THERE IS A CONTENT WARNING ON THIS CHAPTER. PLEASE CHECK THE ENDING NOTES IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE AWARE OF IT AHEAD OF TIME.
Chapter 99: Thursday, May 16, 2002
"Life...is not a battle between good and bad, but between bad and worse."
-Joseph Brodsky
Hermione woke up with a start, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. The swirling of nightmares mixed with unsavoury memories had her hair clung to her sweaty neck and her stomach twisted in knots. It had been quite some time since she woke with the feeling like this—dread that sat so heavily.
She took a few deep breaths and realized the sheets were cool beside her and, unlike the last few mornings, Remus was not sitting on the end of the bed with a random stack of files in hand that he had brought home with him from work. She slipped her feet into her slippers and padded down the stairs to the library.
Inside sat Remus, Harry, Draco, Ron, and Ginny. They were all bent over what looked to the blueprint of the Ministry they had procured, murmuring back and forth to one another. Hermione bundled her hair high upon her head while she entered the room, stepping quietly to the table.
"You think we can infiltrate further?" Ginny asked, leaning over to whisper to Remus.
"It's going to be risky to add anyone we already associate with. We might be able to find foregin allies. I was able to secure them the first war but I don't know if any of them are still around."
"Is there any chance we can reach out to see if they are?" Harry questioned, looking up from the blueprint to Remus.
"I could send an owl to Hamish, see if he's still in Prague," Remus suggested. "I'll check the Ministry first. If I can find records of werewolf deaths in the last twenty years or so, that will narrow it down."
"That would probably be the best route," Draco agreed. "Do you think they'll have international registry information available?"
"Oh, hey Hermione!" Ron waved, smiling from over Harry's shoulder.
"Hey, good morning. How long have you all been in here?" Hermione asked.
"About an hour," Draco supplied. "Ginny and I were already up, enjoying a bit of private time in the shower—"
"My sister!" Ron complained, pulling a disgusted face.
"Your sister is bloody fit, and you know it, Weaselbee. I won't apologize for—"
"The point, Draco. Get to the point," Hermione huffed, motioning her hand for him to continue talking.
Draco rolled his eyes before continuing, "You lot take the fun out of everything, you know that? Anyway, Fido—"
"—Don't call me that—"
"—Came down to the dining room with his arms full of parchments that he nicked from the archives, rambling on about Death Eaters and the way they keep signing out strange forms and such. Potter and Weaselbee were up here doing...whatever it is they do at five in the morning."
"We went for a run around the grounds," Harry said. "Unlike you, Malfoy, we aren't all blessed with good genes that keep us in shape regardless of the amount of sitting on our arses we do."
"Oh, Potter, if you think that morning showers with Red isn't what keeps me in shape then—"
"My sister!" Ron cried again.
"It is far too early for this," Hermione grumbled, sinking into the sofa nearest the table they were posted at. "Harry, did you feel it?"
Everyone at the table, aside from Harry, gave Hermione a perplexed look. Although, she was certain they all knew what she meant. Hermione and Harry had the uncanny ability to seemingly always be on the same wavelength when it came to dreadful feelings in the pit of their stomach. Harry, however, was just much better at completely disregarding this in favour of whatever barmy plan he was focusing on that day.
"Yeah," Harry nodded. "I've been up since three. I think maybe we need to check out outside contacts today—maybe do rounds of the safe houses. Something's off."
"Oh, is it that weird sixth sense thing you share?" Draco asked, waggling his fingers between them, clearly amused. "What was it Justin called it? Your spidey senses are tingling?"
Hermione shook her head, rolling her eyes again. In the back of her head, her mother's voice rang with 'they'll get stuck like that if you keep rolling them' and she couldn't help but chuckle.
"It's called intuition, Draco," Hermione muttered.
"Yeah, because your intuition hasn't been completely skewed in the past," he replied with a pointed smirk.
"Oi, what's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked.
Draco, very dramatically, flailed both of his arms in Remus' direction, "We've acquired a werewolf from the seventies because someone's intuition told them they needed to break the laws of time to infiltrate a resistance that had next to no information and was running blindly into battle!"
"A werewolf who is very close to losing his patience with you," Remus hissed.
"Everyone is always close to losing their patience with me, you aren't special," Draco retorted, folding his arms over his chest as Ginny laughed and hid her face in his shoulder.
"Anyway," Harry's voice boomed around the room. "I was getting the same feeling. I don't think it could hurt to—"
With a loud crack of wood on wood, everyone in the room nearly jumped from their skin and Hermione felt her heart jump into her throat.
"What was…"
"OI!" Tonks' voice yelled from the main floor, "OI WAKE UP! EVERYONE NEEDS TO GET THEIR ARSES TO SAINT MUNGOS NOW!"
"St Mungos?" Remus asked.
"THERE'S BEEN AN ATTACK! LETS GO!"
In a flash, Blaise, Pansy, Justin and Terry were thundering down the stairs, still wiping sleep from their eyes and trying to get their bearings. Hermione jumped off the sofa and grabbed Remus' outstretched hand, racing down the stairs behind him.
"My bag!" Hermione said, stopping to go back up the stairs.
"Granger!" Draco shouted, tossing a black bag into the air from the landing. "I'm grabbing back ups, I'll meet you there!"
Hermione caught her bag and pulled her wand from its place in her hair, sprinting out of the Shack behind Remus, Ron, Ginny, and Harry.
The group ran to the back of the Shack, Harry and Ron murmuring spells under their breath.
"What are they doing?" Remus asked.
"Expecto Patronum," Hermione said, ignoring Remus' question for a moment. "Minerva, there's been a breach at St. Mungo's. Will inform upon return." She sent the otter zipping toward the castle and turned to Remus, "We have the ability to get through the anti-apparition wards that lay around the grounds, but it's a complicated bit of spellwork. It's easier if two people work on it. Draco will bring up the rear and close the gap when he leaves."
"Let's go!" Harry shouted, pushing Order members one by one through the shimmer of magic that laid just before the fencing.
Hermione waited until she saw Draco bounding from the house before she grabbed Remus' hand and stepped through the shield, apparating on the spot to St. Mungo's.
The second her feet hit the ground, chaos erupted around them. She could hear screams coming from every direction and there was already evidence of bloodshed slicked across the atrium floor.
"Get as many people out as you can!" Harry shouted, "Don't get killed!"
Remus was already dueling with a black hooded figure, firing curse after curse in rapid succession. Hermione looked away to see a woman in yellow robes laying on the ground, her eyes wide as she bled heavily from her chest.
She slid across the floor, abandoning her slippers in favour of going barefoot and landed hard on her knees near the woman.
"Ground," the woman rasped out. "Underground."
She was dying. Hermione could tell by the violent shake to her breath and the extensive pool of blood she laid in. She nodded and pulled a strong pain relief potion from her bag, dumping down the woman's throat. There was no reason she should die in pain.
"They're heading underground!" Hermione yelled to Harry, who sprinted past her toward the stairwell.
"What's on the lower levels?!" He asked, no one in particular.
"Potions Labs!" Draco's voice came from the far side of the lobby, "They brew underground!"
Hermione jumped to her feet and was met with a stunner between her shoulders that sent her careening into the front desk. She smacked against the counter and yelled out when she felt her hand snap in effort to keep her ribs intact.
"Hermione!" Remus shouted, spinning on his heel to face her, his eyes roaming, wide and wild as he searched for her.
"I'm fine! Broke my hand but it's—Episkey—it's fine!" She shook the throbbing hand out and sent an Impedimenta flying at the Death Eater that hit her. He flew across the room and smacked against the wall with a sickening thud. She whirled around and made her way to where she had seen Harry last, heading toward the stairwell with Justin and Terry hot on his heels, Ron bringing up the rear.
"Behind you," Remus said, reaching out to touch her shoulder.
Together, they sprinted down the stairs as fast as their feet would carry, leaping over curled up bodies of healers and patients that had been knocked unconscious in the crossfire. A black bird zoomed past and Pansy materialised in front of them.
"The top floors are secure, they haven't even touched them. Anyone who was uninjured or well, alive is being moved up there now. It looks like they're only here for whatever the hell is in the brewing room and—"
Pansy stopped talking when a blood curdling scream reverberated around the lower levels, causing them all to stop in their tracks.
"Was that—?"
"Terry," Hermione confirmed. "It sounded like Terry."
"HERMIONE!" Ron's voice shouted and Hermione pulled herself from her temporary stupor and continued down the last three sets of stairs.
The second she entered the room, the smell of blood and rot hit her nostrils and she felt her stomach roil in response. The floor was glittering with smashed phials and cauldrons of all sizes had been overturned and tossed carelessly across the space. There was smoke, thick and black coming from one corner where it looked like several cauldrons had ended up, the contents mixing on the floor and eating its way through the tile, ready to combust at any second.
"Terry!" Ginny cried, shoving Hermione to the left and pointing frantically in the corner. "He's been hit!"
"Curse or potion?" Hermione demanded, whirling around to run toward Terry.
"Curse, it looked to be dark red!" Ginny supplied, quickly darting around a shelf and sliding past Draco.
Hermione threw up a shield charm and darted through the mix, firing hexes and curses over her shoulder without really aiming—anything to keep them off of her own back. She could feel the charge of magic as green, blue, and red curses zoomed past her. She felt a sting in her elbow as one grazed her skin and she shook it off, pushing forward. Hermione fell beside Terry and winced at the sight of him. His skin was molten to the touch, his face sweating profusely and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
It was Fabian all over again. Only, she knew how to stop it this time—if she wasn't too late.
"Glacius," she whispered, pointing her wand at his chest. She had to cool him completely and quickly. Within seconds, his flushed skin began to cool and turn purple and she knew she had only seconds to reverse the spell before he went completely hypothermic and froze to death.
"Come on…" she whispered, working to pull his body temperature back up, little by little. "Terry, can you hear me?"
He grunted, a strangled gurgling sound. He coughed and Hermione could hear the rattle of his chest, heavy and wet.
She looked at him in horror. That was the unmistakable sound of fluid in his lungs and she had just frozen it in an attempt to bring down the boiling temperature of his blood.
"Fuck!" Hermione groaned under her breath, putting more into the warming charm to bring his temperature up quicker.
As his body began to warm, he started to choke. Terry's chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath, dark red liquid spewing out past his lips. The curse had already disintegrated his insides and he was boiled and choking on his own blood.
She was too late.
Hermione blinked against the burning in her eyes, willing herself to stay composed as Terry gripped her hand, his eyes flying open, unfocused, as they searched for her. She used her free hand to cast a sleeping charm over Terry, hoping that his last moments could at least be peaceful. After a few moments, his grip went lax and the rattling of his chest stopped as his body stilled and Hermione drew in a slow breath. She gave his hand one last squeeze and began to murmur an apology.
"JUSTIN! NO!" Pansy shrieked, her voice filling every crevice of the room with terror. Hermione ripped her gaze away from Terry's body and watched as a cloaked figure grabbed a bleeding Justin and apparated away.
"Put up an anti-apparition!" Draco shouted from somewhere behind her, "Potter!"
"I can't!" he said, sounding desperate. "It'll keep anyone from apparating out!"
Within seconds, they were standing alone in the room, the mass of hooded figures gone. The only sounds filling the battle blown room coming in the angry cries from Pansy and panting breaths from those who remained standing.
The Shrieking Shack was eerily quiet upon The Order's return. Pansy had locked herself in one of the small private rooms off the library after screaming furiously at Harry for his negligence and allowing Justin to be captured. Everyone else had either retired to the sleeping quarters or had gone back to visit family, something many of them felt compelled to do after an ambush. Cho had been contacted, she had been the closest to Terry, and she had taken it upon herself to inform his parents of his death. His body had been left at St Mungo's morgue until his family arrived to lay claim to him.
Harry looked exhausted. But, then again, Hermione was certain they probably all did. Remus sat still next to her, his hand wrapped around hers, and she wondered if it was to remind himself that she was okay. Or, perhaps an effort to ground himself after facing battle for the first time since losing James and Lily. With that thought, she squeezed his hand and laid her head on his shoulder.
Draco entered the room with Tonks and Charlie on his heels and slammed his bag on the table, disrupting the quiet.
"They took the blood supply," he announced, falling into a chair and running a hand over his face.
"The blood supply?" Remus asked, "Do you mean blood replenishers?"
"No, Lupin, I mean the blood supply," Draco hissed. "How do you think blood replenishers are made? You need blood to act as the base. And while muggle healing is incredibly inferior—" at this, Hermione pursed her lips. "—don't look at me like that, Granger, you know it's true—they got one thing right. Blood type makes a difference."
"I thought you synthesized it," Remus muttered, shifting a few inches lower in his chair.
"We do," Draco said. "But, it's far more effective if you have actual blood to work as your base." Draco huffed and scrubbed his face with both hands, shoving back roughly from the table as he stood. "If you'd like a lesson on the nuances of potion healing and conduits used I'd be happy to show you why you're wrong another time but we need to figure out why—"
"The registry," Remus raised, straightening up again and looking around the room.
Hermione shifted to look at Remus as the words fell from his lips, "What?"
"Hang on," he said, jumping up from his chair and sprinting up the stairs.
"What was that about?" Tonks asked.
"Probably smelled a squirrel," Draco mumbled, leaning his back against the wall as he folded his arms over his chest.
"Shut up," Hermione snapped.
Seconds later, Remus reappeared with a stack of files and set them on the table before taking his seat. "I've been going through these archives the last fortnight trying to figure out why the Death Eaters would be interested in them."
"What are they?" Harry asked, pulling a file from the top and opening it up.
"That's a Metamorphmagus Registration form," Tonks said, from over Harry's shoulder.
"The Death Eaters have been interested in Metamorphmagi?" Hermione asked, pulling her brows together as she tried to work through it, "But, why?"
"The blood," Draco interjected. "Salazar! The fucking blood! They weren't there to just destroy the blood supply for no reason! They're looking for Metamorphmagi blood! Granger, the—"
"The potion!" It clicked in her head the second Draco began piecing it together, "The conduit is metamorphmagi blood!"
"What potion?" Harry asked.
"As usual, Potter, four steps behind," Draco smirked and Harry sneered at him, sending a rude hand gesture his way. Draco snorted before continuing, "The potion that they're feeding the werewolves! That's the base we've been trying to figure out. Of course it is! I can't believe we didn't even consider it!"
They began to talk about the implications of the metamorphmagus blood in the potion. Knowing what the potion was made out of was a small breakthrough and Hermione was glad they had finally figured it out. But, it brought to light an even more concerning topic—if the Death Eaters were combing through the registry, they were more than likely looking for living metamorphmagi. And, according to Remus and Tonks, it was an extremely rare anomaly. Only three living metamorphmagi were registered in Britain in the last decade and one happened to be part of their resistance.
"But, why take Justin?" Harry asked, shoving his hands through his hair for the hundredth time. "He's not—"
"To lure us out," Remus explained. "They did it all the time before. It's how James got captured and us," he motioned between himself and Hermione, "when they took Marlene, we went after her. They know we won't let them just die in their hands. They'll be expecting us to come for him."
"Can't exactly prove them wrong, though, can we?" Harry sighed.
"It's not advisable, no." Remus grimaced.
There was a collective sigh around the room as everyone realized the predicament they were in. Stay put and Justin more than likely would be tortured and killed, go after him, and more of their members would likely be captured. Finally, after a long stretch of silence, Remus spoke with an unfamiliar ferocity.
"We've got to do better this time around," he implored. "We've got to show them they can't just take our people without consequence."
.
.
a/n: CW: There's a pretty graphic depiction of a death in this chapter. I'm going to go ahead and just blanket warn for every chapter after this. Violence, death, blood...it's a wartime fic now, yall. I feel like mostly everyone is familiar enough with my writing by now to know there's gonna be some shit. But take care of yourselves and be aware that this will not be the last chapter with these warnings.
With all that said, reminder that the story IS HEA. I promise!
One of these days I'll remember the days of the week...today was not that day. Sorry it's so late! I definitely spent the entire day thinking it was Tuesday. :)
xo
mimi
