After securing Diagon Ally from the third wave of Ministry Death Eaters, Harry took his squad back to Hogwarts.
A relief squad took up their positions as they left, making sure that the defenses didn't weaken even for a moment.
Harry and his squad Portkeyed outside the gates of Hogwarts, and quickly moved back inside the school where they could rest.
A majority of the staff were neutral as far as the revolution went. They didn't want to condone violence, or treason, but on the other hand they realized that the Ministry had gone to far (remember they don't know Voldemort is in charge)
Of course they had some allies among the faculty, professor Flitwick and professor Sprout both supported them, and Flitwick was even training some of the younger years in combat.
On the other hand, Snape violently opposed the rebellion; after all as a Death Eater the revolution threatened his power base. He did what he could to discourage students from fighting, but his sneering insults and threats only made the revolutionaries more determined.
After one insult to many, a Slytherin sixth year sent a reducto into Snape's chest. While he survived the experience, he was forced to flee Hogwarts for fear of his life.
After getting healed up at the Ministry field Hospital (the best facility the purebloods had access to) Snape began making healing potions for the Death Eaters on Voldemort's orders.
With Christmas now approaching, the fighting was growing more heated, and more widespread. Many magicals who lived in small towns with muggle populations stopped paying their taxes to the Ministry and put up wards to stop Ministry enforcers (they were no longer called aurors) from appariting into their homes.
Diagon Ally was the sight of battles almost daily, as the Purebloods tried to dislodge the rebels who controlled the British magical economic center.
Especially violent was the area where Diagon and Knockturn Ally met. The Ministry still held Knockturn Ally under firm control, and they had quite a bit of support now that the laws inhibiting the killing of muggleborns had been repealed.
On the other hand, Diagon Ally was filled with shops that were at the very least supportive of, if not out right participating in, the revolution.
St. Mungos hospital was firmly under rebel control with even the enforcers not bothering to attack it any more. The wards were to powerful, and there were too many Minute Men supporting the two squad AL garrison, for any attack to work without an army larger than the purebloods could safely muster.
Gringotts had officially declared its neutrality, and it continued to serve purebloods and ministry personnel, at least on parchment. In reality no Ministry personnel could get to the bank to make a withdrawal or deposit. The AL and the Minute Men who were almost always in Diagon Ally prevented them from getting to the steps, let alone the doors.
The Goblins didn't seem to mind that however, as they unofficially supported the revolutionaries and thought that a few months of no Pureblood gold was a small price to pay for freedom.
Hogwarts was quite obviously the rebel command center and it's most powerful fortification. With McGonagall, a neutral pureblood, as Headmistress, the rebels could conduct raids from Hogwarts with near impunity.
On the other hand, the Ministry facility with its various detectors and sensors was firmly under Pureblood control, as was Hogsmead and what remained of Azkaban. The Purebloods also controlled Knockturn Ally and had numerous heavily warded manors as bases.
Voldemort and the Ministry also were able to convince the European Ministries that the rebels were merely criminal elements that were organized under the Dark Lord Albus Dumbledore.
Because the European purebloods didn't want revolutions of their own, they agreed to send money, resources, gold, and even some troops to help prop up the British pureblood government.
Of course the fact that the British Purebloods were arrogant in the extreme even when horrifically outnumbered by rebels, stopped many of the foreign troops from putting their heart into aiding them
The British Ministry also was able to keep control of The Daily Prophet.
While the rebels ignored it, (and indeed many canceled their subscriptions outright) the paper was useful for keeping the purebloods (and various other loyalists) ignorant of the scale of the fighting, and how little the Ministry actually controlled.
This kept the non combat purebloods happy, as they were confidant that the Ministry could stop these criminals and dark creatures from doing much damage to the wizarding world.
The Prophet neglected to tell it's readers that well over half the magical world in Britain was under rebel control, and they were gaining ground and followers every day.
Even foreign troops couldn't stop the tide of liberty as winter deepened.
The AL conducted strikes in Hogsmead to weaken the Pureblood garrison, preparing for their eventual invasion of the town, and the Ministry building itself was damaged when unstable and highly explosive potions were sent to the Ministry via the floo network.
The resulting explosions killed a few Purebloods, injured a good sized chunk (thirty or so) but the real damage was done to the Ministry building itself as the explosions collapsed part of the Ministry complex, incidentally destroying the underage magical detectors, the trace enchantment, and the central floo office, shutting the floo down for nearly a week.
In the mean time, Dumbledore tried to get back into the Ministry. He believed that with rebels taking over well over half the magical world the Ministry would welcome him back with open arms. It didn't happen like that.
When Dumbledore appeared in the Ministry atrium (shortly before the floo bombing) he was immediately attacked by Death Eater enforcers who were in Ministry uniforms. Fighting nearly thirty wizards (and one psychotically laughing witch) proved impossible even for Dumbledore, and he was forced to retreat towards the Minister's office hoping to explain himself before he had to flee from the Ministry.
Unfortunately for Dumbledore, he was unaware that the Ministry was firmly under Voldemort's control, and thus the Minister himself (yes Fudge is still there) was also under the Imperious.
Dumbledore managed to get to the Minister's office (stunning no less than ten of the thirty Ministry Enforcers) and shouted
"Fudge! Listen to me you blathering idiot! I'm here to…"
No doubt Dumbledore was going to say something exceedingly stupid in the hopes of getting the Minister to order the enforcers to stop firing. Unfortunately at that exact moment the potion bombs sent by the rebels detonated two floors above, and the ceiling collapsed, killing a few of the enforcers and trapping Dumbledore in a small space that he was able to protect with a shield.
Realizing that the Ministry had been attacked Dumbledore cursed and Portkeyed away, planning to come back later and convince the Ministry to accept his help.
Hundreds in the Ministry had heard Dumbledore was attacking the Ministry himself, and the potion bombs seemed only to confirm it.
Dumbledore's attack on the Ministry of Magic convinced almost all of the purebloods (and a good deal of the foreign Ministries) that Fudge was telling the truth and Dumbledore was indeed a Dark Lord.
The Daily Prophet immediately began assailing him as a Dark Lord who was leading the criminals against the Ministry.
Naturally the revolutionaries knew that Dumbledore was not their leader (Harry Potter was and almost everyone knew it) but the ignorant purebloods who still read the Daily Prophet ate up the lies.
Voldemort (who was franticly trying to keep what was left of his government under control) spared a small chuckle for the fate of Dumbledore, before diving back into his work, crucioing anyone who had failed him and his new government. Considering the fact that the government had lost over half of their territory, and well over three quarters of their population, there were a lot of people to punish for failure.
In the mean time, the AL continued expanding, and they even sent a few emissaries to other countries asking for aid.
Japan and Egypt were both considering sending aid, while the various North American Ministries (the Union, The Confederacy, The Republic of Texas, The Republic of Louisiana, The Peoples Republic of California, the New Mexican Empire, the Mexican empire, and the Canadian Commonwealth) were largely uncaring of the war across the Atlantic. (The magical nations in North America were mostly concerned with other Nations in North America, just like the Europeans were only concerned about Europe.)
A few of the South East Asian countries like Vietnam, supported the revolution, but they could offer no real support.
Within Europe, however was another story. The Werewolf packs were supportive of the revolution, and they were beginning to fight against their own Ministries. The Goblins while officially neutral were beginning to hike prices on loans given to purebloods, especially to the pureblood Ministries.
The Centaurs largely ignored the entire conflict as they already knew the outcome, while other races such as the Vela and Fay politically supported the British revolution.
The upshot of it all was that many of the weaker European Ministries were only able to send token aid to Britain because they were fighting to stop their own oppressed people from rebelling.
By the time Christmas came around, the Hogwarts Express had been destroyed by enforcers and the students were forced to take Portkeys to the train platform.
Dumbledore was still on the run, and it looked like he would stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Harry Potter and the officers of the AL stayed behind at Hogwarts during the break training and planning for the next round of hostilities.
An ad hock truce had begun during the Christmas holidays, and Harry planed for the AL to go on the offensive once they were reassembled.
(AN)
I know I haven't updated in a while, but real life got in the way.
I realize that this story has significant American overtones, but as an American I'm writing using what I'm most familiar with. If you don't like mythical European wizards acting like Americans from the 1700's then stop reading the story and read something else, common sense people.
Blood Rant
Now, this is something that either I'm completely wrong about (most likely) or something that a vast majority of Fan Fiction writer have missed (possible but unlikely).
When we first hear about the whole muggleborn vs pureblood thing in the first book, a muggleborn is born to two non magical parents and a pureblood is born from two magical parents. Half bloods (like Dean Thomas) have one parent who is magical and one who is not.
So by those criteria, isn't Harry a Pureblood? His parents were both magical (even if one of them was muggleborn she was still a witch) and neither of his parents were muggles.
If you take that as the definition of Pureblood then no wonder Voldemort won the war in the seventh book! He wasn't just leading the aristocracy (although that's mostly what we see) but he was in fact leading a good percentage of the wizarding world.
Most Fan fiction authors seem to write like the whole war was one or two percent of the population (the aristocracy DEs) against everyone else.
But when you really look at it, Voldemort could have had up to ten or even twenty percent of the population supporting him. And that's more than enough to take over a country by force (just look at Hitler who did the same thing with similar demographics)
Really, you have to wonder how Voldemort LOST the war all things considered.