Chapter 41: Chapter 41: The Alarming Call to Action

    Harry couldn''t help but feel tense as Amelia''s magical bracelet rang, and her face told a story of distress. "It''s Susan. She had triggered her alarm. There''s something going on. I need to save her," she said rapidly, showing a lack of nerves unfitting for the head of Magical Britain''s law enforcement arm, though Harry didn''t blame her for it. It was her family, after all. There was a reason that muggle procedures on hostage situations didn''t allow people related to hostages to make decisions.

    She tried to dash toward the entrance, not even bothering to draw her wand yet, like she would kill attackers by her own hands. Just because he didn''t blame her for her didn''t mean that he would let her run in distraction and get killed. So, he had done something that would have convinced everyone else that he was crazy.

    He slapped Amelia.

    She turned to him, anger blazing, but it was better than the blind panic moments ago. "Damn it, you''re an ex-Auror, you should know that just running forward without a plan would only get Susan killed. We need to make a plan. First, can you tap into wards to detect people inside, or get their real-time location?"

    "Detection yes, real-time location, no," Amelia rapidly answered, cold professionalism appearing on her face after the momentary loss of composure. She waved her wand and closed her eyes for a second. "There''s only two Auror guards and Susan inside, no one else," she said. "Imperius," she gasped.

    "That, or traitors," Harry answered. "They probably have Susan under Imperius or unconscious, probably waiting for your arrival. Do you think they''ll ask for your surrender?"

    "No, even if I surrender, they will still kill us both. They would have a better plan."

    Harry frowned for a moment, his mind working lightning fast with the assistance of his occlumency. "Maybe they will take down the ward stone, leaving you exposed."

    "Makes sense, but even then two of them could never take me down," Amelia said.

    "What if they have reinforcements waiting on the wings, ready to pounce. A death eater team would change the odds, maybe even the Snakeface himself." Harry frowned. "How strong are the wards? Enough to keep them out?"

    "We can keep them enough until the reinforcements arrive," Amelia answered.

    Harry nodded, ready to move, then a sudden thought appeared in his mind. "How sure are you about reinforcements arriving?" Harry asked. Amelia turned to him, questioning. Harry clarified. "How sure are you that Dumbledore wouldn''t prefer you dead?" Harry didn''t ask that question lightly, but after the reveal of the prophecy, combined with the weirdly nonsensical actions of the Order itself, Harry started to doubt that Dumbledore had other aims. If his actions in other years were any indicator, probably a very complicated plan required a lot of things going correct.

    He didn''t think that he was a Dark Lord, or using the situation to elevate himself further, but Harry also noticed that Dumbledore''s pathologic avoidance of taking action that might result in death unless forced. From what he had seen, Amelia was very much the opposite. And from a distorted perspective, it could be argued that letting Amelia die would actually result in fewer deaths.

    Harry would have liked to say that it was nonsense, but Dumbledore was the guy who had the genius idea of hiding the World''s most precious object that bequeathed both immortality and unlimited riches in a school full of children, despite fully knowing that Voldie was after it. He even let Quirrel act with impunity despite it being obvious from his perspective that he was Voldemort''s contact -after all, unlike Harry, he had Snape as his agent rather than a distraction.

    Amelia finally answered after ten long seconds. "Not enough to bet Susan''s life," she answered, her expression steely. "We need to sneak and take them down."

    "No, they still don''t know you''re here, and they will not touch Susan to keep the element of surprise. You should return to Ministry to gather reinforcements, while I sneak and scout." Harry pulled his invisibility cloak. "Give me access to wards, and tell me where''s the wardstone."

    "Can you manage the wards?" Amelia asked, and Harry nodded. It was one of the things he had studied in detail in the Room of Requirements, expecting a similar outcome. Amelia didn''t look convinced, but she was rather short of options, so after a careful examination, she nodded.

    When he left the room, he activated the protections of the wardstone room. Due to their closeness to the wardstone, they couldn''t be tied to it, but it didn''t mean they couldn''t be externally powered. It wouldn''t last more than a couple of hours, but it was enough for the battle to conclude.

    With that resolved, Harry dashed to upstairs, casting several silent detection spells to find Susan. Though, not integrating a real-time location detector to the wards was simply stupid, Harry decided.

    After a brief search, Harry found two life signatures in the living room. And since the wards confirmed that other than himself, there were only two people in the room. Once again he silently appeared. This one proved himself smarter, as Harry felt himself passing through a rudimentary detection ward. Unluckily for him, Harry''s cloak had managed to conceal him from much stronger and much more complicated wards. So, once again, he was completely unprepared for Harry''s stunners.

    Susan was bound and helpless, but Harry still decided to use legimency to make sure she wasn''t being mind-controlled. Normally, it would have been difficult, but just a simple assessment of the last ten minutes revealed no such thing, which was the only time they could use Imperius. After making sure, he pulled the cloak off. "Harry!" Susan exclaimed happily, and when he dispelled the ropes that were keeping her tied, she raised her arms, preparing for a hug.

    "We don''t have time," Harry said. "We have ten minutes to prepare a defense," Harry said. "Where''s your wand?"

    Susan pointed at the figure lying unconscious.

    Harry moved to him and took Susan''s wand from his pocket before passing it to her. "Start transfiguring small animals, the more, the better, then pass their control to me," Harry said. It wasn''t a source of damage, but it would doubtlessly create a lot of chaos among the attackers. Normally a swarm of transfigured creatures was not the best strategy, but Harry trusted his mental abilities enough to handle it, especially if he utilized them in waves.

    He turned his attention back to the figure lying on the floor. Seeing that he had three small balls of marble to signal various things, he decided to play it safe and in addition to taking his wand, he also cast a petrification charm on him before waking him up. He managed to resist Harry''s mental assault for almost half a minute, making him several times more competent than the mercenary below. The reason, Harry learned moments later, discovering him to be a mid-level death eater who had committed countless crimes during the first war, but also had the hobby of kidnapping random muggles, and watch the news as muggles struggled to find his victim, only to fail year after year, enjoying their helplessness as much as he enjoyed torturing the target.

    Even then, Harry didn''t want to kill him, which felt like such a final option. However, he also remembered that it took less than a week for Voldemort to save the latest batch of Death Eaters captured in the ministry battle. "Susan, this is enough transfiguration, go hide in your room and activate the defenses," Harry ordered.

    "I can fight-" she tried to complain, but Harry cut her off.

    He could have tried to order her off, of course, but he knew her enough that she would probably try to sneak back to the fight. "I know. That''s why I want you at the rear guard. Your aunt will come with reinforcements, so we don''t need another frontline combatant. But I expect dementors to be a part of the assault. I want you to wait until the fight starts, then cast a Patronus preemptively. Having one ready to give the Aurors a few seconds until they can cast their own protection would work wonders." Also, just to make sure, he reinforced his explanation with a mental probe.

    "I won''t disappoint you," she said as she dashed out, leaving Harry alone in the living room. Harry used the opportunity to delve deeper into his target''s mind, learning the objective of the signals. Apparently, the blue orb was the all-clear signal, but only if it was destroyed by a unique variant of blasting spell. It took Harry two repeats to master it.

    He checked the time, and saw he still had several minutes. He started carving explosive runes on every piece of furniture, connecting them mentally. Combined with the transfigurations and the wards, it was starting to strain him rather badly, but he chose to play safe. He even carved several runes on the unconscious Death Eater, just in case the battle had turned badly.

    That took the rest of his time, and he blasted the stone that communicated all-clear signal, put the death eater on a couch like he was napping -ridiculous, but it might confuse the death eaters for a second, which would be helpful, before moving to the corner and wrapping himself with his invisibility cloak.

    He took a deep breath and lowered the wards for the living room. After going all the trouble of filling the room with traps, he didn''t want it to go to waste.

    Eight Death Eaters in full regalia apparated into the room, looking confused. Or more accurately, seven of them looked around confused while one of them suddenly took a step forward and cast a transfiguration spell, creating hundreds of needles and sending it across the room in a way that would cover the whole room, forcing Harry to shield himself, revealing his position.

    Harry felt the rage explode in his heart, not because he was discovered, but because as the Death Eater stepped forward, his cloak billowed very distinctively!