Chapter 11 – Attack and Breakdown

Without hesitation, Ron sprinted downstairs to where Harry and Hermione, along with Artemis and Draco (still in their intent match) were. Harry saw the worried look on Ron's face and got up.

"What's the prob—"

"They got Mum, Dad, my brothers and Ginny!"

Harry took a moment to process this information. Within a few hours, how did Voldemort manage to cause this havoc? It was possible, of course.

"Ron, we have to go to Ottery St Catchpole now. Can the fairies fly us?"

"That's impossible," interjected Holly.

Harry thought a while. Then he slapped his head and called himself, "Idiot."

"What?"

"We can Apparate, right?"

Draco cut in. "What do you mean, Potter, you can't Apparate till you're seventeen, unless you're doing it illegally, and trust me, you've done it before-"

"Draco, you forgot that Professor Dumbledore gave me the chance last year seeing my capabilities and also as training for an Auror, you forgot, eh?"

Draco knew it well enough. He too knew how to Apparate, his birthday the month after school closed.

"Okay, here goes, on the count of three,"

"1,"

Ron gripped his wand tightly.

"2,"

Holly and Julius flew out for the head start, having the competition between each other again.

"3!"

There was a deafening crack, then the lot of them, except Artemis, disappeared.

"Dammit," Artemis cried.

"They left me!"

Marriet ran in from behind to see her favourite lunch person. As usual, she causally had a look around Artemis's head before deciding what to do.

She first pressed a button, which froze the whole house but not the people. It was like being in a time-stop.

Then she walked to the porcelain cup and muttered, "Portus."

"Come here, Mr. Fowl."

Artemis was mulling over what he was going to do when he heard the soft voice of Marriet.

"Sir, hold this cup for about 5 seconds, then you will jerk, and will go to the place you wanted to. Ready, sir?"

Artemis knew he could trust Marriet. "How will I ever thank you"

"Go, sir, now!"

Artemis clutched at the cup. He felt a jerk around his navel and the world began to spin, then his feet hit ground.

Ottery St Catchpole, The Burrow, 42 minutes before

Mrs. Weasley had returned home to see Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy and Ginny seated around the table. Fred and George were busy at their shop in Diagon Alley.

"How was work today, dear?" he asked tired Mr. Weasley.

"Bad," he muttered, "Really bad. As usual, Mundungus Fletcher tried to sell his stolen Venomous Tentacula seeds to Perkins. Poor Perkins, thought it was green plant seeds and nearly bought them, had I not arrived on the scene and thrown out of the window, which was a big mistake, as it turned out…"

"What happened?"

"The seeds flew down to the Department of Mysteries, where they were experimenting with a red foul-smelling liquid, as they told me. The seeds landed in the liquid and" Mr. Weasley broke off with a shudder.

"What, dear?"

"There was one hell of an explosion, and I ran down to investigate. I walked down to findBode and the others drenched in the liquid. It was unlucky that they had the window open today, for they don't do it usually…for fear of secrets being stolen…"

"Oh, you poor thing, quite a lot of work today, eh?"

Then there was a loud BOOM outside and Mr. Weasley jumped a full metre from his chair.

Bill got up. "Must be Fred and George, gits…" He ran out.

Then they heard Bill shriek, "Noooooooooooooooo…..You-Know-Who! Get out of here! Now!"

Mrs. Weasley heard Bill. The next moment, Bill was blasted into the kitchen wall. He lay there, unmoving.

"RUN!" Mr. Weasley yelled, and they did as he said.

The last thing they heard was cold, high-pitched laughter, before all turned black.

The Burrow, 1653 hours

"Crack!"

The lot of them appeared, and their eyes adjusted to the uneven light. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"No, no, it can't be……"

Artemis suddenly appeared in front of them. Holly and Julius Root settled down to the ground. Then they saw what they thought they did not see.

"Who did this?" Ron muttered weakly.

Harry looked at the chaos too. It was bad.

The tall house had crashed to the ground, across the pig sty, where some pigs lay squealing. Even Draco looked sickened at it.

Ron ran over to the place he thought was the kitchen. Then he shouted, "Over here! Help me get Bill out!"

They ran over and heaved Bill out, who was in bad shape. There was a line of blood from his chin all the way down.

"Dammit, Bill, are you okay?"

Bill straightened up, then groaned in pain. "They got Mum, and Dad, and the others…"

"All of them?" Ron muttered, on the verge of tears.

Bill struggled to remember for a moment, then he yelled with victory. "Fred and George! He didn't get them!"

"What?" Ron's knees buckled with relief. At least he had not gotten all.

"Hermione, can you go to Number 93, Diagon Alley?"

In a crack, so to speak, she was gone. She was back in a few seconds.

Fred and George grimaced at the chaos. Then they said together, "We have to get the rest of them out of this mess."

So they began to search. Hermione, Artemis and Draco took the left half of the house, Harry, Fred and George took the right half. Holly and Julius Root surveyed from the air. Bill lay at the side recovering.

"I've found one!" Artemis voice cut through the silence.

The rest of them ran out to Artemis and heaved at the hand he had discovered. Finally the person was pulled out. Luckily he was breathing. It was Mr. Weasley.

"Fred! George! Ron! How are you? Are you fine, he didn't get you, did he-"

"Dad, calm down. Take a rest," Fred said soothingly.

They went back to their work, slowly progressing, and they found everyone except Percy.

"We've looked everywhere, we can't find Percy," Harry said breathlessly.

From the sky, Root zoomed in from his Optix helmet. Then he spotted a hand.

"Here!" he yelled. He landed exactly at the spot where the hand was.

They sped over to the place Root was, and heaved at the hand. Finally the body came out. It was Percy, his glasses askew, his face horribly disfigured. He was still alive, however.

They lifted him all the way to the other area where the Weasleys were recuperating. Mrs. Weasley looked at Percy and threw her hands over him and hugged him with relief. Percy was breathing heavily. He could not talk.

"Here," Mr. Weasley said, muttering, "Asthumus Percumerita!" Percy felt a little better, then he tried to talk.

"Mum….How do I look?"

Mrs. Weasley did not have the heart to tell him.

It was a disheveled group that Disapparated to Malfoy Manor. Artemis needed a Portkey, as usual. (Holly and Julius Root were seen to be grumbling, "We didn't make any progress in looking for Voldemort, just friends, what mission is this," and things like that.)

Harry looked terrible. He sensed it in the others too. The big problem was that they still had not located Dumbledore. Furthermore, 7 people would look pretty suspicious, and at the moment, no one had the energy to fight again.

"We have to take the next train from King's Cross." Harry grumbled.

Artemis rubbed beads of sweat from his forehead, while Malfoy was in the toilet. Hermione, Root and Holly sat on the chairs feeling very stupid and ashamed that they had gone too far astray form their mission.

Malfoy returned looking refreshed. "The next train is at about 8 p.m. Can we make it?"

Harry and the others consulted their watch simultaneously. "Hey, our watches show different times!"

Malfoy looked at his own golden watch, Cuprazzi-made. The watchmaker was well known in the wizard world for his magical clocks.

"The time is 7.45."

Harry sat up. "What the hell? We have 15 minutes?"

The next 10 minutes were a bit of a daze, as everyone rushed about the house, took important things, and gathered in Malfoy's room.

"Alright. 3,2,1…"

"GO!"

They Apparated while Artemis, Holly and Root used Portkeys. (Holly breathed heavily and was surprised that the wizards had been able to conceal their existence so long with such simple methods.)

They met at King's Cross with 3 minutes to spare. They saw the train at the station and got in quickly. It was time.