Chapter 1: the present.
Three years since prologue:
Harry Potter walked hand in hand with one of his best friends looking to the entire world like a young muggle couple very deeply in love. Between there innocent displays of affection, neither one of them wanted to anger their respective partners, one of whom was not too far away watching them through a magical spy glass, Harry had to fight the urge to not scratch at the fake beard he was wearing.
Death eaters have gotten into the habit of carrying around a new magical item called a trueball, which would glow green when anyone that is under the influence of polyjuice potion was within the vicinity. So the aurors had to use non-conventional, at least for witches and wizards, means of being able to get close to their targets to be able to spring their trap and not allow them time to disapparate.
As to why he and Hermione were the lucky two aurors stuck with the task of getting close enough to confirm the target is all thanks to Peter Pettigrew. It had been his tactic of hiding among muggles and when he was about to be captured, casting a devastating area spell killing dozens of them and escaping in the confusion.
The new generation of death eaters had taken it a step further; they build their safe houses besides schools, hospitals anything that would give the aurors pause before attacking. It was after the second incident of mass causalities among the muggles that the ministry had changed its tactics to compensate for their underhandedness.
Unlike many other wizards, Harry still read the muggle news and he knew how far reaching those two attacks had been. Sadly some death eaters read the same newspapers and had gotten into the habit of committing such attacks, using the Imperius curse on a pillar of a minority community and have him publicly take credit for the attack. Ethnic tensions in England had gotten so bad because of this that visible minorities now traveled in groups for protection, sadly this gave the average Briton a reason to fear them even more.
Harry knew that the only way to ease tension was to lock up all the death eaters but that was harder done then said. Unlike the last time that the dark lord had been defeated, none of the death eaters at the battle of Hogwarts could talk their way out of being implicated. So those that were not captured went into hiding, they represent the old death eater guard.
The new guard, were true blood wizards that had gotten a taste of their ideal world, one without muggle born or blood traitors. The recent election of Ms. Hillary Fletcher, a half-blooded witch, to the position of minister of magic further polarized the wizarding world; they were close to a full wizard and witch civil war. With the normal humans stuck in the middle it seemed.
As to answer the previous question, the reason it was him and Hermione and not two other aurors, without jealous partners, that had to do this was because most non-muggle born wizards or witches stood out like a sore thumbs among the normal masses; thus making them easy to spot by the death eater watchers. So far the two of them had gotten past two such watchers and were close enough that all they had to do was, wait for the signal to cast the net.
Suddenly Hermione twirled him around blew a kiss in his direction and a rather sultry wink. Harry couldn't help but smile, knowing that neither of those where meant for him but for his other best friend watching from a safe distance. What made Harry truly happy was that his two friends' relationship was finally on solid ground; for a while he feared he would have to make a choice between them.
It had all started the year after the Hogwarts war, both he and Hermione had registry to finish their final year there and get their degrees, it was a record in Hogwarts' history with the most number of people retaking a year; none of the students of that year had actually had a chance to do their final exam. Distressingly Ron decided not to attend; instead he wanted to spend a year traveling abroad and find himself.
Harry had felt betrayed by his friend's decision, thinking that Ron had finally gotten over this hiccup of his about who he really was only to go back to square one. Hermione was devastated, they had only been going out as an official couple less than a year and he already wanted to leave. Worst of all Ron did not want to travel in the wizarding world but the muggle one; he had not even wanted to bring his wand along, thankfully between his family and his friends they convinced him that a lot of death eaters would consider it a feather in their caps if they were the ones to kill him.
Unfortunately traveling in the muggle world meant that Ron had no way to stay in contact with Hermione except for letter he would send to her parents' home, who then drop it off at the ministry of magic who then owled it to Hogwarts. Harry still remembered the dark day when Ron had left, Hermione had cried on his shoulder for hours, blaming herself for not making him feel more like a man; that was the first time that Harry could remember hating Ron.
As far as Hermione was concerned she and Ron were through, she started dating Justin Finch-Fletcher, the nephew of the current minister of magic. But as promised every other week a letter from Ron was dropped in her lap; at first she threw them away, Harry would dig them out of the trash and save them knowing that she would want to read them later.
It was not until three weeks passed without a letter that Hermione had gotten worried, she had another hysterical fit worrying that since she had not answered he had forgotten about her. Going through older letters she was relieved, in a way, to discover that none of them had any return addresses and that Ron did not expect her to answer since he never stayed in a place long enough to receive letters.
In true Ron fashion he explained his decision in the letters better than he ever could in person and Harry had to admit it was a good reason. In short as far as Ron was concerned Hermione was the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. But even though she knew everything about his world he knew nothing of hers, the muggle world, so he decided to travel her world as one of its own to truly understand her and to truly feel he is worthy of her. That weekend Harry had the unfortunate chance of seeing first hand women in turmoil, something that is usual only reserved for their close female friends. Hermione went from gushing loving words for the sweet fool, to cursing his chauvinistic idiocy, to crying tears of joy, to nearly tearing the letters up out of her urge to strangle Ron and finally worry about why no new letters had appeared.
Delightedly the next week two letters showed up, a mix up with the muggle mail had delayed the previous one. From then it started a trend, Hermione would sulk around for two weeks, be ecstatic for a few days only to go back to moping around. This continued until after Christmas when during a night drinking at the three broomsticks a parcel was delivered to their table.
It was address to the both of them as "Ron's late Christmas gift". Hermione opened it without hesitation, a foolish move seen through hindsight. In it was something both of them knew from their days living normal lives, a cell phone. "Oh Ron you sweet idiot." Was all Hermione could really say about the gift.
Harry was never sure how many normal witches and wizards knew that everyday muggle technology did not work around or in the wizarding world. Hermione had a theory as to why this happened, she hypothesized that the reality paradigm of the wizarding world could not accept ideas like micro-chips and receivers; thus things that where high level technologically, computers, cell phones in fact most machines that in the eyes of the laymen muggle appeared to be magic did not work. When she first brought up the subject to one of her university professors he was so intrigued that he talked the university into giving her a grand so she can study this more.
Since neither one of them were expecting much of the thoughtful if useless gift, when it rang they nearly jumped out of their skins. Looking down at it neither one of them could figure out what to do, also the strange sound had attracted the attention of the other students lounging around the cauldron. Finally Hermione picked it up and flipped it open: "Hello?" she asked hesitantly.
"Oy! I'm not a complete idiot you know! Just remember who m'dad is, I may not have grown up with them like you and Harry but I sure as hell grew up around muggle tools when they went boom because of magic." Ron's peeved voice could be clearly heard through the cell phone.
"RON!" Hermione cried in surprise and joy.
"The one and only, how you doing 'mione?" he replied with his usual cheerful self. Hermione couldn't believe how good that silly nickname of his sounded when it was said by him.
"But how?"
"I got the idea in Los Angeles, blimey but everyone and their dog has one there. Anyway i spend Christmas at my parents place and got to talking with m'dad; one thing led to another and what you are holding in your hand is the end product." He explained proudly.
Hermione didn't really care as to the how, all she could think about was his voice and how she missed him terribly.
"Wait so you were at your parents! How come Ginny didn't tell me that she saw you?" she asked, trying to give Ginny the benefit of the doubt before she bit her head off for not telling her.
"Don't be mad at Ginny 'mione, I asked her not to tell as to not ruin the surprise." He explained quickly knowing how volatile the Granger temper really was, besides the only reason his sister had agreed not to tell Hermione was because he had bribed her by promising to make her a cell for her next.
"Oh Ron, I don't care about a bloody phone as long as I can see you or at the very least have someone tell me you're okay." She said hating herself for being sappy but not being able to help it.
"'mione the phone is the gift not the surprise… at least I hope it is a surprise for you and not for me." Before Hermione could ask him to elaborate more she heard a gentle rapping on the window besides her.
She couldn't turn her head, her mind was giving her a hundred things that could have knocked on the window, a confused bird, a branch, Ginny wanting to catch her attention; she didn't want to turn around and be disappointed. Another rap on the window glass and Harry's delighted expression as he looked outside gave her courage to risk disappointment and look out.
And there he stood in all his lanky glory, with a phone to one ear and a duffle bag over the other shoulder and an expression stuck between happiness and worry. "He grew taller!" was the first thing that crossed her mind; he had also gone against the tradition of his other brothers and had cut his hair short. He had also lost a lot of weight; the heavy bomber jacket he wore couldn't hide that fact from her.
She could not guess as to how long she sat there looking out at him standing in the gently falling snow and hearing his breathing through the phone. A rather painful kick under the table snapped her out of her daze, and she noticed that worry was fast taking over the happiness on Ron's face.
Dropping her gift and not giving a damn about the weather outside she made a mad dash outside barely giving Ron enough time to put his own phone in his pocket before she plowed right into him knocking them both to the snowy ground. Harry had been sure at the time, and still is, that if Madam Rosmerta rented out rooms to students he would not have had a chance to spend any time with his best friend. Not that that stopped Hermione from snogging Ron right in the middle of the street until a passing teacher had pull them apart with magic.
That evening it felt like old times, the three of them sitting around drinking mead and swapping stories. Unlike most times it was Ron that was the story teller, regaling them with tales of places he had been and the things he had seen. In way Harry was jealous of Ron, for he had seen more of the muggle world then Harry and Hermione ever had even though they live most of their lives in it.
Soon after they were joined by Ginny and George, who due to Christmas being his busiest time had not had a chance to go home and see his brother. Between retelling some of his stories, Ron was assaulted by questions from his brother as to how the phone worked.
After a demonstration, he had called his dad who had the only other working phone apart from Hermione's; he explained that they were still working out a few bugs. For one you can hear what people were saying even before they picked up and that the range was not all that great still.
That night was important for reasons other than his two friends reuniting, at the end of that year; George sold the shop and, after a long legal battle with the ministry of magic about using muggle artifacts, opened WizCom Inc. the first wizarding telecommunication company.
Harry was pulled back from the past when Hermione's cell phone, the original one that Ron had given her, rang.
"Hello mum!" Hermione answered a twinkle in her eyes telling anyone that had eyes to see that the person at the other end of the line was the one she truly loved.
"How come I have to be mum, didn't we agree I was your cousin!" Ron answered back trying to sound upset but loving these few moments with his girlfriend before she went into battle; how he hated not being able to be by her side.
"Oh mum you know I can't call you that, it would be too strange." Hermione played along nearly forgetting that she was about to go into battle with people that would not hesitate to kill her.
"And you think calling your boyfriend mum is any better, blimey 'mione I think you have issues we really need to address one of these days."
"How about you punish me when I get home mum because I've been such a bad girl." Harry could not help but take a gulp that he was sure his friend on the other end of the line had taken as well. Hermione, both the two men had decided, got frisky before a battle and the more she grew out of her shell the more she discovered she liked teasing her boyfriend like this.
Ron for his part had to cough a few times and give a police officer besides him a dry look when the other one chuckled a bit at the MI 5's agent's discomfort. Ron knew he had to keep his head in the game, not only was he the backup in case anything went wrong with the auror assault team but he had to keep these muggles away from the battlefield.
It had surprised a lot of people when Ron had decided to go to work at the ministry of magic in the muggle affair bureau. Money was no longer an issue for the Weasley family after the opening of WizCom. Even though the phones never took off with the older generations every young witch and wizard had one, professor McGonagall was quoted as saying that she could not believe that the blasted Weasley brothers still managed to disrupt her class even though none of them were at Hogwarts anymore.
He was still the co-founder of the company and had a position at the director table but the life of a business man was not what he wanted, he left that to George, the president. Instead he had fallen in love with muggles and decided that he would follow in his father's footsteps. Normally a position in muggle affairs was not the most glamorous, but after it was determined that death eaters were hiding among them a decision to bridge the gap between wizard law enforcement and muggle law enforcement was agreed upon from both sides.
And Ron was chosen to be that bridge, the muggles gave him a rank in their MI 5 organization as a special agent with far reaching powers, at least where it would be needed to clear a street like tonight. And the ministry of magic put him under the aurors leadership structure. Hypothetically he was under the command of Harry, who was squad leader, in reality as long as a mission was in the muggle world he called the shots as to when they can start.
Also it was his duty to insure that the wards that the team was setting up held, and was backup in case they needed any. Not that he hoped they would, he had not been in a wand fight in a year and was rusty to say the least.
"Okay luz, back to business. See that Asian couple walking by? They are the last of the pedestrians. I managed to close the street for ten minutes so you guys better be fast about it." Ron said all business now.
"Okay mum after I have Asian for dinner I'll be home in ten minutes," Hermione responded giving Harry all the information he needed.
"'mione be careful… I love you." Ron managed to say before she hung up, hating himself for breaking protocol like this but knowing he would hate himself even more if he had not said it.
"I love you too Ron, I'll see you in ten minutes" she whispered back not caring that she may break her cover.
As Harry watched the Asian couple walk passed, he could not but worry that the newest member of his squad had done his job right. His squad consisted of him and Hermione as the spear head, it was their job to rush the death eater safe house, while Williamson and Katie Bell took care of the watchers and acted as backup in case more death eaters showed up trying to trap Harry and Hermione in a cross fire.
The last member of the team and the newest was Richard McGonagall, great nephew of professor McGonagall, who due to his animorph ability was given the most important task; setting up the wards around the safe house without being seen.
Harry had reservations about giving Richard, who was much older than Harry but had joined the aurors only recently, this task. The trapping wards where the height of wizardry, their primary task was to stop anyone from disparating from within the confines of the wards but it is their secondary ability that proved most useful.
They acted like an intricate confusion spell on muggles; as far as the police officers that had blockaded the street, under Ron's order, were concerned all they would see is an empty street with maybe some fireworks. Their minds would justify what they saw and prevent them from truly understanding it and in case a muggle somehow got past them and tried to enter the warded section he would unconsciously turn around or stop, preventing them from getting in harm's way.
Sadly the wards were difficult to set up and even a small mistake would mean that the death eaters inside will escape the minute he and Hermione rushed in, or worst reinforcement would appear and turn the tides of battle. Still professor McGonagall had vouched for her great nephew and he had passed all the tested needed to perform the necessary incantations to set them up.
As the Asian couple turned a corner a car honk rang out, Ron's signal for everyone to act. Without a second thought, trusting Williamson and Katie to take care of the watchers, Harry and Hermione broke into a run towards the death eater hide out; just as they were about to crash in he felt the wards go up and let out a breath of relief he did not know he was holding in.
This patch of death eaters had set up base in an old deli under a kindergarten, thankfully at this time of day no one was in it, but they could not afford for it to be damaged. Their last report put three death eaters and two muggles under the Imperius curse inside; one of the death eaters was their main target: Rabastan Lestrange. Both Harry and Hermione wanted Rabastan, not only because he was an original death eaters but because he was also one of the dark wizards that had tortured their friend Neville Longbottom's parents into a catatonic state.
"Bombarda Maxima" Harry bellowed as the spell blasted the front of the store open and both he and Hermione let loose a barrage of stupfication spells into the deli targeting the muggles, taking them out and removing as potential hostages.
Thankfully the two young death eaters made the mistake of trying to disparat only to be knocked flat on their backs because of the wards, making them an easy target for the two aurors to paralyze them. Unfortunately Rabastan was a veteran death eater and had not made the same mistake, instead of trying to escape he cried out "Serpansotia" conjuring two snakes that slithered towards the unconscious muggles.
"STOP" commanded Harry in parseltongue pitting his will against the enchantment on the snakes to attack the helpless staff members of the deli. While he was busy with the snakes Rabastan made a dash for one of the windows. Hermione tried to stop him but made the mistake of aiming her stupefy spell too high, giving Rabastan the chance to counter it and reflect it back at her, knocking her back and out.
As the snakes bowed their heads to Harry he took a second to check on Hermione and made sure that she was only knocked out and ran after Rabastan, knowing that if the death eater got out of the warded area he would go so deep into hiding that they would probably never find him again.
He jumped through the window that his prey had so kindly blown out in his escape and into the alley. The wards covered this alley and another city block around the deli, as long as Harry caught up with the death eater before he left the area he was sure he could subdue him.
As he got close to the end of the alley, where it led to a back parking lot, he heard a strange humming sound slicing through the air. Diving into a roll as he exited the alley, not wanting to give Rabastan an easy target if he was waiting for him, he came up and was greeted with an unusual sight.
Standing over the decapitated body of Rabastan was a man in strange robes wearing what looked like a futuristic knight's helmet and holding a glowing red sword. Before Harry could command him to drop his weapon, the man extended his arm and a wall of force hit Harry and propelled him backwards into the wall behind him.
As he was flying backward, Harry hurled a stupefy spell at his attacker and was astounded when the knight parried it with his glowing sword. But the spell was still enough to send his attacker reeling back and the hand holding the sword went limp at his side; then Harry's vision went white as he hit the wall. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the man jumping a full three floors straight up to land on the roof of the adjacent building and take off.
"…ha… harr… HARRY, mate you okay?" Ron's voice came from a distance as Harry regained consciousness.
The young auror shook his head, and nearly vomited from the sudden movement and looked over at his friend who was half carrying half dragging Hermione with him, who looked about as good as Harry felt.
"Blimey mate, what happened?" Ron asked pointing towards the body of Rabastan.
"Not really sure, there was another wizard here, or at least I think it was a wizard. He's the one that nicked Rabastan's head clean of his shoulders." Harry answered still trying to stop from puking and knowing he would have to spend the night at the infirmary.
"Well whatever it was we need to move. Katie is taking care of damage repair; Williamson is moving the prisoners and we'll leave the disposal of the body to Richard. I've got to get the two of you to the infirmary." Ron said taking charge of the situation knowing that he had only maybe another five minutes before the police would get curious and investigate.
Nodding his agreement Harry let his friend pick him and help him out of the parking lot. As they made their way clear of the crime scene, the only thing Harry could think about was the sword that the strange held. Unless Harry had been hit harder then he thought, he was sure that the hilt of the sword looked nothing like something from the wizarding world. In fact he could swear that it looked mechanical; and that was not a spell that had hit him, it was something else.
"What is going on?" was the only thing he could ask himself.
End chapter 1,
Afterthoughts: well here we go finally getting into the actual story. I may have OOC some of the cast but I like to think that they have evolved some since their teenage years. Also to answer the question that some of you are thinking I have mad love for the Ronster, out of the three he was the most human in my opinion, ironic since he is the only one raised by wizards.
I had a tough time trying to describe the sound of a lightsaber without relying on made up words like: zooohng or bhluuum anyway if someone can figure out how to better describe it, it will help later on when I have more than one light saber duel. As always reviews are always important since they make me want to write no flames since that makes me want to kick puppies. Cute puppies with sad eyes and three legs.