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Chapter Thirteen

"I should fire you right now, Ackerley!" Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice boomed suddenly. Leopold looked up from his paperwork, startled. Roger was off with Susan either teaching her the ways of an Auror or tooling around in Hogsmeade to kill time. Harry hadn't come in yet, and to distract himself from this noticeable absence, Leopold had set himself to work on a pile of files that littered his and Roger's desks. Shacklebolt's interruption was both welcomed and terrifying.

"Well, sir, if you don't want me to fill out paperwork, I will gladly cease and desist immediately," Leopold replied, happily pushing the papers away from him. Except something was wrong, Shacklebolt was not smiling, as Leo would have assumed he would be while threatening to fire someone. The man actually looked furious. Leo instantly wiped the smile off of his face and stood up. "What is wrong, sir?"

"Potter. He has been missing for about ten hours. What part of the job I gave you didn't you understand? You were supposed to prevent things like this from happening!" The breath caught in Leo's throat as he slowly sat down in his chair again. Ten hours. That meant Harry must have disappeared right after he'd finished playing poker with the gang. If Leo hadn't been having his ridiculous crisis, this wouldn't have happened.

"Sir, I—"

"I don't want to hear your asinine excuses, Leopold. You better find Potter, alive, or you're going to wish you were dead." Shacklebolt threw a file on Leo's desk and stormed out of the room. Leo opened it and discovered it contained Harry's last known whereabouts (central London), who he was with (Cho, apparently walking her home), Cho's testimony (someone stunned her from behind and when she woke up, Harry was gone) and at the corner was a running clock, counting the seconds that passed as Harry remained unfound. Leo stared at the tiny clock in disbelief. Ten hours. Merlin knows what could have happened to the man in that time. And it was all Leo's fault. Horrible thoughts began swimming in Leo's mind and before they could completely paralyze him, he turned on the spot and apparated to Harry's last known location.

It was lucky for Leo that the street was intensely crowded, so no one noticed his sudden appearance. It struck him, then, that central London was a rather large place. He looked around for anything that could indicate where Potter might be. For a few agonizing minutes he saw nothing, merely the nervous and disapproving looks of the Londoners he pushed out of his away.

Then he found it: Potter's wand lying innocently at the steps of an abandoned looking building. To a muggle, it would seem like a broken branch from a tree gone awry. To Leo, it meant that Harry was in more danger than Leo had once thought. A wizard in peril was one thing, a wizard in peril without a wand was something completely and terribly different.

Leo bent down and snatched up the wand before kicking open the door to the building. He was anticlimactically greeted by a large, dilapidated staircase. Pulling out his own wand, he lit the tip and kept both at the ready.

The silence was stifling. He had to struggle to keep himself focused on finding Harry rather than what was possibly lurking around corners. He realized suddenly that he should have brought Roger with him and that he wasn't really prepared for anything that would happen, least of all fighting with a group of vicious kidnappers. He'd acted on impulse and, as an auror, he knew that was a big mistake.

At the top of the stairs, Leopold found himself staring at a large dark room. He thrust his wand in a little ahead of him and almost lost his hand.

"Diffindo!" Someone shouted from within. Leo withdrew his hand quickly, cursing himself for doing something as stupid as walking into a dark room unaware.

"Protego!" Leopold shielded himself before stepping inside the room again. Light exploded around him as curses flew from all directions. Leo made sure to keep one wand shielding him as he threw curses from the other. "Confringo!" The back wall exploded. Several people screamed in shock and pain. Leo made a quick survey of the room as the light from his explosion illuminated everything. There were at least twenty darkly clad individuals in there with him. There was a door on the far wall and one closer to him. He had to make a quick decision as to which one to go through and chose the one more heavily guarded. He started walking toward his chosen door.

"Crucio!" Leo's body cramped in extreme pain. He fell to the floor, one of the wands spinning away from his outstretched hand. It was his wand, leaving him only with Harry's for protection. "Cruc—"

"Sectumsempra!" There was a sickening slicing sound as the spell hit Leo's attacker and severed his arm. Leo rolled over and spotted his wand as another explosion came close to his head. "Accio wand!" The wand zoomed into his hand just as another man attempted to use the Cruciatus Curse. Leo ducked, jumping to his feet.

"Avada Kedavra!" Leo's heart stopped as he heard those words. He instantly dropped to the floor, curling as small as he could. He felt the heat of the spell above his head and saw the flash of deadly green light. He had to be more careful.

Leo pointed his wand behind his back. "Stupefy!" He shouted at his attempted murderer, still on the floor. The man immediately fell. Leo stood up and began running to the door, throwing curses all around. He'd taken down about ten people, but that left another ten to contend with. "Stupe—"

"Incendio!" Leo's robes burst into flames. He tripped and fell backwards against the door he'd been running to. The door opened and he stumbled through, toppling down the stairs. There was a sharp crack before he hit the landing. Blinding agony ripped through his body. He looked down to find his leg bent at an ungodly angle. He immediately looked away, taking deep breaths to stop himself from vomiting.

His hand was shaking as he raised his wand to the broken limb. "Reparo." He muttered, hoping that it would at least undo some of the damage. Little bolts of electric pain shot through him, but he was able to regain a little bit of movement in his leg. His head ached horribly and when he reached up and ran his fingers through his hair, they came away bloodied. Before he could stand up, three men were at the top of the staircase he'd just fallen down, throwing curses at him. Leo used the shield charm again with Harry's wand and began hitting them with every debilitating spell he knew. There were still more stairs to go down, but he wasn't about to turn his back until he was sure no one would go after him.

He hit one of his attackers with a well-placed stunner, and the man tumbled down the stairs, almost falling on Leo. Distracted, Leo avoided the falling body, but in the process, left himself open for attack.

"Sectumsempra!" Before Leo could shield himself again, large slashes appeared on the front of his robes. He watched in horror as his blood splattered across the walls. He stumbled back against the railing, pressing his hands against his chest as though to keep his blood from pouring out the way it was. He looked up in time to see the man who cast the spell smile in triumph. Leo was losing blood rapidly and almost didn't have the energy to move on, but a last surge of adrenaline kept him going.

He had to stop himself from using the Killing Curse as the thought briefly raced into his mind. That wasn't the only way to defeat them, he knew, he couldn't resort to that just yet. "Reducto!" The top of the staircase exploded and the men was blown away, hopefully unable to do more harm. Leo turned, eyes on another door that was at the bottom of the second set of stairs. Distantly, he heard a bang above him and that prompted him to go on although his body was finished. "Alohomora." The door flew open, to Leo's relief, and he staggered in. The room was lit with only one torch and he at first thought it was empty. He almost staggered back out with the foolish thought that he was capable of trying somewhere else when something caught his eye: a mop of unruly black hair.

"Leo?" It was Harry, in a corner, ankles bound by magical chains, sporting a black eye and a busted lip, but otherwise alive and generally all right. Leo stumbled over to him and fell to his knees, more grateful to see Harry alive than anything else. Everything he'd blocked out of his mind before the battle came rushing back, overwhelming him and he was shocked to find tears clouding his vision.

"Harry," he muttered. The wands he was holding clattered to the floor. He reached forward, putting both hands on Harry's shoulders, pulling him closer. Harry was clutching at Leo as though trying to make sure he were real and not some horrible trick. And before Leo could stop it, their lips were pressed together tightly, each in his own world of quiet desperation. Neither man was entirely sure what was happening, however neither man attempted to stop. Leo didn't know who started it, but it ended when he fainted in Harry's arms, the world turning gratifyingly yet frighteningly black.