Birth of a Nightmare Man

Chapter Thirteen

Harry twirled his wand as he looked at his former best friends. Hermione look awfully calm to be standing in front of her children's murderer.

"Hey, can I ask a question?" he wondered.

"What?" she bit out.

"Was the coffins small?"

Ron lost it. He attacked. Harry laughed and dodged the spell. Hermione's face turned into a mask of stone, and she moved. He wondered for a moment if their movements were planned, including Ron's lashing out at him.

He was forced out of the house and the Dementors kept at bay by Patronuses. Harry told himself he'd be fine. He'd killed Albus Dumbledore. Could his former friends truly stand a chance?

His leg was trapped a minute later and Harry was rethinking that thought. Unlike Dumbledore, who had been pushed away from Hogwarts, Hermione and Ron had had time to set up traps. If there's something Hermione was good at, it was planning, and if there's something Ron was good at, it was strategies.

Was the whole village empty, or the Muggles just put to sleep through the chaos? Harry freed himself but the delay gave him a severely bruised shoulder. He still laughed at it, to fire them up even more.

Hermione and Ron tried to herd him but Harry didn't want to completely play along with them. He tried to read them, if they wanted him to break away or if they wanted him to be herded but their faces were blank now. Even Ron was blank, which was kind of surprising because as far as Harry knew Ron was pretty much incapable of keeping a straight face.

Well, maybe they didn't know each other after all.

Another trap sent him flying, the explosion enough to convince him either the village was empty, or the pair had put the Muggles to sleep. Nothing moved in the shadows of the houses, no lights came on. The Dementors screeched and made renewed efforts to escape the Patronuses without success.

The explosion did nothing more than singe his clothes and Harry jumped up on a rooftop. Ron and Hermione temporarily lost sight of him as he crouched low, hiding in the shadows. But they could use a point me-spell easily.

Before they did that though, his Dementors stepped up to distract them unknowingly. Harry grinned as he watched them struggle against the Dementors. He stretched out his magic and had to give it to his former best friends; they had traps planted everywhere and yes, the village had been emptied at some point. How come the Dementors hadn't noticed? Or him, for that matter?

Oh well, did it matter in the end? He'd get to the two of them today, whatever he had to do. They'd lived long enough. It was time to end the Order, and then… well, then what? He'd be hunted nonetheless.

Perhaps he'd leave England. Harry wondered for a moment if it would be considered unethical to bring corpses with you… it was just, he didn't want to leave Fred and George behind. Perhaps he could burn their bodies, and keep their ashes?

Or had they turned into something not very nice in the earth?

A shriek cut off his thinking, and Harry leapt from the roof. He engaged in a short fist fight with Ron, leaving them both with nosebleeds and in Ron's case, wheezing after Harry had driven his elbow into Ron's solar plexus. By then Hermione was there and they exchanged spell, shield, spells, then shields and running around in circles. She threw an Avada Kedavra at him; he responded with casting Crucio on her for a moment.