A Dark Time For The Light

95

Sunday was a lovely relaxed day or a pitiful painful day depending on who you were and how much had been imbibed the previous night. Harry and Draco had king-sized hangovers and lay about waiting for painkillers to act. Hermione and Ginny were disgustingly chirpy as they’d mainly ingested chemicals but not much in the way of alcohol. Severus and Remus were in a mellow mood as they rose to the surface, spending a deliciously decadent day together without the benefit of clothing, either wrapping gowns about them or just flitting around the flat naked. Remus stretched out long like a cat across their bed and Severus’ breath caught in his throat at the sight as he returned from the bathroom. Remus slowly blinked, licking his lips, his eyes half opening, “C’m’ere, Sev. Want you”, the half-smile driving his beloved wild.

Severus obliged. Covering his lover with his body, sliding them together, getting lost in the deliciousness that was a Sunday afternoon with the love of his life, the knot of want and anticipation building and unravelling in his belly, then taking his Wolf hard, penetrating to his depths, then a slow fuck that made the two of them see stars as they came together as only veteran lovers can, those who are totally in tune. Severus hanging on by a thread as Remus came first, then joining him in sweet release, ploughing deep and hot, murmuring love and obscenity into his beloved’s ear as he pumped come into his beloved’s body, both a boneless mess that slept again, Severus still buried deep. Then the waking, more kisses, more loving, more sleep, restful and restorative, food, nourishment, then more sex, more sleep, a little TV in the evening wrapped together, then a delicious early night. They meant to sleep again, honest officer, but Severus could not resist that shy tongue, then the insistent mouth around his cock, then being thoroughly taken by his Wolf, his arse plundered, his body just gave it up, worshipping the love of his life. Both slept deeply wearing nothing but each other and wide smiles.

The planning meeting was held on the Wednesday afternoon. Hermione fretted. Ginny tried to calm her, but failed, the girl pacing to and fro in front of the whiteboard in Alice’s bunker. All noticed the oasis of calm that was Severus and Remus, the Wolf settling in his man’s arms at the meeting. Something had changed again since the trip to Hogwarts. Harry was slightly envious. He wanted to be like they were, so in love, and hang who saw. Remus was coming back to them, despite his persistent tiredness, an after-effect of the chemotherapy. Severus was just so damned glad that his husband was still alive and wasn’t afraid to show it. They all thought it was sweet. Near-death could do that to a body. Draco glanced at his Harry who echoed the movements, gathering Draco to him and holding on for dear life, kissing his hair, feeling his lover relax against him. Alice and Hermione compared notes on who should be in the front lines and who should be backup and found they were both nearly identical which made the ladies cackle between themselves. Severus had nothing to say. Let the experts do the planning and he would go along with it.

Eventually Alice and Hermione came out of their huddle and Alice sat down while Hermione commanded the attention of the Bunker fastening the sheets of plans to the whiteboard behind her. She was addressing the mainly front line folks. Ranged around the table were, Alice and Tony, Harry and Draco, Remus and Severus, Minerva and Hortense, Cissie and Jenny, Colin and Ginny who were to feed back to Dean and the rest of the House currently at work, Blaise, sitting in for Ron, the baby in his lap asleep plus Alastor and Tonks who were also going to comprehensively dowse the house of Voldemort in a week’s time.

The plan for the big day consisted of two separate diversions at other locations in the country to draw the attentions of the Death-Eaters. One, a minor infraction of the Magical Embargo to take place on the Edinburgh side of Scotland, to hopefully draw away the younger Death-Eaters, and one much more major in south Yorkshire somewhere, that would draw heavier troops to investigate, committed by the Manchester cadre, hopefully to split the Death-Eaters into three groups.

“We need to hire vans, load them with a few folk and drive away from the particular cadre. Kilmarnock needs to make it look like kids messing about, leave the Magical signature, then get the hell out. If the Death-Eaters apparate to the spot, they can’t catch up with the van even if they can see it and you can’t Apparate onto a moving vehicle, not without severe personal risk of splinching. A train possibly or a large slow-moving ship, but not a small vehicle”.

She continued, “Manchester must do something much bigger, to attract the bigger guns, maybe some Apparation practice at Brimham Rocks or something. Same deal, leave a strong signature and bugger off fast, maybe split up in more and smaller vehicles. Meanwhile we swoop on Voldiedude’s house and take out the biggies first, then mop up the other two groups as they return. We do no Apparation whatsoever. We will go in and come out by Muggle methods only, that way, if you hear an Apparation ‘pop’ behind you, you can just turn and kill or maim that person without fearing that it’s one of our side”. She gazed around the table at the thoughtful faces, to see Severus’ mouth twisted into a grin.

“What’s up, Sev?”, Harry asked. “Voldie-dude?”, Severus spluttered. Hermione giggled, “Josie’s name for him, it takes some of his power away somehow. I mean a dead guy is a dead guy, right, whether by Magical means or a bullet between the friggin’ eyes”, her own eyes widened, “And, let’s face it, all that ‘he-who-shall-not-be-named’ crap just feeds into the fear and paranoia, just like the boy-who-lived schtick, no offense, Harry”.

Harry grinned, “None taken. Will you be able to see everything in the house on your palm-top as we go?”. “Yup. One of us can direct troop movements from outside the wards, flick between cameras, keep us from any ambushes or nasty surprises. We may have to do something to ward the cellar door, too, seeing as we have no surveillance down there, that’s our blind spot”. Tony volunteered to sit in the van beyond the wards with the Blackberry, “I’m pretty good with the technology and I was in the Army for twelve years, if that helps”. Hermione squealed, “Helps!!, that’s fuckin’ perfect. Thanks”. Tony grinned sheepishly, “I don’t want to be too far from Al, either”, he flung a long arm around his wife’s shoulders.

Next Hermione posted her lists of who she thought should be in the troop lines. The only difference between hers and Alice’s list was Blaise and that was because Alice had forgotten that the two boys had a child. Of the three couples with small children that Harry had requested fighting alongside him, Roland was to stay in Scotland with his and Lavender’s baby, Angelina had just given birth so only Lee would be present and Harry definitely wanted Ron by his side. Blaise was a bit miffed, but saw the point and didn’t get in a twist about it, just held little Freya closer. Of the other cadres, Pansy and fifteen others would be travelling down to London the week after the next recce, to be joined by thirty or so of the Kilmarnock crew including Neville and the Patil sisters and Ernie Macmillan and Justin and seven others from the small Leeds cadre.

It all seemed so cold and clinical somehow, like a lesson at school, the group around the table, the ‘teacher’ at the front using her wand as a pointer at the board. His hold relaxed on Draco and Harry buried his face in Draco’s shoulder, his body thrumming with tension. Draco reached back and buried a hand in Harry’s hair, then turned to see the troubled light in Harry’s eyes, he threw his arms around his beloved and let their foreheads touch. He murmured something only Harry could hear, kissing his brow and Harry gave a shy smile and relaxed a little into the embrace. He mumbled a reply and Draco tightened his hold, pulling Harry to him. It was obvious to all that Harry was shaking. Draco ignored everyone and shut them into a unit of two, a finger lifting Harry’s face and clear grey eyes finding Harry’s and they locked gazes. Harry looked guilty and tried to look down, but Draco prevented him, murmuring fast and urgently so no-one else could hear, then kissed Harry gently on the mouth and held him close.

Hermione came round the table and dropped to a crouch beside Harry’s chair taking his hand, “It’s no use asking if you’re okay, ‘cos you quite obviously are not”. Harry smiled weakly down at her, “You’re right, I’m shit scared of facing him again. I hoped that I could just run and hide and try to live like a Muggle again, but these damn Prophecies have a way of sneaking up on you...”, his voice faded and his shoulders shook again and he felt a complete idiot as tears coursed down his cheeks. Draco rocked him in his arms, his eyes closed, his lips ghosting in Harry’s hair.

Hermione stood and stroked both boys’ hair as they held each other, then moved back to the front of the table, “We need to figure out this recconaissance for next week”. She took down the lists and rolled them away, leaving the ground plans of the house clipped to the board. Harry felt his attention wander as his beloved held him against his chest, he could feel Draco’s heart beating against his cheek, though at least the shakes had subsided for now. He wiped at his face with the back of his hand and sat up a bit, trying to concentrate, but his mental state was shot to ribbons. Draco let go and stood. He grabbed a random book off a shelf and quirked a questioning brow at Alice, she shrugged in a ‘go-ahead’ way and Draco expertly conjured a large armchair. He sat in it and patted his lap, “Come on, you”, he whispered fondly and Harry smiled then allowed humself to sink onto Draco’s lap with a sigh. Draco swung Harry’s legs across his and took him in his arms again, laying Harry’s distraught head on his own shoulder. They tuned out the rest of the meeting and cuddled and rocked together.

“We’ll need a reliable driver for this and I want to go in fully wired”, Hermione said, with a glance at Alice, who smiled encouragingly. “I’ll go in alone, but I want some folk as backup in the van. We can’t take Harry or you, Alice, until the Mark recognition wards have beern taken down and we daren’t do that until the attack itself, so that leaves Severus and Cissie out, too”, she bowed her head and sighed. “I want Ginny and Ron in on this and Dean, and Neville if he can get back here for then. Terry and Seamus, too, we’ve all worked together as a unit before, plus Miverva as a cat, she can sort of act under the radar, because of the way the system is rigged. I’d like you to plot the grounds for me. I’ll fit you with a tiny camera on your collar”. Minerva nodded her acquiescence.

“I’d love you there, too, Remus, as a wolf, but I’m afraid you’ll eat Minerva, so we’ll save you ‘til the big event”, she continued. There were chuckles around the table at this. Remus said, “I could just be plain old me, you know”. Hermione smiled. “Save your energy, sweetie, for the big fight. I want to put something down in that basement, a camera or more likely a microphone. I don’t like black spots in battles. No-one catches us with our drawers round our ankles again”. This earned several guffaws.

Alice rose and went to her land-line and pressed speed dial. She turned her back as she had a hurried conference with whoever was on the other end. She ended the call and turned back to the others, grinning. “Steffie will be your driver to do the recce. She really wants to help. How big a van do you need?” Hermione counted on her fingers, “Seven plus me, plus Tonks and Alastor, ten, and the driver, so that’s eleven all told”. Alice nodded, “No problem. I need to get Dougie’s minibus. It’ll hold fifteen. Is there anyone else you need?”. Hermione nodded. “I want Josie holding the Blackberry, she can guide me when I do stuff in the cellar. I shouldn’t be too long in there, hopefully, but I’m still going in alone to begin with but if it goes tits-up then I want the guys right behind me and if the electronics fail, then Josie will have to come in”.

Alice thought a while, “You know if we outed the electrics or something, we could get you in there legitimately”. Hermione shook her head, “Yuk. I don’t ever want that bastard to ever kiss my hand again. The very idea makes my guts turn over. No, we’ll do this the outlaw way and I’ll have Harry’s cloak in case I have to disappear quick smart. With luck, we won’t run into anybody. He’s supposed to be at Malfoy Manor killing innocent birdies. We will have to disable the wards before I go in”. She was flagging and sat down as the sheer enormity of their tasks sunk in.

Alice saw her slump and decided that now was the time to halt the meeting, “We’ve done enough for today, chaps. Let’s go home and sleep on it all. Keep in touch if anyone thinks up any better plans or can see gaping holes in the plans we have already made”. Hermione tried and failed to stifle a yawn and Ginny took her into her arms, “Come on, you. You need to eat”. The meeting broke up, the majority of the plans in place, just a few details to iron out. Taxis were called and the three bikes pulled away after Alice had locked up. On their way home, Harry and Draco were stopped at traffic lights behind Severus and Remus and Draco saw Harry yawn in the wing mirror. He gave Harry’s middle a gentle squeeze and they exchanged a look, “Merlin, Draco, I wish you could drive. I’m knackered”, then the lights changed again and Draco felt the tension in Harry’s back as they pulled away.

Draco insisted that all three phones were turned off and cooked for them both while Harry soaked in the bath. When the dinner could be left on the stove a while, Draco tapped on the bathroom door to be greeted with a deafening silence. He peeped in to see Harry fast asleep. He smiled and shook his head and went in. He gently woke his love and washed his hair, holding a towel for him as he stepped out of the bath. He dried him and wrapped him in his gown then sat him down in the kitchen to eat. Harry managed about half of his food before tiredness claimed him again. He rose from the table, mumbled, “Gonna have an early night, darlin’”, then staggered off to bed. Draco went in to tuck him in, to find Harry sprawled face-down on their bed still in his dressing gown. Draco could understand how drained Harry was. The battle was probably less than two weeks away. He turned his lover over and manoeuvred him into bed, removing the gown and covering him up. He sat for a while beside him on the bed, just looking, then leaned down and kissed his lips softly, “Don’t get killed, love, I couldn’t stand it”, looked some more then left him to sleep.