Battle Lines

Chapter 6: High Security

Low Security Catwalk - Azkaban Prison

6:09:03 to deadline

'Right,' said Harry. 'You ready?'

'As ever,' replied Natalie.

'On my mark; three, two, one, MARK!'

Harry and Nat erupted from their hiding spot together. Harry jammed his finger down on the trigger of his MP-5. The Death Eaters on the catwalk across from them were forced to pay him some attention; that was what Natalie needed.

'REDUCTO!'

The spell swept along underneath the catwalk, turning the bolts holding it onto the walls into dust. The metal, devoid of any grip on the stone let go and the whole catwalk lurched downward. It came to a bone jarring halt a few feet down, throwing the wizards standing on it against the guard rail. Nat and Harry leapt over the railing of their own catwalk, landing on the stone floor one level below. Nat hit the ground, rolled and was up and running. A blast of magical energy earthed itself next to her leaving a smoking crater in the ground. The sound of sub-machine gun fire erupted behind her as Harry let rip again. The enemy was forced to duck for cover. Red holes erupted in a mist of blood from a Death Eater's chest as he fell screaming over the rail. Then Nat was through the door Hermione had entered, her companion close behind. Nat put her wand away and kept running. The crack hiss of a wand discharging signaled the arrival of their new friends. More fire from behind. Shrapnel exploded around her head, lodging itself in her Kevlar helmet. Nat turned down another passage way...

...Dead end; just a service ladder leading down into darkness.

Nat didn't even stop. She hit the ladder, grabbed it around the sides and slid down. There was a clang from above as another body hit the metal. Then the floor arrived; it jarred every bone in her body, but not as much as it should have. It gave way and she went tumbling through the trapdoor. Feet met solid stone, drop, roll, jar shoulder. Somehow her Berretta had appeared in her right hand, good thing it did, because, turning around were four very surprised Death Eaters.

BLAM! BLAM!

The first enemy's head evaporated in a red mist.

Nat was still on the ground; she rolled left just as a blast of energy obliterated the stone where she had been lying. Harry fell through the hole in the ceiling, landing on the now smoking crater. Flame erupted from his gun as he emptied what was left of his mag into two more enemies. Under the covering fire, Nat ran forward landing a vicious kick in the stomach of the final dark wizard. Vomit exploded inside the man's mask. He gagged and Nat rammed her elbow into this throat, crushing his windpipe. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to scream. Nat ripped off his mask and rammed her palm into his nose, he dropped to the floor. She wiped her hand off on her former assailant's robes.

Harry walked up, ramming another magazine into his gun as he did so. 'Eww; messy.'

'I wish they wouldn't wear those masks, it'd make life so much easier, not to mention less painful.'

Harry didn't respond, he just looked at the door. 'Hmm. Alohomora.'

The door flew open.

'HOLD YOU FIRE!' a female voice. 'Is, is that you sir?'

'Hermione?' said Harry, forgetting call signs in his relief.

'Close,' drawled a new voice, 'but no cigar.'

The lights in the space beyond came up, standing with his wand to Hermione's head was a man, about Harry's age, with slicked back blonde hair.

'Malfoy,' said Harry, it wasn't a question.

'Really Potter, I thought you'd be a little quicker on the uptake,' drawled Draco Malfoy.

'I know,' said Harry, 'I should have guessed by the aura of repulsive smugness seeping around the door.'

Draco eyed Harry coolly. 'Disarm them.'

Rough hands gripped Natalie from behind relieving her of her Berretta, wand, webbing and everything attached to it. For some reason they didn't remove her helmet.

Maybe they haven't gotten the hang of Muggle technology yet.

Only when they were devoid of weaponry did Malfoy step forward. He looked through the door to where the bodies of the four dead Death Eaters lay.

'Really Potter, did you have to do that to them?'

'That wasn't all me,' replied Harry.

'Really?' Draco looked at Natalie for the first time, 'Hmm, tell me. Are you one of Dumbledore's Muggle lovers?'

Natalie was just opening her mouth to reply when Draco continued. 'Not that it really matters. Actually, now that Potter is here I was considering letting the rest of you go, but, you know how it is. Anyway, have a nice sleep.'

With that he nodded to someone behind Natalie.

'Stupefy.'

And, for Natalie, all the lights went out.

* * *

Azkaban Prison

06:00:01 to deadline

Ron looked around the store room that he, Fred and Katie were in; overall he decided, it was a pretty good hiding spot. The room was darkened, which apart from concealing its occupants had the added bonus of silhouetting anyone entering in the doorway; silhouettes make nice targets. Ron and Fred had moved some of the crates out from the wall to give them a barricade to hide behind. Ron pulled off his NVGs and ducked back down where Fred was tending to Katie's shrapnel wounds. Fred had a red filtered torch in his mouth, drool was running down either side of the torch. Ron crawled over.

'Want me to hold that for you?' he whispered.

'Hanchwhew.'

'What?'

'Hanchwhew.'

Ron removed the torch from Fred's mouth, wiping the drool off on his fatigues. 'What did you say?'

'I said "thank you",' said Fred, 'but I'm starting to reconsider; now hold that steady.'

Fred applied the last of the gausses over Katie's wounds. They hadn't dared use magic in case it showed up on a sweep.

Fred turned to Ron. 'So little bro' any news form the others?'

'Not as yet, I recon we'll give them another hour, then call them. If they don't answer, give them another half hour. We're pretty well concealed here. If they don't answer the second time we bug out. How's Katie?'

Fred looked down at their compatriot. 'Not good. Her pulse rate has gone down after we got the fluid into her, but she's lost a lot of blood. She slips in and out of consciousness. I've put her on morphine to ease the pain when she is awake.'

He looked over at the half empty bag of fluid that was feeding through an IV line into Katie's arm.

'I think we have enough.'

'I guess it's just a case of hurry up and wait,' said Ron.

'I guess so.'

* * *

High Security - Azkaban Prison

04:30:02 hours to deadline

Natalie awoke with a tinny voice sounding in her ear.

'Please respond. If you do not respond we will be forced to assume that you are dead and will extract. I repeat...'

Natalie pulled her mike in line with her mouth. 'This is Two, please respond, over.'

'Thank god.' The voice on the other end sounded relived. 'This is Demolitions, we are in a storeroom. Ten is unconscious. What is your status? Over.'

'We're in the high security section of the prison, on the wrong side of the cell doors. No casualties. We're just sleeping off the Stupefy hex now.'

'Ok,' came Ron's voice. 'Can you describe the room you're in?'

Natalie spent the next few minutes describing, in minute detail the high security area. She noted that her gear, along with the others' was now on the centre platform being guarded by a single Death Eater.

'Right,' said Ron, 'We'll see what we can do. Demolitions, out.'

Natalie heard the comm click off and wandered over to where Phannan was lying unconscious on the floor of their cell. She gave him an experimental prod with her foot.

'Fzwt. What?'

'Wake up, and keep your voice down,' whispered Nat.

'Do you mind?' replied Phannan irritably. 'I was having a wonderful little dream about not being here and you had to go and wake me up. Do you want to hear about it?'

'Considering what your dreams are generally about, no.'

Mike shrugged, 'You know what I like about having you around Nat? That cynicism lets me know which world is real and which world I wish was real.'

'Ok, now I really don't want to know what you were dreaming about.'

Phannan grinned evilly. He rolled up on his feet, sauntered over to the bars on their cell and looked down into the void.

'Hey, that bastard's got all our gear!'

'Keep your voice down, they might figure out we're awake and want to ask questions,' hissed Natalie.

'I don't think monkey man down there could understand the English language, so no problem,' said Mike, but he shut up anyway.

'Well,' said Nat, 'not much we can do here. I'm going to go back to sleep, your turn to pretend.'

'Whatever.'

* * *

Storeroom -Azkaban Prison

03:35:13 to deadline

Ron was just changing Katie's IV drip when the door creaked. Fred was already alert. Ron edged up to their barrier and peeped over the top. A Death Eater was in the doorway, looking straight at Ron! The enemy's hand dropped toward his wand.

Oh shit.

Ron vaulted over the barricade of crates, Fred close behind and charged at the Death Eater.

'IMPEDIMENTA!'

Ron went flying backwards, crashing into the crates behind him. The barricade toppled just as Fred crash tackled the Death Eater, flying linebacker style through the air. They went down together. The enemy hit the ground first, Fred's elbow landing on his chest. The man threw Fred off and began to get up. Fred let out a vicious sidekick that bent the man's knee the wrong way, a splintering of bone and the Death Eater went down screaming. Fred fell on him, Bowie knife in hand....

The screaming ceased.

Fred got up, shaken and moved over to where Ron was hauling crates away from where Katie was. Fred's shoulders slumped; Katie was lying on the floor, a metal crate on her chest. Fred reached down and touched her neck.

'No pulse,' he said flatly. 'She's dead.'

Ron sighed, 'so will we be if we wait around here, we'd better move.'

They took Katie's dog tags, along with her MP-5, Berretta, spare mags, grenades and anything else of use. The last thing they did was burn the room.

'May as well,' said Ron, 'We don't want them to identify her if possible, or leave anything useful.'

Fred pointed his wand into the room. 'Inciendo.'

They left the door open as the flames consumed the room.

Fred and Ron were just rounding a turn from a T-section into another passage when they made their next contact. A group of four dark wizards were making their way down the passage toward them. There was no time to duck back into where they had come from. The enemy was drawing wands.

'RUN LIKE BUGGERY!' roared Ron.

He and Fred legged it in the opposite direction. Shrapnel and shards of rock bounced off their body armor. The yells of spells being cast, the snap-hiss and howls of wands discharging filled the air around them. Fred had drawn his MP-5 and was now firing blindly behind himself. There was a scream and crash as one of their pursuers caught a round. The two marines were coming up to another door.

Ron drew his wand. 'ALOHOMORA!'

The doors crashed open. Two more Voldemort followers were emerging from a passageway in front of them. They saw the two marines charging toward them, hands dropped towards wands. Fred's burst fire ripped the first one's guts to shreds. The seconds snapped off a quick shot before meeting the butt of Ron's shotgun full in the face. The two union fighters turned into the door the enemy had just come from; a spiral staircase led up from it. They hit it hard, taking the steps two at a time, bursting out of the first door they came to, out onto the roof of the prison. They sprinted full pelt away form the door from which they had emerged, turning left toward the cliffs. Magical fire whipped around their heads, piercing the night with red and green light. Another blast earthed itself near Fred's feet.

'FUCK ME! Whadda we do now?'

They were off the roof now and sprinting across the rough ground near the cliffs. Magical energy rained down around them as the sentries on the lighthouse opened fire.

Ron shouted into his mike, 'Hit the water - breath - hit feet first - breath - arms closed, then open them - breath - underwater.'

'You want to jump - breath - off the cliff!'

'Got any better - breath - ideas?'

They hit the edge of the cliff. Legs still pumping they flew out into space.

SPLASH!

Ron hit the water; as he did the opened his arms so as not to sink to far. The water was freezing. Bubbles rushed up past his head. They cleared and he struck out for the surface. They were deep, Ron's lungs began to burn, he wasn't going to make it. Then his head broke the surface and he gulped down the air around him. Fred exploded out of the water beside him, spluttering and gasping for breath. Ron trod water, as he did he looked up. The most massive wave he had ever seen was bearing down on them.

'GO UNDER!' he yelled and pushed Fred down. The wave broke dashing them up against the cliffs. They broke the surface again, coughing as spluttering.

'We've got to get further out, or we'll be pulverized,' said Ron.

The next wave was bearing down on them. Ron and Fred went under, swimming away from the cliffs. The wave broke above them, the roar dulled by the water. Ron broke the surface grabbed another breath and swam under again. About forty meters out he broke the surface and began to swim on the surface. But now the Death Eaters at the tops of the cliff had seen them. Shots from wands hammered into the water around them, causing it to flash explosively to steam. It was like swimming through a depth-charger barrage. Fred grabbed Ron by the foot.

'Bubble Head Charm,' he gasped.

'What?' said Ron.

'Bubble Head Charm,' said Fred, 'Then we can go under and stay under.'

'Oh, right.'

Another spell earthed itself near them. Ron stopped arguing.

With the Bubble Head Charms is place Fred and Ron could swim deep where the spells had dissipated their energy. They could also talk using the helmet mikes. By general agreement they had decided to head back toward the island and possibly come up under the little jetty. The water was still biting cold. Ron used his wand again to send a jet of warm water over himself. It didn't help much.

If we don't get out soon we're going to die.

Fred came over and tapped Ron of the shoulder. He pointed to a large circular grate set into the cliff, obviously it covered a pipe.

'What do you think it is?' said Fred.

'Don't know.'

They hovered in the water looking at the thing. Ron slowly swam forward reaching out he touched it; nothing.

'There's no Magic on it.'

Ron grabbed it and tried to haul himself in. The metal around his hand crumbled.

'It's all rust,' he said into his mike.

'Well?' said Fred. 'What are you waiting for?'

He swam forward and started breaking away parts the grate. In a very short time they had made a hole to swim through. Slowly they entered up the pipe. Ron flicked on two small lights on either side of his helmet. They cast a dim light on the inside of the tunnel. The inside walls were slimy and not pleasant to the touch. Something loomed up out of the darkness; Ron reached for his wand, then stopped. It was just the end of the line.

'Oh great,' said Fred. 'Dead end.'

'No,' replied Ron, looking closer at the wall, 'this is metal.'

He swam over to where the metal was attached into the wall. Brushing away some algae with his hand he found what he was looking for. Steel bars here set into the wall and locked through tabs on the metal. Ron swam around the metal circle. Four tabs all up, probably with a hinge in the middle.

'I think it's a valve of some sort and I say we go through it,' stated Ron.

'How?' replied Fred sarcastically. 'We can't blow it up this time.'

Fred was right. Explosives in a confined body of water would have been a very bad idea. If they didn't bring the whole pipeline down around them the concussion wave would crush them.

'Not explosives...' Ron pulled form his webbing a length of white cord. '...Det-cord. It's basically string coated in magnesium. It'll burn through the metal easily; we use it to set off explosives sometimes.'

Fred looked doubtful. 'Underwater? Burn underwater?'

'Yep, it burns that hot, but first we'll have to remove the hinge. Then blow the tabs all at once.'

'Bad choice of words there.'

Ron pulled out his wand again. 'Seviatum.'

A thin line of bright electric blue light extended itself from the tip of his wand, ending in around fifteen centimeters out in a bright ball of light, the type associated with lasers.

'Are you sure you should using magic?' said Fred.

'No, but this pipe wasn't on the blueprints; they may not even know it's here.'

With that Ron dug the little beam of light into the metal door. Around it the metal sparked, bubbled and brightened. Slowly Ron drew the wand across the top of the door, a thin black line appearing behind it. When he had finished he moved on to the bottom of the door.

All up it took Ron ten minutes to set the valve to blow.

'Do you want to hurry up?' said Fred. 'I'm suffering some major shrinkage here.'

Ron attached the last length of det-cord and moved back.

'Finished.'

'About bloody time; how are you going to light it?'

Without speaking Ron pulled a magnesium flare out of his webbing. He ripped off the tab and the flare ignited, burning a brilliant white.

Magnesium is a metal; when it burns it burns around three thousand degrees Celsius, so hot it rips oxygen from the water to burn.

Ron, avoiding looking at the flame touched it to the lengths of det-cord, which in turn ignited. It burned hot, melting through the steel like a hot knife through butter. It took the lengths of cord a full minute to burn out. When they did, the door was still there. Ron, bracing himself against the wall gave it a hefty kick.

'OOOH SSSHHHIIITTTT!'

The metal door, under the pressure of the water in the pipe and Ron's kick blew outwards into a vertical shaft beyond. The water followed, sweeping the two brothers helplessly along with it. Ron descended the shaft, bouncing off the walls. Something in his shoulder popped and a searing pain ran through his arm.

He hit the water at the bottom of the shaft hard, back first. Ignoring the pain he swam as deep as possible just before Fred hit. He still had the bubble head charm on and headed for the surface; or at least he tried. The water was still rushing down the shaft, and through the pipeline attached to it. Fred and Ron were carried along helplessly with the water. They curled into tight little balls to avoid injury as they bounced off the walls of the submarine pipeline. It was the longest ride of Ron's life. It could only have lasted a minute but it seemed like hours. Hours of cold pain. Then as suddenly as the rush had begun, it stopped. Ron opened one eye, then the other. They seemed to be at the bottom of a massive reservoir. Above him Ron could see the surface. The reservoir was so large he couldn't see the other side. In the middle was a giant pillar of rock that broke the surface. It appeared to be attached to one side of the reservoir by a bridge on which top was just above the water line. Above the surface were rows of what looked like cells, disappearing into the darkness.

This must be the high security...

Ron got on the radio.

* * *

High Security - Azkaban Prison

02:40:00 to deadline

'Two, come in. Two, come in. This is Demolitions, please respond, over.'

Nat started awake.

'Repeat. Two, come in. Two, come in. This is...'

She keyed her comm. 'This is Two. Go ahead Demolitions. Where are you?'

Ron's voice came back. 'Me and Nine are in the water below you. Tell me, is there a guard?'

'Yes, on the center platform.'

'And where are you?'

'In a cell, about three rows up. If you're looking away from the bridge we'd be at your ten o'clock.'

Not having flown it took Ron a few seconds to decipher this. 'Ok Two, when I say could you get his attention for me?'

'Roger that Demolitions.'

Nat got up and walked over to where Phannan was "sleeping" and gave him a gentle prod with her foot.

'Phannan, wake up,' she whispered.

Phannan opened his eyes. 'Yeah?'

'It's show time. When I say, you need to attract our guard's attention.'

'I think you may be better at that then me.'

'Not in that way,' sighed Nat. 'You know, you've got a one track mind.'

Mike grinned, rolled onto his feet and sauntered over to the door. 'Just say when.'

A minute later Ron's voice crackled to life, 'Ok, on my mark. Three, two, one, mark.'

Nat nodded to Phannan.

'YO!' he shouted. 'You! Monkey boy!'

Their Death Eater guard looked up.

'Yeah! I'm talking to you! Tell me. Did you Mom fall for a gorilla or something? Cause, geez mate, you look like it!'

The Death Eater was getting out of the chair he had been resting in. Ron erupted out of the water behind the dark wizard, wrapped a garrote around his neck and dragged him back into the water. A flurry of bubbles, then nothing. Nat and Phannan watched, transfixed.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Then the Death Eater's limp body broke the surface, floating face down. Ron and Fred hauled themselves up onto the platform. The Platform however wasn't particularly dry. It was already two good centimeters under the surface. The water was rising.

Aaron's voice echoed from the cell beside Nat. 'Take you sweet fucking time why don't you!'

Fred called back with deep sarcasm. 'Well sorry your honor. We'll have you out of there soon...'

'Crabbe?'

Nat's head jerked up. Standing in the door to the area was another Death Eater.'

Fred's shot splintered the doorway next to him. The man legged it away.

'SHIT!' yelled Ron. 'SHIT! Fred seal the door, I'll get this lot out.'

Fred was already running for the door. 'Colloportus!'

The door slammed shut. He raced up to it. Nat didn't catch what he said next, but from his wand tip erupted a hot green flame. Sunglasses on he set about welding the door shut.