Catcher

A/N: 20 Chapters!!! How did that one happen? Question for you, do you think this story is moving too fast, too slow or just right? Let me know!

Chapter 20; Skirmish in the Forest.

Hogwarts

The last week had been exhausting for Harry. After the stand off in the Forbidden forest Harry hadn't known how to treat Tonks, whilst she was fighting for the same Order as Harry she was still a spy and obviously Harry was weary about trusting spies. Especially with finding Snape to be loyal to Voldermort and then this man that had been taking the late Kingsley Shacklebolt's place.

He didn't tell anyone about Tonks being a spy for the Zalots. So the only ones that knew were himself, Matt and the four Leprano. He reluctantly gave up the impostor to the Order of the Phoenix for interrogation and had been told by Albus that once they had finished with the man the would give him up to the Aurors and the Ministry for them to put to trial and that he would inevitably end up in Azkaban.

Harry however didn't have that sort of trust in the British Ministry. He did give up the man freely but weaved a bit of his own magic into the mans magical core. Spell he had been planning for a long time. It was based on the idea of a muggle virus. It would activate when the victim, in this case the spy, met with anyone he worked with, so if he saw any of his groups over spies or returned to their base in south America then the Magic would leave him, killing him and settle into the person or people he met with. And in that way spread throughout their army. It should be very hard to track.

In the last week he had monitored the trial of the man. The Ministry reluctantly conceded that there was a third evil on the planet. And also it made it to the papers that it had been a good Harry Potter that had captured the man and not the same man as had attacked the Muggle World that summer. Harry had taken the care to alter the mans memory slightly to avoid mention of the Order of the Zalots involvement or existence or anything that Voldermort could use to find ways to travel across the divisions of the Worlds.

That morning, a week and a day after the man was captured the man was imprisoned for a life sentence in Azkaban. Personally the man should have been killed for what he had done. He had owned up to killing more men in his life then he could remember.

Harry was counting the days to his escape. If it didn't happen soon he might be tempted to arrange it. For once an evil spy would be more useful free then imprisoned. Matt and his 'panther' had returned to work once again. The few order members that now believed the truth had been working to prove Harry's innocence.

Harry was now sitting under the table in the Great Hall during an evening meal. Matt was in his usual place above him, they had decided that Harry should act less patrolling as they had before. Somehow a rumour had begun to spread that he wasn't a Lepra at all. Apart from the odd one or two students that had missed the fight between Harry in his full Leprano form had been scared of him ever since. Those who had heard of the fight from friends were less worried. Harry had asked Albus to put a book on the Leprano legends into the Library so that a student might find it and hopefully cure the students of their fear.

Just as people were finishing their food the doors crashed open and a screaming student came crashing through the doors and came hurtling towards the teachers table. As Harry recovered quickly from his shock he leapt up and the rest of the teachers also got to their feet. As Harry was the only one on the right side of the table he was the only person she could get to, and surprising Harry and most of the teachers and students and almost sending Matt into laughter had it not been for the sight of the distraught girl. She launched herself at Harry's panther form and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Harry stood in real shock as she buried her head into the under side of his neck and cried. He relented to trying to comfort the second year student. He gently searched her mind and being so upset she didn't notice, He let himself purr to calm her down like a child with their pet cat. He only searched the last five minutes and saw the two things he needed. The memory of cloaked figures exiting the forest and the sight of those figures attacking this girl, who he found out was a Patricia Lexus, and the boy she had been with. She had run it seemed, where was he?

"Albus! Get the students locked into their common rooms! We have attackers either coming or in the forest. They've got one of the students." Harry said telepathically to the Headmaster.

Albus responded by raising his wand and letting of a small bang effectively gaining silence. "Would prefects and Heads of Houses please ensure all students return to their common rooms and run a check list. Prefects seal the common rooms and with the senior students guard all the students of your house. Go now!" The room surged into motion as the prefects started to herd students to their common rooms. The teachers started to make their way around to the girl and the Leprano.

When Madam Pomfrey arrived she attempted to remove the girl from the great beast of a cat but was unsuccessful. "Miss. Lexus? What has happened?" Albus asked.

"They…they…they took him!" She sobbed. Harry nudged her shoulder with his nose to help calm her slightly.

"Who did? Who did they take?" Matt asked having not been told by Harry.

"D…d…death Eaters!" Her voice rose in pitch. "They took Daniel! You've got to help him!" She was almost panicking.

Albus turned to the teachers. "Hagrid, go and fetch Fang and meet us by the doors. Everyone else, get what you need and meet me by the doors in five minutes. We need to find these men. Minerva please go and call the Ministry and tell them what has happened and ask for support. Dismissed!"

As soon as the teachers had left to get ready to go out, Matt turned the matron, "I suggest some sort of sedative and take her up to her dorm room, Madam."

"That's probably for the best. Make sure you inform me as soon as you have finished so that I can check up on you all." With that she approached turned to approach Harry but paused. Harry flipped through her mind with a speed that she only just noticed the intrusion, so much faster then anyone could ever do.

Harry spoke into her mind, and made sure that it sounded like himself. "You can take her, just look after her, I will check up on her when I return." She started at the realisation that this was the student who used to be in her infirmary so often. But then she smiled and pulled her wand and muttered a sleep charm at the girl who slumped as the sleep took hold. Harry gently biting down on the back of the neck on her robes and taking her weight for the second before Matt and Albus lifted her onto a conjured stretcher and madam Pomfrey left the room pushing the floating stretcher before her.

Once she had left the room, Harry looked at Albus and then the door, and soon afterwards the Hall was warded and silenced. Harry quickly changed forms and appeared in his shimmering deception cloak. Matt also wore one, resistant to magic and having half the effects of a disillusionment charm or an invisibility charm he almost looked like a ghost as the long robes swirled around him.

"I counted 25 evil wizards, I don't know for sure whether they are working for Tom, the Danus or the Kristostians." He looked at Matt at the last bit, Matt always described them as the people who destroyed his world but as they had captured the whole of the planet they were technically the 'Kristostians.' He did look slightly downcast though for Matt's comfort though. He had just got over the incident in the forest with the spy. "They attacked the two students by the Greenhouses. Miss Lexus ran from them before they disappeared, but I can sense them heading towards the forest and entering it."

"We had better go. I suggest we all split into smaller groups to find them." Matt spoke out, being a lot better than Harry at strategy having led many skirmishes on his own planet, no matter what his age.

"Shouldn't we wait for the Aurors?" Asked Albus.

"We don't have time for that, every minute we wait they might be getting further away!" Harry spoke, already heading for the door and the waiting teachers outside. His form changing on the way. His eyes flashed before he got to the door and he waited patiently for Matt and Albus to open it for him.

The Forbidden Forest

The group had split into three or in reality, the teachers split into two groups, one having Albus and the other having Rubeus Hagrid to help track them down. Harry and Matt made up the last team and they were following the trace of magic left by the Death Eaters, if they were in fact death eaters, top the edge of the forest.

When they reached the forest edge Harry let loose a series of loud roars and growls to contact Arturo, Melica, Vellion, Gaia and Rosen. Arturo had return a couple days before saying that the Elves could not disturb the timeline further and to that extent. They said that the Elves already there would have to be enough until Halloween. They were however willing to send another ship through the portal in a couple of weeks so that there would always be a ship at Hogwarts for its protection.

There was supposed to be quite a few of the Leprano due to arrive in the next few days.

A confirmatory roar was heard.

'They said that they will look into it.' Harry said amusedly at the blasé response. 'It's a shame that Jato and his friends haven't arrived yet.'

They entered the forest and Harry quickly realise that it would be hard to follow them through this intensely magical forest. Everything gave off an eerie light in the dullness making it extremely difficult to sense where they were at a distance. But it was possible to follow them through the forest.

Half an hour later they saw flashes of red from the east. And instantly turned to met it. They didn't however make it there. After about half a mile of walking towards the flashes ten figures jumped out of the surrounding trees. Harry had missed them in the all encompassing spirals of magic in the forest and his Leprano senses had been too intent on watching in front of them to see anything to the sides.

Chaos quickly erupted. Matt used the staff to erect a shield against magic. Two knives came through the shield but Harry intercepted them by melting them with flames. The wind picked up around them, keeping Matt and Harry in the eye of the small hurricane. Matt keep up a shield against the spells but most were dodged. They needed to get rid of these ten as fast as possible to go help the others and find this Daniel kid.

The ten attackers, unaware of the real danger, were caught up in the wind and the spells stopped as they tried to shield against the flying dirt and branches. Then as Matt had expected Harry lit the wind. The ten men were caught completely without defence. Their hastily erected shields quickly crumbled under the torrent of swirling flames. And they were burnt to death. Harry stopped the inferno as he felt the life leave the last of the attackers. He wanted something left to look at. Once the air had cooled enough they left the area at a rush, once again towards the flashes still happening to the East.

It only took a few more minutes to arrive at the fight. It was Albus' group. They were surrounded, fight valiantly against 2-1 odds. Two of the teachers, Sinistra and the muggle studies teacher had both fallen but Harry could sense they were still alive. Harry knew that the teachers were starting to get tired and it wouldn't be long until they were overwhelmed. He turned into his human form and once again decided that elemental magic was the best way to go.

In the battle, the teachers were really starting to tire when suddenly the spells started to slow. Less spells were being cast by the Death Eaters or more specifically they were one by one stopping completely. The reason became evident by their shocked faces. Albus suddenly saw the vines twisting up the bodies of the Death Eaters up to their throats. Soon all 20 Death Eaters were on the ground struggling to breath through the vines suffocating them.

A few minutes later the group of teachers stared warily at he vines. They eventually retreated back into the forest. When the defence teacher and Harry Potter walked out of the forest, half distorted by their cloaks and with their hoods drawn up they were very hard to make out in the dark. Albus waved down the wands of his fellow teachers and they trusted his judgement enough to comply.

Before anyone could speak a crack of lightning fell down from the sky to their South. Followed by a few more darks of lightning lurching across the tops of the trees about half a mile away. The teachers all stood mesmerised as the forests interior was lit up like day time. Showing the odd glimpse of figures at the very edge of Harry's enhanced vision. When the brief ten or twenty seconds of flashes had finished a roar sounded through the sudden silence. Harry smiled.

"It seems we were all led into a trap after the girl escaped and they figured she told us. We were also attacked and so were they. More successfully until Arturo rescued them. We had better head over to them. Daniel is rather beaten up." Harry said as he moved off into the forest on the opposite side of where they had appeared from.

When they arrived, the Headmaster sent Minerva and Hagrid to take the boy back to the school. Harry moved to speak to Arturo about the battle. The Death Eaters had far outnumbered the seven teachers and had disarmed them before they could really react, and then the Leprano had come to the rescue them. They had also killed ten more of them before arriving there. That brought the count up to sixty in total.

Matt had walked to one of the bodies and pulled up the sleeve revealing the Dark Mark. This was Voldermort's work.

"Albus?" Harry turned to the man, "They came for the boy, what's so special about him?"

Thanks to everyone for reviewing, this chapters been done for a while but I have been a bit busy lately with coming home from uni.

I wish all my readers a happy Christmas if your into that kind of thing. If your not then have a good holiday and take a break!