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Chapter Five-On Jonquil's Trail

"There is going to be an effort made to find Harry's cousin."

Tom watched the flicker of awareness travel around the faces of his Knights, and suppressed a smile. They knew what he was saying in a way that Harry didn't. Yes, they would make the effort, but if they couldn't succeed, then Tom was saying that was fine. And if they did find Jonquil and would encounter too much resistance from Order of the Phoenix members to rescue her, then they would retreat and try again later.

"Why are they all smirking?" Harry muttered to him out of the corner of his mouth.

"I'll explain later, dear," Tom murmured, something that always stilled Harry, and this time let his smile widen across his face. "You have my permission to use any spells that you need to find Jonquil Potter and keep Harry safe in the meantime."

"Including blood tracking, my lord?" That was Roland, his body hunching a little forwards. He did love his blood magic, and he didn't always get to practice it when Tom's people worked on normal maneuvers like attempted conversion of Minsitry officials.

"Yes. You may do that."

Roland turned his head like a compass needle to Harry. "Then may we have some of his blood? Since he does have a relation of sorts to the young woman we're seeking. Potter blood ought to work even across different dimensions, the similarity of the blood combined with affection."

Tom heard the pause around "young woman," not that Harry would. Harry only looked coolly back at Roland and held out his arm.

"Are you sure you want to do that, Potter?" That was Shara, who had accepted Harry's defeat of her in good grace and wanted to work with him, exactly as Tom had predicted. "Avery's methods of extracting blood and using it aren't what everyone would agree to."

"I would do anything to find Jonquil."

Tom rested a heavy hand on Harry's shoulder as he saw a different kind of glance exchanged among his Knights. They would regard such attachment to anyone, even a family member, as a weakness to be exploited. Tom caught a few important glances and held them long enough to be certain that people would understand the price if they moved against Harry.

"Then give me your blood, Potter." Roland came forwards eagerly, holding out his hands. In one was his wand, in the other the long silvery dagger that he preferred to use for these operations. Harry faced him unflinchingly.

From the way Roland paused and blinked, Harry must at least have earned some points with him for his demeanor. He nodded a little as he cut delicately at Harry's wrist with the dagger and carefully tilted it so that the resulting drops of blood stayed on the blade instead of falling. He also seemed to respect the way that Harry refused to flinch or moan with the pain.

Roland stepped back with the blood after a moment, his mouth moving in the involuntary smile he always used at these times. He caught Tom's eye and the smile dropped away quickly, but he did nod. Tom relaxed. Good, he had understood the implied message about what would happen if he tried to use Harry's blood for anything other than tracking Jonquil.

Proving he wasn't completely oblivious of the undercurrents, Harry reached back and squeezed Tom's hand, moving it back and forth a little. Tom ignored that. Harry was saying he could protect himself. Well, yes, he could, but Tom was still going to protect him anyway.

Roland was an artist with blood magic, and it was a pleasure to watch him work. He moved the dagger back and forth, chanting swiftly under his breath, words practiced so many times they sound almost like the humming of a beehive instead of Latin. Then he spun the dagger precisely, hurling the blood droplets into the air.

The blood collected above Roland's head and formed a glowing, balloon-shaped picture for a moment. Then the balloon streamed into an arrow, aiming steadily away from them and a bit northwest, Tom thought, if he was remembering the orientation of the house's wall correctly. Roland bowed to Tom and then, after a moment, to Harry, his cheeks glowing as if he'd been running for an hour. "That is where the girl is, my lord."

"Very good," Tom said, making sure to keep his voice soft with congratulations and look just at Roland for a moment. Roland almost strutted back to his seat, but he deserved it. That had been textbook blood magic.

"Well, let's go find her," Harry snapped, turning around as if he expected to charge through the wall after the arrow. "Will that move with us as we move?"

"Of course." Roland sounded as though Harry was losing some of the ground he had gained with him. "It would be useless otherwise."

Tom raised an eyebrow, and Roland swallowed and nodded. Harry squeezed Tom's hand in what felt like annoyance this time, and stepped away from him.

Tom reeled him back and said smoothly, "As you can tell, Harry is not used to our world yet, or the number of alliances that he might find here among pure-bloods who either don't exist in his worlds or won't be wearing familiar faces. He might not be familiar with our Muggleborn members or important people in our society at all. I would like a group of three to volunteer to guide him and protect him in extreme situations."

Shara moved forwards at once, as Tom had known she would. "I would be honored to escort the man who defeated me, my lord."

"And others?" Tom looked around the room in pretended boredom, as though he expected all his Knights to volunteer at once. In practice, he knew that wouldn't happen, but the slowness and the refusals would be as interesting as the ones quick to leap forwards.

Philip inclined his head a little. "You may depend on me to safeguard anything important to you, my lord."

"I am glad to hear that, Philip."

Tom gave his voice an extra little flip at the end, and saw Philip's jaw clench. But he did nod and move up to stand on Harry's right side; Shara had taken the left. Tom looked around for his third volunteer.

Abraxas caught his eye. Tom gazed back. Abraxas was a powerful wizard and skilled in using spells that could plausibly look legal while being Dark enough to serve a protective role. He also hadn't hidden his jealousy of Harry.

"Let me, please, my lord," Abraxas said steadily, even though a muscle jumped in his cheek. "I know that I'll need to accept him and his importance to you. This is one way of moving forwards to understand."

Tom let the silence linger long enough for Harry to turn around and stare at him, then nodded graciously. "Then you may try," he said. Another muscle jumped in Abraxas's face before he nodded and took point position in front of Harry.

"Split," Tom ordered then. "A third of us will go after Jonquil Potter. A third will remain here to answer questions from the reporter should she return. A third will return to spreading the other blackmail we have and encouraging the rumors about Dumbledore. I expect to see all of you when we return this evening, promptly at six."

"How can we put a time on a rescue mission like that?" Harry muttered, right on cue. "We might need longer than that to find her. Even a lot longer than that."

Tom could feel Abraxas's long-suffering expression waiting for him to look at it. He ignored the temptation. "We will deal with the circumstances as we find them. If it turns out that we need to spend more time in reconnaissance, I will send a message to the others."

Harry didn't look satisfied, but nodded. Tom knew that if he found Jonquil being tortured or the like, nothing short of strongarming him would convince him to walk away at the meeting time.

That was all right with Tom. He trusted in his assessment of the Order of the Phoenix that they wouldn't do something like that without more reason than Jonquil would have given them, no matter how annoying she was.

And he wasn't above strongarming. He nearly looked forwards to the excuse, in fact.

I am going to enjoy irritating Harry by keeping him safe.

Harry hadn't ground his teeth out of existence by the time they'd Apparated to the hill where they could see the red arrow actually pointing at a building, but Black, Lestrange, and Malfoy had all given him excellent practice in trying.

Black kept closest to him, and every time they Apparated, she stepped in front of Harry and looked around. Lestrange tended to linger on his right side, and snap his eyes around instead of his wand. Malfoy would cover all directions, and he was the one insisted on Side-Along Apparating Harry, although since they were going along the arrow's path, he could see where they were going exactly as well as Malfoy and Apparate to the same landmarks.

But they seemed to be doing what Tom had told them, so Harry remained quiet for now, staring towards the building. It looked like a fortress instead of a house, he thought, although he could still see the traces of what looked like a more normal veranda and front door. There were wards gleaming everywhere he looked. The original brick walls had been partially Transfigured into granite. The grass itself had been cut back, and the stumps of trees that had originally leaned over the walls were so visible Harry was a little surprised they'd left a grown tree off to the side of the house.

Harry stared at that one, and nodded when he saw a ward wrapped around the trunk. "That's a trap," he said, not really expecting his guards to listen to him.

Black turned to face him. "What is?"

"That tree they've left." Harry gestured to it. It was a huge oak, and the ward had even been wrapped to trace the branches. "If you touch it anywhere, that ward will make it explode. There are other spells to protect the house from any shrapnel. Touching it with a spell will make it do the same thing."

"What the-what the hell are you talking about?" Malfoy demanded. "That's a tree."

Harry glanced sideways at him. "You don't see the ward wrapped around it? Outlining the branches? But it's mostly on the trunk."

Malfoy looked at the tree, squinting. Harry was starting to wonder if he had made a mistake, maybe seeing some kind of reflection or the light of another ward, when Black whistled softly. "Yes, there it is! I had to study it closely to see it. How did you glimpse it from this distance with your glasses, Potter?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm more used to looking for things like it, maybe." He studied the house again. Jonquil was in there, and they were going to get her out. Even if he had to charge that damn warded tree himself and deflect the explosion so it would manage to blow a hole in the wall instead of in them.

"That doesn't really explain things," Malfoy said.

Harry rolled his eyes without looking at the bastard. Malfoy was welcome to be as suspicious as he liked. Harry was still going to use his eyes and his skills to safeguard them, and to rescue Jonquil.

"That is the kind of ward he says it is," Lestrange put in. "I've seen enough of them to know."

"But how did Potter know it would be wrapped around the tree? What made him look so closely at the tree in the first place? How does he know what it does? That's an amazing amount of information to get just by looking at the spell."

Harry said nothing, but drew his wand. He could see a flow of movement around the corner of the house. Someone, or something, was coming to check on them, perhaps alerted by the noise of their Apparitions or spells that were meant to help them detect life.

"Maybe it really is the way he says it is. Maybe he's just so experienced in battle situations that he knows what to look for-"

"I've never known you to be a fool before, Shara."

"Does it matter how he knows?" Lestrange interjected in a low voice that Harry thought meant he was also watching that flow of movement. "He knows. And we can see it now, and realize that there will be spells along the side of the house to defend it from the tree falling on it. That means we need to pay more attention to the house itself." He turned to Harry. "What should we do, Potter?"

"Fight," Harry answered, a second before the flow of movement reared up like a snake and he flung a complicated Burning Curse at it.

Lestrange jumped in front of him and launched a spell of his own. Black raised a shield. Malfoy was slower on the draw, but jumped when Tom abruptly Apparated in next to them and started cursing what looked like an enormous serpent.

"What was the point of giving me bodyguards if you just intended to come yourself?" Harry complained under his breath as he studied the serpent. It was made of rocks and dirt, so his original Burning Curse hadn't done much to it. This time, he cast a spell that would liquefy the bones of a human opponent. He smiled as he watched the dirt turn to mud and start dripping off the thing.

"I happened to be looking in this direction."

Harry kept his reaction at the obvious lie to himself, because now the door of the fortress-house was open and members of the Order of the Phoenix started coming out. They seemed to all have the brand of the phoenix on their faces, at least as far as Harry could tell from here. They shouted at the sight of Harry, Tom, and the others on the hill, and dashed towards them.

"Sloppy," Tom hissed under his breath. "I'd stay in the house until the serpent at least wore the attackers out." He touched Harry's arm and caught his eye. "Will you try to command the snake with me?"

"What?"

"I want to see if the serpent might be vulnerable to Parseltongue. Speak with me and tell it to turn and attack the attackers."

Harry shook his head, partially because he could hear the gasps around him and he thought Tom was using this as an excuse to show Harry's Parseltongue off to his followers. But he still gripped Tom's hand in his and began to speak. "Great snake, hear me! We are both your masters. The people behind you are the ones who have enslaved you. Turn and attack them!"

There was a moment when the serpent halted in place, swaying back and forth, and Harry thought they had slowed it down enough for spells from the other hidden group of Knights to take effect. And then it turned around and actually slithered back and did begin to drive its rocky nose down among the Order. Shrieks and the snap of fierce spells rose to them.

Harry blinked. "Huh," he said.

"Even more dramatic phrasing than I would have insisted on, Harry."

Oh, great. Tom had forgotten about the battle enough to let his hunger glimmer in his eyes. Harry glanced politely away and found Malfoy gaping at him. Black had a pleased expression on her face, as if happy that someone who had defeated her also had enough strength to be a Parselmouth. Lestrange looked as if someone had slapped him.

And Harry felt the beginning of a fluctuation in his magic. He reached out and squeezed Tom's arm sharply, which was the signal they had agreed on if Harry did feel something.

Tom moved to the side without looking at him and said, "Shara, get him out of here. I'm going into the house when the snake is finished to look for Harry's cousin."

"No!" Harry shouted. He'd meant to tell Tom that he wouldn't be able to cast any more spells for the rest of the battle, not that he wanted to leave before Jonquil was found. He managed to shove Tom to the side before the ripple in his magic convulsed his body with pain. Then he had to stand still, but he glared hard enough at Black that she hesitated before taking his arm.

"Black."

In the end, that word was enough. Black nodded and Side-Along Apparated Harry before he could object. He found himself staggering in the middle of the hill behind the house where the Knights of Walpurgis had met that morning.

He immediately turned and tried to Apparate back himself-he could imagine the fortress-house well enough to do that-

But Black's wand was aimed between his eyes. Black gave him a half-smile. "I do admire you, Potter. But I have my lord to obey."

"I might not have been able to fight anymore, but I could still be there!" Harry shouted. He made himself calm down when he saw how Black's wand moved as if she was going to cast a Stunner. "I wanted to be able to see them pull Jonquil out of that building. And what were the three of you there for, if not to protect me?"

"I can protect you here."

And Black wouldn't budge, no matter how calmly Harry spoke or what he threatened her with when he finally lost patience. He ended up pacing in circles, glaring at her and gazing towards the northeast where the arrow had led them, waiting for Jonquil and Tom to come back.

And trying to ignore the pain that swirled inside him, the pain he might have to live with for the rest of his life.