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Weapon	By : uqui Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Voldemort Views: 105432 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 26
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Thank you to SuryaPrakash for the betaing. If there are mistakes, they are my fault.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed :) I hope everyone continues to enjoy.

Weapon LIV - One of Those Days

Molly Weasley nursed a cup of tea as she sat in the almost unnatural silence at the Burrow. Arthur had gone to the office for a bit, leaving her alone after they had dropped off the children for their school year. She listened to the clock tick as she stared into the fire. It was always difficult adjusting to the silence and that's why Arthur always gave her a few hours and usually she would putter around making sure the children's rooms were left orderly and begin dinner, but today she just sat and considered.

Her children were growing up. She knew that intellectually, but today she had felt it in her heart. Just watching them at the station had shown her that. Ron was confident with Hermione, and Fred and George were as lackadaisical as ever, but they would be okay. She could feel it. Her worry was focused on Ginny. There was just something wrong there. It was odd. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something about today had been off. Molly took a sip of tea before closing her eyes, remembering.

Harry had been the perfect gentlemen with her daughter and perhaps that was the problem, Molly realised rather belatedly. There didn't seem to be any excitement there. She frowned at her own thoughts. She would have thought the word would be love but Mrs. Weasley was sure enough of her subconscious observations.

Ginny and Harry liked each other well enough, she conceded that, but it went no further. Even between Ron and Hermione there was a spark, something exciting that was between loving couples. It was not between Harry and Ginny. It was hard to define what was missing but there was something not quite right. They might work as a couple, but it would not be true love and that made her rather sad. She felt she should warn Ginny or Harry or somehow show them; just that at the moment, she couldn't think how.

Between them, it was undoubtedly first love, but first love was not true love and it didn't last though most remembered their first loves with fondness.

Molly sighed as she got up to stir the fire. She might want to help, but there was nothing she could do at the moment. Hopefully they would see what was missing in time. If not... if not... was it really her place to be dictating? She hoped they saw it before it was too late. They could still be friends, even if they weren't destined to be mates.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

There were times when Draco wished that his hearing wasn't quite so good and having Millicent scream at him in a display that was very unSlytherin-like, was definitely one of those times.

Blaise reached out making placating gestures towards the female, but no less angry. The rest of their house just looked upon the tableau, interested but not interfering. "What makes you think you could take on the Dark Lord, Draco? Your father? Your money? Your blood? You saw what happened last year, yet you still want to try."

Draco raised one eye brow. He had to win this argument or no one would follow him. He could see their point. In the past he would have just ignored them as blustering, trusting that they would see things his way soon enough. But to have his house follow him he would have to win this argument.

"Yet here I am," Draco said with a small smile, his grey eyes shining. "I understand your concerns, but he is not the Dark Lord we sacrificed so much for. Once he was perhaps, but he is no longer. That is what my father was adamant to show and that is what I have shown. I walked away. What Dark Lord would have let me walk away?" He didn't like calling the Serpent Lord the Dark Lord, but the others expected it and he didn't like downplaying his abilities, but he had no choice. He had to show that the former Dark Lord was weak. He had to show that they needed to find a new lord.

"And here we are," Blaise countered. "Waiting for the axe to fall because we followed you already. Our parents are dead, Draco. You better hope your father is also dead or else he is suffering. There are not enough of us to make a difference in any action you wish to take. He won. And all we can do at the moment, Draco, is hope that the Light can win. Not our usual course of action, I admit, but the only one that offers survival for us.

"As you said, you walked away, Draco. But then so did everyone else. The Dark Lord wasn't interested in killing this time; he was interested in showing his presence. He can kill whenever he wants; you know that, I know that. Millicent and I know that more than most." Blaise finished sadly.

"So you will just sit and wait for death?" Draco challenged.

"If I had of had my way, I wouldn't be here, Draco," Millicent said softly. "I would be in America or Australia or even Asia, anywhere but here because I know what I have done and I know that I won't just be allowed to walk away. I'm now put in a position where I can't support either side, Draco, but that does not mean I will support you. You do not have the strength to win.

"Let's imagine for a minute, Draco, you walked away this time because for whatever reason you had the power to walk away. So what? You fought him in one battle, but you do not have the followers. They followed your father, Draco, and they died for their efforts, our parents included."

The rest of Slytherin house watched. They were aware of the divide in their house; it was something that would only be shown here, in the privacy of their common room. To the rest of the school they would present a united front, but that would happen tomorrow. Mostly. There would be subtle sniping at each other and depending on how the war went then perhaps there would be a public split in the house, but for the moment they watched, separated along the lines of their loyalties.

There were four groups of differing size. The first years weren't here. With the disaster on the train the sorting would be tomorrow and the first years were currently sleeping in the Great Hall. It wasn't quite the start of the year that people had hoped, but at least they were alive.

Most of the Slytherins were gathered to one side. They were those that were still loyal to the Dark Lord and to his ideals. Many of them had been present at his little talk to the children and while the idea of accepting mudbloods and half bloods as equals based on their power was a bit grating they could reluctantly see the logic. They saw the Dark Lord's power and they desired to live even if they didn't see the logic fully.

There was another group of about a quarter of the students gathered with a slight divide between them and the others. They were those who would hold neutral. It was a position that was becoming more precarious, but at least if they did decide to support a side, they had not already insulted anyone. They just watched; faces very carefully blank.

The two last groups were about the same size and represented those few who were loyal to Draco and the others were loyal to Dumbledore and the light side. If Draco was distressed by the numbers he didn't show it. Instead he stood tall and subtly exuded power. Most were too experienced to be phased by that, but it was affecting a few.

"You cannot run, Millicent, you cannot hide. You have two choices at the moment," Draco said smoothly, not letting the fact that there were so few supporting him affect his argument. He acted as if the entire house was behind him. "You can either sit around and wait for death, or you can fight. And since neither side will accept you Millicent, that doesn't leave many sides for you to pick, now does it?"

"And because I supposedly have no other choice, I should follow you?" Millicent hissed scornfully. "Not likely Draco, I already saw where that goes. You-Know-Who made it very clear to us what happens if we go against him. You are the only one who seems not to have learnt the lesson."

"You have? You have learnt so well that you will now sit and wait for death."

"That hasn't been determined," Blaise interrupted. "But if we raise our hands again, then I think it's a rather foregone conclusion. Perhaps the Dark Lord won't accept us back, but it is entirely possible with his victory that we will be living if we do not raise our hands against him."

Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "A faint hope if ever I heard one," He couldn't stop himself from murmuring.

"Better than no hope at all," Zabini countered. "Which is all you are offering. Even if you had the power to match the Dark Lord, something I doubt, you lack the experience and you don't have enough followers to seize power. Your mother has been trying all summer to garner support, but it's a lost cause Draco. You father already gathered the support, and tried and failed. There are no others who will follow now. You have different choices than we do Draco, but they amount to the same. I suggest you make them, rather than try to keep on the path your father made. If you follow that path then you will suffer the same fate." Blaise shook his head slightly as he turned away. He could see many of the rest of his house nodding almost imperceptibly. He was known for his logic and while many of them felt sorry for him, none would try to protect him. If he thought he could run, he would have, but the few members of the Zabini clan that were left had decided that it was best to try just to be neutral, possibly slightly leaning towards the Dark Lord to show where they wanted to be. They didn't want to sacrifice him, but he was prepared if it came to that. He would accept that to save the rest of his family, but he was hopeful that he might be able to slink by on this one. After all, he hadn't actually done anything. This time it was Millicent who had done things. He had absolutely no intention of getting involved in any further plans of the Malfoy clan.

Draco knew when it was time to cut his losses. Millicent and Blaise were lost to him. The rest of his House may not yet be lost to him, but he had to end the argument here while it was focused on those two. Most people didn't know exactly what they had done, but they knew they had helped him in some way and now they were against him... Well maybe not against him, but at least not with him. That was okay, so long as the others would still consider following him.

Amelia Bones, the head of the DMLE, glanced at her muggle clock as she leaned back in her chair after pouring herself a very large glass of fire whiskey. 01:30 am was not a time she liked to be in her office, but today was just one of those days. One when she wondered why she just didn't pack up and take Susan and herself to Australia.

It had started off all fairly routinely. A few extra patrols assigned to Kings Cross for the start of the Hogwarts year then of course a few more patrols through Diagon and Knockturn Alleys so that all those parents who usually took the day off and went shopping weren't interrupted by problems, or weren't causing problems themselves. Yet it had all been surprisingly quiet. It had been how it was meant to be, no disruptions, a few rowdy citizens, but nothing that wasn't handled quickly and efficiently. There were no attacks. Even the Aurors who were discretely trailing Narcissa Malfoy reported that the woman merely stopped off at the Apothecary to buy a few standard supplies and then apparated back to Malfoy Manor which was still in the hands of the Malfoys because without Lucius' person no charges could be laid, no matter how much evidence they had.

All in all, the morning was perfectly normal and quiet.

Then, as the muggles would say, the shit hit the fan.

They got multiple reports of an attack on the Hogwarts Express. Reports came from The Order, the Conductor, some of the seventh year students apparently kept their heads well enough to send out a distress call, and then of course there was the Death Eater who, calm as you please, apparated into the Atrium of the Ministry in full regalia, complete with blood red mask, who announced that they were attacking the Express now and wished the Aurors the best of luck, before they vanished.

It was one thing to be told that there was an attack happening on the Express; it was quite another thing to be able to deal with it. Amelia was proud of how fast her Auror teams assembled, robed and ready for battle, but then a problem arose that no one had anticipated.

They simply did not know where the Express was. Oh, they knew it was on the way to Hogwarts but there was 800 to 900 kilometres of train track that it could be on. Even accounting for the fact that it wasn't in London and wasn't close to Hogsmeade, that still left a daunting amount of track to search. And every second wasted was another that the Dark Forces were attacking unopposed. She'd been able to feel the panic in the Ministry rising with every moment that passed as they considered the problem. Eventually they'd narrowed down where the Express was and while all Aurors could apparate to co-ordinates, in battle situations that was not considered safe. Regulation permitted co-ordinate apparition only when a base of operations was secured. That definitely did not apply to this situation. And that meant that they wasted more time in creating port keys for the strike teams.

They'd arrived in time to see the last of the robed Death Eaters apparate out, leaving them to deal with the utter devastation and screaming children that was the Express. It was at that point that Amelia simply knew that the Dark Lord had already known that they would have troubles finding the Express and sheer arrogance of sending a messenger became all too painfully clear. The Prophet would have a field day. They'd been out manoeuvred again.

The scene that greeted them was grim. There was debris everywhere and the first four carriages were lying on their sides, all of them bearing some damage, but the first two looked like they had been opened like sardine cans. She'd snapped a few orders, calling for anti-muggle wards to be erected immediately before she had directed each team to a carriage to assess the situation. The locomotive itself was also derailed, and was an impossible distance from the tracks. Amelia deliberately turned her thoughts away from the power that had been applied to seemingly hurl the 100 tonne engine 80-odd meters.

It had taken them hours to determine that with the exception of one unfortunate student, who had been apparated directly to St Mungos, that all the students were present and accounted for and that no one was suffering from injuries that were too bad. There were cuts and abrasions from falls when the Express had stopped and there was shock and fear from the attack itself, but physically all the students were fine. None were dead, none had been held under the cruciatus, none had been bitten by a werewolf and none had had any other nasty hex applied. Even the student who was injured had not been directly hurt, rather they had been hit by debris when the carriage they were trapped in had been 'opened'.

It had then taken them a while to sort out alternate transport arrangements, arrangements that were hindered by practically everyone in the Ministry having to come to look at the damage. Eventually she'd just set up a cordon and proclaimed that anyone not authorised by an Auror who was within the cordon would be held for questioning. That had gotten her a lot of grumbles and she had already put a redirect charm up for the owls that would no doubt already be bearing down upon her from both disgruntled Ministry employees who frankly had no business being present and from parents who had wanted to be sure that their babies were safe. The cordon had at least allowed the Aurors to do their job to sort out the situation. Those students who were licensed to apparate were checked off and given permission to apparate to Hogsmeade directly, taking with them anyone or any luggage they could. Other students were gathered up into groups, and the Hogwarts House Elves were called upon to provide transportation. The first years were evacuated first and they went in year groups until all the students were safely in Hogwarts.

By the time the last student left, it was dark and they'd positioned guards on the Express along with some wards and hexes to repel any curious wizard before most of the Aurors had apparated back to the Ministry to write up initial reports. They would be back the next day to properly look over the wreckage as their first priority had been to ensure that all the children were accounted for. The initial picture though was pretty obvious and the reports from the students confirmed the chain of events. The Dark Lord was playing.

That was the conclusion she drew from the evidence. Despite the property damage the lack of deaths supported no other conclusion.

You-Know-Who had stood on the tracks and had simply banished the locomotive, uncoupling it from the rest of the Express with the charm. Then Death Eaters and a few non-human supporters had assaulted from the front, converging on the first carriage and very slowly working their way down towards the second, third and fourth carriages before they had either apparated or portkeyed out. They had encountered no major resistance though some of the students had banded together to fight and it appeared that Mr. Potter and his friends had tried to help evacuate as many students as they could towards the rear of the train and had stabilised the one significant injury. Mr. Malfoy though had tried a more glamorous path and had, according to reports, fought the Dark Lord.

The fact he was still alive supported her conclusions that the Dark Lord was merely playing. There was no way he would have kept the son of a traitor alive if he was not trying to make another statement. The papers and the rest of the Ministry would miss that statement though. Amelia had no doubt of that. Or rather they would see it, but instead would focus on other trivial issues, proclaiming the Death Eaters weak because they had not killed, proclaiming that Mr. Malfoy could fight You-Know-Who or something like that. She didn't really want to know because it was now her job to deal with the true message.

The Dark Forces could strike when they wanted, where they wanted and do whatever damage they wanted. They had not killed, this time, because they had not wanted to. This attack was not about fear, was not about anything except showing that the Ministry was still woefully inadequate. The strike itself was set up merely to show that. Why else would the Death Eaters only attack from the front when it made much more sense to have the strike the entire length of the train? In the amount of time it had taken the Aurors to respond, they could have either killed or kidnapped most of the students if that's what they wanted to do.

Oh there would have been some still fighting. Dumbledore had been giving hints about Mr. Potter's abilities all summer, but most of the students would have been dead if that's what You-Know-Who wanted. And that message would be lost to most. One of the few good things she could see from this battle was that apparently the Dementors were still loyal to the Ministry. She'd been trying to sure them up this summer since they were an obvious recruit for the Dark Lord and while Amelia was positive there were at least some Dementors in his forces, they had apparently been absent today, the same with werewolves, though it had not been a full moon, so it was possible some were present but in human form. At least that would lend some weight to the calls for equality for the werewolves. What vampires had been present were there with the Order and had discretely removed themselves as soon as they could. They had been protected from the sun, but obviously had been ill at ease.

The Ministry was coming together, slowly. The death of Fudge had helped them, much as You-Know-Who had wished, but they needed more time. They just didn't yet have the numbers or the means to communicate fast enough. They should have known where the Express was. They should have been able to move faster. Yet they hadn't and they couldn't. They were getting better. They just weren't getting better fast enough.

Amelia was loath to admit it but they would need any and all help they could, even from the Order, an organisation she was not meant to admit existed. From the Vampires, a group of beings they usually hunted, from werewolves, if they could be persuaded to come to the Ministry after that fiasco with that Death Eater, from the Veela, from the goblins, from anyone. They were offering treaties and the impact from those treaties would be long term but they weren't fast enough. They needed an ace, someone to rally the troops, someone who could be used to rally the general populace, to show them that this war was not something they could stand back from. She knew who that had to be, but she did not want to go that path. It was not fair.

"Sturges!" Amelia called, knowing that the Auror captain would still be present. "Ma'am!" The man appeared shortly. He was weary but still snapped to attention and had answered her call promptly. He was one of her better Captains for a reason.

"How are we going on the Potter situation?"

Sturges seemed surprised for a moment before he covered himself. "According to Dumbledore, he's ready to fight. The problem is trying to fit him into the existing structures. We can't have a lone fighter and we can't give the 'Order' that much official autonomy."

Amelia nodded. That agreed with what she was thinking even if Sturges reasoning was not quite as personal as hers. She didn't want to give Dumbledore that much power. He had enough already. "Do you have any solutions?"

The Auror Captain looked a bit uncomfortable. "I have one but I'm not entirely happy with it."

She gestured for him to continue.

"We can offer Mr. Potter an Auror Apprenticeship with Mr. Black re-instated as one of his mentors. That would give us the authority over him in battle but also allow some more freedom in how, where and when he can be deployed."

Amelia nodded again. It was a viable option. "Can we combine it with someone to have him earn a Mastery?"

"Probably," Sturges replied, feeling somewhat grateful that his boss hadn't completely shot down the idea. It really was the only one that was viable. They would have spoken further but for the alarm that began blaring.

"Azkaban!" Amelia shrieked in an uncharacteristic display of temper.

Sturges didn't blame her. 02:00 am was not a good time for an alert to come through. Not today. Not from Azkaban.

"Get everything together!" Amelia ordered, rising, her anxiety burning off the effects of the fire whiskey. She brandished her wand in one hand, sending her patronus off with messages as she pulled her battle robes on, striding from the office as other Aurors gathered themselves.

She hoped this would be a false alarm but she knew it wasn't.

Azkaban.

It really was one of those days.

For anyone wondering, the Hogwart's Express is about that heavy. :)

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