Chapter 25

Two days later, they all gathered. The Grangers, Susan Bones (her Aunt couldn't arrange the time off, since they didn't know how long they'd be gone), the Lovegoods, the Greengrass and Parkinson families, the Patil twins and their mother, Bill Weasley, the Krum and Delacour families, the Professors (excluding Dumbledore), Madam Pomfrey, Sirius (Remus would stay behind to run things for the company), the Prometheus Crew (except for Bobby), and finally Harry and his bodyguard, were all gathered and ready to go. Everyone had bags, with some clothes and belongings that they wanted in their bunks.

They took a portkey to the Hangar again, from where they transported into the Lab section on Prometheus. They then went to the dormitory section. Harry was on his way to his own, slightly larger bedroom, when he spotted something through Sam's bedroom door. "Sam? Have you been living here?" Harry asked.

"Of course." Sam shrugged. Her bedroom was made up, but Harry could see personal items around the room. "I work here and it's cheaper than renting an unneeded apartment. I thought you said these quarters were ours?"

"I don't have a problem with it." Harry said. "I just didn't realise you had moved in. Isn't it a little small to live in permanently, though?"

"It's a bedroom, Harry. I sleep in it. When I'm not asleep, I work, or I go to the Hangar to go buy groceries in town." she said, with a smile at him.

"Okay, then." Harry said, shrugging. "Dobby?" he asked the air.

"Master Harry calls Dobby?" Dobby asked as he appeared.

"Could you claim a room for yourself and serve as the ship's cook for meal-times?" Harry asked.

"You want Dobby to have a whole room?!" Dobby asked.

"Stop acting surprised, Dobby." Harry chided. "You knew I'd give you a room. I've treated you like the friend you are, since we met."

Dobby's shock faded, and he pouted. "Harry Potter, sir, is ruining all of Dobby's fun."

��Too bad." Harry said. "If people think I'm only offering you equality now, they'll think I normally treat you badly. The non-magic people on the ship are going to be angry with me if they suspect me of such things."

Dobby nodded in understanding, before he walked off to one of the rooms. He looked at it and snapped his fingers, making the door much smaller. "Dobby will have meals prepared at the right times." he said as he smiled back at Harry and walked into his room.

"He's a funny little guy." Sam said. She'd not left yet.

"He's my house-elf. He functions as my personal assistant, when I remember to ask him to do things." Harry said.

"How strong is he? Magically I mean." Sam asked.

"I don't know, but I've seen him do some nifty things negligently." Harry said.

"Maybe he can help us out when you're not available?" Sam asked.

"Dobby tends to be where I am." Harry said. "I don't know if he's just invisible, or if he's popping from place to place, but he always knows when I call him and never has issues appearing by my side. I don't even know if he's in his room. He may have just decided to make it look like that."

"He's your elf, Harry." McGonagall said, as she exited her room. "He's likely the strongest elf in existence, since he's bonded to you."

Harry shrugged and continued into his room, where he placed his bag on the king-sized bed, before returning to the hallway and going to the bridge. He waited there for the others to arrive. When they took too long, Harry placed a finger on a button and said, "Could all guests and crew please report to the bridge? We're going to start the operation in the next five minutes." He'd added the intercom system for cases like these. He'd not made it capable of speaking to only specific rooms, just yet, but that would take negligible effort.

When the people started filing in, the floor opened up and a few rows of seats moved up from below, locking into place when they were out. "Take a seat." Harry instructed. "Everyone that has a station, knows where to be. Let's get this party started."

When everyone was seated and buckled in, Harry switched over to another set of controls. They were similar to his current ones, but he used them to manipulate a small craft, of which there were quite a few in a special bay, which opened from the bottom of the ship. The small display in front of the controls showed him what the small craft 'saw'.

He manoeuvred the small craft until it was in front of the large display. "This is the link vessel. It's also what we'll be tethering to, once it reaches its location. It's called a Eudaemon." he said. The 'vessel' wasn't built to be aerodynamic, but it was pretty. It was constructed almost entirely of quartz and looked almost like a snowflake, except for having eight sides, instead of six. It was thin and partially transparent, with its functions all magically worked out and incorporated. The 'snowflake' design was basically just done for the visual appeal, even if only he and his people knew they were there. The bearings for some of the mechanical functions were made of corundum. Harry had been delighted to discover that that was another use for rubies.

"Eudaemon?" Hermione asked.

"An angelic protective spirit, from Greek Mythology." Bill said. "Following your theme, from Prometheus?"

"Exactly." Harry said. "This is Eudaemon One. We have ten on-board. I will place four of them around the planet, and they will link to both each other and one of the hidden locations of Marauders Inc." he said.

"To use as a connection point for corresponding vessels around Mars?" Doctor Hawk asked. She knew part of the plan, but not all, since Harry wanted to impress her.

"Exactly." Harry said again. "This is our tethering mechanism." he said. He changed the main display, to show what the Eudaemon saw, and everyone watched as it flew out and away from the ship, a smaller display showing the planet behind it.

"You made a remote control system." Hermione said, pleased. This was much safer than she had been expecting.

"It only works within a certain range of us, a couple of miles at most, until the link is established." Harry said.

"Shouldn't you put your satellites in place first?" Doctor Hawk asked.

Harry smirked and pressed a single button, activating a sequence of events, which portkeyd four of the Eudaemon units to their correct locations. A display popped up in front of the Astrophysicist, showing a two-dimensional image of the planet, with four representations of the four Eudaemon, who had just appeared in location. A line then appeared between two of them, as one connection was established. Then another and another, until the four devices were linked. Finally a last beam connected to the planet and the entire representation turned green.

"Well done." Doctor Hawk said. "I assume the Eudaemon are in geosynchronous orbit?"

"Nope. They are suspended, using the same system I have on the Prometheus, as well as being connected to each other." Harry said. "They are also hidden and unplottable. We don't want anything accidentally knocking them from position. If one connection is interrupted, the other connections will keep it in position and in contact. If the main tether to the Earth is interrupted, one of the others has a failover, to connect to a secondary location."

"Redundant systems." Sam nodded. "Perfect."

"Now for the big one." Harry said as he focussed on the large screen again. The Eudaemon One had come to a standstill, awaiting the activation of the portkey. There was a reason the Prometheus hadn't moved yet. Harry had set up a laser to point at the arrival point for Eudaemon One, so that it could establish the first connection, when it arrived, using the laser-light as it's magical pathway. It would then use the same beam to create the initial tether. Once connected, two tethers would try to maintain connection to the orbiting Eudaemon around the planet, to ensure yet another fail-over.

"Portkey activating in five, four, three, two, one." Harry counted down before activating the portkey.

The display went blank, as the portkey activated. Then they saw the normal display again.

"What's happening?" Parvati asked.

"The connection was lost, since it's too far away." Sam said. She had expected this. "How long till we know if it's safely arrived?"

"A couple of seconds if my plan works out." Harry said. He waited and watched on the monitor in front of Doctor Hawk. A few seconds later, there was a ping, as a new tether connected to one of the Eudaemon, followed by another. "Connections established!" he crowed, before he pressed a button and the display changed again, showing a dark sky full of stars. Harry manipulated the display and the view changed, looking down at the red planet. "Ladies and gentlemen, Eudaemon One is suspended over Mars. Connection stable and redundancy confirmed."

"Incroyable!" Fleur exclaimed, as she looked at the celestial sibling of Earth.

"That's only the first part." Harry denied, before he activated his next phase, pressing another button. Having known how big Mars was, and having used the observation deck to plan things out, Harry had set the other satellites to portkey through the connected system, to their new locations, much like what he had just done with the satellites around Earth.

Doctor Hawk watched in shock as her display changed again, showing the other, smaller planet, while three other Eudaemon appeared around the planet and linked up. Another one of them created two connections to the available Eudaemon around Earth, seconds later. "Well done." she said, with a nod. "Multiple redundancies."

"Nothing but the best for my family." Harry said. He was internally celebrating, since the fact that this worked, confirmed that he could activate the last part of his plan. "Ready?" he asked.

"For what?" Sam asked, just as Harry activated the final portkey and the entire ship was hurled through space, only to appear over the planet, Mars.

"Welcome to Mars." Harry said.

"But that was nothing!" Hermione exclaimed. "Just like that?! We didn't even need to buckle up! What's the point of a whole excursion and packing when we can travel instantly?!"

"Didn't expect it to be that simple, did you?" Harry chuckled.

"I know why Harry took the precautions." Doctor Hawk said, but Sam interrupted.

"It's because the system is based on the travel of light." Sam said. "He likely used the Prometheus to create the initial tether, and used that for the other connections."

"But it should take longer." Hermione objected. "Light travels slower than that. It should have taken minutes for the connections to be established. Even if magic can travel instantly through the light, the light still needs time to reach the correct locations."

"Except for one thing." Harry said. "These lights may carry the magic, but magic can also carry light. I simply used the pre-existing connection to funnel the connection and light up the intervening space magically, creating the connections more quickly."

"You didn't tell me that." Hermione said. "Since when have you been experimenting with that?" she asked.

"Since about a minute ago." Harry smirked. He'd theorised, but couldn't have known. He needed it to work, though, so that the connections could keep each other stable. If a connection was lost, he didn't want to have to wait minutes for it to re-establish a connection. With the distances involved, it could have disastrous consequences if a connection failed while it was in use. "I have tried a few things of course, but couldn't know that it would work otherwise. My biggest source of information on this, was my experience with the sun. Technically, the connection was established through the light which was already there."

"You've been experimenting with the sun again?" Hermione asked dangerously.

"Of course not." Harry scoffed. "Knowing something is there is just useful. The fact that I have the means to tap into it, means I am uniquely qualified to use it."

The next hour was spent searching for the perfect location to place their initial Martian base of operations. Doctor Hawk was the one with the most knowledge and she had discussed some of the plan with Harry beforehand. She had been looking for the best locations and her observation deck had helped tremendously.

Unfortunately they would need to wait a couple of hours before the perfect location, a gorge which would help provide cover from the global sandstorms, when they occurred, would have light. It was also not so deep as to affect the amount of sun that would reach the surface, as well as being connected to a system of canyons, which could be used for expansion of their plans, when the time for expansion came.

The group all returned to the Lido deck and took a bit of time to come to grips with the idea that they were millions of miles away from Earth. The idea hadn't really settled with all of them until they were stationed above the planet. Having watched as Harry and Doctor Hawk planned out the location of the first Martian base of operations, however, had brought the thought home.

Harry and the astronauts all descended to the planet on the Saucer, taking ward stones and four separate CITA devices with them. They would start producing the water, air and other necessities for the base, while they worked on building the first building, which needed to be safe from the elements, in-case something interfered with the wards, somehow. They all used suits, which Harry had produced for them. These looked like simple blue jump-suits, but they had all the protections of Harry's original suit, with the added benefit of expanded pockets. Harry didn't feel right doing labour in a tux, after all.

BTB-BTB

Remus had been busy with some paperwork in his office. The goblins sent him reports on the happenings at the Penitentiary. Every one of them that noticed anything out of the ordinary, even if it was an increased need to go to the bathroom, was reported on. He had to go through all of those reports, as the goblins needed to file the duplicate paperwork with his signature, to prove to their clans that they were doing their duty as was stipulated in the contract between Marauders Inc. and the goblin nation.

Bill had simply laughed at him, when he had complained about it one day. He did not miss writing out reports until his hand ached.

There was a ping from his Comm and he looked up, to see a message from one of their people, who were keeping an eye on the ICW conference. The wolves had not been requested to go, since many of the other nations did not approve of their conduct, even if the results were irrefutable, but that didn't mean that they would not send someone to keep a look-out.

'Suspicious activity at the conference.' read the message from Daniels.

'Anything to be worried about?' Remus sent back.

'No patrols in the last ten minutes. Sent a scout. Will confirm.' Daniels sent back.

Remus returned to his paperwork, but was distracted by another message. 'Death Eaters confirmed. Dementors sighted. Making the call.'

"Shit!" Remus exclaimed, as he jumped up, grabbed his Comm and started getting ready to join the wolves, who would all be gathering at the location they had taken to stand sentinel.

BTB-BTB

Harry and his team had just returned from their first day of work, tired and dirty, when he received a call on his Comm.

"Daniels?" Harry asked, answering the call.

"We have a situation, sir." Daniels said urgently. The rest of the crew had split off to go get cleaned up and Harry was still on his way to his own room, when he received the call. He had planned on cleaning up before going to tell his friends and family of the progress. Hopefully they'd be able to join them the next day. Having a few extra magicals around would be very useful.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, stopping in his tracks.

"The missing Death Eaters have come out of hiding, and apparently decided to attack the ICW conference." Daniels said.

Harry swore, as he turned around and ran to the closest transport room, to get to the bridge more quickly. "Where is the conference being held?" Harry asked as he went.

"Geneva, sir." Daniels said. "There's a dedicated building two kilometres west of the outskirts of the city, which is only visible to magicals."

"What are you doing?" Harry asked as he took a seat in the Captain's chair and pressed a button for the intercom. "All hands, please note that we'll be transporting back to Earth in ten seconds. Please brace yourselves."

Daniels heard the words and sighed to himself. "The wolves have taken up posts and have been containing the Dementors that have surrounded the building."

"Operation Black Light?" Harry asked.

"We've set it up." Daniels confirmed. "We'll need you for the last phase, though. A few of the Dementors have strayed. A couple of the wolves are corralling them back towards the building."

Harry activated the portkey and immediately on arrival set course for Switzerland. "We're back. I'm on my way. Where's Remus?"

"He's with the scouting team, using the new tools to see what's happening inside the building." Daniels said.

"Okay." Harry said, nodding to himself. "I'll be there in a few minutes." he finished as he ended the call. Not putting the Comm away, he said, "Call Albus Dumbledore." The Comm rang for only a moment, before it was answered. "What's the situation?" he asked. He knew the man was meant to be at this meeting.

There was silence for a few moments, before a voice was heard, faintly. "What was that?!" the female voice demanded.

Dumbledore's voice was then heard, saying, "What did you hear?" To Harry he sounded calm, with even a bit of humour in his voice.

"Don't play with me Dumbledore!" the same voice said. "I know I heard something!"

"Bellatrix, surely you can't expect me to know what you are hearing?" Dumbledore asked. He didn't sound condescending, but the implication was clear. Dumbledore must have taken the call, to end the ringing. Now he was keeping the connection open so that Harry could hear what was going on.

Harry had to hand it to the man. He was quick still, even at his advanced age. He quickly muted the connection from his side, just in case something was heard. He was lucky to have muted it in time, as that's when the rest of the passengers made it to the bridge.

"Harry!" Sirius exclaimed. "What's going on? We weren't meant to come back for a few more-"

"Be quiet, Sirius!" Harry said quickly. "I'm trying to listen." he said holding up the Comm.

The rest of the people, while confused and slightly worried, all kept quiet as a voice was heard again.

"Don't!" Bellatrix spat. "You will be the first to die, once I've found my cousin!"

"Sirius?" Dumbledore asked. "Is that why you've sealed us all off in separate locations, with half of us in the second council room on the third floor? Do you think this will draw him out?"

"I won't tell you again. If you say one more thing, I'll start killing these people." she whispered then. Her voice had changed to the deranged voice Harry knew so well. He could practically see her face in his mind. "Maybe I'll start with this one? Maybe my little cousin will come out of hiding, once we start sending body parts to the ministry?"

"Please!? Don't do this?" another voice pleaded. Harry was almost certain Bellatrix was now holding a hostage at wand point.

"Okay, people." Harry started, as he passed his Comm to Cooper, to continue listening. "The ICW conference was attacked by the missing Death Eaters and the place is surrounded by Dementors, likely to keep everyone contained and people out. It seems they were hoping to use the hostages as a way to draw out Sirius, for some reason, but I don't think they'd risk everything just for him, though. I think we have to assume that they have ulterior motives."

"Why would they take hostages to draw out Lord Black?" Lady Greengrass asked.

"What would they want from him?" Lady Parkinson added.

"I am in a leadership position and have access to Lupin Penitentiary." Sirius said. "They'll likely want me to free more Death Eaters." He actually suspected she wanted the cup, which used to be stored in the Lestrange Vault, but that wasn't something they advertised. If the look on Harry's face was anything to go by, he suspected the same thing. If she somehow made it into Gringotts undetected, the goblins would have informed her that the Vault no longer contained anything and the account closed by him. The goblins would not be allowed to tell them about it as it would go against their own privacy clauses.

"Either way, we're not going to allow this to continue." Harry said. "We'll be taking care of the Dementors first, before we take the operation inside the building. The wolves are already scouting." He turned to Sirius. "Under no circumstances are you to present yourself to them."

"I could still-" Sirius started.

"You will stay on the ship, or I will knock you out myself." McGonagall said. "You heard the woman. When they have you, they'll kill the hostages."

"It's a good thing Neville's gran insisted that he stay behind." Harry said.

"If he was here, you'd not be able to stop him from going to face those people." Hermione agreed. The whole group knew what happened to his parents.

Harry was still flying them to the place. He had a general idea of where to go, but his long-range sensor was very useful in this regard. Only having an inkling of where to go, helped Harry focus on the sensor, to detect the wolves, since they all carried Comms. It took them a few more minutes, before they arrived on-site.

Cooper had informed Harry that the Death Eaters were still looking through the building for people, who may have hidden. Dumbledore was expertly getting the crazed witch to feed them information, all the while sounding like he was trying to talk her down from starting to kill hostages.

"What's the plan, sir?" Cooper asked, as they came to a stand-still a hundred meters over where Harry had detected the largest concentration of Comms, and well away from Black Light, which he could see.

"We're going down to activate project Black Light." Harry said. "We'll work our way from there, since I don't know what is happening inside the building. Remus and the scouting team are on-site as well, looking into what's going on. With any luck, the hostages will be out soon."

"They will have transport magic blocked." Hermione said.

"Not this kind of transport magic." Harry denied, even as he went to the closest transporter, taking them all to the docking bay, where he entered the saucer and waited for everyone who was going, to board. It turned out that most everyone was going, even though it seemed the parents were reluctant to take their children into a conflict. They didn't have much of a choice, though, since the girls all looked like they would need to be subdued to keep them from going with Harry. Fleur's and Daphne's mothers and their youngest were still on the ship, with Sirius and McGonagall, who was keeping an eye on him. Luna had elected to stay with her parents as well.

As Harry closed the hatch, he asked for Hermione's Comm, since Cooper was still listening on his. "Call Rubeus Hagrid." he said.

"'ermione?" Hagrid answered his own Comm. It had been a gift from Hermione, thinking she could likely help him if he had issues with his studies.

"Hey Hargrid." Harry said. "Harry here. Listen, we have a problem…"

BTB-BTB

Remus was still watching as the Cacodaemon were piloted through the halls of the large building, when Harry and a group of his friends and their parents, along with a few professors turned up. The eight stations, where the pilots sat manoeuvring the tiny flying devices, were clearly visible to all. Every now and then, they'd say, "Checkpoint." as they pressed a button, before they turned a corner and continued their search.

"What's the situation?" Harry asked.

"Black Light is prepped." Remus said, instead of greeting. "The last of the Dementors have almost been driven back. Once they are in position, you can activate."

"Good." Harry said. "Half the hostages are on the third floor."

"How do you know?" Remus asked. "Our detection magics couldn't pass their wards."

"We have Dumbledore on my Comm." Harry said. "He's been talking to Lestrange, feeding us information."

"The woman has left to speak to one of the other captors." Cooper spoke up, from where he held the Comm to his head. "The Headmaster is whispering to the people not to worry and that help is on the way. There are others in the room, watching the hostages."

"It's still useful information." Remus said, even as he watched the Cacodaemon moving to the indicated floor, flying over many heads of searching Death Eaters, who seemed unable to detect the devices.

"How are you seeing inside?" Hermione asked.

"The Cacodaemon is what I created for the wolves. It functions almost exactly like the Eudaemon. It's very small and capable of one or two other nifty things, including working as a portkey and creating connections that can't be blocked by wards." Harry explained. It was what Remus had requested, after the situation where they had rescued Ginny. Had they had one of these then, they'd have been able to retrieve her without needing to send anyone into an unfamiliar situation.

Soon the Cacodaemon arrived at a door, where they could see Bellatrix speaking to another Death Eater. It floated closer and they heard her voice. "… taking so long?" she was asking.

"We spotted some people outside talking on those Comm things and blocking the Dementors with Patroni." the man said. "We're not certain, but we think the wolves are gathering. We've been focussing on the wards, to secure the location first."

Bellatrix smiled at the man, then. It was not pretty. "If I find out that you missed one person, I'll make sure the Dark Lord knows of your incompetence, when he's back. I'm sure he'd let me play, then."

The man did not need further encouragement, as he turned and ran, screaming for people to finish looking for stragglers.

BTB-BTB

Dumbledore had been silenced, but he'd countered that magic the moment that Bellatrix left the room, even without his wand. He whispered under his breath, at the people around him. Hopefully Harry had heard everything he'd gotten from Bellatrix. He'd not seen the call, but he'd answered it and heard Harry's voice. Unfortunately the Lestrange woman had heard it too. It had taken a bit of doing, but she'd soon dropped the subject, after he made her doubt her sanity. It was risky, but it was necessary.

"Albus, do you hear me?" Harry's voice asked from next to his head. "Don't speak. Just nod." Dumbledore turned his head fractionally, but saw nothing. He sincerely hoped the boy hadn't infiltrated in his invisibility cloak. He nodded anyway. "Good. We're outside and we're about to make our move. We need you to get all the hostages to hold hands. We're about to portkey you out."

BTB-BTB

Bellatrix had been shocked to find out her rescue had been planned and executed by none other than the Minister of Magic himself. His toady, Umbridge, had been slipped a wand, as she was being transferred to Azkaban. She had been presented with an option. Get out and take down the Potter brat, or stay behind. She had easily agreed, for the opportunity to get out and played along, until they were free. Getting rid of the woman had been a pleasure. She was probably dead by now, having been tortured into insanity and unable to even move, let alone feed herself. The fact that the Dementors had followed her orders to suck out the woman's soul, when she promised them free reign, once she brought the Dark Lord back, had just been the cherry on the cake.

She had quickly taken control, stating that she even had a way to bring back the Dark Lord. It came as a surprise then, when she found out the Lestrange vault had been cleared out and everything she had been planning went down the drain. She spent the next few weeks planning with her husband and his brother and getting information. Sirius Black was never seen in public these days, and his company had an army of werewolves, so he'd be untouchable. His godson, however, the same Potter brat for which she was broken out of prison, was vulnerable, sometimes.

He, on the other hand, turned out to be difficult to track down, since school was out. He had secured all his vulnerabilities too, spiriting away anyone she could use to get to him, and through him, to Sirius. She was seething when she found out, torturing the man who brought her the news that Harry Potter had used some sort of flying machine to take all the foreign officials back to their home countries, on the same night they had broken out. It had been a big story in all the papers of the participating countries and for their magical communities.

Finally she had caught a break, though. The Headmaster, while at odds with the boy at times, was often seen chatting with the boy and taking part in his strange adventures. Some people even speculated that he was grooming the boy to take over from him as the 'Leader of the Light'. Why else would he be allowed to order staff around and break rules as he saw fit?

She had marshalled the troops and planned for a mission to take the old man, but she couldn't let anyone know that he was her primary target. Even her master wouldn't dare face him directly. Fortunately, bleeding heart that Dumbledore was, meant that he wouldn't try anything while she held hostages, so she had split them up and had them held in different locations. They weren't too far apart, as she still needed to be able to threaten them and produce them quickly as a threat to anyone that opposed her.

Getting into the event wasn't hard. The Aurors and security personnel had been killed quickly and efficiently with killing curses. Just because it was illegal, wouldn't stop these people from using them, after all. Once security was taken care of, they started picking off people who had taken the opportunity to use the facilities. From there the hostages were all the leverage they needed to secure the rest.

'A whole room full of magicals, incapable of using a hostage as fodder, to secure their own freedom. Idiots.' she had thought. 'No wonder the wizarding world is going to the dogs, with these pacifists in charge.'

BTB-BTB

When Bellatrix walked back into the conference room, where Dumbledore was, she saw that all the hostages had huddled up in a corner.

"What are you doing?!" she demanded of the group. Nobody said anything, but looked on in fear as she approached, wand drawn.

Then they vanished.

Bellatrix stopped dead in her tracks, as she felt more wards go up, wresting her control from the current ones as they went. Then she started screaming obscenities, as she turned and sprinted from the room. When she arrived a few corridors away at the location of the other hostages, she found the guards all unconscious and the hostages all gone. "What the hell is happening!?" she screamed. The ward should have notified her if people entered the building, and she knew that anti-apparition and portkey wards were up.

The people who had been guarding the first group had followed her, fear on all their faces. The woman leading them was clearly deranged and had killed more than one of their number for not doing as she said instantly. The problem, then, was that she was one of the first to have a wand, having taken Umbridge's for herself. She'd since had her pick of any wands they came upon, and found something that worked well for her.

Now they were all armed, but she was still powerful, crazy and very liberal with her use of magic as a punishment. When she turned on them with that mad gleam in her eye, all of them considered, for a moment, turning on her and getting themselves out. None of them acted on it though.

"Round the others up." she said finally. "We're about to have company."

"Shouldn't we retreat?" one of the men asked.

"Our wards were just replaced." she said, her mad eyes glistening with a vindictive kind of anger. "We're about to show them what wild animals do when they are cornered."

BTB-BTB

Back at the Wolf post, the hostages were all being looked at, after being portkeyd out. The wolves had called in their own healers, but Madam Pomfrey was helping.

The Cacodaemon controllers had their wands drawn and inserted into a slot in their controllers, which was how the wolves had cast spells into and through the Cacodaemon system.

The hostages who were finished being checked, were watching as the wolves all ranged out around the building, never coming near the invisible barrier. There was a construct of pillars of some sort, which had been erected outside the building and the Black boy was standing there with his hand on one of the pillars, quite calmly, as the Dementors converged, but couldn't pass the same barrier, seemingly connected between the pillars and the horizontal bars, which connected them.

"What is he doing?" one of the people asked.

"He's containing the situation." Dumbledore said, as he walked past. He'd just finished his own check-up. He approached Harry, who was chatting with one of his girls.

"… so, when they change direction, they need to leave a new relay, which allows the laser to reconnect and then send the spell to the new location." Harry was explaining.

"So, it's like mirrors?" Hermione asked. "Every time they were saying 'checkpoint', they were leaving a relay, through which they could send spells?"

"Exactly." Harry said. "Knowing how the system works, allows them to have their own magic access the line, to portkey people through wards. As long as the light passes, it carries the magic, exactly like how you can pass a ward that would normally block magic, but you don't need to leave your own magic behind."

"Is that how you got us out?" Dumbledore asked, as he joined the conversation.

"That was part of it, yes." Harry said, as Hermione excused herself to go help. "How are you doing, Albus?"

"I'm doing well, considering what could have happened." Dumbledore said, nodding. "What is this construct, and how is it keeping the Dementors back and their effect from reaching us?"

Harry indicated to the pillar. "Touch it and see for yourself." he instructed.

Dumbledore looked at the Dementors for a moment, before reaching out and touching the pillar. Suddenly his entire field of vision was filled with a glowing, blue-tinged, white light. He looked to the side and saw that the pillar was connecting to the other pillar, as if the light was a wall, a visible ward. "What is this?" he asked.

"A laser field, projecting a single patronus in an ever cascading reflection, around the entire building." Harry said, matter-of-factly.

"Science." Dumbledore said in wonder, looking at the laser field, finally seeing the thin lines which made up the wall. When he let go of the pillar, the light disappeared and he saw the Dementors properly again. "Why do I need to touch the pillar to see the field?"

"This is project Black Light." Harry said. "Its primary purpose is to contain and spread magical effects. In this case, a Patronus and a shield, to protect the construct. Its other function, I have a suspicion you'll find out soon enough. The reason you can only see it when you touch it, is because we used a Hand of Glory, which is built into the pillar." He'd no sooner said it, than a spell flew at them from one of the upper floors. Harry didn't seem to notice, and Dumbledore was about to cast a shield, to block the boy, when Harry's free hand caught his wrist. "Don't. Trust me." he said, even as the spell hit the wall and disappeared.

Dumbledore was dumbfounded. "How?" he asked.

"The other function." Harry explained. "The specifics are protected information, but suffice it to say, we're safe on this side." He leaned closer, "As long as I'm powering the field anyway, so unless someone casts spells at me from the outside, we're perfectly safe."

Dumbledore noted Harry's bodyguard, close by, with a few other wolves standing sentinel as well. "What a marvel." Dumbledore whispered, looking at the pillar again, as the spells started increasing in frequency and power. The next moment, a green spell streaked at Dumbledore and he dived out of the way, but the spell simply disappeared when it came to the invisible wall of light.

"'arry!" Hagrid's voice reached them, as he jogged to where they were standing. "Sorry 'bout bein' late. I 'ad to catch a lift."

"I understand, Hagrid." Harry said with a smile, even as he saw Madam Maxime walking over to Madam Pomfrey, where his girls were already helping make the wizards and witches more comfortable, to see if she could offer any help. "As I told you on the call, we have a problem."

"Many problems, if what I'm seein' is righ'." Hagrid said, as he watched the Dementors wearily, even as spell-fire continued to fail to reach them, similar to how the Dementors' effect was somehow negated.

"Ignore the spells." Harry said. "Care to solve a couple of my problems?" Hagrid reached into his jacket and pulled out the weapon, looking at Harry in question. "Well? What are you waiting for? Have at the soulless bastards." Harry said with an evil smirk.

Hagrid needed no further encouragement. He pulled out his sunglasses and put them on, donning the persona of a Viking rock star cowboy, and pointed his weapon. Harry should really get him a hat, or something. "Le's see if you monsters like playing with lasers." he said, as he pulled the trigger.

The closest Dementor ignored the tiny speck of blue on its tattered robe, until it suddenly caught fire. The Dementor let out a wail of pain as it flew off and the fire soon died out, not really seeming to have done much damage.

"That didn't seem to work, did it?" Harry said, thinking about it. "Well… it is basically just heat and light. I suppose it was too good to think it could actually hurt them." He thought about it some more, already having an idea, but working it out in his head. He supposed it could work though, so he extended a tendril of power into the blue diamond in Hagrid's gun and cast the same patronus into it as he was doing with his hand on the pillar. "Try it again." he said.

Hagrid shrugged and aimed the gun again. This time, the Dementor he was aiming for instantly flinched as the blue dot alighted on it. Hagrid didn't let it escape though, and pulled the trigger again. The laser seemed thicker somehow, as it became visible. This time, the Dementor screamed an unholy scream of agony, before the entire thing caught fire and crumbled into ashes in less than five seconds, tiny dots of white light escaping its form.

"Tha' seems to work." Hagrid grinned. "How many do you want to put down, 'arry?" he asked.

"Go nuts, Hagrid." Harry encouraged. The spell fire had stopped at the destruction of the Dementor, as the assailants watched in awe-filled horror as their strongest protectors started lighting up and burning into ash. The Dementors, though, didn't take long to start flying off to hide from the big man's equally big weapon. They went to the farthest part of the patronus wall, which was on the other side of the building, with Hagrid only having killed four of them.

"Tha's no fun!" Hagrid called after them.

"Harry, what did you do?" Dumbledore asked. The gathered officials were also gaping at the piles of ash, which used to be Dementors.

Harry contemplated it for a moment, before he beckoned the man closer. "If you'll help Hagrid hunt them down, I'll tell you how I did it."

"Deal." Dumbledore said instantly. Destroying the dark creatures was something that was never achievable before. They were simply stopped from feeding too much, so that they couldn't reproduce, as they did when they sucked up enough souls.

"This is still a Trade Secret, so no telling anyone, okay?" Harry asked.

Pretty soon, Dumbledore was off with Hagrid, channelling a Patronus for the weapon. His control over wandless magic wasn't powerful enough to do as Harry had done, so he cast the shield form of the spell in front of the gun, using Hagrid's wand, since he still didn't have his own, allowing the beam to take the spell with it when Hagrid fired.

When they were gone, the spell-fire started up again. "Professor Flitwick!" Harry called out, behind him.

The small professor had been with them on the Prometheus and had refused to be left behind. "What can I do for you, Harry?" the man asked as he rushed over.

"Do you remember the magic charging block I taught you?" Harry asked.

"You're being sneaky again, aren't you?" Flitwick asked, smirking at him.

"I was thinking the people in there are expending quite a bit of power on trying to attack us right now…" Harry said. He saw one of the attackers scowling at him and he aligned his ring on the man, summoning him from the window of the third floor. At first he looked like he was going to crash to his death, but Harry kept the ring trained on him and levitated him up by the leg, just before he hit the floor.

"How do I cast it on him?" Flitwick asked. He'd realised what the wall was doing, even if he didn't know how.

"Not him." Harry said, stunning the man, and looking for his next victim. They were being quite smart and only popping out for a moment, before casting a spell and disappearing again. "I want you to touch the pillar and cast the spell into the wall. It'll keep magic from entering the field from outside. I'd do it myself, but I'm thinking I don't want to advertise too much." he said, flicking his eyes back at the watching leaders of nations.

"Oh, I see." Flitwick said. "Good thought." he said as he took out his wand and cast the spell on the wall, while touching the pillar. The spell flared the laser beams for a moment, before they disappeared again, showing all who were watching the actual effect of the pillars, including the Death Eaters. The spell fire soon ended, so it turned out that that avenue had unfortunately closed to them. The Death Eaters, knowing how to counter shields had even tried firing at the ground in front of the pillar, but the shrapnel seemed to be blocked by a spell as well, the ground reforming under it, to keep the construct steady. Bill had done good work, when he raised their wards.

"That's too bad." Harry said, realising that they were not going to tire themselves out that way, anymore.

"Potter!" a female voice yelled from inside the building. "I dare you to face me!" Harry ignored the voice. "Are you afraid of me, Harry Potter? Do you intend to cage us and hope we surrender? You're a coward, hiding behind your walls of magic!"

"You're the cowards!" someone from the crowd behind them called out. "Why don't you come out and face us?!" Whoever the speaker was, had obviously forgotten that they currently didn't have any wands. The wolves wouldn't do something like antagonise the enemy… well, except for the ones that were alone, who were currently being dropped by the Cacodaemon still in the building.

"This is just going to drag out." Harry said, as the Dementors came flying into view again, trying to escape the death which awaited them in Hagrid's gun. He decided to show off a bit, anyway. He had better things to do. He'd hoped Hagrid would be able to pick them off quickly, but the creatures had some sort of self-preservation instinct.

He pointed his ring on the ground on the other side of the wall with a lumos and cast another patronus, corporeal this time. The dot, where the light touched the ground, being the point of origin, made it look like the patronus jumped out of the ground, before it started chasing the Dementors back toward where Hagrid was waiting. Not being able to stand the presence of the powerful patronus, they fled to their doom, with the patronus giving chase.

What Harry had not expected, was for half of the Dementors to flee into the building. Soon screams of fear started coming out of the building as the Dementors turned on the people who had brought them to their doom. Harry chuckled at hearing that. Served them right, in his opinion.

"Damn you, Potter!" Bellatrix Lestrange screamed as she ran out of the building followed by two men, who Harry suspected were the Lestrange Brothers, Rodolphus and Rabastan. There were still screaming people in the building, but they were becoming fewer and fewer, very quickly.

"Hey, I'm not the one who decided to attack the worlds' leaders." Harry said easily. "How many people did you kill, just so that you could take over this place?" As Harry said it, the security wolves were ranging close around him. The Lestranges did not like their odds, nor did they know what the barrier did.

Rabastan's nerves were frayed though, and at the last of their people's screams, he bolted, running toward the barrier. It had to be safe right? After all, it stopped the Dementors before. Surely it could protect him, now? "I give up! Save me!" he screamed, as he ran, throwing his wand down as he went. Harry didn't do anything as he reached the barrier, and turned to dust.

"I'd advise against trying to leave the barrier just now." Harry said, mildly. "It's currently keeping all of the spells you idiots threw at us. Do you know how many killing curses are currently trapped in it? I stopped counting at twenty."

"Harry…" Remus said carefully, as she approached. He didn't mind him standing there, since he was safe. After all, they'd tested Project Black Light. Now, however, Harry was acting very cold, even nonchalant at the death of a fellow human being. "Maybe I should take over, here?" he offered.

"I'm just keeping a shield up, Remus." Harry said, still in that cold tone. "If they want to kill themselves, let them try."

"Sir, we have them." Daniels reported. "The wolves report a total loss on the enemy's side and Mister Hagrid has just finished off the last Dementor in his side. Lower the shield. We've got this from here. The last Dementors won't be able to take all of us."

"No! You won't take me!" Bellatrix spat at them. "I demand the right to challenge!"

"What right?" Harry scoffed.

"You stole from me!" Bellatrix screamed shrilly, her madness driving her coherent thoughts to scatter and her arms flailed. "You don't even know what you've taken! Give it back!" Spit was now flying from her mouth, as she screamed in impotent fury.

Harry just sighed and lifted his hand, his ring lighting up with a light.

Bellatrix saw his move and readied herself for anything that may come her way. She did not see the dot on her forehead. She did not hear a spell. She simply slumped and fell, followed shortly by her husband. Harry had been tempted to summon her into the barrier, to make her become what her brother-in-law had. Dust. Unfortunately, he was not a cold-blooded murderer.

"Are you sure that everything has been cleared up?" Harry asked Daniels.

"Besides the Dementors hiding in the building, we're clear." Daniels said.

He quickly made his Patronus expel the Dementors from the house, before driving them to the slaughter on the other side as well. The last five minutes, he spent in complete silence. Until it was confirmed that the Dementors were all taken out. He wished he had allowed someone else to learn how to use the device properly.

Activating the only other function that the pillar had, he made one of the magical mirrors at the top transparent, under which there was another set of mirrors, which pointed the light straight up as they came from both sides of the topmost reflective surface, which made all the light and the spells they contained shoot up and into space, where they would likely travel until the light hit something in space.

"I need to get cleaned up and rest." Harry said hollowly. "I'm going home." Then he apparated away.

BTB-BTB

Harry was lying in bed. He couldn't stop seeing the man as he exploded into a cloud of dust. He had done nothing to save him, knowing what the wall of stored magic would do. The wall had been an idea of his, when he realised that any spell the laser from his ring hit would be swallowed by it and taken to the point of contact. At the time, he had been thinking of the usefulness of rebounding the laser-light around and creating a wall, through which spells couldn't travel, or the usefulness of being able to store spells this way. Maybe not in a wall, but something smaller, perhaps.

It had only been after his first success that he realised what he had created. You couldn't block an unforgivable, but you sure as hell could redirect magic. It had been Sirius's idea to use the Hand of Glory, a dark magic object in the form of a petrified hand, which allowed only the holder to see the light or its source. It had turned into Project Black Light.

Harry had known the man would not survive. He had allowed him to die. In that moment of cold detachment, he felt like a monster, and he couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't the last man he would kill in his life.

So he just lay there, looking up at the ceiling, which showed the stars outside. He felt so empty.

After a while his bedroom door opened and all his girls walked in. None of them said a word, as they walked in, closed the door and climbed into bed with him.

Harry said nothing as Pansy took up position on one side of him, with Fleur having snagged the other. The other girls all found space next to them, since Harry's bed was so large. They were all looking up at the ceiling with him, and the silence stretched out.

"I'm sorry I left you girls there." Harry apologised, finally.

"We understand, Harry." Pansy said. She did not elaborate. She just squeezed his arm.

Finally Harry didn't feel quite so empty anymore, and he slipped into an exhausted, troubled sleep.