บท 31: Morning After
Releasing a sigh, Harry leaned back against the side of the cabin, enjoying the cool, brisk breeze of the outdoors. Last night had certainly been an experience, one he had no intention of repeating. Was it enjoyable? Absolutely, but the guilt he felt afterwards was crushing. That was Bill's wife, a widow, a pregnant woman who had her unborn child stripped from her.
The guilt he felt was overwhelming and was the reason he had spent the night out here. Fleur had gone to sleep, completely unaware of what she had said. He on the other hand had snapped out of his drunken stupor and had left.
Part of him wished he could go to sleep, which would have saved him the trouble of spending hours just replaying the events of the evening. Because as guilty as he felt, images of him and Fleur locked in their throes of passion-fuelled sex kept replaying in his mind. He could still taste her on his lips, feel her skin brushing against his, hear the sound of her gasps and see her naked body and the look of ecstasy on her face.
It made for a very uncomfortable evening for him in which he escaped to the outdoors.
Feeling a vibration in his pocket, Harry pulled out the mirror and saw Croaker's face appear. "Are you still secure?" Croaker asked and Harry nodded his head silently, eyes once again doing a quick cursory glance of his surroundings. "Good, head north to Kent, that's where the Werewolves have gathered in force. You and Valkyrie should head there now, your team will be waiting and Eagle will provide you with the information we've compiled."
"And what about my ring?" Harry asked.
Croaker frowned. "I am uncertain as to why it malfunctioned. However, a replacement has been dispatched, it should be with you in an hour."
"Understood." Harry agreed simply and pocketed the mirror once more. For a moment he just remained seated before eventually releasing a sigh and pushing himself to his feet. Brushing off his pants, Harry made his way inside to find Fleur sat awkwardly at the table staring at the nearly empty bottle of Fire Whiskey. "We've received orders to head to Kent. Get ready to leave."
"I'm already ready, sir," Fleur replied robotically.
Harry paused at the sight and after a moment of deliberation decided not to bring up lasts nights events. Obviously, she was already aware of some of what happened and her reaction was telling as to what she thought of it. "During our fight at Ravenstown, when Peter Hale arrived, I heard you cry out in anger. Why is that?"
Fleur turned to him and took note of the blank look she gave him, yet he also noticed the way her frame tensed and fists clenched in anger. "Is that really any of your concern?"
"It is," Harry responded. "If his presence makes you angry, I can't be certain that you won't go off the handle. We're finally close to ending it all today, a stupid mistake might let them escape. We can't afford that at all."
"You can be assured, sir, that I won't let that beast escape with his life." She spat out and Harry remained standing for a moment. Eventually, he shook his head and turned on his heel, only pausing when he heard the sound of glass shattering. However, when Harry heard the sound of movement behind him, he continued on.
Appearing with a pop, Harry and Valkyrie made their way across the lawn and made their way into the house before them. Much like every Unspeakable safe house it had a similar layout, the rooms magically expanded and designed to create a sense of familiarity.
Inside, his team was sat waiting, Eagle and Bear sat at the table while Dog was lounging upon the sofa. All had their masks in place, ensuring that their identities would be kept secret, thus ensuring that even if one was captured, they wouldn't be able to reveal their agents to the world. The only ones that did know their identities were Croaker, and while he knew Dog was Derek, he was now aware that Valkyrie was Fleur, the latter knowing who he was.
Eagle and Bear were people he had no idea who they were which while disconcerting, Harry knew he'd have to deal with it. He had a lot of responsibilities dumped onto him recently and he was glad to not have the knowledge of his team's identities over his head as well.
"Alright everyone, gather up," Harry called, pulling out a chair at the table as both Dog and Valkyrie also took a seat. "Croaker wants this ended today and so do I. Peter dies today, the Werewolves will be driven out of Britain, today."
Here he turned to Eagle and nodded his head. "From what our reports indicate, the Werewolves number no more than twenty, but every one of them is elites. Dragons use of Fiendfyre took out a vast number of their soldiers before they could escape." The information specialist explained, rolling out a map of "We have also discerned that their base of operations is here, Miller Heights."
"That's a high profile area," Bear noted gruffly. "What about civilians?"
"Croaker has gained permission from the Muggle Government to place roadworks up around the area, diverting all traffic away. We also have Aurors stationed nearby to move a majority of the foot traffic away as well. However, we cannot remove too many without the Werewolves getting suspicious." Eagle continued on and Harry frowned, sensing that there was something more to this.
"What does Croaker want us to do?" Harry asked and even Eagle hesitated.
"He wants us to blow up the building and kill all those inside." Those words sent a ripple of shock across the room. "Peter choose the location precisely because it's a high profile area ensuring that any fight had there would result in the Statue of Secrecy being broken. Even the Muggle Government after being presented with the information by Croaker have agreed that the Werewolf threat is real and intend to use news stations and media outlets to cover the destruction of the building as an act of terrorism."
There was more than a few uncomfortable shifting and looks shared amongst them all. None sure if what they were hearing was true and whether they could actually go through with it. It hadn't been said, but while many of the residents in Miller Heights could be out when the building collapsed, not everyone would be. In the best-case scenario, only a handful of civilians would be inside. Worst case scenario would be that every resident of the one hundred and twenty-two block apartment would be inside.
Either way, this plan would result in civilian casualties.
'Why do this though?' Harry asked himself. Sure Croaker was the type to do plans like this, but even Harry realised that this wasn't exactly Croakers usual style. Everything up until this point had been subtle in and outs. Harry working to cripple the Werewolves while the Auror's dealt with them openly. It had all been done to draw little attention from third parties.
There had been exceptions, such as the Auror Squad, but they were personally selected by Croaker as future recruits and very little survived that battle. And while Dragon Squad had been acting more openly recently, their ambushes on the Werewolf raids had been quick and decisive with very little photographic evidence of their presence. Those that did exist were incredibly blurred and destroyed soon after their publication.
However, an attack on this scale came with a great deal of risks of being revealed which beggared the question as to why Croaker was doing it. He was not a man to take unnecessary risks and this seemed like one.
"What's the situation on the other fronts?" Dog spoke up.
"Scandinavia has halted the Werewolf advance completely. In Europe, the advancement of the Werewolf expansion has been slowed. Russia is the only one currently affected with the Werewolves pushing further and further eastward." It was this that made it click on Harry's mind as to why Croaker was pushing for an extreme action like this.
"With Britain out of the control of the Werewolves, they can't use it as a staging ground to attack Europe from the north. This, in turn, means that Europe holds strong and so long as that remains the case, they can't direct more resources to Scandinavia." Derek pointed out, confirming Harry's own thoughts.
'Without Britain, the Werewolves are going to struggle. They gambled on taking us without much of a fight and that's backfired massively. Croaker wants to end this once and for all, secure Britain and then focus on taking the fight to them.'Yet as Harry thought that, he clenched his fists discretely under the table. 'All this counts on the fact that we can carry out the mission and blow up Miller Heights.'
"If none of you can go through with this, now is the time to say," Harry said, loosening his iron fist as his Occlumency Shields clamped down. "If you do, none of you will have to take part and I will carry out this mission myself if I have to. For those of you who decide to not take part, nothing will be held against you. So make your decision now."
At the end of the day, Harry would make the same decision he had from the beginning of his training. He'd do anything it took in order to ensure that his godson didn't have to live a life as he had. No matter what it took, he'd make sure that no one he loved or cared for would have to suffer the horrors of war anymore.
He'd already failed that, but he would make sure to end it here and now. No matter how bloody his hands became, he'd drown in it, stand upon a mountain of corpses so long as he could ensure they'd be safe.
Harry only had one choice available to him.
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