Chapter 4 – Complications

It stark contrast to the way the Order had been reacting as they received new news and information from Harry and Adora, the room was now perfectly quiet. The mood was subdued and tense while they all contemplated what this could mean. As they began trying to decide on a course of action, a sharp intake of breath was heard and Snape clutched his left forearm painfully.

With a quick nod to the Headmaster, Snape rose from his seat at the table and left the kitchen.

'-I'll be right back.–' Harry thought to his wife as he rose to follow the spy.

The potions master was in the entrance hall about to leave when Harry caught up with him.

"Snape." Harry said getting the man's attention.

"I really don't have time for your inane ramblings right now Potter." Snape sneered back as he finished putting on his cloak.

"I know. I just needed to get the marble back from you before you left."

After a quick search of his robe pockets, Snape handed the marble back to Harry and watched as he quickly vanished the piece of glass before leaving Grimmauld Place with his black robes billowing out behind him in his wake.

Harry stared at the spot Snape had occupied deep in thought for a minute before removing a small device with a screen from within his robes and placing an earpiece connected to the item in one ear.

As he listened he became enraged at what he was hearing, finally storming back to the kitchen where everyone's attention became focused on him as the door slammed open. Ignoring their looks, he moved towards the table while looking once again at the device he carried. Finding what he needed, Harry stowed the device away within his robes.

"Albus, Adora, let's go." he said with authority.

"May I ask where we're going Harry?" Dumbledore asked as he stood and moved to join Harry and Adora.

"Voldemort's headquarters." he replied.

Harry would have smiled at the explosion of voices that filled the room if the situation wasn't so serious.

Dumbledore was shocked at Harry's announcement but noticed Adora was not. He assumed Harry had been communicating telepathically with her. "You know the location?"

"Yes." Harry replied simply.

"Wouldn't it be better for us all to go, perhaps with some Auror backup as well?"

"No. We're the only three powerful enough to breach the wards around the apparition point without a dark mark."

Nodding in acceptance, Albus drew his wand and the three stood back to back with Harry using his free hand to hold on to Dumbledore's arm to control his apparition.

"Professor," Harry said just before they disappeared, "we won't be using any stunners in this raid and if you see Snape, kill him."


After leaving Grimmauld Place, Severus Snape reappeared at the apparition point in Riddle Manor which was a room just next door to the throne room where he knew he would find Voldemort. After letting the Death Eaters verify his identity, Snape made his way out of the room and towards the next where his presence was expected. He was about to enter when he was spun around and kissed hard on the mouth.

"Mmm, Bella my sweet." he said as the kiss ended.

The dark haired woman grinned evilly. "It's been to long Sev, I hope you don't have to rush off after our meeting."

"Not at all my love, not at all."

After sharing another kiss the pair entered the throne room where Bella quickly kneeled kissing the hems of Voldemort's robes before standing and moving to one side.

"My lord." Snape said kneeling on the floor in front of the Dark Lord and kissing the hems of his robes.

"Severus, what news do you bring me?" Voldemort asked silkily.

Snape stood to face the man sitting on his throne. "Master, I have much to tell you. Potter has returned."

Voldemort's eyes narrowed at the mentioned of his rival as Snape continued.

"The metamorphmagus is now his wife and through an accident while they were training their magic has become connected and grown. They suspect their power is about twice that of Dumbledore's now."

The Dark Lord's listened intently to all the news his most loyal and unbeknownst to anyone other than the three of them, second in command was telling him.

He went on to describe in detail the events that led to Harry and Adora's current level of power and what he knew of the Death Eater prison they had created. He also detailed how the Potters were going about capturing the Dark Lord's servants. Voldemort's anger flared briefly when he learned Harry was currently holding Draco Malfoy in one of his cells. He hadn't even known the arrogant brat was missing.

Reaching within his robes, Snape removed a small marble with a smirk. "Potter does not know I still have this. When he asked for it back, I gave him a conjured copy which he immediately vanished."

Accepting the marble his spy offered him, the Dark Lord examined it curiously for several minutes before finally placing it safely in his robes, confident he would be able to discern its destination and regain his loyal servants.

"I want you to kill the metamorphmagus Severus. Kill her and make sure she is barely recognizable when you're done as a message to Potter. She is powerful but should be an easy target for you as she will not be expecting an attack from a member of Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix. You may even risk your position within the Order for this. We must remove what power we can from Potter and this will destroy his spirit as well."

Snape grinned evilly, "Gladly Master."

"Is that all Severus?" Voldemort asked seemingly unconcerned about the mentioned events.

"Almost Master, there is one final thing that while I am sure you will want to know, I do not understand. It seems that Potter has discovered a pattern to the placement of the Dark Marks sent in to the sky after most Death Eater attacks. He has found that they are forming a large Dark Mark over the UK and that the dark magic between these sites is growing. He does not however know what the meaning of it is."

Voldemort sat up straighter in his chair at the unexpected news and growled. "I did not expect him to find this out. It's still too soon."

"Master, may I ask what this is about?"

"No Severus, you may not. Your position makes that knowledge too dangerous for you to have."

Snape bowed accepting the answer without question. "Of course Master."

While deep in thought trying to decide what to do about the latest information, Voldemort felt the wards trigger. As he concentrated trying to figure out what was causing the alarm, a large explosion went off throwing debris in every direction.


Harry, Adora and Albus appeared in a room to find themselves surrounded by a group of surprised Death Eaters. Without pause the three sprang into action.

Harry's outline blurred and shimmered as he disappeared from existence, reappearing on the other side of the room where a barrage of curses quickly eliminated several opponents. While Harry was moving around decimating the Death Eater's ranks from within, Adora conjured a granite wall to protect her and Albus from incoming curses and began launching reducter curses back at her enemy severely injuring or killing whoever they came in contact with. Others were injured by flying debris caused by missed curses impacting the walls and furniture. Albus took advantage of the cover Adora created and began transfiguring and animating an army of automatons that swiftly began eliminating the rest of the enemy forces. Within a minute of arriving every Death Eater in the room had been killed.

As the last Death Eater fell, Harry paused and concentrated on his scar through his Occlumency shields.

"This way." he said, indicating a wall on one side of the room.

Standing together the three pointed their wands at the wall and shouted "REDUCTO!" pouring as much power as they could into their curses. The wall exploded away from them and Harry and Adora jumped through the hole in the wall with Albus following close behind as he cast a spell to clear the dust and smoke from the air.

Seeing Voldemort on his throne with several injuries from the flying debris, Harry immediately went to challenge him casting a barrage of different curses as he went. Adora moved towards where Snape was lying against one wall bleeding heavily and finished him off with a well placed cutting curse.

Bellatrix was furious as she watched her cousin kill an already grievously injured Severus. Though badly injured herself, she ignored the pain and jumped up flinging the darkest of curses at Adora with a power that was compounded by her rage at having just seen her lover killed in front of her.

As the curses were about to hit Adora, a shield flared to life in front of her and several creatures made from the rubble intercepted the worst of them. Turning towards the new treat, Bellatrix found an extremely angry Dumbledore heading towards her with an aura of power shimmering around him. Knowing she had no chance against the pair of them, Bellatrix activated her emergency portkey and disappeared.

Voldemort noticed the air clearing much quicker than it should have after the blast and looked up just in time to see several curses flying towards him. Quickly raising a shield he dove behind his throne and began returning fire. While he traded curses with Harry he saw Adora finish off Severus and turn with Dumbledore towards Bellatrix who disappeared a moment later.

Pointing his wand past Harry, Voldemort cried "Accio!"

'-Kneel, now!-' Harry heard Adora yell in his mind.

Having trained and worked so closely together over the past couple of years, Harry knew not to disregard her warnings and did as she asked with out even thinking about it.

A moment after going down on one knee, a large chunk of stone that had been summoned by Voldemort flew over Harry's head. Acting quickly Harry raised his hands and banished the stone towards his enemy. As the stone was already flying towards Voldemort from the summoning charm, Harry's banishing charm sped up the object greatly.

Voldemort ducked behind the throne just as the stone impacted. Once again he gained several injuries from flying debris as most of his remaining cover was destroyed. Knowing he could not stand against the three of them alone, he turned back towards Harry.

"Now is not the time Potter, but soon…" he said before activating his portkey and disappearing.

"Damnit." Harry growled as Adora approached him. "I should have warded the room before going after him."

"It's ok Harry, we'll get him." she said placing a calming hand on his shoulder.

Harry sighed and nodded. As they looked around the room they saw Albus looking sadly at Severus body.

Harry was moving towards him when he heard his wife's voice in his head. '-Harry, something's not right with the magic here.-'

Harry stopped in his tracks, raising his hands in front of him palms out and slowly turned in a circle.

"Shit. Get out of here now!" he yelled before running back through the hole they had blasted in the wall to the apparition point.

"What is it?" Albus asked as he joined the pair.

"The magic here's folding in on itself. Get outside the wards, quick!"

The three disappeared, reappearing an instant later just beyond the Riddle property outside of the wards. As they looked back towards the mansion they heard a loud groan and saw it shudder before it began collapsing in on itself. It crumbled as it shrunk, getting smaller and smaller.

"Crap, shields!" Adora suddenly yelled.

Just as the three managed to raise a powerful shield in front of them the house exploded, pieces as large as a small car being thrown where they were standing. Several minutes later the smoke cleared enough for the group to see that the place where the Riddle house had once stood was now just an empty crater.

"Are you both ok?" Albus asked worriedly.

"Fine." Harry responded. "Just upset I blew my chance."

"Don't be so hard on yourself Harry, his time will come, of that I have no doubt." the old man said with a smile and a twinkle that immediately put Harry at ease.

"The two of you had better leave. The Aurors will be here soon to see what that magical explosion was all about."

Harry and Adora nodded and disappeared.


Pandemonium reigned as Harry and Adora entered the kitchen at Grimmauld Place. Word of the explosion in Little Hangleton had made its way to Order headquarters and they were all wondering what had happened and if everyone was ok.

"Harry! Adora!" Hermione chimed as she saw the pair enter the kitchen.

Almost immediately the questions began raining down upon them. Raising his arms Harry finally got everyone to settle down but was asked a question by McGonagall before he could start explaining.

"Where's Albus? Is he ok?" she said in a worried voice.

"He's fine. He stayed behind to deal with the Ministry. For obvious reasons Adora and I had to leave before the Aurors showed up."

He smiled at the look of relief that flooded his old transfiguration professor's face. Harry and Adora proceeded to tell everyone what had occurred at Riddle Manor and were just finishing up when Albus entered the kitchen.

Molly handed him a cup of tea as he sat down and after taking a long sip he began by addressing Harry. "I assume everyone here has been brought up to date concerning the events in Little Hangleton?"

Harry nodded and the Headmaster continued. "I explained everything that happened to the Aurors as it happened though I left out that Harry and Adora were there and refused to divulge how I came about Voldemort's location. Unfortunately Minister Fudge was there and believes you Harry, and you Adora were somehow involved. I believe I am now being painted as being in cahoots with you and possibly by association, Voldemort."

"What!" was the most common question that was raised as everyone in the room began questioning the Minister's sanity in various creative ways.

When the Order finally calmed down enough for the meeting to continue it was Adora who spoke. "How is that possible? I can see how he might think Harry and I were your source for finding Voldemort, but how on earth would he take that to mean you're in cahoots with the evil prick?"

"It makes no difference, as Harry well knows Cornelius always sees things the way he wishes too and he has long seen me as a threat to his power base."

"What does this mean for you Albus?" Minerva asked.

Albus took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Alas I do not yet know. At the present I am at the center of an inquiry regarding today's explosion. There is little doubt in my mind that I will be called in at some time and Cornelius will attempt to put his spin on the events to discredit me in some way. Do not concern yourselves with that, should the need arise I have made arrangements to ensure control of Hogwarts passes to you Minerva and will join Harry and Adora in there efforts outside of Ministry control."

"Hopefully it won't come to that." Albus finally added deciding the conversation needed to be brought back to the task at hand. "Harry, can you please explain what brought on this attack and how you discovered the location of Voldemort's headquarters? Also why did Severus need to be killed?"

Harry sighed and removed the small device he had used before the attack from a pocked within his robes laying it on the table in front of him. "This is how I knew everything. It's a muggle device Adora and I picked up a while back. I wondered about Snape when he failed to return the portkey to me so I followed him to the entry hall and asked him to return it. When he did he gave me a conjured marble that looked like the portkey rather than the actual one."

A look of alarm appeared on Dumbledore's face. "Do you mean to say that Voldemort could have a portkey to your prison?"

Harry and Adora shared a quick grin. "Acctually no, he thought I vanished the fake portkey when he gave it to me but I actually modified it a bit and switched it with the real one in his pocket."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to know what modifications you made?" he asked with a large grin and brightly twinkling eyes.

Harry's own eyes began twinkling as well. "Let's just say I hope he figures out the destination coordinates and uses it himself." he said chuckling softly along with Adora.

"Anyway," he finally continued indicating the device on the table, "this is a receiver for a transmitter I place on Snape that relayed his conversation with Voldemort back here to me. It also ties in to the muggle GPS system and was able to give me his location."

Seeing looks of confusion on several of the Order member's faces he elaborated. "GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It uses satellites that are in orbit around the earth to pinpoint locations. It took us a while to figure out how to make the thing work in a magical environment but it worked perfectly. Since its all muggle none of their nullification fields, wards or spells could detect it."

Dumbledore was beaming. "Absolutely brilliant you two!"

Harry and Adora smiled at the praise. "As far as Snape goes, he was never your spy, he was Voldemort's."

Several gasps could be heard around the table and Albus had a sad look on his face.

"Voldemort could just as well been at tonight's meeting, Snape told him everything.

Albus closed his eyes for several seconds, sad to realize Severus had never really been his friend. "Why couldn't we have just imprisoned him, why kill him?"

Anger flared in Harry's eyes as well as Adora's as he responded. "Two reasons other than what I've already told you. One, he happily agreed to kill my wife and make a strong statement to me with her body and two, Bellatrix was his lover."

Angry mutterings were heard all around the table and Remus was fuming as thoughts of Sirius flashed though his mind.

A few minutes later Harry and Adora stood. After putting his receiver away Harry handed Dumbledore a small medallion. "We're heading out now, if you need us tap that three times and tell it what's going on, then tap in again, we'll get the message."

After sharing a round of goodbye's with their friends, Harry and Adora left Grimmauld Place.


A bloody and battered Voldemort appeared in a small chateau situated on a cliff above the North Sea furious over the events of the past hour. He found Bellatrix Lestrange limping around in a condition and rage that matched his own.

They spent the next couple of hours healing each other before Voldemort took hold of her left arm and pushed up her sleeve to reveal the Dark Mark. Pressing the tip of his wand to the tattoo, he summoned all of the remaining Death Eaters too him. While awaiting their arrival, he removed the marble Severus had given him and worked out the location of the prison. Conjuring a long piece of rope, he created a portkey to take them to that location. Several minutes later the remaining Death Eaters, all ninety two, were in attendance.

"Bella," he said handing her the rope, "take sixty with you to storm Potter's prison. I will take the rest and surround the area, kill anyone you meet."

Bella nodded with her evil grin firmly in place. It was time for some payback.

Voldemort gave his group the coordinates for various places around the prisons location and as soon as they all knew where they were going, apperated away. A moment later he was followed by Bellatrix and her group.

He reappeared to find himself in the middle of the ocean. As his body materialized with nothing to stand on, he fell into the frigid water. A moment later he saw Bellatrix appear with her group and watched as they too fell into the ocean. Before he could do anything he felt a tingle of magic in the area and Bellatrix and her Death Eaters were pulled to their deaths beneath the water.

"Potter." he growled in fury and frustration as he realized he'd been tricked, "you will pay for this."

Returning to his chateau he screamed out in frustration. Several random and unfortunate Death Eaters bore the brunt of his rage though means of a very painful unforgivable curse. When the worst of his temper had passed, he dismissed what was left of his followers and secluded himself in a bedroom where he began making portkeys.


Harry and Adora returned to their quarters at the Death Eater prison they had created and were relaxing for a bit, trying to figure out their next move was going to be when an alarm sounded in the command center. Entering the room they looked at the map and started laughing hysterically.

"I can't believe he actually fell for it." Adora chuckled.

"No kidding, what an idiot. I guess we just answered one of the pivotal questions of wizarding kind."

"Which is?" Adora asked, grinning in anticipation of the answer.

"Can the evil and all powerful Dark Lord dog paddle?"

The pair broke down in another fit of laughter before Harry continued. "How many did we get?"

Adora drew a circle around the area of ocean where they knew Voldemort was currently swimming and tapped it with her wand. The map blurred for a second before zooming in on the area she had circled. Ninety four separate Dark Marks could be seen on the map. Sixty of them were located in a tight group in the middle and had red X's on them while the rest were scattered around the perimeter in small groups. One of the ones on the perimeter was red instead of black. With another tap of her wand on the corner of the map some statistics appeared.

"Wow, looks like he brought the whole crew, we got sixty but Voldy wasn't one of them." she said pointing to the red mark on the map. "Assuming he used everyone, he's now only got thirty two left."

After hearing the information, Harry was staring at the map watching the remaining Death Eaters disappear as they apperated away when Adora placed a hand on his shoulder. When he looked up at her she was smiling though there seemed to be a distant sadness associated with her happiness.

"We got Bella."

Pulling her into a hug he smiled sadly understanding her look. Sirius had been avenged.