Godric's Hollow, Wales, 1/1/1992, 00:39
Amelia Bones arrived with three squadrons of aurors to find the village of Godric's Hollow completely destroyed.
Dead bodies littered the street as far as she could see and every other house was on fire as well as the pub and the large church towards the centre of town.
The Potter's memorial was in pieces all over the ground and the dark mark was flying high in the sky over the village.
"Williams, take your team and start searching for survivors. Shacklebolt I want you to put out these damn fires!" Amelia ordered as she took in the scale of the destruction before her.
Over the next hour, more and more survivors were pulled out of the ruins of destroyed homes and Amelia soon picked up a pattern.
Most of the dwellings looked like they had been hit by a wrecking ball and seemed to have collapsed downward before fires had started up around the village filling the air with smoke and the unmistakable smell of burning flesh.
The wizarding homes did not catch fire due to fire wards placed over the homes and most of the wizarding homes looked to have been knocked over with tremendous force.
The muggle dwellings had been knocked over too but they had no such fire protections and burst into flames with their occupants still trapped inside the wreckage. Amelia gave an involuntary shudder at the thought, being burnt alive had to rate up there with one of the worst ways to die in her opinion.
So far, all of the dead they had found were muggles. Out of a village that had over three hundred residents, less than forty of them were found alive and all of them were magical.
From what Amelia could tell, there wasn't a single muggle in Godric's Hollow anymore.
As her auror teams continued to pull people out of the wreckage of their homes, she assisted when she could but she mostly stayed back directing the teams and calling in more supportive teams from the ministry when necessary.
Mediwizards were starting to pour into the village to treat the wounded as many of the people they had rescued had broken bones and concussions from falling debris.
Amelia had personally overseen the team that rescued Bathilda Bagshot from the ruins of her home and was flabbergasted that the frail old woman had survived the second floor of her home collapsing on top of her.
From what the aged historian had told her, over a dozen giants had charged through the village levelling every dwelling in their path with clubs the size of tree trunks
Amelia was convinced that a team of death eaters followed behind the giants and slaughtered every muggle they saw but she had no way to prove this as no one witnessed anything.
Amelia had just sent a patronus to the ministry asking for a team from magical accidents and catastrophes to come process the scene. She was about to join the team heading to the Abbott family home to begin searching for survivors when a call came through on her badge. Amelia paled when she read the message.
'Giant attack, Mould-on-the-Wold'
"Fucking hell, there has been another attack! Shack, you're in charge here I have to go see how bad it is!" Amelia exclaimed in frustration.
"We'll be alright here, Bones," Kingsley assured her as his team began levitating large sections of the Abbott roof off to the side of the collapsed home.
As much as she wanted to make sure that Katrina and her family were okay, she knew she had to go to the site of the other attack.
With one last worried look at the rubble of the Abbotts' home, Amelia turned on the spot, disappearing with a loud 'crack'.
Mould-on-the-wold, England, 1/1/1992, 00:47
Amelia experienced a feeling of deja vu as the village she appeared in looked just like the one she had just left.
Mould-on-the-Wold was completely destroyed, there were dozens of bodies lying on the streets covered in white sheets, rubble was strewn everywhere looking like a tornado had come through the village, and the air was thick with smoke filling the air with the scent of burning wood and bodies, making Amelia want to retch. Homes and muggle automobiles were still ablaze casting the village in hazy orange light and even as she stood there taking in the carnage, one of the vehicles violently exploded throwing jagged bits of metal through the air.
Auror teams were already spreading out through the village sifting through the rubble as they searched for survivors, levitating big chunks of debris out of their way as they went.
Seeing Mad-Eye, Amelia made her way over to him as he was bellowing orders to the people under his command.
"Bones, how bad was Godric's Hollow?" Moody asked as soon as he spotted her.
"It looks like here but a few less fires. Some witnesses reported giants tearing through the village swinging their clubs," Amelia admitted, having to nearly shout to be heard over the roar auror of the fires, the sounds of rubble being moved around, and the shouting of aurors as they called into the rubble hoping to hear someone trapped in their home calling back.
"We have a few witnesses who reported seeing Voldemort directing a handful of giants through here as well," Moody said gruffly as he watched an auror team begin searching through the debris of the Farley home.
"How many survivors so far?" Amelia asked warily.
"Fourteen and all of them magicals so far. All of the bodies we've found are muggles, it looks like they were slaughtered," Moody answered as he watched a pair of rookie aurors stretchering an elderly woman out of the rubble of her home.
"Same in Godric's Hollow, the magicals were left be well for the most part. The attackers seemed to be targeting the muggles," Amelia sighed as she heard a loud crash and turn to see a whole auror team had levitated the roof off of a collapsed hope and dropped it on the nearby street.
"I've sent teams out looking for the giants but I doubt they'll find anything," Moody admitted.
"I sent a search team but my teams didn't have any luck tracking them, Shack thinks they were portkeyed out," Amelia sighed as more ministry officials began appearing in groups of two and threes.
"Aye, that's what I'm betting on," Moody agreed as they heard shouting from the Farley home before the aurors converged on one spot and began shifting debris with their hands before they pulled a small girl out of the wreckage.
"I need to get back to the ministry and catch Rufus up," Amelia said as a woman was pulled out of the collapsed building across the street from them.
"Alright, tell Rufus to send the disposal of magical creatures teams our way, if we're lucky they may be able to pick up the trail on the giants though I highly doubt it," Moody said absentmindedly before he began barking orders to the new arrivals.
"Will do," Amelia nodded as she turned on the spot, preparing to give her boss some very bad news.
'Hell of a way to start the new year," Amelia thought to herself as she turned on the spot, disappearing with a soft 'pop'.
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, London, 1/1/1992, 15:29
Sirius was sitting at the dining room table in his family home as order members continued to file into the room. He had tried to contact Harry to let him know about the meeting but Harry didn't answer the floo and the beach house was empty when Sirius stopped by, even those horrible snakes were gone.
It looked like they had gone on a trip, though Sirius was confused as he had seen them on Boxing day and Harry never mentioned any plans of travelling.
Sirius like many of the order members sitting at the table were covered in soot and dust. He had spent most of the morning assisting in the rescue effort. Godric's Hollow had looked like a wasteland when he arrived and it saddened him to see the quaint little village in such a state
Sirius was pulled from his thoughts as Albus Dumbledore entered the kitchen looking very grave, causing the room to instantly fall silent.
"As you all have no doubt heard, there were two attacks large-scale last night and the muggle death toll was staggering," Dumbledore sighed as he took a seat at the head of the table.
"It was a fucking slaughter, Albus!" Moody growled.
"How bad was Godric's Hollow Kingsley?" Albus asked, giving the auror his full attention.
"Two hundred and sixty-three dead and fifty-four injured, we pulled quite a few wizarding families out of the rubble of their homes," Kingsley said.
"Is Lord Abbott okay?" Frank Longbotton asked warily.
"Yes, he and his family were trapped in their home but we managed to get them out alright," Kingsley admitted.
"They're at our house now, I think they'll be staying with us until Lord Abbott can rebuild their place," Sirius cut in.
Katrina Abbott was a very close friend of Amelia's, they were best friends in Hogwarts and were still very close even after all these years. Amy had brought them Abbotts over this morning and had settled them into the guest rooms by the time Sirius returned from Godric's Hollow.
"Do we know the motive behind these attacks?" Arthur Weasley asked, pulling Sirius from his musings.
"Severus?" Dumbledore asked as he glanced over at his potions master.
"The dark lord wishes to reclaim villages that have a large magical population who are forced to live amongst muggles. The attacks were meant to purge these places of any muggle influence for the betterment of wizards. I believe he wishes for there to be more places like Hogsmeade," Snape answered from his place on Dumbledpre's right.
"So we can expect more attacks like this?" Elphias Doge asked warily.
"Undoubtedly, which is why we're meeting tonight. I want to post lookouts at Tinsworth, Upper Flagley, and Ottery St Catchpole starting this evening," Dumbledore said getting nods of agreement around the table.
"That's all well and good but it's no easy feat to take down a single giant much less than numbers the. hit Godric's Hollow last night," Sirius pointed out.
"I would prefer if you do not try and engage them, just send word to the ministry so they can send in the magical creatures' unit," Dumbledore answered.
"Voldemort was part of the attack at Mould-on-the-Wold," Moody warned.
"If anyone spots Voldemort send word to me immediately," Dumbledore said, sounding very serious.
"Are you sure you want to tangle with him? You're not a young man anymore Albus," Minerva asked, sounding very concerned for her old friend.
"I am not being immodest when I say that I am one of the few people that can face him as an equal," Dumbledore sighed.
"It would be nice to have Peverell to help us deal with the giants," Frank Longbottom cut in.
"I'm afraid there was an emergency at the horned-serpent reserve in Arizona, he will be out of the country for quite some time," Dumbledore said with a sad shake of his head.
"That would explain why he and my cousin weren't home when I went by," Sirius muttered.
"There was an attack at the reserve and from what Newt intimated, someone placed a very dark curse on the lake and nearly killed a centuries-old serpent for her gem," Dumbledore said, looking very troubled.
"Harry will be on the warpath, he takes his job very seriously," Sirius said feeling a bit excited at what Harry would do in retaliation to this attack.
"We believe Voldemort was behind that attack as well. Because of that particular attack, all of the major creature specialists in Europe are at the reserve trying to sort the mess out," Dumbledore admitted.
After this, the meeting broke up with members being assigned different nights to watch the three villages that Dumbledore felt were most at risk of being attacked.
Sirius had volunteered the evening watch as it would get him out of the house for a bit. Susie and Hannah Abbott were very close friends but they bickered constantly and if Sirius was being honest, their little high-pitched voices gave him a headache.
That was on top of Harry and Edgar who were both quite rambunctious and were even worse around the two girls.
No, a few peaceful nights at the pub in Tinsworth was just what the healer ordered as far as Sirius was concerned.
Now if I can just find a way to explain to Amy why I'm going to the pub,' Sirius thought to himself as he walked over to the kitchen fireplace and prepared to floo home for the evening.
Lake Serpentine, 1/3/1992, 11:39
Harry swam over Adsila as he inspected the wounds on her face. He was very pleased to note that the scarring had reduced much more than he thought it would. The white scars were barely noticeable unless he looked for them and he believed they may just disappear when she shed her skin.
The gem was slowly growing and was about the size of a cherry now. He was helping her along by donating some of his magic to her every day but it was still slow going to regrow her gem.
The curse breakers were still working around the lake trying to locate the main anchor stone for the curse.
Sanjay and the MACUSA creatures teams had successfully removed the other eleven horned serpents from the lake and a special team of curse-breakers had performed a cleansing ritual on them, purging the corruption from the serpents.
Currently, all of the horned serpents on the reserve were in individual tanks like Adsila's set up in the desert around the office of the warden. Large canopies had been set up over each of the tanks to prevent the snakes from getting sunburnt and the water was at a constant temperature of sixty-nine degrees.
The area around the warden's office looked like a combination of an aquarium and a circus and there was a steady stream of people inspecting all of the snakes swimming lazily around their tanks.
The reserve was using this catastrophe as an excuse to boost their revenue and had allowed the public to view the horned serpents for a three-sickle admission fee.
Personally, Harry thought it was a bit tactless considering what had happened here but the money raised was going to offset the cost of hiring the curse-breakers which was quickly reaching seven figures.
Newt was having a field day here. Once Harry had Adsila's treatment well in hand, the older magizoologist had been spending his free time studying all of the horned serpents on display.
Harry couldn't really blame him, it was almost unheard of to get an opportunity like this as horned serpents would never consent to be placed in tanks like this under normal circumstances.
Harry could almost bet that the next edition of Newt's book would have an expanded section on horned serpents.
Harry hadn't left Adsila's side much since arriving here as she still wasn't completely out of the woods yet though she was improving significantly.
Sanjay had graciously taken over the care of the other serpents who were all perfectly healthy after they had been cleansed of the corruption.
"Hey daddy," Harry heard Carina call to him from the edge of the tank, pulling him back to the present.
Harry turned to see his daughter sitting on the catwalk while dangling her bare feet into the water as she watched him swimming over Adsils.
"Hey princess, what are you doing up here?" Harry asked as Adsila lifted her head out of the water to look at her new visitor.
§Hello little one§, Adsila said softly as her blue eyes focused on Carina.
§Hello§, Carina said nervously as Harry swam over to her.
§Carina this is Adsila. Adsila this is my daughter Carina§, Harry said before he pulled himself up onto the catwalk.
§You are a very big snake§, Carina said in awe as Adsila looked at her curiously.
§I am very old, my kind gets bigger as time goes by§, Adsila explained, sounding pleased at the compliment.
§Are you feeling better, daddy said that you were very badly hurt§, Carina asked worriedly.
§I am feeling much better but I am still very tired§, Adsila admitted as she gave a wide yawn showing her long curved fangs much to Carina's surprise.
§Let's let her rest, Princess§, Harry smiled as he cast a spell to dry himself off.
§I will see you later Harry, thank you for the fish§, Adsila hissed sleepily before her head sank underneath the water's surface.
"Will she be okay, daddy?" Carina asked hopefully as she stood up and slipped on her trainers.
"I think so, she's on the mend now," Harry assured her.
"Good, mummy said to tell you that lunch is ready," Carina said as she made her way towards the ladder.
"Did she cook it?" Harry asked warily.
"No, Mr Patil did," Carina giggled before she began climbing down the ladder.
"Thank heavens for that," Harry muttered to himself as he followed his daughter down to the ground.
"I heard that, Harry," Bellatrix huffed from her place at the picnic table.
The tent was set up not twenty feet away from Adsila's tank and Harry had set up a table outside as the weather was usually quite nice here until sundown.
Harry just realised that the table was close enough that Bella could hear him talking... even to himself.
"You have my apologies, Bellatrix," Harry said as he joined his family and Sanjay at the table, the latter looking very amused.
The first night they were here, Bella tried to make them dinner. The roast chicken she prepared was charred on the outside and raw on the inside with a side of burnt burned black roasted potatoes. She was gifted at many things but cooking was definitely not one of them.
"See if I try and cook for you ever again," Bella huffed as Harry took a seat beside her.
"I am more than happy to do the cooking," Harry assured her as he placed a soft kiss on her cheek.
"Dad, can I go flying after lunch?" Ignotus asked hopefully through a mouthful of Sanjay's southwestern chicken soup.
"That is up to your mother," Harry smirked as Bella gave Iggy a disapproving look for talking with his mouth full.
"Dad, she hates me flying," Iggy whined, giving him a pleading look.
"Well I can't watch you, I have a patient to supervise so it's up to her rather you can fly or not," Harry said as he gestured to the tank behind him.
"How is the old girl doing?" Sanjay asked.
"Quite well, the scarring is almost unnoticeable now and her gem grew a millimetre overnight," Harry beamed as he fixed himself some soup.
"Don't tell the other serpents but she was always my favourite," Sanjay chuckled.
"Adsila was very nice," Carina beamed.
"I am growing quite fond of her myself," Harry admitted.
"I just heard from Warden Moore, the curse breakers have isolated the main wardstone the curse is anchored to," Sanjay said, sounding very pleased.
"It could still take weeks to disable it," Bellatrix said thoughtfully.
"Or more," Sanjay agreed.
"Well the thunderbird is gone so that has to be a good sign," Harry said reasonably.
"Mr Scamander said he used to have a thunderbird," Ignotus piped up.
"He did," Harry grinned.
"Kept the thing in his suitcase if I recall," Sanjay chuckled.
"He keeps everything in that infernal suitcase," Harry sniggered.
"True, the maniac used to keep erumpents in there," Sanjay chortled.
"They are only aggressive during the mating season," Newt said as he approached the table, shooting Sanjay an annoyed look.
"So how are the other serpents?" Harry asked as Newt took a seat beside Sanjay.
"Still a bit lethargic after the cleansing ritual," Newt admitted.
"They will be for a while," Sanjay nodded.
"We will have to check them all over before they can go back into the lake," Harry said thoughtfully.
"You're not going to swim with them, are you?" Bellatrix asked warily.
"No, I will check them over when we take them out of the tanks. Generally speaking, it isn't a good idea to swim with them but Adsila is a special case," Harry assured her.
"Good, I would hate for one of them to eat you," Bella said only half-jokingly.
"Most of these serpents are not interested in eating people," Sanjay assured her.
"Most," Bella asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Well, the green female once threatened to eat me if I stepped on her tongue when I was inspecting her fangs," Sanjay explained with a look of amusement.
"Thanks, now that's all I'm going to be thinking about when I have to give her a check-up," Harry scowled.
"I'm pretty sure she was joking," Sanjay assured him.
"Newt, care to give the green one a check-up?" Harry asked hopefully.
"Sorry Harry, I'm retired," Newt said matter-of-factly.
"How do you give them a check-up?" Ignotus asked curiously.
"You have to lean into their mouth and look at their teeth and gums," Harry answered, enjoying the horrified look on his son's face.
Before anything else could be said, a familiar snowy owl landed on the table in front of Harry and offered him a rolled-up letter.
Harry knew that Sirius had given his younger self a snowy owl for his eleventh birthday. For some unknown reason, Harry hadn't put two and two together until now.
"Hedwig," Harry said a slight hitch in his voice as he took the letter and offered her a large chunk of chicken from his soup.
"Stay away from the tanks, the snakes have been known to eat owls," Harry warned the owl before he unfurled the letter and began to read.
Harry,
I thought I would let you know there were two attacks on New Year's day in Godric's Hollow and Mould-on-the-Wold. From what we know, Voldemort used giants to wipe out both villages.
Dumbledore believes there will be more attacks like this in the next few days and has set up watches at targets he believes are at risk of attack.
Strangely, Voldemort is only targeting muggles. No magicals were killed in either attack and three of the families that survived in Mould-on-the-Would were muggleborns.
Anyway, I thought you should be informed try not to get eaten by one of those giant serpents.
Padfoot
Harry read the letter three times before passing it to Bellatrix. Suddenly, the attack at the reserve made a lot more sense.
He would definitely be planning a retaliation when he returned to Britain but he could not leave here for at least another week. For now, the ministry would have to deal with its own problems.
"It seems they're having giant trouble in Britain," Harry said at his colleagues' questioning looks.
"Yes and it appears that all of the trouble here was designed to get you three out of Britain," Bellatrix muttered as she rolled up the letter.
Harry decided not to think about the matter anymore for the time being, he had his own problems to deal with.
"Mother, can I go flying?" Iggy asked hopefully.
"Yes but if you go anywhere near the tanks or the lake I will be very upset," Bella warned.
"Can I fly too?" Carina asked hopefully.
"Yes but stay with your brother," Bella instructed.
"I will mummy," Carina promised.
"Yes mother," Iggy agreed.
"Have you seen Athena this morning?" Harry asked as his wife refilled his bowl.
"She's sleeping under our bed, I think she's jealous you're spending so much time with another snake," Bellatrix smirked.
"Oh," Harry nodded in understanding.
Athena had been grumpy since they arrived on the reserve and Harry already suspected that his familiar was upset with him for spending most of his time with Adsila. He would find a way to make this up to her when they returned home and might even accompany her when she went hunting tonight.
"Bella is getting a bit jealous too," Bellatrix said as the kids ran back to the tent to retrieve their brooms.
"Well this sounds like a personal conversation, I need to go study that green serpent," Newt said as he stood up.
"Check her gums for me," Harry called to his retreating back.
"Not a chance, I'm too old to be snake scat," Newt returned before he walked in between two tanks and disappeared.
"I'll go make my rounds as well," Sanjay said, shooting the couple an amused look.
"Thanks for the soup" Harry beamed.
"Not a problem, I'll see you both this evening," Sanjay said before he followed after Newt.
"Care to take a walk before I have to give her another dose of potion?" Harry asked.
"I would love to," Bella smiled.
As Harry and Bella made their way down the path that led between the snake tanks and watched the kids flying overhead playing a game of tag on their training brooms, Harry couldn't help but smile.
No matter the circumstances that brought them here, they were making the most of this trip. The kids seemed to be enjoying Arizona a lot between the warm weather and the many giant magical snakes on display, the kids really were having the time of their lives.
Harry was enjoying himself and happy that Adsila was recovering from her ordeal, he was pretty confident she would pull through now that her gem had started to grow back.
That being said, he was going to pay Tom's giants a visit very soon. If Voldemort wanted to harm the magical creatures under his care, then turnabout was fair play and Harry had never been overly fond of giants.
"You're plotting something, husband," Bellatrix whispered as they passed a group of curse breakers sitting on the ground eating their lunch with their backs resting against a horned serpent tank.
I was just thinking that Reaper and Chimera may be taking out some giants soon," Harry smirked.
"How romantic," Bella giggled.
"Yes, I'm sure it will be, how would you like to set something up for Valentine's Day," Harry smirked.
"I would love to. You letting Bella kill some giants will make up for ignoring her to swim with a giant snake," Bella beamed.
"Then it's a date," Harry smirked as he watched Ignotus chase after his sister over the open desert.
"It's a date," Bella agreed as she rested her head on his shoulder as they watched the kids playing a game of tag.
Avery Manor, Hampshire, 1/5/1992, 21:29
Voldemort sat on his throne pondering his most recent moves on the chessboard. The giant attacks had caught the ministry completely off guard.
The previous attack had been an overwhelming success and he had even gotten to test the new focus for his wand. The gem did amplify some of his spells tremendously but he still had some problems to sort out.
He had performed a ritual on the gem that had shrank the stone from the size of a grapefruit to a stone that was the size of a walnut. The gem slowed his casting down a bit since his wand was now off balance but it amplified some of his spells exponentially.
However, there was a major drawback to the horned serpent's gem. It would not cast dark magic at all. The horned serpent's magic seemed to resist his efforts to cast anything but protection spells which limited its usefulness in battle.
Voldemort was determined to find a way around those limitations but for the time being, he had removed the gem from his wand. He would only need a tool like that if he faced off against Albus as the headmaster was the only one in Britain who posed a threat to him.
Voldemort was currently waiting on Thomas to arrive to inform him of his troops' position so he could give the order to begin the third attack.
As if thinking of his servant made him appear, the door to the ballroom opened and Thomas Avery made his way over to where Voldemort was seated.
Thomas came to a stop in front of him with his head bowed as he waited to be acknowledged.
"Well, Thomas are the giants ready to move out?" Voldemort asked his servant expectantly.
"Yes my lord, the giants are standing by and ready to go in Ottery St Catchpole," Avery answered at once.
"Good, do not harm the magicals but do what you will with the muggles," Voldemort ordered.
"Of course my lord," Avery agreed.
"Good, when the aurors show up have our people fall back, I do not wish to lose any of the giants," Voldemort instructed.
"Of course," Avery agreed.
"Then go and do not fail me," Voldemort ordered and got a nod from his servant before the man hurried to carry out his orders.
These attacks had taken months of planning but they seemed to be paying off. The giants were a valuable asset as they were almost invulnerable to attack and could crash through wards as if they weren't even there.
He went out of his way to protect those assets, cursing an entire lake to ensure that the people who would be most able to deal with large magical creatures were out of the country during the attacks.
The trip to the reserve had been fruitful though he had stayed in Arizona much longer than he would have liked as he set wardstones all around that lake.
He knew that Peverell would be furious at what he had done at the reserve but he was not concerned. If Harry Peverell wanted to confront him, then he would gladly accept the challenge.
From what he had learned from his servants, Peverell was nothing more than a creature specialist, which is why he wanted the man out of the country during the giant attacks.
Whether Peverell was Narcissa Malfoy's assassin or not was irrelevant, he just couldn't have Peverell harming his giants.
Tonight would be a smaller-scale attack as he was sure Dumbledore would have plans in place.
He already knew that this would be the last time he launched an attack like this as he did not want to become too predictable to his enemies.
As Voldemort pondered his next move, he wondered how much opposition his people would face tonight.
He knew the attack wouldn't be as smooth as last time but he planned on using tonight to gauge both the ministry's response time and how large of a force they would deploy to handle the situation.
The ministry's forces were easily four times as large as his own thanks to Cassiopeia Black gearing up for war during her time in office. Longbottom had never reduced the size of the force and it was still getting bigger according to Albert Runcorn. This posed a challenge but he was confident he could work around the ministry as his people slowly infiltrated it.
Deciding he had time to kill while his servants carried out the attack, Voldemort made his way to Thomas' library to see if there was a ritual that could alter the horned serpent's gem to suit his needs, he was sure there was a ritual to corrupt it.
Sinding his go-to tome, Voldemort removed Secrets of the Darkest arts and made himself comfortable as he perused the book looking for anything that could point him in the right direction.
As he passed the section on horcruxes, he pondered whether it was time to create the sixth horcrux but pushed that thought from his mind for the time being.
'So much to do and so little time," Voldemort sighed as he continued to turn the ancient pages, finding nothing that could help him with the gem.
Tinsworth, Same time
Sirius was freezing his bollcks off as he played lookout tonight. The village pub had closed an hour ago so he was stuck outside leaning against a monument in the town square. So far these lookouts had been pointless as the death eaters hadn't made an appearance at any of the locations the order was guarding.
Harry had written back to him this morning informing him that the Peverells would be at the reserve for at least another week.
Sirius wished the older version of his godson was here to help them with this, Sirius was almost certain that the man knew of a way to deal with giants.
Still, at least he and the children were safe and if they were lucky, there wouldn't be any more giant attacks to deal with.
Sirius was just about to take another walk around the village to warm himself up when he saw a weasel patronus flying through the air, heading straight towards him.
The patronus came to a stop in front of him and sat up on its haunches before speaking in the voice of Arthur Weasley.
"Ottery St Catchpole under attack!"
Sirius watched as the patronus faded away as the message sank in.
"Bugger!"Sirius exclaimed angrily as he drew his wand.
Taking a moment to calm himself down, Sirius sent off a patronus to Amy to make sure the aurors were aware of the attack before he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do.
Turning on the spot, Sirius disappeared from the quiet villiage with a soft 'pop' and readied himself for the battle that awaited him in Devon.
Near the Burrow
Sirius appeared in the middle of an open battlefield not far away from the Weasley home.
The cloudy night was alight with red and green flashes of lights crossing each other in mid-air as two opposing sides were locked in a heated battle.
The smell of smoke and the sound of screaming assaulted his senses and he only barely avoided being hit by a green jet of light from one of the men dressed in death eater robes.
Sirius quickly returned fire but it became clear that both sides were too far apart to fight very effectively. The spells moved slowly enough that the person they were aimed at had ample time to avoid them.
Off in the distance, Sirius could see ministry wizards surrounding a group of five giants as they fired spell after spell at the beasts' heads, trying to overwhelm them but having little success.
As Sirius cast a ribbon cutter across the field, another group of aurors arrived on the left flank of the group of death eaters and began advancing on them.
"Sirius thought he heard someone scream, " Retreat!"
Seconds later, the giants and the death eaters disappeared in multiple flashes of blue light as their emergency portkeys were activated.
Idly Sirius realized how it was that the giants had disappeared without a trace the other night, Voldemort had outfitted them with portkeys no doubt activated by whoever was in charge of the attack.
It was unnerving how quiet the night became when the enemy vanished in a flash of blue light, leaving dozens of people looking around in confusion. This was very unusual. In the past war, the death eaters wouldn't pass up the chance to pick off a few aurors and had been known to hold out as long as they could before sounding a retreat.
Seeing orange flickering light in the distance, Sirius realized that the giants had already accomplished what they came here to do.
Sirius could see the village off in the distance, most of the homes were on fire spewing black smoke into the night sky.
Over the next hour, Sirius learned that the attack had only lasted eight minutes from the time the giants had begun smashing their way through the village to the time the whole raiding party had portkeyed away.
Seventy-five muggles were dead and the village of Ottery St Catchpole was a pile of rubble in less than eight bloody minutes!
As Sirius joined the party that began searching the rubble for survivors, he wondered if Harry might like some help when he struck back at these wankers.