The Battle Standard
by Jardyn39
Chapter 7 - Rescue
They landed in complete darkness. As planned, Ron and Hermione extricated themselves out from under Harry's cloak wearing their own invisibility cloaks from their Auror kits provided by Kingsley. That way they all remained invisible.
Harry groped around until he found a door handle. By the time he found it his eyes had become a little more accustomed to the darkness and he could see faint light around the doorframe.
He listened intently at the door for a few moments before whispering, "I think it's clear. I'm going to try the door."
Harry tried to turn the handle but found the door was locked.
"Alohomora!"
The lock clicked open and Harry opened the door slightly. Outside he could see a long corridor. Satisfied no-one was coming, he quickly opened the door and they hurried out into the light.
After locking the door and noting that the sign on the door confirmed they had arrived at the correct storeroom, Harry whispered, "We go right. This is the corridor Hammond met me and Careem in. There is a lift lobby at the end of the corridor and some stairs off to the left. We'd better not chance using the lift."
They had almost got to the end of the corridor when the pair of door burst open and a uniformed Corporal marched quickly down the centre.
Harry flattened himself against the wall and heard dull thumps of Ron and Hermione doing the same. He hardly dared breathe.
The Corporal stopped and turned. All he could see was an empty corridor. He gave himself half a shrug and continued on his way.
"That was close," whispered Ron. "He almost barged right into me."
"Come on," whispered Harry and he hurried towards the stairs. Before he pushed the door open, he whispered, "Remember, these stairs are not often used, so there are bound to be listening devices. Try not to make a noise."
They entered and the cooler air immediately told Harry he was right about the stairs not being used very often.
The three of them descended without incident five levels. Then the stair continued on downwards but there were no exits and the air began to smell stale and moist.
Finally, they reached the bottom. The lowest landing was a pool of still water.
Harry looked around and noted the camera. There was no red light on, but he was sure it was fully operational. It also seemed to be pointing down at the water rather than at the stair.
Then he realised that the camera was trained to pick up disturbances in the water. If they walked through the shallow pool, they would be detected even with invisibility cloaks.
Harry reached out until he found both Ron and Hermione and pushed both of them over towards the raking balustrade.
He then whispered in each of their ears, "We mustn't disturb the water. Climb over the balustrade and walk around the skirting to the door. I'll go first."
They each nodded to indicate their understanding.
Harry climbed over the balustrade and lowered himself down until he felt his toes meet the top of a kerb. He knew the water had been placed there deliberately, and guessed that it would need some form of waterproof tanking to contain the water.
Fortunately, although the kerb was only three inches or so wide, it was more than sufficient for him to make his way gingerly around towards the door using first the balustrading and then the low half landing ceiling to balance himself.
Finally he got to the door.
It took him a while to find the alarm break point in the poor light, but a brief stupefying spell would prevent the switch from activating the alarms.
Harry silently thanked Bateman for his thorough teaching of Muggle security systems and was about to open the door when a pang of doubt hit him.
If Bateman had designed the security around here, he was bound to include more security than Harry knew how to detect and disable.
Deciding it was too late anyway, Harry opened the door and stepped out into the poorly lit service corridor. The concrete floor was damp and they could hear dripping water.
"We must be under the river," said Ron.
"Shh," said Hermione at once.
"No, it's probably okay to talk here," said Harry. "There is noise from the dripping water."
"Unless that's just a sound recording to make us think that," replied Hermione waspishly.
"Come on," said Harry, knowing she might well be right. "Let's hurry. My guess is that the cell block won't be too far away from the end of this duct or whatever it is."
They ran down the corridor, occasionally ducking under steam pipes and cable trays that mostly ran down the sides of the corridor but sometimes crossed it.
"Harry, what's that noise?"
"I don't know," said Harry, listening to the low constant rumbling sound that was getting louder as they approached the end of the corridor. "Let's catch our breaths before we go on."
"We should dry the cloaks too," suggested Hermione between heavy breaths.
"Good idea," agreed Harry. "The wet hems might show up on the cameras."
*
As soon as they opened the last door, the noise hit them. The stale air was fiercely hot and there was a strong smell of oil.
They were in a wide lobby. To their immediate right were two large diesel engines. One was driving a long shiny metal shaft that was pointed down to the bottom of the opposing wall. The other engine was driving a belt which in turn appeared to be driving a series of bellows and noise making instruments.
The thing that caught Harry's eye, though, was the immense revolving wall opposite them.
"Brilliant!" cried Hermione from somewhere to his right. "Don't you see? She's built the entire cell block on a rotating table. The inmates must be so dizzy it'll be impossible for them to Apparate out!"
"Why all the noise?"
"To add to the effect, I'd imagine!"
"What if we become disorientated too?" said Harry as an open doorway flashed past them in the revolving wall.
"Well, we'll just have to come back here first. I imagine there is another entrance too on the other side. It's probably too noisy to guard on this side. They have to rely on the cameras behind us."
Harry nodded from under his invisibility cloak.
"Do you think we can all jump through the door opening at once?" he asked.
"Yeah," replied Ron. "It isn't that fast."
"It looks fast enough to me," said Hermione. "I'd better follow a revolution after."
"No, Hermione," said Harry firmly. "We don't know there isn't more than one door we are seeing. In fact, I'm sure we are supposed to get split up here."
Harry reached out until he found Hermione and then gently pulled her over to the moving wall.
The doorway appeared again almost at once. Harry grabbed Hermione somewhere around her middle and launched them both into the opening.
They landed heavily onto the hard vinyl covered floor. Ron landed on top of them both almost at once.
"Come on, let's go," said Harry, getting to his feet and immediately felt the disorienting effects of being inside a rotating cell block. He steadied himself against the nearest wall and felt Hermione bump into him as she attempted to do the same.
"I think I'm going the throw up," said Ron.
"You'll get used to it, Ron," Hermione said encouragingly. "It's just like sea sickness."
She sounded like she was desperately trying not to be sick herself.
Harry grabbed her hand and began to lead the way down the brightly lit corridor.
"Got Ron?"
"Yes, I'm here."
"Good. Let's go."
They continued unsteadily down the corridor and almost immediately came to a series of metal cell doors that had been staggered so that each faced a blank wall opposite. Presumably this was to prevent the inmates from communicating with each other.
Each door had a substantial looking lock and a closed hatch through which food could be passed. Harry looked in through the spy-hole and found the cell was empty.
They moved on to the next and Harry saw an elderly wizard he didn't recognise hunched up on his cot and holding his hands over his face. He must have realised someone was at the door because he immediately looked up.
Harry started and pulled back, forgetting for a moment that he was invisible.
The old man made no attempt to call out or rise from the cot. Harry looked into his eyes and thought how incredibly tired he looked.
Harry pulled the others along to the next cell but they found it was empty but clearly occupied. The door was wide open.
"We should hurry," whispered Hermione urgently, voicing Harry's own thoughts.
"Yes, the guards could be along any moment."
"I can't stand much more of this damn spinning," complained Ron quietly. "That noise is beginning to get to me too."
"Mm," agreed Hermione.
Harry, though, was actually beginning to feel a little better. He was no longer quite as dizzy as he had been; something he put down to his experience of recovering from low dives on his Firebolt.
They turned a corner and found there was a kind of offset crossroads. Harry guessed they were near the middle of the rotating cellblock now.
"Which way?" whispered Hermione.
Harry paused, standing at the centre of the crossroads and considered each of the three choices of direction before them.
He was about to choose one at random, when he spotted faint drag marks on the polished floor.
"This way," he said at once.
Harry was sure the floor marks were of someone trying to resist being taken along the corridor. He was only guessing, but somehow he was sure that Pansy would put up more than just a little struggle.
He went straight down to the very end of the corridor, passing about half a dozen cell doors. Tucked in a holder next to the door was a card with, "Parkinson," written in large handwritten lettering.
Harry looked in through the open hatch.
For a moment he was sure the cell was empty, but he couldn't understand why the door was locked.
"Pansy?" he whispered.
Instantly an arm launched itself through the hatch and grabbed. Harry ducked at once and she only grasped the air.
"Bugger!" came a frustrated cry from behind the door.
"Pansy, be quiet or we'll leave you in there," whispered Harry.
"Who's there?"
"Never mind that now. We've come to help you get away from here, but if you put any of us at risk I'll stun you and raise the alarm."
"Potter?"
"Are you going to behave?"
"Probably not," came the answer.
"Last chance, Pansy," warned Harry patiently.
"Oh, alright. I promise."
"We're under invisibility cloaks. Stand back while I unlock the door."
"It won't work. One of the Aurors tried to perform magic down here a few days ago. He just couldn't do it."
Harry pointed his wand at the lock and thought, "Alohomora!"
The lock clicked open. Harry pushed on the door but realised Pansy was holding it closed.
"Not bad, Potter," said Pansy, "but there is a Muggle alarm on the door. See that switch plate next to the door?"
Harry stopped pushing and looked.
"Yes, there is a key switch, a red button and a green button."
"You need to turn the key-switch to the off position."
Harry gave a soft groan of frustration. The key switch had four positions, and his unlocking skills were not good enough to be sure that the key turned only the quarter-turn necessary. This was actually a clever but simple device to frustrate a magical rescue.
He was just wondering where they could get a key from when they heard Hermione whisper gently, "Vicus Verto!"
"Nice one," said Harry, seeing the indicator turn.
"Stop looking so smug, Hermione," ordered Ron, who couldn't see her face at all thanks to her invisibility cloak.
Harry began to push the door open but had barely got it a foot wide before Pansy lifted up his cloak and dived underneath. He pulled the heavy door closed again and Hermione turned the key-switch back to the previous position.
"This is cosy," said Pansy mischievously, snaking her arms around his middle.
Harry smiled despite himself. Pansy looked incredibly tired and clearly hadn't washed for several days.
Pansy suddenly blushed and looked down, nervously trying to push her hair behind an ear. He had never seen Pansy do anything like that, and he wondered at first if it was part of an act. Then he found he was unsure.
Harry seemed to sense Hermione's impatience to get on and he looked up and down the corridor again.
"Let's go," Harry said gently.
"My wand?" asked Pansy.
"No time. We've been lucky up to now, but we shouldn't push it. What's wrong with your hand?"
"Nothing," she said at once, lowering both hands out of his view.
"Okay," said Harry to them all. "I'll lead us out the way we came. Pansy, I want you to grab my shirt so you keep up. Hermione, grab the cloak so you know where we are. Ron, do the same with Hermione."
Soon they were moving back along the corridor but when they got to the crossroads they began to hear activity. Someone was being escorted back to their cell.
"Quiet," warned Harry, pushing Pansy back against the wall so that the centre of the corridor was kept clear.
He knew that she would think the escape was nothing but a ruse. As such, she had nothing to lose by grabbing the cloak and possibly a wand for herself, so she might make her own escape.
Harry held onto the front of his cloak with a secure fist, but was surprised to find Pansy perfectly placid. She was resting her head against his back and he could feel her warm steady but shallow breaths on the back of his neck.
Two huge looking escorts dragged their prisoner back to his cell. The inmate had a loose hood over his head and he had been manacled by his hands and feet.
They went down the corridor they needed to return down.
Harry knew he was taking a chance, but he reasoned the escorts would go into the cell with the prisoner.
The random noises fell silent, and all they could hear was the rumbling noise of the turntable mechanism. Harry froze, afraid they had been detected, but soon after the distracting noises began again only much softer than before. He assumed they varied the volume and pattern of the noises to maintain the disorientation effects.
Harry led the way along the corridor, walking as fast as he dared. The pitiful groans coming from the prisoner were echoing around sufficiently to hide any noise they were making now.
He was concerned to see they were following a trail of fresh tiny blood spots and smears on the floor.
Harry found he had timed it perfectly. The moment the three entered the cell they dashed past and almost ran to the exit.
"Wait!" whispered Hermione urgently.
Harry had been just about to jump out into the lobby.
"We must jump into the right one. I'm sure she would have made them look similar."
"True," agreed Harry as another lobby flashed past. "But which one is it? I've counted two so far."
"Judging by the speed, I'd say there were actually four."
"Look for the noise makers," said Ron.
Harry looked and said, "Yes, Ron's right. Good spot. I know which one now."
"You do?" asked Hermione.
"Let's line up and get ready. There won't be much time."
Three more almost identical lobbies flashed by before Harry shouted, "Jump!"
They all landed in a heap, suffering more from the effects of suddenly no longer spinning as much as the fall.
Harry was the first to his feet. He threw off his cloak and drew out two items from his pockets.
"Portus!"
He offered the newly created Portkey to Pansy together with a small card.
"Take these, Pansy. That card will reveal a time and place when we get safely away from here. If you feel safe enough, meet us then, okay?"
"What?"
Harry looked down, expecting her confusion but not the appalling state her hands were in.
He gently reached down and pulled her forearm up. Both her hands were broken and badly bruised.
Harry performed a quick healing charm but knew it wasn't enough to stop the pain completely or mend the worst of the damage.
"I'm sorry, but you should be okay to get away. See a Healer as soon as you can, though."
"I will," she promised, taking the card and the Portkey.
"On three," said Harry. "One. Two. Three."
Harry smiled seeing the look of utter confusion on Pansy's face as she vanished.
Ron made a wicked laugh and said, "She going to have one hell of a landing. That Portkey was practically all electric green!"
Harry frowned slightly. That hadn't been his intention at all.
He pulled out another object and created another Portkey. This one was formed with almost a pure electric blue glow.
"Here," he said, offering it up.
Hermione and Ron both grabbed hold.
"I can hear them coming!" shouted Ron.
"On three," said Harry calmly. "One. Two."
"Harry? What are you doing?" cried Hermione. "No! Don't let go!"
"Three!"
They vanished just as the door from the service corridor flew open and a dozen armed guards streamed inside.
Harry turned slowly to face them and raised his arms.
*
Harry was hooded and then marched unceremoniously at gunpoint back through the tunnels. The guards had made quite a few more turns than was necessary, he was sure, in order to disorient him. He was sure that they hadn't gone through the cell-block again, though.
Finally he was searched a second time and then pushed down into a hard metal chair. Before the hood was pulled off he felt manacles being attached to his ankles.
Harry blinked in the bright lights facing him and looked around. He was surrounded by four hooded guards each pointing an automatic weapon at him and standing a few feet away. He knew at once that these people were experienced in the use of the guns they carried. It was something he'd learned to recognise from Bateman and his colleagues.
The room was plain other than the row of spotlights that were spaced evenly around the cornice. Between these bright lamps, Harry knew, were cameras that he couldn't see.
After a good few minutes, a door opened in front of him.
Miss Alice appeared wearing a smirk on her face.
"Stand down," she said quietly, and instantly the four guns were lowered. "This way, Harry."
Harry stood and followed awkwardly because of the manacles and Miss Alice marched along a short corridor and out into the now familiar briefing room. Once there, he stood quietly, once again contemplating the enormous red cauldron that dominated the room.
Miss Alice reappeared carrying a tray of tea over to the large briefing table.
Tutting when she realised he was still wearing the manacles, she said, "Harry, I don't have a key for those things and the Level 3 unit are not authorised for this area. Can you manage with them for now?"
Harry nodded and waddled over to join her at the table. The manacles seemed to make him much more clumsy now he was under Miss Alice's watchful gaze.
"Tea?" she asked pleasantly.
"Thanks," he replied quietly as she poured them both tea from am elaborate stainless steel teapot.
He thanked her again when she handed him a fine bone china cup and saucer with his tea.
Harry took a sip and asked, "Did you have to reduce the security much?"
Miss Alice smiled as she sipped but shook her head. She swallowed and said, "No, not at all, actually. I think you must have been lucky enough to just miss the patrols. You chose exactly the right point to come in, by the way. It is impossible to man that entrance for long due to all the noise and heat. Of course, the cameras and detectors don't work properly because of all the electrical interference produced by the generators."
Harry nodded and took another sip.
"Why don't you just block that entrance off?" he asked.
"I plan to, but actually we need access for maintenance of the rotating table. It was fine during testing but now we are running the thing for twenty-four hours a day we have found a number of reliability problems.
"I wondered if you wouldn't use the service access directly under the cells. There is actually a small entrance where you can come up in the centre, but that way in was fully alarmed."
"Using a rotating cell block is certainly effective. I imagine it is almost impossible to perform magic down there, let alone Disapparate out."
"It isn't foolproof. One of you must have performed magic to open the cell door, after all."
Harry nodded.
"Did you do the key-switch too?"
Harry smiled but shook his head no.
"That's how we detected your presence, of course," said Miss Alice conversationally. "The switch has to be turned in a particular sequence that you couldn't have known.
Harry frowned.
"Why were you so slow getting to us then? I mean, you couldn't have been sure it was me."
"True. I ordered them to hold back until we were sure what we were dealing with. I rather assumed that you would be so dizzy from coming off the wheel that you would be incapable of performing magic. During the trials, no Auror could do magic for at least ten minutes."
"Perhaps you should have invited Quidditch players to have a go," suggested Harry with a grin.
Miss Alice smiled back but didn't nod, making Harry wonder if she hadn't already done so.
Harry placed his half-drunk tea down and said seriously, "I felt I should stay and face the music. I hope you understand that I couldn't allow you to eliminate her."
"Are you so sure we would have done that?"
"I don't think you had many options. Whatever you say about Pansy, she isn't stupid. She would have escaped before too long. She recovered very quickly from the effects of the rotating cells. I'm also sure that you have seen right through her pretence at co-operation."
"All true," agreed Miss Alice.
"I'm not going to ask why you needed her to escape," said Harry.
"Oh, but you should," said Miss Alice at once. "You know? I knew you would do something like this. I'm so pleased. For a long while I was sure I had miscalculated."
Harry shrugged.
"Indeed, that's why Miss Parkinson wasn't prepared like the others. Voldemort will be suspicious of her, not the assassin."
"Tetto?"
"No, there wasn't enough time to prepare him."
"It won't work," Harry said flatly.
"I does not need to. Even the attempt will scare them witless."
"No, that's not what I meant. Why did you tell me there was another assassin? That can only mean there isn't one. You just want Voldemort to think there might be one."
Miss Alice clapped her hands with delight and laughed.
Unfortunately, Harry was in no mood to appreciate her levity.
"What happened to her hands?"
"She did that to herself by hammering on her cell door day and night. She was trying to get moved to a hospital facility from where she might stand a better chance of escaping."
Harry considered these words. He had to concede that this was a plausible explanation.
"What about the hooded prisoner we saw? He was bleeding from under his hood. Was that Tetto?"
"No, we moved him and all of the more important prisoners a few days ago in anticipation of your break-in attempt. I was concerned that someone might take advantage and stage their own escape attempt."
"But why was he bleeding?"
"Sometimes it is necessary to encourage people to co-operate," said Miss Alice coldly. "Believe me, what I would call torture, isn't being practised at this facility."
Harry shook his head.
"Where is Bear?"
"He's off organising a few things for me."
"What does he think about the way your are questioning your prisoners?"
"You know that already."
"That's why you wanted him away from here?"
"It would have been dangerous for a couple of our interrogators," she answered carefully. "I know John threatened to kill at least one of them if he ever saw them again. This was over an incident that occurred years ago. John does not approve of the Government employing such people. The fact that he has himself tortured people to obtain information is somewhat ironic."
"He said he did that for training, so people can learn to resist interrogation," said Harry loyally.
"True, but it takes experience to learn such techniques. John is no angel."
Harry nodded, knowing this was probably correct. Bear had intimated to him that he had done things he later very much regretted.
"Harry, is there anything I can help you with? You know you only need to ask."
"Thanks, but we're fine," he responded, feeling increasingly uncomfortable. Even if they'd needed help at that point he would have refused her offer.
"Well, if there's nothing more, we should probably find a key for those manacles."
They stood and Miss Alice led the way out of the room through a new door.
"I think my red cauldron must be losing its effect, Harry," she said pleasantly over her shoulder. "You hardly glanced at it at all today. Maybe I should get a bigger one?"
Harry snorted.
They turned a corner and Harry realised they were approaching the cell block, except now it was no longer spinning.
"Is anything wrong?"
"Oh, no," replied Miss Alice, stepping onto the edge of the turntable and walking along the corridor.
Harry noticed that all the cell doors were open and none of the prisoners were present.
"We can't continue to use this place as intended, now that a prisoner has escaped."
"What did you do with them?"
"They are being moved to a new secure facility. This bunker will no longer be used for briefing and intelligence gathering either. It will be a bit of a rush, but we should be ready in time."
"How will you get the cauldron out?"
"Oh, that's staying. As a matter of fact, it will be the centrepiece of the new operation planned for here."
Harry frowned seeing his wand. It was suspended in mid-air about three feet off the floor.
"How?" he asked in confusion.
Miss Alice laughed and said, "Go on, take it."
Harry reached down and grasped the wand. He also instantly realised how the trick was done and pulled his invisibility cloak off the stool that was holding the wand up.
"Now, let's find that key," said Miss Alice, but Harry just pointed his wand at the manacles and they fell off onto the polished floor.
"Ah, that would do too," she observed. "Um, would you like to keep them? I assume you have made arrangements to meet with Miss Parkinson again?"
"No thanks," said Harry with a smile, bending down and picking them up.