Summary: Azkabam escapees, politicians, dementors, divided loyalties, difficult questions and, soul mates? Things are getting complicated. Mentions of slash & 3soms. Violence and some language.
Authors note: Er, yeah, long damn time since the last update. Sorry. -headddesks- I have exams, and writters block, and plot bunnies for other stories and its all been a bit, squiffy. Forgive me?
Misting Rain: Thanks, sorry about the wait.
moonlightskymist: The bonds are less important now as none of them are fuele by mojo.
HolySinner: He'll get his comupence -does anyone say that anymore?- in due time.
Firehegehog: Weding planning=mayhem and rage. Take it from someone with two married cousins.
ChaosBabe: Firmly maybe pushing it a bit but, yeah. They're in trouble.
animegirl1994: Cheers!
Sandy Anderson: Have you been reading/watching Rurouni Kenshi?
FallenHope-Angel: He is. Neville is just a teddy bear sometimes.
Battle, part 1
"To come at the moonrise, the dark ones, the mad ones. Hunters in the night, seekers after knowledge. I see the warriors of earth and sky. I see the kin of shadow and flame. I see Dream. I see death."
As places to give a prophecy went the DADA class was probably a pretty good selection in terms of making an impact. However, as Luna still collapse after giving these predictions it was unfortunate that the class room had a bare stone floor.
Fortunately for her Colin had good reflexes and a vested interest in Luna not cracking her skull.
"Oh, crack bunnies." muttered Kingsley, rubbing his face with his hands. "Mutilated crack bunnies on speed. Dismissed. Someone take her to the Hospital wing. I hate prophecies…"
His students stared at him. He glared at them in return.
"You are dismissed, children. That means you buggar off and do whatever it is you do when you aren't bothering me."
"Well that was articulate." snipped Ginny, and flounced of to spread the word.
Her Harry would want to know about this.
Xxxxxxxx
"It's time to go."
The Death Eaters perked up at their leaders' announcement. Finally, finally they were doing something.
"A moment please."
They glared at Dag Svenson, an the Norseman, who was bent over what looked like the braided remains of a cutain, ignored them completely.
His large hands delicately shaped a symbol on the frayed velvet, there was a since of cold-fire and the former curtain gained an eyrie dark-white luminescence around the edges.
Dag took the carefully knotted handle and flicked his creation at a wall. He grinned at the long slit it left in the plaster.
"Now I am ready!"
The dark streets offered no resistance, and the owner of Honeydukes, woken by the wards around his shop, fell to a simple blasting hex that sent grey matter spattered over half the sweet shop.
This did not stop the Death Eaters grabbing some of their favourite sweets on the way down to the passage. Years in Azkaban tended to desensitise you to the horror of mysterious gunk in ones food, and chocolate was, chocolate. A little bit of healthy human brain was really no deterrent.
Xxxxxxxxxx
The students had been ordered to remain in their house dorms while the teachers an aurors saw to the defence of the castle. Naturally quite a number of said students intended to disregard those orders completely. They were teenagers after all. Disobediance and thrill seeking was only to be expected.
At opposite ends of the castle too very different discussions were taking place, as the sensible people tried to make their housemates be logical. One involved screaming and spellfire, the other consisted of icy words and softly poisonous stares. The locations of these arguments would surprise quite a lot of people.
This is because most people are stupid and this is because it is illegal to kill idiots and now the gene pool needs chlorine. One day it will get it.
Xxxxxxxxx
The aurors were nervous, which was reasonable. Some of them were whining about this, which was understandable, but also unacceptable. They we're aurors damnit, they did not whine.
"-and why are we in threes when there are seven of them?"
"Shut up Pratt."
"But-"
"Shut. Up. Pratt."
"Actually, he has a point." said a voice from behind a statue of a hunchbacked witch. "Why are there only three of you?"
The aurors jumped. One bolted to trip the alarms and the other two shot stunners at the shadows. The light of the shield spell showed five evil grins and Josephine banging her head against her husband's shoulder.
"We were supposed to do this quietly! We were supposed to avoid notice for as long as possible! We had a plan! What happened to the plan?"
"There there. Have a chocolate frog."
She accepted the frog, bit its head off an sucked its anatomically correct guts out before aiming a blasting hex, and the whiny aurors chest gained an interesting new hole.
"I feel better now."
Dag Svenson and Bellatrix Lestrange unleashed twin maniacal laughs an advanced on the remaining aurors with raised wands and gleaming eyes.
They had spent entirely to long controlled and quiet an behaving themselves and bored. Now it was time to play.
Xxxxxxx
At certain areas of the castle a number of people heard the alarms and reacted accordingly. The spells that no-one would ever admit to casting sealed a number of doors and passages. A number of people started swearing upon discovering that they were locked in, and a far, far smaller number of people headed towards the source of the noise.
Fingers were absently trailed along the walls, and the long dormant soul of Hogwarts stirred uneasily in its shell.
Repression spells fought with defensive programming, and faltered just long enough for the castle to create a lockdown before slipping back into uneasy sleep. Be it for good or ill the castles many passages were closed and neither love nor hellfire would get you in or out of the dorms or offices now.
Unaware of this ten aurors and eight students went to join the fight.
Xxxxxxxxx
There are many things that one could, with total accuracy, call a Death Eater, but 'bad fighter' was not one of them and the seven escapees were quite capable of holding their own against the aurors stationed at Hogwarts. In fact the law enforcers were getting their arses handed to them, mostly because of an unfortunate tenancy to underestimate Dags curtain-whip.
"Whoo-hoo! Big shout out to our homies in the psyco possie!" The distinctive sound of someone being smacked around the head sounded loud in the suddenly silent corridor. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Ron, even I think that you deserved that." Said Harry, approaching from the opposite direction and stooping to close the long slices a cutting hex had left in an aurors chest. "It was just, well…"
"Inaccurate." snipped Luke, raiding his chin haughtily. "Only two of us can be proven to be insane. Really, psyco indeed." He sniffed and turned to his wife. "The education of children these days."
"Is that a Slytherin thing?" asked Ron, tilting his head and smirking. "It seems like a Slytherin thing."
"It isn't." chorused Millicent an Indigo, pinning him with identical evil glares.
Bellatrix peered at them, and then smiled radiantly.
"Mine nephew, hello. Have you been good since I saw you last?"
The aurors shifted uneasily, several training their wands on the two young Slytherins in expectation of a new threat. Millicent gave them a look of pure and unadulterated scorn in response.
"Bitch, please. I don't do good." Indigo sounded offended at the very suggestion. "Who do you take me for, her?" An auror went slightly cross eyed when the finger landed on her. "I do plotting and chaos and that, mine aunt, is a hell of a lot more fun."
She laughed, rich and clear and suddenly sounding terribly sane.
"Oh poppet, you are defiantly of my blood. I'm delighted." She smiled, her lavender eyes sparkling joyously. "Have you come to kill me?"
"Alas, no. Neville called dibs on you and, well, I think he bites…"
Bellatrix sighed deeply and pursed her mouth as though sorely disappointed.
"My poppet, you really must not let these people control you. It's not sanitary."
"I'm sorry auntie, but I think he has rabies…"
"I do not!"
Neville scowled, and the purple eyed duo looked at him with varying degrees of amusement and affection.
"Well, this is creepy and I am actually quite disturbed." commented Dag, his tone slightly plaintive. "Could we go back to fighting, please?"
Susan took a shot at Luke in answer and Neville walked towards the people who had driven his mother insane, a dangerous gleam in his eyes.
The battle recommenced. An auror fell and was dragged to Harry by Tracy, Ron danced around Dag, Indigo and Millicent tag teamed Carrow and Hermione slid behind a suit of armour and quietly taught people some very important lessons about pointing weapons at her best friend. The fight could have continue in this manner, had Dag not torn a hole in the line of aurors with his runewhip and completely discredited his house by making a break for it. Ron charged after him and Millicent, laying foul curses upon Gryffindors in general and Ron in particular, followed.
"No dragging them into dark closets Dag! They're only kiddies!" The running trio paused to give the insane woman looks of shocked disgust before vanishing around a corner. "They are going to get molested. I just know it. Dag has no self control." Bellatrix twirled away from Neville, gutted an auror and wailed. "I don't want that on my conscience!"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." called Harry. "Millicent is quite capable of destroying anyone who touches her inappropriately. Your companion may be in danger of castration. Or death. Probably death, actually."
"Millie's not allowed to talk to strange men anymore." stated Indigo, tone disturbingly frank for someone who'd lost his wand to a misplaced expelliarmus and gained a pike in its place. "We're running out of places to hide the bodies."
An auror whimpered as Harry repaired a hole in his shoulder.
"I can't tell if he's joking or not! Why can I tell if he's joking or not?"
"Why ever would he joke about something like that?"
The auror whimpered again and for a moment five Death Eaters and four teenagers wore identical smirks of half malicious amusement. Then someone exploded a suit of armour and they got back to the business of inflicting grievous bodily harm.
Xxxxxxxx
A long time ago Shararazard had gone to his mother and tol her that when he got angry, really, really angry, he could hear drums in his head, beating out a war dance. She had smiled, told him that it was alright and promise to explain why when he was older but he never reached the older she had been talking about. Goku had never heard them, and the Great Sage lived to the raging beat.
The Lestrange survivors stood before him, those who had driven his parents mad and left his grandmother sad an alone and crying in the night when she thought no-one would hear her. The drums pounded though his head, demanding their suffering and he hated them, him for living and her all the more that she looke like his once and always brother.
There were other people around them, but they weren't important that the others would deal with them. The Lestrange's were his to kill.
Empty grey eyes shifted to him, then focused and narrowed.
"You killed my brother." One of the meaningless figures fell though the air between them and Bellatrix laughed. "You will pay for that boy. I shall have my pound of flesh."
Confident confident and over confident at that. Neville kicked off his shoes, raised his wand and beckoned the man on, feeling a smile to sharp to be his curl across his lips.
"Come and get it, if you think you can."
Next time: The Battle, part 2