A/N: Back again. We're winding down rather quickly now. It's the final chapters, and everything's basically coming to a head: Oliver, Angelina, Lee's and Alicia's back-stories just to name several. There's probably going to be this chapter, one more, and then perhaps a short epilogue. I don't know.
Disclaimer: I wish I owned it. That would be nice.
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"What do you know?" Oliver repeated in a deadly voice, shoving Marcus up against the wall, his face less than an inch away from his. Fred, Angelina, Katie, George and Lee watched him, silent in their surprise. They had never seen Oliver this furious, this focused, not even for Quidditch. Marcus sneered at him.
"What makes you think that I would know that?" he asked him quietly. Oliver snarled, and pulled up Flint's left arm. Oliver pulled off Flint's glove and wrist-bands to reveal the Dark Mark, vividly imprinted upon the pale skin of his forearm. Flint chucked softly. "Well, now you know I suppose," he said, staring at Oliver as if he was daring him to do something.
"Tell me where you have Alicia, or else I swear to God I'll…" Oliver began, but Flint interrupted you.
"You'll what?" Flint mocked him, arching his eyebrow. "You'll kill me? You don't have the balls Wood," he hissed maliciously at him. Oliver brought his knee up sharply into Flint's groin. Flint's eyes became glazed and he gasped in pain as he attempted to double over in pain. Oliver grabbed his shoulder and pushed him against the wall, his wand at Flint's throat.
"No, I won't kill you," Oliver hissed. "I think that I'll pay you back with some of what you gave me up in Russia. I never did thank you for that. There are other ways to destroy a man rather than by killing him," Oliver said, suddenly remembering something that Dumbledore had said at one of the Order meetings. "You would know, wouldn't you?" he added in as an afterthought. "You did it to me."
Marcus realized for the first time in his life that talking would not be a good idea. He remained silent, though his face was turning a delicate shade of baby blue. As he thought more about what the Death Eaters and Voldemort had done to him, Oliver pushed harder against Flint's windpipe. His wand was forgotten and he let it drop to the floor. All that he wanted to do was to inflict the same kind of pain on Flint that Flint and his cronies had inflicted upon him. Flint soon began to choke. His hands scrabbled at Oliver's forearms futilely, seeking a way in which he could be released.
"Oliver!" Katie finally cried, moving forward. She pulled Oliver's hands away from Flint's throat with some difficulty. "Oliver?" Katie asked again. His brown eyes slowly returned to normal as he looked at her. Flint rasped on the ground and Oliver moved his leg like he was going to kick him. "No!" Katie said, putting a restraining hand on his shoulder "I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve it, because he does…but you can't give him what he deserves. Let someone else do it. Not you."
Oliver's eyes were still smoldering with hatred, but he managed to bury it deep within him enough to look at Flint lying on the ground. "You're going to take us to where she is," he finally managed to choke out. With a tight grip born of all of his years of Quidditch experience, Oliver brought Marcus up to his feet. At the poke of a wand, Marcus moved forward, yelling some excuse to teammates who asked where he was going.
Oliver set off after Marcus, feeling as if he was getting some control over his life at last.
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When Flint stopped in front of a rundown building, Oliver thought that he had to be trying to annoy him in some way. There was no possibly way that Voldemort would pick something this rundown to be his headquarters. "What are you trying to pull?" Oliver hissed. Marcus shook his head violently.
"No, this is where he lives," he said, beginning to chuckle slightly. "This is where he makes his plans. I swear that this is it." His shoulders shook for a moment with silent laughter, and then it became audible.
"What's so funny?" George asked irritably. Marcus looked at them all standing together. Under his maniacal gaze, they drew closer together for protection. Angelina found herself shoved up against Fred. He put his arm around her, making her feel slightly more protected against this madman.
"You're going to go in there, and you're going to die," he told them, grinning madly at them. Oliver wondered whether Flint had lost whatever tentative grip that he had on reality. "And I'm going to be watching and I'll laugh."
"Stupefty!" Lee cried, unable to stop himself, acting purely out of fear. He stared down at Flint's unconscious body, his chest heaving.
"Well, now at least if we die then Flint won't be looking at us," George cracked. Katie snickered despite the inappropriate humor of the situation. Oliver took a step forward and grasped the door handle. His confident nature left him in that moment and his shoulders bent down.
"What am I doing?" he whispered. He turned around to them. "You can't follow me," he told them frankly. He saw them getting ready to protest, and shook his head. "This is between me and the Dark Lord. We saw with Cedric of how he treats things that aren't in his plans and that are getting in his way. I don't want that to happen to you and it will if you go in there. So please, just let me handle this on my own."
"Oliver no!" Katie cried. "You'll die! You need some help, you can't do this alone!"
"I won't be alone," he told them, smiling with his mouth, but his eyes somewhere else, staring somewhere beyond their puny human sight. "I'll have you with me in there, you know?" he asked them. Without waiting for an answer from them, he put his handle on the doorknob and decisively turned the handle and walked in.
Everyone lunged towards the door, but it shut firmly in their faces. When George tried to seize the doorknob and pull it open, the force of the charm on the door threw him across the sidewalk. He got up and walked towards the rest of the frightened group. "I don't think there's anything that we can do," he told them, biting his lip in worry. "He's in there, and we can't get him out of there."
"No, I don't believe that," Katie said, rushing up to the door. She hadn't even touched the door before the charm slammed her back. Lee and Fred just managed to catch her before she fell into the dirt. She coughed, shaking her head from the shock of the charm that had been laid on the door that protected the lair of the Death Eaters. "They wanted Oliver to go in there," she realized slowly. "That's why only he could get in. They wanted him back. And we can't even warn him of their purpose." She hung her head in defeat.
There was a moment of reflective silence as the group thought of what Katie's words meant. "Well, we can at least take this waste to the Aurors," Angelina finally said, digging a toe into Flint's ribs. Even though she knew that he couldn't feel it because he was unconscious, it was still satisfying to her. "They need some good news and this'll probably give it to them."
"Here Katie, you can't Apparate yet," George told her. "You're going to need to hold onto my arm." Katie grasped George's arm tightly, closing her eyes. With a nod, the entire group Disapparated.
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Torches blazed along the walls when Oliver entered into the building. "Dramatic," he muttered, bringing out his wand and holding it in front of his face. His shadows were cast down along the hallway, making him seem taller than he was. The illusion gave him a ridiculous sense of bravery. This sensation was immediately gone when he heard the creak of footsteps on the floorboards. "Show yourself," he commanded, straightening his back.
"Brave little boy," the voice crooned at him, like a mother would. Goosebumps spread all over Oliver's skin as he shuddered in revulsion. These…people had taken his wonderful parents from him. They would pay for that. "Has he come here all alone, looking for his girlfriend?"
"Where is she?" Oliver bellowed, forgetting himself for a moment. "Where the hell are you keeping her?" The voice snickered, coming from behind him, now in front of him, and now right beside him.
"Aw…does he love her?" it sneered at him. Oliver felt his breath becoming ragged with the force of his hatred. He tried to bring himself under control, telling himself that him losing control was the voice's goal, but he could not harness control of his emotions. He was a proud man and being taunted, especially about Alicia's whereabouts, was more than he could handle.
"Come out and face me," he said quietly, slowly gaining control of himself. "If you had any sort of courage at all, you'd come out here instead of lurking in the shadows. What, are you afraid that I'll beat you?"
"No, I'm afraid that I'll kill you before my Master has a chance to kill you," the voice drawled. Oliver finally felt that he could pin down the source and he whirled to his right, light blossoming to the end of his wand before he realized what had happened. The sneering face of Bellatrix Lestrange was revealed in his wand light. "You," Oliver hissed, instantly recognizing the face of the woman who had been spoken of with almost as much fear as Voldemort himself.
"Indeed," she drawled, sounding bored with the entire exchange. Her wand was leveled firmly at his chest. "I was supposed to escort you to the Dark Lord, but now that I see you I'm almost tempted to disobey...and I never disobey boy," she whispered, a mad gleam sharpening in her eyes.
"Bella!" a sharp voice called. Oliver looked beyond the mad woman to see Lucius Malfoy striding forward. "Don't you dare disobey the Dark Lord's orders. He'll have your head for sure. The boy is to be brought to the Dark Lord, alive, and unhurt," he said, correctly interpreting Bellatrix's sudden interest. Her shoulders slumped down once more.
Oliver lifted the corner of his lip in disdain at Malfoy. "You'll never get me to see that bastard," he said softly. "He killed my parents. The only way I'm going to see that prick that you call your master is if I'm going in there myself to kill him." Lucius shook his head, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly as he looked at Oliver.
"You have a good deal of bravery, but no sense of delicacy," he whispered. "One day it will get you into a great deal of trouble. And I'm afraid that you will indeed be meeting the Dark Lord today. Imperio!" he shouted suddenly, pointing his wand at Oliver's forehead. Oliver, who had been unprepared for the curse, felt his mind being wiped blissfully blank. All of the strategies that Moody had taught him in order to combat the Imperius Curse went out of his head, along with all of his rational thought.
Walk forward, a deep voice commanded him. Walk forward alone the hallway.
Why not? His mind asked. Doesn't seem such a bad, terrible, unreasonable request. No problem.
Walk forward, the voice said soothingly. Just walk forward and soon everything will be over.
Oliver walked forward haltingly, like a puppet whose strings were being pulled. His brown eyes were glazed and unfocused. Lucius smirked in satisfaction as he recognized his Imperius Curse being followed perfectly. Bellatrix lurked at his elbow glaring up at him. He turned to glance at her. "Bellatrix, my sister-in-law you may be, but keep on glaring at me that way, and I swear to the Dark Mark that I'll place the Crutacius Curse on you," he said evenly.
In that one moment of inattention to his curse, Oliver's toe hit a small imperfection in the floor. At that, his rational mind was able to awaken and take a look at the situation. Wait a moment, why am I following this request? It asked Oliver. This is stupid. You know that Voldemort's ahead. You shouldn't be walking forward. You should be going somewhere else where you can find Alicia. I can't believe that you were that stupid to go along with that.
Lucius realized what had happened and he quickly tried to reinstate control over Oliver. Walk forward! He commanded forcefully, but Oliver's mind had awoken to the point where it could easily fight off the curse.
No, I WON'T! It shouted back, and Oliver's eyes regained their normal focus. He jumped down a narrow hallway, dodging the curses that the two Death Eaters sent after him. Each curse was coming closer and closer to hitting him. He ducked down a hallway, propelled in part by the shock wave of the curse that had missed his ankle by a centimeter, if that.
He panted, but knew that there was no time to relax or even to breathe. He had to keep running. He ran down the long, labyrinth hallway. He kept on glancing over his shoulder, sure that the Death Eaters were right behind him. His breath was coming in harsh gasps. He pointed his wand at a door. "Re…Reducto!" he gasped out, his lungs feeling like they were on fire. The door burst into pieces, and Oliver dove into the room, quickly using his rudimentary Transfiguration skills to put a shoddy wall in its place.
He turned and looked at the room. One thing immediately caught his eye. There was a small huddled form in the corner. "Alicia?" he asked, moving towards the person. "Alicia, oh Merlin, please be all right…" he touched the soft, giving flesh, and rolled the person over.
It was Alicia. Oliver held her and quickly lit his wand to check her over for bruises. She did not appear to be physically hurt, but Voldemort's followers had ways of torturing you with which you could still look like you were ready to go out on a Sunday afternoon. She moaned slightly and turned her head. Her eyes slowly opened and focused on him. "Oliver?" she asked in confusion. Her eyes sharpened, and she sat up, pushing Oliver away.
"You shouldn't be here," she said harshly. Oliver was still reeling from her quick recovery and did not say anything. "You need to get out now, Disapparate if you can. You shouldn't be here, I hoped that you wouldn't come…" she ran her hands through her dirty blonde hair in desperation.
"Wait a second," Oliver said slowly, trying to figure out why she was so worried. "I'm not leaving without you," he stated firmly. "I came here for you, and I'm not leaving with you."
"That's the problem!" Alicia cried, grabbing his shoulder. "They wanted you here, that's why they took me! They don't care about me at all, they just want you!"
"And what do you think would happen to you if I didn't come?" Oliver asked her quietly. "If his plan doesn't work then Voldemort just gets rid of what doesn't work and starts again with a blank board. He'll kill you Alicia! I can't let that happen to you," he told her quietly, touching her shoulder gently.
"You shouldn't have come here," Alicia stubbornly repeated, and Oliver's shoulders stiffened and then she continued softly. "But I'm glad you did," she admitted. Oliver could swear that he saw a soft smile on her face in the weak light. He shook his head.
"Well, I'm a Scot," he told her laughingly. "And a Gryffindor. I guess that means that I'm stupider than the average person." He shrugged and shook his head. "I would try to Apparate, but something tells me that Voldemort has put rather…er…painful restrictions on those who would try to Apparate."
"The Death Eaters are going to know where you are," Alicia told Oliver. "There are only so many rooms down this hallway and eventually they're going to know where you went."
"I've got to get out of here before they find out where I've gone," Oliver pondered aloud. "If I'm with you when they find me then they'll kill you, just to spite me." Alicia opened her mouth to say something but Oliver stopped her. "Alicia, these are the people who killed my parents just because they were my parents. They'll kill you, I know they will. Since when has Voldemort had a soft spot in his heart?"
There was a pounding on the door. Oliver looked fearfully at it. There was nothing else for it. He had to go. He turned back to Alicia, and on a whim, cupped her cheek. "I'll get you out of here," he promised, his breath coming out in a violent hiss. "I promise that I'm going to get you out of here."
He pointed his wand at the door. "Reducto!" he shouted, and the wall that he had built blew apart. The Death Eaters were momentarily stunned and this gave Oliver enough of an opportunity to shove through them and down the hallway. He thought that he was going to make it into another room when he felt his feet slipping out from underneath him. He yelped as he was pulled up by his ankle.
"Well, look what we caught," Bellatrix drawled, walking up to where Oliver was suspended in mid-air. She ran her fingers laughingly down his cheeks and kissed his forehead. "Come on little Quidditch player," she teased him, flicking her wand forward. Oliver felt himself moving forward and he swung back and forth like a pendulum as he was moved forward. He came to rest in a room that was lit better than the others.
As Oliver looked around from his limited viewpoint he could see why the room was better lit than the others. It was because the most feared wizard in the entire world was sitting in it. "Well, if it isn't Mr. Wood come back to join us," Voldemort whispered, running his finger down Oliver's cheek slowly. Oliver shook his head, trying to get the taint of Voldemort's touch off of him.
"Let her go," Oliver demanded, glaring at Voldemort, even though the blood was rushing to his head and making him light-headed. Voldemort threw his head back and laughed. His laugh could make nails on a chalkboard seem pleasant. The Death Eaters took their cue from Voldemort and began to laugh as well until the entire room was surrounded by cruel mirth.
"So brave," Voldemort said slowly, almost as if he was sadistically amused at Oliver's impudence. "Why should I let her go?" he asked, shifting his eyes to the entrance. Oliver saw Alicia being brought in the same way that he had been. Her eyes met his and they spoke volumes between them. I'm sorry, Oliver apologized with his eyes. Oh God Alicia, I'm so sorry…I thought that I was going to be able to save you…I was wrong.
"I'm going to kill you," Oliver promised through clenched teeth. "I'm going to kill you one day." Voldemort chuckled and shook his head and Oliver knew that his bluff had fallen on ears who had heard the same promise many times before.
"Little girls break so easily," Voldemort commented, pulling his finger down Alicia's cheek. Some enchantment that he had laid on his fingers allowed a line of crimson blood to spill out of the line that he had drawn on her cheek. Alicia winced in pain but did not cry out. Oliver shook with rage and helplessness. He struggled against the enchantment that was keeping him immobile, but could do nothing against it.
"Besides, why not show you what your folly has lost you yet again?" Voldemort asked, pulling out his wand and pointing it at Alicia. "I did warn you, you foolish boy about what would happen if you chose to defy me. I also showed that I would not be afraid to go through with my promises. I think you need another reminder of the simple fact that Lord Voldemort always has his way…and that nothing shall ever stand between him and his ultimate goal," Voldemort whispered, squinting his red eyes hatefully at Oliver's direction. He leveled his wand at Alicia and smirked at Oliver before crying out "Crucio!"
Alicia was rocked back against the jinx that held her. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she could not hold in her screams of agony. Oliver was swearing and cursing at Voldemort, offering all sorts of promises and pleas if only he would let Alicia go…He finally pulled his wand off of Alicia and looked at her trembling form. The jinx that was holding her upside down was removed and she dropped to the floor in a sobbing heap. Voldemort laughed sadistically at her.
"This is what happens to those that attempt to stand against Lord Voldemort," he proclaimed loudly. He opened his mouth, taking in a deep breath so that he could kill Alicia and Oliver was screaming and Bellatrix was laughing and Oliver was screaming and crying and Alicia was sobbing and all she could think about was how she was never going to see him smile again or see any of her friends…
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The friends Apparated into the entrance of the Ministry. There were some odd looks thrown into their direction when they saw what was coming along with them, but there were stranger things seen at the Ministry and most walked by. Some seemed to recognize Flint from Quidditch and pointed and whispered. "All right, where are the Auror headquarters?" George huffed, still pointing his wand at Flint.
"They're right up here," Angelina said automatically, stepping forward onto the lift and punching in a button. The rest stared at her in amazement before realizing that they had to jump on the lift as well.
"How'd you know where to find the Aurors?" Fred asked accusingly. "George and I have a father in the Ministry and we don't know where everything is."
"Well, it all comes back to you eventually," Angelina murmured, staring at the bright buttons on the side of the lift. The twins knew when not to pursue a subject and let Angelina stare at the wall in peace. The door opened and the twins and Lee shoved Flint out into the brightly lit area where the Dark Wizard catchers worked. There was a slight disturbance as some of the Aurors recognized a Quidditch player. There was even more of a disturbance when Angelina loudly announced "We have a Death Eater for you lovely folks."
There was an immediate stir as the Aurors sought to surround Flint, wands flying out from robe pockets everywhere. There were questions fired at them, such as "How could they support this claim?" "Didn't they know the rules about approaching Death Eaters?" "How did they know that he was a Death Eater?" Katie raised her wand and shot a few red sparks in the air and all of the annoying questions abruptly ended.
"This is a Death Eater," she said simply. "You can take him into the cell and question him at your pleasure. Meanwhile, we have several things to tell you, all of them important, so your questions can just wait. We can answer your questions, just not now. First off, are Tonks and Kingsley here?"
The Aurors looked back and forth between each other, shaking their heads. One brave soul finally spoke up. "They're not here and I don't think that anyone knows where they've gone."
"Great," Fred moaned. Lee looked between them in confusion.
"What's going on?" he asked. Katie looked at him and smiled sympathetically.
"Did you think that we were just going to let Oliver go in there and rescue Alicia alone?" she asked kindly. "We never had the slightest intention of leaving him alone with the Death Eaters and Voldemort. We're sending in the Aurors after him, enchantments be damned. They'll find a way through it. It would just be easier if we had a member of the Order of the Phoenix to because we wouldn't have explain everything to them. Besides, some the things that we've done are probably against some archaic law."
"Oh," Lee said, nodding like he understood. In reality he was so confused. Every new answer that he received seemed to raise ten new questions. There was a law about that predicament that he had learned his last year in Potions.
"If they're not here then I don't know where to find them," George said in frustration. Angelina's eyes were lighting up the way they did when she received a particularly good idea.
"You might not be able to find them, but I know someone who will," she said, kicking Flint once more for luck and sprinting down the hallway. Everyone managed to keep pace beside her, though poor Lee was panting all the way.
"Angelina, you do remember that the Ministry's not exactly on our Christmas card list?" Katie asked, clutching a stitch in her side. It had been entirely too long since she had done any strenuous exercise. She really must start getting back in shape for Quiddtich. "And forgive me if I'm wrong, but we don't like them very much either."
"Less talking, more running," Angelina commanded in her "Captain" tone. She learned that tone from Oliver, Katie thought with some satisfaction. "I know someone who'll help us. I know they will."
Fred and George were not complete strangers to the Ministry either, and started to recognize where they were going. "Angelina, this is down where the Minister works," George said urgently, lengthening his stride to run beside her. The teens swept past a witch whose arms were full of papers. "Sorry!" George called back as some of the papers fluttered out of her arms. She glared back at them and started to yell but before she could get the words out they were gone.
"I know," Angelina said simply, drawing to a stop in front of a desk. The person sitting at the desk was hidden behind a giant mound of papers and the only sound that could be heard was the desperate scratching of a quill over parchment. "Hey!" Angelina shouted loudly. A mop of red hair emerged from behind the pile of papers.
"Percy?" George asked angrily, getting ready to turn around and leave. Katie took his arm and kept him from walking away. "What makes you think that he's going to help us after he spent a year spitting down on us?"
"Because as much as it might pain both sides to admit it, he was wrong and he realizes that after all this, he still loves you. I know how much of a disappointment that must be," she said tartly to George and Percy both. Percy had been staring down at the desk, but at the end of Angelina's statement looked up.
"She's right you know," he said quietly. "I do want to help and I am sorry about what happened. And much as it pains me to admit it, I love you just as much now as when I watched Mum and Dad bring you out of the hospital room in St. Mungo's." a slight, sad smile quirked at the corner of his lips.
There was an uncomfortable silence, which was broken by Lee's small cough. "I know that this is uncomfortable, but can we just try to focus on this later?" he asked all present. "If what you all say is true then we don't have a lot of time and we're rapidly running out of it."
"What do you need?" Percy asked, efficiently shoving his chair underneath his desk.
"We need the locations of two Aurors, one Nyhmpadora Tonks and one Kingsley Shacklebolt," Angelina said crisply. "They're part of a special group of Dumbledore's that would know the location of one of its members. That member is in trouble and we need to find him as soon as possible and with proper help as we suspect that there are Death Eaters as well as a strong possibility that Lord Voldemort himself is in the location as well. How would we go around getting that information?"
"Since the return of the Dark Lord," Percy said, stressing the significance of the name Dark Lord, as if to reprimand them for using his proper name. "Since his return the Aurors have had to carry special watches on their persons at every time of the day, so if the Minister needs them on a moment's notice he can touch the corresponding watch on his wrist and speak their name. It's quite simple yet really ingenious."
"And we need access to the minister, which you can get," Katie stated simply. Percy smiled sadly.
"Yes, although he hasn't been that warm towards me since he's figured out that I may be in contact with my family once more. No matter how much he knows that Dumbledore was right and that he was wrong, it's still hard for any human to admit that. But I'll see what I can do."
Percy tapped his desk with his wand three times and a small bubble of Fudge's face appeared in the air. "Yes Weasley?" he asked, sounding distracted. "Make it quick please; I have a large amount on my plate."
"Sir, I'm going to need you to summon Tonks and Shacklebolt," Percy said crisply and Fred had to marvel at just how good his older brother was at this clerical work. Who would've thought? "There's an emergency about the whereabouts of Lord Voldemort and some of his Death Eaters. Several citizens have reported some suspicious things happening."
"Yes, of course!" Fudge said, throwing his arms up in the air. "If there is ever any chance that we might know where You-Know-Who is hiding we send our entire force! I don't care whether or not it's some insane Squib who thinks that Inferi are walking down Main Street!" Fudge ended the conversation on this note. Percy turned around, a slight smile playing on his face.
"They'll be here in just a few moments," he said quietly. He noticed their shocked looks and smiled serenely. "It seems that some of us in the Ministry are feeling a little overworked," he said, sitting down at his desk to do some paperwork. "Don't worry. The Aurors will be here in just a few moments," he repeated.
Angelina bit her lip nervously as she looked around. She hoped that they would get here as quickly as they could, because she didn't think that Oliver had a lot of time left…