The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 06 March 2010

Chapter 82 Where Are They?

“I wish I were going with you.” Becca said to Sal as he got ready to leave with the other four men.

“There is no reason and you need to stay with the children. You can go next time.”

“I will hold you to that promise, Salazar Slytherin.” Becca said seductively just as she leaned up for a goodbye kiss, placing her arms around his neck.

Now, Salazar was not into public displays of affection, and had kept a reserve around Becca just so he could keep his hands off her. But, when she pressed up against him like that, it was very hard to keep his resolve. He wondered if she knew what she was doing to him.

As the kiss started to heat up, Regulus loudly cleared his throat to get their attention. Sal whispered in his fiancé’s ear, “We have an audience and I need to leave. We will pick up this conversation later.”

He then gave her a brief kiss on the top of her head and looked at his traveling companions. “Are we ready to leave?”

As the others nodded, Salazar said “Mission Control” and they were off to Between Manor.

When the men had left, Becca sighed and went into the children’s nursery, Teddy following so he could see Ewan and Wi. Becca looked at the little tike and shook her head. He just couldn’t get his mouth around the name Lillian and instead shortened it to Li or Wi, and sometimes he managed Wiwin.

“An’ Bec’a” Teddy looked up at her to say as he tugged on her shirt, “Cn Teddy fwry?” (Aunt Becca, can Teddy fly?). The young woman smiled at the little boy. She and Tonks had been trying to teach him how to pronounce the ‘L’ sound, but it still didn’t come out right, so now ‘fry’ became ‘fwry’.

“Oh, Sweetie, not here in the nursery, there isn’t really enough room. Would Teddy like to go swimming?” she answered him back. He could fly in the pool room.

“Teddy like fwimmin, An Bec’a” the little boy said with a big smile on his face. (Teddy like swimming, Aunt Becca)

“How about we take Evan and Lillian swimming with us? Would you like that?” Becca smiled down at the toddler. He was so cute with his hair turning bright colors in his excitement.

“Sentry Dobby!” She called out.

“Yes, Mistress Prince? What can Sentry Dobby do for you?”

“Can we have a few security elves set up the swimming pool area for the three children? Are they busy?” Becca asked the excitable elf.

“Oh, no, Mistress Becca, we are not busy. The Masters Prince said to have extra elves on duty to help Mistress Becca with the children. Sentry Dobby has three elves including Dobby to help you today.”

Becca wasn’t sure she needed three sentry elves, although they were to protect the children, even if it was from drowning. The nanny elf would be coming too. But, she thought, the more the merrier.

“Nanny Minty!” Becca called to another elf.

When the little elf popped into the nursery, she curtsied nicely and bowed her head. “Yes Mistress Prince?”

“We are going to the pool room, please pack things for the children and help me get them there. We will be staying for lunch.”

“Yes Mistress Becca” All of a sudden things started flying through the room into the babies carry bags. The double stroller was placed at the doorway and Becca picked up Lillian first and put her in the stroller then Evan. They were strapped in and just a few minutes later they were all ready to leave for the pool area.

The room was still decorated as the undersea Great Barrier Reef. Teddy pointed to a few of the starfish, seahorses and coral floating above his head. They spread out a blanket on the floor (the elves had already made it like soft sand) and placed a few toys on it for Lillian and Evan. Teddy pulled on Becca’s shirt to get her attention.

“Teddy, fwry now, An Bec’a?” (Teddy, fly now, Aunt Becca?) the toddler asked earnestly. His big hazel eyes like round saucers at the thought of getting on his little kiddie broom again. It was his favorite toy. Becca didn’t know about Remus, but she knew the child must have gotten the love of flying from his mother.

“Yes, Sweetie, you may fly. Make sure you tell Sentry Dobby before you get on the broom and when you are finished, you can go swimming.”

Teddy pulled his broom out of his carry bag with some of his other toys for the pool and then remembered what his aunt said. “Senty Dobb!” The little boy called out.

When the elf popped by the young Master’s side, the little boy was so excited he was jumping up and down saying “An Bec’a sayed Teddy fwry! Teddy hav ta tew Senty Dobb ta wat Teddy.” It was only the fact that Sentry Dobby had spent so many hours with the children that he understood what the child meant. (Aunt Becca said that Teddy could go flying. Teddy had to tell Sentry Dobby so he could watch him.)

“Would Master Teddy like Sentry Dobby to watch him fly?” the elf asked the toddler.

Teddy nodded his head up and down a few times before holding up his broom and mounting it. He saw the elf watching him so he rose about forty five centimeters off the floor and started flying across the room. Soon the little rascal was flying over the water and dipping his bare feet into the pool. Becca was glad the little child’s broom was spelled to go slow. She was sure that if it would go faster, Teddy would be going at breakneck speeds around the whole room.

Becca watched from her seat on the sidelines as Evan was walking holding the Nanny elf’s hands. He took a few tentative steps before falling on his bottom, only to try again. One of the Sentry elves was rolling a ball around for Lillian and Becca raised her face to the warm magical sunshine as the children played.

She didn’t have to worry about Teddy falling into the pool. Not only were there security guards to help him, but the pool was spelled so that unless you really wanted to swim, you could only go in up to your chest. If Teddy fell in any part of the pool, he would only go in so far and if he was face down, the water would float him to the top of the pool and solidify so no water could get in his lungs, then an alarm would go off. Unless learning to swim with an adult, the safety features could not be deactivated even with accidental magic.

At a manor in an undisclosed location…

The man in black robes was pacing in an angry fury. He had let off a few stray curses just to relieve some of the built up anger and magic that had collected in his system. His magical core was feeding off the rage that was becoming increasingly uncontrollable as each minute ticked by.

“Where is he?” he asked no one in particular in the room. “I have not seen any of the nitwits that left yesterday and they should have been back here with those kids. How long does it take to collect two squib teenagers?” He screamed into the room.

Those of the inner circle that were available were kneeling in the room and staying very still, not even daring to flinch when a stray curse left the man’s wand and got near to where someone was bowing in entreaty.

“Belletrix, you will tell me where that brother in law of yours happens to be at this moment!” the angry Dark Lord screamed at one of his followers.

“I do not know my Lord, but I will be happy to start searching if you would like.”

“If I would like?” the Dark Lord screamed in his impatience. “Of course I would like! All of you should be searching for the team I sent out yesterday! WORMTAIL!” He shouted.

“Y…Y…Yes M…Master?” the rat of a man stuttered at the command.

“You will go to Hogwarts and spy on the old man for me. You must ascertain if he found out about our raid last night and see if he took prisoners. AND FIND OUT WHO LEAKED THE INFORMATION!” The Dark Lord screamed again as he continued his pacing while the others in the room were waiting to be dismissed.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Get out here and find my followers!” shrieked the man, his tone almost to the point of showing signs of dementia.

The five people in the room couldn’t get out of there fast enough. They knew they would have to go to the family members and torture the answers out of them.

At Between Manor…

Just as Salazar and the others lifted the lids of the three trunks in the room, screams could be heard throughout the area. “Merlin” Salazar shouted to the above the others, “what is their problem?”

Snape looked into the trunk that he was standing beside with his usual blank mask on his face. His look then turned to one of amusement as he stated, “I believe someone is trying to summon them” he said casually.

All four men looked down into the trunks as the men twitched and screamed. Salazar made the observation, “If that’s what it is like to follow that pathetic psychopath, then why do they?” No one missed the stress he put on the words ‘pathetic psychopath’.

“They don’t know what it is like until they join, and after they join, it is too late to get away.” Regulus stated. “I can only tell you that I owe Harry and Severus my life.” The young man flexed his left arm in remembrance of the times he had been summoned and had not been able to answer right away.

“Do you think they want to still be tied to that megalomaniac?” Salazar asked the men. All the while they had to talk loud to be heard above the screams.

All of a sudden the screams stopped just as Regulus said loudly, “I guess we would have to ask them. I wonder what else they know about Voldemort’s plans.”

“You won’t get anything out of us you traitor!” Rebastian Lestrange shouted from his confinement.

“Yeah?” Regulus shouted back, “Then you can stay there and suffer. It doesn’t matter to us how much you are tortured by that mad man you call a Lord.”

“I think we should take them and interrogate them one at a time to see what we can find out.” Salazar said, knowing the prisoners could hear what they were saying now that the screaming had stopped.

One by one they removed the men from their trunks. Under interrogation with veritaserum, out of the twenty four men, three admitted that they never wanted to follow the demonic devil in the first place. They had been forced to take the mark by their fathers.

Four admitted that they were forced to take the mark because their families were either being watched or under house arrest, by other followers. Forcible recruitment, Regulus called it. These people were desperately worried about their loved ones and Salazar dispatched a note to Gorbink to locate them and remove them from harm. Out of the seventeen left two said they had wanted to join the Dark Lord for the blood purity, but had already been rethinking even before reading the book and understanding that what they were doing would not help. They just didn’t know who to contact for the new strategy.

That left fifteen that would remain true to the mad man. Salazar shook his head. He would never understand why these people wanted to suffer at the hands of an idiot. The prisoners were redistributed to separate the ones that wanted to leave the Dark Lord’s side. About two hours later, Salazar received a communication parchment that said all the families were safe. They also received a trunk with seven more Death Eaters.

“Looks like Gorbink and his tribe were having fun.” The older wizard said humorously, before he and the others started the interrogations all over again, with the new prisoners. Salazar hadn’t even thought of the possibility of having more captured followers from this. “Voldemort must be having a really bad day.” He laughed. These prisoners were not very cooperative so he left them in the same trunk after healing their wounds, at least they were mostly superficial. Yes, the goblins were a bloodthirsty lot and it was not a good idea to be on their bad side.

He was not inclined to give the prisoners any pain potion, however, knowing they would suffer more if their leader ever caught them after they failed him.

Regulus, Moony and Snape busied themselves with warding a section of the living quarters so the nine men that had wanted to get away from Voldemort could stay a little more comfortably. Salazar was busy removing the dark marks. They were not going to give the men their freedom yet, but would let them have their own rooms and more reading material. When Reg, Moony and Snape walked into the living area, they were shocked to see portraits of the founders there.

They soon found out these were not the same portraits that they had trained with, these were the portraits that were left for Remus Sr. from the other time line. Salazar hadn’t found a way to move them to another time, but this place was between time lines and they could be moved here and retain their animation. The men smiled as they could imagine the berating the nine prisoners were going to get for following a mad man in the first place. Rowena could do a good lecture, citing chapter and paragraph of various rules and regulations of the Wizengamot.

As the four men prepared to leave, Salazar told the prisoners he would be back in a week to send them back to their families. He just didn’t tell them that when he did, he would be sending them three months into the future so they would be presumed dead to the followers of Voldemort. One could not be found by Death Eaters if one was not there.


At a castle in Scottland…

A rat was waiting at the base of the gargoyle that guarded the headmaster’s office. He was waiting for someone to come and visit the headmaster so he could slip in and find out what was going on. If anyone had attacked the strike team that was sent out yesterday by Voldemort, it had to be the headmaster and his Order of the Phoenix. Who else would have the manpower and resources to do that?

After sitting there for about fifteen minutes, someone finally came and issued the password to the ugly stone gargoyle. The rat animagus slipped inside as the stairs moved up to the office he wanted to stake out.

“…mean you are bringing those squibs to live in the magical world? They can’t live here; they will never be accepted and will have a hard time surviving in this world!” Dumbledore was saying in a slightly raised voice. The rat climbed up a shelf so it could peek out and better see what was going on. There was one of the Order members having a discussion with the old coot.

“You don’t understand. The children said that they were attacked by Death Eaters and that a group of people came to rescue them. I will not take the chance that my brother or sister might come to harm. They need to be protected and I can protect them better at home. It is enough that our parents are dead.”

“They will be fine with their muggle aunt.” Dumbledore insisted. “You said a group of people came to help them. Do we know who it is?” The rat watched as the headmaster motioned for McGonagall to sit while he finished his conversation with the Order member.

“I thought it might be some people you sent. Didn’t you?” the young woman asked.

“Of course dear, we want to keep these things unmentioned.” The gleam in the headmaster’s eyes would have given him away if any one had noticed. Yes, he thought, I will take credit for this and others will be more ready to follow me.

“Thank you Professor Dumbledore” the young woman said. She was grateful for the help the man had given her, but she knew she was moving her family back into the magical community. No matter what the old coot said.

The next day…

Just as they had arranged, Rita Skeeter delayed the story so they could see what Dumbledore and Voldemort were going to do. But now was the big day of the unveiling of the attack at Rassendorf.

ATTACK AT RASSENDORF
DEATH EATERS DEFEATED BEFORE ATTACK BEGINS

In a display of uncommon unity, a group of several different magical races attacked Death Eaters on their way to decimating the small village of Rassendorf. Wanting to remain anonymous they simply said “We are leveling the playing field”. This reporter saw first hand….


The four adults that sat around the Prince dining room table looked at the ‘Daily Prophet’ headlines with mild humor.

“I wonder what Dumbledore is going to say about this?” Harry speculated quietly. His husband looked at him with amusement and suggested they go look at the mirrors that he and Salazar brought back from Hogwarts. So far they hadn’t used them much as their attention was distracted with other matters.

“Off to the viewing room then?” said Salazar with a smirk as he used his napkin after he was finished his breakfast and stood up. He held out his hand to Becca, who took it and allowed him to help her from her chair. She just loved his ‘old world charm’ gestures sometimes. Harry and Severus followed them into the viewing room they had set up for just such an occasion.

It was quite amusing to watch the headmaster fuming at not knowing what was going on. They watched as he flooed one person after the other looking for information; only slightly distracted at the thought that he really needed a mini floo when they saw his difficulty at getting off the floor. Finally they saw Rita enter his office through the floo. They listened intently.

“I will not reveal my sources even if I could, Headmaster.” The woman told him. “I have given an oath and even then, they didn’t tell me who they really were. They wore masks and odd clothes. So, although we were introduced of sorts by another party, the people that prevented the attack were not introduced by name.” She ended her statement with an air of superiority.

“You wrote about people you don’t even know? How did you get your information?” the old man asked suspiciously.

“I was there” the reporter said simply. Ending the conversation with a “Good day, Headmaster” and leaving by the same floo she had entered from. The Headmaster sat in his chair with a pensive look on his face. He decided to write to the ‘Daily Prophet’ and try to undermine this subversive group that was taking away his glory.

To the Editor of The Daily Prophet,

{It has come to my attention that there is a group of vigilantes that have entered our war with You-Know-Who, and we must pause to take a step back and wonder at their motives. If this group is on the side of the light, why have they not aligned with the light? I have to object to the glorification of their actions when we do not know the reason behind them. Is it to give the magical community a hope that will only be refuted in the end?}


Albus Dumbledore continued in this same vein for several more paragraphs before signing his name and many titles to the parchment.

Severus scoffed when the headmaster called an owl to take the parchment to the newspaper. He wondered how much damage could be done with such a letter but knew they would do nothing about damage control for now. The ‘Daily Prophet’ would print anything that would sell more newspapers. Of course that was what kept them in business and as long as Rita kept her promise, and he had no reason to think she wouldn’t, he would not object to other articles that they may feel the need to publish. This part of the war was not with Dumbledore. They had decided to focus on one enemy at a time and right now that was Voldemort.

Their conversation was interrupted by Cook Tippy that popped into the room.

“Masters Prince, sirs, you must come back to the dining room. Cook Tippy saw several ‘Daily Prophet’ papers on the table, all with different headlines. She was cleaning up breakfast and setting up for lunch when papers appeared on the table.

They hurriedly returned to the dining room to see six different newspapers on the table, all of them with a portkey and time turner attached and all about attacks within the next week.

Harry looked at the table and said wearily, “And so it begins.”