After the normal sensation of being sucked through a rubber tube subsided, Harry found himself on a worn out dirt road. Around him erupted many cracks and Harry looked around as the rest of the D.A. appeared out of thin air. He waved them for them to take cover in the thick foliage that littered the side of the road, and they all continued on forward trying to keep together.
After five minutes of trudging through the dark trees, Harry said in an audible hiss, “Fred. George. You know what to do.”
“Wish us luck,” said Fred, as he and George plunged in deeper away from the road.
After running for a little while longer, Harry slowed to a stop and the sounds of the others’ footsteps died away too. He ordered them to stay put while he went to the road to get a better look, and farther ahead he saw a cabin silhouetted in the darkness. As expected, about three or four figures came out.
Harry dove back into the trees to meet back up. “Dean, Lavender, Terry, get up front with me,” he said, taking out his wand. Everybody continued on forward with their wands drawn as well, trying not to make a sound, which was a challenge due to the concealed twigs and the possibility of tripping over a root with a grunt. But that didn’t happen and it didn’t seem like anybody overheard them coming.
When they ended up in front of the cabin across the road, Harry was able to make out the people standing outside easier. The light inside the cabin appeared to be off, and it was too dark to see the Aurors properly. Still, he hid behind a wide tree and crouched poking half his head around it. Dean, Lavender, and Terry were close at hand, with the rest of the D.A. a little further behind until Ron or Hermione would charge forward to provide more support when needed.
“Maybe it was a false alarm,” he heard on say, sounding annoyed.
“If something set off our Intruder Jinx then we can’t take it lightly,” retorted another.
Harry looked behind him at the sky over the trees. Any second now, any second, he thought desperately. In the meanwhile he waved his hand to signal those he had not called forward to move back, praying that they would stay silent at the moment.
Just then another man came out of the cabin. “Why don’t we send a few people to scour the area, send up spark if they see anything”” At that precise moment a greenish haze appeared underneath the trees, and then the Dark Mark came into clear view as it illuminated the sky. Harry watched its progress as it rose up, and then looked down to se the rest of the D.A., whose expressions were unfathomable under their white masks. But if Harry had to guess most of them probably just realized how real the situation was now. But they knew that there was no danger from the Death Eaters since they all heard Harry tell Fred and George what the incantation was to conjure the Dark Mark. He then looked back in front of him at the Aurors and saw with a grim satisfaction that they were stunned to see what was upon them.
“Everybody to your stations! Everybody to your stations!” one started crying, running back in and ordering people around, while the rest outside remained transfixed up at the sky. Then he came out again with no less than seven with their wands out at his command, and they all sped up the road with the one in the lead saying, “Stay alert!”
Harry tried to make himself smaller as they all passed out of sight, and turned his sights back on to the Dark Mark. According to Tonks there was going to be more than twenty people on guard tonight. Harry knew that by conjuring the Dark Mark somewhere in the distance a good bit would go to the source of the disturbance. And seeing the Aurors sprinted towards the Dark Mark told Harry that there must be an Anti-Disappariation Jinx in place.
When Harry turned back to the cabin from behind his tree he saw that there were five, but he didn’t have to worry about that at the moment”not until Fred and George sent up the signal: red sparks to tell them the Aurors were wearing Shield garments, blue to signify they weren’t. If none came up…Harry didn’t want to think about the trouble they might have gotten into.
Finally, blue sparks flew through the air with such a force that the Dark Mark was dispersed. The Aurors outside looked up into the sky dumbfounded, Harry stuck out his left hand, Terry gave him the Gravity Grenade not unlike the ones the twins just used to easily subdue the Aurors, and Harry pulled out the pin and hurled it awkwardly at the guards from around the tree.
After a second or two of the Aurors gazing down at it in confusion one of them finally had the sense to yell, “WATCH OUT!” He ran up to try and kick it away but too late. In a flash of light it exploded, and when Harry’s vision cleared he saw that three of the Aurors had fallen to the ground and couldn’t get up despite their struggling.
Without wasting anymore time Harry, Terry, Dean, and Lavender all came out of hiding shouting, “Stupefy!” The four Stunning Spells caught their marks totally by surprise, and the last two fell to the ground. Harry did some fast counting in his head: seven had left for the Dark Mark and five were just taken down. Eight more to go. Then the doors too were blasted open, and only three came out shooting spells and curses from their wands. If the Aurors were surprised to see that their opponents didn’t seem to be Death Eaters they didn’t let it show.
At that point it was a purely defensive battle on Harry’s part. Those that were standing outside and were taken down fairly easily had made the mistake of being easily distracted, but if they had been ready to battle then they’d more than likely put up a very good fight”just like those that just came out. “Protego!” Harry yelled, deflecting a spell aimed for him. Dean, Lavender, and Terry were following suit.
The mask Harry was wearing was itchy, made it hard to see, and he could barely breath properly. But he couldn’t have another small wave of the D.A. come in until a few more Aurors joined the fray.
With Dean being the tallest among them, and Lavender with the sticking out from behind the mask, it had to be Terry who yelled, “Expelliarmus!” His spell was able to get past the Auror he was dueling causing the wand to fly out.
Harry then blocked a spell just in time, but the force caused him to stumble a little. Then the Auror who sent it pointed his wand at Terry, and yelled, “Stupefy!” and the Stunning Spell hit the unsuspecting Terry right on the head, knocking him out.
Damn it! Harry cursed. He was hoping that more Aurors would have come out of the cabin, but there was no choice now with someone hurt. He, Dean, and Lavender all ducked just when there were six fresh shouts of spells and jinxes coming from the trees.
Two were taken down, but the last had a Shield Charm. “Petrificus totalus!” Harry yelled from the ground. The last Auror’s limbs snapped together and he fell to the ground stiff as a board. He stood up and turned to Lavender. “Get him out of here!”
“Locomotor body!” Lavender said, pointing her wand at Terry. His body levitated a few inches above the ground, and Lavender guided him away. They then quickly Stunned those that couldn’t get up from the ground, and with some effort moved them out of the way.
“With me!” Harry ordered, going to the door with people behind him and sticking out his hand again. “Give me another.” Neville gave him his Gravity Grenade, and Harry waved him back a little. He pulled the pin, opened the door, threw the grenade in, and quickly slammed the door again. Only this time he heard the unmistakable sound as it was kicked back towards them and hitting the other side of the door. “Back!”
Harry heard it explode, some light seeped from the space under the door, and then the door collapsed under it’s newfound weight. Knowing what would come next, Harry yelled, “Protego!” Many spells and curses flew from the open doorway, and those that had Harry in their sights were deflected. Some of the other D.A. members did the same just in time, but three were hit and fell to the ground unconscious.
At that moment the last six of the D.A. came charging through the trees. One person was able to take the three knocked out to safety despite the newly created chaos.
Harry stepped through the threshold into the cabin with everybody else, and they entered the stage of the plan that he knew would be the most difficult. The interior of the cabin would have most of the guards inside of it, and once the D.A. broke in then they’d have to face all of them head on without the advantage of surprise back up.
“Stupefy!” Harry yelled after ducking away from a curse aimed at him. The Auror he was fighting easily blocked it, and then started to charge. Harry threw more Stunners but they were deflected too, and before he knew it the Auror tackled him.
Amazingly though instead of pulling off the mask he went for the left sleeve. He pulled it back, and his eyes widened in surprise most likely due to not seeing the Dark Mark. “Who’re you people?” he shouted angrily, about to rip off the mask.
“None…of your…business!” Harry choked, struggling to keep his mask on.
But he only got it past his chin before he heard Hermione shout, “Stupefy!” The Auror was knocked aside and didn’t move. “Accio!” Harry’s wand flew into her hand, and she tossed it back to him.
“Thanks,” he said catching his wand.
Then a curse came out of nowhere hitting Hermione, causing her to be thrown backwards and landing a few feet away. Harry swung around his wand at the source of the curse but another voice shouted angrily, “REDUCTO!” It hit it’s target, which was blasted against the wall with resounding crunch.
“We’re to Stun or disarm only!” Harry yelled at the caster, who was undoubtedly Ron. Harry was also angry that she came to harm but he wasn’t going to show it.
“Shut it!” Ron retorted, picking up Hermione and taking her away with Harry providing some shielding along the way. When he saw they were going to make outside the Anit-Disappariation zone he went back to the fight.
The D.A. still had numbers on their side, but the Aurors surpassed them in skill that resulted from better training. It took all they had to make sure that nobody was unmasked. At one point Dean was taken down and his mask was past his lips before three members of the D.A. acted in the nick of time.
It was no easy feat when two of the original seven Aurors in the house were left. Harry was now only left with the people he guessed to be Seamus, Susan, Justin, and Michael. There were three that were no longer able to fight, but no one was able to take them back to the cellar to be treated. It didn’t mean that everybody else got hurt and left, but that Harry didn’t want those that returned the injured to the cellar to come back under any circumstances. Harry had to help in fending off the Auror that Susan and Justin were fighting.
“Impedimenta!” Justin shouted, his spell deflected.
But that let an opening for Harry to yell, “Expelliarmus!” The Auror’s wand flew out of her hand, and Harry caught it. She was then was finished off by a pair of Stunners from Justin and Susan. The three of their wands now turned to the remaining Auror, who was fighting Seamus and Michael.
He looked around when the sounds of the other fight subsided, and he saw that it was now five on one. Scowling, he lowered his wand saying, “Damn it. Who the hell are you?”
Harry merely said, “Sorry, mate. Incarcerous!” Thick ropes flew out of Harry’s wand and wound themselves tightly around the Auror, who lost balance and fell cursing.
There was a few seconds of silence when they all looked at each other before Justin said jubilantly, “Excellent! This’d make a good story for when I have kids…too bad this has to go with me to the grave.”
“Too right it will,” Harry replied. “Alright, one of you take them back,” he said, gesturing to the two on the ground.
As Susan volunteered to do so, Justin made to the only other door in the cabin saying, “So Dempsher’s in here, right?”
“No, wait!”
Too late. When Justin opened the door a jinx caught him in the chest. Harry and Michael bolted over to either side of the open door, and turned in shooting Stunning Spells at one last remaining Auror that was personally gaurding Dempsher.
“Didn’t I say when we ran over the plan that there’d more than likely be one more of them with Dempsher?” Harry said angrily.
“Who the bloody hell are you people?” a voice from inside the room asked.
Harry looked around to see Dempsher tied up to a chair. It was clear that the confused and angry expression on his face used to be glee not long ago. Harry didn’t answer but pointed his wand at him. “Stupefy!” His Stunner caught Dempsher in the face, and he slumped in his chair. He turned to Seamus and Michael, and gestured towards Justin the other three on the floor saying, “Get them out of here. I got Dempsher.”
After they did as they were told, Harry cut the bonds holding Dempsher to his chair. He put Dempsher’s arms around his neck, and heaved him out of the cabin. It was still a good ways away until dawn, when replacements would come to take over their shift, but Harry still wanted to leave as quickly as possible. “Get well soon,” he said to the tied up Auror as he passed. He just flailed angrily.
When Harry finally left the Anti-Disappariation zone he turned on his heel, and ended up in the back of the Hog’s Head with Dempsher at his side. He kicked open the cellar door, and entered to find the entire D.A. grouped up around beds with their masks off. Harry greeted as he passed them on the way to the side room. Inside he conjured up a chair, dumped the unconscious Dempsher on it, and tied him up. It was only until he closed the door behind him that he felt it safe to finally take off his mask.
“Lavender, he’s ready for you,” Harry announced.
“Hold on, I have to check on everybody else first,” she said. Lavender’s expression showed no emotion as she went over to the bed where Hermione was lying, with Ron sitting next to her. “All right, you’re wound should be sterilized by now.”
She shooed Ron away rather more harshly then needed, and made hangings appear around Hermione’s bed. Ron gave Harry a look out of the corner of his eye. “You don’t think”?”
Harry waved it off. “She wouldn’t stoop that low,” he said just before a painful gasp issued from behind the curtains. “How is she?”
“Lavender says it’s just a flesh wound, though she put on a bit of liquid that stung to clean it.”
Harry nodded, and went to go see how everybody else was. Terry, who was the first to be brought back, was sitting up on his bed looking content. Neville, Dean, and Ernie were all lying close by in their own beds.
“You all okay?” Harry asked, concerned. It was his fault, after all, that they got hurt.
“Fine,” Neville answered, twitching. “Lavender gave me something for that, it should go away soon. Wish I lasted longer, though.” Dean and Ernie seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
Harry waved it off. “It’s my fault you got in this mess”
“Well, they didn’t leave permanent damage, so it’s no big deal,” said Dean.
“Yeah,” Ernie put in, “as long as this didn’t turn out to be a waste of time.”
Yeah, I hope so, Harry thought. “So who brought you back?”
“That’d be me,” Anthony answered from close by. “After everybody started fighting inside it seemed safe to do it.” Harry noticed he had a bandaged left forearm. “Oh yeah, I was hurt too…I guess.”
Actually smiling, Harry left them to go where Fred and George were sitting around Lee. Parvarti and Padma Patil were lying not too far away.
“Justin’s an idiot,” Lee immediately declared. “It should have been him that got hit by that Impediment Charm, and then I wouldn’t have opened that door. Now’s he’s lying there with that purple wart.” He jabbed his thumb, and saw Lavender, who was done with Hermione, treating a aching Justin.
Not wanting to watch that Harry turned to Fred and George. “Good job. Any problems?”
“Couldn’t have gone smoother,” said Fred. “After we set off the Mark we hid up in some trees and waited.”
“And then the idiots come blundering up in one big group gawking up at the thing,” George took over. “So we just tossed a few of out Gravity Grenades around them, and they went down without a hitch.”
Shrugging, Harry said, “Well if they were on par with Kingsley then we wouldn’t have had a prayer.”
Lavender then came up to check on Parvarti and Padma. She left them looking satisfied, pulled on her mask, and went into the room with Dempsher.
After thanking Fred, George, and Lee, Harry went back to Hermione’s bed. “What happened?”
“She just put some bandages on me,” answered Hermione. “Wish her first aid kit carried something that didn’t sting as much, though. Lavender reckons that we were lucky that lethal force wasn’t used on us, or else a lot more of us would be hurt.”
“Good thing that Ron got out, still,” Harry said, turning to him. He was expecting Ron to give him a hardy nod or maybe an “I had to,” but he almost seemed ashamed of himself.
Finally, he reached out to grab her hand and said, “Sorry, Hermione.”
Both Harry and Hermione were completely taken back by that statement. It took a lot of self restraint not to join Hermione in saying, “Sorry for what?” But Harry wasn’t blushing as she was. “You weren’t the one who hurt me, you know.”
“I know,” Ron said, looking right at her. “I’m sorry that I had to see in danger and get hurt to get my thick skull to realize that you mean the world to me.” Now Hermione’s face was scarlet, and Harry wished that he had stayed with Fred and George.
Luckily he was given an excuse to leave when Lavender appeared through the door to the side room. “He conscious,” she said, taking off her mask and giving the bed a wide berth. She then went to go check on Dean.
So, pulling on his mask and leaving Ron and Hermione a little privacy, Harry entered the room to find Dempsher conscious. He was looking around in confusion before went in, but as soon as Harry came in Dempsher’s eyes were nowhere else.
“Good morning, Mr. Dempsher,” Harry responded as if they were back at the Ministry.
“Who the hell are you people?” Dempsher asked angrily. “That other person didn’t even talk to me!”
Harry paused for a second, then said, “Why so upset? Did you perhaps think that it was your Death Eater friends coming to your rescue?” The answer to that question was obvious, but he thought Harry thought he’d play with Dempsher a little.
“Well you obviously aren’t,” Dempsher spat. “Or else I’d already be back in front of the Dark Lord. You all must actually be Ministry trying to get more information out of me with this hoax.”
“Yes, Mr. Dempsher, we aren’t Death Eaters, but we are not Ministry either,” he answered simply.
“Then who are you?” Dempsher asked again.
Harry thought about it, and decided to give him an ounce of truth. “Treasure hunters.”
Dempsher just stared with a raised eyebrow. “Treasure hunters?”
“Yes, and we happen to know that you’re in possession of something very valuable that we want to get our hands on.” Harry went to the other side of the room where a small package laid, something he retrieved the previous night and thought he would need to convince Dempsher.
His eyes widened when Harry unwrapped it. “Did that…belong to Rowena Ravenclaw?” Harry held the scepter right in front of Dempsher’s face. “What in the world have you done to it?” he blurted out in horror, seeing its dilapidated state.
“Found it like this,” Harry lied, heaving a big disappointed sigh. “But seeing it still belonged to a Hogwarts founder it’s still worth something. We’re hoping to find the locket of Salazar Slytherin.” Dempsher eyes looked back up at Harry, who smiled under his mask. “And Mundungus Fletcher told me that you bought it from him three years ago.”
“Let me guess,” Dempsher began knowingly, “it’s my freedom for that locket.”
“Very good,” Harry said approvingly. “So you tell us where it is, and once we have it you’re free to go.” That was a bold faced lie. As soon as Harry got what he wanted it was a memory wipe for Dempsher before he was chucked back to the Ministry.
It seemed Dempsher knew that, for he said, “Only of you do an Unbreakable Vow with me!”
“What!” Harry blurted out. “No deal!”
“No vow, no locket,” Dempsher said simply. “I’m not stupid, you know. It wasn’t by luck that I evaded capture for so long while I kept the Death Eaters financed and informed. I know that as soon as you get what you want you’ll just give me back to the Ministry. Perform an Unbreakable Vow with me, and then I’ll tell you what you want.”
Harry whipped out his wand, and stuck it under his chin praying that Dempsher would fall for his bluff. “I could just torture it out of you, thought of that?” Unfortunately he only smiled.
“If you were cruel enough to use Unforgivable Curses your capture of me would have gone a lot easier.”
Harry didn’t say anything. He just put down his wand, exited the room, and pulled off his mask. Ron and Hermione were just staring at each other, so Harry went over to the bed.
“Ron!” he barked, causing him to jump a little and turn around in surprise.
“Harry?” he asked, confused. “What happened? Did it turn out to be a wasted effort?” Around them it seemed a few people were thinking along the same lines.
“Not yet,” he said quieting down. “Look, Dempsher isn’t going to talk unless he’s guaranteed we’re going to set him free.”
“We aren’t, are we?” Ron asked, looking appalled and angry. “You know”” he leaned in closer. “You know it was because of him that Percy and so many others died that day!”
“Want to have a go at him?” Harry asked in an even more hushed voice.
Ron inhaled and exhaled deeply, his expression serious. “What d’you mean?”
“The only way that Dempsher’s going to talk without knowing he’d be set free is if thinks that his life is in danger. Tell him who you are, what he did, and beat on him enough to think you’ll actually kill him. I’m sure Dempsher won’t be so tight mouthed if it meant getting you off him.”
Ron had already made a motion towards the door when Hermione grabbed his hand to stop him. “What? Are you sure that there’s no other way, Harry?” she asked quickly.
“I dunno, Hermione,” said Harry, annoyed, “we could use a truth potion, but I don’t think that any of have any available.”
“I could make one,” she said desperately. “But it might take a while and then it might turn out poisonous.”
“Will he live long enough to tell us what we want to know?” Harry asked.
“Harry!”
“I have some Veritaserum.” Harry and Hermione both looked around at Ron, who just said his second random thing of the say.
“Excuse me,” Harry said, not fully understanding. “You have Veritaserum?”
“Well,” he said, running his chin, “I was supposed to force feed it people when I needed to get information badly, though the one who gave it me didn’t exactly have this scenario in mind at the time.”
“Who cares!” Harry told him excitedly. “Go and fetch it!”
Ron looked at the door longingly for a second as if wishing he could beat on Dempsher, he bolted out of the cellar. In two minutes he came back with a small bottle with clear liquid inside. He shoved it into Harry’s hands, and plopped back down into the chair beside Hermione’s bed.
And Harry pulled on his mask again, and entered the room with an aura of smugness so large that Dempsher easily noticed. “You’re right, Mr. Dempsher,” Harry started off. “After we’re done with you we are going to give you back to the Ministry.”
“Then I won’t say a word!” Dempsher said, spitting at Harry’s feet. Harry then stood over him and uncorked the bottle. “What’s tha”aad!” he squeaked as his nose was pinched.
Upon seeing that Harry was going to tip the bottle into his mouth, Dempsher shut his mouth tight. He somehow was able to hold his breath for over a minute before his body finally got the best of him. Harry immediately poured in a few drops, placed his palm over his mouth forcing Dempsher to swallow.
He stepped back a few steps to witness the effect, and after a few seconds of Dempsher flailing he finally calmed down and looked up at Harry in a defeated sort of way.
“Is your name Henry Dempsher, ex-head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?”
“Yes,” he answered.
“And have you been passing information to the Death Eaters?”
“Yes,” Dempsher repeated.
“Did a man by the name of Mundungus Fletcher sell you the locket of Salazar Slytherin three years ago?”
“Yes.”
Harry took a few steps closer. “Where is it now?”
“Gringotts vault nine hundred and sixty five.”
Damn, Harry thought. “And how can we get into the vault to retrieve the locket?”
“You’ll need my key to the vault,” Dempsher answered.
“Where’s the key?”
“I keep in my room at my mansion,” Dempsher told him. “My wife’s bedside table has a jewelry box with a false bottom. The key is over that.”
Harry figured that he’s have to ask Tonks to get the key for him. “Anything else we need to know to get in side?”
“My presence or my wife’s so that you’ll be taken to the safe.”
That part he couldn’t fake, so Harry will need to hope that Bill can get him into the vault.
“Thank you,” Harry said softly, raising his wand. “Stupefy!”
Harry Potter and the Secret Spell by Phoenix 86
Chapter Notes: Sorry, took longer to write and submit than I thought.