In the Eye of the Beholder
Chapter One - The Odyssey Begins - Emphasis on Odd
By Aaran St Vines
Author Notes:
Several comments tell me that I need to clarify something. I conceived my Paladin Parallel Universe to give me a framework for other relationships besides my original Harry/Hermione and
Harry/Ginny efforts. Therefore, this story has a number of common elements like Dumbeldore's Paladin Program, the Granger parents killing Death Eaters Muggle style, and Harry's Spell
Mongery.
The girls he has relationships with are the deciding factors as to variations on the theme. Millicent is very different from Ginny and Hermione so this story will diverge from the other two
right off the bat. The stage will be set by the end of chapter three, which will be seven days in the story from the day Harry describes here.
My gratitude goes to my two writing coaches, kokopelli and ebdarcy.
Thanks also go to Jbern, who helped me think through several concepts.
It's Monday late morning and it's weird to think I'm actually relieved to be back at Privet Drive. But then a lot has happened that's hard to believe this summer. There's a Muggle expression, 'It's all right to be paranoid if the whole world is out to get you.' That's what I'm feeling today.
Mondays. Weird things seem to be happening to me on Mondays this summer. It's hard to believe I left here only last Monday - just seven event-filled and very painful days ago.
The summer started off so smoothly. I actually thought it might be an easy time for me - but if I've learned anything in the last few years, it's that my life can change quickly. I also know that if there's trouble around, it will find me somehow.
After a week of taking the Paladin Program growth accelerating potions, starting on a Monday, I'd already outgrown my Dudley cast-off clothing, in terms of length anyway, and my trainers were falling apart from the strain. I used duct tape to hold the sole onto my right trainer and was a day away from needing to tape the other one, too. Yeah, I definitely needed some new clothes.
No one who really knew my aunt and uncle would be surprised that they are confirmed discount shoppers. They want only fine label products but delight in not paying full price for them - can't blame them on that. However, most people would be surprised at their silliness in hiding it. The Dursleys actually keep shopping bags from a number of prestigious big name stores in the boot of the auto. They actually transfer their purchases into the fancy store bags before taking them out of their car. As if the neighbors would really care!
Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon's favorite places to shop are Clark Village and Pluckey Thorne. Both are sort of a manufactured high street with everything on sale, of course, but without the town center or the actual high street. It's also important that both outlets are several hours drive from Little Whinging. We wouldn't want to be recognized while out bargain hunting, would we?
Of course, I'd never been to either place myself since my relatives never take me anywhere unless they absolutely must. I had my first chance to go last Monday - I guess weird things really do happen on Mondays, but I said that already, didn't I?
Dudley doesn't realize that his parents shop at these discount outlets. They hide it from him, too, something about protecting his sensibilities, I believe. Little Dudders, idiot that he is, has never caught on. He was conveniently visiting his Aunt Marge last Monday. I happened to overhear Aunt Petunia asking Uncle Vernon if they could take advantage of his trip to Aunt Marge's and sneak off for a day of shopping. Figuring I had little to lose, I asked to go along. I told them I needed new clothes and quickly added that the Paladin Program had given me limited funds that must be used to buy what I needed in the way of clothing, and an accounting was needed.
Okay, that was a lie, but I wasn't about to tell them I have money of my own. I had just over a hundred pounds in Muggle money on me and Hermione told me that it should be enough if I was frugal. The outlet shopping center, as I understood it on that day, would allow me to stretch the buying power of my funds.
After a moment discussing it among themselves, like I wasn't there, the two agreed that I could go. They would never have agreed just to be nice. This time, though, it actually suited them. Uncle Vernon had to go into the office and was reluctant to let Aunt Petunia drive to Clark Village alone. Although they had made the trip together many times, Aunt Petunia had never driven as far as Somerset by herself. Of course, a second vehicle was a recent addition for the Dursleys so Aunt Petunia hadn't really had the opportunity to venture off on her own before. Uncle Vernon had just taken delivery of a new Range Rover, thanks to acquiring a new client for Grunnings - a new customer run by a magically connected company chairman happy to buy industrial drills from Harry Potter's family. Now that the Rover sits on the parking pad, the old sedan belongs to my aunt. Having me along would give her someone else to read road signs and to carry her purchases.
~+~
Before I get too deep into the shopping expedition, I guess I have to explain just a few more things. Ten nights ago before the shopping Monday Professor Dumbledore had a "chat" with my uncle. My aunt was there, but this conversation was for Vernon's benefit.
It seems my uncle's success in business isn't based solely on his own merits as he thought. Oh, apparently he is a whiz at customer support and keeping clients well supplied with drills, but his biggest clients have had 'additional incentives' to work with him at the outset. The owners of his four biggest accounts all have magical connections. They have taken him on as their drill supplier at Dumbledore's request on my behalf. Only after his first big client signed a long-term drill contract did it become apparent that Uncle Vernon is terrific at customer satisfaction after the sale - his ability to suck-up comes through.
Dumbledore had to have my uncle's signature on the papers allowing me to join the Paladin Program - you'll hear more about that program in a minute. The headmaster informed my uncle that the next big client Vernon hoped to sign was also from a magical family and would ink the contract for drills if Vernon would sign my participation papers, allow my room to be enlarged and permit a house-elf to assist me for the summer.
Okay, so the headmaster stooped to blackmail, but I wasn't going to complain if it made my life in any way easier. I prefer to think Dumbledore was making perfectly clear my long time contributions to the family funds.
Two days later Dumbledore sat with my aunt and explained everything that was done to my room to make it morph at my request between a potions laboratory, a Wizarding fitness and fighting dojo, and my combination bedroom/kitchen/research library. Since then my Aunt Petunia has been a different person to a noticeable degree.
She has actually been civil for the most part, and occasionally she's been considerate, even attempting a real conversation now and then. She's obviously trying, sort of. These improvements are a humanitarian award leap forward in her treatment of me. More startling is her obvious understanding of many simple magical things. Possibly she remembered things my mother might have told her or showed her roughly two decades ago. Of course we do not discuss this directly or any other of her actions - past or present.
Aunt Petunia even asks the occasional question now and accepts my saying the magic related words to answer the question. Of course, her questions all relate to fulfilling the Dursleys' part of the bargain with Dumbledore regarding my summer's training. However, the new industrial drills client delivered by Dumbledore this summer has increased Uncle Vernon's income by nearly forty percent. Suddenly cooperating with my needs became less painful for my so-called family than it's been all these years.
I wonder if I've gone mad from time to time.
Now about the Paladin Program. It's Professor Dumbledore's grand scheme to prepare a number of us rising sixth year students for a pre-Auror training curriculum to start this September second. The goal is that by September we will be physically, mentally, and magically as strong as we would normally be at the end of our seventh year at Hogwarts. That's almost two years of development over the course of one summer. So, each of the Paladin volunteers must take a series of potions five days out of six for roughly fifty-five days. A special diet and strenuous exercise regime are also required to facilitate the physical growth. Various courses of study over the summer are designed to stimulate our intellects. Practicing different types of magic in our special training rooms is also prescribed to stretch our magical powers. And I don't want to talk about the addle-brained cavortings we go through to improve our emotional maturity.
On the day of the shopping trip, I took my acceleration potion with breakfast. I had exercised for two hours before that and nothing was required of me on a precise timetable until late tonight. Our plan was to be home by supper.
As I finished my shower, Dobby announced that he had finished preparing my Dudley cast-offs. I did not know at that point that Monday morning that I would be going to Clark Village. As I dried off, I reflected on the fact that I now was master to a house-elf.
When Umbridge and the Inquisitorial Squad came after the DA this past spring, I ordered Dobby not to allow himself to be harmed or interrogated. When he obeyed me, that action of obedience under life-threatening circumstances brought about two effects: Dobby was protected from Professor Umbridge and anyone who might ever try to hurt him by ordering him into harm's way. That act of obedience also bonded Dobby to me as MY house-elf until he dies, I die, or I give him clothes. It was a life and death situation for him; that made the bond occur.
I'll never be able to give him clothes. Dumbledore said that it would kill him since he idolizes me, and in a few short days I have come to believe that it would. Also in those few days I've become very glad for his company, even though I can do magic this summer with a few restrictions, and I am seeing some of my friends on a regular basis.
I have to make sure Hermione doesn't find out about Dobby and me; it would upset her so. She almost did one day. Her father had come with her to show me how to use all of the exercise equipment.
Turns out mild-mannered dentist, Steph Granger is a former SAS captain. He was highly decorated though in secret, because the SAS was not known to be fighting in the jungles of Viet Nam during the war there. He had left the service and met his wife, Sylvia, in dental school. While they dated, and while married but not yet finished with school, they lived in a pretty dangerous part of the city. Mr. Granger had to kill several street thugs to defend her one terrible night, so she asked him to teach her to protect herself. Later, but before they had finished dental school, she killed a thug bent of beating Mr. Granger to death with a lead pipe.
Just over a week ago Death Eaters came knocking - two at their home where Mrs. Granger and Hermione were, and two at the dental practice just when Mr. Granger was leaving for the day.
I had a Voldemort dream of him sending the Death Eaters, and I ran to make a Floo call at Arabella Figg's house. Mad-Eye Moody, Bill Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Kingsley Shacklebolt Apparated to the rescue, only to find Mr. Granger had killed his two with his great bloody big fighting knife, and Mrs. Granger had killed her attackers as well.
Grangers - 4; Death Eaters - 0.
While I'm mentioning of courses, of course I couldn't just tell the Order of the Phoenix about the Death Eater attacks on the Grangers. I had to be in the battle somehow. So, I just concentrated very hard and ended up Apparating into the Granger's living room and nearly embedding my bum into a wall. I did leave the bottoms of my old trousers in the wall.
I arrived too late to help. Mrs. Granger had used a MAC 10 machine pistol - illegal in Great Britain I might add - to kill one Death Eater, and used a karate move or something like that to kill the other. Mr. Granger turns out to be a champion knife fighter, even by SAS standards, and he killed his two Death Eater attackers with a Fairbairn - a famous knife designed for killing in the 1930's by the British Chief Inspector of Detectives in Hong Kong.
The three Grangers are all now installed at number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Fudge succeeded in getting the Grangers accused in the Muggle press of having a Methamphetamine lab in their destroyed office. Now the Grangers are working for the Order of the Phoenix and Hogwarts I guess. Sylvia Granger is doing psychological analysis, or something like that, working with us students in the Paladin Program, seeing how we are progressing emotionally. I'm not too clear on it. Although Mr. Granger was a top student in school, apparently Hermione received her hyperactive study habits from her mother, who has nearly earned a doctorate in Adolescent Psychology while Hermione's been at Hogwarts and while Mrs. Granger has been working full time in their dental practice.
Steph Granger has been teaching most of us in the Paladin Program how to use our fitness equipment. I have a treadmill that doesn't just let me run, it turns at a moment's notice into a swamp, desert, boulder-strewn ground, or loose sand to run in. It even casts small spells at me on occasions to dodge while running. My stationary bicycle changes size and difficulty levels, and has a number of rope and binder spells that shoot up from time to time for me to avoid. The weight machine is standard Muggle issue apparently. Either that or it's very sneaky, lulling me into a false sense of safety.
Mr. Granger also hinted at giving me some additional training during the summer at some time. I've decided I want to learn anything and everything I can to help me be prepared, and the two Granger parents have proven Muggle fighting effective against the Death Munchers. Did I mention that fight occurred on a Monday?
I miss Sirius something fierce, but I have come to grips with the fact that he is gone and it is only partly my fault. I had long talks with Dumbledore, Remus, Mad-Eye, and Mr. Granger about different things. The headmaster helped me realize I have to put my grieving not away, but to the side during much of the day to prepare myself for what has to be done, readying myself to kill Riddle. Kill, not murder.
Lupin, Moody, and Granger told me of a lot of experiences from their lives and I learned three things that are essential. First, I will always mourn the deaths of Cedric and Sirius. And since this is war, there will most assuredly be more deaths to mourn before it's over. Second, murderers kill maliciously. Killers end lives when they have to when they save lives or in self-defense.
I don't like it one bit, but I can be a killer if I must.
Third, and I still find this tough to believe - I am evidently a leader. I never would've imagined it, but they tell me the evidence of a leader is that people follow. To save the Sorcerer's Stone, people followed me. People followed me to the Chamber of Secrets. When Cedric and I Portkeyed into the cemetery in Little Hagleston, he asked me if we should have our wands out. And five very brave good friends followed me to the Department of Mysteries several weeks ago, and fought twelve Death Eaters to a standstill. And they all suffered for it to various degrees.
I may be a leader, but I can also be a fool.
So, I have to kill Riddle, and I am going to lead those I can't convince not to follow me. It appears to be inevitable. So, I am asking everyone I can for help, and I am buckling down to read as much as I can from the small Defense oriented library Dumbledore has assembled for me. I am even reading this Muggle book on speed-reading to increase my ability to get through as many books on fighting as I can, and to improve my comprehension. It's working.
~+~
We left in a blur and in less than twenty minutes we had made it onto the M4 from Little Whinging. From that moment the fast traffic frayed my aunt's nerves something terrible. She missed the M5 cut off, and we had to circle back. We did make it to Clark Village Outlet Shopping Centre in time for a late lunch, but we should have been nearly two hours earlier.
Aunt Petunia, of course, wanted to buy only the best name products. Benneton, Elle, Jaeger, Monsoon, Reebok, Henri Lloyd, Calvin Klein, Ecco, and the Designer Room shops were all on our list. It grated on my nerves how she'd deliberate and waver over each purchase. I so wanted to use a Shrinking charm on the packages, but I didn't want to wear out my new permission to use magic by doing so in front of Muggles. I made several trips to the car to drop off loads of bags and boxes. The Denby stoneware was heavy and the Le Creuset cookware was almost as heavy. With Uncle Vernon's new client and increased commissions and bonuses, my aunt unleashed a blizzard of pent up shopping lust.
I, of course, was not allowed to buy from the famous name designer wear shops; not that I had a powerful desire to pay too much for things, given my limited budget. I bought several pairs of Wrangler denims, and the Clark factory stores had clothing and trainers that were a vast improvement over anything I'd ever worn. I didn't complain about not wearing the best of Muggle labels; frankly I didn't care. After my first purchases I changed into new clothes and left what I'd been wearing in the rubbish bin.
Because this trip came about in several quick minutes I never thought to tell my minders where I was going. It just so happened that Dung Fletcher had the watch this day, and since this is the same day of the week when my aunt usually goes grocery shopping, he assumed I was to be the lift-and-tote boy for the foodstuffs. I, of course, found this out nearly a week later, when Dumbledore told me Dung was permanently relieved from minder duty.
The Clark Village in Somerset had an information booth where you could find directions to local places of interest, famous tourist haunts in southwest England, and locations of other Clark Villages, naturally. Aunt Petunia asked the nice lady behind the counter to show her how to drive back to Little Whinging without going back on one of the M or major A motorways. The woman wrote down the turns and road names, and my Shilling-pinching aunt refused to pay for a map. I did look closely at the road map under the glass countertop, noticing where we were currently located, and where Little Whinging and London were. For no good reason I also traced in my mind where I might fly my broom if I needed to go to Hogwarts in Scotland.
Funny how the craziest, casual actions can be so crucial.
Six days ago Remus Lupin, Mr. Weasley, and a solicitor came to my aunt's house to read Sirius' will. I asked Remus to be my guardian at that time. Three days ago Remus brought me my Firebolt and taught me how to shrink it and enlarge it without damaging it. He also brought me a book entitled, Battlefield First Aid and Survival Charms and Potions. Since then I've made a few simple potions and practiced a few of the simpler healing charms.
Even though both Dudley and Uncle Vernon laughed at it and called it sissy, Remus also brought me a fanny pack. The pack was made of high quality rip-stop nylon, and was jet black in color. I'd noticed several good-looking, manly guys wearing similar bags as they went jogging around the estate with beautiful women, so I decided to go with my own fashion sense, ignoring my male relatives.
My aunt wanted me to leave the fanny pack in the sedan while shopping. Aunt Petunia just knew store personnel would think I'd use it for shoplifting. Despite our slightly improving relationship, she'd begun to believe the family lies about my criminality. I assured her that there was a Notice-Me-Not charm on the pack, and that I had no intention of going anywhere without my wand, my cloak, and my broom - all of which were packed away in the bag.
I'd changed into a black tee shirt and dark blue denim pants in the store where I purchased them. I pulled on my new black trainers. I also had a new lightweight black jacket at the top of one of my few bags.
While I'm going through my list of "of courses," let me add, of course my aunt became hopelessly lost within less than an hour of leaving Somerset as we cut across farmland on a back country road. She did basically keep driving with the setting sun at her back, so we were generally heading towards Little Whinging. This was where my fairly easy summer took a sudden turn - like a freight train taking a dirt road.
We were at a crossroad with no signs; two hundred yards in the distance there stood a large house. It was across a field; no road or path seemed to head towards it, so I bid my aunt to wait while I hiked over for directions.
I'd gone no more than ten paces when I saw the Dark Mark fly up over the house and a fiery explosion in one of the out buildings.
I ran back to my aunt who'd started the car, shouting for me to get in.
"No! That's a Death Eater attack." I pointed to the sun setting. "That's west." I pointed to the road heading south. "That's south. Drive south with the sun to your right until you hit the M4. I know you hate it but get on it and drive to the house. When you get there, call out for my minders. Someone will appear. Tell them about this and tell them to come help me fight them."
I Accio'ed the black jacket from the bag and turned to run to the house. My aunt wasted no time in leaving me. In retrospect, I questioned, not for the first time, my mental stability. What was I thinking? She'd be home in two hours if all the luck on earth assisted her this day. Death Eaters battles lasted mere minutes if they were long and drawn out. Whatever my sanity at the time, I reckoned that she was one more person I didn't have to worry about.
I considered, and then immediately rejected grabbing my broom to fly to the house. I'd be an obvious flying target without proper reconnaissance or camouflage. I placed a Silencing charm on my feet and took out my Invisibility Cloak while I ran. With two hundred yards to go I was basically approaching unnoticed, unless some sort of warning wards have been hastily raised around the perimeter of the house by the attackers. The flashing colors of spells and occasional exploding sounds indicated that all of the action was taking place on the other side of the dwelling from my approach. I reached the house and slowed to go around to the side of the fight. I paused at each corner and squatted to look around the corner, even though I was for all purposes invisible. For some reason I looked at the cheap cast off wrist watch Dudley had broken several years ago and I had Reparo-ed a few days before.
I looked around the corner of the house to survey the battlefield before attacking. There was an old barn in need of painting about seventy or eighty feet from the house. Three items were situated in the sparse farmyard roughly between the house and the barn. There was a stone well about four feet high with a shattered rig to draw water, a boulder about three and a half feet high and roughly thirty feet away from the well, and an old dilapidated wagon nearer the barn. On the back porch of the house an old woman with the lifeless look in her eyes signifying the Killing Curse. My eyes were instantly drawn to that same curse hitting a woman I guessed to be somewhere in her mid forties. She'd been tending a young man in the center of the yard who was in a Death Eater's robe without a mask. The sickly green spell laid out the woman at the head of the downed, mask-less Death Eater.
A man of similar age to the woman just killed, howled in rage and stood from behind the well. By rising he insanely drew fire away from someone huddled behind the boulder. The man used the Killing Curse on one Death Eater, and a Cutting Curse that nearly decapitated another. He turned his wand towards the three who were still attacking the person behind the boulder.
I now glanced at that person squatting there behind the large stone - a girl, probably near my age. She had tightly braided hair arranged around her head, and looked heavy set. I could also see her shuddering while she was staring at the newly dead bodies. It never occurred to me that she could be a classmate of mine.
The enraged man, head of this household I assumed, had been winged by some spell and held his left arm limply at his side, dripping blood. He kept firing curse after curse. The three remaining Death Eaters turned their wrath on him and away from the plump young woman. I decided I needed to try to keep him alive.
My first spell was a Reducto and it hit the forward most Death Eater square in the chest with much more power than I had assumed. I didn't pause to think about the results of that spell, even though I knew the man's internal organs had been damaged and he was dead, or very close to dying. The nearest Death Eater looked my way in curiosity, not to return fire. My Cutting Curse took off his right arm and wand. He screamed and somehow summoned the presence of mind to Disapparate.
Unfortunately the man I was helping turned to see who I was instead of continuing his attack. Even more unfortunately the last Death Eater did not turn my way. Instead he sent a Killing Curse right into the man. The young woman howled in pain and sent a curse I did not at first recognize into that Death Eater; it was a narrow purple beam of light that cleaved the attacker six or eight inches into his upper chest, just below his raised wand arm. The Death Eater fell unconscious, rapidly bleeding to death. That purple spell looked very different in daylight than in a barely lit room.
The young woman rapidly moved to the dead defender of his family. I guessed he was her father. I ignored her to check the woman and younger man, and look for additional attacks.
I briefly examined the woman I first saw die. I turned to the young man she'd been huddled over. I confirmed he was wearing a Death Eater's robe, but his mask was over eight feet away, and not where it would be if he'd been hit and it was thrown off. He lay dead, facing another dead Death Eater with his back to the farm house. The woman had obviously been concerned about him.
What the heck? They had the same face, that is, that woman in her mid-forties and the young man, about twenty years her junior, looked alike. It was an obvious family resemblance and sort of familiar. The family must have done something to incur Voldemort's displeasure. I reckoned that he'd sent a team of his minions to kill them, even though one of the family members was on the kill team. I cursed Voldemort when it hit me what he'd done.
As I ran towards the house, I'd thought little about these people who I had come to help. My initial assumption would have been a Muggle or Muggle-born family, or some family of half-bloods. That assumption was wrong if one of the family members had been a Death Eater. This was probably an old pure-blood family that had somehow done something to warrant punishment in Tom Riddle's sick mind.
I quickly stood, drawing back the hood on my black jacket, and turned to face....
Her wand was drawn, but she lowered it. All she said was, "Potter."
It was Millicent Bulstrode.
~*~
She lowered her wand as she said, "Potter."
Apparently my name and presence explained everything to her, or maybe she was just going into shock. She looked down to the woman at my feet, whimpered, and then whispered, "Mum."
I can be thick at times - often actually. This was one of them. The family resemblance between the dead mother and son was familiar; they were all Millicent's kin.
Millicent fell to her knees between the two, pulled her mother's head into her lap and began silently crying. I stood there, useless, what could I do? For some bizarre reason I looked at my watch - only eight minutes had passed since I turned from my aunt's car and started running for this farmhouse. I didn't have to worry about feeling useless too long.
Several cracks in a row gave me something to do. Four more Death Eaters Apparated into the farmyard. I rolled towards the boulder and sent a Reductor towards the nearest one. He caught it in the upper torso. His head snapped back and his neck could be heard breaking from over twenty feet away as his body went flying back in a spinning arc. The other three scattered. I sent a Cutting curse at one, nipping his leg, causing him to yelp in pain and fall behind the dilapidated wagon. I leapt to my feet, ran three paces and rolled again, falling forward and feeling a Crucio skim past my back. If my jacket had nerve endings it would have been screaming just then.
My maneuverings were designed to draw the attackers away from Millicent. If you'd asked me before that Monday, I'd have said that she'd be next in line after Malfoy to take Riddle's mark, but now she was an ally of sorts. When I looked back to her location, my blood ran cold.
Just like the man I assumed was her father, Millicent stood up, disregarding cover or dodging, and starting sending curses at the three attackers.
Dolo Bifidus was the purple curse she sent after the last Death Eater from the first group, and I learned it was her curse of choice when she wanted to hurt someone badly, maybe even kill them. It was familiar because it was the same curse Dolohov sent at Hermione in the Department of Mysteries, and I am so glad he didn't know how to cast it well wordlessly.
A tall skinny Death Eater gurgled a high-pitched yelp as Millicent's purple curse hacked six inches or so down into his clavicle, bringing forth a life draining flow of blood. The Death Eater I nicked in the leg sent a Cruciatus at her and Millicent went down, roaring in unimaginable pain. Except, I didn't need to imagine it. I'd known it before.
In my reading I'd discovered that if I took my time to cast a Reductor curse and sent it a bit, I don't know, fuzzy I guess, then the Reductor would go out in a broadening pattern and hit more than just a concentrated point of contact. This expanding bit of magic reduced it's power quickly, but in the current battle where the attackers were so close, it created a better chance of hitting an assailant somewhere on his body, and doing enough damage to put the attacker out of action due to the shock of its impact. However, if this broadening Reductor hit someone straight on and nearby, it did a lot of general damage to everything it touched.
I sent a 'fuzzy' Reductor at the Death Eater holding Millicent under the Cruciatus. His chest cavity caved in, his wand arm crushed in on itself as his wand shattered, his head snapped back at a grotesque angle, and he dropped backwards in a mangled heap. I'd thought I'd noticed a substantial increase in my spell power since the Department of Mysteries, and even more since starting the Paladin potions. Casting my Reductor in this fuzzy mode produced a lot more damage than I expected. I had little time to consider this as I turned and fired a Cutting curse at the female Death Eater running to distance herself from the other attacker. She cracked off to who-knows-where before my spell hit her.
The sole Death Eater left now had to contend with my spell fire and Millicent's. I saw my schoolmate stand on wobbly legs and start hitting the wagon he hid behind with Reductors. He Disapparated, reappearing right behind me and I fell forward as his Killing Curse missed me by inches. I rolled as I went down and shot out with a Stunner, which missed. I wanted a prisoner to explain all of this.
"Potter!" Millicent shouted as I rolled, warning me of the attacker behind me that I'd already sensed. Her purple curse hit him in the chest and he stumbled backwards and soundlessly tumbled down the well as I scurried around it for cover because of additional cracking sounds.
Five more Death Eaters Apparated into the farmyard and it seemed that the female Death Eater who had earlier popped off led them in the attack. I now had the well to squat behind but Millicent had no cover at all. However, these Death Lemmings were after me. Millicent used her purple spell to hack into the woman who'd left for reinforcements, and this Death Eater leader fell bleeding badly from her abdomen. This divided the survivors' attention between her and my Slytherin year-mate. I later learned how it hurt her as she pragmatically levitated her brother's body before her to give her cover to run to the boulder.
I had never thought Death Eaters were too stupid or too bright. I'd always hoped for the dimmer ones to fight. They did give me the hope I yearned for by standing close by each other without seeking cover while firing spells and curses. The woman first downed by Millicent was apparently the brains of this operation.
I looked over the boulder and ducked a Cutting Curse after noticing their direction. Without looking I held only my wand arm over the well top and sent a narrow spread five Incendios in their direction. The screams caused me to look and see fireballs engulfing two Death Eaters while one rolled in the dirt putting out the fire on his robe.
The fourth Death Eater took a page from my spell book and sent a Reductor towards Millicent. She was looking my way with a reaper's grin and a thumbs-up for setting the three on fire. She turned back and fell backwards to dodge the Reducto.
I didn't have time to see if it connected with her or not. I just attacked her assailant to keep him from going after her again. This guy was a duelist, or at least fancied himself one. He had skills and even took the time to taunt me as I ran from the well to the debris of the wagon.
"Potter, don't you want to fight like a real wizard?" I could hear the sneer in his voice, not unlike Snape's, but it wasn't Snape.
I shouted, "No!" and sent "Auguamenti" his way.
He sent a Reductor at the debris I hid behind and several pieces of the splintering wood shot into my back even though I dodged the bulk of it. He said, "I'm wet. Now what?" He then made a fatal error; he took his eyes off of me and started to perform a Drying spell on his robes.
I sent Conglacio his way and the Ice Ball spell increased its effects from the water already covering his clothing. He took on the look I'd later come to associate with someone trying to Apparate under difficult circumstances. He never made it away.
I then ran to Millicent. She'd not stirred since the spell he'd sent towards her and my hope that she'd gone unscathed disappeared. Her face was a mess, but as bloody as things were, none of it was life-threatening. Her chin was broken in the front and her right jaw seemed out of joint slightly. Several of her teeth were missing and her mouth was bloody. She was stirring, though not awake yet, and she spat out blood and teeth bits. Her nose was badly broken and she bled freely from both nostrils. Her eyes were already blackening and I later learned she had a broken right cheekbone.
I did not know how, but her tongue was damaged, a part of it had been bitten through, but not cut off cleanly. She tried to talk, which hurt so much she gave a guttural scream. The pain of this caused her to pass out.
Frightened but glad she was not experiencing pain at the moment; I drew my fanny pack around and pulled out a pain potion. I opened her mouth and pushed the vial past her mangled tongue and poured the horrible tasting liquid down her throat. She remained out and I thought of the few healing spells I knew.
The Bone Mending spell would probably work on her chin and jaw, but I was afraid to try because of the damage inside her mouth and I was afraid to use that spell in general. Using the Wound Closing charm on her tongue might end her ability to speak. I'd experimented on a whole dead chicken one day that Dobby acquired for me and I didn't have the control needed to do either of those spells precisely. I was able to close a cut on my arm from the wood splinters, but Millicent's tongue was much more precision work. I finally decided to try the one spell I'd read but not had an opportunity to try.
"Defigio Immotum Anguste!" I shouted. It was the Localized Stasis spell, used to immobilize a part of the body without stopping the whole body, or even part of the body near the part you want frozen in place. The knack to the spell is to concentrate hard on just the parts you want incapacitated. I was thinking about the mouth, chin, jaw, tongue, and cheek muscles. After the fact I realized I was playing fast and loose with her ability to breath and swallow, as well as her eyesight and maybe even her brain functions.
Spells are very different in their execution sometimes, and we differ in how we interact with them based on how we learn, how we think, or even how we believe in our abilities to use magic. Our personal cognitive abilities aid or hinder our learning of certain types of spellwork. I'd studied this a bit this summer. I'm not very goods at leaps-of-faith spell learning. 'Just say these words and a match becomes a sewing needle' is not how I learn - it's too close the command "just-do-it-because-I-said-so." That's how my aunt and uncle gave me orders most of my life. This Localized Stasis spell worked perfectly for me because I am very visual and experiential in my learning. I had no problems precisely 'seeing' only the parts of her face placed in stasis that I wanted, and no more.
"Crucio!" The Death Eater I'd ignited but failed to burn to a crisp wanted revenge. I rolled away from Millicent knowing full well that if a Cruciatus hit her in her condition it could tear her head apart.
Over the eternity of the next thirty seconds or so that I was under that torturing Unforgivable, I bit the inside of my cheek, sprained my left wrist slightly, and wet myself. No one ever mentions soiling their clothes when they discuss that Unforgivable, but many more lose bladder control than not, and one in eight or so lose bowel control as well. The curse stopped and I gathered myself to listen to this evil minion's obligatory rant before further torture.
It didn't come.
I rolled over in time to discover what was causing the thumping sound, something like a gourd bursting. Millicent had regained consciousness and picked up a board from the shattered wagon. She had evidently knocked out the Death Eater and was now methodically crushing his skull. I stopped her with a shout. She dropped it and staggered towards me.
I wandlessly Accio'ed my wand to me, causing her to use what little facial expression wasn't in stasis to give me a surprised look. Neither of us heard the crack of the next two Death Eaters.
I didn't even hear the spells but in a quick moment Millicent's left arm opened up to the bone from a Cutting curse, several of her ribs deformed from a grazing hit by a Reductor, and I heard her right leg break. She fell soundlessly, trying to yell through her closed off mouth.
I popped to my feet and decapitated the two Death Eaters running our way with Cutting curses. Where was the power in my spells coming from? I'd hoped at best to cut them somewhere on their bodies enough for them to leave for medical assistance.
Millicent was in a bad way. I hoped she'd be unconscious, but no such luck. Her horrible pain screamed at me through her eyes. I spoke meaningless soothing words to her as I quickly used the Wound Closing charm on her arm and the Localized Stasis spell on her leg. I noticed the bone in her arm was cracked or broken when closing the wound. I used the Bone Mending spell on her arm because it was a simple break and the bone pieces were in place for healing. Her leg held more complex breaks so I placed it in stasis. I couldn't risk any spell I knew on her ribs because I didn't trust my control, even with the Localized Stasis spell. I didn't want to shut down any of her internal organs. Her pain subsided to a degree as I ministered to her needs in my limited way.
Her gaze was fixed on me and I just knew she wanted to tell me something. I tried to ask a few questions but her limited eye movement told me I was off in my guessing.
I looked into her eyes. At times like this some things stand out with perfect clarity. As ridiculous as it might seem that was when I noticed that she had the clearest, most lovely dark blue eyes of a shade I'd never seen before. Their beauty was even more obvious since the rest of her face below her eyes was a horrible mess and her eye sockets were already black from serious bruising.
"Millicent, I'm going to try Legilimency to speak to you. Professor Snape was teaching it to me. Can you understand me?" I hoped to calm any potential shock before it occurred to my mental invasion. Mentioning her head of house was the only thing that popped to mind. Shaking my head I stared as deeply into her blue orbs as I could, searching for her mind, and whispered, "Legilimens." I saw rudimentary mind shields that she let fall. I found a swirl of memories but no way to communicate. I pulled back on my Legilimency.
I closed my eyes and thought desperately for any solution. Legilimency had been a hopeless gambit, there was nothing I'd read or heard of in my studies of the two mind magics that even hinted at two-way communication. I had to invent something on the spot.
~*~
There is one more point you need to know to catch up with what I've been doing since school ended. When Dobby came into my service, he gave me a book that was apparently his family heirloom, saved for many generations to give to me. I haven't made my way through even half of it yet because I've been doing my assigned reading first, believe it or not, but Dobby's book was written by the first master of the house-elves, Telmachus Grind. Apparently Grind saved the elves living in barns at the time that were being hunted and killed by wizards. He befriended one Dobbert, the first house-elf, and Dobby's many times great-grandfather.
Telemachus Grind was a Spell Monger. A Spell Monger hammers, bangs, and otherwise forces new spells, charms, jinxes and such into shape and can pass them along to others only by selling them. The Arithmantic Spell Crafters at the Ministry of Magic can create spells and such that all can use, but they haven't released any new incantations since an improved window cleaning charm in 1974.
I was able to Monger a small spell modification in less than an hour that first day I received the old journal. Now I can pop an owl treat from the bag to Hedwig's cage without getting out of bed. It's a fascinating subject, Spell Mongery, and even with the little reading I've done it seems like I now have a unique, yet better understanding about how all magic works. I also have a feeling that magic is being taught in a more complicated manner than it has to be.
Harry Potter - heretic.
The book was illegible at first, but as Dobby handed it to me, the characters morphed into English I could read. There seems to be a prophecy among house-elves that applies to Dobby and me. The heir of Dobbert (Dobby) would be friends with the heir (me) of the First Master (Grind). Grind's mother was a Potter. He had no offspring, so I am the last relative of his around I guess. Anyway, when the inscrutable characters transfigured so I could read them, it proved that Dobby and I were the heirs the prophecy spoke of.
At least this prophecy has no revealed obligations. I just get the book. Why do I feel there's something more? There's always something more. Oh, and to prove my earlier point Dobby gave me that book on a Monday.
~*~
When you Monger a spell, you always start by pulling up a base slug of raw magic from your inner core, following the analogy of an early ironmonger who fashioned simple metal products, as well as sold metal and metal goods much like a blacksmith did. An early smith or monger started with a slug of iron or other metal sized to what he wanted to create. I pulled up a tiny slug of raw magic into my forethoughts, and concentrated on mangling it to my will. I broke all the Spell Monger's safety rule but I was in a desperate hurry. I concentrated on what I wanted, skipped the steps of creating an incantation, and finished the spell for use - all in about ten seconds. In its current form it would never work for anyone else and I didn't know how long it would work for me, if it did all.
I looked back down into her bluest eyes, and with no incantation to use I just willed the spell to occur. "Millicent, I modified this so we can speak with our minds. Just think like you're speaking to me."
"Potter, am I dying?" It was faint, but I could hear her in my head. That question would have never occurred to me, so I wasn't imagining it.
I'm not sure why I didn't answer back out loud. There was nothing wrong with her ears, but I responded using my mongered Legilimency, or whatever we were doing. "No, you're really messed up, but you're not dying. I've put your face and your leg in Localized Stasis spells to protect them from further damage. It shouldn't hurt much though you may feel they are either petrified or numb.
"You also have several broken ribs, and I am afraid to use any spell on them for fear of shutting down your heart or lungs. Does it just hurt to inhale, or does it feel all squishy and liquid inside you when you breathe?" I knew that if her lungs had been punctured by a rib, there was little I could do to help her. I hoped and prayed that the Aurors would arrive momentarily because of the Dark Mark.
Her eyes looked off for the space of two deep breaths. She looked back into my eyes and said, er, thought at me, "I don't detect punctured lungs, so I should live, unless more Death Eaters attack that is. I can't believe Potter's helping me. And your hopes that the Aurors will come soon are in vain. My father had the magic detectors for underaged magic removed from the house and my wand. While he was at it, the man he hired for the job removed the regional magical receptors that were erected on our property - placed there by the Ministry without our permission by the way. No magic within twenty or thirty miles will be detected. So the hero of Gryffindor even helps Slytherins in need, and he likes my eyes."
"Er, Millicent," I said out loud without closing the eye-speak link. "I didn't speak to you about the Aurors coming or about your eyes." My shock that she heard these other random thoughts overcame my embarrassment of her knowing I thought she had nice eyes. In eye-speak as I just decided to call it I said, "And you shouldn't be surprised that I'd come to the aid of anyone who Death Eaters were attacking."
Her forehead pinked as if blushing and her damaged cheeks changed their gruesome coloring as well. She thought to me, "I guess whatever we are thinking while linked like this goes to the other, as well as what we intend to say to each other. We need to leave, but could you retrieve several items for me just in case Death Eaters decide to burn my house down?
I looked at my watch and was once again amazed at how time flows so slowly a fight for your life. Only twelve minutes had passed since I last looked, twenty minutes since I left my aunt's car. Millicent closed her eyes for a moment, reopened them, and my head was flooded with a rapid view of someone walking into the house, running up to a room on the second floor, and retrieving a personal journal, the book it sat on, a photo album also on the desk, and a small pendant resting on the book shelf just above it.
I stood up and threw my Invisibility Cloak over her. I actually spoke out loud this time that I'd be right back. Moments later I returned just in time to see three Death Eaters Apparate into the farmyard. It occurred to me then that I was tired of killing people. I determined to just incapacitate and bind these three and leave them bound for the Aurors.
Once again I demonstrated that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
I sent out three quick and nearly silent Stunners with all the intent I could muster to incapacitate them for a long, long time. I sent them in the order of those I thought could be hit without alerting the others. The first two went down, but the third Death Eater heard something and turned. He moved at the last moment but the spell grazed his arm and he too went down. I walked over to the first two and bound them with Incarerous. I heard Millicent groan and I turned to check on her before going to the third one. When will I learn?
His Reductor hit my left side a glancing blow. I've broken enough ribs in Quidditch games and practices to know that several were now in that state again. I heard the start of the Killing Curse behind me, and struggled on the ground to roll over to defend myself.
I made it around enough to see the Death Eater's mask fly off and the left side of his neck open in a small wound. Millicent's wordless Cutting curse had been weak, but it hit right on his jugular vein. His blood sprayed in a macabre arch and he fell, pulsing his life away.
I'd lost count of how many life debts we owed each other at that point. It also dawned on me at that moment that I had no room for mercy in this fight, as my screaming ribs told me, so I'd only turn my back on dead or completely incapacitated Death Eaters from now on out.
I stood shakily and almost passed out from the pain in my side. I staggered to Millicent, who I saw collapsed after my rescue. When I knelt by her surveying again the damage to her face. She eye-spoke. "Are you hurt?"
The pain she endured was obvious on her face, at least the top half of it. Did you know a forehead could display obvious pain with only wrinkles? I decided she did not need to know my own problems since she was so disfigured.
A tear formed in her eye and fell. She eye-read my assessment of her damaged face. She passed on the thought, "I know I was always ugly, but now I'll be grotesque. So be it. It will only fuel my desire more for revenge every time I look in a mirror. You never said, how are you doing?"
"I'm fine. I was only thinking about how beat up you are; I don't think anything done to your face is permanent. I'm sure healers can put you back together just fine, even your face. It's mostly bruising, which all goes away." I needed to change the subject. "If the Aurors aren't coming, and the Death Eaters seem to come and check every few minutes, I think it's time to leave."
"How?"
I staggered to my feet. I opened my fanny pack and took out my broom and enlarged it. I summoned a rope I saw on the side of the barn. I also summoned the largest solid board from the destroyed wagon. I lay the plank beside her and went back to her eyes. "I'm going to strap you to this board and wrap you with my Invisibility Cloak. Then I'll rope you to my broom and fly out of here real low and slow, avoiding anyone and everyone. Do you want me to petrify you to keep you from hurting?"
Instantly she responded, "No. I want to see you and maybe talk to you as we go along."
I levitated her onto the board and then levitated the board up off of the ground about three feet. I rose while making a sharp intake of air signifying my own pain. I looked into her eyes. From this angle we couldn't speak or whatever it was we were doing, but I could see her rising pain.
I pulled out another vial of painkiller from my fanny pack and conjured a drinking straw. I stuck it into the side of her mouth that seemed the least damaged and it went in about a half inch. She struggled a bit and I looked into her eyes. "You need some pain killer. I'll tilt the board. Suck in just a little and let it seep down your throat. Can you swallow?" She nodded her head slightly after a moment. It only occurred to me as I said this that I hadn't considered where to go. I just wanted out of here. Three small swallows and I could see the relief in her forehead and eyes. I staggered on my leg in stasis, and lowered Millicent's sling to about a foot off of the ground. It took several minutes to create a rig with the ropes that I felt would serve without falling apart as we flew along. I concentrated on my Sticking charms to make sure nothing would happen to drop her.
I mounted my broom hesitantly. The Firebolt is a racing broom, not an emergency lorry. It would buck at having a second person ride on it in pillion. It did NOT like this arrangement at all. We rose shakily. I looked down into Millicent's eyes and she 'spoke' to me, "Thanks. After all I've done-"
I cut her off. "We've fought together now. You can tell me later why you were attacked, but this battle makes us comrades if not friends, and I defend those who fight with me with all my strength." I hate motivational speeches but she needed one.
I wish I'd moved off in that thirty seconds we spent communicating. We'd have probably made the cover of the woods to the east and might have gone unnoticed flying away. Instead a new Reductor grazed my left arm and broke it. I barely held on but the broom bucked with my movements. Pain screamed through me as I used my broken left arm to steer as I raised my wand arm for battle. I turned the broom and turned my wand arm even faster, sending out silent "Incendios" as fast as I could. Three Death Eaters dodged and one succeeded. The other two were screaming fireballs. I hoped the third would tend to his comrades but he ignored them and Disapparated.
I performed the Bone Mending spell on my arm. It was somewhat nominally useable but I could tell that it was not as together as I had thought before mending it. True to my inability to use the spell properly, I could tell instantly that though the bone was fused, it was not properly knitted together and would need to be re-broken and set. A crack told me that someone had Apparated nearby. The same Death Eater, I think, appeared with a broom and mounted it. He'd risen less than six feet when I "Accio'ed" it out from under him. I summoned his wand as well and broke it before him.
In that moment several things occurred to me and I acted on it. I said loudly to Millicent, "On to London." I shot several Incendios inaccurately at the Death Eater who's robe hem caught fire and he began to put it out. I then pointed my broom due east towards town with the setting sun at my back and shot forward as fast as I could with the bucking Firebolt. I made it to the woods and went several hundred yards in before slowing. As I slowed I maneuvered north, slowed even more, and checked on Millicent.
I looked down at her and she eye-spoke to me, "Even I thought you wouldn't be stupid enough to tell him where we were going, Potter. But the ruse might buy us a little time. How do you feel? I'm fine for now." I heard the Slytherin sneer in her voice, er, thoughts, at first, but she softened her usual tone after remembering where we were and what we were doing. She looked a fright and I decided she was trying to lighten my load. She eye-spoke, "Yes, I still look bad, but I truly don't hurt too much."
Her question reminded me of my own pain. The magical survival book said that once a Localized Stasis charm was used, the person should remain still. Everything around the body parts frozen would hurt from any use supporting those parts of the body in stasis.
I was beginning to hurt. A lot. Her eyes showed that I had transmitted my pain to her.
I thought to her, "I hurt but I've felt a lot worse after a Quidditch match with Slytherin." I heard a mental snort from her but I continued, "It's going to be completely dark soon and I can rise above the trees and make better time. Although, I don't think my broom will go anywhere near its normal speed rigged like this. The only place I can think of to go is Hogwarts. I can't go home and I can't find Gr-" I was instantly stopped from mentioning or even thinking about the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. "-the other place I can think of. Any ideas?"
Millicent looked away for a moment. In that span of time I could see the exhaustion roiling across her body in the top half of her face.
She looked back. "Nowhere we might not be turned in to the Death Eaters." She closed her eyes in pain, but opened them quickly. "Thanks again, Potter. I still can't believe that you're helping me, but I guess the enemy of my enemy is now my friend." She said, or rather thought my name with a little less derision than usual. Old habits die hard I guess, regardless of changing circumstances. She closed her eyes once again and they stayed shut for several long seconds. I'd been looking into them and using my peripheral vision to steer through the sparse trees. I looked up and made my way through a larger clumping of oaks, I think they were, and then looked back down at her as the trees thinned again.
She thought to me, "I hurt but I'm going to close my eyes and try to sleep unless you need me awake."
I spoke out loud to her as I looked back up. "I'm going to fly as long as I can down here like this hidden by the forest. I might have to stop before it's pitch dark. I won't risk flying above the tree line before then, but we may not be able to go forward too much longer in the growing darkness."
I looked back down into her blue orbs. "Sleep, Millicent. I'll keep you safe and wake you if I need you."
The slightest sneer began on her forehead, but it was soon replaced by a pained smile for a brief span of time. "Thanks, Potter. I know you will."
Her eyes closed and I looked up to better dodge and see if I could convince my broom to give me a little more speed. When I looked back down she was in an uneasy sleep. I guessed I could go for ten more minutes before I had to either stop or rise above the treetops.
I called up from memory the map I'd seen at the Clark Village information desk. That seemed like days ago. I recalled five different cities between here and Hogwarts, roughly in a straight line. At this speed Hogwarts was probably a day's broom ride from here. I knew that in an hour I was supposed to take my next acceleration potion. I remembered thinking that I hoped I could miss one - make that two since there was a dose due the next day at 8:00 AM.
Well, Dumbledore wants me in this program, I thought, so he'll make it work, or I'll make it work somehow.
I looked back down at Millicent, who seemed neither less nor more settled in her uneasy sleep. I thought it was amazing how someone who I considered an enemy a few hours ago was now important to me. Well maybe not important, after all, she was still the most aggressive female Inquisitorial Squad member, but that had to have changed after seeing her family killed at Voldemort's orders.
Maybe it was my "people saving thing" or maybe it was her logical syllogism - the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but I distinctly remember thinking at that moment as I flew us off into the night, that traumatic events could change someone in moments. I look back now, seven days later, and know I was wrong and I was right about Millicent Bulstrode. She would and she wouldn't be being different from the girl I'd known at school all these years.
Some things seem to change quickly in my life - like they did that bloody Monday.
A/N - Thanks to Ken for some post-posting assistance.