Just a one shot that's derived from when during the Golden Trio's infiltration of the Ministry Harry overhears
"I bet it sneaked up here from Experimental Charms, they're so careless, remember that poisonous duck?"
And well I was inspired and ended up writing this. What does everyone think?
Eleanor Diggle had been ignored by those hunting out Muggleborns from the Ministry of Magic because she was technically a Pureblood, all four of her Grandparents had been born with magic and though three had been Muggleborns this was still good enough to keep her safe.
And so while many of the people around her in the Experimental Division disappeared, some to Azkaban and the horrors that lay there, others far from Britain all together she stayed there, working on her project.
When one of her subjects, the self-confident one she had called Ivan escaped, she was hustled back up to collect him, from where he sat preening underneath a desk, quite unconcerned by the fact that the three people he had bitten had been sent to St. Mungo's, with a brain wave she had lured him out with a piece of bread and he had happily fallen asleep in the cage she had brought with her.
Being from the Experimental Division they had let her off lightly, simply with the knowledge that she would not be moving up the ladder any time soon. They generally ignored those in her arena, simply because the rest of the Ministry didn't quite know how to deal with a large group of people who would quite happily close themselves off for years at a time thinking only of their own projects. But she was fine with that, just staying in her room with the nests, the pond and the desk was fine by her. It looked, she thought, as she patted Ivan before he took off to join his mate Juno, like a small area off moorland, within white walls and under a similar ceiling, the only evidence of humanity a desk, with papers and bird treats scattered across it, in one corner and a door and fireplace beside it.
The rest of the floor space was made up of the huge pond, filled with reeds and grass covered in tussocks and the few wildflowers the ducks didn't like to eat. She had Transfigured the room to look like that as soon as she had gained it, she may be breeding and using old owl training charms to increase the ducks intelligence so as to show how owls before them were domesticated, but that didn't mean they had to be unhappy as she did so. And she had felt that she may as well use her fourth Outstanding Newt, the ones in Care of Magical Creatures, Charms and History of Magic were after all being utilised daily.
But as she settled down to read some more of an ancient, almost crumbling, text on the domestication and training of Owls, she couldn't help but think, the three people Ivan had bitten were all some of the loudest and most unpleasant of the Death Eater sympathisers. Not people likely to actually be ones, too cowardly, but quite possibly people who might help them to find things out in return for a leg up.
And the ducks had always liked Dirk Cresswell, from the Goblin Liaison Office, when he had come in to have his lunch quite a few had become so confident as to perch on his lap, Ivan in particular had used to perch on his shoulder, she remembered.
Looking up over the book she looked at Ivan and Juno, they were no longer alone. A large crowd of the twenty or so ducks in the room had closed ranks about them, they were quacking quietly. It looked to all intents and purposes like a conversation was taking place, not just a conversation, she realised but a debriefing as an Auror might give to their higher up, especially as Talia, an older duck, was currently sitting in front of him with the air of an experienced soldier.
But she shook her head, it was not possible that the ducks would be intelligent enough to send to out an "assassin" it was ridiculous. For starters the Wizarding worlds Owls had taken centuries to reach the level of intelligence they already had, it was impossible that the ducks had breached that in only a few generations, it was only a few years since she had first bought the plain mallard eggs and placed charms and incubated them, in the three generations since then the ducks had proved more likely to grow poisonous fangs, breathe fire or explode when surprised or frightened than plan an attack on workers in the Ministry. And yet it had happened. And newspapers which were taken into the room would usually be taken by the ducks and, she thought looking back, would usually stay in good condition for quite some time afterwards, though many ducks would take their turn standing around them. Almost as if they were reading them.
But, Eleanor convinced herself that it could not be real, after all she thought wouldn't I have noticed if the ducks were suddenly so much more intelligent?
It was a few months later, when one evening Percy Weasley (who had taken to having lunch with her about the same time as Dirk) floo'd her, his tense and drawn face looked pale even when made up of green flames. "Eleanor, I'd get the ducks safe and maybe bring a book." He said before vanishing.
This made Eleanor sit back in her seat. The day that they'd made sure to always talk around was here, the battle was going to be fought, the battle which they must win, and from the coded message it was happening at Hogwarts. Well, she thought at least she was prepared. She'd been assessing the intelligence of the ducks all year and was now fairly certain that they had at least the intelligence of owls, if not greater intelligence. Even more interestingly, the last clutch of eggs had been hatched without her casting her usual spells and these ducklings too seemed to be highly intelligent.
Well there was no choice, she would have to ask and hope she was correct. Standing up and raising her voice over the chorus of quacks she said "Excuse me, may I have your attention please." The quacking settled down and the ducks appeared to look around and focus on her. It was quite unnerving. "As you may or may not know He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has been taking over the Ministry." A few ducks quacked in a kind of "Yes we know, now hurry up!" way. "Well I have received word that there will soon be an attack at Hogwarts and I was wondering if any of you would like to help defend the British Wizarding World as well as the Muggle one which is so close to it." The ducks went off into a huddle, there appeared to a great deal of conversation going on.
While she waited Eleanor prepared herself, she tied back her fly-away hair, changed her rubber wellies into trainers, her smart robes into old, comfortable jeans and an old dragon hide jacket, her smart blouse incongruous with the otherwise casual wear. But she thought it would all help her stay nimble, and the Shield Gloves she had bought from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes the summer before, would help keep at least minor hexes away from her.
She practised her shield charm a few times, as well as minor healing ones and a few nasty hexes she'd learned from the experimental charms lot, when a very dignified "Quack" came from behind her. It was Talia and in an uncomfortably human movement she nodded her head.
"Thank you, thank you so much." She said, trying not to gush. She brought out the cage which she'd charmed to have an unlimited supply of space inside, "Just while I apparate." She was quick to assure them. And so a few of the older ducks flew in, a few cocky younger ones came too, but as they were of the venomous generation she didn't think there'd be much danger for them.
She hid the cage under her cloak and securely locked the door into her office, before walking briskly into the apparition point where she turned on the spot and rushed off to Hogsmeade.
The village was busy, like streams of people they went in two directions, children seemed to be rushing out from the Hog's Head and older people seemed to be rushing in. She followed and found herself running through a tunnel, the children were long gone now, but as she recognised a few from when she had watched the schools Quidditch matches from the Ravenclaw stands, she knew that she was going the right way.
As she reached the end of the tunnel (coming out into a room she was sure she did not remember from her own time at school) she was asked by a jumpy and harried looking man "Well, what's in the cage then?" he seemed to think that she had brought her owl so as to keep the Death Eaters up to date with the battle.
"Venomous and fire breathing ducks," She replied, "I'll just need a window to let them out of." She kept her eyes on his and her stance ready to go to wherever he directed.
"Err, right," He said. "One of the towers then." He seemed a bit surprised at her answer.
"Ravenclaw seems appropriate." She said, smiling cheerfully. She was determined not to allow herself to grow scared, the second she did she'd be useless. With that she threw her cloak onto a pile of unattended coats and cloaks and ran off to her old dorms.
Half way up she found an open window and opened the cage. As the ducks flew out and into the night she shouted her thanks after them, as well as admonishments to steer clear of any spells and to come back if they got themselves wounded.
She then ran up the rest of the tower, answering the riddle with an almost manic glee and went through. A girl who looked to be around sixth year sent her up to where "everyone" was waiting. And so started the waiting.
The ten minutes that it took until the battle truly started were filled with nerves, bad jokes and nervous ticks. But it wasn't as bad as when the battle started.
Screams and the shouts of spells and curses drifted up to them in the tower, she had never been so scared, but as she shot spells out into the night, she saw one taking down a black robed someone in the courtyard, but she refused to allow herself to bend or break from the fear.
As she tried to heal a cutting spell on one of her fellow defenders she kept muttering the mantra of "Don't worry everything will be fine." Long after she even believed herself.
More and more Death seemed to be coming, then giant spiders and giants themselves were flooding towards them, Eleanor dragged up every bit of knowledge she had from her Care of Magical Creatures lessons on Acromantula and all from History of Magic on Giants and shot all she could at them. But there still seemed so many. She was blind to the falling masonry, the burning wood, all of it she just had to keep firing off spells. She barely noticed some of her ducks concentrating on the face of a single giant who was brandishing a club in the courtyard, like a swarm of bees they kept fighting until the giant had fallen and did not get up again.
But eventually it appeared to finish, at least for now. And Eleanor sank down, legs suddenly like jelly that refused to hold her up anymore and as You-Know-Who asked for Harry Potter she wiped dust from her face and just breathed.
But in the end she had to do more than that and helped one of her fellow Ravenclaw Tower Defenders carry down their own selection of wounded and dead. For the wounded she did the best she could, healing cuts and scrapes. For the dead she couldn't look at the faces of those she helped carry down to the Great Hall. And she battled not to allow the tears to fall from her eyes, but she failed in that battle, pink skin in stripes crossing her cheeks, the dust cleaned away.
In the end when all had left the Ravenclaw Tower she stood silently, brain blank as a slate as she helped Madame Pomfrey clean the wounds of the wounded. Her lips so numb that she could barely say the words of the healing charms that she didn't dare admit she had only really used on ducks before.
But a while later those who could were once again walking out the huge doors and into the outside, the outside where in the arms of Hagrid lay a small body. Havoc and mayhem abounded, not least when the body – at least Harry Potter, The Boy who Lived - jumped up and the battle seemed to have started again.
But this time things were not the same, they were winning. Death Eaters were dropping at a faster rate than before and then, the most unbelievable thing of all happened. And Voldemort was dead. And it was all over.