Harry scowled when he realized that Ron and several other Order members had just recognized him. He should have remembered to wear his hood up but in all the excitement, he had forgotten. It was probably for the best anyway. Casting curses and spells was a little harder when a cloak limited one's visibility. "Ron?" Harry retorted sarcastically, as everyone in the room stared at him.
"Leave the Longbottoms alone, Harry." Dumbledore said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. "They have never done any harm to you and are not capable of harming you at this point in time."
Anger surged through Harry's veins. How could they assume that he was here to attack Neville's parents? It was some nerve they had. "Why would I harm them?" he growled menacingly.
"They're a danger to you!" Ron yelled irrationally. "Just like they're a danger to you or anyone else who thinks they can practice the Dark Arts."
"I'm not here to harm the Longbottoms in any way whatsoever." Harry announced. "I'd also like to say that I'm innocent of all crimes that I stand accused of. I would never help Voldemort do anything. He killed my parents!"
Dumbledore's face paled as he drew some immediate and erroneous conclusions. Harry wasn't here to kill the Longbottoms. He wanted to use them. "Do you think that you can destroy Voldemort with your hate, Harry? You'll become worse than Voldemort was! Your victory will be as Dark as your defeat! I know that you don't see what you did on Privet Drive as a crime, but nevertheless- you did kill innocents."
"I DIDN'T KILL ANYBODY!" Harry roared at the Order who after Dumbledore's statement were looking at him as if someone had just announced that he killed babies for a living.
"Harry," Hermione said in a shaking voice, "please give yourself up. You can only go down from here. You don't want to become like the man who made you an orphan. We'll try to see to it that you stay out of Azkaban. We'll get you help."
A throbbing sensation began to assault Harry's head as his anger skyrocketed despite his ability to acknowledge the irony of Hermione offering him something she didn't have to give. They were lying to him. They wanted him dead. "Why won't you listen to me?" he whispered harshly, trying to control himself.
"You must listen to US." Dumbledore told him.
"Listen to ME!" Harry barked.
Ron laughed at him. "You don't deserve to be listened to. You bloody murderer and traitor."
Before Harry could react, Hiscophney, who had unobtrusively taken a position on Harry's right flank, dashed forward and lifted Ron off the ground, gripping his throat with one hand. "You will address the Earl of the North with respect." he said coldly. He then threw Ron to the ground and rejoined Harry.
The assembled members of the Order gasped audibly as the new information sank in. They knew that they needed the Earl to win against Voldemort. Unfortunately, it seemed to them that the Earl would be worse than Voldemort.
"You must surrender yourself." Dumbledore implored as thoughts about the revelation darted throughout his mind. "Would you shame the House of Polairix by tainting its reputation? What would your mother think? I'm sure that a plea bargain could be made."
Harry literally could not think. There were too many things assaulting his mind. Dumbledore shouldn't be so concerned about 'tainting' a House's reputation. He was only saying that. He was also angry that the Ministry could be depended on to let an alleged murderer walk free on such a plea bargain. Out of all this, a random thought emerged. 'I need a Pensieve.'
"My lord," Hiscophney said, "it's useless. They can't see and they won't listen. We must take action before the Death Eaters can do any more damage."
"We'll talk later." Harry spat at Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, and all the Order. "But know this, not only will I eradicate Voldemort and his Death Eaters, I will fix your pitiful Ministry." He then turned to Hiscophney and Nailoff. "You know what you need to do. As for the Order, leave them be unless they attack you. If they do attack, stun them and escort them from the building."
Hiscophney bowed formally for the Order's benefit. "Of course, my Lord." By insulting Polairix, they were insulting him. This 'Order' would have to learn its lesson soon. Maybe he could rough them up a little.
By this time, the Death Eaters had recovered from his fire curse and a another battle had broken out between them and the Order. Those that had arrived with Harry immediately joined the fight. The Ice soldiers darted nimbly around the room shooting off spells while those from Trazkaban imperiously made their way through the battle ignoring the curses that bounced off invisible shields all while shooting stunners and other curses from the palms of their hands.
Harry contented himself to staying out of the midst of it and firing random, but extremely powerful and effective spells toward the Death Eaters. Once he saw that Hiscophney would have no trouble on the ground floor alone with his men, Harry motioned for Nailoff and his men to join him at the foot of the stairs. He only hoped that they would be able to Portkey all the patients out.
"Did you see him?" Ron exclaimed to Hermione as they darted around a corner to dodge an oncoming spell. "He must not have drowned like everyone assumed. I bet he was in cahoots with You-Know-Who for a while before deciding to go off on his own. That must be how he knew about the attack."
"Honestly!" Hermione yelled in a very exasperated voice. "You can't just make those kind of conclusions." She had effectively recovered her composure after the battle had resumed. It seemed that fighting Death Eaters as easier than confronting her old friend.
Ron considered this point grimly. "He has to be working for himself then." he said grimly. "I don't know what's going on with the Longbottoms, but I bet he wants them or something. If he wanted them dead, he would have just let Malfoy do it for him."
The hallway was clear for a moment and Ron chose that point to dash out and let off a string of spells and hexes toward the Death Eaters who were grouped for the most part in the main reception area. They had congregated there after the creepy men that Harry was with had spread down the halls to pick off stragglers.
"I'm not so sure." Hermione yelled nervously as she covered his back, nervously holding her wand out in front of her.
"We can talk about this later!" Ron declared as he took down a stray Death Eater.
The hallway in which the Longbottom's ward was located had been the host of a group of Death Eaters, but several 'triplexio' stunners from Harry's wand had taken care of the situation promptly. Remembering which door led to the Longbottoms, Harry made his way into their ward and found Neville's parents playing a card game, oblivious to the battle going on in the hospital.
"What should we do about them?" asked Captain Nailoff.
Harry shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. We should probably move them to Nair'icaix permanently, but the best medical care may be here. There's also a chance that moving them may prove to be harmful to them."
"Are there records around here somewhere?" asked one of the young Ice men. "I was an intern for a doctor before I joined the Ice Army. I should be able to ascertain their condition from any documentation."
"That should be handy." Harry commented, glad that he had someone who knew something about medical care with him. He stepped over to the Longbottom's beds and looked around. Nothing. "Blast. Any ideas?"
The bodyguards quickly searched the room and turned up nothing. "We might need to go to the nurse's station." another guard suggested.
"I should have thought of that." Harry said ruefully. "I hope the hall is still clear." They made their way to the ward's door and stepped out into the hall to meet several more Death Eaters who had managed to escape from the melee downstairs.
The one shot an Imperio curse at Harry, which he shook off without any thought. Since the Death Eaters had expected the Imperio to work, they had not prepared to take on Harry who wandlessly threw them down the hall while the Ice guards peppered them with stunners and body-bind hexes.
Harry placed a strong locking jinx on the ward and they ran down the hall and found a desk with a sign that pronounced it as the official nurse's station. Harry wasted no time in getting behind it and finding a file drawer filled with records pertaining to patients on the floor. He rifled through the open drawer and found the files he was looking for. "Frank Longbottom," and "Alice Longbottom."
He yanked them out from between the other files and thrust them toward the ex-intern who sorted through the records while the other guards checked the surrounding hallways for more Death Eaters. Harry joined them on the other side of the desk and watched the guard read the records.
Finally the young man pronounced judgement. "I don't see why this couple is even in the hospital." he said thoughtfully. "Their only problem seems to be that fact that they're rather 'spaced' as you Muggles call it."
"We'll be taking them with us." Harry decided out loud. "Back to their room!"
Hermione cried with frustration as Lucius Malfoy's leg-locker curse hit her and caused her to fall to the ground. He had been chasing her through the hallways for several minutes, though it seemed like an hour to Hermione.
She rolled over and attempted to perform the counter-curse, however- Malfoy quickly disarmed her with 'Expelliarmus.' He approached her with a feral grin.
"It's Draco's favorite mudblood." he announced with amusement. "Always showing him up in class and dishonoring the name of Malfoy."
"The only dishonor your name has comes from your alliances!" Hermione growled.
The expression on Malfoy's face grew frigid. "Perhaps I ought to take you home with me so that young Draco can teach you a few things, Mudblood."
Hermione had no answer for this as she felt herself go cold and shiver at the thought of what Malfoy seemed to be proposing. The idea of the cliche tactic of trying to get the captor to talk suddenly surfaced in Hermione's mind. "Looks like Potter spoiled your party. You should have expected it though. He's just like you."
Malfoy laughed. "You must be kidding me, Mudblood. Why would he even 'think' like me? No, I'm afraid that Mr. Potter is a lost cause for the Dark Lord's ideas."
"I know what kind of person he is!" Hermione exclaimed. "He proved his character during the last Christmas vacation."
"Did he now?" Malfoy said, his smile growing broader.
Lucius was about to speak again when he was interrupted. "So, the battle-leader decides to hide down a hall with a girl." came a voice from the hall intersection, a short distance away from Lucius and Hermione.
Malfoy's attention had been successfully captured. Though Hermione could still not get away, at least she now had some time. Maybe the interloper would kill Malfoy. "Who are you?" Malfoy demanded as he studied the well matured man clad in black and white.
"I am the Count of Trazkaban." he announced in response to Malfoy's rude inquiry. "It shall be my pleasure to take the battle-leader as my trophy for this battle. I do not think that Lord Polairix will mind, though he's technically in command of this expedition."
"What do you mean?" Malfoy asked, clearly confused.
"Well," Count Trazkaban whispered conspiratorially and with great amusement, "Lord Polairix doesn't seem to be into the trophy collecting business."
Malfoy elected to end his conversation with the man who appeared to be unarmed and was not speaking much sense. "Desfie!" he yelled. A really nasty organ burster curse zoomed toward the Count who merely held up his gloved hand and absorbed it. Malfoy paled. "You're a sorcerer, aren't you?"
"What was your first guess?" Hiscophney asked, slightly offended that the battle-leader had not been able to identify him as a sorcerer from the reference to Trazkaban.
"Ava-!" yelled Malfoy, attempting to kill the sorcerer. However, Hiscophney was just too quick and lightning flew from his still-outstretched hand. The blue light wrapped around Malfoy and promptly took him to the ground, right in front of Hermione, leaving him stunned.
The Count of Trazkaban then lightly walked toward the fallen figure of Malfoy Sr. as a blade of black fire materialized in his hand. As he approached, he raised the blade above his ahead. What he did next caused Hermione to shriek in horror. She was still shrieking when Ron found her a half-hour later after the battle.
Harry quickly created several Portkeys to transport he, his bodyguards, and the Longbottoms to Nair'icaix. Though the mentally-challenged couple had proved difficult to manipulate into a good position for transportation, they had not put up too much resistance.
He handed the Portkey's to Nailoff who distributed them to those transporting the Longbottoms. They were then preparing to activate them when Lord Hiscophney addressed Harry through his ring. "The Death Eaters are either down, injured, or retreated, my lord. All the patients have been evacuated."
"Good." Harry told Hiscophney. "Thank you for the help. Leave the rest of the mess to the Order. I've got the Longbottoms with me."
"It was my pleasure." Hiscophney said before he signed off.
Harry nodded to the Ice guards and they activated the Portkeys. A wave of depression sought to overcome him as he looked at the soon to be empty ward. He desperately hoped that Bellatrix would be free to talk with him when they got back. He had at least expected his friends to listen to him.