Happy Christmas to all my readers.
I present you with another chapter of my story, with the help of HowInMadeHowie, who once again helped me with this original chapter.
In my first draft it was a mess, even i was unsure if everything would work out fine, but Howie corrected my mistakes and added some finer details.
I do hope that you all have a nice christmas eve and happy holidays.
Until next time.
Sirius was thinking on how he could retrieve his wand without leaving the people behind him defenseless. He thought that it would have been better if Amelia was with them right now, when he saw the Death Eater pointing his wand towards Sirius. "Now Black, let's see how much you can endure."
Another Death Eater pointed his wand towards Triss; his tone showed what he was thinking while observing her body. "And you, sorceress, don't even think about attacking us. We have you already in our sights, and we have learned much since the last time we stood against each other. Before you can cast a spell, ours would already hit you. So stay still, or your death will come even sooner."
Triss held her hands to her side, just when she noticed something from out of the corner of her eye. She smiled and even pushed her hands in the pockets of her trousers. "You really shouldn't point that wand towards me. You may be prepared for my tricks, but you don't know how fast my boyfriend can be. You will regret it later, I am sure about that."
Harry heard Triss saying that, pulling out his Desert Eagle, but before he raised it to fire Callie told him the mission parameters that she had received from Cortana. "We are ordered to capture the Death Eaters alive, if possible. So shoot to incapacitate, not kill, understood?" Harry acknowledged the order; Callie helpfully provided targeting points on the four Death Eaters.
He would only have one shot before he would move to another position to take out another Death Eater. For the fourth Death Eater, who was standing behind a tree, Harry would use his knife and throw it at the Death Eater's wand hand would be useless. This way Harry would be silent enough until the hidden Death Eater would scream, but Harry timed everything so the other three Death Eaters could not react to the scream before he shoots.
Tilting his head, the Death Eater was getting angry for being underestimated by this woman. But before he could cast a spell, he heard a scream followed by three bangs in quick succession. But before he could turn around to see what was happening, he felt a tearing pain in his hand and looked at it, seeing it bleeding and the wand he had held in it being shattered. His other two companions were also screaming in pain and anger, as the same had happened to them.
While Samuel told the others to take cover, Triss used the small window to throw the still standing Death Eater towards a tree with her magic. Sirius, who had listened to Samuel's order, stood back up and ran over to where he had seen his wand fall from the thrown Death Eater's hand and picked it up to conjure ropes to bind one of the Death Eaters, as Triss used her magic to bind the Death Eaters with the earth beneath them.
The group then looked around in case there were more Death Eaters, but after confirming that they were now alone, they relaxed a bit.
Sirius wondered who had helped them and walked over to the tree where he guessed the gunshots came from. He cast Lumos and noticed large footprints on the ground as well as three small metal cylinders that were still smoking a bit. Sirius also found a fourth Death Eater with a large cut in his hand, making it useless to use his wand, not that the Death Eater could anyway as he was unconscious. Sirius guessed that it was because of the shock and pain from the knife that could have done this.
Janet suddenly noticed that someone was missing in their group. "Where is Harry?"
Samuel was now also looking around for Harry with the help of Daphne's mother. While Sirius bound the last Death Eater with ropes, Samuel noticed some footprints from where they came from, but they were also not conclusive from who they came from. "I guess he took the wrong turn back there. I suggest that we stick further into the woods and keep our eyes open."
Hermione was looking over to Daphne, trying to ask her quietly, whispering if she thought that Harry was with John now; as Hermione guessed that it was the Chief who shot the Death Eaters.
Daphne was thinking the same thing, but she wondered why those two did not tell them what they were up to.
—-
Harry was running towards the marker that Callie had placed on the center of the campgrounds since she had informed him that Blue Team were now engaging another group of Death Eaters. "They surveyed the campgrounds from a cloaked Pelican as a precaution, and when everything turned out like ONI had predicted, they were ready to help. So we have a full group to fight against those Death Eaters."
Harry wanted to help them if possible, as it was still unknown on how much punishment the MJOLNIR armor's shields could endure against explosive or lethal magic, and there were at least 15 Death Eaters in the middle of the campgrounds. He pulled Fang from its sheath, while also grabbing the Desert Eagle after he made a mental note on how many bullets he still had in the magazin. The small icon on his HUD that showed the same information was something that surprised him, but he would still keep count, as it was not everyday that he would wear his armor while in a fight.
Soon, he landed next to Fred, who was gripping his own knife and pistol as stood behind a tent observing the group of Death Eaters.
Fred nodded to Harry and then turned back to the masked wizards. He then briefed Harry using the squad channel. "We have 15 to 20 masked individuals, designated as enemies. They have hostages, which are hovering above them, presumably by magic. John and Kelly are already moving to a better position, our task will be to distract the hostiles so we can rescue the hostages. Linda will be our backup, in case we need it." Fred placed his pistol back into its holster and took out some smoke grenades they would use to create some confusion since they knew Death Eaters don't know about such things..
Harry nodded and turned back to the group of Death Eaters, ready to engage the enemy when the signal was given. But something gave him pause as he considered the situation before him. He then had an idea how to confuse the Death Eaters even further and asked Callie if it would be possible. She agreed with the idea and transmitted everything she and Harry had discussed over the squad channel.
Cortana was laughing at the ingenuity of this crazy idea. "I swear, if we had that kind of thinking in the war, Spartans would be truly frightening to the Covenant, Demons were bad enough." Cortana shook her head bemused.
John issued just a small caveat, namely the timing of this diversion. "It would be best if we arranged ourselves around the Death Eaters with our cloak active. When we are in position, I'll give you the signal Harry, and then we start with the rescue operation. And remember, we are ordered to keep the Death Eaters alive, but incapacitated. So only attack to harm, not kill. Understood?" Receiving the affirmative signal from his squad, John and Kelly were now changing their target spot to the one Cortana had highlighted for the best sound quality of the diversion.
John and Kelly arrived on the spot where they wanted to be and John asked Linda if she was also ready. After receiving a blink on his HUD that was Linda's icon, John gave the signal to start the rescue operation.
Seeing the green light in their HUD, Callie transmitted what Harry was saying through the squad channel, while Cortana was handling the timing of their speakers in the 4 Spartans' helmets around the Death Eaters.
Suddenly a deep gravelly voice spoke from all around the Death Eaters making them all look around them in confusion. "Fools! You think you can act with impunity?" The voice kept moving around as the Death Eaters were being circled like a hungry shark.
"You think you can embody fear?!"
One of the Death Eaters yelled out in frustration. "Who or what the fuck is this?"
The voice came from all around the Death Eaters in a booming voice. "I AM THE PHANTOM AND I SHALL TEACH YOU FEAR!"
Fred and Harry tossed their smoke grenades, just as Harry and the others jumped into the middle of the Death Eaters to take out the ones who held the hostages in the air.
The smoke was very thick as they landed, and John wasted no time to dislocate a shoulder of one Death Eater and sweep out his leg to knock a Death Eater over, breaking his ankle as his boot impacted the Death Eater's body. Kelly shattered the knee of another one by kicking her leg out. The sound of man's cry of pain drew another Death Eater's attention only for him to have his arm grabbed by Kelly, breaking it with a precise strike with the palm of her other hand.
Harry grabbed the hand of the Death Eaters who cast the hover charm; crushing the bones in the hand that held the wand. Fred was itching to use his knife on these bastards and reached out to one Death Eater and sliced two of their fingers off making him cry out in pain and drop his wand.
Harry saw a Death Eater aim his wand in the direction of where Fred was generally standing and threw Fang at the hand holding the wand. Quickly running over to retrieve Fang, Harry didn't feel merciful and stomped over the fallen Death Eater's foot, crushing the bones in the process.
John and Kelly then grabbed the falling hostages and carried them away quickly to a safe place away from the action.
All of this happened in the span of two minute, before another Death Eater had cast a charm to blow away the smoke; only to look around in mute shock to find almost half of of his group were laying on the ground, with different levels of injuries, some even bleeding from open cuts in their hands. "What the hell happened just now? Who is attacking us?" The Death Eater did not even notice the muggle family they were playing with was no longer in the air. He was still confused and frightened.
Harry, having already left the midst of the remaining Death Eaters, had one last jab at the terrorists. "Now you understand what fear is! Perhaps now you will rethink your calling and give up this foolish quest to bring terror to others."
—-
Having accomplished their task, John and Kelly carried the family a few meters further away from the group of Death Eaters, towards the line of Aurors that fought against the Death Eaters. John saw Amelia rounding up her people and volunteers to fight back against the Death Eaters. John and Kelly stopped next to her and placed the family on the ground. Amelia turned around to look at them with her wand outstretched towards John, who had deactivated his cloak while he lowered the mother down on the ground.
Cortana told him that her sensores were picking up an elevated heart rate from Amelia as she glared at John.
Amelia then pointed over to the spot where the smoke had just been a moment ago. "What in Merlin's name was that, Chief? And who is this Phantom we heard taunting the Death Eaters?"
John just shrugged while a healer was looking after the muggle family. "I needed a distraction, so I could rescue the hostages. Cannot say that I left the Death Eaters unscathed."
In that moment they heard another painful scream from the group of Death Eaters.
Amelia sighted and then ordered the Aurors to advance towards the Death Eaters and catch at least one to be interrogated.
—-
Within the remaining, uninjured Death Eaters who had cleared the smoke, saw that the situation was no longer in their favor. Just a handful were still standing, looking around in panic. As another Death Eater hit the dirt, one of them saw that the Aurors were advancing towards them. He was beginning to ask himself if he should just cut his losses and leave right now, when an eerie green light filled the sky. The Death Eaters and Aurors stopped for a moment as they looked up and their blood froze at once. One Death Eater knew that the sight of the Dark Mark would spur the Aurors to speed up and knew it was time to pull out. Tapping his wand to a necklace he activated his portkey which was linked to all of the others, standing or unconscious.
Harry wondered what had happened and also looked up, he saw a big skull with a snake coming out its mouth. Asking Callie what that meant and why the Death Eaters were running away and vanishing one by one; he was told that this was the Dark Mark, the symbol of the Death Eaters.
"It was used during the last war, whenever the Death Eaters had killed someone. It was a creation of Voldemort, and only the Death Eater know how to conjure it in the sky. And having it appear now, it must shock both parties. It seems that the Death Eaters here did not expect for it to be conjured tonight." Callie paused as she got a priority report from Luke which had her grimacing. "Oh hell."
Harry panicked, because he thought that Callie just cursed because his friends would be in danger or even killed.
John's calm voice did make Harry stop for a moment. "Stand down Harry. I also got that message from Luke through Cortana, they are alright, but surrounded by ministry employees. It seems that this dark mark was not casted because the Death Eaters killed someone, but as a message for the Death Eaters. Now the question is, who conjured it."
John looked over to Amelia, who was also staring at the Dark Mark over the forest with a frown. John turned his external speaker back on and glanced back at the Dark Mark in the sky. "Madam Bones, I don't mean to question your authority but I do have to wonder." John gestured to the Dark Mark. "If you're here, who is running the investigation over there?" Amelia gave John a sharp look, telling him to get on with it. "Because I have a bad feeling Barty Crouch is over there and he seems to think he's still the head of DMLE. And if Sirius is over there…"
John did not need to paint a picture for Amelia. She grimaced and cursed under breath. Amelia quickly looked around to see who was the most senior Auror to take over their group while she headed to the forest to keep Crouch from making another mess. "Shacklebolt! I need to head over there, you're in charge of collecting evidence here. Chief, can I trust you can assist my Aurors for moment?" He gave a quick nod and she quickly disappeared to the forest, hoping that nothing bad had happened to Susan or Sirius.
Harry then looked over to Fred, who had just collected the last empty smoke canister before an Aurors could see it. Telling Harry over the squad channel that they should leave now, the three Spartans amidst the carnage took off still with their cloaks activated. Harry heard the Aurors closing in on the spot they had just been as Fred told him to return to camp and wait for further instructions.
—-
Amelia apparated to the spot right underneath the Dark Mark. She arrived just a few moments after the other witches and wizards in the clearing. The first thing she heard was Sirius, in a shouting match with Crouch while Arthur seemed to try defusing the situation.
Amelia looked around and saw that Susan was safe, with Hermione and her parents just standing next to Daphne and her mother, while Triss was standing between them and Sirius.
Crouch finally noticed Amelia and raised his voice again. "Ah, Madam Bones, good, you are here now. Please take these people into custody." Crouch gestured towards Sirius and the group behind him in a dismissive gesture too.
Amelia cut him off before he could say another word. "Crouch, you are not my boss. This is also something your department has no say in, or did you really forget that you are no longer the head of the DMLE? Now stand aside, while I ask Lord Black and his companions what happened here." Amelia glared at Crouch in a manner most of her Aurors save for Moody would be shaking in their boots.
Sirius calmed down significantly when he saw Crouch being put in his place. Sirius nodded to Amelia in thanks and calmly explained. "We were hiding here from the attack, as you told us to. Suddenly, we heard someone or something over there coming out of the bushes. It did not sound like he was running away, rather that he dragged something behind him. Hermione then said that she saw someone standing over there." Sirius pointed in the direction Hermione indicated previously. "And right afterwards the Dark Mark appeared. We then were surrounded by the ministry wizards now here, casting stunners at us. Since they all missed, I could tell them that we did not do anything at all." Sirius glared at Crouch pointedly.
Amelia listened closely, looking over the spot where Sirius had pointed out where they heard the sound. Walking over after Sirius had finished, she found a wand on the ground and picked it up.
Right next to the wand was a small creature, unconscious.
Amelia picked up the unconscious elf and carried it, with the wand, back to the clearing show the others, announcing her findings. "We have a house elf and a wand over here. Anyone know which family the house elf belongs to?"
Crouch walked up beside Amelia with surprise evident on his face. "This is my servant, Winky. I ordered her to stay in the tent. I do not know why she is here. And you said there was a wand?" Crouch frowned as he looked between Winky and the place where Amelia found his elf.
Amelia lifted the wand, while she took out her own to investigate it. It soon was apparent that the Dark Mark was cast using this wand. "Well, I will bring this wand to Ollivanders, I am sure that he can tell me who it belongs to. Should we wake up Winky? She may have seen something."
Crouch just nodded as Amelia cast ernevate on Winky, causing her to wake up.
Winky blinked and rubbed her eyes as she sat up.
Amelia kneeled down to be on a similar level to the elf. "Winky. My name is Amelia Bones. Can you tell us what happened here?"
Winky was still blinking and rubbing her eyes, when she saw Crouch glaring down at her. She then shook her head. "Winky did not see anything, miss. Winky does not know where she is right now."
Crouch walked around them, as if he was looking for something, but no one noticed. No one except the small AI in Hermione's necklace, who recorded everything for Callie and Cortana to analyze Crouch's odd behavior. Luke noticed that Crouch seemed to bump into something lying on the ground. Crouch frowned as he used his feet to feel for it.
Amos Diggory, who was amongst the group of ministry wizards, stepped forward with a frown on his face as he looked down at Winky. Glancing over to Amelia, Diggory shook his head and gestured to the wand in Amelia's hand. "The real question we should be asking is where did the elf get the wand? You know as well as I do, Amelia, Elves are not allowed the use of wands. If she stole the wand…" Diggory trailed off as he glanced over at Crouch nervously.
Crouch turned back around, scoffing at Diggory's leading question had implied regarding his house elf. Crouch stepped closer to Diggory and glared down at Winky again. "Be it as it may, Winky did not follow my orders to stay in the tent. Therefore, I cannot rely on her any longer to follow my orders as she had in the past."
Crouch then took off his necktie and tossed it to Winky.
Winky did not want to catch the necktie, but it landed her hand as if it wanted to be there. She began to cry when Crouch began to talk again.
Crouch did not even deign to look at his former elf; in a cold tone of voice that made Winky cry even harder he declared loudly. "Winky, I hereby banish you from my house. Go away."
Hermione wanted to interject, but Sirius held his arm out and shook his head, quietly telling the muggleborn witch. "We can talk about this back in the tent, but now that is anything we can do. As for Harry, maybe he is back at camp, so let's look for him there."
—-
When Sirius and the others arrived back at the campgrounds, they saw many tents still smoldering. Sirius let out a sigh when he saw that his tents were luckily, undamaged.
As soon as he took another step towards the tent, the flap opened and Harry came out with his wand in hand. "Whoever…" Harry paused when he saw who it was and lowered his wand. "Ah it is you lot. Thank Merlin that you all are alright. What was the green light in the sky? As soon as it came out, those attackers just seemed rather keen to be as far away from it from here and left in fear."
Hermione and Susan did not believe that Harry did not know that the attackers were Death Eaters, or what the Dark Mark ment. He was hiding something, and he did not want Sirius or the others to find out what Harry was up to when he had left their group.
After some Aurors had come over and asked them if this was their campsite, Amelia waved them off telling the Aurors this was her campsite. Sirius conjured a fire into their firepit and sat down. He then pulled a flask out of his pocket and took a swig. "Ah, that is the stuff. Nothing beats a firewhisky after being attacked like that." Sirius paused when he saw Harry gave him a puzzled look. Sirius sighed and ran a tired hand over his face. "Sit down, I promise that we would talk about what had happened in the forest."
Amelia declined, stating that since the attack began she was on the clock and would have to coordinate everything before the night would be over.
That left Daphne's mother, as well as Sirius and Triss to explain to the Grangers what it meant for a house elf receiving clothes like that.
Samuel shook his head after hearing everything. He himself had experienced similar disobeying orders during his time in the British Army. "When in a situation like that, every living being choses to either fight or run. And mostly, the need to save one's own life wins over any other order given. I would not punish someone because he or she fled from a situation where they knew they would die if they stayed behind."
Sirius took another swig, grimacing as the whisky burned down his throat pleasantly. "You know, my grandfather once told me, to judge a man's character, you should see how he treats those below him, not the ones on the same social standing."
Harry took that thread and continued with his own thoughts. "Yeah, I heard something similar once. And thinking back a bit, when we visited the Weasleys, Crouch was there and it was obvious that Percy was working under him. And Crouch does not even know Percy's name. Called him Weatherby and similar things. Crouch does not care for the people under him; he just wants to see his orders carried out."
Harry then got an idea and called for Dobby. The house elf appeared beside Harry just after his name was called out.
To everyone's surprise, save for Harry and Triss, Dobby showed up wearing a camouflage shirt and shorts."Master Harry, calls for Dobby?"
Harry smiled at his friend and knelt down telling him what he heard had happened in the forest. "Now, I know you could use the help in Kear Morhen, with Katerine growing and the castle being this big. So go and look for Winky and bring her here. Can you do that?"
Dobby bowed deeply and confirmed that it would be done, popping away to bring the distraught elf to Harry. It seemed Dobby didn't have trouble finding Winky because he was back within a moment holding Winky's hand that clutched to her former master's tie. Winky did not stop her crying until she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder to calm her pain and make her look up. Winky blinked in surprise when she saw the young Witcher kneeling before her.
Before she could speak Harry spoke with a gentle tone. "Hello Winky, My name is Harry Potter. My adopted family is in need of a house elf to help watch a young girl who was born just this past spring." Harry noticed Winky was looking at him curiously but she was still clutching Crouch's tie close to her chest. Harry nodded towards the tie in her hand and Harry softly explained. "You are not a bad elf, Winky. You just have a bad master. He was wrong to dismiss you for something that was beyond your control." Harry nodded his head towards Dobby and explained further. "Dobby had a bad master once too. But the difference between you and Dobby is that Dobby wanted to save me, not his master. His old master did not treat Dobby very well." Harry knew that was an understatement but he did not need to elaborate in front of the Grangers.
Winky glanced at Dobby, who was dressed strangely to her. but she saw the strong bond between Dobby and this young Witcher. Glancing back at the Witcher she asked pointedly. "Yous won't be asking for Master Barty's secrets?"
Harry shook his head. "I never asked Dobby to reveal any of his former family's secrets, why would I start now?"
Winky was unsure but her instinct told her she could trust this boy, she reached out with her free hand to the arm that was still on her shoulder and gasped in shock. She felt his magic fill her and revitalize her being. She looked into his eyes in wonder, what power does this boy wield?
Harry smiled down at Winky and nodded to her and Dobby. "Dobby, take Winky to Yen, and introduce her to Katrina. I'm sure you can explain things further when you both get home." Dobby nodded his understanding, knowing better than to reveal his master's secrets to those who are not cleared to know. With that, the two house elves disappeared with a pop.
Sirius looked at Harry with a raised brow. "A castle, huh? When were you going to mention that you lived in a castle? Is it bigger than Hogwarts?" Harry groaned, now he remembered why he agreed with Callie to keep this from his godfather.
—-
Onboard the Infinity, Captain Lasky was reading the report from Blue Team with the video footage taken from their helmet cameras. Roland was also looking at it, laughing as quietly as he could. "This is a rather unorthodox tactic, but it made sure that the Death Eaters were distracted well enough to rescue the hostages. We can also work with the Phantom part to conceal our technology a bit further. But the time will come when we have to reveal the technology at our disposal. Should I draw the planes for those scenarios?"
Lasky nodded, while he watched how Harry was dispatching the Death Eaters with the accuracy of a seasoned soldier. "Be honest with me Roland, does any data indicate that Harry could fight like a Spartan just after a few weeks training with them after his augmentation?"
Roland looked back on the data, and contemplated the question his captain had for him. "Well, it was in the realm of possibilities, but the likelihood for it to happen so well is surprising. I think even HIGHCOM begins to see the potential in this world."
Lasky nodded his agreement and paused in thought as his fingers tapped the desk before him. "Speaking of HIGHCOM, do pass this along in the next datapacket. After reviewing the flight data from his training session with Maverick I'm sure HIGHCOM will want to put priority of any report that Mr Potter engages in."
Roland nodded. "And Maverick's request for the books? Shall I greenlight those as well?"
Lasky chuckled at that question. The books Maverick kept asking for were ones that dealt with Quidditch tactics. Shrugging, Lasky didn't see the issue as they might learn something from such a complex game. "Might as well, put in the requisition with Smith's team."
—-
The next morning, John was the first to wake up and left the tent he shared with Triss and Harry. Now standing outside, he looked over the rest of the campgrounds, seeing some destroyed tents while people walked around with nervous looks. John knew what happened last night must have been surprising for people, and seeing them still afraid of being attacked did remind him of his time during the war. As he was getting closer to the folding table, he noticed that the Weasleys were just walking past their spot, with Arthur looking like he just had worked throughout the night.
John was sure that Amelia was also still out on the campgrounds, coordinating everything necessary to make sure that people were safe. Deciding to see if he could help, he left their spot after making a small note where he was going.
—-
Amelia sighed deeply after she had told another mother that they had found her children and were reuniting them. As of now, they had been lucky no one died, but many were injured during the panic after the Death Eaters had begun their attack. There were also many missing, but they had found almost everyone out in the forest surrounding the campgrounds. Looking down at the list of missing people, she was glad that this list was becoming shorter by the minute. She then was notified that John was standing outside to the entrance to the tent the Aurors had put up and offering his help. She did not know how John could help them, but she was glad for everything at this point.
Walking outside the tent, Amelia looked over to where John was standing, and seeing many younger Aurors stood close to him in the relaxed position Amelia had become accustomed to. "Good morning Chief, thank you for being here, but I do not know how much of a help you would be with us right now. The only thing I could ask of you is that you look after Susan for a while until I am finished here." Amelia smiled sadly, she knew her niece could look after herself but she did not want Susan to be alone right now.
John nodded and promised Amelia that her niece would be safe with him. As he turned around, he almost bumped into a blond witch with glasses balancing delicately on her nose. She wore an emerald green dress and next to the witch were a notepad and an acid green quill floating on the same height as her head.
Cortana was fast, already pulling out the dossier the ONI had on her and telling John about it. "Oh lovely, Meet Rita Skeeter, a freelance journalist. She often writes for the Daily Prophet, but her articles are mostly scandals or accusations without any real proof to back it up. I would guess that she is here because she has smelled a scoop in last night's attack and now wants to see what she can find out. I suggest you ignore her, John." Cortana considered passing Skeeter's dossier to Callie so her sister can be prepared to keep an eye out for this muckraker.
John did just that, already used to being questioned by other people about things he did not want to talk about. Walking past Skeeter, he noticed the quill writing things on the notepad without Skeeter saying a word. He presumed that the quill was enchanted to react to Skeeter's thoughts; he glanced at the notepad itself. What he read caused him to stop immediately and turn towards Skeeter. Glaring down, he decided to talk with her about that small note. "I hope you have a good lawyer, Ms. Skeeter. Because believe me, if you print everything that is written on that notepad, you will need it. I will not be thrown in with these attackers, just because I am this tall. And no, I am not a half-giant, so please tell your quill to stop." John glared down at Skeeter, he had spent the past decade developing a very stern , even cross expression that most of his students knew to avoid facing.
Skeeter was a bit surprised that this tall man could read that fast, even if the pad itself was not facing him directly. She smiled sickly upwards at John and opened her green handbag, to which the quill and notepad were flying into. "My apologies, but I write what I see and my readers love it. But I seemed to have missed your name, Mr…?"
John just crossed his arms and remained silent, until another Auror came out of the tent and sighed, before turning back and calling for Amelia. "Madam Bones, Rita Skeeter is here again." The Auror glanced between the Chief and Skeeter, he almost wanted to warn his boss but didn't know how to say it without tipping off Skeeter.
Amelia walked back out the tent, groaning when she saw Skeeter standing in front of John. "Miss Skeeter, I already told you that I will not make any comment on last night's attack before the investigation is completed. So, why are you here again?"
Skeeter tried to push past John, but he just stood in her way and stopped Skeeter. She scowled at him, quickly retrieved her notepad and quill; Skeeter wastes no time asking her questions. "Madam Bones, what would you say when I tell you that some people were brought out of the forest in different states of injury? Did the DMLE have to say something about it?"
Amelia walked over to Skeeter and looked at her very closely, her quill writing furiously before John grabbed it and lifted it from the notepad. Skeeter noticed that and wanted to tell him off, but John just glared down at her. John's cold tone made Skeeter think she was better off facing a lawyer than this strange man."I already warned you, Ms. Skeeter, if you even printed one word of what you had written, I would suggest that you look for a good lawyer."
—-
Harry was finishing cleaning their campsite, when he noticed John coming over to him. John then helped Harry with packing up the rest before the others would be awake. It turned out that Hermione also wanted to help clean, but seeing Harry already on the task she had helped her parents to pack their clothes back up into their backpacks inside their tent. Harry smiled as she apologized to him for letting him do all the heavy lifting outside. "Please Hermione, this is nothing. I am just glad that everything turned out to be okay in the end."
Hermione tried to smile while relaxing, but she was still a bit on edge from what happened last night. If something had happened to her parents during the night, she would not know what she could have done to help them. She was determined to read more in the library about healing magic.
A short time later, Amelia came over with a tired look on her face. Sirius asked her if she was done for today, to which Amelia nodded. "Yes Sirius, that should be enough for today. I have Shacklebolt and Scrimgeour holding the fort until the rest of the force has cleaned everything up. And thank you for packing up my tent, that saves some time. And thank you Chief for helping me with Skeeter."
John just nodded in acknowledgement, and soon they all had packed up their stuff and were ready to return home. They walked to a corner where they were not watched and Triss opened a portal to the same spot they were yesterday.
As Triss closed the portal after everyone had walked through, Hermione and her parents waved their goodbyes, as Hermione tried to smile happily while waving, but Harry knew that she was still shaken from the events from last night. He was sure that she would talk to Luke, just like they had with Callie after Halloween of their first year, but he would ask her when they would be back on the Hogwarts Express.
Susan on the other hand was still silent, standing closer to her aunt. Harry would ask her back in Hogwarts if she needed some help to get over what happened.
A short time later, Harry walked through the portal back to Kear Morhen, where he saw Yen looking at the Daily Prophet while Geralt was sitting right next to her. Their daughter was sleeping on the small crib next to the table, and as soon they heard the door opening and closing, Yen turned to look and smiled while her face relaxed.
Yen stood up and hugged Harry while she almost cried from happiness. "I knew that we did not have to worry too much with what happened at the Quidditch World Cup, as John and Triss were with you and you had your augmentation. But reading this article made me a bit nervous, even if it was written by Skeeter, Catherine told us about her. Skeeter has a way of writing that seems to be the truth, even if it is a bit exaggerated."
Harry hugged Yen back, looking over to Geralt, who placed the morning's issue of the Prophet on the table. Harry wanted to read it to see what the Prophet had written, when two pops sounded by his side. Yen released Harry from their hug and smiled down at the two house elves. "Hello Dobby, How are you settling in Winky? How do you find your work here?"
Dobby bowed before taking the backpack from Harry and popping away, with Winky still bowing towards Yen. "Mistress Yen, Winky likes to work as much as Dobby does. Winky would like to take over the cooking and taking care of young mistress Katerine from Dobby, Mistress Yen. This way, Dobby can concentrate on doing necessary repairs to the castle. And if the Mistresses or Masters want something from Winky, please call Winky whenever you need. Now, Winky will prepare lunch, please excuse Winky."
Winky then popped away again, leaving the humans alone in the main hall. Yen sighted and looked over to Harry. "It was a good thing you told Dobby to get Winky after she was freed from her former master. She was not mistreated per se, but she is really sad and still thinks she has some obligations towards Crouch. Also, I cannot shake the feeling that she is hiding something, but we do not want to pry. She will tell us when she is ready, just like Dobby did."
Harry nodded and sat down at the table, grabbing the paper Geralt had laid down and begun to read.
"Panic at the Quidditch World Cup. How the Ministry failed us.
During the festivities after the Quidditch World Cup last night, the people enjoying the night were attacked by Death Eater look-alikes and many people were injured, including the family of the muggle owner of the campgrounds. He and his family were held in the air by the attackers, and only the brave actions of some unknown individual saved them.
All the while, the Aurors on scene seemed to be paralyzed together with the other Ministry workers as they tried to make heads or tails of the situation. Now, this reporter was told by the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE) that the Aurors were prioritizing the safety of the muggles in the first place, as a sudden attack could have caused worse injuries.
For this reporter, that sounds like a poor excuse to hide their incompetence, as multiple eyewitnesses have told this reporter that they had heard someone, who called himself the Phantom, threatening and also seemingly attacking the Death Eaters after conjuring some thick smoke around the group. No one saw who this Phantom really was, but some witnesses claim that it was an armored being, almost as tall as a half-giant. This reporter cannot confirm the rumors, but I will stay vigilant and go after this Phantom.
Also according to some eyewitnesses, multiple people were heavenly injured. We do not know the identities of these people, but the eyewitnesses told the reporters that some had masks on their faces, like the Death Eaters had all those years ago. This also led to questioning the ministry if they were too lax when they persecuted the members of this cult around You-Know-Who. But we have to wait for the official report, which Minister Fudge had promised after the investigation is completed. Hopefully, after that all questions will have been answered.
The article ended with this sentence, causing Harry to shake his head. John stood behind him with his arms crossed. John shook his head while he read the article, giving voice th his thoughts. "Well, we tried to remain unseen except to the Aurors, but it seems some civilians had seen me when they came back after escaping the attack. I am sure that there will be questions for me as well as soon the students' parents hear about my armor during school. And even if they do not connect the dots, at the very least they will know at the Triwizard Tournament that I had something to do with the rescue of the hostages last night." John hoped he had seen the last of Skeeter, judginb by her article she's bound to cause trouble if she comes to Hogwarts this year.
Harry nodded, looking at the picture on the front page, where he could see the campgrounds in flames while people fired spells at each other. Flipping the page of the newspaper to read something else, he wondered how long the UNSC could remain hidden from everyone else, and also who the man was that casted the Mark on the sky.
Geralt waved his hand dismissively of the exaggeration in the story and looked between Harry and John with a raised brow. "So, whose brilliant idea was it to scare the Death Eaters with this Phantom?"
Harry sighed when Callie suddenly appeared next to him in a human sized form. She pointed at Harry with a grin on her face. "That would be this one! It was brilliant! It threw the Death Eaters off completely when Harry and Blue Team moved in to rescue the hostages. What the Prophet doesn't tell you is that Harry already took out four other Death Eaters in the forest."
Triss smiled and spoke rather drily. "Yes, thank you for scaring the girls, Harry." Triss turned to John with a frown. "You might want to teach him to clean up after himself though. Sirius found the spent bullet casings from where he shot the three Death Eaters."
John looked at Harry with a raised brow. Harry shrugged. "I was in a hurry and I needed to retrieve Fang. That, and I thought it would be too dark for anyone to find the casings."
Triss shrugged. "It's a good thing Sirius found then and not Samuel, he, unlike Sirius, is former military and would recognize them for what they are." That did draw John's attention back to her. Seeing John's look she shrugged. "No idea what Sirius did with them, he didn't bring them back to the group; I only noticed that he picked something up to inspect and shrugged his shoulders and tossed them back down."
Cortana decided to join the discussion by letting the group know that Captain Lasky has already read the report. "Roland thinks we can use the Phantom to hide UNSC tech in the short term. But he has been given the green light to prepare contingencies in case we get exposed too soon."
Yen shook her head. "I wouldn't worry too much about exposure. The British wizarding world is too far behind to think such technology exists. Of course smart witches like Hermione might notice something odd. But we can trust her not to spread what she knows."
—-
Lucius was sitting in his study, rubbing his temples after what happened last night. He surely did not think that his old friends would suffer such a defeat. A few casualties were expected with the Aurors being there as a security, but losing almost a fourth of their fighting force right at the start, and even more before they had activated their portkeys to escape the attack, it was something he did not plan for.
Lucius wondered if he should send for Smith to try to find out who or what this mysterious "Phantom" is. He loathed to admit it but Lucius sometimes wished he had the Dark Lord to fall back on for planning. This Phantom proved his point; that the Death Eaters were truly terrified of running into him again.
—-
In an old house in the countryside, a small humanoid being was sitting in the wingback chair by the fire. Since his servant was successful in making him a temporary body, Voldemort had to consume a special potion made using the venom of his familiar, but he had at least a body with which he could use a limited amount of magic. He was planning on having a full body again, but this needed more time to plan properly.
But this plan was put in the back of his mind as he read the Daily Prophet his servant had brought him this morning. Voldemort threw the paper into the fire and turned his head towards his servant. "It seems that my Death Eaters have become weak willed. In the past, they would not have fled like that after my Mark was cast up to the sky. But as they had attacked without my approval, it seems that they were also afraid of my retribution against such a foolishness they had made. Now, I have two tasks for you. First, you will go to Lucius and ask him what in my name he was thinking of attacking the world cup. DO NOT TELL HIM THAT I AM BACK IN THE COUNTRY! It may set him into a panic and makes him reckles. The second task is, I want to know more about this 'Phantom'. He is a threat to our plans if it turns out he is that security from Hogwarts you told me about. But before you do any off this, we will go to the Crouch residence, and see if another servant is ready to join us."
—-
Time flew by, while John trained Harry in some underwater maneuvers with his armor and other diving gear until the first of September came around.
Harry had packed his trunk, marveling on how diligent Winky was doing her work when cleaning his clothes. She even enlarged some of his older clothes, even adding some protections during the whole process.
When Harry had asked her about that, she told him that a Witcher would need such protections in an emergency. "And even if Winky knows that there are runes woven into the fabric, Winky thinks a bit more padding should also be added. Also, it helps that Master Harry is already this muscular, as this padding is not noticeable on Master Harry's body."
Grabbing his trunk, he walked to the main hall, where Triss was already waiting for him, while Yen was holding her daughter in her arms. Harry said his goodbye to Yen and Katrina before he entered the Portal together with Triss. She had already sent John to Hogwarts before, so she could accompany Harry to the train, even if she did not need to do that.
But Triss left Harry behind on the platform 9 3/4, she hugged him tightly, now thanks to his augmentation she could reach at least his neck, so she could whisper into his ear. "Do not forget Harry, if your name really comes out of the bloody goblet, you can reveal that you are a Witcher. Now, I hope you will have a good year."
