Day Ten! I managed to finish it in time for tonight.
ShadeDancer
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. I'll get over it.
Tenth Day
By dawn, Harry was ready. He had waited until his dorm mates fell asleep, courtesy of a sleeping spell when they hadn't done so fast enough, and methodically packed any of his belongings that he hadn't already had in his trunk. After that he had wisely emptied out and sealed off the Chamber of Secrets; he might never get back to Hogwarts again after today and it was better not to take chances and leave behind anything that might cause trouble for him in the future.
"The dragons and nundu are in place, Harry." Yeter'el informed him. "They will stay until commanded to attack."
Harry nodded his thanks as he finished pulling on his battle robes, making sure Ajani was comfortable, and covering the whole ensemble up with his school robes after making a few alterations to them so they fit over the other clothes. Using the nundu and dragons would be a last resort. The nundu were only just teething and so their breath wasn't as potent as it would be in another year or so, but it was still poisonous enough to cause a good deal of damage, and the dragons were still very young despite a nudge towards growth thanks to Andras' magic over animals.
"Is there anything else than needs to be done before we head down to breakfast?" Yeter'el asked quickly as Harry's sleeping spell began to wear off and allow his dorm mates to wake.
"I just need to send out the warnings to my friends here in the castle." Harry spoke quietly as he shaped a small flock of messenger birds with his hands, nudging them to send them to their respective owners. "It will be their choice whether to act or not. I will not blame any of them for not wishing to blow their cover."
Making one last visual sweep of the dorm, Harry was satisfied that everything was ready and headed down to the common room. Pavarti was there waiting as he had known she would be, looking as if she had hastily gotten dressed the moment his messenger had reached her.
"Are you serious about this?" She demanded.
Harry nodded. "This isn't exactly my first choice on how to handle this, but it is opportune, and I'm not going to waste the advantage."
Pavarti closed her eyes and nodded before asking the next question. "Blaise is going to go with you, isn't he?"
Harry looked at the girl in sympathy knowing how torn she was between her family and her love for Blaise; Blaise who had sworn to be his friend and support him until the end. "I can't say what Blaise might choose, I haven't talked to him since I decided to take this course, but I believe he will come. I sent you the message so that you know that you are welcome to come with us."
Pavarti took a step back, tears in her eyes. "I can't Harry. I love Blaise, but I can't follow him in this. I won't say anything, but—tell Blaise I care for him, truly I do."
Carefully, as if approaching a skittish wild animal, Harry hugged his fellow Gryffindor. "Come to me should you ever need anything Pavarti. Blaise and I will be waiting. We will not turn you away for deciding to stay today."
Pavarti nodded against his chest before pulling away and swiping at her tears. "I'm not feeling so well, I don't believe I'll be at breakfast. I'll have Lavender make my excuses."
Harry watched as Pavarti slipped silently back up to the girl's dorm before he turned and left Gryffindor Tower for the last time.
… … … … …
Breakfast continued to progress without incident, Harry growing tenser as time ticked by, until a little over half-way through the meal when ten Unspeakable suddenly appeared in the middle of the Great Hall. Harry didn't move, though the few students at the surrounding tables immediately jumped up and pulled their wands on the hapless men. They were gift wrapped; each man bound and gagged and the whole lot of them tied together by a huge black bow with little green dark marks dancing across it. It could only have been Tom. Tom had intercepted the attack meant for him and, thinking that he didn't know it was coming, had sent the captives to him as a warning to get out. For a moment Harry wondered why Tom had left the men alive, but his senses provided the answer. There was a really nasty spell worked into the ribbon, one that would simultaneously kill all the men the moment someone freed them. It wasn't something anyone would be able to detect, not even Dumbledore—Tom had used Parselmagic for the curse and disguised it by animating the hissing dark marks on the ribbon.
Harry kept silent about this little fact as Dumbledore hurried forward, already casting spells to check for any threats and not finding any, he wasn't about to do anything to help the men who had been coming to kill him. He had no illusions that they were going to take him alive, not after Tom had already shown them that Azkaban could be taken, and the Unspeakables were never sent out to make a mere arrest. Finding nothing, Dumbledore cut the ribbon.
Immediately the men started to choke, their fear laced eyes bugging out as Death fell upon them with his painful grip. It was not a pretty death, but what alarmed Harry was that to a one of them each man's appearance changed as they finally died. Polyjuice. They weren't the real Unspeakables, but a group of Ministry idiots sent out as a decoy. Harry whirled.
"It was a trap!" He yelled to his few allies in the Great Hall, seeing that they had relaxed their guard when the 'Unspeakables' had apparently been no threat. "Tom got a decoy troop!"
The doors to the Great Hall slammed open with incredible force, spells already flying towards Harry, but he was ready for it. Lunging, Harry threw himself to the side and sent a volley of his own spells flying in return. There were about sixteen or seventeen Unspeakables, more than Harry had ever expected to be expended for him since they apparently had Dumbledore's backing, and Harry knew his side was severely outnumbered.
"Beleth!" He cried even as he sent thousands of magical pins of light spearing through one of the Unspeakables, giving the pre-arranged signal. "I call you and yours to arms. Defend me!"
Immediately the six demons revealed themselves, jumping into the fray with swords, bows, and claws drawn as they fulfilled their pledges to Harry; even Ajani leapt into the chaos, biting at exposed ankles.
"What is this Dumbledore?!" One of the Unspeakables yelled as he fought with Andras. "You never said anything about Potter consorting with demons!"
Dumbledore meanwhile was having his own trouble with Beleth and Severus, the two working surprisingly well together despite never having met before as they took on the team of Dumbledore and McGonagall. Harry felt Yeter'el take his back, protecting him from an Unspeakable who had just dropped Blaise with a cutting curse.
"Yeter'el, call in the nundu and dragons." Harry ordered as he threw a blood-boiling curse at one of his opponents. "Still with me Blaise?"
"Yeah." Blaise croaked as he staunched the wound, pushing past the pain to reenter the battle as the nundu and dragons joined the melee to rip at flesh with sharp teeth. "I stupidly let myself get distracted; they won't be rid of me that easily."
"Good." Harry attempted to boost Blaise's morale and give him something to keep fighting for despite the odds; the Unspeakables were an elite fighting force in which one alone could take out a decent group of people, which said something considering the force they had sent after him. "There's someone who will kill me if something does happen to you."
"She's safe?" Blaise dared ask, relief and a renewed determination filling him as Harry passed on Pavarti's message. "Then I have no regrets."
"Harry!" It was Hermione's shrill voice; most of the students had fled the hall except for those who stood with Harry, but Hermione and Ron had stayed to oppose him. "How can you do this? How can you betray us all after what we've done for you?"
Harry met the curse she had thrown at him as she yelled with one of his own, still fending off the Unspeakables and thanking Merlin for the rigorous training Tom had put him through.
"How? After what you've done for me?" Harry asked incredulously, a short laugh of derision that was worthy of Severus bursting from his throat. "You've never done anything but ride in the wake of my fame. Well let me tell you something, I'm not nearly as stupid as you thought and I found out the truth. How much was Dumbledore paying you to be my friend? Was it money like Ron? Or something else?"
Harry dropped to the ground to avoid another curse before continuing. "I know what he offered my father if James would sacrifice me as a child to open the Gateway between the realms. James dreamt of being Minister of Magic, but was too lazy to make it on his own so he turned to Dumbledore and the dark magic Dumbledore gave him. If Voldemort hadn't gotten there first that night Dumbledore would have killed James at the first opportune moment so he could seize the power himself."
"Lies." Dumbledore called out, sounding winded. "I have always supported the Light."
"The light of your own ambitions, maybe." Harry refuted. "Surprised to see Severus fighting against you? I broke the servitude spell you held over him, freeing him from your manipulations."
Dumbledore's eyes hardened. "You could have had it all Harry. But you're throwing it away for what? Love? You seriously think Voldemort feels love?"
Harry smirked at the memory of a few days ago. "I know he does. Your time is over, you'll never have the chance to poison or twist the mind of another student ever again."
"I won't be beaten easily." Dumbledore snarled, shoving Beleth back and drawing power from Hogwarts herself so that the very stones seemed to scream in agony. "En varia—"
Harry's eyes widened, the harsh words ringing a chord within him as he quickly scooped Ajani up. "Pull out now! Take the portkeys! Andras, Yeter'el, get the animals."
They got out just in time, a few seconds later and the dark force that Dumbledore brought to bare against them would have overcome them. As it was Harry felt it pushing against his back even as his portkey whisked him away to the safety of Tom's side.
"Are you alright?" Tom was already there waiting for him, pacing in worry since Harry hadn't shown up immediately after receiving the warning gift.
"There was some trouble." Harry explained as Tom wrapped him into a hug, ignoring the fact that there was an audience. "The group you sent as a warning was a decoy for the real Unspeakables and Dumbledore decided to show his true colors."
"To what effect?" Tom questioned, mind already churning to prepare his next move.
"I don't know." Harry replied honestly. "It depends on how contained Dumbledore kept the spell."
An hour later they knew as a special edition of the Daily Prophet arrived, the headlines screaming:
Harry Potter A Murderer! In League with the Dark Lord!
Quickly Harry skimmed the article along with Tom.
"Great Hall destroyed…handful of survivors…don't remember much after Potter pulled his wand…Unspeakables gave lives…Dumbledore protected Potter's ex-friends, suffering magical exhaustion…"
Harry lay the paper down. "It looks like we have our work cut out for us. We're going to have to go into a full-out war with Dumbledore if we want to stop him. The timing's almost right for another Gateway ritual. We can't let him succeed."
Tom nodded in agreement. "I've already sent out the summons to our allies both here and overseas. We'll be ready to attack in two days, any sooner just isn't possible. I just wish it wasn't Hogwarts we were attacking."
On the Tenth Day of Christmas the Dark Lord gave to me:
Ten Ministry Idiots all wrapped in a bow…
Posted On: January 3, 2008