The Dark Cycle 2: Opening Gambit
Chapter Two
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." (Sherlock Holmes)
"We're only having a snack now." Ginny said, carrying two heaped plates of sandwiches into the lounge. "Harry's not at the office today, so he'll be home for dinner early. These are ham, the others are cheese."
She set them down on the coffee table, then moved aside so that the Potters' old House-elf, Kreacher, could put another plate of sausage rolls and pork pies beside them, along with a bowl of crisps. Drinks were already on a sideboard nearby.
"No cucumber sandwiches?" River asked in a tone of mock disappointment.
"Oooh, no moi loverr!" Ginny replied, exaggerating her soft West Country burr for comic effect. "We don't 'ave none o' that there posh stuff 'ere!"
"I need to mix with a better class of people!" River replied, helping herself to a sandwich. "Grab some quick, Kratos, before the boys make them all vanish!"
"So where is Harry today?" Kratos asked.
"At Hogwarts." Ginny said. "Advising on the new Defence Against the Dark Arts syllabus. Especially the Twilight problem."
"And what, pray tell, is the twilight problem – other than poor visibility?" River wanted to know.
"Oh, some dimwitted muggle woman wrote some books for teenagers about a young woman falling in love with a Vampire." Ginny growled. "All the sort of dark, angsty stuff teenage girls lap up, you know? Anyway, they went mega best-seller and got made into films and spawned a lot of imitations.
"When it was only muggles, it didn't matter so much, but of course, between the muggle-borns and the half-bloods, they got into our world. So now we have a raft of young people thinking it might be cool to date a Vampire."
"So Harry wants to make sure they don't?" Kratos guessed.
"Well, not entirely." Ginny told him. "It's more about telling the Vampires apart. You see, Red Court and Black Court Vampires are pure predators. With them, it's not about romance, it's about lunch. The White Court, on the other hand, are dangerous, yes, but not hostile. They need humans to feed off, but the way they feed isn't, in and of itself, harmful, and they're born, not turned. It's OK to be in a relationship with a White Court Vampire, as long as you know what you're getting into!
"Right, you three! If you've finished eating me out of house and home, let's get you upstairs. Washed and changed and half-way presentable for your Dad, OK?"
Left alone, River turned to Kratos. "So," she said, "how do you know the Potters?"
"I did a job with Harry and some others a while back." Kratos said guardedly.
"Hmm." River pondered. "that would've been with the Marine, yes? You're not the sort of person my old man would recruit.
"But that still doesn't explain how the Ghost of Sparta, supposedly dead for three thousand years, turns up in 21st Century England in a rather smart suit, speaking good, modern English without the aid of a TARDIS translation matrix. Are you going to enlighten me?"
"It is, as I told Ginny, rather a long story." Kratos told her. "For now, let's just say it involved a vengeful Gou'a'ould and a custom sarcophagus. For you, Dr Song, that should be more than enough to fill in the blanks."
"Aphrodite, then." River decided. "Do call me River, sweetie."
"As you wish, River." Kratos gave the slight grimace that passed for his smile. "So, how do you know our hosts?"
"Oh, I arranged to get myself invited to speak on local archaeology at the Womens' Institute branch Ginny and Hermione belong to." River said airily. "There are no wizard archaeologists, and I knew Hermione Weasleys' reputation well enough to know she'd try to recruit me. The rest was easy."
"Do they know who you are?" Kratos asked.
"I'm sure Harry does." River allowed. "He's the sort of person who does very thorough background checks, and he has high-level clearance at UNIT. Ginny's never said anything, but then she wouldn't. For a woman who talks almost constantly, she's incredibly discreet when it matters."
As if to give the lie to Rivers' statement, Ginnys' Stentorian bellow came to them: "RIVER! KRATOS! Child-wranglers needed! Stat!"
A couple of hours later, the fireplace in the lounge burned green, and Harry stepped out of it, to be promptly tackled by his enthusiastic offspring. Those essential and boisterous greetings disposed of, he was then engaged in a scarcely-less energetic welcome from his wife. River he greeted with a more decorous hug, before being brought up short by the second guest.
"Kratos?" He said disbelievingly. "Bloody Hell, mate, you look great! What are you doing here?"
Kratos returned the hearty handshake. "Looking for you, my friend. But we'll talk about that later. Right now, I think dinner is in order."
The meal was a simple family one, smoked mackerel with salad, followed by summer pudding with clotted cream. The kids, Ginny and River chattered constantly throughout the meal. Harry and Kratos did the breathing for them – somebody had to. But Harry took careful note of the childrens' story about the sinister lady with the funny accent. A shared look with his wife alerted him to leave fuller discussion until later.
Shortly after that, a sleepily protesting Lily was packed off to bed, where she dozed off contentedly during Uncle Kratos' retelling of a story of the mighty Heracles. Ginny and River sat watching Harry having a kick-about with the boys on the lawn.
"It wasn't an accident, running into you today, was it, River?" Ginny asked quietly.
River gave her a sharp glance. "How much do you know?" She asked directly.
"As much as Harry would tell me." Ginny replied. "Who it is you're married to and some of what you do in between the archaeology. It must be awfully difficult being married to that particular man."
"Probably less difficult than being married to an Auror." River pointed out. "The thing about my husband is he always has time for me. Literally. Of course, he doesn't tell me everything, either."
Ginny nodded. "Harry is good. He tells me as much as I need to know to keep us all safe, but not everything. What I don't know, I can't be made to tell. And truthfully, there are more important things than sharing his work.
"Was it your husband who sent you?"
No." River shook her head. "It was someone else. Do you know what a Vorlon is?"
"Some kind of alien?" Ginny hazarded.
"A very old, very advanced and annoyingly secretive species." River told her. "They make a profession out of being cryptic, but when they do pop up, it pays to listen to them. One sought me out a few months ago and suggested that I needed to keep an eye on you and the children."
"So you knew that something was going to happen today?" Ginny wanted to know.
River shook her head. "Not specifically. But I had a feeling, a hunch. I've found it pays to act on my hunches."
"Which only leaves us wondering," Ginny mused, "about how and why Kratos turned up so providentially?"
"I'd heard rumours he'd resurfaced." River admitted. "But only that, so I didn't follow up. But there are no coincidences where the Vorlons are involved."
At that point, Harry called time on the game, and the chaotic business of getting two young boys to bed absorbed everyones' attention for a while.
That done, the adults adjourned to the lounge with coffee, and the serious conversation began. The first thing was to fully explain to Harry the story the children had told him, about the mysterious Arabella Thompson and her attempt to take the kids from Summer Club. That done, River and Kratos had explanations to give.
"As I told Ginny earlier," River said, "I was told by a Vorlon that I needed to keep an eye on your family, Harry."
"Ah!" Harry said. "I'd assumed that it was either your husband or that Ood Sigma character who'd put you on to us. You must have known I'd suss you out, River."
"I did, and I expected to have to explain myself to you much sooner." River allowed. "But it seems you've learned to play things close to your chest, Harry.
"Anyway, I had a bad feeling about today, so I made it my business to keep an eye on the Leaky Cauldron after Ginny went to her meeting. Why didn't you Floo, Ginny?"
"It was Kreachers' afternoon off." Ginny told her. "My parents are abroad right now, and 'Mione is in the office today. So I decided to pop the kids in at Summer Club for the afternoon, so they could see some of their school friends and have a bit of fun. I couldn't do that by Floo, and there was nowhere I could go to Apparate from, not in London in the middle of the day. So I took the Underground."
"That makes sense, but it also means our opponents are well-organised. There's no way they could've known in advance what you were going to do today. This house can't be seen by anyone who doesn't know it's here, but the entire city is covered with muggle surveillance gear. They must have tapped into that and spotted you.
"After that, they must've been watching the pub, like me. I saw you come out and go into the Tube station down the road. Then I saw a big black van pull up near the exit and three men in overalls get out and start pretending to do some work on the streetlight nearby.
"They were very good, very professional, but I'm better, so I knew they weren't workmen. Next thing, there's a crowd of people coming out of the station..."
Ginny nodded. "They put out an announcement that there was some kind of fault, and that all the trains would be stopped for about an hour. I couldn't wait that long, I was running a bit late anyway, so I came up to find a taxi and to phone the school and ask them to keep an eye on the sprogs till I got there. That was when I ran into you."
"Yes, I had to move fast. They'd spotted you and were moving in. But they obviously didn't want witnesses, so they backed off when I spoke to you." River explained.
"They must have been muggles." Harry stated. "Wizards would've grabbed Ginny in Diagon Alley – the Prophet office is in a quiet area, too close to Knockturn Alley for my liking. Not that any wizard would want to take a chance of grabbing Ginny – she's too skilled and powerful a witch to make that anything but dodgy."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, luv." Ginny said. "But if muggles are going to be after me, I think I need to take a few more of those Tae-Kwon-Do classes you've been asking me to go to."
"That wouldn't have helped." River said. "These men were professionals. I recognised one of them. His name is Pierre Desroches, and he made his bones in the Marseilles gangs before being hired by SPECTRE. They'd have had you Tasered, into that van, drugged, hog-tied and away before you could react."
"Who or what is SPECTRE?" Ginny demanded.
"Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion." Harry told her. "A small, but elite, group of criminal mercenaries who carry out special tasks for other criminals and occasionally governments. It was founded by a man named Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the late 1940s and caused a good deal of trouble throughout the Fifties and into the Sixties. Blofeld himself was killed by Commander James Bond in about 1964, and shortly after that, SPECTRE collapsed.
"Something like ten years ago, it surfaced again, led by a Heinrich Francois Blofeld who claims to be Ernst Blofelds' grandson. SPECTRE is still up to the same tricks, hiring out a high level of expertise to drug cartels and other organised crime groups for specific jobs.
"But they've never been involved with wizards before, so who hired them, and why?"
"Which brings us to my part in all this." Kratos said. "As to how and why I'm here, in this century, that story can wait for another time. I've been around now for about ten years, but for five of them I was living off the grid until I learned enough to get by. The place I woke in contained a large hoard of precious stones, so I was able to fund my 'education'.
"Once I felt able, I created an identity for myself. Kratos Spartides is by way of being a soldier of fortune. I protect people who need protection, find things that have gone missing in unusual circumstances, and occasionally join or lead groups of mercenaries." Kratos shrugged. "I'm a Spartan, I was raised for this kind of work and it's all I know, what I'm best at."
"Well, I admit, Kratos, luv, I couldn't see you as an accountant!" Ginny stated with a grin.
"And you can guard my body anytime!" River added impishly.
Kratos made a rumbling noise that might have been a chuckle, then went on. "Of course, I meant to make contact with you, Harry. But since we last saw each other, I've done a little meddling with time and history myself, and it didn't end well. So I needed to make sure that I didn't see you – and you didn't see me – until our previous encounter was in your past.
"I wasn't sure about the date of our little adventure from your viewpoint, but for the last couple of years, I've been discreetly checking up on young Lily."
"Why Lily?" Ginny asked, then. "Oh! Calliopes' pendant!"
Kratos nodded. "I knew that when and if I saw Lily wearing the pendant, it would be safe to contact you. It never occurred to me that she wouldn't be allowed to wear it at school, of course. But today, I happened to pass by, and saw her in the playground. She was wearing the pendant, so I waited, knowing that one of you would come to collect her.
"Then I saw the Countess approach the children, and had to intervene."
"The Countess?" Harry asked. "You know her?"
"I've encountered her." Kratos said. "Last summer, I undertook a job for the Romanian government. There are a number of ruined castles in the area known as Transylvania, and it appeared that a group of heavily-armed people were poking around in one of them."
"Castle Dracula?" Harry asked.
"No." Kratos told him. "Castle Ferenczy. That castle had had a very bad reputation with the locals before it was destroyed in 1928 by a massive explosion. Whatever those people were looking for, it was important enough for them to open fire on local police. The Romanian government didn't want to look as if it couldn't handle a simple internal problem without using the military, so they asked me to lead a small force of mercenaries to clear out the intruders.
"It turned out to be a very nasty business. The troops we were up against were well-armed and highly-trained, and took some winkling out."
"SPECTRE again?" River asked.
Kratos shook his head. "No, paramilitary isn't SPECTREs' strength. These were a different group, who I don't know, but not ordinary mercenaries.
"Anyway, we fought our way to the lowest level of their excavations, where we found some sort of makeshift laboratory, with that woman apparently in charge. She was clearly desperate to finish something, because the officer in charge of her guards finally demanded that she leave. By then, only he and two others were standing. That was when he addressed her as 'Countess'. She argued with him for a moment, in good English, but with a Latverian accent. Then she turned on the spot and disappeared, just like I've seen you do, Harry. That's how I knew she was a witch."
"Did she see you?" Harry asked. "Don't mean to be rude, Kratos, but your face isn't one people forget!"
Kratos rumbled again, then said. "No, I was wearing a ski-mask, we all were. Even if she saw me, she wouldn't have known me again."
"Did you question any of your opponents?" River asked. "You can't have killed all of them."
"No, we didn't." Kratos said. "But they did. Those we didn't kill, killed their own wounded and then took cyanide. By the time we got round to looking for survivors, they'd made sure there weren't any!"
Harry gave Kratos a piercing look. He'd seen that behaviour once before. Something to look into another time, he thought. Meanwhile, Kratos had reached into a bag he'd brought in with him and produced a tablet computer.
"I'm not sure if these things are a blessing or a curse." He said as he switched it on. "It certainly beats scrolls and stone blocks for storing information. On the other hand, I'm developing a serious Sudoku addiction!"
"I know that one!" Ginny admitted. "'Mione and I are at daggers drawn on Bejewelled Blitz!"
"Pet Rescue Saga!" River chimed in.
Harry shrugged. "Rome: Total War." He allowed.
Kratos reached into his jacket pocket and produced an SD card. "This is from my camera, I took some snaps this afternoon.
He slotted the card into the tablet and began to flip through the pictures. "Here," he said, "this is the woman I know as the Countess."
Harry took the tablet and looked at it. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Without a word, he handed the tablet to Ginny, who accepted it with a look of surprise that turned into shock.
"Jupiter!" She exclaimed. "It's not...I mean it can't be, can it? Not unless she's come back to life and got younger!"
Harry shook his head. "Look more closely." He told her. "Look at the fence she's standing near. It's a six-foot one, so she must be at least five-ten. Also, that womans' eyes are grey. Apart from that, though, she's the living spit!"
"The living spit of who, exactly?" River asked with some asperity. "You two are starting to sound like me and my old man!"
Harry sighed. "A face from the past." He said softly. "This Countess is the image of an old, long-dead opponent of ours. She's taller, and her eyes are a different colour, but the facial structure, the expression, the stance. She looks almost exactly like the late and unlamented Bellatrix Lestrange!"
Light clearly dawned on River, but Kratos still looked blank, so Harry explained. "Bellatrix Lestrange, nee Black, was a Pureblood witch of great power and skill. She was a fanatical Death-Eater and one of the closest personal associates of Tom Riddle, alias Lord Voldemort.
"Bellatrix died in the Battle of Hogwarts in 1997, killed in a duel by Ginnys' Mum..."
"Remind me not to annoy your mother-in-law." River murmured, making everyone smile. Then Harry grew serious again.
"Bellatrix was married, to Rudolphus Lestrange, but there's no record of them ever having children. Which is odd, if this Countess is her daughter. The birth of a Pureblood child was cause for a lot of bragging and celebration in those circles.
"There are other possibilities. Bellatrix had two sisters, Narcissa and Andromeda. Andromeda, in particular, looks very like Bellatrix. But Andromeda married a muggle-born wizard and was cut off from her family – she teaches at Hogwarts now. As for Narcissa, she married a Lucius Malfoy, another Pureblood, and they have one son, Draco. If they had any other kids, they'd not have hidden them."
"Is it possible," Kratos asked, "that the Countess is an illegitimate daughter of one of these women? Perhaps the result of an adulterous relationship? I do not know the customs of your wizard world on such matters."
"They're confused." Harry said. "Most wizards are still quite conservative in a lot of ways – pre- or extra- marital sex is frowned on, or at least sniffed at. My sister-in-law, Hermione, is muggle-born, and has modern ideas – she all but had to bully poor Ron into bed before they were married!
"That said, most muggle-borns and some Half-bloods are more in tune with 21st Century mores. But some of the old-line Pureblood families are different again. Like the old British aristocracy, a lot of them are of French extraction and take that as an excuse to flout conventional morality. They tend to keep mistresses or lovers, and aren't always shy about acknowledging illegitimate kids. Lucius Malfoy had a son by his mistress – a bit younger than Draco - called Regius Fitzmalfoy. Lucius acknowledged the boy and paid for his education, though not at Hogwarts.
"So, yes, this woman could have come from an unknown...liaison. But she looks far too much like Bellatrix to belong to anyone else."
"Our more immediate problem," Ginny said practically, "is why a witch is working with a muggle crime gang and what they want with me and the kids!"
"Well, the four of you need to go somewhere safe, first thing tomorrow!" Harry stated.
"Not just yet." River put in. "We need to catch one of these people. We need to draw them out."
"Using my family as bait?" Harry growled.
"Not exactly." River said. "I have a plan."
"Is it a cunning plan?" Ginny asked.
"So cunning that if it had a tail, it'd be a fox!" River declared. "Now listen..."
Later, as Harry was locking up, he couldn't help grinning. River Song had a streak of low cunning that almost matched Rons'! It would be interesting to see how those two got on, though he hoped for Hermiones' sake it wasn't too well!
As he passed the lounge, he saw something glowing softly. Kratos had left his tablet on the coffee-table, and Kreacher was looking at it.
"She looks a lot like her, doesn't she?" Harry asked. "I'm sorry, Kreacher. I should have asked you if you knew anything straight away."
"Master does not need to apologise." Kreacher said. "Kreacher does not know this woman. She does resemble Mistress Bellatrix, except for her eyes. Kreacher has seen those eyes before, but he cannot recall where."
Harry had the same feeling. It bothered him. But when he woke in the small hours, he knew where he'd seen those eyes. He also knew who might be able to give him the answers he needed.
