Chapter 13 - Desolation
Harry was glad that they had equipped all of the Light Bearer portkey bracelets with a direct route to the Hogwart's hospital wing. The gleaming white walls bore silent witness to pure chaos as dozens of people were being hastily treated by anyone and everyone who had even the slightest healing ability. Even with the additional help Madam Pomfrey was still overwhelmed by the huge range of potentially lethal spells that was afflicting the survivors of the battle of Hogsmeade.
"Help me up Harry," Hermione said determinedly.
"Let me levitate you to a bed," Harry said. Most of her wounds had closed up again, but she still looked awful.
"No, there's no time, and Poppy has injuries much worse than mine to treat," Hermione replied. "We've got to get back to Hogsmeade."
"What?" Harry asked, stupefied. "Why on earth would we go back there?"
"Harry," Hermione replied as if it were obvious. "You said you saw aurors arriving just as we left. They knew that we evacuated the village and its terribly dangerous to risk a counter attack by going there so soon after the Death Eaters fled. They waited a full week to investigate White Acres. It doesn't make any sense and we need to know what they're doing."
"All right, fine," Harry said, his stomach twisting into all kinds of knots over her condition. Still, he knew that the best way to get Hermione treated was to do what she wanted to as quickly as possible. Not to mention she had a real point. Harry gestured to an uninjured fifth year student who was standing around looking lost. "You, yes you, get over here. Hermione and I have business to take care of, but when we return I want you to have Bill here waiting for us."
Harry didn't wait for a reply, though he did make sure that the fellow seemed to leave to accomplish his task. He draped an arm around Hermione to steady her just in case she was still woozy and matched her pace as they headed toward the astronomy tower. They both cast invisibility charms over themselves to keep any wayward students from seeing them and possibly discovering their animagus forms. They had decided that the safest way to spy on auror activity would be from the sky.
Harry had been concerned that Hermione might be unable to transform properly since it took a fairly decent amount of power and concentration to perform such wandless magic. Most people didn't consider that sort of transfiguration as wandless magic, but nevertheless that is really what it is. He need not have worried though. Hermione made the transition easily and a few moments later they were drifting lazily through the air above the wreckage of Hogsmeade.
Harry and Hermione slowly descended to different parts of the village so they could observe the frenzy of activity taking place. Crimson cloaked aurors were sifting through the wreckage and collecting the dead. Harry forced himself to look as they extracted Ginny's body from the shield that the giant who killed her had dropped before Harry vanquished him. They stripped her of her wand, portkey bracelet, armor, cloak, and emblem, which turned to dust as soon as it was removed. That done they piled her on top of the other bodies they'd gathered. The items they collected were placed delicately in labeled boxes that Hermione told him indicated the name, rank, and affiliation of the person they were taken from. Hermione's bird vision was far superior to Harry's in the night.
The aurors also seemed to be searching the area where the giants had fallen with extra diligence. They scraped up dozens of samples of soil and possibly armor fragments before finally packing up their investigation and portkeying away.
"How are we going to tell Molly?" Harry asked as they flapped back toward the castle. The weight of what had happened had really set in when he watched them unceremoniously tugging Ginny from the metallic spikes on that shield.
"I don't know," Hermione replied morosely. Harry shut up, he could tell Hermione blamed herself and he didn't think that anything he said was going to help right now.
"Hermione what is it?" Harry asked. As soon as they had transformed Harry realized Hermione was doing her best to not cry.
"Am I a bad person Harry?" Hermione sobbed uncontrollably. "I've seen so many people get killed; Sirius, Moody, strangers, but none of it ever hurt like this. Shouldn't I care about them too, shouldn't their deaths have hurt just as much? Shouldn't I have wanted to kill their murderers just as badly?"
Harry didn't know exactly what to say so instead he tried to channel soothing feelings across their bond.
"I don't know much about this kind of stuff Hermione," Harry said truthfully. "I know that I never felt this badly about my parents, so does that make me a bad person too? Shouldn't I have felt the worse about my own parents instead of Sirius or Hagrid? Ginny was one of your best friends, so was Hagrid, and we've both known Neville practically forever. I think its only natural for it to hurt worse when its someone close."
Hermione sniffled, but her logical personality shone through even in deep emotional turmoil. Harry could already see her starting to silently berate herself for breaking down in such a fashion.
"It's ok Hermione, I know how you feel because I feel the same way," Harry said, trying to steel himself for her sake. "I'll always be here for you, never forget that."
"We'll always be here for each other," Hermione said. Later Harry would realize that it was the first time Hermione had actually promised him she wouldn't die in the war.
They walked in silence back from the astronomy tower to the hospital wing, their emotions completely drained. Dumbledore had returned and was waiting for them along with Bill.
"Ouch," Hermione said sharply as Bill prodded her with his wand. She and Harry had donned stoic faces once they were returned to the inhabited parts of the castle. The last thing anyone needed to see was the "Chosen One" and the Light Bearer's strongest witch having a breakdown. Harry and to a lesser extent Hermione were now expected to save everyone, for good or for ill.
"This is some cursed wound," Bill replied. "I've not seen anything quite like it. How did you keep from bleeding to death?"
"Blood replenishing potion," Hermione said stiffly. "After I used my magic to force the wounds to close again."
"That explains why you're not bleeding profusely right now," Bill said thoughtfully. "A normal witch would have already died."
"Can you break the curse?" Harry interrupted.
"Yes, I believe so, but it'll take some time," Bill said finally. He began casting a spell reminiscent of the one Hermione had once used to break a jinx that had been placed on Harry's wand.
"This actually feels pretty good," Hermione commented idly. "And that means we have time to hear about the fight with Voldemort."
"There is little you do not already know," Dumbledore said. "Tom remains as formidable as ever, though he seems to have come into possession of knowledge that is most disturbing."
"Disturbing how?" Hermione asked.
Dumbledore hesitated for a moment before drawing out his wand and muffling them from the rest of the room. Harry and Hermione exchanged worried glances at this.
"Such precautions are probably needless," Dumbledore said reassuringly. "However, it is wise to be safe. As you are all aware I am not an ordinary wizard."
"None of us here are exactly ordinary," Hermione observed.
"I am," Bill muttered indignantly.
"There are many different kinds of wizards," Dumbledore continued. "Most require a great deal of time and effort to use spells. A few are able to access magic much quicker, some can even do so without using spoken words to focus their intent. Of those a few great wizards and witches arise every generation, like Tom Riddle or Hermione Granger."
"Not you or I?" Harry asked.
"No, not us, but for different reasons. You, Harry, probably had great potential, perhaps you would have been one of the few greatest, but we may never know. When Tom attacked you he transferred many of his powers to you, like the ability to speak to snakes, and in all likelihood your predisposition to high level spell casting. Through your connection with Tom you are probably still leeching away some of his power for yourself and he has become much stronger since I last faced him." Dumbledore said.
"While that's disturbing, I'm not seeing how it relates to anything," Harry said impatiently. The Headmaster's tendency to elaborate unnecessarily was almost as irksome as when he didn't explain something at all.
"Have you ever wondered why I have no family?" Dumbledore asked. "No parents, no large pureblood mansion, no permanent vault in Gringotts, nothing."
Harry looked sharply at Hermione and saw her eyes widen perceptibly. He had never thought to wonder why the original Sorcerer's Stone had been in an empty vault instead of the Headmaster's or why out of all the personal items Dumbledore collected there was never a single picture. On deeper reflection it was like the man dropped out of no where with no connections to the world around him except those he chose to make.
"I was discovered as a baby in a structure deep beneath an ancient abandoned city known as Meadow Down." Dumbledore said. "It is a place relatively unknown to the wizarding community, but it was discovered over 150 years ago by a team investigating England's magical past. Apparently some ancient and unknown spell had kept it entirely hidden for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years. Even now the spell still prevents muggles from finding it. I was named for the team's leader, with a middle name for each of the other members of the exploration team. None of them adopted me though and I was more or less an orphan."
"What about Aberforth?" Hermione asked.
"His father did free me and over the years we've become good friends, like brothers perhaps, but it isn't the same," Dumbledore said bluntly. Harry felt new empathy for the Headmaster as he suddenly gained new perspective on Dumbledore's choice to leave him with the Dursleys. "That isn't what's important though. I was found in a spell that froze time."
"So then you're the last survivor of a community of wizards that died out ages ago?" Harry asked. This was freakishly weird, even for the magical world.
"Unfortunately much of their secrets were lost, including the secrets to the time spell I was found in. Though some advances in time manipulation were made, nothing so useful as a stasis spell has yet been recreated. The disturbing part is that Tom was aware of the spell when he shouldn't have been. He said something about a rumor, but no such rumor could possibly exist since only the original team should have had that knowledge and they're all dead." Dumbledore said.
"Didn't they leave journals or something?" Hermione asked.
"Not on the time spell," Dumbledore replied. "The entire chamber was removed to the Department of Mysteries, everything was covered up as soon as they realized what they had discovered."
"So?" Harry interjected. "If a bunch of fifth years could penetrate the Department of Mysteries then surely Voldemort or someone else could too."
Dumbledore ignored him and continued. "It is entirely possible that if my ancestors were able to hide an entire city that they might also have hidden other things as well. Voldemort has traveled Europe extensively during his assent to power and recruited a following of considerable intellectual depth. He may have another source of information."
"We'll keep that in mind during the interrogations then," Hermione said.
"Dare I ask what you both intend to do now?" Dumbledore said.
Hermione barely resisted rolling her eyes. "As soon as Bill gets finished we're going to Middle Yard to find out what our new captives know. It's only a matter of time before we catch someone with vital information."
"Hermione, you're still injured and tired, we both are," Harry said through their bond. "Are you sure we should be doing anything this quickly?"
"We've got to hit Voldemort's forces back now, before they can recover," Hermione said darkly. "We've got to make them pay."
Harry remembered the look on Hagrid's face as the kindly half-giant had died and scowled. Icy claws enveloped his heart once again as he contemplated the carnage of Hogsmeade. It was far different than what he had felt when Sirius had died. Harry knew that the blame only lay with Voldemort and those who followed him.
"You're both exhausted," Bill was saying as Harry snapped out of his thoughts and back into reality.
"We'll manage," Hermione said tersely. "Summon an elf."
Instantly an older hobbled looking elf appeared on the scene bowing and asking how it could be of assistance.
"Go to the room now being used as Light Bearer headquarters for Hogwarts and find two hats in the large wizard's trunk along the wall opposite of the door," Hermione instructed.
"Yes of course Head Granger," the elf replied, seemingly unusually pleased with itself. A moment later it returned with the requested items.
"Thank you," Hermione said in a much politer tone. "I'm sorry I was so abrupt with you a moment ago."
The elf's ears drooped. "You are most welcome Head Granger."
Hermione tossed Harry the fully stocked hat as soon as the elf vanished. "We'd both better drink a restorative," Hermione said.
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore said softly, "Hermione, remember your last experience with improper potion usage?"
"The only thing improper about it was that I didn't correct the formula properly," Hermione snapped. Harry regarded her with mixed emotions. He wished fervently that he could shield her from all the dangers she continually exposed herself too.
"Restorative potions can strengthen your body and replenish your magic for a time, but all the while they're wearing you out. You can only cheat nature so far, even with magic," Dumbledore insisted.
"This isn't an issue Professor," Harry interrupted before Hermione could respond. Dumbledore looked at him for a moment and nodded.
"Thanks Harry," Hermione said.
"You know more about these potions than I do. Does he have a point?" Harry asked.
"Yes, but we don't have a choice right now. We're strong Harry, especially you, and these potions work off of a person's natural potential magic. We can tolerate this for a while," Hermione replied. That was enough for Harry. He knew that he could trust Hermione implicitly and even though he wanted to protect her Harry respected Hermione too much to try making decisions for her.
"Bill, I don't think you're going to be able to do much more than that," Hermione said aloud.
"I suppose not," Bill agreed with a slight sigh. "The curse has faded, but it will take its own time to dissipate completely. You shouldn't start bleeding again though."
"Then if there's nothing else Harry and I have places to be," Hermione said. Harry looked between the Dark Arts teacher and Headmaster, but they just nodded resignedly. Hermione activated her portkey and a moment later Harry followed.
Middle Yard was chaotic in the wake of the attack. A substantial portion of the Light Bearers had apparently been flitting in and out of the place trying to get information beyond the garbled reports that had been floating around ever since the attack started.
"Miss Granger, it's so good to see you're still alive," Raver Harp said, voice all bubbly as usual. Harry decided that their resident auror must simply have one default personality, or perhaps a mental disorder, to keep his joyous demeanor in the wake of such a disaster. "We had heard rumors that you'd been killed twice, once from the dwarves and then again from some of the wounded that were brought here from Hogsmeade."
"Yes I'm alive, which is more than can be said for a lot of other good people," Hermione snapped.
Harp looked abashed. "Of course, poor Longbottom and so many others."
"Harry," a middle aged wizard shouted as he ran up to them. "We just sent some people to one of our southern safe houses and they came back with these."
Harry and Hermione looked over at a dozen wizards all standing blankly, unmoving, barely breathing.
"Somehow the dementors got to them, but the safe house shows no signs of a fight, they were all just standing around like that." The wizard continued.
"Harp, you heard the man, get your team down there, sweep the place with patronus charms, then collect everything you can and destroy the place," Harry instructed. The base had obviously been compromised somehow.
Hermione waved her wand and several silvery birds erupted from it. "I'm telling all the other safe houses to go on high alert and start sweeping with a patronus at regular intervals," she explained.
"Come on Hermione," Harry said darkly as he turned away from the empty shells. "We need some answers."
They separated themselves from the crowd and proceeded deeper into the intimidating structure to where they had been informed that the prisoners from the battle at Hogsmeade were being kept. Harry peered into the first cell at the terrified witch who had been captured by one of the professors. A piece of parchment attached to the door of each cell listed any information already known about the person held within.
"Please, I don't belong here," she wailed when they entered the room. "I was under the Imperius Curse. I had no choice."
Harry cast a sideways glance at Hermione as if to ask her what she thought of the witch's claim. It was very difficult to tell who was under the curse and who wasn't unless it was currently active so it could be broken.
"Your mind is very strong," Hermione said finally. "You could be lying to us."
"I'm not a pureblood, I'm muggle born, I was a Gryffindor at Hogwarts, my sister was killed by You-Know-Who in the first war, I'd never help him willingly," she insisted.
"We'll be checking on that," Hermione said. "Come on Harry, next cell."
"Are you sure Hermione?" Harry asked. "She might have time sensitive information that she's trying to keep long enough for it to be useless."
Hermione sent off a messenger charm to Dumbledore with the witch's name and claims. "The Headmaster should be able to verify some or all of that as soon as he gets the message. If anything doesn't check out we'll come back immediately."
Harry nodded in agreement and they moved on to the next prisoner. This one was a short heavy set wizard who didn't even pretend he wasn't a Death Eater. According to the parchment on his door he was probably some kind of squad leader or something. A skull like the one Voldemort had once been witnessed using during Hermione and Dumbledore's rescue of Harry last year had been found on him. Dumbledore surmised that only a person with a Dark Mark could activate the device, but with Snape away there was no way to test that theory. Activating the skull without knowing the true extent of its purpose would probably have been unwise anyway.
"You're wasting your time," he spat angrily, "The Dark Lord will come for us."
"I don't think so," Harry replied easily. "He can't find this place and even if he could there is no greater fortress in England except for Hogwarts. Voldemort wouldn't dare face me in my own stronghold."
"You think you're so great with your stolen powers," the wizard retorted, apparently repeating some kind of Voldemort issued propaganda line. "You're nothing more than a pretender."
"As long as Voldemort is defeated I don't care where my powers came from," Harry replied smugly.
"We're not here for banter," Hermione interrupted. "We're here for answers. Tell us what we want to know about Voldemort's organization, how many followers he has, where he has bases, and what his current plans are."
The man snorted indignantly, "Do you really think the Dark Lord would entrust his strategies to me?"
"You're a higher ranking Death Eater of some kind," Hermione replied. "You have to know something and don't even think about lying, we always know."
"I won't tell you anything," he replied vehemently. "You prance around in black cloaks, using nightmares against your opponents in battle like cowards playing at being dark wizards."
Hermione flicked her wand and pinned him against the wall with an invisible force. "Who's playing?" she asked nastily. "Harry, probe his mind while I hold him."
Harry took his own wand out and walked up to the defiant wizard. "legilimens"
Images began to swirl by at a rapid pace that forced Harry to concentrate in order to slow them down. He reached out for anything that looked remotely like it might concern Voldemort or the man's Death Eater activities, but each time the images would morph and escape his reach. After a few minutes he pulled back out of the man's mind and regarded him anew.
"He's a very good at shielding his thoughts," Harry informed Hermione.
"We have to know," Hermione replied simply.
Harry blanched for a second, but then his expression hardened as he remembered Hagrid, Ginny, and Neville. "Stop resisting my probes or I'll be forced to take more drastic measures," Harry said darkly.
"Do your worst pretender," the wizard sneered.
"Crucio!" Harry yelled. The spell struck the wizard with an excruciating sensation that would have had him writhing in the floor if not Hermione's magic holding him rigidly in place.
"Are you ready to stop resisting?" Hermione asked once the prisoner's convulsions died down. He shook his head again, still defiantly loyal, or perhaps merely more frightened of Voldemort than of them.
"Crucio!" Harry yelled again. He slowly twisted his wand to draw out the intense pain which was, in this case, designed to cause the subject to lose the mental discipline necessary to resist his probes. As soon as he let the curse end he immediately followed up with another attempt to delve into the wizard's mind.
Again images flooded toward Harry, but this time they were slower and didn't change unexpectedly. Most of the memories were of generic Death Eater activity like attacks or merely the man's daily life. The one image that stood out in importance was a squat blocky muggle office building in London. Harry focused on that image and more memories associated with it.
"Did it work?" Hermione asked once he had pulled back out.
"I think I found his base," Harry replied. He was breathing slightly hard from the emotional exertion.
"Petrify him," Hermione said shortly. Harry removed a small vial and dropped a small amount of the liquid carefully onto the Death Eater. Before they left Hermione conjured bands out of the wall to hold him in place where she had kept him suspended with her magic.
The process was repeated over and over again as they went from cell to cell. Some of the people cooperated, others offered evidence that they had been subjected to the Imperius Curse, and the rest were defiant. Toward the end the captives seemed to have figured out that pleading the Imperius Curse kept them from being interrogated because the last three all claimed bewitchment.
"They're lying," Harry said once they'd left the final cell. "You know there can't be that many under the Imperius, especially not with the necessary mental defenses to keep us from telling whether or not they're lying. Voldemort has been making his people learn Occlumency."
"So it would seem," Hermione sighed. "Still, I don't want to do that to someone who might be innocent. We've got the London base, let's deal with that first and then decide what to do with all our alleged Imperius victims."
"Which means we need to get some sleep," Harry said firmly.
"Harry, if they know who we captured then they also know what information might be compromised," Hermione protested.
"That means they also know where to set traps," Harry argued. "We had enough problems with Voldemort's avatars when we were rested and I don't fancy meeting them in our current state. Not to mention we don't have a team ready to back us up yet. Let's send out messenger charms and have everyone meet here tomorrow morning when we're all rested. Then with any luck we can catch as many people as possible in that base."
Hermione looked conflicted for a moment as she considered Harry's plan. "All right, I guess so."
"You have a tendency to bite off more than you can chew," Harry said with a knowing grin.
"I do not," Hermione protested with mock indignation.
"Third year," Harry replied.
"Okay, point, let's get back to Grimmauld Place," Hermione said.
"Dobby," Harry called out softly as soon as they exited the multicolor swirl of portkey travel. The tiny elf appeared almost immediately.
"How can Dobby be helping Harry Potter, sir," he asked.
"Two measures of dreamless sleeping potion Dobby to the living room please," Harry said. He felt Hermione grip his hand and felt a torrent of tortured emotions flood across their bond that she had been repressing ever since the attack. Now that she no longer had to focus it was all coming out. Harry's own mental state was hardly better between his anger at Voldemort and anguish over the deaths of his friends.
Hermione's parents both looked concerned as they enveloped Hermione in a warm hug as soon as she entered the main room. Harry didn't want to intrude on her family, but he was caught up in the embrace as well after receiving a look from Mrs. Granger that screamed "don't be silly, you're family too."
"Is Molly here?" Hermione asked softly after the silent hug had ended.
"She was dear," Sarah Granger replied, "but your friend Ronald came by and then they left. She seemed terribly upset."
"Ginny was killed," Hermione whispered, everything flooding back. "I was right there, but I couldn't stop it. I was just so tired."
"I'm sure you did everything you could," Sarah said consolingly as she led Hermione and Harry toward their usual chairs next to the grand fireplace at the front of the room.
"Why don't you tell us all about it?" Erwin Granger asked gently once they were seated.
"Sorry," Hermione said apologetically as Dobby appeared with their potions. Her expression darkened. "We're going after them tomorrow."
Erwin draped his arm tenderly around his wife's shoulders as he watched their daughter down some magical concoction and fall asleep as if tranquilized. He recognized the grim expressions on their faces and wished that there were something he could do. Neither of the Grangers had ever felt connected to the magical world, but never had that gulf been so acute as it was for them at this moment.
"What is he doing here?" Hermione asked. Morning had come all too soon and with it all the pain of loss that could be avoided in sleep had flooded back. They were sitting at the head of the long dining room table waiting for everyone who had been called to show up. The room had been magically enlarged to accommodate the fifty witches and wizards that were coming. This would be the biggest Light Bearer operation to date with nearly half of their remaining strength, including Harry and Hermione, going on the attack.
"Probably wants to talk us out of this," Harry replied. Albus Dumbledore, who was supposed to be guarding the vital stronghold of Hogwarts, had padded softly into the room, but hadn't said anything so far.
Two familiar bushy red heads bounded through the door. The Weasley twins were holding several scrolls of paper, but they didn't look very pleased.
"We got the plans you wanted," Fred said.
"It was a muggle building so there were floor plans on file with the government," George added.
"But that's about it. The place is warded up, we couldn't get close without tipping them off," Fred said.
"Floor plans will be fine," Harry said flatly. The twins grimaced at his poor attitude, but they couldn't really blame him. They were probably angrier than Harry was since it was their little sister after all.
"We want to go on this raid. Ron and Luna too, they're going to join us in a few minutes," Fred said, putting his hand down on the scrolls that Harry and Hermione had begun to inspect.
"No," Harry snapped. "This isn't about revenge."
"Bloody hell it isn't," George snapped. The other wizards in the room were all looking elsewhere now. "I can see it in your eyes, both of you."
"Fine," Hermione said tersely. "Come along if you like. Can you perform the Killing Curse?"
The twins recoiled at this question. "I-I can," George stammered, "Fred never tried."
"Our magic levels are the same, if George can do it I can too," Fred said grimly.
"That goes for everyone here," Harry said loudly. "We're still going to try to capture as many of the enemy as possible, but if they're going to escape or you can't subdue them without risking injury then use avada kedavra. Anyone who isn't willing to do so should bow out of this mission now."
The crowd broke out in murmuring, but no one made any move to leave. Once Ron arrived with Luna, Harry and Hermione waited for a few minutes before launching into the details of the mission. They explained the information they had gotten from the Death Eater about the facility Voldemort was using as a base and then passed out conjured copies of the floor plans the twins had obtained.
"Are there any questions?" Hermione asked once they had finished. No one said anything.
"Then prepare yourselves, we'll be leaving in ten minutes," Harry said. As if on cue Dumbledore glided across the room to where the two teens were still seated.
"Headmaster," Harry said respectfully.
"Harry, I wondered if we might talk for a moment," Dumbledore said.
"Why do you think I gave everyone ten minutes?" Harry asked pointedly.
"I thought you should know that I have requested Charlie Weasley return to us to fill the role of gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures Professor," Dumbledore said.
Harry grimaced that now yet another Weasley would be placed directly in the firing line. "I take it he has accepted?" Harry responded simply.
"He has," Dumbledore said. "He also brings news from our friends abroad."
"We already get communications with our allies," Hermione interrupted.
"Official diplomatic communications," Dumbledore said evenly. "Young Mr. Weasley gets reports of a less formal nature."
"If there were a problem they would come to us directly," Harry said.
"Come to you directly and do what?" Dumbledore asked. "Anger the only witch and wizard willing or able to protect them at this point? Perhaps even bring your wrath down on them in addition to Voldemort's?"
Harry felt a stab of shock radiate across his bond with Hermione even as his own jaw slackened.
"My wrath?" he squeaked.
"The two of you have done a good job instilling fear into the hearts and minds of your foes, but fear has a habit of spreading to unintended places. All purebloods worry about the day you appear on their doorstep to destroy their wealth and heritage. Many sentient creatures dread that you will demand their service like you did of the centaurs and that they will thusly be drawn into the midst of your war, Potter's war." Dumbledore explained. His voice sounded old and tired as he recounted the various rumors that were spreading throughout the magical world.
"How could they possibly believe such a thing?" Hermione asked. She looked as if she had been completely blindsided by such accusations.
Harry remembered all the rants that he had indulged in from time to time against purebloods along with the relentless hunting down of Lady Malfoy and the destruction of many prominent pureblood estates. He looked up at the three Weasleys and Luna, all of which were regarding him a little warily. Suddenly, Ron seemed to comprehend his stare.
"Harry, you know we don't, I mean we couldn't, you'd never do anything to us because we're purebloods. You know that doesn't mean anything to us," Ron rambled hastily.
Harry nodded and refocused on Dumbledore's explanation. "The apprehension of Narcissa was the final shock to most of the pureblood community. They all knew that the estates you destroyed were being used to fund and house Death Eaters, but Narcissa has never had any dealings with the dark arts or Voldemort beyond her marriage to Lucius. Well, there are a lot of purebloods that have business dealings and friendships with suspected Death Eaters without actually supporting Voldemort."
"So they think that just associating with our enemies is enough to bring us down on them," Hermione finished.
"It might well enough be," Harry said unhappily. "If they're doing something that helps Voldemort, even if they don't mean to, we'll have no choice."
"So you can see that perhaps some restraint is in order," Dumbledore suggested hopefully.
"Impossible," Harry replied instantly.
"It can't be helped," Hermione agreed, her tone icy. "And if you're suggesting we go back to doing it like the Order used to you can forget it."
"I simply want Harry to be aware of all the facts," Dumbledore replied. "Knowledge is important, even if we don't always like the truth we discover."
"Well, in the short term I don't see how this is a problem," Harry said finally. Hermione and Dumbledore both looked expectantly toward him. "If our allies are a little scared of us is still doesn't change anything. They need our protection, we need them to help us or at the least not help Voldemort."
"Yes, true, but in the long run," Dumbledore said.
Harry interrupted sharply, "In the long run Voldemort will be defeated. Hermione and I will put away our wands and retire. That will be the end of it and they can then see with their own eyes that we mean no one any harm."
"I hope it's that simple Harry," Dumbledore said, resignation apparent in his voice.
"We've got a long way to go before we worry about that," Hermione said. "And unless I'm mistaken ten minutes are up. Come on, we've got a war to run."
The Weasley twins exchanged uneasy glances and even Ron gulped as the two irate leaders of the Light Bearers stood determinedly and apparated away. Only Luna seemed unfazed, but then nothing ever seemed to bother the blonde witch.
"It doesn't appear to be remarkable in any way does it?" Harry asked. He looked over at Hermione where she was attempting to peek around the alley corner to get a better view of their target. It was still early in the morning, but there were no muggles to be seen on the streets. Harry considered that there might be some weak anti-muggle wards on the building to prevent any from accidentally wandering into it.
"Other than all the magic hanging around it," Hermione replied. There were detection wards set up in the immediate area, but nothing too powerful. The Death Eaters probably didn't want to give their location away should a wizard pass nearby, not that they had to worry about that too much. Wizards rarely strayed away from the magical parts of London.
Hermione took out a long thin piece of wood with four thick paper like flanges sticking out in different directions. The combination anti-apparation and portkey inhibition field wasn't ethereal like Voldemort's had been at Hogsmeade, but it would do the job of preventing anyone from leaving or arriving in the area so long as it was still active. Harry concentrated on his Light Bearer emblem and called out for all the people who were participating in the attack to apparate. The telltale cracks instantly filled the air as robed and masked mages appeared, wands drawn for battle.
"Ron," Harry hissed. "Why aren't you wearing your mask."
Ron was wearing the four silver bars of his rank, but he no longer bothered to cover his face.
"Come on Harry, you know as well as I do that my identity was compromised too much during Hogsmeade. I directed the whole battle, lots of students, teachers, and the people from Hogsmeade saw me." Ron replied.
"All right then, Ron, Luna, grab about half of these people and come with me, we're going in on top. Hermione will finish raising the ward and then she'll take everyone else in at the bottom. No one escapes, got it?" Harry said. Heads nodded all around and Hermione grasp his hand briefly before he left with his group to get into position.
An outside observer would have noticed a comical sight had they been paying attention. Two dozen men and women wearing long dark robes with pointy hats were trying to sneak across a street in broad daylight. Harry didn't know if they had been successful at evading notice or not, but either way it couldn't be helped. He stood next to the building and pointed his wand at the ground. Magical energies sent him flying upwards with just enough force to clear the wall and land lightly on the roof. Seconds later the rest of his group followed him.
Part of the instructions in the message that had been sent to the raiders the previous evening also detailed how to use the spell for enhanced physical feats. After the Hogsmeade fiasco where no one except Hermione knew how to use the spell in combination with their armor as an improvised weapon against giants it was obvious that everyone needed to be told as quickly as possible. No wizard ever engaged in physical combat of any sort, it was considered beneath them, so unsurprisingly no one else had improvised effective tactics against warriors virtually impervious to magic.
"We're ready here," Harry told Hermione across their link.
"Okay, then let's go," Hermione responded a second later.
"Avada Kedavra," Harry said, his wand pointed at the roof's access door. The door shattered in a flash of green light and revealed the stairway that led down into the building. Harry heard another crash from below and knew Hermione had just made a similar entrance.
"All right, fan out, but be careful," Harry instructed as they spilled out onto the top floor. The layout of the building was very simple; each floor was merely a hallway with rooms on each side.
The progress of searching the building went by pretty quickly, though Harry had to remind his group to blow the doors in forcefully instead of simply unlocking them. The debris fragments and concussion of the door getting hit with a killing curse would hopefully stun any ambush on the other side.
Meanwhile, Hermione was having better luck when it came to finding the intelligence sources that they were looking for. They busted into what appeared to be a makeshift healing ward on their second try. Only one pot bellied old wizard, a healer working for Voldemort apparently, was even remotely able to defend himself. He had lasted about ten seconds against Hermione before finding himself wandless and pinned against the wall by a dozen metallic bands.
"How many others are in here?" Hermione asked.
"Not telling you anything," the old man replied.
"They all say that," Hermione retorted menacingly. She continued to pepper him with questions. "How many other wards are there like this and where are their locations? How does Voldemort do such a good job of keeping valuable information out of his force's minds? You're a healer, if he's using some kind of new memory charms or something you must surely know."
"Just because your security is amateurish doesn't mean that the Dark Lord's is," the man laughed. "I really don't know anything, but if I did I'd tell you because you won't be leaving here. They'll stop you."
"They, whose they?" Hermione snapped. Her eyes bored into his mind for any useful knowledge.
"The Dark Lord's champions," he replied, grinning.
"Harry, we've got avatars!" Hermione thought, then yelled out to her team, some of which was already penetrating the second floor. "Everyone get back here now."
"Too late," Harry replied. He was already on the third floor when a dozen Death Eaters and an avatar he didn't recognize had burst out of the rooms on the other end of the hallway.
"Linear formation," Harry yelled. He dropped down to the floor in front and continued to block incoming curses as everyone lined up shoulder to shoulder behind him in a formation akin to the ones used by old muggle armies back when their firearms were hugely inaccurate at range.
The Death Eaters were so shocked they nearly froze up when two dozen green flashes of light filled the hall. Harry's forces continued to fire as rapidly as possible and the effect was devastating. In the past wizards had always dueled individually, even when many of them fought at the same time. For groups of wizards to mass their attacks in such an organized fashion was unheard of. Most of the Death Eaters fell, their faces still twisted in shock.
There was a roar of pure rage from the avatar, which had been strong enough to conjure barriers to take the shots he couldn't dodge. Harry grimaced as a huge torrent of fire came searing down the narrow hallway. The weakness of the linear formation was that it presenting a very fat target with so many people huddled so closely together. Harry's team scrambled to get away, but they need not have bothered. Now that the lesser fighters had been dealt with the battle was Harry's anyway.
Harry let loose a blast of black lightening against the oncoming flame. "Get down to the second floor, there's nothing left to do here for now."
Harry's black lightening had arrested the advance of the avatar's flame, but it hadn't made much progress of its own. Regular lightening worked by adding energy to whatever it touched, often with explosive results. Black lightening worked the opposite way by taking energy from the things it struck although the result was often just as explosive.
Harry conjured his silver shield and activated his armor, including its shield function so he wouldn't have to worry about having a solid object on hand to block any killing curses that might be cast at him. The avatar summoned up a shield as well before closing the distance between himself and Harry.
Neither combatant made any idle chat before unleashing a variety of spells designed to penetrate shield charms. Harry heavily favored the breaker curse since it focused so much magical energy into a small area, but the avatar seemed to favor the opposite approach. With each blast of pale purple light Harry's shield was drained of some of its power until it began to look transparent.
Harry summoned a cylinder barrier shield and then quickly banished it so he could fill the hallway with the magical shrapnel that it always left behind. The avatar brushed most of the shards aside and hit Harry with an impediment spell. Fortunately, the dragon hide clothes Harry wore under his robes helped ameliorate the spell's effects, but he still chided himself for being hit by such a simple enchantment.
The air shimmered slightly, almost imperceptibly, but Harry knew some kind of air elemental spell was coming for him. That didn't help him see or counter the attack though. He felt his body jerk twice and suddenly his side felt very warm. Harry's robes had been ripped and a dark wet area was quickly expanding around the damage where blood was soaking into his clothing.
The avatar accelerated at Harry, hoping to catch him completely off guard with a killing curse slipped under his physical shield. Harry twisted and caught the green blast on the palm of his armored hand. The avatar tried again, but he was interrupted in the middle of the spell by Harry's metal covered fist burying itself in his stomach. Harry further broke all the traditions of wizard warfare by following up the punch with two more sharp jabs that left the avatar dazed on the floor.
"Avada Kedavra," Harry yelled, his wand discharging the green flash at point blank range into the avatar's face. Voldemort's most fearsome warriors were too powerful to risk capturing them. Even the petrifaction potion might not be completely effective against such cursed creatures.
Hermione ran up the stairs to the second floor just in time to see two witches collapse into a lifeless heap at the feat of the second avatar. She had already conjured a shield so there was no gap between her recognition of the threat and a flurry of deadly spells. The Light Bearers and supporting Death Eaters became instant sideshows in the battle. Each side knew that their fate would be decided by the outcome of the fight between Hermione and the avatar.
The avatar staggered and everyone else fell to the floor in agony as Hermione unleashed terrible waves of magical energy designed to overwhelm the senses. The Light Bearers breathed easily for a moment, but then their glee turned to dread as the avatar recovered and cast long whisper thin sheets of silk like material toward Hermione. The thin white material wrapped around her quickly and formed a sort of cocoon. The material stretched sharply to accommodate Hermione's struggles, but it didn't tear.
"Avada Kedavra," the avatar hissed. The wiggling bundle twisted at the last second and avoided the deadly flash of light. A split second later the silky material burst into a massive fireball that seemed to encompass the entire hall. Everyone on both sides except for the avatar shrank back apprehensively. Then, to the astonishment of everyone the avatar was suddenly being drawn toward the flame by some unseen force.
"Avada Kedavra," the avatar shouted again and again, but the force wouldn't let him go. The fire effectively denied the dark warrior a target for his deadly spells. He began trying to disrupt the spell or even to physically walk backwards, but all the while he continued to be drawn toward the flame until at last he disappeared into it. There was a violent sound of rushing air as the fire extinguished itself in an instant to reveal a slightly charred Hermione using the magical strength of her armor to clamp down on the avatar's throat.
There was a flash of green light followed by the tiny clatter of the avatar's wand slipping from unfeeling fingers onto the floor below. Hermione tossed the body aside angrily and turned to the handful of Death Eaters who were still standing.
"Surrender," she demanded. Her wand tip glowed as she pointed it toward the dark wizards. Several of them dropped their wands, but one tried to cast a spell.
Hermione whipped her wand forward violently and cast a long thin rope like spell that took on a sickly orange looking hue as it wrapped itself around the Death Eater's wand arm. The man cried out in anguish an instant before his arm seemed to liquefy and slosh to the ground in a disgusting puddle of rotted flesh. The rest of the Death Eaters immediately threw down their wands and several people, including a few Light Bearers, looked as if they were going to be ill. The wizard Hermione had struck down was still screaming as his gazed locked morbidly on the skeletal remains of the still attached arm.
The ceiling glowed brightly for a second in one small circular area. The glowing area disappeared and Harry dropped down lightly through the newly created hole. An instant after he touched down another cloaked form followed him through.
"Do you think there are anymore?" Harry asked. He levitated the avatar that Hermione had killed over next to the body of the one he had brought with him. They always examined the remains of Voldemort's crafted fighters for clues into how they were imbued with their master's magic
"I doubt it, at least if there were then they've escaped," Hermione replied. Harry saw her eyes glance down at the dark patch where he had been bleeding profusely not too long ago. Fortunately, the wound wasn't cursed so Harry was pretty sure that his own powerful brand of remedial healing magic had fixed the damage permanently. That didn't keep him from feeling weakened from the trauma though, or prevent Hermione from worrying.
"What in the bloody hell did you do to that poor bugger?" Fred asked incredulously, his voice muffled by the wrappings that kept his identity hid from casual observation. Harry looked over at where the Death Eater whose arm Hermione had destroyed was still carrying on.
"Putrefaction curse," Harry muttered. "They still resisted some, eh?"
"Yeah," Hermione replied calmly. "Watched me take out an avatar and still decided to try and curse us."
"That's hardly the point," Fred blustered.
"Honestly," Hermione said, clearly annoyed, "the guy had already refused to surrender and I'd seen him shake off a stunner earlier on; anyone that powerful is going to take some permanent damage to incapacitate them. He's lucky I didn't use a worse curse."
"Here, take these," Harry said. He handed a fist full of wands to Fred that he had been collecting from the battle. "Standard procedure for captured wands. Check them for previous spells, look for any hidden enchantments, and then distribute them back out to our supply caches."
Harry could imagine Fred scowling at him from behind his face-masking scarf, but he nodded his head and took the wands none the less. Hermione was already examining the corpses of the avatars, but with little more success than any other time they had the opportunity to make such an examination.
"Their clothing and flesh has already turned to ash," Hermione said. She prodded at the nearest avatar to prove her point and was rewarded by a chunk of flakes falling off.
"Is the skeleton still solid though?" Harry asked.
"Seems to be," Hermione replied. She sighed heavily. "I just don't think that this is going to help us at all. I can't imagine why this would happen to them when they die or why it would be relevant for our purposes."
"Maybe this happens on purpose so any clues we might otherwise find are instantly destroyed," Harry suggested.
"Or maybe Voldemort does it to throw us off or maybe its just a by product of the process totally unrelated to anything," Hermione said.
"Maybe I should go ask Dumbledore about it again," Harry said.
"You know he won't help. Its just like with the stone…all he will say is that some things are meant to be left unknown," Hermione replied. Dumbledore had come far in his willingness to aid their cause, but he still refused to dabble in certain areas of magic that he considered irredeemable.
All around them the search of the Death Eater base continued on at a rapid pace. Things of interest were either taken for further examination or possibly left for Harry or Hermione to examine if they were too unknown.
"There's nothing more we can learn here," Hermione said finally. "I'll go start taking down the wards, you destroy what's left of these things."
Fred and George followed Hermione down the hall toward the stairs so they could act as her backup just in case there were anymore dark forces lurking around. A wide beam of green light flashed out of Harry's wand and engulfed the bodies of the avatars. The ash vaporized only an instant quicker than the bone and then all that was left was a slightly darkened outline on the floor.
Ron approached him carrying a skull on a silver platter. "Someone found this on the first floor. It looks like one of the skulls used to summon help or manipulate wards," Ron said nervously.
"I'll take that," Harry said quickly. As he was studying Ron's find another wizard came running up.
"Commander, we've finished the sweep, including a radius around the building," the man said, addressing Ron. Even though Harry was standing there Ron's control over the day to day movements of the Light Bearers had caused him to become the person everyone reported to first. Harry and Hermione also encouraged Ron to take a prominent role since they were seldom in position to issue overall command decisions in the middle of a battle due to them being the backbone of the Light Bearer's combat strength. Harry was also insistent for a reason he didn't tell Hermione. He wasn't sure either of them would survive the final battle with Voldemort and if they didn't the Light Bearers would need a strong leader to keep from falling apart.
"All right, good job," Ron said. "I believe the wards will be dropping soon so everyone should prepare to apparate."
"We're heading back to Middle Yard," Harry said suddenly. "Hermione and I will interrogate the prisoners. With any luck we'll be using the information they give us to launch new attacks."
The man clapped a fist over his heart in salute and ran off to spread the word. Harry didn't know how long they'd be able to go from one attack to the next seamlessly, but after the carnage at Hogsmeade he knew that if he had anything to say about it they'd keep it up for a long time.
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