"What the Fuck!?" Nymphadora cursed as they looked at the scene outside. People were running like headless chicken in every direction. Harry could see that some people were being levitated in the air a distance away but couldn't make out who they were or who were doing it. He could see flames and smoke rising from where the stadium was located.
"HARRY! SIRIUS!" Arthur Weasley's voice rang out. They turned to see the whole Weasley family coming towards them. "Glad you all are alright. I was worried." Arthur said panting due to shortness of breath.
"Do you have any idea of what's going on there Arthur?" Sirius asked pointing to the figures in the air.
"Not exactly. But I could see Black robed figures levitating them. I couldn't see who they were. They were more than half a dozen with shields active around them. Also someone set the quidditch stadium on fire along with some tents. Ministry is trying to bring the fire under control first. Some are trying to bring the shields down as far as I know and save the people who are being held."
Sirius and Andromeda paled. "Death Eaters?" Andromeda whispered. Arthur nodded uncertainly.
"We should go and help them. I was a Hit-wizard myself. We can help. Dora, Arthur with me. Charlie, Bill, Percy, Andi go to the woods with the kids and apparate them home. Harry, go to the Burrow if you need or to our house. MOVE IT!" Sirius commanded. Harry, for the first time, could see the Sirius who was the Hit-Wizard in the Blood war instead of the irresponsible prankster he usually behaved like.
Sirius, Nymphadora and Arthur moved towards the levitating people, while Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny, Andromeda, Bill, Charlie and Percy moved towards the Woods. Andromeda took the front, Percy took the center while Bill and Charlie took the right and left sides respectively. Harry took the rear of the group.
The ward boundary was nearly a away from their current position. Moving there was difficult because of the sheer crowd of people running around. It was night time, so even the visibility was low due to the darkness (though Harry could see clearly due to the ritual he had done) leading people to stumble around. Harry could see spell fire happening at a few places around them. Harry deflected a stray stunner from a pair of wizards who were fighting with each other, clearly drunk.
' Damn! So we are under attack from Death Eaters, people are running haywire, Tents on fire, several are inebriated and getting into fights with each other. What's next? ' Harry thought to himself before releasing a wide area pushing jinx to clear some area for their party to move. "TO THE WOODS! DON'T STOP! AND STAY CLOSE TO ANOTHER PERSON!" Harry yelled to his friends, his voice rising above the commotion.
"Ok!"; "Yeah!"; "Got it!" replies came from the people around him including some strangers. He could see Ginny, Fred and George group together and moved towards Bill. Charlie and Andromeda and Ron, Hermione and Percy as a group.
"That wasn't what I meant! Stay together." Harry said but his voice was drowned among the chaos.
'Superb. I am left alone now.' Harry thought sarcastically but followed them. Harry was the most capable duelist in the party. He knew that.
Harry waved his wand again, extinguishing a fire which had started on a tent. Suddenly someone slammed into Harry making him stumble. A quick sorry was muttered before the wizard continued running ahead. A whole lot of people had gotten into the way between Harry and his friends. Harry did another pushback jinx but he could hardly make some way. His friends had gotten away far enough that he could Hardly spot them.
'Fuck! Fuck! Shit!' Harry internally cursed. 'Fuck it! I am going to make my way to the woods and apparate home and send a Patronus or floo call them.' Thinking so he changed his direction so that he could move a little freely without needing to push his way through. He activated mage sight and saw that the Ward line was still a third of a mile away (approx. 500 meters).
Harry jumped over a broken pole before he heard a ground shattering scream originating from his left. Harry was horrified by what he saw. A group of black robed figures were surrounding a family. They wore skull masks to hide their identities. Death Eaters.
Without thinking Harry moved towards them. He couldn't let the family die or get tortured! As he got near, he hissed in Parseltounge, erecting a anti-travel field. It was one of Salazar's parselmagic invention which prevented any form of magical travel from a place.
Harry needed to get rid of the shields that were protecting the Death Eaters.
"CONFRINGO DESTRUCTUS" Harry yelled shooting the blast from his wand. It was a battle magic spell which was known by a very few. A blasting curse so powerful that it could easily level a metal wall if needed. The shields shattered upon contact with a huge bang. The Death Eaters were startled by their shields shattering with a single spell.
Harry took advantage of their brief shock and waved his wand sending the family a little distance away and erecting a shield dome on them before he started shooting spells at the Death Eaters with full speed. 'Reducto, Obstupefio, Piercio, Deprimo, Secare Infindo, Pila Incendio' The first spell impacted the shoulder of a death eater taking it off. His screams snapped the others out of their stupor but not before the advance stunner impacted another death eater. Harry's next two spells were shielded against but his cleaving curse cut a death eater's legs from the knees, leaving him to bleed on the ground.
Harry ducked, deflected and dodged the spells the Death Eaters started sending his way before he waved his wand conjuring a swarm of butterflies which took the curses and other spells instead of him. Harry could see everyone else running away from the location instead of trying to help him. Damn cowards!
He barely dodged a bone-breaker which had slipped through his shield before he returned fire. 'Bombarda, Obstupefio, Obstupefio, Expelliarmus, Mutilo Optruco (Mutilating curse), Obstupefio.' Harry was thankful to his occlumency which was helping him intercept spells from the Death Eaters, and shoot at the same time.
The first spell impacted near the feet of the Death Eaters, blowing two of them off their feet. The stunners ensured that they won't be rejoining their associates. Five down 6 more to go.
His Expelliarmus and mutilating curse were stopped with a shield. That was when someone realized something. "IT'S POTTER!". The death eater who had yelled was promptly stunned as an advance stunner hit him on his face, courtesy of Harry.
Harry waved his wand once again and all the butterflies were transfigured into spikes which went shooting at the Death Eaters. Most spikes were shielded against but one hit its mark: on a Death Eater's abdomen. The death eater screamed in pain. From the scream, Harry could tell the Death Eater was a female. Another death eater send magical ropes at Harry. Harry set them on fire and banished them at the female death eater who screamed in agony as she was burnt.
"AVADA KEDAVRA" A death Eater shot the killing curse towards Harry. Harry's eyes widened before he waved his wand and a wall of dirt intercepted the spell. Harry snarled and banished the pieces of the wall at them.
He formed another one of his butterfly shield and started attacking. 'Conlido, Confodere (stabbing curse), Sectis Extermino (burning cut), Fulmenti Flagellum (Lightning whip)' The first three were unfortunately stopped but the lightning whip successfully lashed on the death eater who had shot the killing curse, making him scream. The butterflies were dropping due to being hit.
"IMPERIO. Drop your wand. Drop your wand and surrender." Harry felt light headed sensation and the voice told him to drop his wand.
'Why should I? I am in the middle of a fight, why should I drop my wand?' He thought to himself. That broke the spell. Harry looked at the Death Eater who was wide eyed and shot a Reducto, blowing off his forearm
He suddenly felt a burning sensation on his abdomen as a Lacero hit it. He winced in pain as warm blood flowed from the wound. He deflected a stupefy and an Blood-boiling curse. 'Protego Scutum Maxima' He erected a full body shield before hissing in parseltounge. The spell shot and his wand started sealing. The blood flow lessened and soon stopped. Parseltounge healing spells were very powerful after all and add his own healing factor, he would be perfectly fine in a few minutes. All this while the remaining two Death Eaters were shooting spells at the shield, trying to break it. Needless to say, they were unsuccessful.
Somehow the killing curse guy had also managed to shakily get up but was yet to cast. Harry dropped the shield and deflected an organ shredding curse and a Bone crusher before returning fire with bone breakers, stunners and cutting curses.
The Killing Curse guy went down first after being hit by a bone breaker followed by an advanced stunner. The remaining two erected a shield to protect themselves from the onslaught. Harry growled and shot two Bombarda Maxima spells at their respective shields. One shield held but the other broke and the death eater was blasted away. Harry immediately stunned him (or her).
The remaining death eater who was still standing saw his companion go down and yelled, "SAFE BASE!" Harry felt his anti portkey jinx getting strained as 11 portkeys activated at the same time but it fortunately held. The death eater panicked and tried to run away, abandoning the safety of his shield. Harry immediately caught him with an advanced stunner and put him down.
He had succeeded and thwarted the attack. He stepped bac and looked at his wound. It had completely stopped bleeding and now looked several days old. With a wave of his wand he cleaned the blood off his robes and with another repaired them. He walked towards the fallen death eaters. He immediately took away their wands and portkeys before wrapping them in magic restraining chains. He made sure that everyone was alive and stopped the bleeding of some by cauterizing the cut parts.
Then he turned to the family who was watching him wide eyed. He removed the dome and kneeled down.
"Are you all alright?"
The man who was probably the patriarch shakily joined his hands and said, "Thank... Thank you sir. Thank you for saving my family. We would have-have died. I-I don't know what would they have done to my wife and children." Harry looked at the wife who was cradling the two children. The boy was asleep while the girl was staring at him. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
"Sir, it was no problem... I did what was right... Now, are you hurt or seriously injured somewhere?" The man shook his head. "Can you walk?" The man nodded. "Very well..."
"OH MY GODS! YOU ARE HARRY POTTER!" the girl suddenly yelled startling her brother awake. They apparently hadn't heard the death eater shout it, from their wide eyed look.
Harry gave the little girl a smile. "Yes, I am. What's your name?"
"Selena, sir."
"It is nice to meet you Selena. How old..." Harry stopped as he could hear people running towards him. He got up and saw several witches and wizards in red robes running towards them- Aurors.
"Aurors! Put down your wands and surrender!" An Auror commanded.
"You are late, Mr. Auror. I already did your job for you." Harry remarked dryly.
The aurors looked around and saw the death eaters wrapped in chains, some of them missing their limbs.
"What happened here, Mr. Potter?" One asked. Several Aurors eyes widened seeing whom they were talking to. Harry recognized the voice as Kingsley Shacklebolt's.
"These bastards were attacking this family. I saw that and acted. They all are alive, and bound in magic restraining chains, the chains will vanish after seven hours... till then, no one can remove them. Here are their wands and their portkeys. You will also find that two wands have evidence of Unforgivables being casted, specifically the killing curse and the imperious curse. I hope that these people will be standing on trial, Mr. Shacklebolt?"
Kingsley nodded and took the bag from Harry. "Thank you, Mr. Potter. You have done the country a great service today. But I am afraid your part isn't done yet. You would be called to testify against them."
"All letters addressed to me, given that they aren't cursed or have something harmful will find their way to me via Gringotts mail box. I will be there when you call for it." Sirius had purchased a Gringotts mail box for house Potter-Black which would direct the letters to Gringotts where it would be check for traps and such before being forwarded to Harry. Hedwig was thankfully exempted from that ward which redirected letters.
"Round 'em up lads. Make sure they are put in cells and note their identities."
"Yes sir!" The aurors said and began rounding them up. Harry suddenly saw something green forming up n the sky from the corner of his eye. It was a skull with a snake coming out from its mouth- The dark mark. Something not seen for the past 13 years. That was when Harry realized something... His friends had ran in that same general direction.
"Shit!" Harry started running towards the direction of the dark mark.
"Harry! Don't go there!" Kingsley shouted.
"My friends have gone in that direction! I am not leaving them." Harry said without looking back.
"Damnit! You all round them up. Stevens, Carter..." That was all Harry heard before he went out of hearing range.
Harry rushed towards the place above which the mark was floating. He hoped that his friends were alright. He couldn't bear to loose them all. He shoved people who were running away from the place and continued. He arrived at the clearing where he could see several aurors already present including his family and friends except Sirius, Arthur and Nymphadora. That was before Harry saw the situation they were in.
"Do not lie, girl!" Mr. Crouch was shouting, his wand was pointing directly at Hermione's head, and his eyes were popping - he looked slightly mad. "You have been discovered at the scene of the crime! One of you two casted the dark mark"
"Lower your wand Crouch, before I deem you guilty enough to declare a blood feud on the House of Crouch." Harry said in a cold voice. How dare the man accuse his friends of such a crime. Several people gasped. Blood feuds were serious business.
"We did not do it Mr. Crouch. There was someone behind the trees. . . they shouted words - an incantation -" Hermione quickly said. Several people surrounding them immediately pointed their wands at the trees.
"Oh, stood over there, did they?" said Mr. Crouch, turning back, his popping eyes on Hermione again, disbelief etched all over his face. "Said an incantation, did they? You seem very well informed about how that Mark is summoned, missy - !"
"I told you Crouch to keep your accusations and your wand to yourself. And while you are at it, stop accusing innocents for something they didn't do. After all it won't be the first time an innocent suffers due to your accusations." Harry's warning boomed as he moved closer.
"I spent a decade as the Head of DMLE boy. Do not..."
"You were useless even there, weren't you?" Harry interrupted his tirade. "You sent an innocent person and a war hero, a Hit-wizard for the ministry, to Azkaban without a trial and you didn't even notice that a death eater was living with you, who was your own son, no less. So, forgive me if your assessment skills are impossible to trust upon."
Crouch frothed and turned his wand towards Harry. "You DARE! I WILL- ARRGHH" he let out a pained shriek as the bones in his wand arm were crushed and he dropped his wand due to a Bone-crushing curse from Harry.
"What are you all looking at me and the incompetent cunt for? Go and check the woods for the Death Eater who fired the mark. And Crouch, next time you point a wand at me or my friends or family, it will be your last as after that you won't have a hand to hold the wand. This is my last warning." Harry said. Some people quickly went to the woods and Bill, who was trying to defend his friends from moved near Harry.
"We're too late," said a witch in a woolen dressing gown, shaking her head. "They'll have Disapparated."
"I don't think so," said a wizard with a scrubby brown beard. It was Amos Diggory, Cedric's father. "Our Stunners went right through those trees... There's a good chance we got them..."
"Amos, be careful!" said a few of the wizards warningly as Mr. Diggory squared his shoulders, raised his wand, marched across the clearing, and disappeared into the darkness. Hermione watched him vanish with her hands over her mouth.
A few seconds later, they heard Mr. Diggory shout. "Yes! We got them! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's - but - blimey..."
"You've got someone?" shouted Mr. Crouch grunted from his position on the ground as his arm was being healed by another wizard as a first aid. "Who? Who is it?
Amos Diggory emerged with a house elf in his arms. Harry saw Crouch pale and narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"No. NO! That's not possible! Winky can't do it." Crouch said picking up his wand gingerly and moving to the spot where Mr. Diggory had emerged from.
"No point, Mr. Crouch," Mr. Diggory called after him. "There's no one else there."
But Mr. Crouch did not seem prepared to take his word for it. They could hear him moving around and the rustling of leaves as he pushed the bushes aside, searching.
"Bit embarrassing," Mr. Diggory said grimly, looking down at the elf's unconscious form. "Barty Crouch's house-elf. . . I mean to say..."
"It is a dark spell Amos. It needs a wand to cast. An house elf can't cast it." The witch in the woolen gown said.
"I found a wand in her hands... here." He said taking a wand out of his pockets and showing it.
"That's mine!" Percy exclaimed. "I couldn't find it after returning from the match!"
"She must have picked it up by mistake." Hermione defended the elf.
"Priori Incantenum." A skull like shape formed from the wand tip as Amos Diggory casted the wand check spell. "This wand was used to fire the dark mark." He said grimly.
"So, Crouch's house elf fired the mark?"
"Yes."
Harry pointed his wand towards the emerging figure of Barty Crouch and shot an Expelliarmus and magical restraining chains, disarming him and binding him before stunning him as well.
"What are you doing!?" A wizard asked.
"Making sure that the death eater doesn't attack us." Harry said with a shrug.
"But Barty Crouch didn't fire the mark, so..."
"His elf did. An elf can only act in his master's orders and their well being." It wasn't exactly true. An elf with enough will and a weak bond could act against their well being but not orders, but it was not known. And Harry didn't think that the elf would cast a dark mark to get Crouch in trouble.
"True." A witch remarked.
"But, Barty put his own son in Azkaban... He can't be a death eater!"
"It is a high possibility and I am unwilling to take any risks. We won't know for sure till he is questioned by the Aurors. Also, today he wasn't present during the match despite having front row seat in the top box and being the Head of foreign affairs meaning that his presence during such an important event should be necessary, yet he didn't do his duty. He could have been planning for today's attack and ordered his elf to cast the mark during that time."
"That is an interesting theory you have Mr. Potter. But what you said is true, an elf can only act in his master's orders and their well-being. Unfortunately, we can't take Barty crouch into custody based on a mere theory and without concrete proof that he ordered the attack. He can be called for questioning but not put in prison unless his guilt is proven." A voice said from behind them. Harry turned to see Amelia Bones standing there with a couple of Aurors.
"But you can detain him in a DMLE medical room under observation till he is called for questioning for health and safety reasons." Amelia gave a nod at that. "By the way, how long were you here?"
"I got here when Mr. Diggory did the wand check." Harry nodded.
"Also you will be called to give a statement on what happened here as you stunned Crouch. You too Amos. Any other person willing to give a statement must send a letter to the DMLE and book an appointment."
"I already have to go to answer questions regarding my capture of 11 death eaters. I don't have problems if you ask me about one more."
"You captured 11 Death Eaters?"
"Yes. You're welcome. Your aurors are now taking them in." Harry said with a bow.
"It is true Director Bones." Kingsley confirmed.
"Shouldn't we all be questioned regarding the Dark Mark being cast?" Hermione suddenly asked.
"The word of two people and their memories are enough but if you have something more you are welcome to share."
"I was present here when the mark was cast. Both Ron and I were."
"Then you both also need to come to DMLE. A letter will reach you tomorrow giving you the time you need to report to give your statements and memories." Hermione nodded.
"What about Winky?"
"The elf will be taken into custody till it is determined whether Mr. Crouch guilty or not." Amos Diggory answered.