By Lord Wrackspurt

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This story is a work of fan-fiction based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and her publishers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ************

Chapter 17: The Slytherin Strike Back

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On Thursday morning, the sky over Hogwarts was badly overcast with heavy dark clouds, but with a good chance for clearing later in the day. The weather would be perfect for afternoon Quidditch practice, and, since Harry was responsible for scheduling, Gryffindor would have the field for first practice.

Harry knew he was running late this morning as he had lain in bed too long enjoying the afterglow of last night’s unexpectedly satisfying experience with Winky. He figured that if he hurried up he could still make it on time to breakfast, when heard two small pops behind him and knew it was Dobby and Winky stopping by. Both had a worried look on their face, and Dobby had a tray with enough breakfast food piled on it for himself and several others to eat their fill.

“Master, Dobby has broughts your breakfast to you so you may eats safely.”

“There is danger for you, Master,” added Winky. “We hears there are plots by the nasty Slytherins against you. They make plans last night to attack you this morning in revenge for yesterday.”

“They plans to attack you in the crowd at breakfast so everyone will see, but so no one can blames them,” said Dobby. “You mustn’t go out today, Master. It is not safe.”

“Staying here won’t help me, Dobby,” said Harry thinking quickly. “They’ll just think I’m scared of them and make new plans. The thing to do is to show myself and force them to act or back down, but wrong foot them a bit. If they are planning to attack me going to breakfast then it’ll throw them off if I don’t show as expected. Force them to fall back on another scheme they haven’t planned out as well. I’ll have breakfast here and plan a little bit of my own. You two have done well. How did you find this out?”

“The other elves told us,” said Dobby. “They were working last night getting the laundry in place in the Slytherin dorms. Nobody notices us house elves, so they doesn’t know to shut up around us. The elves do not want You-Know-Who to return, and they knows Harry Potter will some day stop You-Know-Who, and they’s liking you, they want Dobby and Winky to warn you.”

“Well if you hear of any more plots against me then let know as soon as you can without arousing suspicion,” said Harry. After the elves were gone Harry had time to make a plan of action. He already knew the likely culprits behind the attack. He also knew that when the attack came that the ringleaders, Pansy, Goyle, and Crabbe, wouldn’t be there as witnesses. They’d be attending necessary duties elsewhere. Plausible deniability was what the Mugglescalled it.

When it was almost time to go down and assist Professor Balzhoff get the DADA classroom set up, Harry used the Marauder’s map to check the path he had to take from the tower and its surroundings. Sure enough there was a Slytherin fourth year on lookout in the access hall, and another at the wall outside his room. If he left by either door or window he’d be seen. Unless, of course, he wore his invisibility cloak.

With his cloak over him and his map in hand, Harry started slowly down the stairs. Harry moved carefully, which turned out to be a good thing because it helped him to see the thread. Snape and Malfoy knew about Harry’s cloak, and this had evidently been passed on to the Slytherins. There was a thread stretched across the stairs, it was just barely visible in the torchlight. Even if the lookout couldn’t see Harry under the cloak, he could see the thread break as Harry passed, and send the get ready message. Harry needed a diversion.

Returning to his room, he called Winky to him and had her go to the kitchen for some plates. She was told to go to the end of the hallway and drop them. The noise should startle and distract the lookout until Harry could get up to him. Harry returned to the steps to wait. After about 10 seconds he heard the sound of breaking dishes. Rushing down the steps Harry caught the Slytherin with an Imperious curse just as he turned around to resume viewing the steps. The Slytherin was caught off guard and offered no resistance.

While Winky repaired the dishes and disapparated, Harry questioned the lookout who was now under Harry’s control. Harry found that the attacker was to be Leon Yaxley, a sixth year Slytherin. He was the sudden new boyfriend of one of the girls who had been cursed by Hermione the day before. Yaxley intended to use the Cruciatus curse on Harry from behind in the crowded main hall as he entered DADA classroom, then disappear into the crowd. Given the Yaxley family’s connection to Voldemort, Harry figured the family had started training him early in the unforgivable curses. To Harry it made sense. Pansy must be behind it all, she’d convinced the girl to dangle the prospect of sex in front of Yaxley if he’d avenge the wrong done her by Harry.

Harry could simply block the curse, but Professor Balzhoff had said to send a message. Harry knew just the right spell for Mr. Yaxley; it was a powerful modified version of the standard Stupify spell. The old Stupefy curse was a standard unrestricted defense spell; it caused the recipient to fall to the ground dazed. Harry had practiced the modified form last summer and could perform it.

When he had demonstrated it to Moody even he had been impressed. It combined blunt force magical trauma with fire. It provided more of a spectacular take down effect than the old Stupify did, but it didn’t leave the victim permanently crippled or dead, if done in moderation, and help arrived fairly quickly. Best of all, if the wizard’s wand was made to reveal the last spell it had cast, and that was often done by Aurors and Inquisitors, it would still appear to be a standard, perfectly legal, Stupify spell that just went wrong in the heat of the moment.

Harry used the Accio spell to retrieve some papers from his desk; he’d appear to be at ease, going over some work as he walked to class. Harry told the lookout to inform his mates as planned, and then forget that Harry had caught him first. Harry tensed himself as he entered the gallery of the main floor; he quickly scanned the floor without seeming to do so. In a knot of Slytherins he saw his attacker tensed and ready. While the staircase still covered his movements Harry eased his wand into a ready position in his belt for a fast draw. He knew that when the moment came to use it things would happen fast. This was no time to make a mistake.

Yaxley was maintaining eye contact on Harry while badly trying to appear not to be; he wasn’t very good at stalking. Seeing the Hufflepuff Boy’s Prefect near the foot of the stairs Harry called him over to ask his opinion about Quidditch training schedules. This was a ruse, just something to draw out the wait, to tense Yaxley’s nerves further so he got impatient, and it also gave Harry an appearance of nonchalance innocence.

As Harry went down the main hallway he saw the Slytherin group begin to spread out, some of them definitely looked frightened, as though they had been threatened with house punishment if they weren’t there. “Good,” thought Harry, “the more the merrier. Plenty of witnesses to spread the new gospel of not fucking around with Harry Potter.”

Harry continued at a slow pace as he continued his apparent reading, Moody had spent a number of hours teaching Harry to sense a threat outside his vision. Now the student would be tested. Just ahead of him, Harry saw the first years lined up waiting to enter the DADA classroom. Beyond them, in the shadows, Harry saw Hermione watching the scene. Harry smiled a bit, so his guardian angel was still following him around, or would that be better said as his avenging angel?

A group of students made for the hallway behind Harry. Yaxley saw his opportunity, and, pushing several Slytherins ahead of him, melted into the group. Then Yaxley went out of Harry’s peripheral vision. It was up to his senses now. Harry kept his slow pace, appearing to look down at the parchment he carried, but he was actually watching Hermione’s eyes. She had already smelled a rat and was watching the group behind Harry.

“Good girl,” thought Harry admiringly. “Powerful, and clever, she’d make a good Auror.”

Harry was right, when it happened, it happened fast. He actually saw the danger in Hermione’s eyes first, then his senses felt that he was in danger. Hermione was just beginning to reach for her wand, but Harry already had his in hand and was crouched and turning as he had been taught by Moody to meet the threat. He heard and then felt the Cruciatus curse pass over him; it would have struck him in the back of the heart if he’d still been standing. A split second later, Harry heard a scream from the students behind him.

“OH SHIT!” thought Harry, it must have hit one of the first years waiting to enter the DADA classroom. He had forgotten about them, they were right in the line of fire, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He had to stay focused.

Yaxley was indeed new at this. His first mistake was that he actually waited to see his spell hit the target. It was a common amateur mistake; the ability to fire and forget was not there yet. He wanted the satisfaction of seeing Harry go down in agony, but what he saw instead was Harry staring straight at him with his wand at the ready. His second mistake was deciding that after having failed at first he would try, try again. He was just bringing the tip of his wand up when Harry’s modified Stupify curse hit him square in the chest.

Leon Yaxley felt like the whomping willow had hit him. The force of the hit lifted and flipped him into the air and set his robes on fire around him. He flew in the air about twenty feet then landed very hard on the stone floor on his hands and knees. The force of the hit left Yaxley with two fractured forearms and two shattered kneecaps. He was in excruciating pain, but he was also still on fire. Panicking from the flames, Yaxley struggled to get to his feet and extinguish the flames.

Rolling and flailing about on the stone floor only exacaturbated his injuries, inducing such pain that he went unconscious. For his part, Harry ordered everyone out of the way, then calmly walked up and used the Aguamenti Frigia spell to produce a stream of ice-cold water from his wand. This had two effects that Harry had very much intended: it put out the flames in Yaxley’s clothing, and it forced Yaxley back to consciousness. With the return of consciousness came the ability to feel pain again. Yaxley started a piteous screaming. Harry could have used a muffling spell, but this was better. Let them see and hear the bastard suffer.

Harry heard the clicking of boot heels behind him, but he recognized them now as Professor Balzhoff. “Harry, what just happened here?” she asked.

“This student cast a Cruciatus curse, I think he meant to hit me, but he missed and hit someone else. I turned to see who had done it and I saw him about to cast another at me so I put him down as fast as I could.”

Looking at the still screaming Yaxley, the Professor levitated him and cast a sleeping spell on him to quieten him. Crabbe and Goyle came jogging up with a smile on their faces that quickly disappeared when they saw Harry still standing, and Yaxley down.

“You two Slytherin boys,” said the Professor. “Take this fellow to the infirmary now.”

Crabbe and Goyle wagged their fleshy jowls and jogged off leading the levitated Yaxley. Going over to the DADA classroom, Harry saw a little Ravenclaw girl lying there in pain. Harry saw that she was still experiencing after effects of having been hit by Yaxley’s Cruciatus curse. She was trembling and disoriented. She had vomited her breakfast up all over herself. Harry didn’t know what to do for her other than get her to Madam Pomfrey as soon as possible. Fortunately for the first year, it appeared that Yaxley was not that adept at casting the Cruciatus curse, and she was not hurt as badly as a more experienced witch or wizard could have done.

“Don’t move her yet,” said a voice pushing through the crowd. It was Hermione; she had run to the potions lab and retrieved a potion that counteracted the effects of the Cruciatus curse. Unknown to anyone but her, it had actually been Hermione’s current training assignment to make the potion which was used by the Inquisition as a reward to prisoners who cooperated after ‘extreme’ interviews. While Harry watched, the girl was given a taste of the potion. Hermione’s problem was that she knew what an adult dose was, but the Inquisition had never made plans for its use on a child. Hermione guessed that a quarter adult dose would work here. The guess seemed to pay off as the girl began to calm somewhat after a few seconds. Then she was carried to the infirmary by the Ravenclaw female prefect.

By this time practically the whole school, students, faculty, and staff, were there and talking about what had happened. The Slytherins had reformed their little knot in the opposite corner and were talking busily. Harry slowly got up and went over to them. Many of them backed off as he approached, but Harry stayed to his course until he was right in front of them. Harry knew that Madam Hooch had said that she would be at Hogwarts today, and he was sure she’d be interested in what had happened. He decided to risk a bluff to seal the envelope containing the message.

“There may be some of you who are feeling sorry for the poor dumb sod who tried to ambush me, but there are two other poor dumb sods who you really need to feel sorry for. The first one is whoever tries something like that again with me. The second poor dumb sod is anyone who had anything to do with helping Yaxley today. He used an unforgivable curse on that poor girl. The Inquisition will soon know about it, and they’ll have him over for tea and cakes, and pleasant conversations about who his comrades in the plot were. Then they’ll come for you. They’ll show you the proper way to use the Cruciatus curse.”

Harry had the satisfaction of seeing a number of the younger Slytherins who had been coerced into providing a human smokescreen for the attack turn white as a ghost. Giving the whole group one last hard look, Harry deliberately turned his back to the group and walked away. Harry saw that every eye, student and faculty was on him as went back to the DADA classroom. Professor Balzhoff had dismissed the class for the second time in three days, not a good start. The disruption had apparently spread across the whole school, as it looked like nearly everyone was in the main hallway now.

Harry went into the DADA classroom and sat down on top of a desk. Within a few minutes he was joined by Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. Ginny came to him and melted into his arms, snuggling her head under his chin. She felt good to Harry. Hermione and Ron stood beside him. Ron didn’t look too happy about Ginny’s obvious show of affection towards Harry.

“You were brilliant, Harry,” said Hermione in an admiring way that Harry found strangely sexy. “I can’t believe how fast you reacted. I barely had my wand in my hand and you were already getting off a spell at him.”

“The thanks go to you for that,” said Harry. “I saw the danger in your eyes first. Since you were looking right behind me I knew where the attack was coming from. The rest was Moody’s training from the summer.”

“Harry, what did you hit him with?” asked a shocked Ron. “You damn near killed the stupid git. He probably wishes you had killed him. He’s busted up and burned up.”

“A little something I learned over the summer training with Moody, but nothing Madam Pomfrey can’t fix, eventually. I’m sorry the Ravenclaw girl got hit though,” said Harry. “I thought maybe if I stayed in a heavy traffic area and didn’t give any provocation that there wouldn’t be any trouble. Bugger all for that idea, eh?”

Harry saw that several more of the old Dumbledore’s Army group had come in. Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Luna Lovegood, and Susan Bones looked at Harry a bit cautiously, as though wondering if it were safe to get closer to him. Harry noticed that Dean Thomas’ expression of shock at what Harry had done was nearly as bad as Ron’s.

“Two questions, mate. First, are you all right, Harry?” asked Neville.

“I’m a bit shaken from the adrenalin rush right now, but I’m not injured.”

“Second, can you teach me how to do what you just did to that backshooting Slytherin git?”

“Well it was just a Stupify spell, it was only supposed to knock him down and stun him a bit, but I guess I was excited and overdid it a bit.”

“Overdid it, Mr. Potter,” said a familiar voice, that of the Headmistress. “You damn near killed that boy. You have power, but you need to learn how to control it. There is going to be trouble for the school over this. I’ve got to go and inform the parents about this now; we’ll certainly have an investigation.”

“Can’t Madam Pomfrey heal the students, Ma’am,” asked Hermione?

“Oh yes, she can fix them up,” said Professor McGonagall. “But the Ravenclaw girl who got hit by that Cruciatus spell is the worst possible person it could have happened to. Do you know who she is?”

“I know her name, Professor,” said Luna, who was also a Ravenclaw. “She’s Milly Babel. Her mum works for the Floo Network Authority in the Ministry.”

“Exactly,” said Professor McGonagall. “But it’s even worse than that, my dear. Not only is her mother a Ministry official, but her mother’s maiden name is Bartleby, as in the daughter of Erinyes Bartleby, the Inquisitor General. So now in the first week of school under my supervision, everybody who sent their child here as a first year has had that child injured, but doesn’t know about it because I covered it up. On top of that, the Inquisitor General’s favorite grandchild just got crucio’d in the main hallway. I went to school here with Erinyes; we never did get on with each other. You know I had always wanted to spend my retirement years somewhere secluded, a place I could get lots of rest. I guess I will be able to do that now, I just didn’t foresee doing it locked away in a cell in the Ministry’s dungeons.”

“What do you want us to do, Minerva?” asked Professor Balzhoff.

“I guess we just go on as per normal till something happens,” Professor McGonagall said. “We’ll have Aurors and Inquisitors here by noon meal though.

Since Harry wasn’t needed for the DADA class anymore he went to his office, followed by Ginny, Hermione, and Ron. There he found that the three of them had been waiting out of sight in the main hall that morning looking out for an attack on Harry.

“We were worried when you didn’t show for breakfast mate,” said Ron. “We figured you’d show for class and decided to be ready when you did show in the hall.”

“When we saw the gathering of the Slytherins we knew they were there to get you,” said Hermione. “We spread out to hit them from several quarters in case several of them were involved in the attack.”

“Crabbe and Goyle were bullying the younger students it looked like,” said Ginny. “Then just before you showed up they took off in a hurry to be out of there. I figured that you must be on the way and you’d been spotted.”

“Dobby and Winky had warned me and brought breakfast,” said Harry. Harry then proceeded to tell them about the lookouts and his preparation for the trap.

“Even so, Hermione was right,” said Ginny with a look of admiration in her eyes as she looked into Harry’s. “You were brilliant, you were damn near a blur when you moved and you nailed that Slytherin bastard dead on in a crowd. I couldn’t believe it when he burst into flames in midair. If that didn’t scare them I don’t know what would.”

“Yea though I walk through the valley, I shall fear no evil…” started Ron in a nervous laughing way; he regretted punching Harry in the sack now that he had seen what Harry could do. His laughing abruptly stopped as Harry glared back at him.

“…For I am the meanest motherfucker in that valley…” chimed in Hermione and Ginny. Even Harry had to laugh with them over that. It was a strange experience for Harry. He had always been the one who got the worst of everything, the one who got stepped on by bullies. Now he was the one who pushed back, or in this case pushed first.

With a look over her shoulder at her brother and Hermione, Ginny winked at them and grabbed Harry’s arm. “I have something I need to talk to you about,” she said to Harry and led him into the lounge. Once inside she shut the connecting door behind them, leaving Ron and Hermione on guard outside. Ron looked like he wanted to say something, then thought better of it.

“What is it you want to talk about?” asked Harry.

With a gentle yet firm push, Ginny sat Harry down on the couch and took off her Gryffindor robes. She then pulled Harry’s knees apart and kneeled down on the carpet between his legs. She then planted her elbows on Harry’s thighs and cupped her chin in her hands, looking up at Harry’s face with her beautiful brown eyes.

“Just one thing I want to know, Harry,” Ginny whispered. “Did Tonks teach you how to shag as good as Moody taught you how to fight?”

“There’s something you need to know about me…,” Harry started to tell Ginny.

“Damn it, Harry!” exclaimed Ginny. “If you’re about to tell me you’re really gay then I’m going to kill you. I swear I’ll find a way to kill you. You could at least wear silly fop clothes like Dumbledore did to let a girl know you’re a whoopsie.”

“Hell no, I’m not a fag,” said a hurt Harry. “It’s just that….”

Harry didn’t get to inform Ginny of the deficiency he felt in his trousers because Hermione knocked quickly on the door and opened it just enough to speak through the door.

“Get dressed you two; we’ve got Aurors and Inquisitors already apparating in to the front gates. They are sure to come here to talk to Harry.”

“Shit!” exclaimed Ginny vehemently as she put her robes back on. “I must be under a curse from my mother or something. I’m sixteen, horny, and can’t give it away.”

Ron and Ginny left to return to the Gryffindor common room, Hermione stayed in Harry’s office to await the Inquisition officers. She had told Harry that as an eyewitness to the attack she could verify Harry’s account. Besides, she told him, they would want to question her anyway. Secretly, Hermione hoped that Madam Hooch was the one who would lead the investigation, and she could use her influence with Madam Hooch to help Harry avoid any problems. Harry was a bit shocked, he had told the Slytherins that the Inquisition was coming to scare them, thinking only Madam Hooch might show, now he was worried that this might really have kicked over a cauldron of pixies. Maybe things went too far this time.

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Erinyes Bartleby was very, very pissed off. She had been at work in her secured office complex in the Ministry building when her daughter had called to say that Milly had been attacked by a student using the Cruciatus curse at Hogwarts. Milly was Erinyes’ favorite grandchild. Whoever was responsible for this would pay dearly, and she had the power to extract full payment.

As the Inquisitor General, Erinyes Bartleby answered only to the Minister of Magic. A powerful and ambitious witch, Erinyes had had her eyes on the Minister’s position for some time as she had advanced through the Ministry ranks, but she was loyal to the ideals of the Ministry. She was respected and feared for being ruthless in accomplishing what she set out to do, and known for her ability to extract a terrible revenge on her enemies. Some, including a few Inquisitors, secretly called her the Dragon Lady, or sometimes just the Dragon, behind her back. At least that’s what she let them think. She knew full well about her secret name, and privately reveled in it. Still, only a few very old and very close friends dared, even in private, to laughingly call her the Dragon to her face.

Damn that McGonagall! Erinyes had been the one who had convinced her daughter that Milly would be safe at Hogwarts under McGonagall’s tenure as Headmistress. It certainly wasn’t the first time Minerva had made her look like a Centaur’s arse. Erinyes immediately called her staff in and told them she was going to Hogwarts personally to oversee an investigation into this. Her security people tried to talk her out of it. What if the attack on Milly was a ploy just to get her in the open to launch an ambush? Hooch offered to head the investigation; she was supposed to have been going out there today anyway. Erinyes calmed down a bit, but remained resolute. This required a presence; Hooch would accompany her, and send an advance team to ensure the situation was safe. A few internal security wizards from the Ministry would accompany the main party.

Due to the new rules requiring interdepartmental cooperation, the Aurors were informed of Erinyes’ move. Erinyes would have preferred to have left them out of this one, but she was sure that Kingsley already knew what had happened and would investigate on his own authority. It was going to be a busy day at Hogwarts.