A Dark Time For The Light

74

The House wasn’t having nearly so laid back an afternoon. Hermione had them all around the table, plotting strategy. Hermione was armed with her electronic tape measure and her Blackberry for plotting the info into a schematic, which at a touch would upload to her computer. She wanted measurements, photos, details on the types of windows, the locks on the doors, basements, attics, and all the points of entry and exit off the property, the extent of the wards and the type. “We may have to send an Auror in to dowse the place so far, but obviously we don’t want them to be sussed, and to be honest, I want Alastor for this one”, to general agreement. Hermione had her own agenda, particularly as she learned that the walls would be freshly plastered. As her lover slept, she packed the equipment she had purchased from an extremely seedy ex-client, plus wire and testing gear.

A tense night was spent by all. Cellan looked equally nervous as he picked up Dean, Ron, Seamus and Hermione. Joe was in the front seat with Cellan and Steffie and Alan were in the back. Hermione stashed a large bag under the seat as she got in, resplendent in her brown overalls, her hair tucked under her cap, her toolbelt cinched around her waist. Ron was scared, but delighted to be working again, especially with his good friends. Harry fretted all day. His job was to receive the transmissions as they came in from the Blackberry, and, later on that afternoon, he was due to pick Alastor up and deliver him to the site.

“He’s getting careless, complacent. There aren’t even any detection wards here. Sign he’s getting cosy with it all. That can only be good for us”, the old ex-Auror growled at the assembled Magicals off the property that night. Joe had been bursting with curiosity, but he hadn’t been let into the most secret things they were doing. Somehow, he never was in the same room as his newest female member of his team either, who was busily engaged installing a surveillance system. Harry laughed as she related this to him later. “Alice would be proud of you. It’s her three favourite words, backup, backup, and backup”. Hermione asked hesitantly, “Do you think she’d be willing to help out here?. I’ll admit, she’s bloody scary, but she keeps a cool head and she has some extraordinary Legilimency skills that none of the rest of us have, including Severus”.

Harry thought this over, maybe it was time to bring her in, she did seem to understand tricky situations and had a fine head for strategy. That night he called her and agreed to meet her the following day at the Bunkers. She was working and he had agreed to lead a few of Minerva’s sessions as she had a bad head cold while he was effectively grounded for now.

He was sitting in her Bunker with a cup of tea in front of him as he told her, “We’ve found his new hide-out. Quite by accident. As it happens, the company I work for have been awarded the decorating contract. Right now, Hermione and Dean are creating plans of the house and Hermione is fitting a secret Mundane surveillance system embedded into the plaster with cameras in the main rooms with microphones in all of the rooms”. Alice thought a moment, “That girl is fucking smart. She’s learned at the school of hard knocks”. The woman smiled, “She wouldn’t have been nearly as freaked at the gun as you were. I recognise a bit of a kindred spirit here, and she knows the value of backup. I like her. So why are you here, Harry? Come to recruit me, have you?. Count me in, if the others want me, this is your show after all”.

“Actually, it was her idea to ask you”, Harry mumbled, “Although I’m more than happy if you’d get involved. Please?”. The woman shrugged, “You’ve got my number, but I’ll need to be included in the Magicals only sessions from now on and Severus and I need to do some serious work on any skills I may have, you know, this mind-reading malarkey”.

As they both had a little spare time on their hands, they went into Bunker 7 and Harry tested her wandcraft abilities so far. “Not bad”, he breathed as she levitated the bookcase full of books without spilling one single volume from the shelves. “If I need a delicate touch, I always imagine books. I love them so much”, she shrugged as she lowered it again and with a flick muttered the finite incantatem. Merlin!, this woman had really improved. She caught his eye and he couldn’t look away as his mind was ruthlessly rifled through, despite all efforts to snap his shields into place, she simply shredded them. He sat, agape, as she sifted through his memories with a calm face and plucked out a few innocent ones to view. He knew she was leaving him his privacy, but only because she chose to.

“Merlin! Alice. What the fuck are you?”. She grinned ferally, “Another target. Just like you”. With that she stood and turned her back on him and rolled up the hem of her t-shirt. Just below her ribs to the left of her spine was a perfect lightning bolt scar.

“I’ve been feeling this weird alien voice in my head since I killed my father. At first I thought it was my guilty conscience talking, but I usually shut it out with no problem, but occasionally I would detach myself and listen in. It was when I realised the transmissions, for want of a better word, were in some foreign language that I didn’t know, lots of sibilants, and sort of hisses. I just tuned them out”.

Harry was staring hard at her and whispered, “Do you have a picture of a snake anywhere? I know it’s an odd request, but, please?” She stared back, went to her shelves and dug up a brightly coloured volume on snakes of Brazil. He quickly flipped the pages, smiled at the photo, then said something in Parseltongue.

Alice started, “Wow, yes. That’s the language, but I thought I was good at languages. I don’t recognise this one”. She was so calm about it all and Harry was melting on the inside. SHE’D LISTENED TO VOLDEMORT AND CALMLY TUNED HIM OUT BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T RECOGNISE THE LANGUAGE. Just like that!. Harry was completely gobsmacked.

“Harry. Earth to Harry. Are you all right?”. He stopped staring into space and stared at her instead, “Sorry, Alice. I need to talk to the others”, he whispered, dropped the picture book on her desk and staggered from her Bunker leaving the doors open. She could hear his bike spark to life and she sank into her chair, her head in her hands, she was smiling fit to burst.

Harry stopped a little way away from the place as the information sank in. He had to stop the bike and shake for a while, then took out his phone and texted folk, “Meet us at mine and Draco’s after work, you need to hear this”.

Everyone wondered what the excitement was all about and all turned up at the boys’ flat. Harry was pale and pacing about, thoroughly rattled. His lover, Severus and Remus all tried to calm him, to no avail. White and trembling, he relayed that afternoon’s conversation with Alice and the implications, then once more was responsible for a bombshell that shook the group to the core, “She also has a scar identical to mine on her back”.

The room was silent. The words, ‘hear’, ‘pin’, drop’ were uppermost but no-one articulated them. Harry spoke first, “She spoke of being another ‘target’, like me”. Harry had a little distance now from the conversation as an idea occurred. He called her, she answered in a few rings, “I’m on my way to Scotland. Whassup, Harry?”. He haltingly asked her her birthdate. She laughed and asked him why he needed to know. “If you want to put me on your birthday card list, I’m flattered. As a matter of fact, it’s the same as yours, Harry, July 31st”. Harry had put his phone on speaker so all could hear. He thanked her and rang off.

All were silent once more as this sunk in. “The old Magical texts are always written with the male pronoun. They hadn’t heard of feminism in those days”, Hermione was the first to break the silence. Harry shot her a look. She knew of the Prophecy as did the others. Seamus spoke up next, “Sounds like we need her on board”. There was a general murmur of assent. “She wants to be included in our sessions and her wandcraft is strong. I tested her today. She can lift the bookcase and still carry on a conversation. She can cast without looking at the object. Almost casually. It was as if it is nothing to her”. There were only three such who could cast in this manner in the room. Severus, Remus and Harry.

“And he/she will have power the Dark Lord knows not............, born as the seventh month dies.....The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches......, and the Dark Lord will mark him/her as his equal”, the phrases were jumbled in his head as Harry dreamed that night, thrashing and volatile and uncertain. Draco had to contain him, holding him close and channelling the shudders that passed through him.

He’d always known Harry to face his trials with resignation but also equanimity, he’d read fear from his lover but never anything like this, pure dumbstruck, rabbit-in-the-headlights awe. A true equal. Draco had long ago realised that he would always play second string to his lover and over time had accepted this, but this woman bore a scar like his, shared a birthday, maybe....just maybe... the prophecy wasn’t meant for Harry at all. It was all about the powers that he knew not. Most folk knew of Harry’s powers in the Magical world except the secret lessons he’d had, but this woman was a complete unknown, and in some areas, more powerful, s/he will have powers the Dark Lord knows not, kept ricocheting around his head as he tried to sleep.

He was sorry to wake his lover with his agitation, when he had to work the next day, but Draco was having none of it, kissing Harry until he responded, then kissed him some more until he was focussing on his lover, then took him hard, making his sweet Gryffindor come undone beneath him, then entered him and made him forget for a while as he pile-drived into him, making Harry see stars as they came. They could finally sleep.