Blood-Soaked Succession Chapter 20 (Patreon)

Chapter 20:

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The engine locked into place and the entire train behind them lurched forward, but the brakes held.

"Good thing we had the foresight to clamp all of the wheels down." His father said offhandedly.

"And to hold off on connecting the engine's runic array to the undercarriage." Said Bill. "I say we complete all but the last connecting rune, which won't be any use until the passengers are on board anyways. Without the hundred or so passengers to power the runes, this train isn't going anywhere by air."

"One hundred passengers or one Harry." Said Dudley, who had helped with the lifting and

He was wrong on that, but only in fact, not in spirit. Although, he could imagine Harry managing to lift the entirety of the Hogwarts express if he exerted himself, runic arrays like this power themselves of the excess magic that wizards and witches "sweat", not active magical energy. Actually? If all else fails they could probably get away with hooking Harry up to the engine with jumper cables like a spare car battery.

The sound of an obvious human attempt at hooting came down to them from the rafters and they all ducked low. That was Luna's signal that they had company.

They crouch-walked out of the engine room and onto the platform. Seeing Fleur near the main exit peering out, Bill made a low whistle to his wife. She turned around and, seeing, them motioned them to hurry over to her. They did so, with Dudley remaining behind for some reason, and pressed themselves against the walls on either side of the door. It wasn't until she motioned to her eyes and the windows on the door that they dared to per through.

"Whoa. That's a lot of Aurors." He couldn't stop himself from saying.

Indeed, in the large open space between the train station and the Hogsmeade post office dozens of Aurors were appearing, each platoon arriving just as the prior one barely managed to march off in the opposite direction. Had the mission already failed that dramatically that the ministry was sending everyone at them? The platoon of fully robed and masked Death Eaters who came next answered that question. As they marched off he realized there was a soft, golden glow coming from the direction of Hogwarts. That would be the defensive wards being activated.

"Damit!" Fleur cursed. "How are we going to manage to sneak everyone on board unseen now?"

"We aren't." Said his father. "We are going to get them out seen and fought. If enough of them march off to Hogwarts and are held up there then at least some should be able to get here through secret passages unseen, but we may have to plow through a few Auror's as we fly out of here."

The lack of concern or remorse in his father's voice at the prospect of his coworkers dying or suffering mutilation was a bit concerning, but understandable.

George was so busy looking at his father's face that he missed the person who apparated in next but caught his father's expression of utter horror. The sudden loss of color and slack jaw looked so alien on his father's face, but when George looked out of the window, he soon mirrored it.

That lord Voldemort felt confident enough to merely stroll down Hogsmeade with every Auror in the nation present said a lot about he state of the ministry and public at large. They had been unaware that he was even back in the isles. This was a most unwelcome development indeed. George caught himself reaching into his cloak for his enchanted sickle to send a personalized message to Harry warning him of this development but stopped. Surely, the man already knew. This was Harry Potter after all.

Harry gasped at the sudden burning in his scar. It was a sensation he had almost come to miss in the recent weeks. And then he smiled.

"Voldemort is here." He said to Viktor and the posse of young adults he was barking orders too.

They all stopped and or flinched at the pronouncement.

"Here? In Hogwarts?" Viktor asked.

"No." Harry said, turning his neck left and right, using the severity of his scar's burning like a compass. "He is in Hogsmeade. The wards will not keep him out long, especially not if he brought along his army."

Which was all but ensured.

"You are certain?" Viktor asked.

"I am." Harry said. "And this does not bode well for us."

"We kept him out of Durmstrang for a month of sieging, we can do it here too." Said a dark woman with Viktor.

Harry nodded encouragingly at her.

"I had been wondering what he was up to these last two months. I think I owe much of my success to you all holding his attention. You deserve rewards, and yet here you are preparing to fight him some more." Harry lamented. "For now, we need to invoke his ire and focus on us. Get as many of the enemy to the edge of Hogwarts and away from Hogsmeade."

"How are we going to do that?" Viktor asked.

"We are already wearing neon signs, maybe we just need one more?" Harry asked rhetorically.

He marched a few paced forward and pointed his wand at the window he had jumped out of just minutes ago and made a twisting potion to add a little more force that the spell normally required.

"Morsmordre!" Harry cast.

The beam of green light jumped from his wand directly to the window like a bolt of lightning, and then, with a flick upwards with his wand, he redirected the spell skyward to form the smoking visage of a skull with a snake for a tongue.

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Voldemort snarled as he arrived in Hogsmeade and marched forward.

He had just returned to the UK from abroad to find out somebody had made war against his home country while he was gone and nearly beaten it into submission. His trace had been disabled, Malfoy manor was lost and at least a hundred Snatchers and a handful of Death eaters were dead or missing. Plus, the statute of secrecy was hanging on by a thread after the entire city of London was lit up with six dark marks emblazoned on the sky. Obliviators were still working overtime to cover that one up.

And if that weren't infuriating enough half of his inner circle was convinced that Draco Malfoy was somehow responsible for all of it. That weak, cowardly little shit couldn't lead a preschool rugby league, much less a methodical butchering of his entire snatcher force or the other masterful maneuvers of this new threat. No, this was definitely somebody more cunning and powerful, not to mention well trained. Whoever was leading this uprising thought like him, and that was a dangerous thing.

Either mad-eye had somehow survived the killing curse and eight-hundred-meter fall, Severus was somehow leading this without his knowledge, or Potter was alive and proving to be just as dangerous as he predicted. Each was about equally unlikely, unless Severus had taught young Draco a bit too much and he had the potioneering skill to slow the advance of the withering curse?

He stopped in his tracks as a green light flew above the golden dome of Hogwarts wards.

He tilted his head is confusion at it's appearance. It was coming from inside of the Hogwarts wards, but he hadn't authorized its use and the enemy only used it after making a grisly example of his forces. But none could have breached yet.

"Oh. The Carrows." He said in disappointment.

They were great torturers, especially on the psychological side of information gathering. He had put them at Hogwarts expecting them to help glean information on Potter and best train the next generation, not to mention spiritually destroy the future enemies from within Hogwarts' walls. Perhaps it would have been wiser to leave somebody with more combat capabilities?

"It is adorable that you think you can turn my weapons against me. The taboo will be restored, and my men will never fear the dark mark." He monologued confidently.

It was how he psyched himself up. What did he care that other people found it odd?

It was then that a mutilated, broken voice spoke to him, as if coming from all around him.

"Then why are you cowering all the way over there, Tom? Come and reclaim your weapons!" The voice said.

Voldemort looked about him in a near panic at the closeness of the voice and hideousness of it, but there was nobody there. He cursed at himself for letting his occlumency shields down in deep thought and cursed himself again for not recognizing the nature of the attack on him. He had used this connection before to attack potter, and now he tried to turn even that on him?

The nerve of this upstart to think he could match him in the mental arts. It really did amount to a puppy nipping at his fingers, but the sheer balls required to even attempt it brought his blood pressure far too high to be healthy for a man in his seventies.

At least it confirmed which of the three possibilities was true. Potter was alive and changed. War does that to people.

"My Lord!" Macnair called out too him.

The executioner was sprinting towards him from the general direction of Hogwarts.

"Report?" Voldemort asked.

"Potter is sieging Hogwarts. he has an entire fleet of ships moored in the Black lake and has called for any to join him to evacuate thereby." Macnair explained.

The memory of the unexpected escape of the Durmstrang contingent by ship was still fresh in his mind. That too had been ballsy. They had just charged right through the invading force that was preoccupied with securing the castle proper. They showed a complete disregard for their own safety. He had taken as a desperate, and surprisingly effective, last ditch attempt at escape. Now he wasn't so sure.

Had Potter been in contact with them even then? Had he planned to have him preoccupied overseas? Had he advised Igor and his protegees? How long had this evacuation of Hogwarts been planned? So many questions, and so few answers. He greatly disliked not being in the know.

"Call on Severus." Voldemort ordered." Have him drop everything he is doing at Durmstrang and rush over here to undo the wards at Hogwarts. They will listen to him as headmaster, for a fear the acting headmaster is already dead and those remaining in the faculty would not jump at the chance to stop Potter."

"But my lord. It would take him hours to get here from Siberia and... wait... Potter?" Macnair said in confusion.

"You have half of one! And yes, Potter is alive and behind all of this. Spread the word." Voldemort ordered.

Macnair fled from him and Voldemort proceeded onwards towards Hogwarts. They had an hour, maybe two, before Potter was successful in his mission. They would need to throw everything they had to tear down the wards in that time frame, and he wasn't certain they could manage it, even with him helping to hammer against the wards.

"My lord!" A new voice called out to him.

Voldemort stopped in his tracks and held out a hand to silence the Auror trainee. He took a deep breath and counted.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Okay.

"What else has gone wrong?" Voldemort demanded.

"My Lord, Azkaban is under attack! The dementors have already been repelled and the Aurors guarding number only a dozen! They can't hold against the force attacking them." The young man said. "Reports say they number at least fifty."

Voldemort took another deep breath and thought.

Potter had planned this well. If he split his counterattack on both sites, he would surely lose Hogwarts. If he focused on Hogwarts he would lose Azkaban, either as a fortress for them to operate as or the veritable army of hardened criminals and dissidents trapped within. Either way, Potter got his army and or fortress. Even if he focused all of his might on Hogwarts, he likely wouldn't stop the evacuation in time, so that option was out of the window. He couldn't put all of his assault on Azkaban, his followers would mutiny at his command to leave all of their children to die. That was the best strategic decision otherwise. Focusing on Azkaban would ensure the death of these fifty attackers and denial of the hundreds of fighting wands from its cells.

What to do?

"My lord, shall they be sent reinforcements?" The peon asked.

"No." Voldemort said. "Focus all efforts on tearing down the wards around Hogwarts, rescuing our children from this menace, and finally ending these madmen. In fact, get MORE people here. Every ministry employee, every mediwitch and wizard from Mungos. Have them all tear down those wards."

He waved for the man to leave and sighed in frustration. He didn't want to put her on the frontlines so soon, and he was even more reticent to leave Potter to his servants to handle. But he and Bellatrix were the only people who, alone, could repel the attack on Azkaban. He had to put his faith in the thousands of people directly serving him to overwhelm Hogwarts and Potter, and hope Severus got back in time.

What a disappointing day. He returned home expecting to finally take on his dream job at Hogwarts as its headmaster and DODA professor, leaving Dumstrang to Severus. He was expecting to finally live now that his forces across the world were in position to handle his workload without him. But, it seemed, so long as Potter lived it would be impossible for him to do so. He would fight until that curse finally took him in a few months' time.

And so, he apparated away.

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They all breathed a deep sigh of relief at the disappearance of Lord Voldemort.

"Thank goodness! It looks like the Azkaban distraction worked." Fleur said.

Fred, Bill and their father all stood up straight at her proclamation. Oh shit. The Azkaban distraction had worked!

"Somebody get Fred and the others to abort!" George yelled. "They were prepared to fight, but not against Him!"

"How! They're in Azkaban! The fortress blocks all communication except by owl and patronus." Bill said. "They wouldn't get any message, least of all by the coins, until after they demolish the wardstones, and our patronus wouldn't reach them before he does. I fear they may be on their own."

Damnit all! They had been so certain that Voldemort would take the Hogwarts bait and pursue Harry. Had they overestimated the mans' obsession and hatred for the boy who lived.

"I will handle this." The masked woman, whom none of them had noticed behind them, said.

They all jumped at the sound of her muffled voice, and jumped again when she popped out of existence.

They all shared confused glances, each equally baffled by the woman's mere presence in the first place, let alone Harry's insistence that he trusted her more than them. That was the first time they ever even heard her speak.

"I guess she'll be handling it." Said Fleur.

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Harry stopped dead in his tracks.

He was nearly upon the hospital wing when he felt it. Or more accurately, stopped feeling it.

"He's gone?" He asked to himself.

Yup. Voldemort's presence was gone. He had either apparated out of range or had since learned how to completely cut off their connection. He suspected the former, as the latter was well and truly impossible. One cannot break the bond they have with a horcrux except by destroying the horcrux, and seeing as Harry was alive he knew the horcrux within him was still active. He did so enjoy Dumbledore's ignorance at his being aware of that fact.

Oh well. Time for some contingency plans.

"Fabean Prewitt. Lily Potter. Lucius Malfoy." Harry listed off as he twisted the resurrection stone on his finger.

The three men apepared before him.

"Lucius. I am giving you the chance to speak with your son. Go to him now in your mansion and pass on the message I am about to give you." Harry instructed. "Fabian, same to you but to my friend Ronald Weasley in order to save your nephew Fred. Mum, please go tell Hermione and then Peter at Grimmauld place."

They all nodded.

"Voldemort has abandoned his assault on Hogwarts to attack Azkaban. Implement the third point of assault." He said. "Now go."

They all bowed and vanished. The speed of death was faster than any patronus or even enchantment. And the only people who could see the shades were those who had died, or those who possessed the ring. Draco, Hermione and Ron would have no difficulty receiving the message, no matter where they were or what wards prevented other forms of messages. He was wise to leave a resurrected person with each party. He would have to continue doing so in future assignments.

With that work done he continue his march down the last hallway between him and the hospital wing. Once its doors, left open and revealing a full;y lit hospital wing, were in sight he removed his robes and undershirt. With his surgery scars and cursed flesh on full display he entered the hospital wing. The matron was standing by the window staring out in anticipation of the workload about to come her way. And here he was about to give her more.

"Madame Pomphrey?" Harry called out.

She started at his words and snapped her head to the side to look at him. He didn't like the look of stricken horror and pity on her face, but he had expected.

"I once again require your saving." Harry told her.

And then the fussing began.