Chapter Seven
49 Cinder Street
1
Remus stood outside of Luciano's flat. He wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to do. There was a light on inside, so should he take on the Auror roll and dramatically bust through the door, or knock like a sane person and see if Luciano answers? The old man sighed. He used to be better at this.
As he continued to stare pensively at the door, another, rather decrepit resident of the building shuffled out into the hall. When the elderly woman looked up and noticed him standing there, she gave him a suspicious eye. He greeted her politely.
"What can I do for ye, dear?" she inquired gruffly, as if she'd rather do nothing for him.
"Do you know if your neighbor here is home," Remus asked, gesturing to apartment 210.
"You from the Ministry?"
Remus assured her he was.
"That light 'as been on since day 'fore yesterday. It must be some kind o' security spell, 'cause a candle wouldn't 'ave lasted that long." She squinted at him as if to size him up. "Why didn' ye come sooner?"
"Sooner than when, Ma'am?"
"Day 'fore yesterday, you blokes were here, right? Lookin' fer Neos?" replied the old woman. "Could 'ave used someone intelligent lookin', like yerself, back then. The light's been there since the disturbance."
"Could you tell me a little something about this disturbance," Remus prompted. "It would really help me out."
"'Course, dear. It was the day 'fore yesterday..."
2
"I hope that will help you, Mr. Potter," said Headmistress McGonagall. "But like I said, I haven't seen Miss Culver since the day before she ran away."
"Thank you, Professor," Harry said, "any information can help me at the moment. When did you say you last saw Luciano?"
"The night the Optimates broke into Azkaban," the ninety-two-year-old woman told him in a voice that had never lost the stern bite of her transfiguration days.
"The night he escaped," Harry muttered to himself. That would have been the same night he tried to kill Culver. "Well, I'll talk to you again soon, Professor. Thanks again."
The long walk back to the first floor gave Harry some time to think over everything McGonagall had told him and try to find something useful in the information. Once he had reached the first floor, he took a shortcut and entered a corridor full of knights. He paused when he noticed an old friend sitting in a wooden office chair next to a classroom.
"Hello, Neville," he greeted with a smile.
Professor Longbottom looked up from his copy of the Daily Prophet and grinned back.
"Harry! What brings you back to your old stomping grounds?"
"I needed to talk with McGonagall," Harry explained. "What are you doing out here? You locked out, or do you just like sitting in the hall for some reason?"
"I'm overseeing a detention," Neville answered, almost awkwardly, as if this was a new thing for him. He gestured with his newspaper to a couple of students, each polishing a suit of armor on opposite walls. "You might recognize one of them..." His paper twitched toward the right side row of armor where a skinny black-haired girl was working.
"Oh, great," Harry muttered, recognizing his daughter, Kyla. "What now? She hasn't spit on another seventh year has she?"
"No, of course not – but I can assure you, the incident before with Miss Bledsoe was completely warranted."
"So what did she do?"
Neville sighed and answered his former classmate warily: "She was involved in a certain accident with another student's project and an open flame. The whole thing is quite a mess."
"Did she happen to bear a grudge against this particular student," Harry wondered aloud.
"Kyla and Miss Hathaway are not exactly close, to say the least."
"Neville," Harry said, tilting his head to the side in bewilderment as he observed the children, "What part of the knight are they supposed to be polishing?"
"All of it. Why?" Neville's eyes suddenly widened when he realized what Harry was looking at. "Oh, for Merlin's sake!" He leaned forward to rise from his seat.
Harry held up a hand to stop him getting up. "No, no. I handle this one."
He walked up to the kids as they polished. The boy noticed him coming and immediately started vigorously rubbing the cloth over the knight's shoes with his head bowed. Kyla was contentedly humming as she shined up the codpiece on her armor.
Harry cleared his throat. His daughter turned her freckled face up at him and her eyes grew a little bigger for a mere second before she covered her surprise with a huge smile.
"Dad! What are you doing here?" she said cheerfully. "I saw you in the paper. How come I have to get news from the Daily Prophet before I get it from you?"
"Because the Prophet's reporters happen to be half vulture," Harry answered dismissively. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course," she said sweetly.
"Why are you only polishing the crotches on these knights?"
Without even cracking a grin, she calmly opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted when another professor entered the corridor. When the woman came into view, the tarnished empty bodies creaked shrilly as they covered their shiny privates with metal gloves. She paid them no mind. Instead she focused on Harry as she approached.
Her name was Professor Tundra Lupin, and he would recognize her unique features anywhere. They were the bony, or rather emaciated, angles of Remus's first and last true love. She had straight, layered hair that was naturally two-toned (brown with much lighter blond highlights). The eyes over her prominent cheekbones were large, long and violet colored and her lips were dark red (also natural). She had told him before that her odd hair and visage came from her rare, ancient lineage – the same lineage that granted her the powers of a Seer.
Harry still remembered the whole situation between her and Remus back when he was only eighteen. Remus was with Tonks at the time, when Tundra, an old classmate of Remus's, came to help in battling Voldemort. There was a renewed connection, a lot of tension, but eventually a mutual understanding and suddenly Remus was marrying Tundra while Tonks became second in command of half of the Ministry's law enforcement devisions. Both Remus and Tonks got what they wanted, it just wasn't with each other.
"Hello, Harry," Tundra greeted in a monotone voice, though she did give him a little smile. "Remus is on his way."
"Has he found anything?" Harry asked her anxiously, forgetting the conversation he was having with Kyla.
"I don't know. I only know he's coming here," she explained. Then she paused and stared blankly into the distance for a moment before recovering. She held a hand up to quell his inquiries about her wellbeing, saying: "Excuse me if I space out. It's been a very active day for Seeing."
"What kinds of things have you been seeing?"
She looked at him with a weary expression. "Everything you could imagine."
"Anything about who's going to win Quidditch this week?" Neville inquired with a grin as he approached behind her.
"Tundra, Harry," came Remus's voice from the other end of the corridor.
"Well," asked Harry immediately, "What did you find out? Could you get inside?"
Kyla and the other student paused to listen to the excitement that might become of this conversation.
"I didn't need to get inside," Remus told them. "No one was there and I don't think I would've found anything if I did. I talked to one of the other residents, and she told me there was some kind of disturbance outside the building the day 'fore – er – the day before yesterday. She said a tall, dark-haired woman fought off a group of hooded figures and that she and Luciano Disapparated soon after."
"Did he take her or did Agape go with him?"
"I asked the same thing, but the woman couldn't tell."
Tundra was just starting to ask, "Did you ask any of the other-" when, without warning, she went silent and suddenly seized Remus's shoulder to hold herself steady as she swayed. Remus held her by the arms and watched her carefully, but didn't seem too concerned as her eyes glazed over and she stared through him.
"Is she okay," Harry asked, taken aback by her arrest of speech.
"She's fine," Remus assured him, but he never took his eyes off of his wife's. "She's having a vision."
Harry had only seen this type of thing from Professor Trelawney in his third year, but Tundra wasn't talking, she only stared at something that wasn't there. It was a moment before she snapped out of it and her violet eyes focused on Remus.
"You okay," Remus asked, a frown line appearing between his brows.
Tundra didn't answer him, but looked at Harry and calmly said, "You can get your assistant back tonight, if you get there in time."
"Where, when and how?" Harry replied instantly.
"In Hogsmeade, right now, at 49 Cinder Street in the residential area. You'll need our help, and Neville's too, if you want to get past the Optimates."
Harry was already heading toward the entrance door, but Tundra called him back. "You'll never make it in time if you have to run to the gates before you can Disapparate. We'll use Floo powder and catch them by surprise."
"Where's the nearest Fireplace?" Remus said as they swiftly turned to go.
"Professor Cophin's office, just up here."
"Miss Potter, Mr. Vaughn," Neville hurriedly said to his students, "I want you to go back to your common room, now."
The young man silently nodded and Kyla began to say, "But -"
"Go now!" Neville snapped, uncharacteristically. Kyla went quiet.
Tundra lead them to McGonagall's old office at a run. Harry grabbed some Floo powder and flung it into the fire, shouting the address as he leapt over the hearth. He landed in a dark living room of 49 Cinder Street. The only light came from the flashes and sparks of spells being exchanged in the hallway. Remus, Tundra, and Neville came through the fireplace after him.
Tundra sighed with irritation, saying, "We're too late."
"What? No we're not! We can still get her. Where is she," Harry demanded.
"Upstairs," Tundra told him as she casually stunned a hooded man no one else had noticed in a black corner, "for now at least."
"Tell me everyone who you know is fighting," said Harry. "Optimates? Blood Traitors?"
"Both. Evenly matched for the most part. About ten each, I think. No one else from the Ministry," she added, answering his next question.
Harry's mission training was instinctively kicking in. "Alright, just help me get upstairs. We can deal with the others after we find Agape."
They entered the hall as a unit, shooting defensive spells out in every direction as they headed for the stairs. It was a chaotic blur of Latin phrases, multicolored lights and near misses. Harry hadn't been in such a dangerous situation in a long while. He was trained for this kind of action – the fearful rush, expecting the unexpected at every moment – and he had to admit to himself... he liked it. But there was no time to think about that now. He had mere seconds to find Agape before it was too late. The only question was: too late for what? Too late to find her, or something worse?
Harry froze a hooded figure who was shooting at someone on the stars. Remus got the one that came out from shadows of the same doorway to replace his comrade. As Tundra tugged Harry out of the path of a hex aimed at his back, Neville fended off a woman on the porch, who was shooting at them from around the molding of the open front door. The professor paused for a moment, as if noticing something odd, but there was an unexpected pop, like a small rocket going off, and their group was bathed in a white light that hung over their heads for a few seconds. After the flare-like spell faded, there were half as many spells being shot at them. Harry wondered what the heck was going on. He'd never seen this tactic before and he wasn't quite sure what it meant.
No time. No time! Agape was up the stairs and whoever was guarding the second story was no longer shooting at him, so he took the opportunity. He leapt up the first four steps to the landing where the stairs turned at a ninety degree angle. He found a man crouched there, with his wand aimed at the Optimates across the hall. Harry paid little attention to him and turned with the banister, skipping more steps as he rushed upward. It was Remus's voice behind him that made him slow and look back.
"Logan! What're you-"
"Get down, Remus!" said Logan Bireley, grabbing the older man's robes and pulling him down on the landing. Hexes shot at the wall above their heads.
Harry made a mental note to interrogate Bireley as soon as this was over – since now he had undeniable proof that the werewolf was a Blood Traitor. As he bounded up the last of the stairs, Remus stayed with Logan, Tundra was still in the middle of the hall defending herself without a problem, and Neville was running out of the front door with his wand at the ready.
Upstairs, all was still, at first. There were only three doors, so Harry quickly stalked to the nearest one. It was dark and empty, no sign of life inside. However, he soon heard the faintest rustling coming from another room. He silently made his way over to the doorway and took a beep breath before rushing inside with his wand held up. He was expecting a curse to come at him, not a sucker punch.
Harry aimed a hex at the offender, who went tumbling across the floor a few times before stopping himself. Harry crossed the room after him, holding his wand to the fellow's forehead as he tried to get up. As soon as he saw the mess of blood-red hair and those long, narrow eyes, he knew he was looking into the face of Alton Drake, despite the mask that covered his nose and mouth.
"Why the mask, Drake? You fighting with the Optimates now?" Harry asked, glaring at the Blood Traitor.
"No, I just think they have great fashion sense," Drake said, his eyes showing the smirk that his dragon hide mask covered.
Harry didn't have time for this. "Where's Agape," he demanded.
"She's already gone," Alton said in a slightly hoarse voice, pulling down the mask.
"Stop moving" Harry shouted, taking Drake aback. "Drop your wand! Now tell me were she is or I'll-"
"She's okay! You don't need to worry about her, Potter," Drake insisted, but Harry wouldn't have it.
"TELL ME WHERE SHE IS!" His wand spat out a few sparks at Drake's forehead, making him flinch.
"I can't," Drake replied in a strained but calm voice. "But she's safe. I know you think we're murderers and all – " a sudden pain shot up Harry's leg as Drake's heel collided with his shin in an impossibly flexible movement that knocked him backward - "but we're really not the violent type."
Drake leapt to his feet as Harry toppled to the floor with a cry of pain. Harry retaliated with a spell that was magically equivalent to a fierce blow to the gut. The younger man slumped against a dusty old cabinet by the wall, trying to hold himself upright. He found his wand on the floor and grabbed it, aiming it at Harry just as the Auror raised his as well.
They both shouted: "Expelliarmus!"
Drake's wand went soaring into the air away from him. Even Harry's jerked out of his grasp and hit the floor, despite his grip training – it was a credit to Drake's talent. Harry recovered his weapon and jumped up, just in time for a swift and breath-taking kick to the chest from his foe. He doubled over, reeling from the pain in his sternum – but he was an Auror, after all, and not even Drake's kung-fu-magic blend would daunt him.
Drake physically dodged Harry's defensive spells until he recovered his wand. He shot jinxes, hexes, and curses to no avail. He took swings, did back flips to avoid attacks, and used well-practiced martial arts, but none of this helped him for long. The simple truth of the matter was that poor Drake was beaten from the moment Harry walked in the room.
Soon, Harry had forced Drake to his knees with his arms held straight out to the sides where they would be constantly in view. Harry stood behind him with one hand pulling his head back by the hair and the other pressing a wand to his throat. Now it was time for the two men to have a calm chat...
"If you don't tell me where she is right now-"
"I can't, you bloody git! Don't you get that?" He tried a sudden movement to get away from Harry, but was jabbed in the curve of his spine with a hex that briefly lit the space between them.
"No more kung fu crap" Harry shouted. "You're going to stay put for once."
Harry saw the fury on Drake's shadowy, upturned face morph into horror when he realized he couldn't move his legs as they slid out from under him. The red-haired man swore loudly, a desperate gleam in his eyes.
"Now, keep your arms out straight and stay still," Harry commanded, "unless you want me to paralyze you from the neck down too."
Rage of defeat came over Alton's face, but he held his arms out at his sides as instructed. He scowled at Harry as if wishing the Auror would suddenly burst into flames. "I hate you," he seethed, teeth bared. "Don't you realize we're on your side? I can't believe how blind you are!"
Harry was calm now that he was back in control of the situation, and it reflected in his voice as he replied: "Just because we both hate Neo Death Eaters, doesn't mean I should be on your side. Especially after you hit me."
"I wasn't going to let you arrest me!"
"Well, for future reference: punching an Auror in the face isn't the best way to avoid arrest."
Drake ignored his advise, and instead shouted: "Can't you see that we're helping you, you bloody tosser? When you fight us, it's like you're fighting yourself."
"You haven't been much help to the Ministry, my friend," Harry commented.
"We don't help the Ministry. You've got the whole lot thinking we're murderers!"
"You're constantly in our way, and then your buddy, Luciano, kidnapped Agape – "
"He saved her!"
"Then why is she still missing?"
"Because, moron, she's still in danger! Why do you think this place was crawling with Neos? They want to kill her! Of course, it's understandable that you haven't had time to notice. You must've been swamped, what with accusing us of bunk murder charges, and ruining our lives and all."
"If she's in danger, maybe you should've let the Ministry handle it," Harry replied, ignoring his ramblings. "We don't typically take targeted people into Optimates territory."
"Well, we like to bring her along as bait," said Drake sarcastically. "It's not like we planed this! We're keeping her safe – "
"As safe as Creighton Squires?" Harry asked viciously.
"You don't know anything," Alton snarled.
Harry noticed a smoky fragrance in the air that hadn't been there before. Was something burning in the room? There was no flame in the hearth. He checked to make sure Drake's shaking arms were still held outward and said, "I know this much: you better tell me some useful information – quickly – or I'll make your paralysis permanent." As a warning he moved his wand from his captive's neck to the space between his eyes.
"I'll give you useful information, you sart!" Drake spat vehemently. "Here's some: we didn't kill Mr. Squires."
Harry would have smirked at this comment, because he had seen it coming a mile away, but he was caught off guard by the thin cloud of smoke that billowed from Drake's mouth as he said it.
"What the h-"
Drake's brown eyes narrowed menacingly as his increasingly raspy voice growled, "Get that wand out of my face before I turn it into kindling."
"What?" stammered the Auror, taken aback by this new development.
"I was told not to torch you, but you're not leaving me much of a choice," Alton threatened, locking his eyes on Harry's.
"Torch?"
There was a sudden blur of movement from behind Harry and he was thrown backward onto the hard floor while pain seared across his throat. Warm liquid oozed from the pain, cooling as it traveled softly to the back of his neck to pool beneath him. It took a moment to comprehend what had just happened, but it all became clear when the fireplace was instantly ablaze and a thin woman with illuminated sage eyes and waxen skin looked down upon him.
"There will be no need, Alton," said the vampire from Squires's funeral. "Mr. Potter is probably a bit preoccupied with sealing the holes in his neck now."
Harry pressed a hand to the wound and tried to gurgle an obscenity at her while she casually wiped his blood from her long fingernails. Drake was pulling himself toward the fireplace using only his arms since his legs still refused to move. He had his wand back and he was eager to escape while he had the chance. Harry sat up, still holding his bleeding throat, and searched for his wand on the floor near him. Drake was already gone when the vampire bent down so that their faces were even. She certainly looked like the undead now that she was in her natural hazy lighting.
"I see you've learned to crawl with the cockroaches, Mr. Potter," she said in her cool, pretty voice. "Your assistant left you a gift in the other room, by the way."
Without warning, she looked up, startled, and was several feet away from him in the blink of an eye. Harry heard Remus's voice shouting something from the doorway and the vampire shrieked, clutching her stomach as blood seeped from her waxen lips. There was another blur of movement and she was gone.
Then Remus was crouching down beside him, asking "Is it deep?"
Harry could only sputter in reply.
Tundra lowered herself to the floor and gently removed Harry's hand from the gory slashes. The fresh air to his rendered flesh was like being stabbed with white-hot metal. Harry had had severe injuries before, but this one was a new feeling to him, and thus the panic was new as well. He desperately wanted to say, "Fix it! Fix it!" but he couldn't, so he settled for trying to keep calm. He couldn't keep from trembling, however. As the blood trickled out, it took his strength with him.
"Remus, sit behind him and hold his head back," Tundra instructed her husband. He did so and Harry gargled out a groan of pain. Tundra held her wand before him and closed her eyes, muttering a lengthy spell.
It felt like minuscule spiders were crawling around in his flesh, repairing the damage as they went and ebbing the pain. When the spell was done Harry took a gasp of the cold air and felt the now smooth area of his neck.
"Thank you," he said hoarsely to the Lupins.
"Don't talk much tonight. It'll be sore for a while," Tundra told him.
"Where's Neville," he had to ask.
"He's waiting for the Ministry to come and pack up the seven Neos we got," Remus replied. "Did you see Agape?"
Harry gingerly shook his head in the negative, whispering: "The vampire said she left me something in another room."
Remus helped him up so they could investigate. In the last room of the second floor, they discovered three unmasked Optimates tied together in the center of the floor, all slumped against each other unconscious. One had a battered visage, another had an enormous slash across the middle of his robes, and the third one looked to be missing some teeth.
"The last three," Tundra said aloud, confirming Harry's suspicion.
The man in the center had the ripped robes, which were open at the chest to reveal a wand written message on his bare skin:
Don't say I never
gave you anything.
Love,
A.E.
If Harry hadn't been so dejected at just missing her, he would have laughed out loud. She had managed to amaze him once again – only this time she had done part of his job for him.
3
After getting his throat checked out by a medi-wizard, Harry went home to Ginny feeling like he should have done more. He shouldn't have let his guard down. He especially shouldn't have let go of his wand when he was attacked from behind. They were rookie mistakes that probably prevented him from finding Agape. So much for the master Auror expecting the unexpected.
When he got home, Ginny was in the kitchen preparing a Howler to the captain of the Holyhead Harpies:
"BOADICEA GOES WHEN I SAY SHE GOES! I'M THE GENERAL MANAGER AND I EXPECT TO BE INFORMED OF ALL CONTRACT TERMINATIONS! I DON'T CARE WHO STARTED IT, SHE STAYS! SHE'S WON THE LAST FOUR GAMES, IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED!"
And that was before the added volume of the Howler itself. The red-haired woman calmly folded the red envelope and sent it on its way via their trembling family owl.
"Tough day?" Harry asked.
"Not until I got home," replied the grumpy wife. "Can you believe Caroline tried to fire Boadicea Jernigan? They had a slap fight in the locker room after practice and now I'm supposed to sack our best player since Gwenog Jones!"
"You're gorgeous when your angry," Harry commented with a smirk. "Well, any emotion really."
Ginny leaned against this kitchen counter and put a hand on her well-formed hip. "You know, when the Harpies started calling me 'Mom' I didn't think I'd literally be taking on the role," she said, pretending to ignore his flattery – but he could see a tiny smile quirk her lips as she spoke and he knew she heard him. "Oh, and speaking of parental obligations," she continued as he sat down at the small kitchen table, "Kyla got another detention. It's the third one this month! They want me to come up for a parent/child meeting."
Harry slumped against the back of his chair and said, "I know. I saw her earlier tonight cleaning the codpieces on a row of armor."
She stared at him in disbelief. He had wondered what her reaction to Kyla's joke would be, and was slightly surprised to see that she was not amused in the slightest.
"You mean you went to Hogwarts tonight, and they still want me to come in tomorrow to talk to them? Why didn't they just talk to you about it while you were there?"
Apparently, she hadn't heard the word 'codpieces' in his last sentence. Either that, or she just wasn't surprised at all by Kyla's sense of humor.
After a short rant on having to reschedule her lunch with the owner of the Holyhead Harpies, Ginny sighed and turned back to Harry, asking him if he had had any luck in his search for Agape.
Harry told her about his night and how he had come so close to getting Agape back. She sat in front of him, listening intently until he was done. "You think Drake was telling the truth? Do you think she's safe," Ginny asked, all other worries put aside.
It was Harry's turn to sigh. "I don't know. But it seems she's taking care of herself."
4
Remus finally relinquished Logan Bireley's file to Harry via owl the next day. Now that they had both seen him fighting as a Blood Traitor, there was no real reason to keep his file confidential. Most of the information Harry already knew, thanks to Agape's previous digging, but now he had an address and a workplace to add to his list of knowledge.
Tonks's mission had gone sour as well, despite all of her strategies, and she personally apologized to Harry for having to send someone else to help him find Agape. She told him that she already had a team searching for her with all of the clues they'd gathered thus far, all of them ready to assist him at a moments notice.
Harry was grateful for the extra help, but he was still disgruntled about not getting to Agape the night before, even if they had picked up ten Optimates in the process. He decided he needed to take action again, and fast. He had solid information about one of the Blood Traitors and knew exactly where to find him. So that's where he went first, alone and determined.
Only twenty minutes after arriving at work, Harry had already left again and was standing outside a thrift shop of magically-damaged products down a back road in Hogsmeade, called the Not-Quite-Right store. Once inside, he asked for Bireley. The elderly woman behind the counter hollered down into the basement:
"Logan! Get the boxes later – you have someone asking for you."
There was a shot pause where Bireley must have said something back to her, to which she replied:
"I don't know who it is! You know I can't see anymore."
"Tell him it's Harry Potter," Harry told her. 'Maybe he'll run and I'll have a bit of fun today after all.'
"It's Harry Potter," yelled the old woman. Then, realizing what name had just crossed her lips, her eyes widened and she scurried into a back room, muttering, "Oh, my. I don't think so. I'm staying out of this mess…"
It wasn't long before Bireley bravely made an appearance behind the desk. Looking as if he were bracing himself for a violent blow, he said, "Can I help-"
"Yeah," Harry interrupted, "we need to talk. Is there a dark alley or a meat locker we can go to?"
The tired man's brow furrowed. "Will a moldy basement do?"
"Perfect."
(Author's note: Well, I hope this chapter got the blood pumping a bit more. I added a small part for Ginny in this one and she'll be playing a big part in the next chapter too! Thank you for the review Eden Harper! I agree that we need to see more of her in the future.)