Granger, we need to talk
Chapter 45
"We plan, we get there, and all hell breaks loose." (1)
Official disclaimer.
Pick any you like from a previous chapter.
It's not mine.
It's hers.
It's amazing how much better my proofreading skills become after I hit the SEND key
About 5,000 words.
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The plan was on track and Harry was counting down from five when his magical sense picked up the blooming of anti-apparition and anti-portkey jinxes over the castle.
The greatest threat in the room jumped up and shouted something Harry could not make out.
"Ah, Merlin damn it . . ." he thought as he let fly a curse to the man's back.
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Harry was taking no chances. No fair play, no warnings. This bloke was just too powerful. The Diffindo Cutting Curse left Harry's wand for the back of the assassin's neck.
Harry watched in amazement as his target tried to leap to his right from the table, tripped and fell flat on his face, the curse flying over him to make a groove in the wall over the doorway.
Mentally cursing, Harry strung together the group's signature spell chain of Stupefy, Accio, Incarcerous and as soon as the ropes formed on the prone thug, he quickly looked around the room.
First, the two thugs guarding the prisoners had been taken down and wrapped in magical ropes by Ginny and Luna with Neville as backup. Hermione and Daphne had done the same with the other two actually wrapped up in their chairs still at the table. And the four had a collection of wands and portkeys
Now the screaming and yelling started from the ex-captives. Harry could see Ron clutching Mils to him. Lord Bulstrode was frantically waving at him to get his attention over the cacophony.
"Sonorous," incanted Harry. "QUIET!
Harry's roar stunned the mob into silence. "Lord Bulstrode, what do you need?"
"Harry, the head assassin is not here! That is not him," Pic said loudly, pointing at the pirate Harry had taken down. "The leader of these cutthroats is down at the dock waiting for something. I think he is waiting for either the Lady Amphitrite or some boat he sent to capture her. I assume they did not capture her? Is the crew alright?"
"Yes, sir, the crew is mostly alright. Two were wounded, one badly, " Harry replied. "We left the boat the pirates were using out of control and burning."
"Good", was the vengeful growl from Picinicus
Harry followed up. "Someone has erected anti-apparition and anti-portkey jinxes over the castle."
Harry looked at the two Aurors and asked demanded, "Report."
The obviously older of the pair looked at him mulishly and stated, "We don't report to you, kid."
Daphne, who had stunned the felon standing behind the two suddenly walked up and slammed her hands down upon the speaker's shoulders.
"However," she barked, "You will report to Lord Longbottom of Longbottom and Lord Potter-Black. If you do not, I suspect you will lose your pretty uniforms, your shiny Auror badges, and be sitting in a Knockturn Alley dive cursing fate and blaming everyone except yourselves for your pigheadedness by sundown!"
The younger Auror, with Junior Auror stripes on his uniform, jumped up to the position of attention. "Sir, we were told to floo here in response to a request for Aurors from this castle."
At that point, the young man looked down sheepishly. "As soon as we emerged, we were disarmed and marched into this room at wandpoint and told to sit and be silent."
The junior Auror suddenly looked anxious. "Do you think someone came here to rescue us?" he said hopefully.
"Yeah, us," snarked Ginny.
The noise was starting to build again. "Quiet," yelled Harry. That was followed by "Accio wands of all the ex-hostages we have freed."
A moment later, a slew of wands came streaking through the doorway. Harry directed them to the table in front of Ron and Millicent. "Grab your wands and let's go," he admonished. "Mils, get us to the main doors as fast as possible. If the Aurors are not expecting someone as powerful as the Leader, they will need all the help they can get."
"Ron, you all right? What happened to your face?" Harry asked. His friend's face had several bruises formed on it.
"I will be all right in a moment, and the bruises are from when I tried fighting back. They won," was the answer back.
Ron snatched his wand out of the pile, spun and cast a Bone Breaker at the legs of the thug lying on the ground in back of where Millicent had been sitting.
"That's for molesting my girlfriend!" he yelled over the screaming of the shatter-legged thug.
The enraged young man was winding up to hex the ex-guard again.
"We don't have time for this, Ron," said a clearly exasperated Harry, knocking his wand arm up.
With Millicent leading, the group of eight thundered through the corridors before almost piling up at the main door.
"Alright, gasped Harry. "Let's ease through the door and if we see the pirate leader out there, we hit him with every nasty, non-dark curse we know. Remember, I think Shacklebolt is here with a passel of Aurors. No casting dark stuff someone can call us on."
Easing the door open, Harry peeked around the edge and ducked right back again.
There was a dazzling, deadly spell fight going on less than a hundred feet in front of the door.
Three men dressed like the others the group had left trussed in the castle were engaged in a dangerous-looking spell fight with two Aurors and Minister Shacklebolt. They were ducking and weaving like madmen away from the bright streaks of spells being cast their way. All too many of which were the sickly green of a Killing Curse.
The good news was the pirate scum were dodging just as hard.
The bad news was Harry could see amongst the bodies, the red uniforms of several Aurors sprawled on the cobblestone pavement nearer the piers.
Harry quickly leaned back inside the door. "Disillusionment Charm everyone. We are going to sneak in as close as possible, so, spread out in a line, and do one of those 'every-one-casts-at-the-leader' attacks. He can't dodge eight simultaneous spells."
"Just remember to spread the attacks out so he has nowhere to dodge. Middle of the line cast directly at him. I'll take in back of him and the last two of us, aim in front of him. Protectors, be ready to shield after the first cast. When I yell 'now', hit him hard."
"Oh, and pay attention. The bad blokes are throwing Avada's around like confetti. As soon as we are out the door, be ready to dodge."
Eight wands tapped eight heads and as everyone disappeared, Harry eased the door open walked across the door to anchor the left end of the line. Behind him, eight phantoms ghosted out into the cobblestone courtyard.
Harry knew they were not invisible as they were moving too fast for the spell to work properly.
However, everyone already fighting in the courtyard should be too busy to notice the faint specters walking rapidly towards them.
The group was just entering long wand casting range when an Auror and one of the minions went down.
The leader, with a shout of triumph, cast a sizzling yellow spell at the downed Auror causing Shacklebolt to cast a shield that barely protected the wounded woman.
Now the skilled leader was pressing Shack hard. With him tied down to protect the wounded Auror, he was now almost totally on the defensive and fatigue was starting to slow his movements.
"Seven, six, five, four, three," Harry was counting the steps remaining down.
Unfortunately, at three, the leader managed to tag Shacklebolt with something that crunched through his hasty Protego, and threw him onto his back.
With a cry of victory, the triumphant leader stepped forward, raising his wand for the killing blow.
"Now." Instant of delay, "Bombarda Maxima," roared Harry as he cast.
Almost simultaneously, seven other destructive, deadly spells erupted from the now visible line of teenagers.
Harry was able to see the look of pure astonishment on the face of the pirate leader as his head whipped towards the new threat.
Once again, the cat-like reflexes of the assassin kicked in as he leaped backward.
Later on, it was hard to say whether the move was as bad as shielding would have been or worse as his leap carried him into the zone of blasted cobblestone shrapnel Harry's spell had created. Harry would always maintain that he was trying to incapacitate the assassin which was why he aimed at the courtyard cobblestones. He wanted a live body for questioning.
The human-sized, blood and gore spraying rag doll that flew thirty feet from the spell's impact, was never going to tell any information to anyone.
Sometimes emotion over-rules intent when casting spells.
While Harry stared at the result of his emotionally over-powered hex, the groups' appearance distracted the remaining minion and the last standing Auror dropped him where he had stood.
The remaining Auror, after a quick look at the group, hurried over to the still sprawled Minister for Magic. Apparently, he had decided the grim bunch of battle-armoured warriors was on his side. Harry could tell from the wand movements he was dropping the anti-portkey and apparition jinxes. Then, more movements as he tapped in code on his badge.
Meanwhile, the Hogwarts group spread out checking on the conditions of the physical condition of the other Aurors. What first aid they knew was being applied to the still living by Ginny, Luna and Daphne.
Their rest made sure nobody sneak attacked them while they were busy.
It only took a few more minutes for Aurors to begin apparating into the courtyard. Auror Emergency MedTech's took over most of the stabilization and healing. They were soon joined by the Mediwitch from the castle. The severely wounded were stabilized and portkeyed to St. Mungo's. The dead were collected and Auror forensic specialists started trying to identify mercenary piratical corpses.
After the first rush, the students gathered into a loose cluster near the door. After informing the aurors of the dozen castle invaders trussed up inside, they just stayed out of the way. Harry walked over and had a brief word with the Senior Auror and soon afterward two broom riders were airborne and heading out to where the Lady Amphitrite should be.
Next was a brief conversation with Minister Shacklebolt. Harry returned with his face set hard and anger glittering in his eyes.
"Let's go see your father, Millicent," he snarled.
The students were not trying to keep silent now and their booted steps were resounding off the hallways. They found Lord Bulstrode still in Dining Hall talking to a note-taking Auror. Seeing the approaching group, the red-robed Auror bowed slightly, put away his quill and note board, and with a murmured greeting to Harry, walked away.
Considering the thunderous scowl on the Man-Who-Conquered's face, discretion seemed advisable.
"Pik, what happened here? I've talked with Minister Shacklebolt about them being ambushed outside when they came to find out what was wrong here. Those two Aurors didn't report back after they arrived here, so Shack commandeered some more Aurors, and came here because I had asked him to keep an eye on Kingswood this weekend."
"Lord Potter Bl . ."
"It's Harry, Pik."
"Harry, at the moment, I don't know how they got in. One of the first things I'm going to do is floo Gringotts and politely chew on some goblin's ass about how easy their much-vaunted wards collapsed so fast."
"The second call will be to Kingwood to see if he is even thinking of checking with Central Floo Control as to why we had our floo cut off."
"As a favour, please don't make that second call," said Harry. "Let them think nobody noticed or paid attention. They won't run, and Kingswood's successor will Veratiserum them up to their eyeballs, and probably break open a whole Dark conspiracy in the Ministry."
Lord Bulstrode hoped his face did not give away his surprise at the casual way Lord Potter-Black had mentioned the head of the DMLE was going to be replaced. That sort of action always took weeks or months of politicking and favour trading. Harry radiated calm assurance that it would be different this time.
"It's exactly the type of excuse we've been looking for to start cleaning out whole Ministry departments that Shack, the Black Sisters, and Daphne have been waiting for," Harry finished.
Harry clapped Pik on the back. "Speaking of which, Minister Shacklebolt is in your courtyard right now and I'd wager a comfortable chair and a glass of firewhiskey would be welcome right now."
"Shack's a good man, Pik. I think the two of you will get along just fine."
"Besides, Captain Sulstrude will be making port with the Lady A in about two hours. The Aurors will have to be here until then." Harry's hand ruffled his hair in embarrassment. "We left your beautiful Lady in somewhat of a mess."
Lord Bulstrode nodded at Harry, grabbed the young man Harry knew was his Heir having met him last month and left.
Harry turned and looked over at his group of friends. They were looking as tired as he was feeling. The adrenaline was starting to burn out of their systems and their drooping body language told of exhaustion overtaking them. Even Luna, which was surprising to Harry.
He forced himself to walk over and ask, "Everyone ready to leave? I made a deal with Shack that the Aurors will wait until tomorrow at Hogwarts to question us about what we witnessed happening."
Among the answering headshakes and 'yeah's', both Ron and Millicent demurred.
"Mils wants to make sure her family is alright. If we have to, she knows some people on local farms whose floo's we can use to get back to Hogwarts later," Ron explained.
Harry could understand Mils wanting to check with everyone in her family.
"We'll see you two later," said Harry.
The remaining weary six made their way out a side door and walked away from the castle until Harry felt they were clear.
With everyone touching the rope ring, Harry intoned "Hoggy, hoggy, Hogwarts," and with a swirl, the six were deposited just outside the school's gates. It would be a losing bet that Harry would land without incident. As he stumbled, he managed to take Neville and Ginny with him as the remaining three looked on with amusement.
Unfortunately, they had also landed among a large group of students returning from Hogsmeade.
The appearance of half a dozen grimy, battered-looking, dragonhide armoured students at the front gates on a pleasant but cold Sunday afternoon would always arouse curiosity. When the group had patently been in a fight and was obviously lead by Lord Harry Potter-Black, the curiosity quotient exploded like a Weasley firework.
With a few scowls to clear the way, the six temporarily threw off their weariness and strode confidently through the gates into the castle. In the Entry Hall, they were met by a rapidly approaching Headmistress.
As they stopped in front of one another, McGonagall's stern visage morphed into a look of concern as her count of returning students was obviously shorter than the amount that had left.
As she glared at Harry, he said the two missing would be back later.
"Headmistress," Harry said sweeping his arm to include everyone. "We have had a very long night and stressful day. The Aurors will be here tomorrow to take our statements about todays . . . troubles. If they agree, we will be more than happy to have you listen in as to what happened."
He thought for a moment. "Some of the information is sensitive, and you may need to take a secrecy oath as Family Magic will be involved."
McGonagall's lips thinned briefly, then she nodded and with a head twitch, sent them on their way to their third-floor dormitory.
The moving stairs off the Grand Entrance must have sensed how badly the group wanted to get 'Home' to their rooms. The stairs lined up and with no waiting, they were at the Eights common room entrance.
There they all looked at each other. Nobody wanted to be separated.
"Alright then," Harry said tiredly. "Warriors meeting in our Eight's bathing pool in half an hour."
As he turned, he stated absolutely straight-faced, "Swimsuits optional."
That earned him a shoulder shove from Hermione.
"Owww, woman. Haven't you had enough violence for the day?"
Something flashed behind her eyes and Harry enfolded her in a hug. "Sorry." A moment later he reached out an arm and gathered Daphne in making it a three-way.
None of them noticed the other trio slipping away through the door.
"C'mon, let's get cleaned up so we don't stain the bath. Ginny gets tired of being tasked with cleaning just because she is best with the spells."
Once they entered the Head of House quarters, Harry and Hermione dropped their cloaks and started peeling off their armour as they entered Harry's room. Daphne hesitated a moment before slowly following suit.
Daphne had just dropped her dragon hide jacket and vest on the floor, and was reaching slowly for her hide pants when she gathered the courage to look up from the floor to see Harry was in his boxers. She quickly averted her eyes by jerking her sight over to Hermione who had peeled off her pants and had been openly watching Harry as he undressed.
What now surprised Daphne, was the form-fitting grey long-sleeved tee-shirt and pants she was now showing.
Hermione caught her startled gaze and divined the questioned look.
"Thermal underwear for skiing. Keeps you warm on those snowy slopes," she said. "They also work on fishing boats on the freezing ocean come to think of it. And in draughty old castles in the middle of winter too."
"Come on, you two," interrupted Harry. "Let's go. Time is getting short. We have people to see and discussions to have."
With that, he turned away, dropped his boxers, and strolled to the en suite door. Both young women's eyes followed him all the way into the room.
Hermione turned and tiredly grinned at Daphne. "Come along. If you don't, you will regret it."
With that, she walked over, pushed Daphne into sitting on the bed, and started removing her boots and two layers of socks. The blonde was removing her top shirt and stood to take off her pants.
She was lost in her own mind, body functioning on Auto-point-me, as she wondered what to do. This was a test of some type. It had to be.
She was yanked out of her reverie by Hermione who was standing in front of her, removing her bra and dropping that, starting rolling her thumbs under her knickers. Daphne was surprised at how graceful the brown-haired girl made removing them look.
Hermione looked at her solemnly. "Bras and knickers are generally not considered bathing wear. Lose the underwear. I'm dirty, getting impatient, and you have no idea how titillating it is to have Harry wash your hair."
Daphne just stared at her, mind spinning. Hermione sighed, stepped close, spun her around, and unhooked her bra. She then pushed the shoulder straps off, hooked a finger between the cups and popped the undergarment off her chest onto the floor.
"You are going to have to take off those stylish knickers yourself," she said sardonically. "We aren't that intimate yet." She shrugged. "In the future? Maybe, maybe not."
Really not thinking by this point, Daphne stripped off her knickers and allowed herself to be towed into the bathing room.
She did not even see Harry until Hermione swept the cloth shower curtain aside. The shock made her dig her heels in.
A look of exasperation crossed Hermione's face. "Nothing is going to happen that you do not want to happen. And even if you wanted it to happen, we do not have enough time before meeting up with the others.'
The stinging swat to her arse had Daphne jumping into the small water sprayed space where trying to keep from touching her green-eyed warrior was impossible.
Hermione stepped into the warm, cascading water and somehow inserted herself in-between Daphne and Harry. "Wash my back, Harry?" she purred over her shoulder. "Daph, turn around and I'll wash yours and your hair."
Though she was as wound tight as a spring due to the totally unfamiliar situation she was in, the blonde found herself relaxing under her sister-wife-to-be attentions. She could not remember ever having anyone wash her hair before, and found the experience profoundly relaxing.
Hermione's voice jolted her out of her musings. "Shift. Harry, you do my front and Daphne, will you wash my hair, please?"
She latched onto the offered shampoo and started massaging into the water flattened mane in front of her, desperately trying to not watch, yet wanting to watch, Harry's soapy hands. She concentrated on hair washing and found it was surprisingly satisfying to wash Hermione's heavy mop of hair, and then work conditioner into place to attempt to tame the wild mane.
"Why don't you get out and dry off while I finish washing Harry's back and hair," Hermione suggested, not meeting her eyes.
Daphne, who had been nervously enjoying herself, found she was of two minds. She was reluctant to leave, but staying would probably be more than she wanted to know.
Stepping out and grabbing a warm, fluffy towel left by the ever-attentive castle elves, she was soon dry enough to don a robe and walk into the bedroom. She was about to use her usual hair-drying charm when she remembered they were headed to the Eight's Bath and Hot Tub room, and drying her hair was a waste.
She was sitting on the bed wondering what to do when five minutes later the other two showed up. Hermione had an insufferably smug look and Harry was looking slightly embarrassed.
Hermione walked over to her wardrobe, grabbed a camisole and transfigured it into a stylish green and silver one-piece swimsuit. She then tossed it at Daphne.
"Stylish, sexy, yet not so much skin you will be embarrassed in front of company."
Seeing Harry's back was turned, the blonde wriggled into the suit until she had it covering her 'private parts' before dropping the robe so she could get the straps up over her shoulders. She had been so slow that by the time she looked up, the other two, already in their robes, were looking at her expectantly.
The three made the short walk down the hall to the Pool Room. (As it had been christened.)
There, Daphne was shocked again. As the robes were draped on wall hooks, she acquired a look at her proposed mates bathing wear. The long-legged crimson suit Harry was wearing was odd in that he had no top shirt. She had seen him shirtless before, but this time her stomach gave a flop-flop that was un-nerving. She jerked her eyes over to Hermione. That was no better as she was sporting a tiny, dark green, two-piece suit that seemed to barely cover her bits.
The blonde PureBlood had seen the First Wife actually nude before. (Not naked. Naked was for bints!) However, the bits that were covered made her sexier than stark nudity.
Plopping into the swirling waters of the magically heated hot tub, (which the Mundane born insisted was not a true hot tub. It wasn't a jacassa (2) or . . something?) no one felt like saying anything.
It was about five more minutes before the trio of Neville, Ginny and Luna entered.
The shocks kept coming to Daphne's sense of propriety. With no robes, Neville had a very small black handkerchief (?) covering his man parts, Ginny had an impossibly smaller three bitty triangles covering her lady bits and Luna had nothing. She was nude.
Yet, the slim, dark blonde-haired girl carried herself so well, so naturally, it was easy to miss her lack of clothes.
With six of them in the swirling, foamy circular tub, it took a moment before everyone had their sitting spot and their feet not entangled.
It was another lo-o-ng several minutes before Harry started talking.
"Back in the old days, well over a hundred years ago, after a hard bloody battle, the warriors of the day would gather 'round a campfire and talk about the battle."
"The veterans would try to help the first-timers come to grips with all that they had seen that day. The horror of combat, and the terror of watching comrades die. The dread that you would be the next one death came for, and the feeling of being totally lost and helpless due to the chaos of battle around you."
Harry paused for a moment while he looked at each of the others. "Tonight, we don't have a meadow. We don't have a campfire. However, we do have a place where we are warm, the heat is easing our aches and the warmth is soothing our spirit."
Harry let the silence grow.
"I know how scared I was when I finally got a look at the pirate ship. It just felt wrong." Harry was off in his memory and didn't notice that the lights in the room were dimming and flickering torches were starting to provide light by fire.
"When that werewolf hit the deck and started lunging at us, I thought we were in big trouble. When it dodged our first volley of silver spikes, I started feeling panicky. Then Hermione nailed him and one of you guys," Harry gestured at the others, "made sure he was never getting back up again, ever. Thank you."
Daphne followed with the fear she felt as the amount of cover from spells kept changing as the waves lifted one or the other ships. She had been terribly afraid that some spell would sneak past her and hit the others in the back.
Neville followed, telling of Luna and him having more pirates apparating around them than in front of them. They had ended up desperately fighting while almost surrounded. That was why Ginny was over by the deckhouse when she and Harry had been in their mini-battle. She had been trying to get behind two attackers.
Hermione was last. "Strangely, it was the werewolf that bothers me the most. I just don't know if he was a feral leftover from the war, or some poor soul that was like Remus, and had been kidnapped, so he could turn and kill us."
Talk continued in an indolent fashion for the next hour. Stretches of silence would be followed by someone mentioning a scene from the fighting, such as whatever incantation the pirates had used for their Killing Curse left the same look on its victims. Dead was dead no matter what the language used for the curse.
Slowly, the images of blood and viscera-covered bodies laying against Lady A's bulwark started to fade.
Warriors that they were, none of them believed the memories would ever go completely away.
The remembrance of the look of surprise on the face of the pirate who tried to surrender actually garnered a few chuckles.
The best part was that everyone seemed to come to an agreement that the bad actors had actually been bad. They had been vicious and planned on killing and cursing people to get what they wanted, and anyone in their way was an obstacle to be removed. That said obstacles were living people who had never done anything to them, was irrelevant in their minds. Stopping them had been a duty. Something that had to be done because the Aurors were not going to be there.
Long after fingers and toes had turned wrinkly and pale, the group finally abandoned their refuge and headed back to their rooms.
As they were going past the door to their Heads Suite, Hermione grabbed Daphne's robed arm and pulled the startled girl in through the door.
"In spite of our spa time, none of us should be alone tonight," she said quietly as she steered the blonde into Harry's bedroom.
Her confusion rose as the other two casually draped their discarded robes over a chair and promptly stripped out of their bathing suits, their casual nudity a shock to her.
Once again, she was witness to one of the duo's nonverbal communications. After seemingly staring at each other for about twenty seconds, Harry shrugged slightly and after walking over to his wardrobe, he donned a pair of boxer shorts.
The shocks just kept on coming.
"Well, get with it. Give me the suit." Hermione snapped at her.
At that point, something occurred that had never happened to Daphne before. A dazed Daphne stopped thinking and started merely following instructions. Tossing her robe in the general direction of the chair, she then peeled off her swimsuit and handed it to Hermione.
The older girl immediately dried and re-transfigured the suit into Daphne's signature pair of ice blue sleep knickers, before tossing them at her.
"Get in bed and scoot over," the voice commanded.
All three teenagers crawled into the bed and then assumed their favorite position with Harry in the middle of two beautiful women. It was a testament to his exhaustion that even having two bare-chested females half-laying on him, all he wanted to do was try to hold them closer.
The trio was asleep in less than a minute.
A/N:
One: Quote from movie HP & DH pt. 2.
Two: Yeah, it's jacuzzi.
Nope. Changed plans from big, climactic battle story ending a year ago.
I just could not keep torturing Harry.
Monster fight with my story hamster over this chapter. I've cut off his hamster treats until he starts cooperating again.
Have made the trek from southern Alabama to the frozen north again. Normal four-week publishing cycle should return.