A/N: Hello people and thank you so much for your support!
A big thanks to my Betas and Discord Staff - Alec, Fox, Hindu Hari, Knight, Letus, Metzger, BaptismByFire, Post Mortem and Zevoros!
Special thanks to Discord users: 5Firehawk, Guiding Moonlights, Kovacs, Dr Maou-Senpai, Post Mortem, Denduck, Wumjumba, Ac, R3, Shirokama, TrustTube, Zachary, JDH, Avatar, CJ07, Echoh, Elizabeth Wilbrooke, Jacks_, Kappe, Kryn_Womble, Mr. E, Pat, Plut0, Presno, Shawnjohn120 and Trop C'est Trop for supporting my writing and commissioning works!
Feel free to join my Discord for updates, giveaways (for those who actively chat), early access and information, link on my profile. Without any more rambling from me, I hope you enjoy the story!
(Sorry if you don't like the work!)
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE KIND REVIEWS. We now get so many that it's impossible to respond to all of them, but each and every one of you taking the time to speak your support mean the world to me. Please, by all means, speak with me in Discord!
"Got some angry cousins, haven't you, Pev?" Aster called to him over the roar of the spells and their effects, loud as they were below ground.
Harry fired off a spell that clipped the left leg of the nearest of the three they were fighting with, the action causing the man's knee to turn itself around and as a result, making the man trip; he was quick to follow that up with a killing curse, instantly finishing the life of one of Grindelwald's followers.
"They're not my cousins, just more of Grindelwald's barmy followers. I don't know what they're doing using my sigil, but that ends tonight, just like the bulk of their lives," Harry called back to his friend before he dove to the left, a green curse only narrowly missing his chest. "Aster — down!"
Aster dropped to the ground not a moment too soon, for had he responded a split second later, he would have been felled by a purple curse that Harry recognised as a heart-stopper. It was possible to counter-act the archaic cousin of the killing curse, but under fire as he was, the odds that Harry could dispatch the two seemingly expert wizards before Aster's time would have run out weren't incredibly high.
Thankfully, that need not happen and unfortunately for those evildoers, Harry would now kick the fight up a notch. He had hoped to take one captive for the sake of questioning on account of their skills and attire, but if it meant risking his life or Aster's, that wouldn't happen. They would have to be killed, both of them, and so Harry surged forward. He would keep Aster safe and engage the two with every ounce of his power, for neither would truly be a match to him if he'd defeated the likes of Grindelwald alongside Elaine.
Harry summoned a bit of wood, that piece of debris then absorbed two curses, one of which was a familiar sickly green that more often than not had haunted his dreams. When those two spells were dealt with and the next volley impacted his shield, barely cracking it, he banished it towards the two and dove to his left. One of them was immediately on the ground, the piece of wood stuck in their torso whilst the other tried to match Harry's move, but they were slower.
Whoever was a reactionary in a fight would always be a moment or so behind the person initiating combat and as a result of that, Harry was able to seize the fight's initiative. Aster joined the fight then, his wand a blur alongside Harry as the two pressed the person before them. Spell after spell after spell the two young wizards fired, each one only just deflected or absorbed by summoned pieces of cover and it looked as if the person before them was nearly ready to flee as their spells lightened up on account of exertion.
Thanks to his wits, however, Harry had feigned a higher degree of exhaustion and when the person made to break contact to rid themselves of the fight, that was when Harry struck. One spell broke the person's shield and while they went about recasting it, Harry transfigured the ground around their feet so that they were stuck where they stood. Aster, meanwhile, kept up the offensive and halted the person from removing Harry's transfigured foot cuffs.
They could no longer flee, whoever it was that was using his sigil, and so the two boys went to work against the man or woman they faced. Gradually, they wore the person down and whilst Harry feared the fights elsewhere would be over in the process, by the time the person was defeated, their wand in Harry's hand, the sound of combat was still roaring up above.
As for that disarmed person, he bid Aster cuff them and ensure there was nothing else on their person. Whilst his friend did that, Harry peaked down at the hole whence Reinhard and Kevin went. There was still nothing from the other two men, and as he huffed, deep in thought, it was then that a head appeared.
There was a girl, a very young girl that looked no more than twelve, and she was crawling up the hole with another person appearing behind her. It was another person that looked young as she did, and as the two continued, a third joined them. On and on it seemed to go and in response, Harry widened his end of the tunnel so that more people could make it out. Still, even having done that, he was cautious.
He wouldn't put it past the followers of Grindelwald to potion themselves to look younger or less threatening. It would be a vile thing to do, but no more so than many of the crimes that they had committed whilst serving under Grindelwald… the man who may not truly be dead if Mortem wasn't pulling his leg. He doubted 'she' was too, there wasn't any reason for a higher power such as 'herself' to lie to him.
"We've secured the captives," called Reinhard's voice from below. "There's a few that are gone — torture. We can't get them without it taking a great deal of time, what do you think?"
Harry replied almost instantly, wincing as he did so. "Leave them. Get those that are still here and then come up yourselves. We need to leave, we need to leave very fast and get them somewhere safe. I don't know how it's looking up above or with the rest of our team, but Aster and I were just attacked by three fairly powerful followers of Grindelwald."
Reinhard made a noise of affirmation and then he seemed to go back to what he was doing, vanishing from Harry's line of sight. Harry willed his friend to be safe and then he turned back to Aster as the first few people began to come up, most of them in tattered clothes or with dirt covering their faces or skin.
"Make sure the bloke's tied up and out cold. We don't want him trying anything. As soon as the rest of the captives are up here with us, we'll get them out of here and you along with Reinhard will see them off. One of you will take our friend here with you too, just to make sure somebody I can trust has their eye on him," Harry paused to pull a particularly young boy up and out of the tunnel, then he turned back to Aster. "I don't want either of you trying to do anything stupid mate, we've come way too far these past few months, yeah?"
"Yeah, yeah, nothing stupid. Don't worry about me, Pev, I'm not a hero. Reinhard, he fancies himself one but we're not Aurors like these other guys are. We've barely even gone through any of the training, Merlin knows we could cut and run if something bad happens," Aster winked when he said that, but Harry didn't really believe his friend. Aster fancied himself as a coward and strategist, but when push came to shove, he was one of the boldest among Elaine's entire group. Anybody would be lucky to have a friend or partner like Aster and thankfully, Harry was.
"Only another five to go, Deputy Director," Kevin called up from below, his voice barely echoing through the tunnels once it made it up to Harry and Aster.
Harry called back a 'thanks' and to make it go as quickly as it could, the battle still providing an eery backdrop to their humanitarian efforts. He didn't know who was winning, if anybody really was winning or what the losses were looking like. McMacson for his part should have been down here in the tunnels on the safer assignment, but thus far, there was no sign of any member of the other man's group. That didn't fill Harry with confidence, not in the slightest.
The fact that his other seven weren't he— he paused and pushed to the front of the group when he heard a series of people running. His wand was already up and Aster, for his part, aided him by casting a shield before Harry even whilst he stayed right beside their captive. There was a group of people coming and Harry on his own would be very hard-pressed to win the fight should one come to fruition.
"Wait!" Said the first person around the bend, their hands up and their face splashed with specks of blood. "It's me, Junior Auror Clarence, Deputy Director."
Harry blinked a few times at the younger man before he motioned him forward along with the other four members of the group; they were missing two and a couple of their numbers looked bloodied, that wasn't lost on Harry. "Clarence, what happened to the Senior Auror I assigned to lead your group? I would have expected somebody as new as you to be towards the rear."
"He's de— gone, sir," Clarence said with no small amount of emotion in his voice, but he had caught himself before he said dead before the many children that were now behind Harry. "We ran into a half-dozen or so of Grindelwald's followers, sir. They're gone too, all of them, but we lost two of our own. We tried coming back down here to get to you to make sure you were safe, but this place is a bloody maze. We're finally here though — how can we help?"
Two more dead under my watch… I'm not sure I'm cut out for this type of work. No, I can't doubt myself now, not while we're this far into a mess and there's much more of it to deal with.
"Help me see this group to safety, and then you lot will be coming with me. We need to help our brothers and sisters up above where they're fighting the bulk of the forces," Harry paused and then looked around at the five Aurors before him, not one was higher than a regular old Auror rank. "Have any of you seen Director McMacson or anybody from his group? We haven't seen him down here and he was meant to be joining us."
There was a chorus of 'no' or other variations of the answer in response to Harry's question and most of them had even shaken their heads in response. That wasn't very good, not at all, but there was much and more to worry about at the present.
"Alright," Harry said as he clasped his hands together before his person. "We're going to get a move on in the next minute or so. We've found the captives, all of them, and we need to see them to safety. I want three of you in the back with Reinhard and Kevin, the most wounded of you should go there. You other two, Clarence and whoever else is fine, you'll be with me and Aster in the front. I need you two to be right behind Aster and I as we lead the group to safety. Once we're out, most of you will be leaving with the prisoner and the captives we've rescued. Clear?"
All of them nodded, Clarence gave an enthusiastic 'clear' in response and not more than thirty seconds later, that plan was put into action. It took half as long to leave the vast tunnel network as it had to navigate to where they'd ended up, and before too long, they were up and out of the dank tunnels and on their way through the sole path they hadn't touched; the one that led to an exit in the woods.
Harry hadn't wanted to take all of those they'd come to rescue through the heat of battle where they could very likely get wounded themselves and so he chose the path that was still unknown to the group he'd taken with him. It could be dangerous, loaded with traps or with people waiting to ambush them, and that was why he had placed himself in the very front of their group as it moved. The tunnels were thin, barely wide enough for two people to walk together, and so should anything happen, it would fall to him to see them through.
It was a challenge he could easily rise up to and one that he would for the sake of all of them. He couldn't and wouldn't allow anybody else to be harmed so long as he drew breath.
That promise and the alertness that it fit him with was the reason he found the first trap nearly halfway through the tunnel — he could tell it was nearly halfway due to the light that he was getting closer to, for the moon was out and brighter than ever. As for the trap, it was nought but a simple tripwire that would have seen him skewered by a series of spikes, all of which had angry markings carved into them that gave off a barely visible purple glow.
When that was dealt with, he motioned the group onwards after carefully transfiguring the ground to ensure the trap could no longer harm him or his. Next, nearly at the very exit itself, he saw the second and likely final trap that laid in wait for the unfortunate people who had to use it to pass. It was, again, a tripwire, only this time when he looked for what it did, he noticed that it eventually led to the ceiling. Carefully, he removed the illusion that had been placed and revealed a large net that had dozens of large, heavy rocks.
Unlike the sticks that had runes carved onto them, the rocks themselves seemed to be runes, meaning they would hit especially hard and vicious should they connect with somebody. Again, that was far from good, and so he carefully disarmed the trap by way of transfiguring the harmful effects so that they could do nothing on account of the containment he placed around them.
Finally, he pushed away the door of the exit and replaced the rope with a ladder, one that was freshly made so that all could escape from the labyrinth's more 'official' looking tunnel.
One by one, the Aurors in the front with Aster included exited, ensuring that outside of the tunnel was safe. As soon as that was ascertained, he started urging the nearly three dozen captives they'd rescued out, starting with the children, then the elderly and working his way from there. He saw to it that all of them were out, and then he was left with the prisoner, Kevin, Reinhard and the three Aurors he'd sent to the back.
"Reinhard, would you take the captive up?" He asked his friend with a smile, hoping the older boy wouldn't object to being sent up before the others.
To be fair to Harry, Reinhard nearly did raise some form of objection, but he huffed and threw the much smaller man over his shoulder as if he were a satchel for Hogwarts. He climbed quickly and with ease even if there was a person clinging to him, and before too long, he was equally as gone as Aster and the others. Next went the three Aurors from the team of seven he had sent on an opposite path when McMacson's group had failed to show. Finally, it was only him and Kevin.
"You fi—" Harry dove to the side and pulled Kevin with him.
There, behind them and leaping from the shadows as if they'd been waiting to strike, were four wizards and witches. Harry couldn't tell which of their number were male or female, but he knew that they were more of Grindelwald's followers that enjoyed perverting his sigil… or rather, the one that he had taken in this time.
"Go!" He shouted to Kevin as he cast a shield and transfigured himself cover, the former action silently and without his wand. "I'll buy you guys some time — get the people we saved out of here, the wounded too, then you can worry about coming back to help me."
"I can't lea—" Kevin started, but Harry interrupted even as he sent a series of spells at the four attackers whilst defending the two of them at the same time.
"That's an order, we need to make sure they're safe, all of them. I'll be fine, don't you worry about me, yeah?" Harry staggered backwards when an explosion sent debris through his shield and caused a few pebbles to sink into the top layers of his skin. "Go, Kevin!"
The older man looked extremely hesitant, but with one last look at Harry and a shake of his head, clearly upset at the circumstances, he left. Harry smiled even while he faced his enemies, thankful that he'd saved everybody that he had wanted to. Mortem wouldn't let him die here, she couldn't… but she did say that they wouldn't speak again until he fell and that he had altered the world a good deal already.
Perhaps now was the time that he would come to rest. It would be too soon for his liking, far too soon.
I've only just begun to truly settle in and this peace, the world's beautiful with it even if there are still these terrorists that follow after Grindelwald's failed teachings… If now's my time, I'll have to make them pay for it. All four of them.
Harry blew apart the ladder he'd made behind him with a quick cast over his shoulder; it did more than he wanted, collapsing the only exit he had. Now, with nothing to worry about behind him, he devoted himself to what lay before him; four of Grindelwald's followers that were just as skilled as the three he had faced alongside Aster. It would be a good fight, a challenging one, but he'd be damned if he didn't make them pay for every foot they took towards him.
Harry summoned a piece of stone, one that had broken off from the explosion he'd caused behind him and banished it as quickly as he could in the direction of the closest person to him. It sped at the person, but before it could make impact one of the man's friends intercepted it with a banished build-up of dirt and stones to force it off course. When Harry saw that, he fired off a fresh round of curses, holding nothing back this time around.
He fired a killing curse, and then he sent off another half dozen with other curses intermingled; one would stop their heart, another would liquefy their brain, another would cause all of their veins and arteries to spill open, one of the nastiest he knew and that he'd picked up from Elaine would even cause immediate necrosis across the entirety of their body.
It was that lattermost curse that finally connected with one of the four attackers he had come up against; the second of their number, one that was larger than the other three. He had dove to the left to avoid one of Harry's killing curses and the young man had predicted that, the larger man had done the same, but it was a race and one that he couldn't win due to his size.
He was dead, his skin turning all sorts of colours before it fell off of his bones and turned into a mess on the ground, nought but his bones remaining whole. After that, the spells they were throwing at him turned more serious, but again, they didn't seem to be deadly on their own.
They want me alive, Harry realised then, finally understanding that he was the one with the advantage if they weren't willing to kill him.
"Surrender," Harry called out while his wand was a blur and spells flowed freely through it in the direction of the three still-advancing followers of Grindelwald. "Surrender and let yourselves be spared."
One of them, a lithe woman by the size of her and the feminine groan she made when one of his bombarda's struck near enough to take a small chunk of her leg, stopped. She didn't seem as ready as the two that were before her to die for the cause. It was that or shock had very quickly set in. He didn't wait to find out which it was and so he fired off another volley at her friends and whilst they were distracted, he stunned the woman. That was one more of the four now dealt with, leaving Harry in a two-on-one, but the two that remained were easily the best two he had seen since the battle itself.
They had to have worked together for a very long time based on how they moved and covered one another. He would nearly have one dead to rights, their shield broken and body exposed, but the other would come to their rescue and try as he might, he was but one person against two that were nearly his equals; he realised this must have been how Grindelwald felt when the man had gone against both Elaine and him at the same time, only these two weren't as gifted as he and Elaine were.
Even if they weren't quite as good as he and his eventual wife would be, they were decent enough that he was finally starting to run out of gas. The earlier fight in which he'd kept Aster safe, dealing with the traps and taking all four on at once, it was difficult and truly, the closer they got, the harder it was to dodge or absorb their curses.
Harry knew there was only one option that he had left lest he got overwhelmed by the two fighters before him, and so he looked up, at the dirt ceiling. It was firm and packed well by whoever had dug the tunnels, but it took one well-placed and strong spell to cancel out all of the work that had gone into it. Thus far, nobody had been crazy enough to seriously try and collapse the ceiling, nobody was that suicidal, but if they made it right on top of him, he would have to do just that.
He tried another volley; killing curse, stunner, stunner, killing curse, bombarda and to top it all off, he tried transfiguring and animating a series of small birds to stick into them, but that was intricate and took much of the energy that he had left. Each of his curses was deflected or absorbed just as he'd done to them, even his bombarda was deflected, the curse sent sailing down whence he'd came with his friends and rescued captives, the only true salvation he had were the birds as they pecked incessantly at the enemies before him.
One by one, they too were dealt with, but they provided him with an opening; only one of the two before him was still advancing whilst the partner was left dealing with Harry's creations. That was all the chance he needed, and so he sent a series of dirt towards them, blinding the person before his stunner struck them square in the chest. He wasn't done just there, however, and so he sent an illusionary spell at the person that was the same green as the killing curse. If he was lucky, the partner would think their friend or what have you was dead and attempt to flee, allowing Harry a better shot at them.
That wasn't the case.
When that 'curse' struck the unmoving body of the person, the final enemy that remained fire a killing curse of their own at Harry and he had all he could do to fall to the ground, and when he did, a bombarda went off before him, blowing away his cover. Just as he'd done to the person he'd just knocked down, the dirt blinded him and while he attempt to clear his vision — a shield summoned in the meantime — he felt a hand grabbing for his wand and contesting his control over it.
He couldn't allow that final person control over his wand or his person. If they wanted him alive, he'd rather die, but really, he'd rather they die over him. He'd already handled three of them as it was too and as such, he'd feel awful even in the afterlife if he fell to the final attacker.
Harry used his left hand and punched at the person, catching them in the face and sending them to the ground alongside him. They clearly hadn't expected the punch and in all fairness, he hadn't expected to throw it, but going Muggle was just about the only thing he had left that he could employ to save himself.
There was another feminine grunt, deeper and more pain-filled than the person he'd wounded earlier. In response to his hit, he felt her other hand begin clawing at his face, the immediate oozing of blood from his cheek where her nails connected was obvious, but before she made it to his eye, he rolled them over with his superior bodyweight. This person wouldn't be used to fighting the way that Muggles did unless they were similar to him but based on their size which worked against them in a straight-up duel of strength and surprised reaction at being punched, they weren't like him at all.
He went limp on top of the woman, allowing his much greater weight to rest fully on her and he could hear the gasping sounds she made as she struggled to breathe with him pressing down on her. Her hand that had been struggling for his wand left, instead going up with her other to grab at his neck or face or even his chest as she punched at him. That was the opening he needed and so he pressed his wand into her side, stunning her.
Finally, with that handled, he cleaned his vision and cast a lumos so that he could see down the corridor. The large man was still unmoving, dead where he'd fallen, and the other two figures further down were also where he'd left them, but the lithe woman from earlier was trying to crawl away. He saw her leg and how it was all bloodied with blood still freely flowing from it. There was a portion of him that wanted to let her die, but he didn't.
Harry wasn't evil, he wouldn't let a person bleed out for the sake of it, not if they could face a truer sense of justice… she was young too, very young, perhaps even his age and to let somebody die so early without knowing the extent of their deeds wasn't right of him to do. He stunned her, he summoned her to him, and then he stopped her bleeding.
When that was finished, he made sure the three were bound and then he fell to the ground. The battle was still waging up above but his fight was over. He had dealt with four very skilled fighters, far more so than the last raid, and that was enough for him, at least until he had a good rest.
The dirt was comfortable enough as his eyes began to droop and his body began to force him to rest.
Yes, it would be just fine.
His eyes shut and refused to open again, and finally, darkness claimed him.
When Harry woke up with a start and gasped for air, he saw two figures standing above him. Both were very obviously men based on their figures and instinctively, he reached for his wand, finding it still in his grasp.
"Woah there mate, calm down," Aster said, the boy's face unblurring when he crouched down to look at Harry. "Reinhard and I came back for you the moment we could, you were out when we found you, but it can't have been more than five or ten minutes. Looks like you took out four of Grindelwald's best too — good on you, Pev."
"The others? They're all good? How's the battle looking?" Harry launched a series of questions at his friends as he began to stand, one large hand from Reinhard helping him to his feet in the process.
"We're winning, but the fight's still ongoing. Everybody else is safe too, Kev was going to lead a couple of the healthy boys back, but I reckon this is the end of your fight. You look half-dead," Aster steadied him and looked back at the three figures tied up and still unconscious. "We should take them in, the three of us."
Harry shook his head. "We can lead them out and send them back, but we should rejoin the fight if it's still going on. McMacson too, where is he?"
Reinhard and Aster each shrugged, but it was the latter that spoke. "No clue. We didn't see him when we were out there and the few people we ran into that were being evacuated for their wounds, they hadn't seen him either. There's no need to worry though, Pev, I'm sure he's fine."
I certainly hope he is, he's got some explaining to do as to why he didn't follow through with the plan.
"Let's get these three out of here, and then we can go look for him or anybody from his group," Harry said as he finally came to, the blurriness of his vision and the fog in his head clearing up as he looked at the three unconscious women. "Careful with them too, they're dangerous and I haven't had the chance to search them quite yet."
Aster snorted. "No shite they're dangerous, they're wearing those robes that his best did. It was probably the lot of them that lead this group."
Harry nodded to himself a few times and then chuckled when he looked at Reinhard, the large boy tossing two of the three women over his shoulders. "I'll get the last one and Aster can lead us out," he said when he saw that.
That decided, the three men headed out once more where the exit had previously been, intent on ridding themselves of their captives before they went, again, back into the fray. If they were lucky, they would be able to avoid the battle itself or getting involved with it, especially with how exhausted Harry felt — McMacson or rather, his whereabouts, were the priority.
If they weren't lucky, they would join the fight to turn the tide of the battle should it have shifted against them. Ultimately, whatever happened, Harry was confident the result would be the same; a resounding Auror victory with — hopefully — minimalistic losses that would be irretrievable.
They all knew that wouldn't be the case with this being the largest and easily the most fortified, ready position, but they could always hope.
"Done," Aster said with a huff as he rested against a nearby birch tree. "Three captives was a bit overboard, wasn't it, mate? It's not likely that any of the three will speak, but even then, the trouble of making sure all three were out safely… it had to be pretty dangerous, yeah?"
Harry shrugged. "One of them looked about ready to surrender when I took her out, the other two weren't, but I figured if they're as good as they are, they'll know more than the typical fighter currently against the rest of our Aurors. It made sense to me to take the lot of them if I could, especially when I noticed they weren't trying to kill me."
"Worth more alive than dead, it's as simple as that," Reinhard said as he moved Aster from the tree and nodded back whence they came, Harry falling into step alongside the much larger boy after watching that transpire.
"Maybe," Harry said back to his larger friend. "Maybe not. Maybe they've got some sort of ulterior motive that none of us know about, and if that's the case, if there's something they're keeping as a secret, we'll find out. We can make them talk, and if we can't, somebody in the department can."
Reinhard grinned at the prospect, Aster looked uneasy, but he recognised the importance of the information they may just possess.
"Elaine will have a crack at them if all of us fail, but I reckon that won't be the case, will it, Reinhard?" Harry asked, his voice dropping to a whisper as they got nearer to the still ongoing battle; it raged on with more intensity as if the forces had each rallied and started anew.
"No," the larger boy said with a shake of his head and a roll of his neck, his quiet voice still intimidating as ever when Reinhard thought of violence, fighting or anything else in which he'd get to use his favourite hobbies. "I'll get one of them to talk, I can promise you that, Pev."
That was all Harry needed to hear and truth be told, he hoped it was the one that seemed about ready to surrender to him. She had seemed hesitant, almost as if her heart wasn't half as dark and twisted as that of her cohorts. If that were the case, there was hope for her yet… but if it was cowardice instead of genuine hesitance or remorse, she would be dealt with all the same.
You're not brave when you only try to save your own skin, you're only brave when you're willing to accept fault for what you've done. Justice can then be given and once it's done, only then could there be some sort of hope for rehabilitation. Harry was hopeful that many of the captives they'd rescued could enjoy the justice he would bring to their tormentors, he would see to it that all of them had what they needed as soon as he could. In the meantime, there was a Director to search for as well as the man's missing team.
"Aster, you helped draw up the plans — do you remember where McMacson or his team would have roughly started out? We should check back at that location and if he's not present nor anybody from his team, we'll have to follow through with the rest of their assignment to see where they got hung up and what it was that did them in," Harry finished with another look around after he spoke to his friend, his mind far more paranoid now that it was only the three of them; Kevin and the other two, Harry had decided they would stay in cover and hidden in the event that more captives were found.
"I think I do, yeah," Aster said after scratching his head and swatting at a mosquito that had just had its fill of him. "We'll have to move a good hundred or so meters towards that cluster of trees with the big one poking a few meters above the rest. That was meant to be where they started and if something happened, where they fell back to with prepared positions… are you sure the three of us should go alone though? If something managed to delay all of them, what're the odds three young blokes like us could handle it?"
Reinhard huffed, clearly unimpressed with his friend's tendency to worry. "We have Pev, the man known for killing Grindelwald, and then we have me and my—" Reinhard flexed, showing his arms off with a grin "—Muscles. I'll be stronger than any of the fools we fight now that Pev's dealt with the best of them. You can stay in the back and make sure we don't get snuck up on while Harry and I handle the front."
Harry nodded a few times. Reinhard was relatively strong, magically speaking, and he was definitely very strong when it came to the physical side of strength. Sure, the larger man was a bit overconfident or cocky at times, but he had reason to be when he could trounce nearly every person they'd gone to school with.
"It's decided then," Harry said with a clap of his hands. "We'll go to where they were — cast disillusionment charms on yourselves before we go, and stick to the treeline or a good few meters inside of it. We don't want to get bogged down in the event that they need our help. As quickly as we can, we'll make our way to that spot and if they're not there, we'll figure something else out."
Aster and Reinhard made noises or gestures of affirmation and just like that, the trio was moving, thoroughly invisible to the naked eye. Just as Harry had said too, the trio kept within the boundaries of the forest, careful to avoid any unwanted attention as they moved along. It was hard to do, the sounds of battle and the cries of people struck could never truly be filtered out, but McMacson was simply a priority. The man was the Director of the Auror Department and within his mind was knowledge unparallelled. Even Elaine wasn't certain of everything that the man knew or the connections in which he had with the politicians of the wizarding world, and that was saying something.
"Careful," Harry heard Reinhard whisper, the boy's comment directed at their friend, Aster, who seemed to brush against a bush instead of avoiding it.
That wasn't overly vital, but the caution that Reinhard was using and urging Aster to use was welcomed. The more they avoided giving off any signs, the better it would be for them and their chances of reaching McMacson's last known position. Slowly, with that in mind, those hundred or so meters dwindled, with every ten or so making the trio stop to ensure nothing was trailing them.
Finally, when they were nearly at the very small clearing McMacson had started in, they noticed there was nothing. There was no sign of the man or his team, no sign of violence or spellfire, no signs of a battle or a struggle, nor even signs of them having been in their position to start with.
Harry ensured the trio were in a circle so tight that their backs were touching and once that was set up, he looked around more intently and ordered the other two to do the same. What he saw on that second gander was much the same as what he'd seen initially; nothing. There was, simply put, no sign of their presence currently nor previously, and that set off another string of profanities within his mind.
"Nothing," Aster whispered so quietly that the word barely floated over to Harry.
They waited for Reinhard now, the boy tended to be the least observant and so it was normal for him to respond last in a game of perce—
"Tracks," Reinhard said suddenly, his voice slightly louder than Aster's had been. "Whoever had been moving there, before they joined with the rest of the team, hadn't hidden their tracks all that well."
"They could've been snuck up on then. That would explain why they never met us in the tunnels, they're probably somewhere else in the woods or in that big old Muggle building fighting it out," Aster piped up.
Harry had to agree with him one way or the other, for something had definitely happened to the group, that was the only way they wouldn't have met up with Harry's own group. McMacson could be late or unprofessional at times, similar to the Weasley Twins had been to some degree, but when it came time to be serious and embody that Auror attitude, he would never muck it up.
"We'll try and take the path they would've taken. I'll lead us out, Reinhard, you take the rear — Aster will stay in the middle and see if he can spot something that we miss while we're moving. It's very important that we find them and help them if we can, the last thing we need is Mac captured by these maniacs," Harry said before he transfigured a bit of rope around the three of them, ensuring that it was tied and then equally as hidden as they themselves were; it would help ensure none of the trio was separated in these deep dark woods with who only knew how many traps or enemies were laying in wait for them.
As soon as the other two had tied it around themselves, they began to move again with Harry leading them out where he reckoned McMacson would have gone. It was a shot in the dark, so to speak, but this couldn't wait for a more thorough search while the fighting was still ongoing.
It was only the three of them, just like the starter days of Hogwarts and especially like the times when they'd find themselves in trouble over one of those pranks they'd play on their housemates. Merlin, where had all the time gone?
It was nearly five minutes later in the creeping darkness of the woods when they found their next missed track, one that matched the same person who had mucked it up the last time. Harry suspected it was one of the newest hires that McMacson had personally selected for the sake of them getting some practical experience, and should that be the case, that would come back to haunt the older man quite badly.
"There's a path to the left and a few missing branches right ahead of us," Aster pointed out when he realised they'd come to a stop based on the rope going slack as he got closer to Harry. "If I were Mac, I would have gone right ahead of us to avoid any traps laid to our left… but you know him better than I do, Pev. Which way would he have gone?"
Harry would have liked to say that Aster was right, he really would have, but Mac was a person who enjoyed a good scrap and sometimes, from what Maxis had said, the man would pay for it. "Left, down the path," Harry said, all but seeing his friend shake his head.
"Left we go," Reinhard's voice carried from the rear, and it was barely three minutes down that path when the group heard fighting.
Out ahead of them was a clearing and beyond that, the path picked back up in the woods. There was a second Muggle home in that location, one that they hadn't known about and that was thoroughly hidden between the trees and the vines that surrounded or in the latter's case, covered it. They could see spellfire as they'd gotten closer and as a result, they had picked up their pace, and when they finally broke free of the treeline they could get a real picture of what had happened to their missing 'backup' that had been meant to join them in the tunnels.
McMacson had tried to keep to his word and attack 'the' house and as a result of shoddy intelligence, he had attacked the wrong house. One that had housed whatever was left of the main force that had set up camp further back in the woods, perhaps as a fallback point or a place of rest. Whatever the case, he and his ten Aurors had been outmatched by the twenty or so enemies that had come out.
Harry suspected that was how the first two Aurors died; he could see their robes and bodies quite clearly, one of them hadn't even had their wand in their hand at the time of their death. It was a surprise they'd fallen into, but one that had been answered based on the three bodies near those Aurors, where the initial fight had broken out. As for the rest of the field ahead of them, there was all manner of transfigured cover, animated and unanimated statues, debris from trees and bushes and finally, bodies on the forest floor.
It was a close thing, by the look of it, but McMacson's team with five or so remaining of the eleven had formed a circle and were desperately trying to hold off in a makeshift wooden bunker the likes of which Harry had seen on Muggle movies back in his time. There were a dozen, possibly more based on the volume of fire attackers that were getting ever closer to the remnants of McMacson's team and it was then that Harry knew the three of them would have to be the rescue party.
He hadn't counted on taking those odds on, but there was nothing else that he could do short of watching it all transpire. That wouldn't do either, he wasn't a coward and he wouldn't let any Auror die if he could help it.
"We have to help them," He said to his two friends. "I'll send a Patronus for help — they'll have to spare us a half-dozen at the least, whatever they can, and when that's sent we'll go in. Each of us will pick somebody, whoever looks the most dangerous, and we'll kill them. We have to. You two in, or are you out?"
"With you," Aster said after swallowing loud enough for the other two to hear, the smallest of the three quickly nervous at the thought of taking on those odds even if there were five or six Aurors trapped inside that little wooden square.
"In," Reinhard said with confidence and a thump of his chest. "We can each take two if we're fast enough — I want that biggun off to the left, the one that looks like he's giving orders. I'll go for him first and then the small git to his right. They won't even know what hit them before six of 'em will be dropped."
Harry grinned — not that his friends could see it — at Reinhard's confident tone and attitude. So long as he had these two at his back, he could handle any threat or violence. That was certain and without a doubt.
"Alright, that's our plan then. We'll go in less than thirty seconds, get ready boys," Harry said, and after that, he went about casting his Patronus a good ten or so meters further in the forest.
He didn't want the others to see the light of it, nor did he want to be overheard giving orders to the Patronus that it would echo to whoever it found. As soon as he was finished and he had rejoined his two friends, he mentally prepared himself for yet another fight. Today was shaping up to be the most violent of his life and quite possibly the most draining as a result of that violence.
Still, there was more work that needed doing and if not for he and his two mates beside him, then who would see it through before too much time came to pass?
Nobody. It had to be them.
"Let's go — left, then we'll fire and move from the treeline for cover. Let's give it to them, boys," Harry said, and with that, the trio was off, shifting to the left with their wands at the ready.
It didn't take more than a few seconds for the three of them to be behind large trees and in a position that would allow them a good line of sight of their targets. Harry cast one more look at his two friends, Aster nervous and Reinhard confident, and then he raised his wand. They knew that they would fire on his mark and so he reckoned it was time for that mark to come.
Harry raised his wand, pointed it at a tall, thin man and then he let loose his first spell. It was the same sickly green that had once haunted his dreams that streaked from his wand and into the chest of the aforementioned tall, thin man. When that man crumpled to the floor, Harry's wand already firing on the next man to his left, he saw twins of that same spell strike true on two others — one of them the large man that Reinhard had claimed.
We might just pull through, all of us.