Chapter Text
Chapter 16 - On The Field
A day prior
Harry,
Please hurry. Death Eaters.
Daphne
The morning of the auction
"So," Tonks said. "What are you thinking? We have zero information on whatever's going on inside that mansion."
Harry shook his head to clear his mind. This job wasn't going to be easy.
"I think we need to start slow, do some reconnaissance first. For all we know, the entire lawn could be trapped. We don't even know the layout of the house. Pfft! Not having a briefing beforehand complicates so many things!"
Dora bobbed her head in agreement. A part of her was frustrated at not having any knowledge of what she was getting into, but the other, bigger part of her was thrilled by the unknown. A mission where all could go wrong, and she and Harry would have to blast their way out of trouble. In Tonks' head, that kind of action was what her previous job as a regular Auror should've all been about, instead of filling out mountains of paperwork for even the pettiest of crimes.
"Then we go about it strategically, yeah?"
"Yep," Harry nodded.
"Okay, I've got the most experience on the field and I used to be a Senior Auror - still am, actually - so you're listening to me from now on, got it?"
At Harry's nod, Dora continued. "Daphne is in there and she's under a contract now that would have her married off in a few days. We can't be having that so that settles our objectives. First, get Daphne, Astoria, Lady Greengrass and Lord Greengrass out of the house. Second, find the contract, if we can manage it."
"Getting Lord Greengrass out might be a problem. According to Daphne's letter, he may not be in a movable state."
"Can you not Fade him out then? You can pass through wards, can you not?"
"I can pass through wards, yes, but I won't be able to get Lord Greengrass out of there. Well actually, as a matter of fact, I won't be able to get anyone out. I had a talk with Daphne a few months back and she implied that her family's magic was weaved into the very walls of her home, making them quite impossible to pass through. Wait but then-"
"Then how is she in danger?" Tonks finished for Harry. "And she hasn't said a word to you in how long?"
"Since the beginning of winter break, I think. Apart from the weird note I received yesterday, I've not heard from her. Fleur even invited Astoria over to her place for a girls' night but she hasn't heard from her ever since the Yule Ball ended," said Harry.
Tonks furrowed her eyebrows. "Something's not right here. There's something we don't understand. Greengrass manor's walls are supposed to, according to what you've said, be impenetrable. And yet the entire Greengrass family has given no sign of life, as if they were — oh shit!"
"Trapped within their own home! Dora we have to go. Now!"
"Wait," Tonks said, holding a finger up. "Pass me your wand, I'll link us up with a spell the Unspeakables developed. It'll make our wands act like communicators, so we'll be able to talk in real time, instead of sending Patroni back and forth in case we need to separate ourselves."
"That wouldn't be too bad an idea. My Patronus isn't exactly discreet anymore," Harry said as he drew his wand and carefully handed it to Dora.
"What happened to it ?" Tonks asked, waving her own wand over Harry's wand. She muttered something under her breath.
"It changed forms recently. Now, my Patronus looks exactly like Fleur."
Tonks looked stunned. "Well, not to be insulting or anything, but I do suppose Veela aren't entirely human and can therefore be the form a corporeal Patronus takes," the metamorph eventually said.
A thin tendril connected the two wands before vanishing.
"Alright," Dora said, handing Harry's wand back to him. "Circular twirl to mute yourself. Forward swipe to unmute. And you have to say 'mute' and 'unmute' every time, so, heh, have fun with. And you're supposed to stay muted when you don't want to speak as a safety protocol. In the worst-case scenario where you end up getting captured, simply think of the connection between our wands being broken and it'll stop the communication."
"We haven't time to waste," Harry said urgently. "We simply have to hope we won't need to split up."
Harry grabbed Dora's hand and Faded away from her office down at Aurors' department. They reappeared behind the treeline of a tiny forest on the grounds of Daphne's place. At first glance, the house looked just like any other house, albeit it was much larger. It was a manor after all. Harry got the first sense that something was wrong when he spotted two tough looking men standing guard at the entrance of the manor. Lord Greengrass never hired security. Those men were definitely not there on his orders.
Greengrass manor was an impressive piece of construction. Four storeys, massive french style windows, victorian style architecture, Daphne's home truly was impressive. It showed off impressive wealth, aristocracy, and yet somehow managed to be as impressive as it was inviting.
"We're way too far out of range of Homonium Revelio," Dora said. "We can't afford to go in blind. Judging by the two at the front door, I suspect there might be patrols on every floor."
"Not false," Harry acquiesced. "We are casting to kill. Fair warning, according to Daphne's last note, there are Death Eaters inside the house. And you brought your potion belt, right?"
"I did," Tonks let out a breath before squaring her shoulders. "Alright, I'll disillusion myself and sneak up to the two Death Eaters at the front door. Stay at the tree line and cover me, Harry. Once I'm at the door, I'll check for people inside the house. Homonium Revelio should be able to pass through even the magic of the Greengrass family. Once I give you the signal, Fade to the door."
"Good luck Nym."
"Won't need it little brother."
The metamorph disappeared from Harry's sight, her disillusionment settled in nicely. Harry snapped his wand out and pointed it at the two Death Eaters who stood guard in front of Greengrass Manor. There would be no parlour tricks this time, no wandless magic. Harry saw two very small flashes of green and the two men guarding the door dropped to the ground, dead. Harry winced. Dora was already casting killing curses. Just a few seconds later, Dora gave the signal and Harry Faded to her side. Or at least where he thought she was since she was still disillusioned.
"It's clear," said Tonks. "There are no Death Eaters in the corridor after the door."
"Silence your feet," said Harry. "Did you locate the Greengrasses?"
Nymphadora shook her head. "It's impossible to tell. Homonium Revelio did scan the whole house, and I've got about thirty five targets marked but there is no way for me to tell who is who. There is a small group of seven people on the eastern side of the fourth floor though. And one of the signatures my detection spell received was way off the charts."
"This doesn't amount to anything good," Harry muttered under his breath. "That group of people on the fourth floor are the Greengrasses, I think."
"Are you not able to sense the magic of people near you?" Tonks asked.
"No," Harry shook his head. "I can't with this many people and with the Greengrass magic in the walls."
Tonks inhaled sharply and passed her wand over her face. An enchanted hood settled over her head, masking her face. Tonks did the same for Harry.
"We get this done just like we used to do, alright?"
At Harry's nod, Tonks crouched down and unlocked the front door of Greengrass Manor. Harry crouched down behind her and followed her as they both crept silently into the house. Tonks waved her wand before gesturing to the left where the staircase was. Two Death Eaters were standing guard at the top of the stairs, with their backs turned towards Harry and Tonks.
Tonks turned to Harry; her lilac eyes were shining with excitement. She lifted three fingers while she and Harry were creeping up the stairs. When her last finger dropped, Harry cast Silencio followed by a Cushioning Charm to the floor and a Killing Curse to the Death Eater on the right. The one on the left was silenced by Tonks, disarmed, and held in a chokehold by said Auror. Harry quickly put up a Soundproofing Charm and removed the Muting Charm on the Death Eater.
"Where's the master office?" Harry questioned the Death Eater.
"I won't tell you shit!" the Death Eater spat; his voice choked from how tightly Tonks was squeezing his throat.
Harry's patience, which was already thin, threatened to snap. "Easy on the choke, Switch," Harry said, drawing his wand and pointing it at the man's throat. "Give him the serum, we don't have time to waste. And you, if you so much as move, I'll end your life right where you stand."
Tonks summoned a syringe from the belt she was wearing. The syringe was an uncommon tool used on subjects that refused to cooperate during an interrogation. And Tonks could clearly see Harry was holding himself back from killing the Death Eater on the spot. Harry's sense of urgency in the matter was rubbing off on her and it made her patience thin as well.
Tonks injected the Veritaserum directly into the Death Eater's neck with the syringe.
"Where is the master office?" Harry asked again.
"Th-third floor, second door to the left," came the monotonous reply.
"Where are the people of this house held?" Harry asked urgently.
"The bride is held on the fourth floor, but they had the sister moved to the basement. That little did have some very nice leg–"
The Death Eater's nose was shattered, and he spewed blood, his upper lip was split. Harry held the man by the throat.
"What did you just say?"
His face was inches away from that of the masked man. Tonks released the Death Eater.
"The little blonde sister of the bride to be," the Death Eater cackled, coughing blood. "We couldn't touch the bride but the sister, she had no value and so– and so we had our fun with– AAARRRGGGHHH!"
"CRUCIO!"
Tonks watched as the man screamed his lungs out. Harry's grandmother had been a Black, as was her own mother. She thought the Blacks' notorious 'crazy' gene would've been much more pronounced in herself, apparently not. It was the first time she saw Harry cast the Torture Curse. It was probably the first time he had cast it at all. But then she noticed Harry's eyes had shifted to a sickly yellow colour and the air around him had shifted to a darker tint. Her heart jumped almost up to her mouth.
"Harry!" she bellowed but he didn't hear her.
The Death Eater, who was contorting, screaming and spasming from pain on the floor was moving less and less wildly, a sign of imminent death.
"HARRY!" Tonks screamed at the top of her lungs, thankful for the Soundproofing Charm she saw Harry put up before the altercation.
The Torture Curse was lifted. The Death Eater stopped screaming. The air around Harry cleared and his eyes shifted back to mossy green.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," Harry apologised. "I don't know what got into me, it's unlike me to be so brutal…"
"Your eyes were yellow Harry!" Dora told him worriedly. "You were slipping into the Basilisk's core! What happened to your Occlumency? I thought you couldn't slip unconsciously!"
"Fuck," Harry swore. "It's been a while since I redid me meditation to get my shields back up. But we don't have time for that. You heard what that shit said about Astoria. She's as good as dead if what he said really happened to her."
Tonks put her hand on Harry's chest and flung her other arm around his neck to pull him close.
"Change of plans then. The basement is just next to the front door. Get Astoria out of there and meet me outside the office's door on the third floor. I'll go find Daphne's contract."
"Be careful," said Harry.
"Always am. And don't forget, our wands are linked up, don't hesitate to tell me if you need help."
Tonks released Harry, transfigured the two bodies on the floor into flowerpots and dispelled his Soundproofing Charm. With one last glance at her brother, Tonks crept up the next flight of stairs while Harry rushed downstairs. Harry cast Homonium Revelio once more and only two signatures came back to him from the back yard. Harry rushed down the stairs three at once.
The basement at Greengrass Manor was like some sort of cellar. There were potions ingredients bottled up and lined up on shelves all around the basement. Harry cast another detection spell. His heart sank when only a single signature was picked up by his wand in the basement level of the manor.
"Astoria…" Harry murmured softly. "Please don't let it be true."
With his wand up, Harry slowly advanced in the basement. It felt like he was trapped in a dungeon, a horrifying cage plunged in darkness in which he didn't know what horrors were waiting for him at the other side of the cage. A single oak door was at the back of the basement. Harry vanished the door. His hand trembled as no sound came from the room.
"Lumos!"
Astoria was almost bare before him, sprawled out on a mattress. The little girl was unconscious but at least there were no signs of rape. Harry cast a Diagnosis on Astoria. The spell picked up lingering traces of the Torture Curse, a Stupefy, as well as multiple hallucinogenic potions in her blood stream. Harry checked her brain activity next. Her amygdala was acting way out. Harry deduced that Astoria had been driven to multiple panic attacks. She appeared to also be suffering a mild concussion. The hallucinogenic potions were still in her blood which meant they weren't administered to her that long ago. She might've still been conscious minutes ago! Harry passed his wand over Astoria. She had bruises on her arms and her left shoulders' tendon was misaligned.
Harry twirled his wand forward and brought the tip to his mouth. "I found Astoria," he whispered. "She looks terrible but it's nothing she won't recover from. I'll get her out of here and let Mum tend to her wounds."
"Understood," Tonks replied, seconds later.
Harry put Astoria under a Stasis Charm and froze her to not cause her any additional wounds. Harry gently picked Astoria up and rushed back up the stairs. The Death Eaters that were standing guard in the backyard seemed as clueless as ever. As soon as Harry had both his feet out of the doorframe, he Faded back to London.
"Oh my god Harry!" Andromeda squeaked when her son appeared in the kitchen with a heavily wounded girl in his arms. "What happened? Is that– oh Lord! Astoria?"
"No time to explain," said Harry hurriedly. "She needs medical attention urgently and I trust you and Dad can help her. I need to hurry back to Dora. I put Astoria under a stasis, and I froze her. Apart from that, she's suffering from post-torture nerve trauma, she's got a mild concussion, was possibly beaten, has hallucinogens still active in her bloodstream and amygdala overreaction."
Andromeda winced. "I'll tend to her in a second. If you must go, go quickly, we'll talk later."
Harry nodded grimly before Fading back to Greengrass Manor. The whole trip from the basement to his home and back had taken Harry around ten minutes, which was plenty of time for Dora to find Daphne's marriage contract.
"Hey," Tonks greeted her brother. "We need to be fast. I cleared the whole floor, but I think they are starting to get suspicious that something is happening. The Death Eaters on the fourth floor are starting to get much more active."
"You got the contract?"
"It's in my bra."
Harry raised an eyebrow at that but otherwise didn't comment. Stealth and silence were quickly forgotten as Harry and Tonks rushed to the second floor.
"I was wondering when you would show up, if at all," a dry voice exclaimed.
Multiple cracks of Apparition came from all sides of the corridor. Before Harry and Tonks were seven men, one wearing a golden mask while the six others had a silver mask. Harry slowly turned around. No less than a dozen other Death Eaters were blocking the way he and Dora had come from.
"And you are?" Harry asked the golden masked man testily.
"Oh that doesn't matter," the man replied carelessly. "I must congratulate you, though, for making it this far, not many would have achieved such a feat. And yet with all the skill you must clearly possess, you both failed to notice the wards set up around the house. Did you really think your presence went unnoticed?"
"He's stalling for time," Harry whispered from the corner of his lips to Tonks as he feigned the flabbergasted Auror that was outplayed by the enemy's strategy. "I'll engage the guys in front, you take the Death Eaters behind us. When you get an opening, sent a Patronus to Fleur—"
"—fools!"
"Well since we are evidently outnumbered and our defeat is obvious, would you care to tell us at least where the Greengrasses are so we can know how badly we were truly outsmarted?"
One of the silver masked men snorted. "You think us fools? We are not blinded by your little word play. Your game is clear!"
"Well, it was worth a try," Harry shrugged, winking at Tonks. "Lumos Maxima!"
The spell acted like a flashbang, detonating in the corridor and blinding the unsuspecting Death Eaters. Harry and Tonks dashed into the adjacent corridor.
"We need to find Daphne!" Harry yelled over the banging of spellfire behind him.
"Homonium Revelio!" Tonks yelled, slashing her wand at the wall to their left. "There's eight Death Eaters chasing after us. I've got a single signature coming from two hallways down to the left."
"Send that Patronus to Fleur, now!" Harry bellowed, running down the corridor with deadly spells flying over his head. "Don't tell her we're in big trouble though! And try to get one to Hunter as well. See if he can help — oh shit! Confringo!"
Something cracked behind Tonks. Harry's spell had rebounded off a shield and shattered the wall, sending splinters flying everywhere. Tonks meanwhile was busy yelling at her wand.
"Hey Fleur, I don't know where- oh shit! WATCH OUT! I-we don't have time! We ran into lots of trouble, Fleur. Our cover's blown; the mission is fucked. Harry didn't want me to tell you because he thought you'd be worrying about him, and he didn't want to put- FUCK! BEHIND YOU HARRY! -put extra stress on your shoulders… but I thought you ought to- AH!"
A blasting hex ricocheted off Harry's Protego and crashed into the wall right next to where Tonks was crouched, sending her sprawling to the floor. The Patronus for Fleur did fly off though, even with the message being cut off. Tonks stood back up and settled into her preferred position when she was fuelling with Harry.
A massive shield appeared at the tip of Harry's wand and he crouched down so that he protected Tonks but also allowed her to cast over his shield.
Blood boilers, organ liquifiers, killing curses, rotting curses, mummifiers, just about every nasty curse from Tonks' arsenal was flung at the incoming Death Eaters. The men with the golden and silver masks were nowhere to be seen though and that unnerved Harry to no end. The Death Eaters were forced to take cover behind pillars by Tonks' barrage of deadly curses.
"Smokescreen Harry!"
Harry conjured splinters from a shattered canvas on the floor into a thick granite barrier before releasing a smoke bomb from his wand. The entire corridor was instantly filled up with thick fog, allowing no vision for both Harry and Tonks and the Death Eaters. It was like Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.
They made it to a door with a plaque on it that read 'Daphne'.
"The door is warded, charms won't work!" Tonks raged, frustrated at the complications that just kept adding up.
"Start breaking the wards, I'll cover you!" Harry shouted as he hastily dodged out of the way of two Blasting Curses.
"We've got you cornered!"
The golden masked man and the six with the silver masks had reappeared.
"All you did since the beginning of the fight is talk, talk and talk," Harry said, exaggerating a roll of his eyes. "Can we have a proper duel or is talking all you can do?"
But the man with the golden mask stayed silent. Harry shrugged. It bought him and Dora some much needed time. Suddenly, there was a rasping, sinister sound. Black smoke appeared out of thin air and a ripple appeared. An archway formed and a pale, snake-faced man stepped out of the archway and into the corridor. The man had no nose, and his lips were so thin they were almost invisible. His eyes were a satanic red colour.
Despite having never actually seen the man, Harry instantly knew who this was. The magic that was coming off him was incredibly intense. And the man carried himself like he was power incarnate. The men with the mask and the Death Eaters were quickly forgotten by Harry.
"Voldemort."
"Me," said Voldemort simply.
The two glared at each other, each evaluating the other. Who would flinch first? Who would be the first to cast? Voldemort's wand snapped up at the speed of light.
"Avada—"
"Protego Aurora!"
Harry's daybreaker shield came up but the Killing Curse never came. Instead, Voldemort simply swiped his wand sideways, and Harry's shield was broken. Harry didn't cast again and neither did Voldemort. This was the strangest duel Harry had ever fought.
"You're supposed to be dead," Harry stated.
Voldemort's face was as emotionless as ever. "And the Killing Curse isn't supposed to be shieldable against."
Voldemort's pupils suddenly dilated, and Harry made to turn away, instinctively knowing what was coming but he was too late. Harry focused on his Occlumency defenses but there was something wrong with Voldemort's Legilimency attack. No matter how many memories, fake and real alike, Harry brought forward, they were instantly rearranged in an ordered manner and Voldemort's presence in his head simply scanned through them. Harry desperately tried to push him out, but he simply couldn't. It was only then that he realised what Voldemort's real deal was, what his affinity was as a magical Titan, a psychic. There had been only one psychic Titan known to history and he had been alive thousands of years ago. That one Titan had brought countless civilizations to their knees. Voldemort finally excited Harry's mind.
"Those are some very interesting spells you've got there, Potter," the man nodded, his expression was almost an impressed one. "And very pretty lady you got too! Is she Veela? No matter. Unfortunately, I cannot allow you and the Metamorphmagus to go further with your little plan. The Greengrass girl doesn't leave."
Harry felt a tap on his lower calf.
"I got the wards," Tonks whispered.
"Well she happens to be someone quite dear to me," Harry replied to Voldemort, "and I am not leaving without her."
"A shame," Voldemort sighed. "I would've enjoyed duelling you properly, man against man, one day. It's a pity I have to kill you today."
"I don't think so. Attonitus Bombarda!"
The speed at which Voldemort's shield came up was vertiginous, unnatural even. But, to Harry's confusion, the man somehow didn't expect the modified spell. As the red beam of light exploded into smaller beams that went flying in all directions, Harry heard 'Depulso' behind him and Daphne's room's door was blown off its hinges. Harry poured every ounce of power he had into Attonitus Bombarda. The smaller beams of Fleur's spell ricocheted from the hallway's walls, knocking out every Death Eater, leaving only Voldemort, the man with the golden mask, and a single man with a silver mask standing.
Amidst the chaos unleashed by the falling bodies, Harry launched another blinding blast of light before dashing into Daphne's room. The girl was sleeping although it didn't look like it was a peaceful slumber. Her room was apparently silenced; the commotion that had happened just outside hadn't woken her. Harry stunned Daphne to prevent her from suddenly waking and panicking. She was, after all, held captive in her own home and had undergone Merlin knew what torture.
"Grab Daphne!" Harry yelled at Tonks as they dashed into the room. He quickly transfigured the doorway into a solid wall to prevent Voldemort from following. The wall wouldn't hold for long, but it would serve to buy just a few more vital seconds.
"Depulso!"
Daphne's room's window was shattered to a thousand pieces and a chunk of the wall was ripped off by Harry's spell as well.
"Jump out the window!"
Time seemed to slow as the wall behind Harry was blown up by an irate Voldemort. Tonks' foot left the edge of what remained of the window in slow motion with Daphne in her arms. Harry jumped right behind her. Harry twisted in the air during the fall and shot a blasting curse at the hole in Daphne's window for good measure. The blast propelled him forward. His hand was lucky enough to meet Tonks' boot. Harry closed his eyes and Faded them away to safety, just before a killing wheezed past where Dora had been a fraction of a second earlier.
It was now four in the morning of the following g day. Harry hadn't realised it but somehow the operation had taken more than a single day. They had made it back to the Tonks household safely. Daphne and Astoria were both asleep now in his room. Andromeda had decided it would be best for the two sisters to be bunked together in case they woke up (which wasn't likely since she had put them both under mainly induced sleep) after the traumatic events they went through.
Harry and Nymphadora were having their usual therapeutic chat after a particularly brutal mission.
"I saw what you did to that Death Eater when he suggested Astoria had been raped," said Tonks. "You reacted extremely violently. Would you like to discuss it?"
Harry rubbed his temples and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Astoria is like the little sister I never had and she's also Fleur's 'first' friend. When that Death Eater said… "that", I just lost. I lost control and that came back to bite me afterwards. Anyway, my control slipped, and you were the one that noticed my eyes had gone yellow. It's only now, after the mission and all the adrenaline's gone that I realise how I could've potentially jeopardised the whole operation. I never dared to use the Basilisk's core and the few seconds I accidentally used it caused me to have extremely violent reactions. The same thing happened at the World Cup when Rowle cast the Killing Curse at you. I feel like I'm going crazy. I'll need to talk to Andy about other Occlumency options that exist, if there are any."
Dora nodded and she rubbed Harry's forearm softly, in a comforting gesture. Her hair bristled and shifted to a sober purple colour.
"Who was that? At the end, I mean. I heard you say Voldemort but he's dead. He's been dead for fourteen years now."
Harry shook his head. "It was him; I am absolutely certain of it. The power that was bristling around him, I felt it. It's unlike any other I've seen before. Even my own doesn't feel like his did, I think."
"But that's impossible…" Tonks muttered thoughtfully. "His own Killing Curse bounced back and killed him fourteen years ago! Unless, unless… it's not possible…"
With no plausible explanation as to how Voldemort could've possibly survived his own Killing Curse fourteen years ago, Tonks turned to Harry.
"I'll have to read the report on that night. I don't know what the Aurors found but if my guess is correct, they never found a body. I'll investigate it after tomorrow when we go to the Ministry to fill out the report."
Harry nodded. "During my fight with Voldemort, he himself told me that the Killing Curse isn't supposed to be shieldable. We can already rule out the use of visible magic as a potential explanation as to how he's still alive."
Tonks nodded before carrying on.
"You never told me what you found in the basement of Greengrass Manor, what happened to Astoria and how you brought her home."
"I found her severely injured and drugged though she wasn't sexually abused. I don't think any bit of therapy will ever make me get over how vulnerable and small she looked when I found her. It was like she was completely broken. I hate myself for not having gone to her aid sooner."
Harry had his forehead in his hands now with his elbows resting on his legs.
"It is not your fault, Harry. You already did everything you could to save them."
"And yet the mission was still a failure! We didn't save Daphne's parents. I didn't save Daphne's parents."
"Hey, listen to me Harry," Tonks said, using her sleeve to wipe the corner of his eye, "I swept the whole house. When you got Astoria out of the house, I scanned the whole house. They just weren't there. I cleared the entire third floor and there was no sign of them. You can't blame yourself over this. We still have to talk to Daphne for the report. There are things we don't know."
Harry sniffed and shot a grin at Tonks. "I'll have to make a trip to the Veela enclave in the next few hours, I think. There are things I found out at the manor that don't add up. I can't tell you about it now because even I am not sure whether my assumptions are correct."
"Take your time to calm down, Harry. I don't think either of us are going to get any sleep today. I'll just have Mum bring us Pepper-up potions or something. And I know you're not eager to talk about my perspective of the mission so you can just postpone our talk 'til later, after you've talked with Daphne and Astoria."
Harry gave Tonks a crushing hug.
"Thank you," he said.