Here we go again, sorry it's been a bit, on this one...Thanks, as usual, to Lady Starlight for her work on this chapter. But as usual, any mistakes are purely mine.
Chapter 25: A Study of the Past
******************************Tibet********************************
September 26, 11:45 am.
A pair of lions, one tawny lioness and a large, jet-black lion stopped and looked down at a night-black tower rising from the snow like an angry finger pointing up to the blue sky. The area was curiously quiet, as they looked down at the tower. The very air seemed to have become afraid to move in the valley. Not a bird or animal other than themselves moved anywhere near the area.
The male looked over at his companion, What the hell is that? he asked her perplexedly, That doesn't look like any temple I've ever seen, Mione. A soft, growl slipped from his chest as he padded over closer to her, to stand protectively near her.
I'm cold Harry...and I don't mean the temperature...that place is evil. The great cat's chocolate gaze caught his, as a fanged jaw trembled slightly. She glanced over at the tower and back to him, as a trick of the light seemed to cause the tower to shimmer.
Me too, baby, me too. Harry replied and rubbed up against her, purring slightly before he sighed and started off down towards the dark tower. Hermione shook her furred head once, remembering every single time one of the boys had gotten them in trouble before following him without another thought.
They paused as they reached the base of the tower and looked up. Up close the tower, was not of stone, but seemingly of some odd metal, that seemed to be dark with oil...or blood. The entrance was dark, rusted iron, obviously not original to the tower, as it seemed only thousands of years old, the tower, for some odd unknown reason seemed much older and darker. Harry glanced over at Hermione and SHIFTED. He shook his head vigorously to dislodge snow still there from his lion form and watched as Hermione shimmered and grew. Her from shrunk slightly, as she stood and morphed into her human form. She gave Harry a small, fleeting grin as she brushed the snow from her hair and took his gloved hand in hers before nodding and stepping back from him slightly as twin wands appeared in her hands.
She watched as he took a breath and brought his hands together in front of him, cupping them into a ball. His right foot slid back a half pace as she felt tendrils of magic shoot past her to gather between his hands. He took a breath and thrust both his hands forward as a shimmering, blue-black ball shot to the doors and stuck in the exact center. The door resisted for a bare ten seconds before it seemed to melt and flow into the dark void.
Harry panted slightly as he looked into the ten-foot high, now empty doorway. A long, seemingly endless passage led down and away from the door, its depths vanishing in the darkness. Hermione summoned a white ball of light in the palm of her hand and set it in the air at his shoulder. It hovered there as Harry and Hermione walked into the depths together.
They passed sealed metal doors on either side of the odd, flattened oval-shaped corridor they found themselves in. Extinguished torches were mounted on the walls every twenty or so feet, but none were lit. A curious attempt by Hermione to light one resisted her powers for a full minute before it erupted into flames. She shrugged to Harry, and neither of them tried to light any more as they continued their explorations.
After almost a half hour of walking down the seemingly endless corridors, they came to a door blocking the passage. The door was oddly, incongruously, an iron-shod oaken door, set into a doorway of the same, oily, black metal of the corridor and the tower itself. The shattered fragments of the original metal door were scattered about the corridor still. The door was inset with an eagle ensign, identical to that on Hermione's sword. She canted her head to the side and glanced at him in the light cast by her floating light orb. Hermione waved her hand and the door creaked open and they entered.
They entered a large, circular room. A half-dozen, black, obelisk-like pedestals were scatted about the periphery of the room. Centered in the exact center of the room, a beach-ball sized crystal orb sat on a pedestal with a hazy, purple-black fog filling its depths. A tall man dressed in dark blue, bronze-trimmed robes stood with his back to them as they entered. Long, white hair trailed down his back and was gathered into a tail, with a series of gold rings down his back.
He turned to reveal a long white beard, also drawn together with rings and a rampant eagle crest decorating the chest of his robes. A slight sneer was on his lips under hard, black eyes as he glared at Harry, "Just like a Gryffindor," he said scornfully, "always for the dramatic gesture, you could have just opened the door." His expression softened slightly as he turned to Hermione and...bowed, "Lady Ravenclaw, it is an..."
He never completed his thought as Hermione MOVED, and crossed the room in a blur. She backhanded him, knocking him through one of the obelisks into the wall, where he slid to the floor. The broken obelisk sparked, odd, greenish sparks as Hermione crossed the distance to her victim in two strides and placed the tip of her wand in the exact center of his forehead. "Hermione, what the..." Harry shut up as Hermione raised her hand behind her, and glared down at the blue-clad wizard.
"Tell me, why, I should not terminate any member of the Order of Ravenclaw, Alexandrov?" she asked to his shocked expression, "Yes, Dumbledore told me, when your actions, or rather lack of action put the future heirs...my children in jeopardy, any of his oaths that your order may have held him to were null and void. You could have warned us two years earlier about Malfoy's X'Sheen, their numbers and origins. "
"My lady, we needed more time to study..." he said fearfully, as he looked up at her, wiping a smear of blood from his lips. "Frankly, my lady, if you had chosen a worthy mate..." he shut up abruptly as brown eyes lit with a blue fire, she gestured with her empty left hand and he rose into the air.
"Shut up," Hermione snapped, "You will answer my questions, and follow any Orders, I or my husband," her lip twitched slightly, "Lord Gryffindor, give you. After we leave here, you will bring the Order fully into the war, there will be no hiding in the shadows biding your time. I hereby recall the Order to my service. Any machinations that you and your proctors may have had in place to 'clean up' the Ravenclaw line are hereby null and void."
He nodded as Harry looked at him, and then pointedly at Hermione, Hermione what the hell is going on? I have your back no matter what, and I'd like to think that I'm not totally stupid, but I need some sort of clue here, Mione.
Hermione sighed in her thoughts. She did not take her eyes off Alexandrov as she replied, Briefly, the Order of Ravenclaw was and is an Order of spies, intellectuals and watchers. They began as Rowena's associates in the years before the founding. Then after Godric and Rowena were married and then later died, a great number of them decided that Godric was a...bad influence on the Ravenclaw line. When it jumped bloodlines to mine, they followed, hoping to influence the selection.
They contacted Dumbledore, evidently when I was Sorted into Gryffindor, she smiled slightly, or rather when I chose Gryffindor, tried to get me re-Sorted into Ravenclaw. They didn't reveal whom they were then though, but did force Dumbledore to swear an oath not to reveal them; I don't know why he agreed. They tend to prefer a hands' off approach. They like to watch, and not to act, or if they do act they do so from behind the scenes. Several of their covert actions over the last thousand years have been attributed to others, such as the Illuminati or the Masons...but they have one problem.
What?
I am Lady Ravenclaw; remember? They have to obey me, whether they like it or not. Rowena was smart, after all she chose Godric, just like I chose you, love. Dumbledore filled me in on this while you were indisposed.
Glad I had a choice. Harry replied sarcastically. He flicked his fingers and the man's wand, two daggers and several vials of variously colored potions floated over to fall at his feet.
Hermione giggled in her thoughts, even though her face never betrayed any such emotion to her captive, You never had a chance Harry. She felt his nod as she replaced her wand behind her back, knowing that if somehow the Ravenclaw could shake off his conditioning, Harry was watching. "Do you understand?" Alexandrov nodded fitfully as Hermione waved again and he fell to his feet. "Now do you know why we are here?"
"You are after the Orb of Annakus." He answered, in a flat monotone. He brought himself to his full height, several inches taller than Harry and paced over to the crystal. "It is not here. He raised his hands at Hermione's glare, "If the Order had it, we would, of course, supply it at your command. Instead I have the duty of guarding the beginning of your journey."
Oh joy, Harry thought idly as he looked upon the wizard. He paced to a spot directly opposite Alexandrov and seemingly vanished into the deep shadows there. He watched as Hermione's lip twitched at his thought.
"What is this place then?" Hermione demanded, her tone booking no evasion. "It's like no other tower I've seen records of..."
"Of course not," Smirnoff replied with a superior air. He began to pace as his tone dropped into a dry lecturing one amazingly similar that that Professor Binns had used for all those years. "This is not a human construction at all, Wizard or Muggle...it is an X'Sheen construct. In fact the tower is just the top of it, it goes much deeper into the snow and soil, though the passages are collapsed further down. This room seems to be their...viewing room for lack of a better term."
Hermione frowned as she looked around the room; she knelt next to the broken pedestal for a moment before her mouth opened in sudden shock. Harry gave her a concerned look, but she waved him off and turned back to Alexandrov, "Then this...construct was around at the time of the Atlantian fall, correct?"
"Yes, unfortunately we have not been able to ascertain its function. It is a great distance from the Atlantic, half way around the world in fact."
"What about the Orb?" Harry interrupted impatiently.
"Just like a Gryffindor, always..."
"Answer him," Hermione snapped, and he nodded reluctantly.
"Very well, there is a recording that was found here, many years ago by my predecessor in this post. It seemed to refer to the Orb. It is a message from Rowena, to her heirs." At her raised eyebrow, he pulled a green Remembrall from his pocket and handed it to Hermione. She looked at it and tossed it in the air. It hung there for a moment, before a life-sized image appeared in the room.
A woman appeared in front of them. She was a touch taller than Hermione, with almost the same hair and eyes. She could have been her sister, or her mother. The woman wore worn leather breeches under an off-white linen shirt, which was closed with leather ties at her bodice. A slightly soiled, black cloak overlaid that, with a sapphire blue lining peaking out, where the use-polished hilt of an ancient style wand, and the sapphire and ruby encrusted hilt of a familiar sword hung. Her brown eyes were tired, as they looked outward, seemingly directly into Hermione's.
The image looked down for a moment as if gathering her thoughts and then at Hermione, "If you are seeing this message then Godric and I failed." The image spoke in an ancient, yet recognizable dialect of English, "Only my future heir or that of Godric's may see this image...or Helga's as well, I suppose." Rowena sighed, "Godric and I have already lost our son to this quest, I do not wish to loose any more...I am not going to loose my daughter as well. We have not been able to find the Orb of Maccabus...In the end we were not dark enough, Godric feels that only those with a truly dark nature can now find the Orb, and so we are returning to Hogwarts. Helga should have it rebuilt by now, the damage repaired from Salazar's betrayal repaired."
Rowena paced a bit in the projection before looking back out into the room, "If you have not already done so, make every effort to find and destroy Salazar's Chamber...it must be destroyed, as if it were to fall into the hands of the enemy the results would be catastrophic...Salazar was influenced in making the Chamber, and told that it would, remove, all of the Muggle-borns and Half-bloods in the school. We, Godric and I, now think it would have removed all the humans in the school, along with the elves, ghosts...everything. If it is left to age, to gather magic, it could scour the world of humanity, which is what I think the enemy had in mind all along. I am not sure where it is, most likely only a Parseltoungue such as Salazar could open it, or find it, and at this moment the only known Parselmouths are dark wizards."
Hermione glanced back at Harry, he just shook his head. Timely Rowena, timely.
She continued, "Since we have not been able to find the Orb, we have hidden our counter. We could not risk the Annakus Orb being corrupted like the Maccabus Orb. It has been bound to evil ever since the failed attempt to control the ancient enemy, it was with Morgana at Avalon, and was probably with Salazar as well. " The image motioned and a scroll appeared in the air in front of Hermione and Alexandrov gasped. "Our heirs should have the tools by now to decode this missive. I am sorry that this quest will not be easy, but if you have embarked on it, the need must be great." Rowena looked down and clasped her hands together, "Know that even if you succeed, you will only break their bond to the Orb, the enemy will abandon the current Dark Lord, but they will return, for they can not stand the presence of more than one magic-using race in this plane of existence. Good luck and Godspeed."
The image faded away back into the Remembrall, it shot back to Hermione's hand and she pocketed it. Hermione turned to Harry, ignoring the presence of the Order of Ravenclaw member, Let's go.
We do have a walk ahead of us, Harry agreed and turned on his heel and paced out of the room.
Hermione stopped as she came even to Alexandrov. "What should I do, my lady?"
"Study or something...I expect a Order representative to be waiting for me when I return to Hogwarts," she commented softly and followed her husband out of the odd room and into the dark corridor.
********************************Hogwarts*******************************
2:00 pm
Emilia looked up, bored as McGonagall went over a simple switching spell, again. The influx of students had been both a boon and a bust to her and her friends and family. On the one hand, they were suddenly surrounded by new children their age, who could also do magic, who knew what they knew intrinsically, but on the other hand, so many of them were...So stupid, Em thought absently as she ran her hand through inky curls and glanced up to watch it fall right back in her eyes. I wonder if mum had to sit through these boring classes.
She glanced over from her Head of House's attempt to get John Clark to perform the spell right to find Xander looking at her with a small smile, she mouthed "what" and he just shrugged before looking back up to the front. In reality, it wasn't most of the students' fault they were so...backwards, magical education what there was of it, until Hogwarts reopened seemed to have consisted of a means to control the potential influx of partisans against Malfoy more than anything.
Emilia glanced over to see Horry and Elliot laughing at something. "Potter...Longbottom," McGonagall commented without turning, "do you find something interesting in the reading? Would you care to share your findings with the class?"
"No, ma'am," Horatio replied without looking up to meet her hard eyes. Emilia shared an amused glance with Harriet and Xander, glancing back to her notes just as Minerva's grey eyes panned over her. She nodded and waved for Sarah Thomas, a newly minted first year Hufflepuff, and a second cousin of Dean's, to attempt the spell.
The young, rust-haired girl's wand shook as she pointed her wand at a russet owl that was glaring at McGonagall, as if he was plotting his revenge for this. She almost screamed the incantation, "SWITCHIUM" A wavy, sparkling orange beam shot over the top of the owl, scattering papers across the front half of the room, and singeing Terrance Kerpatrick, a Ravenclaw to exclaim, "BLOODY HELL."
"Language Mr. Kerpatrick," McGonagall commented absently as she flicked her wand to pick up the scattered papers. The class bell rang and a soft, appreciative sound came from the room, before McGonagall looked back, "Since we don't seem capable of mastering the assigned work...three feet on Switching Spells, by next Tuesday." A chorus of groans answered her as the class quickly escaped before it became four feet.
Most of the class progressed down the second floor corridor, down the main steps and out into the lawn of the castle. Emilia jumped a bit as Xander came up next to her, "Hey, Em." He laughed slightly as they watched a pair of the Hufflepuffs try to mount a pair of training brooms. "How about a real flight?"
"With what, Xan? We have these bulloxed up training brooms," Emilia replied annoyedly. She huffed slightly as they watched the two girls squeak as their brooms rolled sideways to dump them to the ground.
"Not necessarily..." He replied as he grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the class.
"XANDER..." Emilia squeaked as he pointed his wand at the lock of the Quidditch broomshed, it clicked open and she looked on dumbfounded as he pulled a pair of Firebolts from within. "We can't..."
"Are your parents Marauders or not?" He mounted his broom and kicked off. With a soft twinkle in his eye, he pulled a small, miniature Quaffle from the pocket of his robes. He bounced it a couple of times on the palm of his hand before tossing it as hard as he could towards the top of the Astronomy tower.
Emilia never even gave it a thought as she kicked off in pursuit. She laughed as she barrel rolled around an errant owl, dodged under Xander and swept up, plucking the ball out of the air inches from a tower window. She looked over at Xander, waved; "Catch me if you can..." she shot off around and through the towers of the castle. She led him under the flying bridge, through the Owlery windows and out onto the other side. They shot around Gryffindor Tower, behind Ravenclaw and out over the Pitch.
Hushed murmurs whispered below them as the pair shot over the gathered students. Xander shot ahead and weaved in and through the golden hoops of the south end of the Pitch.
Emilia rolled ahead of him, sliding her broom through the sky in a dangerous skid. She rolled to her right, diving into the trench surrounding the Pitch. The timbers of the trench shot past, fast enough to terrify...unless your last name was Potter.
Xander sighed as he followed closely, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief as Emilia pulled up hard and shot straight up. He followed her like he was attached to her tail with a rope, and they turned back towards the castle. They shot past the Astronomy Tower and they both stopped hard enough to almost throw themselves from their brooms.
McGonagall was standing on the ramparts of the tower looking...disappointed. She pointed at her feet and waited as the two floated over and landed next to her. "Just what are you two doing..." she growled. She paced and straightened her square glasses, "It is up to you and the other...more experienced students to provide an example." McGonagall marched over to the edge of the tower and looked down at the gathered crowd. "Go, carry those brooms back to the shed, and report to my office at seven...we will discuss your detention then." She grabbed her robes and stomped off.
After she had left, Xander looked over at Emilia sheepishly, "I'm sorry, Em..." He held the door for her as they headed down from the ramparts to carry the brooms back to the shed. She bit her lip slightly as they passed the stairs to the third floor, and stopped.
"Don't worry about it." Emilia replied softly, with her emerald eyes slightly downcast, and not quite meeting his. "It was fun..." she gave him a shy smile and handed him her broom. "But if you are feeling guilty, you can carry my broom for me." She laughed as she took off down the stairs.
"I never said I was feeling guilty," Xander yelled down the stairs after her.
********************Near Bermuda**********************
A dark, shimmering portal hung motionless in the air, in the dank undersea cave. A pool of water sat below it, leading to the ocean beyond. Scattered about the cave, broken bits of pottery, scraps of steel, and bits of other ancient flotsam where evidence of the age of the ruins the portal seemed to be nestled in.
The mirror-like surface of the portal shivered as a scaly hand on the end of a black sleeve emerged from its depths. The rest of a cloaked figure followed it, then another, and anther and anther until the room was full, with hardly a space to stand, with X'Sheen.
At an undisclosed signal, the entire host of dark ones vanished into thin air with the sound of a thousand bedsheets tearing.
*************************Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts******************
Albus Dumbledore was sitting behind his huge oak desk, his normally serene features slowly darkening with rage as he read a report from within a black-bound file. He glanced up at Fawkes, his blue eyes cold as his familiar nodded as if he knew what his partner was thinking. Dumbledore pulled his half-moons from his crooked nose and pinched the bridge of the same tiredly. After a long moment of consideration, he scrawled a quick note on a scrap of parchment and handed it to Fawkes who vanished in a fall of fire.
Dumbledore rose from his chair and began pacing back and forth along a well-worn track in his office carpet. He waited for almost twenty minutes before a soft knock sounded on his door, "ENTER," Dumbledore commanded as he stood looking out over the grounds. He did not turn to the door as Ron entered slightly out of breath.
"Sorry, Professor," Ron panted, "I was over on the other side of the castle.' Dumbledore nodded, still without turning to look at him. A tiny grin flitted across his ancient features as he watched Emilia and Xander streak past his window. His face was flat though as he finally look at Ron.
"Sorry, Ronald, I was lost in thought," Dumbledore apologized, he waved a hand at his desk and the black folder he had been perusing floated over to Ron and dropped in his hands. Ron opened it and blanched slightly. "Have you ever heard of the Muggle concept of Education Reform, Ronald?" Dumbledore asked darkly. Ron shook his head as he started paging through the file on Umbridge's Death Nibbler school on the Scottish-English boarder. "I want two plans, Leftenant Commander," Dumbledore announced in a soft, formal tone, "both for the liberation of that school from...Delores." He took a breath and petted Fawkes as the Phoenix hopped to his shoulder, "One with the assistance of the Potters and one without. I will be sending Fawkes with a missive for them to return. Both plans should concentrate on taking the facility with as few casualties as possible to the students, even at the cost of our personnel."
"Yes, sir," Ron replied automatically before his higher brain functions cut back in, "Professor, I will need reconnaissance of this castle. We don't have any assets on the ground. Also, what resources may I put towards this assault? Frankly, sir, I am not sure that we have adequate people here to take the castle with few casualties, we can take it, yes, especially with Harry's, Hermione's and your assistances, but I don't know what I can do if the older...students try to defend it. If we actually have to assault the castle, if that is the case, it will get bloody sir, and I will not participate in that action." Ron's words were formal in tone as well.
Dumbledore nodded again, and paced back to his desk, and took another folder from it, he tossed it at Ron who opened it and grinned just slightly. "I would not either, but I think that those plans might help." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled somewhat, "Lucius made a mistake when he chose a former Ministry facility for his school, I suppose that he never bothered to learn during his tenure as a Governor that Hogwarts holds a complete copy of the pre-fall Ministry archives."
**************A Small Village, 30km from the X'Sheen 'Tower'*****************
A pair of lions looked down on a sleepy village nestled in between a pair of snowcapped mountains. A large flat area was to the north of the town, a perfect spot for a UA-55 Wyvern from the Tiamat to pick them up and would do so in a few hours as per schedule. Hermione looked over at Harry as he SHIFTED, pulled a pair of Omnioculars from his pack and looked down over the village.
Looks peaceful enough, he commented with a raised eyebrow as Hermione transformed next to him and rolled her eyes.
And how many times have we seen that before? she growled and headed down towards the village before Harry could reply. He frowned as he took off after her, throwing snow up as he took bounding, leaping steps down the hill. She glanced over at him out the corner of her eye as he caught up to him, and apologized with a soft glance. I guess we can get something to eat, she commented as they looked up to find a sign outside of a larger building at the end of the High Street, what there was of it, labeled simply with "Inn" in large block letters.
Joy...goat.
If we're lucky, Hermione agreed. Her eyes twinkled slightly as they walked into the room, Remember that time in Russia where Ron ate that entire dinner before we found out it was roast Grindlylow? She paused as their eyes adjusted to the gloom to look into the room. A long, battered wooden bar sat against one wall. A short, stocky man with one eye was minding the bar. A long knife was hanging upside down from a bandolier on his chest, its handle blending well with his furs. Near the back corner, a pair of dark, cloaked figures sat nursing steaming cups of a dark red liquid, they turned to look at the Potters and hurriedly looked back to their cups, the vampires, turned ones, not trueborns like Cordelia, knew that they should find their suppers elsewhere.
In a dark dim corner near a set of stairs heading upward, a pair of girls who looked to be barely eighteen, if that, were laughing with the edge that amply communicated their utter despair as they negotiated with several robed travelers. The center of the room was empty as if none of the patrons wished to have their backs to anything other than a nice, solid wall. Hermione rolled her eyes as she lead them to a table in the center and sat after casting a discrete cleaning charm, You take me to the nicest places, Hermione mentioned resignedly.
I still remember when you thought the Hogs' Head was bad, Harry retorted and took a breath before chancing it, Mione what's wrong? And I don't mean being in a shithole for dinner.
The bartender came up then and demanded their orders in a broken mix of English, Mandarin and Tibetan. Conversation stopped abruptly in the bar as Hermione swept down her hood to look at the man. "We'll take two ales and whatever you have that's dead and cooked," she replied in perfect Mandarin, commandingly, and he nodded quickly and walked away. I just...I don't know, I'm just in a bad mood ever since that Smirnoff arsehole...she looked at Harry and bit her lip slightly, I'm not like that am I Harry, I don't overanalyze things and not react do I?
Not really, he reassured her and paused as five black robed soldiers came up behind her. One of them reached out and placed his hand on Hermione's shoulder as he lowered his robe's hood to reveal a dark, goateed face, with hard gray eyes. A green skull decorated the shoulder of his robes, and a pair of small, crescents the collar of his black shirt, which was visible under the robes. A pair of his minions slowly drew wands and looked at Harry menacingly. Along the walls another six perked up, they didn't often have, sport, this far in the hinterlands.
"What do we have here boys?" the Death Eater officer asked in an accent that belonged to Lancashire. The ones with him laughed, and Hermione sighed and blew a lock of hair out of her eyes. "A pair of misplaced vagrants. Do you have your papers, or should we discuss other...arrangements."
Hermione crooked an eyebrow as her eyes glittered with an expression that only three humans on the face of this planet could safely disregard, one of which was sitting across the table from her and the other two she had bore for nine months. She turned her head slightly and in a crisp, flawless upper-class English accent she responded, "Please remove your hand, before I feed it to you."
"You shouldn't say such things to a Leftenant in Lord Malfoy's legions, little girl," he hissed and tightened his fingers into her shoulder painfully. A couple of his followers chuckled gleefully and at least one went to get a key from the bartender to an upstairs room. Hermione looked at Harry, canted her head slightly and MOVED. Time stopped as her hand floated up to the one on her shoulder, pulling it forward, rolling out of her chair and grasping the back of the Death Eater's head. She slammed it forward into the table and his nose and the table shattered in a spray of blood and splinters. She came to her feet like a ghost, and a three-foot length of steel appeared in her hand.
Hermione stepped right and swung left. A hand containing a wand fell to the floor and the Death Eater screamed; only to be silenced forever as she continued her movement right and he fell away to the floor with half a head. She caught the incredibly slow swing of a Death Eater's blade on her own, beat it off and reposted with a thrust to his chest. Jerked her blade free, inverted it and thrust backwards in time to catch an attacker from the rear.
She ducked backwards away from a mistimed swing of an axe by the fifth Death Eater, spun right and dropped him as if pole-axed with a rising, spinning heel. The Lieutenant rose up shakily, turned to her, and died as his head preceded him to the floor.
Harry watched her for a moment with something between pride and resignation as the rest of the Death Eaters in the bar stood to charge her. They never were the brightest bunch, he mused as the Gryffindor blade appeared in his hand and he stood in front of them. The Death Eaters did the only thing they could really, they charged at him all at once. He ducked one flashing sword, rolled right, cut up, caught a green curse on the blade and bounced it back to its sender and flipped left. He dropped to a crouch, swung hard at ankle height and floated back to his feet, swinging the sword through a shimmering figure eight in the air, all in about ten seconds. Six more fell to the floor with a long, extended series of muffled thumps. He turned back to Hermione and shrugged.
She moved to a new table, pushed a Death Eater off her chair and cast a casual Scourgify with a negligent hand wave. Hermione looked over at the bartended pointedly; their food and drinks came rather quickly after that. "This is not too bad," Hermione commented after their food arrived, "Not stringy at all."
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "we have had worse." A sudden howling sound like a half-dozen werewolves being drug behind lorries came from outside, and a minute later the door kicked in followed quickly by a half-dozen men in mottled grey and white camouflage, wearing shielded night vision goggles on their foreheads and toting a mixture of wands and Muggle pulse rifles. Hermione looked at the leader, a young black man with a neat, blond goatee and subdued, Lieutenant's bars at his collar. The rest of his troops fanned out around the room as he let his rifle drop on its sling and walked up to them.
"Trouble, sir, ma'am?" he asked politely.
"No John," Hermione replied as she conjured a napkin to wipe her lips and stood, "we were just finishing our dinner." Harry stood and summoned hers and his packs to him and handed them to a machinist first class with hard, grey eyes and a pale complexion. He nodded and swung both of them over his shoulder without even noticing the weight.
They walked out into the snow, the rest of the squad that had entered the inn, peeling off in a reverse fashion to follow them out. As they cleared the building they found the source of the howling.
A Wyvern transport was squatting in the snow, surrounded by at least another fifteen troops. The Wyvern's autocannons were slowly panning back and forth looking for a target, while the wandcannons on the nose were lit with the pre-discharge glow of kilowatt range Reductors. A pair of P-99s slowly drifted overhead in a tight pattern, with another pair barely visible several thousand feet above their heads. Harry stalked up the ramp and dropped into a seat along the port bulkhead, Hermione following suit next to him. The Lieutenant took a seat next to him and yelled at a stocky man with a white bandanna covering his head at the door, "LET'S GO CHIEF."
He turned to the officer and nodded before touching his hand to his ear, "EVAC NOW." He barked and the entire team of twenty reboarded the aircraft at a run. Twenty seconds later, the chief turned and nodded.
"LET'S GO CABBIE!" he snapped toward the pilot, who flipped the bird over his shoulder, an instant before they shot into the sky like a rocket. The ramp finished closing as they turned to the south and distant booms could be heard as the craft and its escorts went supersonic.
"You were a bit early John," Harry observed as he stretched slightly and Hermione leaned against him and closed her eyes.
Lieutenant Simons shrugged and unzipped his camouflage parka to reveal a black inner layer with a small trident insignia on his chest. "You know the old man, he was nervous, who were the Death Eaters piled about the room?"
Hermione didn't open her eyes as she replied, "The usual scum Lucius has in his hinterlands. They wanted...payment for our passage."
"I guess they got it." He agreed and gasped as a sudden fall of fire lit the dim cabin between them. His jaw dropped as Fawkes bleeked up at him and turned to Harry, dropped a note in his hands and vanished in a second fall of fire. "Was that a Phoenix?" he asked, stunned, after a long moment.
"Yeah," Harry replied, and leaned his head against Hermione's, and closed his eyes. "Wake us when we get to the carrier," he ordered and drifted off before he could hear a response.