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Harry Potter and the Unholy Grails
A History of Magic
A bewitched cannonball whizzed past Harry's left ear, forcing him to throw himself into a side alley. He and Draco were running along the high street of Hogsmeade, which was in utter chaos. All around Harry wizards and witches and goblins were running in every direction, some screaming curses and others just screaming. Harry couched behind a dustbin as a spell so nearly missed him that his hair stood on end.
From where he hid Harry could see the utter chaos of the street clearly. Madame Rosmerta was running in floppy slippers up the road, being chased by a goblin with a sword. Aurors, Ministry officials and Order members were battling goblins, who were being aided by many Death Eaters, all around Hogsmeade. There was no sign of Draco anywhere; he had dissolved into the crowd.
Remembering that Winky had said there was fighting at Hogwarts, Harry steeled his nerves. He had to get up there, up to his friends, and the only way to do that would be though this crowd. He stood and stepped out into the street again.
Almost immediately the nearest goblin turned to him and raised his fingers. He was decked head to toe in metal armour, and carried a little dagger. Harry was not surprised at this; goblins were notoriously good metal smiths. What did surprise him, however, was when the goblin raised a wand.
Harry threw up a shield charm just in time as the street around him was lit with a blinding flash and the wall behind him collapsed. Bricks rained off his shield like very heavy hail, and when the dust had cleared the goblin that had attacked him had disappeared. Not wanting to find him again, Harry ran quickly up the road. Several times he had to dodge curses thrown hurled at him by Death Eaters. Harry was sure that at least one of them, which he had jumped over like a jump rope, had been a Killing curse.
As he approached the castle entrance the fighting got more and more intense. There were more goblins up here than Death Eaters, and Harry found it much more difficult to worm his way through danger. His shield charm, while strong, could not hold up against a well aimed and deftly swung goblin sword, and by the time that Harry had reached the Three Broomsticks he found the road was nearly impassable.
A small but stocky and strong goblin came at him suddenly with the largest sword that Harry had yet seen. As the sword hit his shield it glowed blue and sliced through as if it had met no resistance. Harry noticed, with a sickening drop in his stomach, that there was blood on the blade.
The goblin laughed humourlessly, "Your little shields won't help you here, wizard. This blade is bewitched to be unaffected by magic." The little creature took a swipe at Harry's ankle, which just nicked his right leg.
Harry yelped in pain, and without thinking he pointed his wand at the goblin and hissed, "Imperio!" Immediately the goblin stopped trying to attack him and stood quite still. Shocked both that he had cast the curse and that it had worked, Harry's mind went entirely blank for a moment. 'Give me the sword,' he thought, when his brain began to work again.
Without question the stocky goblin handed it over, but Harry could see several more goblins turning his way now. Struck suddenly with an idea, Harry turned and took off down a side street that was mostly goblin-free. Slashing his new sword to keep any would-be attackers at bay, Harry rounded a corner and came face to face with the Shrieking Shack. Sillouetted against the still-rising sun the house was particularily eerie looking. There were no goblins up here…yet.
Harry had reached the front door. Raising his wand he shouted "Alohamora!"
Nothing happened. "Reducto!" Harry tried, and then fired a banishing charm, then a blasting curse at the door. It remained tightly boarded up. With increasing desperation, Harry tried the windows but they did not budge either. He could hear the fighting travelling up the side street now. Panic rising in his throat, Harry ran his hands through his hair and tried think, but nothing came to him. Out of pure frustration he raised the heavy sword and struck the door with it.
Just as the sword had cut Harry's shield earlier it cut through the impenetrable charm on the house. Startled, Harry quickly raised the sword again, this time aiming for the wooden beams boarding the door closed. In three swings he had the first of them cut in half, and it took him little more than a minute to cut the door free fully. There were definitely sounds of fighting nearby now.
Harry tentatively reached toward the door and, meeting no resistance, pushed it open. It creaked loudly as he entered, the ancient and rusty hinges sticking. Harry suddenly heard somebody run into the yard behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he had the fleeting glimpse of a Death Eater running up the garden before he snapped the door shut.
'Colloportus!' Harry thought quickly. The door sealed itself with a noise like stepping down in a waterlogged shoe. Harry turned and ran to the secret passage to Hogwarts, the Death Eater hammering on the door behind him.
It took him what felt like ages to reach the end of the low passage. Gingerly, he poked his head out of the passage hole and came face to face with the waving Whomping Willow. Reaching an arm over his head, he found the knot that stopped the Whomping Willow's branches and pushed it firmly. Immediately the lethal limbs ceased swinging and stood completely motionless. Carefully Harry pulled himself from under the tree and ran, ducked over, from under the tree. Turning he thought 'Pulcuspis!' and a jet of orange light shot from the wand at the knot in the tree and pushed it down again, starting the tree waving.
Harrry turned and scanned the grounds. Immediately he saw where the fighting was. Clustered around the front gates was a small army of people, who Harry started to run towards. He had gone maybe a hundred paces when he recognised the figures battleing at the entrance to Hogwarts. Between the prominent figures of McGonagall, Slughorn and Hagrid were, unmistakably, most of the DA of previous years. With them were teachers, Order members and what looked like much of seventh and sixth year. Still running, Harry searched franticly for Ron's red hair or Hermione's bushy mane in the crowd. He spotted Luna, battling a Death Eater he recognized as Lucius Malfoy. He must have broken out of Azkaban, which was hardly surprising without the Dementors guarding it. Beside her were the Patil twins, each taking turns sparing with a goblin that was blocking their every curse with a metal shield and firing curses from another illegal wand.
As quickly as he could he joined the fray. He was gripping the sword in both hands, his wand clutched against the swords hilt below his right hand. Suddenly he spotted Ron, and he swung the sword up just in time to stop a blow aimed for his friend's back.
"Arrrg!" Ron yelled, turning his wand on Harry. It took a moment for recognition to dawn on his face, and in that time the goblin he had stunned re-awoke. Harry immobilized it over Ron's shoulder. "Harry?" Ron asked blankly, "What are you doing here?"
Harry shot a curse out from behind his blade at a tall Death Eater who had appeared beside Ginny to Harry's left. "Remus sent for me!" Harry called over his shoulder to Ron, who had also resumed battling a rather large troll who was holding a giant mace club. Light glinted evilly off the sharp points as they swung heart-stoppingly close to Ron's neck.
Ron and Harry battled like this, back to back, for the better part of an hour. Once or twice Hermione danced past them, locked in combat, and several times Harry had to shoot a well-aimed curse to prevent any of the DA members from coming to harm. More witches and wizards were arriving up from Hogsmeade; it seemed that the battle there had been temporarily won, at least enough for back-up to get up to the castle. Many members of the Order were there, including Tonks and Remus, as well as other people: residents of Hogsmeade.
The sun was beating down hotly on the battling witches and wizards from high in the sky now. Suddenly Harry heard a deafening roar. Turning towards the wall separating the grounds from Hogsmeade, Harry watched in terror as the largest person he had ever seen walked over the ten foot wall as if it were barely there. The giant was at least twenty feet tall, possibly larger. His feet were the same size as Harry's whole body, and his huge face was bigger than the Weasley's dinning room table.
Roaring, the giant began advancing across the yard. Several Aurors and Hestia Jones all ran forward, but they were swatted back by the giant with one hand. Order members and Death Eaters alike dodged the giant's huge feet and they landed, leaving pond-sized dent in the grass. The giant went over to the Quidditch Pitch and, as if it was a garden sign, pulled one of the goal posts from the ground. He began to swing it wildly, knocking one of the towers of seats backwards onto the lawn.
Suddenly Hagrid was beside Harry, fear evident in his eyes. "Harry, you should get outta 'ere. Thas Golgomath, the Gurg of the giants. It ain't long afore the rest o' them get 'ere."
Harry's sense of dread increased. Golgomath was tearing a path of destruction across the lawn, people fighting around his ankles. Harry ducked as a curse whizzed over his head, hit Hagrid's chest and did absolutely nothing. If Golgomath was twice as hardy as Hagrid, they had no chance. Suddenly there was another roar, this time from behind Harry, in the forest.
Grawp was busting his way through the trees, followed by a female giant Harry did not know. Hagrid groaned weakly, "Grawpy, no." He was looking at his half brother in horror. "An' not Belindia too…"
Grawp stamped his way across the lawn towards Golgomath. He was at least five feet shorter than the Gurg, and his friend Belindia was even shorter. Nevertheless they marched towards the offending giant and, each grabbing a Quidditch post, took up a bizarre sort of fencing match. Distracted, the giant stopped trying to trample people, allowing the goblins to renew their attack on the wizards and witches.
The air was thick with curses again, and Harry stayed as close as he could to the indestructible Hagrid, his eyes barely leaving the battling giants. Grawp and Belindia were not faring well, each having been jabbed and knocked over by the much larger and stronger Golgomath. They needed help. If only there was a way that Harry could be twenty feet tall.
Suddenly a plan sprung, fully-formed, into his mind. "Hagrid," he yelled over his shoulder. "Where is Buckbeak?"
Hagrid swatted a few armour-clad goblins away from himself and Harry. "At me cabin, in the pumpkin patch. Why?" Hagrid asked, but Harry was already off running cross the grounds.
Halfway to Hagrid's cabin an arm reached out to grab him through the fighting bodies. He tried to shrug it off, but could not. Turning to face his assailent, he realised that it was Draco. The other boy had just laid out three goblins with a very powerful impediment jinx, and now he grabbed Harry close to him.
"Harry," he said, their forheads touching they were so close. Suddenly he pulled Harry towards him and kissed him fiercely. "Be careful!"
Adrenaline pumped through Harry's veins. "You too," he panted, kissing Draco more lightly back, "Your father is here."
Surprise registered briefly on Draco's face before he was forced to let go of Harry to dodge a goblin with a sword. Harry, remembering his mission, sprinted once again towards Hagrid's.
He found Buckbeak, staining against his tether, exactly where Hagrid had said he would. Buckbeak stopped struggling at the sight of him, and Harry cautiously sunk into a bow. Buckbeak pulled at his harness a couple times and the sunk into a bow as well, orange eyes fixed on Harry. Triumphant, Harry walked as quickly as he dared up to the hippogriff. Stroking the beast's great feathery nose, Harry carefully slipped the tether off the fencepost and mounted the hippogriff.
Immediately the beast beat the ground in anticipation. Harry steadied himself on the creature's shoulders and very gently grasped the feathers on either side if his neck. Tapping his heels gently against Buckbeak's sides, he urged the hippogriff into the sky.
Harry had forgotten how awkward riding a hippogriff was. As he rose quickly into the sky he was jerked and buffeted around violently. He pointed the hippogriff at the distant fighting giants. Looking to the east, Harry saw a frightening sight. Hagrid had been right; the rest of the giants were standing on the ridge just beyond the wall, quite invisible from the ground, but frighteningly intimidating from here. He felt a surge of respect for Grawp, who must have known what he was getting into when he attacked Golgomath; he could certainly see the giant army from his height.
The hippogriffs powerful wings conveyed them over to the fighting three in only a few moments. Golgomath looked up and, seeing Harry on the hippogriff's back, tried to swat them from the air. Buckbeak dodged him effortlessly. The giant's huge green eyes stared up at them.
Just then Belindia whacked Golgomath in the stomach, knocking the air out of him. Enraged, the Gurg seized the little female giant and tossed her bodily across the grounds. She slid across the lawn, hit the side of the great hall and was buried in a shower of bricks as the wall collapsed. Grawp roared in anger and tried to attack Golgomath, but the larger giant held him at bay with the Quidditch goal post he was still wving in one hand like a bizarre fly swatter.
Golgomath and Grawp were stamping around again, nearly crushing the battling wizards on the lawn again. Suddenly a memory of a dragon stomping around crushing eggs surfaced in Harry's mind. Urging Buckbeak as close to Golgomath as he dared. Raising his wand in the hand that wasn't tightly gripping the hippogriff's neck, Harry pointed it at Golgomath's eyes and bellowed, "Conjunctivitus!"
The spell hit one of Golgomath's dinner-plate sized eyes, and he roared and fell to the ground clutching his face. Grawp acted immediately, grabbing the huge sword that Golgomath wore on his belt, and raising it above his opponent. Harry turned Buckbeak away, but he could not block out the horrible noise of the sword entering the giant's chest, and his moan of pain. As Harry landed Buckbeak in the pumpkin patch and tied him up, he heard many people scream. Turning towards the lawn he saw a horrible sight.
Grawp had used Golgomath's sword to cut his head off, and now he was holding it by the hair high above his head. Bucketfulls of blood were falling like absurdly large raindrops on the grounds below and allies, Death Eaters and goblins were running to avoid being hit by them. Grawp was shaking the head in his right hand, and with his left he was making a shoo-ing gesture into the distance. From here it looked as if the young giant had a fly that was bothering him, but Harry knew he was showing the giants over the ridge that he had killed their Gurg, and warning them to back off.
This they appeared to do, because it was not long before Grawp lowered his hands, dropped Golgomath's head beside his body, and took several bounding steps toward the castle. Several students had gathered on the second floor of the hole made by the collapsed wall, and were staring out at the battle. When Grawp charge towards them they scattered in terror. The young giant began frantically scooping bricks off of his girlfriend. Hagrid was tearing over towards the pair of them.
Harry tried Buckbeak tightly to the fence again, stroked his nose and tossed him a ferret in reward, and then he started to run back towards the fighting figures near the gate. It might have been his imagination, but it seemed that there were less people inside the grounds now, and there were certainly less goblins. There were dead bodies on the ground, and Harry realised with a horrible lurch in his stomach that some of them wore Hogwarts robes. He ran past a few of these, purposely not looking at them closely, and once again searched out Ron. Within moments he was battling alongside his friend again.
"Good one Harry!" Ron praised him between curses. "That giant could have done some real damage! Well more damage than it already did," Ron said, waving his hand miserably at the destroyed Quidditch pitch.
Deciding not to tell Ron about the army of giants just now, Harry asked instead, "Have you seen Draco?"
"No," said Ron distractedly, "Not for about half an hour. Man, somehow Binns never quite got the excitement of goblin rebellions and giant Gurg battles across in History of Magic, did he?"
"Um, no, guess not," Harry replied distractedly, disarming and then stunning a goblin that was about to attack Terry Boot. His eyes scanned the crowd urgently. The Death Eaters and goblins were definitely falling back now, being driven out of Hogwarts grounds. There were few people actually fighting now. Most of the people rushing around were Order members and teachers tending to injured colleagues and students. Harry saw Madame Pomfrey tending to a nasty sword gash that Daphne Greengrass of Slytherin had suffered. Behind her Proffessor Sprout was crying silently as she conjured a sheet and pulled it over the face of a Hufflepuff student. Harry felt nauseous as he recognised the boy: it was Derek Cresswell, who had stayed over the holidays in Harry's second year and been one of the twelve people who had had Christmas dinner in the Great Hall that year.
Leaving Ron to fend for himself, not a hard task given the fact that there were now only a few straggling goblins who were just coming unstunned and a few over-zealous Death Eaters left, Harry went to look for Draco. He dreaded seeing him lying on the ground or, even worse, finding him much later draped in a sheet. Suddenly his heart leapt. He had spotted the flash of platinum hair that he knew was Draco between two students who were helping a disoriented Michael Corner to his feet. Harry ran past them and weaved around fallen weapons and huddled people to reach what was now the last battling pair.
Draco was standing, wand held ready, staring at the tall blonde man about ten feet from him. It was Lucius Malfoy. His hood had fallen back off his head, and his face was livid. "Is this how you repay me Draco?" he was saying "You dishonour our family and take up with filth?"
"You are wrong Father," Draco began.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Lucius screamed, as if Draco had twisted his arm. "You are no longer any son of mine."
Draco's face hardened. "Verbero!" he shouted suddenly, but Lucius parried the curse.
"Draco Draco," Lucius taunted. "Didn't I teach you to block your mind better than that?" Suddenly a jet of red light shot from the elder Malfoy's wand. Draco dodged it just in time.
Suddenly, as if at an unspoken signal, both Malfoy's leapt into action. Draco and Lucius rolled, dodged and aimed with astonishing skill and speed. It was clear they had duelled before, because both seemed familiar with the other's style. Most of the curses they used were non-verbal, but occasionally Draco would yell one or two he had not mastered non-verbally yet.
"Sectumsempra!" the younger Malfoy yelled, and Lucius was just too slow to dodge it. The spell cut his ear, slicing the lobe clean off. Lucius howled with pain and rage.
"CRUCIO!" Lucius Malfoy bellowed. Draco keeled over on the ground, twitching, but he did not scream. Harry moved to rush towards him, but hands grabbed his arm. It was Hermione and Ron.
"No Harry! He'll kill you!" she moaned.
"He'll kill him otherwise," Harry growled, struggling against them. All the fighting seemed to have taken all the energy out of him.
He was wrong. Lucius walked slowly over to his writhing son. Standing over him, the evil man began to laugh harshly. "Like that do you Draco?"
Draco was shaking and twitching violently still, but the sound of his father's laughter seemed to have focused his mind.
Lucius was still taunting, "You must get this troublesome streak from your mother. She disobeyed our Lord too. It's funny actually, I killed her just as I am about to kill you."
Draco's head snapped up, horror and fury mingled in his eyes. "Avada Kedavra," he rasped.
The jet of green light hit Lucius at point blank range. The faint sound of death rushed across the grass, and the man fell, his face still twisted into a sadistic smile. Draco stopped twitching and sat, legs splayed out in front of him, on the grass motionless.
Ron and Hermione let go of Harry, and he jerked forward so fast that he nearly fell over. Stumbling, he fell to his knees in front of Draco, and wrapped hi arms around the stunned boy's shoulders. For a moment Draco did nothing, then he leaned into Harry's embrace, looping his arms around his waist. Suddenly the Slytherin began to cry, silently as he had in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom over a year ago.
"I've got no parents," he whispered into Harry's neck. "I've got no parents anymore."
"I know," Harry whispered back.
