If you read Chapter 15 soon after I first posted it (19th through 22nd January 2020), go back and look at Chapter 15 again. On 22nd January, I took down the chapter and posted a new version that was 50 percent bigger. The extra text relates to Dolores Umbridge's criminal trial.

As a fan-fiction writer, I truly love JKR's invention of Felix felicis ("Liquid Luck") potion. The effects last only an hour; but during that hour, I the writer am exempt from the ancient "No deus ex machina" rule.

A syndicated television show of the 1990s, popular in all English-speaking countries, was Xena: Warrior Princess. The show ran from 1995 to 2001.

Chapter 16
Bellatrix v. Tonksatrix

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Wizarding Britain
Still Saturday, 20th July

Owls delivered to subscribers, copies of this morning's Daily Prophet. Two of the subscribers were Lucius Malfoy and Albus Dumbledore. Voldemort promptly "borrowed" Lucius's copy of the wizarding newspaper before the blond-haired man had a chance to read it.

The big news that was reported was about Umbridge's and Fudge's trials in the Wizengamot, the "one-minute trial" of Harry Potter for the crime of casting an Unforgivable at Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry's and Hermione's verbal clash with Rita Skeeter after the trials and the Golden Duo's improvised press conference afterwards.

Voldemort was annoyed that Fudge had been sent to Azkaban, because after Fudge's release, Mr Green Bowler would never again be trusted with an important office. What's the use of having a bribable official if he's so far down the pecking order that he can't do anything important after he's bribed?

Voldemort was even more annoyed at the execution of Dolores Umbridge—a Pureblood Supremacist with an immoral heart, yet not a marked Death Eater, who was highly placed in the Ministry. Umbridge was the perfect person to carry out Voldemort's wishes after he took over the Ministry. But sod it all, now this part of Voldemort's plan had been burnt to ashes.

Voldemort was disappointed that Harry Potter had not named his second betrothed yet. How could Voldemort make plans to kidnap Potter's second betrothed if he did not know the girl's name or where she lived?

(Harry Potter's second betrothed was not Susan Bones. This young Pureblood heiress was quoted in the Prophet as saying that Harry Potter had not contacted her to discuss marriage.)

Dumbledore mourned that Umbridge had been killed by Kiss, rather than thrown into Azkaban where she would have the time to repent of her evils. Dumbledore thought that Fudge's sentence was fair.

Dumbledore thought that Harry Potter should have been fined and briefly imprisoned for attempting to Crucio Bellatrix Lestrange. Albus's "We should forgive and forget" philosophy never had applied to Harry Potter, and never would, but Albus did not see the unfairness of his attitude.

Albus was furious about what the Daily Prophet had written about him, Albus Dumbledore, the Leader of the Light—

"During Umbridge's trial, it was clear, though puzzling, that Harry Potter scorned Albus Dumbledore. After the trial, Harry Potter informed the public why he scorned Albus Dumbledore. Now we scorn Dumbledore too. The 'Leader of the Light' is a child abuser by proxy, and a thief."

After reading this, Dumbledore was more determined than ever to get his hands on Harry and to bend the boy to Albus's will. The longbeard's plan still was that he would send Harry out to battle Voldemort and to die, followed by Dumbledore rushing in, defeating the now-exhausted Dark Lord and being proclaimed a hero (again)—and the headmaster refused to accept the lightning-bolt-scarred teen thwarting Albus's plan for eternal glory.

Tonks owled Harry to write, "I now can both look like, and talk like, Aunt Bella."

Harry immediately sent away Dobby to deliver a message to Tonks: "If you're off work, go into work just long enough to grab your service pistol and to bring it home. If you're at work now, take your service pistol with you when you finish your shift. As soon as both you and your service pistol are at home, call for Dobby. He has two things to give you."

The next morning (Sunday, 21st July)

After Bill finished upgrading the wards on Potter Manor, he removed the wards on the wooden box, whilst Harry wrote a letter to Gringotts. Included in the letter were 1) an authorisation for 170 galleons and three knuts to be transferred from the Potter family vault to Bill's vault; 2) Harry's statement that the special project for which he had hired Bill, was complete; thus Gringotts was free to rehire Bill without compromising the goblins' neutrality.

As Harry handed the letter to Bill, he said, "One hundred seventy galleons sounds like a lot of money, but for what I learnt because of your work, the money is a bloody steal!"

An hour later, at Potter Manor

In the book-letter that elderly Harry had written to young Harry, amongst the things written down was a list of Parseltongue spells. One of them was §Point to Parsel§, which gave the distance in feet to where a Parseltongue spell had just been cast, and which created a floating green arrow that pointed towards the origin of the Parseltongue spell.

Alas, Harry had already discovered that when he tried to locate a just-cast Parseltongue spell that had been cast someplace under a Fidelius charm, Harry got invalid variations in the distance and bearing. When he sampled some of those vectors and tried to plot them on a map of Great Britain, the results were useless. One of his black dots on the map claimed that a Parseltongue spell had been cast in the North Sea.

But this morning, something different happened. Fifteen Parseltongue spells were cast behind a Fidelius charm; but suddenly all fifteen spells were mappable, and all fifteen spells were moving together.

Harry watched the fifteen Parseltongue spells—which by now Harry had figured out, caused black-smoke flying—move to London's Diagon Alley, then end.

Fifteen Death Eaters had just made a surprise attack on Diagon Alley. Harry thought, This time, it'll be they who get the surprise.

Harry summoned Dobby, and gave him messages to be quickly delivered, to Tonks and to the Weasley twins.

Harry's message to Tonks ended with "...Don't forget the 9-millimeter silver bullets and the Felix felicis potion."

(The Liquid Luck potion had been brewed in France and had been purchased in France by Fleur Delacour, with galleons out of Harry's vault. Nobody in Wizarding Britain knew that Harry had a vial of this potion, and nobody in Wizarding Britain knew that Harry had given the potion-vial to Tonks.)

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Wizarding Britain

When newly-minted Aurors Second Class graduate from the Auror Academy, each new Auror is issued a convincing-fake police or constable badge for some British city, and each is offered a service pistol to carry (provided the Auror buys a holster for the pistol).

Almost all new Aurors decline the offered handgun; many, in fact, feel insulted by the offer—"Are you saying my wandwork isn't good enough to put down a Dark Wizard?"

But rookie Auror Don't-Call-Me-Nymphadora Tonks had accepted the offered pistol and, once a month thereafter during her Auror career, had taken her pistol to the Hit Wizards' firing range.

Why do the DMLE Hit Wizards have a firing range? Because each Hit Wizard is required to carry and to maintain a service pistol, and to be an Exceeds Expectations shot with his pistol. The reason for this rule is a simple one: Whilst a cast spell moves faster than a running man, a bullet moves fifty-six times as fast as a spell.

So for several years now, Tonks once a month had taken her pistol to the Hit Wizards' firing range. Nowadays Tonks was merely an Acceptable-level shooter; but on the other hand, the Auror Corps did not require her to be even a Dreadful-level shooter. Tonks had improved noticeably since her first time on the firing range; she felt content with this.

When Dobby appeared in front of Tonks, she was in her flat in Muggle London. Hurriedly Tonks metamorphed herself to look like Aunt Bella, transfigured her Muggle clothes to look like Aunt Bella's distinctive black robes, then ran into her bedroom. She pulled her service pistol out from under her pillow, and hurried to swap out the gun's regular bullets for silver bullets. Once this was done, Tonks set the safety switch on the pistol, shoved the pistol into a pocket of her black robes, then gulped down the entire Felix felicis potion.

Tonks looked into her bedroom's full-length mirror; Bellatrix Lestrange looked back. Tonks giggled her aunt's giggle, then said with her aunt's voice, "Ooh, we are about to have fun."

Tonksatrix waited till the Liquid Luck potion's effects hit her brain, making her feel invincible; then she Apparated to Diagon Alley.

Meanwhile, in Diagon Alley, London

Harry and Dobby appeared in front of two Death Eaters who were dragging a Muggle-dressed girl towards an alley. Harry yelled at Dobby, "Save the child!"

Harry thought, Let's see whether the—

"It's Pot—!" a tall, thin Death Eater yelled. Harry's spell beheaded him.

—prophecy's words, "Either must die at the hand of the other," mean—

A different Death Eater pointed his wand at Harry and yelled, "Avada Kedavra!" Harry sidestepped the green spell, then exploded his would-be killer's chest.

—what I think those words mean.

Seemingly from nowhere came a clang sound near Harry. The sound was quiet enough that only a few people could have heard the sound; only Harry and the Weasley twins knew what the sound meant.

Bang! A pause. Bang! Harry heard two gunshots from ahead, close nearby.

The Death Eaters froze, shocked at the distinctive sound of a Muggle firearm in their midst. Harry was merely surprised, not shocked, so recovered faster. In the next second, Harry dropped another Death Eater.

Then Harry found himself facing an unmasked woman in black. Between the woman's curly wand and her evil grin, Harry was sure that he was facing Bellatrix, not Tonksatrix.

Bellatrix alternated between looking at Harry in front of her and something behind her.

Seconds earlier, elsewhere in Diagon Alley

Pop. Tonks-as-Bellatrix appeared close to the group of Death Eaters; but by amazing luck, all of the masked and black-robed men had their backs to her. The sounds of spellfire and masked bigots yelling, covered up the sound of Tonksatrix's Apparating into Diagon Alley.

But two Death Eaters, if they were here, would not be wearing masks: Fenrir Greyback and (the genuine) Bellatrix Lestrange. Tonksatrix's assignment was to eliminate one or both of them.

Tonksatrix ran forwards, past the cannon-fodder Death Eaters, and ran around a corner. She came face to face with Fenrir Greyback. Each of his powerful hands was gripping the arm of a crying child. Seeing the woman he clearly thought was Bellatrix, Fenrir grinned a sexy smile.

"Oiii, Fenrir," said Tonksatrix, smiling back, "I've a message for you."

Tonksatrix kept the smile as she pulled out her pistol and thumbed off the safety. "The message is, 'Go to hell.' "

Bang went the pistol at point-blank range, right into Fenrir's chest. He gasped loudly as he dropped. Whilst he still was falling, before he hit the ground, Tonksatrix—bang—silver-bulleted the big man in the forehead.

The two children pulled themselves free of the dead werewolf's grip and ran away.

Meanwhile, a shocked male voice said, "Bella just shot Greyback!"

A different male voice snarled, "That isn't Bella, that's Polyjuice!" But before his wand killed Tonksatrix, her wand put an overpowered piercing hex into his centre of mass.

Then suddenly the Death Eaters went quiet and still. A baby-talk woman's voice broke the quiet: "Ooh, Harry Potter in front of me, and my goody-goody niece behind me. Decisions, decisions."

Tonksatrix looked over at the source of the voice. Aunt Bella was giving her a goofy smile, but the madwoman's eyes were deadly.

Though Aunt Bella's upper body was facing her niece, her lower body was facing sideways to both Tonksatrix and Harry Potter. Bellatrix's right foot pointed towards Tonksatrix, and the madwoman's left foot pointed towards the left and was planted just in front of her right foot.

The entire strange stance was a dancer's pose; the main reason that Aunt Bella had not been killed before now was that in duels, the madwoman had the moves of an evil ballerina.

At the moment, Bellatrix had twisted her hips so that her upper body was facing her niece. But, Tonksatrix knew, it would take Aunt Bella less than a second to be facing Harry Potter, because Bellatrix would not waste time moving her feet; Bellatrix need only twist her hips in the other direction.

Now Tonksatrix intended to face Aunt Bella and to duel her. But the young metamorphmagus tripped and fell whilst moving her feet.

Two green spells passed overhead, at the space where Tonksatrix's head would have been if she had not tripped. One of those AK spells, the young metamorphmagus was certain, had been sent by her evil aunt.

Tonksatrix had a pistol in her left hand and her personal wand in her right hand. She put out her wand-grasping right fist to stop her fall—

The plan failed, because Tonksatrix's right arm lacked the upper-body strength she needed now. Tonksatrix's upper body was not prevented from hitting the ground, her upper body merely hit the ground at a slower speed, and her body spun as it fell that last one and a half feet. Tonksatrix's left hip, left shoulder and left elbow hit the ground.

Tonksatrix's left hand still held the pistol. When her left elbow hit the ground, the pistol—bang—fired. The metamorphmagus Auror could not begin to guess where the silver bullet had gone.

Tonksatrix was mortified with embarrassment—she hated stumbling and tripping—and frightened for her life. She figured that, even with the supposed help of Felix felicis, she had maybe five seconds to live.

She did not take the time to see where her wand was pointed, but yelled "Diffindo!", shoving her magic into her wand. If she was about to die, she would make damned sure that her Severing Charm would take one of the tossers with her!

A Death Eater's wand-arm was parted from his body; blood began spurting sideways as the man screamed. Tonksatrix's Reducto removed all thoughts of mortal terror from the man's head by destroying his head.

As Tonksatrix hurried to stand, she wondered, Why hasn't Aunt Bella AK'd me in the back?

Bellatrix Lestrange somehow managed to sidestep every one of Harry's deadly spells, even when she was looking elsewhere than at him (like right now). Harry was annoyed. But then, Harry dodged all of Bellatrix's spells, so they were even.

Beyond the real Bellatrix, a woman who looked like Bellatrix's twin, tripped and was falling down. Harry thought, Tonks is in danger, and I can't help her!

Bellatrix twisted her upper body so that she again was facing Harry. She smirked as she said, "Clumsy Nymmie!"

Bang.

Bellatrix's forehead exploded. Without Bellatrix's eyes shifting direction or her facial expression changing, she silently collapsed limp on the pavement.

Thanks to the Liquid Luck potion that Tonksatrix had drunk, Harry saw her manage to stand up without being hit by Death Eaters' deadly spells.

As she stood, Tonksatrix giggled her mad aunt's giggle and said in her mad aunt's voice, "Poor ickle Deathies. You lot keep shooting spells at me and missing. Ooh, it's my lucky day. But I"—bang—"don't miss."

Harry, meanwhile, was taking full advantage of the part of the prophecy that hinted that nobody could kill him before Voldemort got his chance.

The last Death Eater alive did something unexpectedly courageous. Though he was limping from broken bones, he lunged forward, slapped a rope against Bellatrix's corpse, and said "Purity!" Both he and dead Bellatrix were portkeyed away.

This ended the battle.

Fifteen rampaging Death Eaters, expecting to face only frightened witches and wizards in Diagon Alley, plus maybe Aurors firing stunners, instead faced deadly Harry Potter and deadly Tonksatrix. Only the one Death Eater portkeyed away, fourteen Death Eaters died (including Fenrir Greyback and Bellatrix Lestrange), and neither Harry nor Tonksatrix suffered so much as a scratch.

The Aurors still had not shown up when Tonks (who now looked like herself again, pink hair and all) and Harry removed the masks from Death Eater corpses. Dead and unmasked were Rodolphus Lestrange and Draco Malfoy.

Dead Fenrir Greyback, it turned out, had been shot in the heart and shot in the forehead.

George and Fred Weasley Disillusioned themselves beside Harry. They each were holding something that looked vaguely gun-shaped, except the barrel was not much bigger around then a nail.

George said to Harry, "We shot all the wankers with the Parselmagic sand trackers—"

Fred now: "—but then you two killed most of them—"

"—which is a right waste of our valuable time, if you ask me."

Fred again: "Still, I did tag the Death Muncher bloke who got away—"

"—while I tagged sweet, kind Bella—"

"—so we're still 'on track,' so to speak," said Fred.

All in all, Harry decided, it was a good day for the good guys, and a bad day for Voldy and his minions.

Fifteen minutes later, back at Potter Manor

Young Harry discovered that elderly Harry, in his writeups of various Parselmagic spells, had not mentioned (or had not known) one important fact—

If you put a Parselmagic tracking charm on a grain of sand, then you send the grain of sand to someplace that is under a Fidelius charm, the pointed-to "location" that you get, constantly shifts, and varies by up to ten miles.

Fortunately for Harry, if he knew that an active Fidelius charm was within ten miles of a certain point on a map, he knew exactly how to locate that Fidelius charm (if the Fidelius charm were not dome-shaped).

Sunday afternoon, 21st July

Harry was flying 1,001 feet above the ground, headed towards the general location of Malfoy Manor, and Harry was the most frightened he had ever felt in his life.

For one thing, Harry was about a fifth of a mile above the ground. If he fell off his broom—or was knocked off his broom—Harry would have between seven and eight seconds to improvise a magical self-rescue before he hit the ground. If Harry did hit the ground, the sure result would be instant death.

What also frightened Harry now was the danger of Harry on his broom running into invisible Malfoy Manor wards. Harry was ninety-six feet above the top of Potter Manor's wards-wall, but he had no way of guessing how high up Malfoy Manor's wards-wall went. Harry was sure that if he bumped into the Malfoy Manor wards-wall with hostile intent, the result would be "a most painful death."

Thirdly, Harry was frightened because he faced the danger that if he could achieve hovering above Malfoy Manor on a broom, he might then be attacked by Death Eaters on brooms because Harry's Disillusionment Charm wasn't as invisible as he thought it was. If Harry had to fight as one against many, he would have no hope if the air above Malfoy Manor was the site of an aerial dogfight on brooms.

To distract himself now, Harry made his magic two-way-radio headset call Potter Manor. Then Harry spoke in a code that only magicals could hear (because his "radio" worked by magic), but Pureblood magicals never would understand the conversation—

"Gabrielle, hello Gabrielle, are you there? It's Joxer." Harry Potter calling Base. Come in, Base.

Seconds later, Harry heard Hermione's voice: "Hello Joxer, this is Gabrielle. What are you up to?" Hello Harry Potter, this is Base.

"I'm looking for Xena. I want to give her a hug." I'm still searching for Malfoy Manor.

"Erm, Joxer, I don't think Xena wants a hug from you. She might slice you with her chakram." Meaning, the people in Malfoy Manor won't like you locating them. They will get violent if they detect you.

"I'll be careful, Gabrielle."

A few minutes later, Hermione said to Harry by magic two-way radio, "Something tells me you're near Xena. Look for her riding her horse Argo. I think she'll stay there till 12:30." You've entered the ten-mile-diameter "Circle of somewhere" on the map that is caused when a Parselmagic tracking charm goes someplace that is inside a Fidelius charm. The centre of the ten-mile circle is 15 degrees to the right of straight ahead.

Harry said, "Gotcha." I acknowledge I'm at the edge of the circle, and will begin to search for Malfoy Manor within the circle.

It was difficult for Harry to say those words calmly. He was scared now.

Harry turned his broom to the right by 105 degrees and began his aerial-lawn-mowing find-Fidelius trick.

Minutes later

Harry was motionless in all six directions. He was so happy, he wanted to sing. I'm alive, and it looks like I'll stay alive!

But Harry did not sing aloud; instead, he said into his headset, "Oi, Gabrielle, I just hugged Xena." I am above two tracker-charmed grains of sand, with no Fidelius Charm hiding the trackers' exact location. Which in turn means I am above Malfoy Manor, which now I can see, and now I am above and inside the Malfoy Manor cylindrical wards-wall.

Hermione replied, "Xena let you hug her? Oh my, this is something I need to record in my scroll. Let me find my quill." I acknowledge you floating above Malfoy Manor. I will try to plot your current location on a map of Great Britain.

Harry was dreading that Hermione would say next, "My quill got snapped in my saddlebag" (I was unable to map your location). Instead, after a time of silence, Hermione said, "It's all written down in my neatest cursive." Your current location is mapped.

Then Hermione asked, her voice worried, "Is Ares in sight?" Is anyone flying out of Malfoy Manor with plans to kill you in battle?

Harry grinned. "Nope, no sign of Ares at all." I see no sign that anyone in Malfoy Manor knows I'm here.

Then Harry said, "Gabrielle, I think I'll head back to camp now so I can tell you all about hugging Xena." I'm headed back to Base.

Hermione said, "I look forward to hearing your tale, Joxer." Then Hermione's voice got mischievous: "By the way, Aphrodite says hello."

Harry heard Daphne's voice yell, "What?"

Harry was grinning like a loon, because he had just accomplished a dangerous mission; so he felt in the mood for making a joke. He said over the magic radio, "You'd let me know, wouldn't you, Gabrielle, if you and Aphrodite had subtext, right?" You'd let me know, wouldn't you, Hermione, if you and Daphne felt lesbian attraction for each other?

When Harry returned to Potter Manor, both Hermione and Daphne hugged him as if he were a returning spy-aeroplane pilot. Both girls also snogged him mightily.

"So," Hermione said, "tomorrow, or Tuesday at the latest, you'll fly over Malfoy Manor and kill the Dark Lord, right?"

"I could," Harry agreed, "but that's not what I'm planning. I plan not merely to kill the Dark Lord, I plan to vanquish him. And I'm going to need mystique for the vanquishing, but it'll take me a little bit to set up the mystique."

Daphne beamed at Harry.

Hermione said, "Erm, I'm lost."

Harry smiled at both girls. "I'm borrowing ideas from both of you. Hermione, you're a planner; well, I've made a plan for Voldy and Dumbles, and I'm carrying out this plan. But Daphne suggested I build up a mystique by being theatrical; and becoming theatrical, and gaining mystique by the time I face Voldy, is another part of my plan."

Harry smiled in reassurance. "You watch, you two. By the time I turn sixteen on 31st July, both Voldy and Dumbles will be yesterday's news."