Chapter 23: Nighttime Rescue
Shortly before ten o'clock, Harry finished his detention with Professor McGonagall.
He immediately went to the Gryffindor dormitory, where he pretended to go to sleep. Thankfully, his dormmates were not far behind.
At half past eleven, he quietly climbed out of his bed, pausing to cast a sleeping spell on the other boys just in case. He carefully filled a bowl with blood and placed his necklace in it. Then he snuck out of the dorm, broom in hand. Five minutes later, he was speeding across the grounds, headed for the ward line.
Harry arrived at the small, brick building at a quarter to twelve and was pleased to see that Peter was already there, waiting. He explained what he had learned from Umbridge.
By one in the morning, the whole team had gathered in the conference room.
"I don't mean to be rude, Peter, but didn't you check all of the arrests and convictions? How did you miss this?" Michelle asked.
If Peter was irritated by the question, he gave no sign. "All I was looking at was the criminal court cases – like you said, the actual arrests and convictions. These people weren't convicted of crimes, they were sued. Civil lawsuits are not subject to as much scrutiny, giving Umbridge the freedom to act with a much lower chance of being discovered."
"How do people wind up in Azkaban if they were sued?" Chad wondered.
"Debtor's prison," Dan replied.
"You guys still have that?" The disbelief in the American's voice was obvious.
Dan nodded. "I know in the non-magical world, it's considered barbaric, but, yes, the magical world does imprison people for failure to pay debts. There is some justification for it, but I'm not going to try to argue the pros and cons; at this point, it really doesn't matter."
Harry nodded. "Like Dan said, right now, we're not discussing the policy of debtor's prison. We'll put that on the list of things to examine at some future date. But we've got people who are in horrible situations – Azkaban or even worse, and we need to figure out how to rescue them."
"You've given us a general idea of what we're facing," Malcolm noted. "Can we get specifics? How many people? What's their situation?"
"I suspect that the easiest for us to deal with, and, in all likelihood, the least critical are three instances of people losing their businesses. They started companies competing with existing businesses. Due to the incredible amount of overhead in the existing businesses caused by family members or friends being given a supervisory position as a sinecure without being expected to do much work, the new businesses were able to offer products or services of equivalent quality at a much lower price. Rather than find ways to make their operations more efficient, the owners of the existing companies filed a suit with the Ministry."
Both Michelle and Connor were taking notes, matching frowns on their faces as they looked up. "There's no legal monopolies in magical Britain, right?" Connor asked, looking over at Dan, who shook his head. "So, what was the basis for the claim?"
"Supposedly, the competitors were using proprietary charms that had been patented," Harry said tersely.
"Surely they would have had to provide some evidence of that," Malcolm objected.
"I would assume so, but I don't know. Of course, with magic, it wouldn't be too difficult to fake something," Harry pointed out. "I do know that, if arbitration fails, civil cases are heard by a panel of three Wizengamot elders. Unfortunately, these elders are selected by the head of the Department of Magical Litigation, a position that Umbridge held for more than a decade."
"Giving her ample time to find like-minded elders who would be willing to go along with her schemes," Michelle realized.
"Exactly," Harry agreed.
"What about appeals?" Connor asked.
This time, it was Peter who had the answer. "Prior to 1983, there was a central office that handled all appeals and complaints related to Ministry actions. However, that was eventually determined to be an inadequate method of dealing with the problem, so the Ministry dissolved that department and instead relied upon each department to handle its own complaints. As I understand it, there should have been someone else in the department keeping an eye on things, but they could have been in on the scheme with her, or bribed, or blackmailed, or just too old or lazy to do their job properly. We'll look into it, but it doesn't matter now."
"Let's get back on topic," Mac growled. "Three people lost their businesses."
"Right," Harry said, nodding in acknowledgment to the old auror. "I don't think that they suffered any further punishment, but we need to double check that. I don't want things to fall through the cracks."
"I should be able to look that up," Tonks offered.
"Thanks, but be careful. I erased Umbridge's memory of the interrogation. We don't want anyone to find out we're looking into it until we know how to respond," Harry cautioned the metamorph.
The young Gryffindor took a moment to gather his thoughts. "The other people who ran afoul of Umbridge were thrown in Azkaban. The story is the same in each case. A rich, bigoted pureblood filed a lawsuit alleging that a muggleborn destroyed a priceless family heirloom. Given the incredibly high value that is typically placed on old, enchanted artifacts, and the Ministry's limits regarding exchanging non-magical currency for magical, it was almost certainly impossible for the individual in question to pay the amount ordered. Given their failure to make proper restitution as decreed by the litigation bench, the muggleborn was sent to Azkaban."
"How many people?" Chad asked, his voice flat.
"Nine," Harry responded heavily before continuing. "Though I don't know how many are still alive. As we've learned, Azkaban doesn't have a good track record regarding inmate health and welfare. In most cases, getting the victim falsely imprisoned seems to have been Umbridge's end goal, however, there were two exceptions."
Harry rubbed his forehead in irritation. "The veritaserum was starting to run out, so I wasn't able to question Umbridge as much about this part, but apparently, Ministry policy when imprisoning someone for failure to pay a lawful debt is that arrangements can be made for the debtor to be released into the custody of a private individual. Said individual buys the debt, and the debtor is required to work for this person or company for a set length of time – indentured servitude, basically one small step from slavery. During that period, the employer has almost complete control over the debtor, taking most if not all of the wages he or she should be paid. This is supposed to be voluntary, but Umbridge arranged for two individuals to be forced into this work release program."
"Shouldn't that be better than Azkaban?" Michelle inquired. "The way you explained that, it's like you think they would have preferred prison."
Harry made no attempt to hide the anger and disgust in his voice as he answered. "The two individuals are women. They are being forced to work at the White Dahlia, a brothel in Knockturn Alley owned by Agamemnon Nott."
Silence followed this declaration.
"Are you saying that Umbridge used the corruption in the government to force women into sexual slavery?" Mac's voice was little more than a whisper, but there was no mistaking the dangerous edge of barely contained rage.
"Yes," Harry said simply.
"That's the reason we called you all here tonight," Peter explained. "Getting people out of Azkaban will be difficult. We'll need to approach things carefully to ensure the Ministry doesn't just kill them like they did with Sirius Black. But those women in the White Dahlia need to be rescued immediately."
"We're talking a full-on Hollywood-style rescue, right?" Chad asked. "Go in there guns a-blazing?"
"Unless someone else has a better option," Harry confirmed. "We're not going to let this go on any longer. To be honest, so long as we don't get caught and no innocents get caught in the crossfire, I'd be perfectly happy to burn the place to the ground." He was pleased to see that everyone in the room appeared to be in agreement. This was certainly a large step beyond what they had all signed up for, but there didn't seem to be any hesitation.
"Could we break the people out of Azkaban?" Connor wondered.
Tonks winced. "I would really, really recommend you not try. I don't know much about Azkaban's defenses, but what I do know is enough. You'd need months of prep work with a very skilled team to get through those wards, then you'd have to fight the on-duty Aurors. The prison itself is designed to give the defenders every advantage, and that's not even considering the dementors."
Harry scowled at the mention of the demonic guards of the wizard prison. To his great frustration, he still couldn't cast a patronus, despite having practiced for literally hundreds of hours. Of course, this wasn't the time to focus on that.
Mac stood up, his jaw so tight Harry almost thought he could hear the teeth grinding. "Best to attack it at night, after the customers have left," the bear-like man growled. "We'll need firsthand reconnaissance. I'll go start now. You keep talking. I'll be back in a few hours."
Harry watched the man go. Normally, the former Auror was fairly calm. Now, however, it was clear that he was just barely able to keep his fury under control.
"Mac, one question before you leave. Do you think the people you've recruited for DragonFire can be trusted to help us?" Peter asked quickly.
The old man nodded. "They've all submitted to questioning under veritaserum. None of them have any great love for the Ministry or any sort of blood bias. I made sure of that." He vanished through the doorway.
"Then I guess this will be DragonFire's first official operation," Harry remarked thoughtfully. "Certainly not what I had ever envisioned," he added softly.
Harry could barely concentrate in class that day. He knew the rest of the team was working frantically, gathering information and making plans. And he was stuck listening to a ghost drone on about goblin wars. It was infuriating.
The worst part was when it was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts. He had never been so glad for the boring textbook they were required to read, for it meant that he didn't have to look at the despicable excuse for a human being that pretended to be a teacher. He doubted that he would be able to keep from attacking her if he had been forced to look at the evil smirk on her face, knowing what she had done.
Finally, classes finished, and Harry rushed up to the dorm room, claiming he just wanted to put his carry-all binder away. Checking the message book, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as he saw a brief update from Peter.
Mac says clients gone by 2.
Attack will start at 3.
For the second night in a row, Harry snuck out of Hogwarts. This time, however, when he arrived at the 'Magical Solutions' office, the place was a bustle of activity. In just twenty-four hours, it had been transformed into a veritable command center, with pictures, building blueprints and diagrams crowding the walls.
Several men in all black, presumably the DragonFire soldiers Mac had recruited, were holding a quiet discussion in one office, while in another room, Chad could be seen showing a small, gun-like object to two women in traditional healer robes. Harry was surprised to see that one of them was Isobel Caron, the French healer who had examined him over the summer. In Michelle's office, she and Tonks were involved in a deep discussion over a pile of paperwork.
"Harry, step in here for a minute," Peter requested, motioning to his office.
Slightly confused, Harry did so, a small expression of surprise crossing his face when Peter shut the door.
The older man walked around the desk and sat down, looking grave. "I thought I should give you a heads up before you talk to Mac. He wants you to participate in the attack."
"Don't I still have the trace on me?" Harry asked, shocked. "That would warn the Ministry as soon as we started."
"According to him, they don't monitor the major wizarding locations. Too many false positives. And the team is hoping not to use any wand-magic at all."
Harry frowned. "How would that work?"
"Chad came up with some… tools," Peter responded. "I'll let him tell you more about them."
"Why does he want me to come along? I still think I would be a liability."
The blond man shrugged. "What he said is that he thinks it would be good for you to get some real experience. I have to admit, I wonder if there's more to it than that, but I don't know what it would be."
Harry stared out the window at the darkness, thinking deeply. "I'll talk with him," the teenager finally decided. "Assuming he has a good argument, I'll go along."
"Okay," Peter said, his voice betraying no indication of his thoughts on the matter. "How are you holding up?"
"Holding up with what?" Harry asked, confused.
"With the fact that you now know who's trying to kill you," Peter replied calmly. "We didn't talk about it last night because we got distracted with more time-sensitive issues, but that's not a small thing."
"I think I already knew. There was just something about her," Harry said, deliberately keeping his voice casual. "At least Umbridge said that she told her pet assassin not to target me anymore, so I don't have to worry about any more attacks for a while. That's nice." In truth, he was a bit more concerned than he let on, but he just didn't have time to dwell on that now.
"To be honest, I'm worried about what else she has planned," Peter admitted, his face tense. "She doesn't strike me as the type of person to just give up."
"No, she's not," Harry agreed, "but she doesn't know that her time is limited. The prison should be finished in a few weeks, then we'll need time to get the prisoners transferred and question them. We should be ready for our big checkmate move before school is out. I doubt she's going to try anything before then. After all, a big part of the Ministry's propaganda about the success of the High Inquisitor position is how much safer the school is now. It wouldn't look good for her if something happened to me while she's in charge of security."
"She might consider a hit to her reputation to be worth the sacrifice to eliminate you."
"Didn't sound like it when I interrogated her. I'll admit, I didn't have time to ask about any other plans, but I don't think she'll try anything too nefarious while I'm at Hogwarts. She'll be gone in a few months. I'll survive that long."
There are some major benefits to having a metamorphmagus on the team, Harry thought as he gazed at the massive stack of paperwork Tonks had managed to acquire. He didn't have time to read it, however, which is why he was listening to the young Auror Trainee and Michelle summarize their findings.
"According to the documentation on the work release agreement, both women were required to work at the brothel for five years," Michelle explained. "Sarah Stevens was sent there less than two years ago, so we're confident that she's still there. The other woman, Alice Fitzgerald, should have finished her term in October. However, we can't be sure that she was actually released. There is a form filled out by an Auror stating that she was freed at the appropriate time, but…"
Tonks picked up where her older colleague had left off. "The Auror we're talking about is your good friend Gibbon, whose name seems to be popping up all over the place in the paperwork related to Umbridge's schemes." The young woman scowled and her hair flashed to red. "Gibbon's a real piece of work. I wouldn't be surprised if she's still being held at the brothel."
"Do we have pictures of them?" Harry asked.
"We've got an old one of Fitzgerald, but we don't have one of Stevens," Michelle replied, holding out a photo of an attractive woman in her early twenties with strawberry blonde hair and dark eyes. "That's from almost seven years ago. We've tried to minimize our investigation on the magical side of things so we don't spook anybody. We managed to track down Fitzgerald's sister in the non-magical world, but we haven't located any family for Stevens."
Harry studied the picture for a moment before handing it back. It was one thing to imagine it in abstract, but to see a person who had suffered horrendously like that… He suppressed the rage he felt before it could grow out of control.
"So, Mac says you're coming with?" Tonks asked.
Any lingering doubt was gone by now. "Yeah," Harry replied, nodding his head.
"It'll be good to have you."
According to Mac, the White Dahlia had a rather impressive set of wards that were activated each night after the clients left. Harry knew almost nothing about ward-breaking, but supposedly the defenses would be enough to not only warn the guards, but also hold off any attackers for at least ten or fifteen minutes.
Unfortunately for the guards in the brothel, Harry's team had a way of bypassing those wards entirely.
"Shrinking charm just canceled," Mac announced. "Go!"
The first four DragonFire soldiers were already in the vanishing cabinet, so all Tonks had to do was shut the door and they were transported to the matching cabinet she had surreptitiously placed earlier that evening.
When she opened the door, Harry could see that the cabinet was now empty. He, Mac, Tonks, and one other DragonFire soldier crowded in and quickly shut the door behind them. A second later, Mac pushed the door open again, and Harry could see that they were at the bottom of a trunk. As they had planned, the soldier went first, followed by Tonks, then Harry, with Mac at the end. When it was his turn, Harry quickly but quietly scaled the ladder, climbing out of the trunk to find himself in a large room. He could vaguely make out furniture in the heavy darkness, as well as the shapes of the others who had come with him.
Behind him, Mac let out a soft groan as he pulled himself up the ladder. "Getting too old for this," the man muttered softly, then turned and pressed the rune on the trunk, which quickly shrunk down to the size of a thimble.
Harry couldn't help but be impressed by how small Chad had managed to get the transport trunk that held the cabinet. No wonder they didn't notice it.
"Sound off," the old hitwizard ordered softly.
"One, clear," a man off to Harry's left replied just as quietly.
"Two, clear," another man said.
"Three, clear," came from another.
Harry waited patiently for his turn. "Seven, clear," he said, trying to pitch his voice so that it was audible for all the members of the attack team, but still soft enough to not draw unwanted attention.
"Eight, clear," Mac finished. "One, Two, proceed."
No one knew how attentive the guards were at night. Perhaps they walked rounds on a regular basis, or maybe they simply relied on the wards. In fact, while planning the attack, the team hadn't even known how many guards there would be. Their intel was limited to what little Mac and Tonks had managed to gather that day.
All Harry could think about was how useful the Marauder's Map would be at that moment, and he resolved to show it to Chad as soon as they were done in the hopes that the enchanter would be able to reproduce it for use in other locations.
The small group crept quietly down the hall to where a light shone from an opening.
Harry shifted his grip on the small, gun-like stunner (one of the 'toys' Chad had supplied for the raid), trying to ignore the nervous anticipation swelling in his stomach. Up ahead, there was just enough light to see One prep a stunner grenade, another of Chad's contributions.
With a nod back to the man behind him, One tossed the grenade into the room. Thanks to the built-in silencing charm on the small object, there was no noise as it hit the ground, but a second later a flash of red light appeared.
Everyone rushed into the room, stunners held at the ready. Two guards were unconscious on the floor in the small room.
"One, Two, secure the hall beyond," Mac ordered. "Three, Four, secure the hall behind. Five, veritaserum."
The guards offered no resistance to the truth potion, revealing all they knew about the building and their colleagues. Soon, the other four guards had been captured as well.
With the guards neutralized, there was a definite lightening of the atmosphere, but Harry knew that Mac would not allow anyone to break protocol even with the threat supposedly gone. They still used the code-names, and though they had turned on some lights (much to Harry's embarrassment when he saw the pornographic decorations in the brothel) they still spoke softly as they proceeded down the stairs to where the women were being kept.
If there was any remaining doubt that any of the girls were here by choice, that was quickly dispelled when they reached the basement. By Harry's count, there were eleven of them crowded in the small room, with barely enough space to walk between the small, cot-like beds. A few sat up as the door opened, fear evident on their faces even with the dim light.
As planned, Tonks took the lead as the sole female. "I'm turning on the lights," she warned, keeping her voice calm. When she did so, more of the girls awoke, some shrieking softly in surprise. Harry did his best not to stare at the girls, all of whom were naked. With the lights on, he could see that two of the beds were unoccupied, though that mystery was solved when a soft moan came from behind the group. To Harry's disgust, there were two women chained to the wall.
Tonks removed her mask, though she had disguised herself as a rather plain-looking woman in her forties. "We're here to rescue anyone who wants to come," the metamorph said softly.
The startled hope that appeared on the girls' faces was almost painful to see.
"We have a healer waiting for you," Tonks continued, as Mac resized the trunk. "Once you climb down, we have a device that will transport you to our office. We can only take a few at a time. I'll go with each group. First, I need to ask just a few questions." By this time, all the women were watching, eyes wide. Tonks gestured to the two who had been chained to the wall. "Are there keys to those handcuffs, or do the guards just use the unlocking spell?"
"The guards have keys," a blonde woman said softly.
Mac wasted no time. "Five, the guards should have keys to some manacles holding two of the girls," he said into the communicator.
"Copy that," came the reply.
Tonks ignored the distraction. "Are any of you seriously injured?" she continued, looking around the room. Harry was amazed at how well Tonks did at keeping her voice pleasant, even in the face of such a horrible sight.
A few girls responded verbally, but most just shook their heads.
"Are there any other people you know of in the building besides the guards?"
Again, the women shook their heads.
"Okay, let's get you all out of here," the currently dark-haired metamorph said, then placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "This is my friend, we're calling him Seven for right now. We'll go two at a time through the transporter, starting on this side of the room."
Harry glanced over as the door opened and one of the men in all black appeared, handing a small key to Mac, then disappeared again.
As the old hitwizard freed the two girls kneeling against the wall, Tonks continued to talk. "Seven will help you down the ladder to the transporter, then I'll go with you back to our office. We'll wait for just a few minutes in between. Once there, we'll get you some clothes, but we can't use any magic here so you will need to wait until we are through the transporter. We have a room set up for you where you can wait while our healers examine you to ensure that you are healthy, then we'll figure out where we go from there. If any of you need help reconnecting with family, we can help you. Or, if you want to leave the country, we can help you with that as well. But first, we need to make sure that you're okay." She paused for a moment.
Harry could see the occupants in the room hanging on to her every word, the relief on their faces plain to see. "Alright, let's start with you two," Tonks said, pointing to the girls on the beds nearest to her, who stood and timidly began to walk toward the large, wooden trunk that filled most of the free space in the room.
Tonks climbed down first, then Harry helped the first girl, a skinny, dark-haired teenager, onto the ladder. Without grab bars extending out of the trunk, it could be a little difficult at first to find the correct footing while first stepping into the trunk, especially without practice, so Harry held the girl steady as she went down the first few rungs. Soon, the second woman, a brunette in her twenties, was climbing down as well. When the two women had reached the bottom, Tonks opened the door of the vanishing cabinet and entered, gesturing for them to follow.
"Okay, let's have the next two come over here," Harry said, trying to keep his voice gentle and non-threatening. He forced himself to look down into the trunk as they approached, one apparently unconcerned by her nudity, while the other tried to awkwardly shield her body from view.
Tonks emerged from the cabinet just as the first girl reached the bottom. Soon, the second girl had joined them, and they disappeared into the cabinet.
As Harry gestured for the next two to come over, he saw Mac quietly speaking to the girls who had been chained to the wall, both of whom looked surprised, but they each pulled out a hair and handed it to the man.
As Harry helped the next two girls, a brunette and a red-head in their late teens, climb down into the trunk, he kept an eye on Mac, finally understanding when the man pulled out two vials of potion, then slipped one hair into each. Oh, Polyjuice. That explains it.
Harry frowned at this thought. No, actually, that doesn't explain it. Why does Mac need Polyjuice? There was no time to ask the question. He'd find out sooner or later, he was sure.
When all the captives had been safely evacuated, Harry couldn't help but sigh in relief.
It seemed he wasn't the only one that felt this way. The other members of the strike team seemed to relax as well.
"Let's go upstairs and get things ready for the next stage," Mac said as he miniaturized the trunk once more.
They had just arrived in the small security office where Four and Five were keeping watch on the guards when the communicator crackled, and Tonks' voice could be heard. "Come in, Eight," she said.
"Eight, copy," Mac replied immediately.
"We have names for the girls now. Sarah Stevens is here, but Alice Fitzgerald is not. They remember her, and think that she was released, but we should verify that with the guards."
Mac glanced over at Five, who nodded. "Copy, Six," the old man replied.
"The serum should still be working on this one," Five said as he switched the mode on his stunner and revived the man.
"Was a woman named Alice Fitzgerald held here?"
"There was a woman named Alice. Don't know if her last name was Fitzgerald," came the reply, though Harry was surprised. A person under veritaserum usually spoke in monotone, but there was some definite emotion in the man's voice.
"What did she look like?"
"Light red hair. Dark brown eyes. Short. Big tits, with nice cherry red nipples." The man smirked.
"I think the veritaserum's wearing off," Mac muttered.
Five inspected the man for a moment before replying. "He'll still be forced to tell the truth for a few more minutes. But more of his personality will come through, and we'd better make it quick."
"Where is she?" Mac demanded.
"Dead," the man replied, still grinning eerily.
"How?" Mac asked angrily.
"Her time was up. Boss claimed he let her go, but he let the special clients bid on who would get to kill her."
"Do you know who it was that killed her?"
The man shrugged. "No, but I heard they made a real mess of the filthy cunt before they finished her off."
At this, Harry wanted nothing more than to kill the man, but Mac remained calm. "Which guard has worked here the longest?"
"Septimus," the man replied.
"Which one is that?"
"The tall one on the right."
Mac's only reply was to shoot the man with the stunner once more. "Take this one and… Septimus… downstairs to the room where the girls were kept," he ordered.
While the other members of the team were busy spreading flammable potions around the brothel to ensure it burned quickly, Harry found himself in the basement with Mac.
"Do you know why Polyjuice is one of the biggest problems for aurors in a murder case?" the old man asked conversationally.
"Because it makes information gathered from witnesses practically worthless?" Harry tried.
"Well, that's true any time. But a little-known fact about Polyjuice is that when a person dies while under the transformation, they stay that way. It can make it almost impossible to be sure that the body you're looking at is really the one you think it is. There have even been cases throughout history where the person the aurors thought was the victim was in fact the murderer." He pulled out the vials of Polyjuice he had prepared, then ripped off the clothes of the guards that had been brought down before pouring the potion down the men's throats.
Soon, to all appearances, the two girls who had originally been chained to the wall were back where they had started.
"So, we're going to leave them to burn?" Harry asked, surprisingly calm with the idea.
Mac grunted. "As much as I would like them to suffer, it would be best to kill them now. No chance of them escaping through some sort of accidental magic. This place is probably warded against such, but no reason to take chances." He grabbed a piece of robe from the floor and twisted it to form a crude rope, which he held out to the teenager. "I'm not going to force you to, but it would be good for you to do it."
Harry stared at the man. "Why?"
"Because this is just the beginning. You've got big plans, and people like the Death Eaters aren't just going to let it happen, so sooner or later, you will have to fight for your life. Chances are, you'll have to kill them. And the first time you take a life, it's difficult. I know that from my own experience. I don't want you panicking in the middle of a fight because you just killed a man. These… sick pieces of shit deserve to die. You might as well get some practice out of it. It'll be the only worthwhile thing they've ever done."
Harry didn't say a word, but he took the makeshift rope.
As he positioned it around the first man's neck, he had to pause to remind himself that despite the guard's current appearance, he was a hardened criminal who had participated in the rape and murder of innocent women.
With this thought held firmly in mind, Harry found it surprisingly easy to pull the rope tight.
Fifteen minutes later, the other four guards had been transported to the Magical Solutions office, from where they would then be taken to the hunting lodge for further interrogation. Tonks, who would be taking the shrunken trunk out of the brothel under the guise of one of the guards, had reappeared, looking much less calm now than she had when she was escorting the girls to safety. Harry wondered if she had been using her abilities to hide the rage she felt. If so, it had been a good decision. An angry metamorphmagus was truly an intimidating sight.
And now, it was time to leave.
Flames licked hungrily on the walls as the fire spread rapidly, consuming the opulent decorations. And as he watched it burn, a feeling of deep satisfaction welled up inside Harry. He knew that the sudden destruction of a brothel owned by Nott would make people suspicious, especially the escaped Death Eaters that were the whole focus of the Foundation for the Future scheme. It might make things more difficult for his plans later on down the line. But it didn't matter.
As he climbed down into the trunk and entered the cabinet, a grim smile stole across his face.
No matter the consequences of their actions here tonight, it was worth it.
A/N - Sorry for missing last week. Things got crazy with family coming up for the 4th.
As those of you that have read my Naruto/Song of Ice and Fire crossover 'Of Steel and Chakra' may have noticed, I apparently have a thing for burning down brothels. I'm not quite sure what that says about me as a person... :)