The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 27 February 2010

Chapter 80 Ready or Not, Here We Come

When Harry and Becca had arrived back at the manor, Harry put the children down in the nursery and contemplated what he had said to James. He knew things would be different, but he couldn't help but wonder about his own parents and why they hadn't thought to do some of the things he had suggested to the couple of this time line. He remembered the box that had come from the attic that Becca had gotten when she rescued him. He had put it in the back of the wardrobe, afraid of what he might find in it. He knew that his Gryffindor courage should be able to sustain him through it, but the box could contain anything and he was not sure he wanted the memories that would go with it. He hadn't noticed how long he had been in the room with the babies until his husband came in and gently spoke to him.

"Harry, are you alright?" Severus asked with his voice full of concern.

"Huh? Oh, yeah fine." Harry answered a little distractedly.

"Then why are you sitting in here instead of in the dining room eating dinner?"

"Lost track of time I suppose."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

"What ever it is on your mind that has you so distracted."

"It's nothing, the babies are asleep now, lets go eat."

Severus took his hand and pulled him up out of the rocking chair. He knew something was bothering his mate, and he would be sure to find out later. For now, they made their way to the dining room and sat down to eat with the others.

Harry was overly quiet all evening. Severus didn't think he had strung two words together except "Uh huh" and "Yeah, alright". He didn't even think Harry remembered what anyone said.

Later that night when they were getting ready for bed, after checking on the babies, Severus approached Harry again about what was on his mind. His husband had been in a melancholy mood all evening and he though it might be something to do with his visit to the Potters.

"Harry" he said gently, "please tell me what is wrong."

"It was just seeing the Potters. I was wondering why my parents didn't leave me some memories or something to let me know they cared. There is a box in the wardrobe that I have never looked in. It was taken from the Dursley's house when Becca collected my things. I was thinking, maybe I should check and see if there is something in there from my mother. I... I am not sure I can handle it. If it turns out to be nothing important, I would be disappointed. If it is something important, I'm not sure I can handle the emotions of seeing something from my parents."

"Would you like me to look at it for you?" Severus asked. He wasn't sure he could handle the flood of emotions connected to Lily's memorabilia either, but he would help his husband any way that he could.

Harry seemed to pull himself together and looked at his husband. “No, I think I will wait until after tomorrow. I don’t want to be distracted in battle.”

“Harry, you are distracted now and I don’t really want you coming if you are not focused. Maybe you should skip this one. There will be other battles you can go to, to get your revenge.” Severus smirked at him.

“No, it is not fair to ask others to do something I am not prepared to do myself. I will be fine Sev. It was just going to the Potter's today that brought up the feelings.”

"You know I love you, right?" Severus put his arms around the depressed teen and whispered, "Let's go to bed and dream of pleasant things."

They got ready for bed and when they were comfortable, Severus with his arms around his lover. It took them a long time to go to sleep. Harry worried about the box and Severus worried about Harry.

Then next morning......

The dining room was packed with people. Evidently there was no shortage of people that wanted to get a little of their own back on the Death Eaters that had tormented their families, neighbors, or friends. Even Sentry Dobby and a few of his underlings were willing and ready and actually had their own battle gear that fit them perfectly. It seems Seamstress Sissy and the goblins had been very busy.

Salazar had indeed gotten a pretty good picture of the events in his time mirror. He brought the memory of the battle (if you could call it that), Salazar wanted to call it a slaughter. When he put the memory in a pensieve, it was Severus and Harry that said a spell together in some guttural unknown language and moved the image to the wall so everyone could see it at one time.

"Where did you learn that?" Salazar wanted to know.

The two men smiled for the first time that morning and answered together, "Arbulee"

Everyone watched the screen as a group of five death eaters apparated into the town center and started the fires as a group of twenty spread around the outskirts of the town, to keep people penned in. They were positioned about fifteen to twenty meters apart. A few of the teenagers were captured and Severus gave a shudder at what he knew they would be used for.

All those in the room that were going, had been fitted for their gear the day before. They had practiced with the spells and trunks they would be using, and everyone felt more than ready to meet the challenge of saving the village. After some heavy discussions with Tonks, Remus talked her into staying to help Becca with the children. He had to promise to give her a pensieve memory of the battle and to let her go next time. Remus, who had the most experience in war conflict, was going to this one since he had said the same thing Harry did. "I can't send people in there if I won't go myself". If both parents went into battle, there was a risk of their child becoming an orphan.

It had also been decided that this was the only battle in which Harry and Severus would be going together. After this, they would not be fighting together, unless it was something really big. Each of the men knew just what it would mean if they were both killed in an attack. They were hoping to avoid that by eliminating Death Eaters one by one.

Harry and Severus arrived in the village approximately two hours ahead of the attack. They were wearing muggle clothes to blend in with the crowd and scouting out the area. Rita was in her animagus form on Harry's shoulder (she was still trying to understand how he knew about it, no one knew, she didn't even know until a few months ago).

It was a quaint little town. The villagers were going to their different businesses and a few cars going to and from their destinations. It was not a congested area and the shops were still open for business. He didn't know why the Death Eaters had chosen to do this in the daylight, for it would make being discrete that much more difficult.

The Prince family made an agreement with Rita Skeeter. She would be the unofficial news reporter for Prince Conglomerate, but only if she wrote the unembellished truth. They would call her whenever they knew a story was 'juicy' and she would get all the exclusives. The woman had been working her way into the news related field for the past ten years, but because she was labeled a half-blood in her youth, it had been difficult. When she had heard about the squib born not being muggle born, she had gone to Gringotts, not only to get her own story, but to take the inheritance test as well. Although she was not from a famous blood line, it had been revealed that she was a pureblood witch and entitled to a small vault and some family heirlooms. Now the Princes were giving her a chance to get in on the stories that others would never find.

When Severus and Harry noticed a Pavilion in the middle of the town square, they knew they could use that as ground cover. It was a raised platform, easy enough to hide under. As they walked around they discretely placed notice me not charms around the area where the Death Eaters would arrive, and then they hid under the pavilion. They placed one of the trunks they would be using at the bottom of the stairs in it’s miniaturized form and decided to wait for the show.

Sentry Dobby had popped to where the couple was, and reported that all the others were in their places and hidden from view. Harry chuckled when Sentry Dobby was standing straight up and he and Severus were lying on the ground. The space under the pavilion was only about a meter high. Dobby still had ten or fifteen centimeters to spare when he was standing up straight.

It was half past four and the information they had, said the attack began approximately at five in the evening. Everyone was in place and was ready to erect the anti apparation wards as soon as the Death Eaters were in sight. Harry and Severus put on their gear and waited..., and waited... and waited.

"Sev, when do you think they are coming?" Harry asked, his heart pounding with fear that something had gone wrong. It seemed to be taking forever for the attackers to show up.

"Harry, it's only been fifteen minutes and they could be as late at half past five. Just be patie...."

Pop. Pop. PopPopPop. The sounds of apparation were in the air.

"Now!" Severus whispered hoarsely. He and Harry pointed their wands at the group of five of Voldemort’s sycophants and whispered together, "Expelliramus” and “Incarcerus." Vibrant colored ropes, seven strands thick, came from both wands; each rope winding around the men in the opposite direction of the other, even as ten wands flew through the air to the two wizards under the pavilion. Harry laughed, they had not only the wands belonging to the Death Eaters; they had their spare wands also. When they were finished, the five Death Eaters looked like a butterfly cocoon and were completely incapacitated. Harry enlarged the acromantula trunk that had been placed at the bottom of the stairs of the raised platform, while Severus levitated the whole group to land inside the box. They had been shouting and screaming until the lid of the trunk slammed shut and cut of the cacophony of sounds the five men were making.

Harry just had to state the obvious, "Five down, and twenty to go."

At the same time Harry and Severus were taking care of their sector, Regulus and Moony were one of the ten, two man, teams on the outskirts of the village. They were hidden in an invisible trunk and were looking through the 'peep holes' that had been placed in lower corners, but spelled for a wider range. Who would have thought a muggle invention would be used in a wizard trunk? Small holes (about five centimeters in diameter) had been drilled at the base of the trunk. These were just large enough to slip a wand through. Because the inside of the trunk was spelled larger than the outside, both men had plenty of room to stand up and look through the peep holes and use their wands.

Soon they heard the sound of popping. One was approximately five meters away from where Moony was standing and the other was about ten meters away from Regulus. Perfect, they both sent stunners to the two men and after summoning their wands, they carefully levitated the men into a trunk designed to hold them until they could be questioned. After a few minutes they got out of their trunk and mounted the brooms they had brought with them. Shrinking their hiding place, they levitated the trunk with the prisoners and moved to see if the others needed help and to collect other prisoners on the way. They found three more Death Eaters on the ground as they zipped around looking for their cohorts.

In the visual of the attack, they had seen twenty Voldemort sycophants surrounding the small village. Each of them approximately fifteen to twenty meters apart. The strategy was to place a two man team between every two of the scum. The layout would then be, one Death Eater then ten meters later a two man team then two Death Eaters and another two man team until they surrounded the entrances to the small town. Every team would have an enemy on each side. But they were sure that some of the attackers would not land exactly where they thought they would and there was always the possibility the mirror didn't show everything.

Remus Sr. was paired with Snape and they were hiding behind the shrubbery in their sector. When the Death Eaters popped into their section, Remus was able to knock one down, but the Death Eater on Snape's side saw the spell coming and was able to block it. As soon as he realized he was under attack, he tried to apparate out of the area. Snape was able to get another stunner off as the other man was concentrating on apparating, but then bounced off the anti-apparation wards. Remus and Snape then waited to see if any more were going to show up.

Regulus and Moony showed up and put the two new prisoners into the same trunk, always collecting the wands as they went. They now had ten men as they had picked up a few more before arriving to Remus and Snape's sector. The four men nodded to each other as they went on their way. Remus Sr. and Snape were to patrol the area within the last one hundred meters for anyone else trying to infiltrate what had already been ‘swept’. Both Snape and Remus Sr. used a disillusioning charm and mounted their brooms. They kept close to the trees and high in the air to give them some cover in case anyone attacked.

Gorbink and Griphook were with two other goblins, covering one of the two entrances into the village. It had been suggested that if more than two Death Eaters would join the attack it would be at the entrances. As soon as four pops in rapid succession were heard, like muggle gun fire, the goblins quickly put up wards to cage them in and started their attack with swords. One of the Voldemort followers tried to get an Aveda Kedavra off, but the goblin behind him quickly sliced his sword through the air and cut off the man's wand hand. They had been told not to kill anyone. No ever said about maiming them, and goblins were a bloodthirsty culture.

Another goblin cut into a man's ankle when he tried to run and hide, another was just shoved into the prison trunk from the side and never saw it coming. One of the wizards was a young boy, fresh out of Hogwarts and dropped his wand when a goblin had him at knife point in the back while another was holding a sword to his belly in the front. They would interrogate them later to find out who the true followers were and who had been coerced into following what's-his-face.

The four vampires, with their speed and agility had their two sectors clear in one minute flat. The Death Eaters that landed in their areas didn't even see them coming. The prisoners were quickly dragged to where the goblins were, and put into a prison trunk. By the time they reached their cohorts, the prisoners were covered in bumps and bruises and scratches from the underbrush along the path. They were unceremoniously thrown into the prison trunk, without as much as a thought about their comfort. Truly, if they hadn't been tainted with so much evil, the vampires would have been tempted to snack on them. To the vampires, however, evil had a bad aftertaste. The sweet taste of virgin blood was more to their liking.

The goblins and vampires were standing guarding the prisoners when three sharp small pops were heard. They immediately turned to the sound, weapons drawn and ready to decimate the unseen enemy, but they only saw three small house elves standing off to the side of the clearing. Gorbink recognized one of the elves instantaneously and frowned.

“Sentry Dobby, what is the problem?”

“Masters need your help. We will pop you there right now!” One of the elves took a hand each on two of the vampires, Sentry Dobby took a hand each on two of the goblins and turned to the third elf, “You stay and help guard the trunk. I will call you if we need more help.” When the third elf bowed his head in response to his orders, the other two popped to the town pavilion.

They had landed at the back of one of the businesses, when Dobby informed them. “Rebastian Lestrange has taken two captives and Masters are trying not to hurt them while restraining Mr. Lestrange.”

Knowing the reputation the Lestranges had for their barbarism, Sentry Dobby had not even finished his sentence before the goblins and vampires started moving around the building to the pavilion in the open square. They stayed well hidden watching Severus and Harry try to get an opening to shoot the stunning spells. Not knowing if the two captives were muggle or magical, they had to be extra careful. Muggles reacted differently to spells; a simple stunner could stop a muggle’s heart if too strong.

Severus caught sight of their backup first, and then gave a nod to Harry. When Severus tilted his head to the side, he knew exactly what to do. Raising their wands, Severus shouted “Accio girl” just as Harry said “Accio boy” and the two captives were wretched from the arms of their captor even as the vampires stunned the man, took his wand and threw him with a not so gentle levitation spell into the prison trunk.

As the lid of the trunk snapped shut, Severus asked, “Is everyone alright?” All of his people nodded and Harry turned to the two youths that had almost become pet food for the Death Eaters and Voldemort. “Do either of you know what is going on?” Even as he asked the question, he felt a slight weight land on his shoulder. Ah, Rita must have come out of the tree.

The boy nodded. “We are related to someone in the Order that fights against ‘the bad ones’. My sister and I are squibs so we live here with our muggle aunt. We don’t know who you are, but thank you for helping us.” As the young boy spoke, Harry thought they could not be much older than twelve, or thirteen in the case of the sister. Such a travesty if they had actually been taken to ‘the bad man’ as the boy had called him.

They were a strange site to the younger boy and girl. They had on black masks, but the masks did not cover their mouths. They were dressed in fine boots and cloaks and were powerful, that was evident by how quickly things were handled. The young boy looked at Harry curiously and asked, “Who are you and if asked what should we say?” They both lived in a world where the magical was kept secret from the muggle. It was not new to them and the young boy wanted to know what he could tell others when they asked.

His sister was still clinging to Severus and shaking, but he gently disentangled himself from her and handed her over to the brother standing there. Harry answered the young boy’s question, “We would prefer to remain unknown. You may tell others of the attack as I am sure it will be in the Daily Prophet tomorrow and only that someone came to help ‘even the odds’.” Harry said with a smirk. People would find out soon enough who they were.

“Do you know the expression ‘level the playing field’? Harry asked the boy. The youth looked at him and shook his head.

“No”

“It is the concept that every one has a same chance and plays by the same rules as everyone else in a game or competition. You may tell others that someone came to ‘level the playing field’.” Harry told the boy cryptically.

The boy got a grin across his face and said, “Yes Sir.” Then he looked at his sister and said, “Come on Sis, it’s all over and we’re safe.” As the boy was leaving he turned around again and said, “Thanks mister!”

Harry and Severus watched the two young ones go and looked around. The others were gathering around and Salazar came towards them. “It seems everything is clear. I do believe we managed to collect all the attackers that came. I heard you two had a little bit of excitement.”

As they were standing there, the others apparated into the town square also to report. Everyone was fine and no one sustained injuries. They all knew they would not always be that lucky, but with their resources they could be better prepared than anyone else.

Harry, who could still feel the slight weight on his shoulder said, “That’s it Rita, not much excitement but it is an exclusive. Don’t print about the kids being related to someone in the Order. You will make them targets for every Death Eater out there. Just say that Lestrange had two captives and leave it at that. Alright, off you go. Make us proud of your work. We look forward to seeing it in tomorrow’s paper.” With that said the small beetle left the shoulder of the young leader and flew off to write her story.

Severus cancelled the anti-apparation wards to allow the elves and goblins to get back to their homes. Then Harry took out three portkeys and placed them on each of the prison trunks.

“Mission Control” he said without hesitation and sent the trunks where no one would find them. The missive from the future said Becca’s two grandfathers would arrive in about May to Between Manor. That would be at least two months from now. Harry had attached a note to the trunks letting them know what was in them. The captives would be alright if not very bored. The trunks had a kitchen spelled to restock and a bathroom and beds. Of course they would have to clean up after themselves and cook for themselves and there were several books, all written by the Prince family, for them to read. Perhaps they would learn something.