Just A Second Chance

Chapter 9

It takes him about thirty minutes. The break is barely visible Harry can only see it after two years studying magical theory, of training himself to see it a spiderweb-thin thread circle in the air in front of him, expanding from the tip of his wand. As if a very large bubble was popping in slow motion. The wards retreat, slowly and quietly, like a thread unraveling, all over the property. It will take a few minutes for the entirety of it to be exposed, but it's a domino effect that's difficult to stop, and anyway the triplets walks over the property line with none the wiser.

The rain is gentler within the remaining wards, and not nearly as cold - a Fair Weather Charm, he thinks.

<<So they place the charm so a rough storm didnt damage the blood supremacist's rose garden while they're busy torturing Aurors?!>> Danny commented incredulously.

And indeed, there is a rose garden, and some sort of fern garden, and a greenhouse, they steps out of the small woods and into what he now realizes is the backyard of not just any property, but the Lestrange Manor in Norfolk itself.

Harry Disillusions himself while Danny grab Thunder hand and making them both invisible. There's still Harry faint outline visible because of the rain, and their footprints on the grass, but it's better than nothing. The short sprint across the garden is spent glancing at each of the manor's windows for signs of movement. All remains still and dark as they approaches the door. They hears it just as Harry places his hand on the doorknob faint through various walls, but unmistakable, an agonized scream.

Danny immediately grab Harry with his other hand and making the three of them intangible and went through the door before the scream even tapers off, their lips set in a grim line. It seems Crouch's portkey was successful.

Danny quickly focused on brought them to the source of the scream He hardly notices the opulence he's come to associate with old pureblood homes, takes no heed of his surroundings past the need to find the scream source while counting on his siblings to memorize the way to the nearest exit.

Danny suddenly take a sharp turn to a parlor, barely registering the messenger bag carelessly set aside on a coffee table.

Harry barely had time to cancels the spell with a muttered "Finite" (becoming visible once again) before following his brothers to the far side of the room, where an otherwise-innocuous bookshelf is open slightly, revealing a hidden staircase leading down, because of course the Lestranges have a secret dungeon entrance in their parlor, of course they do. There's another piercing scream of agony, cut short, and there's no question where it's coming from.

But it doesn't sound like Frank Longbottom.

They descends cautiously down the spiral stone staircase and strains to hear what's going on.

"-fighter, aren't you?" The mocking tilt of a woman's voice is immediately recognizable to Harry as Bellatrix Lestrange.

<<That woman is Bellatrix Lestrange!>>

"But for how long?"

"Protego!" comes the desperate voice of Alice Longbottom, followed immediately by the sound of several bouts of spellfire hitting a shield. "Protego maxi - aaaaah!"

Alice's scream is joined by a mocking rendition by Bellatrix, quickly turning into laughter.

"S-stop playing around, Bella, just disarm her," says the voice of Barty Crouch Junior, oddly strained.

A gasp as a spell is lifted. A defiant, if wavering. "Protego Maxima!"

Someone snorts.

A different male voice - one of the Lestrange brothers - says, "See, Crouch? She wants to play-"