AN: It's been a bit, but happy holidays, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Let me know what you think.
Chapter 13
"I can't believe I fell for that again!" Rebecca shouted in frustration from where she was hanging upside down from a set of vines.
She heard laughs as she was lowered back to the ground and released causing her to fall into the grass below her. She looked up to see Jason, Isabelle, and Alicia all exchanging amused glances while Neville, Sirius, and Alex grinned at her.
"Don't feel bad," Jason said with a grin. "I fell for the same trick multiple times when I first started dueling Dumbledore. I got Kingsley with it, and I've gotten Alicia and Isabelle with it multiple times. It's hard to keep track of the vines, and it's even worse in an environment like this."
They were in Brazil, and their campsite was situated in the jungle, making Jason's dueling style extremely difficult to counter with all the transfigurations he was using, especially since he didn't really have to conjure anything, which just made his spell work seem even faster.
"Well, I guess that makes me feel a bit better," Rebecca said with a sigh, "but I still wished it seemed like I was gaining on you in any way."
"You're expecting too much," Isla said comfortingly. "You are doing very well, especially when you consider who your opponents are."
It was true. They didn't duel every night, and some nights when they'd planned to duel, they'd opted out after missions had taken their toll, but she was still doing mock duels several nights a week against Jason, Alicia, Isabelle, Neville, Alex, and Katie. Isla and Daphne generally abstained, simply because it wasn't their strength. Both were good duelists, but nothing on the professional aurors and hitwizards/hitwitches.
She still didn't hold a candle to Jason, Isabelle, or Alicia, but she was doing quite well against Katie, Alex and Neville, having significantly improved in her duels against them in the few short weeks that they'd been traveling. She certainly wasn't close to beating any of them, but she was lasting longer, and at least providing a bit of a challenge to her opponents.
Jason and Alicia had been watching her carefully over the couple weeks, seeing how she was handling the situations she had found herself in. It hadn't even taken a day before she'd taken her first life. Jason had been sad to see her withdraw into herself for the rest of the day, putting on a stony front while they executed the rest of the missions. He and Alicia had forced her to talk about it that night, opening her up, which ended up reducing her to sobs that they did their best to comfort. Afterwards, she'd started acting more like herself, if not maybe a little withdrawn, but they knew she'd have to deal with it mostly on her own, to come to terms with the event. Artemis had taken to perching on her shoulders for a bit each night, and crooning a song.
After that, she'd wanted to try and continue classes, but also desperately wanted dueling lessons. She'd received some lessons from her father growing up, but only so much that she could hold her own until she could find a way to escape. Now, with her surrounded by aurors, a hitwitch, war veterans, and Isabelle, an incredible duelist and former hitwitch, she found herself the weakest link when it came to dueling capabilities, even if they were competent enough for the raids and ambushes they were conducting.
They'd started building her up, working on her casting speed, mobility, and diversifying her spell repertoire. Like most students right out of Hogwarts, she wasn't as mobile as she could be to avoid spells, she over exaggerated the wand movements to cast spells, and didn't utilize nonverbal spells as much as she could, and she tended to stick to only a few solid defensive spells.
In the evenings she'd work with one or more of them, trading off who she dueled each night, but it wasn't uncommon to find her having a go at one of the old training dummies that Jason and Alicia still kept in their dueling chamber.
"You keep saying that, but I need to do better," Rebecca said in frustration. "I need to be able to pull my weight and I need to be able to go up against one of Voldemort's inner circle."
"Becca," Jason said with a sigh. "Izzy and I used to duel nearly everyday, and we did that for almost seven years, dueling against one dummy, dueling against multiple dummies, and then eventually dueling friends or mentors like Dumbledore. In the years since then, most of us have still dueled very regularly, not to mention have ended up in many combat situations. You've made excellent progress for only having done this for the last three weeks."
"I know," Becca said glumly, "but I just wish I was making better progress. I want to eventually be able to keep up with you."
Alicia gave her a sympathetic smile. "We're more than happy to keep teaching you everything we know, and if you keep working as hard as you are, then you will be some day."
Becca gave her a wan smile, but they could all tell she was still frustrated.
"You need to be more observant of your surroundings, and less reliant on your eyes," an accented voice cut in, and about half the group reached for their wands before catching themselves, seeing Ileana Silva, a strikingly pretty Brazilian woman. She had long raven black hair, and piercing dark eyes. "Notice how your teachers didn't even have to look to know it was me," she said. "They already knew I was watching."
Rebecca frowned at her thoughtfully. "I haven't fully gotten the hang of Sensing yet," she admitted.
Ileana shook her head. "Sensing is . . . a very good skill and can help you greatly, but it's only another tool. Use your other senses, hearing and smell. Use them to gather a greater awareness of your surroundings beyond your magic. I was magically hiding myself, but those three still knew I was there," she said, nodding at Jason, Alicia, and Isabelle. "It's not something that can really be taught, so you must work on it yourself."
Rebecca sighed, looking disappointed to hear about something else she needed to work on.
"What brings you here, Ileana?" Alicia asked with a smile.
Ileana was a very good friend of theirs back in their world, and they'd been able to become friends in this world as well. Ileana was the type of person that just rolled with things, adapted, and overcame issues. She was one of the most capable people Jason or Alicia had ever worked with, and Jason said her relaxed manner came from knowing she could kill whoever upset her balance.
Despite her young age, she was a respected warrior and leader in the Alliance, and had been one of the leading proponents into the Alliance's campaign to start retaking the whole continent. She'd faced opposition initially, but with their continuing success, they were now pushing harder than even she felt was wise.
"We're making another push come dawn," Ileana replied with a sour look. "So far, our spies report those cowards are fleeing in droves, heading north, and rebellions are growing all over Central America as our forces draw near, or at least that's what Hernandez is hyping all of our troops up with," she said with a shake of her head. "He neglected to mention that the Death Eaters are fleeing to areas where they still have strength. Just figured I'd give you all a heads up and thank you for your help, since I assumed you'd all be heading out."
In the weeks since the initial major confrontations between the SAA (South American Alliance) and the Death Eaters, battles between the two groups had only escalated as leaders in the SAA had enjoyed the victories and saw chances to grab power through the glory of combat. In South America, the Death Eaters still had forces spread out over Columbia, but otherwise they'd been pushed from the continent.
A week previously, Jason's team had arrived and after an initial confrontation that had been much more hostile than in Australia, had managed to convince the SAA to start pushing into caribbean. Rebellions had sprung up in areas they had previously been absent as word of the SAA's victories spread. Even some smaller islands had just killed off the few Death Eaters on their island, as nearly the whole world could feel the change in the air. The smaller islands claiming victory had allowed the SAA to claim a few quick victories in the Caribbean, which had only spurred the group on.
At the rate the SAA was advancing, how often new resistances were springing up, and with how often Death Eaters were either fleeing or betraying the Death Eaters, South and Central American could potentially be free within the next couple months. After that, it would only be a matter of time before North America was liberated as well. Jason knew they weren't needed here anymore, and it was time to redivert themselves back to England.
"Thanks for the heads up," Jason said with a smile. "You're right. We're heading back to continue the fight in our neck of the woods tomorrow morning. We'll send you word if we kill Voldemort, or if we could use assistance doing so."
Ileana nodded with a smile of her own. "Boa sorte e obrigado pela ajuda." (Good luck and thank you for your help). She then walked back the way she'd come, disappearing into the foliage.
"She really is amazing," Becca said, admiringly. She had gotten to see Ileana's combat skills in short order when they'd first faced her and she'd taken down Daphne, Alex, Isla, and Neville in short order before being forced back by Jason and Alicia. She'd then witnessed them again while they were out on a series of skirmishes with the Death Eaters in order to prove themselves to the SAA.
"Yeah, she's one of the best," Alicia said in agreement, while most of the team nodded in agreement. "I doubt that's the last we've seen of her. She'll want us to summon her when we're ready to face Voldemort. She, like you, has always wanted to face the strongest duelists. It's how we met her in our world."
"Really?" Becca asked with interest.
"We were hired by the Brazilian government, but we met her on our first day in country when she marched up to us and demanded a duel, individually and as a pair." Alicia chuckled. "We barely even understood what she'd said, never having practiced speaking Portuguese, but her intent was unmistakable."
"What were the outcomes?" Becca asked eagerly.
"She beat me," Alicia admitted with a smile, "but she never could beat Jace."
"I bet she didn't like that," Neville said with a chuckle. "You never told me about this."
"Oh, she didn't mind," Jason said. "She wants to be the best, but she doesn't take losses personally. It just gives her a new goal. She made me promise that I'd duel her at least once every time I see her."
Isabelle, Katie, and Sirius laughed.
"My kind of girl," Sirius said with a grin.
"If we're done with dueling, can you show me the shield destruction curse one more time?" Becca pleaded, and Jason and Alicia sighed as Katie, Neville, Sirius, Alex, and Isla started laughing.
Isabelle and Daphne grinned.
"Come on Professors, surely you can show her the spell one more time?" Daphne said with a grin.
"Sounds like we have a volunteer to use her shield," Alicia said, leveling a look at Daphne, but the Slytherin just smiled wickedly and shook her head.
"Alright, let's do this one more time," Jason said with a chuckle, looking at Rebecca's eager, but determined face.
**HP**
Harry and Ginny apparated back to the large bunker, having gotten another update from Severus. They started walking back towards the command center room, passing various Order members and new recruits who were talking or heading over to the newly created training room where John, Fred, George, Angelina, and more experienced members of the Order traded off spending their time teaching new spells, and providing tips for dueling.
In the weeks since Jason's team had left, the Order had grown quite a bit. Roughly twenty of the patients that they'd rescued from the brothel's had decided that they wanted to try and fight against those that had enslaved them, and had joined up with the Order. Several of those new members had known others that they knew would want to fight, usually their family members, and after a short vetting process that usually involved the use of legilimency and a magical vow, they'd recruited a great many people to the Order, augmenting their forces.
Harry knew that some of the original Order members looked down on the newcomers, or at the very least didn't think highly of their abilities since many of the original Order Members had been very skilled practitioners of magic, or specialists in certain fields or areas of experience, but whether they liked it or not, the extra people meant that the Order could hit harder targets, and had a better chance of avoiding losses when hitting softer targets. Finding highly skilled people was hard, and the Order was slowly but surely being weaned down throughout this campaign, and without more people, they'd eventually be unable to effectively counter the Death Eaters.
As they approached the command center, Harry Sensed a few familiar people in the room, and he and Ginny smiled as they hurried to the entryway and went inside to see Jason, Alicia, Isabelle, Katie, Alex, Rebecca, and Neville looking at the intel on the wall, and making notations of changes that they knew about.
"I was wondering when you would all get back," Harry said with a grin, before he received hugs from Isabelle, Alicia and Katie.
"It was time." Alicia said. "We accomplished what we wanted to, and frankly it went better than we'd hoped."
"Tom's forces are in disarray, and according to Severus, he's been murderous over these last few weeks as you've stopped him from receiving most of the reinforcements he requested," Ginny said. "He's torturing his followers relentlessly, punishing them for allowing so many countries to be liberated. He also suspects a spy, so we need to consider getting Severus out of there."
"That means we need to move up the timetable for getting into Gringotts," Jason said grimly. "We can time Severus's escape with that attack."
Harry directed them over to the England map which showed different locations both friendly and hostile, and showed numbers at each area.
"As you probably noticed, we've recruited quite well over the last couple weeks, and with your team back, I think we can hit Azkaban," Harry briefed. "If we can pull that off, and if Tom moves Death Eaters back into the fortress afterwards in order to retake it, then we should be able to hit Diagon Alley with our full strength."
"It will depend on how well that Azkaban mission goes," Jason said thoughtfully. "If we can pull that one off with minimal injuries, then I would agree."
"That's where you two come in," Ron said, walking into the room. "If we use your skills and have you infiltrate the prison, then we should be able to minimize losses."
"What did you have in mind?" Alicia asked with interest.
"Azkaban obviously has extensive wards to alert the Death Eaters if someone is trying to sneak in, but they don't have any wards that prevent entrance, since they use the fortresss as a prison area, and holding area for those they wish to question, torture, rape, or sell. New people are coming in all the time, so with your abilities, you should be able to cloak yourselves enough to avoid triggering the alert and detection wards," Ron continued, using the map of Azkaban as a reference. "The guards are generally in groups of four for patrols or guard duty, with one group at each of the four main towers at the corners, and another four teams that are on the battlements, and just roam between those four positions. A hundred dementors patrol the island around the fortress, and the remaining of them patrol the halls of the prison, making sure the prisoners are miserable. There's another four guards at the entrance to the prison, and four guards at the dock where people arrive on the island. The remaining guards are spread throughout the prison."
"So how does infiltrating the prison minimize losses?" Rebecca asked with a frown.
"Because this isn't some open field where everyone can see everything that's going on," Ron said, "and unlike a muggle prison, there aren't cameras all over the place, nor do all the guards have radios to talk to each other. The guards at the dock are the main reporting system for the prison, and with the dementors, nobody has ever really worried about people sneaking on, since the dementors will deal with them, or if a patronus was used, it would alert the guards. The destruction patronus is dark, and not so flashy, and it doesn't leave dementors alive so that they can report back to their wizard masters."
Rebecca nodded in understanding.
"It'll take us a couple hours to infiltrate Azkaban," Jason said, looking at the map. "Once we get on, it will only be a matter of time before it becomes obvious we are there."
"Why do you say that?" Rebecca asked.
"Murphy's Law," Alicia said with a chuckle, and Rebecca frowned in confusion while the others in the room laughed.
"Simply put, Murphy's Law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong," Jason said with a smile. "We'll kill some dementors, and head towards the docks, but a random inspection will have some guards find the dementors bodies, or someone will notice there are dementors missing, so the prison will be put on high alert, or something like that."
"If they lock Azkaban down, we will be hard pressed to take it without suffering casualties, and Azkaban does have a messaging system in the command center to alert the Ministry, and if they do that, we'll be in trouble," Alicia said. "The wards are impressively strong, and the guards will turn the hallways of the prison into death traps. So, we need to move fast from the point that we get on the island, to the point that you all arrive on the island. The longer Jace and I are on the island without you all, the larger the chance that something goes wrong"
"Well, how long do you think it will take you to get to the docks?" Ron asked.
"I guess it depends on if we run into dementors or not," Jason replied, thinking it through. "We'd probably attempt to get on the island here," he said, pointing to a spot on the map, "to the north of the docks, so moving slowly, quietly, in the shadows, I'd say it would take us roughly a half hour to get to the docks, and that would be if we ran into one group of Dementors."
"According to Severus, the changeover is at 8 pm, so do you think you can have the docks cleared for us by 9 pm?" Ron asked. "That way the new guards will be in place, and we shouldn't have anyone coming to the prison until the next morning."
"Yes, we can make that work," Jason said, confidently, looking at Alicia who nodded. "We'll go start preparing then."
He and Alicia smiled and nodded before exiting the room.
"Shouldn't you send a couple more people to help them out?" Rebecca asked, curiously.
"No," Ron said simply. "Those two don't need help. They're basically ghosts if they want to be. Harry or Kingsley could go, but I'd rather have them out and ready in case we end up needing to blast our way in. If you went, you'd see that they'll get close enough to the Death Eaters to run them through with their swords, and the Death Eaters won't even realize it until they're dying."
Rebecca looked at Harry. "If you don't mind, I'm going to go see what preparations Jace and Alicia are doing."
Harry grinned, and nodded. Rebecca left quickly, looking eager for whatever new lesson she would get.
"That girl is determined to turn herself into a mini version of the Witchers," Katie said with a shake of her head, "and I believe she might actually be able to pull it off."
"I'm just a bit hurt that she decided they were the ones that she should attach herself to," Harry said in mock disappointment.
"Oh, please," Isabelle said with a snort. "You're damn happy that she's attached herself to those two, and you and Ginny are plenty busy with your own two protogees."
"Well, maybe just a bit," Harry said, his lips twitching towards a smile. "Frankly, I'm almost tempted just to tell Jace and Alicia that they can take the prison themselves. They'd probably enjoy that."
There were laughs around the room.
"Oh, please, the last thing those two need to add to their resumes is that they captured Azkaban all by themselves," Isabelle said with a shake of her head. "They're reputation is already insane back in our world. They're almost as well known as you are!"
"If I'm lucky, they'll be much better known than I am soon too," Harry muttered, and his friends laughed.
"Sorry, love," Ginny said sympathetically, giving him a kiss on his cheek. "I wouldn't count on that happening."
"A man can dream," Harry said with a sigh. "Alright, let's go over our part of the raid tonight one more time before we all rest."
**HP**
Rebecca hurried over to the Witcher tent, where she saw them already wearing Shadow Robes, their hoods off their heads, and having strapped their blades on their backs.
"Sorry, Becca," Jason said with a sympathetic smile. "Not this time."
"I figured," Rebecca said with a sigh, knowing she wasn't near enough ready for this type of mission. "How are you going to infiltrate Azkaban?"
"Elemental magic and advanced charms will be a big part of this mission," Alicia said. "We'll use some of the charms we showed you to conceal our scent, sound, and magical signatures. We'll also do a complicated spell that will make it so that we don't leave any footprints wherever we step. The Azkaban wards are hard to fool, so we're going to charge the area with magic, overwhelming the detection spells."
"How do you do that?" Rebecca asked, fascinated.
"A storm," Jason said simply. "We'll head to the coast, near Azkaban, and we'll go through a long ritual to cause an elemental storm that will help hide us from sight, on top of our animagus forms or spells, dampen the enemies awareness, since they'll be miserable, and the magically charged weather will overwhelm the detection spells."
"We'll use our Animagus forms to swim/fly over to the island," Alicia said. "It'll be a rough infiltration, but our chances of being seen are slim, and they aren't likely to care about seeing a falcon or a wolf even if they see us."
"Can I watch you perform the ritual?" Rebecca asked, and Jason and Alicia chuckled and nodded.
"We need to grab some food quickly, and then get going," Jason said, looking at the clock in the room. "We've got just under four hours to infiltrate the island and clear the docks."
"Taken care of," a voice cut in, and Rebecca looked to see Isla walking in with a couple of turkey sandwiches. "Your father sent me a patronus letting me know you three would need some food."
"Thanks mum," Jason and Alicia each said appreciatively, already grabbing a sandwich.
"I thought we were going to have to eat some crappy field rations," Alicia said before taking a big bite.
"No, we can't have that," Isla said with a chuckle. "You two be careful out there."
"Will do, mum," Jason said with a grin, and kissed her cheek.
They quickly downed the sandwiches as Jason, Alicia, and Rebecca hurried out of the room, and started heading out of the base.
"Artemis," Jason called, and his familiar flew down from the tree she'd been sitting on with Apollo, and landed on Jason's shoulder. "Hey girl," he greeted with a smile, getting a trill in response.
Alicia and Rebecca grabbed on to Jason before they all flame traveled away, appearing on a dark coastline. Azkaban was always dark, even in Jason's world after they had killed off all the dementors. People attributed it to the first known resident, Ekrizdis, and the dark twisted experiments he performed on the island.
"Gods, I hate this stupid island," Jason muttered, and Alicia nodded in agreement
"Been here a lot?" Rebecca asked with interest, always happy to hear stories from any of the dimension travelers.
"Yeah, after the dementors were killed, the DMLE took over as the guards, and as an auror trainee, I drew guard duty more than others," Jason said.
"Working at St. Mungo's, we'd do rotations as the prison matron, since the prison was completely revamped after the war," Alicia said. "Even with the dementors gone, it wasn't a pleasant place to be."
Jason stepped forward with his wand outstretched, and did a circular slow wave, and then gave a quick flick, causing a ritual circle to appear in the dirt. Rebecca moved over to the side and sat down to watch Jason and Alicia, knowing this might be one of the few times she'd get to see elemental magic. Alicia stepped into the circle, with her wand out.
Rebecca watched them start a long, slow chant, one that they had to keep repeating, but she started noticing the results. The clouds were darkening, the air was getting even colder, and the wind was slowly picking up. Causing extreme weather change took a lot of time, and it was extremely difficult.
Some people probably would have been bored fairly quickly, watching the Witchers stand in the circle, wave their wands in broad strokes, and keep repeating the long spell, but Rebecca was just enthralled by the magic that they were unleashing, as she watched the wind start picking up drastically, lightning crackle through the sky, and a small drizzle start to fall from the sky. By the end of the first hour, a light storm had started, but as the second hour passed, a tempest had arrived, and the gales of wind were causing large waves to crash against the rocky shore.
"Bet you wish you could fly now, don't you, love?" Alicia asked with a smile as her wand arm lowered.
"I'll be swimming, and I'm pretty sure you'll still end up as wet as I will, love," Jason replied with a snort.
"I think this might be the first mission that I'm happy to not be going with you two on," Becca said loudly to be heard over the wind, with a grin, ducking her head to shield her face.
"We'll see you in a bit," Jason said with a nod at Becca, before he turned into his wolf form. He ran forth and jumped into the ocean, and started swimming towards the dark fortress, fighting against the waves.
Alicia gave Becca a quick hug before she transformed herself into her falcon form and took to the air, struggling a bit against the powerful winds, as she went towards Azkaban.
Knowing there was nothing more for her to see, she apparated back to the Order base.
**HP**
'Gods, this fucking sucks,' was the main thought passing through Jason's mind during the swim. His wolf form certainly held up much better in the frigid water than his human form would have, but it didn't mean he was unaffected.
It was a long forty minute swim, with him trudging along, relying on the brute strength of his animal form to keep him going. When he finally hit land, he had to slowly crawl onto Azkaban island before lying down in a huff. It was only another minute or so before his wife flew down and landed next to him, curling into his side. They had an hour to clear the docks, so knowing they needed the rest, they took the next fifteen minutes to just lie in their animal forms and rest after the terrible journey to the island.
Finally, though, it was time for them to get moving. Alicia took to the skies, as Jason used his wolf senses to figure out what might be between him and the docks. He could smell the foul stench that came with dementors, but since there were a great many dementors on the island, it was hard to tell if he'd run into them.
He moved cautiously, and it was good that he did, for it wasn't long that he ran into a smaller group of dementors. Couldn't be more than twenty five, so taking his chance, knowing his destruction patronus wouldn't be seen from the walls in this weather, and the death cries of the dementors couldn't be heard, he quickly transformed back into his human form and drew his wand.
His dark patronus ripped through the dementors, and he couldn't help but enjoy the cries of pain as their death throes ripped through the air. It didn't take long before all twenty-five were killed. He turned back into his wolf form and started moving towards the docks. He made it within eyesight of the docks, and then hunkered down, waiting for his wife.
It was another five minutes or so before she came down and landed on his back, five minutes before the dock needed to be cleared. He shrugged his shoulders and she took to the skies again, flying towards the four guards at the docks. Jason took off running fast and he saw one of the guards turn towards him, but it was too late as Jason pounced on the man, sinking his jaws into the man's throat, and ripping it out quickly. At nearly the same moment, Alicia transformed back into her human form in the air, coming down on a second man with her blade, ending him. Jason transformed back into a human, drew his blade, and stabbed the third Death Eater, who had been trying to draw his wand, in the chest, as Alicia beheaded the last guard.
Jason disabled the alert wards, clearing the way for the Order, and then set a few traps which would hopefully wipe out any Death Eaters who might come by before the Order got there, should they be unlucky.
Alicia took flight as a falcon, since she would start clearing out the ramparts and the four main towers, while Jason's job was to clear the entrance to the prison, and then secure the emergency communications center in the headquarters. With a little luck, or at least the absence of bad luck, the Order would be able to get into Azkaban with little resistance and possibly even surprise the remaining guards. Changing back into his wolf form, he started running towards the main entrance to the prison.
**HP**
Alicia flew high, internally grimacing at the battering her small form was taking in the storm. She knew she'd be very sore the next couple days, and flying would be out of question. She went for the closest tower to the north west that could look out to the docks. Granted, with the weather, the chances of anyone seeing anything was slim, but there was no reason to take chances. She also knew Jason had dealt with one group of dementors, and she'd dealt with another, so the chances of there being many dementors on this side of the island, outside of the fortress, was pretty slim, making the closest tower the sure target.
She always hated these types of missions. She and Jason were basically reduced to assassins, and that was something they had never wanted to become. Word of their brutality during the war had spread, and while many had attributed it to war, there had been some who'd thought that Jason and Alicia were perfectly suited for murder and assasination and enjoyed it, and had gone to some great lengths to try and force them into that field. The years after the war, when they'd been able to start taking prisoners alive, due to Azkaban or other prisons, had helped, but even four years later, there are always some people who met them and seemed to assume the worst.
She focused back on the task at hand, noticing the two guards at the top of the tower, huddled up, and looking miserable. They were using their wands to shield themselves from some of the weather, but couldn't completely stay dry. The other two must be inside the tower, staying dry or warming up before rotating out. She dived towards them and then transformed into her human form as she slowed her dive, drawing her blade as she came down on one of the guards, she slashed her blade at the one standing, dropping the man as her blade cut through his throat before she stabbed down on the dazed Death Eater she'd landed on.
She cautiously moved into the tower, her Shadow Robes making her almost invisible, and she was pleased to see the two remaining guards hadn't even stirred. One was asleep, and the other was wrapped up in a blanket, sitting in a chair. Grimacing in distaste, she sent a silent piercing curse into the awake Death Eater's skull, killing him instantly, before she cast a heart explosion curse at the sleeping death eater, ending him.
Alicia moved on, exiting the tower onto the ramparts, finding herself facing two Death Eaters who had obviously been patrolling the ramparts and heading for the northwest tower. They didn't react fast enough as she leapt forward with a broad sweep of her blade cutting both of their chests. One backed up with a ragged scream as Alicia spun and plunged her blade into the other's chest.
Alicia finished off the second death eater with a quick cutting curse to the guy's back as he tried to turn and run, staggering almost drunkenly. His body fell from the ramparts, and Alicia knew that they were now pushing their luck. She rushed along the ramparts, spotting the two remaining members of this wall's patrol. Her wand slashed and both death eaters dropped to heart explosion curses.
As she moved to enter the north east tower, she hoped her husband and the Order were having better luck than she was.
**HP**
Harry and Ginny got off the boats they conjured, landing on the Azkaban docks, finding the four Death Eater's dead, and Harry could Sense several traps that only a dark mark would trigger. So far, so good. He looked around at the thirty Order members they'd brought with them.
Flitwick, Sturgis, Hestia, and Dedalus would stay on the docks, covering the main entrance to the island, and watching their backs. Isla, Alex, Hermione, Ron, and six others would go wipe out the remaining dementors that were patrolling the island, while the rest of them would take the prison. Knowing Jace and Alicia would have cleared those that could spot them by now, they started moving swiftly towards the prison entrance, save for those who would deal with the dementors.
It took them fifteen minutes, pushing through the terrible weather that Jason and Alicia had created, but finally they made it to the prison entrance, where they found more signs that at least one of the Witchers had already been there.
"Witcher does good work," Moody said gruffly, looking at the four Death Eaters.
"This isn't what he considers good work," Harry said quietly, knowing what this type of work did to his friends, but then shook it off. "Alright, Moody, take your team to clear Cell Block A. Proudfoot, clear Cell Block B. Gin and I will take Cell Block C."
They all spread out, heading towards their various areas. It didn't take long after Harry and Gin went down the stairs to the caverns beneath the island where maximum security was located before they ran into their first group of Dementor guards. Harry and Ginny both enjoyed wiping out the vile creatures as they moved into the caverns and started searching the cells.
It seemed that the Death Eaters were trying to keep the prison roughly how it was organized, because it seemed all of the cells in the cavern were empty, which made sense since most of the most dangerous witches and wizards the Death Eaters captured were immediately executed.
It wasn't until they had reached the last cell, and were beginning to think killing the dementors had been the only reason to come down, when they found their first and only prisoner.
Harry paused, as did Ginny, staring at the thin, gaunt man who was in the cell. Harry had only seen pictures of this man, but he knew his reputation very well. He'd died during the second wizarding war in Harry's world, but apparently Voldemort hadn't killed him quite yet in this one.
"Gellert Grindelwald," Harry said quietly.
The gaunt man looked up weakly. "Y-your boss c-can't even be b-bothered to visit me himself?"
"We don't work for Riddle," Ginny said, blasting open the door.
Harry walked in and released Grindelwald from his shackles. "While you deserve imprisonment, I'm not sure you deserve to be imprisoned under Riddle's government. Plus, obviously Tom wants you around for something, so we're getting you out of here, to our field hospital."
"T-thank you," Grindelwald said.
"Apollo," Harry called quietly, still surprised at who he was seeing, and the phoenix flashed in, landed on Grindelwald and flashed away.
"I can't believe we just rescued Grindelwald," Ginny said in shock.
They didn't have more time to think about their actions when Katie's sparrow Patronus came to them.
"We need help in Cell Block B. Now!"
Harry and Ginny exchanged startled looks before they locked onto Katie's magical signature and Shadow Traveled appearing in the low security prison cell which was thick with spellfire. Katie and Moody were barely holding off a very skilled opponent, while the rest of their group engaged several other Death Eaters and dementors. Two of Moody's team were on the ground, both dead.
Harry and GInny both had to deflect a spell each before they rushed to engage the Death Eaters. Harry went to help Moody and Katie while Ginny went to help the rest of their team.
"George, Angie, take care of the dementors!" Ginny called out as she launched a vicious cutting curse catching the Death Eaters by surprise and hitting one in the chest.
Harry jumped in and engaged Moody and Katie's opponent, and knowing anyone that could give the both of them trouble was someone to be wary of. After exchanging several destructive spells, most of which were diverted by the Death Eater's charms, Harry gave Moody and Katie the signal to pull off, so that he could change up his style and start hitting hard. Katie and Harry had some practice dueling with each other, but not enough against someone this good.
Harry launched a wall of fire forward that was cancelled out by a strong water shield. The steam was launched back at Harry, turning to icicles that Harry vanished before countering with three swift cutting curses. His opponent danced out of the way fluidly before using a spell that stopped Harry in his tracks.
Facing him was now a complete duplicate of his opponent, and he was sure that it was no illusion. This was a real clone. He knew who the Death Eater was.
He faltered back as Isabelle and her clone started a relentless onslaught of destructive spells. Knowing what he had to do didn't make things easier. It had been one thing to know he might have to fight Jason and Isabelle to the death, and another to plan to take on that burden, but he was losing his nerve now that he was actually there. Izzy was like a little sister to him. Could he really kill her?
He barely dodged a killing curse, and knew he needed to get his head straight if he wanted to survive. This was still Isabelle Witcher he was facing. One of the most formidable opponents he ever would face. He let her killing curse come towards him before he used Jason's ethereal charm, letting the curse go through him, and he retaliated with a powerful piercing curse that hit one of the Isabelle's causing her to disappear.
Even though he couldn't see her face, he saw her falter as her clone was destroyed and a killing curse had gone right through him. He wondered if anyone had ever beaten her clone charm in this world. Harry started unleashing a volley of cutting curses, blasting curses, jets of flame, stunners, disarmers, and paralyzing curses. She ducked, shielded, and spun out of the way, doing her best to retaliate, but Harry was using everything he had, and he was putting strength into his spells.
Isabelle was nearly as strong as Dumbledore, magically, but Harry was quite a bit stronger, and even someone of her strength struggled to shield against the powerful spells Harry was unleashing. He knew he couldn't' keep it up forever, but he didn't need to. This Isabelle was very good, but she hadn't dueled Harry before, unlike Harry's Isabelle who'd been dueling him for nearly ten years. Plus, Harry wasn't the same duelist he'd been during the war. He was better.
Finally, Harry spun out of the way of a desperate killing curse from Isabelle before he launched a jet of wind knocking her to the ground. As he was about to finish her off with a heart explosion curse she looked back at him, her face exposed, and he froze, seeing the fear in her eyes, hidden behind the hate. Isabelle gained a nasty grin and wandlessly launched a piercing curse, and Harry was too stuck on Isabelle's face to shield himself, and had no time to react.
In front of him formed a strong shield which deflected the piercing curse, just as a different piercing curse flew past Harry and struck Isabelle in the face causing her to fall back in a burst of blood. Harry turned in horror to see Jason's wand arm shaking, still pointed at Isabelle's fallen form. Ginny had shielded Harry from Isabelle's spell, saving his life. Alicia was looking at Isabelle's fallen form in shock, with tears in her eyes. He glanced around seeing that the remaining Death Eaters and dementors had been killed.
"Alright, get the prisoners out of here," Moody barked out, unfazed with the alternate Isabelle's death, not knowing, nor caring. "We need to be gone in the next ten minutes just in case any of those scum managed to get a message out."