CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Gellert Grindelwald was dancing to his music while reviewing reports and intelligence from the spies inside the Resistance. Normally he would not have been in such a chipper mood, given the fact that Rowle had not been in contact for almost a week at this point and Gellert knew that Rowle was aware of the terms of their little deal. Gellert would normally be in an enormous sulk, but both Queenie and Credence had reminded him – quite firmly – that Gringotts was on high alert for the spy in their midst. Rowle took the safety of the members of the team they still had in the bowls of Nurmengard very seriously, so would likely not do anything to jeopardise himself, and thus them.
Grindelwald had quickly become distracted with some very positive and pleasing news from some of his other spies. Despite the efforts of Ambrose, Bradley and their team, they had not been as careful as they would have liked with the knowledge of where each safe house for the most important allies and the original Resistance members was located. As a result, his spies had managed to narrow down the potential safe houses of Flamel to two houses in Antwerp and one in Utrecht, which left Gellert the fun job of putting himself into the incompetent and lazy boots of Albus' fellow Resistance members, and deducing which one of the three it could be.
In all cases, the Muggle war that was raging would no doubt make the job ten times more difficult than it should be since battles were raging close to or inside both cities that caused the most inconveniences to Gellert's raids. The amount of times that Gellert's forces were forced to use the Confundus Charm or knock out a bunch of interfering Muggles from both sides of the Muggle war, if he had a Knut for each time he'd actually be able to buy himself another castle!
So to the business at hand – Utrecht did not have many quick and easy ties to the Resistance, though there were a decent amount of safehouses there, especially near the water. In the case of back-up for the Flamels, there would not be enough Resistance members who could get there quickly enough, especially since Grindelwald's forces were quite active in the Netherlands. Utrecht was a risk, and the lives of the Flamels were not something the Resistance would risk, despite their many deficiencies.
Now, Antwerp had more Resistance numbers in the city than Utrecht, even now. There were also more hidden safehouses than in Utrecht with some rather snazzy designs, if Gellert had to give credit where credit was due. Anyone with a functioning brain for strategy would pick Antwerp over Utrecht any day, especially if they needed to hide someone very quickly.
With a final twirl and snap of his fingers to his jazz music, Gellert chuckled. "Queenie! Vida! Come here."
Both women entered the room with pure exasperation etched onto their countenances, looking reminiscent of two daughters indulging the erratic whims of their aging father who was slowly losing his good senses. Gellert ignored this, as always. "The two of you will take your men and go to Antwerp."
"Antwerp?!" Vida spluttered. "Those suicidal maniacs put the Immortal Alchemist and the Immortal Sorceress in the middle of a bloody warzone?"
"Would not be the first time, sugar," Queenie pointed out, sighing. "The Resistance loves makin' our jobs much harder with a few No-Maj gunfire here and there."
"There had better be little Resistance guards," Vida growled. "My favourite coat was almost ruined by gunpowder and debris from the last mission."
"Perhaps you should concern yourself less with impressin' that boy you like and more about practicality, sugar," Queenie quipped with a smirk.
Vida's eyes flashed dangerously. "Stay out of my head, woman!"
"Ladies, settle," Gellert chastised silkily. "Just get the job done and bring my new guests here in time for evening tea would you? Tell them that there will be some delicious Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte to tempt them if they resist."
Both Queenie and Vida rolled their eyes in unison but didn't have energy to argue with their leader. They both left to make the necessary preparations for the extraction mission while contemplating if they should decrease Gellert's coffee and sugar intake. Gellert went back to his paperwork, humming to his music once more.
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Harry could barely sit still on Monday. She had barely batted an eyelid at the fact her dorm mates and Heron Lestrange joined her, Orion, Loreley and Altair at the Gryffindor table for breakfast and conversing easily with Artemis, Minerva, the Prewetts and the Weasleys. She could barely focus in History, despite the fact she got to discuss some more famous duels and got the opportunity to show Binns the manuscripts that time. Binns had been positively whizzing around his classroom in excitement as he talked about the diagrams in the manuscripts. It wasn't just in History that Harry barely could focus her mind on one thing. During Charms, she had used her Writing Charm to draw a Kraken wrapping its tentacles around a ship and then writing a sea-shanty about the Kraken trying to learn how to hug and failing every time. What she had meant to do, was draw an intricate diagram of a Kraken's anatomy but Harry had completely lost that thought by the time she started.
Fortunately, Professor McCullagh had seen the humour and creativity in it and had still given her an EE, 85 out of 100 to be exact, for the class despite Harry's mind being all over the place.
Harry had gone to the archives during break to see if the old magic and history would help her take her mind of the latest suicidal mission she had planned. No, no it did not. Not even the weather magic used in the Battle of Frigidus between the Western and Eastern Roman armies could distract her from what she was going to do. She still hadn't recovered by the time they had to go to Potions. Aptly enough, they were reviewing the Wit-Sharpening Potion.
For once it was the opposite experience: Artemis was the sharp one while Harry was absent-minded. During their brewing process, Harry had almost not grinded the scarab beetles into a pestle enough, but Artemis had noticed in time and had managed to avoid a calamity. The potion turned red as they were sprinkled in but Harry almost put too much armadillo bile into the potion, which would have made the potion turn into a dark green instead of a nice yellow but once more Artemis had kept an eye on her.
"What is going on with you?" Artemis hissed as she put the armadillo bile to one side. "You are usually sharper than this, not in need of the very potion we are making here!"
"Sorry," Harry mumbled.
"Something's wrong," Artemis stated, as she chopped up four more pieces of ginger root and added them to the cauldron, watching carefully to see if the mixture would turn green. "What is going on, Harry? You know you can tell me."
"Bletchley, no! That's too much bile!" they heard Ophelia wail but it was too late – up went a puff of smoke as the mixture blew up in both their faces, fortunately sparing the cauldron and thus Professor Slughorn a heart attack.
"Oh dear," Harry's heart sank. Maybe she should have given Bletchley another dosage of confidence?
"Hey! I am not letting you get away from this," Artemis snapped her fingers in front of her Slytherin counterpart's face. "What is going on with you? You have been acting weirder than normal today and it is starting to become quite scary."
Harry shrugged as she stirred the potion clockwise, mixing in more armadillo bile and waiting for the solution to turn purple. "It's nothing. I'm just feeling a little jumpy."
"About yesterday?" Artemis guessed. "Those guys … they were from the Resistance, weren't they?"
Harry nodded. A look of realisation spread onto Artemis' countenance. "They gave you some bad news about your friends, didn't they?"
"No," Harry shook her head. "No, we have never met them. But they were on the guard detail of someone who knows my family."
Artemis' eyes bugged out at this. "The Peverells? They guarded someone who knows the Peverells? No wonder Grindelwald went after them!"
"Sssssh!" Harry cajoled sharply, seeing Slughorn watch them curiously and Riddle's friends look up with a frown. "He's in Antwerp. We're getting him out; my family friends and I."
Harry was at this point afraid that Artemis' Imperius Curse orbs would pop right out of their sockets. "I am sorry, I thought I just heard one of the most stupid things I have ever heard come out of your mouth," Artemis asserted angrily. "Have you taken Essence of Insanity or something? Antwerp, like most of Europe, is a bloody warzone! You could get killed."
"Story of my life," Harry stated dismissively. "Look, Artemis, either I sit here and allow my family's fate to dangle by a knife's edge, or I can do something about it! Besides it's not my first battle."
"You could still get killed," Artemis flung back with a scowl.
"True," Harry agreed. "But I have to do this. I can't just sit back and let others do my dirty work for me." She shook her head. "I'd be no better than Grindelwald."
Artemis could barely believe her ears.
"Harry, may I remind you that you're seventeen? You shouldn't be doing 'dirty work' at all!" Artemis exclaimed lowly. She looked at the potion and her face lit up. "Ooooo, look, it's purple! Let's bottle it."
Harry scoffed and chuckle, shaking her head at her doppelgänger. Artemis went to hand their potion in and to collect their marked essays. Slughorn had both given them 95 points for the beautiful purple colour of their potion and Harry was very pleased to note she had an Outstanding, 97 out of 100, for her essay. Artemis was ecstatic with her own EE but grumbled when she read Slughorn's comments about where she had lost marks and how she could improve.
"Oh come on! I waffled too much? Merlin, he wanted to see at least five properties of the ingredients? He should have put that in the instructions!" Artemis sighed, hanging her head. "I am doomed."
"No, you are not," Harry reassured, giving her a comforting shoulder pat. "You just need to practise some more essay questions."
"I reiterate, I am doomed." Artemis frowned as she noticed that Harry was headed towards the Hufflepuff common room and the kitchens. "Harry? Where are you going?"
"Oh, I am just getting a quick lunch and going to try and find my familiar," Harry replied with a smile. "Maybe some quality time with Athenaïs will allow my mind to settle a little."
"Sounds good," Artemis grinned. "Do I get to meet her soon?"
"If you want to," Harry responded with a small shrug. "I hope you won't mind meeting a Gargouille."
The Potter heiress returned with her own shrug. "A familiar is a familiar, Hera. That kind of bond is not something that can be dictated to."
Harry sighed with relief. "I'll see you later!"
"Later, Hera!"
Harry had asked the elves in the kitchens for a muffin or two and went to try and hunt down Athenaïs. Harry knew by now Gargouilles like to be as far up as possible on their cathedrals; the Astronomy Tower was one of the highest towers of the castle so Harry decided to try and start there. It seemed the young dragon had sensed her witch coming because when Harry stepped out into the slightly chilly October air, Athenaïs was already waiting for her when she got to the top of the tower, sitting stock still near the edge and greeting Harry with a happy cry.
Harry grinned as she sat down next to her dragon. "Hey girl. You feeling jumpy too?"
Kyyuuuooo!
"Lucky you. I am … excited. I am willingly going into battle, without being forced to go. I don't even feel … regret. I know what I am about to do is the right thing," Harry sighed. "I just hope it doesn't bite me too much."
Athenaïs chirped mystically again.
"I know, I will be careful, you don't need to worry."
Hoyooowayooo!
Harry blanched and almost choked on the bit of muffin she was eating. "I am not letting you near a battlefield! I lost one familiar to war; that is not going to happen again."
The young Gargouille pouted and wilted a little.
Harry felt quite guilty for snapping, but there was no way in Avalon that she was simply going to allow Athenaïs to join in a battle without some training of her own powers, whatever they may be. Harry knew distractions would result in death and worrying about her familiar was definitely a distraction.
"I love you, Athenaïs," she stated firmly. "I will protect you from anything, even my own stupidity."
The dragon's eyes shone in awe and disbelief. If she could cry, it was safe to say Athenaïs would have. Instead she tackled Harry to the floor of the Astronomy Tower in a fierce embrace, nuzzling Harry wildly. Kyyuuuooo! 'I love you too, Harry'.
Harry laughed at Athenaïs' antics, holding the young dragon close. "I will come back. Don't worry."
Athenaïs chirped quietly and soon distracted herself by going back to hunting. Harry watched her Gargouille take to the skies and land elegantly amongst the gargoyles decorating the Hogwarts roof and take a similar pose and position to the real gargoyles with very little effort.
"Harry?"
Harry turned around sharply to see Altair approach quite cautiously. "Altair," she smiled. "Everything OK?"
"I wanted to ask you that," Altair admitted with an awkward chuckle. "May I join you? Potter said you were tracking down Athenaïs."
"Yeah, she's just hunting," Harry gestured towards the place her familiar had taken. Altair was frowning, squinting his eyes to see if he could spot the stone dragon as he sat down beside her.
"Is everything all right?" Altair questioned. "You have been oddly quiet and jumpy."
Harry chuckled shortly. "Surely you should find that a blessing; a quiet Harry."
"It's disconcerting actually," Altair disagreed, looking at her with concerned eyes. "A quiet Harry usually means an angry Harry or a vengeful Harry or it could mean that the Fainting Sickness is about to strike. I …" Altair took a deep breath. "I am worried about you. So are the others."
Harry didn't know exactly how to react to that and looked Altair in the eyes. "I have a lot on my mind."
"A problem shared is a problem halved, you know," Altair grinned, giving her a slightly playful nudge.
Harry smiled but she could not keep it on her face for long. "Not this particular problem, Altair. I … need to deal with this on my own."
Altair's face sobered up and nodded, forced to accept that answer because by now, he knew that Harry was not going to cave in. "I just want to let you know, you can tell me anything."
"Yeah," Harry whispered. "Thank you, Altair."
Harry opted to suffer and silence, and there was little Altair could do to convince her otherwise. And stay silent Harry did for the remainder of the day, as well as trying to avoid her friends as much as she could in order to escape any further questioning or looks from them. Later in the day, when Harry came to her dorm room, she found that the others were not back yet to prepare for dinner.
Good, the less awkward questions the better, her Slytherin voice stated.
Not wasting any minute, Harry changed out of her uniform and into dark trousers, dark top, her combat boots and her black leather jacket. She put her weapons, disguised as harmless looking quarterstaffs, into her bag, upon which she had put an Undetectable Extension Charm. Harry's Invisibility Cloak was stuffed in right on top of them.
As Harry sat down and took a fortifying breath, she heard a careful knock on the door, which made her frown. "Come in!"
To her surprise, Oizys Avery stuck her head around the door. "Hey, Evans? Are you busy?" she frowned at Harry's clothes. "Where are you going?"
"Training in the Room of Requirement," Harry answered crisply. "What is it, Avery?"
"Well," the girl started to fumble with her hands, "I wanted to thank you for the Anti Nightmare potion the other day. It … really helped. A lot. And I know I didn't deserve your help."
Harry was caught off guard by that.
"Everyone is deserving of help," Harry responded, expression softening slightly. "I may not like you, but that doesn't mean you have to suffer needlessly."
Avery smiled smally. "Thank you. I … also wanted to apologise."
"Apologise?" Harry raised an eyebrow incredulously, her arms folded.
"For telling my brother your secret," Oizys clarified, shuffling her feet a little. "He trusts me to tell him things – keep him up to date. Even before Hogwarts; I am good at information gathering because I like finding hiding spots in our house, and I see and hear things. I used to write them to Malum every year. It … made me feel important to him."
Harry frowned. "Oizys, you're his sister. Of course you are important to him."
"Didn't feel like it," Oizys mumbled. "He's six years older than me and he was away for most of the year. Even when he was back, Malum would mostly be waiting for letters from his friends or waiting to go to the Malfoy Yule Ball to see them. I'm just a stupid kid in comparison to Riddle and the others."
"Teenagers pretend to be cool for their friends you know," Harry grinned. "It doesn't mean he loves you any less."
"I get that now, especially since Malum still checks up on me, but he has never once asked if I was sleeping OK," Oizys deflated. "I was helped by you, not him. That kind of hurts – you sussed it out before he did."
"I never had siblings, so I wouldn't know how that feels," Harry answered truthfully, "but I am quite certain he didn't mean to be ignorant on purpose, regarding this matter." She took a deep breath. "But I forgive you for telling him. I am still a little hurt by it, but I get why you did it. Just … don't do it again."
Oizys gave a small nod. "Anyway, thanks for hearing me out, Evans. Will you be joining Slytherin again for dinner?"
Harry looked surprised by this. "I … don't think I will have dinner tonight," she admitted. "Nor do I think that I am allowed back at the Slytherin table."
"I am pretty sure you are," Oizys informed her. "If not, you can sit with my friends and me."
Although she could hardly believe her ears, Harry allowed herself to smile. "Thank you, Avery. I will think about it. Hey, Avery, could you and the other first years do me a favour?"
Oizys looked surprised but nodded.
"Could you keep an eye on Athenaïs for me until I am back?"
The young Avery gaped at her but nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! We'd love to."
"Thank you," Harry smiled as Avery practically skipped out and closed the door behind her. It was a risk to trust the children with her Gargouille's care, but it would prove to Harry that Avery was genuinely apologetic.
It was not too long after Oizys had left when a paper raven had appeared in front of Harry and it unfolded in front of her with a raven totem rolling onto its side on her bed.
It is time. Touch the raven; it's a Portkey.
TB.
Harry took a fortifying breath once more, not even contemplating how they had managed to smuggle a Portkey past the new wards, gathered her bag and touched the raven. With a sickening, lurching feeling Harry felt herself be surrounded by shadows and suddenly appeared in Thanatos' apartment's living room, where the three deities were armoured and ready.
As soon as Harry arrived, Melinoë started preparing Harry for battle, strapping the daggers to a belt and putting it around Harry's waist before attaching the scythe and rapier to her back and side while Hypnos dealt with the leather gauntlets, upper arm guards and the dragon scale cuirass that deflected magic.
"I wrote to King Ragnok asking for assistance," Thanatos explained as his sibling and cousin worked. "The Portkey that we're taking to Antwerp is this candle," he pointed to a seemingly ordinary candlestick and holder. "It will take us to a side street close to where we want to go but after that, we are on our own. We have to make it to a manky old boot Portkey by 11.30 sharp or we'd be forced to break some divine laws, and we'd rather not do that."
"Yeah I can imagine," Harry concurred.
"The goblins also realise that there would be issues if anyone – on the off chance – recognises you," Melinoë continued. "So they have come up with a very elegant solution."
Harry nearly had to laugh at the dragon-shaped silver mask made of some very fine goblin-made quality. "Oh Merlin, I am going to look like such a weirdo," she commented as she fixed her dragon mask to her face.
"Muggles won't see us; I will have us cloaked in shadows most of the time," Thanatos told her. "It is the wizards we will probably have to worry about."
"Hopefully not," Harry sighed as she checked her weapons were secure.
"We will just deal with whatever is thrown at us," Hypnos smiled at her reassuringly. "You ready? You can change your mind you know. We have no issue doing this ourselves."
"No, I need to do this," Harry stated with finality.
"Very well," Thanatos sighed. "Then take these, at least. Just in case."
He handed her a lantern, this time with three souls inside. Harry focused on the core of the souls and had to smile at the cheetah, lion and crocodile, looking at her curiously but with haughty airs.
Harry grinned at her friend. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Let's go."
With a sickening lurch and a cold gale, Harry and the three gods were dropped between two sets of buildings, one that was barely standing and the other parts were lying in complete rubble. The street was absolutely littered with wood, glass, brick, panels and there was the sound of distant gun fire and gun shots that still sounded loud enough as though it was being done right outside the city gates. The air was cold and miserable and the ominously dark clouds above their heads showed signs of heavy rain incoming. Harry and her companions walked by at least three Allied vehicles on their journey, and at most around ten.
Harry scoffed, attaching her lantern tightly to her belt as she followed Thanatos, Hypnos and Melinoë down the street towards some of the houses that had not been demolished by the war. "Which genius thought it would be a good idea to move Flamel to this hell hole?"
"The Resistance does not have the brightest bulbs in their leadership," Hypnos agreed.
They walked down the winding street until Thanatos led the way down a narrow winding street to the right, towards a rickety looking house with only two storeys and at least four windows that was next to a building that had a good portion of its ground floor level completely missing. The businesses opposite them were in a bad way too but seemed to get away quite lightly with all the glass in their windows blown out into the street, causing Harry to practically hop, skip and jump to avoid the shrapnel. Harry quietly wondered what the theory was about having a safe house that looked this precarious, but then again there was a perverse logic to it: it blended right in.
The god of death seemed to melt in with the shadows and walked right through the door, opening it from the inside for Harry, Hypnos and Melinoë.
The inside of the place was a mess to say the least. The table was on its side and the chairs were thrown about and broken. Plates had been smashed and cupboards were open, as though they had been left open in a hurry. There was a lingering scent of death, Harry noticed. The rest of the house, the living room and the small study, were in a similar state. But all the while, thanks to her heightened abilities, she was able to sense that there were at least two living presences somewhere in the house.
Thanatos, who sensed them too, beckoned them over to the floor towards the backdoor of the house. "Nicholas, can you hear us? It is I, Thanatos. I am here with Hypnos, Melinoë and the Lady Harry Peverell."
There was a deathly silence for a good while; Harry felt the two life forms move – beneath her feet. She frowned as a silvery bird, a magpie Patronus, flew up from between the floorboards, seemingly and posed the question. "Which Peverell caused me the most grief?"
Melinoë snorted. "Evren Peverell I. That girl could have given Harry a run for her money with the amount of trouble she could get into!"
The magpie vanished and so too did the floorboards, seemingly. Harry did have to jump back in surprise as the wood started to collect itself into a pile to reveal a rickety staircase that led downwards to a dimly lit place. She saw the aged faces of a man and woman, both with silvery hair, look up at them with beaming smiles.
"I take it the Resistance does not know about this," Nicholas Flamel ventured as Harry, who removed her mask, and her divine friends came down the stairs into a candle lit living room area that seemed actually quite homely. There was a work bench where potions were bubbling. Harry saw the sliver of a sleeping area through the doorway in the back of the room. There was even a quaint looking cooking area.
"Absolutely not," Hypnos grinned. "We are not risking your safety or the information in your head on their idiotic bureaucracy."
The Immortal Alchemist nodded and looked at Harry. "I take it that since I am not acquainted with you yet, you are the new Lady Regnant of House Peverell."
"Yes, sir. It is an honour to meet you. Thank you for the manuscripts," Harry answered, bowing her head reverently to him.
"It is the least I could do, my dear. After all, I used your family magic to create a kind of controlled immortality," Nicholas chuckled awkwardly. "It is only right they be returned to the keeping of a family member." He studied her curiously. "The new Mistress of Death is a child – and I thought I have seen it all over six hundred years! Have you Travelled yet, my dear?"
"Nicholas, really!" Perenelle Flamel scolded her husband lightly. "That is none of your business."
Harry crowed awkwardly. "I have actually. From 1997 to here, 1944."
"You're from the future?!" the Immortal Alchemist squealed. "Goodness you must have had quite the cultural time shock. I can still remember when paper started coming into fashion and parchment users scoffed at the use of paper, and then scoffing at the printed word – a printed book was seen as vulgar and common, you see-"
"Nicholas, please, you are overwhelming Her Ladyship," his wife sighed in exasperation.
"Perrie, come on, I am curious! Travelling from one period to another is not an easy feat, and takes years to master fully," Flamel's eyes sparkled. "So, to which time period do you wish to Travel to next?"
"Erm," Harry gulped, looking a little nervous. "I don't think I would do it deliberately. Ever. I never meant to come to 1944; I probably would not have done if I had a choice. Wizards who mess with time – awful things happen to them."
"In most cases, yes," Perenelle agreed. "But Travellers are governed by a different set of rules, set by Thanatos and the Fates themselves. Wizard law does not apply to a Traveller because they technically belong to Time. They affect time much more than a wizard and a Time Turner, but that is not always necessarily a bad thing."
"I hope you are right about that," Harry sighed.
"Speaking of Time, it is time to get packing," Melinoë broke in. "I have no idea if this place is watched but we need to get out of here before any of Grindelwald's men sussed out where you are-"
Harry's senses suddenly pricked up, as did Thanatos'. Harry really hated the Fates sometimes: there were multiple different life forces heading down the street from both sides towards the house's location. Harry donned her mask once more and tossing on her Invisibility Cloak, Thanatos cloaking himself in shadows, and the both of them went to investigate, Harry taking the top floor and Thanatos the lower level. Dark clothed humans were coming towards them, and none of them looked remotely Muggle. Harry was willing to bet they were Grindelwald's forces; unlike Voldemort, Grindelwald's spies actually were rather efficient. Much like the one lurking at Gringotts.
Right now, they were a little too efficient for Harry's liking.
They will be here in less than two minutes, Thanatos stated. What do you want to do?
Prioritise the Flamels' safety,
Harry answered. Get them out of here. Use my Cloak if necessary.
No need. I can hide them in the shadows,
Thanatos reassured.
As for dealing with these muppets, maybe Melinoë can summon some ghost dogs and Hypnos can put some of them to sleep while I deal with the rest?
It sounds like a plan to me,
Hypnos agreed. When do you want me to put them to sleep?
Oh, if they are Grindelwald's men, they will be as dramatic as he is. Let them have their fun first, then show them their miscalculation.
Thanatos chuckled. On your command, Mistress.
Prepare the Alchemist and his wife. We're going to have some fun!
It was as these hooded and dark figures approached that Harry's least favourite aspect of her powers as Mistress of Death struck again – the visions of the deaths, but this time it was not just of the Muggles fighting outside the city walls but of these wizards who were coming to kidnap Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel. Death by Stunning spell, death by fiery creatures, death by rogue gun fire, death by stabbing – Harry didn't need to know that the battle Loreley had predicted would soon be coming to pass.
Though Harry hated the necessity of what she was about to do, the exhilaration from the adrenaline made her giggle slightly. She turned her eyes to the skies. "Tídrénas!"
A second later, the already dark clouds let loose their showers, in an instant pouring down their load onto the world below in buckets almost to a point that the water became a veil that would in likelihood hinder the abilities of her foes, and any Muggle who may accidentally see something they shouldn't. Plus, the ground was already muddy and uneven, so that was handy. Harry slipped downstairs and put a firm Locking Spell on the door and hid in the right hand corner of the kitchen-dining room, despite being under the Invisibility Cloak and kept an eye on the approaching wizards through the kitchen-dining room window.
"Bloody Morgana-cursed rain!" Harry heard one of the men curse as they approached the house. "I fucking hate Belgium and I hate autumn! Do we really have to check this place? No one in their right mind would hide here."
"Oh yes and those Resistance members we Stunned were here just loafing around for no good reason near one of the other safe houses," another snarky voice answered.
"Williams, Brown, shut up! Do you wish to alert them to our presence?" a silky but rather creepy voice that belonged to a woman rang out. There was a slight underlying French accent to how she spoke but Harry could not help but note there was a slight similarity to how this woman scolded and how Arcturus and Druella scolded. Wait, didn't Ambrose and Bradley mention that the twins had a relation who served Grindelwald? Vida Rosier if Harry remembered correctly.
"Now, remember, darlin's," a new, velvety voice rang out of a second woman. This one made Harry's spine shiver; the musical lilt to the southern American accent, she took an educated guess, was sickly sweet and was possibly twice as intimidating as Bellatrix Lestrange's laugh, "no harm can come to these guys or Gellert will not be dancin' tonight."
"Don't worry, Goldstein, we know what is expected of us," someone else reassured; another American voice, only this one was male and sounded young enough. "Boswell, Rufus, Williams, Brown: search the house!"
Harry felt an excited smirk spread onto her face. Four cloaked and hooded Grindelwald followers approached the front door, unsheathing their wands. One of them waved their wands in the movement of a non-verbal Alohomora, but as Harry had hoped with the Old English Locking Spell, the classic Unlocking Charm did not release the door immediately. Harry grinned at the silent looks of confusion between the four of them when their spell had fizzled out.
"What the …? Why didn't it open?" the one who had cast the spell wondered out loud.
"Merlin, don't be pathetic – just blast the damn door off!" one of his compatriots snapped.
"Watch out," another of their friends growled. "There could be traps."
You have no idea, Harry thought, laughing internally.
"You sure, Boswell? Let's find out!" the second man who spoke raised his wands. "Bombarda!"
The door was promptly blasted off its hinges and the four irritated men entered the decrepit little house. "Boswell, you and Williams check upstairs," the one with the naturally snarky voice stated. "Rufus and I will check down here."
Williams and Boswell grumbled something incoherently but did as they were told. Brown and Rufus split up too, Brown heading for the living room and Rufus towards the backdoor and the garden, completely unaware that they were being watched. Harry decided to deal with Brown first. Brown stepped into the living room, drawing his wand, ready to cast revelation spells. Like a ghost, Harry snuck up behind the man and hit the wizard with a non-verbal, wandless Sleeping Spell from the Old English tomes, causing him to fall face first onto the dirty sofa.
Rufus was next. He was running some kind of Revelation Spell outside but it quickly led him back inside and precariously close to the actual entrance of the magical bunker underneath the house. It was when Rufus leant down that she was forced to make a split second decision. Harry was almost on autopilot when she dealt with this wizard. Her hand had not gone for her wand. Harry drew one of her daggers and without hesitation, plunged it into his back. Rufus' back arched on impact and he exhaled quite sharply, the air escaping quickly out of his lungs. Harry gently covered his mouth to make sure no noise loud enough could reach the two men upstairs. Once she lowered Rufus to the ground and quickly cleaned her dagger with a Cleaning Charm, she heard Boswell shout: "no tricks or traps up here in this room, and no secret safe house! Williams, you found anything?"
"Nothing in this bathroom either except dust, broken bottles and tiles everywhere! Brown, Rufus – what about you?"
Deadly silence met them. Harry stayed as stock-still as possible.
"Brown? Rufus? You deaf?" Boswell barked. He sighed in irritation when, still, no one answered. "For Mordred's sake! Williams, check on them."
"Urgh, fine." Harry heard the floorboards upstairs creak as the heavy footsteps of the dragon skin boots that belonged to Williams began to move downstairs. Harry moved away from the lifeless form of Rufus, walking on the balls of her feet to make sure she made no noise.
Melinoë, Thanatos, get ready, Harry stated.
Williams came trudging down the stairs, sighing in irritation and grumbling something about always having to do the dirty work. That is until he came across the lifeless body of Rufus, lying still face down on the ground. Williams froze to the spot in shock. That was until he managed to recover the ability to speak. "WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME?!"
NOW! Harry mentally shouted through the Link.
No sooner had Harry given the order, Williams shrieked like a girl as three shadowy hounds of impossible size rose from beneath the ground, accompanied by the silver spectral dogs belonging to the Goddess of Ghosts. Harry threw Williams against the wall with a powerful Stunning Spell and turned the stairs into a slide just as Boswell came charging onto the landing above. In his haste, the wizard tripped over his feet and went rolling down the stair-slide, crashing into the wall opposite the stairs and lying there on the floor, groaning in pain.
The shriek and commotion had been heard outside. However, before any of them could draw their wands, the Dark wizards sprung about ten feet into the air at the shock and surprise of three shadowy dogs, followed by what looked like ghost hounds came flooding out of the house and into the streets of Antwerp, knocking over Grindelwald's men like bowling pins, three splitting off down the left street and the rest spreading into the right hand street. As Harry came outside, she founded that more than half of the force sent by the Dark Lord were lying spread eagle on the dangerously littered with glass and rubble cobble stones while the others were scrambling to their feet.
"WHAT IN MORGANA'S WOODLAND HOVEL WAS THAT?!" Vida Rosier demanded as soon as she had sprung up on her feet, dusting herself down in irritation.
"Quiet!" the other woman, Goldstein, snapped as she straightened up. "I never noticed till now … but I hear the whisper of another mind … it is so quiet though …"
"A mind you don't know?" Vida asked eagerly.
Ever the drama queen, Harry decided to have some possibly suicidal fun. Without further ado, she took off her Invisibility Cloak, after ensuring that her mask was fixed firmly to her face.
"Erm, girls. We have company," their companion, a boy with shoulder length black hair that reminded Harry strongly of Severus Snape somehow, was the first to notice Harry suddenly appearing out of nowhere. "They … appeared out of thin air."
"Well, well," Goldstein chuckled. "Who do we have here?" Harry felt her Occlumency shields get punched and kicked, but at least this time they held, and quite firm, which did not sit well with Goldstein at all. "Awww that's not fair! They're an Occlumens."
"You have got to be kidding me!" Vida seethed.
One of the men started to chuckle. "Someone should tell them Samhain is not until two weeks! That mask is ridiculous!"
A sneering laugh ran around Grindelwald's men. Harry rolled her eyes underneath her mask and she raised her hand towards them and felt her eyes bleed silver. "Hleap on bæc!"
Some of them yelped in surprise as the extensive group was hit by a powerful invisible force that knocked them into the air and then made them land on the ground, some with a rather sickening and bone-breaking THUNK! Thanks to Hypnos, many were pulled into unconsciousness when they hit their heads.
This way, Harry! Melinoë called from her left. Harry looked to see a spectral, ethereal horse waiting for her, neighing impatiently. Harry snorted at the form of the Goddess of Ghosts but jumped on without looking back at Goldstein and the others. Melinoë cantered up the street they had come down before and it wasn't long that Harry felt the ricochets of Stunning spells, Killing Curses and other curses flying narrowly passed her head, missing their mark by relative inches.
As Melinoë cantered on, Harry closed her eyes and opened her eyes again, visualising a Protego diabolica forming next to them. The tell-tale purple fires ignited next to Harry and promptly turned into Thestrals again, cantering besides the Goddess of Ghosts, but with a slightly more macabre feature added to them as Harry infused Death magic into the flames of her steeds before sending them at her pursuers. Those who were not fast enough to dodge the fiery herd were hit square on, were knocked out of the air and had their life force taken before they hit the ground.
"Who in Morgana's name is this person?!" she heard one of her pursuers snarl.
"How is that horse so fast?" wailed the young man who made Harry think of Snape.
"Credence, do you think you can hit them with your Obscurial powers?"
As if predicting their next moves, Melinoë promptly began cantering in an erratic, zig zagging motion just as dusty, creepy black tendrils of magic began whipping out towards them. Harry could not resist to look back at her pursuers, and what she saw made Harry barely believe what she was seeing. Part of the sky was just pure, dusty black; it was a very good thing it was raining so heavily because that would be awkward to explain! An Obscurial was a child whose magic had turned parasitic due to abuse and fear – by all accounts this person was supposed to be dead by now! How in everything good and holy had this Credence person survived?
Harry deftly blocked some of the attacks that would have made their mark and looked at the eldritch mess that was the Obscurus, who was accompanied by the wizards, flying by their own magic. It was the random thought of hoovering up all that Obscurus dust that led to Harry having her potentially most evil idea until then. She focused on the autumn winds that were blowing and visualised them picking up, lacing an ominous layer to the winds, and then turning into a rather nasty whirlwind. "Cume þoden!"
Harry's eyes glowed an ominous combination of green and silver. The cutting October winds blew ever more viciously, causing the rain also to come in harder than normal. An eerie howl sounded as the enchanted normal winds, interwoven with eerie purple wind, picked up quite violently. There were panicked shrieks behind her as Harry's whirlwind picked up the wizards, who were made lighter by their magic, and began flinging them around like rag dolls. The purple winds seemed to burn right to the recesses of the soul, because five wizards started dropping like flies because they could no longer concentrate of flying due to crippling pain. So not only did the Dark wizards start to fight against the whirlwind, but they also had to make sure they did not touch these ominous, dangerous winds. Credence the Obscurus seemed to find it more and more difficult to keep his form in tact as he fought against her magic. Those who did manage to break through were soon met with a rather nasty surprise.
Melinoë put some more speed into her running and Harry put up a powerful Protego Maxima just as one of her other visions came to pass. The faint fluttering of the air signified the arrival of an artillery shot from a field gun – Harry had no idea from which side – that ploughed into a nearby building, exploding into orange fire, sending brick, glass, wood, tile and Merlin-knows-what-else into the air that cut through the remainder of the pursuers like corn. Dust clouds with specks of fire of epic proportions followed Harry and the godly horse down the street, lapping at the protection shields Harry had up.
Almost there! Melinoë announced. Just hang on-
Suddenly, Harry was caught completely by surprise as she felt her left shoulder flare up in the most excruciating pain. It was like a red hot poker had been plunged right into her shoulder and then her arm, before a barbed whip had been brought down onto the same exact spots. Harry's first instinct was to scream but she fought that urge and looked to see that she had been slashed quite badly by some kind of curse. There was a putrid looking black mark on her skin where the curse had made contact with her skin, and Harry noted that the purple-indigo magic began to spread rapidly along her arm and shoulder, leaving an intolerable burning sensation under her skin as it did so. Harry had felt the effects of the Cruciatus Curse before – this was almost just as bad.
"Shit! I have been hit!" Harry screamed in pain as gripped her shoulder as she felt the foreign magic burn inside her skin, trying to think of any tourniquet spells but coming up short. Healing magic had never been her forte.
"By what?" Melinoë demanded, sounding extremely panicked.
Harry winced and hissed as the pain continued. "No clue! Some sort of curse!"
The Goddess of Ghosts went into a full on gallop as she drew closer to the location of the manky boot, close to the city centre of Antwerp. "Put your Cloak on!"
Harry complied, fumbling a little while trying to make sure she had a grip on her injured shoulder while she put the Cloak on. She felt her magic go into full on battle with the Dark curse coursing through her veins, which made making the slightest move excruciatingly painful. Tears welled up in Harry's eyes. Why? Because she had made a promise to Athenaïs. Plus, what about her friends? Harry suddenly had a humbling and scary epiphany: what if the death of someone Orion, Altair, Walburga, Druella and the others cared about turned them against Muggles for ever? What if they believed Muggles had been responsible for killing a friend of theirs?
Was that what had turned them in the time line before? But if that was the case, why did Sirius never say anything?
Well, Harry would not die out here – not because of her own youthful recklessness. Voldemort had failed to kill her; Grindelwald would not be the one to end her! She would not allow her death to be the catalyst for turning her friends against the Muggles to the most extreme extent possible.
No matter what, she would get out of here alive. And not come back to Europe unless it was a life or death situation.
Her head became lighter and soon, Harry felt the world spin around her, and everything seemingly moved in slow motion. She thought that she heard Melinoë and Hypnos speak to her just as the darkness began to consume her.
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Harry's face felt like it had been soaked in molten lava and she found that she was suffering the same pounding headache that she had suffered when first coming to the 40s after dying in the 90s. She was breathing at least, which meant she wasn't dead. Could the Mistress of Death even die again? Harry had no idea but she was rather glad. She gingerly felt her forehead, which was clammy and slimy, as if a slug had decided to take a jaunty on her face. She squeezed her eyes to try and mitigate the effects of the bright light hitting her face but it wasn't as effective as she had hoped. Harry's eyes eventually decided to open themselves and she was rather relieved to see that Hypnos, Melinoë, and Thanatos – together with Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus – were worried as they could be but all right. Harry then remembered what had happened and looked at her left arm and shoulder, which was heavily bandaged with a mixture of strange leaves and bandages. She was in a hospital bed but it wasn't St. Mungo's or the Hogwarts infirmary, given the fact the physician bustling to and fro was a goblin Healer, dressed in a set of blue and white robes.
"Ah, she's out of the Realm, at last! I must say, I have never been knocked out this long!" Antioch declared, getting a whack around the head through his frame from Cadmus.
"Harry, how are you feeling?" Thanatos asked, as he gently patted her head.
"Like someone hit me with a frying pan," Harry replied candidly, rubbing her eyes.
The goblin attending her, noticing that Harry was awake, came over immediately to check the girl's vitals. "What do you last remember, my Lady?" she asked as she checked Harry's eyes and took her pulse.
"Fleeing from Grindelwald's men. We were almost at the Portkey … I got hit. I don't remember by what or who did it and then … everything went black," Harry sighed in irritation. She then remembered why she was in Antwerp in the first place and looked panic-stricken at Thanatos. "The Flamels! Are they-"
"They are safe, I got them to the Portkey quite quickly," Thanatos reassured immediately as he sat down on the bed and took her good hand in his. "Gringotts have them at a secure location until they find somewhere better for them."
Harry snorted. "The Resistance thought their safe house was secure! Apparently not enough – how do we-"
"Harry, we are more worried about you right now," Hypnos cut in gently. "That curse was … nasty. You could have at best lost your arm; at worse, you could have died."
Not on my bloody watch, Thanatos snarled through the Link to make sure that the goblin healer suspected nothing untoward.
"That, Mr. Burke, is putting it mildly," the goblin Healer stated grimly as she looked through the diagnostic parchment on her clipboard. "She was hit by a Power Wither Hex. By all right, Lady Peverell's magic would have been corrupted to essentially turn as parasitic as the magic of an Obscurial but none of my results have shown that her magic has been affected in the slightest. In fact, my results suggests that her magic fought off the curse with ease."
"Of course it did! She is a Peverell," Antioch sniffed indignantly, causing Cadmus and Ignotus to scowl at him.
The Healer raised an eyebrow at him. "Even so, I would like to make sure your descendant is not at risk of losing her magic. Lady Peverell, would you mind performing some magic for me?"
Harry nodded and held up her right hand, her eyes turning silver. "Leoht."
A bright ball of silver light formed very quickly in her hand, much to everyone's relief.
"Yes, her magic is untarnished all right," the goblin chuckled in disbelief. "Curses like this one usually take immediate effect so this is a very good sign. Could also be because of the Phoenix tears and Basilisk venom that apparently still have lingering traces in her blood system." The goblin Healer looked at a sheepish Harry in pure astonishment. "What in the name of Gaia have you been doing, young lady?!"
"You don't want to know," Harry replied grimly as she lay back down, relieved that her magic was unharmed.
The goblin Healer grumbled as she went to check on Harry's bandages next. Harry looked up, wanting to see what happened to her arm. Her already scar-riddled arm now had a Lichtenburg figure-scar of its own, stretching from the start of her elbow all the way up to her shoulder where it spread to parts of Harry's back, like a creepy, spidery hand. Unlike her scar though, this Lichtenburg scar had a purple shimmer to it mixed with silver – remnants of the Curse being consumed by Harry's own magic. The Healer nodded. "Good. It is already looking better after two hours."
"Two hours?!" Harry exclaimed. "How long have I been out?!"
"Three hours, almost four," Cadmus informed. "It is almost 12. You managed to make it more than on time but … I am afraid you might get some awkward questions about your disappearance from your peers and teachers tomorrow."
Harry laughed snarkily. "You think?!"
"Don't worry, we are sending you back as soon as we have changed your bandages and got you dressed," the goblin healer reassured. "But you will have to change these bandages every few hours until you can no longer see a purple shimmer to the scare. Make sure to soak the bandages in a mixture of Essence of Dittany, Bubotuber pus, wormwood and stewed dragon liver. That is, if you cannot find any Wiggentree leaves."
"I will," Harry promised, silently kicking her own stupidity and inability to stay away from a fight. It was addictive – too addictive.
She was still internally beating herself up as the Healer worked for a good twenty minutes on the bandages. Hypnos and Melinoë helped Harry dress, making Harry feel extremely small and pathetic, tears threatening to spill with self-loathing. Thanatos had sent Harry's weapons, lantern and Cloak already to Hogwarts so she wouldn't need to carry a heavy load.
However, all of Harry's negative thoughts were broadcasted to all three deities, whose immortal hearts sank.
"We do not blame you, or despise you for getting hit," Thanatos stated gently as he wrapped his young Mistress into a loving, fatherly embrace. "We are just glad that you are all right."
"I need to train more," Harry insisted, sniffing. "I just can't be caught out like that again!"
"Harry, you did spectacularly," Hypnos reassured with a grin. "You were able to put a massive dent into the forces of Grindelwald's Generals. Yes, you left your left flank open for a millisecond. Next time, you won't."
"Damn right, I won't," Harry agreed, looking determined as she straightened up again. "Whoever hit me; I owe them a good punch to the face."
"Just a quick question: what do you want to do with the mask?" Cadmus asked.
"Give it back to Griphook and tell him that it did throw the Dark Lord's men off guard slightly," Harry answered easily, with a slight grin.
"As if he needs to get any more gleeful than he already is," Ignotus grumbled. "We are glad you are all right, Hera. Don't give us a heart attack again!"
Harry chuckled. "Ignotus, you can't get heart attacks."
"Oh I beg to differ, young lady! Antioch fainted in his frame, Cadmus fell into the portrait of Aphrodite with her wild animals because of shock and I very nearly knocked my own frame onto the floor when Tosti told us what happened."
Harry snorted slightly.
"Just try to stay out of trouble for a while," Antioch sighed. "For all our sakes."
Harry looked at her fresh new bandages on her arm. "Oh trust me, I will."
And for once, Harry was more determined than ever to keep this particular oath.
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Storm clouds had gathered above Nurmengard Castle. Lightning streaked across the sky, reflecting the mood of the owner of the castle below. Grindelwald was not dancing. He was not humming and he wasn't happy in the slightest. Three whiskey glasses had been hurled at the wall, and had splintered into a sea of glass. There were also a few cracks in the windows. The Dark Lord's mis-matching eyes were glowing ominously.
"YOU LET THEM GET AWAY?!" One could hear him practically from on floor of Nurmengard to the other, prisoners and followers wincing alike.
Queenie, whose face had several nasty stitched up cuts and burns, looked extremely sulky. "Excuse me, darlin', but we did not let anyone get away! There had been shadow dogs and ghost dogs – yes, I am sure I have eyes – and we heard screamin' before and the next thing we know there is this masked weirdo standin' there. Yes, masked weirdo – I know what I saw, so does Vida and Credence."
"We went back to check that damn house over and over again! The Flamels were just gone – how the silver dragon managed to sneak them out is a mystery beyond me!" Vida added.
Credence, looking perhaps more beaten up than Queenie, clenched his jaws and curled his hands. "That horse was fast and whoever that silver dragon was had some serious magic! They killed our men with purple fire Thestrals and magical winds-"
This did not still Grindelwald's ire at all. "They killed your men with elementals and the freaking wind? YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST I HAVE AND YOU LET A MASKED CLOWN MAKE FOOLS OF YOU!"
"Whoever the silver dragon is, they knocked out more than half of our men, killed several others with powerful Stunners, and those fiery Thestrals and whirlwinds were unlike anything I have never seen or felt before!" Vida growled, slamming her own hands onto her leader's desk. "We barely got out of there alive – including because of a Muggle misfiring a field gun! Brown is still asleep, Williams is still knocked out and Boswell is in the infirmary along with more than half of the survivors. Rufus was stabbed in the back with military precision! Whoever did this, isn't an incompetent buffoon. With all due respect, sir, you were not there!"
The foundations of Nurmengard seemed to shake with its owner's wrath. "You lost the Flamels! You lost my LAST AND ONLY chance at finding the Peverells – I HOPE YOU ARE VERY HAPPY WITH YOURSELVES! NO SHOPPING TRIPS FOR A MONTH FOR YOU, GOLDSTEIN, OR YOU ROSIER! AND CREDENCE – YOU WILL BE WEARING WHATEVER COLOUR I DECIDE FROM NOW UNTIL YULE!"
One could almost hear the Dark Lord's voice ricochet off the Alps. Despite the fact that all three were just about ready for the ground to swallow them whole, Vida, Queenie and Credence were rather glad not to be tortured under a Cruciatus or something. Given their massive failure, they were rather expecting it.
One thing was for certain: Vida, Queenie and Credence now had a goose to cook with that masked weirdo.
"AND SOMEONE GET IN CONTACT WITH ROWLE FOR AN UPDATE – NOW!"
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Oh dear, Gellert is really unhappy … with his lead to the Peverells up in smoke, what will Grindelwald do next? And it seems that Harry may be getting ever closer to once more fulfilling another of Loreley's prophecies and may feel some conflict about what she had done. How will Harry deal with this? And then of course – her friends are not stupid. Will they find out, or will Harry try to keep it secret?
You will just have to wait until the next chapter!
By the way, apologies if it took long but I was busy researching the Battle of the Scheldt that occured from October 2 to November 8 1944, the positions of Allies and Germany there and trying to determine what the weather was like in order to make sure that there some still some historical accuracy to my fictional story. I also tried to make Rufus' bodily reaction to being stabbed as accurate as possible. If you want some sources I used, please message me!
Also, is the transition between time and perspectives clearer now? Because I did get some messages that it had not been clear enough at this point. The "########" signify the changes – if this isn't clear enough, I would appreciate some suggestions! Because I tried putting page breaks into my Word document and it looked really funny, in an ugly way and I could not in good conscience publish the chapter in the state it was in.
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