Chapter Nine
The Militis Optime
1
"It's begun, Ma'am."
Inside an opulent den hidden below layers of earth, the Optimates leader, Morrigan, looked up lazily at her head of security. "Thank you, Ceto," she said as a small smile graced her thin lips.
Ceto, like most of Morrigan's chief subordinates, was a dedicated, formidable woman. She fiercely guarded their Welsh territory and lead with an unyielding hand, but in the presence of Morrigan, the stout woman held her head at a respectful tilt. Being a fearsome person did not make her any less afraid of her Mistress's wrath – all of the Optimates aimed to please the woman.
Her head lilting placidly against her curled knuckles, Morrigan's face was partially bathed in torchlight. Her eyes pierced Ceto as she pushed some of her long, matte black hair away from her visage. "Where is Jett?"
"Still detained as far as we know, Ma'am," Ceto replied. "The ambush should give her a chance to leave tonight."
Morrigan nodded, still grinning slightly. "Get out," she commanded, but her voice was much lighter than usual.
At the moment, the Raven Lady of Wales was utterly satisfied.
2
Cornered and growing more frightened by the second, Logan Bireley wondered if he would be returning home alive tonight. But, more importantly, would Libby?
The boy with foggy eyes stood closest, seemingly leading the other children. Logan trained his wand on him.
"I only want my daughter," he said, uneasy with what he was seeing. Just a moment before the kids had seemed weak and tormented, but now they filled the cellblock with a malignance that was even more chilling.
The white-eyed boy slowly grinned at him, his mouth spreading much too wide and revealing many shark-like teeth.
Liberty whimpered nervously at the sight and her father held her closer to his chest.
"What are you?" Logan breathed.
"Militis Optime," said the boy in a grotesquely distorted voice. A girl beside him chuckled wickedly as the fists at her sides suddenly flashed metallic.
Logan was struck by realization as he eyed the crowd of dirty faces: they were most definitely not children and none of them would need a wand to kill him.
He set Liberty behind him inside the cell and braced himself for a fight. His fingers reflexively tightened around his wand as the little bodies started to morph into much bigger forms and the door at the end of the hall slid closed, blocking off the only light.
3
Harry and the Blood Traitors arrived at the entrance to Morrigan's underground fortress in a noisy heap. There were several grumbles as most of the Blood Traitors didn't have much experience with traveling via portkey and had landed roughly. Only Harry, Augustus, and Imogene arrived on their feet.
Yvette and Sydney cursed crossly in French, but Alton's fowl language was all in English: "Bugger! That hurt! Ferris, get your boney arse offa me!"
Ferris had a few choice words of his own to add as he clambered upright, but Harry didn't hear everything. He was too consumed with looking about for Agape and Bireley. They should be close by – he'd told them to wait within sight of the entrance.
"Perhaps we should have landed a bit farther away, Mr. Potter," Gus said in a voice barely above a whisper. "I think all this fuss may have given our position away."
Harry responded without stopping his scan of the surrounding forest: "Morrigan has made it pretty obvious we're walking into a trap; right down to Quentin's eagerness to tell us this location. If she's not expecting us, there was a major miscommunication somewhere."
"Yeah, that and there's seven of us and a million of them," Sydney pointed out dramatically. "I don't think they'll feel the need to arm the battlements just yet."
"Okay, stop talking," Alton ordered his team, sounding slightly like he was imitating Jules's commanding tone. "We don't have time. We've got to get started."
"You're right about that, Drake," Harry agreed. "Only problem is I don't see Agape or Logan yet."
"They may have already gone in to look for the child," Imogene offered. "Even if they've been caught, they would be inside. We should go ahead."
"Don't forget what Jules said," Ferris added to Alton.
The red-haired man rolled his eyes and pulled his dragon hide mask in place over his mouth and nose. "I don't think Jules has taken into account that we're a little short on Traitors recently," he told the blonde man.
"She's trying to keep us from getting killed, Alt," Ferris countered, frowning. "We shouldn't ignore what she said."
"You're right, of course." Alton turned to the others, announcing: "Everybody, pick a partner! We're going to use the buddy system to storm the place. Make sure to hold hands so no one gets lost."
Ferris continued frowning at the shorter man. "You know, the closer you get to wetting yourself, the worse your jokes get."
Alton scowled back at him furiously as a trail of smoke snaked out of his mask.
"All of you shut up, please," Harry said, holding up an index finger. "I hear something."
The group went still, listening. There was someone walking through the underbrush approaching the dilapidated hut from behind. At last, a figure came into sight – it was Agape.
The poor woman looked absolutely haggard with leaves in her black hair and dirt covering her robes. However, when she spotted them, she uttered a little cry and rushed forward. Harry and the others ran to meet her.
"Oh, Harry!" she sputtered, looking close to tears. "I'm so glad you're here."
"Are you okay?" Harry inquired. "Where's Logan?"
She looked so stricken at the mention of the werewolf Harry immediately wondered if the worst had already happened. When tears started streaming down her face, he could hear the Blood Traitors' collective intake of breath.
"I tried to stop him," the woman explained, her words tumbling out in a hurry. "He went inside alone. Then, when I tried to follow him he got ahead of me…and… I had to get out of there."
"What do you mean?" Alton said, very anxious now.
Agape looked at Harry, her eyes deeply pained. "It was… Dante. He was there and… and I couldn't face him. I just couldn't do it! I left Logan in there alone because I was too afraid." She sobbed the last sentence and could barely control her voice enough to continue. "I ran back out here and Dante followed me. I tried to hide in the forest but I swear he was there wherever I turned. Everything went black and I couldn't see, even with my eyes. It was like he was playing a game with me. Testing me…"
Harry put an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. He shouldn't have sent just the two of them. They would have been safe enough if Bireley hadn't gone inside and triggered the attack, but Harry should have known it was inevitable. If it had been Kyla imprisoned so nearby, he wouldn't have waited for anyone either.
"I'm sorry, Agape," he began, but she cut him off.
"No, I'm sorry. I should have done better. I can't believe I let Logan go inside. Then I just ran like a coward." She wiped the tears off of her cheeks furiously, disgusted with herself. "Please, let's hurry and get him and Liberty back."
Alton suddenly turned to Ferris again, their argument long forgotten. "Alright, Mate. How should we go in waves?"
"Just like you said before, Drake," Harry answered before Ferris could. "Pair up and never separate from your partner. Even if we can't attack that way, we can survive being attacked."
They quickly organized themselves into pairs: Gus and Sydney, Alton and Ferris, Yvette and Imogene, and Harry and Agape. Now prepared and steely with resolve, Agape lead them to the entrance and she and Harry went inside first.
4
Liberty was screaming and sobbing in the corner of cell thirty-eight as her father fought off the monsters outside.
Some sort of light was penetrating the dark from inside the hall now and Logan could see who he was fighting. The boy with sharp teeth had gone back to his original shape – a burly, shark-mouthed man – and his eyes were no longer white. Logan had blasted him to the floor several times, but he was quite resilient and kept getting back into the fight. The girl with scaly hands was now a woman with smooth, black-scaled claws and two needle sharp fangs.
Unable to fight a group so large in any other way, Logan used numerous blocking spells. They steadily backed him inside the cell and he desperately worked to keep what little ground he had left so they couldn't reach Libby.
A metal hand suddenly shot out and slammed into his face with blinding force. Logan stumbled against the open cell door. He had to cling to it to keep himself standing. Huddled behind him, Liberty shrieked in fright.
The woman with metal covering her arms and hands advanced again, this time aiming for the five-year-old. Logan's head cleared very quickly then.
He seized the handle of the cell door and leapt backward into the tiny room, using all his weight to slam the door against the advancing woman. There was a ringing clang and the door stopped short. She had struck it with her metallic elbow and shoulder and was grinning evilly at him, completely unphased by the impact. But in her haste to block the door, she was unprepared for Logan's firm kick to her stomach, which was not protected by metal at the moment. She flew backwards and the door shut at last. Logan sealed it with magic and pressed his back to it for good measure. However, it wasn't long before they started banging on the door so hard he feared it would rattle off its hinges.
"It'll be okay, Libby," he said, reaching out his left hand to his little girl. Still simpering, she crawled over and held tight to him.
He hid his right hand from view – he had used it to shield his face when the lizard woman spit something on him and whatever was in her saliva turned out to be very acidic. His palm was now oozing blood and felt like it was on fire. And though he had regained his sight after the bone shattering blow to his face, his eye on that side was dimmer than normal and getting worse.
"Daddy," Liberty said shakily, pulling his attention away from his injuries, "where's Mummy?"
Logan's brow knit as the blows coming from the other side of the door worsened. He pressed his back harder against the metal and reinforced the lock and hinges with his wand as he answered: "She's not here, Libby. She's back home."
No sooner had the words left his lips did he realize it was the wrong thing to say. Liberty cried harder than ever. "Why isn't she here? I want Mummy!" she wailed desperately.
"I know, baby. But she…"
The hits were becoming more fervent and the door wouldn't hold much longer. Logan could feel the bruises rising on his back from the effort of holding it closed.
"But what?" Libby demanded, her brown eyes puffy and red now. "Where is she?"
Logan unclenched his teeth to speak, but hesitated again.
"Daddy! Where is she?"
"She's waiting for you at home," he answered finally. "She wants to see you so badly, sweetheart. But, I…" Another impact jarred him roughly, breaking off his reply. He figured there wasn't much of a reason to lie about it, though he only then realized the truth himself: "She doesn't know I'm here, Libby. I didn't tell her because I didn't want her to get hurt – so that both of you could be safe when you get home."
5
Having made it unhindered through the tunnel, Harry, Agape, and the Blood Traitors stood outside a huge, flat stone door on a track.
Yvette jabbed at the stupefied guard with the toe of her shoe. "Our wolf has definitely come this way," she mused with a small smile.
Without checking for dark magic, Harry seized the sides of the door and heaved it open. Agape started to stop him, knowing he could have been cursed had there been any on the door, but stopped when she heard the thunderous commotion inside.
Everyone peered inside the door from behind Harry.
The light from the tunnel lit up a long row of cells, and scuffling at the farthest end of the mile were twenty or so men and women. They all looked around at the unexpected light and spotted the intruders. Instantly, the crowd stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to their new target.
"Logan must be in that cell they're attacking," Harry stated.
"Harry, these people aren't normal," Agape warned, able to clearly see the odd group inside. "They're mutates, like the ones Dante makes."
"Can we go first, Alton?" Imogene asked, smirking
Yvette immediately brightened. "Yes, we'll clear a path for you."
Looking determined and surprisingly unaffected by the prospects of facing over twenty Militis Optime, Alton nodded. "But no biting," he added quickly to the vampire women. "Their blood might make you sick."
Harry had to dodge a curse as it jetted over his shoulder from one of the armed combatants. "Let's go!" he urged.
The eight of them flooded into the hallway with Imogene and Yvette at the lead. The two vampires moved too swiftly to be seen as they used their claws to bring down a man and a bald woman charging forward. Harry and Agape stupefied as many of them as they could, but some seemed impervious by the spell. Tougher spells were needed for nearly all of them.
Alton and Ferris stood back to back in the center of the mêlée, shooting well aimed defense spells and sending at least four or five to the floor. Gus and Sydney got one each from behind.
With the Militis Optime dwindling to about half the man-power, the match quickly became more even.
Harry dueled with a skinny man with shark teeth as Agape shot a man with a mohawk away from cell thirty-eight. They heard a shriek and saw Yvette flinching away from a woman with black scales on her hands.
"Peu salaud!" the vampire hissed vehemently as she furiously wiped her face. "Ahh! Merde!"
"I hope the venom leaves a scar," said the scaled woman delightedly. She pointed her wand at Yvette's heart and smiled with triumph. However, her celebration was premature. The vampire suddenly grabbed her wand and snapped it in two while it was still in her hand.
Somewhere, a voice boomed, "Drake!"
Alton whirled around, and spotted the huge shark-toothed man that he had faced just months ago. "Tiburon," he replied darkly. "So you survived the explosion then?"
"Not as easy as that to do me in," Tiburon grinned viciously.
They fired, but each blocked the other's hex.
"I see Dante made you little shark pups," Alton commented, pointing at the man Harry was still dueling with. "You must be disgustingly proud."
Tiburon's wide grin grew monstrously as he flicked his wand, using a hex to cut off Alton's air supply. The smaller man scowled hatefully at Tiburon, struggling to breath as he raised his wand to shoot back. Tiburon expelled his wand and advanced on him, only to be blasted backward by Ferris.
"Hang on, mate," said the blond man, removing the choking spell from Alton's throat.
Alton gasped in oxygen only once before stupefying a man lunging at his friend's back. "Mind your business!" he ordered, spinning back to Tiburon, who was getting up from the floor.
"You're welcome," Ferris responded evenly, taking on the next competitor.
With out his wand, Alton resorted to giving Tiburon a roundhouse kick to the chest. He bent over his enemy with a smart remark on the edge of his tongue, when a body suddenly flew over his head.
"Whoa!" he cried as the airborne Optimates was propelled into one of the cell doors with a clang. He looked over his shoulder to see who of his friends was to congratulate and was gobsmacked to see little Sydney standing there with a bloody nose.
"Bloody brilliant, Syd," he shouted to her.
A flash of a smile crossed her face before she dashed to help Gus fight another scaled woman spitting venom.
With an earsplitting bellow of rage, the man with the mohawk charged Agape, and she hurriedly took his momentum away by levitating him. He shouted and snarled as she fastened him to the ceiling with conjured chains and stunned him.
Harry, having gotten rid of the skinny fellow from before, was now facing off with the woman who was protected by a metal shield on her skin. Ginny had told him about this girl from her last encounter with the Optimates. Her code name was Enyo and her shield could move along her body wherever she needed protection – even from magic. This power was apparently one of a kind, as Harry had yet to see another like her among the fray.
"Go ahead, Traitor. I'd like to get this done with so I can get back to your friend in his cell," she bit. Her young voice was seeped through with confidence that made it obvious she was ignorant of who she was fighting in the dark.
As an Auror, a member of the Order, and as a seasoned vigilante, Harry could do little else but shake his head sympathetically and start the duel.
Enyo did manage to block many of his spells with her metal shield, giving her more time to send curses at him, but it wasn't enough. Harry watched how the metal instinctively shifted from one part of her body to the next, depending on where she was attacked or where she would fall. Little did she know, she was at a great disadvantage in the dungeon. He blocked and dodged everything she had, all the while backing her toward one of the closed cells. Then, when she was just a few feet from the door, he blasted her with a charm that knocked her against it with enough force to make the shield react. As she fell, her reinforced arms took the brunt of the fall and the Auror was ready with a quick zap of searing heat.
"ARRRHHH!" the woman cried, screwing her eyes shut in pain. Harry had welded her metal encased wand arm to the door, fixing her to the spot.
Realizing she couldn't move, she flew into a rage and started cursing at him. She became even louder when he pointed his wand at her face and her shield couldn't move to protect her. He stunned her and she fell silent.
Someone shouted irately and Harry turned just in time to see flashes of light erupt from both Alton and Ferris's wands, more effectively stupefying Tiburon.
With most of the Optimates down for the moment, Agape had a chance to pound on the door to cell thirty-eight, where Logan and Liberty were still sealed.
"Logan! Logan, we're here," she cried. "Open the door – we only have a few minutes to get out!"
There was movement inside the cell and blazes of light lit the minute window. Apparently, Logan's charms had been the only thing holding the door closed, because no sooner had he removed them than the door fell off its hinges and clattered to the floor.
Father and daughter emerged from the tiny room, both looking a bit worse for wear but not unable to run. The right side of Logan's face was swelling from some tremendous blow and one of his hands was mangled and shaking uncontrollably. The little girl in his arms looked terrified and dirty as she clutched tighter to her dad but virtually unharmed.
"I'm so glad you came when you did," Logan said to Agape, whose face was tense as she looked them over.
"I'm sorry it wasn't sooner," she began. "I –"
Harry had to cut her off. "Some of them are waking up. We have to get out while we can."
He looked around to make sure everyone was still standing, and was relieved to see only his group on their feet – though some were not doing so well.
Imogene was holding on to Yvette, having to guide her somewhat after the venomous Optimus had spit in her eyes. Sydney, who had been banged up enough herself, had to support Gus as well, because his leg was badly wounded above the knee and refusing to hold his weight. Ferris – bleeding badly from a gash on his arm – moved over to them to help the small girl with her much taller partner. The blond man had a broken nose and Alton was sporting a rather nasty shiner.
Despite their injuries, the group had plenty adrenaline left to sprint out of the dungeon, whether limping or blind and into the tunnel toward freedom. Harry lead them to the forest outside and was just taking his first breath of open air when a hard impact hurled him to the ground.
A startled scream burst from Agape's lips when she spotted the creatures in the sky. Four men mutated with bat wings were swooping at them from above, keeping them from moving any further away from the entrance of the dungeon. The group crouched to avoid being struck. Rolling over, Harry shot spells at them from the ground, but they were amazingly fast and hard to see against the dark sky.
Alton suddenly stood next to him and shot at one in particular. "Oy! Fero! Are these your new girlfriends?" he shouted up.
His taunt was effective. Fero, a thin fellow with flesh colored wings, dove down on Alton's head with remarkable speed and agility. Drake barely had time to duck the man'd reaching arms and seize one of the his enormous wings, but he couldn't hold on long enough to pull him out of the air and ended up stumbling to the dirt beside Harry.
They picked themselves up and watched the bestial men keeping them from leaving. "What now?" Alt asked the Auror, out of breath and tired of fighting.
"We keep fending them off," Harry told him resolutely, "from the front and back."
"Aw, I forgot about the ones we just left stunned," Alton growled. "They'll be waking up soon."
"But we can't hold all of them off much longer," Imogene pointed out. "We barely managed to fight off the last twenty for a few moments."
"Bigger problem!" Agape squeaked, as she pointed wide-eyed toward a figure coming out of the trees nearby.
It was a tall, bulky man wearing black robes that hooded his face from sight, making him look like the Reaper come to take them. Shadows bent around him and followed like a wake of darkness.
"Dante," Harry hissed.
He held a particular hatred for this man. Dante had almost killed Ginny during their last encounter, and had mutated Agape's eyes, putting a fear into her that would make her run at the mere sight of him. The Militis Optime were his soldiers, and every experiment performed on innocent people to make more of them was his doing as well. Dante was a walking embodiment of evil who wielded magic in ways that Harry had never seen.
Unfortunately – for Harry at least – the robed man came no closer. Had he, a very different fight would have broken out; one that was much more personal. But Dante kept his distance, observing his flying soldiers' performance. Then his seemingly empty black hood turned toward Harry and Alton and bowed slightly, simply acknowledging them, before the shadows behind him suddenly engulfed his form and he was gone. This was quite a feat, Harry knew, because the surrounding area had an anti-Disaparating charm on it.
Someone now stood in Dante's place: a handsome young man whose skin and golden hair seemed to glow faintly in the darkness. He walked forward without a wand in hand, but Harry knew that didn't mean he wasn't still dangerous in this situation.
"Who are you?" Alton demanded immediately, holding his wand out threateningly.
"You're Drake, then," said the young fellow.
"I know who I am, you berk," Alt snapped. "Answer my question."
"I'm called Marduk. I'm supposed to help keep you under control," he answered with a straight, businesslike face which couldn't have been older than eighteen.
Sounds were coming from the entrance to the tunnel, signaling the arrival of at least some of the twenty from inside. They wouldn't have much time.
Imogene leaned in toward Harry, whispering, "I can move fast enough to get past the flying beasts, but Yvette is still half blind. I'd need her help to drop them to the ground."
"I'd rather have you here," Harry whispered back, about to tell her he wanted her and Yvette to stay in front of Logan and Liberty at all times, but Marduk interrupted him.
"And you shall, Mr. Potter," said the young man, overhearing. He lifted his arms and his skin began to glow brighter. Suddenly flames burst up from the ground and surrounded the Blood Traitors, trapping them next to the crumbling hut. "You'll all be staying right where you are."
His voice was not smug, but matter-of-fact – this was work for him.
"The idiot doesn't realize I'm fireproof," Alton said. He was the only person who didn't move away from the flames. He started to step forward, but Harry caught his shoulder.
"Wait, Drake," said the Auror. "We'll need you to help fight off the creeps coming from inside until we get some back up."
"Back up?"
But there was no time to answer him. As if on cue, the Militis Optime burst through the doorway of the hut, Tiburon leading them. The man's huge mouth was grinning with evil glee as he and the others advanced on the smaller party.
"How fast can you work up a flame, Drake?" Harry inquired hastily.
"On its way!" Alton replied.
He ripped his mask down and took several deep breaths, as if he were preparing himself to dive into a pool of water. "Stand back," he warned the others as smoke billowed out of his mouth.
Tiburon saw the grey smoke and his eyes widened. However, when he ducked he didn't bother to tell his teammates what was coming.
Alton blew an enormous torch of fire from his mouth and mowed the enemy down. Unfortunately he broke into a wracking coughing fit immediately afterward. This gave time for Tiburon to jump back to his feet and hit the Traitor with a dark magic stun. Alton slumped to the ground, completely still.
Harry and Agape exchanged a split second glance before they both turned ready wands on the cowering Optimates, using a charm to chain their arms to the ground.
Then Harry heard Liberty scream in terror and whipped around to see her pointing to the sky. Logan shielded the girl from impact as he dove to the right, narrowly avoiding being hit by a falling body with giant wings. The unconscious Optimus lay crumpled on the ground, shot from the sky by someone outside the wall of flames.
The scene became very chaotic at that moment: extra voices were shouting beyond the fire and merging with the sound of Tiburon and his lackeys literally biting through their chains with hideous teeth. Then Agape was pulling at his sleeve and pointing around them.
"The fire is dying down! Look!"
"Whose out there?" Gus called to the Auror nervously.
Harry grinned with tremendous relief. "Our back up."
Soon the flames were gone, revealing Harry's brother-in-law, Charlie Weasley, and Neville Longbottom putting them out.
"Are you alright?" Neville inquired of the entire group.
"We have to get out of here," Harry told him. "I'm sure they've sent for reinforcements by now – and if they have more like this lot," he gestured at the mutates currently freeing themselves from their chains, "We don't want to stick around."
Charlie gaped at the freakish shark mouths and scales of the group. "Did one of them make that huge fire ball we saw?" he asked uneasily.
Harry and Ferris hefted Alton up from the ground to carry him between them, and Harry responded: "That would be Drake here. When he wakes up, I'm sure you'd love to talk to him."
Charlie looked confused, but didn't have time to ask any more questions. He and Neville blasted the oncoming Optimates back, giving the Blood Traitors time to escape. They ran, limped, and stumbled down the dirt path away from the hut. Flanking them on either side were Susan Bones, Remus Lupin, Lee Jordan, and the Weasley twins guarding them on their way down the hill. Tonks was there as well, dueling the glowing fire starter, Marduk. The poor kid fought bravely at first, but must have realized he was far out of his league. Just as a strand of magical chains flew from Tonks's wand to capture him, Marduk vanished in a burst of flames.
Seeing this, Harry called over his shoulder to Agape. "Can we Disaparate yet?"
"No! Not until we reach the stream at the bottom of the hill."
As they neared said stream, the Order members caught up behind them. Agape lead them to a small foot bridge arched over the tumbling waters and shouted "Now!"
A series of loud pops announced their successful, if not very impressive escape.
6
The Order opened the doors of their head quarters to the Blood Traitors for the night to let them recoup and be healed by a medi-witch. Dr. Ainsley Thorpe, who was Ferris's mother, had become an honorary member of the Order during the second battle against Voldemort. She later stayed on as an occasional healer, much like her son was for the BT – but professionally.
Harry and Ferris, having mostly superficial injuries, were two of the last to be treated. Once the medi-witch had come into the parlor where they were sitting, she gave her son an earful.
"I am so… so… Ugh! I don't even know what to say to you, Ferris," Dr. Thorpe griped. "If I had known this is what you had been doing instead of working-"
"Mum," Ferris interrupted. "I still have a job."
"Doing what?" his mother demanded ferociously.
"I write songs, like I told you," Ferris answered meekly. "You remember my friend from school who sings? Ouch!"
Dr. Thorpe jabbed her wand a bit too hard at the wound on Ferris's arm as she healed it. "Sorry," she muttered, but never slowed down in her rant. "And I'm guessing all the money you earn goes to hospital bills then?"
Ferris laughed shortly. "Mum, I write songs. I don't make that much money."
All traces of jest were wiped from the young man's face by the glare his mother gave him.
"Dr. Thorpe," Harry piped up, "Ferris is very good at fighting the Dark Arts-"
"Don't you start, Harry!" the woman snapped, shaking her wand at him momentarily. "I know Lily would have felt the same way if she'd seen what you were up to when you were nineteen! Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to think of your child fighting the dark forces? Imagine if your daughter were trying to defeat that Dante fellow behind your back."
That shut Harry up, and Dr, Thorpe went back to mending Ferris's arm then his broken nose. When the task was done, a mighty sigh hissed from the woman's lungs. She looked her exhausted son in the eye.
"How long have you been doing this," she asked him, her tone much calmer now.
"Since I graduated," he answered.
She nodded slowly, acceptingly. "Okay. It's not as though I can stop you anyhow… Just promise, promise, promise me you'll be careful – and that you'll never be rash on the field."
Ferris gave her a half smile. "I promise."
She looked as though she might cry for a moment, but then she kissed him on the forehead and said: "You're all set. Your nose will be purple for a while, but it should be better by tomorrow. I'm going to check on your tall friend, now that you two are done."
She moved for the open door and paused to turn back. "As angry as I am, I'm still proud of you Ferris," she said to the blond man. Then she looked down at Harry where he sat in one of the parlor chairs.
"I've told you this before, Harry, but Lily was the best friend I ever had," she told him, smiling kindly. "And I know she'd be proud of you too."
With that, she kissed him on the forehead as well and left the room.
Her words warmed the Auror. He tilted his head back against the chair and let his muscles relax some. Part of the struggle was over now: Liberty was sleeping safely under the watch of her father, as well as both the vigilante groups; no one had died, nor had any of them come close; and they were now wise to Dante's new improved soldiers. And as life goes, everything had happened dizzyingly fast in a single day.
Ferris leaned to one side in his chair and closed his eyes in exhaustion. Harry followed suit by letting his eyes droop closed. He let his mind unfocus to the sounds of Charlie excitedly talking to poor Alton in the room across the hall.
"So they actually meshed your organs with a dragon's DNA?"
"…Most of them yeah…"
"I bet you can eat just about anything."
"Pretty much…"
"Charlie, let him rest," Dr. Thorpe barked from somewhere within the same room. "He only woke up thirty minutes ago."
Their voices faded and Harry never heard Charlie's reply because he drifted off to sleep at last.
7
Inside another of the Order's rooms, Logan sat asleep in a chair with his head resting in his arms on the mattress Liberty slept on.
Her hair and clothes had been washed and any bruises she acquired during the escape were mended. Logan had been tended to as well, but had wanted nothing more than to stay with his daughter and be there to watch over her. For a while he simply sat and observed her breathing peacefully as grateful tears trickled silently down his face. However, fatigue had finally overwhelmed him.
It didn't take much to wake him, though. The soft sound of Libby's sleepy voice made him open his eyes and look up at her.
"Are you still here, Daddy?" she muttered groggily.
He put his bandaged hand on hers and whispered back, "Yes, baby. I'm not going anywhere."