3,079Chapter 58: Harry, The Seeker
Saturday, 12th August 1995.
Ted watched as the two dearest women in his life argued back and forth.
"Did you really have to taunt her?" Dromeda asked their daughter as she sat in the library of Harry's large manor home. "They burnt the house to the ground."
Dora rolled her eyes at her mother and Ted wondered just how the girl still found her mother's concern so irksome. He wasn't so old as to have completely forgotten life as a teenager, but he had encountered some pretty irritating restrictions himself in his teens. His magic had taken longer than most to fully fall under his control, so he had not been allowed many chances to get out and about with friends.
"Will you stop worrying so much, Mum," Dora replied. "I've been slowly moving everything important here for the last few weeks. All they burned down was a house and a few old photos."
"Those photos are important, Nymphadora." Dromeda bit back, pulling out the full name for the first time in a while.
Ted had never managed to get a straight and satisfying answer from his wife as to why she chose the name for their daughter, beyond 'it felt right'. He, of course, saw the flaws in it right away. He had been a youth in muggle Britain after all. Children could be cruel at times, but a name like Nymphadora was a neon sign for such behaviour. In the end, their daughter was lucky she had spent her teen years at Hogwarts, where such names were common, rather than a muggle secondary school.
He stepped forward as his daughter began to build up a head of steam of her own at the reminder.
"That's enough." He said firmly, wrapping his wife in his left arm and gesturing his daughter closer with his right. "We are alive. That is all that truly matters. If Dora is being truthful, she's prepared for this and rescued a lot of other things for us as well, right?"
The seventeen-year-old looked awkward for a moment before she stepped forward into his open arm, joining the family hug.
"Yes. I made sure I got all the negatives and stuff that mum always worried about."
"Dora." Ted warned, getting between the needling his daughter was attempting and the woman he knew was only worried for their safety. "Thank you for thinking ahead."
He leaned in and gave her forehead a gentle kiss and the girl blushed. Too caught up in the argument to suppress the natural reaction to being embarrassed.
"And thank you for being so concerned." He said, mirroring the action with his wife, but the woman looked up and kissed him properly. As she pulled away, he smiled at her, the horror of having been woken by their daughter in the middle of the night had long since passed. "I love you both dearly, and I think it's high time this… ended. Alright?"
His daughter glanced up at him before looking across to her mother. Her face fell slightly and the defiance left her body.
"Sorry, mum."
"You shoul…"
"Dromeda!" Ted warned, without raising his voice. She was a very proud woman at times, and held onto this thing with their daughter even stronger than Dora did.
The formerly Black woman sighed.
"I'm sorry, Nymph…" She paused as she saw the look on Dora's face and sighed again. "I'm sorry, Nym."
The tiny three-person circle closed as Dromeda and Dora hugged each other without releasing Ted in the process. A little Tonks circle of love and thanks. He smiled at his girls.
"Better." He said, allowing them both to break the hug and settle at his sides. "Are we any closer to figuring out where the last one is? So we can be done with all of this?"
The figures in the painting that had been watching the entire process shuffled at the direct question.
"With the locket gone, it is just the Cup and Diary now," Lily replied.
"If Dumbledore is right," James added slyly.
"We have no reason to assume that he isn't," Charlus replied, nudging his son softly. "And Hermione made sure they all got a good long look at that memory. The need in Riddle was, apparently, quite apparent."
Ted glanced at the youngest members of the group, sitting together in their normal chair. They had just about outgrown it as a pair, so now Hermione tended to sit in Harry's lap instead. Although, lately, the pair had been mixing it up. And Harry was just at home in her arms as she was in his.
"We have almost finished sorting out all of the books that might be helpful," Hermione stated. "There are a lot of them, and unsurprisingly they all seem to be pretty horrific. The ones we had cause to open during the sorting were at least. Not to mention the house is a mess…"
The girl trailed off with a shudder and Ted knew it was not about the state of the house, but the fate of the one who had been tasked with cleaning it. While the kids had not seen the elf make the killing blow, the sight had been rather grisly. That one act had set back their plans to try and free the other elves significantly. If one could react like that when granted true freedom… They didn't want to lose the species altogether by accident.
Harry in particular had been worrying over the wording of his command for days. Wondering if some syllable had contained a fleeting desire of revenge for Sirius's abuse at the hand of the elf. If he had somehow imparted a desire to be rid of the wretched thing into a command to free it from all such commands.
"At least we have identified all of the books worth our time," Remus said, redirecting the conversation away from Kreacher's fate. The man looked a little ragged, as he always did after a full moon. But they had all done their utmost to ensure he knew they all cared for him and did not care about his curse in the slightest.
"I do not want to sound ungrateful." Amelia chimed in, having been mostly silent since her arrival. "You have already done so much, but Riddle has been stepping up his offensives. We need to try and resolve the anchors quickly. Before any more people die. Bellatrix in particular seems to be getting vicious in her attacks now."
"You and Dumbledore have been searching his sites," Dorea said. "Have you had any luck? If we knew where to find the blasted thing, we have several relatively safe methods we can test for its disposal now."
Harry too spoke for the first time since he had hugged the stuffing out of them all when they had arrived at the Manor after their detour to the Elf Haven in Wales.
"We could try connecting with the elves again. We restricted ourselves mostly to ones we believed belonged to the Death Eaters last time, in an attempt to cover the most likely safehouses. But there are a lot of elves out there. It would take a long time to connect with them all, without risking them sensing our location in return. Or worse." He added quietly at the end and Hermione tightened her grip on the boy.
"Keeping this place secret is now more important than ever," Sirius said.
Ted knew that to be true. His family had moved in this morning it seemed, now that they knew their home was gone. A handful of other attack victims were currently taking shelter in the Manor, those Harry trusted implicitly, or with the Longbottoms. Those were the only two locations that had currently proven to be impenetrable to Riddle's forces.
Unfortunately, while the goblins had confirmed the security of the wards on the Longbottom home, none of them knew how to replicate them. It had irked Lily to no end that she was unable to find the secrets of their creation in her memories. The painting had ranted for hours at the uselessness of her condition before Harry had silenced her by hugging her frame.
Alice was no better either, trapped in her own body. Though she now resided within this manor as well. Augusta had wanted to keep them at her own home, but Harry had been convincing when he had noted that Longbottom Manor was becoming home to many living folk. And it would be risky leaving the pair defenceless with so many people wandering about under those defensive wards. Even family and others that they trusted. Curiosity was a powerful force. At least here, they could guarantee a little more privacy.
"I will do what I can to help you predict her behaviour," Dromeda said, directing her comment to Amelia. "As much as it is possible to do anymore."
Ted wrapped his arm a little tighter around his wife, supporting her with his presence. He knew that she regretted the path her sisters had taken. More so once they had learned of Narcissa's death. But more and more, it was seeming that Bellatrix was best removed from this world in a more permanent manner. Incarceration had only inflamed the whispers of insanity from the woman's youth into a raging fire of instability.
"Appreciated," Amelia replied. "Unfortunately, Riddle's path was long and wide. And working through all the potential locations that Albus identified is taking longer than we had hoped. Especially doing it so cautiously. After the Shack, we are taking no risks with our approaches."
"We will redouble our efforts," Hermione stated, and Ted worried that they relied on the pair too much. They had been heavily involved with every single destroyed anchor so far.
Even with their luck at avoiding or resisting Riddle's assaults so far, the Family was definitely feeling the pinch of the evil man's grip.
They needed something to change soon.
ϟ
Monday, 14th August 1995.
Harry closed the horrid book and stretched his fingers.
When they had finished the sorting at #12 the day before, he and Hermione had worked together to disintegrate the pile of books too dangerous to be allowed to return to circulation. Those that were safe, but not of use had been taken by Remus to be sold off to secondhand bookstores. And the remaining pile had been brought here to the Manor.
Hermione had grabbed one out of the pile this morning when they had retreated here to the nursery and they had been switching off between reading this awful tome and connecting with the scattered elves all morning. When he glanced up at her sitting opposite him under the thick canopy of the nursery, she still had her eyes closed and he could feel her magic stretching out away from them.
They had made little progress in their efforts. So far, the information on Horcruxes in the book in Harry's hand had been ridiculously limited. It was everything else he had found within that left him feeling sick to his stomach. While they knew of a few ways to potentially destroy the anchors when they found them, finding this last one was proving harder than they had expected. And nothing he had read so far had provided any real hints on how to do so. Just page after page of disturbing spells and bigoted beliefs.
He sighed at the lack of progress.
Most would consider their present state a good thing. They were far further along than he had rightly expected them to be when his parents had first advised him of the situation in the vision. Such a task should have taken years. They had mostly gotten lucky to date.
The first Riddle had taken care of himself when he had taken Harry down in the graveyard. A moment that Harry refused to dwell on for long. But the second had slithered itself right up to him and practically begged to be dealt with. While Harry still felt guilty for killing Nagini, she would have had to die at some point to remove the anchor regardless. And he was not all that keen to try mastering the killing curse that the book had explained was a viable method for removing the soul fragment. That spell bore other risks he was unwilling to accept when there were other alternatives.
The third had been thanks to Hermione's unending curiosity and no small amount of luck. The fourth would have remained hidden for years if not for Madame Bones suggesting that Harry return to the graveyard for another play-by-play of the events in the hopes of finding some other clue.
And the fifth had just been lying about gathering dust in Sirius's childhood home for years. Just waiting for them to step inside and find it. With the second to last still tucked safely in Dumbledore's desk, it was just locating the final piece so that they could destroy Riddle for good.
Riddle had supposedly travelled the world in his early adulthood. And yet, every single one of the anchors they had found was right here on the island of his birth. All of them were at locations important to him, as they had discovered with Dumbledore's location of Regulus's fake from the cave over the weekend.
Harry shook his head quickly, trying to dislodge all thought of that place, and the horrific sight that was now interwoven with that knowledge. Madame Bones had unfortunately described exactly the same traits about the cave as Kreacher had told them. And Harry was still coming to terms with what the elf had done with the freedom he had forcibly granted it.
He felt Hermione's magic rapidly retreating and he tried to push away his sour thoughts. He didn't like her seeing him dwelling on that particular topic.
However, the moment her brown eyes opened and fixed on his face, he knew that she had felt his distress and returned early from her search.
"Sorry." He apologized, as she stood and walked over, planting herself firmly on his lap.
"Don't be. It bothers me too." She sighed. "We had high hopes, but… he was already troubled, Harry. It was not your fault. We both felt how many conflicting commands he had working on him."
"I know. Yet it still upsets me."
She leaned in and pressed her face to his own, snuggling him almost like a cat might. He smiled into the action, wondering just how much Crookshanks had rubbed off on the girl.
Her magic expanded outwards and immediately warmed him as it always did. He couldn't help the tingle that ran through him as his own magic welcomed the embrace and returned it eagerly. So long they had been doing such things that it was entirely normal now. Each of their magics sought out the other at almost all times. They were connected by more than friendship or love.
Their very souls had been tied together forever by their actions. Simple and childish as those actions had been. Their repeated occurrences had woven them tighter even than…
Harry paused, his thoughts halting and his magic retreating into his body once more.
Hermione pulled back and looked at him curiously, sensing the rapid change in him.
"What is it?"
"Of course…" He mumbled to himself. "How could I be so stupid?"
"Harry? What is it?" She asked again and he looked up at her.
"There is only one left. And they are connected, remember. We can use the Diary."
Harry looked up at her as if his realization had been obvious. But her face still showed confusion.
"I could feel the tethers coming from it. They aren't strong enough for me to follow them directly all the way to the Cup, but if I hold the Diary…" a thought that sent an uncomfortable shudder through Harry's form, "... and pop around to different locations, I can triangulate the remaining anchor. It will point in the direction of it."
Hermione leaned back further and Harry could see that she was considering his suggestion. "That could work."
"Quickly, we should…"
Hermione placed her finger softly over his mouth and silenced the rest of that thought.
"We should tell everyone first. We did agree not to rush off doing things like this anymore too." She reminded him and Harry felt a wash of embarrassment move over him.
"Yeah. You're right. Let's find Mum and Dad first."
ϟ
"I'm sorry, you want to do what?" Albus asked the array of figures almost as numerous as the group that had faced him on the night of the Final Task.
The young Potter boy who had just delivered the idea was flanked as ever by Granger, Remus and Sirius. The inclusion of the entire Tonks family was a surprise as well, though not overly so given recent events. But they had once more brought the Granger girl's parents as well. They were watching him warily from over their daughters' shoulders.
"Like I said," Harry repeated, "If I focus, I can use the Diary to try to triangulate the position of the Cup. We can narrow down our search area considerably."
While the group had surprised him with their arrival, they had entered through the door for the first time that Albus could recall. And yet, he was still shocked by the idea that they were posing. Taking one of the remaining two Horcruxes out to flush out the location of the other was an admittedly clever, if potentially dangerous idea. If they were to somehow lose it…
"We won't lose it," Granger said as if she had read Albus's thoughts and found his mental insinuation offensive.
"I can feel it, even now," Harry added. "Even behind all the enchantments you have on the drawer. I could have simply taken it while I sat at home, but I will not bring Riddle's filth into my home."
"We're here as a courtesy, Dumbledore," Remus said, drawing the eye for a moment.
"What he means to say is that we're doing this whether you agree or not," Sirius added in his typical growling fashion whenever he spoke with Albus these days.
Even having witnessed his lowest moment, it seemed the young man still did not trust him.
"We all discussed the matter in depth before we even consented to let them try." Andromeda chimed in as well. "We shall take all possible precautions. But this could significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to find the last one."
"And if it fails," Ted said, continuing his wife's line of thought, "we won't have lost any ground."
Albus scratched the persistent itch that had been bothering him since this lot arrived before he spoke. "I do not disagree with your assessment. I merely wanted to confirm that I had heard the young Mister Potter correctly. It is a rather clever idea. But I felt it prudent to point out the few issues I saw in the plan."
The two children seemed to be running short on patience with him as they raised their hands and snapped their respective fingers. One click slightly before the other and a thick handkerchief covered Potter's left hand before the book in question suddenly appeared in the air above the handkerchief, dropping the few centimetres into the boy's open grip.
"As we said, we are doing this regardless. Are you coming or not?" Harry asked, staring directly at Albus.
Albus gave the boy a soft smirk and opened his hands in a gesture of support. "Lead the way."
ϟ
Harry tried his best not to gag as the taint flew with him through the aether of non-existence that he travelled within every time that he popped about the place. An experience that normally passed faster than he could even comprehend it now felt aching long and icky.
Every single time he had done so with this disgusting sliver of soul in hand, his magic had tried to dislodge it from his presence. If he were any less practised at controlling it, his magic would have succeeded and Dumbledore's warning may very well have proven prudent.
While it was true that Harry could snap the item back to their location if he ever did drop it, losing it mid-pop could leave it anywhere.
For hours now, he had carried the tainted book as they moved from place to place. Heading first to all the corners of the British Isles. The feeling leading away inland every time. The filament that he could sense never growing any stronger, simply remaining there pointing ever away from the book in one direction or another.
The others seemed to be growing somewhat impatient with the idea now that Harry had led them to six different places around London in the past ten minutes. But he was sure that they were getting close now.
In fact, he knew for certain that the other end of the filament they were following led to somewhere in Diagon Alley. Hence why this most recent jump had them standing at the top of the long bustling alleyway.
People were moving through the busy alley in all directions, as was the norm for the busy trading district. The problem was, that there were far too many of them here together to move about unnoticed in such a hectic environment. They numbered almost a dozen people today, and it was hard enough making one's way through Diagon Alley alone.
"Please stay here for a moment." He said, knowing the response that would follow immediately.
Several voices sounded around him disagreeing with the notion.
"Please." Harry pleaded. "We can't all move through the alley like this if we want to remain unnoticed. I know it is here. I'll be back in a moment, alright? I can do this in a matter of seconds if I don't have to carry others with me each time."
Hermione just softly kissed his cheek and gave him a wink, confirming that if he popped away right now, she would ensure that the others remained in place. It was not a matter of not trusting any of them. They had even come to trust Albus a little more after their journey today. He had been nothing but helpful and supportive of the entire trip once they had left the school. This was a matter of expediency in an already busy location.
The others around him continued to voice their displeasure, but it vanished quickly from his perspective as Harry shot to the furthest end of the alleyway.
Immediately, the filament changed direction, pointing back up the other way. So the Cup was somewhere in the Alley itself, not any of the side paths. He eyed the street in front of him, finding places where he could carefully come and go without knocking into any of the numerous shoppers. Intending to stay as unnoticed as possible, he summoned his Cloak and allowed it to drape over him as he popped to the next free space he had seen further up the alley.
Again, the sensation changed and he turned to see a large white building to his right. He doubted that anyone would be foolish enough to store something like this within the goblins' domain, so he felt certain it must be stored somewhere on the other side of Gringotts.
With another pop, he appeared on the pathway that led around the left of the massive building and he froze as the filament instantly pointed behind him.
Harry tried not to groan at both the stupidity and obviousness of it all. Of course, a pureblood would hide something like that in goblin territory. They thought themselves above all laws, but especially so above the laws of 'lesser creatures' like goblins.
He knew that the adults would be growing slowly more and more frantic the longer he was away. Taking the foul device in his left hand inside their doors without first clearing it with the goblins felt like a very poor idea. While the goblins didn't strictly have any laws against Horcruxes and soul anchors that he was aware of, they were powerful dark magic and they absolutely had laws about dark artefacts being stored in their vaults.
Namely, that the rent was far higher.
Without being able to narrow the search area any further, for now, Harry snapped his fingers and the book disappeared. He sighed with relief as the thick molasses-like feeling of Tom Riddle's soul vanished for the first time in hours. At least with the locket, he had been able to move further away as it dissolved. Here, he had held it at arm's length for the entire excursion.
Harry popped back to the others, appearing in the dark corner behind them that would best conceal his presence from anyone looking. The moment he arrived, Hermione locked her eyes, which had probably been drifting over the adults to ensure they stayed put, straight to his location. Harry smiled as he pulled off the cloak and snapped it back to his bedroom at the Manor.
"Where is the book?" Dumbledore asked the moment he saw the empty handkerchief in Harry's hand.
"Relax," Harry replied, gesturing for them to remain quiet. "I put it back where it was this morning. The last one is in the bank. But I do not know where right now. We need to talk with the goblins about how we can search for it. I will not start a war over this."
Hermione walked over to him and vanished the handkerchief with a snap of her own before she grasped his left hand and slowly rubbed her fingers over it, releasing some of the tension of holding it in the same grip for hours. As well as soothing the residual taint of the magic he had been holding so long. Washing it away with her own far cleaner magic.
"We are on pretty good terms with the goblins. I'm sure they will hear us out this afternoon if we want." She added.
Dumbledore seemed suddenly perturbed by the news, and Harry watched the old man cautiously. While he was certain the man's true intentions had been to acquire the Stone, it did not explain his long and storied antagonism towards the goblin nation.
"I'll go arrange a meeting now," Remus said, turning away from the small alcove in which the kids were tucked when a ruckus began to sound out behind him, from somewhere down the alleyway.
"What is that?" Natalie asked, turning to face the noise when another figure appeared out of the air beside her.
Their rapid spinning ended almost immediately, indicating that they had portkeyed into place, but when the silver mask materialised, their eyes were pointed directly at Natalie.
Harry's wand was in his hand and moving before he had even finished assessing the appearance, and a spell of unknown form rocketed towards the figure as they brought up their already drawn wand.
A loud snap to Harry's left explained Natalie and Richard suddenly vanishing from the alley as Harry's dark blue spell moved past where the woman had been and slammed violently into the cloaked figure as they began to recite an incantation of their own. They never made it more than one syllable before the spell took effect and their wand shot out of their hand into the air. Their eyes went wide before their entire body folded around the point of impact and they were rocketed into the brick wall directly behind them so hard that they dislodged the bricks and mortar significantly.
As the pure instinct of the moment wore off, Harry felt at least a dozen other figures portkeying into the alleyway along its length. His senses were momentarily overwhelmed as magic began flying back and forth across the street beyond their little haven.
He squashed the feeling as he noticed Hermione now had her wand in hand as well.
Harry nodded to her, and he released her hand, allowing her to use her dominant right hand as well. While they were both skilled at using their offhand to duel, this was no duel. This was life and death.
And not just their own. Innocent folk just going about their day were now being attacked by cowardly Death Eaters. There were defenceless and innocent children in the Alley that he had seen as he popped about. They would be their targets. Harry would not hide while such evil was committed right in front of him.
"Protect everyone you can. Put them down hard." He said firmly, ignoring the inevitable resistance as he and Hermione popped away, further down the alley.
ϟ
Screams.
Blissful, agony-filled, terrified screams.
Such was the music of Bellatrix Lestrange.
She revelled in her effect on the masses, how they fled in terror before her wicked wand. How the little ones quivered in fear at her feet as she dispatched their wretched parents before their very eyes before she turned her wand on them as well.
The attack on Diagon Alley had been in the works since her Master's return, and at long last she had been unleashed upon the populated street.
Bella felt a thrill she had been denied since the previous war. The joy of spreading rampant chaos through the unworthy of the world. The unbridled freedom as she let vicious magic fly from the tip of her wand. The dark thrill that it put through her body left her trembling with delight. Wanting to cast more and more with every spell.
Her happy place suddenly shattered as one of her colleagues flew across the entire street, shattering an upstairs window on Globus Mundi before they fell lifelessly back down onto the pavers below.
Someone was fighting back, and by the look of that, they were fighting well.
She turned from flinging spells of her own to take in the Alley properly. Her position down near the bank had been decided by their Master, knowing she would best be able to handle any response that came from the goblins. Not that they expected it, as the goblins would not interfere in wizarding politics like this. The Dark Lord had also suggested that if all went well, she might even be able to duck inside and check on her vault before they departed the area today. Yet it also gave her an excellent view back up the slightly upwardly sloping alleyway.
People were beginning to take cover, ducking behind stalls or into shops, as if that would protect any of them. But there were a couple of figures that were not hiding. At the very top of the alley, she spotted several familiar figures and a thrill of challenge went through her.
The plan was to cause chaos and fear in the population. To remind them of why they needed to fear the Dark Lord. But she was certainly not forbidden to engage the enemy if they so carelessly walked into her sights.
Albus Dumbledore would be a problem. She was content to leave that to Dolohov, Rookwood and Travers. They were all closer to that end of the alley.
But Black and the werewolf… Bella had scores to settle with those two.
And to top it all off, her damnable sister and that mudblood husband of hers stepped into the alley as well.
It was going to be a very good day today.
While the plan had been to be as visible as possible, in order to best instill fear in those that might survive, Bella twirled herself up in an invisibility cloak she had brought along just in case she had needed to enter the bank and slowly made her way carefully up the alley. The plan would continue just fine with the other two dozen of their number tackling the regular folk. They had brought some of their best for such an important event.
But Bella needed to approach her targets more cautiously. She would not be denied the thrill of ending their lives again.
Occasionally, as she moved forward, bodies would fall in front of her feet. Either blasted there by one of her allies or foolishly fleeing them instead. Bella was quick and brutal in dispatching these fools. Normally, she would pause and relish their deaths. Watching with glee at the fear in their eyes before all sense of self vanished as life left their bodies.
Not today.
The Alley's defenders had spread out now and were pushing deeper and deeper into the alley. Her husband was engaged with the werewolf and, as predicted, Dolohov and Rookwood were engaging the old man.
While he was still formidable in his casting, she noted that his spells seemed less effective than she remembered. Even two-on-one, Dolohov was pushing the old man towards Rookwood more and more.
However, she did not have time to dwell on the performance of the others. She was almost upon her traitorous sister, and the woman was not facing her way as she engaged with Powers. One of their newer recruits from the former prison.
He was just a petty thief who had sworn himself to their cause. While he was eager, he was not particularly talented. Bella had no fear that he would finish her sister before she had the chance. But her attention was drawn away from her prey by something else.
A small lithe teenage figure appeared in front of her out of nowhere.
The girl flung three spells at three of her colleagues before she vanished once again. But there were none of the usual signs of magical travel. The girl did not portkey away, nor had she used apparition.
All three spells found their marks, bringing the men down before they could end the lives of the families quivering at their feet.
There was another force at work here.
She paused and observed the alleyway for a moment, taking in all of the chaos. The dead and broken bodies lying on stalls or spread unmoving in the middle of the cobblestone street. The acrid smell of magical spells whizzing back and forth. The stench of fear that humans give off when you delve deep into their dread centres.
And the two figures that continued to pop in and out of existence up and down the alley.
Occasionally, they would momentarily engage some of her colleagues. But for the most part, the two teenagers were preventing the Death Eater spells from hitting their targets. Every time that one of the two appeared, they would fire off spells in multiple directions. Sometimes the spells would move a target out of the line of fire. Others would lift or fling solid objects into the path of the incoming spell, blocking it. And others would hit the competing spell in the air and burst in a flash of colour as they both dissipated.
It was impressive, she had to admit. Not a single spell went wide of its target, and these two alone were preventing most of the damage the other Death Eaters were attempting to cause.
As the male figure popped into place near her, Bella finally got a good look at him.
It was Potter.
While the Dark Lord had made sure to tell them all that killing Potter was not allowed, that honour belonging solely to the Dark Lord, they were allowed to soften him up. Even loss of limb was acceptable, possibly even preferable given their last encounter, so long as the boy was still breathing and capable of consciousness when brought before their master.
Bella smiled to herself as she snuck forward, drawing her favoured blade from her robes. It seemed that these two could detect the magic that her allies were firing, so if she wanted to attack the boy, she would need to be creative. The curse in the blade would slow him down enough to disarm the boy and slap her spare return portkey onto his body, sending him to the Dark Lord.
She shuddered with the promise of the delightful reward the Dark Lord would see fit to bestow upon her for such a prize.
However, as she approached, the boy vanished once again. She growled to herself as she tried to track him, but he was impossible to pin down. Several long seconds passed as she wondered how to best trap the boy nearby enough that she could strike. Bella knew she could leap quite a distance if she needed to. So it did not need to be immediately within arm's reach.
She glanced at her closest surroundings and noticed a small child quivering behind a stall about three metres ahead of her. Another figure that she assumed was the boy's sister was hiding behind more broken boxes a few metres from him as well. Both were concealed from further up the alley by their barricades.
Holding her knife tightly, she crouched, ready to launch herself forward and drew her wand in her left hand. With two quick twirls, she launched her spells at the unsuspecting children and waited.
Sure enough, the air in front of her silently parted to reveal the black-haired boy and he brought his wand up, firing at the two spells rocketing towards the pair of children. Bella did not wait to see how her attack fared, the children were irrelevant to her now.
Her legs extended and she shot out from under her cloak. It must have snagged on some debris as she moved, peeling back over her form, but it did not matter anymore, the boy was right there in front of her. The blade in her dominant hand gleamed as she stabbed forward, aiming for the joint of the boy's right shoulder. If she could disable his arm, she would find subduing him far easier.
Her master would be pleased.