Hannah needed only a short time to take stock of the situation; she already knew her friend needed help. She wanted to hug Hermione after not seeing her for so long, but apparently there were more pressing matters. Another enemy was coming into the window and this one was more skilled than the last. She shielded instinctively, but the wizard responded by blasting her eyes with some kind of painful light curse, blinding her through the shield. Responding aggressively out of an inability to dodge whatever came next, she used an explosive charm, which caused him to scream in pain.

Blind, she could not see whether or not he presented any further threat, so she tried to heal her eyes, though it felt like the fog of white was clearing. Someone shouted from somewhere that she had only blasted his right hand off. Only? The explosive charm works on humans? I thought I would hit-

"Reducto!" she cast again, this time at the screams, this time close enough to where even a blind witch could not miss, and this time there was no scream afterward. As her vision cleared she could tell her enemy had been going for his wand with his other hand until she blew up most of his head, which got blood everywhere. Great. Now everyone on the order thinks I'm a monster. Shielding out the window, she reminded herself she really was a monster, and there were more pressing matters to attend.

Hannah, I need your help with something. It was Hermione's voice speaking in her mind.

Yes? It felt weird letting down her Occlumency, but this was her friend. She looked outside, but there were no visible threats by her window.

I think we've killed most of the Legilimens among the enemy. They would have been the most susceptible to what I'm about to try again. In a few minutes, I need you to really batten down the hatches.

What is this? Some kind of mental attack- wait, I think the shield charm works against active Legilimency. It was in that book you gave me. There was no response for a second. She cast a stunner just in case there was someone invisible outside, but the spellfire did not appear to hit anyone.

You might be right. In that event, this might be useless. I need to try something else.

Hermione, however, was left with no further choice as the doors were thrown open. All at once all the wands in the room were pointing out and all the wands outside were pointing in; the spells were indistinguishable from their number; neither could she tell who was shielding; everywhere there were overlapping translucent shields of every description. An old man fell over almost immediately, but at least it seemed some of the others were going down. When one wizard charged right into their spells, someone brought him down with a killing curse and the shields of the invaders turned an inky black.

Laughter rang out as they pressed in, the Order forces on the retreat; a middle aged wizard running for it as his killing curses proved ineffective. She found herself going with an adult witch as they went out the window, the others apparently going up the stairs. Breathlessly she tried to ask what they were going to do, millions of unhelpful ideas running through her head. She had attempted the killing curse a few times, but with the dark shields, the fact she had not managed it was no longer relevant.

"You're not meant to be able to block it," she complained, if a measure uselessly. The witch who had gone with her out the window, and now crouched beneath the very same window, was Andromeda Tonks. She scanned the interior of the room.

"There are five of them that I can see. I do not believe our friend Diggle is dead yet, but he has not long." She looked back at Hannah. "The killing curse, along with other works of the dark arts, can be blocked with a physical shield. Magical shields are quicker and do a better job of blocking most spells. It was only a matter of time before someone came up with something that could block both light and dark magic."

Hannah scowled, but said nothing. The killing curse can't travel through physical barriers. Physical objects can't travel through conventional magical barriers. Spells that can travel through physical barriers can't travel through magical barriers. Levitating a book from the floor, she tossed it to one of the invaders in the room. Physical objects can travel through dark shields.

She tried reaching out to Hermione, but all she could do was make herself available apart from mastering Legilimency in the next few minutes. Andromeda noticed her development and looked like she was about to collapse the ceiling, but remembered their friends were still up there. Hermione must have put unrelated wards down to allow them to retreat upstairs. If there were people trying to get in through the windows down here, they might be dealing with someone who can fly up there. The Hufflepuff witch hated that she could not join and help, but if Ron were there, he would say that dividing up the enemy was the only chance they had.

"Night is falling. We can get-"

"Shh-" Hannah interrupted. "I see someone." The doors opened again and there was a relatively light skinned witch with no hair. She was speaking English, which seemed to make everyone else suspicious of her, but enough of them spoke it to where they at least understood her.

"That's my daughter," Andromeda said. "While she's distracting them, we need to deal with the ones out here. There can't be any more than two or three."

Crawling around the edge of the great manor, there were indeed three of them, hanging around the door, though they would not be there long if they saw people go out the window. Wordlessly they decided to go after the wizard who was by himself first, noticing he had a staff and was followed by something canine that appeared to be made of magic. The beast was probably not one of the spirit creatures Terry mentioned, but she guessed she could not entirely rule it out. It's not just Hogwarts students who research foreign magical theory.

Hannah put up a muffling charm and Andromeda hit him in the back with a killing curse as soon as he was out of sight of the others. The sound was not going to travel through the muffled zone, according to Hermione, because the sound waves needed an environment in which they could propagate. It was clear enough that the older witch was a bit rusty with magic, but she must have practiced the killing curse at least, which she supposed was a good place to start if there was a war on. She still hated the idea of killing people, especially after she got away from the Ministry school by leaving a slew of partially shrunken bodies in her wake.

Unfortunately the other invaders looked the wrong way when they took out the wizard and figured out their position. Hannah shielded and raised a bit of earth in front of them to protect against dark magic, Andromeda killed the one still standing up while the other jumped for cover. Annoyed, the Hufflepuff used a fire charm to get him to move, but heard something right behind her and rolled over as she realized the magic beast had caught their scent. She use a magical shield to give herself a moment to think as the dark wizard dodged curses and responded with a few of his own. She heard several loud bangs from the manor as she put more shields up, blocking the bizarre creatures inside a rough cube before turning back to the wizard. He had taken the opportunity to fire something that looked dangerous at her, and she could only think to respond by throwing herself over the box of shields.

Andromeda found her staring straight up, dazed after hitting her head harder than she would have liked, if it was nothing life-threatening.

"We have to get out of here. Our allies probably apparated to another Order base-"

"That wasn't Apparation," Hannah explained, getting to her feet. "Those were gunshots." She could feel Hermione trying to get into her head as they made their way back to the side of the manor.

Hannah, please, I know you're busy, but I need to speak with you for a moment.

Where did you get a gun?

There was a muggle militant whose memory had to be modified. For some reason, he left a weapon behind, and Diggle was worried a child might pick it up- I figured that since Ilsbeth of Silesia describes dark magic as a perversion of the natural world, ignoring its laws- that doesn't matter either- I need you to open your mind.

My mind is open. You're in it. She waved a hand to Andromeda in an attempt to demonstrate that she was in a conversation.

Not entirely. You have more than one mind.

What?

Have you ever noticed you can hear better than a normal human?

I'm not a human.

That's right. You're never fully human or fully beast. In this state you're mostly human, and in a few minutes you're going to be mostly beast.

Hannah froze. She could to some extent blame the jet lag for not remembering it was a full moon, but of course Hermione would know.

Have you ever heard of the yin and yang?

Hermione, is that what this is? Did werewolves come from China?

I don't think so. The origin of werewolves is quite apocryphal. A magical theory I read there, however, is starting to make more sense.

I've been told I have two bodies and two minds, basically.

Good, I don't want to have to go over that. This conversation is taking place orders of magnitude more quickly than a spoken conversation, but- basically, in some sense, your beast body and mind are there, under the surface, even while you're in human form.

That idea was hard to process. She knew she could smell things there was no way she could smell as a human, but did it have an effect on her mind as well? She tried to think of times where she acted on instinct rather than-

Hermione, I'm a monster. Everything we thought about werewolves is wrong. They're not just fine for most of the month-

Hannah, I desperately need you to get a hold of yourself. In a few minutes, Bakr is most likely going to apparate here with Sirius, Wahde, and a few more dark wizards, unless he does not receive the message that the invasion was successful.

She tried to focus on the task at hand, not replying. Andromeda was only looking at her with concern.

If it makes you feel any better, we're all animals. I'm an animal. I have instincts.

Hermione, I can feel the change starting.

Get Andromeda to summon silver and hold a piece of it. She did as ordered without thinking about it. The older witch summoned a silver locket and put it around her neck.

Why are we doing this?

Have you ever noticed you don't sustain any injuries from when you were a beast? Hannah shook her head. That's right; you don't remember. Silver is the only way to kill a werewolf apart from dark magic because it links your human form with your beast form. I need Andromeda to put you through the window right as you start to change and ward it behind you. Tonks will know to get out of there.

She could feel the physical change taking place already, and she could feel her human mind retreating. Hermione was still talking to her, though it was getting progressively harder to understand what she was saying. Silently and in less than conscious thoughts she begged for her friend to continue as the witch behind her removed the ward on the window. It was no challenge getting in herself, nor was it to draw the attention of everyone in the room as a witch she presumed to be Tonks slipped away, bringing with her the crumpled form of an old wizard.

It was then that the beast took over.

Charging through the hastily erected shields, she tore through a wizard's throat with her claws before trying to do the same to a witch, who retreated and sent some sort of dark curse at her. Leaping out of the way, she put herself close to another target; she grabbed and sunk her teeth into a witch's wand arm, careful to snap both bones before moving again. A wizard shot fire and ice in her direction from the same staff, and she only managed to avoid part of each blast before closing the distance, but the magic did little more than singe part of her coat while frosting another. Once she was on top of him, she grabbed him and moved him into the path of a dark curse from the last witch standing. A wizard attacked her from behind, throwing her through the air and painfully onto the ground.

The moment before she could form a conscious thought, she rolled out of the way of a dark curse and got back on her feet. The man's body was glowing with a picture of what she instinctively recognized to be a runespoor. He was strong; a fair measure stronger than she was, but she was confident she was the better fighter. Leaping out of the way of each of his successive blows, she put him between her and the witch, forcing the witch to reposition herself. Even if he is strong, he doesn't have anything that could kill me.

Ducking under one of his punches, she set her clawed fingers together and jabbed them under his ribs, taking a hit from a dark curse as he spat up blood. The curse, fortunately, did not kill her, but it hurt her like nothing ever had. It was the first time the beast had even considered retreating, but she knew there was little she could do against dark magic. Without any other enemies in the room, she had no one else to put between her and the threat. If I go out the window, she will not be able to follow me.

Throwing herself through a broken window, she found feel the silver against her chest and the mental pressure from a witch upstairs, but she forced herself to run all the same. All of a sudden, however, she was restrained. Her body was bound by silver chains, probably conjured by the witch who was making her way toward her. A dog approached from another direction. He seemed less like a threat, as well as on the same side as the witch.

"Hello, beast, my name is Andromeda Tonks. This is my cousin, Sirius. Hermione is sorry she could not keep a mental link with you through your transformation, but this is the first time she has tested her theory."

The beast only growled.

"Don't worry about the other witch; Hermione, Charlie, and Mundungus will be more than enough to handle her. What we need you to do now is sleep and let us break one of the curses on you." There was a blackness obscuring her vision and she could only think it was dark magic, but she was effectively powerless to resist as she lost consciousness. She felt the presence of the human in the dark as she slept. It was not the normal circumstance, where one mind was awake and the other was asleep; it was as if they were both in a state of semi-consciousness. Unfortunately for the witch trying to communicate with one or both of them, neither was in any fit state to respond, and she slept.

When Hannah woke up, it was morning and she was in a strange bed. Looking over to her right and left, Hermione was sleeping in a chair and Andromeda Tonks was awake. She tried to form words, to ask what had happened while her beast form was in charge, but she felt like she had a massive headache all of a sudden. Fortunately, the adult witch seemed to anticipate this and handed her a potion.

"If you are wondering where everyone else is, my daughter has reassigned herself to help my husband with something. Sirius and Wahde, you have not met, though you may have heard about them, arrived last night after exiting negotiations with Bakr of the Draa. Our friend Diggle is still alive, though I cannot say whether he will remain alive for long. Poppy Pomfrey is looking over him."

"He'll be fine," Hannah said, having been in the witch's care before. The beginnings of a theory that some old Hogwarts staff would be joining them now that the Order had established itself formed in her mind, but she turned her attention to something else. "What happened with the negotiations?"

"Hermione made it her primary mission to keep the invaders from contacting their master after Sirius told us that he would state he was confident the Order would win, and that would be obvious when no victorious call came back. Apparation was blocked both ways, the floo is not really familiar to most people from this region, and no owl or other bird would be able to get through the warding. Even if we had to flee, there was a chance that it would still seem like a victory."

"I'm confused." She tried sitting up. "What did we win?"

"When you survive a fight to the death, the reward is normally the rest of your life. In this instance, however, Sirius only asked that if we won, and the invaders did not report a success, the dark wizards would acknowledge that we are the legitimate Order of the Phoenix, with Wahde being a spiritual successor to the late Albus Dumbledore."

"They agreed to that?" Hannah asked.

"Bakr most likely knew failure would but him in no position to refuse demands, with most of his fighting force gone, and he was quite confident the imminence of his victory. His servants gave him the impression the Order was spread out, but quite small in number, and a couple anti-apparation jinxes would be enough to fix a few of us in place."

"Was that why we installed the Floo?"

"Having a mechanism of travel that we exclusively control is certainly a good thing, but the initial reason was because you and Hermione, as well as your friends in Belize, have not yet learned to apparate. I should mention that we managed to capture a few dark wizards and witches alive, and currently they reside in the dungeon beneath the manor, though I suppose more properly it is simply a pit."

"Bakr got away, then?"

"When Sirius and Wahde announced their victory, he still had his personal guard. He knew better than to harm either of them, but it was not as if they could apprehend him. He will likely remain a feared dark wizard, which is ultimately better for our plans."

"You're starting to sound like Diggle," a voice from the doorway said. It was Hermione.

"I can hardly help that," she said, getting up to leave. "We are from the same House, after all." She turned around as she got to the door. "There was something Dumbledore told us when he accepted his new position as Headmaster. Hogwarts will always remain as long as there are those who remain loyal."

"Thank you, Mrs. Tonks," the Ravenclaw said. "For the record, I think you would make a good teacher."

Hannah told her friend what happened to Ron as soon as they were alone. She was concerned, clearly, but even if she was riding the rush of victory, she was confident she could do something to help. The Hufflepuff felt as though she could hardly even explain what was wrong; she kept having to use Burmese words that she in turn had to explain, but at length Hermione simply stopped her from explaining.

"It's okay. We'll work together and figure something out, like always."

"We still don't know where Terry is," she said. "Ron wanted to go after him, but he didn't have a ghost of a lead-"

"The Death Eaters are as spread out as we are, Hannah. We'll have to do our best." Her friend sat on the bed next to her. She was not the best of comforters, but it looked like she was trying.

"He might die, though... He might be dying right now, as we're talking about him."

"Hannah, wherever he goes, he'll be pleased to know we still remember him and we still care about him." She sighed a little. "It circles back to what Mrs. Tonks said. Hogwarts isn't gone as long as we remain loyal. I can't tell you what happened to the wards without looking, but nothing whatever dark wizard did to the stone or magic of the castle was half so deleterious as what the students did to the school."

She allowed her friend's words to sink in, remembering how they turned it into a battleground, the winner at which meant to turn it into a propaganda machine. Exhausted in more ways than one, she wanted to rest, but she had to get back to Burma before Mad-Eye left without telling anyone, and if one thing were certain, her friend was coming with her. There were a number of stupid ideas in her head, but at this point she could not think of anything dumber than splitting up.