Children of War
Chapter One
"I loved the killing, the killing was the best part. It was the dying I could not take."
-Anonymous
A cool gray mist hung over what appeared to be a shack that shifted from side to side in the light breeze unstably. A large white owl could just be spotted, a speck of white among the gray fog, swooping over the dew-covered field and through a window in the second floor that was left open for her.
"So," a boy with vibrant red hair and plentiful freckles said as he leaned against the doorway to the kitchen, looking at two other young adults his age quite involved in a set of dusty tomes. "Anything interesting?" he said walking over to the stew Harry had going and gave it an admiring whiff.
"Not too good. A few moments of false hope," Harry said as he sipped a wooden mug of steaming coffee.
"It's possible one of the Horcuxes could be in Diagon or Knockturn Alley," Hermione suggested as she looked over a book concerning the four founders and their achievements.
"Great, so were going to have to tromp around in sewers of Knockturn Alley," Ron grumbled as he let himself collapse on a chair beside Hermione.
"I haven't thought of that," Harry said perking up and scribbling the word 'sewers' down on a piece of paper.
A large white snowy owl swooped inside the room and landed next to Harry and drooped a letter at Harry's feet. "Hey there girl," Harry said looking up and stroking Hedwig with a finger. As the bird took refuge on her master's shoulder Harry instantly recognized Ginny's handwriting.
Harry was dumbfounded by this he quickly grasped the parchment with trembling hands.
"Anxious?" Hermione said smiling smugly.
"How does she know we are her?" Harry said ripping it open.
"Don't look at me mate," Ron said.
"Read it out loud," Hermione suggested as she flicked a tendril of brunette hair out of her chocolate eyes.
"Harry," Harry read out loud.
"That's you," Ron said like he was providing the jet-black haired teen with interesting information, Hermione elbowed him.
Ignoring his friend's jest, he continued. "Get out of the shrieking shack now! I know you are here because I found out the Death Eaters know. They're coming for you tonight! A few trusted Slytherins have been assigned to watch the whomping willow tonight, so you will trapped off. I'm getting the D.A. rounded up right after I send this to engage them."
Harry looked up at them with a rather dry throat. The other two looked at him rather wordily of the presented situation.
"Move," The Chosen One ordered as he grabbed his rucksack that lay on the table, sweeping a few books and his mug of coffee to the floor and slung in over his back. Hermione and Ron seemed a bit stunned at them moment. "Move!" Harry yelled as he unsheathed his wand, hoping that would snap them out of their trance.
Hermione jumped up and began scooping the most important books in her own rucksack before tossing it over her shoulders and synching the shoulder straps down.
Ron drew his wand and muttered "Accio backpack," under his breath. His own pack flew into the room, which he caught roughly before slinging it over his shoulder and following the other two towards the secret passageway towards Hogwarts.
Green jets of light ripped through walls of the shrieking shack without provocation. Wood splinters showered them at deadly blasts of magical energy flew about them.
Harry cursed as he made his dash for the safety of the passageway, explosions throwing him from side to side as he ran down the hallway, not sure if Hermione or Ron were right behind him, or just killed a few seconds ago.
"They're shooting up the entire place!" Hermione yelled behind Harry as the whole shack was being riddled with Avada Kedavra from all directions.
Harry leapt down the stairway into the basement of the shrieking shack, rolling his ankle painfully, but pushing onward. Hermione dove down the stairs, landing much more gracefully than Harry.
"Where's Ron?" Harry yelled over the explosions overhead looking at her.
The color drained from Hermione's face as she looked at Harry. "He was right behind me," she mumbled weakly with wide brown eyes, a trembling hand held up to her mouth. Without hesitation she turned around to charge up the stairs to find Ron.
"NO!" Harry yelled grabbing throwing his arms around her waist and using his larger bodyweight to hold her back.
"RON!" she screamed irrationally as she fought Harry desperately, clawing at his arms, yelling incoherently as tears fell from her eyes.
"I can't lose both of you!" Harry yelled as he continued to wrestle her, but nothing seemed to calm her.
Too Harry's surprise she managed to turn herself around and reel back a potent fist before plunging it in Harry's face.
Hermione, now free charged up the stairway back to certain death.
"DON'T!" Harry yelled through a bleeding noise as he tried to get up off the cold stone floor of the basement. But she was already halfway up the stairs, and she probably couldn't hear him anyway, seeing that the pandemonium of the ambush had risen to such a volume he could hardly make out his own words as he spoke them.
But just as Hermione went up, someone came down. A rather painful collision occurred as Ron and Hermione ran right into each other, both tumbling down the stairs like a giant ball of black robes, limbs, and the occasional glimpse of red or brown hair.
Ron landed on his back, his head smacking the ground painfully as Hermione toppled on top knocking the wind out of him. Her brown hair fell in his face of contorted pain as she looked into his eyes rather shocked how they ended up in their poison at the moment.
"Run!" Ron said getting up and grabbing Hermione's ignoring his recent mauling of both a ninety-pound bibliophile and being sandwiched between a stone floor and the same girl. "I switched out the stew with a few potions, this place is going to blow any minute!" he yelled as Harry got up from the ground and followed them.
They had entered the tunnel and continued to run desperately, a difficult task in the meandering tunnel under the forbidden forest.
"Faster!" Ron panted as he nearly dragged Hermione by her hand, Harry just behind them.
A noise like the cross of a crack of thunder and an enraged dragon crossed together deafened the three as a wave of heat, like the fire blast coming out of the cannon, rushed around them, hurling them to the ground.
It was Hermione's turn to curse as she got up and pulled Ron to his feet, leaving Harry to get up on his own.
"The D.A. might need our help with any Slytherins," Harry told the as he took the lead.
"Right," Hermione said with a nod.
They made their way hastily down the tunnel until they had tunnel began to slope upwards towards Hogwarts grounds.
Harry could here spells being rebounded, curses rocketing through the air, and the screams of the wounded. Harry's heart failed momentarily, from the sound of it the battle sounded horrendous.
"Ginny!" Harry yelled as he ran towards the exit at the base of the Whomping Willow.
Ron followed closely behind Harry. "Got your back mate," He said just as Harry stuck his head out of the hole and pressed the knot that ensured the tree would not smash them with its broad limbs.
"Go!" said Harry as he leapt out of the hole and taking a knee to cover Ron as he hoisted himself out. Ron took a knee with his wand pointed at into the night, eerily lit by bright curses and hexes not far from them. Hermione pulled herself from the hole.
"Let's go," Ron said running through the cold brisk night, fireflies lighting up under the clear skies.
"Bravo Squad!" a familiar feminine voice hollered. "Advance!"
"Covering fire!" someone else yelled as a barrage of spells suppressed the confused group of Slytherins, much unlike the organized unity of the D.A.
Wizards in gray battledress robes charged forward, shots of vibrant light whizzed past some, finding the mark of others.
"Pierce into the Slytherin formation, like an arrow piercing a beast's hide," Harry panted as the three ran side by side, thrashing through the tall dewy grass of the early September night.
"Harry?" Hermione asked as they closed in.
"What?" Harry asked as he ducked under an overhanging branch as they left the wood line and entered the vast fields of the Hogwarts grounds, Harry could make out the lake reflecting the stars of it's serine waters.
"Do we kill our own classmates?" she asked.
"Yes," Harry growled as moment before they broke into the left flank of the confused Slytherins, who seemed quite shocked by the appearance of the tree students they sought to kill.
"Sectumsempra!" Harry bellowed dragging his wand in a horizontal cutting motion across a hooded head. Just after he did so the head of the Slytherin intended was cleaved off cleanly and toppled onto the wet grass. The body stood there for a moment, muscle memory kicking in momentarily, fingers twitched lightly and the diaphragm tried to suck in air through a hole in the stump of a bleeding neck, before it too fell. Harry wanted took look at the cleaved head of the enemy he just slew, but he was in the center of a group of Slytherin's who had recently allied themselves to the Dark Lord to attempt his very own assassination.
Ron had struck down another who Harry suspected to be Goyle with Reducto, burning a hole clean through his chest, but couldn't be sure in the darkness.
Hermione hesitated fro a moment before leveling her wand on a group of Slytherins and growled "Peruro Perussi Pertustum!" Orange flames rushed from the tip of her wand and engulfed a large number of Slytherins in a fiery embrace.
"All Flanks!" Ginny yelled distantly. "Charge!"
"Keep them busy!" Harry yelled as he ducked from a blue jet of light that Zabini had intended for him.
"Bombarda!" Harry yelled back, the violent blast ripped the seventh year into shreds that showered the field in bits of flesh and bone.
Harry could see the D.A. making their rush towards the battle to finish it.
"Protegro!" Ron said leaping in front of Harry desperately, deflecting a spell he had not seen coming.
"Attonbitus!" Hermione bellowed as she thrashed her wand a whip of lightning sprouted from it, connecting whoever stood close to her, clearing a great number of students. They fell to the ground convulsing as the whip of lightning coursed through them.
Like a tremendous wave from a furious ocean, the D.A. overwhelmed the Slytherins in a one swift move.
Harry had noticed a not so chubby Neville practically jump on top of Crabe and tackled him to the ground barehanded, driving his elbow repeatedly into his chest and the side of his head.
Harry smiled weakly in admiration until Neville removed a sheath knife his robes and sunk it under Crabe's collarbone. The brawn Slytherin wailed out like a wounded animal as Neville pulled the knife out and sunk it deep into his stomach. Blood sputtered from the each knife wound Neville put in his former school bully. "You deserve less!" Neville yelled at him hatefully before sinking the knife into Crabe's eye socket and into his brain cavity.
Harry looked about him, shocked at what Hogwarts had become in his absence. He saw Luna freezing Pansy Parkson solid with a glacial charm and then flicking her wand to make he shatter into a heap of frozen shards of flesh. Dean Tomas was busy strangling a Slytherin as he hopelessly fought back, his arms shaking wildly in a sickening manner. Ginny was crouched low to the ground plucking of Slytherin after Slytherin repetitively as they jerked uncontrollably in mid air before falling to the ground lifeless. Colin threw a glass vile at a Slytherin of his year, it shattered as the acidic potion stuck to his face and front and slowly began to dissolve the student's skin as he flailed around desperately trying to remove the sticky solvent. Justin Flinch-Fletchley cast a Drought charm on another after he had drooped his wand and surrendered, the curse dried all the water within him till he was died solid like a shriveled mummy.
Students took their combative hand to hand, throttling each other to death, not stopping g until no one was alive. Harry stood there, awestruck by the horrors these school children were committing upon each other. This was Hogwarts, a sanctuary for children to grow and learn, not place of war. Voldemort's evil had truly cursed all those who joined or opposed him.
Tears fell from Harry's eyes as he saw the battle close before him. Harry stood there as children killed one another about him. On the far side of the lake Harry could make out a faint white structure of stone, where Dumbledore, the greatest wizard that ever lived rested on the school he loved so much.
"Echo Squad! Reform!"
An explosive curse sent knocked Harry over. Dirt sprinkled down on top of him from above, as he wondered why he could not hear correctly, like everything was distant. Was his eardrums blown out?
"Alpha Bravo fire team! Fall in Specter formation ASAP!"
"Full spectrum suppression fire!"
Harry felt the back hairs on his neck sear away under the heat of a curtain of curses flew over his head as he attempted to get back to his feet.
"Vector left! Strafe right! Vector left damn it!"
"Close it in! Close it in!"
Harry slowly pushed himself too his knees, and forced himself up wearily to his wobbling feet. The D.A. had boxed in the last few Slytherins. They were trading shots, the Slytherins falling fast.
Then, like that, it was quiet. Everyone stood there, frozen in shock. They were all gone. Simple as that. They would never play Quidditch against one another again; they would never serve detentions for incidents they were both equally guilty off; they would never compete for the house cup; they would never be able to try to like each other just a little.
"Clear up!" barked Ginny. The D.A. separated into groups of three and began to collect the wounded and confirm the dead.
Ron groaned as he gripped a bloody limp arm at the elbow. "Bloody hell, why a gnashing curse?" he growled as Hermione ran too him.
"Here," she said waving her wand over the wound reciting a numbing charm.
"Where are the professors?" Harry asked, now wondering where they had been through all this.
Ginny appeared from crowd of D.A. members.
"Well?" Harry hollered. "Why the fucking hell they aren't here?"
"They're dead," Ginny told Harry weakly.
The wand in Harry's hand slipped from his fingers as his body became rigged in cold rage. "No," he muttered under his breath. Harry stared at her seeking, hoping, praying that she was lying to him for the first time he could recount. "Which one's?"
"All of them," Ginny said as she looked Harry in the eyes, tears beginning to fall from hers. "Just so they wouldn't get in the way tonight."
Harry screamed barbarically in a fit of denial and wrath as he kicked a nearby corpse while trying to rip the hair from his scalp. Spit and blood from his bleed nose flew as he hollered, his voice echoing over the mountains of Hogwarts before he fell to his knees. Now it made sense why the D.A. didn't take prisoners tonight, use stunning or body bind spells. Tonight they sought revenge, and thoroughly achieved it.
Ginny didn't say she was sorry, didn't tell Harry it would be okay, or say anything thing to him for that matter. She walked towards Harry and knelt next to him before embracing him firmly and lovingly in her arms. Fiery tears trickled from Harry's eyes as he held her in return.
"Harry?" Ginny asked in a horse whisper.
"Yeah?" Harry choked back.
"I'm coming with you," Ginny told him. She wasn't asking permission, or making a demand. She merely said she was and that was it.
Harry nodded in her shoulder.
"Hey, don't think it ends there," Harry heard a very different Neville said without hesitation of fear. "You ain't leaving without me."
Harry and Ginny stood up, their hands interlocked.
"Me too mate," Dean said limping towards them being supported by Luna.
"Me too," Luna said as she adjusted Dean's arm that was draped over her shoulder blades and putting more of his weight on her back.
"I'm in," Colin said with a grin Harry never seen on him.
"I hate missing out on the fun you know," Justin said as he crossed his arms, blood slowly oozing from his temple
"Hell with it, sign me up," a girl behind Harry had said.
"I second that motion."
"Leave some room for me."
"Me too."
"Count me in."
"Too boring here anyway."
"What are the rest of you guys waiting for? An owl to deliver you an invitation?"
Harry looked around him, before he knew what was happening an army friends stood about him, some limping or wounded in some way, others supporting the injured in a brotherly way. The entire D.A. he knew, plus more, stood before him ready to charge forth into battle.
"You're all mental," Harry said shaking his head with an admiring smile. "We move out in two hours."
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Authors Note: Yes, back from the army I know. Don't ask. Just don't ask. You can review, but don't ask me how I got kicked out the army. It's not a pretty story, and actually quite personal.