Chapter 9 – Into The Vipers' Nest
Sitting against the wall in the main corridor, Padma absent mindedly tugged at the sleeve of her battle robes. She had been told that these specially designed robes that Aurors used would provide some protection, but Padma preferred not to get hit at all. Leaning her head back against the rock face, she tried to distract herself from mentally going over everything again.
She had almost able to replay the briefing Tonks had given them verbatim, and had checked her gear at least five times. There were only so many times you could check to see if your wand was holstered properly, within easy reach.
Trying to do some simple breathing exercises Harry had taught her, Padma let her mind drift. From ingredients to low level potions to books she actually wanted to read, she tried to find something to occupy her mind. After awhile, her mind replayed a conversation she had had with Blaise a few nights prior.
It had been after a long and grueling training session with Harry that she had been in the conference room, trying to catch up on some research, when he had entered carrying a handful of books. After a few sarcastic one liners thrown about, the two settled into silence for a short while. Eventually, Blaise broke the silence with a loud cough as he propped his feet upon the table and folded his arms across his chest.
With an annoyed stare, she had looked up from the tome she had been browsing and waited for him to speak. Well? she asked after he remained silent for a few minutes.
What do you think is going to happen when this is all finished?
What do you mean? The war? she asked while putting the tome down and closing it. Blaise simply nodded.
What's to prevent this from happening again? It wasn't all that hard for an incompetent regime to rise after the first war, what's stopping something worse than Fudge from rising to power?
The Order, Padma answered after a moment's thought.
Blaise had grinned a little. Lead by who?
She had learned to be wary of that grin. Har- Padma had been about to answer Harry, but Blaise stopped her with a raised hand.
Potter doesn't want to be involved now, Blaise told her, like a teacher correcting a student. Not taking in to account that he loathes politics, if he survives, he's going to want to live the remainder of his life doing whatever he wants, when he wants, and left alone by the outside world. If he wins, his influence will be prominent, but he will not be there to yield it. Someone else will have to step up to push the Potter agenda.
The Potter agenda? What exactly is the Potter agenda? she asked leaning back against the chair back and folding her arms across her chest.
Aside from demanding competency of those in charge? Blaise had asked sarcastically. Fair rights for the lesser species, a crackdown on the wide scale corruption of our society, a modernization of the Wizarding world, he told her as he ticked some of them off his fingers.
Alright, then who is this new leader going to be?
Well, Blaise answered, Professor McGonagall would be the next name to pop up, but she'll be too busy rebuilding Hogwarts. On the other side, a young leader, a novice of sorts, someone relatively untainted, but still has the ability to do the job…Then, Bones would be a logical choice. But like Professor McGonagall, she would decline, and rather follow Potter to where ever he goes.
Beyond those two, I feel I have found a third choice, the best choice. Someone who has a good pedigree, keen intelligence, a full blooded witch who believes in the so called new values the Harry would want pushed, Blaise put his feet down and leaned forward against the table. You would be the ideal candidate, with Harry's backing of course.
Jerking forward in her chair, her hands slapped down on to the table to stop herself from slamming in to it. What? had been the only tangible thing that Padma could produce at that moment.
You have no direct family to go back to after the war, you're one of the few who really has no calling post-war, and you're too stubborn not to take on a challenge like this.
Settling back in her chair again, folding her hands in front of her, Padma studied Blaise for a moment before saying anything. Assuming I agreed with your points… there's no way I have the leverage to push what you call the Potter agenda, she answered smugly, thinking she had found a way out of this and save face at the same time.
But with a smug smile, she knew Blaise had already thought of that. Typical snake, she had muttered to herself then and even now.
If elected to the Common House, by a popular vote, you would be a junior. But Harry's backing would give you substantial influence. Those with power would listen to the woman who held Potter's ear, he told her. There's also the second option. Harry appoints you as his representative to the Lord House. You would act in his stead, controlling the votes of at least three very important houses in the new British Wizarding community. Potter, Bones, and Black. Not to mention whatever else is hidden in dust.
Before she could give Blaise's stupid idea any more thought, Tonks' voice boomed out. "Alright, belt up!"
Padma and the rest of raiders turned their heads in Tonks' direction.
Shifting a little nervously, Tonks tried to think of something brave and uplifting to say. While Tonks had lead in battle, this was her first time leading such a vital mission. Finally settling for, "This is what we trained for. Keep your minds on your jobs."
Trying hard to not roll her eyes at herself, Tonks continued. "Get your arses over here. Make sure you have your emergency Portkeys and grab a piece of the rope." The emergency Portkey was a two piece medallion in the shape of an Asian ying-yang symbol. When the person separated the bottom piece from the top, the Portkey activated and would transport the person a few kilometers away. Far enough away, where the person could regroup and either Apparate or use a proper Portkey to get away.
Tonks reached up, grabbing her own medallion, and fingered it for a second before slipping it underneath the collar of her battle robes.
Tossing one of the end of the rope forward, she unwound a couple feet. Making sure every member of her team had at least a hand on the Portkey, she looked over to McGonagall and Remus over her shoulder. McGonagall nodded towards her, and for a moment, Tonks and Remus held eye contact, silently wishing her good luck and demanding she bring herself back.
Taking her wand, Tonks pointed at the rope, "Portus."
Most likely along with a few others, Tonks began counting backwards in her head. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… and Tonks and Padma felt the familiar tug and the room began spinning and fading away.
Moments later, her surroundings stopped spinning and she found herself disoriented as she fell back on her butt. Quickly gathering herself into a defensive crouch, she withdrew her wand and slowly began looking around. As expected, it was pitch dark and they were in the midst of a thick grove of trees.
Around her, her comrades were doing the same. Keeping her eyes scanning the darkness around them, she carefully shrunk and placed the rewound rope into an inside pocket. After making sure everyone was accounted for and no immediate threats were abound, Tonks motioned for everyone to move forward towards the edge of the trees. As they moved forward, a brightly lit up, medieval style manor began to come into view. From within, the raiders could hear off-key music playing.
Meeting at the edge of the small glade, the group stopped at Tonks' hand gesture and spread out behind various trees for cover. Tonks, once again, looked around before whispering loudly, "Zabini."
From a tree to her left and behind, Blaise stealthy moved up next to her. "I believe you have our invitations," she told him sarcastically.
Blaise reached into a pocket and pulled out a long, thin whistle. Putting it to his lips, he blew it but no sound came out. At least, they couldn't hear anything. But in moments, accompanied by a soft popping noise, a House Elf appeared a few feet away.
Tonks felt uneasy when the elf appeared to know exactly where each of them was hiding "Damn night vision," she muttered to herself.
Ignoring her, Blaise appeared to blow three short bursts through the silent whistle. In response, the House Elf raised his hand and with a fluid motion, a sparkling arch began forming in between them. The House Elf was creating an opening in the main security ward of Malfoy Manor. One just large enough for a hunched adult to pass through.
When the arch reached a height of a few feet, Blaise turned to Tonks, who nodded. Blaise quickly moved through the opening in the ward, moving quickly and defensively towards the closet wall of the main house.
"Move," Tonks hissed at the rest. In a matter of moments, the raiders were standing in a line, pressed against the wall.
The House Elf casually walked up to them, regarding them oddly as Tonks was issuing orders.
"Teams One and Two… get to your marks. When the wards crash, bring up the anti-Apparition field," Tonks ordered in a hushed tone. Six raiders stealthy moved away, in two groups of three in opposite directions.
"Alright," Tonks said, addressing the House Elf. "Lead on." The House Elf nodded and motioned for them to follow.
For the rest of the team, their mission was to bring down the Wards protecting Malfoy Manor. The Wards were extremely powerful, and very expensive. They could easily prevent the field from being created and a simple spell cast upon them would not take them down. They had to be taken down from the inside, and with a large amount of power to do so. But with them down, the field and a few more tricks could be sprung upon the partying Death Eaters; keeping them occupied while their master and a depleted Dark side battled at Hogsmeade.
Working their way through the shadows to the back of the Malfoy home, the House Elf eventually brought them to a stop after a few meters. As the remaining team kept a look out, the House Elf pushed in a brick causing a large passage way to open in the brick façade. "This way," the House Elf said in high, squeaky voice.
The group quickly moved through passage and found themselves on a small landing in between two flights of stairs. As the House Elf closed the entrance behind them, he explained, "This is one of the many secret passages throughout Malfoy Manor."
The House Elf paused for a moment and his eyes went distant. "Master summon." Motioning down the stairs, "You find dungeons at bottom."
"Wait," Blaise said and reached into his cloak, producing a small vile. Padma instantly recognized where she had seen it before. "Compliments of Mister Potter. Do see that you master enjoys it." The House Elf nodded, understanding the hidden meaning, before disappearing with a pop.
"What was that?" Tonks ordered more than asked.
Blaise glanced at Padma for a moment before answering. "Chimera Tears."
"Chimera Tears?" Tonks asked, a bit confused.
"A liquid hallucinogen created a few years ago," Padma explained. "It distorts the nervous system, and can create a wide variety of side effects. Chief among them is hallucinations, decrease in motor skills, and emotional instability."
"And with the Death Eaters who would notice, but still, ten points to Ravenclaw," Blaise said sarcastically. "Coupled with the massive amounts of wine they have no doubt consumed, its effects should be rather interesting. But more importantly, they won't be much of a problem for us for awhile at least."
"You got anymore tricks up your sleeve?" Tonks questioned Blaise.
"A few," he answered back.
"Keep them there," she growled. "Now move," ordering the group down the stairs.
Quickly descended into the dungeon, the team was now huddled just out of sight of the entrance. Tonks pointed to two of the raiders in the lead and then pointed to the entrance. The two raiders quietly moved forward and then out of sight.
Padma grew tense when the echoes of spells reached their ears. After a brief soundless pause that seemed to last longer than it actually did, they finally received the all clear from below. As the rest began to descend, Padma hadn't realized how tightly she had been squeezing her free hand until her hand cracked as she relaxed it. Looking down at her palm, she could clearly see her nail imprints in the leather palm of her glove.
Willing herself to move, Padma stumbled down the final stairs and into the dungeon. She expected it to look like some medieval torture center but it instead more resembled a jail.
"Patil!"
Turning sharply at the sound of her name, Tonks asked her, "Where now?"
Studying their surroundings for a moment, she mumbled a spell under her breath and slowly moved her wand back and forth. As she passed a certain area, the tip would glow slightly. Narrowing her movements to the area where the wand shown the brightest, she moved towards a set of cells a few meters away. Pausing for a moment as she checked between two doors, she finally settled on one. "Here. We need to get inside," she said stepping back.
Tonks and Blaise stepped forward with wands drawn. As Tonks cast a Silencing Charm, Blaise cast a Slicing Charm on the doors hinges. The door fell backwards with almost no noise and kicked up a little dust.
Blaise stepped forward into the now open cell, "Lumos." He had just finished casting the spell when he was tackled to the ground by someone lunging at him from inside the cell. As his wand went flying, he began wrestling with the person on top of him. Everyone quickly moved forward to help pry whoever it was off of him; if they tried to use a spell, it could inadvertently hit Blaise as well.
As four men tried to pull the attacker off, they realized the attacker was a woman as she threw the men off of her in a surprising show of strength. Tonks moved in behind her and tried her best to hold her as she dragged her backwards.
Hearing the woman curse in French, Padma decided to try something. "Arrêt. Personne ne va vous blesser. (Stop. No one is going to hurt you.)"
"Let go," the woman cried angrily in a heavily accented voice.
"I know that voice." Tonks loosened her grip as she tried to place who she was wrestling with. "Fleur?" she finally asked softly.
Unfortunately it only caused the woman to struggle harder. But it also explained how the willowy woman almost manhandled men, some twice her size. Even as a half Veela, she had tremendous strength when enraged.
Padma quickly tried again to calm the woman down. "Nous sommes des amis de Harry. (We're friends of Harry.)"
"'Arry?" Fleur asked hesitantly as she started to stop struggling with Tonks.
Seeing her opening, Tonks quickly spun the Frenchwoman around. "I'm Tonks, we meet at your wedding." Then to prove her point, Tonks briefly changed her hair to shocking pink.
As Fleur's arms went slack, "I zought you vere one of zem." Looking at her condition, it wasn't hard to imagine why she had fought so hard. It didn't help they probably scared her by blasting her cell door down.
As Tonks cast a few spells on Fleur to check her over, Blaise stepped aside to Padma. "Isn't that the French girl from the Tri-Wizard Tournament?"
Padma nodded. "She disappeared shortly after Grimmauld. No one's really sure what happened."
"Why are you here?" Fleur asked as Tonks finished.
"The Deal Eaters are throwing a party," Blaise answered as he pointed upwards. Tonks frowned as she noticed Fleur shiver slightly at Blaise's words. "I owe Lucius a very special curse."
"We're going to catch them with their pants down," Tonks told her with a weak smile. Turning to Padma, "Start working on the Wards."
Padma nodded and moving around them, stepped inside the cell. Fleur watched with interested as the young woman stepped into the cell. "What are you doing?"
"Preparing to take down the Malfoy's main defensive ward," Padma answered. "It would take a powerful Wizard to take a ward like this down with a simple spell, so we have to improvise." Kneeling, Padma slowly looked around, doing some mental calculations. As she did, she explained, "Picture the Ward like an umbrella. Something with that much magical power needs a base or anchor. If we can cut the base, the Ward will be too heavy to sustain itself and collapse in on itself."
As Padma began to move some debris out of her way, she found a piece of a shattered glass vile. Carefully picking up a large piece, she could smell a faint odor on it.
"Zey always called it the Fog," Fleur said as she stepped tentatively back into cell. "Never did find out what was in it."
Padma couldn't help but glance up at Fleur with a bit of sympathy at thinking what could have happened. Self-consciously, Padma looked back at the ground. Tossing the piece of glass aside, Padma pulled out a thin, oval shaped pebble that had symbols etched all over it.
Fleur watched Padma use her wand to direct her to a certain point in the far corner of the cell. Padma placed the stone down on the ground where her wand had just been glowing like a torch. "Come on," Padma said to Fleur as she stood and the two women quickly left the cell.
"Stand clear," Padma ordered and standing just outside the cell door, she pointed her wand inside and cast a spell.
After the spell was cast, nothing happened for a moment but slowly, a few sparks began to appear. But while it provided a few sparks, some smoke, and a lot of noise, nothing really happened.
Canceling the spell before she stepped into the cell, Padma swore under her breath as she crouched down to examine the condition of the stone.
"What happened?" Tonks asked from the entrance.
"It's not strong enough," Padma answered as she quickly tried to come up with another option. The stone is capable of interrupting the Ward, but the Ward is just too much that when we push the Ward is pushing back harder and over powers it. We need to boost the strength of the stone to where it's not just pushing back with equal force, but if possible, more.
From over Tonks' shoulder, Fleur watched with interest as Padma rummaged around in her pockets while mumbling equations under her breath. It needs more power," Fleur thought to herself as she watched the young witch. "It's like trying to dam up a stream. A single small boulder won't accomplish the task, you need a big boulder. In 'zis case, one that would plug up 'ze stream enough where 'ze water would become a trickle around it, if at all.
Quickly moving around Tonks, Fleur grasped a seriated piece of steel that had been torn from the cell door and crouched next to the Padma. Just as Padma glanced at her, Fleur closed her hand around the jagged piece of metal. With a hiss of discomfort, Fleur tried to block out the pain as she put her hand out over the stone.
As Tonks rushed forward, Padma grabbed Fleur's hand and struggled to release the Veela's tight grip. Finally, after a good portion of her blood had been spilled on the rock, Fleur let go and cradled her hand.
From somewhere, Tonks had gotten a bit of cloth, and after sterilizing it, quickly wrapped it around Fleur's still bleeding hand.
"It's a deep cut," Padma said as Tonks dressed the wound. "What were you thinking?" she asked Fleur.
"Veela's blood will strengthen 'ze stone," she answered, while trying to fight back the pain shooting through her arm and hand. "Do it again."
Tonks gave Padma a questioning look. Padma thought about it for a moment. "Veela's blood does have some attributes about it." Pausing to look back at Tonks, "It could work. I've got nothing else, so it's worth a shot."
Helping Fleur to her feet, Tonks ushered everyone out of the cell. "Back off, we're doing it again. Patil, if it doesn't work, come up with Plan B."
Padma nodded as she took her position next to the door and pointed her wand inside. Casting the spell again, the sparks appeared faster and more frequently. Quickly, the crackling of energy could be heard, in increasing ferocity; sounding similar to arching electricity on Muggle power wires. Thick, dark smoke began pouring out of the cell and the Raiders quickly backed away further, unsure of what exactly would be the outcome.
Then, a loud explosion echoed out, and as more smoke bellowed outwards, the crackling ceased.
After a few tense moments, using her wand, Padma cast the same detection spell as before. Except this time, her wand tip didn't glow. "As far as I can tell, it's down."
"The anti-Apparition field?" Tonks asked hurriedly as they advanced to their previous positions.
Using a variation on the detection spell, Padma cast. When her wand tip didn't light, she waited a moment and then cast it again. This time her wand tip glowed a soft blue. Looking at the tip, "Its up," she announced with a small smile.
Before anything else could be said or done, a hex ricocheted over their heads. "Cover!" Tonks yelled.
Padma shoved Fleur and herself against one of the cell doors, hoping the indent of the door into the wall was sufficient cover. As hexes and other spells shot back and forth, Padma tried to see where their attackers were. She could see two, maybe three people in the dungeon's proper entrance.
"McIntyre! Jones!" Fleur yelled out. "Take Fleur and get out! The rest, covering fire!"
Two men quickly appeared next to Fleur and Padma. Sensing her apprehension, Padma tried to put her at ease. "It's alright. They'll take you out of here. We'll meet up again soon."
Fleur slowly nodded. As the remainder quickly cast multiple spells to cause their attackers to retreat behind their cover, the trio quickly ran for the secret entrance and the stairwell.
Now, from the original group, only a baker's dozen remained. But before Tonks could get anyone else out, an unknown amount of hexes flew over their heads and slammed into the wall. In a cloud of dust and debris, the impact on the wall caused it to crumble and collapse upon the secret opening to the stairwell.
Their aim blows but they did enough damage, Tonks grumbled. Assessing the situation, There won't be enough time to cut through all that stone before more flying monkeys come down. We're going to have to fight our way out.
"So what now fearless leader?" Blaise cracked as he shot another curse.
"We improvise."
A/N – (Translation from French to English) For Fleur's accent, I used an online translator for the French and had my beta look it over. I then used manu86's accent guide on LiveJournal for Fleur's accent in the English translation. If there's any major mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them.
