A week later - London

The tension in the air was palpable, even to the muggles. Although things seemed to be quiet, they were too quiet. It seemed as if they were collectively waiting for something to happen. Something that would shake and change the destiny of the world. The muggles didn't know what it was but the wizards knew.

Since the declaration of Blood war, both sides had gone quiet. The Ministry was silent and so were the death eaters. Their record showed that they had always retaliated when the Aurors gave them a bloody nose, but for now, they seemed to have vanished. The ministry was not making any noises or issuing any statements but a few of them knew that the Aurors were breaking down doors of death eater suspects and known sympathisers. Just last week, Rolondo Lestrange had been dragged away from his ancestral home. It had caused a lot of hue and cry in the Wizengamot for he was a Lord but the General had showed them proof that he was in contact with his sons, Rabbastan and Rudolphus. They were two of the few surviving members of Voldemort's coveted Inner circle.

Rolondo had been interrogated at length by Robards. In fact Frank had insisted that Moody not be allowed near the Lestrange lord for he surely would kill him before getting any useful information out of him. After they dosed Lestrange with Veritaserum, he sang like a canary though they were sorely disappointed to find that he was not as conversant with the death eater secrets as they had hoped.

Avery's son was also arrested inside a shady inn in Knockturn Alley where he was found in conversation with two marked death eaters. These were lowly death eaters, newly recruited. No one suspected them of turning out to be such. They were able to evade the Aurors until they blabbed about it in the inn and a wizard overheard them. This wizard was one of the muggleborn belonging to O'Neil's network. He passed word to the ministry. Five Aurors under Rufus Bartley's squad had stormed the inn and took them before they could even get their wands out. Later Bartley confessed that he had been disappointed for he wanted them to fight back and get killed.

There were some attacks but they were isolated events that caused no major damage. One was an attack on the stadium of a minor quidditch league team. They only managed to set a few of the seats in the stands on fire before the very irate members of the quidditch team took them down. The entire team was still grinning when they turned the vandals, looking a lot worse for wear, over to the Aurors.

Another had happened where a wizarding family had sensed the attack as soon as it began. The two death eaters did not stand a chance for the wizarding family had a family reunion going on. When faced with 6 against the two, there was only one way that it could go.

The Room of Requirement had been taken over by Dumbledore who had ordered it off limits for all the members of the school while elves went through the room and sorted the items in the room of hidden things. A few Unspeakables had been called in from the Department of mysteries to help them sort through and to confiscate any object which radiated dark magic. If something was found which personally belonged to someone, it was duly returned. If any article had belonged to someone in the past, Dumbledore decided to return it to their family. It would not be much but it would hold sentimental value for them.

There was another incident though no one save a few people in the ministry knew about it. The Vanishing Cabinet found at Hogwarts had been examined by Professor Babbling who had set it up for repair at once. She had enlisted Neville and Harry for they could be useful to her. Harry because he was quite knowledgeable in Warding by now and Neville because he could perform the complicated spells for her with ease even if he was not as proficient in Runes yet.

She inspected the cabinet with delight. After using a lot of detection spells and recording her findings, she turned to the duo, "This cabinet will require the rune work to be done again. When it was broken, most of the wards or enchantments which exist on it were also broken save for the one which connects it to its partner, though I won't advise trying that."

Harry asked her, "So what do you suggest, Professor?"

"Mr. Peverell, there was a series of Runes or wards that we will have to re-draw on this. We can use more wards than were used previously to make it better and more durable."

They both nodded and she continued, "We need to make a ward cluster which will have several wards in it."

She explained to them the wards that they would need to do on the cabinet while they listened intently. After she was done, Harry assisted her in drawing the cluster on parchment before trying it for real. This way, they could avoid any mishaps. It took them two days before they managed to get the cluster right. After they were successful, it took them another day before they could determine how much power it really needed.

Finally, after 5 days it was finished. Harry wanted to jump in immediately and get to the other side but Professor Babbling caught his arm, "Are you an idiot, Mr. Peverell?"

He said apprehensively, "No, Professor".

"Then pray tell me why were you going to jump in without thinking first? We don't know where its partner is or what kind of place that is. What if you end up among a group of death eaters or in sum dungeons from which you cannot escape or may be at the bottom of the sea?"

He nodded thoughtfully, "I see your point, Professor. I will get the Aurors to go in and check it."

She smiled appreciatively, "That will do. Now would you like to take it away?"

Smiling he shrunk the cabinet, pocketed it and left. He straight away went to Dumbledore who was in his office reading Helena Ravenclaw's journal. When Harry entered, he looked up and guided him to a seat across from him, "Take a seat, Harry. Now what brings you here?"

"Professor, we have repaired the vanishing cabinet. We need to find where its brother is. I was thinking it would be wise to ask for a few Aurors from the ministry because we don't know what we will find on the other side."

Dumbledore stood up from his chair and walked to the fireplace, picking up a pinch of the floo powder from the cannister on the mantle. Throwing it into the fire, he called, "Office of the Head Auror, Ministry of Magic."

A second later, Alastor Moody's face was visible in the fire, "What do you want, Albus?"

"We need five Aurors for a special mission as soon as you can manage, Alastor."

About a minute later, Alastor Moody stepped out of the fireplace followed by Sirius Black, Nymphadora Tonks, Hestia Jones and to his surprise, Kingsley Shacklebolt. Kingsley had been stationed in the office of the muggle Prime Minister but after the battle of Hogsmeade, he had insisted on being put back in the ministry.

Alastor growled, "What are we to do?"

On a gesture from the Headmaster, Harry withdrew the vanishing cabinet from his robes and restored it to its natural size. Dumbledore pointed out the cabinet to them, "This is a Vanishing Cabinet we found in the school. Its partner is somewhere out there and we were going to look for it. We don't know what we may run into so I want you all to be with us while we go and investigate."

Moody immediately went into action, "You should remain here, Albus. We (motioning to the Aurors and Harry) are sufficient for what may be at the other end. If you don't hear from any of us within the next 5 minutes, you can come find us."

Albus reluctantly agreed.

Moody turned to his Aurors, "Kingsley and Hestia you two will go first at intervals of 2 minutes followed by the lad. Sirius and I will bring up the rear. Start securing the place as soon as you reach the other side."

Harry however had a different idea. Before Hestia or Kingsley could act, he stepped into the cabinet pulling the door shut behind him. In the next second, the sounds outside the cabinet had changed. Instead of the dismayed cries of Sirius and Moody, he could hear two other adults in nearly whispered conversation. Exercising just a bit of caution, Harry opened the door, just a crack, and put his ear to the opening to listen, hoping to get a clue to his current location.

He caught snippets of conversation, "…The Dark Lord could return any day now… Too many killed… You may be called upon to serve, Burke."

The sound of the name 'Burke' made him alert at once. A memory came to his mind from years ago. The first time he had attempted Floo Travel, he ended up in Borgins and Burke's shop in Knockturn Alley because he had not said the address clearly. The same Burke who was apparently on the other side was also dealing with Lucius Malfoy who wanted to sell some dark objects on that day. He realised he must be in Knockturn Alley and he relaxed.

He transformed to his snow leopard form then nonchalantly walked out of the cabinet as if it was normal for him. The wizards who saw the door opening did not see anyone walk out at first. The one who had been talking asked, "Is that door defective or something? I saw it opening on its own twice in the last minute."

Burke frowned, "No one knows why this was placed here or who sold it. I guess it had some enchantments on it but I never sought to inspect it too closely..."

He was interrupted mid-sentence when the snow-leopard emerged from the cabinet. Burke asked the other, "Did I have one firewhiskey too many or do you also see the big cat there?"

The other wizard could not even speak out of fear and a pungent smell indicated that he may have soiled himself. The snow leopard however walked up to them, purring and started sniffing them. The other wizard had started to shake by now and broke into sobs at the thought of death lingering over his head.

Burke started to go for his wand but the movement was not missed by Harry. With a casual flick of his mighty paw, he knocked Burke out of his chair and flat on the ground. He put one of his paws on Burke's chest and growled making him tremble.

The other wizard who had been frozen in his place due to terror had tried to walk away taking advantage of the distraction but he found a black dog the size of a huge mastiff guarding the door. His hand crept toward the inner pocket of his cloak and the dog lunged at him, grabbing the hand and leaving teeth marks on it.

Alastor Moody, who had come by now, stunned that one and Burke. Nymphadora who had followed him noticed the Snow leopard and shrieked in fright. Sirius, who had transformed back hit her with a silencing charm and turned to the snow-leopard, "Transform before the others arrive and see you pup."

Harry transformed and Sirius lifted the silencing spell off Nymphadora who looked incredulous, "He. He. He is a leopard!"

Sirius chuckled, "Yes we saw that. Now be quiet and don't breathe a word about it to a single soul."

By the time Kingsley and Hestia arrived, the situation was under control. The two who had been stunned were bound and taken captive while Moody was shrinking the wardrobe to take with him to Hogwarts.

Headmaster's Office

"This will help us a great deal", said Dumbledore enthusiastically, "This will help us to transport Aurors from the ministry to the school without anyone being any wiser about it."

"Professor, can't we get more of them and put them at different safe houses so that we can evacuate students without the hassle?", Harry asked him.

"That would be a wonderful idea, Harry but it won't work for a lot of reasons. First the secret of making these cabinets lies with the Thornton family. This is their proprietary magic. They moved out some time ago to settle in the U.S. after the Grindelwald war while a branch remained here. They faced a few losses in the first war and fled the country to never return. I would also mention that they do not have any love lost for this place so we can't expect them to be warm towards us. As far as I can gleam, making of these cabinets involves enchanting the wood before the construction starts. When it is made then the rune cluster is applied which enables it to function. We have just this one pair of cabinets. We will need a lot of safe houses if we are to evacuate students and keep them there. I don't have to explain how it would not be possible to use it. It'd better serve us to keep it at the ministry."

Harry reluctantly nodded, "That means that we will have to make do with what we have."

Great Hall

When Harry entered the Great Hall after leaving Dumbledore's office, Angelina was waiting for him. As she saw him, she almost ran towards him, yelling at the top of her voice, "Quidditch practice after dinner this evening."

Harry groaned. He had almost forgotten that Quidditch season was due to start any day now. Apparently when Angelina saw that they could run through the snow in the morning, she got the bright idea that they should be able to practice quidditch too. He noticed that Angelina hadn't walked away but was waiting for his answer expectantly and nodded, "I will be there but the next match is ages away."

She had the maniacal gleam in her eye that Wood often did, "Harry, I want to win the cup this year under my captaincy. We can take no chances. We have to start practicing today."

With great difficulty, Harry was able to make her rein in her enthusiasm, "Alright, we will all be there."

Angelina however had given him a lot to think over. As they had tentatively agreed, the final battle was slated for some time in May which meant that if the castle was damaged then there would be no classes or Quidditch until it was repaired which might take months. He understood from his studies that magical buildings can't be built in a day because there is a lot that goes into them.

First there was the basic structure. Unlike muggles, they could use magic to levitate massive stone blocks into place without the benefit of heavy machinery. The blocks could be subtly reshaped to stack neatly and form together so that mortar was not needed to prevent drafts or bond the stone together. A bit of tricky business to be sure, but a wizard or goblin mason could lay a course of ten ton stone blocks as easily as a muggle mason could lay a course of brick. Enchantments and wards were worked into the ground and the foundation to prevent settling, water infiltration and shifting. One might think that using magic and working with such large blocks, the construction would go quickly, but wizard built castles were built to last and that took time. Then there was the framing. Timbers that had to last for thousands of years had to be large, heavy and heavily enchanted. Additional wards made it impossible for ordinary fires to catch and protected the timbers from the ravages of drying out over time and disintegrating. The structure of Hogwarts was as sound as the day the founders had laid it down. Any repair work would have to be just as good. Then there was no limit to how fussy and detailed the finish work could get. Even after all that, there were various and sundry wards and enchantments in practically every piece of the castle. Harry had seen some of the ward scheme around Hogwarts. If they were damaged, it would be the work of weeks just to determine how to go about restoring them without the whole thing blowing up. The rune clusters, the ward stones, it just went on and on. Then there were things like The Chamber of Secrets, the Room of Requirement, the enchanted ceiling in The Great Hall, Harry doubted if there was anyone still alive that could reproduce that work. If this place were badly damaged or destroyed, even with the services of the finest craftsmen in all of Wizarding Britain, they might never fully restore it. Well, they would just have to fight the final battle without wrecking the place.

"What are you thinking, my love?", asked Susan from the Gryffindor table and he realised that he had walked over to the Gryffindor table while mulling over repairs and what went into it.

"Angelina," he sighed, "She is channelling Wood again. She wants all of us down at the Quidditch pitch this evening."

She nodded, "That's not a very hard thing for you to do, is it? I mean you love Quidditch. Since we are not practicing in the Room of Requirement for the time being, you can go and practice."

He nodded, "I know but I'm thinking about the final battle."

Her ears perked up, "When? When will it be?"

All of his friends were leaning in to listen and he gave a look to Neville who raised a ward around them with a flick of his wand. After he was sure that no one else would be able to hear them, he started speaking, "For now, we don't have any fixed date but the idea is to have it sometime after Beltane. We are taking that long because we need that time for us to prepare."

"We will be ready in time, Harry", said Daphne. "Why are you worried about it?"

Harry looked at Hermione and Ron while he spoke, "It is almost certain that the castle will be damaged in the battle and maybe the Quidditch field too. With the castle and Quidditch field destroyed, I fear we will have to go without them for months. We may not even be able to hold OWLs or NEWTs here in addition to the remaining matches for the Quidditch Cup."

"No exams?", Hermione said loudly, "How can there be no exams? Is it sort of a tradition that we have no exams every now and then at the end of the year?"

Ron had other concerns, "You are mental, mate. Quidditch can't be cancelled."

Harry smirked, "I don't want it to be cancelled either, Ron. We will just have to see. I would rather that we lift the cup again before we take on Tom and his band of fools."

Neville had other concerns, "Harry, since the Headmaster has taken over our training room, how are we going to train? As far as we know, that room will take months to clear out. If we have a battle on our hands in two months, I would like to be prepared and in top form."

This was a real issue. They had nowhere to train with the Room of Requirement being taken over by the Headmaster. The Mermaid's Sanctuary was a private place for Neville to practice and he couldn't risk Dumbledore's displeasure. There was the Chamber of Secrets but Harry had so much invested in that place that he couldn't show it to others unless he wanted them to see the table. It contained the Casket of memories gifted by the mystics, the Elder wand, his Grimoires when he had last visited it.

He turned to Neville, "I'll find somewhere, mate. We need to find someplace where we can practice without being spied upon or someone walking in on us."

Preparations for exams

It was also time to start thinking about the exams. As Hermione said, they had to take their OWLs and they were around the corner, so to speak. They had decided to study together and for that purpose, they had joined 4 tables in the library at the back where they won't be a bother to anyone. Anyone among their group could join but generally people tried to avoid them when Hermione was there. She would often get the gleam in her eyes when someone talked about studies. It wasn't that people were scared of her but that she made them uncomfortable with all her questions.

They had even set aside hours every evening for themselves. Like when they had History of Magic, they would cease every other work that they were doing and study history during the allotted time. This way, they could ask doubts of each other or ask anyone of them to explain a topic they could not understand.

There were theoretical lessons for Charms, Transfigurations, Runes, Arithmancy and Potions but not for defence. Defence was completely practical and they all liked it that way better. Almost all of them knew they could ace that one simply on the practice that they had been doing. Transfigurations and Charms often followed some set rules or principles which could be discussed among them. Potions was a subject where Harry was indisputably the leader. He would often quiz them about substitute ingredients or their properties or how two different ingredients were supposed to mix with each other.

Generally Justin, Isobel, Terry, Mandy, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Harry, Susan, Daphne and Tracy were present there but at times, they were joined by others. Lilith used to join them with Ernie but since her death, Ernie lost his drive. He would still go to classes, try to live as normally as he could but his heart was not in it. He was hurting and he needed someone to help him.

The Professors, on the other hand, were absolutely brutal on them. Since the battle, Flitwick and Minerva often taught them with renewed vigour, making their assignments a challenge. They would often create a battle like scene and ask questions of their students as to what they would do in such a situation using only charms or transfiguration. Needless to say, this presented a new challenge to all of them. What it did not give them was practice.

Vikram often had taken to getting students to shoot hexes at one of them who would only dodge or shield them. He however would punish those who were hit. One day while he was teaching, he shot a bludgeoner at Anthony who could not dodge in time and the hex knocked the wind out of him.

After picking him up by his shoulder, Vikram growled, "A simple mistake and you would be dead, Mr. Goldstein. You are supposed to move all the time or save yourself as good as you can. You keep standing and you put yourself in peril including anyone who is fighting with you."

After that he had Anthony dodge again until Anthony was ready to drop from exhaustion. This had etched the lesson into their minds.

The eagle soars high

It was a fine morning when Ernie was by himself eating at the Hufflepuff table. Others had asked him to join them at Ravenclaw table but he refused their offer. Truth was that he had been missing Lilith and he could not bear to sit with his friends showing them his wounds.

"Why are you so grim?", asked Astoria, slipping into a seat beside him.

Ernie looked at her warily, "What are you doing, Greengrass?"

She asked him curtly, "What are you doing, Macmillan? Sulking over what cannot be changed?"

Ernie growled, "You don't understand anything, Greengrass."

She crossed her arms at her chest and huffed, "Why don't you try to explain it to me, Macmillan?"

"You won't understand what it's like to lose someone. It's unbearable for those who are left to mourn."

"You are right but you cannot grieve all your life. She would have smacked you hard if she saw you moping like this."

Ernie grumbled, "Would you please leave me in peace?"

She shook her head, "Not unless you come out of your funk. The brooding look doesn't suit you anyway. Heck, it doesn't really suit anyone except maybe Harold Peverell and even he doesn't brood anymore."

Ernie rubbed his forehead wincing, "You are not going to leave me in peace, are you?"

She smirked, "Of that you can be sure."

Daphne watched this interaction from the Ravenclaw table. She decided to ask her sister about it later. It surely looked interesting enough to harass her over it.

The drums of war

Harry was in the Chamber of Secrets when he received a patronus from Dumbledore, "Come to my office. Meeting about to convene."

Harry disappeared to reappear in Dumbledore's office a few moments later. In attendance were Frank, Alice, Amelia, Moody, Robards, Sirius, Snape, Remus and Vikram. Dumbledore pointed him to a chair, "Have a seat Harry. We are going to discuss war and its preparations."

"But it isn't for two months at least. Why do we need this right now?"

"Sit down lad. Time to learn something from the veterans", barked Alastor Moody.

Harry slipped into the chair and Frank opened the conversation, "Since you are the leader of the Order of the Snow Leopard and the leader of our side, we need your say in everything that we decide."

When Harry nodded he continued, "Right now, we have 170 Aurors, 40 members of the Order of the Phoenix and about 40 or so members of your Order. Now as we have decided, the battle will take place right here, at Hogwarts. Their army for now has at least 300 death eaters and mercenaries combined, 350 werewolves, and as far I as have heard, they are hoping to augment their numbers with some wizards from Austria. Plus they have 30 giants with them. Our biggest problem is the giants because we have nothing to deal with them. If even just one of them got into the castle, it could wreck havoc."

Harry nodded, "General you don't know but we have about 7 giant catapults which can launch boulders and other ammunition at the giants to bring them down. 7 of my trusted crew are trained to operate them and they are quite proficient with it. We don't need to worry about the Giants. The werewolves can be a problem. I'll try to see what I can do about them. Also we have some deadly surprises for them in one of the Greenhouses. We can be assured that we will be safe on the side of the Greenhouses. Only we will have to make sure that all of the Aurors and students who are deployed in that direction are equipped with ear muffs and dragon hide gloves. For the rest, we will have to divide the castle into zones where we can deploy our men. It has also come to my knowledge that at least 130 wizards from Bulgaria and France have committed themselves to help us in our time of need. As I see it, we are evenly matched."

Vikram spoke for the first time, "Also some of my order are constantly hunting down dark lords and their followers in other countries. We know that they can come here to aid him so we are trying to mow them down."

Alice asked, "So what is the plan?"

"The plan is to divide into teams and have them practice as a unit. When they are deployed, they will have no problem functioning with flawless coordination", said Albus. "Alastor can see to it."

Moody growled, "Damn me if I am allowed near the boys. Bartley and Black don't let me near them. You will have to ask them."

Sirius turned to him, "You want to do everything by yourself, Alastor? Don't be such a glory hog. Leave some for us lesser mortals."

Frank interrupted them, "Enough! For now we need to form our teams and drill them. Meanwhile Albus will divide the castle into zones. After discussing things with Moody, will decide how many Aurors we need to deploy in each zone."

As the meeting ended and they stood to go, Harry interrupted, "General, there is another thing."

Frank raised an eyebrow, "What is it?"

"We have agreed that the battle will be sometime after Beltane, right? By that time the Quidditch season would have started. If the Quidditch pitch is destroyed, I don't think Professor McGonagall would look upon any of us with favour."

Dumbledore visibly shuddered, "Dear me! We can't have Minerva mad at us. I will see to it that the Quidditch cup is finished by then. Also the OWLs and NEWTs will have to be held at the Ministry if the castle is damaged."

Frank nodded, "I will talk to Elder Marchbanks, Albus."

Dumbledore muttered, "And I will reschedule the Quidditch cup at the earliest opportunity rather than having to face Minerva coming at me with her wand blazing and nostrils flared."

Somewhere in Britain

Voldemort had some trouble getting back to Britain. As he left Greece, he had run into the elite squad of the ICW. When Voldemort left Abbadon, the old wizard had told him, "Remember boy, the journey back to your country is full of peril for you. The Elite Squad of the ICW is on your scent. Most of them are equal to grand sorcerers in power and are adept at magic. You will have to stay clear of them. Even if you run into them somewhere on your journey, try to escape for you have no chance of winning against them. They don't fight one on one but they hunt in packs. You will be caught or your vessel would be destroyed if you try to fight them."

The Elite Squad was a team of chosen wizards and witches who were accomplished in warfare and they were not often called upon. The ICW only called them in if it felt the situation was such that only they could handle it. Since Voldemort had stepped out and the ICW knew of him, first the usual war wizard contingent was sent after him. They had traced him to Austria where there had been increased movement of Dark Wizards recently but by the time they got onto his scent, he had slipped away.

They again found a trace of him in Romania when he murdered an inn full of wizards. From then they had called in the Elite Squad. Voldemort was not a dark lord that they could take lightly or their losses would be heavy. Romania was mostly peaceful for it was in a distant corner where nothing exciting ever happened. They had traced his path to the Vampires but they found all the covens intact and none having pledged to his support.

One of the biggest covens told them about Voldemort's offer, their reluctance and Voldemort's battle with a band of wizards. Very few in the ICW actually knew about the mystics or what they did. For everyone Petrov was a vampire hunter but for a select few, they knew him for what he was. They turned a blind eye towards everything that he did because he was the reason that the Covens never tried to be adventurous with the Romanian ministry being lax on them. Besides he never gave them a reason to worry about. What had surprised them was the news that Voldemort had been snatched from under their noses by someone else.

None of them had an idea about who could do so. Abbadon was as much of an unknown as Harsh Vardhan was. No one knew their true name or where they came from or where they lived. They knew about the Mystics but other than that they knew nothing about it. Likewise Abbadon was a mystery to them because there were no records about him.

Based on some intelligence that they had obtained from Petrov they made their way towards Greece. They knew that he could be anywhere but they trusted their network of spies to do the work for them. They had not been disappointed. The moment Voldemort left Abbadon's place, he had been reported to the ICW. Greece had closed its magical borders since the Elite Squad had arrived and there was no way that Voldemort or anyone else could pass through them undetected.

That left Voldemort with only one option, that being to fight his way through whatever may come and travel on foot or apparate. Apparition could not take him across the borders. He had no fixed place in mind where he could apparate and try to cross the borders. He had started journeying during the night and often hid during the day.

The Elite Squad ran into him near the border of Greece in the forests. He had been trudging through under the bright starry night when suddenly, he felt his senses flare warning him of danger. Not a second later, he had to roll aside to avoid the barrage of lethal spells which had come at him.

When he stood up, people were materialising out of thin air, dressed in battle robes, insignia of the ICW on the right breast pocket and each one looking alert to even the slightest movement from him with their wand trained at him directly. He could feel the power radiating off them. He knew that he would be no match for them if they took him on all at once. This was a rare opportunity to use the parasite spell but he had not used it before and was not sure if it would work at the moment.

He sneered at them, "So a pack of hyenas have grouped together to bring down a lion?"

The leader of the Elite Squad sneered, "A lion? We see no lion but a rabid dog cornered and about to be put down."

Despite the odds stacked against him, he had the audacity to smirk, "Brave words and some spirit. You would have made fine death eaters. I would love to duel with you but I don't have the time."

As he finished speaking, he lashed out with his wand, spinning in a circle and threw a slew of curses at them. He was sure that he would get some of them with this but they were ready for any kind of trick. As they had seen him raising his hands, they had ducked or produced a shield to save themselves. Having fired first, Voldemort had challenged them and he knew they would be getting started any moment. There was only one way that he could save himself. He had discussed his duel with Harold Peverell in great detail with Abbadon and he had told him a few things which he should have done. Now was the time to see if he could do that.

Before they could retaliate, he spun his wand in an intricate motion sending bursts of fire at the wizards who dodged to avoid this wave of attack. This curse could cast bolts of fire and pierce through most of the basic shields. The best defence against this was to dodge if one never relied too much on shields. He kept the attack going for sometime while trying to see his opening. He knew he could not win against them. Abbadon had taught him that if he was caught in a trap then he should be on the aggressive and try to break out of it rather than to fight everyone who challenged him. A warrior always chose where to have the fight and he should know when to cut his losses and retreat. This was a fight that he could not win. There was no way that he could fight with them for a longer period of time. Besides there was the risk that they could call for backup in case they found that he was more than a challenge to them. In fact, it was standard procedure for them to call on their backup before they engaged their foe. This way, even if they fell their foe would die too.

He kept up the bolts of fire for about 5 minutes before three of them stepped forward raising mage shields and taking all his attacks on them. This was problematic. He could not bring down a mage shield without the killing curse unless he was willing to risk himself to exhaustion. While his attention was momentarily distracted, others got the time to gather their wits and then they started lashing out at him with all kinds of spells and hexes. He conjured a wall between him and them. With the momentary respite this gave him, he slashed his wand in a wide arc sending a curse at the group. Most of them were already dodging but the one who was too slow was decapitated. The survivors who were alert by then started raining down on him, forcing him to keep dodging the rain of hexes and curses. As he was trying to fight them, he realised that he didn't feel the usual suffocating feeling that came with a ward. Those idiots hadn't laid any wards around the battle zone! He spun on his heels and was hoping to disapparate instantly but to his surprise, he couldn't! He spread his senses forward and was amazed at what he found. There was a ward in a radius of about a kilometre around them and this ward not only prevented apparition and disapparation but it also acted as a barrier keeping anything contained in it. This interesting wrinkle also made him think as to how he could get out.

As he felt a lull in casting, he flicked his wand and roared, "Avada Kedavra". While the emerald green spell erupted from his wand, he felt immense satisfaction. That is until, quicker than thought, one of the mages blocked the spell with conjured canaries, while his companions retaliated with a choice variety of deadly curses. He recalled the cold slap and the contempt he received at the hands of Abadan as he recalled the words, "That curse is useless, boy! Announcing to the world what you're doing while you try to look scary. , Maybe that'll work on school girls, but it's a wasted effort on anyone who knows how to duel."

The contempt on the wizards' faces made it plain that he'd better try something else if he was going to escape them. He raised a shield with his off-hand to block the wide area stuff while neatly side-stepping the bolts. He noticed that one of the mages favoured using shields. Very well, he would be the next to die. With considerable effort, he laid down a non-verbal spell chain of a stinger, disguised to look like a Bombarda Maxima, a shield breaker and finally a bone exploder. Predictably, the mage shielded against what looked like a deadly spell, but his shield shattered with the second spell and the third one ruptured his chest.

That was when his opponents started disapparating out of the way of his curses and apparating at his back or to his sides. They would apparate in, shoot a spell and be gone before he could retaliate. He was momentarily panicked when he found that they could apparate and he could not. Then he realised that they were not apparating beyond the boundaries of the wards they had set.

As another barrage came at him, he disapparated to appear at the edge of the ward with the Elite Squad following Voldemort shortly after he arrived. If it were just a ward, he could have walked out of the area where the ward was active but this one had a barrier too. It prevented him from leaving. The problem was that he could see no ward stone tied to this ward. He hoped that meant that maybe he could try a little trick.

He raised his wand and conjured an immense brick wall between him and them. While they blasted away at the conjured masonry, he cast a tunnelling spell at the ground and started opening a tunnel under and beyond the ward boundaries. It was hard going, having to fend them off while he tunnelled but after a hard duel of about ten minutes, he was able to make a tunnel. Not wasting one moment, he sent the deadly black fog at his opponents and jumped into the tunnel. He came out of it about a minute later and immediately took to the skies.

The magical borders were shut but not adequately guarded. He had been able to punch a hole through them with sheer power and exited Greece. He however had to take a stop in the next country because he had numerous wounds upon his body. He had not felt them during the battle because Abbadon had taught him a simple trick which allowed him to subdue pain and have a clear head while fighting. Many spells had hit him and he knew he would have to perform the rejuvenation ritual sooner or later but for now, he could patch himself up and go on.

That had been three days ago. Since then, he had gone through the ritual again, rejuvenated his body and gathered his strength. Contrary to his expectations, the magical borders of Wizarding Britain seemed to be the same as they had been two months ago. The gaps had not been filled so he could sneak in, or so he thought. Unknown to him, his arrival didn't go unnoticed. Within minutes after he entered the borders of magical Britain, a report was sent to the office of the General from the Unspeakables that he had returned. The General ordered the gaps to be sealed immediately. There would be no getting out for death eaters and their allies.


A/N- So some idiot gave an abuse filled review to the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Tribe of Mystics. I don't know why they do that. I don't use expletives in my stories for I believe in clean stories which can thrill you without using those words.

P.s. - I am overwhelmed with the love that is shown to my works in the reviews and I hope it will be the same way until the end. After this story, I am planning to go for a single book story which would start somewhere from the end of the third year when they are about to corner Peter but I won't work on that unless I am absolutely certain that people want to read that. May be, you can leave something in the comments, eh?