Disclaimer: See Chapter One.
Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, England, 8/1/1997, 22:13
Voldemort was furious, most of his raiding parties found empty homes when they attacked tonight, all his targets had disappeared, except for two families.
The Tonks family had been home, but of the four men he had sent there only two came back and one of them was missing his wand arm and barely alive, the only man who came back almost unscathed was one of his older followers from the first war, a man named Rupert Cromwell.
"She struck so fast my lord, killed Dennings and Marshall before we could even cast a spell at her. Goyle tried to fire off a spell and she cast some type of black flame whip that ripped his arm clean off." Cromwell had told him in a shaky voice.
Voldemort sighed internally, I really should have seen this coming, Andromeda Tonks maybe a blood traitor but she was still a Black from birth, Bellatrix's younger sister in fact.
"Look into my eyes Cromwell." Voldemort hissed.
The man complied and he watched the scene play out from Rupert eyes, Andromeda struck down two of his followers in the blink of an eye, and mutilated one of his inner circle with a flick of her wand, if he didn't know any better he would have thought this was Bellatrix. Voldemort watched Andromeda closely and he observed she even moved the same way as her sister did when fighting.
Cromwell had hastily grabbed Goyle and activated an emergency portkey, before the terrifying woman directed her ire at him.
Voldemort pulled from the man's mind and nodded.
"CRUCIO" Voldemort cast and had his servant writhing in agony, this may have not been Cromwell fault but failure was to be punished none the less, he had to keep up appearances afterall.
Voldemort lifted the curse and commanded. "Go to the Weasley's home, our people are meeting a lot of resistance there, give them aid."
Cromwell shakily rose to his feet and quickly hobbled to the apparition point.
This night was a disaster, Bellatrix had arrived not long ago badly injured and if he was not mistaken suffering from the after effects of the cruciatus curse, and her jaw badly dislocated, and the rest of her face a bloody mess.
The order was prepared for an attack, that much was for certain.
His thoughts were interrupted by a badly injured Corban Yaxley entering his throne room, the man hobbled over to him and gingerly knelt at his feet.
"The battle is over my lord, the resistance fled." Yaxley said shakily.
"How many of them were killed?" Voldemort asked.
"We found the bodies of three my lord, Diggle, Fletcher and one of the Weasley children." Yaxley answered.
"How did our people fare?" Voldemort asked dreading the answer.
"Badly, over thirty dead and around the same critically injured. They killed both the LeStrange brothers and Rowle died getting Bella to safety. The rest of the dead were new recruits." Yaxley finished and waited for the dark lord to speak.
"Very well burn the home and start treating our wounded, the have won themselves a small victory but Britain is ours." Voldemort proclaimed.
Before Yaxley could speak the door burst open, and quickly young Mr. Harper approached the dark lord and urgently spoke. "The taboo has been triggered in muggle London my Lord."
"Very well Mr. Harper go find Cromwell and take him to to the location, capture them. The dungeons are rather empty at the moment." Voldemort instructed.
"Yes my lord, at once." Young Maxwell Harper said and he rushed off to carry out his orders.
Maybe they would have some success, the night so far had gone badly, ten percent of his human forces dead and his best luitenant was critically injured. Voldemort pushed those thoughts aside and said "Well Yaxley, you should probably heal yourself up. You have to start implementing our new policies through the ministry. You are now the head of the D.M.L.E so you can start searching for the people on our list. Check all the ministry records and find these people. They made a mockery of our forces tonigght and the will suffer dearly for this." Voldemort instructed.
"Yes my lord I will get started at once." Yaxley said bowing himself out of the room.
Now to start hunting for his new wand, after pleasant conversations with Garrick Ollivander he learned of the rumor that Mykew Gregorovich had possessed it at one time, thats where he would begin his search. so a trip to the Balkan region was in order and hopefully he would locate his prize. With Britain now under his control he could start pushing his policies upon the people. Hopefully his death eaters would be successful in rooting out his opposition, or he would have to show them the price of failure.
Despite all the setbacks they encountered today today, he couldn't help but smile to himself as he thought. 'After more than fifty years of trying I have finally done it, Britain is Mine!'
/A/D/W/F/
Tottenham Tube Station, London, 8/1/1997 22:18
Susan heard the sound of someone apparating in close proximity to them, she noticed Harry stiffen and his wand drop from his sleeve and into his hand and he was staring over her shoulder.
Turning to look at where he was looking, her eyes narrowed as her own wand slid out of her holster into her hand in a split second and she asked. "How the fuck did they find us?"
"I don't know, you got the one on the left though, let's find out shall we?" Harry asked.
"Yes, lets." She answered simply.
"Oh and Susan, do try and capture him, dead men don't talk." Harry said as he threw his first spell.
Harry's spell flew at the man on the right who deftly dodged it and fired a blood boiling curse in return. Harry swatted it into the wall and cast a decapitare that the man was barely able to duck under and stepped right into Harry's follow up spell. Harry had fired a nonverbal piercing hex low and to the right that burst through the mans knee when he had ducked under Harry's decapitation curse.
Susan was completely disappointed in her own opponent, he didn't even give her a challenge at all, she had swatted his spells away without effort and nailed him with a bludgeoned in the stomach.
He didn't even try to dodge, he froze as the spell was coming at him, he collapsed and actually started to cry.
Rolling her eyes she summoned his wand and bound him in ropes. She looked over and saw Harry's piercing hex rip through his opponents knee cap, who collapsed screaming, Harry deftly silenced him with a asphyxiation curse.
Turning to Susan Harry said "Bring him here."
With a flick of her wand her prisoner was flung across the floor to come to rest in front of Harry.
Harry reached down and ripped the mask of of the bound death eater, he instantly recognized him, as Harper the Slytherin seeker last year, the little shot wasn't even of age yet.
"Well first you fill in for Malloy in quidditch, and now your taking over his spot as a death eater, did you know he was a crybaby as well?" Harry asked with a chuckle, the sound of the other death eater could be heard as he failed aroun pointlessly as he was slowly suffocating to death.
"So how did you find us?" Harry asked Harper casually.
"Fuck you *cough* I won't tell you anything." Harper wheezed out, his tears had stopped but we're still running down his cheek.
"The Hard way then." Harry nodded before raising his wand and casting. "Legilimens"
Harry had never done this spell but he was currently reading up on how to perform it, he couldn't really ask anyone at camp to let him practice on them.
The theory said he had to force his way past his victim natural shields by pushing his presence in through eye contact, once he had entered their mind he could then sift through there memories to find a link to what he was looking for.
It didn't take Harry long at all to find the answer, Harry's earlier question had brought the memory he was looking for to the front of the kids mind, this was a tactic recommended in the book to speed up your interrogation of people with unprotected minds. Harry was able to see find what he was looking for quickly, and he pulled from Harper's mind.
Harry raised his wand and cast a messenger patronus and sent his leopard off with an urgent warning for Moody.
Harry looked at his watch and realized he had about three minutes before their train arrived, he saw the other death eater had went still, he quickly transfiguration him into a mouse and tossed him off the platform on to the tracks the muggles would find his body in a couple days time when the transfiguration wore off.
Turning to Susan Harry asked. "Can you do a memory charm? This little shit isn't worth killing."
"Yeah, no problem." She said as she took a breath and then raised her wand and incanted "Obliviate."
Once Susan was finished, Harry cast "Somnus" on Harper and transfiguration his robes into a ragged pair of jeans and a filthy pullover, then levitated him to a bench in the corner and sat him so his head slumped against the wall, and for a last touch Harry summoned an empty beer bottle from a bin near by and placed it in Harper's hand.
Harry Stepped back to admire his handiwork. "He looks just like a vagrant." Harry said happily.
"Should I give him his wand back?" Susan asked.
"Absolutely not, let the bobbies pick him up for vagrancy. Now I believe I hear our train approaching." Harry said, happy to get out of here.
People started started flooding into the station right after he said that and in under a minute the platform was packed, Harry and Susan quickly boarded the train and started on the next leg of their journey.
/A/D/W/F/
Moody's House, Scotland, 8/1/1997, 22:30
The screening process went very smoothly and everyone was quickly moved inside the camp, the wounded had been brought to the mess tent which had been converted into a temporary infirmary, The treating of the wounded was finally falling into a rhythm, the most serious were being treated by Madam Pomfrey and Ted Tonks who arrived with his wife about fourty five minutes ago.
Mr. Tonks was a dark curse specialist at St. Mungos and was a boon to their efforts tonight, he had already reversed a nasty cutting spell that had stumped poppy and probably saved Sturgis Podmore's life.
There were some members of the D.A that had come over and started treating minor wounds freeing up Poppy to treat the more serious injuries. Bones had been personally training them to be field medics for Potters teams, and this was good practice for them.
This went a lot smoother than it could have and he was just waiting for four people to return to camp: Potter, Bones Bill Weasley and Tonks.
George Weasley had returned ten minutes ago bringing in Hestia Jones with a badly broken leg.
Moody's thoughts were interrupted by a patronus message in the form of leopard that ran up to him and spoke in Potter's voice.
"Moody, you-know-what has put a taboo on his name, they use it to track anyone who says it."
Dammit this was bad new, he had to get the message out to everyone. He raised his wand and cast a 'sonorus' spell on himself, Alistor Moody already had a loud voice with a sonurus charm it was positively deafening.
"THERE HAS BEEN A TABOO PLACED ON THE DARK LORDS NAME, DO NOT SPEAK HIS NAME OR ELSE!" Moody's voice bellowed over the whole camp.
Well at least he knew Potter was okay and Susan was with him, so he could almost guarantee she was fine, just had to wait for Tonks and Weasley to report in.
He only had to wait about ten minutes before the pair came into camp, their story was exactly the same as Jones and the other Weasley described and Moody sent them both to medical to get checked out, now he just had to wait for the last two to arrive.
/A/D/W/F/
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, London, 8/1/1997, 23:04
Harry and Susan arrived at their destination, Harry had been meaning to come by here to check on Malfoy's mother for a while and this was as good a time as any, they hadn't encountered any problems once they got off the train and wandered towards Grimmauld Place.
Harry had made a side stop and darted into a fish an chips shop ten minutes before they closed down, Harry bought two orders of fish and chips served in a newspaper cone and two canned fizzy drinks. They sat down on a bench and quickly ate the deep fried fish, his had extra malt vinegar hers was just plain. They were both must have been very hungry because they finished eating in under ten minutes, both had burnt a lot of calories today and really needed the pick me up.
After that it was a short walk to his godfathers old home, pushing open the door Harry stepped in and was shocked the house looked really clean: the carpet looked almost brand new and the wallpaper repaired and cleaned, the gas oil lamps were polished and lit silently when Harry and Susan entered the hallway and Harry instantly noticed something was missing, the portrait of Sirius's mother was removed from the wall above the staircase.
"This was your godfather's house?" Susan asked impressed.
"Yes, but I have never seen it this clean before." Harry admitted.
"It took months, what in the world did Sirius have in Walburga's bedroom anyway?" Asked a prim voice from the top of the staircase.
Susan jumped and drew her wand, Harry just glanced up the stairs and saw Narcisse Malloy looking down at him.
"Mrs. Malfoy, I apologize for taking so long to check on your well being, as to your question he kept a hippogriff in that room." Harry said politely.
"Good lord what an idiot, still I guess that explains all the feathers." Narcissea said dryly.
"You knew she was here?" Susan asked.
"Yes" he answered Susan before looking at Narcissa. "We need to talk."
"Yes, I am glad you reached out to me, ai was planning on finding a way to contact you soon. We can talk in drawing room." Narcissa said.
Harry and Susan climbed the stairs and followed her into the room she suggested. Susan holstered her wand after finally deciding Narcissa wasn't a threat, the drawing room looked spotless the carpet looked brand new just like downstairs and there wasn't a single spider web or doxie to be seen. Harry waited for Susan and Narcissa to be seated and then took a seat next to Susan on the couch, he visibly winced when his left arm touched the armrest.
"Is something wrong Mr. Potter?" Narcissa asked concerned.
"I think my arm is broken, I took a bone breaker earlier tonight." Harry admitted.
"Why the hell didn't you say something?" Susan asked as she drew her wand and started running scans on his arm.
"Yes it's broken in two places, I can mend the bone but you'll have to keep it still for a couple of hours." Susan said as she cast a spell to prevent his arm from moving and then precisely healed the breaks one at time.
Harry's arm felt really warm then really cold, then his arm felt fine.
"Why on earth do you have a broken arm?" Narcissa asked.
"The ministry fell tonight, we were at a wedding and it was attacked." Harry answered as Susan was slowly running scans over him.
"Severus said it would happen any day now." Narcissa commented.
"Snape has been here recently?" harry asked.
"Yes he comes here every so often to check on me, and bring in supplies." Narcissa answered.
"Well I can't Stay long I-"
Harry jumped as Susan healed the gash on his calf that had been seeping blood for a while now.
"You need a blood replenisher and burn salve." Susan said firmly.
"Both of those are in the bathroom cabinet, third door on the right." Narcissa told Susan.
Susan nodded and headed out of the room.
"We will have to move you to the Order headquarters, tonight. The ministry knows I own this house, and the dark lord will be having it watched." Harry told Narcissa.
"Why would you bother doing this for me?" Narcissa asked.
"You haven't done anything as far as I know, and your not a death eater, are you? Harry asked.
"No I am not" She said and exposed her forearms to prove it.
Harry nodded and then continued. "There is also the fact you have information that could be valuable to us." Harry stated.
"Like how to get in Malfoy Manor?" Narcissa asked shrewdly.
"Among other things, yes." Harry admitted.
"I have a favor I wish to ask of you in return." Narcissa stated plainly.
Before Harry could reply Susan stepped in carrying three vials of potion. She held out a dark red potion to Harry and tapped her foot impatientl. Sighing Harry took the potuon and drank it and the other two she handed him after. She nodded and pocketed the emptyvials and said.
"I found some bone knitting potion in the bathroom as well, your arm should be completely healed within the hour, that was the second potion you drank by the way. Now take off your shirt and so I can apply the burn salve on your shoulder and you will be all done." Susan ordered.
Sighing Harry gently pulled his shirt and Hoodie of at the same time which was really tricky with only one arm working. The burn covered his right shoulder and was a dark red with white burnt skin around the edges and pulled painfully when he removed his sweater.
Susan pulled the lid off of the jar of salve and gently started rubbing it on the affected area.
Harry turned to Narcissa whose cheeks had turned pink and whose eyes quickly moved up to his face and asked "What favor did you wish to ask me for?"
"I wish for you to retrieve my son from France, and bring him to me." She answered.
"There are so many reasons that he is safer where he is at, for one he is a marked death eater." Harry answered.
"I have been doing research in the Black library and I believe I know how to remove the mark." Narcissa said.
"You can remove a dark mark?" Harry asked skeptically.
"Theoretically yes I think so, but I have never tested it." She said.
"How?" Harry asked.
"Well before I was married to Lucius I was studying to become a Rune Mistress, theoretically if I could contain the mark on the arm with a runic chain drawn in the wearers blood, I could transfer the mark and the container runes to an item enchanted with the wearers magic. The mark would consume the magic in the item and vanish completely once it drains all the magic." Narcissa explained as simply as she could.
"Will the process hurt the one bearing the mark?" Harry asked.
""Undoubtedly, the mark attaches to the host's magic, it will probably feel like ripping a four inch diameter circle of skin off your arm." Narcissa explained.
"Well that is something at least." Harry said quietly, he was secretly glad Malfoy would suffer if his mark was removed through this process.
Susan finished applying the salve and sat down inspecting her own injuries now, Harry looked at her and said "Thanks Susan, I feel a lot better."
He then turned back to Narcissa "That might be very useful to the Order, but another problem is I don't even know where he is and he did try to kill me ." Harry told Narcissa bluntly.
"I know where he is and I would be going with you to retrieve him. And you almost killed him as well." Narcissa stated the last part pointedly.
"I honestly had no idea what the spell did at the time, I found it in an old potions book Snape left in his office, it was labeled as for enemies." Harry answered tiredy.
"Severus said as much, I really am desperate, and I know if I wait to long the dark lord will send Lucius in to the property to capture him. Lucius is a coward and will hand over Draco in a heartbeat." Narcissa said candidly.
"I will have to think on it, your son and I have are adversaries at best. I am technically your head of house so I will give your request due consideration, but I can't make any promises." Harry answered.
"Thank you." Narcissa said gratefully.
"We should probably go soon, your arm is fully healed now." Susan said removing the spell that immobilized His arm.
""You should pack your things, I'll send a message letting the order know I'm bringing you with me." Harry told Narcissa.
"Very well." Narcissa answered as she left to pack her things.
Harry cast another Patrons and sent it to Moody, and then stood, Harry could tell the difference in his leg since Susan patched him up, it was really starting to hurt when they arrived.
"Thanks again Susan." Harry said gratefully.
"No problem, are you sure it's a good idea to bring her to the camp?" Susan asked.
"Well from what I know she is unmarked, never killed anyone and will be a font of information for the order on the day to day workings of the death eaters and if that's not enough she can get our people into Malfoy Manor, she could be very useful to our side. And if what she said about being able to remove a dark mark is true we'll be able to bring death eaters back for interrogation." harry answered.
"Are you seriously thinking about retrieving the ferret from France?" Susan pressed.
"I don't know, I'm conflicted ."Harry answered.
Before Susan could ask anymore questions Narcissa entered the room and spoke. "I'm ready Mr. Potter."
"Just Harry Mrs. Malfoy." Harry said as he started leading the ladies down the stairs.
"Then you may call me Cissy." Narcissa said as they crossed the hall to the front door.
"By the way how did you get that horrible painting down?" Harry asked stopping in front of the door.
Narcissa grinned. "I cut the plaster around it, then cut a similar hole in Walburga's wall and placed those pieces over the hole I made down here. I put her painting in her room along with all the Black heirlooms and sealed it off." She explained proudly.
"You have my gratitude for that. Now let's get out of here." Harry said.
Peeking his head out the door Harry spotted two death eaters leaning against the wall across the street, there eyes were clearly fixed on number twelve even if they couldn't see it.
"Susan take her to the aparition point outside headquarters, I'lll deal with these two." Harry ordered.
Susan looked reluctant but finally nodded and offered Narcissa her arm which the older woman took ahold of and the two disappeared with a quiet 'pop'.
Harry concentrated on his inner animal and slowly shifted into his leopard form, he still couldn't transform as fluidly as he would have liked but he was getting faster everytime he changed into his leopard form.
The streets were dimly lit, and sticking to the shadows was very easy as there was only one working street light on this street. he kept to the side of the buildings padding silently on four legs for a hundred yards or so, and quickly crossed the street out of eyesight of his prey and slowly snuck back up the street towards his prey.
He got within five feet of two robed men, they had no idea he was here, leopards were ambush predators so his animals instincts were subtly guiding him in stalking these two, his adrenaline was pumping as he crouched down and then sprung forward, he could leap up to twenty feet in his leopard form, so at this distance it was like hopping a crack in the sidewalk.
He landed on the smaller death eater and latched his jaws around the mans neck , the claws on his front paws sank into the mans chest and back. He bit down as hard as he could sinking his canines deep into the man's neck, the man collapsed screaming onto his side and Harry had to quickly spring away to avoid a spell from the other death eater. His laws had still been latched into the flesh of the man's neck and violently ripped a large chunk out of the side of the death eaters neck.
Harry had nimbly leapt up onto the wall the two men had been leaning against. The wall was about eight feet tall and separated the street from the yard on the other side of it.
The remaining death eater had cast another spell where Harry had had just landed and left a large crater in the wall, Harry had hastily leapt over the spell and came down right in front of the larger death eater, he started to point his wand at Harry who latched onto the mans wand arm with his powerful jaws and bit down severing every tendon in his forearm, Harry felt his teeth scrape bone before he released the now mangled arm, he would definitely need to brush his teeth tonight.
The death eater screamed in agony and his wand fell to the street his hand not being able to hold it, he took off running frantically down the street and Harry sprinted after him, he jumped onto the man's back when he was close enough knocking him to the ground, Harry's jaws were latched onto the back of his neck and with one quick chomp Harry snapped his neck right at the base of the skull.
Releasing the now very dead death eater, he went and checked on his first victim and found the man had already bled out.
Harry silently moved back to the shadows and took off running toward the tube station, he had made sure he didn't use any magic at the attack scene and he would apparate from the alley beside Leaky cauldron to camouflage his magical signature.
Harry transformed back to himself a block away from Grimmauld Place and started walking at a leisurely back to the tube station. He caught a train to charring cross, then it was about a ten minute walk to the alley beside the Leaky Cauldron, once he arrived at this heavily used apparition point he spun on the spot and apparted back to headquarters.
/A/D/W/F/
Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, England, 8/1/1997, 23:30
"Lucius have you heard anything from Cromwell and Harper?" Voldemort asked his servant.
"We haven't heard anything from them my lord." Lucius answered.
"Very well, send Severus in here." Voldemort commanded.
"At once my lord." Lucius replied and bowed himself out the throne room.
Severus entered the room five minutes later and Voldemort got sreaight to the point.
"Have we found a way to bring down the wards sealing Hogwarts yet?" Voldemort asked.
"Possibly, now that we have full access to the ministry archives I believe we can find away to bring down the lockdown wards, within the next few weeks." Snape answered.
"Good, I would like for you to be the new headmaster when school resumes in September." Voldemort said.
"That is a great honor my lord, I would gladly except." Snape said quite honestly.
"You have proven yourself as one of my best, and I reward those who serve me well." Voldemort praised.
"Thank you my lord, I will not let you down." Severus said gratefully.
"I will be leaving the country in search of something, while I am gone please make sure everyone is doing as they are supposed to be. I can only hope my death eaters can keep this country running smoothly in my absence." Voldemort instructed, the or else was left unsaid.
"It will be done, I will make sure of that my lord." Snape promised.
"Good one last thing, is there any word on Bella's condition?" Voldemort asked curiously
Her broken bones and lacerations were easily healed, she suffered several cracks to her skull and a severe concussion, as well as ruptured arteries in her tongue. We won't know for sure until she wakes how much damage she sustained from cruciatus exposure. She was held under the curse for over two minutes and the wizard who cursed her was quite powerful." Snape answered nervously.
"Very well you may leave." Voldemort said in a quiet voice.
Snape bowed quickly and made a hasty retreat, the dark lord only went quiet when he was furious, and Severus didn't want to be the one that fury was unleashed on.
The dark lord was still shocked when he thought about someone from the light side using the cruciatus curse on his followers, but judging by the amount of his people that were killed tonight he really shouldn't be.
The total killed at the Burrow was thirty-five, adding the two from the Tonks and if he was not mistaken the two he sent to check on the violation of the taboo, that was thirty nine dead and his men had only killed three order members.
It seems they have been preparing all summer, propably since the old fool was killed.
He would have to move with haste, the orders ranks were swelling, and there wasn't any sign of Potter tonight he was surprised, Potter was close with the Weasley family. Still he wasn't ready to kill Potter yet first he needed a new wand.
'The sooner I track down the 'deathstick' the better.'
/A/D/W/F/
Moody's House, Scotland, Near Strontian Village, 8/2/1997, 00:11
Harry finally arrived at the point all the portkeys had landed a couple of hours earlier, and he quickly realized he was surrounded, he saw Moody step out of the circle of wizards with wands pointed at him and barked out a question
"What are all teenagers?'
"Rabbits." Harry answered'
"Good, who taught you how to cast a patronus?" Moody asked again.
"Remus Lupin." Harry answered.
"Good, and what is your patronus' form?" moody pressed.
"A leopard." Harry answered simply
"Good now the last question, why in the flying fuck did you send a death eater's wife to my camp?" Moody bellowed.
'She is part of house Black and I think she can be useful to us." Harry answered.
"That remains to be seen, but since you brought her here she'll be staying in your camp and she's your problem and your responsibility." Moody said gruffly.
"Fine, now it's been a very long night and I need some shut eye, we need to meet soon though." Harry said.
"Fine ten o' clock Tuesday evening." Moody said.
Harry nodded and marched in the direction of his camp and when he reached his tent, he went towards the shower room.
Thirty minutes later he stepped out of the shower and made his way to his rack, after going through his occlumency he fell asleep almost instantly.
/A/D/W/F/
8/2/1997, 05:00
Harry's wand vibrated waking him up and he sprung out of his rack and fired of a spell that sounded like a foghorn waking everyone in the of the camp.
"Let's move it gents, we're at war now, no time to lay about." Harry bellowed as he pulled on his shorts and trainers.
A very tired group appeared on the training grounds twenty minutes later, they had two new faces in their ranks now, Ron and Ginny Weasley.
"Alright let's get running, thirty laps let's go." Harry ordered.
The morning went slowly, everyone seemed to be dragging after two days off and Harry had to be liberal with stinging hexes to motivate the stragglers.
After lunch Harry called the attention of everyone in his camp.
"Alright, last night the ministry fell, we are going to training harder than ever from here on out. Starting today I am going to have yoy learn to fight as a team. You will be sorted into groups of six, each group will have a healer, and five fighters. These groups will be changed up daily, you must learn to to work together with everyone here." Harry announced and then started splitting the team's up, he ignored the complaining and had them all grouped in a few minutes time.
He ended up with five teams of six, and had them each take turns in fighting other teams in different mock battle situations, for the rest of the afternoon.
When he called an end to training at five the whole camp was tired and walked very slowly towards the mess tent.
"What did you think?" Susan asked coming up beside him.
"They need a lot of work, we're going to be at it like this for the next month." Harry told her honestly.
"Yep, same here. Now I have to gather up my healers, they will be training after dinner." Susan said grimly.
After dinner Harry had the rest of the camp run fightting drills on training dummies for two hours, while Susan worked with the ones she had hand picked to be part of her healer team, which consisted of: Hannah, Daphne, Astoria, Anthony, Padma and Katie. They all understood healing very well and Susan had been teaching them as well as herself how to stabilize a person on an active battle field. She would bring this idea to Harry and have him incorporate healing under pressure into his afternoon training drills as soon as she could.
The whole camp was in bed by nine, completely exhausted.
Harry took time before he went to bed to go and talk with Narcissa, her tent was on the far side of the teen camp and it took him about five minutes to walk there, when he arrived he used his wand to imitate the sound of a door knocker and heard footsteps approaching.
Harry was shocked when a woman who could pass for Bellatrix's twin, minus the fact she wasn't skeletal thin and had chocolate brown hair opened the flap.
"Can I help you? She asked coldly.
"Yes, I need to speak with Cissa." Harry answered.
"So you've come here to taunt my sister like the others have?" The woman said with narrowed eyes.
"What I have come for is House Black business, your sister made a request of my and I am here to discuss it with her." Harry said flatly.
"Let him in Andy, you know who it is, you saw the poster." Narcissa's voice carried out of the tent.
"Come in Mr. Potter, I apologize for the greeting, but she has been harassed all day by members of the order, I'm Andromeda Tonks by the way." Mrs. Tonks explained as she led him into the tent.
"I will make sure that stops." Harry answered.
Harry turned away from Mrs. Tonks ,who was leading him into the ten and was amazed at what he saw, this place looked like a luxury condo or something, it had soft carpet, plush leather furniture and artwork hung tastefully on the tent walls that looked to be made of fine silk, the sitting room was massive, bigger the the inside of the barrack tent he was staying in with fourteen others.
"I can't believe Moody lent you a tent like this." Harry said amazed.
Narcissa giggled and said. "No, I packed this when I left Malfoy Manor, Lucius bought it for the time we went to watch the world cup. It was stuffed in the back of my closet and I found it when I was packing." Narcissa explained.
"Rich people." Harry said shaking his head.
"Now none of that you are quite wealthy yourself." Narcissa admonished.
Harry looked at Andromeda and asked. "Your Tonks' mother aren't you?"
"Yes I am Nymphadora's mother, she informs me you two are at a bit of a war at the moment. She said your really embarrassed her at the wedding last night." Andromeda answered.
"She started it by selling those damn posters." Harry defended.
"Yes, she did quite well with those, made over forty galleons." Andromeda said her eyes drifting over to the far wall with a smirk.
Harry's gaze followed hers and landed on a copy of the poster framed like a painting on the far wall, Harry blushed and looked back at the two women, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Well those posters were made without my permission, so at the wedding I was disguised as an older man and pretended to be a senile relative and did my best to mortify her. It worked out well the gentleman she was trying to court for the evening fled in terror by the time I finished." Harry explained.
Andromeda smirked. "Good, it's finally time someone got one over on her." She said happily.
Harry turned to Narcissa who was listening with intrest but seemed unsure on how to join the conversation, and realized she must have been living in isolation since mid May. Harry actually felt a little bad for not going to visit her sooner. He pushed those thoughts aside for now and spoke about the reason he came here tonight.
"I have decided to grant your request, but it will take time to set up a team, do you have any fighting skills?" Harry asked.
"I was trained in the Black family magic from a young age, and mother made us all learn dueling until we were entered into marriage contracts." Narcissa answered.
"Well you might want to brush up on that, we will most certainly meet opposition when we get to your property." Harry told her bluntly.
"And what do you want in return for this?" Narcissa asked anxiously.
"What we discussed last night with one addition, I wish to learn the Black family magic." Harry answered.
Narcissa nodded and said. "That is not a problem, I packed the grimoire from Grimmauld place, before we left last night."
She rose from her seat and walked to a large bookshelf that was packed full of books and pulled an ancient looking book off of the shelf and brought it over for him to take. The book was really really old it had the Black family crest intricately engraved in the cover that looked to be made out of some type of animal skin, the book was rather small about the size of a diary and could easily fit into a pocket.
"Thank you, I am getting very tired and have an early start in the morning. It was a pleasure meeting you Mrs. Tonks." Harry said politely.
"Before you go can I trouble you for a copy of the memory from the wedding?" Andromeda asked hopefully.
"You want to watch the ceremony?" Harry asked confused.
"No, I want to see how you got one over on Nymphadora." Andy answered.
"Okay, but I don't know how to remove a memory from my mind." Harry admitted.
"Just bring the memory to the forefront of your mind and I'll do the rest." Andromeda instructed.
Harry easily entered his mind and brought the memory foward, Andromeda uttered some spell in a whisper and Harry opened his eyes and watched her pull forth a gossamer like silver strand from his temple and place it in a potions vial.
"Thank you Harry." Cissa said.
"Your welcome Cissa, good night."Harry said as he left the tent headed directly for his bed.
He had barely walked a few yards before he was stopped by Tonks. "Where have you been Potter?" She asked coldly.
"I had to visit Narcissa, I also met your mother." Harry said cheerfully.
"How did you sneak into my tent?" She demanded.
"Why are you missing something?" Harry asked innocently.
"You know bloody well what I'm missing." Tonks scowled.
"Ah, yes I do." Harry agreed happily.
"How dare you invade my privacy." Tonks thundered.
"Pot kettle Tonks, you started this. I just returned the favor" Harry said easily.
"I will get you back for this, Viktor avoided me like the plague and ended up hooking up up with Ginny Weasley last night." Tonks said angrily.
"He does have a thing for young girls, doesn't he." Harry said thoughtfully.
"I am going to get you for this Tonks repeated." Sounding slightly unhinged.
"Well then you should know, I gave your mother a copy of the memory of you, Viktor and your batty relatives just a moment ago. She's probably watching it as we speak. I'm sure I could find a way to project it for the whole camp to enjoy if you want to continue this little war of ours." Harry said quite jovially but the threat was still taken for what it was.
Tonks whole body Hair, skin, eyes and all turned an angry red color and she stormed off to her own tent.
"Check mate, Tonks." Harry said to her retreating back, and with a victorious grin on his face, he headed for his own tent to get some rest for training tomorrow.
/A/D/W/F/
Number Twelve, Grimm auld Place, London, 8/4/1997
Severus Snape was becoming very worried, yesterday two of the people assigned to watch this property under orders of the dark lord never showed up to report in. When Lucius was sent to investigate he found a whole bunch of mugges had been swarming the area, and two bodies were being loaded into one of those wheeled muggle contraptions that said coroner on the side of it.
Snape had to wait until today to come and check on Narcissa, with Bellatrix still unconscious and the dark lord out of the country, he was left to Handle the day to day operations.
He entered the home and called out "Narcissa."
He got no answer so he began searching the home room by room. It wasn't until she came to the room with a placard affixed to the door that read.
"Do Not Enter Without the express permission of Regulus Arcturus Black"
That Severus found any clue as to what happened to her, he knew Narcissa had been staying in Regulus' old room, she had mentioned it was the only clean room in the house when he first brought her here.
Severus took a breath and pushed the door open and stepped inside.
She had definitely made changes to the room, Severus had been inside this room before and remembered it had been completely decorated in silver and green, and had a large collage of newspaper clippings of the dark lords exploits during the mid to late seventies. Narcissa had removed the clippings and hopefully burned them, she had also changed the color scheme as well. The room was now painted a light blue, and the carpet was an even lighter shade of blue making the room seem bigger, she had replaced the desk in the corner of the room with a vanity and the room smelled slightly of lavender.
However Snape's inspection of Narcissa's decorating skill was brought to a halt when he saw the wardrobe door wide open and all of the clothes that had been in it were gone. Looking around the room he noticed the small bookshelf next to the wardrobe had been emptied as well.
'She couldn't possibly be stupid enough to leave the house now of all times?' He thought frantically.
Snape started sifting through her vanity looking for any clues as to where she could have possibly went, he pulled out drawer after drawer finding them all empty until he got to the bottom most drawer, where he found a rolled up piece of parchment. Running his wand over it to check for any type of traps and finding none he unrolled the parchment and found it was a short missive addressed to him.
Severus,
Potter arrived this evening and informed me the ministry has fallen, he is taking me to the headquarters of the 'Order of the Pheonix". He believes this house will be under surveillance from now on and I have to agree with his assessment. Fear not I am safe, I will be forever grateful for all you have done for me these past few months. I will be in contact when I can.
Sincerely,
Narcissa Malfoy
Snape was shocked, he thought there was more of a chance of Potter coming here to kill Narcissa than to help her, still Potter was correct the dark lord wanted this house watched.
Their new regime was off to a horrible start so far, but they had found a way to drop the wards around Hogwarts, there were currently death eaters rounding up the governors of Hogwarts that were affiliated with the dark faction, the light side had gone to ground month ago and would have to be replaced to name a new headmaster, who could then command the wards and unlock the school.
Snape knew if Hogwarts did open the student population would be greatly diminished, the families that were in hiding would not send their children to Hogwarts and most of the known muggleborns had fled the country or had gone into hiding.
The order seemed to be running much more efficiently than it ever had under Albus' leadership, the Weasley wedding was proof of that.
Severus made his way out of the house and apparated away, he didn't know whether to feel relieved Potter took her in or worried what information she could provide about himself.
/A/D/W/F/
Moody's House, Scotland, Near Strontian Village, 8/5/1997, 22:00
Harry had been running his team ragged over the last few days and he was feeling the strain as well, he had been picking the members he would be taking to France with him and had chosen six so far: Susan, Fleur, Neville, Bill, Fred and George. With himself and Narcissa that would make eight.
He was currently on his way to discuss his plans with Moody who would no doubt be angry with his decision to go save Draco Malfoy, hell Harry was having doubts himself, but if carrying out this mission successfully could lead to them sacking the death eater base of operations he was all for it.
Still this was going to be an unpleasant conversation, he would have to wait a few more days until Susan was of age, she was the only healer he would take on this operation.
Sighing he walked up to the main house took a breath and thought. 'Here goes nothing'
AN:I am already expecting a bunch of complaints about the Malfoy rescue I have planned, but Harry needs Narcissa's help and unfortunately Draco is her price.