Disclaimer:
"Harry Potter" and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 174: Ambush
On the next day, the Potter family received some concerning news: James had been seriously injured during his mission in France and was currently in St. Mungo's.
They rushed to the hospital, and upon entering his room, the family found Alastor Moody standing next to his bed.
"Dad!"
"Daddy!"
"James!"
"Oh? Looks like your family is here to see you, James," Moody said, his magical eye scanning the crowd for any threats.
James, though visibly tired, managed a smile. "I'm sorry for making you all worry. I'm fine."
Harry observed him carefully. He seemed fine at first, but then he noticed his left leg was covered in bandages. It also appeared too thin for a normal leg, giving Harry an unpleasant feeling.
"Your leg…" he said. "It was hit by a very potent dark curse... but it's fading already," he noticed with relief.
"Ah... yes. That was nasty nasty curse..." James replied, not seeming inclined to elaborate on the details in front of his daughters.
"Don't worry, boy. Your father won't be needing one of these," Moody tapped his prosthetic leg. "The healers did manage to remove the curse. He'll be walking soon enough."
"James, is that true?" Lily stared at her husband with concern.
"I may need to use a cane for a while, but the healers said they will be able to regrow all the muscle and bones in less than a week, and then I'll need at least two or three more weeks to recover completely."
"That's a relief…" Lily turned to Moody. "What about you, Alastor? Were you hurt too?"
"Just a few scratches. I got lucky... can't say the same about my other men," Moody said somberly.
"You mean..." Lily didn't need to finish the question. Moody shook his head.
"Well, I'll leave you for now. You seem to be in good hands," Moody said.
"Oh, before I forget, Amelia contacted me. She will come by tomorrow to visit you."
"I understand. She is going to need my full report," James replied.
Moody bid farewell to the family and left the room.
"When can you leave the hospital?" asked Lyra.
"I think in about six or seven days."
"You don't have to return to work so soon, right?" Lily asked.
James shook his head. "I still need to speak with my boss. But they should let me free until my leg is completely recovered."
"Does it hurt?" Holly asked with concern.
"Not anymore, my love. They gave me a lot of medicine," James reassured her. His eyes met Harry's for a moment.
"Lily, can you take the girls out for a moment? I need to speak with Harry alone for a few minutes."
"Okay…" Lily didn't question it. She knew her husband wouldn't have asked for this if it weren't important. "Let's go, girls."
"Eh? But I wanna stay with Daddy!" Holly complained.
"I know, dear. But why don't we go buy something delicious to eat from the cafeteria and bring some to your Dad? Maybe some sweets too?" Lily suggested.
Holly was already at the door. "Let's go!"
Lyra looked back at Harry, suspicion filling her eyes, but she didn't say a word.
Harry noticed this. He knew his sister sensed that something was off with him. It made sense, after everything she had seen him do...
But for now, at least, she hadn't demanded any explanation, and he wondered how long that would last.
After the girls left, Harry closed the door and secured the room with a few charms.
"So... what happened there?" Harry asked.
James sighed. "As planned, we went to investigate the two Malfoy properties. The first one was completely empty, and I really mean empty... not even a piece of furniture was left."
"The Malfoys are probably hurting for money. It wouldn't be surprising if they sold everything that was non-essential to them," Harry remarked.
"Yes, that was our conclusion too," James admitted.
"And then? What happened at the second house?"
James took a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing. "That one was different. There were signs that someone had been living there until very recently. We did not find any traces of the Malfoys, even after using all sorts of tracking spells, making it clear that whoever had been living there... had not been the Malfoys."
"And then?"
"And then... an ambush. Five individuals... we don't know where they came from. We made sure the house was empty, even Moody scanned everything with his magical eye."
"They must have apparated in," Harry suggested.
"Apparition or a Floo entrance are the most likely scenarios. But that means we must have triggered some alarm that alerted them to our presence in the house. But still... even in that scenario, we should have had the advantage. Counting me and Moody, there were ten Aurors. Nine were veterans with many years of combat experience... we only managed to take down one of them while they killed eight of us and almost got me too. If it hadn't been for Moody's quick reaction…"
"They were that good?" Harry understood the Death Eater organization quite well. During its early years, that group was composed of Lords, Ladies, and their pureblood descendants. They were all from wealthy families and, as expected, they were not the best fighters. Few of them could have defeated a veteran Auror. Had it not been for Voldemort himself, they would not have gotten very far in their initial rebellion.
Of course, that changed during the Third War when demons came into play, but that was not applicable here.
"We underestimated them... I'll admit that much."
"Were they really Death Eaters?" Harry asked. "What did they look like? Did you manage to identify any of them?"
James shook his head. "They wore black tunics and pure white masks. All the masks looked exactly the same... a simple skull with some brand on the forehead. We were only able to kill one of them, but they took the body away."
"The description could fit the Death Eaters. But their masks were all different though. They liked to be unique in their own way," Harry commented.
"Yes, I noticed that too. These were different, and they were much stronger than the typical Death Eater," James said.
"Can you show me your memory of the event? Perhaps I can find something else," Harry requested.
"I was just going to ask you that," James grinned. He lay back on his bed and looked directly at Harry. "Go ahead, I have lowered my defenses."
His wand appeared in his hand. "Legilimency."
Harry's vision changed as he delved into his mind, and he found himself in a poorly lit living room.
He was seeing things from his father's perspective. Moody was just a few feet away, looking around incessantly.
Five more Aurors were in the room, rummaging through drawers and cabinets.
Another Auror entered the room to give a report, and that's when things went awry.
Moody yelled at the Auror next to the door to take cover, but it was too late. A flash of green light hit him on the side, and he fell down.
Five individuals with black cloaks entered and started attacking them.
The Aurors fired back while using the furniture as cover.
Spells flew all over the place, but Harry noticed that two of the masked individuals never cast any spells. They didn't even hold wands in their hands. Instead, they wielded knives.
The three who did use magic were extremely skilled. They didn't just use the Killing Curse and hope for the best...they combined it with many other support spells to disable their opponents and used the environment to their advantage.
They also served as cover for the knife-users.
When the Aurors hid behind the furniture and stopped shooting, the knife-wielding Death Eaters jumped into action. They moved at an impossible speed, leaving behind a shadowy residue.
They leaped through the air and climbed walls to avoid the Aurors' spells before attacking them with their knives.
One of Moody's curses hit one of the wand-wielding Death Eaters, killing them on the spot.
At this point, only Moody and James were left.
James faced off against one of the knife users and was stabbed in the leg during the struggle.
Harry paid attention to the weapon now that it was up close. The blade was completely black and had a clear baleful aura around it.
James managed to push the attacker away with a Depulso before being stabbed again. Moody grabbed him, and they escaped by breaking one of the windows and mounting onto Moody's broom.
Harry's vision returned to the present as he looked at his father. "That was close…"
James nodded solemnly. "Yes, very close. I don't want Lily or the girls to know how close it was."
"Did you know you were almost killed by a vampire with a cursed blade?" Harry asked.
James didn't seem surprised to hear this. "So it was a vampire... I didn't know for sure. I knew it wasn't a normal human. But Moody has more experience with them and told me…"
"Hmm… Uncle Remus mentioned some strange vampire activity last year…" Harry recalled hearing that but didn't think much of it at the time.
"Yes, we also received some reports of the sort over the past year or so. It seems like he had successfully recruited a few vampire clans into his ranks… Voldemort…" James looked genuinely worried now.
"You're going to have to be extra careful for now. We don't know what else he has or what he has been doing for the past ten years. It's obvious that he has not been idle… Voldemort has spent the last decade preparing for his return."
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