Potter Politics

"Harry, I was just joking with you. I didn't mean anything by the 'we haven't gone out' comment. You don't have to do this."

"Forget about it. We're going somewhere. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Well, there's this nice seafood place down on West Lampington. It's really cool. It's pretty close to the Bideford Bay. It's about a twenty minute walk or so from here."

Since it was well past 9:30 by this point, it was pretty dark outside and it was extremely difficult for Harry to try to navigate them to the seafood place. Molly seemed surprised by how little Harry actually knew the geography of the area. While she was thinking about this, she noticed that Harry had stiffened in the middle of the walk. He stood frozen staring straight ahead. She immediately became worried and looked to see what was bothering Harry. A very sinister looking man wearing black robes was facing Harry with a thin piece of wood in his hand.

"Why, hello Potter, how nice to be seeing you on this lovely evening." At that moment, twelve men appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"How smart of you to walk outside of the warded grounds," revealed the sneering form of none other than Lucius Malfoy himself.

"It looks like the Dark Lord will finally finish you off. We are lucky that the muggle-loving fool does such a great job of protecting you or else we wouldn't have this chance," shouted one of the hooded figures, laughing at his own joke.

"It looks like old Tom really has a lot of confidence in you guys, if he has to send a whole army to capture one teenager. Why doesn't he just do it himself?" Harry replied.

"How dare you speak of the Dark Lord's name like that!" shouted a random Death Eater.

"Potter, be a good little boy and come now and we'll save your little girlfriend here. After I have a little fun with her of course!" At this, the group of Death Eaters started cackling.

Molly was growing increasingly frightened of these men who wanted to attack Harry, and apparently, her. She may not have gotten an "A+" in math class, but she knew that 13-2 were not good odds.

Harry suddenly shouted, "Serpentes oppugnant!" Five snakes shot from his wand and were slithering towards the the group of Death Eaters. While the Death Eaters were easily defeating the snakes, Harry shouted, "Psittici Aggrediuntur!" Three exotic parrots flew from his wand and started pecking one of the cloaked figures until he fell to the ground.

One down. Twelve to go.

A couple of the Death Eaters started firing spells at him and Molly. Harry was glad that he learned two new shielding spells in addition to the standard Protego. He didn't have time to look at Molly and notice the incredulous and terrified look on her face. He shouted, "Arcesso parmas!" This put a shield around both of them that would last for about twenty seconds.

"Discindite omnia!" Harry shouted at four of the Death Eaters. Their robes started tearing into shreds and they were soon bleeding profusely. They quickly apparated away in shame.

Five down. Eight to go.

His shields had worn off and the Death Eaters were all shooting a mixture of blue and red lights at the both of them. "Scuta Operantur!" A giant blue shield erupted from Harry's wand and soon emcompassed Molly as well as himself. The blasts bounced off his shield and the reflections knocked out three of the Death Eaters. Harry was glad that he delayed in putting up his shield because it caught the Death Eaters by surprise when it actually reflected back at them with equal force.

Eight down. Five to go.

Harry knew a curse that would take out the remaining five Death Eaters, Lucius Malfoy included, but it would use up a ton of his magical energy. He would still be able to cast spells, but his normal strength would be absent and it would make it very easy for the remaining Death Eaters to capture him. Harry decided to test his luck and shouted, "Fulgura Erumpent!"

Five bolts of lightning erupted from his wand and zapped four of the five Death Eaters. Augustus Rookwood, whom Harry could recognize from the Department of Mysteries fiasco, was staring at Harry with a dangerous glint in his eye. Harry realized that Rookwood was probably going to kill him and Molly at that moment. He backed up to protect Molly, but when he quickly looked behind himself, he saw that she wasn't there!

That was when Harry heard the most horrible, unnatural sound that he had ever heard in his life. His back stiffened. Molly had somehow escaped the notice of the Death Eaters, found a loose brick in the alley, and managed to smash it against the back of Rookwood's head.

"Harry! Are you all right?" Molly came, sobbing hysterically as she flung herself at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How are you?"

"Who were those people Harry? And why were those lights shooting out of your wands! And where did those snakes and birds come from?"

"Umm, Molly, there is something that I need to tell you."

Molly noticed the determined look in Harry's eyes, but also saw something else, she thought it was..no it couldn't be...fear?

"But first, we need to find a private place to talk," Harry said, gesturing to the bodies laying strewn about in the alley. He gave a sharp whistle, and soon Hedwig came into sight and perched herself on his shoulder. Harry conjured up a quill and parchment and quickly wrote, "Death Eaters in Little Whinging- at the corner of Lee Ave. and Metal Lantern Dr." Harry handed the letter to Hedwig and told her to take it to the ministry.

Molly entwined her hand with Harry's as she awaited the answers to her many questions. Harry was leading her up the street and to a secluded school building. They both sat next to each other on one of the benches, while Molly was waiting for Harry to begin.

"All right Molly, before I begin, you have to make a deal with me, OK?"

'Sure. What is it, Harry?"

"I have a lot of things to tell you. All I ask is that you let me tell you my whole story and you wait until the end of it to ask questions. Is that OK with you?"

"Sure, Harry. You should know by now that you can tell me anything."

"OK, I know this whole thing is going to sound incredibly unbelievable. But what you just saw was magic." To give her a demonstration, Harry took out his wand and with a swish, a bunch of little birds shot out of his wand. "You see, this is what you saw earlier during the fight. Is it fair to assume that you believe in magic before I continue?"

Molly nodded her head yes. She had so many questions, but she didn't even know where to begin and she was growing curious to hear Harry's tale.

"All right, this might take a while, but I'm going to start from the beginning and try to explain things as clearly as I can. It all started on Halloween almost seventeen years ago when a guy named Tom Riddle, commonly known as Lord Voldemort..."