Harry and Hermione were ready. Harry's gold wand was clenched in his hand, his dagger and necklace were gleaming, and his wristwatch sat on his wrist, looking dead as ever. Next to him, Hermione looked even weirder. Her silver wand seemed to reflect her emotion, and at the current moment her wand kept on dissolving into a puddle of silver goo before reforming into a wand in her hand. Her sword looked too big for her on her back, and her deck of playing cards was in her pocket. Her silver bracelet gleamed in the ravine.
The portal, now that Harry had taken a closer look at it, was quite a strange thing. It looked as if it was woven out of a lighter-than-air fabric, and broke to the slightest touch. Harry's falcon, Silver, flew over and perched himself onto his shoulder. Hermione looked around for her spirit, but didn't find him.
"Where is he?" she asked frustratingly.
Auxis smiled when she asked him. "He's right there, in your pocket."
"What?" Hermione searched around in her pocket, and felt the air grow colder around her fingers. She whipped her hand out, clutching a ball of pulsating blue light, which began to expand and take shape until it was the spirit guardian.
"Woah…" said Hermione. Harry walked over, "Found your spirit?" "Yeah." Harry glanced at the spirit guardian and said, "You should give him a name." Hermione paused for a second, then said, "I'll name him Sprite." Sprite didn't give any hint of how he felt about this. He simply floated there, looking as mystical and old as he always did.
Harry grabbed Hermione's arm, "c'mon 'mione, lets get going."
Hermione and Harry stood at the entrance of the portal. Harry looked back at Auxis, who said, "Farewell, fellow Gardei." Harry nodded, then he and Hermione walked right through the portal.
Color and light swirled around him, the temperature dropped, rose, dropped, then rose again. Sounds flew past Harry. The sound of students eating during breakfast, the sound of laughter in the hallway, the sound of the creaking of the moving staircases. Then his feet found solid ground. Harry looked around. He was back on the corridor on the 3rd floor, with Hermione. They silently walked down the stairs. The entire school looked deserted. One glance at the walls and they saw that it was 6:00 in the morning.
"Oh no," moaned Hermione, "We're late."
Sure enough, students began to walk into the dining hall, wearing their student robes.
"C'mon," said Harry, "We'll attack while they're eating." The two of them creeped back behind a pillar as a group of Ravenclaws chattered past them. When they were sure all the students were at the dining hall, Harry gestured to Hermione, and the two of them walked into the hall.
Headmaster McGonagall stood up, "You two are late, sit down."
Harry looked at Hermione, who looked back at him. "There's been a change of power, headmaster." said Harry. Then, without even any prewarning, he whipped out his golden wand, and yelled, "Inquito!" Harry had never used this spell, but somehow knew it. A jet of red light shot out of it and hit the staff table, sending plates and goblets flying everywhere. Hermione ran up, shooting more curses at the staff table. Harry didn't care about them. He didn't know any of them. The students were in a full panic, and the prefects and Head Boys were trying to usher them back into the great hall.
McGonagall pointed her wand out from behind the rubble of the staff table. A jet of bright light shot out and hit the Hufflepuff table, which suddenly transfigured into a massive Dragon. It roared, shooting flames everywhere. Harry jumped out of the way, but Hermione wasn't quick enough. Right as the flames seemed to be right on top of her, however, Hermione's bracelet began to pulsate and glow. A sphere of transparent material temporarily surrounded Hermione, then vanished as soon as the fire was gone. Silver flew above them, and struck at the staff members, injuring them, and Sprite had somehow drawn a spectral sword and was fighting the dragon. Every time the dragon spat fire at him, Sprite simply turned into a tiny ball of light and flew away.
Finally, Sprite managed to get his sword on the dragon's eyes, and Harry managed to hit McGonagall in the face with a destructor curse, which sent her flying. Professor Flitwick and Sprout both yelled, "Reducto!", and Harry was forced behind a table as the place where he was just standing exploded. Slughorn had fired a Jinx, which hit Hermione, sending her flying into a pile of rubble, where she hit her leg hard on a rock.
"NO" Harry, enraged that Hermione had been wounded, let out a radial blast, sending Flitwick and Slughorn flying into the window. Sprout, however, managed to hold her ground. Harry ran over to Hermione. She had a nasty bruise on her Arm, but was otherwise okay. Sprite had landed next to her, "You go and fight, I'll take care of her." Harry nodded, and turned back towards the staff members.
Slughorn and Flitwick were injured, McGonagall was fatally hurt, and Sprout was the only one left. Sprout held up her wand shakily, and fired off a curse at Harry, which Harry countered. Harry flicked his wand, and fire began to spew out of it. The fire took the shape of a massive snake, and reared in front of Sprout, who promptly turned away, and yelled "Accio Brooms!" A broomstick flew to her, and she kicked off the ground, flying through a hole in the window. Slughorn had regained consciousness, and clambered back to his feet, heavily injured.
Right as Harry was about to finish Slughorn off, a voice yelled, "Stupefy!"
A stunning spell hit Harry on the chest and sent him flying back. Silver screeched and dived, attacking the Head girl who had shot the curse at him. It was Cho Chang. She was one of the Ravenclaws who had stayed behind since they didn't receive a proper education under the Carrows. Harry slowly turned to her. Cho looked scared, and began to back up.
"Harry…" Harry knew that Cho was somehow important to him. He didn't quite remember why, so he decided not to kill her. Harry waved his wand, and a whip like thing flew out of it, hitting Cho across the face and knocking her unconscious. By the time he turned back to the remains of the staff table, he noticed that Slughorn and Flitwick had somehow escaped together. But McGonagall was dead. Harry looked back at where Hermione was, and saw that she was sitting up, helped by a temporary splint that Sprite had made for her. Harry ran over, "You alright 'mione?" Hermione nodded, "I'm fine." Harry sighed with relief, "It's time to address the students."
After knocking out two more rebellious Prefects and a Head Boy, Harry finally managed to get the entire school to the Great Hall. There, he explained everything. About Syndrun, and his rise to power. About how he and Hermione were the only ones there to preserve his memory, and that to do that they were to conquer Hogwarts. They told the students about how Syndrun was cast away into exile by the creators of Hogwarts, and how he was left for dead.
"Very soon," said Harry, "The ministry will arrive at Hogwarts, no doubt wanting to retake it by force. They will bring their best Aurors for the job." Harry looked around, then said, "You must believe me. Believe me, and join me. Together, we can work towards a better future for everyone, but we must tear down this establishment that the 4 founders left us in."
There was silence in the hall. "If you are with me, stand up." Nothing happened.
Most people were still staring at the dead body of McGonagall in the corner. Others were glaring at Harry in hatred.
"If you will not join me, then you are free to leave." There was a pause, then slowly at first, students began to funnel out of the great hall, no doubt wanting to get away from Harry. Harry followed them, making sure that none of them stayed in the castle. Once they were beyond the school ramparts, Harry flicked his wand and said, "Jiurio", and all the students were forced into an apparition that would bring them to Diagon Alley.
Harry and Hermione were the only ones left in the school now. Harry had never seen it this silent.
"C'mon, Hermione, lets go back up to the Gryffindor common room."
Hermione nodded. Auxis had told them that the portal to the ravine would reappear the day after they took it, so they might as well rest for now at the Gryffindor common room. The Fat Lady looked startled when she saw Harry, and after refusing to let Harry through because of what she saw through the paintings, Hermione got impatient and blasted a hole through the painting. They clambered through to the common room, and Harry and Hermione took their separate ways to the girls' and boys' rooms. Harry closed the door, and looked around. The room he had lived in for 7 years prior was the same as 4-poster bed, the luggage that was strewn across the floor, and the window that was next to Harry's bed. Harry walked around, examining everything in the room. He saw Neville's Toad lurking around the edge of the bed, Seamus's bed was untidy but his luggage was neat. Dean's bed looked quite ordinary. But then Harry came across another person's bed. The luggage read, Property of Ron Weasley. Harry frowned. Ron Weasly? Who was this person, and why did Harry feel so connected to him even though he didn't know him?
Hermione was also at the Gryffindor girl's room. She didn't spend much time examining stuff and fell straight face first onto the bed. When she turned around, facing the roof of the room, there was a light hissing noise. Blue smoke seeped through the edges of the door, and Sprite appeared.
"Master, I've just flew over to the ministry. They are still interrogating Flitwick, Sprout, and Slughorn, but I believe that they will send a delegation of Aurors over soon." Hermione nodded. She knew that she should be worried about this, but she was too tired to worry about it. Thirty seconds later, she fell asleep.
Kingsley Shacklebolt was in a panic. So much unexpected stuff had happened in such a short time that the ministry had declared a national crisis. Flitwick, Slughorn, and Sprout had all told him the story of what had happened. Kingsley was so surprised that he needed to perform anti-exhaustion charm on himself just to respond. Then there were the hundreds of students who had randomly apparated into the middle of Diagon Alley. Kingsley had ordered shelters to be erected for the students, and contacted their parents to tell them what had happened. Then there was the problem of Harry Potter, and how to retake Hogwarts.
From what the staff had told him, Harry had grown "exceptionally powerful in a very short amount of time", and to "Not underestimate him despite his age."
Kingsley finally decided to hold a meeting within the ministry, with 12 of his best advisors, and asked them how they should respond. Most of them recommended an immediate attack on the school with a delegation of Aurors. One advisor said that the best way would be to fortify all areas around Hogwarts, then wait to see what he does. Finally, after ten minutes of debating, one of the advisors stood up,
"They're only just two people, we can take them, just send a squad of aurors to take them out!" There was a smattering of applause at this pronouncement. Finally, Kingsley made the decision. He stood up, and the room became silent. "Get me the best Auror squad we have, and tell them that they're going to Hogwarts."
I've recieved a review asking me what exactly happened to Ron, and to get to that question soon in the next few chapters, and I assure you that I will. For now, I'm planning on focusing on the wizard battle, and developing the Hermione/Harry relationship. NOTE: Kingsley Shacklebolt is the Minister of Magic