LAST TIME

"You… are mistaken," A figure stepped out of the shadows, a long white wand held in her hand and Harry felt a chill run down his veins. "We… meet again… agent. And hello… Valkyrie."

"Cadros." Valkyrie scowled, moving to stand next to Harry, the tip of her wand glowing green. "You've been a pain in the ass for a while. But it ends today."

"That… we will… see." Cadros croaked, flicking her wand.

Instantly, Harry felt magic prickle his skin, like he had been locked in a cage.

"Wards," Valkyrie hissed. "She has boxed us in."

"Only one… leaves alive." A smile curled on her lips. "A fight… to… death."

Ch.17 The End of the Mission

Golden lines curled to runes and a golden barrier flared in front of Harry, a bolt of flames washing over it. Cadros growled, gesturing to the gunmen, who raised their guns. Beams of yellow and blue roared at them, bursting against the golden shimmer, little ripples traveling down its length.

Harry flicked his wrist, transfiguring the debris around them into bronze spears that tore toward the attackers.

Cadros ducked behind a pillar while a spear pierced through one of the gunmen, and blood spurted across the gleaming white tiles. The other dove behind a velvet sofa, leaving LeDuff open.

Harry slashed his wand, directing the spears at LeDuff but the Japanese bodyguards stepped in front of him, swinging their golden swords in tandem. A wave of magic burst and the spears were torn to motes of bronze light.

'What the hell?'

Cadros hurled pink and purple curses that fizzled against the shimmer, whorls of golden light flashing over Valkyrie's face.

"Kill… them."

The Japanese woman grinned and sprung forward, vaulting over a chair that Harry banished at her. Deflecting a curse, she stabbed her sword into the shield, tearing through it like a hot knife through butter. Harry's eyes widened and he twisted, a golden blur whistling past his ear and sinking into the marble-tiled floor.

The woman let out a high cackle and spun, the sword's tip tearing a gash through Harry's coat.

'I need to take the sword away.' Harry felt the wand thrum in agreement. 'Expelliarmus.'

A crimson beam bounced off the edge of her sword and the woman's grin broadened. "One of its kind, motherfucker."

The sword glowed and a jagged yellow beam shot at Harry, who deflected it, smirking as the curse tore through the second gunman's chest and the blood splattered over Le Duff, who screamed shrilly. His opponent's eyes flicked past his shoulder and Harry moved, another sword gleaming past his chest. He stuck out his foot and the Japanese man stumbled toward his wife.

'Sectumsempra.'

Deep gashes sliced through the protective clothing and the man's back, a grunt escaping his lips. A crimson beam wrenched the sword out of his hand, sending him crashing into the broken wall.

The woman's eyes burned with fury, watching the man's sword clatter at her feet.

"You'll die, motherfucker." She lunged, her sword skittering off a bronze dome.

Harry poured piercing and gouging hexes at her and she batted them away with her sword, her face twisting with each spell.

Behind her, Le Duff darted away and ducked behind Cadros, holding up a faint shimmer of magic around him. Cadros took a moment from her fight to transfigure a wooden chair into stone to protect him and Valkyrie buried her in flashes of red and peach, the spells sparking over Cadros' cracking white shield.

As Harry pushed her back, the Japanese woman put her sword away and removed a staff from her robes, sending a lightning bolt at Harry. The tip of the Elder Wand sliced the bolt in half and Harry aimed his wand at her feet.

"Bombarda Maxima!"

The villa shook as the spell blew a chunk through the floor and she fell, vanishing in the cloud of dust and debris. Harry's nose stung, and he coughed, waving his wand to clear the air. The flash of spells behind him caught his eyes and he twisted, blood pumping through his arm. Spells blew apart a figure in the dark before a woman emerged through the hole in the wall and Harry thrust his wand.

"Felix, it's me!" Sugarquill yelped, flinching as the curse sliced past her ear. "Don't shoot! Chutney?"

Agent Chutney stepped into the room, her gaze moving past Harry's shoulder. "We should finish the mission."

Harry nodded and turned, wincing as spells crashed into each other and ricocheted off onto pillars, blowing chunks through them. Cadros' eyes swept through the room and she moved, Valkyrie's spells flying past her braid, piercing and blasting through the metal windows.

Flames poured from her wand like a tide, prickling against Harry's skin as he raised his wand. Tongues of fire lunged at them and he swatted them away, feeling the sparks run down his suit.

"Fucking hell," Chutney muttered, thrusting her wand, and a glob of fire burst, embers scattering over her feet. "I think she's going to run."

Harry felt the heat turn harsher, and his throat dried. 'She's fighting to death.'

"I don't think so," he told Chutney and conjured a stream of water that sizzled into steam, cutting through the roar of Cadros' flames.

Sugarquill waved her wand and a breeze ruffled through the room, clearing the steam and dust away.

"You… cannot… win."

Cadros grabbed Le Duff by his collar and ducked under a spell that blew a part of the wall, revealing the corridor outside.

Chunks of cement flew over her head and she jabbed her wand, turning them into spikes.

'Not happening.'

"Run. Alpha… team, take—" She shielded against a storm of spells from all four of them, her face contorted. "— Liberator."

Harry's eyes widened and he glanced at Valkyrie as Le Duff jumped through the debris, vanishing into the corridor on the other side. A faint yelling and the drum of footsteps reached his ears through the sizzle of flames.

"Le Duff's the liberator. We need to get him," Valkyrie hissed

"There are still a few gunmen left," Chutney said, two blasting curses flying from her wand toward Cadros, who stepped out of the way, banishing a table at them. "He would've escaped to them."

Valkyrie blasted it to dust and golden ropes leapt from her wand, only to be chopped down. Cadros gave them a grim smile and her wand blurred, spells rocketing toward them.

"What the hell?" Sugarquill shielded against the barrage. "How's she doing that?"

"Go from the back!" A bludgeoning hex flew over Harry's head and he deflected a gauging curse. "Cut LeDuff off. He's more important. I'll get Cadros. Go!"

Valkyrie spared a glance at Cadros and deflected a curse before nodding. "With me, Sugar."

Cadros directed her spells at them, only for them to fizzle upon Harry's broad shield. Her face contorted in rage and she tugged her wand up, the flames lunging at Harry and clawing at his shield as Valkyrie and Sugarquill disappeared through the hole behind him.

Agent Chutney flung curses at Cadros, who summoned a huge table, turning it to stone, and ducked behind it. Harry let the shield fade away and pointed his wand at the flames pouring magic down his wand.

'Extinguish.'

The flames around the room disappeared, leaving only smoke in its wake that Harry blew away with a hasty jab. Chutney shot a blasting curse at the table and pieces of stone scattered across the marble floor and bounced off Harry's leg as he looked around.

Cadros was nowhere to be seen.

'She might be hiding.' Harry squinted. 'She has a near-perfect disillusionment charm.'

"She went after Le Duff." Chutney ran around the hole in the floor. "Come!"

Before Harry could say anything, he felt a wave of magic from the side, and Chutney screamed as her spine was ripped out of her back and her chest was blasted open with a spell.

Harry felt a weight drop into his gut, the breath leaving his lungs as he stared at Chutney's dead eyes, her last expression of surprise still etched on her face.

Cadros shimmered into view, a smirk on her face, casually deflecting a bolt of lightning that blasted a pillar to dust.

"You bitch!" Harry snarled, unleashing a deep purple curse that hit a shimmer of magic, leaving faint ripples in the air.

Cadros shook her head and tossed her hair over her shoulder as another spell hammered into her shield, cracking it.

"So… you're Felix." The shield burst and she tilted her head, allowing a skull-crushing curse to fly past her. "I… assume you… are… my replacement."

"What makes you think that?" Harry scoffed, his eyes darting around the room. "That I am your replacement?"

"Your… name," She coughed, her face scrunching. "No… theme."

A wet, raw cough tore out of her throat and she flicked her wand, raising the shield again. Her lips curled and she pulled her wooden mask away, her face shifting.

Harry felt his heart clench as he looked at her withered face, the black, rotten skin hanging to her bones.

"You… see… what they… did?" The mask clattered at her feet and she crushed it under her foot. "What… they made… me?"

"Well, so, you're a bit ugly. Is that why you betrayed WAND?" Harry asked. "A celebrated witch turned to—"

Cadros snarled and released a dark olive curse at him, which Harry deflected.

"Celebrated?" She snarled, her voice breaking. Pain brimmed in her eyes and her fists clenched. "I… was removed! They… they boast… but… it's all… bark. Useless…"

She coughed harshly, sparks flying from her wand.

"You think you had more to do," Harry said. "But they still removed you. Because of the withering curse."

Cadros nodded. "You… understand."

"No. All I see is that they had an agent who was unfit to go back in the field and be a liability to her team." Harry snorted. "You cannot speak properly and according to the file, you were never going to be capable of dueling again."

"Do… you… think… that now?" She broke into coughs, her eyes watering. "That… I am… not cap…capable?"

"The withering curse has no stopping," Harry said. "Even with the best potions and care, anyone would succumb to it in a few months. A year at the most. It took the life of one of the greatest wizards in the world once upon a time, despite all the power he had."

"I… won't. They… had… a cure. WAND… it does. If… it exists… WAND has… it." Her lips curled into a bitter smile. "They… didn't… give it."

"And why would they do that?" Harry rolled his eyes.

"I was… too… good. The others… were… jealous." Her eyes flicked to Chutney's lifeless body. "Her… one… of… them."

"So, you turned against WAND? Because people were jealous."

"No." She scowled. "I… joined… someplace… I was… valued."

"The Liberator." Harry's eyes flicked to the corridor behind her. "Le Duff."

"He… has a… great… vision," Cadros' eyes burned. "One… greater… than WAND's… He'll change… the world."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "I have heard shit like this before. From every wannabe dark lord."

"Perhaps." Cadros smiled thinly. "You… won't… live… to—"

Harry attacked, an orange curse blasting through the shield. Cadros parried a cleaving curse, firing a bolt of flames at Harry.

He ducked under the spell and ripped a cabinet from the wall, swinging it at Cadros, who dove to the ground and shot a spell, turning most of the cabinet to dust. Harry transfigured some shards of wood to metal and threw them at Cadros, the projectiles bouncing off a shield.

Harry felt rage swirl in his veins and poured it down his wand. A bolt of golden lightning pierced through Cadros' shield and hit her in the chest, smashing her into the wall. Her body convulsed, a scream tearing out of her throat as tendrils of electricity arced down her arms.

A dark curse leaped from her wand, cutting the bolt off, and sending Harry stumbling. A curse sliced past his hips, leaving a thin gash and he hissed, swatting away a gouging curse. With a snarl, he dragged up every bit of magic he had and slashed his wand.

Cadros' arm burst into blood, her wand flying across the room. She screamed again, falling to the floor, clutching her hand.

Harry took deep breaths, his eyes flicking to Chutney's dead body before he looked back at Cadros.

"You don't deserve to live, Cadros. And you are too dangerous to be left alive." He heaved. "Lacero."

The yellow curse sliced through her neck and blood sprouted, splattering across the ruined floor. Cadros fell, blood pouring from her neck and Harry stepped over her, into the corridor outside.

"Now, where's Le Duff?" He peered down the crumbling villa.

Sighing, he pressed a finger to his ear, hearing the static sound, and cursed.

'I have no means of contacting them. I need to get to Valkyrie and find a way to connect—'

A loud siren pierced through his thoughts and a familiar voice rumbled through the villa.

"This is the International Confederation of Wizards! Come out with your wands away and hands in the air!" De Luca's voice boomed. "I'll repeat—"

Harry let the magic of the hallows envelop him and apparated, arriving on the grounds. De Luca's voice reverberated through the ground as a horse of dark figures advanced toward them. Harry twisted again, going closer and letting go of his invisibility.

"Put your hands—" Daphne's voice trailed off and she smiled. "Hippogriff, I have Felix. He's here."

"Why's everyone here?" Harry demanded. "This is a black-ops mission. You brought all of WAND?"

"And the ICW. De Luca was worried when you lost contact with us. So… he brought the cavalry." Daphne waved her hand. "Why did you lose contact?"

"My comms stopped working for some reason when we got near the villa." Harry removed the earpiece and handed it to her. "What's the status of Valkyrie and Sugarquill? They went after Le Duff."

"He managed to escape?" Daphne blurted.

"Cadros was there. She isn't anymore," Harry replied darkly. "Come, we need to get to him before he can escape."

Daphne nodded and pressed her fingers to her ear, frowning. "Not to worry. We have him. Sugarquill and Whale just got in touch."

"Where's Valkyrie?"

"Gone back to the villa to look for you." Natalie walked up to us, a bag held in her hands. "Are you injured?"

"Not really," Harry muttered.

"Good. Because we are in a giant clusterfuck right now. A Black ops just turned into an ICW operation. It means we are on a clock now. And if Le Duff doesn't blabber fast, the whole thing will be turned on us and we'll be fucked."

Harry sipped on the sweet, juice-like potion, his eyes trailing over the agents working across the hall, and the papers that zipped past the desks, curving and swooshing between desks. Valkyrie sat opposite him, her legs propped on a second chair, doing the same thing as him while reading a file.

"What's going on?" Harry cleared his throat. "And why is everyone so panicked?"

"Because De Luca, in all his wisdom and caring, blew the Black ops by sending a whole army in after we lost contact." Valkyrie huffed. "Now, if we do not present concrete proof that Le Duff is the Liberator, who had a nice fucking sinister plot, we will be screwed."

"How screwed?" Harry scratched his head

"For starters, Mage, De Luca, and I, as the spearheads of this operation, will be court-martialed." Valkyrie flicked a page. "This operation and every action we have done for it will be scrutinized. And there's a good chance that the ICW takes every ongoing operation away from us or puts a pause on our work till inquiries are over."

Harry felt dread curl in his chest like a giant fist. "That means a lot of criminals will run free."

"And that'll just be the start of it," Valkyrie declared. "Which means we cannot fail. We never can."

"Then why aren't we working on making Le Duff speak?" Harry frowned. "I bet he'll fall a lot faster than Rookwood did."

"The problem is, we cannot do anything illegal to him to make him speak." Valkyrie scowled. "Which means, sticking to Veritaserum. And if we don't want it fought off in court, we need more than a confession under Veritaserum. Hard proof."

"We have the guns, the account statements, and a dozen other things. What else do you want?"

"A free-willed confession will do good," she shrugged. "If not that? Definitive proof that he was up to something."

Harry's jaw twitched. "What if we get him to gloat?"

Valkyrie blinked. "Say what now?"

"Le Duff is a rich man, one who has power and position. That comes with an ego. We might be able to bait him into gloating about his superiority. And let him slip."

"It could work." Valkyrie leaned back in her chair. "Do you think you can do it?"

"I'll try. I did it with another rich asshole in Britain who thought he was too clever for the world."

"Do it. Let him stew for a bit and then go. And while you're doing this, we will raid the other warehouses and every other place we have got."

Harry nodded and raised the potion. "To the end of the mission."

AND… DONE! Hope you all liked the chapter!

So, yep! Cadros is dead and Le Duff is in chains. Only the final lap remains. The wrap-up and the epilogue.

Yes, this chapter was a little short but I didn't want to underscore it with the end and wrap up and a dozen other things. The last chapter will go up soon and end it all with a clever little bang ;). As for the greater story, yes, this can be considered the end but the confession does remain which I've showcased with a clever little chapter, Wits Not Wands. (To be published soon.)

I'm well aware that I've fallen back by a couple of weeks on the update schedule and I am truly sorry for that but Uni bombarded me with assignments, Projects, Presentation, and whatnot. So, LoSP will be updated very soon too, but before LoSP, on Halloween, the first chapter of my NEW HARRY POTTER FIC WILL GO LIVE!

Yes, you heard that right! My new story, Black Dawn, will go up for FFN and AO3, within two days from now. I do implore you to try it out when it goes live. The first chapter is free on Pat-reon, with the next three being behind early access tiers (alongside the last chapter of Agent Potter, and chapters of all my other fics, with several short stories and lore compendiums).

So, if you want to (and can), please subscribe and support me as an author. It would mean a lot to me if you do so. There you can find additional short pieces (including my first SMUT piece) apart from my normal long fics!

Link: www . pat reon HPFanfictioner66 (Remove spaces)

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FrozenColt: Yes, initially, it was meant for Harry and Daphne to fall into dating during the mission but stuff changed. I did say Haphne pairing but have since forgotten to remove it. I did remove it from the pairing on the other places, but yet, thank you for bringing it to my notice. I do, however, still intend for that pairing in the sequel oneshots.

HowlnMadHowie: Oversights are a wonderful thing, no. Cadros, for all intents and purposes, is one of the best WAND agent to have passed through its halls. She is, or was a demon with a wand, with leadership, and charisma to match.

Qwertyuiop123214685: Hahaha. It'd be interesting, but not something I ever wish to write.

Thenoper: it was published in 2022.

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Thank you for all your reviews.

A huge thanks to Mughil, Nanu for betaing this chapter.

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