Chapter 25
It was not exactly cold outside, but Robert found he had trouble stopping himself from shivering every two seconds. He was nervous, he decided, although he would never admit to that out loud. He had an image to uphold after all. Quite frankly, he just wanted to get it over with. If only this was done or if only they could just begin. Robert was fairly certain he would be just fine if he could just do something except for staring at the warehouse he could now see, since he had been given its location by the most unlikely Secret Keeper imaginable. The plan would have been a stroke of pure genius though, had Phoebe Simmons not given up the secret all by herself. They had never even suspected her of being the one the Death Eaters would trust with information like that, which might have been the reason why they had entrusted it to her in the first place.
Robert had hoped that he would at least be able to get something out of Simmons's mother, but he had been rather disappointed in that. The old woman knew nothing about what her son was up to, except for what she had read in the paper, but even if she did, Robert doubted she would have cooperated. The old lady was fiercely protective of her son and while she did admit that her boy had made quite a few wrong choices – which was the understatement of the century, Robert observed wryly – she did not seem to think they were that bad. She did not know the full extent of Andrew's criminal activities and the Official Secrets Act forbade him from filling her in about the particulars. And as long as she didn't know, had not seen the same pictures Robert had seen, had not walked the scene after the full-out battle in Manchester, then how could she see the reality?
Her words had been less than useful for the operation itself, but she had managed to fill in some of the blanks about Andrew's motivations and his remarkable absence in the Ministry's records, which had driven Amy mad from the moment she realised that they should have been there.
It turned out that Andrew Simmons had never received any formal magical education. Since he was born half-blood, like Robert himself, and Voldemort was on the first rise to power during his youth, Lysandra Simmons decided that the current magical climate was too dangerous for her son. Instead she insisted that he lived like a Muggle to keep him from becoming a target, as she strongly believed he would be because of his Muggle heritage. During Andrew's childhood she kept in touch with some of her old friends, which was how Andrew knew Dolohov and Lestrange, but during his teenage years, the family had withdrawn from all magical society in order to protect themselves. Consequently Andrew Simmons had grown up in the Muggle world. About six years ago he had told his mother that the wizarding world was safe enough again, so he wanted to try that out. MI-5 supposed that was when he got in touch with his childhood friends again and one thing came from the other.
There was no evidence for all of it, and much was speculation, but it would account for Simmons dropping off the Muggle radar for a couple of years and if the Death Eaters in turn had laid low in Muggle society for a while, that would explain a few things as well. Harry Pearce was not pleased, but Robert supposed that a lot of tension was the direct result of being worried for Julius's fate. Dawn wasn't all that far off anymore and for one reason or another, the Auror Department was delayed.
Robert loved to become an Auror one day, but he would be the first to admit that compared to MI-5, the Ministry of Magic was as effective as a hibernating bear. He was not quite sure why that was, but he had the distinct and rather unpleasant feeling that Harry Potter had been right that most of its employees trusted too much in their magic and therefore they overlooked everything else. And Robert did not like what this said about him.
He banished it from his mind. All that mattered now was that his magical colleagues arrived and that they got Julius out of there. Then they would round up the remaining Death Eaters and get the whole sorry lot to Azkaban before they could escape and that would be the end of it. Burke would be safe, the Death Eaters in prison and the operation would be finished. It was only a matter of hours now before he would get his wand back and he could get back to the magical world, pretending none of this had ever happened. Something told him things might not be that easy though.
'Ready?' Harry Pearce's voice interrupted with his ponderings.
Robert looked up only to find that most of the Aurors had arrived and had gathered around the control van. Mr Pearce had obviously made himself the one in charge, bypassing Mr Potter, who did not seem to truly care, as long as someone was doing something.
'There are three entrances, Harry,' Adam reported. 'And a window at the back that may be used to escape.'
Robert thought it wiser not to point out that wizards could Apparate away whenever they chose to do so. Fortunately one of his colleagues in the Auror Department had thought of it and he voiced the thought of casting an anti-Apparition spell over the building, because the last thing they wanted was for their suspects to do a runner, never to be found again except for in the middle of whatever carnage they had just created to express their hate of the Ministry and its policy. And if they got away now, they would take all chance of Burke still being alive with them and that was something, Robert had discovered, he could not stand for, not after Julius had risked his life to warn them, not when he may have contributed more than anyone else to this operation, even if it had taken Robert too long to see it.
Ros was checking her gun before they went in. 'You, with me,' she snapped at Robert.
He frowned. 'Why?' He thought he would be going in with Zaf, with whom he had worked since this operation had begun. Ros had been the one to work with Julius, not him, and Robert was glad of it. Ros Myers was a very difficult person to have as a partner in the field; not even her own colleagues seemed to like her very much, if they liked her at all.
'We're going to get Julius while the rest go and get our magical friends,' the Senior Case Officer announced.
Robert was not sure what he was supposed to make of this. On one hand he wanted to get in and fight the Death Eaters, as he had been trained to do, but he remembered that he didn't have his wand with him and he had never been good in duelling Muggle style. It would make sense for him to stick with the Muggles who did know. Still, he had expected to stick with the other Muggle. Zaf was not very fond of him, but things were going better and everything was better than to be stuck with Ros Myers the Unsociable.
Zaf was apparently wondering about the same thing. 'You're going after Julius?' Incredulity was obvious in his voice.
Ros favoured him with a freezing glare. 'He's a colleague,' she replied, as if that explained it all. 'Even if he's a bloody stupid idiot. I'd do the same for you.'
Robert found that hard to believe, but actions spoke louder than words and it was obvious that Ros was planning to do exactly what she said. And he could not deny that he wanted to get Julius out, if only to make amends for being so unkind to him when Julius had really only ever been trying to do his job. And he had been spreading gossip and accusations that he could never prove, yet people believed him. Robert did not like what this said about him, and he liked it even less that he had wondered about this far too much in the past twenty-four hours.
In a way his whole world had been turned upside down in the span of one single day, every opinion been proven wrong. He liked certainties, but there were almost none now. He only knew that he would not come out of this the same wizard as he had been when he first stepped foot in Thames House.
He was waiting impatiently when the Aurors went in, part of him still longing that he could be there with them to fight. But he couldn't and therefore he waited for their sign, fumbling with his jacket, invisibly doctored by Malcolm so that he could now talk to the team in Thames House and they would hear him. The accompanying ear piece made sure he could hear them talking back. Malcolm had tried to explain it to him, but technique was a Muggle form of magic that was far beyond Robert. He had lost track of what the technician was saying before he had even finished his first sentence. Maybe he should just adopt the spies' way when it came to magic and accept things as they were. If he was trying to understand, he was bound to fail.
It didn't take long for the sounds of a fight to reach their ears. Curses and counter-curses were yelled and he could see flashes of light. Some of them were green and Robert could feel his stomach do a somersault in reaction. This was never going to be risk-free. He had not expected it to be; it was the nature of the job, but it was something else entirely when his weapon of choice had been taken away from him. Now he had been given a Muggle gun and some basic instruction as to how he was supposed to use it, but it was not the same as having a wand in hand.
'We go in,' Ros announced when a voice in his ear, belonging to Amy, said the same.
'Good luck,' she said. Robert could hear the tremor in her voice. She may not be here with them, but apparently she was just as nervous as Robert himself was.
'I'll be back before you know it,' he replied. The bravado with which he said that was meant to convince Amy as well as himself. Because he was nervous. It was not a very Gryffindor attitude, but it was what he felt. And maybe he had been hanging on to what House he had been placed in too much. He wasn't that House. He was himself and bravery wasn't just about storming into danger like a headless chicken. It was being afraid and doing it all the same, like Julius had done when he had delivered the message.
Ros kept her silence, but it was obvious that she did not approve of what he had said. Robert wasn't even sure he approved of what he had said, but it seemed important to keep morale up. And maybe he could really use the encouragement himself. His hands gripped the gun a little tighter, passionately wishing it was a wand instead. But wishes, no matter how desperate, had never been known to transform guns into wands. Magic took spellwork and of that he was not capable now that he was without a wand. He would have to perform this rescue the Muggle way.
Ros took the lead. It went without saying. It just happened and Robert was happy to let her be in charge; she seemed to know what she was doing, which was more than could be said about him.
When they entered the warehouse, chaos had broken out. Death Eaters were fighting against the Auror forces and they were very skilled. They had stayed out of Azkaban for a reason: they had been ridiculously difficult to catch and when Aurors did catch up with them, they went down in a fight, if they went down at all. The Manchester debacle had been a very good example of that.
The Muggles stayed out of it. Zaf and Adam had taken to hiding behind crates, firing their guns whenever they could. Henry Downs was living up to his surname and was down already, lying motionlessly on the ground, and Rabastan Lestrange nursed a bleeding wound in his side. It felt good to know that Muggle weapons truly could harm wizards. It made Robert's own gun feel a lot less useless. Now he only had to remember how to handle the thing without shooting himself.
Ros gave the warehouse a once-over and jerked her head to the right. 'That way,' she said decisively, even if it was unclear how she knew that. Maybe she was just guessing; he'd never know it. And at least going right would enable them to stay away from the fight.
And there were some crates and a few places that were set apart from the rest of the warehouse by man-high screens. Julius could be behind one of those. And in here there weren't very many other places he could be. This place was not really small, but it wasn't too big either, which was something that would make the search a whole lot easier to do.
The wizards did not even seem to notice that Ros and he had come in and were on their way to rescue the prisoner they had taken. Robert just hoped that Julius would still be alive. He really had looked bad in the video and even though the Death Eaters would need to keep him alive till dawn to make good on their threats, chances were that he had been murdered when the raid began. Even if he was still alive, Julius had been in a very bad state.
Ros looked over her shoulder, but saw clearly no people coming after them, so she snapped at Robert to follow her into one of the makeshift rooms. There was no door, no lock, but to the man on the chair that didn't matter. The Gryffindor actually didn't recognise him at first glance. A second glance however taught him that it was Julius who was sitting, or rather slumping, there.
And that shocked him. Julius didn't seem to be entirely passed out, but he was not entirely conscious either. Maybe there had been magical torture, but there had been enough of the Muggle way as well, since the bruises on his face and arms seemed to have increased in the few hours since they had seen the video in Thames House. One of Julius's eyes was swollen shut and the other eye was barely open. It looked like he could fall over any moment, were it not for the bonds that secured him to the chair.
'Merlin's beard.' The whisper had left his mouth before he had given himself permission to do so. He had never liked Julius, but no one could ever really deserve this. This was barbaric. Of course, it were the Death Eaters who had done this, so he really should not have been surprised, but he was. Part of him knew that he was closer to shock than he was to surprise though. It was a fact commonly known that Death Eaters did this to the people they captured, but it was something else entirely to see it like this, see it done to one of their own.
It spoke for just how battered Burke was that he did not even seem to respond. The look in his one open eye was empty, as if he was no longer there, as if the real Julius had gone, leaving only an empty shell behind. He was breathing, his heart was beating, but the thing – soul, spirit – that had made Julius who he was, that person was no longer there. That was what it seemed like.
And Robert felt himself go all cold inside. He had heard of this, read about it. It was something that could happen to a wizard when he had been exposed to the Cruciatus curse for too long. That was what it was called in the books anyway. Basically it meant that a person had been tortured into insanity, something that was clearly a Death Eater speciality. The Gryffindor felt his hands clench into fists. This was the guy he had suspected of being a Death Eater for so long, the one who had put life and mental health on the line to warn them. He owed him.
Ros wasted no time on any such thoughts. She acted, cutting the ropes and plastic cuffs holding Julius in place. He had to jump in and catch the Slytherin before he could crash to the floor like a marionette the strings of which had been cut. Burke was a tall guy, with a lot of muscles and he was a heavy weight, but he could hold him.
'We need to get him out of here,' he told Ros.
The female spy looked back at him with a mocking glance. 'Bravo, Sherlock,' she commented. 'Take his right arm. There's a door at the end of the corridor. It's faster than going back the way we came.'
Robert nodded; he had seen the door she mentioned, but it would be quite a way yet and they would be visible to the fighting parties a bit further off. But there was not a lot of choice and they needed to get Julius to St Mungo's sooner rather than later. He was in a bad way, but there were cases known in which the victim made a full recovery. He banished the thought that there had been more cases of failure than there were of success to the back of his mind. He could not let such thoughts weigh him down now.
Ros took his left arm and they all but carried Julius out of this damp hole that smelled of blood and urine. Burke still had given no signs of having realised that they were here. He was staring to a point in the distance, but it would be a fair guess to say that he did not see any of it.
Ros had noted too. There was a permanent scowl fixed on her face – Robert had trouble remembering if he had ever even seen her without it; it seemed to be her default setting – but there was concern in her eyes and even without telling her the possible consequences of the Cruciatus Curse, she seemed to know the seriousness of the situation. But then, it was hard not to see it when the proof of that curse was practically dragged between them.
They did well so far though. Julius was heavy, he would not deny that, but Ros was a strong woman and he was not exactly weak himself. They would make it, get Julius to St Mungo's and round up the Death Eaters that were still fighting now. The sounds of battle were still going on and part of him wondered how there could still be a battle when there were so few Death Eaters and the Aurors outnumbered them at least three to one. Maybe he should not underestimate the Death Eaters in battle; they had managed to stay out of Azkaban for all these years for a reason.
He had hardly finished that thought before a shout drew his attention and as he looked over his shoulder, almost all his hopes for a successful escape went right down the drain. Two wizards in dark robes were running after them. Even without seeing their faces, Robert knew that they were no Aurors. The present Aurors had been firmly instructed to focus on the battle and to let MI-5 worry about the rescue. Aurors would not come after them unless there was a valid reason to do so. There was none.
And it took him all of half a second to realise this. Then he recognised the faces too. Andrew Simmons and Antonin Dolohov were in pursuit, clearly not ready to part with their bargaining chip. They had blocked the entrance to the corridor they were in somehow, preventing the Aurors from following. Two Death Eaters, armed and clearly intent on killing, and they had no means of magical defence. All they had were the guns and Robert had no idea how to handle his properly.
Ros had noticed too. She let go of Julius in favour of grabbing her gun and turning back to face the Death Eaters, which could count as both a very brave and very stupid thing to do. She had no magic and she would try to take on two highly skilled and lethal wizards? Did she have a death wish? This was the kind of bravery that Julius usually referred to as Gryffindor recklessness. Robert tended to dismiss the notion, but right now he was in immediate danger of sympathising with his colleague.
'What…?' he began.
Ros cut him off. 'Get him out of here,' she snapped, forestalling every intention of protesting Robert had entertained. It was obvious that she was not in the mood for discussion and there was no time for that either. And for the moment Ros was his superior officer; she could have told him to dance the waltz and he'd have to obey. He'd have to abide now as well, even if that meant he would leave her in danger.
'Good luck,' he said, not knowing what else to say. If she'd been born a witch, she would have been in Gryffindor, he imagined, and she would have earned it. But it might be the death of her and as unsociable as Ros Myers was, that was something he would not wish on anyone.
Julius was heavy, but they were close to the door. This route would not lead them straight to the commando post, but it would get them out of the warehouse and Robert did not allow himself to think beyond that. One step at a time would have to do. Behind him he could hear a shot ring out. Robert had to force himself not to look back, to trust that Ros could hold their pursuers off for just a little longer. He didn't allow himself to think at what cost she would do that.
The door was unlocked, which was a stroke of luck; without either his wand or the key he would never have gotten out by this way. Maybe there was just a small amount of luck left to him in this world. With no back-up, no magic and two Death Eaters chasing him that was something that was not so much as a luxury, but more like a necessity of life.
Julius was walking of his own volition now, even if it was more stumbling than walking. He moved like a drunken sleepwalker might do; unaware of where he was and where he was going, relying on his companion to get him out of here. Robert even doubted he knew what happened. But at least he was not leaning on him the way he had done and that was worth a great deal.
'Move it, Burke,' he told the Slytherin, trying to sound like he usually sounded in the hopes of provoking Julius into a reaction. 'We need to go.'
If his companion had heard him at all, he didn't show it and so it was down to Robert to push the door closed again. The fight was going on inside and there was no telling if they would be safe here and in this case he was rather safe than sorry. The farther they could get from this place, the better it would be.
But that notion went out of his head entirely when he heard what happened behind the door. 'Avada Kedavra!' someone yelled and Robert froze. There was no defending oneself from the Killing Curse, not magically and certainly not in any way that Muggles could come up with. Unless Ros had ducked, she was no more.
'Amy, is she alive?' he demanded, glad for the piece of Muggle technology that enabled him to talk to the Grid. At the moment it at least left him the illusion of not being completely cut off from all help.
'I don't know.' The Ravenclaw witch sounded nervous and scared, even though she was not in the thick of it, but safely on the Grid. Clearly it had its perks being a desk officer. 'We've lost contact with her, Robert. She's not responding.' The distress was obvious in her voice; Robert could almost see her wringing her hands.
That was possibly the worst news he could have received, but if his fears were true and Ros Myers was dead, that didn't change the fact that she had wanted him to get Julius to safety and to stall was to endanger both their lives. Ros surely would not thank him for such a stupid thing.
He dragged Julius with him in the right direction. 'We need a way out of here, Control,' he told her. Professionalism might just save his sanity. 'I've got the package out, but he's unresponsive and I may have two targets in pursuit any second now. Where do I go? It's like a maze here.'
That it was. The door had led him to a labyrinth of backstreets and alleys and in the dark it was difficult to see which was the right way. And at the moment he did not care much about right ways anyway. All he cared about was to get as far away from the warehouse as quickly as possible. Julius's condition was worrying him, but it would have to wait till they had made it to safety. There was no safety here.
Maybe it was Robert's own professional approach that made Amy piece herself together. 'What entrance did you use?' she demanded in a very business-like voice. When Robert answered her best he could, she went on: 'Right, you should be standing in some sort of square.'
'Confirmed,' Robert said.
'Take the first alley to your left.' Amy sounded tense, but she was holding up and helping out and that was all he needed. 'We'll be trying to get you to the nearest big street. That is away from the control vehicle, but if I send you there, there are half a dozen ways they could cut you off before you get there.'
'Copy that,' Robert said. 'Come on, Burke, time to get moving. Come on, Julius, speed up a bit.' He tried and failed to make it sound like he was pleading with the Slytherin, but it didn't matter either way. Julius remained unresponsive, staring ahead of him in a way that made it quite clear that his mind was elsewhere, if it was still there to begin with. 'Listen, Burke, I never cared much for you and your morals. I don't care for the latter now still, but you did a brave thing back there, so will you please move?' He didn't know why he was talking in that way – it was not like him at all – but he was prepared to do anything as long as it got them moving. Stranger was it that he actually found that he meant most of the things he said. If someone had told him that he would think about Julius as a hero a month, even a week, ago, he would have sent them to St Mungo's to check for spell damage.
And at least Julius kept moving. He needed Robert to steer him in the right direction as Amy rapped directions in his ear and for five blessed minutes he was allowed the illusion that they might make it out after all.
But it was too good to be true. They were close now, very close, but when he entered the square he had to cross in order to get into the alley that would lead him to the street they were trying to reach, he saw that the alley had been blocked. Some moron had put a container like thing in front of it. With Julius being as he was, there was no chance that he could climb over it or go around it. And he didn't have his wand to levitate the thing away.
'Control, the road is blocked,' he reported.
'Merlin's beard,' Amy muttered. 'Right, you'll need to track back about fifty meters. Then you need to take a turn left and then after…'
She kept going, but Robert did no longer hear her. He had heard something else, something he had been desperately wishing he would not hear: footsteps, running footsteps. All he could do was turn around, grab the gun and pray that it was only Ros who had made a miraculous escape and was now coming to help out. There was no other way out of here. There were only high stone walls, too high to climb and escape that way.
It was not Ros. He had known that all along, but he could feel himself go all cold inside when he saw who it was that came running into the square, wand at the ready. Maybe he should count himself lucky that Dolohov was not here, but the presence of Andrew Simmons was sufficient to make a very cold shiver go down his spine.
Simmons looked at the scene and a grin appeared on his face. He spoke, saying something to Julius, but Robert's heart pounding frantically in his ears drowned out the sound. He should be pointing his gun at the Death Eater and pull that trigger, but he found that he could not for the life of him remember how he was supposed to use it. The knowledge was gone from his mind, vaporised.
Simmons drew his wand and pointed it at Julius. Robert didn't hear what he said; he only saw the green light.
Next time we get back to the events in the warehouse. Please review? I'd really like to hear what you think!