Harry Potter and the Distaff Side
Rescues
By Clell65619
A/N: I own none of this. I do not own Harry Potter or any rights to his image or personality. I do not own the moon or the stars. I do not own human genders, other than my own personal original factory equipment. Honest. Nope, not me. I most certainly do not own the rights to a billion dollar literary work. Damn it.
Harry Potter and the Distaff Side
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Rescues
Harry pulled the gate closed behind him, and started up the path to Luna’s home. The property was very… Luna. The path, rather than lead directly to the house, spiraled around the hill upon which the house sat, making four complete revolutions through the… oddest garden Harry had ever seen before delivering him to the front door. Somehow it seemed completely… Luna that there were flowering plants growing among vegetables in what appeared to be an ornamental garden.
Harry stood in front of the huge oaken door for a moment, steeling himself for meeting Luna’s mother, silently laughing at himself for being so nervous at the prospect. He started to knock, but spotted the old fashioned pull cord for the door bell. Grasping the cord, he gave it a soft pull, and again smiled as he heard a four tone bell chime alert the inhabitants of the house of his presence on their front step.
And the door exploded outward.
---===ooo000ooo===---
The cord slipped from his hand as the smile fled his face. That little voice that seemed to know that danger was about started screaming ‘MOVE’ in his mind and Harry dove to the ground.
It was too late; the explosion that shattered the oaken door to splinters drove the pieces at him with the force of a shotgun. The entire left side of his body was riddled with splinters, his left shoulder shattered and he lost all vision in his left eye. Pain consumed his universe.
“Well, well, well,” a man’s voice cut through the fog of pain. “I do believe we’ve caught ourselves an ickle Potter.” Two pair of hands took hold of Harry’s robes and he was lifted from the ground. “Bring her inside,” the unknown man said.
You have to be able to fight through the pain! You have to be able to function through injury!
Harry was startled when the Riddle of the Room’s voice echoed in his head.
“Harry!” Luna’s voice called out to him.
“Oh don’t worry about your ickle Half Blood girlfriend.” The Man’s said. “The Dark Lady will be very happy to see her, and will reward me greatly for bringing ickle Harriet to her.”
Her? Harry outrage crystallized his focus to pierce the haze of pain. Do I look like a girl? Shaking his mind clear of that thought, Harry opened his uninjured eye in time to see a dark haired man backhand Luna for something Luna had said.
Anger burned through the pain and fear. Harry evaluated the situation. Two Death Eaters, women he was sure, were holding his arms keeping him upright. The one on his left side was taking a certain amount of pleasure in manipulating his damaged shoulder.
After what Riddle had done to him in the Room of Requirements, that was a minor annoyance. A third masked Death Eater held the kneeling Lovegoods under his wand. Her wand? It didn’t matter. The Man who did the speaking wasn’t masked or hooded. His face gaunt, almost skull-like with his heavily lidded sunken eyes. His hair was black and hung down his back.
Harry was annoyed that he had no idea who this man was. Did he have an analog back home? If so, Harry hadn’t met her (or him.)
“Awake are you?” The man laughed as he spotted Harry watching him. “Nothing to say? Is ickle Harriet worried about her ickle friends?”
Harry made no attempt to answer, which seemed to infuriate the man. While wondering why this idiot thought he was Harri and why the loon was speaking in baby talk, Harry found that the Death Eaters had left his wand in its holster.
They hadn’t even searched him? Were these people idiots?
The man approached with a dangerous look in his eye. “Ignoring me girl?”
These people were idiots. Marshalling his strength, Harry flexed his forearm, causing his wand to drop into his hand. Harry then allowed the Death Eaters to keep supporting his weight, swung his right foot up as hard as he could, burying the toe of his boot deep into the crotch of the male Death Eater.
The man’s eyes bugged out and he dropped like a sack of potatoes, his wand spinning away from him when his body convulsed.. With a minute slash of his wand, Harry cast his strongest cutter into the leg of the Death Eater holding his right arm, severing the woman’s leg above the knee. The woman fell to the floor screaming. Harry spun free of the other Death Eater as the villain across the room shifted her wand from the Lovegoods to Harry hitting her compatriot with the piercing curse she had aimed at Harry.
Seeing what she had done, the Death Eater near the Lovegoods grasped the chain about her neck and pulled, when the chain parted, the portkey activated and the woman disappeared.
Harry was drawing on the last of his energy, barely staying on his feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the male Death Eater had recovered enough to grab at his own chain. Harry slashed his wand at the man as the chain parted. Harry’s cutter severed the man’s hand at the wrist; the hand fell to the floor before disappearing with the portkey it still held, leaving the screaming bleeding man on the floor.
His strength gone, Harry pitched forward, face first onto the floor of the Lovegood’s great room.
---===ooo000ooo===---
Riddle was holding court before her assembled Death Eaters, trying to hide the extent of the injuries she had received when that damned Potter Girl had somehow broken Riddle’s carefully crafted mental trap and somehow escaped to her own dreamscape.
She had just reached the point where she was going to taunt the Malfoys with threats of what would happen if Lucille’s ploy to ‘adopt’ the Girl Who Lived failed, when the ward that signaled an incoming portkey chimed.
Immediately the assembled Death Eaters were on guard ready to defend their Lady from attack, and a cloaked figure appeared, a standard emergency portkey chain still clutched in her hand.
Sensing the figures Dark Mark and instantly knowing the identity of the cloaked figure, Riddle felt her anger grow. There was a single team deployed today, Orion Lestrange’s attack on the publisher of that ridiculous scandal rag ‘The Quibbler’, for a single member of that team to return and by emergency portkey at that signaled that something had gone horribly wrong.
“Speak to me, Maeve Flint. Where are the rest of my servants? What has happened that you would appear before me alone?”
“We went to the publisher of The Quibbler and expressed your dissatisfaction with her reporting as you directed My Lady,” the recent Hogwarts graduate said after throwing herself to the floor at Riddle’s feet.
The ward chimed again and a severed hand appeared clutching a portkey chain.
“Crucio!” Riddle spat, holding the curse of her minion for a full ten count. “I didn’t ask if you did what I told you to do Flint,” she said as she released the pain curse. “I asked you what happened to my servants.”
Flint fought to regain control of her body, “The door bell rang while we were torturing Xena Lovegood. We reductoed the door when the bell rang and Harriet Potter was caught in the explosion.”
“Harriet Potter? Are you sure?” Riddle asked.
“I attended Hogwarts with her and played Quidditch against her. Her face was a bloody mess after the door exploded in it, but the curse scar you gave her was there clear as day. I’d know it anywhere.”
“What happened Flint?” Riddle purred dangerously.
“The Gentleman Lestrange had Yaxley and Avery bring the girl into the house. Her whole left side was a bloody mess, we thought she was finished. The Gentleman Lestrange was gloating to the girl about how you would reward him when he presented you with the girl, and she… she…”
“What did she do Flint?”
“The Potter girl attacked the Gentleman Lestrange like a Muggle, and then she severed Avery’s leg with a wandless cutter and killed Yaxley with a piercing spell. She was turning toward me, and given that she had defeated Orion Lestrange, I knew I had no chance against her, so I returned here to report to you.”
“My lady,” Narcissus Malfoy interjected in a tone of mourning, “This is my brother’s hand. I recognize the scar he received when dueling with our cousin Lokabrenna as children…”
The assembled Death Eaters held their breath in expectation of the explosion. They were not disappointed.
The reborn witch’s voice lowered the temperature of the room. “Are you asking me to believe that three fully trained witches and the most feared Wizard in the world could not stand up to a half trained child?”
“My Lady!” Flint whimpered as the horror of what was about to happen dawned on her.”
“A girl who was so injured so as to be… what did you call her? A bloody mess? Then you appear here, whole and sound a full twenty seconds before the severed hand of one of my closest advisors? You abandoned Orion Lestrange while he was still alive?”
“But My Lady! It was Harriet Potter! She destroyed Orion Lestrange without using magic…She… She defeated YOU…”
“Avada Kedavra!”
It spoke volumes as to the standard management procedures of the Death Eaters when no one even flinched when Flint’s lifeless body slumped to the floor.
“Silvia!” Riddle called.
Silvia Snape stepped forward. “My Lady?”
Return to Dumbledore. I need to know the status of the girl, and what she did to so easily defeat Orion Lestrange.”
Snape nodded once. “At once.” The Potions Mistress swept from the room with her trademark billowing robes.
“MacNair, go to your contacts in the Ministry. I want to know the status of Orion Lestrange.”
“Of course my Lady.” The executioner for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures immediately exited the chamber.
“Lucille, begin your planning. I want to send a message to the light loving fools. Four of mine fell today. We will visit our vengeance against the so called innocents one hundred fold!”
---===ooo000ooo===---
Almanzo Bones entered the Lovegood home not knowing quite what to expect. When word reached his offices that the Lovegoods had been attacked by Death Eaters on Boxing Day, he fully expected to have to preside over yet another atrocity.
He certainly didn’t expect to find both the Xena and young Luna standing, seemingly untouched in the middle of his crime scene.
“Luna, I’m not telling you again,” Xena was saying. “Leave the man alone until the Aurors are finished.”
“Mum!” the teen protested. “He’s bled all over the rug. That was Dad’s favorite rug, I don’t care if he freezes to death outside, I want him off Dad’s rug.”
“You’ll be able to clean up in a moment Miss Lovegood.” Almanzo said. “I’m Almanzo Bones, Director of Magical Law Enforcement. What happened here?”
“We’ve already told the Aurors that were first here.” Xena Lovegood responded.
“You did, but people died, even if they are Death Eaters, you’re going to be explaining what happened several times to several different people”
“We were getting ready for dinner,” Luna explained. “Then this person,” she kicked at the unconscious man, “and three women wearing Death Eater cloaks apparated into our Great room.”
“From what he said, the Dark Lady was upset about some of my articles in the Quibbler,” Xena Lovegood explained.
Luna nodded in agreement. “This man was using the Cruciatus Curse on Mum, while the three others forced me to watch. Then the bell rang. All three of the women shot blasting curses at the door. The door was blown to bits and the man and two of the women, that one,” Luna pointed to the woman with the severed leg who had bled out, “and that one,” she pointed to the woman with the hole neatly drilled through the forehead of her mask, “went out with the remaining one watching Mum and me. They came in with Harry Potter. He was all bloody and mangled from the door. The man thought that he was Harriet Potter, I don’t know why, I mean they don’t look that much alike and Harry is a much better kisser, at least Orestes never looks as distracted as I get when we…”
“Yes Miss Lovegood, I’m sure that Mr. Potter is quite the kisser,” Bones said, marveling that the young woman could still think of such things when she had witnessed the torture of her mother and the violent death of two women. “You were telling me what happened?”
“Well… yes. The man thought that Harry was Harriet. I told him to let Harry go because he wasn’t part of the Dark Lady’s complaint against the Quibbler and the man hit me, before starting to shout at Harry. Despite being injured like he was, all that blood there is his,” she said pointing to a puddle of drying blood, “Harry kicked the man in the crotch when he got too close. Then Harry suddenly had his wand and he cut off that one’s leg off. The one guarding us tried to attack Harry and killed that one. When she saw what she had done and Harry was standing over there looking like something out of a nightmare, she pulled a chain from her neck. It must have been a portkey because she disappeared. Then the man tried to do the same thing, but Harry saw him do it and cast a cutter at him that took off his hand at the wrist. The hand was still holding the portkey because it disappeared, leaving him,” she kicked at the man again, “bleeding all over my father’s favorite rug. Then Harry collapsed.”
“That was when I flooed for the Aurors,” The elder Lovegood said. “The first Auror to arrive took one look and called for medical backup. The mediwitch did an emergency cauterization on the man’s wrist stump and then evacuated Mr. Potter to St. Enoch’s.”
“Not surprising really, given who he is.” Bones said indicating the unconscious man.
“Who is he?” Luna asked.
“That is Orion Lestrange, possibly the most dangerous of all the Death Eaters, second only to the Dark Lady herself. The Dark Lady broke him and the rest of her imprisoned Death Eaters out of Azkaban two months ago. That man is responsible for the deaths of twenty Aurors.” Almanzo said quietly. “Thank you for your help. I’ll arrange for you to be escorted to Auror headquarters for your official interviews.”
“When can I see Harry?”
“I don’t know. He has a security detail for as long as he’s in St. Enoch’s, I’m sure that as soon as he can have visitors he will be happy to see you.”
---===ooo000ooo===---
Orestes Granger rushed into the entry way of his home.
“Orestes?” Emmit Granger asked. “You’re back early, where’s Harry?”
“Dad,” the bushy haired teen gasped out. “Harry’s been hurt. He’s at St. Enoch’s and no one knows if he’s going to make it.”
“What?” Danielle interjected. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” the clearly flustered teen said. “Harry went to Luna’s and not an hour later the Luna’s mother is at the Weasley’s door telling us that Harry had been badly hurt in a Death Eater attack.” Orestes put forth a visible effort to calm down. “Mrs. Weasley apparated me home, but she had never been here and I didn’t know the coordinates for the house. We ended up in the park and I ran here as fast as I could.”
A knock on the open door directed everyone’s attention to Ginevra Weasley who was now standing in the door frame.
“Danielle, Emmit, good to see both of you again. I just wish it was under better circumstances.”
“Ginevra, what’s going on?” Danielle demanded.
The red head shook his head. “I wish I knew. From what I could get out of Xena Lovegood, she and her daughter Luna were attacked by four Death Eaters and Harry wandered into the middle of it. Harry was badly hurt, but somehow defeated the four Death Eaters, including the man who is perhaps the most dangerous Wizard alive, Orion Lestrange.”
The two adult Grangers were silent for a moment as they digested that news.
“Why,” Emmit asked the room, “do these things keep happening to a nice boy like Harry?”
“I wish I knew,” the head of House Weasley answered. “I thought that it was difficult raising my girls… At any rate, as well as bringing Orestes home, I am here to offer my assistance in getting you to St. Enoch’s.
---===ooo000ooo===---
The Grangers arrived at Harry’s room in the Trauma ward of St. Enoch’s only to be confronted by two large imposing Aurors who forbid admission to the room. Orestes and his parents were ushered into a waiting area while Ginevra Weasley went to find out when they might get in to see Harry.
The trio had been alone in the waiting area for five minutes when Blanch Dumbledore entered the room.
“Headmistress!” Orestes cried when she saw the aged witch come into the room. “Have you heard anything about Harry?”
Dumbledore seemed startled to find the Grangers in the waiting area. “No Mr. Granger, I don’t know her condition as the Aurors are forbidding entry to anyone but Healers and Hospital personnel. I must confess to be surprised, not by your presence, but by the fact that you arrived before I did.”
“Her?” Orestes asked, confused by the Headmistress’ words, until realization of what the elder Witch was trying to say came to him. “Oh, no Headmistress. It wasn’t Harriet that got hurt, it was Harry.”
“The boy?” the woman appeared flabbergasted. “But I was told that… That would mean that…”
“The message must have gotten garbled Headmistress.” Orestes suggested.
“Indeed,” Almanzo Bones said from the doorway, Ginevra Weasley at his side. “The garbled message is especially particular given that I’ve put as airtight a lid on this case as I possibly could. Since Xena Lovegood only told the Weasleys and correctly informed them that it was the male Potter who had hurt in the attack, I find myself wondering how it is the information that you got reflects the mistake the Death Eaters made identifying the boy.”
“I have my own sources of information concerning my students Almanzo,” Dumbledore suggested. “I simply misunderstood what I was being told.”
“Still, I think it might be a good idea if we were to have a discussion about your sources of information Headmistress.”
Danielle Granger cleared her throat. “If you two are quite finished posturing, could someone tell us what is happening with our son?”
“I believe I can do that,” an older wizard said from the doorway where he pushed past the Director of the DMLE while wiping his hand on a towel. “You are the Grangers, yes? I’m Healer Sorenson, and I worked on your young man. The good news is I’ve managed to save his left eye, though we won’t know until he wakes up if he’s experienced any vision loss. He suffered three cracked ribs, and his entire left shoulder has been destroyed. We’ve vanished the effected bones and will be starting him on a skelgrow regimen to regrow the shoulder as soon as his ocular region is stable, and his blood has been sufficiently regenerated.”
“So, he’s going to be alright?” Emmit Granger asked.
“As long as he refrains from whatever he was doing when he got hurt, he should be fine. So,” the man said sitting down on one of the available chairs. “What was he doing? There’s an insane rumor he was hurt fighting Death Eaters.”
The silence in the room spoke volumes.
---===ooo000ooo===---
Harry opened his eyes. White ceiling, curtains around the bed, the scent of antiseptic charms. Wonderful. In the hospital again.
Memories of what happened flooded back. Harry’s right hand went to the left side of his face, relieved that he could see, and the skin felt smooth… Had he survived relatively unscathed again?
“Ah, Mr. Potter… Finally awake are you?”
“Healer Pomfrey?” Harry asked, unable to focus on the figure now standing next to his bed.
“Yes Mr. Potter. You’re back at Hogwarts. The Headmistress arranged your transfer to the school in order to reduce the possibility of someone looking to take revenge on you at St. Enoch’s. You’ve healed nicely; Healer Sorenson does some very nice work indeed. He saved your eye and rebuilt your shoulder. You managed to maintain the healing coma throughout your Skelgrow regimen and are quite likely to regain full motion in your shoulder if you follow the therapy regime she set out for you.”
“How are Luna and her mother?”
“The Lovegoods are fine Mr. Potter. Ms. Lovegood was a near constant visitor while you were at St. Enoch’s. You were there for four days, and only brought her yesterday.” The blurred form of the Hogwarts Healer made some motions over Harry’s body that Harry assumed to be some sort of diagnostic charm. “Yes, you are healing nicely Mr. Potter. I’m off to my office to notify the Headmistress that you are awake.”
And Harry was alone in the ward. He groped at the table beside the bed to find his glasses. Once they were on his face, the room swam into focus, just in time to see his twin enter the room.
“Harry! You’re awake.”
“Nothing gets past you.” Harry grinned. “Why are you here?”
“Ah, well see, one of the Death Eaters you interrupted at the Lovegood’s returned to the Dark Lady and told her that it was me who wandered into their torture session,” She grinned, “The Headmistress immediately decided that this would be a good bit of disinformation to mess with the Death Eaters mostly because it promotes my legend a bit, and keeps you in reserve as a fairly unknown commodity. It took a while but she talked Director Bones of the DMLE to go along with it.”
Harry nodded. “So, you’re in the hospital and I’m…”
“Slumming somewhere in the Muggle world. It’s been suggested that my being so dangerous will derail whatever attempts the Malfoy’s are making toward becoming my guardians.”
“Glad to be of service,” Harry moved to fluff his pillow. “Ow!”
“Yeah, you mangled your shoulder pretty good,” Harriet rubbed her own left shoulder. “I can sympathize. Tommi worked me over pretty well this morning. On the plus side, she tells me I’m within a whisper of your level. We can start training together as soon as you’re mobile.”
“Good,” Harry breathed. “I’m so tired of this stuff. I’d so like to go on a date and not have someone try to kidnap or murder me or whoever is with me.”
“Tommi suggested we start against your Riddle, and work our way up to mine. She says he’s more violent and unpredictable, while she is more focused and deliberate.”
“Really?” Harry asked. “I had no idea that they were different.”
“Neither did I, but she says they are. I guess neither of us paid much attention to the other’s opponent. Anyway, we start with yours, move on to mine, and then, if and when we get to the point we are consistently winning against her, both of them together.”
“You actually speak with your Riddle? Mine is all nastiness and insults.”
“It was weird at first; I mean this is an image of the monster that killed Dad and Mum,” Harriet said. “But yeah, we talk a bit. She projects we’ll be ready by the end of May.”
“Good. I’m tired of this.”
“You just woke up Mr. Potter…” Blanch Dumbledore said as she entered the room. “How could you possibly be tired?”
“I meant I’m tired of my dates turning out badly due to someone or other attacking me Ma’am.”
“Ah… yes,” the ancient witch seemed to reflect on that comment for a moment. “I take it Ms. Potter has told you of the plan to deflect attention from you by fostering the misconception that the Dark Lady Riddle has about precisely who defeated her team of Death Eaters sent to the Lovegood home?”
“Yes Headmistress. Will I be able to see Orestes and his parents before the new term begins?” Harry asked hopefully.
“Yes Mr. Potter. Assuming that Healer Pomfrey agrees, you will be quietly returned to your new home two days prior to the Express returning to Hogwarts. For obvious reasons, Ms. Potter will not be joining you on the train.”
“To keep up the image that she was the one injured,” Harry replied.
“Precisely.”
“So what happened to the Death Eaters that Harry fought?” Harriet asked.
“The two women who were holding Mr. Potter were both killed. One from the severed leg that resulted from Mr. Potter’s surprisingly powerful cutting curse, and the other from a piercing spell that seemed to have come from the Death Eater that escaped.”
“She tried to kill me and I moved,” Harry shrugged, before wincing at the pain that motion caused his damaged shoulder.
“Yes,” Dumbledore nodded. “Orion Lestrange led the attack, and after Mr. Potter disabled him in such an… unusual way…”
“Unusual?” Harriet asked.
“I kicked him in the ‘nards,” Harry supplied.
“’Nards?” Harriet asked while both she and the Headmistress blinked at him in confusion.
“No,” Harry shook his head. “Your line is ‘Death Eaters got Nards?”
“What?” His twin was even more confused.
“Never mind,” Harry said. “A bad joke based on a bad movie reference. I kicked him between the legs, as hard as I could.”
“That sounds like it would hurt.” Harriet observed.
“It focuses the mind quite effectively.” Harry agreed. “I only did it because he was baby talking at me and he made me mad. I don’t know if I’d have tried it with a woman. I don’t even know if it would disable a woman as effectively as it does a man.”
“Oh, it would disable a woman,” his twin assured him.
“Yes, quite,” the Headmistress coughed slightly. “After Mr. Potter focused Orion Lestrange’s mind, as it were, the man attempted to escape. According to Ms. Lovegood, he attempted to use his emergency portkey and with the last of his strength, Mr. Potter cast a cutter that severed the hand holding the portkey before it could activate. This left a badly beaten Orion Lestrange bleeding heavily and unconscious on the floor of the Lovegood’s Great Room. The Lovegoods summoned the Aurors who did their duty. Orion Lestrange was questioned under Verasitum and given the Kiss, that being the fate of all of the escaped Death Eaters who are recaptured.”
---===ooo000ooo===---
Three days after the students returned to Hogwarts, Harry entered the Room of Requirements to find his Riddle of the Room and Mad Eye Moody waiting for him.
This couldn’t possibly be good.
“It took you long enough to report to me to continue your training Potter. Was it because once again you allow yourself to become a target?” The shade Tom Riddle spat at his student.
“I agree with the monster.” Moody said quietly from where she sat. “You weren’t exactly practicing Constant Vigilance Lad.”
“I know.” Harry said, fighting against revealing any emotions to the pair. “I forgot about the war for a few hours and it rose up and bit me on the ass.”
Moody nodded from her seat. The boy learned. Insane power and a willingness to learn. Hopefully that was an unbeatable combination.
“Are you ready boy?” Riddle asked raising his wand.
“No,” Harry answered. “I’ve got a question or two before we begin.”
“I’ve never been one to answer questions Potter.”
“You were created to help me Riddle,” Harry fixed the shade of Voldemort with a glare. “If I need to ask question, you’ll bloody well answer them, or I’ll get the room to make me a Riddle who will.”
Riddle seemed to hesitated for a moment, then growled “Ask your questions Potter.”
“Can Harri win?”
“That’s your question Potter?” Riddle was aghast. “You want to know if the girl can win? What about you? Aren’t you the least bit concerned about your own life?”
Harry shrugged. “This is Harri’s world and Harri’s fight. I suspect that I could leave the country and the Dark Lady would never come looking for me, an advantage Harri doesn’t have. The Death Eaters keep attacking me, but even then half the time it seems they think they’re fighting Harri.”
Harry noticed Moody nodding at that and continued. “Harri tells me that her version of you has told her that she is almost at the level you’ve gotten me to, and that soon the two of us will be working together against you, until such time as you think we’re ready to move onto the female Riddle. So I need to know, are we wasting our time? Can Harri win?”
The Riddle of the Room seemed to hesitate, “She can. She has obtained an equivalency of the level you have been operating at. Given this level of skill, she would likely survive any one on one altercation with the Dark Lady.”
“Survive, but not win?” Harry asked.
“A fair fight isn’t what either of you is going to find,” Moody said from her chair. Riddle will be bringing her Death Eaters along to any fight, and your sister will be bringing you and every wand I can find.”
“My counterpart has more than half a century of experience on the pair of you,” Riddle said. “That being said, she has rarely had to exert herself for any extended period of time, and as far as anyone can tell, not at all since her rebirth. When I started to train you to take her down, I knew that I could never get you to the point where your experience would match hers, but I could give you stamina. You and I have had exchanges that lasted more than an hour in real time; there are no records available to me that show her fighting for more than a few minutes. Once you and your dimensional twin are used to fighting together, she won’t have a chance against the pair of you, assuming that Moody and his people can keep her Death Eaters off your backs.”
This extended period of civility seemed to have grated on the Riddle of the Room. With a horrible grin, he once again raised his wand. “No more stalling Potter. Now we fight.”
---===ooo000ooo===---
The universe swam back into focus and the pain faded. Mad-Eye Moody’s scarred face filled Harry’s field of vision.
“Ahh!” Harry yelped in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” with surprising agility, Moody sprang away from Harry’s prone form and was instantly on guard with her wand out.
“Damn it Mad-Eye! You are one ugly woman to wake up to.”
“Twenty years ago I’d have taught you a few things pup!” Something approximating a grin crossed the woman’s lips. “You lasted an hour and seven minutes against the shade lad.”
“He still tagged me.” Harry grumbled as he picked himself up off the floor.
“More than an hour against an opponent who doesn’t get tired and never loses focus? Boy, you have no idea what you’ve achieved. If your sister is as ready as you are, there’s no way the pair of you will lose. Riddle is a dead woman; she just doesn’t know it yet.”
---===ooo000ooo===---
The lights of the Quidditch stadium filled the sky as the Death Eaters approached. Lucille Malfoy had done her homework on this one; she deftly directed each of seven warders to the seven exits from the massive structure. Four more warders lay down a fire suppression ward in a ring around the stadium.
All of this took more than an hour. A cheer went up from the stadium. A brilliant play by the visitors most likely, Malfoy reflected, still a bit bitter for her enthusiastic, though foolish, support of the home team in her teen years. Malfoy’s bitterness was one of the reasons this venue was chosen.
The Warders were allowed a short rest before the set about erecting a broom suppression ward over the stadium. The fliers inside could fly to their hearts content, and wouldn’t become aware of the ward until the trap was sprung and they attempted to escape.
Finally the warders were done. Locking wards on each of the exits, backed up with death wards just incase anyone managed to bring the first wards down. Fire suppression ringed the stadium and a dome of broom suppression enclosed the interior. Perfect.
Lucille herself stepped forward to spring the trap.
With a flick of her wand she started a small patch of fiendfyre on a garish orange tapestry within the suppression ward. Standing back from the cursed fire she smiled as she watched the flames spread and the first of the animated creatures of flame manifest and begin to search for targets.
It took but moments before the first of the screams of terror and death reached the ears of the waiting Death Eaters. Those screams were their signal to leave and each activated their personal portkey.
Lucille was the last to go, a ghastly smile on her lips.
The Dark Lady had her revenge for the loss of Orion Lestrange. The final death toll was 463 men, women, and children, including the entire rosters of both teams. This tragedy also marked the end of the Chudley Cannon’s Quidditch Franchise.
---===ooo000ooo===---