Disclaimer: I own no part of this story except for the plot and spell work. J. K. Rowling owns everything else, including dozens of hours of my life that I am dedicating to this story.
Chapter 25: Apparition Trails and Trapped!
Hermione bit back a curse as she heard Susan give yet another needless report that stated that nothing was happening. Harry and the rest of the Aurors had left headquarters more than thirty minutes ago and, other than the spells that were regularly occurring on the second floor, not a sign of magic had been recorded since their departure.
It was nearly ten o'clock now and Hermione had been here since five this afternoon. After the Order got a tip-off that this farmhouse would be the location of Jessica's pickup, Dumbledore quickly contacted the Aurors to set up a rescue operation. Kingsley had immediately sent Hestia and Hermione to the farmhouse to start the reconnaissance of the building and the surrounding area. Hermione had arrived and started on the initial scouting of the building while Ministry employees set up the surveillance equipment. The state-of-the-art system was a blend of magic and Muggle technology and was used in every major tactical mission the Aurors were given. It was said that the system could pick up the movement of a fly's wings over five miles away and the system performed just as well, if not better, with magic.
As soon as Hermione had finished drawing a rough map of the building and the surrounding area, she and Hestia went into the building and put as many surveillance charms as they could on everything in sight. Everything that could be charmed was charmed and Hermione knew that they would be able to hear anything above the sound of a board squeaking under even the slightest of pressure.
It took three and a half hours to get all of the surveillance systems set up, and, as soon as Hermione and Hestia had gotten back, they started up the system. Not but thirty minutes later, the first sign of Death Eater activity was recorded; an unregistered Portkey used to transport the prisoner and the apparition trails left by Death Eaters as they arrived at the farmhouse. By the sudden change of pressure on the wooden floor as the Death Eaters apparated into the farmhouse, the surveillance team had been able to confirm that there were five Death Eaters guarding Jessica. The Portkey itself had taken Jessica straight into a room on the second floor with the Death Eaters apparating into the same room, but pinpointing her exact location was impossible; the Death Eaters had been instructed on preventing surveillance too well.
After arriving at the farmhouse, the entire group of Death Eaters had entered every room of the second floor and had paused for a considerable amount of time. It had appeared that no one had remained behind in any of the rooms but, when the Death Eaters separated to go to their individual guard stations, only four Death Eaters had headed in separate directions. One of the Death Eaters had been able to stay behind, probably with Jessica, without them ever knowing about it. Hermione had a theory that it was possible for someone to shuffle their feet to cover up the absence of the missing Death Eater and hoped that Harry might capture one of Jessica's abductors so that she could find out.
Still, even without Jessica's location. Hermione had been able to identify where the rest of the Death Eaters were. Two Death Eaters patrolled the first floor, but their movements had stopped about ten minutes ago. Their last known position was in the kitchen, but Hermione didn't know if they were asleep or just sitting there talking. On the second floor, one Death Eater patrolled only the rooms on the second floor while another patrolled both the second floor and the third. The fifth Death Eater still hadn't given away his location.
Hermione had hoped that, if the Death Eaters tortured Jessica while waiting for whoever was going to take the girl, they would be able to pinpoint where the magic was coming from, but, once again, the Death Eaters were one step ahead of them. The two Death Eaters that patrolled the second floor would enter a room and cast some spell that was commonly used for torturing a prisoner. They would pause in that room for virtually the same amount of time and then walk to the next room where the process would repeat itself. This way, the Death Eaters still got to torture the young girl without having to worry about revealing where she was. It was clear by their actions that the Death Eaters on the second floor were extremely well trained in abductions and secrecy.
Harry, Kingsley, and the rest of the Auror strike team had arrived shortly after Hermione had finished compiling all of the known data, and Hermione quickly briefed them on the floor plans and possible points of insertion. After determining their entry points and reconfirming the whereabouts of the Death Eaters one last time, they had departed into the night. They were going in on foot for the three miles between headquarters and the farmhouse. Apparition was too risky on such a high secrecy mission such as this.
Unfortunately, there was no way for the surveillance team to actually "see" what was going on inside the building, but that was a charm that Hermione was working on. Hermione had come up with a rough estimate on how many individual spells that would be have to be combined to create the surveillance spell and the number wasn't very promising. Over three hundred different spells would be required in the creation and that wasn't counting the numerous spells that would have to be cast to resolve any conflicts that occurred with the integration of so many spells. Still, Hermione knew that they would be able to accomplish this feat someday; it was simply a matter of time and patience.
"I've got something here!"
Hermione quickly spun around to where Susan's voice had sounded and ran up to where the young Auror was monitoring the incoming data.
Over one thousand different feeds were coming into the computer that Susan was sitting at and all of the data irrelevant to their mission was filtered out. After the incoming data passed through the first filter, it was then separated into either sound waves or magic resonance. These two categories were what the system monitored, but many of the sound waves were ignored as they were caused by perfectly natural reasons. Any magic however, was strictly catalogued and reported.
"It's a revealing charm being cast on the back door. So faint that the system was nearly unable to pick it up. Has to be Smith."
Hermione nodded and performed a quick, but very complex spell. Suddenly a large, red map of the floor plans of the farmhouse was suspended in air. There was a view from the side that showed all five floors at once, including the attic and cellar, and next to it were three individual maps representing the three main floors. A blinking dot showed where Smith's spell had been cast.
Hermione grinned as Susan looked at the map in awe. Hermione had just finished perfecting this last week and had been eager to try it out. The map received information from the computer and translated it into visible data that the Aurors could see. It had originally been a working prototype of the "distance vision" system that Hermione had been working on, but she had seen the merits of having such a system right now.
"Nice work, so that's where Potter and his team are entering?" Hestia asked bemusedly.
"Yeah, and that's Kingsley right there." Hermione said while pointing at a new dot that was blinking on the ground.
"A massive levitation charm placed on the ground near the front entrance."
Hermione smiled as she heard Susan's calm voice assess the situation. When she got into her work, Susan rarely ever spoke in full sentences, only stating what was required to keep them updated on the situation.
"Another revealing charm and a disappearing charm afterwards. Near attic."
Hermione watched as small footprints appeared on the map. The computer picked up the change in pressure on the floor and it then translated that into movement which was displayed on the map. That had been the most difficult part about the map and Hermione had to get help from Remus and, very discreetly, Sirius as well. The map Hermione created basically functioned like a portable Marauder's Map. A simple charm done to a piece of each Aurors' hair allowed the map to identify who was who and each set of footprints was labeled with the Auror's name.
Hermione watched as Harry quickly entered the backdoor and made his way to the middle of the kitchen where he paused. Hermione was about to question what he was doing when Susan cried out.
"I have two stunners here, but no record of any spells being cast…nothing like anything I've ever seen before."
"That's Harry. He's using wandless magic," Hermione stated simply.
Her statement was greeted with the same incredulous stare that had crossed Susan's face when she had first seen the map. Susan looked like she was about to respond when she heard a beeping noise.
"I have two Lumos spells being cast and extinguished in quick succession."
Hermione smiled as she heard the good news. Communication charms had a range of less than five hundred meters which prevented them from being able to talk with Harry. Although they couldn't speak with Harry, they could detect any forms of magic performed and lighting and extinguishing a Lumos spell signaled that an enemy was down. It was a quick way of letting headquarters know what was going on without compromising the mission and was often cast as a second nature without the Auror ever thinking about doing it.
The room that Harry and his team were in turned blue, signaling that the room was clear of threats.
"Well, that's two down and one room clear. How are Kingsley and his men doing?" Hestia asked.
Hermione turned back to the third floor just in time to see Kingsley quickly enter a room to his left. The dot labeled Kingsley suddenly froze as did Vincent and Sam's. A cold, cruel voice echoed over the speakers set up on either side of the map.
"Don't move; you or the other two Aurors in the hall."
Hermione froze as she heard those terrible words that practically sealed Kingsley's fate. Even if they were able to get the reserve team together in time, it was unlikely they would be able to get to Kingsley without alerting every other Death Eater to their presence. Still, they had to try.
"Hestia, go get Orange team prepped. Tell them we leave in five minutes or we leave without them."
Hermione was surprised at her sudden outburst, but was even more surprised when she saw her mentor nod and quickly make her way out of the room. Hermione knew that she needed to apologize when this was done; it was not her place to speak for her mentor, but now was not the time. As Hestia went to get the other eight Aurors ready, Hermione turned back to the map
Chaos was ensuing and footprints were flying everywhere. Susan was talking faster than Hermione would have thought possible and she had a hard time keeping up with what was going on.
"Creak on stairs, first floor. Movement from room behind door, second floor. Large movement down hallway, third floor. Door opening, second floor. Death Eater confirmed on second floor. Large movement up stairs, first floor staircase. Small movement on stairs, third floor. Bone-breaker curse, wandless, second floor. Penetrating charm, second floor staircase. Loud thud, second floor. Lumos spell, second floor. Lumos spell, second floor. All clear. No injuries. One Death Eater remaining."
Hermione didn't even have time to register that Harry had been in danger before it was all over. Hermione let out the breath she had been holding. They were alright; everything was still okay.
Hestia suddenly burst into the room. "Let's go Hermione, we're ready."
Hermione gave the older woman a small smile. "Tell Orange team to go back into standby, Kingsley is okay. Someone performed a penetrating charm on the Death Eater, but we haven't had time to check who it was."
Hestia visibly relaxed and went back outside to tell the rest of the Aurors to go back to combat prep.
Hermione turned back to the map and watched as Harry and Kingsley met up in front of a room. The map was entirely blue now, aside from the room in red next to them.
"That must be where Jessica is…There's no where else for her to be."
"Reductor curse, second floor. Killing curse, second floor." Susan's voice reached a painfully loud volume as she announced the killing curse.
Hestia reentered the room just as everything suddenly happened at once. Even Susan was unable to keep up with what happened during the second that occurred between the Killing curse and the smashing hex that knocked the Death Eater back against the far wall.
"Smashing hex, second floor. Lumos, all Death Eaters are down. But…there…in between it all…there was…a summoning spell?"
Hermione wasn't sure what had happened back there but Harry was sure as hell going to hear it when he got back. Someone had nearly died right there, Hermione knew that much and Harry had somehow been able to save them. Still, they had gotten to Jessica and that was what was important.
"Full body bind, second floor."
Hermione bit back a giggle as she heard the report and knew that Harry had likely hexed the girl to make sure she didn't hurt herself. Harry always did find good uses for spells that were created for much less…benevolent purposes.
"They did it," Hestia said as she let out a sigh.
"Yes they did. Come on, we need to get the mediwizards ready for Jessica when she gets here."
Hestia and Hermione got as far as the door when Susan started shouting.
"Apparition trails detected. Three…five…eight Death Eaters on second floor. Same room as our men."
"WHAT?"
Hermione and Hestia turned around and looked incredulously at Susan. "Eight Death Eaters?"
"No, that's only in the same room…thirteen…seventeen…twenty-three…thirty-seven… forty-six Death Eaters in total are confirmed near farmhouse."
The Aurors stood side by side and allowed the curses to fly straight at them. Nearly a foot away from the group, all eight of the curses were deflected by the overlapping shields that the Aurors created. Harry didn't have time to think and was already too worn out to try and influence time again. Instead, he cast a quick wandless disarming spell at the sea of black robes in front of him while still maintaining the shield he had erected. A wand flew into his outstretched hand and Harry snapped it and threw it aside.
"Phillips! Get Jessica out of here now. We'll be right behind you."
Phillips didn't question Harry's orders and backed up into the corridor and grabbed the stretcher.
"On three…one…two…three!"
Harry shouted the instructions and, on three, the Aurors brought down their shields for a brief second. Lucius had been listening to Harry and threw a killing curse at the young Auror. Harry summoned a chair in front of him to take the brunt of the curse but winced as the force of the curse blew the chair back at him. Harry was barely able to banish the chair back across the room at Lucius, but he was struck in the side with a whipping curse while he had been distracted. A long gash appeared on Harry's side and blood started to pour from the wound. Lucius had a triumphant look on his face as he raised his wand to curse Harry.
"STUPEFY!"
The spell, yelled by two voices, echoed loudly and Harry fell to the ground to avoid the stunner. The red spell just missed his arm and Harry felt his fingers go numb for a second while it passed him. Lucius prepared to finish the job when his triumphant smile disappeared as Kingsley's stunner washed across his body.
Harry jumped up, expecting another curse to fly towards him, when Kingsley put a hand on his shoulder.
"We took care of them. Lucius brought a bunch of idiots with him on this one."
Harry gave a grim smile of thanks and performed a few healing spells on his wound. When he was sure that it was patched up the best he could get it he turned back to Kingsley.
Harry was about to speak when a voice started yelling in his ear.
"HARRY! GET DOWN HERE! DEATH EATERS…EVERYWHERE…CAN'T HOLD THEM MUCH LONGER…"
Harry, Kingsley, and the rest of the Aurors ran downstairs to see Phillips holding off five Death Eaters on his own while more Death Eaters piled into the building with each passing second. Phillips ducked under a killing curse and deflected a stunner, all the while keeping himself between Jessica and the Death Eaters. Harry's heart felt a surge of hope as he saw Phillips put a Death Eater down and quickly disarmed another, but Harry's hopes fell as he watched another group of five Death Eaters enter the building. There were now at least seventeen Death Eaters in the living room of the farmhouse. Harry charged down the stairs, throwing curses at every target he could see. At least three Death Eaters went down under Harry's spells, but the Death Eaters knew they were coming now. Harry ignored the remaining steps and banished the banister of the stairs towards the Death Eaters and jumped the remaining distance to the ground.
A purple curse flew towards where he would have been where it left a scorching hole in the wall. Harry smiled as the banister took down another four Death Eaters. The smile faded as he saw Phillips go down.
"Rumpovisci!"
The Death Eater shouted the curse while pointing his wand at Phillips' head. The curse caused the Auror's brain to rupture and Phillips fell to the floor with a terrible thud.
The Death Eater reached out for Jessica's stretcher when Harry quickly summoned it to him. Curses were flying over Harry's shoulders as Kingsley and the rest of the Aurors attempted to cover him while Harry took over the role of guarding Jessica.
Vincent let out a yelp as a large burn mark appeared across his forearm. The Auror angrily retaliated in kind by casting an Incinerator Curse at the Death Eater that cursed him. The Death Eaters' was roasted alive as flames engulfed his body. Kingsley put down a Death Eater with a paralysis charm and blinded another. Sam and Smith were fighting side by side, their backs against one another while fending off attacks from all sides.
Harry saw all of this and watched in amazement as their efforts hardly put a dent in the number of Death Eaters in the building. For every one they took down, another three seemed to take his place and Harry saw that this battle was hopeless. Harry was about to call a retreat when Vincent was felled by a killing curse.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry shouted pointing his wand at the Death Eater that had killed Vincent. The Death Eater was paid back in full for what he had done and Harry knew it was time to pull out.
"BUG OUT!" Harry shouted while starting to move backwards towards the kitchen.
Kingsley heard Harry's call for retreat and slowly fought his way backwards, trying to make it to the kitchen. Kingsley almost made it there when a Death Eater opened the door to the kitchen and raised his wand.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Speculo Incantantem!"
The Killing Curse rebounded against the Death Eater and, as the Death Eater's body fell towards the ground, Kingsley saw at least another seven Death Eaters waiting in the kitchen.
"Someone's cooking in the kitchen right now Harry…got any where else to go?" Kingsley yelled over the curses being shouted across the room.
"We can try door number three to your right…" Harry hollered back.
Kingsley shoved the door and saw a staircase leading down.
"It goes to the cellar. We'll be trapped."
"Anywhere has got to be better than here!"
Kingsley covered Harry as he made his way in with Jessica, Smith and Sam quickly following. Kingsley slammed the door shut and put as many locking spells as he possibly could on the door. At the same time, Harry was strengthening the door so that it could withstand a shot from a tank without breaking. After they finished, the four remaining Aurors met in the center of the room.
"Well guys, this is it." Harry said with a grim smile.
"Yeah…it's been nice knowing you Mr. Potter. You've been one hell of a good leader," Smith said with a small smile.
"What? I don't get anything for being your commanding officer?" Kingsley asked defensively.
"Yes sir, you get a 'you've been a right pain in the ass commander who did a damn good job training us' sir." Sam said while smiling.
"I like the sound of that." Kingsley said with a smile.
Harry reached into his pocket and took out a small, silver whistle. "Sam, you and Smith take this and get Jessica out of here. It's a Portkey to St. Mungo's."
Sam looked at Harry in disbelief and took the whistle gingerly. "You're not coming with us Mr. Potter?"
"You're damn right he is…Harry grab that whistle, that's an order."
"With all due respect Kingsley—"
A loud explosion cut off the rest of Harry's words. Harry raised a shield as the door suddenly shattered under the force of over twenty Reductor curses. A large fragment of wood hit the shield and bounced off and Harry jumped in front of Jessica to keep her safe.
Harry was about to start throwing curses at the Death Eaters when he saw the long fragment of wood protruding from Kingsley's leg. The piece of wood was at least three feet long and had gone all the way through Kingsley's calf. There was no way Kingsley was going anywhere any time soon. Harry was about to offer him some help when Kingsley started throwing curses back at the Death Eaters.
"Get the…Stupefy!…Iugulo!…hell out of here Potter…Suffococus!"
"GET OUT!" Harry yelled at Sam and Smith as they held the whistle out to him.
The two men looked confusedly at one another before they each grabbed the whistle while holding on to Jessica and yelled, "Activatus!"
The men disappeared and Harry turned back to Kingsley while dodging another curse. "It's too late now. You're stuck with me." Harry said as he stunned a tall Death Eater and decapitated another.
"Damn it Potter, I told you to get out of here. Apparate back to headquarters now!" Kingsley yelled as he banished the wood stuck in his leg towards an oncoming Death Eater. The piece of wood caught the Death Eater in the throat and the man went down clutching at the gaping whole in his throat.
"Can't, anti-apparition wards are in place. The only place they were down was on the second floor." Harry took the time to put a few healing charms on Kingsley to take care of the bleeding and to disinfect the wound. Kingsley covered Harry for the few seconds Harry needed to patch Kingsley up.
"You know what this means right?" Harry said as he returned back to work and shattered the skull of a charging Death Eater.
Kingsley deflected a red hex and used a disintegration curse to put down his attacker. "We're dead?" Kingsley guessed.
Harry grimaced before replying lightly. "That's a given; unfortunately for them, they are too. Because of the anti-apparition fields, we can't run anywhere, but they can't go anywhere either." Harry ducked under a green curse and deflected a bright blue one back at its caster. The Death Eater's skin began to peel away, revealing tender pink flesh that was quickly covered by blood.
Kingsley nodded as he suddenly understood what Harry meant. "So we go out with a bang then?" Kingsley grunted as a scorching spell hit him on his uninjured leg. Harry banished the attacking Death Eater across the room and the man fell to the ground unconscious.
"Can you think of anything better?" Harry said while dodging a freezing curse and throwing a killing curse back in return.
Harry and Kingsley continued to fight until the entire basement was full of Death Eaters. They fought back to back, covering each other while doing as much damage as they could on the attacking Death Eaters.
"Ready?" Harry asked in a sympathetic and regretful tone.
"Might as well be," Kingsley replied lightly.
Suddenly, as one, Harry and Kingsley both pointed their wands at the ceiling and cast the strongest Reductor curse they could manage. The curses shattered the wood above them and the house gave a mighty creak. Debris began to fall all around them as all three floors started collapsing in on themselves, trapping Harry, Kingsley, and the rest of the Death Eaters inside.
Author's Note: Well, that's another one down. Let me tell you what, college is an awesome experience but your professors certainly make sure that you don't have too much free time. Therefore, updates will be a bit slower in coming now but I promise you that I will finish this story, even if it's the last thing I do. Also, I believe that I have worked out a way to work in most of the major plot details of HBP without rewriting my story including the death of a major character and the presence of a character who shouldn't be in the Order. The relatively minor stuff I'm not going to worry about because it'll take up too much time to fix the small stuff and that would distract me from working on the next chapter. Hopefully it'll all make sense in the end. Hope you enjoyed this one and I look forward to speaking (in a sense I suppose) to you next time.