Chapter 296
"Sirius!" Minerva greeted him with relief, although she continued to holdacompress to her head. "Thank Merlin!"
"Where's Harry?" asked Sirius immediately. Augusta and Minerva exchanged an anxious look, silently conferring.
"Someone pretending to be an Auror entered the tent and tried to insist onevacuating only Harry," Minerva began, hurrying her words out, "we refusedtolet him, of course, and he attacked. Harry shielded everyone but myself andBill who were engaged with the imposter. Unfortunately I was taken out
quickly…" Sirius gestured for them to get to the point.
"Bill was good but whoever it was that attacked was better." Augusta said, picking up the account. "Once Bill was down, the bastard tried for Neville
before saying that the rest of the Weasleys were running out of time beforedeparting."
"Ronald was very upset and insisted on leaving to check on his family," Miriamjoined in smoothly, "he requested Harry's presence and Harry followed himout
of the tent despite Hermione's advice for them both to remain." Oh no. Harry was out of the tent and alone without protection. With Death Eaters around the place looking for a vulnerable target! And theguy who'd attacked them loose!
Sirius was going to kill him. Well, firstly, he was going to hug the dickens out of him and then he was goingto kill him.
"Hermione followed after the pair of them." Wallace added with a huff.
"And Neville went with her!" Augusta's expression gave away that she wastorn between horror and pride.
"They're on their way to the Weasleys' tent?" checked Sirius, trying to keepcalm as his worry escalated again. The women nodded although Minerva winced as she did. Sirius turned around and before he'd reached the exit, he'd changed back toPadfoot and was running. He almost barrelled into Ted and two more Healerson their way in but paid them no attention. He had to get to Harry. o-O-o
Remus pushed a branch out of the way and directed Tomas to the left as hetried to ignore the sounds of the campsite behind them. The thick black
smoke was hanging like a cloud over the area; the fire creating an artificial
light as the sun went down and night fell. He couldn't help worrying about Harry. Was he OK in the tent? Had he
evacuated?
He couldn't help worrying about Sirius. Was he OK dealing with the fire? Hadhe managed to get back to Harry?
"You are concerned for your pack." Tomas said breaking the silence.
"I am," replied Remus without thinking, "I should never have left them."
"Then you admit they are your pack?" Tomas said with surprise. Remus considered the question and shrugged. "I've never denied it."
"Yet you eschew the packs on the Continent." Tomas commented. His words brought Remus to a suspicious halt. "Excuse me?" Tomas turned to look at him. His dark hair had streaks of silver and his
swarthy face was covered in minor scars from the lycanthropy. He shruggedapologetically. "We are a close bunch and that a werewolf was allowed toattend Hogwarts is something of a story in our society. Many of us have
wished to meet you yet all of us know the only time you sought our companywas to spy."
"It's not something I'm particularly proud of in hindsight," Remus said withsincere regret, "I spied because it was asked of me and I owed Albus
Dumbledore a debt."
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Chapter 297
"And not because you wished revenge on your sire."
"My only sire was Marcus Lupin. Greyback was nothing more than the
monster who bit me." Remus answered sharply.
"If you consider your sire a monster, it is not surprising you consider the rest
of us as such." Tomas said. "And yourself."
"We are monsters under a full moon and in the control of the wolf." Remusretorted. "But Greyback would be a monster even if he wasn't a werewolf."
"That perhaps we can agree upon." Tomas said.
"Then perhaps we should continue with our mission." Remus said tartly.
"We are close." Tomas said as he cast the detection spell again.
"Yes." Remus nodded.
"Perhaps we should disillusion ourselves in case someone is protectingthesource." Tomas suggested.
Remus nodded again. It was a good suggestion. A couple of spells later andtheir footsteps were obscured too allowing them to move stealthily throughthe undergrowth. Tomas sniffed the air suddenly and reached out towards where he must haveassumed Remus was walking. He cast a privacy bubble. "I smell somethingahead. Vermin." Remus scented the air…and growled. "Wormtail."
"Wait!" Tomas said. But Remus was already moving, slowly and steadily he crept forward. It wasn't
long before he could see the rat. It was guarding a rock, rune marks coveringits rough surface. The rat froze suddenly; its ears twitching. It suddenly shifted and a wizardstood there in its stead.
It was all Remus could do not to move; to give into the urge to jump at Peter
and try to strangle him with his bare hands. He raised his wand carefully. Onespell…one spell to take revenge for all Peter had perpetrated on them; thedeaths of James and Lily; the loss of a happy childhood for Harry; the yearsthat Sirius had spent in Azkaban…
Peter wrinkled his nose. "I know you're there, Moony, I can smell you…youandanother wolf." His eyes darted about the forest. "It's too late. He's already
gone for Harry and he'll get him." Who had gone for Harry?! Remus froze, horrified. Had Voldemort gone for
Harry? The urge to run back to the camp and see for himself was almost toomuch. No, he thought furiously, that's what Peter wants, to chase me away andleavehim alone.
"You and Sirius can't save him," Peter continued snidely, "the Dark Lord wantshim and he does what the Dark Lord wants. Save yourself!" Like Peter had done. Because that was all Peter wanted; to survive. Coward, thought Remus. He sent a silent stunning spell towards his former
friend but as the red light arced across the space between themPeter
squeaked and immediately shrank back into the rat, scurrying away intotheundergrowth.
"Buggeration!" Remus swore.
"I will go after him!" Tomas said. "You deal with the ward stone!" Remus nodded absently and made for the rock that Peter had abandoned. Hecast a number of charms on it before he deemed it destroy without further
ado, obliterating it into small pieces. He reversed the disillusion spell to reveal himself as Tomas ran back towardshim. "The rat?" Tomas shook his head. "He apparated as soon as he heard the rock explode. I
tried to stun him but he got away." Bugger. At least, the anti-transportation ward was down for everyone, Remusmused as he turned and started to run for the campsite, Tomas at his heels. He only hoped it was enough to save Harry. o-O-o
Where the hell were the Aurors, Harry thought frantically as he stared at thetableau of the Death Eaters torturing the muggles. Dealing with the fire, a voice in his head responded firmly. Harry's jawset andhe sprang out of the bush and levelled his wand.
"Harry…" Ron gasped but immediately got to his feet, pointing his own wandat
the pair.
"Put them down!" Harry shouted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 298
The Death Eaters turned towards them and Harry pushed Ron out of the wayof a curse as another screamed towards him. He shielded quickly and divedtothe side, casting a wide-spread cushioning charm on the ground as the
muggles were released, screaming. One Death Eater advanced on him, threateningly…
"Stupefy!" Harry yelled. A burst of red shot out of his wand, travelling acrossthe clearing with speed and impacting the surprised Death Eater who hadn't
even moved out of the way.
"You brat!" The other Death Eater hollered. "Reducto!" Harry threw himself backwards and the spell hit a tree. It groaned and swayed. Harry rolled out of the way. Ron got to his feet and tried to stun the Death Eater but had to quickly dodgeanother reducto curse himself.
A red beam suddenly came out of nowhere and the Death Eater went down.
"Got you!" Harry gave a relieved sigh as he recognised Wood from the Rat Squad andOliver's cousin run into the clearing with Chambers.
"Chambers, bind the pair of them!" He made his way over to Harry and helpedhim to his feet. "What are you doing out here, Harry?"
"Someone attacked the Potter alliance tent! They threatened the Weasleys–we're on our way to check on them!" Harry said. "Can you contact someoneand let them know?"
"Harry, you should stay here with me and Chambers!" Wood said. "The rest of
the Squad are dealing with the others but I can call Bones and…"
"No time!" Ron barked. "Come on, Harry!" He was off running again. Harry gave Wood an apologetic shrug but he was already moving after Ron, following him out of the trees and stumbling into a bright yellowtent that hadbeen on the same row as the Weasleys. He searched immediately for thepurple and pink colours and his heart froze at the sight of smoke…
"Merlin! It's on fire!" Ron exclaimed fearfully.
"Come on!" Harry grabbed his arm and helped Ron push through the gaggleof
people who were crowded around the Weasleys smoking tent but not actuallydoing anything. Harry finally got them through to the front with a judicious use of elbows. Just
across on the other side of the crowd Hermione and Neville stumbled tothefront just as Ron and Harry did.
"You followed us?" Harry asked surprised as Neville bent double trying tocatch his breath.
"As if I'd let you and Ron run off into trouble without me." Hermione retorted. "Oh God, it's on fire! Does anyone know if they're in there?"
"I heard voices about ten minutes ago." An old woman confirmed behindHermione. Others clamoured to add their agreement.
"Then what are you DOING?" Ron shouted. "MY FAMILY ARE IN THERE ANDYOU'RE ALL STANDING AROUND LIKE NUMPTIES!" He made a dive towardsthe tent and bounced off a ward. He was thrown back and skidded acrossthedusty grass.
"That young man is why we've sent for the Aurors!" The old woman beratedhim.
"A lock down ward! It was used in the last war, Harry, and prevented the
people inside from escaping and the people outside from helping!" Hermionesaid breathlessly. "Harry, you could overpower it with a reducto!"
"Don't you think we've tried!" A dark haired man snapped in an Irish accent. Harry raised his wand. "Everyone stand back!" He warned as he pointedit at
the Weasleys' tent. "REDUCTO!" He made no effort to dial his power back and the stream of light half-blindedthose at the front of the crowd; Hermione and Neville knew to cover their eyes. The spell crashed into the ward and for a second the bright green colour of it
was visible before it evaporated. Ron hurled himself toward the tent. "DAD!" Hermione caught hold of Harry as he went to follow, her wand casting aroundhis head. A perfectly formed Bubble Head charm appeared and he noddedhisthanks to her before entering the tent. The visibility was awful.
Thick grey smoke hovered over the space and Harry was grateful for the
Bubble Head as he found Ron already incapacitated, coughing into his arm. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 299
Neville appeared beside him with another Bubble Head around himand
pointed at something moving in the corner.
"ARTHUR!" Harry called out. He raced over with Ron, trailing behind him. Arthur was lying unconscious on the floor, glasses askew. He was curleduparound Ginny who was conscious and crying into a damp tea towel whichwaswrapped around her face.
"Ron, get your Dad out! Neville, help him!" Harry ordered, knowing it wouldtakethe two of them to carry Arthur; both were taller and had more muscle massthan he did otherwise he would have been tempted to have asked Nevilletorescue Ginny. He stooped and picked her up awkwardly. She held onto himtightly as he carried her out of the tent and into the open air. He set her down, gently on the grass. "Ginny, who else is in the tent?"
"Charlie!" Ginny croaked out. "He was going to try to see if we could get
through the back of the tent!" Harry checked that Arthur was received healing and gently extracted himself
from Ginny's grip to go back into the tent.
Hermione was looking after Ron who had collapsed coughing, his eyes
streaming.
It was Neville who fell into step beside Harry as they made their way back
through the dense fog of smoke. They headed into the back bedrooms andfound Charlie passed out in the second one. It looked like he'd been thrownbackwards because of the ward and hit his head; there was a bloody wound. Neville grasped his legs and Harry took his shoulders. He wished Charlie
wasn't quite so burly as they lugged his body through the tent. By the timethey'd gotten outside, Harry's arms ached with the strain. They placed himdown on the ground less than gently but it was that or drop him. The BubbleHead charm collapsed and Harry was assaulted once again with the stenchof
smoke.
"Merlin!" The twins' voices sounded in unison as they pushed their way to the front of
the crowd. Fred and George stumbled towards their family, their freckledfaces pale.
"What…"
"…happened?"
"Some tosspot decided to try and kill us!" Ron snapped before being
overcome with a wave of coughing. Harry stepped back as people came forward from the crowd to heal Charlie. Fred and George gathered around Ginny as Ron hovered by his still
unconscious father. He glanced toward the treeline and saw a flash of redthrough the dark silhouettes. The fake Auror!
Anger stole his breath. His mind filled with one thought: to catch the bastard!
Harry ran into the trees after the guy. He was filled with rage, his heart almost
bursting with it. How could someone try and hurt the Weasleys?!
Hurt Minerva?!
Try to torture Neville?!
He crashed through a bush and almost got hit with a streamof yellowlight. Harry flung himself to the ground, rolled and came up swinging. He snapped off a reducto towards the red robed figure who laughed anddodged it – a tree shattered into splinters on the other side.
"Good but not good enough!" A purple curse shot towards him… Harry dived forward again – and lost his glasses.
"Confrigo!" The guy yelled. Harry bolted out of the way as the blasting curse hit the ground where hehadjust been sending up a shower of dirt and grass that obscured his viewevenmore. A second later he was hit with a cutting hex, his upper left armslicing openand bleeding freely. He sent a banishing charm toward the blur of red he could see and was
pleased when the figure got tossed backwards.
He used the moment to get to his feet and try to get his bearings but a suddenstream of spells shot in his direction and he found himself back on the
defensive, shielding desperately against a barrage of offensive curses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 300
"You want to play! Let's play!" Harry dodged another spell as his shield broke apart.
"Hey! Stupefy!" Neville shouted. His spell went way wide of the target but didwhat Neville had wanted – it diverted attention from Harry.
"A Longbottom to play with!" The man taunted with a laugh. "Howwonderful!" A spell shot over in Neville's direction and Harry scrambled to his feet as
Neville tried to evade and fell.
"There's no Grandmother to help you now!" The blur shouted. "Crucio!" The light sped across the clearing and Harry knew he would never reachNeville in time to save him…
"Familius magicus protectus!" Harry called out furiously, raising his ringhandin Neville's direction – hoping beyond hope that the family magic could stopthe Unforgiveable. Magic rushed through Harry and it was like getting caught in a flood of
warmth and power and rage…
A stream of gold shot out of his hand, arched through the air becoming theLongbottom bear…
It roared loud enough that Harry fell back on his bottom, shocked as the bear
collided with the Crucio and swallowed it!
The bear landed and roared again…rearing up on its hinds paws, almost astall
as the trees. The guy snarled a word Harry couldn't make out and disappeared. Portkey, Harry thought absently; there must have been a portkey. Neville got to his feet and Harry staggered to his. The bear lowered itself tothe ground and ambled back to them. Harry nodded an acknowledgement at
the large gold beast which bumped its head into Harry as though askingfor
petting, stunned that it had responded to his call.
It gave a grunt, nudged Neville and disappeared.
Neville slapped Harry's shoulder and Harry winced as it jarred his injuredarm.
"Gran's going to be furious," Neville said, conversationally, "that completely
beat her rock thing hands down." Harry stared in shock at Neville for a moment before be burst into giggles, within seconds the two of them were laughing slightly hysterically. Harry
swiped at his eyes as the laughter started to shift to relieved tears.
"Accio glasses!" Harry caught the gold-frames as they zipped to him. He reallyneeded to find a way to keep them on his face. "We should head back." Hesaid putting them on, worried about the Weasleys. A black Grim suddenly burst through the undergrowth and transformed intoSirius.
"HARRY!"
"Padfoot!"
It wasn't even a conscious decision.
Harry launched himself into Sirius's arms. Sirius caught him, hauling himintoa tight hug. Harry didn't notice as Remus arrived a moment later to slinganarm around Neville. Harry clung onto Sirius, burying his face in Sirius's damp and smoke-scentedshirt. Everything was going to be OK.