Harry Potter: Battle of the Fates

Chapter 2: A Surprise at Spinner's End

*****Spinner's End*****

Harry, Ron, and Hermione crept up the walk at Spinner's End, under Disillusionment, Unplottable, and Silencing Charms, as well as Invisibility Cloaks, just to be sure they weren't going to be detected.

"Ron!" Harry hissed through the pickup on the Wireless Extendable Ears.

"Yeah?" Ron replied, softly.

"Can you get a count on how many friends Dolohov has in there with him?"

"Sure." Domicila Enimatus Revelo, he incanted mentally, placing his wand tip on his palm. Twelve red dots and three blue ones appeared on his palm, but then suddenly another dot appeared, neither red nor blue, but a deep purple on the other side of the house.

"Who the bloody hell is that?" Ron asked rhetorically.

"Haven't the foggiest. I'll go check it out," Harry said.

"Be careful Harry," Hermione warned. "Even I can't help you if you get your arse blown to bits by a Reductor."

"Sure thing. 'Mione."

Harry crept around the side of the house, shedding and vanishing his Invisibility Cloak for freedom of movement. He glanced around the corner and saw... "It's Draco! I'm taking him down!" STUPEFY, he growled, sending a red beam from his wand at the blond-haired teen Death Eater.

"Protego!" Draco shouted, slashing his wand across his body, conjuring a slightly glowing shield that...did absolutely nothing. Harry's Stunner broke through the Shield Charm, tossing Draco through the air to land in heap at the foot of a tree.

"Harry! Harry, are you okay? Harry!" Hermione's now shrill voice came in through the comms.

"I'm fine Hermione! Really, it's okay."

"Well, mate," Ron's tenor filtered through the comms, "you certainly showed Ferret Boy!" He seemed more than ecstatic at Draco's downfall.

"Well, duh, Ron," Harry replied, "I always could beat Draco at dueling." At least when he actually faced me man to man, Harry added savagely, remembering the many ambushes the younger Malfoy had attempted.

"So, Harry, what do we do with him?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I guess we should just do the same thing we do with all the rest."

"Okay," Hermione said, she and Ron coming around the house after they had secured the rest of the grounds. Incarcerous, Portus. Ropes flew around Draco, flashed blue, and vanished in a fall of color, taking the boy with them.

"Okay, Ron, let's get another reading on that house," Harry said.

"Sure, mate." Ron repeated his earlier trick and noted the same number of DE's, all having apparently realized nothing, as they were all hanging around the same areas.

"I can't believe it! The idiots must have Silencing Charms around the entire place!" Hermione breathed.

"Jealous, Hermy?" Ron teased.

"No, Ron, I am not jealous; and I'll get you back for calling me Hermy."

"Let's get going guys," Harry said.

"Roger that," Ron said.

"Ten-four," Hermione told him.

Harry went up to the door and checked for any traps. Then Ron went around the front of the house as Hermione went around to the side, dropped a small object that looked like a miniature robotic eye, and levitated it up to the roof. She opened a small folding mirror taken from her pocket. Finding no one, visible or otherwise, she commed to Harry, "Roof's clear. I'm going up." She took a broom the size of a matchstick from a thigh pocket of her BDU pants. Engorgio, she thought and the broom grew to standard size. She hopped on and flew up to the roof.

Harry waited a beat or two and said, "Okay guys. On my signal..."