Chapter 24: Tumult
Gibbon did not expect things to go this way. For a while, after he had gotten inducted into the inner circle, everything was fine. Then these vigilantes came out of nowhere and everything went to shit. They started losing their recruits leaving on their first raids in droves. The sheer number of members lost in the past month was more than their entire casualties in the last war.
So far, he had been blessed to have not run across these miscreants. That was mainly because he was in charge of better things than leading greenhorns to raids. Now though, he couldn't escape. He was chosen as one of those who would accompany his lord in this raid. He was not worried about the stupid vigilantes because the Dark Lord was personally leading this operation. What else could they even think of, except for overwhelming victory?
It infuriated him, and most of his colleagues how no-name mudbloods had dared to print such nonsense about the greatest wizard of the century. Gibbon was in deep denial about those lies. Since the Potter brat could never match the Dark Lord in might, he had taken the craven's route of spouting lies and hiding behind wards. This raid would let the brat know that he shouldn't be mouthing off about his betters. Once this was done, they would hunt down this Jameson filth and show him the might of the Death Eaters.
He was broken out of his reverie when the Dark Lord walked into the room, ready to leave for the raid. All of them got up from their seats and bowed at once. Bellatrix and the serpent, Nagini followed him, watching them all with sharp eyes. There was an uncanny resemblance in the mannerisms between the witch and the snake. Both of them always trailing behind the Dark Lord, both of them always seeking prey. It unnerved Gibbon how intelligent the snake was. He was sure that in her eyes, they were all snacks waiting to be gobbled up. Just like poor old Jugson.
"Gibbon, is everyone ready?" he asked.
"Yes, milord. We are just awaiting your orders," Gibbon responded immediately and glared at his team, daring them to say otherwise. Usually, for such a large-scale raid, several members of the inner circle would be sent. But since the Dark Lord himself was leading this fight, most of them were tasked with focusing on their own objectives. Especially since some of them had to cover for Jugson and Rabastan now. Most of them were currently working under Rookwood's expertise, trying to chase down the writers of the damn Chronicle rag. On the other hand, failures like Malfoy no longer had any important roles except for acting as glorified gofers.
"Where is your useless husband Bella?" asked the Dark Lord with annoyance. Gibbon winced as he was sure that Rodolphus was going to be served a cruciatus buffet from both the Dark Lord and Bellatrix. The Dark Lord might wait until the end of the raid, so as to not hamper his performance, but he was sure that Bellatrix wouldn't be so considerate. If he knew that the moron was supposed to accompany them, he would have chained the fool to the room beforehand. Ever since Rabastan was slain, Rodolphus had taken comfort in alcohol. He wouldn't dare go to his wife for comfort, there were less painful ways to die.
As expected, malice rolled off Bellatrix in waves at her husband's idiocy. She scowled and brandished her wand as she looked around. Gibbon wondered whether the crazy witch expected to find him hiding somewhere in the room.
"I will-" her rant was cut off before it could even begin by a simple gesture from the Dark Lord.
"Gibbon, your arm," he ordered.
Without needing to be told twice, Gibbon approached the Dark Lord at once and raised his sleeve, displaying the Dark Mark with pride. He did not even flinch as a searing pain shot through his arm the moment the Dark Lord's wand connected with the tattoo. The mark had always been a point of pride for Gibbon ever since he got it over the summer. Unlike the pansies littering their organization, he had endeavored to never let the pain from it hamper him in any way.
Within five minutes, Rodolphus rushed into the room, gasping for breath. The odor around him left no room for imagination on what he had been up to. The man had gotten hammered once again. At least he had the good sense to drink a small dosage of the Wideye Potion before coming here. Even though the thing mainly acted as an antidote for the Draught of Living Death, it worked as an effective sobering potion if one added a crushed mistletoe berry to the thing. Merlin bless the greasy bat for sharing this little tidbit with them.
The Dark Lord sniffed the air and his face morphed in disdain. If it were anyone else, the sight would have been funny. But despite the obvious comical nature of the sight, it was the Dark Lord. Gibbon would not even dare let his mind go any further towards such thoughts. It was a quick way to die as Jugson had shown.
"I will deal with you later," the Dark Lord hissed before Bellatrix could waste more of their time with her insanity. Rodolphus paled at that and nodded fearfully, unable to say anything in defense. "Macnair, did you get everything ready?" he asked.
"Yes, milord. I have restocked the food and cleaned her habitat," Macnair said. The man was the one among their lot with the most knowledge about creatures. Hence, it fell on him to keep their lord's familiar fed and sated.
The Dark Lord nodded in appreciation and hissed in parseltongue. Despite the respect Gibbon had for the Dark Arts, the serpentine tongue never failed to unnerve him. In response to whatever the Dark Lord said, the snake responded in kind and slithered away towards her hidey-hole.
"I will say this once, so listen well," he said and they all stilled. Gibbon couldn't help but shiver at the tone. The blasted rag had enraged the Dark Lord something fierce and they were all suffering due to it. He prayed that he would not fuck up in any way during the raid. The consequences wouldn't be pretty.
"We will be teaching them a lesson. I want them to suffer. If anyone tries to interfere, slaughter them. I assume that the team has been briefed about everything Gibbon," he spoke in clipped sentences that sent alarm bells ringing in Gibbon's head. He had never seen the Dark Lord so focused in his rage.
"Of course milord. Everyone is aware of their duties," he said with false bravado. Even though he had drilled down the details to the dumbfucks, if any of them messed up, it was his head that would roll along with the said dumbfucks.
"Continue performing as you have been, and I will reward you accordingly. You have shown yourself to be head and shoulders above some other so-called elites," he said, obviously describing Lucius. A part of Gibbon was elated on garnering such praise, while another was screaming at him to not get complacent and become a joke like Lucius. Because ultimately, his misbegotten confidence was Lucius' downfall. The man was talented with a wand, but his mind was full of mush when his superiority complex kicked in. He underestimated some kids and they clapped his sorry arse to Azkaban. Gibbon would not make a similar mistake under any circumstance. Even though this was just a civilian couple, one of them even a mudblood, Gibbon would not let his pride get in his way.
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The moment they apparated close to the isolated residence at the end of Godric's Hollow, a sense of dread took over Gibbon. He knew that it was needless nerves and steeled himself in turn. His wand was already in motion, trying to discern the nature of the protections around the house.
"Just common muggle repelling charms and a very basic shield around the house. Some magical plants here and there, but nothing to worry about milord," he said with confidence. He had always been good at reading the nature of protections and breaking them thoroughly. That was the main reason for his meteoric rise among the ranks.
Although, it somewhat rankled him that the Abbotts had fallen so low. Even though they lived among muggles in Godric's Hollow they at least had the decency to live in one of the bigger residences in this dump. It still wasn't anything much in comparison to the luxury most of their kind enjoyed. They had all the wealth, yet lived here among muggles like some sort of pauper freaks. The world would be rid of such idiocy tonight.
"Good, break them. Bella, lay our own standard set once Gibbon is done. Nobody escapes alive," the Dark Lord commanded as he looked at the cottage in disdain.
Gibbon thought that it must have reminded him of the Potter residence located in this same slum. He was sure that they would be burning that shack to the ground as well before they left. A nice way to get back at the Potter brat for sure.
He followed his orders and demolished the measly protections around the house with maximum force. The moment they came down, he could feel their own set of charms and jinxes go up. Say what one will, Bellatrix did perform spectacularly when the situation demanded it, and when the Dark Lord was the one ordering it. Ever since she got injured, she had been raring to have a go against the vigilante scum. The curse on the wound had just caused her to be unhinged more than usual. Gibbon thought that it would be for the best if the annoying sods decided to interfere today and got slaughtered by her and the Dark Lord. That would cool her down. It was nerve-wracking walking around the woman when she was in a frenzy.
In response to the protections coming down, Gibbon saw a shadow move in one of the windows before someone inside the house plunged it into total darkness. The gormless sods might be thinking that the cover of darkness would protect them from the Dark Lord's fury. Gibbon snickered within the confines of his mind at that. Nothing would save the Abbotts tonight. That was set in stone.
In hindsight, it wasn't smart to tempt fate like that. Although, nobody could blame him for that. The Dark Lord and Bellatrix were with them after all.
As they moved towards the house with purpose, there was an eerie silence that gripped the whole place. Even for a hovel like this, there must have been some noise at the very least in the neighborhood. Gibbon could hear their footsteps crunch on the gravel quite ominously.
The blessed silence was torn apart viciously all of a sudden when numerous vines burst out of the ground, attempting to strangle him. In his panic, he sent a couple of cutting curses aimed downwards and lopped off a few of the tentacles creeping towards him. It was an exercise in futility as a couple more vines lashed out from behind and began throttling him. His feet were already bound and his wand arm was being targeted next.
He could hear his fellow Death Eaters panicking and shouting out in alarm as they too were attacked similarly. What he did not expect was a jet of fire that almost hit his face. Some imbecile was throwing around spells willy-nilly in panic. In this particular case, it was beneficial because even though he was not struck by the flames, the appendages constricting his throat recoiled away as if they were burnt. That alone clued him to what they were dealing with. Devil's Snare. Gibbon realized with trepidation that the Abbotts must have wanted them dead to have sprung such a violent trap on them.
A searing flash of light took him by surprise and almost blinded him. He groaned as his eyes readjusted to the darkness, despite the spots of light still marring his vision at places. To his surprise, all the vines constricting him were gone.
"Don't lose your nerve," hissed the Dark Lord once everyone regained their bearings. Gibbon felt a tinge of shame due to his amateurish reaction. He was a member of the inner circle. A captain of a raid squad. Such a simple trap shouldn't have flustered him so. Especially when the Dark Lord was here. Such incompetence would net him some punishment later on. He tried hard to clamp down on the fear and focus on the job at hand.
Before his nerves could settle, he was taken aback by another flash of light, accompanied by searing heat. By some miracle, he was not burnt to a crisp by the inferno that consumed their location. It was then that he realized that it was not a miracle, but the Dark Lord shielding himself and those closest to him from the flames. Yet again, Gibbon felt like a failure for not performing as his station demanded him to.
Between the relief and the fear due to whatever traps that were sprung on them, he was having a hard time coping with what was happening around him.
With a wave of his wand, the Dark Lord dispelled the pillar of flames that had tried to consume them. It was too late though, as Gibbon looked around and found several of his subordinates missing. A pile of smoking remains was all that was left of those standing a bit farther away from the Dark Lord.
A resounding thud startled him yet again and he jumped in shock and turned towards the source of the noise once again. He was not at all prepared for the sight that awaited him. The Dark Lord and Bellatrix lay sprawled on the floor, lifeless. Standing atop them were two individuals garbed in something antithetical to the uniform of the Death Eaters.
They wore white robes and a dark grey helm with a visor shaped like a T flowing down towards their chin. He did not waste time admiring the garb as an irrational hatred took over him and he screamed in rage. The rest of his brethren were in a similar state as they all began casting the killing curse at the damn vigilantes. Because who else dared to oppose them in such a way?
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Alastor Moody was having an odd week thus far.
Ever since the fiasco at the slimeball Snape's house, he had stopped attending the Order meetings. Instead, he solely relied on his old contacts within the Auror Department for his intel. He was not missing much because Snape was a piss poor informant. The intel the slimy shit delivered was shoddy, and often came to them after heavy filtration courtesy of Albus. He did not know what else they hid from the rest, and Alastor could not overlook it any longer.
Throughout the years, he had tolerated the lackadaisical ways of Albus because he owed his friend that much. But there was a limit to everything, and they were way past it at this point.
The majority of the wizarding world saw everything in terms of black and white. Albus was one of the few people alongside him who dwelt in shades of grey. But the problem with Albus was that he wanted to maintain an image of being a righteous savior. Further exacerbating this issue was his pedantic need to make people see the light. He scoffed once again at how naïve the man could be, even after witnessing the horrors of the world.
Hence, the events so far lead Alastor towards his other ally that stood by his side on numerous battlefields- Amelia Bones. Amelia was considerably younger than him, but she was someone whose commands Alastor would follow in a heartbeat. She earned his respect time and time again.
Some people might ask him why he never took the headship positions, while others might be thanking the heavens that a lunatic like him never got such responsibilities. A paranoid, old and bitter cunt he might be, but he was never delusional about who or what he was. He was an Auror, the preeminent Dark Wizard catcher of this country. Years of looking over his shoulder, tracking down scum, fighting for his life, all of it had warped him both physically and mentally. Despite all that, he kept fighting because that was the only thing he was good at. Arbitrary numbers that denoted age or lacking limbs did not stop him, they never would.
He was a fighter, not a leader. Sure, his experience and paranoia might make him decent at planning out operations, but he never felt the need to lead. Yes, he could manage a team and lead them towards an objective. But he never had the temperament nor the patience to handle entire battalions. That kind of role required social skills, and the politics that came with it. Place him under a competent commander and give him enough leeway on how he handled his business, and you would see him shine. That formula worked for him throughout these years. He was loath to change that when the war was picking up steam.
So, he was more than okay to defer to a respectable leader. Now that Albus screwed the pooch too often for his liking, he was itching to find the next fight. And who better to lead him towards the next one other than the department head. He might be officially retired, but then again, if his hunch proved right, then he wouldn't be officially employed anyway.
Amelia was one of his first trainees. She was much like Tonks, bar the clumsiness. She was more on the serious side, but that is what her career demanded. More than anybody else, he knew how she operated in the field. After a frontal assault and several covert assassination attempts, there was no way the lass would sit still without retaliating. But for some reason, she had holed up and had set up a strict chain of command. That was an antithesis to the way she would normally behave. So he waited and watched how things played out. At that point, he was sure that the lass had established some communication at the very least after the vigilantes saved her. A lengthy talk later, here he was, ready to watch the spectacle which was a recruitment pitch for him.
He was holed up atop the tallest building overlooking the Abbott residence. An invisibility cloak and several dark detectors were deployed as was the stakeout norm. Then he had waited a while for his appointment.
Right in time, a figure clad in white dragon hide approached his hiding spot on a broomstick. If he weren't already aware of their uniform, he would have casted first and asked questions later. Nonetheless, he still pointed his wand towards the vigilante, a spell ready to strike them down.
"Password," he gruffly asked. Meanwhile, his mind had been running on overtime to profile the target. Female, mid-teens to early twenties. The weird helmet with the T-shaped visor was obscured from his magical eye. He had worked hard with Albus to create the magical eye, and it was not public knowledge for anyone. Only his magical eye and Albus' spectacles had the necessary charms for it. He had given Amelia a monocle with similar enchantments when she got promoted as the head of the Department. Given that only three people had eyewear with such enchantments, he knew that Amelia had a hand in providing them the counter to it.
People might say that the lass in front of him was too young for such violent operations. But Alastor did not care for such hypocrites. Even in the last war, people who came out of Hogwarts had jumped into the fray immediately after graduation. Heck, Potter and his band of brats had thrashed the Death Eater scum at the end of the last term. As far as Alastor was concerned, if they were capable, he would not make a fuss.
The vigilante giggled in response and said, "Constant negligence."
It was a shot at his paranoia, he knew it. But it was the current state of things. The negligence and incompetence of Fudge's administration had led them down his path.
Even though the password had been correct, he hadn't put his wand down. He just stared at her, waiting for her to ask her own question.
"Your password?" she asked after a few tense moments. The voice was distorted a bit to obscure the identity even further. Smart move, that.
"Constant Vigilance," he said brusquely. The lass never brought her wand up despite the wrong password he had purposefully given. If this was the caliber of their operations, then he would need to beat them into shape.
"Ooh, are we playing a game? You should have told me before I gave you the correct password. I would have willingly given the wrong one as well," she said in a sing-song voice.
For a second, Alastor feared for his mind and clamped down on his occlumency hard. How had this lass known that he had said the wrong password on purpose? He could find no traces of any legilimency probes, yet he was read like he was a greenhorn. He was sure that he was not predictable. These vigilantes might be competent after all.
"I was just testing you. Password is, Round Table," he said gruffly.
"Aw, I thought we were playing a new game. Anyway, codename Artemis at your service," she said with mock sadness and had taken up her own spot, overlooking the soon-to-be battlefield.
Since his guest was here, he began weaving charms and jinxes to obscure and protect their lookout spot. To his astonishment, the lass started adding in charms of her own, charms he was quite familiar with. Whoever trained these people was familiar with protocols taught to the Aurors. Another compelling reason for him to join their side.
"So you work for Amelia?" he had asked. Alastor was never one for small talk, but making small talk to gain information was something every Auror worth their salt would know.
"We don't work for her, we work with her," she had said.
"Who is we?"
"We, the Knights of the Old Republic," she had said.
He had wasted the next couple of minutes trying to gain more information but all he got was vague bullshit. He abandoned that line of interrogation and instead focused on the imminent battle at hand.
His magical eye flitted across the entire area, looking at the ingenious traps placed underground. He could see movement inside the house. When he inquired further, he got to know that the Abbotts had already evacuated and that the Knights had one of their own stationed inside the building.
A quick look around the block keyed him to the fact that the entire block was evacuated covertly in preparation for the battle. The scale of their operations was larger than he realized.
Artemis was communicating to her team through her helmet, and he could not hear what was being spoken. More Auror grade equipment. He knew that those were not cheap at all. Whoever was backing them had some serious Galleons to throw around. She was also using a muggle contraption, laden with enchantments to look at the battlefield. Once again, costly stuff.
Soon enough, the rest of her group had made their appearance and had taken their positions in nearby buildings, ready to pounce at their enemy.
Time had passed and the Death Eater scum had arrived on schedule. The fact that Voldemort himself was leading them on this raid alarmed Alastor. His eye had swiveled to each and every nook and cranny, trying to see if he was compromised. Nothing seemed to be out of order, and the lass was unperturbed. So, it was something they accounted for, but it never hurt him to stay vigilant, so he kept an eye out.
Artemis had been watching them keenly before she relayed something to her group. That had started the carnage.
He was having a hard time believing what he saw. Ironic, considering his misbegotten title. But he truly could not fathom the sheer genius of what he was seeing.
He watched with wide eyes as Devil's Snare erupted out of the ground, constricting the merry band of murderers. While most of them were busy setting themselves free, a knife flew in from the Knight with red trimmings on his helm. Most likely their leader. The knife flew in at an unnatural speed and deposited itself on the back of the Death Eater on the border of their formation. The target stilled for a moment and then went ramrod straight. The next moment, the cunt escaped using what Alastor presumed to be an emergency portkey.
That seemed to signal something for the Knights as fire erupted from the floor and rose into a towering pillar. The same kind of flaming pillar that obliterated Snape's house. Although, this one was more contained. It never spread out towards the house. It was contained into a pillar of destruction focused on the Death Eaters alone.
The fire was extinguished as quickly as it had erupted, Voldemort's work, no doubt. Even then, half the attacking force was reduced to ashes now. Just two traps and they'd already taken out several Death Eaters. He eagerly watched on for how they would proceed from there.
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"Alright, move in," ordered Harry's voice over the comms. Hermione did not hesitate for a second and burst forward towards the battle. Things had been going as planned so far, and they had to strike while the iron was hot.
Luna had done her due diligence and once she could not find any traces of the snake over here, they had proceeded with plan B. Neville's Devil's Snare trap had confused the Death Eaters and provided Harry the window to take over one of them. Thankfully, that Death Eater knew where the snake was and had the portkey for that location. So, under Harry's control, that puppet was out to do what they came here to do.
Now all they had to do was to hold the fort until the objective was fulfilled. She knew her role quite well and had been preparing for this for quite a while. Tonight, she would strike back at the cretin who killed her parents for barbaric reasons. Leave a message with their blood, did they? She will leave a message with their ashes in retribution.
Harry had already placed a potent illusion over the weak-willed scum, and apparently, only Riddle and his pet bitch did not fit that criterion. She did not know what they saw, but it was definitely enough to make them turn against their master.
She joined Harry and started taking potshots at Voldemort who was looking at his loyal Death Eaters in confusion while they pelted him with a barrage of killing curses. Of course, he automatically dodged some and conjured walls to eat the rest, but the man was on the back foot for once in his damned life.
For a second, she faltered and looked at Harry as his magic flared out like a raging flame. She knew he was strong, but she did not expect this at all. Waves of magic rolled of him to such an extent that it was almost tangible. If this was some new trick, he had to teach it to her sometime. She quickly shut off the part of her brain that wanted to learn everything and focused on the battle instead.
Understanding that there was a strong enemy in front of him, Riddle finally broke out of his stupor and lashed out with an arc of lightning. Before Hermione could do anything, Harry conjured a stone wall in front of them. Falling back to practice, she transfigured the ground in front of her into a massive gorilla that scaled the wall and jumped towards Riddle.
Right as the ape jumped, Harry transfigured the wall into a veritable storm of blades, and let loose a blast of wind from his wand while his left hand pushed outwards, wandlessly banishing the blades towards Riddle. The blades shot towards him at an outstanding speed due to the two different spells carrying them onwards.
Their combo was theoretically deadly due to hours of practice. The gorilla would distract and if lucky, hide the blades from view as they stormed towards the target. But this was Voldemort, and the transfigured ape was blasted apart in seconds. It had bought them time though, as the blades were already upon him. Adding fuel to the fire were a few more killing curses headed his way courtesy of the hoodwinked Death Eaters.
"Gaia, now!" shouted Luna. Presumably signaling Hannah into sniping Bellatrix from behind while Nev and Sue were pelting the mad bitch with their spells. Last she checked, Hannah had moved from inside the house and perched atop the roof. Voldemort and Bellatrix were facing away from the house after all.
Hermione did not look towards that fight as they were fighting the bigger threat. Voldemort had blocked the killing curses from his braindead minions, and a shield had halted most of the oncoming blades. But two of them had pierced through the shield. One blade clipped him in the hip while the other impaled itself into his shoulder. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't have had such luck. But Harry was strong. The amount of magic radiating from him currently was unbelievable.
For a second, there was a palpable silence in the air before Riddle roared in fury and a veritable tsunami of flames lashed out from him. Harry enclosed them within a bubble-shaped shield the next instant. The fire made contact at unbelievable speeds, and the shield began cracking. She readied herself to attack the moment the flames went down. This was their two-man act, alternating between attacking and defending, covering each other's backs. She would not see them fail.
The moment the flames receded, Harry's shield went down and she sent a decapitating curse towards Riddle. The man deflected it with ease and finished off the last Death Eater that was still taking potshots at him. She glanced towards the side and to her shock, Bellatrix had lost an arm and was trying to defend while Nev and Sue kept battering at her shield with vicious curses of their own. The Death Eaters harassing her were dead as well. Now it was just their team against Riddle.
Things changed when Riddle went on the offensive and they had to focus on shielding themselves. The sheer speed and power of the oncoming spells were unreal and she was struggling along with Harry to keep themselves untouched. The man was pissed and it showed in his vicious onslaught. It seemed as though the injury had not hampered him one bit.
"It's done. Retreat!" shouted Harry all of a sudden over the comms. That must mean that he had driven the possessed Death Eater to finish their objective. "Shield me," he said as he began breaking down the anti-transportation measures the Death Eaters had set up. Hermione wordlessly complied as she rose rows and rows of concrete walls between them and Riddle.
Just a few more steps and they would be back home.
The wards came down crashing as Riddle began tearing through her walls with ease.
"Dryad, regroup now," Harry shouted. Hermione looked towards Nev, and her heart dropped as he kept attacking Bellatrix in a frenzy. She knew that the only reason they had clipped Riddle was because they caught the man by surprise. They were not good enough to fight him head-on. Shielding against his spells alone took a lot out of them. They needed to leave now.
"Fuck," Harry bit out as the raging magic emanating from him dipped for a moment. It then spiked once more. In the minuscule time between the two actions, a pack of wolves stood in front of them. Without waiting for a command, they fanned out and raced towards Riddle.
"Hit her," he said as he summoned Nev towards him. Hermione shot a bone breaker towards Bellatrix as Nev sailed towards them and Sue raced towards them, leaving behind a flaming wall in her wake.
Harry's wolves were slaughtered by that time, and before Riddle could attack them, a massive boulder dropped towards him from the sky. Most likely Luna providing support from afar. The maniac must have sensed it through some supersensory spell or some other means and blasted the rock apart. It did allow them the opportunity to leave though.
Before they could dip, another burst of magic covered the whole field. Her heartbeat rose in fervor as a strong set of wards clamped down on the battlefield and a flash of flame from the side stopped their battle.
"Dumbledore," spat Riddle as the man walked out of the fire.
"Regroup," Harry ground out in annoyance. In quick succession, the Order of the Phoenix arrived and some of them were pointing their wand at Voldemort while others were pointing it at them.
Hermione gritted her teeth in frustration as the incompetent nincompoops had them almost surrounded.
"Now then, what is happening here?" the old fool asked cheerily. Although his face was set in stone as he glared at Riddle gravely.
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A.N: First off, I apologize for the delay. This chapter fought me a lot and I had a lot of IRL commitments last month.
I now realize that I am better at writing combat from a first person perspective rather than third person. I tried to polish it as much as I could but I was never satisfied enough. So I decided to bite the bullet and post it instead.
The next chapter will have some bits covering Neville and Susan's fight against Bellatrix. Then of course, we would move on to the three way mess this has devolved into. I might include the yoinked DE's perspective as well. Let's see.
Also, we have officially crossed 100k words. It is an apt milestone as well because we are almost halfway done with the story.
If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.
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