Chapter 31

It was Christmas Eve, and Harry was sitting in his office in the Ministry quietly as he listened to a radio that held the voice of Dean Thomas. There was laughter, and boisterous sounds in the background, along with the familiar voice of Luna Lovegood talking to the man about utter nonsense. At least it sounded like nonsense to Harry, but he was certain the young woman was just giving the same spiel about Crumple Horned snorkacks that she had given many times before.

Next to Harry, Ron snorted as Luna made another offhand comment about Dean not paying enough attention to her. The two were on an undercover date/mission. They had been sitting at an upscale bar in Essex where Camila Nott, and her husband Pierre Nott were having dinner for almost an hour. The two Aurors had used some minor glamor charms, and were watching the married couple from across the bar attempting to be inconspicuous. Luna was supposed to be playing the part of an intoxicated trophy wife, while Dean was talking quietly in his ear piece about what the Notts were up to, and who they had met with.

Harry and Hermione had been building a case against the two for weeks now trying to be able to serve them a warrant for illegal trade. They had met up with all the wrong sorts of high end companies that consulted in the illegal trade of magical creatures, and they certainly had enough evidence to at the very least bring them in for questioning. Pierre Nott was the second oldest brother, and next in line to theoretically become Lord Nott. The man however in his year in Britain had not even made an attempt towards the Wizengamot seat, and had even deferred to Tiberius Nott before he was sent to Azkaban. His wife, Camilla, was a Lafayette prior to her marriage. The Lafayettes were a prominent French family in Nice that had been political rivals to the Malfoys in their time on the Black Market, so neither were what exactly the Aurors could have called small fish. Now the aurors were just hoping that by hauling them in they could attract the attention of the other Nott's and drive them out of hiding with these arrests.

The remainder of Harry's special auror response team was sitting in the head of DMLE's office listening to the dinner waiting to see if they would be needed as backup. It had been well over an hour now when Dean said, "They are leaving. Its now or never."

"Get the check, and grab them before they make it to the apparition point, but be cool you have plenty of time. Don't cause a scene." Harry ordered calmly in complete focus.

They all listened as Dean requested the check, but the response to the waiter brought a heavy silence to the room, "Sir your tab was picked up by a couple across the bar."

Neville was the first to break the silence, "What the fuck is this?"

"Dean, Luna move in, and make the arre-"

The sounds of an explosion brought loud distortion over their radio, and Harry swore picking up the device, "Dean report?"

"We are alive, and not out of the woods. We need help! Staff is- LUNA GET DOWN!"

The group was up and moving towards the door when suddenly a device on Harry's desk began swirling around and smoking. Harry stared at the device in surprise, while Hermione asked, "Harry isn't that…"

"The wards on my house in Godric's Hollow. We've been set up." Harry said with a furious look in his eyes.

Hannah wasted no time, "Harry we need a plan of attack."

The young man nodded, taking a deep breath, "Neville take Cho, Daphne, Hannah, and Ron to back up Dean. Bring in the Notts alive. Hermione and I are familiar with Godric's Hollow. We will go deal with that."

Hannah protested immediately, "Let me go with you Harry. I've been to your parents' memorial a few times, and this lot will have plenty of wands. Strength in numbers."

They discussed as they all moved towards the apparition point while Harry and Neville exchanged looks at the suggestion. Hannah would only be distracted with Neville in a small group like that, and if she knew the terrain it would be the best decision. The look on Neville's face seemed to acknowledge Harry's line of thought, and the two shared a silent promise to take care of the other man's woman, "Done. Let's go see what the hell is going on out there. Contact Jones and let her know what is going on. She will bring you guys some extra wands, and help with cleanup."

Harry knew with back up on the way it was unlikely the six would be unable to hold down the fort until backup arrived. Their main goal would be to provide extra wands to Dean and Luna, and keep them safe until reinforcements evened the tide.

Not adding anything else the party began disapparating as soon as they reached the end of the wards. The trio touched down in Godric's Hollow, and the site that was before Harry added a feeling of rage in his stomach. In front of the home where his family was killed a woman with red hair had been nailed to a crucifix, and set on fire. Next to her a man and child on separate holdings. The imagery was not lost on any of the three aurors.

His wand fell to his hand, and his magic burned for release. For vengeance. The attack came from nowhere. A burst of fire from down the street came blistering towards the trio. Harry didn't even give time for Hermione or Hannah to move as he effortlessly redirected the fire, and turned it into a swarm of bats reversing it at the caster, but when it cleared there was no one there.

Harry stared in the area the fire had come from searching for a magical signature, but nothing was found right away. How was that possible? Before he could question it another wave of fire came towards them, but this time Hermione and Hannah were ready as they stopped the fire with a shield, and Harry began throwing wide spread stunning curses down the street. Where were the residents of Godric's Hollow?

Before Harry could question it further a massive blast came from across the street, and the girls screamed as Harry raised a massive shield protecting the two from the radius of the explosion. When the scene cleared and Harry dropped the shield the area had been devastated. The church that had once stood across the street had been blown to smithereens. Fires raged across the buildings as many of the structures took extenuating damage. Hermione gasped as she took in the grizzly site, "Harry that was a bomb. That wasn't magical."

Harry said nothing, but knew immediately she was wrong. He could feel a foreign magic that was scattered, and nonsensical, "No. It was a cluster rune drawn to be destructive. I can feel the magic, but I can't make heads or tails of it. We have to help these people in the houses. Call the Ministry, and tell them we need assistance."

Hermione looked prepared to cast her patronus when Hannah tensed next to them, "Harry, the Church."

Turning to face the burning structure Harry stared at the building to see a man in all black robes, and a death eater mask with the red swirls was walking out of the fire. It looked to be an illusion, but there was no doubt the unknown was walking through the fire clearly undisturbed by the flames. Harry put his wand to his throat, "Wand in the air, or we will open fire."

The individual did not stop, and Harry turned to the girls, "Go help the people, and get the Ministry clean up crews here now. I will deal with this."

The girls didn't hesitate to follow his orders. No one could stand up to Harry on their own, and he would take this man dead or alive. Water charms went flying from their wands, and Hannah was directing people who were coming out of their houses to run.

Harry kept his eyes locked on the masked individual, and raised his wand in an offensive gesture, and attempted to stun the man with a simple flick of his wrist. The masked individual walked right through the charm however, and continued advancing on Harry as he stepped onto the street.

What the hell. Harry thought as he raised his wand preparing to raise the stakes. The next curse that followed was a blasting hex that seemed to knock the man several feet backwards and onto the ground. Harry followed the curse with another stunner, but suddenly the Death Eater was on his feet quick as lightning and began charging forward with inhuman speed. Harry in surprise unleashed another huge blasting curse that the individual dodged with ease. The Death Eater had not even raised a wand to fight him, and Harry panicked slightly as the masked individual closed the distance. This time Harry pointed his wand towards the ground and created a massive explosion throwing the Death Eater backwards much harder than before. Without hesitating Harry began transfiguring the rubble around the man and tied the Death Eater up, but to his utter shock the masked person broke through the bindings that held him, and began charging at him again with increasing ferocity.

Harry pulled no punches in his next few spells, and quickly came to realize that whatever he was fighting wasn't human. With a swirl of conjured water Harry had lifted the figure off the ground, and began electrifying the water hoping to force the creature into submission, but all it did was screech with rage. The screech was inhuman, but not by much. It sounded like a scream of agony from a voice that had long since run hoarse.

When Harry dropped the creature he quickly conjured a blast of fire incinerating the creature's robes, to reveal the body of a man. A dark skinned man that's skin seemed to be damn near invincible. The mask even began melting against the creature's face, and Harry created a very durable trap to keep the monster still.

A steel cage now encased the beast, and Harry frowned as he approached his handiwork cautiously. The beast was attacking its holding with increasing ferocity testing the foundations of his magic with its unnatural strength. The creature was wrought with dark magic. Magic that held atrocities that he had not felt since his last face to face encounter with Horcruxes.

As his wand waved up and down the creature he frowned as he felt something abominable. This was a disgrace to death. A disgrace to the title he had earned by assemblings his family's items, but yet it was undeniable the creature before him was a humanoid of some sort. Harry had no idea what kind of magic could cause such a taint on the world, but he was determined to find out.

With the most powerful summoning charm he could manage he pulled the melting mask off the creature, and what he saw was something he would never forget. Before he could do anything about the situation however the deformed creature disappeared with a pop. Immediately Harry realized that the portkey was tied to the mask, and when it was removed the beast was taken away. It wasn't taken away fast enough however. Harry had seen the face of his attacker, and he was not sure how it was possible.

Pops began ringing across the street as dozens of Ministry workers began appearing. It was Christmas Eve, and Harry understood it had to have taken some time to mobilize the unit, and the familiar face that ran towards him stared at destruction in horror, "Holy shit Potter what happened here?"

Cormac Mclaggen who had risen through the ranks of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes couldn't seem to stop glancing at the carnage that had taken place while Harry supplied the answer, "We haven't put all the pieces together yet. I was alerted that my wards were being attacked while I was working in my office with my team. Myself Auror Abbott, and Granger responded to check the alarm, and found that cross with a family burning on it. Dead on arrival."

Cormac swallowed hard, shaking his head, "I've never seen anything like it."

"It gets worse." Harry said unsympathetically as he pointed towards the burning church, "We were assaulted by a blast of fire that I am guessing was a ward trap, or by someone under a very powerful invisibility cloak. While I searched the area a rune cluster explosion took out the church and caused most of the damage around you….what happened next I am still working on believing."

Cormac looked questioningly at Harry, but the man shook his head, "Help the muggles where you can, and start wiping memories. I am going to get that family down, and see if I can identify her. I am going to get some of my crime scene investigators down here ASAP to see if there is anything that can be done to identify a suspect. I have another operation happening in Essex right now, and I need to check on my other aurors. Is there anything else you need to know?"

Running a hand through his hair Cormac let out a large breath, "Merlin Potter this is the second attack on Britain this year, and this time you don't have a pile of bodies to present to the public. How are we going to spin this?"

"You let me worry about that. We need to worry about getting through the night before we worry about the public outcry." Harry said dismissively walking away from the man as he saw Hannah and Hermione walking towards him.

Hannah looked furious, while Hermione continued to look up and down the street sadly when she asked, "Where is our suspect?"

"Dead I hope." Hannah grumbled.

"Gone." Harry admitted, and felt a little irritated at the looks of incredulity that his friends sent him, "When I removed his mask it activated a portkey. I have to admit the nature of the attack was so…unusual I didn't even think to raise the anti portkey, and apparition wards."

"Unusual how?" Hermione asked.

Harry stared at the Church across the street that had been leveled, and then towards the home he had occupied in his infancy. His wards had protected what most in the Wizarding World would describe as a National Monument, but he could not say the same about the rest of the block. The fight replayed in his mind, and then the face he saw behind the mask haunted his thoughts, "The attacker was enhanced in some way, and definitely not human. Not anymore."

Hannah frowned at his words, while Hermione looked horrified, "An inferi?"

"No, definitely not, but I felt something…something I have never felt before. It's a type of dark magic I have never experienced before. Not even in my family's…other vault have I seen something like this." Harry said feeling the fury of allowing his enemy to escape began to overtake him.

Hermione shook her head as she surveyed the damage, "That might make this easier than we thought. There aren't too many families, or people who could possibly be that well versed in the dark arts, and to create something as abominable as…you know what, or worse…something like that has to leave a trail."

"Hermione is right." Hannah said with her fist balled, "We will be able to track whoever did this. We won't even need a specialist. Magic like you are talking about is going to leave something pretty distinct behind. Let Mclaggens department do some digging, and we can come back to this after we've filled in the rest of the team on what happened here."

Before Harry could answer a patronus came charging forward in the form of a dog, "Neville is dueling him in the street. Send backup immediately."

The question of who 'he' was never received an answer, and without hardly any hesitation Harry held his hand out for the two female aurors beside him, and with a loud crack side alonged the two witches all the way to Essex.

(A/N) Hello everyone! Sorry for the short chapter, and the delay, but I am really coming up on the end, and I am struggling to close out the next few chapters. Next update should come in a timely manner, but the one after that…well I am just not sure. Hopefully the inspiriation comes and it goes quickly. Cheers everyone!

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