The Gray Conspiracy

"Not really." Narcissa replied gratefully, glad to know that her sister still cared for her, despite her change of allegiance. "I don't suppose you could convince your husband to let me just go back to your fortress.

Bellatrix shrugged. "He won't, and even if he would- medicine doesn't always taste good."

Narcissa sighed as Bellatrix helped her to regain her standing position and as they made their way forward to join Harry who had already began to slowly make his way further toward the center.

When the arrived, they found the Death Eaters packed into the village square, all of them facing outward and maintaining a complicated compound shield charm that was proving very effective against the Ice soldiers and Trazkabanian sorcerers who had already attained the village square.

Much to everyone's shock, they spied Voldemort standing on a raised platform in the Death Eater's midst. When he spotted Harry he held up his hand signaling for everyone to pause in their fighting momentarily. "So nice to see you, Harry. Or is it Lord Polairix?" Voldemort hissed quietly, but still making his words heard by all.

"Call me what you wish, Voldemort." Harry scowled defiantly. "Why are you here? What's the purpose?"

Voldemort grinned. "Well dear fellow, you'll find out shortly." The Dark lord then signaled and the Death Eaters threw several small objects similar to Muggle hand grenades into the midst of Harry's followers.

"They're spell capsules," Bellatrix muttered to Harry quickly, "but don't worry. There are very few spells that are compatible with them, none of them harmful or deadly."

Before Harry could ask what their purpose could possibly be in a battle, they exploded, bombarding everyone present with an spell that Harry could not accurately identify. When the spells died down, Harry quickly checked all of his followers for injuries.

There were none. Instead, their cloaks had all been transfigured into a dark shade of gray. Harry looked down and saw that he had been affected the same way. His cloak was gray, all traces of black and silver gone, except for his breastplate. "What was that for?" Harry demanded, looking at Voldemort for answer.

"Take a wild guess." Voldemort replied, smiling evilly. "I'd stick around, but there's things I have to do." He pulled a black pocket watch from the folds of his cloak and looked at it before holding up his wand. "Cheerio!"

A brilliant flash of red light blinded everyone and when Harry was able to clear his eyes, he quickly observed that Voldemort and all of his Death Eaters were no longer present. "I don't understand what just happened." Harry said blankly.

His statement of confusion was abruptly punctuated by the popping sound associated with Apparition as Kingsley Shacklebolt, Professor Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Professor McGonagall, and an entire squadron of Aurors arrived.

The new arrivals all shot silent and appalled looks at the carnage that Voldemort and his Death Eaters left behind as Harry and his forces stood speechless, realizing what Voldemort had just done to them. They had been framed. Harry was particularly mad, this being his second time being framed.

Kingsley Shacklebolt grimly turned his attention to Harry. "You may be the Lord of Polairix, but as Harry James Potter, you are still a subject of the United Kingdom and therefore subject to our laws. As the senior Ministry Auror present, I hereby demand that you surrender yourself for arrest on the charges of mass murder."

"I am innocent of all crimes you accuse me of." Harry said slowly as he tried to formulate a way in which he could explain this away. "What you see here is Voldemort's doing. We arrived to defend the Muggles and as soon as we cornered the Death Eaters, they escaped."

Shacklebolt's response was cut off as Ron pressed his way forward with Hermione on his tail. "Of course you're innocent. You're only standing over a zillion corpses with the blood practically dripping of your hands."

"I just explained everything to you!" Harry said desperately. "Give me the benefit of the doubt would you?"

"I can't do that." Shacklebolt said grimly as he pointed his wand at Harry, the Aurors under his command doing the same to him and his followers. "I'm under strict orders. Besides, you are still an escaped fugitive."

For some reason, this made Harry particularly angry. Did they ever listen to anybody they arrested? He couldn't blame the Aurors or McGonagall though. They were acting on Ministry orders after all, and McGonagall was under Dumbledore. Dumbledore, Ron, and Hermione were the ones he needed to talk to.

With a casual swish of his wand, Harry initiated an explosion that sent all but those three flying back, knocking some unconscious. Count Hiscophney quickly moved to keep the others who had been knocked down on the ground. "You three 'must' listen to me this time." Harry growled.

"Your actions have told us all there is to tell." Hermione said weakly, gesturing toward several mangled corpses of innocent Muggles.

"LISTEN TO HIM YOU IDIOTS!" Bellatrix screamed, stepping forward from the midst of the Ice soldiers from where she had previously avoided notice. "He's trying to tell you something."

Dumbledore looked surprised for a moment before responding. "So, Miss Black, I see that you've allied yourself with Harry."

"That's Mrs. Potter to you." Bellatrix growled.

Harry would have had to have been deaf to miss the gasps of Ron and Hermione. "You married . . . that thing?" Ron yelled. "She's a heartless whore!"

"How dare you?" Harry snarled. "Never. Insult. My. Wife. Again." He was about to step forward and inflict some physical harm upon Ron when Bellatrix calmly put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm not worth demeaning yourself that way, love." Harry sighed and relaxed.

"Why are you wasting your time insulting her?" Hermione asked Ron, her quavering voice gaining strength with every syllable. "Her evil is nothing besides Harry. What he has done is worse than thousand murders! We know that you were supposed to fight Voldemort, but instead you betrayed everyone's hope! Your heart is darker than midnight, you devil."

Harry stood stunned, no rebuttal coming to his mind for Hermione's horrid accusation. Unconsciously, he expected Bellatrix, who was probably better at comebacks, to say something. However, what she did took him and everyone else by surprise.

Without saying a word, Bellatrix quickly closed the distance between herself and the teenage girl with three quick strides. She then promptly drew back her arm and delivered a backhanded slap to Hermione's face which caused the younger female to fall backwards onto the ground.

"I may have been a heartless whore, possibly still am, and may spend the rest of my days trying to redeem myself," Bellatrix whispered, "but at least I know deep down that I'm not a treacherous slut."

Hermione gasped, and not willing to consider Bellatrix's accusation with an unbiased perspective, let out a defiant scream and launched herself at her opponent's legs. Bellatrix promptly fell onto her back as Hermione jumped onto her and began to claw at the older woman's face.

Once Bellatrix's surprise at being counter-attacked wore off, Hermione's advantage gained from surprise was quickly neutralized by Bellatrix's fighting experience and maturity. A fist to Hermione's jaw stunned her long enough for Bellatrix to roll, putting her on top.

A few more bloody claw-marks were added to Bellatrix's face as she straddled Hermione and sat up as Hermione shrieked her indignation. All thoughts at fighting Bellatrix flew from Hermione's mind as Bellatrix began to methodically slap Hermione's face over and over again as she screamed and snarled unintelligible words and sentences.

The fight came to an abrupt halt when Harry gently, but firmly grasped one of Bellatrix's wrists. "I'm not sure that I'm worth all this effort either," Harry said, staring into his wife's violent violet eyes with calm reassurance.

Bellatrix didn't say anything as Harry helped her up and guided her back away from Hermione who was being quickly approached by Ron and Professor Dumbledore.

Harry waited a moment for things to calm down before speaking levelly. "I don't care how bad you think this looks. I did not do it. I am not responsible for the attack on Privet Drive either. I would prefer to work with the Order and Ministry so that we can defeat Voldemort. If you're not willing to do that, then so be it. I'll fight both of you. The Ministry for the good of the people it supposedly serves, and Voldemort because he is evil."

"You can't fool us with your fancy words and lies." Ron yelled.

Harry sighed sadly as he looked from the faces of his former friends to the faces of the fallen Aurors who were only now getting up. None of them believed him. "I have no wish to fool you. You're only fooling yourself."

...

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