"Fear is consciousness plus life. Regret is an attempt to avoid what has already happened. Toast is bread held under direct heat until crisp." - Welcome to Night Vale
{~~~~}
Surprisingly, everyone who had heard the announcement about Harry's father was keeping the information to themselves. It would trickle out eventually, of course it would, but almost no one had heard about the situation yet. Hopefully that could just last until the end of the war, when they could deal with the fallout and the information would be less likely to put anyone in danger.
For the moment, until the housing situation could be worked out, most people were just finding places wherever they could in out-of-the-way places. Harry and the DA gravitated towards the Room of Requirement, along with the BAU, but it was obvious that wasn't going to last much longer as the Room was steadily being used for more and more things.
The sun was rising by the time Harry collapsed into one of the mattresses on the floor. He was sharing with Ron, who opened his eyes in a half-hearted glare at being woken before raising a mildly surprised eyebrow to see Harry getting back so late. More dignified, Hotch took a nearby mattress.
They were both up a few hours later for a day of more meetings and analysis, followed by general work around the castle to patch everything up. Right after dinner, which was really just all meals of the day being served at all times in the Great Hall since everyone came and went when they could, Hotch tracked Harry down before he could hurry off to do more work.
"Don't think I haven't noticed," he warned, leading Harry back to the Room of Requirement.
"Noticed what?" Harry quickly, guiltily, futilely asked.
"That you're not sleeping."
"Can't," he admitted. "And there's too much work to be done."
"You'll get more done faster and better with a good night's worth of sleep."
"So does that mean you're going to be going to bed, too?"
Hotch sighed, raising his eyes to the ceiling as if searching for help that would descend from above. "Why do you always turn this on me whenever I do something like this?"
"I win either way. If you refuse, I get to go back to work, but if you concede, you have to sleep. I can't lose."
"Get in bed, you brat." The ruffle to his hair belied his words. "I'll make sure you get to sleep."
Harry didn't see how that was going to happen, but he complied. A half hour passed before he could stop thinking about everything that needed to be done, and he heard Hotch shifting restlessly a few meters away. In the place of strategic thoughts came the regular series of tricks his mind played on him, murmuring softly in Cassius's voice or carrying the scent of blood on his Patronus' tusks. Each time, his body was started awake with a jolt, reacting to surprise or threat, before he could settle back down and try to sleep. At what he thought might have been the hour and a half mark, he got up and pretended to go to the bathroom but quickly fled to Gryffindor tower to help with repairs.
He was there for fifteen minutes when Hotch tracked him down and dragged him back to the Room of Requirement.
"Okay, sit down," Hotch told him, and he huffed, sitting cross-legged on the mattress. "And don't give me that look." Hotch sat in front of him on the floor and reached out to take his wrists. "Close your eyes."
Everyone in the room was asleep and knew about the situation, so Harry had no problem sighing irritably and saying, "Dad, this is stupid. If I just keep working, I'll tire myself out and I'll fall straight asleep."
"And risk an attack just when your body's about to crash?" No answer. "Thought so. Eyes." Harry shot him a weak glare before letting them slide close. Hotch turned his wrists so his hands were palm up. "Okay, deep breath... Let it out. Inhale... Exhale. Inhale..." Two of his fingers moved in gentle circles on the backs of each hand. "Exhale. Inhale..." On the other side, his thumb traced a similar pattern on the tops of his wrist, above his pulse. "Exhale. Inhale..."
His breathing steadied into a rhythm, dictated entirely by Hotch's voice. He let his head drop forward, chin almost resting against his chest as it swelled with each inhale. If he wanted to, he could hear the breathing across the room in the quiet and in the perceptive state he was lulled into, but all he wished to listen to was his father's voice.
"Exhale."
Harry felt himself slipping away despite his resolution to fake it long enough to throw his father off, but it was working too well, and he jerked suddenly, eyes flying open. Hotch was only mildly surprised and watched him for an explanation.
"Dad, I- I can't. Once I go to sleep, I'll just wake up. I can't... I keep seeing everyone. I can't do it anymore."
"It's because you're not thinking of anything but the war right before you go to sleep," Hotch said patiently. "Throughout the day, you're working to distract yourself from certain thoughts, but you can't do that at night. Clear your mind, think more calmly, and some of those nightmares will go away. The better you are at it, the easier it will be."
"Do you do this often?"
"No, I suck at it," he said bluntly. His hands left Harry's, instead coming to rest along the sides of his face, fingertips at his temple and the ends of his cheekbone and jaw. One finger gently prodded at the space right beside Harry's eyes, and he obligingly closed both.
"Even if this helps, it'll only work tonight," Harry murmured, face moving beneath his father's hands.
"If you need me each night, I'll be here," Hotch quietly replied. "Inhale...exhale."
A few minutes later, as he clung to the last moments of consciousness, he thought he felt Hotch lowering him onto the mattress before he slipped away entirely for a quiet night of rest.
More parents beside the Davies began filtering in as homes were destroyed and Hogwarts became a last place of sanctuary. Then the ones who were coming in weren't only parents, and the halls were quickly filling up with numerous people looking for a safety. Some of them joined the Order while others exchanged lodging for some form of work, usually repair after the regular short battles or skirmishes so fighters could get rest. Needless to stay, the house elves were beside themselves with excitement about the amount of work they were getting.
Harry was passing one group of them when he saw Prentiss coming from the other direction, and he turned around to walk with her. "Going someplace specific?" he asked. With everything that had been going on, he'd seen a lot of the profilers but hadn't had been able to talk to them. It was ironic that after so long spent trying to get to them under Umbridge's dictatorial reign they were now able to see them but didn't have enough time to make meaningful conversation.
"Not really. You?"
In a mutter, he said, "I'm kind of getting tired of constantly leading everyone."
"Makes sense. You probably don't want to hear this, but you'll get used to it."
He groaned. "I know. I think I'm already starting to."
"Have you seen Elle and Draco recently?" Prentiss asked, smirking.
"...No?"
"Oh, they're going to town. It's fantastic. I think you'll see them at your next conference. They're trying to put together a general profile for the average Death Eater, using what Draco knows and what Elle can ascertain from it, as well as everything they learned over the last year with their studies."
Harry smiled at the mention of the Draco's repeated number of tests throughout last term. "Did you ever hear about How Many Harry Potters Does It Take to Get Detention?"
"Oh no."
He was just finishing the story when they passed Reid coming out another corridor, and they gestured for him to join them as they settled into a corridor. Harry waved his wand and dried a damp spot on Reid's shirt without comment, but Reid spoke up anyway.
"We're trying to take care of the people here who aren't really used to this," he said. "They don't know how to deal with this much violence and war, so we're helping them along."
Harry glanced at Prentiss. "That's why you're wandering around." She nodded. "How often are you doing this?"
"When we've got spare time," Reid said. Of all of the profilers, the war had taken a stronger effect on him. He had been wiry before, but everyone in the castle was losing weight from lack of appetite or lack of time to eat, and Reid was no different. In a way, he was beginning to look sick, and the weariness that was leeching at him from sleep deprivation and stress did nothing to help. "To be fair, there's nothing else to do when we're not profiling or fighting." Harry called bullshit - everyone needed more rest - but he didn't say anything, knowing he would rely on them to keep their silence when he did the same.
"That's because you went through the whole library," Prentiss pointed out and the two exchanged a grin then jumped as a house elf appeared between the three of them.
"Here you go!" she said, an old, matronly elf in her elder years. She held a steaming cup of coffee to Reid, whose face lit up as he accepted it. "Have a good one!" The moment Reid had the cup secured, she vanished, and the other two stared at him.
"Rossi was joking about my addiction but a house elf overheard and thought he was serious, so they bring me coffee at certain times of the day to make sure I don't have withdrawal," he said over the rim as he took a cup. "Ooh, right temperature."
Prentiss looked up to the ceiling in exasperation while Harry shook his head. "Hey, what is Rossi up to anyway? I haven't seen him at all."
"That's because he's off having way too much fun creating profiles for every individual Death Eater we know of," Reid explained. "We tried to help, but he said we'd be better off doing what we're doing now, since we're not even sure if the Ministry is going to bother using the profiles. It might just be us, but that can get difficult to do when everything happens so fast in a fight."
Harry nodded thoughtfully. "Hey, are you still wandering around?"
"Yeah."
"Once I finish this cup."
"Can I go with one of you?" he asked.
Prentiss smiled at him, and he knew she was thinking along the same lines he was. It was tiring constantly being in a command position and being surrounded by people who were either technically his subordinates or fellow leaders, and he just needed a break for a little bit. "Of course. Why don't you come with me while Reid continues to abuse the house elves' generosity?"
"I'm not-!"
They laughed as they left him.
"I'm looking for Harry Potter," the man who had just run up to Rossi said, breathlessly. Rossi raised an eyebrow slightly at the wizard. "Moody asked me to give him an update on the Astronomy Tower ward situation."
"Why didn't he just send a Patronus?"
"Potter's surrounded by people, so if it were to be discrete it needed to be delivered on paper." He patted his pocket, where the message was being kept. Rossi nodded in understanding and walked away from the Great Hall, leading him up to the second floor. "You can just tell me where to go," the wizard said.
"I don't quite know where he's at," Rossi said, "but I can help you track him down." He grabbed Elle as she walked past. "Where's Hotch?"
"Went to deal with the medicine shortage." She paused. "Well, one of them was, and you know what that means."
Rossi nodded his thanks and they parted ways. Rossi brought his reliant companion up another floor and went to an obscure classroom to find it packed with people. Some were trying to keep things organized, while others were cataloguing what they had or making notes of what they needed. The rest were using the room for quick reference while they tried to come up with the best solution for various maladies or curses.
The latter was something Rossi was particularly grateful for. While the magical folk were mostly immune to the various diseases that were bred by constant close quarter contact with others, the muggles were far from it. Magical corpses, remarkably, decomposed at a much slower rate than nonmagical, and so many times were moved only days later when the battle had become so heated that reparations were more important than dealing with the dead who didn't care so much anymore about the castle's defenses.
As a result, most of the BAU had gotten sick with one of a multitude of possible illnesses within a week, each individual having something different from another, either from the density of people around them or from whatever was festering in the dead. The fondness that the medical staff had for the BAU, sown and nurtured through the BAU's tendency to linger around the medical wing to help with shock, meant that they had been quick to deal with the issue and had begun making treatments specifically for them.
There was another, much more pressing difficulty that had been encountered. They were running dangerously low on medical supplies. In the beginning, there had only been so much already within the castle, and even with traffic somewhat opened up again, they weren't getting nearly as much as they needed. The Order members who were more aware of the situation were now refusing medical attention if they knew it would deplete the resources further, and no one bothered stopping them when a few saved potions here or there could mean a saved life later. Still, the medical staff, many of whom had come from St. Mungo's to help when they realized Madame Pomphrey was completely overwhelmed with patients, were looking for new ways to ration what they had. Some were trying to brew potions in the dungeons, but Snape's stores weren't unlimited and hadn't been anything close to prepared for supplying the amount a war needed.
"He's in here?" the wizard beside Rossi asked in confusion.
"Somewhere," Rossi said, looking around. "The major heads and deputies of each force end up overseeing just about everything that goes on, no matter if it's delegated to them or not. It helps give them a better understanding of what's happening everywhere in the castle." He finally dragged a lone stool closer and stepped up onto it, failing entirely to catch sight of Harry. "Ah, there's Hotch." Stepping back down, he pointed and said, "Back right corner, by the boils and lesions potions. Good luck."
He made to leave but the wizard called after him, "Wait, I'm looking for Potter, not Hotchner!"
"Where you find one, you find the other," he replied without turning around. "It's just easier to look for the taller one."
For the first time in what felt like years, the DA gathered almost the entirety of its members into the Room of Requirement. Their numbers were higher than they had ever been before, and it was strange to see everyone in the same place instead of scattered around sleeping or patrolling. Still, most of them were exhausted, mentally or physically, and despite their age it didn't take long to quiet everyone down.
Harry was at the head of the group, and he swore that the Room had sloped the floor slightly so he could better see everyone. Gideon was to his right a couple of paces off, also surveying the group, and Moody was leaning against a wall even further to his right. The former was there for bouncing ideas off of, while the latter was...
Harry wasn't quite sure what the ex-auror was doing there, but he thought that Moody was probably just watching him. He'd taken to doing that often, keeping an eye on him and making sure he was holding up well under the pressure of leadership. It was almost refreshing, if not for the part where Harry was still leading a large student army against a dark lord's forces.
"Whatever happens today," Harry announced, "nothing's set in stone. While we've got a little lull in the fighting, we want to explore some new tactics. I think a lot of us agree that it's a bit pointless to use techniques that were first developed centuries ago, and it's about time we started changing it up. Split up into groups – I don't care what size – and start playing around with spells and how you use them."
He could already see some of them were shifting towards friends and people they knew well. That worked well in fights, but wasn't going to help them much here. "Go into groups with people who you haven't trained with before. If the people you're with know how you fight, it won't be a good estimator for how any tactics you try would work in a real battle. Gideon and I are going to be walking around, and when we come near you, let us know what's worked for you and what hasn't. We might give you suggestions to try."
He glanced at Gideon, who nodded slightly and glanced over the group briefly. "We're going to be here most of the day," he said. "If your sleep shift comes up, leave and get some rest. We'll probably still be working when you wake up. Start playing around with techniques, and we'll stop you in about an hour to talk over what everyone's discovered."
The group dispersed to various corners, and the Room instantly started to adapt to what the students wanted. Gideon and Harry moved closer to Moody, who agreed to help them keep an eye on what was going on, and the three started walking around the room and observing the various teams.
It was slow going at first, as the groups had to consciously get themselves out of the routines they'd gotten into fighting the normal way. A few, however, instantly jumped into extreme and boisterous displays of odd tactics, notably the Weasley twins and other eccentrics. The groups around them started edging away to avoid getting hit by anything strange or unusual. Harry cast a couple of protection charms around himself and Gideon to make it easier to walk around the groups without serious fear of getting hurt.
"Closing the distance works well," Colin Creevey told him as he passed by, and Harry came to a stop, keeping his thoughts to himself about how Colin should definitely not be here. "It's a bit awkward at first, but once you get used to it, whoever you're fighting has a hard time fighting defensively. So if we can get close without them noticing, and then start firing spells..."
Harry nodded thoughtfully. "What if they notice you getting that close?"
"Make a couple distractions to keep them preoccupied while you narrow the distance?" Colin suggested. "It gets rid of any difficulty in aiming, too."
The Patil twins had the opposite idea, Harry noticed, as he watched the pair firebomb Seamus Finnigan and Ernie Macmillan from across the room. He observed them for a couple of minutes, dimly horrified, before approaching. "Do they even know you're attacking them?"
"Yeah, they're part of our group," Padma said. "We wanted to see how easy it would be for someone to find out where an attack is coming from at this distance. With so many people around, it's really difficult for them."
"So as long as someone's keeping an eye on us, we'd be able to take out another group," Parvati continued.
"Or if you're not even in the middle of the fight," Harry agreed. "Huh."
"Ducks to water," Gideon muttered later as he was passing Harry. The teenager paused, and Gideon said, "About time to get them all together?"
"Sure."
They rounded everyone back up, which was a little bit more difficult now that they had energy flowing and were considerably rowdier. Still, the groups managed to tone it down enough for Harry to make himself heard. He mentioned the extremes in distances that two groups had seen, but he also made a point to talk about some of the rather obscure spells he'd seen used.
"If your opponent doesn't have a clue what's going on, it seems to be rather confusing," he said, trying to ignore the snickering from Katie and Alicia. Even from the sidelines, he had had absolutely no clue what those ducks had been for. Katie had told him it was the Ducklifors spell but he had decided to cut that conversation short before she confirmed his suspicion that the ducks were transfigured individuals from nearby groups who, flustered by their sudden state change, had charged the girls' fight in irritation and completely distracted their opponents for them.
"There was something I noticed that no one seems to have taken advantage of before," Gideon said when Harry had wrapped up everything he'd seen. "Unless certain precautions are taken, sight, sound, and smell are not protected by general shield charms. Since you're in close quarters with other groups, don't test that right now, but keep it in mind during a real fight."
"The attacks that worked the best were ones that came from other groups," Moody said just before Harry was about to send everyone out again. "Sometimes those attacks were intentional and sometimes they weren't. Keep your eyes out for everything around you, not just the people you're going after."
They sent the groups back to work, and their focus was even stronger this time. Harry asked the room for a catwalk and spent half his time on the ground and half above everyone's heads, while Moody just lurked up there and Gideon predominantly stayed near the students. Happily, he noticed that the groups seemed to be getting stronger as they worked together, even though half the group was usually unfamiliar with the other half.
"They're getting stronger," Gideon noted, standing beside him. Harry was sitting on the edge of the catwalk, arms resting on the railing in front of him and legs dangling below. "A lot stronger."
"I don't recognize some of their tactics at all," Moody said behind him. Harry was extremely thankful that the man's leg usually gave his approach away, because he just knew that the ex-auror would be one of those people who would be deadly silent otherwise. "Gideon, your work from last term?"
"Some of it."
"I think a couple of them are testing patterns," Harry said. "Remember how you had us doing drills to get used to firing spells off as quickly as possible?"
"You think they're memorizing the fastest patterns and seeing how that works."
"Yeah. Look at that group," Harry said, pointing to six people who'd split up. The two trios were huddled up a couple of meters from each other, talking quietly amongst themselves. One trio was simply talking, not focusing at all, while the other was conversing rather urgently. "I overheard a little bit of what they were doing. They're finding the best rapid combinations for quick disarmament. One group acts normally and the other uses a combination, and they're seeing if that gives them any advantage."
The three of them went quiet as the trio who had been working on the combinations broke up and drew their wants. The other trio prepared to face them, and after an awkward pause started casting spells. Less than ten seconds later, it was over.
"Holy shit," Harry said, scrambling up to his feet. "What did they just do?"
Even Moody's eyebrows were raised. "That could be dangerous if they keep using the same patterns and someone starts predicting them, but if they have enough combinations it shouldn't be a problem."
"I'll be right back," Harry said and hurried off the catwalk to go speak with the group.
He reached them just as the half who had lost were finally restored to their original state as the various curses that had been put on them were lifted. Neville, the nearest person to him as he came to a halt, grinned at him. "This is a lot easier than pulling spells out of nowhere," he said.
"Looks like! What are you doing, exactly?"
Neville glanced at the three who had just lost and Theodore shrugged. "Looks like it's working. No need to test it again."
"There's a couple parts to it. We usually use a string of spells, a couple distractions with some sort of take-out spell in the middle and at the end," Neville explained. "So, for instance, the first four spells might shoot water or glitter or something, the fifth would be a stupefy, the next three would be more distractions, and then the last one could a be a hex. The distractions make it more difficult for them to see a hex coming, and that stupefy is really the one we want to use to take them out but the second round of distractions and a hex are a precaution in case it didn't work."
Harry nodded in understanding. "You were firing spells a lot faster than I thought you would have been able to, even having memorized them."
"That was Michael's idea," Neville said, gesturing at the Ravenclaw beside him.
"We used the shortest spells we could," Michael explained, "but then we also looked at beginnings and endings in letters, or wand movements. We wanted them to connect so we don't lose time resetting for another spell. For instance, the three of the spells in the combination I used are Auguamenti, polaris, stupefy. Auguamenti ends in a downward movement and polaris requires an upwards slash, so auguamenti puts the wand right where it needs to be to start the next spell. Polaris ends in an s sound, which stupefy starts with, so it flows off the tongue easier."
Theodore suddenly perked up. "Oh, that's what you were saying! I thought you were just slurring words together, and I couldn't make out what you were trying to do half the time until you cast the spell!"
"Added benefit," Michael said with a grin.
"I couldn't make out any of the spells you were using," Terry admitted to Justin.
"I was testing the shortest spells we could think of," Justin explained. "All of mine probably slurred more than Michael's did, since his combinations were more focused on connecting wand movements."
"Did you guys switch groups?" Harry asked.
Neville nodded. "It was working really well in our group, so we asked if we could switch people with their group so we could see if it would still work against people who had gotten used to fighting with us. It does, by the way."
Harry had to agree with that assessment. "Hey, do you guys know where Blaise is at?"
"With Ginny, somewhere over there," Theodore said, gesturing to a corner of the room. "I hope you guys figure out more about those patronuses."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Harry agreed. "We're the only ones with patronuses large enough to have a large effect, but they only stop if the people in front of them surrender." He grimaced at the memory. "Anyway. We'll probably be splitting up for another break in half an hour, so good luck until then."
"You too!" Theodore called after him, and he went to seek out Blue's master.
Blaise didn't look surprised to be pulled away from the rest of his group. "Patronuses?"
"I'm so obvious," Harry sighed, though there was really little other reason he would have been grabbing Blaise specifically. "Yeah. We need to make these things non-lethal."
"Do you think we could just ask them not to harm anyone within certain limitations?" Blaise asked. The two moved away from everyone else, though the loud spells made it hard for anyone to overhear what they were saying.
"It's possible..." He hesitated. "I think we're going to have to test it in here, when no one else is around."
"And not tell anyone about it," Blaise said. "The BAU would flip if they heard we were experimenting with the patronuses, especially since we're going to have to test them on each other."
"Let's do it right after this. I'll send everyone else out, tell them to get food or something, and we can try to work it out as quickly as we can. We won't have as much time as I would like before someone comes back up here, but we'll have a couple of minutes."
The rest of the mass brainstorming session went remarkably well, and within the next couple of hours everyone was so exhausted that it was easy to send everyone to get dinner. Harry walked out with the group, talking to Gideon, then pulled away, saying that he had something else he wanted to see to before he ate. There was no way that Gideon would approve of learning that Blaise and he were just going to let their patronuses loose in an attempt to contain them.
The Room did not totally clear like Blaise had hoped it would. Luna, instincts as sharp as ever, lingered behind and waited for everyone else to leave. "Do you think it's going to work?" she asked.
"The techniques we just found?" Blaise replied, purposefully misunderstanding. "I think so. We just need to practice, but we do that often enough."
She gave him a tolerating look. "Your patronuses."
"I hope. I don't want Blue to hurt anyone again, not unless it's necessary, and I know it's killing Harry that his protection is so...violent."
"I'm not surprised," she said calmly. "He gets violent, too, when someone threatens the people around him."
Blaise frowned slightly. "I thought he got his patronus's form from his father."
"I don't think it is. Harry is very much his own person, even if he relies a little too much on his father right now. He's starting to find his own ground, though, and that's why his form shifted from the deer to the elephant. He's moving past expectations of himself to what he wants to be – someone like his father. Someone who saves people."
"So the elephant is more like Harry's perception of Hotch?"
"I think so. It's also got his own influence, too, but yes, I think the elephant is Harry's own form. But don't tell him that. He rather likes the idea of having his father's protection through the form of his patronus." She tilted her head at him. "What do you think Gideon's form would be?"
"A raven," he said automatically. "Definitely a raven, or something of the sort. Probably some form of bird."
"Ravens are called heralds of death."
"They're just attracted to death," he said dismissively. "And that's his job, isn't it?"
"I suppose."
"This is an awfully depressing analysis of patronus forms," Blaise said, trying to redirect them.
"You are about to test your 'violent' patronuses," Luna reminded him and Blaise conceded the point.
The door opened before they could take more, and Harry paused when he saw that they had someone else who had remained behind. When he saw it was just Luna, however, he let the door close. "Luna," he greeted.
"Harry," she replied. "You shouldn't let Moody get to you so much."
Blaise blinked, and so did Harry. Since when had Moody been bothering the DA leader?
Harry had the same question. "He's not really...that much of a problem."
"A lot of wrackspurts are attracted to him, and some of them are moving to you because he's been around you so much," Luna said, worry in her voice. "You really should be careful not to get too stressed out, or you'll just get more of them."
"Oh," Harry said. "Right."
"Anyway, I'll leave you to it. I'm a bit hungry after all that spellwork. Good luck!" She waved at the pair, then left them to the otherwise empty room.
"I think the longer I'm around her, the more sense she makes," Harry commented.
Blaise paused. "You know," he said carefully, "I discounted everything she said for months. And then some of it really started to seem logical, and now I'm not sure all of what she says isn't right. There's a lot that's still not accurate, but a couple of things..."
The two of them stood there for a moment, and then Harry shook his head. "Well, at any rate," he said. "Have you tried controlling your patronus directly before?"
"Not much. I've told it to protect certain people, but that's been it," he said. "You?"
"I've just been using it as little as possible," Harry admitted. "So, the only way I think we can test this..."
"Is to unleash the patronuses on each other," Blaise finished for him. "Yeah." He tried to ignore the way his heart started stuttering at the thought of facing down the enormous elephant, but he was well practiced in keeping his face expressionless.
Harry, on the other hand, had no issue looking concerned at the notion of running from a velociraptor. "Yeah," he agreed. "Yeah, that's... Um. That's what I was thinking."
"Harry," Blaise said solemnly, "it was nice knowing you."
"Same," was the reply, a bit breathless. Some distant part of Blaise commented on how it was nice to have a leader who was actually human, as opposed to answering to the impassive Moody or the lost-in-the-clouds Dumbledore. "Should we summon them both at the same time, so if one gets out of control the other one will stop it?"
"But what if both of them get out of control?" Blaise pointed out.
"The Room will protect us," Harry said with much less certainty than Blaise would have liked. "I think you'd better start."
Blaise frowned. "What? No. If you get injured, we'll be in much more trouble than if I do. You need to be ready for another attack." Besides, he knew Harry just wanted to be the one to be at risk because he couldn't bear the thought of accidentally injuring Blaise. Nevermind the fact that the alternative meant that Blaise would possibly be injuring Harry.
"If you can't stop your patronus, he's fast, but I can hold him off with transfigured blockades a lot easier than you could hold off..."
"Atlas," Blaise said without thinking. Harry paused, tilting his head to the side. "I was just thinking, from his size, when Luna and I were talking about him," Blaise said, a bit awkwardly as he tried to cover up his thoughts about how stupidly Harry shouldered responsibility sometimes.
After a moment, it became clear Harry was taking it as a genuine name suggestion and not an unintended half-insult. "That works," he said. "Atlas, then. What have you been calling yours?"
"Blue. The muggleborns find it so amusing that I can't find it in my heart to change his name, even though Draco keeps cringing every time because I didn't come up with a more creative title."
Harry nodded, then started to back up to get to the other end of the room. "I'd rather keep stalling, but we need to do this. Blaise, summon Blue."
Blaise frowned heavily. "I really think we should do this the other way around."
"Opinion noted, considered, and ignored. Madame Pomfrey can fix a some bites and scratches easier than she can grow back all the bones in your rib cage and spine." He finally came to a halt at a reasonable distance from Blaise, giving him enough time to run if he had to.
At that distance, Blaise couldn't read his expression well enough to tell if he was panicking internally as much as Blaise was. All he could think of was what had happened to the first two Death Eaters he'd seen Blue go after.
"Harry," he said, "maybe we shouldn't do this. It might be better if we don't use our patronuses at all in a fight anymore."
"I thought about that," Harry said, "but they've saved too many people. And anything that can end this war sooner... I think we should at least investigate the prospect."
Blaise sighed in agreement and resignation, raising his wand. "Just don't tell your dad or Gideon how we tested this, okay?" Harry nodded tensely, body rigid as he held himself still. "Expecto patronum." The silvery form of Blue took shape in front of him, but didn't transition to the next stage automatically. It paced back and forth before Blaise, moving in jerky, reptilian motions. Harry waited impatiently, and Blaise had to take a deep breath to get himself under control as his heart started pounding. "Essearia," he managed.
Blue coalesced in front of him, claws and sharp teeth as real as Blaise's wand. The dinosaur snorted and his tail whipped behind him as he watched Blaise, waiting for direction. Blaise took another quick breath, trying to stop himself from hyperventilating. In front of him, Blue raised his head, body at the ready as his Patronus picked up on his elevated nerves.
"Harry, are you ready?" he asked, struggling to keep his voice under control. There was a strange pause, and he glanced up just in time to see Harry finish nodding.
When Blaise didn't do anything, Harry said, failing to completely hide his anxiety, "Are you ready?"
"Get prepared to stop him," was all Blaise gave in reply.
Nothing happened for a long moment.
"I think you need to be in danger from me," Harry said finally and raised his wand. Blaise nodded in agreement, lowering his own. "Expelliarmus!" Blaise let his wand fly from his grasp and winced as Blue's head snapped around to look at Harry. "Confundo!"
Blaise came out of his state a couple minutes later, but nothing had changed. "He's still not charging you?" He just wanted to get this over with now.
Harry was quiet for a moment, and then he said, "I think I'm going to have to pose a real threat to you for this to work."
"Harry, do it," he said quickly. "It's the only way we're going to work this out."
"No, Blaise, I think I'm going to have to actually try to hurt you."
"Just try," Blaise encouraged him. "Blue should theoretically get in the way of anything really harmful that you throw at me."
He didn't think he was imagining the shake in Harry's arm as he raised his wand again. "Diffindo!"
Blue swung around, intercepting the spell and letting it hit his side. The dinosaur growled at Harry.
"Oh, is that the best you can do?" Blaise taunted, though it came out dryer and less vicious than he'd been aiming for. Harry grimaced, and he realized that, yes, this probably was the worst he could do against a friend. "Try sectumsempra."
"What?"
"It's a spell my father used once against a chimera when we were on the Sinai peninsula."
"What's it do?"
"It's sort of like a worse version of diffindo. I think my father learned it from Professor Snape, actually. Give it a go."
Harry took a shaky breath. "Sectumsempra!"
Blue caught most of it, but Harry's wild wand movement caused half of it to go over Blue's back and Blaise had to duck under the rest. Blue screeched and lunged forward so suddenly that it took Blaise a moment to realize that they'd actually antagonized the dinosaur enough with a single spell. On the other end of the room, Harry only moved back one pace, breathing hard but not running.
"Blaise!" he shouted at him.
"Stop, Blue!" Blaise tried.
Blue kept running, legs pumping as he accelerated across the rapidly closing distance between him and Harry. The wizard finally raised his wand, bringing up a barrier between him and the patronus just in time.
Too late, Blaise realized that Harry hadn't let Atlas go enough times to have seen how poorly regular protego shields held up against patronuses. "No, Harry, run!"
Blue passed through the shield like it wasn't even there and Harry staggered back in surprise. Before he could do anything else, a rock wall arose in front of him, formed by Blaise's needs acting on the Room. It bought Harry a couple of seconds, and he started creating more substantial barriers around him as Blue darted around the first block.
Then, all of a sudden, Blue stopped, lifting his head and just looking at Harry curiously.
"What'd you do?" Blaise asked, stunned.
"I... I think it's because I'm not trying to attack you anymore," Harry said slowly, not taking his eyes off Blue.
"No," Blaise said, "it's because you won't even if he leaves you alone, isn't it? Try sending murderous thoughts my way again."
He didn't seem to quite manage that, but Blue did stiffen and crouch down again, though he didn't start attacking.
"Okay, so there's an option," Harry muttered. "But we still need a way to stop them if something else is going wrong and whoever they're attacking needs to be...not killed."
Before Blaise could suggest that he let Blue return to the other end of the room, Harry raised his arm and shot over the nearest barrier, "Sectumsempra!" Blaise reflexively dropped quickly enough that it hit the wall behind him.
Blue shrieked and his claws slashed through the air, narrowly avoiding Harry. The wizard stepped backwards and the barriers around him rose a little higher and expanded, creating a circle of stone around him that was creeping upwards to protect him from Blue.
"Blue, stop!" Blaise shouted as one of Blue's claws hooked along the edge of the stone as he tried to struggle into the circle. Blue ignored him, and Blaise's mind raced. Why wouldn't his own patronus listen to him?
Harry moved as far away from Blue as he could without leaving the protective circle, but Blue let go of the stone and backed up. Just as Blaise thought he was going to leave Harry alone, Blue turned around sharply, sprinted the last couple of steps until the stone, and then leaped into the air, just managing to clear the top.
"Bombarda!" Harry shouted desperately, hoping to throw the dinosaur back. The spell passed over the creature harmlessly, blowing out the stone around him instead.
"No!" Blaise screamed as Blue's claws raked towards Harry. "No, don't hurt him!" He started running, knowing it wouldn't make a difference but doing it anyway. He tried to end the spell and send Blue back to nonexistence, but nothing was happening and Harry was still holding up his thoughts well enough that Blue was attacking him.
Even with Harry's practice at hand-to-hand, he was no match for a dinosaur, and as Blaise watched, Blue's claws got hold of his friend and dragged him to the ground. Harry shouted, out of sight behind the stone he fell under, and Blue dropped his head, and even if Blaise couldn't see it he could still imagine Harry being torn into by those horrible teeth.
He had just come to the edge of the stone when Blue suddenly stood up straight, and he fully expected to see blood glistening around his maw. Instead, as Blaise skidded to a halt beside the stone, he found himself face to face with Harry dangling by the back of his shirt, which was tangled in Blue's teeth. Both of his arms were secured by Blue's claws, and his legs had been trapped awkwardly, flung halfway over Blue's shoulder and trapped against his own chest and Blue's.
Blaise blinked a couple of times.
"I think," Harry said, panting, "the 'don't hurt him' part was rather critical."
Blaise felt his shoulders sink as he let out a sigh of relief. Blue stared at him eagerly, like a dog with a stick telling its master Look, I brought you a present!
"You can probably stop trying to 'attack' me now," Blaise said, and Harry nodded in agreement right before Blue opened his mouth and claws, unceremoniously dropping him on the floor.
"Both at the same time, then?" Harry suggested as he got to his feet, patting himself off.
"Why not?" Blaise said wearily, moving back to the other side of the room with Blue. He waited for a moment while Harry summoned Atlas. "By the way – don't you ever tell your father we did this."
"I won't so long as you don't tell Gideon," Harry agreed. "Sectumsempra!"
Blaise shouted the spell right back at him, and both hastily moved out of the way of each other's spell. Their patronuses charged immediately, dodging around one another and aiming at the threat.
Hotch leaned back thoughtfully as Gideon finished explaining what they'd done. "Seems like all of that should work," he said, "but they'd work for people like us. We're going to have to see if wizards and witches can adapt to using techniques like that."
"It seems that the younger they are, the easier it is for them to think like muggles," Moody said.
"They don't have decades of other experiences against them," Gideon pointed out.
"In any case, the kids aren't the ones I'm worried about. We're having some mental crises in the Order right now." He glanced at Hotch. "Have you talked to Sirius at all since he found out the truth?"
"A little."
"Is he going to come around?"
"No. He's approached me a few times, but for the most part it's just been childish fits. It hasn't been an actual conversation I could work with."
"How are you handling it?"
"Just waiting for him to simmer down."
"You might want to keep Harry nearby until he's calmed," Moody said. "It won't make him any happier, but Harry knows what happened and he'll stop any attacks Sirius might send your way."
"He's not going to go to that extreme."
"Probably not, but Sirius hasn't been known for calculated maneuvers. In his school years, he was known for hexing and cursing other students while their backs were turned or when he had the rest of his group to back him up."
Well, Hotch was almost always with Harry constantly these days anyway. It wouldn't be a huge deviation from his norm to just stick with him a little more closely, even if he didn't know how to feel about being the one who was protected for once.
"Where's Harry?" Moody asked, his false eye roaming to search for the missing teen. "You two usually meet up as soon as you can if you're forced to split up."
The three of them were all early for the afternoon meeting, but Hotch had wanted to hear what had happened while he'd been dealing with a situation involving some a couple of the families who were taking refuge behind Hogwarts's walls.
"Last I heard, he was down in the Great Hall," Hotch said. "He went with the rest of the group."
Gideon frowned. "He didn't go down to dinner with the rest of us."
Hotch paused. "Why not?"
"I don't know. He said he had something else to take care of first, and then left. I didn't see Luna or Blaise either before I came up here."
"They're probably fine," Moody said.
Hotch had to agree, but it just felt weird to not know where Harry was at after the two had spent so long practically joined at the hip, if he was going to be honest with himself. "Are you going to try implementing any of the tactics you just saw with the Order?"
Moody snorted. "They're too stuck in their ways. It wouldn't work with more than a handful of them. I don't know what you and your lot did with those kids, but they're the smartest fighters I've ever seen. They adapt when adults wouldn't."
"I think that's Blackwolf's doing. He hates rigid thinking."
"Before anyone else arrives," Gideon said, "I've got a question for you, Moody." The ex-auror glanced at him with his one good eye. "Did everyone follow Dumbledore's lead in letting Harry get sacrificed for the war because of a certain way of thinking, or was that unusual?"
Moody stared at him for a long, hard moment, before turning to Hotch. "There were two reasons. The Order had a strong hero-worship for Albus, and magical folk are highly superstitious. So when Albus said that a boy could kill Voldemort because of a prophecy, most of them believed it. The only ones who were doubtful were ones who had a close relationship with him."
"I hate to say this," Gideon continued, "but do prophecies usually come true?"
Moody didn't take his eye off Hotch. "Most I've heard of have." Finally, he shifted away. "But then, your family has a penchant for uprooting the status quo."
"Why did you say that the Order did have a hero-worship of Dumbledore?" Hotch asked. "They don't anymore?"
"Not after all of you came in and took the wizarding world by force," Moody scoffed. "Hard to worship an old, sometimes bewildering man who speaks of a better future when a younger, easily understandable batch of motivational people are creating current ripples that are changing the tide. I don't know which one of you is right, but that's what's happening." He glanced at Hotch. "Still, you might be better not being so antagonistic towards him."
Hotch's eyes narrowed, but he saw Gideon look almost amused. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You hate him – and with reason, considering how much your son went through because of some of his decisions. It shows. And while people understand why, it could cause a division in the ranks if there's a serious split between you and Albus."
Hotch grimaced, but he had to admit to the logic of that. "I would say we won't have a problem so long as he doesn't put Harry in any unnecessary danger again, but considering you put my son in charge of an army in the middle of this damn war, I don't think that's going to be possible."
Moody had the guile to smirk. "He's doing well. I've been keeping an eye on him, and he's been doing much better than I thought he would." His head tilted slightly, avid curiosity shining through. "Did you know your son's more powerful than most of the seventh years fighting?"
Hotch blinked a couple of times. "He is?"
"I'd say he's even more powerful than most of the adults in the Order, though I haven't seen him training with them since he's usually with his own lot." Moody nodded, almost to himself, and settled into his seat. "Yes, I'd definitely say he's one of the most powerful fighters on the field right now."
"Ironic, isn't it?" Gideon mused. "The purebloods think their lineage makes them the strongest, but three of the top magic users of the war have muggle parents. Riddle, Harry, and Hermione. The other four – you, McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Lestrange – are just as strong as them, taking age into consideration."
"I wouldn't say that," Moody said immediately, and Hotch expected a discourse on the finesse of magic that he and McGonagall used. "Harry's much stronger than I was at his age." That took Hotch aback for a couple of moments. "It might be that muggleborns have more powerful magic, if the three you just mentioned are anything to go by. Ever Granger's got more clout than most of the kids she's fighting with, though it's hard to tell if it's ability or smarts that make her so strong."
Gideon's and Hotch's phones both vibrated and they answered them immediately. Moody was already gathering his wand as they stood. "Attack?" he asked as they put their phones back in their pockets and they nodded. "Hotch, tell your son he's fine to go out closer to the battlefield this time." Hotch narrowed his eyes at the idea, but Moody pushed, "He's going to go out there sooner or later and he's starting to strain at the bit. I'd prefer to know when he starts slipping away, wouldn't you?"
Moody left the two of them behind to go to the frontlines. Harry didn't answer his phone, and Gideon called Blaise as he tried another time.
"He's not answering either," Gideon said, frowning in concern.
"You think they're together?" Hotch asked.
"I hope not, or this doesn't bode well. I'll try Luna, just in case. Keep calling Harry." Luna thankfully answered immediately, but Gideon paled as she immediately explained where the two had gone without provocation. "Thank you," he said and hung up. "They were experimenting with their patronuses."
Hotch froze in the middle of redialing again. "What?"
"They were trying to find a way to make them stop killing people, so they could actually use them in combat."
"They're trying that alone with murderous creatures?" Hotch snapped, but Gideon just turned to the door and started running down the steps instead of answering. Hotch followed close behind.
The familiar sounds of battle started up as they ran towards the seventh floor, and for the umpteenth time Hotch cursed all the damn stairs this place had. His phone rang as they hurried up the fifth floor, and he answered it, trying not to drop it down the stairs as he did so.
He hung up, frustration mounting. "Damn it," he snarled.
"What happened?"
"Pucla was still regrouping and the skeleton crew they left to watch the south wasn't strong enough to completely repel the initial attack. Reid was down there with them, and Seamus said that he and a couple of students are trapped in one of the classrooms with a group of Death Eaters."
Gideon swore. "What do we do?"
"Nothing – they'll figure it out before we get there, either way it plays out. Let's just hope that Reid keeps his head and works everyone through it."
They reached the seventh floor later than Hotch would have liked, and while he knew charging into a room containing two killer patronuses was insane he was only half a second in front of Gideon in doing so. As it was, he was surprised neither he nor Gideon had a heart attack at the sight that awaited them.
Blaise was dangling from the air by one foot, Harry's elephant's trunk holding him firmly. His wand had fallen to the floor beneath him, and if he dropped from where he was and the Room didn't accommodate him, he'd surely crack his head open. He wasn't fighting the grip, resigned to whatever was going to happen to him. Across the room, Harry was on the ground, motionless, while the velociraptor held him down with one foot and snarled over him.
"Harry!" Hotch shouted.
Before he could run forward, Harry sat up abruptly, smacking his head into the dinosaur's with an "Ow!" He rubbed his head, then blinked and looked at Hotch. Grinning, he said, "We found out how to control them!" He must have seen something in Hotch's face because his grin flickered. "Er."
The dinosaur backed off of him, and Harry gave it a mindless pet as it passed by. He glanced at Blaise across the room, just as the elephant slowly lowered the Slytherin to the ground. Blaise looked at him in return. "I guess it's working," he said, completely unconcerned about the two adults who were close to strangling the pair.
"You deal with yours, I'll deal with mine," Hotch said in a low undertone. Gideon nodded, expression grim. Louder, letting his voice carry across the room, he said, "Harry, come with me."
Beside him, Gideon just said, "Blaise."
The two teenagers started walking towards them, meeting halfway as their patronuses met back up with their originators. Hotch saw Harry duck his head for a moment and swore he heard him mutter to Blaise, "R.I.P." The Slytherin clearly bit back a snort, but Hotch just narrowed his eyes. He didn't find this nearly so amusing.
"Did Luna tell you where we were?" Blaise asked curiously as they got closer.
"Yes, and you're lucky Gideon noticed that the two of you and her skipped out on dinner," Hotch snapped, causing both to falter at his sudden aggression.
A blast echoed through the hallways and Harry's eyes widened in understanding. "Shit, when did it start?"
"Ten minutes ago. Which you would have known if you answered your damn phones. Pucla's already got a problem."
Blaise, second in command for Pucla, straightened. "What?"
"Some of the early wave broke through and cornered a group, which includes Reid."
Blaise turned sharply to his patronus. "Do not kill anyone," he ordered, "or fatally injure. Go to the southern border of the school and protect it from Death Eaters." The velociraptor took off immediately, lowering its head until its body was almost horizontal and sprinting out of the room and down the hall to follow the given directions.
"You're sure that's going to work?" Gideon said.
Both teenagers nodded immediately. "We just have to be very specific, and we have to know that our orders can be ignored if someone's still in danger," Blaise explained. Before anyone could say anything else, he started running after the dinosaur, hurrying to get to his post as if his speed made up for lost time.
"I'll head back to the office," Gideon told him. Hotch nodded, and the older man left. Gideon would hand Blaise his disappointment and disapproval on a silver platter when the war was done and he could get Blaise to sit still long enough to hear the lecture.
"Come with me," Hotch said, and Harry hurried the last couple of steps to catch up to him. After that stunt, he was eager to keep Harry back at the office since that was the closest he could get to grounding his son in this situation, but that just wasn't a feasible option right now. "Why didn't you tell anyone what you were doing?"
"We had to work out how to use them, and that just wasn't happening the way we were trying it," Harry said. "We couldn't let anyone else die, because of our Patronuses or because we were refusing to use them. And we knew none of you were going to let us do it, not when they'd caused such damage."
"Harry, a lot of people around here know by now that you're going to do whatever the hell you want because you know there aren't a lot of people who can stop you," Hotch said, tone still just as sharp. "Almost anyone you would have asked would have been all right with supervising to make sure neither of you got hurt, since you would have done it somehow even if they weren't watching you. The whole reason for doing that was because your creatures were dangerous – it's stupid to ignore that just because you wanted to run some tests."
Making sure to watch him as he spoke to press his point, he added, "It could have gone very badly with only the two of you in there." Harry winced, and Hotch's eyes narrowed further. "And I'll bet it got close to that point, didn't it?"
Harry paused, briefly considering a lie, then said, "We had some problems at the beginning."
There were a few strained minutes of silence as they walked through the halls, both struggling to find something to say without ceding ground. Behind them, he could hear the elephant's lumbering footsteps matching pace with them. Hotch knew Harry was keeping just as careful an eye on the battles they could see through the windows as he was the conversation, and grudgingly reminded himself that this wasn't so important at the moment.
"Don't ever do something like that again without taking better precautions," he finally said, voice stern.
"Got it," Harry muttered.
"Moody said you can stay closer to the frontlines this time," he said and Harry glanced up at him. "If you've got your patronus with you, then I suppose you should be safer than he assumed. But damn it, be careful."
Harry nodded quickly. "Yeah. You too."
"Hotch?" Morgan said over the phone four hours into the battle.
That wasn't good. Morgan always just said what was wrong. "What?" Hotch asked.
"...Harry's dueling Riddle."
Hotch resisted the urge to throw his phone at the nearest person. That would have been McGonagall, who had stopped by on her way to deal with a situation on the Astronomy Tower to tell him that the Pucla situation hadn't been resolved yet.
"Hold on." He lowered his phone briefly. "Where's Dumbledore?" he asked her.
"He was by the greenhouses, last I heard."
To Morgan, he asked, "Where are they dueling?"
"Near the main entrance."
"Is Dumbledore anywhere close by?"
"Not that I've seen, but Riddle wasn't making any headway before so I don't know if he was here earlier or not to slow him down."
Dumbledore had damn well better not be dead, or serious problems were going to arise. He glanced at McGonagall. "Harry's dueling Riddle by the main entrance. Can you get Dumbledore over there?"
"Uh, Hotch?" Morgan asked urgently. "Your son's winning."
Hotch paused. "What do you mean?"
"Harry's pushing back Riddle."
Hotch met up with Morgan just a couple of minutes later, standing with him by one of the windows that overlooked the courtyard in front of the entrance. Below, the entire area was in tatters, and that was all Hotch could make out before a curtain of flame swept across the windows. Morgan hardly flinched, and he glanced at Hotch wearily while they waited for it to pass and stop obscuring their view.
"He's been holding up pretty well, but he seems to be pissing off Riddle so badly that Riddle's fighting like this battle decides everything."
"What was he thinking?" Hotch demanded, more to himself than anything but Morgan still answered.
"It looked like Riddle was going to break through. Honestly, he might have if not for Harry's intervention." Morgan grimaced irritably. "Dumbledore was here for a little bit, but then... It was weird, Hotch. Something went wrong."
Hotch frowned. "What do you mean?"
"He wasn't fighting like usual. Not for lack of trying, but his wand just didn't seem to be cooperating anymore. He left."
Hotch stared at him for a long moment. "His wand was giving him trouble so he ditched the fight to let Harry handle Riddle?" he demanded.
Morgan grimaced and nodded. "Looked that way, though I'll bet there's more to it. Even Riddle was looking at him strangely. There was something weird going on."
Hotch muttered crossly under his breath and Morgan politely did not comment on the string of insults he let out. The fire finally passed, letting Hotch see the duel below. Harry was doing well, he had to admit, but that didn't make it any easier to watch.
"If you go down there, you'll just distract Harry," Morgan said quietly.
"I know. Doesn't make it any easier to stay away." After a moment, he asked, "Where's everyone else?"
"The Death Eaters don't want to accidentally take Harry out and piss off Riddle, and our side is staying out of the way so Harry doesn't have to worry about them. That, and I think they know they're out of their league in that fight."
Before either of them could say anything, Hotch's phone rang. He grimaced, sparing another glance to the duel, before answering it. "Yeah?"
"Hey, Hotch?" Reid asked on the other end, and he started in surprise at hearing the young profiler's voice. "I've got...uh..." Quiet counting. "Eight surrendering Death Eaters, but we're running out of space. Er, where do I take them?"
Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose. One day he'd get used to the antics of Harry and Reid, but that would not be on a day that he had to deal with both of them at the same time. "I thought you were trapped in a room with Death Eaters."
"Yeah, for the last couple of hours, but we came to a truce after the first few minutes and half of them just escaped and the other half gave up, so..."
He sighed silently. "Ask Gideon. I'm not near the control center right now."
"Ah, okay. Hey, I heard Harry's dueling Riddle."
"He is," he replied shortly.
Reid made a sound like he was going to ask something else, then reconsidered and said, "Er, I'll go call Gideon, then."
"Was that Reid?" Morgan asked when he hung up.
"We now have eight new POWs," Hotch said in response, and Morgan almost smiled.
An hour later, Harry finally pushed Riddle back far enough that the dark lord simply vanished instead of continuing the fight. If the battle was going to continue for much longer, he'd probably show up somewhere else, but if he decided that the Death Eaters' morale was just going to drop further if he continued then he would pull everyone back. They would know within the next half hour, so Hotch left Morgan and moved down to the entrance hall to try to intercept Harry.
He ran smack into another Death Eater on the way, which was sort of embarrassing for both of them, and the Death Eater immediately raised both hands as Hotch pointed his gun at him. The gesture made Hotch pause, both because no one had done that before and because any nonmagical individual would surely have tried to knock the gun from his hands at this proximity.
"I'm done fighting," the Death Eater said, so wearily that Hotch felt a pang of sympathetic sleep deprivation. "Where do you want me to go?"
The ninth surrender in one day that he knew of. If they kept up this pace, they would just have to keep stealing Riddle's followers until he didn't have enough left to continue fighting.
A green light cloud puffed behind the Death Eater for a moment as a spell hit him, and he collapsed to the ground. "He surrendered," he said as Harry hurried up to him, lowering his wand as he did so.
"Yeah, but I figured you didn't feel like walking him all the way back to the rest of them," Harry said dismissively, raising his wand as an afterthought to cast a silencing charm to keep their conversation eavesdropper-free. "We've got a problem."
"Which one?" Hotch dryly responded.
"Heh." A flicker of a smile crossed his face, but he quickly grew serious again. "Which two. First, there's something wrong with Dumbledore's wand."
"I heard," he said darkly.
"No, something really wrong," Harry said urgently. "He was dueling Riddle and it suddenly started...misbehaving. I made him cede the duel to me because he was going to lose." At Hotch's look, he scowled and said, "Look, I figured if Riddle killed Dumbledore we'd be in bigger shit than if I lost a duel to Riddle. Anyway, we can argue about that later. I pushed Riddle back-"
"I was here for the last hour," Hotch interrupted.
"Oh. So I came back in to start looking at the situation again, since I put Hermione in charge before I went out there, and Dumbledore caught up to me. He said his wand's core is acting up because he was disarmed recently, so it's not treating him as its true master."
Hotch frowned. "What does that mean?"
"It significantly weakens the amount of power he can channel through his wand. He had to go back to his original wand, which should work better for him but still won't be as powerful as the one he's been using."
"Is he still going to be able to duel Riddle with it?"
"Don't know. We'll see, I suppose. So there's that. Second problem – Riddle has a plan that's getting close to completion."
"How do you know that?"
"Other than him practically gloating over it, a bunch of other people said that the Death Eaters are starting to act weird. A couple of power players who should be here aren't, and Hermione and I realized that a lot of their...analysts, for lack of a better word, the people who they rely on for planning, haven't been here at all in the last couple of skirmishes."
"So Riddle's here himself while his upper echelons are trying to work out the endgame."
"Something like that. But...we haven't heard anything about what that might be," Harry said. "I just wanted to tell you, so keep an ear open until this is over." He started to turn away, then stopped.
"What?" Hotch asked.
"Just...nothing."
"Harry," Hotch called as Harry began to walk off. "What?"
"Something someone said, while I was leaving the duel site." Harry frowned thoughtfully. "One of the Death Eaters Pucla had captured, not one of the few who surrendered, kind of snapped at me and said I'd done really well against Riddle, but... They asked how I'd do against two of him."
Hotch's frown matched his. "What?"
"There's no way, even with magic, to copy someone and create a true doppelganger," Harry said. "Nothing that I've ever heard of, anyway. I wouldn't have thought twice of it, but for a Death Eater, this one actually sounded like there was still some logic left in the head."
"If Riddle could manage something like that... No, if something like that were possible, where would he look to figure that out?"
Harry froze. "Where everything obscure goes," he murmured. "The Department of Mysteries."
"You think the ability to do something like that could be down there?" Hotch asked, alarmed.
"I don't know," Harry said slowly. "I just know that there are some very, very unusual things hidden down there, things that even Moody said should be left untouched and unresearched. I don't know if something like that is possible, but if it were... I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Riddle found it there."
[-]
Author's Note: Next chapter is going to be the inserted chapter and it's not written yet, so there might be a slight update delay. We'll see. After that, I'm really going to try to keep up with the updates because shit's going to go down and it'd just be mean to leave you in that much suspense and angst.
Speaking of which... I think you all know by now that something traumatizing is going to happen. You've got an option – do you want the slightly, slightly less traumatizing option, or the full-on trauma? There's no plot difference, but the latter is just a bit more gory and holy-shit-why. It's also got a bigger impact, and I initially wrote it like that because I am terrified of that sort of...incident, so I could write the response well, but...well, it is pretty horrifying. If I say what it is it'll spoil it, so I won't do that, but the question's still up in the air.
By the way, someone nailed it on the head, but did anyone else catch the reason why Dumbledore's wand is having issues? (To the person who figured it out immediately, nicely done!)