Chapter 32 - Cottage by the Sea HP
"The Watcher will look after us," Rowle insisted.
"You are a juvenile, Thorfinn," the vampire replied. "Where was your Watcher when my family was wiped out at the manor house? Watching something or someone else, I think. When will you and your precious Watcher get me killed as well?"
The vampire's voice was rising with every word. "My family started centuries ago. My people were three and four hundred years old. Now they are dust! You cannot begin to imagine the things we have seen, the dangers we have faced. They are gone! My brother is gone! I have loved him and relied on him for four hundred years and he is gone!"
"Look, Elena…"
"Countess Stoia to you," she snarled. "You have done nothing for me, Rowle. I should leave you to be hunted down like the vermin you are."
"We are so close now, Countess," Rowle said. "Once we get rid of Potter and blame the muggles, nothing can stop us. People will flood to us. The Ministry will be powerless. This is what we have worked for, Elena. What will get you to stay?"
"You know, Thorfinn. You know exactly what I need. And while this may be what you have worked for, my family is what I worked for."
"I'll give you what you want, Elena," Rowle soothed. "I was going to, anyway."
"You were?" She did not sound convinced.
"Yes," Rowle said. "I didn't dare do it for your whole family. You would have had the advantage and I would have been left on the side, or left dead. But they are gone. It was unexpected and unwanted and, yes, my fault. But it is a blow to me too. Without them, my cause is weaker. I need you to help me, Elena. I need you as strong as you can be. That's why I was planning to make you a daywalker, like me. Together, we can finish this. Together, we can rule. And we start by killing Potter."
"Dennis Creevey has agreed to cover for you, Stephano," Harry told the professor. "He is an excellent potioneer. Minerva has agreed for you to take as much time as we need."
They were in Verdi's office at Hogwarts. The professor was sitting on the edge of his desk with a querying eyebrow raised.
"I am always happy to help, even when it is the Auror Office who is asking," Verdi grinned. "And I was expecting to be needed again. The word on the alley is that Rowle is still at large. There are also rumours that one of his vampire family is still with him."
"Thanks, Stephano," Harry said. "And the saying is, 'the word on the street,' by the way."
"I am aware of that, Head Auror. I had a particular alley in mind, in this instance."
"Ah," said Harry. "Knockturn Alley, I imagine."
"Quite so, Harry," he confirmed. "I have friends in low places."
"And Kingsley has already recruited Lavender Brown," Harry added, trying not to grin.
"We have found where Rowle is hiding out," Harry told his new team at his house in Grimmauld Place. "Dennis did some great detective work. Well, he had a dream and followed it up."
"That's how proper detectives work," Ron confirmed. "Keep making things up, until they can prove it."
Lavender chuckled. Ron gave her a nervous smile.
"I must impress on you all," Harry said, pulling himself up straight. "No one outside this group, other than the Minister, may know anything about our work — not even Hermione."
"Especially not bloody Hermione!" Ron corrected.
Harry coughed to suppress a laugh.
"Anyway," he hurried onward. "We've traced Rowle to a cottage in Suffolk. It's close to a muggle power station: a nuclear power station. We assume he is going to cause some kind of accident there, a radiation leak or worse. It will be something he can blame on the muggles to stir up anger against them. His aim is to get the wizarding world to rise against the muggles so that he can control both worlds. I'm pretty sure he's not someone we'd want in charge of anything.
"We must strike as soon as possible, before he attacks the power station. There was an old muggle couple living in the cottage. I hope we can free them, but I don't think there's much chance of them still being alive."
Ron, Lavender and Stephano nodded in solemn agreement.
"You are all armed and equipped?" he asked. "Good. Here's the portkey."
A bitter wind blew in from the North Sea. Ron hoisted the collar on his jacket. Harry pointed to the cottage without a sound. It was a few hundred metres away across the open fields. Beyond it, they could see the dome and square buildings of the power station.
Harry pulled out a spyglass to survey the house.
"There is someone inside, Harry," Stephano informed him. "I can see one figure through the walls."
"How?" Harry asked.
"Life force," Lavender explained. "It's useful for the predator to sense its prey."
"Unfortunately, I can also sense your disapproval, Miss Brown," Stephano said.
"Not disapproval, Professore," Lavender assured him. "Many years of respect for — and, you know, killing — vampires."
"How do we approach the cottage, Harry?" Ron asked.
"Stephano and I will close in from this side," Harry said. "Ron, if you could disapparate over towards the coast and advance from the east. Lavender, could you take on your wolf form and circle round from the south-west?"
With a series of muted pinging sounds from the clasps on her clothing, Lavender grew into her full werewolf form. A horrified Ron disapparated.
"If you do not mind," Stephano said, "I will wait until we are closer. I feel a little less noticeable as I am."
Harry was happy with this, so they began the walk to the cottage. Both held their wands ready in their hands.
"Can you tell what the figure inside is doing?" Harry asked.
"No, I cannot. It is just a glow," the professor admitted. "It is bigger than either of us, Harry. I think it must be a vampire. Given the daylight, my bet would be on it being Rowle."
Harry felt a searing pain and saw the ground drop away from his feet. He looked down on Stephano, who was staring upward. There came a loud hiss of hatred from above him and claws bit deep into Harry's shoulders. A hundred metres below, Stephano changed into his vampire form and swept into the air. With a sickening jolt, Harry realised he had dropped his wand. If the vampire behind him let go, he would fall to his death with no magic to help him. Perhaps Ron had noticed and would help, or Verdi would reach him first.
Harry twisted to get a hand inside his jacket, where it fell on a stake of rowan wood. Stabbing Rowle might make him let go, but Rowle wanted Harry dead and would not hold on much longer. Harry had one chance to make Rowle regret his attack — if it was Rowle. He could not kill the vampire from this angle, but this was going to hurt. Harry stabbed. The vampire screeched in his ear, the claws ripped, and Harry fell.
His face clenched in agony, he could see nothing. He felt arms slam into his ribs, then fold around him. Hot pain shot through his shoulders and back. He was still in the air. He could make out a white rectangle — the cottage — below.
"Harry?"
It was Stephano's voice. His friend had caught him as he fell.
"Was it Rowle? Did I get him?" Harry asked.
"It was Rowle. He is flying away, but you have injured him. A rowan stake, was it? You got him just above his hip and it is stuck… lodged in his side. It does not threaten him, but you have given as good as you got. And you have not fallen to your death, you may have noticed."
"Cottage," Harry gasped. "Get the other one."
Harry felt sick as they swooped down to land outside the garden of the cottage. There was a crashing and splintering of wood. Harry saw Lavender's wolf beast smash through the side of the wooden cottage as if it were paper. There was a wolf howl answered by a vampire shriek. The shingled roof of the building burst apart as the other vampire launched into the sky, shrieking again and again with each beat of its wings.
A string of red stunning spells shot at the escaping vampire. Several hit but had little effect.
"Bombarda!" Ron bellowed as he came running up. The spell struck the vampire and knocked it off course for a moment, but it flew away ever quicker.
"Can you chase them down, Stephano," Harry asked.
"Two full-sized, injured and enraged daywalkers?" he said. "I could chase, but would I want to catch? Oh, here is your wand."
At that moment, as Verdi gave Harry his wand back, Lavender burst through the front door of the cottage, tearing it from its hinges.
"Bomb!" she roared.
Both Ron and Harry cast a protective wall between the four of them and the cottage just in time as the building vanished into an enormous cloud of splintered wood. Harry felt relieved. Then lumps of timber rained down on them. He had to cast another shield charm over their heads. As their ears recovered from the noise of the blast, they could hear the sounds of sirens. Looking around, they realised it was coming from the power station. For a sickening moment, Harry thought Rowle must have caused an accident in the reactor. Then he saw two vehicles racing across the field in their direction.
"I think their security guards are wondering what the hell is exploding outside their power station," he said. "I think we should leave. Disapparate with Lavender, Ron. I'll take Stephano. See you at Grimmauld Place."
"It is my belief that Rowle planned this all along as a trap for you, Harry," Kingsley told him.
"I think you're right," Harry agreed. "There was no plot to harm the power station, it seems."
Lavender fiddled with one of the clasps which held her clothing taut. "Rowle wanted you to make a rush attack. He hoped you'd be under-prepped and vulnerable. He'd kill you personally if he could, or he'd lure you into the house which he had rigged to explode."
"I was under-prepared," Harry admitted.
"Not as vulnerable as Rowle wanted, though," Ron pointed out. "Thanks to Stephano and Lavender."
"Yeah, you guys were amazing," Harry agreed. "Thanks for catching me, Stephano."
"It was well that I saw you had dropped your wand," Professor Verdi noted.
"How did Rowle lay the bait by giving Dennis the dream in the first place?" Ron mused.
"The Watcher must have done it for him," said Harry.
Kingsley held up a hand and shook his head.
"I have spoken briefly to Ambrose while you were with the healers, Harry. I know: 'briefly'! Who would ever have expected to say that of Ambrose? He assures me the Watcher would not have time to deal with such trivial items. It seems Ambrose is drawing his attention. It is most likely that Rowle has several useful devices gifted to him by the Watcher. One of these must allow him some control over dreams. I suspect that another gift is how the other vampire came to be a daywalker."
"Countess Elena," Verdi clarified. "Elena Stoia, a Romanian born in the 1620s. She and her brother were once well-known and much-feared. We had problems with them in Venice. It was her brother who set me on the path of darkness. She is powerful, intelligent and ruthless. I would not wish to confront her now that she is like Rowle."
"It worries me they knew to use Dennis," Harry said. "They must have known that Dennis has been working with me. That makes him vulnerable."
"Then Dennis is probably safest teaching my Potions lessons at Hogwarts," Stephano advised.
"Something else that Ambrose said may answer the question of how they knew about Dennis," Kingsley told them. "He told us who the informant is: Officer Hodge."
"Monty Hodge?" Ron queried. "That's… It's crazy. He's not the shiniest badge in the enforcement ranks. He wouldn't know how to be bent."
"How would Monty Hodge know what was going on in the Auror Office?" Harry wondered.
Ron slapped his forehead. "Of course! You know who Hodge's best mate is?"
Harry shrugged.
"Naz Sarson," Ron answered his own question. "They're drinking buddies. And they play cards together — mostly cos Monty loses all the time. Naz wouldn't expect Monty to remember anything he might let slip, let alone piece it together. Rowle must have done that for him."
Harry turned to Kingsley. "Does anyone else know we know who the informant is?"
"No, Harry," the Minister said. "Only we five and Ambrose."
"We could use this," Harry suggested.
"Even better," Ron said. "It's one of Hermione's guys. And you'll be able to put Sarson on a charge for leaking confidential info."
"You're so bad, Ron," said Lavender, shaking her head. "You're still a schoolboy, really."
"Growing up's overrated," Ron replied. "Or so I imagine."
"How do you intend to use this leverage, Harry?" Kingsley asked.
Harry pursed his lips for a moment. "That'll depend on what happens next. We certainly need to find where Rowle's hiding now. Chances are his next move will involve Officer Hodge."
"It's nice to know that Ambrose is fighting the Watcher, looking after the kids, and still has time to do our jobs for us," Ron said with a wry smile. "Well, your jobs. My job is supposed to be working in the shop."
There was a rapid knocking at the Minister's office door.
"Minister, Minister?" came the voice of his secretary.
"Come in, Marigold," Kingsley said.
She bustled through the door clutching a sheaf of parchment, more for comfort than any other reason.
"It's dreadful, Minister!" she said, breathless, as if she had been running. "There was a note saying they had taken her! In her office — they took her from her office."
"Who has been taken, Marigold?" Kingsley demanded.
"The Head of Enforcement, sir. Mrs Granger-Weasley!"