The invasion

Albus walked down from his room alone, ready for his shift at the gate. He hoped his father got the message and was there. And he hoped Rose and Scorpius were fine.

Goyle walked up next to him. He was clearly not hung-over. Was he alone?

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Gate duty," Albus replied shortly. He hoped Goyle would not mess this up for him now. His nerves were already high, he didn't need any more complications.

"You sure are a dutiful one, aren't you? Even after the party we had last night, with you at the centre, drunk. Yet you still are up and ready for duty?"

"Yes, I am quite remarkable like that. Now, excuse me, I'm late…"

"No, no. You stay here. We need to clean out Malfoy's room before they return. No need for the chains now, eh? Better you do it."

"Why?" Albus asked, starting to feel a bit panicked. He needed to get down to the gate before his father decided that something had gone wrong.

"You know the room better. You've stayed in there almost as much as your own room. Are you going to keep doing that, even though Malfoy is married?" Goyle asked with a grin. "I think Malfoy would much prefer you poking around there than any of the rest of us."

Albus had no reply to that. He was right.

"I'll go and guard the gate," Goyle said. "Don't worry. I was on duty most of yesterday as well, so I didn't have time to get very drunk."

"Thank you. I'll take one of your shifts later," Albus promised. He rubbed his head to pretend to have a headache from last night. That should explain his tartness.

"You better. The night shift, for instance. I hate night shifts," Goyle said as he started walking towards the gate.

Albus went up to Scorpius' room. It did sound like a good idea to remove all chains and signs of captivity before the Ministry got here. No need to make them angrier at Scorpius by letting them see that. He quickly removed the chains, Vanished the peg, then walked down to the grounds.

Outside the Manor, Harry waited with the army. There was one person guarding the gate, but it was not Albus. Even with the masks, he had learned to recognise him. It was already 10:30. What was going on here? Could this be some sort of trap? Usually there were a lot more of them around, but now there was only one near the gate. Was that Albus' doing? Or were all the other Death Eaters about to fall on them from behind?

Suddenly, the guard fell forward. The next moment, Albus was at the gate, doing some wandwork. The gate opened, and a small bell chimed. Harry cautiously moved forward.

"Albus! Good work. What went wrong?" Harry asked as he signalled for the others to start moving in.

"Last minute shift change. Apparently, I am better at acting drunk than I thought. Goyle thought I was too drunk to be a good guard." Albus saw all the people moving in behind Harry. "Merlin's beard! How many did you bring?"

"As many as I could. There are another 20 manning the boundaries. We don't want anyone to escape this time. Now. You please stay here to keep the gate open. We will enter and take out as many as we can. How many are there?"

"About 30 altogether. But most of them will still be hung-over from last night's feast."

"The wedding feast," Harry clarified.

Albus squirmed. "So, you know about that. There is apparently a tradition that the feast-goers should try to out-drink the groom. So, Scorpius pretended to consume enormous amounts of Firewhiskey so that they would all need to try as well. That's why most of them are still out."

"We'll talk about that later," Harry decided. "For now, where are the Death Eaters?"

"The Dark Lord, sorry, the man pretending to be Voldemort has the top suite. The man who owns the manor, Brutus, has the room right below. Pretty much every other room is occupied as well, except the two at the top in the left wing, that was where Scorpius and I slept," Albus explained. "The servants are down by the kitchen, but I doubt they will try to fight you. I don't even know if they have wands."

"Ok. Good job. Now stay here. Keep low in case some of them try to fight back. We may need you to get us out of here."

"Fine," Albus said.

"Is anyone in the dungeon?" Ginny wanted to know. She gave her son a quick hug.

"No, except maybe a dead Death Eater. I am not sure what he did with Broadshaw's body. We have barely been outside of this manor ever since we failed to kill Hermione. This new Voldemort seems to be a lot more cautious than the previous one. Good thing, too. I've had my share of death and torture."

"Let's go, people." Harry said to the crowd. "Move room by room and secure anyone who is in them. Don't attack anyone unless they seem to be about to attack you."

***

All signs of Dark magic had vanished from the graveyard where Scorpius and Albus had sworn themselves to the Dark Lord. The statue was also gone. A single figure was sitting in the open area in the middle, apparently in deep thought. A random passer-by would have thought he grieved in front of a grave, but there were no graves where the man had hunched over.

A woman suddenly appeared nearby. The man raised his head, and then jumped to his feet.

"Rose!"

"Scorpius!"

They ran to each other and embraced.

"I wasn't sure you would come. You shouldn't have come. But I am glad to see you."

"I had to. I finally understood your hint. But we need to run. They don't believe that you're innocent," Rose urged.

"I suspected they wouldn't believe me," Scorpius admitted. "That is one of the reasons I didn't go back with you. But I can't just run. We have to try and explain."

"They won't listen. Especially not Mother. You're right, they hate you for what happened. Even uncle Harry doesn't want to listen. But they are all busy right now attacking the manor. We need to be away from here at least."

"We can go to my father. He will understand. He has been in much the same situation I am in. Though he had the Potters with him at the end, not against him."

"We can't stay there. It is the first place they'll look. They have already done so once."

"I need to go to him anyway. To explain at least. And what about Albus? Can we just leave him behind without a word?"

"He will understand," Rose said.

Scorpius sighed. "OK. Let's go."

With that, they Disapparated together.

***

It was a tired but happy crowd that returned to the Burrow. The plan had worked perfectly. Most of the Death Eaters had not even realised what was happening before they were subdued and taken. Not a single casualty. Molly and the rest of the family entered the kitchen, ready to prepare a feast for all who had been helping.

"Rose! James! We're back!" Ginny shouted up the stairs.

"Rose?" Ron shouted as well.

No one answered at first. There was a faint smell of soot in the air. Then James appeared, looking dejected.

"James? What is it?" Ginny asked, worried.

"Rose is gone," James said, looking from his mother to his father. "I'm sorry dad. I know you said to keep an eye on her, so she didn't try to contact him or anything. We sat and talked for a while, mostly about what had happened. She tried to help me fill in some of the blanks. She refused to hear anything bad about Malfoy. She is angry that none of you seem to believe her. Then she said she was tired and went back into her room. I checked that the window was locked. Then I must have blacked out again, because the next thing I remember is that I smelled smoke. She had set a small, contained fire in her room. You said we could leave the house if it was on fire. When I went up to put it out, she ran downstairs and out the door. Before I could react at all, she was over the hill and gone. I don't know where she went. I'm sorry."

"She must have figured out where Scorpius is. She has gone to meet him," Ginny said.

"But she could be anywhere!" Ron said, starting to panic. "We need to find her again. We need to get her back here before Hermione returns."

"Too late for that," a voice said behind them.

They all turned to see Hermione standing behind them.

"I came when I heard the good news. Well done, all of you. All the Death Eaters taken, and not a single casualty.

I also remembered something that may help us now. Molly, the trackers you gave Albus. Will those still work?"

"What? Trackers? Oh, yes. Yes, they will probably still work. I don't know how long they will be active, but certainly longer than a few weeks." Molly ran to get the device.

"Good. That will tell us both where my daughter is, and where the Malfoy boy is. And he better hope nothing happens to her before I find them," Hermione said with gritted teeth.

Molly came running back with the device. The three blips were still active. One was there with them in the Burrow. That was Albus. The other two were together. In a house in London.

"That is Draco's house!" Harry exclaimed. "But we searched that house yesterday."

"They must have returned there afterwards. We must hurry, we don't know how long they will stay there. Now we at least have him for kidnapping," Hermione said.

"Kidnapping?" Ginny asked, incredulous. "Rose left here voluntarily. There is no sign she was forced in any way. How could he have kidnapped her from here?"

Hermione ignored her. "Harry, are you coming?"

"No. I need to organise the transfer of the remaining Death Eaters to Azkaban. Some of them are already sentenced to life there, so no need for trials," Harry said. "Though there is a disturbing number of new faces."

"I'll go with you, Hermione," Ginny said. She had to try to prevent this from getting out of hand.

"Remember the Vow," Harry reminded them as they started to leave. "Don't lose your heads. Rose must not try to escape from him, possibly even from any group he is in, voluntarily or not. She must not hurt him. He must not turn his back on her. He must know she is safe."

Ginny nodded. Hermione just hissed. Then they both left.

"Hermione probably shouldn't be going. She won't be able to stay calm," Harry said with a sigh. "Hopefully, Ginny can prevent this from getting violent."

"As if any of us could have stopped her," Ron replied.