There are some AU elements so please don't expect everything to match cannon.
A/N: The Characters and the universe all belong to J.K Rowling. Nothing is mine.
It had been two weeks since the rituals and the incident in the common room. Sophia had taken to ignoring my existence, which was perfectly fine by me. Daniel looked a little uncomfortable caught between one of his best friends and little brother, while Weasley just obeyed elder Granger like the dog he is.
Rosy and 'Mione were normal for the most part, the only exception being their twice a week meetings for the 'DA' as Daniel had named it.
Dumbledore's Army.
It sounds all right as far as titles go, not as cool as The Shadow Phoenix though. Hey, that rhymed! Maybe I should give poetry a shot. It will be a nice hobby to have along with fighting wars.
I can already see my business card taking shape.
Harry James Potter (Minister of Magic)
Dark Lord Slayer, Billionaire and poet.
For Details Contact-
Sophia Granger (My underpaid Secretary)
Heh heh.
It is an interesting thought for sure, but I have currently more important matters to deal with.
Two weeks ago while going through the Shadow Diary I had found an interesting name in Voldemort's followers.
Gallick Bronston.
The interesting thing about Gallick is, that he is a student right here at Hogwarts. He is a seventh year Slytherin who is a member of the quidditch team as well. Though there are other students as well whose names I do recognize on the list, Gallick stands out because of the fact that I am pretty sure that he is a 'marked' death eater.
I can tell this primarily because the diary has not arranged his name with the group of wannabe death eaters in Hogwarts, but with a group of 11 other names I do not recognize and the one name I do, Avery.
If he is associating and meeting up with the circle of Avery, then he is most certainly in close circles of Voldemort and therefore it can be safe to assume that he is a Death Eater.
Even if he is not, we still have someone who meets up with Avery on a periodic basis. That is an advantage in itself.
This group of 13 people is probably the squad assigned to Avery. Most of them only show up in this one squad and it can be therefore assumed that they are mid to low ranked death eaters. Avery is shown in various circles or groups in the diary, including the group which I believe is the 'inner circle' of Voldemort.
There are two more people in this group who are of some significance. The first is the man named Ballick Bronston, who as any idiot could guess is Gallick's father and the reason for Gallick's presence in the group.
Ballick Bronston is a high ranked death eater, not a member of the inner circle but a high ranked death eater nonetheless. He is an influential businessman, with a large number of shops in Hogsmeade. Bronston Sr. has no other children and his only son seems to have taken the brunt of his terrible naming sense.
The second person is Sozelle Dartini.
Sozelle Dartini is important because of his presence in one very important group, namely 'The Ministry 21'.
The ministry 21 is the name of the 21 death eaters planted in the ministry, led by Lucius Malfoy and Walden MacNair.
If I am putting this together correctly, I will have the three of them in my hands and at my mercy. Gallick Bronston will lead me to Avery, Sozelle, Bronston Sr. and 9 other murderous fiends planning to rape and kill in the future.
I had assigned Hedwig to track Gallick Bronston every time he left the castle on the weekends. Today was the second Sunday and Hedwig was to come back from tracking Gallick anytime soon. Immediately, Dobby popped in with Hedwig, as Trevor and I were already sitting in the Room of Requirements.
Hedwig flew over to the center of the room and closed her eyes to concentrate. All the furniture in the room disappeared, and the floor of the room took the shape of a large map, which looked like something you would use in war situations.
A Clock appeared in the air which showed the time to be 9 A.M. The time Hedwig had flown to Hogsmeade. From the Previous weekend's worth of Tracking we knew Gallick went to Hogsmeade and visited a privately owned establishment, most probably his father's. This Sunday's task was to track all the possible movements of the Death Eaters in Hogsmeade.
Very soon the clock began to move, as if Time had been hit by a fast forward button. At 9.10 A.M a single name appeared on a spot behind the shrieking shack, that of Bronston Sr. as he was shown walking towards the three broomsticks where another name joined his on the map, that of his son Gallick Bronston.
It was a ritual for the father and son to meet at the three broomsticks before the meeting with the death eaters. It was probably the father giving his son 'death eater' tips to help him rise in the ranks and putting on a display for the public at the pub so that nobody will suspect Gallick too much.
At 9.30 the father and Son are shown to move towards a privately owned building a good distance away from the main village of Hogsmeade.
It takes them about 5 minutes to reach the building. It is 9.35 A.M now.
At 9.40 A.M on the clock, 4 names appeared behind the shrieking shack again. Sozelle had apparated with 3 of the death eaters in tow, and continued to move towards the building occupied by the Bronston's keeping their presence to the outskirts of Hogsmeade.
At 9.50 another 4 of these people appeared and followed a slightly different route towards the same place.
At 10 A.M the final 3 death eaters appeared including Avery.
These 3 also took a different route and headed towards the meeting place.
At 10.05 A.M all the death eaters had gathered in the Bronston Safe house. The names were all congregated on that one spot for a full two minutes which was 2 hours on the clock conjured by Hedwig.
At 12.10 P.M Avery's group was the first to leave, followed by the 4 death eaters 10 minutes later and Sozelle's group 10 minutes after that.
The father and Son stay for another half an hour before they also leave for their respective destinations. That was 1'o clock in the afternoon.
The map vanished from the floor and the clock melted away into the air as Hedwig opened her eyes. This was the labor of 4 days of spying on the part of Hedwig, who had accumulated all she had gathered in these 4 days in this one brief narrative, and had told us all there was to know about death eater activity in Hogsmeade.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
"First of all, please let us applaud Hedwig for a job well done."
Everybody voiced their approval to Hedwig's work loudly as poor Hedwig shuffled around in both embarrassment and pride.
"Ehrm-ehrm." I cleared my throat to address the matter at hand.
"I believe that Hedwig's visualization of the Scenario is pretty clear in itself. The death eaters move at intervals of ten minutes with Avery being the one to arrive last and leave first. The activities of the Bronston's are a little different, considering they are alone together for 30 minutes both before and after the meeting."
"The maximum no. of people in an apparating group is 4 and the minimum is 1 when Bronston Sr. comes. It will be foolish to ambush them when they are all together as it will reduce our chances drastically as we have only another week to prepare."
I frowned as I remembered the exact conditions that have to be achieved on this mission.
"Everybody please also note that, we need to meet four conditions while accomplishing this task. The first is the capture of Avery, we need him alive."
"The second is the surrendered wand and 18 drops of blood of a dead Bronston Sr."
I took a breath for the this part, "Third, we need the front page of the following day's prophet to show the dead bodies of 10 death eaters with the dark mark visible on their arms including Sozelle and excluding Gallick."
"Lastly, all of this must happen without Gallick knowing anything."
I had my reasons for all of these, and it would become known very soon.
"Now for the plan…" With that began the preparations for the first strike against Voldemort.
In the preparations for the plan the week passed by as if a blur. It was 8 A.M on Saturday and I was hardly picking at my breakfast as my nerves were a mess.
Hermione noticing this asked me, "Something wrong Harry?"
"Huh? Oh. No… it's just I didn't sleep too well last night."
She patted my hand over the table, "'tis allright. The trip to Hogsmeade will make you feel better."
"Yeah, 'bout Hogsmeade… I guess I'll skip for today."
Hermione seemed really down about this, "Are you sure? It won't be the same without you." As if catching onto something embarrassing , she quickly changed the topic, "I-I mean maybe some air will do you good."
I smiled at her, telling her not to worry while she just turned her face around covering it with her hair. Why does she do that? Her face is so pretty. I wish this Voldy trouble was never there so I could just steal glances at her all day long.
I snap out of my dreams when I notice Gallick entering the dining Hall. Gallick sits on his usual seat at the far end of the Slytherin table. I keep a discreet eye on Gallick as he pours himself some pumpkin juice. He brings the goblet to his lips and downs it all in one gulp.
Success.
Gallick notices something is wrong with him when he tries to grab a spoon, but a wing touches the cutlery instead.
The entire great hall is laughing as the now Ostrich turned Gallick tries to say something but all that comes out is 'I love big bananas.' in the voice of a horny Severus Snape.
Snape is steaming from the ears as I try my best not to laugh at my own brilliance. Madam Pomfrey soon comes through the crowd to stun and float Gallick to the infirmary. The rare plants brought by Trevor will make it sure that even Snape will take a few hours to figure out the exact antidote and another few hours to brew it.
As Gallick is lead out of the great Hall I tick Objective 4 accomplished in my mental list. Gallick has been effectively taken out from ever witnessing any of the events.
I excuse myself from 'Mione and Rosy and head towards the 7th floor. Dobby is already there waiting with Trevor and Hedwig.
"Good job switching the juice Dobby. Gallick is out for good."
"Dobby happy to help Master Harry." Dobby says with utmost sincerity.
"All right do we have everything?" Dobby nods and holds up a big bag with the items we have prepared for today.
Good. I nod my head and we all grab onto Dobby so that he may transport us to our location. Earlier it may have been difficult for Dobby, but now Dobby just joins his hand and intertwines his fingers as if praying and *pop* we find ourselves standing behind the shrieking shack, where Bronston Sr. will apparate in 30 minutes. The first thing we do as soon as we arrive there is to apply silencing charms all around the area. We don't want to scare the kids now, do we?
As the clock approaches 9 A.M we start laying out the trap for Bronston Sr.
But before we begin we all change into the uniform of The Shadow Phoenix. Dobby and I put a full robe and hood set which is purely white with the exception of a black phoenix emblazoned on our backs. Hedwig, who is already white, turns just the feathers on her back into a black colored phoenix too. Trevor in a bold fashion statement, has decided to wear an extremely miniature tattoo of a black phoenix on top of his long tongue. I have heard about tongue piercing but this is new.
First come the anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards that will be activated as soon as Bronston pops in. The ward stones are meant to cover an area of 400 meter square, taking into account his usual spot of apparating. Dobby will be activating them.
The second the wards are up Trevor who will be lying in wait will prick Bronston with a needle coated with Chimera blood. The chimera blood will cause extreme confusion and fear in the mind of Bronston within 6 seconds of taking seed.
The rest will depend on me and Hedwig.
Hedwig and I hide in the shadows as we wait for the death eater. At precisely 9.10 A.M there is a crack and Bronston Sr. apparates just a few inches away, from where Trevor is on the ground. Perfect; nobody will notice a toad even if they are expecting to run into an enemy.
As soon the crack is heard Dobby raises the anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards. No sooner than when Bronston Sr. notices the wards going up has Trevor pricked him on the ankle with the needle. Bronston Sr. flinches and kicks hardly on the ground, but only manages to hit dirt. As He takes out his wand and starts cursing in random directions, but this agitation to his body only increases the rate of the spreading of the poison.
Seeing him vulnerable and disoriented I jump from behind the bushes, where I instantly raise my wand and shout out 'Stupefy'.
Bronston is unable to retaliate because of his mental state and just slumps to the ground. I get behind Bronston Sr. and hold a newly bought dagger to his neck. I nod towards Dobby who points his finger towards Bronston Sr. and wakes him up. Bronston opens his eyes and as soon as he does I grab him by the hair and pull the dagger on his neck.
"Listen carefully, Bronston. Surrender your wand and we will let you walk away alive Understood?"
Bronston tries to turn back to look who is speaking but I keep the dagger firm and let him know not to delay. The chimera blood is still working and so his fear gets the better of him.
"All Right! I-I I'll d-do what y-you are saying. Here." He lowers his wand on the ground, "I surrender my wand." There is a glow from the wand reaffirming his statement.
"Now let me go, please…" He sounds scared and desperate and there is fear in his words. I almost let him go, but that's not the plan.
The plan is to not let this raping, torturing murdering bastard see another second of life. I am supposed to end his wretched existence here and now, but…
My hands are failing me…
They refuse to take a life. It is very easy to picture taking a life to end these bastards, but the reality is extremely difficult.
Suddenly Bronston Sr. tries to make a move, maybe it is on seeing my hesitation or maybe it is out of sheer panic. I will never know, because as soon as Bronston tries to struggle free; an image of Hermione, Rosy and my Mum flashes through my eyes making me remember why I am doing this in the first place.
I don't know what happened next, one second I was holding a dagger to Bronston's neck and another second I was staring at his lifeless corpse on the ground, with blood leaking out of his neck.
I had killed Ballick Bronston.
It was a chilling realization that I had taken a life. I ran to the bushes and emptied whatever little breakfast I had eaten. I continued to heave as the reality continued to punch me in the gut.
Everybody was gathered around me with comforting faces, but I could see they were in shock of the death as well.
When I regained my senses it was 9.30 A.M. Only 10 minutes before the next batch of the death eaters that were due to arrive. We did not have time. We could not go back after coming this far. I got up with shaking legs and walked over to Bronston Sr.'s body. I took out a vial and collected his blood that we needed.
"Dobby clean up this place and Dump his body behind the bushes for now. Hurry, we don't have time."
I went and took down the wards so that the next group could come in. Next I took out a piece of hair from Bronston's body which Dobby had left behind the bushes and put it into the polyjuice which I ordered over the week. It took me 2 minutes to change into his clothes and after casting a scourgify to clean my clothes of the blood, I went and laid down on the ground near the apparating point.
Dobby took his position near the ward stones and Hedwig hid in a tree. Trevor was on the ground near me waiting with his needle.
Sozelle and his group appeared at exactly 9.40 A.M. They spotted me lying on the ground motionless and assumed it was Bronston Sr.
Sozelle came rushing forward in the lead of the group. I Flicked a stupefy at Sozelle as fast as possible and he was caught by it just because of the sheer confusion at that one moment. In that exact one moment as Sozelle was being hit with the spell, the wards went up. This was not all as one of the man was pricked on the ankle again by Trevor and another one had his throat sliced in that very instant by Hedwig.
My being polyjuiced as Ballick was just to create this one moment of confusion where Sozelle and two his lackeys were taken off guard and the third one was stunned by the turn of events. As soon as Sozelle and the man cut by Hedwig's steel wings were down the remaining two death eaters fired at me. I could only put up a shield because this was just what I had expected that the two remaining enemies will do.
As their spells hit my shield, Dobby jumped dressed in his hood from behind the bushes and fired a cutting curse at the neck of the man who was not poisoned.
Seeing his last ally going down, the man already injected with the Chimera blood began to panic more as he threw caution to the wind and began running. He had barely taken two steps when he fell to the ground, his neck slit and Hedwig landing a few feet away from his dying body.
Sozelle was lying stupefied on the ground while two of the death eaters lay dead by Hedwig's wings and the last killed by Dobby. All of this had taken place in 15 mere seconds.
I was feeling nothing now, just driven by the need to complete the mission. My voice was as dead as my heart at the moment.
"Dobby dump the dead bodies behind the bushes. My polyjuice will work for 40 more minutes. The jobs will be finished by then."
The same strategy was to be used on the next group too, but with an extra helper this time. I turned to the frozen Sozelle.
I raise my wand, "Imperio."
At 9.50 A.M the next group arrives to find a concerned looking Sozelle standing over a seemingly unconscious Ballick Bronston.
These 4 low tier death eaters are dead even before the wards can go up. Under the combined attack of an imperioused Sozelle, an alert Hedwig and a polyjuiced me, three of the death eaters fell in the first strike. The 4th death eater had only time to raise a weak shield before a combined cutting curse from Sozelle and I nearly beheaded him.
Dobby had to lower the wards as soon as he had raised them.
"Dobby dump these 4 losers too."
Dobby went and added the bodies to the growing pile of dead bodies. He immediately came back to clean the grass of the blood as Sozelle looked on with a vacant kind of look.
Hedwig and Trevor took their positions ready for the next strike. Sozelle and I assumed our previous positions while Dobby got ready near the wards.
This time the plan was a bit different taking Avery's skills into account.
As the clock struck 10 Avery and his two lackeys came into view. Avery was suspicious the moment he saw Sozelle standing over Bronston Sr.
But even Avery could not have predicted a toad stinging him on the ankle with a poisoned needle. As soon as the needle struck Sozelle and I struck down the two lackeys at Avery's side and Dobby raised the wards. We could have attacked Avery first, but seeing as his shield was up the moment after the needle struck was an indicator of his reflexes.
Avery was standing with his shield raised as Sozelle and I faced him.
"What's the meaning of this Bronston?" Avery's voice was like rough leather grinding against your palm.
Also it was natural he would doubt me, as he must have noticed the glazed look in Sozelle's eyes. I thought of a good reply that someone like Bronston would come up with, "Power politics, that's all."
As Avery was about to reply Sozelle and I started firing curses at him, but he managed to hold us both back. What he did not see coming was the air in front of him suddenly materializing into an owl and said owl's talons plucking out his eyes.
Avery screamed in pain as two stupefy's hit him head on.
Avery slumped to the ground, his body still quivering. I turned to Sozelle and finished him too with a cutting curse.
It was finally over. We had successfully killed 11 of the 13 members of the group and captured one. Still we had to get out of here fast and put an end to the mission.
"Dobby, stop Avery's bleeding and bind him nicely. Hedwig and Trevor help me with cleaning this place up." We cleaned all evidence of us being here and put our equipment in our bag. The dead bodies were placed in a single file behind the bushes.
Avery was bound and gagged with Hedwig keeping guard. "Dobby I want you to incinerate the body of Bronston Sr. with me"
"We have to burn it to ashes"
We separated the body of Bronston from the rest of the bodies and burned it completely.
Next we tore all the sleeves of the death eaters revealing their dark marks. We bound all the 10 bodies together with a single rope and then I charmed the rope to portkey the bodies to the center of Hogsmeade.
The portkey was timed to go off in 2 hours. We put strong notice me not charms around the bodies so as to make sure nobody accidentally tumbles across them.
"Dobby take us to the room of requirements now."
Dobby, Hedwig, Trevor, Avery and I popped back into the room of requirements which was wished back to the room where we had conducted the 2 rituals. The snake ritual circle was still sleeping on the ground waiting for the third phase of the ritual.
I asked Dobby to place Avery on the middle of the circle, right on top of the Snake's mouth. I took out the Shadow Diary and spoke the three words required for the final stage of the ritual.
"Taumm aa iyaag"
The snake opened its eyes and Avery began struggling against his bindings as he started to disintegrate into nothingness.
The snake's mouth seemed like a black hole which consumed Avery within seconds.
The Shadow Diary glowed once and it opened to a page with the title 'Avery'.
"Master Harry?" Dobby asked questioningly.
"Nobody remembers somebody by the name of Avery in this entire world anymore. That snake did not eat just Avery. He ate his entire existence. All that remains of Avery is this page with his name in our Diary. This page will answer any question as far as Avery could have known it. It is in a sense similar to the diary of T.M Riddle without the whole possessing business."
The snake closed its eyes once again only to open them when the next sacrifice would come.
It was over.
It was all finally over. I had killed ten lunatics today, burned one to a crisp and erased one from existence itself. The remaining member of the group was in the hospital wing unaware about his dead father. I had managed to procure the memories of one of the 'inner circle' death eaters and Voldemort was none the wiser because he did not even remember his loyal servant. Nobody did for that matter.
It was time for being joyous wasn't it? But all I could do was cry at the moment. I don't know when the tears started, but all I can see right now is myself crying and screaming while the rest of the members also shed their own tears.
It is a relief for me somewhere that I did not turn out like the death eaters, who are unaffected from taking a life.
I tell myself again and again that I have to hold on to my sanity for Hermione, Rosy and Mum. I have all the time in the world to go insane, after making sure that Voldemort does not stay alive to bother them anymore.
I feel my tears slowing down.
I check the time.
In ten minutes ten bodies will appear in the middle of Hogsmeade. They will carry a message on a small parchment.
The message on the parchment is short and to the point, but it will shake the magical world. That small white parchment carries three words, along with the name of the writer in another three words.
Strike One, Voldemort.
-The Shadow Phoenix
A/N: Please Review and let me know your thoughts.
Stay tuned for the next chapter to witness the Magical world's reaction to the attack.
