Chương 113: Three-Way Mexican Standoff
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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"Is everyone ready?" asked Rivers, putting on his Novellus Accionite robe and throwing away the Hogwarts uniform.
He looked at the soon-to-be-dead grunts and saw that they were still putting on their clothes.
"Hurry up, we need to get out of here and get to Hogsmeade," urged Rivers and looked at the watch on his wrist. "Soon, the friends of Potter will realize he's missing."
After everybody changed into their robes, Rivers ordered.
"One of you will be at the back with me, while two others will carry Potter. Levitate him, and let's get going."
Two pulled out their wands and targeted the ropes around Harry's body and levitated him off the ground.
With Rivers at the back, the four with an unconscious Harry started to walk towards the Shrieking Shack.
The grunt in front raised his wand to cast the wand-lighting charm, Lumos. With the three guys in front of Rivers, their shadows hid River's expression in the darkness, who looked at them with an apathetic expression.
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- (Scene Break) -
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"Where is Harry?" asked Ron as Fred and George entered the Gryffindor common room through the portrait entrance guarded by the Fat Lady.
"We don't know-" "-he suddenly disappeared-" "-we think he's pulling-" "-a joke!-" "-We think he used-" "-the Invisibility Cloak-" "-to get past us.-" "-Sneaky boy~!-"
When Oliver came out of the stadium, he came out alone. When Fred and George asked about Harry, Oliver said he thought Harry was waiting with them because he didn't see Harry in the locker room.
Fred and George had been pulling practical jokes on people before Harry came to Hogwarts. When Harry came along, he showed his Invisibility Cloak to the Weasley twins, and it seemed to open up the possibilities. Harry and the jester twins often collaborated to pull practical jokes on the students.
After Harry didn't come out with Oliver, they thought Harry had used the Invisibility Cloak to get past them.
"That doesn't sound right. Harry couldn't have used the Cloak," said Ivy, who was sitting beside Ron along with Hermione. She frowned in confusion and explained. "Today is my day with the Cloak. Harry has the map while I have the Cloak."
She opened her book bag and took out the folded silvery fabric cloak.
"I have it right here."
Fred and George looked at each other before smiling as if they understood everything.
"You're kidding, too-" "-aren't you?-" "-Harry must've come here-" "-and he's given you that-" "-to make us confused."
They walked towards Ivy, kneeled in front of her, and patted her shoulder in unison.
"To think-" "-you would be-" "-pulling-" "-jokes, too!-" "-We are very-" "-proud of you!-" "-We will look-" "-forward to working-" "-with you!"
Satisfied with their reasoning, the twins got up and walked towards their dorms to take a shower.
The three members of the golden squad looked at each other in confusion.
"... Do you have any idea where Harry is?" asked Ron, looking at his two companions.
"Probably somewhere pulling a joke on someone," humphed Hermione. The bushy-haired girl still didn't approve of her friend's jester antics. "He'll be back in a while." After saying that, Hermione went back to studying.
Ivy and Ron also thought that Harry was pulling a joke on someone and went back to their own things.
If only they had the Marauder's Map. They would've seen that the map didn't show Harry's position.
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- (Scene Break) -
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"I'll say this! Really, listen to me!" laughed James as he snacked on pigs-in-blanket as the three marauders drank. "Tell me, what are the three magical words?!"
"I love you," answered Remus, a light smile on his lips while feeling a little drunk.
"Let's have sex!" shouted Sirius, already having drunk what James and Remus had.
"No! 'Let's have sex' doesn't work!" chuckled James and then pointed at Remus. "Yes, it's 'I love you'. Those are the words!"
He giggled before saying. "I've been married for fifteen years. I'm telling you. When you are married this long, the magical words are no longer, I love you. They change from 'I love you' to 'I told you.' Lily says 'I told you' more than 'I love you'."
After having said that, James laughed loudly at his own joke. And even though Sirius and Remus didn't understand it, they too laughed because they were a little tipsy.
As Remus laughed, his eyes widened as he felt something familiar come up.
He looked at James and Remus and blurted. "It's happening! Ready yourselves."
James and Sirius immediately sobered up and stood up from their spots. As James vanished the glasses, Sirius pocketed the bottles. Both of them stepped back and got ready to transform into their Animagus forms.
Werewolf instincts didn't flare when surrounded by animals. They would still be feral, but as long as the animals didn't threaten the transformed lycanthrope, they wouldn't attack animals.
While Remus had already taken the Wolfsbane, there was no harm in being cautious.
Remus transformed; his body started to shake with violent tremors. Remus' head lengthened and also his body. His shoulders hunched. His hair sprouted visibly on his face and hands, which curled into clawed paws.
But then, as the Werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, the door of the secret entrance that connected the Shrieking Shack and the Whomping Willow opened up.
The two Senior Aurors and the in-control Werewolf looked at the door and saw four people barge into the room.
The man in front had a wand out and pointing forward. When he saw people in the room, he yelled out to his companions.
"There are people in here!"
"What?!" came out an exclamation from the back as the people entered the room.
Suddenly, the room became crowded as everyone took out their wands and pointed at each other. There was a loud thump when the new people —the Accionites— pointed their wands at James, Sirius, and Remus.
"With my authority as an Auror, I order you to drop your wands," commanded James as he wielded his wand at the intruders.
His mind rapidly worked as he thought about his current location, the door they had entered through, and what this all meant.
'They came from Hogwarts!' thought James and glanced at Sirius, who nodded, showing that he understood what was happening.
The lighting in the room was insufficient because of the boarded-up windows. Only the candle on the floor illuminated the room. So it took a brief moment for one of the Accionites to finally notice Remus.
"A-A W-Werewolf! T-There is a f**king W-Werewolf in here! Shit!" the accionite screamed and pointed his wand straight at Remus.
And as this was happening, Sirius observed the intruders, and his eyes caught something on the floor. At first, he thought it was a sack, but when he looked carefully, he saw there was a person tied up. And when the person who freaked out seeing Remus moved, he saw the person's forehead.
Sirius' eyes widened to the limit, and he yelled. "James, they have Harry! These bastards kidnapped Harry!"
"What!" thundered James, while furiously glaring at the intruders.
Rivers, who was standing close to the door, positioned himself near Harry's bound body. He looked at the three people who weren't from his group.
'James Potter and Sirius Black! What are they doing here?!' he quickly thought and then looked at the third one. 'And a Werewolf. This isn't making any sense.'
Rivers deduced that the Werewolf was on Wolfsbane potion because he wasn't attacking anyone.
He flinched when the Werewolf growled at him threateningly with a savage glare in his eyes. 'Still very dangerous,' he thought and started to think of a plan.
'Three-on-three, I can get out of here. Yes, I can get out here,' thought Rivers and immediately moved. He swung his wand, and Harry's bound body flew up.
Rivers levitated the body of the child that had a small build, of course, one suitable for playing Seeker. He then held it in front of him while pointing his wand at Harry's neck.
"No sudden moves, or the Boy-Who-Lived is dead!" threatened Rivers and then addressed his other companions. "Point your wands at the three, and immobilize them if any one of them moves as much as a squeak."
Rivers understood that he had the best possible hostage he could have had in this situation. James Potter and Sirius Black wouldn't move a single bit as long as he had Harry Potter in his hands. And even though he wasn't sure about the Werewolf, he could see that it was restrained and cautious.
"Keep a strong stand. This is for the Dark Lord. We will avenge him today. It'll be glorious," announced Rivers. He said that to make sure his meat shields were motivated and didn't surrender. "This moment will go down in the annals of history. We will trump the likes of Lestrange and become his greatest followers."
And his words seemed to do the work. Of course, he knew they would work. He had selected these three because they were the most fanatic of the followers. They had donated frequently amounts that were surprising given each of their salaries.
Rivers had done his research when he chose them. He knew that they could be manipulated with a few words, and given their personalities, they would stay devoted and loyal under situations like the current one.
"You! You are one of those Novellus Accionite shits," snarled Sirius as he gripped his wand tighter but didn't move because Harry could be in mortal danger.
"Yes, we are the most devoted followers of the Dark Lord. We are the messengers who will spread his teachings far and wide. We will erase the filth and give rise to True Justice," replied Rivers fanatically.
The truth was that Rivers didn't give a shit about Voldemort. Voldemort and his ideology was simply something he used because it would allow to further his goals.
Rivers Lock had spent his entire life hiding his true personality. He had created Novellus Accionites so he could let loose and let his true self play out a bit.
He wanted to manipulate and scheme.
He craved to influence people in a way that wouldn't be seen as the norm to society.
Rivers Lock wanted to spread chaos among the people who tied themselves in fake notions of morals and laws. He wished to disrupt the norm and spread the seed of turmoil, discord, and disorder.
To do that, he needed laborers who would help him out. He needed people who would become his pawns and do his bidding while he sat back and watched.
So he used something that would give him the quickest and most results. He used the influence of the now-dead Dark Lord. Appealing the young and brash. Calling out to their fake superiority, fanning their pureblood egos to make them believe that they were doing something of great importance.
In actuality, Rivers was a man of wisdom, intelligence and intellect. He didn't believe in pureblood supremacy and would spit on it if it didn't put him at a disadvantage.
He only believed in one power, and that was intelligence. Rivers believed that if one had sufficient intellect, they could take down anyone. If you were unrivaled in terms of brainpower, even the strongest wizards and witches wouldn't do anything but submit.
And Rivers had proved it by controlling many people without ever putting himself in the sights of authorities.
Rivers Lock only wanted one thing.
He wanted to see the world burn and look down at it burning like a god hidden in the shadows while controlling everything and everybody.
This situation wasn't great, but Rivers wasn't going to let himself fail here.
He had Harry Potter, the savior of the Wizarding World, in his hands.
The death of the Boy-Who-Lived would sow enough chaos to satisfy Rivers' soul.
'I'm the smartest man in the room. I can get out of here unharmed.'
"Cover me, we're going to get out of here and complete our mission," ordered Rivers while moving behind his three meatshields.
The Marauders couldn't do anything with Harry being held hostage. All three men would've thought better if the hostage hadn't been Harry, but right now, all three were drawing a blank in worry.
As River's group moved towards the door that led out of the room towards the main entrance of the shack, it suddenly opened up.
Every single person immediately tensed up and looked at the door.
"Oh."
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn opened the door of the room that had the entrance to the passage. And, oh, boy, he wasn't expecting what was waiting inside.
He stared at seven people and...
'Is that Harry Potter?'
One bound and unconscious Harry Potter being used as what seemed to be a hostage.
Quinn almost did a double-take when he saw a Werewolf in the room.
'Oh, for magic's sake! Today's a full moon?!' he exclaimed in his mind and knew this was Remus Lupin in his Lycan form. 'What the hell is he doing here?! Shouldn't he be in his residence sleeping!?'
Quinn had monitored Remus on a few full moon nights. Remus, who had been getting his Wolfsbane potion, didn't come to Shrieking Shack. He had enough control to just sleep in his residence inside Hogwarts.
Then he looked at James Potter and Sirius Black and pieced together that these two were the reason for Remus' sudden change of location.
And finally, Quinn looked at four people who were in the middle of the room.
'Woah, they've kidnapped Harry. Now that's more than anyone has ever accomplished,' thought Quinn. 'They're the Novellus Accionites. Yup, I'm pretty sure they are.'
He thought all of this within a few seconds, and after Quinn was done with speculating and observing, he said.
"Oh."
Quinn didn't remove his left hand from the doorknob and raised his right hand to point a thumb back.
"... Excuse me? I feel like I'm interrupting something important. How about I leave you to your... thing here and let you continue? Yes, I'll do that," said Quinn and very slowly stepped back and tried to close the door.
Trying to get out of the place so it won't turn into a Mexican standoff.
"Don't close that door! Kid, if you don't want to get hurt, I suggest that you do whatever I ask you to do," yelled Rivers, who stopped Quinn from closing the door.
Rivers was slowly getting frustrated. This situation was already tough, but now, some kid had strolled into the situation and made things a little more complicated.
'Just how many people know about this secret passage,' thought Rivers furiously.
The matchup was four-on-three, and he couldn't let it turn into four-on-four, so he tried to intimidate Quinn.
"You see who I'm holding? This is Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. If you don't do as I say, I'm going to blow up his brains. You don't want to be the person who let the Boy-Who-Lived die, do you?" said Rivers, trying to make sure Quinn didn't make any erratic moves.
"See the man on the left? He's James Potter, the father of Harry Potter. If you don't do as I saw, I will kill his son, and he will blame you. You'll let his precious son die. Let me tell you something. James Potter here is a Senior Auror and has a seat on Wizengamot, and that makes him a powerful man. He can ruin your family and put you in Azkaban, and you don't want that, do you?"
Quinn shook his head in response.
'There's no way in hell he could do that. If I was arrested, I'd be out before they could even think of harming me.'
George West would tear down the ministry walls if he ever heard that his grandson was under arrest. The richest man in the country and probably the magical world would bring down hell if he heard a word about putting Quinn in Azkaban.
If Death Eaters were able to bribe their way out, George could do much, much more. Not only would George get Quinn out, but he would also cause massive problems for anyone involved. George would put so much pressure on the ministry higher-ups that they would have no choice but to tread very, very lightly, because their future would very well depend on their next decisions.
Sure, James Potter was politically powerful, but George West was on another level. James Potter could gather the support of the Light faction, but George West could buy out the Grey and Dark factions and even get his hands on some of the Light faction.
But of course, Rivers didn't know that the random kid he was threatening had such a background.
And Quinn wasn't about to whip his background out. It wasn't time for that. He had different plans for the current situation.
When Quinn shook his head, Rivers internally smiled and said, ""Now back off and move to the side with your hands raised above your head. I don't want you reaching for your wand."
Quinn raised his hands above his head and walked back as instructed, moving sideways, out of the view of everyone but Rivers. He showed complete compliance.
Rivers nodded and slowly moved forward towards the open door while his grunts covered him.
Quinn stared at Rivers with a silent gaze and waited for an opportunity.
'Just a little more and it will be the time.'
They were still behind the threshold of the door the moment Rivers got out of the room, as his grunts were still behind and bunched up.
'It's time,' thought Quinn.
Suddenly the wand in Rivers' hands went flying. Right after, the door snapped closed.
Quinn lowered his hand and ran towards Rivers. He used magic to pull on Harry's binding to separate him from Rivers.
Rivers became too stunned-slash-shocked at the sudden change of events. He couldn't help but look to his side just to feel a kick planted in his stomach.
The force of the kick knocked the air out of him, and he immediately knelt. The next second, he once again felt a kick, this time in his chest, and it made him lie on the ground.
Suffering from panic, he looked through his shaky vision and saw Quinn as he descended on top of him. Then he felt his arms being trapped under Quinn's knees.
"This will hurt, so brace yourself," said Quinn and raised his fist and brought it down onto Rivers' face.
The solid fist impacted Rivers' jaw and cheeks, making a sickening sound.
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- (Scene Break) -
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As soon as the door closed, the Marauders took action.
They raised their wands and shot spells on the Accionite grunts.
The grunts were surprised to see their path cut off, and in that lapse of concentration and focus, they were hit with spells. It was over for them.
The Aurors and the lycanthrope stunned and bound their opponents within seconds while using extra power just to make sure they wouldn't be waking anytime soon.
The second the grunts' wands were retrieved, the three men ran towards the door, but when they opened the closed door, they were greeted with a shocking sight.
In front of them was Harry's unconscious body. James immediately moved towards his son to check upon him.
And on the side, Sirius and Remus saw the kid that had barged in standing up on top of the Novellus Accionite who led the others.
It shocked them to see him raining punches on the Accionite's face.
Then they heard him speak,
"Dammit! My knuckles hurt! Oh, Rowena, I haven't punched anyone without gloves before and it hurts."
They saw as the kid looked down. He then shrugged his shoulders and elbowed the Accionite in the face.
Sirius moved to stop the kid, but the kid stopped on his own and stood up.
Sirius, who was closer to the kind, saw the bloodied face of the Accionite. And from the looks of it, he was completely and totally out.
Sirius looked up and saw that the teenager was facing him. He was scrunching his face and raised his hands to look at them.
"I think I injured my hands. This really hurt. I definitely need to go to Madam Pomfrey. They don't look well."
The tense situation inside the Shrieking Shack had come to a sudden and dramatic end.
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Quinn West - MC - I think I fractured my knuckles! Shit, it hurts!
Rivers Lock - Wants chaos - Broken face and knocked out.
James Potter - Auror, Off-duty, Tipsy - Has been married for a long time.
Sirius Black - Auror, Off-duty, Tipsier - Have to collect the booze, first.
Remus Lupin - Lycanthrope, Werewolf - What the hell! What the hell! What the hell!
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