The Battle for Khaat Lupin

((No need to say anyone was late. Assume you showed up before Jack's little speech))

Jack stared at the large building on the London street where Khaat Lupin was housed as people gathered around her, youngsters and elders alike. Those from Potter's Army had been alerted by PA coin, with a Patronus waiting for them in their meeting area to tell them where to meet. The Patronus had also delivered a Portkey to bring them all to the street outside of the lair. Patronuses had found all of her allies and the Order of the Phoenix. The street was blocked off and could not be accessed by muggles. People had gathered, and now she turned to review the group she had.

She turned and sighed. "Khaat Lupin is in that house, and she is very pregnant, and very much in trouble. Michael Tremaine is going to take some people in to recover Khaat. The rest of you need to just keep the werewolves from getting to Michael and his people as he recovers Khaat. Be safe. Do not tackle James Blood - I'll take him." She grimaced. "Alright. Here goes."

She turned and slowly approached the door. She raised her wand and pointed it at the door. "Bombarda." It was time they took the offensive. She immediately ran inside, her wand held aloft in preparation to fight anyone off that came in for the attack. "Anyone who surrenders," she announced, "will be spared. If you give us Khaat Lupin, there will be no fight here. If not, we will extract her. The choice is yours. Blood - I'm talking to you!"

Hallie had been preparing some rhubarb and custard, something she didn't usually eat but being pregnant she'd had a desire to eat rhubarb and custard a lot. It was a good job her and Theodore weren't together as the patronus of Jack Dyllan burst into the kitchen otherwise he would have no doubt shouted at her. He never liked it when she went off to do something, especially seeing as she was a peg-legged pregnant lady who always got into some sort of sticky situation.

As Hallie had been doing all the paperwork at work and hadn't left the office since before Christmas, what with having to get used to her prosthesis, the rhubarb and custard evaporated from her mind. She was hungry for action, hungry for an adrenaline rush. It was these moments that kept Hallie going and no prosthesis or fetus was going to stop her.

Hurrying up the stairs Hallie found her wand on the bedside table and apparated to the location. It was time to test her new wand, see what it was capable of. Rowan, Phoenix Feather Core, pliant. Hopefully the Rowan would live up to its name of often outperforming in duels and perform a broad variety of strong defensive spells.

Listening to Jack inform them of the situation Hallie's adrenaline kicked in, her hand strongly in hand. Khaat needed their help. She was innocent and in a grave situation. Hallie had let a werewolf ruin a home once before and she wasn't going to do this again. She wasn't going to let James Blood get way with transforming or slaughtering Khaat Lupin even if she had to die defending her.

Hallie made an effort to keep up with the crowd as they followed Jack inside. She'd forgotten about her leg. Forgotten the fact she was pregnant. All she could think about was how similar the situation was to her. Toby... She was doing this not just for Khaat but for Toby. Hallie was going to make up for her mistake by not allowing anyone else to suffer the way her family had. Robert and Katherine Lupin wouldn't be suffering like her Mother had.

Raising her wand out in front of her the order member stood behind Jack, pure adrenaline flooding through her body.

Khaat had been totally blindsided by the morning's events.  It was supposed to have taken only 30 minutes.  Surely no longer. Marcus had been with her. He and she both had known the risks and had thought they were prepared.

They had gone to Sparks at 4:30 in the morning, hoping to elude the Blood pack that so often stalked her movements, but something had gone horribly wrong somewhere.  She'd gone into the office at the bistro to straighten out a debacle with a supplier.  Lizzie, her faithful chef had brought mugs of tea to her and to Marcus.  

Within moments, Marcus was quite alarmed, drowsy, trying to warn her before he fell to the floor from whatever had been slipped into his tea.  She got up, frightened, wand drawn, determined not to leave him alone, when her own chef, Lizzie, had overtaken her and subdued her.  She felt betrayed and completely confused.

In the process of it, with the stress of it, she had known her water had broken in the bistro office. She knew she was going to go into labor.  She felt herself being whisked away, leaving Marcus behind, motionless on the floor.

Lizzie wasn't Lizzie, though. The polyjuice wore off, and Khaat found she was in the clutches of James's alpha female, Moira.  Khaat had fought and had struggled hard. Moira was quick to cuff her hard--hard enough to stun her momentarily, and Khaat wondered whether Moira had broken one of Khaat's cheekbones. It was certainly swelling and bruising.  Moira took her to some godforsaken, dark part of London and dragged her down into a maze of basement rooms with gray stone walls. There were hallways every direction, and most of the sounds were coming from the south hallway.  Moira dragged her off into the northern hallway and tossed her roughly into a cell and locked her in.

The only light she had was from a street grating that was far above her.  No one would see her here or hear her.  In the dim light, she could see that people had been kept prisoner here before. She could see the desperateness all around her--their frantic efforts to escape--clawing at anything, digging, chipping, hammering...and no evidence that anything had ever worked.

She even found loose stones in the walls and in the floor where there were hiding places dug into the dirt behind and beneath the rocks.  Places where sharp fragments of shale were stashed for any newcomers here.  Spoons, bits of sticks, anything to give someone else hope and maybe some time.  

But then her own private hell unleashed itself upon her. Labor. She panicked completely and utterly in a way she didn't remember ever feeling before. Her children were supposed to have been born in love.  Brought into a world that was full of good things. Brian was supposed to be here. But here they were, about to be introduced into the hands of a bloodthirsty monster. This was wrong on every level of everything she knew and valued and loved.

In utter desperateness, she tried to get the symptoms of labor to go away, but she knew that was futile and ridiculous. She tried to think.  The whole place smelled like the blood of past and present kills, so more blood wouldn't be noticed.  What would be noticed was sound.  If she made any.

She did her level best to stay completely silent.  She had no choice.  The labor was fast and hard. Brutal.  But she delivered the twins--identical twin boys--alone.  Lupin boys. She had no desire for James to use them as any sort of crown jewels in his psychotic empire.

She took a lace from her boot and tied it around the ankle of the baby born first--just so she might be able to tell them apart if they lived.

She wept.  Was it better to let James find them? To deliver them only to lose them to him? And if not, what was the alternative? Horrible thoughts of every sort passed through her mind, and some were unconscionable. Some were thoughts she was too ashamed to ever speak of to anyone ever.  If she lived, the memories of knowing those thoughts had passed through her mind would surely haunt her forever. She was completely exhausted, and she had little strength left at all.  

Hide them. It was all she had left. As stupid and desperate and pointless as it sounded, hiding them was all she had. She cast a sleep spell on each baby and then took her own clothing and wrapped the babies warmly in her clothes. Then, she rearranged the stones in the floor so they didn't quite fit right, so that it would leave them air.  She tucked the babies into the hole under the stones in the floor and replaced the stones carefully to hide them.

Then, sitting in just her panties and her bra, as traumatic shock started to take over and dull her thinking and her senses, she sat in the cold and shook-partly from shock and fatigue, partly from the cold, and partly out of sheer terror.

As much as she didn't want to be here, as much as she didn't want her babies here, she desperately wanted them to forget about her. Leave her here to die. Don't start a war over her.  Not over her, not over the babies.

She knew her father. She knew he would come. Even as he was, he would come. And if he came as he was, it would be a terrible thing unleashed on the wizarding world. Worse yet if they found her or the babies dead. She sat, rocking herself to try to warm herself and comfort herself, hoping that just this one time, he wouldn't be willing to walk into Hell for her.

To say Brian was outraged was one of the worst underestimations anyone might have made. His rage knew no bounds, no limits.

He was giving no quarter. Not this time.  He would kill. That was just a given. He was all done toying with this and giving Blood any mercy. Brian had none left to show to James Blood.  He gathered everyone he could think of.  He knew Michael and Robert were already headed that way.

Marcus and Edward and Angus were sworn to go with him.  When Jack's signal came, it was the only notice they needed.

They had all gone, immediately, to the location of her signal, finding Michael there with Robert who was still wearing that odd costume he'd constructed that looked much too much like a dementor for anyone's liking. The black cloak with the mask that created only a black mist where Robert's face should have been was just entirely too creepy for anyone's likings.

Jack blew open the door with a bombarda spell, and they all followed her inside.  They listened to Jack trying to summon James's attention.  They listened to the noises inside the cellar.  

There were frantic scrambling noises in the corridor to the south. Orders were being given, shouting.  Sounds of running erupted.  

"He'll be that way," Edward pointed the southern tunnel out to Jack. "And he'll be heavily fortified. He'll be defending his pack, and they'll be defending him."

"Where the hell is Khaat?" Brian demanded. Time was running out. He did not want his children being born in this hellhole.  She was in labor.  They knew that from finding that her water had broken at Sparks. That had happened hours ago.  She was in trouble--big trouble--right this moment. They needed to find her, and every second counted.

Edward paused.  There were too many corridors. Too many choices.  Most corridors seemed to be unguarded.  Abandoned.

"Jack, we'll need to split up to look for her," Edward urged.  Brian couldn't wait. Wand drawn, he took off on a dash, a dead run into the east bound corridor. Doing something was better than doing nothing.

Michael looked to the ghastly specter that had accompanied him. "Damnit," Michael hissed, angry. "You're not helpless. Do something. Where the hell is she?"

Isabella had no right to be here.
Truely.
She worked as an Auour at the mnistry of magic and was born in raised in France and Spain.
She went to Beuxbatons.
But yet jere she was.
And really for one reason only.
To get revenge on the person who had killed her fiance.
Years ago Isabella had been engaged. One day she and her fiance had come to england and he had been murdered by a werewolf. So really she wasn't her to rescue.
She was here to maim.
To hurt.
To kill.
And she would finish this.
Because of Isabella leanred one thing as a CNI agent and as an Auour, it was to get the job done.
Clean and quickly.

After their meeting in Diagon Ally, Katrina-Carlotta had inconspicuously placed a bucket load of charms upon Khaat Lupin. She might have gone slightly overboard, but the Headmistress had figured that Marcus, or even Khaat herself, might notice the spells and remove them. Not that any of them had been placed to cause harm, instead they were all trackers and danger sensors.

The European had been in Italy for most of the day, meeting up with an old friend. The man had called in the favor she owed him, and Katrina-Carlotta had thought little before running off to help him. The wizard had been betrayed by one of his closest friends, but was unable to tell which one. He'd invited them all over for dinner, and asked Katrina-Carlotta to read their minds to find the perpetrator.

Upon arriving back in England, the woman immediately knew that something had happened to Khaat. Almost all of her sensors had been triggered. Katrina-Carlotta hadn't even tried to bite back the curses that fell from her lips. The woman couldn't just run off to different countries on a whim anymore, she had responsibilities now. She was responsible for Hogwarts, the Death Eaters, and partly for Khaat's safety as well. Her spells hadn't been strong enough to inform her that there was trouble all the way in Italy, and Katrina-Carlotta could only hope that they hadn't been triggered too long ago.

Glad that she was already carrying her second wand and a few blades, the woman immediately apperated to a location not far from where her magic thought Khaat was. Spotting Jack Dyllan, Katrina-Carlotta melted back into the shadows. The dark witch never thought there would be a time she'd be glad to see the redhead, but there indeed was a first time for everything.  

Pressing her wand to her Dark Mark, calling the Death Eaters to her, the woman could only hope that the Death Eaters and the Order would be able to get along. She'd talked to all of them at the last meeting, warning that such cooperation may be necessary in the future. Katrina-Carlotta prayed that everyone would work together against their common enemy, and not fight among themselves.

Smiling slightly at the sight of her Death Eaters beginning to appear, Katrina-Carlotta muttered a few words in Latin and then pressed her wand to the Dark Mark once more. Upon becoming Head Death Eater, the woman had gotten in contact with the junior offshoot of the group. She provided all the Dark Followers with jewelry containing tiny Dark Marks. They would heat whenever she called them, like she had just now. If they left the Hogwarts wards, they'd be portkey'd to her location. The dark witch hated to get children involved, but she knew that only the eldest and most capable would answer her call. She'd keep an eye out for them, all the same.

Nodding along slightly as Jack spoke, Katrina-Carlotta scanned the crowd. Eyes landing upon a nervous-looking Rivah Trenton, the dark witch was struck with an idea. Pulling the blond aside, the European leant in slight and said, "you know werewolves, and you know my Death Eaters. You're not a fighter, you're a strategist. I want you looking out for the Death Eaters, and any Dark Followers. Someone starts to make a tactically dumb move, you stop them. I want all of mine getting out of here alive, got it?" Rivah barely had time to nod before Katrina-Carlotta swept away, headed for the house.

His arm burnt and then within seconds Henry found himself among a crowd of people. It appeared to be an ordinary muggle street, typical inner London houses with typical muggle wheelie bins lining the curbs. Waste collection day. Although nothing about the day seemed ordinary. For one the bin men were nowhere in sight, in fact, craning his neck Henry soon realised there were no muggles around. Just death eaters, order members and... Hallie Rookwood.

Her blond hair was visible near the front by Jack Dyllan. Three months ago he had been torturing her, kept her locked away in Borgin and Burkes but now they were fighting alongside each other. Fighting for- Henry had missed what Jack was saying. What were they here to do? 

Henry watched as people began to enter the house, some talk about Khat Lupin. Had she been taken? Were these orders set by her? Turning to a pair of fellow death eaters he soon got the gist by their conversation. One was informing the other Khaat had been taken by the Blood pack and was locked inside the house somewhere, where they didn't know, all they knew was that she was in there.

Gripping his wand Henry followed the death eaters, making sure there was a great enough distance from him and Hallie. Hiding at the back wasn't what he wanted to do. Hiding at the back wouldn't get him recognition. Hiding at the back wasn't going to get him in duels to the death but it would do for now. Who knows how angry and bitter Hallie could be, especially as she'd lost a leg because of what he'd done.  

Jack turned and spotted more people streaming inside, quickly taking stock as she tried to decide the best course of action. She inclinded her head at Edward's comment - she could see the scratch marks that clearly indicated that the bulk of the wolves would be down those paths. She looked at the group and spotted Kat-Car. She gave the woman a grimace. Jack knew what she had to do, she just did not want to do it.

"Let's get teams down these tunnels. Kat-Car, join me down this tunnel and we'll take care of the wolves. Everyone less equipped to fight-" she looked at the younger students and Hallie Rookwood, pregger pirate extradorinaire, "split up and help search for Khaat. Michael, Angus, Brian, and Edward lead groups down the corridors, please. Everyone else, come with Kat-Car and myself and prepare for one hell of a fight."

There was nothing worse than being summoned. There was a certain luxury, however, in being a Death Eater. There was no requirement to fight. There was a little line of Rookwoods, as a result, that stood as the backbone to the Death Eater party. Whilst grievances amongst the younger ones had yet to be brokered and settled, the elder members of the family who bore the Mark stood with the upmost integrity and no intention to draw their wands for the sake of a Lupin. The concept of a rout and of drawing werewolf blood was one that made adrenaline and white hot lust simmer in their veins yet outwardly they remained settled and stoic, wands twirling between their fingers, their eyes darting this way and that, begging in shadows and crevices for a wolf to rear its ugly head.

Kendall Rookwood shifted impatiently beside his father. Augustus regarded the boy with an absent, fleeting eye. On his other side, Augustus could perceive his nephew, Theodore, wriggling restlessly in a more feverish fashion to his cousin but unwilling, yet, to break rank. Beside each younger man, a smattering of bright, Rookwood blood was going to bear witness to what they intended to delve into. None intended on following the rest. It was not in their nature to spearhead. They moved in even murkier waters than the Death Eaters themselves. In fact, Augustus stood to gain more by dealing with the werewolves than the Ministry, the Order or the Death Eaters themselves. However, no amount of leverage belonging to either side would see the Rookwood man shift from his roost. No, he stayed on the other side of the road waiting. Ever waiting.

A sudden crack amongst the carnage and shouting alerted the Rookwoods to Apparation and onto the street landed the ex-Deputy Minister, Elijah Krum. He regarded the Rookwood party with a wary eye and stepped off of the pavement into the damp of the road. Elijah’s hands dropped into the pockets of his robes as he looked up, meeting Augustus’s chilly, fleeting gaze. Elijah’s eyebrows rose a little as he inclined his chin in greeting and either side of him, Augustus’s kin stilled, their wands falling still in their grasps. Elijah did not so much as blink but instead observed them coolly.

“Can I help you, Mr Krum?” Augustus inquired airily. “Have you come to watch?” He extended a hand, gesturing to the house into which dozens of Order members and Death Eater still flooded.

“Something like that, Mr Rookwood,” Elijah replied, turning a little to perceive the house. “I have no desire to partake in such an expedition.”

“Some love lost with dear old mummy then?” Augustus smirked, fiddling nonchalantly with his gloves.

“Not my mother,” Elijah retorted. “Don’t you have more of an allegiance?”

“I’m not the one wearing gold and operating in green.” Augustus reminded Elijah tartly.

Elijah chuckled. “Perhaps I am just here to watch then,” he conceded, stepping up onto the kerb.

Fear was not part of Marcus Belby's normal DNA. Adrenaline was a norm.  He was quick, strategic, intelligent, and he was very experienced at espionage.  He spent his time in silk suits these days, but he was no stranger to all sorts of filthy hovels like this one.

To Marcus, it betrayed that beneath his thirst for power, James Blood was one desperate bastard. This was the place where one set up shop if they were on the run. If fear was more of a motivator than power.  It told him a great deal.

If Blood truly had money behind him, he'd have set up shop openly.  Instead, he had retreated to the ghetto section of muggle London, and had carved mazes into a block of cellars beneath the condemned flats.  It had a central entrance on the west side, where they were now, and a million chances for an intruder to get it all wrong.

He paused, looking around. The noise, and surely the action, was going to be to the south.  He had watched Brian get desperate to find Khaat. Brian's choice to dash off straight ahead into the eastward corridor, had appeared to Belby like it was done out of sheer desperation to try something.  

Marcus was sharply aware that they were running out of time. He didn't want to get it wrong. He paused, looking.  He glanced at Edward, who also appeared to be analyzing. Something didn't make any more sense to Edward than it did to Marcus.  

He saw Edward's eyes meet his.  They both glanced at the people around them breaking up into pairs or teams and most heading in a southerly direction.  A good bet, to be certain.  But Marcus only had one assignment.

He turned to the "grim reaper" beside Michael Tremaine. "Are you absolutely certain she's here?" Marcus asked quietly. The figure nodded once, slowly.  "And she's alive?" The figure nodded again.

Edward looked back again at Marcus and gave him one deliberately cryptic glance, moving only his eyes.  North.  Marcus understood. Edward had been as unsettled as Marcus had been, and Edward was telling Marcus to go down the abandoned northward corridor.

ooc: anybody feel like not fighting and pairing up with Marcus instead to go after Khaat? he could use a buddy with him.