Life During Wartime Chapter 21 - Eyes Wide Open, a harry potter fanfic

LDW - 21

Eyes Wide Open

(Big Blue Plymouth)

There is nothing that is stronger than the feeling that you get

When your eyes are wide open

There is nothing like the feeling, you can never forget

When your eyes are wide open

Daytime was a feeling but it's not over yet

Are my eyes still open?

We come a long long distance and we're never goin' back

Got my eyes wide open

21.1

A green light flashed through the room; Staci summoned a chair, and the Killing Curse impacted on it, causing the chair to explode in midair. Wooden shards flew across the room; people screamed in pain. Hannah had gone down with a wound to her leg and threw herself around just in time so that the shards ended up hitting her in her back instead of in her face. Neville put up a shield against most of the shards that came his way, although he didn't escape all, and a few pierced his right forearm.

Croaker batted away the shards coming towards him with a spell from his off hand.

Fleur had transformed into her Veela form the moment the chair exploded, and the shards bounced off her feathers. She let out a feral scream and directed a barrage of fireballs at the source of the green light.

Barnes bared his teeth and reciprocated with a volley of dark spells, and Croaker spun around and placed a shield to protect the group's backside.

Harry dove to the floor, a few wooden shards imbedded in various parts of his body, and he winced in pain. Beside him, Daphne collapsed, several large wooden shards piercing her abdomen and chest.

'Daphne!' he shouted and moved towards her.

A large orange blast of flames shot out from Barnes' wand, and Harry threw himself back.

'Fiendfyre! The bastard conjured Fiendfyre!' Croaker roared over the din of the battle.

A grim smile appeared on Barnes' lips. Hah, the group would be hard pressed to control the raging inferno he had just unleashed. That would buy him enough time. He hissed a final command to the wolf shaped ball of flame, then disapparated in a hasty retreat.

Croaker reacted first to the cursed flames and called out the flame-freezing charm, which slowed down the flames. To everyone's relief the heat the flames were producing also decreased.

"Partis temporus," Staci shouted. The middle portion of the flame spun away.

Harry crawled back to Daphne's side and pulled her into his arms. His eyes darted over the pieces of wood sticking out of her body. He hesitated, then reached a hand out to one of the pieces of wood, his brow furrowed with worry.

"Stop! Don't touch the pieces of wood! "

Hannah's shout made him jump, and he pulled his hand away.

"They should only be removed by a team of healers," Hannah added in a lower tone. 'You never know if they didn't scratch a major artery, such as to the kidneys or the legs, or the aorta itself. In that case Daphne would bleed to death if you removed them."

Daphne looked at Harry, her eyes blinked at him, as if she was trying to convey a message, then she slumped in his arms, unconscious. Harry cradled Daphne in his lap; his blazing eyes turned to look for the one who had cast the spell at his girlfriend.

"Don't worry, Potter, the Veela's fireballs took him out. He won't be hurting anyone anymore," the Auror said with a knowing look at Harry, and jerked his chin towards a corner of the room where the charred remains of a human body lay on the floor.

Harry's nostrils flared at the bile-raising smell of burnt human flesh. Other than that he showed no emotions. 'Good!' he said with clenched teeth.

Fleur changed back into her human form and looked at Harry and Daphne. "We need to get these two to St. Mungo's quickly," she said.

Neville nodded in agreement. "Several of us need attention there, but those flames need to be controlled before we dare try and make our way there."

Staci snarled at him. "Already working on it, young man."

Between Staci and Croaker, the magical raging fire was soon under control.

Supported by Neville, who ignored the pain from his own injuries, Hannah made her way over to Harry and Daphne's side. She cast a quick charm over Daphne.

Harry raised an eyebrow. 'I hope you know what you're doing.'

Hannah rolled her eyes at him, "Don't worry, I do. This was just a simple diagnostic charm that won't hurt her. I did spend some time mentoring with Madame Pomfrey in the infirmary over my time at school." She turned back to her spell work. A couple of runes appeared above Daphne's body, and Hannah studied them with a frown on her face. "Nothing is critical, but she does have some internal injuries and will need the care of a fully trained healer."

At her verdict, Harry let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, and cradled Daphne closer to his chest.

Croaker immediately ordered the Aurors to return with a healer from St. Mungo's. Then he and Staci surveyed the warehouse.

Middleton lay near one side of the room, his body partially burned; there was no sign of life on his severely injured body. Jonas was close by; he had had more luck: an overpowered spell from Neville had knocked him unconscious.

Harry's blasting hex had thrown Smyth back against the corner of one of the doorways. There was an open wound to the back of his head. Hannah waved her wand across his body. No runes appeared, and she shook her head at Croaker.

The Muggle team members were either knocked unconscious or had significant injuries from the seriousness of the magical attacks. Several of them had serious injuries including broken bones or open wounds. Croaker cast simple spells to at least bandage their wounds.

The head of the Unspeakables surveyed the wreckage of the warehouse, specifically the numerous injuries that were sustained by the former MI-13 team members, and shook his head. "Dumbledore would have been sorely upset at the use of spells beyond stunners to subdue this crowd."

Neville opened his mouth as if to protest his comment, but Croaker waved him off. "Don't get me wrong, Mister Longbottom, I'm not in agreement with the former headmaster and Chief Warlock. Being a pacifist when faced with aggression and hatred would have only led to many more deaths on our side. No, force that overpowered their force was all that matters in such battles as this one."

"But some of these men have been killed," said Fleur. Her eyes were dark. She had taken the life of more than one person today.

"Yes, but would you rather have lost some of your friends? Have you not lost too much already? Have we not all lost too much already?" Croaker let his words sink in. "Notify the Minister of Magic, he needs to get the Muggle authorities in here right away. Let them deal with the injured and the captured terrorists. They started this all with their revenge tactics."

Soon, Aurors and healers were arriving.

Harry spoke to Croaker. "Daphne - most people have no idea that she's even alive. They all assume she was killed in one of the raids by these terrorists. Can we just have the healers show up?"

Croaker smiled thinly at Harry. "The threats against her and others of the Sacred Twenty-Eight have apparently been silenced. Their teams have been reduced to one survivor. Yes, he escaped, but we will track him down."

Harry nodded in understanding. "Can I go with her? To St. Mungo's, that is."

Croaker looked at the injured as the healers were evaluating everyone. "They are all in good hands, Potter. We still have some loose ends to deal with. A couple of people to find. You would only get in the way of the healers. Let them do their job while we finish ours."

Harry rubbed the back of his neck as he considered Croaker's words. "You are right, we need... I need to finish this. But, I need to know, to be sure, that Daphne, that all of them, will be alright. We'll find them, but we need to care for our own first."

Croaker gave a resigned sigh and nodded his consent.

Daphne, Hannah and Neville were all evaluated by the healers and then quickly transported to St. Mungo's, as was the Auror who had been severely injured during the confrontation. Croaker grabbed Harry's arm and took him by side along apparition to St. Mungo's.

21.2

Have I been dreaming, or have I been sick?

Are my eyes wide open?

Do I do it like that, or do I do it like this?

Are my eyes wide open?

Wearing' out the carpet doin' tricks with her hands

She's got her eyes wide open?

Think about this, "well I already have."

Cho Chang inched towards where Hermione was standing guard over Hubbard. The bushy-haired Know-It-All was possibly aware of her own involvement in everything that had been happening, so she needed to be cautious.

A stick snapped under Cho's foot. Damn!

Hermione spun around.

Wand already in her hand, Cho cast an incarcerous spell, and had Hermione bound in magical ropes the next second.

'You bitch!' Hermione screamed at her captor.

Cho ambled up to the witch. "Oh, what do we have here?" she asked in a mocking tone. "Little miss perfect Granger, always the best in school, for once caught off guard. And who do you have with you, but some agent working with Barnes and Middleton. Well, this won't do, no not at all." She snapped out the wand she had taken from Harry and directed it at Hubbard.

His eyes became wide, and he opened his mouth.

Cho sneered at him. 'Avada Kedavra.'

The green flash struck him in the chest, and his lifeless eyes stared up into nothingness.

Hermione trembled, she stared at Cho with eyes that showed the white in them. 'No...No, no, you can't do that…'

Cho dropped the wand she had taken from Harry and smiled at Hermione. "Oh, no, I won't be so kind to you." She gave Hermione a predatory smile. "No, I have something special planned for you." Her smile deepened.

A shudder went through Hermione's body, and she gulped.

Cho pulled out her own wand and pointed it at Hermione. "Imperio!" she said in a calm and clear voice.

A minute later, all was left was the echo of Cho's Apparition, and a bound witch next to a dead body.

21.3

In another time

In another place

There's a train running through

Right through the middle of the house

Bingley and his team of Aurors arrived at Draco Malfoy's flat. As the lead Auror, he cast Homenum Revelio, and breathed out when the spell showed no evidence of anyone being in the apartment. A special DMLE unlocking spell opened the door, and they entered the flat.

The two wizards and the one witch who had accompanied him filed into the apartment behind him. In spite of the apartment being deserted, their progress was slow, and they cast magical detection charms at everything. The charms didn't come up with anything that was out of the ordinary for a wizard's home.

Bingley cast his Patronus. "Go to Robards, let him know everything seems to be in order. There's no evidence of Chang, and we've found no evidence of any magical traps."

A couple of minutes later, a return Patronus Messenger arrived from Robards. "Did you even check for any Muggle weapons or problems?" The voice of the Head Auror sounded annoyed.

Bingley sighed and considered the new request from his supervisor. Robards was right, they had to expect anything from Chang. He turned to his team, "Just have another look around the apartment, look for anything that might be of Muggle origin."

His subordinates nodded.

'I'll take the bedroom,' Williams said, and turned around.

'I'll start with the hallway.' McCormick already reached out to the knob of the hallway closet.

'That leaves me with the kitchen, I guess,' Knight said. 'Let's hope Malfoy isn't a slob. I hate grabbing into something mouldy.' He turned around and walked towards the kitchen.

In Malfoy's bedroom, Williams crawled on the floor and looked under the bed, casting a lumos charm to help him see better. A few dust bunnies assaulted his nose, and he sneezed.

McCormick searched through a closet in the hallway, opening boxes and tossing them to the side. "Nothing here beside clothes and some old parchments," she announced over her shoulder.

In the kitchen, Knight opened cabinets and drawers which contained the customary kitchen supplies. "Nothing out of the ordinary here, either," he shouted back towards the hallway. He was about to leave the room, when as an afterthought he bent down and looked under the sink.

There was a small clock with some wires attached to what appeared to be some pink clay. He frowned. "Now, what's that?' He grabbed the clock and pulled it and the wires out of the pink clay.

A white, blinding light was the last thing he saw.

A fireball erupted in the kitchen, the deafening bang of an explosion followed, together with the noise of shattering glass and debris falling down.

The shockwave threw Bingley back against the main door and knocked McCormick over into the closet she had been searching. Bingley slid down along the doorframe and slumped to the floor in an unconscious heap.

Williams was still under the bed, his back turned to the door. He jumped at the explosion, hitting his head on the metal bed frame.

"Argh, fuck!" Stars danced in front of his eyes, and he panted with pain. When the pain subsided, he moved his hand behind his head. His fingers met a warm trickle of blood.

"Fuck!" He edged out from under the bed and pushed himself up to a sitting position. Each move made his head throb even more. The room flickered in front of his eyes. He squeezed them shut. However, the flickering still remained when he opened them again. There were crackles, as if someone had lit a fire in the fireplace, and the next moment the smell of smoke assaulted his nostrils.

His eyes became wide. The lounge was aflame! He stared at the fire that licked at the only door out of the bedroom. .

McCormick recovered first. She rushed towards the door of the lounge and cast a Flame Freezing Spell on the furniture and the other areas of the fire.

In the bedroom, Williams fumbled with his wand for a moment as he switched hands holding the wound on the back of his head. His weak Flame Freezing Spell joined McCormick's a good while later.

By the time Bingley regained consciousness and pulled himself up, McCormick had put out the fire, and Williams had made his way out of the bedroom.

The three Aurors looked at each other.

"Where's Knight?" Bingley asked.

As one, the three Authors turned towards the kitchen and stopped in their tracks on the threshold.

There was a hole in the floor. The remaining floor was littered with glass shards and scorched debris from the shattered kitchen cabinets. Knight had been thrown back by the force of the explosion and lay flat on the back near the opposite wall, his legs bent in an awkward angle. His torso was a scorched, bloody mess.

Bingley rushed over to him, although it was clear that Knight was already beyond help. He performed a quick Diagnostic Spell on him, as standard Auror protocol dictated. It came up with the result he had feared, and he shook his head. "He's probably been killed by the initial explosion and the ensuing fire did the rest." He got up to his feet and sighed. "I'll send a message to Robards. Then we'll need to notify Knight's family. Once that is done, I expect we will have a manhunt for Chang, assuming she set this up as a booby trap to catch Malfoy."

"Should have been Malfoy and not Knight," muttered Williams as McCormick was healing the wound on his head.

"While I might agree with the sentiment," said Bingley, "don't ever let me hear you say something like that again. It's not our job to cast judgement. But we do have another crime to charge Chang with so we better stick to doing our job, catching criminals such as her."

21.4

St. Mungo's emergency area turned into a bustling beehive of activity, with half a dozen patients arriving at once. Harry Potter had accompanied Daphne to the magical hospital, determined not to leave her side before he knew she was going to be fine. As he'd expected, his presence alone started weird glances and hushed talk, no matter how busy the healers and nurses were right now. His secrecy was not important to him anymore, all that mattered was that Daphne was okay, and then he and Croaker would be starting their hunt for the individuals who were still missing and were responsible for all of this.

"Don't worry, Mr Potter, your friend will make a full recovery," one of the medi-witches quickly assured him as soon as Daphne had been tended to and been wheeled to a private room to recover. Then the medi-witch clasped a hand to her mouth as it sunk in who she was speaking with. Her eyes became huge over he fingers.

"Potter? You're Harry Potter! But everyone said you had run away!" .

Harry caught himself wanting to roll his eyes in response. "I defeated the Dark Lord already. Why would I run from a group of terrorists? No, I was away for some training, and we're cleaning up the mess that has been left to run rampant even after the Death Eaters were dealt with," he said, forcing himself to show a polite expression. "Now, what can you tell me about my other friends that were brought in?"

Harry then received an update on Hannah and Neville, and learned that their injuries were also relatively minor in the view of the staff at the hospital.

The Carrow twins had been unharmed, and had been brought to the hospital as well. The healers easily assessed that they were well, even if a bit undernourished due to their time in captivity. The senior healer on duty did recommend that the two witches stay overnight for further evaluation before they would be allowed to be discharged.

With a relieved sigh that everyone seemed to be all right and well cared for, Harry sat down next to Daphne's bed and took her hand. The healers had spelled a couple of Pain Relieving Draughts and a heavy Sleeping Draught into her system, and she was still as out of it as she'd been the moment she'd fainted in his arms and scared the wits out of him. Despite the healers having assured him she was in a healing sleep, he failed to see the difference, and he let out a deep sigh.

Croaker came up from behind Harry and coughed slightly to get the young wizard's attention. "Perhaps you can spend time making eyes at your young witch another time. We need to return to check on Granger as well as continue the search for Barnes and for Chang."

Harry nodded, gave a quick kiss to Daphne's cheek and got up. She didn't react, and he sighed again. He had to trust the healers. In the meantime, there was work to be done.

Before Harry and Croaker apparated to the McMillan home, Croaker had called a couple more of his Unspeakables and gave them instructions to begin the search for Barnes and to look for possible methods of tracking him.

Just before they left St. Mungo's, Bingley and a female Auror apparated in, a younger male Auror between them, whose blood stained robes indicated he'd been hurt on duty, even though someone had done a good job of healing him in the field. A healer approached them, and Bingley left his subordinate to his care, while he and the female Auror filled in Harry and Croaker on what had happened at Draco Malfoy's apartment.

21.5

Barnes apparated to the deserted backyard of a public garage in Manchester. He bent over, gripping his thighs with his hands, and took a long, laboured breath. Damned, he was knackered. A series of random Apparitions all across the country had taxed his magic as much as he could dare. At least he'd now reached his final destination.

The government, Merlin bless those fools, gave him several false identities when he worked for MI-13. While they would probably have put out a warning to apprehend anyone using his fake identities if he tried to use them for Muggle travel, he was able to use magic to alter them enough to create new false identities. He had a car hidden in the public garage behind him. He'd drive to Leeds, and from the airport there he'd take a flight out of England, to Amsterdam or Paris, maybe. It would be easy to disappear among the masses on two of the biggest international airports in Europe and cover his tracks. From there, he could go anywhere, think about his next steps, and bide his time until he was ready to strike again.

A smile played around his lips as he walked towards the car to set his next plans into motion.

21.6

See the little girl with the eyes rolled back in her head

She got a complication but she knows it'll work out fine

Naked as a baby, talking 'bout the feeling she gets

In another time, in another place

I got both doors open

I got the back door open

I got the screen door open.

Oh i don't understand

Oh it's not just a sound

Oh i don't understand

It doesn't matter at all

Harry Potter and Croaker arrived at the McMillan estate, with two Aurors and two Unspeakables right behind them. They cut across the lawn and headed towards where Hermione still kept guard over the prisoner, Scott Hubbard, the former Australian Auror.

Hermione's attention was focused on Hubbard, who was lying on the ground. Upon hearing people walking up from behind her, she spun around to face whomever was coming up from behind her, her wand at the ready, and with visible signs of strain in her pale face.

Croaker hesitated. Something seemed off here; Granger's eyes were glazed over, her pupils as small as pinheads, as if she was under the influence of addictive potions.

Hermione's wand was pointed at Hubbard right before she turned around. At the sight of Harry, she lifted her right arm, changing the aim of her wand from Hubbard towards Harry. Her arm shook as she did so, as if she was fighting the movement.

She looked at Harry, tears in her eyes.

Hermione closed her eyes, the wand still pointed at Harry. In a slow, strained voice she said, "Avada…"

Croaker gasped; that's what it was, the witch was under the Imperius! He pushed Harry to one side, out of danger. He could deal with Granger later.

A red beam of light passed him and struck Granger in her chest before she finished the Killing Curse. Her eyes widened, she let out a strange, meowing sound, and her wand clattered to the ground. Granger swayed on her feet for a second, blood bursting forth from a long gash across her chest and colouring her shirt a deep red. The next moment she fell to the ground.

"Hermione!"

Harry ran over to her side, kneeling down beside her, and took her now empty hand in his.

Croaker whirled around and glared at the Auror who had his wand still pointed at the fallen witch.

"What the hell did you use an overpowered cutting hex for?" demanded Croaker.

The Auror in question reeled back, but recovered soon. "She was about to kill Potter," he defended himself.

"Then why did you aim it at her chest, as opposed to at her arm or hand?" Croaker shook his head as he questioned the man. "Or better yet, why not simply disarm her? It was obvious she was under the Imperius Curse, for Merlin's sake."

A heart wrenching sob made him turn around again.

Harry knelt over the lifeless form of his best friend, tears streaming from his eyes.

AN: Yes it has been a long time. Life happens, illnesses happen, work happens. The most dominant defensive performance in the history of the Super Bowl happens…

But on a serious side - many thanks to Dorothea Greengrass for her hard work of editing this chapter, and her many contributions to the flow of the story - even if she is not happy with me with the ending of this chapter. She already expressed her displeasure with me over this. And no, the story is not done, yet.

But as I said previously, this entire story grew from the images I had of the first scene that came to my mind - Harry and Daphne fighting together - which occurred in a previous chapter.