Disclaimer: Harry Potter, associated characters and setting belong to JK Rowling and whoever she shares the rights with, which does not include me. This is for entertainment purposes only, with no copyright infringement intended, or profit made.
Chapter 17: Multiplication
Harry met Tonks at the Shrieking shack, and told her to ask Remus for an suggestions on the interior decorating, if she liked it. Then he opened the door, and listened to her gasp.
"I'll just say that the reports of it being haunted are vastly over rated. Also, I'm disappointed that the residents of Hogsmead never figured out that the Haunting activity tended to fall on the full moon. But, then, anyone who willingly lives where there are regular invasions of us pesky teenagers might need a sanity infusion."
"I... he... Oh, Remus. I'll lead him around to those stories. He hates talking about when he's not in control, through."
"Get him to talk about my dad, and Sirius, and ask why they were called Padfoot and Prongs."
"They... ?" Tonks thought for a moment, then asked "What's a prongs?"
"That's me to know, and you to ask Remus. Make him remember the good old days. Now, you need a disillusionment cloak, and we need to check our map to make sure there are no pesky teachers about."
.o.o.o.
"As you can see, we have a newcomer this meeting. Pass her some toast"
Tonks took a piece of toast off the tray, then stopped to think and asked "Why do I have toast?"
The teens around the table all giggled (or chuckled in a manly fashion), but shook their heads. They all took toast as the tray went around.
Tonks leaned over to Professor Snape, and asked again. "Why the toast?"
"Why anything? There is toast during reports, then we train, then there are chocolate biscuits and socialization. Why, they won't tell me."
"Oh, So what do I do with my toast?"
"You eat it of course." Luna explained, while looking at Tonks like she doubted her sanity.
.o.o.o.o.
Luna took an afternoon to decorate the mousery shelves with fairy lights. When asked why, she said it was because they're pretty, and because it made the Death Eaters doubt their sanity and time perception. She said this in front of the Death Eaters, much to their annoyance and mousey confusion. She explained the same thing to Draco, who looked on in resigned silence as the hall was decorated, complete with a festive "Welcome to Ferret Hall" sign in red and green.
.o.o.o.
Tonks and Remus were getting ready for bed after a particularly long Order meeting. Tonks, toweling her hair in it's natural, mousey brown color, turned to study the look of annoyance that passed over Remus's face whenever he thought she wouldn't notice.
"Remus, are you going to let yourself be defined by one instance, one moment, one bite? Are you Remus, or are you lycanthropy? If you don't want to be Dumbledore's token werewolf, always sent on those missions, tell him."
He Turned to looked at her, and straightened up in his seat on the bed. "Dora, I want to be useful. At least this way I can help."
"There are other ways you can help. But you'd have to get over your habit of trying to report everything to Dumbledore."
"What's wrong with that?"
"He collects information. He doesn't do anything with it. He sits. He's still, as far as I can tell, stuck in the last war, in the 1940s when there were armies running about. This isn't that war."
"What's wrong with what he's doing?"
"Remus, since Harry's first year, what has he done?"
"He's kept Harry safe."
"Has he?" She looked him straight in the eye, and saw him wince. "You know there are other options, but you apparently like annoying them. I won't say anymore. You have decided not to decide."
.o.o.o.o.
Tonks laughed when Harry asked her to play responsible adult, and talk to Flitwick about not sharing information, even with others on the side of the light. Harry handed her a book on cell structure of the French Resistance in WW2, which he said would help her talk Flitwick into staying silent..
All seemed to go well, although Flitwick expressed a great deal of confusion about why Tonks wanted the appointment, once she handed him the book, and thanked him for his support of Harry and Hermione's research, he simple smiled, and offered an oath on his own.
When Harry heard that, his comment "well, so the man is smart" got a piece of toast thrown at him by Luna.
.o.o.o.o.
Ever since Snape's potions had become suspect, they had lost a major source of information. Everyone on Voldemort's Side was avoiding him like he was contagious, in public. In Private, he no longer could offer potions. He's been set to training up Petergrew in self defense, so he could do something other then transform and run. For a Death Eater, Peter's wand work was atrocious. His shields melted when he got nervous. Snape wasn't trying to hard to fix this.
Fred, George, Snape and Tonks were all loitering about Order Headquarters in their spare time, listening for spare bits of information, but there weren't a lot of Death Eater locations being bandied about. Also, one ran the risk of being assigned duty if you looked bored, as Fred complained the third time he got sent to check on Mrs. Figg after she heard a noise.
They'd developed an increasing dependance on the Map that Harry and Neville had designed (or at least modified the designs of from his father's work.) Hermione was spending hours looking over the record, trying to find the times of Death Eater meetings from the patterns of people disappearing off the map. However, they had no way to sift through the information. The library spells they had gone to the Ravenclaws to get didn't work on the map. It wasn't enough like a book. The only way to see what was going on was to watch the map, in person.
.o.o.o.o.
The Hunters continued their 'Death Eater of the Week' method of hunting. They researched each, watched them, and waited for the right time to pounce. They got the Carrows from behind while they were skulking about the edges of Upper Flagley. Harry and Neville had a good laugh about proclamations of the Bogeywoman being a hero of their times every time they cursed a Death Eater with a stunner in the back.
Harry didn't want to know what the two had been planning. However, Luna though people should be informed. The photo, just sent to the Aurors, showed both siblings, their marks, and gave the coordinates of their capture. The note was simple.
DMLE
Ooops. You missed these two last time around.
They were up to no good. Keep an eye out this time.
Hunter Lead.
Known to the public as
Bogeywoman
This wasn't to say that they didn't sometimes just pounce. Wilkes, an nephew of the original Death Eater, and a legacy recruit, went out for a drink, once, for the first time in months. They saw him on the map, got Lee in to talk to them over the radio about the set-up, and left his cloak, stained with his blood, hanging over the pub's back gate. He'd put up a fight, kind of. He'd dodged for two minutes. Unfortunately for him, he'd dodged into things just as much as he dodged out of the way. The cloak was the result of two reflected cutting curses and an encounter with the pub's rose bushes, but Harry thought it was a nice touch.
.o.o.o.o.
Hermione turned to where she thought the twins stood, and smiled, although they couldn't see it. The low light in the alley didn't even make it to her face.
"Should I be surprised at how much fun it is to menace people in the name of goodness and light?"
"You were bloody scary in there. Walking into the Apothecary, silently, and getting close enough to tap on his shoulder with your wand."
"Silencing spells on the boots aren't hard."
"What did you do with your wand, by the way?" "It looks... different."
"I wrapped some leather rough cut cord and thestral hair around the carvings. It's all messy. It's supposed to look wild an primal, but really, it's just hiding the pretty flower carvings. They weren't...thematically correct."
"They're also likely identifiable." It likely wouldn't fool Ollivander-" "But it's a damn good idea."
"Thanks guys. So, now that we've menaced the potions people for the week, and I assume you got the red cloth planted " She paused. "AI can't see you guys nod, you know."
"Oh, right, yeah, we got everything planted."
"Ok, so what do we do-"
Her question was interrupted by screaming and crashes coming from the main street of Diagon Alley.
"I think that's our plan. Forward. Be read to scamper, though.."
Fred's voice whispered in her ear over the Radio. "Disturbance in Diagon Alley. 'Mione, Gred, Forge investigating. Radio on, streaming."
Harry Came in over the radio. "Where on the Alley?"
"Sounds like the Leaky End." "Looks like it too, people are fleeing toward Gringotts." Fred got his head all the way around the corner. "People are fleeing into Knockturn. That's a sight."
"Okay, We're walking. Hermione's visible, so we don't get trampled while not here."
Hermione, flanked by the unseen Fred and George, walked up the Alley, hugging the buildings and allowing the panicked people to flow past them.
"Ideas?" Harry asked.
"It's right up by the Portal. There's still screaming." Fred reported.
"Harry, it sounds like someone under Crucio. Get ready to be here."
"Right. Scramble, people."
Luna came over the radio. "Harry, I'm in Potions. I think I'm busy, as is Professor Snape. Yes, he nodded."
"Tonks, on my way."
"Ginny, Herbology."
"Neville, on my way. Ron is with me."
"Backup sounds like Me, Ron, and Neville shielding Tonks."
"Don't come in from the pub side. The portal's not opening, seems to be blocked that way."
"What do you see."
"Strange as it seems. I see someone in a red cloak, no shadows, no numbers, Crucio-ing someone in muggle clothes. Clear shot in four."
Hermione started moving forward, Pushing her way through the cowering crowd, some of whom seemed frozen on the spot in shock. At least one, when he saw who was moving past him, wet his robes.
"Three. Two."
"Down!"
With Fred's shout over the radio, the fight started. The mysterious figure in the red cloak had bodyguards, of the visible variety. And while the fake had been torturing, the guards had noticed the sudden increase in whimpering from one direction. Fred's shield had stopped a blasting hex aimed at Hermione's throat.
Hermione had her wand out and pointed at the guard, and the battle began. She was only using stunners, given the amount of innocents pinned against the portal, and huddling in doorways or behind any cover they could find, including each other, and their shopping.
The guard had no such sense of morals, and was firing cutting and blasting curses, alternating randomly.
"Under attack. Fake red has guards."
"Gred, we'er both shielding. That ok?"
"I think so. It's hard to make sure we don't reflect something wrong. 'Mione, okay shooting on your own?"
"Yes." Hermione was shooting sporadically, trying to time her shots for when the bodyguards were busy firing and not shielding. She hit the first with a stunner in the armpit, while he raised his wand dramatically high. "There. Here, other guard. Where'd he go."
"He's firing from behind that pile of owl cages." Fred's voice was terse.
"Accio bodyguard."
He flew forward two meters, scattering the pile of cages about before the spell broke.
"Nice."
The guard fired off three quick cutting hexes, then a quick bolt of green, and went diving for cover.
Hermione, who knew she didn't have to worry about shielding the cutting curses ducked the green bolt, and sent a tripping hex and three stunners at the guard as he dived for cover. He stayed flat at the end of his dive. Hermione stunned him again, just in case he was faking, then turned to face the fake, straight on.
"Wotcher, 'Mione, Which one is you?" Tonks sounded in her ear.
"I've got numbers and shadows. Also, my shoes aren't that tacky. I'm not on the Eeylops side of the road."
"We're coming in on your right. Let's pin her against the back of the Leaky, by that Rubbish Bin."
Fred spoke, breathing easier. "You know, I'm not so sure that's a 'her'..." George added. ""she' lacks certain assets."
"So not only are they trying to set us up as torturers, but they put on a bad drag show doing it?" Tonks asked.
"That would explain the shoes." Hermione was pacing forward slowly, trying to look menacing and keep the fake's eyes on her and her wand.
Tonks and her group came in from the other side of the street. Unfortunately, once again the crowd gave them away, and the fake managed to get her / his back against a wall and both groups in views.
That was the situation the Aurors saw when they finally got to the scene, breaking through the locked portal. Three bogeywomen were fighting, although it seemed to be two against one, and the one was loosing badly, although dodging hard. There were two men in dark blue robes, stunned and tied up, although the crowd would swear, even under truth serum, that neither of the shadowed Bogeywoman tied them up.
The Aurors, after a moment, decided to keep an eye on the situation, but made their focus getting the shocked and injured civilians out.
They did, Harry noticed, check the crucio victim for a dark mark before they moved him.
Finally, Neville, who was shielding for Tonks, managed to get a stunner reflected back at just the right moment to just the right place. It was followed by two more, one from Hermione and one from Tonks. Tonks then tied up the fake. Hermione raised her wand, took a breath, and cut off 'her' left sleeve. There was a ugly tattoo, skull, snake and all. It was oddly red.
Tonks looked at the observing Aurors, and made sure they had a line of sight on that. "Ok, the Aurors saw the mark. I think one even nodded."
Hermione took another deep breath, and transfigured their fake into a beetle. She then separately summoned him into one of her jars.
"Ok, now what. Aurors in the line of escape, we're mid kidnap..." Tonks asked. "Illegal apparition is still possible, no wards up."
"Think they'll let us check the guards for marks?" Hermione mused quietly into the radio.
"We can but try." Harry responded. "Girls, can you close in. I'd feel better as one unit, and we can blow people's minds with two real hunters playing nice with each other."
Hermione and Tonks moved together slowly, allowing their groups time to merge. Tonks moved her wand over to her left hand, making an Auror raise an eyebrow. Very few wizards were ambidextrous with their casting.
Hermione nodded at an Auror, nodded at the guards, and tapped her left forearm. They caught on fast, since it wasn't exactly a subtle request. One of the Aurors gladly checked them for marks, flinging back their sleeves. The guards were marked.
Once again, Hermione nodded, and this time, played with her hood. She wanted to know who they were. It took two flicks of her own hood (using her off wand hand, since it was still a tense situation) before they caught on. The Auror looked at Kingsley, who'd just arrived on scene.
"Permission to unmask, sir?"
"Fine. Just check for any traps first. You did remember to check on the sleeve, right?"
"Ummm." He didn seem to want to answer that question.
"Remind me to send you all the reports on what can happen if you don't. It's grisly reading."
"The first Auror's partner finished scanning the hoods. "Just a basic sticking charm. Finite. Finite."
They lowered the hoods. Hermione asked over the radio "Any recognize them?"
Tonks replied. "They look like your basic mooks."
"I think the one on the left was at Durmstrang, came for the Tournament."
"Not on our list, then?" Hermione asked.
"Nope. Not yet. We can add him and cross him off."
"Okay, Tonks and 'Mione shrug at each other, and we all get out of here. This many Aurors this close, lets go with four hops for paranoia."
"Four." "Tonks, wanna come side along for the first hop, since we're being all buddy buddy?"
"Three." "Sure, but I'm driving -" "Two" "-yougling." "One."
They linked their off arms.
"Go"
And they were gone.
.o.o.o.o.
Four dizzying hops later, through the wildernesses picked out by Ron and other various obscure locations, they all trickled into the Shrieking Shack. All of them vacated the chalked out 'landing area' and pulled down the hoods on their disillusionment cloaks for the (literal) head count.
Harry watched as Ron took down his hood. "And Ron makes all of us. Anyone followed?"
"Tonks and I heard a pop at our first site. We decided on five hops, separate for the last three."
"Well you two were the obvious targets. Did you see who it was?"
"Nope. The sound was behind us,and we were already spinning."
"Ok, then, good work, but some of us have class. Let's debrief some other time."
.o.o.o.o.
When Ron, Neville and Harry walked into Potions four minutes later, they were still trying to get their breathing under control. They weren't late, but it wasn't going to be a fun periods. Dueling, kidnapping and Auror evasion, even as a team, took a lot of energy.
Snape raised an eyebrow at them, and then announced that instead of brewing today, they'd be taking a pop quiz on the book, as far as they should have read, and the sixteen supplemental articles he'd suggested they read in the library... last class session.
Harry sighed. He wouldn't died a horrible death by falling asleep in his cauldron, but his grade would. And this was Professor Snape being nice, and considerate.
.o.o.o.o.
They met that evening, in the Room of Requirement. It wasn't planned, but the others heard Harry, Luna, and Hermione planning a trip to the mousery to talk to their beetle,and decided to wait around for information.
When Ron asked Harry for an update and a tray of toast over the radio, anyone who hadn't planned on being there decided it might be worth showing up. Professor Snape did complain about the Gryffindor bias inherent in meeting on the seventh floor. Until he was reminded that the Chamber wasn't viable as a place to wait for Harry.
When Hermione, Luna, and Harry walked in, the room went silent. Harry looked at the tray of toast Winky had delivered, and looked a little green.
"Who?" was the simple and surprisingly soft question from Snape.
"Nott. Mini-Nott. He joined after we got his father, and his mother ran to Canada."
"Ahh, so it wasn't a her. Good, I'd hate to be wrong about that sort of thing." Fred was playing with his toast, mostly out of respect for tradition.
Ginny spoke up. "Isn't he supposed to be here, in the castle? And we checked his arm, I know we did."
"He didn't have the mark yet, then. This was his initiation. Since his father planned the... event that lost so many people, his was to be harder then most, hence the daylight."
"And yes, Miss Wesley, he's supposed to be a student. One of my students." Snape's face didn't show any emotion, but he did swallow twice.
"Do we announce it? That he didn't have the mark when we checked? Or will that panic more parents?" Luna asked.
Hermione tilted his head. "I think we tell the DMLE, as we did kidnap him out from under their noses, and they'll like cooperation. They can likely get it confirmed by their prisoners."
"Speaking of their prisoners, Sir, can we talk you into looking at a pensive. We got a good look at the guard's faces, Ron thinks one was with the Durmstrang delegation."
"I can do that."
Snape did confirm Ron's identification, and he was added to the list and promptly checked off.
"I don't like that they're recruiting from out of country. We don't know them well enough to stalk them."
The others nodded.
Snape stayed quiet for the whole night. As they were getting up to leave, he nodded Harry over into a corner. "Is Theo a mouse?"
"Yes." Harry's answer was firm.
"Why? He's underage."
"He admitted that he decided to join up after both his parents were out of the story. He wasn't forced. His testimony about the Crucio he used today... It made us all sick. You know he just grabbed a muggle off the street, pulled them through the portal, told him how our world was superior and theirs would never compare, and then started torturing him... I... He described how fun it was. Luna threw up on him." Harry took a deep breath, then looked up into Snape's eyes. "He's a mouse, sir."
"Understood."
Snape left the room with an uncharacteristic heavy sigh, and begin the long trek down to his dungeons.
AN Why is Snape teaching potions? Why are the boys all taking it? Because. Besides, I already had Snape give Harry a potions detention, so I'm being consistent.