The War of Shades

Chapter 22

"Hermione!" screamed Ron, grabbing the letter before it even hit ground. His hands shook as he held it.

Harry read the note over Ron's shoulder. "Got your wand? - Ron! How many times have I said we need to always ...?"

Before Harry even finished his sentence he disapparated, and in only a few seconds was back with Ron's wand.

Remus started toward them and began saying, "Harry, you can't ..."

Before the statement was finished, Harry had grabbed Ron's hand while handing him the wand and disapparated.

They appeared on the roof of an abandoned row house in Liverpool, next door to the address on the parchment. To each side the row houses stretched to the ends of the block. To the front there was a road: most of the street lights were broken, but they could make out some parked cars, a few up on blocks, and a couple of rental lorries parked at the curb. Behind was a trashy alley with another block of row houses facing the next street. They could just make out the early morning glow of the sun behind those.

Harry marveled as he quickly got his bearings how the presence of magical objects could be felt and sorted out when one focused on it. It reminded him of how he could walk by a park and not notice any one person in particular, but if he needed to find someone, he could focus his attention to sort it out. Or when one is talking amongst a crowd and there is a general noise, but you can still make out what the person you are talking to is saying.

"She's inside," said Harry quietly, "or at least, her wand is. Feel it?"

"Yeah, and seven others, besides. This has to be an ambush. They knew you'd come for her. Does your scar tell you anything?" whispered Ron.

"No. That's odd," remarked Harry, searching through Voldemort's reactions, "He knows what we know and he's just as concerned as we are. He would be here himself to break this up, but for concern that ..." Harry trailed off.

"Well, whatever the reason, I'm not too fussed at not meeting him, if it's all the same with you."

"Well, if it's his people, they are doing it on their own. They must be desperate to get to me. There don't seem to be any wands outside; they must have planned on getting me inside. Look, there's a basement entrance we can use in the alley. They won't be able to see us there."

They apparated to a well that had steps down from the alley to the basement door. Rather than a proper latch, it was held closed by a deadbolt with a padlock. Harry pointed his wand and whispered "Alohamora," and the padlock fell open. As he did this, Ron pointed his wand at each of the hinges of the door and the deadbolt and said 'Lubrio' in turns. The bolt and door opened without a squeak.

"Good one - I've never seen that," whispered Harry.

"Dad used to use it on the car, before we ..."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I know."

They saw a coal chute. Harry nodded toward it and Ron apparated behind it. He was thankful it was still half-dark outside so his eyes did not need much adjustment to the light. He gestured to Harry, who came in cautiously.

"Lumos," they both whispered as they scouted around the cellar. Finding nothing, they approached the stairs. They had to consciously force themselves to calm down rather than bull forward heedlessly. This was not helped by the rapid beating of their hearts. They stopped before stepping on the wood of the stairs, assuming it would creak.

"Hold on," whispered Ron, pulling out an extendable ear. He pushed the listening end toward the crack in the door. "I can hear breathing and shuffling. There are several people in there. That seems to be the general area of most of the wands, too."

"They probably are aware of us, too, but they wanted us to come through so they could ambush us," whispered Harry.

"Well, that's the way to get to Hermione, so we'll have to do it soon."

"I'll create a diversion and then take this lot. From where this room is, there has to be a door to the left to the rest of the house. After a slow count of three after I disapparate you head for it."

"Careful, mate," whispered Ron.

Harry nodded, and then with a flick of his wand, whispered "Accio lorry."

In seconds a huge crash was heard on the other side of the wall. There was shouting and the tinkling of glass and metal hitting the floor. With both wands drawn, Harry apparated on top of the lorry which was now occupying most of what he found was the kitchen. He began firing stunners at anything moving, blocking any spells that came anywhere near him, and re-apparating around the room too quickly for the others to respond. On the count of three, Ron burst through the cellar door and then through the door to the dining room.

Harry heard an exchange of spells and then the sound of stomping up the stairs. He heard Ron say, "Hermione, are you alright?" He did not hear Hermione respond, but then Harry heard feet going up the stairs again, this time more cautiously.

Having stunned the four wizards and one witch in the kitchen, Harry approached the dining room door and peeped through it. He saw Hermione in her running shorts and t-shirt in a corner in a wooden chair, with elaborate bindings around her lower legs, which were pulled back by a rope under her chair. Her arms were pulled back and together behind the chair. She had a gag cutting deeply in her mouth, but she was not blindfolded. At that moment an exchange of spells was heard upstairs. Hermione looked up there and then toward Harry. She nodded her head toward the stairs.

Harry started running toward the stairs, and then he jumped to the side and gave a wave with his left hand wand while quickly saying 'Deflecto.' At the same time, Hermione's left arm was coming forward from behind the chair and there was a flash and a loud crack. Without pause, with his right hand, Harry made a slashing gesture across his neck and hissed "Asseverate." Hermione's head, sliced neatly from her body, fell to her left, while her body fell to the right, with a pistol still in her hand. Harry heard Ron grunt, and then fall down the stairs.

On hitting the stairs' landing, Ron looked into the dining room, saw Hermione's head separate from her body, and screamed.

"Ron, are you alright?" said Harry urgently, kneeling next to his best friend, seeing a large and growing circle of blood on his running shorts and underneath his thigh.

"You bastard, you killed Hermione!" Ron shouted bitterly, starting to raise his wand against Harry.

"Expelliarmus!" shouted Harry before Ron could pronounce a spell. "Ron, it's not Hermione. Trust me - it's a witch with polyjuice. Stay down there - hold your wound to slow the blood. I'll see if Hermione's up there. Here's your wand back."

Harry cautiously made his way upstairs. He found the limp body of a wizard in foreign-style robes where Ron had stunned him. He conjured bindings and took the wizard's wand. He heard a thumping sound coming from one bedroom. Checking the other rooms as he went, he made his way to that room, checked around and heard that the thumping was coming from a closet. From around the corner of the door, he waved his wand at the closet door and it opened. He saw Hermione on the floor, tied up, with a gag in her mouth. All her clothes but her knickers had been removed for the use of the polyjuice Hermione. She was thumping her head against the floor - the only part of her body she could move. The closet was clearly otherwise empty. She stopped thumping on seeing Harry.

He smiled at her. "Now isn't this a pretty picture. Maybe I should go back and get Colin, so we can remember this moment."

She glared at him. Words were not necessary to express what she was thinking at that moment.

"Finite Incantatem," said Harry, and the gag and ropes disappeared. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and began stretching her stiff joints. "A headache from the stunner is all. That was quick work. Is everything else handled?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "Ron and I didn't waste any time, but I'm betting there are people sweating bricks back at the manor. C'mon, Ron needs you - he's been hurt, shot in the leg, at the bottom of the stairs. But don't look in the sitting room - face the other way. I've got to bind the rest."

"I don't suppose you know if anyone's gone to check on my parents - somehow they got Hedwig, and I've been so worried they were waiting at my parents for her."

"The thought crossed my mind, but there was no time to find out. I rather suspect they were not far from the manor looking for a snowy owl, since Hedwig's the only one in Britain I know of. When I can call Remus, I'll make sure someone goes there."

Hermione found an old sheet, which she wrapped around herself like a toga, and hurried to Ron, as Harry headed for the kitchen to bind the rest. As Harry re-emerged from the kitchen, he found Hermione kneeling next to Ron. She had torn off one end of the sheet and was using it as a compress on the bullet hole in his leg. But she was not looking at Ron - she was staring into the sitting room with a look of horror on her face. Ron had reached up and was giving her a comfort pat on her side. Harry went to the corpse on the floor, retrieved Hermione's wand and handed it to her.

"You can't say I didn't warn you," he told her sympathetically. "I really didn't want you to see this."

"She looks just like me, but ghostly pale," said Hermione haltingly, "how did you know to ..." She stopped and made a gesture toward her throat.

"I've been suppressing legilemency around my friends. I stopped suppressing it once Ron and I were in a battle situation. At first I thought it odd that you would be left with your wand, and then when she looked at me and I could see her intentions to shoot me, there was no doubt. I knew you couldn't do that even under an Imperius curse. They were unaware of my legilemency, apparently. Or maybe they hoped I would be unable to strike against someone who looked like you. But to a legilemens the resemblance was only slight, like a distant cousin with a similar chin."

"When I thought you had killed her, mate, I was ready to ..." Ron started but squeezed his eyes shut when he could not finish the thought.

"Of course, Ron. I can't say as I blame you. I'd be disappointed if you felt otherwise. I'd do the same to anyone who hurt her."

"Well, that's really sweet, but I'm mad at you two for rushing in here without support," scolded Hermione, "But - I can see the need for a speedy response, and I can't think of anyone else I'd rather be rescued by. What can I do to thank you?"

"For me," said Harry, "just taking care of him will do nicely. When I deflected the bullet, I had no idea it would catch him through the wall."

"Yes, Hermione, take care of me," said Ron, grinning. "I'm going to need lots of care."

"Hmm, you seem to be recovering pretty well already," said Hermione with a smile, "but I do believe you deserve the hero treatment." Then she leaned down and gave him a tender kiss and whispered, "that's just for starters."

"I hope you two don't mind," she continued, unwrapping her sheet-toga and putting it over the corpse on the floor, "but I cannot bear to have her in view like that."

"Hermione!" said Ron, wide-eyed.

"Oh, Ron, Harry saw me like this upstairs, and you would have sooner or later - I can't say this is the circumstance I would have hoped for, but that's just ghastly," indicating the beheaded Hermione under the sheet. "I needn't hang on to modesty over respect for life and death. I'm afraid that before this war is over, we may lose a lot more than our modesty: let's hold on to what really matters."

Harry smirked. "Well, I know which sight I prefer."

"Ay, mate" said Ron, "Turn away - that's my girlfriend."

"Oh, Ron, that's the first time you've actually said that!" exclaimed Hermione, bending down and kissing him again, this time giving him a hug a well. Ron blushed furiously as her body brushed over his arms.

Harry felt a pang of jealousy, not over Hermione, but at the two of them having someone special in their lives. He realized all his talk the night before about playing around was foolishness. That wasn't the kind of guy he was: he wanted just to give and receive love from one person, and have it be special. He turned away.

"I'd better call Remus," he said, "I imagine there's quite the panic going on right now."

"Well, it's one thing for you two to see me this way, quite another for all the aurors to. Ron, keep your leg raised and hold that compress tight there - and hold that thought. I'll just go see about getting another sheet or something."

Hermione turned and bounced up the stairs. She could have bounded two or three stairs at a time, or climbed them more smoothly, but she knew full well that only Ron could see her after the first step. She felt wonderful about the rescue and wanted to put on a bit of a show for him. She also knew just what effect this would have on him. At the top of the stairs she turned and winked at him.

Harry pulled the mirror from the fanny pack he used for running. "Remus, Remus, are you there?"

"Of course I am, Harry. What happened? Is everyone alright?"

"It was an ambush: they used Hermione to get at me."

"Well, of course, it was an ambush, you dolt! What do you mean by going off like that without support!?"

"I had Ron. That's plenty of support. They underestimated us. It wasn't even a fair fight. But now, Ron's got a bullet wound in his thigh. It's not spurting so it doesn't seem to have hit an artery. Hermione and I are fine, a bit shaky, I guess. We have six live captives and one corpse to remove. Better send aurors and whoever else needs to be sent in these situations."

"Of course, Harry, but where are you?"

"Oh, yeah, Ron still had the parchment when we left. Ron, give me the parchment."

"I dropped it on the roof, Harry. I didn't think we'd need it."

Harry looked around and found an envelope with an address.

"Yeah, this sounds like the one on the parchment."

He showed it to Remus.

"Oh, and Remus, we're worried that this lot may have done something to Hermione's parents when they were trying to intercept Hedwig. Can someone go check on them?"

"Already done, Harry. The only clue we had was that Hermione was not surprised that she Hedwig had come with a letter that seemed to be from her parents. A couple of aurors here who know how to look muggle went to their house to check on them. They're still snug in their beds."

"So they weren't awakened to tell them their daughter had been kidnapped?"

"Why worry them - what could they contribute? This wasn't about money. Now we can check with Hermione before either telling them ourselves or letting her do it. In either case, they'll know that no harm was done."

"Okay, makes sense."

By then, ten aurors from the training camp had arrived, including Tonks. Several of them blanched when they looked under the sheet at the headless body on the floor. Dawkins had to run for the front door to throw up.

"Harry, are you sure you're alright?" Tonks asked him gently, looking into his eyes, "you seem a bit wonky."

"I've never killed before. I know I've seen deaths before, even had some role in ... someone's ... death. But I never had to do the killing before."

She nodded and hugged him, rubbing his back. "It had to be done, you know."

"I know. At least my head says so. But my heart is not comfortable."

"Good. I'd hate for you to take killing lightly. That wouldn't be the wonderful young man I know," reassured Tonks. "You understand we're going to have to go to the Ministry, don't you? Lots of paperwork when someone's killed."

Harry nodded. "I figured as much. Any chance I could see Mr. Weasley? I know he's busy, but ..."

"I'll send a message. Of course, there aren't many people even at the Ministry yet, so we won't know for a while. I'm sure we couldn't keep Molly away, at least once she's checked on Ron."

"That would be super," said Harry, "and can you stay with me at the Ministry? - I need a friend there."

She smiled. "I'm sure that can be arranged. You did great here today, kid. Awesome work with the lorry - that must have caught them off-guard. Be proud."

Harry smiled, "I'm sure Moody'll have plenty to say about being rash."

"Someday, we'll have to fill you in on some of his scrapes. He earned his paranoia the hard way. He would have done the same thing you two did as a young auror, probably by himself. How do ya reckon he got so many scars? We can handle him."