Chapter 6

Whatever result Harry had expected in the Quidditch finals, never in a million years he would have expected that the twins' predictions might actually come true. The Bulgarian chasers had indeed been outclassed by the Irish, who were scoring seemingly at will. Desperate to save face, Krum had then caught the snitch even though that resulted in his team barely losing with 160 to 170 points.

Even though the Bulgarians had lost, Harry understood now why Krum was regarded as the best flier in the world. The man had flown circles around his competition, and he had been lucky enough to witness some of his moves. He would most certainly try some of them himself later.

Anyway, the party was in full swing. The fans were drinking and singing songs and every now and then you could hear a firework going off.

Fred and George were currently dancing on a table with Ron, while singing the Irish national anthem. Hermione, Ginny and he were sitting on the couch, watching them with grins, Percy seemed to be absorbed in one of his books and the three elder Weasley men were outside their tent talking with some friends.

Then everything went nuts.

The first thing Harry heard were loud explosive sounds, which one could have almost mistaken for just another set of particularly spicy fireworks. But then the panicked yells echoed through the entire camp site, which immediately spurred Harry to action, his wand was in his hand before he could even think about it.

Right after that the entrance of their tent was opened and Harry with his newfound paranoia almost cursed Mr. Weasley who urgently entered the tent together with Bill and Charlie with grim faces.

The music in the tent immediately died down and everybody looked at Arthur concerned.

"Dad? What is going on?" Percy asked.

"We are under attack!" yelled the Weasley patriarch and then pointed at his three eldest sons "Percy, lead the children to the portkey as fast as you can! Bill, Charlie! You help me, give them cover!"

Not hesitating a single second Harry yanked the girls, who seemed to be frozen in shock, to their feet and pulled them along with the others.

Once they exited their tent, Harry immediately took a good look around him. Further down to their left he could see some tents burning and a mass of panicked people running away from there, right in their direction. After a couple seconds he could faintly see something through the smoke that made his blood freeze in his veins - Death Eaters, Voldemort's old followers. Covered with their black cloaks and white masks they made their way forward, flinging spells around them.

Anger started to bubble up within him when he saw them casting spells in the crowd. His first instinct was to go after them, to enact vengeance. But then he looked at his frightened friends, trying to make their way to safety.

"Don't try to be a hero! Live to fight another day." Moody's words rang in his head.

Harry shook his head to throw off the foolish thought of confronting the Death Eaters. His first priority was to get his friends out of here.

With that he followed the Weasleys through the crowd, occasionally looking over his shoulder to check for threats.

But they were far too slow. The smoke coupled with the darkness of the night hindered their vision and the panicked crowd hardly made it any better. Therefore, they made it halfway to the portkey site before a stunner whizzed dangerously close past them. A brief look behind them confirmed that the Death Eaters were quickly gaining on them. The big crowd of panicked and drunken fans was simply much slower than the organized group behind them.

It wouldn't be long now before they got them, Harry realized.

And it seems like he was not the only one who had come to that conclusion. Mr. Weasley turned around and started casting spells towards their pursuers in a desperate attempt to buy them more time. Unfortunately, that had the exact opposite effect as their opponents were now specifically targeting him and those nearby.

The eldest Weasley brothers were now stopping as well to assist their father.

Harry cursed when a spell blew up a nearby tent blasting Mr. Weasley several feet backwards and knocked him out cold.

Fuck it!

With a deep sigh he stopped running and turned towards the group of Death Eaters and pulled out his invisibility cloak. A second later he seemingly vanished from the campsite, his eyes set hard on the masked group in front of him.

Just when Daphne thought her day couldn't get any worse it did.

First of all she had reluctantly decided to accompany her best friend Tracy Davis and her parents to the Quidditch World Cup, despite having absolutely no interest in the sport. But what promised to be a rather boring evening turned worse every single possible moment.

She had to grudgingly agree that the match was rather entertaining, as thousands of people were cheering for their teams, which even she struggled to not be affected. However, once they left the stadium, she had somehow been showered in butterbeer by a nearby drunk. Then she was nearly run over by a panicked looking man in an undersized yellow Quidditch dress, who her friend claimed was none other than Ludovic Bagman. And to top it all off they had finally reached their tent, the shower was apparently no longer working. So, Mrs. Davis tried to use the cleaning charm to get the butterbeer out of her blonde hair, with a rather mixed result. Much to her frustration some things were simply better done without magic.

Not for the first time she was now cursing herself for giving in to her friends' pleas to accompany them.

She wouldn't have gone, but her father had been in a very sour mood ever since the headmaster had visited their home. It seemed like he spent most of the day brooding in his office and barely even came out for the meals. Unfortunately, it was also starting to affect certain other members of her family, because her mother was seemingly trying to overshadow her gloomy husband by smothering them with an unusual amount of attention. For example, by asking uncomfortable questions about her or non-existing romantic life or trying to have a Girls-Moment by sharing some rather weird gossip that was clearly only intended for adults.

Daphne still shuddered at what the old Lord Odgen was apparently up to when his wife was not watching too closely.

Therefore, her sister Astoria and her had tried to avoid her parents at all costs and that was really the only reason she came along to the event. Not that she had the heart to tell Tracy that.

But when an explosion rocked their tent, she really wished that she had just endured a couple more juicy gossip stories from her mother and stayed away from those thrice forsaken finals.

What could possibly have caused something like that?

No accident that was for sure. But before she could even start to panic Tracy's parents rushed over to them.

"Girls quick! Grab on!" Mrs. Davis commanded. In her hand she held a black iron key, what Daphne quickly recognized as an emergency portkey, that was given to active members of the Wizengamot. She knew that because her father had the same one and explained its usefulness once. They were able to bypass most common wards, most certainly those around the campsite, that prevented apparition.

They quickly gathered around the object and grabbed onto it.

"SAFETY!" Mr. Davis yelled the keyword for activation, but just before the portkey took off Daphne's day turned from bad to worse, as suddenly a red light crashed into her and took all the air out of her chest, while yanking her away from the others.

She was flung into the corner of the room as the Davis family could only helplessly stare at her in horror before they were teleported away, leaving Daphne alone with the masked figures that had just entered the tent.

Harry guessed that there were around five to eight Death Eaters making their way towards them, thus their chances of getting out of here alive in an honest fight were rather slim. However, with his invisibility cloak he might be able to get behind their opponents to even the odds. At least that's what he was hoping for. And hope was really the only thing they've got left. If he was not successful not only would the three of them die, but Ron, Hermione and the rest would most likely also be caught before they could reach safety.

Careful to not get hit in the crossfire he went around the fight and made his way behind the Death Eaters. On his way he took a close look at potential positions for cover and started to count the number of enemies. Moody would have his hide if he managed to take the majority out only to get his ass kicked if he overlooked one of them.

To his relief Bill and Charlie had managed to levitate Mr. Weasley behind some barrels, away from the spell fire. They were also smart enough to assume a defensive position behind some rubble and not get out in the open.

However, Harry knew that this would not hold for long as the Death Eaters were quickly gaining ground.

Let's hope I'm quick enough…

Unfortunately, it was quite tricky to find a way around the fight because of all the smoke from the nearby burning tents. He had to swallow his urge to cough multiple times and he noticed it was becoming quite hard to breathe properly, not to mention his vision started to get slightly blurry.

Finally, he managed to get on a wider path where the smoke was much less overwhelming. Now he was just a bit behind the Death Eaters position and to his relief the Weasley brothers were apparently still fighting.

As he was about to make his way over to them, he heard the voice of a man right next to him saying "I'm gonna enjoy this."

What Harry saw next made the blood freeze in his veins and unadulterated rage bubbled up within him.

The voice belonged to a Death Eater nearby who was crouched over the petrified form of a girl, who had already been relieved of her trousers. Harry knew exactly what the man planned to do to his victim - Moody had told him what had quite often happened to the women that found themselves at the mercy of Voldemort's followers.

He saw red and acted purely on instinct, his wand seemed to move on its own and no incantation left his lips. The thin white bolt of magic that left his wand was purely based on his intent.

Daphne prepared herself for the worst as the man over her had yanked off her trousers and started to lean forward. Primal fear gripped her heart, which seemed to beat a thousand times per minute now. Cold sweat was running down her neck and back and silent tears were running down her face.

Please let this be over fast!

But nothing more happened as suddenly, the Death Eater was forcibly flung off her in a brief flash of white. She didn't dare to breathe. What happened?

She almost couldn't believe her luck. Has someone actually come to her aid?

"Please don't make any noise! Some of them are still in the area. Finite Incantatem." someone - a boy - whispered next to her and immediately she was able to move again.

Resisting her urge to jump to her feet and run away she stayed put as the voice had commanded.

That voice did sound oddly familiar…

Then she felt a hand briefly touch her shoulder and the same voice said "I'll be right back."

But as Daphne turned her neck to have a look at her savior, there was simply no one.

Who was that?

Then she cast a look at her previous captor and couldn't quite keep a satisfied smile off her face as she saw the finger sized hole in the now dead man's head.

Serves him right!

Her next thoughts however were interrupted as suddenly an ear deafening explosion shook the entire area to its core.

Harry threw one last disgusted look at the Death Eater that he had just killed. To be honest he would have thought that killing someone would make him feel bad and maybe later he would. But in this adrenaline induced moment he was only able to feel disgust for the man that he just tried to rape a girl no older than him. When saw that he had thrown all thoughts of mercy out of the window the piercing spell had shot out of his wand basically on its own and drilled a sizable hole in the man's head, spraying the nearby tent with blood.

It was the first time in his young life that he had consciously killed someone. Quirrell hardly counted, as he hadn't even known that his touch would turn him to dust. No, this had been his first kill ever and hearing the other Death Eaters nearby throwing curses around it would most likely not be his last.

The remaining five Death Eaters hadn't even noticed their dying comrade, they were too focused on fighting the oldest Weasley brothers, who were miraculously still holding on. Not a single Death Eater was watching their team's backs. A foolish mistake that would cost them deeply.

No false mercy.

Quickly leaving the girl behind, he made his way through the scorched field, and he took position about two dozen steps behind the group of Death Eaters. Then he carefully took aim and put as much power as he could behind the next spell.

"Bombarda Maxima!" he shouted and aimed at the feet of the unsuspecting group.

None of them even had time to turn their heads before meeting their demise.

The spell was as effective as it was messy. The ground beneath the group exploded in a wave of dirt, blood and flesh. Two that were a bit further away from the center of the explosion were flung into the nearby burning tents. The other three however got completely pulled apart. Their broken and burned limbs were scattered across the site. Leaving the Weasley brothers gaping confused at the sight in front of them and Harry swallowing deeply when he saw the carnage he had caused.

"Bloody hell! Charlie? Was that you?" he heard Bill yell.

"No, but what the fuck was that?" the other brother answered.

"Don't have the foggiest man…"

Seeing no more enemies in the area Harry decided to then bag his invisibility cloak and revealed himself to the two of them, although he would have much rather just went into some corner and puked his stomach empty.

The morning after…

Doom and Gloom at the World Cup by Rita Skeeter

As most of our esteemed readers might have already heard, the celebrations of yesterday's Quidditch World cup final came to an abrupt halt when a large group of wizards covered in masks and black robes, such as the followers of You-Know-Who used the wear, caused chaos and mayhem on the camp site. As if that wasn't enough already, at the end of the riot, the Dark Mark was also sighted in the sky by numerous witnesses, casting it's harrowing shadow on the scorched field below.

So far the official number of deaths and injuries have not been revealed by the Ministry's Department for Magical Law Enforcement. However, various eye witnesses at St. Mungos hospital confirmed that at least three dozen witches and wizards were immediately admitted after last night's event.

"It was horrific. I was waiting for my appointment and all of a sudden bloodied people were apparated into the atrium by the Aurors. I've never seen anything like it." said a young witch, who had been at St. Mungos at that time.

"It had certainly been a most unfortunate incident of the likes that Britain hasn't seen in over a decade." the minister of magic Cornelius Fudge had to say at a press conference in the middle of the night and added "We will treat the matter with the utmost importance and our brave Auros from the DMLE are working around the clock to bring back order. Rest be assured that as soon as we bring in the perpetrators, they shall be judged most harshly for their crimes! As I have been told, six of them have already been found dead on the campsite and I have the utmost confidence that we will soon manage to catch the others as well."

So far the identities of the killed perpetrators have not been released to the public by the ministry and neither was the reason for their death named.

This reporter assumes that they were most likely taken out when spectators of the World Cup started to fight back. However as nothing has been officially confirmed we can only speculate on that.

We are certainly eager for further information.

Dumbledore put the Daily Prophet down on his desk and pinched his nose. Then he looked intently at Moody who stood unmoving in the other corner of his office.

It was only a couple of hours ago that Arthur had hurriedly informed him in the middle of the night of what had happened to them and particularly what Harry had done.

Which was the reason for his current headache.

On the one hand, his achievement last night had been remarkable, on the other also rather concerning. Particularly the usage of the piercing hex. He had understood the necessity of the exploding charm as the only means to save the Weasley brothers. It was likely the only spell Harry knew that could neutralize a large group of opponents at once. But couldn't fathom why the boy had thought it necessary to put a hole through the other Death Eater's head, who had been most likely just watching the group's back. Surely a stunner would have sufficed?

He supposed that they should consider themselves lucky that no one had been able to tell that Harry had taken out those Death Eaters. That would have been a disaster on a scale not even he would have been able to mitigate.

Nevertheless, he had called Alastor here so the man that had trained the boy for the last few weeks could give his own opinion on the matter and how it could have come to this.

But before they had to discuss how to proceed after the rather bold move of the Death Eaters.

"Your opinion on last night's events, Alastor?"

The old Auror shrugged "Looks like Voldy is moving things a bit faster than we thought."

However, Albus shook his head "No, I'm quite certain that this is not Voldemort's work. It very much lacks his usual … style and finesse. I think this is more likely the answer of some rather incensed purebloods who's warehouse got burned down."

"Aye, that was a lot of fun." Moody said and grinned "Remind me again, why can't we just burn down another one?"

Dumbledore chuckled at his friend's antics but then frowned when he remembered how little impact that stunt had on the dirty businesses of the pureblood lords. While it had most certainly annoyed the unofficial owner, one Caspar Avery - it was hardly because of the money he and his associates had lost, but more about their wounded pride that someone had the gall to attack their business. Their operation had hardly cost the owner more than a week before he had established his shady business elsewhere, but had put an entire squad of Aurors on their tail. Not exactly what they had been hoping for.

"I fear that hitting up more warehouses will be hardly worth the effort and risk. For now we must bide our time and gather intel. Maybe if we receive some particularly noteworthy information we might be able to strike more effectively next time."

Moody scoffed "Yeah, right. We've been hitting up taverns in Knockturn Alley for the better part of the month now. The juiciest intel we've gotten so far is that Rowle can't keep his ale down and Macnair's nose hair grows twice as fast on the left side than on the right… We'll never get anything done like this. Heck, whoever offed those Death Eaters yesterday has already gotten more stuff done than we have so far."

A change of topic then, Albus thought.

"Ah, yes I wanted to talk with you about that today as well."

The aged Auror frowned and looked at him suspiciously and slowly asked "What do you mean?"

"Well, you must be awfully proud of your student. Beating six Death Eaters on your own is no small feat, let alone at fourteen." he said with a bit of a sarcastic undertone "Although I cannot condone the methods he used to do so."

Alastors mouth seemed to hit the floor and pointed at the Daily Prophet on the desk "Potter? Potter did that?! Are you having me on?"

"No, I assure you I'm not. Last night I received a rather urgent notice from Arthur Weasley, who gave me the details on what had happened. It was rather concerning."

Suddenly Alastor started laughing "I knew the lad had some balls, but that is something else! Hahaha! I'd offer him a pint if he was off age…"

Then his friend noticed Albus' less than amused look.

"Uh… I mean that was completely irresponsible of him and…"

Dumbledore groaned and massaged his temples.

Placing Harry under Moody's care seemed to have been a mistake. The Auror's attitude had evidently rubbed off on the boy.

"Save it. When and why did you think it prudent to show him the piercing spell? And why did he use it to execute someone?"

"Execute? What are you on about Albus? If he used it in a fight to get rid of those masked idiots, then I'd say: Well done."

"Only that he didn't use it in a fight. I talked with one of the Aurors on site. Gawain told me that five were blown apart with an explosive charm, but the other one was killed from behind with a piercer right through the back of his head. That was not a battle situation, that was simply an execution. And I would like to know why he did that."

Moody seemed unmoved "No clue. I showed him the spell rather late into the training. After the whole prophecy thing he was rather insistent on learning some lethal stuff for emergencies."

Stunned, he stared at his old friend hoping he had misheard him.

"You mean THE prophecy?"

"Aye."

Albus could already feel his headache increasing.

"So you've chosen to disclose the contents of the prophecy to Harry, despite my express warnings to wait?" Dumbledore calmly asked Moody, despite feeling anything but calm.

The ex-Auror only nodded unapologetically and he himself was meanwhile struggling to not blast some furniture in his office to pieces.

The headmaster of Hogwarts had planned to use Voldemort's incomplete knowledge of the prophecy against him later. Maybe as a last resort to lure him into the open to finish him off for good. But Alastor had pretty much ruined that in a matter of seconds, by telling Harry the entire content. Due to his connection to his adversary, it would be only a matter of time before the Dark Lord knew everything. That had been the reason why they hadn't told Harry much of their plans in the first place.

Maybe we can still salvage this. If Harry learns Occlumency fast enough, we might still be able to keep everything secret…

"Why is that thing even so important? Voldemort knows about it anyway. I'd say it's better this way." Moody said, trying to justify his actions.

However, that just served to annoy Albus even more and hissed "Alastor… you told a fourteen-year-old kid that it will be his destiny to kill one of the most powerful dark wizards of all time or die trying. HAVE YOU LOST YOUR SENSES?"

Not looking particularly impressed Moody snorted "That boy has stopped being a kid when you sent him to his relatives. If that didn't do it then all that shit with Quirrell, Slytherin's chamber and the Dementors must have done the trick. Where he was, by the way, under your care. So don't pretend like I have added so much more to his back than you already did."

That did indeed put quite a dampener to his argument, Albus had to admit. The guilt of those events was still gnawing at him. Nevertheless, he was far from finished with his old friend.

"While it is indeed regrettable that all those things happened to Harry when he was at Hogwarts, they were usually accidents related to his persona. He was never intentionally put in harm's way. The fact that he is not an adult isn't even the point here. Do you have any idea what it does to someone? To know that the fate of thousands if not millions is in your hand? That all hope rests on your shoulders? Because I got a taste of that during the war with Grindelwald and it was not a particularly nice feeling. The pressure almost crushed me back then and I was already over sixty!"

Moody sighed and hung his head "Okay, okay! Probably wasn't the smartest idea to tell him. Maybe we could…"

However, he was interrupted when an owl suddenly knocked with its beak on the window of the headmaster's office.

Curiously Albus opened the window with a wave of his wand and approached the owl, who was already sticking her leg out to offer the attached letter.

With a frown he took the paper and hastily read through the content, his eyes widening by the second.

I will definitely have to get some headache potion from Poppy later…

"What is it, Albus?"

He merely looked at the man and then back at the letter, going through it once more.

Finally, he answered the disbelief in his voice, quite evident "That was from Lord Greengrass. He requests a meeting with Harry and I."

AN: Sorry about the previous chapter notice. I accidentally uploaded the old revision of this chapter earlier today.

Also big thanks to the reviews and PN's that pointed out some issues in the previous chapter!

See you in the next chapter

-Inverted Logic