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Harco Empire	By : Toddy Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 34430 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or films. I do not make any money from the writing of this story, just enjoyment.

Chapter List
- 152
- 153
- 154
[Note: “x-x” = speech & ‘x-x’ = thoughts & *x-x* = telepathy & #x-x# Parseltongue]
SMOKE CLOUD
~~~ NIGHT TRAIN ~~~
København: 21.00 – Malmo: 21.35
Malmo: 21.52 – Berlin: 06.14 [via a different train ferry]
The train left via the underground station at Copenhagen’s Airport. This led into a tunnel under the Oresund which emerged onto a man-made island from which there was a bridge to the mainland of Sweden. It was at Malmo, whilst they were being attached to the Berlin night train, that most of the previously reported discussion took place. Naturally this led to more questions which the Seers and the Weasleys carefully fielded. It was well after midnight before a mutual bedtime was called.
~~~ FRIDAY 27^TH AUGUST ~~~
Berlin: 06.30 – Duisburg: 10.30
The company slept through the change in Berlin, finally finishing breakfast just before Duisburg. Taking the lead from the Seers, the others indulged in quiet pastimes and reading until lunchtime. At lunch Iggy handed out travel tickets and city guides.
~~~ NETHERLANDS ~~~
Duisburg 10.45 – Amsterdam Centraal: 12.45
“I do hope that the roundabout route we took has thrown off our malcontent followers” said Iggy: “We had the choice of two routes but chose the most indirect one available. By special arrangement we will be partly shunted into a bay platform this evening. This means that the lounge and dining carriage will be outside the main canopy. The authorities have been very good about this and it will enable you to watch the fireworks from the comfort of the lounge or its balcony. Meanwhile you will have to alight because the station is very busy and we have to move the carriages out of the way. I understand you have some ideas about where to visit. Please be back before seven o’clock ready for dinner and the show.”
Various clarifying questions were asked and the company went off to put on walking out clothes.
They had intended to go for a walk into the red light district, but the four Seers and the Granger-Weasleys were dead set against it. The two Americans backed them up so they all went shopping instead. Draco and Astoria had a long list of presents to buy and Ginevra’s many relations had to have theirs too; she made a threesome with Ronald and Hermione. Nevertheless they all stuck within sight of one another.
*I’ll keep a gentle eye on them,* she promised.
Harry went with his other two partners, using all his Auror training to look for possible assailants; not that he found any. Siggy had found them a couple of shopping trolleys and after three hours of trudging round the shops they were full to overflowing. They trailed alongside the tree-lined Herengracht canal looking for somewhere to sit down.
“That place looks nice; I like the dark red paint.”
“Odd name for a coffee shop, ‘Amnesia’.”
“Not really. I think I’d like to forget all the money we’ve spent on presents.”
“I want to forget my aching feet.”
“I want to forget those sexual tortures.”
“We all want to forget the worry and angst of yesterday evening.”
“YEAH!” they all breathed.
“Okay let’s go for it.”
Outside, there were enough metal framed basket seats for the whole party. Ronald found a chess-set and challenged Dudley.
A strange sort of conversation ensued with the waitress. She seemed to think that they wanted to buy something else apart from the coffee or tea and cakes. He thought that there was some language difficulty, but it was only when Draco was given the alternative menu did he cotton on to what the girl was saying.
“Hmm … Guys … They sell weed here.”
“Why sell weeds?” Hermione asked: “Is it some kind of obscure Dutch pastime? I might like a bunch of tulips, but not weeds? Ugh!”
“Not that kind, Hermione. The kind you smoke.”
Hermione went very red when she realised to what Draco was referring. Ronald hugged her companionably.
Astoria looked over Draco’s shoulder and pointed to a couple of items.
“You’re not seriously thinking of buying some, are you, Tor?” After her hug Hermione had recovered her usual aplomb.
It was Draco who answered: “Quite a lot of pain-relieving and relaxing potions have cannabis as one of their ingredients. This, on the open market, is much less likely to be cut with harmful substances, than from those sources at home. Blaise said to be on the lookout for certain blends and we missed the market in Istanbul, didn’t we?”
Draco and Astoria went into conference with the waitress.
“They’re not allowed to sell it in bulk. So will each of you order some, please? We promise we’ll use it properly in potions.”
Hermione now looked very rebellious.
Draco gave her a hard look: “You don’t have a leg to stand on Mrs Prim and Proper. The relaxing potion I gave you earlier had quite a bit of hash in it. Now just do it, so I can replenish my stocks.”
Ronald leaned in and whispered something in Hermione’s ear. She blushed: “Okay Draco, I will. What about the rest of you?”
Mrs Cautious having accepted, the rest eagerly agreed. In exchange for Euros each of them was given a packet which they stowed surreptitiously about their persons.
In the relaxed atmosphere of the café they spent an enjoyable hour or more sipping coffee, tea, eating cakes, and showing each other the presents they had bought for relatives and friends. Eventually it was time to leave so the waitress showed them a route which would take them alongside some of the more picturesque canals in order to reach the station.
They were a little early, but Aggie was there waiting for them.
“I see you’ve had a good shopping spree. Let me put the parcels you’re carrying into one of the station carts. Harry fumbled one and it dropped, Aggie bent down to pick it up and passed close to the pocket Harry had his stash in. Aggie sniffed.
“I see you have other merchandise as well. All of you?”
“It’s for Draco’s and Blaise’s potions.”
“Really?” Aggies’s eyebrows raised in mock questioning.
“Yes; really! They wouldn’t let us buy it in bulk so we each have the maximum legal amount.”
Aggie looked at Harry’s honest countenance; half smiled and then altered her opinion.
“Okay! I know a dozen or so places where we can put it until we get home. I suggest you take it from out of your clothes, the body heat will let the smell seep it into them. Otherwise the customs’ sniffer dogs could have a field day.”
As the party walked up the platform, their carriages were being backed in. Once on the balcony Aggie held out her hand and each person handed over their package without a word.
Being the intended last dinner of the holiday, they had agreed to be formal again, so much showering and preening took place. The train crew had pulled out all the stops aided and abetted by various personal-elves. Siggy and Winky surpassed themselves in producing delightful courses. Dinner lasted for two hours with lots of chat between courses; much of it reminiscences of the previous four weeks. ‘Do you remember when …’ became the theme tune of the evening. Still chatting they arranged themselves on the balcony, that is, until their peaceful talk was interrupted by a big bang.
Unbeknown to them, the railway viaduct was being used to harbour the fireworks and that bang was the nearest pot sending its shell into the air. As the four Seers had been standing close when that first firework went off, Ginevra and Astoria automatically gripped hands with their male counterparts. Harry had a momentary curious vision, something like when Voldie was alive, but it took in their immediate surroundings.
“Guys, there’s something else going on, I think,” Harry said quietly: “Link hands a minute and let me concentrate.”
Instead of actually looking Harry closed his eyes and found that he was still perceiving his surroundings, only this time he could notice the surrounding magic rather like small different coloured flames. Of course the train glowed golden, but then he glimpsed other glowing patches, with mages mixed in. He opened his eyes and they were not there, he shut-off his normal vision and they were there again. With his eyes closed he slowly turned perceiving the magic around him. Then it came to him what was happening.
“With you three linked to me I can see magic when I close my eyes. However, what appears to be our empty platform has some Magicals hidden behind some form of occlusion halfway along. Don’t stare, or they’ll realise we know they’re there. Then there’s some more pretending to repair the line, again hidden; and another lot at the end of the far platform. They seem to waiting for something to happen.”
“Another gift … Mmm?”
“I think so; trouble is they’re so close to all the muggles waiting for trains. I think I recognise a few from our previous contact with the satraps.”
Draco drew everyone into the lounge area: “We are almost sure there are satraps out there waiting to pounce on us. We need to neutralise them without harming the muggle passengers. Any ideas?”
Harry described what he had seen.
“Enclose them in one of Hermione’s bubbles.”
“Then what?”
“Pump some debilitating mist into the bubble – like at the hamam in Istanbul.”
“Then the other muggle passengers will notice.”
“If they were drunk, they wouldn’t be able to use magic, would they?” asked Dudley: “The muggles would just treat them like any other drunks.”
“Good idea! How do we make them drunk though?”
“Got it!” Astoria did a little jig. “Use our stash, make man-sized balloons and fill each balloon with the smoke.”
“Great one, Tor. Draco, do you remember telling me that your relaxing potion might make my magic go funny.”
“Yes Hermione and the smoke would be much more potent.”
Silently Aggie went out and returned with the hashish bags in her hand giving them to Draco.
Siggy had been with them: “I could cook that in the galley.”
Draco handed over their stash.
Whilst the drugs were being prepared, Harry had put on his invisibility cloak and had gone to investigate the nearest group. Meanwhile, it was Millicent who perfected the balloon and Gregory who managed to concentrate the vapour inside it. A little escaped and had them giggling.
Harry returned: “They’ve made a non-video bubble. I think I could penetrate it without them knowing. It’d hold the smoke inside and give Hermione time to create her outer containment ward.”
“Here’s the first ‘smoke bomb’. I’ve set a twenty minute delay on it”
Harry and Hermione slunk off under the cloak, whilst the others moved round on the balcony, some of the elves had adopted human Glamours resembling the missing mages, thus obscuring the fact that a number of their party were disappearing. Next, Draco and Ronald bubbled up in their own non-video to go and assail the party on the far platform; once they were behind them the satraps became visible. When they returned Harry and Hermione took off up the line, they had balloon with a five minute fuse, to where the pseudo-platelayers were grouped. With all the pops and bangs from the fireworks no one took any notice of the fuses when they burst inside the balloons. To begin with, nothing was apparent because of the disguising charms. Then one of them was dismantled; Harry closed his eyes and gripped hands so that he could see the magic involved.
The inmates had obviously thought that by releasing their wards, the smoke would dissipate. They had not counted on Ronald’s and Hermione’s outer bubbles, created from outside. By the time the befuddled inmates were released from the secondary bubbles they were as high as kites and totally incapable of focussing any form of thaumaturgy.
Dudley had had a bright idea. Using his portable he phoned the emergency line, alerting the police to the fact that some drugged-up miscreants were annoying the passengers waiting for trains, and that some of them were putting themselves in danger by wandering along the lines. That got a very quick response, sirens blaring two squads of railway police descended on the station. The totally phased out attackers-to-be were quickly herded up and taken away.
The Seers were holding hands again as Harry used his seventh sense to peruse the area. He caught a distant glimpse of five mages, not anywhere near the station but on an hotel balcony across the tram station square and its bridges.
“Hey Guys, expect and attack by broomstick from over the other side of the square. There are only five of them. I hope they don’t realise their backup teams have been removed. I’ll tell you when I sense them take off.”
“I bet it’ll be during the finale, there’ll be so much going on that no one would notice extra sparks around the train.”
“I know some of the WWW firework charms,” suggested Ronald. How about I set them up, the fire-dragon ones can be aimed quite easily; we could set them off and singe our attackers if you like.”
Every mage thought that was a good idea and huddled round Ronald as he explained what to do, Robbie, Bobby and some of the elves got involved too. However the Seers stood slightly to one side with Harry monitoring the hotel balcony. Ronald the chess master, soon had his troops organised and divided into five groups. He had even organised the Squibs and muggles into a fire fighting corps armed with the carriages’ fire extinguishers.
“Hermione and I’ll fix the coloured tracers; you aim for your coloured target. Don’t fire until they’re in range and remember to spread the fire so as to catch them when they dodge. Got it?”
“YES RON,” came back the enthusiastic replies.
The train bound party waited, relaxing and enjoying the muggle incendiary display, only Harry had his eyes closed; his magic focussed on that hotel balcony. Nearly half an hour elapsed; then a number of big pyrotechnical bombshells were launched, the noise was deafening. Over the thunder Harry’s voice rang out:
“Here they come! In tight formation.”
The broom-riders were nonplussed when they were hit with splodges of different coloured light, thinking that they been affected somehow by the brilliant display all around them. They flew on, Lucius slightly in the lead. One hundred yards, fifty yards, thirty yards, the Seignior felt exultant.
‘WOOSH!’ His party was surrounded by fire and his robe began to smoulder. Quick Aquamenti’s sorted that. He could see the silly youngsters crowded on the train’s balcony, but there seemed to be a few more that he expected.
‘Never mind,’ he thought: ‘the ground parties will easily outnumber them;’ as he swerved away from another fire jet.
Then a coloured smoke-globe materialised in front of him, bursting and temporarily obscuring his sight; sending him careening towards the river. The corners of his robe wetted themselves as he recovered his balance just in time.
‘What’s happened to the ground crews? I’ll Crucio each one of them for being late.’ Lucius rose above the station, cautiously peering over the edge of the semi-circular main roof.
He saw that one of his flyers was back on the hotel balcony, desperately trying to douse his burning clothes. Another one had been enclosed by a smoke-bubble and was drifting balloon-like ever higher and higher, giggling as he went. He saw the third one hit the water with and almighty splash. Lucius never found out until two days later what happened to the fourth one.
Robbie and Bobby had been watching their target as he swooped towards the river, the rest of the team thought he’d gone under and so relaxed their vigilance. Not so the two young elves.
“He’s peeking over the edge of the roof.”
“Mmm … so he is … We’ve got one big one left.”
“It’s a bit far!”
“I’ll adapt it to make it spiral. Ready? Go!”
A thin tongue of fire twisted its way towards the roof top, because of the spiral effect, it had a curved trajectory. Lucius didn’t realise it was upon him until the last few seconds. He beat a hasty retreat, dodging as he went. The spiralling tongue of flame followed him; keeping pace. It was quarter of an hour before the elfin-enhanced flames spluttered out. The exhausted Seignior had tried so many twists and turns to avoid being burnt that he had lost all sense of direction.
Two hours later, a charred and tired Lucius landed back on his hotel balcony, to find only two singed cohorts waiting for him, plus one of them who was still dripping wet, having only just arrived back.
“Never mind the recriminations,” he said wearily: “Let’s get some sleep. It’s obvious they knew we were coming. Tomorrow they’ll be safe under their home-dome; so we can take our time to sort out what went wrong and punish the traitors suitably.”
~~~ CONGRATULATIONS ~~~
“Well done, Guys. Any wounds?” Harry beamed at his friends.
None of the train party had been hurt. They smelt of smoke, not that it was too noticeable within the fume filled pyrotechnical aftermath. Meanwhile a train-crew member had driven the carriages away to the servicing sidings. Once hitched up to the water supply everyone indulged in long showers before retiring.
~~~ SATURDAY 28^TH AUGUST ~~~
Their breakfast surroundings were not exciting. They were close-surrounded by other sets of carriages waiting to be drawn out and depart to various destinations. Harry thought that it was a brilliant disguise, and said so.
“It wasn’t planned like that Mr. Harry; we were a bit worried about the lack of scenery. As things turned out, if any of the flyers come looking for us, they’ll have quite a time sorting one set of carriage roofs from all the others,” replied Iggy, smiling. “However, there is a jetty next door and we’ve persuaded the captain to pick us up here instead of at the station. As planned, he’ll take you to the Hortus Botanicus by water.”
Draco and Astoria were in their element talking to the curator of the botanical garden about medicinal herbs and being provided with samples. Hermione, Greg and Pansy enjoyed the flowers and asked for tips from whichever gardener was there. The others just strolled about taking in the sunlit peace. At midday they were all back aboard their boat.
“I’m taking you to one of the famous canal-side cafés for lunch. I hope you enjoy it,” said the smiling captain. As in Venice, he took them along some of the more striking canals ending up in the Herengracht. He drew alongside and tied up. They climbed out only to find themselves at ‘Amnesia’ again.
“Don’t tell me you’ve smoked all that already,” chided the waitress smilingly, as she laid out their lunch.
Draco smirked: “Actually we were very generous and let some other friends share; we only got a whiff or two in the end. Could you possibly resupply us?”
The waitress was only too pleased to fulfil the repeat order as she would get the extra commission.
Arriving back at the station Aggie received their donations without a word; looking very surprised when Astoria and Draco added the packets of seeds that the curator had provided.
~~~ CHANNEL CROSSING ~~~
Amsterdam: 14.30 – Brussels Midi: 17.25
Brussels Midi: 17.56 – Ashford 18.37
The party relaxed as Iggy drove on the way from Amsterdam. The sun was shining and peaceful cattle grazed in emerald pastures, surrounded by glittering canals of many sizes. In a way, the practical morning in Holland’s capital City had helped them postpone the time when they needed to relax from the exertions of the previous day. No need for any relaxing agents, they hung-out in the lounge car snoozing, chatting and indulging in the sort of common room weekend atmosphere they had been used to at Hogwarts.
The Belgian Authorities were fairly relaxed in their passport inspection, and the British ones only slightly more efficient. Despite Harry and Hermione worrying, no sniffer dogs came on board their carriages.
~~~ HOME ~~~
Ashford: 19.30 – Great Grumblewell: 00.30 [the following morning]
As this service train normally stopped at Ashford, their three carriages were detached there and a conductor driver drifted along to drive them away once the parent train was well on its way. The nearer they got to Godric’s Hollow the more tense they began to feel; wondering if, somehow, the Seignior would interfere.
What they did not know was that the Dutch railway police had had the magistrates put all the satraps into a detox-program for a week. Such was the combined strength of the smoke filling the bubbles. Anyway, Lucius only had three compos-mentis companions and they were grumbling about the botch up. He recognised the need to re-group and not at the Dacha, where he feared the youngsters had a secret ingress. So he had gone off to find another suitable place to act as his headquarters – one that was not in either the Black or Malfoy family records.
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