Chapter 8
A Matter of Perspective
Diagon Alley was rife with noxious smoke that forced its way unbidden up his nostrils, carrying with it the scent of burnt flesh. Owing to his magically enhanced eyesight, which allowed him to see through solid objects, the smoke posed no problems to Harry's vision. He almost wished that he hadn't had the ability when he saw the horrible devastation.
The narrow street was packed with Healers and Ministry personnel who were doing their best to help injured and distraught witches and wizards. Others were clearing away dangerous rubble that threatened to cause harm to those present.
"Mummy? Mummy, get up … Mummy, please get up… I said please, Mummy."
Harry turned to the source of the sound and saw a bloodstained child no older than four prodding his mother's belly with his tiny hands. The woman's head lolled to the side and Harry looked right into her flat, lifeless eyes. If she wasn't dead yet, the amount of blood seeping through her soaked robes and onto the pavement told him that it was inevitable at this point. He felt even worse when, with a start, he realised that he knew her… Lisa Turpin. She'd been in his year at Hogwarts, in Ravenclaw.
He walked over to her and knelt down beside her son. Reaching over to her face, he closed her eyes.
"Don't do that!" the boy said shrilly, pushing his hand away.
"I'm sorry."
Harry swallowed, wondering how one confronted such a young child with the grim reality of death. He found himself fervently wishing that Ginny were there with him. She was so good at finding words of comfort in the darkest of times. Maybe it would be best to stay clear of the topic for the time being.
"My name is Harry Potter," he began, hoping that name recognition would get the boy's attention. "What's your name?"
"You're Harry Potter?"
Harry swept aside the fringe of hair that covered his forehead to reveal his scar. "Yeah, I'm Harry Potter. And what's your name?"
"Graham ... Smith," the boy replied hesitantly.
Harry frowned. Smith was a very common surname, so it didn't tell Harry whether his father was wizard of Muggle.
"My mum's hurt. Can you help her?" Graham's big, gray eyes looked up at him hopefully.
Harry hated the fact that he was going to have to disappoint the boy. For all his power, he couldn't bring people back to life, and while he was frantically looking for words that would allow him to gently break the news to the boy, he suddenly felt a presence with a comforting aura behind him. Relief poured through him, and he rose to his feet and turned around. The glimmer in Ginny's eyes told Harry that the horrible scenery had shaken her too, though she was putting on a brave face. He desperately wanted to pull her into a hug and hold her close for the next couple of hours, but they didn't have that kind of luxury. People needed their help.
"I felt that you needed me," she said softly.
Harry gestured to the boy, who was still kneeling by his mother. "This is Graham Smith, and his mum. Will you see to it that they're taken care of?"
"I remember her. She was in your year, wasn't she?"
Feeling his throat constrict again, Harry simply nodded.
"Yamato will pay for this," Ginny said with quiet confidence. "I know this is horrible, Harry, but you need to be strong for these people a little while longer. When this is over, we'll head home and go to pieces together, all right? Now go to Flourish and Blotts," she instructed. "There are some people buried beneath the rubble—they say it's too risky to simply start Vanishing the rubble starting at the top. I think your intangibility could be very useful in helping to get people out." She stood on the tips of her toes and gave him a quick kiss, before kneeling down next to Graham and putting her arms around him.
In order to save time, Harry took to the air and soared over the heads on the wizards crowding Diagon Alley, touching down next to Hermione and a young Seventh Class Swiss Ranger whose name continuously eluded Harry, even though she was frequently in Hermione's company. They were feverishly working on a wizard lying face down on a stretcher in front of them.
Hermione wore the medical variant of the Vision Enhancement Goggles, which allowed her to look inside a body, laying bare the anatomy and thus helping her to better visualise the effect she was trying to achieve with her healing spell. The injured wizard still needed a lot of work, though, because most of his back was covered in a large charred patch that was a third degree burn.
The crunching of glass under boots heralded someone's approach. A heartbeat later, Lembit Tael, an Estonian wizard from Intelligence Field Operations who had joined the Order two years after Ginny had, appeared next to him. Harry barely recognised him, since his arms and face were completely covered in an orange salve that served to heal burns. "Harry, good that you are here. The Cruiser's detectors show that there are seven people buried beneath the debris in Flourish and Blotts." He held out seven Galleon-sized Portkeys. "If you put these in your pockets they'll turn intangible when you do, yes?"
Harry nodded. Anything close enough to be covered by his aura would turn intangible with him.
"Good. You are to place the Portkeys on the victims. When they are in place, they will be remotely activated and the victims will be simultaneously extracted."
"What happened to you?" Harry asked while he pocketed the Portkeys.
"I was in Magical Menagerie, looking for the bomb when it exploded." He shook his head sadly. "All those poor animals."
"Were any other Rangers hurt by the explosions?"
Tael nodded gravely. "Ben-Hamoud lost his right eye, and his right arm at the elbow. Salas was burned much more badly than I. The heat damaged his lungs, and they are not sure if he will survive."
Marco Salas had joined the Order of Illumination shortly before Harry and Ginny got married, and Tariq ben-Hamoud a year after that. Harry had helped train both of them, and they'd frequently been assigned to the same two-week patrol missions. He muttered a few oaths under his breath, before turning himself intangible and floating into the ruin that used to be Flourish and Blotts.
X
X
Hermione knew that the life of her current patient was literally in her hands. She had to heal the puncture wounds made by the flying shrapnel as quickly as possible. It was field surgery at its crudest.
"That one is next," Hermione said, pointing to a wound near the spinal column, and Imelda Hauri immediately poured a purple Disinfectant Potion into the wound. If the metal shard shehad extracted from that spot earlier had impaled the wizard half an inch more to the left, his spine would have been shattered rather messily, and his survival would have been even more in doubt.
"Should I administer Re-hydration Potion now?"
"Yes, and follow up with the Blood-Replenishing Potion as soon as you're done with that," Hermione said, before Vanishing the remaining disinfectant in her patient's wound, which would have interfered with her healing charms. Then she quickly went to work, healing the damaged entrails first and moving outwards to the muscles in the back. It required tremendous amounts of concentration, but through her goggles she saw the damage slowly being repaired.
After having finished her one-year basic training five months ago, Imelda had been paired up with Hermione, whose job it was to be the Swiss witch's mentor until the next summer. Imelda seemed to have taken to Hermione's healing style quickly, because she'd anticipated what would have been Hermione's next instruction. Instead of waiting for Hermione to complete the tricky healing, she'd gone ahead with alternately dabbing the Disinfectant Potion over the blackened skin on the wizard's upper back, and applying the orange Dermal Regeneration Paste on the disinfected parts immediately afterwards.
After healing the patient's back to the best of their ability, they levitated him, then flipped him over to make a visual check of the front of his body. Fortunately, it had sustained significantly fewer injuries.
Hermione noticed that her patient was starting to regain consciousness. It was a good sign, because it meant that his body had noticed the repairs and the extra resources provided by the re-hydration and replenishment of lost blood. She was also thankful that the paste contained herbs that soothed much of the excruciating pain that such serious burns would normally inflict.
"Imelda, take care of his face. I'll finish up with the rest of his injuries." Hermione instructed. She continued to work as fast as she could, despite the knowledge that her patient was out of danger now, for there were still lots of injured people who still needed her help.
The wizard groaned just as Hermione finished healing a cut that would likely have become infected if it had remained untreated. She shot a quick glance at his face to check if he was waking up, nearly dropping her wand in shock as she recognised her patient. She had failed to do so before, because his face had been covered in a thick layer of soot and dust. But Imelda had washed it all away in order to treat the gash on his cheek. It was Oliver Wood, and he was indeed awake.
He uttered bits of a sentence. "Junior … my son … Flourish and Blotts."
Hermione looked at the smoking ruins that used to be the bookshop. The odds of anyone surviving under that rubble weren't very good. She turned back to Wood, just in time to gently but firmly push him back on the stretcher. "Don't move. You were hurt very badly. I've repaired the injuries, but the parts I've healed are still tender. You need to rest to recover completely."
"Hermione … Granger?"
Hermione pushed her goggles up to her forehead. "Good, you remember me. I think it's safe to say that you don't have a concussion," she said quickly, desperate to avoid the topic of his son. She simply didn't have the time to give him moral support. There were too many wounded to be treated.
As if he'd been summoned, Harry came floating out of the smoking ruins of Flourish and Blotts—a sight that never failed to give Hermione the chills. Nevertheless, she was very grateful for his appearance now. She'd overheard some of the instructions Harry had been given, so she quickly ran over to him to get some answers, nearly falling as she tripped over some debris.
"Harry, Wood just told me that his son was in Flourish and Blotts when the bomb exploded. Is he buried in there?"
"He might have been. I came across a boy of about seven. But everyone's been successfully transported out from under the rubble with the Portkeys."
"Was he alive?"
"Yeah. I saw his breath stir some dust. He was unconscious, though, and he's got a few fractures, but nothing critical. I saw it when I used my special vision. Aside from some surface gashes, he didn't have any wounds—he wasn't hurt by shrapnel."
"Was he bleeding internally?"
"I didn't see any leaks in the vascular plumbing, but I'm no expert."
"Potter!" Captain Riyadi's voice echoed over the cacophony of sounds that filled Diagon Alley, and moments later, the Captain's silhouette became visible through the smoke. A short figure was next to him.
"Yes?" Harry called back.
Riyadi and Doc carefully picked their way through the debris. Then, after coming close enough, Riyadi clapped Harry on the shoulder. "You did a great job rescuing those people trapped under the rubble. It was too late for three people, but your intervention saved the other four. We'd like a repeat performance in what is left of Magical Menagerie and the Florean Fortescue's. Then you'll need to sweep the remaining buildings for explosives."
Doc continued, "After everyone was cleared out of the buildings, the detectors on the Cruisers were able to sweep them for the explosives. None were found, but we'd like to be absolutely sure, since we've been warned that it is a common tactic to set bombs to detonate in waves. We'd like you to look because your ability to make yourself intangible makes you the only one who can search without being exposed to danger."
"Well, duty calls," Harry said grimly, and turned to Riyadi. "Where do I start?"
"You can start in any of the shops that haven't exploded. Oh, and since we've found bombs in the Quidditch shop and the joke shop before they exploded, we can assume that those are clear."
"Then I'll save those for last. Our enemy is devious enough to have several bombs planted in the shops," Harry replied, and Hermione agreed wholeheartedly.
Doc nodded. "We've considered that possibility, but in the end it was deemed unlikely. You have to think like a booby-trapper," the half-goblin explained. "What use would a bomb be if it's trapped beneath a layer of rubble thick enough to smother the explosion? And the trap-layer would know that everyone would have been evacuated to a safe distance by now, due to the first explosion. The same is true for all the other shops, which is why we doubt the presence of more traps. But being thorough can't hurt."
"I'm sorry that we're singling you out again," Riyadi said apologetically.
Harry sighed. "It's all right. I would be in less danger than anyone else, so I'm the logical choice."
Hermione rolled her eyes, knowing that Harry would have volunteered even if it would have put him in danger. Harry caught her expression—and probably her thoughts—which brought a subdued smile to his face.
"I've got instructions for you, too," Riyadi said, as he turned to face Hermione. "We've made sure that Gringotts is safe, and we've set up an emergency hospital in the main hall, as a halfway point to St Mungo's. That's where all the injured have been brought if they're stable enough to be moved, and that's where their friends and family can find them."
"Didn't the goblins make a fuss?" Hermione asked, finding it hard to believe that the frigid goblins would care enough to do such a thing.
"I told them that I know Nicolai Savin personally, and that I could put in a good word on their behalf and recommend them as employers, if he were to decide to pursue a career in Curse Breaking," Doc said.
Hermione smiled. "I reckon that sort of incentive would sway any goblin."
"They would have been foolish not to consider the possible benefits."
"Well, we've wasted enough precious time with chatter. I've got people to heal," Hermione said. Then she turned on her heel and headed towards Gringotts at as brisk as pace as she dared.
X
X
So far, Ginny had managed to put on a brave face for the people around her, but the truth was that the death and destruction were wearing her down. It had been hard enough to tell Graham that his mother was dead, though she had—she hoped—fairly successfully managed to soften the blow with words of comfort. It would have been much more difficult if he'd been a sceptical teenager.
Mercifully, Eloise Longbottom, who stumbled upon Ginny and Graham, turned out to have been friends with Lisa. She had taken the boy into her care and told Ginny that she'd contact the Turpins. She would also make sure that Lisa's body would be taken care of in the proper manner, enabling Ginny to aid the Healers and Medi-wizards in patching up the survivors. Having heard that all the stable casualties would be transported to Gringotts, and not seeing any unattended injured people on the street anymore, Ginny decided that it was the place to be.
When she was a few dozen feet away from the entrance to Gringotts, she saw that there were lots of displeased-looking goblins huddled there, but they didn't prevent anyone from coming and going. However, several Rangers from the Martial Division were guarding the entrance, peering at anyone who tried to enter the building though their V.E.G. goggles, probably making sure that no-one would try to smuggle a bomb into the crowded bank.
"Ginny … Ginny Weasley!" a hysterical voice called.
Turning around, Ginny saw a frantic Parvati Wood, her face smudged with soot, striding towards her. A gaggle of young children were doing their best to keep up with her. As Parvati came closer, Ginny noticed clear streaks on Parvati's otherwise dirty cheeks. Ginny did a quick headcount of the children and noticed that there were only nine, whereas there were supposed to be ten.
"I've lost Oliver and Junior," Parvati said frantically. "Have you seen them? Do you know if they've been hurt?"
Ginny shook her head. "I haven't seen them, nor have I heard anything about them. If you didn't see them on your way here, odds are that they're in Gringotts."
By the time she'd finished her sentence, the children had crowded around her and their mother, and Ginny bent down and scooped two of Parvati's youngest children into her arms. The two identical girls, two-thirds of a set of triplets, weighed about thirty pounds each. They sat a bit stiffly in Ginny's arms at first, but when they turned to their mother and saw that she wasn't worried, they relaxed.
Parvati followed Ginny's lead and picked up the remaining triplet. She looked at Ginny in wonder, who realised that Parvati must have noticed how effortlessly she seemed to be lifting her children. "Aren't they heavy?"
"Being in shape could mean the difference between life and death on field missions, so the Order makes everyone put in a certain amount physical training every week."
"It doesn't really show."
Ginny smiled. The truth was that Holly's intervention had also left her stronger than was normal for a woman her size. Her strength wasn't of the superhuman kind, but it was enough to have enabled her to hold her own against Ron for three whole minutes in a friendly arm-wrestling match, much to his annoyance. "I focus on the sculpting of my muscles, instead of acquiring bulk. Anyway, there's nothing like a bit of exercise to burn away the weight you gain in pregnancy."
Parvati sighed and looked at her lower body wistfully. "If they didn't make you exercise, do you think you'd have had the discipline to do it by yourself?"
"Of course. The Rangers from the Martial Division work out quite often, and most of them are men. A lot of them also have bodies like male underwear models," Ginny added with a grin.
The Indian witch's eyes glittered. Ten years and ten children had changed her very little. The idea of being surrounded by muscular half-naked men still triggered her imagination the way it would have in her school days. "Saucy wench. Does Harry know your eyes are straying?"
"It's hard to hide anything from him. He's grown very perceptive since Hogwarts. But he also knows that I'll always be faithful to him, so he's not worried." Ginny nodded to Gringotts. "Shall we?"
Parvati's goofy grin dissipated as her momentarily forgotten anxiety returned. She began to walk towards Gringotts, and Ginny fell in stride next to her. They stopped at the entrance to allow the six remaining children to precede them into the building.
"You know, I've heard that twinning was partially a family trait, but I don't think that explanation covers three groups of multiples. I don't mean to pry, but have you undergone some sort of fertility treatment?"
"Bart and Brandon—they're the first pair of twins—Oliver, and Aarti and Basanti were born without any outside intervention. But the second pair of twins and the triplets were the result of a gorgeous anklet I saw at a market in India and decided I just had to have. It turned out to be a very powerful fertility talisman. Oliver and I planned to stop at five children, so I went on Potion. They told us that the odds of getting pregnant while on Potion are roughly the same as being struck by lightning in a lifetime." Parvati smiled sheepishly. "Lightning struck twice before we worked out that the anklet was a fertility talisman."
"Out of the way, injured wizard coming through!" Hermione's unmistakable bossy voice rang behind them.
Ginny stepped aside and glanced at the new arrivals, with Hermione striding up front and Imelda Hauri levitating a stretcher bearing none other than Oliver Wood. He looked a bit groggy, but he was very much alive.
Sobbing with relief, Parvati put her daughter down before leaping on top of her husband's prone body, causing the floating stretcher to wobble dangerously and cease its forward motion. "Oh Oliver, I didn't mean what I said this morning," she said, and started to shower his face in kisses. Wood tried to mumble out a reply, but since Parvati's lips were in the way, he just settled for kissing her back.
Ginny shared much of Parvati's relief. To her, seeing friends lose their loved ones hurt almost as much as losing people yourself. She set down the two toddlers she'd been carrying and patted them on the head. Then she turned to follow Hermione, who had continued on her way, briefly smiling at Wood's warm reception, but otherwise clearly occupied by more pressing matters.
Catching up to Hermione proved to be very tricky in the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded hall. But Ginny finally managed to do so, and grabbed Hermione by the elbow to slow her down. "Honestly, Hermione, if you don't slow down, you'll trip on one of the wounded."
Hermione slowed down, but only marginally. "I'm in a hurry, so if you want to talk, you'd best walk with me. Actually, your help would be more then welcome where I'm headed."
"And where is that?"
Hermione pointed to a far corner of the hall that was obscured by curtains. "Harry's been using his ghost trick to plant Portkeys on people buried beneath the rubble of ruined buildings."
"I know—it was my idea, and I'll gladly help. On another note, Parvati's one child short, and I was wondering—"
"Oliver Junior—he'll be where we're going," Hermione cut Ginny off. "Wood told me about his son being in Flourish and Blotts at the time of the explosion. Harry mentioned rescuing a boy that was the right age. He was injured, but according to Harry, it didn't seem life-threatening."
"He's hardly an expert."
Hermione smiled. "Sounds like you and your husband share a brain, because he said the exact same thing."
"What can I say?" Ginny said airily. "Great minds think alike."
"From insults to praises in under five seconds. I'm impressed."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I didn't insult him. I was just stating a fact. He doesn't know much beyond elementary healing techniques."
"No, but his powers allow him a Medical Vision Enhancement Goggles' view of a person's anatomy. That's how he knew you were pregnant with Holly before you knew you were pregnant, remember? And regarding Oliver Junior, Harry didn't see any haemorrhaging, and that's easy to spot even without formal training. He did see some fractures, but nothing critical. Hopefully we'll get confirmation of his assessment."
Someone slipped in between them and threw arms around their shoulders, pulling them closer together. It was Danielle Esklove, and she spoke in hushed tones, "I just thought you'd like to know—the attack in Concordia has started."
Ginny's heart skipped a few beats. She knew that her children were in the safest possible place on Nomad Island, but she still felt a mother's anxiety.
X
X
Ron re-checked the bindings on the captured wizards again, since tests on the sample parasite maggots captured in Brazil had shown that they were capable of reviving wizards in a fraction of the time it normally took to recover without the counter curse. He'd already checked their vital signs to make sure that Harry's stunners hadn't caused excessive damage, and he'd also levitated the captives to The Warren's relatively sheltered back porch so he didn't have to guard them while standing in the cold and suffering the zombies' stench. Additionally, for his own and the captives' added comfort, he'd brought out a heater, around which he had arrayed the captives.
He returned to his seat close to the heater and picked up one of the wands the wizards had used. It looked completely normal, save for a narrow band that was clamped around it, near the tip. All the captured wands had these rings around them, and though Ron could only speculate about their function, he was willing to bet that his educated guess was accurate. He'd seen a large pile of ashes while he'd been collecting the wands, and had deduced it to be the remains of the source of the anti-magic field Ginny had mentioned, after the Portkeys failed to activate. These rings probably enabled the wands to overcome the anti-magic field.
Holding the wand up to eye-level, Ron contemplated attempting to remove the ring, but he quickly decided that it would be better to let the Artificers have a look at it, lest it be difficult or dangerous to remove. He put the wand next to the others and prepared for a long wait. With half the Rangers caught up in London, and the other half waiting for Yamato in Concordia, it would be a while before any of his colleagues from the Medical Division would be available to remove the maggots from the captives, which had to happen before they could be properly debriefed. Of course, if Yamato was captured, getting the information quickly wouldn't matter anymore.
After some time had passed, he scooted a bit closer to the heater and threw more firewood into its furnace. The sky was clear and the sun shone brightly, but he didn't benefit from the sun's rays whilst under the roof. Glancing at the captives, he also wondered whether they were warm enough. Some were showing signs of being affected by the cold temperature—hardly surprising, since they'd been sent out here wearing only robes—and Ron knew that he ought to do something about it. He thought about getting blankets, but immediately rejected the idea, since he knew it would make it more difficult for him to spot them trying to free themselves, if they recovered from the stunners. The recuperative properties of Warming Charms meant that it could aid the captives in recovering from the stunners at an inconvenient time—which was why Ron hadn't used them in the first place—but he didn't have much of a choice now, so he cast the charms on them, knowing that he could always stun them again if it looked like they were coming 'round.
"It's a sound plan, but one based on incomplete information." Said a voice somewhere behind him.
Ron did what he'd been trained to do in such a situation, and tried to Apparate into the house, hoping place himself on equal footing with the new arrival—or multiple arrivals—since neither party would know where the other was. However, there were anti-Apparition wards over house itself as well as the grounds over an area of up to eighty yards around in diameter. With minimal hesitation, he went down on one knee to limit his profile. Knowing that properly orienting himself would take too much time, Ron pointed his wand over his shoulder and shot an unvoiced stunner at the intruder. He winced as he heard it strike the wall. It meant that he'd missed.
"Had I meant you harm, I wouldn't have announced my presence by talking to you."
Recognition dawned in Ron's mind. "Wolfe?"
"Not the original one, but yes. Shouldn't the wards around this place have warned you about an approaching Animagus?"
Ron turned around and came face to face with Wolfe. "It should have. Good of you to point it out."
"Maybe it's because I'm a duplicate," Wolfe mused. "Perhaps it would have detected me if it had been attuned to Poltergeists. That's the magical entity the duplicate forms most closely resemble."
"Now that you mention it, I seem to remember Bill telling me that they omitted Poltergeist wards in favour of anti-Apparition." It was common knowledge that the two didn't go well together, which was part of the reason that Peeves continued to reside at Hogwarts. "Why are you here?"
"I've been keeping an eye on things since noon. I would have helped Harry in case he'd needed it, but the assault force wasn't even a challenge for him." Wolfe pointed at the unconscious captives. "About the flaw in your plan, those worms can link their hosts telepathically, provided that they're within roughly three-hundred feet on each other. If one had woken up, they would have played stunned until they were able to do a co-ordinated attack against you. It's very limited, though. It can't be used in the heat of battle, but information can be exchanged when their hosts are inactive, or engaged in very simple activities, like walking."
"The ones we captured in Rio have been analysed, but nothing about them suggested that they were capable of telepathic communication."
"That's because that particular trait only becomes evident when they've taken a host. There's no reason for them to do it when it isn't required. I imagine the people from the Medical Division haven't asked for volunteer hosts to observe the maggots' capabilities."
"Of course not!" Ron exclaimed indignantly.
Wolfe smirked. "You say that as if you're completely convinced that it was the right thing."
"It was!"
"Then maybe you ought to consider the possibility that if they had done it, you wouldn't have taken your guard duty so lightly." Wolfe pointed to the largest stunned wizard. "If you do nothing, he'll awaken in half an hour."
Ron winced. Wolfe had scored a point. "How do you know all this?"
"A few weeks ago, I got a chance to observe some Muggles in China who've been infected by these maggots. Analysing them and running tests will tell you some things, but not everything. I'm sorry to see that the Order still is too squeamish to do certain things, even if they're necessary."
"If we use the methods of the enemy—"
"Had Master Lei been allowed to do so, years ago, your family wouldn't have been attacked today, and nobody would have died in Diagon Alley," Wolfe said sharply. "It's easy to be philosophical about these things if you're not up to your neck in it. But for those of us who are, the words 'never again' have special meaning. Come on, Ron. Get off your high horse and imagine what would have happened to you and your family if you'd received no warning. The Weasley family would have been halved! Or worse!"
"I have considered all that, and I know how you feel. I felt like killing Pansy Parkinson after Harry caught her. Fortunately Harry stopped me, or I might actually have done it." Ron shuddered at the memory of how close he came. "Taking lives is a horrible thing. Either it becomes easier, or it ends up consuming you. Neither is an attractive prospect."
"I know. That's why I've chosen to do it for you."
Ron's frowned. "Is that the reasoning behind your decision to leave the Order?"
"Did you think I did it for kicks?" Wolfe said, and seemed to ponder his own question after he'd asked it. "Well, sometimes it was very gratifying to hear them scream."
"That's exactly what I'm talking about. You've started to enjoy torture."
"I never enjoyed it, but I did come to appreciate its usefulness. I wanted to set some examples, and it worked marvellously."
"Your actions are not without consequence. Did you know that several vigilantes have started to emulate you?" Ron countered, recalling the reports that had started trickling in a few months after Medea Aconit. "I very much doubt that they're adhering to your personal guidelines, and it's only a matter of time before they start persecuting people who don't deserve so harsh a punishment, because the truly talented criminals will elude them very easily."
Wolfe nodded gloomily. "I've heard, and I did fail to anticipate this. I know some of them got themselves killed, too. Believe it or not, their deaths weigh on my conscience."
"And what do you plan to do about it?"
"I was hoping that the Order would clean up after me on this one. Besides, I'd hardly have any credibility anyway, if I started criticising people for emulating me. All I care about now is being with Heidi and my children, after I kill Yamato. Being apart from them is the only thing I regret about choosing my path."
"I reckon the Order will clean up after you. It's not like we have much choice," Ron replied wryly.
Wolfe started to smile, but his smile morphed into a soundless scream as his eyes widened with dismay. Then, as sudden as a bolt of lightning, he disappeared.
X
Author's Note: Please keep R&R-ing. I really appreciate it. Oh, and be advised that I'll bump this fic's rating up to R starting Chapter 9. That means it won't show up on the normal fics list (which is set for G—PG13.) So be sure to pick Ratings: All or R from now on. Or just look me up with the Search function.
The next update will be in two weeks. Sorry, but ten days simply isn't possible anymore. :-(
Lourdes: If you say so. Intricate in what way, though?
StarWest45: Don't worry about it. I find your babbling very entertaining.
Gogirl: Interesting questions.
lluvatar: Tadaa!
nycgal: I'm glad you liked the way I brought it.
Stefanie: You'll just have to wait and see.
blah29: I did take a pause. I've written more chapters than I've posted, giving me a reserve to post when I take some time off.
Chloe Black: You'll be waiting for a long time.
Foxfur: Actually, when I posted Chapter 7 I was still on vacation. I only got back yesterday. (July 27) Oh, and the bad guy's name is Yamato. Yamamoto was the Japanese Admiral in WWII. :-)
Bluerain22: No, I'm not married and I don't have any kids. I'm not ready for children. I frequently forget to water my plants.
maaike-fluffy: Nee, ik heb echt vakantie gevierd. Ik heb meerdere hoofdstukken klaarstaan, en ik had deze af voordat jij voor het eerst reviewde. Jij bent niet de eerste die feedback geeft over de overvloedige details in mijn verhaal, en waarschijnlijk niet de laatste. Hoe wel rekening met het feit dat sommige openbaringen in mijn verhaal vaak in de details schuilen.
Harryronherm09: I hope I'll be seeing more of you.
Diuhedui38: Is your penname the result of random typing, or does it mean something. Just curious.
The Keymaker: Gee, you made me feel bad about the fact that I'll be slowing down my writing.
Saint Mike: Prior to the chapter I did research on what kind of questions little children ask about sex.
Elric Magus: Which is why I endangered the Weasleys. Harry might be invincible now, but his loved ones are not.