This is one of my favourite chapters in the story... and one I am super excited to share with all of you so I won't prattle on here, and instead get into it.

There's a number of real world references in this chapter… namely the Prime Minister at the time which I use by name, along with Hampton Court Palace.

Some dialogue is borrowed from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Chapter 4 – The Seven Potters.

With Hermione at the Burrow the rest of July seemed to fly past, as Leo finally managed to put aside his urgency surrounding either planning or in upgrading the DA Galleons, and instead took the time to actually relax. While the Order met regularly as the plans for rescuing Harry grew sharper, his days were spent with Hermione, Ron and Ginny, often flying so that they could get used to being in the air, with Leo getting to actually use his Comet regularly for the first time. Leo knew that those days spent in the Burrow's garden practicing his flying or stealing a few moments away with Hermione when nobody was paying attention would keep him going for a long time afterwards, but even then the evening of the 27th seemed to sneak up on him.

The escort party had all gathered at the Burrow before dusk had fallen and been given an extremely in depth safety briefing by Moody before they left for Surrey, with Disillusionment Charms being placed on each member of the party one by one by Moody himself before their departure, though by the sound of Hagrid's motorbike the charms seemed obsolete, Leo thought to himself as he flew in formation, but they made it to Little Whinging and landed in a moderately sized garden without any trouble. The back door of the house opened as their charms wore off, and Leo watched Hermione launch herself at a bemused Harry Potter, who was rubbing the top of his head having seemingly bumped it on something.

"I wasn't expecting this many of you!" Harry exclaimed after greeting everybody quickly, his face beaming as he studied them all.

Moody had dismounted his broom by then and had two large brown sacks in his hands while his magical eye was spinning wildly trying to ensure they were safe. "Change of plan." He told Harry. "Let's get inside before we talk you through it."

They all squeezed inside the empty kitchen with Harry sorting out as many chairs as he could. Leo went to stand next to Hermione's chair as the final two escorts entered the house, with Kingsley and Leta having flown around the perimeter as lookouts. Harry seemed surprised to see them most of all. "Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the Muggle Prime Minister?"

"Tony can get along without me for one night." The Auror stated. "You are more important."

Harry then turned to Leta; a questioning look in his eyes. "Leta Scamander." She stuck a hand out. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise." Harry said, before his eyes widened in recognition of the name. "Scamander?..."

Moody let out a low growl, stopping the introductions short before Leta could confirm her identity to Harry. "We'll have time for a cozy catch up later." He snarled, dropping the two sacks with a loud thud. "Now… as Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. The Department of Magical Transportation has been infiltrated and Pius Thicknesse has gone over, making it an imprisonable offence to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out."

"All done in the name of your protection of course." Ron scoffed, before sinking into his chair as Moody's eye swivelled to stare at him.

"As I was saying…" He growled. "With all that, and the fact that you have the Trace still on you, if anybody here casts a spell, the Ministry will be on you sooner than you can say Hippogriff dung."

"Hippogriff Dung." The Weasley twins repeated at the same time, before pointing at one another amusedly.

"Enough!" Moody roared, getting more and more agitated. "So we've got transport here that the Ministry can't detect. Brooms, Thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike."

Moody then looked over at Leo, and he could almost hear the former Auror telling him to explain his plan. Looking over at Harry, he took up the explanation. "We have 7 different Safe Houses set up, all protected as much as we possibly can. Six of us will use Polyjuice Potion to transform into you, and we'll all leave here to go to a different Safe House each…"

"Are you mad?" Harry interrupted, his face scowling as he reacted about as expected to the plan. "I'm not going to let…"

"It's not about you letting us, Harry." Leo said, not in the mood for his noble self. "We're doing this. We've planned it out to every bloody detail."

Harry was still scowling. "You're risking your lives…"

"Because it's the first time any of us have done that." Ron rolled his eyes.

"This is different." Harry snapped. "Pretending to be… no, becoming me!"

Leo scoffed. "We're all well aware of your importance, Harry, that's why we're all here doing this in the first place. Everybody here has agreed with the plan, accepted the risks, and we're here for you despite of them."

"And if I don't cooperate?" Harry asked angrily, only to yelp as Leta Scamander yanked a handful of hair out of his head. "Ouch!"

She chuckled. "Hippogriffs are harder to sneak up on than you, Potter."

Leta then handed the hair to Moody, who placed them into a flask that quickly began to froth and smoke, before turning a shade of gold that didn't actually look that bad, a fact that Hermione seemed to agree with as she exclaimed. "Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry!" She then seemed to realise what she said and looked up at Leo with wide, horrified eyes. He just raised an eyebrow at her, teasingly, and she scoffed at him. "Oh, shut up, you know what I mean. When we made Polyjuice for the pair of them, Goyle's portion looked like bogies."

Moody was once again hurrying them up as the potion began to settle. "Right then, fake Potters line up over here." He pointed to a spot in front of the sink and Leo moved to stand between Hermione and Fred. He was quickly handed an eggcup sized glass and waited as the golden sludge was poured into it. Once everybody had received their potion, Leo took a quick gulp, downing it all in one swallow. Immediately his stomach began writhing and contorting as he doubled over, a strong sense of bile feeling as if it was forming inside. His skin quickly felt as if it were aflame as he began bubbling, his entire body shifting until by the time he finally felt normal again, he stood shorter than normal and his vision had blurred significantly. He could just about make out Moody at the other end of the room as the former Auror began handing out identical clothing to each of the newly transformed Harry's. Feeling comfortable that it wasn't his own body, Leo quickly stripped out of his own shirt and jeans, placing the new ones on and relishing the glasses that were in the jeans pocket. Once he could see again he turned to Hermione, who had changed her jeans and had quickly stashed her bra in her back pocket before changing tops in an instant, looking over at him and nervously grinning, an image that Leo decided he never wanted to see on Harry's face ever again.

"I knew Ginny was lying about that tattoo…" Ron muttered, topless and staring down at the dark hairs on Harry's chest.

"Harry, your eyesight really is awful." Hermione commented as she was now fully dressed and placing the glasses on her nose.

"Is everyone done?" Moody asked impatiently. "Good, now… listen up. The pairs will be as follows: MacDonald, you're with me by broom." Leo nodded, having been the one to make the pairs. He waited patiently as Moody listed them all off. George with Remus, Ron with Tonks and Fred with Leta would all be travelling by brooms while Hermione with Kingsley and Fleur with Bill were all travelling by Thestral. "And Potter, you're with Hagrid."

Hagrid shifted so he was talking directly to Harry. "We'll be on the bike, brooms an' Thestrals can't take me weight, see. Not a lot o' room on the seat with me on it, though, so you'll be in the sidecar."

"We think the Death Eaters will expect you to be on a broom." Moody explained. "Snape's had plenty of time to tell them everything about you he's never mentioned before, so if we do run into any Death Eaters, we're betting they'll choose one of the Potters who look at home on a broomstick. Which reminds me." He shuffled forwards, holding his hand out expectantly. "Your Firebolt."

Harry paused. "My… what?"

"Firebolt!" Moody said with more urgency. "You'll be expected on it, so hand it over. MacDonald will fly it."

"No." Harry said again, and Leo felt a comforting arm on his shoulder that he knew was from Hermione, who had been unhappy at Leo being put in what seemed to be the most danger initially ever since she had heard the full plan. Harry also looked over towards Leo, knowing full well the risks that were being hinted at "No, if looking like me isn't enough then having my broom…"

"I'll be fine, Harry." Leo said, more to himself than Harry. "The plan is for them to follow me first. Most of you are travelling over countryside, I'm flying over London itself. Plenty of areas to get lost in. This has all been planned out meticulously to lessen the risks…"

"And he's with me." Moody said, and that was the final comment on the matter. Harry, still frowning, went into the hallway to retrieve his broomstick, pausing slightly before handing it to Leo, who in return gave Harry his own broom, a Comet 290 as Moody checked his watch. "I make it 3 minutes until we're supposed to leave." Moody said, before barking his final instructions at the escorts, and finally a comment to Harry about not needing to lock the back door, given that the now empty House was bound to be searched in a few days anyway. Moody grabbed Leo's shoulder tightly once everybody was outside, making the teenager wonder if his eye could even see through Polyjuice Potion. "Wait until everybody else has taken off." He instructed. "We go last." Nodding, Leo made sure to look around at the rest of the group. His first port of call was the Thestrals, where he saw Kingsley helping a Harry that he knew to be Hermione up onto the back of one. He caught eyes with Hermione once she had settled in her saddle, everything unspoken going into that single look before Moody slammed his staff on the patio. "Good luck, everyone," shouted Moody, as Leo mounted the Firebolt "See you all in about an hour at the Burrow. On the count of three. One ... two ... THREE."

The motorbike roared into life as all together the 12 others soared into the air, quickly followed by Leo and Moody on their brooms. Once in the air, and with a final look towards Hermione on her Thestral who was also looking back at him until the last moment, they both angled towards the city of London, praying that their paranoia would be for nothing.

The Firebolt was unlike anything Leo had ever ridden before, with the broomstick seeming to feel Leo's very thoughts when it came to subtle changes of direction and pace, with even the standard speed of the broomstick feeling a lot faster than his Comet did at full speed, as he waited for Moody to lead them away towards the south-east. He took one final look at Hermione, who's Thestral was racing away eastwards too, managing one last calm breath before all manner of hell broke loose in the skies above Little Whinging.

Around three dozen hooded figures had descended upon them, with spells of various colours flying around the clouded skies. Leo gripped his wand tightly as he fired off a stunning spell towards the closest hooded figure, narrowly missing the man's head by a matter of inches. Urging the broom on, he felt his cheeks flapping as he fought against the air resistance, noticing a break of clouds that showed London in the near distance before a bright green light shot past his side, and Leo focused again, firing a Hurling Hex behind him, barely hearing the yelp of the Death Eater being thrown off of his broom with the wind.

He ducked just in time as a large object… Moody, Leo was surprised to see, did a barrel roll over the top of him, settling down beside him as they raced towards South-West London. "PICK UP THE PACE!" Moody roared, his modified broomstick allowing him to pick out his spells more easily than Leo was able to with one hand tightly clinging on to the shaft of the Firebolt. The broomstick listened again though as he shot forwards even quicker as the clouds began to thin, although streaking towards them was a thick plume of black smoke. A cold sense of dread shot through Leo's body as he watched the trail head towards them until a green light shot towards Leo, who just managed to dive to his left in time for the curse to fly harmlessly away.

Now though, Leo could see the white skin within the black smoke, and he felt his whole body begin to shake as he realised that their plan was working too well, and the reality of that was now staring at them with cold, red eyes sooner than they had planned for. Hoping that his few days of flying practice would come in handy, Leo rolled away and shot down towards the Muggle world, where he noticed a large building surrounded by vast gardens growing closer as he angled downwards. Glancing upwards, he saw Moody take out two more Death Eaters, both managing to Disapparate before fatally hitting the ground. Another spark of green jolted Leo back into his own fight however, and once again it narrowly missed him as he reached the treeline, weaving through them to try and lose Voldemort. It was of no use though, as in unison all of the trees erupted into flames, and Leo's wand arm was needed to stop him from breathing in the smoke as he shot back into the sky, wanting to get to the fountain in the palace gardens for a small area of safety from the flames, that had also begun to engulf the palace itself.

Trying to focus again Leo angled his wand up to the sky, where he saw Moody was surrounded by three people. He shot vertically in the air, firing stunning spell after stunning spell and managing to connect with one of them before he burst through the middle of the fight, surprising the Death Eaters enough to allow Moody the chance to take them both out, when another green flash came from below Leo from the direction of the black smoke of Voldemort. Swirling back around on his broom and flying down towards the ground, he was horrified to see that Mad-Eye had been knocked off of his broom and was plummeting down towards the ground motionlessly.

Panic began to set in as Leo pulled up, wincing at the splash of the fountain that signalled Moody's body had landed. In the distance he could see the floating form of Voldemort, shrouded in the black cloud that was allowing him to fly without aid. Voldemort was staring at him, almost willing Leo to make the first move. His mind was racing faster than even the Firebolt and Leo quickly debated just flying away to the safehouse alone and escaping, but the knowledge that Mad-Eye was lying beneath him… dead and lying in the middle of a Muggle fountain… that thought made him hesitate, a fact that he knew he that he would be berated for later. Growling in frustration at himself for knowing exactly what he needed to do, Leo pointed his wand at Voldemort and cried out. "BOMBARDA MAXIMA!"

The blasting curse was easily parried away by the Dark Lord as he slashed his wand defensively, sending the spell towards the corner of the burning Palace which exploded in a shower of bricks and dust, Leo tried not to look over at the nearly 500 year old building, its roof starting to collapse in on itself at the force of the spell mixed with the flames now raging up into the air trying to suck in as much oxygen as it could, and instead he tried to focus on the flying figure in front of him, the only semblance of colour being Voldemort's red eyes, staring into his soul it seemed like as the memory of taking the Polyjuice Potion oddly enough sprang to mind.

"Tricks." Voldemort hissed over the roar of the flames, though Leo heard it as loudly as if he were stood less than an inch from his ear, and with a flourish of his cloak that Snape would have been proud of, Voldemort flew away, heading Northwards.

It took a moment for the Gryffindor to realise his full surroundings once more, only coming back around as he focused on the burning palace, flames rising up into the sky like a signal fire. With his wand hand he rubbed his temple to try and process what had just happened and relax his mind again. "He read my memories…" He whispered, panic once again setting in. "He knows…"

There was no chance to sink further into stress and panic, as with a loud bang Leo found himself launching up into the air off of the Firebolt before gravity took over and he went falling down to the ground, landing a few metres away from the fountain on his left leg that buckled immediately with a sickening crunch. He screamed in agony, his hands rushing to the pained area as the debris of the Firebolt rained down around him, with around 5 Death Eaters beginning to circle around. Grimacing, Leo forced himself upright and hobbled painfully towards the fountain, and Mad-Eye's body, with adrenaline beginning to take him over as he toppled over the fountain's stone edge, plunging into the cold water. Kicking the side with his strong leg, he only needed a couple of strokes to reach Moody's body before he closed his eyes and thought of the safe house he had been trying to reach, and Disapparated.

With the protections around the Safehouse not allowing any form of Apparation within sight of the building itself, the closest Leo could get was in the middle of a forested area, where he landed with a thud on his back, his right hand tight around his wand while his left had almost ripped a chunk out of Moody's thick leather coat with how he was gripping it. Taking a breath as he looked up to the night sky he was almost tempted to lay there for the night and sleep under the summer sky, but one look at his watch, now with a shattered face, caused Leo to groan, realising that there was only 15 minutes left until the Portkey departed. Grimacing, he hauled himself up, hopping on his good leg to gain balance when he realised that his shirt was stuck to his chest and a darker red than it had started out. That was when the pain truly struck him, and Leo hunched over, tears forming in his eyes before he began to punch his good leg in frustration. He looked down at Moody's body for one last time, realising that there was no way he was going to be able to move it with his injuries, and quickly cast a weak Notice-Me-Not Charm to try and give the former Auror a small semblance of privacy for the time being.

Then came the struggle of hopping and hobbling on a broken leg towards the safe house, where the two minute walk became twelve, and by the time Leo had navigated the house and found the glowing blue boot sat on the table, barely managing to reach it in time before once again he felt himself hurtle away, landing roughly again on the grassy ground looking up at the sky as the adrenaline that had kept him going throughout the flight and fight left him and all that remained was agonising pain in both his leg and his chest.

"LEO!" He heard his Dad roar, and loud footsteps raced towards him, hands roughly grabbing his shoulders as Sirius' long hair dangled down into Leo's face. "Merlin…" He whispered, fear bleeding out from his voice. A feminine gasp sounded quickly afterwards as next to race towards him was Hermione, thankfully looking like herself again, though she stood above him trembling, her hand gripping her wand so tightly Leo could see the whites of her knuckles as she slowly lowered it to him. "What the hell are you doing?" Sirius asked her angrily over Leo's groans of pain.

"What… what we are… are told to." Hermione was sobbing, stumbling over her words as she tried to explain. "What… what did Magnus MacDonald tell Leo that the Wizarding World lacked?"

If he wasn't in so much agony, Leo would have laughed at the memory. "Patience." He growled through clenched teeth.

Hermione dropped her wand and fell to her knees, pulling a bottle out of her pockets. "I need to get to the wound…" She whispered to Sirius.

His Dad nodded, and carefully lifted up the hem of Leo's shirt. "Diffindo." He whispered, and a tear ripped through Leo's shirt, freeing his chest to the open air.

It can't have been pretty as Hermione gasped again, and he noticed Sirius balk at the sight too. "Splinched." He managed to mutter as Hermione dropped some liquid onto his wounds, Dittany, Leo surmised as the angry pain began to lessen almost immediately.

"Why the fuck were you Apparating?" Sirius swore angrily. "You were on a broom?"

"Is he alright?" Harry's voice called, rushing out again. "Leo…" He trailed away, having clearly moved where he could see the prone and bleeding teen. "Where's Mad-Eye?"

Leo noticed Sirius and Hermione's eyes both widen as they realised they had been so focused on him that they had forgotten his escort, and both looked around in search. Leo groaned as the pain in his leg once again overtook anything, threatening to overwhelm him as the adrenaline rushed away. "Dead." He managed to grind out. "Voldemort…"

He felt his head go light at that moment as a number of newer voices joined them outside, and before he knew it Leo was gathered in a pair of large arms and carried inside, finally allowing himself to let go and pass out once he felt the softness of a sofa cushion under his back.

Reviews:

SkepticPrinceArthur: Yeah it all seems to stem from the end of January so any chapters uploaded after that don't work. I will try and keep to my Friday schedule and any changes to that I'll be announcing on my discord server to try and keep people up to date. A more prominent Bill is one of the few positives Arthur's death can give us! There's more Leta for sure. Some people do know about Snape so that is a problem that will come up too…

Lightningscar: Leta is an addition that really leads to some things I plan to do towards the end of the fic with the Final battle… it will be bigger than canon I feel. You're right about Sirius here too, and not being allowed to come on this mission will impact him for sure. Hermione being the second main character in this fic I really enjoy delving into her parents… I did so back in the Summer of 96 too and here is probably one of the worst moments of her life that will impact her for the rest of said life… I'm not sure how yet but I do have plans that span beyond the books and her relationship with her parents is a major part of those plans. With regards to Fiendfyre, Leo considers it very lucky that nobody was killed when Grimmauld Place blew up and Fiendfyre is the reason that happened, it's more a minor case of PTSD. I do sort of agree with your idea about the creation, though more as a Dementor deterrent that anybody can use instead of a failed Patronus because of the incantations.