RoLP Ch.90: The Time Nears

The crackle of flame echoed through the quiet kitchen as the flames in the fireplace turned a brilliant emerald green and Harry stepped out, dusting the ash off his robes and glancing at the members gathered there, nearly all of whom had been with him only a couple of hours ago.

“How’s Tonks?” Fleur drifted closer, still wearing the same robes that she had worn to go and look for the Diadem. “Is she okay?”

Harry nodded, his eyes darting around the room, taking in Molly Weasley’s worry-wrought face. “She’s fine. Sirius is staying with her, and so are Dumbledore and the rest of the professors, as they are staying in the castle anyway. Tonks is suffering from severe magical exhaustion because of the possession and is currently under observation at Hogwarts in Madam Pomfrey’s care. Even Perenelle has checked her out.”

“Do you reckon she’ll be alright?” Mrs. Weasley twiddled with her thumbs. “The poor girl. She’s lost so much already. Suffered so much. This seems awful.”

“Physically, she should be alright in a day or two,” Harry replied heavily. “Mentally is a different story altogether. She was still dealing with her mother’s death when the possession happened. So, mentally, she’s in a terrible state. I used Legilimency on her during our fight. I have never gone into a mind so… tainted.”

“Tainted?” Fleur frowned, glancing at Susan and Daphne, who shook their heads.

“With sadness, grief, and pain. It was all amplified a hundred-fold by Voldemort being there.” Harry grimaced. “Emotions are a part of us, but each is within a certain limit. Voldemort squashed all the good feelings and found the worst ones, assaulting her with her own memories while amplifying them. It broke her mentally, which is what allowed him to take control of her mind in the first place. As far as mental assaults go, it is the worst one you can put someone through.”

Everyone around the kitchen winced. 

“But you reversed it, right?” Daphne asked. “You got her out.”

“I technically hit the assault with the equivalent of a mental Patronus and pulled the other feelings and memories up to counteract it. Of course, emotions don’t always come in opposites, but it balanced her mind enough to regain control of herself and throw the diadem off. And once the Tiara was off, the possession broke, and Voldemort couldn’t continue his assault.”

“But the damage was already done,” Bill said. “I’ve seen stuff like this. Wards, really. There was one in a tomb which we called a ‘nightmare ward’. Whoever crossed it was trapped in a terrible dream-like state. They needed to take time off to heal once we got them out. They weren’t the same for a while.”

“Tonks will likely have mood swings for a while, amongst other things. Probably even nightmares,” Harry shuddered. “Voldemort’s possession was a traumatic event in itself. His assault on her mind would’ve dragged up other things Tonks might’ve dealt with or buried a long time ago. And the way he did it was even worse.”

Fleur winced again before hanging her head. “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault, ‘arry. I shouldn’t have left her.” She babbled. “She could’ve died because of me. She nearly did. I just… I ‘eard you scream, and— and—”

“Hey, hey,” Harry said, squeezing her shoulder. “You reacted to the circumstances. You went to help me. I would’ve done the same had I been in your place. Voldemort’s a master manipulator when he wishes to be, and Tonks isn’t the first person he has controlled. Hopefully, she’ll be the last, but blaming yourself isn’t the right thing to do.” 

“But I left her. She was with me, and I left her. If I hadn’t…”

“Then Voldemort would’ve found someone else,” Harry declared. “Or some way else if he had decided on Tonks being his target. Believe me, there’s little that actually stops him. Death certainly doesn’t.” Harry’s face darkened. “Thankfully, we’re closer to making it stick now.”

“The Diary,” Bill said suddenly, and Harry turned to him, meeting his severe brown eyes. “You said the crown was keeping Voldemort alive. What was the crown, Harry? Because it did stuff akin to what my sister went through with the diary, and… was it the same thing? And if yes, what the hell are these things?”

Harry felt several stares bore into him as he stared Bill down. “That you’re better off not knowing, not only for your own sanity but for your safety.”

“Bullshit.” Bill shot to his feet, slamming his hands on the table. “We all just risked our lives, and Tonks nearly died! My sister nearly died four years ago to something hell of a lot similar! We have a right to know.”

“I would usually agree with you, Bill,” Harry said placatingly. “There’s a reason we handpicked this group for today’s expedition. We had initially decided to go with numbers and skills, but afterward Dumbledore and I decided to pick those who were most loyal instead. Why? Because we realized that we would have to explain some things and couldn’t risk a whisper getting out. None of you would’ve babbled, which is why we took you. But you all already know too much.”

“What do you mean?” Hestia Jones asked while Fred and George frowned. “Also, these girls know exactly what you’re talking about.” She pointed at Daphne, Susan, and Fleur. “They may try to pretend that they don’t, but they aren’t as good as they think. Not to any auror worth their salt. So why not tell us what exactly it was? We already know a bit, and you might as well tell us the full thing.”

“Let’s not forget that cup thingy that Voldemort wants—” Fred began.

George continued, “Could be something similar.”

“Me thinks, brother dearest, it is the exact same thing. Something that is keeping him alive.”

“Just like Harrykins said that the tiara was.”

Harry tilted his head. “So what’s the question here?”

“Harry, what they— what we are asking is what exactly those things are?” Remus spoke up, his voice serene and calm, as if he were still teaching the DADA class. “You claimed you didn’t know what the cup Voldemort wants is, and yet Dumbledore and you are keen on letting it get out, especially once you knew the goblins won’t hand it over.” He gave Harry a penetrating look. “So you know more than you’re letting on. We want to know what those things are so next time we can be better prepared.”

“Knowing what it is didn’t help us, and I doubt it’d help you.” Harry snorted. 

“Perhaps a gist?”

Harry let out a long breath. “To give a rough idea, Voldemort has made these things which prevent him from dying. It is some pretty awful magic which we had to research for weeks, even to make heads or tails of. And yes, we suspect that the cup is one, just like the tiara and the diary, which is why we want it destroyed.”

“Which is why you want it out. If you can get your hands on it, you can destroy it.” Hestia frowned. “How many more are there?”

“We believe two,” Harry said. 

“Which means he made five,” Remus’ forehead creased. “Which is an odd number, really. Neither three, nor seven.”

“Close. He made six. So far, we’ve successfully destroyed four of them as of today— the diary, a locket, a ring, and the tiara. If we succeed in destroying the cup, that’s five. If we don’t and Voldemort uses it, Professor Dumbledore reckons that he’ll have to sacrifice it anyway to regain his body. Which will leave us with only one.”

“Which we have to find.” Remus nodded. “And proceed with caution before destroying.”

“More like wrangle it from Voldemort’s side and kill it,” Susan muttered, and everyone in the room turned to her. “Harry reckons that Voldemort’s snake is a thing like the diary and the tiara.” She glanced at Harry, who nodded. 

“That is true. And we are expecting it to come to a head soon.” Harry clasped his hands behind his back. “If we’re planning to do whatever we are, we’ll have a shot at taking Voldemort down. Maybe Grindelwald too, as he’ll come out in Britain in a couple of days to give Voldemort time, as Snape told us.”

“But we have to protect the people, too.” Hestia protested. “And if they’ve half a brain. They’d attack multiple locations at once.”

“Which is what we have to figure out in tomorrow’s meeting.” Harry inclined his head. “It is a full Order meet for a reason. Its agenda is to figure out a way to kill at least one of the dark lords, if not both of them.”

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The sun set upon the dwindling gardens of Malfoy Manor, and Narcissa caught her sad, grey eyes in the window’s pale reflection. Her once pristine house was crumbling, like every bit of her life since Lucius had died, caught between Potter and the Dark Lord.

When Lucius had told her about Potter strong-arming him into playing for his side, she had breathed a sigh of relief as it meant that, however the war turned out, they would’ve been safe. 

But then, Potter had pulled the rug from under them, not even bothering to speak up for Lucius when the time had come. On top of it, not only had he thrown Lucius to the wolves, but he had also pushed to have him executed. And he had succeeded.

The only other person she had known to be that cruel to those who worked for him was the Dark Lord himself. And Potter was no different.

“Lady Malfoy,” a smooth, cultured voice rang in Narcissa’s ear, and she nearly shrieked as she whirled around, drawing her wand. Grindelwald stood in her bedroom, leaning against the wall next to the closed door, an amused smile on his lips. “Good evening.”

Narcissa gulped down a harsh retort, bowing her head, mentally cursing the third Dark Lord, whom she had to make a bargain with. “My Lord Grindelwald. What can I do for you?”

“I merely stopped by to see if you have a plan to take care of your sister and anyone whom Voldemort would send alongside you,” Grindelwald’s heterochromatic eyes bore into her. “How do you plan on getting the cup to me before it gets to our friend downstairs?”

Narcissa walked up to a small drawer by her bedside and pulled out a thin, golden chain with a small, silver hourglass dangling at its base. “With this. It is a Time-Turner, one of the very few that work and aren’t under the clutches of the ministry.”

“I have heard of these. Wonderful pieces of magic which the British ministry protects rather fiercely. Word is that your department of mysteries hid them completely a little over a year ago.” His eyes gleamed. “Doubtlessly, Albus at work. Or the Potter boy, you cannot tell these days. Hiding wondrous magic from those chosen by her is something they’d do, if for nothing else than to avoid your late husband’s lord from getting his hands on one. I do wonder how you have this, though.”

“Lucius got this one years ago off someone,” Narcissa said shakily. “It isn’t as good as the real time turners at the ministry are, but it’ll suffice. It can turn back time by fifteen minutes, which should be enough to get the cup to you and go back. I should be able to use it and slip away amongst the chaos you plan for tomorrow.”

“I suppose fifteen minutes will suffice. I shall not need long.” Grindelwald ran his fingers over the small hourglass, his eyes flashing. “Once you show me the cup, you can hand the time turner to me with it, and in exchange, I shall give you a portkey for you and your son to disappear. No one but I would know where you went, and I shall not care if you run further from where I send you.”

Narcissa bit her tongue and nodded. “I shall make my preparations, Lord Grindelwald. Thank you.”

“Do remember that if you get caught, I shall not save you from my friend’s wrath, Lady Malfoy,” Grindelwald said. “And if you leave, you’d never return to this country or anywhere our rule reaches.”

“Our rule, Lord Grindelwald?” Narcissa let out a bitter chuckle. “You are not a fool, and neither is the Dark Lord. If the two of you win this war by managing to take out Potter and Dumbledore, you both will turn on each other within moments to take the ultimate rule for yourself.”

Grindelwald raised an eyebrow, tucking a hand in the pocket of his waistcoat. “If, Lady Malfoy? I didn’t know you doubted our victory.”

“Dumbledore thwarted you decades ago, defeating you so badly that he put you in chains at the end of it, like a common criminal. Potter thwarted the Dark Lord when he was merely a child and then, once again, only days ago, relieving him of his physical form. As far as I can see, you are losing.”

“Historically, you’d be correct. But I didn’t escape my peace and sought war to lose it, Lady Malfoy. And regardless of who is standing at the end of it, I assure you, I shall be the one who wins.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Grindelwald smiled. “Good day, Lady Malfoy. I shall be seeing you soon enough.”

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The dawn broke between the Muggle buildings in the distance, falling across Harry’s face as he stood by the window, gazing at his reflection. The Elder Wand tapped against the glass, little sparks of magic fluttering down its tip, disappearing at his bare feet, in a glow of gold.

“You know, you could break the window doing stuff like that. I did when I was young.” Harry turned to see Daphne sitting up in his bed, wearing one of his t-shirts, and smiled. “Really, it was before my first year, but the window shattered when I tapped my wand against it. Gave my parents a right scare.”

Harry felt a little chuckle slip past his lips. “You’re up early.”

“I could go back to sleep in a while when I feel like it. You know I can do that.” Daphne smiled, running a hand through her tousled hair. “You’re up too. Though you usually are every day, unless you stay up late. But this is not because of habit, but because you're worried and couldn’t sleep.”

“Suppose that’s true,” Harry muttered, putting his wand back into the holster. “Today might be the day, you know? The day Voldemort goes down. If we intercept the cup in time and prevent it from reaching him, he would have to use his snake for the ritual. And once he does that—”

“He’ll be out of Horcruxes to save him. And you killed him twice, you can do it the third time,” Daphne whispered. “And Grindelwald will be back out in the open, too.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. Grindelwald hasn’t really attacked Britain ever. But if he needs to pull us all away from wherever Voldemort’s resurrecting himself, it’d need to be a big enough distraction. In himself, he is one, to be fair, but if we really divide our forces cleverly, we can handle multiple targets. We outnumber their forces between the Order, the DMLE, and the International aid that Amelia wrangled based on the intelligence we have.”

“But he could do something that’d warrant you all pulling away. Like the time he burned Paris.”

“Exactly like.” Harry nodded. “And London burning would be ten times worse. In the nineteen-forties, the muggle media was practically nothing as compared to what it is now. If he pulls that now, the statute will shatter like glass within minutes, all around the world. And no amount of magic could cover that.”

Daphne frowned. “What if that’s Grindelwald’s plan? Turn the muggles against us so the wizarding world gets united under his banner?” She gave him an imploring look. “If you think about it, nothing makes a country more united than an attack from outside. The last time he lost was because wizards rebelled against his ideals. Our difference of opinion on muggles and how Grindelwald was doing things was why anyone opposed him. It was Grindelwald's ideology versus ours. But if muggles attack us outright, we’d be fighting for our lives first.”

“We would never go for Muggle annihilation as an answer,” Harry said. “I mean—”

“Wouldn’t you, though?” Daphne cut in. “You don’t hate muggles, but you don’t particularly like them either. Between magic and Muggle, you’d choose magic. The same goes for Dumbledore and probably every wizard and witch there is. We get united and together, we can win.”

Harry shook his head. “Against Muggles we won’t. Not even I could tank something like a nuclear bomb, Daphne. Or even a powerful missile.”

“Grindelwald and Voldemort faced off against an army of Muggles in Czech and won by a landslide only a few weeks ago. They didn’t even get a scratch, and that was while the muggles had the Auror force helping them. I doubt that alone, they’d really last.” 

“Czech isn’t all that powerful, Daphne.” Harry sighed. “US, Russia, and Britain are way more powerful, with bigger bombs, better tanks, and airplanes. And sure, maybe, in an outright battle, where we see the attacks coming, someone like me might win, or at least cause more damage to them. But they can drop a bomb on us in the middle of the night and be done with it.”

“They can’t, and that’s the beauty of it. Wizards and witches aren’t concentrated in one single place or even in clusters.  We live amongst muggles. The only place that comes close to having a gathering of wizards are the Ministry and Hogwarts. Hogwarts can bear whatever the muggles throw at us, while the Ministry is in the middle of London with more muggles than wizards around. I don’t think they’d kill their own kind.”

“They won’t. Not unless they’re extremely desperate. Heck, they don’t even know where the ministry is.” Harry’s jaw twitched. “But if he does something like that, there’d be no way to ensure the statute. Not unless he only uses fire like he did in Paris, in which case, I suppose we could have muggles chalk up to a terrorist attack.”

Daphne nodded. “Explaining and maintaining the statute would be a pain, especially if the Muggle authorities turn on us upon seeing whatever Grindelwald’s planned. You already said they’re itching to step in, statute be damned.”

“Well, thankfully, the said authorities are under Hitwizard protection currently. The Queen, the royal family, and the whole cabinet have been moved to a safe place, with their own security and a squad of Hitwizards protecting them. They’re under our watch, essentially, and it’d be easy to avoid that.”

“That seems wrong. Wrong but necessary.”

“I’ll talk with Amelia at breakfast. Everyone’s going to be on high alert today, and Amelia’s called everyone in at the ministry, no holds barred. Even St. Mungos has been prepared for an emergency today.”

“Not to mention the Order and the Dragon Legion,” Daphne said. “The latter conveniently keeping Susan and me away from the battle as you put us with them at Hogwarts.”

“As backup. Hogsmeade, Diagon, London, the Ministry… Everything is a target today, and the fastest way to mobilize is to have a command center somewhere safe,” Harry said. “There’s no place safer than Hogwarts. It is the fallback point, too, in case Grindelwald decides to take down the ministry.”

“Yes, you said that three times yesterday.” She rolled her eyes. “And I get the plan. With what we’re facing, this is the best we can do.”

“People are already in their places. Diagon Alley, Gringotts, Hogsmeade, Birmingham Palace, Downing Street… we’ve placed people everywhere, and most would already be there. I’ll be heading to the alley myself, under disguise, later today. The moment we spot Narcissa or Bellatrix, or attacks begin, we’ll begin adjusting.”

“So, for now, all we can do is wait?”

“We don’t have another option, Daph. The storm’s about to hit, and this is just the calm before it.”

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Grindelwald’s heterochromatic eyes ran over the witches and wizards assembled in the room as he tucked his hand into his pocket.

“My dearest friends. I welcome you to Britain, our humble abode for the rest of the week. Our friend, Lord Voldemort has asked for our aid to help keep our enemies away from his resurrection. He doesn’t want them to interfere and nor do I. And as a benefit, we use this opportunity to further our cause, and work for the greater good.” He smiled. “So, are you all ready?”

“Always and forever, Herr Grindelwald.” A man saluted, thumping his fist to his chest, his wand clutched in his fingers. “We shall not let you down.”

“While that is all and good, is it a wise idea? With Potter and Dumbledore who could show up? Only you can face them, Monsieur Grindelwald.”

“You’re no slouch, Lady Bertrand. You did not become what you were without strength. You were as much as a dark lady as I was once.”

She snorted. “I rose to power knowing the limits of what I can do and avoiding those who could take me down. Which, I’m certain would be mirrored by many of our friends here. ”

“You needn’t fear Potter or Albus, my dear. If they show, merely keep them busy until I arrive. They’re not yours to deal with. You merely need to serve as an adequate distraction from Lord Voldemort’s resurrection. I will draw Albus and the Potter boy away.”

“And if they kill us before that?”

Grindelwald gave the man a frosty look, “Then you would’ve martyred yourself for the greater good and a future you’d want to leave behind. Your brother did the same.”

The man gulped but argued no further.

“You all know your roles, so prepare yourself. And someone send word to Fabrizia. But remember, the attacks only begin with my say so, and not a moment earlier.” Grindelwald smiled. “So, may fate be in your favor and protect you for today, my friends, we declare change for Britain.”

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AND… DONE! Hope you all liked the chapter!

Whew, I overcame my writer’s block after three months, which is a relief. I endeavor to complete this story soon.

The next chapter will be action packed and loads of fun.

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