Chapter 26 - Readings

Chapter 26: Readings

Harry watched Blaise hit the dummy with a stunner spell and stand out of the roll she had made to get the shot. She had really improved in her duelling – she had been having private lessons with Harry quite often, the formal timing of which they had abandoned due to impromptu and impulsive lessons whenever they happened to be free. She hadn’t managed more in her patronus than a fuzzy shape, it was somewhere in between non-corporeal and fully corporeal, a stage Harry had never gone through.

Harry nodded and smiled. “Good, that was excellent.” Blaise smiled appreciatively and looked like she was waiting for something – or debating something with herself. Harry handed her a bottle of water and sat down on a chair, grabbing one for himself. “So do I have to guess or are you going to tell me what’s on your mind?” Blaise looked a little startled and sighed, sitting across from him. The room of requirement was like a room mishmashed together from almost every room of a normal house – the overall room was a large hall with one side lined with books as a library would, while there was a kitchen area in the corner closest the door, and several pieces of furniture set up in apparently random orientation all around – chairs, sofas, cabinets – all with spell damage. Harry had put as much in the room as he could to make a chaotic fighting environment – the DA had progressed to freestyle combat, which included using the surrounding cover and objects to attack.

Blaise had discovered some impressive abilities in shield charms, and had even found (or made, Harry wasn’t sure) shield charms that worked well enough to stop intermediate dark magic spells that Harry knew – completely block them while the shield remained intact. Harry had tried a multitude of dark spells, growing more confident as he went – at first he had used only a low level one involving a temporarily debilitating but otherwise harmless lightning bolt spell that deflected off the shield and set fire to a pile of books they had been rifling through. He had moved through to spells that caused blindness (that could be counteracted if the spellcaster so wished), and lacerations (that he aimed at her arm at first), a fire spell and finally a couple of spells to cause internal injuries. They got quite nasty and the shield charms Blaise had used managed to block all the energy from them, although when Harry had tried the same shield, it had been unable to block the simplest jinx. After mentioning it to Hermione, he had learned that Blaise had made her own adaptations of existing shield spells, so there was no standardised spell to cast, only one that worked for her.

“…I want to learn more powerful spells,” Blaise said, leaning forward. “Darker spells. Spells that can repel death eaters.” Harry’s smile slowly vanished, as he tried to think of what to say. Of all the things he had expected to hear, this was not it.

“No you don’t, Blaise,” he said finally, shaking his head. Her nature was so far from what she was asking, it pained him slightly that she wanted that knowledge.

“I do,” she insisted. “I want to be useful – a shield charm can protect me and I can project it on another person as well, but that doesn’t deal with the death eater shooting at me.”

“You have stunner spells, jinxes,” Harry said, trying to sound reasonable. Blaise smiled slightly, with a small shake of her head.

“Harry… I’ve seen you play with stunner spells. I can only assume a standard death eater is capable of the same. I need an advantage, and I have that – my shield charms are pretty powerful. But it’s not a level playing field.” Harry looked at her sadly.

“I don’t want you fighting, Blaise,” he said, softly. She looked him dead straight in the eye and a tear slipped down her cheek.

“You and I both know that I don’t have to go and fight - eventually the fight will come to me.” Harry leaned over and wiped the tear away, brushing her cheek slowly. The training dummy jumped to life at Harry’s gaze, and Harry raised his wand at it and looked at her.

“The incantation is ‘Levitaselum’,” he said, as the lightning bolt left his wand and struck the dummy.

###

Draco Malfoy sat in front of a warm fireplace in the living room of a moderately sized manor house. Well, moderate to him – most still would have called it a mansion. His old seer aunt had died a long time ago, but the old woman had obviously been the real deal – as soon as he arrived, Draco had found that all the houses magical wards responded to him and that there were various notes littered around the house, and on the oddest of things. There had been one on the large plant pot that stood precariously close to the edge of a landing above the main entrance, addressed to him and requesting that he not move it from its position. Expecting some sort of magical defence to that effect, Draco had not gone within five feet of the pot, just in case. There was one beneath a portrait of his aunt, which read ‘In case of invasion, press wand here’. There was an odd one in the middle of the stairs that said ‘do not remove’. Naturally, he had heeded the warning – on his first day, he had not followed the instruction on a note and had ended up fighting the fridge for his hand. It was unnerving when he had noticed another note afterwards that read “You were supposed to read the note and pay attention!”

The wards were pretty strong for a private residence – he doubted they were in the same weight class as Hogwarts, but as they only had to deal with an area somewhere in the region of one twelfth the size of the castle, Draco was quite sure that the wards were almost as effective – there was one to identify and block incoming apparitions, and other magical forms of entry – that ruled out broomsticks, portkeys and enchanted carpets or objects. There was a lock on the door that had a nasty surprise for anyone who opened the unlocked door without inserting the key that had been sitting in Draco’s bank vault at Gringotts, and all Draco could think about was what happened if you tried to enter one of the bedrooms without knocking on the door first – it was a very unpleasant yet surprisingly non-lethal measure implemented by his aunt.

Overall it was a good home – a house elf had been employed since he arrived and Draco did his best to treat it with the courtesy that his aunt would want of him – the little creature was dead useful, although not much for conversation. The house was warm and had all the conveniences of a fully magical home, and was a very comfortable one at that. But it did get lonely – unfortunately for Draco, the Malfoy name was quite badly received on the continent, and the only schools that he was now sure would receive him were drilling their students with Voldemort Doctrine, and would hand him over to his father or Voldemort himself while only pausing for a pat on the head. All the other schools he had contacted had been reluctant even to respond, and had only done so because it was expected – apparently the Malfoy name was harder to escape than azkaban. So he had given up – he had moved into his Aunt’s manor, deciding he could teach himself anything he needed to know, and eventually giving up on that, too – hell, he’d employed the house elf just so he could have something hot to eat that was in fact edible – Draco had not thought cooking was that hard, but apparently he had no aptitude for it, if the three half raw, half live roast chickens he had tried to conjure were any indication.

It was through this isolation that he had discovered something he had never known about muggles – at least half of their society was dedicated to fun and relaxation. The manor was located near a small muggle town that he could never quite remember the name of – but, it had swimming baths (which Draco definitely appreciated, just for the eye candy – he had decided that bikini’s were a definite plus about muggle innovation) which he frequented, and a cinema, which had scared him no end when he had gone the first time – the film, of course, was a horror, and made with something called ‘special effects’, but he had been sure that the supernatural powers shown in the film were real for a short time and had lived in fear that his ceiling was going to sprout hair and hang him any moment. This behaviour had greatly confused the house elf.

There was also a muggle library – he had got himself a membership, but he really didn’t bother about taking many books out. He did, however, enjoy some fantasy genre books he had taken out – it was very interesting to see how Muggles imagined magic worked. Sometimes they weren’t too far off, from a conservative standpoint – obviously, they would never hit the nail on the head, so to speak, but it was odd to see such romanticism of magic where only a few generations ago they were burning witches and wizards on the suspicion of being connected with ‘the dark art of magic’.

Among these discoveries, he had also found that muggle music was pretty good – having bought what was called a Stereo that drew power from odd cylinders called batteries, he had been experimenting with the muggle radio stations and CDs – a stack four feet high stood next to the stereo, filled with bands that he had found he liked – iron maiden he had bought because of the name (his father had one in the dungeon of Malfoy Manor simply for the ingenious design of it – it had been a dark secret of sorts that Lucious admired old muggle torture techniques. The music was loud, and fast and Draco found it oddly enjoyable. There were many different bands now, but he had bought the iron maiden album first, and that was currently playing at top volume.

Draco took a sip from the brandy glass he was holding and sighed. What he wouldn’t give to speak to someone from the wizarding world right now. Hell, even Granger would be welcome – all that bossy know-it-all superiority would be preferable to the silence of the manor when Fren the house elf was busy. He wondered how his aunt had done it – spending so much time alone. Then he remembered the notes left all around and rolled his eyes.

He stood and thought about getting a snack – another muggle invention he had found quite admirable was instant noodles, and even he could cook that. Hell, boiling water was his specialty. As he wondered the halls, the music of Iron Maiden followed him, as he had enchanted the walls to amplify the sound to keep it the same volume throughout the house. The kitchen was a little chilly, so he did a quick air warming spell and waved his wand at the pot he used for boiling water, which obediently jumped up, filled itself with water and then threw itself down on the hob, splashing some drops onto the cooker. He was glad despite the little spillage – the first time he had tried that, the damn thing had sprouted legs and made a dash for the door.

As the water began to boil, Draco stretched and looked around. “Maybe I should get one of those muggle ‘TVs’,” he thought, thinking back to seeing them in the shop window. Yes – he’d get one, and see what all the fuss was about. Apparently, every Muggle family had one, which boggled the mind – what could possibly be so popular?

As the water began to heat up, Draco noticed that something was interfering with the music he was hearing; Somewhere in the house, a bell had began to tingle. Then another, and another, until the entire house seemed a giant bell, gonging. He tried to remember what it was for and suddenly his eyes went wide – it was the house alarm for someone breaking through the wards! Suddenly the bells were gone, and he knew that the intruders had circumvented the first level of security that was the outer wall – they were within the grounds. Only a matter of time before they reached the house – about forty five seconds, as he had calculated it when he had arrived. Draco headed upstairs, placing a quick charm on the pot of boiling water and placing it in the hall with the front door and then heading up the stairs to cover the front door – he didn’t really expect to get out of this with just this position, but it was a good position to start.

To have passed the security so easily, it had to be his father – Malfoy blood allowed entrance with minimal effort. Good thing Draco’s aunt had changed the magical locks to only do that for Draco around the house. He noticed something to his left and looked – it was one of those notes his aunt had left every where. This one wriggled around in a circle, getting his attention.

When in Danger, chant – Obsesincipio.

Shrugging, being used to in-the-nick-of-time advice from his deceased aunt, he raised his wand and the spell enabled all the locks and traps that surrounded the manor. The sound of several small explosions could be heard outside, and Draco smiled slightly, about to take another step up when a note caught his eye, which had used to say ‘do not remove. EVER. – he picked it up and it read

Don’t step on this stair after Obsesincipio – EVER.

Draco gulped and skipped the stair, heading for the landing. They had reached the front door, and were bombarding it with several strong spells. A horrific scream announced that one of them had got too close to the door and had been swallowed by the living stone that hid there – as far as he knew, his aunt had developed that charm herself, a particularly nasty one that made the stone drag the unwilling person into the stone and encase them there. Not hard to disable, but it had just taken one enemy out of the equation. Maybe even two – someone was screaming about their leg. Another got close to the door and was hit by the falling stone Draco himself had put there – probably killing him, as the stone was a slab of Dorset Granite two metres long and one meter wide.

He knew the door would not hold, however, and was proven correct as it imploded under the barrage and in came seven death eaters, wands ready and searching the immediate hall for him. The pot of boiling water opened its newly formed eyes, sprouted metal legs and launched itself at the intruders with a battle cry, splashing three of them with boiling water – not enough to kill, but it would hurt like hell. Fren suddenly appeared by Draco’s side, looking anxious.

“Master Draco, sir,” he said, ringing the toga-like towel he wore. “You is got to be getting out of here, they is coming in from the back as well!” Draco nodded – he had expected that, but then so had his aunt – the back door was blocked by vines that were actually cleverly disguised Devils Snare. A particularly vicious species of Devils Snare; apparently, it had a penchant for ripping people limb from limb. After that, the intruders would have to break through the door which was a big mistake because it led to the kitchen, which (after the Obsesincipio) would now have charmed all the cutlery (which included steak knives and even a meat cleaver) to attack anyone who entered it without being Draco Malfoy.

Fren looked down at the death eaters, looked at the potted plant with the ‘do not move’ note and snapped his fingers. The very large and very heavy plant slammed through the banisters and dropped onto a death eater, crushing him. Draco blinked and patted Fren on the shoulder in thanks – so that’s why that was there.

Upon hearing the death eaters shout that he was upstairs, Draco retreated down the hall, skipping over the various trap floorboards and stepping into the room with the note about pressing in event of invasion. Hearing the stairs suddenly open up and deposit the death eaters in the basement was quite satisfying, although he doubt it got all of them. Draco pressed the fake panel in the wall with where the note was with his wand and wondered for a moment what was going to happen. The wall moved to the right to reveal a hole that looked like a doorway, but inside were two statues. He checked for a way out and found nothing. Cursing, he looked at the statues – had his aunt forgotten to do something?

“Excuse me sir, but if you would kindly move?” The statue in front asked politely, and Draco jumped back with a cry of alarm. Did that thing actually talk? “My brother and I can’t well protect you from in here,” it said, drawing a sword and stepping out. Draco’s jaw dropped – they were GOLEMS! Two golems in a residential house?! His aunt must have been far richer than he had given her credit for, true golems were incredibly rare and entire countries had been sold to afford them. They were made in only a few places in the world, mainly Prague, and no more – no one had the skill to create them for at least a hundred years, and as most Golems became inert after the death of their master or creator, this meant they were quite scarce now, only really found guarding treasure hoards and some high security banks in Switzerland. But Golems were incredibly strong – more resistant to magic than a dragons hide, they could take on entire armies of Wizards with nothing but stone swords and come out on top. But they were very slow in walking and couldn’t run, and therein lied there one weakness – they couldn’t really pursue enemies.

The two Golems stepped to the door and the leader turned to Draco. “We will only exist within this house, sir, and I should tell you that we will only last this one night. Retreating would be your best course of action. Your aunt greatly desired this. Farewell.” It turned, just as the door flew open and faced the death eaters, who promptly began screaming, cut short by the lightning fast sword strikes of the Golems. Quickly the sounds of running feet could be heard as the death eaters realised they were facing two golems.

“Master Draco sir, we have to go!” Fren said, panicking. He took a hold of Draco’s sleeve and snapped his fingers, teleporting them away from the house. The Death Eaters would return once the golems died and would ransack it, searching for him, but that wouldn’t matter much.

They apparated onto Bodmin moor, quite a good distance from anything remotely considered civilization and an empty place where humans were concerned. Looking down at the poor, witless house elf, Draco sighed – he was going to regret this, he was sure. “Fren, please take me to Cornwall, somewhere out of sight.” Fren nodded and snapped his fingers again, putting them on a beach with red sand. It was low tide, so the sea was quite far out now. Draco looked at his feet and saw what appeared to be an overnight bag stuffed with clothes and what appeared to be some of his favourite CDs.

“I is taking the liberty of teleporting this, too,” Fren said, smiling uncertainly. Draco smiled, and nodded – that was fine. Now came the part he was not looking forward too; he took out a t-shirt and handed it to the stunned elf, who looked hesitant to take it from him.

“Fren, I’m going to be hiding in the muggle world now,” he said, apologetically. “And to be honest, it won’t be that safe around me. Please go and be safe, return to the house and lock it as best you can and then, if you want, head to Hogwarts – they’ll employ you.” The house elf let a tear run down his face and took the shirt, putting it on over his towel-toga before snapping his fingers one last time and disappearing.

Sighing, Draco decided his first order of business was going to be to find something to eat and then somewhere to stay – those bastards hadn’t let him finish his noodles.

###

Harry sighed as he entered his dorm – he wasn’t too happy about teaching the dark arts to Blaise. It was odd – if Ron had asked, Harry was almost sure he would have no problem with it, and maybe even thrown in a couple of really useful spells that could be coupled with the lower level dark arts to useful effects without being asked. But Blaise… it was so strange. It wasn’t that he expected Ron to be more dark arts material, but more that Blaise was someone for Harry to protect… the thought of her fighting in this war was something that hadn’t entered into his mind. He hadn’t really rationalised her participation in the DA and their private sessions in his own mind, until now, hadn’t really thought about why he was teaching her.

Somewhere in his memory he recalled the damaging affects of the Dark Arts – they tended to twist a person, warp them – Harry was somewhat buffered from this, from his connection to Voldemort and his fusing with Orion. But Blaise... Harry knew she was not the same – no matter how he tried to figure it, the damage the higher dark arts could inflict on her were unimaginable. He had only taught her several useful but less damaging spells – the lightning spell was a good spell to use in a duel and yet it was less dark than most spells – it at least was non-lethal. He had also taught her a fireball spell and the laceration spell, all of which could be used for more things than just combat, and didn’t require the hatred that fuelled most dark spells.

He pulled the curtain away from his bed and blinked in surprise to find Tonks laying on her side and reading a magazine.

“Bout bloody time,” she said, looking bored. “I’ve been waiting for two hours. Get in.” Raising an eyebrow, Harry got onto his bed and shut the curtains.

“Your wish is my command,” he said dryly. Tonks grinned and waved a wand at the curtains while muttering a couple of incantations. “Secrecy charms?” he guessed. A mischievous smile crept into view and Harry groaned inside.

“Well, sort of,” Tonks said, folding her magazine up. “Let’s just say it serves to that end.” Harry decided not to ask what that meant.

“So what brings you here?” he asked, crossing his legs. “Apart from being able to say you’ve been in my bed?” Tonks shrugged, and sat up, smoothing her skirt down to keep from giving Harry a free view. “And why with the school uniform again?” she smiled sweetly.

“It’s a bit of fun, and I’m here on business.” Harry looked at her slightly incredulously but didn’t comment. “The high brass at Auror HQ got back to me. They’ve said they will take a week to put together a proper team and plan the incursion. Preliminary planning suggests the overall force will be split into three different strike teams, taking three main routes through Valdis’ Fortress. I’ve explained the ‘confidential source’ wants to be a part of the operation and they agreed as long as I’m responsible for you. They weren’t happy about it but they accepted. I did have to tell them you were the Shadow Brothers, but they understand your not working against us.” Harry nodded, wondering just how much she had gone through to make this happen.

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” he said honestly. She nodded, and pressed on.

“I’ll keep you up to date on developments, and needless to say you should drop by if you learn anything new. So how are things?” She asked suddenly. Harry smiled.

“They’re not too bad, how about you?” She shrugged, and Harry sighed. “More bad news about the war?” she nodded.

“They found one of the upper echelon of the Aurors has been passing information. They stopped the leak and even let it get reported by the Prophet. Turns out he was responsible for the Manchester ambushes. He’s already in Azkaban.” Harry nodded, not sure of what to say.

“So, could be that the Aurors start getting some wins now…” Tonks shrugged.

“Hope so,” she said. She seemed somewhat distant for a few moments. “I’m a little scared, Harry – this is the first time I’ve actually thought about the current Auror casualty rate. I’m being transferred onto the offensive contingent. Soon I’m going to be on a team heading after Death Eaters in God Knows what part of the country.” Harry remained silent, watching her. “I don’t think I’m going to make it through this war, Harry… I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Unsure of how to deal with this, he reached out and hugged her, to which she gratefully leant in and hugged back for several silent minutes.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, Tonks – but your not harmless yourself – I’ve seen you duel. I believe you will live through this war… and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that happens.” Tonks drew back, smiling thankfully.

“Thanks, Harry… I just hope you never have to come to my rescue again.” Harry smiled in agreement. “Anyway, I need to get back – soon someone is bound to notice my being missing and start a search. Anyways, we’ve been under here long enough.” Harry frowned in confusion.

“Long enough for…?” he asked, and she smiled cryptically.

“The ‘secrecy charms’…” she said. Harry closed his eyes.

“Ok, what were they?” Tonks grinned impishly, shrugging.

“Oh, they were secrecy charms… just they’ll make everyone outside the bed hear a rather… audible activity. Think of it as a boost to your sexual reputation.” Harry rubbed his temples as if driving off a headache, making Tonks laugh.

“My reputation needs no ‘boosting’, Tonks,” Harry responded, and Tonks made a face of intense interest and Harry just shook his head, cutting off all the questions about to flow from her mouth. Looking slightly disappointed, she shrugged.

“Well, it’s always good to reinforce it,” she said, smiling sweetly. “And you’re very welcome.” Harry couldn’t keep from smiling, and Tonks cancelled the spell. “I’ll see you at the latest next week sometime,” she said, giving him a final hug. As she drew back, her face had changed to that of an anonymous girl about the same age as Harry. “See ya, Harry!”

She jumped out of the bed and headed out of the dorm, and Harry briefly wondered how she got into the Gryffindor Tower, but figured an Aurors business was probably filled with getting in and out of places they weren’t supposed to be.

“You know you forgot the silencing charm,” Neville said, walking into the dormitory, looking slightly uncomfortable. Harry scratched the back of his neck.

“Ah… well, sorry about that,” he said, deciding that the truth was way too complicated (and possibly harder to believe), he just went with the obvious answer.

“It’s ok,” Neville said, looking at the bed in question. “I took the liberty of silencing the room… just in case anyone was passing.” Harry gulped silently – how loud had Tonks made that charm?

“Who else heard?” Harry asked, and Neville shrugged.

“Orion and Dean – they took bets on who you had in there.”

“Oh really?” Harry asked, crossing his arms. “And what were they thinking?”

“Dean said Cho Chang, Orion said Pansy Parkinson. Said something about her looking like a ‘shouter’. I said Padma Patil.” Harry blinked and he shrugged apologetically. “Hey, you would have guessed as well, don’t kill me for following natural instincts.” Harry chuckled suddenly and nodded.

“Ok, ok – but I very much doubt Padma would be a ‘shouter’. And as for Parkinson, I’m sure Orion would be jealous if it was.”

“No I wouldn’t,” came his voice, and the curtains of his bed slid apart. He looked bored, lying on his back with a book propped on his chest. “I’d just be a little disappointed you were going for sloppy seconds.” Harry blinked and he shrugged. “Hey, you think I was joking back then? She’s cute.” Harry shook his head in mock dismay.

“There is no hope for you, Orion,” Harry said. Neville agreed.

###

Harry got to bed at around twelve, laying back and staring at the ceiling of his four poster bed. He had a lot to think about – the upcoming attack on Nimue Valdis’ castle, Blaise’s wish to learn some of the darker arts, and not to mention Neville’s cryptic message concerning Orion’s loyalties.

The usual night activities were going on – the door opened as Dee crept in and joined Neville for the night. Seamus snored and Dean cast a silencing charm on the other boy’s bed quietly. Orion had mentioned a wish to do some more reconnaissance on the castle before the attack, and at about one o’clock Harry felt him shift out of the window. He tracked the other shadow mage to the castle covertly and withdrew to his body in his bed.

The dorm door opened again and Harry tracked the progress of the newcomer across the room by their soft footsteps. Through the door, stepping aside slightly to shut the door quietly behind them. Three steps in and a longer step over Neville’s trainers, three more steps to get to Deans bed, passed there and dodging his robe that had dropped off the hook on his four poster, four more quiet steps and then a pause as the person stopped outside his bed. There was a minute of silence, and Harry caught a subtle scent of perfume on the air, coming through the curtains. Was it Tonks again? No, she would just come right in, Gina? Probably not, they weren’t together – hadn’t been for a long time. Parvati and Lavender were both a possibility but the perfume was too subtle – it smelled like perfume that had been added in tiny amounts. There was only two girls left from his year – Hermione and Blaise, but there was always the possibility that it was someone from the other years. Deciding to give up guessing, he whispered

“You gonna stand out there all night or…?” he said, leaving the end open. Harry’s curtains opened after a few seconds pause and someone climbed in. He recognised Blaise in the moonlight that momentarily lit her face, and he cast a silencing charm as she shut the curtains behind her. “Hey Blaise,” he said quietly, asking why she had come.

“Hey,” she said, sitting down. She was wearing an extra baggy t-shirt and some shorts – he guessed she was pretty cold between her room and his. “I couldn’t sleep, fancied a chat…” Harry nodded, sitting up and making room for her.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked.

“Training,” she responded. “I got the feeling you were… holding back today.” Harry shrugged uncomfortably. She sighed. “Can I ask why?” There was silence for a few moments, as Harry focussed on a patch of moonlight streaming through a gap in the curtains.

“It’s just...” he began, trying to find the words for her that he had been trying to find in his own head all day, “The dark arts corrupt. They… they’re fuelled on hatred and the darker parts of your soul. They not only feed off these feelings, they cultivate them, and the darkness filters into you. I don’t… I don’t want you to fall victim to that.” She watched him for what seemed a long time, legs tucked under her chin, hair tied back, eyes intent on his.

“So… what makes it different for you?” she asked softly, and Harry sighed.

“Voldemort,” he replied, and somewhere in the back of his head he was impressed at the lack of reaction to the name. “When he attacked me, he passed a lot of dark magic into me; it created a kind of buffer – fixed my soul in limbo between light and dark. But I still use the dark arts as little as possible, I know what they will do to me if I lose the balance, but I take that risk to fight.” There was another pause that lasted a minute or two, and Blaise broke the silence suddenly.

“What if I want to fight with you,” she asked, “what if I want to risk the damage?” Harry reached over and lifted her chin so they were looking straight into each others’ eyes.

“I don’t want you to change,” he said softly, holding her gaze. “Not like that. You use those spells properly, use them like you want to, you will slowly turn into the sort of people that the Death Eaters recruit – please, Blaise – don’t ask me to turn you into that.” They stared for a few moments, before Harry broke the gaze and looked down, his eyes passing over her legs – they had goose bumps all over, and Harry realised just how cold the air was tonight. “You’re freezing, get under the covers,” she blinked at him in response as he lifted the duvet and covered her legs with it. She crossed her legs to make it easier, but the position was awkward and her top half was still exposed. Giving up, she crawled up to the head end, lying down as she went, and slid under the duvet from the side. Harry stayed sitting.

This new arrangement caused an awkward silence that went unbroken. Harry’s gaze stayed on the patch of moonlight on the duvet – he could feel Blaise watching him, and her bare leg brushed his slightly, causing her to blush slightly.

“I guess I was more tired that I thought,” she said at last, breaking the silence. Harry looked over at her; she did look sleepy, oddly enough – perhaps she had been all along, and had just came for an answer. Harry moved to undo the spells on the curtains, but paused as Blaise continued. “Do you remember how… right after the attack at my home… you would sometimes stay with me till I fell asleep?” Harry, understanding the unasked question, slipped the wand back into his wand holster.

“Of course,” he said, laying back and reading the hopefulness in her eyes. “You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to.” She smiled gratefully, and moved over so that they both had enough space. She rolled onto her side so she was facing Harry, closed her eyes and Harry watched as slowly, peacefully, she fell asleep. Harry was unsure how he should proceed – it wasn’t a romantic situation, should he put his arm around her? He wanted to… Tentatively, his arm did wrap over her, and she smiled. Smiling as well, Harry took one last glance at Blaise’s face before closing his eyes and falling into a contented slumber of his own.

As they slept, Blaise rolled over, moving into Harry’s embrace, so her back was to his chest and his arm was draped around her almost protectively. This was how Orion found them in the last few hours before dawn, shifting into the dorm room. He moved across the room just as the sky began to dark a slightly lighter shade of dark blue, knocked on the curtain and waited for a response before carefully sliding them open slightly. He had been meaning to tell Harry something, something that had been on his mind for a while now. He blinked in surprise when he saw Blaise and Harry sleeping together, in such a loving embrace, with real contentment evidenced on each of their faces. Orion’s frown eased slowly, and a smile slowly replaced it as he slowly closed the curtains.

“It can wait… I guess,” Orion whispered to himself, leaving them both in peace. He climbed into his own bed and drew the curtains for some sleep, thankful the coming day was a Saturday. The essence of a perfume lingered on his jumper, and he decided not to change for sleeping, enjoying the lingering scent that reminded him of who he had been with for the night.

###

Waking up slowly, Harry looked down to find Blaise’s blond, curly hair at his chest and smiled. From his angle he could just see that she was smiling softly too, and unwilling to wake her, he shut his eyes again and simply rested with her as she slept.

Somewhere a clock chimed, and Harry listened to the number of times it rang, getting the time. Seven, eight, nine, ten… Ten O’clock. Most of the others would either be up or would be getting up soon, and Harry’s memory suggested that Blaise wasn’t exactly dressed for walking around the common room, which was necessary if she was to get to the girls staircase and then on to the girls dormitory. Sleepily, he came to the conclusion that he could conjure her some clothes, or lend her some… which ever was easiest (clothes were quite hard to conjure, requiring knowledge of stitch patterns and materials).

At least there was little chance of them being seen together as they were – the sixth year boys had all simultaneously come to the conclusion that ripping the curtains aside from the other boy’s beds was quite a risky thing to do – Neville and Dee had been cuddling together when Dean had made that mistake, and had been hexed badly enough that his skin took on a slimy green texture. Since then, they had all decided that announcing yourself first made so much more sense, and allowed the person in bed to choose whether face to face was required.

Of course, this wasn’t mentioned to the visiting Ted and Raine, who had decided that it was time Harry showed them around Hogsmeade. Ted opened the curtains and gave out a surprised yelp, shutting them again quickly.

“I don’t think Harry is quite ready to take us out today,” he said to Raine. The yelp had woken Harry and Blaise up, and Blaise, blushing the deepest crimson, slowly covered herself up to her neck with the duvet as Harry released her and poked his head out of the curtains.

“Um, hi guys,” he said, looking from one to the other – Ted looked mildly embarrassed, but Raine only looked amused. “How’s it going?”

“Not bad,” Ted said.

“I’m going to guess things aren’t exactly gruelling for you, either,” Raine said, smirking. Harry gave her a slightly dangerous glare as Blaise shifted behind him. “Anyway, unless you’re too busy, we were thinking of heading into Hogsmeade, only we’d need a guide and we couldn’t think of anyone better than you.” Pausing, she rolled her eyes and his glare was replaced by a soft smile.

“We can wait downstairs,” Ted said, and Harry nodded.

“Ok, give me… ten minutes?” they nodded and backed out of the room, while Harry looked it over to find all the boys had left. Hogsmeade – he had forgotten the Hogsmeade trip was this weekend. He turned to Blaise. “The guys are gone, but you should borrow some clothes to get back – the common room is probably full of people about to go to Hogsmeade.” He rummaged into his trunk and pulled out a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a hoody. “The trousers will be a little big, but…” he said, offering the clothes to her. She took them, mumbling a thank you, and Harry stepped out of the bed to let her slip them on, sighing – something told him things were about to get very awkward between him and Blaise.

She stepped out a couple of minutes later before smiling softly and saying goodbye, walking out slowly. Harry stood still for a moment, thinking, before throwing on some clothes and heading down to meet the two visiting friends.

Filch’s look of annoyance at the appearance of students was briefly commented upon by Ted and Raine, who promised that they would glare back as disgustedly to the grimy man when they returned. The day was a good one – the temperature was slightly chilly but tolerable, and the clouds in the sky did not completely cover the blue of the rest. As they walked, Ted pointed to the Forbidden Forest with interest.

“Looks slightly foreboding,” Raine said, and Harry laughed.

“Yeah, but it should – the locals aren’t too friendly, being xenophobic Centaurs and rather hungry Acromantulas. The unicorns aren’t bad though.” Ted’s eyes brightened at hearing about two very rare creatures from which rare potion ingredients could be extracted.

“Really, acromantulas… I would love to get some of their venom, fresh – you can buy some stale stuff in Canada but it’s usually watered down, and some of the properties only work when fresh.” They continued walking towards the village with light conversation, which died off as they entered.

“Well… isn’t this… cheery?” Raine said, looking around. Harry blinked, to make sure there wasn’t some illusion tricking him. Hogsmeade was not large – perhaps large for a village, but in any case, it was large enough that there should be some people out on the streets. It resembled a ghost town. Harry led the two visiting students down the eerily quiet street.

“It’s never this quiet,” Harry murmured, looking around; a couple of the houses here had seriously been upgraded in their security, so much so that the magic emanating off of the wards felt volatile, as if the spells were ready to implode from the stress of being layered on top of one another. A couple of the houses had flat out been abandoned, and had boards over the windows.

“This is where the students go for shopping?” Ted asked, looking at the grimy Hogshead pub.

“That’s the Hogs Head, the slightly…” Harry wondered about what adjective to use for a moment – violent? Seedy? Dark, evil? “…slightly less wholesome place to get a drink. The better place is down here, passed the sweet and joke shops.” He prayed Honeydukes and Zonkos were open for business.

A shimmer in Harry’s peripheral vision made Harry draw his wand. There was someone in an invisibility cloak! “Accio invisibility cloak!” Harry cried, and watched as the cloak was yanked off the wizard. Tied quite tightly at the neck, the strong summoning spell pulled him off balance and he fell to the floor, his wand rolling out of reach. Harry looked the wizard over, while Ted retrieved the wand. The wizard was about Harry’s height, dressed in what appeared to be muggle attire.

“Move and I will just stun you,” Harry said seriously. The man, panting at his fighting cloak, released the clasp finally and Harry caught it. “Who are you, and why were you following us?” The man looked at Harry somewhat incredulously, and Harry gave him a glare to make his blood run cold. “I asked you a question.” The wand tip glowed softly with a restrained spell, and the man tensed.

“I wasn’t following you,” he said. Harry’s peripheral vision caught another flash, and his wand shifted, shooting a spell at the second concealed person. The stunner hit dead on, and the hood fell off to leave an apparently disembodied head floating in midair, falling to the ground. The wizard made a go for Harry, but from a sitting position it was awkward and slow, and Harry simply stepped to the side and pushed the man into the wall he had been standing in front of, where the wizard’s head connected hard. He fell to the ground in a daze, but conscious.

“Who are they?” Raine asked, looking down at the one Harry had stunned – a woman, early twenties with braided hair. Harry levitated her to the man and kept his peripheral vision in his mind at all times – the beast that the invisibility cloak was made from could only be hunted like this, he had read in Magical creatures and where to find them. He hadn’t known it worked on invisibility cloaks as well, but it seemed to.

“A good question, but I’ve already asked. Could be death eaters,” Harry said. “Could be Sabres – most death eaters aren’t this careless… Still…” Harry pointed his wand at the man and his sleeves ripped off to reveal his arms. He blanched, and Raine gave Harry a questioning look. “Voldemort brands his followers with his ‘Dark Mark’,” he explained. She checked the unconscious woman’s arms, but both were clean of the dark mark.

Harry caught a movement in his peripheral vision again, but much more pronounced, and far away – five houses down, someone was taking their invisibility cloak off.

“Potter,” Mad Eye Moody growled (almost cheerfully, which served only to confuse Harry). He began walking towards them, wand not in his hand.

“Draw your wands, just in case,” Harry said, stepping away from the captives. ‘Moody’ got to within ten feet and stopped, hands still free. Harry nodded to him. The magic eye fixed on him and then the other two, before looking at the captives. “Hello Mad Eye… I take it you know what I’m going to ask,” Harry said, and Moody raised what used to be an eyebrow.

“I better not, Potter,” he said in his usual growl, “Because if I do then you’re being careless.” Harry smiled.

“I know, but your credibility just rose. What form of travel did we take during the summer?” Mad Eye blinked.

“Your ‘unique’ method,” Mad Eye responded. Harry smiled, nodding, and put his wand down from being aimed at the other man’s throat.

“Good to hear you’re really Mad Eye,” Harry said, smiling.

“And I have yet to determine if you are really Harry Potter,” Mad eye pointed out. Harry indicated to Mad Eye’s empty hands.

“Figured you had taken it on faith,” he said. Mad Eye shook his head. “Ok, ok, what’s the question?” Mad Eye grinned.

“Where were you when I disarmed you over the summer?” Harry snorted in laughter.

“Excuse me? My memory holds a slightly different set of events.” Moody gave a bit of laughter and nodded approvingly.

“Good, good!” he said, hobbling forward. “But do you mind not humiliating my students? They tend to be stuck up their arses, but whilst on the job it would be best if people didn’t know there were Hogwarts students capable of taking out two invisible Aurors.” Harry blinked.

“Aurors?” Harry looked down at the two captives, both now awake. Harry turned back to Moody. “Surely the war isn’t this desperate,” he said, causing a sound of indignance from both captive Aurors. Moody looked over at them while his magical eye did a little spin to check the surrounding area.

“Shut it you two, he just managed to successfully disarm you both using non lethal methods while you were under invisibility cloaks. You were assigned to me because you aren’t the best, so don’t act surprised when a superior wizard points it out!” Harry handed the man his wand and Raine gave the woman hers.

“So what brings you here?” Harry asked Moody. “Last I knew, you weren’t hanging with Aurors – what changed?” Moody shrugged.

“The minister, of course,” he said. He spat and nodded at the two. “Asked me to train up some of the newer Aurors – ones who never really did the proper entry. Auror recruits have been accelerated into lower priority jobs, and as such have been given full Auror status. The protection of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley has been handed to a couple of the older boys as some ‘on the job’ training.”

“Wouldn’t you be better on the front lines?” Harry asked, in all seriousness. “Honestly, I would have thought they’d have insisted you lead the sweeper teams.” Moody shook his head.

“One seasoned Auror can contribute more to the effort by training groups of recruits so that when the time comes, they are at least ready – gives more of a fight. As it is, this lot need quite a bit of work.” Ted had healed the head wound on the man and both were standing to the side, obediently waiting for Mad Eye.

“Sir, he took us by surprise!” the man said, and Mad Eye fixed both eyes on him.

“He wasn’t the one invisible, nor was he ambushing you – I watched the entire thing. You gave yourself away and got off lightly, the last lot of Aurors to make this boy draw his wand weren’t as lucky.” Harry figured he must have been talking about the short time Harry had been a fugitive, and sighed.

“Isn’t there a course on stealth and concealment in Auror training?” Ted asked Moody, who nodded.

“And this is it,” Moody said. “Simultaneously training in stealth and concealment whilst protecting the village. Further up are the visible recruits. If they give you any trouble, you have my permission to discipline them - they do like to hassle people, and they need a good humbling if you ask me.” Harry chuckled slightly and Mad Eye joined him. “Go on, get going – I have to ‘instruct’ these two.” Harry nodded in goodbye and he, Raine and Ted headed off. After about thirty seconds, the sound of Moody yelling at his students could be heard.

“Who was that?” Raine asked, and Harry opened his mouth to say, stopped and thought; neither of them knew about the order of Phoenix. Then again, Raine had been working with Flitwick on Order business…

“He’s a retired Auror, served during the first war with Voldemort,” he said. “One of the best, if a little bit paranoid these days. He does some side work for Dumbledore, guess he’s out of retirement now…”

They came up over the small hill and Honeydukes came into view, brimming with Hogwarts students. Across the road were the recruit Aurors, watching the crowd with a look that attempted to say they were all hardened warriors, but to the trained eye was easily seen as a façade.

Contrary to Mad Eyes word, the Auror recruits didn’t hassle them, and they got their sugar fix without a problem. Moving on down the road to Zonkos, they bought a bunch of products that included dung bombs and some new ‘itchy snitch’, which were tiny Snitch balls just like Quidditch ones, but they tended to dive bomb people until they were caught, at which point they exploded in a rain of itching powder.

As they walked, Harry pointed out the various places – the couples’ coffee shop was given the barest of mentions and they didn’t stop, despite Ted’s asking to – inside, there were a couple of girls staring at Harry. Instead they headed on to the Three Broomsticks, where they took a seat in a cubicle and ordered three Butterbeers. The pub was a little subdued, compared to normal – apart from the students, almost everyone was quiet, and (amazingly) sober. Harry wondered if the war was sucking out the joy from every nook and cranny in England.

The atmosphere didn’t hold their attentions and Harry felt compelled to apologise to them for the bad day out as they walked out of the pub and headed back up to the castle, Harry feeling slightly embarrassed.

As the sun went down, Harry, Raine and Ted reached the doors of the castle and were surprised to be met by Orion coming the other way.

“Dumbledore just got word,” he panted, running up, “An auror watch team on manoeuvres in the Sahara fell upon the Ancient City – it popped out of thin air right in front of them.” Raine looked eager to go, and with little time to waste, Orion explained the plan while Flitwick came out, huffing away and moving as fast as his little legs would carry him.

It was simple, really – as they had only a portion of the transportation spell signature to work from, Raine and Flitwick couldn’t recreate it so much as get a taste of how big and complex it was. To get a better image, they had to be within the vicinity of the city when it apparated, and could only do this directly. The plan then was to transport the two charm readers to the city, get them a good look at it and the full experience of the charm. They took the time they had and Harry and Orion shifted them all to the Sahara, heading straight for the centre, where the city was hiding. As they came out of the shadows, Raine, Flitwick and Ted stood in awe as they looked upon the Immortal’s City for the first time. Harry even, though he had seen it before, could not suppress a gape as the moonlight shone down upon the tall structures and supports.

“We should get some cover before we’re spotted,” Orion said, leading the way over a dune. It was freezing – it was colder than anything Harry had expected, and Flitwick had to charm the air around them to become heated to fight off hypothermia.

“Can you all… feel that?” Raine asked suddenly, after and hours watch. Harry and Orion had snuck closer to get a look at how many people were stationed within the city – it was still quite a small number for such a large stronghold, but it was important to note that the troops had been replenished, so while they couldn’t control the transport mechanism yet, they had managed to move their people fast enough to get them inside. Orion insisted on no further shifting, as it would alert the shadow beasts if they were still within the city, so they crept back around a dune and joined the others.

“Feel what?” Orion asked, drawing his wand and scanning the sky for a shadow beast. Raine shrugged, uncomfortable, but Flitwick breathed in softly.

“Yes, I do,” he said slowly, with a sound of amazement. “The feeling of something… building? A climactic moment?” Raine nodded, eyes wide. “Yes… I believe the charm is charging itself. Most charms charge before activation, but this is usually only a few seconds, this appears to be – ” Harry froze. Flitwick and Raine had gone rigid, and Ted was stiffening – the charm was building, just as it had before when Harry had first felt it. Orion and he went rigid a few seconds later, having to watch the more sensitive Flitwick and Raine go through the reading; their eyes were wide and rolling, almost unnaturally, and there were occasionally spasms that came in waves. The charm ringed the city and then began to glow, and the City vanished. The spasms didn’t quite stop, but Flitwick at least managed to whisper “Hogwarts!” before passing out. Raine was out cold before the City was even gone.

Harry and Orion shifted them as close to the infirmary as they could get in the darkened castle, rushing the two casualties in to the matron and Fleur.

“What’s happened?” Madam Pomfrey asked, waving her wand at the two nearest beds and clearing them of ruffles.

“Charm reception overload,” Ted said, panting. Harry didn’t even know what that was, but Madam Pomfrey and Fleur suddenly looked a little bored.

“Oh. Well, just get them into the bed; nothing we can do until they wake up.” Harry and Orion looked at each other, confused – the fitful sleep that the professor and his assistant had entered looked very unhealthy, and Harry was more than a little worried. Ted just sighed.

“Don’t worry, guys,” he said, sitting next to Raine’s bed. “This is just a reaction extremely sensitive charm readers get – as they are both rather sensitive, coupled with the strength of the charm, they went into a protective ‘coma’ of sorts – it protects the cognitive functions.”

“Ok… and they would be?” Orion asked, blinking.

“Brain functions,” Fleur said. “Zey shall be fine, ze coma will protect zem and fix any damage.” Harry sat down annoyed.

“When were they going to mention this to us?” he asked, and Ted shrugged.

“Maybe they thought you would object to putting them in danger… or maybe they assumed you knew, I don’t know. They’ll be fine, probably up and about in a day or two.”

“Until then,” Orion said, looking down at the two and then to Harry. “We have plans to make.” Harry nodded – despite his feelings, he and Orion needed to get ready – there was only two more days till the assault on Nimue Valdis’ fortress.

Shadow Play Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Countdown

After a much quieter breakfast with Blaise, Harry left just as the main bulk of students came down to the great hall for their own morning meal. Noticing he had a few minutes, he hurried back up to the common room to have a look at the shadow beast carcass, and figure out how it had died – the way Orion had said it, they were all but invincible and yet a non corporeal patronus was able to kill it quite effectively.

He removed the cloak and grimaced – these things were really ugly. The skin, if it could be called that, was blotchy and looked like it had been burning slightly, and Harry reckoned this must be a product of the light as it hadn’t been there before. The limbs were much too big – they bulged with muscles that probably didn’t function in the physical world but obviously did in their own realm, whatever that was. Their teeth and claws were also too large, almost caricatures of nature that were more horrific than funny. The claws and teeth, incidentally, reminded him more of metal than of bone – the claws gleamed coldly in the light and Harry noticed that they had managed to scratch the stone beneath the beast, despite it being very dead.

He prodded the hide and grimaced again – it felt scaly, and almost sticky, and Harry wiped his hand on his robe before continuing. Its mouth and nose were on a snout, like a dogs was, but the jaw obviously couldn’t shut properly from the teeth. In fact, he was sure if the jaw did close fully, the teeth would injure the beast. The whole thing resembled a cross between a panther and a wolf, with scales and the odd proportions aside. The eyes were jet black, just like the majority of the scales, but now had what appeared to be cataracts in front of them. Harry thought back to the morning encounter and frowned, wondering what had happened. The light from his full corporeal patronus had only made it retreat to the dark corner of the room. Then it had pounced and got caught in Blaise’s non-corporeal patronus.

“So maybe the light was blocking it from returning to the shadows,” Harry muttered, looking at the spot where it had died. The gaseous patronus had enveloped the beast, sending away the shadows it could shift to and forcing it to remain in physical form, something it couldn’t do without dying.

Now that the dorm was clear, Harry headed up whilst levitating the carcass and, after tipping the contents of his trunk onto the bed, enlarged the trunks interior to fit in the carcass and his school items. After locking his trunk and heading back downstairs, it was almost time for his first lesson of the day, and he ran out of the portrait hole, heading towards the defence against the dark arts classroom.

Professor Gordon accepted Harry’s covering for Orion without question and set the class a task to complete in pairs. As they paired off, Neville quickly tagged Harry with a meaningful look to say that he needed to speak to him. As they took the equipment from the front desk and began work.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while,” Neville said quietly as they worked, their voices masked by the general din of the other students.

“So why didn’t you?” Harry asked, passing a quill to Neville. It wasn’t like they never saw each other.

“Because I needed to talk to you without Orion being there,” Neville replied. Harry frowned – it wasn’t like Orion and he spent every minute together, and they weren’t even in all the same classes. He pointed this out and Neville gave Harry a sideways look. “Yeah, well – it’s not like he’s always easy to see, right?” Neville shook his head. “My seeing is getting stronger, more refined – I look at people and I can even see a piece of their destiny, if they have one.” Harry raised an eyebrow. When Neville started talking about his seeing, it usually meant trouble, and destiny – Harry had never liked the topic of Destiny. “And I see it on almost every one now – even the people I spend no time with, which didn’t happen before – I see some of the Slytherin's and what they will be, what their destiny is, but there’s only one person that I can’t work anything out on now, and that is Orion.” Harry frowned – did that mean he saw a lot or nothing around Orion?

“Well, what is it you see around him?” Harry asked, wondering if he could help. Neville sighed, tapping their project with his wand.

“That’s just it – everything around him is blurred to the point of being unintelligible. I thought it was because of his being a shadow mage at first but you came in clearly enough – around you I see things I can’t explain for the most part, but Orion... I think he’s blocking me,” he finished, not looking at Harry.

“Why would he do that?” Harry asked, his frown deepening. “And how?”

“How I don’t know, but he does know more about the mages than anyone alive, he probably learned how to do all sorts of things when the mage powers were strong in the world. Nor do I know why, but it might have something to do with where he goes at night.” Harry blinked several times and did the complicated wand wave it said to do in the book.

“He goes there with me,” Harry said, and Neville shook his head.

“No, Harry – he doesn’t.” Harry noticed the strange look in Neville’s face and Neville sighed. “Sometimes you come back early – a couple of hours before sunrise, say, and you drop onto bed while he sits, waits for you to close your curtains and then takes off quietly, changing into the shadows.” Harry blinked and looked at the other boy incredulously, about to point out that this was very far fetched but Neville cut him off. “I saw him with my own eyes. Sometimes I pretend to sleep when you come back. And he always does this – he sneaks out, making damn sure you don’t know about it.” Harry was unsure of what to say to that. Could Neville be wrong? Then again, Orion had been caught in the sunrise this morning....

“How long has this been going on....?” Harry asked, not looking at Neville as he asked. He felt the other boy shrug slightly, uncomfortable.

“At least a couple of weeks,” he replied, mimicking Harry’s wand waving. “I first started noticing when I tried to figure out what it was that was stopping me from seeing around him. Then I noticed he wasn’t there when I woke up to go to the bathroom once, but you were. At first I thought it was a girl... but then I got a blast of seeing one day last week – he’s losing focus on his objectives. What that entails I don’t know, but that’s what the message was – he’s losing focus of his objectives, his priorities are changing. I don’t reckon it’s a good thing.”

Harry left the classroom feeling confused – he hadn’t been able to keep his mind on the project and had almost destroyed it in a mistake he had made while analysing Orion’s behaviour over the last few weeks. Had Orion shown signs of another agenda in his mind – had he been more distracted than the war could account for? Was he in two minds about their side of the war? Or was it that he doubted they could win? Would he abandon their side for hope of an easier victory? Harry couldn’t believe that – Orion was no coward, certainly not a traitor either, but then Harry had never had such open access to Orion’s thoughts as he had to Harry’s – come to think of it, Orion’s thoughts had usually been veiled, and Harry suddenly felt that he had been too open to the voice that had been in his head. Now, made physical, the knowledge he had gained from Harry’s mind was suddenly useful to him – was Orion really in two minds about fighting along side Harry?

Lines of similar thought ran through Harry’s mind, twisting into scenarios and bleak outlooks. Harry did concede that he had better keep a more watchful eye on the other shadow mage from now on, although to what end he was as unsure as with Neville’s seeing. Without wanting to, his mind turned to the worst case scenario – an all out battle between Harry and Orion. Would he win? Did Harry know how to fight another shadow mage? The obvious answer was no, but Harry reckoned Orion knew, and that thought seemed to add to his feeling of unease and distrust – not that he would need it, but the fact that Orion hadn’t told Harry made him feel somewhat that he had been lead along to give Orion the advantage in any future fight between them, as ridiculous as that sounded even in his own head. No doubt, Harry had the upper hand where wands were concerned – he could overpower Orion with a great effort in the light, if wands were the only factor to consider, but Orion was full of tricks – hidden knives that he could probably take Harry’s toes off with from the other end of the great hall.

His focus didn’t return properly until the sun began to set, and Orion’s return became possible. He waited in the dormitory, pretending to read a book and putting a show of being nonchalant that he hoped didn’t appear false. He didn’t even know which book it was he was reading, all he knew was that it was the right way up and held lightly enough that it might be considered casual. This would not be a confrontation – just a question, all he would do was ask a question, the same as he would if Neville had not spoken to him that morning. Nonchalant – casual.

He felt the shadow of Orion approaching and looked up with what he hoped was a bored expression on his face as Orion appeared, landing softly in the room.

“You missed breakfast,” Harry commented, closing the book and placing it down beside him on the bed.

“Yeah, well… I guess I missed a lot of things today,” Orion said sheepishly. Harry shrugged.

“I thought I’d cover the important bits first,” he replied. “So how come you didn’t make it back before sunrise?” Orion shrugged, crossing over to his bed.

“I went out looking for Valdis’ hideout, I couldn’t sleep. Anyways, I found it but couldn’t use the shadows because the building is made up of that same stone that the alliance meeting place was – sun rose while I was concealing myself from some guards.” Harry nodded and let it go, but that story… something about it really did reek of bullshit. Harry picked up his trunk and put it on his bed.

“Well, on to less important things,” he said, opening the trunk. Orion immediately jumped back as the dead shadow beast became visible, reaching for weapons. “Relax, it’s dead,” Harry said, shrugging. Orion cautiously approached the trunk and looked over it.

“Should I ask how you came to be in a position to have a dead shadow beast in your trunk?” Orion asked. Harry shrugged and recounted the events of that morning, studying Orion’s reactions – he had been curiously absent when the attack had happened. Strange, that.

“It was waiting for me when I woke up this morning,” Harry said. “And I didn’t kill it, Blaise did.” Orion blinked and looked at him incredulously.

“Blaise?” Harry nodded. “Killed a shadow beast?” Harry nodded again.

“With an incorporeal patronus – killed it pretty quickly, where my full patronus just drove it back.” Orion’s incredulous frown deepened.

“You’re not kidding, are you?” he asked, looking back at the trunks contents. “You’re actually telling me that one of the things that killed an army of mages on the plains of Versii was killed by little old Blaise?” He paused as Harry nodded. With a slightly stunned look, Orion blinked. “I feel so proud,” he said, his voice sounding completely bewildered.

“How do you suppose it got here?” Harry asked, closing the trunk. Orion sighed, still looking at the trunk.

“The city must have appeared into the open air sometime during the night, and this one left, sensing the shadow mage activity involved with Hogwarts. I don’t think Voldemort could have got them to work for him – we wouldn’t be facing a war if he had tried. No, it must have acted alone, but the others worry me – shadow beasts are more than capable of killing entire populations alone, but they don’t usually work in less than pairs, and they don’t have a sense of geography in this world – only sense of beings. If all of them left the city, the world just became a much more dangerous place to be in, and it’s possible that this castle is the worst place to be.” Harry shrugged.

“Well, we have a way to kill them now,” he replied.

“That doesn’t mean we’ll be able to kill them before they kill us – it’s still a lot easier for them, we have to hit them with a spell.”

###

Orion didn’t leave that night – maybe because he was starting to realise Harry was getting suspicious. Harry and Orion had agreed that they would attack the place after Harry had looked at the place and they both agreed on the plan of attack. The knowledge that their shadow abilities would be useless brought a whole new obstacle for them – this attack would be the hardest they had mounted yet, as their main advantage in stealth and escape was automatically taken away. It was reminiscent of the ancient city, although that had been large enough to hide in easily enough, as the guards couldn’t cover all the entrances. This castle Orion had spoke of would be a lot smaller and probably more easily defended.

The morning broke to reveal a darkened sky that poured forth a torrent of rain, making Hogwarts look very gothic, even more so than usual. Lessons were quite depressing. Harry had decided that he could only trust Orion for now, as they had been through a lot and no matter how bad it may look, Orion betraying him just didn’t feel like it was plausible. Still, a part of him was wary still, he kept this as repressed as possible. No doubt the other mage was hiding something, but whatever he didn’t want Harry to know about, Harry doubted that it could be anything worse than a girl off campus or something.

Professor McGonagall brought out an immediate test for the class, much to the student’s dismay – the day was cold, wet, and now it appeared that every teacher had decided to have a day of pop quizzes for the sixth years, as every sixth year in between periods seemed annoyed, dismayed or absolutely terrified. The testing in McGonagall’s class was transfiguration theory, meaning long answers that made the wrist and writing hand ache before they had finished half the paper.

Leaving their first lesson in a less than optimistic mood, Harry and Orion along with the other Gryffindors headed towards their next lesson, which for most was DADA, which involved a short test in defence theory and a more extensive practical and oral examination which allowed most of the students a period of rest before their turn. Harry was finished his test by almost half way through the lesson, and once finished the students were allowed to leave to prepare for their next lesson, which Professor Gordon had hinted that would also have a quiz to tackle.

As he entered the Gryffindor common room with every intention of dropping into the couch by the fire, a flying ball of feathers similar to Ron’s Pigwideon made a beeline for his head, forcing Harry to duck as the owl flew right over his hair and into the back of the fat lady’s portrait, bouncing back and falling towards the floor and swooping just in time to not smash into the hard stone floor.

The owl didn’t stick around, so Harry guessed that the letter it had dropped at his feet required no reply. Opening the parchment, he immediately recognised Dumbledore’s flowing script.

Harry – please come to my office between your Defence and Charms classes. Professor Flitwick has been unavoidably caught by a mild case of Marian flu and thus the lesson will be cancelled, please circulate this information among your peers. A notice has been put up on the bulletin board of each house, but I know how effectively the grape vine moves information around the school.

Albus Dumbledore.

Sighing, Harry showed the nearest student – a third year he didn’t know – the letter before trudging out of the common room and heading up to the headmasters office.

As he entered, the first thing he noticed that for a man with the magical variant of the flu, Professor Flitwick appeared to be in remarkably good health.

“Well that was a fast recovery,” Harry stated, looking from the diminutive professor to the headmaster. Albus indicated that he should take a seat and Harry did so.

“As you can see, Professor Flitwick is in perfect health, the Marian Flu story is just to allow him several days to work uninterrupted on the charm sense you gave him.” Harry nodded, looking for the point.

“…ok,” he said, dragging the first syllable. “So… what do you need me for?” he asked, trying to keep this short. Albus smiled.

“Oh, nothing we need you for,” the Headmaster said, sitting back in his chair. “Although there was a job we thought you might volunteer for a job that we have.” Harry blinked and wondered again where this was going. The headmaster checked his watch and smiled. “Ah, here they come.” There was a stagnant moment where nothing happened until the clock struck the eleventh hour, where upon there was a small flash of light and two people appeared in front of the desk holding a Hogwarts crest engraved wooden shield portkey. “Ah, perfect timing, I was just arranging a guide for you,” Dumbledore said pleasantly, smiling at the new arrivals. Harry blinked at the colour of the boy’s hair – a bright neon yellow with black highlights…

“I believe you have met Mr Potter?” The headmaster said, eyes twinkling.

###

After a brief introduction of the charms master to Raine and Ted, Harry was asked to guide them around the castle and show them the main areas – the charms corridor, the great hall and the Gryffindor tower, and then take them to lunch. As the introductions came to a close, Dumbledore handed them over to Harry, who led them from the study and down into the corridor.

“It’s good to see you guys again,” Harry said, hugging Raine and giving Ted a manly half-hug. Both of them were wearing casual clothes, jeans and t-shirts, Raines shirt ended above the belly button.

“You too, how’ve you been?” Ted asked, wiping a stray lock of neon yellow hair out of his eyes. Harry decided to just give the short answer to that.

“Yeah, been good. So how come you two are in Hogwarts?” he asked, leading them towards the great hall first, as it was the easiest thing to get to in the castle. Raine shrugged.

“Well, the Canadian Magical education system is a little different from yours – we don’t really have OWLs in the fifth year, but in the sixth we have an equivalent exam and a personal project in any discipline we wish that counts to a quarter of the year’s marks. You can do this in another school if you wish, to make use of specialist departments or expert professionals such as Professor Flitwick,” she explained.

“So you’re here to do this project and then you’re gone again?” he asked. Ted shook his head.

“Nah, we’ve both done our projects – finished them last year so we could go to Imbellis in the project’s period and have a mid year holiday. We get four weeks to finish this project, so we thought we’d come help you out with the charm you sent Raine and see a bit of England.”

“Professor Flitwick and I will be working on your charm together,” Raine said to Harry.

“And I was hoping to procure some hard to find ingredients for some potions I’m working on. Canadian law makes it kinda hard for students to get the ingredients – the students here aren’t put under the same restrictions.” Harry suddenly had a thought and looked over at Raine.

“Wait, how did Flitwick find out you knew about the charm?” Harry asked Raine, frowning. She shrugged.

“Professor Flitwick and my Charms professor were opponents in a duelling competition a decade back or so, and they challenge each other every couple of years to a rematch and in between they like to keep in touch about their current students and projects. Flitwick asked if he had anyone he could spare for a period of research, and my charms professor recommended me.”

“Half the eastern seaboard recommended you,” Ted muttered, earning himself a swat on the arm.

“Anyway, long story short, I sent professor Flitwick all the work I had managed to do on the reading you sent me and he asked if I could assist him here. I start tomorrow.”

“So how come I’ve not seen any project students before now?” Harry asked. Ted shrugged.

“Mostly students stick to the Western Hemisphere, it’s easier in terms of travel and there are enough schools that you can pretty much find whatever you need. Europe can bring up complications in language, and it’s generally accepted among students that European approved projects are marked harder than Canadian/American ones, although I’m not so sure it’s true. Hogwarts is well known for having stricter marking professors than other schools in Scotland, though – basically, you have to be pretty good to request Hogwarts.” Harry reckoned this reputation was earned through professor McGonagall – she was certainly strict enough.

###

After the short tour, they entered the great hall for lunch ahead of the other students, apart from a few sixth year charms students who had made a decision between an early lunch and another study period. Ted and Raine were very impressed with the long tables at which the food appeared.

“In our school, there’s a food court that has the food on display on a long table and we put what we want on our trays,” Ted said, looking under the table and then back as a plate of rolls refilled itself. “This is much cooler.”

The few present that were of the DA came over to meet the new arrivals; Ted’s hair went down very well with the Hufflepuff students, and a girl even tried to pick him up, though Raine whispered her a few words that made her blush and apologise before returning to her table, embarrassed. Generally the Canadians were well received – they got along well with the Ravenclaws, getting into discussions quickly on their specialities – Ted on potions and alternative ingredients for a Gregor Potion (which Harry didn’t even know of), and experimental Charms for Raine. Suddenly Harry felt slightly dumb, which made him chuckle – at least Hermione would finally have someone she could go into brain overdrive with.

As the hall filled quickly, soon everyone around Harry was meeting the newcomers. As expected, Hermione and Raine hit it off almost immediately, suddenly going into a conversation about charms that (from what Harry gathered) required nine wizards and had powers to hide islands completely, encompassing them in space outside that of normal space, and was what hid Imbellis from all muggle detection, despite the heavy muggle traffic in the Mediterranean. Amazingly, Raine actually corrected Hermione on an obscure piece of apparently relevant information Hermione had come out with.

The two gained a slight reputation almost instantly, when Harry let slip that he had met them when he had been on the run from the ministry. They pointed out this only entailed sharing the same hotel, but soon there were rumours that they had harboured him from the Law, and there was nothing they could say that would stop these rumours. Ted and Raine had asked Harry for a late night catch up session, but Harry had unfortunately had to decline – he had plans for tonight.

###

Harry watched the castle of Nimue Valdis intently, from all angles – this was going to be a nightmare to attack. It was a small castle – definitely more than a house because it had ramparts and even a small tower in the centre, but there were at least six lookouts on duty on the outside, with no way of knowing how many were inside – as Orion had reported, the entire castle was made out of that strange stone that prohibited Harry and Orion’s ability to shift to shadow, and he had almost been spotted earlier by a guard while testing that theory – he had tried to enter the castle through a lightly guarded entrance, and had been forcibly dragged back into the physical world. It had taken a desperate roll to the side to kep himself hidden from the man’s gaze.

The surrounding grounds of the castle were all brown, and from what Harry could see nothing was growing there at all, not even a blade of grass. This disturbed him, though he didn’t know why. He also made note that there was no cover to hide in between the castle and a surrounding treeline that encircled the castle and its grounds no less than two hundred metres from the castle itself, meaning any attacking force would be spotted before they reached the walls. Not that it would bother him or Orion, but it did mean that the castle was designed with defence in mind, which was to be expected, of course, but it gave him an idea of what to expect. Given that they no longer had the shadow mage abilities as an advantage here, Harry was sceptical that he and Orion could storm it successfully without help, and a surgical stealth attack would be extremely difficult, as the positioning of the guards allowed for observation of a direction from the castle and also one of the other guards at any one time, and they were big on making wand flashes to signify all clear every ten minutes, the signal passing around quickly. Harry guessed he and Orion could take the guards in a fair fight, but he doubted the backup they would call would be so lightly brushed aside. Quickly they would be surrounded and bombarded from above, and that was if they attacked from the ramparts. The tower was out – it was completely sealed except for a balcony with a door leading inside that had mountains of magic laced into it. It practically gleamed with it, and no doubt it was a defence against intruders on brooms, which suggested there may be more magical defences built into the castle’s design. The balcony also had two wizards with broomsticks looking out over it, although why they hadn’t just used the door, Harry didn’t know. These guards overlooked the entire castle, as the balcony ran right round the tower, and would make taking the guards in the ramparts impossible without being spotted, and attacking them first was out of the question because once touching that black stone, Harry and Orion would no longer be able to shift into shadow while in such close proximity, and would be stranded.

The main entrance pretty much ruled stealth out, being the only feasible entrance point due to being less guarded than the ramparts and easier to break through than the door of the tower. But breaking through it would raise instant alarms, and thus they would need an advantage of numbers in any strike force that tried to take the castle. A stealth attack would only make any attempt at a withdrawal impossible, by letting them trip an alarm while either inside the castle or unable to shift on the ramparts, and those were fights Harry doubted he and Orion could win because of sheer potential enemy numbers. The castle looked like it could hold at least ten times the amount of guards that were visible, while still having room left over.

No, for a successful attack, Harry and Orion would need help – and quite a bit of it.

###

Harry managed to get in a few hours of sleep before he was awoken for breakfast by Orion, who was interested in the conclusions Harry had come to. After telling him the quick version, Orion concurred and pondered what they should do – neither wanted to put the DA in any danger if they could help it, and anyway – no matter how far the other students had come, they were simply too few to attack the castle, and it wasn’t the sort of work that the Order of Phoenix could undertake – and again, Harry doubted they had the manpower. No, there was only one group Harry and Orion could really ask for help and expect enough of it – the Aurors.

Straight after breakfast, Harry skipped the first period to write a letter to Tonks, explaining that they had found Nimue Valdis’ hideout and that they would need help to attack it. He also included a vial of his memory of scouting the black castle, and information that he and Orion had gathered. Sending the package off with Hedwig, Harry distantly watched as the owl flew off south, heading towards London.

Making a spur of the moment decision out of boredom, Harry headed down to the charms corridor, wondering what progress – if any – the charms professor and Raine had come up with. He bypassed the classroom, which had a substitute teacher teaching the fourth years now, and instead headed for Flitwick’s study. He was surpised to find that Flitwick himself wasn’t working, but was watching Raine, who appeared to be sitting in a trance and making complicated movements with her wand that left trails of golden light hanging in the air, like threads.

“What’s she doing?” Harry asked the professor, whispering. Flitwick, squeaking slightly in surprise of Harry’s stealthy entrance, took a few moments to tear his eyes away from the hanging threads of light before answering Harry’s question.

“She is reconstructing the charm you read with a weaving – it’s an old way of reproducing charms that works very well if you can master it, but most cant and so use more modern, but less efficient techniques. In fact, I’ve only known one other person her age to know this technique and to be able to use it, it’s quite remarkable.”

“Hermione?” Harry asked, not even expecting to be wrong. Flitwick’s smile broadened.

“Your mother,” he replied, looking back at Raine’s handiwork as she continued to move her wand almost like a needle, interlacing the magic. “She’s recreating the magic in the way it reacts with the other parts of the spell, and the interactions are manifested by the weaving effect. Once the spell is complete, individual threads probably wont even be visible, although it wont be possible to recreate it entirely from what we have, but a partial reconstruction will tell us quite a bit about it.” Harry stared at the weave Raine was making for a moment before looking at Raine herself – her face was so fixed in concentration that he wondered if his presence had even registered.

“Can she um… Can she hear us?” Harry asked, feeling a little silly for asking, which turned into a slightly more validated feeling in his mind when Flitwick shook his head.

“No no, she’s too busy for that right now – it takes a charm readers’ total concentration to recreate a spell, especially one this large and complex, so the rest of the world completely melts away. In a little while, I will take over with the weave she has made, and we will take it in turns until the weave is as complete as we can make it, it should be no more than a week thanks to the work we have both done on it already.” Harry nodded, thanking the professor for his time and taking his cue to exit before heading back to Gryffindor tower to get his bag for his next lesson.

###

Working on the charm was obviously quite exhausting, which Harry realised that night when Raine promptly fell asleep in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room, mid-sentence with Harry and Ted about the work she had done and how far they were. Ted just shrugged at Harry and conjured a blanket to put over their sleeping friend, before heading off to catch up. The evening was mostly taken up by idle talk about their friends in Imbellis and comparisons between the Canadian school Ted and Raine attended and Hogwarts – the Great Bear Institute for Magic was situated in the Northwest Territories, on a small island close to the western shore that was concealed by various magical spells and was also unplottable, much like Hogwarts. Unlike Hogwarts, there were no apparition wards except after curfew. Although students were discouraged from apparating around the castle, they weren’t stopped from apparating away to the eastern shore, where there were some settlements that included shops and night clubs, in a region Ted said was named Echo Bay, which had a lot of mining history in uranium. He said there were many apparition points within the area, which meant the students could travel around freely, but most opted out of doing this outside of the summer months – the Great Bear Institute was located within the arctic circle, and temperatures there could go as low as twenty seven degrees centigrade below freezing in the coldest months, and never rose above eleven degrees centigrade in the summer. Apparently, there were strict rules about alcohol consumption, and there was a spell that alerted each head of house to the condition of those arriving back from outside the school, and anyone returning inebriated got their travelling rights removed and had to wear a ‘cuff’ – a thin bracelet device that prevented the wearer from apparating, sort of an individual anti-apparition ward.

Also unlike Hogwarts, the building that the Great Bear Institute was housed in was a modern one, dating back only twenty years due to what Ted described as a “Fucking brilliant story that involves a hot teacher, a sex spell gone wrong and a very embarrassed politician”. Standing nine stories tall, it and the surrounding three miles where hidden from view from the locals and had its very own, magically controlled microclimate, and included not only a quidditch pitch, but also some muggle sport fields, including what Ted called football and Dean called ‘A travesty to the great name of the original game’, basketball and what Ted called soccer, which Dean made an offended noise at. However, on all other points, Dean and Ted agreed, and even got to discussing the last world cup matches of soccer, Ted doing his very best not to call it soccer, and Dean doing his very best to not get offended when Ted slipped up.

By midnight, Harry was pretty much alone in the common room, with the exception of a couple of seventh years doing a last minute cramming on a report due in for the next morning. Ted and Raine had been put up for their stay in some guest rooms, which Harry hadn’t even known existed before then, but Ted said they were pretty swank compared to the dormitories. Raine had grumbled about being awoken before leaving, but otherwise the evening had wound down quite nicely. Now Harry sat in front of the fire, contemplating the upcoming attack on Nimue Valdis’ castle. He stared at the fire as he thought, pondering possible attack plans and scenarios.

It was almost half past midnight when a small barn owl flew in through the open window and landed next to Harry, brandishing a piece of parchment with a short note on it.

Hey Harry,

We’ve got a couple of other leads on her hideout, you should pass the information through the proper channels, you know – protocol would mean we’d have to check it out before we commit to any action. To be honest, I can’t really use the information until you do that – the department isn’t big on unconfirmed tip-offs, too big a risk of an ambush.

I’ll talk to you soon, and remember – proper channels, ok?

Nymphadora

Harry blinked. What the hell? No way would Tonks be that big on protocol, and since when did she sign (or even admit it was) her name with ‘Nymphadora’? Something was wrong, he was sure. He wondered why there was hardly anything on the parchment. Was Tonks trying to say something without writing it?

As Harry began checking if there were any invisible messages with magic, the portrait hole opened up and a girl in Gryffindor robes that Harry had never seen before stepped in, looking around as if to do a headcount. She had auburn hair, bright blue eyes and the buttons of her shirt were somewhat tight at the chest. Seeing that the seventh years were heading for the stairs to go to bed, she closed the portrait and walked over to Harry, who inconspicuously folded the parchment up and put it in his pocket. She was very pretty, Harry noticed – a knockout, even, and full of confidence, it seemed, unlike most of the students that hadn’t met him, sitting down right next to him and striking up conversation.

“Deep thoughts?” she asked, wearing a pleasant smile that made his knees feel slightly less stable. Harry gave her a sideways look before he responded.

“You could say that,” Harry said, shrugging slightly and giving her a small smile. She grinned.

“Oh my God, you gave me ‘the smile’!” she said, her eyes twinkling. Harry frowned, puzzled, and made a small jump as her hair started changing colour from the pretty auburn it had been to a sharp neon pink, and her face started to change shape slightly to more heart shaped, and her eyes took on a violet colour. “Wotcher, Harry!” Tonks said, grinning. Harry blinked and looked at Tonks and then the uniform.

“Hey, Tonks,” Harry said, feeling awkward. She grinned.

“Aw, you’re blushing!” she said, giggling. Tonks wiped a lock of hair from out of her eyes and put her hands on her knees, looking up at Harry. For some reason she preferred being petite, despite being able to change that at a whim, something that he had always found odd, as the only petite girls he had ever met had always said they wished they could be taller.

“What do you mean, blushing?” Harry asked, giving what he expected was a very incredulous look. Tonks giggled harder, and Harry realised his face was feeling a little hot.

“I can’t believe you gave me the smile!” she said, making Harry more confused. He pointed that out and she only giggled again. “Oh come on, Harry – you saw these,” she said, lifting her breasts slightly through her shirt and jiggling them at him, “and went in to horn dog mode. But hey, I guess I can’t blame you for it – I am a babe.” Harry could only blink as she spoke, and shook his head in defeat as he sat back as her face took on a more serious look, although there was still a twinkle of laughter in her eyes. “I came to talk to you about the letter, cut you off before you did something stupid.”

“Stupid like…?” Harry asked, feeling the heat leave his face a little.

“Like following what I said to do in the letter,” Tonks said, standing up and looking around. “Come on, let’s talk somewhere more private.”

###

Harry shifted them onto the roof as per Tonks’ request and was glad to be wearing his hoody – it was a very cold evening, and he doubted Tonks would want to stay.

“Christ it’s cold,” she said, rubbing her arms. “but at least no one is going to walk in on us.” She moved into the wind shelter of a nearby tower wall and slid down to sit, gesturing for Harry to do the same, which he did. “The letter was a decoy,” she said bluntly, shrugging. “Basically, I figured someone might be checking your mail before you are, so a little false messaging might have been a wise precaution.”

“Ok, so I’m guessing that the real message is why you came to see me?” he asked, understanding the weird message when she nodded. “And so the whole school girl uniform and that smile you gave me was for…?” Tonks paused trying to suppress a grin.

“Well, that was just for kicks – I wanted to see if I could get a rise out of you. Plus it was an excuse to get into school uniform again – I haven’t worn it since a boyfriend two years ago, glad I was able to get out the stains of the robe. I should really go to school disco.” Harry shook out all thoughts of Tonks in a skimpy school uniform (especially hard for the fact that she was sitting right next to him and actually wearing a school uniform. “Anyway, to business.” Her whole persona seemed to change at that, and she sat up straighter. “I looked over the memory you sent me, that castle looks like the place – at the very least, it’s a stronghold of some sort, and we definitely could use a win right now. I passed the memory on to my superiors, their deciding what to do tonight, but I doubt they’ll ignore this, it’s too high a target. I didn’t mention your name, don’t worry – Aurors are allowed to have confidential sources of information.” Harry nodded, glad his name had been left out of it.

“What do you mean, we need a win? I’ve been looking for news of the war in the Prophet every day, and I haven’t read anything yet,” he said. Tonks sighed.

“We’ve had five skirmishes with the dark alliance’s troops,” she replied, her voice sounding bitter. “Two we flat out lost, fighting Sabres and death eaters near Manchester. God only knows what they were doing – they escaped with only five casualties, while our forces were wiped out. We tracked a suspected Valdis follower to Cornwall nine days ago, and ended up killing him, but not before he took seventeen aurors down with him – Seventeen! In each meeting we’ve had with the alliance’s troops, we’ve either lost or won with such a high cost that our ‘victory’ has tasted much more like a defeat. Auror morale is practically non existent, the only reason my team and I aren’t dead yet is because we’ve been providing protection to the ministry. Half the people who go out on a mission to take down the enemy don’t come back, and the other half sometimes don’t either – if we don’t win something soon, aurors will start quitting left and right!” Harry swallowed the lump in his throat – how could he not have known about this? “The Prophet is under gag orders,” Tonks said, her voice softer. “The ministry is screening everything they post, either putting a spin on it or holding it all together – the plan is, if it doesn’t look at least half way a victory, we don’t print it. If the public can’t read it without feeling more afraid than before they did, it’s stopped.” Harry swore softly.

“So you think we can take that castle successfully?” he asked, taking the topic to more current events. “I mean, I don’t have a floor plan or anything, just the outside that you saw.” Tonks shrugged, hugging herself slightly.

“That’s not a problem, the castle is a very specific design, or so I’m told – the interior architectural drawings are on record, it’s just a question of getting passed the perimeter defences and, more to the point, the magic keeping the region concealed and outside normal space, but I guess you can handle that. Soon we’ll have a plan drawn up, and the attack will take place. I take it you’d like to be a part of it?” Harry nodded, and she smiled softly, almost disappointedly. “Yeah, I thought as much. That’ll be taken care of, too.”

There were a few moments where neither spoke, and only the cold air stirred. Tonks conjured a blanket and wrapped herself in it, throwing some over Harry as well. The blanket was badly patterned, as if the weaver had changed their mind about diamonds and had gone for circles half way through, which became snitches by the end, clearly indicating that Tonks still didn’t have the best grasp of household spells. Still, it provided a lot more warmth than nothing. They stayed outside in silence for a while, both thinking of a suitable thing to say, but neither actually talking until the cold began penetrating the blanket.

“I think I should head back home now,” Tonks said, yawning slightly. Harry nodded, taking hold of her arm and shifting her back to her warm London flat. She managed to keep Harry for a couple of hours where they talked about things, dodging the subject of the war with a deliberateness that both could easily read. Harry suggested that she meet Ted and Raine sometime, that she would probably like Ted. She asked if he was cute, and Harry replied that his Canadian friend didn’t swing that way. Tonks told Harry of an absolutely disastrous date she had been on with a junior ministry member that had ended with her knocking the guy out after he got drunk and dry humped her at the theatre.

Harry realised it was probably the only thing she had been able to laugh at all week, and guessed that was what the whole deal with the school uniform and the flirty behaviour was – she was just as low on morale as the rest of the aurors. Harry was suddenly glad to be sitting there with her, making her laugh at stupid things that had happened at school and such.

Tonks fell asleep shortly after three in the morning, and Harry gently took off her shoes and covered her in the blanket, laying her out on the sofa before turning out the lights and heading back to Hogwarts. He was glad to find Orion hadn’t gone to check out the castle again, and told him the relevant parts of Tonks’ visit. Orion was glad to hear that they would most likely be attacking the castle within a week or so, and even more so that the aurors were likely to be joining them.

In the mean time, they had preparations to make.

###

Voldemort looked down at the man huddled at his feet, a look of hunger on his face. To his left, Nimue Valdis stood, coolly assessing the man.

“You’re positive?” she asked. The man nodded, straightening his back. Unlike most who ended up on the floor at their feet, this one was useful, and was not being tortured. He was reading the ancient writings at the base and sides of what appeared to be a closet. Voldemort would have been nonplussed about it had it not been for the translators eagerness to read all the city had to offer. Also, this ‘closet’ was mentioned in other parts of the city, including the control tower. His translations were slow – he had been working on the three lines around the closet for some two hours now, so he would never be useful for controlling the city, but he had said something about this ‘closet’ being the key.

“Beyond any reasonable doubt – this holds the key to controlling the city, as I said before…” He finished scribbling the last of the translations and began reading. “Alright, I’m finished. From what I can tell, the chamber is a teaching device, and will magically imbue you with the knowledge of your choosing, including how to read the Babylonian and control the various functions of the city.” Voldemorts eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas eve at the thought of all that knowledge – the power and knowledge of the ancient mages! Including and not exclusive to the secret of true immortality. Voldemort made a step towards the door, but the translator put a hand out to stop him. “I wouldn’t, my Lord – this is a cursed object. Any knowledge you learn from it is cursed so that it will rebound on you.” Voldemort hesitated, frowning – cursed objects were nothing new to him, he’d even made a few himself, but cursing knowledge? What did that mean?

“What sort of curse?” Nimue asked, her eyes shifting from the machine to the translator. He shrugged. The man shifted his glasses and stood back from the machine.

“Well, that’s determined by what knowledge you take from it, I suppose – I doubt it’s supposed to kill you outright, that’s not its purpose. More that it stops someone from using it gratuitously – I would imagine the knowledge of immortality would be cursed with unavoidable death, or some such – perhaps being trapped within the confines of a container for eternity. But the machine will decide when it is used, what curse to bestow on someone.” Voldemort nodded.

“Call for one of the Sabres,” Nimue said coolly to a death eater, who went scurrying off. Voldemort approved – they were practically useless beyond fear through numbers, they might as well be put to good use. And better one of them than someone useful. The translator shook his head, wincing. “Yes?” Nimue asked, one of her eyebrows lifting. Voldemort had to admire her disguise – the girl’s body she had changed into was quite attractive, and a cunning ploy that would keep authorities guessing as to whether she was captured or not, having a twin like that. The translator pointed to the line at the bottom.

“This line is the line that speaks of the curse,” he said, kneeling down. “And this second part, it says that the curse will follow the king – basically, anyone ordered into the chamber that bears your mark or your loyalty, their curse will be afflicted on you as well. And due to the alliance spell, I would imagine that means all four of you who made the pact.” There was a short pause while Voldemort considered the ramifications of that – it meant no one could take the knowledge without being his enemy.

“Are you trying to say, it is useless to us?” Voldemort hissed dangerously. The man began shrinking in fear, and made stuttering noises to the contrary. Voldemort allowed the translator time to recover from his anxiety before deciding whether or not to kill him.

“N-no, My Lord, it is useful to us – If you were to put someone in the chamber that has not accepted your mark, or better yet – has refused you in the past, that person would not be able to pass the curse on to you.” Voldemort drew his wand slowly.

“That does not help much, considering anyone who has refused him would work against him,” Nimue pointed out, drawing her own wand. The translator’s eyes widened so far it looked as if they might fall out, and he got out the one word that could save him from torture.

“Imperious!” he said, making them pause. “Th-the machine, it would not recognise the imperious curse as it is not loyalty or mark, and anyone taught the information required could then be put under the imperious curse to control the city through – all you need is someone who has refused to accept your mark!” Voldemort and Nimue looked at each other, for a moment considering, and then putting their wands away. Voldemort took a moment to think silently, before gesturing to the translator to continue working on controlling the city.

“I think it’s time I had a talk with an old friend,” Voldemort said, forming a plan. “One that has been eager to regain his old position within my inner circle.” He turned to the death eater, returning with one of the sabre men. “Find me Lucius Malfoy!”

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A/N: Hey all. I plan to wrap this story up within the next few chapters, and after that I’ll do Demon Within – until I’ve at least done three more chapters for this story, Demon within is on hold.

Recently I’ve been focussing on my own fiction, instead of JKs, hence why this took so freaking long, as this fanfiction malarkey is just a side gig for when I’m not writing my own stuff. Call me pretentious but I’m hoping to get published as a real author someday, and I can’t do that with fanfiction. I now have a beginning and end plotted out, various characters that I’ve given names and backgrounds and plots for their part in the story. I’m actually quite pleased with how it’s coming along so far, albeit I’m still planning it, I have a draft more or less written out for the first chapter and I have loads of stuff already planned out. Anyways, I’m taking a break from the original piece now, and back to fanfiction.

Recently (29th september), I learned that FFNet HASNT been uploading my chapters properly - in fact, it only uploaded the first two thousand words each of my last two chapters. I can't explain this I'm afraid, but I'm thinking about moving it to an alternate site to help negate any of FFNets technical problems. Any suggestions as to where? For now, though, chapters will be uploaded here, on this blog - at the very least, you get the formatting I used.

~Thor