LoDK

The Legacy of the Dark Knight Saga

Jamie Prosser and the Fourth Champion

Chapter 7: Back to Action

Disclaimer: This is solely a not-for-profit fan activity, and does not intend to infringe on copyrights held by Time Warner, DC Comics, Bloomsbury et al, and JK Rowling. Any character original to this work remains the property of the author.

A/N: This story diverges significantly from accepted canon for the Harry Potter series from the outset, as in addition to the crossover elements, there are several deviations from the books that will be covered where they fit into the narrative. The timeline of the DC Comics elements borrows heavily from Young Justice (2011), but adds elements and characters from the comics, and relocates the series to the late Sixties and early Seventies rather than the New Tens as screened, and is heavy on 'legacy' and original characters as a result.

A/N: Unless stated otherwise, the action of this story takes place in the run up to and during the 1997-1998 school year (305 "Anno Secreto" or "Year of Secrecy") parallel to the events of Deathly Hallows in canon. The year code "AL" is also my own invention and stands for After Liberation, counting the years after the Justice League's ending of the "Apokolips War", my as-yet unwritten take on the events of Young Justice Season 3 (Set late 1973 to April 1976).

****
The Orchard,
Royctonshire
8th September, 0745 BST

"Ginny, we need to go?!" Eddie yelled up the stairs as the Montroses stood waiting at the door.

"Coming!" Ginny yelled back, and seconds later she appeared at the top of the stairs, dressed in her new school uniform.

"Have you got everything you need?" Alanna asked. "Lunch money? PE Kit?"

Ginny groaned at the last question. "I am not looking forward to that today."

"You'll be fine," Eddie assured her as he opened the door. "Let's go."

"Have a good day," said Alanna, giving each of them, including Ginny, a hug as they left. "See you about five?"

Eddie nodded. "Now that we've wrapped up the smuggling case, Supermartian wants us to take it easy for a while unless something comes up in Operation Hamlin."

"I've got a patient until five thirty, so if you could go straight down to the games room?"

"Of course, Mum," agreed Eddie and then indicated to Ginny and his brother that they needed to leave.

"So, I guess you had a good date with Harry?" Danny asked Ginny as the trio left the through the farm's main gate.

Ginny bristled slightly, "It wasn't a date, Danny!" she hissed. "It was a Team operation."

"Maybe," admitted Danny with a cheeky smile. "But you want one though."

Ginny blushed a little at that, but nodded.

"So, what happened?" asked Danny eagerly. "Eddie said you got everyone?"

"Maybe not everyone," Ginny admitted. "But, we've got Greyback and his British pack have been rolled up. Nemesis, Red Fury and Skybolt are still pursuing leads on the Continent."

"That's cool," said Danny. "But what actually happened? Eddie's already told me what he and Nita got up to."

"Well…" said Ginny, as they walked down the road towards the bus stop. "As you probably know, Nightrunner decided to use only Hamlin Squad and split us into three sub-squads: Amanda, Maz and Peta; Eddie and Nita; and Harry and I …"

****
Clun SY7
7th September, 1405 BST

We hid Anastasia behind the White Horse, then walked the rest of the way on foot. A couple of minutes later, we got to the field gate and stile that separated the castle's fields from the road. "Gamma Squad to Watchtower, we're on location. Preparing to begin our sweep."

"Watchtower to Gamma Squad, understood," replied Supermartian. "Be advised that Alpha Squad has rounded up half-a-dozen werewolves at their location, but there's no sign of Greyback either there or in Risley. Stay alert."

"Copy that, Watchtower," said Harry. "Can you divert the H'L'umm here for back-up?"

"He'll be with you in one minute," confirmed Supermartian. "Will you hold position?"

"Negative," Harry replied. "I'm going to move now."

"Understood. I'll inform Kid Martian that he may need to come in hot."

"Let's hope not, Watchtower," said Harry. "Gamma Squad out." Then he turned back to me. "Ready?"

"Yep," I agreed, hoping that I sounded more confident than I actually was. Going up against random criminals or metas was one thing, but Fenrir Greyback was a bogeyman feared only slightly less by most witches and wizards than Tom himself, maybe even as much as the Joker was feared by the heroes and villains of the metahuman community.

"Smrofinu otni sehtolc egnahc!" Harry said, sweeping his hand over his own body and then pointing it at mine.

I felt a slight tingle of unease as my clothes began to change, the heavy racing suit dissolving away. But I relaxed when I felt the more familiar feel of l'bdikk sh'tovv replacing it and then moments later my uniform, including knee-length cloak was back in place. "Harry!" I exclaimed, and scowled at him, blushing slightly at the same time.

Harry - now clad in a black and yellow uniform that hugged his body in ways that I liked a lot - ignored me, I guess my mask and the shadow cast by my hood somewhat ruined the effect. "Can you do a recon sweep? According to Whitefang and Goldeye, they only use the Great Tower, but they might have posted sentries on the ruined walls."

"I'm on it," I said. "Thanaitor, Corchala, Khaiphos!" I gently lifted off the ground and flew towards the castle. I flew around it for a moment or two, and didn't see anyone, so I slowed into a hovering position and cast a spell at the castle. "Rolanthropos."

A couple of faint signs lit up under the tower, but no-one showed up above ground, so I flew back towards the gate, where Harry was waiting. "All clear. No guards above ground." I told him as I dissolved the spells keeping me aloft.

It was difficult to tell with the mask, but I think that Harry frowned at that. "That's odd, unless everyone's away."

"There are a couple of people in the basement of the tower, as we suspected," I suggested, trying to shake off the wave of tiredness caused by the spells.

Now, Harry was definitely scowling. "That doesn't make any sense…"

"Should we wait for K'oll?" I asked, thinking that if it was a trap, the extra body might be useful.

Harry appeared to consider it for a moment, "No. If Greyback's left hostages unguarded, then we should grab them while we can."

I wasn't sure I agreed, but Harry had a lot more experience with this sort of thing than me, so I nodded.

It only took us a few seconds to cover the distance between the gate and the base of the hill. I cast the revealing spell again, and got indications of a total of five people in the basement, but still no-one above ground. I relayed the information to Harry, who was undeterred. I recast my flight spell and flew both of us onto the top of the tower. The door to the stairs was locked, but easily opened with a moment's work from Harry's lock picks.

We quickly cleared the above-ground floors, and then turned our attentions to locating the hidden access to Greyback's basement lair. Harry deployed his drones and after a few seconds of searching, they found the warded door and blasted through it. Harry and I quickly moved to enter the door, but were taken by surprise when two snarling wolves leapt through of the ruined doorway and stalked towards us.

"Nice… uh, doggies…" I said as they got closer. "Harry, those can't be werewolves, can they?"

"No," Harry confirmed. "Put these in your nose." He said, passing me a couple of soft cylinders. "Quick!"

I did so, and as the two wolves were tensing for a jump, he flicked a couple of small capsules out of his belt and threw them towards them, enveloping them in a bilious green gas. The wolves' snarls cut off almost instantly, and they collapsed clumsily to the ground.

"Night, night," Harry quipped.

"Sorry, Harry," I said, "I thought that I found…"

"It's okay, Ginny," Harry told me. "That spell's for people not animals."

"Let's go get the hostages then," I said, leading the way through the ruined doorway and down the stairs.

****
Nantwich CW5,
8th September, 0815 BST


"They couldn't have been werewolves…" said Danny, leaning over the back of Ginny's seat so that he could look Ginny in the eye. "It was the new moon a couple of nights ago? Wasn't it?"

"Nearly a week ago actually," Ginny answered. "But you're right, they weren't werewolves in the usual sense. After K'oll examined them, I remembered what they were."

"Which was?"

"Tom used to call them 'werewolf cubs', wolves born from the union of two transformed werewolves."

"Okay, if you mean what I think you mean…" said Danny, trailing off without completing the thought. Ginny nodded. "Okay, that's a little… yuck."

"No kidding," agreed Ginny. "In some ways, they're third point of the triangle between the Berserkers and regular werewolves. They have a wolf body – like a transformed werewolf – although they can't transform; and the intelligence of a human like a transformed Berserker. I guess Greyback uses them as guard-dogs."

"What happened next?" asked Danny, apparently eager to hear the rest of the story before they got to school.

****
Clun Castle,
7th September, 1410 BST

Apparently the werewolves were light sleepers, as a pair of scarlet spells flew through the door the moment it was opened. Fortunately, as neither Harry or I were carrying weapons, the Disarming Spells fizzled out into nothing.

"Have you got this?!" asked Harry, summoning his shield and a shock baton.

I nodded, "Go get the hostages, watch out for Greyback."

"I will," he promised. "Em Kaolc!"

A long, hooded cloak briefly appeared over him, and then both he and the cloak disappeared.

I turned back to the door. "Anemoutoichos!" A violent gust of wind, almost a wall of elemental power, burst from my hands and pushed forward through the open door, knocking the two werewolves - a black woman and an Oriental woman - off their feet. They recovered quickly, casting two spells at me – a hot pink one and a fiery orange one. I easily dodged the first, but the second clipped me, burning a hole in my cloak. Slightly irritated at that, the cloak – indeed the uniform as a whole – was one of my favourite outfits, so I returned fire with a little more force than necessary. "Ektopizo! Taramis!"

The first spell threw the Oriental woman several feet to crash against the basement wall, and the second hit the black woman, causing her to double up in pain as if struck by a massive force and pass out. Satisfied that the two guards were dealt with, I looked around to try and find Harry, and almost immediately spotted him at the back of the room, where he was facing off against Greyback, who had either lost his wand or was angry enough that he wasn't using it, but was instead slashing at Harry with his clawed hands. Two young kids, a boy and a girl, were huddled behind Harry, trembling in fear.

"Kids, come to me, I'll get you to safety!" I yelled across the room. They glanced briefly at Harry, but after he whispered something, they ran towards me. I gathered them up into my arms and then hurried them back towards the door. "Gamma Squad to H'L'umm, K'oll prepare for pick up… west entrance."

"I'll be there in thirty."

True to his word, the Bio-Ship was waiting as we stumbled out of the tower door and I rushed them up the ramp and into the cargo bay. K'oll met me there and took charge of the kids, so I could go back and help Harry with Greyback. However, he didn't actually need my help, as I made it back to the basement just in time to see him deliver a final knockdown blow to Greyback with his baton.

"Are the kids clear?" Harry asked, sheathing his baton and retracted his shield into his gauntlet.

"Yeah," I confirmed. "They're on the H'L'umm with K'oll."

"Let's get these three tied up," said Harry, removing three sets of plasti-cuffs from his belt and then bent to apply one set to Greyback.

****
Nantwich Bus Station,
8th September, 0825 BST

"After that, it was just a matter of waiting for the Watchtower to send the authorities," concluded Ginny, just as their bus pulled into the station.

"So, what'll happen to them?" Danny asked.

Ginny turned to Eddie. "Well, Eddie, you're the one that wants to study law, do you want to take this one?"

Eddie appeared to ponder the question as they disembarked the bus. "I would assume that the kids will be returned to their families, and the werewolves will be taken to a secure facility – probably either Basement 101 or the Glasshouse – at least until jurisdiction can be sorted out. Has Madame Bones been informed?"

Ginny nodded. "Apparently, she's at a conference in Copenhagen, Direktør Blod and Madame Peau wanted to discuss recent dark activity across Western Europe, she'll take it to the Wizengamot when she returns."

"Wouldn't a conference like that normally be handled through International Magical Co-operation departments or the Confederation?" asked Eddie.

Ginny shrugged. "I asked that, apparently Mister Crouch too busy 'with more important matters' and the Supreme Mugwump tied up dealing with magical elements within the African civil wars."

Eddie frowned, "According to the intel provided to Operation Hamlin by Tonks, Mister Crouch is a chronic workaholic and a strong advocate for action against the Dark Arts, it seems odd that he'd pass up the opportunity to push that agenda."

Ginny nodded. "I've heard the same thing… I guess even the worst workaholic has their limits."

"Granted," agreed Eddie. "But he was under a much greater workload during your civil war in the Seventies and he kept going. It seems odd that he'd back off now."

Now Ginny was frowning too. "Now you mention it… You're right, that doesn't make any sense. I'll talk to Tonks, see if she can ask around… I'll ask Percy if he knows anything either, though I doubt it. If he did, he'd would've reported it already."

"Are you sure?" Eddie asked. "He's pretty ambitious, he might not want to damage his own position…"

"No, I can believe that he might miss the clues – partly because of ambition – but I can't believe that he'd ignore something like that for his own personal gain, he's not a Slytherin."

Eddie opened his mouth as if to say something in answer to that, but then closed it, apparently changing his mind.

Ginny took the hint, and they spent the next fifteen minutes chatting about casual things until they arrived at school. At the entrance they split off, Eddie and Ginny headed down the 'red' corridor towards Woods' form rooms for registration, and Danny took the 'blue' corridor towards Wolf to do the same.

****
Cafeteria,
Nantwich High School,
Nantwich CW5.
1230 BST.

Due to their different schedules, Ginny and the Montrose boys weren't able to meet up again until lunch time. Ginny picked up a block of lasagne - it wasn't as good as the homemade stuff, but it wasn't as bad as many of the other options – and some chips and joined the boys at their table. "How's it going?"

"I hate Mrs Burke," offered Danny. "She's always on my case."

"Well, maybe if you paid a bit more attention in grammar classes…?" suggested Eddie jokingly.

"Well, I'm not looking forward to PE after lunch," said Ginny. "It's not exactly warm out there and there's a bit of wind and rain picking up."

Eddie nodded, forking up a mouthful of chicken and rice and swallowing it. "I've been out in worse, but yeah… I'd much rather be doing something inside at this time of year, and I think most of the students would agree."

"I'll bet," agreed Ginny.

About half-an-hour later, the bell rang for the start of fourth period, so they took our trays over the kitchen hatch for washing and headed off towards the Leisure and Creative Arts block. When they reached the changing rooms, they split off again. Ginny changed into shorts, t-shirt and a hoodie, then added her football boots and gum shield and headed back outside with the rest of the girls in her class. As they exited out in the autumn air, the boys – including Eddie – left their own changing room and joined them.

"Warm-up's first…" ordered Mr Johnson, as the class lined up on the pitch. "Then laps. You know the drill."

They did, and the next ten minutes were filled with stretches, crunches and push-ups.

"Three laps, kids! Starting now!" barked Mr Small. "Come on, getting moving. I want to get a game in today!"

Groaning slightly, but at least somewhat warmer now from exertion, Ginny hauled herself to her feet and joined the rest of class, settling into a brisk jog after a moment or two.

When they finished the run - which as usual took 'far too long' in Johnson's opinion, they lined up again. "Alright, usual rules, two teams, eleven-a-side. Dean, Ellison, Grant, Hunter, King, Lawson, Matthews, Reid, Smalls, Tower and Wells… you're the Black Team. Carter, Charles, Copeland, Frost, Hill, Montrose, Perkins, Quinn, Thompson, Weasley and York… you're the White Team." He told them. "Pick up your sticks and pads and let's get started, time's a wasting!"

Ginny swapped her damp hoodie for a white training bib, then she headed up to the first line with three of the boys in their class, noting idly that Eddie had taken his place between the goal posts.

"First game?" asked the muscular, tanned boy that stood on Ginny's left.

Ginny nodded, leaning forward to be ready to intercept the ball if it came her way.

"I'm surprised to you went for a striking position… most people would pay it safe at first."

"What can I say," said Ginny. "I'm trying to put myself forward more."

"Fair enough," agreed the boy. "Follow my lead."

"Right behind you," Ginny confirmed.

"It's… game time!" announced Small and blew his whistle.

The next hour-and-a-half was a brisk back and forth of possession, attack and counter-attack by both sides, Ginny managed to assist on two goals and score one herself, but a strong showing by the Black's team's centre forward, Sax Smalls - a broad-shouldered muscular boy that Ginny vaguely remembered from coverage of the England U16s football team – meant that the Black team ended the match at thirteen goals to White's seven.

"Not bad, kids," admitted Johnson. "Now get cleaned up and get off home. First week of term or not, I'm sure you've got homework to do."

Ginny shed her bib and pads, adding them to the boxes by the side-lines. Then after retrieving her hoodie, she followed the other girls back into the changing room. After showering and changing back into her uniform, she left the changing room and met up with the Montrose boys at the main entrance for the bus home.

****
The Orchard,
Royctonshire.
1800 BST

Ginny and the brothers were in the middle of their second game of pool, when the viewscreen lit up. "Ginny, are you there?"

Ginny smiled, "I'm here, Harry."

"Are you busy on Friday night?"

"No, why?" Ginny asked with a slight frisson of excitement.

"John and Amber are on this side of the pond for a meeting at Wayne Yards in Belfast." Harry replied. "He's got four tickets to the Bats v Harpies game on Friday, did you want to come with us?"

"I'd love too, Harry," Ginny assured him. "I know I'm always up for a game of Quidditch.

"We're going to have dinner at the Grouse after their meeting, do you want to meet us there?"

"Send me the details," Ginny said, moving to the console to read them.

"I'll see you at about five?" Harry suggested.

Ginny nodded.

"Good night, then."

"Good night, Harry."

The brothers had been silent while Harry and Ginny were talking, but now Danny spoke up. "So, is this a date?"

Ginny paused for a moment, then broke into a grin. "You know what? He didn't call it one… but, I think it just might be."

A/N: No sure when the next chapter will be out, but as always reviews are appreciated.