C O Potter
Year Three
Chapter 4
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As they checked into their four different bungalow style rooms on the northern coast of Haiti, Harry's contact in the country found them.
"Good morning Lord Gryffindor!" The darkest man Harry had ever met in his life greeted him in heavily accented French. "I am Ed. I will be your guide for your visit to Haiti. I will take you to meet Director Wood when you and your family are ready. I have brought a portkey for you."
Shaking his hand, "Please, call me Harry," he smiled at the man. "The others should be here momentarily, thank you." After they had all gathered in Harry and Hermione's room, and introductions were made, the group of them portkeyed over to meet Director Wood at his office.
Rising the tall, slender man walked over and greeted all of them enthusiastically. "Welcome! Welcome to Haiti! I am Director Wood!" He said with a large white smile.
Ed went about making the introductions, and after a sufficient number of chairs were conjured, all of them sat down, and Harry started to explain the reasoning for his visit.
"Director Wood, part of the reason for our visit is to teach my children that it is truly better to give, then to receive. They have grown up in an environment where they want for nothing. I have read many articles about the suffering and misery that many of the Haitian people suffer on a daily basis. I don't know the full extent of their suffering. But as you and I have talked, you said that there are things that we could do to help them."
"That is very noble of you sir. And it is truly better to give, then to receive. To teach that at a young age will grow a better person later in life! I need to caution you about some things. I was recently approached by some bad men, some very-bad men! They were wanting my help in procuring young women, girls really, to be sold into slavery. Us; people that escaped from slavery, selling our own into slavery. Human traffickers are what they call them today. But it is still slavery. This young woman here," he was indicating Cecilia, "she would bring a high price because of her good looks and healthy body. Don't ever let her leave your sight, or you may never see her again!" The director admonished Cedric. "Please, keep track of your children at all times, while you are here on the island. The corruption in the muggle government runs very deep," he cautioned sternly. "Now!" his whole demeanour changing in an instant and becoming cheerful. "I understand that you, Lady Gryffindor are a healer? And that you work with abused women and children?"
"Yes, and Angelica is an Emergency Room doctor also. What do you have need of?" Hermione asked brightly, smiling at the man.
"We have women and children in the small villages, in the mountains that the local doctors," he paused for a moment to search for the right words, "don't have time to see. They are muggles, and the wizarding healers are not inclined to help them because they cannot afford to pay," he fessed up.
"What are your laws on using magic?" Harry inquired. He knew that seven of them could help. Four of them magically and the fifth with medications and two others as dentists. He did not want anyone ending up in a wizarding jail for breaking local laws.
"There is a lot of so-called black magic that is practised in these areas. It is what they call voodoo. As for wizarding magic, the laws here are not well enforced. I will send a couple of my men to protect you, and because you are working with me, you will have my protection also," the director answered him but did not answer him. Harry made a mental note of this.
"We will need to travel by portkey to the different areas. Is there anyone keeping track of portkey travel? Will Ed still be our guide?" Harry probed not so subtlety.
"Yes, I will send Ed with you and two others. Are you still planning on staying, until the end of the week?"
"Yes, unless an emergency happens and we're called back," Harry answered, that small nagging voice in the back of his head was starting to gnaw at him. Constant Vigilance!
"What do you think Angel? Was this a mistake on my part bringing all of us here?"
"I don't like all of his answers either, Harry. Let's help those that we can, and if we start to feel uncomfortable, we can leave. As noble as this is, it's not worth risking our lives. We can go this afternoon to the worst areas and help those in the most need."
"Okay, Moody was right though, Constant Vigilance."
At the same time that Harry and Hermione were talking to each other, Cici and Cedric started talking to each other also.
"I don't know if I trust this guy Ced."
"Yeah, me neither. Did you see the way that he was looking at you?"
"Yeah, I did. It made me feel really uncomfortable. It was like I was a piece of meat that he was pricing. I don't mind helping these people, but we need to keep our eyes open."
"Well, let's go to the worst village first so we can help the ones in the most need first," Harry said to the man playing innocent.
"Great! Ed, take them to the village in the mountains that got hit the worst in that hurricane," Wood said in a commanding voice. "If you have any troubles, I will help you in any way that I can Harry!" he said to them in a reassuring tone.
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The whole party landed in a clearing about 500 metres from the community. As they walked to the village, Ed took the lead so he could look for the village leader.
With Harry, Hermione, Cedric, and Cici's ability to speak to the local women in Creole, they started to learn that the slavers had taken some of the local girls, and when the mothers tried to protect their daughters, they were viscously beaten, many of them had broken bones that were not set correctly. They also learned that many of the men did not live there, but instead they stayed in the larger cities because that's where the work was. The poverty of these people was breaking their hearts. Learning that they lived on less than €2.00 a day was truly heart-wrenching.
Ed was asking the village leader if they could use his home so they could begin healing the sick and the injured. The four of them quickly decided that they could have the patients cover their faces with towels, this would hide the fact that they were going to use magic to diagnose and then treat them where they could. Working as much as they could, behind closed doors. Harry was the one that did the triage. Hermione had grabbed Angelica quickly to help her with the most severe injuries. The two teens each work in separate rooms healing minor cuts and simple fractures.
"Why haven't these injuries been healed properly?" Cedric thought to Cici.
"I know! We both have had worse injuries from playing Quidditch. I'm glad that El and Toll had us start learning basic first aid."
"We need to go into the house tonight and step up our first aid training if we want to help more. I haven't learned anything from my mum." Cedric thought glumly.
"Me neither. I just thought, just thought that it wasn't important yet. Then as we started with the combat training, I could see where it might be useful. But now, we could really use more knowledge! Be careful that you don't get too tired. The healing magic takes a lot of magic from us." Cici cautioned.
One of the last women to be seen by Hermione and Angelica was a young mother whose fourteen-year-old daughter had been taken three nights earlier. The attackers had crushed her face with the butt of a gun as they took the screaming girl from her mother. The mother told them that she fought as hard as she could. To punish her, and make an example of her, they raped her and beat her repeatedly in front of the whole village. She told them that she kicked and screamed, but no one came to her aid. It seemed to go on for hours, and finally, she shut her brain off because there was nothing else she could do.
"What could I do?" She asked of no one in particular. "In the end, they just tossed me aside like a broken doll," she confided in the two women.
Putting her to sleep, Hermione used her wand to check her vitals and then she started to rebuild the woman's face. After finishing with her face, she repaired her broken ribs and healed her other broken bones. As she moved down to the woman's hips, Hermione frowned and became angry. As she closed her mind off more, to focus on the task at hand, she started to repair all of the damage done to the woman's reproductive organs. After waking the young mother, they gave her a potion for the bruising that she had received, and they told her to be very careful the next several days so that she would not damage the healing work that had been done.
The Grangers kept an eye on the three youngest children as they started to play with other kids. Even the Potter kids brought the local kids in to have old wounds healed correctly. For a lot of these kids, Harry would distract the child and then wandlessly heal the child's injury by running his hand over the wound. Before they left, Hermione and Angelica used most of Hermione's potions treating the diseased. As they were leaving, they walked around the small village looking at the living conditions. The fact that they had no safe, clean, drinking water really bothered both Harry and Dan. How could these people expect their children to grow up healthy and strong if there wasn't even clean water to drink and cook with? All of the water had to be boiled before it could be used. They learned that this was a terrorist tactic used by the country's previous government when they poisoned the primary source of drinking water to control the peoples. After having been in the village for a few hours, they portkeyed back to the hotel for lunch. Harry told their escorts that they would stay at the hotel until two o'clock when they would want to go to another village to help the people in that community.
Talking to the teens, at lunch, Harry suggested that they get a short nap in to recharge their magical cores, and he would wake them in time to go to the next village.
When the teens and Harry were alone, Cedric told his father, "Dad, I think that we are going to go into the house so we can get additional training in the healing arts. What we saw this morning is really disturbing, and it bothers both of us that people treat other people that way."
Harry looked to see Cecilia crying at the thought of what they had witnessed that morning.
"That's very grown up of you two to do that. So many other people come here for just the fun and the sun. They don't look past the resorts. We'll see you at 2:00," Harry told the two of them. He was proud of his son and his new wife for thinking beyond themselves.
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As the group walked towards the second village, they were met at the edge of the small town by several people. The village leader approached them and told them that they had been contacted by the first village, and they have a young woman that was attacked and beaten just last night when the slavers came and took three young girls. The local healer had done all that she could, but the young woman was not expected to live through the night. As they hurried to the young woman, others in the village started gathering around, bringing their sick and injured to be healed. Harry and the others could feel the magic radiating off of Hermione in waves as she became angrier at the situation.
Cedric said to his dad, "Cici and I will work out of this house here if they let us."
The owner of the hut told the teens that it was okay, "Please do," he said, eagerly. He would help those that wanted to help his people.
As the adults started helping the villagers, the younger kids started playing with the local children. Harry had the people start making a line so he could do triage on the sick and injured. He began sending people to Cedric and then to Cici waiting for word from Hermione about the brutalised woman. The two teens had picked up their pace on healing the locals, which helped take the pressure off of Harry, who was working with the kids again.
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When Hermione and Angelica entered, the room where the woman lay on a cot, the stench of death was in the air. When the door was closed behind them, and she had made sure that they were alone, Hermione quickly banished the woman's clothes to see the full extent of the injuries. Angelica pointed out the defensive wounds on the mother of the taken girl. She had put up a valiant fight, and all it got her was brutalised worse than the first woman they healed that morning. Her attackers had caused many internal injuries that were bleeding. The first thing Hermione told Angelica, was to give the young mother a blood replenishing potion, as she worked to stop the internal bleeding. Once the internal bleeding was stopped. She worked to repair the damages done by those who brutalised her. Then she worked at healing her shattered bones, and then finally, she started rebuilding her face that had been crushed, probably with the butt of a rifle. After waking the woman, they gave her two more blood replenishing potions and another potion for the bruising. Hermione turned around and conjured some clothing for her, as she handed the clothes to her, she told her to rest for several days, and take it easy to avoid damaging the healing work that had been done today.
As the two doctors left the healers hut, they were met by people that were sick. The teens had healed most of the others, it was just the sick that needed the potions to be healed. When Hermione looked in her bag, she saw that she didn't have enough to heal all of the different people that were sick.
She called the healer to her and asked, "Please, just bring me the ones that are the sickest. All I have left is enough for ten people." As the healer moved through her people, she found the ten sickest people that she sent to the Medicine Woman so she could heal them.
Again, they walked through the village before heading to the clearing to portkey back to the hotel rooms.
"This is sickening that people have to live this way!" Cici said heatedly. "This is just wrong!" she growled as they arrived in the hotel room.
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After dinner and a glass of wine later. The younger children were in bed asleep. Harry, Hermione, Cici, and Cedric went walking on the beach. The cruise ship had already left, so the hustle and bustle of the tourists were gone. It was just the four of them, strolling on one of the few sandy beaches in Haiti, enjoying a warm tropical night, their conversation was quiet and guarded.
"I want to thank you two for all of your help with Hermione today," Harry was saying. "You, helped a lot of people that would not have received any help."
"What happened? What did they do?" Hermione asked as she remembered to lower her mental shields.
"While you worked on the two young women that were in the worst condition. Cedric and Cici handled all the rest of the people needing healing." Harry said proudly as he pulled Mione in tighter against him.
"We are not alone," Hermione thought to Harry.
"I can feel them also Angel. You did a magnificent job today helping those women," Harry thought back with his love and admiration flooding through their mental link. He was hoping that the kids could feel the other people closing in on them.
Poppoppoppop went the ambush, as Harry felt a wand pressed to the back of his head. Looking he could see Hermione in a similar situation and Cici too. Only Cedric was free, and he had his wand out, pointed at a man that looked strangely like one of their escorts. Glancing around, Ced could see that the others were being held at wand point.
"Mi Amor? Are you okay?" Ced asked Cici.
She could feel the worry and the love flooding through their mental link as she was being held by one stinky guy. Hadn't this guy ever heard of deodorant? "Yes, but I thought that I felt five of them, not just the four that have us."
Cici had no more than finished the thought when Harry collapsed to the ground. Hermione broke free, and Cici was apparated away in front of them. Cedric cast a diffindo/stupefy that hit his assailant square in the chest, cutting through his heart, just as the man apparated away. Hermione was on Harry instantly she cast rennervate to help Harry come around. Throwing herself on him, she kissed him, so grateful that he was still alive. The worry and fear were flooding through their mental link. As they kissed, they were enveloped in a golden blue glow, healing Harry and restoring the full power of their magical core.
"I thought that I had lost you again!" She cried into his shoulder. Out loud she said, "Cedric, do not shift to Cici. Is Cici okay?"
"Yes, she's okay. They are walking her to a shipping container," Ced replied, worried about his new bride.
"Don't break the mental link. That is what is going to allow us to rescue her and capture the bad guys. Keep talking to her and keep her calm. The more information that she can give us the easier it will be to find her," Hermione said taking charge of the situation. "That man that you hexed didn't he look like one of the escorts assigned to guard us?"
"Yes, Cici said the same thing. She also thinks that the man that took her stinks!" Ced answered his mother. "Cici just gave me the shipping container number. She says that there are thousands of containers, but from what she can figure out each container has a different number that she can see. She says that the men are talking about the ship is going to leave tomorrow. They are pushing her inside of the container. There are a lot of other girls in the container. They seem to be okay. It stinks in there, like a muggle porta potty. Oh, that is a plastic loo used at outdoor events. There are holes cut into the sides of the container that she can see out of. There are bunks built inside. She is looking out one of the holes, all she can see are containers. She is moving to the far end of the container. She can see a ship. She is looking for the name of the ship. She says that there are other containers on top of their container, so they are not moving yet. Okay, she can see the name of the ship. She can't read the name, sorry she can't pronounce the name of the ship, but the ship is from Syria. I told her to help the other girls that need healing and to get some rest. What are we going to do?"
"Don't shift to her just yet," Harry told him as he got back to his feet. "As your mum would tell you. Rushing in does not always make the problem better. We need to find Ed. Shacklebolt had gone through a vetting process on Ed but not on Director Wood, and I did not like the way that Wood was looking at Cici."
"I think that we all did not like the way he looked at her, dad. Cici told me that he was looking at her like a piece of meat." The revulsion was dripping off of his words as he said them.
As father and son talked, Hermione had sent her patronus to bring Ed to them. Getting the guys attention, she started walking back to their hotel room. The guys still talking in hushed tones. As they entered the room, Hermione cast the different privacy charms, leaving the door unblocked as they waited for Ed. She walked to her bag, reaching in she started pulling out hers and Harry's body armour. Cedric just watched in amazement as his oh so dull, stay at home, boring mum and dud of a dad pulled on body armour. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handgun. She ejected the clip to check that the magazine was full. Satisfied, she reinserted the clip and pulled on the slide to chamber a round. It looked to Ced as if his mother had done this, hundreds of times before. This was really starting to mess with his version of reality.
Seeing the shock and confusion on her son's face, Hermione started to explain to him, "This is dragonhide wizarding combat body armour. Your Uncle Oswald gave it to us just before we left. Just in case we needed it. We started with Basilisk armour several years ago, before you were born, and that helped some. Uncle Os says that this is ten times more protective. It was developed by your Uncles Remus, Fred, and George in Uncle Sirius's research and development facility. But it still won't protect us from the killing curse."
"Well, what about me?" Cedric asked when she didn't pull any out for him.
"Angel, he is going to be in the thick of things. He is the only one that can shift to his wife," Harry told her, trying to comfort his wife.
She didn't want to let go. Cedric was her firstborn, her baby, she has to protect her children and keeping them out of harm's way was the best way that she knew how to keep them safe. How can she push her child out the door and into danger?
"Mione, this is the best way to protect him. To protect both of them. He can shift to Cici when the time is right, and give her body armour to her. We have to protect her too if we want to protect him."
With cold sadness in her thoughts, she reached into her bag again and pulled out another set of body armour. Handing it to her oldest son, she had tears running down her cheeks. Harry could feel the sad anger coming from his wife, coming from the love of his life, the centre of his universe. He could feel the sadness coming from the mother of his children. The anger at being forced to do something that she knew was dangerous, that was putting her child in danger. Yet here it was, time for her son to spread his wings and fly.
All she could do was to give him all the help she could. "But it's too soon!" she cried through her telepathic link.
"It's always too soon in our world Mione. Always too soon." Harry thought back to her. Watching his son prepare for battle.
As Cedric was donning his coat, there was a soft knock at the door. Harry moved to the door with his wand in his hand. Checking the peephole quickly, he gave a challenge question. Swiftly he moved to the side of the door as it exploded inwards. Hermione cast a shield spell and returned a stunner at the man on the left of the door. Cedric did the same and fired a stunner at the man on the right of the door. That just left Ed standing in the centre looking lost and confused. Pulling Ed and the two bodies into the room, Harry bound them with chains. He was tired of the bad guys using wandless magic to cut the ropes. With a flick of his wand, Cedric repaired the door and cast the privacy and security spells to protect them.
"Ed, are you alright?" Harry asked
"I-I just couldn't stop them. And then we were here. And then the door just exploded inwards," Ed stammered.
"Do you know where they took Cecilia?" Cedric asked, getting hot under the collar.
"She is either here, close by or they took her to Port-au-Prince. If we had the name of the ship, then we could find out where that ship is, and it would be faster maybe." The confused man replied. How were his attackers able to make him do those things?
"We don't know the name of the ship, but we do know that it leaves tomorrow and it's from Syria," Cedric shot back. Why do I have to keep waiting? I can just go to her and save her! He had completely forgotten that she could shift to him just as simply.
"Babe, I can shift to you just as easily! But we need to save these other girls. They are going to sell them as breeding stock for terrorists! If I could just apparate them one at a time, but there are too many guards around. Some of the guards have guns, and some are wizards." Cici thought to Ced.
As Harry talked to Ed, Hermione used the opportunity to slip out of the room and go to her parent's room. After waking her parents and the children, she told them to get dressed. As they were getting dressed she went to Angelica's room and used alohomora to unlock the door. Slipping in she woke Angelica as gently as she could. Keeping her quiet she told her to get dressed. Calming her as she was getting dressed, Hermione disillusioned them and silenced their shoes. The walked quickly to her parent's room. After slipping inside, she tapped their heads to make them reappear.
"Here is what is going on," She paused for a moment to cast the different privacy charms on the room "Cici has been kidnapped."
Angelica gasped and started to cry.
"She's doing fine. She's with the other girls that were taken from the villages that we visited today. I'm going to create a portkey and send all of you back home to keep you safe." Looking at Kitten, "Will you be able to activate the portkey and get everyone home safely? Mummy and daddy are needed here to rescue Cici and the other girls." She said this more for the smaller children than for Kitten's sake. "I want you to wait to leave for five minutes after we leave. If you leave any sooner, then, the bad guys will know that we are on to them and they may hurt Cici and the other girls." Turning she waved her wand and packed all of their stuff. Then with a second wave, she shrank everything and made it weightless. Dan reached over and put the luggage into his front pocket. Taking one of the hotel towels, she converted it into a portkey. "Remember, wait five minutes after we are gone before you leave. I need to get back in there with Harry and Cedric."
As she slipped back into the room, Harry thought at her, "Are they all ready to leave?"
"Yes, I told them to wait for five minutes after we leave, before using the portkey."
"Good, we don't want to tip our hand to soon. This was not supposed to happen for our vacation. I just wanted the kids to meet other kids and learn what it is to give." He thought to her, blaming himself for the troubles they were having.
"Harry, none of this is your fault. You had Ed vetted, but none of us knew that the human traffickers were working this country. It's just good that Cedric and Cici have worked as hard as they have in training. Did you see his skill and calmness when they blew the door in? He's almost as fast as we are!" Hermione told him.
Ed hung up the hotel telephone. Turning to the guests, he told them that his first hunch was correct. There is a ship with a Syrian registry in the port not too far from here. He made a portkey out of a napkin, Cedric grabbed the body armour for Cici, and they felt the familiar pull behind their navels.
Landing between two buildings the British wizards disillusioned themselves and silenced their shoes. Looking around the edge of the building they could see the massive ship with rust dripping down its sides. Looking around, they could not see the container with the holes in it. They moved out slowly, Ed leading the way. Row after row of shipping containers. They worked their way closer to the dock where the loading crane was picking containers and placing them on the ship. As they got closer to the water, they spotted the first guard with a rifle. Ed walked up behind him and stunned him silently. Cedric then levitated the body behind some other containers. Then Harry wrapped him with chains. One down and an unknown number to go. Going back to where they stunned the guard, they moved forward some more, about six more rows down and they could see the container with the holes in it. Looking carefully, they found another three guards with guns. They had yet to see a wizard guarding the container.
"Mi Amor we're here. I can see the container, but we only see three guards with guns watching the container. Where are the other guards?" Cedric thought to his beautiful wife.
"Okay, I can see the three out the front, and there are two wizards in the back. I have healed most of the girls in here, but there are two that I can't heal. Your mom will need to heal them. Do you want me to apparate out of here with two girls?"
"No, not yet. I have some body armour for you."
"Where did you get body armour from?" Cici thought back to him, having visions of turning into a Stormtrooper.
"My mum pulled it out of her bag."
"Your mom takes body armour on vacation with her? What kind of vacations do your parents take that they need to take body armour with them?" Cici asked in shock.
"I don't know, this kind I guess."
"Cedric, can you handle the three guards up front while your mum and I go looking for the rest?" Harry asked as softly as he could and still be heard.
"There are two wizards at the back of the container," Cedric whispered in his dad's ear. "There are also two girls in the container that Cici could not heal. She says that mum will need to heal them. She is also willing to start apparating girls out to us."
"Tell you what, why don't you shift to Cici and give her the body armour. I will have Ed take out the guards up front, and your mum and I will go after the wizards in the back," Harry whispered back to his son. He then tapped himself on the head, and the others did the same. Moving up to where Ed was watching, he asked him, quietly "Can you take out the three guards up front while Hermione and I check around the back of the container? There have to be more than three guards watching the girls." He didn't reveal that he already knew that there were two wizards guarding the back of the shipping container.
"Yes, I can do that. I will give you two minutes to get back there, then I will start taking out these three." Ed whispered back, pointing at the three muggles in front of them.
As his father was talking to Ed, Cedric shifted to his wife. As soon as he appeared, she grabbed him around the neck and held on tightly. Moving his head back he was able to plant a lip crushing kiss on her. While they were still kissing, they could hear the battle starting outside. "Here, put this on now!" Cedric told her urgently. "Grab two girls and join me over that way," he said pointing. Then he grabbed two of the girls, told them to stay quiet and he apparated away. A couple of minutes later Cici showed up with two more girls.
Looking at the four girls, Cici told them, "Stay here, and stay quiet! We will be back with more." And then they both disappeared.
Harry and Hermione found the two wizards behind the container just as Cici said they would be. They looked to be tired and bored, nice easy targets. Two curses later, and Harry was chaining them up. Looking around carefully, Harry saw another guard three rows down.
"Mione, why don't you go inside the container and start healing the two girls so we can leave out of here soon? I'll get this last guard, and then shift to you."
"Don't do anything reckless!" she thought to him, as she placed a kiss square on his lips.
As Harry crept down the rows of containers, he caught two more guards talking. "The Director will be here soon! He says that the new girl is worth more than all of the other girls combined! He says that she has light coloured skin that is smooth!" thug one said sounding nervous.
"Ooo I would like to get me some of that light, smooth skin!" thug two said acting all cocky.
"He will kill us all if you hurt her! You idiot! You are not to touch her!" thug one replied with fear in his voice. He really didn't want to die because this idiot couldn't keep it in his pants.
"Did you get all that Mione? The Director is behind the kidnappings!"
"Yes, I heard it all. You need to check with Ed and see if he can arrest the Director. Stay careful Harry. I know that you can take out three guards, but just be careful. I have to work on these two girls, they are in bad shape, so we will be here for about two hours until we can transport them."
"The next time you see Cedric, send him out back to me. Have Cici stand guard over you while you work."
A moment later Cedric apparated silently behind the container. Using hand signals, Harry told Cedric to get ready to stun the guard two rows down from where they were. Using his fingers, he counted down from three, two, one, stun. And all three guards went down. Again, Harry chained the guards and snapped their wands. Walking up front, Harry told Ed what he had overheard about the Director coming down to the docks to check on the girls.
Ed just hung his head and shook it, "Sorry, Harry." And he pulled his wand on him.
Before he could say the curse, Cedric stunned him from behind. "Bloody traitor!" Cedric cursed at the man. "Act all our mate, and you turn on us!?"
"Thanks, son. Let's open the container and move all of the bodies inside. Then we'll obliviate their memories. We need to sit quietly and wait for the Director to show. We'll catch him in a crossfire and do the same to him, lock the doors and let them ship them to the middle east. Their contacts there will take care of the rest!"
"Hope they packed enough food for the trip!" Cedric replied sardonically.
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With all of the bodies inside the container, the two wizards' set up a crossfire ambush. Staying hidden in the shadows, they waited patiently for the Director to show. Hermione had put her mental walls up again so she could focus on healing her patients. Cedric was able to pass the time by talking to Cici.
"Mi Amor, how is my mum doing?" Cedric asked her. Patience was not his strong suit.
"She has finished with the first patient, and she is starting on the second. The first girl had been sexually abused by several different men. They tore her up internally really bad she said." The sadness and anger she felt started to flood through their mental link.
"It's almost over. When we get the Director, I think that we'll have cut the head off of the serpent."
Several minutes later and then they heard the loud crack of someone apparating noisily. As the heavy footsteps approached, Cedric tensed for battle. The excitement, the fear, the anger all were swirling around in his head.
"Calm down and focus. He can't know our secret! Wait for your dad's lead and then take the bastard down!" Cici thought to him trying to get him to calm down. She knew that Ced could take the older wizard in a fight. They had been training in the house for years. Cast and move, cast and move. A sitting target is a dead target. Then she heard the battle begin.
Silently Harry hit the Director with an impedimenta/stupefy, and it was absorbed by his shield. Just before returning Harry's spells the Director shot a hex at Cedric, which he sidestepped easily. In that distraction, Harry apparated to a different location as Cedric shot another stupefy at the Director. Harry hit the Director again with a combination of spells, with one of the spells getting through his shields. Cedric had taken the opportunity to change locations, apparating to another walkway between container stacks. Harry had started shadow duelling with the Director keeping the dark wizard distracted. Just a few minutes later the father-son team could see the beads of perspiration on the Director's head and hear his breathing becoming raspy, they knew the end was near for the despicable human that would sell his own people into slavery. Cedric hit the Director with Petrificus Totalus, letting Harry stun him. Harry snapped his wand, then he bound him in chains. Ced levitated the body into the container.
Cici rushed Ced and flew into his waiting arms. The force of the blow almost knocking him to the ground. A broad smile was coming to his lips when she started to kiss him. The waves of emotions washed over him as the relief flooded through. The pride in her husband taking down the dark wizard was overwhelming. The kiss went on until both pulled away breathlessly. Turning back to Harry the two teens started to blush at their display of affection.
Harry wasn't really affected by their passion, he was proud of his son for a job well done. He was relieved that nothing went wrong and that none on the side of the Light had been injured. As he waited for Hermione to finish with the last girl, he had the two teens take the girl she had finished healing to join the others. Slowly they walked her to join all of the other freed girls.
As Cedric and Cici waited for the adults, they started talking to the girls they had just freed. They learned that the youngest girl was only ten years old, but the oldest was eighteen. They came from all over the country and different levels of income. The only thing that the girls seemed to have in common was that they were all easily taken. The eighteen-year-old girl was taken from a club when she was out with her friends. She said that she took a sip of her drink, and then she woke up in the container. She had been there for three days. She told them that one girl had been in the container for almost a week. When Cici asked about going to the authorities, the girl snorted in disgust. There was none that they could go to.
"Who could we trust?"
Cici just nodded in agreement, they had just taken down the Director and his second in command. The corruption was at the highest levels of the Wizarding World here. She could imagine that the fraud was just as bad in the muggle government. Another problem just popped into her head.
"Ced, how are we going to get all of these girls back to their homes?" Cici asked with the realisation of the task at hand.
"That's a good question!" he answered seeing her point. "Let's ask my dad when they get here."
When Harry and Hermione joined the kids, the kids asked about getting the girls home. "We will take them to the church down the road and make a large donation to the church," Harry stated matter-of-factly.
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Two days later.
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"Mama!" screamed a young girl.
"My baby!" screamed a young mother in complete surprise. "You've come back to me!"
"I was so scared! The last I saw of you, those men, they were doing things to you, and I thought that you had died when they had thrown you out like a broken toy," she cried hysterically.
"An angel came and healed me," she told her in awe, remembering the experience of being healed by the beautiful woman who was so kind to her. "What did they do to you, my baby?"
"Those men, they took us, and they did bad things to us that hurt, and then they locked us in a metal box. Then they brought more girls and locked them in there too. And then, they brought in the last girl, and she healed us and kept us safe, and she gave us water to drink and increased the food that was there so we could eat! Then she took us to safety and told us to stay there and stay quiet. Then others came, and they were dressed in black, to punish those that did those bad things to us. And they put the bad guys in the metal box. And then we watched as they loaded the metal box on to the ship. And they told us that the bad guys were going someplace far away, where more bad guys would punish them even more. They took us to a church and now I am home with you. I think that they may have been angels too, mama. Because they were nice to us and mean to the bad guys," the young girl finished out of breath.
"I think so too, baby. I think so too."
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A/N: Thank you for reading!
Revised again 01.04.2018
Revised again 07.22.2018
And again 11.18.2018
