Chapter 34— A bomb, a blast and spell fire
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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners i.e. J.K. Rawlings, etc. The original characters and plot are the property of the author i.e. J.K. Rawlings, etc. This work is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Not for sale or profit but I am having fun.
Like I am not complaining but Hermione is getting quite demanding at night. She has a lot of books on the subject and demands practical application. That meant a late breakfast and then a rush to get to Hogsmeade Village for her shopping. All in all I am running a little sluggish this morning and looking for some refreshments that the town was known for to boost my energy levels.
We were strolling arm and arm towards Honeydukes for our sweet tooth when a series of things happened. While I was walking on the Honeydukes side of the street, Hermione was on my right arm as we were passing the Post Office which was on her right. I saw a female Auror with pink hair approaching. Pink Hair? That distraction almost got me killed, but Hermione was on her toes. The alley between the Post Office and the 'Hair Dressing Shop' was in shadows and from there came curses and spells many were lethal. Hermione's shield caught the 'Stupify' and the 'Sectumsempra'. We rolled away from the 'Confringo' and 'Reducto'.
At this point we opened up with our offensive spells. We had been taught and not by the Hogwarts staff. There were a few tricks like stringing spells and well we threw 'Confringo' to 'Diffindo' as our base of spells. The simpler ones like 'Incarcerous' and 'Expelliarmus' were strung in with the lethal ones, all the spells were to stop the bad guys, even if it stop them dead.
Silence came from the alley but the pink haired Auror started to issue orders and grabbed her badge.
"Defense only you two and surrender your wands when asked by an Auror!" POPs were heard and the pink haired one pointed to us and said "Innocents" and to the alley and said "Bad Guys".
Wayne Hopkins, Zacaharias Smith and Graham Pritchard were quite dead; Smith had the Dark Mark on his arm. That mark brought the Head of the DMLE.
"Oh! Morgana, you two again?" Amelia said shaking her head. "Auror Tonks I would like to introduce you to Lord and Lady Potter who can be in trouble for breathing and it is never their fault."
After a quick summery from everyone Amelia added, "Why don't you two try and enjoy the rest of this weekend break and come see me Monday morning?"
We agreed and scampered off to Scrivenshaft's for a few items. We hoped that the street would be cleared for our return trip and that Honeyduke's front was repaired by then.
We never destined to get any of Honnydukes candy this day.
We were in Scrivenshaft's and picked up a few items. When we walked out the front door we found that Deatheaters had arrived down by Madam Puddifoot's and another group were down by Zonko's that put us in the middle. Well we were in the middle of too many curses so we ran in between Scrivenshaft's and Gladrags with a couple of Deatheaters in hot pursuit. They met Paws and Hermione and died quickly. Foxy jumped on my back and I hot footed it behind all the buildings and we took on a couple of inept Deatheaters who died without slowing us down. In between Madam Puddifoot's and another building we changed and flamed down the street to the 'Cauldron Shop's' alley. We transformed and ran out into the main street a few feet and fired off as many lethal curses that we could and retreated into the alley closely followed with a volley of Deatheater curses. A number of Deatheaters entered quickly only to find the shadowed alley turn into a bright sun. It was the last thing they ever saw.
We had mastered the ability on flaming. For travel or transporteing our flaming was around body temperature. We now could adjust the temperature from there to sun hot. What we noticed was that the hotter we flamed the larger the area of heat or flames. At full flame our area of danger was three to four feet around us. Full flame came with two problems, one was how close we were to flamible items or buildings, the second was it drained us of our magic. The magical drain stopped us from full burn for any leanth of time.
We by now had no idea the position of any of the Deatheaters. Therefore we flamed to behind the Hogshead which was way away from the action.
Finding nothing Paws and Foxy raced to Dervish & Banges alley.
Returning to our human shapes we stepped into the street in front of Schivenshaft's only to find Aurors coming down from Madam Puddifoots on our right and gaggle of Deatheaters basically in front of us, "eep".
~"Flame through them and I'll meet you in the Shrieking Shack." I directed and we did just that to detriment of the Deatheaters. Unfortunately what we did and what the Aurors saw were two different things.
Paws and Foxy tore out of the Shrieking Shack to Honeydukes alley were we again transformed. Same idea, step out as humans and draw in the bad guys. Well when we stepped into the main street all we saw was red-robed Aurors and one pink haired Auror with her wand in our face. "Amelia was right about you two. She will be here in a bit after she sorts some crazy tales out, there seems to be some agitation among my fellow workers."
~"I'm glad that's over, I feel like I could sleep for a week." Foxy groaned.
~"I have the same feeling, I just hope Amelia doesn't keep us too long."
And here came a stomping and determined Amelia, "I want some straight answers from you two, all my Aurors can't be on drugs."
"How about a casual stole to The Three Broomsticks and we can answer your questions as best we can. We could do with a sit down and a butterbeer" Hermione suggested and Amelia agreed.
As we strolled down the street, "You two are reported all over this town at almost the same time, are you using a 'Time Turner' illegally?"
"The answer is neither 'Time Turner' nor anything illegal."
~"You had better come up with more than that to satisfy her Harry."
"Madam Bones what you have to know is we are married and of course share the family Grimoire. In the Potter Grimoire book is a ritual that lets us double our speed for example."
"In fact, and not trying to tell you your job, but a 'Time Turner' is not illegal for a Lord if it is an artifact of that House."
"I may let that pass but there are a number of Aurors that stated that you turned into something non human and burnt your way down the street and we have the crisp Deatheaters to show something like that happened."
~"Don't try and use your family book again, just state that they are mistaken and we were using an over powered fire curse and that's why we are so tired."
Well I did and Amelia gave me the fish eye and said "Monday morning" and left. Killing Deatheaters was not illegal.
Entering The Three Broomsticks I asked, "Hay Neville, any Deatheater action at The Three Broomsticks?" The room went silent.
/Scene Break/
Amelia might have let us off but Dumbledore was not going too.
"Ah Mr. Potter 'The Boy who lived' lemon drop?" Dumbledore appeared to be a slow learner. I just shook my head and sat down next to Professor McGonagall and Hermione.
"It is crucial to the wizard race that you join us in our fight against Voldemort." The silence forced him to continue with more things to apparently try and persuade me.
"I am afraid that you have been chosen by the fates to deal with this crisis by joining me as I am the only one who can make sure that the right path is take. There is a Prophesy that was given with your name on it." As the silence continued Dumbledore dropped what he thought was going to by now win his argument. He gave another shot at convincing and read 'The Prophesy'.
~"Well dear what shall we do now? Shall we follow his idea of what we will do and question and argue the meaning of The Prophesy?" I asked.
~"Not worth the effort, I just worry how far he will go to make you do what he wants."
~"Lets see if he will take no for an answer." I too was unsure how far he would go.
"Interesting Fairy tail Headmaster, but we will have to decline you offer as we are not interested."
"Mr. Potter you don't have a choice that scar is cursed and contains part of Voldemort, you have to help." Apparently Dumbledore was ready to go all out in his attempt to persuade us.
"Oh dear! another misconception, What Scar?" I stated and lifted my hair so he could have a good look.
His shock was evident by his silence and his lemon drop dropping from his mouth to his lap.
"Nice chatting with you Headmaster but we have other important projects to deal with. Why don't you just toddle off and take care of Voldemort and leave us children alone."
~"Harry it looks like he is ready to explode, best we get out of hear."
~"Guess we are going to have to watch our back for a while."
We were not half way down the stairs and we could hear McGonagall screaming through the heavy wooden door. What she was saying or which side she took was blocked by the heavy door.
/Scene Break/
While we were watching out for Dumbledore we didn't catch the rest of the action. Since we had our own quarters we were not going to the Gryffindor common room very offten. Some took the three Gryffindor deaths as our treachery to the house of Gryffendor. Then there were those whose fathers got crispier than burnt toast in Hogsmeade that wanted revenge and one should never forget the Deatheater House of Slytherin.
Monday came and we took the 'floe' to the Ministry. Amelia had us escorted after we had our wands weighed, some joke. Our French wands in our back pocket didn't register on anything so what was the purpose of the check of the legal wand?
Amelia got right down to it, "Alright you two that line of dragon dung you were spewing this weekend stops now. I want the straight facts."
"Only if you promise to keep it quiet and not put it in any reports." Hermione jumped right in.
"You don't make any rules here young lady!"
"Then you get the dragon dung Madam Bones!" Foxy was showing some teeth in her reply.
I sat there hoping not to be included in what looked like the beginning of …
"Alright, tell me and if it's not illegal it won't go any further that here." Amelia blinked.
~"If you will dear, one flaming Phoenix please."
I complied and flamed to Hermione's lap.
"Great Merlin!" Amelia exclaimed.
"Now the fun part of all this." Hermione giggled.
~"One Panther Please!"
She got Paws with Foxy on his back. The room went silent.
~"Think we broke her with two forms."
"Any further questions Amelia?" I asked.
"No I think you shocked me enough for one day. Just try and stay out of trouble."
"It's a little hard with Dumbledore and Snape breathing down your neck." Hermione stated.
"Well you won't have to worry about Albus for a week; he has the ICW meeting he must preside over."
The door burst open and the Minister Cornelius Fudge charged in followed by a blond with rind stone glasses we recognized as Rita of the Dailey Profit. "I see you have caught these two trouble makers. I want jail time for the destruction in Hogmeade Village." This did not sit well with Amelia and a verbal barrage went back and forth. Hermione and I slipped out feeling like we missed out of being a target. That only lasted until the next Dailey Profit where we were exposed as the 'Dark Couple'. There were also quotes from Fudge and some Aurors which made us sound like Voldemort and Bella.
/Scene Break/
Three mornings after our visit to the Ministry we dragged ourselves together and headed to the Great Hall for breakfast. I opened the portrait...KaBOOM! Everything went black.
/Scene Break/
Hogwarts infirmary:
"Well it's about time you quit lying around." Was the first thing I heard as the world started to turn to light again.
"Hermione what happened?" I croaked.
"You my dear were the magical attempt at an assassination. You are damn lucky that they had no idea how to pull it off properly. While you got a concussion and couple of broken bones it could have been fatal. They made the mistake of putting the explosive on the wrong side of the portrait. The portrait took the blast, came off its hedges and slammed you into the wall."
"Did any of the portraits say who put it there?"
"No Harry they were either asleep or out visiting."
"The good thing is that no one else got hurt as in you!" I sighed.
"Sorry to tell you but that is not true, the Gryffindor portrait was open and a group were headed to breakfast, Parvati and Lavender were cut up pretty badly. They are already out of the hospital but there is going to be scaring."