Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to them.
Harry, Neville, Susan, Su, and Daphne, all of whom had applied Ireland colored face paint or leprechaun hats or other appropriately disguising flair to avoid unwanted attention from the casual viewer, made their way towards an open field that had a large multicolored bonfire in the center. The crowds of witches and wizards from all over the world celebrating and mourning the results of the Quidditch World Cup provided the usually conspicuous teens the anonymity that was refreshingly freeing.
"Dean! Seamus! Over here," Neville shouted to their (soon-to-be) fourth year classmates and fellow Gryfindors.
"I can't believe it," Seamus shouted, a novelty wand (selling for 2 sickles each) in his hand shooting out green and gold fireworks into the air. "I saw Ireland win. Ireland won, and I saw it."
"We all saw it," Neville smiled before the pair pulled him over to a wagon sized barrel with Butterbeer burned into the side.
"Remind me to rescue him in ten minutes," Harry said to Daphne as Susan and Su went to talk to other students in their respective houses.
"Why me?" she mock-whined, before taking a hidden flask out of her cleavage and taking a sip.
"Because Susan and Su are fettered, and I'm not going to ask them for anything when we're having such a good time," Harry grumbled sourly.
"You're in a mood. You do know they would willingly say yes to you if they weren't in their contracts, right?" Daphne prompted, her eyes telling him she was talking about more than giving him a reminder. She returned the flask back into her blouse.
"But they are, and I'm not going there, not right now. It's been a rough couple of days. You've been talking with Tonks again, haven't you?"
"Neither confirm nor deny," Daphne smirked before kissing his cheek. "I know I'm your girlfriend, but I also know I won't be the only one snogging you. Let's try to get you out of your shell this year, OK? They deserve some snogging too, not just me."
Harry sniffed the air before cocking his head to one side.
"Firewhiskey?" He asked, pointing to where the flask had gone.
"No, breasts," Daphne smirked, poking her chest with her finger as she spoke. "But really, it's a new blend called Knotgrass Mead. It's fresh from our family farm this year, so it's no stronger than butterbeer, but with a spicy kick to it. It won't be ready to sell until next decade, then it'll rival the best firewhiskey on the market. Oh look, it's the Hunk-lepuff."
"Tell you what, Harry," Cedric Diggory sighed as he came up to the pair as a parade of green-clad celebrants conga-lined past. "I'll take the title Boy-Who-Lived and you can take Hunk-lepuff. I don't know who started it but it's all I hear whispered these days."
"I wish we could," Harry faux-lamented, overly dramatic. Since the last time they faced each other on the quidditch pitch ended with the dementors interfering, the two seekers had had numerous unofficial rematches over which they had become well acquainted with each other. Daphne took her leave to join Susan while the Seekers caught up in relative privacy. "But I'm in the wrong house, and you need to survive a killing curse. I'm sure anyone on the Ravenclaw team would be happy to help with the second one."
"I'm sure they would," Cedric shrugged in defeat before dropping the 'woe-is-me' act. "How has your summer been?"
"About what I expected," Harry answered. "Had a birthday trip to Tenerife, which was a whole lot of fun. That and working on McGonagall's summer assignment, which wasn't as fun as tanning on the beach but probably more important overall. How about yours? Anything exciting?"
"Camping with my dad for a week in the National Forest Park in France, before picking up my cousin. She's staying with us this summer. My uncle, her dad, is having some trouble with his marriage or something, my dad wasn't too specific on what, but he says it's in everyone's best interests that she gets away for a few months, if not longer."
"Will she transfer to Hogwarts?" Harry asked.
"Possibly, I know Dad has the paperwork to do it, but hasn't filled it out yet. Evidently last minute transfers are common, so he probably won't decide until a week or two before school starts. Probably waiting to see if things settle down on the continent. And no, you're not allowed to add Delphi to your growing harem."
"Delphi Diggory, really? Man, her parents must have been drunk coming up with that name. And don't worry, my harem is all full."
"You only have one girlfriend, and the Potter, Black, and Perevell families still to fill," Cedric pointed out with a smirk. "Until you get those other two slots promised or filled, I'm not letting you anywhere near my cousin. Nope, not allowing it at all."
"I didn't know you got the Harry Potter Newsletter, I could have gotten you a free subscription in exchange for signing me up to the Daily Diggory," Harry joked, jabbing the older boy in the ribs.
"My girlfriend's friends like the drama that follows you everywhere, or at least that's what Beatrice claims. I think it's her guilty pleasure watching you struggle romantically, and makes her grateful that she found such an incredibly handsome and attentive boyfriend all for herself. Your love life is better than the trashy romance novels my mum used to read, and the gossip around the castle is like a Wronski Feint disaster that you can't look away from. But my original point stands, no seducing my sweet innocent cousin into your harem."
"Whatever you say, you Hunk-lepuff you," Harry laughed, to which Cedric ruffled Harry's hair as hard as he could. They both ended up laughing with promises to yet another Seeker rematch when school started. They were currently tied 2-2, and each wanted to win the inevitable tiebreaker before they had to face each other again officially on the pitch.
It took a few more hours of celebrating in the open field before Harry, Neville, Susan, Su, and Daphne made their way back to their now Devil's-Snare-Free campsite.
"All partied out?" Sirius called to them as they approached.
"It's getting late and everyone out there is getting really drunk," Daphne explained. "We'll continue the party in our tent."
"Get the Snare sorted out?" Neville chimed in.
"For now," Amelia Bones answered, coming out of the tent she shared with Sirius. "The Ministry herbologists will return every week for the next year to make sure it is fully eradicated. This is a muggle campground, after all, but the threat is contained for now."
"By any chance, would I be able to get a sample of the Snare?" Neville asked politely. "It's a different species of the Devil's Snare genus from what they have at Hogwarts, and I could get extra credit in Herbology if I could cultivate it successfully, and maybe crossbreed it."
"No problem," Bones shrugged before sharpening her gaze on the boy. "As soon as you show me you have a Class 4 herbological breeding license."
Smiling widely, Neville pulled out his wallet and presented the requested license to the gobsmacked Amelia. Sirius howled with laughter and began rolling around on the ground.
"How?" Director Bones asked in disbelief. "You need NEWTs in Herbology for that."
"Not for an Apprenticeship license, you don't," Neville smiled widely, flipping the card over to show the limitations in neat orderly script. "This one is only good for the 5 months around summer, as opposed to the ten years of a regular one. And this one is limited to the Davis Vineyards. I had to get it since they grow Tentaculas."
"I didn't know you got an apprenticeship with Tracey," Daphne added.
"Well, with her mum and dad," Neville clarified. "But Tracey set it up for me after all the tutoring I gave her last year."
"Tutoring, is that what you kids are calling it now," Sirius barked out, causing Neville to turn beet red and Amelia to laugh.
"Since your license expires soon, I'll talk with Pomona about the Devil Snare sample, and leave it up to her," Bones decided. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm sure there are some rowdy, celebrating drunks in need of reprimanding."
"I'll join you," Sirius said to his girlfriend while looking at Harry. "I'm sure Harry wants to start tutoring."
After the adults left, the teenagers entered their gender-separated tents (despite Kreacher's efforts otherwise) to clean up and change into their comfortable pajamas. Now free of the Irish-themed face paint, Harry and Neville entered the girl's tent and lounged in the overstuffed chairs by the fireplace in the tent's common room. Over the next few minutes, Susan, Su, and Daphne exited their individual rooms and joined them. Throughout the night, they played Exploding Snap (the non-strip version, despite Su's encouragement), gossiped about what they'd learned and saw during the last day, and raced levitated paper airplanes around the tent. After several rounds of yawns, Harry and Neville bid adieu to the girls and headed to their own tent to sleep (despite Su's request otherwise).
Seconds later they ran back inside.
"We're under attack," Harry declared, his wand in his hand. Neville had his wand out as well. "Fire, panicked civilians, death eaters attacking."
"Anti-Portkey ward?" Daphne asked succinctly, pulling her own wand from it's holster. The ministry had blanketed the whole stadium and campground with wards to prevent magical movement in preparation for the Quidditch World Cup.
"Still up," Neville shrugged, holding up his bracelet that they knew held his portkey to the Longbottom house. As Neville pushed some of his magic into the portkey, but not enough to activate it, the bracelet started glowing light blue indicating the presence of strong anti-portkey wards.
"Run away or fight?" Susan asked.
"Both," Harry answered. "Only way out is through. Su and I will focus on defense and offense, Neville, Susan, and Daphne will focus on helping non-combatants as we move. Sorry Neville, I didn't mean to order you around."
"Apologize later, save lives now," Neville spoke as Harry cast a messenger patronus to Sirius to let him know their plan. "Black flames are around our tent and Sirius' tent, and are headed to this tent. We have to move now."
Still in pajamas, the teens exited into a magical inferno, bypassing an immolated corpse wearing a death eater mask on the ground, their wand still sputtering black flames into the air. Harry cast a spell in draconic, touching his wand to his lips. As he did, a stream of cold encased the black flames and the body in three inches of transparent ice. The fire still raged under it, consuming what it had begun to burn, but it could progress no further for the time being. Small cracks in the ice demonstrated, however, Harry's spell wouldn't last forever.
With thick smoke towered over them, with the occasional fire whirls as well, the group moved quickly in single file, Harry taking the lead and Su Li taking up the rear. Three more times Harry used his draconic ice breath spell to help a family surrounded by fire (non-magical this time), allowing Susan, Daphne, and Neville to do emergency triage on the injured folks who had just wanted to celebrate the Quidditch Cup. In each instance, they encouraged the mages to flee out of the campground.
Several times, stray spells or flying debris almost hit them, but quick casting and muscle memory from hours and hours of training allowed them to avoid any injuries.
The teenagers made it halfway to the campground boundary when they saw a score of death eaters tormenting a family, a few of the monsters levitating a man, woman, and three children thirty feet in the air while the rest cast curses and hexes at them, as well as anyone else that came too close.
"Su, active defense," Harry ordered before sprinting forward before sliding behind a ruined covered wagon. He had positioned himself such that the death eaters couldn't see him.
"We need to catch another bint, I want to have some real fun," one of the death eaters said to his companions.
"Carriag," Harry cast, hitting the bottom of his wand on the ground and holding it down as a midnight green light surged into the earth. It was one of Merlin's favorite spells to teach.
Hundreds of stone spikes erupted from the ground beneath the terrorists as if shot from a musket, shredding their muscles and tendons in the legs, and shattering their tibias and fibulas. They weren't longer than a foot, but they were extremely sharp. Once the screams started, Harry jumped to his feet and cast a parseltongue spell to activate brands (an extremely useful cantrip courtesy of the fragment of Tom Riddle in Harry's head, originally meant as a way to separate livestock that had been intermingled with other herds). The screams from the death eaters redoubled as their dark marks burned the flesh of their forearms. As many of the death eaters dropped their wands from the pain, Harry shifted his wand to catch the now falling family.
Several clouded leopards, Su Li's preferred transfiguration spell, shot past Harry and started collecting the dropped wands from the distracted death eaters. Harry cast a cushioning charm on the victims, then a bouncing charm, the result of which saw the five victims bounding down the hill away from their now-injured attackers. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw them jerk towards the area his friends were protecting, likely caused by Susan who was extremely proficient with the summoning charm.
Returning his attention to the death eaters, Harry summoned a score of blue coral snakes using a variation of the serpensortia spell Draco had used against him in second year, and hissed at them in parseltongue to paralyze the death eaters. It was an order they slithered off to enthusiastically obey. Harry doubted the death eaters would see his snakes, or feel their bite, given the injuries they had already sustained, but Harry didn't want to give them any chance to recover.
"Bombarda, Depulso, Petrificus Totalus," Harry cast as rapidly as possible. His goal wasn't to hit the death eater, though he was aiming at them, but rather to sow chaos and confusion in their ranks while his snakes did their work.
The downside to casting was it made Harry a prime target for those death eaters that had somehow retained their wands. Green, red, and blue spells shot towards Harry, forcing him to dodge and block. More clouded leopards entered the fray, lessening the barrage targeting Harry enough to let him throw more spells at the domestic terrorists.
A minute later, Harry could hear several loud pops, and then spells stopped flying towards him. He peeked out from behind the vendor's stall he was using as cover and saw only a dozen death eaters lying on the ground, unmoving.
Those death eaters who could, had fled.
"Expecto Patronum," Harry cast, mentally focusing on the message he wanted to send to Amelia and Sirius. Two stags erupted from his wand and galloped away in search of their targets.
"All clear here," Neville called from behind Harry. "Some major injuries and curses, but they are still alive. Portkeys are back online now too."
"The ministry must have taken them down once the attacks started," Susan postulated. "I don't think this is the only group of death eaters. Are they dead?"
"Probably not," Harry shrugged. While his conjured blue coral snakes had venom that left their victims in an agonizingly painful catatonic state almost immediately, it wouldn't kill them for another hour. Plenty of time to get them to the prison wing of St. Mungos. He dispelled his conjurations since he was starting to get magically fatigued.
"Best be sure," Daphne said, moving with Harry towards the downed death eaters. She stunned each one twice, just to be sure, before casting basic first aid spells to stop them from bleeding out of their leg wounds.
A dozen mages apparated into the battlezone, each wearing an auror's robe or a medical uniform. Harry had his wand halfway up when he recognized Sirius and Amelia amongst them.
"You OK pup?" Sirius asked after embracing his godson.
"No injuries," Harry specified. He'd deal with the mental and emotional trauma later, and Sirius knew he didn't need to press the distinction.
"Good job with the aid," one of the healers told Neville and Susan as they checked on the family that had been tortured. "They are stable. We'll start undoing everything after we get them to St. Mungos, but they'll live because of you."
"Back home the lot of you," Sirius ordered the teenagers. "Neville, tell your Gran that I'll pop by later to tell her everything I know. She won't need to hound me like last time you had a bit of excitement."
"Not sure she sees a close encounter with a host of erklings as just a bit of excitement, but I'll pass it along," Neville promised with a dark chuckle. He knew tonight was much worse than running amok with evil fairies.
As Harry and his friends activated their individual portkeys, Neville to Longbottom Manor, Daphne to Greengrass Estate, and Harry, Su, and Susan to 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius looked around at the devastation throughout the entire campground. He couldn't help but begin to feel a bit paranoid that someone might be out to get him or his family. The ankhegs, the devil's snare, and now rampaging death eaters, it was enough to make him consider calling up an old friend to give the kids another round of constant vigilance. Maybe call in a favor with Dumbledore.
While Sirius plotted, an unseen cloaked figure watching in the darkness silently slipped away.