Chapter 76 Of the Dark

My training - and all other plans for the year - are forced into a sudden shift when and issue comes up. The issue, of course, comes about two weeks into the demolition of Fudge and Umbridge’s reputations. The Weasley Twins have been caught.

While they did end up escaping - it also happens that I get a message from Dumbledore via a latent, hidden enchantment on the cloak I wear to the Order meetings activating. The inner stitch, holding the left arm on is writing - which has a simple message.

“Emergency meeting, attend immediately.”

I know he has some methods for others - badges, coins, rings, bracelets - I thought this would be on my badge, but he probably redundantly put it on the cloak knowing I’d be seeing it more than the badge, which is in a different compartment from my pile of clothes. He was very clever with hiding it, putting so many enchantments on the thing that there’s no way I’d see it unless it activated.

A quick scan of the map shows Tonks is already out of the castle.

Convenient, probably because when not in class or with me she is in her dorm “Studying” which is code for ‘making a transfigured and animated puppet to pretend to be me while I pretend to be on some assignment and occasionally show up in the office for reports’.

Very boring for her, I’m sure. Also, it is very annoying for me to find time to be with her outside of weekends. Oh well.

So, cloak and message in hand, I find Flitwick, In short order I tell him I’ve had a message, and I need to handle some family affairs out of the castle. I make sure to make the situation plain. I’ll be back when I can be. With luck, my return will be today, without, it could be a few days. This all to legally protect me within Hogwarts charter and the magical law about the exact procedure on how a student can leave the castle.

Introduced only two decades after the founding due to the wars and feuds which made students heads of their house a lot more frequently back then. If I’m attempted to be punished for leaving without the heads permission - I can demand satisfaction on the spot for the insult.

One of the few holes for satisfaction declarations like that which haven’t been patched out by the various reforms in the last two centuries. Probably because it never, ever, comes up.

I hope she has to give me the price of satisfaction - for a relatively young magical house like hers to satisfy mine - one of the Druidic houses - well, it’s probably more wealth than she has. Even if she can pay for it, the amount it’ll take from her will be such that she’ll take a decade or three to recover.

My grin is massive and evil as I leave. Shadow jumping out of the castle, only an hour or so behind the Weasley Twins.

On the subject of the twins, my pranks will continue for a while after I leave - I did set something of a time delay on a few of them. It’s easier to lay a few traps on the same spot at once, and delay some of them for repeated crossings, then it is to trap the whole castle every day against Umbridge.

I really hope she tries to catch me out on that, too. If she tries both I can get her a double satisfaction claim, for two insults. I just need her to try to do something about my leaving first, so I can begin that spiral.

If she resists? Well, duels to the death for everything the person has have been fought for less. Honour duels, though, have been fought very few and far between.

She won’t fight, which means I’ll just get everything she has, and reduce her to the eyes of a nearly squib muggleborn in the eyes of anyone who has any political levers.

Ruining her life may be very easy, and Dumbledore has delivered the exact mechanism for me to do it.

Though neither can know that, and the fact I’ve been sitting on the ‘family emergency’ for awhile - namely, the fact that I need to consolidate a few Gringotts affairs and set up a stipend for the members of my family in a pile of paperwork, and that failing to do so by the end of this school year will see my vaults emptied by the Goblins.

An excuse, to be sure, for them to try and get me in the bank as one of the people who was in the rails when the theft of their Artefact took place.

They need to check if I have it, and kill me if I do.

I have it, so I’m going to take all of my stuff out of the bank, and then go to their meeting.

Probably killing a good portion of them on my way out of the bank.

It occurs to me, that if I was an assassin waiting for a chance to kill someone who has my reputation, I’d either wait inside the bank lobby - because it’s an appointment I ‘cannot miss’ is in potentially hostile territory for the target and if a fight starts the help is most likely to fall on the side of the assassins.

Oh, and the bank is big enough that they can stuff it full of people or human level creatures from whatever nation comes. What the Europeans call the Ogre Magi, perhaps some sort of eastern dragon who can turn into a human form - those are common in their mythos. There’s also a pile of divine human-like creatures they just… have. Mild magic could be used to cover the inhuman bits.

That’s just the Chinese pantheon.

The Egyptians probably have descendants of their pharaohs who are not the main line and have animal-like abilities. Serquet, for example, goddess of poison, would have descendants with poisonous nails, amazing innate stealth abilities and so forth.

Then the monsters, of course.

And that’ll be after I have to deal  with this emergency in the Order I’m being called to. Which may see some assassins making a try at me, because I’ll almost certainly be in a public venue, and assassins love opportunistic, public, venues if they’re showy.

And the Chinese and Egyptians have many, many showy gods who like killing. I have to assume at least one minion they send will be similar.

Too bad they can’t know about my… recent advancements. The Goblins or these assassins.

The ambush may be well planned, but planning an ambush on me is, though they can’t know it, foolish. If I’m wrong, then a pleasant surprise. Only Goblins need die for the sure war they’ll be waging upon me when I go in.

I liked the sound of banking with the Dwarves more anyways. From the start it was my plan. The fact it’s going to happen a couple of years early -- well.

You can’t stop family and political emergencies, I guess.

.*****.

“Voldemort will make his move tonight.” Dumbeldore says in a very calm voice. I blink slowly at the declaration, though he had said it plain, it was certainly a declaration.

I can tell by the gasps of shock filling the Order meeting.

“Plan?” I ask coolly. I, along with Tonks, of whom I have no ideas for how she got out of Hogwarts and here on time, ahead of me even, and Moody didn’t gasp either.

Shacklebolt wouldn’t have, but he isn’t here.

“We’ll be going to the Department of Mysteries, and fighting him. The plan is very simple, really.” Dumbledore says calmly. I blink at the directness of the statement. While I suppose he doesn’t have time to dawdle, he’s usually not so curt, even so. By the time I finish my blink, he’s going on, though. “I got confirmation of the plan from our spy, and noted that all of the guards for the atrium and the department halls are noted Death Eater Sympathizers.”

This just makes sense. Voldemort is known - in the last war - to have put more holes in the Ministry than Swiss Cheese. With me, and most of the room who isn’t in shock, nodding along, Dumbledore goes on.

“They’ll probably just be at home, and our foe will be walking into the heart of the Ministry to take what they’ve been so ardently attempting to attain all this time. With the Azkaban breakout, and the former Unspeakables he has from there, it is likely apparent that only he and Harry can get what he wants -” A prophecy, I know, though I don’t know if the others do. I think that some of the more learned and skilled do, and some others might have an inkling, but the rest will be clueless

“- and he cannot force Harry to get it for him. He has no way to direct Harry to go get it for him, nor any method with which he can be sure to check Harry did, in fact collect what he seeks. Therefore, I suspect there will be three phases to his invasion. First, will be his elite team, who will infiltrate and scan for any hostile presences and put them down if they can. Voldemort will go in the second phase, and collect his prize, and then the third phase will follow if needed - the second half of his elites to pincer any force who discover and engage him.” A basic, sound strategy, though I prefer the layered entry pattern. Five groups in, four decoys and the real entry, then five following forces and then five reserve and five healers. If this is a battle of just the best, though, then smaller forces for entry - in and out - are best.

“Of course, if the vanguard of his force runs into extreme opposition, he may just fully commit, and bring down his hammer. My hope is that we can ambush the vanguard and keep them from the fight deep in the department, and then fight the second wave closer to the entrance to keep them separate.” He gives me a knowing look. I shake my head.

I will not hold back, nor will I spare anyone who will not spare me or my allies. His eyes grow very tired, but he dips his head a fraction, and turns back to the meeting.

“I would prefer we all use nonlethal measures in this fight. However, I know that for some of you, this may not be a viable option due to the likely intensity of the fighting. I will not tell you to stun them and forget, due to the likelihood of a force of over twenty of his elites coming in on that first wave, and our own numbers which are perhaps only equal to his.” He explains, sounding tired, to mostly outraged throaty noises from most of the room.

Fact of the matter is, most of them do not know the lethal types of spells well enough to use them in open warfare like this. “The fact of it is, that aside from perhaps ten of us - nobody is really at the level of his best. So we need to keep them down. I will not sugar coat this, however I will try to ensure as many of us are in place and safe as we can be. The strongest of us will lead, and have a couple of our best with them to make sure we take as few losses as possible. I will repeat, however, that you try not to kill them if you can. War will see death, but I’d prefer to come out of this looking like real heroes, not like we’re vigilantes who may be as much of a threat as the Death Eaters.” he tells the room, and I roll my eyes. Everyone - except for Moody and Tonks, who I’ve discussed in detail, the theory of war and how it works - is nodding.

The Government will see everyone who isn’t them in the war as a vigilante or outright terrorist group. That's a fact. Worse because half of the Government is Voldemort’s and we’ll probably be getting slapped with the label by and in large irrespective of what we do.

“I’ll be taking the blame for anyone who dies on their side.” Moody growls, and everyone looks surprised. He chortles. “They know I don’t kill unless I have no other choice, and they know I’m good enough to live in a fight like this will be, so they’ll believe that I didn’t have a choice and not punish me, and the rest of you get to keep your nice, shiny reputations.” He explains, and I give him a shallow nod of the head.

Rule Six of War. Control chaos. Rule Seven, minimize losses. When you have to do something no one on your side likes, you blame it on someone people on your side like too much, but who is viewed as an unstable element. They won’t punish that person beyond a slap on the wrist, the enemy will focus on that person in the future, and you can probably exploit the enemy who only sees ‘one dangerous enemy’ on the field. If you can keep that illusion up, then it’ll only get better and better and better with time.

Until the person is overwhelmed by the enemy fire and dies. Or you can’t keep up with the enemy fire as his support and he dies.

Moody knows what he’s signing up for, though.

It helps a lot of people on the other side already know Moody, hate Moody, and will try to kill Moody above all others.

Makes it more believable he had to kill them, first, or killed them by accident.

Dodging into a cutter is a very ugly way to die. Usually a cutting curse to the leg or torso won’t kill - it’ll make the person unable to walk or move for a few hours with healing - or months without - but it won’t kill.

Unless you hit an artery on ‘accident’ or they ‘try to duck’ and it hits their head or neck, or they dodge into one of their allies killing curses.

I am mildly annoyed that I have to use children's spells here, to avoid people knowing who I am. Everyone knows Aubrey is good at elemental magic. No one knows that Lady Ravenclaw, secret member of the Order, is good with elemental magic. Just defence magic, and stealth and tracking. So I can only use spells which are advanced in those areas.

Thankfully, no one knows Aubrey is very good with throwing knives, and I am very, very good with knives of all kinds.

Stealth spells and knives go very well together. I may be able to pick a few off the rear with ‘cutting curses’ or ‘piercing spells’ in unfortunate places before the fight properly breaks out.

I’ll need to bring down as many as I can - because while the average Order member is around level 50, and the elites are around level 80 or 90, I can’t help but think the absolute best of Voldemort's minions are in the high 90’s, level wise.

Only Moody, myself and Dumbledore can match them, and there’s doubtlessly at least five on that level.

Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, Augustus Rookwood, Corbin Yaxley and Antonin Dolohov are the ones I’ve pegged as most dangerous, and they are all equal to - or stronger than - Alastor I think. I don’t have a full dossier of his inner circle and other elite members though. I really need to get such a roster. Sirius might be able to keep up with one of them, but it would have to be one of them who isn’t known for fighting so much as other things, like Corbin.

Voldemort will never send Corbin in on a vanguard sweep, though. Observing him in passing tells me that much, and I’ve had the chance to do so a few times. He has three titles which proclaim his skill with manipulations, mental magics and stealth. He has perks which give him boosts to those things. He’s the guy you send into a fight as it’s going to grab a handful of powerful enemies with mind control and send them at your enemies.

Disorder and chaos, a strategic piece, not an opening move.

This isn’t to say some of the people in the room couldn't just hold one of the elites for a while as Dumbledore and I whittle through their best - I’m just not willing to bet on that. The enemy needs to land one spell and we lose. We may need to land as many as seven, depending on who it is and what person is fighting them.

Because most of these people are too cowardly to kill, or too weak willed.

“Fudge will be sacked because of this.” I point out, finishing the calculations in my head. “The Wizengamot will enact wartime measures.” I declare, and thinking about it, that makes sense. Voldemort grew to be a Europe-wide threat last time, and doubtless if he’s making his move now, he’s at the same point, or better. Perhaps he extended his reach to North Africa, or my enemies are giving him covert support.

My enemies adding their strength to his would be wise of them. Though I don’t think it’s happening yet. Still. I should be prepared for the outcome. “With the official declaration of Wartime, by the laws the oldest houses - Ancient and Noble and Druidic - can change the Minister, lock out the temporary seats and then lock down everything about the government. We control the votes for the Wizengamot right now - though not for long, I think. Voldemort coming into the open will see a lot of our political power meeting unfortunate accidents or going into hiding, I think.” A painful truth, that..” We’ll want to enact the wartime measures, jam our changes though and then cut the wartime control so that when our side starts dying, hiding or otherwise becomes unable to vote… well. The other side will gain control. They if we do it fast enough, then they won’t be able to use our trick against us.” I quietly explain, and the whole table makes me look like I’m insane.

“What’s to stop them from just reopening the wartime declaration? Those do last until the stated goal of the war is completed, after all. You’re implying they can’t add or change things once we make the declaration” Arthur asks, and I give him a positively evil grin -- which he can’t see.

“The charter that law is based on is older than your house. It has a provision. The short version is that if anyone bearing the mark or taint declared to be an enemy of the state tries to tamper with it, they will die. It’s an enchantment. You have to be wanting to improve on what the person before you did. You cannot be, in any way, related to or have used the magic or markers which are outlined as an enemy by the declaration. If we made it so Unforgivable curses and the Dark Mark are the marks of the enemy, anyone who uses those things and tries to change it will die.” I explain calmly, holding in my evil chuckle.

The wartime procedures are something the first Druidic council made when Rome was invading. The first wartime declaration was made so that if any born outside of, or owing loyalty to those not born of the Motherland tried to change it, they would die. The ‘enemy will die’ part is the only part which has been in every contract since, and is just part of the spell.

Ancient Wizards did not like the idea of the enemy messing with them. I think I should add the provision that anyone who has loyalty to the enemy should die if they try to change it, too. The reasoning for that is the Unforgivables. Imperio is a really vile thing. It’s something to discuss with my group, and Dumbledore his. We need to make sure none of our side die when this is declared.

Either way, I continue. “Every hand in the majority who wants to enact the wartime decree literally has to put their life on the line to enact it, and if they’re trying to act against the best interests of the nation, then they cannot. But it is not taken out and put into action until the vote is passed to make it so. We cannot declare war until there is a war to be had, and Voldemort in the open is a war. We can call it a revolutionary war, or a war on necromancy in the nation, or anything, as long as it is a real threat which is laid out in the document on war as a legitimate threat. It’s convoluted, old and strange magic. Expect it to do things people won’t like.”

It’s Tonks who clears her throat, and asks confusedly, “Why wasn’t this used in the last war - or in most any war we’ve had? This sounds incredibly useful.”

“For the last War with Voldemort, and the one with Grindelwald, it was the same answer.” Dumbledore replies faster than I can. “There were no Druidic heads of house who could enact the vote. They were all on the other side or were entirely neutral or just lacked the power to cast the spell. For reference, most of you can cast maybe one-hundred concurrent Lumos spells and keep them active to light something - let’s say a large cave - for about ten minutes, up to thirty for the strongest of you.” Dumbledore pauses to let this sink in so people can understand, and I let my mind do the maths with them while I recall the Observations I made on most of them.

Lumos is the measurement spell for mana totals, basically. 1 second of Lumos is 1 point of mana. He’s saying they go between sixty thousand and one hundred and eighty thousand mana points. That's pretty accurate from what I can see. Most don’t have a ton of mana.

Moody, for example, is close to the top of the mana charts outside of myself and Dumbledore. Tonks is close to him. They still have less than a fifth of Dumbledore's mana, though. Think about that. Frankly, the fact that most people who are considered to have monstrously large magical reserves - top 1% - aren’t even a fifth of what the real monsters have, well.

It’s just not good enough for me to take them seriously.

I get that I have a host of unfair advantages here, but the dismal mana pools my allies have isn’t really something I’m comfortable with when we’re faced with people who were trained for very large mana pools.

Aside from those two, of all the people here, Sirius is the only person here who does not fit in Dumbledore’s announcement. He was trained for and has the largest mana pools aside from Dumbledore and myself.

He has one-third of the mana of Dumbledore. Which is good. Prodigy basically is a 2x multiplier if I had to guess. So he’s only, in reality, a small way behind Dumbledore in things which give mana as of his mana pool finalizing. Which would be great if he wasn’t crippled from Azkaban. He’d be the strongest Order member if he never went. Not third - if you don’t count me and Dumbledore.

The mana pool issue, though, is something I’m working on. I think I have a novel idea which might work, based on the mental perception of mana pools. They’re like lakes, which refill from streams. So, why not make a ritual to basically give people a sort of second mana pool which is like a reservoir next to their first. When the first is full, you open the floodgates and let it fill the reservoir and then close it when they are equal, and then back and forth until they’re both full. The Reservoir will be, by necessity, no larger than your basic mana pool, but it would be a boost.

The concept is proving hard to realize in truth. Mostly because I either have to pick set values - 50,000, 100,000, etc, and make rituals for those values, which get harder when you get to higher numbers, mind you, or I have to set it to duplicate the original mana pool, as long as it is below a threshold of so much mana.

The reason for that being some people - like myself, Dumbledore and Sirius, have too much mana already and have to use rituals or similar to not explode. Doubling it will make us explode.

Not me, but I don’t want to have to spend an extra decade refining only this ritual so it will work for me. My mana pool is too large for it to be anything easy. Or really worth the time investment.

It’s not worth using my relic for, either. Even if it would double my capacity. I could use the time of the orb to increase my skills in a lot of things to an insane degree. I plan to use it when I have a period of time where it’ll be best to activate the artefact and loop the useful period over and over.

Probably in another country, since I’ve been scouring this one clean of anything dangerous, and honestly, England is kinda on the outskirts of the ‘monsters of great power’ region. Greece or the middle east or large portions of Africa, America, Latin America and even Asia will work better for hunting piles of powerful magical monsters.

England is too small with too many people all over to have much magical monsters. Even Japan has more wildlands, though that’s mostly because the magical population secured them in secret folds of space before the 1800’s, and they did it because they really didn’t want the people doing trade in their few open ports to even hear of their magical community. Mundane trade was fine, but Magical trade didn’t open up for a good while.

Until after World War 2, in fact.

Though that’s a subject for another time, because there were successful spies, thefts and other methods of hijacking information from the Japanese magical community. That’s a very long story.

The ritual though. My original train of thought, yes. It’s almost impossible, of course, but it’s a good thing to look into. Basing the system off of Tonks - and scaling down a bit for it to be accessible and not insanely complex is not a bad idea. I want this to be for highly skilled, elite members of our team. Not just anyone.

500,000 mana per ritual is still a bit hard. I frown in concentration, doing the adjustments in my head, when Dumbledore breaks the pause, and my concentration.

“That’s me being generous. You’d need to be able to do that same thing for about a day to be able to make the declaration of war. It was meant to be done by the whole council, but if one person can make the magic and declare the war and get a majority to sign, then it will pass. One of the Druidic councils must make the declaration. We only had one ally in the council, and they could not.” He explains.

That would probably be the house of Bones. They’re great defenders, but not amazing in the mana department. A shame. But on that note, giving the Bones house a leg up on mana pool size will be useful, because the only reason they die is bad luck in the chaos of mass combat, supremely overwhelming numbers, or being killed directly by a Dark Lord who has follower support. And they only die then when they run out of mana. The last Bones to be killed in single combat literally took twenty minutes to die, and the field had been so torn and transfigured in the end, no one had known it’d been a thicket of wood before.

It looked like someone had carpet bombed a field.

Either way, the Bones don’t have the mana. All other Druidic houses stayed out of the last two wars, except the Gore family who side with the Dark side in secret basically every war.

No allies for the Bones, so no pooling of mana. We control, by my understanding, about five houses right now, and only one of them is even needed. Mine. I - as house head can cast the spell by myself. Twice if need be.

I break out of my thoughts, noticing the others look confused as to how and why things changed. They seem hopeful.

Hopefully Dumbledore didn’t spill too many beans. I was busy thinking again, when I should be paying attention.

I guess they don’t really keep up with the politics of the day, by the clamor which rises up.

I snort in derision, which silences the table and I give Dumbledore a nod. “I follow the plan. It’s good. Now, what else are we doing?” I ask, and the meeting continues, going into who will ambush and who will be our follow up force for sandwiching the Death Eaters.

I grin maliciously. As anticipated - I am the one in command of the ambush force, and Dumbledore is in charge of the secondary force. Shacklebolt, who will rouse the Ministry and Aurors and Minister, will bring them in behind as the final pincer.

.*****.

“The fact of the matter is, Harry needs to get into the battle, though I will try to put him in a smaller portion of the fight with the weakest enemies available.” Dumbledore tells me as I suit myself in a full-black suit, which has enchantments to hide everything about me. Except height, it compresses my curves, voice and even my breasts into androgynous flatness. On top of that I put on a set of combat robes which Dumbledore had procured for me, which are top of the line.

Aside from the fact that they’re good for deflecting minor to moderate combat spells, and they passively fix themselves to fit me, they’re nothing special. They’re designed to be generic, but show wealth. Show that I’m a big player, but don’t want to be known.

The only suspicious part of the getup is the mask which covers my nose down, and the fact the suit comes with a hat, which I curl my braided hair into.

Can’t cut that until my birthday, though the extra knot has been added, so anyone who knows me will know my age if they use their brain.

I sigh into the mask, which feels like it’s not there, and cast one of the more complex personal illusions I know, and then use a second illusion to hide it from being detected. This should, in theory, make me look like a very generic, androgynous person of about 30 years of age. I suspect most will take me to be a man, because most combatants are men.

“You need to build his fame and notoriety for when you die, so he can take over as the leader of the Light, and he needs to be seen to be in major turning points so you can laud him with accolades to make the transition easier. I understand, but you’re spending your silver bullet here. No one really knows how good he is, aside from you. I have an idea, but…” I sigh. Harry isn’t ready. He's still a child.

“I know he’s still a child, but Voldemort is back, the Prophecy is in motion, and I am going to die. We have no options left. He is closer to manhood than he might have been, if we didn’t set up the exact situations we did, and had a lot of luck. Harry knows it’s time to go, and as unexcited as he is over the prospect…” Dumbledore trails, and I nod, resignedly.

It just reminds me of my last life too much. Child soldier fighting the world. It’s so easy to go bad when you feel every hand turning against you. And he will. Soon.

After this, our political allies will start to die. Dumbledore will die in around a year at most, and then the deaths on our side will speed up. This is one of the last real battles before Dumbledore becomes too weak to continue running the show. At least in the open.

His level has already dropped to 150 total, and it’s been starting to decrease faster.

He’s weakening, steadily weakening.

“Can he be ready in time? You have been doing the rituals with him. You have been making him stronger. I don’t know if it's enough.” I comment. He’s level 115 right now, which isn’t far behind me. Being famous, and having the rumor's of his frankly insane exploits get around has helped him a fair bit. Whatever Dumbledore, Sirius and Remus have him doing over the summers must be helping. I wouldn't be surprised to hear dragon hunting sighted as the task in question, with the gains I've been seeing, honestly.

Even without that, his public achivements are very impressive. Taking down, in order, Voldemort, an adult posessed by Voldemort, A basilisk and Horcrux, then another Horcrux. That of course leading to him becoming the Personal Disciple of Dumbledore, which helps explain how he managed to escape from Voldemort, and ultimately become the Winner of Triwizard. What he's done is much more widely known that what I have - though what I've done is more in quantity than him, and the people who matter know I've done them, they're mostly secret. 

As, I suspect, whatever he really does over the summer breaks is secret. 

Whatever it is, Dumbledore had him go the route of the ‘Angelic’ magic. Where I have a devil who works with me, he has an angel.

Probably wiser than the Devils, but less overall power, as I see it.

“He must be ready, whether we can make him ready or not. You may be functionally the most powerful person on the side of the light right now, but he will surpass you in another year, I think.” Dumbledore says lightly.

In open combat, sure. That was never my way, though. I’m an assassin before I’m a duelist before I’m a battlemage. Harry is the exact opposite order. If I need to kill Harry, it’d be easier to do while he’s in a relatively unsecure area in one stroke with decapitation. Or an arrow.

Using actual magic on him - or anyone at our level - is a great way to get countered and killed. Speaking of.

“What are you doing to make him less vulnerable to things like guns, swords, knives and arrows? Not all of his future enemies may be so short sighted as Voldemort. There are some rituals he can use, or spells, but they will hamper him in other ways.” I comment, finishing my disguise with a staff, like Alastor uses.

“Well, I was considering teaching him the Iron Body Transfiguration.” Dumbledore says.

A Master’s transmutation, which gives your whole body the toughness of iron, but retains all flexibility of flesh. It just makes you heavier, and drains mana like a punctured balloon bleeds water.

Harry can probably keep that up for ten or so minutes, with no other spell-casts. I can hardly do an hour. As it goes on, it takes more mana to maintain. The curve is linear, but it feels exponential because the curve is steep.

I wear actual armour for a reason other than it being enchantable.

“Why not give him bracers of defence, dragon-hide under-armor and two rings, one which covers his face in a basic shield to block metals and wood, and another for the hands? That’d be the best way to protect him from projectiles or weapons. I think.” I grouse. He smiles.

“Well, you take things like that off to shower. The spell can be put on whenever you need it. The others are good ideas for general use, though.” He agrees, and I see him making mental notes to get such for Harry.

One size too big, with sizing enchantments so they shrink down to - and then grow with - him.

“His lordship ring should cover the conventional weapons for the most part.” I comment. “I’m just concerned about a lot of conventional weapons. Even a lordship ring can be overcome.” I conclude, and he nods.

“You wear five, and still wear armour under all of that. I thought you may be overcautious, but guns - well. I hadn’t considered it, but if he goes to the Americas, there’s a good chance of some dark wizard having a gun, and shooting him with enchanted shots to break shields. It’s a good point. It would be a shame for him to die before his time.” Dumbledore agrees.

I nod happily, then tap my staff on the ground twice.

“Ready to go, old man? How is Harry getting to the fight anyways?”

“I am ready, and I’m fairly sure he’s coming by Thestral. A personal recommendation I made to him.”

“Well, lets hope none of his friends forced themselves along with him, for once.” I grouse, and then extend my arm.

He takes it, and we apparate to the Orders staging ground for the evening.

The Private room in the Leaky Cauldron, which was set for a ‘birthday party’ of fifty people, is huge.

Technically, it is Hestia Jones’ birthday, so it works out, though this is a grim way for Tonks’ friend to spend it. Poor lady will probably move the celebration date in future years, if she survives the night.

As the last to arrive, Dumbledore and I go around shaking hands, gathering our teams, and then waiting while celebrating the birthday, harrying the barman for drinks - nonalcoholic of course - and trying to enjoy ourselves.

The operation will begin any minute, after all.

We all know it.

.*****.

The battle begins with no preamble. There are three separate groups in the vanguard. The Lestrange twins lead one, Fenrir leads another and Dolohov leads the third. From a minute of observation it becomes clear they’re using some kind of magic to stay in contact with the team leader who is evidently Malfoy. At least, by what they’re saying.

My first fight is with my group of ten and the Lestrange’s lot. They have a lot of French wizards with them - all of them are level ninety or more. No one in my group of ten is more than level eighty. So I decide to quickly and effectively ambush the twins, and try to remove them from the board.

My opening strike, impressively, fails.

The arrows I fire bounce off of a spell barrier, which I think is sort of like the Iron Body transformation, but can’t be sure. I’ve not seen the spell before, and with the number of spells on them I’d not seen the barrier resting within the enchantment of their robes.

Either way, battle is quickly joined.

The French Wizards open with a salvo of curses which are designed to explode in necrotic blasts, similar to the standard combat spell, but much more deadly. Being caught in the direct blast will be certain death. This is probably to flush out where hidden people are so they can guarantee their death with the Killing Curse.

My side raises shields - which manage to block the opener, and then open a corridor straight down the hall where this began, so that by the time the smog of necrotic energies is clearing, the hall looks very empty.

Of course I am not idle during this period. As I realize there’s a barrier, I changed my position with a quick roll into a shadowy corner to get on their flank, and then chained out my three spell combo designed to break a shield, disable the enemy and then make sure they can’t wake up for a long time.

This works - on two of them. I break the shields on all of my adversaries, and my Severing charm cuts off a good few hands, arms and in one case, splits a skull. This disarms six of them, effectively.

My follow-up spell, to knock them out with severe concussions, works on everyone but the Lestrange twins - who did not lose hands due to being slightly behind and raising a new shield, and the two at the far end who managed to duck out of the way.

So I wave my wand down and raise my own shield, making it opaque with the follow-up wall of stone I put on the outside of it, and just in time, as the wall explodes in shards - which bounce off my shield.

I banish those back with an addition making the stones light on fire. They’ll keep burning until they melt into lava, and will stick to shields and force combat for who can hold the spell longer.

I came upon the idea when I was considering how to remake a spell known as Minute Meteors in my last life, and decided this was the most effective way to do it.

So, I’ve knocked out all but Rodolphus, at this point. I lazily transitioned from multi-combat to putting down one force. I block the killing curse he fires with a rock, and then throw a shield breaker, acidic snake conjuration, another shield breaker and a severing curse at him. The first three end the fight, and the last I repeat a few times to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere. As I walk past the snake, I whisper “Kill them if this is not done in ten minutes, or if they wake or there seems to be any sign of their escape…” and then I dump more mana in as I walk down the hall to join the second fight - which is going much better for us.

Group number 2 thought they were going to flank us, when it was just me and a few others fighting. Now we flank them, instead, and they all go down.

Still, I conjure a few more snakes to watch over my enemies, just in case.

.*****.

I can tell something isn’t right, when after the second group - who were all foreigners and Greyback, with Greyback running when the ambush started by all reports, well. I tap my chin and then nod. “We need to go to the central chamber and guard the exit to the Department.” I explain, leading them from the administrative section we’re in. Quickly, we find ourselves back at the entrance, and I carefully analyze the magic around, then I nod.

“You lot stay here and guard this place, so no one can get in or go out without proof of who they are. I’m going up to the Atrium, a few people have ran out of here awfully fast, and I need to make sure they aren’t enemies trying to escape.” And with that, I turn and jog down the hall far enough to be covered in darkness and then jump all the way to the atrium.

What I find is not what I was expecting.

Harry is standing off to one side, duelling Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort is duelling Dumbledore, and there is, at a glance, a deadlock. Unnoticed, I run Observe over them all quickly and draw an unfortunate conclusion.

Dumbledore is losing. Harry is winning though - which is the good news.

I decide, for once, to stop hiding, and open my full magical aura upon the room.

Magical auras are the sort of feeling people talk about when they’re in the room with powerful people. Dumbledore often feels grandfatherly, kind and happy. Voldemort feels like an abyss, dark and fathomless.

My aura, I know, feels very neat and organized. Dark, but nurturing and dangerous. Dumbledore has said it feels rather like the aura of a mother Dragon, or perhaps a Sphinx.

Of course, the strength of your aura depends on how much magic you have - and I have more than either man fighting in front of me. I focus it on Voldemort, but I can tell Harry and Bellatrix - and the dozen or so people who are hiding around the Atrium - are shocked by the weight of my aura.

It feels positively inhuman, after all.

I smile, though no one can see that and give a mocking bow to Voldemort.

“You went to far in your bid for power, now I have to deal with you, Lord Voldemort. A shame you never made a last name for yourself, for surely it couldn’t be Slytherin.” I taunt, flicking my left hand in an elaborate gesture and my wand in a similarly elaborate gesture, and  raise a stone Serpent under my feet, which carries me to the fight before fully splitting out of the ground, as I hop lightly off and float to the ground, and lunges at Voldemort. “You can’t claim that when I am the mistress of that house? You are not on the family tree, and no Gaunt has ever been on that tapestry, after the betrayal of the woman who married into that family. I may be the last Slytherin left.” I growl in parseltongue, slapping an elaborate withering curse to the side, and returning the nastier variation he put on the ring back at him. “But at least I can fight and die proudly knowing you are disowned and will never have any name.” I grin, then finish. “Mr. Voldemort No-Name. So I decree your name to be. By magic, let it be.” I say the last part in the oldest form I know - something I’d read in Salazar’s library. I’d said that in some pseudo Germanic language, which was one of the precursors to English, but I’m not sure which.

Either way, the effects are not only obvious to magically sensitive people, but they turn the fight from the even blocking of curses and returning them, to explosions or animals coming after you or massive walls or creatures of elements trying to bear down on you, to silence.

Voldemort’s body just collapses in on itself, and what has to be his spirit goes flying out of the building. Maybe he can corporealize himself in time, but it will be a week or so, at least. Clearly he was leaning on some form of magic which is magically stripped from non-family members to make the body he had. Since he couldn’t maintain the magic, with it being taken from him, the body broke.

Of course, getting a new one will be easy enough. It’ll just have to be a normal body, with more standard modifications.

I look over the room and smile with glee at what I realize.

With the exception of Greyback, I’m pretty sure we’ve captured every single death eater who came tonight. I press my senses around me to confirm, and nod.

Sixty four death eaters. Bellatrix Lestrange included. I saunter over as Fudge starts making some great commotion. I whisper in her ear “You are the last Lestrange, and poor Draco is going to be the head of his house. A shame. Truly a shame.” And with that, I saunter off to a shadow, and leave.

No point in staying when Fudge hadn’t been paying me any mind.

After all, I have a lot of notifications I need to sort through.