Chapter Twenty-One

Too Much

Courtney had heard of Dudley Dursley, of course. Harry Potter's Muggle cousin that he'd lived with as a child. Albus, James, and Lily had visited Dudley last summer, along with nearly every other summer and winter break, spending time with his kids. Courtney had read Albus's letters on the subject, but couldn't for the life of her remember the Dursley kids' names.

Dursley nodded. "Yeah. It's me. I'm sorry about, well, everything. At least everything related to the drugging and experimenting on you."

"Don't worry about it," Albus dismissed. He peered into the Map. "The only people on the grounds outside the castle right now are Dad, the other Aurors, and Hagrid."

"The rest of the Faction and your friends haven't gotten there yet," Dursley said.

James held up the mirror fragment. "Lily? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," Courtney heard Lily say. "So the Light is on its way now?"

"Er, yes," James replied. His confusion turned to understanding. "I already told you that they'd be coming when I called."

"Yeah, an hour ago."

James looked away from the mirror shard and faced the others. "Shoot. That's my cue." He reached for the hourglass around his neck, turned it once, and disappeared.

At the same time he vanished, he reappeared a few meters away, shrugging off the Invisibility Cloak. He had a small cut on his face that hadn't been there before. As if nothing happened, the new James looked at his own mirror shard and spoke to Lily. "Yeah. Look for Longbottom, Asmius, Torrindale, Hagrid, anyone really, and let them know the Light's coming."

Something about the mirror shard confused Courtney. It was supposed to be two-way, yet James had brought it back in time with it. For the past hour, there were three shards in the world. Why did Lily specifically see the original one until it was gone and now saw through the new one? Was it just a default for the original mirror vanishing? Or did the new one being under the Invisibility Cloak somehow prevent Lily from seeing through it?

"Also," James continued. "Vector and Lochram are on their way to help. So's Teddy and Victoire and Fred and a few others."

"The Light has been preparing tricks just in case we felt the need to attack Hogwarts," Dursley said. "They have long-range weaponry and sights. Most of it's nonlethal, for obvious reasons, but they do have bigger stuff just in case. Aleksander told them as much as he could find about the layout of Hogwarts, so they'll have plenty of hiding places to fire from."

"They can try and hide, but it won't work," Albus said.

"Right," James agreed.

"Is that Uncle Dudley?" Lily asked.

"Hi, Lily."

"Look, just go find someone and tell them that the Faction of Light is headed to Hogwarts. Let me know when you tell someone."

"Aye-aye!"

James put the mirror fragment back into his bag. "Perfect. Now let's find Raisel and get out of here."

"Follow me," Dursley said. "Out of every room in the building, I'd wager the owl's being kept in Euclid's office. It's a big room, and more importantly Euclid would want to be in the same room as Raisel just in case Vector somehow escaped and tried to free it."

"So there's no doubt Euclid's office is going to be trapped," Natalya reasoned. "The kind of traps that even Vector could fall for."

"I wouldn't put it past him," Dursley admitted.

He led the way through the building. Left turn, right turn, another right turn, through a doorway.

"Hey!" a Light member shouted as he saw them make a turn.

"I thought they were headed for Hogwarts!" Courtney said.

"Not all of them," Lynne noted. "Not while we're still here."

"Everyone! They're over here!" the Light member continued. It didn't take long for several more Light members to get close to the group.

"Dammit, Archimedes! Not cool!" Dursley exclaimed.

"Avada Kedavra," Scorpius muttered.

The Light member - Archimedes - swore as he desperately leaped out of the path of the bright green jet of light.

"Dammit, Malfoy! Even less cool!"

"Expelliarmus!" Albus called out. The wand flew from Scorpius's hand. Courtney picked up the fallen wand before Scorpius could grab it.

Archimedes scrambled to his feet. "Sod it, I'm out of here!" He started to run in the opposite direction, tripping a couple times before he was out of sight. Two or three of the other Light members followed his example and backed away. The rest slowed down, but still hesitantly approached the group.

Courtney thought about the spells they'd learned in Defense class. So many of the combat spells were intended for duelling with wizards. There was hardly anything on incapacitating multiple Muggles. One of whom was reaching for something that looked suspiciously like…

"Protego!" she exclaimed at the same moment that she heard the gunshot. The Shield Charm emerged, but the bullet ignored it. It passed right through the shield without even slowing and grazed Elijah's neck.

"Elijah!" Courtney shouted.

Blood flowed from the cut at a rate far faster than Courtney was comfortable with.

"We've got to get him out of here," Dursley said.

"This would be easier if I had my wand," Scorpius pointed out.

Easier, sure, at least at the moment. If they just went through the building, killing every Light member left and right it would certainly be easy to escape. But… Courtney remembered the Dark wizard she, Lynne, and Albus had seen in the Pensieve two years ago. The gleeful way he had murdered defenseless Muggles until Salazar and Godric stopped him. Scorpius hadn't been there to see that… No. There was no way Courtney would ever kill people, or allow her friends to kill people, just because it's easier.

"The injury's too big for Episkey," Courtney said. "Does anyone know any better healing spells?"

"Other than 'get to the infirmary', no," James replied. "Stupefy!" One of the Light members, the one who had shot Elijah, staggered back a little. The giant winter coat had absorbed most of the spell's impact.

"Shoot," Albus muttered. "They're there. There's a few Light members on Hogwarts grounds."

Courtney looked everywhere. The advancing Light members, at least one of whom was armed. Elijah, on the ground bleeding heavily. They needed to get out of here, and now Albus and James would have their attention at least partially focused on Lily and Hogwarts. Courtney had to do something, but what?

"Albus, can I see your bag?" Lynne asked.

Without a word, Albus tossed his pouch to Lynne. She started to look around inside for a second, pulling a contraption out of the bag, before holding up her wand. "Accio Powder!"

Black powder shot from the bag toward her wand, scattering pure blackness into the air around it. She put her wand down and tossed the powder everywhere around her. Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. As the light faded from the room even further, Lynne grabbed Courtney and Rose's hands. "Run!"

Dursley picked up Elijah and ran as well. Albus, James, Natalya, and Scorpius took off in the same direction.

"They're getting away!" a Light agent called.

Courtney heard a loud crash in the opposite direction.

"This way!" the same Light agent continued. The room faded to pitch blackness as the sound of the Light attackers got more and more distant.

Author's Note: Wow. I'm really sorry that it took so long to post this chapter. That said, first chapter of the year! In the (more than necessary) time it took to complete this chapter, I plotted out some more future events that I hope you will all enjoy.