A Hop Skip And A Jump Away

Beowulf's Bame

The chaos had been unexpected but the twins being used to Harry's insane luck immediately took advantage of it, quietly sending off the retrieval teams that Luna and Harry had picked out. Harry was kept in reserve partly because he was a powerhouse and partly because he was extremely noticeable due to his identity. If the teams didn't come back in a timely fashion or set off their recreated and slightly different DA coins turned jewelry Harry would come and get them while the rest of the group protected the retreat.

The sight of green clad healers sharply reminded Harry that both Ginny and Molly had supposedly been committed to St. Mungoes and the hands of the mind healers. He would have to ask the twins about that, Arthur, and their brothers. The fact that he had no clue what all was happening with the Weasley family really bothered him. Though Harry suspected that his husbands would still kill the Weasley females if they tried getting close to him, mind healer treatments or no.

He rather missed Ron and Hermione but it would be a blessing not to wake them with the memories from the other timeline. Their deaths had been anything but clean and had briefly crippled him with grief that only Severus had managed to break through. A fleeting thought to Fate, Death, and Magic begged for the two to be left alone without the other memories. For a response he felt the chains of the deal lock down further on him, binding him more firmly to his path.

The extraction went fairly smooth until Harry figured out exactly why the Ministry was already in chaos. Something in the Department of Mysteries had woken and it was hungry.

"EVERYONE WHO CAN'T CAST THREE PATRONI IN QUICK SUCCESSION IS TO EVACUATE THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY! SOMETHING GOT LOOSE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES!" Harry thundered, making good use of a sonorous charm. The immediate exodus ignored Harry's group as each of those remaining behind formed up around him.

"Harry?" Fred asked for orders warily.

"We thought about using it in the last timeline but the muggles captured it first. It wiped out most of Russia before it could be stopped but it bought us six months of shocked peace and a short cease fire. The reason I required being able to cast the Patronus three times very fast is power level and the patroni will help us contain it. I don't know what exactly the damn thing is but its old. We need to get out of here but if we let the damn thing loose it will destroy London and most of the developed, not to mention people heavy, areas around it," Harry warned. He was dropping every single spell he held and allowing his magic to flood the area.

"Its a Moor-Stepper. More specifically Grendel from the Beowulf poem," an Unspeakable paused just long enough to explain before bolting.

"I thought that thing was dead, killed by Beowulf," George muttered to his brother who nodded his grim agreement. The last of the escaping ministry people rushed past the rescue group without looking back.

"Right, new plan. Grab the professors and high-tail it out of here. We can offer the fight to the goblins as a chance for their warriors to see battle," Harry said decidedly. "That thing is out of league and I don't want it pulling power or memories from anyone."

No one argued and aside from the party assigned to guard the atrium they practically bolted through the ministry. The wards shifted unexpectedly just as the retrieval teams were either pulling the Professors from their cells or snagging the incriminating attack records. This sent the Atrium group as a whole flying down empty corridor after empty corridor to be dumped into the Department of Mysteries The hand carved stone room they arrived in was something they barely noticed due to the heap of limbs and quiet curses they formed upon landing. Harry was the first to struggle free. The moment his eyes landed on a carving he froze, locked in a memory from the previous timeline.

~ Flashback ~

"This is what the Unspeakables said could help," an exhausted Hermione explained. Everyone could see she was bone tired. They had lost Ron less than 12 hours ago and Harry had been pulled from one of the first children's rescue camps to see what had been found.

"What is it 'Mione?" Harry asked curiously, tired and sore but less melancholy than three hours before. The children had anchored and refreshed him nicely.

Harry was sad that Ron was gone but proud of what he had managed to accomplish with his determination before his death. Shielding an entire region from radiation poisoning via an atmosphere detonated atomic bomb was no small feat. Even if he had to absorb every last speck of radiation into himself to make it work. It had been torture to watch him turn into a solid radioactive statue. He had been spitting up glowing blood and screaming as he died even as his eyes begged Harry to finish getting rid of the threat he had become. Harry, grieving, had obeyed and portkeyed his friend's body into space on a course for the sun.

"This will let us find everyone of magical heritage under a certain age even if the magic is too weak to manifest or is bound or sleeping. If we adjust it we will only be told if the magic is awake enough to be noticed, squib level at minimum, but we can include any age range. This will, if used correctly, help us find the camps and labs to rescue people from," Hermione explained tiredly.

"We can't let them have this..." Harry said firmly.

"I know but there are very specific requirements to use it... or destroy it. The destruction will also act like a Hydrogen bomb... but it will be worse than Hiroshima. The blast would sterilize the British Ilse 30 meters below the surface past the heaviest wards that exist. That's getting through every single ward we could have even thought to toss up plus 30 meters of solid rock. The goblins might have something deep enough to survive but it will travel an additional 70 meters minimum past any doors or wards no matter how thick. They haven't been able to date it beyond incredibly old," Hermione told them, beginning to sway on her feet.

"Destruction requirements?" Harry asked, subdued.

"A dark magic ritual honoring one of the old gods that opposed the god of the Jews, the Christian God of all, and lost. Ba'al wants nearly 500 children no older than 5 sacrificed on it to break the basic protections and at least 700 under the age of 15 to destroy it fully without consequences. To simply lock the use to a single bloodline it needs a single drop of blood from whoever is taking charge of it. The catch is that whoever bonds with it will feel the death of anyone of magical blood under the age of 16," Hermione told him even as her wavering legs forced one of her assistants to catch her and hold her upright.

Harry swallowed hard and before anyone could stop him gave the carved stone monolith a couple of drops of his blood.

"Harry you idiot!" Hermione started crying as Harry adjusted to the sense of so many magicals in existence and breathed through the pain that came with it. Each disappearance of a young magical life from his senses stabbed like a spike of ice. He would only have this strange sense for a few months as the muggles found the monolith and managed to break it with a mix of C4 and pure sulfur to blast then burn the remnants safely. It became one of the few times he was happy that one of their dwindling magical resources was destroyed.

~ End Flashback ~

"Shit! We're going to have to destroy that thing again..." Harry swore, cursing all his luck and glaring at the giant carved slab.

"Mr. Potter...?" McGonagall asked from her slumped and dirty position where she had landed not more than three feet away.

"Not now Miss, Kitty," Fred scolded quietly, earning an affronted look from the animagus but also silencing the woman.

"Fred, George, make a note. This thing needs to be destroyed using C4 and then sulfur used on it to destroy it properly, without even a touch of magic involved," Harry ordered. Getting their verbal agreement without once looking away from the stone he magically sliced his palm, tossed some blood at the thing then turned away as he healed the cut. The moment the blood hit the slab he realized his mistake as he collapsed with a cry of pain. The panic in everyone's voice was drowned out only by Death's voice scolding him and breaking the connection just as he passed out.

The enervate 30 seconds later forced him back to consciousness with a gasp.

"Your hubby's are going to be right pissed at you," George scolded as he helped Harry sit up.

"Er, sorry?" Harry gasped as he finally caught his breath. "Its not like it reacted like that last time!"

"Idiot!" Fred hissed, coming up behind them.

They heard a howl nearby that sent a chill down their spines, sending Harry off to swear like a sailor as he forced himself up and made everyone come close, grabbing him. His gaze met glowing poisonous yellow a split second before he apparated the entire group out of the ministry, passing out as he landed them in front of his husbands in their parlor.