Harry Potter and the Approaching Darkness (Remastered)
Chapter 2: The Dinner Disaster
Harry and Ginny arrived at the restaurant much earlier than the rest of their party, and Harry immediately felt underdressed. The restaurant had only been open for a few months and was said to be one of the best in London, the owner was a wizard, but the establishment catered mostly to muggles. Only half the tables were in use when they arrived, but everyone in the building was very well dressed; Harry had only worn a simple button-down shirt and jeans. Thankfully, they had an entire section reserved for the night far away from all the muggle patrons.
Harry noticed a large family sitting at a table across the room and he could've sworn all the adults were staring at them as they walked in. He brushed this off, as it was not abnormal for people to stare at him, especially when he was with Ginny. The first group from their party arrived twenty minutes later when Teddy, George, and Angelina walked in. Teddy's hair was a bright, neon green color tonight, which stood out against the well-dressed crowd in the restaurant. Harry noted that the family he had seen earlier didn't even glance twice at the green haired teenager, even when he laughed, and a red stripe suddenly ran through the middle of his hair.
The rest of the Weasleys arrived shortly after; Ron and Hermione, Bill and Fleur, and finally Percy and Audrey. They were surprised by the arrival of Luna and Rolf who somehow managed to be the only two in their party that knew how to dress appropriately for the restaurant they had chosen. Luna explained that they had eaten here on opening night, and that they knew the owner from their travels abroad.
Harry ordered 6 bottles of wine for the table, and after about ten minutes Ron had attempted to order everyone a shot of firewhiskey, when the waitress told him they had Fireball Whiskey he replied, "Close enough," too loudly. Thankfully, Harry had put silencing charms around their section, so they didn't disturb any of the other customers. After everyone had attempted to take down the shots (some wildly unsuccessfully), they all ordered their meals.
After close to 45 minutes at the restaurant, everyone was very full and very drunk. George and Teddy had levitated their chairs and were racing them around the table while Hermione and Luna were arguing about all the various creatures Luna sold in her store. Hermione thought the animals would be better suited in the wild, not as pets, while Luna argued in a voice that made it seem she was hardly paying attention, that all the animals in her store had chosen to be there. Hermione thought this entirely unlikely. Harry and Ron were both laughing like madmen over how expensive the check was getting, and Rolf was telling anyone who would listen about his recent adventure to the United States.
Harry decided it was time to go pay the bill before anyone noticed Teddy and George's floating chair race. This whole affair was going to have to move to one of dance halls in magical London before the Weasley clan single-handedly rendered the Statute of secrecy null and void. He stood up and was walking to the counter where their waitress stood when the entire room went dark. All the conversation stopped, and Harry heard two chairs landing softly on the floor. He moved more quietly than before toward where he knew the hostess was standing. Just as he reached the stand, though, an almost blinding burst of red light flew through the door. Harry's reflexes kicked in and he was just about to throw a disarming spell in the direction of the caster, when he realized he obviously wasn't the target. The spell was heading straight for the large family he'd seen when they'd arrived. Harry was in the middle of shouting for them to get down when one of the men at the table that was facing away from the spell, spun on the spot and deflected the spell straight at Harry. Harry dove behind the hostess stand and cast Lumos maxima in the direction the first spell had come from. What he saw next almost made him lose his bearing.
At least a dozen men, all over six feet tall and wearing the exact same black suits, were standing at the door with their wands raised. Harry only had time to register that none of them seemed to have any distinguishing features, in fact they all looked almost exactly alike. Harry watched as the men at the door fired a barrage of spells, some of which he didn't even recognize, at the family in the corner. For their part, the family held their own without much trouble. Even the children were throwing hexes at their attackers. After more than 3 minutes, the first killing curse flew from the group of men at the door.
Seeing the telling green light fly across the room seemed to break all the Weasleys and Harry out of their trance-like state at once. A wall of spells and hexes lit up the room as they joined the fight. More than a few of them found their mark. The men at the door realized, too late, that they were now outnumbered at least two to one, and began to retreat, hurling curses over their shoulders as they ran. When the last one left the building, the lights came back on and Harry surveyed the damage to the restaurant.
At least three of the wait staff laid on the floor, including the woman who had been waiting on their table. Harry checked quickly and found that they were still alive. The only fatality, it appeared, was the hostess, who had been hit by a large piece of glass from the doors. Harry reached down, closed her eyes, and pulled the glass from her throat, magically sealing the wound and cleaning the blood. He turned around and came face to face with his wife, and two of the men from the table, glaring at each other.
"What in the hell was that?" Ron asked, he had apparently made it to Harry's side in the chaos, a comforting realization for Harry. His friend, even though he was piss drunk and likely a bit out of practice since leaving the Aurors, still had his back.
"Y'all took long enough to join in." Said a man from the table in a rough southern accent. Harry guessed he would be from Texas.
"Well we couldn't really tell which of you were the good guys, we only joined in at all because of the killing curse." Ginny retorted, clearly miffed. "A thank you wouldn't hurt, by the way."
"She's right, you know," Hermione said, "But, we'll have time for that later, for now, who are you and why did those men attack you?"
"The name's Tyler, and this is Adam," He said, motioning toward one of his companions. Harry studied Adam and Tyler with curiosity, Tyler was obviously the younger of the two, he seemed almost too young to be speaking for their group. Adam wore the same worried look that Harry knew he often wore himself, he seemed to be more interested in making sure the rest of his party was safe than he was in the conversation.
"And what, Tyler, are you all doing so far from home?" Ginny asked, "and why were those men trying to kill you?"
"Man." Adam said, "singular. Actually, it could be a woman I reckon."
"But there were at least twelve of them here," Ginny said, confused. She glanced at Harry and he could almost see his own expression mirrored on her face.
"Those were golems, they look like men, and as far as we can tell they're almost exactly like you and me, but they don't have any memories, and they obviously don't have any free will. I imagine when those three wake up, they'll be just as blank as can be, won't even remember the fight, not that they could tell you if they did." Tyler said all of this like it was completely obvious. Harry wiped the sweat from his forehead, moving his hair far enough to the side that he revealed his scar. Tyler's eyes lit up "Holy shit, you're Harry Potter," he said, almost in awe.
"The one and only," Harry said, he hadn't realized his reputation went as far as wherever these men were from. "You said those were golems, but somebody has to be controlling them, right? Like with an Imperious curse." The rest of the two groups had gathered around them by now. A woman with long black hair spoke next.
"That's the million-dollar question, we've been trying to figure that out for years," She said, "I'm Claire by the way, Claire Smith, Adam's wife. My husband brought us here thinking we could escape them by leaving the country." She held out her right hand, which Ginny and Harry both shook in turn.
"Listen, I'm sure we're all really glad to meet each other," Ron said, impatient, "but can't we do all the introductions somewhere else? I don't want to be here when all the muggles wake up."
They all agreed, and together they walked out of the restaurant. Each of the Weasleys grabbed a newcomer and apparated to Harry and Ginny's house in Godric's Hollow. Harry took one last look at the scene he was leaving behind, and as an afterthought, grabbed one of the stunned attackers off the floor and spun on the spot, disappearing with a crack.
After an hour with their new guests, Harry had learned that they were all from different parts of the United States. Adam and Claire were from California and had four children, twin boys (Ian and Ryan) both with brown hair and the darkest brown eyes Harry had ever seen, they were almost all black. They also had Susan, who was two years younger than the twins and had short black hair, and finally, Michael who Harry hadn't heard speak yet and seemed to be deathly afraid of everything around him. There was Kayla and Zach Findlay, two of the other adults, and their son Jared. They were from Georgia, Atlanta to be precise. And of course, Tyler Cherry and his daughter Payton from Tennessee.
Harry learned that Tyler and Adam spent nine years serving in the American Magical Armed Forces, where they fought alongside the muggle military forces in order to minimize casualties and fight off any wizards that happened to be working against them without the muggles realizing what was happening. They then spent a year guarding the American Minister of Magic, where they met Zach. He also learned that soon after they took the job guarding the Minister, he went "bat shit crazy" according to Tyler and killed over a dozen muggles in broad daylight. Of course, he was removed from power, but not before he took down over half of his "Secret Service". Only ten of his guards were left standing after the battle, they had all been released by his successor and now only three of them were left. Adam explained that shortly after, the other members of their team started dying in the attacks, nobody ever saw the attackers. Eventually, people started calling whoever was behind it The Darkness. He told Harry how the three of the three families had come together to protect each other, and it had all, mostly, worked out fine.
"It all went well, that is, until a month ago when the darkness attacked our safehouse in the middle of the night. Most of us were asleep, Tyler and his wife, Kaitlyn, were awake keeping watch. They woke us up and we fought for almost an hour before there were too many of them. So, we retreated, but right before we could apparate out of there…" Adam paused, looking at Tyler.
Tyler finished for him, "Kaitlyn got hit by a stunner as the rest of us apparated and I splinched myself trying to stop my turn." He showed Harry his shoulder, where the mark of a recently healed gash stood out against his skin.
Adam continued his story, "From there we decided to avoid using magic if we could. We figured that was how they were tracking us. We boarded a cruise ship and came to Europe hoping they wouldn't follow us. I guess we saw how that turned out," he finished.
Harry reflected on his story, "How did it find you so quickly? Especially since you're not using magic," he asked.
"We…" Adam said bowing his head, "Have absolutely no idea." The idea that there was some dark wizard capable of controlling that many inanimate golems, which prior to tonight Harry had only read about in books, had Harry especially worried. The years since Voldemort had been relatively peaceful and Harry had the feeling that this was the end of that.
Harry yawned and looked at his watch, "3 AM? I should get at least a little sleep before tomorrow, and you lot should too. We don't have enough bedrooms for everyone to have their own, but my children aren't here right now so you can split up between their rooms and the guest room."
The Weasleys, other than Ron and Hermione, all left the house. Ron and Hermione followed Harry and Ginny to the bedroom, saying they would use the bedroom fireplace to go home. Once they were all inside, Harry shut the door, "Bloody hell," Ron said, "I thought we were done with all this dark wizard nonsense."
" And now we've gone one that is literally known as The Darkness, how cliché is that?" Ginny offered. She was clearly exhausted, as was Harry. But he noticed a fire in her eyes that he hadn't seen since she stopped playing quidditch professionally. Ginny was fiercely competitive, but she was even more fiercely protective, and Harry could already see she wouldn't ever let this new family, who had suffered so much, out of their protection.
"What should we do Harry?" Hermione asked, noticing the look on Harry's face. He turned to face her.
"I don't know, I'm going to consider their story at work tomorrow, and we'll need to put them up somewhere with a fidelius charm. What about the beach house?" Harry asked.
"I think we should use your old apartment, it's closer and in a muggle area so less magical eyes around," Ginny said. Harry was surprised Ginny suggested it, as she hated that they even kept the apartment. It was, as she explained it, a boy's apartment.
"That could work. I think we should see if the children can go to Hogwarts until this is over. It's the safest place for them I think," Hermione said, "I'll owl Neville and Minerva to see what they can do." Of course, Hermione's first thought would be about putting the children in school.
"You do remember McGonagall isn't the headmistress anymore?" Ron asked, "what could she really do?" Harry noticed Ron seemed to already be on edge, he obviously never thought they would be in this position again. Harry couldn't blame him, though, he doubted anyone would've expected this. He certainly hadn't.
"You think just because she retired, doesn't mean she doesn't have a hand in running it Ronald." Hermione stated. "If I had to guess, I'd say Minerva has more influence than Kingsley on the way Hogwarts is run."
"You're probably right, I'm still a little tipsy from earlier I think," Ron said, laughing awkwardly, still looking about as if the men were going to appear in the room with them at any moment.
"Let's all sleep it off, and figure out what to do tomorrow," Harry said. Ron and Hermione stepped into the fireplace and spun out of sight. Harry looked for Ginny and found her, already sleeping soundly on the bed, still in the same clothes she had worn to the restaurant earlier in the evening. Harry kicked off his tennis shoes, and fell onto the bed next to her, he was asleep before his head hit the pillow.