A/N:
Alright people, here's my crossover number two. Now, I realize that the author of one of the universes here has asked pretty nicely for no fanfics regarding it until he's done with the series, but I'm sorry, I'm enthralled. I dream in that universe, to be frank about it.
And here, the events at the end of DH (deaths of certain red-headed twins come to mind) NEVER happened, but there is a battle at Hogwarts. Matter fact, that's where we begin. And for the odd concept that comes up, it's and idea/plot bunny that's been running around in my head for a while. Oh, and for those of you who don't like Ginny and Harry being together(that's how I'm writing it.), well... I guess you have to deal with it. Sorry, but that's just how it is.
Disclaimer: I only own characters/places/things not seen in the books/movies/real life/etc.
Edit: Remastered to my current quality.
/o\
Chapter One: A Battle, and a Beginning
"Harry!" Hermione called. Another explosion rocked the castle. Masonry fell, windows shattered, and suits of armor crashed to the ground as they fought under McGonagall's command. Hogwarts, the only home Harry had ever known, was under siege.
"Harry, where are you?!" she yelled, her voice barely coming above the furious cacophony of explosions, screams and falling rubble. Harry sprinted around the corner, panting hard. His clothes were dirty and stained with dust, blood, and nastier things.
"Are you alright?" he asked Hermione, whose hair was mussed and a cut had opened up above her right eyebrow. She nodded at his question, blinking away a trickle of blood that was flowing into her eye.
"We've got to get out of here! Round up everyone you can!" she said, and Harry didn't need telling twice. He dashed off through the castle, lending a hand to the dozens of small skirmishes he met along the way. Spreading the word as far and as fast as he could, he ran through terrified students and Order members alike, as they all retreated to the Room of Requirement as fast as their legs could carry them.
Curses sped by him, trying to keep him from his mission of getting as many people out safe as he could and giving any Death Eater that crossed his path a beating to remember. None stopped him, though many tried. Curses missed him, blows lost their target as he flowed around his attackers, hexing and cursing their backs as he could. Liberal use of his Invisibility cloak was probably the only thing that saved him – and more than a little luck.
Ron and Percy, along with Oliver Wood and Angelina Johnson, were running a delaying action, buying time for as many people as they could to get away. A black figure suddenly loomed among them, and Harry raised his wand. "Stupefy!" he cried, and the figure tumbled off down the passageway, with a small shriek as it hit a wall, and lay still.
Ron looked up. "Thanks mate." he said. Harry nodded.
"No problem." Harry replied. Harry knelt down next to them, sending curses hurling down the corridors at any Death Eater or creature that showed their head.
After what seemed like an hour, Hermione rushed towards them. "Everyone's on their way to the Hog's Head, let's get out of here!" she gasped, panting. Without pausing to let herself rest a moment, she turned on her heel and ran up the staircase, and then they began their own mad dash for the Room of Requirement and the back door to Aberforth's house and freedom.
A dozen Death Eaters stood at the door way of the Room, fighting with the witches and wizards who'd been standing sentry against an attack. Two lay on the floor, and the approaching former students had no idea whether they were alive or dead. There would be enough time to find out later.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Percy, Oliver, and Angelina swept through them like a hammer blow, surprise on their side. Within mere seconds, the dozen Death Eaters who had been besieging the only safe route out of the castle were most definitely dead. "Let's go!" Hermione shouted to the sentries, who eagerly obeyed, lifting their fallen compatriots and pulling them into the Room, which promptly sealed itself shut, the entrance vanishing.
With the door shut behind them, the last of the students filtering though the escape tunnel behind the portrait of Aberforth's sister. Harry sat down against the wall, panting, and Ginny collapsed next to him on the wall, hugging him, not quite caring that Ron was there, who himself was being wrapped up in an exhausted hug by Hermione.
As the castle began to shake itself apart under the relentless attack of the forces outside (who were battling with the Castle's own, not inconsiderable mobile defenses), the last of the Order members filed out, trailing Harry and Ginny, along with everyone else still in the room, walking through the door, exhausted, weary, and beaten.
Admiral's Quarters of HMS Invictus, Manticore
Admiral Honor Harrington, Royal Manticoran Navy, sat back in the comfortable chair behind her desk in the Admiral's Quarters on the Invictus, sifting tiredly through the mounds of paperwork left to her by the Admiralty. In the weeks since the Havenites attack, there had been mounds of it every day, and Honor was quite sure that it would not abate for some time.
More than six hundred thousand Manticoran Alliance personnel had died that day, in contrast to the one-point-seven million Havenite personnel who had lost their lives. But as massive as that number was, the casualty count had actually been in Haven's favor. They had the people to lose; the Alliance didn't. More than two hundred Alliance ships had been lost that day, including one Admiral Alistair McKeon's flagship.
Honor bit her lip at the memory, wishing she had been there to prevent it, to save him and his people. But she'd been sitting on the Junction terminus, waiting for her full strength to jump through, and when it had, she'd micro-jumped through the system and had blown the fleet which had sprung the trap on McKeon and Admiral Kuzak that had been meant for her, to very, very small pieces.
She'd used the new Apollo systems to force Admiral Lester Tourville to surrender by letting him know she could destroy his fleet far out of any range at which he could return fire. And now there was the better part of three hundred thousand Havenites sitting in prison camps on Gryphon.
Nimitz radiated his disapproval for his person torturing herself this way over things she couldn't control, and reached down from her shoulder with a true-hand to pat her cheek. She reached up and scratched the treecat behind his ears, projecting an embarrased apology through their link. The door alarm chose this moment to chime.
She pressed her com's accept button, and James MacGuinness stood there, with her com officer next to him."My Lady, we have orders from Manticore. There are reports of raids being conducted in the Yeltsin system, and the Graysons are requesting a little extra assistance just in case. We have orders to take a battle group with us to go reassure them." Honor nodded. "Have the helmsman plot a course into hyper. I'll be on the bridge in five minutes." she said, and Mac nodded.
She closed the link and rubbed her eyes with her hands, then stood up, and walked out the door with Nimitz riding on her shoulder.
When she arrived on the bridge, she looked towards the helmsman. He nodded without having to have to have been ordered to do anything and layed in the course.
Invictus and her battlegroup accelerated steadily toward the hyper limit, and something life-changing for all was waiting on the other side, though they did not know it...
(A/N:Cliffie! Bow before the almighty CLIFFIE! Please R&R!)