Chapter III: The Death Eater Attack

One month after Harry arrived in the past, he was taking some well earned rest in a small Muggle pub in London, nursing a bottle of beer. The establishment was crowded, but not too much. The men were in bell bottoms and women wore feathered hair, chatted and laughed, oblivious to the war brewing in the magical world that would soon spill over into their world.

Harry had spent the past weeks planning meticulously. He had already located and placed surveillance on the Gaunt shack in Little Hangleton, confirmed the location of the Riddle house, and made discreet inquiries about Hepzibah Smith's murder. Harry had also spent the time learning about the politics of this era, learning about important people on both sides of the upcoming war. The horcruxes were his top priority, he will destroy them all and will deal with Riddle permanently.

As he was deep in his thoughts, the door to the pub was pushed open violently. Harry glanced up reflexively, then froze as ten figures in hooded black robes and silver masks strode in with confidence. They did not expect resistance in a muggle bar of all places.

The Muggles looked confused at first, from their point of view it would have looked like a group of people in the middle of a costume party just waltzed into the bar. Then the first curse shattered the mirror behind the bar and sent shards of glass flying into the bartender's back. Screams erupted.

Harry moved instantly. "Protego Maxima!" he shouted, as he poured a considerable amount of power into the spell. A shimmering blue barrier separated the terrified Muggles from the Death Eaters.

"Who dares to interrupt us?" snarled one of the masked figures, turning toward Harry.

Harry didn't bother to answer. He dived behind an overturned table as curses blasted the spot where he'd been standing. The Death Eaters spread out, completely surrounding him, confident in their numbers.

"Reducto!" Harry shouted, as he pointed towards the floor beneath the feet of a Death Eater. The tiles exploded upward, the death eater was thrown up into the ceiling with a sickening crunch before he fell limply to the ground.

Harry didn't pause to confirm the kill. He was already moving, transfiguring broken glass from the bar into razor-sharp darts that he banished toward two more Death Eaters. One of them managed to erect a shield, but the other one wasn't as fast. The glass darts left holes in his throat and chest, the death eater dropped down and took his last breath.

"Just one wizard you idiots!" shouted a female voice, Harry's blood ran cold as he realised whose voice it. "Surround him!"

Younger Bellatrix Lestrange, the woman who killed his godfather. She had spoiled the one chance he had at a family. She had tortured Neville's parents into insanity, carved "Mudblood" into Hermione's arm.

Rage surged through Harry, but he forced it down. It’s not time for anger. It’s time for cold and calculated precision.

A Killing curse flew straight towards him. Harry conjured a heavy wooden table that intercepted the spell, the table exploded into splinters which Harry immediately transfigured into sharp wooden stakes, sharper than surgical needles. He controlled them expertly and sent them towards a Death Eater, who screamed as the wooden stakes burrowed into flesh.

Harry aimed at the chandelier and cast "Diffindo!". The cutting charm sliced through the chain supporting the chandelier, it came crashing down on two death eaters standing below with a sickening crunch of breaking bones.

Five down. Five to go.

The remaining Death Eaters were more cautious now, working together to cast a series of blasting curses at Harry's position. He apparated with a crack, reappearing behind them.

"Bombarda Maxima!" he cast at the floor beneath two more, the explosion destroyed not only them but a part of the pub itself.

Three left. The remaining three death eaters were in a state of panic and desperation. Their robes dishevelled and their masks broken.

One death eater, a large man with a familiar duelling style sent a vicious flesh rotting curse at Harry's face. Harry recognised him. Rodolphus Lestrange, husband of Bellatrix Lestrange.

Harry deflected the curse and countered with a transfiguration attack, turning the floor beneath Rodolphus into quicksand. As the Death Eater began to sink, his wand arm still free, Harry hit him with a precisely aimed Reducto to the chest. The curse tore through Rodolphus's heart, killing him instantly.

The two remaining Death Eaters, Bellatrix and a younger man Harry recognized from photographs as Rabastan Lestrange fought with desperate fury now. Rabastan sent a volley of dark violet and greenish-yellow curses that forced Harry to dodge and shield rapidly, while Bellatrix attempted to flank him.

Harry conjured a whip of magical fire and lashed out at Rabastan, catching him across the chest and sending him crashing into the bar with a howl of pain. The younger Lestrange's robes were burning, and his wand arm hung at an angle not natural to the human body.

Bellatrix screamed in fury, sending a Cruciatus Curse that narrowly missed Harry's head. Her mask had fallen off when Harry exploded part of the pub, revealing her face. She was younger than Harry had ever seen her, but she had the same manic gleam in her eyes. Harry could sense something was off.

Harry sent a powerful stunner at her, which she deflected, but the force of it knocked her back against the wall. She slumped down, momentarily dazed.

With the immediate threats neutralized, Harry mentally counted: eight Death Eaters dead, including Rodolphus Lestrange. Rabastan and Bellatrix Lestrange were injured but alive.

Harry approached Bellatrix cautiously, his wand trained on her face. She glared up at him with hatred and fear, but couldn't rise. Harry noticed her leg was broken.

All the rage he had suppressed came rushing back. This woman had taken Sirius from him. She had tortured and killed countless innocents. She would do it all again if he let her live. His wand arm tensed as he prepared to cast a spell he had learnt in Nalanda, which would cause a slow but painful death.

But as he looked into her eyes, something caught his attention. Almost imperceptible glaze, the kind of magical signature he had learned to detect from his time with the Tibetan martial wizards. It was the mark of an insidious form of compulsion magic, nearly undetectable to most wizards.

"Legilimens" Harry whispered, delving into Bellatrix's mind.

What he found shocked him. Beneath layers of magical compulsion, he saw a different Bellatrix. A brilliant and proud girl, not the sadistic monster he knew. He saw memories of Rodolphus courting her, taking her to visit Voldemort under false pretenses. She was not fond of being taken to a meeting without her explicit knowledge and permission and she had refused to join, She had laughed at Voldemort’s face calling him a delusional fool to his absolute fury. He cast the Cruciatus Curse on her, the pain broke her mental defenses, and finally, the insidious magic of Parseltongue compulsions wormed into her mind, twisting her thoughts and desires.

She had been broken, her will subverted. The Bellatrix who had killed Sirius had been as much Voldemort's victim as his tool.

Harry withdrew from her mind, momentarily stunned by the revelation. He could sense the Parselmagic binding her will, magic only a very few in the western world could counter.

Behind him, he heard movement. Rabastan had managed to apparate away despite his injuries. The sound snapped Harry back to the present situation.

He made a split-second decision. Pointing his wand at Bellatrix, he hissed in Parseltongue, "Release your hold on this mind. I, a speaker, command it."

The glaze in Bellatrix's eyes flickered, then cleared. She blinked rapidly, looking around in confusion before her gaze settled on Harry. Her eyes widened in horror as she took in the destruction, the bodies of her fellow Death Eaters, the blood on her own robes.

"What..." she began, then broke down in tears.

Harry cast several healing charms on her, enough to stop the bleeding and ease the pain, but not enough to fully heal her.

"Go," he said quietly. "Before the Aurors arrive."

Bellatrix stared at him in confusion and fear, then disapparated with a crack just as multiple pops announced the arrival of Auror response team.