Chapter 28 - Turn of the Tide

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

As the morning dawned on the happy family of Potters, Harry stirred and looked around him. His wife Xiana was lying with her leg on top of him and her head nestled on his shoulder. Harry smiled at the beautiful sight.

He then thought of all the misery that surrounded them. The war was starting to drag on and his arch nemesis Voldemort was now about to receive so many new followers. He made a decision to look at his enemy forces very accurately, without any preconceived notions. The Scorpion army had a total of 28 members. Every one of them was worth 3-30 death eaters on the battlefield, depending on their training. He himself could probably account for 50, if not more. The largest consideration he had to keep in mind was whether the enemy would be prepared to meet them head on. Dirty tactics were very common for Death Eaters, but they could still be outsmarted.

He had to check out how many bases Voldemort had left and how assaulting them would feel. Voldemort had suffered a lot of casualties thanks to Harry, but still had to have a large overwhelming number of Death Eaters for Harry to encounter. Harry had to get a very clear picture of how strong Voldemort really is in order to start making assaults on the enemy territory.

He thought of all the possible ways to make this and start digging around for information. He already killed off most of available sources of information - known death eaters and unfortunately was at a loss of other ways to. The only way left to do this was to go back to Voldemort's head. Snape's information was very useful in telling that Voldemort had suffered greatly because of Harry's raids. Harry just didn't know exactly how much.

Since Harry still didn't move on his bed, he slowly started to meditate and go deeper into his consciousness. He saw his core and his mental layout. After 4 minutes of checking everything and reviewing all the techniques he would be using in the coming minutes, he approached the doorway that led to Voldemort's head. The tunnel was still as he remembered. The energy signature was still as he remembered. The other doorway was slightly open and he pushed in just a bit. This wasn't the physical universe, so harry flowed in through the tiny crack in Voldemort's mind.

The amount of pent up rage that was present there did not surprise Harry, but the amount of control that Voldemort had over his mind still baffled Harry. How could Tom become so emotionally driven when he had such an impeccable mind scene. It was dark, for sure, and incredibly defended, but the rampant emotions were very unnatural for an occluded mind. Voldemort had one of the best mind scenes that Harry had ever seen, surpassing every one of his lieutenants except for maybe Xiana.

The memories of Voldemort were defended by a mass of mental defences in the form of dragons. Eh, poor Voldemort. He still could not accept that sometimes he couldn't intimidate someone. Dragons are a great defence when dealing with a brutal intrusion. They do not deal well with small microscopic viruses that cannot be burned and cannot be caught by such lumbering beasts. That is given that the dragons detect the invasion in the first place. Harry released 40 of these celestial drones to infiltrate the primary structure of Voldemort's mind. The drones were filled with his magical energy disguised to appear like Voldemort's. He learned from his experience with Dumbledore. He will not announce his intrusion to Voldemort. The drones went ahead. Harry released 20 of the viral drones and 20 of the information gathering ones. When the time was right, Voldemort wouldn't know what hit him. The viral drones went after the dragons and one by one they snuck up on the flying beasts and went inside of them. Their purpose was to seize control of the dragon's perception of intruders.

While the viral drones were capturing the defences, the informants gathered most of Voldemort's latest memories. That is, 40 last years of his conscious life. The informants were not a completely well finished product though and had several limitations. They transcribed what they saw and could not download any images. But they got the job done well. They snuck out of the mental structure and went back to their creator, fusing into him. After 4 hours in the mind frame, Harry sent back into his own mind and opened his eyes.

The sun was already peeking over the horizon, so the time was closer to 8 in the morning. Xiana left to downstairs and allowed him to do whatever he started. Belatedly he realised that he did not tell her of his plan to invade into Voldemort's mind.

After a quick shower and an even quicker shaving spell, Harry dressed in his lightest wear and came down the stairs. He was greeted by a delegation of people who were discussing his outing with Neville and Luna to the Vampire Lair.

"Honey, I have something to tell you!" was the first exclamation that Harry made that day. Xiana ran into the room and congratulated him with a steamy kiss and a hug.

"Congratulations, Harry! Neville tells me how well you've done! You deserve a treat for that one." Xiana was positively beaming.

"Thanks Honey" Harry said smiling. "I also have a couple of things to tell you. I made some discoveries today. Let's go to the meeting room."

"OK, Harry. Are you sure you're alright though? Discoveries have a bad relationship with you." Xiana answered. She quickly became concerned.

As they moved to the meeting room, the others joined in with them. When everyone was seated, Harry started speaking.

"Today in the morning I was in Voldemort's mind. I made a visit to him and managed to extract all the information he had. The problem is that it was not perfect. It was extracted as pure text. I got the information using new mental information extractors that I and Xiana invented. It will take me 2 days to digest and understand all that information. I now plan to go to meditate on it and start absorbing all the information. I think it will take me only 2 days to absorb it all." Harry was telling this very calmly and making sure that Xiana did not explode on him now. He could be in a lot of trouble from her – he didn't consult her first and didn't give her warning beforehand. He did admit that it was a bit irresponsible of him to do that.

"Harry, you know what I want to say, and you deserve it." Xiana enjoyed Harry's flinch. "But, keeping in mind that you are safely here with us and you tell us that it's been a success, I will hear you out."

"Thanks, Xiana. I plan to head over and read some of Hannibal's memoirs. After that I will go into deep meditation to absorb the information. Neville, I fully trust you to prepare our gift to the Goblins." Harry was ready to finish the whole conversation. "Does anyone want to add anything?"

There was a chorus of negatives from others. They all rose from the chairs and went to have a breakfast.

An hour and a half later, Harry put down Hannibal's book. It was a very difficult task to read this book. The language barrier was there – Harry simply did not speak Italian and when he put words into the computer search engine, he did not get a sensible result half the time. Hannibal's language changed with time and Harry just hoped he could find the original meanings for the words used. The grammar used did not make sense to Harry either. Someone else had to translate the book for him. He had one too many things happening in the near future. That thought ringing in his head felt blasphemous to his mind though.

Harry assigned everyone their tasks and made sure the army would spend the time training. He wished his wife luck with her next target and gave her a big kiss. Afterwards he went to his room and sat down on his side of bed to meditate.

He first went to check on his mental drones. Everything was perfectly ordered still. He was not interested in Voldemort's childhood, so he skipped the 2 probes that dealt with Voldemort's younger life. He simply was not interested so much in understanding Tom as an individual.

He started absorbing all the knowledge that Voldemort had and time froze for him. He fully engaged his mental capacity to understand in flood of text information.

Harry opened his eyes. The first thing he felt was the incredible cramp in his back. His body was protesting the sitting position. His legs felt weak and his arms were cold. Ten seconds afterwards his back gave out and he slumped backwards into his bed. A low groan escaped his throat. Harry let his body a full minute to relax and recuperate and then he slowly got up to his legs and stumbled into the washroom.

Thirty minutes later he got down the stairs to find everyone agitated. Neville saw him first and said:

"Welcome back to the living Harry. How're you feeling?"

"Thanks Neville. Hey everybody. The cramps nearly did me in." Harry tried to be at least a bit humorous. He saw that everybody was still slightly uneasy about something. "Neville, what's going on? What has all of you on edge?

"Harry, Death Eaters just made a small attack on Hogsmeade. A group of Death Eaters apparated in beside the Shrieking Shack and killed 6 third years who were nearby. They also were met eventually by the brilliant defence of the Beaver and Ginger Head. There were signs of a small fight, but no bodies to speak of. Most probably they were taken hostage. Others reported that the third years were in a group of 8. There were supposed to be two more boys with them. And none of them reported back to Hogwarts and we checked all the maps. There is no sign of them." Neville was the calmest person around. "And Xiana is right now with her family in their home."

"Thanks Neville. Dobby"

"Yes, Harry Sir!" Dobby came with a brilliant smile.

"Prepare my breakfast smoothie please, double portion." Dobby immediately popped away. "Alright everyone, I want you to be in full battle gear in twenty five minutes. We're moving out in thirty."

Harry quickly made his way to Dobby's kitchen. There he saw no Winky, but she was with Xiana. He quickly downed one glass of the smoothie and then started sipping on the second as he apparated to the Zabini family manor. There he quickly told his wife of his plan to rescue the children. He knew the locations from Tom's memories.

It turns out that Tom was very much down on his forces. He only had 3 bases left to hold with a total of 29 followers. Harry had been greatly overestimating the number of Voldemort's forces. He realised that he already took out most of Voldemort's forces. The problem with Vampires could be avoided if Harry beat Voldemort before the main forces of the vampires could arrive. They were scheduled to arrive in three days' time.

The only four bases that Tom had left were in the Rosier Mansion, an abandoned muggle bunker to the south of Carlisle, his Riddle Manor in Little Hangleton, and Lestrange House. Harry was sure that the victims would be taken to the Rosier Mansion.

He told Xiana to stay behind; that he will take care of this business swiftly. She really couldn't risk their children. No other child was worth the risk to lose theirs. With that, Harry moved to the Lair to get ready for battle.

Twenty three minutes after he gave the order to gear up, Harry was sitting in the meeting room of the lair drawing a crude layout of the Rosier Mansion. The place was on a hill five miles out of Buxton. The others quickly joined him. He started the explanations as soon as most of them showed up.

"The place where they most likely keep the prisoners is the Rosier Mansion. It's located near a city by the name of Buxton. We will portkey to a forest a mile away from the Mansion. There are supposed to be no wards to keep us away. The place is protected by a force of 15 wizards and 5 werewolves. The werewolves are on a potions regimen to be able to transform anytime. These are some of the most veteran werewolves that Voldemort has, so you should keep watch. I will spearhead the assault myself. I will go there as the visible target and the werewolves will be attacking me. I will take care of them physically, but if you see a good shot, take it. You all are to go invisible. Neville will put the charms on you. Voldemort ordered this attack, because Dumbledore is now out of the picture. He is attack thinking that he can destabilise me and make me go after the hostages alone. Let's not keep him waiting too long. I just intend to keep a couple of surprises. Any questions?" Harry asked to finalise the briefing.

He received only negatives, so he started enchanting a portkey. They all grabbed hold of the portkey and disappeared. They appeared in a forest and almost immediately started walking in the direction of the mansion. Ten minutes later, Harry told everyone to turn invisible and separated from the group.

He went to the gravel road that leads to the mansion. The sun had just set over the horizon behind the cloudy skies. The sky was dark blue with heavy clouds. Harry approached the house in everyone's view.

The house was impressively large and it was situated on a hill with a large viewing area in front of it. Harry could see a stream running through the mansion.

The ancestors of Evan Rosier laid a foundation of the family nest, hoping that not only magic, but also the solid stone walls and iron bound gate can protect against an angry mob of muggle with hunters of the old days. Those who came with pitchforks and torches to deliver purifying fire to the "demonic offsprings."

The estate was a thought out point of defense. If things got bad enough that a siege was enacted, to sit under siege – the lack of dense forest and the height above the ground gave an excellent overview that did not allow the enemy to quietly amass sufficient forces for an assault. The nearby river was a source of water and an auxiliary route of escape. The fact that the mansion of gray stone with jagged pinnacles standing on a flat sloping hill also reminded of the remaining secret passages under the building and extensive caves. Caves, which given the propensity of the new inhabitants, hardly ever were empty with no occupants…

From the Middle Ages, when the place was constructed, a lot has changed. The circular wall that surrounded the estate has been torn down. It seems that its ruins now cover the castle moat, which was definitely there before. Judging from the almost gone, but still noticeable hollow, the gates have been taken away. The remaining hole was now a kind of decorative arch. The building has been subject to reconstructions several times, which have almost fully negated its combat qualities, but the foundation still remains the same – massive and oppressive.

Henry O'Hanian was a proud werewolf. He was a lean man of twenty eight years and had been a werewolf for twenty of those years. He was a tall man with a relatively handsome face and clear brown eyes. His clothes were ragged, but he never did care about them. Life as a werewolf under Fenrir Greyback was not easy. As soon as he was bitten at the tender age of eight, they had kidnapped and had been shaping him into a killing beast ever since. He knew some pleasures in his life though. Alice was his mate and she was rarely against a loud and active mating ritual. As soon as they were done with the outside patrol that night, they would run back into their room and rut until the bed broke under them.

He personally could account for the life of an auror. That had been his first kill in a battle. That had happened only 4 months ago, but he was still very much proud of himself. Fenrir himself had congratulated him and that was the highest honor that Henry could aspire to.

He saw a man coming towards the mansion where they stood. The man certainly did not belong here. No one was scheduled to arrive tonight and their Lord gave the order to kill every passer-by that saw the building proper. So that's what he did. He followed the protocols that were beaten into him. He let out a low howl to alert every other werewolf. He waited for a minute and when all five of them were outside and transformed, he led the charge towards the human. Alice joined him and ran just behind him. As he was running, he saw the man wave a shiny wand and take out a long sword from behind his back. Heh, let the poor human think that a simple sword can keep him, a werewolf, away. Twenty paces later, he noticed a strong smell in the air. He sensed that something was very amiss and quickly accelerated from his trot to a full out gallop towards the man. Alice did the same and barely managed to keep up with him. While they started running towards the man, the others noticed him sending a weak flaming spell towards them. That level of magic was laughable. Nothing of that calibre could ever best a single werewolf, never mind the five. So they didn't quicken their pace. The fire spell just missed Henry, when something unthinkable happened. The fire quickly grew as if it was burning the air around them. There was no time for a last thought to be issued by the brain.

The blast was deafening to Henry. It completely threw him off balance. He looked back and thankfully saw Alice beside him. Her fur was singed just like his, but she was alive and relatively well. He looked at the man who did this to his pack and growled. He wanted the man's life for his comrade's. He darted towards the wizard and made a long leap. He knew that Alice was not far behind him. He could already imagine his forelegs hitting the man straight in the chest and his teeth biting into the man's neck. His mass would make sure that his strike will succeed. No man can withstand that. He had done it numerous times and no sword has ever kept the victim safe.

The man darted forward to the ground at an incredible speed and came up with his sword slicing upward. Henry felt searing pain in his belly and fell to the ground in a pile. His intestines flapped out and there was a lot of blood leaking out. He was losing his consciousness fast, but he heard the loud whimper that Alice made before it became deathly quiet.

Harry quickly checked his surroundings. He was not impressed with the werewolves. They all died too easily. He barely missed the first couple of them with the blast, but the others died without ever making a trouble for him. They were lying in pieces around him. The stench was bad, but Harry forced bile back down. Now was definitely not the time to worry about such unimportant things as disgust.

He continued to approach the house. Everyone inside was on high alert now. There was not a soul in the nearby vicinity, who didn't hear the explosion. Streaks of light started coming from different windows in the building, but none of them were well aimed, so Harry didn't even cower. He kept alert all the same though. His team was already at the doors, where Death Eaters were trying to barricade the front. He quickly gave the signal and there were many simultaneous flashes of light which severed the five death eaters into pieces. This was not a mission to pick up prisoners.

There was a sharp bark of an order from the inside and all the spells stopped. A second later the same voice barked another order and all six of the window shooters launched spells at the same time. Harry had been coming closer the whole time and he had time to analyze rooms behind his shooters. He truly did not want to deal with three Avada Kedavra's and three strong blasting curses. He apparated into a room from which one of the Death Eaters had been shooting. He quickly sliced the wand wrist off the man and stunned him. A simple heart exploding hex finished the job.

The others must have moved into the building and secured some hallways already. The fighting was definitely not in the entrance hall. While Harry was cautiously walking there, the fighting stopped altogether. He got a message from Neville that the building was almost secured. Harry started briskly walking in the direction of the dungeons. He fully expected to find another couple of dark wizards in there.

The jade eyed wizard went down the stairs, into the cellar, which had a rich choice of wines and straight through to the dungeons. The point me and homenum Revelo spells told him all he needed to know. While walking, he got confirmation from his second in command that everything was secure. They were entrusting the hostage extraction to him. All valuables from the house would be taken.

The dungeons were actually dark and dank enough to be impressive. The Rosiers absolutely knew how to secure their prisoners. The tunnel that Harry walked through was at least a hundred paces long and there were seven active defences that the wizard had to disable. Three of those were lethal, but that did not surprise Harry one bit.

Harry entered the dimly lit chamber. He could see only see a boy of sixteen years of age looking at him like a mouse – frightened beyond words. Harry saw this and sighed. He quickly turned around and launched a wide arcing sound wave. There was a green mist coming out of a wand already. Both of the older wizards were thrown back against the mud wall. A fast series of transfigurations and a second later the mages were imprisoned within.

Harry turned back to the boy and just asked: "Where are they?" The boy was wearing the death eater robes after all. He was clearly no threat, but Harry did not let his guard down.

He pointed in the direction of the second door from the right. Harry quickly froze the boy in the position he was sitting in and moved past. The doorway was hastily warded, but that was taken care of quite quickly.

Hermione was in a world of pain. She heard tales that people sometimes felt so much pain that they wanted to die. She always left that idea to be in the books and only there. She never expected to have that desire herself. The DEs grabbed her, Ron and the kids and tortured them all ever since.

That day she felt Cruciatus for the first time. It was horrific and painful and everything the descriptions said a thousand times over. They all received dose after dose of the impossible pain and after an eternity the DEs said to pack up and let the boys back into their cages. She was left alone with the beasts.

That's when Hermione learned true horror. Being unable to do anything about male advances had her so afraid and panicked. She tried to bite the first two who wanted her mouth. She kicked and screamed. She cried for mercy. She sobbed while feeling incredible pain down below. Hermione did not want to remember the rest.

Then came probably the worst thing about torture - the wait. The witch could only sit and wait for the monsters to pick her or any of the boys up and drag them away. She desperately hoped that it would be another one they pick. Sometimes she got her wish, sometimes not. The guards always dragged them back in a heap. A seeming eternity passed this way with her being called twice. She cried herself to sleep when the she came back from the third session.

She woke up when she heard someone approaching. She wailed:

"Please, no! Not again. Don't you people have souls?"

The person answered with a surprisingly calming tone and with a voice that she didn't expect to hear - Harry's.

"Hermione, I'm taking you and the boys home. Everything will be fine."

Hermione could not believe how happy she was to hear that voice. And the face she saw completed the happiest moment in her most recent memory. Her cell bars vanished along with others. She stumbled to her feet and half walked half stumbled the few steps to him. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her temple.

That was not the time to bring up their previous animosity. She was a bespelled girl mind controlled into a brainless pawn. Harry already checked and deduced that the others were alive and asleep. He wandlessly levitated portkeys onto the bodies and silently activated them. The bodies vanished in a flash. They were left alone in the whole room.

Harry guided her out to the central room and left her. At first, she clung to him as if her life depended on it. She then let out an animalistic growl. Harry was very surprised at the change in attitude and looked at where she was glaring daggers. She was looking at the moustached man half submerged into the wall.

Harry did not have to figure it out for a long time. He took out a long knife from his pocket and put it in her hands. She looked at it numb, then she looked him in the eye. A silent conversation passed between them and harry released the knife. She got up and stalked toward the man. Harry left to check the other rooms. The vicious screaming of Hermione and the pitiful pleading of the man made the background music to Harry as he checked the other rooms. He found another six people in the dungeons. Most of them were starved and had symptoms of long torture. He saw three fully cut off and cauterized hands and feet cut off at the wrist and ankle respectively. These people also got a portkey to St Mungo's.

When Harry came back to the central room, he saw, that the man was dead and hermione was panting heavily in front of the suspended corpse. There were many lacerations on the man. His cheeks were cut open and his ears were popped. One ear had a clear hole in the middle from the knife. The body took minor beating comparatively, but the largest by far amount of cuts was on the genitalia of the man. The cloak was torn or cut open and the tunic the man had been wearing was cut right through. There was little left of the private part - it was stuffed down the man's throat.

"Hermione?" Harry asked cautiously. Hermione turned to look at him and he said firmly. "I don't want you to ever feel bad for what you've done here. He deserved it and more. I would have done it in your place."

She nodded wearily. The knife fell out of her now limp hands.

Harry hurried over and took her out. He ordered the team to blow up the place and get out of there.

They arrived at the med bay with Brianna giving the others a post mission check up. She still had three more to go when she excused herself and hurried over to Harry and Hermione.

"Brianna, she sufferred multiple Cruciatuses and her body had undergone major punishment." Harry said this with a very pointed look. Brianna got the message though. "Also she needs rest and some nutrition. Do whatever you can."

Brianna quickly nodded and got to work. She applied many diagnostic charms and healed some minor bruises with magic before she took out her potions. Phials and phials of potions went into Hermione over the next few minutes. A dreamless sleep potion finally finished the regimen.

Harry did not wait to see all of that and quickly apparated to the Zabini manor.