Title: Baby Boom! 12/18
Author: Mariann
Rating: R
Pairing: Sirius/Remus
Category: Between Fluff, Fun and Fighting
Summary: Sirius and Remus grow up, find love, start a family and fight the Dark Lord
Disclaimer: Belongs to JKR - no money's made from my poor attempts at writing
A/N: AU - The Willow Incident does not happen in this story. Peter is loyal and a spy for Dumbledore. Remus and Sirius are destined to fight Voldemort - will they succeed? A fair amount of children are born in this story - to spite the Death Eaters of course!
The 'battle' isn't very realistic, mainly because I think that there can't have been very many open battles in that first Voldemort war. I think, this war must have drawn its terror through the subtlety with which everything took place - general fear, people singled out and attacked at night, disappearances and the likes, but I can't imagine that Voldemort ever attacked so openly... still I'm going with this:
12. Hogwarts under Attack
Then came the day when Dumbledore's spy didn't tell him about a meeting. And through that meeting an attack on Hogwarts was planned. Voldemort would be partaking in the attack himself for once and it was to take place on the last night of March.
"We'll have the rogue Dementors and three giants to our aid. I want every single Death Eater out there to join us in that attack. That would be 638 and if even one is missing I shall be very angry!"
Dumbledore's spy was finally able to tell him about the date of the attack a week before. That gave Dumbledore a week to summon the Order and give Richard Lupin an information to order Crouch to send half of his Aurors to Hogwarts. Dumbledore organised the students' security by relegating all of them into an area in the dungeons right in the centre of the castle, which the house-elves had prepared in the days before the attack. Right after dinner on the day of the battle all students were sent to this room except the sixth and seventh years, who were held back and asked if they were prepared to help defending the castle. Many of the Ravenclaws, some Slytherins, all of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were at the front to help. All others were led down to join the other students and support the fifth year prefects.
Remus and Sirius wanted to fight, but Sirius was in his seventh month, so he was ordered to join Poppy Pomfrey and help at the hospital wing, and Remus would not be in the forefront of the battle either. But both would be coming out if a direct encounter with Voldemort was possible as their spells cast together were more powerful than anything Dumbledore himself had ever produced.
It was a tough fight. The intruders came by night and while it wasn't exactly difficult to come to the grounds of Hogwarts it was impossible for them to enter the castle, as the wards that centuries of headmasters and headmistresses and their helpers had set up held strong.
Not even the giants were any help. They didn't even get close to the castle, because knowing that there would be giants on the battlefield a group of Aurors had been stationed around the castle on brooms and covered with strong Disillusionment charms. They had nothing else to do at first but wait for the giants and eliminate them in any way possible long before the giants even got close. And that meant to kill them.
Nothing else to do still demanded an awful lot. The Aurors waited and feared their job. The giants had been sent out as the first line of attack.
Voldemort hoped that they would get through and cause enough damage on the castle walls that the Dementors and Death Eaters might be able to get in after them. He himself arrived near the Shrieking Shack just very shortly before the giants were supposed to start their destructive march onto Hogwarts. Since the Shack stood on a hill it was an excellent place to see over to the castle. He immediately noticed that the whole of Hogwarts and the grounds almost to the edge of the Forbidden Forest was flooded with light. A fact that made him swear quite creatively.
"Betrayed! Again! Who is the traitor? I will find you and if I do you are going to die a very slow and painful death! Where are the giants now? Does anything work out here?" Voldemort screamed and looked around some of the people around him.
They were all masked, so none of them was able to see the sheepish faces of the others. But underneath their masks each and everyone of them was shocked and embarrassed and very, very worried. They all knew they had not passed on any secrets. All but one. Who was very glad for the mask right now.
The giants turned up on time and went through the forest, but to his horror Voldemort had to see that they started to flail their arms at something he couldn't see.
Of course the Aurors were there and started throwing hexes at the giants in groups of five. But it took at least five of them to take one of the giants down, so they quickly assembled and attacked the giant in front, bringing him down with a collective Avada Kedavra. The giant broke down, falling back and hindering the man behind him, whose grunts rather sounded like yells in the ears of the Aurors, who attacked the next and finally the third giant. On their brooms they could react to every movement of the giants. Dumbledore's most important first line of defence had worked successfully.
"If Voldemort knows anything about the wards around Hogwarts he goes home with his Death Eaters now," Moody grunted to Remus.
"He should..."
They were waiting on the South Tower, out of the light, which had been charmed on the outside of the walls of Hogwarts on about thirty metres height. From there the light shone over the grounds on all sides and on all towers there were people waiting for the Death Eaters. Of course Voldemort knew now that they must be ready at Hogwarts. But he still tried by sending the Dementors ahead. At least two hundred of them slowly glided across the grounds from all sides. Dumbledore ordered everyone who was able to cast Patronus charms to send out theirs and a lot of them were charging at the Dementors. Remus quickly sent for Sirius, who came up to the South Tower within minutes.
"We need to cast a Patronus together, love!"
"With pleasure, my dear!"
Sirius and Remus went to the highest tower in the school, the Astronomy Tower to cast their Patronus. They didn't cry it out loud and they didn't need to hurry, as the Dementors were far enough away from them, they couldn't really feel them. The good thing was that they could still fight them. Remus said:
"What's your memory, love?"
"The moment, Vega landed on my belly," Sirius said without thinking.
Remus smiled and replied:
"And I was going to suggest the same - feeling Polaris on my skin just after he was born. On three then?"
They held each other by the hand.
"On three! One, two, three! Expecto Patronum!"
Remus had cast his Patronus at the same time and both watched as two giant animals broke from their wands, a huge silvery dog and an equally huge wolf. Both animals charged down the tower, over the grounds and broke into the ranks of the Dementors, sending them packing, but the Death Eaters were able to turn them back to the castle again. New Patroni were sent from the castle, including another pair of the wolf and dog from the Astronomy Tower. This was repeated about three times, then Remus lost patience.
"Come along, Sirius, we go back to Dumbledore. I want to try out a theory of mine."
"Okay. Let's go."
They returned to the South Tower, where Remus said:
"Have the others continue to send Patronus charms, but let some come closer here, I want to see if it's true that the Dementors can be burned. I know that they are bred practically from decayed flesh, stabilised and mobilised, so it must be possible to destroy them. I want to try with fire."
"That's not a bad idea, we watch out and send them away again with more Patroni. It's good for us to be up here, they can't get into the castle and they can't climb, we're so far away that it's not too bad being around them."
"That's our advantage. Are the Slytherin students who are sympathetic under control?"
"Absolutely. The students are all locked in and the charms are set that they can only be reversed from the outside of the doors. In other words, even if the students know the counter charms they won't help them. Filius has done excellent work there."
"Very well."
Dumbledore called the other towers through two-way mirrors and informed them to keep throwing Patroni onto the Dementors. But there were none from his end. Several Dementors eagerly came closer and when they were only a few metres away from the castle walls Remus sent a common Incendio charm down at the first one. The Dementor's cloak took the fire and within moments the creature stood in flames. Moody and Sirius immediately attacked other Dementors with the same charm and saw that the result was good, because Remus' Dementor was already nothing but ash. Upon that Dumbledore gave order to let all the Dementors come close and finish them off this way.
On the other hill Voldemort was reaching the maximum of his rage. He fumed and ranted, but it didn't help him and when he finally heard Dumbledore's voice, amplified by the Sonorus charm he almost exploded in rage.
The voice was loud, but calm and gentle.
"Do give up, Tom. You know that you cannot get through here. Hogwarts will always remain to be a haven of learning and we do not take kindly to being attacked. Attack us and you might even be sorry, because you will lose. We are prepared to receive you and there is not a millimetre of this castle that is not protected against your entrance."
For a moment it seemed that the Light side would win because the evil Dark Lord was almost exploding. He jumped at the voice of his old teacher. He fumed even more and in his blind rage he sent out his Death Eaters to get into this castle or die at his hands. He only kept his inner circle back.
The Death Eaters were doomed. They had to attack, their master wanted it so, but even those who were able to cast decent Disillusionment charms didn't get very far. On the grounds were charms to counter these spells and the area was flooded in light. Dumbledore's order was clear:
"Do not kill them. Carefully choose your goals and stun them. Then bind them. Repeat until they are all stunned. I would like to isolate Voldemort."
There were less people defending the castle than attacking Death Eaters, but they were organised. Voldemort had assembled all of his terrorists and they had to openly attack the castle. The result was that the defenders could pick their objects and mow down one by one. The stunners came in such masses that the Death Eaters didn't have time to enervate their comrades and so they all went down. Behind the main doors Aurors were ready to go out and pluck the bound and stunned people and take them to the Great Hall. As soon as an area was quite clear they went to work, levitating the stunned Death Eaters inside, disarming them and binding them properly so they couldn't move anymore.
Sirius looked down from the tower and said:
"Let's see, if we can't get him out there. He probably still has his inner circle around himself. I'll taunt him for a bit if you let me, Albus."
"I am not sure that this is a really good tactic, but since his Death Eaters are now mostly out of the picture I think you can have some fun with Voldemort," Dumbledore said with a smile.
Sirius cast Sonorus on his throat and his deep voice boomed over the grounds:
"Voldemort! If you aren't a bloody coward show yourself and stand up for yourself!"
There was no reply. That pleased Sirius, because he went on:
"You can see that we got your Death Eaters and those we haven't got are disapparating faster than you can say attack! They must be even bigger cowards than you are!"
Still no reply but Voldemort was seething. And then Sirius hit the nerve:
"Your ability to lead an army is slightly less efficient than your ability to be cruel, Voldemort! Where are your legions now? They are very good at cowardly attacks on innocent and defenceless people, but it's a lot easier to torture and kill little children than it is to stand up to grown up and trained fighters, isn't it?"
This was the final straw. Voldemort cast the Sonorus himself and screeched:
"Who are you? Who dares to insult the Dark Lord like this?"
Sirius' eyes glinted. That was to his taste and he gladly told Voldemort off.
"Take three guesses, Voldie-dear. It's one who was asked to become your follower by his parents and who refused. Because I would never ever lower myself to your level, Voldemort. I rather enjoy my Muggle and Muggle-born friends, thank you very much! I rather like my half-breed mate and I'd kill you a dozen times over if you'd dare to endanger him."
"BLACK! Let me see you and shred you to pieces! Come out and duel me, you... you... I'll tear you up and even if you come with that Lupin creature, you'll lie dead at my feet in a minute!!!"
"You want us to duel you? Fine, Voldemort, we're there! In the grounds, in the open where everyone can see us! You'll not stand the point of a chance, so better beware!"
"Sirius! You're pregnant! Both of you! You can't go out there and duel him!" Dumbledore hissed.
Sirius took the Sonorus charm down.
"Yes, I think, we can. We give him a clear warning and either we succeed in killing him or he'll flee. I'm quite sure that once he's been at the end of our first two or three spells he'll get out of here."
"And that would be a nice headline in the Prophet, Albus. People would know that he's not invincible," Remus confirmed.
"He's thrown the gauntlet, I'm ready to throw mine down as well. We have to do it."
Dumbledore sighed.
"You are not only playing with your own life now. You are responsible for the two lives you carry and the two you've already created..." James cried.
"Exactly. And we're not ready to waste them. They give us extra strength. I'm quite sure this will not last long. We have some pretty good strategies. Like Remus can conjure slabs of stone to hold off his Avada Kedavra spells..."
"That's the only reason why I let you go out there," Dumbledore decided, "Because I've seen these slabs."
Sirius and Remus were let out of the main door. They walked to meet the Dark Lord, or should one say waddled? Sirius, as tall as he was, showed his pregnant belly prominently through the robes he wore and Remus, though almost two months less far, started to show very well, too. Neither tried to hide the fact.
Voldemort was coming at them quickly. He thought he would finally eliminate two of the most annoying of his enemies, the two who did much of their damage with their wards and with their research. But he didn't know just how strong the two were in duelling. When he saw their obvious condition he started to taunt them:
"Oh, so you want to get rid of the things growing inside of you?"
"Shut up, Voldemort and get ready to die!" Sirius replied, rather annoyingly calm.
"You can't kill me, Black! No one can! Bow!"
"Will you? Rather get to the point, Voldemort. You know nothing about honour, because you haven't any."
About ten metres apart they stood. Remus kept to Sirius' left side, because they would cast their spells connected by their hands and used their connected hands to cast most of the spells wandless. They had no scruples for fighting Voldemort two against one, the man was simply too dangerous to the peace in the wizarding world to be let off the hook. If they could they would kill him tonight. Though they had prepared a few spells that were killing through other means than Avada Kedavra. Spells they had kept to themselves, but practiced with and without their wands.
Voldemort immediately started casting the killing curse, but Remus steadfastly brought up slabs of granite to catch the spells, while Sirius used regular duelling spells from Expelliarmus to Stupefy, but gradually after a few minutes he threatened Voldemort with flying knives. Voldemort was hit by a swarm of them and of course they were so sharp they injured him quite badly.
Up on the tower there were cheers for Sirius and Remus and lots of people taunted and verbally attacked Voldemort. James and Peter were the rowdiest and threw some pretty ugly insults at the Dark Lord's head.
Sirius was just going to crown his work with an Incendio spell when Voldemort disapparated right from the grounds at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had lifted the anti-apparition wards to give Remus and Sirius the opportunity to apparate into the castle if need should be.
Seeing their master disapparating, his remaining Death Eaters followed suit. Remus and Sirius looked around. They looked up to the South Tower and apparated there, then Dumbledore reset the anti-apparition wards immediately.
"Well done, you two. I would not have let you go alone, Sirius, but together with Remus you will be very hard to beat. And now he knows what to expect. Those flying knives were quite impressive," Dumbledore commented.
Several people had taken photos of the duel, which wasn't really a duel at all. Sirius was quite happy with his evening's work.
"Thank you, Professor! All that waiting and training paid off, don't you think? It was good to have a little something to do finally! Now I gladly return to my nursery and the library..."
Everyone around him hooted and roared with laughter.
"Voldemort driven off the battlefield by two pregnant men! Isn't that just THE biggest joke of the war?" someone shouted.
"And the thing even asked for them both! What an idiot he can be!"
"I really liked your taunt with his inability to lead troops in battle, Sirius! That was great!" Lily cried.
All in all they were all very relieved. A full attack on the castle's defences had gone by and there was not a single scratch on anything or anyone. Voldemort had literally run against a wall. And what was worse he had left the battlefield ridiculed. He still fumed and raged when he met his Death Eaters again. And he let them pay for it. All of the ones close to him were punished with heavy doses of Cruciatus.
Then Voldemort had them all turn up a few days later and served them stolen Veritaserum. He did find his traitor and he also thought he found his spy. The man was tortured with Cruciatus until he died. It took a long time, but finally after several hours his heart couldn't take the pain anymore and gave in. Voldemort burned him on the spot and whoever mentioned his name again in Voldemort's company was tortured, too.
The biggest damage was the loss of most of Voldemort's followers. Dumbledore was sorry to see the count. About half of the people were not British, but those who were had almost all passed Hogwarts, most of them former Slytherins, but there were only too many from the other houses. Dumbledore entered the Great Hall when the first of them started to recover from the stunners. All of them had been disarmed and all of them were still under a full body bind.
It took the Aurors all night to take the prisoners to Azkaban. They would be kept there until their cases were tried. For the Light side this was the most important battle in this war. With one strike they had taken out most of the Dark Lord's active followers. The Daily Prophet brought out a special edition with all of it and the front page featured the best picture of Sirius throwing the knives at Voldemort, who staggered backwards on the photo, unable to get away from the knives until he disapparated.
A reporter showed up and interviewed Dumbledore and then Sirius and Remus. Pictures of the two and their two children turned up in the next edition of Witch Weekly. Sirius and Remus hardly ever lived down all the letters to the editors of the two publications that stated how cute the two of them looked feeding their children porridge at breakfast.
"Oh, stuff it already, people! I'm NOT cute!" Remus cried, frustrated.
But the fact that he had chosen the moment for his explosion to coincide with his changing Vega's nappy, didn't really help to make that point clear.
The Death Eaters were expected by most to lick their wounds and take some time to regroup, but Dumbledore suspected that Voldemort would probably strike somewhere smaller just to show to the public that he was still there. So Dumbledore stayed attentive. He planted an article through Dari in the Prophet in which he stated that everyone should remain very alert. Voldemort was wounded, but not deathly injured. He would have to show his grip on everyone by hitting somewhere and it would probably be somewhere unexpected.
And indeed he struck at a place where no one expected him to except for the Aurors and the Order. Though there were quite a lot of Aurors at each Quidditch match he chose to attack a game between the Ballycastle Bats and the Wimbourne Wasps. Both were extremely popular teams, so there were always masses of spectators. The Ministry didn't want to stop the Quidditch league, because they felt that people should live as normal as they could, even in times of war. But there were usually not more than three matches on one day, because for each match it took twenty Aurors. Strict anti-apparition wards were set onto the stadiums. People could apparate out at the end of the game, but no one could apparate in or out as long as the game took place. The wards were set up one day prior to a game. It was a rule that was applied on any regular Quidditch game to ensure that only people with valid tickets got into the stadiums.
The attack was launched in late April, on a beautiful day, because good weather would guarantee lots of spectators. The Wimbourne stadium was packed with several thousand people. As an added point of interest was the fact that the Bats would play for the league championship, so many fans came along with their team from Ireland. No one knew that there were several of Voldemort's remaining Death Eaters in the audience, waiting for a few 'bombs' to explode. The bombs were poisonous snakes, trained by Voldemort to attack humans. They were told to hang on to the Death Eaters and would be given a signal to sneak from their holders' arms into the pack of people around them. They were to bite as many people as they could and start a panic.
Since Dumbledore was out of the spy inside of the Death Eater ranks he didn't know where they would strike. He placed Order members in all public events, the Quidditch matches, too, where they supported the Aurors.
The match started on time at one in the afternoon. Everyone's focus was on the game when after half an hour the snakes were let loose. Small snakes could not do too much of a damage in terms of poisoning people, because they could bite two, maybe three people before their poison ran out, but they could easily cause a panic. Which set in only moments after people discovered the little beasts who had spent their poison quickly onto several victims.
With the anti-apparition wards still firmly in place people panicked and started to move to the exits. The snakes had been trampled to death after only a few minutes, but the panic was not to be stopped as easily. Children were falling off the balustrades. Some people pushed others out of the way who then fell down to the pitch. But when the stadium speaker finally spoke up he was able to stop everyone:
"STOP! STOP! Do NOT move, please! Everyone please stand still exactly where you are! It seems that a couple of small snakes have bitten some people, but please! They have spent their poison, please stand still, so not more damage can be done! Healers, please rush to aid those who need it! We will not lift the anti-apparition wards to find the people who let those snakes loose! Please, everyone, stay where you are and, if you can, return to your seats! Help those who are injured or give us signs where someone has been bitten..."
The stadium speaker was the hero of the day. He was able to halt the mass of people in movement, to get them to sit down again, so that everything could be sorted out. The game was interrupted, but the speaker announced that it would resume as soon as everyone injured or killed and their escorts were taken care of. All information the speaker got he passed on immediately. Not much later it became clear that the game could not be resumed, but the speaker promised that everyone would receive new tickets for the re-match.
"We have blocked all exits. No one can come in or go out uncontrolled. The Aurors are searching the stadium, please grant them access around your seating areas, thank you! Remember that we cannot let these attacks rule our lives, we have to move together and show them that they are not wanted! I know it is hard to trust, but today we all stick together and help each other!"
The speaker turned out to be a member of the Order of the Phoenix and he took the chance to stand up and say his piece about the Death Eaters. The Aurors took their time, but by working from one end through the oval stadium in both directions and meeting again at the end they caught at least three of the people who were responsible for the attack.
Sirius read the Daily Prophet the next day:
"An attack at the Quidditch league championship match between the Wimbourne Wasps and the Ballycastle Bats yesterday led to sixteen dead and seventy-two injured. All injured people were out of the hospital by midnight.
A panic, caused by a few snakes let loose by Death Eaters almost led to a disaster. Thanks to Ed Simpson, the stadium's speaker, and his courageous coaching through the loudspeakers a worse outcome could be prevented. Simpson, a 46 years old wizard who acted as speaker for Quidditch matches since shortly after leaving Hogwarts and one of the best known savants of the British Quidditch league, held up the morale through his verbal coaching for hours on end. He was taken to recuperate after the stadium was finally cleared shortly before midnight.
It seems that the Death Eaters calculated with the stadium's responsible authorities to lift the anti-apparition wards to allow those people with apparition licenses to leave the stadium immediately. But the authorities, under the direction of the Aurors watching over the game, decided to stick to the wards and to block every exit or entrance to the site.
Three Death Eaters were captured. They were recognised by the Dark Mark tattoos they wear on their left forearms. It is unknown how many other Death Eaters were present and were able to get out.
The match will be repeated next Friday, 26th April at the same stadium. All ticket holders are free to use them again. Even damaged tickets are still valid, as long as they show the date or the pairing of the match."
Sirius put the paper down and looked up at Remus.
"So Albus was right as we thought he would be. He needed to set a mark..."
"Not altogether very successful though, don't you think?" Remus replied.
"No, but a mark nevertheless. Now he's probably going to sit back for a while and lick wounds. We've greatly reduced his forces for the moment. It will be harder to find more followers now. Especially since we ridiculed him," Sirius said.
"I think so, too. We have some time for you little ones! And your soon to be expected siblings. After which stars do we name the next batch?" Remus asked cheerfully.
The weather became a bit more friendly now, there was more sun, but it was still quite cold. Remus and Sirius took the children out to the grounds to play with them. They visited Hagrid in his cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They read them stories and looked at picture books with them. And Sirius prepared for the birth.
Author: Mariann
Rating: R
Pairing: Sirius/Remus
Category: Between Fluff, Fun and Fighting
Summary: Sirius and Remus grow up, find love, start a family and fight the Dark Lord
Disclaimer: Belongs to JKR - no money's made from my poor attempts at writing
A/N: AU - The Willow Incident does not happen in this story. Peter is loyal and a spy for Dumbledore. Remus and Sirius are destined to fight Voldemort - will they succeed? A fair amount of children are born in this story - to spite the Death Eaters of course!
The 'battle' isn't very realistic, mainly because I think that there can't have been very many open battles in that first Voldemort war. I think, this war must have drawn its terror through the subtlety with which everything took place - general fear, people singled out and attacked at night, disappearances and the likes, but I can't imagine that Voldemort ever attacked so openly... still I'm going with this:
12. Hogwarts under Attack
Then came the day when Dumbledore's spy didn't tell him about a meeting. And through that meeting an attack on Hogwarts was planned. Voldemort would be partaking in the attack himself for once and it was to take place on the last night of March.
"We'll have the rogue Dementors and three giants to our aid. I want every single Death Eater out there to join us in that attack. That would be 638 and if even one is missing I shall be very angry!"
Dumbledore's spy was finally able to tell him about the date of the attack a week before. That gave Dumbledore a week to summon the Order and give Richard Lupin an information to order Crouch to send half of his Aurors to Hogwarts. Dumbledore organised the students' security by relegating all of them into an area in the dungeons right in the centre of the castle, which the house-elves had prepared in the days before the attack. Right after dinner on the day of the battle all students were sent to this room except the sixth and seventh years, who were held back and asked if they were prepared to help defending the castle. Many of the Ravenclaws, some Slytherins, all of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were at the front to help. All others were led down to join the other students and support the fifth year prefects.
Remus and Sirius wanted to fight, but Sirius was in his seventh month, so he was ordered to join Poppy Pomfrey and help at the hospital wing, and Remus would not be in the forefront of the battle either. But both would be coming out if a direct encounter with Voldemort was possible as their spells cast together were more powerful than anything Dumbledore himself had ever produced.
It was a tough fight. The intruders came by night and while it wasn't exactly difficult to come to the grounds of Hogwarts it was impossible for them to enter the castle, as the wards that centuries of headmasters and headmistresses and their helpers had set up held strong.
Not even the giants were any help. They didn't even get close to the castle, because knowing that there would be giants on the battlefield a group of Aurors had been stationed around the castle on brooms and covered with strong Disillusionment charms. They had nothing else to do at first but wait for the giants and eliminate them in any way possible long before the giants even got close. And that meant to kill them.
Nothing else to do still demanded an awful lot. The Aurors waited and feared their job. The giants had been sent out as the first line of attack.
Voldemort hoped that they would get through and cause enough damage on the castle walls that the Dementors and Death Eaters might be able to get in after them. He himself arrived near the Shrieking Shack just very shortly before the giants were supposed to start their destructive march onto Hogwarts. Since the Shack stood on a hill it was an excellent place to see over to the castle. He immediately noticed that the whole of Hogwarts and the grounds almost to the edge of the Forbidden Forest was flooded with light. A fact that made him swear quite creatively.
"Betrayed! Again! Who is the traitor? I will find you and if I do you are going to die a very slow and painful death! Where are the giants now? Does anything work out here?" Voldemort screamed and looked around some of the people around him.
They were all masked, so none of them was able to see the sheepish faces of the others. But underneath their masks each and everyone of them was shocked and embarrassed and very, very worried. They all knew they had not passed on any secrets. All but one. Who was very glad for the mask right now.
The giants turned up on time and went through the forest, but to his horror Voldemort had to see that they started to flail their arms at something he couldn't see.
Of course the Aurors were there and started throwing hexes at the giants in groups of five. But it took at least five of them to take one of the giants down, so they quickly assembled and attacked the giant in front, bringing him down with a collective Avada Kedavra. The giant broke down, falling back and hindering the man behind him, whose grunts rather sounded like yells in the ears of the Aurors, who attacked the next and finally the third giant. On their brooms they could react to every movement of the giants. Dumbledore's most important first line of defence had worked successfully.
"If Voldemort knows anything about the wards around Hogwarts he goes home with his Death Eaters now," Moody grunted to Remus.
"He should..."
They were waiting on the South Tower, out of the light, which had been charmed on the outside of the walls of Hogwarts on about thirty metres height. From there the light shone over the grounds on all sides and on all towers there were people waiting for the Death Eaters. Of course Voldemort knew now that they must be ready at Hogwarts. But he still tried by sending the Dementors ahead. At least two hundred of them slowly glided across the grounds from all sides. Dumbledore ordered everyone who was able to cast Patronus charms to send out theirs and a lot of them were charging at the Dementors. Remus quickly sent for Sirius, who came up to the South Tower within minutes.
"We need to cast a Patronus together, love!"
"With pleasure, my dear!"
Sirius and Remus went to the highest tower in the school, the Astronomy Tower to cast their Patronus. They didn't cry it out loud and they didn't need to hurry, as the Dementors were far enough away from them, they couldn't really feel them. The good thing was that they could still fight them. Remus said:
"What's your memory, love?"
"The moment, Vega landed on my belly," Sirius said without thinking.
Remus smiled and replied:
"And I was going to suggest the same - feeling Polaris on my skin just after he was born. On three then?"
They held each other by the hand.
"On three! One, two, three! Expecto Patronum!"
Remus had cast his Patronus at the same time and both watched as two giant animals broke from their wands, a huge silvery dog and an equally huge wolf. Both animals charged down the tower, over the grounds and broke into the ranks of the Dementors, sending them packing, but the Death Eaters were able to turn them back to the castle again. New Patroni were sent from the castle, including another pair of the wolf and dog from the Astronomy Tower. This was repeated about three times, then Remus lost patience.
"Come along, Sirius, we go back to Dumbledore. I want to try out a theory of mine."
"Okay. Let's go."
They returned to the South Tower, where Remus said:
"Have the others continue to send Patronus charms, but let some come closer here, I want to see if it's true that the Dementors can be burned. I know that they are bred practically from decayed flesh, stabilised and mobilised, so it must be possible to destroy them. I want to try with fire."
"That's not a bad idea, we watch out and send them away again with more Patroni. It's good for us to be up here, they can't get into the castle and they can't climb, we're so far away that it's not too bad being around them."
"That's our advantage. Are the Slytherin students who are sympathetic under control?"
"Absolutely. The students are all locked in and the charms are set that they can only be reversed from the outside of the doors. In other words, even if the students know the counter charms they won't help them. Filius has done excellent work there."
"Very well."
Dumbledore called the other towers through two-way mirrors and informed them to keep throwing Patroni onto the Dementors. But there were none from his end. Several Dementors eagerly came closer and when they were only a few metres away from the castle walls Remus sent a common Incendio charm down at the first one. The Dementor's cloak took the fire and within moments the creature stood in flames. Moody and Sirius immediately attacked other Dementors with the same charm and saw that the result was good, because Remus' Dementor was already nothing but ash. Upon that Dumbledore gave order to let all the Dementors come close and finish them off this way.
On the other hill Voldemort was reaching the maximum of his rage. He fumed and ranted, but it didn't help him and when he finally heard Dumbledore's voice, amplified by the Sonorus charm he almost exploded in rage.
The voice was loud, but calm and gentle.
"Do give up, Tom. You know that you cannot get through here. Hogwarts will always remain to be a haven of learning and we do not take kindly to being attacked. Attack us and you might even be sorry, because you will lose. We are prepared to receive you and there is not a millimetre of this castle that is not protected against your entrance."
For a moment it seemed that the Light side would win because the evil Dark Lord was almost exploding. He jumped at the voice of his old teacher. He fumed even more and in his blind rage he sent out his Death Eaters to get into this castle or die at his hands. He only kept his inner circle back.
The Death Eaters were doomed. They had to attack, their master wanted it so, but even those who were able to cast decent Disillusionment charms didn't get very far. On the grounds were charms to counter these spells and the area was flooded in light. Dumbledore's order was clear:
"Do not kill them. Carefully choose your goals and stun them. Then bind them. Repeat until they are all stunned. I would like to isolate Voldemort."
There were less people defending the castle than attacking Death Eaters, but they were organised. Voldemort had assembled all of his terrorists and they had to openly attack the castle. The result was that the defenders could pick their objects and mow down one by one. The stunners came in such masses that the Death Eaters didn't have time to enervate their comrades and so they all went down. Behind the main doors Aurors were ready to go out and pluck the bound and stunned people and take them to the Great Hall. As soon as an area was quite clear they went to work, levitating the stunned Death Eaters inside, disarming them and binding them properly so they couldn't move anymore.
Sirius looked down from the tower and said:
"Let's see, if we can't get him out there. He probably still has his inner circle around himself. I'll taunt him for a bit if you let me, Albus."
"I am not sure that this is a really good tactic, but since his Death Eaters are now mostly out of the picture I think you can have some fun with Voldemort," Dumbledore said with a smile.
Sirius cast Sonorus on his throat and his deep voice boomed over the grounds:
"Voldemort! If you aren't a bloody coward show yourself and stand up for yourself!"
There was no reply. That pleased Sirius, because he went on:
"You can see that we got your Death Eaters and those we haven't got are disapparating faster than you can say attack! They must be even bigger cowards than you are!"
Still no reply but Voldemort was seething. And then Sirius hit the nerve:
"Your ability to lead an army is slightly less efficient than your ability to be cruel, Voldemort! Where are your legions now? They are very good at cowardly attacks on innocent and defenceless people, but it's a lot easier to torture and kill little children than it is to stand up to grown up and trained fighters, isn't it?"
This was the final straw. Voldemort cast the Sonorus himself and screeched:
"Who are you? Who dares to insult the Dark Lord like this?"
Sirius' eyes glinted. That was to his taste and he gladly told Voldemort off.
"Take three guesses, Voldie-dear. It's one who was asked to become your follower by his parents and who refused. Because I would never ever lower myself to your level, Voldemort. I rather enjoy my Muggle and Muggle-born friends, thank you very much! I rather like my half-breed mate and I'd kill you a dozen times over if you'd dare to endanger him."
"BLACK! Let me see you and shred you to pieces! Come out and duel me, you... you... I'll tear you up and even if you come with that Lupin creature, you'll lie dead at my feet in a minute!!!"
"You want us to duel you? Fine, Voldemort, we're there! In the grounds, in the open where everyone can see us! You'll not stand the point of a chance, so better beware!"
"Sirius! You're pregnant! Both of you! You can't go out there and duel him!" Dumbledore hissed.
Sirius took the Sonorus charm down.
"Yes, I think, we can. We give him a clear warning and either we succeed in killing him or he'll flee. I'm quite sure that once he's been at the end of our first two or three spells he'll get out of here."
"And that would be a nice headline in the Prophet, Albus. People would know that he's not invincible," Remus confirmed.
"He's thrown the gauntlet, I'm ready to throw mine down as well. We have to do it."
Dumbledore sighed.
"You are not only playing with your own life now. You are responsible for the two lives you carry and the two you've already created..." James cried.
"Exactly. And we're not ready to waste them. They give us extra strength. I'm quite sure this will not last long. We have some pretty good strategies. Like Remus can conjure slabs of stone to hold off his Avada Kedavra spells..."
"That's the only reason why I let you go out there," Dumbledore decided, "Because I've seen these slabs."
Sirius and Remus were let out of the main door. They walked to meet the Dark Lord, or should one say waddled? Sirius, as tall as he was, showed his pregnant belly prominently through the robes he wore and Remus, though almost two months less far, started to show very well, too. Neither tried to hide the fact.
Voldemort was coming at them quickly. He thought he would finally eliminate two of the most annoying of his enemies, the two who did much of their damage with their wards and with their research. But he didn't know just how strong the two were in duelling. When he saw their obvious condition he started to taunt them:
"Oh, so you want to get rid of the things growing inside of you?"
"Shut up, Voldemort and get ready to die!" Sirius replied, rather annoyingly calm.
"You can't kill me, Black! No one can! Bow!"
"Will you? Rather get to the point, Voldemort. You know nothing about honour, because you haven't any."
About ten metres apart they stood. Remus kept to Sirius' left side, because they would cast their spells connected by their hands and used their connected hands to cast most of the spells wandless. They had no scruples for fighting Voldemort two against one, the man was simply too dangerous to the peace in the wizarding world to be let off the hook. If they could they would kill him tonight. Though they had prepared a few spells that were killing through other means than Avada Kedavra. Spells they had kept to themselves, but practiced with and without their wands.
Voldemort immediately started casting the killing curse, but Remus steadfastly brought up slabs of granite to catch the spells, while Sirius used regular duelling spells from Expelliarmus to Stupefy, but gradually after a few minutes he threatened Voldemort with flying knives. Voldemort was hit by a swarm of them and of course they were so sharp they injured him quite badly.
Up on the tower there were cheers for Sirius and Remus and lots of people taunted and verbally attacked Voldemort. James and Peter were the rowdiest and threw some pretty ugly insults at the Dark Lord's head.
Sirius was just going to crown his work with an Incendio spell when Voldemort disapparated right from the grounds at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had lifted the anti-apparition wards to give Remus and Sirius the opportunity to apparate into the castle if need should be.
Seeing their master disapparating, his remaining Death Eaters followed suit. Remus and Sirius looked around. They looked up to the South Tower and apparated there, then Dumbledore reset the anti-apparition wards immediately.
"Well done, you two. I would not have let you go alone, Sirius, but together with Remus you will be very hard to beat. And now he knows what to expect. Those flying knives were quite impressive," Dumbledore commented.
Several people had taken photos of the duel, which wasn't really a duel at all. Sirius was quite happy with his evening's work.
"Thank you, Professor! All that waiting and training paid off, don't you think? It was good to have a little something to do finally! Now I gladly return to my nursery and the library..."
Everyone around him hooted and roared with laughter.
"Voldemort driven off the battlefield by two pregnant men! Isn't that just THE biggest joke of the war?" someone shouted.
"And the thing even asked for them both! What an idiot he can be!"
"I really liked your taunt with his inability to lead troops in battle, Sirius! That was great!" Lily cried.
All in all they were all very relieved. A full attack on the castle's defences had gone by and there was not a single scratch on anything or anyone. Voldemort had literally run against a wall. And what was worse he had left the battlefield ridiculed. He still fumed and raged when he met his Death Eaters again. And he let them pay for it. All of the ones close to him were punished with heavy doses of Cruciatus.
Then Voldemort had them all turn up a few days later and served them stolen Veritaserum. He did find his traitor and he also thought he found his spy. The man was tortured with Cruciatus until he died. It took a long time, but finally after several hours his heart couldn't take the pain anymore and gave in. Voldemort burned him on the spot and whoever mentioned his name again in Voldemort's company was tortured, too.
The biggest damage was the loss of most of Voldemort's followers. Dumbledore was sorry to see the count. About half of the people were not British, but those who were had almost all passed Hogwarts, most of them former Slytherins, but there were only too many from the other houses. Dumbledore entered the Great Hall when the first of them started to recover from the stunners. All of them had been disarmed and all of them were still under a full body bind.
It took the Aurors all night to take the prisoners to Azkaban. They would be kept there until their cases were tried. For the Light side this was the most important battle in this war. With one strike they had taken out most of the Dark Lord's active followers. The Daily Prophet brought out a special edition with all of it and the front page featured the best picture of Sirius throwing the knives at Voldemort, who staggered backwards on the photo, unable to get away from the knives until he disapparated.
A reporter showed up and interviewed Dumbledore and then Sirius and Remus. Pictures of the two and their two children turned up in the next edition of Witch Weekly. Sirius and Remus hardly ever lived down all the letters to the editors of the two publications that stated how cute the two of them looked feeding their children porridge at breakfast.
"Oh, stuff it already, people! I'm NOT cute!" Remus cried, frustrated.
But the fact that he had chosen the moment for his explosion to coincide with his changing Vega's nappy, didn't really help to make that point clear.
The Death Eaters were expected by most to lick their wounds and take some time to regroup, but Dumbledore suspected that Voldemort would probably strike somewhere smaller just to show to the public that he was still there. So Dumbledore stayed attentive. He planted an article through Dari in the Prophet in which he stated that everyone should remain very alert. Voldemort was wounded, but not deathly injured. He would have to show his grip on everyone by hitting somewhere and it would probably be somewhere unexpected.
And indeed he struck at a place where no one expected him to except for the Aurors and the Order. Though there were quite a lot of Aurors at each Quidditch match he chose to attack a game between the Ballycastle Bats and the Wimbourne Wasps. Both were extremely popular teams, so there were always masses of spectators. The Ministry didn't want to stop the Quidditch league, because they felt that people should live as normal as they could, even in times of war. But there were usually not more than three matches on one day, because for each match it took twenty Aurors. Strict anti-apparition wards were set onto the stadiums. People could apparate out at the end of the game, but no one could apparate in or out as long as the game took place. The wards were set up one day prior to a game. It was a rule that was applied on any regular Quidditch game to ensure that only people with valid tickets got into the stadiums.
The attack was launched in late April, on a beautiful day, because good weather would guarantee lots of spectators. The Wimbourne stadium was packed with several thousand people. As an added point of interest was the fact that the Bats would play for the league championship, so many fans came along with their team from Ireland. No one knew that there were several of Voldemort's remaining Death Eaters in the audience, waiting for a few 'bombs' to explode. The bombs were poisonous snakes, trained by Voldemort to attack humans. They were told to hang on to the Death Eaters and would be given a signal to sneak from their holders' arms into the pack of people around them. They were to bite as many people as they could and start a panic.
Since Dumbledore was out of the spy inside of the Death Eater ranks he didn't know where they would strike. He placed Order members in all public events, the Quidditch matches, too, where they supported the Aurors.
The match started on time at one in the afternoon. Everyone's focus was on the game when after half an hour the snakes were let loose. Small snakes could not do too much of a damage in terms of poisoning people, because they could bite two, maybe three people before their poison ran out, but they could easily cause a panic. Which set in only moments after people discovered the little beasts who had spent their poison quickly onto several victims.
With the anti-apparition wards still firmly in place people panicked and started to move to the exits. The snakes had been trampled to death after only a few minutes, but the panic was not to be stopped as easily. Children were falling off the balustrades. Some people pushed others out of the way who then fell down to the pitch. But when the stadium speaker finally spoke up he was able to stop everyone:
"STOP! STOP! Do NOT move, please! Everyone please stand still exactly where you are! It seems that a couple of small snakes have bitten some people, but please! They have spent their poison, please stand still, so not more damage can be done! Healers, please rush to aid those who need it! We will not lift the anti-apparition wards to find the people who let those snakes loose! Please, everyone, stay where you are and, if you can, return to your seats! Help those who are injured or give us signs where someone has been bitten..."
The stadium speaker was the hero of the day. He was able to halt the mass of people in movement, to get them to sit down again, so that everything could be sorted out. The game was interrupted, but the speaker announced that it would resume as soon as everyone injured or killed and their escorts were taken care of. All information the speaker got he passed on immediately. Not much later it became clear that the game could not be resumed, but the speaker promised that everyone would receive new tickets for the re-match.
"We have blocked all exits. No one can come in or go out uncontrolled. The Aurors are searching the stadium, please grant them access around your seating areas, thank you! Remember that we cannot let these attacks rule our lives, we have to move together and show them that they are not wanted! I know it is hard to trust, but today we all stick together and help each other!"
The speaker turned out to be a member of the Order of the Phoenix and he took the chance to stand up and say his piece about the Death Eaters. The Aurors took their time, but by working from one end through the oval stadium in both directions and meeting again at the end they caught at least three of the people who were responsible for the attack.
Sirius read the Daily Prophet the next day:
"An attack at the Quidditch league championship match between the Wimbourne Wasps and the Ballycastle Bats yesterday led to sixteen dead and seventy-two injured. All injured people were out of the hospital by midnight.
A panic, caused by a few snakes let loose by Death Eaters almost led to a disaster. Thanks to Ed Simpson, the stadium's speaker, and his courageous coaching through the loudspeakers a worse outcome could be prevented. Simpson, a 46 years old wizard who acted as speaker for Quidditch matches since shortly after leaving Hogwarts and one of the best known savants of the British Quidditch league, held up the morale through his verbal coaching for hours on end. He was taken to recuperate after the stadium was finally cleared shortly before midnight.
It seems that the Death Eaters calculated with the stadium's responsible authorities to lift the anti-apparition wards to allow those people with apparition licenses to leave the stadium immediately. But the authorities, under the direction of the Aurors watching over the game, decided to stick to the wards and to block every exit or entrance to the site.
Three Death Eaters were captured. They were recognised by the Dark Mark tattoos they wear on their left forearms. It is unknown how many other Death Eaters were present and were able to get out.
The match will be repeated next Friday, 26th April at the same stadium. All ticket holders are free to use them again. Even damaged tickets are still valid, as long as they show the date or the pairing of the match."
Sirius put the paper down and looked up at Remus.
"So Albus was right as we thought he would be. He needed to set a mark..."
"Not altogether very successful though, don't you think?" Remus replied.
"No, but a mark nevertheless. Now he's probably going to sit back for a while and lick wounds. We've greatly reduced his forces for the moment. It will be harder to find more followers now. Especially since we ridiculed him," Sirius said.
"I think so, too. We have some time for you little ones! And your soon to be expected siblings. After which stars do we name the next batch?" Remus asked cheerfully.
The weather became a bit more friendly now, there was more sun, but it was still quite cold. Remus and Sirius took the children out to the grounds to play with them. They visited Hagrid in his cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They read them stories and looked at picture books with them. And Sirius prepared for the birth.