Chapter 33 – There'll Be No Sacrifice Today

Note: Chapter Title from Theory of a Deadman's song 'Sacrifice'

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

Trigger Warning: Alcohol Withdrawal. Mostly off-screen but there are moments when it's shown, I'll do as I usually do and put a warning before and after in the chapter.

Now that that's out of the way, let's begin…

Last time,

"Be seeing you," Voldemort tells them putting an arm around his son's shoulders, "All of you."

Now,

"Phia, are you okay?" Andrea asks the moment they appear in Grimmauld Place once more.

Phia nods, "Yeah, all part of the plan."

"Getting captured by Voldemort was part of the plan?" Sirius asks.

"Of course. Miss Lupin gets captured, helpless having lived as a Muggle, easily gives away the plan, Lyall and Miss Avery arrive with the two of them under an invisibility cloak, insuring we are all together when needed but you-know-who is distracted as needed, too," Phillip explains.

"Sorry, who are you?" Sirius asks him.

"Dr Randona, Eleenie's husband. It's good to see you again, Sir," Severus tells him.

Phillip nods, shaking his hand, "Perhaps one day we shall meet under good circumstances."

"We'll get him back, Lilah," Sirius says as he notices the devastation on her face.

"What if he doesn't want to come back, Ri?" Del asks him, "What if we've lost him for good this time."

"Harry loves the people in this house, and he would never turn on his friends. Something more is going on, and we're gonna fix it, and we're gonna get him back," Sirius replies. Ginny looks up at that, a plan forming in her mind.

Warning

"Dad?" Jamie's voice comes quietly, cutting through the conversation with ease. She crouches beside her trembling father who has his head in his hands, shirt soaked with sweat.

"Remus, I need you to make a choice," Sirius says to him as he crouches down as well. Remus lifts his head and looks at him, exhaustion clear in every line of his body. "You said that you should have stopped. You have a chance now, please, see this through."

Remus leans to the side to rest his head against Sirius' chest. Sirius wraps his arms around his chosen, the keeper of his heart. Remus nods, "Okay. I-I'll try."

"We'll help you," Moody tells him, surprising everyone.

Ron nods, "We all will."

Remus seems scared but he nods. "She's not real, is she?" He asks, looking at a corner of the room.

Sirius sighs, shaking his head. "No, Remus. Whoever you're seeing, it's a hallucination because of the withdrawal."

"I can't believe I didn't tell a teacher about that alcohol problem the moment it became apparent to me," Henry mutters under his breath.

Remus gives him a pained but sheepish smile, "You were a kid, Hank. We were all kids."

"You said that 'she' stopped you, before. Who is she?" Ron asks him, seeming concerned. But those who know him well see the critical look in his eye, shadowed slightly by genuine concern.

"Trixie," Remus mutters.

Bellatrix smiles at him, "You're making the right decision, Remy."

"I hope so." Remus whispers to himself which…doesn't make sense to anyone so they assume he was responding to the hallucination.

"You're seeing Mum?" Jamie asks him, he nods. She smiles, "Are you scared?"

Remus frowns, "Not of her."

Jamie nods, "Good."

"What did she say that got you to turn away from Lestrange?" Moody asks curiously.

"That Benni was scared, that the real choice was between alcohol or my Son. And that that was no real choice at all."

Benni swallows for a moment, "Daughter."

"What?" Remus asks him in confusion, using the conversation to distract from the mounting headache.

"Not your son, your daughter, I wasn't sure how to bring it up and I know now probably isn't the time for it but I've said it now and so yes."

Remus blinks at him, "Someone put that into non-freaking out half English half French words please? My brain hurts," Remus whispers, wincing.

"Did I really switch between French and English?" Benni asks Severus in French.

Severus nods to his so-…daughter, before turning to Remus, "Benni is letting us know that she is our daughter, not our son."

Remus continues blinking in confusion, "What?"

"Professor, have you ever heard the term 'Transgender'?" Ginny asks him as those not family quietly leave the room.

Remus shakes his head, then regrets it. Sirius conjures a bucket just in time as Remus pukes.

"Really not the time," Benni mutters under her breath.

"Whassit mean?"

"Père, we don't have to talk about this now," Benni tells him.

"I am getting the feeling this is the most coherent I'm gonna be for a while. Besides, children come first."

Benni flushes and then looks to Ginny who smiles and comes to sit beside her old Professor.

"So, the term transgender refers to when a person identifies as a gender that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth," Ginny begins to explain, "Benni, for example, is physically a boy, but feels like she should have been a girl, is a girl in heart, mind, and soul, and has decided she wants to live as a girl from now on." Benni nods when her Père looks to her.

"So, girl?" Remus asks Benni who nods again, "Mmkay, cool." He looks up to Sirius, "Cann'I pass out?"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't," Sirius replies.

Remus looks back down to the ground, "Oh, 'kay then." It's Over.

The door suddenly opens again as Tonks looks around frantically before looking up at them, aghast. "She let go."

"What?" Sirius asks.

"The kid, Lillie. She let go of the port key. We left her behind."


The port key and the others disappear, but Harry and his father are shocked to find Lillie still standing.

"Lillie?" Harry asks her.

"I don't want to leave you again, Hank," She tells him.

Voldemort smirks, "Well, any friend of my son's is more than welcome. Come, we'll find a place for you."

Lillie takes Harry's hand as Voldemort grabs his shoulder and apparates all three of them to Malfoy Manor.

She's given a room and then allowed to wander free while Harry and Voldemort speak in his office.

"You wanted to capture the Order. That's why you took the rest of us. We were bait," Harry says plainly, Voldemort nods. "Well you may have lost Lucius his son because Draco now probably thinks you've turned on him for no reason, he didn't do anything wrong."

"I merely had him followed when he snuck out, badly, and he was having a clandestine meeting with some followers of Dumbledore's. Has he truly done nothing wrong?" Tom challenges.

Harry's eyes shine with anger, "I am not a follower of Dumbledore! He was there to see me! The only reason the others came along is because the Order is convinced you want me dead and I didn't want them suspicious."

Tom looks at him for a moment before nodding, "Well perhaps you can convince him to come back, then. You and your friend can go meet him tonight and bring him home."

"What exactly am I supposed to say to him, Father?"

"The truth, he was bait just like the rest of you, it was nothing personal."

Harry looks at his Father for a moment before he scoffs and walks out of the room.


Harry contacts Draco through the enchanted paper and instructs the others to meet him in the tunnel by the Dursleys' place. He and Lillie fly on his broom with his invisibility cloak wrapped around them to ensure they are not followed.

"So, that put a crimp in plans," Ginny comments when they all arrive.

"Yes, we had a perfectly laid plan and now it's all a mess, so yeah, bit of a crimp," Harry responds irately.

"What were you thinking?" Hermione asks him.

"I don't know. I knew we needed him alive so I jumped between he and the spell and afterwards…I don't think right after that's happened."

"Yes, have noticed that actually," Hermione replies shortly before sighing, "Well it's done now, so what do we do?"

"Draco, Father told me to try and convince you to come back," Harry tells him.

"He knows we're meeting up?" George asks Harry who looks at him like he's an idiot.

"Of course bloody not! He just thinks we're meeting Draco and we made sure we wouldn't be followed."

"Where's my best place, strategically?" Draco asks Harry who frowns in thought.

"We've still got Blaise and Pansy with us over there, stay where you are for now."

"Dumbledore still thinks you're under the Moral Reversal Spell, right?" Ginny asks, ready to suggest the plan she came up with earlier, Harry nods. "We'll subtly put it into his head that that's why, should be easy enough to convince him this is his own fault and he won't think conspiracy or anything."

"Can I ask what she's doing here?" Ron asks, pointing at Lillie.

"I'm here to give this," She replies, handing Harry a plastic bag with a chunk of bloody werewolf fur in it. "Wanna tell me what you needed that for, Hank?"

"Look, basically it all comes down to my borderline psychotic plan to discredit and then kill someone, but this particular bit has branched out to a more heroic task of attempting to stop Hogwarts from being destroyed as was foreseen over a thousand years ago by a very strong seer. We need this to get more detail from her many-greats grand-son," Harry replies, earning incredulous/amused/exasperated looks from everyone. None particularly surprised though.

"You want to justify that or are you just going to leave it there?" Lillie asks him, arms crossed and frowning, after he says nothing further for a few moments.

"There's a man, in a position of great power within the British wizarding world. He's fighting against a spirit he doesn't know is the sister he killed while trying to help a madman expose the Wizarding world to Muggles. Meanwhile, this sister is possessing my Father and twisting him into the exact type of madman that the brother was trying to help to begin with. Only this brother is now attempting to take my Father down, as though acting against him will undo his own mistakes. He's perpetuating hate, and pain, and he won't stop. Not until someone makes him stop."

"And that person is going to be you, is it?" Lillie questions expectantly.

Harry smiles, just slightly, but genuinely as he shakes his head, confusing the others. "No, Lillie. Because this isn't about me, not anymore. That person won't be me, it will be everyone. Every single living being willing to make a broken system better." Harry looks to the others, "Because I realised something in that cell. We aren't fighting to bring him down, we're fighting to raise others up. It's for the people who back us, and the innocents who don't know any different, that we are fighting, more so than ourselves."

Benni looks him over, nodding, "My Aunt Cissa once said to me that the best battle strategy will fail without an army to carry it out. Your biggest strength has always been and will always be, that you are not in this alone. It's the people who follow you, who give you something to lead, that allows you to reach victory."

"Well I'm not leading anymore," Harry says, "We all are. Because we are Inimicus, Enemies to all who stand against us. And Protectors of those who have no power to protect themselves." Harry smirks, "We're going to give control of our world back to all the people who live in it, instead of the corrupt currently with near absolute power over all."

"All but us," George says. The others nod.

"All but us."


"So, how long are you staying for?" Ginny asks Mr and Mrs Polka the next day, everyone still rather on edge.

"How long are we staying for?" Ron adds, everyone in the room looks at him in confusion, "Well, this place is compromised, right?"

"We've got nowhere else to go," Moody points out, "Unless you've got any ideas?"

"What about our house in France?" Benni suggests, "I know they've been there before but they won't be expecting it then?"

"Not big enough," Severus tells him, "Pity we burnt down the Black Estate."

"You burnt it down?" Kingsley questions, accusation in his voice which quickly reminds Severus of the fact that several Ministry and Law Enforcement Officials are in the room.

"Erm…no. I mean it…got burnt down…mysterious means…it happens."

Draco frowns for a moment, "What about The Fortress?" Everyone looks to him in confusion for the second time. "Well we know Blaise will let us use it. It's certainly big enough, and no one lives there right now."

"What about his Mum?" Ginny asks.

"No," Ron replies with a shake of his head, "His Mother is working closely with Voldemort, she lives wherever he does until she's 'outgrown her usefulness'. Whatever that means."

"How do you know this?" Severus asks, though he nods to the Order members who look to him for confirmation.

"Well, since Hermione and Pansy started dating, and H-…Harry started living with the Malfoys," Ron starts explaining, tripping over Harry's name slightly as though hurt by the previous days events. "Zabini and I have been hanging out. Honestly, everything is in shambles at Hogwarts at the moment, I'm just running with it, seeing as the Headmaster is apparently incapable of running the school."

"It's no wonder Voldemort isn't afraid of him anymore, all things considered," Ginny adds.

"What are you talking about?" Bill asks his younger sister.

"Well think about it!" She tells him, "He's been scared to act against Dumbledore in the past, sure that his power cannot rival his. Now suddenly he's capturing the entire Order, and us kids, from right underneath his nose? He's getting braver, he's getting bolder, and if you expect me to believe it's got nothing to do with everything else going on, what with Inimicus' attempt on his life and that, then you're a moron."

"I read about that," Tonks says, everyone taking seats around the table. Everyone being the Polkas, the Weasleys, Hermione, Benni, Jamie, Phia, Draco, Kingsley, Tonks, Moody, Andromeda, Ted, and Sturgis. They fill every seat around the table so it's probably a good thing the others aren't up yet. "What happened exactly?" She asks.

"Melana, the snake, tried to attack Dumbledore, venomously bite him or something. Others, though, they don't think she was really trying to kill him," Benni explains.

"What do they think?" Andromeda pushes.

It's Ginny that answers, "Well, sneaking around is all well and good, and believe me there's not a person in Hogwarts that doesn't know he's been sneaking around before this, but eventually you have to let them know you're there." She shrugs as she takes a sip of her tea, "That's what others think, anyway."

"And what do you think?" Sturgis questions, sensing more intelligence in the girl than he had previously assumed.

"I think that it was far too easy for Inimicus to create chaos in what should have been a safe and stable environment. Now I'm just waiting for the moment true anarchy becomes the Order of the day." No one misses her play on the word 'order'.

Ginny smirks as she raises her mug, "Long live Hogwarts."

"And on that note, to answer your question, we're not going anywhere until we get our daughter back," Andrea tells her, "Maybe we'll stick around after, once whatever is going on with Harry is sorted out."

"You won't have to worry about Petunia ratting you out, or anything," Phia promises, "Believe me, we had some serious and rather vicious words about that whole situation. I'm sorry for what she did to you."

"In her own way, she was trying to protect Harry, I think. Besides, if not for her, Lillie would have gone through a lot more pain," Daniel tells her.

"What are you talking about?" Phia asks.

"Petunia recommended a book. The Boy Who Never Cried Wolf. It helped us to help her so much."

Severus looks up, at that. Locking eyes with Phia, with Andromeda, with Del, and then with Mary who he sees standing in the doorway Del had been. They'd done it. They'd improved the lives of Lycanthropes, made them safer, and happier, and freed them of some pain, at least.

Mary lets out a wet chuckle, "Maybe it was all worth it after all."

Severus smiles at her, "No more waiting."


Though Severus is hesitant to involve Blaise, they do bring him to Grimmauld Place and explain the situation to him. Attempting to be delicate, mindful of the fact that he is a child.

"THOSE ABSOLUTE FUCKERS TORTURED MY REMUS?!" Blaise screams at the top of his voice. "Fuck them, fuck them fuck them FUCK THEM!" His eyes flash, livid.

"Okay, we might have underestimated him a tad," Sturgis admits.

Sirius walks into the room, "So, Remus says he heard Blaise yelling and is sure it wasn't a hallucination. He's sent me down to make sure his kid is okay. I don't want to be gone long, someone fill me in?"

Blaise looks at him, a critical look in his eye. "You'd be Padfoot then, would you?" He shoots a look to Benni who nods, looking amused and reminding everyone that, Hufflepuff or not, he was raised by and with a lot of Slytherins. Blaise looks back to Sirius. He steps up close, "See, I'm quite protective of Remus. I don't feel the need to threaten you though, because, while he may not be here, Harry is just as protective. And, your Son or not, I'm fairly certain that if you ever do anything to hurt him…Harry's going to do a lot more damage and pain than I could ever have even imagined."

Sirius nods seriously, "Duly noted."

"Good. Now what's wrong with him? You wouldn't be so scared of leaving him alone if everything was fine. Is he still hurt because of them?"

"No, Blaise. He's…well, not fine. He quit drinking and it's…more difficult than he thought," Severus explains.

Blaise's angry demeanour falls away, only concern and care left on his face. "Will he be okay?"

Severus smiles and nods, "He'll be fine, he's been through far worse than this."

"Everyone has a breaking point." Blaise looks a little haunted at this, "Believe me, I know that now."

"What happened?" Severus asks him in concern.

"After you were captured along with the rest of them, Voldemort decided he needed to bring in the kids you and Re had helped raise. Make sure not too much influence had rubbed off on us." Blaise smiles humourlessly, "Apparently too much did, though. Pansy, Theo, and Astoria ran. Daphne wanted to but didn't think there'd be time for both of them to make it through the floo, so she sent Asi through. Greg, Vince, Daphne, and I were 'invited' to join a meeting, saw Harry there." Blaise shrugs, "Apparently they were most concerned about me. So now if I disobey, Voldemort will kill my Mother." Gasps are heard throughout the room. Blaise swallows thickly, "I realise that makes it difficult for you lot to trust me but…well, it's like Pansy once told me. Our parents made their choice, we have to make ours too."

"I believe you, kid," Moody tells him. Everyone in the Order and the usual kids look to him, Gobsmacked.

"Why?" Blaise asks him.

"Because, you said his name. Which means you aren't afraid of him. And no one follows him if they don't fear him." Moody nods at him, he nods back.

"My house is open to you all."

"Where'd the others go? The ones who ran?" Ginny asks him.

"I don't know, it wasn't a planned thing. They just ran," Blaise answers, biting his lip in a show of nervousness that has Severus smile slightly despite circumstances. Everyone who has spent many years with Remus recognises the gesture too.

Then Severus shakes his head, pulling his focus back to the conversation, "Didn't we tell you kids to plan for something like this, make a place to meet?"

"Yes, but if they've any sense at all, they aren't going to go somewhere that those of us who stayed with Voldemort know about. Trusted friend or not."

"MIO!" Draco yells at the base of the stairs.

"I'M BUSY!"

"YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS IN TROUBLE, YOU STILL BUSY?!"

Hermione comes bounding down the stairs, quill still in hand, parchments in the other. "What's going on, is Pansy all right? What's happened?"

"Voldemort tried to force her hand, instead of giving herself up, she ran," Severus explains, "We don't know where she's gone, but she's not the only one missing."

"Do you have any idea where she might have gone?" Tonks asks, a bit annoyed that Draco thought of this and no one else did. Sometimes she thinks the kids around here are the only ones with any real grasp of the situation. And Dumbledore? Well, Ginny had been right. Everything with Inimicus has happened far too easily.

Hermione frowns, clicking her nails against each other as she thinks. Then she runs upstairs, "NO, BUT I CAN CONTACT HER!"

Sirius looks up in her wake, then back to the others, "So, everything's all being dealt with and I can put Remy's mind at ease?"

"Tell Re that a few peaches slipped out but it's okay because ten second rule so it'll be a full tin again soon," Blaise requests. Sirius seems confused but nods, heading back upstairs just as Hermione comes running down them.

"Pansy said she's at the Three Broomsticks, knows Rosmerta would never give her away and would be willing to hide her for a bit before she worked out what to do next. Also suggested we check the Whomping Willow? Apparently Uncle Moony told them that's where he went as a kid during full moons so they all assume it's difficult to access and relatively unknown. She knows Tom Riddle was a friend of his and so might know which is why she didn't go there, but apart from Blaise and Draco, none of the others know that," Hermione tells them all.

"Right, Snape, Zabini, Tonks, Shacklebolt, you four are going to the tree. Miss Malfoy, Sturgis, you two are with me. We're going to the Broomsticks," Moody orders. Hermione seems relieved that she doesn't have to fight to come along, and Blaise is glad he's being allowed to help round up his friends as well. "You said the other Greengrass girl doesn't want to be there, either?" Moody asks, Blaise nods. "Malfoy Manor?" Blaise nods again. "Right, you lot find out who's willing to help pull-off an extraction, volunteer only, we'll try to get the Polka kid too. Malfoy, you live there, work with them," Moody declares, "It's about time we start doing as we're supposed to. Saving people. Like we all joined up for." Everyone nods their agreement, all pleased with this change. "Right then, move out."


As it turns out, Theo had made it to the Shrieking Shack and, thanks to Severus and Blaise's presence, agreed to come back with them.

Pansy is found alive and well in the Three Broomsticks, save for a cut on her head that Rosmerta was healing as they arrived. They leave her a big tip before they head back.

They find a great surprise when they get back to Grimmauld Place.

"Oh, hey guys."

"Astoria?! How did they find you?" Blaise asks as the rescue teams converge in the dining room, standing around because there are not enough seats anymore.

"Actually, she found us. Just turned up at the door and let herself in," Andromeda explains.

The rescue teams look to Astoria in confusion she shrugs, "Everyone's been going on about having found the base of Dumbledore's Order at long last. I just took the Knight Bus here. Figured if you hadn't escaped yet, you soon would and, given that all of you had been captured, it was unlikely that they would come back here."

Pansy and Theo look at each other before nodding. "Yeah, we should've thought of that," Theo says.

"Nice work, Asi," Pansy tells her.

The younger girl grins, "Now, we've been reviewing your plans to relocate and I…have some reservations about the security of the Fortress. For instance, if Blaise has now disappeared as well, I find it likely that not only will the place be searched, but left under surveillance as well."

"What would you suggest?" Severus asks her, moving to put a hand on her shoulder and squeeze it gently, in recognition of the fact that the girl is shook up and he knows it.

Astoria smiles tightly, glad to have been validated and reassured even if that is all that is possible right now. "The Fidelius charm."

Warning

"How could we possibly choose a secret-keeper when we know one among us is a spy reporting directly to Voldemort?" Tonks asks as Sirius and Remus enter the room, Remus wrapped in a blanket and looking sweaty, shaky, and utterly miserable.

"What are you doing up?" Severus asks the two.

"Heard you lot get back, figured we'd be leaving soon. Remus was in a reasonably good state of mind so I decided to tackle the stairs while he was still in the mood to help," Sirius explains.

Remus jerks slightly, "S-Sor-ry," He mutters, pulling the blanket tighter around him and squeezing his eyes shut.

"Have a seat," Astoria tells him, getting up to let him have hers. She then goes over to Ron, "Up, Weasley." Ron stands up, looking confused. Then Astoria takes his seat. "Cheers." Ron huffs and rolls his eyes but goes to lean against the wall beside Hermione. Remus sits in the freed chair with very little grace. It's Over

"As for the secret-keeper problem," Sirius grimaces, "I have an idea."


"I'm being punked, aren't I?" Peter asks Mary and Moody. Bridget sits beside him while Hermione and Draco entertain Rema.

"I assure you, we are entirely serious," Mary promises.

"No, I won't do it. I mean, God, are you kidding? After what happened last time? No way. Get one of your own to do it."

Moody huffs, "They're all too afraid."

"Well so am I, so good day to you," Peter snaps.

Bridget takes a calming breath, "Why him? I mean, no offence Dear, but you all have every reason in the world to not trust him in this exact situation."

"There's a spy in the Order. For obvious reasons, we know it isn't your fiancé," Moody begins to explain, "Sirius, of all people, suggested it. Seems to think it's so bloody unlikely that no one will even think of it."

"He thought that last time," Peter points out.

"And no one would have had you not told them," Alastor counters. Peter flinches slightly, looking off to the side.

Mary reaches out to cover his hands with hers, "Pete, this has nothing to do with then. We know you aren't working for him now, know that without him having literally kidnapped me, you never would have. We're here because we trust you to do this, and because, in some small subconscious way, Sirius apparently still does too."

Peter hesitates, looking to Bridget who takes a moment, then nods to him. "We said too many children have already grown up without parents. We can't help their parents, but we can help them. You can help them."

Peter nods too, then looks back to Mary and Moody, "All right, I'll do it."

And so, like a man walking to his own death, Peter Pettigrew returns to the Order of the Phoenix.