Chapter 3 The Calm in the Storm

"Sorry, cabbage head. But I don't know you. And you don't know me."

Harry reeled at the strangeness of hearing an older version of Draco Malfoy's voice speak without the aristocratic posh drawl that had distinguished his speech back in Hogwarts. Instead, he rolled the "r"s and didn't quite pronounce the "t"s. In place of the drawl, was a cool, low, almost laconic tone that spoke of a hardened soldier with no patience for bullshit.

It can't be him, Harry told himself, despite the striking resemblance. There were more important matters to deal with anyway. As quickly as he had been taken aback, Harry focused up.

"Right," he told V. "Sorry. You resemble someone I once knew."

V smirked. "Musta been one fine-looking sonuva bitch. He left quite an impression."

Despite all his training, at the sight of that smirk, Harry's focus dropped again and he could not help but to repeat the question in his mind, Is it him, though?! He stared.

V saw this and seemed amused by it. His narrow gaze rounded slightly and his lips quirked. Only thing about his face that was sharp was the point of his nose. His chin dipped a little beneath a shemagh scarf, but Harry could still tell it was narrow and would have been pointed if his face had been thinner. Everything else underneath the straps of the high-cut helmet and headset was rounder, cheeks fuller. Fine-looking indeed, even with the scars.

Kareem cleared his throat. "Harry, Thomas is still out there with Rozarin and we can't capture any Daesh without the women."

Bill chortled with a grin, "Right, boss. You can flirt with your long-lost boyfriend later."

At the sound of Harry's name, V's humor quickly dropped, once again all cold eyes and hard lines. The experienced sleuth in Harry took note of that. He'd chew himself later for not changing his first name. There were so many Harrys in the UK but if V was indeed Malfoy then it would be easy to make a connection through the disillusionment charm - even see through it.

"Roza should be fine. Tangos in those streets have been cleared," said V cooly. "If there are any stragglers, she will deal with them."

"Right then," said Harry. "He informed V of their mission. Then added, "Aryan asked us to support you, but it is crucial we capture one alive."

V looked over at Harry's men, then back at him and nodded approval.

When Harry turned, he saw the look on Gary's face as he stared at V. Son of muggles and first wizard of his family, Gary had been a First Year when the Carrows were at Hogwarts. Was likely to remember Malfoy well. Bad experiences stayed fresh in the mind, more than good ones. A survival instinct developed over millions of years of evolution that served them now.

"We'll have to corner a group of them," said V. "I'll keep'em pinned while Roza and her fighters surround them. I'll need someone to cover my six."

"I can help with that," Harry replied. Turning to Kareem, he ordered him to take command of the team when the time came. Kareem knew the drill.

His Second gave a nod with a "Copy that," and glanced over at the younger men.

When he looked back at V he noticed a strange look on his face. He was expressionless but his stare was a bit more fixated on Harry than should have been the norm. Harry ignored it. "You know the conditions. What's the plan?"

As if waking from a spell, V suddenly looked away and requested they help him gather objects from around the former office. He, then, laid the objects on the dirt-strewn floor. It was a layout of the crucial parts of town, where hostiles were or may be, and the best route to use for their objective. V's strategy was a simple one, based on what he knew of the enemy in the area.

A broken mug indicated the building V wanted to use. "A lot of its facade is destroyed. I can position myself here." He pointed at the electric pencil sharpener that represented the building across the street. "Your job is to hem them in here." He tapped the right edge of the mug, near the chip. "An exposed room on the second floor to the north corner of the building. Then let Roza and her fighters do the rest."

When he finished, V said, "But first, I want to clear the buildings nearby. They like to lay ambushes. And don't underestimate Daesh. They are just as intelligent and capable as you."

Harry wanted to frown but kept his expression neutral. It was as if V didn't think Harry and his team had experience fighting ISIS. "We know," is all he said.

V looked away momentarily as if to hide what he really thought. "What should I call you guys?"

"I'm Havoc One. This," he motioned at Kareem, "is Havoc Two." Pointed at Gary and Bill, "Three and Five."

V nodded once. "Copy that, Havoc One. Let's roll."

"War on terror," Harry offered playfully.

V gave him a dark grin and answered, "War on terror." There was even a slight southern accent to that.

Merlin, he is such a Yank, thought Harry as they moved out.

The Draco Malfoy he remembered would never be…this. A mercenary cooly operating in the middle of chaos and death. A muggle sniper who only moments ago tactically planned to end the lives of other men. The calm in the storm.

But they were thirty-four year old men now. Men who had their adolescence stolen by atrocities; scarred and hardened. Fourteen years since Malfoy was taken. Freshly twenty years old at the time - still a kid. Likely tortured by Death Eaters and sold to another unsavory group by Tessa.

Tessa, now operating her human trafficking business within ISIS in Syria, where V just happened to operate as well. Vengeance was a powerful motivator that could push those who would otherwise have never taken up arms, to become ruthless killers.

The only thing that was throwing Harry off was V's personality and bearing. But if he shed his pre-conceptions of the Malfoy he once knew, and opened up the possibility that whatever Malfoy had suffered through in the last fourteen years had created this persona: V…then Harry's doubts near dissipated.

There was time to confront V another time. And certainly not in front of the other Aurors - especially Gary. Harry needed their heads in the game. And he needed them to trust V.

The street V had chosen was a few blocks away from the major fighting. It was lined with heavily destroyed apartment buildings on both sides. Harry hoped most of the civilians had been evacuated. When he mentioned this, V told him this part of the town had been under re-construction from a nasty attack the previous year and people weren't living here. The YPG had successfully redirected the terrorists towards this part of town, to allow a smooth evacuation in the populated neighborhoods.

The first building had been empty. V didn't know, but Harry used simple wandless charms to scan threats in the sector. The next building was a corner building. Lobby was clear. They filed in a line to go up a winding staircase, Kareem turned his body to have visual of the staircase above them. A tango appeared. He shot him twice in the chest. The terrorist crumbled and fell down the remaining steps unto the landing in between floors.

But now the element of surprise was gone. Shouts were heard. Harry led them quickly unto the landing, swiftly moving the corpse to the side, muttered the human revealing spell and was partway up the second set of steps when two more hostiles appeared from the corridor of the second floor. He knew they'd be there, so he killed the nearest one before he knew what happened, and Kareem took out the other almost simultaneously with perfect precision.

Aurors worked similarly through target buildings but with wands and spells. Even so, in a dual aiming mattered, just as in a firefight. Despite this, Harry had still made sure their weapon systems where charmed to hit their targets.

Harry and his team of Aurors were some of the most arduously trained in the department and the most experienced with working with muggles. Because the Wizarding domain was considerably less populated than the muggle one, and each witch and wizard was a potential threat always, armed with magic and a wand, they didn't have militaries.

Even so, the DMLE could be considered the umbrella equivalent of crime investigation, national defense, and counter-terrorism in the Wizarding world. Police and military. And with the two worlds steadily growing closer - one day even rejoining in co-existence, as Hermione predicted - Aurors had to have some experience with these sort of scenarios.

It wasn't often that they had to do this type of work, but Harry was proud of his team; Havoc Team. They operated like legitimate Royal Marines.

Harry and Kareem went into the first door to the right, checked their corners and went back out. Bill and Gary did the same with the room to the left while V made himself a smaller target by kneeling and held the corridor down.

Floor cleared, they stacked on the staircase again and proceeded to the third floor. On the landing, Kareem threw a flash grenade at the third floor before they swiftly ran up the last steps. The floor was opened so they spanned out to cover all corners. What rooms there used to be were damaged, some of the walls had collapsed or had gaping holes in them. They split into two groups, throwing flash grenades into uncleared sectors.

A terrorist appeared at the end of the broken corridor. V shot him once in the head.

Bill whistled. "Goldilocks over here is bloody good," he said.

"Keep the line clear of chatter," ordered Kareem through the comm.

Harry was with him, combing through the east wall with Gary. They could see the other two men through gaping holes in the walls as well as their glowing outlines with the human revealing spell. It was through this spell that Harry spotted a hostile creeping out from behind a massive wardrobe V was coming up on. He muttered a simple sticking charm to the enemy's feet.

He couldn't believe his luck and was about to tell Gary to capture him but V caught sight of the befuddled terrorist, who aimed his rifle at them, and quickly shot him.

He had been so focused on what was happening across the floor, he hadn't seen the outline of a hostile behind a wall of what should have been a hallway, aim his weapon through a hole right at Bill.

"Five, hostile at your six, behind the wall!" Gary whispered urgently. If V heard, he'd know something was strange. Without magic, Gary shouldn't have known that hostile was there.

Bill turned and downed the threat, his charmed bullets hitting his target through the hole.

V turned, raised his eyebrow at Bill. "Pretty good situational awareness there, tiger."

As Harry rejoined them, he could see Bill blush and grinned, giving V an affected cocky expression that looked too flirty for Harry's taste. This fucking kid, he thought. Later he would have to talk to him about crushing on mercenaries in the middle of a battle.

V smiled back and seemed amused, and that only rankled Harry more. "Focus up, Five!" He barked at Bill.

Kareem and Gary had gone ahead and taken the lead towards the final sector. Homenum Revelio had dissipated by now, but Harry didn't need it to remember there were four enemy combatants standing ready to shoot them down the minute they entered. The only one that didn't know was V.

Which is why, seeing them approach the door, he asked, "No flashbangs?" It could have been Harry's imagination, but V's tone sounded a tad bit mocking. The only thing missing in that sentence was a "Potter" spat at the end with a more British accent and then it definitely would have sounded like mockery.

Kareem glanced at him questioningly to which Harry nodded in affirmation. Harry opened the door a crack, Kareem threw the grenade. Right after the bang, Harry burst in and button hooked it to down the guy in the corner to his left, while Kareem took out the two straight ahead. Bill and Gary finished off the fourth.

V followed behind them, checking that they all finished the job, then straightened up and lowered his rifle. "Wow," he said. "Royal Marines don't play. You guys are better than I thought you'd be."

Again, Harry could almost pick out Malfoy's jeering behind all of that. Or perhaps it was all in his head. If V was indeed Mafloy, then he knew damn well they weren't special forces. Not muggle anyway.

Suddenly a shot whizzed by and almost hit V. The bullet put a hole in the concrete next to his head. It came through the window. They all ducked.

"Sniper!" Gary called out.

"V?" Harry yelled as he made his way over to the wall under the window.

V was already slinking towards Harry. They flanked the window and looked at each other. The sun was beginning to set and painted the clouds above pink and lavender. This glow was cast on V's face. And he shouldn't have been that beautiful. High-cut kevlar helmet. Scars. Hardened warrior expression. But his eyes were light silver in the sunset's rosy glow, adorned by the slightest of crows feet. His eyebrows looked even paler.

Another bullet got inbedded on the concrete of the window sill above them and brought Harry to reality. The fuck is up with me?

"Hang on," said V. Took out from his backpack what looked like a small periscope on an extendable stick. The minute he tried to raise it, however, another shot blasted the concrete off the edge of the wall across from them, nearly catching the top end of the periscope on its way.

Harry swore. He couldn't mutter the human revealing spell in front of V. There was no confirmation the mercenary was Malfoy and he still needed to abide by Wizarding laws.

Calmly, V looked at Bill where he crouched with Gary by the second window. "Hey, kid? Distract'em, for me?"

"Anything for you, Blondie." Bill removed his helmet and hung it on the tip of his rifle, then lifted it. Two shots, one caught his helmet, the other pierced the concrete on the window sill. He brought the rifle down.

It had given V enough time to raise the periscope again and get a glimpse at where their attacker was before a third shot caught the scope. V winced as he looked at his damaged equipment before discarding it on the dirt-strewn floor. "Saw one on the third window, floor , but I could barely see a meter into it. I think there's another in a room across the same floor. Probably first window, watching the crossroad."

Harry asked, "If we lay down some suppressive fire, you think you can hit them?"

V shook his head. "Don't got a good angle here. The roof'll be better but I'll be exposed."

"No good," pitched in Kareem. "Roof's exit is blocked by rubble."

Unfazed, V replied, "The building next door has an extra two stories, better vantage point."

Harry frowned. He wasn't about to let V go out there alone. "I'll come with you."

They crawled out, bypassing the second window where Gary took a peek and said, "Five fighters coming down the road."

"Bust'em," ordered Harry as he made his way out with V.

Gunshots blasted behind them as the Aurors opened fire. The snipers across the street returned it. They would be alright. Once V was out of hearing range, they could use magic. Not direct offensive magic on muggles, but support spells to give them the upper hand.

Harry followed V quickly down the stairs and out of the building, then into the next one. It was behind the other two and a few stories taller, so it would overlook them both. It had an enclosed stairway so they went straight up, all the way.

When they reached the roof, V dropped into an army crawl and Harry followed suit. They made their way towards the parapet wall that rimmed the edge. V peered over it to assess their position. "Shit. Not much point spotting here," he said as he removed the scope from his rifle. "Sun's facing right at us. They'll see the light reflect off the scopes. We got the drop on them, let's not fuck that up."

"Can you manage at this range?"

"Why not? Tons of guys have. You know Simo Hayha? Best sniper in history. Only ever used iron sights." He turned over and got into position, half prone, rifle set over the ledge.

Harry watched the sniper closely. V was the definition of cool and collected. Stony eyes peering through his iron sights, his finger, partially wrapped in sniper gloves, relaxed by the trigger. Still as a statue, even as gunfire and the occasional explosion sounded all around them.

Despite the chaos below, there was quietude on that roof. The world seemed to pause, even as it fell apart. He watched as V slowly moved his finger over the trigger. A moment. Then fired once. Moved the rifle slightly left. Fired again. This time, two quick consecutive shots. He brought the rifle back down and smirked at Harry. "Got em."

There's no way in hell that this sexy fucking badass is Draco sodding Malfoy, Harry thought.

V noticed the harshness in Harry's stare and his smirk vanished.

They were alone, just the two of them. And maybe it hadn't been the ideal moment but Harry doubted he'd find one. The moment to confront V was now or never.