Art of War
Tyene: Huh. I'd say I wasn't expecting you to go there, but I know better.
Wanda: I'm glad you decided that. I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 12: Death
Blaise kept half an eye on Megan Jones.
"Are you afraid of her?" Daphne asked, quietly so they wouldn't be overheard.
The three of them were leading a platoon, staking out near Nott manor. The three of them were leading, due to having been part of the Wolverines the longest. The group was a mixed bag with older and younger members, all of whom were waiting for the co-ordination orders to come over the magic type phones Hermione had invented. Many of the platoon looked nervous or otherwise uncertain.
Megan, however, looked entirely at home. She was tense with anticipation, and her face showed no fear or concern – it was a stone mask. Christine was next to her, both to watch her back and help her corner victims. A smile seemed to creep up Megan's face as the clock ticked down closer to the attack.
"Afraid?" Blaise echoed, slightly offended. "No, I'm not afraid. It's just..." He glanced at Megan again, making sure they weren't being overheard.
"What?" Daphne pressed.
"I appreciate how driven Megan is. But sometimes I find her eagerness unnerving." Blaise answered. "Perhaps that's a bit hypocritical as an aspiring assassin, but it continues to trouble me..."
Daphne frowned. "I heard rumour of Hestia Jones's death. Said it was a raid gone wrong...at least that was Fudge's explanation. Megan has lost a lot – more then either of us. More likely then not she's seeking revenge. Her aunt, father and mother gone...I cannot fault her for that."
"Neither can I." Blaise conceded. "I may just be overthinking it." With that, the two Slytherins settled down into silence. They had been friends since their sorting, so in all the previous raids they had worked together as a unit.
Morag had the bomb triggers. The explosives had been discreetly rigged around the Nott mansion by Helen Arryn, since her blood allowed her to bypass the wards. The young girl then returned to the safety of the Mansion with a portkey while Morag began counting down.
Not far away, Harry, Flora and his team were doing the same around Malfoy Manor, having littered bombs around a number of other mansions and buildings as well. Carrie Fawkes was holding the detonators there, and she looked quite eager for some payback. And further away then that, Hermione, Ginny and their platoon were staking out the Pritchard residence.
The timer clicked down. Several Death Eaters spilled out into the yard just as the buildings were lit up with smoke and fire.
Bellatrix Lestrange was among those who managed to get outside. She found one of the bunkers and attacked it.
Curses and bullets flew in every direction. After a heated battle, many death eaters lying dead on the lawn, the brilliant flash of portkeys drew the Wolverines away. Bellatrix screamed in rage, the Malfoy mansion burning behind her and dead bodies surrounding her.
At Granger Mansion
"DAPHNE!"
Harry heard Astoria's scream before he saw anything; portkeys always made him dizzy. As soon as he regained his footing, he ran over to the source of the noise.
Astoria had flung herself over her sister's body, sobbing and crying loud enough to wake the dead. Blaise was shaking, refusing to meet anyone's gaze. Blood soaked the floor around the girl. Harry felt bile rise up in his throat.
"It was Patrick Nott." Hestia said, tears dripping down her face. "He threw a severing curse at Astoria's neck when she was pre-occupied. Daphne got in the way but couldn't throw up a shield in time. Hit her right in the chest."
"C-Can she be helped?"
"She's already gone, Harry."
Harry leaned back against the wall at this pronouncement. His chest felt heavy as lead. What had he done?
"HERMIONE! SOMEBODY, PLEASE!"
Ginny rushed over to Lavander Brown, who was helping Pavarti. To Harry's horror, blood was dripping down the girls face. Her usually perky friend was in hysterics, even after Hannah and Nodoka pulled Pavarti away and immediately began treating her.
"Hush!" Nodoka said, her tone loud and kind, but firm. "Your friend will not die, if I have anything to say about it. I've healed much worse, so calm down and cease crying! I must focus."
Numbly, Harry called for all the leaders and demanded to know the situation.
Colin, who had been taking pictures for propaganda, had gotten hit by a Crucio, but he was fine (though rather shaken up) His friend Rayne Dantes was helping him, along with Dennis.
Sally Anne Perks had lost her right hand, also to a severing curse. She had passed out, but Dean had cauterized the wound in time to prevent the injury from getting worse.
Ben Glass was dead via Avada Kedavera. His friends hadn't managed to collect his body before the timed portkey went off.
Neville had taken two Crucios for Jennifer and Matt, the resulting pain knocking him out cold. Luckily, he had been brought back.
Carol Duchannes was also dead. She had been hit by Avada Kedavera before she even realized the situation had changed.
Sasha had taken a cutting curse, but she hadn't even noticed the pain – she had stayed behind, shooting up Death Eaters till the bitter end because her friend Tammy had taken a bludgeoning curse. Thankfully, both girls would recover – though Sasha would have trouble lifting anything heavier then a kitten with her right hand afterwards.
Three dead. Several injured.
"I'm going to kill them all," Astoria snarled through her tears, "Send me back! I'm going to kill him!"
"Don't worry," Megan Jones said darkly. She had ghosted over from her platoon, where they had been no deaths or injuries, and knelt next to the girl. "That bastard will pay. I'll make sure we see to it."
Astoria blinked the tears away from her eyes, clutching at her sister's arms. Several of her half sisters came over to join her – Sally, Christine, Karen, Annette, Tabitha and Amber. Christine muttered and agreement to Megan's statement while Amber gently pulled Astoria away from the body into a hug. While the redhead comforted her half sister, Sally and Karen turned towards Harry, who stared back at them with grief and dismay.
"We need to bury her." Sally said plainly, any trace of her original shyness gone. "Her and Carol and Ben, if only in spirit for him."
Harry nodded mechanically.
"I'll get the wood." Ginny said quietly.
/
Harry hadn't known much about wizard funerals. It was tradition to burn the bodies, since it was believed that fire cleansed the soul of sin. That, and it would prevent the bodies from rising again as Inferni.
Daphne's pyre was extravagant, a group effort by her sisters and her closest friend Tracey Davis. Flowers were woven in her hair and covered the wound on her chest. Harry, as he watched her, still felt as if he would see her stand up and give a sarcastic observation as she had many times before. It was so hard to believe that someone in his year, someone he had conversed with and promised to protect, was dead.
Ben and Carol were given similar care, though they didn't have any siblings among the wolverines. Nodoka Hiroka, to Harry's eternal gratitude, offered to care for them in place of their parents. After rites and eulogies were spoken, Scotia and Alison – both experts with fire magic – set the pyres ablaze.
Harry looked around him.
Ron had taken a step back to comfort Astoria personally. The usually tactless boy was being incredible – but, having several siblings he loved dearly, he knew how harsh this blow was to her. Hermione was standing stoically close to the fires, her tears falling in silence. Flora and Hestia's hands were folded as if in prayer.
Megan was singing something in German – a ballade of the Valkyre, Tabitha told him. Ginny joined her, though she merely sang the notes since she didn't speak German. Blaise was muttering in Italian, telling the heavens that a brave warrior was coming to join them. Luna crushed a flower in her hand and let the petals fly away in the smoke and wind, her expression serene but sad.
A couple of Hufflepuffs, Eleanor Branstone included, were crying and throwing flowers onto the pyre. Ben had been a big brother to the house collective, and seeing him fall was like loosing family. Paul stood among them along with Anne Marie, offering words and embraces of comfort.
"This isn't your fault."
Harry was surprised to be brought out of his thoughts. One of the older wolverines had come to join him – it took him a moment to identify her as Verity Smith.
"I know you feel guilty." Verity said, looking intently at him. "We all do. But their deaths weren't your doing. They chose to follow this path, and it was Nott and his companions who struck the fatal blow. You have to remember that, Potter."
Harry shook his head slightly. "I asked them to believe in me," He murmured. "I asked them. I said I would protect them."
"And if they hadn't believed in you? Would they truly have survived long?" Verity asked calmly. "Their parents would have sold Astoria like a common whore to Malfoy; how long would that energetic, full of life girl survived locked in a room, endlessly pregnant and giving birth with any agency stripped away from her? Daphne sympathized with you and never would have accepted the Dark Mark; how would her parents have taken to that?"
Harry had no answer to that. "Daphne chose to die for this cause. Ben and Carol too." Verity said. "It's our job to ensure that they don't die in vain."
"But how many more will die if I keep this up?"
"The real question is, how many will die if you stop fighting?" Verity responded, looking intently at Harry. "Let me tell you from my experience, Potter – if you had not given me a place to run too, I would have been made a whore for whatever death eaters wanted to continue their progeny. Many of those in my situation would have been murdered. And your friends, when the Death Eaters decided to come out of hiding?"
Harry looked down. "Your compassion is your greatest asset, Potter – but placing all responsibly on your shoulders will kill you." Verity said. "If it were up to me, or any mother and father worth a damn, you wouldn't be in this position in the first place. However, you are the beacon of hope in this world against Voldemort."
"What do you want me to do?" Harry rasped. "Send these people to their deaths without a care?"
"Of course not. But you need to know that what you stand for is worth dying for." Verity said firmly. "And I would rather die today then live in a world under Voldemort."
"I don't want it to come to that."
"Then we better see that it doesn't, shall we?" Verity asked.
For a moment, Harry was silent. After a moment, he asked, "What do you think should we do next?"
"We should keep moving," Verity said. "Likely the Death Eaters will realize they aren't safe in any single place. Voldemort is a man who likes to make shows of strength."
"We can't fight Voldemort yet."
"Perhaps not. But we can slaughter his men as they goose-step down the streets, wrapped up in their feelings of invincibility." Upon Harry's curious look, she smiled coldly, "I imagine some of your Wolverines are looking for revenge."
The Next Day
Harry named several commanders, telling them to take a group of armed Wolverines and stake out whatever places they thought Death Eaters were likely to appear. He left the decision of choosing locations to them, though he did organize who went with who. Paul Nakamazi, Verity Smith, Dean, Justin, Cho and Ron took their platoons down into the inside of the city while Anne Marie, Harry himself, Flora, Hestia, and Simone Draydan circled around important buildings such as Gringotts and the Floo centre.
Megan Jones was also given a platoon, which included Astoria and Sally to name a few. She had a location involved, but she decided she wanted to take a detour first.
/
Lucius Malfoy stormed into Hogsmeade with Patrick Nott and several 'lesser' houses in tow. "Kill some, brutalize others. Throw up the Dark Mark!" He bellowed.
"How about no, Lucky-boy?" A new voice sing-songed.
Lucius whipped around, wand in hand, but his snarl died in his throat.
A girl with dark hair, Astoria Greengrass and several other nobodies in tow, were forming a barricade between them and the rest of Hogsmeade (and by extension, Hogwarts). But they weren't alone.
Malfoy, Theodore, Crabbe and Goyle were there too. But their wands were gone, their hands were bound and they all had those accursed black metal weapons pressed against their heads.
"I thought you might come here." The dark haired girl – clearly the leader – stated, sounding satisfied. "Given your master's obsession with the school. I thought I would bring along some friends."
Draco whimpered. He had a busted lip and a black eye – the group had violently roughed the group up to prevent them from calling for help.
"What the hell are you doing?" Lucius demanded.
"Paying you back." The girl responded coldly.
"Release them this instant!"
"... ...Why? Why should we do that?" One of the other girls spat on the ground. Crabbe tried to shed away but was violently pulled back by the ear.
Lucius fired off a vicious cutting curse only to discover a powerful shield charm standing between them and the children.
The girl clicked her tongue and pushed the barrel of her gun further down on Malfoy's neck. "tut tut, Lucy. You claim to be nobility, yet you act just as savage as you say we are."
"What do you want?" Patrick said, his tone slightly panicky as he stared at his sole legitimate air, who lying on his side at Astoria's feet.
Astoria laughed in response, her eyes burning with hate. "What do we want? I want my sister back. But I can't have that now...so instead I want every last one of you fuckers rotting in a ditch."
"You can't do this!"
"We can't?" The lead girl demanded, her voice dangerously low. Lucius had a nagging feeling he recognized her – he had a fleeting memory of another person when he looked at her. Was it that Jones woman? He and several others had gone to silence her in her home.
Lucius had been sure he had left no survivors.
"You murder our family. You terrorize us and threaten us with death and worse daily." Astoria and Dancia Danger both glowered at this. "You force us to live like maggots, torture us, and you want to tell us what we can't do?"
"You brought this on yourselves!" Lucius roared, sill believing that the children in front of him wouldn't dare strike his son when faced with him.
That proved to be the wrong thing to say.
"No." The girl said. She started to smile. "You did that."
The gun went off with an earsplitting roar. Draco Malfoy didn't even have a chance to scream before his head was blown apart, spraying blood and gore everywhere.
Another bang and Theodore Nott's head was severed from his body. Astoria stared back at the patriarch of the family as he screamed.
Lucius was so struck stupid by his son's sudden death that he left himself wide open for a disarming spell. The girl's companions immediately raised their wands and relieved the group of shell-shocked purebloods of their weapons.
When the now helpless Death Eaters tried to run, they were either shot down or paralysed by stunners or binding curses. Lucius himself was bound in ropes and shoved to the ground.
The leader dispelled the shield and walked over to Lucius, stepping over Draco's body without looking at him once. Lucius was still gaping in horrified shock at the body when he was abruptly rolled over with a boot pressed against his chest.
"Do you know who I am?" The dark haired girl demanded.
Lucius choked and didn't say anything, bile and tears of pain filling his throat.
"My name is Megan Jones. You came to my house just before the school year. You murdered and raped my aunt. You destroyed my family. I have nothing to live for now...nothing but the desire to destroy you and everyone like you."
"Then...then kill me." Lucius choked out. "Do it. What are you waiting for?"
Megan's response was to produce her wand and say, "That's too good for you, you bastard." With a flick, she sent a severing charm at the man's groin, deftly removing his final weapon. As Lucius howled in pain, Megan cauterized the wound and kept him pinned under her boot. "There were two men with you, one of them did the same to my mother, forced my father to watch before murdering him. Who were they?"
"...P-Peter Pettigrew...and...a-and...Rabastian...Lestrange..."
"Pettigrew." Megan echoed. Lucius screeched in pain as she twisted her boot on his chest. "I see." With that, she pointed her wand at her eyes. "Compliments from Pavarti Patil."
Lucius Malfoy screamed as his vision was taken away from him.
Megan kicked his body away before turning her attention to Astoria. The girl was throwing cutting curse after cutting curse at Patrick Nott, who was now catatonic with shock and blood loss, screaming "My sister! You killed Daphne!"
"He can't feel it anymore, Astoria." Megan remarked mildly. The blonde girl gave no indication that she had heard.
Christine Traudi came over to Megan, staring hatefully at Lucius. "Is he dead?"
"No." Megan responded. "I want him to suffer for as long as possible. I did, however, remove the weapon he used against your mother."
"Good." Christine snarled. "But it's missing something..." She fired a severing curse at the man's dominant hand. "Live with that, you bastard!" She shouted. "See what its like to be at the bottom of the food chain, oh superior wizard!"
Megan chuckled appreciatively before flicking another cauterizing spell at the now thoroughly ruined man.
"We need to double back!" Amber yelled in warning, having finished off Crabbe's two parents as the they had tried to flee. "The Order of the Phoenix is headed this way – Snape noticed Malfoy was missing."
Megan nodded shortly. "Come on, girls. There are more raping, murdering bastards out there. Let's go kill them."
Astoria finally stopped her abuse of Patrick Nott's now fairly unrecognizable body to activate her portkey. When Tonks and Kingsley burst onto the scene, along with the residents who had fled upon the DE's arrival, they found nothing but dead or dying bodies.
Outside of Gringotts
"Pettigrew? Peter Pettigrew?" Harry paused, Megan's voice flitting through the floo-based phones all the wolverines had been issued. "I see. I'm sorry." More muttering. "So he's been out and about. Let's see if we can find him." A shout. "I'll take my team and meet up with you – I've been given some new information by the goblins.
"What was that about Pettigrew?" Ginny asked from where she was holding a struggling low ranked Death Eater at gunpoint.
"Word from Megan." Harry explained. "Pettigrew attacked her family, which means he's not waiting on Riddle hand and foot. That suggests to me that Tom had him doing something."
Ginny blasted the man's shoulder apart before walking over to Harry. There were a number of Death Eater bodies strewn all of the steps of the bank – the goblins had closed up just before the attack thanks to Harry's warning. In return for this, Griphook had informed him of something.
"Kindly inform your friend Hermione Lestrange-Granger that we've inspected and cleaned out the remainder of her vaults. We found inside one of them a cursed goblet – a Horcrux. I imagine this is related to your Dark Wizard."
Harry planned to have Hermione and some others research this subject when they doubled back to their respective mansions.
"You mean the horcrux?" Ginny asked. When Harry nodded, she looked grim. "I've only heard stories and rumors about that. It was said to be the darkest of magic, something even Gellert Grindelwald wouldn't touch."
"Sounds like it's up Tom's ally." Harry said in response, eyes narrowing. "I'll ask Flora and Hestia about it when we regroup." The Carrow twins were generally accepted as the Wolverine's dark magic experts, aside from one or two of the Black bastard children.
Ginny started in surprise when her floo phone rang. Picking it up, she said, "Ginny speaking." Pause. "Natalie? What is it?" Eager chatter. "Your dad? Wait, he said something about horxcruxes too!? ...He's looking for them now and has been ever since he went missing? ...He's already destroyed three!? Is he still there? ... ...Lovely. Tell him to come back with you to the Mansion. Now stay safe."
"What was that?"
"Natalie's father." Ginny said briskly, pocketing her phone. "Regulus Black heard about the murders and came looking for her. He ran away from the Death Eaters partially because he discovered the horcruxes! He wants to talk to you, Harry."
Harry's expression became determined. "I'll see him once we've finished up our work for today. Do me a favor and take over here, will you Ginny? I'm off to help Megan."
Ginny nodded as Harry disappeared via portkey.
End Chapter
Yup, not all the Wolverines are going to be strictly honorable like Harry. I set up Megan to fill this exact slot, hence the murder of her family and her actions this chapter. When Harry discovers more of what she did this day - he hasn't yet - he'll protest, but Megan has support in how extreme she is by others driven to such rage by grief.
What can I say? War makes demons of everyone.
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