Interlude: Burrow

"Mum, I'm home," shouted Percy from the floo before plodding upstairs to put down his things.

Molly smiled, Arthur should be home soon as well. She glanced at the clock. The configuration was all wrong, Ginny was 'Home,' and Arthur was in 'deadly peril,' surely not. Not again. Other than those the correct hands pointed to School.

She went to the stairs and shouted, "GINNY?"

No answer, and then Percy stuck his head out of his room and gave her his best expression of confusion.

She clenched her teeth and stepped out the back door, and shouted, "GINNY WEASLEY, WHY AREN'T YOU AT SCHOOL?"

No sounds but the wind and a nearby crup. And her eldest and middle sons tiptoeing down the stairs to check on her.

Right, I probably seem quite barmy just now.

She turned around, "Bill," she said, in the calmest tone she could muster, "Ginny's hand on my clock has been acting up for a couple of months, but now the other hands are acting up. Could you please get my clock working again?"

Bill blinked at her, then turned toward the sitting room. Soon he had it open and his wand out, humming and muttering.

Well, that would keep him busy until dinner.

Molly sighed and went back to cooking.

A few minutes later Arthur stepped out of the floo. After a minute to put his things down and wash up, he came to give Molly his customary kiss and compliment.

When that was finished, she told him how soon she intended to serve dinner.

"So," he said conversationally, "Why did Bill decide to tinker with my clock?"

"My clock," said Molly, "because I asked him why it showed you in Mortal Peril."

"How long ago?"

"Five minutes? Ten?"

Arthur frowned, "that is odd, nothing seemed amiss at the ministry. Hum. I did contemplate working a bit late, but not late enough for you to murder me for it, even metaphorically."

He went to look over Bill's shoulder.

"Did you find the problem?" he said.

"No," said Bill, "and I've been dealing with a very different kind of problem all day, I'm … I need some time to adjust."

"That's fine," said Arthur, "Wash up, and let's eat, we can look at it together after supper."

"Alright," agreed Bill.

.

"So you're not out burgling intelligence for The Order tonight?" said Percy.

"No," said Bill, "tonight's the full moon, Remus couldn't make it. We decided to take the night off."

"Ah, of course," said Percy.

"So, instead I get to stay home and puzzle my way through Mum's clock. So how was your day?"

Percy shrugged, took another bite, chewed thoughtfully, and then began a long and philosophical explanation behind the ethics of potions regulations.

Molly almost stopped him, but she knew that Percy needed the attention more than he needed the food, and Bill the reverse. So she let them be.

.

"Well," said Bill, "it's only gotten worse while we ate."

"How bad?"

"Before supper, it said Ron and the twins were 'travelling' and Ginny was ticking back and forth between 'Home' and 'School,' now it says all four of them are in 'mortal peril'."

"Hmm," said Percy.

"And I still can't find where the problem is."

"What if the problem isn't with the clock?" said Percy.

Silence, "Oh dear," said Bill, "how would that go? There was a problem at the ministry … but Dad managed to leave in time?"

Percy nodded, "And Ron caught wind about it somehow, and has gotten it in his head to go and fix it, I'm guessing he's dragged the twins along."

"Ron wouldn't—" started Molly.

"Yes, he would," said Percy, "and no doubt he's dragging Harry along too, the question is whether they're taking Ginny as well."

"Of course, they wouldn't…"

"Doesn't seem that way," said Bill, "Ginny's hand was popping back and forth between 'School' and 'Home'. She's got that portkey bracelet from Harry, so she can take herself back to school when she's good and ready."

"I've heard enough," said Arthur.

The boys quieted down. Molly put the dish rag down and dried her hands.

Arthur crossed the sitting room to the Floo, There was the small whoosh of the flame starting, "Hogwarts: headmaster's office."

"Busy, gets yellow flames," said Bill, "Does anyone remember what purple flames mean?"

"Out of service," said Arthur grimly, "usually disconnected for non-payment."

Molly went to him, he snuffed the fire and handed her the floo powder, "Call your Aunt, see if it's Hogwarts being blocked, or us, or the whole network."

"Why would we be blocked?" said Molly.

"Exactly," said Arthur, "probably someone is trying to make sure no one alerts Dumbledore to their shenanigans. Floo your aunt, if she answers, I'm apparating to Hogwarts and Bill is going to The Order headquarters, Dumbledore needs to know."

"Your logic is incomplete," said Bill, "If the call doesn't go through we're being blocked, if it goes through then Hogwarts is being blocked, regardless of whether she answers. And Dumbledore still needs to know someone is trying to keep him out of the loop, probably from something happening at the ministry."

Molly called her aunt. The call went through. Arthur and Bill apparated away.

"Hello, Molly," said Aunt Muriel, "what are you doing calling so late?"

"Arthur wanted me to let you know someone's trying to break things at the ministry, so you might want to stay away from there for a few days."

"Humph," she said, "I'll do what I like."

"Of course, you do," agreed Molly, "of course you will, but … I still thought you might want to know, so you can keep your eyes open and your wits about you, if you do decide to go before things settle down again."

"Alright already," said Muriel, "I'll keep my eyes open, I always do."

Molly smiled, "good, that's all I wanted to tell you."

"Humph," said Muriel, "do you want to hear what I heard about your daughter?"

Molly sighed, "What?"

"I heard she was getting chummy with that Bones girl. What do you think about that?"

Oh, dear.

"I doubt that's more than hero worship," said Molly, "The Bones girl is a hufflepuff and a dog animagus, Ginny is an astropin animagus, and the whole school saw her jump off her broom to prove it."

Muriel's eyes lit up, "Oh, ho… and dogs and horses have an affinity for each other."

"So it is said," agreed Molly.

"But you say hero worship?" said Muriel, "because the Bones girl didn't get anything magical?"

Molly kept from rolling her eyes.

Muriel nodded, "and pegasi are known for carrying around heroes and prophets."

"Among other important people," agreed Molly.

"Humph," said Muriel, "Yes, I see." A long silence, "Do you have anything else for me?"

"No," said Molly, "not really, I'd better get back before my dishwater cools."

Muriel's eyes widened, finally understanding what kind of emergency she'd been notified about.

She let the connection close and climbed to her feet.

Percy had his arms folded, staring at the clock.

Molly looked, it showed Arthur at 'School' and Bill travelling.

"What if they aren't going to the ministry?" said Percy.

"What?" said Molly.

"What if they're storming the death eaters at 'Potter Manor'?"

"What?" said Molly.

"It's common … rumour, around the ministry," said Percy, "among those of us who don't disbelieve that he-who-must-not-be-named could be back, so mostly just DMLE and DEMR, that the reason we can't find the death eaters' headquarters, is that they're in an Ancient or Noble manor, probably with House Wards grandfathered from before Grindelwald's war. The common guesses are Potter Manor, Malfoy Manor, Prewett Manor, or Selwyn Keep, because everywhere else either has to get yearly inspections or is actively being lived in by … someone hostile to their aims and certified with the ability to throw off the imperious."

"That means Urquharts and Longbottoms."

"Among others," Percy nodded, "It's not a well-advertised skill. There's not a registry, it's just a certification. There isn't a general reason to get it unless you're trying to look good for a particular kind of promotion."

"And you're guessing Potter Manor?"

Percy nodded, "If Harry already had full control over his Manor at Yule, Ginny would have already moved in and started cleaning the house, planting a garden, kicking out the gnomes, pixies, and boggarts. Or maybe if the pests were bad enough, maybe she'd only be cleaning house, and not moving there until later. She didn't, therefore the death eaters are there. Therefore that's what the clock meant showing Ginny moving from 'School' to 'Home' to 'Mortal Peril'."

"It fits," said Molly, "I won't argue with that, but it does seem a little far-fetched."

It's more likely the Twins picked a fight with Peeves, and had the poor sense to do it when the floos were down, and on the night of a full moon.

"What if someone's attacking Hogwarts?" said Molly.

"Then Dad's hand would be at Mortal Peril already," said Percy.

"What if it's werewolves?"

"Then Ginny will be fine," said Percy, "She can outrun anything except a Firebolt. And I'm not sure about the Firebolt. Not so sure about the twins, they won't say what they got, or even if they've managed to transform. Ron … wolves will attack dogs, but I think werewolves will not. Or not until there's no more tempting prey."

Unless he attacks them, which he would, though maybe only as a last resort to protect someone else. His strategy was often sound, if sometimes late.

...-...

The Final Battle Part 3: An ally joins the muster

Content warning: War, child soldiers/children playing soldier

By the time they arrived back where Draco and Nim waited, the other groups were already on their way back.

When Harry was human again everyone reported.

The first floor was clear. As far as they could tell the alarm had not yet been sounded.

Harry explained where they'd knocked someone out so that someone could go in and tie them up.

The other groups reported where they'd knocked out anyone, or … 'probably killed' anyone.

The two groups of third years were armed with the knowledge of the rope conjuring hex, the locking charm, and in big enough groups that they could for sure shield and hex fast enough to handle most adults. They agreed that they understood where to look.

A murmur of fear and speculation swept the ranks behind Harry, he turned and looked.

It took a moment for his eyes to catch a glimpse of the thing through the foliage. His first thought was a grey wolf being followed by baby cubs, but there were too many cubs and the proportions were all wrong. It was taller than everyone here. And it was white, and they were dark grey, the only colour about it was the gold armour across the top of its head and all along its back.

Then his brain caught up with how many places he was seeing it and its rear legs through gaps in the bushes and trees. Either there were … 5? Of them or …

Was it a Chinese dragon, then? More serpent than lizard? Did those even have more than 4 legs? Did this one have wings?

"Well it is past moon-rise," said Luna, "They're right on time."

"Who is it?" said Harry.

"The clan of Fenrir and Adoraim," said Luna.

The creature came into a clearing and stopped on the far side. Without foliage for cover the size of each creature became obvious.

"Werewolves, Bloody Hell! We're trapped between them and the death eaters!"

"They're probably allies," said Draco, "Though maybe only for tonight."

"They've stopped!" explained someone, "they're scared of us because they know we have wands and they don't right now."

The white, ten-legged, elephant-height, wolf-headed, dragon/snake monster crouched. Until the paired baskets hanging from her back touched the ground and several dozen wolves stepped or bounded out.

They quickly formed into four groups of roughly equal size, and sat down, then lay down. Except one from each group.

Then the four still standing walked back to where the white wolf-dragon was just turning into a plain white husky and extricating herself from the pile of baskets. Saddlebags.

Saddlebags big enough to carry three or four completely transformed werewolves.

And the reason why it was so difficult for her to crawl out was that her armour had a mass of spikes at the tip of her tail, like a mace or a morning star. Also at her hips, maybe like two-eighths of a mace, as if the transfiguration enchantment that made it and kept re-sizing it to her, got confused by her hips whether they were the end of her tail or only the end of her torso.

Harry wouldn't have recognised by sight, but he could easily tell by the body language, which of the five wolves now approaching him was Fenrir.

The three hung back, Fenrir approached another three paces, and the white husky darted ahead until she realised she was ahead of Fenrir. She lay down. Fenrir glanced at her, then approached another two paces so that their shoulders were exactly the same distance to Harry.

He was the same height as a werewolf as he was as a human. Where does the extra mass come from?

Transfiguration Magic, of course.

"Welcome Fenrir, (and Stormy)" said Harry.

The werewolf nodded.

"I'm afraid we don't have a spot already allocated for you in our battle plans."

Fenrir nodded and turned his attention to Stormy, he tapped her with his paw to get her attention. When he had it, he made a whole body wiggle that seemed like it was a quote of shaking water off, rather than the real thing.

She sprang up and turned in a circle, and jumped on his back. As she wrapped herself around him, she changed into … something flattish, blanket-like, frighteningly like a human-lethifold hybrid, her arms snaked under his armpits and she gripped both sides of his face, as if in a double half nelson, only … caressing. And then she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, and Fenrir faded back to human.

It didn't look at all comfortable, but soon he could speak.

"Melantha has been helping us condition them to not attack people," said Fenrir "And they're all on wolfsbane tonight. We cannot attack, but we can defend ourselves if attacked, and bar the way. We can step in front of curses that cause only physical harms, if they are such that we don't mind healing from."

"Understood," said Harry.

"A pawn wall," said Ron, "except right behind the real fighters rather than just in front."

Fenrir nodded.

"A physical bookmark," said Padma, "marking how far we've advanced through the house, how much of it we've cleared, stunned, and bound everyone."

Fenrir and his lieutenants nodded.

"The halls are wide enough in most of the house, that should work well with the plans we already have," said Parvati.

"Good," said Harry, "The plans as implemented so far, were to clear the first floor without raising an alarm."

"How?"

"The wards don't trigger for animagi," said Harry, "an oversight I will amend on the next upgrade."

All the wolves grinned, and Fenrir chuckled.

"Unfortunately we don't have enough animagi that can navigate stairs to continue the assault that way. So the next action was going to be an all-out charge, two groups to the front stairs going up, two groups to each of the back stairs, half goes down and makes sure the coast is clear, then they return and move up.

Fenrir nodded.

"I wouldn't mind if you put a group on protecting the third years, they'll be coming behind making sure the unconscious really are bound and stunned and disarmed. Making sure everyone gets first aid, if first aid will even help them."

Fenrir nodded.

"You have five groups," he said, "I have four, I'll need to reorganise."

"We have six groups," said Harry, "Two groups are the mostly younger set, they can fight, but not as well, and I'd rather keep them to the back, mopping up."

Fenrir nodded, "form up for your charge, I'll disperse mine amongst yours as appropriate."

"Thank you," said Harry.

Fenrir saluted.

"Any other questions?"

"Was the garlic really necessary?" he asked and began to turn away.

"I figured we'd be easier to tell apart if we had a uniform smell," said Luna, "Also cuts bleed out slower this way, (the main reason it hints to mosquitoes and vampires to hunt elsewhere.)"

Fenrir spared her a glance, then jogged back to his waiting pack. His lieutenants jogged after him and Stormy slid from his back, and followed in their wake, this time her husky form was as big as the other werewolves.

"If there are no more questions," said Harry, "I think forming up for the charge is the correct next action."

Draco gave that signal and everyone started getting back in their rows far enough apart to not bunch up and slow each other down as they ran for the doors.

"How are they on our side again?" said someone.

"Because you-know-who brought them here with promises he'd help them after he'd taken over the country," said Susan, "The Umbridge werewolf bill was so terrible, that it gave Harry an occasion to get them help already. And Greyback sat in on enough death eater meetings to tell the difference."

"Let me say this one more time," said Harry, "I'm the Lord here, and any death eaters you see on my property are trespassers, and I don't mind if you kill them instead of merely stun them. However, I'd also just as soon not have to rebuild my entire manor because blasting curses are fun to watch. There's a huge pile of discarded rune stones north of Hogwarts for that sort of fun."

"The House of Granger," said Draco, "respectfully requests you not kill my dad, or Theo's dad, or Goyle's dad, if you can even tell them apart from the others. My dad has super long blond hair. But … they fight pretty well, do what you have to do, to stay alive."

"I'll second that," muttered Crabbe, "kill my dad if you feel like it."

"What?" said Hermione.

"I'm serious," whispered Crabbe.

"Would you rather he live to face trial?"

"Not if I have to be a witness," said Crabbe.

"Ah, I understand," said Hermione.

.

...-...

Interlude: Order

"Who would be pounding on the gates at this time of evening," said Albus, putting down his quill and looking up.

The pounding came again, faster this time.

"Fawkes, would you like to investigate this with me?"

Fawkes came and flashed him to a space barely a few paces inside the front gates.

"Albus," said Arthur Weasley, "Did you know your floo is blocked?"

"No," said Albus, opening the gate, "which colour."

"Purple," said Arthur stepping inside.

"Odd," said Albus, "must be a mistake."

"Or an attack," said Arthur, "do you know where my children are?"

Albus checked. He didn't. He couldn't even pinpoint when they'd left.

"I'm afraid I don't know," said Albus, "they're not here."

"Molly's clock says mortal peril," said Arthur.

"That's ominous," said Albus, "Do you think they're mixed up with the floo?"

"Probably not directly," said Arthur, "Percy suggests the floo is sabotage at the ministry, and Ron and Harry might have heard about it and decided to get involved."

"Yes, but the twins are also gone."

"Right," said Arthur.

"Give me a moment," said Albus, "yes, over thirty students are missing. Mostly fourth through sixth years. Including several prefects." I wonder if everyone plans to be back in bounds by curfew.

"What do you think we should do?"

"You go to Order headquarters, feel free to start summoning everyone," suggested Albus, "I'll notify my faculty members of the problems, then either meet you there if it seems like we're needed in the floo department, or summon you here if this is an attack, but it doesn't seem like it, it seems like some students decided to go out of bounds en-mass. Almost certainly there are two attacks planned, there always are, disrupting floo communication is a well thought of first step, no matter where his next attack is going to be, better for us to be ready to move."

"Alright," Arthur went outside. Albus secured the gate behind him.

"Expecto Patronum," said Albus, "Minerva, muster tree 3, staff lounge, ten minutes."

"Fawkes, to the staff lounge, please."

He'd barely found his seat before his patronus returned to him, "Understood," said Minerva's voice.

"Filius," said Albus, "muster tree 3, staff lounge, 9 minutes."

The response was faster this time, "Understood, headmaster."

"Severus," said Albus, "muster—" but his patronus faded, so he cast it again and sent it along again. Too bad he was reduced to his less powerful wand again.

.

Minerva and Filius appeared together, Severus and Pamona directly after. Then the others filtered in.

The defence professor wasn't here.

And he'd had such high hopes for her too.

"Alright," said Albus, "we've got a lot of students out of bounds, and our floos are reported to be blocked, I'd like a volunteer to check if that's all of our floos."

"Sinistra and Vector? Yes, that will do. Heads of House, after we leave here I want you to gather a report on who is missing. And what the word is where they each went. If any of you notice anything else out of the ordinary, I'd like to know. So far neither kidnapping here nor floo network sabotage elsewhere have been ruled out."

.

Dumbledore stepped into the main room at Order Headquarters which a moment before had been buzzing with mutters and plotting. He looked around, meeting everyone's eyes, acknowledging their presence.

"Alright people," said Dumbledore, "What do we know?"

"DMLE has been buzzing like a kicked hornets' nest since 1 pm," said Kingsley, "seems like someone warned Amelia over her lunch break, that the ministry would be invaded by Death Eaters an 'hour after closing' except it never technically closes. The only reason I'm off right now is that I'd already pulled a triple shift to cover for someone, and probably also Moody wanted me out of sight so I could report this much. Anyway, whatever the rest of you get up to that's fine, I'm staying out of it, I know my limits and I'd probably be a liability."

"It's not a problem," said Dedalus, "That's what teams are for, thank you for your service. Also thank you for the information,"

"The other thing we know is that just over 40 students are missing from Hogwarts, including Harry Potter, the rumours are pervasive that he's either leading them into battle or he's not leading them, merely paying them to follow the leaders that he picked out. The other recurrent detail is that they're trying to conquer the Death Eater's base of operations and ambush them as they return from their attack."

"Horus and Osiris!" murmured Bill.

"Do we know where?" said Arthur.

"We do not," said Albus, "The strategy that makes sense to me is this: Those of us who are willing to fight, and who have legal right to be at the Ministry and also defending ourselves, will go there and help with the defence. The rest of you will wait here, maybe send out scouts to follow up on any leads where Harry might have gone. Or where if any the second prong of the death eater attack is happening, if that is a different location. The rest of you stay here, be prepared to help back up or rescue Harry and his team, or to reinforce us at the Ministry if that begins to seem like it would be of strategic value. If Amelia has been preparing since noon, perhaps we'll be redundant there and we'll return here and wait with you for word on Harry. And/or where the other death eater raid is happening, if there is another raid. If there is not, that will prove something about their level of resources.

.

...-...

The Final Battle Part 4: Charge

Content warning: War, child soldiers/children playing soldier

The wolves approached, and after a little jockeying lined up behind the children. There wasn't quite a 3 to 4 ratio of wolves to mage children. But the wolves took up more space.

Draco got down from his lookout perch on his boulder and joined Hermione's line.

"Any last-minute changes? Or questions?" said Harry.

There were none.

"Let's go."

They crashed through the hedge, and the alarms screamed in Harry's head, he tried to tell them that everyone here was here under the authority of Harry, Lord of the Estate.

That seemed to satisfy them for about four seconds, and then the house erupted with the sound of alarm clocks, banshees, and sneak-o-scopes.

Damn, so much for overriding the alarm wards.

[I have been identified as compromised by the Manor wards, pending a thorough revision by the Regent.]

Thank you for trying.

[Humph.]

Great, so now I'm blind.

[So am I! Which means your end game of me redirecting portkeys of arriving death eaters into the lake won't work.]

Settle down, that was only one of many possible end games.

[Humph.]

As they charged up the stairs four death eaters rounded a corner to face them.

"That's Potter," bellowed one of them, "Orders were, if he showed up, priority is to get to the dungeon and scuttle the important prisoners."

That's Walden Macnair.

And apparently an officer. Thought Nim.

You killed my cat, prepare to die! Thought Harry, contemplating which probably lethal spell he'd rather try from this range.

I got better, thought Nim smugly.

So you did, Thought Harry, But it's the principle of the thing,

"First we have to survive that long," said another death eater, "Avada Kedavra. Avada Kedavra."

Theo and Pansy dodged one, and the werewolf behind them leapt over the bannister to avoid being hit. The other curse passed between Hermione and Draco, who barely had to dodge at all. It shattered the bannister behind and below them, forcing the next rank back toward the middle of the stairs to keep from falling.

Hermione laughed nervously.

"Septumsempra," growled Draco, bisecting the man from shoulder to sternum, before he fell under his own weight faster than Draco's descending arm could guide the magic.

His neighbour also cast a killing curse, this time there wouldn't be room for Draco to dodge, Rebekah jumped forward and swung her hand around so her sleeve flipped forward and intercepted the curse. And without putting her arm directly into the curse's path.

For some reason, nothing exploded, when she drew her arm away the curse just hung there as a green ball of light. Beside her Hermione snarled triumph and batted the tip of her wand through it, tossing it back from whence it came.

"That's not dragon-hide they're wearing," screamed one as his mate died beside him.

"Then what is it?"

Zoo's clear, only the food lady is here. [an image of a witch asleep in conjured ropes]

Good, help upstairs.

"Fine then," said Macnair, "you concentrate on surviving, I'll scuttle the prisoners." And he jumped over the balcony railing. He'd barely landed before he was staggering away toward the dungeon stairs.

Another Death eater jumped after him, though he overdid his featherweight charm and his slow descent made him an easy target for Harry's stunner and two others. By then there were four more death eaters to replace the three that had gone down, and the one that was getting away.

"Susan, the front stairs are turning into a shooting gallery," said Harry, "figure it out or redirect to the other stairs. I'm going after MacNair."

"Uh, OK, sure, hmm."

Harry ran.

He caught up just at the top of the stairs. He jumped and kicked Macnair hard on the shoulder. The man stumbled down three stairs but didn't fall over or stop, just cast a bludgeoner over his shoulder and kept going.

Harry hadn't kept his feet through delivering that kick and didn't even need to duck. He regained his feet and continued down.

Before he was halfway down he heard MacNair shouting to the guards that the cause of the alarm was 'Potter' and 'the scuttling was to commence.'

The flashes of green started before Harry even reached the bottom.

Damn. What counted as important prisoners? Who would Voldemort keep alive rather than kill outright?

Information. Probably. Thought Nim, Anyone more dangerous after they escape for being able to explain what questions he was most interested in getting answered.

Thanks, Nim.

.

He stalked his prey, he stunned two, easily enough, and bound them and locked the knots with a combination locking charm.

The other two weren't so easy. And for every two spells he cast that missed, each of them took out another prisoner. And a quarter of the time, one or the other might send a spell back at Harry. All of them calculated to kill or incapacitate if they connected, without being powerful enough to damage the cells if they missed or Harry dodged.

.

By the way, the second floor is as cleared as we can get it, a quarter of the house is behind two doors we can't unlock. We did find a really weird ritual circle drawn out nice and pretty, except it's not a circle it's four circles in a trapezium. No one recognises it, but we think there are things about untransfigurations and lock combinations. There are even lit candles and charging obelisks and things. No one wants to touch it. Theo says don't go near it until we know what it does, or how to disable it. We're guessing: summon the candles away and let the whole thing discharge over several days if not weeks.

Whatever, probably just lock the door to keep the little ones from finding it by accident.

Wise.

.

Quickly the prisoners got the idea of what was happening, but also that help was on the way, and dodging or making their captors' lives difficult might buy them time, maybe even enough time to survive until more reinforcements arrived.

The reinforcements that arrived were two werewolves and a gold-topped white-bellied snake the length of a lorry.

She slithered up beside Harry with an all but inaudible hiss of scales on flagstones, and a muted jingle of armour. When she reached him she turned away to his left at a right angle. That seemed to be a sign for the werewolves to stay and help Harry while she slithered on. As she passed the fighting she turned back into her elephant-wolf-ten-legged monster form, except this time she was only as tall as a pony instead of as tall as an elephant.

When she ran forward and lowered her head Harry realised that the horn on the front of her helmet wasn't intended to resemble a unicorn, in fact, her entire armour was intended to be a battering ram.

The door caved at the first blow. But she gave it a second before turning snake again and slithering over / through the largest gap.

Interesting. Wonder where she's going?

Through the compost cellar to the greenhouses.

I know that, I'm wondering why.

No idea, but … do you want to bet that Nagini's there and not in the ministry?

I don't want to fight Nagini without metal armour and … a gun.

Don't worry, she likes you.

Does she like me more than you-know-who?

Don't know, but I bet she likes her granddaughters more than her brother's minions.

No bet.

A bolt of green lightning impacted Harry's knee and coiled up into a ball. Reminding him of the battle he was supposed to be fighting.

He backed up and batted the ball gently with his armour, it angled slowly away and exploded on contact with the floor, flinging rock splinters in all directions.

Right, I should have seen that coming. I've gotten so used to explosions from accidentally charging runes early that I forget that most things operate at a much higher power level.

Shut up, I'm fighting.

Yes, Nim.

Harry managed to disarm one of his opponents. The wand fell into one of the cells, and the inmate grabbed it and shot a piercing hex through the erstwhile guard before either the guard or Harry could intervene.

The guard turned toward her, and she shot again, through his nose this time. He went down.

"Good shot," said Harry.

"Thanks," said the witch, "Can you get us out?"

"You've got a wand," said Harry, "and my permission, get everyone out that you can. They're still fighting on the third and fourth floors, but you can probably make it up and out the front door without too much trouble. Don't antagonise the werewolves, they're on our side for this battle."

"I gathered that," she said.

"Feel free to check the other death eaters for wands on your way out," said Harry.

"Those were death eaters?" she said in surprise.

Harry rolled his eyes, "If you know where they've stored your wands, feel free to get them, if not, don't dawdle looking for them, we'll worry about finding them in the morning. I want you out of the house and on the far side of the road, and sitting down. If you're standing around with wands drawn you're likely to be mistaken for death eaters."

"Understood," she said.

He and his werewolves advanced past her. And he could hear her steady chant behind him, "… alohomora, … alohomora, … alohomora, … "

Harry was sneaking up on MacNair again, it was harder to sneak with two werewolves at his heels, on the other hand, MacNair seemed to be all the more desperate to finish his task before Harry stopped him.

He also seemed to only be killing some of the prisoners. Some of them even already knew who they were and either begged, or postured and sneered.

Nim, why does House Potter have a dungeon anywhere near this big?

Used to be the county's prison, not just the jail. Also … I think there's been a lot of new space expansion going on here since I visited as a child.

Oh … well that will be an interesting project to take down.

Several. The fourth floor is mostly locked, and seems mostly abandoned but hard to tell. The two doors we could get unlocked are inventories of the more expensive healing potions. Third-floor fighting has been localised to one bedroom wing and its break room.

Excellent, if you've got too much depth that it's getting in the way, it's probably time to start preparing the welcoming parties by the main floo and the front gravel walk.

Right.

And I wouldn't mind help with MacNair.

You haven't taken anyone down in all this time?

I've taken three down, but not him. There are prisoners on their way up or will be shortly. If you want to organise a gauntlet to cordon them along outside and keep them from attacking werewolves, and maybe start getting them treated or fed or whatever that might be worthwhile.

Should have left them in place, or sent them to the infirmary.

It would have been easier logistics, but I needed the morale boost.

Of course.

Harry got another good shot in, but MacNair was still too good at dodging. To say nothing of shielding.

I've got to get closer. Or do something to increase my level of surprise.

.

He'd just tossed MacNair across the room with a disarming charm, not that it shook the man's wand loose, The man probably had a wand strap, and then some.

That's when the broken door exploded in the other direction as not one but two huge snakes shot through, between him and Macnair.

"§-And if you'll just get me one of them,-§" Nagini was saying, turning aside to glance over the cells behind Harry, "I'll—"

Stormy swung to the side as if tossing her shoulder for emphasis, except she didn't exactly have shoulders at the moment, and Macnair was there between her and the cell wall.

He was spun on his feet, crushed and rolled between an armoured mega-snake and the cage bars.

She pulled back and turned to inspect the effect of her attack.

He rolled over and struggled to his one hand and knees. She picked him up by the collar with her teeth and slammed him up into the ceiling and then down onto the floor.

He didn't move.

"§-Fwill thish fwone doough,-§" she mumbled at Nagini.

"§-Perfect,-§" said Nagini, "§-Thank you.-§"

Nagini took him in her teeth and hurried away, now moving at about three times the speed Stormy could keep up with.

Stormy looked after her and sighed, then turned to Harry, "I guess I don't make a very good snake."

"I wouldn't worry about it much," said Harry, "Everything takes practice."

Stormy nodded and collapsed and rose as a horse.

"Care for a ride?" she said.

Harry took one look at her golden armour, much more obvious in this light that it was brass plated steel, but still… He wasn't putting his bum anywhere close to all those joints and bolts and rivets, much less other bits of his lower anatomy.

"I think I'd rather run," he said. He turned into Richard.

"Nice," she said, "What is that called."

He couldn't answer, so he just ran for the centre of the house, and the stairs.

She and the werewolves followed.

.

They're starting to return, my lord, we've stunned and bound six, and there are more coming.

Good job.

Only the House of Granger is using lethal spells against them.

I don't care.

May I?

I don't care. But I will blame you for any friendly fire incidents you cause.

Of course.

...-...

The Final Battle Part 5: Ambush

Content warning: War, child soldiers/children playing soldier

On the first floor, he went to the front to glance out. There were crescent-shaped earthworks around the front walk. Room for everyone to duck behind it and cast spells into the killing field.

More to the point, it was strategically placed behind those who apparated in facing toward the house.

On the other hand, that also gave the returning death eaters unobstructed access to the house.

Not that many of them made it as far as the veranda steps.

And there were more defenders lined up along the entryway waiting for any who might get through the doors.

"Excellent work people, keep it up," said Harry.

He went to look in on the preparations at the main floo.

He arrived just in time to see a stunned wizard bound and disarmed.

The next two came close together and put up a bit of a fight, but the numbers against them were overwhelming.

Overwhelming spell-fire was good, but missing wasn't. Harry hoped that his floo would last through the ambush.

Well, one of the ways I can increase the chances is to add my own speed and accuracy to the average.

.

The next one through wasn't so easy, he spun, ducked, rolled, and shielded, seemingly from all sides at once.

"Hold!" said Harry, "That's Auror Moody."

Surprised murmurs.

But the stunners stopped and Auror Moody climbed to his foot and made a show of looking around.

"If you don't mind, Sir," said someone, "Get out of line-of-sight so we can finish up our ambush."

He gave one nod and hobbled over to Harry.

"Welcome," said Harry, then murmured, "and you're not fooling me, I know your prosthetic is higher quality than that."

Moody grunted, and nodded, "your ambush is probably done, I was chasing the last one of that group, not that I can make any guarantee's about the existence of other groups."

"That's fine," said Harry, "Do you mind showing me your left wrist and telling me what my Patronus animal turned into early last summer?"

"Lion," said Moody with a pleased smirk, and showed his wrist.

"Welcome to Potter Manor," said Harry. "Sorry about the mess, we've been doing some spring cleaning, seemed the perfect evening for it. Full moon and all."

Moody grunted and rolled his live eye, his magic eye hadn't stopped rolling since he stepped through the floo, "Good job with that by the way."

"Thank you," said Harry.

He turned with a start.

"Breech!" shouted someone from deeper in the house.

"Ginny, change the password," said Harry, "everyone else, let's check this out."

"Third years behind werewolves," shouted Padma.

"Change it to what?" said Ginny.

"Don't care," said Harry, "Richard is home?"

"Richard regnat;" said Padma.

"Nice," said Ginny.

They ran for the side stairs. And bumped into Tonks and Nim coming the other way.

"He popped up in the infirmary," said Tonks, "and he walked right through us. Those of us that didn't get out of the way got portkeyed from right in front of him to right behind him. Oh, Hi Auror Moody."

Who?

The Dark Lord.

Damn, where did he go?

This way.

Nim took off, and Harry followed.

Something big rocked the house. And threw sparks all down the hall.

"Are we perhaps going towards the ritual room?"

Yes.

"Damn," said Harry, "I've got an inevitable feeling about this."

"What's that mean?" said Ron.

"As if everything that's happened so far tonight is going according to plan," said Harry, "someone else's plan than mine. Check if that pulse of magic woke any of them up."

They got to the ritual room. It was dark. And everything was scattered every which way. Nim turned human and lit the first candle she found, then levitated each obelisk onto its side, she seemed to be exercising care which side was down. "There," she said when she finished, "now they won't charge up, can you tell what the results are?"

"Other than MacNair having an axe buried in his head?" said Moody.

"Couldn't have happened to a more deserving fellow," said Harry.

"There's … something wrong with him," said Rebekah.

"What do you mean?" said Harry.

She pointed her wand, "Finite incantatem," she said.

The transfiguration ended, it was Voldemort, snake face and all.

That makes no sense, MacNair wasn't in any shape to wield an axe last time I saw him.

How sure are you that who you saw last time was MacNair?

Point.

Harry ran forward and started palpating the corpse, head and ribs.

"What are you doing," said Moody.

"Checking for broken bones," said Harry.

"Several ribs, one shattered hip," said Moody, "torn ligaments galore, his spine was wrung below the small of his back, looks like several bruises to the skull before the axe put an end to things. I assume you don't need me to mention the complex fracture to his upper arm?"

Harry looked up, "So I spent all evening, chasing you-know-who around in circles?" said Harry, "While his doppelganger roughed up the ministry?"

"Could be," said Moody, "Seems like there's a pauper around that didn't want to give up his princely disguise."

Harry stood up and looked around, his eyes fell on Susan.

"Care to do the honours?"

"What?"

"Do you think you can sniff out where the fake you-know-who went after he left here?"

"I'm not … I've only trained my dog nose a little," she said, "Probably I could track people I know, better than I can track anyone I don't know. And we're all standing all over the trail."

Harry shrugged, "right now we know nothing, except that hopefully, he's still in the house. If you can figure out even—"

There was a crash.

"Breech!" called someone from the vague direction of the side stairs.

They ran.

There were a few green flickers but a lot more red.

.

"Bedroom wing is cleared!" was the report when they arrived, "But someone else is around, and got away."

"Huh?"

"Someone came by, and tried to flank us, the ones we had pinned down thought that meant it was a good time to move and opened their doors, we got them all, but we didn't get the other one."

"Did you see what they looked like?"

"Black dragon-hide robes, I thought you were them for a second. Hell, I thought they were Pansy for a second."

"Humph."

"If everything except our one intruder is really down and secured, some of you should go down and help watch the infirmary. The main floo has been locked down by now."

Harry turned at the sound of Moody catching up, "I don't suppose you can see where our intruder got to?"

"Not in this fun house kaleidoscope of a rat maze," said Moody.

"What?" said Harry.

"Space expansion," said Tonks, "doesn't block his eye, but drastically reduces how useful it can be."

"Oh, right, that," sighed Harry.

"You know," said Susan, "You don't need me when there are half a dozen werewolves right here."

"Damn it," said Harry, "You're right, I'm sorry. Can any of you tell where the intruder went?"

Two ran off in one direction, two in another, and two stayed, looking at him.

"The pretend you-know-who."

No movement.

"The second person that was in the ritual room, when it was last used."

They ran off, and Harry followed them back to the ritual room.

Two of the others were there, one sniffing you-know-who's body and blood. One sniffing the second biggest circle of the rune diagram.

The two slowest joined them, and after several exchanges of body language three of them started off. Harry and co. followed.

.

...-...

The Final Battle Part 6: The Last Prisoner

Content warning: War, child soldiers/children playing soldier

The three werewolves led them to a door where the first two werewolves were already waiting.

We seem to have reached a consensus.

That's nice.

Someone wormed their way through the pack and tried the door, then took a step back and cast, "Alohomora." "Doesn't budge, sealed with something other than the locking spell."

"Did you try 'Pureblood' for a password?" guessed someone, "it worked on most of the storage rooms downstairs."

Another try, "Nope."

Wotcher, do you know anything about this door?

[I have no idea where you are.]

Second floor towards the back.

[In the master suite wing, the family bedrooms are mostly empty, but a few have been converted into private studies and private potions labs.]

Ah.

"Something's pounding away really hard on the other side."

"Something like a twenty-foot-long snake wolf with a steel battering ram for a helmet?" said Harry.

They stared at him, "Exactly like that."

Last seen in the company of Nagini.

Wotcher, is Nagini the only entity besides the Regent who was to be allowed into that area of the house?

[She is the only one known to gain access to it regularly.]

Thanks.

Harry frowned, and imagined speaking to Grandmother Nagini, "Open. Open up? Let us through."

The door opened and they all pelted through.

"On your toes," called Tonks, "This is the part we couldn't get through before."

"This is the master suite wing," said Harry, "ought to be the family wing, except I heard rumours he converted it to his own potions labs among other things. In theory, the death eaters don't have access to it. Except obviously at least one does."

They turned a corner and found Nagini coiled in an alcove, watching as Stormy battered away at a door.

Harry watched for three repetitions. The door hadn't budged, though the closets on both sides had popped open by the force being exerted on the building structure so nearby.

"Stormy, take a break. Let the rest of us see if we can find some magic to help with that."

Stormy stopped and changed to a normal husky shape and size so that she could turn around to look at him. After a few seconds, she sat down and just panted.

"Thank you, Stormy," said Harry.

"What is she?" said Moody.

"We think a Rusalka," said Susan, "But she was raised by Selkies instead of her own people, and lately she's been hanging out with some werewolves."

"Obviously," said Moody, "May I?" he made a gesture past her to the door.

"Be my guest," said Harry.

Moody stepped past her and checked what was in the closets, one held a vast array of robes. All genders and sizes, some moth-eaten. One with an active pixie colony, which was quickly dealt with. The other closet had racks upon racks of potions, Industrial half-meter by half-meter racks. Moody cracked a vial, sniffed it, and put it back, "Polyjuice."

"Of course," Harry agreed.

"I note, that the shelf above it seems to be a library of hair. … and shed snake skin."

"Of course," Harry agreed.

Moody pushed the rack/drawer back in and pulled out the next rack.

He followed the same procedure, picking a vial at random and opening it to take a sniff.

He flinched harder at that and corked it again.

"There are love potions," he said, "and there are other kinds of mind control."

"Do I want to know?" said Harry.

"Aphrodite's yoke," said Moody, "also called 'liquid imperious'."

"Hell," said Harry.

Nagini ranted something long, graphic, and vehement, and not something Harry ever intended to translate for anyone.

"Safe disposal method?" said Harry.

"Key it to yourself, and drink it," said Moody, "Then order yourself to do something innocuous, like eat a healthy meal and take a good nap."

"I think I'll pass," said Harry, "can I key it to a cow and feed it to the cow?"

Moody smirked, "the boy gets an A."

Moody studied the label on a vial from the next rack, "Aunt Gretchen's original, chocolate treacle flavoured blood replenisher."

"Um?"

"Because it's cheaper and more pleasant than the same potion from the medical supply houses. Rules of supply and demand. Doesn't actually taste good, but…

"Rack also contains mass-market versions of: dittany both essence and tincture, and some other standard healing potions." Moody closed that rack and pulled open the next. "Unlabelled," When he opened a vial from that rack the smell was instant and strong enough even from as far away as Harry stood.

It smelled like tui and crushed apple leaves and goat milk and a rare form of mint Harry had never been able to find a second time.

Moody capped that and pushed it away, "And does anyone remember what the combination of amortentia and Aphrodite's Yoke is called?"

There were several questions along the lines of, "that was amortentia?"

Moody stared at Harry.

Harry shook his head, "I don't remember hearing about Aphrodite's Yoke before today."

Moody nodded, "it's called liquid possession."

Harry closed his eyes.

"I need to not be here," said Ginny, "You and Harry figure out the safe way to get that stuff out of my house." She stalked away.

"Of course, my lady," Harry called after her.

She stood up straighter, and her walk became less of a retreat from danger, and more of a judgement against evil.

Good.

Moody didn't give any indication of watching her go. And yet, he stayed motionless until she turned the corner. then he stepped back and pushed the closet door closed. And cast a locking charm. And several other things. And slapped a ministry seal sticker above the door handle and wrote something on it.

"I'll come back and collect that evidence," said Moody, "once the path from here to the floo is a lot more secure."

"I agree," said Harry, "I'd like to talk to you or Regent Bones about the best way to have the whole house checked for contraband and other … things that should not exist."

Moody nodded, "consider whether your godfather could offer the same consultation for free."

Harry blinked, "Ah … yeah that might be a good consideration."

Moody nodded, then tilted his head towards the door that Stormy had been trying to knock down.

Right.

"Nagini, do you know what's in here?"

"My baby."

Um, right. Harry blinked. He had the distinct feeling she should have said, 'my egg' in most circumstances, and 'one of my relatives' in a few others. 'Baby' was a valid Parseltongue word, but it was meant to refer to the daft way mammal parents behaved toward their young.

"Muma? Uncle?" called a wavering voice from the far side, "Please, I need more time. Please can I use the crown? I … I won't finish in time otherwise. … Uncle? Is that you?"

"No," said Nagini, "It's my son-in-law."

"But he can talk?"

"I'm not your Uncle," said Harry, "Do you know the password?"

"Um, I think," she coughed, "it is 'Obedience is better than sacrifice.'" she said.

The door clicked. Harry reached for the knob, but Nagini had already leapt over Stormy to enter the room first.

The door crashed open against the wall revealing a large room, perhaps seven meters square with a curtain covering most of the middle of the far wall, that was a large window, if it was a window and not just a tapestry. And facing that there were several desks, one covered in papers, and two covered in books. Off to the right, there was a large bed, with a frame over it meant for a canopy, though currently lacking one.

Near the centre of the room, a girl stood facing them. Her ankle was loosely chained to a steel cable that ran from an eye-bolt in the wall near the desk, across the bed and through a door on the far side of the room. Like a dog run.

She was only as close to them as she was because she'd approached the door about as far as the chain would stretch.

Her face seemed a more-symmetrical, much younger version of Aunt Margaid. Except for the bruises. The rest of her was hidden in what passed for standard-and-cheap witch's day-wear, the very very bland end of standard. Her outer robe looked like cheap wool, dyed black with cheap dye and already starting to fade into blotchy greenish grey. Or else colour change charms stacked up until none could take precedence. She wavered on her feet. Starvation? Or maybe only dehydration?

"Moody, Tonks, Rebekah, with me," said Harry, "And Nagini's already in there, Everyone else, stay out, for now."

Nim, do you know where Parvati and Padma are?

I thought Padma was with you.

Not at the moment.

They went in, and Harry got ready to pull the door closed behind them, then thought to give a little more instruction first, "Susan and Stormy, you're in charge here, guard the door until we come out, unless they need reinforcements downstairs. Parvati or Padma may come in, though they'd probably rather not."

"Understood," said Susan.

He turned around, The girl had backed up at the sight of them. Except for Nagini, she greeted Nagini as 'Mother' and Nagini flowed up to her and laid her head on the girl's shoulder.

"Hello," said Harry, "I'm Harry Potter and these are some of my friends and acquaintances. Who are you?"

"Pearl," said the girl, "I'm sorry, I'm not a favourite at speaking English. I can draw it very pretty."

She did have a weird accent, and Nagini was known to call all her female relations Margaid/Pearl.

She trembled again and lifted her hand to brush hair out of her face.

"Hold it," said Moody.

She froze. He stepped forward and pointed his wand at her hand.

She flinched away but Moody didn't cast anything.

"Where did you get that ring?"

"This?" She held out her hand, a ring with the Gaunt family crest was on her middle finger, and two loops of fine chain ran between it and a heavy bracelet, "Uncle chained it onto me, he said to … keep me obedient."

"Do you want it off again?"

She shrugged, "It doesn't bite anymore," she smirked, and pulled off her robe, to reveal that her shirt wasn't a shirt, but an apron. She turned, and it was obvious that there were fine chains looped under her armpits, to keep Slytherin's pendant around her neck. "This one died first," she said, "but it taught me some English before that. Then he gave me the ring. It was even less time before it annoyed me enough that we argued and it died too."

"Argued about what?" said Harry.

"How much work? How much sleep? How much time is in a day? It was mean and stupid. It got annoying so we argued until …" she shrugged slow and deliberate, as if she'd only rarely seen the gesture, "then it … stopped biting."

"They had pieces of your uncle in them?" said Harry.

She nodded.

"And now they don't?" said Harry.

She nodded, "My favourite piece of him, is in the crown, but I can't get him to lend it to me anymore. That piece is actually smart." Her eyes tilted across the room. Harry made a mental note to search over there for the diadem later.

"How smart?"

"Smart like Muma," she said and petted Nagini. Then she frowned and reached for her robes.

"Wait for a second," said Rebekah.

"What?" she said.

"Just this, Finite incantatem."

The girl whimpered, as she was replaced with a slightly older version of herself, with twice as many bruises, and half her hair missing, seemingly pulled out, roots and all, sometimes with the skin as well.

Her eyes were no longer as bright a green, and her face wasn't nearly so symmetrical. Though how much of that was an illusion by the bruising Harry wasn't sure. The bags under her eyes were heavy, but also faded in among the bruising.

"Hair source for Polyjuice," said Moody, "Did your Uncle ever give you a potion or two and you woke up somewhere else?"

She nodded, "Used to be a lot, but it stopped lasting so long until finally, he stopped."

"And that's when he started taking your hair instead?"

She nodded, "He'd started taking hair about a month before he stopped giving me the sleeping potions."

Moody sniffed and nodded.

She turned to Harry again, "You look like Mama and Uncle, and you speak. Are you one of Uncle's eggs?"

Harry shrugged, "No, but we're probably related many generations back."

"The only thing you need to worry about, Pearl," said Nagini, "is that he's breeding with your nieces. So he'll be your nephew so far as they're concerned."

She looked at Harry. Then looked away and put on her robe.

"Did you hear the explosion when that ritual happened?"

She blinked at him and shrugged.

"Did anyone else come in here this evening?"

"Uncle was in here earlier," she said, "hours ago."

"Did anyone enter in the last half hour, besides us?"

She looked startled, "Oh, was that an espozlin?" she said, "Ne-No. Not since then." she looked down and away.

Was she really more embarrassed to be part naked in front of me after she found out how I was related, than she had been before?

Before she was theorising that you were her blood-nephew, now she knows you're her nephew-in-law. Therefore biologically eligible, and apparently already deemed desirable enough by someone in the family.

Ugh.

She shook her head, "But the noise surprised me. Usually, only Uncle makes the bigger noises, and he said he'd be gone all evening. The house got quiet, I thought he'd taken everyone with him.

"Then there were loud noises and yelling and… and then the esploz.

"And no one came through here since then?" said Moody.

"Ne-no one," she shivered and looked down and away.

Moody snorted and looked away.

Pearl looked at Harry. Right at Harry.

He thought about talking to Nagini until his throat muscles tensed the other way. "§-What do you want to say?-§"

Her eyes widened and she looked down, "§-How soon is Uncle coming back?-§"

"We found him dead," said Harry, "we're looking for the man who killed him, he's killed other people than just your uncle today."

"So you can reward him?"

"So we can be sure of what disguise he's wearing," said Harry.

She flinched. And everyone else relaxed. He must have switched back to English without meaning to.

"So Uncle is dead?" she whispered.

Harry nodded, "for now. If he finds the right person to argue with, he might manage to climb back out of the crown."

She frowned, "Then … only let him argue with me?"

"Probably," said Harry.

She smirked then froze and shivered, she glanced at Nagini, and back at Harry.

"What will happen to us now?"

"I haven't decided yet," said Nagini, "Bold one and I will discuss it at length tomorrow."

"May I beg the gentleness of his house."

"NO foolish," said Nagini, "Then you'd be his toy instead of my baby."

Loud enough he was sure he was speaking English, Harry said, "Are you trying to Plea for the Justice of House Potter?"

"Yes, do that," said Nagini.

"That's the same."

"No, it's not," said Nagini, "Tell him, yes."

"Yes," said Pearl.

"Alright then," said Harry, "Your uncle is dead, who else do you have a grievance against?"

"All his people," she said, "except the cook and the lininens-maid?"

She frowned, and looked away, "maybe if you let me smell them, I'll tell you which I want gone."

"You don't really comprehend any levels of justice between innocent and deserving of death do you?"

"Don't know most those words," she said.

Harry snorted.

"Deserve means food or … p-bruises."

"Right," said Harry.

She stared at him. "Do 'Innocent' means better than food, and 'death' means worse than bruises."

"Means killing foolish," said Nagini.

"Innocent, means chains off," explained Harry, "death means being killed."

Pearl stood up straight, "How to I earn 'innocent'? How? How TELL me."

"You might already have," said Harry, "Nagini and I will discuss it at length tomorrow."

Pearl's eyes widened even further.

Nagini snickered.

So did Moody.

.

"Auror Moody," said Harry, "I'd like to talk with you in private."

He nodded.

They went out.

Only Susan waited outside.

"They finished clearing the house," she said, "Everyone is either outside guarding the prisoners, or guarding the infirmary for any straggling portkeys."

"Good," said Harry, "Let's go. Um. Rebekah, would you mind guarding Pearl's room?"

"And you think I can stop that snake?"

"No," said Harry, "stop any death eaters or any of our people going in, without the snake's permission."

"Oh," said Rebekah.

Moody cleared his throat.

So did Susan.

"What?" said Harry.

Moody gave him a condescending look.

"The reason we could clear the rest of this floor," said Susan, "was Stormy heard the password you used to open the hallway door, and opened the rest for us."

Harry shook his head, "probably she heard the password, that Nagini used to open the hallway door. But thank you for explaining that."

Moody gave him a significantly less condescending look.

"Professor Moody," said Harry, "What other pertinent questions have I forgotten to ask?"

"The pertinent question you have forgotten to ask me, is 'what pertinent questions have you forgotten to ask that supposed prisoner? And your 'dark lord' corpse?'"

"Like what?"

"For instance, Where's its wand?"

"Hmm," said Harry, "that is an interesting question. What else?"

He compressed his lips.

"I want to go over everything that happened in there with my wives and consorts, several things don't add up, and I'm not an expert on all things Nagini. I wouldn't mind you being there. To provide counterpoint and a more careful paranoia. Hermione and Draco too probably."

"How far do you trust Draco?"

"I trust him to be objective about everything except that which pertains to the previous House of Malfoy and the current House of Granger. And I trust him to be shrewd regardless."

Moody nodded, "fine, and what's your first objective right now?"

"Get a handle on where things stand," said Harry, "and decide what to do with the prisoners, and how many we even have."

Moody nodded.

"And our ex-prisoners will need looking after and help to get home," said Harry, "and inventorying the zoo, and seeing how many of them need help getting home, and how many of them should have been put down already, or were just waiting for the market to swing before being rendered."

"Humph," said Moody.

Harry glanced over at Rebekah, "I suppose you still have the connections to see about that?"

"I can consult you on what's valuable in that way and what isn't, I'm not so sure I've still got any low friction windows into the market."

"Friction?"

"Excessive fees," she said, "low friction means 'not high commissions' and means 'have already dealt with a particular ingredient class this year and aren't going to gouge you for licensing and compliance updates'."

"Ah," said Harry, "got it."

He turned back to Moody.

"I hear you let the ex-prisoners out already."

Harry nodded.

"And I notice that you didn't let her out."

Harry shrugged, "I'll admit I'm leaning towards protective custody for a couple of months before I let her go, just because her case seems unfortunately complex."

Moody grunted and nodded.

"And not just because she might seem to be a star witness."

"If you can trust her to tell what truth she knows. Or to have been taught the language properly enough that what she says and you understand, at all matches what she means."

Harry nodded, "Is you-know-who really the sort of mastermind who'd design and invest in building that trap on the off chance that his possession puppet might be captured while he wasn't riding her? And more to the point, while the capturing force didn't have a parselmouth to interrogate her? He knows that I and the Patil twins can understand it. And more to the point that his sister might undermine him on any new-moon night, merely by accidentally correcting her grammar or purposely teaching her real English?"

Moody grunted and annoyance and waved the theory aside.

...-...

{End Chapter 30}

A/N: If it's not obvious, I'm stuck out of work sick just now. (Bored out of my skull, but without the mental focus to create, so I might as well edit … even if it is only in 15 minute chunks of time.)