off during the night. I say we find the loot and leave them to it."

Leo straightened and caught Marek's eyes. "We will not leave an unknown threat to finish off the invaders and then pick off my people in the night. The orphanage is only two blocks from here."

Marek ducked his head and Leo met Aled's and Bill's eyes in turn. Bill met his gaze evenly. He was not an auror or a member of their inner court, but as the oldest of seven and heir apparent to an impecunious estate, he knew duty.

"Could the wakwak have killed them?"

Marek leaned his elbows on the couch back and kicked his feet up on the table scattering chess pieces. "Nah. Even assuming they were stupid enough to leave the window open, the wakwak would've left the bones and such behind. Can't really carry a body and climb through the window. My money's on a vampire out for revenge. They might destroy the body out of spite or just pitch it out the window. 'Tina there only knows the body didn't leave by the door."

Leo nudged the table out from under Marek's feet causing him to drop awkwardly into a half-crouched position. "Right then. Marek, you're with me—we'll comb through the attic bat colony an' see if we can find your vampire. Aled, if you want to set up your traps around the perimeter we'll be going down the passage next. Bill, you're probably the best at detecting concealed magic, there might be something interesting if you poke through the other rooms here."

Bill chorused "Aye, Highness" with the others and Leo and Marek set off.

Aled waited for them to disappear around the corner then handed him a large sack. "If you do find any loot, well, Tanit's dead and the survivors we know of have since died or fled the country. It would be hugely irresponsible to leave anything behind to attract thieves to such a hazardous location."

Bill held the sack out in front of him, considering. "Thieves such as yourselves, you mean?"

"It's a tough job, but someone needs to look after the younger generation."

"Not to mention how fiscally irresponsible it would be to leave any valuables just lying around."

Aled cracked a grin. "Exactly. Really though, minus whatever Leo needs to clean up the place, terms are six-way split."

Six-way split was generous considering the court was already compensating Bill for his time and skills. He tucked the sack through his belt and headed away to see about those other rooms.

The bedroom to the left of the stairs, the one Marek and Aled had first entered, was a mess. At one time it had obviously been a young woman's room with its delicate lace bed curtains and rose patterned wash basin, but as he passed through the privacy wards the acidic tang of stale urine was overwhelming.

Bill resisted the temptation to apply the bubble headed charm since it would distort his magical sense and crouched down for a better look under the bed. The shards of the chamber pot were visible, but at that angle either someone had cast an underpowered reducto from only a few inches above the floor or there was enough force applied to the bed to temporarily break the suspension charms. The way the coverlet was falling off the foot of the bed and the bed curtains puddled on the floor at the head of the bed pointed toward the latter. Someone could have come in to indulge in a little rampant destruction, he supposed, but why would they leave the wash basin intact? It didn't have the sturdy feeling of an unbreakable object.

Everything so far seemed to confirm Justine's story—a full chamber pot pointed to a human and not vampire inhabitant and there certainly appeared to be a struggle confined to the bed. Bill stepped around the bed to examine the window for any sign of forced entry or exit.

The curtains themselves were the only obvious sign that the room was once home to a vampire. The thick cloth stretching from floor to ceiling and unadorned with any fastenings was suffused with an alien magic. At the moment, however, both curtains were pulled back giving him a good view of the branches of the nearest southern oak through the wavy glass.

If the window was open it wouldn't be too difficult for someone or something from the grounds to climb in, pitch the body out, and drag it away afterward. Even if it was closed, levitating the latch open would only be a matter of a few seconds for a magical being.

A quick check revealed no sign of physical or magical residue on the window ledge, but any residue from a minor spell would likely be gone in a few hours and, judging from the smell, it had been days since the incident.

Satisfied with the likely method of egress, Bill riffled through the desk, adding small pieces of jewelry and a onyx inkwell to his sack. The sack did not grow any wider or heavier with his loot, so he lifted the washbasin and set it at the lip of the bag. The mouth of the bag expanded like a snake's jaws, swallowing the basin, but as soon as the full object passed through the bag's opening it vanished like everything else. Someone had found a way to stabilize material teleportation and undetectable expansion charms. Impressive.

Bill moved through the other rooms, sending valuables to Aled's stockpile and checking methods of egress. All rooms had windows with the obligatory heavy curtains and a few had fireplaces, but no traces of the floo network were revealed. There was one room where the window was set far enough away from the oaks that using the tree to climb into the room was implausible, but otherwise all rooms that had signs of a struggle around a bed or cozy chair also had a convenient window entrance.

He located a few warded caches hidden in desks or under floorboards, which yielded quickly to his tricks, but they all seemed to be secrets of whoever had lived here before the vampires-fossilized sweets or other children's treasures. An unusually stubborn cache in the last room was resisting his efforts when Marek showed up.

"Nothing but guano in the garret."

Bill hummed. "It's a very good fertilizer."

Marek spread his arms and spun in place. There were several long white streaks along his back. "Do I look like a farmer to you?"

Bill worked carefully to keep a straight face, but let his eyes linger significantly on Marek's shoulder where a trace of guano was still visible. Marek raised a hand to brush himself off and scowled as his fingers came away coated in the gray foul-smelling goo.

"Merlin's shriveled piss slit. He told me he scourgified everything. 'Clean as a new born babe'. I'll show him newborn the beardless—"

Bill tuned out the ensuing confrontation as he pressed the catch on the secret panel. An antique snitch shot out. He caught it on instinct and peered deeper into the recess. A ring glinted in the darkness with a lock of hair and bundle of scrolls tied with a ribbon. Someone had loved and presumably lost. Bill dropped the snitch and ring into the sack, but burned the rest with a whispered incendio. Some things were meant to be private.

The rest of the gang appeared subdued when he rejoined them in the drawing room. Leo had bits of cobweb in his hair, but Marek's back was now clean as they mapped out strategy on the chessboard, the portrait girl pretending to read but interrupting if they forgot a room or staircase. Aled had finished setting trip thread over the entrances and had stripped the room of almost all the small valuables including the magical globe.

"Wait Will." Bill paused in removing the gilt cartel clock and Leo elaborated, "The clock is the passage control." He manipulated the ornamentation on the side and adjusted the hands. The predicted weather changed to a clear sky. "Attic." Another set of movements and the face became overcast. "First floor." Finally he changed it back to the driving rain and lightening that Bill had seen when he walked in. "The caverns."

"How did you figure that one out?" Bill cut his eyes over to Justine in silent question.

The girl answered him, "It wasn't me, or at least not completely. He checked all the rooms first, but then he came straight to the clock like he knew. I just told him where each face went. Is he part vampire?"

"No, just a lucky idiot," Marek answered when Leo started spluttering. "We about ready?"

Leo gathered himself together and looked round to meet everyone's eyes. "Yes. Thank you for all your help Justine. To the caverns."

He led them all in single file over the thread and through the portrait hole. Bill followed Aled and Marek brought up the rear, closing the portrait behind them.

The now ubiquitous blue light revealed tightly packed dirt walls and uneven ground. Aled slipped slightly when Marek changed the light to green and Bill grabbed the pack to steady him. These did not look like the type of walls anyone wanted to touch.

At staggered intervals Bill would catch the gleam of blades or spear points set into the ceiling or walls. As a hardened curse breaker he could see the allure of muggle traps that would not set off an intruder's magical senses.

They paused where the corridor widened for Leo to address them, circling a small mound of ashes Bill assumed had been Tanit. Leo must have performed the customary rites.

"I don't know what's on the other side of this door, but seems like wizards killed the Crypts and now something's been picking off the wizards. Neither will likely be friendly to us. Keep an eye out, keep quiet, and stay together."

As Leo pushed open the door and stepped through, Bill caught a glimpse of the room beyond. A heap of pale corpses was piled high in the center and the metallic odor of long dried blood and dirt staggered him like a wave. The putrid stench of dead human body was almost clean by comparison.

Dark glassy eyes glittering yet empty, pointed teeth revealed in a last scream or snarl or gasp, a frozen hand delving deep into a pocket. In the flickering torchlight he caught movement out of the corners of his eyes, but when he turned to focus on it the bodies were still. Even if someone had still been alive in the immediate aftermath a vampire probably couldn't survive two weeks wounded without sustenance.

Bill cast a nonverbal levitation spell to adjust one vampire's robes to cover her better. There was no time now to do things properly.

The torchlight didn't seem to extend beyond the arched entranceway to the room, but Aled had a hand of glory out and was beckoning Bill over with his free hand. Marek pulled Leo away from where he seemed to be doing a grim roll call of the bodies and they lined up, Bill's left hand holding Aled's shoulder, Marek's hand heavy on Bill's shoulder, and Leo gripping Marek's shoulder.

Leo doused the torches with two quick flicks of his wand and Bill's eyes adjusted to the pale glow of candlelight. Aled led them through enormous cellars where their light did not reach the far side and glinted off mammoth casks. It was eerily silent until he misstepped and sent a pebble skittering away. Marek squeezed his shoulder in warning and Bill kept his eyes on his feet.

They had only gone another score of paces, however, when Marek pulled him and by extension Aled to a halt. Bill twisted around. Behind him their bubble of candlelight had been invaded by three featureless slabs of darkness. Leo and Marek abandoned stealth and fired a succession of quick spells at the nearest of them, but it continued its inexorable progress.

"Run!" Leo's voice jolted Aled into motion and they fled down the hall.

Glancing to his right he saw they were running towards more shadows that were now drifting towards them. The way they moved and their encircling pattern reminded him of dementors, but they weren't quite the same.

"Lethifolds." Marek's tone was unusually calm and even. "Never heard of so many in one place before."

Bill had never heard of them in England before, but while they were immune to all spells except one, he knew the one to deal with them.

He released Aled, ignoring Marek's shout as he plunged him and Leo into darkness. He took a moment to gather himself, focusing on the last Burrow quidditch game when Fred jumped from his broom to tackle Charlie like a human bludger and Ginny swooped in under his nose to catch the snitch. "Expecto Patronum."

A giant sable antelope burst from his wand bathing its surroundings in silvery light. It lowered its head and charged the lethifolds scattering them back on its horns. Bill heard a whisper behind him and turned to see a young lion join his antelope before loping back and circling them.

With the glowing animals around someone had obviously decided the element of surprise was lost and a ghost light burst into being above them flickering quickly from yellow to green. Bill stumbled as his eyes adjusted, but regained his balance to follow Aled into another alcove like room. The patronuses were keeping the shadows at bay for now, but the lethifolds were starting to regroup and a smaller opening would definitely be more defensible.

Bill leapt down the shallow steps. This room appeared to be some type of potions laboratory judging by the supplies and large standing cauldron.

"Goddess preserve us." Bill spun to see what had Aled using that tone of voice. Laid out on a large sloped table was a dead unicorn.

It's horn had been removed, mane and tail chopped short, and large holes bored through its body presumably to drain the blood, but the golden hooves and elegant profile was unmistakable. Bill stepped closer in horrified fascination.

As he did so a shape lunged out at him from a nearby cabinet. Bill only had a glimpse of a silver stained mouth and insane eyes before Marek tackled it away. At least one vampire had been able to find sustenance after being left for dead.

"We got this, mind the entrance." Leo kicked the being in the jaw.

Both patronuses were pacing half circles in front of the entrance, occasionally darting out to force the lethifolds farther back. As Bill watched the young lion loped back from one such expedition, shaking its almost nonexistent mane and prancing in front of the antelope. Bill snorted. Sable antelopes had been known to kill lions when threatened.

"Over here, Will." Aled beckoned him over to where he was standing at the edge of the patronuses' territory. The armorer opened his cupped hands and three balls of light split away into the hall, revealing rank after rank of massed shadows.

"Merlin's beard." There had to be more lethifolds here than had ever been reported in all of England. "Where did they all come from?"

Aled kept his eyes on the waiting figures just beyond the patronuses. "I'll bet the Crypts brought them here. Vampires don't breathe, so wouldn't do them no harm. Don't know how they ended up dead though with all of them on their side."

"Death wards." It was the only thing that made sense. "Their leader, Tanit, didn't die right away. When she did it must've weakened the wards keeping the lethifolds trapped and they gradually escaped."

There was a crash behind him and Bill spun to see Marek pulling himself out of the destroyed cabinet. The crazed vampire ignored whatever Leo was saying and sprang at him. The unicorn blood seemed to be giving it preternatural speed and strength. Bill palmed his wand to join the fray, but Aled pulled his arm down.

"They got this. We need to figure out what to do with all of these."

Leo sliced a long cut down the vampire's arm and was dancing away. The vampire lurched after him and Marek took advantage of its turned back to land a glancing blow against its ribs. The creature retaliated with a swipe of claws and conjured a red mist, hiding all three combatants from view.

The mist seeped into the gap between Bill's eyes and his skull. Grotesque figures formed before his eyes, prowling the streets of a red city. One reached out to him and a headache started spreading from the back of his skull, growing until his head was awash in pain. Bill tore his gaze from the mist to settle back on his patronus and the headache and visions began to fade.

"I can't help thinking a cellar of lethifolds is a problem better addressed at a more distant remove than at which we currently find ourselves."

Even as the last words left his mouth Bill knew they didn't exactly fit 'Will'.

"Do you wish to return to examine the wards at a future date, milord? Between Leo and Healer Hurst we can probably keep the orphanage protected indefinitely; a shame about the families nearby, but perhaps we can send them off to live with relatives in Bristol?"

That wasn't exactly what Bill meant, but he had been thinking in terms of ministry resources. The Rogue had access to experts—his presence could attest to that—but with very few people on retainer it could take weeks to get the right set of people in.

"The outer wards should hold strong, but there is a gap somewhere that the wizards came in. It could be anywhere in the house, however, and if the creatures are trapped here—"

"They can get to the upper rooms easy, that mess fits perfectly with someone suffocated to death."

The vampire started shrieking behind them, but Bill tuned it out to visualize the bedrooms. As Aled said, the mess certainly fit a wizard struggling for a last gasp of air: everything in reach of the bed pulled down and broken, the damage to the bed frame itself, the window curtains just far enough out of reach to remain standing. The window curtains almost alive with alien magic. The window curtains that should have been closed during the day if they were truly enchanted by vampires. The extra thick window curtains matching a lethifold after a recent feeding. Merlin.

"So we need to figure out how the wizards got in and break it enough the lethifolds can't get out."

"And when they turn themselves into dust on the wind and seep through all manner of cracks and crevices?"

Bill grinned. "I may—" The deep green of the ghost lights switched to a sickly orange. The lion patronus vanished. Bill spun back to where Leo and Marek were fighting the vampire.

Leo was splayed motionless on the ground. Marek had one hand tangled in the vampire's hair while the other finished slicing through its neck. He tossed the head back up toward the lethifolds and kicked the body away.

When Bill made it down the steps Marek was kneeling over Leo, his fingers leaving black smears of vampire blood on his neck. "He's alive. The idiot. Bloodsucker was down to its death throes, only one good burst of magic left in him, and what does his highness do? Leap right in front of course. Never seen a shield break like that a'fore." Marek shook his head. "Course I've never worked with someone stupid enough to get in the way of a vampire hopped up on unicorn blood a'fore either."

Aled started running basic diagnostic charms and Marek turned to rant at him. Bill caught a bit about a coup and confounding the witness while picking his way over to examine the stretch of wall Leo's body had protected. Leo was pretty careless about his safety, but he had never struck Bill as actively suicidal.

The innocuous wooden paneling did have deliberate traces of magic. Bill pulled on his pair of dragon hide gloves and traced his fingers over the magical residue forming the shape of a small door. Brushing his fingers over the middle of the structure, he felt the magical catch which would activate with the correct password or the right series of wand taps. Bill channeled a precise amount of magic directly into the mechanism and the panel slid back and to the side.

Huge glittering eyes stared out at him from the darkness. It was possible that Leo didn't want to protect whatever was hidden behind the wall so much as keep its prison intact. The hole was certainly too small for a nundu or even a small dragon, but it did seem about the size for a quintaped. Or maybe a blood sucking boar from Eastern Europe? That would certainly fit the theme of this house of horrors.

Bill backed up and leveled his wand. "Aled, Marek, company incoming."

Marek crouched between the creature and Leo's prone body while Aled took a slightly more protected position between Marek and the wall. "Force it to the lethifolds. With any luck they'll kill each other."

Bill glanced back up the shallow stairs. His patronus had vanished from the strain of keeping all the creatures back on its own. Black shadows were spilling over into the room and slowly advancing. He turned his back on the creature in the passage to deal with the ones preparing to suffocate everyone else.

"Expecto Patronum." Incorporeal mist. Ignore the threat behind, focus.

Levitta Ogden pressing him back against the library stacks, her hand tight on his tie, breath sour on his cheek. "Expecto Patronum." Still featureless mist.

Marek started laughing hysterically. There was a presence behind him now and the nearest lethifold was hesitating more than could be explained by the failed patronus. Perhaps whatever he released would be able to destroy the lethifolds even if they all died here.

Bill steadied his hand. The first tomb he personally opened, the wards dissolving in front of him, four thousand year old magic dancing on his skin, through his eyes, in his lungs. The geese bursting into flight in the painting on the far wall as a herd of antelope bounded gracefully through them.

"Expecto Patronum." Bill started spinning to face the creature behind him before the sable antelope had fully left his wand, the incantation for a fortis shield springing to his lips. Marek seemed to have been incapacitated by glee which suggested some type of mental magic, but he'd deal with that as soon as they were protected physically.

The creature from the compartment was a golden unicorn foal. They considered each other for a moment before Bill succumbed to helpless laughter.

His laughter died away as the foal turned to examine Leo, digging sharp hooves into his chest. The baby unicorn was obviously malnourished and the dead animal on the table was almost certainly its dam.

Leo also hadn't responded to either the pain or unicorn's ambient magic. That wasn't a good sign.

Aled balanced a concave mirror on a piece of rolled cloth and filled it with aguamenti, adding a couple of crackers next to it. When Aled had backed away a few feet, the unicorn wandered over, ignoring the crackers to lap greedily at the water.

Marek tilted his chin at the patronus. "How long will that hold up?"

"No idea. Usually the spell scares creatures off, they don't keep challenging it like this." Bill ran a hand through his hair. "Not sure how many more I have left in me, though. If we had another person. . . " He trailed off looking expectantly at Aled.

"Leo's down for the count. Can't figure exactly what's wrong with him, but he's not responding to the usual enervating spells, and his vitals are getting more erratic if anything." Aled's face was stony.

"Take more time to teach me that spell than he has." Marek knelt to pull one of Leo's arms over one shoulder and a leg over the other, then stood with Leo limp along his back. "Need to head back to the passage while that deer's still good."

Aled stepped in front of him. "No."

Marek's grip on Leo's leg loosened enough for Leo to start slipping down his back, but he caught him by the ankle. "What do you mean, 'no'? He just said he had no idea how long he could hold the lethifolds off, and this one-" He tugged at Leo's arm, causing his head to wobble. "-needs to get to his mum now."

"I mean there's a basement full of creatures poised to fall on the alleys that we need to seal off before we go anywhere." He swallowed glancing up at Leo. "You know he would agree with me."

"He's a Merlin blasted idiot who would trade his life for a unicorn."

"And the king."

"Doesn't mean he's clever."

Bill tuned out the argument, looking over his antelope at the shadows milling around in the orange light. The Ministry probably could deal with this if they got out. They were often inefficient and bumbling, sure, but if Bill explained things to his dad, he would know the right people to ensure this was taken care of quickly.

But once the Ministry got a toe hold on the alleys they would never leave, and the way the political wind was blowing the alleys would almost certainly suffer in consequence. For their own protection, of course. Squibs dragged into the spotlight for the Prophet's headlines, the Lamia lodge burned down, Rispah's ladies forced deep into hiding, the children to some underfunded ministry wardship, wands confiscated due to improper schooling, and all the money the Rogue used to maintain public amenities and a safety net for residents completely dried up. The alleys had muddled on for centuries as a semi-independent state, and Bill realized he was willing to fight to keep it that way.

On the other hand he was less willing to condemn innocents to die because their government got themselves killed trying to keep a house full of lethifolds from Ministry eyes.

"Will someone check where ever you've been sending all this stuff to if you don't come back this afternoon?"

Aled answered him, "Aye, Solom will check. What are you thinking? Can't send anything living through there if you ever want it to live again."

"No, but a letter should be fine. You have a quill and parchment somewhere in there?"

Aled passed over the supplies and Bill braced it on the table, ignoring the smears of unicorn blood. There wasn't time to lay out everything perfectly, but if he died who knew what wouldn't matter.

Solom,

The Crypt is full of lethifolds. Tanit's people appear to have been killed by wizards who were in turn forced out by the creatures.

The main wards are all impenetrable but there is another way out somewhere that the lethifolds may use.

If you go to Arthur Weasley at the Burrow and tell him his son Bill sent you, he will be able to get the Ministry to help. Tell them there's a summonable rune catch on the front gate and they should be able to enter. There's a secret passage behind the portrait on the second floor.

If you are reading this Marek, Aled, Leo, and I are likely dead. Give my love to my father.

Will

Bill rolled the parchment and stuffed it into his sack. He handed back the quill and ink. His patronus was still shining brightly.

"Not heading back then." Marek didn't sound surprised.

"No."

They set off again: Aled, then Bill, and Marek bringing up the rear, the unicorn foal trotting behind him. The lethifolds seemed to actively avoid the foal which thankfully gave his patronus a smaller area to patrol.

At intervals Bill stopped and conjured canaries, sending them off to find gaps in the wards. They always led further into the cellars.

They passed a room stuffed with cots, an alcove full of toads and chicken eggs contained behind a ward Bill didn't recognize, and what appeared to be some type of printing operation complete with a press and scattered leaflets. The wizards had certainly made themselves at home.

"Morgana's bastard." Bill spun. The unicorn foal was cantering off into the lethifolds, Marek lunging after it.

Merlin. Bill dashed after them, Aled on his heels. He had no desire to find out if the strange aversion the creatures had to the unicorn extended to the wizard stumbling after it.

Even carrying a body Marek was fast, but the unicorn darted ahead only its shining coat visible against the darkness. It was soon swallowed by the mass of lethifolds leaving the three of them alone in a sea of shadows, protected only by his patronus.

"Keep moving." Bill had no idea how long his antelope would last, but the continued circling it was forced into likely did not bode well for its longevity.

The far wall was just in reach of Aled's lumos when Bill noticed the antelope slowing. Three strides later opaque milky swirls began climbing over its back legs, curling along its rump.

"Run!" Bill started sorting through memories, half an eye on his deteriorating patronus, half an eye watching his feet in the now shaky wandlight. Many of his Hogwarts memories were tainted with the realization of what his education had cost his parents. Sunset from the top of a pyramid or boarding for passage to Africa as journeyman curse breaker wasn't quite the unbridled happiness the spell required.

That Longhorn rising out of the forest below them, who didn't seem to mind Charlie's barrel roll under its belly, and ignored them swooping in and out of the wake generated by its huge wings, but sped side by side with them through the mists, would probably work, however.

Bill readied the spell. His patronus was now completely white except for its rump which had started to disappear entirely. Once he passed the last two lethifolds, however, the spell froze on his lips. There were no lethifolds here: only empty space.

Twisting back around, the lethifolds were hovering in a clearly delineated semi-circle. One broke ranks following Marek, but drifted back to its comrades after penetrating only a few feet.

If it was a ward it wasn't one with any magic system Bill could discern. There were some flexible weavings especially for notice-me-not and muggle deterrent spells, but nothing a lethifold would be susceptible to.

"Will, over here." Aled didn't seem alarmed, but his voice held an odd quality.

Aled's yellow wand light transmuted into beaten silver as it gleamed off the bright points of horns, glittering in eyes and coats. The wizards had imprisoned a herd of unicorns.

Bill knelt to unravel the wards and curses on the makeshift paddock. They were spiny amateur things, old fashioned, yet distinctive in their malice.

Their little golden foal was tucked up against another unicorn in the center of the herd. He suspected it had somehow wiggled under the wards, but a magnificent stallion imposed itself between them before he could check the foal's withers for any sign of spell burn.

Bill stepped back and the wards shimmered down. The wizards and unicorns watched each other for a few moments before Marek broke the tableau, hefting Leo higher on his shoulders and approaching the stallion. Bill had a horrified sense that he knew exactly where this was going.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" The stallion snorted and pranced threateningly as Marek approached. He ignored it.

"You want to carry him out of here?" In one motion, his grace belying the sheer amount of strength required, Marek lifted Leo and draped him over the unicorn's back. He then stepped away quickly.

The unicorn twisted its neck to examine its involuntary passenger.

Bill held a levicorpus at the ready in case it bucked Leo off, although with its sharp horn was hovering just inches away from Leo's torso, the unicorn had much deadlier ways of revenging itself on wizards if it so decided.

The unicorn just nuzzled the back of Leo's neck and lipped at his hair, however, before walking out to meet the lethifolds, moving so gracefully that Leo was barely jostled.

(Marek smirked triumphantly. "That's two whole favors Rispah owes me now. Told her Cundry was just putting on airs. Lad'll be ready when he's ready, but when he is reckon they'll be a more disreputable type lass," He winked at Bill. "Or lad")

The herd slipped between the wizards and fanned out behind their leader and the dominant mare, pausing briefly in formation. Then the stallion gave an unearthly whinny and the herd surged forward in a cascade of tossing manes and plunging horns.

Bill found himself caught up in the tumult, running alongside and leaping over lethifolds that had been trampled under the herds golden hooves, the cellar illuminated in a silvery wash of light. The herd swept him through an earthen tunnel and then out into the bright afternoon sunlight in the middle of a cobblestone street.

With the herd milling around the quiet neighborhood, Bill took the opportunity to lock up the section of wall that contained the passage. The wards closed easily under his experienced hands, trapping the lethifolds in the former territory of the Carpathian Crypts.

"Apiru Alley, I should have known." Aled was leaning back on the brick next to the portal, eyes on the neighboring houses. Bill followed his gaze. He couldn't see anyone at the neighboring windows, but some of the curtains were fluttering unnaturally. There were also two children hovering on a porch step.

Bill gestured to them with his chin. "Company incoming."

Aled snorted and tugged a blanket out of his pack. "They'll be more soon enough. I'll take this lot over to the orphanage playground until we can figure out where they came from—it's about the only place with a bit of green in the alleys." He handed the blanket to Bill. "You and Marek cover his Highness up and get him to the clinic."

Marek and the unicorn stallion were pretending to ignore each other from slightly over arms length when Bill strode up. As he reached them, Marek sprang forward to grab Leo while the stallion ever so casually stepped out of reach to touch noses with another herd member. It did not look like they'd be getting him down any time soon.

Bill tossed the blanket over the unicorn's back, somewhat surprised when it shifted and elongated to cover Leo completely. He caught the unicorn's eye.

"Leo needs to get to his mum at the clinic for healing."

The unicorn twisted its neck to watch the golden foal capering in the sunlight. It lowered its head slightly and started to follow him.

Walking down the alleys with Marek and a unicorn was a new experience for Bill. The alleys' denizens appeared to be ignoring them as they went about their business, but he could feel eyes on the back of his neck. The unicorn's easy grace and poise certainly was incongruous with the worn brick and stone of the surrounding alleys.

Marek strode along, seemingly unconcerned by the covert staring. He was moving quickly enough, however, that Bill had to stretch his legs to keep up. Marek was worried. That didn't bode well.

Bill ducked inside the clinic when they arrived. There was a bushy haired girl in Carol's usual place at the front desk, explaining something about a potion's side effects to a witch with a bright blue child on her hip, but no other Healers visible.

"Where's Healer Hurst?"

The girl opened her mouth, brows pinched together in annoyance, but snapped it closed again and swallowed upon turning to face him. Bill followed her gaze to his bloodstained sleeve and realized the rest of his body was similarly filthy with dirt, sweat, and blood. He rubbed his face on his sleeve though that probably just made everything worse.

"Healer Hurst is —"

"Right here. Thank you, Hermione." The healer had appeared from the hallway behind the desk, eyes serious. "Now, Will, isn't it? Tell me what happened."

"It's Leo, Ma'am."

When Will burst through the door the healer on his heels, Marek had Leo gathered in his arms, Leo's tanned face pale against Marek's tunic, wounded arm bleeding sluggishly through the makeshift bandages.

"Hermione, get Janice and see that everything in room three is sterilized. Then take the floo to Tate's we'll need at least 6oz of vervain, picked during the full moon if he has it." The girl was gone in a whirl of robes.

"Marek, follow me and try to keep him as warm as possible." Just before she entered the clinic the healer looked past Bill and whispered, "Thank you."

Bill turned in time to see the unicorn bow then gallop away, hooves ringing on the cobblestones, the sunlight following it.

Scrubbed clean at the Burrow that evening, Bill had a difficult time focusing on the meatloaf and cheery chatter. The immediate loose ends were mainly tied up—the letter to Solom safely incinerated, the gate wards rewoven and the rune catch reclaimed, Leo in a charmed sleep under Marek's wary guard—but his thoughts kept drifting to a pile of vampire bodies and the lethifolds standing sentinel.

"You're quiet tonight, Bill."

"You think I can get a word in edgewise with this lot, Dad?" Bill gestured to encompass Fred and George staging a simultaneous betrayal in the middle of their potato war to both wind up on Ron's side (finding to their consternation that there was now no one left on the other) while Percy explained some obscure tenet of Ministry Law to Mum at increasing volume, Ginny an acerbic commentator.

Dad smiled. "I think you could if you wanted to."

Bill ran a hand through his hair. If they hadn't been insanely lucky, his Dad would right now be calling in favors to get a team of Aurors and creature specialists to a place he had never heard of on the word of someone ostensibly his son's friend who he knew nothing about. If that had happened Bill would never have been able to explain anything. On the other hand knowing he was risking his life for money to secretly funnel into their Gringotts account would crush his parents. Neither had a head for figures and couldn't understand quite how dire their financial situation was.

"I won't be able to make it to the World Cup. Something's come up at work and they need all hands on deck." Dad frowned and looked like he was going to protest, so Bill raised his voice, "Hey Perce, want to go to the Cup? Got an extra ticket for the Minister's box."

Percy's face was suffused with a cautious, yet slowly growing, happiness. He had claimed weeks ago that he needed to work the day of the Cup, but it seemed Bill's suspicion that Percy was making excuses so another sibling could go was correct.

Then Ron and the twins realized Bill would not be going and heading them off while reassuring Percy kept him fully occupied. After dinner he could slip away and write a letter to Charlie and pick his brain about lethifolds. And then head back to the clinic—bedside vigil was making Marek edgy. He should stop by the Phoenix first and pick up some ale and food to smuggle past Janice.

Janice would probably notice a unicorn foal. Though if he co-opted Rispah to act as a distraction and got Aled to sneak it in, it probably could fit under the bed during the healer's checks. Foals didn't much like wizards though. Perhaps he could persuade Hermione to bring it in if he told her a unicorn's ambient magic had healing properties? Maybe it was even true. Charlie would know.

Apparating back to the Alleys, a basket of the last of the late summer strawberries in hand (Mum had convinced herself he was going to meet a girlfriend), Bill imagined watching from the top box as Krum dove into a Wronski feint. It would be decades before England got the Cup again.

It would come again though. With Leo out of commission he was needed in the Alleys in a way he simply wasn't at the Cup. Providing his father kept the twins from defenestrating Percy, the Minster's box was probably the safest place in Britain.

Not so very far away a shade watched the World Cup preparations from behind the eyes of his latest vessel and plotted. It was a shame exterminating the bloodsucking parasites had made their home inhospitable, but his debut plans for the Cup were otherwise coming together very well and he had enough unicorn blood to tide him over for a few months. Things may have been slightly easier, true, if his associates had found the key to the bloodsuckers' treasure or even remembered to take the disguised lock box with them, but that had given him an opportunity to express his displeasure in a rather memorable manner. Fear was a very powerful motivator. The filthy mudbloods and blood traitors would soon find that out.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think. If you'd like to join in the prompt game look us up in the 'Rigel Black discussion group' forum.

4/1: Edited in convenient evil stream of thought to hopefully make some things clearer and tie it closer to ch 4 of FF.