A Mother's Love is a crossover between The Dresden Files and Harry Potter. It takes place after Cold Days and midway through Deathly Hallows. Yes I know it's not actually possible this is my story. Artistic licence so to speak.

All know and recognisable characters and places, magic etc are the rightful property of Mr Jim Butcher and Ms J. . I own nothing but this crazy idea.

I will make alterations and repairs when people point out glaring errors, as I am unbeta'd and appreciate the feedback.

Warning character deaths ahead.

Chapter 12

Death Comes Quietly

Dresden's POV

Maybe we'd been overconfident. I certainly hadn't expected the suddenness of all that followed. For two weeks we prepared, secure inside the Keep. Some of the members of our resistance came and went, using multiple apparition to throw anyone following them off their trail. Snape passed on messages every other day, the Dark Lord was on quite the rampage over our sudden strike. The Malfoy' had neglected to mention Potter's possession of the Sword, more to save their own skins then anything else and they still did not know of the Goblin's actions. They were apparently humouring the Dark Lord while systematically preparing to cut of his legs, financially. Any Witch or Wizard who had ill gained Goblin treasures, or any high class dark artefacts within their vaults would soon find themselves barred from Gringotts. The good people of the Wizarding world could retain their gold if they were willing to forfeit those items considered dark or of Goblin origin. If they did not possess the proper papers of course. The Goblin's would honour their proper contracts. A lot of the Purebloods would not be wiling to do so, knowing full well the contents of their vaults would land them in hot water with the Ministry or the Goblins, or, as in the case of Bellatrix, both. The Goblin's planned to announce their new policy the day the Death Eater's struck Hogwarts, as was inevitable. By the time the remaining Death Eater's found their feet they would be all but penniless. Remus had remarked that few Wizards hid gold in their homes, there was always a possibility of a thief who was cleverer then you were.

Dobby had recruited several house-elves who had lost their families to Death Eaters to help him prepare the many Potter and Black houses. In all we had ten well hidden buildings, the largest of which would mostly house the students and their parents. We mixed muggle-born's with the pure-bloods in hiding, ensuring an even mix in each refuge. The numbers were kept low too, making the groups easier to hide. Each house was placed under Fidelius Charms, tied to the Head Elf of each house. Elves were often overlooked, were fiercely loyal to their homes and no one had ever thought to use an Elf before. Certainly not the almighty Lord Voldemort or his snobbish high bound followers. Still Voldemort was sure to be enraged when we extracted all the students and he would come search for them. When he didn't find them he would come for Hogwarts. We had to get everyone out and secure the school. It hadn't taken long to plan, and thanks to the Elves it was all done within days. Now we just had to pass out the word. Without letting on to the Death eaters we were about to make more them five hundred people disappear.

Once we had cleared Hogwarts of children we had to assemble the rest of the Resistance and prepare to defend her. We knew Voldemort wanted the Castle, and he had no idea we had torn away half of his soul anchors. Molly was examine the Horcrux wound through Harry's scar. We had to be careful when she did this, with Harry sitting within a circle to protect us all from Voldemort. Molly was sure she could remove the parasite, but she had to be very careful. Her battle with the Corpsetaker and her subsequent lessons with the Leanansidhe not withstanding the Horcrux was a nasty thing. We'd decided to wait until we had secured Hogwarts before she removed it. Hogwarts wards alone would help shield them both.

It was amidst all this planning that a sharp pop from the hall alerted us to trouble. Snape and Remus had created the emergency Portkeys as I had requested. Lying in a spreading pool of blood in the hall was Kingsley Shacklebolt. His darkly tanned face oddly pale. A deep slash had opened his throat almost from ear to ear and one of his legs was severed almost in two. His hands were over his stomach, trying helplessly to stop his guts from spilling out. He was dying. Not even magic could help him even if Remus, Snape and Molly weren't out of the Keep, spiriting away the families of half bloods and 'blood traitors'. Most of the Muggle-borns were long gone into hiding or captured and we had plans for those in the Muggle-born Concentration camps.

Molly dropped beside Kingsley's head, staring down at the man in horror. We all liked the large black man with his soft spoken, calm manner. I considered freezing him then changed my mind, who knew what ice would do to the exposed organs. Kneeling beside the dying man I took his hand, Molly lifted his head into her lap and the other's gathered close. Kingsley blinked once at Tonks and then closed his eyes, sighed and was gone. It was a quiet few seconds before we saw the bloody parchment pinned to his chest. Tonks let out a sob and fled the room.

In ragged, crazed writing it said

This is only the beginning. We are coming for ALL of you.

The room fell silent. I looked around at the pinched, worried faces. Molly's head was bent, silent tears coursing her cheeks. Rising to my full height I shot Thomas and Mouse a look. Each of them came over to Kingsley and leaned in close, breathing in the underlying scents on the man's blood soaked clothes. Thomas's eyes flashed. "Bellatrix. I guess she has recovered." Mouse huffed an agreement. I eyed my brother. "Seriously man.. how did you even.." Thomas shuddered.

"Don't remind me Man, she 'tasted' horrible. I nearly threw up." I grimaced. "She just went to the top of my list." said Karrin, her eyes flashing. "His wand is still on his wrist. It looks like they got him from behind."

From the doorway Luna's quiet voice said "It's a favourite tactic of theirs. Daddy did a lot of research on the original Death Eaters, but the Ministry forbid him from publishing it, called it slander." Karrin studied the girl for a moment.

"Luna, is it? How much do you remember of your Dad's studies?"

"Oh I was only little at the time, I wasn't allowed to read them!" Luna sounded quite shocked. Karrin sighed. "Of course not."

"Of course, when He Must Not Be Named came back, Daddy pulled out all the old files and well.. he's a wonderful Daddy but not very observant. He still thinks I am completely innocent you see, and not capable of any deception or petty theft..." she smiled beatifically. "I am in Ravenclaw. Of Course I've read them all Ms Murphy, what would you like to know?" The two of them moved away, followed by a saddened Golden Trio. Fred and George went back upstairs silently and we were alone for a long, quiet moment. Thomas was staring down at Kingsley, a sickened look on his face. "If I had just killed her.."

"If you'd killed her we'd have had the Dark Lunatic on our ass from day one." I cut off his What ifs. "What's done is done. We'll just make sure we get her next time. You can have the kill." The Winter in me purred at this, and I could all but see Thomas's demon in the flash of feral glee on his face. "Thank you. I do hate leaving a job undone." We exchanged grim looks. We were in agreement. Bellatrix was going down. She always had been, but now she'd go down hard. Several House Elves appeared, led by Winky and we watched as the little creatures gently wrapped the wizard in white muslin, clean away the blood and with a pop he was taken away to a room in the basement until we could bury him. There was nothing but the gleam of wet tile to suggest he'd even been there at all. I stood, holding the bloody missive in my hands and stalked to the kitchen. This changed things. We had to move faster and be smarter. Kingsley was a highly trained, gifted Auror, a damned good Wizard and had been working with Karrin for the last two weeks. He'd been taken down from behind and left little more then a bleeding mess, unable to even speak. We had to be more careful

We would be moving to free the Muggle-borns in the next week, once Snape had all the locations. He had told the Dark Lord he wanted victims to use for potion testing. He would of course need all ages, sex, shape and size so he had gotten the list of camps quiet easily. He was his Master's Most Trusted Spy after all. Voldemort was twisted enough to believe Severus would enjoy testing untried potions on a small child. He'd likely ask to watch, it was a good thing this was Severus's final act before he showed his true colours.

When the rest of the Keep Crew, as we'd taken to calling our rather odd bunch of renegades, returned we broke the bad news. Remus had paled and and Snape who had slipped away from Hogwarts, had unfortunately already heard, having gotten it from Alecto Carrow. Of course he had expected Snape to be pleased. Whilst grieving a friend he'd had to drink a toast to the Dark Lord and listen as Kingsley's memory was ridiculed and scorned. He'd been glad to vanish, claiming endless paperwork. Molly had wept on Arthur's shoulder and the children had been very quiet. Tonks stayed in her room, Remus said she'd cried herself to sleep. She was very close to her due date and we were moving her to another safe house in a day or so to be with her parents. Remus would join them as soon as there was any movement from the littlest Lupin.

They sat, silent and tight lipped in the kitchen. Eventually we all went to bed, though I do not know if anyone actually slept. When the sun rose we buried Kingsley in the little cemetery plot at the back of the Keep. Even with the proper Wizards burial it didn't seem enough.