An Ill Wind - Mod Journal (illwindmod) wrote in an_ill_wind, @ 2009-06-07 23:59:00 |
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Much of Egypt was busy, crowded, full of many modern comforts that Dedalus Diggle had grown used to living without. Much of it was fully civilized, like Cairo, a city dubbed the City of the Dead for, Dig was sure, some very good reasons. He didn't like the place, the strange crossing between modern and and old, rich and poverty stricken, depraved and... well, Dig hadn't met a lot of people in his brief time there who were anything but depraved. Much as he'd have preferred to avoid it, he didn't have an owl of his own and it had been months since he'd sent a letter back to his children. So, back in the beginning of March, he'd left the dusty village he was living in, learning about old magic and teaching about new magic, and headed to send an owl out, eventually making his way south along the Nile.
That owl had, evidently, been all Dumbledore had needed to find him, Dig assumed, once he'd started looking. It was on the hottest day yet this year and still well over thirty degrees even with the sun beginning to set, by the time Albus Dumbledore showed up.
He was sitting a few kilometers out of the Nile Valley with a tribe of wizards he'd just helped to overcome a sickness from over-use of dream potions with toxic levels of certain local plants. They were all on the mend, though, and Dig was just sitting with the Shaman's daughter, learning some Nobiin words and doing something that was now old hat to Dig: letting her down easy. Many tribes tried to marry him in, seeing him as an asset to keep them all healthy, but Dig never took any of them up on it. This girl was pretty, but Dig would leave in the morning, once all those who were sick made it through the night. He never stayed more than a few weeks in any one place when he was on the road like this, but sometimes he was asked to man a clinic for a while, six months or a year at a time, and he'd done that a couple times even though this was what he liked.
Still, he could feel something was off when a group of men ran by during what was normally a quiet time of night. Dig politely excused himself from the young woman and headed out after the men, feeling a sense of resignation settle over him as he spotted that unforgettable figure looking simultaneously out of place and strangely at ease in the village.
There were weapons being raised, and Dig stepped past the line of defense to greet his old mentor. The weapons lowered immediately as Dig shook Albus Dumbledore's hand, a sad smile on his face.
He loved this job and this life, but he was lonely. And Albus was here for a reason, he was sure. Voice low and respectful, Dig fell back on an old habit as he said, "Sir. What brings you all the way to Aswan?"
Albus had been traveling for nearly a week when he'd finally managed to locate Dedalus Diggle. The younger man had worked at Hogwards sometime ago--nearly a decade--and had come out of a childhood friendship with Tom Riddle that hadn't resulted in him joining the ranks of the Death Eaters. He had very much become his own man, venturing out to remote areas of the world to practice healing, a sacrifice that Albus greatly respected. Now, however, as the war escalated, things were getting out of control. Albus had sought out Dedalus to ask him to return to wizarding Britain and work with the Order both as a member and experienced healer. Marlene McKinnon did what she could with her training, but she still had a while to go before she had the practical training and confidence that a man or woman who had been healing for most of their adult life possessed.
"Dedalus," Albus said, smiling, and shaking his hand in return. "I have come to ask for your help. You are not an easy man to find."
Dig shrugged and leaned back against a tree. Yes, he was a hard man to find. He was in Egypt, not even in a city that had an owl post office, and he'd been back to the UK once in the nine years he'd been gone. If he wanted to be found, he'd have left a trail, but he supposed maybe Albus coming all the way here and spending so much of his valuable time and energy on Dig meant it was time to stop hiding.
"What do you need?" Dig asked, and it wasn't meant to be short or rude, just blunt, cutting to the chase. He respected the man too much to waste his time.
"Tom Riddle has taken over the government, appointing Festus Lestrange's son as Minister," Albus replied, hoping to make the depth of the situation clear. "They have successfully distanced the Death Eaters from Rodolphus Lestrange's regime, and are using it to their advantage. They destroyed half of muggle London, and have made attempts against the resistance I have formed, separate of the Ministry. I would like you to join that resistance. We have a young healer, but she is still training. I fear that the level of combat will only get worse from here."
Ah, there it was. Dig sighed a little. "You want me to come back and fight in a war I left the continent to avoid?"
The way he spoke made it clear he wasn't saying no, but he wanted Albus to know just what it was he was asking. Dig had a great amount of loyalty to the man that had been his superior for two decades, but it was difficult for him to accept the idea of returning home.
Home. Was the United Kingdom still home? Yes. If Dig were honest, he'd been hearing rumblings of things getting darker and darker in Britain, even as much as he tried to distance himself from the wizarding world, but that news was the sort one couldn't quite avoid. He couldn't pretend that it wasn't affecting him, and he was beginning to feel more and more like he was neglecting his responsibilities.
"I know it is a lot to ask of you, especially as you have been gone for so long," Albus admitted honestly. "But you would be a great asset to the Order of the Phoenix. We need everyone we can get with the Ministry compromised. I need those whom I can trust."
"You need me," Dig repeated, sighing. He knew he would not say no. Albus wouldn't have come all this way for him if he didn't need him. "You know I will come, Albus. Even if it means making myself and my family a target."
He was a smart man, and he knew it wasn't as simple as coming back and healing a few people when asked. He would be joining an illegal group rebelling against the government, judging from what Albus had said. Festus' son was the Minister, was he? The boy couldn't be nearly out of his thirties yet, and he'd been made Minister? He shook his head. It seemed times were even darker than he'd thought.
"Excellent. I hope you know--" Albus stopped speaking as he saw two streaks of silver tearing toward them from the distance. Patronuses. Aberforth's goat arrived first, "Death Eater. Hog's Head. Need help now!" it said. Then only a few moments after came Edgar's Labrador retriever, which stated, "Outnumbered! Trap! Hog's Head, need everyone!"
"I must go," Albus said immediately, reaching for a cauldron sitting abandoned near where they were standing. "Portus," he said as he tapped it, turning it into a portkey that would carry him to Hogsmeade's high street. "Will you come with me now, Dedalus?"
Dedalus turned to face the chaos the appearance of the patronuses had on the tribe, and he tried hastily to explain in broken Arabic, the closest approximation of Nobiin he could sort of speak.
As he spoke, he was backing towards Dumbledore, and the Shaman's daughter broke from the crowd, running towards him and speaking so quickly, the only word he could understand was destiny.
"My destiny is not here. I'm sorry, I must go," he said, pushing her away, gentle but firm. He moved to stand at Albus' side and nodded. He was going into a trap, going into... what? Going into the unknown. "I am ready."
"Thank you," Albus said, holding out the portkey for Dedalus. The moment the other man grabbed on, the familiar hook tugging them out of Egypt and into a swirling interim before setting them down in the middle of the fighting, in front of the flaming Hog's Head. There were bodies splayed across the ground everywhere and Albus could make little sense of what was going on, only that it needed to stop.
He tried to apparate away to see if there were wards trapping everyone in, and when he could not leave, he cast the counter-curse. "Get everyone out of here," Albus instructed Dedalus.
Dig nodded, brain narrowing down to the task at hand. There was much that he needed to do, and deciding where to start was tantamount.
"My house, outside of Ballycroy," Dedalus said shortly, quietly so no one heard who wasn't supposed to. Albus knew where his home was, and Dig was glad because considering the chaos, he didn't dare share his apparation co-ordinates. He had to get there first, anyway, and disable the wards...
There was much to do. He wasted no more time, moving quickly towards a girl whose intenstines were visible. He cast a few emergency spells and then scooped her into his arms, heedless of blood or mess.
"Anyone who can, grab the most injured and follow me," he said, and trusted Albus to make them trust him. There would be time for introductions later. Without another thought, he disapparated away.
"I will conjure portkeys!" Albus called over the noise of fighting, conjuring inane objects out of thin air and setting them to hover in midair until someone came forward to grab them. He set a powerful augmenti in the direction of the Hog's Head, and conjured a shield charm to surround the Order as they collected the injured, took his portkeys and left for Dedalus' home.
Bellatrix's attention was drawn away from Edgar as she felt the wave of magic from her anti-apparition wards falling and her head swung around to try and find whoever dared to counter her spell. There weren't many who would even be capable, she believed, and as her eyes settled on the form of Albus Dumbledore, she knew she had found her mark. Even if he had not been the one responsible, her loathing for the man knew no bounds. More than her cousins, even Sirius himself, Albus Dumbledore was the very symbol of the Muggle and Mudblood lovers that polluted their society. And oh, how the Dark Lord would praise her when she was the one to take the meddling old fool down once and for all. A more reasonable person, or really just about anyone would declare her completely and utterly insane for even considering the idea of attacking the Hogwarts Headmaster, the man who had defeated Gellert Grindelwald himself, but Bellatrix's mind was not cluttered with such thoughts. Instead she advanced on the old man and in a loud, clear voice, called out "Avada Kedavra!" filling the air with a flood of sinister, deadly green light.
Albus spotted her moving before she'd even uttered the killing curse's incantation. He stopped the jet of light in mid-air, freezing it and then banishing it. Two silent stunners and a massive gust of wind followed. "You would do well to leave," he said in an even voice.
This was not a fight Bellatrix could win. But there was only one man alive who she would ever concede to and it was most certainly not Albus Dumbledore. Her shield flew up and stopped his stunning spells but then it buckled under the force of the impact and Bellatrix was lifted into the air by the wind, carried back and dumped unceremoniously upon the ground. But she would not be deterred. Picking herself up, she took a step forward and brought her wand around in a broad, sweeping movement that brought forth a thick, deadly black cloud of the darkest magic she could summon from the earth surrounding Dumbledore. Her body shook with the effort of conjuring the magic she had been taught by the Dark Lord himself and it took every last bit of her strength but she brought the curse up, fighting to keep it focused upon her target. It was it's nature to simply consume whatever it came into contact with, whether man, magic or matter and it resisted Bellatrix's efforts at control but she was nothing if not determined.
The black cloud surrounding him, Albus swept his wand around him in a circle, creating another gale of magical wind, winding it into the speed and shape of a twister. Albus directed it around and above Bellatrix's dark cloud, the twister changing it's movement so that it began spinning with the tornado. By the time Albus lowered the twister down, the dark cloud had begun consuming itself. It sucked in and destroyed Albus' wind with ease, then continued spinning in mid-air, growing smaller and smaller as it ate itself, before it disappeared completely.
A red beam of light shot out of Albus' wand (a freezing charm that would literally turn an entire person into ice), followed by yellow (a force like a punch to the gut, that would knock the wind out of a person) and then purple (a combined blasting hex and incarcerous, that would essentially bind whomever it hit to the first surface they collided with).
Bellatrix growled with frustration as Dumbledore so easily destroyed the creation it had taken such effort to bring forth. This undoubtedly would have been a good time to concede defeat and flee but she was only made all the more determined by his refusal to just die already. She would not give in now. Spinning out of the way of the red jet of light flying at her, she moved right into his second attack and was thrown back yet again. Fortunately out of the path of his third spell which flew over her head but pain shot up her back at the force with which she hit the ground. It certainly did not help matters that there was a long moment in which she struggled to fill her lungs with air and it took a minute for her to recover, but soon enough she was back on her feet, if moving somewhat more slowly. And then a giant flaming dragon burst from her wand as she conjured the creation of fiendfyre and sent it flying straight for her old headmaster.
The dragon caught Rodolphus' attention, as he recognized it as Bella's. Then he realized what was going on. Was she completely out of her mind? What adrenaline fueled insanity had made her decide that challenging Albus Dumbledore was a good idea? They needed to get out, now, before he trapped them the way they'd trapped his excuse for a resistance. He ran toward her, knowing perfectly well that dragging her off (or attempting to) would only result in a rather vocal argument that would result in them being either caught, recognized or both. Rodolphus decided that facing her anger when they returned home was a much more acceptable solution. Coming up behind her, he sent a silent stunner at her, knowing she was far too focused on her creation to notice him or deflect it.
Albus recognized fiendfyre, thankfully proficient in it's counter curse, though it did take a great deal of strength for him to end it. Given the amount of bodies littered across the street, Albus felt he had more important things to worry about than to waste time fighting such frustrating battles, so he was quite relieved to see one of his challengers fellow death eaters stun her and disapparate.
After that, the few remaining death eaters vanished as well, and Albus went to work rounding up the remain members of the Order and getting them off to Dedalus' home to tend to their injuries, before the Ministry arrived. Once the last of them were gone, he disapparated himself, first to his office to send off a quick owl to an old friend and another healer--knowing that Dedalus and Marlene would have their hands more than full--then he left for the Diggle estate to do whatever else he was able.