Fighting Back
Wars are a terrible business. Wars are a very dirty business. This was a war unlike any other in the magical part of Britain, and very terrible and very dirty indeed. Voldemort had gathered all of his forces together and then attacked in one go. In little under an hour, Voldemort's forces had seized control of Diagon Alley, the Ministry, Hogsmeade as well as many other key locations. McGonagall had found out that Scrimgeour had ordered the Ministry evacuated before the Death Eaters arrived. From the brief report she had heard, his personal guard had tried to get him to leave, but Scrimgeour had said that he would prefer to go down fighting rather then surrender to Voldemort.
Only three made it out alive.
When she had learned of the Ministry's fall, McGonagall had ordered the complete evacuation of the castle to the safe houses. When the headmistress had insisted on staying as rear guard, the Weasley twins – having escaped from Diagon Alley – had decided to remain with her. When they tried to escape later, McGonagall was hit by a nasty curse as the portkey activated. With Harry and Hermione missing, less then a dozen Aurors free and no hope of reinforcements, no one person assumed leadership of the resistance – such as it was – and they began to treat the wounded and take stock of the situation. They lost half of the escapees during the first week due to traitors and spies of Voldemort's, and many of them were executed in public in Diagon Alley by the Death Eaters.
"I just wish the pair of them were back" said George, "I mean after all, Harry and Hermione would've come up with something" he added.
"I know" replied his twin. "But we've not seen or heard from them since the attack on Hogwarts. And if they had captured them, Voldemort would have been gloating over their deaths by now" Fred added.
"I guess all we can do is to sit, wait and… BLOODY HELL!" George shouted out. His brother looked round to see what was the cause of the outburst, and saw Neville Longbottom come staggering in with cuts all over his body and his clothes torn. The twins leapt over chairs to get to the Gryffindor before he collapsed and sat him down on the nearest chair. "What happened, Nev?" George said.
"E… Eag…" Neville was clearly very badly hurt. "Eagle's Erie has gone" he forced the four words out.
"Fuck" swore Dean Thomas. He had seen what had happened, and had come from where he was talking to some First Years. "Did anyone manage to get out apart from you?" he asked.
"Managed to get the younger ones out" Neville said, and he sounded slightly better after sitting down for a moment. "Managed to get them in an expanded trunk and then shrink it" and he reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a tiny wooden box. He unshrunk it and the Weasley twins looked inside to find young and scared eyes staring up at them. A lot of them looked battered and bruised.
"I'll get some help" Dean said and he went off leaving the twins and Neville to pull the children out.
"At least we managed to save some" Fred remarked bitterly.
"After the Death Eaters attacked me, I hid in the forest up a tree and listened to what they said" Neville reported. "And I know the location of one of their slave camps – Malfoy Manor" and they looked at each other.
"Any idea on how many are being held there?" asked George.
"I don't know" Neville said tiredly, "But I think there are about a dozen Death Eaters or so guarding them all. I'd guess they will be supporters as well" he added, and then he closed his eyes. Fred checked him and found he was simply asleep and so handed him over to what passed for medical attention. Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones and Padma Patil had set up a sort of hospital from supplies they had managed to raid from various locations.
"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" the twins asked each other.
"I'll bet you are" said Lee Jordon from where he was watching them.
"We can't let them suffer any more then we can help, Lee" Fred said.
"I agree" Lee said, "So when do we go?" he asked.
"We need to get together a strong fighting force" George mused, "And a few Aurors might be of some use as well" and they set about a plan.
#
Neville's information was wrong – very wrong indeed. Instead of around a dozen Death Eaters and a handful of supporters it was double that number – and certainly more inside the Malfoy residence. The rescue party had to hide and watch for any opportunities and signs of weak spots in the patrolling Death Eaters. While they observed, they saw them torturing man, women and children by using Crucio on them. Several of the male Death Eaters would randomly touching the younger girls on their bodies, and the males in the rescue party marked them for the worst punishments. The Aurors wondered if the use of Killing Curse was allowed after the Ministry had fallen – they now had targets after all.
"Is it just me" remarked Seamus Finnegan, "Or are people apperating in and out?" and they saw exactly what he meant. "We could apparate in, eliminate the guards storm the house and get everyone out" he added.
"With a handful of pranksters, school children and three Aurors?" George said. "Oh why the hell not?" he questioned. "Lets go" and they picked their apparition spots.
"What the…" the first Death Eater to notice was cut off by having his head removed from his shoulders. The group attacked the rest as the prisoners ran from the battle. Several of them fell to the Killing Curse, but one or two picked up fallen wands and joined the group that was attacking their oppressors. As predicted, the other Death Eaters and supporters came from the house and engaged them.
"Seamus, Dean and Robert! Get round the side and take them from behind" George shouted. The trio acknowledged and ran round the edge of battle and then started attacking from the other side. The smell of burning flesh, blood and the other smells of battle lingered in the air as they pressed home the attack. It was tough going, but they won and the bodies of Death Eaters and Voldemort's supporters littered the grounds around Malfoy Manor. One or two had surrendered to the force, and these had been stunned, bound and silenced ready for transport. Their wands had been snapped, the pieces burned and the ashes scattered from there to the Falkland Islands.
"We better get out of here" said one of the Aurors.
"We search the house first" Dean said. "We might find useful information like plans, Death Eater member lists and stuff like that" and the Auror agreed to help him. The rest of the force worked as quickly as possible as they liberated the prisoners, and they apparated them from the grounds to their own hideout. Dean was looking through the dungeons when he found a terrible sight – more prisoners. In the cells were chained up girls, and none looked to be over the age of 15. It was clear what had happened to them as the worse nothing at all except for bras which had been ripped in half so they only stayed on by the straps. As Dean looked through the bars in the door of one cell, one girl who looked to be twelve saw him and looked scared. He knew that she thought he was going to rape her.
"Bastards" he swore. "I NEED HELP DOWN HERE! I'M IN THE DUNGEONS!" he called up. "GET EVERYONE DOWN HERE" he added, and a number of them came running down the stones steps and into the darkness of the dungeons. By now, Dean had blasted the doors off some of the cells and they poured in and started to release them. The one thought shared by them all was that Voldemort and all of his followers would pay for what they had done here.
"If anyone sees any Death Eaters or supporters – stun them and bind them" Seamus growled. "They need to be…questioned" he added.
"Are you here to hurt me?" asked the girl who Dean was releasing from the chains.
"No" he replied, "My friends and I are here to help you" and she fell into his arms and hugged him tightly. Somebody did a spell and she was wearing plain black robes which hid her battered, broken and abused body.
"They did… things" she sobbed. "I… I… I don't know how, but it seemed like everything was magic" the girl added. Dean exchanged looks with some of the others as they understood Dean's unspoken comment - this girl was a muggle.
"Come on" Dean was trying to keep calm, but tears ran down his face like the others in the cell. "Lets get you out of here" and when she either refused or was unable to walk Dean picked her up and held her to his chest. When they got to the grounds, there was a huge bang and they turned in the direction – the girl simply screamed. A Death Eater who still wore his mask was split into many different pieces.
"What happened?" asked George.
"He ran" came the reply.
"Good enough" said the Weasley. Most of them had vanished, and all that was left was the Weasley twins, Seamus, an Auror and some young girls wearing plain black robes like the girl Dean had rescued.
"What is the story with them?" asked Seamus.
"From what little they have said" said the Auror, "They are muggles who the Death Eater scum have taken after raiding their homes and killing everyone else" he explained.
"Bastards" swore the Irishman. "So what do we do?" he asked.
"They are coming with us" George said.
"Right" said Fred.
"But they know about out world" the Auror said. "It would be better if we simply wiped their memories and dumped them with the muggle social services" and Seamus punched the man.
"You heard" he said, "They are coming with us" and the Auror rubbed his jaw where it had been hit.
"But…" he was cut off.
"I'm a Gryffindor, Mr Ryan. I don't leave ANYONE behind" and Seamus and Fred took portkeys and took the children away.
"Don't upset the Irish" advised George as they apperated out themselves.
#
Harry and Hermione spent the next week spending time with Naomi and the Doctor, and both of them took turns at flying the ship around a planetary system. One time, Harry had piloted the vessel inside a load of planetary debris and played asteroids with the ship's weapons systems. Both teens thought it was great to be able to play the game for real, but neither knew how to take their scores back with them to their world.
"Another three weeks" Harry said to Hermione, "And we can go home" and she nodded thoughtfully. "What are you thinking about?" Harry asked her. He knew that looked anywhere.
"I was thinking about Naomi" Hermione said.
"What about her?" Harry asked.
"I was thinking about if we should invite her to come with us" Hermione said.
"She might like that" Harry admitted, "But I wonder if we could take some of those phasers back with us as well. Even four of them would work wonders for when we take back what is ours" he added.
"I'll ask next time I see her" Hermione said. "So what do you have planned?" she asked.
"I'm taking a spacesuit and going for a walk on the hull" Harry replied, taking a bite out of his sandwich. "Always wanted to go into space" and Hermione shook her head with a smile. Later on that day, the pair met up with Naomi who took them into a hologram called Fair Heaven. When the characters got a little too tetchy for Harry's liking, he ordered the computer to remove them. They then went around the village and looked in all of the houses and shops in the village. It was as they sat watching the clouds float above them that they asked Naomi their question.
#
While the care and treatment of the abused children was dealt with by those with knowledge, it did give the younger students something to do after all. It was reasoned that the former prisoners might be healed better if they had someone of their own ages to talk to. One girl though refused to be treated unless Dean was with her, and so Dean had to hold the little girl's hand as Padma examined her.
"Are you magic as well?" the girl asked her.
"I am" said Padma.
"Oh" said the girl, and she went silent again. From what Dean had been told by Padma, she hadn't said much at all since her arrival at the forest hide-out.
"I'd like to know your name" Padma said, and the girl mumbled something. "I didn't get that" she added carefully.
"My name" said the girl, "It's Jessica" and Padma smiled.
"Well my name is Padma, and this is Dean" she pointed at herself and then the black skinned boy. The Ravenclaw performed the basic healing spells she knew of, and carefully recorded all of the injuries in a notebook. If they won the war – a slim chance at the moment – then there had to be careful evidence of what the Death Eaters and supporters of Voldemort had done to people on his orders.
"Finished?" Dean asked Padma.
"As best I can do" she admitted, and then handed over a few small vials of liquid to Jessica. "This is magic medicine" Padma said solemnly, "Now if you take these before you go to sleep, then you'll be as right as rain by the morning" and Padma handed over a lollipop.
"Can I ask you something?" asked Jessica.
"You can ask anything you want" Dean assured her.
"Why did those bad people hurt me?" she asked them both. Both teenagers looked at each other with quiet anger and fury in their eyes.
"That will take sometime to explain" Dean said, and then looked up to see a newly restored Neville come into the room that served as the hospital.
"Glad I found you" he said, "The others want to see you about a raid" and Dean stood up and in an instant, Jessica's hand was inside his own and gripping it like a vice.
"Alright" Dean didn't have the time to argue, "Come on" and he and the girl started walking.
"Where are you taking her?" asked Neville.
"To the meeting" Dean replied.
"Sure about that?" enquired Neville.
"Don't leave me" cried Jessica.
"Quite impossible" Dean said, and the three walked off. "Now when we get to where we are going, you have to be very quiet" he told the girl. She nodded meekly and stuck closely to Dean's side.
#
"Why have you brought her here?" asked Fred.
"I think I'm her comforter" Dean said. "We can always Obliviate her later" he added in a whisper.
"Fair enough" George said, and they gathered round a table for the meeting. "Now we managed to get over two hundred people out of Malfoy Manor, but we also lost a number of good people whilst doing it. Those that are injured have been treated, with the worse going to the other hideouts" he added.
"What about the stuff we took from the house?" asked Seamus.
"Well we have a partial list of Death Eaters and their supporters" Neville said, "But we don't have enough people or resources to mount an attack on them" he added.
"What about our raid on Diagon Alley?" asked Dean.
"I cancelled it" Fred told him, "To go up against Malfoy Manor, I had to pull nearly everyone off from their regular patrols. I'll send some people tonight – they will not be expecting an attack so soon after all" he added. "We left a few pranks set up for them
"Well at least we freed some people" Hannah remarked. "Plus we know that Harry and Hermione are still alive" she added.
"Wherever they are" Dean grimaced. "What a pity that we couldn't get Old Snake Face at the Malfoy place" and Jessica, who had been keeping quiet, suddenly raised her hand and jumped up and down. "What is it?" Dean asked her.
"When I was taken by the bad guys, I heard that name being used" she said.
"What?" Fred asked her. "I know it is hard for you, but this is very important. Did you hear anything about Snake Face?" he probed. Jessica frowned as she thought very very hard.
"One of those bad men that… touched me said he was going to a Warthogs" she said at last, and then buried herself into Dean's arms. The meeting broke up, and he took her to someplace private so she could cry herself to sleep. After finding her a place to rest after all that had happened to her, Dean found Neville and Seamus and they started a plan on attacking Hogwarts.
"I wish those two would have come back" Seamus said.
"We've no hope without Harry" Neville said, and he ignored the soft whine that filled his ears. "Unless he brings us some hugely powerful weapons, we've got no chance whatsoever" and someone laughed behind him.
"Funny you should mention that" said a voice.
A/N:
Well I hope you like chapter three!
If you think this was good, then you wait until the final battle!
To answer the question set by Jim Red Hawk about the picnic food. There are two possibilities for you. A) Naomi had never heard of Pumpkin Juice but it was in the computer banks. B) Harry gave the computer instructions on how to make it. You can take your choice.
If you've any suggestions for the final battle, then please let me know in your reviews.
Regards
Pixel