A/N: Finally. BATTLE OF ST. MUNGO'S. (The next few chapters will be gory. Just warning you.)
A/N #2: I really loved the Harry/Neville banter there, complete with super-awkward hug for apparition. There needs to be more awkward hugs in the story...
Fleur had expected to see horrors in war, particularly after the skirmishes in Diagon Alley that killed a dozen wizards and injured over a hundred. Some of them were still here, trying to recover as the Healers were still overrun and burned out from the Battle of Hogwarts. But that the Goblins have the Resurrection Stone?! Even with her hands on fire, there was an icy feeling in her gut she couldn't banish.
A popping sound hit her ears as Harry and Neville appeared in front of her. They had a sheepish grin on their face, even as Severus wanted to chastise them for coming even after being told not to.
"Severus," Narcissa cut in, attempting to stop the Potion Master's barbed tongue before it started, "You know telling Gryffindors to not do something would ensure that they do just that. Besides, Longbottom's parents are here."
"GINNY!" Harry shouted, torn between glee and horror. "What are you doing here?" Within a second, the two of them ran to each other and wrapped themselves in each other's arms as if there would be no tomorrow.
"I knew you'd come, so I came to protect you..." She said, lowering her voice as her lips were grazing his ear, "besides, we need to talk."
"If we are all done mollycoddling each other, I advise we face our foes with extreme prejudice." Severus' voice was full of business as he directed everyone back to the table. Even Neville's parents shuffled forward, their eyes shining with an eerie innocence that only children were supposed to have.
Alice Longbottom took out a candy wrapper and put it on the diagram of the floor plan of the underground morgue, tapping it smartly.
Neville, having expected this, simply nodded his thanks and took the wrapper into his pocket. "Um, thanks mum." He turned away from her to patiently explain what happened. "She does this a lot when I visit."
An exchange of meaningful glances went between Hermione and Narcissa, and the solemn nod they both did afterwards told the Veela exactly what they had agreed to. Fleur turned her lips to Severus' ear and whispered to him to make the same agreement.
"Severus, if I'm ever that far gone-" Severus' hand went up instinctively.
"-of course. I expect you do the same for me." Fleur nodded as she saw Hermione and her wife in a tight embrace.
Frank Longbottom's eyes held a slip of what, at one time, was the spark in his eyes that said he was aware as he looked on as the lesbian couple said their "I love you's" and he handed them a gum wrapper from his pocket. Narcissa's eyes laid upon him and held pity as she took the offered wrapper.
Hermione snatched it out of her hand as the words caught her attention.
"'Mione, it's just a used gum wrapper." Neville spoke sheepishly, embarassed at people knowing the state of his parents.
"Cissy, what's is supposed to say?" The Gryffindor's eyes were wide and full of panic.
"It's 'Drooble's Best Blowing Gum'. It's just trash." Narcissa's reply sounded a bit uncertain.
Hermione passed the wrapper off to Viktor. "Read it."
Viktor cleared his throat once in a thick cough. "It says, 'Gold Bribe Below St Mungo's'. What gold bribe do they speak of?"
Narcissa shook her head. "I wouldn't be surprised if it were something of my former husband's doing. But 'bribe' can also mean 'stolen goods', if you go by the middle english use of the word."
"Vat does that mean?" Voktor asked as everyone looked down as if they could see through the building.
"This entire attack is a diversion. The Goblins are stealing all of the Galleons from Gringott's." Severus sent a Patronus off to the Minister in warning, "but even as a diversion, we can wind up just as dead. There are three floors beneath us that need to be cleared of any hostile enemies as well as bystanders that need to be rescued. I'll take the second floor with the Grangers; Fleur, you and Krum clear the first floor. There shouldn't be many innocent to save, so cast first, think later. Harry, I'd like you and Neville to-"
A loud whistle pierced the air. "Snape, you're honestly going to leave me and Draco to sit up on the top floor and do what? Guard the trolley of crisps?" Ginny's eyes looked fierce. She wanted to fight, and be given her chance to prove herself.
Severus frowned, but relented. "Very well, I'll team up with you and Harry for the third floor. Draco, go with your mothers."
Harry winced at the phrasing of that. "That is so awkward to hear."
Draco bit his lip and tilted his head towards Ginny as his eyes were locked on Harry. Harry nodded his agreement while Ginny simply rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine, boys, I can take care of myself!"
Harry and Draco both frowned at that, as if they wanted to argue that point. Severus decided to ignore it and move on. "My team will sweep and clear the third floor, bringing survivors up here to go to the fifth. We will destroy all but one stairwell that leads down; I suggest that a different stairwell be used between the floor below and the one beneath that."
Fleur nodded her understanding. "Neville can join us for the first floor then. 'Mione, my team will send sparks up to alert you when we're coming up the stairwell. The last thing I want is 'friendly fire' like what happened at Hogwarts."
Hermione shuddered at that. "The first floor is going to be a blood bath; you three be careful, because there won't be many survivors for you to rescue." She thought about it for a second, and hit the button for the lift. "You three go down to the first floor through the lift system, then once you're on the first floor I'll barricade it and you make your way back up the north-east stairwell. My team will be clearing out the second floor while you're on the first."
Severus nodded to the plan. "My team will do the same for the third floor, and try to keep the southwest stairwell open. If we strike together, the enemy will be too overwhelmed to escape up here."
The Veela stowed her wand, preferring to have her hands ablaze: "Divide and conquer, I like it. I'll put up a fire-wall to keep the dead at bay if needed. We kill everything that is not a living wizard, even if it looks human. You in, Krum?"
He nodded. "These Goblins deserve death for this. Neville?"
Neville shuddered as he watched his parents get lead up the stairs by Gilderoy and the mediwitch. "My parents might be killed if I show the goblins any mercy. I won't make that mistake again."
Once the lift returned from the first floor, I found myself inside it with my wife and son-in-law, really wishing for any music to distract us for the moment. Not even four months since the Final Battle, and I'm facing down yet another attempt at genocide. Narcissa was busy reinforcing Draco's robes with defensive charms.
"You gave Ginny your robes." I turned to look at the exchange, feeling awkward to be involved in this. Why did he do that? Loyalty to Harry? Strengthening an alliance to stay out of Azkaban? It would be the Slytherin thing to do.
"Yes mother, she needs it more than I do. I'm not shabby with defensive magic, you know." Her eyes pierced his, and he purposefully refused eye contact.
"Anything you want to tell me?"
"Promised Harry I'd protect her. Promised her I'd protect Harry." In that case, I'd have done the same, I guess...
"You care for her." Narcissa didn't pose it as a question, and the look on his face was unreadable.
"I care for them both, mother. Despite whatever insinuations you wish to make, they are loads better as friends and allies than Crabbe and Goyle ever were." I winced at that; realizing that Crabbe killed himself while using Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement, and Draco had been there to witness it. Draco definitely has a point there, then. But something about this bothered me, and I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Is there something going on between you and my best friends?" I looked at him, and his eyes met mine for the briefest of moments. It's not a mark of guilt, just practice in avoiding Legilimancy.
"Nothing at all." As he said that, the lift stopped and the doors began to open to a soft dinging sound. Girding my courage, I held both wands out and stalked the second level. It reminded me of the Hospital Wing in Hogwarts, if I were having a nightmare, that is.
I walked between the beds with the Inferi moaning, their bodies writhing against the restraints as a few shambled out of their beds. As surreal as the moment was, I was moved at how all the eyes looked the same. It was as if there was only one consciousness looking out of every pair of eyes. Their master, whichever goblin raised them all with the Stone, could be watching me walk between the beds, re-binding the corpses whenever I could.
Looking back at Draco's lack of caution, I realized he didn't understand the full threat of what would happen when they all freed themselves. Not if, but when. "Any survivors, come towards the sound of my voice! We're here to rescue you!" As one, all the Inferi turned their heads toward me and tilted their heads slightly. It was fucking creepy. We had to be out of this room before they could get free.
Severus watched his life-long friend, Narcissa, go down the lift with her wife and son. Once he was certain that they were out of the lift, he forced the lift doors open and sent a hailstorm of hexes designed to warp and distort the walls of the lift shaft, rendering it useless. Godspeed, Cissy.
There was an uncomfortable tension between Harry and Ginny, and Severus realized that it could affect their ability to be his backup as they were about to go downstairs to the third floor. Looking down the hallway, he vanished the remains of Hermione's kill. It was horrific, yet brutally effective. No way was that going to rise and become an Inferi.
"So Ginny, what did you need to talk to me about?" Harry asked, face pensive. Ginny's eyes shifted between him and Severus.
"Um, now?" The former Death Eater sighed at that. If he had to play relationship counselor, he'd do it as quickly as possible.
"Don't let me stand in the way of... young love. I will just stand by as an army of the undead attempt to kill us all." Ginny frowned at the bait whereas Harry saw through it. The boy is learning. "Whatever it is, I suggest you two hash it out as quickly as possible so that you don't have it distracting your focus during combat... For all our sakes."
"So you're wearing Draco's robes." Harry seemed nervous, and Severus recognized the look of jealousy that James had back when he had been involved with Lily. The similarities are not lost upon me, either.
"Yeah, he wanted me to stay safe. Said he could get another set of tactical robes."
"This was after spending the night with him." Severus arched an eyebrow at that. Harry also a night with Draco as I recall.
"I uh, yeah. I did. But, you know, nothing happened." The Potions' Master's eyes took in Ginny and didn't need to use Legilimancy to realize she wasn't telling the truth. Neither did Harry. Well, now this is getting interesting, what did my Godson do?
"Nothing happened at all? This is Draco we're talking about." Harry's voice carried enough sarcasm to almost make Snape smile.
"Well, I fell asleep next to him, woke up fully dressed, and..."
"So you two didn't...?"
"No! He uh, likes you." Severus nearly choked on nothing at that revelation. How in blazes did I miss that?!
"Ginny, I know you. I can tell you're hiding something." Ginny looked like she was going to be sick.
"This morning, he flirted, I flirted, and we kind of got into a row." Harry shrugged at that, he knew the kind of guy Draco could be.
"Wait, you fought over what?"
"He uh... told me to come clean to you. There's definitely something between us, but he said he didn't want to sneak behind your back. Then he gave me his robes, and I uh... I kissed him." Severus realized he could be setting up jinxes to repel goblins and inferi. Yeah, I should do that. Do anything but keep listening in... As he turned away, he noticed the look of muted surprise on Harry's face. He wasn't too surprised, nor did he seem too jealous. It made the Slytherin pause.
"Oh. Well, you pretty much told me and him to snog a bit. I, uh, just haven't because... I didn't want to make you jealous." Ginny was on the verge of tears, and Harry was about to embrace her. I wonder what Narcissa would make of this...
"I'm sorry, Harry. You deserve a more loyal girlfriend. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, or make you jealous-"
"-was he any good?" WHAT?! Ginny seemed to be channeling Severus...
"What?"
"Draco. I'm... curious." Ginny bit her lip in a way that unnerved Severus. It was too reminiscent of Lily.
"Well, I um, initiated it and he was... taken by surprise. Soft lips, didn't try to eat my face like Michael Co... that doesn't matter."
"I don't want to lose you, though." Harry said, seemingly scared at the prospect. It was obvious that he wouldn't.
"Nor do I, Harry. Can we just... not choose?" Severus rolled his eyes at that. Hurry it up, we have people who need saving... He was tempted to interrupt them as he finished putting up tripping jinxes.
"As in, we both 'date' him?" Harry asked, and Severus had enough.
"Merlin's crooked wand, you both fancy my Godson, and you both fancy each other. He apparently wants to snog both of you, and for the sake of my sanity, just agree to a menage a trois for now so we can focus on the fact that we are under attack by goblins and Inferi alike."
Both Harry and Ginny turned to face Severus, horror etched on their faces. "I thought I cast Muffliato!" Harry said in shock.
"That was a spell of my creation, Potter. Now, tell me you two are done speaking about my godson. My ears were bleeding." Severus said flatly. "Now, shall we go make the Goblins meet their fate?"
Fleur's nose scented stagnant water and blood as they went down the lift. Viktor had his wand out, and Neville rolled his head, letting his neck crack to diffuse the tension.
"There's flooding in the morgue. I can smell it." Fleur said dryly.
Neville nodded, a bit too much. "That should seal off any Goblin reinforcements, and keep the entire morgue from rising, right?" He glanced to the former triwizard champions, and his face fell at that.
"No, I don't think the Inferi would mind a little bit of water..." Fleur said, shuddering at the horrors they were about to delve into.
The lift they were in had been a quiet corner of hell. Now it was just as silent, but this new corner of hell was the center of an oncoming storm. The lift doors dinged and opened, alerting Goblins and Inferi alike that some fresh meat had just become available. A skinless hand snatched at Fleur. Viktor slashed at it with his wand using a cutting curse. The hand bled and jerked back. They could feel pain. They bled. Good.
Fleur had hands raised to lob a fireball as the corpse came at her again. Neville blocked the Veela's shot. "They're people!"
Fleur looked at him, then back at that raw thing that was held back by one magical wrist restraint. Viktor was doing his best at using Relashio, but the Inferi was willing to break its own arms in order to attack. It launched at the trio again, slashing the air with one bloody hand, screaming wordlessly, as the other arm flopped uselessly as it was torn at the elbow and white bone was protruding through the torn ruin of skin.
"Just stay out of reach," the new Auror said as he pulled the blonde past it.
Fleur had time to say, "They're corpses, Neville, just corpses."
He poked the body with a metal pipe, perhaps broken from the plumbing overhead to keep it at arms' length. "Don't kill them. They used to be people not even an hour ago." He moved into the fight, though it wasn't a fight yet. Most of the corpses were still in their beds. The dead-turned-undead patients struggled, jerking their ruined flesh to tear into bloodier ruin in an attempt to remember how to get up; bucking as they thrashed to right themselves.
A medi-witch was beating at the head of one patient with a copper bed pan. It had sunk teeth into her arm so deeply that she couldn't free himself. Narcissa was instantly on the attacker, casting a banishing charm with her wand like you'd pitch a softball. There was the sound of a soft, melon-like thunk of the bed pan's impact as the body flew away that could be heard even over the witch's screaming.
Neville and Krum were at the last bed near the windows. The black medi-wizard was embraced by an inferi that had one hand and one ankle magically bound to her bed. I shouldn't think of it as a her anymore; that dead thing is an 'it'. Its mouth was buried deep into the man's chest. Blood covered the pair like someone had spilled a can of red paint over them. Where the thing was gnawing shouldn't have killed the man, but there was too much blood. It had reached some sort of pulse-point.
Neville was casting knockback jinxes at the thing's head so hard that his arm was getting tired as if he were a beater in Quidditch. The corpse's head was bleeding, cracking, but it wasn't letting go. Its head was buried into his chest like a monstrous child, feeding. Inferi aren't supposed to want to eat, only shamble around and sometimes take a swing at you. The Goblins raised them as bloodthirty and hungry as they were.
"They are only supposed to be animated corpses…" He mumbled in shock to Viktor.
Krum's face was grim with determination, his wand-tip glowing bright yellow as he used it like a dagger stabbing the corpse in the back over and over. The wand came out free in a spray of blood, but it didn't matter. The inferi by the door had reacted to pain, but once they started killing or… feeding, they were just reanimated corpses following orders. You couldn't hurt the dead, and you sure as hell couldn't kill it.
"Fleur! We're going to need to try harder to kill these!"
