A/N: Chap 31 review responses available in my forum.
As for this chapter...Look! Acromantulas!
Chapter Thirty-Two: Culling
Amelia Bones woke with a start as she felt the sharp tingle of her wards waking her.
She and her niece lived in a modest terrace home on the outskirts of London. On the outside, the home looked just like the other thousand square feet homes that lined the street, with a few dozen feet of garden in back. On the inside of her particular home, the area was expanded to perhaps two-thousand square feet, which was more than enough for two women—one, now that Susan had bonded.
She chose to live in Muggle London because of the anonymity it provided to her and Susan. She had vivid memories of watching Bones Manor burning at the end of the last war, when between the Dark Covens and Voldemort it seemed as if the whole world would tear itself apart.
Her terrace home, though not as lavish as the last Bones Manor, was very heavily warded. Those wards told her that someone magical was approaching, and that they were injured.
She climbed fully dressed in her brown, personal battle robes from bed with her wand in hand and ran down the stairs to the ground floor to wait by the door. Since the Patronus message from Dumbledore warning her to be ready, she had slept the past two nights fully dressed and ready for a fight.
When she arrived at her front door, she heard a dull thud like someone falling against her door. She peeked out her bay window, and cursed before running back to the door and opening it.
Nymphadora Tonks spilled onto the floor. The young witch's face looked bloodied and bruised, and her red Auror robes were torn and crisped by spell fire. Amelia dragged her into the house before closing and securing the home wards again. Before speaking to her, or trying to find how badly she was hurt, Amelia performed a revealing spell.
She cursed again when she saw the tracking spells that covered the young woman. She made quick work of them, but the damage was done. Still cursing, she jumped back to her feet and slapped her hand onto a checker-board of rune-stones hung by her kitchen wall.
Suddenly the whole home blurred as items began flying through the air and into two large trunks that moments ago were decorations in her parlour. Even her furniture and appliances flew into the trunks, until in the course of just minutes all trace of the Bones family was gone, even the expansion charms themselves. The home looked small and cramped compared to how it looked just moments before.
She had the trunks Portkeyed to the safe house when her wards tingled again—this time there was more than just one witch-born coming. She leaned down and cast an Ennervate on Tonks. The younger Auror cried out in pain, and then saw Amelia with blurry eyes. "Oh Morgana, no! No! Get out, Amelia! Get out, they…"
"Shush, I know," Amelia whispered. "They're coming right now. Can you walk?"
"I think so," Tonks muttered.
Amelia assisted her subordinate up, and the two walked to the fireplace. It took only a flash of white fire to determine that the Floo was disconnected. The white indicated that any attempt to enter would have burned both women badly. "Well, that's out. Portkey it is."
Only, her emergency Portkey did not work. In the time between sending her trunks and testing the Floo, the approaching magicals managed to throw up an anti-Portkey ward. She didn't even bother cursing herself—she should have known better, or gone faster. Those few seconds might end up costing both women their lives.
"Can you Apparate?" she said raggedly.
Tonks shook her head. With a sigh, Amelia gathered her wits and attempted to Apparate, only to feel a sharp pain of rebuffed magic. She didn't think it would work, but believed in exhausting all options before taking drastic action. "Well, that's not good," she muttered. "Who are we up against, Tonks? Who did this?"
"Hit Witches," Tonks whispered, looking as if she were fading again. "They came into the department in force. Moody held them off so the rest of us could escape." She sobbed. "They killed him, Amelia. They killed Moody ... Said they had a warrant for you for sedition."
The wards told her that there were at least a dozen witches gathering outside her home now, and they were aggressively attacking the wards themselves with sappers. "No help for it. Come on." With her wand, Amelia vanished a thin line of wall between two studs of wood that separated her house from her neighbour's home. Given the late hour, the neighbours were asleep and did not bother her as she and Tonks squeezed through the studs. She cast a simple reparo and the wall was restored back to its original condition as if she never cast magic on it.
Crossing the cluttered living area of her neighbour's home, she repeated the trick with their far wall as well. In fact, she dragged Tonks through six houses before she reached the end of that row. Still, she could feel the faint tingle of magic alerting her to the Portkey and apparition jinx.
"They're good," she muttered grudgingly. From behind the front door of the last home on the row, she cast a revelio and saw that only one Hit Witch waited at the corner of the last house on the block. The rest were further down the block, still demolishing Amelia's powerful wards.
"No help for it," she whispered. "TOnks, you ready?"
Amelia pursed her lips when she saw Tonks had passed out again. She placed the auror gently on the floor and cast a disillusionment charm over herself. Now invisible, Amelia moved to a window on the side facing the street, cast a silencing charm, and then opened the window.
Unfortunately, the last house on the row happened to have a Muggle alarm system. The wailing cry of the alarm blew any chance of stealth Amelia might have had. The decision removed from her, she dove out of the window with wand blazing. Even so, her disillusionment charm gave her some protection as the Hit Witch at the corner had to cast a revealing spell first, while Amelia was able to cast a powerful bone breaker at the woman's head.
The Hit Witch's head suddenly disfigured with a sickening crack; she fell twitching and dying to the ground. Inside the house, she heard people screaming, probably because of finding a bloodied and now unconscious Auror on their floor. Further up the street, the main force of Hit Witches gave up on sapping Amelia's wards and came running.
Running out of time, Amelia raised her wand and summoned Tonks with every erg of power she could muster. The loose-limbed Auror flew out of the house through the same open window she used, accompanied by the shouts of alarm from the residents. Further away, Amelia could hear sirens from Muggle emergency services and police.
Cradling Tonks in her arms and grateful for the odd aspect of magic that made witches feel lighter to those who intended to help them, Amelia ran away from the row of terrace houses until the tingle of the jinx disappeared. She barely even bothered to stop before she Disapparated away.
~~Firebird~~
~~Firebird~~
Sybil Trelawney woke with a moan of pain and felt at the blood running from her nose. Unlike Harry and his wives, Sybil knew almost at the beginning of the year that her sanctuary in Hogwarts would end soon. Her friendship with Lily was too well known to too many people for her not to be a target.
Like many of the students, Sybil was severely beaten, subjected to Veritaserum, and—unlike the students—held under the Cruciatus curse for several minutes. Fortunately, she dosed herself with potions before and after, reducing what would have been permanently debilitating nerve damage to mild damage that left only a minimal tremor in her left hand.
Not for the first time, she wished Arabella were here.
The worst part was that she knew it was coming, but dared not leave the castle. Dumbledore actually came to the Divination Tower the night before the raid. "They've discovered Harry's group," the old wizard told her in the privacy of her quarters.
"How?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but Mr MacMillan died tonight. Professor Sprout is very upset, but so far we have been unable to locate him. The last she knew of his whereabouts, he was scheduled for a detention with Professor Black. Before I could question her, I received word from Ogden that the Elders of the Wizengamot have been ordered home by their Dames, and that the Sabbat will be moving on the castle tomorrow."
"What will you do?" Sybil asked, fighting the surge of fear in her chest.
"Whatever I must to protect Harry," the old wizard said. "I must have your word that you will do the same."
"You have it. Who else is with us?"
"I've intentionally left Minerva out of my circle to protect her," Dumbledore said. "In fact, I've intentionally kept most of the staff out of our plans. All save Severus…Severus will do what he can."
"Until Rolanda stops him," Sybil said, unable to hide her bitterness. She and Rolanda Hooch were friends once, before she became a tool for the Sabbat to control Severus Snape.
Dumbledore shrugged, and said, "Great towers are made from little bricks. We will do what we can with what we have. Tell me, Sybil—what have you seen of yourself?"
Sybil shuddered. "I see nineteen stars in a circle all around me, on the path to Hogwarts."
Dumbledore nodded grimly. "Be safe, my dear."
However, she never had a chance to be safe. After Dumbledore's dramatic and completely fictional confession and departure, Hit Witches locked the castle down. She and all the other staff members were rounded up just like the students were and were questioned with Veritaserum. It was a mark of Dumbledore's foresight that most of the staff were honestly able to say they knew nothing of his "army". Those two staff members who knew in detail were the two who had mastered Occlumency sufficiently, and had good enough potions knowledge, to overcome the truth potion.
Snape was let go after the potion because of his marriage to Hooch, and his status of head of Slytherin. The fiction he maintained of hating Potter helped as well.
Sybil, though… she was not let go, not until Umbridge made certain she knew the Sabbat's position on witches who allowed themselves to bond with female squibs. When they were done with her, they threw her back into her tower with two broken legs and something important bleeding inside her. She crawled to the potions kit in her room, passing out twice in the process, before she was able to start dosing herself.
She knew it was only a matter of time before they killed her. She didn't know specifically—Seers never could see the exact moment of their deaths, but they could see the circumstances leading up to it. Lily told her she saw the point where Voldemort killed James and came after her and Harry, but she never saw herself struck down. Sybil saw a squad of Hit Witches surrounding her in the Forbidden Forest, and nothing after that.
The night of the O.W.L. examination, she lay in her bed with a charmed mirror, talking to Arabella. Her lover of many years looked sick with worry. "They moved on Amelia tonight," the squib was telling her. "She and Tonks made it to the headquarters, but Tonks is in a bad way. Kingsley and Emmeline escaped too, but old Alastor died when they took the Ministry. The Wizengamot has been dismissed entirely."
Sybil nodded soberly. "I wish I could say I liked the man."
"Moody was a bit of a bastard, he was," Arabella said. "He kicked one of my kneazles once. Hated the animals."
"Bastard."
Arabella said nothing for a moment as she gazed at the mirror. "Sybil, you need to leave. Can you get out of the castle at all?"
"They took my wand," Sybil said with a sad smile.
Arabella sobbed before looking away from the mirror. Before she could say anything else, Sybil heard a loud, thudding knock on her door. "I love you so much, my Bella, my heart," Sybil said, before she deactivated the mirror. She placed it in her packed trunk—all of her belongings were packed. If nothing else, it would make it easier for Minerva to have the place cleaned out after she was dead.
She walked gingerly to the door and opened it. Even with potions to help her heal, she still hurt badly all over.
As expected, a squad of ten women in black robes, each with a badge that had nineteen stars in a circle at their breasts, stood outside. Without waiting, the leader of the Hit Witches stepped into the room, followed by the rest. They scanned first the classroom, then her personal quarters.
"Sybil Trelawney, you are under arrest for sedition and acts against magic," the lead Hit Witch said. "You are to come with me now."
Another witch shrank her trunk and stuffed it in one of the many pockets of her black robe. Sybil herself did not resist as they marched her out of the tower and down into the main passageway of the castle toward the carriage entrance. The castle seemed so empty and hollow, with all the students either evacuated or held in their dorms.
"Bloody wards," one of the witches muttered as they began the long walk across the causeway over one of the many craggy valleys that helped make Hogwarts such a powerful fortress in times past.
"Shut it," the squad leader said. "We take the prisoner through the forest until we reach Hogsmeade, and by then we'll get out of these wards."
Sybil tried not to smile—a final gift of the headmaster was to shut down all of the castle's Floo connections and extend the anti-apparition and anti-Portkey wards out to the furthest limits of the castle grounds. The result was that the Minister of Magic himself had to walk several miles before he could Apparate back to London.
"So are you going to kill me in the forest?" Sybil said, trying to force a light tone she most definitely did not feel.
The fact no one answered was in itself an answer. The forest it was, then. The Forbidden Forest wasn't the most beautiful place to die, but it was better than being stuck in a tower. "So, if you plan on killing me while I try to escape, I should let you know that I'm not really able to run right now. Still a bit rough around the edges from the torture, you see."
"Shut it, traitor," the lead said.
Sybil looked back into the woman's eyes and magic, and then blinked back a brief vision and the accompanying headache. "Oh goodness, you're going to die very soon, did you know that? A horrible death."
"I said shut up!" the squad leader said, though her eyes widened.
"I'm sorry, but it really is terrible," Sybil said. "I am a licensed seer, so I know."
"What gets her?"
The squad leader looked at the other Hit Witch who spoke and glared. "Shut your yap, you stupid cunt!"
Sybil, though, said, "I believe she's going to get eaten by a giant spider."
The other Hit Witches laughed nervously. "Hear that, Danica? You're going to be eaten by a big, bloody spider."
"And you're going to get fucked in the ass by a centaur," the squad leader named Danica said.
"No," Sybil said in a quiet, confident tone, "I do believe Mary there is also going to be eaten by a spider."
"How do you know my name?" Mary demanded. They were just now entering the past through the forest to Hogsmeade.
"Why, the others scream for you when the spiders attack," Sybil said with a tight smile.
And that's when the giant spider attacked—a massive acromantula the size of a horse lunged out of the treeline and stabbed its two gleaming, dripping fangs into the Hit Witch's shoulders on either side of her head and picked her bodily off the ground.
"Mary!" Danica and the other witches screamed. As terrifying as the acromantula was, witches too were fearful creatures. The nine remaining Hit Witches brandished their wands and summoned great, searing gouts of fire of such intensity the flame was white-hot. Mary screamed one last time before nine streams of white-hot flame burned through the giant spider. It died instantly, dropping the now lifeless witch in the process.
Danica rushed forward to the witch's side, but there was nothing they could do. She stood, eyes blazing.
"I warned you," Sybil said. "It is the curse of many seers not to be believed, sadly."
And that's when a second spider, not as large as the first but still larger than the witch, jumped down from the trees on top of her. It sank its fangs into the woman's chest even as her companions once again lashed out with fire spells.
This time, though, something changed the equation. One witch's shouts of anger were cut off abruptly as a giant club struck her. The other witches turned in horror to see her fly into a tree so hard and fast that, even with her native magic to protect her, her back and neck snapped like a twig.
They turned and saw a sight that made every witch there cringe in terror.
Rubeus Hagrid stood before them wearing only a pair of breeches, with a witch-sized club in his right hand. His torso was thickly matted with black hair, so much so she could barely tell where his beard ended and his chest hair began. His thickly muscled arms bulged, and his beady brown eyes burned angrily.
"That there girl is 'Arry's friend," the huge half-giant bellowed. "Nobody touches 'er!"
The witches started cursing, but while they knew how to deal with acromantula, half-breed giants were a different thing entirely. Hagrid had a wizard's magic, though small and diffused. He also had a giant's skin; between them he shrugged off most of the curses as if they were nothing, and ignored those more powerful curses that actually hurt him as he charged forward with his club.
At the same time, four more acromantula charged out of the trees. Hardened Hit Witches screamed in terror when they realized they could not escape. Three tried to turn and run, but acromantulas could move astonishingly fast and hunted them down, while the remaining five fought a losing battle against Hagrid and the giant spiders.
When the last stopped struggling, one of the spiders moved toward Sybil, only to stop when Hagrid stepped in front of her. "My friend," he said.
The spider reared up, its legs and fangs twitching. "Food." Its voice sounded like the rasp of air and the click of mandibles.
"Friend," Hagrid insisted.
The spider, twice Sybil's size, dropped back down. "Friend," it agreed.
Sybil could not help but shudder as the spiders managed with frightening dexterity to strip the battle-robes off the women and then carried them into the forest. When they were gone, she walked over and recovered several of the wands, testing them until she found a Ravenclaw wand that suited her better; she then summoned her trunk from the pocket of one of the discarded robes, before she gathered the robes themselves. Battle-robes were valuable, and she was sure they would come in handy.
"Dumbledore told me to do this," Hagrid said.
She turned, astonished to see tears in his small eyes. "Never 'urt nobody, not ever," he continued, sobbing. "'Ee said 'Arry would want me to. Lily too. Said I needed to save yer for 'Arry's sake. Dem witches, they screamed a lot."
The gentle giant sobbed again, head bowed.
Sybil stepped to his side and patted the bulge of his huge, hairy forearm, which actually was at face level to her. "Hagrid, thank you for saving my life. You are going to have to hide now, though, do you realize that?"
"Oh, that's never no mind," the half-giant said. Then: "I hit that witch with me club, and she screamed."
"Hagrid, you saved my life," Sybil said. "You're a hero. I know this is hard for you, because you are such a good person you don't want to hurt anyone, but they were going to kill me. They were going to kill me within minutes. You really did save me."
Hagrid sobbed again, but then nodded. "Right, well, ye better get moving, then. Profess'r Lupin's up in Hogsmeade, waiting for yer."
"Are you going to be okay, Hagrid?"
"Sure and why not? Got me a nice cave 'n all, in the forest, and the acromantula and me, we got this understandin', see? I'll be fine, I will."
"Thank you, Hagrid," Sybil said. On an impulse, she grabbed his beard and yanked him down until she was able to plant a kiss on his cheek. "You go hide now, and be safe."
Blushing so bright his skin almost glowed, Hagrid nodded before he turned and lumbered back into the line of trees and the protective shadows. When he was gone, Sybil cast a Disillusionment charm on herself and walked toward Hogsmeade, moving as fast as her still recuperating legs would take her. The bones were healed because of the Skele-Gro, but the surrounding tissue was still recovering, as was whatever internal damage she had.
By the time she reached Hogsmeade, she was drenched in sweat and trembling with the effort of the walk. She stayed in the back alleys and shadows even with her disillusionment charms, and made her way to the Hogs Head.
Aberforth Dumbledore sat on the back covered porch of the tavern, smoking a long pipe while rocking quietly. The man's robes looked drab, stained and threadbare—the complete antithesis of his brother.
"Abe," she whispered.
"Keep whispering," the old wizard said. "My wives are inside working, but there's Hit Witches here too."
"Where's Albus?"
"Up at the castle, I imagine. Said he had some minor tasks to attend to."
The old man stood with a variety of creaking joints. Like Albus, he was well over two and a quarter centuries old, and it showed in how he moved. Even when walking, there was a stillness about the old wizard. "Stay disillusioned," he ordered.
He held the door open and stepped into the dingy, poorly lit interior. He threw the door open and let it slam shut of its own accord, giving Sybil time to slip inside. Immediately she saw three black-clad Hit Witches sitting in a corner. Aberforth ignored them as he walked to the bar where one of his wives was working.
While sometimes bonded matches worked out, in fact most wizards ended up miserable. Aberforth was one of those wizards—he hated his wives, and they hated him. However, it was an old, comfortable hate. It also meant that he could not openly help Sybil because his wives would be the first to turn on him.
Still, the opening gave her a chance to scan the interior. Not finding Remus, she moved into the back storerooms until she came into one darkened, empty room that held nothing but shadow. One of the shadows sniffed. "Sybil?" Remus Lupin whispered.
"I'm here."
"Thank Merlin," the werewolf said. "The Sabbat is culling the whole of magical England. Come on, let's go."
She watched as Remus stepped to a portrait of a beautiful, happy young girl in a dress from eighteenth century. The girl smiled and curtseyed to them before the portrait opened, revealing a bricked passage.
Once inside, Sybil let her disillusionment charm fail. "Where does this lead?"
"The edge of the town wards," Remus said. "While it was officially Minister Scrimgeour that ordered the town's apparition points controlled, it was obviously the Sabbat that put him up to it. Are you okay?"
"I will be," Sybil said. "Any word on Harry or others?"
Remus, looking worried, shook his head. "Albus has gone to fetch them, but the castle is locked down tight. I just hope…well, come on. Arabella is waiting for you."
Sybil tried not to smile—she knew it was terribly inappropriate. But she suddenly realized that she wasn't going to die after all, and in fact was only a short jump away from seeing the woman she loved. "Good. Let's get moving."
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Author's Note: Very special thanks as always to Teufel1987, JR and Miles for beta reading. If there are any major faux-pas, they are entirely of my own doing.