Riddle Manor, Little Hangleton, 10/31/1992, 03:38
Voldemort was beyond furious to have been woken to the news that the Rowle property was under attack. He had immediately ordered more men to Rowle Manor confident that they could easily fend off any attacking force.
A half-hour later, Thorfinn and his wife arrived by portkey both of them in borderline hysterics babbling about some monster attacking from under the ground and that all of his servants had been killed.
Voldemort was just preparing to send a larger force in to take the property back when the door to his study burst open and John Dawlish stumbled into the room looking frantic.
"M-my lord, Rowle Manor was destroyed!" Dawlish stammered out.
"Destroyed?" Voldemort said feeling his anger rising.
"Burnt to the ground with fiend fire, the ministry is still trying to contain it, my lord," Dawlish explained.
"What of my death eaters?" Voldemort grit out.
"Th-they were massacred my lord," Dawlish answered tumidly.
"Anything else?" Voldemort demanded.
"The mark of the Reaper was set over the home, my lord," Dawlish answered.
"CRUCIO!" Voldemort roared in fury the the red spell flying from his wand and striking Dawlish square in the chest before the frightened auror could blink.
Voldemort listened to his servant's inhuman screams as the man collapsed to the floor and began to thrash his arms and legs wildly. Voldemort watched with morbid fascination as Dawlish's back arched painfully and his eyes rolled back in his sockets as he continued to scream in agony.
Reluctantly Voldemort cancelled the spell knowing that he could not afford to permanently damage his primary source of information inside the DMLE.
"John, I want to know everything that happened at Thorfinn's house and I want to know by dawn!" Voldemort hissed as he glared down at his trembling servant almost daring him to protest.
"Ye-yes m-my lo-lord," Dawlish gasped out as he staggered to his feet.
"Then leave me and come back with the information I require or this will seem like a tickling charm compared to what I will do to you if you fail me in this," Voldemort hissed in a voice barely above a whisper.
Dawlish staggered out of the room his knees trembling as if he was struggling to remain upright.
Voldemort watched his servant disappear from the room as he processed the implications of this attack.
It infuriated him beyond words to have someone use his own tactics against him!
He had sent forty death eaters to Rowle's home and if what John had told him was true, they were all dead! This was on top of the twenty-three men that were already at the property and the strategic value of the manor itself!
The Reaper had been relatively quiet for the past few months but he should have known there was likely to be an attack tonight. Voldemort felt angry at his own complacency, the Reaper had been attacking his people on Halloween for the past two years and he should have been prepared for one this year!
In the past, Reaper's attacks had been small and relatively minor focusing on a single servant. But this was taking things to another level and Voldemort was completely flabbergasted at the scale of this attack.
More troubling was the fact that the losses he had sustained tonight would drastically affect the attack he had planned for tonight. He just didn't have the numbers for a second wave after the vampires had moved through the village now. He realized that once again he was faced with the problem of not having enough manpower.
He had lost far too many followers in the past year and even with the steady influx of Hogwarts and Durmstrang graduates each June, his forces were woefully outnumbered by the ministry's forces.
He still had one as of yet untapped resource but that would mean leaving his anchor unprotected which he was loathe to do unless he had no other choice.
He realized that he would have to scale back the planned attack tonight, he simply could not risk any more death eaters after the loss he had already sustained.
And that realization angered him even more!
Hours later Voldemort was sitting in his study going over the copy of the auror's report Dawlish had brought him. Rowle Manor was burned to the ground most likely by fiend fire. The granite stone the manor had been constructed from had gotten so hot it had liquified into a substance resembling lava that covered the lawns of the Rowle estate. More troubling were the signs of an attack from some unknown sub-terrestrial animal on many of the corpses recovered at the property. From the reports, it seemed that many of his death eaters had been dragged under the ground and ripped into pieces. The final death toll was estimated at fifty-eight which was nearly twenty per cent of his forces.
Voldemort mulled over the information and pondered the possibility of setting a trap for Reaper but to do that he would first have to ascertain where the man was getting his information. He had a hunch that it was Narcissa Malfoy who was well known for having informants all over Europe and he would not put it past her to know quite a bit about his followers.
He would look into this in the immediate future but for now, he needed to form a new plan for this evening's attack.
"Soon Reaper, you will be dealt with," Voldemort whispered to the empty room as he got to his feet and made his way back to his quarters to get a little more sleep before he called his servants in for a meeting.
Peverell Beach House, Cornwall, 10/31/1992, 08:49
Harry left the desk where he had been sitting for the past two hours watching the waves. He quietly made his way up the stairs to check on Bellatrix and see if she wished to join him for breakfast.
Narcissa had been able to heal her up and Sirius fairly easily but Bellatrix had been very out of it when he'd brought her home last night.
Harry was just grateful that she was wearing battle robes or things could have been a lot worse, particularly from the second spell that had struck her square in the chest. She had still shattered her collarbone and four bones in her left arm from the first spell she had been struck by but she avoided serious injury.
Harry stepped into the room to find the bed empty and he could hear the shower running from their bathroom. Stepping into the bathroom, Harry chuckled when she heard her humming to herself over the sound of running water.
"How are you feeling?" Harry asked making his presence known.
"Bella is a little sore. I underestimated our enemy," Bella said ruefully.
"So did I. There were way more of them than we expected," Harry admitted.
"Did you get Rowle?" Bella asked curiously.
"No, they slipped away before we got inside. It took too long to drop the wards," Harry sighed.
"We'll get him one way or the other," Bella said sounding unconcerned.
"I have no doubt. Are you hungry?" Harry asked as she shut off the water.
"A bit but there is something I need to talk to you about before breakfast," Bella said as she opened the door to the shower and stepped out.
"This must be important if you're telling me naked," Harry smirked.
"This way I know I have your complete attention," Bella said while grabbing her fresh towel off of the rack.
"Point taken," Harry chuckled as he admired her nude form.
"Though maybe I have too much of your attention," Bella giggled as she began to dry off.
"I'm listening, what's on your mind?" Harry asked forcing himself to meet her gaze and ignore the droplets of water running down her chest.
"When Cissa was healing me she found out that... that I'm pregnant again," Bella said as she gave him a meaningful look.
"You are?" Harry asked a bit at a loss for anything else to say.
"Yes, I'm a little over six weeks along if Cissa is to be believed," Bella answered as she finished drying off and wrapped the towel around her hair like a turban.
"Huh," Harry muttered as he thought about what this would mean for them going forward.
Obviously, a lot of things would have to change, the biggest being their excursions into dangerous situations like last night.
"That's it?" Bella asked incredulously as her eyes narrowed to slits.
"What?" Harry asked in confusion.
"I just told you that I'm pregnant and all you can say is, huh," Bella exclaimed as her hands rested on her hips though the effect was slightly ruined by her attire... or lack thereof.
"Sorry I was just trying to wrap my head around this," Harry said giving her an apologetic smile.
"So, what do you think?" Bella asked nervously her features calming.
'I think our family's going to get a little bigger," Harry whispered before he wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss on her cheek
"I know," Bella mumbled into his shoulder sounding pleased with his answer.
"I just hope it's not another set of twins," Harry chuckled as he stepped back and glanced at her bare stomach trying to gauge if it was getting any bigger.
"Agreed but this means Bella can't come with you when you go hunting death eaters," Bellatrix pouted.
"After last night, we may have to lay low for a while anyway," Harry shrugged.
"Good, I don't want you going hunting without me," Bella smiled as she removed the towel from her head and tossed it into the hamper before using her wand to completely dry her hair.
"I can take that time to try and become an animagus," Harry said as the two of them walked back into their room.
"It would have made all the difference last night," Bellatrix admitted with a rueful shake of her head.
"Believe I know, it was bloody torture not being able to get in there to help you two," Harry sighed giving her a troubled look.
"They almost got me, if Sirius hadn't dropped the wards..." Bella trailed off sounding reluctant to follow that train of thought.
"Well on the upside I got to try out one of those spells from Serpent Battle Magicks," Harry said hoping to cheer her up a bit.
"I saw," Bella giggled as she began getting dressed.
"We will have to get you another set of battle robes," Harry said as he caught a glimpse of the damaged catsuit from last night hanging up in her wardrobe.
"I know, the trauma plate is completely shattered, from that last hit" Bella agreed.
"I'm glad I had them to put them in your outfit," Harry said as he admired the form-fitting white toga she was wearing appreciatively.
"And the fact that you got to create the mould of my torso had nothing to do with it," Bella smirked.
"Sometimes work can be fun," Harry chuckled.
"Well you'll have to make another one after I drop the baby weight," Bella pointed out.
"True, so are you ready for breakfast now that you've dropped life-changing news on me?" Harry asked giving her a playful smile.
"I am," Bella said simply.
"Good because I can smell waffles," Harry said as he offered her his arm.
Bella looped her arm through his and the two of them made their way downstairs where their plates were waiting for them on the table.
"Cissa will be by with the twins at noon," Bella said after tucking into her breakfast.
"When are we going to tell them?" Harry asked with interest.
"Let's wait a bit," Bella said thoughtfully.
"In a way, this will be a good thing," Harry mused after swallowing a large bite of waffle.
"How's that?" Bella asked curiously.
"I wasn't really looking forward to coming home to an empty nest when the twins go off to Hogwarts," Harry admitted.
"Neither was I," Bella said giving him an understanding smile.
Harry knew Bella's pregnancy wasn't as simple as he was making it out to be but he couldn't find it in himself to be upset. Becoming a father had been one of the most rewarding experiences of his life and one of the best things that had happened to him when he travelled back to the past.
The thing that worried him the most was the present climate, the war was really starting to heat up and would only get worse after last night.
This just meant he would have to work harder to bring this war to a speedy conclusion.
Great Hall, Hogwarts, 10/31/1992, 12:22
Harry entered the hall feeling quite pleased with the prospect of quidditch practice after lunch.
The first game of the season was next Saturday and he would be squaring off against Draco who had gotten the position of seeker on the Slytherin team. Harry was anticipating a very good seeker's duel as they were both exceptional flyers and would both be flying on the same model of broomstick. Harry thought that he was the better flyer but there was a certain amount of luck involved in seeking. If Draco spotted the snitch first or he was in a better position than Harry was, it was very possible Slytherin could win the match.
The school year seemed to be flying by so far and he found it hard to believe he'd already been here two months. His only regret was that he didn't have a prank to set up this evening. Though truthfully he had been too busy with schoolwork, quidditch practice, and the many detentions he"d already racked up this year. There was also the fact that after the attack on Amelia, he hadn't really been in the right mindset to set up a prank.
"Where have you been all morning?" Susan demanded when he had taken a seat beside her at the Gryffindor table.
"Practicing the animal to water goblet spell," Harry shrugged.
"Thanks a lot, I was stuck in the library all morning with Hermione," Susan huffed.
"She's not that bad," Harry chuckled.
"Without you around to distract her she talked non-stop about our history of magic homework," Susan shot back.
"She does like to natter on about goblin rebellions," Harry sniggered.
"Trust me, I know. Do you have any idea what the twins have planned for tonight?" Susan asked as she glanced down the table at the Weasley twins who had their heads together and were no doubt conspiring about something.
"Not a clue and I don't want to either," Harry said flatly.
"Probably for the best," Susan agreed.
"Yeah but I bet anything McGonagall will think it was us regardless," Harry scowled.
"Then make sure you have a good alibi," Susan suggested.
"I'll be at quidditch practice until dinner," Harry pointed out.
"That isn't much of an alibi, they'll be at quidditch practice with you," Susan pointed out looking amused.
"I know," Harry sighed.
"Well I will be working with Daphne and Hermione on our charms homework so I at least have an alibi," Susan said giving him a mysterious smile.
"Good luck trying to do anything with those two," Harry snorted.
"Don't worry about us you just focus on not falling off your broom," Susan shot back.
"No worries there," Harry smirked.
The rest of lunch was spent discussing quidditch and speculating on what the Weasley twins had planned for the feast before Harry made his way out to practice.
"Bugger," Harry muttered as he stepped out of the castle noticing that it had started to rain... again.
"Well it looks like another wet practice,' Harry thought to himself as he stepped into the pouring rain and made his way down to the pitch.
Harry made his way over to the Gryffindor table hours later eager to partake in the Halloween feast after four hours of gruelling practice in torrential rain. Harry loved quidditch and was ecstatic to be on the Gryffindor team but practising in the rain really took away some of the enjoyment for him. Even after a shower and a change of clothes he still felt chilled to the bone.
Harry took a seat beside Susan just as food appeared on the table and sighed in contentment from the delicious smell of food assaulting his senses. He was too focused on filling his plate to pay attention to the unreadable look Susan was giving him.
Harry finally realized Susan was watching him as he poured himself a goblet of pumpkin juice and he turned to meet her gaze.
"What's up?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"I was just wondering how practice went," Susan shrugged as she took a bite of her chicken.
"Cold and wet," Harry sighed.
"Oh look it's Missus Lovegood" Susan exclaimed as she pointed towards the doors.
Harry turned despite himself and spotted Luna Lovegood walking into the hall with Ginny Weasley.
"That's Miss Lovegood," Harry corrected shooting Susan a look of annoyance.
"My mistake," Susan said looking unconcerned.
"You really need to let up about Missus Lovegood," Harry muttered as he took a sip of his pumpkin juice not noticing the victorious smile on Susan's face.
Across the hall, Hermione and Daphne's faces lit up when they saw him drink deeply from his goblet oblivious to the changes happening to him.
Harry knew something was amiss when he heard Susan giggling beside him.
"What?" Harry asked in confusion as he looked up at her.
"No *cough* nothing," Susan said having to cough to hide her laughter.
Shaking his head, Harry lifted his goblet to take another sip only to do a double take when he saw his hand was covered in thick purple hair.
"What the-" Harry demanded only to trail off when he saw Susan smirking at him and the pieces fell into place.
All around him people were pointing in his direction and whispering to their neighbours or otherwise cracking up.
Groaning as he realised his hands probably weren't all that had changed, Harry reached up and touched his cheek noticing that it felt furry. Cutting his eyes down his nose he could that his nose was the same colour purple as his hands. Harry ran his fingers all over his face noting that his entire face was covered in hair.
"What did you do to me!?" Harry demanded.
"Slipped you a temporary hair growth and semi-permanent hair-dying potion," Susan beamed.
"Wh-why?" Harry stammered.
"My hair was blue for a month because of you," Susan shrugged.
"How did you even make it, you are horrible at potions?" Harry sighed as he picked moodily at his plate.
"I didn't. Daphne and Hermione cooked this up, I just slipped it into your juice," Susan beamed.
Before he could reply, Harry heard the squawking of a large bird and turned in time to see a giant canary sitting in Professor McGonagall's place at the head table.
Harry couldn't help but laugh with the rest of the hall as the canary chirped indignantly a second before Professor Sprout transformed into a canary as well. This seemed to start a chain reaction as one professor after the other transformed into a giant canary much to the delight of the students.
"Oh. my. god!" Susant chortled as a canary version of Snape began to squawk angrily.
"Yeah but look," Harry muttered as the canary he assumed was McGonagall began waddling towards them flapping her wings angrily.
The canary got within ten feet of them before the feathers exploded outward to reveal a very annoyed-looking Professor McGonagall stalking towards them.
All around the staff table feathers began to fly as the canary transformation wore off showering their plates in large yellow feathers.
"Potter, Bones!" McGonagall hissed her eyes narrowed to slits as she came to a stop on the other side of the table from them.
"This wasn't us, Professor. You have the wrong pranksters," Harry exclaimed in earnest.
"Well if it wasn't you two..." McGonagal trailed off as her gaze flitted to the Weasley twins who were giving her their most innocent looks.
"Messrs Weasley and Weasley, are the two of you responsible for this?" McGonagall asked dangerously.
"We would never admit to doing anything of the sort, Professor," George said with a grin.
"But whoever created such a potion that turns professors into canaries is obviously a very gifted wizard," Fred added.
"Very well, I suppose I will have to do this the hard way," Professor McGonagall said as she drew her wand.
"Professor?" George asked looking alarmed at her drawn wand.
"Well if you won't tell me then I will just have to call Molly in for a good old Parent/teacher conference," McGonagall said as she prepared to cast a patronus charm.
"Alright it was us," Fred exclaimed before McGonagall could begin the incantation.
"Please Professor, don't bring Mum into this," George pleaded.
"Bones, Potter it looks like you're off the hoo... Potter what on earth happened to you?" McGonagall demanded finally noticing his purple hair-covered face.
"I believe this is payback for the prank at the end of last year, Professor," Harry scowled.
"Well I hope you learned your lesson," McGonall said looking like she was fighting not to smile.
"Yes Professor," Harry nodded ignoring Susan's triumphant smile.
"Messrs Weasley and Weasley, my office tomorrow after dinner for your detention," McGonagall instructed before she turned on her heel and made her way back to the head table before the twins could protest.
"I am not going to let this stand, Bones," Harry sighed as he grabbed another goblet and filled it with pumpkin juice.
"I'm sure that you'll try but it would be best to let this go," Susan advised.
"Not a chance," Harry snorted as he plotted his revenge against the three girls while he tried to ignore people sniggering and pointing in his direction.
"Suit yourself," Susan said giving him a knowing smile.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Don't worry about it, you'll find out if you annoy me enough," Susan smirked.
Harry gave her a calculating look as he wracked his brain for a clue as to what she was alluding to. Unfortunately, he wasn't coming up with an answer.
He had learned from experience that it was often better to know your adversary before making a move. The vibe he was getting from Susan was that she had something or knew something that could cause him problems. Harry could sense Daphne's hand in this, she was a master of blackmail.
'Perhaps it would be best to see what I'm up against first,' Harry mused to himself as he went back to eating his dinner but found it difficult to ignore the looks he was getting from other students.
Hogsmeade, 10/31/1992, 22:39
The village was unusually quiet tonight with the only visible signs of activity coming from the two pubs where the inhabitants of the village were celebrating the holiday.
Luckily the only inhabitants in the village tonight were aurors and none of them were drinking or otherwise relaxing. Albus had suspected that tonight would be when the attack Snape had warned him about would take place. All of the village's residents had been evacuated and they were currently taking refuge at the castle tonight.
Alastor had volunteered to be part of the teams staking out the village. He was currently peering out of the window of the three broomsticks watching the empty street for any signs of activity. He was joined by quite a few order members that were in the auror corp along with his second-year cadets from the academy and Kingsley Shackleboly's teammates.
The aurors were all dressed in plain clothes and were doing their best to portray themselves as rowdy pubgoers even if their tankards were filled with pumpkin juice to ensure they maintained a clear head in the event of an attack.
All around the village, large canisters of pressurized garlic essence extract were set at strategic points under disillusionment charms. In the event of a vampire attack, Kingsley would press an activation rune that would disperse the gas and quickly blanket the village in green fog.
Alastor was quite pleased with the setup they had, as long as the death eaters didn't follow the vampires in too large of numbers he was sure they would be fine.
"Sir, we've got activity from the south," Auror Banning called from where she was looking out the window through omnioculars pulling Alastor from his thoughts.
"What do you see?" Kingsley asked urgently.
"Dozens of people running up the main road, it looks like they're coming from the forest, Shack," Banning answered never looking away from her optics.
"Are they blood-suckers?" Moody demanded.
"Affirmative, sir. They are running way too fast to be human," Banning answered.
By now every person in the room was focused intently on Banning's words.
"Give is a count, Banning," Kingsley barked as he touched his badge to send a message to the group that were staking out the Hog's Head.
"They're still coming but my counter is showing seventy-four, seventy-eight, eighty-three...
Moody knew her omnioculars were enchanted with a feature that would get an accurate count of people that it saw. This was very handy in situations like these when objects were moving too fast to get an accurate count.
"One hundred and twenty-eight, one thirty-six... They just keep coming shack," Banning muttered sounding alarmed.
"All we have to do is wait until they are all in the village, all the buildings are warded to keep them out. Murtaugh go ahead and chum the water," Moody ordered.
"Yes sir," Murtaugh said before pressing his thumb to a two-inch square runestone in his pocket.
The pressurized garlic wasn't the only potion they were using tonight. They also had one canister of a potion that imitated the scent of human blood. The potion would scent the air and draw them in like flies to dung.
"That's working, they're coming even faster," Banning muttered sounding amazed.
"What's the count now?" Kingsley asked.
"Two hundred and ten make that two hundred and twenty," Banning corrected.
"Bloody hell how many are there?" Cadet Tonks exclaimed looking alarmed.
"Calm yourself, cadet. Once we deploy the gas, they will drop like flies," Moody chuckled.
"I sure as hell hope so," Tonks muttered.
"We'll be fine lass," Moody assured the young cadet.
"They've finally stopped coming, the current count is three hundred and twelve," Banning barked.
"Then gas the bastards!" Moody ordered.
"Sure thing, Mad-Eye," Kingsley nodded as he pulled a two-inch runestone out of his pocket and pressed his thumb to the rune.
Instantaneously the valves on every canister opened and began releasing their contents into the air in the form of a dense green mist.
The effect was almost immediate as the overpowering smell of garlic began wafting into the pub and garbled shrieks could be heard from the street outside.
"Bloody hell it smells like an Italian restaurant blew up!" Tonks exclaimed as she looked out the window at the hundreds of vampires who were collapsing onto the cobblestone street.
"They're all going down, sir," Banning reported.
"Then send the signal to the others and let's go clean up the streets," Kingsley ordered.
Every auror in the pub quickly sprang into action and rushed out the door into the stinky green mist before they began to systematically behead every vampire they came across.
'If only as jobs could go this smoothly,' Alastor thought as he watched his colleagues dispatching the vampires littering the street.
Daciana watched on from her vantage point high up on a mountain overlooking the village. She didn't need omnioculars to see everything that was going on and what she saw filled her with white-hot rage. Those disgusting wizards were ruthlessly slaughtering the horde of vampires like animals!
From what she could tell, they were using some type of gas that caused the newly turned vampires to collapse and swell up.
Wizards always did this anytime their numbers started growing and it sickened her! Daciana had seen her kind slaughtered like this countless times over the centuries and it only increased her contempt toward wizardkind.
Unfortunately, wizards had developed a potion to stop the change making it difficult to infect them like they could do with muggles. She would love to wipe out all wizardkind and turn them into vampires like herself. After all, if it weren't for wizards, vampires would rule the world. Vampires were far superior to humans in her opinion their longevity alone made elder vampires much wiser than even the most intelligent of wizards.
Daciana watched as the vampires were beheaded one after another reducing them to piles of ash as she committed every wizard and witch's face that she saw to memory.
She and her coven had come here for the freedom Magical Britain offered her kind but it was becoming apparent that this place was no better than the country they had left. Voldemort had promised them blood and the opportunity to expand but she was having her doubts about an alliance with the snake-faced wizard lasting much longer.
She had been putting off meeting with the man after their last encounter but knew that it was approaching the time when they met once again. She had been keeping tabs on the village near his home and was pleased to learn that it was now completely filled with vampires. Any bargain she made with Voldemort would involve him placing wards over that village to ensure the ministry couldn't eradicate it like they had been doing with all the other newly turned vampires.
There were no humans in the village so they would feed on other things livestock and wild animals much as she had been doing for the past century. It wasn't as good as human blood but it would sustain them and prevent them from drawing the ministry's attention.
Pushing those thoughts from her mind, Daciana leapt into the sky and transformed into her bat form as she spotted the green mist drifting towards her on the wind. She wasn't sure what the mist was exactly but she knew she did not want to find out.
Her last thought as she flew away was wondering why that girl's hair was pink and if her blood would taste like strawberries.