Granian breed of winged horses neighed under the dark night sky.
"Calm down, boy," said the carriage driver patting down the horse out of the six horses attached to the front of a long barred cage atop wheels.
The gruff middle-aged man with the scruffy beard smoothed out the horse's coat as he glanced at the group of fellow Aurors standing at a distance, conversing. One of them, who Graham recognized as Hartley, broke away from the group and walked towards him.
"Is everything ready, Graham?" asked Hartley.
"Aye, the boys are ready to fly, anxious actually," said Graham, the Auror assigned as the carriage driver.
"Good, good, today's an important day." Hartley turned his eyes up to the cloudless sky. "The weather's with us today. It doesn't look like it will rain or thunder."
"Nor will it thunder," Graham added. "It's terrible time flying when the horses get agitated by the thunder. Rain won't be hindering me eye today as well— it looks to be turning into an easy haul today."
Hartley pursed his lips, making Graham ask if something was wrong.
"You know how it is," said Hartley, "we'll be hauling Death Eaters to Azkaban today. Last time this happened, the patrol was ambushed in the way, and the prisoners freed away by the filthy Death Eaters. Three good people in the guarding patrol are still stuck in St. Mungos' spell damage recovery ward."
"You reckon it will happen again?"
"Who knows? Last time, the prisoners were pretty big names— Greyback, Carrow Twins, Yaxley. This time, they aren't that big of names, so maybe the Death Eaters won't bother. . . can't imagine them being the chummiest of the bunch."
"We have to be careful," sighed Graham as he continued stroking the well-maintained coat. "It looks like we'll be traveling a lot of people today," he pointed at the group of ten additional Aurors that had arrived with the prisoners.
"Orders from above. The Death Eaters seemed to have tangled with someone mighty important and pissed them off. Scrimgeour had been taking rounds of the office to check progress— even Lady Minister came down once. No one wants this to go down in flames. . . let's just hope it goes smoothly without any crazy."
"Don't we all want that. . ."
Thirteen Death Eaters, all cuffed behind their backs with arm cuffs, were levitated to the open cage and unceremoniously dumped inside with no regard. The cage door was shut on them as they shuffled inside. The magical looks snapped into places with a buzz of magic sealing them shut. A wave of cracking blue magic passed between the bars on all four sides, forming a pale coating before it vanished— there but unseen to the eye.
Graham and Hartley greeted their superior in charge as Sirius and James came to overlook the transfer process.
"Should we knock them out?" asked Sirius, lightly kicking the side of the cage, springing up the pale blue protection. "It'll be much less trouble for us if they don't fuss." He looked down at the Death Eaters, "Don't fuss, okay. Any strangeness. . . be ready for a world of misery."
"It'll be a problem if they get too roughed up during the transport," James said with crossed arms. "Let's nail them down to the floor with sticking charms and leave it at that."
Sirius smirked, "Yeah, on a second thought, it'd be a pity if they don't experience the pleasant winds of the night during their ride. . . after all, when's the next time they'll get to experience such luxuries."
"Will you be coming with us today, sirs," asked Graham.
"Yes, can't have this going wrong. Other than us, you'll be joined by one more Senior and one Captain. If Death Eaters do come to save their pals, they'll be coming along with us."
"That much for a transport!" Hartley asked in brow-raising surprise. "At this rate, the Death Eater will turn back when they see who they'll be going against."
The four laughed beside the miserable Death Eaters stuffed into cages as if they were animals. It would take someone a good amount of effort to look for someone inside the Auror Office sympathetic with Death Eaters.
"Alright, enough joking around; it's time to focus on the job."
The four Aurors turned to see Captain Auror Kingsley arrive. He called for everyone to gather around and started the final brief.
"This is your standard transport to Azkaban operation, but because our prisoners are Death Eaters, there's a danger that other Death Eaters would try to free them as they have done before. We will be divided into four teams. Singh's team will remain with the prisoners and take them to Azkaban. Potter and Black will take their team and protect the carriage if the Death Eater tries to be stupid and interfere with the transport. I will take my team and act as support wherever needed. Don't slack off or let your guard down. Now, let's do the job and get home."
The Auror patrol took flights on their brooms and surrounded the prisoner cage pulled by winged horses reigned in by Graham. While Graham had cast a nifty spell that reduced the wind resistance on his body, the prisoners had no such luxury and were whipped by the fast winds.
Graham had his eye in front when he noticed something on the edge of his field of sight. And out of nowhere, out of nothing, at least thirty hooded figures, suspended in midair, formed a vast circle. He narrowed his eyes behind his flight googles before they went wide. He whipped his wand out and placed it on his throat.
"DEATH EATERS INCOMING!"
His voice fought against the wind and reached the ears of all members of the Auror patrol. The trained Aurors took their formations at once and formed a dome around the prisoner carriage. But just as they set themselves into the formations, several spells came whistling against the wind and exploded in the front. The chaos was instant as the Auros spearheading at the front were blown away along with their brooms.
In an instant, the night sky was turned into a battlefield of magic, with bright spells lighting up the darkness. Brooms flew at neck-breaking speeds, with the riders weaving out of the spells' way and defending against others.
Graham looked around, his grip tightening on the reigns. He raised his wand to cast spells defending the horses, trying to keep them safe because the carriage would crash below into the fields without them. He also kept on the team in charge of defending the carriage, watching to spot the weakside and supplementing it.
He swallowed at the chaos around him. There was no communication from anyone, and that worried him. That's why he didn't like transports to Azkaban— the fortress, surrounded by vast waters, with no island anywhere near it, was covered in wards that disallowed apparitions and Portkey travels, which couldn't be pulled down even for a second because of the security risk, and there were no Floo Network because of the risk of getting watched— the only way to arrive at the prison was by flying. . . which could lead to problems like the one they faced now.
A spell suddenly came from a side that Graham thought was the strong side protected by the defensive team. He turned hastily towards the spell with his wand. He wasn't going to make it! Suddenly another spell came from just beside his head and expanded into a shield spell, thwarting the Death Eater's spell. Graham jolted in surprise and turned back— that shield spell wasn't a standard one used by Aurors. His breath hitched when he saw another spell, this time from a weak side, coming towards him. . . time seemed to have slowed down for Graham, and at that moment, he could only watch as the spell inched towards him. But then again, out of nowhere, another shield spell came over his head and protected him against the second Death Eaters that should've blown him out from the air.
The world returned to speed, and the sounds returned to his ears. Graham's heart thumped like a train as his eyes swarmed around with his wand at ready. But while Graham's mind was thinking about protection and survival, another part was dominated by the two spells that had saved his life twice— they weren't standard Auror shield spells, and while not all used those spells, he couldn't remember anyone using that specific one.
Thump!
Graham jumped in his seat because of a sudden downward jerk from behind. He turned his head up and back towards the carriage cage, and his pupils shrunk from shock. Standing on the top of the carriage, dressed in all black and the mask well known to everyone in DMLE.
"Invisible Vigilante!" but Graham's voice was drowned away by the winds.
The shocking appearance was sudden as the Invisible Vigilante vanished in front of Graham's eyes. Instantly, Graham tried to locate Invisible Vigilante. . . and found him immediately. . . in the form of horrid screams that reached his ears against the flow of the winds. Graham looked back into the prisoner cage through the bars to find he couldn't see anything than soot and haze that filled the cage, leaking out, blowing back with the winds.
Graham broke out of his shock and put the wand to his throat to inform the entire patrol, "INVISIBLE VIGILANTE! INVISIBLE VIGILANTE! HE IS HEAR! HE HAS RELEASED A SPELL INTO THE CAGE THAT I THINK IS THE ONE WE SUSPECTED HE USED BEFORE! HE IS INVISIBLE! I REPEAT, THE INVISIBLE VIGILANTE IS HERE!"
There was no response for one second. . . two. . . three. . . four ticks before Graham heard a voice that he identified as Kingsley. "Noted. Remain focused on the prisoner's protection; we will take care of tracking him down. . . . Don't interfere with the prisoners inside the cage."
The last part of the message made Graham suck in a breath. He clutched the reigns tighter and ignored the screams coming from behind him.
The Aurors didn't need to put much effort into finding the Invisible Vigilante. The sky was lit up with white flashes near some Death Eaters, sending him falling out of the sky into the fields below. Then two long glowing red chains appeared out from a singular point and sprinted towards two Death Eaters and grabbed onto their brooms. As if chained to a wall, the brooms were yanked from below the Death Eaters and sent them to an obvious fate of free fall. . . if they survived their fall was currently unknown.
One of the Aurors shot a spell from where the magical red chains originated, and a shield manifested into defense. There was a distorted ripple in the shape of a human as the shield disappeared. The distortion vanished almost instantaneously, hiding the Invisible Vigilante.
"I have a lock on him," heard Graham and everyone in the Auror patrol. It was Sirius Black who had spoken. "I can roughly locate him; do you want me to pursue him?"
There was a pause in the response from Kingsley that came into everyone's ears, but it surprised a lot of people when it arrived. "You are not to attack the vigilante until the threat of Death Eater ambush is taken care of or until I give the order. If he attacks any of us, you are free to shoot him down.
After that, Black, Potter, and I will hunt down the vigilante with the rest of you continuing onto Azkaban under Singh's command." Kingsley finished with, "I want him alive."
Sirius' affirmation ensued, with James following after.
Graham accepted the orders from Captain Auror in charge. He didn't know how to feel about it but didn't get the time to ponder about it because of the attacks. Graham took a look back in the cage and saw that the soot and haze had cleared. He watched as the Death Eaters lay slumped on the floor, not moving. He panicked, wondering if they were dead for a second, but then he strained his ears to hear some painful moaning that he almost missed.
Graham knew that the Death Eaters had lost their hands if his guess was correct.
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
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Invisible Vigilante - Unannounced Participation - Operating as per M.O.
Graham - Junior Auror - On a ride to remember.
Kingsley Shacklebolt - Captain Auror - Controversial decision?
