Snake, Grim, and Crown

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter. Fair warning - there's lots of violence and death in this chapter, though it's not very explicit.

/Telepathy/
[[Parseltongue]]
**Private thoughts**

(_)(_)(_)(_)(_)(_)

With five locations to hit and four groups, it had been the group controlled by the LeStranges that split up. Rabastan Lestrange took fully half of their selected participants - fifteen people, all told - to Diagon Alley. Bellatrix, with her husband Rodolphus, took the other fifteen to hit Cardiff. Macnair and his group were hitting Birmingham, while Nott was hitting Leeds and the Carrows were hitting Glasgow.

September 2, 1992 Cardiff

Bellatrix, Rodolphus and their cohort apparated into a small park near the neighborhood they were going to be hitting. The sun was only just peeking over the horizon, staining the sky shades of orange and red. Thanks to the very early hour, while there were people out and about, they were few in number, and none saw the group arrive thanks to the screen of trees and bushes.

The LeStranges - well, largely the two men, as they were more capable of not only planning but sticking to the plan, had decided that they'd approach the area that held the three Mudblood families from one end. This would, they hoped, make it look like they planned on hitting all three families one after the other.

With that plan in mind, the LeStranges and their group started through the neighborhood. Rodolphus had had the bright idea to have their group travel in pairs or triads, with enough space between them to reduce the chance that any observers would realize they were together. Once they arrived, four members of the group were immediately sent in the four cardinal directions, to surround their actual target and keep an eye out for approaching defenders while the remainder of the group had some fun.

What none of the Death Eaters realized, but were about to find out, was that they had chosen the worst possible Muggle areas to hit. The major cities of the UK were not nearly as defenseless against them as the small rural villages thanks to the steps Elizabeth had taken to ensure the protection of her subjects. By this point, every major city had at least one squad of defenders ready to respond to any attacks. Most of the largest cities had two or three squads. And the four cities that had been chosen as targets were among the biggest in the UK, and thus all four cities had more than one response squad in place.

At first, the Death Eaters didn't really draw much attention. It was too early for many people to be awake. That meant that there were too few people out and about to really notice them and wonder at their odd dress. That wasn't going to last long, however.

The group arrived at their chosen victim's home. Bellatrix and four others slipped inside the home to play with the residents. The fact they didn't just blast the door in bought them critical time. Rodolphus and the remainder of the group began to set up traps, anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards and other surprises in anticipation of the arrival of defenders.

An alert neighbor down the street saw the flashes of light caused by the spellwork and the oddly dressed men in their neighbor's yard. When an agonized scream reached them a few moments later, they lost no time calling the local constabulary. They weren't the only ones calling for help, either. The House Elf assigned to the area lost no time racing for Potter Castle when it saw the Death Eaters approaching. As a result, the Death Eaters were only part-way through erecting their traps, surprises and wards when a dozen men and women apparated practically on top of them.

It became very clear very quickly that these were definitely Black's people, not remnants of the Order. Rodolphus found himself fending off a lot of very unpleasant but not Dark spells, and not a stunner among them. These people were shooting to maim at the very least, and preferably to kill.

Rodolphus dove for cover and started firing back, as did the rest of the Death Eaters out on the lawn. About a minute later, Rodolphus heard his wife scream in rage. A few moments after that, the Death Eaters that had been in the house came running back out. There was a terrific explosion that rained bits of wood, plastic, and metal on everyone. Rodolphus, aware that Bellatrix hadn't come out of the house, whirled around. The top half of the house now had a huge chunk out of it. Bellatrix, singed, covered in soot and shrapnel and with her hair sticking out everywhere, became visible through the flames and smoke that the explosion caused. As soon as she saw the fighting going on, she started shooting Avada Kedavras, Crucios, and a range of the nastiest Dark Arts spells in her repertoire.

Rodolphus, relieved Bellatrix was alive and well, returned his attention to the battle. Unfortunately, someone had taken advantage of his momentary lapse in attention. He never saw the spell or the caster, but he got thrown backwards into the wall of the house hard enough to knock him silly.

The next thing he knew, Bellatrix was screaming again, this time in fear as she tumbled out of the house and fell a few feet away from him. He heard the crunch of more than one bone breaking as she hit. This, however, didn't stop her from shoving partially upright and shooting spells at the defenders from a mostly sprawled position. Rodolphus scrambled to his feet and threw a shield over his wife to protect her since she couldn't dodge incoming spells. That done, he crouched down.

"The Muggles?" He asked.

"Gone!" Bellatrix snarled, enraged. "House elves or portkeys. That traitor will pay for this!" Meaning Sirius.

"Had to be elves." Rodolphus said. "We got the portkey ward up before this lot arrived." He glanced around. "Time to go."

"Our Lord will be greatly displeased." Bellatrix pointed out.

"Yeah, I know. Hopefully not *too* displeased though." Rodolphus said. At least their chances of getting Crucio'd were less than they had been in the past. Their Lord had been more merciful of late than had been his wont towards the end of the last war.

Rodolphus signaled to their group to retreat. Unfortunately, he was a few seconds too late. Because a squad of Muggle defenders arrived. One, a sniper, managed to take out two previously-injured and thus slower-moving Death Eaters before they could escape. Unfortunately, Bellatrix was not one of them. Nor was Rodolphus.

(_)(_)(_)

Glasgow

Like the LeStranges, the Carrow twins, Yaxley and the rest of their group - twenty strong - apparated into a small park near their Glasgow area targets. Unlike the LeStranges, they opted for a park more or less smack in the center of the area bordered by the five Mudblood homes.

Glasgow being larger and more heavily populated than Cardiff, and their target area having a lot of apartment buildings and row houses instead of duplexes and stand-alone homes, the Carrows and Yaxley were not quite as fortunate as the LeStranges. Their arrival in the area was noted within two minutes.

Glasgow being the city it was, and its reputation not being entirely exaggeration or hyperbole, more than a few area residents kept an eye on the group of oddballs in their midst. One or two ducked into their homes, some of them preemptively calling law enforcement while others grabbed whatever weapon came to hand, prepared to defend their homes and their neighbors' homes if things got violent.

Which, of course, they did. Yaxley, unaware of the noose already tightening around their group, sent sentries in several directions to watch for magical defenders. Alecto Carrow took some of the rest of their group to start putting up wards and traps while her brother Amycus headed for their chosen target. The moment Amycus blasted the row house's door off its hinges, all hell broke loose.

For a start, the Muggle father that lived here was an amateur rugby player, and all too willing to defend his home and his family. Better still, he was awake and downstairs when the Death Eaters blasted the door to splinters. He also had wits enough to stay out of sight around a door until the attackers actually entered his home and were forced into close quarters in the foyer.

He managed to break Amycus' nose and headbutt another Death Eater into unconsciousness as well as dispense quite a few bruises and minor cuts in the close quarters. It took a bit before someone a little further back managed to recover from the shock of being physically attacked by a Muggle and clipped him with a spell. Fortunately for the father, the Death Eater did not use a Dark Arts spell, as they were leery of hitting one of their own in the melee. Instead, they used a stunner - something that would do no real damage to their forces but would take the Muggle out of the fight.

Outside, things were not going so well. For either side. The door being blasted had seen more than a few local residents charging the Death Eaters. Unfortunately for them, the Death Eaters outside the home were not constrained by close quarters, and thus could deploy the Dark Arts at will. Four people were killed in the initial rush.

But this just enraged the locals further. They fell back, seeking cover. Two residents from the other side of the street who happened to be in possession of hunting rifles were quick to break them out and get into position to start shooting. The rest sought bits of brick, rock, and whatever other throw-able ammunition they could find to harry the Death Eaters with from a safer distance and cover.

While buckshot didn't generally do terrible damage to human beings, the racket the shooting created, and the fact that they were, in fact, being hit by the Muggles at a distance threw the Death Eaters into minor confusion and outrage.

It was perhaps fortunate for the magical defenders that they were forewarned of the local civilian defense by the house elf watcher and didn't apparate right on top of the Death Eaters as the Cardiff group had. There was a very tense minute or so when the defenders arrived and started attacking the Death Eaters. The locals almost visibly weighing their options. Continue attacking the folks breaking into the house and ignore the new group? Attack both groups? Retreat and let the two sides fight it out? Eventually, the decided on the first option, and ignored the magical defenders in favor of the proven murderers in their midst.

The arrival of the magical defenders drew all but Amycus and an assistant out of the house to aid their fellows. Those two were not sufficient to stop house elves from popping in and rescuing the family from under their noses.

Alecto and the others were too hard-pressed and confused to escape via portkey even if they'd wanted to. Most of them weren't about to retreat, however, from mere muggles. Several were taking rather unholy amounts of glee out of trying to kill any Muggle who stuck their head above cover or happened to chose a spot to hide that had something behind or over it that the Death Eaters could collapse on top of them.

Glasgow's muggle defense squad arrived only moments behind the magical defenders, their faster response time thanks entirely to the alert neighbors who had called them even before trouble started. They, like the Cardiff team, had several snipers. These snipers made tracks for suitable roofs and other elevated positions. The rest of the squad, armed with far more powerful firearms than hunting rifles, found protected positions from which to shoot and got to work.

Alecto got the shock of her life when a Death Eater standing next to her abruptly dropped, with no sign of a spell being thrown their way, and blood pouring from a hole in the Death Eater's head. Only the fact that Alecto instantly threw herself to the ground to avoid being targeted by whatever spell had done that saved her from suffering the same fate. She scrambled to better cover, coincidentally finding a spot that protected her from the snipers. From there, she watched in horror as two more of her fellows fell to the same strange spell.

Yaxley wasn't doing much better. He had been pinned down by the smaller-arms fire from the muggle defense squad. Fortunately for him, his position was also one that protected him from the snipers. At that point, Amycus exited the house empty-handed. Seeing their mission had failed and that they now had three dead, the Carrows finally signaled a retreat. Everyone apparated out, leaving the bodies of their dead, and a raucous victory cheer from the defenders, behind.

(_)(_)(_)

Leeds

Nott, Avery, and Runcorn had even less success in Leeds than the Carrows and Yaxley did in Glasgow. Their targets were all far closer to the center of Leeds than the other two sets of targets had been to the center of Cardiff and Glasgow. As a result, there was no convenient hidden spot to apparate to. There were only massive apartment buildings, a single small park whose entire area was viewable from at least one apartment and parking lots. Worse, this close to the center of the city, traffic was already on the move, even at this early hour. That meant that even if by some miracle they managed to escape being noticed by anyone in the apartment buildings, they would still be seen by someone driving by.

They tried their best to arrive unseen, but their group was large enough that even apparating in only two or three at a time, the influx of oddly-dressed people was almost instantly noted. By sheer chance, a member of one of Leeds' defense squads lived in the area and spotted the influx of odd people. Aware of the description of the 'terrorists' they were to defend against, the squad member immediately called his superiors to inform them of the presence of terrorists that fit the described profile. His call actually beat out the house elf/communication mirror relay, if only by a matter of half a minute.

He then immediately armed himself. Luckily for him, the squads kept their protective gear at home, which meant he had one of the basilisk-hide vests on hand. Since he was on-site and lived in the area, which meant he knew it very well, he was temporarily put in charge of the defense so that the defenders could be deployed to best advantage. Unfortunately, it would take them a few minutes to arrive. In the meantime, he tracked their movements from a distance, ready to start shooting if they started making trouble. In the end, there wouldn't be much left for the defense squad to do when they arrived, however.

Warned by the house-elf watcher, Alliance members were quick to arrive. Quick enough that the Death Eaters hadn't even managed to arrive at their destination yet. They were caught out in the open in a parking lot, surrounded by the Alliance, who were having no mercy whatever on them.

Unfortunately, desperate, cornered men with their lives on the line tend to fight extremely dirty. The Death Eaters were no different. The parking lot and its complement of cars swiftly became a war zone. Only the presence of the cars kept it from being a killing field, as they provided cover from the nastier curses for both sides of the fight.

A few of the more cowardly Death Eaters apparated out early on. The rest ... were caught. Because the Alliance turned their own tricks against them, raising anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards to keep the Death Eaters pinned down and unable to escape. A few, in the midst of the chaos, managed to make it to windows or doors of the nearby apartments, only to discover they couldn't break in, for some reason.

They never discovered that several house elves had popped in to help with the fight, and had sealed the apartment buildings around the battle as best they could to prevent both flying glass and other materials and invasion by unfriendly forces.

It was Runcorn that kept the fight from being a rather ugly rout. He managed to organize five or six of the other Death Eaters who'd ended up around him into something that resembled a team. One of them transfigured a nearby car into a metal wall behind which the group could shoot with relative impugnity, since the metal was a good bit harder to blow up than most other materials. Especially given that while the Alliance wasn't pussyfooting around, they weren't throwing Dark Arts spells or Unforgivables around, both of which generally had the power to blast through metal, and a few of which created something that could eat through it fairly quickly.

Combined with the group acting mostly in concert, it helped equalize the battle somewhat. But only somewhat. The slight relief from being overwhelmed by spellfire did, though, give the group a chance to think and plan and figure out a way out of the situation, given it was fairly clear they weren't going to win.

Another car was transfigured into a second wall, and Runcorn's group began, slowly, to move, gathering their fellows one by one. At least, the ones that were still able to move, anyway. Those that were unconscious or dead were left where they had fallen. It was not, to their view, worth the risk to collect them.

Eventually, they had the remnants of their group sheltered behind transfigured metal walls. At that point, they started concentrating their fire on two areas. One was the direction they intended to flee in until they reached the edge of whatever wards had been erected against them. The spellfire in the other direction was mostly to keep the defenders there pinned down and unable to help their fellows. It would also make it hard to tell which direction they were heading in. Especially since the Death Eaters were willing to change their minds as to which direction they were going to go if the defenders on one side all got knocked out or killed before the defenders on the other side.

When one side finally did go quiet, the Death Eaters headed that way in a mad rush. They were well aware that it could be a trap, but they had to try, or they knew they would all be captured at best. Sure enough, defenders were waiting for them as they got closer to the edge of the wards. Fully half of the remaining group went down under the massed spellfire, metal shields be damned. In the end, only the three group leaders and a single follower managed to make it out from under the wards and apparate to safety.

(_)(_)(_)

Birmingham

Unlike the rest of the groups, Macnair was the sole 'true' Death Eater in his group. Meaning he was the only witch or wizard. The rest of his group was comprised entirely of werewolves and vampires, with four Dementors as supplemental escorts. And unlike the three groups with Muggle targets, Macnair had no intentions of even trying to constrain his group to a single target.

Because Dementors could not be apparated or portkeyed, Macnair had sent the four on ahead the night before, so that they would arrive in the appropriate area of Birmingham about the time the rest of the group would arrive. The rest of the group arrived by portkey, since many of them could not apparate.

Their chosen target was a single massive apartment building. Two Mudbloods lived there, on opposite sides of the huge building. It was Macnair's plan to set Fenrir, Johan, and their fellows loose and do as they would within the building while the Dementors sowed chaos and hopefully suppressed any defense with their depressing auras.

Thanks to using portkeys, and the size of the building involved, Macnair broke his group up and put them down inside the building, unlike the other groups that all opted to arrive outside of the area they planned to attack. This tactic gave Macnair's group a considerable amount of valuable time.

The fact that the place was up to its eyeballs in young, tender, bitable victims was the only reason Fenrir went to the raid without a fight. When it came down to it, he didn't give a shit about Voldemort, the pureblood cause, or any of it. He hated witches and wizards, and that included Voldemort. He'd sooner kill Voldemort himself than live under the bastard's rule. Thing was, the guy let him do what he wanted and didn't raise an eyebrow. Which was more than the rest of the magical world had going for it. So Fenrir was willing to 'work' for the guy until things changed.

He and his followers were portkeyed right into the center of the building. They fanned out quickly, most of them heading to a nearby stairwell to head to other floors. Only Fenrir himself and one other of his fellow wolves remained on this floor. Fenrir took off at a jog, following his nose to the first of what would hopefully be many victims.

Not too far away, Johan and his fellow vampires were doing much the same thing, though they were smart about which doors to kick in. They made sure to only choose apartments on the 'dark' side of the building that didn't get sunlight at dawn.

As with the other targets, the house elf set to watch the area was very quick to go for help. Unfortunately, in this particular case, the battle was not going to be anywhere near as quick and successful as the others in Muggle areas. The apartment building was about to become both war zone and hostage in a nasty, drawn-out fight.

When the defenders - both magical and non - arrived, Macnair, Fenrir, and Johan, along with most of the other werewolves and vampires, were bright enough to barricade themselves in an apartment and take hostages. They were also bright enough, when it became necessary, to simply blast a hole in the floor or wall and head to the next apartment to start all over again.

There was little the defenders could do about it. At least when the first one blasted down into the apartment beneath their current one, they were able to do *something*. The magical defenders were quick to have house elves pop the residents of the rest of the apartments under and around the Death Eaters to safety, thus depriving them of yet more hostages.

Despite the defenders' best efforts, no less than two dozen people were killed and an unknown number were turned - either into vampires or werewolves - over the next few hours. Even with the house elves helping by popping the magical defenders into position in the besieged apartments, it wasn't enough. Neither vampires nor werewolves were easy targets. Both moved inhumanly fast and were far stronger than any but the most dedicated weight lifter could be. While most of them didn't have wands - they didn't really need them. Teeth, claws, and fists were more than enough.

In the end, it was the snipers that turned the tide. Magical and nonmagical defenders put their heads together, and figured out a way to herd the Death Eaters to places where snipers could take them out. The vampires and werewolves couldn't dodge a bullet they didn't see or hear coming.

Better still, dropping the attackers via sniper kept the rest of the attackers from realizing what was going on for quite some time. While breaking glass made a fair bit of noise, it was largely lost under the screaming, crying, and explosions created by the fighting inside the building. Because they were so spread out, the Death Eaters had no idea where the rest of their fellows were at. This kept the Death Eaters from organizing themselves and working in concert, further aiding the efforts to defeat them. After all, regardless of what they may be, a single being is easier to eliminate as a threat than a group working in concert.

By the time the Death Eaters realized they were in trouble and started trying to escape, anti-portkey and anti-apparation wards had been put in place over the entire building. Less than half of the attacking group - which included Fenrir, a wounded Macnair and blanket-wrapped Johan - managed to escape the building via a window. Of that number, only the three leaders managed to reach the edge of the wards and escape entirely.

Unfortunately, while most of the group was killed or knocked unconscious, they left behind a very traumatized group of civilians. With over two dozen dead and an unknown number facing existences as something not-quite-human at best, undead at worst, it was going to be months before the mess made in Birmingham was completely cleaned up.

(_)(_)(_)

Diagon Alley

The plan for the Alley was different than the plan for the Muggle areas. The plan here was not to kill. It was not even to maim, if they could help it. The entire purpose of the Diagon Alley strike was to sow confusion, chaos, and fear ... and to pull as many Aurors and other defenders to the Alley as possible. This would, it was hoped, severely slow down and thin out any defense of the Muggle areas by Ministry sanctioned law enforcers of any description. They'd be too concerned with defending the Alley to bother about mere Muggles.

Which would be why Rabastan got the Diagon Alley job, and not Bellatrix and Rodolphus. Bellatrix couldn't be trusted to not get AK-happy in the middle of a fight, even with both Rodolphus and Rabastan riding herd on her. Best to keep her away from a 'don't kill' job entirely.

Rabastan had picked the coolest heads from their available pool. People who didn't have issues with blood lust and could be counted on to obey orders. To further muddy the waters as to their true purpose, the group were not bedecked in Death Eater regalia. They were all dressed as normal witches and wizards, with glamours hiding their true faces. They all had their Death Eater masks in a pocket in case they became necessary, but the plan was to stick to the glamours, changing them as needed, for as long as possible.

They apparated in small groups into Knockturne Alley. Unlike Diagon Alley, most of the shops down Knockturne were open either twenty-four hours a day or only at night, to facilitate the needs of their clientele. Better still, thanks to what, exactly, that clientele largely consisted of, the appearance of a large number of people was noticed but got no reaction. After all, the arrivals were not clad in Auror red, so there was no need for alarm.

At this hour, Diagon Alley was nearly deserted. Only Gringotts, which was open twenty-four hours, and the Leaky Cauldron were actually open and doing business at this early hour. That said, most of the shop owners and their early-morning assistants had arrived to start opening their shops, and there were a few hardy souls trekking between the pub and Gringotts, either about to do business or having already concluded it. There were a few folks in the apothecary, owl post office, the owl emporium and the general pet shop, as all four places either ran twenty-four hours - the owl post - or had emergency services available - the other three, so that potions and/or their components, or competent care for pets and familiars were available at need.

Rabastan and his group slipped into Diagon Alley in pairs at careful intervals, spacing themselves along the length of the Alley as they went. One of the group had even thought to bring a kitten - stunned unconscious - to lend an air of legitimacy to their presence in Diagon at that hour, and headed at a fairly good clip towards the Menagerie and 'assistance' for their 'ill pet'.

Once everyone was in position in Diagon Alley, the pair closest to the Leaky Cauldron started trouble first - the better to cut off anyone attempting to escape or come to the defense of the Alley from that route. The next closest pair actually joined their non-Death Eater fellows in screaming and running, the better to deflect suspicion. While they did so, they cast a number of spells meant to increase confusion and panic in their targets rather than cause direct injury. That increasingly panicked civilians would get hurt was unavoidable, but they were obeying their directives to not kill or maim anyone on the Alley themselves.

As the chaos moved in a wave down the alley, one by one the Death Eaters fell back behind the panicked crowd, aiming loud noise-maker spells at the crowd and minor blasting hexes at the buildings to either side. The blasting hexes were only just strong enough to make bits of wood and stone fly everywhere, without bringing great chunks down on the fleeing civilians. All of this aided in the perception that the civilians were dead center of a major firefight, without there actually being much of one.

But Sirius' near-constant encouragement to the masses to take up their wands and defend themselves hadn't gone to waste. There was a lot of panic, thanks in large part to the spells cast early in the fracas. However, after the initial shock, many of the witches and wizards that had been able to escape being hit with those spells began to get hold of themselves. They started to take stock of the situation and try to figure out what the heck was going on. And better, who they needed to hex to get it all to stop.

Which meant that right about the time the first Aurors apparated in to assess the situation and calm things down, some of the crowd was starting to turn on their attackers. It was by no means a coordinated defense, thanks in large part to the fact that there were no Death Eater cloaks and masks to make it clear where the enemy was, but quite a few of the shopkeepers and early-hour bankers and shoppers had begun to fight back.

Unfortunately, despite Amelia Bones' best efforts, the Aurors were not nearly as ready to face off against Death Eaters as the Alliance and the Queen's specially selected defense forces were. She had Fudge to thank for that ill-prepared state, as the man still had his head firmly in the sand and refused to admit that Voldemort was back.

After today ... that wasn't going to be a problem anymore. Mostly because after today, Fudge wouldn't have a job anymore. But that was something that would happen later, and wasn't going to help the Aurors now. Fortunately for their sakes, the Alliance, while slower to respond to the Diagon Alley strike because they'd been spread a little thin responding the Muggle area strikes, did still show up.

The vast majority of the Aurors were smart enough to take whatever help they could get, no matter where it came from. Still, getting Diagon Alley sorted out took a while, not least because the Death Eaters *were* there in normal wizarding clothes, and had used glamours. It made it very, very difficult to figure out who, among the crowd, had been shooting at whom since both civilians and Death Eaters had been casting a range of odd spells.