Chapter 58: Trapped
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Chapter 58: Trapped
London, Ministry of Magic, January 17th, 1999
The Sunday night graveyard shift was the worst. Evelyne Blishwick hated it. Working when everyone else was enjoying the weekend was bad enough, but having to spend the night standing guard in the deserted Ministry, with sleep as the biggest threat? And then, as usual, having the late or even graveyard shift again on Monday? She wouldn't see her family and friends until Tuesday, at the earliest. Unless Selwyn was in a particularly bad mood - then it would be Wednesday.
Though, truth be told, she didn't particularly mind missing her family. Dad was a nasty drunk and Mum still ragged on her for her less than stellar N.E.W.T.s - after three years! Not even joining the Hit-Wizards, with the recruiting bonus, had been enough to shut the witch up. Who cared that Evelyne could've become an Auror if she had passed her Potions N.E.W.T.? Who wanted to be an Auror, anyway, and patrol Knockturn Alley or chase down escaped pets?
She scoffed. At least Hit-Wizards had important duties - guarding Azkaban and the Ministry, and supporting the red robes when they had trouble handling criminals. Which was all the time unless they were dealing with first-years pranking each other in Diagon Alley.
Useless red robes! What good did it do if you could find a dark wizard but couldn't arrest them? Not that they could find any dark wizards, anyway - if the Aurors weren't so incompetent and had caught Crouch already, Evelyne wouldn't be stuck guarding a service lift and staircase.
A service lift! As if Crouch would break into the Ministry, fight past the guards in the Atrium and then use the service lift to sabotage the Air-Cleaning and Air-Refreshing Charms in the attic! She scoffed again. That had been tried before, when the Dark Lord had attacked the Ministry, and there were now Air-Cleaning Charms on every floor. Whatever poison spell Crouch might use wouldn't make it past them. Guarding the service lift was completely pointless. The sort of duty you should give one of the foreigners.
But no, according to Selwyn, this was a 'critical post' and therefore couldn't be trusted to the foreigners. She rolled her eyes. Weren't they hired to free up Hit-Wizards for more important duties?
And the worst thing was that she was alone and couldn't talk to anyone. Fighting sleep was getting harder and harder. Brown, who had had this shift last week, had told her that he had cast an Alarm Charm to wake him up if anyone came close and then slept through the whole night, but that had been all talk - not even Brown was so stupid as to risk doing that. It was bad enough if Selwyn caught you asleep at your post, but if you had deliberately slept through your shift?
She shuddered. Well, she'd manage - she had a potion for emergencies. Which really should be standard issue for such a shift and so covered by the Ministry. But the Old Families didn't give a damn about their own guards. Things had been different when the Blishwicks had been an Old Family, but that had been over two hundred years ago. Nowadays, though, if you weren't a relative of an Old Family, you got the short end of the wand. In your face.
She grinned. At least three more Old Families would join her own in mediocrity soon enough. Served them right! If they only…
A wailing alarm interrupted her thoughts. She drew her wand. An attack? On the Ministry? Now? She took a few, quick breaths. An attack would have come through the Atrium. She would have heard that, wouldn't she? Unless the attacker had silenced everyone - but who had sounded the alarm then?
Was someone sneaking up on her, disillusioned and ready to kill her? She wet her suddenly dry lips and cast a Human-presence-revealing Spell, hoping the incantation wouldn't draw attention to her.
Her hallway was clear. She took a deep breath, relieved. If someone had been sneaking up… someone was coming! She heard footsteps. Getting closer. Someone was running.
She aimed her wand down the hallway. If anyone attacked her, she'd stun them… Gasping, she realised that she had forgotten to cast a Shield Charm!
"Prote…"
She gasped when a Hit-Wizard - no, a mercenary, the robes were a lighter grey, and no Hit-Wizard she knew had such a full beard or such a large nose - rounded the corner and flicked her wand towards him.
The man ignored her pointing her wand at him. "Blishwick! There's an attack on Bones Manor! All Hit-Wizards are to report to headquarters at once! I'm your relief!"
Bones Manor? Someone was attacking the boss? Evelyne gasped again. "Alright!" she snapped. "Who're you?"
"Veton Hyka."
The accent matched the name. She nodded and started to run.
She noted with relief that she wasn't the last of her shift to reach headquarters and quickly saluted Selwyn - where had he come from? Had he been working on a Sunday? Or were the rumours that he slept next to the fireplace, wearing his robes and waiting for an alarm, true? "Blishwick present, sir! I was relieved by Hyka," she added - it wouldn't do if the old wizard thought she had left her post.
"Yes. I sent him," he growled. "Join the rest."
Evelyne hastily obeyed, moving to the slowly growing group of Hit-Wizards. Half a dozen so far. The only one she knew well was Theresa Boot. "Theresa? Do you know what's going on?" she asked in a whisper as Selwyn was talking to an Auror.
"Someone's attacking Bones Manor with Fiendfyre," her friend replied in a whisper. "That means it's Crouch! We're going to provide support to the Boy-Who-Lived!"
"Ah." Evelyne pressed her lips together and tried not to tremble. Crouch. And Fiendfyre. That was bad. But Potter would be there. The Boy-Who-Lived knew how to fight Death Eaters - he had defeated the Dark Lord himself! "Good."
"Good?" Theresa looked at her. "Are you one of his admirers? Remember how he bungled the Greengrass robbery?"
Evelyne glared back. "He killed the Lestranges!" she whispered. Who had killed so many Hit-Wizards in Azkaban - Evelyne's older colleagues still talked about that.
"You are!" Her friend giggled - though it sounded forced. They were going into combat, after all. Their first real fight.
Evelyne sniffed. "So what? He's handsome, rich and famous." And not arrogant - he was, after all, dating a mudblood. Though, seeing as that thief had seduced him, he had to be looking for a better witch. So maybe a witch from a pureblood but not wealthy family had a chance…
Selwyn's bellow interrupted her fantasy. "Alright! We're headed to Bones Manor. The wards are holding the Fiendfyre at bay - for now. We'll support the Aurors engaging the attackers. Auror Potter is in charge of the operation, but I'll be giving you your orders. Move!"
Evelyne swallowed drily and moved. Her first real fight. Against the worst dark wizard currently active in Britain.
She really hoped that the Boy-Who-Lived was as good as people claimed.
London, Ministry of Magic, January 17th, 1999
Hermione Granger held her breath as she pressed herself against the wall and listened. Lots of people were running above her - but she couldn't hear anyone running downstairs, towards her. And the words and orders she could make out - the Supersensory Charm was a little too effective, letting her hear too many people to properly understand any of them - didn't mention intruders or thieves, but an attack.
She sighed with relief, then bit her lower lip in sudden worry. This kind of reaction - a general alert and scrambling Aurors and Hit-Wizards - could only have two possible causes. And since she was currently here, that left Crouch.
The cacophony of people yelling at each other suddenly ceased, and she could focus on one voice. "...to Bones Manor. The wards are holding the Fiendfyre at bay - for now. We'll support the Aurors engaging the attackers. Auror Potter is in charge of the operation, but I'll be giving you your orders. Move!"
She gasped. Harry - and Ron - would be facing Crouch again. And Fiendfyre. If she hurried, she could help… She clenched her teeth. She didn't know exactly where Bones Manor was located, just that it was somewhere in Oxfordshire - Harry had mentioned that once. And even if she knew where it was and managed to reach it - what could she do? She was a thief, not an Auror. And her mere presence would do more harm than good, given her reputation - and put her at considerable risk.
She briefly closed her eyes, hating herself, as she heard the Hit-Wizards and Aurors rush towards the fireplaces. She couldn't help Harry.
But she could continue the heist. Especially since if she didn't, her plans would be ruined. Gritting her teeth, she checked the stairs, then ended the Supersensory Charm and sneaked downstairs, towards the Floo Network Authority.
The attack on Bones Manor meant that instead of a lone employee ready to react to a problem in the middle of the night, there would be several employees checking the connection to the manor and the whole network. That would complicate matters. On the other hand, the employees would be quite distracted.
She bared her teeth - she hadn't come this far to let a bunch of maintenance wizards scare her off. Disillusioned, she approached the door and studied the spells on it - or, as it turned out, the lack of spells on it. A Silencing Charm, a Dirt-Repelling Charm that looked rather sloppily cast and an Alarm Charm most likely serving to alert whoever was on night duty that a visitor had arrived.
It was child's play to defuse the Alarm Charm and then drill a small hole in the lower part of the door for her periscope. No one was watching the door - she didn't see anyone in the entrance area. Good.
Hermione quickly widened the hole in the lower part of the door with a small saw until it was large enough for a lithe cat. A quick change and squeeze later, she was inside the office, darting behind the closest desk.
There, safely hidden from view, she changed back, vanished the sawdust - she needed to enchant her tools to do that automatically - and repaired the hole with a quick Mending Charm.
Another Supersensory Charm told her that no one had noticed her and that everyone was focused on re-opening the connection to Bones Manor - even though they couldn't do anything about the Anti-Floo-travel Jinxes from here. Perfect.
She disillusioned herself and silently made her way to the room at the back of the office area - the centre of the Floo Network Authority: the big map, carved into gleaming marble, representing Wizarding Britain's Floo Network. Runes covered the edges - not unlike on the Pensieve at home - and delicate lines glowed. Those would be the active connections, or so it seemed - some lit up with a flash for a moment, others glowed steadily but not as brightly. Floo transports and Floo calls, she presumed.
Two wizards and two witches were staring at a blinking spot - Bones Manor, unless another Floo connection in Oxfordshire was currently being blocked. She made a mental note of the location - just in case; Bones wasn't on her list - then looked for the spots indicating the Parkinson and Malfoy Manors. Cumberland and Wiltshire, respectively. The miniature manors rising from the map were barely visible, but she managed to find them.
Then she took a step back and pondered the situation. The four Ministry employees did look quite focused on their task. They wouldn't notice a few charms added to the map. Or so she thought.
But she would have to cast silently, and the charms were rather complex - whoever had invented them hadn't spent much time refining them, in her opinion. Mr Fletcher hadn't said who had taught them to him, but she suspected it had been Dumbledore; for a thief such as herself, these charms were very situational, but they would have been invaluable for a spy - say, for the Order of the Phoenix. Not that she would press her mentor, of course.
She shook her head. She had a task to do. Taking a few deep breaths - silently, of course, she raised her wand and pointed it at the map, then started to weave it in a complicated pattern. And hoped that the spells on the map hadn't been changed in the past twenty years.
They hadn't, she found a minute later, fighting the urge to wipe sweat from her face - her mask's spells were taking care of that. No alert, no sudden glowing indicated her addition of a special listening charm to the spells on the marble. Smiling, she repeated the spell on the representation of Malfoy Manor.
That left the more complex sound-altering charm. Biting her lower lip, she went over the motions in her head. Just in case. Then she started casting.
She took her time, moving her wand very carefully - casting silently meant she didn't have to time the movements to the incantation, but any minor mistake would affect the results to a much greater degree than when casting normally.
When she finished the spell without mishap two minutes later, she shivered with relief and leaned against the wall for a moment. Then she smiled. She had done it - now all that was left was to leave the same way she had entered: gracefully and without anyone realising she had ever been here.
She left the offices the same way she had entered them - she still didn't want to risk opening the door, despite that being much faster - then readjusted the Alarm Charm on the door. The main stairs would be too dangerous, she decided - Aurors and Hit-Wizards might still be arriving, to relieve or reinforce others, and there might also be messengers.
She'd take the service stairway instead.
Oxfordshire, Bones Manor, January 17th, 1999
"Bloody Hell! Crouch's been busy!"
Harry Potter nodded in agreement with Ron's outburst. Three Fiendfyre blazes surrounded the Bones Manor, and they were spreading rapidly - soon they would form one big conflagration. And the wards of the manor wouldn't withstand that - they wouldn't last much longer even if the Fiendfyre stopped growing, or so he thought.
He muttered a curse of his own under his breath - as the Auror in charge, he had to appear confident - and addressed the Aurors and Hit-Wizards on site. "Status report!" he barked.
Most of them jerked. One Auror - Smith, Harry thought - answered: "They keep recasting the Anti-Apparition and Anti-Portkey Jinxes, so the Boneses are trapped in the manor."
Which meant that the attacker was still around. They should have spread out and started looking for them already. Harry clenched his teeth - this wasn't the time to snap at them. "Everyone, cast a Human-presence-revealing Charm! Then spread out - on brooms - and find the dark wizard. He has to be in range of the manor! Brown, you and Wilkinson keep dispelling the Jinxes!" He took a deep breath - the Bubble-Head Charm kept the stench of the fires away - and added: "I'll keep the fire at bay until the Boneses are safe."
"And I'll watch your back," Ron added.
Harry nodded. Crouch would know that he couldn't stay hidden and keep casting the jinxes. So this had to be a ruse - or a feint. And since the Prophet had covered Harry and Ron's actions in the previous clashes with Crouch extensively, the Death Eater would be aware of who had killed his accomplices and dealt with the Fiendfyre. Which meant that this was a trap for them in particular.
He sneered, baring his teeth as he rushed towards the closest blaze and drew the Elder Wand. They'd turn it into a trap for Crouch.
But holding the cursed fire at bay turned out to be more difficult than he had expected. It was already at the wardline, which meant that Harry had to conjure stone walls inside the flames. That meant they were quickly consumed. And he had to conjure walls between himself and the flames, to protect himself and keep the cursed fire from spreading even further.
Which meant that despite the Elder Wand's power, it was impossible. The best he was able to manage was to slow down the spread of the fire and keep some of the pressure off the manor's wards. He wouldn't be able to save the manor. Or much of the lands around it. All he could hope for was to buy enough time for the rest of the force to find Crouch and force him to stop recasting the jinxes that kept the Bones locked inside their manor. Or hope that Crouch took the bait and came after him.
Harry was about to conjure another wall between the cursed fire and himself when the ground near him exploded. His Shield Charm took the brunt of the blast, though, and held, but he was still pushed to the side, which almost ruined his spell-casting.
"We're under attack!" he heard Ron's voice both through his badge and from his left.
He glanced up - there was a marker floating twenty yards above him. Ron was already casting, and two red spells flew towards the marker. One hit a shield - Harry caught a glimpse of the flashing lights as it shattered before he sent a Piercing Curse upwards himself.
That one missed, as did his follow-up Bludgeoning Curse, and then he had to conjure another wall since the one he had just created was crumbling to ashes already - far more quickly than before.
And the fire had grown in size - wide enough to start enveloping his wall. He took a few steps to the side, his Shield Charm weathering another, not quite so close, Blasting Curse, and conjured two more walls.
That bought him a few more seconds. He whirled round and kept moving, raising his wand to support Ron, who was sending curse after curse at the still disillusioned Crouch. They had to take him out quickly before the Fiendfyre grew out of control and consumed everyone and everything around it.
Harry quickly cast two Cutting Curses, but Crouch was flying erratically, and both missed. Aurors and Hit-Wizards started to converge on them - finally! - and more spells flew at the Death Eater. They weren't well-aimed, though, and Harry didn't see any hits.
He had to conjure more walls. He could feel the heat now - he needed to retreat further. He flicked his wand, halting the fire for another few seconds, then ducked when the fire roared up behind the wall - and grew in size.
He knew what that meant: the wards had fallen and the cursed fire was ravaging Bones Manor. He tapped his badge. "As soon as the Boneses are safe, cover the area in Anti-Apparition Jinxes to stop Crouch from escaping!"
Harry ignored the idiot asking if the family was safe already - someone would report it as soon as they knew - and glanced at Crouch, who was flying above and between the roaring flames. Was he crazy? Was that why he hadn't fled already and, instead, kept sending badly aimed curses at Harry and Ron?
Badly-aimed curses… and mostly Blasting Curses. Harry muttered another curse just as Ron finally hit the disillusioned attacker with a Bludgeoning Curse that sent the marker tumbling down - towards the conflagration.
Harry snapped his wand up. "Accio Death Eater robes!"
The marker flew towards him, barely missing the flames reaching for it, and slammed into the ground a yard away.
"Finite Incantatem!"
A wizard in smouldering Death Eater robes appeared. He wasn't moving. Harry stunned him anyway - twice.
"Harry! Watch out!"
His last wall had crumbled, and the fire was racing towards him. A flick of his wand conjured a new stone wall in its path, and the flames crashed into it as if they were a tidal wave, quickly overwhelming it.
But another wall appeared, blocking the fire - Ron's work. And more walls appeared - solid ones. Followed by tons of sand falling onto the flames - the Unspeakables had finally arrived.
Some Aurors cheered, but Harry summoned the Death Eater again. The man's robes were still smoking but there wasn't any Fiendfyre on him. His chest was caved in, though - and there was blood seeping through the fabric.
"That was too easy," Ron said.
Harry pulled the mask off. Broken eyes stared into the smoke-covered night sky. The wizard was dead.
And it wasn't Crouch.
London, Ministry of Magic, January 17th, 1999
As she went up the service stairs, Hermione Granger was tempted to take a detour on her way out of the Ministry. It wouldn't take that long to break into Undersecretary Umbridge's office, and the documents and whatever else Hermione found in there might be useful in dealing with the bigoted witch. Hermione hadn't forgotten that Umbridge had tried to send her to Azkaban, after all. And the ugly witch was also doing all she could to oppose Sirius's proposals in the Wizengamot, so if she were to be forced out of office - or sent to Azkaban herself, see how she liked it! - that would be one less obstacle to reforming Wizarding Britain.
She was very tempted, but she wouldn't do it. She was already a little behind schedule, and Umbridge could be dealt with easily once Sirius controlled the Wizengamot. It wasn't as if her efforts were very effective, anyway, thanks to Sirius's gold.
Still, if she had the time… Hermione bared her teeth at that thought.
She reached the flight before the Atrium and cast a Supersensory Charm. Several people were talking - the guards at the fireplace, she realised. There weren't many Aurors and Hit-Wizards around, so it was easier to follow what they were saying. It seemed that Bones and her niece had managed to flee their manor shortly before it was consumed by Fiendfyre, and the battle was still going on.
Which meant Harry and Ron were still fighting. Still in danger. She pressed her lips together. She couldn't do anything for them. She had to trust that they would survive. And she had to get past the guard at the entrance of the service stairway. That would be tricky. She could change to defeat a Human-presence-revealing Spell, but even a graceful cat could be spotted.
But she didn't have the time to go through a wall a floor above, and going down and taking the main stairs would be even more dangerous. Besides, who'd suspect a beautiful cat like her?
She changed and strolled up the last flight of stairs as if she had every right to be here. Which she had since no one had been able to stop her. Now she just had to slip past the guard… who wasn't present. But there should be a guard!
She moved forward and sniffed the ground. Her sense of smell wasn't as good as a dog's - the dumb animals needed good noses to compensate for their lack of brains - but it smelled as if there had been a guard here earlier. Cheap perfume. But there should be a guard here - that was standard procedure.
Perhaps they had called the guard away. It was possible - this was an important post, and close enough to support the guards in the Atrium, but it wasn't truly essential. But… She turned her head and looked at the next flight of stairs. It led up to the attic, where most of the Air-Cleaning and Air-Refreshing Charms were maintained. And other, similar charms. She had been there once before, during Voldemort's attack on the Ministry. And she had caught a Death Eater trying to commit sabotage there.
Crouch wouldn't try to repeat a failed plan, would he? He was attacking Bones Manor. Fighting Harry. Could he have found an accomplice? Unlikely.
She glanced at the corner. She should be sneaking out, and then up the main stairs, towards the secret tunnel. Use the opportunity generated by Crouch's attack to get away clean.
But she couldn't leave while someone might be preparing a trap or attack in the attic. Hissing with frustration, she started to go up the stairs. Towards the attic.
A flight below the entrance, she changed back and activated the spells on her mask to check for protections on the door - the Ministry might have added some spells in the years since she had left the Death Eater there. They might have forgone that, though, because protections made maintenance more complicated since employees had to pass through them.
There were indeed spells on the door - an Alarm Charm and a Locking Charm. But she couldn't see any detection spells linked to them to let anyone with the right passphrase or item pass. Which meant only the caster could pass through them without triggering the alarm.
She drew a slow breath through clenched teeth. There was no way a Ministry employee would do this. There was an intruder in the attic. A saboteur. She sneered. She had dealt with those before. And the spells on the door wouldn't stop her for long.
She aimed her wand at the door, then reconsidered. This wasn't like when Voldemort had attacked. There wouldn't be a thorough search of the Ministry for traitors and spies. If she stunned and bound the saboteur, he might not be found before the spells wore off. Or he might be able to claim he was attacked by a thief - which would be the truth anyway.
And she couldn't alert the Aurors in the Atrium; not without giving away her presence and ruining the entire point of the heist - they'd search the Ministry to find out what she had been doing. She bit her lower lip. There had to be a way to stop this Death Eater saboteur without ruining her plans. She needed an excuse, something that would explain her presence. But she didn't have the time for that, not when…
She grinned as the solution came to her. It was risky. Mr Fletcher would call it reckless. But it would stop whatever the saboteur was doing and cover up what she had been doing here.
She changed and raced down the stairs, stopping on the Atrium floor. After changing back, she removed her mask and quickly transfigured her suit into the dark brown robes of a Ministry maintenance employee. She left her wig on and slipped conjured inserts into her mouth. Coupled with the fake tan of her skin, that should disguise her enough.
Then she rushed into the Atrium, towards the two guards there. "Hey! Hey!" she called, waving. They drew their wands but didn't cast at her. She didn't give them a chance to ask questions and started talking before she reached them. "I was told to fix the Air-Refreshing Charms for the Undersecretary's office, even though it's night-time and she shouldn't be working now. But when I went up, the guard who should have let me past wasn't there, and the door to the attic was locked - it's not supposed to be locked." She swallowed. "Someone must be in there - but I'm the only one on duty. There shouldn't be anyone in there. And where's the guard?"
The two guards looked at each other. "Bloody hell!" the witch in charge - she was an Auror - swore. "If we have another intruder in the attic… Go down to Auror Headquarters, and tell them we have a possible intruder in the attic. We need all the wands they can spare!" she told the Hit-Wizard with her. "I'll secure the stairs!"
"I'll tell the Undersecretary so she can evacuate!" Hermione yelled. She turned around before the Auror could say anything else and started running towards the stairs right after the Hit-Wizard.
She kept pace until they reached the floor above the Auror Office, whereupon she ducked into the next alcove and changed, hiding behind a flower pot. Less than a minute later, a dozen Aurors, Hit-Wizards and mercenaries rushed past her towards the Atrium.
Which meant the Auror Office would be almost empty.
Oxfordshire, Bones Manor, January 17th, 1999
Harry Potter was staring at the dead wizard. It wasn't Crouch. That explained the rather common curses the man had used - Crouch would have used more exotic, and darker, curses. And he wouldn't have missed so often.
"Could be Polyjuice," Ron said.
Harry shook his head. "Possible, but I don't think so." Why would Crouch have used such a disguise if he was wearing his Death Eater robes and mask?
"Potter! What are you doing, lollygagging? There's Fiendfyre to contain!"
Harry rolled his eyes as he turned to face Dawlish. "The Unspeakables have that under control." They should have, at least - it wasn't as if they hadn't gotten lots of practice thanks to Crouch. "But this isn't Crouch, which means he's doing something else while we're gathered here."
To his credit, Dawlish didn't contest that. He cursed instead. "Merlin's arse! He could be anywhere!"
Harry couldn't spot Bathilda. He hoped the witch was safe. Dawlish would have said something if she had been hurt, wouldn't he? He shook his head. "This was a distraction, which means he needed a lot of us here. He wouldn't have done that for just any attack. And we'd have been alerted if he had attacked Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade or Hogwarts."
"He's doing something sneaky, then," Ron said.
Harry nodded. And there was one target that would require such tactics. Especially on a Sunday. "The Ministry."
Dawlish cursed again.
Harry touched his badge. "Potter here. Tonks, keep a dozen wands here to support and protect the Unspeakables. Everyone else, return to the Ministry at once - we might be under attack."
He was about to apparate when he heard Scrimgeour through his badge: "Hold that. What's going on?"
Harry clenched his teeth. "The Death Eater wasn't Crouch. This might be a distraction - and the Ministry's the obvious target." And even if it wasn't, it was the logical rally point - they would be able to react without delay if they were gathered there.
"Alright. Proceed." Scrimgeour sounded slightly annoyed.
Harry didn't care. What counted was catching Crouch. "Be ready to enter combat when you apparate!" he ordered through his badge. Then he focused and apparated.
He appeared in the designated arrival area in the Atrium and instantly moved away, towards the Thief's Downfall. It was guarded by two mercenaries - something was wrong. There should be an Auror or Hit-Wizard in charge. "Report!" he bellowed, with Ron at his side as more Aurors and Hit-Wizards arrived.
"There's an intruder in the attic!" one of the mercenaries, a witch, replied. "Everyone but us went up to arrest them."
Everyone? That would have been a dozen Aurors and Hit-Wizards, at least - it depended on how many off-duty wands had been alerted and come in. "When was that?" Harry asked as he started towards the hallway leading to the service stairway.
"A minute or two ago," the witch answered. "At most."
They had arrived in time, then. Harry smiled and turned to give orders to the dozen Aurors and Hit-Wizards behind them.
Before he could say anything, though, an explosion blew out part of the wall on the second floor of the Atrium. Stones, mortar and what looked like a body crashed to the floor. A grey-robed body.
There was movement on the balustrades, too - Harry could see red robes running. Away from the service stairs. And he heard a buzzing sound growing louder and louder.
Then a dark cloud billowed out of the hole in the wall and came down upon them. Harry gasped when he realised what it was - a gigantic swarm of bugs.
"Mosquitoes!" he heard Ron yell, right before the swarm enveloped them.
Harry couldn't help but flinch as thousands of insects slammed into his Shield Charm and obscured his vision. At least his shield was holding. He flicked his wand - the Elder Wand - and water shot out of its tip, blasting a clear path through the mosquitoes. He turned and let the water wash over the other Aurors as Ron followed his example. The stream of water bowled over a Hit-Wizard, but the others stood their ground.
A few moments later the swarm had been pushed back from the Atrium and visibility had been restored - mostly. "Cover the second floor!" Harry yelled, moving towards the service stairs with Ron.
He had barely taken a few steps when screaming from behind them made him stop and whirl round. His eyes widened. One of the Aurors - Cumberland, Harry thought - was on his knees, weakly flailing as red pustules sprouted all over his exposed skin. In moments, they had grown large enough to cover all his skin - and they kept growing, reaching the size of apples.
An instant later, they burst, showering the area and another Auror - Smith - who had bent down to help Cumberland, with blood. As Smith screamed in horror, Harry stared at Cumberland. Of the man's skin, only a few strips were left, exposing the dried remains of his flesh. Drained of all blood, Harry realised.
"Blood Magic," he muttered.
Smith was still screaming, staring at her blood-covered robes and hands. Before Harry could snap at her, she suddenly started coughing, vomiting blood. She tried to say something, but the only sound she managed was a gurgling, choking sound before she toppled over.
Harry took a few steps back. "Don't touch the blood!" he yelled. "Keep your Shield Charms up!"
A Hit-Wizard started coughing. His Shield Charm was still up. Harry saw him grab something from his pocket - a bezoar - and swallow it. But it didn't help - the man kept coughing, blood running down the front of his grey robes. A moment later, he, too, fell.
The Hit-Wizard hadn't touched the blood. And others had been closer to Cumberland and Smith. That meant… "Keep your Bubble-Head Charms up as well!" Harry yelled, flicking his wand to cast a quick Air-Cleaning Charm.
"The Aurors and Hit-Wizards on the balustrade are dead." Ron pointed at the second floor. Blood was dripping from a crack in the railing.
And Harry could see another swarm disappear into the main stairway. Towards the Ministry's main floors.
London, Ministry of Magic, January 17th, 1999
Hermione Granger grinned behind her mask as she flicked her wand and made a stack of parchment, four quills and two bottles of enchanted ink float towards her. A moment later, everything disappeared into her enchanted pocket, joining the shrunken filing cabinets, chairs and other assorted furniture in Dawlish's office. That only left the two now bare desks. And the carpet and the pictures on the wall. A few more Levitation and Shrinking Charms later, the office of that stupid oaf was stripped completely bare.
She eyed the wall, bereft of any decoration. Perhaps she should add a taunting message? If only she had a calling card. Or at least an elegant nom de guerre. Well, she would have one if her friends had any taste and hadn't rejected all her proposed names.
She frowned. She would have to settle for having looted Dawlish's office of everything in it - it was sort of her calling card, anyway.
Nodding, she turned and opened the door slightly to check whether the main part of the Auror Office - the bullpen, Harry sometimes called it - was still deserted. It was. Thirty seconds later, she was on the stairs, moving towards the Atrium.
One floor below the Atrium, she suddenly heard a buzzing noise. A very loud noise. And screams. A moment later, a dark cloud - a swarm of insects! - filled the stairs above her and billowed towards her.
She barely managed to cast a Shield Charm before the swarm reached her and countless insects - mosquitoes - flattened themselves against her spell. She took a few deep breaths - the spells on her mask took care of the air - then flicked her wand to dispel the animals.
It didn't work. Either they weren't conjured or transfigured - and where would you get such enormous numbers of mosquitoes? - or she wasn't skilled enough. Baring her teeth, she raised her wand again. It didn't matter - she had other ways to deal with this.
A swish of her wand conjured a mass of powder. A flick set it on fire. She heard dozens of insects burn, causing a crackling noise. Another swish, and more powder appeared, further up the stairs. And ignited.
A moment later, fake Fiendfyre rushed up the stairs, consuming the cloud of mosquitoes in seconds. She hesitated a moment, then turned and sent more flames down the stairs before rushing upwards. She had to hurry now since whoever was in the Atrium would have noticed that - and would know she was here.
Fake Fiendfyre was, after all, also a sort of calling card of hers.
Harry Potter's eyes widened when he saw Fiendfyre shoot out of the entrance to the main staircase - from below. Crouch must have gotten past them, and set the Ministry on fire! "Watch out!" he yelled, raising his wand to conjure a wall to contain the cursed flames - if they were quick enough, they might save part of the building.
Then the flames flickered out. He blinked. There was plenty of material in the entrance to fuel the fire, so… "Fake Fiendfyre!" he exclaimed. The thieves! What were they doing here?
"I'm casting Mosquito-repelling Charms," Ron yelled, joining him. "It'll keep the bloodsuckers away even without a Shield Charm, but I'll need a lot of them to seal the Atrium!"
And more mosquitoes already started to fill the Atrium again - Harry saw a cloud of them enter the staircase before the rest descended upon his force, only to part and recoil when they hit Ron's spells.
Then green fire shot out of staircase again, frying the bugs in the area - he saw the brief flash of light. His own Water-Making Spell cleared a section of the Atrium as well, if not quite as fast or efficiently. But it allowed Ron to cover more ground with his charms.
"Luna will be thrilled to know that her spell works so well," his friend said with a fierce grin.
"Sirius will pay for her next expedition," Harry replied as he conjured a wall to seal off part of the balustrade. That would channel the mosquitoes and make it easier to deal with them.
They moved ahead, followed - slightly reluctantly - by the rest of their group. Once more, green fire filled the staircase.
"Fiendfyre!" Harry heard someone panic behind him.
"It's not Fiendfyre," he snapped. "And it's burning the insects!"
"But…"
A blast that tore a new hole into the second floor of the Atrium shut the complainer - he had to be a Hit-Wizard since Harry didn't know him - up. Crouch was still trying to flood the Atrium.
But the mosquitoes descending on them were held back by Ron's charms, then incinerated by green flames. Harry couldn't help but shudder - up close, it looked very convincing. But he had seen where the flames had started and where they ended, and that meant… he turned and stared at the entrance to the main stairs. The thief had to be standing right there, to have a line of sight for that last spell. A step closer, he saw the marker of his Human-presence-revealing Spell appear, right where he had expected it.
Harry hesitated a moment. It was against regulations. It was against the law. He hated to do it. But it had to be done. "Night Nargle! Keep the stairs and Atrium clear of mosquitoes! We'll get Crouch!"
"What?" Ron muttered next to him. Harry ignored him, as he ignored the comments from the rest of their force.
In the middle of the entrance, the thief appeared. It was her - the witch in the leather suit, and the stripes - whiskers, he realised - on her black mask.
And she nodded at him.
Hermione Granger knew she didn't have to end her Disillusionment Charm. She could have simply answered Harry in her altered voice - if she were able to say something, anything, that wouldn't ruin her cover. Seeing Harry there, about to charge into those swarms of mosquitoes to fight Crouch… it was all she could do not to run over and hug him or follow him as he and Ron led the rest of the Aurors off.
She shuddered as they turned the corner and ran up the stairs, biting her lower lip to keep from crying out. Dear Lord, she hated this. Even though she knew she wouldn't be of any help - she wasn't an Auror or Hit-Wizard, they didn't trust her and she hadn't trained to fight dark wizards with Aurors.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she forced herself to focus on her task. Which, apparently, was pest control. A cloud of mosquitoes was growing denser in the corner near the service stairs - held back by spells, she noticed. She flicked her wand and reduced them to cinders with another cascade of fake Fiendfyre.
Then she noticed the bodies in the Atrium. What was left of them, to be more precise. She felt nauseated at the horrible sight. If even one of the mosquitoes bit her... they had to be even more dangerous than she had assumed, to do this. Probably enchanted… no, to enchant so many animals individually would have been impossible. And there was no way to enchant them en masse. At least as far as she knew.
But she couldn't dwell on that, though. Not now. Harry was counting on her. She filled the rest of the Atrium with her fire, then turned to face the hallway leading upstairs. She could stay here and protect the main stairs. No insects would get past her. But more Aurors would arrive - and they wouldn't know about Harry's offer. Nor could she expect them to uphold this 'truce' even if they knew.
No, she had to move and deal with the mosquitoes at the same time. That meant stopping the insects from entering the Atrium or the main stairways. Harry and the others had taken the service staircase, so that would be covered.
More mosquitoes were flying into the Atrium once more. She took care of them, then tapped her mask and studied the second floor above her. There had to be… there! A gap in the wall. She flinched at the flashes of light she saw through the hole - signs of fighting - and filled it with conjured stone, then mended the wall. And hoped that no one would blow it open again.
That left the main staircase and the second floor of the Atrium - the balustrades. Well, she needed to get up there, anyway, to get away. And she needed to exterminate every mosquito in the area anyway, or she wouldn't be able to safely change into a cat to sneak out. Though the irony of a thief helping to save the Ministry wasn't lost on her.
Baring her teeth, she led with her wand, incinerating a few hundred stragglers on the way up.
"Brandon, seal up the staircase below us!" Harry Potter ordered as he took a step forward, his wand pointed up at the first flight of the service staircase. "Everyone else, follow me - we'll get that Death Eater!"
He cast another Water-Making Spell to clear the stairs of mosquitoes, then rushed up them. As soon as he turned the corner, he stopped. Holes littered the walls of this flight - and mosquitoes rushed through them, towards the Atrium. He flicked his wand, conjuring a solid stone wall along the wrecked wall. That stopped the insects - but redirected them towards him and his group.
He took a deep breath, hoping his Shield Charm would hold, when Ron pressed himself next to him, his wand pointed up.
"Vallum Culicum!"
The mosquitoes stopped as if smashing into an invisible wall - Ron's charm held them back - and quickly started to fill the staircase, forming an almost solid mass of buzzing, squirming insects.
"Merlin's arse!" someone cursed behind Harry.
"My charm won't hold them back for long - not if the sheer weight of them pushes them down!" Ron snapped.
"Aguamenti!" Harry yelled - even with the Elder Wand, every little bit helped. A stream of water shot towards the mass of bugs as if the wand were a firehose. The water cut through the swarm, opening holes which quickly closed - but it pushed the insects back. For now.
"He can't have unlimited numbers of them!" Ron yelled. "They're not transfigured or conjured, and you can't duplicate living animals! He must have bred them!"
So it was a question of who ran out first - Crouch of mosquitoes or them of ways to keep them away and kill them. Not odds Harry liked. Not against Crouch. And not in a narrow staircase.
He kept the spell going, gritting his teeth at the effort it cost him, slowly moving his wand back and forth, up and down, to cover the entire space in front of them. Water was running down the stairs now, inches deep and carrying thousands of dead insects. And rising. If the water rose even higher, and spilt into their boots, with those deadly insects…
"We're running out of time!" Harry muttered. "Ron, cast a wall as soon as I drop the spell."
"Alright. On three."
"One. Two. Three!" Harry flicked his wand, ending the spell, and a moment later, a wall appeared in front of him, sealing off the staircase.
He took a deep breath. "Fall back!" he yelled, looking at the ceiling. "He won't stay idle!"
"Need to smoke him out," Ron said. "Before he drops the ceiling on us."
"Merlin's beard! We can't stay here!"
Harry ignored the yell from behind them and kept his eyes on the ceiling and the walls. "Or when he's dropping the ceiling on us," he said with bared teeth. He quickly turned his head, staring at the two Hit-Wizards in the back. "You! Get out and start repairing the wall between the Atrium and us!"
They hesitated. "Ah…"
"Bloody Hit-Wizards," Ron muttered. "Can't do anything but fight."
Harry swallowed his own curse and addressed the two Aurors left with them. "Ben, Mary-Anne - you do it." At least Aurors could be trusted to know such spells.
The two almost bowled the Hit-Wizards over in their haste to get out.
Harry turned his attention back to watching the staircase - just in time to see it blow up. The explosion drove him and Ron back a few steps, but their shields held. But then fragments of wood and stone rained down on them. Followed by a cloud of mosquitoes. As soon as their shields shattered, the insects would cover them, and it would be over.
As Ron cast his Insect-Repelling Charm again - it wouldn't be enough, Harry knew - he flicked his wand. Fiendfyre would cleanse the entire area… No! He managed to conjure an angled wall instead, stopping the avalanche.
"Fall back!" Harry yelled again. "Out!"
He pushed a frozen Hit-Wizard out of the service stairs, sending the witch tumbling to the floor, then whirled around, Ron at his side.
"We have to smoke him out," Ron repeated. "We can't leave him up there for much longer."
Harry nodded. Sooner or later, Crouch would use Fiendfyre as well, Harry knew. But they couldn't use the staircase to attack - and going in through the ceiling would allow Crouch to be ready for them. What could they do?
Fiendfyre would do the job… He shook his head and gripped his wand more tightly. No. He couldn't unleash that. But he had to do something.
He caught movement behind him and whirled around. The thief was there, back at the main stairs, watching them. For a moment, she seemed frozen.
"The Atrium's clear," she said - sounding, oddly, as if she were apologising. She was also ignoring the wands the two Hit-Wizards aimed at her.
He wondered what she was doing here. Why hadn't she fled? This wasn't her fight. So why… His eyes widened as he found the solution. "Night Nargle!"
She jerked. "That's not my name!"
He ignored that. "We'll blow up the ceiling above us. You'll flood the area with your fake Fiendfyre!" That would distract Crouch enough to allow them to charge him.
For a moment, she tensed. Then she nodded.
"Mount your brooms!" Harry ordered, pulling out his own and aiming his wand at the ceiling. The attic's corner would be directly above them.
"Ready!" Ron said a moment after Harry had mounted his Firebolt.
The two Hit-Wizards took a few seconds longer. "Ready." "Ready."
"Ready." That was the thief - but, as a glance told Harry, she wasn't on a broom.
It didn't matter. All she had to do was cast her fake Fiendfyre.
"On three!" Harry said. "One. Two. Three!"
His and Ron's Blasting Curses tore up the ceiling. Two more curses hit it a fraction of a second later. And then green fire shot through the cloud of dust left by the curses.
Harry was already in the air, his Shield Charm deflecting both stone fragments and the green fire surrounding him. He thought he heard a scream when he passed through the cloud. Then he was in the attic, pulling hard on the shaft of his Firebolt to avoid crashing into the ceiling.
There was Crouch! The man - he didn't look like Crouch, probably Polyjuice Potion - was stumbling inside the green fire, waving his wand. Harry clenched his teeth and aimed his wand, accelerating. He saw the man's eyes widen - he must have realised the fire was fake - and move his wand to aim at Harry.
But he wasn't quick enough. Harry ploughed into him, both their Shield Charms shattering on impact, and then the tip of the shaft of his broom hit Crouch in the stomach with the full force of his accelerating Firebolt, only the safety charms on the broom preventing it from impaling him, before Harry's shoulder slammed into Crouch's face as he let go of the Firebolt and let his momentum carry him onwards.
The two of them slammed into the wall behind Crouch. The man's head was thrown back and hit the stone with a crack before they fell to the floor. The impact knocked the breath out of Harry, but he rolled over his shoulder, ignoring the pain that caused, and came up casting, slashing his wand down. His Cutting Curse sliced off Crouch's hand and wand before the dazed Death Eater could react.
A Stunner cut off the man's scream, and three Bone-Breaking Curses ensured that he wouldn't get up and do anything any time soon.
Panting, Harry recast his Shield Charm as he turned around. The dust was still settling so he couldn't see far, but Ron was there, a few yards away.
"I've got his trunk sealed and the insects contained," his friend reported, pointing at a chest nearby. He, too, was protected by a Shield Charm, though.
The two Hit-Wizards were still on their brooms, just now coming out of the dust cloud. "We saw no other enemies," one of them belatedly reported.
Harry cast a Full Body-Binding Curse on their prisoner for good measure, then rushed back to the hole in the floor. A glance down filled him with both disappointment and relief.
The thief was gone.
London, Ministry of Magic, January 17th, 1999
The Sunday night graveyard shift was the worst. Evelyne Blishwick hated it. Working when everyone else was enjoying the weekend was bad enough, but having to spend the night standing guard in the deserted Ministry, with sleep as the biggest threat? And then, as usual, having the late or even graveyard shift again on Monday? She wouldn't see her family and friends until Tuesday, at the earliest. Unless Selwyn was in a particularly bad mood - then it would be Wednesday.
Though, truth be told, she didn't particularly mind missing her family. Dad was a nasty drunk and Mum still ragged on her for her less than stellar N.E.W.T.s - after three years! Not even joining the Hit-Wizards, with the recruiting bonus, had been enough to shut the witch up. Who cared that Evelyne could've become an Auror if she had passed her Potions N.E.W.T.? Who wanted to be an Auror, anyway, and patrol Knockturn Alley or chase down escaped pets?
She scoffed. At least Hit-Wizards had important duties - guarding Azkaban and the Ministry, and supporting the red robes when they had trouble handling criminals. Which was all the time unless they were dealing with first-years pranking each other in Diagon Alley.
Useless red robes! What good did it do if you could find a dark wizard but couldn't arrest them? Not that they could find any dark wizards, anyway - if the Aurors weren't so incompetent and had caught Crouch already, Evelyne wouldn't be stuck guarding a service lift and staircase.
A service lift! As if Crouch would break into the Ministry, fight past the guards in the Atrium and then use the service lift to sabotage the Air-Cleaning and Air-Refreshing Charms in the attic! She scoffed again. That had been tried before, when the Dark Lord had attacked the Ministry, and there were now Air-Cleaning Charms on every floor. Whatever poison spell Crouch might use wouldn't make it past them. Guarding the service lift was completely pointless. The sort of duty you should give one of the foreigners.
But no, according to Selwyn, this was a 'critical post' and therefore couldn't be trusted to the foreigners. She rolled her eyes. Weren't they hired to free up Hit-Wizards for more important duties?
And the worst thing was that she was alone and couldn't talk to anyone. Fighting sleep was getting harder and harder. Brown, who had had this shift last week, had told her that he had cast an Alarm Charm to wake him up if anyone came close and then slept through the whole night, but that had been all talk - not even Brown was so stupid as to risk doing that. It was bad enough if Selwyn caught you asleep at your post, but if you had deliberately slept through your shift?
She shuddered. Well, she'd manage - she had a potion for emergencies. Which really should be standard issue for such a shift and so covered by the Ministry. But the Old Families didn't give a damn about their own guards. Things had been different when the Blishwicks had been an Old Family, but that had been over two hundred years ago. Nowadays, though, if you weren't a relative of an Old Family, you got the short end of the wand. In your face.
She grinned. At least three more Old Families would join her own in mediocrity soon enough. Served them right! If they only…
A wailing alarm interrupted her thoughts. She drew her wand. An attack? On the Ministry? Now? She took a few, quick breaths. An attack would have come through the Atrium. She would have heard that, wouldn't she? Unless the attacker had silenced everyone - but who had sounded the alarm then?
Was someone sneaking up on her, disillusioned and ready to kill her? She wet her suddenly dry lips and cast a Human-presence-revealing Spell, hoping the incantation wouldn't draw attention to her.
Her hallway was clear. She took a deep breath, relieved. If someone had been sneaking up… someone was coming! She heard footsteps. Getting closer. Someone was running.
She aimed her wand down the hallway. If anyone attacked her, she'd stun them… Gasping, she realised that she had forgotten to cast a Shield Charm!
"Prote…"
She gasped when a Hit-Wizard - no, a mercenary, the robes were a lighter grey, and no Hit-Wizard she knew had such a full beard or such a large nose - rounded the corner and flicked her wand towards him.
The man ignored her pointing her wand at him. "Blishwick! There's an attack on Bones Manor! All Hit-Wizards are to report to headquarters at once! I'm your relief!"
Bones Manor? Someone was attacking the boss? Evelyne gasped again. "Alright!" she snapped. "Who're you?"
"Veton Hyka."
The accent matched the name. She nodded and started to run.
She noted with relief that she wasn't the last of her shift to reach headquarters and quickly saluted Selwyn - where had he come from? Had he been working on a Sunday? Or were the rumours that he slept next to the fireplace, wearing his robes and waiting for an alarm, true? "Blishwick present, sir! I was relieved by Hyka," she added - it wouldn't do if the old wizard thought she had left her post.
"Yes. I sent him," he growled. "Join the rest."
Evelyne hastily obeyed, moving to the slowly growing group of Hit-Wizards. Half a dozen so far. The only one she knew well was Theresa Boot. "Theresa? Do you know what's going on?" she asked in a whisper as Selwyn was talking to an Auror.
"Someone's attacking Bones Manor with Fiendfyre," her friend replied in a whisper. "That means it's Crouch! We're going to provide support to the Boy-Who-Lived!"
"Ah." Evelyne pressed her lips together and tried not to tremble. Crouch. And Fiendfyre. That was bad. But Potter would be there. The Boy-Who-Lived knew how to fight Death Eaters - he had defeated the Dark Lord himself! "Good."
"Good?" Theresa looked at her. "Are you one of his admirers? Remember how he bungled the Greengrass robbery?"
Evelyne glared back. "He killed the Lestranges!" she whispered. Who had killed so many Hit-Wizards in Azkaban - Evelyne's older colleagues still talked about that.
"You are!" Her friend giggled - though it sounded forced. They were going into combat, after all. Their first real fight.
Evelyne sniffed. "So what? He's handsome, rich and famous." And not arrogant - he was, after all, dating a mudblood. Though, seeing as that thief had seduced him, he had to be looking for a better witch. So maybe a witch from a pureblood but not wealthy family had a chance…
Selwyn's bellow interrupted her fantasy. "Alright! We're headed to Bones Manor. The wards are holding the Fiendfyre at bay - for now. We'll support the Aurors engaging the attackers. Auror Potter is in charge of the operation, but I'll be giving you your orders. Move!"
Evelyne swallowed drily and moved. Her first real fight. Against the worst dark wizard currently active in Britain.
She really hoped that the Boy-Who-Lived was as good as people claimed.
*****
London, Ministry of Magic, January 17th, 1999
Hermione Granger held her breath as she pressed herself against the wall and listened. Lots of people were running above her - but she couldn't hear anyone running downstairs, towards her. And the words and orders she could make out - the Supersensory Charm was a little too effective, letting her hear too many people to properly understand any of them - didn't mention intruders or thieves, but an attack.
She sighed with relief, then bit her lower lip in sudden worry. This kind of reaction - a general alert and scrambling Aurors and Hit-Wizards - could only have two possible causes. And since she was currently here, that left Crouch.
The cacophony of people yelling at each other suddenly ceased, and she could focus on one voice. "...to Bones Manor. The wards are holding the Fiendfyre at bay - for now. We'll support the Aurors engaging the attackers. Auror Potter is in charge of the operation, but I'll be giving you your orders. Move!"
She gasped. Harry - and Ron - would be facing Crouch again. And Fiendfyre. If she hurried, she could help… She clenched her teeth. She didn't know exactly where Bones Manor was located, just that it was somewhere in Oxfordshire - Harry had mentioned that once. And even if she knew where it was and managed to reach it - what could she do? She was a thief, not an Auror. And her mere presence would do more harm than good, given her reputation - and put her at considerable risk.
She briefly closed her eyes, hating herself, as she heard the Hit-Wizards and Aurors rush towards the fireplaces. She couldn't help Harry.
But she could continue the heist. Especially since if she didn't, her plans would be ruined. Gritting her teeth, she checked the stairs, then ended the Supersensory Charm and sneaked downstairs, towards the Floo Network Authority.
The attack on Bones Manor meant that instead of a lone employee ready to react to a problem in the middle of the night, there would be several employees checking the connection to the manor and the whole network. That would complicate matters. On the other hand, the employees would be quite distracted.
She bared her teeth - she hadn't come this far to let a bunch of maintenance wizards scare her off. Disillusioned, she approached the door and studied the spells on it - or, as it turned out, the lack of spells on it. A Silencing Charm, a Dirt-Repelling Charm that looked rather sloppily cast and an Alarm Charm most likely serving to alert whoever was on night duty that a visitor had arrived.
It was child's play to defuse the Alarm Charm and then drill a small hole in the lower part of the door for her periscope. No one was watching the door - she didn't see anyone in the entrance area. Good.
Hermione quickly widened the hole in the lower part of the door with a small saw until it was large enough for a lithe cat. A quick change and squeeze later, she was inside the office, darting behind the closest desk.
There, safely hidden from view, she changed back, vanished the sawdust - she needed to enchant her tools to do that automatically - and repaired the hole with a quick Mending Charm.
Another Supersensory Charm told her that no one had noticed her and that everyone was focused on re-opening the connection to Bones Manor - even though they couldn't do anything about the Anti-Floo-travel Jinxes from here. Perfect.
She disillusioned herself and silently made her way to the room at the back of the office area - the centre of the Floo Network Authority: the big map, carved into gleaming marble, representing Wizarding Britain's Floo Network. Runes covered the edges - not unlike on the Pensieve at home - and delicate lines glowed. Those would be the active connections, or so it seemed - some lit up with a flash for a moment, others glowed steadily but not as brightly. Floo transports and Floo calls, she presumed.
Two wizards and two witches were staring at a blinking spot - Bones Manor, unless another Floo connection in Oxfordshire was currently being blocked. She made a mental note of the location - just in case; Bones wasn't on her list - then looked for the spots indicating the Parkinson and Malfoy Manors. Cumberland and Wiltshire, respectively. The miniature manors rising from the map were barely visible, but she managed to find them.
Then she took a step back and pondered the situation. The four Ministry employees did look quite focused on their task. They wouldn't notice a few charms added to the map. Or so she thought.
But she would have to cast silently, and the charms were rather complex - whoever had invented them hadn't spent much time refining them, in her opinion. Mr Fletcher hadn't said who had taught them to him, but she suspected it had been Dumbledore; for a thief such as herself, these charms were very situational, but they would have been invaluable for a spy - say, for the Order of the Phoenix. Not that she would press her mentor, of course.
She shook her head. She had a task to do. Taking a few deep breaths - silently, of course, she raised her wand and pointed it at the map, then started to weave it in a complicated pattern. And hoped that the spells on the map hadn't been changed in the past twenty years.
They hadn't, she found a minute later, fighting the urge to wipe sweat from her face - her mask's spells were taking care of that. No alert, no sudden glowing indicated her addition of a special listening charm to the spells on the marble. Smiling, she repeated the spell on the representation of Malfoy Manor.
That left the more complex sound-altering charm. Biting her lower lip, she went over the motions in her head. Just in case. Then she started casting.
She took her time, moving her wand very carefully - casting silently meant she didn't have to time the movements to the incantation, but any minor mistake would affect the results to a much greater degree than when casting normally.
When she finished the spell without mishap two minutes later, she shivered with relief and leaned against the wall for a moment. Then she smiled. She had done it - now all that was left was to leave the same way she had entered: gracefully and without anyone realising she had ever been here.
She left the offices the same way she had entered them - she still didn't want to risk opening the door, despite that being much faster - then readjusted the Alarm Charm on the door. The main stairs would be too dangerous, she decided - Aurors and Hit-Wizards might still be arriving, to relieve or reinforce others, and there might also be messengers.
She'd take the service stairway instead.
*****
Oxfordshire, Bones Manor, January 17th, 1999
"Bloody Hell! Crouch's been busy!"
Harry Potter nodded in agreement with Ron's outburst. Three Fiendfyre blazes surrounded the Bones Manor, and they were spreading rapidly - soon they would form one big conflagration. And the wards of the manor wouldn't withstand that - they wouldn't last much longer even if the Fiendfyre stopped growing, or so he thought.
He muttered a curse of his own under his breath - as the Auror in charge, he had to appear confident - and addressed the Aurors and Hit-Wizards on site. "Status report!" he barked.
Most of them jerked. One Auror - Smith, Harry thought - answered: "They keep recasting the Anti-Apparition and Anti-Portkey Jinxes, so the Boneses are trapped in the manor."
Which meant that the attacker was still around. They should have spread out and started looking for them already. Harry clenched his teeth - this wasn't the time to snap at them. "Everyone, cast a Human-presence-revealing Charm! Then spread out - on brooms - and find the dark wizard. He has to be in range of the manor! Brown, you and Wilkinson keep dispelling the Jinxes!" He took a deep breath - the Bubble-Head Charm kept the stench of the fires away - and added: "I'll keep the fire at bay until the Boneses are safe."
"And I'll watch your back," Ron added.
Harry nodded. Crouch would know that he couldn't stay hidden and keep casting the jinxes. So this had to be a ruse - or a feint. And since the Prophet had covered Harry and Ron's actions in the previous clashes with Crouch extensively, the Death Eater would be aware of who had killed his accomplices and dealt with the Fiendfyre. Which meant that this was a trap for them in particular.
He sneered, baring his teeth as he rushed towards the closest blaze and drew the Elder Wand. They'd turn it into a trap for Crouch.
But holding the cursed fire at bay turned out to be more difficult than he had expected. It was already at the wardline, which meant that Harry had to conjure stone walls inside the flames. That meant they were quickly consumed. And he had to conjure walls between himself and the flames, to protect himself and keep the cursed fire from spreading even further.
Which meant that despite the Elder Wand's power, it was impossible. The best he was able to manage was to slow down the spread of the fire and keep some of the pressure off the manor's wards. He wouldn't be able to save the manor. Or much of the lands around it. All he could hope for was to buy enough time for the rest of the force to find Crouch and force him to stop recasting the jinxes that kept the Bones locked inside their manor. Or hope that Crouch took the bait and came after him.
Harry was about to conjure another wall between the cursed fire and himself when the ground near him exploded. His Shield Charm took the brunt of the blast, though, and held, but he was still pushed to the side, which almost ruined his spell-casting.
"We're under attack!" he heard Ron's voice both through his badge and from his left.
He glanced up - there was a marker floating twenty yards above him. Ron was already casting, and two red spells flew towards the marker. One hit a shield - Harry caught a glimpse of the flashing lights as it shattered before he sent a Piercing Curse upwards himself.
That one missed, as did his follow-up Bludgeoning Curse, and then he had to conjure another wall since the one he had just created was crumbling to ashes already - far more quickly than before.
And the fire had grown in size - wide enough to start enveloping his wall. He took a few steps to the side, his Shield Charm weathering another, not quite so close, Blasting Curse, and conjured two more walls.
That bought him a few more seconds. He whirled round and kept moving, raising his wand to support Ron, who was sending curse after curse at the still disillusioned Crouch. They had to take him out quickly before the Fiendfyre grew out of control and consumed everyone and everything around it.
Harry quickly cast two Cutting Curses, but Crouch was flying erratically, and both missed. Aurors and Hit-Wizards started to converge on them - finally! - and more spells flew at the Death Eater. They weren't well-aimed, though, and Harry didn't see any hits.
He had to conjure more walls. He could feel the heat now - he needed to retreat further. He flicked his wand, halting the fire for another few seconds, then ducked when the fire roared up behind the wall - and grew in size.
He knew what that meant: the wards had fallen and the cursed fire was ravaging Bones Manor. He tapped his badge. "As soon as the Boneses are safe, cover the area in Anti-Apparition Jinxes to stop Crouch from escaping!"
Harry ignored the idiot asking if the family was safe already - someone would report it as soon as they knew - and glanced at Crouch, who was flying above and between the roaring flames. Was he crazy? Was that why he hadn't fled already and, instead, kept sending badly aimed curses at Harry and Ron?
Badly-aimed curses… and mostly Blasting Curses. Harry muttered another curse just as Ron finally hit the disillusioned attacker with a Bludgeoning Curse that sent the marker tumbling down - towards the conflagration.
Harry snapped his wand up. "Accio Death Eater robes!"
The marker flew towards him, barely missing the flames reaching for it, and slammed into the ground a yard away.
"Finite Incantatem!"
A wizard in smouldering Death Eater robes appeared. He wasn't moving. Harry stunned him anyway - twice.
"Harry! Watch out!"
His last wall had crumbled, and the fire was racing towards him. A flick of his wand conjured a new stone wall in its path, and the flames crashed into it as if they were a tidal wave, quickly overwhelming it.
But another wall appeared, blocking the fire - Ron's work. And more walls appeared - solid ones. Followed by tons of sand falling onto the flames - the Unspeakables had finally arrived.
Some Aurors cheered, but Harry summoned the Death Eater again. The man's robes were still smoking but there wasn't any Fiendfyre on him. His chest was caved in, though - and there was blood seeping through the fabric.
"That was too easy," Ron said.
Harry pulled the mask off. Broken eyes stared into the smoke-covered night sky. The wizard was dead.
And it wasn't Crouch.
*****
London, Ministry of Magic, January 17th, 1999
As she went up the service stairs, Hermione Granger was tempted to take a detour on her way out of the Ministry. It wouldn't take that long to break into Undersecretary Umbridge's office, and the documents and whatever else Hermione found in there might be useful in dealing with the bigoted witch. Hermione hadn't forgotten that Umbridge had tried to send her to Azkaban, after all. And the ugly witch was also doing all she could to oppose Sirius's proposals in the Wizengamot, so if she were to be forced out of office - or sent to Azkaban herself, see how she liked it! - that would be one less obstacle to reforming Wizarding Britain.
She was very tempted, but she wouldn't do it. She was already a little behind schedule, and Umbridge could be dealt with easily once Sirius controlled the Wizengamot. It wasn't as if her efforts were very effective, anyway, thanks to Sirius's gold.
Still, if she had the time… Hermione bared her teeth at that thought.
She reached the flight before the Atrium and cast a Supersensory Charm. Several people were talking - the guards at the fireplace, she realised. There weren't many Aurors and Hit-Wizards around, so it was easier to follow what they were saying. It seemed that Bones and her niece had managed to flee their manor shortly before it was consumed by Fiendfyre, and the battle was still going on.
Which meant Harry and Ron were still fighting. Still in danger. She pressed her lips together. She couldn't do anything for them. She had to trust that they would survive. And she had to get past the guard at the entrance of the service stairway. That would be tricky. She could change to defeat a Human-presence-revealing Spell, but even a graceful cat could be spotted.
But she didn't have the time to go through a wall a floor above, and going down and taking the main stairs would be even more dangerous. Besides, who'd suspect a beautiful cat like her?
She changed and strolled up the last flight of stairs as if she had every right to be here. Which she had since no one had been able to stop her. Now she just had to slip past the guard… who wasn't present. But there should be a guard!
She moved forward and sniffed the ground. Her sense of smell wasn't as good as a dog's - the dumb animals needed good noses to compensate for their lack of brains - but it smelled as if there had been a guard here earlier. Cheap perfume. But there should be a guard here - that was standard procedure.
Perhaps they had called the guard away. It was possible - this was an important post, and close enough to support the guards in the Atrium, but it wasn't truly essential. But… She turned her head and looked at the next flight of stairs. It led up to the attic, where most of the Air-Cleaning and Air-Refreshing Charms were maintained. And other, similar charms. She had been there once before, during Voldemort's attack on the Ministry. And she had caught a Death Eater trying to commit sabotage there.
Crouch wouldn't try to repeat a failed plan, would he? He was attacking Bones Manor. Fighting Harry. Could he have found an accomplice? Unlikely.
She glanced at the corner. She should be sneaking out, and then up the main stairs, towards the secret tunnel. Use the opportunity generated by Crouch's attack to get away clean.
But she couldn't leave while someone might be preparing a trap or attack in the attic. Hissing with frustration, she started to go up the stairs. Towards the attic.
A flight below the entrance, she changed back and activated the spells on her mask to check for protections on the door - the Ministry might have added some spells in the years since she had left the Death Eater there. They might have forgone that, though, because protections made maintenance more complicated since employees had to pass through them.
There were indeed spells on the door - an Alarm Charm and a Locking Charm. But she couldn't see any detection spells linked to them to let anyone with the right passphrase or item pass. Which meant only the caster could pass through them without triggering the alarm.
She drew a slow breath through clenched teeth. There was no way a Ministry employee would do this. There was an intruder in the attic. A saboteur. She sneered. She had dealt with those before. And the spells on the door wouldn't stop her for long.
She aimed her wand at the door, then reconsidered. This wasn't like when Voldemort had attacked. There wouldn't be a thorough search of the Ministry for traitors and spies. If she stunned and bound the saboteur, he might not be found before the spells wore off. Or he might be able to claim he was attacked by a thief - which would be the truth anyway.
And she couldn't alert the Aurors in the Atrium; not without giving away her presence and ruining the entire point of the heist - they'd search the Ministry to find out what she had been doing. She bit her lower lip. There had to be a way to stop this Death Eater saboteur without ruining her plans. She needed an excuse, something that would explain her presence. But she didn't have the time for that, not when…
She grinned as the solution came to her. It was risky. Mr Fletcher would call it reckless. But it would stop whatever the saboteur was doing and cover up what she had been doing here.
She changed and raced down the stairs, stopping on the Atrium floor. After changing back, she removed her mask and quickly transfigured her suit into the dark brown robes of a Ministry maintenance employee. She left her wig on and slipped conjured inserts into her mouth. Coupled with the fake tan of her skin, that should disguise her enough.
Then she rushed into the Atrium, towards the two guards there. "Hey! Hey!" she called, waving. They drew their wands but didn't cast at her. She didn't give them a chance to ask questions and started talking before she reached them. "I was told to fix the Air-Refreshing Charms for the Undersecretary's office, even though it's night-time and she shouldn't be working now. But when I went up, the guard who should have let me past wasn't there, and the door to the attic was locked - it's not supposed to be locked." She swallowed. "Someone must be in there - but I'm the only one on duty. There shouldn't be anyone in there. And where's the guard?"
The two guards looked at each other. "Bloody hell!" the witch in charge - she was an Auror - swore. "If we have another intruder in the attic… Go down to Auror Headquarters, and tell them we have a possible intruder in the attic. We need all the wands they can spare!" she told the Hit-Wizard with her. "I'll secure the stairs!"
"I'll tell the Undersecretary so she can evacuate!" Hermione yelled. She turned around before the Auror could say anything else and started running towards the stairs right after the Hit-Wizard.
She kept pace until they reached the floor above the Auror Office, whereupon she ducked into the next alcove and changed, hiding behind a flower pot. Less than a minute later, a dozen Aurors, Hit-Wizards and mercenaries rushed past her towards the Atrium.
Which meant the Auror Office would be almost empty.
*****
Oxfordshire, Bones Manor, January 17th, 1999
Harry Potter was staring at the dead wizard. It wasn't Crouch. That explained the rather common curses the man had used - Crouch would have used more exotic, and darker, curses. And he wouldn't have missed so often.
"Could be Polyjuice," Ron said.
Harry shook his head. "Possible, but I don't think so." Why would Crouch have used such a disguise if he was wearing his Death Eater robes and mask?
"Potter! What are you doing, lollygagging? There's Fiendfyre to contain!"
Harry rolled his eyes as he turned to face Dawlish. "The Unspeakables have that under control." They should have, at least - it wasn't as if they hadn't gotten lots of practice thanks to Crouch. "But this isn't Crouch, which means he's doing something else while we're gathered here."
To his credit, Dawlish didn't contest that. He cursed instead. "Merlin's arse! He could be anywhere!"
Harry couldn't spot Bathilda. He hoped the witch was safe. Dawlish would have said something if she had been hurt, wouldn't he? He shook his head. "This was a distraction, which means he needed a lot of us here. He wouldn't have done that for just any attack. And we'd have been alerted if he had attacked Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade or Hogwarts."
"He's doing something sneaky, then," Ron said.
Harry nodded. And there was one target that would require such tactics. Especially on a Sunday. "The Ministry."
Dawlish cursed again.
Harry touched his badge. "Potter here. Tonks, keep a dozen wands here to support and protect the Unspeakables. Everyone else, return to the Ministry at once - we might be under attack."
He was about to apparate when he heard Scrimgeour through his badge: "Hold that. What's going on?"
Harry clenched his teeth. "The Death Eater wasn't Crouch. This might be a distraction - and the Ministry's the obvious target." And even if it wasn't, it was the logical rally point - they would be able to react without delay if they were gathered there.
"Alright. Proceed." Scrimgeour sounded slightly annoyed.
Harry didn't care. What counted was catching Crouch. "Be ready to enter combat when you apparate!" he ordered through his badge. Then he focused and apparated.
He appeared in the designated arrival area in the Atrium and instantly moved away, towards the Thief's Downfall. It was guarded by two mercenaries - something was wrong. There should be an Auror or Hit-Wizard in charge. "Report!" he bellowed, with Ron at his side as more Aurors and Hit-Wizards arrived.
"There's an intruder in the attic!" one of the mercenaries, a witch, replied. "Everyone but us went up to arrest them."
Everyone? That would have been a dozen Aurors and Hit-Wizards, at least - it depended on how many off-duty wands had been alerted and come in. "When was that?" Harry asked as he started towards the hallway leading to the service stairway.
"A minute or two ago," the witch answered. "At most."
They had arrived in time, then. Harry smiled and turned to give orders to the dozen Aurors and Hit-Wizards behind them.
Before he could say anything, though, an explosion blew out part of the wall on the second floor of the Atrium. Stones, mortar and what looked like a body crashed to the floor. A grey-robed body.
There was movement on the balustrades, too - Harry could see red robes running. Away from the service stairs. And he heard a buzzing sound growing louder and louder.
Then a dark cloud billowed out of the hole in the wall and came down upon them. Harry gasped when he realised what it was - a gigantic swarm of bugs.
"Mosquitoes!" he heard Ron yell, right before the swarm enveloped them.
Harry couldn't help but flinch as thousands of insects slammed into his Shield Charm and obscured his vision. At least his shield was holding. He flicked his wand - the Elder Wand - and water shot out of its tip, blasting a clear path through the mosquitoes. He turned and let the water wash over the other Aurors as Ron followed his example. The stream of water bowled over a Hit-Wizard, but the others stood their ground.
A few moments later the swarm had been pushed back from the Atrium and visibility had been restored - mostly. "Cover the second floor!" Harry yelled, moving towards the service stairs with Ron.
He had barely taken a few steps when screaming from behind them made him stop and whirl round. His eyes widened. One of the Aurors - Cumberland, Harry thought - was on his knees, weakly flailing as red pustules sprouted all over his exposed skin. In moments, they had grown large enough to cover all his skin - and they kept growing, reaching the size of apples.
An instant later, they burst, showering the area and another Auror - Smith - who had bent down to help Cumberland, with blood. As Smith screamed in horror, Harry stared at Cumberland. Of the man's skin, only a few strips were left, exposing the dried remains of his flesh. Drained of all blood, Harry realised.
"Blood Magic," he muttered.
Smith was still screaming, staring at her blood-covered robes and hands. Before Harry could snap at her, she suddenly started coughing, vomiting blood. She tried to say something, but the only sound she managed was a gurgling, choking sound before she toppled over.
Harry took a few steps back. "Don't touch the blood!" he yelled. "Keep your Shield Charms up!"
A Hit-Wizard started coughing. His Shield Charm was still up. Harry saw him grab something from his pocket - a bezoar - and swallow it. But it didn't help - the man kept coughing, blood running down the front of his grey robes. A moment later, he, too, fell.
The Hit-Wizard hadn't touched the blood. And others had been closer to Cumberland and Smith. That meant… "Keep your Bubble-Head Charms up as well!" Harry yelled, flicking his wand to cast a quick Air-Cleaning Charm.
"The Aurors and Hit-Wizards on the balustrade are dead." Ron pointed at the second floor. Blood was dripping from a crack in the railing.
And Harry could see another swarm disappear into the main stairway. Towards the Ministry's main floors.
*****
London, Ministry of Magic, January 17th, 1999
Hermione Granger grinned behind her mask as she flicked her wand and made a stack of parchment, four quills and two bottles of enchanted ink float towards her. A moment later, everything disappeared into her enchanted pocket, joining the shrunken filing cabinets, chairs and other assorted furniture in Dawlish's office. That only left the two now bare desks. And the carpet and the pictures on the wall. A few more Levitation and Shrinking Charms later, the office of that stupid oaf was stripped completely bare.
She eyed the wall, bereft of any decoration. Perhaps she should add a taunting message? If only she had a calling card. Or at least an elegant nom de guerre. Well, she would have one if her friends had any taste and hadn't rejected all her proposed names.
She frowned. She would have to settle for having looted Dawlish's office of everything in it - it was sort of her calling card, anyway.
Nodding, she turned and opened the door slightly to check whether the main part of the Auror Office - the bullpen, Harry sometimes called it - was still deserted. It was. Thirty seconds later, she was on the stairs, moving towards the Atrium.
One floor below the Atrium, she suddenly heard a buzzing noise. A very loud noise. And screams. A moment later, a dark cloud - a swarm of insects! - filled the stairs above her and billowed towards her.
She barely managed to cast a Shield Charm before the swarm reached her and countless insects - mosquitoes - flattened themselves against her spell. She took a few deep breaths - the spells on her mask took care of the air - then flicked her wand to dispel the animals.
It didn't work. Either they weren't conjured or transfigured - and where would you get such enormous numbers of mosquitoes? - or she wasn't skilled enough. Baring her teeth, she raised her wand again. It didn't matter - she had other ways to deal with this.
A swish of her wand conjured a mass of powder. A flick set it on fire. She heard dozens of insects burn, causing a crackling noise. Another swish, and more powder appeared, further up the stairs. And ignited.
A moment later, fake Fiendfyre rushed up the stairs, consuming the cloud of mosquitoes in seconds. She hesitated a moment, then turned and sent more flames down the stairs before rushing upwards. She had to hurry now since whoever was in the Atrium would have noticed that - and would know she was here.
Fake Fiendfyre was, after all, also a sort of calling card of hers.
*****
Harry Potter's eyes widened when he saw Fiendfyre shoot out of the entrance to the main staircase - from below. Crouch must have gotten past them, and set the Ministry on fire! "Watch out!" he yelled, raising his wand to conjure a wall to contain the cursed flames - if they were quick enough, they might save part of the building.
Then the flames flickered out. He blinked. There was plenty of material in the entrance to fuel the fire, so… "Fake Fiendfyre!" he exclaimed. The thieves! What were they doing here?
"I'm casting Mosquito-repelling Charms," Ron yelled, joining him. "It'll keep the bloodsuckers away even without a Shield Charm, but I'll need a lot of them to seal the Atrium!"
And more mosquitoes already started to fill the Atrium again - Harry saw a cloud of them enter the staircase before the rest descended upon his force, only to part and recoil when they hit Ron's spells.
Then green fire shot out of staircase again, frying the bugs in the area - he saw the brief flash of light. His own Water-Making Spell cleared a section of the Atrium as well, if not quite as fast or efficiently. But it allowed Ron to cover more ground with his charms.
"Luna will be thrilled to know that her spell works so well," his friend said with a fierce grin.
"Sirius will pay for her next expedition," Harry replied as he conjured a wall to seal off part of the balustrade. That would channel the mosquitoes and make it easier to deal with them.
They moved ahead, followed - slightly reluctantly - by the rest of their group. Once more, green fire filled the staircase.
"Fiendfyre!" Harry heard someone panic behind him.
"It's not Fiendfyre," he snapped. "And it's burning the insects!"
"But…"
A blast that tore a new hole into the second floor of the Atrium shut the complainer - he had to be a Hit-Wizard since Harry didn't know him - up. Crouch was still trying to flood the Atrium.
But the mosquitoes descending on them were held back by Ron's charms, then incinerated by green flames. Harry couldn't help but shudder - up close, it looked very convincing. But he had seen where the flames had started and where they ended, and that meant… he turned and stared at the entrance to the main stairs. The thief had to be standing right there, to have a line of sight for that last spell. A step closer, he saw the marker of his Human-presence-revealing Spell appear, right where he had expected it.
Harry hesitated a moment. It was against regulations. It was against the law. He hated to do it. But it had to be done. "Night Nargle! Keep the stairs and Atrium clear of mosquitoes! We'll get Crouch!"
"What?" Ron muttered next to him. Harry ignored him, as he ignored the comments from the rest of their force.
In the middle of the entrance, the thief appeared. It was her - the witch in the leather suit, and the stripes - whiskers, he realised - on her black mask.
And she nodded at him.
*****
Hermione Granger knew she didn't have to end her Disillusionment Charm. She could have simply answered Harry in her altered voice - if she were able to say something, anything, that wouldn't ruin her cover. Seeing Harry there, about to charge into those swarms of mosquitoes to fight Crouch… it was all she could do not to run over and hug him or follow him as he and Ron led the rest of the Aurors off.
She shuddered as they turned the corner and ran up the stairs, biting her lower lip to keep from crying out. Dear Lord, she hated this. Even though she knew she wouldn't be of any help - she wasn't an Auror or Hit-Wizard, they didn't trust her and she hadn't trained to fight dark wizards with Aurors.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she forced herself to focus on her task. Which, apparently, was pest control. A cloud of mosquitoes was growing denser in the corner near the service stairs - held back by spells, she noticed. She flicked her wand and reduced them to cinders with another cascade of fake Fiendfyre.
Then she noticed the bodies in the Atrium. What was left of them, to be more precise. She felt nauseated at the horrible sight. If even one of the mosquitoes bit her... they had to be even more dangerous than she had assumed, to do this. Probably enchanted… no, to enchant so many animals individually would have been impossible. And there was no way to enchant them en masse. At least as far as she knew.
But she couldn't dwell on that, though. Not now. Harry was counting on her. She filled the rest of the Atrium with her fire, then turned to face the hallway leading upstairs. She could stay here and protect the main stairs. No insects would get past her. But more Aurors would arrive - and they wouldn't know about Harry's offer. Nor could she expect them to uphold this 'truce' even if they knew.
No, she had to move and deal with the mosquitoes at the same time. That meant stopping the insects from entering the Atrium or the main stairways. Harry and the others had taken the service staircase, so that would be covered.
More mosquitoes were flying into the Atrium once more. She took care of them, then tapped her mask and studied the second floor above her. There had to be… there! A gap in the wall. She flinched at the flashes of light she saw through the hole - signs of fighting - and filled it with conjured stone, then mended the wall. And hoped that no one would blow it open again.
That left the main staircase and the second floor of the Atrium - the balustrades. Well, she needed to get up there, anyway, to get away. And she needed to exterminate every mosquito in the area anyway, or she wouldn't be able to safely change into a cat to sneak out. Though the irony of a thief helping to save the Ministry wasn't lost on her.
Baring her teeth, she led with her wand, incinerating a few hundred stragglers on the way up.
*****
"Brandon, seal up the staircase below us!" Harry Potter ordered as he took a step forward, his wand pointed up at the first flight of the service staircase. "Everyone else, follow me - we'll get that Death Eater!"
He cast another Water-Making Spell to clear the stairs of mosquitoes, then rushed up them. As soon as he turned the corner, he stopped. Holes littered the walls of this flight - and mosquitoes rushed through them, towards the Atrium. He flicked his wand, conjuring a solid stone wall along the wrecked wall. That stopped the insects - but redirected them towards him and his group.
He took a deep breath, hoping his Shield Charm would hold, when Ron pressed himself next to him, his wand pointed up.
"Vallum Culicum!"
The mosquitoes stopped as if smashing into an invisible wall - Ron's charm held them back - and quickly started to fill the staircase, forming an almost solid mass of buzzing, squirming insects.
"Merlin's arse!" someone cursed behind Harry.
"My charm won't hold them back for long - not if the sheer weight of them pushes them down!" Ron snapped.
"Aguamenti!" Harry yelled - even with the Elder Wand, every little bit helped. A stream of water shot towards the mass of bugs as if the wand were a firehose. The water cut through the swarm, opening holes which quickly closed - but it pushed the insects back. For now.
"He can't have unlimited numbers of them!" Ron yelled. "They're not transfigured or conjured, and you can't duplicate living animals! He must have bred them!"
So it was a question of who ran out first - Crouch of mosquitoes or them of ways to keep them away and kill them. Not odds Harry liked. Not against Crouch. And not in a narrow staircase.
He kept the spell going, gritting his teeth at the effort it cost him, slowly moving his wand back and forth, up and down, to cover the entire space in front of them. Water was running down the stairs now, inches deep and carrying thousands of dead insects. And rising. If the water rose even higher, and spilt into their boots, with those deadly insects…
"We're running out of time!" Harry muttered. "Ron, cast a wall as soon as I drop the spell."
"Alright. On three."
"One. Two. Three!" Harry flicked his wand, ending the spell, and a moment later, a wall appeared in front of him, sealing off the staircase.
He took a deep breath. "Fall back!" he yelled, looking at the ceiling. "He won't stay idle!"
"Need to smoke him out," Ron said. "Before he drops the ceiling on us."
"Merlin's beard! We can't stay here!"
Harry ignored the yell from behind them and kept his eyes on the ceiling and the walls. "Or when he's dropping the ceiling on us," he said with bared teeth. He quickly turned his head, staring at the two Hit-Wizards in the back. "You! Get out and start repairing the wall between the Atrium and us!"
They hesitated. "Ah…"
"Bloody Hit-Wizards," Ron muttered. "Can't do anything but fight."
Harry swallowed his own curse and addressed the two Aurors left with them. "Ben, Mary-Anne - you do it." At least Aurors could be trusted to know such spells.
The two almost bowled the Hit-Wizards over in their haste to get out.
Harry turned his attention back to watching the staircase - just in time to see it blow up. The explosion drove him and Ron back a few steps, but their shields held. But then fragments of wood and stone rained down on them. Followed by a cloud of mosquitoes. As soon as their shields shattered, the insects would cover them, and it would be over.
As Ron cast his Insect-Repelling Charm again - it wouldn't be enough, Harry knew - he flicked his wand. Fiendfyre would cleanse the entire area… No! He managed to conjure an angled wall instead, stopping the avalanche.
"Fall back!" Harry yelled again. "Out!"
He pushed a frozen Hit-Wizard out of the service stairs, sending the witch tumbling to the floor, then whirled around, Ron at his side.
"We have to smoke him out," Ron repeated. "We can't leave him up there for much longer."
Harry nodded. Sooner or later, Crouch would use Fiendfyre as well, Harry knew. But they couldn't use the staircase to attack - and going in through the ceiling would allow Crouch to be ready for them. What could they do?
Fiendfyre would do the job… He shook his head and gripped his wand more tightly. No. He couldn't unleash that. But he had to do something.
He caught movement behind him and whirled around. The thief was there, back at the main stairs, watching them. For a moment, she seemed frozen.
"The Atrium's clear," she said - sounding, oddly, as if she were apologising. She was also ignoring the wands the two Hit-Wizards aimed at her.
He wondered what she was doing here. Why hadn't she fled? This wasn't her fight. So why… His eyes widened as he found the solution. "Night Nargle!"
She jerked. "That's not my name!"
He ignored that. "We'll blow up the ceiling above us. You'll flood the area with your fake Fiendfyre!" That would distract Crouch enough to allow them to charge him.
For a moment, she tensed. Then she nodded.
"Mount your brooms!" Harry ordered, pulling out his own and aiming his wand at the ceiling. The attic's corner would be directly above them.
"Ready!" Ron said a moment after Harry had mounted his Firebolt.
The two Hit-Wizards took a few seconds longer. "Ready." "Ready."
"Ready." That was the thief - but, as a glance told Harry, she wasn't on a broom.
It didn't matter. All she had to do was cast her fake Fiendfyre.
"On three!" Harry said. "One. Two. Three!"
His and Ron's Blasting Curses tore up the ceiling. Two more curses hit it a fraction of a second later. And then green fire shot through the cloud of dust left by the curses.
Harry was already in the air, his Shield Charm deflecting both stone fragments and the green fire surrounding him. He thought he heard a scream when he passed through the cloud. Then he was in the attic, pulling hard on the shaft of his Firebolt to avoid crashing into the ceiling.
There was Crouch! The man - he didn't look like Crouch, probably Polyjuice Potion - was stumbling inside the green fire, waving his wand. Harry clenched his teeth and aimed his wand, accelerating. He saw the man's eyes widen - he must have realised the fire was fake - and move his wand to aim at Harry.
But he wasn't quick enough. Harry ploughed into him, both their Shield Charms shattering on impact, and then the tip of the shaft of his broom hit Crouch in the stomach with the full force of his accelerating Firebolt, only the safety charms on the broom preventing it from impaling him, before Harry's shoulder slammed into Crouch's face as he let go of the Firebolt and let his momentum carry him onwards.
The two of them slammed into the wall behind Crouch. The man's head was thrown back and hit the stone with a crack before they fell to the floor. The impact knocked the breath out of Harry, but he rolled over his shoulder, ignoring the pain that caused, and came up casting, slashing his wand down. His Cutting Curse sliced off Crouch's hand and wand before the dazed Death Eater could react.
A Stunner cut off the man's scream, and three Bone-Breaking Curses ensured that he wouldn't get up and do anything any time soon.
Panting, Harry recast his Shield Charm as he turned around. The dust was still settling so he couldn't see far, but Ron was there, a few yards away.
"I've got his trunk sealed and the insects contained," his friend reported, pointing at a chest nearby. He, too, was protected by a Shield Charm, though.
The two Hit-Wizards were still on their brooms, just now coming out of the dust cloud. "We saw no other enemies," one of them belatedly reported.
Harry cast a Full Body-Binding Curse on their prisoner for good measure, then rushed back to the hole in the floor. A glance down filled him with both disappointment and relief.
The thief was gone.
*****
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