Trust and Betrayal
By: JA_Japster
Inspired and partially based on the OAV "Samurai X"
Copyright Notice: Harry Potter is copyrighted to J.K Rowling and Samurai X and Rurouni Kenshin is copyrighted to Nobuhiro Wazuki and Shueisha Jump Comics. The fanfiction is the product of JA_Japster and should not be reproduced in any fashion without permission.
Betrayal
Part XII: Until Death…
"Only a little while longer," Jonathan Keyes muttered to himself, sipping at a cup of coffee long gone cold.
While Jonathan would tell someone over a pint at the Leaky Cauldron what an honor it was to defend the home of the Minister of Magic; truth be told it was a mind numbingly boring task. Standing his post on the southern wall, he resided in one of the four heavily fortified stations that formed a perimeter around the inner compound housing the minister and many other top witches and wizards in Fudge's cabinet. No one, not even the rebellion would dare launch an open attack against the best defended location in all of London. The southern wall alone had a squad of Ministry Aurors and a half platoon of law enforcement wizards on hand. There were also several muggle policemen stationed outside, but they were purely ornamental, used to keep curious muggles away more than anything.
The young wizard sighed deeply and stifled a yawn as he took another sip of his tepid brew. Boring task or no, keeping a watch on this wall was still his job, and he could ill afford to lose it, not with the economy as perilous as it was. He had a young wife and a child, whom he loved dearly, to feed. Enduring hours of tedious guard duty was the least he could do for them.
Jonathan glanced out the window overlooking the quiet London streets. It was still early morning, and gloom half obscured the solitary walkway that ran past the wall. A slight movement caught his eye, but then disappeared. Jonathan dismissed it. It was probably a dog or something. It was nothing to be alarmed over. Even if it was something worthy of his attention, any intruder would have to figure out how to bypass the dozens of magical wards that surrounded these walls if they wished to enter without going directly through the dozens of wizards that guarded the entrance stations.
He yawned again and checked his watch. His shift ended in an hour or so. He might actually be home in time to see his son off to school this morning.
The young guardsmen picked up his coffee mug and was about to refill it when a powerful explosion picked him off his feet and threw him against the far wall. For a moment, all he could see was darkness, but slowly it faded so that he could see the blurred outline of men running back and forth frantically. Rubble was strewn everywhere and smoke and dust filled the air. Jonathan scrambled up, not even realizing the deep gash across his head dripping blood down his temple, and looked about for the source of the confusion. Down the hallway, cragged hole had been blasted in the supposedly impenetrable station wall, and masked men clad in black robes were spilling through it.
"What the hell?" Jonathan whispered out loud. He was confused that he didn't even think about drawing his wand. Other of his companions were though, and soon curses were being flung through the air. One of the men in black went down in a flash of green light as an Auror's killing curse struck him full in the chest, but another of the invaders quickly took his place and cut down the Auror.
What was going on?
---
The grenades had worked surprisingly well. They had been muggle tools, small orbs stuffed with black powder, that the Order's potion masters had gotten their hands on, and now they worked better than any curse known to wizard kind. Just one bomb had torn through a full meter of concrete, forming a hole large enough for Lion squad's assault team to get through. Harry had gone last, covering the team's rear. His squad was composed of season veterans and knew the plan well, and he was counting on them to be able to use their brief distraction to their advantage. Sure enough, by the time he had waded his way through the smoke and flames, most of the security forces were down, either dead or wounded. A handful of Aurors, however, were still fighting.
Harry saw one of his men go down, hit by a curse, and Harry ran quickly to assist. He leaped over the fallen man, and swiftly brought down his wand, slaying the surprised Auror. He twisted to his right, sending lethal blasts of energy at anything wearing a uniform that did not belong to his team. They did not have time to duel. They needed to clear the station and move into the compound before back up could arrive. No doubt the deafening explosion would soon bring wizards down on their position before long.
"All clear!" One of the Order soldiers said.
"No, wait, we got a live one over here," said a young sandy haired soldier named Seamus Finnigan, Harry's second in command. Harry walked over to where a security wizard lay propped against a wall. Somehow he had survived the barrage of curses flying around with only a small cut across his forehead. The man tremblingly looked up at Harry, his hands, paralyzed by fear, still clutching the shattered remnants of a coffee mug.
"What should we do with him, sir?" Finnigan asked.
Harry's response was to aim his wand at the man's head. "Avada Kedavara!" He hissed. A jet of green light exploded from Harry's wand, driving the life from the young security officer in a loud gust of wind. The man slumped over, and as his body hit the ground his head pitched sideways so that his sightless eyes glared accusingly at the young assassin.
Harry averted his gaze, and then noticed the other Order soldiers staring at him wide eyed, horrified at what they had just witnessed. Harry knew what they were thinking. It was honorable to kill in combat, but to kill in cold blood....that was murder. He silently scoffed at their shock. It was that kind of mentality that Janus had believed. It was the kind that gotten him killed.
"They would have done the same to us," Harry snapped angrily. The men looked away. He jammed his finger at the door that would lead into the courtyard. "Hurry up, let's move out!" He bellowed. Quickly, Lion Squad obeyed. Harry paused to wipe some blood that had splattered on his wand, and then followed. The early morning air was pleasantly cool, alive with the sound of roaring alarms signaling the presence of the Order of the Phoenix.
Harry Potter was dead, killed in Fisherman's Village because he had been weak and stupid. The Slayer would keep him alive.
--
Alone in her room, Hermione could hear the alarms wailing. From her vantage point, she could see the columns of smoke billowing up into the sky from where fires had sprung up at the guard station in all four walls. The still early morning atmosphere was shattered with the screams of fighting men and the roar of cast magic. Footsteps raced frantically outside her door, and every now and then she could feel the building rumble as another explosion went off somewhere in the distance.
Hermione smiled sadly.
Harry was coming.
--
Things were going well. Harry's team had already made their way across the courtyard and through half of the exterior rooms that they had to get past in order to reach the Minister's quarters where they suspected Hermione would be. Casualties were minimal, and resistance had been light so far. In the confusion, it was hard to pin point exactly where the four swift assault teams were, and hopefully they would be gone by the time the Aurors figured out what was going on.
Somewhere along the line, Harry had divided Lion Squad into two teams, one to watch their back and the other to advance. The advance team was stuck, pinned down in hallway at a T-junction by some violent wand action by a squad of what appeared to be Aurors. Seamus, leaned over to Harry and screamed above the din of cast spells.
"Around the corner there's a squad of Aurors," He yelled. "We can't take them out from here!"
"Can we go around?" Harry asked impatiently. Every delay gave the Aurors more time to regroup.
"Negative!" Seamus replied.
"Damn." Harry cursed. He thought for a moment, and then decided. "I'll clear the way!"
Before anyone could protest, Harry grabbed one of the grenades from his belt and raced out into the hallway. A hailstorm of curses lanced at the young assassin, but he ignored them, reflecting some with his wand and nimbly dancing around the others. With a prod of his wand, the fuse on the small bomb began to hiss, and Harry chucked it down the hallway before darting for cover. People screamed as the bomb detonated in a glorious cloud of flame and rock, and when the smoke cleared, the Auror team was no longer there.
"Let's go!" Harry yelled.
--
"What do you mean you're not leaving?" Cornelius Fudge asked exasperated. He stood across from Hermione, looking even more pale and weak than he usually did. There was a tremble to his clammy hands that were not there before, Hermione noted as he placed them around her shoulders. "The rebels will be here soon!"
"My place is here." Hermione insisted. To prove her point, she sat down on her bed and looked out the window, beholding the carnage illuminated by the faint traces of the rising sun.
"Hermione! I am the Minister of Magic, and you are my granddaughter! You must come with me!" His voice was authoritative, the kind of tone he would adopt when he demanded obedience of Hermione when she was younger. But she was no longer a little girl. Her wings had spread. It was time to fly.
Hermione shook her head. "It's time for you to go, grandfather."
"Hermione-"Fudge began to protest, but a female Auror suddenly appeared from outside and grabbed his arm urgently.
"We have to go sir, now," she said firmly. "Our defenses can't hold much longer."
"But my grand daughter…"
"I'm staying, Grandfather." Hermione said resolutely. "Harry has come for me. I can't disappoint him."
Fudge's mouth dropped. "You mean, that boy? The Slayer?" Hermione nodded. "But Lord Voldemort told he was dead!"
"Not Harry. I know him too well. He won't die…not until he gets what he wants."
"He has the nerve to attack the Ministry! What does he want so damn bad?" Fudge snarled furiously.
Hermione smiled and laughed softly. "Me."
"You?" The Minister of Magic balked.
"As apart of…our plan, I betrayed him." She replied. "In more ways than one. I wounded him greatly, and now…now he wants to bring…closure to our relationship."
"With your death?" Fudge asked exasperatedly.
"Perhaps," Hermione replied. There was no fear in her voice. It was calm, almost resigned to whatever fate decided to deal her. "I suppose I'll find out pretty soon."
"Hermione, I can't leave you-"
"I must stay, grandfather. Please. It's time for you to go."
"She's right, Minister.' The Auror said, tugging at the old man's arm. "We need to leave now!"
Fudge pulled himself away from the Auror and hugged Hermione tightly. "I love you, Hermione, like the daughter life robbed me of." He grabbed her shoulders tightly and looked her in the eye. "Do what you must, and then hurry up and escape." To the Auror he snapped, "Leave all your available personnel stationed outside this door, and get the Death Eaters here as soon as possible. I don't want anyone coming in."
"Yes, sir!" The Auror said, sounding almost relieved. With a last hug of farewell, Fudge backed away with the Auror, and then disappeared from sight, leaving Hermione alone in the room once again. She sighed and closed her eyes, quite aware of the stream of tears trickling down her cheek.
Hermione knew Harry all too well. All the Aurors and Death Eaters on the planet could not stop him from getting to her. "Goodbye, grandfather." She whispered, knowing that she would never see him again.
--
For a moment, Seamus thought they were done for. The operation had gone smoothly up to this point. Lion Squad was ahead of schedule, and the other three squads were tearing through the once daunting Ministry defenses with the slightest of trouble. But then, suddenly Harry's advance team had turned a corner leading to the Minister of Magic's chamber when they ran into it. A trap. A full platoon -two score of Aurors- were waiting for them, their wands raised to meet Lion squad in a hail of curses. Two of Lion Squad's point men were instantly killed in a blaze of death, and more would have surely died had the Slayer not acted.
Harry was everywhere at once and yet nowhere. He leaped into the pack of Aurors, his wand flashing, and not once had he stopped moving. He charged through the crowd, one wand parrying the curses and spells that rained down on him, and the other lashing out at random, bringing down an Auror with each slash. The Aurors fell into confusion, unable to use killing curses in such close quarters in fear of hitting their own, but also unable to stop the deadly assassin that could not be seen. Harry would appear suddenly, hack down another Auror, and then disappear before a counter-spell could be cast.
"Look out!"
"He's over here, over here!"
"He's on the walls! Get him!"
"I can't see -Ah!" Another Auror went down, his throat slit open by a cutting curse. Blood erupted everywhere as the unfortunate wizard fell on the ground, twitching wildly.
Seamus watched in impressed fascination. No wonder Harry's mantle was the Slayer. Never had he seen a man move so fast or use the wand so skillfully. In moments, he had reduced a full platoon of fearless Aurors into a terrified rabble only a dozen strong now. It was a beautiful, and yet horrific sight to behold. Here was a man who had perfected an art, the art of killing. Blood was his paint, his wands his brush, and the world his canvas.
Harry leaped from the pack, covered in blood, but none of it was his own. With a feral grin, he ran towards the Aurors again, one wand held high and the other low. A few stray curses shot at him, but he sidestepped these easily, never breaking pace. He collided with the first Auror, disemboweling him with a passing slice, and then with his other wand cut down the second. Weaving his wands back and forth, casting a magical shield that reflected the fresh torrent of curses directed at him from the remaining Aurors, Harry advanced towards them.
An Auror screamed and charged at Harry, but the Slayer easily parried the wild blow up high. Harry dropped his left wand, and instead used his free hand to grab the Auror's wrist and twist the man around to serve as a shield. No sooner had he done so, a killing curse smashed into the Auror, and Harry quickly tossed aside the dead man. Only four men were left now.
"Accio wand!" Harry bellowed. The wand he had discarded leaped to his hand, and without waiting, Harry attacked the remaining Aurors once again. They quickly folded under the onslaught of vicious blows, and within moments only Harry was left standing. Covered from head to toe in dripping red, Harry inhaled deeply, aware of the fatigue that settled in his weary arms. He looked around, at the field of unmoving corpses that surrounded him. The Slayer grinned.
"You alright there, Finnigan?" Harry asked. Seamus nodded dumbly, still unable to believe what he had seen. Harry did not seem to notice. He wiped some blood from his eyes and shook it off. It did not seem to even faze the young man how many lives he had just wiped out in the space of five minutes. How many futures he had destroyed with a sweep of his wand did not unsettle him in the slightest.
This is what the Slayer is, Seamus thought. Suddenly, the glorious wonderment he had held the young assassin vanished as the dark, sickening truth set in. A killer without a conscious.
"Secure over here, Seamus." Harry muttered. He took a step towards the doorway that waited for him at the end of the hall, the quarters of the Minister of Magic, and dimly he recognized the prosaic pain in his leg. He spared a look at it, and scowled at the flow of blood running down his leggings. Somewhere during the fracas, a stray curse had deeply pierced it. Already so drenched in blood, Harry had barely even realized it. Oh well, it didn't matter.
He made it to the door, leaving a crimson trail in his wake. Breathing heavily, he reached for the doorknob and turned it. He didn't know what to expect. What to say. He didn't know, and he didn't care. All that he knew was that Hermione waited for him behind the door. Nothing else mattered besides that. He didn't know why he wanted her, why he needed her. He just did. Until he saw her again, he would not know peace.
Harry flung open the door and there, standing in the middle of the room, was Hermione Granger. She was beautiful as he remembered, but no longer was she playing the role of an insignificant fisherman's wife. Back then, being clothed in provincial garb had only served to accentuate Hermione's features, but now, dressed in elaborate robes and her hair fashionably done, her true beauty was free to radiate across the room, overwhelming the young assassin. Harry's breath caught in his throat, and he swallowed hard. She was stunning.
"Hello, Harry." Hermione said.
"Hello, Hermione." Harry replied.
---
Author's Notes:
Sorry. This chapter was sort of rushed due to time constraints because of final exams, but I wanted to get this up anyway. Just one more chapter left and then the epilogue! The last chapter is going to take a while to write because I want it perfect (or as perfect as I can get it) so expect it in about a week or so.
Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed!