Chapter Ten

Harry Handles Hoodlums—Any Questions?

Harry turned toward the opening gate and was just stepping through when he froze. Without turning around, he said, "Wands, Daphne. Slowly."

"What?"

"There are some people out there, just outside the wards. Not people who ought to be there. Draw your wand without too much fuss and go back inside, straight to the gazebo, and get your parents in, too."

"Harry, my wand is inside."

"Take mine."

"No! You will be defenseless. Come back inside with me."

"Out of time, Daphne," Harry said. He flipped his holly wand around and laid the long, tapering section against his forearm. Raising his hand to his lips he spoke softly where it gripped his wand, "Take Miss Daphne to the gazebo so she can see that Lord and Lady Greengrass get to safety. Do NOT leave her, for any reason. We'll meet later."

Harry, concentrating on looking out toward the wards, straining to pinpoint the source of the danger, reached back toward Daphne and let go of his wand, which floated to Daphne and began bumping insistently against her hand.

"Do it Daphne. Don't think, do. Now," said Harry, stepping off out the gate, looking straight ahead to the boundary marked by the Greengrass Manor wards.

"Close, and stay closed," Harry told the gate.

Daphne opened her hand and the holly wand slipped into her palm. Her hand gripped the wand, and she was pulled, with some urgency, down the walkway back to the manor, where the door swung open at her approach.

Harry walked across the field toward the people who he assessed shouldn't be there. At the top of a little ridge, just beyond a long, upright chunk of granite that Harry surmised marked the extent of the manor's wards, Harry stopped and looked around. Harry kept his arms extended, his hands down by his thighs, palms turned out.

"I want you to leave this place, and go about your business. Elsewhere. Right now, I have no reason to hurt you. You are under no obligation to give me one."

Slowly, one, then a second, then a third person emerged from a brushy patch just downhill from Harry, wands raised, all pointed at Harry.

"You're coming with us, Potter," said one of the intruders. "You don't have a choice. Come on over here and we'll make this quick."

"Perhaps you misunderstood me," said Harry. "I am not going anywhere, you are going to leave. One way or the other. Do not give me a reason to become your enemy."

"Shut up Potter. We've got the drop on you and it's three to one," snarled the wizard. His wand twitched as Harry sidestepped to his left.

Harry moved with dispatch and economy, coordinating every muscle and bone. He drew his left hand back and threw it forward, palm toward his attacker, just as the man cast a petrificus jinx. The bolt of light from the wand was frozen in a column of compressed air that Harry pushed forward with his palm. The air glowed red, before the jinx rebounded in a shower of sparks, sending the caster to the ground. Harry threw himself to his right, dropping and rolling, then, coming up from a squat, he leapt skyward, curses flying past as the other two wizards cast at the moving target. When he came down, Harry landed left foot first, then brought his right down, hard, shouting as he transferred all the energy from his drop to the ground. Grass and dirt heaved upward from the place his right foot struck, forming a wave that moved like a tsunami toward the three wizards. All three were flipped into the air by the wave, spinning head over heels, two of them losing their wands from the violent tumbling of their bodies.

Harry was on the first wizard as soon as he touched the ground, kicking him in front of his right ear, putting him down, and out of commission. He moved to the second wizard, who was struggling to get up. The second wizard raised his head, exposing his throat, at a very inopportune moment for him, as Harry flattened his right hand, and jabbed his first and second fingers hard into the wizard's larynx, leaving him gagging, and unable to rise.

"Accio!" Harry grabbed the two loose wands that came flying to him. The third wizard regained his footing, faced Harry, and put up his fists. Harry stood still, his weight on the balls of his feet, waiting to see what the wizard had in mind. Many wizards are defeated as soon as they lose their wands, but it appeared this one had some ideas about putting up a physical fight. Harry held the wands in his right hand, holding the wizard's eyes with his own. The wizard flinched, just before throwing a jab at Harry's head with his left fist. Harry slipped to his right, and in one continuous motion, blocked the wizard's punch with his left forearm, then threw his left arm over and around the wizard's, while spinning left, extending his right leg and laying his right hand on his opponent's back. The wizard fell to the ground, hitting face first, and made no move to get up.

"Crucio!"

Harry heard the unforgiveable curse and thought he was surely about to be dead. He had left the first wizard alone without disarming him. Then it registered that he had heard a female voice. Harry spun around to see Daphne sprinting across the grass, between where he stood, and the talking gate.

He started to shout, "Daphne, NO!" when he looked up and saw the wizard bobbing up and down, screaming in agony, as Daphne tossed him about with Harry's holly wand.

"Bring him down, please, Daphne," Harry said. "I need to get them to interrogation in condition to talk. Please, Daphne."

But Daphne didn't seem to hear him. Now that he was closer, Harry could see her face more clearly. Daphne's hair was standing out from her head, her nostrils were flared, and her eyes were wrong, all wrong. Daphne had blue-gray eyes, but this Daphne's eyes looked amber, and on fire. Her face was the opposite. Daphne's beautiful and expressive face had become cold, impassive, marble-like, and Harry knew she was a millimeter away from killing his arrestee before his eyes.

Harry walked slowly to where Daphne stood. He reached out his hand, and held his arm parallel to hers.

"Daphne? It's Harry," he said. She didn't respond.

Harry let his arm drift over and laid his open hand on Daphne's arm, near the wrist. He applied a little downward pressure.

At first, she let him bring her hand down a bit, then stiffened, and made a sound, something non-verbal that came from deep in her throat. Harry closed his hand around hers and squeezed.

"It's me, Daphne, let's bring him down, together, now, shall we? It's over. It's all over. That's it."

And together, they lowered the wizard to the ground.

Harry slipped his holly wand out of Daphne's hand. He put his arm around her waist and walked her gently to a piece of granite that formed a natural bench, letting her sit down, just as Fabio and Kendra trotted up, wands out.

"What has happened here, Mr. Potter?" Kendra demanded, her eyes drilling through Harry, or so he felt.

"Just stay with her, I have to take care of some prisoners. I don't want her anywhere near us until they're gone."

Harry turned to leave.

"Mr. Potter you come back here, now, and tell me what you have done to my daughter!" Kendra nearly screamed at him, but Harry ignored her.

He gave the prisoners a quick field assessment, couldn't see any immediate threats to life, and cast brachiabindoon each one as a precaution, then he sent the ultra-violet sparks into the air, just to see if there were any aurors about. He had nearly given up and reverted to Plan B, when two things happened. He acknowledged to himself that he had no Plan B, and Blaise Zabini appeared from behind the brushy area.

"Needing some prisoner transport, then, Harry?" asked Blaise. "Plan B, at your service."

Blaise was clad in a twill uniform, very clean and well-pressed, but with a well-worn look to it, as if it had been washed again and again, mended when needed, and treated with respect. He wore a wide leather belt at his waist, with a narrower one over his shoulder. He wore a saber in a scabbard, and highly-polished boots that went up to his knees. To complete the look, he was riding a magnificent thoroughbred bay gelding outfitted in full cavalry tack.

"Blaise," Harry nodded back. "Fancy meeting you here. Care to enlighten me about the uniform? And what are you doing on a horse? Weren't you in the infantry? Oh, and are these colleagues of yours, because their folly in coming here looking for a fight gives me cause to question their competence."

"All really, really good questions, Harry. Can't answer right this minute. Time's of the essence, you see, so this will have to be short. In consultation with the Minister, some collection of information will take, temporarily, just the teensiest possible precedence, infinitesimal, really, over criminal proceedings. Our efforts will not, we believe, prejudice either the course of justice or the defendants' right to a fair trial, and with a little luck the aurors will be able to take over at opening of business on Monday."

"I'm tempted to exert primogeniture here, Blaise, since these badly-raised, poorly trained…persons, attacked me without provocation, at a private home where I was a guest, thus disturbing the peace of the realm, and causing needless emotional distress to a very decent family I care about deeply. Plus, they can't do magic. They're a complete embarrassment to the fields of criminality and wizardry. They do not comprehend how lucky they are to be alive."

"Primogeniture! I know someone who will find that hilarious, when I tell her. Incredible woman, Harry, truly legendary, hope to introduce you to her someday. Got to go. They'll be in the auror's squadroom Monday first thing, Merlin permitting."

"That's a comfort, that is," said Harry, "and I'm taking you at your word, Blaise. Do not abuse my trust. And now I have the rest of the weekend to figure out how to write a report that will stand up, since you have meddled with my case."

Blaise conjured a cargo net, with big steel rings at the corners, and used levicorpus to put the immobilized wizards on the net. He turned in the saddle, gave Harry a smile, and touched his wand to his cap bill in salute.

"By your leave, Head Auror, your stag can find me if you want to get in touch. We'll have lunch soon and catch up. My treat. Oh, there will be a piece of paper on your desk when you get back, just needs a signature."

Then he used his wand to draw the rings together and raise the net off the ground. Blaise rode his magnificent warhorse around the edge of the brush, saber swinging, tack jingling and leather creaking, a net full of criminals floating alongside. As he rode away, Blaise started singing. "Her mother never told her, the things a young girl should know, about the ways of Army men…"

Harry walked back to the group, all three Greengrasses now sitting on the stone, Fabio and Kendra's arms wrapped around Daphne, talking quietly.

"Everyone okay?" Harry asked.

"Mr. Potter, how do you explain this?" Kendra stood up. "Is this how you repay our hospitality?"

"Mother," said Daphne, her voice shaky, Kendra paying her no attention.

"Well?" said Kendra, wand pointing at Harry, just short of shouting. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"MOTHER," Daphne interrupted. "Harry gave me his wand."

"What do you mean? Why did he give you his wand?" Kendra demanded.

"When I walked Harry to the gate, I left my wand inside. Harry sensed those people were there and that they meant to harm us. He put his wand in my hand, and ordered it to take me back to you, and make sure we were all safe. I couldn't let it go. The wand made my hand hold onto it, and it pulled me back inside, through the house, and out to you, in the gazebo. Harry's wand kept pushing and pulling me until I got you both inside. Meanwhile Harry went out there and faced those three, and he defeated them, without his wand. All to keep us safe."

"Well, to be fair, I do think it likes you," Harry said, smiling at the wand he now held between his thumb and forefinger, giving it a little twiddle. "How about that? Don't go forgetting who you work for, buster," he said to the wand.

Fabio and Kendra stood there, staring at him.

Harry looked up at them. "What?" he asked.

"Will you take me inside, Harry?" Daphne asked. "I think I'd like to sit down with a glass of pumpkin juice."

"Of course, Daphne, you get whatever you want. That's what I'm here for," Harry said. He leaned down and offered his arm. When Daphne linked hers with his, he lifted gently and they rose together, and Harry walked Daphne back down to the talking gate. After a few yards, Daphne got some spring back in her step, and she leaned her head over so it just touched Harry's.

"Kendra?" said Fabio. "Should we go?"

"Oh, sit here with me a bit longer," said Kendra, who had developed a sudden case of sniffles. She scooted over to make room for Fabio, and patted the block of granite.

"Not many people get to see this. You do know what we're looking at, don't you, Fabio? This is the last time we're going to see ourlittle Daphne. Lily's baby boy grew up and won her from us."

"Did he ever! No wand," said Fabio, disbelief audible in his voice. He watched for a time, sitting beside Kendra. "It's nice they look so good together."

"Don't they, though?" Kendra said as she dabbed at her eyes. Then she slid her hand under Fabio's arm and down until it reached his own, and she laid hers across his. She let her head lean against his shoulder, while together they watched Daphne and Harry until the doors of Greengrass Manor swung open to admit them.