Chapter 21: The Death Eater Who Lived

With a wave of my wand, I applied illusions to a part of the crowd: some now looked like Elena, some had simple cosmetic glamours hiding their true eye color, some acquired illusory pendant artifacts… Hopefully, decoy targets will at least somewhat slow the enemy down…

"Tony! Gaby!" I snapped my fingers.

But the DMLE did not hire idiots - my house elves didn't show. Have they always blocked house elf apparition or began after my adventure with Ollivander? My thoughts were racing at record speeds.

What to do? I was facing a mob of Aurors and Moody. All of them together would thrash me. Tom developed a plan to defeat Alastor Moody in open battle, but it relied on a one-to-one fight. And even if I killed Moody, there were more than enough Aurors to do me in…

Magical fights hinged on more than just the sum of the participants' power. It was equally as important to have an advantage in experience, arsenal of spells, the speed of casting, and even physical body condition: however much you accelerated, it was always better to accelerate an already fast young body. And magical reserve itself was no universal measure of power. The simplest analogy would be a game of basketball. Easy to win against dwarfs, but every move made you slightly shorter… eventually you got to their level and kept shrinking… And in battle, a wizard without magical energy was effectually a muggle who sensed Dementors and was not affected by muggle-repelling charms.

How to keep my cover and, more importantly, survive? If the Dark Lord was discovered masquerading as a woman… Although, not even the Lord could take out two dozen Aurors alone. I felt a dozen, but more were either hiding or would arrive soon. This was Diagon Alley, not the Isle of Wight…

Call the Death Eaters? Too evincive of the Lord. Besides, if my servants came, so would Albus with his goons. Right now, the Order avoided interfering with an official anti-terrorism operation - they were, after all, a "secret society." But if it came to an epic showdown that promised a real chance to end the war in one hit, this place will get very crowded. In the best case scenario, I alone will escape alive. Not to mention that even the thickest heads would wonder why the Lord was missing the pivotal battle.

But I always had a way out. No, not suicide. Luck.

A tiny vial jumped into my hand. Felix Felicis. I drank it, and by the time I habitually put the empty vial back into my pocket, the world around me bloomed with new colors.

I did not understand what exactly happened. I simply realized that my situation was not as hopeless as it seemed a second ago. Fresh ideas zoomed through my mind almost on their own volition. Dozens of them were discarded every moment until only one remained: breaking through under the cover of hostages. The raging volcano of emotions inside me interfused into something indescribable and unalike the original Voldemort. I felt fury but no hatred. Malice alongside joy. Fear mixed with excitement.

I started weaving two spells to cover the entire area of the anti-apparition ward, all the while drinking more doping potions. Fortunately, the bottles were no larger than a thimble, and the panicking crowd distracted the Aurors.

First went Delayed Pain, Delayed Rebound, Universal Antidote, Temporary Antidote and Foreign Sacrifice. Then, the more specialized Great Acceleration, Flesh Transmutation, Divine Reflexes, Pestilent Blood, Owl, Sacrificial Tears, the Draught of Omnipotence (unfortunately it didn't grant omnipotence, only improved some magical abilities), the Elixir of Vitality, the Draught of Magic Resistance, Dragon's Breath, Mopsus's Solution, the Fire Resistance potion, the Guardian Elixir, the Wit-Sharpening potion… A third of these would land me a stay in Azkaban, another third - the dementor's kiss. Most were brewed by Snape.

Too bad that most of what I drank caused deadly interactions. My head rang like a hundred church bells. Blood changed composition and consistency. Heart stopped for a stifling moment, before restarting. With a force of will, I banished away multicolored blurs that obstructed most of my vision, then shoved the sharp stomach ache and voices in my head out of my conscious mind. This cocktail would no doubt send most wizards to their graves before they could finish the first half. I was alive only thanks to the antidotes, blood mastery and several life-support charms I cast on myself.

I was now ready. For several minutes, I will be very powerful and have additional magical abilities… Then experience a rapid decline. As for the price… Considering everything I drank, losing about a decade of life… Plus pain and convulsions for several months, magical exhaustion worse than Snape's after the Drink of Despair, and a number of relatively minor effects.

The first change I noticed was an incredible expansion of awareness. The potions allowed me to see through people, walls, ground… The magic permeating everything looked unprecedentedly clear. I saw… no, sensed everyone within a hundred meters around me, the life pulsating in them. Aside from civilians, Moody and the Aurors, I felt another two squads and five Hitwizards hidden under quality concealment. The five Aurors that confronted me first were also approaching from around the corner. In sum, 26 uniformed Aurors, five Hitwizards covered in artifacts and Alastor Moody. A bit much…

My movements accelerated until the civilians looked almost frozen in time. Before they made a single step, I finished all the potions and sorted the empty vials into my pockets (no need to leave saliva samples). The Aurors moved 3-5 times faster, but for me they were still very slow.

My area spells took effect. What did Moody say, drop all shields? I transfigured all the air under the anti-apparition dome and part of the pavement into magical gas. It cost me another average reserve- the task was simple but large in volume.

Transfiguration of gases was too dangerous? Not my problem. What will the people breathe? Also not my problem. No, this was nothing like sarin. If I killed all the civilians, the Aurors would start hitting with area spells and not hold back. Corpses could be picked up later. On the other hand, injured magical citizens in need of rescue… I need a functional live shield.

Tom developed this gas in one of his many research experiments. It caused pain, paralysis and gradual shutting down of organs. Useless apart from torture: it took a long time to kill and could be stopped with a simple air filtration charm or a thousand other ways.

Moody ordered to take off all defenses. You don't want to die? Use the air filtration or bubble head charm and become a target for the Aurors. They would only hit with stunners, but the panic is going to help me. It would take them a while to clear out the air- transfiguration of gases was not taught at Hogwarts, and the Aurors were no healers. And once someone figures out how to reverse the transfiguration… The noxious gas will turn into air and parts of the pavement in their lungs and blood. These people would easily survive if part of the Aurors focus on giving them first aid and transporting them to the healers. Which will require removing or at least weakening the wards. What was more important, catching a criminal or saving dozens of people? Hey, Moody, did you take an oath to protect or to kill? Are you an Auror or a bounty hunter?

Multiple revealing charms stripped layers of my camouflage, but thanks to the modified invisibility potion I would stay undetected for a little longer. Dozens of civilians who either had no shields or took them off were writhing on the ground. They kept getting hit with multiple Finite's, but all for naught. And field teams staffed no healers or transfiguration masters… However, the people's lives were in no danger if Moody made the right choice.

The Aurors were stunning the bystanders who were too panicked or slow to remove their defensive charms. They will sort the innocents from the Death Eaters later, in temporary holding cells.

To force the Aurors to waste energy on protecting the stunned civilians, I conjured a cursed pestilence cloud above the anti-apparition ward. The surplus of energy I pumped in should stop them from dispersing it too fast. The remaining shielded civilians who saw the curse and could not apparate should now think twice about obeying the Aurors' demands and distract them even more.

The risk of getting recognized as the Lord was minuscule. In this pandemonium, nobody could tell who cast what and with how much energy. Or maybe I had a powerful single-use artifact?

"Remove only the anti-scanning charms and illusions!" -Moody roared a new order at the suspects.

Excellent. Now, they should not fire at another running woman who at first glance had no anti-scanning charms… Or least not fire all at once.

I conjured illusions of Death Eaters and werewolves darting through the crowd to increase the panic, then removed my own facial illusion charms and took off towards the nearest border of the ward at human speed. While running, I made a show of frantically casting verbal filtration charms on myself and quietly hit the survivors with wandless spells. Some civilians got their filtration charms dispelled and joined the epileptic dance party on the ground. Others received additional painful but not immediately lethal curses.

Most of my enemies were helping the civilians or trying to cancel the pestilence curse, the rest were searching for me. The squad led by Moody finally managed to spot me and attacked.

I got showered with spells: a modified paralyzer from Moody, then a cascade of stunners everyone else, followed by penetrators, revealing and illusion dispelling charms, cancellation of transfiguration and more of the like. I lost all camouflage except polyjuice. My enemies now saw a deathly pale woman with solid black eyes and inflamed, pulsing black veins all over her body. Potion overdose never flattered anyone.

"Only one target! The rest are illusions!" - Moody screamed.

That thrice-cursed magical eye! The Death Eater illusions were fooling even some Aurors.

I faced simultaneous spells from two dozen opponents. Mostly weak and non-lethal but certainly very efficient. I answered with cancellations of the bubblehead charm and air filtration- let some more drop from the gas.

They tried transfiguring me into a bird and a worm, but my charms against transfiguration saved me from getting stuck as an animal without access to magic. The defenses against electricity absorbed dozens of bright yellow lightnings. Elemental shields stopped several weak to average freezing charms.

Moody threw a Delictuus at me. I did not trust my defenses to save me from getting splintered into pieces, so I blocked it and the rest of trifles accompanying it with the blood shield. The kinetic shield absorbed all hits from air whips that could sever a tank. I deflected several Ingruo energy balls with wandless dispelling charms. Stunners, binders and paralysis charms fell so thick and fast that I had to cover with modified Protego.

In return to all that, the enemy received the Well of Darkness I prepared while on the defensive. The Aurors's ranks were split by a ten meter long crack in reality that began leaking black fog. Two enemies died instantly. This spell was as exquisite as Fiendfyre, only with corrosive fog in place of flames. Moody and the hitwizards immediately forgot about me and started blocking this curse.

And here were the first Crucios and Avadas flying at me. De facto not so illegal when the target was a Death Eater… Esecially since I successfully defended from over two dozen Aurors and already killed two. Someone lost their nerve.

I simply dragged several stunned civilians on the curses' path. Their charms may be blocking telekinesis, but under Mopsus's Draught I could lift a train car wandlessly. You all started the Unforgiveables first, so their deaths were on your conscience. From behind the bodies, I took advantage of the Dragon's Breath potion and spat out jets of flame at my opponents.

Now I faced an endless sea of conditionally-banned spells. Their density was so high it put my passive defenses on the verge of failure. In a few more moments, I would either begin taking hits or go on complete defensive, which was tantamount to a drawn-out defeat. I hit them back, but every time I damaged someone's shield, they regrouped behind their colleagues' backs. As if that was not enough, some of the Aurors gathered behind the main force and were quietly weaving something I could only guess was a highly lethal curse.

I moved on to the second part of my plan.

"Lord Voldemort, give me strength!" I bellowed as convincingly as I could. If I was going to play a fanatic, I better do it right. A couple of Aurors flinched at the name.

I activated my magic concealment artifact. As it squeaked and turned into dust, it gave out one last overpowered Astral Cacophony. Hopefully, it would cut off their communications for a few moments. I pulled Peruvian Darkness powder out of my pocket and simultaneously conjured a thick smoke screen. A large part of the warded area instantly plunged into darkness that was impervious to light and fire charms. It would hold last for several seconds, and that was all I needed.

My opponents could not rely on vision or the radar-like artifacts and charms they shared with basilisk hunters. If I fought schoolchildren, this would have been the end. But the Aurors were slowly dispelling the darkness with specialized charms while hiding behind transfigured shields.

I pulled out my real wand, cherry and Nagini's scale. Levitating myself an inch above the ground to not be discovered by vibrations, I implemented the next stage of my plan: a chain of Imperios. The few civilians still on their feet received orders to attack the Aurors and Imperio new victims with the same. I also conjured new Death Eater illusions, changed into the same uniform myself, started two separate cursed fires, and darted away at the speed of a race car.

The first Fiendfyre distracted Moody from pelting me with freezing and congealing curses (his magical eye saw through the darkness just as well as I did under potions). The other passed underground and attacked the five huddled Aurors, at the very least thwarting whatever supercharged spell they were preparing.

During my sprinting and dodging self-guiding curses, I pulled out all the explosive pebbles I had with telekinesis and hurled them straight up. Soon it will rain explosions. The Aurors will survive, but the civilians will be in pieces if no one protected them… Only the one who made these little runic toys could move them with magic, so my enemies will be forced to raise additional shields.

As an additional distraction, I threw at them all the offensive magical plant seeds I had - those that grew aggressively, emitted heat and spat acid.

My enhanced luck clearly showed. Most spells were missing me, and I caught a wonderful opportunity for an attack: three Aurors lined up too close to each other. A jab of my wand sent a Dragonhunter's Spear right at them, giving me a momentary whiplash. It looked like an inconspicuous black spear, but it carried a force that easily penetrated a full grown dragon's skin and magical defenses (reaching the heart or the brain to kill it was a different matter). And it flew very fast. Minus three!

I sacrificed a liter of my blood for several thin blood ribbons. Some were quickly destroyed, but the rest did their job: sprinkled unconscious civilians with drops of my blood and tried to cut up the Aurors. One of the potions I drank made my blood poisonous. If they were not helped in time, the death will be quite painful… As an added benefit, the black slush in my veins could no longer be magically traced to me.

But when I reached the ward edge, the dome refused to let me through! I tried a greater shield penetrator, Dragonhunter's spear and gave it a few hits with a blood whip - all for naught. Now what? Draw runes on the ward dome? Under enemy fire?

The deaths of seven opponents -two from the Well, two from Fiendfyre, three from the spear- did not bring me any joy. First of all, there was still a swarm of them while I was holding on only thanks to potions. Second, the very edge of my perception registered the arrival of more people. They were outside the ward, but the reinforcements will probably keep coming. Very soon I will be surrounded by half of the DMLE.

The enemy finally took care of the smoke screen and the Peruvian Darkness. My distraction barely lasted three seconds. Moody and his team drank additional potions. Judging by their dramatically increased efficiency, the potions included Felix Felicis. Hitwizards were supposed to have it in their emergency kit… I wonder, will their luck offset mine? But that's all right. My potions were still better because we were not squeamish about ritually torturing a couple of people.

I cast another Fiendfyre at the ward. Astonishingly, it held. It let Avadas through, but what was the use? I was not a killing curse.

Wandlessly, I covered an area of the ward dome with blood runes of aging, neutralization and magic drain. The thin black lines sizzled with potion energy.I had to stall for time. Just a little longer to punch a hole through… Hopefully. If no one messed up my artwork.

I chose to target the Aurors. Moody and the Hitwizards were stronger and under the luck elixir. I should also aim to cripple instead of killing… Maybe it will undermine their morale or force them to open an evacuation corridor for the injured.

A tried and true combination of curses flew at the closest Auror. He blocked the rotting swarm, though part of his passive defenses vanished. The shields thrown up by his colleagues absorbed the Umbra rune. But the Spirit Fracture finished him off- another rambling lunatic, coming right up! Now he will hear nothing but voices in his head for the rest of his life. Thousands of loud voices that can't be silenced with sleeping draughts, drugs or magic. If he does not kill himself, he will probably be humanely euthanized.

Displaying marvelous feats of acrobatics to dodge most curses and not stray far from the ward edge, I decided to also set records in speech speed. I managed over twenty well-enunciated Avada Kedavras in a second and sent them out in a fan pattern. One Auror was too slow and calmed down forever, the rest dodged and shielded. But the dodged killing curses continued flying further… Several Aurors had to raise a dirt wall to cover the stunned and dying people on the ground.

One my opponents got too carried away with transfigured shields… But they did nothing against mental attacks, so the ditz got hit with a swarm of small dark blobs. While I could not get into his mind, frying his brains with a wanded deranging storm was all too easy. One more officer of peace forever lost his mind.

His friends retaliated. Moody cast a Giant's Slap, everyone else supported him with ramming charms and Crucios. They were afraid to use killing curses in case I shielded with more people, but Crucios were just as bad. Someone added an even higher quality telekinesis block, and my live shield was too far…

Fine. I've already given them more than enough opportunities to defend the civilians. Draining the majority of what was left of my magical energy, my wand shot out dozens of long tentacles made of thick smoke. The curse targeted everyone in several hundred meter radius simultaneously. Three Aurors died. More than ten got thrown back and slammed into the opposite side of the ward. Some unlucky civilians turned into rotting bodies. The tentacles continued attacking everyone in reach, but they were rapidly getting dispelled.

I found myself directly facing Moody, five Hitwizards and four Aurors. Still over the top, but compared to the beginning of this battle, this was paradise. My reflexes were extremely sharpened. Only Moody and the Hitwizards could match half my speed. Now to distract them with something…

Taking the enemy spells on blood and transfigured shields, I moved closer under the cover of Twilight Flame and injured two Aurors with a blood whip. Considering the fact that today my blood was poisonous, they were at least out of commission.

One of the Aurors suddenly screamed that I was Voldemort.

I cut him with the blood whip, then made it dull with my will and threw his still alive body at the ward. It did not let the Auror through, either. The result was the same as if he slammed into a concrete wall at high speed.

"You dare say the Master's name?!" I screamed, without stopping my barrage of nonverbal blood vanishers.

Actually, even now some of my Dark spells were weaker than Riddle's in his normal condition. But I easily took the second place even without potions.

Spells spoke louder than words. To convince them I was not the Lord, I conjured my therstral Antipatronus and summoned a couple of Lesser Spirits of Sorrow as weaker replacements for dementors. Even if the Antipatronus shape could change, it must not be so much weaker. The opponents answered with Patronuses and Spears of Light.

I felt the steady approach of magical exhaustion. But Moody with his people were still standing, and most of the Aurors thrown back by the tentacles were getting up. No matter. We'll live to see another day. I still had a lot of blood left.

I stood ten meters from Moody and his Hitwizards. This was the elite. Even with a blood whip in each hand, flinging highly lethal Dark spells at point-blank range while spinning like a top, I could not kill a single one. And healing and household charms powerlessly bounced off their shields.

A stray Auror attempting to join our fight ran into my spell and got stripped down to bare skeleton. To deter any more heroes, I cast a Firepath at the civilians. My version was more of a fire valley. It ignited everything non-living and threatened to spread through entire Diagon Alley.

Honorable Aurors, surely you are going to save law-abiding magical citizens from the fire? It is your fault they are defenseless and stunned. While not Fiendfyre, this would burn unconscious humans well enough.

The valley of fire stretched to the opposite edge the ward. I was left alone with Moody and his team - the rest focused on rescuing the survivors from fire. Or did Moody order them to stay back because only his people had the luck elixir?

To be completely honest, even if I were fresh as a summer morning, I still wouldn't be able to take them down by myself.

They tried to burn me, drown me in melted metal, bathe me in acid, transfigure me into pure hydrogen, impale me with Dragonhunter's spears, vaporize me with Great Lightning. In response, I showered them with Avadas and wandless blasting curses.

It was then when the dreaded wave of euphoria washed over me. The first sign of some potions losing their effects… I had to concentrate. Reign myself in with mental magic. Drink another wit-sharpening…

Everything became insignificant. The Aurors, Moody, the confrontation in Diagon, my strange appearance in this world… Everything. Only the fight remained. Only I and six opponents. Truly experienced opponents. Powerful. Dangerous… And therefore infinitely exciting!

Magic that flowed through my body was singing with pleasure. One of the Hitwizards finally missed a great defense penetrator. The unraveling charm that followed left him lying on the ground in motionless colorful pieces of flesh- liver separately, brain separately, intestines and part of the blood vessels straightened in a neat long line.

The next victim, a young dark-skinned Hitwizard, surprisingly managed to block three curses in the row and dodge two killing curses. Then his colleagues covered him, and I had to shift my attention to blocking Moody's ball lightnings.

Both of Moody's eyes, the real and the fake, glowed with hatred and astonishment: no one other than Lord Voldemort and Albus should be able to endure this tempo. A number of factors were saving me from exposure: no yew wand, no conjured snakes or Parseltongue, Dark spells fell short of the Lord's level… Why was I so powerful? He saw my face and must recognize the symptoms of several illegal potions.

The situation kept worsening. Newly arrived Aurors on the outside of the ward put out my Fiendfyre and dispelled my runes. I'm afraid making a doorway will now be out of question… So, a new plan. If running was impossible, then it was time to play dead. Hurrah for a big explosion!

Lasf chance. Last dregs of power for decent spells, only thanks to blood. I targeted Moody with artifact failure, artifact destruction and destruction of light filtration charms, then created a very powerful flash of light in a spectrum only visible to his magical eye. Ideally, he would collapse with sensory shock and let me kill him. But the artificers who made his eye were no idiots. Instead of frying his brain, the eye shut off.

I prepared my final attack: Black Sun and Fiendfyre, with myself in the epicenter. First appeared a rapidly expanding opaque sphere that damaged everything it touched. When my enemies stopped its growth beyond couple dozen meters, they were attacked by cursed fire bursting from within.

And me? I stood in a blind spot, quickly covering myself with a mountain of concealment charms. Then transfigured myself into a cloud of smoke and seeped underground over twenty meters deep. Unfortunately, their anti-apparition ward continued underground. But it would take them a while to discover me- with cursed flames and darkness raging on the surface, thorough scanning was not a priority. And I disabled Moody's eye.

I lied in wait for them to start transporting the injured. After all, the Dark witch was dead. To avoid capture by the superior enemy forces, she used all her blood on two overpowered Dark curses to take as many people as she could with her.

The energy field rippled and changed: someone outside the ward dome was weakening it. Dozens of new people arrived on the scene: teams of mediwizards, various members of the DMLE, and Barty Crouch Sr. himself. The mediwizards began administering first aid to the survivors and preparing them for transport to St. Mungo's.

I stocked up on polyjuice and hairs of other people prior to going out, but results of its reaction with the seething cocktail in my blood… Most likely death or unconsciousness. Or if I got lucky, I'd only glow like a chandelier in magical sight.

Luckily, I already drank the Flesh Transmutation potion. (Only one sacrifice, and you had a potion that let you look however you wanted for about 15 minutes. But not recommended more than once a year.) Appearing as a different man, I crawled out of the ground away from the main crowd.

Far away, mediwizards were insisting on immediate evacuation. Moody screamed they must heal on site because he will not let anyone out without a full scan. At the same time, he was putting out the fire and casting non-stop scanning charms. This was very bad. If my camouflage was discovered, I won't survive another battle. Despite my killing 19 opponnents, the number of Aurors was now even greater. Moody's check protocol would reveal me even without a magical eye.

But then Crouch Sr. cut off Moody's profane rant. He said that since all qualified healers were at Mungo's, the injured must be immediately transported there, escorted by mediwizards and the trainee Aurors he brought. And that looking for the enemy body was pointless when all evidence pointed to an out of control Fiendfyre.

Since Moody headed the Aurors and Crouch Sr. headed the DMLE, Moody received a direct order to go get a medical check and start on the reports. Disgruntled Moody spat at his feet, gathered his team -both survivors and pieces of the dead- and left by portkey.

How wonderful that the Ministerial election was around the corner! Crouch jumped on every opportunity to gather political points for his campaign, and helping to save dozens of people would make quite an impact. But if he was a deceitful Dark wizard helping the Dark Lord's student escape… He'd be eaten alive.

Even though the potion benefits were fading and the withdrawal effects progressed to chills and cramps, my mood immediately improved.

Apparition from the inside and house elf movement were still blocked. The ward was impenetrable, it would take me 20 minutes to break it with a bright light show. Were they fueling it from the Ministry? Stealing a specialized portal they used to send the survivors to Mungo's would solve nothing- their activation was tied to one pre-configured person's magical signature. I'd take the next easiest way.

My body was already covered with bruises and scrapes. I added some burns, vanished caked black blood, conjured worn clothes, and applied several layers of defensive and masking charms expected of an average wizard. The mediwizard team emanating the least magic was easy to spot. Predicting their path, I lied down around the corner and called for help.

I fought the temptation to Imperio them and order to take me away from here. What if we caught someone's attention? Or they resisted the curse? Or the portkey was charmed to not work for someone under Imperius? Or someone around here had Unforgivable-detecting amulets? I noticed two Unspeakables examining the ground and could not understand what they were waving around… Some modified charm detectors? Better leave the Imperius for the last resort.

"Help! I need to get to Mungo's! I lost my wand!" I pleaded as pitifully as possible.

Before them lay an unarmed, frail, balding man with multiple bruises and sprains- I barely blocked a couple of battering charms and paid a steep price for my acceleration and acrobatic moves. The air had already been returned to normal, so I took off all my normal defenses.

It was so tempting to use legilimency or confound them… But I had a better solution.

I wore no illusions and would pass the polyjuice test. And they lacked qualifications to check me for Flesh Transmutation. Rather than send feedback into the mind, their revealing and medical diagnostic charms displayed the results as garlands of glowing spheres in the air. The mediwizards then made preliminary diagnosis based on their number and glow. And so, instead of influencing the people, I influenced their spells. Wandlessly, I hid some glowing balls within slightly larger ones of different color and concealed the ones that indicated magical exhaustion and illegal potion use. The results they saw now corresponded with several fractures, gas poisoning and multiple sprains and burns.

Simple wandless illusion charms felt like they jerked and pulled the very life out me. I'd have to run as soon as I get to St. Mungo's - any decent healer would see through my fake diagnosis.

The mediwizards put me on a stretcher and pulled out some amulets. One moment of portkey travel - and we reappeared at St. Mungo's. The hall was filled to the brim with victims. Some mediwizards were administering first aid on the spot, others sorted patients into proper rooms.

Not killing everyone was a great call. If I ended up here alone, it would have looked beyond suspicions… Now they all had more important issues to occupy their attention. Some survivors were throwing up blood. Some nursed major burns from the last charmed fire. Some were trying to strangle themselves - I overdid it with the Imperius. Next to all that, another wounded man with an overall condition diagnostic sphere displaying a pale yellow triangle did not draw any attention. Most victims were trailed by black, red or bright orange ones.

My escorts apparated back to the scene. Another mediwitch asked for my name -Bard Wallace- then levitated me to the ward on a stretcher. Real healers were busy fighting for the lives of those I had hit with the more unpleasant curses. She put me in a bed next to two other unconscious patients and gave me strengthening, dreamless sleep and anesthetic potions. Sorry, but I won't be drinking these or any other potions any time soon.

Healers and mediwizards worked with no or very minimal protections because most interfered with scanning and medical charms. For instance, the air scalpel was extremely precise but required a complete lack of barriers between the caster and the patient. This woman was no exception. Killing or taking anyone with me would be all risk and no reward… We were soon going to get new material from Africa, my emissaries almost settled a deal with the local criminals… Doing my best to ignore the pain, I cast a wandless Confundus and Obliviate at the mediwitch. She froze with blank eyes, and walked out.

They might eventually notice my disappearance, but a patient could have easily gone home without signing out. The guards were already trying to calm the crowd of worried relatives barging into the emergency wing. With words, for now.

The hospital's anti-apparition ward was far too strong for my condition. But the ward against house elves was a different story. The elves needed a way to move efficiently - who else was going to clean the bedpans? I learned much about house elves since my fight against the Longbottoms and knew just how to punch an discreet temporary hole. The spell felt like diving into scalding water. I wanted to scream- another month of this to look forward to! If only we had potions to restore magical energy with no side effects… Wizards would have long ago conquered the world…

"Tony! Gaby!" I called.

The two house elves instantly appeared.

"Take me away from here with a chain of apparitions, quickly!"

Nice hospital, but I'd rather rest it off at home. This Christmas of 1981 would surely be remembered for years to come.