Disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter. All rights to the characters and universe the story belongs in belong to JK Rowling

Chapter 8 - Into the Fire

Harry arrived at the ministry to what can only be described as pandemonium. There were a bunch of reporters in the Entrance hall who were so agitated they didn't notice Harry sweep past them and into the chaos. What the bloody hell is going on here.

He entered the lifts and made for the Auror office, when he got there all of the cubicles were empty. I've got a bad feeling about this. Then a small plump witch came down the corridor 'Ah Mr Potter, This way if you please.' She turned on her heel, leading him past the cubicles, into a large circular room.

Stood in the middle were ten Aurors having some form of meeting. When Harry entered they all looked up at him.

'Potter join us.' Ordered Robards.

The Aurors moved around to make room and he joined the circle with an impending sense of dread.

'I'm sorry Potter but your test will have to wait right now.'

'Why what's happened?'

'There is a group of Death Eaters currently attacking Hogsmeade' he said grimly.

Merlin, why are they crawling out the woodwork now?

'We already have a team trying to control the situation however we still need to send in a second team to protect civilian's whilst the main team tackles the threat head on. I want you to be a part of the second team.' He wasn't asking.

'OK.'

'Your job is to stick with O'Manda' he pointed to a sandy-haired man with a thin face 'and Trott' he pointed to a rather pretty blonde-haired witch.

'Welcome to the team Potter' said O'Manda with a thick Irish accent.

'Thanks.'

'Now that introductions are out of the way. You will be apparating to the bottom end of town' Robards pointed to an apparation point on the map that was floating next to him. 'You will clear this area of civilians keeping them out of trouble. There is an apparation barrier up in town, so you will need to evacuate them outside of the border so they can get away.

Do not move out of your zone, the only reason to leave is to transport anyone to St Mungos who can't leave on their own.

'If anyone does need help leaving that will be your job Potter, any questions?'

Harry shook his head. 'Right the rest of you know what you're doing, get out of here.' Barked Robards.

They all marched back through the ministry to the apparation point. When they got there Trott took hold of his arm and apparated them to their destination.

'Down' Harry yelled as soon as they arrived. He hit the floor dragging Trott with him as a jet of green passed over their heads. Looking up he saw two figures in masks running towards them and a flash of red light.

'Protego' shouted Trott and the spell bounced off her shield harmlessly. Harry responded by firing a stunning spell at the adversary on the left who slumped to the floor. At that moment O'Manda arrived stunning the other one easily.

'Let's head into town' he said gruffly taking the wands from the fallen Death Eaters.

They entered the streets slowly keeping their ears out for any signs of a disturbance. It's too quiet Harry thought to himself. He could see smoke rising in the distance, thankfully, there was no dark mark yet.

The houses around them were eerily quiet and they could see where some had been broken into. Most windows were smashed and many doors hung loosely on their hinges. There were signs of fighting in the street as lampposts had been bowled over and walls destroyed. Harry also noticed scorch marks on the path and on the walls of some of the houses.

He decided to voice his concerns 'It's too quiet apart from the welcoming committee.'

'Yeah what were they doing. It was as if they knew what we were planning. They were running straight at the apparation point.' Whispered Trott.

Then Harry heard something. He whipped round pointing his wand at the source of the noise. They crept quietly towards a house which had the front door partially open. Harry and Trott stood either side of the door to cover O'Manda who would go in first.

Crouching down slightly O'Manda pushed the door open then went inside. Swinging around the doorway the other two pointed their wands over his head into the living room. There was no response, until they heard someone running up the stairs.

'Hello? We're Aurors please come down, we won't hurt you.' Shouted O'Manda. They waited thirty seconds. When no-one came out, they swept the lower floor to make sure they hadn't missed anything, then proceeded up the stairs.

They heard the sound of wood knocking on wood coming from one of the rooms. This time Trott took the lead and saw immediately where the noise was coming from. The door of a large cupboard in the corner of the room was repeatedly knocking against itself.

Signalling to the others to stay where they are and remain quiet, Trott slowly went to the cupboard. She gingerly reached out to pull the door open. There was a shriek of terror and someone rather small came barrelling out of the cupboard, running straight onto Harry.

Harry realised it was a small girl she couldn't have been any more than 7. She was thin, had black hair and was wearing a white dressing gown which was covering her pyjamas. On impact with Harry she fell to the floor and scooted back until she had her back pressed against the bed. She sat there with her knees pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them.

Trott knelt down next to her and spoke in a soft voice 'It's OK sweetheart we're not here to hurt you. Are you hurt?' The girl shook her head. 'Are your Mom and Dad here?' Again the girl just shook her head. 'Do you know where they are?' same response. Trott looked up helplessly at the other two.

Let's see if being famous is all it's cracked up to be. Harry shifted his fringe slightly so his scar was more visible as he crouched in front of the girl 'Hello, my name is Harry.' she looked at him and her eyes widened as they reached his scar. 'Can I ask you yours?'

'Emily' she squeaked.

'That's a very pretty name' he said smiling. 'We're going to help you Emily and your mom and dad. Do you know if they are in trouble?' She nodded slowly. 'Can you tell me what happened?'

'They were taken away.'

'Do you know who by?'

'No, they told me to hide in the cupboard when they knew something was wrong. We saw some people in masks going into houses and dragging people down the street.'

'Do you know where they were going?'

The girl shook her head again.

'OK, Kreacher!'

There was a loud crack and an old house elf with white whispy hair appeared 'Master Harry' he said in a bull frog like voice with a bow.

'It's just Harry Kreacher' he lightly scolded, the House Elf smiled at him. 'Do you know if McGonagall is at Hogwarts?'

'Yes, I do believe she is in her office.'

'Can you ask her if she can look after Emily here for us? We need to get her out of here.'

Kreacher bowed and left.

'Not bad Potter, any other tricks up your sleeve we should know about?' asked O'Manda.

Harry turned to look at him smiling 'I've got a few yeah.'

O'Manda chuckled.

'So, what are we going to do?'

'Well I think sticking to our zone is pointless there's no one here' said Trott 'The missions changed. I can't hear any fighting so I'm guessing the other teams are either down or have already won. I'd bet ten Galleons it's the former.'

O'Manda nodded 'Yeah, we need to head up into town. We can't search every house safely until we know what happened to the other Aurors.'

'How many Aurors were in the first wave. The one that was already here?' Asked Harry.

'Ten'

Harry paled at the thought. That's nowhere near enough. Before he could respond there was another loud crack 'Professor McGonagall says that she is more than happy to take Emily and any other person you find.' He reported.

'Thanks Kreacher.' Harry then turned to Emily 'Kreacher here is going to take you to Hogwarts Emily. The teachers will look after you until your parents can pick you up. Is that OK?' The girl nodded. Harry smiled 'OK Kreacher take Emily and I'll call you if we need you.'

With another loud crack Kreacher disapparated. 'I hope we haven't just made a promise we can't keep.' worried Trott

'We haven't.' Said Harry defiantly.

'Let's get going then.' Growled O'Manda.

They walked further into town, towards the main square where the Three Broomsticks is when a familiar cold seeped into Harry's bones. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.

'Do you feel that?' He asked shakily.

'Dementors' confirmed Trott.

Harry grimaced. 'We'd best be careful we must be getting close.' The other two nodded and then they heard voices up ahead.

They crept through a side street that led them to the edge of the square.

What they saw made Harry boil with anger. There were around 30 masked people standing guard around a group of twenty witches and wizards, some of which looked beaten and bruised. There was then a second group which had eight children, they were being guarded by twenty dementors, kept at bay by a wolf Patronus.

What really worried him was the third group. That was a group of sixteen Aurors that were bound and evidently wandless. Some of the Aurors looked as if they had been beaten to death.

'What are they doing?' whispered Trott urgently.

'I don't know, but we need a plan' responded O'Manda.

'Do you think the other Aurors are alive? And do you know what zone they would likely have come from?' asked Harry trying to formulate a plan.

'The two not caught are Robards and Dawlish, I'd guess they aren't dead. They would come from opposite us.' Answered Trott.

Harry nodded 'We got lucky there's three of us in our group. Looking at the state of some of those guys' he pointed at the Aurors 'They've had the plan beaten out of them.'

'None of the Aurors would give us up!' whispered O'Manda outraged.

'I know they wouldn't willingly, but, if they saved the life of a civilian – especially a kid – I really wouldn't blame them.'

'Me neither' begrudged O'Manda.

'Looking at this lot they aren't messing around. This isn't Death Eater work. We need to be smart.'

'What do you have in mind?'

'Can you test the wards? Will portkeys work?' asked Harry.

Trott waved her wand 'No sorry Potter that won't work.' Fuck sake

'We could take a group each?' suggested O'Manda.

'We are going to have' started Harry before he was interrupted by a raspy chilling voice Harry instantly recognised.

'Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the other Aurors are going to join us a shame really' boomed Fenir Greyback. 'So we will demonstrate now what will happen to your children if you don't pay our ransom on time.' He waved his wand and on his signal a second group of dementors swarmed down upon the Aurors.

Harry reacted instantly 'EXPECTO PATRONUM!' An enormous animal shot out of Harry's wand but it wasn't the one he was expecting, he didn't have to think about that now though.

'Start stunning the wizards and witches!' boomed Harrys voice as he stuck his want to his throat 'I'll handle the dementors' he was hoping to alert the other Aurors to his plan. Immediately his two partners shot into the midst of the masked enemy, two other sets of spells joined them.

Harry's Patronus scattered the Dementors attacking the Aurors, when they retreated away he then turned it on the others to protect the children.

Once the dementors were gone he switched his attention to the captors. Most were stunned in the initial melee and shock of hearing Harry's voice. The rest were now shooting spells very accurately back as they tried to get to cover, they had even started turning their wands on their captives.

Greyback was heading straight towards the children, 'Oh no you don't' Harry growled to himself.

He waved his wand and ropes wrapped themselves around the werewolf and as soon as he hit the deck he was stunned by one of the Aurors from the other side.

Noticing that Greyback was down the remaining adversaries began fleeing down the street towards the apparation point. Harry made to follow them, before Trott held him back. He gave her a questioning look.

'Let's not push our luck Potter. We can't all go after them and there is a maximum of three of us that can follow. In a straight fight we are outmatched.'

Harry sagged 'You're right, let's make sure this lot are OK.'

Robards and Dawlish made their way into the square. Harry recognised the second man from Dumbledore's office when the ministry tried to arrest him all those years ago. 'Potter, Trott look after the children. O'Manda, Dawlish take a look at the adults.'

Robards barked out his orders as he went straight to the Aurors and released some of them so that they could start rounding up the stunned captors. He then started tending to the others, conjuring stretchers for the badly wounded.

Harry had called Kreacher to bring some chocolate to hand out to the children and after seeing none of them were hurt they started pairing them up with their parents. That was when two people approached him.

'Mr O'Manda said that you found our daughter and sent her to Hogwarts?' The man asked tentatively.

'Ah you must be Emily's parents.' Said Harry noticing the resemblance. 'Kreacher, can you fetch Emily for me' he called across the square. He bowed and left.

'We would like to thank you for finding her and getting her out of here.' The man said sincerely.

Harry waved him off, 'It's fine, we couldn't just leave her on her own. Professor McGonagall has been looking after her.'

'All the same thanks.'

At that point Kreacher returned with Emily in tow 'Mum, dad' the girl shouted excitedly and ran to her mom's arms.

Her mom scooped her up 'Are you OK Sweaty?'

She nodded 'Yeah Hogwarts is great'.

The three adults laughed. 'Thankyou Mr Potter, we've already thanked Mr O'Manda who was the other Auror you were with? I would like to thank her too.' Asked Emily's mom.

Harry pointed her out and made his way over to Robards.

'Good job Potter' said the man patting him on the back. 'Can you take these to St Mungos then meet me in my office?' he asked gesturing to people on stretchers.

'Sure, do I need to take them to the apparation point or is the barrier down?'

'Sorry Potter you'll have to walk out of town.'

Harry shrugged 'No problem.' He waved his wand and steadily guided the five stretchers through town before apparating away.

A few hours later Harry walked into Robards' office, the rest of the Aurors were all sitting down giving various reports of what happened. To his slight surprise Kingsley was also there. 'Sorry I'm late, the hospital asked me to run guard duty before they could get their own guards on detail.'

'It's no problem Potter take a seat.' Replied Robards. He sat down between O'Manda and Trott. 'To bring you quickly up to speed, a much larger group of wizards and witches attacked Hogsmeade initially. Many people actually got away while others were effectively kidnapped and dragged to the square.

'The first team of Aurors tackled them and unfortunately were quickly overwhelmed. After that many of the captors left for some unbeknownst reason. That's when they beat the plan out of Trista'

'He didn't have a choice sir. They were going to let the dementors kiss a couple of the kids.' Interrupted a dark-haired witch that Harry didn't recognise.

'I know Timbrook, none of us blame him. That's when the second wave was attacked upon entering Hogsmeade. O'Manda is just telling us how you came to the square.' He gestured for O'Manda to continue.

'Right like I was saying, Potter's house elf – Kreacher was it?' Harry nodded 'took the girl to Hogwarts so she would be safe and we left our zone. We decided to shift from the plan because it didn't feel right. There was no one around and after Emily's account we moved up the town.

'That's when we found the square and Potter said something that got me thinking especially after. He said this isn't Death Eater work.'

Robards raised his eyebrows but it was Dawlish who spoke first 'Of course it was.' He scoffed. Harry rolled his eyes.

'What makes you think that Harry?' asked Kingsley.

'There's no one dead and it was no random attack.' He said simply before continuing. 'Whoever these people are they are trying to get the wizarding community scared. They wanted people scared enough to pay a ransom for their kids safety.'

'They were wearing Death Eater masks' said Dawlish exasperated.

'Anyone can buy a mask.'

'Well then why have they only shown up now?' Dawlish continued in the same tone.

This bloke's a real git. 'That's obvious with Voldemort gone people aren't afraid anymore. How many people would actually pay a ransom before this attack happened?' asked Harry coolly, he didn't bother waiting for an answer. 'With no Voldemort, not many. However, if people think Death Eaters are continuing the war more people will be worried. That's why this new, maybe even old group, have acted now. Before they could just sit in the shadows and leech off the fear that was already there.'

'Greyback seemed to be the leader. He was the one who was calling the shots out there. It's common knowledge he worked for You-Know-Who.' Dawlish heatedly pointed out.

'Exactly, if Death Eaters were in charge, they wouldn't let a werewolf lead them. They are just as, if not more prejudice than everyone else. He was just hired help. How do we know he wasn't a part of something else? I know for a fact he was a leader of a werewolf faction, were any of the others you arrested werewolves?'

'We can check.' Said Robards gently tapping his chin.

'You can't be taking him seriously.' Yelled Dawlish standing up and pointing at Harry.

'I'm taking him very seriously, he could be right which is worrying.' Replied Robards evenly.

'What so you're taking the opinion of an unqualified seventeen year old over one of your most experienced Aurors.' Dawlish said in outrage, a few were nodding with him.

So that's it, he thinks I don't belong here. Harry was about to respond when he noticed Kingsley shake his head slightly. What's he up to?

'Not over you Dawlish but it's a valid opinion and one I think is right.' To Harry's surprise it was Trott who answered. 'If this was just a random attack then the Death Eaters would have just been after destruction like at the Quidditch World Cup.

'This was different, it could be that old Death Eaters are involved. Maybe this is why we haven't been able to pick many up. They've disappeared with the help of this group and are now acting as extra muscle for them.'

'I agree with that.' Said O'Manda. Dawlish had gone green.

'How do you even know Greyback was the leader of a werewolf faction?' he asked Harry accusingly.

'Remus Lupin told me.' At this he caught Kingsley's eye.

'Oh, so we should trust the word of a werewolf.' Mocked Dawlish

'And what do you mean by that?' asked Harry menacingly piercing Dawlish with a rather frightening glare. The old Auror had the sense to back away a little.

Sensing the danger Dawlish had just landed himself in Kingsley tried to divert the conversation. 'So, you heard about Remus' mission then Harry?' The Aurors looked at him intrigued, apart from Dawlish who was still looking rather worried for his safety.

Harry didn't remove his glare from its target as he answered 'Yeah he told me that he was trying to stop the werewolves siding with Voldemort' he looked away from Dawlish to Kingsley with a softened expression 'to be honest I think he was more of a spy.'

'I don't know much myself, he reported only to Dumbledore, I think you might be right though.'

'I wonder if Dumbledore kept any memories of their conversations.' Mused Harry 'I'll have to speak to McGonagall.'

Glad Harry was calming down, Kingsley agreed. 'I think that's a good place to start.'

Robards nodded 'Ok I think that's all for now. You are all dismissed. Potter, O'Manda, Trott can I have a word please?'

The three of them nodded and waited while the others filtered out of the room. Dawlish shot Harry a filthy look as he left.

'I would like to thank you three, without you we wouldn't have got them out of there on time. Now Potter I think we might as well dispense with the test, do you two agree?'

'Yes sir.' chimed Trott and O'Manda. Harry smiled sheepishly.

'Very well then, I'll see the three of you on Monday. 8 O'clock sharp Potter. Dismissed.'

'Thanks for sticking up for me in there with Dawlish.' He said gratefully as they walked out of the office towards the floo.

O'Manda chuckled 'No problem Potter, we're just glad you turned up for your test.'

Trott added 'Yeah, don't worry about Dawlish he'll come around. By the way it's Leanne.'

'Yeah mine's Dave.'

The three shook hands and left for home.

Harry stepped out of the fireplace into the darkness of the Burrow. It's later than I thought.

He went to the fridge to get a snack when he heard something from the sitting room. He walked in to see Ginny asleep on the couch. He smiled to himself as he noticed she was talking in her sleep.

He gently shook her shoulder to wake her. She stirred and looked at him with blurry eyes 'Harry?' Then she threw herself at him.

'Oomf'

'I was so worried, are you OK? We heard you were in St Mungo's.'

'I'm fine Gin and luckily so is everyone else. I was only in St Mungo's to take the injured.'

'What happened?' She demanded.

He told her everything including his argument with Dawlish. When he was finished, he pulled her down with him on the couch and they lay there cuddling.

'So, what was your Patronus? You said you it changed.' She prompted.

'Oh yeah it was a Stallion.'

She looked up at him 'That would make it a match for mine.'

He smiled 'That it would.'

'When do you think it changed?'

'After the forest, I haven't had to cast one since then.'

'Can I see?' He waved his wand and the large stallion burst from the tip. It was tall and the warmth that came from it was even greater than his stag.

'Wow, he's beautiful.' Ginny reached out to stroke its main. Then Harry let it fade.