Chapter 14. The Iron Legs
In the morning, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Teddy went down to the lobby for breakfast and found the hotel looking peaceful and quiet, as though nothing had happened the night before. Some of the staff, however, still seemed confused by their altered memories, looking in the wrong place to greet them or stopping suddenly while walking. The group entered the dining room, where they were greeted by Krum and Dimitrov, already seated at a round table covered with a white cloth, eating breakfast.
"Viktor, why do you look so tired?" asked Harry as he and his friends sat down to join the Bulgarian Aurors. Krum's short black hair was flat and he had shadows under his eyes, looking like he hadn't slept well the night before.
"We haff been cleaning up all night with our Ministry workers," said Krum bluntly. "Ve voke up the unconscious staff and took the captured prisoners into custody. . . . Ve finished all the vork, and it vas already dawn."
"You did well, Viktor," said Hermione warmly. "I found something strange about the attack last night. . . . Who could have knocked out the hotel staff? It doesn't seem to be the work of the troublemakers outside."
"I am not sure about that, either. I checked the hotel staff's memories just in case, but everything had been erased."
"Maybe Eisenbein did it?" said Teddy, looking up from his stew the waiter had just brought. "He claimed to have stolen your Cloak of Invisibility, Harry. . . . Sneaking in here would have been easy for him."
"If so, why did he break into our hotel, then? We have never been attacked overnight by an invisible enemy," said Hermione thoughtfully.
"Perhaps he got spooked when he was climbing the stairs," said Ron airily, taking a bite of his buttered roll. "You treat Eisenbein like another Dark Lord, but he could actually be a petty criminal who makes plausible bluffs to fool people. Why wouldn't such a powerful Dark wizard have shown up sooner if there had been one?"
"Ve must still be vigilant. If Eisenbein alerted a great Auror like Harry, there must be a good reason," Krum said, and Ron cut the ham on the plate more roughly at this refutation. Krum didn't care and went on, "Our next step is to make contact vith the foreign agents outside this hotel. Eisenbein himself might show up if ve attack the Dawn Breakers' base."
They put on their Muggle clothes after breakfast and went outside to find about a dozen men and women standing in the street, looking at first glance like wizards and witches, just like Krum had said. These people were generally dressed in Muggle-style suits, but they were also wearing flashy gold bracelets and diamond necklaces that made them stand out more than normal passersby.
"Teddy, disguise yourself and go to our destination first to see what's going on. Shoot a red spark into the sky if anything happens."
Teddy nodded at Harry's words and slowly transformed himself into an old man with white hair. Harry looked back at the foreign Aurors once his godson, wearing a fedora and carrying a cane, walked slowly down the street.
"And the rest of you, please follow us. We'll surround their building and prevent the Dawn Breakers from escaping," said Harry. His words, however, seemed to be lost on the Aurors, who stood staring at each other blankly.
"Viktor — do these people speak English?" asked Hermione suspiciously, and Krum gave Dimitrov a reproachful look at her words.
"I forgot to check — I vas in a hurry to get them together," said Dimitrov apologetically, scratching his head.
"This is going really well. So we're going into battle with people who don't understand a word we're saying?" said Ron, glaring at Krum.
"What countries do they belong to?" asked Hermione calmly, taking a step forward without showing any sign of embarrassment.
Dimitrov asked the wizards and witches standing there something in Bulgarian, but they didn't seem to know his language either, so he had to use sign language to convey his meaning. He finally said, "They're from Greece, Romania, Hungary and Serbia."
"Then Harry, take out your smartphone," Hermione demanded.
"What for?" said Ron with a confused look on his face, and Hermione ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.
"Ron — we've seen Faraday use it to translate foreign languages! If Harry isn't going to use it now, why would he be carrying it around?"
"Exactly! Why didn't I think of that?"
Harry pulled his smartphone out of his inside pocket. Then he typed in the instructions he had given earlier using the translator app on his phone. The English sentences were then translated into Greek, Romanian, Hungarian and Serbian. The sentences were then read aloud in each language by a mechanical female voice from the device. The Aurors from the surrounding countries, who had remained almost expressionless, were startled and muttered to each other when they heard their own languages.
"Is my plan clear to all of you?" said Harry, and his mobile device translated those words into several languages at the same time.
"It's vonderful magic to be able to translate other languages," Krum said, impressed, as he and Harry walked down the street together. "Some of my Aurors had trouble speaking English in your country. . . . Can you tell me vat spell you used?"
"It wasn't magic; I just used Muggle technology," Harry said, grinning at him. "The British Ministry of Magic recently hired a Squib named Faraday, and I learned a lot of Muggle stuff from him."
"Ah, I see. Even in this country, young vizards from Muggle families can't live vithout their smartphones," said Krum gloomily. "Vizards from old families are very unhappy with the situation. . . . That's vy we don't have enough Aurors at the moment — they haff been spread around every town because of the vicious vizards who target Muggles every other day."
"I see what you mean, Viktor. We saw such an attack just last night," said Harry. "The same is true in Britain: The revolt against Muggles has caused serious unrest there. Many pureblood Aurors left our Ministry recently because of its pro-Muggle policies."
"Really? You mean they left a hero like you?" said Krum, raising his thick eyebrows.
"Hero is a relative term," said Harry bitterly. "Every aspect of our lives is changing rapidly, for our world is no longer isolated as it once was. . . . In times like these, once great fame can fade in an instant."
Further along, the boulevards looked less clean and tidy, and the streetscape began to resemble a slum. Crumbling brick walls and old cement buildings overgrown with vines appeared on both sides of the street. Eventually, Krum stopped in front of the tallest abandoned structure in the desolate area, about five stories high.
"They went in there yesterday," Krum said, pointing to the building, the top of which had partially collapsed as if hit by a bomb, leaving the steel frame exposed. There was no sound, and even the few trees on the street weren't well-maintained, most of their leaves falling off or withering.
"Are you sure this is it? Nobody seems to be there," said Ron disbelievingly.
"Several people just went in," said a familiar voice from the alley to the right, and Teddy emerged. His gray hair had returned to its original sandy color, and he was holding a crumpled fedora. "Each of them had a wand — there's no doubt this is their base."
"Then we'll have to move quickly. Hermione — go with Ron and bind the place with an Anti-Disapparation Jinx. Viktor and Dimitrov — check the back door and block the nearby alleyways. The rest of you will join me for a frontal assault," Harry said, then translated his words into different languages and played them back on his phone.
Harry led Teddy and the Aurors from other countries in a fan formation as they approached the building. Harry drew his wand when the distance had narrowed, and the others followed. Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione stood near the building, pointing their wands upward and casting spells. A pale blue veil covered the entire area, blocking any escape through Disapparition. Harry found a fiery red mark representing the Deathly Hallows — a combination of a triangle, a circle and a straight line — engraved on the front of the building. Just below the mark was a rusty iron gate with blue paint peeling off.
As the other Aurors bowed to hide, Harry pointed his wand at the front door and shouted, "Bombarda!"
The air around him trembled like a mist when he uttered the spell, and the ensuing explosion caused the iron door to crumple like paper as it flew open.
"Stupefy!" Harry shouted at the first figure he saw. The hapless Dawn Breaker was thrown back by a flash of red light and crashed into a cement pillar behind him. Joining Harry, the other Aurors behind him used Disarming and Stunning Spells to subdue the hooded Dark wizards gathered in the center. By bowing his head in time, Harry was able to avoid the bright green Killing Curse, and then deflected several other lesser curses. About a minute later, Harry and the Aurors he led were the only ones left standing.
Catching his breath, Harry took a closer look at the inside of the building. There were only a few pillars supporting the upper floor inside, where the concrete wall was exposed due to lack of painting. A drum lit with fire cast a faint glow around itself in the center, serving as the only source of light. Krum and Dimitrov finally emerged from the small doorway on the other side, keeping a wary eye on the fallen Dawn Breakers.
Using his wand, Krum lifted the head of a man who had fallen nearby and said menacingly, "Do you speak English?"
"Y-Yes, I c-can," the young Bulgarian wizard at his feet stuttered in reply.
"Good. Ve haff guests here, so speak English. For vich purpose haff you gathered here?"
"A group of Dark vizards from England summoned us here. Ve vere promised gold coins if ve harassed Muggles and kidnapped some orphans."
"Some of them may be my former subordinates; quite a few of them have joined the Dawn Breakers," Harry said, and he and Teddy exchanged dark glances. "There should be enough gold for them to carry out their plan, since their leader robbed Gringotts a while back."
"Vy are you vearing this necklace, then?" Krum bent down on one knee and lifted a small metal object around the man's neck. The symbol of the Deathly Hallows, which looked like a triangular eye, glowed from his gold chain.
"Eisenbein is looking for the Deathly Hallows, as vas Grindelvald. . . . One of the three has already been found, he claims," the man said, his voice shaking. "By collecting all three, he vill achieve his desired goal. . . ."
"And what is that goal?" Harry knelt beside Krum and looked down at the man on the ground.
"To get rid of all Muggles . . . all of them without exception."
Everyone gathered around them fell silent when they heard these words. Hermione covered her gaping mouth with her hand, and Ron stumbled in shock for a moment. Harry was the only one who kept his composure, having already heard about Eisenbein's terrible plan from Markus Dolohov.
"Viktor, what punishment can we give this man?" asked Harry, and Krum looked at him as he pondered the shocking statement.
"He could face at least five years in prison for participating in the Muggle attack and for carrying the filthy sign of Grindelvald." As if sensing Harry's intentions, Krum continued to speak loudly so that the other wizards lying on the floor could hear him, "I could punish any of the arrested even more if they don't cooperate! I vill personally see to it that they are sent to Nurmengard!"
Nurmengard was a special high-security prison in Eastern Europe where captured Dark wizards were held, similar to Azkaban in Britain. There was a tremor among the captives at the word, much as the British wizards would react to the word Azkaban.
"H-he's here — I tell you!" Another man who had fallen beside Harry said, his long, wiry hair and beard making him look disheveled.
"Who's here? SAY IT!" Harry shouted, pointing his wand straight at the man.
"Eisenbein is here . . ." The long-bearded wizard pointed upward with a trembling finger. "He's right up there . . ."
While Krum and Dimitrov were guarding the prisoners on the ground floor, Harry led the rest of the Aurors up the rail-less cement stairs. Thinking he was about to face Eisenbein, his heart pounded like a small bird skimming over rough seas, feeling exhilarated and tense at the same time. On the second floor, there were only a few bare columns, just like on the first floor, but it was different from the third floor. Though there was no difference in the cement surface of the walls, a collidor appeared in the middle, with large and small rooms on either side.
"I'll search the rooms here with the Greek Aurors. . . . Lead the others and search the upper floors," Harry said, and together with Teddy and the Aurors from other countries, Ron and Hermione continued to climb the stairs.
Taking a step into the empty corridor, Harry motioned for the two Aurors from Greece to follow him. Harry walked slowly down the passage, looking to both sides as the two Aurors, both equally dark faced and with curly hair, came right behind him. Harry opened the first red door he saw and stepped inside. On one side, sunlight poured in through a wide window, revealing fine dust dancing in the light.
There were a lot of old wooden chests piled up in the rather spacious interior, making it a good place to hide. Could Eisenbein be hiding in one of them? Or could he be wearing the Invisibility Cloak that he had taken from Harry and crouching behind a column, ready to ambush them at any moment? There had never been a time when Harry had longed so desperately for Mad-Eye Moody's magical eye.
With his wand in the air, Harry said, "Homenum revelio."
Though nothing happened, he couldn't calm down — a skilled wizard could easily fool such a spell. Harry opened the nearest container and examined its contents: Rusty, swollen tins of fruit were inside. He had the Greeks follow him, peering into the empty spaces between the large wooden chests as he opened more crates. Others contained old, moldy clothes and blankets, or various kinds of canned food. He walked through the room without seeing anyone until he reached the wall. Just as he turned around in disappointment, he noticed something at the edge of his vision. It was clearly not alive, but it was an object that could not be missed.
With his wand pointed at the suspicious thing, he slowly approached it. Two metal legs stood side by side against the wall. The steel calves, thighs, and wide feet were connected to gears that emitted small amounts of steam. It didn't make sense to put such iron legs in the corner; it just didn't seem real. . . . In an attempt to determine if someone invisible was hiding, Harry reached out his hands, but found nothing around those unnerving legs. Since the room was full of junk, it was possible that Muggles had thrown medical equipment like that in there.
Just then, the Greek Aurors, who had opened and checked all the containers, came and shook their heads to announce that there had been no harvest. One of them widened his eyes in confusion at the sight of the iron legs Harry had been watching, but shrugged and walked away. Despite the ominous feeling Harry had about the strange metal legs, he could think of nothing to do with them at the moment, so he followed the Greeks out. In the hallway, however, his intuition finally overcame his reason. Before going up the stairs, Harry had the Greeks stand guard outside the door they had just come out of.
"Ron! Hermione! Get those people down to the third floor!" Harry called up the stairs.
"All right. Have you found anything?" Hermione's voice said from a distant floor, and the sound of busy footsteps echoed across the landing.
Waiting for them to come down, Harry turned around. Then something occurred to him, so he picked up his phone and opened the translator app. His slightly trembling finger typed in the two foreign words, eisen and bein, and had them translated into English. The words were then marked as German on the left side, and two English words appeared on the right side for interpretation: Iron Leg. Harry's heart raced when he saw this.
"Harry, what's going on?" said Ron from behind him.
"Eisenbein might be in there — part of him, at least," Harry said, his voice low but clear. "Keep quiet and follow me."
Harry led Ron, Hermione and Teddy into the corridor. The four of them walked up to the room, which was still guarded by two Greek Aurors on either side of the entrance. The Greeks were also pointing their wands at the door with a tense expression on their faces, as if they had also been struck by the strangeness of the situation.
Then came the sudden explosion. The fire that had broken through the flimsy door burst out into the hallway first, followed by a loud, deafening blast. In a blur of red flames, the two Greek Aurors were thrown from the wall. Temporarily deaf, but undeterred, Harry pointed his wand at the raging fire in the room. With burns on their faces and hands, the screaming Greek Aurors writhed on the floor; through the noise, Harry could hear slow, steady footsteps.
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.
They were the same metallic footsteps he remembered hearing when he had entered Teddy's memory through the Pensieve. Now Harry knew for sure who had made that sound. . . . A dark figure stepped out of the open door, wearing a silver-gray cloak. Only Eisenbein's two iron legs were clearly visible under the cloak that covered the rest of his body. The blazing flames revealed a faint constellation pattern on the dark surface of the cloak — there was no doubt that what he was wearing was the Cloak of Invisibility that had once belonged to Harry. Beneath the cloak, his face, hidden in the shadows, looked like hazy smoke, as if covered by some kind of protective magic. Ignoring the groaning Greeks who had fallen in the hallway, Eisenbein pulled his wand out of his cloak and looked at Harry and the others behind him.
"PUT DOWN YOUR WAND! RIGHT NOW!" shouted Harry, and Eisenbein's wand arm stopped in mid-air as it rose toward him. The arms, almost free of the cloak, were covered in dark bandages, and his hands — smooth and silver — reflected the flames around them, as did his steel legs. It reminded Harry of the silver hands he had seen before: His dazzling glove-like hands looked just like the one Voldemort had given to Wormtail in Little Hangleton's graveyard long ago.
"This is your last warning! Put down your wand! NOW!" Harry shouted again. In obedience, Eisenbein lowered his silver hand and wand to the ground.
"Harry, look out!" yelled Hermione from behind them.
"Deprimo!" A harsh voice shouted from behind Eisenbein's hood. Before Harry could even realize what had happened, a flash of light shot from the tip of Eisenbein's wand, which was pointed down. In response to the sound of the ground cracking, Harry felt his body fall to the depths.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry shouted almost instinctively at the shattered piece of concrete that barely supported his feet. Thanks to the spell, he didn't hit the hard ground head on, but he soon lost his balance and toppled over.
Harry covered his head as debris of all shapes and sizes poured down on him, his whole body screaming in pain. The wand was still in his hand, but the smoke from the recent explosion and the mist of dust had made it impossible to see. Ash in the air made Harry cough when he tried to inhale, and the rough texture of stone powder was visible in his left hand as it rested on the dusty ground. His head pounded like a drum from the shock he had received, and then the sound of steel and stone colliding not far from him cleared his head. He staggered to his feet and saw a black figure approaching through the smoke.
"Mate, are you okay?" Ron's worried voice came from behind him. As Ron and Hermione came down the stairs, Krum and Dimitrov came up from below, and the foreign Aurors immediately surrounded Eisenbein.
"Put down your wand and raise your hands! Or I'll use a Killing Curse on you!" Krum pointed his wand and shouted at him. "You are surrounded — there is no escape!"
Harry adjusted his glasses on his nose and watched as Eisenbein slowly raised his hands. This time there were no wands in either of the silver hands. Despite his best efforts, Harry could not see his blurry face hidden under the hood due to the thick dust and smoke.
"Just Stun him!" exclaimed Teddy.
For a moment, Harry did not understand what he had seen. Two smaller arms emerged from Eisenbein's cloak just as Teddy's cry had distracted the other Aurors. In addition to the original pair of silver hands, another pair of smaller hands wore black gloves and both held wands. Krum flew backward after being struck by a Stunning Spell from one of those wands before he could react, and Eisenbein cast another spell that Harry barely deflected.
Eisenbein's original two longer arms had disappeared into the cloak, then reappeared with wands. With four wands in his four hands, he unleashed hexes and curses at the surrounding Aurors in all directions. In response, Harry threw every hex he knew at Eisenbein, trying to defend himself at the same time. Half of the Aurors were Stunned or Disarmed within seconds, while the other half fought back, either lying down or hiding behind pillars. The battle was fierce; the red and green beams of light that sliced through the air were so bright that Harry felt dizzy.
Eisenbein, who had been hit with several hexes and curses on his back and shoulders, finally faltered; he raised an arm and shouted, "Expulso!"
An enormous shockwave from his wand ripped through the third floor, which had already collapsed, and brought down the rest of the upper floors with huge explosions.
"DUCK, EVERYONE!" shouted Harry as broken chunks of cement ceiling began to fall from above. Throwing himself toward the stairs to avoid the wreckage, Harry saw Eisenbein rise into the sky after turning into a smoke-like form.
As the smoke and dust cleared, the devastation became more apparent. The Aurors were covered in blood and dirt, making the colors of their robes impossible to discern, and among the rubble, the unconscious or injured groaned or mumbled foreign languages in agony. In no time, Dimitrov had summoned Bulgarian Healers, who were busy clearing debris and tending to the injured. The Greek Aurors, burned earlier, lay sobbing on the ground, their faces covered in thick orange paste.
"I have to admit it, mate. I was wrong," Ron said, limping over to Harry. "Eisenbein was no easy opponent, was he? Now that I've been through this, I realize . . ."
"What did I tell you? Let me take care of your leg," Harry said, leading Ron to sit on a nearby stone. He tapped Ron's leg with his wand and muttered, "Ferula."
A splint appeared in the air and bandages secured Ron's leg to it. Having come out of unconsciousness, Krum was now leaning against a nearby pillar, looking more surly than ever. His expression was so grave that even Ron dared not pick a fight with him.
"It vas so careless of me . . . All I did vas faint on the floor," Krum said gloomily to Harry. "Could it be that I am not fit to be an Auror? It's not the first time; I fainted when Barty Crouch vas killed during the Trivizard Tournament . . ."
"Viktor, it's not like that. Who would have known that Eisenbein had an extra pair of arms?" Harry comforted Krum with a pat on the shoulder.
"Harry's right. Anyway, how could Eisenbein have doubled his arms? I've never seen anything like it," Hermione said, sitting next to them. She looked unharmed except for some dust on her clothes, unlike the others who were in terrible shape; her mastery of defensive magic wasn't for nothing.
"This isn't the first time I've seen a silver hand like that. . . . Wormtail received a similar one from Voldemort," said Harry thoughtfully. "One possibility is that the two black-gloved hands are from his original body, while the two silver hands are his own creations."
"Then what are his steel legs for?" said Teddy. His left arm was bandaged, and dried blood was visible under his nose. "You don't need four legs to walk, do you?"
"I'm not sure. Those iron legs seemed to be removable, though; I found them upstairs leaning against the wall."
"It wasn't worth coming this far." Ron sat down on the dusty floor and let out a long sigh. "Eisenbein ran away, and we have no idea where to look for him now . . ."
"Actually, we did learn a few things about him," said Hermione. "Turns out he wasn't completely bluffing. Think about it — he had silver hands like Wormtail, and he flew into the sky like smoke without a ride. The same kind of Dark Magic was used by Voldemort, and Eisenbein may have been connected to him."
"The problem is, even if you know this, there's still no way to find Eisenbein," Teddy groaned.
"No — we just learned something else," said Harry. "Eisenbein is after the Deathly Hallows. He claims to be Grindelwald's successor, who tried to find them, and he also uses the sign of the Hallows just like him. Furthermore, he was clearly wearing my Invisibility Cloak — I saw its constellation pattern glowing in the flames."
"Maybe that's why I couldn't see his face? Because of your Cloak?" said Ron curiously.
"Perhaps," said Harry simply. "I guess he can hide well if he wants to, since I couldn't find him in the room earlier. . . ."
"Harry, do you think Eisenbein will —" Hermione said, realizing what he was about to say.
"Yes, Hermione." Harry nodded. "Eisenbein's going after the Elder Wand now . . . It hasn't been made public, but he's definitely smart enough to figure out that the wand is in Dumbledore's grave."
"Harry, what if . . . what if he collects all the Deathly Hallows?" said Hermione, her eyes widening in horror. "He said he'd use the Hallows to wipe out all Muggles. Can that really be done?"
"No one really understands the power of the Deathly Hallows. Their very existence has only recently been discovered," said Harry. "Anyway, even I have no idea where the third Hallow is. There's no way Eisenbein will ever find it."
"So, Harry, what are you gonna do now?" said Teddy.
"Well, obviously we have to get the Elder Wand before he does. Ron, I'm taking you to Hogwarts." Harry pointed to Hermione and Teddy and continued, "You two should stay at the Ministry of Magic and check out the situation there. All of us rushing to Hogwarts will look very suspicious."
"I understand, Harry. Eisenbein must be stopped at all costs," Hermione said in a trembling voice. "Even Voldemort and his Death Eaters didn't intend to kill every Muggle in the world. . . . I don't even want to imagine what would happen if he got all three of the Hallows."