The Dark Past: Confusing Times

Chapter 8: Raids and Consequences

Harry, not moving anymore, slowly opened his eyes and then wished he hadn't. A child was laying in front of him, dead. It was the same little boy who had the cute little dog on his cheek at the Midsummer Gathering. A man was laying, dead too, next to him.

Hearing screams, Harry jerked up and whirled around, taking his wand out, ready to defend the little boy, even though he was too late. But then Harry remembered he wasn't there. He couldn't help. All he could do was watch.

"LEAVE THEM ALONE!" Harry suddenly screamed, trying to stop it.

People were everywhere, running, screaming, laying on the ground. Bodies laying half in the river, half out. Some were tangled up in tree roots. One dead little girl had an oversized black butterfly resting on her hand. There were more Ministry people, all wearing red robes, on the ground dead than there were Dark Forest people. At least that was something.

Harry forced his eyes off the dead bodies to look for Evan and the rest.

Evan was wading through a thick knot of Ministry people, blasting them with his wand or grabbing them and sinking his teeth into their unprotected necks. Harry winced. Evan's chin and cheeks, not to mention the front of his shirt, was covered in blood.

Harry quickly looked away as Evan's attacks became even more brutal, he was now using his iron-spiked club. Florence was holding her own, protecting five children that were holding onto her. She was licking her lips and looking excited.

Harry again looked away. Florence wasn't supposed to be looking excited, she was supposed to be looking sick, like he was. Severus was kneeling on the ground, barely managing to fight anyone off, his wand arm was hanging uselessly by his side, forcing him to use his left hand, and a huge gash on his head was bleeding freely over his right eye. But, he too, had children to defend and he was doing it. Four of them were crouched down around him, sobbing into his shirt.

Severus's parents were laying dead near him. Neither of them, Harry noticed, even had a wand near them. He couldn't see Narcissa anywhere.

Screams got louder and Harry sank to the ground, closing his eyes, not wanting to see anything more. He couldn't help them, so what was the point of watching?

Hearing a hissing noise near him, Harry jerked his head up to see Severus's grandmother, and many other half-dementors from the looks of them, streaming in through the trees. They turned the tide and the Ministry found itself being brought down with swords instead of wands. Avada Kedavra didn't work on the half-dementors, neither did Expecto Patronum, which only a couple of Ministry people used, having figured out what the new creatures had to be related to. It quickly turned into a slaughter.

Having a body fall through him, Harry screwed up his eyes and fought against the urge to throw up as he crawled out of the way. He opened them again and felt his stomach heaving. He was staring at Severus's dead father.

Closing his eyes again, Harry decided not to open them until he knew it was safe. The vomit would have nowhere to go in the Pensieve so he couldn't allow himself the luxury of throwing up.

The screams stopped and dead silence followed.

"Where is Narcissa?" came Severus's voice, quivering, breaking the stillness.

"They took her," Florence's voice, gentle. "I guess they figured she had to be a captive and not one of us."

"I got to get her back, she'll..." his voice trailed off.

"Is he okay?" Evan's voice.

"Yeah," Florence answered. "Just unconscious. Did we get them all?"

"Yes," said a gravely voice. "All but two, the ones that had Narcissa."

"We need to get her back," a new voice, Melusine's.

"Where were you?" Evan asked, sounding angry.

"Protecting as many as I could on my way. The further you get into the Dark Forest the more vulnerable the people are and I had to make sure they were safe too," Melusine answered, not sounding angry that Evan was furious with her.

Harry stood up and opened his eyes, not daring to look at the ground. Melusine was standing, surveying the dead, her body posture rigid. "All the dead on our part were unable to work magic, except one," she said. "Didn't they notice they had no wands?"

"Why did they attack?" Florence asked, holding onto the nine children as best she could. Severus was laying unconscious next to her, a piece of fabric wrapped around his head.

Melusine looked to her, her eyes flashing purple as she sent purple sparks into the sky with her staff. "Because they fear us. We get attacked occasionally, but it has never been this bad." Melusine shook her head. "We'll talk later. We need to attend to the wounded and bury the dead. And get the children back to their parents."

Harry, hearing weeping, glanced over at a small little girl, the hunchback one, who was poking her father and trying to wake him up.

"Wake up, daddy!" she sobbed. "Wake up! Quit sleeping."

Evan took his shirt off, wiped the blood off his mouth, and went to pick her up, dropping the bloody shirt on the way. The little girl tried to get back to her father but Evan turned around so she couldn't see him anymore.

"Where do we take the children?" he asked.

He needn't have asked. People started to stream in through the woods, like the half-dementors had, and take the children away from the carnage and back, deep, into the Dark Forest. Harry wished someone would take him.

The half-troll lady that Evan had liked at the Midsummer Gathering took the little girl from Evan's grasp. "How many did you get?" she asked.

Evan smiled. "At least ten."

She smiled back. "Good."

"I'll check on her later, okay?"

The lady nodded her head, and left, being very careful not to step on any Dark Forest bodies but she seemed to "accidentally" kick Ministry bodies out of her way as she left.

How could the Ministry have done this? Didn't they see that these weren't dark witches and wizards?

"I'm going to get Katrina," Florence said. "I think seeing her when he wakes up will help."

"She's dead," Evan said, softly.

Florence slowly sat down next to Severus. "Oh," she muttered, beginning to stroke Severus's back. "All his family is dead but Narcissa and she's a prisoner. We have to get her back before he wakes up."

Evan nodded his head, staring at Severus. "After we get him somewhere safe."

"Take him deep into the forest, Evan," Melusine instructed. "Once the Ministry hears about this they will want to retaliate. I'm going to have to seal off most of the Dark Forest and only let the half-dementors stay in the unsealed part to take care of any new arrivals we might be getting. You and Florence can't go to Narcissa right now. It's too dangerous. I'm sorry."

Evan and Florence looked like they wanted to protest but both understood what she was saying so they didn't.

Harry followed along as Evan, carrying Severus, and Florence went deeper into the Dark Forest. Looking back Harry saw that only Melusine and the half-dementors remained, gathering up the dead and rounding up any stragglers to send them deeper into the Forest.

They headed to a small hut and knocked on the door. An old witch opened it and immediately let them in and started to prepare something over the stove that smelled vile. Harry's queasy stomach lurched, wanting desperately to expel its contents but Harry wouldn't let it. Florence and Evan weren't throwing up so he wasn't going to either.

Evan laid Severus on the only bed in the room and carefully felt Severus's right arm. "Broken," he informed Florence.

The old witch nodded her frizzled gray head and clucked. "Same thing happened to my husband on the last raid we had. But I fixed him up."

Harry sat next to Florence as she positioned herself near Severus's head, close enough to be able to stroke his face, which she was presently doing.

"How many raids have you guys had?"

"Lots," the old woman sighed. "But," she walked up, leaving her bubbling cauldron and staring down at Severus's face, "this is his first one. Who all died?"

"His parents, his little sister, and his other sister was taken by the Ministry," Evan spat out, his face clouding over. "Thirty, at least that was what I counted, in all. Didn't bother to count those others."

Harry could see the muscles in his chest and arms spasming, wanting, Harry guessed, to crush something or someone.

The old woman didn't seem too surprised. "I thought England would be better than some of the other places. The one I grew up in had a couple of raids in which we lost over a hundred in each. I never thought that would happen here," she shook herself. "The name is Urzula, by the way."

"Florence and Evan," Evan muttered, not distinguishing which was which, figuring, Harry knew, that the lady could tell.

Nothing more was said as Urzula got her stuff ready and tended to Severus's arm and face. "He'll sleep for several hours while the arm and head heals. What about you?" she asked Florence.

"I'm fine," she said. "They were mainly after Severus. His bad looks and all. Everyone always mistakes him for being something evil, even the kids at Hogwarts." Florence hadn't stopped stroking Severus's face. "We are going to get married after seventh year," she informed the lady. "Right after. We are going to have a nice wedding. My colors are going to be green, white, and silver, and maybe some black, but maybe not."

The lady sharply looked at Evan, who shrugged. "Aren't you a bit young, my darling, to decide who you are marrying already?"

Florence shook her head. "I've known we were getting married since first year. We were going to get on the train and my trunk slipped and crashed right into him. He fell backwards onto the pavement. My parents started to... to... to make fun of me," Florence's face twitched, "but Severus told them it was fine and he helped me get my trunk back onto the train. He was nice to me," she smiled fondly. "The first person ever to be nice to me."

Urzula sat next to Florence, drawing her hand away from Severus's face. "There are plenty of nice people out there," she said. "Lots of them. You just have to find them. You might even find someone you like more than Severus."

Harry wiped at his eyes, unable to watch. Florence was in shock. Evan was too, judging from his rippling muscles, and the lady was trying to calm them the best she knew how, by talking.

"No. Just Severus. Severus will be my husband and we will have four or six children. I already have the names picked out," she said, now stroking Severus's shoulder.

Urzula smiled. "I have to go see Melusine. I'll be back soon."

Urzula was gone for some time. Florence, growing tired, laid with her head on Severus's chest and fell asleep, her legs still hanging off the bed. Evan watched her for awhile and sighed.

"Just great. Severus is going to be devastated when he wakes up, probably much worse, Florence is going crazy and me," he laughed bitterly, "I enjoy killing people and it won't be something I'll be able to stop myself from doing now that I've had my first taste of blood. Perfect," he bit out.

Harry stared at his hands. This wasn't fair. They hadn't done anything. Why were their lives getting so messed up?

Melusine arrived with Urzula quite a bit later. Evan was dozing on the floor, with his face to the wall. Harry walked over to him and saw that his eyes were slightly opened. Eavesdropping?

"It's sealed," Melusine said, "but I don't know how long we can live with it sealed off. We need to be able to go in and out." She took a cup of something that Urzula handed her, and sipped from it. "At least it was only forty people instead of how many it could have been. They all did a good job of defending. The Ministry didn't kill anyone that wasn't at the river already when they attacked."

"Do you know why the Ministry attacked?" Urzula asked.

Melusine shook her head. "I don't know. Whenever there is a dark mage rising in power the Ministry always attacks us, or whenever a politician needs more support we get attacked, or whenever someone with position has a lusting for blood we get attacked and on and on. Since Voldemort is gaining in power, I guess it is the first reason this time."

"Should we join Voldemort?" Urzula asked.

"I don't know," Melusine slowly said, sitting down on the hearth. "Grindelwald was evil, I could tell that, but..."

"Sandor wasn't, though everyone claimed he was. Remember that."

Sandor? Harry wondered who that was.

"Yes," Melusine sighed. "It turned out he was the good guy." She rubbed her forehead. "I have to stay in England, it needs a Dark Forest, and we can't be worrying about being attacked all the time so I have to be sure that whoever is in power is someone we can trust and the Ministry has proven itself untrustworthy too many times. I guess we need to see what Voldemort is all about."

"I'll go," Evan volunteered as he sat up.

Melusine, Harry noted, wasn't surprised to see him awake.

"Me too," Florence added. "I was going to join him anyway. I hate the Ministry, I hate it," she said, her face twisted in hate.

Melusine didn't look happy. "Okay."

The memories swirled and Harry tried to stop them. He wanted to warn them all, warn them that Voldemort wasn't the way to go. But then he stopped himself. Sure Voldemort went around killing people but the Ministry did too. They had even killed children. Was Voldemort more evil than the Ministry?