Snow had fallen and lay thick upon the streets and roofs of Diagon Alley giving the center of British wizarding life an almost classic Christmas postcard look. The fact that fairy lights were on sale along with all the other decorations of the season and some amazing discounts being advertised just made it clear that Christmas was less than two weeks away.
Already there had been a few gift-related scrums in the stores, and in one incident, the Auror's had to be called in to break it up before it spilled into the streets. Harry, Neville, and Colin, however, had missed the show and were all breathing much easier, having found a suitable something or other for their girlfriends whom they were scheduled to meet at Florean Fortescue's in a few minutes.
"Hello, gentlemen," said Fleur, leading the pack of four girls towards their boyfriends.
Harry quickly shrunk the box in his hand and stuffed it into his pocket, "Afternoon ladies," he said in greeting as he gave her a kiss, not wishing to draw attention to the fact that they were barely one door away from the jewelry shop where he had just bought her gift, "You look fantastic, as always."
"Jewelry shop?" she commented with a smile.
"Yes," said Colin smoothly, clapping Neville on the back, "Neville here wanted something pierced." That earned Colin a glare, "But he couldn't decide."
"That kind of thing isn't done at a jeweler," said Luna knowingly, "But I'm guessing he couldn't decide what he wanted to get pierced?"
"I know a place," said Ginny suddenly, "Other side of the Alley. It's where I got my ears done."
Neville knew he was beaten and was unwilling to go through with actually having something pierced, "Harry was buying you jewelry."
"I'm half veela, half-witch, but still woman," protested Fleur with a smile, "And not a complete idiot either! But lunch waits."
They walked, as a group and had barely made any progress when George piped up, "The great greasy one himself, outside Florean's."
"And that oathbrea…" Harry bit his tongue, "Ron's with him." They spread out, ever so slightly but kept walking and passed the odd pair without incident. However, they were well aware that they had picked up a red-haired tail, "Guys, not blaming anyone but, did someone tell Ron we'd be here?"
"Well, we had to ask mum you know?" said Ginny, "he probably overheard or something."
It damped their mood as they strolled into the ice cream parlor, "Florean," said Harry.
"Harry," replied the owner. That was all it took for every single person to stop whatever they were doing and to stare at him for a moment before everyone's attention turned back to their own business.
"You make it a habit of living under those glamour charms," said Fleur, "At first, I didn't understand but now…." She shrugged as they sat down and consulted the menu. The ice cream was as good as ever and they ate well, talking lightly and teasing each other for clues about the nature of their presents.
"Perhaps I should buy a bracelet while I'm here," mused Fleur aloud, as she stared at Harry and licked her spoon in a very suggestive fashion.
He could not take his eyes off her, or that spoon, "Good idea," he said lightly, wishing he was the spoon in her hand. Her antics were causing a slight problem at the table, not that either of them noticed.
"Perhaps a necklace would go well with that bracelet…. Perhaps I should go visit that jewelers you were coming out of," she continued.
"Just don't buy the duplicate sword of Gryffindor…" he blurted, "Aw crap. I just gave it away."
She finally set the spoon down with a pout, "Harry! You know damn well that my parents got me one for my birthday!"
The table exploded into laughter as they ate and drank and made merry, as the twins demonstrated a number of their products on themselves and everyone else. The bill came and Harry settled it as a matter of course but before they could rise, a shadow fell over Harry, "Potter," said Snape, "One would think you would have the common sense to change your disguise, especially since everyone is aware of it!"
"Smells like too much Sleezeeky's hair oil around here," said Harry, ignoring him for a moment, "Something I can do for you, Snape?"
"I am a professor of Hogwarts and I will be addressed as such!" growled Snape like an angry bulldog.
Harry rose and turned, putting his face within inches of Snape, "Indeed, you are a professor at Hogwarts. But, this is not Hogwarts, nor a regular semester. What the hell are you doing interrupting us anyway? Not like we bothered you on the street earlier. So what do you want?" hissed Harry through clenched teeth.
Snape met Harry's gaze without flinching, "How extraordinarily like your father you are," Snape said suddenly, his eyes glinting, "Arrogant, cocksure and overconfident. A little talent on the Quidditch pitch and he was a cut above us all. At least that was what he thought, no doubt, strutting about Hogwarts as if he owned it with his gaggle of admirers, worshippers, and bootlickers…"
Harry's wand never made an appearance, he never raised his hands but everyone at the table noticed the circle he drew with two fingers before he clenched it into a fist, moments before Snape toppled over like a felled tree. The rest watched in stunned silence, like every other person in the ice cream parlor as Harry reached into the man's robes and extracted the man's wand, "This is not Hogwarts, this is not in class, nor over homework. This is a private interaction between two private citizens." His voice was deadly calm. "I ask you, politely never to speak ill of my father again, or I will challenge you to an honor duel, where honor is satisfied when only one walks off the field." He stepped over the frozen Potions Master as his friends gathered around him, "Secondly…"
The blast rocked the alley and they froze for a moment. Harry blinked as if he was registering the blast on a different level, a subconscious level. It was not so much the noise or the shaking, but the screams of the terrified and fearful, streaming past the ice cream parlor in the opposite direction, away from the blast.
He was the first out the door and into the street. He was the first to run towards the explosion, unlike the fleeing tide of wizards and witches. It did not take him long to find the site of the blast. It was a store that had gone unnoticed until this moment. However, those standing in black robes and silver masks of the dozen or so wizards standing around, firing hexes and curses in every direction were a better attention grabber than the flaming ruin.
Glass storefronts shattered, sending knives of broken glass lancing in every direction. He had a shield in place, deflecting the rain of deadly shards. He did not need to look over his shoulder to know that he had eight to their twelve wands. "We have surprise on our side," he thought, and made a note: They were going to have to do some group training on how to handle these kinds of conflicts where teamwork would make a difference. For now, he realized they were going to have to wing it.
They had moments before the Death Eaters noticed them, "You four, blasters! Bring down a wall and block their line of retreat towards the Cauldron! The rest, shields, overlap and stay on me!"
Diagon Alley is essentially the main street of a network of streets that fan out for a few blocks in just about every direction. However, the Alley itself began at the Leaky Cauldron and ended in a cul-de-sac that housed a few apartment buildings - where Fleur had once resided - and Ollivander's Wand Shop.
The blasting curses from Colin, Luna, and the twins packed more than enough power to bring down the front of Quality Quidditch Supplies and distracted the dozen until a quartet of well-aimed volley of spells dropped three of the Death Eaters like sacks of potatoes. With their opening volley, the Legion had almost evened the odds, as several jets of dark green light began streaking back towards them, "Break and cover!" screamed Harry.
They went to ground as the Death Eaters began firing back, using almost nothing but killing curses. Where possible, someone took a potshot back but all they were doing was keeping each other's heads down and interfering with the spell casting, "How long can they keep that up?" asked Colin.
"No idea," replied Neville as he stood, and fired back with a Blasting curse followed by a pair of rapid piercing hexes. He ducked as an unidentified jet of violet light came back at him, "We need to break this deadlock now!"
"This might help," said Fred, hefting the small parcel, "Portable swamp… we don't have them working perfectly yet, but it should create a small, sticky problem."
"No better time to test it than now," agreed George as his twin brother levitated it, letting him banish it down the street. There was a howl of indignant protest as the swamp activated and mired them in a foot of muck.
"Charge!" roared Harry, breaking cover as he unleashed a spell chain of devastating power. Though they had hesitated at the first blast, this time there was no hesitation as they moved forward, Reductor curses and blasting hexes from three of them, pulverizing a Death Eater.
The two sides were a spitting distance apart when a flash of flame announced the dramatic and overly flashy entrance of the Order of the Phoenix - right into the middle of the firing line.
Legions best and brightest, their charge checked, sought cover while the Order sustained immediate fatalities as killing curses cut several of them down. "Fucking idiots," growled Harry.
"The lesson here," mused Luna, "is that one does not apparate into the middle of a battle!" Harry watched the Order members fight. He was…unimpressed, "Are you… seeing this? Can you believe this?"
While the Death Eaters fought to kill, it seemed as if the Order was unwilling to do so. The former used Avada Kedevra throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the battle. The order seemed to favor stunners and seemed hell-bent on trying to capture some of them alive. The only one, he noted actually trying to kill Death Eaters was Mad-Eye Moody with one real leg and one real eye, he was twice the fighter of anyone else out there.
"Prongs," whispered Harry, "Take a message to Moody." The deer appeared in a flicker of light and galloped towards the scarred veteran. "Follow me!" He led them down a side street and cut across an empty alley between buildings, "We're going to hit their flank," he said by way of explanation. He pointed his wand in the air and a shower of golden yellow sparks erupted.
The Death Eaters took a pounding as some thirty hexes and curses slammed into what was left of Quality Quidditch Supplies. "Breach!" The wall erupted inwards, spraying stone and wood everywhere, knocking the Death Eaters off their feet, leaving them stunned with their ears ringing, unable to mount a defense. They simply lay there, as the Legion claimed their wands with summoning charms and followed Harry's lead: Snapping every single one.
"What the hell are you doing?" growled Moody, as he watched them snap their wands, "Those wands would be proof at their trial!"
"What?" said Harry, incredulous, "Did you miss the Avada Kedevra's? How about the robes? The masks? Oh yeah," he ripped their sleeves and found the Dark Mark branded on their forearms, "Is that proof enough?"
Harry met Auror's glare head-on, "I saw the fight, and you were the only one who had a clue what they were doing," he had an audience now, comprised of those order members still standing: Dedalus Diggle with his purple top hat, Doge Jones who was torn between looking at Harry and at the carnage around them. Hestia Jones, his wife, crying over the lifeless corpses of several other Order members.
"What, the fuck, do you think this is?" he asked in disgust, gesturing to the bodies around him. There were more than just those that had fallen in battle, but at least a dozen more, killed in the initial act of terror against a sporting goods store, "This is war! War!" he shouted, "The first shot was fired six months ago! This is, perhaps, a skirmish! Skirmish! God-damn-it, this was not even a battle!" he glared at the gathered ranks of the order, "You think we're still at peace? Look all around you!" He gestured to the rubble, the destroyed buildings, the corpses strewn over the battlefield.
"You want to fight? Do you want to stop Voldemort? Then you need to accept the fact that disarming and stunning will not cut it! If you will not cripple them, if you will not kill them, and then be able to live with yourself, you have no place here."
He looked over at his friends. Their eyes were blank, unreadable. Shock first, horror, then would come guilt and self-loathing, "War comes, and if you cannot kill, you have no place in the front line of battle! But you can contribute! Learn to heal! Learn wards! Make potions and supplies! If you cannot be the tip of the spear or cutting edge of the sword, be a part of the hand that holds it! Be a part of the arm that wields it!"
He looked at Moody, "Their spell work is sloppy and they miss more than half the time," his contempt was obvious but he decided to ram it home, "Fucking around with stunners, I ask you." He nodded to his friends, "Six teenagers, a witch, and me, did more today than any of them," he hesitated, "But in all fairness, you're worth about ten of them."
Alastor Moody stared at the glamour ensconced teenager for a long moment, considering everything that he had just said. He had fought during the first war, he had killed more than he had captured, and he understood what it was to duel to the death. The young man standing before him was not Auror trained, but he recognized the style of combat all eight of them had used: up close, in your face, and very personal in conjunction with overlapping shields, and area of effect damage spells. All were trademarks of Goblin warfare.
"I'll leave the clean-up to you," Harry said, "We're not going to hang around long enough for the Ministry." He glanced at his watch theatrically, "This is Diagon Alley, the ministry is not even ten minutes from here," said Harry quietly to him, "The Order reacted before the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. What does that tell you?"
The teens vanished from view. Invisibility cloaks, concealment charms, and chameleon charms evens. None of which shielded them from his magical eye, but it was impressive magic, to say the least. He watched the teenagers for a long moment as they made their way to the Leaky Cauldron, and then turned his attention to the Death Eaters, tied up, unconscious with their snapped wands lying on top of them. He found himself wondering what to tell Dumbledore and more specifically, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Say what you want about the Ministry of Magic, its befuddled minister, the lies the Daily Prophet gleefully spread on the Ministry's behalf, but you could rarely find fault with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Though they had their own wing on one floor of the ministry building, it was "an outpost to keep an eye of Fudge" - not that you could attribute that quote to Director Amelia Bones.
In truth, the DMLE had its own building - more of a fortress complex - on the outskirts of London. It used to be just the Auror Training Academy, but under Amelia during the First War, it had become a centralized hub for everything the DMLE did, from raids against individuals suspected of smuggling in dark artifacts to tracking down anti-muggle pranksters, and even keeping an eye on selected Potions Masters and lowlifes like Mundungus Fletcher.
"Madame Bones," growled Moody as a dozen Aurors apparated on to the scene, "Too little too late I'm afraid." He gestured to the bound and gagged pile of Death Eaters.
"Report, if you please," she said briskly. While technically he was retired, he was a former Auror, who had won nearly every commendation in the book - and added one or two named after him as well.
He nodded, "Was doing some grocery shopping when this lot popped in and decided to have a go at the Alley. No specific target, random destruction, chaos, and carnage." He did not have to add that this was how things had started almost twenty years ago, "A group of… goblin trained vigilantes took care of this lot, mostly." She gave him a significant look, one that he pointedly ignored as she surveyed the number of masked corpses.
"Haven't had a chance to unmask any of 'em," he shrugged, "If you don't mind…"
"You're welcome to the duty," she said, arms crossed over her chest as he knelt over the first of them, keeping them covered with his wand before ripping the mask from the first of their prisoners.
Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody, had given more than an eye and a leg in the pursuit of justice and had committed more than a few names and faces to memory. He broke out in a smile at the first face: Alecto Carrow. He laughed in disbelief at the second: Amycus Carrow, "Like brother, like sister," he said, "The Dementors should have kissed you both the first time round." He noted the surprise on the face of Madame Bones with his own smirk of satisfaction.
The third face was a surprise: Augustus Rockwood, formerly an Unspeakable of the Department of Mysteries and a spy for Voldemort, "Hopefully, Azkaban will show you some rather… unspeakable things." Moody turned his attention to Madame Bones, "What took you so long to respond anyway?"
"We had a Death Eater incursion of our own," she said quietly studying the Carrows intently, "Six witnesses from various investigations now dead, eight Aurors killed in the line of duty, a further four wounded," she pointed at the Carrows, "And I killed Amycus Carrow at Auror Headquarters and Tonks brought the ceiling down on Rockwood and Percy Weasely. Shackebolt obliterated Alecto."
Moody spun around, "Wait, Weasley? Did you say Weasely?" She nodded tightly. It was the first time anything had genuinely surprised him in the past ten years, "Charms? Polyjuice?" he asked, going for the most obvious.
"No charms applied, and no Polyjuice potion found in them or on them," she said quietly, "At least, we didn't find any signs or traces on what was left of them."
They found a number of new faces, but things took another twist when they unmasked Avery and then unmasked Percy Weasely yet again. "What the bloody hell is going on?" growled Moody.
"The only, person who can answer that question, is the one person the ministry claims has not returned, and I doubt he would answer our questions even if we could bring him in for questioning."
Unnoticed, a pair of wizards walked down the street and vanished at the far end of Diagon Alley in near silence. It would take them an additional two portkeys trips before they could apparate to their final destination: Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire.
Voldemort had abandoned his own ancestral home in favor of the Malfoys for one reason: The house was falling down or would fall down around them. The truth was that Voldemort could not bear the thought of looking out the window and over the graveyard where Harry Potter had defied him, in person, for a second time and survived the experience.
Of course, his Death Eaters, not even those he trusted and valued over all others such as Snape, Malfoy, or even Pettigrew, were privy to the innermost thoughts of the Dark Lord. And with good reason: The last thing he needed was for any of them to suspect that he actually feared, not only Potter but also feared exactly what it was that had been prophesied so long ago.
It was a sad fact that even the most intelligent of his followers could not comprehend that they were nothing more than mere tools, no matter how valuable their services or their money was. They were all means to an end… his end. Even the Malfoys, who clearly did not wish to admit that having His presence in their home was more than a bit disconcerting.
At the gates, Jugson and Snape raised their arms to the ghostly snake and were allowed to pass into the grounds of Malfoy Manor through a powerful void shield that would have in all likelihood cut a trespasser in half.
"Did you see them?" asked Jugson, "Did you see them Severus? They moved and fought without hesitation. Perfect soldiers! Perfect!" he repeated, rubbing his hands together gleefully, "Obedient without question! Loyal unto death to our Lord!" he was practically crowing at his success, "Even those captured will not talk and even if they do, they know nothing!"
"Yes," said Severus calmly, "Their success shall, in all likelihood, earn you a place at his side, amongst the Inner Circle. Have you tested its full potential?"
Jugson nodded eagerly, "Dozens at least, if not hundreds! So long as the Prime lives, they all live! They will obey their orders and they can think for themselves. up to a point at least."
"Indeed. Should they prove to be too, intelligent, or free-willed, it would be problematic to our cause. It is a shame that the Primes will have somewhat of a complicated existence," said Snape with a sneer, "restricted movement until this war is won. And Percy Weasely, volunteering. I had always thought that he would not volunteer for such service."
"Oh, stuff Percy Weasely," said Jugson, "He just showed up and I did what had to be done. And everyone at the Ministry is in for a headache! Three Percys at least!" he roared with laughter, "I'd love to see those fools try and figure it out!"