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Chapter 68 - CH68

He could see Remus was quite worried.

With his head down a little as he looked to the steps, as if watching his footing, he turned his head slightly to give Remus a smirk and a wink. That had the old wolf immediately try to surreptitiously indicate Dumbledore and the two opposite him and Tonks.

Harry just gave a nod, showing he understood.

Then he looked as if he'd just remembered something before turning to look back into the bank.

The three-quarter clockwise turn to look back allowed him to stand in such a way that he could raise his right hand to hip height and make gestures to Remus and Tonks that none of the other Order members could see. He hoped Remus understood he wanted them both to cast at the two on the opposite side of him from them, when the time came to do so.

When he looked in their direction while turning back he saw Remus give him another nod and whisper something to Tonks.

When he turned back it was to see Diggle and the man he was standing with close the gap between them a little, while Dumbledore looked back at Harry between their heads. It was a 'pity' the old twit forgot about his bright light-blue coloured hat, that stood proudly on his head, made him stand out like an illuminated Christmas decoration.

With a cheeky grin, Harry waved at the man and then, deliberately, stepped off the bottom step. However, that's as far as he moved.

He knew that if Dumbledore had wanted to use the same idea of simultaneous casts from his minions to take Harry out, Harry had just defeated it.

Also, if the reason Remus, Tonks and the two opposite them were standing where they were so they could slip in behind as Harry walked off, Harry had also defeated that idea by not moving forward more than half a pace from the bottom steps. It gave them no room to properly flank him. When Dumbledore still didn't move, Harry waited only ten seconds before he let out a shrill whistle, getting everyone's attention. "Oi! Dumbdumb Fumblemore!" he called out. "Your second attempt at ambushing an unarmed man is not going to work today, either!"

With a big cheesy grin he then flashed the man two thumbs up. "Points for the pathetic attempt, though!"

That had a scowling Dumbledore shove open a gap between Diggle and the other man and stomp down the Alley towards him. Longbottom ducked through the same gap and dogged the old man's heels as Diggle and the man with him turned to follow. If it wasn't for how tall he now was, Longbottom would have had to jog to keep up.

"Peverell!" Dumbledore snapped out loud, storming forward. "I will have words with you!" "Oh?" Harry called right back. "Which one's? How about I offer: 'Gaudy', 'Ugly' and 'Eye-Watering' together?"

When Dumbledore reached about thirty feet away, he snap-raised his wand and cast a somewhat dark stunning charm at Harry.

Harry simply side-stepped it.

"Now, that wasn't―" Harry started

Then the others all cast. Clearly, Dumbledore casting the first was the signal for the others to cast.

Unknown to Harry, the spell that whizzed by him passed straight through the doors of the bank and tagged a witch who was walking to head out. She'd bonelessly dropped to the floor as the two door guard goblins immediately hustled in and slammed the doors shut.

Knowing he had Tonks and Remus on his side, Harry simply stepped forward and bent forward a little to have the curses from the two Weasleys pass behind while Remus's and Tonks's passed them with the red of stunners and hit them both.

As the Weasley two went down Harry straightened up and was casting at Dumbledore and the others. He didn't bother with the kara kesh, this time.

First, he cast a shield breaker and stunner at Dumbledore, two quick stunners at Remus and Tonks and switched back to Dumbledore. Another shield breaker and his Pud-Trip combination had the old man down on his arse. Switching to the others, he spared a moment for a glance to the two Weasleys and was just in time to wand-swat a bone breaker from Ron away as Weasley spun to revive his downed sister.

A couple more pairs of shield-breakers and stunners at Diggle and the other bloke... Dumbledore was trying to climb back to his feet behind a strong shield... he spun back to the Weasley pair and stunned them both. Ron was foolishly not even looking in his direction when both stunners hit and took them both down; Ginny, for the second time.

Harry was, while doing all this, simply stepping and dodging out of the way of charms and curses launched at him from Dumbledore, Longbottom, Diggle and the other. Remus and Tonks were also casting, but casting to miss. So, Harry only had to make sure he didn't step into one of their stunners while dodging something else.

Another triple shield-breaker, Knock-back Jinx and Tripping Hex at Dumbledore didn't get through the new shield he was employing, but Harry did take out both Diggle and the other wizard while the old man was busy defending himself.

Grinning now, Harry hit Longbottom with a machine gun of school-yard prank spells, forcing Dumbledore to move his shield to protect his new 'golden boy' and opening himself up. And Harry hit him in his left arm with a Severing charm - 'Amp!' - that, surprisingly, got through and cut the old man's arm off.

As Dumbledore squealed and staggered, Longbottom looked at him in shock. So Harry machine-gunned a shield breaker and more school-yard prank spells at the young man. Of the half-dozen, the first five all got through before Dumbledore could get his shield back up.

"Neville!" Dumbledore snapped out, holding the shield up while simultaneously strengthening it. "My arm; my boy!"

Neville, by this time suffering from a near dozen prank hexes, aborted his own offensive casting, bent down and picked up the old man's fallen arm at his feet. As soon as did and started to stand again, Dumbledore roared, "RETREEEEAT!" Then cast a dark curse in Harry's direction Harry was horrified to recognise.

As the old man snapped off his curse, from behind it he turned, snatched hold of a fistful of Longbottom's robes and apparated out with him.

Harry however, while recognising Dumbledore had run just from the sound of the crack of the apparation, was already casting at what was coming at him. The kara kesh would likely save him from it, but it would do nothing to protect those in the bank behind him.

Dumbledore had cast Fiendfyre.

If Harry didn't contain it... and fast... it would roar right past him and into the lobby and banking floor of the bank. As well as about half a dozen people if he remembered right, Luna was in there. So, too, were all those goblins. And the fire would rip though that place, consuming all that lovely lacquered wood and parchment as it went, killing everyone.

Having read about the curse in a book in the Black library at Grimmauld Place, he had already figured out a counter for it - he hoped.

As the curse started to take shape with the shape of fiery animals beginning to form, before Dumbledore had even called 'Retreat' Harry was already casting his counter. From reading the book it was written within, he knew controlling Fiendfyre was all about intent and having a will stronger than the caster.

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