A/N: I know it has been a few months since my last update and well life just got in the way. Uni, Christmas and family all got in the way of me finding time to write but now that that is behind me I can hopefully now continue with this story. I must also apologise for the spells I will be using in this chapter and onwards. I know no Latin and am using google translate so if I have butchered the language I do apologise but you'll have to live with it.
Warning: Amelia is very OOC in this chapter. The way she is normally portrayed is as a light witch. I am sticking to that portrayal for this story except for this particular chapter. In this chapter I have shown a darker side to her but seeing as her home is being attacked I feel it is justified as those of you with children will know, a parent will do anything to protect their child. For the picky ones out there I know she is Susan's aunt but she raised her so she is basically Susan's parent.
Previously:
Amelia waved her wand and cancelled the alarm. "The Fidelius has been breached. Dawlish destroyed the ward stone which cancelled the ward. We are now visible."
As Amelia said that a gong rang out through the house.
"Damn it. The wards have been trigger, we are under attack."
-HP-
"What are we going to do auntie?" Susan asked with fear in her voice.
"Get on the floo, go to auror headquarters and inform them that the house is under attack." Amelia replied.
Susan ran over to the fireplace and threw some floo powder into the fire but nothing happened. "Auntie, the floo isn't working."
"Damn." Amelia said before attempting to apparate. "They have anti-floo and apparition spells in play."
As Amelia said this the door opened and a man ran in. Amelia raised her wand and just managed to stop herself before she cursed him. It was the auror guard assigned to her house for this night. "Hobson, report." She said.
"I saw nine death eaters outside and three curse breakers attacking the wards." The auror Hobson reported.
"They have five curse breakers as they will need two running floo and apparition jammers. Portus." Amelia said pointing her wand at a log that was sitting in the pile by the fire. "Everyone grab hold."
Everyone held onto the log and Amelia touched her wand to it. "Look like they have a portkey jammer up as well. So, nine death eaters and six curse breakers against the four of us. Not the greatest of odds."
"These portkey wards, do they only stop out going portkeys or stop those coming in as well?" Harry asked.
"We're cut off and unable to call for reinforcements so I'm guessing it will only be out going portkeys as it is easier to stop one way travel then both ways." Amelia replied.
"Good, then I may have a way to improve our odds. I have a way to inform Alastor Moody and Remus Lupin if I am in trouble and they have portkeys to reach me." Harry explained before running out of the room and heading toward his bedroom.
"Susan, follow Harry and make sure you both stay upstairs. I am going to lay traps in the main hall and do not want either of you triggering them. When the front door is breached I want you both to fire off your most destructive curses from the first floor landing. Understand?" Amelia said to Susan.
"Yes aunty." Susan replied before running after Harry.
Amelia turned to Hobson once the children were gone. "We will defend in a pincer formation. I will be in the living room and will attack the hall from there and you will go into the music room and attack from that side. What I said to Susan applies to you as well. You are by no means to enter the main hall once I've activated the traps as it will only be safe for me to do so. Once in position I want you to animate the statues in the hall as well put a quicksand charm under the rug in the hall."
"Yes ma'am. Music room, no entering the hall, animate statues and quicksand the rug." Hobson said giving Amelia a quick salute.
"I will wait until you are in position to activate the traps in the hall."
Hobson ran towards the music room and once he was out of the room Amelia felt the wards go down. She went over to a picture of her brother and touched it with her wand. "Activate." She said.
Most people warded their homes with just one set of wards but Amelia knew how stupid that was. She had the standard repelling, confundus and warning wards but she knew that they would be useless against any force willing to attack her. Because of this Amelia had spent a lot of money and energy putting up a layered ward system. Amelia had spent a lot of time researching this warding configuration and the types of wards to place in it. She was very proud with what she had done with it and she pitied the person who would encounter them.
The ministry had put legislation in place which prohibited the use of lethal wards but after some research Amelia had found a huge loophole in the wording. The law stated that all primary wards must be of a non-lethal nature in order to give unsuspecting people a chance to back off and retreat. The layered ward system is built in such a way that because only the first layer is constantly active it is only that layer which is considered the primary wards. The second, third, and so on layers are considered secondary wards and it is in these layers that Amelia put the more dangerous wards; it was also these layers that Amelia had just activated.
Amelia walked over to the window and looked out to see the death eaters begin to approach her home. A smile crept onto her face as the gravel on the walkway began to rise up and shoot towards the death eaters like bullets. Some of the death eaters managed to create stone walls in time to protect themselves but two were too slow and the gravel tore them to shreds. One of the death eaters decided to jump out of the way but unfortunately for him he dived onto the grass which had turned razor sharp and sliced into his body killing him.
"Three down." Amelia said to no one in particular as she walked into the hall and started waving her wand. "Limen impervius, adicio incendo, vitis contineo."
Amelia stood and admired her handy work. The door and windows were now almost indestructible, the death eaters would have to focus to destroy even one of them and knowing them they would focus on the front door. Amelia smiled as she thought it was like leading lambs to the slaughter. She looked at the walls and could see the faint outline of vines in the wallpaper. They were very easy to miss and had a low level perception charm on them, only those who knew they were there could see them. The death eaters were in for a shock once they entered the hall. She had set her traps so that the vines shot out of the wall and held intruders in place while the candles in the chandelier flung fireballs. She preyed that these along with the quicksand rug and animated statues would be enough to stop the death eaters.
Amelia wanted to do more but she knew that if she wasted too much energy on her traps she would have very little left to fight with. Amelia could hear the death eaters outside struggling with the wards and set herself in place ready for when they finally breached the front door.
-HP-
Voldemort walked through Azkaban savouring the pain and misery he could feel from the place. He heard screaming from further in the prison as the dementors turned on the aurors and smiled. Further up the corridor he was walking down an auror ran around the corner while trying to cast a patronus. The auror saw Voldemort and the death eaters with him and froze. This gave Voldemort the chance to kill him without a fight and he cast the avada curse. The auror dropped to the floor dead before he even realised what had happened. A dementor floated around the corner and stopped when it saw Voldemort. Voldemort approached it. "Once the aurors are taken care of I want you to gather all prisoners in the staff dining hall. Apparently there is a member of Dumbledore's order in here; I would like to meet him." Voldemort said with an evil grin.
The dementor flew away to carry out Voldemort's order and Voldemort and his death eaters carried on their journey towards the warden's office. They arrived at the office with no other distractions. A death eater walked forward and opened the door to have it blow up in his face and throw him into the wall. Voldemort looked down at his death eater to find him dead before shaking his head and banishing the debris into the office. Straight away he followed the debris and fired the killing curse at the only living person in the room. The curse hit the warden and he dropped over his desk dead.
Voldemort looked around the office and was pleased with how easy it had been so far. He knew the ministry relied on the wards and dementors to protect the prison but he had expected more aurors stationed here especially with the breakouts that had happened less than a year ago. He laughed to himself at how incompetent the ministry was.
"My lord." Bellatrix said as she walked into the office followed by the death eaters that had been imprisoned.
"Ah, my loyal followers, lord Voldemort has come to free you from this place so that you may continue the important work I have you do."
"You are most kind my lord." Lucius said while bowing before Voldemort.
"Yes I am generous. If I was not I would leave you here to rot for your incompetence Lucius. But remember I do have my limits and do not abide failure; you particularly will have to work hard to prove your worth to me. Do not make me regret freeing you."
"I will not my lord. The failure at the department of mysteries was a one time occurrence, a freak accident."
"We shall see. Now let us see if we can reclaim you wands."
Voldemort raised his wand and the bookshelf moved revealing a safe. "Tabeo." Voldemort said and acid shot out of his wand.
The acid dissolved the safe door and Voldemort summoned all the wands out of the safe before laying them out on the table. The freed death eaters stepped forward and took the wands that were theirs. Once all the death eaters were rearmed Voldemort picked up the rest of the wands.
"Bella, take your team and reinforce those at the portkey point. Mathers, you will stay here, if the aurors raise the wards I want you to drop them again. The rest of you let us head to the staff dining room. We have new recruits to meet and I have a member of the order to make an example of."
"Yes my lord." One of the death eaters who had accompanied Voldemort replied.
Voldemort walked out of the office followed by the rest of the death eaters, Bellatrix's team split off and headed towards the portkey point while the rest went to the dining hall.
When they arrived at the dining hall they saw it was empty. There were a few scattered plates and cards which showed it had been in use recently but there was no one there now. Voldemort sat on one of the tables facing the door and waited for the dementors to arrive with the prisoners.
-HP-
Harry ran into his room and headed straight to the bedside table. He picked up the coin Remus had given him and squeezed it hard. He felt it warm signalling that Remus and Moody's ones had activated. Harry turned back around and went to leave the room when Susan came in.
"I've sent for help; let's get back downstairs to Amelia." Harry said.
"Aunty said we are to stay upstairs." Susan replied while slightly out of breath.
"Like hell are we staying up here while she fights off the death eaters." Harry said while attempting to get around Susan.
"No Harry. She is setting up traps in the main hall; we cannot go down there without setting them off. We are to defend from the top floor and fire curses down into the hall from the landing."
"Oh, that makes sense. Ok, what is your best curse?"
"Reducto."
"I want you to mainly use that. No stunners, only lethal curses. They are not here to talk to us so we cannot be nice to them. Are you alright with that?"
"Ye… yeah, it's them or us, right?"
"Exactly, you can do this Susan." Harry said while giving her shoulder a squeeze in a reassuring manner.
It was at this point that three people appeared in the room. Harry spun around when he heard them land and raised his wand. "Good Potter, constant vigilance." Moody said while scanning the room with his magical eye. "So, you seem fine, why did you call?"
"Death eaters are attacking the house. The wards are holding them back for now but they've put up apparition, portkey and floo wards so we cannot escape. We suspect there are nine death eaters and half a dozen curse breakers."
"Yes, that is a good reason to call for us. Remus, you and Tonks are to stay with Harry; I'm going downstairs to assist Amelia."
"You can't. Aunty has placed traps in the main hall that will attack anyone but her."
"Then I shall avoid the hall." Moody said while making a part of the floor disappear.
"Wotcha Tonks. While I'm glad you're here, how are you here? I didn't know you had a portkey as well." Harry asked.
"Wotcha Harry. I was with Remus when his coin went off. He said it meant you were in danger so I tagged along."
Harry looked over at Tonks and Remus. "Do I want to know why you two were together?" He asked with a questioning glance.
"Hahaha, probably not lad." Moody laughed as he jumped into the hole in the floor and floated down into the kitchen.
"Ok, the stairs split halfway up and lead to two separate landing. Tonks, you and Susan will take this side while Remus will take the other side with me." Harry said while leading everyone out of the room.
"Sounds like a plan." Tonks said as they approached the stairs.
Tonks and Susan got settled in behind cover and looked down into the main hall while mental preparing them for the coming battle, while they were doing that Harry and Remus walked to the other landing. Once they were there and in cover Harry called for Dobby.
"Yes master Harry Potter sir." Dobby said, his normal excited voice gone and replaced with fear.
"Dobby, from what I've been told house elves are not allowed to use their magic on humans but during my second year at Hogwarts you used your magic on Lucius when he attacked me. Does that mean you can use magic on humans if it is in defence of another?" Harry asked.
"No it doesn't. House elves cannot use magic on humans no matter what but Dobby does not care. He will use magic to protect his Harry Potter."
"That's just what I wanted to hear. Stay here with me and when the death eaters come through the front door I want you to give them hell."
"Yes sir."
"Titch." Harry called out.
"Yes lord Potter-Black." Titch said as he appeared.
"Are you also willing to use your magic to protect your family?"
"Titch cannot. Titch cannot use magic on humans."
"Can you use it to protect Susan? Can you use your magic to divert items in the way of curses aimed at her?"
"Yes, Titch can do that lord Potter-Black." Titch replied happy that he could help.
"Good, go to Susan and do all you can to protect her."
Harry looked over at Remus to see him raise an eyebrow while grinning. "What?" Harry asked.
Remus said nothing but continued to grin. "She is the only one here who hasn't had to fight for her life before, she might not need the help but it is better to have it and not need it."
Remus continued to grin while shaking his head. "Oh shut up." Harry said half heartedly while looking down into the hall.
"I did not say anything." Remus said before laughing.
-HP-
Moody floated down and landed softly on the floor. He did a quick scan with his magical eye and found Amelia in the living room. He walked towards the living room and as he approached the door he called out to Amelia in inform her that he was entering. He walked in to find Amelia had her wand pointed at him. "Prove that you are Alastor?" She said.
"What?! I have my wand out; you attack first then ask for confirmation. For all you know I could be a faster caster. It only takes a second to fire off a silent spell and then you'd be down and out. Think woman, I taught you better than this." Moody replied.
"Ok, you are Alastor. We have six death eaters outside with six curse breakers. I have laid traps in the hall and have Hobson on the other side of the hall ready to catch them in a pincer cross fire."
"Now you tell me your tactics. I have not confirmed anything yet and you so readily trust me. Also there are ten death eaters not six." Moody said while looking outside with his magical eye.
"Nobody is as security conscious as you. Only you would lecture me about not attacking first. Are you sure there are ten, Hobson must have missed a few."
"I would expect you to be as security conscious as me considering you have your niece upstairs, not to mention all the training I gave you when you were a recruit. You are acting like that young girl who walked into that bar down Knockturn with just your auror badge out to apprehend a vampire. And of course Hobson would miss a few death eaters attacking the home he is protecting, useless auror. Why do you even have him guarding your home?"
"I was just out of training and only you would know that story. He may be a little green but he is a good man."
"HA!" Moody laughed before scanning the hall. "Well at least your defence is better than your caution. I think I can add a few things though."
"Affigo." Moody said pointing his wand towards to floor before aiming it at the tapestries. " Vividus tapetes."
"How many people are there with you? I'm guessing you were part of the reinforcements Harry sent for."
"Yes, he has a way to contact me and Remus Lupin. The both of us are here as well as Nymphadora Tonks."
"Seven against thirteen. Better odds then what we had five minutes ago." Amelia mused.
Moody eyed the front door. "They have reached the door. There are eight death eaters and two curse breakers. I do not know what wards you have up on your grounds but the curse breakers seem to be having difficulty with them. Also I believe it is now seven against ten. You're defences took down two death eater and a curse breaker just before they reached the door."
There was a massive knock on the door as the death eaters tried and failed to destroy it.
"As they should." Amelia smiled. "I put a lot of effort into those wards. I travelled all over the world to find the best and only the most experienced curse breakers will know how to disable them all."
"At least I taught you something well." Moody said with a hint of pride in his voice.
As soon as Moody said that the door blew up and two death eaters ran in to find themselves stuck to the floor with vines wrapping around them while fire shot down at them from above.
Amelia didn't bother with the death eaters in the hall; she knew the traps would take care of them. Instead she focussed on the ones outside the door. She saw Alastor blast the legs off one of the death eaters while curses flew down from the first floor landing finishing them off.
"Fulgur." Amelia said while pointing her wand at the door.
A bolt of lightning flew out of Amelia's wand and she heard someone scream from outside. "That leaves seven." Moody said before sending a violet curse out of the door.
-HP-
Harry crouched down on the landing and looked at the two people with him. The usually hyper Dobby was stiff and focused on the front door with a look of determination on his face. Harry turned to Remus who gave him a reassuring smile and squeezed his shoulder. Harry looked back down to see the front door being blasted apart and two death eaters run in. The two made it two steps before they were stuck to the ground while being attacked by vines and fire.
"Impressive." Remus whispered before firing off a curse.
Harry saw a curse come from the living room and impact a death eater. "Confringo." Harry said while aiming at a death eater.
His spell hit a death eater in the chest as a reducto hit the death eaters head. He assumed that the curse came from Susan and looked over at her to make sure and he saw her firing off more reducto curses. He turned back to the death eaters and carried on firing curses. Once both were dead a bolt of lightning shot out of the living room and flew out of house. Curses began coming in from the outside but they were aimed randomly and were not hitting even close to anybody in the house.
All four positions fired curses towards the door but it was a game of chance, both side were hidden from view and firing at random just hoping to hit someone. The statues began walking towards the door. One got hit with a stray curse as it approached and blew apart. Remus aimed his wand at the door. "Gurges." He said.
A swirl of wind appeared and picked up the debris and dust from the broken door which created a smoke screen. The statues walked through the smoke screen and there were screams from outside as Remus said the counter to his charm. The smoke screen cleared and they could see the statues were now a pile of rubble on the ground, they also saw the dead body of a death eater among the rubble.
Curses began being fired back into the house and everyone returned fire. After a minute of this Harry got annoyed. "This is ridiculous. This isn't working. Dobby, I know house elves can expand the size of a room, can they also make walls disappear?" Harry asked Dobby.
"Yes we can, but that wall is a supporting wall, we get rid of that wall and the house becomes unstable."
"Can you remove a portion of the wall? Not a lot so that it doesn't risk the roof caving in but enough so that we can actually see the death eaters outside."
Dobby grinned and snapped his fingers. A portion of the front wall disappeared and the enemy became visible. This caused the death eaters to recoil in surprise. This surprise caused two of them to get hit with curses. The four remaining death eaters created a small wall in front of them and ducked behind it for cover. A blue curse flew out from the music room which cause the wall to turn to sand and the death eaters became visible again.
This time they didn't bother with hiding and instead fired as many curses as they could into the house. "Accio death eater." Harry said.
The death eaters flew into the house and towards Harry but he cancelled the spell as soon as they entered the house and they fell onto the floor. One of them was unlucky enough to hit the rug and he was pulled into the quick sand charm within seconds and was out of the fight. The other three tried to get to their feet but found themselves stuck to the floor. Everyone fired curses at them and they were out of the fight as well.
Amelia walked into the hall and cancelled the traps. "It is safe to come down. Hobson, cancel the quicksand spell. Alastor, are the curse breakers still outside? Is everybody ok?"
"We're unhurt." Harry called out.
"Same for me and Susan." Tonks replied.
"Quicksand is disabled. The hallway is safe." Hobson said while walking into the hall.
"The curse breakers fled as soon as the death eaters got summoned into the house. Who did that?" Moody said while walking over to the body of a death eater.
"I did." Harry said while walking down the stairs.
"Nice work Potter."
"Ok, Auror Tonks and Hobson, I want you with Alastor to scan the parameter. I have deactivated the external traps and I want you to make sure that there are no other people out there waiting to surprise us. I am going to floo auror headquarters and get a team here immediately." Amelia said.
Amelia waited for them to head outside before heading over to Susan. "Are you alright?" She asked Susan.
"Yeah I'm fine aunty, only one curse came close but Titch blocked it."
Amelia walked into the living room to access the floo. Remus began checking over the death eaters. This left Susan and Harry alone. Susan sat down on the stairs and Harry walked over to join her. They just sat there in silence. Harry could feel the tension in Susan but didn't know what to say. He looked over to watch Remus. After what seemed like hours but was less than a minute Susan spoke and broke the silence.
"I'm shaking." She said with slight surprise.
Harry looked at her and noticed that she was indeed shaking. "Do not worry. That is only the adrenaline leaving your system. It is natural after something like this." Harry said trying to reassure her.
"Ok." She said. "Merlin, look at this mess."
"It's bad but it's nothing that can't be fixed."
"I killed that one. Oh Merlin, I killed him."
"Hey, it was him or us. Do not feel bad about protecting yourself and those you care about."
"But still, he is dead because of me. Did he have children? Is his wife expecting him home tonight? I know what it is like to lose family while young, it is not nice. Did I do that to some kid, take his or her dad." Susan said before crying.
Harry wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. "Yes you killed him. I killed those that I summoned into the house. You cannot think about the 'what ifs'. We do not know if he had a family, but he came here ready to take yours away from you. He knew what he was doing and had no problem with it. If you are going to think of the 'what ifs' then think about what he would have done had you not stopped him. How many families would he have visited after today? How many children would he have killed or made orphans? Taking a life is not a good thing and is never easy but by killing him you could have saved a lot of people. I know this thought doesn't help much but it is better than thinking about his family."
Harry cradled her head close to his chest, rested his head on top of her head and just held her. "You're right; it doesn't help much but thank you for trying." Susan said through the tears while wrapping her arms around him.
Amelia walked back into the hall. "As soon as Alastor and the others are back we are heading to auror headquarters. Azkaban was attacked and I am needed there. What's wrong Susie?" Amelia said walking over to Susan and Harry.
"The battle has just sunk in." Harry said before passing Susan over to Amelia.
Amelia hugged Susan and began talking to her. Harry left Amelia to it and walked over to Remus. "Are they all dead Moony?" He asked.
"Definitely. I'm just seeing if we can identify a few. Most of them are beyond recognition." He replied.
"This one looks like he is just out of school, although I do not recognise him." Harry said while looking down at one of the death eaters.
"He most likely was, he could have come from Drumstrang. How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine, a little tired but I'm not feeling any guilt like Susan. Is that bad?"
"Normally yes, but I heard you talking to her and you were right. Killing is never nice but we had to look out for our lives first. You have to ask yourself, did you kill them because you want to or did you do it to protect someone? You'll have your answer whether it is right or wrong not to feel guilt when you answer that."
"I did it to protect everyone here."
"There you go. Never feel guilty about looking out for your friends. Yes we took it to extremes but in this instance those extreme measures were called for."
Moody and the others walked back into the hall. "The curse breakers were the only ones out there. We have no sign of anyone else and they bugged out at the end of the fight." Moody reported to Amelia.
"Ok, give yourself a few minutes then we are leaving. We need to go to auror headquarters. Azkaban is under siege and we're needed there as the prison hasn't been reclaimed yet."
"Remus." Moody said.
"All are dead, a few are identifiable but most are too damaged to get a clear read on who they could be."
"Can we identify the curse breakers? It will be handy knowing who Voldemort is trying to hire."
"I don't know about the ones outside but the only one curse breaker to make it into the house was the one the rug claimed, we will not be getting to him let alone identifying him."
"One got ripped to shreds by the gravel and one got squashed between the grass and a statue. His body is in ruins but if we can find his wand we may be able to find out who he was, it will be difficult if he came from abroad though. If he is a foreigner let's just hope he used the international portkey terminal and didn't come into the country through muggle means."
"Alright everyone, we're leaving for auror headquarters. The floo is activated, Alastor, you go first everyone else will follow through. I will go last and set up an alarm ward to let me know if anyone tries to enter the property."
Amelia guided Susan into the living room and everyone else followed her. Everyone began going through the floo until it was just Harry, Susan and Amelia left. Harry stepped into the fire and called out auror headquarters. He appeared to a pandemonium. Everyone was rushing about and he was quickly shooed out of the floor dispatch. "Kingsley!" Tonks called out.
"Hey Tonks. I was wondering where you were. I've been trying to get in contact with you, didn't realise you were helping the boss defend her home." Kingsley said as he walked over.
"What's going on?" Tonks asked.
"Voldemort's forces have attacked Azkaban. We don't know how many but we have already sent in two teams and none have reported back. We assume they have complete control of the portkey point. One guard managed to get out. He said he got sent to the backup portkey point and that it is unguarded so we are planning an assault using that as our insertion point. We don't know how many are there but the dementors have turned and we assume the death eaters we have locked up have been released. Worst case and most likely scenario is that Voldemort is there and all prisoners have been released. We have also tried to raise the wards several times but they come down almost instantly. We assume he has control of the warden's office."
Amelia walked over with Susan. "Harry, can you and Susan wait in my office while we deal with this please? I will come and see you both when I am done." Amelia asked.
"I want to help." Harry said bluntly.
"You may be emancipated Harry but you are not an auror, I am sorry but I while you were great at the house I will not take you into Azkaban with us." Amelia said while trying to be sensitive.
"I'd like to help." Remus said. "You need the help and I will be useful with my heightened senses, plus I will not let Dora go in there without me backing her up."
"Heightened senses?" Amelia queried.
"I am a werewolf, I can pick up stuff you cannot."
"I will not have one of those creatures watching my back." One of the aurors said.
Harry spun around and drew out his wand. "Watch what you say about Remus or I will put you into St. Mungos." Harry warned him.
"Put your wand away kid before you hurt yourself."
"If I'm going to hurt anyone it will be you."
"I'd like to see you try boy."
"Jenkins, I have seen you in a fight. If Harry wanted to hurt you he could do it before you were able to pull your wand out of your arse." Moody said. "Go and make sure our portkeys are ready."
"You're no longer active Moody; I do not follow your orders." Jenkins replied.
"But you will follow mine, now do what Moody said." Shacklebolt said dismissing the auror. "We could do with Lupin's help boss."
"Ok, Remus you are with Tonks. Tonks take him to the armoury and see if there is any armour there that fits him." Amelia said.
Amelia led Harry and Susan into her office and transfigured two armchairs into sofas. "They should be comfortable enough for you and they're now big enough that you can sleep on them if you manage to find sleep tonight. There is a break room down the hall where you can get a drink or snacks and the toilets are opposite the break room. Please do not leave this office other then to go to the break room or toilet. I will try and get back as soon as possible but I do not know how long I'll be. I know this isn't great but it will have to make do for tonight." Amelia said.
"It's fine aunty." Susan said while sitting down on one of the sofas.
"I'm sorry Susie, I don't want to leave you right now but we need to contain the Azkaban situation before the prisoners leave the island."
"I understand, just be safe and come back ok."
Amelia walked up to Susan and gave her a hug. "Of course. I will be a quick as I can." Amelia said before getting up and walking out of the office.
"Does that happen often?" Harry asked.
"No, this is only the second time she has had to put work ahead of me. Normally she is able to get someone else to do it but with situations like this they need every available person." She replied without looking at him.
"I wanted to be an auror. It sounded exciting and like a good job but I don't know if I could do that."
"It isn't all like this. There is a lot of paperwork involved. Aunty has always said the key to catching criminals is the timely completion of paperwork."
Harry walked behind Amelia's desk and sat in her chair. "I may focus on quidditch instead of becoming an auror, although, the auror route is appealing if I get an office like this."
"But you'd have to rise to the top to get this office. There are years of being stuck in a cubicle before you get your own office, and then they are not as nice as this one."
"But surely if I defeat Voldemort then that would entitle me to my own office?"
"Oh no, you still need to do the grunt work with the other aurors. You can't just skip all the lower work and head up to management."
"Hmm, perhaps I should just skip the auror thing and aim for minister. Dumbledore beat Grindelwald and everyone wanted him as minister."
"Yes but he was old by that time already. You need to be at least 35 years old to become minister. I doubt you will get it right after defeating Voldemort. You could aim for chief warlock of the Wizengamot. You already have two seats as Lord Potter-Black and I'm sure you'll get ample backing."
"True but while it is a respected position there is no power there. The whole Wizengamot make the decisions and the chief can be outvoted. Oh, look what I've found. Naughty Amelia."
Harry pulled his hand out of the drawer he'd been looking through and wrapped in his hand was a bottle of Ogden's finest. "Now why would Amelia have firewhiskey at work?" Harry asked.
"How much is in there?"
"About three quarters."
"So aunty has been drinking at work. That is not good."
"No it isn't. I think we should get rid of this for her before her boss finds it."
"But Harry, there is no bin in here."
"True, but there are two glasses." Harry said while using his free hand to pull two glasses out of the drawer.
-HP-
Amelia closed the door to her office and walked into the main area of the auror headquarters. She looked around and saw the person she was looking for. She approached a group of aurors and waited for the one giving the orders to finish. Jamie Carter was the person she had used to replace Scrimgeour when he became minister. See looked at Jamie. He was in his mid thirties and was a bit short considering he was a full adult. Jamie was only five feet six inches tall but for a small person he packed a lot of power. Jamie had short cropped ginger hair and an extremely messy beard. He had a small build with almost not fat or muscle on his frame and when in a group of people he was also the one at the back just listening and watching. If you didn't know he was there you could completely miss him but once things kicked off he was the loudest person in the room and got things rolling quickly and effectively. It was for this reason that Amelia had promoted him to head auror. She had a few other contenders for the job but none of them handled a crisis as well as Jamie did.
"Can I help you boss?" Jamie asked as he dismissed the aurors he was talking to.
"I need a sit rep." Amelia replied.
"We still have aurors coming in but the majority of our force is here already. We have skeleton crews running our beta and Charlie facilities and have got as many of their personnel here helping with the situation. We have activated the auxiliaries and retired aurors and they are slowly coming in. We have about four fifths of our active aurors in the building and ready to go. We have ten full teams of the standard four auror teams as well as four of the larger eight people units. We also have twenty three aurors without full teams and are putting them into temporary teams for the duration of this situation. Everyone has been given armour and an amulet."
"What about the hitwizards?"
"Those useless arseholes. According to them I do not have the authority to put them into action so they are sitting on their arse watching this happen and waiting for you to order them into action."
"When I am not around you are the acting head of law enforcement. You have the authority to move personnel as you see fit."
"They must have conveniently missed that memo."
"We do not have time to mess around with them now. How is deployment coming?"
"We will begin deploying in minutes. We are leaving the four large teams here as backup in case they are needed or in case we get reports in of more homes being attacked. I will be managing five of the teams with Kingsley taking the other five. Moody has claimed leadership of those without full teams and I'm not stupid enough to tell him no. I will go with one team to the back up portkey area and will report back. Once I've given the signal the other fours teams in my unit will come followed by Kingsley's unit with Moody taking the rear."
"Ok, that sounds good. I will be taking charge of this operation from here. I will join Moody's unit. Once in Azkaban you are to secure the portkey area and wait for my unit to come in before we decided on the plan of attack from there."
"Yes ma'am."
Amelia and Jamie walked to the portkey dispatch and while Jamie went over the points of entry with the other teams Amelia walked over to Moody. "Alastor, I will be joining your unit for this operation." Amelia informed Moody.
"Ok. I have Tonks and Remus getting the unit ready and was able to get rid of Hobson as well. How are we handling this?"
"Carter is going in first with one team. Once he reports back the rest of his unit will follow. Shack will go in second with us going last."
As soon as Amelia finished saying that Jamie and his team disappeared from the portkey point. It was a tense thirty seconds before Jamie reappeared and told everyone that the insertion point was clear and he gave the go ahead for the rest of the teams to deploy. It was not long that Amelia had to wait until it was time for her unit to depart. Once Kingsley's unit had left Amelia stepped onto the platform with hers. Moody handed out a long length of rope which everyone grabbed hold of. Once everyone was holding onto the rope Moody tapped it with his wand and the portkey activated.
It took Amelia a second to adjust to the dim lights when she landed but once she had adjusted she looked around and saw Jamie and Shacklebolt crouching down. She approached them to see them talking with a house elf. They both stood up and walked over to her. "According to the house elf they have eight death eaters guarding the main portkey terminal, one death eater in the warden's office with the ward control while Voldemort and the rest are in the staff dining area with all of the prisoners and dementors." Jamie informed her.
"Ok. I want you to take two teams and get back control of the warden's office for us. This is of utmost importance, with those wards up we cut off their ability to use magic and it will make our job much easier. Shack, I want you to take the whole of your unit and regain control of the main portkey terminal. I will take lead of the remaining three teams from Jamie's unit and take them as well as Moody's unit to the dining hall and reclaim our prisoners and any death eaters who thought it was smart to attack my prison."
"Be careful boss, Voldemort is with them."
"I know. We will wait outside the dining hall until I feel the wards go up and then we will attack. He may be powerful but he won't be able to access that power with the anti-magic wards up. Ok, we have our assignments, let's get to it."
Amelia walked through the prison with her unit. She knew that everyone was in the dining hall but she still took it slow and steady just in case things had changed since the report from one of the prisons house elves. Once they arrived at the dining hall Amelia gather her unit around as well as Moody.
"We wait here until the wards go up. Once they go up my unit will go in first. We will split at the door and fan out across the wall leaving room for Moody's unit to come in down the middle. I want stunners only. These prisoners did not instigate this break out attempt, we want them back in their cells and not dead. We have enough paperwork today as it is. Once the prisoners are down use whatever you need to use against the death eaters to get them down and out. I want six of you on the left of the door and six on the right. Once inside move along the wall you are nearest to. All we do now is wait, no relaxing though, I want to be moving seconds after the wards go up. Moody, inform your team of the rules of engagement." Amelia said quietly while positioning herself by the door.
Amelia could hear the prisoners on the other side of the door. They were loud and sounded joyous. She wondered how they could sound joyous while stuck in a room with dementors. It was then that it hit her that she had not made preparations for the dementors. She turned to her unit.
"I want the four who can create the strongest patronuses to be the first ones through the door. You are not to stun the prisoners, your job is to keep your patronuses up and keep the dementors off of us and Moody's unit."
Four people stepped forward and took the spaces by the door. Once they were in position Amelia felt the wards go up. With a quick silencing spell on the door she opened it and her unit ran in quietly. They fanned out across the wall before Moody's unit stormed into the room. A few of the prisoners saw them enter but the majority were occupied and didn't know what was happening until the stunners started flying and hitting people.
Voldemort was on the other side of the room preparing his departure with his death eaters when the wards went up. He felt them go up and began getting his followers leaving as the aurors stormed the room. The aurors planned this attack thinking that they had the advantage of surprise as well as holding the only exit to the hall but Voldemort had planned ahead. He knew if he stayed in Azkaban then the aurors would attack in force which would give his death eaters doing the home assaults a bit of relief. He knew that they would come into the hall from that particular door because it was the only entrance to the hall. In anticipation of this Voldemort had previously blasted a hole in the back wall as the means of escape for him and his followers.
He had promised the prisoners freedom if they were willing to serve him. What they didn't realise was that the service he wanted from them was to act as a distraction for the aurors when they stormed Azkaban. As soon as the wards went up he had begun moving his troops through the hole and out of the hall and it was to this that Amelia had entered.
Amelia saw that Voldemort was retreating and fired a bone breaker curse at him and he easily dodged it but because he dodged it the curse carried on until it hit something and that something was an unlucky death eater. The curse hit the death eater in the leg and it shattered the bones making it impossible for him to escape. Voldemort ignored the pleas of the downed death eater and exited the hall himself. As he was leaving Amelia saw Voldemort pull out a knife and slice open his hand. Voldemort moved his hand along the edge of the hole and said something Amelia couldn't hear.
Amelia ran forward intending to chase Voldemort but one of the prisoners was also running after Voldemort. She could only guess that the prisoner was trying to escape but as the prisoner reached the hole in the wall he stopped dead and began screaming out in pain. Amelia stunned the prisoner before turning back towards the door.
"Moody, take care of the prisoners. All of my unit not currently managing a patronus is to follow me. Voldemort and his death eaters are escaping." Amelia shouted before running out of the door.
Amelia started chasing down Voldemort. She could hear him and his death eaters ahead and followed the sound of their running. As she turned a corner she looked back to see two teams of her unit following her. She continued chasing down Voldemort and realised that he was heading towards to old entrance to Azkaban. Amelia tried to pick up speed and as she rounded the last corner she saw Voldemort standing on the dock outside the former entrance with his death eaters jumping onto brooms.
Amelia started firing curses as she continued to run toward him but he just kept dodging them. As she got closer she heard him say 'poena' and it was then that she realised that he had spread his blood along the hole where the entrance used to be. 'Shit, blood magic.' Was all she could think before she hit the blood ward and pain shot all over her body.
Amelia screamed out in pain as the blood ward claimed her and the last thing she saw before blacking out was Voldemort laughing as he stepped onto a magic carpet.
-HP-
A/N: Well, another chapter done. I've not got much to say here except to comment on the exchange between Harry and Susan in Amelia office. People deal with trauma in different ways. The way I deal with it is to focus on inconsequential things as well as banter with friends. It is this type of thing I decided to do with them.