Damaged Goods

July 22nd

3:21am

Rookwood Castle, Scotland

Daphne

Sat atop a flat summit stood Rookwood castle, occupied by one of the oldest of the wizarding families on the island. Augustus Rookwood, unspeakable and death eater informant, slept in his enormous bed with no idea a dozen witches and wizards were creeping up on the place he calls home. Two teams of loyalists approached up the road from the south with another team scaling the mountainside from the north. From her position behind the steep rock face adjacent to the road, she could spot two sentries standing guard on the colossal gatehouse.

'Dreadfully predictable,' she chastised. If their intel from hours of surveillance was to be believed, only two others would be on guard on the east and west ramparts. Rookwood neglected southern defences believing the watchtower less than a kilometre away would spot an invading party well before they could reach the castle. 'Fortunately, no one was there to warn the watchtower.'

The lanterns on the walls weren't enough for the complacent guards to see the two teams spread out on either side of the path. The team led by Kingsley were to infiltrate the castle from the west where a flaw from the last goblin rebellion still hadn't been repaired. The southern team would capture the two men guarding the east and the west, then both teams would descend on the gatehouse, opening the door for the last team and capturing the last two.

'Then onto the keep.' Daphne knew she was going to get backlash for keeping the kid prisoner but she didn't mind, he would prove useful in making the unspeakable speak. She turned her head and checked on her team; Moody, Shafiq and two aurors she didn't personally know. They were the heavy hitters, tasked with entering from the front and creating an exit if things went south. There was comfort in her role, a simplicity in merely kicking down doors and slinging spells.

A thud broke through the sound of the cricket's choir, and she snapped her head up to the battlements. She didn't see any of the other teams, but she did hear a distinct click as the main gates slowly parted open.

"King delivered," one of the aurors needlessly muttered behind her.

"Get yer arses in gear," Moody ordered and the two practically jumped from the bushes to take point on entry. The rest followed behind them, crossing the ward threshold and entering the courtyard. She almost subconsciously cast her eyes to the western ramparts to see the flaw, 'arrogance and complacency is once again their downfall.'

Beside the flaw was a makeshift stable for what seemed to be a pair of abraxian. 'Lucius Malfoy's leftovers no doubt,' she thought as she kept an eye on them. They were generally fairly docile, especially those bred in captivity, but it wouldn't do to be carless. A sharp whistle from the walls signalled to the others that the other teams were prepared to breach the second floor.

The keep towered over her team, complete with a set of tremendous oak doors, magically reinforced stone walls and four towers at each corner. They knew this building served as a great hall of sorts, with the living areas housed on the second floor.

"On my mark lads," Moody quietly instructed as he raised his wand. The aurors and herself followed suit, each of them aiming at the main door. "Bombarda maxima." The red hue of the spell was hard to look at in the dimly lit courtyard, but the struggle was fleeting, for the light soon turned into the sound of the door struggling against Moody's powerful spell. Soon enough the sound of destructive spells filled the air, followed by splintering wood and crumbling rock as each team created various sized holes in the Rookwood keep.

Her own spell collided last, hitting the skewed right door on its inner edge and making it spin violently into the hall. The entrance became clouded with dust and sawdust to the point where it was difficult to see inside but she could hear a commotion over the collapsing entrance. She could feel herself become restless and so she impatiently flicked her wand to vanish the cloud, using the nerves to overtake the two aurors and take point.

Daphne stepped over a large piece of one of the doors blocking her path, entered the hall with her wand raised and took in the room. The room was lined with braziers which seemed to be enchanted to light via proximity and so the room roared to life when she was far enough in. The door she had been responsible for unhinging had landed on what used to be a long dining table in the middle, only now it would be difficult to distinguish between the two.

"Get off me! The Dark Lord won't allow this!"

The sound of scuffling drew her attention to one of the internal balconies that overlooked the dining hall. Kingsley had his hand on Augustus Rookwood's shoulder as he guided him towards the breached door his team had used. Behind him, Tonks was doing the same with a woman and little boy, Diane and Charles, Augustus' wife and son.

"Calm yourself Rookwood," Kingsley cautioned him when he finally stabilised the man, "your family will not be harmed."

"Down!"

Daphne ducked immediately as she whipped her head around towards the balcony on the opposite side. She had done so in time to see a purple curse explode out of one of the rooms, over the dining hall where she was and towards Kingsley's men.

"Leave this place or I'll have all your heads!" called the voice behind the unknown wand.

"You're surrounded, there's no way out of this." The aurors on the opposite balcony had taken up positions on either side of the door. "Throw your wand out or we'll be forced to–"

"Diane!" Daphne turned her head back to the first group now to see that Augustus had freed himself from Kingsley's grip and had dived towards his family. Tonks was on her knees beside the prone woman and Daphne could see her hair rapidly shifting, it was clear something was stressing her out.

"Augustus? Are you alright brother?" the voice called out from his room. 'Brother? Since when…'

"No no no Diane! Please!" Augustus shouted hysterically, Daphne saw him shaking Diane and when Kingsley dragged him away Augustus' hands were stained with blood. She then noticed liquid dripping from the floorboards, just below where Tonks was kneeling. 'Goodness, he's killed his brother's wife.'

Not knowing it was he that caused his own brother pain, the man screamed out from his room, "what have you done to them you bastards? I'll kill you all!"

The situation was deteriorating faster than her patience could handle. "Kingsley!" she yelled from the hall, "get him out of here!"

"She needs medical attention I'm not capable of giving," Tonks voiced. Daphne nodded her head and Tonks took the hint. Kingsley dragged a restrained Augustus out of his home with his team and their prisoners in tow.

Daphne turned to Moody and said, "this is taking longer than expected, secure the courtyard."

"Aye." Moody and the rest of her team went back out the way they came in, with Moody barking orders for them to set up in certain places.

She, on the other hand, had had enough of this brother and so had made for the spiral staircase leading up to the balcony on the right. Just as she reached the top she watched the aurors attempt to mobilise an assault only to be met with the terror-inducing green of the killing curse. If the situation was a little different, she may have found four men scrambling over each other amusing. Once she had made it to the door, she peered around it at a snail's pace, taking each degree as seriously as the last.

"Avada kedavra!"

She snapped back around the corner milliseconds before the killing curse passed by where her head was a moment earlier. 'Right, perhaps a different approach.' She straightened her back and cleared her throat, "who are you?"

"Anthony Rookwood, bitch!"

"Well, Anthony, would it interest you to know you may have just killed your brother's wife?"

"What? What did you do?"

"We did nothing, your first curse hit her on the other balcony, she's bleeding out as we speak."

There was no sound for a minute or so and she hoped that meant he was considering surrender to appease his guilt, she was wrong. "Then her death will be a small but necessary part of the Dark Lord's conquest!"

'A fanatic, wonderful.' She silently communicated with the team leader to prepare to assault the room. As the team got into position she continued talking, "the Dark Lord's conquest will end here, in Britain and so too will his followers." She made eye contact with the team leader and pointed to herself, indicating she would go in first and that the others should follow.

"Even if you kill every one of us, the Dark Lord is immortal!"

"Proiectura," she whispered and closed her eyes. "He may be, are you?" The projection shimmered to life in front of her and fabricated a lot of noise as it sprinted into the room.

"Avada kedavra," Anthony Rookwood cast, only to be severely surprised that his spell went straight through Daphne's illusion.

Daphne heard him thump to the ground as the auror's counter attack brought him down screaming. She opened her eyes and tapped one of the aurors on the door on the shoulder and he moved aside so she could enter the room.

It was a typical high class pureblood room, drapes, green, lavish furniture and clothing. 'No points for originality Rookwood,' she mused, unhappy with the resemblance it had with her own home decor. Rookwood's body was sticking out from the back of the bed, still screaming and rolling side to side. The reason for his anguish became more apparent as she circled the bed and saw his forearm lying two metres away from his elbow.

"I knew it was you, Greengrass," he growled out, doing a good job at trying to look intimidating despite his predicament. "The Dark Lord will avenge me," he flicked his eyes to his separated arm and sure enough, the dark mark was pulsing despite its severance. Anthony Rookwood smiled at her and closed his eyes, accepting his death as the price for vengeance.

"Captain get out fro–"

The keep shook before she could finish her command, followed by a loud creaking and snapping sound. The room was blasted with a dust cloud forcing Daphne to take cover behind a dresser beside the bed. The shaking subsided and she had managed to stay on her feet but still was covered in a thick layer of dust. She stumbled through the cloud towards the door to get word to the captain, vanishing as much debris as she could. She leaned on the doorframe once she had reached it and attempted to step out of the room, only for her foot to find nothing under it.

"Bloody fucking hell," she frustratedly muttered before leaning heavily on the door frame and angrily shouting, "evanesco!"

The dust vanished from sight instantly which revealed the absolute carnage the assault on the keep had brought. Below her were the remains of the wooden balcony, and the aurors that were standing on it, with just as many limbs as splinters of wood sticking out from the pile. What worried her even most, however, was the sound of spell fire out in the courtyard. She jumped from the second floor doorway and silently cast arresto momentum on herself as she fell, never stopping her advance towards the gaping hole in the castle that used to be the double doors.

"Let's spread out, search the rubble for him."

Daphne looked up and saw two death eaters on the balcony that had been left standing. 'Him?' She rushed to be under the balcony and listened to the two on the creaking floorboards above her.

"You reckon he'll be here?"

"Nah, reckon he's still recoverin', but the Dark Lord has to be sure."

"Too right."

The men were making their way down the spiral staircase for their balcony which forced her to move to another hiding spot.

"Watch the door will you? Those aurors might come back in."

One of the men stepped away from the back of the room, towards the front doors and closer to her. He walked past her and came to a stop at one of the pillars holding up the balcony he'd come from, leaning on it lazily and watching the entranceway. Daphne peaked over the table piece she had crouched behind and looked at the other man, he was absently rifling through the mess both parties had made in the hall.

"Thought you could hide, girl?" Daphne's eyes widened as she swiftly spun and cast protego around herself. The 'guard' had thrown away his best advantage and in doing so had sealed his fate. The petrificus totalus bounced harmlessly off her shield, colliding with the floor to the side. Now it was his turn to panic, for he knew her face and her reputation. "Greengrass!" he cried out, his eyes comically widening and in the fraction of a second it had taken him to truly realise how screwed he was, she had already pressed the advantage.

"Lacero," she thought, which caused the man's neck to split open and blood to spurt out, covering one side of her face with it. She had turned to the other man before the first's body had even hit the floor to see him still taking in the danger. Her wand flashed across her body and an expelliarmus raced towards her enemy. That wasn't all though, a body bind and a stunner followed in an attempt to secure him for questioning.

The death eater was able to sidestep the expelliarmus off of pure instinct, however he was unable to defend himself against the next two. The body bind wrapped him up in rope and the stunner sent him to the floor, his wand falling beside him.

"Keep them back!"

Moody's yell accelerated her run towards the downed man. Daphne stomped on the wand and barely registered the crack under her heel as she cast a bone breaker on the man's right leg. The pain brought him back to consciousness with a scream.

"Are you crazy?!"

"Shut it," she harshly ordered. She grabbed his cloak at the nape and dragged him to the closest pillar to prop him up. The man whimpered the whole way as his leg scraped against the stone floor made uneven by chunks of rock and wood. Once he was up she crouched next to him and jammed her wand under his neck and used her other hand to turn his head to his dead comrade. "Answer my questions or that's what awaits you, understood?"

The man bit his lip, conflict and pain plastering his face and yet he nodded anyway. "What do you want to know?"

She wiped her cheek on her own clothes, only managing to smear the blood over a larger area. She may not have cleared the mess, but it had done wonders in intimidating her hostage. "You were searching for someone, who?"

"What- isn't it obvious?"

Daphne gripped his hair and pulled his head back hard eliciting a growl from him. "Who?" she asked again, the promise of pain on the horizon if he displeased her.

"Potter, we were looking for Potter." Daphne let go of his hair and failed to stop her rage from manifesting on her face. "None of us expected him to be here but the Dark Lord has–hrggh."

Daphne pounced, wrapping her hands around his throat. "Is this a joke? You know who I am, do you think it's a great idea to lie to me?"

The man's eyes were practically popping out of his head, which itself was becoming bluer by the second. "Not joking," he squeezed out with the fleeting remnants of his breath, "escaped."

Daphne held the grip as her mind turned over the news. 'Escaped… gods could it be true.' She released him and stepped back, raising her wand to his head. The man sat up and looked to start begging but Daphne stunned him before he could get a word out. 'You're coming with me,' she thought as she flicked her wand and levitated the unconscious death eater with her as she rushed, or rather briskly walked, towards the sound of her allies' shouts.

The courtyard was a mess, crumbling stone and wood covered the floor and spells the air. Her team had done well to transfigure temporary cover. From her place behind the entrance wall, she counted five death eaters spread out on the ramparts and behind a half wall running parallel to their position.

"Moody! Randall is down!" she heard Shafiq report as she pushed out, taking cover with the downed death eater still in tow. Shafiq was crouching behind a particularly large pile of stone and seemed to be attempting to administer aid to one of the aurors she hadn't known the name of. He looked up and surprise overtook his facial features. "Greengrass," he said with no small amount of relief.

Moody, who had been returning fire on one of their assailants, turned his body and flicked his head telling her to get over to him. Daphne

"Bastards have been stalling, only casting on us enough to keep us pinned." Moody growled as a diffindo splashed against his cover, "any wounded back there?"

"No," Daphne replied simply, 'no time for the dead.' Taking in the scene before her, she asked, "wards?" In the dim moonlight all she could see were shadows cutting across positions, forcing her to consider whether her initial assessment of their number was accurate.

"One way entry, there's no apparating or portkeying out of this mess." He uncapped a potion and downed it with a grimace, "I sent Davids to get back up, he didn't make it three steps."

"So we blast our way out." It wasn't a plan she'd associate with any ounce of finesse, but sometimes the blunt tool is the one for the job. "What about through the keep? Out the back?"

"Nay lass, walls are too strong, we'd be trapped for as long as it took to tear them down."

'I will not trade places with Harry, none of us will.' She peaked over her pile of rubble and tried to see if she could gather any more information, even an ounce more could turn the tide. But she was met with the same intermittent shadows and the odd scrape of stone against stone. "Through them then."

"Seems that way, aye," Moody responded before shooting off a confringo into the night sky, his eye providing him with the location of one of their attackers. The spell illuminated the courtyard as it travelled before blasting apart one of the wooden fencers of the stables.

'There it is,' she realised, her brain once again providing the answer she needed. "Alright, I have a plan. Shafiq, come here." Shafiq laid a hand on the dead auror's chest before crossing the gap with a well distanced roll. With the remaining members of the assault clustered together she spoke, "Alastor, you use your eye to spot them then light up their position with light spells - anything that will–"

She didn't get to finish her plan, nor did it seem necessary anymore for the courtyard had lit up in a fiery blaze. Braziers, torches and lanterns all burst to life, completely changing the playing field.

"Bugger that, your clever plan will have to wait."

Daphne peaked over the cover once more, Moody's uncharacteristically shaky tone worrying her. To her horror, she watched ten, fifteen, twenty death eaters apparate in on the castle's walls and in the courtyard. What the first squad had been stalling for had become clear, an entire attack party had been preparing itself to annihilate her force. No offers to surrender were given, no bargains to be made, this was a kill force intent on wiping the loyalists from the history books.

She tightly gripped the black strapped dagger as she unsheathed it, 'if you truly have escaped then the gods are cruel,' she reflected as though she were talking to him. She readied herself, prepared her mind for the impossible task at hand, and noticed the two men she was with do the same. Daphne wasn't ready to die, neither were her colleagues, and so every inch the death eaters took would be paid in blood. A helluva a lot of blood.

July 22nd

3:31am

Black Chateau, Loyalist Headquarters, Isle of Man

Harry

The world spun to stop and he was met with a strong gust of wind immediately which he planted his feet to withstand. The sea was demonstrating its temper, broiling angrily, crashing against the rocks with something akin to malice. 'Someone isn't happy I've returned.'

"Hold! Throw your wand to the ground or we will use lethal force!"

'Make that several someone's.' Harry squinted his eyes and recognised two men he hadn't seen in weeks, Rodger Davies, now a junior auror, and Arthur Weasley. He drew his borrowed wand and threw it to the floor with little care for its condition. "I'd appreciate restraint if at all possible."

"Merlin's beard!" he heard Arthur exclaim as the old man's wand lit up, "Harry!"

"Harry? As in Harry Potter?"

Rodger stood stock still as Arthur rushed to Harry's side. "We have to get you to the healers," Arthur fussed, "can you walk?"

"I can walk Mr Weasley-"

"Wait," Rodger ordered, his wand trained on Harry, "how can we know you are who you say you are?"

Mr Weasley wore a conflicted, but expectant, expression, it was clear he required an answer from Harry. "Three years ago, when Sirius escaped, you pulled me to the side at the station and asked me to swear to not go looking for him."

"A promise you didn't manage to keep, all for the best however," Arthur said with a fond smile. Mr Weasley always managed to look at the bright side of things, Harry considered him stronger than most for that. "Satisfied Davies?"

"Yeah - take him to Sally, shift ends in ten anyway."

"I'm glad you're back Harry, a lot of us were beginning to lose hope, especially Molly." Arthur guided Harry with a reassuring hand on his back, "but I must know now if we are compromised-"

"I didn't break," Harry interjected, "not all of me at least."

"There's no shame in it Harry," Arthur affirmed, "the very fact that you're here is a testament to your strength."

Not one to accept compliments easily, Harry muttered a "thanks" and allowed himself to be guided to the medical tent. He was glad for the help, not only were the options that were keeping him standing wearing off but he had also forgotten exactly where the hospital tent was.

"Here we are," Mr Weasley gestured to a plain looking white tent.

The only reason one might know that it was a hospital tent was a crooked sign stuck in the ground in front of it that read, 'Hospital.' Arthur pushed the tent flap aside and the memories raced back to Harry. Of course, it was much bigger on the inside, with two rows of beds not unlike the ward at Hogwarts. Where it differed was the messiness of it all, where the Hogwarts ward was sterile in both medical terms and looks, the tent had more character. Tomes were precariously stacked in various places, ranging from botanical guides to curses found in the plethora of ancient tombs of the world. Potion cabinets lined the back of the tent, assembled in an order only known to the healers who worked there day in day out.

"Potter," a woman stated disbelievingly, "how is this possible?" She was an older woman, wrinkles having set in with accompanying grey hair but she had an air that Harry could only describe as 'McGonagall-like.' "Did Greengrass finally find him?"

Arthur's face seemed to twist into something akin to displeasure, generating a fair amount of confusion in Harry. "Not as such Sally, Harry managed to escape. Can I leave him in your care?"

"Of course! Come sit Potter, Arthur, you can go rest."

Harry hobbled over to the bed, the pain in his side growing by the minute. 'I can't complain much, the man responsible got his due.' The cot was low enough for him to simply slide onto it with ease

"I'll send someone over, Harry." Mr Weasley left, who he planned on sending over

"Alright, let's take a look at you." The woman, Sally, drew her wand and ran her wand from Harry's head to his chest, "rib fractures in two- no, three places." She turned her wand to his left arm and then his right, "prolonged exposure to the cruciatus curse, all the more common these days." She then pointed her wand at his stomach and furrowed her brow, "did you take a potion?"

"I took several," Harry answered honestly, "mainly pain relievers and strong pepper-ups." He hissed as she poked his thigh with her wand, "and some kind of hallucinogenic."

"I see," she walked to the back potions cabinet and plucked a thin vial of black liquid as well as another thin vial of green liquid. "Here," she said when she returned, handing him the black vial, "this will purge your system of the potions you took."

"Purge…"

"Yes Potter," a metal bucket and a hand towel appeared on his bedside, "purge." She placed the green potion beside the bucket and continued, "this is wiggenweld, should alleviate the pain that returns."

He uncapped the vial of black liquid and eyed it warily but a stern look from Sally spurred him to down the potion. It went down his throat sluggishly, almost like jelly, but the moment he felt it enter his stomach he scrambled to retrieve the bucket.

"There you go Potter, get all that gunk out of you," Sally comforted him, patting him on the back as he filled the bucket of Snape's potions and stolen bacon. "I must say, whoever brewed those potions has a grasp on the subject I've yet to see, nothing I could brew would've got you up and moving."

He finished his vomit session and placed the bucket down beside the cot, wiping his face with the towel. "You know," Harry remarked begrudgingly, "I agree."

"Yes well–"

"Healer!" a familiar woman's voice called out from outside the tent, "we need blood replenishers!"

Sally burst into action, moving faster than he'd have thought capable towards the potions cabinets. Harry's surprised gaze whipped from the healer to the entrance as the flaps burst open and Tonks sprinted in, a woman levitating behind her. Sally rushed past him towards Tonks and was beside the cot before Tonks had finished levitating the woman onto it.

"Laceration on the neck, curse unknown, dark." Tonks' frantic explanation only became shakier as she continued, "I tried dittany, episkey, everything in the field kit but the bleeding didn't stop."

"It's okay, you did well, go sit down." Sally then began chanting something Harry couldn't quite hear, he did notice the urgency attached to it though which gave him a picture of the seriousness of the situation.

Harry had been so focused on Tonks he hadn't noticed a male auror enter the tent as well with a young boy accompanying him. He was terrified, eyes wide as saucers, locked on who Harry could only assume was his mother.

"George this isn't the place for a child," Sally hinted as she began applying a paste she had summoned. "Privacy!" As she spoke the word the white curtains drew around her and her patient. The auror, George, muttered something to the boy and began guiding him further into the tent. The boy didn't stop staring at his mother but the auror was much more observant.

"Potter?" he asked in surprise, halting his stride at the end of Harry's bed.

Tonks looked over in confusion and stood from her bed. "Potter? What do you mean–" Tonks began but stopped when she laid her eyes on him. "Harry!" Tonks crossed the distance swiftly, launching herself into a seat beside his bed. The auror guided the reluctant boy further into the tent, setting him down on one of the last beds and drawing the curtains.

"Hey Tonks," Harry greeted her, "what happened?"

"Assault on Rookwood castle, unknown resident hit her by accident." Tonks rested her hand on the side of his bed, not noticing the blood she got on his sheets and leaned in to speak. "Bugger that though, are you alright? Do you want me to get Remus? How'd you get out?"

"Tonks," Harry interjected, "I'm fine, nothing this wiggenweld won't fix." He uncapped the vial and drained it, counting his lucky stars it didn't taste or feel like the black one. "Rookwood… the unspeakable?" He remembered one of Moody's dossiers about the ministry informant, he spent a good amount of time Azkaban for that mistake.

"Yeah, Daphne has been pushing hard to capture higher level Death Eaters." Tonks' eyes widened and she jumped up out of the seat, "I should check if they've returned."

"What? Didn't they come back with you?" Harry asked, confused.

"Nah, our team extracted the Rookwoods whilst hers and Gerard's stayed behind to deal with that unknown bloke." Tonks stepped away and walked backwards as she spoke, "I'll be right back I'm just going to–"

"Tonks, are you in here?" Kingsley Shacklebolt was peeking his head into the tent, seeing his charge he stepped through and cast a sad eye to both sets of drawn curtains. "The rest haven't returned, I'm beginning to worry."

"They might be searching the castle for intel, besides, someone did return." Tonks turned around and gestured to Harry's bed. Kingsley's, much like everyone else's, first reaction was shock but it quickly morphed into relief.

"Mr Potter, welcome back." Harry didn't know the man very well personally, but any familiar face was a good one. "Your disappearance caused quite the uproar."

"I imagine my re-emergence will too," Harry replied neutrally, he tried to get over the nagging feeling something was wrong but failed. "What's going on at Rookwood castle?"

"Miss Greengrass, along with myself and Moody, coordinated an infiltration of the Castle. All was going well until Rookwood's brother surprised us and caught his brother's wife with a spell. Augustus lost his rational sensibilities and Miss Greengrass told us to leave with the prisoners."

"And they're still there? One person is slowing them up this much?" His voice had a certain edge to it, an attempt to curb his concern. She had handled herself well enough without him for weeks, why should he be worried now?

"Like I said, they could be searching the castle–"

Luna's dead face blurred between to be replaced with Daphne's, his jailor's vile promises rung in his ears. "What about the mirrors?"

"We've stopped bringing them on operations, if someone is captured with one the enemy could reverse the spell work to create their own, or worse, spy on us."

"We should…" His breathing was becoming heavier, uncontrollably so and the room had begun to spin slightly. "We should check," he reaffirmed.

"Harry," Remus happily stated, "thank Merlin it's true." His entrance had shocked Harry out of his weird state, as well as turned the attention away from himself. "I believe I have something that may help you feel a bit safer."

Under Remus' arm was a thin package, encased in brown parcel paper. He needn't tell Harry what it was for Harry could hear it sing, sing to be claimed by its rightful owner. The Elder Wand was more sentient than a normal wand, it required powerful magic just as a junkie requires its fix, loyal to the person that can give it just that. Magical artefacts with their own intentions are as rare as they are dangerous, the wand was no exception. Harry didn't care, for just as Remus had thought, the second the wand touched his bare skin he felt his worry be replaced with a warm blanket of comfort around his heart. His fatigue faded and the desire to cast something, anything, rose exponentially.

'Just bear with me for a moment, you'll get your wish.' He swung his legs over the bed and cautiously stood up, making sure his legs could handle the weight. "So," he began as he stood straighter on his own two feet, "how are we getting to Rookwood Castle?"

"Rookwood Cas– You just got back," Remus proclaimed, "at least give yourself time to fully heal whatever you suffered."

"I will," Harry assured Remus then turned to Tonks, "when I know they're safe." Remus and Tonks shared a look of conflict, they understood that they'd be the same for each other and if anyone got in their way, and then something bad happened, they'd never be able to forgive that person.

"Okay," Tonks acquiesced. She looked at Kingsley and asked, "what's the best way to do it?"

"We're not keyed into the one-way entry wards so I'd say the bottom of the hill, then on foot up the main road." Kingsley didn't seem too pleased with the plan but it was the best one on short notice that prioritised speed. He addressed Harry directly, "we will be moving quickly, are you capable of that?"

"Yes."

"Then the four of us should do it, let's go."

The four of them left the Hospital tent, if Sally was anything like Pomfrey then Harry knew he'd be getting an earful when he returned. He knew, however, that an earful was not even close to the worst that could happen if something was going wrong. With Elder Wand in hand, he made his way back through the camp, thankful for the early hour as he wasn't getting stalled by each and every person with something to say.

The apparition platform was the most well lit area of the grounds and, with nothing else better to do, he noticed the dust covering Kingsley's left side and the dried blood all over Tonk's jacket. 'Battle worn and yet they expect me not to worry, Merlin knows I worry on the best of days.'

Kingsley gripped his shoulder hard and the world spun in front of him, the unnatural feeling of being squeezed through a tube came and went as they appeared in the Scottish countryside. The first thing Harry saw was a town with the odd lamp on, no more than six or seven houses populated it, not even one of them large enough to be considered a castle.

"Morgana's tits!"

Tonks' exclamation made him realise he was looking the wrong way for when he turned around, a large stone wall looked down at him from a top the hill. Not only had he failed to notice the castle, he had missed the fact that the entire right side of it was up in flames. By the looks on everyone's faces, that wasn't a by-product of some scorched earth kind of plan, something had gone wrong.

An: Its ya boy Revanchist VII back at it again keeping Harry and Daphne apart, I bet you all rejoice when I release as chapter full of pain and suffering for our favourite characters.

So, for those of you who have played Hogwarts legacy, you'll recognise the name Rookwood Castle and the place is heavily inspired by it, location and architecture. The town nearby is Irondale, and the goblin flaw is the way you sneak in the first time you go there. Not a lot of depth to be had here, simply an assault gone wrong. All it really took was one stray curse and they were down 4 people, another exploding the balcony brings it down to only 5 people from 13.

If I'm perfectly honest, this was a filler chapter for the next one. My main goal was to make it engaging enough with Daphne's perspective to carry it through to CH6.

Next chapter teaser: United at last

Hope you enjoyed!