Chapter 14 The Hunt
With Halloween coming the prefects were very busy organizing the party. The staff and prefects were once again getting a little desperate to find anything to release the tension among the students. The death eaters, now attacking at least once a week, were a constant cause for worry. Every student was terrified of seeing a black owl come soaring into the hall to land before them. So far twenty-one students had lost family members in or since the Venice attack.
"How many here have brooms? Good, you'll work on the bats and the ceiling. The rest of us will work on everything we can reach." Professor McGonagal said, standing in front of the prefects holding a list they had made of what needed to be done. In view of the recent killings the prefects had agreed to try and make Halloween fun, not spooky. The Weasely twins, now in their seventh year, had teamed up with Morgan and Ira to do a comedy muggle- magic show. Hermione and Ron were carving pumpkins while Harry and the other prefects who had brooms drifted about near the ceiling decorating and conjuring bats. When it was finally done Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ira, Fred, and George met in a secret chamber to plan some Halloween pranks.
**
On the day before Halloween Ira and Ron enchanted black balloons filled with orange goo to drop from the great hall's ceiling during meals. Filch opened one of his closets only to have a swarm of bats fly out. The staff room was found filled with black cats, the headmaster found his office re- colored entirely in orange and black. The potions dungeon was painted orange, making it look much nicer, to Snape's dismay. The Hufflepuff dormitory's walls were black and strobe-light spells gave them all headaches after a few hours. The Ravenclaws found their dorms also black, and the torches burned with black fire, making anything white glow. The Slytherin dorms were orange with black polka dots, Mrs. Norris was found hiding in an empty classroom-painted orange. Someone put freaky masks on every picture in the castle, and door handles to classrooms were covered in what appeared to be black slime. Harry put a spell on Prof. Terlwany's crystal orbs so that they all looked like human brains, orange ones. The ghosts went about cracking Halloween jokes and laughing uproariously, and the staircases never stayed in the same position for more then two minutes so it was hard to get to class on time.
That night the Halloween feast was splendid, even the six Order Agents stationed around couldn't dissipate the high spirits of everyone. Harry brought Tiger to the celebrations and the silver tabby had a great time hunting bats and snatching stray mice that fell from the crackers and other party treats. And then of course there were the students who would always slip him bits of choice food under the table. It was a nice warm night out so the party was held outside, much to the prefect's dismay. The order guard was doubled, they walked around the grounds, watching everything warily.
"We spent all that time of the great hall decorating! And now it isn't being used???" Ron was outraged.
"There was supposed to be a big storm tonight." Ira commented, giving Harry a long look.
"Hmm, wonder where it went?" He asked innocently. They all grinned and shook their heads.
The party was going full swing when screams alerted Harry to a problem. Boom! The ground shook and blue light flared.
"Everyone inside the castle! NOW!" Dumbledore's voice boomed out. Harry ducked into the shadows as the students ran by. The Order agents were fighting with a small crowd of death eaters near the forest. He saw five break away, or was that three dragging a two? No one appeared to notice them, Harry ran forwards, yes, they had two students, stunned, and were trying to get beyond the apparition wards.
"Rahimvar Stupefy!" The first curse hit one of the death eaters, his screams filled the air as it ripped off his skin where it hit. The second missed. "Freezius!" It hit, breaking through a hastily erected shield, Harry flung lightning across the grounds at the figures, now one of them had a frozen leg. He combined a body bind and another skinning curse into a lightning bolt and threw it. He couldn't tell if it hit, yes it had, they were going much slower anyway. The ground rolled in waves, Harry tripped, suddenly three curses flaying at him. The fifty or so death eaters near the order agents were trying to cover their companion's retreat with the prisoners. Harry turned all three around on the death eaters, the mass spread out and all attacked at once. Spells were flying everywhere, to his left and order agent fell, wounded, then another forty or so came running up from the castle. Harry looked around, where had they gone? Then he was distracted again as a death eater attacked him.
Ten minutes later all the students were inside the great hall and the battle was over. Three order agents were in the hospital wing, one was dead. Harry found the headmaster among the prefects and teachers.
"Sir, just as the battle started three death eaters ran away with two students. I did not have a chance to get to them but they headed into the forest. With the apparition wards now extended so far, they are injured and two stunned students they couldn't get too far, they're probably still in there." This was greeted by a few gasps from the others. "Permission to hunt them down?" Harry asked.
"Go ahead, take Lightning, and Flame with you. The Broom Brigade will be sweeping the forest soon, but they're battling with some Mesmerd attacking Hong Kong." Harry ran from the hall.
Lightning, Flame, it's up to us. The Dire Wolf and War Unicorn met him just outside, Harry leaped up onto Lightning's back. Let's go They took off, Harry guided Lightning to the point where the death eaters had been with his knees, there Flame began to sniff, trying to catch their scent. Harry too sniffed deeply, and found that he could smell the trail just as well as Flame, *must come from being a royal Aaron. * He thought, Flame took off, Lightning racing along behind him.
Harry ducked a branch and leaned into a tight turn with Lightning, up ahead Flame's bushy tail could just be seen, flying between the trees.
Harry? The evil ones are just ahead Flame announced, Lightning leaped forward all the faster. Harry pulled out his sword.
They burst into the clearing, Harry leaned over and swung as they went shooting by the death eaters and their prisoners, his swipe took off the hand of one of the death eaters, a shrill scream rang out. Lightning whirled, hooves flailing, there was a snarl and a scream, Flame was tearing at a man on the ground, the same one whose hand had been removed, finally he tore out his throat, but the others were gone. Flame plunged into the trees, Harry and Lightning followed.
**
Midnight found them still hot on the trail, the forest was so dense that they had to walk, Harry and Flame up ahead, Lightning guarding the rear. Harry followed the trail with his nose, his face and arms were scratched from twigs and thorns, and they hadn't caught a glimpse of their quarry since they had seen them about a mile ahead and hour back. They were all getting tired, Harry tried and tried to find any direct path or pattern to the death eaters flight. So far they had gone reasonably straight, heading directly through the forest. He raised his head and sniffed the wind, the scent of blood came to him, from their injured prey, it was coming from the east. Flame started to run, Harry and Lightning followed.
Now Harry was glad of the hours and hours he spent running, he was in perfect shape and could keep up with his animal friends reasonably well.
**
Just after dawn Harry, Flame, and Lightning left the trail and went right, the death eaters made a half loop and they gained time be going straight, now the scent was very fresh, and distance closing rapidly. Harry glanced around, where were they heading? The he saw a small ravine up ahead. Of course, the death eaters knew that they were being followed, knew that their tracker was in better shape and was actually following the trail through the dense forest faster then they could run away. They knew that the fight must come, with ten mils to the end of the apparition wards they were finally being brought to bay, and they were trying to find a spot to fight, which might give them the advantage. Flame whined, he sensed their tried quarry and was eager to fight and kill, Lightning began to speed up. We must not let them set a trap he cautioned, harry broke into a faster run.
They circled the ravine and came in from the west side, the ravine was a half-mile in length, and thirty feet wide. It's entrance faced south and where it ended in a steep cliff was north. Harry lay on his belly and dragged himself close to the edge. Down below the death eaters were resting. The prisoners were tied and stunned in a crevice between some rocks.
Get ready to fight, I'll blind them and then we attack. Harry sent to his friends. He flicked his wand.
"Pyrocatem." He whispered, sweeping it wide and sending magic to every corner of the ravine. The ravine walls, though rock, were not immune to extremely hot fires, no rock is. They lit up as the grass and brush on them burned and the rock itself melted and burned. The only safe place was where the prisoners were. Screams echoed out as the three death eaters threw hands in front of faces to block the scorching light. Harry leaped over the edge and landed ten feet below. "Stupefy! Petrificus Totalus! Freezius! Rahimvar! Grakizan!"
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Crucio!"
"Help!"
Harry nearly laughed, now one death eater was badly burnt and skinned and all over from the knees down. Another was frozen solid and one was stunned with a broken shoulder from a powerful kick of Lightning's. He knelt beside the prisoners. Sam and a second year Hufflepuff, named Claudine.
"Enervate Enervate." They both woke as Harry removed the ropes.
"Oh my god! What happened? Where are we? Harry?" Sam asked, jumped up and looking around. Claudine curled up a little, Harry could now see that her left leg was broken.
"You were kidnapped by death eaters, Flame, Lightning, I tracked them and you down. Come on, we have to get back to Hogwarts. Here," he put healing spells on Claudine's leg and set it correctly, he gave her a spell to numb the pain and levitated her up onto Lightning's back. "Mobilocorpus!" The three death eaters floated up alongside, Harry didn't have the energy to transport them the whole way back, but he did his best, in a crash of lightning they were gone.
**
They finally got back at 8:35 a.m. Everyone was waiting in the great hall, the Order of the Phoenix agents met them at the forest edge and took Claudine to the hospital wing. Sam and Harry went on inside.
There was a round of huge cheers as the entered, Sam waved and smiled, Harry nodded sharply and went over to his seat and sat down, he was completely exhausted.
Harry? Where on earth were you? The Order's been out all night searching the forest. Nothing could have escaped them.
We were ten miles from where the apparition wards ended, in a ravine, fighting. Actually I'm not sure if the wards extend that far, we were way off to the east.
The wards don't go very far that way, where was it? Harry gave Sirius a mental image of the ravine and landscape, including the mountain not far away.
You were there? That's thirty miles beyond the wards!
Stupid death eaters. Harry sent back, Sirius agreed and left the hall to go see to the death eaters who would be placed in the new jail being built on Azkaban, without dementor's.
With Halloween coming the prefects were very busy organizing the party. The staff and prefects were once again getting a little desperate to find anything to release the tension among the students. The death eaters, now attacking at least once a week, were a constant cause for worry. Every student was terrified of seeing a black owl come soaring into the hall to land before them. So far twenty-one students had lost family members in or since the Venice attack.
"How many here have brooms? Good, you'll work on the bats and the ceiling. The rest of us will work on everything we can reach." Professor McGonagal said, standing in front of the prefects holding a list they had made of what needed to be done. In view of the recent killings the prefects had agreed to try and make Halloween fun, not spooky. The Weasely twins, now in their seventh year, had teamed up with Morgan and Ira to do a comedy muggle- magic show. Hermione and Ron were carving pumpkins while Harry and the other prefects who had brooms drifted about near the ceiling decorating and conjuring bats. When it was finally done Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ira, Fred, and George met in a secret chamber to plan some Halloween pranks.
**
On the day before Halloween Ira and Ron enchanted black balloons filled with orange goo to drop from the great hall's ceiling during meals. Filch opened one of his closets only to have a swarm of bats fly out. The staff room was found filled with black cats, the headmaster found his office re- colored entirely in orange and black. The potions dungeon was painted orange, making it look much nicer, to Snape's dismay. The Hufflepuff dormitory's walls were black and strobe-light spells gave them all headaches after a few hours. The Ravenclaws found their dorms also black, and the torches burned with black fire, making anything white glow. The Slytherin dorms were orange with black polka dots, Mrs. Norris was found hiding in an empty classroom-painted orange. Someone put freaky masks on every picture in the castle, and door handles to classrooms were covered in what appeared to be black slime. Harry put a spell on Prof. Terlwany's crystal orbs so that they all looked like human brains, orange ones. The ghosts went about cracking Halloween jokes and laughing uproariously, and the staircases never stayed in the same position for more then two minutes so it was hard to get to class on time.
That night the Halloween feast was splendid, even the six Order Agents stationed around couldn't dissipate the high spirits of everyone. Harry brought Tiger to the celebrations and the silver tabby had a great time hunting bats and snatching stray mice that fell from the crackers and other party treats. And then of course there were the students who would always slip him bits of choice food under the table. It was a nice warm night out so the party was held outside, much to the prefect's dismay. The order guard was doubled, they walked around the grounds, watching everything warily.
"We spent all that time of the great hall decorating! And now it isn't being used???" Ron was outraged.
"There was supposed to be a big storm tonight." Ira commented, giving Harry a long look.
"Hmm, wonder where it went?" He asked innocently. They all grinned and shook their heads.
The party was going full swing when screams alerted Harry to a problem. Boom! The ground shook and blue light flared.
"Everyone inside the castle! NOW!" Dumbledore's voice boomed out. Harry ducked into the shadows as the students ran by. The Order agents were fighting with a small crowd of death eaters near the forest. He saw five break away, or was that three dragging a two? No one appeared to notice them, Harry ran forwards, yes, they had two students, stunned, and were trying to get beyond the apparition wards.
"Rahimvar Stupefy!" The first curse hit one of the death eaters, his screams filled the air as it ripped off his skin where it hit. The second missed. "Freezius!" It hit, breaking through a hastily erected shield, Harry flung lightning across the grounds at the figures, now one of them had a frozen leg. He combined a body bind and another skinning curse into a lightning bolt and threw it. He couldn't tell if it hit, yes it had, they were going much slower anyway. The ground rolled in waves, Harry tripped, suddenly three curses flaying at him. The fifty or so death eaters near the order agents were trying to cover their companion's retreat with the prisoners. Harry turned all three around on the death eaters, the mass spread out and all attacked at once. Spells were flying everywhere, to his left and order agent fell, wounded, then another forty or so came running up from the castle. Harry looked around, where had they gone? Then he was distracted again as a death eater attacked him.
Ten minutes later all the students were inside the great hall and the battle was over. Three order agents were in the hospital wing, one was dead. Harry found the headmaster among the prefects and teachers.
"Sir, just as the battle started three death eaters ran away with two students. I did not have a chance to get to them but they headed into the forest. With the apparition wards now extended so far, they are injured and two stunned students they couldn't get too far, they're probably still in there." This was greeted by a few gasps from the others. "Permission to hunt them down?" Harry asked.
"Go ahead, take Lightning, and Flame with you. The Broom Brigade will be sweeping the forest soon, but they're battling with some Mesmerd attacking Hong Kong." Harry ran from the hall.
Lightning, Flame, it's up to us. The Dire Wolf and War Unicorn met him just outside, Harry leaped up onto Lightning's back. Let's go They took off, Harry guided Lightning to the point where the death eaters had been with his knees, there Flame began to sniff, trying to catch their scent. Harry too sniffed deeply, and found that he could smell the trail just as well as Flame, *must come from being a royal Aaron. * He thought, Flame took off, Lightning racing along behind him.
Harry ducked a branch and leaned into a tight turn with Lightning, up ahead Flame's bushy tail could just be seen, flying between the trees.
Harry? The evil ones are just ahead Flame announced, Lightning leaped forward all the faster. Harry pulled out his sword.
They burst into the clearing, Harry leaned over and swung as they went shooting by the death eaters and their prisoners, his swipe took off the hand of one of the death eaters, a shrill scream rang out. Lightning whirled, hooves flailing, there was a snarl and a scream, Flame was tearing at a man on the ground, the same one whose hand had been removed, finally he tore out his throat, but the others were gone. Flame plunged into the trees, Harry and Lightning followed.
**
Midnight found them still hot on the trail, the forest was so dense that they had to walk, Harry and Flame up ahead, Lightning guarding the rear. Harry followed the trail with his nose, his face and arms were scratched from twigs and thorns, and they hadn't caught a glimpse of their quarry since they had seen them about a mile ahead and hour back. They were all getting tired, Harry tried and tried to find any direct path or pattern to the death eaters flight. So far they had gone reasonably straight, heading directly through the forest. He raised his head and sniffed the wind, the scent of blood came to him, from their injured prey, it was coming from the east. Flame started to run, Harry and Lightning followed.
Now Harry was glad of the hours and hours he spent running, he was in perfect shape and could keep up with his animal friends reasonably well.
**
Just after dawn Harry, Flame, and Lightning left the trail and went right, the death eaters made a half loop and they gained time be going straight, now the scent was very fresh, and distance closing rapidly. Harry glanced around, where were they heading? The he saw a small ravine up ahead. Of course, the death eaters knew that they were being followed, knew that their tracker was in better shape and was actually following the trail through the dense forest faster then they could run away. They knew that the fight must come, with ten mils to the end of the apparition wards they were finally being brought to bay, and they were trying to find a spot to fight, which might give them the advantage. Flame whined, he sensed their tried quarry and was eager to fight and kill, Lightning began to speed up. We must not let them set a trap he cautioned, harry broke into a faster run.
They circled the ravine and came in from the west side, the ravine was a half-mile in length, and thirty feet wide. It's entrance faced south and where it ended in a steep cliff was north. Harry lay on his belly and dragged himself close to the edge. Down below the death eaters were resting. The prisoners were tied and stunned in a crevice between some rocks.
Get ready to fight, I'll blind them and then we attack. Harry sent to his friends. He flicked his wand.
"Pyrocatem." He whispered, sweeping it wide and sending magic to every corner of the ravine. The ravine walls, though rock, were not immune to extremely hot fires, no rock is. They lit up as the grass and brush on them burned and the rock itself melted and burned. The only safe place was where the prisoners were. Screams echoed out as the three death eaters threw hands in front of faces to block the scorching light. Harry leaped over the edge and landed ten feet below. "Stupefy! Petrificus Totalus! Freezius! Rahimvar! Grakizan!"
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Crucio!"
"Help!"
Harry nearly laughed, now one death eater was badly burnt and skinned and all over from the knees down. Another was frozen solid and one was stunned with a broken shoulder from a powerful kick of Lightning's. He knelt beside the prisoners. Sam and a second year Hufflepuff, named Claudine.
"Enervate Enervate." They both woke as Harry removed the ropes.
"Oh my god! What happened? Where are we? Harry?" Sam asked, jumped up and looking around. Claudine curled up a little, Harry could now see that her left leg was broken.
"You were kidnapped by death eaters, Flame, Lightning, I tracked them and you down. Come on, we have to get back to Hogwarts. Here," he put healing spells on Claudine's leg and set it correctly, he gave her a spell to numb the pain and levitated her up onto Lightning's back. "Mobilocorpus!" The three death eaters floated up alongside, Harry didn't have the energy to transport them the whole way back, but he did his best, in a crash of lightning they were gone.
**
They finally got back at 8:35 a.m. Everyone was waiting in the great hall, the Order of the Phoenix agents met them at the forest edge and took Claudine to the hospital wing. Sam and Harry went on inside.
There was a round of huge cheers as the entered, Sam waved and smiled, Harry nodded sharply and went over to his seat and sat down, he was completely exhausted.
Harry? Where on earth were you? The Order's been out all night searching the forest. Nothing could have escaped them.
We were ten miles from where the apparition wards ended, in a ravine, fighting. Actually I'm not sure if the wards extend that far, we were way off to the east.
The wards don't go very far that way, where was it? Harry gave Sirius a mental image of the ravine and landscape, including the mountain not far away.
You were there? That's thirty miles beyond the wards!
Stupid death eaters. Harry sent back, Sirius agreed and left the hall to go see to the death eaters who would be placed in the new jail being built on Azkaban, without dementor's.