20;Planting a Bomb

Four Death Eaters Captured.

Suspects for Robberies at last!

Harry was sitting in the Great Hall for dinner when the Daily Prophet came in.

"Harry, mate," Ron asked, "Do you know who Regulus Black is?"

"Hmm… yeah, he's Sirius dead brother, he was a Death Eater, betrayed Voldemort and got killed for it. Slytherin, allegedly a good seeker, why?"

"Says here that he robbed Yaxley's house last night and all those other Death Eater houses too."

"He's dead…" Harry drawled, "dead people don't go rob people, inferius full of preservation charms or human transfiguration maybe"

"They have to have some reason to believe it was him though, don't they?" Hermione asked.

"Maybe a necromancer brought him back." Ron suggested.

"No one has managed that, ever. There are only legends."

"Cadmus Peverell's with his resurrection stone, the Greek Physician Asclepius and loads of others, at least one of them has to be true." Harry joked.

"Honestly Harry, don't encourage him." Hermione huffed, "Who's Cadmus Peverell?"

"He's the second brother from the Tale of the Three Brothers." Harry said.

"It doesn't say that in the book" Neville paused, "you don't think it's true, do you?"

"Of course it's not true, it's just a story." Hermione said.

"And you, Harry?"

"The myth is just that, a myth. But I think the items are real, just not the origins. Take the Elder Wand for one, loads of evidence that existed, the Deathstick, Wand of Destiny, stuff like that. You can trace it through history until the early eighteen-hundreds. Gellert Grindelwald even used the symbol that represents the three items, the Deathly Hallows, in his own symbol."

"Really?" Hermione asked, "What symbol? Is there evidence of the others?"

"The symbol is a triangle, a circle within, bisected by a line. Cloak, stone, wand, in that order." Harry said, "No evidence of the others, I mean, you'd think an item that lets you, at the least, speak to the dead, and, a cloak that never wears down, renders one completely invisible with no shimmer of disillusionment would stand out a bit. Well, maybe not the cloak."

"What item would you want?" She asked Harry, Neville and Ron, "On three, two, one. The Cloak."

"Wand" Ron and Neville replied.

"Stone" Harry answered. "or maybe the wand."

Hermione gave them an incredulous look.

"Why the wand, Ron, Nev?" Harry asked.

"Be good for fighting against the Death Eaters, wouldn't it." Ron replied.

"So I can beat the Lestranges."

"Nev, Rodolphus is dead and Rabastan was one of the four Death Eaters caught. It's only Bellatrix that's left."

"Rabastan could break out."

"Perhaps."

"Why would you want the stone, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"To talk to my parents and learn from powerful wizards, I could learn things from long dead 'Leaders of the Light' and Dark Lords."

"Or the wand?"

"So I could challenge Voldemort to a duel and kill him. Why would you want the cloak?"

"It's the only one that didn't get it's user killed."

Harry shrugged, "True"

"Why would you want to learn from Dark Lords, Harry?" Neville asked.

"Just think about it, Neville. Take Gellert Grindelwald for example, he used many powerful spells and created many others, some with help from Dumbledore before he went all Dark Lord." Harry explained, "One of his spells creates a fire that kills your enemies but let's your friends and allies pass through unharmed, you can't say that wouldn't be useful if Death Eaters were chasing you, if one of your friends was behind you, you could cast the spell, then if any Death Eaters tried to follow, they would die."

"Grindelwald knew Dumbledore before he was a Dark Lord?" Ron asked.

Harry nodded, "Yep, my mum got some of their spells from Dumbledore before she died."

"Really?"

"Yeah, the spells are fascinating." Harry said and paused from a moment as Fred and George walked past, "Let's prank the twins."

"Are you insane?" Ron asked.

"Possibly," Harry said, "Neville, you stand on their left, I'll stand on their right, just insist that they try different foods, follow my lead."

Neville nodded nervously as they walked over to the twins, then loomed over their shoulders.

"Fred, George, have you tried the chicken yet?" Harry asked with a smirk, "How about the pumpkin juice?"

The twins looked at Harry's smile and Fred pushed away his goblet of pumpkin juice.

George put some food on his plate, but avoided the chicken.

"What do you think of the food?" Neville asked, his lips twitching into a smile, clearly suppressing laughter.

"It looks nice…" George said nervously.

Minerva McGonagall was looking at the scene with curiosity.

"What do you think is happening, Minerva?" Professor Hooch asked.

"Let's find out." McGonagall said as she cast a listening charm.

"Fred, try the stew, it is amazing"

"That's Mr. Longbottom."

"You wouldn't poison us? Would you, Harry?"

"Constant Vigilance, you should always keep a bezoar nearby."

The twins were clearly fidgeting nervously now, they had cast every detection charm they knew, but found nothing. This would have been relieving, if Harry's smirk and Neville's snickers hadn't only gotten more obvious with each spell.

"Minerva, do you think Mr. Potter put something in the food?"

"No, James Potter and Sirius Black did the same thing to Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin in their third year. Come to think of it, I think Dorea and Euphemia Potter did the same thing to Fleamont and Charlus Potter…" McGonagall said.

"It's tradition," Dumbledore said, "Henry Potter did much the same thing to Gellert and I."

"Have a nice day, Twins. I sincerely hope you enjoy the desserts, I know I will..."

Harry and Neville walked back to their friends with wide grins, shaking with laughter. The twins were looking nervously after them.

The twins were not assured when a few people across the Great Hall turned into giant canaries.

"We have the first two linked prototype bombs." Remus said.

"We decided to stick with Remus' idea of a sixth bomb, linked to the other five via protean charm." Bill said, "It was the simplest and easiest option. Though other methods may have been more compact, effective and possibly cheaper."

"But," Cedrella Weasley interrupted, "they would have been more complicated, possibly more unstable than what we came up with. They also would have taken far longer to make."

"Do you have a testing area?" Harry asked, "I'd like to see the test."

"Of course we do," Cedrella said, "out the back of my house, just floo to 'The Warren', William wouldn't let us use that old hag, Muriel Prewitt's, house."

"Gran, I've explained this, we can't just blow Aunt Muriel's house to bits, Mum would skin me alive."

"It's not like we would have gotten caught." Fleur grumbled, Cedrella nodded her agreement.

The four creators, followed by Harry, Moody, Dora and Sirius, flooed to the Warren.

Cedrella led them out to a field behind her house. There was a glass shack on one side and a protective glass screen on the other.

There was an object within the glass shack, roughly a cubic foot in size, Harry assumed that it, and the almost identical one ten metres from the protective glass, were the crude prototype bombs.

Cedrella led them to the protective glass shield, and lifted a string from the ground, "Stay behind the glass, the glass structure on the other side of the field is warded to be as damage resistant as a ward stone. This glass shield is as indestructible as we could make it" she said, obviously exited to test the bombs and blow stuff up.

"I warded the glass structure, simple wards, anti-apparition, anti-portkey, durability, muggle, magical and creature-repelling wards" Bill explained, "On three gran, one, two-"

BOOM!

Everyone jumped except Cedrella, who just laughed and watched the explosions.

"Should've worn your brown trousers, William." She teased.

He glared at her, "I didn't shit myself gran. Let's go check the bombs."

"They both went off, they were both loud, and the glass thing is gone. What more do you need to know?"

He grinned, "I want to see how big the craters are."

As it turned out, the closest crater was roughly two meters wide and two foot deep, the one where the warded glass structure used to be was roughly six and half metres wide and four metres deep.

"Gran, which one had a bigger fragment of erumpent horn?" Bill asked.

She smiled gleefully, "The other one, the cascading failure of your wards made this explosion bigger, and more colourful."

"I almost pity the Death Eaters" Fleur remarked, "Almost. Their own powerful wards will only make the explosion more dangerous."

"What materials do you need, per bomb?" Harry asked.

"An erumpent horn, a hundred grams of gunpowder…

Amelia Bones was not having a good day. The Prime Minister was very unhappy with Voldemort's terrorism, especially after his attack on one of London's minor bridges killed fifty people. He was very vocal in his anger and it was all Amelia could do to calm him down.

She flooed back to her office only to find her chair's back facing towards the fireplace, which was most certainly not where she left it.

"Good afternoon, Minister Bones." A figure said from the chair, as it swivelled around.

Her chair was definitely not a swivel chair earlier either. On top of all that, the figure in the chair was a dead man; Regulus Black.

Her wand slid from her sleeve, and as she started to cast a stunner, her wand was wrenched from her hand and flew toward the fireplace, where it was caught by another person.

The MLEP had gone around Diagon asking if anyone knew this figure; he went by Iapetus Grimm.

Grimm had a silvery invisibility cloak draped over his shoulders.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Grimm, what is it you want?" She asked, stalling for time.

"We have an opportunity for you." Grimm said.

"I don't take bribes." Bones snapped.

"Don't worry Bonesy" Black said, "We know."

"We can make the wards on different Death Eaters' houses have a cascading failure. Fifteen houses, five houses at a time, we just need to know when." Grimm continued

"Talk it over with Moody."

"His protégé, Nymphadora Tonks, will be able to get a message to Regulus. Goodbye!" with a flick of Grimm's wand, a dark cloud filled the room.

She heard them floo behind her and then the dark cloud dissipated. The room was exactly as she had left it before she left, and her wand was on her desk.

There was something, off, about the whole conversation, a feeling that she was missing something.

Amelia Bones spent the next hour watching the memory of the encounter over and over in the pensive, when at last, she saw it.

Regulus Black twitched slightly when Grimm said 'Nymphadora'.

She quickly looked at her memory of St. Mungo's and noticed that Grimm had been using one of Potter's wands. So Potter was likely Iapetus Grimm.

Black wasn't using Tonks' wand, but that didn't rule her out. Especially because of how Black twitched when Nymphadora was said.

But if they could deliver what they promised… well, she had to talk to Moody.

Harry and Umbra appeared beside the ward stone for Lestrange Manor, Voldemort's Headquarters, with their bomb in Harry's arms.

"We're in" Harry said, knowing that the others could hear him. Cedrella and Remus had created earpieces, connected to a central 'speaker-stone', that allowed them to communicate over long distance.

"Good, plant the bomb anywhere in that room, somewhere no one will trip on it." Moody said.

"On it." Harry planted the bomb in an empty corner of the room, where there was no reason for anyone to go, and disillusioned it. "Done."

"Well done, Harry." Dora said, "disillusion it and get out."

"Way ahead of you, let's go Umbra." Umbra let out a quiet, but smug, trill of victory and disappeared from his shoulder and Harry felt a wave of magic wash over him. "What? Umbra just disappeared without me! Umbra!"

"He's here Potter, and he's letting off dark clouds." Moody said, "Weasley, are there such things as one way phoenix wards, one that could let Potter and the phoenix in, but only the phoenix out."

"Uh… Maybe, I mean, it might be possible but if it's not letting Umbra back either, never heard of a ward like that."

"I felt a wave of magic after Umbra left, new ward activating, maybe?"

Bill cursed, "Fourteen plantings happen with no complications, and the last one is trap."

"You'll have to fight your way out if you get seen." Dora said, "Steal a few things as you sneak out, we can't let them know about the bombs."

"I don't have my cloak, as Bill said, the last fourteen went down without it just fine, we got complacent." Harry said, "I've disillusioned myself."

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE, and good luck, Potter."

"Don't get caught Harry," Dora said, "If it's a trap they probably know you're there, but hopefully, not exactly where."

"See you soon" Harry said as he opened the door out of the ward room.

He walked out into the, seemingly empty, dungeons and quietly closed the door behind him.

He heard echoing voices from around the corner, "I can't believe that Potter's people have the gall to come here"

Harry assumed the voices were coming from Death Eaters who where looking for him, thankfully he found a way up before meeting them.

"They think there's more than one of us."

"Good, that means it will be easier for you to sneak out."

Harry took a step out into the hallway on the ground floor, there were five people in there.

"Did you see anything?" One asked.

"What do you think?" Another snapped, before furrowing his brow, sniffing the air, and turning in Harry's direction, "Someone was here"

Greyback, Harry thought, raising his wand.

Greyback raised his own wand and said, "Homenum Rev-"

He twisted to the side to dodge a white spell which slashed open a Death Eater's chest.

The other Death Eater's raised quick shields as Greyback growled, "Homenum Revelio"

Harry's disillusionment fell and Harry cast Fulminis Crucia with his left wand and Draconis Incendia with his right.

"Potter! What's happening?" Moody asked.

"Greyback found me. I have to fight my way-" Harry finished his Dragonfyre to shield against a few spells that came up the stairs beside him, "Out."

He defended against Greyback's side as he cast his 'BOOM' spell chain over and over at the Death Eaters on the stairs, he pulverised one of the group and another two were crushed as the ceiling above them caved in.

"Potter! What was that?"

"I collapsed a ceiling to block some of them off."

"You can do this Harry!" Dora encouraged.

Harry ran back down the stairs toward the spot he had collapsed and transfigured it into a ramp up to another part of the building.

Harry slipped his left wand back into its holster and summoned his dagger as he ascended the ramp.

He came up and saw two Death Eaters, a quick subsisto pulsus from his and a thrown dagger with the same spell on the blade efficiently ended them.

Harry dematerialised his dagger and disillusioned himself again, sheathing his wand. He used wandless sticking charms to climb onto the ceiling.

He remembered to apply scent masking charms and climbed over to the room's door.

"I've lost them." He muttered.

"Good, now get out. We won't distract you."

Harry hung from the roof and drew his wand, layering the room in traps. Traps the sent fire or spikes or some other basic lethal thing at the one who activated it.

Unfortunately, this room didn't have any windows to the outside. It, in fact, was near the centre of the building.

Harry blew apart the door with Open Sesame and swung onto the ceiling of the hall on the other side.

Death Eaters rushed into the room he had just vacated, and Harry climbed through the hall on the ceiling. He reached stairs at the end of the hall and dropped to the ground, he was getting tired from all the sticking charms.

He quickly ascended the stairs two the third floor, he wanted to avoid the busy lower floors, after all Arresto Momentum and a cushioning charm would make the fall an easy drop. He ran along the hall toward a window at the other end when another Homenum Revelio dispelled his disillusionment.

He spun out of the way of two curses and raised a shield to block the next few. He recognised the Death Eaters as Rookwood and Selwyn.

Harry cast three illusions of himself running at the Death Eaters, followed by a quick Tenebris Umbra and ran for the window, which he destroyed with a reducto.

"Almost there."

"Come on Harry!" Dora cheered.

He was six metres from the window when a wall of fire blocked his path. He kept running and yelled "Partis Temporus!" and dived through the broken window.

"I'm out of the building!"

Just then he felt himself be yanked back through the window and he rolled as he hit the ground in the hallway.

Voldemort and Bellatrix stood either side of the window he just came flying back through.

"Bugger"

"What is it Harry?"

"Avada Kedavra!" "Crucio"

Harry conjured butterflies to block the Unforgiveables and a dome shield to block everything else.

"Voldemort's here, I'm surrounded." Harry said, "Stick to the plan."

"Harry!" Dora yelled hysterically, "Don't give up! You can still get out!"

"I'm sorry, Dora." Harry said sadly, as he fell to his knees under Voldemort, Bellatrix, Rookwood and Selwyn's barrage on his shields. "Don't let him use my death to spread fear, as much as I hate the thought, make me a martyr against Voldemort."

"Harry, No!" Dora cried.

Harry pulled the earpiece from his ear.

"You're surrounded, Potter! Give up!" Voldemort yelled.

"Fuck you!" Harry yelled, "Fiendfyre!"

Violent red and orange flames leapt elegantly from Harry's wand forming snakes and dragons.

Harry put everything he had left, and then some, into destruction, and nothing at all into control over the flames. He barely remembered to toss the earpiece into the flame before he passed out, seeing the flames rush toward him.

After all, the earpiece was useful and he didn't want Voldemort getting his hands on it.

Harry's last thought before he passed out was; Goodbye Dora.

Dora stood over the speaker stone and yelled "Harry, No!"

There was no response but a slight sound that was likely him pulling out the earpiece.

"Harry! Please don't be dead."

"You're surrounded, Potter! Give Up!"

"Potter!" Moody shouted, "Don't do something stupid"

"Fuck you!" Harry yelled, "Fiendfyre!"

"Like that." Moody muttered.

"Harry!" Dora sobbed, "please, please, please, don't be dead."

"We need to tell the others" Bill said, "and find out how to stop Voldemort using Harry's death to spread terror"

"Tonks…" Moody said, "Potter would want us to fight, stick to the plan."

Dora pushed herself up on shaky legs, "I… I need be to alone for a bit"

Moody met her pleading eyes, which had turned the same green as Harry's, and noticed her hair had turned the same colour as Harry's usually was. He gave a nod and left with Bill to tell the others.

Dora headed directly to the library at Godric's Hollow. She headed for 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard.'

She pulled out the book and took out the resurrection stone.

She turned it in her hand, thinking of Harry.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.