Many many apologies for the late update. I actually finished this weeks ago but I'm having computer problems and couldn't update. I'm trying to fix the computer but if it starts croaking again it may be a while until the next update.
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Longest chapter yet! Ten and a half thousand words! This fic has finally passed the two hundred thousand words mark!
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Please read the notes at the end of the chapter! Then review.
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Chapter 30
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"Alohomora". The spell hit the circular gold and amethyst medallion set into the rock, was absorbed, and transferred through. On the other side of ten feet of solid rock the invisible spell flew through the rock and out into the room and hit a rickety chair. The back panel of the chair back and the underside of the seat snapped open. "Alohomora." Now the chair legs opened, spilling their contents onto the floor. These four liquids mixed with what had fallen from the other two compartments. The reaction was the creation of an invisible gas. A lethal invisible gas.
None of the death eaters sitting around the room heard or saw a thing. They didn't hear the chair being activated because of the well oiled hinges and springs, they didn't hear the chemical reactions taking place, because those were nearly soundless. And the vapors that filled the room were colorless and odorless. But very, very, deadly.
It worked quickly, with no coughing and only a little wheezing at first. Then the death eaters began to gasp as the poison coated the inside of their lungs and stopped oxygen from being absorbed. While they began to suffocate the fast acting poison was being drawn into their bloodstream. One of them made a dash for the door, but with the poison in his veins he moved too slowly and collapsed before he reached it, paralyzed. Once paralyzed there was nothing that could have been done, even if the best healers Saint Mungo's had to offer arrived immediately. In less than four minutes a dozen men and women in black robes and white masks lay dead on the floor.
Regulus removed the medallion, a Black family heirloom, and slipped away into the warm damp spring night, in the form of a dark colored fox. Unseen, unheard, unsmelled, and unsensed by the wards.
It had been Harry who had figured out how to get him through the wards. Regulus bore the dark mark, which was created with parselmagics. Voldemort could sense each person and knew who he was sensing; the mark broadcast the name to him. Harry, also a parselmouth, had reworked Regulus's mark to temporarily give off the name of a death eater Moody had nabbed a week earlier. Harry had simply caused regulus's mark to temporarily give off the magical signature of someone else by trapping a bit of the other man's magical signature into the mark with parselmagic. How this had been done Harry couldn't explain. He could understand how Voldemort had made the connections, that knowledge was in the parselmagics, but he couldn't explain it, it was something instinctive. With more experience he thought he would have understood but he wasn't about to bind people to him just to understand this. It seemed that Regulus's lack of contact with Voldemort had left his mark weak, his connection with the dark lord so light that Voldemort hadn't really noticed. And he never would have thought of Regulus even if he had noticed a stirring in his links with his servants, it was one of the advantages of being "dead".
"Well that went well." Regulus said softly, becoming human again at the house, they were using a small house Regulus owned, under a false identity, as a base for the night. The property was on the edge of the village, about four kilometers from the Riddle Mansion.
"It seems a little unfair, they had no chance, and there was no battle." Shacklebolt said.
"There are a lot more of them, and they wouldn't hesitate to use the same methods." Tonks told her superior.
"I have to agree with Tonks. And, Shacklebolt, there is less of a fuss this way. Quick, clean, no commotion, no noise." Harry said.
"Stage two?" Moody asked.
"Soon." Harry promised. "I let Siraka go ten minutes ago." Siraka was the diamondback rattlesnake he had originally gotten to guard the cottage he was using to house his Dyalnos tree, but she was getting bored and wanted to do something more. After explaining the situation, and who Voldemort was, she had been happy to help.
"Sygra?"
"With Siraka."
"Good. Vampires?" Shacklebolt asked Moody. Moody lifted one arm and flipped open the armguard he was wearing. Inside was a two way communication device the Weasely twins had originally built for the Order.
"How's it going?"
"Got all six." Came the short reply. "We're on our way." Moody closed the communication panel and turned back to them.
The vampires were gathering the death eaters who had gone on a kidnapping mission. They had followed them out of the secret exit in Voldemort's fortress, which a death eater had kindly told them about, under the influence of several potions and with Remus, in werewolf form, ready to rip him apart and eat him if he didn't.
The second reason for sending the vampires was that if the death eaters were captured they couldn't return while the plan was in progress to cause trouble. They knew where most of the death eaters were this night and had control over six. It gave some security.
"We need to turn in all the death eaters alive." Shacklebolt reminded Moody. "The vampires just saved three little kids, we can focus on that better if they don't go and eat the death eaters."
"They know that." Harry replied, since Moody was getting annoyed. On the desk a small array of gemstones beeped, and one started glowing. "Rita confirmed the attack is over and she's interviewing the witnesses." The reporter had practically started drooling when Harry told her the plans, and asked if she wanted to be their lead reporter for this. Of course, she didn't know everything. She wouldn't learn about the death eaters they had just murdered. That didn't need to become public knowledge. They would be more likeable if they were seen as being above such things. At first anyway. Rahkesh hoped to change that. But it would be best to change public views in small steps.
Shacklebolt, ever loyal, had insisted on giving the Ministry one last chance, Tonks had agreed and so had Moody. Harry would have written it off as a complete waste of time, but it had the great advantage of giving them an "I told you so" after everything was over, whenever that was. People looking back on the war would know that the vampires had tried twice, once at Azkaban, and once tonight, and had been ignored and persecuted both times. And while Azkaban was a kidnapping and trespassing event, this was merely saving lives. The vampires Lord Hadrian had sent had saved the three kids from other vampires who had accompanied the six death eaters – those vampires were dead. Showing two distinct groups. And the Ministry had blamed one for the actions of the other. The vampire elders had also sent word saying that if they could have assurances of not being attacked by witches and wizards, they would kill off all the young vampires. The Ministry had not replied and the day before several vampires, testing to see if the Ministry was even thinking about the letter, had been attacked on the Minister's orders. They had two eyewitness accounts of the letter being delivered by the bat messenger, and the same two could say that the Minster had read it. The Ministry could not claim ignorance. That those two people were veteran aurors, humans, made them very acceptable.
"Do you think the vampires would stop, even if the Ministry backs down after this?" Shacklebolt asked. Rahkesh and Moody had been waiting for him to ask all night.
"No." They both said at the same time.
"If vampires are declared equals to witches and wizards, maybe. But it's unlikely." Moody said. Neither of them mentioned the vampire's plan to let the muggles know they existed sometime soon. They didn't need that complication, especially since there wasn't anything that could deter the vampires; they had spent too long planning for this.
"I don't like relying on one serpent." Tonks said.
"We've gone over this several times. Sygra knows what to do and she'd a quick thinker." Harry said.
It was mid spring and after three weeks of work their plan to steal Hufflepuff's cup from Voldemort's fortress was finally active.
The dead death eaters were the only ones currently in the area of the back entrance to Voldemort's personal rooms. The plan was for Siraka to meet up with Nagini, or any other serpent belonging to Voldemort. She would need to distract him. Siraka was uniquely suited to this as she had been stepped on by one of the thestrals several days before. The wound kept her from moving easily but was not life threatening. With Voldemort hopefully gone and distracted Sygra would go in and remove anyone that stood in her way. The cup was in a safe under Voldemort's bed. They knew that from one of his snakes Harry had captured and convinced to tell him about his former master.
Getting a copy of the key to the safe had been a surprisingly easy, though very complex, procedure. Voldemort had raided a muggle town to kill four muggleborns living there, sport for his death eaters and vampires. Needing to make a public appearance Voldemort had gone himself. Harry and Remus had planted explosives under the street minutes before the death eaters arrived (informed in advance by Regulus, who had spied on their meeting in the Riddle family cemetery) and Andrew Farov, hidden amongst the vampires, had telekinetically detached the key ring from its necklace and summoned the key to him while Voldemort ducked for cover. Farov had made a mold and the key had been back in its place by the time Voldemort got back on his feet and finished dusting himself off. And the aurors, also warned via tip from Shacklebolt's unnamed source (Regulus this time), had saved three of the muggleborns. They had created an identical key from the mold, which had been attached to Sygra with a bit of tape.
The major problem had been getting through Voldemort's wards, his rooms were heavily protected. But the death eaters they had questioned claimed that he lifted the wards every time he left. If Siraka did a good job the wards would be open long enough for Sygra to get through.
They had expected to find heavy magic guarding the safe, but Regulus claimed that the locket had not had any special magics on it itself. According to Dumbledore's portrait at Hogwarts, accessed by Moody while on a visit to check the school's wards, the ring hadn't had any magics on it either. While that had been encouraging they had been worried about the safe. However Dumbledore had told Moody that the cup most likely had healing magics, and most dark wards/enchantments and healing magics could not exist in close proximity. It was very likely that the safe itself was free of magical barriers because of the natural powers of Helga's cup. It was a dangerous assumption, but since it had a very good chance of being true it wasn't enough to hold them back.
It had been a hard sell, getting them to allow Sygra to do this. They had only his word to go on, and he hadn't told them about plan B – Sygra transforming and flying out. They did know that she could go through walls, and that she could take objects with her. The golden cup of Hufflepuff was supposedly fairly small, no bigger than a small wine glass, with two handles. Sygra, at a little over four feet in length, should not have a problem moving it. The only thing they did not know was what exactly the cup's magical powers, unrelated to Voldemort, were. But they all doubted those would cause complications.
"And now we wait." Moody growled. He limped to a chair and sat down, resting his good leg on the coffee table with a thunk and his false one stretched out on the floor. Harry knew he had to be worried and as anxious as the rest of them, but the ex auror showed none of it. He just took a drink from his flask and closed his eye.
The other shifted nervously with a few drawn out sighs. It was going to be a long night, waiting for the snakes to do their job.
"What do we do if the muggles notice anything?" Remus asked suddenly.
"Got that covered a week ago, you were out dealing with your lycanthropy." Shacklebolt replied, "We've got two people working for the Prime Minister right now. I was the original contact so I got to choose people I trusted to take over when I got pulled out of there. There are some other important events to distract all the reporters – a couple of elephants got out of a zoo and someone painted several government building bright colors and someone snuck into a military base and repainted their helicopters and other harmless things. The local police have "heard" through the grape vine that the SAS is doing some secret training thing in the area."
"I still can't believe he split his soul into pieces." Tonks muttered with shiver. "I can't even imagine wanting to do that."
"Especially since he chose the worst possible way of doing it." Harry agreed, the others all turned to stare at him. "I looked into how you can split up your soul, there are two other ways that don't involve murder. Mind you murder is the least painful of them."
"Of course, because that way you either have to experience horrific pain or kill someone, which is a pretty good deterrent for most people." Shacklebolt said.
"Molly and Arthur would like to see you some time." Tonks said to Harry.
"I know. I don't think I'll have time this weekend, maybe next week." He said, they probably wanted to discuss leaving the country. Charlie and Bill were both gone, they had work that traveled.
The twins he hadn't seen in a while, but they had decided to leave. He didn't know where they were going, but he had stopped by their shop a few weeks earlier to discuss what they were going to do. They were going to open a joke shop, once they decided where to go, and at Harry's suggestion they would keep on creating other devices, patenting them, and selling them on the side. Their work on stuff for the Order had been incredible – their creative genius was simply astounding, and Harry hadn't wanted to see it all go to waste. There were a lot of people who would be very interested in the twin's stuff, including law enforcement agencies from every country in the world, and every criminal in existence. He had pointed out that they didn't have to sell to anyone they disapproved of, and would be a great help to any cause they wanted to support. A pair of inventors like Fred and George could go anywhere and be welcomed.
He would have mention his school and suggested that they try to get in, but they were eighteen and he wasn't sure if they would have time to meet the graduation requirements. If they didn't they were killed. There weren't a whole lot of requirements, but Akren refused to graduate any student who mgiht not be successful. The few requirements took work and ingenuity. The twins had both, but didn't think they really had time for some of it. he had offered to teach them the Akren method of animagi transformations, and they had both eagerly accepted.
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Sygra watched as Siraka slipped into one of the entrances Voldemort had built for his snakes – and immediately tried to back out again when she came face to face with Nagini. What luck. Because of her injuries Siraka couldn't back up and Nagini didn't recognize her as one of Voldemort's serpents. The two spoke briefly and then Nagini retreated. Siraka's story fo escaping from a horrible traumatizing muggle pet shop and getting stepped on by a horse pulled carriage must have passed.
Come with me. My master can help you. Nagini called behind her to the injured diamond back. Siraka flicked the end of her tail, still out of the tunnel, at Sygra, and followed slowly.
Your master? Siraka inquired in confusion as she hesitated, and slowly moved after the larger snake.
A human who can speak to us. Nagini said, come in, I won't eat you.
I'm venomous. You're not. Siraka reminded her. Nagini hissed in amusement.
And I could crush you in seconds, wrap my coils around you and squeeze your fangs shut and crush your body. She reminded Siraka coldly. Siraka swayed her head from side to side and followed.
Once she could no longer hear or see them Sygra slipped past the tunnels and up onto the hill. She had been doused in potions to not give off any scent, and Regulus (in fox form) had left a scent marker at the point above Voldemort's rooms. She wasn't keen on falling through the ceiling, but memories Moody had stolen from a death eater had given a good location for landing on Voldemort's bed, and the ceiling was lowest in the bedroom.
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"Report from the vampires, the family and all the witches and wizards living on that block, apparently there are several families, all know the kids were saved by vampires. Rita is observing while the vampires and mortals discuss the anti-vampire laws and general ignorance humans have of vampires." Remus said, reading from a piece of parchment. It was a connection to one of the vampires who was to keep them informed.
"Tonks perhaps you should be there. In disguise, check out the surrounding buildings and such. One of the death eaters might have a signal to show they were captured. It only takes one." Moody said suddenly. Tonks nodded and slowly changed into a middle aged browned haired plain looking woman. The sort of person no one would remember or recognize. "And if things to get out of hand with the muggles you can obliviate a few."
"Good idea." Harry said, filing it away for later use.
"Been doing this a long time lad." Moody said with a grin. "Marluck's advanced classes are very good." The others, having long since realized that they probably wouldn't understand half of what Harry and Moody said, ignored the name and mention of school. "The more layers of backup there are the better chance you have of succeeding and living."
Tonks left to go find the vampires and the others continued to wait. They didn't know how long this would take; it would depend upon how long it took Siraka to find Nagini.
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Sygra found her spot and waited, smelling the air. Rahkesh had been teaching her to recognize warding magic by its scent, and she could smell powerful wards on the ground below her. The whole area was warded, but the area above Voldemort's rooms was where the wards felt the strongest.
Suddenly the wards below her vanished. Without pausing to think Sygra dove into the earth, wrapping magic around her and traveling through it. She could travel through almost anything, so long as it contained nonliving matter, she couldn't travel through trees, but solid titanium wasn't a problem.
Voldemort's fortress was very deep underground and Sygra moved as fast as possible to get through before the wards reappeared. The earth was wet and large rocks showed up, she went through them easily, but had to swerve her downward motion to avoid large tree roots. Finally she hit air and fell through the ceiling, landing on a soft surface with a quiet thud.
Sygra slid under the pillow as fast as possible, just incase anyone had heard her land and come to investigate. From there she peeked out and looked around. At that moment the wards appeared again.
Voldemort had a thing for decadence; his rooms were beautifully furnished with extremely expensive furniture, paintings, and rugs, and lit by torches and candles. The room was cozy, but in a cold sort of way, everything was in cool colors, with only the candles to give it any warmth. The walls were a dark cream and the bed was covered with dark green velvet blankets over black silk sheets. There was a small mirror over a dresser but Sygra sensed it was not magical and therefore wouldn't shout a warning if it saw her. That had been one of her master's major concerns. Magical mirrors could talk.
Interestingly the paintings were not magical either, though she supposed that the ones in the office and sitting room probably were, but here they were not. Ordinary muggle works with no magic. Another potential problem she didn't have to worry about. If snakes had had a god Sygra would have thanked him, instead she slid to edge of the bed and leaned over to look down.
Immediately she knew she would not be able to go under the bed, there were wards wrapped around the bed, running from the floor to the bottom of the mattress. The wards were a wall though, they did not fill the entire space under the bed, just around the edges, probably because they could not exist too close to the cup. Sygra smelled the air and detected both unicorn and human blood drawn in a line around the base of the bed, and second line around the edges of the mattress. The floor and mattress and been forced to magically absorb enough blood that it would have taken a child's life to create the wards. The scent of death was also present.
Sygra went to the center of the bed and examined the sheets, there were no wards here. She pressed her whole body against the blankets and drew her magic around her again, and sunk through. Through the blankets, through the sheets, and through the mattress. Spells on the silk sheets made her skin hurt, but it passed quickly and the mattress was not enchanted. She hit the floor and found her self atop the safe. There was no alarm given when she hit it, but it did have magics on it, old magics. That, while not alerting Voldemort that someone had touched the safe, would not let her through.
Sygra twisted around and slid the key out from under the tape. This was the hard part, snakes have no limb and her mouth was more adept at unhinging to swallow prey that at maneuvering things. With the help of her coils she managed to insert the key and twist it. Then she slid off the safe, slipped her tail through the tiny handle, and lifted the door.
Inside the safe was surprisingly large. And now Sygra recognized its magic, it was enchanted to be bigger inside than outside, like her masters trunks, desk, and suitcases, though those enchantments were unnecessary; the safe was not even half full.
Inside lay a bundle wrapped in silver silk, and several other items. Sure that the wrapped object was the cup Sygra flicked the covering away with her snout, and hissed in pleasure at the small two handles cup that was revealed, bearing a badger crest. She slid her head through one of the handles and lifted herself out of the safe, allowing it to slid down her body until she could wrap another layer of coils around the handle. It tingled with magic, dark magic, insane twisted magic that felt wrong. Sure that she could carry the cup Sygra looked back into the safe.
There were several books, much too big for her to carry, and their magic smelled nasty. There was a white armband of three entwined snakes, it's was parselmagic and it spoke to Sygra, she ignored it as well. It was clunky and heavy. Next was a silver and green ring, nonmagical but delicate and very beautiful. Sygra left it as well. Nosing further in she discovered one other item, a small ball not much bigger than her head, which hung from a very short chain of blue metal. Probably made to be worn around a wrist or arm or ankle she decided, and the ball, made from chips of diamond and gold, had a seam and hinge. Sygra smelled it and tasted a hint of snake scent, though of what sort she couldn't tell.
Unsure if it could be useful she withdrew from the safe and thought of her master, his scent, the sound of his voice, the feel of his magic.
- Master?- In the house Harry closed his eyes, becoming Rahkesh, mentally, and sending out a thought, searching for his familiar. This was something they had practiced occasionally, but never over such a long distance. He could feel a faint hint of snake magic at the edge f his senses, and unique feel of Sygra.
- Yes? – He asked. Rather than spoken reply he saw an image flash across his closed eyelids, and a thought of uncertain intent. He and Sygra had discovered that words were difficult for them to transmit, intentions were easier. He sent back a certainty that she should try to take it. Along with a wave of caution. Thinking strongly that Sygra should ditch the diamond and gold ball if she had too. He got a feeling of reassurance. Sygra was no fool; she knew which was more important.
Sygra slipped her head through the short chain and lifted the seamed ball out, sliding it down her body and wrapping and looping through the chain again. Then she closed the safe, turned the key and tucked the key back under the tape on her back. With luck Voldemort didn't check very often and would never know.
Now she had to get out. Sygra glanced upwards, wondering if she could get back up through the bed. Decided she probably could she lifted as much of her body off the floor as she could, wrapped her magic around, letting in encase the key, the cup, and the strange seamed diamond ball, and lunged upwards.
She barely made it, she was just over four feet long and she couldn't lift all her body off the ground, she managed to get her head up onto the mattress and bit in for extra support. Her packages slowed her down some, but eventually she managed to lift her whole length back up onto the bed. There was an option now. Out through the wall and see if she could get out, before Voldemort's wards noticed. Or through the ceiling.
She could go through objects in her wyvern form, but not always, there were many things that could stop her when she had her wings. It was much easier as a snake. And magical object usually stopped her. So really it was a question of which was quicker, bashing her way through the ceiling, or through several walls corridors and however many people were out there. For this decision her master had given her a little help. The key was enchanted and covered with a potion. It had fulfilled its first use, and they still had the mold. Now she could toss it up again the ceiling and it would explode upon a strong impact. Her master had mixed several layers of potions onto the key, including an anti-gravity potion, which, while still experimental, did give objects, or in this case an explosive force, a tendency to work against gravity. Ensuring that most of the explosion would be channeled upwards. In the end Sygra chose the ceiling.
She pulled the key from under the tape, and looked up; Rahkesh had insisted that she practice this too.
She lifted herself off the bed and then bent, they had discovered that using her entire body to throw increased how fats and how hard she could throw objects. Coiling as if she were going to strike Sygra lunged upwards, ending with a flick of her head, releasing the key.
It hit the ceiling hard and the enchantments and potions activated.
The resulting blast shook the ground and massive chunks of the ceiling began to fall out. Realizing that in her current form she could be crushed Sygra transformed.
The wyvern lunged off the bed, unfurling her wings in mid air and pounding the air to gain speed. As the ceiling dropped away she twisted her head and neck in between the boulders dropping down at her, rubbing them aside rather than knocking into them. Her wings were hit several times by the jagged chunks and began to bleed. Sygra ignored this, concentrating instead on keeping the two objects trapped in the last coil of her tail.
Finally the falling debris turned to dir and Sygra lunged upwards again, flying through it with great difficulty, holding her breath so as not to inhale it.
Up above the stars began visible and out of the widening hole in the ground the wyvern burst into the night air.
Behind her the enchantments on the hill the fortress was inside were already at work, and her tail barely cleared the hole before everything that had fallen in slammed upwards and closed up again, healing like an injury under an especially powerful healing spell. Knitting bedrock back together and layering the soil atop it. In seconds there was no sign anything had ever happened.
Sygra winged away towards the forest, and then dropped to the ground in a small clearing and transformed. Scenting out her trial from earlier she followed it back to the hidden portkeys. One for each snake. Siraka had not yet returned. But she had other orders. If Siraka had a chance of gaining Nagini's trust and joining in a spy amongst Voldemort's serpents, she would do so. Siraka had been eager to fight against this human that had disgraced her species so. She was probably still with Voldemort.
Curling herself around the portkey Sygra spat her most acidic venom onto it, dissolving away the paper it was wrapped in, the portkey triggered as soon as it touched her and with a horrid yank (she hated portkeys), she found herself on the porch of the fox-man's house.
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"Incoming." Moody barked as the blue crystals that the anti-portkey wards were attached to flared with magical sparks. Sygra's portkey was attached to the wards so she could go in and out.
Harry dashed out onto the porch in time to see Sygra land on the porch and toss the portkey aside with an angry flick of her tail. She didn't like flying or portkeying, but given a choice she preferred portkeys.
Are you hurt? He asked.
Yes, the explosion made all of the ceiling fall on me. Sygra complained, she uncurled and let the cup and diamond ball slide off her. Harry could see deep gashes along her sides, and her wyvern form probably had damage to its wings. He picked up the snake, the portkey, and levitated the diamond and gold ball, rather than touch it.
"Success!" He called back into the house. And quickly cast a silencing spell against the immediate whoops and cheers. Only Moody had the sense to check for a silencing spell before he too started laughing and cheering.
Does this mean I can have some fresh lizard eggs tomorrow? Sygra asked as Harry began casting healing spells. Her scales quickly mended and Harry pulled a creamy healing potion out of his pocket and rubbed it into the new scales to minimize the scarring and remove the ache left by new scar tissue.
Absolutely. What sort?
Iguana eggs. Sygra answered at once, she had developed a fondness for them during their stay in Brazil. Harry had brought some back and was keeping them in one of the many chambers in Potter family vault that kept its contents out of time and perfectly preserved.
"One horcrux, now I just have to figure out how to destroy it." Harry said, sitting down beside Moody with Sygra wrapped around his neck and shoulders.
"We have one. That second snake of yours is with Nagini, which means we can get her too when we're ready." Moody reminded him.
"I just wish we hadn't lost the locket." Regulus said now that the celebrating had calmed down a bit.
"We'll find it. We have Mundungus's list of customers, it's just a matter of tracking down all of them." Remus said.
"I doubt he even knew the real names of most of those people, and I'm sure he didn't put all of them on that list." Harry said. "I think finding the locket is going to have to be done with some sort of soul magic scrying." He had some ideas about ways to find that one piece of soul magic amongst all other soul magic in the world, but he wasn't going to share that just yet. Involved some necromancy and he ah dot learn that first. Moody, apparently content to wait until Harry was ready to tell him what the plan was, just nodded and didn't ask anything.
Then the crystals that the vampires were using to communicate began to flash bright red and send out sparks.
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By the time they arrived it was complete chaos. There were bodies scattered across the street and the dark mark loomed high in the sky glowing sickly green. There were people screaming and flashes of magic flying.
Harry had already shifted back into Rahkesh and then given himself temporary dirty blond hair and much paler skin, it wasn't a disguise that would hold up for long against someone who knew what spells were usually used for such things, but during a fight it would be enough.
Death eaters, in their robes and white masks, were running everywhere in groups of three or four, attacking anyone running away. There was no sign of the vampires but Rahkesh assumed they had to be somewhere nearby.
"We need to set up some central point!" Moody called out over the noise. "We'll take the house on the corner." Remus turned and went over to the place moody had pointed at and began sending up flares and setting wards. Tonks ran up to them, breathless.
"They showed up just a few minutes ago, there must be over a hundred of them, the vampires disappeared."
"I've called in the aurors and the remaining Order.' Shacklebolt said. "We'll set that place up as a base; Tonks go help Remus, Moody, Harry?" The two exchanged looks.
"Change of plans Kingsley, I can't run well enough to keep up with them, Tonks you go join one of the auror units, I'll hold down the fort." Moody growled, his one eye spinning and his twisted grin looking much more ghoulish than usual. Rahkesh laughed.
"You're already enjoying this."
"Gotta love a good brawl." Moody agreed. "Now go find those vamps and send the people this way." Rahkesh saluted and picked out a spot in the park where most of the screaming was coming from. Moody clumped over to where Remus was waiting, and they both began summoning every body in sight, checking for anyone who might be alive.
"Crucio!"
"Flipendo." Rahkesh snapped, flinging the death eater head over heels then snapping the torture spell out of existence. The little boy lying on the ground rolled over, shaking like a leaf in gale. "SILENCIO!" this time the spell was cast from his wind, while his mind focused on all eight death eaters. He was counting on most of them needing incantations to cast spells.
Ordinarily he would have just summoned their wands, but Shacklebolt had said that the aurors were finding death eaters wearing anti-summoning charm pendants lately. Which was troublesome but not particularly disturbing.
A fire spell sent one death eater up in flames as he broke through the silencing charm. Harry Potter would have spared a thought for his pain, Rahkesh did not, and closed off all other thoughts but battle, like this he could kill as many as necessary, regret and a conscience could wait.
He ducked two cruciatus curses and took both the casters wand hands off with cutting curses. He followed it up with a blinding spell and a disarming spell. Catching both wands he flung the screaming death eaters and their wands into the street, at the feet of the newly arrived auror patrol.
Something blue flickered at the edge of his vision and he set a shield around himself. The impact made him stagger, whoever had cast it was strong, and they had just undone the silencing spells.
Rahkesh threw a series of cutting breaking burning and bleeding spells at the death eaters then dodged away, summoning the boy to him and then banishing him to the house on the corner where Remus was gathering the fleeing victims of the attack.
"Lumos!" Rahkesh called, hurling balls of light at the four death eaters who remained standing. He followed it with stunning and brain stopping spells to the death eaters on the ground.
Their eyes adjusted to the darkness the light blinded them, but Rahkesh's bloodmagic prevented that from being a problem.
"Avada kedavra!" One of the death eaters shouted, though the spell missed him by several feet Rahkesh still drew a knife and put it into the caster's guts. He then used a wand snapping hex to break his wand and stunned him.
"Confundus." Another death eater toppled over, then sat and looked around in confusion. Rahkesh stunned him and used a coma inducing curse to make sure he wouldn't be getting up. The other's eyes had adjusted, so Rahkesh cancelled his lumos spells, sending them all back into darkness.
"Reducto!"
"Petrificus totalus! Crucio!" Rahkesh conjured a rock to absorb the spells, rather than dodge. Apparently they had gotten over not being able to see well and were attacking anyway.
"Extorquo!" Rahkesh called up a shield this time. And pulled two tiny nets out of a pocket, he enlarged them into massive nets and let them fall on the death eaters.
"Immobulus! Expelliarmus." He sent the death eaters to the aurors in the street and hurried over to another body lying on the ground. This one was an older woman, who was quite dead.
"RRRAARRRGHH!" Rahkesh fell flat, letting the attacker sail over his head. He leaped up to see Fenrir Greyback land, spin, and launch himself forward, knives in both hands. Bad form, you never announced your attack, Rahkesh thought, pleased at that piece of incompetence.
Rahkesh touched his second tiny black earring, and enlarged the staff that fell out of it.
By the time he saw the weapon Fenrir was moving too fast to stop. Rahkesh put the end of the staff into his gut, then whipped it back and slammed it into his throat. The werewolf gasped, choked, and retched, dropping both knives. He grabbed the staff and managed to hit it so hard Rahkesh's arms hurt from the vibrations. He jerked the staff away and wandlessly transfigure done end to a point, and put it through the werewolf's foot. Fenrir howled as the staff went through and bounced off a rock below and was pulled out. But it didn't stop him; he lunged into a tackle, mouth open ready to bite and his hands clawing for Rahkesh's eyes.
Rahkesh touched the earring again, and summoned out a knife coated with silver. He waited until Fenrir was almost on top of him, then collapsed, ramming the knife up under the werewolf's lowest rib, and sinking it in deep, and an upwards angle.
Most of his forearm followed the knife into the open wound, and Rahkesh knew the knife had gone through Fenrir's heart. With a creature as strong as a werewolf, it was easier to knife the heart this way.
The werewolf's fingers clawed at his back, but a wandless shield burned his mouth when he tried to bite. Rahkesh threw him off and jumped back, leaving the knife.
"Crucio!" Rahkesh stumbled and fell, horrible pain shooting through his entire body, he remembered to roll and managed to make it back to his feet. He grabbed the spell wandlessly, and threw it away. Breathing shakily he turned around and began firing spells, whips of fire lashed out across the ground between him and the death eater. His opponent conjured and shield and then removed them. Rahkesh threw a dark curse that would stop the flow of their blood, and the death eater countered it.
"Well well, dark magic? From someone fighting for the Ministry? And who might you be?"
There were four of them. While he had been distracted by the cruciatus curse they had managed to surround him. Rahkesh glanced around, pretending nervousness to make them pause. But he wasn't looking at them. He was studying everyone else. There were unconscious or dead people around, but no one living and moving close by. The aurors had most of the death eaters locked in a fight on the streets, here in the park, partially shielded by trees it was very dark and quiet.
Perhaps it was safe enough; if anyone had been near he would have had to stick to other fighting methods. But with no one around but enemies…no one would notice his style of dueling.
"I don't fight for the Ministry." Rahkesh said, and cats a silent, invisible, confundus charm. "Where did the vampires go?" He cast a second confundus charm, and third. Because they were invisible and silent death eaters didn't notice. Rahkesh held the charms carefully once they hit, refusing to allow them to act just yet. A fourth charm, all he had to do now was let it go. But he wanted answers.
"They ran away when they saw us. Scared we'd put stakes through their dead hearts." One of the death eaters said.
Ran away? That was about as unlikely as the sun rising in the west. The Master of London's fighters did not just run away.
"You poor deluded fool." Rahkesh sighed. "Confundus."
The spells activated and the death eaters reeled. "Avis!" Rahkesh called firmly, concentrating, a massive flock of crows burst form his wand and attacked. Wit the death eaters distracted Rahkesh dodged aside until he had them all standing in a group several feet away. Then he summoned.
He summoned their hearts. The result was four instantaneous heart attacks.
Every person had their own unique dueling style; Marluck had told them that they could recognize enemies, even disguised, by how they dueled. Rahkesh had been very wary of how he fought ever since. Controlling several confundus charms like that was difficult and unusual, as was his using the summoning spell as an offensive final piece to a duel.
Not satisfied that the death eaters were probably dead Rahkesh took the time to stun each, bind them, and take their wands, just incase. Then he levitated them and ran down to the pile of death eaters Tonks was standing guard over. He tossed his into the pile and gave the wands to Tonks.
"The vampires?" She asked, her hair was purple now.
"On it." Rahkesh said, and moved back into the trees. He summoned the people lying on the ground and set them down near the house. Then he picked a spot where the trees shielded him with their lowest branches, and closed his eyes, searching for a vampiric presence.
There were vampires hidden in the trees at the edge of the park, and around the thick hedges and trees in some of the yards. They were watching the aurors fight the death eaters. And there were vampires helping the death eaters.
The ones helping the death eaters were different. Rahkesh could not say how he knew, he just did. It was like telling the difference between two types of very similar cheeses, just a slight difference, but noticeable. Had he been any less telepathically aware of vampires he would not have sensed it. As it was nearly two years of exposure to them and working hard at telepathy to sense them had left him well attuned to sensing such differences. Akren's Darwinian system would have killed him long since if he couldn't sense his fellow students.
Rahkesh drifted over to the vampires, they watched him approach cautiously. Rahkesh reached out mentally, and looked for an Akren signal. He found four of them and changed direction, heading for Andrew Farov, sending out his own telepathic greeting and signal to let the vampire know he was there.
"Good evening." Farov said pleasantly.
"Not for the dead ones it isn't. When Moody told me he wanted me around incase something happened he didn't mention a vampire/death eater/ministry/civilian standoff." Rahkesh replied. Let Farov think Moody had called him in since he was local and going to Akren, as backup just in case, he wasn't going to mention his real identity with nonAkren vampires around. No matter whom they belonged to. He hadn't met Lord Hadrian and therefore wasn't about to trust his control over his vampires.
"They're mostly not dead. We put mild coma spells on them to make them appear dead so the death eaters would let them be." Farov said.
"What happened?"
"There were only four vampires here, the death eaters showed up with fifty of them and nearly a hundred young vampires. Mostly muggle adults turned vampire. We had advance warning form a spy." Farov explained, Rahkesh had been counting and came up with a force of twenty heavily armed and magically powerful vampires surrounding them.
"When do you attack?"
"When the aurors start losing." Farov said. Rahkesh nodded, vampires rescuing aurors from death eaters and other vampires. He wondered when Rita was.
"The reporter is in position." One of the younger vampire sin Farov's attack group reported.
"She's on a rooftop to take pictures." Farov explained quickly. "And the aurors are getting into trouble. I think it's time." He turned to his vampires. "Use dark magic only to disable, try to avoid killing with it, we won't give them anything more to complain about."
Rahkesh, holding his staff in one hand his wand on the other picked out a position near the advancing death eaters and vampires, where trees would block him from most picture Rita might take, and the view of the aurors. He ducked behind a tree and removed his secret trunk from his earring and pulled out a belt, then he returned the trunk to the earring. The belt carried concealment spells and minor illusions to blur him and a series of enchantments to wrap shadows around him, regardless of where the light was. It would keep him form being identified and make his movements harder to follow. It would also conceal his magical signature. Anyone who tried to capture it or read it would sense a complete blank. He wasn't paranoid, really. But he hadn't told his friends about any of this either.
The aurors were falling back, dragging or levitating their wounded companions. Thinking they had won the death eaters and vampires were losing formation and becoming reckless. Rahkesh settled into position, waiting for the aurors to pass his spot. He would wait until the first death eaters had passed him, for now he settled for invisible tripping spells.
The first death eaters passed him, Rahkesh picked out an opening and leaped into it, staff spinning. Surprise helped, he knocked three of them out cold before anyone reacted. Then he was forced to create multiple shields to repel the barrage of spells.
"Incendio." He said sharply, pushing the magic from its normal form into the death eaters, the fire starting inside them and burning outwards. They collapsed, screaming. He would have normally simple used the combustion spell, but that was dark magic and everything would be easier if the Ministry didn't have to ability to claim that the vampires now rushing in to save the aurors had used dark magic to kill. Farov's idea was a good one, so long as it didn't endanger lives.
"Petrificus totalus, stupefy, immobulus, expelliarmus." Rahkesh called out, the death eater mostly managed to avoid the spells, which was the point. While they were busy deflecting Rahkesh was conjuring spiked rocks. As soon as the death eaters finished dealing with his spells his banished the rocks at high speed in every direction. The resulting cries told him some people had been hit. "Fracutum." Rahkesh cast the bone breaking spell at a death eater's skull, and was pleased to see him collapse.
Spotting a cluster of death eaters close together Rahkesh launched himself at them, putting the wand away and bringing the staff up. The magics placed on it by the Chachapoyaro sorcerers deflected the spells shot at him. He transfigured the staff to a point a slid it through a death eater's neck. Twisting around he pulled it backwards and hit the other under the chin. Turning Rahkesh slapped their wands out of their hands with a few quick movements of the staff to their arms and wrists. Stepping back from them he held the staff aside and raised one hand, remembering the focus and purpose necessary to call up wandless magic.
He shoved his palm forwards into the air, shoving the pressure onto their hearts. The group collapsed, twitching under massive heart attacks. Rahkesh dropped his hand. An Akren student would never have fallen for it, neither would most of the better aurors. Voldemort's best death eaters would have gotten away and countered, but these were amateurs. These were new death eaters, with little skill or practical experience. No fun a stray thought said. Rahkesh clamped down on that thought. Killing was NOT fun. Fighting was, he would acknowledge that he truly enjoyed a good fight, but killing was not fun, in any form.
Beside him Andrew Farov lunged forward, sending another death eater flipping head over heel with a languid wave of one hand. The vampires then grabbed another death eater by the hair, ripped his wand away with his other hand, and sunk his fangs into his neck. A second later he drew his head back, leaving the man's throat a gaping wound. No ordinary vampire bite, he had ripped his throat open across his neck.
A deep dark laugh echoed from Farov's bloody fangs and he lunged again, throwing destructive spells with great accuracy, while using vampire telepathy to slow his opponents and telekinesis to send them toppling or clutching their heads form migraines. The combination was very advanced, something his young vampire friends would not master for years yet. And the resulting were staggering.
All around him vampires were killing death eaters, or at least incapacitating them, Rahkesh heard screams of terror. These death eaters were too young, if they had had a little more experience and known anything about vampire they might have managed a decent fight. Vampires were certainly not all powerful, but these had very little training. Now people were running, and Rahkesh had to close his mind off from the waves of pure terror he felt from the running people. The muggles turned vampire were fleeing.
Farov leaped past Rahkesh and wrapped his arm around one of the fleeing vampires, this one a young man. He tilted his head back and bit his neck. Overpowering the other vampire quickly. The muggle vampire collapsed against Farov. Farov picked him up and hurled him bodily across the street to a group of vampires who were putting collars on the necks of Voldemort's vampires, clipping portkeys onto the collars, and sending them away, probably to Lord Hadrian's mansion.
The vampires were very well trained, they moved smoothly and continuously, and no one escaped. Rahkesh found a group of death eaters trying to run out from under the anti apparition and anit portkey charms and followed.
He caught up with them in the center of the park. One of them turned and hurled a killing curse at him, Rahkesh ducked. And was forced to put up a shield as another threw a quick series of torture curses and maiming curses at him. They were powerful spells, and the caster was very skilled, his shield snapped on the fifth and Rahkesh rolled forward, under the next set.
He pulled out his wand and threw a strong summoning charm, the charm was deflected, but not before it ripped off her mask. Rahkesh paused as he came face to face with Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix Lestrange, who had killed Sirius.
The ripping spell he cast was deflected, and returned. Only Bellatrix's spell struck. It hit the staff given to him by Xeri and Nic, and ripped a great crack through the wood.
Rahkesh saw red, that weapon had been made specifically for him by his two friends. Friends he would never see again. The thunderbird reacted to his anger, as did the serpent, and the two creatures joined their fury and their power and crashed into Rahkesh's mind, tumbling about in a swirl of endless violence.
Overhead thunder boomed and lightning flashed across the sky so brightly that everyone on the ground winced and froze. The sky was starless, massive clouds appearing from nowhere illuminated by seemingly endless lightning that flickered across the underside of the black clouds in waves.
Without thinking Rahkesh dropped his wand, raised the broken staff, and called, the wild scream of the thunderbird echoing through the air, sound produced by the magic rolling through the air.
Lightning plummeted out of the belly of the cloud overhead and hit the staff, rocketing down it and covering his body in a great snapping crackling cloak. Staff in one hand Rahkesh raised his other arm and held his hand out towards Bellatrix Lestrange.
Five killing curses hit him the same instant as the power building up around him discharged. The explosion shook the earth so hard houses collapsed. The lightning pressed the killing curses aside, wrapped itself around them, absorbed them, removed them, and continued.
Bellatrix had no time to dodge, the magic move too fast, her shield vaporized and her body lifted off the ground and the lightning hit her, and went nowhere else. Forcing itself into her skin, into her magic, and finally into her soul as Rahkesh gathered the leftover energy of the killing curses and added it.
Less than a second after she was hit Bellatrix's body exploded in a flash of light and crack of thunder, and vaporized. And Rahkesh turned to the four other death eaters, hurling lightening and ripping their skin off, then their flesh, then finally turning their skeletons to ash.
As he turned towards the vampires and aurors in the street Rahkesh realized abruptly that he was no longer in control, the thunderbird and serpent were. Later he realized that that realization was all that stopped him. His realization that he was not in control of his magic ended everything.
As he was so terrified of anyone reading his mind Rahkesh was equally terrified of losing any control over his mind, thoughts, and actions. Perhaps it was years of being manipulated and controlled, but he couldn't stand it. And the blank horror that washed through him swept aside both the powerful presences in his mind, so much more important was self control that he didn't even hear a protest as both serpent and thunderbird were effectively locked away again.
Rahkesh fell to his knees, shaking, calming himself slowly and pushing the panic aside. He was freezing cold from the fear, and the adrenaline had been killed by the terrifying thought that he was not in complete control of himself.
The clouds slowly dissipated and the lightning stopped, and with it the thunder. Lord Hadrian's vampires took the pause amongst the death eaters and their vampire allies to pick off most of them. Then the aurors and death eaters awoke again, but the fight was mostly over. A few struggles later the last of the death eaters had been subdued and Voldemort's vampires either killed or removed.
Moody found Rahkesh ten minutes later, still kneeling amongst the ashes and blackened, in some cases melted ground that he had electrocuted and fried. The cracked staff lying across his knees.
"Lad?" The ex auror asked carefully. Rahkesh rubbed a finger along the massive crack running through the staff and nodded absently. "You hurt?"
"No, not really." Rahkesh said, not really noticing the words. Wondering if the staff was fixable. Was it irreparably damaged? The thunderbird screamed again, but Rahkesh calmed it easily, he was in control now, and he wouldn't lose it so easily again.
The realization that he'd nearly attacked and killed every death eaters and every one of Voldemort's vampires, including the ones already captive, made him lose his breath and shake again. The power was addictive, he loved it, but he had to keep the violent side under better control. Only let it out briefly, and never let it take control over his mind. He shivered again, remembering the realization that something else had been ruling his mind. Moody's hand on his shoulder made him jump, and he almost put a knife through the old auror in shock, then stopped himself and relaxed.
"I'm okay." He whispered. Touching the broken shattered wood again his eyes stung and he let out a long breath, he would have to find out how to fix it. It might just be the wood; the enchantments were probably still intact.
"Come on, you'll want to leave before the aurors get here." Moody said. Rahkesh nodded numbly and rose, slowly everything came back into focus. He nodded to Moody again.
"Yes. Sygra has already taken the portkey back home with her packages. I'll keep the horcrux safe until I know for sure how to destroy it. I'll let you know when I start trying things."
"Just get yourself away and get some rest. I have a feeling Akren is what you need after that." Moody replied sternly. Rahkesh nodded in agreement. The school, for all its danger, had become a sanctuary of sorts.
"Yeah. I'll contact you in a few days," he said, and tell Farov I want to know what happens with regard to the vampires they took a prisoners. And what happens when the Ministry hears all of this." Moody nodded.
"Shacklebolt and Tonks will keep us informed. We have monitoring devices in several influential offices."
"Umbridge?"
"The only people who think she's sane are the Minister, Fudge, and maybe a dozen others, everyone else thinks she's still as crazy as the centaurs drove her. There's a plan to put her in Mungo's for insanity, I'll let you know." Moody said, "now go."
Rahkesh picked up the staff and left, drinking a potion first to slide through the wards and apparating to several nameless dirty alleys and filthy pubs and muggle shopping centers and a train station before arriving at the Potter family cottage. Following any trail left, very unlikely – he took potions regularly to cloud any apparition tracing, would be very very difficult.
Sygra was waiting inside on his bed. Rahkesh picked her up without a word and put the diamond ball and horcrux into a box, then took a portkey to the entrance to the Akren Mountains.
Here a few of the Hell's Steeds were waiting for students who had left for the weekend. Rahkesh picked out the stallion he usually rode and called it to him.
During the ride back to Akren Rahkesh managed to remove all magical traces of what had been happening, and activated a seal he had built into the ordinary looking wooden box, a bloodmagic seal. No one else would open it. Sygra wrapped herself around his neck and said nothing, sensing his concentration and turmoil and offering reassurance.
Rahkesh avoided other students on his way back to his rooms, putting the box away under the small table beside his bed, and doing some careful transfiguration to make it look like part of the table, a solid piece, nothing hidden.
How do you feel? He asked Sygra as she rotated an iguana egg about to a good angle to swallow it whole.
Very well. My wyvern form was partially healed by the potion and spells, the rest can wait until tomorrow. Sygra unhinged her jaw and began working on the egg. Rahkesh went to go find his friends. He found them lounging in Daray's room, practicing different methods of using throwing stars.
Rianae showed up a half hour later with a message from her mother. Rahkesh knew what it was as soon as she came into the room. Word traveled fast.
"So there was a bit of an event in England today." Rianae said.
"Yeah we know, Rahkesh just got back." Daray replied. Rahkesh froze, and then forced himself to relax.
"How did you know?"
"You smell like lightning, and your sweat and blood smells like adrenaline, fear, and a lot of dueling magics. And I'm good at guessing." The vampire replied. Rahkesh made a mental note to shower or do a scent removing spell next time. Daray had been far too observant since he'd done a smelling enhancing blood ritual.
"One of the aurors, our police back home, is an alumni, he was running an operation and needed a native that no one was likely to recognize to help." He admitted. Close enough to the truth.
"My mother says nearly a hundred muggle vampires were captured." Rianae said.
"Yes." Rahkesh agreed. "What will happen to them?"
"Killed." Silas replied. "All of them."
"Grandmother is there for the gathering. Maybe she'll send us some of their blood." Daray said.
"I'm sure she will, there'll be plenty. And I suppose Lord Hadrian or his generals might keep a few of the pretty ones as pets." Silas said.
"What's the difference between muggle vampire blood and other blood?' Ally asked. Ally wasn't squeamish about learning things like that.
"Different variety of flavors, a little bitter usually, or spicy." Daray said after a moment's thought. Rianae crossed the room and moved Rahkesh feet off a couch to sit down, giving him a careful look.
"You're not doing too well." She said finally, what happened?" Rahkesh checked to make sure Tyler wasn't in the room, she didn't know about their time travel, she wasn't. He rubbed a tired hand over his eyes and explained. Nuri's purring and the solid thunks of throwing stars and knives hitting target boards on the walls relaxing him as the group began to debate repair methods for the staff.
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Enough battle to make up for the last few chapters? Satisfied with Rahkesh's performance?
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I've had a few emails with questions and they are getting repetitive so I'll answer them all again right now:
- This fic WILL continue after Voldemort's demise. In the final story Voldemort is really just a side plot.
- Rahkesh WILL NOT have any long lasting romantic interests. Of either gender.
- This fic WILL contain both m/m and m/f relationships, obviously so since all vampires are bisexual. I have stated this several times already I think. Vampires are bisexual and while there hasn't been a whole lot of mention of it (unless you were looking and reading carefully enough), there will be a bit more later.
- I have nothing at all against Europe and the UK, if Rowling had set this story in India then that country would be the bad guys and Asia would be screwed up, if she had set the story in Argentina then that country would be screwed.
- I'm sure you can figure out on your own where Draco Malfoy is. Just because I didn't actually state it doesn't mean you don't know. The clues were pretty obvious. You will see him again, pretty soon I think.