Warning: As mentioned last chapter, the latter part of this chapter contains Mature content (violence and torture). If you are not okay with M ratings I highly suggest skipping it. If you'd like to skip it please feel free to PM me and I can send you a quick 'summary' of what you missed without the gore.
This is a rated M story for a reason, but I will continue to post warnings at the top of chapters containing M rated material so those who prefer T rated stories can continue to enjoy it while easily skipping M rated sections.
There is copious use of the cursing in this chapter.
That being said, you have been warned.
Thank you to all those that have been reviewing. You are awesome!
ECOTS
"Everyone is a monster to someone. Since you are so convinced that I am yours, I will be it."
~ Captain Flint
Chapter 63 ~ Of Severed Limbs & Mushroom Gathering - The Forbidden Forest – Part 1
ECOTS
March 24th, 1997
Moonlight streamed down into the greenhouse, the full, midnight moon shining bright despite the intermittent cloud cover. Harry adjusted the soundproof earmuffs over his ears, everything eerily silent as he cast a look towards Moody and Tonks.
Tonks was bobbing her head, a pair of magical earbuds hidden beneath the sound-proof earmuffs allowing her to listen to the latest wizarding band. The young Auror gave him a thumbs up, whilst Moody just scowled.
The grizzled Auror walked past, smacking Tonks upside the head, garnering her attention before gesturing at the moon, then back down at the mandrake plants.
His meaning was clear: they were in a hurry. They had risked emerging from the Chamber of Secrets to head out to the greenhouses, this little venture necessary if they hoped to achieve animagus forms.
This little venture left them exposed, in a castle full of paranoid wizards and witches, most of whom were quite happy to hex first and ask questions later.
They couldn't risk being seen.
Moody grabbed at the mandrake plant, giving one of its leaves a firm but solid tug. It came off with what looked like a resounding snap, the entire plant quivering as if it had been physically assaulted. Given what Harry knew about the roots and how they actually had faces, he didn't doubt that.
Then again, maybe that was battery.
With a sigh he snagged a leaf of his own, wincing as his own mandrake plant seemed to recoil. Hand pausing with the newly snared leaf in hand, Harry hesitated, before gently stroking the remaining, still attached leaves and muttering an awkward, "Thank you?" to it.
At least he thought he uttered thanks. He couldn't exactly hear himself. The earmuffs had been a precaution just in case one of the plants decided to wail loud enough to be heard above the soil. The last thing they needed was to be rendered unconscious and found by Professor Sprout's first class or even worse, themselves in the morning.
Tonks had picked up her plant and begun doing a waltz with it.
Harry shook his head, then muttered a permanent sticking charm at his own leaf before shoving it into his mouth, taking care to make sure it touched nothing but the side against his cheek. It needed to be there for a full month and he sure as hell didn't want to risk swallowing or choking on it in his sleep or whilst dueling.
He did not want to have to do this again.
Going into the past…it had made perfect sense.
To become an animgaus one had to hold a mandrake leaf in their mouth for a full month, starting on the night of a full moon and ending on the night of a full moon.
It was March 24th. The next full moon would be April 22nd. They'd remove the leaves from their mouths beneath the light of the next full moon, then add the leaves to the animagus potion. The potion would then have to sit for at least seven days, away from any and all sunlight, before being consumed within the next fortnight during an electrical storm. If there wasn't an electrical storm within that time frame, the process to become an animagus would have to be started all over again.
No wonder so few witches and wizards accomplished it – timing things right could take years. A wizard could do everything perfectly, but if it was cloudy on the night the leaf needed removed and the full moon could not be seen, and if there were no electrical storm in the correct time frame, then it was all for naught.
Being from the future had fringe benefits; they already knew it'd be a clear night the next time the full moon rose, because Tonks had recalled spending that entire night curled up with Remus on the North tower watching the stars while he was in his wolfsbane-enduced wolf form.
And Harry knew there'd be one hell of an electrical storm a week and a half after that. Given that he'd taken Kaylens, claiming her body as his for the first time, whilst the wind and rain howled outside the Quidditch locker rooms. That storm, Kally…they were hard to forget.
There was also the trivial matter of the dementor attack, but really, of the two events sex with Kaylens had been far more memorable.
The conditions would be perfect. Now they just needed to make sure they didn't screw up with their leaves. They needed to be there for a month, because Harry sure as hell wasn't planning on going back in time another month to get this right.
Turning amidst the towering plants and pots he looked up, out the glass top of Greenhouse Number 4, towards Gryffindor tower. The full moon shone high over the castle, whilst dim lights could still be seen shining in the common room's high windows. It was evidence that he, Hermione, Ron and possibly Kaylens were still up and reading within it. If Kally wasn't with them, then surely she was in the potions labs and he was up there, waiting for her.
Hell, that was his habit.
Something twisted within his stomach; it'd been four months since he'd seen her in person. Two months since they'd last spoken.
They had been long, long months.
The only good thing about this, about having gone back in time, was that he guaranteed he wouldn't have had the self-control to avoid snogging Kaylens for a whole damn month. He reckoned the kinds of things they did together wouldn't have been conducive to him keeping the mandrake leaf in his mouth, intact for that time frame. If Kaylens' tongue hadn't knocked it out of place, then the things he did to her certainly would have.
Hell, it wasn't like he could even go and pretend to be himself for an hour with Kaylens; in this timeline they still hadn't done that yet.
Not to mention she was as paranoid as he was; if she suspected even the slightest hint of deception she'd hex him to within an inch of his life – literally.
That didn't stop him from feeling randy as hell.
Groaning, he fisted his grip in his hair and gave it a tug. Four months…he had four damn months to learn enough to stay alive, to help her stay alive, to help Ron and Hermione stay alive.
He couldn't afford to be distracted right now.
Tonks spun past him, giving her mandrake plant a little twirl, her foot catching on a pot.
As if in slow motion Harry watched Tonks face plant directly into a stink plant, her mandrake pot soaring across the greenhouse-
It shattered against a table top, the mandrake root screaming at the disturbance.
Harry was suddenly infinitely grateful for the earmuffs.
ECOTS
March 25th, 1997
Well, this had gone sideways.
"Keep your limbs close to your body, Potter!" Moody roared, stalking towards his position furiously. "Let your appendages flail like that again and you will lose a limb. Believe me! I know!"
The peg leg thunkered against the stone for emphasis.
Harry was hiding behind a stone pillar, serpent carvings staring him right in his face. He heaved a breath, cursed Salazar Slytherin, and clutched his arm. Blood dripped freely through his fingers, Moody's cutting hex having grazed him on that last volley.
Fuck. That had fucking hurt.
"You know what your problem is, oh-Chosen-One?" Moody continued, taunt echoing loudly in the cavernous room. "You spent too much time watching what Nymphadora was doing. Do you seriously think Tonks got to the level of Auror not being able to defend herself against baby hexes, Potter? DO YOU!?" Moody made a disgusted sound, a flash of purple light flashing past the pillar currently acting as his physical shield.
Harry started muttering healing spells at his arm.
"TONKS," Mad Eye continued, "can watch out for herself! But you failed to watch your own back, which landed you injured and left her alone to face two Death Eaters. They outnumbered her. Do I have to explain to you why that was a BAD maneuver? Why that lack of team work will get you and anyone following you killed? I thought I was training a future Auror, not a child! BOMBARDA!"
The ground alongside the pillar exploded, Harry ducking as a flurry of shrapnel blasted up into the air. It rained down on his position like sadistic pieces of hail. He managed a hasty, "Protego!" to protect himself against the majority of the downpour, but several sharp shards still made it through, cutting deeply at his skin.
Harry coughed in the debris and dust.
Moody was far from done. The thunking of the peg leg got closer.
"You do your job, Potter! If you don't then you leave others to do it for you! Rule number ONE: STAY ALIVE! Defend yourself and concentrate on your target! If you do your part then your target gets arrested! If you DON'T and you get hurt then your team not only has to deal with YOUR injuries but also with YOUR opponent on top of their own! That makes them outnumbered and they may be outclassed, which is exactly why Nymphadora is dead right now! UNDERSTAND YET?"
Off to the side Tonks groaned. She had been 'tagged' in this latest duel. It had been Tonks and him against McGonagall and Moody, and Harry had gotten distracted when Tonks took a small hit.
It'd resulted in him taking a bigger hit.
Which had resulted in Moody having a spare moment to double-team Tonks with McGonagall, the metamorphmagus now laying on the ground and body bound with green rope – their training equivalent's simulation of being hexed with the killing curse.
Moody had taken his failure personally.
"Had you just PAID ATTENTION to me, Potter, you'd have done her a favor! But you didn't TRUST HER to do HER job so now she's DEAD! Boo hoo, too late for regrets! Do you want to tell her parents or should I!?" Something red and blazing hot flew past the pillar, exploding in the water and sending a gindylow flying with an ear piecing snarl. " Now you're about to get yourself blasted into enough pieces to make a coroner with a savant-syndrome-for-piecing-together-puzzles' month!"
The ground on the opposite side of the pillar exploded, Harry cursing while Moody continued to shout.
"You keep up this utter shit and spend more time watching other people's backs than your own, Potter, and that same coroner is going to be make a romantic weekend out of piecing enough of your body parts back together to make it possible for that girlfriend of yours to make a formal identification!" Harry's stomach twisted at the words, Moody pressing, "The next time you face down a REAL Death Eater, Potter, think about THAT! Is that hero complex of yours worth it!? When you divide your attention in a wand fight YOU DIE, POTTER! Or do you want Kalliandra to identify you based off what's left of your pinky toe?! Idolizing Pettigrew's tactics are we?"
Harry seriously hated Moody in that second.
He also knew what the ex-Auror was doing: he was trying to divert his attention to him.
Harry kept his back flat to the pillar, gaze darting around to see if he could find McGonagall. He knew where Moody was, but he sure as hell didn't know where the transfiguration professor had gotten off to.
Another chunk of the ground detonated, stone flying. Harry hunkered down and cursed. He had three options: run to the right, left, or straight. He'd get hexed in seconds by two terrifying, fully qualified wizards if he ran right or left. If he went straight he'd have to swim.
For a half second he considered that option.
Then a grindylow's tail flicked out of the water.
Then again, maybe he was forgetting a fourth option: up.
Harry muttered a chameleon charm, blending into the background. Anyone looking closely would see his outline, but it would certainly buy him an extra second or so.
A second later he'd kicked off his shoes, muttering a sticking charm at his hands and feet, repurposing a spell he'd heard Hermione use to hang picture at Grimmauld Place. It'd been her misguided attempt to add some color and to make it look more homey for Sirius. It'd backfired spectacularly, his godfather using the beach photo as target practice. By the time he'd been done with it he'd charmed stick figure pirates that were attacking and pillaging conjured sunbathers. It had been quite the R-rated scene.
Sirius had not taken to captivity well.
This better work.
He needed to fight and win this, so no one else wound up like Sirius.
Harry twisted around to look straight up the pillar he'd been hiding behind. This could backfire spectacularly if he wound up getting stuck to it. Then he'd be screwed.
Then again, he already was screwed.
No guts, no glory.
He needed a distraction, otherwise Mad Eye or McGonagall might notice a faint blur crawling up. Harry cast an animation charm at his shoes, making them mobile, the trainers darting off to the right. It looked like Harry had disillusioned himself but forgotten to do the same to his trainers before taking off at a run.
A spell lanced out of nowhere revealing McGonagall's position. It sliced through where Harry's torso ought to have been.
He winced at his professor's ruthlessness. That definitely would have landed him in the hospital wing for at least a week.
But he wasn't in them, so the shoes kept going, McGonagall cussing in an un-Professor-like manner and trying to hex him again.
Harry wasted no time; he shoved a foot and hand at the pillar, giving a quick, testing tug to see if he'd stick. While it was somewhat hard to get his appendages off the stone, they did come off with some amount of effort.
Which meant he'd stick to it solidly, at least enough to not fall.
Which meant he could climb it.
Harry summoned his inner spider and did just that, ignoring the shearing, piercing pain in his upper arm as he moved. Blood still dripped from it, slickening his grip slightly. Below him the ground continued to explode, right until Mad Eye reached the pillar.
"Come out, come out wherever you are…"
The Auror didn't dare circle around to Harry's former position; he was too smart for that. Instead a quick swish and flick of Mad Eye's wand caused a two meter high wave to rise up out of the pool of black water.
A grindylow had been taken with it, looking as if it were about to go surfing.
Another twitch of Moody's wand and the wave was thrown at the pillar, right where Harry had been moments before, striking it hard in a presumable attempt to bash Harry into unconsciousness.
The wave beat against the stone again and again, until McGonagall actually shouted at Moody to please stop actively trying to kill her students. She'd figured out that the shoes were just a distraction by then.
Underneath Harry, Moody looked distinctly put out, scowling as he banished the wave, finally circling around the pillar to ostensibly scrape what was left of Harry up.
Only Harry wasn't there. Only a rather dazed looking grindylow flopped around, Moody kicking the thing back into the water with a loud splash. He spun around, roaring, "POTTER!"
Harry was still racking his mind for what spell to use, when a drop of blood from his still bleeding arm broke free, falling through five meters of empty air, landing right on Moody's shoes.
As if in slow motion Moody looked down at his shoes, then slowly turned his head up.
Shit.
There wasn't enough time for Harry to use two spells for both opponents.
With few other options Harry threw a stunning spell McGonagall's way, as he simultaneously yanked himself bodily off the pillar and went into a free fall.
Five meters didn't seem that far until you were in mid-air, plummeting directly down onto a retired Auror's head.
Harry hit Moody with a resounding crunch, the two crumbling to the ground. Harry felt something in his leg snap, shouting loudly in pain, but he didn't have time to tend to that; he was too busy grabbing Moody by the back of the head and bashing his face into the ground. Once, twice-
Moody didn't move.
Breathing hard and heavy Harry dug his wand's end in between Moody's shoulder blades and shot a stunner into him, just to be sure. It was rule number five: Never assume your opponent is out of the fight until you make sure.
Harry lay there in a tangled heap with Mad Eye, breathing hard and feeling his eyes water from the sheer and utter pain in his leg. Groaning he started to move-
A sharp tip of wood was suddenly against the back of his neck, the taut voice of McGonagall downright frightening. "Why hello, Mr. Potter."
Harry had precisely a half second to realize he'd forgotten rule number five where McGonagall was concerned; he hadn't checked to make sure his stunning spell had actually hit her.
In the next second his transfiguration professor gleefully muttered, "Stupefy," Harry's head snapping forward, the wizard fully unconscious.
Point one to team Mad Eye and McGonagall.
ECOTS
March 25th, 1997
"As if it's not bad enough that I had to treat you once this week, but now there are two of you?" Madame Pomfrey made a disgruntled tisk while resetting Harry's leg.
With a quick, practiced jerk of her wand his lower leg snapped back into place, Harry letting out a loud shout.
"There," Pomfrey said, not entirely unkindly. "It's set. Now drink this."
Tonks watched with rapt interest as the school Healer handed a still pale-looking Harry a potion, waving her wand once more at his leg in a series of complicated movements that presumably would heal the broken bone.
The face Harry was making looked rather like the one she'd made upon thinking she'd snogged Snape. "Mmm," she mocked, unable to help herself, "how's that skelegrowtasting, Harry?"
Harry managed to choke the majority down, only spitting up some. "Fuck," he stated clearly and succinctly, "off."
"Twenty points from Gryffindor," McGonagall instantly responded. "Language, Mr. Potter."
Harry leaned back on the conjured cot and groaned, gesturing at her rather churlishly. "She started it."
Tonks 'may' have been taking the mickey out of him ever since McGonagall had stunned him. But really, they'd lost to the old timers. Could he blame her?
She turned a completely innocent look upon Minerva, batting her eyes guiltlessly.
Minerva, to her credit, scoffed loudly. "I am not so old, Nymphadora, that I buy into that act."
Tonks stuck out her lower lip and pouted.
"Well," Harry muttered, as if thinking aloud, "at least this explains where all those extra house points went."
The transfiguration professor levelled a severe look on him, her normally austere bun completely undone. "I do not relish removing points from my own house, Mr. Potter. And I far from appreciate your antics this year having allowed Severus' house to have won the house cup." Earlier they'd filled her in on the house cup outcome, during a rather heated round of negotiations regarding who got the last bit of treacle tart.
Harry grimaced around the remaining potion, forcing it down. "To be fair," he choked, "that's only because no Slytherins were here to actively lose points."
"They also were not here to actively earn points either," the Deputy Headmistress clipped back. "Really, if you were going to sneak around and get caught so much you could have at least cleaned up your language a bit."
Harry's lips twitched just a tad, earning a glare from McGonagall and an outright laugh from Tonks. Tonks laughed so hard that inevitably McGonagall's glared turned on her. "And I suppose you have had absolutely no influence on this…change in attitude that he's developed?"
It was clear the question was pure rhetoric, Tonks snorting and nearly choking to death as she tried to repress her own laughter. "If only! Proudly, that was all him." She cast a gleeful look back at Harry. "I've never felt prouder of you Boy Wonder!"
Harry sent her an extremely rude hand gesture, forcing McGonagall to remove more points.
Tonks beamed. "Come on Minny," she toyed, "at least you got to hex him in the back of the head. You can't tell me you didn't enjoy that just a little?"
McGonagall's tight-lipped smile twitched up just a tad.
Harry stared at the two like they were dangerous creatures unleashed on Muggle London. "You two are seriously twisted, you know that right?" He paused, making a face. "Ugh, that potion really tastes like shite. Any chance you can flavor it next time Madame Pomfrey?"
Poppy sputtered so loudly it actually woke up Mad Eye. "Next time? How about next time you avoid breaking any appendages, Mr. Potter? Have you considered that? It is a possibility."
Harry sat gingerly up, bending his leg at the knee to test it out. "I think you're confusing me with a student Voldemort isn't after," he dryly countered.
Poppy flinched at the name. Harry's eyes narrowed. "If you can't even hear his name how exactly are you planning to play war-medic?"
The medi-witch cast him a sharp look. "Watch your tone, lest I mix up your potions and regrow you bird bones. Those are hollow."
"And risk breaking me again?" Harry snorted, skeptically. "Yeah right. Now let's try not flinching. His name is-"
Tonks simply licked the inside of her mouth, tasting her mandrake leaf. It remained charmed to her inner cheek. It didn't taste minty, that was for sure. "You know," she cut in belatedly, "bet that potion probably tastes better than mandrake leaf. Whatcha think, Harry?" she quipped in an attempt to distract Harry. The Healer had already been drug down to the Chamber of Secrets and was going to be obliviated. The poor thing didn't need a lecture on why she shouldn't fear the Dark Tosser's name on top of it.
Harry's eyes swiveled to her. "Well hell, and here I was thinking of adding mandrake leaves to those nutrition shakes you all are force feeding me every morning. You know, for zest."
Tonks snorted and made a mental note to tell Dobby to seriously do that to him.
Moody just groaned loudly, rubbing his head. "What in nine hells happened?"
Minerva let out a long suffering sigh, whilst Tonks grinned evilly. "Got your arse kicked by a seventeen year old, Moody. How's it feel?"
His gnarled hand froze on the bridge of his recently healed nose, gaze glancing towards Harry. For a moment he said nothing, his single eye narrowed critically, expression twisted into something unreadable. Finally…
"It's about time, Potter," he practically snarled. With that he started to move off the cot Poppy had him on, looking to be in extreme amounts of pain and ignoring it. "Now…set up for round two. No more babying you. It's time you walk like a man."
"Oh he already does walk like a man, Mad Eye," Tonks casually stated, leaning back in her chair and examining her nails. "Should see him after he's been in a room overnight with Kally-kins. Poor man really has to shuffle-"
"FIFTY POINTS!" McGonagall burst.
Harry flopped his legs off the cot, groaned loudly and shot her a malevolent look.
Tonks blew him a kiss and hopped to her feet, twirling her wand innocently.
"Mr. Potter, I demand to know exactly what you have been doing in the dormitories-"
"Don't ask questions unless you really want to know the answers, Minerva," Tonks said sweetly.
"Mostly," Harry drawled, "hand stuff." Minerva made a strangled sound and he shrugged, clearly no longer caring. "What? You asked."
McGonagall fondled her wand as if truly desiring to use it.
Mad Eye observed the exchange, then managed to thud his peg leg down and stand on it, growling, "Better stay down here for this, Poppy. I feel there are scores to settle. Don't worry, we'll obliviate you of all the traumatizing teenage details after."
The transfiguration professor tisked. "Not before I have a long and stern talk with Mr. Potter here regarding safe practices when-"
Harry made a dying sound.
Minerva's face contorted into a slight scowl. "Go into teaching, they told me. They'll care about transfiguration, they said. It'll be rewarding, they said…no one warned me that sexual education was a prerequisite."
Tonks let out a mad sort of cackle, leaping over and grabbing Harry by the hand, tugging him to their starting position. She conveniently ignored the loud oath he made from the apparent pain his leg was still giving him.
Stopping, spinning around to face him, she saw the timer magically appear in the air, counting down five minutes to their next battle. Drumming her fingers on her wand, she considered something.
Harry was good. In fact, he was better than most second year Auror trainees. But he still needed work on some basic, practical concepts, and despite the pure joy she took in teasing him, she should be teaching him something. "You've been using simple spells creatively, Harry," she choose to lead with. "That sticking charm to climb and get the literal drop on Moody when you were surrounded and penned in on all sides was genius. Where'd you get that idea?"
Harry leaned heavily against that same blasted-up pillar, still shooting her the evil eye. "Hermione."
Tonks inclined an eyebrow.
"She decided," he offered, "to redecorate."
"Well, we need to get you using other spells too. Ones that are more complicated. Tell me, can you do the bone breaking or bone crushing hexes?"
His eyes narrowed. "In theory…"
Her eyes glinted mischievously. "Might as well try them out while Pomfrey's down here then, wouldn't you say?"
Harry drug his hand across his head. "Dark curses…I'm going to lose even more house points over this."
"Screw it, you already know you lose the house cup anyway. Besides Harry, ole smelly-vort isn't going to stick to stunners the next time you see him."
His head twisted back towards where Moody and McGonagall were clearly plotting, something crossing his features that she couldn't quite place. It looked like he was thinking about something, thinking hard.
In the time she'd spent around Harry, one-on-one now, she'd learned one thing: Harry would talk when he was ready to, so she didn't push him. She simply leaned back against the pillar directly across from him and waited, inclining an eyebrow. Finally…
"I've used dark curses before, Tonks. I just…"
He was silent for so long she finally prompted, "Just?"
She could practically see his teeth grinding, all the signs of youth he'd had when she'd been teasing him vanishing. The disgust in his voice was so deep she practically shivered. "Once I start using them," he grated, "I'm afraid I don't know how to stop." His green gaze jerked away from where Moody and McGonagall stood, locking onto hers. "I don't want to wind up like him, Tonks. If I just start relying on dark curses all the time, I'm as bad as them."
Tonks stomach twisted, not liking the self-loathing she saw. Still, she mulled that over for a moment.
"You know," she finally said, rather conversationally, "if we were on top of the astronomy tower, Harry, and I just so happened to levitate you over the edge, or used a tripping jinx when you were walking near the edge, what do you think would happen?"
Harry's eyes had not left hers. "I'd go over the edge and die. At least, unless there was a perfectly timed hippogriff waiting for me." At that something almost humored flashed in his gaze, Tonks opening her mouth to ask for further detail on what had to be a story, but he cut her off.
"What's your point, Tonks?"
She gave her wand a careless twirl. "My point is, it's not about whether the spell you're using is dark or not. It's about intent. You can kill someone just as easily with a first year spell as you can a dark curse." She paused, knowing it would drive him barmy.
It did. In fact, it rather looked like he was thinking of hexing her. "Okay, and?"
"Annnnd," she drew the word out, "if you're fighting for your life, if you're defending people you care about, so Death Eaters or ole smelly-vort don't have a chance to kill you or them, wouldn't you rather use a spell that would get that done quicker rather than leaving them free to hex your friends?" Pausing, her currently brown eyes flickered over his knowingly. "You can kill and disarm a lot quicker with dark curses than you can with the ones you've been using."
Tonks waited, simply waited.
The way Harry was looking at her was startling. Every line of his face had grown drawn, aging him well beyond his years, but that wasn't what had caught her attention.
It was his eyes.
They had grown darker, his shockingly green irises darkening, something haunted stirring within them. Tonks wet her lips almost nervously, feeling like a child beneath that penetrating stare, but she did not look away.
"You see Harry," she said softly, "as much as I agree with Moody, that you need to start trusting those fighting with you to take care of themselves or you're just going to get yourself or them killed, I think he's missing something. Do you know what that is?"
"You're just," Harry drawled, "going to tell me anyway."
Her lips twitched. "See how smart you are?" she quipped. Harry was. He really was. He was far too young to have seen and done the things he had, but there was no going back in time to erase those things. It was why she'd always advocated so strongly for him to be involved in the Order, for him to be kept in the loop regarding his own life.
And that was why she was going to be real with him now, even if he didn't like it.
She took a step closer, finding that she had to look slightly up to meet his eyes now. "You're never going to stop trying to protect those fighting with you. You're never going to because you wouldn't fight alongside someone you didn't trust, that you didn't already care for. So if you're never going to stop that pesky habit that could get yourself or other people killed, the least you could do is mitigate the damage by making sure you take out your opponents quick." Now her dark eyes narrowed, words pointed. "You've been holding back on us, Harry. You let McGonagall beat you. You've let Moody beat you. You've let me beat you and I'm the biggest klutz this side of the channel. Yet you've faced down Voldemort more times than anyone but Dumbledore and lived, Harry. I know you can fight harder and better than you have been. So…" going toe-to-toe with him, she flicked him in the chest, "don't you think it's about time you show us exactly how you survived? Otherwise, what's the point of all this training? Because I, for one, am not enjoying celibacy and would very much have rather stayed in our actual timeline if you weren't going to give this your all."
Waiting, holding her breath, she watched as something within Harry's eyes flashed dangerously.
Then he moved faster than she'd known a human could move, grabbing and throwing her to the side, Harry's body slamming alongside hers before she could so much as gasp.
The cause for his action struck the serpent statue behind them a second later, exploding off the tail's tip in a violent sparking of orange light. The countdown clock could be seen hovering in the background at zero, Tonks having entirely missed it.
Harry shot her a determined look. "Time's up, Tonks." With that he spun around on his knees, wand aimed "Vinculum confractus!" snapped, the bone breaking curse hurtling towards their attackers.
Tonks couldn't help it: she grinned.
Then she joined him in the attack, a well-aimed impotency hex nailing Moody square in his junk. Leaping Morgana she was definitely going to pay for that later.
"Nice one," Harry snorted, before directing his wand at the serpent's mouth – which just so happened to be directly above where McGonagall and Moody were at – firing an intentful, "REDUCTO!" at it.
Well, Tonks thought, at least Harry appreciated her sense of humor. She actually winced as a cracking split the chamber, the basilisk's head crumbling to rain large, stone chunks down onto their attackers.
Tonks blinked in slight surprise as she watched them both become buried, near instantly. Silence enveloped the chamber, Harry looking as surprised as she did at how simple that'd been. Even Madame Pomfrey poked her head up from behind where she'd wisely sought shelter.
Harry cast her a doubtful look. "It couldn't be that easy?"
She shook her head, muttering, "Not a chance in hell…"
They both kept their wands out, creeping towards their attackers' pile, albeit slowly.
The pile burst, rocks flying out in the opposite direction, Mad Eye and McGonagall having been protected by one hell of a shield-igloo charm. Tonks only just barely managed to dive for cover, Harry shouting to her over the cacophonous noise, "Guess that answers that!"
Tonks just had the time to guffaw before Moody began engaging her, McGonagall taking Harry this time.
Merlin, this would be fun.
ECOTS
March 31st, 1997
Mad Eye was criminally insane.
Tonks' back thudded against a metal piece of plumbing, a breeze carrying Morgana-knew-what germs from the castle's inhabitants and sending her hair swirling in front of her face. Her pink hair rapidly shortened, changing to a dull gray to match her surroundings, her skin just as hurriedly shifting to match.
Really, she'd have to send Dumbledore a thank you note once this was all over – thanks for housing us in the castle's equivalent of a sewer.
"That's downright disgusting," Harry muttered out of the side of his mouth, the wizard having flattened himself against the wall alongside her.
She shot him a look whilst Mad Eye started a shouting match with a rat. "You mean that flower-scented breeze or me?"
Harry snorted outright. "Both."
She stuck her gray tongue out at him. Really, it wasn't her fault that he didn'tappreciate her corpse-like look. "Should give it a try morph-boy. That extra half-second of blending in could mean the difference between Mad Eye hexing your shorts off and you hanging on to what's left of your dignity." She threw him a devious smirk. "Come on Harry, tell a girl. You go to sleep in superhero boxers doncha?"
"Actually," he drawled, "prefer to sleep in the nude." Harry paused, deviantly adding, "You know, when Moody isn't my dorm mate in some god-forsaken tunnel."
Tonks' mouth flapped in the sewage-scented wind, not sure if he was kidding or not.
From down the pipe something new exploded, echoing down the length of it loudly. Tonks' ears positively rang, but Harry seemed non-affected by Mad Eye's latest and greatest redecorating techniques – they mostly involved blasting charms thrown liberally out in all directions whilst growling about 'too much serpent decor.'
The now of-age wizard crouched down low, his head darting out from around the curve in the pipe to peer down the length of it.
He was rewarded by a nasty red spell that whizzed by, flying over his head at the approximate level where his chest had just been.
"AH HA!" Moody cackled. "I see you, Potter!"
Harry cursed and threw himself backwards, landing on his ass alongside her. He barely missed getting hit with a bright purple spell – this one thrown much lower to the ground. It ignored the laws of physics and whipped down the length of the curving tunnel, before crashing audibly into something out of sight.
There was also a mildly concerning rush of water, as if it had just broken some type of actual sewage pipe.
The sewage stench attempted to rape her nose hairs. "Ugh!" Casting a spell to render herself scent-deprived, Tonks still managed to beam at Harry as if he had just given her a naked Remus with a bright, shiny bow wrapped around her favorite appendage. "Harry you remembered!" she proclaimed, utterly delighted. He'd remembered to use the stealth tactic she'd taught him when scoping out a new room, or, in this case, a tunnel: keep your head low.
The seventeen year old gagged at the stench. "Yeah well, rather attached to my head and didn't fancy getting it taken off."
"Thanks to rule forty five quite literally," she proclaimed, reciting, "don't poke your head around corners at head level in a fire fight - they'll be expecting that."
He grunted assent and slid back up the wall, ignoring her. The intensity practically rolled off him, it both amusing and frightening.
They were in the middle of a game Mad Eye liked to call 'trainee hunting.' It was similar to an all-out duel, where the quarry got a two second head start, and disillusionment and chameleon charms were banned from use.
Typically these types of games began with Moody taking out his wand during inopportune moments – like when you were sleeping, in the bathroom, mid-way through a bite of treacle tart – and you had precisely two seconds to get your knickers back on (in the case of the bedroom and loo) or to swallow (in the case of eating and also in the case of the bedroom if you had good company) to run.
Tonks barely had time to marvel at how dirty her mind had gotten whilst being Remus-deprived for the past two months - Sirius definitely would have been proud – before Harry narrowed his ridiculously green eyes – no wonder Kalliandra was smitten with the man – and instead of looking down the tunnel at the disturbingly brown puddle beginning to head towards them, or across it at the far wall, he looked up.
A smirk crossed his jaw, the wizard now looking at her in a way she really didn't like. "Tonks, what are your thoughts on levitation charms?"
She followed his gaze and saw what he was looking at, promptly groaning. A chunk of the ceiling had long since caved in, leaving a gaping hole up to Merlin-knew-where. "I'm guessing you don't particularly care what my thoughts are on the matter."
"True," he admitted, flicking his wand at some rubble and transfiguring it into a flock of seriously angry-looking birds. The things swarmed up like a new and improved plague straight out of Egypt, chirping and clacking their pointy little beaks. A second flick of Harry's wand sent them into an attack formation, darting down the tunnel in Mad Eye's direction. "Remind me to thank Hermione for that one," he whispered conspiratorially, clearly enjoying himself.
Mad Eye's shout could be heard echoing down the pipe's length, followed by some type of explosion that sent several dead looking birds flying back in the direction they came, a few scattered feathers and dead ones bouncing across the ground.
One landed in the suspicious-puddle, splashing them both up to their boots.
Tonks frowned. "Well that wasn't very nice of him."
"You'll have to do better than THAT, ow, Potter!" the bird-murderer bellowed.
A cacophonous array of twittering-chirping followed the taunt, followed by Moody cursing his maker as he obviously got attacked. Harry simply smirked, casting a spell she'd never seen before at his own throat. "Oh yeah?" he shouted back. "That's the case old timer why does it sound like you're still getting pecked!?"
Now, normally Tonks would have yelled at Harry for shouting and giving away their position, but first, Moody had already seen him poke his head around the corner, and second, his voice hadn't come from his mouth.
Instead it seemed to resonate from much, much farther down the tunnel. Whatever spell he'd cast had displaced the source of his voice.
She positively gaped at him. "What spell was that?" she hissed. She wanted in on it for the next time Remus got surly and she had to engage in a little light stalking to wear him down. With Remus' enhanced hearing it would be better all-around if he didn't hear her coming. He was a far more reasonable man when being snogged. Unfortunately getting him to the snogging part of the day when he was in a self-deprecating mood tended to be a challenge.
Really, she was a girl who liked a challenge, but sometimes after a long day of Death Eater hunting she just wanted to jump his literal bon-
"Wingardium leviosa!" Harry had ignored her very important inquiry and instead flicked his wand at her. Tonks feet were ripped from the floor, Harry tossing her up and through the hole in the ceiling.
Tonks tried not to squeak as she found herself in a seriously dark, dank part of the castle, clinging to stoning of questionable stability, now looking down at Harry through the opening in the tunnel ceiling. The wizard shot her a wink, his hair changing from dark black to a dull gray to match the stone around him. His skin made absolutely no attempt to change though, Tonks sending him a wild and displeased gesture through the hole.
He still hadn't gotten the hang of morphing – all she'd gotten him to do was change colors - that was it! The least the wizard could do was use it.
Once again Harry ignored her annoyed thoughts, flicking his wand out and transfiguring some more rubble into a hasty wall, which he used for cover to start barreling down the pipe in the direction away from Moody.
The crazed, grizzled Auror barreled around the corner, feathers sticking to his head, and blasted Harry's protective barrier to shreds within seconds. Harry's hastily erected shield charm was the only thing that prevented his back from getting impaled by the hundreds of slivers of sharp stone. Mad Eye cackled rather, well, madly, and transfigured several into snakes that attempted to surround Harry-
Harry had already spun around, shielding charms thrown up fast and furious to counter Moody's assault whilst he hissed in parsletongue, the venomous snakes freezing as if considering whatever the hell it was Harry was ordering them to do.
Hearing Harry of all people hissing was undeniably disconcerting, Tonks actually shuddering at how creepy it sounded.
Then, mid-duel with Mad Eye Moody, the snakes he'd sicked on Harry all turned, one-by-one, to focus on Mad Eye.
Tonks could have cackled at the surprised look on Alastor's face.
"Forget something?" Harry taunted, smirking as the snakes all changed directions to attack Mad Eye.
Moody let out a cuss that would have had Molly Weasley shoving soap in his mouth for the better part of month, the Auror slashing a line in the ground that sent a barricade of fire flaring up between he and the snakes, charring a few of the faster moving ones. Harry continued to throw spells, using simple spells creatively.
As it was, the Auror didn't see what was directly above him.
Which was her.
"I think that's ten points from whatever house you were in," Harry threw out in jest at Moody's cussing.
Mad Eye wasn't nearly as amused, and the Auror spun his wand in a series of concentric circles, a blasting pulse bursting out of it and whipping down the tunnel like an unstoppable shockwave. It sent his flames and the charred snakes flying.
It hit Harry head on.
Judging from the shout, soft thump and splash, it has also sent Harry flying.
Tonks winced as Harry now began swearing about 'baths in literal shit not having been on his 'to do' list for the day.'
She had to admit, Harry was doing one hell of a job of distracting the man. Which meant it was her turn. With a riotous grin she casually lowered her arm through the hole and shot a very simple, very precise body bind at Moody.
The Auror's entire body went completely rigid, but she could see his lips attempting to move in the counter charm…
"Expelliarmus!"
Harry's disarming charm sent Mad Eye's wand flying down the pipe, the most dangerous Auror in over a century now body bound and de-wanded within the bowels of the castle.
Tonks poked her head through the hole in the ceiling, dangling at a precarious angle to peer at Harry. He was on the ground in a puddle of muck, coughing heavily as he gingerly shoved himself up. Blood trickled down from a cut on his forehead – presumably from Moody's shockwave curse – but he looked alert enough.
She rather hoped that whatever he was sitting in didn't get his cut infected though. "Wothcer Harry," she called cheerfully. "Taking a toilet bath? Myrtles rubbing off on ya!"
Harry didn't so much as glance up, but he did visibly shudder and flip her off, his wincing attention fully fixed on Mad Eye. "Tonks," he tossed up to her, staying on task, "how many blades does he usually carry?"
She drummed her fingers on the edge of the hole she dangled out of. "Hrm…at least three, but I'm guessing for training seven. He does like to go all out."
Harry grumbled something beneath his breath, both he and Tonks muttering several blade summoning charms until the better part of a small weapons gallery lay on the ground at Harry's feet.
"Any chance I could come down now?" she questioned.
Harry hadn't moved from where he sat on the floor, ankle deep in his classmate's urine and shit, his eyes shifting around the tunnel cautiously. "Not yet…" With that…
Tonks watched as Harry's skin shifted, going a shade grayer, even if it was not a full transformation. That, coupled with his off-black clothing, made him look like part of the scenery. Tonks drummed her fingers curiously, wondering what he was doing. It looked like he was intently listening…
Suddenly his green eyes flashed, his wand flicking at Moody almost casually. "Moventur hominum!"
Mad Eye was jerked off his bound feet and thrown back, behind Harry, the impact knocking into something decidedly solid.
It was also invisible.
Harry cast a stunner before Tonks could even blink, his shield already thrown up.
To Tonks it looked like Moody's immobilized form had landed on something invisible. Either that or Mad Eye had suddenly taken to levitating twelve centimeters or so off the ground. Harry seemed entirely unsurprised by this, shaking his head and casting, "Finite incantatum," at the pile.
The unconscious form of Albus Dumbledore materialized, the Headmaster clearly having been under a disillusionment charm.
Tonks frowned. "That's cheating." They weren't supposed to use those. Plus, Albus wasn't supposed to be playing.
Harry just snorted. "No such thing as cheating in war, Tonks. Rule number three." With that he flicked his wand, reviving Albus Dumbledore – who wasn't supposed to be partaking in this little training exercise – and unbinding Moody. He looked between them and his now muck-covered boots, scowling. "Let's go again."
Tonks outright beamed, whilst Dumbledore and Moody sat on the ground, covered in dirt, looking completely undignified. "You cheated, Moody," she called down merrily to them. "So uncouth."
Apparently all the men in her life had taken a class together called 'ways to ignore Nymphadora Tonks,' because neither the Headmaster nor Moody spared her a glance. Instead they both clambered to their feet. Dumbledore looking mildly pleased, whilst Moody still found a reason to scowl.
"You need to morph earlier, Potter," he uttered, gesturing at the wizard's skin. "That's a resource. Don't let it go to waste."
Harry just arched an eyebrow, hair and skin already shifting back to normal. "Hardly a resource if my clothing doesn't change to match my surroundings too," he pointed out.
"It'll still make it harder for them to find your head."
"Death Eaters might be dumb," Harry countered, "but last I checked they still knew that a head and neck came out of a shirt's top hole."
"Every resource available must-"
"Be used." Harry rolled his eyes. "Yeah, grasped that, but-"
Tonks let out a sigh, settling in within her new hidey-hole. The argument on tactics was probably going to be awhile and she guaranteed that Harry had already forgotten he'd stuck her up there. Dumbledore had wandered off whistling and talking to himself about chocolate frogs, so he'd be no help either.
Well, if she was going to be stuck here….
Not feeling bad about it at all she cast a stunner at Harry's back, quickly stunning Moody right after. The two hit the ground with solid thuds, Tonks tilting her head in mild concern before deciding that, since they hadn't landed face down in sewage, that they'd be okay for awhile. Really, 'drowned in toilet water' would not be a good epitaph. Taking a nap in toilet water though…that served them right for forgetting her.
"Rule number two," she muttered, quite pleased with herself, "constant vigilance."
Then she promptly rolled over and settled in for a quick nap above the tunnel. After all, she was tired, and she still hadn't quite forgiven Harry for implanting that false memory of Snape snogging in her head a fortnight prior.
Really, the wizard was vindictive.
She almost felt bad for Voldemort.
Almost.
ECOTS
April 22nd, 1997
Tonks bounced up and down on her toes, her impatience practically palpable as she looked straight up at the sky, waiting for the cloud cover to clear. They'd snuck out again under the cloak of night, it a regrettable necessity if they wanted to actually do this.
Harry stood a few meters off, nervous, wand at the ready in one hand, empty vial in the other. "Does it strike anyone else," he uttered, "as asininely dumb to be standing this close to the Forbidden Forest when a full moon is out?" Lupin might be family in every way but blood, but he wasn't an idiot. He had encountered him twice in full werewolf form, and he wasn't exactly eager to repeat the experience with any wolves that didn't think of him as a surrogate son.
"You know, Harry," Tonks mused aloud, once again reading his mind, "if Remus thinks of you as the son he never had, then when we get hitched does that make me your surrogate mothe-"
"I'll hex you," he threatened, "I swear to God."
Tonks giggled like a child in a Muggle horror flick.
Harry sent her a withering look, the full moon choosing to slip out from behind its cloud at that precise second.
"Finally," Moody proclaimed, at the exact same instant that Tonks shouted, "About damn time!" at it. Really, had Harry not known better he'd have thought it had personally offended her.
The cool April air gusted lightly across the grounds, the scent of the forest carrying on it. Harry sighed in relief as he shoved his wand precariously into his mouth, muttering the countercharm to the permanent sticking charm. Immediately it felt like the inside of his mouth had been scavenged by wild animals, the side of his cheek raw as the foul-tasting mandrake leaf dropped off it and onto his tongue.
It took everything he had to avoid gagging on it, Harry managing to get it out without tearing it in half or otherwise brutalizing it.
Tonks had no such luck. She stood, frowning at the decimated pieces of her leaf. "Does it matter if it's in pieces?" She glanced up at them, hopefully adding, "I have all the pieces?"
Both Harry and Moody shot her exasperated looks. "Do you want the short answer, or the long one?" Moody demanded curtly.
"Ooohhh, let's go long. It's been awhile since I've been subjected to a good-ole-fashion Mad Eye lecture."
Harry closed his eyes and prayed to undead gods to strike his companions with the curse of silence. Quickly he placed his leaf on a rock, a sticking charm muttered at it. The last thing he needed after holding it in his mouth for a full month was for it to get blown away and to have to do the whole damn thing all over again.
He was already deeply damn concerned he'd never get the taste out as it was.
The leaf sat there, rather green and benign looking, the moonlight streaming down upon it. Harry's brow creased as it began to sparkle ever-so-slightly. "Er….guys-"
"Yup, psychedelic disco-show," Tonks confirmed, already knowing what he was going to ask. She was crouched on the ground, ignoring Moody's lecture with the skill only gained from years of practice. She was systematically piecing her leaf back together. "Mine's doing it too, Harry." She leaned back on her heels, eyeing her sparkling handy work. "Wonder if this is what it'd have been like to grow up in the sixties? Reckon everything looked like that?"
Moody stopped mid-lecture, grunting something about 'the parties being really good.'
Both Harry and Tonks looked up in surprise, trying to picture Moody young. Well…younger anyway. Harry watched Tonks' mouth open, then close, then open again-
"Tonks," he cut in quickly, "trust me, we probably don't want to know."
"Haha! The recruit's got that right!" Moody agreed, winking at him. "The stories I could tell you would give you night terrors for weeks…"
Tonks gagged slightly, while Harry closed his eyes and once again begged undead creatures to emerge from the forest and club him to death.
Cracking his gaze, he caught sight of Tonks still struggling to piece her leaf together. Intermittingly she would curse beneath her breath, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. Despite the colder spring temperature and their exposed position on the grounds, he nearly laughed out loud.
"Sticking charm," he threw over, right as a breeze swept past, causing the Auror to all but leap on top of the remains of her leaf before they scattered to the far corners of Scotland.
Moody let out a long suffering sigh. "Nymphadora-"
"Call me that infernal name one more time and I swear to Morgana, this time I will actually hex you Alasto-"
"Wasn't the idea," Harry interjected diplomatically, "to avoid attracting the attention of professors, students and things in the forest?"
The two stopped growling at one another and glanced at him with identical irritated looks. Harry seriously wondered if they realized that they were essentially the same person. He made a mental note to mention that to Lupin if he ever pissed him off.
Then again, maybe he wouldn't mention that. The idea that he was screwing the she-Moody might be enough to send Lupin into permanent catatonia.
Shrugging casually he tilted his head at the leaves. "So, how long do you think till these things dry out?" Now that they'd avoided swallowing the damn things – the hard part - they had to bathe them in the light of the full moon until they dried, before adding them to potions they were allegedly getting in the morning.
Moody's lips curled, holding up a finger as if testing the air. "With this humidity? Hours."
"Well, isn't that just smashing?" Harry muttered dryly. He set his clean vial down on the dewy grass, unable to deposit the leaf inside until after it had dried out. The Seeker stood up and got ready for a long wait. The April breeze was brutal in temperature, a hasty warming charm muttered at himself. He could hear Moody and Tonks doing the same, the trio falling quiet.
It didn't take long for Harry to begin pacing, it a combination of wanting to keep warm and agitation. He didn't do well with waiting.
Lately that seemed to be all he was doing.
Three months. They'd been there nearly three months. A mild weariness settled in as he paced, the ground soft beneath his boots. If everything continued going to plan he'd be an unregistered animagus, have some slight morphing ability, be far more skilled in occlumency and legilimency than he already was – really, he'd learned so much on the fly for occlumency due to the Dark Tosser's repeat attacks on his mind that he ought to send the half-blood a thank you note – and have a whole new repertoire of dark hexes to use on the bastard by the time they arrived back at their original timeline.
Assuming he survived Moody and Tonks' near-constant bickering.
Somehow it still didn't seem like enough.
Casting a look back towards where Moody stood, looking alert, he almost let out a laugh at the sight of Tonks. She was reclining casually on the grass, a rock transfigured into a plush-looking pillow, the woman looking like a relaxed cat singing soothingly to herself.
Harry had to admit they had kept him busy, his mind occupied.
Unfortunately, right now his mind wasn't occupied.
His traitorous eyes drifted towards Gryffindor tower, the only person he really wanted to see housed within it, so damn close, yet so far from his reach. The only thing stopping him from marching straight the hell up there and pretending to be himself for an hour was the knowledge that there was no way he'd be able to stop at an hour. Factor in the fear of screwing things up for himself and her….he couldn't, wouldn't risk losing what they had all because he'd gotten impatient.
There was also the fact that he was one hell of a paranoid bastard and bound to hex himself dead if caught. He could only imagine his own reaction had he ever walked into a room to find Kaylens snogging someone that wasn't him.
He really was a 'hex first and ask questions later' kind of bastard.
Harry made an immediate mental note if he ever encountered himself in the future to avoid deadly hexes and stick with stunning until identity could be confirmed. He should probably come up with a safe word.
Harry drug in a deep breath. Three months, three more to go. But hell, at least they were almost at the halfway point.
He held onto that thought, doing his very best to do anything other than think of Kally over the next several hours. He sure as hell wasn't thinking about what her hair and bared skin would look like beneath the moonlight, of what her lips would taste like, of how she felt beneath him, on him, of how tousseled her hair was when he awoke to find her nestled against his chest in the morning…
Yeah, right.
He was clearly doing a bang-up job of it given he swore to something unholy he could actually hear her voice.
Tonks had been right; celibacy was bad for the brain.
Harry shivered in the cold, casting another warming charm on himself.
Then Harry paused, realizing there was one small problem: if he was really hallucinating this, then why in the hell was he still hearing her?
Tonks' quiet singing continued. "Ninety two Death Eater's heads on the hearth, ninety two Death Eater's heads on the hearth. Hex one down, cut the neck all around, ninety two Death Eater's heads on the-"
"Sssh," Harry hissed, shushing her. His gaze darted towards the Forbidden Forest, knuckles growing white around his wand.
"Potter," Moody quietly demanded, "you hear something?"
It was dim, distant, Harry not sure what – if – he heard anything, or if it were all in his head. He had taken a lot of knocks to it lately, courtesy of Moody-duels. "I'm not…I'm not sure," he admitted, gaze sharpening as his night-adjusted vision searched the forest's periphery.
Tonks had sat up, already on one knee as if preparing to spring, her wand also in hand. "I don't hear anything," she whispered, looking on alert all the same.
"His hearing is better than ours girl," Moody hissed urgently. "Phoenix-bond."
"Ah."
Harry shook his head, brow creased deeply. He took several steps closer to the forest periphery. "I could have sworn I heard Kaylens…"
Behind him Tonks snorted. "Oh Merlin, Moody. He's gone lovesick."
"Will you be quiet woman?!"
Harry didn't have time to marvel at how those two could ever function as a well-oiled fighting unit, given how much they squabbled. He had already tuned them out, coming to stand at the edge of the forest, its shadows falling over him. Breathing increasing, every muscle within him tensed, on edge, he quietly waited.
Overhead the canopy swayed in the spring breeze, newly grown leaves shuddering in the wind like skeletal hands. Silvery moonlight penetrated in spots, forming shafts of silver-white light on the forest floor. Harry stepped farther in, his left boot crunching against twigs-
He heard it again.
It sounded like distant, riotous laughing.
And the laughter sounded familiar.
He'd heard it before.
"He knows how to play, little, bitty, baby Potter!"
His blood went cold.
"Bellatrix!" Harry saw red, and without thinking he bolted.
"HARRY!"
He heard Tonks shout after him, flat out ignoring her as low-hanging branches, bramble and shrubs lashed out at his exposed arms, snaring at his jeans-
He made it all of twenty steps.
A rope-snaring hex slammed around his ankles, Harry going down, and going down hard. He cursed an oath, hands slamming into the ground as he twisted around, wandlessly undoing the spell-
Tonks slammed into the ground besides him, dead leaves and twigs scattering skyward. She wasted no time in smacking him upside the head. "You wait for your team you dolt!" she hissed furiously, glancing back towards where Moody was trudging along after, his peg leg slowing him down. "Barreling in head first without a plan is the perfect way to get your head removed."
Harry had already kicked off the last of the ropes, cussing. "Oh yeah?" he bit. "What Auror rule is that?"
"It's not! It's common-friggin'-sense!"
"I heard Kaylens, Tonks," he snarled. "I heard Bellatrix. Do you have any fucking idea what Bellatrix would do to-"
Tonks paled. "Yes!" she pled. "But charging in half-cocked isn't going to help, Harry. You don't even know for sure she's there!"
Something sick and twisted writhed within him, Harry already back on his feet, seeing red. He heaved a hard breath, then another one, his vision slowly returning. His chest kept heaving, adrenaline filling his veins as he tried to force his mind clear.
Tonks was right. Damn't, but she was right.
His fists clenched, and Harry looked Moody dead in the eye. "I heard Bellatrix."
Moody's one good eye stared unblinkingly back. "Yer sure, Potter?"
Harry heaved a deep breath, but nodded. "I heard," he growled, "her laugh." That wasn't a laugh you easily forgot. He couldn't be sure he'd heard Kally, but Bellatrix…
Of that he was damn sure.
"Shite," Tonks summarized, still kneeling on the ground. Her head darted towards the forest, hissing, "Double shite."
Moody snapped silencing charms and, "Muffliato," at their feet. "You two go. Scout it. Disillusion yourselves and hold position. Don't engage unless you have to. I'll catch up." Moody was already casting the patronus charm, what looked suspiciously like a ragged-furred wolverine leaping out of his wand's end. "Dumbledore, Minerva, get your bath robes off, real robes on and get yer arses outside!" he was snarling into the patronus message. "We've got a situation out-"
Harry didn't hear the rest. He'd grabbed a hold of Tonks' arm and started running.
"Harry are you sure?" Tonks heaved as they ran. "This didn't happen before!"
"How the hell would we know if we were the ones who took care of it in the past?" he tossed back. "We can't exactly summon the Order! We couldn't explain ourselves to ourselves and we'd get our own asses hexed!"
Once again Tonks swore. "I friggin' hate time travel!"
Harry's feet assaulted the ground. No one else: no one.
No one good was going to die tonight.
The depths of the Forbidden Forest lit up like a fireworks show, Tonks nearly tripping on a branch at the sight. With a grunt Harry snared her arm and practically threw her in front of him, the small Auror landing back on her feet with a grace she rarely showed.
This was like training. It was just like training. He tried to tell himself that. He'd sodding imagined hearing Kaylens out here. Kaylens was up in the dormitory with him, right now, safe. Hell, he probably already had her in bed with him. She had to be, because he sure as hell would have remembered her mentioning getting attacked out in the forest.
Still he felt sick.
Wordlessly Harry threw a chameleon charm on himself, feet pounding soundlessly against the forest detritus thanks to Moody's creative use of first year charms. Tonks cast her own chameleon charm a second later, disappearing in front of him, becoming nothing more than a shadowy outline in the darkness.
Ahead of them the forest would grow dark, then light up with spell fire, before growing dark again.
Harry barreled into the darkness with Tonks, fighting back the rising panic inside.
ECOTS
April 22nd, 1997 – 11:25 p.m.
Potions really was an interesting subject. It required focus, the ability to multi-task, and shocking depths of knowledge.
It also required incredibly specific ingredients.
Some of those ingredients, funnily enough, had very specific times when they could be collected. If collected at the wrong time, under the wrong conditions, then they were utterly useless. If they got used in a potion then it would, at best, be worthless, and at worst, toxic.
Fairy mushroom were one such ingredient. Not only did they have to be specifically collected under the light of a full moon, but they had to be collected from a fairy circle – a ring of mushrooms – in a dark part of a forest, beneath a willow tree, where direct sunlight would never reach them.
As if those parameters were not specific enough, they also lacked a large growth range. In fact, the Forbidden Forest just outside of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry remained one of the few forests where they could reliably be found. That was a well-known fact, given it'd appeared in several of the potions' texts Kally had read.
All the fuss to find them was typically worth it, given their highly magical properties. Without them, there were a plethora of potions that simply wouldn't exist.
That was how she'd found herself out in the Forbidden Forest, under the light of the full moon, collecting them with Regulus Black.
They'd done this every full moon for the past four months. Each time they had returned back to the castle, mushrooms in hand, their task complete, and she'd wound up back in Gryffindor tower before Hermione was even done studying.
Tonight had gone a little differently.
"Humana reveleo!" The spell erupted in a flurry of gray mist, revealing nothing.
"It's not working."
"I'm aware."
"Where in the hell did she go?"
"Awwww, Avery," cooed the vile woman from Grimmauld, Bellatrix, "you seem stressed. Now why would a big bad wizard such as yourself be stressed over a little, ittle, bittle student?"
"You know why!"
Kally lay hunkered down in a ditch alongside Regulus Black and winced at Avery's voice. Across mere centimeters she hissed, "Taking it the zombies didn't get him." The last time either of them had seen Avery he'd been plastered to that hospital wall in Dublin, dressed in drag and dangling just out of reach of the hordes of undead plague victims, acting as an enticing, living snack so she, Fred and the others could get away.
Apparently those underachieving zombies hadn't been motivated enough to climb for their food.
Black's voice was so full of derision it was shocking she didn't implode on the spot. "Do refresh my memory," he drawled far too calmly, "why did you fail to kill him when you had the chance?"
The damp dirt was seeping into her clothing, Kalliandra starting to shiver. "Fred said something about live bait…"
A twig snapped, and Kally tried to breathe as quiet as possible. There was absolutely no way they wouldn't be found soon, but panicking wouldn't help. Really, the fact that she could even think like this was testament to how much Potter was rubbing off on her.
Potter.
Merlin, he was probably still waiting up for her in the common room.
Her hazel eyes flickered to where Regulus ought to be in the dark. "Any ideas?" she whispered hopefully.
"I'm thinking."
"Think faster!"
They'd been out there, collecting fairy mushrooms when the telltale pops of apparition had resounded all around them. Kally had barely caught a glimpse of them in the dark, even with her night vision, before her eyes had locked with that of Avery.
There was no way he could have seen her.
Yet he had.
Regulus had snared her by the sleeve, disillusioned her and all but thrown her into a dip in the ground.
It was a glorified ditch.
Now twigs jabbed her in every conceivable place.
Regulus had wasted no time in casting a counter-charm to the humana reveleo charm, on the grounds that - according to Black - 'if we're going to die because they saw your incessantly shiny hair we might as well make it difficult for them.'
Leaves crunched nearby and they both stopped breathing. Kally's jeans and shirt were practically soaked in dew, her skin growing cool to the touch, it taking everything she had to forcibly not shiver, because a Death Eater was skulking past. It was a short, stout woman with red hair that Kally had seen only once before: Alecto Carrow.
She'd been at the battle of Grimmauld Street.
Oddly enough, the last time Kally had seen her had also been whilst sneaking around, disillusioned, in the company of Regulus Black.
Kally was noticing an unpleasant theme involving Casper.
The woman left their field of view, but Kalliandra didn't dare whisper, let alone move or speak. She didn't know how far off the woman had wandered.
The dirt in front of her nose began to move ever-so-slightly, as if being written in with the tip of someone's finger.
4?
Sucking in a breath, she started to nod, only to kick herself. They were disillusioned. There would be no way for Regulus to see her agree. Reaching out very, very carefully with one hand she drew a Y in the dirt alongside it.
As far as she could tell, there were four of them.
Apparently Regulus thought the same.
Which meant they were outnumbered, two to one.
And amidst those outnumbering them was Bellatrix Lestrange, someone Kally knew from Order meetings had killed more than her fair share of phoenixes.
Something akin to terror edged at her, Kally trying not to tremble. Her breathing grew low, shallow. She desperately tried to think of a way out of this. They had been collecting the mushrooms in a small clearing within the forest. The ditch they lay within was on the edge of it, but it was on the far side, farthest away from the castle. If they made a run for it, they'd be forced to run deeper into the forest, farther from safety.
The Death Eaters would surely catch them.
Crap.
"I found a basket," came a gruff, over-eager sounding voice. "Looks like Avery hasn't lost it. Yet."
"I told you I saw someone! It was her."
"My, my Avery, still sour over being put in a skirt?" Alecto cooed.
"When I find her," he hissed, "I will take great pleasure in skinning her alive."
In the dark Regulus Black found her fingers hovering near the Y she'd drawn in the dirt, squeezing them in a painful, silent command to stay silent.
"Ah, ah, ah, ah Avery. You know our Lord likes to play with her sort. It wouldn't do to deliver damaged goods. He might get a little…" Bellatrix stroked her wand lovingly, practically leering, "upset."
Avery looked like he wanted to punch her.
A rattling sniff was heard, a wheezing voice hissing, "The basket had mushrooms in it. They were collecting fairy mushrooms, same as us!"
Amyscus hissed, "Do they kno-"
"SHUT UP!" Alecto roared, wheeze gone in fury. "Do not advertise it when there are ears!"
Bellatrix let out an uncontrolled, dark laugh. "That's not all we're here to do, Alecto. But potions' supplies is it?" The sound of the basket being overturned, before it was kicked, flying past them overhead, mushrooms scattering about, was heard. "My, my, so if that girl is out here, then someone from Hogwarts staff must be too. I love when our intel is right." The witch tilted her head, her tangled black hair blowing around her head like Medusa's snakes. "Now, now friends of Dumbledory, come on out and we promise not to huuuurt you..."
"We needed those," Amycus wheezed, staring forlornly after the scattered mushrooms.
"Go fetch," Bellatrix snapped carelessly. Her voice sounded farther off, as if she were systematically walking the clearing's perimeter.
"Either that," Alecto sneered on a wheezing laugh, "or the students are trying to get high off them again."
"Explains so much about why your year in Slytherin was by far the least intelligent," sneered Avery.
"Now's not the time!"
Kally wondered if they could seize upon the Death Eaters' disorganization and bickering to run.
"We don't," Regulus whispered urgently, voice at such a low din that she barely heard him, "have much time."
"Enough of this!" Bellatrix cooed impatiently. "Reducto!"
A blazing red spell lit up the night, slamming into a tree trunk. The trunk snapped clear through, it cracking, creaking as it began to teeter. It slammed to the forest floor with a thunderous boom, the dirt around Kally's face actually bouncing with its impact.
Bellatrix spun in a circle, calling, "Playing hide and seek is so rude, children! Or is it Professor and child? You so should come out and introduuuuce yourselves. Though I think I know who you arrreee. Confingo!"
An oak tree's upper most boughs exploded, sizzling red flames as their remnants crashed to the ground.
Bellatrix's sing song voice grated at Kally's ears, Regulus seizing upon her now riotous laughter to mutter, "Can you or can you not take Bellatrix out?"
Kally wasn't sure she heard him right, her heart racing so loudly she feared they'd hear it. Bellatrix was prancing, dancing through the clearing, crushing the little, purple moon flowers that grew around fairy circles underfoot. Spells flung intermittingly from her wand, crashing into trees and shrubs dangerously close, but they couldn't move.
"Expullllso!" A blue pressure wave of air whipped past overhead, her disillusioned hair smacking violently around her face, unseen. Kally flinched, burying her face into the earth to avoid being hit as something behind them exploded on impact.
She was scared. She could sodding admit it.
She breathed raggedly. In her pocket the brand new wand that Regulus and Snape had forced her to get practically burned a hole through her jeans. She hadn't used it yet. She was afraid to touch it. It was still freaking wrapped in a cloth for Merlin's sake! She didn't know if it would work, and she'd only get one chance.
But if she passed out she'd be leaving Regulus to defend against the three remaining on his own…
"Reducto! Sectumsempra! Confractus lapis!" Bellatrix happily slashed her wand at the next nearest tree, splinters of bark flying in every direction.
Kally hissed shakily back, "I'll try."
"Your confidence is staggering…"
The laughter stopped, the witch suddenly pursing her lips in a puckered frown. "Alecto…my dear…did you hear that?"
Kally could practically hear Regulus mentally swearing.
The Death Eaters all turned in the opposite direction, looking towards the school.
Then Kally heard it.
It was the distinct sound of a twig snapping and a woman swearing.
ECOTS
April 22nd, 1997 – 11:27 p.m.
"I'm sorry!" Tonks hissed, Harry cursing and ducking behind a tree.
He'd been right. There were Death Eaters in the Forbidden Forest. Four of them. And they had all turned in their direction when Tonks had tripped on and flat out broken a twig whilst dodging a randomly aimed hex.
Uneven bark caught at Harry's shirt. The pungent scent of tree sap filled his nostrils, oozing from slashing wounds in its trunk from Lestrange's spells.
The witch had been tossing them idly about while singing.
Harry wanted to cut her tongue out of her throat and force feed it to Riddle. With any luck the snake would choke.
A neon orange spell lashed out between the trees he and Tonks hid behind, striking leaves and sending smoke curling, coiling into the air as a small fire began to crackle. "Come out, come out wherever you areeee!" Another spell launched out far to his right, slamming into a sapling and igniting it as well.
They were looking for someone...
"Tisk, tisk, Bella. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to play with fire?" Avery drawled.
Lestrange's response was to fire off another booming hex, the husk of a long-fallen tree igniting and beginning to burn like a bonfire. "Come out Professor. I promise we won't huuuurt you."
Professor?
Harry crouched even lower, acutely aware of exactly what one of Bellatrix's cutting curses could do to him if it went straight through a tree and into his torso, head or neck. Smoke was beginning to coil into the air, Harry aware that it wouldn't take long before the surrounding trees went up in flames.
Worse yet, it wouldn't be long until the smoke gave away he and Tonks' positions. Disillusionment and chameleon charms were grand damn fun, right until smoke or water wrapped around the person. It was the same concept as if someone had covered them in flour during one of the twins pranks – they'd be covered in something and visible, plain and simple.
Shit.
His heart threw itself against his ribcage, panic still in him. He hadn't seen anyone but the four Death Eaters, but he had to be sure.
Squatting, he moved extremely slowly, counting on his chameleon charm to do the work for him as he slowly peered around the trunk at a low angle.
The four Death Eaters could be seen standing near the edge of the clearing, but no one else. Palpable relief flooded him for only a second. Bellatrix's lips had curled back, fangs glinting in the light of the moon. Her nostrils were flaring, sniffing. "I smell blood," she practically cooed.
Harry instantly appraised himself, trying to figure out if he were cut anywhere, only to hear a slight cuss from the side.
Shit. It was Tonks.
She must have cut herself when she'd tripped.
The counter curse she'd done to the humana reveleo charm wouldn't do her any good if Bellatrix could sniff her out.
As if hearing his thoughts, Bellatrix's head whipped in Tonks' direction, Harry glancing back through the forest and silently willing Moody to hurry his peg-legged arse up. Suddenly he understood why the wizard had retired – he couldn't keep up in a literal foot race.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. SHIT.
Harry mentally cursed Voldemort and his experimentations.
Bellatrix was creeping slowly towards Tonks' position, her wand held tentatively in front of her as if it were an Egyptian asp coiled and ready to strike.
Harry's grip tensed around his own wand, doing the same.
ECOTS
April 22nd, 1997 – 11:28 p.m.
Kally yanked her face out of the dirt and peered over the edge of the ditch. Overhead several branches had begun to burn, it all too familiar.
All four Death Eaters had their backs to them, their attention fixed on something else. Kally saw nothing over there, but the way Bellatrix was firing spells off made it obvious that if someone were there, that they weren't with them.
"Now," Casper drawled, "would be a good time, unless you were waiting for a hand crafted invitation."
Kalliandra slowed her breathing, closing her eyes, concentra-
Regulus abruptly grabbed a hold of her arm, fingers digging in tensely. "Unless you want both of us to die prematurely then use your wand," he hissed.
She stared at him like a deer in headlights.
"Now. We won't get another chance," he viciously bit.
Kally shook him off. "I'd rather not."
"I'd rather you did," he snapped.
Bellatrix fired off a curse with a loud crack,Kally almost jumping as bramble caught on literal fire. It felt like her stomach was twisted in knots, this not a good idea. It was a terrible, terrible idea.
"Kalliandra…"
Kalliandra barely heard him. In fact, she didn't.
She was too busy staring straight across the clearing, into the shadows, where the smoke was now curling. The leaves and grasses once more shuddered in the wind, the forest writhing with aberrant life, the cold gust having sent the scant smoke wafting across the ground before dispelling it skyward.
She only saw it because she too, like the person, was crouching at ground level.
Within the shadows the smoke revealed the faint outline of a disillusioned or chameleon charmed person, one hiding behind a tree.
And the Death Eaters were hunting for them.
They weren't alone.
The breeze died, the smoke wafting up, the person once again invisible.
"There's someone over there," she hissed, shoving a hand into her pocket, snaring the cloth-wrapped wand before Regulus was even done muttering that they better be friendly. In the dark everything was hard to see, but with unicorn blood and the light of the full moon flickering down into the clearing…
She thought she saw the person move.
Kally didn't understand the sudden panic she had, the Reach grabbing the end of the cloth and tugging, the wand unrolling out of it, the yew wood falling onto the earth with a dull thud.
Blindly she snatched it between her fingers, an electric spark shooting through her. She nearly dropped it, but didn't. Desperation rose, Kally cursedly aware that this was their only chance for a distraction.
Kally closed her eyes, once more slowing her breathing as she directed her wand's tip out, over the hollow in the earth they hid within. Clinging to the yew, trying desperately to forget that she'd never so much as touched it, let alone used a real wand successfully, she forced her breathing slower.
It was just as it always was.
Pinpricks, like static electricity began to crawl across her flesh, a deathly chill creeping into the air, filling her lungs.
Kally closed her eyes. She always closed her eyes, but this time…
This time she forced them back open, staring across the moonlight-lit clearing as liquid gold began to roll across her wand's pale end. The sounds of the Death Eaters footsteps, crunching against the previous years' fallen and dried up leaves was suddenly acutely, terribly loud in her ears. The sound of Bellatrix's sneering laughter, of Amycus and Alecto's wheezing breaths, the utter silence of Avery, the slight shuffling of someone hiding was near suffocating-
Then everything became muffled, Kally's lips parting as she suddenly felt it. It slid through her like an electric charge-
A pressure built within her ears, around her. Of all the Death Eaters both Avery and Bellatrix suddenly paused, going motionless-
They started to turn.
The end of her wand ignited with a violent spark, a golden streak blazing out.
For a second it lit up the clearing, illuminating Avery's twisted face in stark relief.
Then it struck Bellatrix Lestrange in the back.
ECOTS
April 22nd, 1997 – 11:30 p.m.
The next five seconds seemed to last an eternity.
Lestrange's head jerked back, neck cracking at an unnatural angle as the golden spell struck her. It struck with enough force to knock her forward a step, the witch-turned vampire unleashing a low, pained moan like a feral animal. Her wand fingers twitched jerkily, her eyes rolling in her head as an acrid green curse fired off – the killing curse-
It took out the spot Tonks had just been in, Harry ready to scream-
Five.
Something moved, a chameleon-like form army-crawling away across the forest floor.
Relief hit him full force.
Tonks was alive.
Then Harry realized that the light sinking into Bellatrix was gold.
The golden chain of light had punched directly into Lestrange's chest.
Harry's heart stuttered, his eyes following its path as if in slow motion, time freezing….
Four.
A golden chain of light stretched across the otherwise dark, moonlit clearing, winding its way through the grass, flowers and mushrooms, vibrating like a feeding snake before it disappeared into the shadows on the clearing's opposite side.
It disappeared into a ditch.
Bellatrix was moaning.
Three.
Harry only knew one person who could cast spells like that.
Deep in the shadows, in the ditch, Harry swore to an undead Merlin he saw indistinct movement.
Kaylens was here.
His heart leapt.
She had a disillusionment charm on her, which meant she wasn't alone.
Two.
She was here, in the middle of a wand fightthat was about to happen, because the Death Eaters had been hunting her.
They'd been hunting Kaylens. His Kaylens.
Like hell was that going to happen.
Bellatrix fell to her knees, the golden light crushing the little life left within the vampire.
Kally had once told him killing things, killing the undead, was easier.
One.
That final, single second ended.
A look of pure fury crossed his face.
Bellatrix moaned.
In war dramatic, pivotal moments were not always preceded by fanfare. Often, they happened without prelude. They happened with no warning.
This was one of those moments.
All hell broke loose.
The remaining three Death Eaters spun towards Kaylens, the golden chain of light attacking Bellatrix the perfect path straight to her. Panic surged, Harry on his feet, bolting forward-
The words, "Avada Keda-" were halfway formed on a hooded figure's lips when a white hot curse lashed out from alongside Kally, striking like lightning.
It struck the ground in front of Avery and the others, a crater exploding in the ground and throwing dirt and pieces of crushed mushrooms skyward. A flash of red hair was severed from beneath one of the hoods, Harry recognizing it as belonging to one of the Carrows. The female Carrow and Avery were thrown, brutally slammed into the trees behind them with force.
The male Carrow flew backwards in a frenzy of black robes, the green curse of death somehow fully formed on his lips-
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Harry was bellowing, the red spell slicing through the night-
It wasn't quick enough.
The killing curse left Carrow's wand before the disarming spell struck. Harry watched as the unforgivable flew, lancing out across the clearing-
It struck the ditch.
The exact spot where Kaylens had been all but exploded in a flash of green death.
The golden light flickered out abruptly, releasing Bellatrix, the bitch falling forward onto her hands, like a dog.
Harry's heart fucking stopped. Around him Tonks' spells lit up the night, spells from another defender continuing…
All Harry could do was stand. He stared at the ditch. Nothing moved. Nothing was seen. All he saw was a slow trickle of blood appearing on the ground from a disembodied form.
The disembodied form suddenly flickered, the magic of the killing curse too much.
Somehow he already knew.
A golden head of hair flickered into sight, the disillusionment charm removed in death. The familiar tresses of the witch he loved blew in the breeze of spellfire, barely visible over the top of the ditch, her form slumped within it, her body having been thrown several meters.
Her hand hung limply over the edge. A wand was in it.
He was choking. "Kally…"
His Kally.
Inside Harry Potter something snapped.
He screamed, something primal and wounded and raw. Carrow.
Harry's wand slashed before the bastard had even hit the ground. He barreled forward. He heard someone bellowing, "Sectumsempra!" at the top of their lungs, over and over, the sound distant. The ragged sound was barely even human.
It was him.
The curse lit up the clearing, striking Carrow across the chest as the murdering bastard's tumultuous flight ended. Amycus Carrow's back slammed into the ground, a gash gouged clear past the Death Eater's rib cage-
A second, then third curse followed.
Then a fourth.
Then a fifth.
Harry barely knew what he was doing. He couldn't breathe. The golden light had gone out.
Harry had crossed the clearing and was on the bastard in an instant, pummeling him with his fists in the dark. Harry screamed, and the bastard's body jerked spasmodically.
Carrow never stood a chance.
Amycus undulated in a death throe, gurgling on his own blood-filled lungs.
Blood welled out of the gash and internal organs could be seen writhing, twitching beneath a thin layer of flesh. Harry had not stopped hexing him. Cutting curse after cutting curse had reduced the wizard's torso to tissue paper.
Harry didn't notice the blood being slung. He didn't notice that the wizard's injuries were already fatal. He just knew that he'd grabbed ahold of the man's neck, his fist slamming down into the chest wound, grabbing something that was twitching, writhing, beating.
Harry fucking squeezed it until the damage was done. It didn't take long. It took all of four seconds.
Then he tore it the fuck out.
Behind him spell fire blazed, another explosion knocking Lestrange from her feet, Harry jerking towards the bitch in time to see her hit the ground, her shrewd gaze locking directly onto where he was, despite her clear pain.
Bellatrix unleashed an impossibly cruel laugh.
He realized too late that chameleon charms were worthless if you were covered in blood. He'd be fully visible to her as a blood-covered phantom.
A trickle trailed down his face.
"Harry move!"
A spell almost hit him, Harry's wand flicking with preternatural speed and deflecting it into a tree. It stuck and sizzled. Tonks warning had helped, Harry coldly stating, "Thanks."
Not once did his eyes remove from Bellatrix Lestrange, Carrow dead beneath him.
Tonks let out a sputter, but all Harry could see was red. He felt nothing. He felt only calm, cold hatred.
Carrow had killed Kaylens. He'd struck her with the killing curse. He'd struck her down before Harry had been able to do anything.
He had loved her!
And now Bellatrix was laughing.
Bellatrix would die next.
Harry jerked his hand out of the bastard's chest cavity and leveled a look of such raw, undiluted malice at Lestrange that the remaining, female Carrow tried to crawl backwards.
Bellatrix just smiled cruelly around her fangs, the vampire still panting, wounded from what Kaylens had done to her.
But she was not dead. Attacks from Kally packed a punch. He remembered…
Still, it hadn't been enough. She hadn't had time to make it enough.
He'd make it enough.
Harry stalked towards her downed form like a predator stalking a kill, blind to anything and everything else. His heart was hollow, his chest a raw wound.
"Come to kill me wittle Potter?" she rasped from the ground. Her eyes flickered to the ditch, as if she already knew. "I could be kind. Stand still and I'll send you to join your little bitch and your godfather."
"Stand still and I'll send you back to Voldemort in fucking pieces," he replied with frightening calm.
He stormed closer.
He made it to within two meters of her before a spell blazed across his path, stopping him in his tracks. His head whipped, jerking to find an un-disillusioned Regulus Black laying on the ground, right next to where the killing curse had hit, his leg clearly shattered as he fired spell after spell in their direction, laying down cover.
He'd been with Kally.
He hadn't protected her.
Regulus' fired spell slammed into Avery's shield. In his rage he hadn't even seen him approach.
Fortunately Tonks did.
The Auror came out of nowhere, engaging both the bastard and the rattled female Carrow, the red-haired Death Eater having peeled herself off the ground to attack, leaving Harry to face off against Lestrange. Bellatrix was still laying on the ground, clearly injured, but her leg was snapping back into place, healing unnaturally, crunching…
Harry watched in morbid fascination, kicking her wand out of her grasp. "What the hell is it with you and not dying?" he demanded, switching his wand back and forth between both hands, hateful glare leveled upon her.
The witch let out a raucous sound, blood licked from her lips as she stretched out her newly healed leg. Harry made mental notes of what the hell her body was doing right before his eyes. He'd need this information later, for the Order. He'd need it to report on what Voldemort had accomplished with his experimentations.
This cockroach before him, Voldemort's prized follower, was apparently experiment zero.
Bellatrix spat up blood, twisting to lay on her back and writhing in what might have been a seductive way had she not been the utter antithesis of hot. "Don't you know little Harry? I can't die." She slid her hands down her breasts, stomach, laughing-
Harry saw her go for the knife.
A twitch of his wand and a barely vocalized, "Diffindo," did him the favor of removing her hand.
Bellatrix Lestrange let out a howl into the night, her head thrown back as blood spurted out of her newly severed wrist. That wasn't what caught his attention though.
What caught Harry's attention was the way it spurted for only a moment, instantly turning black, coagulating into a chunky, viscous fluid, turning thick.
The fatal bleed sealed off in less than thirty seconds.
Harry stood there, staring down at the remains of his godfather's killer with nothing but hate in his eyes. He wanted to harm her. He wanted to kill her, and judging from how she healed it'd have to be piece-by-literal-piece.
He was okay with that. His entire body shook, repressed rage, anger, undiluted upset within him. Never once did it occur to him that in his panic at seeing Kaylens killed that his mind had been left open, vulnerable.
His scar was burning hot enough to glow red.
He didn't notice.
"Get the fuck up," he snarled, "and FIGHT ME!"
ECOTS
April 22nd, 1997 – 11:33 p.m.
Tonks' wand whipped out in whirling motion, a shield erected just in time as two spells collided into it, Carrow and Avery double teaming her. She backpedaled, nearly tripping over the other Carrow's dead body, Tonks not even wanting to think on what she'd saw Harry do to the man.
The savage, wild look in his eyes had been terrifying.
He'd torn out his heart!
"I'm going to kill you, you blood-traitor bitch!" Avery sneered, the female Carrow spinning and blocking a spell from Regulus, throwing a bombarda back in return, the ground exploding and only his shield saving him from losing his head.
Tonks had nearly laughed in relief upon seeing him, before she'd realized how truly and utterly screwed his leg was.
He was down and he wasn't getting up without help.
Then she'd seen Kalliandra, laying there, bloodied….
Her Auror heart nearly broke. Harry…
She didn't have time to help, let alone comfort him now.
Tonks darted around a burning shrub, the only thing preventing her from flat out dying was the chameleon charm. Given the amount of blood and dirt and smoke she was covered in, branches burning overhead and underbrush on fire, she was no longer even remotely invisible.
But she was still hard to see.
That gave her a slight edge on them.
Emphasis on slight.
The problem was she was spending so much time on defensive spells she had no time for offense. She couldn't attack back. She kept backpedaling, luring them out of the clearing, away from Regulus. Two Death Eaters on one Auror. Those odds seemed familiar.
Moody where the hell are you?
ECOTS
April 22nd, 1997 – 11:35 p.m.
Harry's scar burned. It burned hotter than he'd ever felt it, his head almost light headed. He didn't care. All he knew was he didn't just want Bellatrix dead, he wanted her to suffer. Dead wouldn't be enough. Not after the things she'd done. Not after the pain she'd caused.
Carrow hadn't suffered enough.
Bellatrix would.
In the background he could hear spell fire. He was dimly aware that the forest was on fucking fire. He smelled smoke and burning trees in his nostrils, but right then he gave two shits about all of that.
He could still feel Kally's gentle fingers against his unshaven jaw, feel her lips, feel her in his damn memory.
He'd never get to feel her again.
Belltarix smiled and slowly tried to get up.
Harry stood above the bitch that had taken so much from him. He watched her bleed, feeling nothing. "Sectumsempra," he coldly hissed, the spell lancing out at her left ankle, slicing it off just above the foot.
Lestrange screamed, dropping back to the ground. Her foot hung onto her shin by nothing more than a tendon. Judging from the placement it was the Achilles, most likely.
Well hell, if someone had just told him that he could learn anatomy by playing with Death Eaters, he might have taken up more of an interest in healing as a future profession.
Harry watched the same process begin, the blood thickening, coagulating…
"Let me help you with that," he offered cruelly. With a flick of his wand he severed the tendon, watching in satisfaction as her face contorted into pain, the bitch gasping for air desperately. Her chest heaved as she brought her pain back under control, her eyes once more swiveling to him hatefully, her claw like fingers digging into the dirt as she outright smiled at him.
"Mmm, wittle Potter, you really must have wuuuved that little Reach didn't you?" she simpered, goading him.
Harry's forearms vibrated with repressed magic, everything in him wanting to burst. He saw white. Blazing, hot white.
He wouldn't give her the satisfaction of a quick death. Instead he lashed out, kicking her in the face with his boot, a tooth flying. Her head whipped around so fast he knew her neck broke, and yet she still licked her lips, turning to look back at him, laughing.
"You knew," he stated hollowly, "it was her, didn't you?" She'd known. She'd known. That was why they hadn't killed her sooner.
Voldemort liked his playthings, particularly playthings that were a different magical species.
They'd only killed her to get to him, which made it his fault.
Bellatrix's neck moved at an unnatural angle, evidence of what Voldemort had done to her as she spat blood, licking her lips. "Carrow was so much sweeter than Avery would have been," she simpered. "Pity, her and I really would have liked to have had a little girl time. You know, one-on-one."
A thousand things flashed through Harry's mind. The fact that Kaylens was dead. The fact that she'd died early in his timeline, before he'd even told her he'd loved her. Before he'd claimed her sodding mind, body as his. Before he'd told her about the bond they'd shared.
He'd screwed up. He hadn't saved her. Now she was dead.
He didn't know how much longer he'd have those memories with her. He didn't know how long an altered timeline remained intact before it disappeared forever. What he did know was that a hole in his chest ached, and he was going to extract every inch and ounce of pain that he could on these Death Eaters that he possibly could before he let them slip into hell, before the feelings for his Kally disappeared forever.
He summoned a jagged, burning stick directly into his hand, approaching Bellatrix with an animalistic smile.
Behind him Regulus Black roared, "POTTER!"
Harry paused, boot raised to stomp in her skull. He sent only a mildly interested look towards Black.
The man panted on the ground, bleeding freely as Harry's scar burned. Sirius' shadow, his godfather's brother, was no longer disillusioned. He stared at him with an unreadable expression, before shouting, "Stop screwing around and kill her! You are not like them!"
Oddly Harry's gaze did not waver, resting upon the familiar black hair and eyes. He imagined it was what Sirius would have looked like, sans Azakban.
Regulus lips curled back in pain, a hasty slash of his wand un-disillusioning the rest of Kaylens body. The wizard looked at her limp form for a moment, blood trickling from her head to the ground, Harry's gut wrenching at the sight.
He'd loved her.
She was gone.
Regulus' dark gaze jerked from Kalliandra's body back to him. "Kill her," he ordered. "KILL HER, then HELP, Nymphardora! You're better than this, Potter!"
A dark part of his mind wondered if he was.
Another part of it, one that sounded oddly like Hermione, Luna, Kally, screamed that if he didn't stop now, he would never be.
Looking down at what he had done, at the torture he'd inflicted upon Lestrange, his stomach heaved.
He suddenly felt sick.
Harry stumbled back, staring at the ruins of the witch his girlfriend had weakened, staring at what he'd done to the bitch.
The sweat and blood dripping down his brow sizzled.
Only in that instant did he realize how his scar burned.
A nauseous wave of revulsion attacked, Harry fighting back the desire to torture, the desire to tear the murderer limb-from-limb. In the back of his mind he could hear the screaming, the anger, the viciousness as Voldemort looked through his eyes and saw what he had done to his favorite servant.
Harry could fucking hear him.
Every mental shield he'd ever had sprung up. Every Occlumency lesson he'd had with Dumbledore, Moody, Tonks, even Snape flew into his mind, Harry forcing numbness to the forefront. He didn't want to feel anything anymore. He didn't want the raw, undiluted pain that threatened to seize him in waves to drop him to his knees.
First his parents. Then Cedric. Then Sirius. Then Seamus. Bill and Diggles, Dumbledore and Professor Gai. Mr. Weasley and Kingsley. Now Kally.
Harry wanted to die right then, but he also didn't, because he had to finish this.
But more than anything, more than all of that, he didn't want to become something Kally would have hated.
Harry's eyes shot back open, fixing upon Bellatrix.
The Death Eater let out a raucous laugh, stretching for her wand-
Harry wasn't about to let that happen.
He wandlessly summoned it, snapping it in half with one hand. Bellatrix screamed furiously, practically roaring.
He just looked at her.
"We're done here," he breathed.
The next spell he cast severed her fucking head from her torso, the witch's eyes looking skyward in surprise. For several seconds they twitched, moving in the sockets, before going still. Harry stood there, staring down at the dead body of Sirius' killer, feeling nothing but cold hatred.
"Let's see you come back from that."
He tossed the remains of her wand at her body, then turned, glancing at where Regulus had a hand on Kalliandra, a raw wave of pain sweeping over him. His throat choked, constricting, his mouth opening to ask, though he already knew-
Regulus anticipated it, his head whipping towards him. "Help that damnable cousin of mine, Pot-"
Tonks.
Harry didn't let him finish.
No one else.
He'd already taken off towards the colorful sparkings of spellfire, smashing his way through the trees and bramble to get to her.
Unbeknownst to Harry something beneath Bellatrix Lestrange's skin, something in the hand that had been severed off, continued to thrum.
It thrummed, because it was still alive.
Voldemort was a clever bastard.
Regulus Black did not notice it. He was too busy turning over on his back, firing spray out of his wand up at the canopy, preventing the burning boughs from collapsing and crushing him and what was left of Kalliandra.
Within the clearing the hand began to move.
