Chapter 43: The Last Halloween Hell

"Hey, you okay, Daph?" Harry asked gently as he looked at his newest partner who had a light sheen over her eyes that he'd almost missed through the sweat on her brow.

"I'm fine, Harry. You worry too much," she responded smiling at him and sitting up slightly, letting the sheets fall down from her bare shoulders.

Harry frowned and reached up to wipe a finger across the corner of her eye. "Then why are you crying? We didn't have to have sex, Daph. We could have just gone to sleep. I don't want to…well you know I didn't intend to – "

He cut off as Daphne lightly punched his shoulder with a wry grin. "I know we didn't have to do anything and I know that you were scared of reminding me of Draco, Mr. Noble. I'm not teary because I'm upset, idiot. I'm teary because this was the first time I've slept with a man and not flashed back to that afternoon." She paused and frowned. "That came out wrong. I'm not sleeping around. I don't know why I put it that way…" She trailed off and her frown turned to mildly annoyed glare. "I swear, Potter, I always seem to lose the ability to articulate my intent around you these days! It's annoying! How do you do that?"

Harry chuckled and flashed her a smirk that Neville had taken to dubbing 'The Potter Charm'. "It's a talent. Works on guys too if Colin Creevey is any indication."

Daphne's glare broke down into an amused lifting of her eyebrows. "Oh really? Should I tell the others we need to watch out for him joining the group?"

"Not by my choice," Harry said giving a theatrical shudder. "Nothing against Colin and all, but I don't swing that way. I should probably send him towards Ernie though from what Hannah was saying the other day…Actually," he said thoughtfully, "I'm surprised a lot of the girls around me seem to…"

Daphne laughed and rolled her eyes. "I imagine we all are. A perfect storm of circumstances. And you have a somewhat small group of close friends. I can assure you that Su at least is not interested in the fairer sex."

Harry cocked his head surprised. "Oh? And where does that information come from, Mistress Daphne?"

Daphne just shook her head at the teasing. "Tracey apparently approached her to see if she was interested in joining the Slytherin Harem. I was nearby and it was quite amusing to watch."

"Seriously?" Harry asked laughing. "Wow. So she's officially decided to build a harem now?"

"Not really. She was mostly worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up with Luna whenever Luna decides it's time to get intimate. Since I have no intention of joining in on those trysts she wanted to ensure she had another option for Luna. That little blonde can be quite tiring outside of the bedroom, I shudder to think of what she'll be like inside it." Daphne shrugged. "I'm not sure who Tracey is going to set her sights on next. I'm a bit worried that Luna is now in touch with Gabrielle Delacour through Astoria. I already have one Veela trying to tempt me into bed. It's a bit worrying to consider a second in my other main relationship…"

Harry tried to think of a suitably appropriate response and came up with nothing. Eventually he just shrugged and replied, "Well that would certainly make things interesting."

"That's one way of putting it," Daphne muttered.

Harry just nodded agreeably completely missing the sarcasm. "So…how was it? Was I, uh, similar to Tracey?" Daphne's blue eyes locked onto his green ones and her nostrils flared. Harry immediately sensed danger and tried to backpedal. "Shite, I've done it again haven't I? You'd think by now I'd have gotten used to what was considered appropriate items to ask a girl about."

Daphne's annoyance visibly faded and she reached down to playfully smack the back of his head before she laid her own down on his chest. "A, I'd really prefer we don't start down that road, Harry. It's never going to end well. B, you can't easily compare being with a girl to being with a guy. It's…different. C, you know I love you both so does the difference in sex really matter?"

"No, it doesn't. Sorry, I was just curious," he murmured.

"I know," Daphne sighed and entwined her fingers into his own. "Look, it's different okay. It's always going to be different. I can say that while I used to be more relaxed with Tracey thanks to…Draco…that's apparently not going to be as much of an issue with you anymore as just recently evidenced. I enjoyed this night quite a bit, Harry. You were never a Knight In Shining Armor, until that afternoon. You were always my friend. It's nice to see that I can go back to thinking of you like my friend again without having to worry about the extra baggage. So to answer your question, it was very good. Satisfied?"

Harry nodded and wrapped his free arm around her tighter. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, Daph. I did too."

"Good," Daphne sighed into his chest. She stayed silent for a few moments idly running her hand up and down his muscles. "I am sorry for making your life even more complicated than it used to be."

Harry laughed at that and shook his head. "Daph, our weird love life is not remotely approaching the level of crazy complications that are my life. Look at my history. In four years of reentering the Wizarding World I've discovered I'm a rune savant, blew up a troll's head, fought a possessed professor for a fake stone that would've been safer if I'd never gotten involved, fought a 60 foot snake with a sword and a girl I'd only know for a few months to save another girl possessed by a soul shard of the same man who possessed my teacher, got adopted by another teacher, found a way to kill Dementors while saving my best friends from having their souls eaten and my godfather who was wrongfully imprisoned for a decade, got into a fight with terrorists at the Quidditch World Cup while making friends with French Veela, got entered into a sabotage-ridden Death Tournament, fought my Evil Double – "

"Yada yada yada, yes, yes, I know, Harry Potter's life is like something out of an adventure book," Daphne said chuckling.

Harry's chest vibrated with his answering snickers. "It's worse than adventure books. I know. I've read some of the 'Harry Potter's Adventures in…' novels. Did you know one has me fighting a dragon at age eight? I actually liked that one. I got to ride off into the sunset on its back at the end."

Daphne lifted her head to stare at him. He just shrugged and smiled. "What? I was curious. Felt I should actually read a few before asking them to stop printing new ones."

Daphne groaned in frustration as she flopped back down onto him. "People in this world are insane. There's entertainment and there's just stupid. Who's going to believe it's even remotely possible for an eight year old to tame a dragon?"

"Gabrielle," Harry stated. He felt Daphne's jaw drop open and kept talking. "She visited over the summer. Girl looks a lot more her age now. Fleur said something about 'The Change had finally hit her' or something. Anyway, after she finally stopped running around the Manor and looking at everything and chattering away in French she handed me that book and asked if I had actually done it because she wanted to meet the dragon, but couldn't find a place on the grounds with a big enough enclosure. Poor girl was heartbroken when I said most of those stories were made up. She perked up though when I offered to introduce her to Charlie since he could take her to see real dragons."

"Merlin…thank god you don't have another House to claim…she'd likely muscle in for one of those spots," Daphne stated awed.

"Her and Ginny probably," Harry agreed laughing again. "I agree though. Thank god, that's not going to happen. I don't need another House to worry about. I just want to run my store and have a family."

Daphne stayed silent for nearly a minute. Eventually she asked softly, "Harry, when you say family…do you me, us, Shiva and Lily or do you mean a family of your own?"

"I want to be a father someday, Daph, if that's what you're asking. Can't say how many kids I want, but yeah, I do want kids."

"Good answer, Potter. Good answer," she growled leaning up to capture his lips with her own, before she pulled back smiling. She then pinned his shoulders before she rolled on top of him and winked seductively. "Ready to go again, Wonder Boy?" Harry nodded numbly, and she shifted seating him inside herself with a low moan. Tonight was going to be a good night.

Voldemort eyed his target ensuring that his Death Eaters were in position. Finally – after weeks – the pain had receded. He didn't know what Potter had done, but he knew it was the boy. He had had a brief glimpse of a small living room consumed by a whirlwind of magic and the boy standing in the middle gazing into the air with a broad smile. Voldemort could only assume that Potter had found a way to rid himself of the Horcrux within him. Voldemort must have been caught in the backlash of the effort involved. His spies had reported that Potter had been incapacitated for several days a month ago though the boy had evidently recovered far more quickly than Voldemort had.

This could not go unanswered. Three Horcruxes were now destroyed and only four remained…his soul was unbalanced, a mere hair's breadth away from a cursed number of parts. This required recompense – a death for a death. The hunters had been identified and they would fall – one by one.

He would strike in increasing significance to the boy. Let Potter sweat while Voldemort destroyed everything important to him. Kingsley Shacklebolt would be first. With his death, Harry Potter would begin to experience the same clawing fear that was trying to take root in Voldemort. Potter may be a worthy adversary, but Voldemort would not accept the child threatening his immortality.

Voldemort spared a short glance at the half Moon and allowed his mind to briefly drift back. Rookwood had asked why he scheduled the raid for tonight…The question had actually made him laugh. It was simply such an entertaining answer. Potter apparently believed October 31st to be a cursed date. A part of Voldemort was tempted to agree with the boy – at least from the Light's perspective. Some of his most impressive actions and orders always seemed to be carried out on this day year after year…Voldemort chuckled again as he thought how from his own perspective, Halloween might almost be blessed. As long as one discounted his 'death' in 1981. And his failure to kill Lily Potter that same night. And his failure with the Stone. And…perhaps this date was cursed for them both? No matter.

"Begin," he whispered, the force of his prior spell carrying the command to all of his followers. As one forty bodies advanced. Only five were experienced and of those five only two were from his most trusted. He needed at least one lieutenant to cover the flank and the other would lead the charge in case Shacklebolt had any surprises waiting. There was no need for Voldemort to risk his newly healed – and reconstituted – body after all. Not when he had so many willing reserves.

Voldemort ensured that the anti-apparition and anti-portkey spell had been raised as the team breached the front and rear doors. His sycophants in the Ministry had already disabled the Floo network. All avenues of escape should be closed to the Senior Auror.

Voldemort's expression darkened as spellfire flared inside the building and the screaming cries of pain drifted to his ears before abruptly cutting off. Shacklebolt was alone, but it was no secret that the man was an excellent combatant. He waited until another three new recruits died before he moved forward to enter the building himself. His scowl deepened as he passed a deeply lacerated corpse on the stairs. The loss of Dumbledore seemed to have had the unfortunate side-effect of unchaining the Light from their foolish obsession with stunning his followers. Without Dumbledore, Voldemort was far safer, yet his Death Eaters were in more danger than ever. The irony was not lost on him.

He continued his measured pace towards the battle. It would not due to appear worried or overeager. Not yet at least, not when he was only on the first target. He could not afford to come across as anything less than fully in control until he was targeting Potter's women. The Metamorph was an impressive combatant after all with extreme stealth skills and the Veela had a great deal of raw destructive potential. It was a shame his followers would never have accepted him converting the women to their cause. Breaking of minds was always so…endearing. That they had already been claimed by Potter made it all the more enticing of an opportunity. Yet…Voldemort had built his foundation on championing Purebloods and with his forces still somewhat below expectations he couldn't afford to admit half-breeds and Blood Traitors just yet.

Perhaps he'd get lucky and one of the females would survive long enough for him to allow the recruiting requirements to fall.

Voldemort strode into the main living room and took in the scene. He couldn't help a small sigh. Shacklebolt was successfully holding off two recruits as well as Rookwood and Travers. Such a shame to destroy one so impressive. He disliked having to destroy so much of this country in order to rule the remainder.

As Voldemort raised his wand Shacklebolt pulled out one of Potter's infernal runes and unleashed a three foot spike of metal. It speared straight through Rookwood's weakened shield and tore through the man's throat. Rookwood dropped like a stone, his blood painting the walls as he died.

Voldemort's appreciation of his target ended and his outrage boiled over. He roared in frustration and hatred and cast curse after curse. He barely noted as Travers twisted and dove out of the room and his curses killed one of the recruits too slow to follow the lieutenant's lead. Shacklebolt's defenses held for five seconds then shattered. Voldemort sent a bone-breaker followed by an eviscerating curse followed by a severing curse. The large man's body crumpled at his feet.

Scowling Voldemort took several seconds to re-center himself and push his aggression down. He was having more and more trouble with that lately. It was becoming annoying. "Report," he said softly.

"No further resistance, My Lord," Travers said stepping forward and nodding his head. "There was no one else present. Shacklebolt was trying to reach for one of Potter's runes when we first breached his study however Rookwood managed to destroy it before it activated. I'm not certain what that one would have done. The boy has quite the assortment he has distributed to his friends…"

Voldemort shook his head. "No matter. Enough time has passed that we must leave. Have one of the newer personnel retrieve what they can from Rookwood. He might have kept something useful on his person. You may leave the body. Let them see that our might is impressive enough that even Unspeakables are not safe." A frown of confusion crossed Travers' face yet he proved his worth by swallowing any objection and immediately moving to comply.

Voldemort strode from the room and smiled. One target down. Now to begin planning for the werewolf.

Halloween. October 31st. Lily had been subdued for most of the day. For most others this was supposed to be a happy occasion. It was a day of celebration and fun. Even for the followers of the old ways, it was a time to rejoice for they could connect with their lost loved ones during All Hallows Eve.

For Lily Potter all it served as was a memory of the past. Halloween was a reminder of the years lost, the son who was no longer a child, the husband buried, the sadistic murderer still on the loose. She had known waking up that this day would be difficult. What she hadn't quite realized was just how much it also affected her son. Her friends – and Shiva in particular – had warned her that Harry was especially antsy and jumpy on this day but…well the true scale of that warning had eluded her.

When he'd shifted to Midnight and nearly clawed her as she simply hugged him from behind in the morning that warning became far more real. It would have been amusing if he hadn't been utterly serious about the whole thing. Even still…he had to be overreacting. Harry Potter's life was complicated true, but they weren't talking about Friday the 13th here. Halloween sucked, but it was just a sad day, not a day to expect the Apocalypse.

"Lily," Sirius said sitting down at the staff table next to her, his face pale and strained. "Grab some food then get Harry and the others. I…I have some bad news that everyone needs to hear."

Lily felt her stomach clench and she cast an involuntary glance towards Hermione and Daphne. "The girls?"

"Fleur and Tonks are fine. Remus is too. It's Kingsley." Lily's insides began to loosen though she hated herself for it. Something bad had just happened to a family friend and she was happy it hadn't happened to someone she was personally interested in? "Finish eating. I imagine the shite is going into the blender soon so might as well eat while you can."

"Shite hits the fan, it doesn't go in the blender," Lily responded automatically. His recent attempts to use more Muggle phrases were endearing at times though the timing of this one left something to be desired. "Points for trying though."

Sirius sighed and shook his head. "I don't care about the right phrasing, Lils. I wouldn't even be down here if Minerva hadn't made the feast mandatory."

"Neither would I," Lily murmured.

The rest of Halloween feast was extremely subdued and passed in a bit of a blur for her. She managed to grab Shiva as her girlfriend finished her meal and with barely a glance at Lily's face the Runes professor went rigid. "Who died?"

Lily shook her head and whispered back, "I don't have details. I think Kingsley."

"Goddess," Shiva cursed. "I'll grab the teens. Core group?"

"Yes. Sirius is already heading up to the Room. Conference configuration."

Shiva nodded then pulled Lily into a hug. "It'll be okay, Lils. We're getting close and we'll take the bastard out before he does anything else," she whispered into Lily's ear. Pulling back and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, Shiva moved away and let Lily trail off after Sirius.

She had just finished materializing the door to the Room of Requirement when a gang of teenagers practically ran around the corner and into the hallway. "Mum!" Harry called from the forefront as he skidded to a stop in front of her. "How bad? What happened? Are there more attacks coming?"

Lily just gave him a sad smile and squeezed his shoulder. "You probably know more than I do at the moment, Harry. Especially considering I imagine you spoke to Tonks and Fleur on your way up here."

"Fleur," he said nodded curtly. "She's okay. Tonks is busy in the training room cutting down dozens of target dummies so she's not okay, but she's not hurt. Mione talked with Remus and Daphne tried to talk with Amelia, but – "

"She was too busy to explain and all she said was there had been an attack by the Death Eaters led by Voldemort," Daphne finished.

"Let's take this inside everyone," Hermione said pushing to the front and opening the door. "We shouldn't discuss this in the middle of the corridor."

Lily nodded and followed the students inside squeezing Shiva's hand briefly as the woman passed by. Once everyone was inside, they took seats around the table with Sirius in the middle drinking a cup of hot chocolate – presumably provided by Kreacher or one of the castle elves.

She had barely sat down when Harry started firing off questions to Sirius. "Amelia said there was an attack and Shiva said it was bad. You're never this upset unless Pettigrew is involved so either the rat learned to fight or someone died. Who died? How many were hurt? Is there more coming? What are we doing in response?"

Lily could only blink in astonishment. When had Harry become a general? She'd seen him defend against the Aurors over the summer and she'd seen the aftermath of his sprint to reach Daphne – half the castle had seen the aftermath of that, claw marks on walls and floors were not a normal occurrence after all and the destroyed classroom on the Third Floor had been home to veritable fan club until Minerva had come back to fix the damages. This though was completely different. Her fifteen year old son had taken charge of the situation and was speaking of events as if he was getting ready to lead the charge on Voldemort himself!

Maybe that was exactly what Harry was doing…

"Amelia called to tell me as much as she could while the investigation was getting started," Sirius said sighing and setting down his mug. "The Death Eaters conducted a raid on Kingsley Shacklebolt's house. It appears that there were at least two of the Inner Circle and, from what the neighbors said, almost three dozen rank and file members. Plus Voldemort himself."

Murmured curses followed that statement and Lily felt the last bit of hope she'd had die. Kingsley hadn't survived.

"Shack did good. He did really good," Sirius said raising his glass in a silent salute. "He took out ten of the regulars and he managed to kill Rookwood too."

Lily's mouth twitched into a small grin at that. The ex-Unspeakable had been one of the worst of Voldemort's minions. He had been sadistic in a detached manor, interested only in furthering new research projects without a care to the pain or horror his efforts and work induced. Rookwood's 'test subjects' had been permanent residents of St. Mungo's since before Lily had 'died'. From what she'd heard several of them had been trying to get the Healers to let them die ever since arriving under their care…

Sirius grimaced and shook his head. "We know that Voldemort fought personally. There were too many bodies in too bad of a shape for him not to be involved. Amelia thinks that he lost it after Rookwood died. Kingsley didn't make it out of that engagement." Faces fell and heads hung around the table. "I think it's safe to say that this was in retaliation for the Horcrux Hunt."

Hermione's gaze snapped up with a deep frown etched across her features. "Why wait until now if that's the case?"

Shiva held her hand up at that question. "Snape reported that Voldemort had been staying secluded for the past few weeks. The dates coincided with when Harry used the Soul Cage so we assumed that he had been hit by some sort of backlash or something. Why he was knocked down for so long compared to the kid is anyone guess though."

"We were tied through it," Harry said. "The Soul Cage may have traced the link back and attacked his connection to his own body while it was expelling the soul shard in me. The link would've broken as soon as the piece in me was gone, but I imagine he'd already been hurt pretty bad. Too bad I didn't think of that before…I could've tried to weaponize it…"

Luna shook her head, no hint of a dreamy expression anywhere in her appearance. "It's good that you didn't, Harry. Killing a ghost would be much harder than killing a living being. We don't know for certain that Voldemort would be destroyed if he was a wraith when the final Horcrux is vanquished. I don't think we can afford to take that risk."

Harry sighed and nodded. "Yeah, you're right Luna. It's better to be safe than sorry. I'd hate to have to kill him a third time."

Lily frowned. "As interesting as that is, Sirius did you have anything else to report?"

"Sort of, but nothing directly related to Kingsley so if you have any other questions ask now," he said.

Neville raised his hand. "I have a question. Why didn't he call for help?"

"Or portkey away?" Susan asked immediately after. "He should've had a finished version of the Tracekey now shouldn't he? I thought Harry had distributed those to almost everyone by now with Aunt Amy's help."

Sirius nodded. "He has and we do. The problem is that not everyone likes to sleep with earrings in. I know Shack takes his off and leaves it by the bed at night. The call for help isn't the important thing though as he had other means at hand of contacting help. He used them too, it's why the Aurors were able to respond quickly…just not quickly enough. The Tracekey is really a mixed bag. The way it's designed, he could have ended up back at their headquarters if the Death Eaters had portkeyed into location within range. Though…I don't think they did. Amy agrees with me. She said that it looked like Shack might have tried to get to his rune stone before the attackers got between it and him."

Hannah shook her head and grabbed Neville's hand. "I knew I wasn't being paranoid keeping that in my pocket."

"I recommend necklaces," Tracey said. "A bit of a glamour and it looks just like a regular necklace. Plus it's always touching skin so you can activate it whenever." Lily stared in wonder at Tracey. Was everyone Harry associated with at Mad-Eye levels of paranoia? At least she wasn't the only one looking askance at the Slytherin. "What? After what happened to my girlfriend do you really think I'd walk around without a bit of a security blanket people? Besides I'm a half-blood so I'm going to be a target anyway."

Luna cocked her head and patted Tracey's arm. "We understand, love. Though I think the glamour is a bit much. I find the rune stone quite stylish myself!"

Harry rubbed his forehead. "Sirius what was the other thing?"

"Remus, Tonks, Fleur and I are going to be raiding Bella's manor tomorrow." Shouting broke out at that announcement. Sirius responded by shouting over the rest of the voices. "We're not going unprepared, people! We're not going to get a better opportunity than this. If we raid now, they'll think this is in retaliation to the death of Kingsley and they won't suspect we're looking for the Horcrux while we're there!"

Harry scowled as the room quieted. "I thought we agreed that it was unlikely to be hidden in the Lestrange manor. Just because there are Aurors watching place doesn't mean the Death Eaters can't get into it. Voldemort was pretty clear when he thought about not being able to reach it."

Sirius shrugged. "We're running out of ideas, pup. Unless my bitch of a cousin dropped the damnable thing into the English Channel we're going to have to search her house sooner or later. Might as well do it now."

"It's always possible it is actually there, kid," Shiva asked trying to mediate between the two. "He could have noticed you in his head at the time and tried to trick you. It's not like we've had a ton of luck finding the one here…"

Harry's scowl deepened. "I know. Which is ridiculous! We've been going room by freaking room through this whole bloody castle and nothing so much as twitches! We've found five new secret passages, two secret rooms and one new staircases thanks to the elves helping out and yet nothing that remotely feels, looks or acts like a bloody Horcrux!"

Hermione laid a hand on his back and rubbed small circles. "It's okay, Harry. We missed something obvious and once we figure it out we can bang our heads on the table. Until then, we have to stay positive."

"Kinda hard to do that at the moment, Mione," Harry muttered. Hermione sighed and wrapped her arm fully around him pulling him into a crushing embrace for a moment. Lily found herself in complete agreement.

"Look, Sirius, are you willing to take anyone else on this raid?" Lily asked turning the conversation back around.

"Amy is sending Scrimgeour and Proudfoot with us and I think a Hit Wizard is going to hitch a ride as well. We need to sell that this is revenge not a hunt," Sirius said nodding.

Lily sighed and leaned back into her chair. "That'll do I guess."

Daphne was still frowning as she asked, "Just how sure are you that your Horcrux detection spell works Sirius? We have no proof of concept since we destroyed the others prior to you finding it in your library. We don't even really know the range. What if there really is one of the items there and you miss it?"

Sirius shrugged again. "I'm…pretty sure it works. I consulted with Phineas Nigellus and he said the spell had worked in his day so…pretty sure. I still say we should only count on it for about 21 meters. Anyway we're not really using the spell. We're looking for priceless artifacts. That's what he'll have used."

Shiva sighed and shook her head. "I don't like this, but it's your call, Sirius. Please let us know when you all finish so that our minds will be a bit eased."

Sirius nodded. "We will."

Harry leaned back and closed his eyes. "Thanks, Sirius. Everyone else, if you haven't been following Tracey and Hannah's example, please start wearing your Tracekeys on you. It's not a perfect escape, but at least you'll have something in an emergency. Everyone staying at Hogwarts let's recenter. I think I'm going to talk to the elves again. Maybe if I ask the question a bit differently they'll have better advice. Luna you're friendly with the Grey Lady right? I know she and the Bloody Baron are two of the oldest ghosts in the castle; can you ask her if she has any idea where things might be hidden?"

"Oh course, Harry," Luna said nodding.

"I'll see if the Baron has any idea as well," Daphne said. "I don't like that we are outsourcing these questions so much. The ghosts talk…"

Harry grimaced. "I know, but we're running out of options. We have to find these bloody things, Daph. Please, I just…please?"

A round of heads bobbed across the table and the meeting wound down. Lily let the students troop out of the Room before she moved over to sit on Shiva's lap. "Our boy is fighting a war."

"He's been fighting a war for awhile now, Lils. I missed it for a long time too," she sighed and wrapped her arms around the red-head. "This thing with Voldemort needs to end soon. I would really prefer to have a rune savant for a son rather than a soldier."

Lily chuckled. "Well at least you got to see his growth spurt! Maybe I'll get to see the next one's."

Shiva blinked and pulled back. "Come again?"

Lily rewound to go over the last few moments and paled. "Not what I meant! Not right now! Not…oh bloody hell."

Tonks' hair was still deep red and she was having a hard time preventing herself from shuffling in place while waiting for the go signal. The team was finally assembled outside of Bellatrix's manor and Tonks was still riled up.

Shack was dead. Even before working with him on the Horcrux hunt she'd worked with him several times on cases. He was a good guy; he had been one of the few Aurors who'd actually taken her seriously. He was funny and kind and intelligent. And now he was dead because he'd been helping them.

Every Auror – and ex-Auror – knew that someday their number might come up. It was the nature of the job after all: hunt Dark Wizards, find the evil bad-guys, take them down, possibly die in service. The job wasn't pretty and it was far more dangerous than it was for Muggle coppers. Cops had to deal with guns and bombs. Aurors had to deal with mind control/wipe spells, explosion curses, evisceration spells, invisible attackers…a large part of initial Auror training dealt with confirming that the trainee actually fully understood the risks of what they were volunteering for.

None of that made losing a friend and old partner any easier.

"You must keep your head, mon amour," Fleur murmured from beside her lightly stroking her arm.

Tonks took a deep breath and nodded. "Not that easy, Flower. It doesn't help that I think this is useless. Bella's insane, but she's not stupid. It's not going to be in the house. We'll be lucky to find any Death Eaters inside to take out."

Fleur sighed. "I worry when you get bloodzirsty. Finding ze Deaz Eaters in zis house would not be a good zing, Nym."

"Would be good therapy though," Tonks muttered refusing to acknowledge – at least verbally – that Fleur was probably right.

"All personnel standby," the Auror Comm Stone clipped their belt chirped softly. Sirius was the secondary leader for this raid while the Hit Wizard was primary. She didn't know the guy's name. It wasn't like he was going to be around long anyway. Why Hit Wizards weren't being dispatched regularly to fight Voldemort's forces escaped Tonks. Amelia had said something about the few qualified ones keeping other wannabe-Overlords from taking advantage of the chaotic situation, but it had all sounded like justification to her. Maybe she'd was just too disillusioned now.

This guy had supposedly owed Amelia a favor which was the only reason he was tagging along. Tonks was torn between being grateful that her old boss had called it in for a raid on Bellatrix Lestrange's manor and frustration that Amelia had wasted it on a raid that was unlikely to mean much in the long run.

No sense worrying about it now. Maybe they would get lucky…

"Commence Retribution in five, four, three, two, one…breach breach breach!"

The small group surged forward. Tonks caught a glimpse of Remus and Sirius blasting out a window on the side and jumping in before she leapt through her own following right behind Fleur's fireball. The Veela landed just behind her and they went back-to-back covering both ends of the hallway. "West wing clear," Tonks reported tapping her rune stone.

"Copy, east wing clear."

"North wing clear."

Shouts rang out through the halls and the Auror comm stone chirped, "Hostiles south wing! Four targets! Priority target 3 spotted!"

"Dolohov," Tonks muttered her eyes narrowing. "We need to – "

"Nymphadora," Fleur said insistently, "we must search ze premises as per our mission. Voldemort comes first."

Tonks growled but nodded her assent. Fleur and Tonks moved apart to begin quickly investigating their wing. Fleur used Sirius' – suspect – spell while Tonks focused on carefully eyeing the artifacts on display throughout the house. It would be just like Bellatrix to hide something exceptionally valuable in plain sight. She'd think it was being exceptionally clever, and what's worse was she'd be mostly right. Many casual observers would overlook things on display as being simple ornamentation or ostentation and nothing worthy of more than idle appreciation.

This was something Bella had been given by Voldemort though so…Tonks' scowl deepened. Bellatrix would never have left it in her home. She'd have thrown it into the safest, most secure location she could think of. A Pureblood's home may be secure, but it would never be safe. Not while the Death Eaters were still considered terrorists.

After twenty minutes of searching Tonks and Fleur had completed their assigned wing. Tonks' mood had darkened more and more as they finally cleared the last room. "Changeling to Beta," she said into her rune stone. "West wing swept. Twelve prescribed Dark artifacts, seven Cursed artifacts, three 'trophies', negative prime target."

"Beta copies," Sirius replied sounding just as frustrated as she felt. "All other wings are close to completion as well. Regroup in Entrance Hall."

"En route." Tonks nodded to Fleur and they moved back towards the front entrance in the north, the confiscated items floating behind them. Tonks was levitating the three corpses they had found in a hidden room. One of them was far too small.

One day soon, Tonks was going to find her aunt and…'remove' her from the family.

"Changeling, Harpy, well done," the Hit Wizard said nodded towards them as they stepped into the hall. "The others just reported in as well. Good call with this raid. Target 3 escaped, but we got one of the others with him. Unfortunately the man wasn't in the Inner Circle though he seems to have information on the vampire covens joining up. Teams 2 and 4 are bringing him back to base for interrogation. Thirty Class D artifacts recovered and twelve Class C. Pass off the victims to Hermit."

"Any casualties?" Fleur asked.

The Hit Wizard shook his head. "Minor injuries only. We got lucky. This was a win, girls. Take it for what it is."

Tonks scowled and moved over to confer quietly with Sirius and Remus while Fleur moved Bellatrix's prior victims. As she pulled up next to them, Tonks whispered, "Nothing from you two either?"

"Unfortunately no," Remus replied his eyes narrowed and nostrils flared as he eyed the cloth draped bodies. "We knew it was a long shot anyway. I still say we should try to detect something in the surrounding waters. If she's insane enough to keep posed corpses, she's certainly insane enough to drop it into a trench."

"Not when he might have asked for it back," Sirius responded with a heavy sigh. "We'll have to go back to the drawing board. Hell, maybe we should talk with Charlie Weasley. No better place to safeguard things than in a dragon's hoard…"

Tonks chuckled darkly and her hair color deepened until the red turned almost black. "Well maybe we'll get lucky and capture her. Cut out the middleman."

"We can hope to be so lucky, mon amour," Fleur commented walking over with weary look. "Ze ozers will finish cleanup. It is time for us to leave." Sirius and Remus nodded. Tonks moved to follow after them with one final look around the horrible manor around her.

"One day, Aunty. One day."

"Lily you can't avoid answering this forever," Shiva complained glaring at Lily.

"Sure I can. Sirius does it all the time. I learned from the best," her girlfriend replied with an infuriating grin.

"Lils, I'm serious."

Harry groaned from his seat on the couch next to her and rubbed his forehead. "I came here to relax. If you two are going to argue the whole time I'll go hang out with Tracey."

Shiva cocked her head at the boy momentarily caught off guard. "Tracey? Why her?"

"Because," Harry said rolling his eyes, "Luna is always distracting even when she doesn't play it up. Hermione and Daphne would both pester me over what I'm working on. Susan and Hannah would try to keep working out the general concept. Neville would try to convince me to work on his Evil Walking Plant rune again…Tracey's the only one who'd just let me work."

Shiva could only stare at him for a few moments. "Evil Walking Plant rune?" she finally managed to choke out.

"Yeah. He wanted me to adjust one of the Fertile Ground stones I made for him last summer. 'Evil Dead' apparently gave him some ideas and now he's obsessed with making a walking tree that uses its roots and branches like arms to attack the Death Eaters." Harry grimaced and shook his head. "The original name he wanted for it was 'Evil Death Eater Molesting Tree Soldier'. Evil Walking Plant was the compromise. I keep telling him that's outside my skill set, but he keeps trying. He'd have far better luck figuring it out than me. I just work with runes, not plants."

"Why in heaven's name…" Lily asked gaping.

"He wants to get at Bellatrix and Crouch even more than Tonks does," Harry said shrugging. "I'm not really one to comment on his choice of revenge considering what I've thought about doing to Voldemort."

Shiva groaned and rubbed her head. "Kid…you know what, nevermind. Just please don't unleash the Triffids on the world yeah? And Lily, you heard the kid, stop arguing."

Lily glared at Shiva before dissolving into chuckles and rolling her eyes at the woman. "Honestly, love, I'm sorry for earlier. All I meant was I want more children someday. Someday far into the future, not right now. It's not something that needs to be discussed at the moment. We've barely been dating for a month and a half and I warned you I fully intend to move slower than I did with James. I'm not looking to speak about children right now."

"Ah. Well that's good," Shiva said looking somewhat relieved.

"Can we not talk about sex at all please?" Harry asked his voice strained. "Just because I'm okay with you both dating doesn't mean I'm okay hearing this kind of thing."

"Hey, kid, some of the fun of being a mum is getting to tease your child. Deal with it," Shiva commented winking at him. Harry just groaned again and leaned back over his papers. "So what is you're working on anyway? I haven't seen this design yet."

He pointed to a cluster on a schematic off to the side. "It's either going to be called the Live Wire or the Ley Beam. It's the Chain Reactor Beam and the Yamato Cannon on steroids. Sorta like a siege cannon. I'd tap into the local ley line, draw it to the surface a bit and channel the energy through the rune cluster directing it out at the target."

Shiva looked over the drawings and bit her lip in thought. "Good idea but I don't see any way to miniaturize this…It would make a good static defense but as a portable battle option? I don't see it."

Harry nodded. "No you're right. I was thinking of putting this around the manor in case they try to attack us there like they did with Kingsley. I think I need a cluster about a meter in width of strong stone in order to safely charge this. Even then it probably won't last for long and the caster's hand will be a little burnt."

"Um, wouldn't you need to be near a ley line for this to work?" Lily asked laying her hand on Shiva's back as she glancing over the two.

"Yeah, so it's not exactly super useful everywhere, but it's a nice powerful option for the places it can be used."

"Cool," Lily said. "Well let me know if you two need any help. I'm going to work on this potion recipe."

"Will do hon," Shiva said erasing one segment from Harry's design and adding in a different cluster.

Ten minutes later her comm stone earring chirped. Tonks' voice came over the line shortly after. "Hey, Shiva, wanted to call you before Harry, Mione or Daphne. We just finished up."

Shiva leaned back and grunted. "I'm with Harry and Lily right now so I can brief them after we're done. You don't sound happy, Tonks. That bad?"

"No casualties," Tonks sighed. Shiva quickly repeated that to the others. They visibly relaxed with Harry falling bonelessly back into the couch. "Bella's manor is even more disgusting than I had expected which is saying something. We found a few bodies she kept posed and dozens of cursed items. Dolohov was there, but he got away. We captured another guy who knows something about vampire clans joining up; he's with Amelia. No luck on the scavenger hunt."

"Damn. Well we figured it was unlikely…still though, that sucks."

"Agreed," Tonks said sounding tired. "Look, I feel like I have her filth infecting me. I'm going to make a quick call to Mione and Daph then hop in the shower. Give Harry my love, yeah?"

"Will do. Let us know if you need anything."

Tonks chuckled morosely. "An end to this would be nice. Bye, Shiva. Sirius should be back in a few minutes if you want more details."

She ended the call and Shiva looked to the other two occupants. "Harry, Tonks sends her love. Sirius is on his way back. No luck on the scavenger hunt. Bellatrix is apparently even more sick than we had realized. No one on our side was hurt and we managed to capture someone with information on vampires that are being recruited."

Harry nodded and leaned back down over his schematics. "They're okay. Good. That's good."

Shiva raised her eyebrows at him then turned to Lily. They both wore identical worried gazes. Shiva reached and took Lily's hand. Hopefully this would be over soon and Harry could go back to worrying about the usual teenager things instead of war.

"You know, I think I'm going to go and find Mione now. Thanks for keeping me company while we waited for word back," Harry said sweeping his papers into a pile and dropping them in his bag.

"Anytime, honey. Our doors are always open," Lily said smiling gently at him. Harry nodded and heading out.

Shiva closed and locked the door as soon as he was gone. Turning to regard Lily she cocked her head to the side. "So...you want another kid in the future?"

Lily groaned and Shiva added a point onto her invisible tally. She was back ahead. "I did just say we don't have to talk about this, hon."

"Who's talking about it? I'm just genuinely curious. You gave birth to one, I'm just raising one. Doesn't that hurt? How can you want another after going through that once!?" she grinned and waggled her eyebrows waiting to see how long it would take for Lily to realize she was teasing.

"Well to be honest I don't quite remember how much it hurt. You can't use spells that near to a birth and potions aren't recommended for the same reason. I remember screaming at James that I was going to kill him for doing this to me and then..." Lily stopped and finally looked up to see the expression on Shiva's face. Lily stopped and threw a pillow towards her face.

START MATURE SCENE

Laughing Shiva caught it and plopped down into the seat next to Lily. "Sorry, really couldn't resist."

Lily glared for a moment before her lips twisted up into a scary smile. "Oh that's fine. You know I may just have to punish you for that though..."

Shiva's eyebrows rose and she had to fight to push down her own hungry grin. "Really? Well I should probably punish you then for starting the whole thing off you know."

"Hmm...true." Lily licked her lips seductively and eyed Shiva. "Perhaps we should move this 'argument' into the bedroom then."

Shiva stood and pulled Lily to her feet. "I'm thinking that's a requirement." She playfully pushed Lily towards the inner door and as soon as they were through she paused and grimaced before grabbing a sock and hanging it onto the doorknob. At Lily's raised eyebrows Shiva just shrugged. "He knows the password for the inner door too. Do you really want to risk him walking in again?"

Lily shuddered and hurriedly shook her head. "Good call. Wait Harry knows the password to your actual bedroom?"

"I was 19! I had no idea what I was doing and now it would be weird to change them without telling him. Now can we please stop talking about Harry? I believe we were in the middle of something." The days around Halloween might be cursed for the Potter family, but if Shiva could succeed in taking at least one of their minds off the sadness of the recent day her mission would be complete.

Lily laughed and moved to take off her shirt. "Well if you insist."

Shiva grabbed Lily's arms and held them behind her back with one hand while leaning in to capture her lips in a deep kiss. "Not so fast, love," she whispered pulling back a few moments later. "I believe this was intended to be punishment."

Lily groaned into Shiva's neck. "You are so mean."

"You'll get your turn in a few minutes." Grinning like a cat, Shiva flicked her wand and had Lily's arms frozen in their current position before ever so slowly moving to pull the woman's trousers off. "Oh, orange and black huh? Festive."

Lily blushed. "Well, it fulfills both the Halloween spirit and the mourning requirement right." She shifted uncomfortably, wincing. "And would you mind switching my arms around? This position might get a tad uncomfortable shortly," she admitted a touch ruefully.

Shiva laughed and finished pulling Lily's bottoms down her long silky white legs, standing back up and lightly pecking her lover on the lips. "Sure, hon. Bed?"

"Bed," she agreed fervently.

Shiva cast a quick spell to unlink Lily's arms and gently pushed her back onto the bed pulling off her shirt in the process. Shiva smiled, her Lily's nipples had already started to harden. This was going to be fun! Lily raised her arms spreading them out to either side and soon enough fuzzy orange satin flew out of Shiva's wand to tie around both posts and her lover's wrists. Lily smirked approvingly, raising a quizzical eyebrow. "When did you learn to color them?"

Shiva shrugged lithely. "Tonks showed me the spell a few days ago," Shiva said. "I couldn't decide whether it was awkward getting sex advice from my son's girlfriend so I just decided to treat her like a friend with a few kinks and ignore the rest of the implications."

"Good idea. Now get busy. I want my turn!" Lily replied spreading her legs suggestively.

Shiva shook her head laughing and stepped off the bed. "You're in such a hurry! One would think you didn't deserve to be teased a bit first," she said, the last few words almost a purr. She set her wand down on the bed and started to sway her hips hypnotically side to side in a slow dance shedding her clothes as she moved. "Fleur happened to know a bit of dance. I highly recommend talking to her about it."

Lily's answer was a low growl of approval, followed by an almost whimper as she bit her lips and pressed her thighs together, shifting slightly. Finally Shiva rid herself of the last stitch of her clothing and, climbing slowly onto the bed between Lily's legs, smiled saucily. "Finally," Lily murmured hopefully.

Shiva just shook her head and raised her eyebrows. "Still so impatient." She slowly held up a hand and lowered it to her own breasts, plucking lightly at the nubs there. "One must learn to be patient grasshopper," she remonstrated silkily.

Lily bit her lip as she watched Shiva hovering over her massaging herself. Periodically pinching and rubbing at turns. "Not fair," she said, sounding a touch weak even to herself.

"You brought up kids, darling. This is totally fair," Shiva argued, then smirked drifting her hand down lower across her belly finally settling just barely low enough she was brushing her more private reaches. Lily groaned in response, rubbing her thighs back and forth a bit, hoping the mild friction would ease some of her tension. Shiva just smiled wider and leaned down to lightly nip at Lily's breast before pulling back almost immediately.

Shiva's breathing increased and she started panting lightly as she pressed her hand lower finally finding the cleft between her legs. "I believe you were the one who wanted to take this slow after all Lily," she teased happily, as her fingers slowly parted her lower lips and pressed inward, causing her to sigh.

Lily growled again watching that and unconsciously bucked her hips upwards, revealing the small damp patch she'd left on the sheets to her lover's pleased eyes. Shiva, paused reaching out and used one hand to press down, cupping Lily's cleft just enough to hold her in place without providing any true stimulation. Lily bit her lip again and moaned softly. "Please, Shiva, stop teasing me," she begged.

Shiva considered for a second, her fingers working away even as she thought about it, before heaving a theatrical sigh and withdrawing her hand from her Lily's crotch. Slightly damper for being there. "Well I guess we can end this punishment session a little early this time. You're being so good after all." Shiva whispered as she shifted back and lowered herself so that she could lightly kiss Lily's legs moving up from the inner thighs ever so slowly. Lily gasped slightly as Shiva nearly reached her core before pressing upwards.

She almost moaned in disappointment as Shiva straightened and stared into her eyes. That was before she leaned in, kissing Lily briefly before settling back and grabbing her wand to release the bindings.

Again Shiva pressed her advantage, capturing Lily's lips with her own and caressing her breasts. Lily just returned it for a time, before tentatively moving her own hands to Shiva own breasts. This time it was her turn to moan.

Shiva's hands abandoned their work on her lover's chest and slid to Lily's flanks. Before slowly drifting lower, as they dropped so too did she, her lips parting from Lily's as she lowered herself to rest between the woman's knees. There she felt her lover's hands rest on top of her head, the request clear, she just turned her eyes upwards to wink at the other woman before her hands settled on Lily's knees and pushed them a little farther apart.

Shiva shimmied slightly so her own bottom was slightly elevated into the air as she rested on her knees, unaware of what the sight of her wiggling backside did to Lily. She worked one hand down between her own knees to her favorite spot and started working as she lowered her lips to her lover's crotch.

Sucking, teasing and gentle nipping that was the game, nothing that would hurt. Her lips and teeth gently worrying Lily's lips, the thumb from her free hand rubbing gently at her button. Her tongue occasionally darting out to probe deeper.

It didn't take long, Lily's breaths came faster, her body started to twitch, and she started to groan. Finally, she let go, her body sinking into trembling gasps as she achieved release, and a small gush of warm liquid gushing across Shiva's tongue.

Lily continued to tremble and jerk for a few seconds before sagging back bonelessly onto her pillow, then barking out a short laugh. "Knew there was a reason I started dating you," Lily teased.

Chuckling lightly, Shiva lay there on her stomach peering up at Lily. She poked her lover gently on the thigh not far from her still quivering core. "Better now, love?"

"Oh, yes. I think we can safely say that!" Lily laughed, then a small spark lit in her eye, an almost hungry look as she noted that Shiva's hand was still working lower down on her own release. "Now I believe it was my turn to do a bit of punishing, yes?"

Shiva shivered in anticipation, and rolled over swinging around so her lower end was closest to her lover. Lily chuckled, clapping her hands on Shiva's hips and drug them closer to her. "Now then. What will it be tonight I wonder? Fingers...tongue and lips?" she teased, before reaching forward to cup her lover's cleft. "Or maybe you'd like to try that position we found in the book," she suggested, wagging her eyebrows.

Shiva thought about that, all the options were tempting but she was sooo close, she could practically scream. "Ugh," she groaned, "I so want to try that out. But later okay? I need to finish, or things are going to get ugly!" she teased. "Fingers."

Lily nodded gamely. She backed up before settling down on her chest, resting on her elbows, feet kicked up and ankles crossed. She trailed her fingernail down the pale skin of Shiva's inner thigh. "Oh really?" she asked huskily.

"Really," Shiva breathed as Lily's finger skipped across her button and shivered.

Lily wasn't a delicate kind of girl, and that suited Shiva just fine in times like these. Lily just laughed before drawing two fingers together and pushing them gently but firmly inside her, quickly finding her 'spot' and massaging it for a moment before withdrawing to begin slowly rocking in and out, pressing her at that delightful little bundle of nerves each time her fingers bottomed out.

Soon, it was Shiva who was quaking and trembling, and she was pleased when Lily's hand snaked out to grab her wand before directing silencing charms at the walls, ceiling and door. Lily worked at her only a few moments more after that, before she came apart with a cry.

Shiva lay there for a time, quivering deliciously, before shifting up onto her elbows. Lily smiling at her expectantly, whilst playing with herself. "So, my turn again?" Lily asked playfully.

Shiva smiled – mission accomplished. This was going to be a long night. And she was going to love every minute of it!

END MATURE SCENE

Luna sat behind Tracey in the Slytherin dorms idly braiding the older girl's hair while Coco sat on Tracey's lap and nipped playfully at Tracey's fingers. Luna smiled at the two and finished one braid moving onto the next. "Tracey, have you considered that we're focusing a bit too hard on the box?"

Tracey blinked looking up from the snorkack and trying to eye the little bit of Luna that she could see. "You're going to have to explain that one a bit, hon."

Luna shrugged. "I mean with the scavenger hunt. We've hit a wall with only two left to actively locate. We even know where one is and the general specifics of the other. I think everyone has been so focused on the box we've constructed for the locations that no one has stopped to consider how they were hidden."

Tracey made noncommittal noise and turned back to Coco. "I'm not sure I follow. Isn't that what we're doing?"

"Not really. We're looking for where it's hiding. We're not looking for why they chose that specific spot. If we reverse it we might be able to guess the spot."

"Still sounds like what we're doing, Luna," Tracey said grimacing. Coco headbutted her palm and stared up at the Slytherin causing Luna to giggle.

"It's certainly similar, but it's not quite the same. I just think we need to expand our box slightly. I'll think on it and see what I come up with. The Grey Lady has agreed to speak with me soon as well so hopefully I can work out something from that meeting."

Tracey nodded. "Well let me know how that works out, hon. And if you need me for anything just let me know."

Luna smiled brightly. She may have had friends for two years now, but it was still nice to be reminded of that fact at times. "Of course. You and Harry will be the first ones to know! Now, I was thinking that we could dye your hair green. It would go very nicely with your robes!"

"Oh hell no!" Tracey said trying to squirm away. Luna wrapped her arms around her girlfriend refusing to let go.

"Awww, maybe just half?"

"Not happening!"

"Awww…"

Dumbledore opened the Quibbler copy he'd received earlier. The Flamels had seen fit to send it via Muggle post this time rather than stopping in for a visit. He was grateful for that bit of relief. Whenever Perenelle came by he wound up with less hair than he started off with. He had thought the woman infuriating when he'd first started working with Nicolas. He had been naïve.

Harry Potter Announces First Official Betrothal

Dumbledore felt his blood freeze. This was dated from September. The boy had been building his power base and cementing his alliances for over a month. This was worse than he feared.

Hurriedly Dumbledore read the entire article. By the time he finished it and read Daphne Greengrass' threat, he'd started crying. The fools were welcoming a new Dark Lord with open arms. He wasn't even trying to be subtle anymore! Harry James Potter had cemented his female chattel, he had cemented his primary supporters, he had cemented his political allies…he was perfectly placed to assume complete control as soon as Voldemort was negated.

Dumbledore could wait no longer. Fawkes was still ignoring his pleas for assistance. Why the phoenix still refused to find and assist him he couldn't fathom. He knew their bond was broken months ago, but this was starting to reach beyond simple petulance and into malevolence.

Had Harry somehow managed to corrupt Fawkes as well? If he could make a phoenix fall…

"I must escape these confines!" Dumbledore stood and walked to the nurses' station. He'd learned a little bit about how to fool these Healers since his last attempt. Johnson was nearby already being distracting by waving his cane around, but Dumbledore ignored him as best he could. "Hello, I believe that Marcus was discussing a train to something called Elysium with his doll in the rec room. Perhaps someone should investigate?"

"Thank you for letting us know, Al," the woman said smiling up at him. She stood up and shuffled around the desk heading down to corridor, gently moving Johnson away from the aquarium as she went. Dumbledore waited until she had disappeared into the rec room then he quickly strode through the large double doors and out into freedom. He was out. He could finally return to Hogwarts and save them all from Harry Potter's evil!

That was when he noticed the large wrought iron fence towering around the garden entrance. And the pointed tips on each shaft. And the giant gates locked closed at the end of the driveway. And the two bored looking guards at the bottom of the stairs raising their eyebrows at him.

"Hello, Mr. Brian. You wander out again? Let's get you back to your bed," one of them said reaching out to take his elbow and gently turn him around.

"No! No, I was so close!" Dumbledore shouted. "I need to return to Hogwarts! He's built a harem and he controls the nobility! He must be stopped before it is too late! Help me and you will be hailed as saviors of Britain! I will make certain you get to participate in the award ceremony and receive the Order of Merlin prior to the memory adjustment! Please, help me! Together we can stop him!"

"Don't worry, Mr. Brian. We'll inform the appropriate authorities that 'he' is making his move."

Draco Malfoy huddled up against the little garbage can fire and clutched the threadbare jacket tighter around him. This was so demeaning. It had been weeks since that bitch had dropped him off in the middle of nowhere casually pointing in a seemingly random direction and saying, "City's about twenty miles that way. Get walking."

He'd made it to the city – somehow. But no one had been willing to take him back to England. No one had even cared when he said his father was rich and would gladly pay for his safe return. No one had given him the food he'd demanded or the information he'd required. He didn't even know the name of this stupid city! How was he supposed to survive with these peons refusing to help him?!

It had taken awhile, but he'd finally found a decent spot to sleep in and managed to steal some food from one of the weaker idiots nearby. He had managed to save up nearly thirty pounds – whatever that was – and was going to be able to buy his ticket tomorrow to reach London. This nightmare hell would end soon enough.

The little man that he'd taken food and money from earlier in the evening walked up to Draco's can with a large grin on his face. Draco just sneered. "What do you want, Muggle? If you think you're getting your stuff back think again."

"Told you he was a feckin' idiot, Marty," the man said smiling even wider and gesturing behind Draco. The blond barely had enough time to turn around and gape before a mountain of a man grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air. "You get half, Marty." A grunt from the large man was the only response.

Draco whimpered as his captor slammed a fist into his stomach and let go of his hold on Draco's neck. A whoosh of air and a pained cry were all he could muster. A flurry of kicks followed and when the pain finally let up, Draco found himself alone by the still burning can with just the jacket on his back and the trousers around his waist. They'd even taken his shoes.

Draco curled up and muttered another curse at Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass.

"Well, aren't you a pretty little thing. It's good that they left your face alone," a soft voice said from above. Draco twisted to look at the man standing and peering down at him. "Heard you wanted to go somewhere. I can't get you to London, but I might be able to get you to Thailand for bit. Give me a few months of work in the bar and I can guarantee you passage to anywhere you want after that."

Draco blinked up and pushed down the pain in his side enough to think. He could be a bouncer in a bar for a few months. He'd watched Crabbe and Goyle guard him well enough to know the general principles. Anything was better than staying in this hellhole! Plus he'd be able to get back to London in time for the summer in order to take his revenge on Potter and Greengrass. They would rue the day they left Draco Malfoy alive!

Draco didn't even bother to pay attention to the man as he stood. If he had, he'd have heard something that might have given him pause. "You won't even need a wig. Wonder if you can dance already…"