A massive Thank You to all of my brilliant supporters, with a shout-out to Gini Eatan, TypistTyphon, Titanium winx, Tasty Muffin, Joe Foster, Silver1119, Joel miller, sam, Jimmy Adams, Jo Daviz, LegendaryWasabi, and Optimum Prime. I would really struggle to keep this up without the support you guys give me. I really don't say it enough you guys are amazing.

as always the next chapter is on pat re on for free.

Chapter 24

The goblins were annoyed at Harry for negotiating on their behalf without them. However, as much as they didn't like it, they could see Harry had negotiated on their behalf in good faith and had gotten Madam Longbottom to agree to every point that would safeguard their own investment into this little project. There were some goblin-made artefacts in the Longbottom vaults that they would have liked the opportunity to at least negotiate for, but Harry had no idea of their existence.

Despite all the grumbling they did, they also recognised that having more people capturing Death Eaters who would be forced to hand over their goblin-made artefacts was a benefit to them, so they accepted the deal and made sure to supply what Harry was calling the Longbottom Force with a number of their Portkey coins.

Fleur was currently on her lunch break talking with some of the other low-level employees of the bank. They were using an office sitting empty until recently because, with the war and the random attacks, most employees didn't feel safe to go out to lunch anymore. Even the muggle world was getting a little dicey, as every time the Death Eaters lost a fight or got their house blown up, they would respond with attacking muggles. Most thought it was retaliating against the people opposing them, but Fleur was convinced it was more about soothing their wounded pride and fixing their sagging morale. Nothing like slaughtering a few families who had no hope of fighting back to secure their delusional ideas of supremacy.

Stonegouger and George, two of the goblins who had started the same day as Fleur, were growling complaints about each other in the goblin language, and Fleur's curiosity was peaked. "Hey guys, what's going on? You don't sound happy."

It was George who answered. "Well, considering between us we have been burned twelve times today, yeah I would say we aren't happy." He grumbled.

"Burned? What's happened to you?" Fleur asked, genuinely concerned.

Stonegouger, who now that Fleur was paying attention to could see had some burn paste on the back of his hand, answered. "We have been clearing out the Lestrange vault, and the damned family has put extra protections on their gold. If you touch it with skin, a single Galleon makes ten temporary copies of itself that are dangerously hot. And it's all over the place, covering everywhere you could accidentally touch."

The part about the extra protections was interesting, but the bit that jumped out to Fleur's mind was the exact vault they were emptying. "Wait, why are you emptying the Lestrange vault?" She half-demanded, causing the two to bristle a little before she caught herself and asked better. "Sorry, but this is important to other departments. Why are you emptying the Lestrange vault?"

"We got a letter from Bellatrix Lestrange saying all the artefacts and 20% of the gold in the vault was to be moved to a new vault in hers and her sister's name immediately. We figured she was screwing over her husband before divorcing him," said George.

Fleur sighed. It was too late to stop it, so there was no need to rush and be rude. "No, she is screwing the bank out of its share of a deal. Damn it! I will need to go talk to some of the directors."

That last statement had Fleur getting a few curious looks from her fellow diners. Apart from the occasional 'yes sir,' 'no sir,' and 'right away sir' when they were delivering something, people in entry-level positions didn't talk to directors. That Fleur, a first-year apprentice, was saying she was going to speak to them and believed it was unusual.

However, Fleur did exactly that. She walked right up to Director Bonesnapper's office and knocked. A growl came from inside that was one of the very few goblin words she knew, it meant 'come in,' or 'enter.' It was one of the goblin words they made sure everyone knew because it was easy for a goblin to answer a knock that way. Fleur opened the door and, ducking a little under the door frame, walked in.

"Ah, Miss Delacour. Is it Apprentice Delacour I'm speaking to or are you here in your capacity as a liaison to House Potter?" Bonesnapper asked. It was an important question as it dictated how their interaction would go. For example, if she was here as an apprentice and wasted his time he could decide to reprimand her, not something he could do with the future Mrs Potter here to discuss business.

"It's a little of both sir. The information I have to tell you I know because I am an employee of the bank, but I only know its significance because of our dealings where I act as an intermediary between the bank and the House of Potter," Fleur said, knowing that this was actually the worst possible way to answer as it was the most complicated.

"Then what do you think I need to know?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange is removing all the artefacts from the vault she shares with her husband. Considering we have him in custody right now, it is an alarming bit of information. I think we need to assume that the information about what happens to their vaults when someone surrenders is out."

"Very well Miss Delacour. We knew the information would leak eventually. Where is everything being moved to?" Bonsnapper asked.

"A new vault that she opened in hers and her sister Narcissa Malfoy's name," Fleur informed him. She didn't actually know Bellatrix had two sisters and just assumed it was the one she knew, but luckily for Fleur, she assumed correctly.

"Not as bad as it could have been. We'll just have to see about capturing the two women as well. Or find a way to freeze one of them out of the account. Still, this is going to make things more complicated if they are now going to be moving assets around while we wait for someone to surrender. Anyway, consider me informed and you can go back to your duties, Apprentice." He dismissed Fleur.

-ϟϟϟ-

It was a pity that Bellatrix had caught wind of the plan and had moved as much as she could from the Lestrange vaults she had access to. But unfortunately, that was the reality of war, the other side wasn't going to do what you wanted them to just because you had a good plan. Harry did ask the goblins to keep track of who any money was moved to. He wanted them to tell him who they were, but bank regulations prevented them from telling him. That didn't stop them from sending them a letter on his behalf without telling him who received it. So Harry had written a rather threatening cover letter.

Dear witch or wizard in question,

You are receiving this letter because the bank managers at Gringotts have determined that you are sheltering gold and artefacts for Death Eaters I am currently feuding with. While this is not illegal, providing aid to one side of a war does tend to have the side effect of pulling you and your family into the fighting. I strongly suggest reevaluating your decision to get involved in this feud.

Sincerely,

Warlock Potter

It hadn't been sent to anyone yet, as the only one to move assets was Lestrange and she had moved them so that people he was feuding with had access. Still, it was ready to send out when it was needed.

With the parents' visit done, Harry, Hermione, and Fleur turned their attention back to more mundane things. For Fleur that meant working on her apprenticeship, and for Harry and Hermione that meant working towards their N.E.W.T.s while all three of them talked about what they were going to do for Christmas this year. Fleur was advocating for leaving the country and going to France, to take the opportunity to get away from all the fighting. If Harry and Hermione were honest, that sounded like just what they needed, though Harry did make a mental note that he would need to make arrangements to secure the house while they were away. He didn't want to return home to find a smoking crater where his family home once stood.

Before they could do any of that, though, there was an important date coming up this Thursday: Halloween, and with it everything that date entailed. Sirius was hinting that, like last year, this Halloween Harry should take the time to visit his parents' graves and make it a yearly tradition. A part of Harry really wanted to go. Of course, when Harry voiced this to Hermione and Fleur, Hermione immediately made arrangements with Professor McGonagall for them to take a half day on Thursday, and when that was confirmed Fleur had gone to her boss for the same thing. Harry was now definitely going to visit his parents' graves.

-ϟϟϟ-

Thursday came and Harry picked at his lunch, knowing that shortly he was going to see, for only the second time, the place where his parents were buried. A very big part of him thought he was a terrible son for waiting so long to go see them, he was sixteen already. It was fifteen years to the day since they were killed, and in that time he had only been to see them once. Considering what they sacrificed for him, it didn't seem to him like he was doing enough.

Sure, there were also the thoughts that reminded him there was no way he could have done it while still living with the Dursleys, no way he could have asked the first year he lived with the Grangers, and after the return of Voldemort it was dangerous to go out too much, especially to a place where magicals would think to look for him. But the part of his mind that liked to brood reminded him that he could have easily gone the summer before his fourth year, and it wasn't like he had even thought about it much the rest of the time. If Harry was honest, there was just a part of his brain that was an asshole.

After picking through lunch, he and Hermione went back to the common room and the dorms. They were going to be out in the muggle world, and so, despite being able to get away with it as it was Halloween, wizard robes weren't exactly appropriate. Harry came back down in formal trousers, shirt, and suit jacket while Hermione was wearing a charcoal grey dress that both looked nice enough to be casual and suitable for an activity as morbid as visiting a grave.

Harry Stepped them right from the common room, as everyone else was at lunch, to the house in Hogsmeade. Fleur was already there just finishing getting ready, and when Harry Stepped in she pulled him into a comforting hug. They made a little small talk while Fleur finished getting ready, mostly talking about work gossip and how one of her fellow apprentices had become flaky and was often ten to thirty minutes late for work, and how Fleur was sure the guy was going to be fired soon. Once Fleur was ready, they all Flooed to Grimmauld Place where they met Sirius and, to Harry's surprise, Tonks. Apparently Fleur had told Tonks about what was happening, and Tonks had decided that they needed an Auror escort. Considering Sirius was the only one in the group apart from Tonks who knew Godric's Hollow well enough to Apparate there, there was a good reason to have her go.

They all stepped into Twelve Grimmauld Place's back garden, which was the designated Apparition/Disapparition spot for people keyed in as family according to the house wards. Sirius side-alonged Hermione, Tonks took Fleur, and Harry a few seconds later Stepped himself, focusing not on a location but on getting to Hermione and Fleur.

They were all in a thicket of trees when Harry arrived. This was apparently something that witches and wizards were taught when taking their apparation classes: the need to appear somewhere sheltered. You aren't likely to be seen, and if you are because a muggle happens to be there, you could quickly modify their memory. Luckily there was no one around, so they just started walking through the village with Sirius, who was the most familiar with the place from his time visiting Lily and James before they died, leading the way. Tonks tried to lighten the heavy mood a little by joking that technically she was supposed to arrest Harry for Apparating without a licence. It didn't work, but the effort was appreciated.

As they walked through the village, they passed a florist. It turned out Fleur had made sure to have some mundane money on her just in case they got this opportunity. Harry entered with a crisp twenty and returned with a bunch of flowers that were a mix of white Lilies and red Amaryllis, for his mother's name and her fiery red hair.

-ϟϟϟ-

Back in Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione were missing potions and that didn't slip the notice of one blond-haired ferret. He immediately got himself excused from the lesson to go see Madam Pomfrey for an upset stomach. Of course, his destination was actually the library, where he knew he would find Annette, the classmate who claimed to be in communication with the dark Lord. If Potter had gone walkabout, there was an opportunity there.

-ϟϟϟ-

It took them over twenty minutes to walk through the village and find the church where Harry's parents were buried. They noticed a priest giving them a few looks in the distance. They were a group of five, three of whom looked like they should be in school, and it was a graveyard on Halloween. But he didn't disturb them, the flowers and formal clothes probably enough to tell him they were genuinely there to visit a grave and not as part of some Halloween aesthetic.

The double grave stood just as bold as it had the year before, the words etched as much into Harry's memory as they were into the large stone.

In loving memory

Lily Potter - James Potter

Born

27th March 1960 - 30th January 1960

Died

31st October 1981 - 31st October 1981

"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"

Tonks hung back, not wanting to get in the way of the people who had deep emotional reasons for being there. Harry took both Hermione and Fleur by the hands and walked them forward. "Hey mom, hey dad. It's been a whole year since I last came to see you. You remember Hermione right? And this lovely lady is Fleur, you remember from next door to the villa in France."

Both Fleur and Hermione said hello, but Fleur added more. "Thank you so much for signing the betrothal between me and Harry. It hasn't been the smoothest ride, but every day I'm convinced a little more that it's worth it."

Harry smiled at Fleur and began to tell his parents about the last year of his life. "A lot has happened this year. Did I mention I had a friend called Tracey last year? I don't remember… her parents were killed by Death Eaters. She didn't have any more family, so I brought her into the House of Potter. She has sort of become my sister. Her girlfriend also lives with us, but that's because her grandfather, who is Warlock Greengrass, is a dick." He went on explaining about how Daphne was temporarily disowned until either her grandfather got his head out of his ass or Daphne's father took the role of Warlock.

"The Ministry tried to interfere at Hogwarts and sent us this god-awful bigoted woman who looked like a toad to try and find a way to remove all the lycanthropy-infected students and Uncle Moony, who is a professor now, from the school. She even targeted Hermione because of the result of her polyjuice accident. I ended up challenging her to a duel. When I won, I forced her to drink a polyjuice potion with the same type of hair in it as Hermione's accident. I also demanded answers to some questions, and it turned out she had actually tried to kill Fleur and Hermione before, so she was carted off to Azkaban." Harry had a smile on his face as he told that story imagining that his father would be proud of him given how he would have stood up for Moony.

The next part killed any smiles that any of them had. "Voldemort and his Death Eaters attacked the students as we were leaving for the Express at the end of last school year. He killed a friend of mine. If she is up there with you, can you look out for her for me? She is a Weasley so she probably has enough family up there watching over her to fill a Quidditch Stadium, but if she needs it can you watch out for her, and tell her I'm sorry? I tried to save her, I really did. But I made Voldemort pay for it. You tell her that I cut off the fuckers head for what he did to her. Unfortunately, he just won't stay dead." Harry and Hermione were getting emotional as Harry spoke about Ginny, and Fleur wrapped them both in her arms.

"Also Dad, I found a way to expose the Death Eaters to the public. I declared a blood feud on them all for being Death Eaters. It's taking time, but there is already some progress now that they can't hide who they are. The Carrows are already defeated, the Malfoys' mansion has been burned to the ground, and one of the Lestrange brothers is back in prison." Harry left out the part that it was his own private prison.

Harry explained about meeting the Flamels, who were convinced that Dumbledore had stolen their Philosopher's Stone. Fleur and Hermione talked about some of the ideas they had for the wedding. Harry told them about his inventions, mastering his Animagus transformation, and how his Patronus had changed from a stag to a Griffin, and how he thought it was because his idea of the family had changed from the past to the future. The cat and bird blended into one animal was a reflection of Hermione's cat form and Fleur's Veela nature.

After Harry, Sirius wanted to speak to his old friends, so Harry, Hermione, and Fleur moved off to where Tonks was standing to give him some semblance of privacy. "So Tonks, what's it like being a bodyguard for our new Minister of Magic and her family?" Harry asked.

"For the most part, exhausting and boring. You have to be alert the whole time, which is mentally draining, but nothing ever really happens. Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong, when a bodyguard has an exciting day it's a bad thing. But you have to concentrate on the nothing that's happening. It's so boring. The closest it gets to interesting is you get to listen in on a lot of stuff that's important. But you can't even talk about most of it because you signed a magically binding confidentiality contract," Tonks explained.

"Still, it's a really good position for someone who hasn't even been out of the Auror academy for five years yet, right?" Hermione asked.

"Oh yeah, it's major padding on my file as long as the boss lady and her niece survive this bloody war. And I'm lucky the boss lady trusts me so much. But by the end of most of my shifts I just want to scream in frustration. I joined the Aurors because I crave action, not standing around doing nothing."

As though the universe decided it was going to punish them for Tonks's words, not even two seconds later there was a shout of "Avada Kedavra!" from somewhere to Harry's left. Fleur, Harry, Hermione, and Tonks all reacted to the words before the spell was flying and hit the ground, hoping that the given stones would provide enough cover that they could think.

Harry looked around the group, and the girls were all still alive. Fleur and Hermione were scrambling to draw their wands, but Tonks already had hers out and was raising a dirt wall around them, a determined and serious look on her face but with a light in her eyes that said she was going to enjoy this.

Harry, however, had a different concern. His first concern had been his ladies. That didn't really include Tonks, but she was with them at the time, so now it included her as well. His next concern was his godfather. Harry crawled forward to look around a gravestone that was blocking his view, and it was like someone had suddenly turned Harry's blood to ice. He immediately felt a cold horrible feeling inside him and his heart felt like it stopped beating. Sirius was lying on the ground unmoving, draped across the now-shattered remains of the gravestone that marked the place where Harry's parents rested.

Loss and despair warred with righteous fury. The prophecy had said, 'The marked will live his life balanced on the edge of a knife, for even as he stands against the darkness it may take root in his own soul.' And now, even if only for a moment, the darkness won as Harry was flooded with a burning rage.

Harry drew his wand and stood up. His head was higher than the wall Tonks had put up but Harry was too angry to have concerns like fear. Predictably, with Harry sticking his head up there were immediately spells cast in his direction. However, the Unforgivable curses that the death eaters were so fond of couldn't be cast silently. Voices called out curses from multiple directions, and that was enough for Harry to know where some of them were. Harry was gone, Stepping to where he heard the voices.

Unfortunately, the Death Eaters seemed to have finally caught on to Harry's superior mobility. As soon as he landed, multiple wands started to point towards him. Harry, though, didn't pause, didn't flinch, and most importantly he didn't hesitate. He spun like a dervish, whipping his wand about as fast as he could, sticking to repeating a simple spell again and again. Blood started to spray everywhere as Harry's silently cast cutting charms at near point-blank range ripped into the Death Eaters surrounding him. Gashes were opened in robes and skin, two wands were cut in half, and one Death Eater lost his wand hand.

Harry also fed magic into his shield bracer, causing one of the large disposable round shields to pop into existence on his left just in time for it to intercept a killing curse. Harry Stepped about forty feet back so he was now facing the group of seven Death Eaters. Two were Portkeying away, too injured to continue the fight. Given that one was missing his wand hand and the other had a rather nasty-looking slice across where his eyes were a few moments ago, Harry couldn't exactly blame them for running. One of the Death Eaters whose wand was cut in half was pulling the wand out of the severed hand on the floor, and the other was pulling the second wand from his robes. One last Death Eater was on the floor grabbing at his throat, desperately trying and failing to keep his blood from escaping from the hole Harry's curse had opened in his neck.

The Death Eater who had shot the killing curse at Harry stepped out in front of the others, her wand raised ready to fight. Harry recognised her immediately, the burn and cutting scars marking her quite distinctive. "Where's-'' Bellatrix started trying her usual verbal sparring, but Harry wasn't in the mood to listen to the insane ramblings of a dead woman. For that was what she was to Harry now, she was leading the group that killed Sirius. As soon as she opened her mouth, Harry flicked his wand and sent a piercing curse right at her. She reflexively shielded against the spell and tried to start talking again, only for Harry to interrupt her with a bludgeoning curse this time.

Then, before Harry, Bellatrix, or any of the other Death Eaters could do anything, three women joined the fight. Hermione, Fleur, and Tonks all started firing curses from behind Tonks's dirt wall. From there, the fight devolved into chaos. Most of the Death Eaters broke off to go fight the girls at Lestrange's order, leaving Harry to deal with the mad bitch.

Harry ducked, weaved, and sidestepped while he and Lestrange shot spells at each other at a ridiculous speed. Unfortunately, as much as Harry was able to dance around Lestrange's spells, she was able to evade Harry just as well. Mostly they were low-level curses such as piercing or bludgeoning, all silently cast with a flick of a wand, neither willing to give the other even a quarter of a second to formulate a more aggressive spell. The graveyard around them quickly changed from ordered rows of graves to blasted rubble.

Harry tried to Step around, but Lestrange seemed to be expecting that. When he tried to Step behind her and cut off her head just like he had done to Voldemort he barely escaped with his life as Lestrange was already firing a spell directly at him as soon as he appeared. He Stepped away just in time to keep the piercing curse from poking a hole through his head.

Then something happened that made Harry's heart almost stop in fear. A very familiar British wild cat came sneaking through the graves. Harry had no idea what Hermione was doing, so he did the only thing he could: he dug deep and pressed his attack against Lestrange. Harry started walking forward, forcing Lestrange to step backwards and keep her attention focused on Harry. He just prayed that Lestrange didn't see Hermione, or if she did that she wouldn't recognise the cat for who she was.

Lestrange walking backward was exactly what Hermione had been waiting for. She darted out from her cover and entangled herself with Lestrange's feet causing the woman to trip. Hermione then shot off to hide behind an intact gravestone while Harry took full advantage of Lestrange's fall. Laying flat on her back didn't give Harry a good target for cutting off her head, so Harry disarmed and Stunned her. Once she was weaponless and unable to flee, he walked until he stood over her and put a piercing curse right between her eyes. It was cold, uncaring, and instant.

Harry looked over to where Hermione was crouching behind a grave and saw she was back in her human form. A part of Harry was afraid she would look at him differently after watching him end Lestrange like that. However, she just nodded at him and stood up and walked over to him so they could go join the fight Fleur and Tonks were having with the other Death Eaters. There were two left fighting Tonks and Fleur, but when they saw Harry and Hermione coming from the side and realised they would not only be outnumbered but caught in a crossfire, they activated their portkeys and vanished.

Instead of relaxing, Harry ran to Sirius. Academically, he knew it was too late; the killing curse was not something to be shrugged off. Harry started to pick up the body of his godfather, intending to lay him down in a more dignified manner than sprawled over the shattered remains of the gravestone of his best friends. However, as Harry heaved the man up, Sirius let out a groan. It was only then that Harry noticed the gravestone again and he felt stupid. If the killing curse had hit Sirius, then what had destroyed his parents' grave? He looked at Sirius and found a cut and one hell of a goose egg on the man's head. Sirius hadn't been hit with the killing curse, he had been knocked unconscious by a piece of shrapnel.

However, Harry's wave of relief was cut short by a sudden stabbing pain in his scar, which could only mean one thing. Voldemort was here, right now.

A/N

Sorry for anyone who didn't catch that Sirius wasn't dead right away. I did try to make it obvious as I could while still having it still be believable that Harry would believe it.

I need more energy drinks... if you can't help with that,24 can I at least get a comment?