"Hey Thomas mate, your phone is vibrating again!"
Walking back towards his living room, Dean caught the cell as his strike mate Carlton tossed it to him, fumbling with it a bit before opening the message. He'd invited a few of the boys over for fish and chips before he'd received the first text from Ginny, and a small collection of West Ham footballers were gathered around his living room watching game tape of the Liverpool match again.
Carlton, who'd tossed him the phone, was seated next to their goalkeeper Robert Green on his long couch directly across from the television. The American, Jonathan Spector, was seated in a La-Z-Boy just to their left. A couple of the other lads were supposed to have shown up but bailed out on them.
"Is it that wanker Gabby ribbing you bout that brace he had today again ya?"
If only it had been. The message sent ice through his veins and knocked him back onto his rear on the living room floor, his eyes instantly welling up, alerting his fellow teammates that something was very seriously wrong.
Luna's been killed. We don't know how yet. Get somewhere safe. I love you.
"What is it mate?" Green asked him, suddenly on his feet. "You seen a ghost?"
"I…I…," He stammered, choking on his voice. "My friend Luna was killed."
Their expressions were crestfallen. Chiefly for his loss, but secondly for the fact that they'd known her somewhat as well. Dean had invited the gang out with his boys a few times before, and as such they'd come to be at least somewhat acquainted with all of the GGE, including Luna.
"Jesus mate…she was the scientist right?
"Yeah, the blonde one."
"What happened?"
Dean shook his head helplessly. "They don't know yet, some kind of accident in the lab. Sorry guys, but I'm gonna have to go meet them at the hospital."
It was somewhat of a lie, as he knew they'd all still be in the lab and not at Mungo's, but he could apparate to the medical lab much quicker than he could drive there; and apparating was out of the question while his muggle teammates were still around.
A few minutes later they'd all climbed into their Porsches and Lamborghinis and left the premises, and Dean immediately apparated to the Ministry's experimental sciences department.
***
At his flat just outside Hogsmeade, Seamus ignored his buzzing cell in favor of a long, warm shower. He'd dropped the bodies off at the girls' lab and hadn't bothered sticking around to observe their work, the duel with the 'plebs' had taken a lot out of him, as short as the fight may have been.
Wrapped in only a towel after finishing in the shower, Seamus made his way to the living room and absentmindedly flipped on his television, scanning through a few random channels; the television was certainly one of muggles more ingenious inventions. Finally settling on a replay of England's latest rugby test against the All-Blacks of New Zealand, Seamus kicked his feet back and absent-mindedly watched the game. It was then his cell buzzed again; groaning, Seamus picked up his wand and whispered a soft accio to bring the phone to him.
The message waiting for him was the last thing he'd expected; minutes later he was fully dressed and apparated straight to Hermione's lab.
***
"Where's Harry; and Neville?"
The whole group, minus Harry and Neville, was standing in the cool lab burrowed deep within the Ministry's underground, where Luna's body lay on one of the adjoining tables to the men whom somehow managed to kill her, even in death. Covered by a plain white sheet, only the gentle curves of her face, chest, arms, and legs gave evidence as to who it was under the sheath.
It was Ron who asked the question, as he was the last to arrive; he'd left the 'plebs' hideaway before fully investigating it once Greggory arrived with the news of Luna's fate. Ron, Dean, and Seamus seemed to be handling the situation better than the girls…Ginny still had Luna's blood stained on her robes while Hermione was an uncontrollable mess in her own right.
Sobbing on her own in the corner, Hermione blamed herself for Luna's demise. In lieu of the abstract circumstances of their deaths, she felt she never should have left Luna alone to examine the bodies. The group let her be; they knew Harry was the only one who'd be able to console her.
"Harry's still with Kingsley," Seamus said, voice strong but with hints of a quiver. "it's likely he doesn't even know yet. There's no cell service in HQ, and Harry doesn't bring his phone in there anyways."
"And Neville is quarantined in Mungo's." Ginny spat, obviously very unhappy with the most recent development in their predicament. When Neville had learned of Luna's demise, he immediately attempted to apparate to the lab, but found it an exercise in futility.
It was soon after he was told that the hospital was in lockdown; the two rookie aurors had carried in an unknown plague only recently detected. While not deadly, it was severe enough that the staff could not allow anyone to enter or exit the facility. The more concerning facet of this was that again, it had been planned from the start. The five 'plebs' were obviously intended as martyrs; and had already claimed the life of one of their number, and secluded another from them. Had Ginny not left Mungo's so quickly, and Seamus and Hermione stayed in the lab, who knows what could have happened.
"What are we going to do guys?" Dean asked, leaning his head back against one of the Plexiglas walls of the facility. "It seems whoever has done this is a step ahead of us already."
"Or two or three."
"Anyone else getting the feeling this night isn't over yet?"
Six voices answered 'Yes' in unison.
"Well let's do this the old-fashioned way…what do we know?" Ron said, trying to take the mantle as leader in the absence of both Harry and Neville, and the inconsolable Hermione.
"Well, for starters, we know the wizards were martyrs; they were planning on being killed."
"But not by regular means," Dean reminded them. "the girls said Seamus' binding curse initiated a chemical reaction that killed them."
"Which means they were expecting to be bound by Seamus."
Ron nodded as they worked the pieces out. "By extension; one would presume they anticipated exactly which strike team would be used against them."
"Precisely," Ginny replied, her voice far from even. "their first attacks were meant only to take out Jordan and Chris; and now we know why."
"They planned to have Mungo's quarantined, with at least a few of us inside it." Seamus said, following the evidence. It was damning and startling, to be sure.
"And they obviously intended to have their bodies brought back to this lab; and they knew full well it would be Hermione and Luna who examined them."
"L-Luna had a special technique," Hermione chimed in, her voice nearly unrecognizable, from her corner across the room. "I think it's safe to assume they knew about it, and expected her to use it to uncover their last few moments of life. They used it to kill her."
Trying to keep from losing concentration, Ron pressed forward. "So it would follow that they had a safeguard against her technique, a curse that elicited a seizure out of her."
"It was an aneurysm, not a seizure." Hermione squeaked, still unable to make eye contact with the group or speak in a steady tone.
"Whatever the case, the technique she used specifically is what set off the reaction; it sounds like the exact same type of curse as what killed them in the first place."
"There's too many coincidences to call this chance." Dean stated, plainly, with Ginny tucked into his chest against the wall. "Someone targeted us specifically."
"But who in the name of Azkaban is capable of this kind of sorcery?" Seamus wondered, banging his fist against the wall. "A dumbed-down version of something similar to this is in the developmental stages here in the experimental sciences lab, but obviously there is a wizard or witch or someone out there who's already mastered it beyond our comprehension."
"What person outside the Ministry could be capable of that?" Ron asked, perplexed. "How could they possibly elude our intelligence agents?"
"Wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves." Ginny said, wiping her eyes and brushing long strands of crimson hair from her face. "Let's recap what we've got."
Ron began ticking points off his fingers. "We know they wanted to be captured, and knew their capture would lead to their deaths. They knew the cursed aurors would release a plague in Mungo's and we have no way of telling how serious that might be. They knew exactly what lab and what technique would be used to perform their autopsy, and they used that to…" he paused for a breath between words. "to kill Luna. It would seem they know each of our positions in the Ministry and managed to bring us together…"
Ron's voice trailed off, a horrible thought coming to mind. "Guys…if they had this all planned out in advance…then it would follow they expected us to all convene together, here, in this lab, once we found out about Luna's death."
A silence as heavy as any he'd ever been part of before took hold of the room, as each of the witches and wizards realized how much truth there was to the statement.
It was Seamus who broke the silence by voicing what all of them were thinking.
"Fuck me."
***
"And I'll have the written report on your desk in the morning." Harry finished, completing his report to Kingsley Shacklebolt, head of the Auror Division in the Ministry of Defense.
"Very good, I'll be in touch with Greggory soon to see what he has uncovered. Furthermore-"
The Head Auror's words were cut off when the solid oak door to his office was thrown open and a winded assistant officer flew in, obviously in distress and having come in the utmost of haste.
"Sirs, we've just had a report from the lab," He eyed Harry warily, and the only surviving Potter wondered what he might have meant by it. "Luna Lovegood was killed while performing autopsy in a presumed pre-planned attack."
"What!?" The aurors screamed in unison, Shacklebolt's voice in shock over the impossibility of such a feat, Harry's wracked with emotion.
"Are you sure?" He asked, keeping his voice steady, unwilling to belief one of his seemingly untouchable friends was no longer among them. "You're sure it was Luna!?"
"Yes sir, they say-"
"What about Hermione!?" Now his voice cracked audibly, he made no attempt to hide it. "Answer me dammit!"
"S-she's fine sir," the assistant stammered, shaken by the fury in the wizarding world's golden boy's eyes. "Distraught, wracked by grief, but healthy and well."
As shocked and saddened as he was by Luna's murder, the word that Hermione was alive and well allowed Harry to relax…but only long enough for a second assistant to burst into the room.
"Sir! I'm sorry for the intrusion sir!" The young blonde man panted, eyeing the obvious tension in the room. "But we've received word that another attack has taken place back at the original site of these so-called plebs; Gregory has demanded immediate assistance…"
"I'm on my way."
And with that, Harry apparated away without even the slightest sound of a pop, leaving the two assistants momentarily stunned.
"I-I thought we had the world's strongest anti-apparition wards here sir; its supposed to be impossible to apparate anywhere on these premises."
Kingsley snorted and waved a dismissive hand at the shocked interns, even while being impressed himself. "What do you expect? He's Harry Potter, for Christ's sake."
***
"Protego!"
Before he could even see the destruction brought on the forensics team Harry through a powerful guard up; not as strong as one Neville could conjure but it would have to do for now, he was sure his portly friend would be along shortly as it was.
"Forget them!" Bellowed a commanding voice. "Go after Potter; now!"
No less than six wizards turned their attentions away from the outmatched forensic scientists and onto the boy who lived. Not good odds.
For them.
Channeling his fury, Harry tore a tidal wave of soil out of the ground in front of him and hurled a few hundred pounds of dirt at his enemies. All but one apparated through the wall, one of whom Harry immediately incapacitated with a point blank stunning spell.
Even before the dirt had settled Harry finished another series of complicated wand movements and transfigured a handful of rocks from the soil into massive boulders, hurling them at the two nearest dark wizards, crushing them.
He used an advanced reflective spell to glance one particularly nasty dark hex back at its caster, and the man dropped to the grass with an agonizing scream. Now only one foe remained, at least in front of him; there was another wizard on the premises who seemed content to stand a safe distance away, watching the battle with a burning intrigue.
"Accio!"
Displaying his trademark ability of manipulating spells to perform tasks they were not meant to do, Harry used the spell against a heavy brick wall just behind his last assailant; and do to the mass of the wall he was pulled towards it rather than the other way around, and at an alarming pace.
Before the dark wizard could even flick his wrist in attempt to put up a guard Harry smashed an elbow into his windpipe as he flew by; shattering it. He cut off the spell in time to avoid smashing against the wall at breakneck speed and turned around to watch the writhing wizard clutch his throat and take a few last vain attempts at breath before finally succumbing to his inevitable death.
"Very impressive, Mr. Potter." Chimed in the only wizard who had not engaged him, nodding his head and clapping in mock amusement. "You truly are as powerful as they say; even if these men were a little green."
"You would send your own men to a certain death against a superior wizard? Why?"
"Why not?" The cloaked man countered, his face shielded by a hood. "They knew they were coming here to die…such is the honor of our order."
"And what order might that be?" Harry asked, stalling for time. This man was clearly more intelligent, resourceful, and powerful than any of the others he'd just slaughtered.
He could feel the man's smile beneath his cloak. "We are the Caesars, young Potter. Remember the name, for it shall soon become the object of your fury."
Before Harry could demand any more answers the mysterious stranger summoned a rock to his hand and muttered "portus" instantly disappearing and cleverly keeping his trajectory from being traceable by not apparating.
Plebeians? Caesars? Who were these people and what were they playing at?