a/n: words cannot express how sorry i am that it took so long to get this up. suffice to say that working in retail at christmas is like a trip to hell. thank you so much to those who read and reviewed. your kind words and thoughts are always hugely appreciated.
Chapter 2
BOOM!
Dudley Dursley tumbled out of bed just as another boom shook the house around him. Terrified and still half asleep it was a few seconds and another boom before he was awake enough to process what was happening.
Rising to a crouch he scrambled to the window and peered down into the street. Privet Drive was lit up like it was Christmas but it wasn't fairy lights this time. More than a dozen black cloaked figures stood on the street outside and they were assaulting the house with what Dudley recognised as spells.
BOOM!
The house shook again and as he watched the spells tore through some sort of barricade. The next boom smashed into the front of the house, breaking glass and blowing in the front door. Frozen with fear Dudley crouched beneath the window unsure what to do. Then he heard his father shout and he was catapulted into action.
There was no time to change but he managed to slip into a pair of sneakers by his door as he scooped up the fake fluffy owl and darted into the hall. He almost collided with his mother at the top of the stairs. She was leading his father by the front of his pyjamas with a fierce look on her face.
Vernon Dursley was purple with rage and it looked to Dudley that the only thing stopping him from marching downstairs and stupidly getting himself killed was the tight grip his wife had on him.
'They've come for him,' Dudley said breathlessly.
Petunia Dursley nodded sharply and used her free hand to clutch tightly at the pendant on her necklace, the one she never took off.
'Harry's room. NOW.'
Below them the sound of laughter fought to be heard over the destruction of the living room. So far not one of the cloaked figures had attempted to come in but it was only a matter of time. The trio, led by Dudley, turned back down the hall and had taken just one step when a man appeared suddenly in front of them.
The man was tall and thin with a large scar that ran down the side of his neck. Long grey hair hung about his face in greasy strands. He snarled at them and almost licked his lips. Petunia let out a startled yell and Vernon shouted about intruders. Only Dudley kept silent, rising to his full height he looked the man right in the eye and grinned.
'You're going to die.'
The man blinked and Dudley made his move. He threw the fluffy owl into the air and another, larger, round object right at the man.
'Ally Potter!' he shouted, diving sideways and trying to drag his family with him.
He was fast, finally his boxing training having paid off, but the man was faster. He couldn't stop the fluffy owl but his wand flicked out and the round object vanished just before it could explode. He shot another spell and Dudley felt something heavy slam into him. It knocked him back and left him bent over and gasping.
It didn't have the desired effect, though, and the surprise the man experienced gave Petunia enough time to shove her husband off balance and topple him back into Dudley's bedroom. She ignored Vernon's startled protests and his furious words still being directed at the people violating his home. Instead, she stood proudly in front of Dudley and held her head high.
She clutched tightly at the necklace her nephew had gifted her. She ignored the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs and the sound of people destroying her pristine kitchen. She turned her back on everything she had fought to have over the last twenty years and for a moment became the same little girl who had so wanted to be just like her big sister.
'Get out of my home!'
The man sneered at her. 'Don't think so, luv. Seems you have something we want.'
'No,' Petunia answered boldly.
The man snarled again and with a sharp twist of his wand he directed a sickly yellow spell toward her. The spell slammed into her, wrapping around her like a second skin but like the one that hit Dudley it didn't have the desired effect. Petunia glared back with a sneer of her own.
'Goodbye.'
She dropped suddenly to the floor as the house around her exploded. Debris tumbled over her, the remains of Dudley's bedroom door rained down around the crouched family. Small splinters embedded themselves in skin and Vernon whimpered slightly. Neither Dudley nor Petunia made a sound.
Out in the destroyed hall there was the sound of a body impacting with the floor and the loud crack of wood splintering as the stairs gave way. Dudley scrambled to his feet and stuck his head out into the hall. He pulled it back in just as a spell whizzed by his nose.
'Two trying to get up the stairs,' he informed his mother, his breath coming in short gasps.
Vernon, turning purple with rage and a good dose of fear heaved his hefty form off the floor and out from behind his wife who was still acting as a bony human shield.
'What is the meaning of this?' he demanded. Above him the ceiling cracked with the force of the spell barrage. 'Who are these people?'
The house shook violently, filling with a strange violet light that left them blinking rabidly to clear their vision. A crack like the sound of a whip heralded the very foundation of the house coming apart. The roof sagged inward and both Petunia and Dudley lunged forward to pull Vernon into the hall. They tumbled backward, skidding along the floor as the roof fell in and spells tore overhead.
They were trapped, they had no way to escape and they were relying on a fake magical owl to get them help.
An almost hysterical giggle that sent chills up Petunia's spine sounded from the top of the stairs. All three Dursley turned at the sound. Vernon opened his mouth intending, no doubt, to make some stupid comment about trespassing but before he could so much as begin the noises around them changed.
It was a subtle shift but enough to give even Vernon pause. The witch froze mid giggle and turned on the spot. Her eyes widened in horror just as she was hit with enough force to blast her right over their heads. She hit the wall behind them with a sickening crunch that cracked the plaster. She slid to the floor dead.
Up the destroyed stairs a man was scrambling. His dark hair fell into his grey eyes but though his look was fierce there was nothing about him that shared the same manic delight of the other wizards attacking the Dursley home. The man ducked sharply and a spell flew over his head. He spun around to fire back a spell of his own and a woman appeared out of thin air at his back.
'Morning, Petunia,' the woman said breezily as though she hadn't just arrived unannounced in the middle of a battle that was destroying the Dursley home. 'Offer you a lift?'
Petunia reached out and grasped the offered hand without thinking twice. Dudley surged forward to grasp the hand over his mother's shoulder and both gripped Vernon tightly. With a lurch the three Dursley's were pulled forward as the house around them vanished and they were squeezed through the smallest of spaces. It felt like all of the air was being squashed out of them, like they were being pushed and pulled through a very small hole.
Finally, with a sickening lurch things snapped back and they found themselves sprawled, not on the filthy floor of their Privet drive home but on the cool and rough surface of a country lane. Dudley curled into a ball while he waited for his insides to settle back into their rightful places. Petunia scrambled unsteadily to her feet, managing to sway only slightly while Vernon rolled over and heaved onto the road.
Ruby Reid reached out and with a great deal of difficulty heaved Dudley to his feet. She left Vernon where he was just in case he threw up again. She was wearing new shoes. She gave the Dursley's a moment to regain their wits before she offered her hand once more to Petunia Dursley.
'Hello!' she greeted cheerfully. 'I'm Ruby Reid, Molly's godmother.'
Petunia shook the proffered hand, still a little shocked by the sudden chaos of her early morning. It took her a moment to shove past resentments aside and work out that the woman before her was a friend of Harry's and that she was his daughter's godmother. Behind her Dudley was helping a sputtering and gibbering Vernon to his feet. He wasn't purple anymore but he was a sickly green colour that did not bode well for the future of his meals.
'What?' he sputtered. 'What is the meaning of this?'
They ignored him; there were more important questions to be asking.
'Where are we?' Dudley gasped out, propping his father up was rather draining.
'Hollow Knight,' Ruby replied. 'We're about a thirty minute walk from Harry's.'
The prospect of a thirty minute walk on top of the other trauma of the morning proved to be too much for Vernon. The anger he'd been suppressing exploded out of him in the form of an undignified series of grunts that, in his rage, were unintelligible.
Ruby looked at him intently as though she was considering his every word with as much concentration as he obviously thought they deserved. When he ran out of steam she turned away from him and carried on speaking like he'd never spoken.
'We never expected them to make such an open attack on you,' Ruby told Petunia and Dudley apologetically. 'We thought he'd send one or two Death Eaters to drag you out.'
Petunia nodded tiredly, the adrenalin was wearing off and she was starting to shake slightly. It didn't help that she was only wearing a nightgown and that the weather was quite cool for midsummer. Her bare feet hurt on the rough road and it was just starting to hit her that her home was gone. She had no doubt that most of their things would have been destroyed in the attack.
Not to mention that they'd likely never be able to return to Privet Drive.
'I'm hungry,' Dudley announced, startling an hysterical laugh out of his mother.
'Come on, Big D, it's a bit of a walk.'
Despite her easy attitude and relaxed manor there could be no mistaking the way Ruby's eyes constantly darted around the area. She was on edge waiting to pounce should they be suddenly attacked. There was a vein pulsing in Vernon's temple but he didn't have breath to spare for any more angry words. He was by far the least fit of his family and the early morning brisk stroll was certainly taking its toll.
Ruby had landed them on the other side of the small village of Hollow Knight. Their walk took them through the village, it was quiet and still in the early hour. The only light on in the entire village that wasn't a street light was one small one in the bakery. It took them next to no time to pass through the village, even with Vernon panting along at the rear.
Once they'd passed through the village Ruby led the way down a quiet lane until, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, they stopped in front of a set of high iron gates set into a thick hedge. A long gravel drive sloped up and around a corner. Ruby pressed her palm flat against the gates and they popped open with a slight sizzling sound.
It wasn't until they'd rounded a bend in the path that they caught sight of Harry's house. Vernon had to stop when his shocked sputtering caused him to choke. Dudley smacked him hard on the back even as he gaped up at the house. He wasn't stupid, some part of him had understood that Ally had quite a bit of money but the house before them was something Vernon would have sold an arm and a leg to have the rights to gloat over.
The front door opened as they approached and huge orb like eyes peered out at them. Petunia held in her startled cry but Vernon stopped dead in his tracks a look of pure horror on his face. Ruby didn't notice, she stepped right up to the door and slipped in passed the creature that had opened it.
Tired, sore and hungry Dudley didn't care what had opened the door as long as it could point him to the fridge. He followed Ruby inside with barely a wince as he passed the short creature that could only be an elf. The pointed ears were a bit of a giveaway even if he couldn't fathom why the elf would be wearing a simple blue tunic with a funny crest stamped on one corner.
Petunia followed her son inside but she had to really put her weight into it as Vernon had grabbed a hold of her elbow. She nodded politely to the elf even as Vernon tried to edge his large bulk around it.
The door had barely closed behind them, leaving them staring at a small entry hall, when a pillar of flames erupted ahead of them. The three Dursley's leapt back as Ally appeared amongst the orange flames. She looked exhausted. There was blood dribbling from the corner of her mouth and a large bruise forming across her right temple. She regarded the Dursley's with a tired but kind look as she slipped off her travelling cloak and handed it over to the elf for cleaning.
'Thank you, Tilly.'
The elf took the proffered cloak without a word and disappeared into the depths of the house. Ruby regarded Ally with a keen eye as she took in all the aches and pains. Satisfied there wasn't anything either needed to be concerned about she poked a thumb over her shoulder to gesture at the Dursley's.
'Where do you want this lot?'
'Kitchen,' Ally suggested with a yawn. 'Harry should be back soon and he's going to want breakfast.'
Ally led the way through to the back of the house and into a large kitchen. Unlike any kitchen the Dursley's were used to there were no gleaming new appliances, no microwave or dishwasher. Instead there was an old fashioned stove and oven. There was no refrigerator in sight but instead there was an old ice box. It was the perfect image of what a kitchen would have been before the invention of electricity.
In all honesty it had changed very little since Ally's mother had lived there as a child.
Ally went straight to the bench and took out her wand, grabbing ingredients as she went. Ruby sank into a chair at the kitchen table and rested her head on her arms. She watched Ally walk around the kitchen preparing breakfast for everyone. Dudley sank into another chair but he watched Ally with his mouth gaping open as she used her wand to light the stove or set knives cutting food on their own.
Petunia, showing that though she didn't like it magic was something that had once been part of her life, sat primly in a chair and looked around the kitchen with the keen eye of a neighbourhood gossip. She took in the scattered boots by the back door, the cookbooks on the shelf above the stove and the myriad of other little things that were perfectly at home in any old kitchen but that had a strange and unique air when put in the context of a magical kitchen belonging to Harry.
Vernon took the chair furthest from the magical goings on and stared resolutely out the window into the garden.
Without any conscious decision to do so Ally started humming as she cooked. It was one of the new songs by the Weird Sisters and soon Ruby was humming along. The music seemed to make things even more tense for the Dursley's and by the time Ally placed a plate before each of them they were stiff and on edge. She was just about to put the last plate down when the slam of a door echoed through the house followed by a heavy bark.
Ruby looked up from her plate suddenly alert and Ally paused with Vernon's plate still hovering in her hand above the table. Both women looked toward the kitchen door as a huge black dog came bounding into the room with a blanket wrapped bundle hanging from its huge and powerful jaws. The bundle was giggling happily.
Ally gave an exasperated though slightly relieved sigh as she snatched her daughter from Sirius' jaw. With Molly safely in her mother's grip Sirius morphed from dog to man and took a seat at the table. Pulling a plate of eggs and sausage toward him and digging in with a fork. He paused when he noticed the way the Dursley's were staring at him.
'What?'
Ruby leaned over the table and pulled him into a tight hug by grabbing the front of his shirt. It was awkward and uncomfortable and barely lasted a second before she'd sat back down and started to eat like nothing had happened. With a shrug Sirius went back to his sausage and Ally took her place at the table.
Molly sat on her mother's lap and gazed around at the table with big wide blue eyes.
'How bad was it?' Petunia asked finally, surprising everyone by being the first to speak.
Sirius paused in eating and actually looked at Petunia. Back when Lily and James had first met things were already pretty rocky between Lily and her sister. Sirius had met the woman exactly once and given at the time he'd be kidnapping Lily he probably hadn't made the best of impressions. Though given it was Petunia he didn't figure a good impression would have been possible at all.
Sirius couldn't be sure Petunia even knew who he was but she at least recognised him from her home earlier. 'Completely destroyed,' he told her. 'We managed to capture or kill most of the Death Eaters but a few escaped. One of them set the place alight before he went. You won't be going back there in a hurry.'
Petunia pursed her lips and nodded once. She was doing a decent job of not showing how distressed she really was. Vernon on the other hand was at risk of choking on the sausage he'd been too hungry to ignore. The mere idea that freaks like Harry had come in and destroyed the home he'd worked very hard to create ruffled some pretty big feathers.
'Where will we go?' Dudley asked, making it his job to stop his father from saying or doing something stupid.
'We have safe houses set up all over Britain,' Ally explained. 'We'll find one suitable for you but I suggest you withdraw Dudley from school and make some other more drastic changes to your life.'
'We will do no such thing!' Vernon barked. 'How dare you!'
Whatever other arguments he might have been about to put up was silence by the sudden appearance of a silver dog Patronus running into the kitchen. Ron's voice filled the room with quick precise words.
'Granger's under attack.'
Sirius mournfully placed his fork back down on the table and pushed his chair back. Across the table Ruby did the same. She stood with a yawn and took one last gulp of juice.
'No rest for the wicked,' Sirius quipped.
Ruby shot him a withering look that didn't really hold much annoyance and led the way out of the kitchen through the back door. They walked toward the forest and stepped just into the tree line before they disapparated. Ally sighed in an exhausted sort of why.
'It never stops.'
To make matters worse not two minutes after Ruby and Sirius had left the back door burst open and Harry came in. He was supporting an unconscious and bloody Daphne while Abby behind him was supporting Stephanie with the help of Emmy. Both Daphne and Stephanie were severely injured. Multiple cuts and bruises spread across their bodies like ugly splotches of art. Blood dripped onto the floor as their supporters dragged them inside.
Ally was on her feet in an instant. She shoved Molly as gently as possible into a bassinet in the corner, shouted for Tilly and went quickly to Harry's side to take some of Daphne's weight. It wasn't that she was particularly heavy but carrying a dead weight is never easy.
'Tilly, send for Becca. Now!' Harry ordered.
The elf nodded sharply and disappeared with a crack like a whip. Harry and Ally led the way out of the kitchen and down the hall where what had once been a large room for entertaining guests had been turned into a make-shift triage. Both pairs placed the injured girls down as gently as possible on beds and went to work healing and diagnosing what they could.
'She's opened up the chest wound again,' Harry said hurriedly, ripping buttons in his haste to expose the large and aggressively bloody wound on Daphne's chest that had been slowly healing for months. Any good that had been done by her recent treatment with phoenix tears seemed to have been undone by whatever spells had hit her.
Stephanie didn't look to be much better. The combination of spells that had hit her had shattered more than a few of her bones. In some places the bones were breaking through skin. Abby had knocked her out to spare her from the pain and the horrible sight. Stephanie had already thrown up once at the sight of so many bones meeting the dawn light.
Rather than stay in the kitchen as would have been the sensible thing to do, the Dursley's had followed the group into the pseudo hospital. Petunia let out a shrill scream when she saw all of the blood and sat down hurriedly on a spare bed and looked firmly away. Vernon turned an interesting shade of green and hurried from the room back in to the kitchen where things were less gory and there was food to be had.
Dudley stepped forward and asked if there was anything he could do. One look at his pale, chalk white face had Harry suggesting he take his mother and go back to the kitchen. Dudley didn't argue. As much as he would have liked to help he couldn't help feeling that he was more likely to be sick all over whatever task he was given.
A sharp crack rent the air and then a pair of firm hands was pushing Harry out of the way, wand at the ready to perform healing spells and other restorative measures. The healer from St Mungo's and her trainee took charge immediately, barking out orders left and right that Harry and Abby hurried to follow. Ally and Emmy took a step back and let Becca run the show.
'What happened?' Ally asked Emmy in an undertone. She didn't want to interrupt the stream of instruction flowing from the two healers' mouths.
'We were ambushed,' Emmy explained. Her voice was scratchy and she was not without her fair share of cuts and bruises. 'They got the drop on us, I don't know when, but the last place we tracked them to was a trap. They came at us from all sides and had anti-apparation jinxes all over the place. We had to leave Susan behind to get these two out of there.'
'You left her behind?' Ally repeated.
'Had to,' Emmy confirmed, though she didn't sound at all thrilled by the idea. 'We took most of them down but one or two just wouldn't give. There were a few alive when we left; I just hope Susan is alright.'
'She'll be fine,' even as she spoke those assuring words Ally wasn't sure whose benefit they were for. 'She'll be fine.'
