I'm back with another chapter. Let's get to it!
geekymom: Harry won't call Kreacher for a rescue, but Kreacher will probably show up in the future.
Chapter 2- Rescue
Harry sighs as he sits back against the wall. Over the several days since Dumbledore came to them and explained why he had kidnapped him, Harry has been trying his best to try and come to terms with this and really figure out what's going on. But he still feels a sense of denial, not wanting to believe that Dumbledore could do this.
Ginny sits down next to him, taking his hand. "Are you okay?" she asks.
Harry gives a single humorless laugh. "Ginny. I don't plan on using the word okay again anytime soon," he answers her question. Ginny just nods.
"I don't get it. How could Dumbledore do this?" Hermione asks rhetorically.
But Harry chooses to answer anyway. "I read from the biography Rita Skeeter did on him. He used to be best pals with Grindelwald when he was younger. Maybe he was more like Grindelwald than anyone thought, and just hid it very well," he says.
"I still can't believe it," Ron says under his breath.
The six of them sit there for a few more moments. Then, all of a sudden, they hear footsteps, before the door is thrown open and several wizards walk into the cell.
"Hey! What're you doing?" harry demands, but the men wordlessly grab them, shove sacks over their heads, pull their arms behind their backs, and lead them blindly out of the cell.
The men lead the six friends through some corridors and out of the bunker. They can tell they're outside by the sound of birds singing. Finally, they stop, and the men escorting them force them to their feet.
The bags are yanked off their heads. Harry looks around and sees he's kneeling several yards away from his friends. About 30 wizards and witches are surrounding them.
"What's going on?" Harry demands. None of the wizards and witches respond.
Less than a minute later, the door leading into the bunker, which is above ground, opens, and Dumbledore walks out with 6 guards. He walks up and stops next to Ginny and the others, smirking at Harry.
"Why are you doing this, Dumbledore?" Harry demands.
Dumbledore chuckles to himself for a moment before replying, "It is all for the Greater Good, Harry. All must change. I can lead the magical world to what it is supposed to be. But, I cannot allow for the greatest threat to me to continue to exist."
Now, it's clear to Harry what is going on here. Despite the fear rising in him, he glares at Dumbledore, and demands, "You're gonna kill me? You really think that'll work? The magical world will never follow you if they know you killed me!"
Dumbledore laughs. "But they won't. For all they know, rogue Death Eaters killed you as revenge for Voldemort's death. Nobody besides those here will know how you died, and your friends are not going anywhere," he says cruelly.
"No! Dumbledore, please, stop!" Ginny pleads. Dumbledore just laughs at her.
Dumbledore slowly draws his wand as the wind picks up, the sound of the wind growing very loud. So he can still be heard, Dumbledore raises his voice and says, "I am sorry for this, Harry. You could be a great ally. But I know you never will be. So I must eliminate you." He pauses, then says, "To think…all this time, you thought Voldemort would be your end. And now, I will be the one to kill the great Harry Potter."
Ginny is in tears at this point. "Harry!" she cries out. Harry looks at her, wanting to die looking at her, and says in a low voice, "I love you." Even though the wind prevents her from hearing it clearly, Ginny knows what he said.
Dumbledore smiles smugly. Then, as he raises his wand, he pauses. The sound is slowly growing louder. But it's no longer the wind. Over the sound of the wind, a gentle roar is slowly growing in volume.
Dumbledore and his followers look around for the source of the sound. Then, from over a hill nearby rises a small aircraft.
Everyone's eyes is drawn to the aircraft as it levels off and flies in the direction of the group. Dumbledore decides to wait, just to not arouse suspicion with the pilot, thinking he'll just fly right over them.
That is, until the aircraft suddenly noses down, right at them, and a flashing light appears under the nose. A strange sound can be heard, right before massive glowing bullets start tearing into the ground around the group. Several of Dumbledore's followers are killed by the rounds. The rest of them and Dumbledore himself race to get out of the way.
The aircraft streaks over the group, pulling up into a climb. As it does, Hermione look up at it, now having a clear view of the aircraft. A somewhat thin fuselage. Much shorter than an airliner. Engine intakes on the side of the fuselage, with a single engine in the back. Large triangular wings. Various weaponry under the wing, and large tank right under the fuselage. And a probe of sorts on the nose.
Hermione keeps looking at it as it begins looping back around. Then, with a start, she recalls a memory from her vacation in France a few years earlier, when she and her parents passed a French Air Force base, and her dad, who was a former RAF dentist, had pointed out some aircraft of the flightline and told her what they were. And this aircraft overhead looks exactly like it.
"A Mirage 2000!" she says under her breath. The others who can hear her look at her in confusion.
The Mirage loops back around and dives at the ground again. Harry and the others are concerned, until the Mirage starts shooting again. And the rounds again begin striking the ground around Dumbledore and his followers. Again, they dive away.
Harry starts to smile, realizing that the Mirage is trying to kill Dumbledore and his men. Then, a second sound hits his ears.
Harry turns towards the hill from where the Mirage appeared. And to his surprise, he sees a formation of 7 helicopters flying towards them. Two of the them are slightly smaller than the others, and are loaded down with weaponry on side pylons.
The helicopters race in. The two smaller ones fly straight over Harry's head and begin firing their guns at Dumbledore and his followers, who again scatter to avoid getting killed by the lethal rounds.
The other five helicopters set down about 30 feet behind Harry and the others. As their wheels hit the ground, four dozen men start leaping out of the helicopters, all dressed in combat gear and armed to the teeth.
"Go! Go! Go!" one of the men, looking to be the leader of the group. The four dozen men in the group race forward, and fourty of them move around Harry and the others and form into a tight battle line. As one, they raise their assault rifles and begin firing.
The remaining eight men race up to Harry and the others and pull them to their feet, pulling them towards helicopters. Harry scrambles towards the helicopters. As he runs, he looks back. The fourty men covering them are slowly walking back towards the helicopters, firing their assault rifles at Dumbledore and his men. They are unflinching. Even when a Killing Curse takes out one of their men, another man stops to pull his body to safety, as the others simply close the gap and continue to fire.
Harry reaches one of the four bigger helicopters and leaps aboard. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna quickly follow him. Once they're all aboard the chopper, the man in charge turns towards the rest of his men and shouts, "Let's go!"
The men start jogging back towards the helicopters. A few cover their comrades as they leap aboard the helicopters before they board themselves. Throughout their retreat to the helicopters, the other two smaller helicopters and the Mirage continue their attacks.
As soon as the last troops are aboard the helicopters, the rotors start spinning faster. One by one, the five helicopters lift off the ground and turn to retreat. Once they've put about 200 yards between them and Dumbledore's men, the two smaller helicopters race to catch up with them, and the Mirage also turns to cover them.
As the Mirage pulls out of its last attack run and flies away, Dumbledore regains his feet and glares after the retreating helicopters, furious that Harry got away.
On board the lead helicopter, Harry sits down, exhausted by what just happened. Ginny quickly comes up and sits down next to him, clutching his arm.
The man in charge steps in front of Harry and salutes him. "Lord Potter. It's good to finally meet you. I'm Captain John Felton of the Echo Force," the man says.
Harry just slowly nods. After a moment, he asks, "Where are we going? What's going on?"
"We came here to rescue you, sir. As for everything else, well, it may be better to wait until we get to our destination, and the Chiefs can tell you everything. It'll be a long time before we get there. You should probably get some sleep," Captain Felton says.
Harry nods, and he, Ginny, and the others try and get some sleep. Despite the noise from the rotors, they are all able to get some sleep.
The helicopters and their Mirage 2000 escort continue on their course west. After some time, they meet up with a DC-10 converted into a tanker, and refuel, before continuing on to their destination.
I hope this was a decent chapter. I think it's probably relatively easy to tell who has rescued Harry and his friends. We'll get the rest of the backstory next chapter.
For your information on the aircraft. The Mirage 2000 is a multirole fighter that the French first started using in 1984, and it is still used by the French and 7 other air forces. It's a very capable fighter. And the five larger helicopters mentioned are UH-60 Blackhawks, while the two smaller ones are AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
I hope you're enjoying this so far. This should get more interesting soon. If you have requests for people to be either on Harry's side or on Dumbledore's side, please let me know in a review.
Until next time!