A/N: Ok here we, go the kitties are back on the field... Much, Much thanks to Lady Starlight for her
gracious Beta work.
Chapter 20: The Lion Unchained
***************************Azkaban, North Sea****************************
July 31, 2019
A crack of lighting illuminated the Dark Fortress. The ancient castle, then later Wizarding prison, had served that purpose until a night almost fifteen years ago, when Voldemort and the Dementors under his control had assaulted the prison, freed the Death Eaters imprisoned there, and killed the majority of the guards present. After Voldemort's death, the prison had once again housed Death Eaters, though without the Dementors to guard them.
In the six years since the fall of the Dark Lord, the war had gone underground, Lucius Malfoy had gained powers approaching that of Voldemort, and many, too many had died. In fact many of the surviving defenders of Hogwarts that awful night in June that Harry Potter had finally fulfilled his destiny, had died in a surprise revenge attack several months later by Malfoy's new shock troops, the X' Sheen, the unfallen progenitors of the Dementors. The X' Sheen, were faster and tougher than any merely human wizard, and could use deadly magic without a wand, making them nearly unbeatable opponents for both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. Britain and Europe had rapidly fallen under those seemingly limitless dark hordes, Asia soon after, only America, with an almost unthinkable combination of Wizarding prowess and high technology had halted the advance, though at a terrible cost.
The relentless rain that now poured over the prison was a side effect of that combination. The Americans had warded their continent against the X' Sheen merely Apparating or Portkeying over, and their wizards had divined the coordinates of the Old Ministry of Magic and Azkaban. The Ministry, which had fallen in a night of fire, death and betrayal seven years ago, was now a smoking crater in the ground, courtesy of a "small" fusion warhead. The old protection wards of the Ministry had never been envisioned to have to defend against the very power of the sun. Though rumors of the Department of Mysteries surviving the hit still floated about.
Azkaban was periodically bombarded from space; by giant lasers that once had guarded against missiles, but now served an adequate job of keeping the enemy's heads down and busy. The protective shields established over the prison had held, but at a price. Malfoy and his puppet Minister, Cornelius Fudge, now ruled from Buckingham Palace, the Queen and all other forms of Muggle and Wizarding government, long since dead at his hands.
However the single, dark cloaked figure that observed the dark granite walls was far from merely human. Those seven years ago, she had watched her husband, the father of her children, and the other half of her very soul, be dragged away behind these walls. That week of hell in August, seven years ago, he had meekly let himself be led away in exchange for the return of their children and the children of their best friends. And he had stayed there as the children had been poisoned, with Malfoy supplying a periodic counteragent to them, to bind him far more effectively than any chain.
Malfoy had thought the poison incurable, except for the temporary reprieve he sent once a year, that kept the woman hostage to keep her children alive. For unlike his former master, he had learned to fear them. He knew that then, at that time, he could not match their power, or the power of the grand old patriarch of that clan, even though he did not know their true relationship. But Malfoy, unbeknownst to him, had finally failed, for even as he feared their powers, he forgot that even without the freedom to truly use those powers, she was still perhaps the most intelligent witch since Rowena herself. And now Rowena's Heir stood in the pouring rain, glaring down at the fortress implacably. A pair of eyes, like chips of brown flint, scanned the walls as her mind skipped back a year; and several thousand miles away.
***************Estate of Albus Dumbledore, Near Lexington, KY USA************
May 23, 2018
It had come as a shock at least to some of the fleeing, Potter/Weasley clan, that Albus Dumbledore owned a large horse farm in the states, along with other properties. At Ron's incredulous question, he had claimed that he had won it years ago in a hand of Wizarding poker. He had instantly given it to Hermione to use and had vanished, back to England, to stir up what trouble he could for Malfoy and his legions. Hermione however, was chained to the States, not by links of steel but of blood. Horatio, Emilia, Harriet, Xander and Abigail had all been given the Draught of Nefrati, an insidious poison once used to control vassals; that was known to have no antidote, only a counter potion that would hold the effects in check, as long as it was taken once a year at the height of the full moon.
Unfortunately the counter potion also had to be brewed with the same caldron the original potion was concocted in, so the Potters and the Weasleys, those that were still alive, and by extension Dumbledore, were on their best behaviors, as Horatio and Emilia were his grandchildren after all. Even his return to Britain was a risk at best, but he felt he had to do it; he owed it to friends unable to escape. Sirius, Tonks and Lupin, had returned with him, though Sirius tended to show up at odd times to check on Hermione, to keep his word to an old friend.
In the last six years, Hermione, Ron and Luna had seen them only periodically as Remus and Tonks would come back every few months to check on their children, and Sirius would tag along to check on Hermione mostly, as he considered her the daughter he never had. Dumbledore less so, as he would appear once a year at random intervals, stay a week or so, and return.
It was due in great part to their efforts that Malfoy had never been able to truly assault America, as he was kept busy at home, and in his other captured possessions by the resistance and occasional strategic raids by American Wizarding and Muggle forces. It had been the Granger Unified Field Theory that had proven that Quantum mechanics was as many a Muggle student had decried, truly Magic or more accurately, Quantum described what little bit of magic that Muggles were able to measure empirically, more or less. Magic users were able to greater and lesser degrees to manipulate probabilities and the zero point energy fields of the universe. American Muggle scientists and Wizard researchers had built machines to do the same manipulations, carefully shielded of course, and had built weapons to fight the X' Sheen and the dark wizards, had cracked the secret of faster than light travel and even now had three starships on the way to distant stars, just in case America lost.
Hermione had been offered a position on one of those ships, she had added to the Doctorate in Advanced Theoretical Arithmancy that she had received from Stonehenge right before the fall, Doctorates in Theoretical Potions, Advanced Transfiguration Theory and one in DADA. That final one had been a 'gimme' though. Harry had already had his from Stonehenge before the fall, and she had helped with the research, of course. With this thought Hermione, who had been sitting on an old wooden swing on the main porch of the plantation house, got up and paced, with a restlessness that had not lessened over the last few years.
Ronald Weasley was sitting in a deck chair, a beer in held loosely in his hand, a concerned look darkening his face as he gazed over at her. She still looked, and biologically was eighteen or twenty, even though she would turn thirty-two by the calendar in September. He had asked, but she had never given him a straight answer about just how she managed that trick. In fact her daughter, who had just turned ten this very morning, looked much more like her slightly younger sister instead of her daughter. Ron and Luna on the other hand, while they definitely looked younger than Muggles their age, due to their magical genes, both looked older, closer to twenty-five or so.
But appearances were deceiving, for however young she looked on the outside, her eyes were old. Oh, Ron had seen them light up for brief instants with her children, or her adoptive family that had escaped from Britain, but most of the time they were cold, the life that had once dwelled there was gone. It was truly as if part of her was missing. Ever since Harry had sacrificed himself, one last time for their children and me he admitted to himself glumly, she had not been herself. The damnable thing was Harry was alive. It was easy enough to tell, as Hermione was still breathing as well. As Dumbledore had said all those years ago, Azkaban could not hold him, and it would not have held Harry, except he stayed to keep his and Hermione's children and Ron's daughter as well, safe.
As Hermione paced, she chewed her bottom lip, an old habit that she had never lost. The old jumper of Harry's that she had on over a pair of old, ripped jeans had seen better days, and her hair blew into her eyes from the breeze across the small lake, which the plantation house overlooked. A pair of unicorns stood in a paddock with several other horses, including a lone Thestral. As if it knew she was watching, it spread its wings and took to the sky with a soft cry. Her eyes crossed Ron's, and just for an instant, he could swear that he saw the old Hermione at home, a fire in those chocolate orbs, but as he watched they grew cold again. For that moment, Ron had gotten the impression that she had desperately wanted to tell her other best friend something, but had been prevented somehow. Once again Ron was right.
Like a ghost, a tall, thin frame appeared behind her. The crooked nose, the half moon glasses, the long silver-gray hair, they were all the same, but the eyes, the eyes once again told the story. It had been several years since those light blue orbs had truly twinkled, but they were in full force today. With a grin in his voice, Dumbledore turned to her without even a greeting, "Hermione, you were correct, the counter works. I have already given it to them, and the toxin is gone." Ron instantly cottoned on to what he was saying and while his heart leapt, it was Hermione that showed the greatest reaction, she jumped forward and crushed the old wizard in one of her famous hugs of old, and cried softly into his shoulder. After a moment, she stepped back and wiped away her tears. "It is time my dear." She nodded and with a nod to Ron, "Ronald" he vanished as quickly as he came.
"What was that all about?" Ron asked.
Hermione turned to him, and for the first time in years, her expression wasn't sad, or longing, it was predatory, hungry. "Ron, I'm leaving for a while, I need you and Luna to take care of Em and Horatio." She nodded at him, and without waiting for a response, walked into the house and up to her bedroom. The very same room that she would have been sharing with Harry, had he been here. Ron stared incredulously at the door she had just gone through, and after almost twenty minutes, he turned and marched into the house and right up to Hermione's bedroom.
In response to his beating on the door, a soft, resigned soprano rang out. "Come in, Ron" The instant he came in he saw the change, he knew she was done running, she was a hunter once again. Gone were the old worn jeans and beat up jumper. In their place a pair of black BDU pants was worn under a short, white t-shirt that was short enough to show the emerald in her belly button ring. On her hip was a Muggle sidearm, probably loaded with silver he knew, as many of the werewolves had gone over to Malfoy in the end, and holstered right in front of it was her old wand. On the underside of her right arm, a wand sheath rode with a second wand inserted, Lily Potter's wand he knew. Her hair was pulled back into a bushy tail, and the Ravenclaw sword lay on the bed, its dark sheath gleaming. She looked at him silently as she shrugged on a black, dragon hide jacket. As her left hand pulled her hair out of the jacket, Ron noticed that her ring was glowing softly.
"What do you think you are doing" Ron asked, looking her over.
"Honestly Ronald, what the hell do you think I am doing...I am going to go get my husband out of Azkaban." She growled lowly and turned from him.
"What the fuck brought this on, we've been over here for the last six years, because the kids were poisoned, and now your going to do this, abandon the kids, and probably get yourself killed because Dumbledore deigned to show up and...." Ron's bitter comment was interrupted as an arm of steel picked him up and slammed him up against a wall hard enough to dent the drywall.
Hermione glared at him, her eyes glowing a harsh, electric blue as she held Ron against the wall by the shirtfront, his feet dangling several inches above the ground. Her snarl, for the first time in many years, actually scared him, "RONALD WEASLEY, I love those children more than I can possible state, and Harry does too, that's why he stays in that place until I come to get him. Dumbledore was telling me that the counteragent that I had created works, the kids are free, and now Harry will be too." She dropped him, and he fell to his feet with a thump. "I am going back, I don't know how long I will be, after all we should not act right away..."
Ron looked at her with disbelief; first she had been all ready to go get him, now she was talking about waiting? "Hermione, he has to be wasting away, look at Sirius after all those years...."
"No Ron, he's fine, I can't communicate with him behind the walls of Azkaban, but I can feel him. Malfoy keeps him as a trophy, and as a hostage against Albus and I."
"Not without me. I'm coming with you." Ron snapped back instantly, and turned as if going to get his gear.
"No Ron," she snapped sharply, then with a soft, sad smile, "no big brother not yet...the kids are not yet old enough. Train them the best you can, they should start to be able to control their powers about when we started to learn control. I need you here Ron, Harry needs you here." Her ponytail snapped back and forth as she shook her head morosely, "they would have gotten their Hogwarts letters next summer, Ron."
She looked up into his eyes; "They will be in school, before they are twelve. Ron, in one year on August 1st, meet us at Hogwarts." Ron looked at her in shock. "Hogwarts never fell, we set the castle to defend herself and left. She has been waiting for us to come home, I know you wouldn't mind getting back to your flying instructor duties." As she said that her twins, the only thing besides that thin, nebulous thread of a connection to Harry that had kept her sane all these dark years, came into the room and stopped instantly at seeing their mother. They had never really seen this side of her, the raptor like predatory nature imbued in her main Animagus form, but they knew it all the same, it was buried in their very blood.
"Mom" Emilia said quietly, "I guess granddad told you the potion worked." Horatio glanced at his twin then back at his mother. Horatio was almost a smaller version of Harry, minus the scar of course, and the fact that his untamable black hair was slightly curly on the ends. His eyes were the green of Harry's and his build was almost exactly how Harry had been at that age, except he was a couple of inches taller than Harry had been. He had had regular meals for the majority of his childhood, unlike his father.
Emilia was likewise Hermione writ smaller, though she had a few more differences from the prototype than her brother; she was identical to her mother at ten, except instead of large chocolate eyes, she huge large jade orbs, liberally flecked with gold and her hair, while still the bushy mass that her mother's had been, was the jet of her father. The twins crowded in around their mother, she hugged them both and kissed them on the cheek. "When will we see you mum?" Emilia choked out and despite the situation, Hermione smiled as her daughter slipped back and forth between British and American English.
"You will join us at Hogwarts, in a years time," Hermione flashed a half, fleeting smile. "Listen to Ron and Luna in the meantime; they will be giving you all the training you can take. You're going to need it." She turned back to Ron, "Ron, its not a cave troll they'll have to deal with...."
"I'll do my best, sis, they'll be ready as soon as they can. Then the Marauders will hunt again." Ron gave a solemn vow.
"Remember with the fall of the British Ministry, the underage restrictions are no more, the Americans never liked them anyway, as soon as their powers manifest, Ron..." Hermione looked over at a cabinet, and with a motion of her hand, two rosewood boxes shot over to her waiting hands. Without looking at the boxes she handed one each to each of the kids, each box was carved with a rampant lion on the top, with an E or H below that. "Old man Ollivander sent those over as soon as you two were born. They should suit you." As one, the twins opened the boxes, and as they settled their hands on the grips, all the lights in the room flickered, and a strange wind erupted and rustled about. Hermione gave a satisfied nod and with a final hug and goodbye to them all, she vanished without a sound
******************************Azkaban, North Sea*************************
July 31, 2019
1:15 am
That had been a year ago, and the time had not yet been right to strike. She had been to this very bluff, standing in the same exact place, ten times in the last year. She could have done it anytime; the wait had been on the next generation, to come into their power, and on their eleventh birthdays, even thousands of miles away, she felt the first time they used a wand to control their magic. Now the time was at hand to return to the field. Thirteen years ago, Hermione had proclaimed the fate for whomever or whatever dared to harm her and Harry's family, and tonight, that fate would start to be meted out.
The instant she took down Azkaban, and after tonight the fortress would not be standing she vowed silently, Malfoy would know that they were back in the fight. She glanced down at her watch and waited, in five minutes, back in the ruins of London, Lucius Malfoy would start to learn to fear the night once again. As far as they knew Lucius had never discerned that Dumbledore was Harry's great-great-great-grandfather, and therefore the twins' as well, but he should have suspected something. Dumbledore had said the last time he had been forced from his beloved school, "They never should have dislodged me from Hogwarts," this night he would remind the Death Eaters why that was.
Even the anger of the greatest wizard since Merlin was not enough. For tonight, after too many years of dancing on the edge of actions that would result in the death of the children and possibly Harry in his Azkaban cell, the Marauders would once more slip their bonds. For far too long, Sirius, Lupin, and the rest had had to be content with advising the resistance, not fighting, lest one of the Death Eaters, or werewolves, or other dark servants of Malfoy recognized them.
Tonight, a grim, a werewolf, a vampire and a metamorph, along with the two greatest jokers and inventors of the last hundred years would soak the ancient cobblestones of London with the life's blood of those who had chosen, in the end...poorly. And if Malfoy's werewolves and vampires thought they knew destruction, they would learn differently.
*******************London, Near King's Cross Station********************
The streets of the ancient metropolis were broken and tattered. Only the light of occasional trash fires served to pierce the endless gloom that had settled over the city like a thick woolen blanket. As at Azkaban, a heavy, sheeting rain dampened the streets. A few, desperate souls flitted here and there, looking for food, or for savage, or as in the case of a couple of scantily clad witches, merely survival.
Down the center of the road, past the wrecked hulks of automobiles, and a pair of toppled double-deckers, a column of eight men and women marched, or rather to the point, strutted down the street. They were clothed in dark, black robes. An insignia of a green skull with a black serpent slithering from its mouth was emblazoned on the left side of each chest.
As they marched, a pair of the Death Eaters, a tall blonde, woman and a rather dumpy looking brown haired man shot out and grabbed one of the prostitutes plying their trade and pulled her screaming into an alley, the rest of the column stopped, and a sense of mirth rung out among them as they discussed, loudly, whose turn it would be.
They stood as the screams of the young girl sounded, pleading for help, and suddenly there was silence. One of the Death Eaters laughed, and stopped abruptly as a new scream rang out, a male scream. He looked at his fellows and back at the alleyway to see...
A pair of glowing, violet eyes hung in the night, resolving themselves after a moment, into a slight, blonde-haired, black clad girl. "Oi, it's another..."
But his comment was never to be finished as Cordelia MOVED. A soft hiss erupted from her throat, and the first two Death Eaters fell in a blur of movement. She danced over to the next, and he fell away into the muck with the accompaniment of a sickening crunch. She flitted to the next pair, and twin flashes of silver caught the firelight and they fell to the ground. She stopped and looked directly into the last Death Eater's eyes. "Come," Cordelia commanded in a soft, whisper.
He nodded jerkily and walked over to her, his legs moving as if they had a mind of their own. He stopped in front of her, frozen and watched as her hand slowly extended and curled her fingers into his hair. Cordelia smiled, showing twin fangs, she bent his head to the side with a sudden jerk and fed, her fangs sinking lovingly into his jugular. His heart beat for a full minute before it stopped and she flung him away to lie in the pile with the other Death Eaters.
She looked back to the alley to find newcomers. She gave them an easy smile and a small wave. Lupin looked at her, and then at the pile and just shook his head. While as a werewolf, he had absolutely no compunction against blood as a meal or a snack, he and Cordelia had a running discussion between the merits of her...artistic style, and his somewhat very brusque one. She frowned slightly as Tonks led the young girl out from the alley, wrapped in a blanket, scared but unharmed overall. She looked to be only thirteen or so, and was obviously a witch. Tonks gave her a small medallion and they watched as she vanished to Hogwarts.
"Love," Sirius said softly, "your lips." Cordelia looked a touch sheepish as she licked her lips and Sirius came up to her and pulled her into his arms. He leaned in and kissed her softly, growling a tiny bit as his Animagus nature tasted the blood still on her lips. "You know..." he mused, "that whole vamp thing..."
"Oh no, Sirius Augustus, your bloody son has tired me out enough as it is...you're just lucky that I have Death Eaters to feed on to regain my strength, my husband, or I might just wake up some evening and decide that you would make a tasty snack," Cordelia teased back, mostly, her accent getting heavier as she fought to be human once again, though Sirius really wasn't afraid.
"You alright, Cordy?" he asked softly.
"I'm fine now."
"I hate to break this up," Lupin announced tolerantly from the corner of the alley, "But any moment now, Hermione will be breaking Harry out, and I do not want to disappoint either of them, with our object lesson we are leaving tonight. There are still Death Eaters who don't fear to walk the streets. And besides...it's my turn." The other three watched as Lupin SHIFTED, and the eight-foot, bipedal wolf that appeared let out a great howl, and miles away, Death Eaters shivered.
*************************Azkaban********************************
With one last glance at her watch Hermione started down the path to the front gates.
Alongside the path, under an outcropping of stone about a hundred yards from the main gate, a pair of Death Eaters stood watching the trail. Or rather more to the truth, trying desperately to keep their cigarettes lit in the driving rain. Every minute or so, one of them would have to keep taking turns relighting their cigarettes with the tip of a wand. One of the pair glanced up to look out into the darkness, and just for an instant, he saw a pair of blue glows hanging in the darkness.
"Hello Boys" she whispered, and in a twirl of a cloak, she continued walking towards the main gates, two bodies tumbling slowly into the muck in her wake. She stopped at the foreboding gates and with a wave of her hand, the huge gates ground open. Hermione walked into the open walls, and stopped. Instantly at least twenty wands pointed at her from various Death Eaters scattered about the courtyard and the walls. Bellatrix Lestrange's surviving brother-in-law strode up, stopped imperiously and glared at her.
"Who are you?" He snarled. Her head rose, and with both hands, she slowly lowered her hood. The driving rain plastered her hair down, but as a flash of lighting lit the courtyard, they all knew her. Several of the Death Eaters started edging away until Lestrange stopped them with a cold snarl. "She's just a Mudblood, Potter was more powerful and he's in a cell for our Lord's amusement."
A cruel smile darkened her face, and with a negligent wave, Lestrange shot through the air to crash against a wall of the fortress, and slide down in a heap. The Death Eaters that had been pointing wands instantly snapped spells at her, only to hit air, and in at least three cases each other, as three Death Eaters fell to the ground dead. In rapid succession, three more fell, to a blade that had not tasted blood in many years. DIFFINDO PENATRATUS, ASPHYXIATIA, ASPHYXIATIA, a seventh Death Eater keeled over, a large hole where his heart had been, and an eighth and ninth turned puce, and collapsed to the ground. The few remaining Death Eaters that had not already run, stood back to back, peering out into the night, straining to see any movement, their final mistake. "Look up" She said quietly, appearing from the darkness. With a murmured, "finite" A large, flat chunk of wall fell on the clustered Death Eaters; she walked off calmly towards the cell blocks.
In a dark, cold, dank cell, a young man sat crossed-legged on a torn and stained mattress. He was thin, with long, dark, unkempt hair that fell over his eyes. His face held at least three days growth, and a pair of cracked lenses framed his emerald eyes. The cell that he was in was the very same cell that had once held the infamous Sirius Black, a bit of trivia that caused a very slight grim smile to this very day. He sat motionless, staring down at the floor. With a rush of life, a welcome, warm sensation that he had not felt for these long years flooded his mind, and that ever present, tiny trickle of a link exploded into a torrent. A smile gradually cracked on his face, and he slowly raised his head. He looked at the pair of Death Eaters that had decorated the outside of his cell for all these years and laughed.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING POTTER!" The one on the right, Sam Waters, snarled. His partner for the night, Tobias Green, looked in at Harry and a flash of something crossed his eyes. Tobias was a young Death Eater; he had actually been trained at Lucius' dark replacement for Hogwarts in the last few years, and had immediately been assigned here.
He had grown up with the hushed tales of Potter, the Weasleys, Granger and Dumbledore, and privately thought it was rather stupid of their master to leave Harry alive. After all, everyone knew, even though Lucius had tried to hush it up, that Potter had given himself up willingly, and that of the remainder of his greatest enemies only his blood-traitor son been captured alive. And those that had been killed had averaged about a twenty to one ratio before they fell. Draco was sleeping in a suspended animation trance in a cell down the hall.
"Why nothing Sam, though I would run if I were you." Harry's calm baritone replied lethally. The Death Eater turned and snapped his wand at Harry, Harry casually waved his hand, and the spell whined off Harry's shield and blew a divot out of the stone wall. "What, did you think just because you took my wand I was powerless?" The chuckle that issued from Harry's throat had no mirth, and with another nonchalant wave, the cell door opened.
"Or that I was too weak from lack of food, it's been a long time since Privet Drive boys." In a blur, Harry MOVED, the afterglow from his suddenly glowing eyes trailing along, as Waters fell lifelessly to the floor. Harry turned to the junior Death Eater, "It was trivial to conjure a bit of food now and then, not a great feast, mind you. Even Dumbledore would need a wand for that, but a sandwich is quite easy. You should try having twins to feed..." A blur again, then as the second Death Eater fell, he added thoughtfully, "or not."
With a sudden crash, the door at the end of the hall fell inward, and Harry turned to it. His eyes faded to green, a twinkle replacing the blue glow. "Kind of short for a Death Eater aren't you?"
After all this time, all she could do was laugh as she Apparated the twenty feet separating them, directly into his arms. She trembled slightly as he held her, her face pressed against his shoulder, "Never again, Harry."
"Yeah, love never again." Harry breathed, and with that she raised her eyes back to his. Leaning in, she brushed her lips against his and time stopped. Their eyes relit, and a wave of energy snapped outward, shattering several windows along one wall, and rattling several loose cell doors. They pulled away, and with a shuttering breath, Harry raised his left hand to run it over her hair. She captured the offending hand and examined it significantly.
"Harry you seem to be missing something." Hermione frowned as a single tear crept from the corner of her eye.
With a half-smile, Harry brushed the tear away with the hand of the still trapped thumb; "Lucius was such a gracious host he offered to hold my possessions for me." His glowing eyes lost focus for an instant, and in small flare of light, a gold and platinum band appeared on his ring finger, its inlaid runes glowing along with the matching runes on its mate that came up to greet it. With a tender gesture, totally unsuitable for the surroundings, she raised his hand to her lips and kissed the ring gently, just as she had first done thirteen years ago, the day they had exchanged their vows.
"Occulus Reparo" She muttered as the tip of her wand touched his shattered lenses. They instantly repaired themselves. "That's better, I can see your eyes properly now, Love." She looked down at the two dead Death Eaters on the floor, "I guess you couldn't wait could you?"
"Got bored," Harry shrugged, "I was at one hundred and two ways to escape, by the way, I beat Dumbledore; he said there were only seventy five." She laughed; again, like a cloud passing across the sun, she grew serious again. With a nod, Harry knew her thoughts, "I agree, this place has stood too long. Malfoy's little friends are the ones who originally built it anyway as a home for their cousins." She nodded at this information; somehow it was not really a surprise. "However, first we have a friend to visit...I found Draco."
"WHAT!" came the shocked surprise, Draco had disappeared at the start of Lucius' takeover, and even Dumbledore, Sirius and Lupin, who had worked over the years to find him, had found no trace.
"They dragged him past my cell that first week I was here. You wouldn't happen to have my toys in there would you?" Harry asked hopefully. Hermione smirked and flicked her fingers. A snap of light lit the dark chamber, and the ancient sword of Gryffindor appeared followed instantly by a pair of very familiar wands. "And of course I can't have you out dressing me," He gave a complicated wave of a wand over his head, and the torn and dirty robes he had worn for last seven years vanished, to be replaced by an outfit matching hers, the black BDU pants worn under a gray sweater. The cloak of the Order of the Phoenix reappeared on his shoulders, the symbolism in that name, never more appropriate. "Shall we?" Striding briskly, Harry took off down the hall, Hermione trailing his in his wake. As they passed, long dormant torches flared to life, and each cell door swung open. They reached a black door at the end that did not open. "REDUCTO" the door blew inward, spinning into the room beyond. A pair of Death Eater guards spun to the door as it flew past followed by a dark blur. Harry stood still at the far end of the room, as behind him, first one, then the other Death Eater collapsed slowly, the head of the second one preceding his body to the floor.
On a slightly raised platform, Draco lay, not moving, and breathing perhaps once a second, he looked as if he had not aged one second since they had last been seen, and substantially that was correct. Hermione walked slowly up to Draco and slightly hesitantly, felt for a pulse. It was there, thready but there. "Harry, how do we get him out of here?"
"We were going to Hogwarts?" At her nod, "Portus" The platform itself that Draco was laying on flashed blue, than with a further flick of Harry's wand he vanished in a fall of color. Harry turned back to his wife and nodded. Together they Apparated to the open courtyard, the ancient black stone walls surrounding them on all sides. Instantly at least forty Death Eaters appeared from out of the darkness, along with a hundred Dementors to block their way. Immediately they stood back to back, each with a wand in one hand, and a naked blade in the other. "Your call, Dementors or Death Eaters?" Harry asked over his shoulder, his eyes blazing once again now.
"How about we share?" On three "EXPECTO PATRONUM" The cry erupted from twin throats, and a pair of Patroni suddenly shown in the darkness. A stag and an otter, each the size of a decent sized dragon charged the Dementors. The otter swam through the air as if it was water, and any Dementor it crossed was gone an instant later. Across from the Otter, Prongs was having a grand time, ripping and tearing with his glowing antlers. Finally after two thirds of the Dementors had been vanquished, the remainder turned and ran, or rather flew away as fast as they could go. Prongs pawed at the ground as it watched them escape, while Hermione's otter swam up next to him, both of whom looked as if they wanted nothing more than to chase down their foes. With a final paw at the ground, the Patroni vanished, to await their masters' calls once again.
The surrounding Death Eaters looked at each other nervously, but held their ground. Most of them were like the late, unlamented Mr. Green, young enough to not have faced the Order in battle, and none of those here had fought against Harry or Hermione at Hogsmeade or Hogwarts. They feared their master far more than even the two in front of them, their mistake. Ready Mione?
With a quick glance around the courtyard, she sighed, exasperatedly, Honestly...Only forty for the both of us, almost insulting really. She fingered her wand, the same one that she had had at the Department of Mysteries all those years ago.
Harry instantly knew what she was remembering they have no idea. And with a flourish, Harry opened up the festivities. He reversed the Gryffindor sword and rammed it into the hard ground, cracking the earthen courtyard, Terra Conductus Radiatus. Along the cracks in the ground, dazzling white streaks of lighting snaked out and enveloped ten Death Eaters. Each instantly erupted into a pillar of fire, and dropped into a pile of ash almost as quickly.
30-2
Thirty bolts of green light snapped at the pair, but oh so slowly, Harry dodged a pair of Kedavra curses, and with two quick Asphyxiation Charms two more Death Eaters were dead. Ten feet to his left, Hermione vanished from right in front of three more Death Eaters, only to reappear behind them a microsecond later, their bodies already victim to two well placed severing charms and another asphyxiation charm.
25-2
From that point it became almost like a dance, Harry bounded back to the sword, and in one quick movement, pulled it from the ground and felled three more Death Eaters. Behind him, almost as if she were an extension of his own body, Hermione blocked a strike by a sword armed Death Eater, and her rebound stroke cost him his arm. In less than a minute's time, the Death Eaters' numbers had been reduced almost in half, and less still in another instant, as Harry banished another group of three, with a sickening thud, against the granite side of a stone guardhouse.
Harry and Hermione parted once more, Harry to the left, Hermione to the right. REDUCTO Harry snarled and the low wall behind which five Death Eaters had tried to hide vanished in a eruption of stone, ACCIO One of the Death Eaters flew at him, and Harry swatted his dark face down to the ground with a back hand slash. The one other remaining Death Eater that had survived the wall's explosion turned to run, DIFFINDO but his legs failed him.
13-2
On the left Hermione vanished once more, reappearing behind another group of five, a cut left, a slice right and two more fell, LAFLARMARE, DRACONUS PROJECTUS, three orbs of dragon fire exploded outward from an outstretched hand, and the other three were soon piles of smoking ash at her feet. With a grim nod, she vanished once more.
8-2
The remaining eight Death Eaters stood in a tight clump, but as they tried to escape, they soon found that they could not break the anti-Apparation charm that they were suddenly under. As one, they all looked up as if expecting another chunk of stone, but as she appeared silently to their left Hermione shook her head sadly at them.
INCARCEROUS, Thick, glowing cords instantly appeared and pulled the eight into a tight bundle. With a flick of a wand, all eight of theirs shot from their trapped hands to land in a pile at her feet. On the other side Harry appeared like a ghost, and looked balefully at them.
The Death Eaters at Azkaban, had tried to have their fun, periodic beatings, and starvation were the norm, it had only been his ability to conjure simple food, and heal himself to a degree even without a wand that had let him survive. For the last couple of years, he had been left more or less alone though, as if Lucius had been merely content to know that he had him in his clutches. It had been several years since Lucius had deigned to torture him directly. "It occurs to me," Harry said calmly, politely even, "that in a great part, you have brought this on yourselves. In the old days, you might have survived. I would have put you in a cell, up there." Harry pointed up towards the cells where he had been held. "But now..."
"Our master will come..." one of the Death Eaters cried, though there was little hope in the words.
"If he does, which I doubt, Lucius was always even more cowardly than Tom, you will be dead." Harry replied almost sadly, in a tone eerily reminiscent of Dumbledore discussing a particularly bad academic performance. As he had been talking he had slowly edged his way back to Hermione, who turned her head and looked directly into his eyes. Their eyes glowed even more brightly, and their free hands joined, "TERRATUS VOLCANUS" The incantation was spoken together, in voices not totally their own, and without another word they vanished. Beneath the Death Eaters, a red glowing crack appeared in the ground, instantly growing large enough to swallow a house, the bound Death Eaters fell into the glowing earth, their screams echoing through the night.
For a long moment the world was quiet, then all at once, the cracks spread and erupted. Magma boiled from the ground, and fire shot into the sky from a hundred rents in the earth. The ancient fortress shook as if a terrier the size of the moon had it in its jaws. Slowly, ever so slowly the walls fell, the towers shattered and tumbled into the sea. The eruption continued throughout the night, and in the morning only a charred; smoking stump would remain above the waves, all traces of the ancient fortress gone.
(A/N: The kids would have a sort of bastardized American/British Accent, where they may use words from either dialect
interchangeably, hence the Mom from Em, note she might also use mum at times.
Harry's back...next chapter we go home and Harry and Mione have a touch more of a reunion...)