Chapter Six
Flight and Fight
Ginny Potter stood in her kitchen, trying to decide what it was the baby in her belly so desperately wanted her to eat. As she deliberated, pausing with the refrigerator door propped open against her plump hip, she attempted to stretch her sore lower back somewhat. Carrying around so many extra pounds in her womb made her achy by this time of night. Her feet had only felt better after she freed them from her shoes and pressed them against the cool tiles of the kitchen floor.
Merlin's beard, she missed coffee!
An enormous latte of some sort would have been great at that point, but her doctor had told her to stay away from anything having to do with caffeine and (obviously) alcohol. She remembered getting into a bit of a row with the woman when she found out she couldn't even have decaf coffee. But Little-Miss-Mediwizard had won – it was for the good of the baby.
Brushing some of her red tresses out of her vision, Ginny leaned forward into the cool refrigerator and finally decided on the large bag of grapes sitting on the top self. The bag was opened and she was popping a grape into her mouth before the refrigerator door had swung itself shut.
Sitting down at the island counter, she contentedly munched the little fruits, the house quiet around her.
She had only swallowed maybe her sixth grape when she heard the front door open and close in the foyer.
"Harry?" she called.
Seconds later, her husband had followed her voice into the kitchen. He was covered in a thick layer of gray dust and a sizable bruise was turning an enthusiastic purple above his left eye.
"Hi, Babe," he said, kissing her cheek and casually walking over to the cabinet for a glass.
She gaped at him, unsure of what to say first as he poured himself some water and drank the entire glass. Things like 'Who hit you?' and 'Did you get attacked by another owl?' came to mind. She closed her mouth instead and examined him from where she sat: no oddly positioned limbs, gashes, boils, or missing fingers, and there was no limp in his walk as he crossed the kitchen to the island and sat on a stool beside hers.
He looked at her and she could see he was weary, but not in bad spirits. In his line of work, Harry had gotten used to coming home in this sort of condition, but Ginny was always a little flustered by it. It was the Molly Weasley in her.
"Don't look at me like that," he chided with a half smile. "I'm fine. Better than fine."
Ginny rearranged her face into what she hoped was a more relaxed expression. She shoved the grapes toward him. "You'd better be fine," she said. "Are there any more bruises like this one?"
She reached out to tilt his head slightly as she took a closer look at his injury. It was showy, but nothing her wand couldn't put right.
"That's the extent of the damage," he assured her, taking her hand and holding it in his on the counter top.
"Well, nothing too terrible could have happened. You're in too good a mood," she pointed out. "So tell me about it."
Harry straightened on his seat. "Well, I told you in the fireplace why I was going to be late," he began.
She nodded and said, "Because your interrogation with that prisoner went well. Luciano got her talking."
"Right. Well, all of that was going nicely, until…"
oOo
Harry returned to the interrogation room with a signed paper in hand. He opened the door only to hold it ajar and usher the five people inside into the hall. Agape, Alton, Augustus, and Roman had joined the prisoner, Jett, in the interrogation room to watch over her in his absence. Now the group filed out, all seemingly relieved to be getting down to business at last. Agape came out last, behind Alton who was grimly fiddling with his mobile phone.
"Agape," Harry said to the black haired woman, "you take these four back to my office for now. I need to let Ginny know I'll be late."
"So Mr. Shacklebolt said we could keep Jett out of Azkaban?" she asked.
Harry showed her the paper he was holding. "It's official – so she's allowed some freedom, so long as she's doing as she's told." With this he gave the prisoner a warning look. "Luciano, on the other hand, isn't that lucky. He needs to get out of sight before someone discovers him here-"
As if on cue, there were voices coming from down the hall. Two people were around the corner, arguing from the sound of it. If they saw Roman, he would be arrested on the spot – Azkaban escapees got such bad raps.
Harry swore under his breath and turned back to Agape. "I'll distract whoever that is. You go ahead to the warehouse."
From the terrified expression she gave him, you would think he had asked her to assassinate the Minister of Magic instead of baby sit a few vigilantes and a criminal.
"I don't know how long this will take," he reasoned with her, "and I still have to talk to Ginny. Just keep an eye on them until I can get there – especially Jett."
oOo
"Wait," Ginny stopped him. "You never told me – why did you need to go back to the warehouse anyway?"
At her interruption, Harry had paused in mid sentence with his mouth still slightly open but quickly came back to the present.
"It's where Jett was arrested with the other Optimates," he explained. "She said she purposefully lost her wand in the wreckage so that we wouldn't be able to trace it to her via a wand scan. And she wouldn't be much use without her wand, so I allowed it."
Ginny nodded thoughtfully as she removed some of the dust covering her husband with a useful domestic spell. "Right. Sorry, continue…"
oOo
The two people were getting very close and Harry glanced over his shoulder to make sure the others were dashing down the hall as quickly as possible. He moved himself strategically into a view-blocking position, taking up as much room in the hallway as possible while still looking casual.
"You can't arrest him!" exclaimed the familiar voice of Remus Lupin, Head of the Werewolf Registration Office. "He's done nothing wrong."
"Why don't you leave that up to me, Mr. Lupin," Rhonwen Yates replied curtly.
The pair rounded the corner just as the hem of Schmitt's work robes disappeared down a separate passage. Harry saved his sigh of relief for later.
"You're being irrational," Remus was saying when he and Yates found their way barred by the Auror.
"Excuse me, Potter," Yates said in an impolite tone.
"Hello, Rhonwen, Remus," Harry said, not moving. "What's up?"
The lines on fifty-six-year-old Remus's face were deepened by frustration. "Miss Yates has arrested Logan Bireley," he explained. "Though, her grounds for doing so are questionable."
Yates whirled on Remus with her best eat-dung scowl. "We just want to question him further, Mr. Lupin," she said in her usual clipped voice. "Besides, just because you put so much merit in Bireley doesn't automatically make him innocent. Your opinion is not above the law – and neither are you, despite what you might think." At this she broadened the wealth of her glare to include Harry too.
It may have been a while since the Order of the Phoenix had gathered in the open, but Yates clearly remembered they were affiliates.
Ignoring her comment – as he often did with those rules he was 'not above' – Harry asked, "Why do you need to arrest him to ask him questions?"
Yates sighed, exasperated.
"Because he refused to come willingly," she replied.
"Bireley refused to cooperate? That doesn't sound like him," Harry said, almost to himself.
"That's what I said," Remus pointed out to Yates.
The only time Harry had tried to question Bireley was back when he and the Blood Traitors weren't on good terms – Harry threatened to arrest him if he didn't talk and he complied relatively quickly. Even these days, a werewolf with any red marks on his record would have a hard time keeping a job, so they were usually quite careful.
"Miss Yates," said a tense voice from behind him.
A thrill of cold shot through Harry's veins as he turned and saw Yates's assistant, Lenore Lupin, behind him. Had she seen the others retreating?
She gave no sign that she had seen anything unusual as she opened her mouth to speak: "I have –"
But Yates cut her off, pouncing on her opportunity to get past Harry. "Where have you been?" she snarled. "I've been waiting nearly an hour!"
"I was getting Betrys Kimber, like you told me-"
The older woman had stepped up to her small assistant and stood over her. "I don't suppose you stopped by the Werewolf Registration Office on your way," Yates snapped viciously. "Do you handle all of you moral dilemmas by running to your father?"
Harry had to give Lenore her props; he wouldn't have been able to hold back a snide remark if his boss talked to him that way. Lenore had certainly inherited her father's patience.
Before Remus could take a breath to defend his daughter, Lenore spoke: "I don't have any moral dilemma, Miss Yates. I know exactly how I feel about the situation with Mr. Bireley and I don't need my Dad to tell me. Now, Betrys Kimber is outside your office and wanting to know why she's here. Would you like to talk to her?"
But Yates refused to loose. "Go home, Lenore. It's obvious you're useless as soon as work gets a little personal. Should I be expecting your overzealous brother to come to Bireley's defense next?"
"Stop yelling at my daughter," Remus said firmly. "She never told me anything – Garry Moore sent his assistant to me saying you'd gotten the wrong man. And he was right."
oOo
"Isn't Moore's assistant Augustus Schmitt?"
"Yes. That little sneak told Remus that his boss thought Yates had the wrong man!" Harry exclaimed. "He did it while I was talking to Kingsley about Jett."
"Why? How did he know?" Ginny asked, rapt in the story.
"All of the Blood Traitors have mobile phones that Drake rigged to work on magic," he told her. "Logan sent them a text message from Yates's office after he was arrested, saying he needed Remus's help. While I was out of the room, Gus left and lied to Remus, who did exactly as they expected by unknowingly distracting Yates."
"Distracted her from what?"
Harry heaved another sigh and shook his head a little. "I didn't find out until we got to Yates's office."
oOo
"Look, he's only under arrest until I have enough facts to prove him innocent or guilty," Yates barked at them all as they paused in the antechamber of her office.
Betrys Kimber looked up as they came in, her eyes wide with questions and concern.
Yates ignored her presence at first, continuing: "Bireley is in a precarious situation here – when I last saw him, he admitted to wanting his daughter back and holding a grudge against his ex-wife, and he didn't have a credible alibi. Not to mention the fact that someone not completely human was present in that house the night she was kidnapped."
"There was no full moon that night," Remus reminded her.
"Yes, but you know as well as I do that not all of these beasts appear as human as you, Mr. Lupin."
A tense silence settled over the group momentarily. It was a sordidly low blow that certainly wasn't going to win the old viper any popularity votes within the room. Though Harry couldn't help recalling Fenrir Greyback's inhumanly sharp canines, the comment didn't help Yates's argument any. There was no way those spaced out footprints were made by any werewolf in human form.
The 'friendly' competition between the Aurors and Investigations had officially gone out the window – by insulting Remus, Yates had just dug her own grave. Honestly, Harry didn't know why everyone thought she was so good at her job in the first place. He had seen reporters from the Daily Prophet with better sources.
"Sounds like you're grasping at straws here, Rhonwen," Harry pointed out flatly. "You do realize that you can't arrest a person merely because you're out of leads and you're desperate to look busy."
That got her attention. Yates glowered at him so intensely Harry thought her head might actually sprout snakes and he would end up turned to stone.
"You think Logan is a suspect?" asked a flabbergasted Betrys.
All four Ministry workers looked around at her, having forgotten she was still in the room.
Looking utterly confused, she added, "Logan would never do something like that."
Harry, Remus, and Lenore gave Yates we-told-you-so looks and the old woman shouted "Get out of my office! I'm going to get some answers out of Bireley whether you like it or not!"
She opened her office door and slammed it behind her, letting the quiet ring in her aftermath.
Harry rolled his eyes and reminded himself that he had things to do – but all of that flew out of his mind when he heard the howl of rage from within the office. Lenore immediately reached for the door and Betrys gasped.
The door flew open violently, narrowly missing little Lenore, and Yates rushed back out.
"HE'S GONE!" she roared. "WHERE IS HE?"
"What?" Lenore said, taken aback.
"I left him in here with the door fixed! There's no way he could've left! So where is he?"
"I don't know," Lenore said indignantly, gesturing to Betrys. "I was gone for an hour getting Miss Kimber, remember?"
Yates stood lividly on the spot with both fists clenched hard enough for her nails to break the skin. "I'm putting out a warrant for Bireley right now," she hissed through clamped teeth. "So much for him being a saint!" she added to Remus.
Harry shook his head and vowed to kill the Blood Traitors at the soonest opportunity.
oOo
"Damn…"
Harry nodded. "They broke him out when I was distracting Yates."
"You're more of a tool than Remus was."
"Thank you, dear."
"Seriously, at least they had the decency to lie to Lupin, but you knowingly helped them!" She was holding back a grin quite unsuccessfully.
"Well, I didn't know they would do that," Harry pointed out, exasperated. "I thought they were getting out of the Ministry like I told them."
"Where was Agape? Wasn't she supposed to be watching them?" Ginny pointed out.
Harry scoffed. "They twisted her arm a bit and she let them do it."
"Maybe she should join them instead of becoming and Auror. Some part of her obviously wants to," Ginny pondered aloud. "But go on."
"Well, I left Yates and Remus to their fun-filled adventure of finding Bireley to talk to you, and then I went straight to the warehouse."
"And judging by your clothes and that bruise," Ginny said, raising her eyebrows teasingly, "you must have had fun."
oOo
Harry Apparated just outside of the dilapidated warehouse to find its windows lit with flashing lights and the unmistakable sounds of dueling. The nearest door hung open and clouds of dusts billowed from it like smoke from a dragons mouth.
Apparently, the BT were not yet done causing trouble.
"I'm going to kill them," he muttered.
The Auror set his jaw, prepared his wand, and rushed inside.
It was dark other than the spells flying about and the dust made it difficult to breathe without coughing, but it gave him cover for now. Every shout echoed from unseen bodies and the magic seemed to zip about the floating particles by itself. There was a clearer area ahead of him and he moved toward the two dark figures he saw fighting there.
Then there was a reverberating BOOM that shook the building around him and a blast of dust came from his left. With it came a very hard impact.
Harry was knocked to the floor by someone being propelled through the air. He and the man who hit him swore loudly, but Harry recovered first and had his wand to the fellow's throat in one swift move.
"Cripes, Potter," said Alton Drake, leaning away from Harry's wand tip. "It's not like I meant to land on you."
"Drake!" Harry cried as he straightened and pulled Alton up by his tee-shirt. "What did you do?"
"Why do you always assume I started it?" Alton demanded.
"What's going on? Who are… Oy! Why is your mouth uncovered?"
Alton's eyes crossed slightly following Harry's finger pointing to his dragon hide mask. He shrugged. "Just in case?"
Harry scowled at him and tugged the mask up until it covered Drake's mouth and nose. "No torching! Just because you can breathe fire doesn't mean you should. You want to burn this whole place down?"
"Uhh…"
"Never mind," Harry sighed. "Where is-"
A jet of sparks zoomed between the two men and they immediately fired back at their attacker.
"C'mon!" Alton shouted. "Why don't you come out and fight, you sorry bugger? D'you loose your bottle already?"
Another blast rushed over them, blowing Harry to the side and sending Alton careening out of sight into a pile of crates.
Then their opponent showed himself. The newest attack had kicked up more dust, and Harry couldn't make out many details other than the man's stocky frame and the dark cloth wrapped around the lower half of his face.
An Optimus.
They regarded each other for a split second before Harry shot a hex and the man deftly blocked it, stepping backward. Suddenly Harry was on his feet and they were dueling. After a few minutes, it was apparent to both men that the masked man wasn't as good as Harry – which put the Auror a bit on edge. Desperation increased the likelihood of frantic, dangerous attacks.
Harry knocked the man into a wall and kept his wand poised to shoot. They were standing beneath what was left of the old loft office floor.
"Drop your wand!" Harry shouted over another crash from a nearby fight. "Drop your wand! Now!"
The fellow hesitated, but he didn't oblige. The men were too far away from each other to make out expressions or eye movement through the haze. Harry didn't even see his opponent glance up to the roof until it was too late.
A rush of purple light hit the remaining boards of the loft floor which plummeted right on top of Harry.
The dirty cheat.
When the last of the rubble had settled, the other man moved away from the wall and circled the pile of debris in search of his foe. It was still difficult to see, and there was no sign of the bespectacled man within the mass of splintered wood and metal. He cautiously kicked a plank aside to check underneath, when he felt a wand tip graze the back of his neck.
"I told you to drop your wand," Harry repeated. He had gotten mostly out of the way of the collapse and hidden in the floating dust. "Drop it."
The other man paused again and turned his head slightly. "Harry?"
The Auror knew the voice instantly and whirled the man around by his shoulder to make sure. "Fred?"
"George," he corrected, pulling down the cloth from his face.
Harry was gobsmacked. "What are you doing here? Why were you fighting Drake?"
"Who's Drake?" asked George Weasley as he brushed his dusty hair away from his face and revealed a shock of red.
"The short bloke with the mask," Harry told him, pointing over his shoulder at the now distant pile of crates where Alton had been flung.
"You socializing with Neos now, Harry," George asked, perplexed.
Realization struck Harry and he spun around to face the other duels. "Not good."
"Harry, what's going on?" George demanded.
Harry held his wand over his head and shot a white, phoenix shaped symbol into the air. Then he answered his friend: "The people you're fighting aren't Optimates."
The duels ceased quickly in all directions – the bright bird hanging in the air was a sign to members of the Order of the Phoenix to stop fighting immediately and regroup. Soon, other figures were approaching Harry and George through the dust clouds.
"If they're not Neos, who are they?" George inquired incredulously.
"They're a few Blood Traitors and a friend of mine," Harry explained as the others drew nearer. "They came here because I told them to."
"Bloody 'ell," George muttered, a faint chuckle of relief in his voice. "McGonagall told us to guard the place because two Optimates were sniffing around yesterday. We're supposed to find out what they wanted in here. Never figured on seeing anyone other than Neos tonight."
"Oy! What gives?" said the voice of Charlie Weasley. "Harry, what are you doing here?" The second oldest Weasley son was even stockier than his younger brother, but his hair was the same Weasley red that Harry's wife shared.
"He came with the intruders," George told him. "Apparently, they're not Optimates. They're Blood Traitors."
"Is that better?" Charlie wondered aloud.
Two more members, Hestia Jones and Lee Jordan, appeared at this point as well, and the last, Susan Bones, came soon after.
"There's a girl here who says she's from the Ministry," Susan said pointing to the tall, rather haggard figure of Agape, who rushed toward Harry.
"Harry! I'm so sorry," she said immediately. "I didn't know they would be here – they just came out of nowhere and they were all wearing masks."
Harry frowned as he eyed the different colored cloths hanging from most of his fellow Order members' necks.
"It's kerchief day, didn't you know?" George asked Harry.
Hestia rolled her eyes. "They're for the dust – so we don't get choked while we fight," she explained.
"I told you we looked like Death Eaters," Lee said to Susan, who replied indignantly: "I thought they would help. Sorry."
Harry looked to Agape. "Where is Bireley?"
She became quite still and bit her lip. "Oh… Well, let me explain –"
"Just point me in the right direction," he ordered.
She searched through the dust with her keen eyes and did as she was told. Harry followed her finger until he found the little cluster of Blood Traitor men. Upon reaching them, he could see they were in little better condition than he was: Alton had a sizable bruise on his left arm from hitting the crates, and a lens in Gus's glasses was cracked. They were all coated in gray that matched the warehouse around them.
Harry stopped directly in front of Logan, glaring at him – and to his surprise, Logan glared back.
"You are in serious trouble now, Bireley," Harry informed him as if he didn't know. "Yates is out for your blood; and if she doesn't get you, The Department of Magical Law Enforcement will."
"I had to," Logan said, standing his ground. "I can't save my daughter from inside Azkaban and that's exactly where I was headed. Besides, I have new information on the vampire who took Libby."
"What information?"
Logan dug a scrap of parchment out of his pocket and shoved it toward Harry. "It's a list of names Imogene and Yvette put together of all the vampires known to be working with the Neos. Look at the one they circled –"
He pointed at a name surrounded in red ink near the bottom of the list: Nolan Quentin.
"So this is N.Q.?" said Harry.
"It has to be. And I'm going to find him and make him tell me where he took Libby," Logan snarled.
It looked as though Logan had undergone a total transformation from meek to bellicose in a few days. Whereas before he would have waited for orders from Jules or one of the other BT leaders, he was now kicking butt and taking names. Oddly, this new behavior was almost more natural than his reserved side. It was as if he had only needed a worthy cause to let it out.
"Alright, this will help us," Harry said, nodding. "But you're not doing it alone, Bireley. There's a warrant out for you by now and we'll have to do this carefully, because I can't stop them arresting you."
He took Logan's silently determined expression as acceptance of these terms. He was about to say something when someone cleared their throat behind him. He and the Blood Traitors looked around to see the Order members had followed Agape to where they stood.
"Sorry, everyone," Harry said. "This was one big miscommunication. Blood Traitors, meet the Order."
The four men were a bit too preoccupied to be very impressed. Alton gave them a single wave and Logan nodded in recognition. Roman's only response was to watch them warily. Gus, being of a forgive-and-forget nature, was the only one to offer a brief smile. Then he gave Roman a jab in the shoulder with his finger. "Why couldn't you tell they weren't Optimates?" he pointed out.
"I knew they weren't," Roman answered honestly.
"Could've used that information before now, mate," Alton grumbled. "May have saved some time."
"I couldn't," Roman retorted, loosing his temper. "They were too organized – you saw how fast they separated us. Besides, it wouldn't have made much of a difference."
Alton gave him an impatient look. "Er…Yeah, it would've."
"Hey, wasn't there another one in your group?" Lee said. "Where's the other woman?"
"Good question," Harry growled unhappily. "Where is Jett?"
They all looked at Roman, who raised a black eyebrow at them, saying, "What? Is that my fault too?"
"Maybe," Alton bit.
"No, it's definitely my fault for letting her out of my sight," Harry interrupted.
"We tried, Harry," Agape insisted plaintively, "but in all the excitement she –"
"– Slipped away to do exactly as she was told," said Jett's voice from over their heads.
Everyone craned their necks back to see her dark haired figure leaning over the rail of what remained of the lofty cat walk. A wand was wedged between her first and second finger in display for Harry to see. "I found my wand, and I didn't even fight with your friends there. Does that count as good behavior?"
"Better than the rest of us," Harry admitted. "Come down, please."
She nodded and aimed for the nearest set of stairs.
"Is that why you sent them?" Susan asked. "To find a wand?"
"That's it," Harry told her. "She's a Neo from Azkaban who can help us find a little girl. We need her and she needed her wand."
"That's probably what those buggers were looking for yesterday," George concluded.
"No," said Jett as she approached, her clothes virtually untouched by the dust. "They were looking for a very important message. One that I personally destroyed as duty required."
Alton uttered a sarcastic snort. "You're just all kinds of well-behaved aren't you?"
She gave the short man a patient smile, saying, "It's either that or be horribly punished. Your friend knows that better than anyone." With this she turned her gaze to Roman, who narrowed his eyes at her as though she had insulted him.
"Are we done here?" he asked sullenly.
"Yes, let's go," Logan agreed.
oOo
"So we left."
"To do what?"
Ginny had listened intently the entire time and eaten the little purple grapes like popcorn. Now the bag was empty but for the discarded skeletal stems.
"Well, we had to find out something about the vampire," Harry answered her. "And there's no one with more knowledge about this country's vampires than Remus, so I went to the BT headquarters and sent him a message."
"To which he replied?" she inquired.
Harry pulled the parchment out of his robes and flattened it on the counter for her to examine:
Harry,
The best person to talk to about this is a man named Cullen Pembroke. He is N.Q.'s grandson and he's the manager of the Rat's Mouth Inn in Hogsmeade.
- Remus
Ginny read over the note and pursed her lips. "Hmm… It's only five minutes after ten o'clock, you know?"
Harry smiled at her. "You read my mind. Logan, Agape and I are about to meet at the Rat's Mouth to talk to this bloke, while the rest of them watch Jett. We just needed to take a short break after everything."
His wife heaved herself off of her stool and padded back to the refrigerator. "Then you go take a shower and I'll make you something to eat before you go."
He chuckled, kissing her in thanks on his way out of the room.
(OMG guys, this one was a heifer! So much for having more time to write this summer - if anything I've had less time. But if I don't get hired somewhere soon, I'll have loads of chances to finish this puppy!)