Harry Potter belongs to JKR

Chapter 55

Harry read the letter again.

Have information. Abney Park, central chapel, 9am today.

D

It was already past eight o'clock; he would have to hurry if he wanted to make the meeting.

"Where you headed?" Ron asked.

"Abney Park cemetery," Harry replied. Ron sent him a questioning look, a wordless question if he wanted him to come along, but Harry shook his head.

"He and Malfoy can't stand each other," Harry thought, "it's better if I go alone."

The thought of a lead on another Death Eater location so soon had him almost jogging to the exit. He checked his jeans and light jacket to make sure he looked suitably muggle, stepped through the fireplace, and exited from the Ministry floo into a closed down record store, then hiked fog shrouded streets towards the cemetery. Headlights appeared out of what looked like an infinite white space as cars slowly navigated the dangerous weather, and Harry jogged past small shops. By the time he arrived, droplets of water clung to his hair and clothing, and he'd had to wipe his glasses. A dark iron fence separated at even intervals by white pillars marked the border between the city and the cemetery proper, and the rumble of motors and chatter of pedestrians almost immediately faded away as Harry stepped onto a fitted stone path.

Sounds seemed oddly muted as Harry walked past dozens of grave stones of all shapes and sizes, some with crosses, most without, and almost all overgrown with ivy and bushes. Anything farther than thirty feet was nothing more than indistinct shapes in the hazy white mist, and beyond that he couldn't see anything at all. A few darker shapes turned out to be trees as he approached, but Harry didn't see or hear anyone else in the graveyard. Somewhere in the distance, a crow cawed, and the hairs stood up on the back of Harry's neck as leaves crunched underfoot.

"Why in Merlin's name did Malfoy want to meet here?" Harry thought as he drew his wand, "at least it's not dark."

He didn't want to think about what the creepy cemetery would look like at night. Finally, after a few twists and turns and passing over or around a couple of small hills, the path widened into an open space, and the ruined chapel appeared in front of him. The doorways of the imposing gothic structure stood open despite the temporary wire mesh fences warning people to stay away, and Harry could see right through to the other side. By the dark marks on the inside of the stone structure, it seemed the chapel had been damaged by a fire, long ago. He moved to the front of the building to wait, and eventually, footsteps and an intermittent clack reached his ears. Malfoy appeared out of the fog, looking very muggle in dark slacks and a blazer, wand in one hand and his father's snake headed cane in the other.

"Potter," he said as he glanced around, "Why the fuck did you owl me and set a meeting in what is almost certainly a haunted building in the middle of a cemetery?"

"I-I didn't send an owl… you asked me to meet here," Harry said.

"Wait, if he didn't invite me, and I didn't invite him…" Harry thought.

"I… shit," Draco said, and his eyes widened in alarm as Harry felt a tingle shoot up his spine.

"Ward activation! Trap!" Harry thought as he threw up a protego shield.

Draco spun one-eighty, an attempt at apparition, but nothing happened.

"Shit!" Draco said as he put his back towards Harry and faced the way he came. Harry instinctively turned the opposite direction and backed up against his former rival, both their wands out.

"I swear to fucking Merlin, Potter, if I end up dead because of this-" Draco said, but a familiar sensation interrupted him, akin to thousands of people gathering in a stadium to watch their team play, like something significant 'arriving'.

"Did you feel that?" Potter asked.

"Yeah, blood ritual," Draco replied.

"Are you sure?" Potter asked.

"Pretty sure," Draco replied as memories of the sensations that washed over him as a child when Father had conducted rituals in the manor cellar rose to the fore.

"Well… what does it do?" Potter asked.

"How the fuck should I know?" Draco asked, but then, hidden by the fog, the sound of snapping branches and shifting stones echoed from all around them. The two wizards edged closer to the chapel, and a dark shape ambled out of the white mist, roughly human, reaching for him as it stumbled forward. The smell of rotting flesh almost made him gag, and Draco coughed to get it out of his lungs.

"What the fuck is that?" he asked.

"Inferius," Potter replied.

One of the most dangerous Dark creatures in existence, a cursed, mindless, reanimated automaton, imbued with unnatural magical strength and fortitude, the Inferius was little more than rotted skin and bones. Clearly it had recently been underground, as it was dark with soil, and beetles and centipedes crawled over its form. Some of them even dropped to the ground as bits of it fell off.

"Infe… are you sure?" Draco asked.

"Pretty sure," Potter replied in exactly the same way Draco had.

He launched a wordless incendio spell at it, and flames engulfed the Dark abomination, but kept moving towards them a few steps until it toppled forward and lay still except for the bugs now fleeing the fire.

"Back, to the chapel," Harry said as visions of Riddle's cave and the submerged Inferi swam before him.

"That's what they want us to do," Draco said.

Harry ignored him though, because at least a dozen dark shapes had cleared the woods and bushes on three sides, and from the horrible groaning and scraping noises, even more were climbing out of the ground. He wordlessly flung one of the cheap fences at a few of the Inferi, which barely slowed them down, and the two wizards retreated into the stone structure.

"Don't just stand there, burn them!" Potter said.

"Incendio!" Draco said, but his bolt of fire was even weaker than Potter's wordless one, and it took two or three to stop one of the advancing corpses.

"Expecto patronum!" Harry said.

He squinted as brilliant blue-white light bounced off the fog around them and nearly blinded him.

"Find Ron, tell him it's a trap, Malfoy and I are in the central chapel of Abney Park cemetery, surrounded by Inferi, lots of them!" Harry said.

The patronus concentrated into a small ball and shot up through the ceiling, but then with a sound of shattering glass, small pieces of blue-white light fell to the ground and guttered out.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Draco asked.

"A ward to block patronus messages?" Harry thought as his mouth dropped open.

"Impossible," he said, but obviously it wasn't. Then there was no time for words as a mass of Inferi jammed the doorways and filled the hallway in front of them. Harry blasted back or immolated an Inferius with each casting, but Draco's spells were feeble, even for him.

"What the hell are you doing? Cast harder!" Potter yelled.

"It's not my bloody wand!" Draco yelled, "incendio!"

If he had the Elder Wand, Harry was fairly sure he could cast a far more powerful spell, certainly not as powerful as Dumbledore had in the cave, but enough to wipe out enough animated bodies to escape.

"It doesn't matter, the Wand isn't here," Harry thought.

Overwhelmed by the wave of scrabbling, worm infested corpses and burning, rotting flesh, they fell back down the passage behind them, into the chapel proper.

The smell of rotted wood and incense washed over Draco as he stumbled into the chapel. Potter lifted his wand and pulled up a bank of stone floor to slow their pursuers down, then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a very familiar looking leather pouch.

"No don't!" Draco said as Potter undid the drawstring. The mobile phone inside immediately ignited and a small gout of flame burst from the opening. Potter dropped it, and the magical bag thumped to the ground and expired with a series of small pops as the magic within dissipated.

"There's too much magic in the air, it won't work," Draco said as the phone's battery continued to sizzle and burn inside, blackening the leather.

"Shit," Potter said, and he glanced around at the small windows around the chapel, all of them with Inferi arms and claws reaching through them, "shit!"

A loud bang sounded from the door of the chapel exit they had been backing towards, and a few stones Potter had transfigured clattered to the ground as Inferi dug their way through; they were surrounded. Potter looked at Draco in the dim light of the ruined chapel, and Draco knew the Chosen One was all out of ideas.

"Fuck fuck fuck… fucking Inferi," Draco muttered as his hands shook around his mokeskin pouch, "there's got to be something-"

His fingers closed around a bit of cork and a glass neck and he pulled it out, dark green with little flickers of light inside. Potter jammed his finger onto a small stone and tossed it to the doorway behind them as the Inferi tore through his transfigured defence, and a shimmering blue shield sprung up. The walking corpses pressed against the barrier, slammed it with their fists and heads, and it shuddered but held.

"Potter," Draco said, "how big can anti-apparition wards get?"

"Depends, hundred metres… two at most maybe?" Potter replied.

"Right… you blast that door open with everything you've got. I'll clear us a path, and we make a break for it," Draco said as he held up the bottle.

"What is that?" Potter asked.

"Lightning in a bottle," Draco replied, "lightning burns, right?"

It didn't matter, they were out of options, and with Potter's temporary ward already spiderwebbing under the weight of the horde of Inferi at their back, they were out of time too. Draco dropped to one knee in front of the double doors to let Potter cast over his head.

"Ready?" Draco asked as he aimed the cork of the bottle towards the heavy doors.

"One…two…" Potter said, and Draco dug his middle finger into the cork, "three! Reducto!"

The sheer destructive power of the blue bolt thrummed through Draco as it whizzed over his head, and the heavy double doors blew off their hinges, knocking the nearest Inferi back, but revealing at least a hundred more beyond. He shut his eyes and yanked the cork hard, and it felt like a giant slammed both palms on his ears as thunderous force hammered his chest. The world went silent except for a loud ringing, and he opened his eyes to see a path of burnt destruction in front of him, the fog torn apart like paper to reveal dozens of immolated Inferi and burning trees, laying bare the route to the graveyard and a stone path through it. He dropped the bottle amid the smell of ignited air and stood up to see Potter wiping his eyes and blinking.

"Fuck, he didn't close his eyes!" Draco thought.

"Potter!" he yelled, but he could barely hear himself. He tucked his wand away, grabbed Potter's free wrist, and started running. The two banks of fog closed in, as did Inferi on both sides, and Draco tried to remember the route to the stone path before it vanished in the fog again.

The world had gone white and silent except for the high-pitched ringing in his ears, and Harry rubbed his eyes and blinked to try and get his vision back.

"I have to run, but which way?" he thought.

He felt a hand about his wrist and nearly sliced it off with Snape's Dark cutter, then realised it was Malfoy leading him to the exit. He wordlessly sent incendio spells ahead and out to the side, wide enough he wouldn't hit Malfoy. Green outlines came first, and the world slowly came into focus again as they increased speed. Harry's vision returned enough to allow him to shake free of Draco's grip and they pounded full tilt through the cemetery, leaping small drops and cutting through twists in the path. All around, gravestones swarmed with movement as rotted corpses stumbled and clambered over crypts, headstones, mausoleums, around trees and through bushes. Draco blocked one away with a thrust of his cane, and set another on fire, along with the muffled sound of spellcasting. His vision improving with every second, Harry focused on throwing rotting corpses away from their path rather than lighting them on fire.

"We're way more than a hundred metres Potter, where the fuck is the edge?" Draco shouted, and Harry realised he could hear him clearly.

Harry twisted and blasted a hole in the path behind them, and the Inferi, mindless creatures that they were, tripped into it and caused a pileup. Trees, headstones, transfigured ground, everything became a roadblock to the corpses chasing after them. Unable to think for themselves, the Dark abominations fell into pits and clambered over or demolished obstacles rather than go around.

Branches and grasping claws alike tore at his jacket as he and Malfoy sprinted through the collapsing crowd and burst into a clear space, emptied of all the Inferi who had previously moved towards them.

"There, the edge of the cemetery!" Harry shouted.

Draco looked ahead, and sure enough, between two white pillars and a black wrought iron gate, a car's headlights passed by.

"Thank Merlin I did all that running," Draco thought as his heart hammered and his legs burned.

With one final sprint, Draco anticipated stumbling out onto the street, but instead, he slammed into an invisible wall and bounced heavily to the ground. Potter fell next to him with an oof.

"Wards!" Potter said as he rolled to his feet, "hold them off."

"Hold them- are you bloody kidding?!" Draco said as he clambered to his feet and stared at the horde of cursed Inferi appearing out of the fog. Potter blasted the path in front of the charging corpses to create a pit and buy them some time. Stones blasted into the air clattered to the ground as the Auror turned to the ward blocking their escape.

"Scutum ruptor," Potter said, and pink cracks appeared in mid-air.

"That's going to take more than one casting," Draco thought as he faced down the rushing mob.

"Incendio, depulso, flipendo," Draco said as he tried to knock Inferi onto one another and into the pit to slow them down. Then the horde swarmed past the final obstacle and Draco desperately cast as fast as he could, but he had no choice but to give ground until his back pressed against Potter's.

"Potter? Help?" he shouted.

He double-clenched his fist and blasted one away with the enchanted glove, then used the cane's enchantment to knock another one back. A third grabbed his wand arm and stretched its jaws wide.

"This is it, I'm going to die," Draco thought as he stared into the rotted, centipede and soil filled maw of the Inferius. Then Potter fell down behind him, and they both tumbled onto concrete pavement, with the Boy-Who-Lived breaking his fall. Draco rolled off him and they both aimed their wands at the gate, but nothing else came through, not even the Inferius that had grabbed Draco. The graveyard was quiet; no sign of any rotting corpses, nothing out of the ordinary.

Draco chanced a glance to the side and spotted his own terror reflected in Potter's eyes, muted though, as they both panted to catch their breath. Potter stood and approached the three steps to the edge of the cemetery, while Draco picked himself up off the ground. Then the Auror jerked forward as if grabbed, flicked his wand, and fell backwards down the steps and onto his arse again. A black, rotted Inferius hand clung to the front of his jacket.

"Ugh," Potter said as he flung it away and incinerated it, "they're still in there, the ward is concealing them. It's keeping them inside, too."

Draco offered a hand and pulled him to his feet.

"The ward you just tore a hole through? Not bloody likely. They're probably ordered not to leave the graveyard. What the fuck Potter, why were there about a million Inferi in there?" Draco asked, "and who wrote those letters?"

Potter licked his lips and stared at the entrance to the graveyard.

"I don't know for sure, but really, who else would it be?" Harry said, "any luck finding the remaining Death Eaters?"

Last they'd spoken, Darren had some leads, but nothing concrete.

"No, not yet," Draco replied.

Potter looked back to the gated entrance while Draco glanced around. Thanks to the fog, there was little chance of them being noticed by muggles or anyone else, but he didn't fancy his chances.

"I'm going, no telling if they're watching the exits," Draco said.

He turned and apparated straight to the Manor.

Fog swirled where Draco had disapparated. Harry watched it for a second, then approached the gate again and cast a few diagnostic spells.

"Muggle repelling?" he thought, "what in Merlin's name?"

He paused for a second.

"I've got to warn everyone," he thought. He turned and apparated to Diagon and entered the Ministry of Magic.

As he walked across the Atrium and waited for the lift, Harry realised he sported a half-dozen minor scrapes and bruises, luckily nothing too serious.

"Probably look like shite though," he thought. His thoughts were confirmed when he rounded the corner in to Robards' office.

"What the bloody hell happened to you?" the Head Auror asked as he looked up from his desk.

"Inferi, hundreds of them, at Abney Park Cemetery," Harry replied.

Robards looked at him dubiously. The bastard didn't believe him.

"I'll give you the memory if you like," Harry said.

The Head Auror held up a hand.

"I'll dispatch an independent investigation team," he said, "clean yourself up, write the report."

"They need to be careful, I barely got out of there alive," Harry said, "there's anti-apparition wards across the entire place."

Robards gave Harry an odd look, but he nodded and motioned for him to leave the office. Harry passed by Ron's vacant chair and slumped down into his own. He stripped off his outer jacket, torn in places where the Inferi had almost got him, and threw it over the cube wall. His hands shook, and he couldn't sit still, much less write, so he left his desk and started walking. He first dropped the letter he'd received from 'Draco' off at the Tracer department to see if they could figure out who or where it came from. He then paced through every level of the Ministry except for level ten, the Department of Mysteries. When he finally returned to his desk, he found a paper airplane memo waiting for him.

Lieutenant Potter,

Presence of Inferi and wards confirmed. Too dangerous to address today. Task force will be assembled to dispose. Existing muggle repelling wards should keep them away until operation is ready. Complete official incident report on priority.

LR, Head Auror

Harry sighed, sat down, dipped his quill, and started writing.

A/N: The image of Harry and Draco realising they've been lured into a trap and turning back-to-back in the graveyard is one of the first ideas I had for this fic.