The days following what was referred to as the "Battle of Diagon Alley", saw the Daily Prophet and The Quibbler filled with articles. Although the details were skewed in the former and accurate in the other publication, both were doing their best to prop up their respective "sides" – an irony not lost on Harry.
The Prophet had taken to referring obliquely to a "legal gag order" against mentioning certain individuals but it did not matter. Their focus was completely on the Aurors and a "rapid response" team that had "subdued" the Death Eaters with "minimal casualties while maximizing Death Eater Casualties." In stark contrast, The Quibbler had included a blow-by-blow account from Harry and his friends that took great pains to detail everyone's involvement and had even included images extracted from their memories, highlighting them in battle. Both papers had followed up their "special edition" with an "extra special edition" where both papers called the other a liar – indirectly.
Of course, when the Prophet had called upon Harry and his friends to make a rebuttal on their claims, his point-blank refusal in a letter sent to the editor that stated clearly, "Unable to comment due to an ongoing contract with the Quibbler." It was signed not only by Harry but by every single one of his friends protected by exclusivity contracts. That was in the week after the Battle of Diagon Alley and the group of friends had been enjoying the peace and quiet in the last few days before Christmas, opting to spend time at Potter Manor in Scotland, where the swimming pool was indoors and always warm, and the barbecue seemed to be perpetually on courtesy of Blake.
It was sudden and unexpected when Winky popped in unannounced, "Sir! Alarm triggered!" That brought the party-crashing to a halt as the teens were out of the pool, dried off, and dressed in moments. Blake and Remus had re-engineered the Marauder's map and made it bigger. They had placed alarm wards and charms on numerous locations scattered across the country.
"Where?" Harry asked.
Winky hesitated for a moment, "The Burrow." That gave the entire group pause for a moment, "Dobby is preparing the portkey now!"
The Barbecue was put on hold as the group made their way to the travel room – the only way in or out from Potter Manor – where Dobby was waiting for them. Winky was there too and her arms were full.
Harry grabbed one of the vests and tossed it to Fleur, "Grab one and put it on. Basilisk skin, better than the best armor the Aurors have." True enough, considering that the best the Aurors had was double-layered dragon hide, "Only the vests are ready at the moment, but…" he didn't have to finish that statement. It took a few moments to make sure that everyone got the right vest, before donning them and snapping the clasps closed, and tightening the straps to ensure a snug fit.
Moments later, Colin, Luna, and Ginny grabbed the programmed portkey, while the rest apparated directly to The Burrow. Fortunately, Fleur had been wise enough to suggest not apparating directly into the building, but a short distance from it. With good reason, "All hell's broken loose here," remarked Colin grimly.
They stared down at the ongoing tableau: Bill and Charlie were home for the holidays and had manned the living room window. Molly was covering the rear and Arthur was covering the front door. Four Weasleys against four times as many Death Eaters. "Where's the Order?" asked Ginny, "Where's Ron?"
"We can't wait for them," said Harry, There was a flash in the back garden and the Twins appeared, barreling through the house adding their own spellfire, bolstering the defense. "Six on sixteen," thought Harry assessing the situation, "Ginny, you know the lay of the land better than any of us. How would you handle this?" She studied the battle for a long moment, hesitant, "Come on Gin, talk to me!"
"There's the embankment over there, trees on the far side, where we played Quidditch during the summer." she said quietly, "Split into two groups, hit them from the flanks. Then close quarters and finish them." Jets of light streaked back and forth and a Death Eater was blown backward through the air, and hit the ground with a crunch that echoed up towards the Legion.
"Sounds good," Harry agreed, "Fleur, Colin, Luna with me. Blake, Moony, you're going to have to take the left flank with Neville." The teen gulped but nodded firmly. "Ginny, get into the house from the rear, and make ready to get your family the hell outta there." Harry drew his wand, "Apparate, side along, or portkey. Gold sparks to attack, Red sparks for backup. Green sparks mean evac. If you take a hit, portkey out! No heroics and we'll have sixteen dead Death Eaters."
They moved. Within moments Ginny's Patronus delivered the message that she was in position, followed by Blake. A single bolt screeched into the sky and exploded, showering gold sparks across the battlefield that the Burrow had become. They drifted down like the gentlest snowflakes. Then all hell descended upon the Death Eaters:
Blake took one in the neck with a Severing Charm and a nearly headless death eater flopped to grass as his wand was summoned away from him.
Moony unleashed a powerful blasting curse that obliterated a tree before banishing it towards the Death Eaters. One managed to shield himself. A second was perforated and dropped like a stone.
Neville had hesitated, just as he had done in Diagon Alley, but he bit down, clamping his fear, and forced himself to remember what the Death Eaters had done to him, his family, his parents, his girlfriend. Anger filled him, rage blinded him, "Perspicuus Lancea!" he roared. The bolt of light seemed to shriek across the battlefield towards its target, and his target conjured a hasty shield. She would have been better off diving for cover as the beam simply shattered her shield, and tore through her like a hot knife through butter.
On the right flank, Harry had not hesitated, throwing an entire spell chain at them, with Fleur and the others following suit. When the broken earth stopped raining down, five death eaters had been obliterated. Within moments, the odds reversed with fourteen facing nine Death Eaters.
At that moment, seven members of the Order apparated into the burrow's backyard, and Harry knew about it in moments from Ginny's Patronus. "Pin them down!" shouted Harry. The barrage of stunners, blasting hexes and cutting curses forced the Death Eaters behind their meager cover as Harry began pasting the area in anti apparition and portkey wards. Fleur caught on and quickly followed suit.
Outnumbered, surrounded, definitely outgunned, unable to apparate or portkey to safety, the ground beneath the Death Eaters suddenly turned into a giant swamp and everyone could hear the twins laughing. "Looks like they got their portable swamp working," remarked Fleur. "But if they ever use it on me…" she laughed.
The Death Eaters rose and pointed their wands at each other, "Avada Kedevra!" So many killing curses caused a green mist to descend upon the Death Eaters, and when it cleared, nine masked and robed corpses were strewn amongst the other seven who had been killed in the course of the skirmish.
"That was… unexpected?" said Ginny, as she stepped out of the house with the rest of her family in tow. There was a string of cracks and pops, like firecrackers going off in the backyard. "Reform!" snapped Blake and they had their wands raised when the first members of the Order of the Phoenix came barreling out of the Burrow. "Took your time getting here," said Colin darkly, "Takes a bunch of teenagers to do your fucking job?"
Tonks winced; Moody was glaring balefully with his one good eye but Dumbledore, however, seemed as serene as ever. "It seems we arrived as the muggles would say, fashionably late? We need to consolidate our gains here…" began Dumbledore
Harry grunted something intelligible when Winky appeared with a pop, "Alarms triggered sir! The Meadows and Longbottom Estate!" She pressed two lengths of cord into Harry's hands and vanished just as suddenly as he had appeared, shocking them all to silence.
"How can that be possible?" asked Hestia Jones, "After Diagon Alley, and this? They have lost over twenty and they still have the manpower to mount a simultaneous raid like this?"
"We don't have time to figure that out now," said Neville. He gave Ginny a look, and hesitated for a long moment, "I… have to go."
She pulled him close, hugging him for a moment, "I understand. I'll see you in a bit." She kissed him on the cheek.
"Fleur, take Luna. Blake, with Colin," Harry ordered, "Neville, you're with me and Remus." He hesitated, "Ginny, stay with your family, they need you."Given that Dumbledore and the rest of the Order were nearby… Harry made a snap decision. Lives meant more than secrets, especially that secret, "Break Fidelius if you have to. Get your families to safety."
The headmaster was astonished but managed to mask it, even as he wondered what exactly Harry had under Fidelius. Tonks and Moody both stared in disbelief, "Dumbledore! You're not just going to let them go are you?" protested Tonks, "They're underage… well most of them are…"
"I quite agree Tonks," said Dumbledore, "Harry, I need you to return… home. You are too young."
"Adult over here," said Harry quietly, "You have no authority over me or anyone else who is of age. And you have no authority over any of my brothers or sisters because you are not their legal guardian. This is not Hogwarts. We've wasted enough time."
The gathered Weasleys nodded and stepped back, and watched as the group of teens and two adults broke into two groups and portkeyed away.
"We need to follow them!" shouted Molly Weasely.
"Does anybody here know where Longbottom Manor or the Meadows are?" asked Tonks suddenly and that stopped all of them in mid-stride, "Because I don't."
Dobby appeared suddenly as if he had been standing under an invisibility cloak for some time, "The Meadows is on the other side of Otter St. Catchpole. Longbottom Manor is in Yorkshire, Northern England!" The house-elf apparated away fearing the consequences of his action and returned to Potter Manor, to await judgment.
As order members scrambled to find something to use as a portkey, it left the two veteran Aurors a few moments alone, with each other. They had been partners within the Order for only a year, but they were a good influence on each other, "Can't believe this," growled Moody, "He has members and doesn't know where they live, doesn't have their homes warded, nothing. It's disgraceful. Sometimes I wonder how the heck we won the first time."
Tonks stayed quiet for a long moment, "You know… I think we're backing the losing horse here. Those anti-apparition wards and portkey wards are not coming down easy. Could you put your eye to them?"
He did, and his magical eye discovered the source of the problem in seconds, "Goblin wards. Just like the ones cast in every stone that makes up Gringotts. Another two, three minutes." The grizzled veteran turned to his partner, "I'd say you're right about backing the wrong horse."
"The question is, what do we do about?" asked Tonks quietly.
"Join the winning side," replied Mad-Eye Moody, "Potter and his band of upstart teenagers have done pretty well. And you know why the Death Eaters have so much manpower don't you?"
Given the time they had, the few surviving Death Eaters had been unmasked and revealed to be more copies, duplicates, clones, whatever you want to call them, "You saw them in holding," said Tonks, "And I can't believe that Snape actually denies it. I mean, McNair and Nott and Goyle are in custody in the Ministry and now we get to add them to holding, again."
"At least the real Percy Weasely is not a death eater. They kidnapped and cloned him to test whatever it is, and let him go with his memory modified of the entire two days he was missing."
"So we going to talk to Harry?" she asked.
A shout and the pair rose, hurrying towards the assembled members of the Order, "We're going to talk to Potter as soon as this is over." The pair split up, grabbing on to different portkeys, heading in different directions.
The order arrived too late at both locations. However, in all fairness, the Legion was not on time at both locations. Neville's grandmother had turned out to be something of a transfiguration and charms specialist and had literally brought the furniture, plants, and the house itself alive to defend herself, and had killed four of the fourteen Death Eaters sent to kill her. She was shocked when Neville had not hesitated; using blasting curses, and severing charms to incapacitate and kill almost indiscriminately, but Colin stole the show with a well-aimed incarcerous followed by an incendio that trapped a death eater in burning ropes.
"Sorry Gran, But I think we'll have to hold the Christmas Party somewhere else this year," said Neville as he took her gently but firmly by the arm, "We need to get out of here before more of these…. goblets of tuberculotic sputum decide to show up."
Augusta Longbottom looked at her grandson with renewed respect and felt a sense of pride in what he was becoming: A man her son and daughter-in-law would have been proud of. "Gran, listen to me carefully: Harry Potter lives in Potter Manor in Wales." She blinked as information flooded her mind, "Harry's elves are expecting you," he hesitated, "Where are Chip and Herdal?"
"… they gave their lives, defending me," she said quietly, "In all my years, finer house-elves I have never known…" she gestured to the two small bodies, "Killed several Death Eaters by themselves."
She apparated, and the group of teens paused only to recover the bodies of the two house-elves and the wands of the fallen Death Eaters before departing, a handful of minutes ahead of the Order who realized that there was nothing they could do, and in turn left to avoid the Ministry.
It was an entirely different story at Luna Lovegood's. Harry had only met her father once, and he had seemed a little eccentric, much like his daughter. Harry only wished he could have done more for the man that had done so much for him. They arrived to find The Meadows ablaze, as was the small building that housed the offices and printing presses of The Quibbler.
Lying on the front lawn, his wand lying inches from his outstretched hand was Xenophillius Lovegood. The snow was undisturbed; no damage to the surrounding environment. Half buried by the snow, the cause of death was clear from his open staring eyes, with no other mark upon him: Avada Kedevra.
They had felled him with a single curse when his back was turned.
Luna collapsed next to her father, cradling him in her arms. Tears fell from her eyes, small diamonds that caught and reflected the dying rays of the sun. Her home continued to burn behind her, but she felt neither the heat of the fire nor the cold of the snow and ice beneath her.
"Too late," said Colin, bitterly, "Too fucking late." He did the only thing he could do and hugged Luna for several long minutes as she cried, all of them ignoring the harshness of the weather as the last rays of sunlight vanished, and the sun itself dipped below the horizon.
Fleur shook her head, silently thankful that her family was not in England to see this, or worse, become victims in this war themselves. There was no point in trying to extinguish the blaze as it was already dying down, leaving a few timbers and ash. The Second Wizarding War had not even officially begun, and it could lay claim to four lives and two homes that left two teenagers with only each other left.
The Order of the Phoenix arrived, too little too late once again. Within minutes of their arrival, however, the rest of the Legion appeared, "Merlin, forgive me," thought Harry, "What have I done?" He took in the scene, realizing that if he had not invited his friends over, he could very possibly be attending their funerals as well.
Silently, a tear slid down his cheek as he turned his face away from his friends, and wiped the tears away. Someone had conjured a table and laid Mr. Lovegoodout, hands folded across his chest and his wand resting comfortably in his hand. The man's long, wavy blond hair spilled about his head, and, with his eyes closed, he could have been asleep. Harry knew better. He had seen death far too many times and could feel the clammy cold hand upon his shoulder.
Luna was obviously distraught, though Colin was handling things well, "You lose your family, and remember it all. They both got a worse deal than me." He was angry, frustrated as he turned and stalked. Snow crunched underfoot as he came to a halt, a few feet away from Tonks, clearly in charge of this particular group of the Order, "Too little, too late, Tonks," he said, sadness and grief in his voice, "How is it, that underaged wizard, had prepared portkeys and that the Order did not? Where is the Ministry? Its Aurors? Its Hit Wizards? Its Obliviators? Its Unspeakables?"
"I now have friends, orphaned by this with, and with nowhere to go, and in these few days, supposed to be about love, and family and celebrating life and happiness, for them, Christmas, New Years, will forever be tainted." He turned, "I suggested back in November, that you need to pick a side. You still do." He nodded to the rest of the Order, "all of you should get out of here before the Ministry shows up."
"What about… your people?" Tonks asked.
Harry looked across to Luna, sitting next to her father; her tears had stopped falling, only because she had no tears left to cry. The sobs were quiet, almost as if she was doing her best to rein them in, to not make a sound. She was failing miserably. "How long would it take, before Luna can have his remains?"
"They'll want to process the scene but you've already tampered with that so…" she shrugged, "Maybe an hour."
"Let them give their statements, then… when we have everything," he placed special emphasis on that word, "We'll decide what exactly we're supposed to do."
Nearly half an hour elapsed before the first of the Aurors arrived, and to their surprise, Moody was amongst them. The former volunteered to collect statements from the gathered teenagers while the latter supervised their search of the crime scene. True to her word, the Aurors were done in little under an hour. They had a cause of death, they had photographs of the scene and most importantly, they had a magical signature to compare with their records."
"Harry, we need to talk," Tonks glanced at the gaggle of Aurors, "in private."
Harry nodded, "I'll send a house-elf to you with instructions," he said absentmindedly. He needed to figure things out. He needed quiet. He needed to think. Luna, Colin, now Tonks, the fact that Legion was possibly exposed at Hogwarts, the fact that they were now exposed outside of Hogwarts. His head was starting to hurt, and he knew that no amount of headache remedy or even dreamless sleep would help him here.
He stopped short when he saw a familiar face. Director Sheppard from the Department of Family Services, along with two Aurors started moving towards them. "Har… Mr. Potter," she said cordially.
"Director Sheppard," he greeted her with a nod, "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
She sighed, "I wish it was a pleasure, but it's not. I'm here for Luna Lovegood and Colin Creevy." She was suddenly uncomfortably aware that the eyes of a number of wand-carrying teenagers were locked upon her and the pair of Aurors accompanying nor, did she miss that the two named teens had been pushed as far back away as possible. "Albus Dumbledore told me of what happened here, and what happened to Colin's family. As mandated, I am here to take them to a home before arranging foster care for them."
"Will they be kept together?" Harry asked carefully, even as he prodded Ginny's mind with Legillimency. She flinched, though not overly much, and stepped back, whispering a name.
"I don't know," replied Sheppard, "They are not related to each other, so it is highly unlikely." She nodded to the Aurors, "Dawlish, McKinnon, please." The Aurors took a step forward and stopped.
"Director Sheppard," Harry said, "Not a good idea. I could promise you, I won't fire a spell but," he gestured to the others, who had refused to lower their wands, "I cannot control what they will do, if you try and take them, never mind split up that couple."
"I don't have a choice," replied Sheppard, "I will take them with me,"
"I have made no promises," Harry flexed his fingers, he could feel the magic running down his left arm, coming to rest in his fingertips, "But I cannot, in good conscience let you take them."
"Director Sheppard," interrupted Dumbledore, "Har… Mr. Potter, perhaps I can suggest a compromise?" Dumbledore waited a moment, and when no objection was raised, "Perhaps Mr. Creevy and Ms. Lovegood, can stay at Hogwarts for the moment. They will be safe within the castle, and as such, their whereabouts will not be an issue and they can still visit their friends."
"Their friends are all minors, Albus," she replied, "with the exception of Mr. Potter of course, whose home address seems to be unlisted.
"I live under a Fidelius Charm," he replied, "They would be visiting me, and even staying with me. My door is open to friends and allies, and is never closed to any of my brothers and sisters." He was firm, adamant on this point. "But I think that, until we can work out an arrangement," it took a great deal for Harry to grind out the words, "I think that Headmaster Dumbledore's suggestion has merit and should be considered a suitable short term solution."
Director Sheppard nodded, "Very well, if you are in agreement Albus?" the headmaster nodded, and finally, the one-sided standoff came to an end, "Harry… when will…"
"As soon as the Auror's clear the scene, and Luna can collect her father's remains. We have a lot to do."
"We?" she asked, "What do you mean we?"
Harry jerked his head sideways and the director took his meaning at once, falling in step beside him, "They have no one but each other and the rest of us." He said quietly, "They need new clothes, school supplies, and whatever else to help make this easier. We're not blood family, but we're family nonetheless."
She nodded, her respect for Harry rising another few points, "You do realize that what you are suggesting will cost a great deal of money… not that I question your motives or anything," she added hastily, "But people will talk and ask questions."
He nodded, "You're just doing your job. Let me do mine unless you have anything else to discuss, director?"
"One thing," she said, "I checked your record and as the last of your line, and emancipated, which makes you the head of House Potter. The Protectorate Laws are old and have never been overturned. Consider applying them. And, for what it's worth, Merry Christmas."
Harry stared at Sheppard for a moment, "Protectorate Laws? I'll look that up," said Harry, "Merry Christmas." Now all they were waiting for was the word of an Auror so that they could leave and make the required arrangements.