A/N: I could tell you all the reasons why this chapter took so long to update, but do you really care? I never did. So, after a way too long delay in the chapter here is chapter 18. Finally.

Special thanks to Dellacouer for once again providing her wonderful beta skills.

Chapter 18 – Returning Home

21 July 1999

Harry soon realized his fear was completely genuine.

“You think leaving me with Cousin Robert in Canada or here will be safer, Gramps?” Michele asked in a disbelieving voice.

The two Potters were standing in a guest suite of the Travis mansion offered to them since they had arrived two days previously. Michele stood glaring up at her great-grandfather; completely indignant at Harry’s announcement that the young witch would be remaining in the States.

Harry glared back. “Michele, it is not safe for you in England and once I get back I am going to send Jimmy and the rest over so you won’t be alone.”

Michele looked even angrier. “How can you say that? You killed a basilisk with a sword when you were only six months older than I am right now! And saved the Philosopher’s Stone when you were only eleven!”

Harry looked like he’d been slapped in the face. He visually grabbed hold of his anger. In a much quieter voice Harry said, “I did that because I had no other choice. And it was stupid of me to throw myself into those situations. I should have died a dozen times.”

He rubbed his face in frustration. “I had no choice but to fight because no adults would help me. You don’t have that excuse.”

“And what would you have done if Professor Dumbledore had sent you away while your family was fighting for their lives? Jimmy, Sally, and I were raised on ‘Harry Potter’ stories. What do you think that Harry Potter would do if you were forced out!”

With those final words, Michele ran from the room and locked herself in the bathroom. Harry winced as the door slammed shut and locked with an audible click.

“She does have a point,” a French accented voice pointed out softly. Harry turned to where Fleur had sat watching the Potters argue. The beautiful French Healer just gave him a small smile as he glared at her. Then with a snort he dropped into a chair next to her.

“I know it,” he admitted. “I had a vision of me sneaking onto a plane with Hermione, Ron and the rest of the Ministry crew following along behind me as soon as she said it. But that doesn’t make it right.”

The pair just sat in silence for a while with Harry staring into space. Fleur was watching Harry. Finally Harry chuckled and looked over at the Healer.

“I used to rant and rave to Albus, or anyone else in earshot, about being blocked out. The summer before my Fifth year they kept me locked up at my relatives’ house. When I finally got out of there, I tore into everyone for keeping information from me. All through my Fifth and Sixth years I screamed about how unfair it was that I was kept out of the fight.” Harry paused to chuckle. “I was a real obnoxious little git.”

Then the humour faded. He added, “I really understand now how Albus felt about being forced to involve me.”

“How was he forced?” Fleur asked curiously. Who could force the great Albus Dumbledore to do anything?

Harry shrugged, “It was the prophecy. I inherited his papers after the war ended. Between my drinking bouts I read how he spent the ten years before I arrived at Hogwarts trying to figure out a way to defeat Voldemort himself and just bring me in to kill him. It wasn’t until after my Second year that he got proof of how Voldemort survived his little ‘accident’. In the end, Albus just couldn’t find a way not to include me. By the time he admitted it to himself, it was almost too late.”

“And now you feel forced to allow the young ones to be involved?”

Harry nodded unhappily. “Michele is right. Who am I to ship them off when their family will all be fighting? Except for Sally and Michele, they are all of age in the Wizarding World.” Harry sighed before grudgingly adding, “And the two girls would be safer in the Chamber with us than here or an artists’ colony.”

A small pop announced the arrival of a Travis family house-elf. “Mistress say dinner is served.” Before Harry could reply, the elf vanished again.

--BD--

Harry led Fleur and a smug looking Michele into the dining room of the Travis mansion. Patricia Travis and her daughter Cassidy were already waiting for them. Michele made a beeline over to Cassidy and the two were soon huddled up whispering.

Michele and Cassidy took an immediate liking to each other on the Potters arrival. The two girls were about the same age and just seemed to click. Their bonding was helped by an incident shortly after the Potters arrived on their brooms.

The Potters had landed in the Travis backyard late in the evening. The sun had already set and the Travis family had already finished dinner. Charles Travis, his wife and daughter were on hand to greet them. Derek Travis, however, had gone out with friends and missed hearing the account of Fleur and Michele’s stay with the Sasquatch.

The next morning, Derek Travis stumbled on Michele wandering the halls of his family’s mansion. The young English witch had gotten turned about looking for Cassidy’s room. Derek took it as a perfect opportunity to bring his bullying ways out on the young unknown witch.

The rest of the house was startled out of a quiet morning by shrieks of pure terror. Everyone ran with their wands drawn to the sounds of the screams expecting the worst. Instead they found an innocently smiling Michele standing over a quivering ball of flesh.

The flesh ball looked up and shrieked, “She’s a monster! She tried to kill me!”

A harsh frown crossed Charles Travis’s face. “What happened here? Young lady, did you attack me son?”

“I didn’t touch him!” Michele protested. “He backed me into the wall and glared down at me! So I glared down on him back!”

Harry had no problem picturing the scene and suppressed a snicker. The more relaxed expressions on the other adults’ faces indicated they believed her too.

Cassidy started belly laughing from behind the adults and holding her ribs. “He tried to scare you and you went all Howling on him! I want to see the memory!” she forced out through the laughter.

Derek Travis avoided the Potters completely since that event.

--BD--

“I assume young Michele will not be staying with us when you return to England?” Patricia Travis asked as Harry and Fleur approached.

Harry suppressed a grimace. “No, she convinced me to allow her to return with us.”

A small smile crossed the witch’s face. “I suspected that to be the case. She strikes me as a very determined young lady.” Fleur giggled at the mixed look of frustration, pride, and resignation on Harry’s face.

Harry was relieved when Charles Travis appeared in the doorway. He was carrying a large manila envelope that was stamped ‘URGENT’ and ‘TOP SECRET’.

“So, young Ms. Potter won?” The smile on his wife’s face was enough of a confirmation. He turned to Harry and said, “You lost me a very expensive bet. I expected you, a British Unspeakable, to be able to hold out for a couple days.” The Councillor’s tone was slightly mocking.

Shrugging, Harry answered, “I was doing okay until she threatened to runaway and make her own way back to Britain. I have no doubt she would do just that.” Now Harry smirked. “It would be in keeping with family tradition. With her own ‘talents’ and Brighid’s assistance, keeping her locked up would be very difficult.

“Besides, how would you have fared in the same fight against your daughter?”

Now Travis smiled. “I agree. That is why I have this.” He handed the envelope to Harry.

“And this is?”

“Three complete sets of fully legal identification complete with driver and apparition licences, birth certificates, and life histories. The best work of the US Witness Protection Program for each of you.

“We set you up as a Major in the US Army, a staff officer of the magical branch of Special Operations, and his family. No one ever pays attention to staff officers moving around. You are set up to fly out of Andrews Air Force Base tomorrow as part of a routine reassignment to Germany. The flight will refuel at RAF Lakenheath where you can slip quietly away. Lakenheath is under the operational control of the US Air Force, so no one will question the arrival of yet another officer with his wife and daughter. Best of all, no British customs to question you.”

Examining the ID’s, Harry read, “Major Robert Cooper. These are very nice.”

“This picture doesn’t look at all like me, “Fleur commented.

“We have Polyjuice for each of you. The hairs came from mostly random Muggles.”

“Mostly random?” Harry asked.

The Travis patriarch smiled. “We sent a pair of trainees out with dozen different personality profiles. They were told to find people that met similar profiles and get hairs from each.”

Harry took another look at his Muggle driver’s licence. He turned a bit green and said, “Robert Cooper is six feet, two inches tall, 190 pounds, black and completely bald. He looks like Kingsley!”

An odd look crossed Fleur’s face. “Do you have a problem being a black man?”

“Hmm, what?” Harry asked in confusion. His face paled in embarrassment, contrasting with the green already present. “Its… its just that I couldn’t help wondering where they got a hair for the potion off a bald man.”

--BD--

23 July 1999

US Army Major Robert Cooper made his way down the tarmac accompanied by his wife Maria and fifteen year-old daughter Stefanie. Each carried a small duffle bag. The Major also carried a laptop bag over his shoulder. No one paid particular attention to the rather large, well-built man in green BDU’s (battle dress uniform) simply adorned with his name, rank and a should patch for the US Special Operations Command.

Most of the attention was focused on the beautiful woman walking next to him and the cute teenage girl wearing a sundress that smiled at many of the men as they passed. The large man might as well have been under an invisibility cloak.

The air transport was a C-17 cargo plane making a regular flight to Rammstein Air Force Base in Germany. It was not a very comfortable way to fly compared to a civilian airliner, but it had the unbeatable advantage of anonymity which spoke to the Unspeakable in Harry.

The small family climbed aboard after showing their travel authorizations to the crew chief. The young man pointed them to some rather basic seats in the forward portion of the cargo area. Along the outside of the aircraft were small bench seats of four facing into the airplane. Another pair sat in the middle facing out. They were simply a metal frame with canvas fabric stretched between the poles.

“We don’t normally get dependants on board too,” the sergeant commented in an apologetic tone. “We don’t have much in the way of comfort.”

Fleur smiled at the man. “That is okay, sergeant. We will be fine.” Her polyjuiced form was that of a petite black woman with a fine bone structure. Combined with her light French accent, she gave the appearance of coming from a French island. Harry didn’t know if it was her Veela aura or her new form that caused the young sergeant to blush. Either could be the case.

“Thank you, ma’am,” the sergeant responded. He turned to Harry and said, “We are waiting on one more officer and four enlisted men before we take off, sir.”

Harry nodded politely. “Thank you, sergeant.”

The young crew chief moved off, yelling at his assistants to finish securing some pallets they’d rolled up the loading hatch.

Michele claimed the forward seat against the side of the plane and was soon immersed in a book of charms for teen witches, given to her by Cassidy Travis just before they had left. The book was charmed so Muggles would see a normal teen girl magazine. It was further charmed so magical males could only read the cover and nothing else. Fleur assured Harry it was acceptable material, but the hints of a smirk made him wonder.

Harry settled into a seat with Fleur between him and Michele. A wandless Cushioning Charm cast on all three of the seats won him a small smile of gratitude from Fleur.

They did not have to wait long until their fellow passengers arrived. A small man in the blue uniform of an US Air Force major climbed aboard closely followed by three young men and a woman in the uniforms of Air Force enlisted. The major smiled at seeing his fellow ‘major’ and took the seat directly across from Harry. The four airmen sat in the rows behind the new major.

Before any conversations could take place, the plane was quickly closed up and the engines roared to life. The major shrugged and smiled at Harry as he settled back into in seat. Harry studied the man’s uniform briefly. A member of the US magical Special Forces had given Harry a brief run down on US military etiquette, procedures and uniforms. Hopefully, it was enough for Harry not to raise any red flags during the short trip.

Harry noted the man’s nametag read ‘Lufbery’. With his limited knowledge of the American military and its uniforms, Harry gathered the man was a pilot from the wings on his chest. A patch on the man’s shoulder read “94th Fighter Squadron – Hat in the Ring”

As the plan levelled out, the major leaned across the aisle and extended his hand. “I am Raoul Lufbery.” Harry noted the man’s distinctive French accent.

“Robert Cooper,” Harry replied whilst taking the man’s hand.

“Are you French, Major Lufbery?” Fleur jumped in curiously.

The man smiled easily as he heard Fleur’s accent. He replied in French, “My mother was French, mademoiselle. My father was American. She died when I was very young and I was raised in France by my grandmother. I moved to the States after finishing school. I fell in love with flying and now here I am.”

“Why not stay in France and fly there?” Fleur asked.

The major shrugged. “I came here to learn more about my father’s country. I found it was a good fit.” Major Lufbery looked at Harry and asked, “Get transferred to Europe?”

“Germany,” Harry agreed in a resigned voice. “They told me a staff rotation would be good for my career.”

Lufbery laughed. “They tried that one on me once. Had me writing books on air to air combat. Got out of that as quick as I could; found a slot as the operations officer in a squadron. Still have to work the office a bit, but I manage to get in the air every day.

“Don’t get me wrong,” the pilot continued. “Staff and support are essential, but I am a fighter pilot.” Harry could understand the man’s point. The Ministry officials with their forms and procedures in London drove the Aurors and Unspeakables fighting Grindelwald mad. It was the ages old battle between the fighters and the REMFs as the Muggles called them.

Fleur changed the subject when asking the Air Force major about growing up in France. The two launched into a long conversation in French that Harry was happy to sit back and listen to. Counsellor Travis had provided Harry with some Army handbooks for background information so he could pass as an officer for a time, but a long conversation with a real officer would quickly expose the shallowness of Harry’s knowledge.

The conversation died out as the cargo plane made its way across the Atlantic. Without the comforts and speed of a commercial airliner, the flight seemed to take forever.

When the plane eventually landed at RAF Lakenheath, most of the passengers disembarked while the plane waited to get refuelled. Told they had a one hour delay, the enlisted men made a beeline for the nearest food. Fleur took Michele stating they were going in search of the ladies’ room.

After they had left, Major Lufbery commented he was going to wander over to visit the offices of some friends that were the local squadron commanders, but before he left, he lightly grasped Harry’s arm. He leaned in and in French said, “Good luck in whatever you are doing my friend.”

Lufbery laughed at the expression of surprise on Harry’s face. “You hide it well, but your ladies were very nervous as we got closer to England. Plus you never talked about your unit, what you do. So, I say good luck as I expect not to see you again when our flight departs.”

Harry stood and watched the major stride away in shock. So much for their cover story. Hopefully not everyone was as perceptive as the Air Force major.

Casually walking across the tarmac, Harry slipped unobserved around the corner of a nearby hanger building. Another five minute walk brought Harry off the base and into the small town just outside. He found Fleur and Michele in their Polyjuiced forms waiting in a small coffee shop. After a few minutes to check for anyone following them, they left the shop and walked into a small alley between the coffee shop and a dressmaker.

As soon as they were out of sight of the street, they disappeared from the alley.

--BD--

“Thank Merlin you are back.”

Harry smiled at Tom’s comment as the two wizards watched the spontaneous party that erupted with the return of Harry, Michele and Fleur to the Chamber of Secrets. It was well after the dinner hour when they had arrived and most of the Potter clan had already scattered for their various evening pursuits.

Fred and George had been on guard duty when the trio Portkeyed into Harry’s old living room. Their arrival almost started a magical battle until the twins recognized the arrivals. The evil geniuses of Gryffindor had been deep into a discussion about a new invention so the unexpected arrival of three people caught them off-guard. Fred had preceded them out of the vanishing cabinet to prevent a repeat of the event. It almost happened anyway.

Lily had been sitting on a nearby couch reading a Muggle magazine when she saw Michele walk out of the cabinet behind Fred. It was Lily’s scream of excitement when they had arrived which brought everyone in residence running with wands drawn. The concern only lasted until they recognized the three travellers. When Michele announced she was ‘cured’ the party broke out.

“We really needed a reason to celebrate, Dad,” Tom continued in a low voice. “The weeks you’ve been gone have been … difficult.”

“What’s been going on?” Harry asked.

“Ever read Orwell’s 1984?”

“That bad?”

“They passed a law that every wand had to be registered and they put on the same charm that is on the students’ wands; so every spell cast is recorded by the Ministry. It is worth a year in Azkabam to be caught with an unregistered wand and the law gives them the right to check anyone’s wand at any time or place.”

Harry winced at that. Ironically, it was remarkably similar to a law Madam Bones tried to pass during the fight against Voldemort. “What else?”

“The Floo is heavily monitored. The rumour is if you use it with an unregistered wand it automatically dumps you out at DMLE headquarters. The Ministry has also taken to deploying volunteer “Block Wardens” to all magical neighbourhoods and alleys. They report any ‘suspicious’ or ‘disloyal’ activities to the Black Watch.”

“How could they implement so much is such a short time?” Harry asked, a bit shocked at the rapid changes.

Tom gave his father a small smile that lacked any humour. “The Dark Count’s attacks have terrorized the average witch and wizard. Someone poisoned the food at the Leaky Cauldron. It was slow acting. Everyone who ate there over a three day period died.” Tom seemed to brace himself and then added, “The entire Nott family is gone too.”

“WHAT?!” Harry gasped in shock.

In an emotionless voice, Tom told his father the story. The entire Nott family had been gathered for a family dinner on the Sunday after Harry had left the country. Edward Nott, Tom’s best friend and Senior Undersecretary, had been presiding as the family patriarch over his wife, two sons, their wives, and six grandchildren.

“The ‘Dark Count’s forces’ had stormed the house, Dad. The entire family was massacred. The house was pillaged and burnt to the ground. All the men were found impaled on stakes in front of the house; the woman and children were burnt to death in the house. The Daily Prophet claims they were still conscious when the flames reached them. The men were magically bonded to the stakes. All they could do was sedate them so they felt nothing while they died.” Tom paused and forced himself to swallow. He added, “The reports said the Aurors didn’t arrive at the house until seven Monday morning.”

Harry felt nauseous. Even with everything he’d seen in the wars against Voldemort and Grindelwald the scene Tom described was particularly gruesome.

“No one made it out?” he asked.

Tom sighed. “Not according to the Prophet. We couldn’t get near the place to verify that.” A small resigned shrug. “There have been some other attacks as well, but not nearly on that scale or level of brutality.”

Harry considered what he’d been told as he and Tom simply stood watching the rest of the clan celebrate Michele’s recovery. The young witch was telling the story, only slightly embellished, of the trek across the United States and meeting the Sasquatches. Fawkes and Brighid arrived on cue for their part of the story. Everyone was well acquainted with Fawkes and excited to see the phoenix return, but the news that Michele had bonded with the new phoenix shocked them.

Harry smiled as he watched their reaction to Michele’s new familiar. Then he snickered. ‘Wait until they see her alternate form.’

After a few minutes, Harry leant over to his only surviving son and said, “We’ll let them blow off some steam tonight. Tomorrow will be soon enough to get into sorting out this bloody mess.” Tom nodded his agreement.

--BD--

The next morning the entire population of the Chamber of Secrets gathered in the large common room. The crowd included all of the surviving Potters plus Fred, George, Ginny, Hermione, Christine, Luna Fleur, and Sirius.

Sirius and Mary had arrived while the Harry and company rescued Tom and Bellatrix from the Ministry. The Diagon Alley Gremlin Invasion absorbed too much of the Ministry’s resources to keep the watch on Grimmauld Place.

Harry started the meeting with a briefing on exactly what he had found out on the trip to the States. They seemed to enjoy the story until Harry got to the description of what really happened in Golden Gate Park.

Christina was the first to respond. “Dirk Cresswell is my nephew?”

“That is the story he tells at least,” Harry confirmed.

Tom looked particularly uncomfortable with the mention of the demon. With the exceptions of Harry and Christina, he was the only one to ever see a real demon. He could still remember the one from Hamburg that his father had fought against. Not to mention, Grindelwald had given Tom several ‘lessons’ in demonology during his time at Durmstrang.

Hermione followed right behind her grandmother. “So your return through time is what allowed Grindelwald’s spirit to return and possess his own son? Who just happens to be my cousin?” Harry could see she looked a bit green at the news. What was worse: to know your beloved grandmother used to be a Dark witch, or to have a cousin and great-uncle as Dark Lords?

Harry frowned. “Again, that is what he told me. I don’t know for sure. In fact, never take what a Dark Lord tells you as the whole truth. They lie worse than a politician. When I faced Voldemort my First year he offered to give me my parents back. He would have, by killing me and sending me to them.”

The conversation went on for some time before Tom asked a question that brought the room to silence.

“Did he use Hellfire?”

The room was silent for several moments before Ron asked, “What’s Hellfire?”

Despite the situation, Harry couldn’t help the small twitch of amusement as Hermione went into ‘know-it-all’ mode.

“According to Moehlenpah’s Book of Spirit Magic,” Hermione stated in her best classroom voice, “Hellfire is the focusing of pure Demonic energy. The FiendFyre Curse was an attempt to make a version that did not require contact with the Demonic Planes. Hellfire destroys your soul as well as your body. No counter to it exists.”

“Basically true,” Tia confirmed. “Except the part about the soul has never been confirmed. Also the caster of Hellfire has much more control of it than the caster of Fiendfyre.”

Now Harry did snicker as his daughter, named in honour of his dead best friend, lived up to her namesake by out ‘facting’ an alternate version of that dead best friend. Harry paused and realized what he was thinking. Time travel still gave him a headache.

For her part, Hermione was staring at her idol in surprise. “I never read that!”

Tia winked. “Should have come work for me instead.”

Bringing them back to topic, Harry answered Tom’s question. “No, he didn’t use Hellfire. But it would be a mistake to assume he can’t. Remember, he wasn’t really in San Francisco. It is possible that he couldn’t use it in that situation.”

“Also, there is a counter to Hellfire,” Harry added. He paused a moment and frowned. “Or at least there was.”

The room was silent as they all watched Harry sit thinking with his head bowed.

“Harry?” James prompted his quasi son.

Harry looked up as he wiped his eyes. “Sorry, I just realized why Albus was murdered.” The room shifted uncomfortably at this. “Albus had the ability to generate a counterforce. Flitwick used to call it Lightfire.”

Matching frowns appeared on Tom, Tia, and Hermione’s faces. Tom commented for all of them, “I never heard of this.”

Harry shrugged. “Albus didn’t make an issue of it. I only saw him use it twice. The first time was when Grindelwald sent a force of Dark Soldiers into Britain. Filius and I joined the Aurors fighting them back. Grindelwald almost killed us both in his opening blast of Hellfire. He would have succeeded if Albus hadn’t arrived and forced him back.”

“I remember hearing about that,” Christina confirmed. “It was a diversion so my team and I could sneak into England. Grindelwald later told me it felt like Dumbledore’s magic was absorbing his and weakening his connection to his power.” A couple people looked at her in shock as they truly realized the spritely old lady really had been the lieutenant of the last Dark Lord. Oddly enough, Harry noticed Bellatrix seemed to be the one that had the hardest time dealing with it.

For himself, Harry merely nodded. He knew exactly who and what Christina was and had done. Her insights from inside Grindelwald’s camp would be invaluable. It was no wonder Cresswell had ordered her immediate arrest when the Black Watch moved on the Potters.

“The next time I saw it was in the final fight between Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Jimmy, grab me the Pensieve. It will be easier to simply show you.”

Harry pulled the memories from his head and placed them into the magical bowl. “It was not a pretty sight. Tom, Tia and Hermione, I would like you to see it. I think you are going to be our primary researchers. The rest of you, well, it’s your call.”

Every person in the room stepped forward to see what they were up against.

The observers watched Harry slip out into a destroyed courtyard and take shelter behind the partially destroyed remains of a wall with a much younger looking Professor Flitwick. Beyond the two men was the event they had really come to see.

The two combatants stood ten meters apart in the center of the yard. Neither made any attempt to dodge or use tactics. This was a flat out power struggle. No subtlety involved. Sheets of black flame radiated from Grindelwald’s wand. The Darkness seemed to fill the yard in an unholy light. In some places the Darkness was not as intense; everything seemed to be colored with a disturbing red tinge.

Dumbledore answered this with a narrow beam of intense pure Light. The beam seemed to draw the Darkness into it. The inky red blackness rolled around the beam and crashed against it. The beam of Light stopped just short of the Dark Lord’s wand tip. A small red and white maelstrom marked the end of the Light’s reach. Sparks jumped from the maelstrom to strike out in random directions.

Both wizards were showing the strain of their prolonged duel. Albus’s hair seemed to have changed from auburn with a bit of white to all white in just the time of the duel. Only his beard still had large hints of his original hair color. The previously urbane looking Dark Lord was having an even harder time. His hair was gone and his scalp seemed to be hardening up, forming ridges.

“The lighting is what has done all of the damage,” the memory Flitwick commented in an excited voice. “It has been most exciting!”

They heard Harry’s response, “Filius, you are the perfect Ravenclaw. Rowenna would have been proud of you.” There was a slight pause and the memory asked, “Have you ever seen a demon?”

Flitwick started. “No, not many have. Demonology has been banned for centuries. Only a misguided few have attempted it in the last millennium.” A small shrug, “Some Muggles play at it but they don’t have the ability to actually open a portal.”

“Yah, well I ran into a demon this guy’s followers raised a year ago. Look at what is happening to his head.”

Flitwick glanced over the wall. “Oh my, the power he is channeling is altering his makeup due to the influx of magically negative elements within the magic’s force. It will metamorphosis Grindelwald into a being of that plane of energy!”

“Couldn’t you just say he’s turning into a demon?” they heard James mutter under his breath.

“I did,” the Ravenclaw Head of House answered.

“Well, what happens when he changes?”

“I don’t know. The negative aspects of delving into Demonology were never an area of interest to me.”

The Dark Lord was starting to shake under the stain of the power output and the changes were growing more pronounced. The observers could see small protrusions on his back starting to push against Grindelwald’s robes.

“Albert, this cannot last much longer,” the memory-Dumbledore suddenly called out. “You must desist from this action at once to save yourself! Please, don’t do this! Don’t make ME do this!” A note of pleading in the wizard’s voice.

Grindelwald answered him in a voice that seemed raw and worn, but held a deep power to it. “I have come too far to turn back now!” The Dark Lord made a throwing motion and a ball of vile blackness flew directly towards Dumbledore. The wizard merely batted it away like an irritating bug.

The observers instinctively ducked with the memories of James and Flitwick as the black ball sailed over their heads and struck the Dark Lord’s tower. The entire tower wavered for a moment and seemed to dissolve like so much smoke. In moments no sign it ever existed remained save for the hole in the roof of the school.

Dumbledore called out in a great voice, “This ends now, Albert!” The wizard seemed to push on his magic and the beam of Light closed the gap to the Dark Lord’s wand. The maelstrom seemed to quiver a bit just off the tip of his wand but then, just for a moment, the beam entered Grindelwald’s wand.

The real Harry now caused the Pensieve to slow its replay of what happened next.

The Dark Lord and the air around him seemed to explode whilst a rift in the dimensional fabric opened behind him. Before the explosion could go anywhere the rift swallowed it up and sealed itself up. Although the replay took several seconds, in real time it occurred in a single heartbeat.

Harry stopped the memory. An instant later their awareness was back in the Chamber. The gathered Potters and their friends all looked uneasy and shocked by what they had seen. The sole exceptions to that were Tom and Christina. Both of them had known Grindelwald and what he had been capable of doing.

Tom broke the silence. “So do we know what Albus did? Or where he learnt it?”

“You inherited his papers, Tom,” James Potter commented, speaking up for the first time. “Would he have left notes or something behind?”

Tia spoke up before her brother could. “I went through everything for Tom after we cleaned out the Headmaster’s office. A lot of theoretical material I wouldn’t let out to the average witch, but nothing about countering Hellfire.”

Sally Potter spoke up from the chair she was sharing with Michele. Brighid sat on the arm of the chair allowing Michele to scratch the phoenix’s head. “Well, since we can’t ask the professor, we could ask the most likely person to know.”

“Who would that be, dear?” Lily asked. “Professor McGonagall maybe?”

“No,” Sally answered while pointing to another chair on the far side of the room. “Fawkes. He was there with the professor all the time. And if anyone is going to know about pure Light magic, wouldn’t it be a magical creature considered the example of the Light?”

“Midget has a point,” Sirius pointed out. “Hey, fire-turkey!” he called out. “Know anything about this Lightfire?”

Fawkes looked up from his perch on the back of a chair. He sang out a little song before taking flight. Fawkes dove down straight at Sirus. The wizard was too surprised to even dodge as the rumoured Light creature dove directly at his chest. Just before he impacted, Fawkes erupted into a ball of fire and disappeared.

Sirius flinched back from the flames as the impact he’d braced for never occurred. He turned to James and said, “I thing that bird just gave me a bit of cheek.”

“Maybe not gave cheek, Paddy, but he sure got your eyebrows.” Fawkes reappeared and settled on the back of Harry’s chair while Sirius felt his singed eyebrows.

“Nice, Fawkes,” Harry complemented the bird. “But the question is can you help us?”

The immortal firebird let out a trill of song. Harry got the impression Fawkes was both willing to help but also slightly amused.

“So we just sit around and wait until they come up with something?” Jimmy demanded. “People are dying! We have to do something!”

“We are going to do something,” Tom assured his young nephew. “I have been thinking about this while we waited down here.”

Harry turned a speculative eye on his son. “What did you have in mind?”

Tom stood up and walked over towards the fireplace. He started to pace slowly as he gathered his thoughts. Then he started to talk.

“You all know what I would have become without my father’s intervention. I am horrified by everything that man did. Knowing he was a version of me has given me nightmares for years.”

Tom paused for a moment. In a quieter voice he continued. “I think we should take a page from his book.”

Harry felt rocked back into his chair. “What?”

“Voldemort’s terror campaign was meant to do two things. The first was to terrorize people into submission. The other was to make the Ministry appear weak and ineffectual. What I propose is a variation to that approach.”

“What are you suggesting?” Harry asked.

“I wasn’t kidding when I suggested Cresswell’s Ministry was taking a page from 1984. They have drastically limited civil rights as a ‘temporary’ measure. It makes sense with the information that Cresswell is possessed with Grindelwald’s spirit. They are following the recipe of Germany in the 30’s and 40’s.

“So, we do the one thing a dictatorship can’t handle. We make them look bad. Make people question what they are hearing from the Ministry.”

“Make them look bad?” James asked in a confused tone.

“Yes. Think about what was done when you broke Bella and me out of the Ministry cells. Diagon Alley still isn’t back to normal and the Ministry moved into a Muggle office building until they can finish drying the lower levels out.

Lily asked, “Won’t that just make them pass more laws? Harsher ones?”

Tom nodded. “Yes. It will,” he admitted with a sigh. “It will be up to us to get our own point of view out to people. When the government covers up events, the witnesses will know what they saw isn’t what was reported. Rumours will spread. Right now we have no credibility with the public. We have to destroy theirs whilst at the same time build up our own. I’ve spent years as a politician. I know what strings to pull to get the public’s attention”

A series of small conversations broke out as people started talking about the plan to their neighbours. Most of the sounds had a positive, hopeful tone to them. Fred, George, Thomas, and Al, Harry’s team, sat quietly looking to their team leader for his thoughts.

For his part, Harry sat quietly as he considered Tom’s proposal. He could see several advantages to the plan, but also a level on naiveté about the risks. Tom raised several good points about Voldemort’s overall strategy and approach. But that was against a democracy with a very lethargic bureaucratic tail. Most of the Death Eaters could walk freely in public as they were not ‘proven’ Death Eaters. The Black Watch would not be held by such considerations.

Even if Tom’s plan worked completely, it assumed the Aurors and Watchmen would stand aside when the public had enough. Risking everything on the assumption that the house of cards would fall when pushed because of a public uprising was beyond foolish. Even if the commander folded, one ‘true believer’ with a wand casting a spell at the wrong time could create a free for all; a bloody massacre that could leave hundreds of civilian witches and wizards dead.

“Dad,” Tom asked, breaking Harry’s thought train. “What do you think?”

Harry took a moment to collect his thoughts. The rest of the room paused to listen. “You have a lot of good ideas there. But you are only really addressing the second part of it, making the Ministry appear ineffective. I think we also need to take the fight to the Aurors and, particularly, the Black Watch. We need to thin their ranks; target Cresswell’s main supporters. Without taking out his lieutenants and true believers, Cresswell will be able to ignore your popular pressure.”

Christina agreed. “The Count is correct. Grindelwald would have unleashed his Dark Soldiers with orders to kill any resistors.” A pause. “I have done it myself in the early days,” she added sadly. In a stronger voice, she continued, “If the soldiers failed, there was always the demons.”

Tom looked a bit pale at their comments but he accepted them. “So, what do you suggest?”

“We let our strategy dictate our tactics. Until we can confront Cresswell directly, we are just fighting a holding action. We weaken the popular support for Cresswell while targeting his supporters. Worse case is we provoke Cresswell into using his Hellfire or demons against the public, but that would be all we need to bring in the ICW.”

Harry pointed at Tom. “You pick the targets. Make it fit the strategy. I’m sure you will get plenty of inputs from this group, but you are the general.”

Tom suddenly grinned. “I like general and field commander better the Dark Lord and his Inner Circle flunky. The other ‘me’ was right in a way; it was inevitable that you would join me.”

Harry grimaced at the reminder. “Nah. I just wanted to stick you with the paperwork while I get to play in the field. And if you keep it up, I know where your mum put the pictures of the time you…”

“No!” Tom interrupted with a quick glance at his wife. “I’ll be good.” Andrea only smiled.

In the end, they agreed on two separate action teams. As the only two true combat veterans, Harry and Christina would each lead a team. The first was made up of Harry and the Unspeakables: Thomas, Al, Fred and George. The second team would include Christina, James, Sirius, Bella, and Lily. As their healers, Katie, Mary and Fleur would stay in the Chamber. Tom was responsible for overall strategy in addition to working with Tia and Hermione on the ‘Lightfire’ research. Mary volunteered to serve as the potions mistress stating she would have to be making healing potions anyway so she could just make whatever else the needed too. Andrea would be their quartermaster.

The final resistance came from the younger crowd. Jimmy and Ron were the most vocal, but Ginny and Sally were right behind them. “I am older than you were when you beat Voldemort!” Jimmy accused Harry at one point.

“That’s true,” Harry agreed with a deceptive ease. “Of course, I also trained for it, in an odd way, starting in my First year. You are all, mostly, of age and want to be involved. I respect that. But before you are allowed out of here, you have to train and perform to MY satisfaction.” Harry gave them all a stern look. “That is my best offer. We will see what you want to do after you finish training.”

The teens still looked rebellious but at least they had gotten an agreement to train them.

Harry turned to their two youngest residents. “Sally and Michele, you are not of age but can still train. If nothing else you’ll at least be ahead of your year mates when you return to school. I am sure we can find plenty to do here to keep you involved without putting you in danger.”

Michele accepted it easier than Sally. But a simple glance at her parents was enough to prevent Sally from pressing it any further.

Harry smiled slightly at their grudging acceptance. They would have fought their parents or Tom harder, but Harry still carried a ‘mythical’ air in their minds that held them back.

Tom stood up. “Okay. Let’s get to work.

A/N

Many people commented in AD’s reviews how much they enjoyed the historical tidbits. Since BD is a ‘current time’ story, I threw in Major Lufbery as a modern USAF officer. Below are the facts on the real Raoul Lufbery.

Major Raoul Lufbery is an actual historical figure from World War One. The details of his life given in the chapter are true. Born in France to a French mother and an American father and raised by his French grandmother, Lufbery immigrated to the US when he was about 18. He joined the US Army, became a US Citizen and was sent to the Philippines. After his enlistment ended, Lufbery wandered Asia and became the mechanic for a French stunt pilot, Marc Pourpe, a few years before the start of the war. When war broke out, Lufbery joined the French Foreign Legion in order to remain the mechanic for Pourpe.

After Pourpe died in the early days of the war, Lufbery joined the Escadrille américaine, the first squadron of American volunteers to fly for France. The squadron was later called the Lafayette Escadrille in response to German protests that the unit violated American neutrality at the time. During his time with the Lafayette Escadrille, Lufbery was famous for keeping a lion as the squadron’s mascot. (Yes, a real, honest-to-God lion. He named it Whiskey.)

Lufbery became the first American ever to shoot down an enemy plane while flying for France. He also later became America’s first ace. (His first kill was 30 July 1916, I cannot find any earlier American victories.) Credited with 17 confirmed kills, his actual victories were much higher but the rules at the time stated that ground forces had to confirm the kill. His actual victories are estimated between 25 and 60. Under the same rules, Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, was credited with 80 kills with an estimate of 40 more ‘unconfirmed’.

When the US entered the war in 1918, Lufbery was transferred to the US Army Air Service as a major and assigned as the trainer and senior air officer in the 94th Fighter Squadron for the new recruits coming in from the US. That squadron went on to produce most of the top US aces of the war including the top US ace, Eddie Rickenbacker.

Lufbery died in May 1918 when machine gun fire from a German reconnaissance plane set fire to his aircraft. Either jumping to avoid the fire or thrown from the fighter, Lufbery fell to his death on a metal picket garden fence. (Allied pilots during the war were not issued parachutes.) Major Raoul Lufbery is buried in Paris at the Lafayette Memorial du Parc de Garches.