Author's Note: And so many months later…

Sorry it's taken so long to update - I just haven't found the time, and when I have, there have been a lot of things I've wanted to change, etc. But rest assured, I will be updating more quickly in the immediate future.

V. A BRAVE NEW WORLD

Harry

"What will you do, Minister?"

"You can't even protect us inside our own Ministry!"

"ORDER! ORDER!" yelled Percy. "I SAID, ORDER!"

After a few moments, the Wizengamot quietened down.

"Higher security levels will be put in place immediately. Public access to the Ministry will be by application only. All guests and personnel will have to clear stringent background checks. We will find out who is responsible, and we will make them pay," Kingsley finished.

Make them pay.

Kingsley's words were no hollow threat. I would make sure of it.

Ginny

I noticed the change as soon as I walked through the barrier at Platform 9¾, heading back to Hogwarts. A climate of fear had descended over the platform

It wasn't just the horde of Hitwizards standing guard on the platform.

It wasn't just the solemn faces, the wary expressions, or the hushed tones.

It was the magic.

Magic that tainted every surface, washed over every person, seeking - no, hunting.

Everyone on the platform could feel it. It was like a presence - one that I couldn't shake off.

With a flick of my wand, I levitated my trunk onto the baggage rack, and suddenly felt light-headed. Grimacing, I put a hand to my head.

"It's the ward," explained Hermione. "If it senses any magic other than it's own, it'll swarm over the witch or wizard. Best not to use your wand if you can help it."

"What's it -" I gestured at the empty air around us, "- called?"

"Dar-something, um, Dar-jach."

"Dar-what?"

"Dar-jach. It's very ancient. I only know because Bill mentioned it to me once. Said it was used in tombs. I'm surprised that anyone still knows how to cast it."

"It's horrid," I replied with distaste.

"Try not to think about it, else it'll just get worse."

We climbed aboard the Hogwarts Express and found a compartment near the tail end of the train. An Auror stood at the end of the corridor, silent, imposing.

As we took our seats, a voice rang out.

"Good morning, students. I am Auror Stark. You will have noticed a change in today's trip back to school. Two other Aurors, a contingent of Hitwizards, and myself will accompany you to Hogwarts today. We are here to protect you. If anything happens, stay in your compartments. Do not leave unless instructed to by a Magical Law Enforcement Officer."

"Do they really think we're in that much danger?" Hermione wondered out loud.

"They must do, hell, why else would they send half of MLE?" I replied.

We jerked in our seats as the train lurched into motion, shuddering along the track and gradually gaining speed.

I glanced out the window and saw a Hitwizard in heavy blue robes flying alongside the train on broomstick.

He gave me a barely discernible nod, and flew past.

"I thought … I thought it'd all change. You know?" I said.

"Me too," Hermione replied.

"What happened, Hermione?" I asked. "Why does the world still need fixing? Get rid of Voldemort, yeah? That was the plan. And then everything would be alright? Why, I mean … did it ever cross Dumbledore's mind that Voldemort wasn't the only one out there?"

Hermione didn't reply.

I thought back to the first Prophet headline to go to press after Harry defeated Voldemort. It went something like this:

THE WAR IS OVER! REIGN OF TERROR ENDS AS YOU-KNOW-WHO IS VANQUISHED FOR GOOD

They said we'd won. They said the war was over.

Problem was, it didn't feel like we'd won the war.

It felt like we were still fighting it.

Harry

"They used Dar-jach on the platform?" I asked as X, Y and I made our way to Kingsley's office.

"It's a necessary measure. An attack could come from anywhere, anytime now. They're considering putting it up in the Atrium," said X.

"Kingsley's getting a ton of flack for it though," Y replied.

"It's a bloody tomb ward, what else was he going to get for it?" remarked X.

We reached the office and entered without knocking.

"How's public reaction?" asked Y.

Kingsley shot him a flat look.

"How do you think?"

Y shrugged.

"They're outraged, obviously. 'Mind rape' is about the nicest thing I've heard about it."

"If there was a successful attack, they'd hit you for not being prepared enough. You can't win, Kingsley," said X.

"That's what I'm worried about."

"Got anything about the bombings?" I asked.

"Yes, we do. A potential base of operations in East London. Highly populated with Muggles, which is why we didn't pick it up sooner."

"Me an' Harry can check it later today," said Y.

Kingsley nodded, and we took our leave.

Ginny

We pulled in at Hogsmeade station early in the evening. Despite all the security, or maybe because of it, the journey had been altogether uneventful.

Nearly every single student could see the Thestrals now. It was just another example of how Voldemort's evil would live on beyond him.

My face downcast, I hopped into a carriage beside Hermione. The journey to the castle was silent.

Harry

At the age of ten, before I got the letter that changed my world, I didn't really think far ahead into the future. Sure, I knew that one day I'd be able to leave my Aunt and Uncle, but I didn't really plan much further than that.

I certainly didn't think I'd ever be fighting off a knife-wielding Muggle in a public toilet by a Council Estate.

But hey, life throws these little surprises at you.

Y and I had gone into East London to investigate the potential hideout. And then, from nowhere, we were under attack.

It seemed surreal. Two boys no more than sixteen, accompanied by a man who looked as he'd only just celebrated his twentieth birthday, were trying to attack us.

One of the boys pulled a knife from his jacket, and jabbed it in Y's direction. In a lightning-fast movement, Y stepped forward, grabbed the boy's wrist, and twisted it so the knife was pointing at his throat. One sudden jerk upwards, and the boy toppled over.

With a yell, the man went for him, but I didn't have time to watch. The other boy, facing me, fumbled for for a knife tucked inside his jersey. I didn't wait, and tackled him low around the waist, my shoulder driving into his stomach. His back hit the wall, knocking the wind out of him, as the knife clattered to the floor. Remembering the combat training I'd been given, I swung a kick at it, sending it skittering away, before driving an elbow into his nose.

It broke with a distinctive crack, sending blood pouring from his nostrils, and just as he yelled in pain, I slammed his head into the wall, dazing him. He struggled against me, but I pulled his head back twice more to smash against the wall before he went limp.

I got up, wiping my hands on my clothes, before turning to see Y holding the last assailant face down in a wash basin with one hand, and turn the tap on with the other.

The water ran into the basin, and I knew the man was going to drown to death at Y's hands. I watched grimly as the struggle went on, the man's body writhing against Y's terrible grip, but to no avail.

After too long, it was done. Y let go of his attacker, and the body slid to the floor.

"Did you kill him?" asked Y, looking at the boy who had attacked me.

"Knocked out."

Y grunted, and led the way out of the toilet.

I felt a strange sense of pity for my assailants as we left.

They never had a chance.

Shortly, we arrived at the Estate.

We reached a staircase and quickly ascended up to the fourth floor.

Using Sirius' knife, I hastily picked the lock on the door. Y tested the handle once, then burst inside, wand at the ready.

He paused, and then lit his wand.

"Doesn't look like there's any magic. Place looks like it's been abandoned for a month. Dammit!"

I followed him inside. The dingy flat stank.

"Check the rooms."

I crossed over to the bedrooms as Y rummaged through the kitchen. The first room was empty save a mouldy mattress. I went to the second room, and as I opened the door, I heard a rattling noise. This room was empty save a wardrobe in the corner.

It was the same distinct rattle that I had first heard so many years ago, in a Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom with Remus.

It was a Boggart.

With a flick of my wand, I unlatched the wardrobe door.

The swirl of grey mist rushed at me, taking form. A figure materialised, and to my horror, I came face to face …

… with myself.

I re-entered the kitchen.

"Anything?" asked Y, still searching through cupboards.

"A Boggart. I banished it," I replied simply.

I did not tell him what I had seen, what form the Boggart took.

I did not tell him that it had become me.

Y slammed a cupboard door shut in disgust.

"Come on, let's go. There's nothing else here."

Ginny

"Miss Weasley, a word please," said Professor McGonagall, pulling me aside in the corridor.

"Sure, Professor."

She led the way to her office, as I wondered what she wanted to discuss with me.

We entered, and I took a seat, noticing how it looked similar to the way Dumbledore had kept it, except the Quidditch trophy was proudly displayed on a stand on the left.

"Miss Weasley, I wanted to talk to you about your career prospects. It occurred to me that I haven't spoken to you about them since your fifth year. I am correct in saying that you were unsure of what exactly you wanted to do, but it was your dream to play Quidditch, am I not?'

"Yes, Professor," I replied, impressed by her keen memory.

"Have you considered the matter further?"

Did I want to play Quidditch professionally?

Yes.

And I could say that without a moment's hesitation.

James Potter and Harry had both made the same sacrifice - giving up Quidditch dreams to fight for the wizarding world against Voldemort.

I didn't have to make that choice.

"Yes, Professor. I want to play professionally."

She smiled in approval.

"Win the Cup, Miss Weasley, and you may find yourself just doing that."

Harry

"The Wizengamot is called to order!"

Concealed by my Invisibility Cloak, I took a seat high in the gallery where I could watch the proceedings. We'd arrived back not ten minutes ago, and had snuck into the Wizengamot Chamber.

"The Minister has been requested to make a statement in the interests of the public good, and he will now do so."

Kingsley stood and cleared his throat.

"Assembled members of the Wizengamot, I wish to update you on several matters since the Atrium bombings. An investigative report headed by the Auror Office is currently in progress. Furthermore, we have tested new, stringent security measures in prominent Wizarding locations, including Diagon Alley and Platform 9¾."

"I'd like to specifically address the use of a particular ward, Dar-jach. Let me reassure you that Dar-jach, firstly, is not Dark Magic. It is a Restricted Class One cursive ward."

"It's oppressive magic!"

"Oppressive? If you don't intend to commit a crime, then the worst it'll give you is a headache. Oppressive would be gangs of Legilimens prowling the streets! The MLE implemented the use of the Dar-jach ward because they believed that it would offer the best guarantee of protection, and I do not believe we should offer the Wizarding families of Britain anything but the very best!"

A lean looking Councillor stood. "This is ridiculous, Kingsley! We don't believe for one second that this ward would be necessary if you hadn't done your job properly in the first place!"

"You go too far!"

"Come on, Harry, we need to debrief with X," Y whispered. "Leave them to their petty squabbles."

Leaving the Chamber, we made our way back to the Department of Mysteries, and I pulled up a chair as Y made tea in a kitchenette in one of the offices.

"What did X do in the war?" I asked, wondering inwardly why I'd never questioned Y about it before.

"Kept his head low in the Department of Mysteries. Protecting the Secrets had to be his main priority. But I understand that a number people had unfortunate accidents when they got too curious."

"What about you?"

"Spent most of it smuggling refugees across the Channel to France and then to Italy."

"Italy?"

"Voldemort's reach extended beyond Britain and Ireland. Even Germany could be dangerous."

"How did you get them out?"

"Muggle transport."

"Through the tunnel?"

"Nah, mostly in shipping containers. It was the best way of getting past the Snatchers. We'd load families into containers, and I'd clear the docks of any Snatchers keeping watch. I knew a Muggle Captain who had married a witch - so he knew of our world. He ferried me across the Channel more times than I could count."

"Where did you land in France?" I was curious to know more.

"Calais. At first," Y replied, and there was a hint of regret in his voice. "Then we lost a family in an ambush. From then on we smuggled them onto the beaches at Normandy."

He fell silent, and I knew he wouldn't tell me anything else.

The silence was interrupted by X, walking into the office.

"Find anything?"

"We happened across a trace of magic in a public loo," I supplied.

"And?"

"Some Muggles tried to mug us," added Y.

"You're joking."

"They're nothing to worry about now."

X grunted in understanding.

Y continued.

"We then found the flat. It'd been abandoned for a long time. Only thing left was a Boggart."

"Fuck."

We were all silent for a moment, then X spoke up again.

"Stay ready. I'm going to check a couple of sources. We may not be out of luck just yet."

Ginny

"What did McGonagall want to talk to you about?" asked Hermione when I met her for dinner.

"Quidditch...she reckons that if I play my cards right, I could join the League out of Hogwarts."

"Really? Ginny, that's brilliant!" she exclaimed.

I grinned.

"My brothers will be mad."

She laughed. "I think they'll be very proud. We need Quidditch, Ginny. It's one of the few comforts our world has right now."

I poured myself a drink from a pitcher of pumpkin juice, and took a sip as I mulled over McGonagall's words.

Harry

I was just finishing dinner with Y when X returned.

"We've got another lead. This came through the Auror Office."

"Can't they take care of it?"

"They'll follow up. We get the fun part."

X conjured a shimmering three-dimensional model of the safe house in the air.

"It's warded, and there are a number of traps around the perimeter. This is definitely the place."

"Wards haven't stopped us before," said Y.

"But it'll slow us down," I said.

"Exactly," said X. "That's why we're going in -" he made a motion with his wand, "- like this."

Y let out a low whistle.

"We leave tonight. Get ready," said X.

I gave him a curt nod and began my preparations.

Ginny

I couldn't sleep.

McGonagall's words to me earlier had set my heart racing.

To play in the League would be a dream come true.

Yawning, I glanced at my watch. 2:37 am. Moonlight streamed through the crack between the curtain and the wall.

And as they had done on so many sleepless nights, my thoughts drifted to Harry. Where was he? What was he doing? Somewhere, out there, was he tossing and turning, thinking of me?

Banishing all thoughts of Harry from my mind, I tried to get to sleep.

A thousand feet in the air above Essex, three men clad in cloaks and black dragonhide brought their brooms to a slow hover in the sky.

One of the men held a hand up, then gestured with three fingers.

Three.

Two.

One.

Without hesitation, the three men leapt off their brooms, cloaks billowing as they plummeted in freefall towards the earth.

Harry

As the air shrieked past my ears, I glanced at my watch. It was 2:37 am.

The plan was simple. They would not expect an aerial assault.

As we fell, I reached for my wand and tore it from the holster on my leg, seeing X and Y do the same from the corner of my eye.

We had only been falling for a few seconds, and already the ground was rushing towards us.

A red light flashed from Y's wand.

That would give us a window to burst through the ward surrounding the house.

At the last possible moment, X gave us the second signal.

"Arresto Momentum!"

I felt my stomach lurch in my chest as we jolted to a halt, a mere three feet above the rooftop of the safe house.

Y let out a string of expletives under his breath.

I clambered over to the edge of the roof, and checking to make sure I wasn't being watched, flicked open a window with my wand. Y climbed through it as I covered him, and then followed him. X quickly joined us.

We were in.

"No survivors," murmured X.

This wasn't reconnaissance.

This was revenge.

"Might as well let them know they've got company," said Y dryly.

The first three opponents we encountered as we moved deeper into the safe house were stripped of their wands in an instant, and before surprise could even register on their faces, Killing Curses had ended their lives.

A couple more took cover beside a staircase. With a twirl of his wand, X conjured a malicious fire that flushed them out.

No longer concerned with stealth, we made our way through the house to shouting and screams. With clinical precision, we shielded and cursed as a unit, cutting a swathe through black robed figures.

It was textbook in every single way.

"Downstairs!" shouted X.

We made our way to another staircase. Suddenly, shards of white light ricocheted around us, and we dove for cover. A beam of light grazed my arm, and I winced.

"You good?" asked Y.

I gave a grim nod, and summoned blue lightning that tore a hole through our attackers.

My partners dispatched the remaining assailants, and I spotted an entrance to the basement level. I led the way, pausing only to strike green light into a Death Eater trying in vain to reach his wand.

As I entered the basement I saw the cauldrons.

Dozens of them, filled to the brim with a bubbling mixture that let off a cloud of steam.

Demolition Draught.

"Shit…" said X, a wary expression on his face as he inspected a cauldron. "Left to mature, there'd be enough here to level Diagon Alley."

"I'd like to know where they got the ingredients. At least half are restricted substances."

"Reserves from the war?"

"Maybe."

X shrugged.

"No use staying here."

We had done what we came to do.

I tugged a boot off one of the Death Eaters who had been one of the last to fall. It would be our ride home.

"Portus."

I placed my hand on the boot-turned-Portkey, and Y did the same. X was the last to grab the Portkey, and yelled"Incendio!" as he did.

The cauldrons detonated in a fiery blast into the space around us as we vanished into thin air, leaving only destruction in our wake.

In the frosty dawn, Amy Rogers walked through the rubble of the ruined house. Several blackened skeletons were littered about the site. There were a number of deep craters in the ground ahead.

"Auror Rogers?"

She turned to see a trainee approach her.

"You've got a message from London."

"Yeah?"

"They're saying to call it in. Kingsley is going to announce that an accident with the Demolition Draught caused the house to explode as the Aurors were circling it.

"But we were nowhere near it!"

The trainee shrugged. "That's what I was told to pass onto you."

Amy sighed.

"Let the others know we're done here."

The trainee nodded and left the Auror to her thoughts.

This hadn't been an accident. Deep down, she knew it. The Death Eaters who orchestrated the attack on the Ministry wouldn't be so careless around Demolition Draught. She never underestimated her enemies.

Someone had been here. Someone had done this.

But who? Who was capable of such desolation?

Only one came to mind...and he had died months ago at the hands of Harry Potter.

Harry

"Cries of jubilation rang out at the announcement that the terrorists responsible for the Atrium Attacks had been dealt justice. Minister Shacklebolt would not go into specific details, but praised the Auror Department's hard work in tracking down those responsible. He added that the terrorists, with several Death Eaters among them, had fought to the death, not willing to surrender -"

I switched off the wireless, and lay down on my bed in the sparse room I called home, deep below London. Only five people knew the truth of what had happened.

Vengeance from the skies above, I thought to myself.

We cannot lose.

Try as we might.

Though many of our politicians are so stupid, so cowardly, as to all but guarantee defeat …

Though we face fanatical psychopaths who revel in destruction and the arcane …

Though the people we are meant to be saving are torn apart with fear …

Though we do things that will stain our souls forever …

We cannot lose.

Because one day, this war will be over.

And when it is over, when we finally lower our wands, and no longer command Death to do our bidding –

No one – no one – in Magical Britain, or the entire Wizarding World, will look at what is left of the enemy –

And think that it is smart to fuck with us.

Please, please review! I don't have to tell you how much it helps to get feedback :)

Dar-jach is an exploration of privacy versus security - how far do we go invading personal liberty in the name of safety?