Ace of Hearts
Chapter 19
Harry arrived in the Aurors office to find it abuzz with activity and paused to take a moment and look around. A tingle
went down his spine as he saw how many people from the department were present.
`Something serious must be going on for there to be this many Aurors there at once' he thought `especially at this time of the evening.'
"Harry!" he heard a voice call from behind him.
Turning, he saw a slender woman approaching him, her mouth curving into a smile and her dark brown and bright orange hair ruffling slightly because of the fast pace at which she was walking. Just as she was almost to him, she bumped into someone Harry didn't know, and then, mumbling an apology, she tripped slightly over her own feet. Managing to catch herself at the last moment, she gave Harry an easy going grin when she saw him cringe at her mishap.
"Hey, Tonks," Harry said when she got close enough to hear him.
He took the last few steps to reach her and, giving a grin, captured her in a warm hug.
"Hey, there," she said, pulling back "I didn't know you'd be here." She grinned and looked around for a moment. "So, do you know what this is about?"
He shrugged, before looking around also, "I don't... I was actually going to ask you," he said with a sheepish smile.
She gave him a broad one in return "Well, I guess that's out of the question. Are you still going to the Burrow after you leave here?"
Harry chuckled, "Don't you mean if I leave here?"
"Wotcher, Harry, what's that supposed to mean?" Tonks said, rolling her eyes, "Of course you're leaving here. I'll tell you what, you can wait for me or I'll wait for you and we'll apparate over to the Burrow together," she said with a smile.
He grinned and nodded in agreement, "Sounds like a plan."
"Okay, so now back to the original subject. What in the wo-"
"Potter! Centauri! Bloomberg! Aguirre! My office, now!" Moody called out, hitting his cane against the floor to accentuate his point, effectively silencing the noisy room.
Harry gave Tonks a quick nod goodbye and headed through the parting crowd towards Moody's office. He happened to reach the door at the same time as Aurora, who barely spared him a glance as he stood aside to let her through. He followed her into the office and, when they were all there, Moody updated them on just why they had been summoned that night.
"The Unspeakables have completed their task, and in completing it they have found that our little Death Eater, who claimed to not remember how he received the letter, was lying." He said the last work in a booming voice that echoed off the walls. Still pacing the room in front of them, he continued. "I don't know what they did and I don't want to know, because I don't care. What I do care about is that they were able to get very important information, information that we need."
He came to a halt directly in front of Aurora, "Tonight, they will lodge their first attack; that attack will be against your brother's tribe." Harry cast a glance at her to see if she was okay, but her expression remained stony.
"They are looking to fortify their armies, replenish their supplies, and rid themselves of enemies," he began to pace again. "After defeating the other tribes, they will recruit those who wish to serve and kill those who do not. They have, once again, been in contact with the giants, the trolls, and the werewolves." He stopped in front of Harry "You will take your team and return to Transylvania and you will go now. We don't have time to waste, so, when you arrive, do what you can and contact us as soon as you get a chance to notify us of your status. I will brief the remaining Aurors on the situation at hand, the information I've just received and the enemy we are facing. When I am sure that they are ready, I will send them to back you up." He stepped back so that he could see them all. "I have faith that you will all return to me victorious and unharmed. What's our motto?!"
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!"
"You are dismissed." They walked out of Moody's office, through the curious crowd of Aurors, and headed towards Harry's office as usual. However, instead of entering with the team, Aurora continued to walk straight, heading to her desk.
"Centauri," Harry said; she turned to look at him. "My office, now. That's an order."
She gave him a defiant expression but backtracked and walked into the office anyway. Upon entering, she leant against the wall farthest from him with her arms crossed over her chest and a bored expression on her face. Harry looked at her sadly for a moment before shaking it off and addressing his team.
"We don't have a lot of time, so we need to act fast." He walked over to his desk and pulled out three rolls of parchment, handing one to each of his team members. "These are your security questions and answers, study them, memorize them, know them," he looked them each in the eyes. "Make sure that you know your own, as well as those of your team members. We don't know if they know that we're coming and we need to be prepared, you will each have five minutes to learn everything off of those sheets." He went into his closet, pulling out four small knapsacks. "In these, you will find provisions; everything that you can require from weapons, to food, to first aid supplies." he tossed one to each person, his expression grim. "If we're lucky, we won't need these. If we're damned lucky we won't need these and we'll all make it back in time for dinner. Let's hope that we're damned lucky."
"We don't have time for the Department of Transportation to make us Portkeys, so we will do what we must. If you feel that you are unable to Apparate, let me know now, and I will take you with me," his turbulent eyes scanned the room waiting to see if any would need his assistance. After a moment of silence, he continued, "We will be leaving momentarily. If there is anything you need to do, then do it now. You have eight minutes. No more. Go."
The Aurors briefly looked at one another, then Aurora took a resigned breath and began to look through the knapsack at her materials. Marcello took the time to check and memorize the information from the parchment rolls. While Devon, who was sitting at Harry's desk, as usual, also looked over his parchment, fiddling with random things on the surface of the desk.
"Harry, do you have an extra quill I can use, it helps me memorize stuff when I can write it a few times," he said, looking at his leader.
Harry, who had been silently watching them and waiting for them to be ready, gave a small nod, allowing his mind to wonder to the anniversary dinner he was missing. Damn Bellatrix, he had had huge plans for tonight. He had been hoping to take steps on fixing his relationship with Ron, not to mention the plans he had for after dinner with Hermione. Harry unconsciously frowned; he couldn't help but worry about Hermione being alone at the dinner without him and about how everyone was treating her. Giving his head a small shake, he tried to push those thoughts away, otherwise he would never be able to focus on what he needed to do tonight.
"Big plans?" he heard Devon ask. Looking up curiously, Harry was surprised to see Devon holding a single solitaire diamond ring between his fingers.
Frowning, he strode forward to where the young blond was sitting.
"I believe you were looking for this," Harry said between gritted teeth, snatching the ring from the Devon's hand as he grabbed a quill out of the drawer and held it up to the younger guy.
Harry then spared a glance at Aurora, who was looking at the ring with an undistinguishable expression on her face. She glanced up at him for a moment before looking back down at her parchment and pretending he wasn't there.
"Do you have everything memorized?" He asked the blond in a steely tone.
"Uhhh, just about..."
"You have one minute, and 'just about' isn't good enough, so, may I suggest, instead of rifling through my personal belongings, that you take this time to learn your information." he rose a single brow.
Devon blushed slightly and mumbled an apology before looking back down at his parchment and copying the words. Exactly one minute later, Harry called time.
"Grab your cloaks, your provisions and your brooms. Meet me outside in the alleyway. We apparate from there in two minutes," he grabbed his items, opening the door before turning to give them one last look over his shoulder. "If you are not there in two minutes do not bother coming at all." With that, he walked out.
Harry didn't fail to notice that he had barely passed the reception desk before he was joined by all three members of his team. Realizing that he was still holding it, Harry slipped the ring into the pocket of his cloak, giving it a small pat. Throwing their hoods over their heads, they made their way out of the Ministry and to the designated apparition point. They had barely reached the assigned location before simultaneously disappearing.
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A moment later, they arrived in the forest not far from the location of Helios's tribal village. Harry held up his hand, signaling to his team that they were not to move. Concentrating, he closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the forest around him. Just as he was about to give the okay, he heard something that sounded somewhat human in nature. Snapping his eyes open, they fixated on an area of darkened forest to his left. He made a small motion with his hand, behind his back, to let his team know that he had heard something. On his exact mental count of three, they all whispered the word 'Lumos', lifted their wands, and let go of their brooms. There, in the cover of the forest, were at least ten vampires. Hidden slightly behind the trees, their long, fanged teeth glinted in the wand light.
The creatures were startled at their discovery, having no indication that they had been detected due to the teams' silent signals. Since they were expecting their prey to have not noticed them yet, Harry and his team were granted one small advantage.
"Expecto Patronum!" Harry called out; a bright silver stag burst forth from his wand.
The vampires scattered like insects, hastily removing themselves from the path of the blazing light. They were all able to make it out of the way of the stag with the exception of one; his mouth opened and a horrendous scream ripped through the air as the Patronus tore thorough him, impaling him with its horns and ripping him apart with his light before disappearing as quickly as it had come. All was quiet for a moment, but only a moment before all hell broke loose.
Several vampire war cries were heard as the remaining creatures came rushing from the trees and flying down from the branches. Harry, Aurora, Marcello and Devon formed a square, protecting one another at the backs and calling out spells and hexes. Just as it seemed that the vampire forces were weakening, a green light whizzed by Harry's head. He turned slightly while still calling out a spell at an approaching vampire; momentarily redirecting his gaze, he noticed several death eaters emerge from the dark forest, their wands raised as they called out hexes and curses.
"Split up!" he called to his team.
They immediately dispersed into their own directions, avoiding vampires and curses alike with a skill that had been honed into them and was the reason that their team was considered the best. Just as he had taken out yet another vampire Harry heard a yell, he turned just in time to see Devon fly back frozen, having been hit with a 'Stupefy' spell. He pointed his wand at the fallen man, relived that somehow he had managed to get hit with only a small attack.
"Rennervate!" he yelled, breathing a quick sigh of relief as Devon sat up and looked around.
It only took the blond man a moment to regain his bearings and re-enter the fray.
"Protego Totalum!" Harry called out as he noticed a spell headed for Aurora's back. The dark haired witch turned and gave him a quick look. "Relashio! Incarcerous!" he called out again knocking the wand out of the wizard's hand that had aimed at her, and then sending out several ropes to catch it. Yanking it over to him, Harry quickly broke the wand and tossed it to the ground before turning and resuming his own fight.
"Protego Totalum!" he heard just behind him, he turned just in time to see a spell bounce off of a shield at his back. "Blimey, Harry, you should be more careful," he heard a voice call out.
Turning slightly, he noticed Tonks give him wink before shooting off several spells, he grinned in response, and the tension in his body abated some as he noticed that their backup had arrived from the Ministry. Harry took a quick moment to look around and locate his team, immediately seeing Devon and Marcello fighting a couple of Death Eaters to his right. However, looking around some more, he became worried after a minute when he didn't see Aurora. Fighting past several vampires and one Death Eater, he looked just in time to see her silver hair flash as she raced through the trees, chasing someone.
'What the hell does she think she's doing?!' He thought to himself, breaking into a sprint and following her into the dense forest.
"Aurora! Aurora, stop!" he called out, she gave a quick glance over her shoulder, and then ignoring him, she continued to run.
Harry quickly sped up, catching her around the waist just before she headed into the opening of a cave, he overpowered her and pinned her arms down to her sides.
"How long does a Blast-Ended Skrewt grow after ten months?" He demanded holding her still.
"Ten feet," she said through gritted teeth; Harry immediately let her go.
"Don't you ever do that again," he said fiercely, his eyes piercing. "When I tell you to stop, you stop, do you understand that?"
"Bellatrix was in front of me, I had to catch her," she said, glaring at him.
"Oh, so you think she just took a merry jog thorough the forest to a darkened cave, where she would then turn and say, "Oh, bugger! Dead end! I give up," and come willingly?" He gave her a hard frown. "Let me answer that for you. No. You were probably chasing her blindly into a trap; I can't believe that you would be so bloody impulsive."
Aurora looked down for a moment, before looking back at him "So, what are we just going to let her go then? I know you don't think she's just going to wait there while we run to get help. It's the perfect chance and you know it."
"And you should know that it's a little too perfect..." he responded, frowning.
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him "So, now what, then?"
Harry sighed, looking at the cave and then back at her. "I'm going in because she needs to be caught. You," he pointed at her to accentuate his point "stay out here. If I'm not back in five minutes, send up a flare with your wand to signal our location to the rest of the Aurors."
"I want to go with you, I'll be-"
"A distraction," he finished in a hard tone. "You seem to be unable to separate your feelings about what happened between us from the mission and what needs to happen between us now. You're being impertinent, headstrong, impulsive and not listening to orders," he shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry that I hurt you, Aurora. I really am, but now is neither the time nor the place for these issues." He walked past her to the mouth of the cave before turning to give her one more disappointed look.
"When we get back, I will talk to Moody about having you placed on another team. Until then, I am your leader and you will follow my orders," he gave a small sigh, looking at the darkened cave then back at her. "Five minutes, Aurora, no more," with that, he entered the musty area.
A.N. Well that's it for this chapter, only about two or three to go and then the story is done. What do you think will happen? I already know and soon you will too, I will update on the usual schedule and I hope you enjoy. Please Review.
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