They are coming.

As soon as Kingsley Shacklebolt's Patronus vanished, two dozen black-clad people Apparated in the garden. A few wore the masks that were a trademark of Voldemort's Death Eaters, but a majority of them had not bothered to conceal their features. One of them yelled "Morsmordre!" and a gigantic Dark Mark appeared in the night sky.

"Oh, fuck," Evey whispered. Not very eloquent, but that was all her brain could come up with on such short notice.

Bellatrix Lestrange was there. Evey also recognised the Carrow siblings from the Battle of the Astronomy Tower – as the Daily Prophet had dubbed it – and the Death Eater known only as Travers. Even Walden and Tony didn't know his first name.

Evey kept scanning the faces of the unwanted guests, fists clenched in her lap. She was still seated, but she was having trouble breathing. Would Greyback make an appearance? Amidst the chaos, he might go unnoticed until it was too late. Thankfully, though, none of the sombre figures were quite tall or large enough to be the Wolf.

Of course, the few members of the Order of the Phoenix who were present tried to take control of the situation, but there was only a handful of them and over seventy panicky guests.

"V, you have to go," Tony said while Tonks and Remus cast protective spells over everyone they encountered. "Evey!" he insisted. She turned toward him. "Come on. Walden will Apparate will you."

Evey frowned. "What about you?"

Tony made himself invisible. "I can help them. I'll meet you at the manor."

Before Evey could think of protesting, she felt him rush to the Order's aid. "That's not fair! I can turn invisible, too." She did it, but as she rose, Walden caught her wrist. How he did that while she was invisible, she had no idea.

"Tony's right. We should go. Greyback could show up at any moment. We're not ready to face him, V."

She reappeared sullenly. "But Tony…"

"Tony will be fine. He knows better than to wrestle with Greyback again."

Evey wasn't so sure about that, but Walden wouldn't leave her a choice, she could tell. "Take a deep breath, and I'll Apparate us right-"

"What in Salazar's name are you doing here?" a male voice exclaimed. There wasn't much inflection to it, but Evey could tell that the man sounded surprised. Walden and she turned toward him as one.

"Rodolphus," Walden said bitterly.

Evey didn't bother with a bitter greeting. She didn't bother with her wand, either. She threw herself at the man who'd killed her husband.

This completely un-tactical move obviously caught Lestrange by surprise, but he was a fierce dueller with quick reflexes. His Stunner hit Evey square in the chest.

"Run, little rabbits, run!" Bellatrix shouted. She was Stunning people at random, and alternated between name-calling and wild bouts of evil-Disney-stepmother cackle.

Tony looked over his shoulder to make sure that Evey and Walden were gone. A few feet from where they'd been standing a moment ago, Rodolphus was frowning at nothing. They must have Disapparated safely, but why did Rodolphus look so perturbed? The Death Eater rarely lost his countenance like that.

Tony was tempted to cast a devastating hex at Rodolphus's back in retribution for Walden's "murder". Well, in truth, the mentally-added quotation marks were unnecessary. Rodolphus had murdered Walden. He deserved to be punished, and the year he'd recently spent at Azkaban seemed a rather light sentence.

Still… Rodolphus was not his to kill. Evey might be seriously pissed off if she didn't get to do this herself. Not that she should do it, but she certainly wanted to. Every time the Lestrange name was mentioned, she flew into a mindless rage, though Walden had already told her that she ought to move on and forget about it. It had turned out alright in the end, and having even a homicidal maniac's death on her conscience would weigh her down. She didn't believe him, though.

"I will kill you all!" Bellatrix proclaimed in a sing-song voice. Despite her words, she didn't use any Unforgivable Curse that Tony could see. The Death Eaters must have orders to keep things…non-murder-y.

For the time being, anyway.

"Protect Barny!" Tonks was shouting.

Barny? Who the hell was-

Oh. That was probably the code name they'd given Harry for the occasion. Tony scanned the frightened faces in the crowd, but he couldn't find Harry – neither in Harry form nor in Polyjuiced "Barny" form. Then again, there were at least twenty red-haired men and women in the area, so it was difficult to tell. Tony looked for someone that may be more easily recognisable – Hermione, for example, who'd been wearing lilac dress robes – but he couldn't spot her anywhere. Hopefully, she had already Disapparated with Harry, at least, and preferably with Ron, too.

"Nice make-up, pretty boy," Bellatrix said to Bill, who was trying to shield his bride with his body. Fleur didn't let him, though. She was glaring at Bellatrix, her bouquet clenched in one hand while the other held up her long wedding dress. "But Halloween is not for another few months, you know."

Fleur said something in French. Tony didn't understand it, but it reminded him of things Jeanne had said in the past. Probably cuss words, then. Bill had to physically restrain her from attacking Bellatrix.

Tony's sensitive ears twitched. Someone else was cursing, in English this time. He recognised the voice, but he had trouble believing that Molly, of all people, was saying these things. "Unhand her, you bloody plonker! GET YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF MY DAUGHTER!"

Tony turned his head toward the scene. Amycus Carrow was twirling strands of Ginny's hair with one hand, the other gripping her bare upper arm. He wore a disgustingly obscene leer that partly revealed two dozen yellow teeth. Some distance away, Molly was struggling against Alecto to reach her daughter.

Tony had to act. If Molly harmed either Alecto or Amycus, the other sibling would certainly harm her in return, and perhaps Ginny in the process.

Molly shouldn't have worried, though. Her youngest child was hardly defenceless. As Tony started to creep toward Amycus, Ginny planted one of her long, sharp heels in the man's foot. She buried it deep and quickly discarded the shoe as Amycus yowled in pain and released her.

At the same time, Molly freed herself from Alecto and ran to her daughter. They met halfway and Molly crushed Ginny into a hug, all the while checking her for bruises and other signs of manhandling.

Alecto growled threateningly as she made her way to her brother, who was holding his injured foot with both hands and swearing colourfully. The weaponised shoe was still in it. "Get it out!" he yelled at his sister. "HURRY THE FUCK UP, YOU FAT COW!"

Alecto ran awkwardly on her short legs, wand in hand. By the time she got to Amycus, she was gasping for breath. "What…do I…do?"

"What do you think? GET IT OUT!"

Tony stood there for a whole minute, mesmerised by the improbable scene. It happened swiftly: Alecto gingerly clasped the shoe, told Amycus to count to three, and removed it on two. Her brother screamed in agony. "Merlin's third nipple, I'm bleeding, woman! Do something! I'm going to die! You fucking killed me!"

"You…you asked me to take it out, Am-"

"Kill the blasted girl! Bloody kill her already! Avenge me!"

Alecto's face grew hard. Her grip on her wand tightened as she turned to Molly and Ginny. "You will pay for this!" She took two steps, wand raised. "Cru-"

As Tony moved forward to shield the Weasley women from the Cruciatus curse, Alecto froze in place and fell to the ground, face first. It was either a heart attack or a Full-Body Bind curse, by Tony's estimation.

"What the hell?" Amycus exclaimed. "What did you do to her?" he demanded to Ginny. His eyes were suddenly filled with fear at the sight of the girl, as though she'd somehow taken down Alecto just by looking at her. In his surprise, his pain was apparently forgotten for a moment. "What did you do, you little-"

Travers whacked him on the head with a gloved hand. He'd approached so stealthily that Tony hadn't even noticed him standing behind Amycus. "Enough."

He had a rather soft voice, but every sparse word coming out of him had the effect of a direct order.

"The little bitch mangled my foot!" Amycus whined as he rubbed in head. "She killed my sister!"

Travers rolled his eyes. "I incapacitated Alecto, you nimrod. We have orders, remember? We are to gather everyone and question them. Nothing more."

"But my foot…!"

"Your thrice-cursed foot will remain as it is until we are done here. You brought this upon yourself, Amy."

His face turned crimson. "My name is Amycus!"

"I'm aware of that. But Amy's shorter," Travers said matter-of-factly. "Suits you better, too."

"You-"

"Now limp out of my way, sister-fucker. I have work to do."

Amycus looked like he was about to implode from sheer outrage. Tony expected smoke to spew out of his ears at any moment. "How dare you imply-"

Travers spared him the creepiest of chuckles. "Please. You two degenerates aren't fooling anyone. Now. Let the professionals do their job, will you? And remove your sister from my sight. I've had enough of the Carrows for one night. I'm not here to babysit you."

Tony blinked. Was Travers in charge? And was he telling the truth, or was it all an act? Were they truly here only to question the guests? The ones who hadn't fled, anyway.

Travers ignored Amycus's muttered complaints as he hobbled toward his sister and walked closer to Molly and Ginny. "I apologise for my colleague's...ineptitude. We have come in peace."

What was he, an alien? Tony held back a chortle that would have given away his presence.

"We won't tell you anything!" Ginny spat at him. Molly put an arm around her shoulders protectively when Travers smiled. The Death Eater had that effect on people. He shouldn't be allowed to smile.

"Now, now. There's no need for such hostility, young lady. We merely wish to know Harry Potter's whereabouts." He tapped his chin in a pondering manner. "You wouldn't happen to be his paramour, would you? Miss Ginevra Weasley?"

"If you touch so much as one of her hair, I swear to Merlin, I will-"

Travers cut Molly off smoothly. "I wouldn't dream of it. Honestly, I just want to have a friendly chat. It will only take a minute."

Gods, that guy was a creep.

Tony soundlessly walked up to him. Was it safe to attack him? Was it worth enduring the consequences of such an act? Travers might decide to retaliate, and for all Tony knew, the Death Eaters genuinely intended not to harm anyone tonight.

He looked around the garden quickly. Bellatrix had finally stopped Stunning people. Rodolphus was reviving them one by one, his usual bored expression back on his face. If appearances could be believed, the Death Eaters weren't here to kill or even capture anyone, not even alleged members of the Order, since Tonks and Remus weren't bound in any way. Their wands had been taken away, but not destroyed. Perhaps they really were here only to find Harry.

Tony doubted that anyone knew where Harry had disappeared to. How would his former associates react when they realised that? Would they torture the guests until they were satisfied that it was the plain truth?

As he scanned the crowd, Tony noted that there weren't as many Death Eaters as before. He'd counted 23 of them, and there were only 21 now. Rowle was gone, that much was certain. He had a rather distinguishable figure. A couple of them might simply have been sent to report to Voldemort, but Tony doubted it. They wouldn't report until they were convinced that the mission was either a success or a failure.

Had they followed Harry and his friends somehow? Was it possible to track people as they Disapparated? Dark magic allowed witches and wizards to do some pretty amazing things. Most of them were nasty, but this could actually come in handy. Tony could only hope that Harry, Hermione and Ron would be able to shake off their stalkers, if it were the case.

He ought to stick around to see how the situation evolved. If Travers lost his temper when he found out that no one knew where Harry was, then Tony would crush his skull. Merlin knew, the man deserved it, and worse.

Evey was slowly coming to, Walden noticed with relief. He had not magically revived her. She would have tried to get back to the wedding, he knew, even at the risk of splinching herself. Gods, the look on her face when she'd spotted Rodolphus… The man should have feared for his life. Maybe he would have, if he hadn't been so shocked to see Walden…kind of alive. But why was he so surprised? Even if Greyback hadn't told anyone, most likely because he didn't particularly care, Snape must have informed Voldemort.

It was odd, but Walden had more pressing matters to consider.

It was lucky that Evey had acted without thinking. If she'd taken a few seconds to transform into her Animagus form or, Merlin help them, into a werewolf… It would have been a disaster. Well, even more of a disaster.

"Hey love," he said softly as her eyes flitted open.

She put a hand over her face to shield herself from the glare of the chandelier. "Wal?" She sat up suddenly and looked around the living room. "What happened? Where's Tony?"

Walden put his flesh hand on her shoulder. "He's fine. He returned ten minutes ago and..." And promptly left again, supposedly to visit Morgana. "He said that everything was…" Everything was most certainly not alright. Far from it. "Um, no one was harmed too badly," he finished lamely. "They're safe. The Death Eaters wreaked havoc, then they interrogated everyone who hadn't Disapparated. They just wanted Harry."

"Harry!" Evey exclaimed, her face livid.

"Oh, don't worry. Apparently, he was gone by the time the Death Eaters managed to organise the guests to question them. We assume that Ron and Hermione are with him, since they're nowhere to be found."

Walden didn't mention that everyone was now under surveillance. There would be plenty of time to let Evey know later, once she'd fully recovered.

"What a mess," she muttered. "Poor Fleur."

That was an odd thing to say. Evey wasn't exactly Fleur's biggest fan. "Fleur?"

She looked at him sharply. "This was her wedding day, Wal. This was supposed to be the happiest moment of her life, and it was interrupted by a swarm of Death Eaters and terrible news and people getting hurt… Gods, I can't even imagine…"

Walden chuckled quietly. Count on his wife to worry about that sort of detail – in the grand scheme of things, he considered it a detail. "Tony said that Fleur slapped Avery so hard that he fell over. He was trying to steal a piece of cake, as I understand. Oh, and Ginny perforated Amycus's foot with one of her heels." That ought to cheer her up a bit. It had certainly cheered him up.

For some reason, though, Evey's mind made a connection between these two random facts and Rodolphus, because her eyes suddenly flashed with anger and loathing. "Lestrange!" she rasped. "That fucking murderous bastard! Did you kick his arse, at least?"

"Um…no," Walden said sheepishly. He'd fought Rodolphus before, and it had been fatal to him. Although, admittedly, Rodolphus had hit him in the back while Walden was distracted. "I just grabbed your arm and teleported us back here."

"Why didn't you revive me right away? We could've duelled together!" Evey complained.

"V, by the time you were lucid enough to fight, Rodolphus could have killed us thrice, if he'd wanted."

"But…" She groaned in frustration. "Never mind. I'll get him next time. Remind me to actually use my wand, when I see him again."

This again. She would not let it go, would she? "V, have you ever heard the expression 'an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind'?" Walden asked quietly.

"It's not an expression," she corrected him dryly. "You're just quoting that Gandhi bloke."

That Gandhi bloke. Right. "Yes. Well. Anyway. Do you know what it means?"

"Don't patronise me!" Evey said. "Of course I do. This is…the situation is different. Rodolphus deserves to die."

"Because you decided so?" He had a feeling that she was going to punch him if he went on, but he bravely went on regardless. "When all of this is over, they will arrest him again, and there will be a new trial, and they will judge him fairly-"

"Fairly?" Evey repeated, her eyes widening with incredulity. "He shot you in the back, Wal. He doesn't deserve any fairness."

It was the same argument all over again. "I'm here, V. I'm dead, but I'm here, aren't I? So what's the point? If you kill him, you will be the one on trial. I don't want you going to Azkaban because of something that can easily be avoided. It would ruin your life, V, and mine in the process."

She pursed her lips, but mercifully didn't reply. "Where's Tony now? I have a lot of questions about what happened after you decided to leave the others to their fate."

Walden wished he could breathe. Now would be a good time to take several long inhalations to attempt not to lose his patience. Eventually, he chose to ignore her barb. "He, um… He said he wanted to check on Morgana. He was afraid that the Death Eaters might go after her."

"That's a great excuse to go have wild sex with her," Evey muttered.

Walden cleared his throat. "Yeah. Um…I'm going to go to bed, alright? It's almost dawn. Are you…"

"I'll join you later," she said as she stood up. "Sleep tight," she added without looking back to him.

Tony studied the cracks in the ceiling. Mo's apartment was…well, not what he was used to, in terms of comfort and luxury. It reminded him more of his tiny cell at Azkaban than of Macnair manor.

Then again, Morgana readily admitted that she was a big spender. All of her money went into fashionable clothes and accessories and fancy nights out with her girlfriends, whenever she could catch a break from work – and when Tony wasn't around. That didn't leave her with much money to pay for rent, and she lived in central London besides – why she lived here, Tony had no idea, and he did not intend to enquire. He figured that they should keep things as casual as possible. The less he knew about her, and the less she knew about him, the easier it would be to break this off when the time came.

He glanced to his left, careful not to move too brusquely. Morgana had finally fallen asleep after more than four hours of… Well. The usual. Tony had never met anyone with such stamina. If he weren't an Ancient, he could never keep up with her.

Morgana was snoring lightly. Tony absent-mindedly brushed some of her hair away from her face…

…and realised with horror that there were two puncture marks in the crook of her neck.

Bloody hell! Had he done that? He didn't even remember biting her! What was wrong with him?

Merlin! This had gone too far. He had to put an end to it. What if he'd hurt her? What if he'd… He shuddered. He couldn't live with himself if anything happened to Morgana. He may not love her, certainly not the way he loved Evey, but he still cared about her. He had to protect her and, to do that… He had to leave her.

He got out of the bed and quickly put his clothes back on, thankful that she had not let him in handcuffs this time. After he'd told Morgana about Evey's joke, of course she'd felt compelled to do it. It had been a matter of milliseconds for Tony to break out of them, thanks to his Ancient-powered strength, but still. It might have woken her up, and he'd prefer to leave while she was sound asleep.

Like he used to do in the good old days. This was different, though. He would have to at least send Morgana an owl to explain why he'd-

"Where you goin'?" Morgana mumbled.

Shit. "Just…home. I, um, need to see if Evey's awake. She'll be worried."

Morgana smirked as she sat up. She didn't bother to cover herself. Tony tried unsuccessfully to avert his gaze. "Of course it's about Evey. Why do I even ask?" She grabbed a cigarette from her pack on the nightstand and lit it up by snapping her fingers. It was her way of doing wandless magic. "Whatever. See you on Tuesday?" she asked as she took a puff.

Tony's nose crinkled when the smoke reached him. He'd always hated the smell of tobacco in any form. "Yeah… About that. Mo, I think that… Maybe we should…" This was embarrassing, but he'd never actually broken up with a girl before. Not a girl he cared about, anyway.

"Are you trying to break up with me?" she demanded. "Seriously? What did I do? Is it the cigarette?" She put it out in the glass of water at her side. "There. Gone. Come back to bed, Tony." She removed the rest of the covers, revealing…well, everything. "I don't have to leave until noon," she added with a playful smile.

He knew that he was being manipulated, but… He took a step toward the bed. It was difficult to say no to Morgana.

"Come on," she said again, her voice becoming sultrier with every word. "'I'll even let you be on top, this time. If you're nice."

He was already unbuttoning his shirt. Removing his socks. Falling at her side on the bed. She undid his fly.

Then Tony's eyes strayed to the twin marks on her neck, and he flinched, moving backwards. He nearly fell off the bed in his haste to get away from her. "No. No, I can't. I'm sorry, Mo."

She followed his gaze and hesitantly touched her neck, feeling the tiny pricks. She chuckled wryly. "Aw, Tony, come on!" She rose gracefully and moved closer to him, palms on his bare chest. "I asked you to bite me, silly. Don't you remember?" she murmured. Her lips found his neck. She bit him playfully.

Tony frowned, but he didn't move. He certainly did not remember. "I-"

"Shhhh. Come back to bed." She grabbed his hand firmly and led him toward the mattress. "Forget Evey, okay? Evey's not here. I'm here. And I'm naked." She grinned.

Forget Evey. That was easier said than done, but somehow Morgana made it happen, after a while.

I'll break up with her next time, Tony promised himself before his mind wandered too far from its usual lucid state.