Chapter 47: A Moment To Breathe
A/N: Mild Trigger Warning - The final scene contains a graphic description of a crime scene. Contains gore.
Both to celebrate (is that a bad thing?) the 26-year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, and as an apology for ending last week on a cruel cliffhanger, I'm posting this one early to give you all some relief. My bad.
Tuesday, 4th July 1995.
Andromeda felt the change in the air.
The two bright blasts that shot upwards from Harry and Hermione's wands had pushed back the thick weight of the despair caused by the dementors, but only for a moment. But it left something new crackling around them in its place. The hair on her arms was beginning to stand on end.
She felt air under her hand as Hermione dropped to the ground without warning, the girl waving her wand forward and conjuring thick stone blocks from the jagged stone beach itself. Harry yelled for them to conjure a shield, but her attention was now focused on protecting the teens in front of her.
Andromeda dropped down as well and wrapped her arms around Hermione, tucking the girl's smaller form under her own as the charge in the air continued to grow. She moved only slightly in an attempt to yank Sirius down as well to protect Harry, but the man changed form and wrapped the boy in his massive dog form.
She raised her wand above her head and conjured the most powerful shield she could around the four of them as whatever was happening reached its pinnacle and a blast of immense light and sound filled all her senses entirely.
The crack was deafening.
Even with the shield around them, it felt like someone was squeezing her entire body, and Andi could feel the damage in her ears from whatever the children had done. It was a powerful shock wave that hit the entire group hard and knocked most around them down to the sharp stones under their feet.
Her shield held, however, and Andi was almost relieved until she felt the figure in her arms disappear.
The shield collapsed as her focus dropped and she reached out a hand to prevent herself from falling into the now-empty space. She glanced to her left to see Padfoot bound upwards and begin to frantically look about. Harry was nowhere to be seen either.
Panic tried to grip her before her senses won out. The two were wearing their portkeys, and it would seem that whatever they had just done had drained them both to the point of exhaustion and thus unconsciousness.
They would be back at the Manor, being fretted over by Pops and the others. They were safe.
The rest of them were still on an island full of ravenous dementors.
Andromeda stood, one of the first back on their feet after the blast. She noted that the almost metre-thick conjured stone that the two had made was cracked through. Battered by the shockwave. She wondered how powerful the wave would have been without that extra physical defence.
Beyond it lay a pile of smouldering cloaks amidst a thick black char mark across the stony ground.
Wand at the ready, she slowly looked upwards, noting that the thick clouds above the tower seemed lighter all of a sudden. Instead of the thick dark grey of earlier, they now had a paler tone. Pale enough that she could see the dementors against it now, without the aid of the collective patronus shield that had collapsed with them all.
The dementors were once more coming towards them, and she prepared to conjure her patronus. But she noticed something odd in the way they flew.
They were not flying at all, simply falling from the sky.
The first dull thud surprised her as it landed behind her. Something fleshy had hit the ground immediately behind her and splattered the back of her legs as it hit the unforgiving ground. More thuds followed and she quickly realized that the pair of teens had managed to at least stun the bulk of the awful creatures. And now gravity was taking its toll.
"Heads up. Falling dementors." She yelled, though the sound barely registered in her ears due to the damage from the powerful shockwave.
The giant black dog to her side bounded at Andromeda, leaping hard and clearing her head with his enormous body, teeth closing around a dementor body that was about to strike her and diverting it away. Both came down hard on the stones.
She cast a potent healing spell in the dog's direction before locating Amelia on the ground nearby. She quickly helped the woman to her feet and indicated the falling bodies above. Amelia nodded her recognition and began firing off spells in multiple directions. A temporary spectral hut sprung up from where the spells hit the beach. Designed to protect from the elements while preparing a campsite, the spell would redirect falling debris away from those underneath.
Andi cast her eyes around the beach and noticed that a few of those who had formed the guard were rolling about on the beach in pain. While most were now standing and noticing the situation, those still on the ground would be unlikely to get out of the way and under the hut to safety.
She quickly cast summoning charms on the prone figures. Unfortunately dragging them across the unkind surface, but she was well-practiced at healing cuts and fractures. The heights some of the dementors were falling from could prove instantly fatal if they were to strike any of the prone bodies.
The more folks that took refuge under the cover, the more powerful it became as they added their magic to reinforce it. Others began copying her actions and within a minute, everyone was safely tucked under its protection with only a couple of close calls for those being summoned.
Andromeda felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Amelia there, watching her. The woman winced as she turned her head and indicated her ears. A trickle of blood was pouring out and Andi raised her wand slowly, gesturing that she could help with that, without seeming threatening.
The wand movement needed was complex, but Amelia remained perfectly still as she cast it.
Now that the adrenaline of the moment was wearing off, Andi began to feel other pains and throbs across her body. Her head was ringing from the force of whatever the teens had cast. But it certainly seemed to have done the job.
After a few moments of casting, Amelia gave her the thumbs up and was immediately accosted by Sirius. Andi could not hear what the man was saying, but his demeanour was easily readable. He was frantic because he still could not find Harry. And damaged as the wards may have been, he was not powerful enough to simply apparate away from the island prison.
Andi turned her wand to her own ears for a moment, recasting the same spell she had just used to repair the damage to Amelia's. It took a bit longer as she needed to focus more carefully. Though she only had to begin the process of healing. Enough to hear what was going on and get herself to St Mungo's for a proper healing. Casting such spells to fully heal oneself was never a good idea.
As she worked, she finally noticed the thick smell of ozone in the air. As if the air itself had been burned by whatever Harry and Hermione had done. Every breath reeked of it over the sour taste of the burned decayed flesh of the dementors themselves.
Her attention snapped back to Sirius as her hearing returned and she could hear his shouts.
"I need to see him, Amy. I need to go now!" The man growled, being held by two burly men who were struggling to keep him from charging at Amelia once again.
"Calm down, Sirius. I'm sure he's here. Just give us a moment to find him." Amelia replied, gesturing to the pile of groaning bodies nearby.
Andromeda knew that Sirius would not be calmed until he could see and touch Harry again. And the boy was no longer present on the island. With a quick sigh, she walked up behind the frantic man and cast another spell.
The stunner struck him in the back and Sirius went limp for a second before he too was whisked away from the island, back to the Manor. Remus could deal with the man when he woke up. Others here needed her aid more than Sirius needed calming. Though she did feel a little bad for the poor sap. He truly adored Harry, and any threat to the boy was a physical pain to him.
"What the hell, Andi," Amelia said as the two Aurors that had been holding Sirius baulked and then went for their wands in response.
"He's safe. They all are." Andromeda replied, ensuring she kept her wand down and non-threatening as the Aurors had probably not had their hearing fixed yet. "We have more important things to deal with right now," she added, indicating the injured folks nearby. "May I?"
Her head was still ringing, and her hearing would definitely need further healing. But for the moment, she could do more here.
Amelia glared at her for a moment before she nodded.
As Andromeda swished past, she saw Amelia beginning to give the upright aurors instructions with her hands. It seemed that the hearing issue would not stop them from carrying out their duties with her.
Andromeda knelt next to those at the edge of the pile and began casting diagnostic spells. They all had similar injuries to herself. Hearing damage, cuts and bruises from the stony ground. But most here also had minor burns as well. They must have been the ones closest to the spell that teens had brought down on the dementors.
Dementors which continued to rain from the sky, splattering against the ground or the spectral roof above. The awful squelching sound was disturbing now that Andi could hear it. But she focused and tried to ignore the sound as she cast spell after spell.
Time seemed to fade away as she moved from one body to the next. It wasn't until Amelia tapped her on the shoulder that she noticed that the falling bodies had stopped, and most of the Aurors and Unspeakables were now back on their feet.
Groups of them were gathering the fallen dementors on the pile that the teens had begun.
"Nice work, Andi," Amelia said softly, nodding at her most recently recovered patient.
"It's all basic aid. They will still need to visit St Mungo's. We all will." Andromeda replied.
"Tell me about it," Amelia said, shrugging a pain in her shoulder away. "And then we need to have another chat. I have questions. Like how three people portkeyed out of Azkaban's, admittedly damaged, wards."
Andromeda couldn't help but chuckle at the woman's indignant stare. "We already told you. Visit the goblins. They make quality portkeys." She replied.
Finally standing, without the emotion of the assault or the focus of her task now distracting her, Andromeda finally noticed the feeling left in the air. While it still stank of ozone, the weight of despair did not fill it anymore.
"It seems like whatever they did worked," Andromeda noted as she took in the dozens of piles of black-cloaked figures across the beach.
"Yes, it does. All the ones on the ground are dead." Amelia replied, sending a few of the standing aurors to begin ferrying the injured off to St Mungo's. "I have to be honest, the first few times I asked Moody about those two, I thought he was pulling my chain. But now…"
Andromeda nodded in agreement. When she had first met Harry, he had seemed so unassuming. A small boy living a happy life. But there was nothing about him that gave away the immense power and skill hiding within. Hermione was much the same by herself as well. But when the two worked together, they were unstoppable.
She had taught them much of the magic they now knew personally, and they still amazed and surprised her every day with the ways that they twisted and changed magic to suit their purpose. Andi couldn't even begin to explain what they had done here. But she was sure the forthcoming explanation would seem utterly obvious once given.
Those two had a unique way of seeing the world. Likely in no small part due to their continued muggle studies.
"I'm going to have more questions," Amelia said, breaking Andi from her thoughts. "For now though, if you can take some passengers, we can clear you off to St Mungo's. Doubt I'll be getting to my meeting with Augusta for a while yet."
Amelia sighed heavily and Andi knew she was considering the two that had once again left her tidying up a mess that they had made.
"I'll see what I can do," Andromeda replied, giving Amelia a nod as the woman walked away, heading for one of the nearby piles.
Andromeda turned to the nearest group of downed Aurors and saw the Unspeakables preparing portkeys for them. The proper DMLE authorised sort that were normally needed to leave the prison wards. Joining the next group to depart, she gave one last look around the stony beach before the hook behind her navel whisked her and another five patients off to St Mungo's.
Perhaps there she would learn the extent of what those two had accomplished today.
ϟ
Wednesday, 5th July 1995.
Theodore Nott was nervous as he waited in the oddly ordered house.
He still wasn't sure why he had been brought here. His stepmother was too busy mourning her lost husband to care for his whereabouts. But the fact that he had seen Malfoy wandering about earlier and Zabini was also seated nearby, he figured it had something to do with either the school or their families.
With his father lying dead in St Mungo's, having succumbed to the injuries caused by something very heavy hitting him very hard, Theo was now the head of the Nott family, despite only being fifteen years old. With his December birthday, he was one of the oldest in his year.
It was one of the reasons he had always seen Malfoy as a pompous twat strutting about the castle. They all knew that he was the fourth youngest in their year, having forced the entire house to celebrate his birthday only a month before. Yet Malfoy behaved like he was three or four years their senior and that alone made him deserving of their loyalty.
Sure, the fool had occasionally pulled some great pranks on the filth wandering the school, but he was far from worthy of a Nott's attention, much less his loyalty.
Zabini, on the other hand, was far quieter. He watched and he learned. Carefully gathering secrets and observations that he would use against you whenever it proved prudent. He was practically the opposite of the waddling peacock.
Unfortunately, Malfoy had seemed rather smug when he had spotted them on the way in. In a way that Nott had only ever seen on the pompous fool when he thought he knew some secret that the rest of them were unaware of. Even when it was not the case. However, today might be a first.
His attention was drawn from his musing as the nearby doors opened and the owner of the home glared down at him.
"You two, in." Yaxley barked at them.
Zabini glanced at Nott as the pair stood and they followed the brutal-faced man into the large room. And Nott was completely unable to keep the shock he felt from showing on his face.
Seated at the end of a wide open space on a large black throne, was the Dark Lord reborn.
Nott had heard the rumours from the others in his house. The scheduled awards portion of the Tournament had been cancelled and they'd all been left to speculate as to why. When he and many of those around him had received owls on the Sunday, they had learned that there had been some sort of big meeting of Death Eaters on the Saturday night, and rumour certainly held to the idea that Potter had been involved.
He was the only one never seen leaving the maze. And something had triggered the Ministry folk to start up the pomp that evening, before failing to find a returned Champion. So far as he knew, they had still not announced who had actually won the event. The papers had been too focused on the gathering of Death Eaters that had seen so many killed. And more recently the mass breakout from Azkaban and the decimation of the dementors that had once guarded the prison.
But it seemed that the event which had seen his father mortally wounded had indeed been the rumoured return. And now the menacing gaze of the Dark Lord his father had so often praised was fixed on him. Nott tried his hardest not to shiver under the intensity of it. He would not show weakness.
"Kneel." The Dark Lord said, his voice barely a whisper but it carried throughout the entire room.
Nott could feel the command in the breathy word and he fell to his knee without a second thought. Whether he had done it of his own free will or not, he could not be sure.
Silence filled the air for an uncomfortably long time. It felt as if Theo's soul were laid bare before the man in front of them. As if he could see his very thoughts, so Theo tried to calm his nerves and silence his mind. His father had trained him in occlumency from a young age, but he'd never quite gotten the hang of the skill.
"Zabini." The Dark Lord said in the same powerful whisper. "I am told that you are quite observant. I have questions that you may be able to provide answers to."
The momentary relief Theo had felt at not being the subject of the Dark Lord's attention vanished as the red eyes swivelled to him.
"And you, Theodore. Your father was one of my earliest supporters. He often spoke of you, and how proud he would be when you joined our cause. A shame that he will no longer be around to see it come to pass."
The words both thrilled and frightened the teenager. His father had often told him of the Dark Lord and his cause. To clean the magical world of the filth that polluted it. And one day, to extend that cleansing beyond their borders. Theo had assumed he would be proud to be offered such a role. But now, kneeling here in the presence of the man his father had seemed so enamoured with, he wasn't sure.
"But to earn such a place, I need to know of your devotion. I must see proof of your worth. So first, I wish for you to confirm that which the young Malfoy has already told me. Of Harry Potter."
Nott was surprised by the query. He knew that Malfoy underestimated Potter. One only needed to exist in proximity to the twat for five minutes to hear his endless whining and droning about how unfair life was. That Potter was no more than a lucky fool. Which had just further reinforced Nott's desire to stay clear of Malfoy. The child was an unobservant idiot who would willingly delude himself against what his own eyes had seen.
"What would you like to know?" Zabini asked, shocking Nott from his thoughts.
The red eyes shifted back to Blaise and even from his place nearby, Theo could feel the weight of it. The burning expectation within.
"My lord," Blaise added, his voice breaking under the weight before the sensation passed.
"I wish to know your impression of the child. His strengths and weaknesses. His manner. His friends." The Dark Lord stated plainly.
Theo noted Zabini glance at him before both their eyes shifted back to the hem of the Dark Lord's cloak.
"He is far more capable than Malfoy will have told you," Zabini said. "He is distracted by his own beliefs and the fact that they both sorted into Hufflepuff."
Theo nodded and continued. "Potter is definitely more powerful than he seems at first glance. We were not present for the occurrence itself, but I am sure that I have ascertained the truth of the matter; Professor Moody attempted to attack Potter during his first class with the mad bastard. Potter and Granger put him down. From what I heard about their response, they were not conserving their energy either."
Theo glanced towards Zabini before he continued. "But I was close enough to see him testing his stamina against the Black and the werewolf a few weeks back. Holding a shield under a constant steady assault. I did not watch the entire thing, but from what I hear, he lasted for over three hours."
Despite keeping his eyes low as he had been instructed by his father should they ever meet, Theo could feel the red eyes watching him intently. "Interesting."
Blaise took the reins of the explanation once again as Theo was pressed under the intense gaze. "Greengrass went on and on about the time that the pair of them befuddled Professor Vector as well. Not by magic, but with the application of understanding. Their grasp of most subjects seems to suggest that both are coasting through the classes they share with our peers. Whoever has been tutoring them has done a good job."
"I cannot confirm that it was them specifically," Theo added now that the Dark Lord was focused on Zabini again, "but they seemed to retaliate decisively against a group that sent them hate mail after one of Skeeter's articles. They appear to be ruthless against their enemies."
Zabini nodded his agreement. "And their altercation with Professor Snape still has the man seething even now."
Theo's eyes had raised enough that he noted the barest flicker of something in the Dark Lord's face at the mention of their Head of House. But he would certainly not be pursuing that line of inquiry. He focused his mind and put all of his father's training to work, pressing that awareness deep into his mind and covering it with anything that he could find to keep the Dark Lord from noticing he had observed the slip.
It was several moments before he was confident enough in his efforts to focus on the conversation once more and Zabini was narrating several more of the events they had noted of the pair during their time at Hogwarts. This particular instance being when a group of girls had cornered Granger. The fools.
"And what of his performance in the Tasks?" The Dark Lord enquired. "You were both present for all three."
Zabini glanced at Nott and raised the eyebrow closest to him. It seemed the other boy had certainly noticed his quietness as he sorted his mind.
Nott swallowed hard and began to speak. "We were never able to figure out how he completed the first task. One moment, the egg was in the nest, the next he had it. I've considered a dozen different ways he could have achieved it, from simple to complex. The second though, that one was interesting. Potter looked lost for most of the morning before he stormed back into the Great Hall looking furious and riling up the other Champions."
Zabini nodded in agreement and the Dark Lord seemed to sit a little straighter, though Theo couldn't even be sure the man had even moved. It was just something about him that seemed more intent all of a sudden.
"Seeing them leave, I followed, figuring events were going to begin early. We're supposed to believe that he cast a summoning charm so powerful it dislodged the beast's village from the lakebed. And I certainly heard him shout the incantation of that spell. The Ministry folk certainly seemed upset over the Task. But nothing I have seen suggests that Potter is powerful enough to do that on his own. Despite his handling of the Aurors guarding the dock."
"While Potter was the first to dive in," Zabini continued, "the others also cast some powerful magic as well. He seems to be at his strongest when others are around. I've never witnessed Potter pull off anything extraordinary by himself. And he was very emotional over Granger's inclusion in the task, which has been known to boost the power of certain spells."
"Is that so?" The Dark Lord whispered, turning away from them both for the first time since they entered.
While the removal of the staring should have felt like a weight had been lifted, Theo was still in awe of the sheer power of the presence before him. His father had often spoken of the intensity of being in the Dark Lord's company. How the man exuded strength. What had seemed to be stories in his youth had proven to be true in person.
"Perhaps… this requires further observation. The power…" The Dark Lord mused to himself as if he no longer cared about their presence at his feet.
But the reprieve did not last for long before he returned his attention to them. "What else?"
Nott glanced at Zabini once again before he swallowed and spoke up. "He's very close to a number of oddballs at the school. From his metamorph cousin to the loony daughter of the idiot that publishes the Quibbler. I've heard of a few altercations he's had with others over them. And he has an uncanny ability to disappear. The Valentine's debacle left many people confused."
"They have goblin portkeys," Zabini added. "I believe that they used them to escape attention after the second task. They vanished from the dock. And the school wards should have prevented them from doing so with normal ones. While they cannot get you inside of specialised wards like those at the school, they can get something out of them."
The Dark Lord did not reply this time, simply fixing Zabini with his intense gaze for several long moments. Even though he was not under direct observation, Nott could still feel the power of those eyes bearing down just to his right. It was disconcerting, to say the least, but he tried not to let the discomfort show.
"Very well. That will do for the moment." The Dark Lord said, at last, releasing them both from the weight of the stare. Though his powerful presence still pressed on them. "I will consider what you have told me. Go."
There was no glance between them this time. Nott and Zabini rose in unison, though Nott was sure it was only out of a desire to get away from the intense pressure in the air.
Yaxley was behind them when they turned and he scowled at them both as they diverted around him and out through the once again open doorway. Theo didn't know how he felt after that meeting. Or if he ever wanted to be in the Dark Lord's presence again.
One thing was certain, Potter was in for a world of trouble.
ϟ
Thursday, 6th July 1995.
Harry blinked away the sticky sleep residue in his eyes as he finally returned to waking.
He could immediately feel the presence next to him, breathing softly as she slept still. The thick weight of exhaustion was still present over his body, so he wasn't shocked to feel how weak Hermione felt by his side. But as the grogginess left him, he began to note other things.
Like the throbbing tingling feeling running up his left arm. The headache that was pounding through his brain and reverberating off the sides of his skull. The immense hunger of his empty belly. And how incredibly weak his magic felt right now. Both forms of it.
"Stay still, master," Pops said and Harry rolled his head to look at the aged elf standing beside the bed.
Harry tried to speak, but his throat was dry and it took several rough swallows to lubricate it once more. "What happened?" He finally squeaked out.
"You two overdid it again," Nym said from the far end of the bed, though far quieter than he had expected.
Lifting his head slightly, as far as it would go, he could see her sitting in a chair there, just visible over the heavily breathing black lump perched on the end of the bed itself. Sirius's usual place whenever he and Hermione did something foolish that saw them bedridden.
"Did it work though?" He asked, the memory of what they had done playing again in his mind.
Even there, the flash and bang were incredibly powerful, and he no longer wondered why he had a headache.
"Seems like." Nym held up a newspaper and while Harry couldn't read the actual article, the large picture of a pile of smoking Dementors under the massive heading DEMENTORS CAN DIE! certainly conveyed the general meaning well enough. "Bones wants another chat. But so far, you seem to have pulled it off, Shorty."
Harry tried not to roll his eyes at the continued jibe. He had grown quite a few inches over the space of this year. He was sure he'd catch the two up soon.
Harry tried to sit up, but Pops placed his hand on his chest and Harry lacked the energy to beat it for strength.
"Stay still, Master. By order of your parents." Pops stated, giving him a knowing look that Harry had seen many times before.
"You know I could order you to let me up," Harry said, trying to smirk cheekily.
"No you can't," Nym said with a laugh. "Not right now."
Harry allowed himself to fall fully back onto the bed, welcoming its soft embrace around his sore body.
"Yeah, you're right." He wet his lips and mouth once more as he softly tested each of his limbs and muscles. His entire body was sore, but his left arm and head bore the worst of it. "How long have we been asleep?"
"Two days." The nearby painting said, the voice incredibly familiar. "What were you thinking?" Lily demanded.
"Hi Mum," Harry replied. "Nice to see you too."
"Don't be cheeky with me, Harry. You two show up from a meeting at the Ministry, unconscious. Shortly followed by Sirius who had been stunned. And you wouldn't wake for days. Even once Remus roused Sirius, he couldn't hear a word we were saying."
"Actually," Harry said, considering that last part, "how come I can hear you? I can feel the pain in my ears in the memory."
"Because Andi, Pops and Moony have spent the past two days taking care of you both, once we figured out what was wrong with Padfoot." His father said, obviously also in the painting Harry couldn't move his head to see. "We've all been pretty worried."
The more he focused on his body, the more Harry could feel the foreign magic of Andromeda, Remus, Pops, and Tybalt on his own. Especially around his head. It was extremely comforting to know he had such a loving family to take care of him.
"Was anyone else hurt?"
"Almost everyone had to be treated for damage to their eardrums," Nym explained. "Some had bruising from the shockwave and others have minor burns on their exposed skin. Mum has been at the hospital almost the entire time. I think she's going to have a rogering to deliver all of her own once she's free again. Care to explain exactly what it is you two did?"
"We channelled the energy for the patronus spell into the storm clouds," Hermione said, clearly having come around beside him as they talked.
Harry just gingerly slid his hand across the sheet until he found hers and entwined their fingers together. The gentle squeeze he got in return was more comforting than all the words she might have said.
"The dementors' permanent presence over the prison had already left massive storm clouds there. We intentionally imbalanced the charges in the clouds and the dementors. Leading a discharge path to the ground. Nature did the rest." Harry finished.
"You made a patronus lightning bolt?" Lily asked, surprised at the audacity of the idea. "No wonder everyone was stunned. A few of those closest to your little wall had flash burns over any exposed skin."
"Sorry. We didn't really have time to hash out the details with everybody first. The shield was struggling under so many dementors."
"We could feel it was close to giving way in a few spots," Hermione replied, finally blinking open her eyes as well. "If the dementors got inside, we'd have been in a lot more trouble than sore ears and eyes."
"Expecto patronum," Nym said from the end of the bed, and Harry saw Nip appear, sitting on Sirius's still sleeping form. "Go tell mum it was a lightning bolt. That should help with Felger and Reynolds."
The wee fox gave a short nod before it whisked through the roof and off to St Mungo's, at least Harry assumed that was where it was headed.
"What happened to them?" Hermione asked.
"They were looking directly at the point of impact. Reynolds can still see shapes, but Felger is getting nothing but darkness. Now we know what caused the damage, maybe they can fix it." Nym replied.
Harry immediately felt a wash of guilt. In attempting to save his protectors, he had inadvertently harmed them himself.
"Stop looking so mopey," Nym smirked. "Both are happy to have their lives. They both admitted they were on the verge of collapse when your spell struck. Seems you two were right that the shield was about to fail."
"I still feel bad," Harry replied. "We should have been more careful. Planned better before going. Or put up some kind of proper barrier between us and the impact site."
Hermione squeezed his hand silently and Harry fell quiet, rolling his stiff head to look in her direction. She held his gaze but did not speak. She didn't need to. He could tell she was trying to will him to stop taking the blame onto himself. That she was just as responsible as him and that what they did saved many lives today. Possibly hundreds if the warning worked as they had hoped. Thankfully the newspaper had already spread the word for them.
He let out a slightly petulant breath before he nodded.
"Fine. I'll try not to feel guilty." He replied, before considering the paper in Nym's hand again. "It doesn't mention us by name does it?"
Nym smirked at him and lifted the paper. "In response to the breakout, the Ministry dispatched a large force of Aurors and Unspeakables to assess the damage and identify the escapees. While on-site, a pair of specialists worked with the Unspeakables to attempt this new magic on the remaining dementors present. Saul Croaker of the Department of Mysteries had the following to say: 'We are quite pleased with the results of the new spell. For generations, our kind have lived in fear of the dementors. At long last, we've got a way to truly fight back against their evil, instead of pushing them back and resorting to holing them all up in one place. Finally, we can bring the fight to them.' Further information is unavailable as to who developed this new spell, or the identities of the specialists involved. But the public can rest easy knowing that those renegade dementors that left the prison before the assault are living on borrowed time..."
"I suppose that is for the best."
Harry noticed Hermione glancing at everyone arranged around them. All the elves were watching them closely, evidently prepared to prevent them from attempting to cast any magic. And Remus had arrived in the doorway, presumably drawn by the sounds of voices in the room. They'd not had such a large audience upon waking since Hermione's prior record-setting attempt at the Challenge. Although, Harry had been among those gathered around worried that time.
"So…" She asked, "what happens now?"
Lily gave the girl a soft glare, and Harry tried not to smile at the soft spot his mother had developed for Hermione. He could still recall the first time he had brought Hermione to the Manor, and the livid look on his mum's face. Now, she never could stay mad at his girlfriend. She was too inquisitive. Too much like Lily had been herself back when she was their age.
"You two will remain here until Andi gives you the all-clear," Lily explained. "We already have your wands, and Pops and Tybalt will be keeping a constant watch to ensure you don't use any elf magic. From what she could tell while you 'slept', that spell took a lot out of the both of you."
"And you will cooperate if you still want Longbottom to visit next week," James added, a knowing look on his face as he watched them both.
Harry knew that his father would have already been looking for ways to subvert the decree if it were him. But Harry was quite happy to spend a few days resting with Hermione. The past few weeks had been somewhat hectic. And there wasn't much else they could do until someone figured out where the next anchor might be.
He took another deep breath, feeling a little better than when he had first woken. He rolled on his side, barely strong enough to do so until he felt his body gently thud against the other body in the bed. His free arm wrapped around Hermione and she gave a soft sound of approval as the two snuggled together.
"Fine. We'll stay put." He said, making sure to sound put out when in reality there was nowhere he'd rather be right now.
He didn't need to see Nym to know that she was making a suggestive face at the end of the bed. But it seemed his father felt the need to voice his mischievous nature.
"That's off the table too. Far too strenuo…uch. Lils!"
Harry smiled. If they were back to their usual good-natured prodding, then no one was overly worried about their state. They would recover soon enough. But for now, rest sounded very good.
ϟ
Friday, 7th July 1995.
A/N: Violent crime scene gore warning.
Amelia stepped gingerly through the room, glad she had been at this job for a long time now.
The contents of the room had already sent three of her Aurors outside to vomit in revulsion. And she did have to consider whether it was a good thing to have become inured to such sights. As she reached the table, the smell did become a little overpowering, but a quick bubblehead charm solved that problem.
She was hardly the only one wearing one in the space. But it was a very bad idea to vomit inside of a bubblehead charm. It was not designed to handle viscous substances passing through it.
Amelia sighed as she looked into the dead eyes of Bartemius Crouch Snr. Despite the fact the man's head no longer resided on its body, the man bore a look of distinct satisfaction. Most bodies in this state were frozen in a look of horror. But Barty had achieved something that pleased him greatly in his final moments by the looks of things.
Bagman, on the other hand, was the more typical example. His head remained on his shoulders, but the extremely large hole in his upper torso was responsible for a portion of the gore now splattered across the dining room. It also left his head and shoulders on a garish lean as the material that had once supported them had been dispersed onto other surfaces.
His face showed the terror of his final moments as the poor man had struggled to breathe through lungs that were no longer there.
"Boss." A familiar deep baritone said from behind her, and Amelia paused for only a moment longer to pay her respects to her former colleagues. She still had a job to do.
"Shack." She acknowledged as she stood up and looked at the large man. "Thoughts?"
"According to the Masks, Barty seems to have poisoned Junior. Junior took it badly."
"Any idea how Junior made it out of Azkaban yet?" Judging by the state of the room, this had occurred before the recent mass breakout. Junior had clearly been free for a while. "This looks too old to have been after the attack."
Shack shook his head. "Fairly sure this lot took that secret to their grave. Add this to the trouble on that island already…"
"Tell me about it. Croaker." Amelia acknowledged her fellow Department Head as they approached.
There was a small vial in his hands that was mostly empty, but the viscous, almost see-through green liquid within seemed strangely familiar to her.
"Bones. Quite the mess." Croaker replied, indicating the quite literal mess around them that would be even harder to clean up figuratively. Vanishing spells would handle the viscera nicely, but this was going to be a nightmare to deal with.
Two dead Department Heads who had been missing for weeks, and behaving erratically before that. A deceased escaped prisoner who had supposedly died in Azkaban almost a decade ago. And what appeared to be the remains of a house-elf. Whatever happened here, she was sure it was related to the Triwizard Tournament. Albus had been right that something was off about Barty.
"Have you lot been able to trace the order of events?"
"Mostly. The house wards kept things pretty well protected, so the magic didn't have a chance to decay yet. Seems Barty had used his position to get his hands on some rare resources." Croaker held up the tiny vial, but he did not shake it. A sign of its inherent danger, as normally he'd have made a show of such an action. "Basilisk venom."
"Great," Amelia said with a suppressed groan. "Class A. What were you doing Barty?"
"He was doing whatever he was told for some time now," Croaker replied. "Residue shows he's been under the Imperius for months. Ludo too."
"So we've found our hole in the Tournament?" Shack queried.
"Seems the most likely. If not them, then…" Croaker left the sentence unfinished. They all knew what it meant if these two weren't the ones pulling the strings however their puppeteer desired.
"How did Barty get Junior to drink that if he was under?" Bones asked.
"Even if Junior was controlling him, he was still the head of his house. His word would be law to the elf. Telling her to dose the lad and forbidding her to tell him… could work. Would only take a couple of moments of lucidity to pull it off." Croaker theorized. "But we probably won't ever be sure.
"According to his wand, once the venom started taking effect, Junior snapped. What you see here is the result of his dying tantrum. Seven blasting curses, two severing charms and a particularly nasty curse on the poor elf. She exploded after the others had already expired."
"Can you pinpoint the time?" Bones asked.
"Night of the Third Task would be my bet. Seems Junior was sitting here waiting for something when Barty executed his own little plan. Venom was in all four cups. My guess is he wanted to end it all and cover his shame. I'll wager he is the one who sprung Junior from Azkaban."
"Why do you think that?" Shack asked.
"Downstairs. A nice and cozy little prison cell. Bed, bucket, invisibility cloak. I think Junior's been down there since his escape. Held captive by his own father. Why, I can't say. But if you lot hadn't called us in to break through the wards, they probably would have just sat here for months. Slowly rotting away."
This was another disaster that she did not have the time to manage right now. If Barty had been able to walk his son out of Azkaban, who else had been set free from their supposedly escape-proof prison? The man wasn't even a part of the DMLE anymore by the time that Junior was thought to have died. Would it serve anything to have someone look into why the man was allowed to visit the prison unaccompanied after all these years?
Regardless, it was evident that they had become lazy in their management of the island prison. They had trusted absolutely in the Dementors to keep the inmates inside. The on-site Aurors were barely involved in the operation of the facility. And now they had paid dearly for that mistake, twice over.
Amelia looked down at Barty's smirk once more. His head was all that remained intact now and she didn't have to ask where most of those blasting curses had gone.
She could recall having it out with the man several times during her tenure. He had left quite a few landmines in her archive. She could believe that he could do what Croaker was theorising. The man was an enigma. As straight-laced as could be to an outside observer, but underneath the perfectly trimmed moustache and the pompous attitude, he was a very different man.
His gradual fall from grace had not been pretty. Still, he had not deserved this fate. No one did. Except perhaps Riddle.
Now the stubborn bastard had taken valuable answers to his grave. It seemed she was doomed to continue cleaning up other people's messes.
"Keep me posted." She said, turning away from the carnage.
Right now, she needed to do something nice to clean away the hellscape in her mind. It was high time she popped over to see the rest of the family. Susan always had a way of helping her through these ones. Not that she'd ever tell the girl anything of what she has seen on the job. But being near such innocence helped to prove that the world wasn't all this horrid crap.
She sighed once again and mumbled on her way out the door. "I wish this was the worst of what's to come."