Chapter 30

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The Great Hall was a hive of activity by the time they got back to it. Professor McGonagall was deep in discussion with Celeste Hopkins, Snape standing tall and alert by her side. Sarah Jane Smith and Harry were talking to a short, blond Auror, nodding or shaking their heads as he conjured the images of different known Death Eaters. The first-years were sitting together at one of the tables, steaming mugs of tea in their hands and blank stares on their faces.

Donna narrowed her eyes. "They've got the firsties waiting in here? Like it wasn't enough for them to see their teacher killed in front of them, to be threatened by monsters, and then held hostage against another student's good behavior." She gave Wilf a severe glance. "Don't cause trouble, Granddad."

He snorted affectionately. "Like you're not off to do just that."

She huffed as one of the Aurors began interrogating the kids. "Damn right, I am."

"Language, Donna." She ignored him, instead storming off to confront the Auror who was questioning a little Asian girl who looked on the verge of tears. He looked at Rose and waggled his eyebrows at her. "That was easier than I expected."

A tongue-touched smile grew on her face. "Somebody up there must like us, I guess."

Hopkins glanced up as they approached, and her eyebrows drew together. She raised her hands before they could speak. "No, we don't know where he is yet. And no, you can't come along."

Wilf scoffed and leaned artistically on his good leg, and Rose hurriedly wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Don't be daft, I know that." Snape gave him a skeptical glance, and he leaned on Rose even more heavily. "You said you'd be able to use Donna's key to locate him."

Snape was watching them both warily. "We should, yes. The lack of other links in the charm should lead us directly to him. The question is, what will we find there?"

Wilf swallowed heavily. "Let me know?"

Snape nodded gravely at him. "I can't give you any guarantees I'll be the one who does so, but someone will contact you as soon as they can."

"Thank you." He looked down at Rose and smiled crookedly. "D'you mind walkin' me up to the library, sweetheart? It's been a while since I've seen it, and it should be nice and quiet right about now."

Sarah Jane walked over then, the stress of the day plain on her face. "Actually, why don't you head on up to the Teacher's Lounge? It's a good a place to wait as any, and that way the students won't bother you. Miss Tyler, if you wouldn't mind escorting him?"

Rose nodded. "Not at all. Just ask the portraits for directions, then?"

She blinked. "Good thinking. That should be fine."

Wilf reached out and took Sarah Jane's hand, gripping it tightly for a moment. "Thank you, Sarah."

Her eyes softened. "It's the least I can do, really."

Wilf nodded at them and turned away, and Rose kept her arm around him as they left the hall. He straightened as soon as they passed out of eyesight, his jaw tightening. "All right, the trace is set. Wherever they go, we'll know." He looked at Rose and paused, considering, before he finally spoke. "This isn't going to be easy, you know. If we go after them, we're most likely going to end up in a nest of Death Eaters. I really shouldn't let you come along."

She crossed her arms and looked at him seriously. "If I don't go with you, I'll still find a way."

He sighed. "That's what I thought. You stay by me, love, and you've got to follow my orders. I say duck, you duck."

She nodded at him. "Understood."

There was movement from inside the Great Hall, and Rose hastily reached under her baggy jumper. Wilf watched, confused, until she pulled a shining, translucent cloak out and swung it up over the both of them. Hopkins strode past them, her jaw set. Dorton walked next to her, and she glanced at him and lowered her voice. "If we can't get him out, Caleb, you know what to do."

He paled. "Celeste, he's just a kid."

She spun to face him, eyes anguished. "You think I don't know that? But we can't chance Voldemort coming back, we just can't."

"We'll find another way!"

"What if there isn't one? These aren't your run of the mill Death Eaters, Caleb. They're beyond any chance of rehabilitation, and they're desperate." She paused and swallowed, closing her eyes. Her thumb brushed against the small silver ring on her finger. "If I don't come back, you know what to give Aaron."

He reached out and grabbed her shoulders. "You can't go in there thinking like this, Celeste."

"I'm team leader. I've got to plan for the worst." She stared evenly at him. "And if that means taking the kid out, then we have to be prepared to do that."

More footsteps approached the doorway, and she gave him one last glance. "Remember what I said, Caleb."

He nodded grudgingly and followed the rest of them out the doorway, the team of Aurors walking with Sarah Jane and Snape down to the edge of the anti-Apparition wards. Rose and Wilf followed at a safe distance, both of them careful to step in the others' footprints on the muddy ground. Snape glanced behind him one last time as he and a pair of Aurors cast a spell over Donna's silver key, his black eyes scanning the terrain carefully. Rose and Wilf froze, hardly daring to breathe.

He turned back to the Aurors, raising his voice as his wand traced complex movements in the air above where the key dangled from his pale fist. The key began to flash—once, twice, then in a throbbing rhythm that came closer and closer together until it was a blaze of light. Hopkins' voice echoed through the area. "Gather round, and hold on!" They huddled together, arms clasping shoulders and elbows, and with a rush of air the whole group vanished.

Rose began to move forward, but stopped when Wilf grabbed her elbow. "Not yet, love." He closed his eyes in concentration, wand up and head cocked to the side, and his bright blue eyes snapped open moments later. "They've got the wards down. Time to go." He grasped Rose's shoulder and gave her a crooked smile. "Hold on."

She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, shutting her eyes tightly against the violent jerk of Apparition.

They landed in a warzone.

"Down!"

Rose obeyed Wilf immediately, ducking down against the creaking floorboards as a stray spell winged itself where their heads had been moments before. They were crouched in a once-grand hall, marble columns stretching up to the flaking fresco on the ceiling. Death Eaters and Aurors swarmed around them, robes of black and grey and brown flickering through their peripheral vision like a flock of demented birds. Snape and Sarah Jane were back to back as they dueled Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and Harry and Celeste fought side by side against the waves of Death Eaters that hurled themselves at the Dark Lord's killer.

Wilf grabbed Rose's arm suddenly and she followed his gaze across the room—Koschei Rosier was hurrying away, the burly Death Eater with the bushy beard dragging the Doctor behind him. Rose and Wilf exchanged a glance and they began moving across the room, ducking away from the falling bodies and the crackling spells that surrounded them. They slipped through the door Koschei had left open, and Wilf silently sealed the door behind him.

Then he spoke, no trace of his usual patience and empathy in his voice. "Put him down."

Rosier spun, his gaze darting around the room. Rose's eyes widened. He had three ancient books clasped in his hands, books so old that their once-brown leather binding had turned black. A low, raspy voice rang through her mind: "There are still books that reference it, though, in the old, old collections—collections such as the Black family library."

She poked her wand out of the cloak and hissed a spell, watching in satisfaction as a fireball blasted from the tip of her wand to engulf the old books. Koschei dropped them with a howl, jerking his robes out of the way—by the time he shouted Aguamenti, though, the books were already cinders.

Wilf jerked her to one side, and the floor where they had just been standing dissolved into a puddle of reeking black ooze.

The hairy Death Eater dropped the Doctor and spun to face Koschei, his voice coming out low and menacing. "How dare you! Those were our only resource!"

Koschei glared up at him. "Yes, tell them that, that's helpful. Instead of, I don't know, fighting them."

The advice was too little, too late, though—with one spell Wilf knocked the Death Eater to the ground, unconscious. He stepped out of the cloak, wand at the ready. "You and I need to talk, boy."

"As if I'd want to talk to you." Koschei was edging closer to where the Doctor slumped, unconscious—or he was, until the Doctor vanished without even a flicker of a spell. "Oh, bollocks. Not that again." He raised his wand to send a spell at the spot where the Doctor had vanished, and cursed as a hex slammed into the wall next to him.

Wilf advanced on him, clutching his wand fiercely. "You leave them alone."

Rose dragged the Doctor against the wall, panting against the dead weight of unconscious teenage boy and struggling to keep them both hidden underneath the Invisibility Cloak. "Wake up, already." She patted his cheek, running her eyes across him to check for wounds. "Oh god, just wake up."

Her wand clattered to the floor next to her, and she froze before snatching it up, jamming into his chest and muttering, "Rennervate!" The Doctor groaned, his eyes opening slowly. Rose smiled down at him, wiping her eyes against the threatening tears as he woke. "Hello."

He smiled groggily up at her. "Hello." Then his eyes went wide. "Rose, move!"

A huge hand grabbed the back of her neck, jerking her out from under the Invisibility Cloak. The hairy Death Eater was awake, his pupils dilated and his nostrils flared. He looked—Rose felt her heart lurch to a stop. He looked feral.

The werewolf snarled and backhanded her, sending her slamming against the wall. Wilf looked over and cried out, then hissed in pain as one of Koschei's hexes connected. Her wand was lying abandoned on the floor, and she scrambled for it before he grabbed her again, grinding her head against the floor.

A scream tore itself from her throat as the broken floorboards cut into her cheek—then he released her, scrambling backwards as the Doctor hung down his back, his arms wrapped tightly around the werewolf's neck. Rose grabbed her wand. "Doctor, get down!" He dropped off immediately and moved away, and the were spun with a growl to face her again.

She stared up at him, her eyes ablaze and her arm steady. "Confrigo."

An explosion of flame engulfed him and she collapsed against the wall as he shrieked in agony, the air thick with heat and the smell of burning flesh.

Things passed in a blur after that.

Koschei's shriek as Wilf knocked him down, his muffled rage as he was bound and gagged.

The Doctor borrowing her wand and extinguishing the fire, all the while casting worried glances at her.

The twitching of the werewolf's body as the water hissed and steamed where it hit his roasted flesh.

The Doctor's voice, echoing and ringing in her ears. "Rose? Rose, come back to me. Rose?"

She blinked and looked up from the blackened corpse into the Doctor's worried eyes. "We didn't even know his name."

"Dad?"

Wilf's voice, coming from far away. "She's in shock. Come on, let's get her back to Hogwarts. Can you apparate with her?"

The Doctor stared down at the wand in his hand and glanced back at the water-soaked mess on the floor. "Yeah, I think I can. But, well—I don't have my license yet."

Wilf gave him a knowing look. "That doesn't mean you don't know how."

"Right, yeah." He turned back to Rose, who was staring at the corpse again. Wilf grabbed Koschei's bound arm and the Invisibility Cloak and dissaparated with a crack, and the Doctor stepped closer to Rose. "Rose? We're going back to Hogwarts." He wrapped his arm around her waist gently, staring down into her face. "I think you need a Healer."

He flicked her wand, and they vanished.

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