Infiltration (After the Flaw: Oligarchy, Chapter 39)
Title: Infiltration (After the Flaw: Oligarchy, Chapter 39)
Author: kanedax
Spoilers: Previous Chapters
Rating: R for language and violence
Summary: They're in...
Notes: I have three chapters coming after this instead of two. This chapter was going to be much longer, but I decided to divide it up instead of stuffing it all into one. The next one should be coming in the next few weeks, although right now I can't promise I'll be done by the end of 2009.
I own these characters. The others belong to JK Rowling.
The Oligarchy / Previous Chapters / Lycanthrope
Harry Potter's head swam. He felt cold stone against his cheek. He felt woozy.
Where am I? he thought, sitting up. As he did so, pain drove through his skull like a steel spike. He flinched, his hand instinctively flying to his scar. But it wasn't his scar. Simply a headache. One hell of a headache, but that's all.
"Nnngh..."
Harry looked around at the sound of the groan. Next to him, Ron was sitting up from the floor. Across the table, Hermione was doing the same, rubbing her head.
It all started coming back to him. They were in a Hogwarts classroom. Both were dressed for movement as Harry was: t-shirt for Ron, tank top for Hermione, both in shorts. Neither were wearing the robes that had been put on before they--
They were going to infiltrate the Oligarchy headquarters with Ogden, Teddy, and Victoire. Before Hermione was attacked. Was he stunned, too? Was Ron?
Where were the others?
Harry could see the realization flood into Ron and Hermione's eyes at the same time. All three jumped to their feet at the same time.
"The coin!" Ron yelled, running to the table. "Is it still there?"
Bill and Fleur, Harry thought. Andi and Jana. Are they alright? "Safehouse!" he bellowed, pounding on the door. "Safehouse! Bloody safehouse!"
"Who attacked us?" asked Hermione, looking around. "What happened? Where's my wand?"
"Safehouse!"
"Here's the coin," said Ron with a desperate sigh. "Hurry up, we have to go."
"Ron, wait--" Hermione started.
"We have to go! They have Rose! They attacked us, but--"
Harry fell aside as the classroom's door flew open and Bill, Fleur, and Andromeda plunged inside, their wands raised for battle. For a split-second, Harry was sure that one of them would cast in a panic, not recognizing he, Ron, or Hermione in the darkened room. Gratefully, Bill cast Lumos spells at the same time that Andromeda waved her wand at the candles circling the room, lighting it before anyone was taken down in friendly fire.
"What happened?" Fleur yelled, circling around. "What ees eet?"
"We were attacked," said Harry, patting his pockets, hoping to find his wand. Unfortunately, his wand wasn't the only thing missing. "The Cloak! It's gone, too!"
"Did anyone come in after us?" asked Hermione.
"Where's my wand?" Ron yelled, clutching the coin tightly. "Where's my wand, we gotta go!"
"No, no one came in," said Bill. "We locked it behind you. You were attacked?"
"Where's my bloody wand?"
"Where's Teddy?" asked Andromeda.
"Fuck it, I'm going. Hermione, come on."
"Where's Victoire?" asked Fleur.
"We don't know!" said Harry.
"This wasn't here before," said Hermione, picking up a piece of paper that was sitting on the table where the coin had been placed.
"Someone snuck in here somehow," said Harry, scouring the corners of the room. With a grateful exhale, he discovered his wand, rolled into the shadowed corner.
"Oligarchy?" said Andromeda.
"Has to be," said Harry. "Damn it. I thought we swept the school! How could they get past us?"
"It wasn't Oligarchy," said Hermione, handing the note to Harry. The more he read, the more his head shook in disbelief:
Harry, Hermione, & Ron,
As you read this, we'll be gone, accompanying Tiberius, Victoire, and Teddy into the Oligarchy headquarters. We are sorry, but we simply couldn't let you risk your lives for this mission, and you had made it perfectly clear that you wouldn't let us go unless we resorted to drastic measures.
You have too much to live for, too many people relying on you to come back alive. We don't.
We will bring back Rose and Meghan. We will do our best to discover anything we can about the Oligarchy, and possibly find some help on the inside. We will make you proud.
Do not follow us.
Please forgive us,
Uriela Longbottom
Dean Thomas
Draco Malfoy
"Son of a bitch," Harry breathed in wonder, handing the note to Ron, who read it aloud. As he did, Harry could see Ron's hands shake. When he got to Draco, he could barely spit the name out. He closed his eyes, appearing to try to calm himself.
"One," he said, "two--"
"Ron, no!" yelled Hermione. "Accio Galleon!"
The gold Dualkey was torn from Ron's closed fingers and spun across the room into Hermione's palm. "We can't," she said, setting the coin back in the middle of the table.
"But Rose--!"
"--is in their hands now," said Hermione, her voice shaking with anxiety.
"But--"
"Ron, I hate this as much as you do," she said, her hand tightening on her wand. "But we can't go. Not anymore. We don't know how long they've been gone, where they are, or where Rose's Dualkey is. If they landed somewhere safe, they might already have it in their pocket. If they landed somewhere not so safe, they'd be doing their best to keep themselves hidden."
"Or they've already been captured!"
"In either case, the three of us suddenly appearing out of nowhere will help no one!" Hermione cried. "Ron, think! If they're hiding, we might expose them. If they're captured, then we're captured, too. Either way, it'll get more people killed."
"I'm sorry," said Harry reluctantly. "We can't, Ron. We have to stay here."
"The plan doesn't change," said Hermione. With a wave of her wand, the candles lining the walls were darkened. "We wait outside--"
"I'm not moving," said Ron, pulling a wooden chair from the stack against the wall and planting himself firmly upon it. "If anyone shows up, I'll be here to deal with them."
"But if one of the Oligarchy come--"
"Then we'll deal with them," Harry conceded. "I'll stay, too."
Hermione nodded, then pulled down a chair for herself. "Okay," she said, sitting down with her wand pointed at the Galleon. "We stay."
Harry couldn't sit. He gripped his wand tightly, pointing it at the Galleon, his nerves taut, waiting for anyone, friend or foe, to appear in front of them. In the end, it was all he could do. All any of them could do.
The fate of Rose Weasley and Meghan Cullen had been ripped from their grasp, and all they could do was wait, helplessly, for the outcome.
---------
thud
tinkle
"Bloody hell."
"What was that?"
Teddy Lupin launched to his feet, his head and wand on a swivel as he scanned the room where the group had 'Ported. Five others in the room with him. One was on one knee, pushing himself to a standing position. The other four were sprawled across the floor like he had been.
Otherwise, they were alone. Gratefully.
Our heroic entrance could use a do-over, Teddy thought.
"Everyone alright?" whispered Ogden, the only one of the group who had landed relatively gracefully compared to the others.
"I kicked something," groaned Dean, shaking his leg as he pushed himself up. "It broke."
"Looks like you knocked a mirror down," said Ogden. "Reparo."
"Well," Teddy said, rubbing the back of his sore head, "as far as Dualkey landings go, Seamus was better."
"Give us a break," said Victoire, helping Uri and Draco to their feet, "we're new to this."
"Let's just hope a broken mirror's the worst thing that happens," said Dean, brushing himself off.
"Don't jinx it," said Uri. "Where are we?"
Teddy had to fight the instinct of lighting up a Lumos spell. There was a faint glow coming from somewhere, but they were otherwise in the dark. The last thing they needed was a flare of attention.
There were beds, he saw. Bunks, actually, stacked three high to a tall ceiling. He risked walking past the bunks where they had landed and into the aisle. Twelve bunks, six on a side, in a room that looked, hmmm, sixty feet long? Seventy? Teddy was a horrible judge of distances. He also discovered the source of the light: a door open on the far end of the room poured the yellow glow of candlelight into the dormitory.
And a dormitory was what it was. It was well-kept, and each of the beds had their own distinct style and decorations. Not a prison room, then. A place for people to rest and unwind. A place for young girls to rest and unwind, from the amount of stuffed toys, ruffles and pink that Teddy was seeing as his eyes began to adjust to the dim. Even the bed they had landed next to, the one where Rose's coin had been laid on the nightstand, was fully made with a pair of folded pajamas and books on top of the cushy blanket.
Night vision wouldn't be a problem for Mum, he thought. Just the adjustment of rods and cones, I suppose. Why didn't you ask Mr. Cairill to teach you that during your morphing lessons?
A dormitory. Not a prison. So what was Rose's Galleon doing here? Why were they giving her clothing and books? Were they even holding her prisoner? Was she living with them? She had only been captured a few hours ago!
"So we're in," asked Draco as Dean tossed a Muffliato at the doorway. "Somewhere. So what now?"
"We can't stay here," said Dean, looking around nervously. "It's empty now, but I don't want to be Goldilocks when the bears come back and wonder who's been sleeping in their bed."
Draco snorted. "Muggleborns."
"Accio headquarters map!" Victoire said, waving her wand. When nothing happened, she blushed at the looks the rest of the group gave her. "Well, it didn't hurt to try."
"No, it didn't hurt," said Ogden, walking up and down the aisle, studying the beds and the tables next to them. "I doubt we'll find much of anything useful in here, either. I wouldn't think the Oligarchy would hand out orientation materials."
Uriela picked up a book from one of the bedside stands. "Arithmancy," she read. "It's a textbook. Are we in a school?"
"I wouldn't be surprised," said Ogden. "It would not surprise me in the least if the Oligarchy recruited members that are too young to be finished with their lessons. Either Rose or Meghan are the Next, after all, and they didn't wait for them to come of age."
"They take their soldiers when they can get them," said Uriela sickly, dropping the book on the bed like it was infected. "Let's get out of here before I vomit."
"Miss Weasley, I would ask that you wear Harry's Invisibility Cloak," said Ogden, motioning to Dean. "You're our navigator. We can't get anywhere if you're unconscious."
"Okay," said Victoire shakily, taking the Cloak from Dean. The professor didn't say all the words, but she heard them anyway: "We can't get anywhere if you're unconscious. Or dead."
"Wait," said Draco, holding up his hand to stop Victoire. "It might be smarter for you to keep it off, at least for now. One of us should wear it."
"Mr. Malfoy--" Ogden protested.
"She's a little girl!" Draco countered. "She's a little girl in a room for little girls."
"I'm not--!" Victoire began.
"She's the only one of us that can pass for normal in here," he continued. "She's the only one of us that could walk out that door without drawing attention. The rest of us are too old or too male. I say she's our scout. She goes out there and finds someone to read or whatever it is she does."
"Not alone, she's not!" said Uriela.
"She won't be alone," said Teddy, his face turning red. "I have a bad idea."
---------
Samantha Rollins hated her vertigo.
It had been something that had been a part of her world since she was a small child. Not as bad now as it had been when she was in kindergarten, thankfully, and not as frequent. But there were still days when she would wake up to a room that wouldn't stop spinning until she, gratefully, fell asleep that night.
Today was one of those days.
When it happened, she did her best to tough it out: go to school like she normally would, try to choke down meals, that sort of thing. But this was the first time that it had hit her since Ya-O-Gah had come to Calgary, told her she was special, and recruited her into the Oligarchy. The classes here were a lot harder than they were back at home, the training more intense. They weren't the sort of classes you wanted to attend feeling like you had gotten off a out of control amusement park ride.
So she had talked Mrs. Valdez, their Dueling teacher, into letting her out to the hospital wing. On her way into the nurse's office to get whatever the nurse would be able to give her for her dizzy spells, Sam had had to dodge out of the way as Ammit, the leader of the Circle of Thirteen, brushed past her. Why she was here instead of in Cairo Sam didn't know, but the look of frustration on her crocodile mask made the fifteen-year-old recruit decide against even asking.
Once inside, Sam found even more surprising sights. In a bed to her right, an older witch lay unconscious. Seated at her side was a wizard with a gold mask: Gungnir, Mask of Trondheim. What was he doing here? Who was he looking after? What happened to her?
At the far end, another witch who Sam didn't recognize was fussing over a... well, the patient was so wrapped in blue-shaded bandages that the only way Sam could tell she was a girl was because of slight bumps on her chest. The probably-girl was strapped to the bed by her wrists and ankles.
"Miss Rollins?" said Healer Cruz, striding quickly to Sam from the other side of the room, a bottle already in her hand.
"Hi, Ms. Cruz," said Sam. "I have a note from Mrs. Valdez, I--"
"Vertigo, yes?"
"Um, how'd you know?"
"Your previous conditions are listed in your file," said Ms. Cruz, curtly handing Sam the bottle. "Please drink this and get some rest."
"But--"
"We're very busy," said Ms. Cruz, waving her wand twice to close the curtains around the mysterious patients. "Please."
"Um. Okay."
And with one more look over her shoulder at the now-shielded beds, Sam was escorted out of the nurse's office, the doors closing loudly behind her.
What was that about?
Everyone seemed more on edge lately. Some of the older girls that she had gotten to know in the two months she had been here seemed a lot more tense than normal. Moodier. Quieter. Something big was going down.
Or something big had gone down. But what?
I don't know, she thought. But something tells me that those two were part of the casualty list.
She allowed her mind to wander as she continued down the halls. That was one of the things she was still trying to get used to here. There were so many things happening that she and the other students were never told about. She kept seeing new faces all the time, while others disappeared forever. Alexa, for instance, the girl who had slept in the bunk below her when she first arrived at... wherever they were. One day, poof, her bed stripped, her possessions gone. Did she leave? Was she promoted to another school? Sam didn't know. Didn't ask. Too many questions got you into trouble around here.
But what did you expect from a place where masks were a part of your school uniform?
Sam adjusted the black bandanna that covered her eyes and the top of her head. Luckily she'd be able to take it off when she got to bed. It did a number on her hair, which often felt sore down to the roots some days from all the shifting and tugging. There were nights when she felt like a woman in one of those shampoo commercials when she took it off, all massaging and moaning in relief.
"Did you hear about the two girls they brought in?"
"No, I didn't!"
Two girls were sitting in plush couches chittering to each other as Sam entered the common room. One looked a little older than herself, the other a little younger. Sam couldn't tell for sure, though, as they were both wearing masks. Hard to judge anyone's age around here. She didn't know them, though.
Newbies, she thought. More newbies. They just keep coming in more and more each day.
"I heard one of them's important," said the younger girl in what sounded like a British accent. "I heard one of them's the Next."
Sam froze in her tracks as the older girl gasped. The Next? Here? They found... her, apparently? Holy crap. That's huge!
"That's huge!" said the older girl. "I wonder where they're keeping her?"
"I don't know," said the younger girl. "I hope she's okay, though. I guess they were a little rough with her."
Why would the Next not be okay? Sam thought, sitting down far enough away from the girls to listen in without being noticed. They seemed to be the only three in the common room right now, and Sam was surprised she hadn't been seen. Was she hurt for some reason? Who would want to hurt her?
Sam's eyes widened, her hands covering her mouth. Was that why Ammit was so angry when she left the hospital wing? Was that why Gungnir was watching over that other witch? Was she the Next? Was the other girl, the one all wrapped up and tied to the bed, the Next? Who hurt who? Did they hurt each other? Why would she be tied up?
How do these girls know all of this--
A flash from the corner of the room.
Darkness.
---------
"She's the one?" said Dean from beneath the Invisibility Cloak, moving from the corner of the common room to the girl, slumped unconscious in her chair.
"As close as we're going to get," said Victoire, standing up from her own chair. "She saw someone in the hospital wing. A girl. bandaged and restrained. Circle members nearby. Let's get her into the bathroom."
"We got lucky," said the younger girl, standing up herself. "We might have had to wait three hours before we could find anyone with information."
Dean nodded. Three girls and a boy had come through the common room before this one. Victoire scanned each one as they came through, hoping the conversation she was having would trigger some memory that could point them in the right direction. The whole scanning thing was crazy, Dean thought. For someone who didn't even know they had this ability last autumn, Victoire was a fast learner. Her skills were expanding immeasurably. Kind of scary, if stopped to think about it. He didn't.
Each one passed without Victoire motioning to Dean to Stun. Until this one.
"We wouldn't have waited three hours," said Victoire, taking the unconscious girl by the shoulders as the younger girl took her legs. "I was this close to just walking into the hall and reading whoever I could read. And could you change back, please? It's... creepy."
"Gladly," said the little girl, loosening her collar.
"Don't," said Dean. "We don't know who's going to come in while we're working."
"Damn it," said the girl grumpily. "No one tell Jack about this, alright? I've never had to morph into a female before, and I'd be really happy to never do it again. Especially one who hasn't hit puberty yet."
"Would you rather change into one that has hit puberty?" said Victoire. "Wait," she added quickly, grimacing, "don't answer that."
"You're a great actor, Teddy," said Dean, following the two "girls" into the women's bathroom. "I couldn't even tell you were a guy."
"I... I really don't know how to take that, Mr. Thomas," said Teddy, kicking open one of the stalls and carefully settling the Stunned girl onto the toilet.
"Hey, if Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams can do it, why not you?"
"Because Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams didn't have functioning female--"
"Stop," said Victoire with a shudder.
Dean grew quiet, but could feel his face warming. He was glad he was still under Harry's Invisibility Cloak so Victoire couldn't see his embarrassment. How did she feel, knowing the twelve year old girl standing in front of her was actually the man she was, until recently, having sex with?
Creepy doesn't cover it, I suppose.
"I'll stand guard," said Dean as Victoire closed the stall door behind her. "Get what you need to get, then we'll get out of here."
"Get me a piece of paper," said Victoire from the other side. "Quick."
---------
As there had been a few children streaming in and out of the dormitories, Draco, Tiberius, and Uri had cast quick Disillusionment charms on themselves and slipped out of the girls' room as Victoire, Teddy, and Dean dealt with the Stunned teen. The six joined up with each other the common room and quickly slipped into the cloakroom. It was a tight fit, and they hoped beyond hope that they weren't going to be interrupted by a group of children preparing to go outside, but they had to find a place to touch base and this was as out of the way as any.
"We have to move fast," said Victoire after Uri cast a Muffliato on the door. "That Stun's going to wear off any time now, and Sam's going to wonder why she fell asleep on the toilet."
"You know her name?" said Draco.
"It was sitting right on top of her thoughts," Victoire shrugged. "It always is. Anyway, there's a girl in the hospital wing that might be Rose or Meghan. Probably Rose. Meghan's shorter, isn't she?"
"Quite short," said Ogden, and Uri nodded in agreement.
"Either way, she's been tied down," said Victoire, "so I think she's a captive. And there were at least two Circle of Thirteen members in the room when Sam got there. One of them was their leader, and she didn't seem to be in the best mood when she was leaving."
"Might be one of the girls," said Uri.
"It's as good a place to start as any," said Ogden. "How do we get there?"
"I drew a map," said Victoire, pulling a piece of paper from inside her robe. "It's really rough, since I was drawing it from Sam's memory. But we should be able to get there."
"We grab Rose," said Teddy, now (gratefully) back to his normal self, "'Port her out, then move on to finding Meghan?"
"We have to be really careful, though," said Victoire, her voice shaking slightly. "Sam thought she looked really hurt. She was completely covered in some sort of blue bandages."
"So we go?" said Teddy. "Now?"
"Not all of us," said Ogden, shaking his head.
"What? Why?"
"Because there are two girls that need to be rescued, and time is of the essence."
"And six of us walking down the hall are going to draw a lot more attention than... three?" said Dean. "Split up?"
"Yes," said Ogden. "Three of us can deal with Rose, while the other three continue the search for Meghan."
"I should keep searching," said Victoire. "I want to be with Rose, but if I should be focusing on searching other memories."
"I'll go with you," said Teddy quickly.
"Two children in a group of three?" said Draco. "You're going to get us all killed."
"You two are also the best way the two groups can communicate with each other," said Ogden, "as you, Mr. Lupin, have the most experience transmitting with Miss Weasley from long distances. You, Dean, and Uriela will go to the hospital wing. Victoire, Draco, and I will continue the search for Meghan."
"Alright," said Uri. "You have the Galleon?"
"Here," said Ogden, handing her the gold coin. "Miss Weasley, give them the map."
Victoire handed Uri the sketch, scribbled on a loose piece of parchment. Uri flipped it over, and wasn't surprised to see rune notes scribbled on the other side. Dean had found the paper in the garbage of the girls' toilet, after all. Someone must have been cramming in there and threw away the notes they weren't using anymore.
"Get to Rose and get her out," said Ogden. "When that's accomplished, Theodore will contact Victoire. You three join us after Victoire tells you how to get to where we are."
"And if you find Meghan, call us," said Dean to Victoire.
"If we find her first we'll bring her to you and the Dualkey," added Ogden. "Any questions?"
The six remained silent.
"Keep safe," said Ogden, taking the Cloak from Dean and handing it to Victoire. "Keep secret. Use your brains, and don't fight unless you have to. Don't draw attention to yourselves, and use Disillusionments if you think you can get away with them. Good luck."
Good lucks and handshakes were passed all around. When Victoire and Teddy kissed, once and long, no one spoke against it. Victoire Weasley pulled back first and pulled the Cloak over her head, vanishing her from sight. Tiberius Ogden and Draco Malfoy pulled the hoods over their own. Victoire peeked out the door to find an empty common room.
And the three were out on their quest.
"I hate this," groaned Teddy after they were gone.
"You'll see her again, kid," said Dean, patting Teddy on the shoulder. "Don't worry."
"The wing looks close," said Uri, studying the map.
"With maybe two Circle members inside," Dean said with a sigh. "We'll have our hands full."
"Rose is the priority," said Uri. "If we can slip in undetected we can get her 'Ported out before anyone even knows we're there."
"Once that happens, there's going to be a fight."
"I can get in," said Teddy. "I know what to do, I just hope I can throw them long enough..."
---------
"Is it true?"
Mia Hahnemann looked up from her paperwork: piles upon piles of notes about Rose Weasley's conditions. Weasley had been a last-minute decision by Prospero and the others, so Mia hadn't been able to pull her medical records before their escape. It was difficult enough to treat someone with her injuries. It only became more difficult when there was no access to the girl's known allergies, blood types, and other information that might mean life or death in her condition.
Mia was currently in the middle of making notations on how Rose was reacting to the potion concocted to slow the infections caused by the burns when the voice roused her from her work. A young man stood behind her, in his mid-twenties, his wand clutched loosely in his hand. The bandanna-like mask covering the upper half of his face did nothing to hide his excitement.
"Excuse me?" Mia asked.
"The Next," said the man. "Is it true? Is she here?" he said, looking around the hospital anxiously.
"No, she's not," said Mia. "She's with Prospero. Um... Who are you? How did you--?"
"Rumor mill's going strong," said the man, an American from the accent, with a shrug. "I'm the only one who had the balls to come see for myself, I guess. So we did find her?"
"Excuse me," snapped Cruz, who stormed out of the adjacent office, carrying her own wand at her side. "What are doing here, Jason?"
"Huh?" said the wizard, tensing.
"What are you doing here?" Cruz repeated.
"Oh, um..."
"I made it perfectly clear to Ammit and Gungnir that no one should be in this room without proper clearance. And I doubt that you would have that level of clearance."
"Dude, really?" said Jason, rubbing the back of his head in befuddlement. "I didn't hear that. I guess I was, I dunno, sleeping off the attack or something when they made the announcement."
"Yet you heard that there was a girl here who might be the Next?" said Cruz, shaking her head. "She is not the Next, so you shouldn't concern yourself."
"But there's a girl here? Who is she?"
"Why do you care?"
"Is she hot?"
"She's fourteen," Cruz snarled.
"Oh," said Jason, deflating. "My bad."
"I'll be sure to report you to Manbo when she regains consciousness," said Cruz. "If you want that report to be merely somewhat negative instead of highly disconcerting, I would suggest leaving. Now." At that, she pointed sharply to the door.
"But--"
"Now."
"Right, yeah, okay," said Jason. "Sorry, dude."
It happened so fast. Mia had grown sloppy and lazy in her years stationed at Hogwarts. She didn't even react as Jason flipped his wand towards Cruz and slammed a Stunning spell right into the Healer's chest. The witch flew backwards, skidding across the tile floor before connecting with the far wall, unconscious. Jason looked to the door, let out a sharp whistle, and then his wand was now pointed directly at Mia's nose.
"Where is she?" Jason asked Mia as she realized that she, in her lax stupidity, had left her wand on her desk with her notes.
"Who-- Who--?"
"Rose and Meghan," said Jason, all trace of the dim bulb gone as his wand twisted in his fingers. "Where are they?"
"I-- I--"
"Don't play dumb, Mia," came a voice from the door that Mia recognized instantly. Her heart skipped a beat as Professor Uriela Longbottom joined Jason, followed behind by a tall black man who she didn't know.
"How did you find us?" Mia gasped, her heart beating a mile a minute as Uri aimed her wand at her, while the black wizard closed the door behind them and cast a Colloportus, locking them inside.
"It's just her," said Jason to Uri. "I Stunned the other nurse. No Masks anywhere."
"Where are the girls?" Uri asked Mia sharply. The black wizard was still facing the door, his wand raised, prepared for the guards they both knew were coming.
"Rose... Rose..." Mia stammered, her brain locked. She wanted to do anything for the Oligarchy, but she was just a nurse. She never expected to be in any actual danger...
"Out with it!" Uri yelled.
"She's over there," said Mia, tipping her head to the curtained bed to her left.
"Hold her, Teddy," said Uri to Jason, and Mia's eyes widened as she put the pieces together.
"Teddy?" she said. "Teddy Lupin?"
"Hands where I can see them, Madam Hahnemann," said Jason, the black bandanna fading as his face shifted into the boy who had left Hogwarts four years ago.
"Jesus Christ," Uri gasped as she pulled open the curtain. "What did you do to her?"
"We didn't do anything to her," said Mia. "We're saving her."
"By stealing her?"
"Get her out of here, Uri," said the black man. "We won't be alone for much longer."
"You can't!" cried Mia as Uri began to loosen Rose's straps. "She's greatly injured. If you move her--"
"If I move her she goes her back to St. Mungo Healers and to her family," said Uri, unlocking Rose's ankles. "What were you thinking, Mia? Why are you with these bastards? For what purpose?"
"You know why," said Mia. "They're trying to save the world. Trying to help wizards and Muggles live together in peace."
"Damn fine way of going about it," the black wizard grumbled. "Mass murder and spying and kidnapping."
"You make us sound like we're evil..."
"You are evil," Uri burst out, whirling on Mia. "Neville is in a coma because of what you've done! You killed Aurora, may have killed Bjorn. I don't know if my husband's going to survive the night. All because you want to help."
"I didn't want it to be like this!" Mia cried. "I joined because--"
"Could we not do the morality discussion right now?" Teddy interjected. "Dean's right, Professor. We won't be alone for long."
"Uri, take her out of here," said Dean, the black wizard. "Take the Good Doctor with if she thinks Rose isn't in good enough hands. We'll let Hermione and the others deal with her on the other side."
"What kind of a Healer are you, Mia?" said Uri, her eyes boring into Hahnemann. "Are you going to help Rose and take whatever the Aurors give you? Or are you going to let me take her while you deal with your cult after they find out you let their captive go?"
"Either way, Rose leaves," said Dean.
Mia stared at the wand in Teddy's hand. Stared at Uri. At the door. At Rose. Nodded.
"We need to lift her," she said, advancing slowly towards Uri and Rose. "You're using a Portkey, right?"
"The same tech the Oligarchy used to get into Hogwarts," said Teddy. "Dualkey."
"Then we have to carry her," Mia explained, unfastening Rose's other side. "That way she won't hit the ground when we land. Splinching's a possibility, but if this is how you insist to take her out, then we risk it."
"We risk it," Uri agreed, pulling the Galleon from her pocket and sliding it, and her hands, beneath Rose's head and midsection. "Get her legs, Mia, and make sure your hand's near her bottom. We all need to be in contact with the Galleon."
Mia did what she was told. It was a difficult job adjusting her finger, Uri's finger, and Rose herself to all be touching the Galleon. What made it harder was the potion. The blue-green concoction was making contact with their bare hands and arms, and numbing both in the process.
"Hurry up," said Mia. "Any longer and I won't know if I'm still touching the coin."
Rose began to stir. Mia's eyes closed in weary frustration. Just what she needed, a squirming screaming girl to make this nightmare scenario that much easier.
Uri, however, brightened at the small moan coming from the girl. "Rose?" she said.
"mummy?" Rose said, her voice slurring. She could have been describing herself as much as she was asking for her mother: her entire face was covered in the bandages, leaving only her eyes and mouth open. Mia had even, very carefully, shaved the hair from her head when she was brought in in order to get closer contact to the burned areas, and the bandages were tight to her scalp.
"No, it's not," said Uriela gently. "It's Professor Longbottom. Uri. Neville's wife?"
"uri?" said Rose, sounding so far away from reality right now, but so hopeful. Mia could see the look of hurt and despair on Uri's face, and hoped that she didn't decide to just take out her anger on Mia as soon as they arrived back at Hogwarts or the Ministry or wherever the other half of this Dualkey was located. The Aurors? Mia would be lucky to make it out of the room alive.
It's not fair! Mia's inner self bemoaned. It's not my fault! I didn't turn her into this! Meghan did! Or Yah-O-Gah! Or anyone that wasn't me! I just want to help her! I want to help everyone!
But in the end she knew that wasn't true. After all, she could have turned down Prospero and Atrytone when they approached her all those years ago. It was mere hours after she received the owl from Professor Ogden offering her the position of Hogwarts nurse, replacing the much-loved Poppy Pomphrey. Prospero and Atrytone arrived at her doorstep in Berlin, offering her a position of their own in addition to the one they requested she take at Hogwarts.
They explained who they were. What they stood for. Their history. Their credo. Hahnemann bit hard. She had been born a half-blood, and had felt the pain of living in two separate worlds at once. To change that...
And what they asked was so simple: Stay vigilant. Pay extra attention to those students they told her to watch. Interfere only if they are in danger. The First could come in five years or fifty. The First might not even come from Hogwarts. In fact, the odds were slim indeed, maybe one in a thousand. Do what they asked, and she would be well rewarded when the time came.
So she waited. She wondered if anyone at Hogwarts had been in the Oligarchy's pocket before her, but never had the courage to ask. When Teddy Lupin injured himself on the Quidditch pitch Hahnemann was always one of the first there to help him. When Victoire Weasley came down with the measles in third year, Hahnemann took extra care to mix an extra effective potion. Fred Hogan, Xavier MacDougal, Alan Runcorn. All came to Hogwarts, and a note always came via owl the night they were Sorted: Be vigilant.
And then there was Meghan. She was Mia's biggest challenge of all. She needed to be Protected, yet she kept getting herself injured in the oddest ways. A severed foot here. An unstoppable giggling fit there. One particularly embarrassing incident found Mia shrinking the twelve-year-old's chest after she suddenly developed F-cup-sized breasts.
It wasn't just the frequency of the visits that concerned Mia, but the sheer power behind the accidents. Meghan had been doing spells that no one her age should have been able to do. And the spells that her peers could do were being done with such... intensity. Mia feared for the girl's life one night when Professor Bosh brought her into the hospital wing, passed out, dehydrated, and starving. It was an Imperturbable Charm, they discovered, one that neither she nor Bosh could break.
Hahnemann had done what she could to get the Charms professor out of her office before contacting Prospero via their provided two-way mirror for instructions. She followed them to a T (Prospero was always so much better than she ever was), and Mia found Meghan just a few hours later, bright and cheerful and meeting for the first time her future boyfriend, Scorpius Malfoy.
Mia knew Meghan was special then. When word came that the First was in the UK, she knew in her gut that Meghan was the one. And she could have stopped it at any time. Could have turned down the order to isolate Meghan that morning. Could have argued with Prospero that the signs were wrong. Hell, she could have suggested they wait until the summer, to take Meghan when she was home in Thurso instead of in the middle of Hogwarts, or even gone so far as to hide Aiden Towler's wizard chess pieces somewhere far away from Hogwarts. London, maybe. Or Timbuktu.
But the Oligarchy were impatient. And, let's be honest, Mia was impatient, too. She wanted to see it happen. She wanted to see Meghan take her place as the First as soon as possible. And, selfishly, she wanted the power and the glory that came with being the witch who had protected the First.
So, yes, in the end Rose was her fault. She had signed the note for her extra credit project, but couldn't know that Rose would go to the greenhouse at the same time that Meghan and Scorpius were there. But she could have stopped the Oligarchy from attacking Hogwarts. Could have warned them about Meghan's power levels so they could have subdued her before things had gone from bad to worse.
Could have turned down the job in the first place.
But she didn't.
So here she was, staring into the face of a young girl whose only crime was becoming friends with the girl destined to be the keystone of a new world order. She was friends with Meghan Cullen, and was barbequed for her trouble.
"We'll be back to your Mum soon," said Uri to Rose. "But I need you to stay very still, alright? This might hurt for just a moment. We're going to Portkey you out of here. Your Mum and Dad are just on the other side."
"kay," Rose said, her voice barely a whisper.
"No funny business, Madam Hahnemann," said Teddy.
"Ready?" said Uri, and Mia nodded. "One. Two."
CRASH
"Skoupizo!"
"Three!"
crack
"Uri!"
Mia looked around the dark room. What happened? What was that noise? Where were they?
"Rosie!" Hermione and Ron Weasley cried out at once, lowering their wands and running towards Mia and Uri.
"Oh, God, Rosie!" said Hermione, tears pouring down her face as she caught sight of her daughter. She was shaking like a leaf and kissing every square inch of the girl's bandaged face.
"What happened to her?" said Ron, touching his daughter to make sure she was actually there. "My God, what happened?"
"Later," said Uri quickly. "Harry, Andi, I could use a mattress or something, I can't hold her much longer."
"Mobilocorpus!" Harry and Andromeda said at once, and Mia felt Rose's weight lift from her arms as the girl was levitated by their spells.
"Bill, get to the hospital wing," said Harry. "Get any available Healers down here that you can. And a cot or something. Whatever they think they need."
"What do zey need?" asked Fleur. "What 'appened? Where's Victoire?"
"She's still over there," said Uri. "They're all still over there. I have to go back."
"Bill, get moving!" Harry ordered. "Uri, what happened?"
"Rose was injured in the fire," Uri explained. "She was burned badly. Mia can explain more, but I have to go, something happened just before we 'Ported."
"Badly burned, got it," said Bill with a nod, running out of the room.
"Mia?" Harry blinked, seeming to notice the nurse for the first time.
"Her bandages are soaked in an anti-burn solution," Mia explained, feeling the weight of the wands suddenly pointed at her face. "It's regrowing her skin and killing any infection."
"Do what you want with her," said Uri to Harry. "She's one of them. Tie her up, whatever you need to do, I'm going back."
"So am I," said Harry, pocketing his wand.
"Oh, Christ, Harry!" Uri burst out. "Don't start this argument again!"
"You said something happened," said Harry. "Was there an attack?"
"I think so," said Uri, "but--"
"Then I'm going," said Harry. "Fleur, Andi, are you coming with me?"
"Of course," said Andromeda.
"Eet ees not even a question," said Fleur, stepping up to the Galleon.
"But you all--" Uri began.
"Hiding doesn't matter anymore!" Harry argued. "There's an attack, so now you need numbers. We're going in to help. Fleur, it's your call if you go now or wait for Bill to come back."
"'Ermione and Ron can tell him to join us," said Fleur, motioning to the Weasleys who were still completely focused on their floating injured daughter. "Uriela said it best, we need to leave now."
"Right," said Harry. "No arguments, Uri, we're coming."
"Fine," Uriela relented. "But if you die you have to answer to Neville."
"Gladly," said Harry, putting his finger on the Galleon, joined soon after by Andromeda and Fleur. "Ready?" The three women nodded, their wands all poised for attack. "Okay. One. Two. Three!"
Nothing.
"One. Two. Three!"
Nothing.
"What's wrong?" said Fleur. "The coin... What's wrong?"
"I don't know," said Harry. "Hermione, get over here! Hermione!"
"Hermione, check the Galleon," said Uri, rushing over to the three Weasleys and grabbing the Minister's elbow. "Something's wrong with it."
"But Rose--" Hermione started, reaching for her daughter as she was dragged back to the table.
"She'll be fine," said Uri soothingly, "but we need to get back in. Now. What's wrong with the Dualkey?"
Hermione glanced at Rose, back to the table, and shook her head to clear it. "Right," she said, pulling out her wand. "Right. Of course. Specialis Revelio!"
"Well?" said Harry as Hermione passed her wand over the coin. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," said Hermione.
"Nothing's wrong?"
"No, there's nothing on it at all," Hermione said, shaking her head slowly. "It's been completely dispelled."
"You mean it doesn't work?"
"I mean it can't work," said Hermione. "We have to reinstall all of the enchantments, which is going to take at least an hour. And that's if the other coin hasn't already been destroyed."
"Destroyed?" said Andromeda. "You mean we can't get in there? Teddy can't come back?"
"I don't know," said Hermione, pulling the coin from the table. "I'll get it to the Ministry to put another Dualkey charm on it. But..."
"But until then, we can't help them," said Uri, sagging.
"And they can't escape," said Hermione. "They're trapped."
Fleur Weasley let out an agonized moan as Andromeda dropped limply into a chair. Harry Potter slammed his fist against the table in frustration. Rose may be back, but their children were still gone. The waiting game continued.
The Oligarchy / Previous Chapters / Lycanthrope
Author: kanedax
Spoilers: Previous Chapters
Rating: R for language and violence
Summary: They're in...
Notes: I have three chapters coming after this instead of two. This chapter was going to be much longer, but I decided to divide it up instead of stuffing it all into one. The next one should be coming in the next few weeks, although right now I can't promise I'll be done by the end of 2009.
I own these characters. The others belong to JK Rowling.
The Oligarchy / Previous Chapters / Lycanthrope
Harry Potter's head swam. He felt cold stone against his cheek. He felt woozy.
Where am I? he thought, sitting up. As he did so, pain drove through his skull like a steel spike. He flinched, his hand instinctively flying to his scar. But it wasn't his scar. Simply a headache. One hell of a headache, but that's all.
"Nnngh..."
Harry looked around at the sound of the groan. Next to him, Ron was sitting up from the floor. Across the table, Hermione was doing the same, rubbing her head.
It all started coming back to him. They were in a Hogwarts classroom. Both were dressed for movement as Harry was: t-shirt for Ron, tank top for Hermione, both in shorts. Neither were wearing the robes that had been put on before they--
They were going to infiltrate the Oligarchy headquarters with Ogden, Teddy, and Victoire. Before Hermione was attacked. Was he stunned, too? Was Ron?
Where were the others?
Harry could see the realization flood into Ron and Hermione's eyes at the same time. All three jumped to their feet at the same time.
"The coin!" Ron yelled, running to the table. "Is it still there?"
Bill and Fleur, Harry thought. Andi and Jana. Are they alright? "Safehouse!" he bellowed, pounding on the door. "Safehouse! Bloody safehouse!"
"Who attacked us?" asked Hermione, looking around. "What happened? Where's my wand?"
"Safehouse!"
"Here's the coin," said Ron with a desperate sigh. "Hurry up, we have to go."
"Ron, wait--" Hermione started.
"We have to go! They have Rose! They attacked us, but--"
Harry fell aside as the classroom's door flew open and Bill, Fleur, and Andromeda plunged inside, their wands raised for battle. For a split-second, Harry was sure that one of them would cast in a panic, not recognizing he, Ron, or Hermione in the darkened room. Gratefully, Bill cast Lumos spells at the same time that Andromeda waved her wand at the candles circling the room, lighting it before anyone was taken down in friendly fire.
"What happened?" Fleur yelled, circling around. "What ees eet?"
"We were attacked," said Harry, patting his pockets, hoping to find his wand. Unfortunately, his wand wasn't the only thing missing. "The Cloak! It's gone, too!"
"Did anyone come in after us?" asked Hermione.
"Where's my wand?" Ron yelled, clutching the coin tightly. "Where's my wand, we gotta go!"
"No, no one came in," said Bill. "We locked it behind you. You were attacked?"
"Where's my bloody wand?"
"Where's Teddy?" asked Andromeda.
"Fuck it, I'm going. Hermione, come on."
"Where's Victoire?" asked Fleur.
"We don't know!" said Harry.
"This wasn't here before," said Hermione, picking up a piece of paper that was sitting on the table where the coin had been placed.
"Someone snuck in here somehow," said Harry, scouring the corners of the room. With a grateful exhale, he discovered his wand, rolled into the shadowed corner.
"Oligarchy?" said Andromeda.
"Has to be," said Harry. "Damn it. I thought we swept the school! How could they get past us?"
"It wasn't Oligarchy," said Hermione, handing the note to Harry. The more he read, the more his head shook in disbelief:
Harry, Hermione, & Ron,
As you read this, we'll be gone, accompanying Tiberius, Victoire, and Teddy into the Oligarchy headquarters. We are sorry, but we simply couldn't let you risk your lives for this mission, and you had made it perfectly clear that you wouldn't let us go unless we resorted to drastic measures.
You have too much to live for, too many people relying on you to come back alive. We don't.
We will bring back Rose and Meghan. We will do our best to discover anything we can about the Oligarchy, and possibly find some help on the inside. We will make you proud.
Do not follow us.
Please forgive us,
Uriela Longbottom
Dean Thomas
Draco Malfoy
"Son of a bitch," Harry breathed in wonder, handing the note to Ron, who read it aloud. As he did, Harry could see Ron's hands shake. When he got to Draco, he could barely spit the name out. He closed his eyes, appearing to try to calm himself.
"One," he said, "two--"
"Ron, no!" yelled Hermione. "Accio Galleon!"
The gold Dualkey was torn from Ron's closed fingers and spun across the room into Hermione's palm. "We can't," she said, setting the coin back in the middle of the table.
"But Rose--!"
"--is in their hands now," said Hermione, her voice shaking with anxiety.
"But--"
"Ron, I hate this as much as you do," she said, her hand tightening on her wand. "But we can't go. Not anymore. We don't know how long they've been gone, where they are, or where Rose's Dualkey is. If they landed somewhere safe, they might already have it in their pocket. If they landed somewhere not so safe, they'd be doing their best to keep themselves hidden."
"Or they've already been captured!"
"In either case, the three of us suddenly appearing out of nowhere will help no one!" Hermione cried. "Ron, think! If they're hiding, we might expose them. If they're captured, then we're captured, too. Either way, it'll get more people killed."
"I'm sorry," said Harry reluctantly. "We can't, Ron. We have to stay here."
"The plan doesn't change," said Hermione. With a wave of her wand, the candles lining the walls were darkened. "We wait outside--"
"I'm not moving," said Ron, pulling a wooden chair from the stack against the wall and planting himself firmly upon it. "If anyone shows up, I'll be here to deal with them."
"But if one of the Oligarchy come--"
"Then we'll deal with them," Harry conceded. "I'll stay, too."
Hermione nodded, then pulled down a chair for herself. "Okay," she said, sitting down with her wand pointed at the Galleon. "We stay."
Harry couldn't sit. He gripped his wand tightly, pointing it at the Galleon, his nerves taut, waiting for anyone, friend or foe, to appear in front of them. In the end, it was all he could do. All any of them could do.
The fate of Rose Weasley and Meghan Cullen had been ripped from their grasp, and all they could do was wait, helplessly, for the outcome.
---------
thud
tinkle
"Bloody hell."
"What was that?"
Teddy Lupin launched to his feet, his head and wand on a swivel as he scanned the room where the group had 'Ported. Five others in the room with him. One was on one knee, pushing himself to a standing position. The other four were sprawled across the floor like he had been.
Otherwise, they were alone. Gratefully.
Our heroic entrance could use a do-over, Teddy thought.
"Everyone alright?" whispered Ogden, the only one of the group who had landed relatively gracefully compared to the others.
"I kicked something," groaned Dean, shaking his leg as he pushed himself up. "It broke."
"Looks like you knocked a mirror down," said Ogden. "Reparo."
"Well," Teddy said, rubbing the back of his sore head, "as far as Dualkey landings go, Seamus was better."
"Give us a break," said Victoire, helping Uri and Draco to their feet, "we're new to this."
"Let's just hope a broken mirror's the worst thing that happens," said Dean, brushing himself off.
"Don't jinx it," said Uri. "Where are we?"
Teddy had to fight the instinct of lighting up a Lumos spell. There was a faint glow coming from somewhere, but they were otherwise in the dark. The last thing they needed was a flare of attention.
There were beds, he saw. Bunks, actually, stacked three high to a tall ceiling. He risked walking past the bunks where they had landed and into the aisle. Twelve bunks, six on a side, in a room that looked, hmmm, sixty feet long? Seventy? Teddy was a horrible judge of distances. He also discovered the source of the light: a door open on the far end of the room poured the yellow glow of candlelight into the dormitory.
And a dormitory was what it was. It was well-kept, and each of the beds had their own distinct style and decorations. Not a prison room, then. A place for people to rest and unwind. A place for young girls to rest and unwind, from the amount of stuffed toys, ruffles and pink that Teddy was seeing as his eyes began to adjust to the dim. Even the bed they had landed next to, the one where Rose's coin had been laid on the nightstand, was fully made with a pair of folded pajamas and books on top of the cushy blanket.
Night vision wouldn't be a problem for Mum, he thought. Just the adjustment of rods and cones, I suppose. Why didn't you ask Mr. Cairill to teach you that during your morphing lessons?
A dormitory. Not a prison. So what was Rose's Galleon doing here? Why were they giving her clothing and books? Were they even holding her prisoner? Was she living with them? She had only been captured a few hours ago!
"So we're in," asked Draco as Dean tossed a Muffliato at the doorway. "Somewhere. So what now?"
"We can't stay here," said Dean, looking around nervously. "It's empty now, but I don't want to be Goldilocks when the bears come back and wonder who's been sleeping in their bed."
Draco snorted. "Muggleborns."
"Accio headquarters map!" Victoire said, waving her wand. When nothing happened, she blushed at the looks the rest of the group gave her. "Well, it didn't hurt to try."
"No, it didn't hurt," said Ogden, walking up and down the aisle, studying the beds and the tables next to them. "I doubt we'll find much of anything useful in here, either. I wouldn't think the Oligarchy would hand out orientation materials."
Uriela picked up a book from one of the bedside stands. "Arithmancy," she read. "It's a textbook. Are we in a school?"
"I wouldn't be surprised," said Ogden. "It would not surprise me in the least if the Oligarchy recruited members that are too young to be finished with their lessons. Either Rose or Meghan are the Next, after all, and they didn't wait for them to come of age."
"They take their soldiers when they can get them," said Uriela sickly, dropping the book on the bed like it was infected. "Let's get out of here before I vomit."
"Miss Weasley, I would ask that you wear Harry's Invisibility Cloak," said Ogden, motioning to Dean. "You're our navigator. We can't get anywhere if you're unconscious."
"Okay," said Victoire shakily, taking the Cloak from Dean. The professor didn't say all the words, but she heard them anyway: "We can't get anywhere if you're unconscious. Or dead."
"Wait," said Draco, holding up his hand to stop Victoire. "It might be smarter for you to keep it off, at least for now. One of us should wear it."
"Mr. Malfoy--" Ogden protested.
"She's a little girl!" Draco countered. "She's a little girl in a room for little girls."
"I'm not--!" Victoire began.
"She's the only one of us that can pass for normal in here," he continued. "She's the only one of us that could walk out that door without drawing attention. The rest of us are too old or too male. I say she's our scout. She goes out there and finds someone to read or whatever it is she does."
"Not alone, she's not!" said Uriela.
"She won't be alone," said Teddy, his face turning red. "I have a bad idea."
---------
Samantha Rollins hated her vertigo.
It had been something that had been a part of her world since she was a small child. Not as bad now as it had been when she was in kindergarten, thankfully, and not as frequent. But there were still days when she would wake up to a room that wouldn't stop spinning until she, gratefully, fell asleep that night.
Today was one of those days.
When it happened, she did her best to tough it out: go to school like she normally would, try to choke down meals, that sort of thing. But this was the first time that it had hit her since Ya-O-Gah had come to Calgary, told her she was special, and recruited her into the Oligarchy. The classes here were a lot harder than they were back at home, the training more intense. They weren't the sort of classes you wanted to attend feeling like you had gotten off a out of control amusement park ride.
So she had talked Mrs. Valdez, their Dueling teacher, into letting her out to the hospital wing. On her way into the nurse's office to get whatever the nurse would be able to give her for her dizzy spells, Sam had had to dodge out of the way as Ammit, the leader of the Circle of Thirteen, brushed past her. Why she was here instead of in Cairo Sam didn't know, but the look of frustration on her crocodile mask made the fifteen-year-old recruit decide against even asking.
Once inside, Sam found even more surprising sights. In a bed to her right, an older witch lay unconscious. Seated at her side was a wizard with a gold mask: Gungnir, Mask of Trondheim. What was he doing here? Who was he looking after? What happened to her?
At the far end, another witch who Sam didn't recognize was fussing over a... well, the patient was so wrapped in blue-shaded bandages that the only way Sam could tell she was a girl was because of slight bumps on her chest. The probably-girl was strapped to the bed by her wrists and ankles.
"Miss Rollins?" said Healer Cruz, striding quickly to Sam from the other side of the room, a bottle already in her hand.
"Hi, Ms. Cruz," said Sam. "I have a note from Mrs. Valdez, I--"
"Vertigo, yes?"
"Um, how'd you know?"
"Your previous conditions are listed in your file," said Ms. Cruz, curtly handing Sam the bottle. "Please drink this and get some rest."
"But--"
"We're very busy," said Ms. Cruz, waving her wand twice to close the curtains around the mysterious patients. "Please."
"Um. Okay."
And with one more look over her shoulder at the now-shielded beds, Sam was escorted out of the nurse's office, the doors closing loudly behind her.
What was that about?
Everyone seemed more on edge lately. Some of the older girls that she had gotten to know in the two months she had been here seemed a lot more tense than normal. Moodier. Quieter. Something big was going down.
Or something big had gone down. But what?
I don't know, she thought. But something tells me that those two were part of the casualty list.
She allowed her mind to wander as she continued down the halls. That was one of the things she was still trying to get used to here. There were so many things happening that she and the other students were never told about. She kept seeing new faces all the time, while others disappeared forever. Alexa, for instance, the girl who had slept in the bunk below her when she first arrived at... wherever they were. One day, poof, her bed stripped, her possessions gone. Did she leave? Was she promoted to another school? Sam didn't know. Didn't ask. Too many questions got you into trouble around here.
But what did you expect from a place where masks were a part of your school uniform?
Sam adjusted the black bandanna that covered her eyes and the top of her head. Luckily she'd be able to take it off when she got to bed. It did a number on her hair, which often felt sore down to the roots some days from all the shifting and tugging. There were nights when she felt like a woman in one of those shampoo commercials when she took it off, all massaging and moaning in relief.
"Did you hear about the two girls they brought in?"
"No, I didn't!"
Two girls were sitting in plush couches chittering to each other as Sam entered the common room. One looked a little older than herself, the other a little younger. Sam couldn't tell for sure, though, as they were both wearing masks. Hard to judge anyone's age around here. She didn't know them, though.
Newbies, she thought. More newbies. They just keep coming in more and more each day.
"I heard one of them's important," said the younger girl in what sounded like a British accent. "I heard one of them's the Next."
Sam froze in her tracks as the older girl gasped. The Next? Here? They found... her, apparently? Holy crap. That's huge!
"That's huge!" said the older girl. "I wonder where they're keeping her?"
"I don't know," said the younger girl. "I hope she's okay, though. I guess they were a little rough with her."
Why would the Next not be okay? Sam thought, sitting down far enough away from the girls to listen in without being noticed. They seemed to be the only three in the common room right now, and Sam was surprised she hadn't been seen. Was she hurt for some reason? Who would want to hurt her?
Sam's eyes widened, her hands covering her mouth. Was that why Ammit was so angry when she left the hospital wing? Was that why Gungnir was watching over that other witch? Was she the Next? Was the other girl, the one all wrapped up and tied to the bed, the Next? Who hurt who? Did they hurt each other? Why would she be tied up?
How do these girls know all of this--
A flash from the corner of the room.
Darkness.
---------
"She's the one?" said Dean from beneath the Invisibility Cloak, moving from the corner of the common room to the girl, slumped unconscious in her chair.
"As close as we're going to get," said Victoire, standing up from her own chair. "She saw someone in the hospital wing. A girl. bandaged and restrained. Circle members nearby. Let's get her into the bathroom."
"We got lucky," said the younger girl, standing up herself. "We might have had to wait three hours before we could find anyone with information."
Dean nodded. Three girls and a boy had come through the common room before this one. Victoire scanned each one as they came through, hoping the conversation she was having would trigger some memory that could point them in the right direction. The whole scanning thing was crazy, Dean thought. For someone who didn't even know they had this ability last autumn, Victoire was a fast learner. Her skills were expanding immeasurably. Kind of scary, if stopped to think about it. He didn't.
Each one passed without Victoire motioning to Dean to Stun. Until this one.
"We wouldn't have waited three hours," said Victoire, taking the unconscious girl by the shoulders as the younger girl took her legs. "I was this close to just walking into the hall and reading whoever I could read. And could you change back, please? It's... creepy."
"Gladly," said the little girl, loosening her collar.
"Don't," said Dean. "We don't know who's going to come in while we're working."
"Damn it," said the girl grumpily. "No one tell Jack about this, alright? I've never had to morph into a female before, and I'd be really happy to never do it again. Especially one who hasn't hit puberty yet."
"Would you rather change into one that has hit puberty?" said Victoire. "Wait," she added quickly, grimacing, "don't answer that."
"You're a great actor, Teddy," said Dean, following the two "girls" into the women's bathroom. "I couldn't even tell you were a guy."
"I... I really don't know how to take that, Mr. Thomas," said Teddy, kicking open one of the stalls and carefully settling the Stunned girl onto the toilet.
"Hey, if Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams can do it, why not you?"
"Because Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams didn't have functioning female--"
"Stop," said Victoire with a shudder.
Dean grew quiet, but could feel his face warming. He was glad he was still under Harry's Invisibility Cloak so Victoire couldn't see his embarrassment. How did she feel, knowing the twelve year old girl standing in front of her was actually the man she was, until recently, having sex with?
Creepy doesn't cover it, I suppose.
"I'll stand guard," said Dean as Victoire closed the stall door behind her. "Get what you need to get, then we'll get out of here."
"Get me a piece of paper," said Victoire from the other side. "Quick."
---------
As there had been a few children streaming in and out of the dormitories, Draco, Tiberius, and Uri had cast quick Disillusionment charms on themselves and slipped out of the girls' room as Victoire, Teddy, and Dean dealt with the Stunned teen. The six joined up with each other the common room and quickly slipped into the cloakroom. It was a tight fit, and they hoped beyond hope that they weren't going to be interrupted by a group of children preparing to go outside, but they had to find a place to touch base and this was as out of the way as any.
"We have to move fast," said Victoire after Uri cast a Muffliato on the door. "That Stun's going to wear off any time now, and Sam's going to wonder why she fell asleep on the toilet."
"You know her name?" said Draco.
"It was sitting right on top of her thoughts," Victoire shrugged. "It always is. Anyway, there's a girl in the hospital wing that might be Rose or Meghan. Probably Rose. Meghan's shorter, isn't she?"
"Quite short," said Ogden, and Uri nodded in agreement.
"Either way, she's been tied down," said Victoire, "so I think she's a captive. And there were at least two Circle of Thirteen members in the room when Sam got there. One of them was their leader, and she didn't seem to be in the best mood when she was leaving."
"Might be one of the girls," said Uri.
"It's as good a place to start as any," said Ogden. "How do we get there?"
"I drew a map," said Victoire, pulling a piece of paper from inside her robe. "It's really rough, since I was drawing it from Sam's memory. But we should be able to get there."
"We grab Rose," said Teddy, now (gratefully) back to his normal self, "'Port her out, then move on to finding Meghan?"
"We have to be really careful, though," said Victoire, her voice shaking slightly. "Sam thought she looked really hurt. She was completely covered in some sort of blue bandages."
"So we go?" said Teddy. "Now?"
"Not all of us," said Ogden, shaking his head.
"What? Why?"
"Because there are two girls that need to be rescued, and time is of the essence."
"And six of us walking down the hall are going to draw a lot more attention than... three?" said Dean. "Split up?"
"Yes," said Ogden. "Three of us can deal with Rose, while the other three continue the search for Meghan."
"I should keep searching," said Victoire. "I want to be with Rose, but if I should be focusing on searching other memories."
"I'll go with you," said Teddy quickly.
"Two children in a group of three?" said Draco. "You're going to get us all killed."
"You two are also the best way the two groups can communicate with each other," said Ogden, "as you, Mr. Lupin, have the most experience transmitting with Miss Weasley from long distances. You, Dean, and Uriela will go to the hospital wing. Victoire, Draco, and I will continue the search for Meghan."
"Alright," said Uri. "You have the Galleon?"
"Here," said Ogden, handing her the gold coin. "Miss Weasley, give them the map."
Victoire handed Uri the sketch, scribbled on a loose piece of parchment. Uri flipped it over, and wasn't surprised to see rune notes scribbled on the other side. Dean had found the paper in the garbage of the girls' toilet, after all. Someone must have been cramming in there and threw away the notes they weren't using anymore.
"Get to Rose and get her out," said Ogden. "When that's accomplished, Theodore will contact Victoire. You three join us after Victoire tells you how to get to where we are."
"And if you find Meghan, call us," said Dean to Victoire.
"If we find her first we'll bring her to you and the Dualkey," added Ogden. "Any questions?"
The six remained silent.
"Keep safe," said Ogden, taking the Cloak from Dean and handing it to Victoire. "Keep secret. Use your brains, and don't fight unless you have to. Don't draw attention to yourselves, and use Disillusionments if you think you can get away with them. Good luck."
Good lucks and handshakes were passed all around. When Victoire and Teddy kissed, once and long, no one spoke against it. Victoire Weasley pulled back first and pulled the Cloak over her head, vanishing her from sight. Tiberius Ogden and Draco Malfoy pulled the hoods over their own. Victoire peeked out the door to find an empty common room.
And the three were out on their quest.
"I hate this," groaned Teddy after they were gone.
"You'll see her again, kid," said Dean, patting Teddy on the shoulder. "Don't worry."
"The wing looks close," said Uri, studying the map.
"With maybe two Circle members inside," Dean said with a sigh. "We'll have our hands full."
"Rose is the priority," said Uri. "If we can slip in undetected we can get her 'Ported out before anyone even knows we're there."
"Once that happens, there's going to be a fight."
"I can get in," said Teddy. "I know what to do, I just hope I can throw them long enough..."
---------
"Is it true?"
Mia Hahnemann looked up from her paperwork: piles upon piles of notes about Rose Weasley's conditions. Weasley had been a last-minute decision by Prospero and the others, so Mia hadn't been able to pull her medical records before their escape. It was difficult enough to treat someone with her injuries. It only became more difficult when there was no access to the girl's known allergies, blood types, and other information that might mean life or death in her condition.
Mia was currently in the middle of making notations on how Rose was reacting to the potion concocted to slow the infections caused by the burns when the voice roused her from her work. A young man stood behind her, in his mid-twenties, his wand clutched loosely in his hand. The bandanna-like mask covering the upper half of his face did nothing to hide his excitement.
"Excuse me?" Mia asked.
"The Next," said the man. "Is it true? Is she here?" he said, looking around the hospital anxiously.
"No, she's not," said Mia. "She's with Prospero. Um... Who are you? How did you--?"
"Rumor mill's going strong," said the man, an American from the accent, with a shrug. "I'm the only one who had the balls to come see for myself, I guess. So we did find her?"
"Excuse me," snapped Cruz, who stormed out of the adjacent office, carrying her own wand at her side. "What are doing here, Jason?"
"Huh?" said the wizard, tensing.
"What are you doing here?" Cruz repeated.
"Oh, um..."
"I made it perfectly clear to Ammit and Gungnir that no one should be in this room without proper clearance. And I doubt that you would have that level of clearance."
"Dude, really?" said Jason, rubbing the back of his head in befuddlement. "I didn't hear that. I guess I was, I dunno, sleeping off the attack or something when they made the announcement."
"Yet you heard that there was a girl here who might be the Next?" said Cruz, shaking her head. "She is not the Next, so you shouldn't concern yourself."
"But there's a girl here? Who is she?"
"Why do you care?"
"Is she hot?"
"She's fourteen," Cruz snarled.
"Oh," said Jason, deflating. "My bad."
"I'll be sure to report you to Manbo when she regains consciousness," said Cruz. "If you want that report to be merely somewhat negative instead of highly disconcerting, I would suggest leaving. Now." At that, she pointed sharply to the door.
"But--"
"Now."
"Right, yeah, okay," said Jason. "Sorry, dude."
It happened so fast. Mia had grown sloppy and lazy in her years stationed at Hogwarts. She didn't even react as Jason flipped his wand towards Cruz and slammed a Stunning spell right into the Healer's chest. The witch flew backwards, skidding across the tile floor before connecting with the far wall, unconscious. Jason looked to the door, let out a sharp whistle, and then his wand was now pointed directly at Mia's nose.
"Where is she?" Jason asked Mia as she realized that she, in her lax stupidity, had left her wand on her desk with her notes.
"Who-- Who--?"
"Rose and Meghan," said Jason, all trace of the dim bulb gone as his wand twisted in his fingers. "Where are they?"
"I-- I--"
"Don't play dumb, Mia," came a voice from the door that Mia recognized instantly. Her heart skipped a beat as Professor Uriela Longbottom joined Jason, followed behind by a tall black man who she didn't know.
"How did you find us?" Mia gasped, her heart beating a mile a minute as Uri aimed her wand at her, while the black wizard closed the door behind them and cast a Colloportus, locking them inside.
"It's just her," said Jason to Uri. "I Stunned the other nurse. No Masks anywhere."
"Where are the girls?" Uri asked Mia sharply. The black wizard was still facing the door, his wand raised, prepared for the guards they both knew were coming.
"Rose... Rose..." Mia stammered, her brain locked. She wanted to do anything for the Oligarchy, but she was just a nurse. She never expected to be in any actual danger...
"Out with it!" Uri yelled.
"She's over there," said Mia, tipping her head to the curtained bed to her left.
"Hold her, Teddy," said Uri to Jason, and Mia's eyes widened as she put the pieces together.
"Teddy?" she said. "Teddy Lupin?"
"Hands where I can see them, Madam Hahnemann," said Jason, the black bandanna fading as his face shifted into the boy who had left Hogwarts four years ago.
"Jesus Christ," Uri gasped as she pulled open the curtain. "What did you do to her?"
"We didn't do anything to her," said Mia. "We're saving her."
"By stealing her?"
"Get her out of here, Uri," said the black man. "We won't be alone for much longer."
"You can't!" cried Mia as Uri began to loosen Rose's straps. "She's greatly injured. If you move her--"
"If I move her she goes her back to St. Mungo Healers and to her family," said Uri, unlocking Rose's ankles. "What were you thinking, Mia? Why are you with these bastards? For what purpose?"
"You know why," said Mia. "They're trying to save the world. Trying to help wizards and Muggles live together in peace."
"Damn fine way of going about it," the black wizard grumbled. "Mass murder and spying and kidnapping."
"You make us sound like we're evil..."
"You are evil," Uri burst out, whirling on Mia. "Neville is in a coma because of what you've done! You killed Aurora, may have killed Bjorn. I don't know if my husband's going to survive the night. All because you want to help."
"I didn't want it to be like this!" Mia cried. "I joined because--"
"Could we not do the morality discussion right now?" Teddy interjected. "Dean's right, Professor. We won't be alone for long."
"Uri, take her out of here," said Dean, the black wizard. "Take the Good Doctor with if she thinks Rose isn't in good enough hands. We'll let Hermione and the others deal with her on the other side."
"What kind of a Healer are you, Mia?" said Uri, her eyes boring into Hahnemann. "Are you going to help Rose and take whatever the Aurors give you? Or are you going to let me take her while you deal with your cult after they find out you let their captive go?"
"Either way, Rose leaves," said Dean.
Mia stared at the wand in Teddy's hand. Stared at Uri. At the door. At Rose. Nodded.
"We need to lift her," she said, advancing slowly towards Uri and Rose. "You're using a Portkey, right?"
"The same tech the Oligarchy used to get into Hogwarts," said Teddy. "Dualkey."
"Then we have to carry her," Mia explained, unfastening Rose's other side. "That way she won't hit the ground when we land. Splinching's a possibility, but if this is how you insist to take her out, then we risk it."
"We risk it," Uri agreed, pulling the Galleon from her pocket and sliding it, and her hands, beneath Rose's head and midsection. "Get her legs, Mia, and make sure your hand's near her bottom. We all need to be in contact with the Galleon."
Mia did what she was told. It was a difficult job adjusting her finger, Uri's finger, and Rose herself to all be touching the Galleon. What made it harder was the potion. The blue-green concoction was making contact with their bare hands and arms, and numbing both in the process.
"Hurry up," said Mia. "Any longer and I won't know if I'm still touching the coin."
Rose began to stir. Mia's eyes closed in weary frustration. Just what she needed, a squirming screaming girl to make this nightmare scenario that much easier.
Uri, however, brightened at the small moan coming from the girl. "Rose?" she said.
"mummy?" Rose said, her voice slurring. She could have been describing herself as much as she was asking for her mother: her entire face was covered in the bandages, leaving only her eyes and mouth open. Mia had even, very carefully, shaved the hair from her head when she was brought in in order to get closer contact to the burned areas, and the bandages were tight to her scalp.
"No, it's not," said Uriela gently. "It's Professor Longbottom. Uri. Neville's wife?"
"uri?" said Rose, sounding so far away from reality right now, but so hopeful. Mia could see the look of hurt and despair on Uri's face, and hoped that she didn't decide to just take out her anger on Mia as soon as they arrived back at Hogwarts or the Ministry or wherever the other half of this Dualkey was located. The Aurors? Mia would be lucky to make it out of the room alive.
It's not fair! Mia's inner self bemoaned. It's not my fault! I didn't turn her into this! Meghan did! Or Yah-O-Gah! Or anyone that wasn't me! I just want to help her! I want to help everyone!
But in the end she knew that wasn't true. After all, she could have turned down Prospero and Atrytone when they approached her all those years ago. It was mere hours after she received the owl from Professor Ogden offering her the position of Hogwarts nurse, replacing the much-loved Poppy Pomphrey. Prospero and Atrytone arrived at her doorstep in Berlin, offering her a position of their own in addition to the one they requested she take at Hogwarts.
They explained who they were. What they stood for. Their history. Their credo. Hahnemann bit hard. She had been born a half-blood, and had felt the pain of living in two separate worlds at once. To change that...
And what they asked was so simple: Stay vigilant. Pay extra attention to those students they told her to watch. Interfere only if they are in danger. The First could come in five years or fifty. The First might not even come from Hogwarts. In fact, the odds were slim indeed, maybe one in a thousand. Do what they asked, and she would be well rewarded when the time came.
So she waited. She wondered if anyone at Hogwarts had been in the Oligarchy's pocket before her, but never had the courage to ask. When Teddy Lupin injured himself on the Quidditch pitch Hahnemann was always one of the first there to help him. When Victoire Weasley came down with the measles in third year, Hahnemann took extra care to mix an extra effective potion. Fred Hogan, Xavier MacDougal, Alan Runcorn. All came to Hogwarts, and a note always came via owl the night they were Sorted: Be vigilant.
And then there was Meghan. She was Mia's biggest challenge of all. She needed to be Protected, yet she kept getting herself injured in the oddest ways. A severed foot here. An unstoppable giggling fit there. One particularly embarrassing incident found Mia shrinking the twelve-year-old's chest after she suddenly developed F-cup-sized breasts.
It wasn't just the frequency of the visits that concerned Mia, but the sheer power behind the accidents. Meghan had been doing spells that no one her age should have been able to do. And the spells that her peers could do were being done with such... intensity. Mia feared for the girl's life one night when Professor Bosh brought her into the hospital wing, passed out, dehydrated, and starving. It was an Imperturbable Charm, they discovered, one that neither she nor Bosh could break.
Hahnemann had done what she could to get the Charms professor out of her office before contacting Prospero via their provided two-way mirror for instructions. She followed them to a T (Prospero was always so much better than she ever was), and Mia found Meghan just a few hours later, bright and cheerful and meeting for the first time her future boyfriend, Scorpius Malfoy.
Mia knew Meghan was special then. When word came that the First was in the UK, she knew in her gut that Meghan was the one. And she could have stopped it at any time. Could have turned down the order to isolate Meghan that morning. Could have argued with Prospero that the signs were wrong. Hell, she could have suggested they wait until the summer, to take Meghan when she was home in Thurso instead of in the middle of Hogwarts, or even gone so far as to hide Aiden Towler's wizard chess pieces somewhere far away from Hogwarts. London, maybe. Or Timbuktu.
But the Oligarchy were impatient. And, let's be honest, Mia was impatient, too. She wanted to see it happen. She wanted to see Meghan take her place as the First as soon as possible. And, selfishly, she wanted the power and the glory that came with being the witch who had protected the First.
So, yes, in the end Rose was her fault. She had signed the note for her extra credit project, but couldn't know that Rose would go to the greenhouse at the same time that Meghan and Scorpius were there. But she could have stopped the Oligarchy from attacking Hogwarts. Could have warned them about Meghan's power levels so they could have subdued her before things had gone from bad to worse.
Could have turned down the job in the first place.
But she didn't.
So here she was, staring into the face of a young girl whose only crime was becoming friends with the girl destined to be the keystone of a new world order. She was friends with Meghan Cullen, and was barbequed for her trouble.
"We'll be back to your Mum soon," said Uri to Rose. "But I need you to stay very still, alright? This might hurt for just a moment. We're going to Portkey you out of here. Your Mum and Dad are just on the other side."
"kay," Rose said, her voice barely a whisper.
"No funny business, Madam Hahnemann," said Teddy.
"Ready?" said Uri, and Mia nodded. "One. Two."
CRASH
"Skoupizo!"
"Three!"
crack
"Uri!"
Mia looked around the dark room. What happened? What was that noise? Where were they?
"Rosie!" Hermione and Ron Weasley cried out at once, lowering their wands and running towards Mia and Uri.
"Oh, God, Rosie!" said Hermione, tears pouring down her face as she caught sight of her daughter. She was shaking like a leaf and kissing every square inch of the girl's bandaged face.
"What happened to her?" said Ron, touching his daughter to make sure she was actually there. "My God, what happened?"
"Later," said Uri quickly. "Harry, Andi, I could use a mattress or something, I can't hold her much longer."
"Mobilocorpus!" Harry and Andromeda said at once, and Mia felt Rose's weight lift from her arms as the girl was levitated by their spells.
"Bill, get to the hospital wing," said Harry. "Get any available Healers down here that you can. And a cot or something. Whatever they think they need."
"What do zey need?" asked Fleur. "What 'appened? Where's Victoire?"
"She's still over there," said Uri. "They're all still over there. I have to go back."
"Bill, get moving!" Harry ordered. "Uri, what happened?"
"Rose was injured in the fire," Uri explained. "She was burned badly. Mia can explain more, but I have to go, something happened just before we 'Ported."
"Badly burned, got it," said Bill with a nod, running out of the room.
"Mia?" Harry blinked, seeming to notice the nurse for the first time.
"Her bandages are soaked in an anti-burn solution," Mia explained, feeling the weight of the wands suddenly pointed at her face. "It's regrowing her skin and killing any infection."
"Do what you want with her," said Uri to Harry. "She's one of them. Tie her up, whatever you need to do, I'm going back."
"So am I," said Harry, pocketing his wand.
"Oh, Christ, Harry!" Uri burst out. "Don't start this argument again!"
"You said something happened," said Harry. "Was there an attack?"
"I think so," said Uri, "but--"
"Then I'm going," said Harry. "Fleur, Andi, are you coming with me?"
"Of course," said Andromeda.
"Eet ees not even a question," said Fleur, stepping up to the Galleon.
"But you all--" Uri began.
"Hiding doesn't matter anymore!" Harry argued. "There's an attack, so now you need numbers. We're going in to help. Fleur, it's your call if you go now or wait for Bill to come back."
"'Ermione and Ron can tell him to join us," said Fleur, motioning to the Weasleys who were still completely focused on their floating injured daughter. "Uriela said it best, we need to leave now."
"Right," said Harry. "No arguments, Uri, we're coming."
"Fine," Uriela relented. "But if you die you have to answer to Neville."
"Gladly," said Harry, putting his finger on the Galleon, joined soon after by Andromeda and Fleur. "Ready?" The three women nodded, their wands all poised for attack. "Okay. One. Two. Three!"
Nothing.
"One. Two. Three!"
Nothing.
"What's wrong?" said Fleur. "The coin... What's wrong?"
"I don't know," said Harry. "Hermione, get over here! Hermione!"
"Hermione, check the Galleon," said Uri, rushing over to the three Weasleys and grabbing the Minister's elbow. "Something's wrong with it."
"But Rose--" Hermione started, reaching for her daughter as she was dragged back to the table.
"She'll be fine," said Uri soothingly, "but we need to get back in. Now. What's wrong with the Dualkey?"
Hermione glanced at Rose, back to the table, and shook her head to clear it. "Right," she said, pulling out her wand. "Right. Of course. Specialis Revelio!"
"Well?" said Harry as Hermione passed her wand over the coin. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," said Hermione.
"Nothing's wrong?"
"No, there's nothing on it at all," Hermione said, shaking her head slowly. "It's been completely dispelled."
"You mean it doesn't work?"
"I mean it can't work," said Hermione. "We have to reinstall all of the enchantments, which is going to take at least an hour. And that's if the other coin hasn't already been destroyed."
"Destroyed?" said Andromeda. "You mean we can't get in there? Teddy can't come back?"
"I don't know," said Hermione, pulling the coin from the table. "I'll get it to the Ministry to put another Dualkey charm on it. But..."
"But until then, we can't help them," said Uri, sagging.
"And they can't escape," said Hermione. "They're trapped."
Fleur Weasley let out an agonized moan as Andromeda dropped limply into a chair. Harry Potter slammed his fist against the table in frustration. Rose may be back, but their children were still gone. The waiting game continued.
The Oligarchy / Previous Chapters / Lycanthrope