Hogwarts
Susan Bones waited for her boyfriend to come and escort her to the Great Hall as had become the norm. But, he was not there. She and Hannah kept waiting for him and Neville Longbottom to turn up but they didn't.
Susan decided to go to the Great Hall by herself and then sort out her boyfriend who had ostensibly forgot about her. As she was on her way up, she was joined by Daphne and Tracy.
Daphne guessed Susan was angry about something and asked cautiously, "What happened, Susan?"
Hannah replied, "Harry is in for a bad day courtesy of Susie."
Susan glared at her, "As if you're going to let your boy-friend get away with it."
Tracy pacified both of them, "Stop sniping at each other. Tell us what's happened?"
Hannah answered, "Generally, Harry and Neville escort us to the Great Hall every day. But today we can see no sign of them."
Daphne snorted, "What? Can't you walk up there by yourself?"
Susan grinned, "I shouldn't have to. Not when he is always so sweet and considerate.
Tracy sighed, "Don't make us jealous Bones."
They arrived at the Great hall to find their friends sitting at the Ravenclaw table. They joined them. When their other friends noticed that Harry and Neville were not among them, Hermione got worked up, "Susan where's Harry? For that matter, where's Neville?"
Susan sighed, "I was hoping that you would know where your best friends are."
Hermione's brows were furrowed, "What do you mean? I haven't seen them since last night. When Ron and I returned from the Prefect patrol, I retired to my dorm. When I woke up this morning, they weren't there. I assumed that they were out running."
Susan turned to Ron who had just put an entire egg in his mouth and asked him, "Where are your friends, Ron?"
Unlike the Ron of past years, he took the time to chew and swallow while he considered his answer. After he finished swallowing, he turned to her, "When I returned to the dorm, I didn't go probing into their beds. They have all sorts of wards around their beds, you know. I've learned the hard way not to go poking around when they're sleeping. I was tired and went to sleep. Like Hermione said, I also thought they were out this morning."
Susan sighed, "It's not like them to sleep in. I'm guessing that neither of them is in bed and therefore, they're both missing and nobody's looking for them. What do you reckon we should do?"
Daphne who was looking towards the doors of the Great Hall said, "We don't need to do anything. They're here."
They turned to see Harry and Neville walking into the Great Hall. Susan tried to leap from her seat to go and pummel him but Hannah held her back, "Don't do it unless you want to end up in detention. We'll deal with them later."
Harry approached them with a very sweet smile, slipping into the seat which Hannah vacated for him. Giving Susan a peck on the cheek, he asked her, "What are we talking about, Sue?"
Daphne answered, "Susan is angry that she didn't get her daily dose of pampering this morning."
Harry, looking to the owls that had begun to fly into the Great hall, said cryptically, "I'll explain everything, right after you get a chance to look at the Daily Prophet."
Hermione asked him suspiciously, "What's in the Daily Prophet?"
Neville said mysteriously, "we don't want to ruin your surprise."
The owls began landing in front of the students and all along the staff table. Hermione already had the knuts ready. She placed them in the pouch and grabbed the paper with such haste that the owl hooted in protest. As she spread the paper out on the table, the other students looked on to see the grizzled face of the Master Auror glaring out at them.
"75 DEAD IN BATTLE AT CARDIFF
In a press release issued by the ministry late last night, it has been informed that the infamous and dreaded witch known as Bellatrix Nameless was killed in a duel with an unidentified wizard during a failed ambush in Cardiff forest last night. When the fighting was over, sixty death eaters and 15 Aurors lay dead. Three of the Ministry Aurors, including Rufus Scrimgeour are in critical care at St. Mongo's but are expected to make full recoveries.
Acting on an anonymous tip, ministry forces composed of 20 Aurors, led by Rufus Scrimgeour and Proudfoot, moved to prevent an attack on muggles in the area. Death eater forces showed up with double their number. Undaunted, the Aurors held their ground and reduced the enemy forces to even the odds. That was when 30 death eater reinforcements, led by Bellatrix nameless and Antonin Dolohov arrived, turning the tide of battle again in their favour.
In the confusion, Mulciber Sr. managed to hit Rufus Scrimgeour who he was battling with a Black Lung curse and took him out of the fight. With the numbers at 45 to 15 for the death eaters and Senior Auror Proudfoot still in command, it was questionable if the Aurors could hold on until reinforcements could arrive from the Ministry.
The pivotal moment was when members of the erstwhile unknown Order of the Snow Leopard arrived to help the Aurors. Their timely aid rapidly carved a swath of complete destruction through the ranks of the death eaters. One of them made a bee-line to Bellatrix nameless and challenged her to a duel while the other forces rapidly depleted the ranks of the demoralized death eaters.
It is not clear how the battle proceeded from that point. By the time reinforcements arrived from the Ministry, Bellatrix nameless along with a total of 59 of the death eaters lay dead. Another nine were captured, none of which were unharmed. Antonin Dolohov, who had been seen at the battle, was not found among the prisoners or the bodies of the dead and is believed to have escaped.
According to eye witnesses, Bellatrix nameless had been challenged according to the ancient ways. She gave a good accounting of herself, having killed two Aurors before she was challenged and defending herself until she succumbed to a spell that is not taught at the Auror academy.
When asked about the battle, Master Auror Moody responded, 'It was all over by the time I got there. You won't be able to interview anyone tonight. They're all either having their injuries attended to or they're in debriefing.'
Another source who requested to remain anonymous said, 'It's more than my job's worth if they find out I talked to you. All I'll say is that I've never seen anything like the way they fought. There's no doubt that they saved our bacon tonight.
One thing nobody is talking about is just who is the order of the Snow Leopard? How many of them are there? How did they know to show up when and where they did? Do we have new dark wizards on the rise? The Ministry seems to be turning a blind eye toward their activities. If there's any investigation into who they are, this reporter has not detected any sign of it.
This also raises questions about the leadership of General Longbottom. We have lost a number of Aurors since you-know-who has come out into the open. If not for the timely intervention of this unknown order, the Ministry would have suffered an ignominious and devastating defeat."
Thankfully there were no photos of the battle scene in the paper. Harry was sure that most of the people would have been nauseous and squirming with the gruesome photo of Bellatrix's dead body missing most of her vital organs. It certainly would have made most of them throw up.
When everyone was done reading, Harry found that most of them were looking at him and Neville. Fred however asked him, "Harrikins, what happened to Dolohov?"
Harry said offhandedly, "I heard that he got most of his ribs stove in. Somehow, that coward managed to get away. No worries, he will die next time."
George interrupted, "Sorry Harrikins but our family owes him some payback."
Harry let it go because he knew there was no use arguing about it. If Dolohov ran into him on any of his raids, Harry was going to put him down with extreme prejudice.
Susan growled at him, "You promised that we would be at each other's side the next time you went on one of these missions."
Harry tried to calm her down, "Sue." She however waved him off, "Don't patronize me Harry. We want to help you end this war but you keep leaving us behind."
Neville tried to speak, "Susan…"
He had to shut up when Hannah glared at him, "Don't speak a word, Neville. We deserved to be there."
Daphne decided to rescue them, "You can both fight them later, girls. For now, let them explain."
Ron said in a snarky tone, "Yeah! Let them explain how the last resort backup for the ministry forces ended up killing Bellatrix Nameless and so many death eaters because as far as I know, none of our own accompanied them."
Harry sighed, "Ron, you do realise how many I can deal with at once? By myself I don't have to worry about the safety of my friends. Neville, as Dumbledore's apprentice and heir of Longbottom has learned a lot of spells which we won't find in our books. We were practicing in the Room of Requirement last night when we received an urgent message that the Ministry forces were being ambushed. You both were on Patrol duty. I had no time to search for you and ask you to join me. Time was of the essence so I took Neville with me when I went out. In doing so we saved at least 5 lives. I wouldn't have been at peace with myself if any delay had cost so much as a single life. Also I had no time to stay and outline a plan. Thanks to our long hours of practicing together, Neville understood what we had to do."
When he was done speaking, Hermione got that mulish expression before she spoke up, "From this time forward, Harry Potter, you are going to take us with you. We have learned enough spells and how to use them. Now it's time we show what we can do."
"Mr. Peverell and Mr. Longbottom, the headmaster wants to see you both in his office after breakfast. The password is 'toffee éclairs'", said Professor Flitwick who had just come up to them.
Well, that was convenient. It was best to get going right away since it wouldn't do to keep the headmaster waiting and arguing with Hermione was slightly less enjoyable than one of Snape's detentions.
The Unknown castle
When Dolohov opened his eyes, he could not remember how he got there. It took him a few seconds before he could focus his eyes and it all started to come back to him. He remembered the battle, how he was about to kill Proudfoot when a massive bone breaker took him out. Just the memory of the spell made him wince.
When he attempted to sit up, the entire right side of his chest quickly convinced him that this was a bad idea. He noticed that Rudolphus was before him and his eyes were bloodshot and he seemed to have been crying. He had bags under his eyes and Dolohov surmised that he had not slept properly last night. He was however puzzled as to why he would cry. As far as he remembered, Rudolphus was not one to cry. Perhaps something bad had happened.
He turned to him, "Lestrange, what happened?"
Rudolphus started speaking while his voice hitched, "Bella. Bella was killed."
Dolohov couldn't believe his ears, "What was that? I couldn't have heard you right. I thought you said that Bella was killed."
"You heard right, Antonin. Bella was killed last night", said Lucius Malfoy who had just entered the infirmary. The Malfoy lord tossed a rolled up newspaper to him which he fumbled to his chest with his left hand. The headlines made him drop the newspaper.
Malfoy drawled, "Since you are the only one who came back, we were hoping you could tell us what happened there?"
Dolohov frowned in concentration, "It was an ambush. The ministry knew we were coming. They had made their preparations. When we arrived, we were bounced off by anti-apparition wards that were in place. By the time that we managed to enter the battle, we found that about half of the death eaters were already dead with Mulciber having just hit Scrimgeour with a Black lung curse. Proudfoot had already sent a message calling for backup. We decided to finish off the remaining Aurors then wait to kill the back up when they arrived. That was when two wizards arrived in our midst, bypassing the wards."
Malfoy asked in amazement, "Two wizards? Just two?"
Dolohov shuddered, "They were no ordinary wizards. I could literally feel the power radiating off them. One of them had a sword that he used to behead one of the men before anyone could blink. Then he did something that I've never seen before. He attacked like a whirlwind, mostly cloaked in a shroud of dark mist, casting spells with the wand in his left hand while attacking with the sword in his right. Our people could barely even see him, never mind hitting him with any spells. All that any of us could do was stay away from him, but even that didn't help much. I tried to finish off Proudfoot so that I could take him on myself. That was when he hit me with a bone breaker that took me out. MY last conscious act was to activate my emergency portkey. If it hadn't worked, I would have been captured too."
"You had 10 broken ribs and a punctured lung when you were brought here, Mr. Dolohov. We were able to mend most of your injuries before you came around. I expect that you'll be sore for a couple of days, but no permanent damage was done.", said the healer from the other side of the bed, "Now if you will hold still for a few moments, I will finish my work before I let you go. Otherwise you will stay here until your busted ribs heal naturally." He muttered to himself as he worked, "Don't know what did this. Looks like you were hit by a muggle lorry…"
Lucius dragged Rudolphus away, "Come on Lestrange, we need to figure out what to do."
Soon, the remaining members of the inner circle were sitting for a meeting when an owl arrived with a letter from Severus for Lucius. Lucius opened the letter and frowned when he was done reading it. Wordlessly he passed the letter to Rudolphus who started reading it.
"Lucius,
The old fool suspects my loyalties and has been keeping a close eye on me. He has forbidden me from going out of the castle for the time being. I am unable to leave without arousing suspicion. I fear that in Bella's absence the onerous task of looking after the faithful must fall to you and the others. I will try to get away from here when I can.
Recently, the Order of the Phoenix has been talking about this Order of the Snow Leopard and the probable members. What we know for sure is that none of the members of the Order of the Phoenix are involved in this. They are all too straight laced to show such brutality in battle.
I will keep fishing for their identities while I am here. If I were you, I would start making plans to avenge Bellatrix and Mulciber Sr. I know it may sound strange to you but Bellatrix was our comrade and I will not feel better until she is avenged.
I have also found that there is a spy in our midst who is passing information to the ministry and the Order of the Phoenix. At this time, I have no clue about his identity. I am working on finding his identity and when I do, I will kill him and send his head to the ministry as a gift.
Severus Snape."
Rookwood who was present in the meeting grumbled, "What do you all propose we do? I mean we can't let the ministry think that they got to us with Bellatrix and Mulciber gone."
Rudolphus shook his head, "No. We will avenge her. Tonight we will do raids on Muggle London and cause as much havoc as we can. Kill indiscriminately and kill anyone who dares to stand in our way."
Unfortunately Rabbastan was not present in the meeting. That meant that the Ministry would not receive any advanced notice of the raid. The ministry would be on its own. The Death Eaters also had no way to contact the dark lord while he was abroad without summoning him through the mark. They knew they would get a message from him if he sent one but only Bellatrix knew the way to contact him if needed. With her dead, none of them wanted to risk his anger by summoning him through the dark mark when they knew that he was working to gain more men on his side.
Ministry of Magic
"Alastor report", Frank said grimly. He and Moody had just returned from St. Mungo's after meeting Rufus and the other injured Aurors. While he was proud of the valour of his men, he was disturbed with the state of Bellatrix's body. As Moody had predicted, he at once recognised that she had been killed with his favourite signature spell and arrived at the conclusion that she was killed by his son. Alice was at the Manor at the time of the ambush and there was no one else who could know that spell. He never wanted children to participate in the war but to his consternation, it appeared that children would be fighting in the war anyway. He had tried to dissuade Harry from fighting but the prophecy and other details made it so that the war could not be won without Harry Potter. He then focused on trying to prevent other children from being engaged in the war but it would not be so.
Alastor snapped to attention, "We were outnumbered and outwitted by Bellatrix last night. As per the Intel received I had sent sufficient Aurors. If they hadn't added to their plan and sent more death eaters, we would have come out on top. Alas, our sources didn't hear about that in time. We were facing a total loss. Out of the nine death eaters who were caught yesterday, four are alive and well to face justice. The other five succumbed to their injuries last night."
Frank raised an eyebrow at him, "when are you going to tell me about the identities of the members of the Order of the Snow Leopard?"
Moody muttered, "I already told you. I have sworn an oath not to disclose their identities."
Frank smirked, "I already know Alastor."
Moody nodded, "Even if that's true, general, I can't confirm or deny anything."
Headmaster's Office
When Harry and Neville entered Dumbledore's office, they found him looking solemn and lost in thought. As they approached, he offered them chairs and waited for them to speak.
When it became apparent that none of them were going to speak Dumbledore took the initiative, "I haven't called you here to berate you or to admonish you for your decision to run off and fight the death eaters. I know how hard it is to kill someone and to live with that feeling. I called you both here because I wanted to know how you are dealing with it. If either of you needed any assistance or words of comfort I am ready to do that."
Neville said in grim determination, "Thank you for the offer headmaster. I know what I did yesterday. I do not repent it. I know that to take a life is a grim business. The alternative, however, was to allow that insane witch to go on killing or be killed myself. I plan to live to a ripe old age, surrounded by family and friends. Anyone who thinks they're going to change that plan is in for a rude surprise. I knew what this was when I signed up and I do not shrink from my duty now."
Harry grinned ferally, "I have the same sentiments as Neville does headmaster. We do not enjoy killing however we do what we have to. We are not allowing them to kill anyone who is dear to us. I know you are concerned that we might have started to love killing but I can assure you that none of us enjoy doing it. As I already told you we are doing what we can to minimize our losses and to bring an end to this war as soon as possible."
Dumbledore nodded, "I understand that, my boy. And along those lines, have you found any clue about the location of the last horcrux?"
Harry shook his head, "Other than what I've already told you, no headmaster. I saw the image in Tom Riddle's mind of the Tiara in a huge Cathedral like room that was full of junk. Other than that I have no idea about it. I was hoping that you could figure it out."
Dumbledore sighed, "I'm at the end of my rope in this matter. I have tried everything to find its location but could not. I wanted to bounce a few ideas off you both to see if there's something that we can come up with."
Neville nodded, "Go ahead headmaster we are listening."
Dumbledore closed his eyes as if thinking over something and took a few moments before he started speaking, "You see, Tom liked to collect trophies since he was a little child. In the orphanage where he lived, he would steal whatever caught his fancy from other children. He would bully them. It looks like he never changed. As you both can see, all the objects that he made into horcruxes were of historical importance or fanciable or dear to him. First his diary then the Ring with the Peverell coat of arms followed by objects, artefacts belonging to the founders. Similarly if you would observe, all the horcruxes were hidden at places which were related to him in one way or another. For instance the cave where we destroyed inferi, a vault in Gringotts, the shack belonging to the Gaunts which is his ancestral home. He was also fascinated with the castle in the same way you both were when you arrived at Hogwarts for your first year. You Harry came here out of the shadow of the muggles who had spent their lives telling you that you were worthless and you found a home in the castle. Neville, you were raised under the strict upbringing of Augusta Longbottom and when you arrived at the castle it was the first time that you were allowed to be a child your age. Just like you both countless of witches and wizards have found a home in the castle and among them was Tom Marvolo Riddle. Taking everything together, I suppose that one of the horcruxes is hidden at the castle. What I don't know is how Tom found the diadem of Ravenclaw or when he had the opportunity to hide it at the castle. I hope you will both think it over it and maybe find the solution to our predicament.". When Dumbledore fell silent, Harry and Neville both waited for a time to see if he would speak again.
Harry asked him, "Was there anything else that you wanted to talk about headmaster?"
Dumbledore nodded, "The General wanted to talk to you both therefore I have asked you to be here. He will be flooing here in a few minutes with Lady Longbottom who I am sure is worried about you."
As if on cue the floo roared and Frank stepped out of the fireplace followed closely by Alice. She hugged both the teens fervently for a few minutes, clutching them tightly as if they would disappear.
After she let go of them, Frank fixed a stern glare on them, "What do the two of you have to say for yourselves?"
Frank never raised his voice, but it was clear from his tone that they were getting a dressing down from Lord Longbottom and they'd best give a good accounting of themselves.
Harry did his best to look innocent and with his skill at Occlumancy, it should have worked, "Whatever do you mean, Lord Longbottom?"
Frank said not a word but continued to let his glare bore into his son and heir. After a few minutes, Neville straightened up and looking directly into his father's eyes, said, "My lord, I avenged our family upon the mad witch Bellatrix nameless for the injuries she inflicted upon the house of Longbottom. I will gladly present myself for any punishment you may see fit."
Frank shook his head, " I'm not about to punish you, my son. According to the ancient law, you were within your rights to do so. What I'm concerned about is that you had to kill. If it were up to me I would have forbidden children from participating in the war. But I know that you and Harry were both probable children of prophecy therefore you would fight the war irrespective of what I did or said. Also as they say where a Potter goes a Longbottom will follow so I understand why you would not stay behind while your God brother goes out to fight this war. I can only tell you two to be safe and not to be reckless. Being vigilant is what saved me and Alice during all those encounters with Voldemort. I know you both are well learned, powerful and have access to some ancient magic but remember that it takes only one spell, one moment's inattention to change the course of a battle. Again I say, stay safe and do not take unnecessary chances. We all care for you."
After Frank was done having his say, Alice took her turn, "As Frank has already said what needed to be said, I will only add that we are proud of you both and we will always stand beside you no matter what."
Harry hugged her tightly, "And I assure you that we will never let you down. You have trusted us without a word and we will never let that trust be broken."
The room of requirement
The students were practicing spell chains which they had been working on since the start of the term. Most of them could use spell chains of the most commonly used spells. A few had mastered those and were working on more difficult ones for greater effect and variety. Predictably Hermione was one of those who could put complex spells together in a chain. So could Ronald. In fact all of those who had been taught by Mad-Eye during the summer were way ahead of their peers.
"Hey Harry", said Justin, "when will we be using these spells that we are learning? I mean it is all good that we are getting really good against practice dummies but when do we go up against the real thing?"
Harry took in what Justin was saying. It was time to give the students some perspective, "Alright, everyone! Listen up!"
The room went silent as the students stopped casting spells and turned their attention to Harry. He began solemnly, "Justin just asked me when we get to go up against the real thing. The answer I want to give is that if I get my way about it, none of you will ever be exposed to that kind of danger.". He watched the faces of his fellow students for a while. Some registered the gravity of what he was saying but others still looked like they were spoiling for a fight. He continued, "As you know, I have been up against real death eaters and even Voldemort himself. I'm watching you all the time during practice. I dare say that most of you could hold your own against one of them. They aren't that well trained or disciplined. But you've got to know that if you're ever fighting one of them for real, they don't fight fair and they do fight to kill." He let that sink in for a moment before he continued, "I know what you're thinking, 'Why are we bothering to train if we're never supposed to fight? Am I right?'" He watched as many of the students nodded in agreement, then went on, "As stated from the outset, those of you who trained with Master Auror Moody last summer will recall, we were never supposed to be front line soldiers. As I told all of you when I agreed to train you, you are never supposed to be front line soldiers. We are training here because, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you must fight, I want to give you every chance possible to get out of it alive." He waited just a breath while his words sank in. Then he let them all off the hook, "Having said that, I realize that firing spell chains at practice dummies is not preparing you as well as I would like. Choose yourselves partners and pair off for some dueling practice."
With some general shuffling, the students quickly paired off. Harry gave them some more instruction, "We only have so much space here, so I want you to duel four pairs at a time while the rest of you watch and learn from the people who are dueling. Try to be creative. Keep your partners guessing. If they like shielding, use shield breakers. If they like dodging, try wide area spells or, even better, try to predict where they will move next and hit them where they least expect it."
With that, the first four pairs bowed in and started dueling. The other students moved between the duels, picking up pointers as they went. Harry, Susan, Neville, Hannah, Ron, Hermione and the twins marked the students practicing. If they thought that they needed improvements or instructions, they got some tutoring. Since they had all learned to duel last term, they were to use only spell chains. Every three minutes, Harry called a halt and had the next teams duel.
After about an hour, Harry signalled them to stop casting, "Alright there is another thing I want to talk about. I know you have all read the newspaper. I suppose that you are hungry for information. It is true that the Order has been helping the ministry. We only go out in those cases which otherwise look hopeless. We don't interfere if the Aurors have it under control. We did this by asking our elves to alert us as soon as any attack is taking place. Then we respond. We have made teams for this purpose. I would advise you to ask your elves to alert you about any such attack. You are to immediately send a message to me or to Neville or Daphne or Ernie or Conrad or the Twins and help will be given. For now we are going to see how you will do with spell chains against an experienced fighter. Form groups of three among yourselves. Then I will give you a person who will duel with you to give you the experience of duelling with spell chains."
Soon they all were divided into teams of three. Harry started naming fighters. He named Hermione, Ron, Neville, Susan, Ginny and the twins.
The group to practice with him were Slytherins who started attacking him at once. They were casting all the spells that they could think of. He effortlessly danced out of the way of the spells. He kept watching them for a few minutes to see how they were faring with casting spell chains at him. He noticed that two of them were not very fluent with chains. He stunned them without any trouble and then motioned for the last one to stand down.
His friends were having similar experiences. The twins were simply using prank spells upon their opponents who couldn't think of an appropriate response to their attack. Hermione was having a little trouble but she was able to defend against three at once. Ron was fighting with determination and didn't stop to let them breathe. His opponents could not even cast properly before he would be upon them. Neville was trying to enjoy and would even give tips to his opponents to improve their casting. Susan was blazing her way through the spells of her opponents and they could not hold their own against her. Harry could feel her anger seeping through her casting and decided to talk to her after the session was over.
After about 20 minutes he stopped everyone, "Alright that was enough practice for today. We will continue next session along with working on shields. Sometimes shields can be useful and you must know them."
After everyone was on their way, he asked Susan to stay back. When the room was empty, he asked it to produce the setting of the manor in Ireland. He pulled her in his embrace and fell onto one of the sofas.
Her demeanour showed that she was still angry with him and he sighed, "Sue, why are you not talking to me?"
She poked him hard in the chest, "You know full well why I'm not talking to you."
He shook his head, "No, I don't know. Please enlighten me."
She took a deep breath before going on a rant, "Did you even think for a moment how worried I would be if you didn't return? This war is turning bloodier day by day. We are losing people. People are dying out there and you are risking your life yet you don't ask me to come with you. Harry we had promised to stand with each other."
He kissed the side of her head, "Sue, of course I think about it. I want this war to end soon so that we can go on with our lives. You think I don't care about it? I also want Tom gone so that I can have a peaceful life. I know there is no normal life for me but I can still hope for some peace. I want to end this war soon without seeing anyone hurt or killed. I can't stand the thought of living without you."
She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him deeply, "Harry, the same way we want you to stay safe. I would die if something were to happen to you."
Harry decided to take her away from the topic since it was getting gloomy, "Sue, have you thought about what we are going to do immediately after the war?"
She took a minute before answering, "I guess we'll take a long vacation. Probably a month or so. I want to see Paris. Fleur told me that it is supposed to be the most romantic place."
He nodded, "I'd like that. I haven't been to see any place except the trip I took last summer. I would like to go to places as a visitor, not having to look over my shoulder all the time."
She nodded, "That would be a relief. But for the more immediate future, I would like to know what your plans are for Valentine's Day?"
Harry had no idea about it, "Sue, I haven't celebrated Valentine's Day like ever. The only experience I have with it was second year."
She scrunched her forehead in thought before she remembered, "You mean the dwarves who were dressed as cupids? Didn't they have a valentine message for you?"
Harry shuddered, "Please don't remind me. I wanted to hide in embarrassment."
She snorted, "it wasn't that bad, Harry. I remember it was a rhyming couplet and everything. Who was it from by the way?"
Harry shook his head frantically, "I'd rather not talk about it."
She grinned, "Finally I got under your skin with something. However I am telling you in advance, we are going to the village together Valentine's Day and we're going to have fun."
He nodded meekly, "Yes dear."
Muggle London
The last week had been peaceful for the Aurors as the death eaters had ceased from attacking Muggle London. But they knew that after Bellatrix was killed that the death eaters would retaliate. Therefore Moody was being careful. He had put more people on duty to look for any suspected magical activity across the length and breadth of England.
It was lunch hour and the foot traffic in Coventry Garden outside the Rules restaurant was getting intense. That was when a group of men wearing cloaks and robes arrived suddenly in their midst wielding sticks. They started shooting coloured lights from their sticks while shouting nonsense words. Within seconds, about 10 muggles lay dead with several more injured. Some had their bodies bent at impossible angles, some had their flesh rotting and some were showing other equally gruesome injuries. The muggles scrambled to get under cover while the slaughter continued for about another 2 minutes. When another group arrived wearing matching deep red robes, they formed a line in pairs with the one in front down on one knee while the one behind stood and fired their coloured chains of lights from behind them. The first group of robed figures immediately fired what looked like a macabre firework into the air and disappeared.
Outside the Everyman Hamstead that evening, the scene repeated itself. There was crowd lined up to see the new release "Broken Arrow", a thriller about the theft of nuclear weapons across the pond. The would be movie goers fled in panic as the first of them died from whatever it was those robed people were firing at them. Some were injured sporting gruesome injuries. Here also, the attackers were clothed in robes and cloak and were gone before the red robed wizards could retaliate.
A police car was torched in Yorkshire killing two police men inside. When the people gathered around to see if they could help, most of them were killed by men clothed in robes and masks. Here also the death eaters placed the dark mark in the sky and fled when the Aurors arrived.
Similarly, muggles were attacked at many places and there were too many casualties before the Aurors could intervene. The Ministry had started sending out Aurors as soon as the first incident occurred and within 30 minutes all the Aurors were out on field duty with the Obliviators. St. Mungo's had brought in all of their on-call healers to help treat the muggles who were being brought in. The treatment rooms and wards filled up fast, forcing the healers to deal with the overload in the corridors. Any patients who could crawl were released to make more room. Never before, not even during the last war, had the death eaters inflicted so much random mayhem on the muggle people of Britain. If this trend continued, it was feared that St. Mungo's would have to look for more land to expand their services and call for help from neighbouring countries. They did not have enough healers.
The condition was so grim that even the General had to go out and help the Aurors. However his presence had motivated the troops who worked with more vigour and tried to thwart the attacks with more efficiency. They managed to get their response time down to less than 30 seconds.
With the Aurors dispatched to every corner of Wizarding and Muggle Britain, the death eaters decided that it was time to make their move. Their real target this evening was Green Hues, the residence of the house of Longbottom. They knew that the house was guarded by wards developed by the unspeakable and it was entirely likely that they were deadly. Rookwood howeer believed that a ward destroyer would be able to cause substantial damage to the wards and bring them down. He was eager to test that theory. The remaining members of the inner circle however had forbidden him from leaving the Castle as he was important to their plans. They had dispatched a 10 member team to the Longbottom residence and they were hopeful of success.
When the Death Eaters arrived at Green Hues, Augusta Longbottom was the only one home. Before they launched their attack, they took the precautions of laying anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards around the place and disconnected the floo connection so that none could escape that way. She heard the wards chime and realized that the death eaters had come calling.
She was old but she was not called the Battle-axe for nothing. She was one extremely able witch who could still deal with scum like these as if she were taking a walk in the garden. She readied her wand while signaling her elves to go to the ministry and ask for help.
The sanctuary of the Mermaid
In the Sanctuary of the Mermaid, Hannah was having a conversation with Neville. He was usually a very laid back guy who never tried to assert his will so it was easy for her to guide him around.
Usually she tried to show some form of physical comfort to him like mussing his hair or playing with her fingers in his hand but today she was looking at him as if she pitied him.
When she did speak it sounded like she was trying to mind her words, "Neville, I am angry that you went without me to fight this war. I'm also so sorry that you had to kill. I know killing someone is not an easy business and you would hate yourself or something but I want you to know that I stand with you now and forever."
He hugged her, "Han, You know that I never wanted to kill anyone. But sadly, the duty to put down that mad witch, the torturer of my parents, fell to me and I will not ever shirk my duty. The life of every single person she would have killed if I had let her live would have been my fault. I know you understand. I could not, would not leave it to anyone else. And when it comes down to it, I will likely have to kill again, if that's what it takes."
Suddenly there was a loud crack heralding the arrival of Slinky, the Longbottom Manor house elf. He was shaking with fright. It took a few moments before he could speak, "Master. Mistress being alone. Manor attacked."
Neville immediately crouched down and hugged the elf while patting its back, "Slinky, you have done well. Go find a couple of Hogwarts elves and bring them here as quickly as you can. Ask for Tweaky and he will lend you as many as you want."
As Slinky popped out, he sent messages to Rupert and Michael, "Be ready. Elf coming to pick you up. We are going for some action."
As he was done sending the message, he sent another to Harry, "Green Hues under attack. I am going out with my team. Be on standby."
As he finished sending the message, three elves popped in. Neville turned to them, "Alright, I want two of you to go to Rupert McNaughton and Michael Corner and bring them to Green Hues. After you are done doing that you are to stay back and bring us back when the battle is over. By no means are you to interfere."
Green Hues
The elves bobbed their heads up and down. Neville and Hannah took Slinky's hands and disappeared. They appeared some way out of the circle of trees that encompassed Green Hues. In a thicket that screened them from the manor-house, they located the death eaters working the ward destroyer. They weren't having an easy go of it. The ward destroyer was making whirring noises as it slowly chewed its way through the wards, making a hole in them. Neville knew these wards could repair themselves given enough time but the continuous onslaught of the ward destroyer wouldn't give them that chance.
Just then, the other two members of his team appeared. Rupert whispered his question, "What is it, Longbottom?"
Neville hastily explained, "Now that our team is here, you need to know, the manor is under attack." He pointed, "There are ten death eaters in that thicket, working a ward destroyer. I don't think they know that they have been spotted yet. I want to bring them down before they can hurt anyone. Are you ready for what comes next?" They nodded with grim determination in response. He explained his plan, "It looks like we have the element of surprise on our side. We will spread out. On my signal, let loose with your most deadly spell. Immediately switch targets and fire off your best spell chain. With any luck, we'll have them outnumbered two to one before they even realize what's going on. From there, pair up. One shields while the other casts. Look out for shield breakers and remember to dodge. While we keep them busy, Gran is likely to attack from their rear. That'll be the last surprise they get. Give it everything you've got. Once you hit them, I don't want them getting back up again. And one more thing, if you want to stay alive, follow my orders, no matter what they are."
They carefully picked their way through the underbrush and took up stations behind large trees. Neville raised his left hand while his team took careful aim at their favourite death eater. When he dropped his hand, four wands spoke as one, quickly followed by four death eaters being hurled into the wards and meeting their demise. In the next second, two more death eaters met their fate as they were struck with some nasty and imaginative spell chains. The other two intended targets managed to think fast and dodge as the fatal spells went screaming by them. The steady droning of the ward breaker ceased as the wizard who had been working the device was no more.
When Harry received the message, he was on his way to drop Susan to the Badger's hole. He turned to her, "Sue, you can't return to your dorm just yet."
She asked coyly, "Got any other idea, Mr. Peverell?"
He showed her the message, "Our team is back-up for Longbottom and his team. We will go there, stay in the shadows and watch everything happen. If we feel that they are in trouble then we will step in otherwise we will let them do their work."
Holding her hand, he disappeared to appear outside Green Hues just as Neville's group was firing their first volley.
He heard the distinct shouts of bone breakers and bone crushers from three of their team and he realised that they needed to work on something more. Fortunately for Neville's team, the knockback and the wards had finished the job. Neville had shot the curse at his foe which he had used on Bellatrix and the gaping hole in his opponent's body was telltale to him that the opponent had departed for the next big adventure.
As four of the death-eaters went down, the remaining six responded to the threat by casting shields and turning to face their foes. The spell chains that hit two of them were led by shield breakers and they went down anyway. The two others who were targeted managed to dodge.
"Good.", thought Harry, "Now the odds are even. The death eaters don't stand a chance."
And then the death eaters started casting. To Harry's horror, they were casting killing curses from the first go. He wanted to rush forward to conjure obstacles to save them from the curses but halted when he realised that two other things were happening. For one, Neville's team had hard cover behind large trees. For another, Neville shouted, "Birds!", and canaries erupted from their wands to take the brunt of the attacks. There was a potentially fatal flaw in their strategy. If one of those trees took a killing curse and fell the wrong way…
When the next volley came, Neville waved his wand in a baton like motion and a wall appeared between them. As the wall began to disintegrate, Neville commanded, "banishing charm!" The resulting barrage of debris caused every one of the death eaters to duck and shield. They were hard pressed with the wards behind them and an enemy that they still hadn't seen clearly before them.
Suddenly there was a war cry. That was when the very distinctive figure of a woman wearing a stuffed vulture hat charged through the wards from behind the death eaters. With her first attack, she impaled one with a silver arrow that she banished at them. Then she was among the remaining three, garrotting then decapitating one of them with a razor-wire like spell coming from her wand. Gran Augusta Longbottom had arrived and she was terrifying!
As the remaining two turned to try and fend off this new threat, one fell dead as he was missing several important body parts, courtesy of the same spell that Neville had used on Bellatrix. The other went down under a volley of bone crushers from the other three. Augusta actually looked disappointed when she realized that the fight was over.
The next moment would tell Harry if Neville had been paying attention. But he didn't disappoint Harry, as he cast the Homenum revelio the next moment.
Neville spun in place and pointed his wand exactly where Suzan and Harry were hiding, "Come on out and I might let you live!"
That was when Harry heard the soft pop of apparition and saw a figure raising a wand toward the group. Quicker than thought, he whipped his wand around and roared, "Taditam.".
In the same instant, Neville recognized the voice of his god-brother and he was blinded as a lightning bolt struck the intruder. The new figure had no chance to understand what had happened before the lightning bolt struck him in the chest. The impact stopped his heart instantly, which was a small mercy as a large part of his chest had been blasted away.
Harry knew there was nothing for it now. He had to come out of hiding. Neville had to blink several times before the after image from the lightning bolt began to fade from his vision. As he and Susan came out, Aurors started apparating in. Frank was in the lead followed by Alice, Sirius, Moody, Proudfoot, Hestia and Amelia Bones.
Sirius spotted Harry and lunged for him, "Pup, what are you doing here?"
Before Harry could answer, Augusta started speaking, "They came here to deal with the death eaters. I was inside preparing to fight when I heard spell fire being traded. I thought that the Aurors had already arrived and came out to see if they needed any back-up. You can imagine my surprise when I found mere students taking them out like they were trained hit wizards. And our Neville leading them to boot!" She wrapped her grandson in a bone-crushing hug, then continued, "Neville took out two of them himself and made all the right calls during the battle. I couldn't be more proud of him. Who knows what those death eaters would have done if they hadn't arrived when they did."
Sirius turned to him, "What happened here, Harry?"
Harry gave Sirius a full report of how he stayed in the shadows to watch the battle. He was happy to tell how it was won by those four without his help.
Moody turned to him, "Lad, if they had it under control why did you interfere?"
Harry pointed to the charred corpse that was not with his fellows and said, "That one arrived late. He thought to get the jump on the unsuspecting ones. I killed him."
Moody who was inspecting the dead death eater exclaimed, "This was Selwyn's brother! How did you kill him? He looks like lightning struck him."
Harry nodded, "Something like that, Master Auror. The Order of the Snow Leopard does not give up its secrets."
Amelia meanwhile was talking to Susan, "And what was your involvement, Susie?"
Susan said without a trace of hesitation in her voice, "I didn't get to fight Auntie but if I had to, I would have killed all of them."
Amelia frowned for a moment before she sadly nodded, "That's my girl."
After hugging Alice and Amelia and telling Sirius that he would talk to him soon, Harry disappeared with his friends. The elves took them away while remaining invisible.
After the teens were away, Moody inspected the death eaters. He found that 4 of them were still alive. He grinned in anticipation. He shuddered when he saw the two who were killed by Augusta and recognized the work of the Longbottom family spell on the two that Neville had killed. He seized the ward destroyer content that the death eaters would not have it in their possession anymore. Rookwood would have a lot to answer for.
Romania
Voldemort had finally arrived in Romania. He had a string of adventures along the way. After he left Austria, he was attacked by a tribe of wizards who thought he was encroaching upon their territory. He was injured in the skirmish with them. That threat ended only after he was able to kill a number of them. There was another group of wizards who used small staves rather than wands. They did not use single words for incantation but their incantations were usually a line or two long. If they got to the end of it, each of their spells could do three or four attacks. Like one of their spells could stun, petrify and bind him while another could break his bones, shatter them and turn them into powder. He had been hit with one such hex and the bones in his left arm were shattered. He won over them when he started using Killing Curses against which they could not defend. After he had killed about 10 of them, they finally retreated leaving him in peace. He had to spend the night in the forest trying to cast magic on the hand to make it useable again. He had no potions with him. He was not sure if he could find the components of Skele Gro in the forest so he had to make do with what he had.
Soon after he was accosted by a pack of werewolves. He would rather have recruited them but, he had been forced to slaughter every last one of them when their alpha challenged him, then refused to accept his leadership when their alpha lay dead. If there had been a full moon, it could have ended very differently. Even though this body was a magical construct, there was no way of knowing if the bite of a werewolf would turn him to lycanthropy. After the first two had bitten him, he conjured a silver sword and started swinging it wildly about. The blade was rumoured to have belonged to Salazar Slytherin. He had found it while exploring the Chamber of Secrets. There were a couple of enchantments on the blade to keep it shiny and resist breaking but it was ordinary silver otherwise. The goblins had nothing to do with its creation, but silver is silver and it slew the werewolves all the same.
After he killed the last of them, he had to find a place to recuperate and brew some potions which would help him rejuvenate this husk. Since he had taken this body, it sometimes felt abnormal to him and refused to co-operate. It also got tired easily and any injuries took their time to heal completely. After combing through the forest through the night, he found the components which were required to repair the damage to his beaten and battered frame. Without a philosopher's stone, the bones of his father or a "handy" servant nearby, (blood of his enemies was available in abundant supply) completely remaking his body was not possible. Using materials at hand, the dark wizard transmuted a bath-sized stone cauldron from the surrounding rocks. He filled the vessel with the potion ingredients and started a fire under it. When the brew had steam rising from it, the surface a highly reflective silver colour and red sparks dancing over the surface, the dark lord stripped, leaving his ragged and filthy robes to one side. He climbed in, immersing himself completely in the scalding hot brew, the liquid overflowing and dowsing the magical fire below. A cloud of steam enveloped the scene with no sound but the hissing of the extinguished fire for a few minutes.
Any ordinary witch, wizard or muggle for that matter would have been scalded to death or drowned in the potion, but Voldemort's husk was none of these. When the cloud of steam cleared, it revealed the dark lord, skin gleaming, his injuries healed, standing in the empty basin. He stepped neatly from the stone basin to retrieve his wand from the stack that had been his robes. With a casual flick of his wand, he robed himself once more in the black.
It was good to have everything back in working order again, but the experience had drained him. He took a couple of days to gather his strength before going on to face new enemies. The forest and his wand would supply his needs until then.
He had also sent a message to the Unknown Castle back in England that a hundred more followers would be arriving to join the death eaters. They were to be kept with the Germans and not to be treated as his followers. He had to honour his word since he had given it at the cost of his magic.
Now he was in Romania and he knew he needed to travel to Transylvania where the Vampire covens were. Each coven had around 100 Vampires. He figured that with the support of even one coven, he would be able to augment his forces. The problem was that the covens were extremely secretive even with each other. That made it neigh impossible to find their hideouts unless they willingly revealed their location. He knew another labour was his fate to find the vampires and persuade them to join him. He believed that promising them all the blood they could drink would be sufficient motivation for the leeches. There should not be any problem recruiting them to his cause, right?
A/N- The Covid-19 threat has scared the entire world and too many people have lost their lives. My heart goes out to them and their families. I sincerely hope that none of you fine people are affected by it and are staying indoors. This would be problem for little time but there is no better way to protect ourselves that to take adequate cautions. My city has been put on Lockdown with 15 other cities in my state because people were too stupid to run amok spreading infection and hiding their travel history. Take care all of you and stay indoors. Remember you don't need to go out every time to fight a war. Sometimes you can make you contribution by merely sitting inside your house, protecting yourself and your loved ones.
I and my learned editor James also dedicate this chapter as a tribute to the Corons Warriors who are out there fighting for us and trying to save our lives while jeopardising theirs. There is no way that we can pay off this debt. We can only remain in gratitude to you for all our lives.
