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CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR:

Harry tried to relax after an hour had passed without incident, but the tight knot of nerves in his stomach just wouldn't loosen. By now everyone must be holding their interrogations, Harry thought as he played with the charm around his neck. The trouble would be when the time came for the Death Eaters to swear the oath – for to swear a magically binding oath one needed a wand. He was sure that Kingsley could handle Yaxley even if the man decided to try something, and Rowle was such a cowardly character that he was unlikely to even consider raising his wand to his two older opponents, but even so, the possibility was there. And so Harry sat tensely, fingering his charm and thinking of all the people he had sent out.

OoOoO

"Are you loyal to the Dark Lord?" The expected response came, and Severus nodded absently as he read off the next question on the list. It had taken him a while, but Bill had gotten them through all the wards without tripping any, and when they reached the inside of Carrow Mansion they found the Carrow siblings sleeping on the floor of the entrance hall – they had most likely been on their way to their bed chambers when the house elf's spell caught them. After hitting them with additional stunning charms, Severus led the way to the parlor and watched closely as his companions bound their targets. Pulling the necessary objects out from inside his robes Severus ennervated Amycus and began questioning him first. Thus far everything was going as expected, though he knew it would take them twice as long as other groups to finish as they had two people to question. Though there may be three people at Nott Mansion, he thought absently, As Nott's mistress is most likely also present. Well, that was Moody's problem.

"Do you enjoy causing people harm?" And so it went, Severus going through the questions he already knew all the answers to while Tonks kept a sharp eye on their captives and Bill guarded the room in case of any unexpected visitors. They were halfway through questioning Amycus when Severus hissed sharply, his hand going up to his neck.

"What is it?" Tonks asked immediately, and Severus glared at her as he fished out the charm from beneath his robes.

"You did not wear your charm against your skin?" he asked sharply, and her eyes widened as she scrambled to pull out her charm. It was a distress call from one of the other groups.

Severus was just about to order Tonks to go assist the other group when a luminescent Patronus burst into the room.

"Severus, I need Bill NOW!" Harry's voice came from the silver form, and the three members reacted immediately to the urgency in their leader's voice.

"William, GO," Severus snapped out, not waiting to see the ward breaker rush away as he turned to Tonks. "Should we have any difficulty with the Carrows, you will fall behind me and give me cover. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" Tonks jumped to, her gaze sharp.

Severus turned back to Amycus and continued the questioning, trying to squash the feelings of unease that had surged within him. He had a task to complete.

OoOoO

Harry's fingers still rested on the charm when it heated up and vibrated against his skin, signalling an emergency call. Casting one glance at the charm Harry surged to his feet and immediately apparated directly out of Grimmauld Place – only to be bounced off of anti-apparition wards.

"Shit," he snarled as one look at the wards told him that he wouldn't be able to get through them without help. Brandishing his wand, he sent his Patronus speeding off to Severus, his heart racing as he began tearing into the wards. It was only a few seconds later that Bill joined him, but it felt like an eternity when he knew that every second counts. Bill needed no instructions when he arrived, but tore into the wards protecting the residence with a speed that far outstripped Harry's.

"Go," he panted when he felt the last ward crumble, and Harry took off faster than Bill had ever seen anyone run, his robe flapping behind him like a bat out of hell. Taking a deep breath, Bill jogged after him – those wards had taken more out of him than he had expected, and something bad must have happened for such strong emergency wards to spring up.

"Rowle," Harry roared as he burst into the room to see Doge lying unconscious on the floor and a bonebreaker curse headed for Minerva's neck. Moving faster than he had in a long time, Harry flung himself in the path of the curse and barely registered the loud crack as his left arm broke violently. With a wordless roar Harry jumped at the Death Eater, fury burning in his eyes and unrestrained violence contorting his face as he cast a series of destructive spells in quick succession. Three smashing curses impacted directly around the Death Eater, boxing him in, and Harry used a cutting spell to sever the man's ear from his head in deliberate parody of Lucius Malfoy's death.

"Give me one reason not to kill you," Harry hissed as he disarmed the man, gripping him by the neck and squeezing. It had been a while since he had last seen anyone so frightened by him, he thought absently as he snarled at the pale man.

"Traitor," the man choked out, and Harry bared his teeth in a parody of a grin.

"You finished questioning him?" he called out to Minerva, a dangerous edge still to his voice.

He heard the woman shift nervously behind him before her normally steady voice answered, "Yes." He tried not to let the shaken edge affect him.

"He was going to swear the oath?"

Again, confirmation, and Harry could almost hear the woman going into shock.

"Then tell me, Rowle," he said lowly to the Death Eater, "do you want to be alive for your trial?" The terrified face of his opponent told him that that was indeed the case, and Harry flung the man away in disgust. "Swear the oath, or I swear I will finish you."

The man scrambled for the piece of parchment, never looking away from Harry. "I-" the man looked down at the parchment and swore the oath haltingly, dividing his attention between the oath and the dangerous person whose threat he knew wasn't empty. "...and not to reveal in any way to anyone the happenings of this night, on my magic, I, Thorfinn Rowle, do so swear. So mote it be." His head snapped back up to focus on the raven-haired wizard, knowing that the oath he had just sworn would prevent him from harming the man unless in self-defense. The young man's sneer didn't reassure him at all, knowing that even in self-defense he would be unable to beat this opponent.

"Sleep," Harry snarled, stupefying the man and summoning the parchment from the collapsed man's hands. A quick spell reattached the man's ear, but that was only for appearance's sake - the man would most likely be deaf in that ear, but Harry couldn't have people asking questions. "Let's go," he said, turning and not meeting his companions' gazes. He didn't want to see their expressions. "Bill, go rejoin Severus and Tonks; lock up the house and confine Rowle to it before you leave," he ordered as he levitated Doge. "Minerva, I will apparate us back to Headquarters." Grabbing both Doge's and Minerva's hands, Harry apparated back into the room he had left so abruptly, dropping Minerva's hand as soon as they materialized. "Poppy, two patients for you." Releasing the two members into Poppy's care Harry went back to his armchair, staring straight ahead with unseeing eyes.

OoOoO

"Harry, I need to heal your arm," a soft voice called him back, and Harry's eyes focused on Poppy's concerned face.

"I can do it," he said, reaching for his wand as he remembered about the bonebreaker curse he had taken to the arm. Somehow it didn't surprise him that he had managed to hold Rowle by the neck with his broken arm and grab Doge with the same hand – adrenaline could be a very useful thing. A warm hand stopped him.

"No need for you to when I'm already here and more experienced than you," the mediwitch said firmly, and Harry acquiesced, remaining silent as she healed his arm and cast a low-level cleaning spell at him.

"Thank you," he tried to smile, and she patted him reassuringly on the hand.

"No, thank you – I would have been very sad to lose my favorite colleague," she said lightly, and Harry's smile faltered as he remembered the aftermath of future Minerva's death, seeing before his eyes the devastated expression of the mediwitch. Then a hand lightly slapped his face, and Harry was jolted back to the present, looking away from Poppy's understanding gaze. "Not in this timeline," she said firmly as she stood, brushing invisible lint off her skirt. Reaching out, she turned Harry's face to hers. "You did well."

With that she left, and Harry bit the inside of his cheek against the relieved tears that threatened to fall. No matter how Minerva treated him now, she was alive and that was all that mattered. Closing his eyes, Harry leaned back and clutched his charm, ready for any other emergency.