Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to Harry Potter or Hellboy. All properties therein are those of their creators. I am only a writer working on my skills with worlds and characters that I love.
Note: The start of book two begins here! Keeping in mind this is the beginning it's going to be a lot of setup this chapter. The Golden Army will be covered in book three.
Note: Just watched the Hellraiser reboot on HULU and it was actually really good, so I plan to add a little something from it. It won't really affect the plot, but it's a fun reference.
Note: In case it isn't clearly implied, Olga's conversation is not written with implied accents because she is one Russian talking to another in her scene. It wouldn't make sense for them to not be fluent with each other.
Chapter One - Are You Ready For A War?
"Move your ass!" BPRD Agent Harry Broom shot around the corner of the New York estate with a spectral phantom hot on his heels. Ahead of him ran the terrified new owner, Sofia Murtagh with a dust covered skull clutched to her chest.
"I-I'm trying!" Puffing for air she picked up the pace as the shrieking phantom let loose a bellow that knocked every picture in the long hallway from the walls.
"Keep on to the ground floor!" He directed before tapping the receiver in his ear, "Red! You and Liz ready? I'm bringing the show right to you?"
A buzz on the air sounded before a deep voice drawled, "I'm sorry, who's on the air?"
Spouting all manner of abuse at his brother the wizard answered, "It's Harry you bastard!"
"Ooh, sorry, but there isn't a Harry callsign designated to any agents on this mission. Wanna try again?"
"You fucker…" The wizard turned over his shoulder and cast a low grade patronus. It halted the specter just long enough for the human to round the next corner and reach the top of the grand staircase. "Fine, this is… Kenobi. I'm bringing the party to you and I'm at the top of the stairs."
"Roger. Why didn't you just say that to begin with? We're ready for you."
As he puffed down the stairs Harry muttered under his breath, "Someday I'm gonna find and kill the asshole that came up with that nickname."
He rushed down three flights of stairs and paused just long enough for the ghost of the original owner, Roger Morris, to come back into view. "Please tell me Sofia got the bones to you."
"They're primed and ready. Liz is looking forward to this."
Harry hopped over the last banister and rolled on the entry hall of the ground floor to stand next to his big brother. Beside him Elizabeth was holding the old skull in her palm with a wicked grin.
"Light it up, Liz!"
The skull burst into flames and just over their heads old Roger screamed anew and followed suit, filling the air with crimson light.
Hellboy smirked and his tail thumped repeatedly against the floor, "The light show gets me every time.
His grin fell away as his brother stomped on the thumping appendage, "Next time you can be the bait and I'll watch with your hot girlfriend."
"Ah, thank you, Harry." Liz kissed his cheek affectionately and ruffled his hair.
"Stop that!" The wizard rapidly smoothed his styled hair back behind his ears as the new owner slowly approached them.
"So… that's it? It's gone?"
"Yeah." Harry addressed her directly. "What on earth possessed you to buy a place as haunted as this anyway? I mean the hauntings were even advertised in the realtor pamphlet!"
She shrugged and got into his personal space, "I thought it was a hoax, and the deal was too good to be true." She leaned in close and kissed his neck before moving up to kiss his as yet untouched cheek. "Thanks to you I still have a home and my life. You were so brave distracting that ghost so I could get away. Any chance I can convince you three to stay the night?"
Groaning at the unfairness of the situation, the wizard answered, "Sadly, no. Our orders were to return to base immediately after this situation was dealt with." He leveled his gaze with hers, "Maybe you'd like me to come back later and check the place over again? Just to make sure it's still… safe?" The purr in his words left no mystery to his real intentions there.
Sofia smirked and slipped something thin into the pocket of his waistcoat, "Now you have my number. Call me when you're in the area again." Having said her piece, the woman gave him a smoldering glare so seductive it could've burned a hole in the nearest wall and sauntered off into the kitchen, an extra sway in her hips that drew the eyes of all three of them.
"Damn." Harry said.
"Damn." Hellboy agreed.
"Damn is right." Liz whistled lightly before slugging her best friend on the shoulder, "Too bad, Harry. Maybe next time."
"Didn't you hear her? Next time is exactly the plan." He licked his lips and Liz rolled her eyes before slapping Red upside the head. "Alright, eyes back where they belong, big guy."
Hellboy happily moved his gaze over her body and said, "They're never far away from where they belong." He turned back to his brother, "Ready to take us back, Harry?"
The agent nodded and held out his hands. They were promptly grabbed by his compatriots and a second later they popped away, reappearing two seconds later in the BPRD teleportation room. It got a lot of traffic with their magically inclined agents. Waiting for them, cane in hand, was their handler, Professor Broom.
"How did the mission go?" He walked forward and gazed proudly at the three of them.
Red pulled out a cigar and lit it up as he answered, "Burned to a crisp. Harry got the owner's number too."
"Oh really?" Broom waggled his eyebrows at his youngest and took great pleasure at his embarrassed groans.
"Yes, yes, it's a pile on Harry day for everyone. Now what was so important that you needed us to come right back here?"
Broom's gleeful expression faded right away at that. "I'm not entirely sure myself. The order came directly from Director Manning. He said we were to go to the briefing room the moment you arrived."
"Then let's go." Harry said, leading them all out of the chamber to the nearest elevator. As they were waiting for it to reach the right level he asked, "Have the doctor's found any change? Are the potions working?"
Broom sighed, well aware how much everyone was listening. "Yes and no. The potions have stopped any further growth of the cancer, but it's already progressed to the point that it could easily kill me."
Hellboy snorted, "Guess we'll need to keep looking for another cure then. You good to keep wearing the spear?"
"Yes. Manning has agreed to let me use it as long as necessary. I don't think he believes you'd listen to another handler should I die."
"Well for once the bald idiot is right about something." Red blew a cloud of smoke at the roof of the lift as it dinged and opened onto the bustling administration floor.
"Director Manning said he'd be in conference room eight." the professor noted, and together they set off toward the room at the end of the atrium. Everywhere they walked, people stopped and stared, and it was no wonder. Harry, Hellboy, and Elizabeth were the three most famous agents in the BPRD after all. They'd fought every brand of monster in the book, taken on cosmic horrors, and even stopped the end of the world no less than five times…. of course one of their number was a seven foot tall red skinned man with horns and a tail, but it was most likely the other stuff that made them gawk…. most likely.
Anyway they made it to the briefing room and entered as one unit to find a long table facing a lowered projector screen with five chairs ready and facing it. Manning, bald head shining, stood at the computer hooked up to the projector. "Take a seat." They did so.
Manning took a moment to look at them all before starting. "I realize that you three don't like me. I know for a fact you don't respect me. But I don't think you doubt that I care about Professor Broom. He has been a friend and mentor for me for many years now as he has been for you, and up until now we've had no idea how to cure him of his critical state." He tapped a button on his computer and the projector lit up with an image of a bald, bone pale man, in a black robe. His black teeth were exposed in a snarl and he seemed to not have a nose. In his hand was a white wand, leveled presumably at the one taking the picture.
"Who is that?" Harry wondered.
"That," Manning answered, "is Voldemort. The latest dark lord to come out of Magical Britain."
All present groaned and Professor Broom rubbed tiredly at his eyes. "Another one?"
"Isn't this like the fourth one this century?" Liz sarcastically asked. All present had read the briefings about the magical world and all knew how many egomaniacal 'dark lords' tended to rise up in England. According to the reading, and the grumblings from the ICW, a new one seemed to pop up every generation. The world at large was getting reallllllyyyyy tired of it.
"Technically it's the third. He was supposedly killed nineteen years ago, but one of his followers apparently got a hold of a resurrection ritual and brought him back."
"What does this have to do with us, or my dad's cancer?" Harry spoke up.
Manning clicked another key on his laptop and the screen changed to a letter from the British Embassy practically begging for help from the BPRD. "The English know we have extensive experience dealing with powered tyrants like this and other supernatural threats to the world and they have requested our aid. I've convinced our government to agree to the request on one condition."
"And what would that be?" Broom leaned forward expectantly.
The director smiled and hit his final key. The screen changed once more to display a reddish-gold stone sitting on a felt green pillow. "The Philosopher's Stone. The elixir of youth. The British ambassador has already made inquiries with its current owner, Nicholas Flamell. Apparently he's not very thrilled with the way the current leader of the opposition, Albus Dumbledore, is handling the situation, and he has agreed to provide enough elixir to age our beloved Professor Broom back into his early twenties, long before his cancer formed, if we take over the fight and actually handle their dark lord problem."
The room erupted in the cheering of the three agents for several long minutes before Broom could get a question of his own in. "Not that I'm not extremely grateful for this chance, because I am, but I need to ask, why has the Magical Ministry of Britain not already dealt with the dark lord already? Their aurors have a mandate to fight those like him do they not?"
"Yeah," Manning's face grew clearly annoyed, "they might be a problem. In fact, the ambassador also gave us free reign to deal with any ministry agents or personnel as we see fit… including terminating them."
Liz raised an eyebrow. "How much of a problem are we talking?"
"The ministry is completely corrupt and an estimated half of them are sympathetic to Voldemort and his cause. Furthermore, the minister has made it clear that he does not recognize crown authority over his magical government. Honestly if the opportunity presents itself and you want to go scorched earth with them you'll have my support and that of both of our governments."
"This sounds like open treason and rebellion on their part." Hellboy noted. "Why doesn't the crown send the army in to fix this mess entirely and put the population under martial law?"
"Because they can't think of a way to do so that won't destroy the Statute of Secrecy. The international community at large would like to keep that particular measure in effect as long as possible."
Having said his piece he reached into his pocket and pulled out a corked vial full of glowing crimson liquid and placed it right in front of the professor. "The payment was given in good faith. If you take that now then your team is committed to this mission. I set the pieces up but you need to make the choice."
"It's no choice at all." Harry noted. "Do it, pop."
Hellboy agreed. "Best chance we've had yet."
Liz reached over and gripped the older man's hand in her own. "We're all on board here."
A tear started to fall from the old man's face. "This isn't just a mission, kids. Dark lords have followers, financial backing, and immense power. You'll basically be going to war." He looked over at his youngest, "And I promised you that I'd never send you back to England after I adopted you."
A haunted look passed over the wizard's face before he slammed the mental door to those memories closed. "For you, it's worth it. Please, take the elixir."
"We'll be right there with him, pop." Hellboy nodded to his younger brother and Liz was right behind him.
Broom choked out a gasp of relief and before he could second guess himself pulled the stopper on the bottle and downed it in a single gulp. Nothing happened for several seconds, and then stark lines of light began glowing under the professor's skin, following the trail of his veins from his heart to all of his extremities. Then his wrinkles began to fade. Within five minutes the aged old man was gone, and in his place was a spry looking man in his twenties with curly brown hair and a light dusting of stubble around his jaw. The only feature that was the same was the wire rimmed glasses over his eyes.
"Well," his new voice had a chipper edge that had been absent in his former body, "that was quite the experience." He moved his limbs in the now too tight suit and added, "Harry, my boy, we might need to go suit shopping before we leave."
The wizard sported a huge grin at both the youthful visage of his father and the invitation to buy more suits. "If you're buying I've had my eye on a particular Italian number."
As they all chuckled Hellboy turned once more to the man that was technically all of their bosses. "So what happens now?"
"Now you get your affairs in order. Harry, Broom, get those suits tailored on a fast order cause you'll be flying out within the week."
"What about Abe? I notice he isn't here."
"Abe is going to meet you there. He got a head start swimming over there. Said he wanted to get out into the open ocean for a bit."
"Who do we answer to? What's the chain of command?"
"You answer to me and the British Ambassador. No one else. In all practical sense you have carte blanche to do as you see fit to put this dark lord in the ground. When you get on the ground a contact will be waiting to inform you of the current situation. Her name is Nymphadora Tonks. Officially she's an auror, unofficially she works directly for the crown as an embedded agent. Her handler, Alastor Moody, has nothing but praise to sing for her."
England
"Tonks, are you sure you don't mind my being here?" Rose Potter asked, not for the first time that day. It was a pretty big risk to tag along on this mission, especially since it wasn't one that the Order was even aware of. It had been a rough year for her. She was an adult, graduated from Hogwarts with honors, but no one seemed to want to treat her like one. Whether the ministry acknowledged it or not they were at war, but no one, not the Order, not Dumbledore, not even her parents would allow her to fight. She'd done battle against Voldemort himself and survived more times than anyone else alive and it didn't seem to matter. She was confined to Grimmauld Place with Sirius and forced to work on 'Defending the base' instead of doing anything useful.
Tonks had taken pity on her, told her there were other ways to serve her country and fight back. The metamorphmagus had been training her to work for the crown as Moody had done for her ever since. "Of course it is okay, Rose. You're a representative of the crown now. It's imperative that you get experience meeting agents of a similar kind and interacting with them."
That was another thing. Events were apparently going to change for the better. Her 'trainer' / 'handler' had informed her that the actual British government had made a deal with the Americans to send 'actual' aid to their fight.
And they were in desperate need of that help. As they waited Rose thought back to that horrible day when it all began. She'd still been a student, barely old enough to handle her uncle Severus's favored alchemy set (in his words) when her name had come out of the goblet of fire. It shouldn't have been possible, there was an age line put in place to make sure only seventeen year old witches and wizards could enter, but it had happened nonetheless.
What had followed had been one of the craziest, most confusing, and certainly life altering years of her short existence. She fought a dragon, rescued her best friend Hermione from the Black Lake, and finally faced all manner of dark creatures in a sorcerous hedge maze to reach the tri-wizard cup. That's when things had gone from bad…. to horrifying.
Her boyfriend at the time, Cedric, had reached the cup at the same time she had and it had transported them both out of the dark maze, except it hadn't deposited them on the winner's podium like it was supposed to. No, it had sent them to a graveyard in what she now knew was Little Hangleton where her traitorous former uncle Peter had been waiting with the homunculus body of her arch nemesis. In their confusion from sudden port key use they'd been unable to fight back when the monsters had decided they didn't need a 'spare.' To this day Rose still saw the light leaving her first love's eyes in her nightmares.
Things had only gotten worse from there. A ritual was started, her blood forcibly taken, and Voldemort had risen in new glory from his diminished state before summoning all of his old followers that had escaped justice. There were so, so, many.
Rose hadn't taken her imminent demise lying down (or in that case hanging from a statue). It wasn't in her nature to just lie there and be killed. She called Voldemort out. Yelled to all present that he was a coward, a weakling, and that he couldn't truly be all-powerful if he'd failed to kill a one year old girl in her crib.
To her surprise, the snake faced monster had started laughing out loud before he waved his wand to free her from the statue. "You think I came to Godric's Hollow for you?" He'd said before tossing her wand at her feet. "No, I came for the one the prophecy claimed could challenge me as my equal, and you, little girl, were not it. No, while your parents were off meeting with their little Order Peter let me in on their secret and I crossed your boundary lines, I invaded the sanctity of your home, and when I entered the nursery… Oh the power I felt in him." He shuddered with remembered delight while Rose retrieved her wand and stared at the event in enraptured confusion.
Voldemort's red eyes snapped back to her, "What did they tell you, child? That you were alone in the room that night? Did your parents even admit to their sin?"
"What are you talking about?" She could only manage a whisper as a sharp migraine started pulsing through her head. Long buried memories coming to the surface of her mind in an instant. All the times her mother stared off into space during conversation and seemed to wrestle with an inner pain. All the times her father had rapidly snapped a particular photo album closed whenever she entered his office unannounced. Her parents both brushing her off whenever she'd asked to hear stories about the times when she was a baby.
The migraine suddenly disappeared and the dark lord's smirk grew greater, "Aw, so they never told you anything. Wormtail already informed me that his name was never whispered in magical England after that night so it makes sense."
"Explain!" Rose snarled, her wand raised at a ready dueling angle.
"Now, now, little girl, there's no need to rush. Don't you want to know about your big brother?"
"B-Big brother?"
"The one who saved your life when my wand was aimed your little heart. The boy who leapt from his bed beside your crib and absorbed my spell to send it right back at me. The true Child Who Lived!"
"Y-Y-Your lying!" Rose stuttered out as her wand began shaking in her palm, "My parents would have told me."
"Are you sure? Can you really trust them? Or Dumbledore for that matter? Has he even told you of the prophecy yet?"
"Prophecy?" Rose's eyes widened as her foe's bone white wand began to rise, but before any spell could come, one of the robed figures from the crowd snapped out of place before appearing right in front of her, wrapping his arms around her body, and apparating them both away. The last thing she'd seen of that awful place was a green light coming right toward her before the world went black.
When she came to Rose was in the Hogwarts infirmary with her parents worriedly sitting by her side. Uncle Severus was also present but he was giving them space to be nearer to her while he watched from his position sitting on a bed a few paces over. To her horror she noticed that his right arm had been removed to the elbow, but he seemed to not be in pain, and noticing her look he gave a wane smile and mouthed 'It had to be done.' In spite of the situation Rose smiled at the sight of him. Ever since she'd started at Hogwarts he'd been her protector, and it seemed the events at the graveyard were no exception. From what she understood he had been her mom's closest friend but they had had a falling out in their youth. After the first war though they had reconciled after she named him her godfather.
It took a solid five minutes to get her parents to stop fussing with her long enough to ask about what Voldemort had said, and when she did any hope that it was only empty words meant to distract her went out the window.
James lowered his eyes, Lily began to cry, and Severus left the room entirely. "Honey," Lily began, "this is… not the way we wanted you to learn about this."
"Learn about what?!" Rose exclaimed, not able to contain her anger now that she knew the words had actually been real. "That I apparently have a brother that neither of you ever told me about? Or that there is apparently a prophecy that involves us that you didn't see fit to warn me about!?" James flinched and once more his wife took over. Lily always was the stronger of them.
"Rose, we never told you about the prophecy because, well, Voldemort was dead, and we didn't want it to rule your life. All it basically amounts to is that either you or Voldemort is going to have to kill the other. We had hoped it was completed after the night he attacked our home."
Rose stared at her mother, a woman she'd once admired above all others, and a despair filled laugh escaped her lips. "But it's not me that prophecy talks about. Voldemort said it himself, he cursed the boy that was in the room with me that night. Who is he? Where is he? Why have you never once told me about my brother?"
Her parents shared a look and this time James took over. "Voldemort must have been mistaken. Dumbledore said himself that Harry's magic was so low that night he might as well have been a squib, and you… you were full to bursting with it, and you have a scar on your neck, just as the prophecy predicted. It has to be you."
The girl snapped a hand over the V shaped scar just above her collarbone and said, "Putting that aside… Harry? His name is Harry?"
"Yes." James' voice had suddenly gone very hoarse. "He was five at the time, and you weren't even a year old. He was so protective of you and even refused to fall asleep until we put his bed next to your crib so he could 'protect you from bad dreams'. He was just… the sweetest little boy." Now tears began to fall from his own eyes to match those of his wife.
"What happened to him?" Rose asked again.
Seeing the turmoil on her husband's face, Lily placed a hand on his arm and continued for him. "You were too young to remember this now, but the war didn't just end with Voldemort's fall like the history books like to say. His death eaters were still active, the monsters he'd swayed to his banner running loose throughout the countryside, and the ministry… well it never entirely lost its corruption but back then it was a lot worse."
And Lily explained the situation completely to her now sick feeling daughter. After the attack the Potters had moved to a new home and tried to live their lives as peacefully as possible while hostilities wound down. That had not turned out to be possible. They hadn't been in their new home for two weeks before a masked group of wizards had apparated onto their front lawn and tried to burn the building to the ground with them inside.
They'd moved three more times before it became apparent to the parents that they'd need to hide once more from the public eye behind a fidelius charm. They'd decided they needed to cut themselves off entirely to avoid any mail being traced until they received word that the last violent remnants of Voldemort's forces had been dealt with. However, the question became 'what if the worst should happen and their fidelius was breached once more?' They couldn't use Sirius as the secret keeper a second time as a person could only hold the secret once. They'd chosen Professor McGonagoll, a mentor for the both of them, a family friend, and apparently her brother's godmother.
They were all set to move for the last time when Dumbledore came to their door. He'd pointed to all the previous attacks and convinced her parents that if they were found again, and help could not arrive in time to save them, then at least one of their children should survive. He'd said he'd lined up a safe location away from the wizarding world with heavy wards to hide their son away. Rose, he argued, as the Girl Who Lived needed to stay with her parents where she could be trained to deal with the challenges that could come her way in the future.
Her parents had argued of course. They didn't even want to consider the idea of leaving one of their children behind, but the headmaster had pointed out how corrupt their society was, how many times their homes had been attacked, and how long it would likely take to make the land safe enough for them to come out of hiding. He promised that little Harry would be protected, but that her parents needed to focus on Rose's safety first. That argument combined with the information contained in the prophecy had tipped the scale and they'd handed over their first-born child. "H-He was old enough to remember, but not old enough to understand." Lily's voice was a hollow rasp. "I still see his face in my dreams, terrified, begging me not to let him go."
"W-What happened next?" Rose was starting to get very nervous as other facts began clicking into place. Her parents had said Professor McGonagall had been her brother's godmother and now that she thought about it, neither her nor Dumbledore had ever been invited to their manor. What's more, the interactions between the transfiguration professor and her mother had been frosty from day one of her first year, even though as the muggle studies teacher her mother was also a member of the faculty and the two women had offices relatively close to each other.
"It took three years for the country to finally calm down enough for us to come out of hiding." Lily gulped and Rose could see it was an effort for her mother to not turn her face away from hers in shame. "The first thing we did was demand Dumbledore return Harry to us, but… he didn't have him."
James let loose a broken sob at those words and Rose asked, "What?"
"He'd left our little boy with my sister. My magic hating, bigoted, sister, who according to the authorities tortured Harry from the moment the old fart gave him to them."
"Authorities?"
Lily nodded. "That's all we were able to find out when we went looking. At some point the authorities came to investigate their home and found Harry there, bleeding, starving, and alone. He was taken away, given to we know not who, and the Dursleys were all locked up. Well, their son went to live with his aunt but trust me that's a hell all of its own making. We've tried searching ourselves but… we never found anything."
"So, that's what Voldemort meant by your 'sin'." Rose grabbed the blanket on her bed and pulled it up to her chin. She felt the incredible need to be warm at that moment. "You abandoned your son to pain and torment before losing him entirely."
"Rose-"
"And then you left me in the dark about him entirely!" The teenager spat, earning a sharp wince from both of her parents.
James turned mournful eyes upon her and stated, "We didn't want you to miss something you couldn't even remember. It was hard enough for us."
Bunching the blanket tight to herself Rose turned away from her parents and curled into a ball. "I want to be alone now."
"Rose… please," Her mother tried to get her attention one last time, "don't shut us out."
"I'm tired, I've been through hell, and I don't have the emotional strength left right now to deal with you. Please… just leave me alone. You seem to be good at that."
Though she couldn't see it, Rose could literally feel the searing pain her words had caused as the slow screech of chair legs announced that her parents had followed her directive. "Okay then, Rose." James said from her blind spot. "We'll be just outside if you need us."
The Girl Who Lived had not in fact needed them. Not that night, or the next one, or even the one after that. That evening's revelation had formed a rift between the three of them that even the course of years had not been able to mend. To give them credit, her parents had tried to make it up to her, but that massive secret, and their refusal to let her take an active part in the war, ostensibly to 'keep her safe' were factors that the young woman could never forgive or forget.
The whirring sound of helicopter blades snapped the woman from her recollections and brought her back to the present as a black military aircraft slowly descended from the sky to land a distance ahead of them on the tarmac. From pictures shown in Tonk's lessons she believed it to be called a Chinook. The two witches waited for the blades to settle and come to a complete stop before finally making their way over to introduce themselves. It wouldn't do for their introduction to be a pair of decapitated heads.
As they arrived at the foot of the sleek vehicle the door on the side slid open and a series of retractable steps folded out onto the ground. Rose was unprepared for the seven foot, red, behemoth that stepped out first, or the blue skinned man with gills that followed, and it was only the months of training that Tonks had provided her that kept her jaw from hanging like an open mailbox as the last three (thankfully human) individuals followed them off as well.
A svelte spectacled man in a smart suit stepped in front of them all with a hand extended to Tonks. "Agent Tonks I presume?"
"Yes." She took the hand and shook it firmly. "You are Professor Broom? I thought you were an old man?"
"I was." Broom chuckled happily, "But I'm thankfully much younger now. Please, come meet the team." he directed her over to the now lined up group and Rose hurried to fall into step beside her. "Our aquatic friend here is Abraham Sapien. He'll handle any subterranean actions. Next to him is our resident pyrokinetic Elizabeth Sherman. And here," He stopped in front of the red giant and a surprisingly well built suited man with a pointed beard and a jagged scar on his forehead that traveled down through his brow, "are my sons, Hellboy and Harry. I'm your liaison to the BPRD but for all practical matters Harry is in charge."
Harry eyed their British contact and grinned roguishly at her, earning a light blush for his efforts. He decided he might like England a bit after all if all the women looked like her. "Agent Harry Broom, at your service. Do you have a base for us to work out of? We need information on the situation on the ground."
Rose blinked, "You're English?"
Harry frowned heavily at that statement. "Born here. Adopted by an American and granted citizenship. I. Am. American. Do you both understand?"
Sensing a sore point, Tonks and Rose nodded and the older of the two handed over an envelope sealed with the royal sigil. "That is a writ of enforcement signed by the Queen, prime minister, and head of the parliamentary committee. It gives you blanket authority to end this war in any way you see fit. The primary resistance movement, the Order of the Phoenix, has a heavily fortified and warded residence as their base not even an hour drive from here. With that document you can take control of that group and the location and use both to end this war for good."
"And this resistance group will just fall in line?"
"With myself, Alastor Moody, and my trainee here backing you… they won't like it, but enough will side with you to make it happen. At the very least it's a strategic position to operate out of that should not be overlooked. Furthermore, Albus Dumbledore is leading this movement and the crown suspects he has information on how to defeat Voldemort that he has shared with no one else. This cannot be allowed to continue. It is the hope of my government that you and your group will be able to get these answers out of him."
Across from her all members of the American team started sporting incredibly wolf-like grins. "Oh we're going to enjoy this." Hellboy purred before taking a fresh cigar from his brother's hand and lighting up.
Murmansk - Russia
Olga Amasova nearly groaned as she marched her way through the halls of the Murmansk KGB headquarters. Why was she so annoyed? Was it because it was two in the morning? Could it be because she'd been called in by the head of her branch and thus needed to arrive in her dress uniform that always pulled too tight against her bust no matter how many times she had it tailored? Maybe it was just a Russian head cold? None of the above. She was annoyed in fact because by this time tomorrow her term of service was set to end and she was looking forward to finally searching out her Harry as a free woman. She just knew if she could track him down, explain to him that what she had done had not been meant to be personal and that she'd not revealed any truly private information, that she'd truly felt for him what he did for her, and that she was no longer beholden to the KGB, they could right their wrongs and be together again. Something she'd dreamt of every night since they'd parted. (Hence the Harry themed body pillow on her bed).
But now she was back in the stately government building, in uniform, and all of this together could only mean that she was being given one last mission before the buzzer could sound and set her free. Stopping before the door to her superior's office she took a moment to clear her features of the negative emotion, check her reflection in a nearby window, and adjust the collar of her coat. Then she knocked sharply.
The secretary verified her identification and appointment and quickly buzzed her into the true office before closing the door behind her. Olga knew for a fact that behind the wallpaper on all four walls was three feet of steel and concrete, the space was rigged with every anti-listening device that currently existed, and the lockbox cabinets lining the back wall could survive a direct nuclear detonation.
Sitting directly in front of her was a marble white stone desk and behind it one of the most important men in her country. One that no person save the top tier level of her government knew the name of. She snapped an immediate salute.
"At ease, Agent Amasova." Director S, as he was called by all who served him, was an extremely normal looking man. He was perhaps five-foot six, his hair was receding a bit from his forehead, and his form was thin and vaguely athletic, but his eyes could bore a hole through steel with the measure of thought, intelligence, and intuition held within. "Take a seat."
The blond agent did as requested and sat in the chair her superior pointed to as he picked up a file and opened it. For several minutes he said nothing, just moving his gaze from page to page before closing the file with a snap of crushed paper and placing it down on his desk.
"You are set to end your service with us tomorrow, correct?"
"Yes, sir." Olga answered emotionlessly.
Seeing this the director waved his hand, "Cease with the facade, agent, I can read your thoughts well enough anyway."
Olga reluctantly did so and let her exhausted and angry face through.
The director smiled at the sight. "Yes, that is the real you. Would I be right in assuming you would not be quick to accept a new assignment at this point?"
Through clenched teeth the blond replied, "You would. I have… plans for my future that do not involve continuing in the service."
"Ah yes, your… American." At his subordinate's surprised look he said, "You have not been very subtle, and your travel plans were flagged."
"I will be a private citizen by the time of my departure."
"Oh do not confuse me, you are not here to be punished for seeking out a romantic partner." He held up his hands in a non-threatening gesture, "As you said, you will be a private citizen, and based on your years of service we trust you not to reveal certain 'classified' information." Olga rapidly nodded to show they could in fact trust her. She'd seen what happened to rats.
"So why am I here then?"
Director S slid the file over to her and watched as she opened it. "Because this mission is one you are qualified for and it will meet with your own desires rather well."
Olga's hands began to shake, "The Lament Configuration!" The file fell from her hands. "Someone actually tried to steal it? Who could be that foolish?" On the file before her was a picture of a six sided puzzle box on a pedestal. Before it were four bodies burned to a crisp.
"English wizards apparently." Director S leaned back in his leather backed chair. "Our investigation showed that the 'victims' were what is known in Britain as death eaters, followers of their latest dark lord."
"England is at it again." Olga sighed. "What is this, the fourth one in as many years?"
"Quite, and technically it's still the third."
"They made it in by casting the imperius on the door security and trying to sneak into the mystical object lockup. Of course our thermal scans picked them up and our backup forces quickly moved en masse to take them out." His already serious face grew grim. "They killed five men before they were put down. We superficially burned the bodies to make sure they couldn't be portkeyed out to hide any evidence."
"Sir, was the box tampered with in any way?" The blond agent was terrified of the very thought. She'd been the one to track it down and bring it back to be hidden away from human hands so she knew better than most how utterly dangerous it truly was. The box acted as a doorway between this dimension and another when solved, and served two equally terrifying purposes. First, it could bring the angelic devils known as Cenobites to the realm of humanity to take the summoner back to their home. The legends claimed such a journey promised eternal pleasure, when in reality they experienced unrivaled levels of pain for all time. The second however was the more terrifying. When the box was solved it cut the solver thus giving the cenobites a target, but if that box was possessed by one human and cut a certain number of others instead of themselves, they could claim a boon from a cosmic god. The few references they could find to such an instance were terrifying. Godlike power, infinite knowledge, and resurrecting the dead were just a few of them.
"No." Her boss reassured her. "We believe they wanted the boon, but of course such a thing would have been cursed anyway. Regardless, that isn't even the real box."
"It's not?"
"No. it is a decoy. The true box is hidden in a pocket dimension, constantly watched over by a clinical introvert with agoraphobia and extensive combat training. His home is a fucking fortress that no one can find but him and two others on the outside. The object is safe."
"Thank the gods." Olga breathed a sigh of relief. "But what does this have to do with me?"
"I was just getting to that. These death eaters invaded Russian soil, killed Russian citizens, and tried to steal an object under Russian custody and protection. These acts will not go unpunished. We seek to hunt them down and end their existence and we want you to take a team and work to make it happen."
"Why me?"
The director slid another document over to her and her eyes widened once more, this time with hope. "We intercepted a communique between the American BPRD and the British Special Branch. They've apparently hired your favorite American to fight the same foe." He folded his hands in front of him, "It would be an easy way to see him again instead of hunting him down on your own. Especially with our surveillance equipment."
The blond thought over everything she'd heard and just had a couple of questions. "Is this a mission that will extend my term of service?"
"No. You have command but by tomorrow it will be as a deputized citizen, not a member of the KGB. You can leave anytime you want to. It is your experience we want leading the people on the ground."
"And if I choose to follow Harry after I find him?"
"As long as the death eaters are decimated we do not care. The methods are entirely up to you. You are to go, how do the Americans say it, scorched earth on their asses."
Olga grinned for the first time since entering that office. "Yes, sir." She was off to gain revenge for her countrymen, destroy an evil army, and track down the lost love of her life. Sometimes she really loved her country.
