A/N: Hello. I'm back. Arm is all better now, and I'd like to say a quick "thank you" to all well-wishers. I've been a bit naughty in that I began writing another story instead of updating this one. Truth is, that was really meant to be a little Halloween special, and I never imagined that it would be all that long. Now it has taken on a bit of a life of its own, so now I'm going to try and balance updating these two stories. It doesn't help that during my time off from work, I came up with about ten more story ideas in addition to the ones noted in my profile. Most will probably never amount to anything, but their possibilities get in the way of my planning of stories already in progress.
Anyway, I hope that this chapter proves to be worth the wait. We shall see…
Darkened World
News and Moves
It was late into the next day before Harry dragged himself out of bed. Rose watched him worriedly as he stumbled through the tent and head outside, presumably to find a tree to use as a toilet, and then go for a wash in the stream.
If she were honest with herself, Rose was more than a little concerned about Harry. Following their escape from the Ministry the previous day, he had come into the tent, collapsed on top of his bed while still fully clothed and fell asleep, only waking up now, some twenty hours later. Clearly the amount of magic and physical activity involved in escaping from the confines of the Ministry had taken its toll on Harry. Some of the spells he used were quite powerful and destructive in nature, not to mention long-lasting.
On the other hand, regardless of her concerns about Harry and the events of the previous day, Rose could not help but feel just a little elated about the situation as well. Yesterday she had seen the Harry that her mother had seen, the Harry that she had thought was lost. It was the Harry that had once cast a patronus charm so powerful that it drove off one hundred Dementors at once. It was the Harry that had forced Lord Voldemort's wand to submit to his in the Little Hangleton graveyard. It was the Harry who killed a Basilisk, who protected the Philosopher's Stone, who faced down Dragons, Trolls and Spynxes with courage and determination.
It was the Harry who had some fight in him.
So in a way, going to Godric's Hollow had been the right thing to do after all.
Sort of.
During Harry's extended nap, Rose had kept herself busy by doing what women on the maternal side of her family had been doing for generations: she had been reading.
She had been pouring over the paperwork that she had stolen from that foul woman's desk at the Ministry, looking for all the information that might prove even marginally useful to them, and she was very pleased with the results.
Hair damp after washing the last few days' worth of grime off of his face, Harry re-entered the tent and flopped down in a seat at the table. He quickly snatched up a metal goblet and poured himself a glass of water from the jug before his eyes caught the expression on Rose's face. Despite his having not seen it in two decades, Harry knew that look oh so very well. It was the look that her mother used to get when she had information to share that was oh so very important (although whether or not the recipient of said information shared that same view on its importance was sometimes a whole other matter entirely).
Deciding to bite the bullet, he asked "So, did you find anything of interest?"
"Well, a good lot of it was highly unimportant," said Rose "mostly the kind of bureaucratic drivel you'd associate with any governing body but, well, look at this…"
She handed Harry a roll of official-looking parchment which he took and unrolled.
"What am I meant to be looking at?" he asked.
"It explains why Bellatrix was in the graveyard." explained Rose.
Harry took his eyes off of the parchment to look at her "But we know why she was there; to capture me."
Rose rolled her eyes "Harry, didn't you even wonder why Bellatrix Lestrange, a woman widely believed to be Voldemort's second in command and the best of his lieutenants was sitting in a destroyed graveyard, waiting there on the off-chance that you might possibly turn up there for the first time in years?"
"Well, I suppose when you put it like that…" muttered Harry.
"And didn't you wonder why she didn't know about Voldemort relocating to join the frontline of battle in Germany? For that matter, didn't you wonder why she wasn't one of the ones to go with him?"
"Alright, I get it." said Harry "So why?"
Rose reached out and tapped a finger on the parchment "She screwed up. Big time too, I might add."
Harry sat up a little straighter in his chair "How? When?"
"About three weeks ago," replied Rose "though the only reason given here is something about dereliction of duty in the line of defence."
Harry frowned and commented "Dereliction of Duty? But with Voldemort that could mean anything, including no kissing the hem of his robes properly."
"Yes," said Rose, agreeing with Harry's comment about the man's ego "but what about the in the line of defence bit?"
Harry's eyes widened "Wait. You don't think she…"
Rose nodded "…lost a battle? Yes, I do."
Harry shook his head in disbelief "But how? What evidence is there of that?"
"I'm not sure yet," answered Rose "but it's bound to be in amongst this lot somewhere." she gestured to the small mountain of pilfered paperwork "Help me look?"
Harry blew out a long-suffering sigh "Fine." and went to grab a piece of parchment when his stomach gave a rather audible growl of displeasure.
"Someone's hungry then," observed Rose with her eyebrow quirked in amusement. That quickly ended when her own stomach voiced its displeasure at the lack of food passing through it.
"Guess I'd better sort us out with something to eat." said Harry, getting up out of the chair "Though I don't think we've got much."
"There should still be a few apples in the cupboard." said Rose, picking up another sheaf of parchment "Hopefully the preservation spells are still holding."
A couple of minutes later her reading was interrupted by Harry placing a plate of food down on the table beside her. All it contained was an apple, a handful of nuts and a mushroom. She looked at the meagre rations sadly and commented "Might be time to go out hunting and gathering again."
Harry nodded in agreement as he said down, though he said nothing. Taking a bite of her apple, which was on the brink of going bad, Rose found herself longing for the taste of something with a bit of meat to it. What she wouldn't give for just a little sliver of pigeon…
The pair continued to slowly eat and read in silence for the next half hour or so, until the silence was suddenly broken, rather violently, by Harry.
Choking, Harry thumped himself on the chest to help dislodge a bite of apple that had tried to go down the wrong pipe when something had suddenly caught his eye. Suddenly the bit of apple worked free and, accompanied by a spluttering cough it flew from Harry's mouth.
Rose was on her feet "Are you alright?"
Still coughing and unable to speak, Harry simply gave a nod and handed to her the piece of parchment that he had been reading. Rose took it and read.
What she saw written there caused her eyes to widen "This is fantastic!" she exclaimed.
"I know." replied Harry in a croaky voice.
"This must be how Bellatrix screwed up." said Rose "She was in charge of Ireland, and she lost it!"
The parchment in her hand was a document detailing the official report on a battle that had taken place just three weeks previously, not too long after Rose had met Harry. With most of Voldemort's forces known to be away from the UK, fighting Indian, Chinese and Australian (amongst others) Aurors in Germany, a taskforce comprised of Aurors from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and a couple of other countries had launched an assault on Ireland from the west. While Voldemort had been busying himself with defending against attacks from the east, he had left some of his inner circle Death Eaters to manage other aspects of his society. This included leaving Bellatrix in charge of the defence of Ireland in anticipation of an attack from Wizards who lived on the opposite side of the Atlantic.
As anticipated, they had attacked. Unanticipated was the fact that Bellatrix and her forces were overwhelmed and forced to retreat.
"Bellatrix was in command of three hundred wizards and witches, most of who were killed or captured during the course of the battle." Rose read off of the parchment "It's no wonder she retreated."
"And it's also no wonder why Voldemort isn't impressed with her." commented Harry "What about the invaders?"
"It seems they've set up camp in Ireland." replied Rose "Though the parchment doesn't say where. Voldemort's boosted defences along the coastlines that face Ireland, particularly in Wales and southwest Scotland."
Harry's eyes widened "Rose, we're in Wales."
She looked puzzled "Are we?"
Harry frowned in confusion "I think so… aren't we? Oh, I don't know anymore, I've moved around so much over the years…"
"Really?" asked Rose "We haven't moved from this place in all the time that I've been here."
"You're right." said Harry, a look of dawning realisation spreading over his face "We've been here too long."
"I'm sure it's fine." said Rose, but Harry just shook his head.
"No, we need to move, they might have put tracking charms on us at the Ministry."
"I really doubt that."
"Have you checked?"
"No I haven't."
Harry drew his wand and quickly hit her with a spell. To her surprise the result was a faint blue glow around her body, the confirmation of the presence of tracking charms. Harry cast the same spell on himself with the same results.
"We really need to move." he said, using his wand to dispel the charms.
"Hang on, if they put those spells on us, why haven't they already found us? It's been nearly a full day."
"Probably busy clearing up the mess we made." replied Harry "And that's why we need to get out of here quickly." He looked around the tent "Tell you what, you pack everything up, I'll gather us some food. I'll be back in two hours."
And before Rose could stop him he had gone.
When Harry came back to the tent, Rose was relieved to see the pair of Pheasants, the trio of Rabbits and the sack of mushrooms, nuts and berries that he brought with him. Holding up the dead animals he commented "Snares came up good."
Rose nodded in appreciation. She usually didn't think highly of such things, but there was no denying that they were proving themselves very useful "Did you take them apart?"
Harry gave a nod "We'll need them at our next site. You pack up everything?"
"Yeah, Horcruxes too." answered Rose.
Harry gave her a look of concern "Were you alright with them?"
Rose shifted uncomfortably and said "The locket didn't bother me, but the cup…" she broke off, but Harry understood nonetheless.
"Any thoughts on where we should go?" Rose queried.
"Doesn't really matter, so long as its remote." said Harry.
"Well, actually while you were gone" said Rose "I did a bit of thinking. Why don't we go to Ireland? Join up with the military presence there?"
"That sounds like a very good idea Rose," said Harry "and I would whole-heartedly agree were it not for the fact that I have never been to Ireland, and I'm guessing that you haven't either?"
Rose shook her head in answer to his question.
"And seeing as neither of us has been to Ireland, neither of us could apparate there. Nor could either of us make a port-key to go there. We don't have the luxury of floo powder, nor do we have brooms. Crossing by boat is highly likely to end in disaster, presuming we can find one, and trying to swim there would have even worse results."
"Fine," muttered Rose, annoyed at having the so obvious flaws of magical transportation pointed out to her when she herself hadn't even considered such problems "Where then? My other thought was to get nearer Hogwarts."
Harry frowned at her "And why would we want to go there of all places?"
"Well you've said it yourself, we need access to Hogwarts so that you can get either Gryffindor's sword or some Basilisk venom, and you need to search the place for any Horcruxes."
"Yes, but Hogwarts is guarded day and night by Death Eaters, Dementors and many other foul things, as well as being protected by very powerful magic. The place is impenetrable."
"True, but we have to suppose that sooner or later either those wizards who took over Ireland or the ones looking to reclaim Germany are going to launch an attack on Hogwarts. When they do, we can either join them or, with Voldemort's power drawn elsewhere, we can sneak in."
Harry buried his face in his hands "I've had enough of these sorts of plans in my lifetime." he moaned.
Rose's eyes narrowed in a way that was so reminiscent of her mother it was frightening "You got a better plan?"
"No." he admitted.
"Well?"
Harry huffed in annoyance and uttered a grumbled "Fine."
Under the cover of total darkness, Harry Potter and Rose Weasley appeared on the side of one of the mountains that surrounded Hogwarts castle without a sound. They quickly ducked down behind a large piece of rock that jutted out of the mountainside and peered over the top of it towards the castle. In the distance Hogwarts was illuminated by magic-powered lights that shone brightly through the many windows. The lights were reflected across the surface of the Black Lake.
"Wow." muttered Rose in awe of the place she had heard so much about through the years.
"Shame you couldn't have seen it before it was bastardised." commented Harry, turning away. With a flick of his wand the tent set itself up, hidden from view by the rock that Rose was still looking over.
Rose conjured up a pair of binoculars and held them to her eyes to view the castle better. What she saw made her heart sink.
In the light provided by the castle, it was possible to survey most of the grounds. Harry was right, the place was guarded heavily. In fact it seemed as though he hadn't exaggerated in the slightest. Death Eaters, Dementors, Giants, Trolls, Werewolves, Vampires, Ogres, Hags and all manner of other, similar creatures seemed to swarm over the grounds like marching ants. Looking up towards the castle itself, Rose saw that this was no better. Even from this distance she could make out the Death Eaters and Dementors patrolling the battlements.
From behind her she heard Harry say "Even if we covered ourselves with my Invisibility Cloak and put scent masking and silencing spells on ourselves we wouldn't avoid detection for long if we went in there."
Looking back to the castle, Rose found that she couldn't help but agree with those sentiments entirely.
"Protego Totalum." Harry incanted behind her, causing her to look back towards him again. He had his wand in his hand and he was setting up protective enchantments around their tent. "Protego Maxima. Protego Horribilis. Salvio Hexia. Fianto Duri. Repello Inimicum. Cave Inimicum. Repello Bestia."
Rose watched as Harry circled their site, repeating each spell at certain intervals. She was surprised; she hadn't heard of half of them before.
Finally he was done and came over to sit by her and take in the sight of an enemy-controlled Hogwarts as well.
Nervously, Rose asked "Now what?"
Harry just gave a shrug of his shoulders and said "And now we wait."
A/N: I hope that that was worth the wait. If not, well….. (shrugs) The chapter progresses the story to where it needs to be in order to continue, we get a little information about the war and a question that a good number of reviewers asked me is now answered.
Oh, and for those wondering, I made up Repello Bestia which means Repel Beast, used keep Werewolves and the like out of the way.