AN: So many of you were like "FINALLY!" in the reviews after reading the last chapter lol. I guess I've kept you waiting for too long.

Chapter 36 - Trap

A young couple was leisurely strolling down the streets of Birmingham hand-in-hand while taking in the sights of the centre of the city.

"Nothing much to be seen here. You, English, have no taste. All your cities look like industrial dumps."

"Maybe Birmingham isn't the best place to come to if you're looking for beauty," Harry said with a chuckle. "UK isn't all that bad though. Have you seen Edinburgh? I dare say it's one of the most beautiful cities in the world."

"I doubt it's even 'alf as nice as Paris. Or Nice or Lyon."

Fleur complaining about the UK and ugly things brought a feeling of nostalgia over him and he smiled at her fondly.

As they passed by various shops, they stopped and looked at their reflection in the mirror-like windows.

"I look like Draco Malfoy's step-brother," Harry said with a snort at the sight of his shiny slicked-back brown hair. "Is this the type of look you like in a man?"

"The point of transfiguring our appearance is to look as different as possible from our real selves, no?" she said. Seeing as Fleur was an Animagus, her skill in transfiguration was better than Harry's. She had been the one to transfigure their appearance. "Nobody will associate your scruffy black 'air with this slicked-back 'airstyle. It doesn't matter if you're ugly - I'm good-looking enough for both of us."

Even after giving herself what she considered an ordinary appearance - short brown hair, lightly freckled cheeks and brown eyes - her beauty was still evident. But maybe that was also because she was too vain to change her main facial features for the worse.

Brown-haired, of close heights, and wearing matching casual Muggle outfits, Fleur and older Harry did not stand out from any other Muggles on the streets.

"How do you plan on finding Greyback, by the way? Birmingham is a rather large city, about 1 million people live here."

"I was thinking about using the Tracking Spell..." she trailed off and looked at him sheepishly.

Harry didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.

"So that's why you wanted us to play 'dress-up' and get matching outfits! This looks more like a date rather than a hunt."

Searching for Greyback in a large city like Birmingham just by casting the Tracking Spell - a spell used for identifying traces left by magical creatures - was no different than searching for a needle in a haystack.

"I don't think it is as bad as you make it out to be. We're not the only ones that are looking for 'im. The Ministry of Magic's Aurors, 'it-Wizards, and many other people looking for quick money 'ave joined this werewolf 'unt. There are probably over 100 wizards and witches roaming Birmingham right now. The 3000 Galleons on 'is 'ead are not a small sum. Between all of us, someone is bound to find Greyback sooner than later."

Harry shrugged his shoulders at her explanation. In fact, he was glad that things did not look that promising because he was still suspicious about the entire situation.

It was while they were walking hand-hand and chatting amiably that two loud popping noises were heard from a narrow alley between two buildings, freaking some of the passers-by and making the alarm of several of the cars parked on the side of the road start blaring.

"Aurors, at 9 o'clock," Harry said in warning, after seeing the trench coats worn by the law enforcement wizards with the corner of his eyes. "Do not look at them!" he said in a loud whisper, stopping Fleur just as she was about to turn her head. "Keep walking, pretend you haven't noticed them."

He felt Fleur's palm starting to sweat in his hand.

"Relax. We're just an ordinary young Muggle couple out on a stroll. They don't know who they're supposed to be looking for."

His calm demeanour served to mollify a little her growing anxiety.

"How did they find us?"

"The Ministry is somehow tracking Apparition around Birmingham," he said with a small frown.

"Apparition can't be tracked! Only Portkey and Floo travel!"

"Yes, normally, they're only tracing portkeys and Floo travel," Harry replied and he gradually started walking faster. "Apparition cannot be tracked unless... bollocks! Fleur, does your wand still have the Trace on it?"

The only way Harry could think of that Apparition could be tracked was via a minor's wand since all wands owned by minors had the Trace on them.

"No, I dispelled it from my wand a long time ago, before I started my activities."

By now, they were almost run-walking.

"Then how the hell did they find us?" he muttered to himself and dragged Fleur away from the main road, into a side alley.

He had dispelled the Trace from his feisty wand the very day that he had bought it too. He could not think of any other way the Ministry could have detected them.

"Hey! You two! Stop!" they heard a shout coming from behind.

While still holding hands, space twisted around Harry and Fleur as they tried to Disapparate. However, they were pushed back and they fell to the ground with a thud. It was due to an Anti-Disapparition Jinx.

"No use in running," one of the Aurors said, finally catching up to them.

They stood up on their feet quickly and looked at the two Aurors warily.

"Why are you chasing us?" he asked. "Back off or we'll call the police!"

"Police? What is that?" one of the Aurors said, completely oblivious.

"He means the Muggle Aurors," the other Auror explained. He was a bald and well-built middle-aged black man. "But I'd rather you dropped the farce. We know you are wizards."

Seeing that there was no way of playing it off and getting away without conflict, Harry stopped trying to convince them that he was a Muggle and drew out his wand.

"Why are you chasing me?" he asked again, but this time his voice was cold, no longer pretending to be scared.

"We're not chasing you in particular," the dark-skinned Auror explained in a calm voice. "We are doing a check on all the wizards and witches coming in and out of Birmingham. With Fenrir Greyback on the loose, we can't afford to take any chances. So please don't put up a fight and allow us to take you to the Ministry. Shouldn't take more than half an hour to clear your up if you prove to be clean."

Harry did not reply right away. He turned to look at Fleur and touched her jacket with his hand.

"Portus."

The girl's jacket glowed briefly with a blue light.

"No!" she shouted, realizing what he wanted to do.

For the second time that day, space seemed to distort around Fleur but she fell on the ground again, failing to disappear via portkey.

"Haha. We have taken into account the possibility of someone using unauthorized portkeys too. And the Unspeakables were kind enough to fit us with all the tools to prevent that," the other Auror said with a laugh and showed them a small warding stone. It was pitch-black and inscribed with golden glowing Ancient Runes. "I do have to say that Miss Black truly is the best at what she does."

Harry groaned in frustration. He was not afraid of two Aurors, even if the dark-skinned one was none other than Kingsley Shacklebolt, one of the best wands of the Ministry. The fact that it appeared as if one of Bellatrix's inventions was the very thing that was giving him a hard time now only served to further annoy him.

He cast a nonverbal 'Accio' but there was no reaction from the warding stone in the Auror's hand.

'Leave it to Bella to do a goddamn thorough job! Damn it!'

While that was something worth praising normally, at that moment he was annoyed with how Bellatrix had also spelled the warding stone against Summoning Charms to prevent the situation where Aurors's warding stone ended up in the hand of the criminals they were trying to apprehend.

"Oh, fuck it!" he grumbled and, before the Auror had the time to react, a red bolt of light caught him straight in the chest.

Attacking a Ministry official was a serious offence and he had tried to avoid that because if he were to be caught even a few months in Azkaban would not be off the table. However, that was the case only if they caught him.

The overpowered Disarming Spell blasted the Auror backwards and the warding stone flew out of his hand.

"Depulso!" Kinglsey shouted but a completely unexpected Flipping Jinx caught him in the chest, right before he cast his spell. The Auror's Banishing Charm flew way off the mark and he was hurled backwards for several dozen feet through the air before falling to the ground in a heap. In the next second, Harry and Fleur vanished into thin air, whisked away by their Portkey.

⁂

Harry and Fleur landed on the ground with a painful thud, having the wind knocked out of them. Portkey travel was already horrible as it was and the hasty portkey that he had created had not given them the smoothest ride possible either. Not at all. The fact that the portkey failed to activate on the first try had caused it some damage.

"I think I'm going to throw up," Fleur said and but not a moment later, retching sounds came from her side as Harry bent down from the waist and threw up uncontrollably.

The fact that she had already been lightheaded and nauseous herself coupled with hearing and seeing him throw up made her lose it too. She felt her bile rising to her throat and then she began throwing up too. And once she got started, it was even worse than Harry's symptoms.

"We-... we have to go! Unauthorized portkeys are easy to track. They'll be here at any moment," Harry said urgently while wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his hoodie. He leaned against a tree and tried to catch up his breath. Disapparating in his condition would undoubtedly lead to splinching. He had to recollect himself as soon as possible.

But only a few seconds after he finished his words, he heard the sound made several people Apparating nearby. Due to the fact that they were in a forest - the Forest of Dean had been the first location that had come to his mind when he had created the portkey - the 'crack' sounds made by Apparition rang even louder than usual.

He quickly threw himself to the ground and Fleur followed his example too, hiding behind some bushes.

"Transform into your Animagus form and run!" Anticipating her protests he said forcefully: "I know you don't want to leave me behind but if you want to help, you need to run away! You can't help me with anything by staying. Not when you're like that!"

Luckily, seeing as it was almost summer, the vegetation of the forest was rather dense, the bushes helping with hiding them for the moment. However, Harry knew it was only temporary. As if to prove his thoughts right, he heard a voice:

"Homenum Revelio!"

Looking at her, he urged her one last time:

"Now! Run!"

Fleur was a realist. Leaving aside her feelings and her unwillingness, she understood her current self could not help with anything. She would only be in the way. Her body quickly shrank and she transformed into a snowy owl. Then, her wings flapped furiously as she took flight.

If the situation had not been so dire Harry would have laughed at the way the Animagus owl drunkenly slammed into the branch of a tree and almost fell down, only righting itself in the air by pure luck.

But when a Stunning Charm suddenly flew over his head, missing him by a few inches, Harry understood he was no longer safe. He had been found. Throwing one last look at the owl that had managed to escape and was by now flying above the forest, he let out a sigh of relief. But when he turned to look at his attackers, he became mute with surprise.

In front of him, it was the one wizard that Harry really did not want to cross wands with while he was feeling too ill to even walk properly. The ones next to that particular wizard were no slouches either. Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor Moody, Rufus Scrimgeour and none other than Albus Dumbledore had spread around him in a loose circle, surrounding him from all sides. Furthermore, with a flash of red and gold, a flaming bird launched itself in the air, hot on the snowy owl's trail. Dumbledore's phoenix familiar, Fawkes, flew into Fleur's pursuit!

AN: Explanation

1. First of all, the characters do not know what the audience does. Harry and Fleur had had no idea that Dumbledore and Amelia Bones made a ploy to lure out the serial killer. How were they supposed to know that the Ministry made such an elaborate trap and even going as far as to tarnish their public image by announcing in the Daily Prophet that Greyback had escaped from under their very noses?

2. Harry was not clueless about the danger. The first half of chapter 35 is all about Harry and Fleur discussing Greyback's prison break and Harry pointing out several times that the situation is strange. That something is fishy. That Greyback could have not escaped and that he confirmed that with Bellatrix after the attack on Ministry. But Harry had no way of knowing the extent to which things were "fishy".

3. Harry was not careless. Harry and Fleur did not come unprepared.
- Harry drank an Ageing Potion and then the two of them also transfigured themselves to look like different people
- Harry had also had an "exit strategy" for the case where things went wrong: the Portkey that he had used in chapter 36.

In the canon, there is no spell that blocks portkeys. The Anti-Disapparition Jinx only blocks Apparition. Not portkeys. There are spells that can make a location unplottable - like Hogwarts - and stop portkeys from working (it is implied so in the canon, but never shown because Dumbledore actually used portkeys to transport people to Hogwarts. Maybe it was a perk of him being the Headmaster). With that said, who the heck would cast a warding spell on a Muggle location? And just who is powerful enough to cover a city as large as Birmingham with it? Yeah, no one.

Escaping via Portkey from an encounter that happened in the middle of a Muggle city should have normally been a perfectly viable exit method. Harry's plans got screwed up only because of Bellatrix's invention, the mobile Anti-Portkey warding stone - something that is not canon. Something that was foreshadowed a little when it was mentioned in the story that Bellatrix had created several types of warding spells and an unconfirmed number of curses.

4. This situation did not come out of nowhere
- Read again chapter 30: Dumbledore and Amelia make an alliance. The Ministry and the Order of Phoenix start working together. Furthermore, Dumbledore gives Amelia Bones the suggestion of how to lure out the serial killer. You could say he is the mastermind behind everything.
- The Ministry of Magic worked on laying this trap for more than a month. First, by declaring in the Daily Prophet that Greyback escaped and tarnishing their reputation (when in fact Greyback had never escaped, he is still very much locked in the holding cells of DMLE). Second, by announcing the bounty on Greyback and his last known location.