| CHAPTER ELEVEN, Death Bringers of the West Part Three |
"Henson told me that the primary entrapment is in place," Reid said to the group. "No one's going anywhere, 'least not without us knowing about it." Several of them nodded in acknowledgment. "Everyone ready?"
Picard took the brave lead up the stairs after Harry handed the man his satchel of WWW Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. Picard stopped just so his head was below visibility to those above, cracked another 'Stun-Ball,' and threw the powder just before tossing the ball. Protected by the Shield Charm that had been placed before him by Ron's wand that was attached to the outstretched arm under Picard's armpit, the Stun-Ball did its magic and rendered those in the large office-sized room unconscious.
The force gathered into the office, halting before the next phase. Reid pulled out piece of mirror and double tapped it with his wand. "Monitor 1 and 2," the blonde whispered into the square, "move into the floor level of the house and begin Incarcerous proceedings."
"Copy that," came an equally quiet voice.
"Swan," Harry said after Reid nodded to him, "take point."
Belenus Swan nodded and made for the left door way, the path which would ultimately lead to the north side of the central most room, the one in which they believed Seward Roscoe was holed up inside. Swan stepped forward and soon the hit wizard team was making its way down the wide hallway, Harry and Peter bringing up the rear—Ron and Mack went with Reid's team as Picard lost two of his men in the initial breach.
As Swan stepped into a large room that had a ceiling worth three flights, a click sounded from beneath his forward-most foot. Jerking back, expecting flames to burst before him, nothing came. However, before anyone could analyze the seemingly faulty trigger, two large acromantulas dropped from the shadowed ceiling, blocking the team's progress towards the doors leading into the room.
"Move back!" Swan cried as the closer one began to charge.
"Can't!" Harry yelled back, noting the invisible barrier against his body.
Seeing what was before them, he and Peter squeezed through to the front and, in sync with each other, the two Aurors cried, "Arania Exumei!" Two bursts of white light struck the two medium-large spiders—as compared to Aragog—and slammed them both into the wall behind them.
Moving forward into the room, Peter aimed his wand at the disheveled, yet recovering arachnids and yelled, "Incendio Maxima!" The two acromantulas instantly set ablaze and a piercing gurgled cry emitted from them as their legs skittered beneath them as they died in agony.
Swan, having memorized the mazing route to the central room, made his way to the door on the wall left of where they entered. Proceeding even more cautiously, eventually the team only ran into three Death Bringers—whom they easily dispatched—before they came upon a peculiar stone door. Carved into the white marble was what looked like a three-dimensional Christian angel; beneath its feet on the baseboard was a lengthy inscription in Greek.
"Sir?" Swan askeked.
As Harry lifted his two-way to ask Reid about the door, the blonde's voice came through. "Potter, you there?"
"Copy," Harry replied after double tapping the square.
"Are you at the central room, yet?" he whispered.
"We are. We're kind of at a loss, actually." Harry pointed the mirror so it was parallel to the door, showing Reid the door.
"We have that too. So much for a two-front strategy."
"What do you know?"
"This is Donovan's doing. I'll explain another time but these two doors are 'Hypnos and Thanatos.' The Greek deities of—"
"Sleep and death," Harry finished. Noting Reid's impressed expression, Harry added, "Ron's wife has had a few rants on mythology and 'it's living magic,'" he imitated.
"I have to meet this woman, someday," Reid said, "she's right. There's an old magic on these doors, Potter. Ours reads about slumber, but it mentioned 'eternal slumber' once. Hold the mirror down to the passage so I can read it."
Complying with haste, Harry knelt down and slowly scanned the text with the mirror, repeating the motions after each of the three line-breaks.
"Shit," Reid exclaimed.
After a few seconds' silence, Harry said, "You wanna' share?"
"That one also used 'eternal slumber' in it, too, which means now I'm stumped."
"Is it possible they're both Hypnos?"
"Highly unlikely. The point is to make two people opening the doors gamble. You open one, you fall into a deep sleep. The other, you die."
"Great. Any ideas then?"
"Lemme' just think a moment."
Harry nodded and double tapped his wand to the mirror again, essentially turning off the 'microphone.' "Think there's a way around?" Harry asked Peter and Swan both.
"We could try and make a diagonal blast," Belenus Swan began, pointing at the corners of the door, "but without knowing if these doors have some sort of rebound, or something that would trigger a rebound if we went around, I'm not sure."
"Fair enough," Harry frustratedly retorted. "If what Reid says is true, that they're different, and this one turns out to be the sleeper, we should decide who opens it now. I will do—"
"I would like to volunteer, sir," said Henry Huxterian as he stepped forward, a hit wizard that has served with Belenus Swan for a number of years now. Harry nodded at him and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Thank you, Henry," Harry said, looking back at the square-in-hand; Reid still looked lost in thought, his eyes closed and his mouth soundlessly muttering. He could also see Ron in the background, talking to the surprisingly still-standing uninjured Mackenzie Hensbolm; the Auror was not known for his dueling skills.
"It's your door, Potter," Reid's voice suddenly came through. "You've got Hypnos. We'll be right over there."
"Copy that," Harry said, slipping the thin square back into his right pocket. "You ready, Huxterian?"
The red-head, who could very well have been a Weasley, nodded at his superior. They shifted around and made room for Peter to safely drag the hit wizard's slumbering body around the corner after the latter opened the door. As the task force head promised, the American team soon arrived, Ron and Mack ahead of them.
"Glad you guys had the spiders," Ron mumbled to Harry, noting his arachnophobia, "we had a rather large fire crab."
"Joy," Harry replied before giving the nod to Huxterian and Peter. The hit wizard reached forward and pulled. Immediately, his body went limp and fell into Peter's arms, dragging his limp form around the corner. Swan immediately grabbed the handle and they pushed forward. Instantly, the fighting broke out once again. Spells flew in crazed directions, colliding with walls, shields, and bodies alike. A trio of explosions came from within the door they had just piled out of, one of the Death Bringers firing the Blasting Curse at Peter as he bounded forward away from it, colliding with a piece of overturned stone column after he lunged away from the final blast.
The room was enormous, bigger than the acromantula room Harry and his team had passed through. Around them was a great manner of Greek columns and snake designs, a combination design likely of Donovan Shallows and Seward Roscoe's tastes.
Harry was ducked behind a crate, firing Stunning Spells at a fast pace far overhead, not even looking where they were aimed. Peter recovered from his collision and began to do the same. Reid, on the other hand, was making direct shots at a good number of the Dark Wizards with his Lightning Curse, their jerking and seizing forms crumbling to the ground in agony.
Suddenly, a heat came close to the team and Harry heard Swan cry out and swear. Peering from behind the crate, Ron was helping the man take better cover as his non-wand-wielding forearm had been caught in another Fiendfyre trap. Seeing a man reach for the 'Thanatos door' parallel to their own entrance, Harry set it ablaze with the Fire-Making Spell before striking the door with the Blasting Curse, sending the Death Bringer flying backwards from the forceful recoil.
As Harry had exposed himself, he suddenly cried out in much the same manner Swan had only seconds ago. "Fugh…fuck…" Harry gasped in sweating agony as he re-concealed himself behind the crate. Reaching over to his right shoulder, he found that he was bleeding from a tunnel-like-hole created by the Perfodius Curse, a bullet-firing-like spell. Applying pressure, knowing that it would do little to help as the hole would not heal without the counter-curse, which only a skilled healer could perform, Harry sat there hoping the skirmish would end soon.
Suddenly, a huge cracking sound filled the room as a yellow-white light flashed. Reid had cast an intensified version of the Lightning Curse, striking six of the Death Bringers at once. Gossard, his partner, immediately rose to cover the blonde with a Shield Charm before disarming and stunning the Death Bringer that had made to curse at Reid's exposed form.
"Don't move, Roscoe!" Harry heard Ron cry. He peered out from behind the crate to see Ron standing with his outstretched wand pointed at a hooded man with a limp; Picard and several of the other hit wizards were also standing with their wands outstretched at various other targets, some down, others not. Peter Churchmore muttered 'Rennervate' over Mackenzie Hensbolm's stunned form.
"It's not over yet, Shallows," Roscoe hissed before evilly grinning, his teeth almost snake-like. Suddenly, the 'Thanatos door' burst off its hinges and seven Death Bringers poured into the room, making an arch-formation. The central member was unmasked and topped with a light-dirty blond hair, featuring a blue misshaped tattoo covering the right side of his face and around his left eye, which was aberrantly disfigured and dead.
With the arrival of the Dark Wizards' reinforcements, the fighting ensued and Harry pulled himself back behind the crate before casting a spell over himself to slow the pumping of his blood, his head instantly becoming light headed from its effects.
Ron was now dueling Roscoe head on, the revived Hensbolm doing his best to cover Ron while taking on his own opponent. Reid Shallows was dueling the unmasked leader of the reinforcements, the Death Bringer giving the task force head a mighty challenge. Peter was attempting to aid Picard and the remainder of the standing hit wizards until he was finally disarmed and flung backwards into the wall, rendering him unconscious. Reid suddenly flew back a few feet, landing on his back. Gossard was thrown aside and the unmasked man stepped forward to loom over Reid, his wand pointed square at the blonde.
"You never learn, cousin," Reid said with a smirk before a bright blue light burst from Reid's thrown-forward hands, slamming into the Death Bringer who had been identified as Donovan Shallows, the Dark Wizard crashing into the bottom edge of the high rise above. Quickly picking himself up off the floor, Reid retrieved his wand and cast and cried, "Fulmen Rumpo!" The same awe-striking lightning bolts burst from the tip of his wand and struck another eight Death Bringers, causing most of Roscoe's forces to be defeated.
Reid turned to face Seward Roscoe himself before Ron successfully single-handedly disarmed the man and tied him up with taut ropes with the Incarcerous spell. Reid, Ron, and Picard's wands all turned to point at Donovan, who began to stir from his place atop the rubble on the floor.
"It's over, Donovan," Reid said firmly.
Donovan's torso rose, his arms rising to surrender, a smirk still spread across his face. "For now, cousin." Immediately, ropes flung from Reid's wand and wrapped snugly around his third cousin. Reid snapped his fingers and Donovan's wand flew into the former's hand before he stuffed it into his robes. With Ron, Picard, Mack, and the standing hit wizards on alert while the remaining Death Bringers surrendered and dropped their wands, Reid turned and saw the state of his fallen cohorts. Harry was still losing blood, yet slower than the initial impact. Swan had a tear-bringing burn on his arm. Churchmore was unconscious and bleeding from the back of his head. And jointly five of their men were down, three unconscious and two dead—one from both teams.
Reid reached into his pocket and drew forth his two-way mirror. Double tapping it with his wand, he spoke into it. "Janeway, come in."
"Copy," Margaret Janeway said.
"Enter the structure and join us in the central room. Send Mobile 1 and 2 back outside to monitor the skies and maintain the perimeter. Oh, and give a twiddle to the platinum, would ya'?"
"Copy that, sir," she replied before Reid stuffed the mirror away.
Reid walked over to Ron and muttered something inaudible to him. In seconds, Ron knelt down next to his best mate and grasped Harry's uninjured shoulder. "Healer's on the way, mate. You gonna' make it?"
Harry forced a grin and an eye open. "I always do, don't I?"
"Haha, I s'pose you do," Ron replied, giving Harry a bit of a shake. "Rough one, eh?"
"Close one, more like," Harry replied more seriously.
"Merlin, I dunno' what we'd 'a been able to do if we didn't have Reid. Did you see him cast those lightning spells? Shit. He was like a thunder cloud."
Harry smirked. "I didn't see him…I was too busy dying and wallowing in self-pity."
Ron rolled his eyes and laughed. "Back to that again, huh?"
"Tosser," Harry retorted.
"All clear sir?" came Margaret Janeway's voice again, this time from across the room. The backup team began to move in and bind those Death Bringers still alive, as well as gather their wands for processing, and likely snapping in the near-future. After only a moment after Janeway's arrival, the deep violet-haired Terry Bicknell entered through the same door and walked over to Reid. Giving his lover a quick peck on the lips for surviving another skirmish, Terry leaned down to Belenus Swan and drew out his wand.
"Mulceo Ardoro," the quiet-spoken man said after pointing his wand at Swan's scalded forearm. "Mr. Swan, this will take quite some time to heal," he began as Swan's scrunched face began to loosen and relax, "but even after it does you'll have a nasty scar. Be sure to visit St. Mungo's when you return to Britain; they can provide you with a more long-term relief of pain." The injured squad leader desperately nodded and Terry smiled softly at him before standing.
Terry moved to the slumped Peter Churchmore and pulled him forward slightly to get a look at the unconscious man's bleeding head. "Episkey…Tergeo…" Terry muttered, the tip of his wand resting on the back of Peter's head. "Reid," Terry said after inspecting Peter's neck and spine, "be sure to transport Mr. Churchmore via conventional means. No teleportation." Reid only nodded.
Finally he walked over to Harry and knelt next to Ron. Lifting Harry's hand covering his wound, Terry took a closer inspection of the hole. "The Perfodius Curse," the violet-haired man said, shaking his head. "Mr. Potter, I need you to bite down on this," Terry said as he retrieved a six-inch wooden stick from his robes. "If you need to, grasp Mr. Weasley's hand to squeeze…it may help." Ron nodded at Harry and the latter took his best mate's hand before clamping his teeth around the stick. Pointing his wand at the still bleeding hole, Terry firmly said, "Expleo." Instantly Harry's eyes bulged and a pain like he never felt before overcame him. His eyes began to water as the hole began to sew itself up like stitching without anesthesia, even the insides getting a 'stitch' over their own. "I apologize, Mr. Potter. These wounds never are fun. When you get home, don't go to St. Mungo's to have that removed. In two weeks' time send me an owl and I will personally take that out—the healers there never have been able to take these out without causing internal bleeding." Harry released the stick after the pain began to dull and he nodded, the steady flow of tears ceasing.
Terry went off to look at the other three unconscious hit wizards, having glance-examined them for any external wounds on his way over to Belenus Swan. After declaring that they suffered no threatening injuries and that they'd rouse in a few hours on their own, Terry declared his work done. "Anything else, Reid?" Terry said, walking over to his partner.
Reid, who had been watching Janeway make bundles of five wizards and send them off with one of her men via portkey, turned to plant a light kiss on Terry's cheek. "That should do it, babe," he said with a wink.
"I'll escort you back to the resort and make sure they wake alright."
Reid nodded, turning and watching Ron help Harry off the floor, the latter still clutching his shoulder, only now just in pain. Margaret Janeway walked over to Harry as he men carried on and she presented him with an object wrapped in thick transparent plastic.
"Sir, this is for your prisoner," she said as Harry looked at it. The object was a broken overhead-fan remote control, white with a few dents and a missing button that turned the fan itself on.
"Ron, you wanna' do the honors?" Harry asked.
