Once more, My beta-readers, fredfred and InquisitorCOC, deserve a huge thank you. They helped a lot.


Chapter 78: The Raid

North Sea, Wizarding World, May 14th, 2006

"Fly slowly and carefully! We don't want to upset the dears! It's their first time flying!" Luna's voice rang through the tank. Which, if you were inside its passenger compartment, looked more like a small luxury yacht, although without portholes.

Ron, standing in the open hatch at the top, behind the turret, shook his head. He doubted that the Firestone Lice had even noticed that they were flying. Unlike aeroplanes, they weren't travelling at an altitude at which a pressurised cabin would be required - they were barely above the waves, actually, as he could tell by the light of the full moon.

He keyed the microphone of his headset. "Watch the ground."

"If I fly any higher, the radar will pick us up," Ginny replied.

"If you fly any lower, we'll turn into a submarine," Ron retorted.

"Then I'm flying at the perfect altitude!" Ginny's smug tone wasn't hidden in the least by the intercom.

But, as Ron knew from experience, arguing would be pointless. And would distract his little sister from flying their tank over the North Sea without crashing. And, magic spells on the tank or not, that would be bad. He didn't think they would sink - not unless Ginny lost it completely - but they'd get soaked, and water would get everywhere, Ron might get thrown into the sea - it would take time to recover from that, time they didn't really have to spare. They had an alibi for the day - family visits on the muggle side was a good cover for a Sunday - but for Monday? Fleur and wizarding Bill had to be back at work then. That meant they needed to break through Azkaban's wards tonight.

So he held his tongue and let Ginny have this win. And enjoyed the fresh air on his face as they flew towards Azkaban.

Movement below him drew his attention. Ah. Hermione climbed up on the bench to join him in the hatch. There was barely enough room here for two - it was meant for a single soldier, but with all the gear and body armour soldiers tended to carry these days, Phoenix Gruppe had been generous, so the two of them fit. Barely.

He didn't mind being so close to her, of course, and wrapped his arms around her. And moved his head out of the way of her mane, which was blown back by the wind.

"I'm not going to say 'I'm flying'," she said.

"I don't feel like the King of the World, either," Ron replied with a chuckle.

She laughed. "I'm not sure Harry or Ron would've gotten the reference."

"Oh?" It was one of the most famous movies - and scenes - in the world. Even if you hadn't seen the movie, you had probably seen that scene.

Hermione sighed - he felt her chest heave - and she moved her wand in the shape of a privacy spell. "I hadn't realised just how… isolated… Wizarding Britain is. I mean, I was in school most of the time since I was told I was a witch, but that was because it was a boarding school, so it felt natural. And then I was transported to your world. But now that I've been back for a while…" She sighed again. "My friends here don't know much about the muggle world. Not even Luna, who's interested in your world, knows much."

"Ah." He didn't know what to say.

"They know enough to fit in. Harry was raised as a muggle, of course, but… They aren't part of it. Not really. They aren't familiar with popular culture. Or sports. Well, some do follow football, but overall, they don't know what the muggles watch and talk about. They know what the telly is, what the cinema is, and they have watched some shows and movies, but… it's spotty. It's like they visit a few times a year, no more."

"Ah." He nodded and resisted the temptation to rest his chin on her shoulder. "And you want more than that."

"Yes. I want to be able to talk to my parents about what books they've read, what's in the news, what's on the radio…"

"Mostly books, I guess."

She laughed at that. "And, of course, I need to keep up with physics," she went on, more seriously.

He shrugged. "Shouldn't be too hard."

"It shouldn't be. It won't be. But I don't want to miss out on wizarding news, either."

She didn't want to feel isolated from her friends, in other words. Or, to be more precise, she didn't want them to think that she was isolated from them. "Following two worlds - three if you consider the muggle world here…"

"Yes."

That wouldn't be easy at all. Especially given her work. But he didn't think it would be impossible.


Northeast of Azkaban, North Sea, Wizarding World, May 14th, 2006

"You know, this is more than a little disturbing," Ginny said as she sat down on the couch in the tank's lounge - or living room; there had been a discussion between the Lunas and Hermione which term was more correct.

"Hm?" Ron asked, lowering the magazine he had been reading. Or pretending to read - they were all waiting for wizarding Bill and Fleur to break through Azkaban's protections.

"I know there's an island right ahead of us - we're parked practically on top of it. But there's nothing there. And I can't help feeling that I should avoid the area anyway," she went on.

That was why she had left the driver's compartment. "Must have gotten too close to the Muggle-Repelling Charms," he said. "Not that you could've helped yourself - we needed to get that close for the others to work on the wards."

Ginny sighed. "You sound like a wizard."

Ron chuckled at that. "I'm no wizard." He was a mere muggle. "But I pay attention when Hermione explains something."

Ginny snorted. "You probably take notes like you used to for your games."

"I take notes because our lives might depend on it," he corrected her.

"Yes. We might get killed by things we can't see or hear." She rolled her eyes.

"You didn't have to come," he told her. "But you need to take this seriously." They should've had her visit the captured Dementor before they destroyed it. She wouldn't be so… flippant if she had met one. But she was a good driver, and they didn't exactly have that many trusted people available to come with them. Most of Hermione's friends needed to be seen in Wizarding Britain, and Dumbledore had declined to come with them - Gellert must have put his foot down. That didn't leave many alternatives.

"It's not that," she retorted. She was probably lying, at least a little. "But you're so… cool with all of this. You're not a wizard, yet you act like one."

He snorted in return. "I'm not a wizard, and I don't act like them. I'm just doing what I can to help." Which wasn't very much right now. Nor would it be much once the mission really started.

"But doesn't this disturb you?"

Of course the Dementors disturbed him. But that wasn't what she meant. He shrugged. "I do what I can."

She sighed. "Don't drag Harry into this," she said sotto voce.

"Into this?" He raised his eyebrows. Harry was with them, after all. Currently in the kitchen, cooking a midnight snack.

"I mean into the whole portal stuff. I don't want a boyfriend who spends most of his time in another world. Not now that he's finally got time for me."

Ron bit down on his first retort - Ginny was the one who had been travelling around the world playing tournaments while Harry and Ron had stayed in London. Most of the time. "You really think he wants to be your bodyguard forever?"

Her face muscles twitched. "He's not just my bodyguard!"

"And what job can he do while travelling with you? Manager? Coach?"

She was clenching her teeth now. "I won't be playing tennis forever."

"Just for the next few years or so."

"And I'd like to spend them with him. Not worrying whether or not he's going to be turned into a frog and eaten by a dinosaur."

He snorted at that, and she glared at him. "Sorry. But I think you need to talk about that with Harry, not with me."

"I will! But I don't want you to drag him into this."

He shrugged. That was Harry's decision, not his. Or hers.

She scoffed again and got up, heading towards the guest room she and Harry had taken.

He returned to reading his magazine. Or pretending to.


"How's it going?" Ron asked as soon as he saw Hermione enter the lounge.

"They're making progress. Roughly on schedule," she said, sitting down next to him and grabbing a magazine for herself - and then dropping it.

Ron suppressed a chuckle; he was sure that she hadn't even checked what she was grabbing. "Mr Weasley left a rather eclectic selection for us."

"So I noticed. Gardening! Who wants to read a gardening magazine?"

"The Lunas took a selection of them with them into their room," Ron told her.

"I'm not sure if I should be worried about that," she replied, grabbing an issue of Newsweek.

"So we'll be through the wards before sunrise?" he asked.

"An hour or two past it, I think," she replied.

"Sounds a bit fast for the most secure prison in Wizarding Britain," he told her. "One night?" Those wards were supposed to be old.

"Technically, one night. But they'd studied the wards before - and they also studied the ferry's spells. And they're amongst the best Curse-Breakers," she explained. "But mostly it's the lack of patrols. We wouldn't be able to do this if the guards were patrolling along the wardline on brooms, looking for disillusioned intruders."

"Ah." That made sense. He nodded.

"It's still impressive."

"Yes," she agreed. "But if we had to, we could have done this in shifts. It would take two or three nights to get through the wards. We could've set up an alibi, too. We were just lucky that half the work was already done. But as I said before - the main reason we can do this so quickly is that the guards have stopped patrolling." She looked serious. "And that only happened because, with the prisoners gone, the Dementors are no longer hiding their true numbers, and most of the guards can't handle being close to so many Dementors."

"We're out of their aura's range, though."

"Yes. But we're outside the wards and we approached the wardline very carefully. If you're inside the protections and flying a patrol, you can't take that much time - you'd spend the whole night just flying once around the island. And if you fly too close, you risk bumping into the spells keeping the prisoners in - most wards on buildings only keep trespassers out." She frowned.

"Still… I would've expected more from such old protections," he said.

"The wards are very powerful - but Curse-Breaking has advanced significantly in the last four hundred years. And the older wards aren't as complex as they could be."

Like a massive bunker door with a simple lock. And no guards. "Are you going to help them?" he asked.

"I'm not a Curse-Breaker. We broke into old manors during the war, but we took our time or got help. Or cheated."

"Cheated?"

"Got someone to invite us or stole a key to get inside - or used the Floo Network."

"Ah. Out of the box thinking. Like using the ferry." He grinned.

"Exactly. But that's the only cheat that would work on Azkaban." She sighed. "So I'm pretty useless right now."

Like Ron himself. But he didn't say that. Instead, he said: "All we can do is wait."

"And read gardening magazines," she added.

"Only if you pry the others from Luna's fingers," he said.

"The ones they've left in the lounge are probably not interesting, anyway," Hermione said.

Ron resumed reading his own magazine - he should've brought a book, actually - as Hermione rooted around for a magazine she hadn't already read.


Northeast of Azkaban, North Sea, Wizarding World, May 15th, 2006

When Ron woke up, it was already far past sunrise, as a quick glance at the alarm clock next to his - their bed - showed. Seven in the morning. And he was wearing his clothes, except for his boots. Had he overslept? He had only planned to have a short nap. Had they let him…? No, Hermione was stirring as well, next to him. "I think wizarding Bill and Fleur took a little more time than expected." If they were finished, of course.

"Yes," Hermione agreed, pointing her wand at her head and turning her wild bushy mane into, well, a not quite so wild but still bushy ponytail. A few more spells followed while he got off the bed, slipped his boots on and grabbed his shoulder holster. Then she pointed the wand at him. "Want me to clean you up as well?"

He tensed but nodded. It couldn't hurt, could it? A moment later, he felt his hair being combed and then settle down, then a tingling sensation on his skin. And, suddenly, he had a very sweet fruity taste in his mouth. "I guess wizards don't like mint toothpaste, hm?" he joked.

"I usually brush my teeth - this spell is adequate if you're in a hurry, but it's not as thorough," she not-quite-answered his question.

They left the bedroom they had taken for this trip. Wizarding Bill and Fleur were in the lounge, looking like they hadn't slept in a week.

"We've underestimated the wards' difficulty," the wizard said, unprompted. "We're very close to breaking through, but…"

"We started to make mistakes," Fleur added. "We'll need to rest - but we have to go to work first." She filled a large cup with black coffee.

"And you can't take Pepper-Up Potions since you still have to finish tonight," Hermione said, wincing.

"Yes. Sorry," wizarding Bill apologised with a sigh. "The number of spells layered on top of the original wards and then left without maintenance was much higher than we expected. It looks like the ferry's spells compensated for more than anticipated."

"Shoddy craftsmanship." Fleur sneered. "If the new spells had been properly integrated with the original protections we would've been able to deal with them all at once."

"Perhaps that was the idea?" Ron suggested.

"No," his brother's counterpart replied. "The spells are too haphazardly aligned - and vary too much in age and power. If they had actually wanted to use that as a defence, they would've done it differently."

"Nevertheless, it has proven to be effective," Hermione said. "We'll keep the vehicle stationary so you can return by Apparition this evening."

That would make their planned alibi a little more difficult, but they had had contingency plans for just such an occurrence.

But it also meant they would have to sit around doing nothing for half a day. Or longer.

Great.


"I can't help feeling angry at the Aurors," Harry said.

Ron frowned as he looked at his friend. "Why?" Both of them were sitting on top of the tank, legs dangling over the side, and looking at the sea.

Harry gestured ahead, where, although still invisible to them, the island lay. "They should have patrols out. Without patrols, anyone - like us - could hide here, invisible…"

"Disillusioned," Ron corrected him.

Harry glared at him. "...invisible and work on the wards."

"The guards are mostly Hit-Wizards," Ron told him. "Not Aurors. Soldiers, not cops."

"Mostly. But there are also some Aurors, aren't there?" Harry scoffed.

"Probably." They didn't have the exact schedule and guard rotation. Partially to avoid endangering their contacts at the Ministry, but also partially because there wasn't, so far, a set schedule for the recently abandoned prison. "But the lack of patrols helps us. If there were patrols, we would have had to steal or copy a submarine." And dive low enough to avoid the range of their detection spells.

"That's true. And I'm not complaining, mind you."

"You totally are," Ron told him.

That earned him another glare. And an eye roll. "I'm criticising fellow law enforcement officers' negligence in a purely academic and professional capacity."

Ron couldn't resist. "Neither you nor I are law enforcement officers any more. We're private security." Well, not yet officially, and what they were currently doing was more like mercenary work - or even criminal work, depending on your view on interdimensional and wizarding law.

Harry didn't take the bait, though. Instead of scoffing or glaring, his friend sighed. "Thanks for reminding me."

Oh, damn. First Ginny, now Harry? Ron didn't want to have this talk. Not now. Not ever, if he could help it. But Harry was Ron's best friend. "What's wrong?" Ron asked, even though he already suspected the answer.

"I'm Ginny's bodyguard."

Yes, as he had suspected. "That's wrong? You can spend much more time together now." He looked over his shoulder, checking if anyone could overhear them. Like Ginny. But his sister should be sleeping now, inside the extended compartment.

"I know. And that's not wrong. But…" Harry trailed off and sighed. "I don't think it's going to be enough. We've been doing this - the bodyguarding thing - for a while now. While you and the others do…" He trailed off again and made an awkward gesture with his hand towards Azkaban.

"You're with us, too. Both of you," Ron pointed out.

"Now. We were away for how long?" Harry shook his head. "And we're mostly along for the ride."

"Ginny's the driver. Or pilot."

"Anyone could've done that," Harry replied.

Now that was starting to sound rather familiar. "But she did it."

"Well, I haven't done anything," Harry said. "And I can't even see, much less harm, the Dementors."

"We - you and me - aren't here for the Dementors. We're here to deal with surprises." Ron tilted his head. "Insurance, of a sort."

"And what can we do against wizards?" Harry asked. "Or what can we do that wizards can't?"

"We can shoot things, we can think on our feet and we can think outside the box." Ron forced himself to grin. "Sometimes, even the archmage needs a fighter."

"Didn't you tell me all about fighters being useless?" Harry retorted.

"In a game. This isn't a game. This is different."

His friend didn't seem to believe him. "So if things go well, we're not needed, and if things go badly, we hope that we can do something to help?"

"Exactly!" That was the best anyone could hope for, anyway - wizard or muggle. "We don't have very many wizards here, anyway. And I bet wizarding Bill and Fleur won't be up to much after finally cracking the wards later tonight." Which left them with Hermione and wizarding Luna.

"Then we should get more wizards," Harry said.

"They can't just join us - that would look suspicious," Ron told him. They were already risking their alibi by having wizarding Bill and Fleur work two nights in a row, but there was no way around that.

Harry sighed again. "That won't always be the case."

"What do you want to do?" Ron asked after a moment. "You don't want to be just Ginny's bodyguard. But what do you actually want to do?"

"I want to…" Harry pressed his lips together. "I want to make a difference. I want to pull my weight. I don't want to be…"

"...Ginny's boy toy and Sirius's heir?"

That earned him a glare, which meant Ron was right. He chuckled. "Well, none of us want that. But how much are you willing to sacrifice?"

"Sacrifice?"

"This whole thing." Ron gestured at the tank, then at the sea. "Stuff like this. This is like being deployed as a soldier. Hard to have a relationship, or a family, like that." Unless your partner and family were working with you.

Harry pressed his lips together. "Ginny likes playing tennis." That was a slight understatement. "But she joined us, didn't she? To help Hermione."

"Yes. But that's when our entire family was threatened. Now?" Ron snorted. "She wants that Masters title. And she wants to be number one. She won't play tennis forever, but she won't sacrifice her chance at the top to drive a flying tank in another world."

Harry sighed once more.

Ron didn't have to ask whether Harry was willing to sacrifice his relationship with Ginny for his own dreams - it was clear that his friend was already pondering that question.


"For a stakeout, this is luxury," Ron commented during dinner. An excellent dinner, cooked by Mrs Weasley and delivered by wizarding Bill and Fleur.

"Technically, we're on a heist," Hermione corrected him.

"I see it more as a raid, actually," he told her. "Breaking and entering is justified by our goal of ending a threat to all of Britain."

"I don't think the Ministry would agree," she replied.

"They wouldn't," wizarding Luna said. "It's only legal if they do it to hunt down perfectly peaceful and harmless creatures who took refuge in an empty wizarding home."

That sounded more like an infestation of dangerous creatures being dealt with, but Ron knew better than to say that.

"Nothing is safe under an oppressive government," Luna added. "At least there are a number of international laws that even corrupt governments are forced to respect in the wizarding world. Unlike in our own world."

Ron also knew better than to contest that. "So, you'll take a nap before working on the wards?" he asked Fleur instead.

"Oui. Yes," the witch replied.

"We could do it now, though," wizarding Bill suggested.

"No," Hermione said. "That would be too dangerous."

Ron saw how the wizard set his jaw in response. That had been the wrong thing to say. "It wouldn't be too dangerous - we know these wards, inside and out. All we have to do is deal with a few spells."

"Oui," Fleur added.

"Regardless of whether or not you could do it, there's no pressing need for us to rush this," Hermione told them.

"It would make it easier to establish our alibi," Fleur retorted.

"But it would also be more dangerous," Ron cut in. "And we planned your alibi with this in mind." They hadn't planned for their Curse-Breakers getting themselves killed out of misguided pride.

"Still, the sooner we're done, the better," the wizard insisted.

"Not if it means taking unnecessary risks," Hermione objected. "Take a nap. Rest."

"Yes," Harry chimed in. "If you're tired, you'll make mistakes. And you are tired." Both Fleur and wizarding Bill glared at him, but he wasn't fazed. "Moody - our Moody - taught us that. Don't be foolish," he added with a glare.

Hermione nodded. As did Ron. Sirius made a noise of agreement.

After a moment, wizarding Bill sighed. "Alright. But we could've done it now - if we had to."

Ron wasn't the only one to roll his eyes at that bit of bravado.


Northeast of Azkaban, North Sea, Wizarding World, May 15th, 2006

It was already dawn when the two Curse-Breakers finally finished. They looked quite exhausted, but both of them were smiling widely. "We've done it - broken through the wards of Azkaban," wizarding Bill said.

"Without breaking the protections that keep the Dementors contained," Fleur added. Her hair was still perfect - not a single one out of place - and her robes looked fresh and crisp. But she sounded and looked tired, and she was moving slowly and as if she were slightly tipsy.

"You'll need Pepper-Up Potions," Hermione said.

"We know," wizarding Bill agreed. "But we won't be doing any Curse-Breaking today, so it's OK."

"Just paperwork." Fleur smiled. "Though that's dangerous as well - it's hard not to fall asleep doing paperwork even on a normal day."

"A Curse-Breaker lives for danger." Wizarding Bill flashed them a cocky smile, but it came out slightly crooked when he yawned.

"Let me Side-Along-Apparate you home," Hermione said. She didn't wait for an answer and grabbed both of them by the hand. A moment later, all three disapparated.

"They were really exhausted," wizarding Luna commented. "Hermione wouldn't have been able to surprise them like that otherwise."

Which meant the two Curse-Breakers had been in more danger than they had thought, working on such powerful protections. If they had made a mistake...

Hermione reappeared. "Fleur doesn't like surprises," she said, wincing a little. "I'll check their work."

Of course, she had noticed their state as well. Ron was relieved - a mistake could've been fatal.

He followed Hermione to the top of the tank, where she cast several spells, then spent a few minutes staring at apparently nothing and mumbling under her breath. Then she nodded with a satisfied air. "I can't spot any mistakes. We'll still test it first, however, with a broom, I think."

Before they risked everyone else by flying the tank over the wardline. Ron nodded. Then he grabbed her wrist when she took out a shrunken broom. "I'll do it. You can levitate me if something goes wrong. And you can see disillusioned people. I can't."

She opened her mouth to protest, but he raised his eyebrows at her. He was correct, wasn't he?

She didn't propose something silly like a rope for him to drag her back with and instead nodded. Very reluctantly. Then she handed him her broom after unshrinking it.

He leaned over and kissed her, then straddled the broom, let her disillusion him and flew towards the island he still couldn't see.

Despite his confident smile, he held his breath until he suddenly saw Azkaban appear in front of him.

They had done it. They had broken into Azkaban.

Well, Ron was flying in Azkaban airspace. Far above the actual island, safely out of reach of the Dementors. But he was inside the wards. He turned the broom around and flew back towards the tank. Carefully and slowly - he couldn't see the tank, after all, and he didn't want to ram into it. Or fly past before Hermione could guide him back to it.

"Ron! Over here!"

Ah, there she was - he steered the broom towards her voice.

"Five more yards!"

He flew a little more, then stopped.

"One more yard!"

He rolled his eyes - which she couldn't see, fortunately - and edged the broom forward another step. It was hard to judge distances without any visible reference, anyway.

Then he could suddenly see the tank again - he was inside the area of effect of the tank's own Disillusionment Charm. And he could see Hermione beaming at him in the moonlight.

"It worked," he told her as he set down between her and the turret.

She nodded. "I noticed. Let's head inside so we can move in with the tank."

"Yes." And he could go back to being held in reserve for an emergency which wouldn't ever happen.

They climbed down the hatch. "We've tested it. We can pass through the wards," Hermione announced.

"Yes!" Sirius cheered. "Let's do this, then - we've been waiting long enough!" He climbed into the turret.

"We're not going to shoot the island," Hermione reminded him.

"We need to be ready for anything!" Sirius replied. "A tank without its gun being manned is just a target!"

Well, he wasn't wrong. But Ron didn't think that manning the gun would help too much versus intangible monsters. Or invisible flying wizards.

"Hold on, everyone!" Ginny's voice rang through the tank. "I'm going in!"

"Forward!" Sirius added.

Ron used one of the periscopes to watch the island appear once again. As before, he didn't feel anything when they crossed the wardline. Not that he should've, as a muggle, but still…

"OK. Park the tank over the eastern end of the island," Hermione said.

"Will do!" Ginny replied, quite enthusiastically, and the tank swerved before heading towards the end of the island opposite the prison.

"Let's get the tanks - the water tanks - ready to be deployed," Hermione said as soon as they had come to a stop.

"Alright." Ron and Harry went to the back of the tank, where the main ramp was located. They slipped into harnesses and clipped them to safety lines - which, Ron knew, had come from a plane.

"Feels like a cargo plane supply drop," Harry commented as they lowered the ramp. Ron suppressed a shudder at the cold wind - it hadn't been as cold on the broom. But that had been closer to the prison.

Hermione joined them with a floating water tank and a hose. "Don't get any on you. You don't want to have the DMSO enter your body," she told them.

"We know," Ron replied with a smile. She was obviously nervous and compensating by micro-managing. Harry rolled his eyes, though, and Hermione nodded, a little stiffly, at them.

"Feels a bit weird that we're doing this - we can't even see the Dementors," Ron's friend said.

"From this distance, you can't really aim anyway," Ron replied. "We're just hosing down the entire island. Like a water bomber with a never-ending water tank!"

Harry snorted as he grabbed the hose and climbed out on the ramp to push it through a gunport there and fix it in place, pointed downwards. That should keep a gust of wind from blowing the mixture back into the tank. The flying tank, not the water tank.

"All set up," Harry said as he climbed back in.

"Let's seal it up." Ron grabbed the curtain at the side and drew it across the ramp, then bent down to clip the edges closed while Harry did the same on the other side, only leaving a small gap for the hose.

"Everything's ready," Ron reported to the others once they had finished.

"Deploy the solution!" Luna yelled.

"Luna!" Hermione gasped.

"Yes?"

"Not you, the other Luna."

"I've always wanted to say that!" Luna giggled.

"Oh for… start it," Hermione said, turning towards Ron and Harry.

Hiding a grin, Ron opened the valve on the tank. He heard the solution rush through the hose and saw the rubber pipe buck a little from the pressure.

"Oh! It's hitting the Dementors that have gathered below us!" wizarding Luna said from where she was peering through a periscope - one modified to look down by Mr Weasley.

That explained the cold, Ron realised. "Does it work?"

"Not yet… They're still… Oh! Ew!"

"They've exploded," Hermione told them from her own spot. "As planned. Hose the area down a little longer, then start moving towards the prison. Slowly," Hermione told Ginny.

"Alright." Ginny sounded far too eager for what was actually a rather boring job if you couldn't actually see the monsters explode, in Ron's opinion. At least you could see the body parts left on the ground, though it was hard to spot the small remains from their altitude.

Then again, they had been working for this for so long, Ron couldn't stop himself from feeling happy, either.

Finally, those monsters would be gone.

They continued flying back and forth above this part of the island, spraying the DMSO mixture over the rocky ground.

"There's one trying to escape!" wizarding Luna yelled. "To the right! Our right! The other right!"

The tank shook a little as Ginny flew a weaving course. Obviously, the delivery mechanism could use some work.

On the other hand, Ron added to himself as wizarding Luna cheered, closely followed by Ginny and Luna when more body parts appeared on the island, the hose did spray the mixture over a rather wide area from this altitude, so it wasn't too much of a problem.

"They're fleeing towards the prison," Hermione said. "Dear Lord, look at their numbers!"

"A veritable horde," wizarding Luna agreed. "Although the correct term for a social group of Dementors hasn't yet been established. Mostly because few animals would like to be compared to them by having the same term used for Dementors. I fear we will have to invent one."

Ron shook his head. The wizarding Lovegoods had even worse priorities than the muggle ones.

"Let's hope that the guards will flee," Hermione said. "If so many Dementors rush the prison, even if they don't manage to get inside, their aura could overwhelm the guards."

"If they are too stupid to leave now, then they are too stupid to live," Harry mumbled.

"They should be flying away on their brooms already," Hermione said. "They were given keys to pass the wards for exactly such a situation - or for an attack by overwhelming forces from outside. So why aren't they fleeing? Did they forget to lock the doors? Or did they overlook a tunnel?"

"It doesn't look like the Dementors can enter the prison," wizarding Luna announced. "They're forming a cluster at the door. Oh! A Cluster of Dementors? What do you think?"

Ron thought that wizarding Luna showed precious little care for the Aurors and Hit-Wizards in the prison. On the other hand, if the Dementors couldn't enter…

"We could blow up the top of the tower. Flush them out," Sirius suggested. "A high-explosive shell would do it. Or two."

"We would also kill anyone who'd fled there," Hermione pointed out. She muttered a curse under her breath. "If they're still inside the prison, then they are now trapped. There are too many Dementors outside. Too close. We'll have to rescue the guards - after we destroy the Dementors."

Well, there was the emergency Ron had thought wasn't going to happen. Great. "If there are still people in the prison, then we can't flood the entire building."

"I'm aware of that," Hermione snapped. "Sorry," she added a moment later. "But this is… Why didn't the guards leave when they were suddenly besieged? It should've been obvious that they couldn't stay!"

"They were too dumb to realise it," Sirius said. "Sun Tsu's 'leave the enemy an obvious way out and they'll take it' plan only works if the way out is obvious enough for the enemy. If they're as thick as two short planks…"

"Or they were unwilling to flee," Harry added. "Too brave to retreat."

"Great. Our plan failed because of a Gryffindor stereotype," he heard Hermione mumble. "Keep the hose on the Dementors around the building. We need to clear them first."

Soon, the entire area was littered with body parts. Dementor parts, Ron silently corrected himself. "Do you see any more live ones on the island?" he asked.

"No," Hermione replied.

"I don't think so, unless they've managed to hide by covering themselves with the remains of the others," wizarding Luna said. "Like the Corpse Crab."

Ron wasn't going to ask about that creature. He looked at the prison. "We could wait until the guards recover and leave."

"We don't know what things are like inside the prison," Hermione replied. "If there are Dementors breaking into the basement, or which have just gathered too close…"

Ron sighed. "We'll need the hose to deal with them." And they'd have to wear hazmat suits to avoid getting splashed themselves. He didn't want to deal with water suddenly appearing inside his body in places in which it shouldn't appear.

Luna hummed the Ghostbusters theme.


She stared at the trapdoor. The open trapdoor. And she tried to ignore the snoring from the three-headed dog next to it. "We're too late. Snape's already got past Fluffy."

"Are you sure it's Snape?" Harry asked.

"Fluffy's asleep, but without any music being played," she explained. "And we know they're resistant to most spells and potions. That means whatever put him to sleep wasn't a normal spell or potion. And Snape knows both dark curses and exotic potions."

"And he acts like a Death Eater!" Ron added.

"And he's now on his way to steal the stone." Harry looked grim.

"We should get help," Hermione said.

"We tried. They didn't believe us," Ron pointed out.

"And we don't have time. We need to stop him ourselves," Harry said.

"We? We're first years!" she told them. "We don't know any curses!" Well, she didn't - and the boys better not know any curses, dark or otherwise! If she found out that they had managed to get hold of a restricted book and hadn't told her…

"No, we don't. But we don't need curses, though," Harry said. He was grinning. It looked forced, but he was grinning. He reached into his pocket. And his arm went in far deeper than should have been possible.

"You've got an Extension Charm on the pocket of your robe!" she exclaimed. She needed that on her book bag! And her trunk!

"Yes. Madam Malkin adds them for a fee," Harry told her as he rummaged around in his pocket. "Ah!"

He pulled out a jar. A jar full of buzzing bugs. Wasps. Or hornets. Or… "Macedonian Murder Wasps!" he announced. "I nicked this from Hagrid during our last visit. If the jar breaks, they'll attack the closest creature and won't stop! Snape will be too busy getting stung to curse us!"

"They're not literally murder wasps, are they?" she asked. She didn't want to kill Snape. Even if he was a nasty, mean, ill-tempered bigot who shouldn't be a teacher if he were the last wizard on Earth. Well, she didn't really want to kill him.

"Nope. Hagrid said you'd need two jars to kill someone," Harry told her with a grin.

"So… we throw the jar, then we start hexing the git. From a distance. While he's dealing with the wasps. Three versus one. We can do it." Ron nodded repeatedly, but he sounded as if he were trying to convince himself.

Hermione needed some convincing herself. And Harry wasn't half as confident as he appeared.

Yet none of them stayed behind when they went through the trapdoor.