The three teens leaned against a tree trying to get their breath back. Harry ached all over, the injuries he had already taken tonight did not take kindly to him running across the Scottish countryside, in the dark, while being hunted by a complete psycho bitch. But as bad has he had it, it looked like Hermione had it worse than him.
His girlfriend was a lot of things. Intelligent, determined and cute to name just a few, but one word he didn't think he would ever use to describe her was athletic. He loved his bookworm, but a cross country run like this was not what she was built for. She wasn't overweight but her figure had more to do with her parents crusade against sugar than it had to do with regular exercise.
Neville was doing better than him and Hermione . He wasn't exactly sporty himself but his interest in herbology had led to a lot of work digging and carrying heavy bags of fertilizer for Professor Sprout. Neville had also avoided the punishment that Harry had taken over the last few hours.
"We need to keep moving." Neville sounded worried, his eyes darting around looking for LeStrange.
"Just a sec." Hermione panted out between heavy breaths. "I need to catch my breath."
Harry didn't say anything. He was too occupied listening to the darkness trying to hear if someone was coming.
"Maybe we should go to Hogsmeade instead? It's closer than the school." Neville asked as he looked between the lights they could see in the distance from the two locations.
Hermione looked like she liked that idea but before she could say anything Harry spoke. "It's better to go to school. Hopefully LeStrange will assume that the village being closer is where we'll go, and we can get back to the school before they catch up with us. And don't forget, Uncle Moony said that we should go back to the castle."
"Why do you keep referring to Professor Lupin as Uncle Moony?" Neville asked.
"He was one of my dad's best friends. Apparently they all had nicknames, and Professor Lupin was Moony. And when I was a kid, that's what my parents had me call him: 'Uncle Moony,'" Harry explained as he watched Hermione try to get her breath back. They couldn't afford to wait around for too long. "We need to get moving." Hermione looked like she wanted to refuse but didn't fight Harry on it. Neville just stood up ready to leave.
"We'll need to take it slower, I don't want to be completely exhausted if they catch up with us." Harry said as he looked at Hermione. She didn't look like she could run anymore even if LeStrange was right behind them and he wasn't going to leave her behind.
They set off staying close to trees and bushes that surrounded the dales they were crossing, hoping that the foliage would make them harder to spot, as the light of the full moon lit up the countryside too much for them to risk openly crossing the fields that lay between the castle and the village. They pressed on towards the castle but it was slow going. Harry was worried about Hermione, he didn't know what LeStrange had done to her before Harry had gotten there, but given that Hermione wasn't quite like herself he seriously doubted that LeStrange had been singing her a lullaby.
They continued on to Hogwarts until they found the outer wall looming in front of them. They had approached from the side rather than taking the road that led to the main gate, reasoning that if someone was looking for them they would be found easily. This meant they still had to walk almost a quarter of the school perimeter until they reached the gate. All three of them wished they had some chocolate. They were way closer than was comfortable to the patrol routes of the Dementors and the warm summer evening felt bitterly cold against their exposed skin.
The only warning they had that something was wrong was the sound of a snapping twig. Harry didn't even think about it. He tackled Hermione and Neville, sending all three of them to the ground, narrowly avoiding the purple curse that suddenly lit-up the space where Harry's head had been only a half second before and splashed harmlessly against the old cobblestone wall that had stood for about a thousand years.
"Oh it looks like I win our little game of hide and seek!"
Harry didn't hesitate, he rolled away from his two friends and was on his feet again in seconds, the Incendio spell that had served him best in his encounters so far flying from his lips and wand with ease and lighting up the darkness.
Harry continued to move sideways away from the tangle of limbs that were still trying to catch up to the change in their situation. Spells were coming at him from inside the sudden large fire. The crackling of the fire was too loud for Harry to hear the incantations of the spells coming his way, but they were far enough away that he had plenty of time to react so there was little trouble in avoiding them. Because he had already moved away from Neville and Hermione, the spells hit random trees and rocks that covered the area. With the number of spells being shot at Harry, he guessed that both LeStrange and Malfoy were in the flames. one would have to be doing the flame freezing charm, while the other tried to curse him.
Harry was pretty much stuck, he couldn't try a different spell without stopping the fire and stopping the fire would give them a clear shot at Hermione and Neville. He couldn't even move further from his friends as that would put trees between him and the psycho making his flames useless. "Mione! Neville! I could really use a hand here!" The desperation was clear in Harry's voice as he shouted. Harry couldn't see if they were listening to him without looking away from where LeStrange and Draco were, and with the number of spells he was having to dodge that would be suicide. He couldn't hear anything over the flames so he couldn't even be sure they had heard him.
It took what felt like a few minutes and having to dodge another few volleys of spells that were fired at him, but Harry suddenly felt relieved when he saw spells coming from behind him and disappearing into the bright flames. Either Hermione or Neville had gotten back into the fight. Harry suspected Hermione; the spells were too consistent from what he expected from Neville. Judging by what the spells looked like as they entered Harry's flames, they were cutting charms and Hermione had used those against LeStrange on Halloween.
Harry suddenly realised that he and Hermione were in the same situation as they were then. LeStrange was being held off by Harry, unable to do anything but hold back the flames. Harry was determined that the results of Halloween would not be repeated. He wouldn't let Hermione be hurt this time. The flames Harry was producing grew in intensity in response to Harry's determination. Harry wasn't going to let up and he wasn't going to stand close enough for someone to land a cheap shot on him. He had learned his lessons from their last encounters.
Only this wasn't the same LeStrange he had fought twice now. That LeStrange was alone, and using a stolen wand that never accepted her. This LeStrange had a wand that worked perfectly fine for her and an accomplice that could help. Hidden as they were in the fire, Harry didn't see LeStrange get Malfoy to take over the flame freezing charm so that she would be free to act. Lestrange was a veteran of the blood war so when Harry used fire again LeStrange had been expecting it and the flame freezing charm she cast was in place almost before Harry's incendio. It took her a few minutes to get Malfoy's attention to get him to take over the flame freezing. But now that she had, she was free to act.
The only indication that Harry had that something changed was that the spells coming towards him suddenly got a lot more accurate and the colour of the magic had a lot less variety. Harry dodged as best as he could but there were a few that were way too close for comfort. When he dodged a bolt of a very familiar and distinct sickening shade of green, he was glad that the spells were aimed at him and not Hermione.
Unfortunately Harry's luck didn't hold as a red spell came shooting out of the flames. The red light was harder to see against the light coming from the fire and he didn't see it in time to dodge. When the spell hit, his body erupted in pain. It was like every nerve in his body was dropped into a vat of boiling acid, just like the first time on Halloween, yet this was on a completely different level. There was nothing but the pain, pain so intense that instead of going silent (as was his regular reaction to pain after growing up under Vernon Dursley's belt) he screamed. It was all consuming and if he could have thought about anything it would be that he wanted it to stop. How he would pay any price asked if the pain would just stop.
He didn't know if it was seconds, minutes, or hours later but the pain finally faded away, leaving his muscles aching from where he had seized up and his throat sore from screaming. It was so much worse this time than it was at Halloween. There were voices around him but he couldn't focus until he heard something he never wanted to hear. To call it a scream would never do it justice. It was almost inhuman, a shriek of agony as its maker begged for its suffering to end, and tore into Harry's heart. it was Hermione's voice.
That scream pulled Harry's attention back to the fight that was going on around him. It didn't matter how much his muscles protested, Hermione needed him. He looked up and could see the red lance of magic that connected Hermione to LeStrange's wand. In an instant of realization he understood that Hermione was experiencing what he just had. A Cruciatus curse, not from an incompatible wand fighting the person wearing it, like he had expected on Halloween, but one from a witch who fought openly on the front lines of the blood war wielding a wand that was completely compatible with her.
How Neville's wand was compatible with the psycho bitch was a question for another time, right now he had to save Hermione. He pointed his wand at LeStrange, lucky that he had unconsciously held onto it during his turn under the curse, and cast the first spell that popped into his head. " EXPELLIARMUS !!!"
LeStrange was too focused on Hermione to see Harry move and the spell hit LeStrange in her stomach. Her wand went flying in one direction, breaking the spell that Hermione was suffering under, while LeStrange was thrown away from them due to how much Harry had overcharged the spell. "Get away from her you psycho bitch!"
Harry's throat protested the shouting but Harry didn't care. Malfoy, who had been watching fascinatedly as Hermione was tortured, turned to Harry and let off a string of hexes. Harry tried to get out of the way but his muscles were still not responding quite right and he got hit with a jelly-legs jinx. Harry didn't even bother trying to stand, he just rolled to his right just in time to avoid another spell aimed at him. He tried to blast Malfoy with another Expelliarmus but he couldn't aim and roll at the same time, and Malfoy was firing spells as fast as he could to keep Harry on the defensive. Gash after gash appeared in the landscape as Malfoy's cutting charm failed to find its mark.
Harry could do nothing but watch while dodging Malfoy's spells as LeStrange picked herself up and calmly walked over to the fallen wand and picked it up. He tried to hit her with another Disarming Charm but rolling on the floor while your legs were doing everything except what you wanted was not a situation that led to accuracy. His spell did catch Malfoy somehow, knocking him from his feet and sending his wand flying. But it didn't matter.
Seeing her ally hit, LeStrange had walked towards Harry firing off spells as fast as she could, keeping Harry from fighting back as he dodged. He had less time to react with every step forward LeStrange took, until the inevitable happened and he was hit with an Incarcerous . Suddenly he was tied up in enough rope that he resembled a mummy.
LeStrange quickly also tied up Hermione and Neville. Hermione was still trying to recover from her own bout of torture and put up little resistance to being restrained, but she did way better than Neville, who it turned out was unconscious. Given the small trickle of blood that ran down his face from his forehead he must have hit his head when Harry had tackled him.
"Not bad nephew. You still need to learn to harness true magic, but you show some promise." LeStrange praised the blond git.
"Thank you Auntie Bella." Malfoy answered as he picked himself up and brushed the dirt from his robes.
A wide smile sped across LeStrange's face. It was not a warm welcome smile aimed at her nephew but a sick, predatory smile aimed at Harry that did nothing but show how crazy she is. "Pick up your wand, Draco, and I will teach you how to do your first bit of real magic."
Harry's inside went cold. He could see what was about to happen and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He couldn't call his wand with the ring while LeStrange was watching him so intensely, she would disarm him again before he could get free. He glanced over at Hermione and could see that she understood as well; there were tears flowing freely down her face and she was desperately trying to get free. He could see her wand trying to get to her hand but her hand was tied too close to her body for her to grip the wand.
Malfoy returned with his wand and he looked at Harry as though Harry was something disgusting he found on the bottom of his shoe.
"Good Draco, good. Now what do you know about true magic?" She was almost calling with glee.
"It's like wandless magic, it needs emotions fitting for the spell." Malfoy reported almost immediately, obviously eager to learn from the bitch.
"Yes! Now we are going to interrogate Potter to find out how they escaped and ruined our entertainment." She kicked Harry in the stomach. "Pain is an excellent way to loosen someone's tongue. What emotions do you think will bring real pain? What will you use to fire your first Cruciatus ?" She was whispering by the end almost sounding like she was talking about something sensual instead of torturing information out of a teenager.
"Hatred, loathing, disgust." Malfoy sounded like he was psyching himself up to feel those things. Harry was struggling against the ropes but they were too strong.
"Excellent Draco. You need to really feel it. To know that this disgusting piece of filth truly deserves it. Like this, crucio !"
Harry's world was once more nothing but pain. Mind numbing all consuming agony that left nothing but the desire to end the pain. Then it was over. Harry tried to look around, but couldn't see much. He had thrown his glasses while spasming in pain and his eyes had filled with tears. With the only light being from the full moon in the sky and a few small fires from his earlier incendio, this left him functionally blind in a world of dark blurs. He could hear perfectly well though and Hermione was screaming his name, begging them to stop hurting him.
"Why don't you give it a go, Draco?" LeStrange encouraged him.
Draco did exactly as his aunt instructed only for nothing to happen. Harry wasn't surprised, from what LeStrange had said the curse was just as advanced as the patronus charm and no-one performed a spell that advanced on their first try. His second and third attempts were no more effective. On his fourth Harry finally felt something, there was an itch, almost a burning sensation, in the small area of his chest that Malfoy had his wand pointed at.
It wasn't enough to get Harry to react at all. Harry could see that Malfoy was annoyed with his lack of results. "Having performance issues Malfoy?" Harry instantly regretted that choice. Harry's taunting had galvanized Malfoy's emotions and his next crucio was a lot more effective, this time Harry had to fight not to react to the pain. It was nowhere close to even the diminished curse that he had experienced on Halloween, but it still wasn't exactly pleasant.
The pattern continued for a while, Draco trying again and again each time improving marginally yet never reaching his aunt's level even with an incompatible wand.
---ϟϟϟ---
Auror Moonshine was checking one of the Hogwarts upper floors. About forty minutes ago Professor McGonagall had approached him telling him that three of her students were missing. Apparently a couple of her Gryffindors had told her that three of her students hadn't returned to the common room for curfew. Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal, just a case of giving the students detention when they turned up again.
The problem was that the three students that had gone missing were a Miss Granger, the next head of the Longbottom family, and the Harry Potter. The three of them had already been attacked by the escaped convict LeStrange. That was why there was currently always an auror at the school, not to police the students but to look for the Azkaban escapee. Auror Moonshine had immediately started looking around the school for either a sign of the teens or for anything that might explain what had happened to them.
The thing about great big balls of fire in the middle of the night is that they are easy to spot and they tend to draw the attention of law enforcement. Moonshine cursed the school's anti-teleportation ward's and began to run. The fire was not close to him at all; he would have to descend from the castle, cross the grounds and then run around the outside wall. Despite being in his mid twenties and keeping fit for his job, the trip to the place he had seen the fire was located was not quick. As soon as Moonshine had crossed the ward barrier at the school gate he called a couple of dementors with a quick flick of his wand. He didn't wait for them though knowing that they would catch up soon. Instead, he began jogging around the outer wall of the school.
When he arrived on the scene, Moonshine was dismayed to see the three teens on the floor, with two people standing over them. For a brief moment he thought that the teens were dead. Then he realised that one of the two standing was trying to use the torture curse on one of the downed teens. It was only then he saw that two of the teens were moving, one wriggling under the effect of the torture curse and one was trying to get to the one being tortured. So at least two of them were alive.
"You need to really feel it, Draco. But don't just focus on the disgust, try to enjoy it. This bit of filth deserves this and you should feel good about dishing out the pain it deserves." It was LeStrange and by the sound of it she was teaching someone to do the Cruciatus , using the-boy-who-lived as as victim
" Crucio !" That one yelled, and from his voice Moonshine could tell it was another teenager. He winced; there were some parts of this job he loved but arresting this teen for using an unforgivable wasn't going to be one of them. Handing someone so young to the dementors was never pretty. He had seen it once before a young wizard who used potions to control his parents. There was a moment when the teen realized what was going to happen to him and suddenly you could see just how young and afraid he was.
About two seconds after the blond teen had cast his spell, Moonshine announced himself. "D.M.L.E Auror, lay down your wands and surrender, you are under arrest!"
---ϟϟϟ---
Suddenly the dull pain in Harry's chest stopped, as a surprised Malfoy turned to look behind him. Harry looked past him and saw an auror with his wand raised and pointed directly at LeStrange.
Harry's heart started doing cartwheels before it plunged into a hole. For a second it looked like they would be saved, but instead LeStrange lifted her wand and fired at the red-robed auror. The auror, though, seemed to expect this and sidestepped the spell before it could hit him. He fired back, and over the next minute red and green were exchanged between the two. LeStrange seemed to have the upper hand, with the auror half-hiding behind a tree that had been alive at the start of the fight but had died after being struck by one of LeStrange's spells.
While everyone was focused on LeStrange and the auror, Harry was able to summon his wand. A quick all-purpose counterspell and a severing charm later, the jinx on his legs was finally ended and he was unbound. LeStrange was too focused on the auror to pay any attention to him, maybe she thought Harry couldn't escape or that Malfoy would guard him until she was finished with the member of the D.M.L.E. it didn't really matter what she thought, she was wrong. Harry was able to free himself and Malfoy had frozen.
Harry was just about to cast a spell when LeStrange sidestepped another red bolt of magic from the auror, and seeing his chance Harry took it. He twisted himself around a little and kicked out as hard as he could to the back of her knees. Taken by surprise, LeStrange went down hard. Her knees hit the ground denting the soft earth. She quickly turned to face Harry a look of fury etched on her face. She raised her wand and was just about to cast on Harry when there was a flash of red light and she went limp. The auror had finally hit her with the red spell he was firing and she had fallen unconscious. Then Malfoy had fallen down next to her as he was hit with another red spell.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and crawled over to Hermione and pulled her into his arms. It took the two of them almost five minutes to calm down enough to do anything. They had been riding an adrenaline high while dealing with LeStrange, and with her and Malfoy finally being unconscious Harry and Hermione had crashed. Hermione had dissolved into tears, clinging to Harry as though she was afraid she wouldn't be able to ever again. Harry had held together somewhat better but was still holding Hermione to him so tightly that she would probably have a few bruises in the morning. Both of them would have refused to let go of anyone had tried to get him to, but he two were left to pull themselves together.
It took a while but eventually, the two pulled themselves together enough that they started to worry about Neville. They found that the auror was tending to him, Neville was awake and was insisting that he be allowed to check on Harry and Hermione.
"I'm fine, just a little headache. Let me go check on my friends!" Neville insisted.
"Mr. Longbottom, you have a head injury and a concussion. You will remain right where you are. Your friends are awake and responsive. You were unconscious when I arrived, you are the first priority. Now sit down and let me deal with your concussion." Neville looked like he was going to argue about it until Hermione spoke up.
"He is right Neville head injuries are nothing to dismiss." Hermione, who still had her head buried in Harry's chest, added as she slowly started to calm down.
"See, your friends are OK, now hold still."
"Do you even know what you're doing?"
"All aurors have basic magical first aid training. We're not fully qualified healers but we are taught enough to keep you stable till you can get to the healers." The red robed auror explained. "So Mr. Longbottom? Are you a relation of Frank and Alice Longbottom?" the auror asked, a dark look coming over his face as his gaze switched between Neville and the unconscious woman lying only a few feet from them, her hands secured behind her back in magic blocking manacles.
"They are my parents," answered Neville in a quiet voice.
"I'm sorry, kid. Your father is a legend with the old guard back at auror headquarters." It was only now that any of the teenagers took notice of the auror's age. He was in his mid twenties, he couldn't have been a full auror for more than a couple of years.
The auror continued to patch up Neville as best he could as Harry and Hermione picked themselves up. Harry looked at the two unconscious people bound on the ground and felt his anger rising. "Don't do it kid. It's not worth getting chucked into Azkaban for." The auror said as he worked on Neville. It was only then that Harry realized that he had his wand pointed at LeStrange the spell for cutting echoing through his mind.
He wanted to end her for everything she had done. She was one of Voldemort's people, she had helped him kill so many, she had taken Neville's parents and condemned his friend to having to see the shells that were left of the people who should have raised him. She had taken Harry's godmother, condemning him to a life at the Dursleys. She had touched him, and more importantly, she had hurt Hermione. Every instinct was telling him that the world would be a safer place for the few people he cared about, that he should just do it and accept whatever happens.
"She deserves it. For everything she has done, she deserves it!" Harry could feel himself working up to it.
"You're probably right kid." The auror had finished with Neville now and was standing with his wand pointed at Harry. "But you don't have the right to make that choice. This isn't a duel or a fight anymore. She is bound and helpless, it's up to the Wizengamot what happens now."
"Harry." Hermione's voice was barely over a whisper. "Don't do this please. Don't get yourself taken away from me. Please, Harry, I need you." Hermione gently put her hand over the top of the hand Harry was holding his wand in and pushed his hand down with almost no force. It struck Harry what he had almost done and suddenly he was on his knees throwing up. Hermione next to him was rubbing his back.
"Good choice kid." The auror said as he vanished the sick from the floor and the front of Harry's robes. "Even if you had gotten off, and with your fame and with everything she has done it was possible, that decision would have followed you for the rest of your life."
"Come on Harry, let's get you back up to the castle. I'm sure Madam Pomfrey has your bed waiting for you." Neville joked as he put Harry's left arm (the one not clutching tightly to his wand) around his shoulder and levered Harry to his feet.