Content Harry Potter Miscellaneous
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"Everyone to me!"

The trained feminine bellow brought Snape and Lily from the cellar, Remus and Peter and Evanie from upstairs, and James and Sirius and Regulus from the kitchen. Peri and Veri stood in the hallway, Veri with a look of careful calm on her face, Peri suppressing a fit of nervous giggles with the help of one hand.

"Where’ve you two been?" James asked before either of the Witches could speak, waving a small black book. "Have a look, Peri, Dumbledore thought this was most likely it but he wanted us to check it with you—this what we were after from the Malfoys?"

Peri looked and nodded, the laughter disappearing from her face. Remus descended the stairs to hold her against him, and she turned and buried her face in his robes. "It’s all right," he whispered, stroking her hair. "I’m here. I won’t let him touch you again."

I will personally break his snakey neck if he so much as tries.

"So that’s the last of them," said Sirius, grinning hugely. "And we found loads of other fun things in Malfoy’s hidey-hole, so whenever he turns up we’ve got him nailed, and I’m positive we spotted Narcissa in Death Eater rig but she got away before we could grab her—"

"She has already been arrested," said Veri. "But before she was, she told us something of great importance."

"More important than our potion being done?" Lily asked with a sly smile, causing a wave of gasps around the hallway.

"But I thought it wouldn’t be finished for another week!" Peter objected.

"We can wait until then to use it if you wish," said Snape dryly. "But I somehow suspect you would prefer the Dark Lord mortal as soon as possible."

"We do," said Veri, "and will all the more when you have heard what I have to say."

"Grace us with your speech, then, o sister," said Regulus sarcastically.

He still isn’t sure he approves of her. Remus smiled, masking the expression behind Peri’s hair. But then, she isn’t sure she approves of him either.

"Four words are scarcely a speech," Veri said coolly. "But these four might count. Voldemort strikes here tonight."

Silence blanketed the hallway.

"It is us whom he wants," Peri said, her words falling like pebbles into still water. "The youngest, and the strangest, and the guests of the Order, those who might betray others to save themselves. Death Eaters were in place around this house hours ago, they awaited only my sister’s and my arrival to ward us in, no one can come or go except themselves and their master—but he has forbidden them to enter save in his company, and he is not here yet." A smile lit her face as her eyes rested on the little book in James’ hand. "And I gravely doubt he knows what we have collected."

 "We can kill him," Evanie whispered. "Or at least we can make it so he can be killed. And he won’t know—he’ll come storming in here thinking nothing we do can hurt him—"

"So what are we waiting for?" James asked, waving his free hand over his head. "Let’s go! Everyone to the cellar!"


The cellar workroom was spacious, if low-ceilinged. The ten current inhabitants of Headquarters fit around the cauldron with room to spare.

"Be ready with Shield Charms," Snape said as Peter dialed the combination on the safe and pulled it open. "If a drop of Animattero should touch the fire, the Dark Lord will no longer need to bother with killing us. Or anyone else within a sixty-foot radius of this point."

"Sounds like a good reason to be careful," Sirius muttered.

Peter set the golden cup at his feet, then passed the locket to Regulus and the glass ball filled with mist to Snape. The ring and diadem went the other way around the circle, the diadem to Veri and the ring to Remus, and James handed the diary to Lily and drew his wand.

Evanie bent and lifted the cup by one handle, Peter grasping the other with his left hand, his wand ready in his right. "This is for my mum," the young woman said in a shaking voice. "And for everybody else like her they ever killed."

She and Peter held the cup over the cauldron half-full of bubbling Animattero for the space of one breath, then released it at the same moment, Peter swiftly Shielding the cauldron as soon as their hands were clear. The cup sank beneath the potion’s surface and disappeared, and a long and ghostly wail emerged from the potion’s depths.

"For the abuse of power," said Severus, throwing the ball of mist he held onto the stone floor. It shattered beside the locket Regulus was holding pinned down, and a hissing snarl emerged. The locket popped open, revealing that it held not a picture or a photograph but a set of eyes, dark and human and seemingly furious.

Regulus picked it up and stared into the eyes. "For the misuse of gifts," he said in his coldest tones, "and the torture of innocents."

Without another look, he flung the locket into the cauldron. It screamed as though it had been alive, and Sirius cast a hasty Shield Spell just in time as several splatters flew high.

Remus stepped up, holding the ring with its flat stone on his open palm over the steaming cauldron. "For parents left without children, and children without parents," Peri said clearly.

For my mum, and for our little girl. Remus tipped his hand. The ring fell into the potion without splashing, the stone set in its top cracked across with a sound like a whip, and then it was gone.

Peri shivered once and pressed herself against Remus’ side. "I will have good news for you, if we live through tonight," she whispered.

"That sounds to me like a reason to do just that." Remus kissed the top of her head. "As if you weren’t reason enough yourself."

Veri and Sirius each had hold of one side of the diadem. "For knowledge and wisdom, turned to evil purposes," she said as they raised it high. James had his wand ready, but the diadem too disappeared beneath the roiling surface of the Animattero with nothing more than a shriek of fury.

Lily stared down at the innocent little book between her hands. "For every life ever touched by this war, or by any war," she said softly. "That they might all be won so easily as this."

She hurled it into the depths of the potion, then dropped to the floor, as did everyone else but James, who went to one knee with his wand aimed at the cauldron. "Protego!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, and a translucent shield appeared—

Just in time, Remus realized, as the Animattero shattered its cauldron as though the diary had contained a lit firework. A dim idea flickered in his mind, and he groped for his own wand, only to find Peri offering it to him. Quickly, he waved it under the bubble of magic which was now all that intervened between them and death. "Deficio maxima!"

The fire which had been burning under the cauldron flickered once and went out completely. James sagged in place, but held the Shield long enough for Sirius to conjure a basin underneath it into which the potion could fall. "Let’s not do that again," he said weakly as he released the spell.

"How many more immortal Dark Lords do you plan to battle, Potter?" Regulus inquired.

"If I get what I want? None." James dropped onto his rear end gracelessly, leaning back against Lily. "And we haven’t really battled this one yet, have we?"

"No, but now we can," said Peter, who seemed unable to take his eyes off the Animattero, rippling slowly in its basin. "Now we have a chance."

"Not much of one," Snape said under his breath.

"Better than none at all," said Veri, favoring Snape with a glare. "And should not someone Vanish this concoction, so that Voldemort does not suspect what we have done?"

Lily’s quick "Evanesco" removed potion and basin alike just as a door slammed upstairs.

"And we are out of time," said James, taking charge with his tone and his brisk movements as he got to his feet. "Non-combatants—that’s Evanie, Veri, and Peri—over there, please." He pointed to the far corner of the room, behind a marble-topped workbench which made a triangle with the two walls, and on which sat a stone mortar and pestle, a silver dagger, and three or four empty vials. "Wormtail, Lily, I want you two on either wall—Moony, Padfoot, here beside me—" His eyes fell on Snape and Regulus. "You two split the difference between the wall-huggers and these two," he said, jerking a thumb at Sirius and Remus. "That’ll give us a good line of battle."

"And if the Dark Lord can incapacitate us through our Marks, or even take control of us?" Snape asked sardonically. "What then?"

"Then we turn around and Stun you with our friends to guard our backs," James shot back. "And if you’re really nice, we might even wake you up again."

"No," Regulus said with the same quiet intensity that made Sirius’ voice so captivating when he felt strongly about something. "If there’s even a chance we might be controlled, which there is, we have to be in front."

"In front?" Sirius snapped. " Facing Voldemort? You’re barely seventeen, Reggie, you’ll get killed for sure—"

"Better that than being forced to kill you!" Regulus shot back. "I can fight my own battles, Sirius—"

Peter snapped his fingers and pointed to the stairs, and everyone fell silent, Snape advancing a few paces to match Regulus’ forward stance on the other side of James, who looked at Sirius with a shrug. Remus tightened his grip on his wand and glanced back at Peri, who had Veri’s hand in hers and seemed to be concentrating hard on something.

Don’t do anything stupid, he willed her silently. Please. There’s no shame in keeping your head down. I want us both to be alive after tonight.

As do I, he could have sworn he heard her answer. So hold the same stricture in mind for yourself.

Thunder sounded around three sides of the cellar as Death Eater after Death Eater Apparated in, masked faces turned towards the Order fighters, wands at the ready.

Of course, it’s always possible neither of us will survive...

Sirius was muttering curses under his breath. Regulus didn’t seem to be breathing at all. Peter was backing away from the Death Eaters, towards the counter behind which the two Witches and Evanie knelt. James and Snape were both flicking glances at Lily, who had her chin high as their final adversary silently Apparated into the cellar.

Merlin, he’s good.

In a manner of speaking.

"So," said Lord Voldemort, letting his red eyes rove over the group. "Two traitors, two animals, three freaks, and three foolish young wizards who resist the obvious. And for this, I bring twenty Death Eaters... overkill, perhaps, but better safe than sorry. Your kind have surprised me before, and I can afford no surprises tonight, unless they are pleasant ones."

The crimson gaze roved from James to Sirius before fixing on Peter, who was now backed against the wide angle the counter made with the wall. "Should one of you care to join me, perhaps, speak now. It is the only chance you will have to save your lives. I might even be persuaded to spare one other, if a new recruit should ask it." A sidelong look at Snape. "Or a Death Eater who renews his vow to me." Slit pupils centered on Remus. "Or a creature who agrees to learn his proper place at last."

Your Pericula will die if you do not yield, a voice whispered within Remus’ mind, showing him images of Peri twisted, bleeding, broken on the floor, Veri weeping over her. Or suffer worse than death—her magic could be useful, if she were properly trained... Peri limp and vacant-eyed, wearing nothing more than a set of chains, her body covered in purple-green bruises. Only kneel to me, take my Mark, and she will be safe, safe forevermore...

Unbidden, the image of Peri’s smiling face, seen from below over a whirl of goldenrod petals, filled Remus’ mind. Voldemort pulled away with a hiss, and Remus brought his wand up to bear.

"I kneel to only one," he said, his voice quiet but filling every corner of the cellar nonetheless. "You are not she."

Voldemort smiled. "On your own head be it." His own wand snapped up to point directly at Remus. "Avada Kedavra!"

Remus dropped and rolled to one side, hearing his friends and the Death Eaters shouting curses at one another as he did.

Battle was joined.


Eyes shut, back pushed into the corner of the two walls, Veri hummed quietly to herself, focusing her magic on those she loved, and those who were loved by them.

Hurt them not, she directed the curses of their enemies silently, using as the mainstay of her magic the song without which she would never have lived, feeling her sister’s hand in hers and her sister’s magic weaving about hers, reinforcing and adding to it. Be as a drop of rain, a flake of snow, a flower petal on the wind. Be nothing at all.

Hurt them not.


Sirius and Regulus fought back to back, alternately shielding and throwing hexes, holding off three times their number with the sheer savage speed of their casting. James and Snape battled side by side, Lily behind them, holding a shield over them both and letting it fall only for the fraction of a second either wizard needed to throw a spell. Remus had dropped back to the opening of the counter, and Peter still defended its corner against the wall, his teeth bared as he scrabbled his way up onto the countertop itself.

Evanie leapt up from cover, snatched one of the empty vials, and hurled it across the room. A Death Eater shrieked and fell, clawing at a lacerated face, and Remus fired a spell through the gap thus created, dropping a masked figure who had been about to curse Peter. Another vial, this one seeming to miss, until two Death Eaters screamed, arching their backs with the pain of broken and embedded glass. Sirius Stunned one and Snape the other, and the two traded nods of grim satisfaction before returning to the fray.

Remus shielded himself from three simultaneous curses and returned fire, taking a quick glance around the room. Eight bodies decorated the floor already, and all wore masks and swathing robes.

Are we—I think we are! We’re winning!

In that instant of jubilation, a hex tore through his shield and dropped him to his side, gasping for breath. Two Death Eaters broke from the fray and started towards him, one laughing in a piercing, feminine voice. "Anyone for a wolf hunt?" she called shrilly. "Share a piece of the kill?"

A snarl erupted beside Remus, and he got his head around in time to see Peri rising from her crouch, hands hooked into claws and eyes glowing with battle-light. "Not my husband, you bitch!" she shrieked, and shot both her hands forward as though throwing invisible spells.

The female Death Eater and her companion both froze in place, shuddering. The wizard started to hyperventilate. The witch emitted tiny, piteous whimpers. Remus dragged half a breath into his lungs, brought his wand around, and conjured a net around them both, knocking their heads together in the process and rendering them unconscious.

A mercy blow, really, if she did what I think she did...

And what do you think I did?

Later. Remus pushed himself to his feet with one hand on the counter, motioning Peri back down with his head. When we’re not in active danger of death.

Voldemort now dueled James, Snape, and Lily all at once, shielding from their curses and firing back at them as they dodged. Sirius and Regulus had got separated, and Remus tripped one of the three who were trying to back Sirius into a corner, as Evanie smashed her last vial into the face of one of the pair chasing Regulus and Regulus himself hexed the other over his shoulder—

A spell of Voldemort’s knocked James and Snape flying into opposite walls and Lily backwards into the corner, where she sank to the floor, senseless. The Dark wizard whirled and lunged forward, wand pointed straight at Regulus. "The traitor’s wage," he hissed, his left hand closed into a fist. "Avada Kedavra!"

"NO!"

Sirius’ bellow filled everyone’s ears as Regulus froze in place, his face a mask of pain, his terrified eyes fixed on the green death rushing towards him—Evanie was screaming, Veri’s hands were locked white-knuckled in her robe, Remus tried to get his wand into position but knew he was already too late—

Padfoot the dog slammed into Regulus from the side just as the Killing Curse struck him from the front.

Both figures were outlined in green as they fell.

Still screaming, Evanie snatched up something small and furry from the counter and hurled it—no, hurled him across the room. Peter retransformed in midair and bowled over the last two Death Eaters standing, and Remus conjured ropes around them both as Wormtail the rat scurried free.

James dragged himself upright, breath rasping in his throat, as Snape, dropping his broken wand, did the same on the adjoining wall. "You," James said hoarsely to Voldemort, who was surveying the wreckage of the cellar with narrowed eyes, "just killed my best friend."

"You sound surprised." Voldemort held up his left hand behind him negligently, and the dagger Evanie had thrown at him bounced off it and clattered to the floor. "Did you truly think I would let any of you leave here alive?"

He isn’t looking our way, is he? murmured a voice at the back of Remus’ mind.

No. He isn’t. Silently, Remus performed a Summoning Spell.  

"You’re the one not leaving alive," James said, his wand held out steadily in front of him, tracking Voldemort as the Dark wizard moved closer. "If this is the caliber of wizards you’re attracting, I’m surprised you got as far as you did—it was two-to-one against us, and look who’s still standing."

"I must admit I am rather surprised at your success." Voldemort began to circle to James’ left, James countering him step for step. "The Killing Curse, of course, has taken its toll on your ranks, but my Death Eaters tried several times to use the Imperius and the Cruciatus on your fighters, and neither seemed to strike as deeply as they usually do..."

Remus padded across the cellar floor behind Voldemort, trading grins with Peter as he came. That would be our "freaks" at work, doing their part even though they can’t use wands. Well done, Veri, nice work, my love...

"But it no longer matters." Voldemort spun, gesturing with his left hand, and a shield sprang up around him—a shield surrounding himself and not James, but Lily—

And Snape.

Voldemort stopped, seemingly nonplussed. "Severus," he said, looking down at the dark-haired young man who knelt with his arms outstretched, veiling Lily from sight. "What is this?"

"Not her." Snape’s voice was still tight with pain, multiplied by the effort he must have put out to thrust himself inside the shield before it closed, but his face showed no trace of fear, only determination. "Kill me. I deserve it. Not her."

"That I would live to see the day," Voldemort murmured, as if to himself. "One of my own Marked ones, shielding a Mudblood. Save your effort," he called over his shoulder to James, who had his wand against the shield and was tracing out patterns on it. "Only I and my own spells can pass this barrier." He turned back to Snape. "Yes, Severus, you do indeed deserve to die, but you cannot think it will stave off her death in turn for more than a few moments..."

Remus finished his crossing at a run and handed James what he was carrying.    

"Not her," Snape repeated, his black eyes locked on Voldemort’s red.

"Not her." Voldemort raised his wand. "As you wish."

Peter was beside James and Remus now, wandless but with his hands curled into fists.

"Avada Kedavra!"

A small white hand threw Snape aside from behind, its owner using that same force to shove herself to safety in the opposite direction. "Expelliarmus!" Lily cried, bringing her wand to bear on Voldemort.

The Dark Lord stared in shock for only a second, but it was one second too long—his wand went spinning away, his curse splashed harmlessly against the wall, he himself staggered back through his shield—

Peter dropped to his hands and knees, and Voldemort tripped over him, falling heavily onto the stone floor—

And James stabbed the dagger in his hand down into Voldemort’s chest with all the force he could muster.

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