Chapter Fifteen - Rise!
After the initial disorientation of waking up in an unfamiliar place, Daphne smiled and got ready for the day. She'd packed a simple set of navy blue robes with quite thin material and cooling charms built in to combat the summer heat. After spending about fifteen minutes brushing her hair and applying a natural make-up look, she headed downstairs to see Harry and Sirius already at the breakfast table, tucking into some bacon and eggs. Mrs Weasley was bustling around the kitchen, while Dobby, Harry's house elf was getting increasingly frustrated at her doing the cooking instead of him, insisting that she was doing "house elf jobses."
Daphne distracted Dobby by asking him if he could sort her a bowl of cereal, which garnered an excited reaction from the elf and earned her a grateful look from Mrs Weasley. Giving Harry a quick peck on the cheek, Daphne sat down next to him at the table and they ate breakfast quietly. As they were getting up to leave, Molly told Daphne that it was lovely to meet her and that she was welcome to come back whenever she liked.
A quick whirl through the flop network and Harry, Daphne and Sirius were spat out in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions., chosen because it was just a stone's throw from Gringotts, their first destination, rather than the Leaky Cauldron which was right at the opposite end.
"Love how all of a sudden Molly is deciding to invite people to my bloody house whenever she likes now," Sirius joked, "Though she is right, Daphne, you can come over whenever you like."
"I will," Daphne replied as they left Madam Malkin's, "Mum and Dad are busy at work a lot these days."
The three of them pushed through the crowded high street, avoiding the frequent stares and whispers that always accompanied Harry's public appearances. With Harry being dressed in his new leather jacket and looking fine as hell, in Daphne's opinion, and with newly exonerated Sirius Black on his right, there was no wonder they were getting so much attention. It was a good job they only had to walk about thirty paces before they stepped across Gringotts' threshold and into their main atrium.
The bank was busy, as it usually was on a Saturday morning. There were several long queues to see tellers for simplecurrency exchange and the benches set out for people to wait for meetings with account managers were all fully occupied. As they waited patiently in a queue for the main reception desk, Harry watched a particularly severe-looking goblin pour a bag full of sapphires onto a desk in front of him and then pick one up with a pair of tweezers. His sharp yellow eye become suddenly much larger as he inspected the glittering jewel through a magnifying glass.
"Right Harry, I've got to spend a bit of time with my account manager myself, so we've got a couple of options," Sirius said.
"I've never had a meeting about my actual accounts before, though," Harry replied, worried.
"I can come with you if you want," his Godfather replied, "But we'll likely be a lot longer in here and I might not have time to go with you to the Prophet's offices before I have to go to my appointment."
"You don't need to," Daphne said, "I can help Harry, I've met with the goblins with my Dad loads of times.."
"Are you sure?" Harry asked, as close as they'd gotten, helping him with something like his Houses' finances was a big deal.
"Course. We might as well speed this up a bit, and I'll make sure they don't try and fleece you if you want to buy anything…Are you?"
"Yeah, gonna get some Goblin standard wards added on a few properties."
"That's perfect then. I was with my Dad when he had ours renewed and a few added on some of our business premises." Daphne replied with an encouraging smile.
Sirius grinned, "There you go then, I'll just meet you soon."
A few minutes later they reached the front of the line. With the level of seniority of both the Houses of Black and Slytherin, they weren't required to wait on the benches and were swiftly led through a side door to a long corridor with many doors down its length. Outside each door were two sets of gold-studded, comfortable leather chairs on either side. Harry and Daphne were asked to sit outside a door that was situated quite close to the corridor's entrance, while Sirius' account manager's office was quite a bit further down it. Harry and Daphne said their quick "See you later"s to him and waited patiently while Sirius walked further on down the corridor.
They weren't seated long, just less than two minutes before a very important-looking goblin with a shining black and gold tabard over his usual uniform came in through the entrance to the corridor they had, and opened the door to the office before ushering them in. Even though they were still on the ground floor, there was no natural light in the semi-circular room, when they entered. A second, equally important-looking goblin was already sitting behind a black wooden desk facing them. His nose was longer and his teeth looked particularly sharper than his colleague who sat down next to him.
"Lord Slytherin-Potter and Heir Greengrass," the goblin on the left spoke first as they took their seats, "It's surprising to see you both here."
"I'm here to assist as I have previously assisted my father in dealings with yourselves," Daphne said simply.
"Very well," the Goblin replied, "My name is Sharpgob, the account manager for the House of Slytherin and my colleague here, Bogrod is the one for the House of Potter. First of all, Lord Slytherin-Potter, I should inform you that we were most displeased at your sending your house elf to make an extraction from your account before even meeting with us after your ascension.
"I wasn't aware there would be an issue," Harry replied with a shrug.
"It is most unusual and considered rude for a wizard to request funds from a reawakened vault without meeting with us first. Especially a vault of its calibre that hadn't even gone through re-authentication," said Sharpgob.
"Harry is the first to reawaken a House of any calibre in over two hundred years, how was he supposed to know?" Daphne added, and Harry smiled at her, gratefully.
"Yes, that is what we thought, we understand that Wizardkind is not always aware of our rules. One of its foibles," replied Bogrod, "This is why we allowed the elf to extract the gold he required from his Potter Trust fund account."
"Well I'm here now, I would like to apologise for the misunderstanding and officially meet with you to complete any paperwork or whatever you need to be able to start using the Slytherin and main Potter vaults properly," Harry said.
"That is what we assumed was the reason for your visit," Sharpgob replied, "We will need a sample of your blood on each of these family seals to confirm your access to the vaults."
From a drawer built into the desk in front of him, Bogrod pulled out a bejewelled and very sharp-looking serrated dagger as well as two circular stones. One had the seal of Slytherin, while the other, the seal of Potter engraved in great detail on the centre and they were both covered in a vast amount of tiny runes in a form that Harry had never seen before and assumed they were Goblin-specific.
Harry took a hesitant glance at Daphne, but she nodded at him, letting him know that this was safe.
"How much blood do you need?" Harry asked warily, the dagger in front of him looked downright mean.
"Just a drop on each from a fingertip will suffice," Sharpgob replied with what seemed to be an attempt at a friendly smile, even though it looked very sinister with his sharp-toothed simile.
Harry decided he liked him better. Bogrod gave off a much frostier demeanour and was looking between him and Daphne with an air of distaste. Tentatively picking up the knife, Harry made a small cut to the index finger on his left hand before squeezing a few drops on each seal. Both stones then glowed a bright blue, and after moments turned white. The moment they did so, Bogrod's lip curled and he snatched them away quickly to place them back in the drawer.
"All is in order," the goblin said sharply.
"Thank you very much," Harry replied, getting a very odd look from the goblins in return, but they nodded at the words of gratitude.
"Now," Sharpgob began "As the vaults have officially been opened, we need to discuss the Slytherin account. There has been a problem regarding interest. The vault has been sealed for over a thousand years, and back then the interest on the account had been set at four percent, the standard for that time. Since then, the rate of interest has fluctuated dramatically for various reasons, but mainly with the increasing population the standard amount of interest has now decreased to two percent. With the amount of gold in those vaults, and then automated interest payments going into the vaults being unable to be changed due to his dormancy, you have been receiving far too much interest, as we have not been able to issue an official "sealed" missive to a House member."
"So what do you want me to do?" asked Harry, confused.
"We would like to be able to remove the additional funds from the account. They were added incorrectly." Bogrod said in a low register.
"How is it Harry's fault that the funds were added incorrectly?" Daphne asked, not afraid to look Bogrod in the eye.
"It is not his directly, but that of his House. If the last Lord had sired an heir and the Lordship not passed by magic, Gringotts wouldn't have had to take on this extra expense."
"But that's still not Harry's fault, he wasn't even born. That's a problem with your automated interest transfer set-up."
"It needs to be that way otherwise manual transfers of the usually smaller amounts of interest would be so common that we wouldn't have time for normal, day-to-day transfers," Bogrod explained.
"That still doesn't seem like it's my problem though," Harry replied.
"It's not and it's why they're asking you to allow them to claw back the funds, Harry. Isn't that right?" Daphne said giving the Goblin opposite her a challenging look.
"It is," Bogrod gritted out.
"Then why would I allow the gold to be transferred out? Interest being unable to change while accounts are dormant is your policy."
"To keep a…good relationship with the Goblin nation, of course," Bogrod said with a cruel smile.
Harry chewed the corner of his lip. How much was that worth? He was a vault-holder with a very large account, and difficulties with his account, especially in a time of war when he intended to spend a lot of it would make things a lot harder for him in general.
"How much is the additional interest?" Harry enquired.
"Just over four million galleons," Sharpgob replied simply.
"Absolutely not," immediately replied Daphne in a haughty tone.
Harry though, had another idea. The column he'd written to the Daily Prophet had to be submitted today if he was going to get it out by tomorrow, before the Wizengamot session. Its contents were particularly inflammatory and it was unlikely the Prophet would print it he didn't have their promised wards erected today. Dumbledore had taken a very long time to get back to him an edited version of his first piece that he approved of and now Harry feared all that effort would be for naught.
"Hang on there, Daphne," Harry said, "I have a few questions if I am going to consider this. First, how much, minus the two-percent extra interest would I have remaining in the Slytherin vault should I agree to this?"
"Just over seventy-two million galleons," Sharpgob replied, "You can afford it, my Lord."
Harry's eyebrows raised. That was substantially higher, more than double than what Hermione had estimated.
"I see that. And allowing you to, as Daphne put it, claw back the funds, would help my relationship with the Goblin Nation?"
"It certainly would, Lord Slytherin-Potter," replied Bogrod, his manner towards Harry becoming friendlier by the second.
"And how much are your finest Goblin War Wards?" Harry asked.
"A thousand galleons per residence, two thousand for businesses," Sharpgob replied, frowning at the unexpected change in the line of questioning.
"And the lead time on those?"
"They can be done in a day, though that is substantially more expensive. The usual time is two to three weeks."
"I see. Do the houses of Longbottom, Davis, Weasley and Greengrass have that standard?" Harry asked.
"Longbottom and Greengrass yes, Davis and the Weasleys no," stated Bogrod.
"And what about the employees of the Daily Prophet?"
"I'm not sure, I can find out, but likely none of them," Sharpgob replied
"And the Prophet's offices?"
"Standard Intruder Wards."
"How much would it cost to get all of them, bar Longbottom and Greengrass fitted with the standard lead time, and how long would it take?"
"About six weeks total," said Sharpgob, Bogrod started working furiously with some kind of magical abacus and a few seconds later said:
"Estimated around fifteen thousand Galleons."
"I tell you what. If you can get them all done by midnight tonight. You can have the extra interest back."
"We don't have enough staff!" Sharpgob replied, "We'd have to shut down most of the bank for the day, otherwise we wouldn't be able to maintain the Statute of Secrecy with all that action going on at once!"
"And would you make six million galleons if you didn't today?" Daphne asked, impressed with her boyfriend's idea.
Bogrod and Sharpgob began speaking to each other in Gobbledegook., they went through what seemed almost to the point of an argument before they seemed to come to a consensus.
"Wait here. We must go and speak to our Head."
They were then left in the very dark, circular office, looking around at the array of notices in very strange-looking Goblin script all around the office.
"That was very impressive, Harry, but it's a lot of money," Daphne warned.
"It will be worth it," Harry replied, "I need this column out first thing tomorrow, and me purchasing high-standard wards around their homes and premises is the condition we agreed to for letting me have a column whenever I want in the first place."
"Well, I'm impressed with how you handled it." Daphne replied, placing a hand on his thigh, "You look really good in the leather jacket, by the way."
"It's so hot outside in it though, I made a bit of a misjudgement with the weather."
"You look hot inside in it too," Daphne replied and leaning forward, placed a soft kiss on Harry's lips.
"You still taste like bacon," Daphne said with a smirk making Harry laugh
"I hope that does it for you," Harry said with mirth.
"Not quite," Daphne replied with a chuckle, "But if we stop by at Madam Malkin's, I'm sure we can get them to add some cooling and warming charms depending on the weather. It's a very nice jacket."
"If it will keep getting me kissed, I'm all for it," Harry replied.
"Oh it will," Daphne said, kissing him again.
A few minutes later, Bogrod and Sharpgob returned, Sharpgob holding a large document.
"Here is the order," Sharpgob said, not even sitting down and placing it in front of them, "If we are going to do this, we need to start now. Only three tellers and carts will be open for the rest of the day, so we advise the queues will be extensive if you wish to visit either of your vaults. We will require your magic on the attached seal to verify a transfer of this magnitude. Times like these are the only time you will be allowed to draw your wand in the bank. If you wish to do this, do it quickly please."
Harry promptly flicked his wand out from his new holster, and though he nearly missed it (and hoped Daphne didn't see), he caught it and placed the holly tip on the parchment's seal, which glowed and turned gold.
"Excellent Lord Slytherin-Potter," said Bogrod, "Thank you for your business, and your…worthy interaction with us today. I see you will be one of my more interesting account holders in the years to come. Now please leave. Good day."
Harry and Daphne were led back into the atrium, where a very confused Sirius was waiting for them among an equally confused mass of witches and wizards who were being quite unceremoniously herded out through the front doors.
"Hey guys," Sirius said, "Apparently we need to leave. Something weird's going on."
"Nothing weird," Daphne said, "Just Harry being Harry. He made a purchase so big he just about shut down the bank for the day."
"What?" Sirius asked.
Harry explained everything to his Godfather on the way to the Prophet's offices and by the end of it, he was cackling.
"Only you, Harry," Sirius said, "Sure you probably paid way too much, but at least you'll get the column out now and the goblins will be happy. Plus, some of the reactions of those being herded out were hilarious. You should've seen Lord Higgs! He very nearly threw a tantrum when they said he could get into this rapidly mounting queue for the carts."
The Daily Prophet offices weren't actually in Diagon Alley itself they were on a separate street entirely nearby, called Horizont Alley. It was a few streets away, past St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies but still within the "bubble" of reality that was hidden from muggle view, much like Knockturn Alley. Horizont Alley was frequented much less by the general public and was more of a commercial district, with mainly businesses that supplied other businesses or businesses where their products were delivered en mass, like the Daily Prophet.
The office building itself looked quite shabby as they approached, its tall Elizabethan facade looked almost dilapidated with it having not been updated in hundreds of years., Harry, Daphne and Sirius entered through an exceedingly old-looking set of double doors, with glossy black chipped paint and a brass doorknob, and found themselves not in an office building but stepping into a fairly modern-feeling elevator, much like the ones that were used in the Ministry of Magic but with bright light wood rather than the dark greenish black stone.
They were immediately taken to the first floor, and as they stepped out the magically automated doors they found themselves in a reception area that belied that the Daily Prophet's interior was much more modern than the look of its outside. There were polished wood floors, plenty of natural-seeming light and lots of airy light-wood furnishing and sky-blue leather chairs in the reception area. A large glass door to their right showed a bullpen of forty or so journalists, most of whom were dictating to a quick-quotes quill, though some were doing so to mechanical typewriters that clacked on their own. However, instead of a bell ringing when the typewriters reached the end of the line, the paper suddenly vanished before immediately reappearing further up. Hundreds of pieces of parchment soared across the room like birds, and it was remarkable with the sheer volume of them fluttering about that they didn't constantly crash into each other. The reception area was also sharp and modern, for the Wizarding World at least. A long smooth chestnut desk was manned by two receptionists sitting in front of a chestnut backboard, with the words "The Daily Prophet" extruded from its surface in its smooth black traditional gothic font.
Harry stepped towards the front desk and the first receptionist, a young, timid girl who was already staring at him as she'd seen a ghost by the time he'd arrived in front of her.
"I - er - Welcome - to…er," she stuttered,
The older receptionist to her right, a chunky woman with a face adorned with a great deal of laugh lines and who wore her grey hair in a tight bun saved her colleague from further embarrassment.
"Lord Slytherin-Potter, welcome to the Daily Prophet, how can I 'elp?" the lady asked with a thick cockney accent.
"As per our agreement with your Editor, all of your houses and this business will have the finest standard Goblin war-wards installed by midnight tonight," Harry said.
"Wow, my Lord…even my 'ouse in Cheapside?" the receptionist asked, named Edith by her nametag.
"Yes, even yours," said Harry, smiling.
"Thank you, mi Lord," said Edith, curtseying immediately, and gesturing to her colleague to do the same, "This is so we'll print your articles, innit?"
"That's it," Harry said, "I've got the first one here. And a receipt from Gringotts, proving the wards instalment."
From his pocket, Harry pulled out a roll of parchment and the receipt from Gringotts and placed them on the desk in front of her, side by side.
"Do you reckon you can get this in the paper tomorrow please?" Harry asked, "I need it in on the morning of the Wizengamot session."
"Don't see why not, printin's not to start til this evenin'. I'll let you know if there are any problems."
"Thank you very much," Harry replied, tapping his finger on the desk.
"Will that be all, mi Lord?" Edith asked.
"That's everything, thanks," Harry nodded and with a little wave turned away, "See you later."
"Bye!" the cockney receptionist replied, awkwardly waving back as they turned to get back into the lift.
They went back into the street and started to meander back towards Diagon Alley.
Outside St Mungo's Sirius stopped.
"Right, well this is me. I won't be out of the three or so hours so don't bother waiting, just keep yourselves safe and I'll see you at home, Harry. Daphne, lovely to see you."
"Lovely to see you too," Daphne replied, smiling genially.
"See you later Padfoot," Harry said.
"See ya," Sirius replied with a wave and then turned to walk between the marble columns and into the hospital.
Daphne turned to Harry and said, "Right then, what do you wanna do? Hogwarts stuff right? I got mine when we got this year's letter the other day."
"Yeah, it's just books. Just gotta go back to Flourish and Blotts to pick them up. We can do whatever we want after."
"Cool, let's go," Daphne replied with a smile, and Harry smiled at the skip in her step as she linked arms with him and they walked down the street and back in Diagon Alley. Discussing their mutual confusion at the fact that the book list hadn't had any Defence Against the Dark Arts texts on it.
Their trip to Flourish and Blotts was over quickly. While the shop was very busy for a Saturday morning and they were stopped by many who just wanted to stand and gawk at him, the shopkeepers already had pre-made stacks of course books for each given year of Hogwarts students. It was much easier to pay as well, now that Harry could pay just using his wand. He treated Daphne to a book on Arithmancy and had all the books shrunk into a new invention that had recently started circulation around the shopping districts this year, small linen pouches that would fit in one's pocket. Each book would permanently re-expand once it had been removed from it and once all had been removed, the linen pouch would disappear itself entirely.
They then stopped in Twillfit and Tattings, who Daphne assured him would do a much better job of fitting charms into his new jacket than Madam Malkin would. Madame Malkin, she said, would simply cast spells that would need to be renewed, Twilfit and Tattings had patented thread that could be sewn into the inside of his jacket that would maintain his desired cooling and heating effects instantly. They had to wait about ten minutes and Daphne decided that she really didn't like how flirty one of the shop assistants had gotten with Harry, but once they'd left the shop Harry could feel the benefit of the jacket's improvements instantly.
However, it was still very warm outside and Harry had the idea, knowing his girlfriend's sweet tooth for ice cream, that he might take her to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour as a treat. There'd been quite a queue when they got there and because the seating area was full Harry ordered a large tub of mint chocolate chip for himself and some strawberry ice cream for Daphne to take away.
Florean himself had been the one to serve them, but the moment his scoop touched the mint-chocolate flavour's container he suddenly stopped when a sudden feeling of rapidly increasing and then decreasing air pressure suddenly filled the space. Several people frowned as the sensation made everyone's inner ears pop, much like muggles' ears do when descending in an aeroplane, but many in the room gasped and started looking around frantically. It was a tell-tale sign of anti-apparition wards going up and some of the customers started advising those they were with to get to their feet
A loud deep bang thundered outside, loud enough to make the ice cream shop's single-glazed windows shake and many metal spoons rang within their empty ice cream glasses on the various tables. An angry red spell shot down the alley past the shop and the sound of screams began both within and outside the shop. Outside the window, they saw a huge wave of people sprinting as fast as they could down the alley and into rapidly filling shops, while as many more spells shot into and above those running as they tried desperately to get off the street.
Many people barged into the Florean Fortescue's in a matter of seconds instantly, and Harry swiftly manhandled Daphne up under her arms and pushed her back and up to sit her on the table in the booth nearest the door. It was already fully seated with four wizards in their early thirties who'd finished their ice cream already and must've been just about getting ready to leave. The two wizards sat on the booth-side nearest the window budged up and Harry stepped onto the seat next to them. From this position, he could see along the street and unfortunately, wasn't surprised by the grim scene that he saw.
Death Eaters. Twenty of them, all in their distinctive black cloaks and silver masks. They were firing spells at every person they could see, and while they were not all killing curses several people of all ages were quickly meeting their demise. Harry cast a protego and dared to pull in a family of four, including a father who was carrying a small screaming boy of about eight about who'd been hit in the leg by something and was limping.
"Daphne, get up here," Harry commanded, and seeing the seriousness in his gaze, she did as he asked.
"Put the little one here," Harry told the father, pointing at the table. There was so much noise in the room he could barely hear himself think.
"QUIET EVERYONE!" Harry shouted, "I CAN'T HELP THIS FAMILY UNLESS YOU ALL SHUT UP!"
Thankfully, most of the room quietened down, but Harry was aware he had everyone's full attention.
"Y-y-you're Harry," stuttered the father in shock, "Some were saying they'd seen you in the alley, but."
"Put him here, please," Harry said, trying to seem a little less panicked and a little more kindly.
The man nodded and sat the crying child on the table.
"Now what did he get hit with?" Harry asked the father.
"I…I don't know." the man stuttered.
"He didn't," the boy's mother said from behind him. We were knocked over by the explosion in front of Gringotts, they've blocked that whole end of the street off."
"That's good, that's good," Harry said quickly, "What's his name?"
"Troilus." the child's father said,
Harry removed his wand and took a crouching position next to Troilus.
"Hey Troilus, look at me. Do you know who I am?" Harry asked, lifting his fringe to show his scar.
"You're…you're Harry Potter," the young sandy-haired boy said through his tears.
"I am, well Slytherin Potter now, Troilus, I need you to be brave for me and let me have a look at that leg okay? Florean here's going to give you and your sister here some ice cream, isn't that right, Florean?" Harry said
"Yes my Lord, what flavour?" Florean asked
"Surprise us," Harry replied.
A couple of tubs of ice cream complete with little wooden spoons was quickly passed over. The distraction was good enough for Harry to get a good look at that leg. A quick diagnostic charm showed him that it was luckily just a quick hairline fracture, and with a whisper of parseltongue, he managed to heal it.
"Was that…was that parseltongue?" Someone said, causing a gasp from a few others in the shop.
"A family spell," Harry replied, "See, the language of snakes can be used for good, can't it?"
"Thank you," said Troilus' father.
"No problem, Harry said with a smile, and he got up and turned his attention to the now-cleared street outside. Those not Death Eaters still left on the street were now all, unfortunately dead, and the whole group of Death Eaters were going up to each shop, one by one and firing spells at them, testing the wards. Harry didn't know which ones wouldn't hold up, but he didn't want to wait to find out and all of them would give out eventually. They were just trying to find the weakest set first.
Harry looked at Daphne.
"I'm going out," he told her, a steely glint in his eye.
"You can't go alone," Daphne said, pulling out her wand, "I'm coming with you."
"No," I can't fight effectively on my own and protect you as well."
A young woman, a staff member working at the store judging by the uniform ran back into the main room and announced "The Floo Network is down, we're stuck!" The previously quieted-down room started to increase its volume again as some people started chatting panickedly to each other, were whimpering and many started crying.
Harry looked at the scared faces around him. Was this what the war would become? How could they win when he could see grown men literally urinating themselves where they sat? He needed to do something, but Daphne was right. He couldn't do this by himself. He'd had their attention and commanded it well enough before, and he could see the way that many of them had looked at them in hope when he said he would go out and fight.
"Have the Aurors been called?" Harry shouted.
"I've just sent a house elf for them," shouted Florean Fortescue back, "But I don't think they'll be along any time soon, he came back and said there was no one in the DMLE headquarters, and a receptionist had told him there's been an attack on Azkaban at the same time!
"Oh for fuck's sake," Harry said under his breath. Thinking logically, he was willing to be Voldemort's plan had gone wrong, that this attack was meant to have happened earlier to make it easier for him, but there being no Aurors here now somehow helped him make the decision. If his plan went right it wouldn't be good if anyone were caught in the crossfire.
Harry turned back to look out of the window and saw that they'd managed to summon a woman out of an upstairs window. To his horror he saw that two of them were taking turns firing underpowered cutting curses at her, both slicing her slightly and removing her clothing piece by piece while the rest of the Death Eaters cackled as they continued to try to remove the wards to a shop. They'd be through at any moment.
Harry, slightly opened a top window, turned to the people in the shop, removed his wand from his holster and cast a high-powered Sonorous charm. Then, trying his best to think of what he and Hermione had written in the dozens of drafts of his first column for the Prophet, held the tip of his wand to his neck and spoke.
"People of Diagon Alley, this is Lord Harry Slytherin-Potter. I am here, right here with you as we face an attack from some of the most vile people to ever walk these lands. I wish to stop these evil bastards, but they are many and I cannot do it alone. Not two months ago, I killed three of their generals, and this attack is just a cowardly attack by mere foot soldiers, mere dogs who want nothing more than to spread fear. The Aurors are not coming. There is an attack on Azkaban and they are indisposed so that leaves us on our own, but do not fear. If we let them leave here today, after having brought many of us our deaths, they will only come back in greater numbers and will likely come and find us in the dead of night, torture, and kill us. They have blocked apparition. They have taken down the Floo network. This is excellent.
Today they have committed a grave mistake. In the store I am in alone we are at least fifty. There are hundreds of us in this alley and only about twenty of them. We outnumber them at least twenty to one. They do not realise that they have not locked us in with them. They have locked themselves in here with us. In just under two minutes, the clock will strike midday, and every single wand must shoot a cutting curse out into the street. Do not fire in the direction of a doorway of another shop, we do not want to harm each other, but there is no way their shields will be able to handle all of us and we will stop this cowardly attack in a matter of seconds. I am right here with you and I promise we will all get through this. Please, if you are with me, cast a Lumos!
Harry looked at Daphne, who had a steely fire in her eyes that she had never seen before and looked back to see Death Eaters now running to every shop casting spells wildly around them, which were simply just bouncing off the majority of the well-warded stores and having no effect. Many of the people in the people in the shop were already getting to their feet, drawing their wands as they saw each other gradually light them, each new light spurning the next into life.
A Death Eater in the street shouted, "Come out Potter scum, let us deal with you ourselves," but just as the shops around them were quickly illuminated.
"From where I am every single shop has just lit up like Christmas. We are all in this together. I am with you. As sure as I am that I will defeat the Dark Lord once again, I am sure that today this will not be known as that monster took Azkaban, it will be known as the day the good people of Wizarding World stood up and proved to him we will not fear his pathetic minions and we will not hesitate to hurl them into the abyss. Rise, Diagon Alley! Rise and throw off the fear that has plagued this land since before I was born."
Harry glanced at the clock on the wall.
"In one minute now, we fight. Death Eaters, lay down your arms, lay flat on the floor and we will show mercy. My noble fighters in the shops, do not hurt any of those who do this, or we will be no better than they are. The ones on the floor are to receive stunners only. Rest assured though, Death Eater scum, if your wands are not thrown far away from you and you are not face down, arms outstretched on the floor at the second the clock chimes midday you will. be. eviscerated. And do not try anything stupid. I have a family spell that I have renamed Serpent Fyre that I can fully control and will absorb Fiendfire in a matter of seconds. Talking about seconds, you have thirty. Thirty seconds. Citizens, shout for me. Are you with me!?"
From around the alley even with the majority of doors shut, a rousing cheer could be heard, rumbling through the walls like an earthquake. The noise in Fortescue's was deafening and the Death Eaters began running around in panic.
"I said are you with me?!" Harry shouted into the Sonorous.
"YEEEAH!"
"Those willing to fight, make your way to the doorway. Twenty seconds, count down with me. Eighteen, Seventeen, Sixteen…"
"Get to the windows upstairs! Follow me!" shouted Florean Fortescue, who led ten or so people rushing up a set of stairs at the back of the shop so they could fire out of the upstairs windows.
From every shop in the alley, the masses counted down; the atmosphere was electric. Harry could feel the wild tension in the room as no less than thirty witches and wizards pushed their way through the throng, wands raised, eyes filled with grim yet almost manic determination. Harry pulled Daphne to stand on the seat next to him and they raised their wands as the other wizards around the booth all tried to point their wand through any gap they could find.
"Doors open in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Fire!"
A witch took hold of the door to Florean Fortescues and sharply pulled it towards herself, squashing herself and a few others slightly against the wall behind it. The moment the gap was wide enough, Harry and those in the shop started casting rapidly. The sheer volume of spells that were shot out into the street was so overwhelming you could barely make out if there were any Death Eaters who had surrendered, but even though Harry thought he could see several of them getting to the ground as their countdown reached five, there were very few stunning spells cast.
After a tsunami of spellfire that lasted for a whole minute, it gradually stopped. Harry jumped down from the booth's sofa and ran out into the street, quickly followed by Daphne and many others from the shop. Every other shop's patrons also ran into the street completely ignoring the blood flowing across the cobblestones and the pieces of the Death Eaters in their manic glee, even though every single one had been cut to ribbons. They'd been sliced so severely that it was impossible to tell who if any had surrendered their wands and with the huge crowd flowing out into the street the pieces were shuffled around their feet in a grisly mixture of blood, flesh and sinew. A jubilant cheer rose from the alley as Harry was picked up by many and held above the crowds as they chanted "Harry, Harry, Harry."
Daphne looked up proudly at her boyfriend, who for the first time in his life felt proud to be recognised for what he had done, but she stepped back to the doorway of the shop, as the bits of Death Eater were trudged up and down the street were making her feel very sick. After several seconds, Harry asked to be put down and the crowd began to dissipate and several of them, taking in the streets state couldn't help but vomit.
To their right, the gate at the Leaky Cauldron finally reopened and there stood Arthur, Molly, Ron, Hermione, Lupin, Hestia and Dumbledore all with their wands raised, but they quickly dropped them. They spotted Harry standing outside Fortescue's among the crowd and made their way over.
"Harry!" Hermione said, "What happened? Oh my God that's -"
She then promptly vomited.
"That's what happens when twenty Death Eaters trap themselves in here with me and two hundred people willing to fight by my side," Harry said with a grim, proud smile.
"They're all dead." Dumbledore said in shock, "And in pieces, we'll never who they were!"
"They won't be a problem anymore," Harry said.
"You can't just incite mass murder like that, Harry. It is wrong."
"I didn't. I incited hope. I told those that if any Death Eater got down on the ground and surrendered their wands they should only receive stunners."
"I understand Harry, but many at the Wizengamot tomorrow may not see it that way."
"They will when they count the fallen that weren't death eaters, like the little girl back there." Harry pointed over his shoulder where a woman sat cradling a young girl in her arms, "And those two men behind you, and the woman laid against the wall over there. Don't worry, the streets were clear of wounded before we started firing."
"But where were the Aurors?" asked Arthur, still blinking in shock, "They should be here."
"There's another attack led by Voldemort at Azkaban happening right now. We weren't getting any help." Harry replied.
"There is?" Dumbledore said in alarm. "Fawkes!"
In a blazing flash, the phoenix appeared on Dumbledore's shoulder.
"I must go to Azkaban at once to assist. We will be having further words about this, Harry."
Dumbledore then clapped his hands and disappeared in a blaze of phoenix fire.
Daphne came to stand next to him. Harry turned to her.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm…fine. Just a bit shaken…And there's a lot of blood. I'm going to go home, Mum and Dad will have found out what's happened by now. Luckily they've been up in Hogsmeade today, but no doubt they'll have found out what's happened already. News travels fast."
"When will I see you again?" Harry asked, "There's still another four weeks til school starts."
"I don't know, we'll sort something out," Daphne replied, and wrapped her arms around him in a hug, before giving him a soft kiss. Then, said goodbye, Harry watched her walk through the archway to the leaky cauldron before regrettably, once more, she was gone.
