Harry watched warily as Yaxley reached Flamel, still smiling unpleasantly. Flamel, for his part, looked upon the man stonily, his body tense.
"It is good to see you again." Yaxley said in what he must have thought was a friendly way.
"Indeed…" Nicholas almost drawled before turning his head to look at Harry. "Please excuse me for cutting our conversation short, Monsieur Black. It seems I have something I need to attend to. Please, feel free to look through the available books."
Harry got up, hiding his nervousness with a bit of effort, though he felt more secure when Yaxley looked at him without any recognition. "I understand, Monsieur Flamel. If you'll excuse me." He nodded to the two men before beginning to make his way to the bookshelves, only to be stopped by the Death Eater addressing him.
"Black, you say?" He asked with interest. "Any relation to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black from Britain?"
Harry turned, shaking his head. "Doubtful. My parents are mundane, and it is a relatively common name in the non-magical world."
Yaxley barely repressed a sneer. "A mud-I mean, muggleborn then. I see…" With that he waved the boy away as he turned back to Flamel, no longer assigning him any importance.
Harry let out a relieved breath and moved to the bookshelf closest to the two men, picking up one of the books, Tobin's Spirit Guide, and beginning to page through it as he did his best to listen in on their conversation without being noticed.
"I already said no, Yaxley." Flamel began coldly before the other man could say anything.
"Be reasonable, old man." Yaxley replied, voice menacingly amused. "Denying the Dark Lord what he wants is not wise. Besides which, we are willing to compensate you handsomely."
"You don't seem to grasp the basic point that you can't frighten me, boy. I am already going to die. Whether it's in five months or five minutes won't make much difference. And by the same reasoning, I don't need, nor want, your blood money." Flamel informed the younger man firmly.
"We can still make things very unpleasant for you before your end comes…" Yaxley growled. "Besides which, I doubt you can fight us off should we decide to take what we want by force. You are well outside Dumbledore's protection."
"You assume I need it." Flamel's voice sounded like it should be misting up his breath, it was so cold.
What attention Harry was paying the book in his hands (who knew there were so many different types of spirits and ghosts beyond the ones he saw at Hogwarts?) was drawn away when he noticed three men enter the building, moving overly casually even as they spread out to different points in the room. Sucking a breath through his teeth he began paying attention to their movements even as he noted where the oblivious civilians were standing, the room more crowded now than when he'd come in. If spells started flying this could get messy.
His eyes paused on a well-dressed woman at the furniture, a boy and a girl of about seven or eight sitting on a nearby loveseat looking bored. That could be bad. He'd have to trust that Flamel could take care of himself and focus on protecting the civilians till the aurors, or whatever the French equivalent were called, arrived.
Gently setting the book down while making a note to buy it later Harry slowly walked along the shelves while looking at the books to surreptitiously make his way closer to the other people in the room. He drew his wand and absently twirled it in his fingers, acting as though it was simply a meaningless habit of his. One of the Death Eaters made note of it and obviously decided to take him out first, which was fine with Harry. If they were focusing on him that meant they weren't paying attention to the civilians.
The conversation between Yaxley and Flamel was nearing its obvious conclusion, the old man standing firm in the face of the dark wizard's threats. Spotting Yaxley's compatriots begin slowly drawing their wands Harry got ready, mentally complaining to any deity that might be listening about always ending up in these situations and wishing that he'd studied the Battle Mage's Compendium so he'd be better prepared.
"Very well, old man. You've left us no choice." Yaxley said before drawing his wand with surprising speed, aiming it at Flamel, who'd already dodged away from the spell the Death Eater sent at him as he drew his own wand.
The civilians were only just turning at towards the sudden show of violence when the other three assailants began to strike after a quick spell that turned their outfits into their Death Eater garb. One sent an unsuspecting patron flying into the wall, where he collided with a crunch and a cry before falling onto some of the art, one of his arms bent wrongly. Another cast a Cruciatus on a woman, making her drop to the floor, screaming.
The one that had been eyeing Harry sent a curse at him at the same time the others had begun their attack, but Harry was prepared, a shout of 'protego' conjuring a shield that stopped the spell in its tracks. The Death Eater blinked dumbly at the fact that the teen wasn't quite the easy pickings he'd thought, which gave Harry enough time to launch a counterattack, banishing several heavy pieces of furniture at his opponent, who barely managed to scramble out of the way, unprepared.
Thankfully the Death Eater's mad scramble let the furniture keep travelling till it hit the Cruciatus caster in the backside, sending him tumbling and releasing the woman from the spell. Sobbing she promptly curled into a ball, hoping she wouldn't be noticed anymore while she caught her breath and tried to stop her body from shaking.
Harry's original attacker sent a dangerous looking orange spell at him which the teen sidestepped, retaliating with a stunner, which was blocked. Then the man who'd been hit by the furniture joined the fight, and though he couldn't see his face Harry imagined he was pissed, an assumption that was backed up by the way he launched spells at him.
Harry dodged and blocked frantically, moving furniture into the path of what spells he couldn't avoid, the antiques shattering into pieces. When he could he sent a spell at them to interrupt their flow, but it quickly became obvious that he'd need to change his strategy if he wanted to keep from being overwhelmed.
Deciding to up the ante Harry sent a surprise blasting spell at the legs of one of his opponents, who wasn't prepared for attack and fell with a cry when his leg shattered to pieces, clutching at his wound and whimpering like a child.
The other Death Eater snarled and launched a steel grey spell at him, Harry throwing himself behind a large cabinet to keep it from hitting him. The spell hit a big, heavy dresser and exploded, sending shrapnel flying in all directions. Harry could only imagine what that would have done to him if it had hit.
He was about to launch a counterattack when a scream emanating from the area the exploded dresser was in made him pause and turn to find the source, his heart dropping at what he saw.
The woman and her children had been cowering near the dresser when the attack had hit, and now the young boy was laying on his back, a large piece of wood buried in the right side of his chest. He was struggling for breath even as his mother screamed, his sister sitting on the ground with a dazed look of shock, neither one of them noticing the numerous small wounds covering them, too focused on the boy's.
Without a thought Harry reacted, quickly focusing on the cabinet. Remembering what he'd learned from McGonagall he transfigured it into a slab of metal before enlarging it so it filled his section of the room, blocking the approach of the Death Eater. Then he rushed over to the family, sliding into a kneeling position beside the boy.
The mother looked at him, eyes wide and panicked, but thankfully no longer screaming. "My son!" She cried. "Help my son!"
Ignoring her as best he could so he could focus on the boy he studied the wound, trying not to freak out over the amount of blood and the way the kid was struggling to breathe. He looked up briefly when a clanging sound came from the wall he'd made, a dent appearing in the metal, but he put it out of his mind and turned his attention back to the wounded child.
"Please calm down, Madam." He told her the hysterical woman. "I'm going to do what I can to help him, but I need you to focus on keeping calm so I can work." When she took a deep breath and nodded tearfully he nodded back before looking back at the large shard of wood. "Alright kid, stay still. Everything's going to be alright…" Harry said to the barely conscious boy slowly before aiming his wand at the wood, murmuring one of the spells he'd learned from the Grimoire for White Mages the previous day. Slowly the wood, along with all the splinters that were also in the wound, began to pull out, managing to not cause more damage upon their exit thanks to the properties of the spell, till eventually they'd exited the boy's chest completely and were laying on the floor beside him.
Unfortunately this brought another problem in that Harry's patient now had a large hole in his chest all the way to the lung. The unpleasant sound that accompanied the kid's struggles to breath showed that he didn't have much time, so Harry quickly proceeded to the next spell.
The Grimoire had sections of spells for specific purposes such as these, but Harry hadn't gotten around to learning them yet. Thankfully the author had foreseen such an eventuality, so the first chapters included general purpose healing spells that could do the job at the cost of costing exponentially more power the more serious the wound. Bringing those chapters to mind Harry quickly aimed his wand at the hole in the boy's chest, focusing as much power as he could into his next spell. "Curaga." He intoned forcefully.
As the hopeful mother and daughter watched, tears in their eyes as they clutched the boy's hands, the wound began to close, starting with the lung tissue sealing itself without even a scar followed by the layers of muscle and skin that protected it. The boy gasped before coughing and then breathing easily as the skin of his chest knitted itself together without leaving a mark. His eyes fluttered and he looked at his tearful mother. "Maman?"
The woman burst into tears and gathered her son into her arms, holding him close as her daughter moved to hug her brother, crying as well. Then she looked up at Harry, who was sitting on the ground trying to catch his breath after the magical exertion he'd just gone through. "Thank you." She said gratefully. "Thank you so much, monsieur. How can I ever repay you?"
Harry shook his head. "I'm just happy to help." He said as he recovered. "Besides, it was partly my fault." There was a screech of tearing metal which prompted Harry to look up with a glare. Getting up he quickly transfigured some more furniture into another metal wall to cover the family. "Stay here while I deal with our unwelcome guests."
As the woman pulled her children behind the barrier Harry aimed his wand at the opening The Death Eater had made in his attempts to continue the fight. As soon as he showed his masked face Harry launched a blistering barrage of spells, from the inconsequential like a tickling jinx to the serious such as blasting spells. The Death Eater wasn't prepared for the sudden onslaught and backpedaled, frantically shielding himself from the attacks as Harry made his way towards the dark wizard, doing his best to bring the man down despite his increasing exhaustion.
The Death Eater was too used to dealing with people who wouldn't fight back or were otherwise not hardened to combat, neither of which applied to Harry. Eventually the younger man got a lucky hit in, shattering his opponent's wand, after which he was quickly knocked out with a quick stunner to the face.
Looking around Harry took in the rest of the display room. Flamel was still fighting Yaxley, who was looking frustrated and angry. The wizard Harry had previously taken out of the fight was still moaning and whimpering like a child over his broken leg, obviously not used to pain. Harry quickly hit him with a stunner to shut him up.
The last of the thugs was ransacking Flamel's items, currently shoving enchanted trinkets into a sack, most likely in the hopes something useful to his master would be among them. Harry quickly flicked his wand, pulling the man's legs out from under him and making him crash forward onto the table with a yelp before quickly hitting him with a stunner before he could recover.
After that the only Death Eater left was Yaxley, who was still fighting Flamel. Harry paused briefly to take in the spells being flung, the multi-centenarian using some truly strange and esoteric ones that gave him an edge as his opponent didn't know how to counter them. Then, once he'd satisfied his curiosity enough, Harry took aim at Yaxley, waiting for the right moment to attack. That moment arrived quickly enough when the Death Eater stopped to block what appeared to be bar of energy made up of dozens of glowing runes, his knees buckling from the strain. Harry then proceeded to use a quick incarcerus to bind the man, who was caught by surprise, lowering his guard enough for Flamel to take him out of the fight, making him fall to the ground, bound, gagged and, most importantly, wandless.
Looking around the old man nodded in satisfaction. "Well done, young man. I wasn't expecting you to do so well against three of them."
"It would have been a lot harder if they were more competent and had worked together." Harry said as he quickly began checking the other people for injuries. There was nothing he could do for the woman suffering from Cruciatus aftereffects, but she seemed to be on the mend. Moving to the man with a broken arm he created a splint, deciding to leave it for a more competent healer since it wasn't life threatening. Flamel quickly assisted in triaging the victims like Harry was, though he displayed more experience and ability than the younger man did, which wasn't too surprising.
The civilians who hadn't fled slowly gathered around the two wizards to be looked at, all of them appearing shell shocked by what had happened. The woman Harry'd helped made her way over with her children, glaring darkly at the fallen forms of the Death Eaters even as she clutched the kids tightly.
"Now what?" Harry asked Flamel once they'd made sure nobody else was seriously hurt.
His question was answered when five individuals in red robes burst through the doorway, wands drawn. Harry began raising his own wand when Flamel pushed his hand down. "Relax, Monsieur Black. It's the Aurors."
"About time." The man with the broken arm muttered as two of the newcomers approached, two of the others beginning to secure the Death Eaters while the last showed themselves to be a medic by beginning to check on everybody.
"Monsieur Flamel." The woman that appeared to be the leader said as she reached the group of people, a much younger man following along behind her and looking around warily. Most likely a cadet, Harry estimated. "I am Auror Le Pen. We received reports that your event was under attack."
"Indeed." Flamel said, finally putting his wand away now that there didn't appear to be any more need for it. "Some Death Eaters wanted access to my collection, no doubt for nefarious purposes. They likely would have done much more damage if it wasn't for Monsieur Black helping me fight them off and defend the others here?"
"Monsieur Black?" The senior auror asked while glancing at the gathered people to look for said person as her cadet wrote everything down with a dictation quill.
Flamel set a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Yes, a family friend. Hermes Black. He is quite skilled."
Harry gave Flamel a brief look for the name before addressing the auror. "Hello, Auror Le Pen. I'm just glad I was here to lend assistance."
Le Pen raised an eyebrow. "Forgive me Monsieur Black, but you seem a bit young to have fought several Death Eaters off, even when assisting Monsieur Flamel."
"Actually, he did most of the work." Flamel said with a smile.
"Yes, he was amazing." The mother said as she held her children. "If it wasn't for him my Jacques would be dead." She turned to Harry. "Again, I owe you everything, Monsieur Black. Please, tell me how I can repay you."
"I don't need anything, madame." He assured her again, shaking his head. "I could not just leave things be, after all."
Glancing around to see that her aurors had gathered the assailants, Le Pen turned to the gathered people. "Very well then, ladies and gentlemen, I will have my aurors get your statements so you may leave once our medic has looked you over." Nodding to all of them she moved off to inspect the captured Death Eaters, leaving the gathered witnesses to collect their thoughts.
With his hand still on Harry's shoulder Flamel guided the young man away from the group so they could talk privately. "How are you, Monsieur Black?"
Harry sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm wondering if I'm cursed to always end up in situations like these."
Flamel smiled wryly. "Well, I am not complaining. Things could have gone badly had you not been here to intervene."
"I suppose…" The Harry looked at the old man. "Why Hermes Black?"
"Well, we could hardly use your true name. I'd already called you Monsieur Black, and Hermes just seemed appropriate considering you plan on travelling during your holiday." At Harry's confused look he chuckled. "Hermes is the Greek God of Travel, Transitions and Boundaries, among other things."
Harry shook his head with a chuckle at the explanation. "I guess it works. I'll go ahead and use it when I need to. Hopefully this'll be the last bit of trouble I have for a while."
"Indeed." Flamel agreed. "In any case, I believe you wanted some of my books, correct? Let's go choose some for you while we wait for the aurors to allow us to leave." The old man said as he proceeded to head to the bookshelves.
Shrugging to himself Harry followed along, looking forward to going through the titles now that he wasn't worried about an impending battle. Picking up Tobin's Spirit Guide and setting it aside to purchase later he began to browse as he allowed himself to relax now that the danger was over, pleased that things had gone relatively well and hoping that the rest of his holiday would be relaxing.
Then he scowled as he could practically hear his friends burst out into incredulous laughter in his mind.
Traitors…
I'm back!
Sorry for the delay. I meant to have this out last week, but after writing a little over 1000 words while at work, I then found out that none of it saved to Google Drive due to new firewall BS at work, so I lost all that work. That killed my motivation for a bit at that point.
Still, this chapter is done and dusted, and I couldn't be happier. I think it showed well Harry's new capabilities.
I hope everyone enjoyed the action-y chapter as we won't have much of that again for a bit, since this is mainly about Harry travelling and learning new things. Speaking of, some of the books he's going to get from Flamel are going to have some very interesting implications. Mwahahaha.
I keep forgetting to give this fic a theme song, by the way. I've decided on AmaLee's cover of Ready Steady Go from the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime. I think it fits pretty well. Let me know what you think.
As always, please keep in mind that you can have a say in what I write when you donate to my Pat A Ron. Each dollar donated is one vote in the monthly poll I put up for what to update. This month I'm doing something a bit special as there will be a vote for two things: a current story to update, and an older story that hasn't been updated in a while to give a new chapter. If you want to see one of my older stories get some new life, please vote. That's at Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis.
Thank you for reading, have a nice day, and please review!