A/N: Co-writers: Tyler Nator, kuqiphobia (Helena)

Beta reader:Luke Knight, LadyLucius, grimmypigeon, Calten

Chapter-14

Harry was packing his trunk for the Christmas holidays. The holidays were going to start the next day, when a pair of slender hands snaked around his waist.

"You keep doing this and I won't be able to finish my packing," he said, not turning around.

"How do you always know that it is me and no one else? You always spoil the fun," Ginny said in mock disappointment.

"Well, I can definitely identify you by your scent, and second, your footsteps," Harry said, turning around and taking her in his arms. He smiled warmly at her, eyes radiating light and love. "So are you ready to go to our home?"

"Hmm… I like the sound of that. Yes, I am ready to go home," Ginny said, emphasising the word 'home'.

Harry leaned down to kiss her and they kissed each other passionately. Her arms wrapped around his neck and tightened around her waist, bringing them impossibly closer. Ginny caressed his cheek and tilted her head, deepening the kiss as they both sighed into it. The tapping on the window interrupted them and the two broke away, breathing heavily.

Harry looked out the window. An owl was tapping on the glass to get in. Ginny opened the window and the owl soared to Harry and landed in front of him, extending his leg. He untied the letter and the owl flew away soon after that.

"What does it say, Harry?" Ginny asked him when she saw the worried look on Harry's face.

"It is from Mundungus Fletcher, he found the place where Anderson is being held as hostage," Harry replied.

"Ginny, ask Ron to meet me at the gates," Harry told her as he changed into muggle attire.

"Expecto Patronum," Harry whispered. "Found Anderson's location, coming to ministry," he instructed his Patronus.

Harry sent his Patronus to Kingsley and went to the Headmistress' office to inform her about Anderson. After ten minutes Harry met Ron at the gate of Hogwarts.

"Harry! Ginny said you got the location of Anderson!" Ron shouted from a distance as he saw Harry coming towards him.

"Yes, I just got the information and we are going to the Ministry before attacking the hideout," Harry said.

At the same time, Goldie came holding a letter. She thrust it into Harry's hands urgently.

"Ok, let's go," Harry said as he put the letter in his pocket after reading it. His face was grave, and the light that had shone in his eyes previously had been replaced with a dimmed glow, and lines marred his forehead from stress.

They apparated to the Ministry Atrium and walked directly to the Minister of Magic's office. Kingsley was waiting for them with a few other people in his office, most of whom Harry was unfamiliar with. He guessed they were Aurors who would go on the raid.

"About time Harry. We've been waiting for you. So what information do you have for us?" Kingsley asked as Harry and Ron entered the office.

"Sir, my informer told me about the location of the hideout of the Death Eaters where Anderson is being held as a hostage," Harry said as he gave Kingsley the letter from Mundungus to him. Kingsley's eyes skimmed over the letter, eyebrows furrowing as he got further down. Finally, he looked back up at Harry gravely.

"And it has also informed me that there are two groups of death eaters: the bigger and major Death Eaters follow Torian Lestrange, while the other smaller and minor Death Eaters follow Crabbe. The group led by Crabbe was the one who attacked me at Tonks's house, the week after the battle, and here at the ministry. But the thing is, the break-in at Azkaban and the kidnapping of Mr Anderson and killing of his wife was done by the Lestrange group," Harry informed him as he gave the second letter as well.

Kingsley processed this information. "Ok gentlemen, we got the information we needed, let's prepare for the attack," Kingsley said to the people that were sitting in front of him.

Within a couple of minutes, they had the map of the place where Lestrange and his group of Death Eaters were hiding.

"I think this barn house will be their hiding place," one of the Aurors said.

"So do we," Ron agreed, moving his head towards Harry's direction. Harry nodded.

"There aren't going to be many covers for us to move. It's a very open area around that building," an Auror with grey streaks in his hair said while pointing at the map.

"We can use invisibility cloaks to hide ourselves," argued Harry.

"I've heard that you have one, yet not all of us do. We will all be completely exposed to the enemy," countered the Auror.

"We can use disillusionment charm. We have magic, don't we?" Ron said, deadpan, not bothering to shift his gaze away from the map. He was studying it like a chessboard.

"That's a very good point, yet it's not foolproof. We can use that to hide our movement in the dark," said the Auror.

"Can you make a map of this building as well?" Ron pointed to the barn house on the map.

"Only the outside part."

"That can also help."

The Auror waved his wand and a wispy hologram of the barn house appeared a couple of inches above the map.

"There is a window on the upper floor, we can use it as well for entry." Harry directed his finger at the hologram. "It's unattended."

"There will be wards which will raise the alarm. It'll be challenging to enter through the window," the first Auror shook his head.

Harry and Ron looked at each other, smirking.

"We know someone who can help us. Just create a distraction that gives us…. um…. ten minutes, and we will be able to break into the barn house through the window." Ron said, his voice self-assured and even-tempered.

The Auror's eyes narrowed for a moment, Ron's gleaming eyes staring back, full of confidence. The smallest of smiles crept onto the Auror's face as he gave in. "Very well," he said, "we'll do what we can."

"Alright. We'll meet you there in an hour," Harry said, as he and Ron left the office and apparated back to Hogwarts from the atrium.

"You go and wake up Professor Zen and I will fetch my cloak. Meet me here in fifteen minutes," Harry said as they squeezed through the gates of Hogwarts.

0-0-0-0–0-0-0

Ten minutes later, Harry, Ron and Professor Zen apparated near the farm, in the woods, Aurors were already present there.

"Williamson and Savage will go with you. Savage, you will lead," the grey-haired Auror whispered. Savage nodded firmly.

"Ok we don't have much time, follow me, we need to move to the other side of the farm" a woman, Williamson, called.

Harry noticed that both of the Aurors accompanying them were elderly and could easily enter through the window. Williamson was a slim witch, about the same age as Mrs Weasley, with blonde hair, lined with streaks of white, tied back in a low ponytail to keep it out of her face.

As a short, balding man in his early forties, Savage could barely reach Harry's shoulder and could easily be misidentified as a large boy, yet also not so much as a large boy as someone middle-aged. Despite his many years, his face still held a youthful appearance, which contrasted highly with the gleaming top of his bald head.

The five of them moved towards their destination, crouching low and moving as fast as possible in that position. Harry could see that Williamson held her wand so tightly that her shaky muscles turned white.

"You need to relax a bit, he is going to be ok," Savage muttered, apparently he had also noticed how tense she was. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder, yet she only looked at him hastily.

"How can you be so sure?"

"We've known him since Hogwarts, he is a tough nut. They won't break."

"That's good, but also a sign of worry in this case," Professor Zen injected.

Harry raised his eyebrow in question but then he realised that Professor couldn't see him. He asked, "How?"

"Because the more he resists the more fucked he will get," Ron said.

"Exactly," Williamson said "and that's why I'm worried they might have even killed him."

Harry swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Alright, we are here," Savage said, stopping in the shadow of a tree.

"Are you going to use that?" Professor Zen asked as Harry took out his invisibility cloak.

"Yeah"

"Bad idea,"

"Why? It hides better than a disillusionment charm."

"Yes, it does. However, it will impede your ability to move rapidly. The cloak is ideal for moving slowly and discreetly, but we need to move rapidly here."

"True, but won't anybody notice us?" Harry reasoned.

"Their focus will be in that way, and it's quite likely that they won't anticipate us from that window, until I breach the wards, then we'll need to advance quickly before they realise that the wards have been broken," Zen pointed out.

Harry gave a nod and returned his cloak to the inside pocket of his jacket. Williamson ran a few metres to their left and sent red sparks into the air. A few seconds later, she sent green sparks that were further ahead in the same direction. In the meantime, Professor Zen was waving his wand in a complex pattern while murmuring rapidly under his breath.

Suddenly a sound of blast came from the direction Harry knew Aurors were stationed.

"Let's move," Professor waved his hand, and they bent down and ran as fast as their legs could carry them.

"It's higher than it looks in the diagram!" Williamson groaned.

"Brilliant." Suddenly, Goldie appeared on Harry's shoulder. "Come on, Williamson grab Savage's hand, Savage you grab Professor Zen and Professor grab Ron!" Harry added as he took hold of Ron's hand in one hand and Goldie's tail in the other.

Goldie raised into the air, taking them along with her. It kept on climbing even higher than the window until the last person could climb into the window and then started to lower herself until Harry entered at last and then followed Harry through the window.

"Let's search downstairs," Savage said quietly as it turned out to be the topmost floor of the barn house.

Coincidentally, Harry and Savage got to the front as they started to move downwards.

"They won't be able to reach us in time," Zen said, who was still looking outside.

"We can still surprise them," Ron replied.

"Shhhh…" Savage waved his hand and pointed downwards.

Two people were moving outside a door.

Do you think the wards will hold on?" one of them said in a frantic voice.

"I don't know," the other one replied.

Harry sent a strong stunning spell towards one of them, at the same time Ron had done the same. Their targets didn't get time to react and crumbled down, knocking into each other in the way with an awfully loud thud. Savage and Williamson moved the men out of the way.

"Keep moving," Zen prodded them.

For the second time that day Harry had tried to move as fast as he could with as little sound as possible.

"There's no one here," Savage sneaked a look into the next room.

One by one they kept moving through each floor, encountering and stunning four more guards on their way.

"This is it, they are here," Williamson waved as he peeked inside the door of the basement.

They noticed two cages held side by side, one with Anderson and one with Lucius Malfoy, both of whom appeared to be severely injured. Anderson's face was bloodied, most likely from a broken nose or a hidden head wound, and Malfoy had a black eye, his jaw blossoming with purple bruises. His silver hair was matted and ragged. Both were unconscious and neither were in good condition.

"We need to get them to St. Mungo's," Ron said urgently.

"We can't take these two outside, they will see us!" Williamson shook her head.

"Who said about going out?" Harry said.

"Then how are you going to get them to the hospital?"

"I won't, she will," Harry titled his head sideways towards Goldie.

"But how?"

"Phoenixes are magical creatures, they can go anywhere without any trouble," Zen clarified.

"One of you will go with them," Harry added.

"But-" Savage began but was cut off.

"Don't worry about them, I'll watch their back," Professor Zen said, interrupting Savage.

"You go I'll stay," Savage said to Williamson.

"The order…"

"We'll be fine," Harry assured her.

Savage and Zen conjured the stretchers for Lucius Malfoy and Anderson. Harry and Ron lifted the men onto them with significant effort, still trying to be as quiet as they could.

"Grab them and she will take you all to the hospital," Harry forwarded Goldie towards Williamson.

As soon as Williamson took hold of both the stretchers, Goldie burst into a fireball enveloping all three of them into it, and the next moment she was gone without any trace. The bright light momentarily blinded the group, and Harry tried to blink away the black spots in his vision with little success.

When Harry got back to Hogwarts just after midnight with Ron, Trecy was waiting for them in his quarter.

"Did you find them?" she asked as soon as Ron and Harry entered.

"Yeah, but only your father," Ron said softly.

"But he's at St. Mungo's at the moment. He's in very bad shape." Harry added.

"Can we go to see them now?" Trecy asked hopefully. The sheer emotion in her eyes almost made Harry lose his will, and he smiled pitifully at her. He wished that he could do something more.

"I am afraid we can't, Trecy. They are in very bad shape and they need rest," Harry replied gently.

Trecy was disappointed hearing this. Her eyes cast down, and Harry thought he noticed a tremble in her lip. She clenched her fist so tightly, that Harry worried she was going to pierce the skin with her nails.

"You know what? I will take you there as soon as we get to King Cross Station tomorrow. Ok?" Harry said, seeing the sad face of Trecy. He wanted to see her smile return. She didn't deserve this.

"Really, will you?" she asked to confirm. Hope shone in her eyes again, and, to Harry's relief, her fists relaxed.

"Yes, I will," Harry said, placing a supportive hand on her shoulder. "Now go and get some sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow."

Trecy left with a small smile on her face. Ron and Harry looked at each other, each conflicted in their own emotions.