Striking Back

Jonas couldn't help but laugh at his brother's description of his first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. The teacher never had a chance against Harry, as he had done his research before he had ever set foot into the classroom. They all knew that the Umbridge woman was just a toady for Fudge, who was desperately trying to prevent that Dumbledore grew his own army against him at Hogwarts. As if that would work out with how many different factions there were at work at the school. Any kind of army would be ratted out before long if only one child of a Death Eater caught wind of anything going on.

His own studies in magic were going well. It was a pity that Sirius couldn't take up the position of Defence teacher at Hogwarts personally, he would be great. His practical approach of magic, with thrown-in comments about how the magic worked, helped Jonas to quickly catch up on a lot of things. The fact that he didn't have to write long essays also helped him progress a lot faster than normally.

The downside in other things was that OZ had finally managed to get past Harry's computer virus and was continuing their take-over of the world. While he could sabotage a little here and there, for the most part he was powerless and had to let it happen. He didn't have a Gundam anymore. Though for some reason Zechs seemed to be overly interested in Gundams and Gundanium. He had ordered a big amount from the colonies and had it sent to the Victoria Lake base. Was he really trying to rebuild Wing? Well, he would have to keep an eye on that situation. The other pilots hadn't shown themselves anywhere from what he could gleam on the internet and hacking into OZ' computers.

There was resistance against the increased military presence everywhere. Leading was surprisingly Relena in her new position as Princess of Sanc. Who would have thought that she would develop like this? He just didn't understand how she could think that unconditional pacifism would work as a way to lead a country. If you didn't have enemies that could work out, but with both the Alliance and OZ being her opponents, she wouldn't be able to live like she wanted to. History had shown that pacifistic leaders, as revered and loved as they were, often became victims of those that wanted to earn money by fighting wars. And Romefeller earned most of their money producing weapons.

His plans to go and meet the relatives of the late Marshall Noventa were going well. Sirius had taught him apparition as one of the most important things. After the disaster in Siberia Jonas had agreed to first learn any means to retreat unseen. Harry could be scary when he was furious. Harry himself also knew that method of travelling, as it made getting to his meetings and doing business so much easier. And as an emancipated minor he had been able to legally get his licence. Watching his brother perform magic was awe-inspiring. Even Sirius and Remus were baffled what Harry could really do. Remus was especially impressed, as Harry hadn't let anybody know how good he really was until now. Well, it probably had to do with his guarded persona when he didn't fully trust a person. Jonas knew that he was a slight exception as Harry's twin. Harry had one 'weakness' and that was his desperate wish for a family. Right now he only had Sirius, Remus and Jonas whom he unconditionally trusted and saw as his family. His friends came next, though he didn't tell them everything for several reasons.

First on Jonas' list to visit was Sylvia Noventa, who lived in Marseilles. He knew he should go soon, because the Alliance base there would be a prime target for OZ to attack. And here people called the Gundam pilots terrorists. At least they didn't target civilians intentionally. OZ fought in places where homes of civilians were around. And Jonas in particular tended to refuse missions that endangered civilians after he had accidentally killed a house full of them when he targeted an Alliance base before he had become a Gundam pilot. Dr J was aware of that mentality of Jonas and planned his missions accordingly. Though he now probably thought that Jonas had died. He would only think differently once Jonas made contact again. Which would be a while as for now lying low was essential.

Harry sat in the Gryffindor common room, working on his research project on his laptop. He was listing all known kinds of energy and their sources. To make winning energy at a large scale more cost-efficient, he would need to think outside of the box. His homework was long done and many purebloods in his house looked at him oddly. He knew why, they had never before seen a computer, not to mention a laptop. Hermione looked as if she couldn't believe that an electric machine could work at Hogwarts. Finally she couldn't contain her curiosity anymore.

"Harry, how is a laptop working around magic?" She asked.

"Runes," Harry answered, not looking up.

"You managed to shield the computer from magic with runes?" She asked surprised, "You don't even take the class."

"Not really. But it would take too long to explain the process I used and I plan to market my products in the future, so please forgive me if I don't tell you how it is done, as I don't want others to take away the idea. I'm still working on mass producing my products, so I won't give up any information," Harry explained, "Do you need something else? I'm kind of busy right now with work."

"I thought you said you had all of your homework done?" She asked.

"No, this concerns my part-time job in the muggle world," Harry said, "The research I'm doing is also on a need-to-know basis."

Hermione gaped at Harry. He had never before kept secrets from her. Or she had thought he didn't. Obviously he had never mentioned his studies in muggle subjects.

"Can you at least tell me the overall subject?" She asked.

"Energy sources," Harry answered and continued typing theses.

She had to suppress the urge to question him further. It was really hard. She really wanted to know what he was working on, perhaps she could help him even. But he also was so distant now in some cases. And his posture seemed to say 'stay away'. Then she heard a sound signal that a new e-mail had come in.

"An e-mail? Who sent it?" She asked curiously.

Harry didn't answer but opened it. He frowned.

"It seems OZ is getting bolder again," Harry commented while reading, "At least he didn't get into too much trouble again."

"Who?" Hermione asked again.

"A friend that wrote to me. I told you I made some new ones while I was in Japan. OZ attacked Marseilles and my friend helped Sylvia Noventa, the granddaughter of the late Marshal Noventa, who was the supreme commander of the Alliance, get away from the attack. He met her coincidentally when he was getting out of Marseilles himself," Harry easily altered the true story.

"Who is OZ?" Ron asked clueless.

"OZ is a military organisation in the muggle world that is slowly taking over the world from the old leaders, which was the Alliance. The bad part about that is that OZ mostly doesn't care if civilians are caught in the crossfire," Harry answered.

"So what? They are only muggles, how could that be a problem for our world? Thanks to us separating from the muggle world we don't have to worry about their problems," Ron stated.

"That's not true, Ron, and if you had listened to Dad's stories more, you would know that," Fred now entered the conversation.

"True, Dad has sometimes let some information slip how unfair the Alliance was to a good number of people. While we had trouble with You-Know-Who in the seventies and early eighties, in the muggle world some political leaders were taken out by the Alliance. I think he once mentioned a king of Sanc," George added.

"So how would that concern us?" Ron asked still not understanding.

"Some of the Alliance leaders know about us," Fred stated serious for once, "Every time a new leader of a country is chosen, the local Ministry of Magic informs him or her of the hidden community to get their cooperation in case of an emergency."

"Now think about a militaristic organisation finding out that there are wizards and witches out there. It would be a disaster. While the Alliance was mainly built from national leaders that were politicians, except for some military leaders, OZ is different. If people like Treize Kushrenada or Colonel Une found out about our world, they would try to use our abilities to their advantage," Harry continued, "If they don't wait until all civilians are evacuated from places they attack, they won't hesitate to force us to work for them. And if people like Fudge, who have no idea what is going on in the muggle world, tell the new leader of a country, which right now will be an OZ officer, it will come to bite us."

Ron gulped. That was really bad.

"Wouldn't Professor Dumbledore do something about it?" Ron asked.

"What could he do?" Hermione now spoke up, "Fudge refuses to see the truth and has managed to get Dumbledore fired from his political positions early in the summer before the Prophet changed its position on Harry's statement. And with Umbridge here, he surely doesn't plan to change his opinion any time soon. She is here to spy for him to find some conspiracy that would help him save his job."

Many others listened in now as well.

"But what should we do then?" A third year girl asked.

"You can work on getting used to the way muggles do things to not stand out when you are outside of the magical world. Things like how they really dress and what things they normally do in their free time. We have enough muggleborns among us to get it done. You won't have to fear anything for now if you don't stand out strangely. Next to that you need to concentrate on the immediate problem that our world has. I didn't lie when I said that Voldemort was back," Harry said, making many flinch, "I don't expect any of you to suddenly become soldiers and fight him one-on-one, but think about it, he rarely did go on raids in the past himself, he sent his Death Eaters."

Many of the older ones nodded. Those people had been feared nearly as much as Voldemort.

"Normally a group of them consisted of twenty to thirty. If now everybody that they tried to attack could attack back with a stunner, which is a third to fourth-year spell normally, the surprise of the resistance could already bring most of the group down. After all, which places did they attack in such groups? Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, muggle areas. They are cowards that use the fact that most people don't want to fight to their advantage. But what if normal people like shop keepers, mothers, fathers, animal trainers and so on, just knew how to use shield charms, how to conjure solid shields and stunners?" Harry left the question hanging in the air.

"They wouldn't be able to defend against all of them?" Neville asked and got a nod from Harry together with a smile.

"Strength in numbers works," Harry said.

"But how would we learn the spells we need?" A second year boy asked, "Umbridge doesn't teach anything useful. The book we have to read is dead boring."

"First you should all owl-order a proper book on basic defensive spells," Harry pointed out, "The best one I know is Practical Defence by Alastor Moody. It has all the important spells with instructions how to do them."

"Moody wrote a book?" Ron asked surprised.

"He did. I think Remus said it was because he was so disgruntled with how lacking the auror trainees that he got to work with were when they graduated from Hogwarts," Harry confirmed.

"That sounds like him alright," Hermione agreed, "But I don't think simply reading the book and then practicing alone would help everybody. We would need a proper teacher, especially if we are in the higher years. I dread the OWLs in Defence with Umbridge in charge, no matter if she is forced to add practical parts in her classes."

"That's true. I don't get most explanations in the books," Parvati spoke up, "I don't think my father will be pleased if I fail an important subject like Defence."

"But who would teach us?" A third-year asked grumbling.

"I would," Harry offered, "As long as you are willing to invest the time and sign a contract that you won't use the knowledge I teach you to support Voldemort, I would be willing to set up two times a week to teach you. One time for an older group and one for a younger group."

He and Jonas had discussed this idea before with Remus and Sirius and both adults had agreed that if the teacher for Defence was rubbish again, it would be good if Harry stepped up. It would also give Harry some ready supporters if he was forced to fight without proper backup from those in charge. And as a Potter, Harry wouldn't let the Death Eaters win. Attacking innocents went against his opinions of right and wrong. And if the students learned at least basics of defending themselves, it would be easier to push Voldemort and his minions back.

"That's a great idea, Harry. But we should keep it a secret from the teachers as well. Umbridge would definitely raise a stink about you leading a defence group," Hermione spoke up.

"She doesn't have the power, Hermione. The only reason she got the job was that the educational decree that allowed the Minister to appoint a teacher if the headmaster couldn't find a suitable candidate, was passed by the Wizengamot before I managed to stop the slander that the Prophet printed against me. Right now Fudge isn't strong enough to get any more decrees passed. Many are already miffed that he sent his undersecretary to Hogwarts. And the Wizengamot needs to agree to the decrees as we aren't in a state of declared war yet," Harry pointed out, "No, I will make this a completely legal school club. I'm sure that Professors Flitwick or McGonagall will officially sponsor it and then nobody can do anything about it."

The next morning Harry went to his head of house's office to ask her for permission to set up the study group / Defence club and if she would sponsor it.

"So what did you want to talk about, Mr Potter?" She asked.

"Many students voiced their worries about not being able to pass their Defence exams this year, as Professor Umbridge can't provide the proper qualifications and the assigned book is little help, especially for the upper years. In fact Professor Umbridge only passed her OWL in Defence with an A and never sat her NEWTs in the subject. With the concerns about Voldemort being back, or at least the possibility existing according to the new standpoint of the Daily Prophet," Harry smirked saying that, "many also want to know how to properly defend themselves in an emergency. As I learned a lot of spells preparing for the Triwizard Tournament tasks, and also always performed the best of my year in Defence Against the Dark Arts, I offered to teach a Defence study group, mainly on the practical aspect. I wanted to ask for permission for founding such a group and if you would sponsor it."

"Hm, the idea itself has merit and I know that you are good at Defence and could teach most students, as we sadly didn't have many competent teachers in that subject over the years. Who would be allowed into that group?" McGonagall asked.

"Anybody that is willing to really invest the time to learn and doesn't take it as a joke and is willing to sign a binding contract that they won't use the things that I will teach them to support Voldemort willingly or tell him or his minions what we do in that group. Hermione is setting up a draft for the contract, which we would show to you to make sure that nothing untoward is asked from the members of the Defence group," Harry answered easily.

"So you would let members of all houses join?" She clarified.

"Yes, I would. I know the stigma of Slytherin house and as long as they are willing to follow the rules, I will treat them like anybody else. The same goes for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw," Harry stated.

"What would the consequences of breaking the contract be?" She asked.

"I was thinking about setting up a ward around the room where we train that will keep out anybody that didn't sign the contract or broke it. Those that break the contract or think about it, will feel like they are hit with a stinging hex first as a warning. If they still break the contract after the warning, they will get burns all over their arms which won't be able to heal by magical means. I was thinking about them losing their magic, but Hermione thought that was too harsh for a school group," Harry explained.

"I would think so. What made you even consider it?" McGonagall asked shocked.

"This is war, Professor. I don't plan on making it easy for Voldemort to win. As you may have noticed already, I have held back over the last few years. I thought I would have more time to prepare, but I don't have that time. And if you are up against monsters that uses killing curses on babies, they don't deserve any mercy. And many of the bullies that are let go with a slap on the hand for misbehaving will join Voldemort sooner rather than later. If we allow the possibility of somebody in our own ranks betraying us to the other side, we have little hope to win this war. The same is true if we allow people to stay ignorant," Harry stated passionately.

"If all those that were victims in raids in the first war against Voldemort had just fought back with stunners, while shielding themselves and their families and friends, do you really think things would have become as bad as they were? The muggles have a saying: The only thing needed for evil to win is that good men stand back and do nothing. We outnumber those bastards many times. But because our Ministry let Death Eaters like Malfoy, Nott, Crabbe, Goyle and Macnair get away under the imperius excuse, they are in powerful positions now to assist Voldemort."

McGonagall had to admit that everything that Harry had said was true. And the group was needed and if Harry Potter of all people taught it, the interest would be great. Perhaps more of the students would have a chance to survive if they were taught Defence properly.

"Alright, I will sponsor this group and ask the other heads of houses if they want to add their support as well. You can announce your group as soon as Professor Dumbledore and I have looked over your contract and give you the permission to use it," She said.

"Thank you, Professor," Harry said smiling.

"One question, what are you going to do when Professor Umbridge will undoubtedly forbid this group?" She asked.

Harry looked at her with an evil grin that reminded McGonagall of her old friend Charlus when he planned to eliminate a threat or destroy somebody.

"Dolores Umbridge won't know what hit her if she goes up against me," He said with conviction.

Professor McGonagall gave Harry the all clear two days later and told him that he could go ahead with his plans. Harry had planned a small speech to be held in front of the Great Hall after dinner. He waited until nearly all students were in the hall and then stood up from his seat and walked towards the front of the hall.

"Could I have your attention for a moment please?" Harry called out using a sonorus charm on his throat. The students looked at him curiously. "Thank you. I wanted to announce that from next week on I will offer a Defence Against the Dark Arts study group for all years and all houses. Professor McGonagall has graciously agreed to sponsor the group and Professor Dumbledore has permitted me to start this group. I know that many of you don't know if they should believe me when I said that Lord Voldemort was back or not. I won't take back my words, but if you believe me or not is only part of your decision of possibly joining the group. It is about generally being able to defend yourself if you are attacked by a dark wizard or dark creature. Those that were at school two years ago will remember how dementors attacked at the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. The patronus charm is one of the charms that I will teach to the advanced students."

"Liar, how could a boy like you know such an advanced charm?" Umbridge shouted angrily.

"Expecto patronum," Harry countered calmly and again his stag took the stage baffling Umbridge.

"I don't like being called a liar, Professor. I learned this charm thanks to private lessons with Professor Lupin, who gave up his free time to help me, as I had problems because the dementors affected me worse than others thanks to the horrible things in my past," Harry said.

"Ha, what kind of horrors would you know, Potter?" Malfoy sneered.

"How my mother offered herself to Voldemort begging him to spare me," Harry countered coldly.

That shut most students up and they glared at Malfoy now. None of them wanted to imagine how seeing that must hurt.

"Back to my offer. I'm willing to share my knowledge of the subject, which is quite extensive thanks to my additional work for the Triwizard Tournament last year, with those interested. The one thing I demand from everybody that joins the group is that you sign a contract that states that you won't use the abilities I teach you to help Voldemort and his supporters willingly. This clause exists so that victims of the imperius curse don't suffer the punishment. Professor Dumbledore has looked over the contract that we will use and permitted it. You can sign up for the study group at any time, but I will hold a test to see at which level you are before starting to teach you.

"The group will concentrate on the practical side of the subject, as the current curriculum stresses the theory. I personally don't care if you only want to join to do better in your exams or if you want to prepare yourself for whatever situation you might face. I will separate all those interested in two groups, one older including fifth year and up and one younger for fourth year and younger. These two will again be separated into advanced and beginner. The second selection will simply be based on a simple test in which I will ask you to perform spells that are taught at your class level normally," Harry explained.

"You aren't qualified to teach, Potter," Umbridge tried to prevent this.

"That's why I'm not a professor but more like a tutor. But I think I proved that I'm capable of using advanced defensive magic. From what I know, many adult wizards have trouble using a patronus charm," Harry countered and turned back to face the students, "Lists to sign up and the wording of the contract will be put onto all houses' notice boards. If you have questions about what we will cover, I will be in the empty classroom in the Transfiguration corridor for three hours tomorrow morning after breakfast, as it is Saturday. The first meeting will be the next Saturday to organize the groups and have you all sign the contract. Thanks for your attention," Harry ended the sonorus charm and went back to his seat.

He could see that Umbridge was furious but there was nothing she could do. Student groups for studying were permitted as long as a teacher sponsored them. And with how Madam Bones was finding more and more indications that Harry was right, Fudge didn't have the necessary backing at the Wizengamot to give Umbridge more powers. She was just a normal teacher and had to follow the rules like all other teachers.

Harry read the last e-mail from Jonas. To think that Zechs had indeed recreated Wing and then challenged Jonas to a duel to continue the one that had been interrupted in Siberia. Harry knew that he had to trust Jonas on this. Getting the Gundam back would be very important. For no reason could it be allowed to stay in OZ's hands. Jonas had written that he had managed to get to half of the fourth-year curriculum on the practical side and about the end of third year on the theory. That was really impressive. Sirius must be a really good teacher to get Jonas that far. Of course Jonas was exceptionally talented.

Harry's defence study group was taken very well by the other students. Right now he had twenty-six members in the younger group and twenty in the older group. The only Slytherins were two third year girls in the younger group and Daphne Greengrass in the older group, who seemed to be the testers for Slytherin. Probably if they told the others that it was a good group, there would be some more attendees. Otherwise he had a good mix with Gryffindor making up the biggest part. He had tested the two groups on accuracy first and then on spell knowledge. It was a really safe way to test the groups by letting them hit a dummy with a stinging hex. Nobody could say that a first-year charm was in any way dangerous and his dummies lit up in different colours depending on where the hit had landed.

Some had tried protesting signing the contract and had demanded to be allowed in the group, but Harry had quickly stopped that nonsense. He had stated that only those that signed the contract would be allowed into the group. He wasn't getting paid for this, thus he could definitely choose who he taught. He wasn't an official teacher, therefore nobody could demand entry without following his rules. And really, only the dark followers would have problems signing the oath, as it protected against being controlled and revealing their knowledge and getting punished.

Professor McGonagall had watched the first three sessions of each group and had asked him about his concept in teaching them the defensive spells. She was impressed with his thought that aiming a spell was a major problem if you didn't practice a spell properly and had let him explain his self-created dummies. It was incredible what he had created with a runic scheme and the idea from video games where you had to hit the target with the gun. The game would let the hit target light up somehow to tell you how good your shot was. With this being a major part of the training scheme Harry had thought up, he hoped that in case of real danger the students that he trained would be able to overcome the fear and simply do what they had trained. Aiming properly and shooting spells at their attackers.

On another side he was the most hated student of Dolores Umbridge. She tried getting him for something and put him in detention, but with Harry having learned the Hogwarts charter by heart and being really well-versed in law, she didn't find a proper reason to give him detention, as he was unfailingly polite. She was furious and had tried to get the Minister to give her more power, but with the situation currently against Fudge, as more and more proof of his incompetency came out, there was nothing that could be done.

No student respected her at all, as information about her lack of qualification for the job of Defence teacher had spread all over the castle and her inability to show the students any spells properly was also common knowledge. In fact she was only marginally better than Lockhart, as she at least could use common charms. Just the defensive variant was horrible. Harry hoped that Jonas would be careful. He knew that Jonas was a great fighter but he couldn't help but worry about him going into the lion's den so to say. Then he got another e-mail and to his surprise it was from Relena. She had somehow found out about Jonas contacting the members of the Noventa family to apologize for his actions and had got a letter from Mrs Noventa which she wanted to forward to Jonas.

She asked him if he would come with her to the South Pole base of OZ, as he was the only one Jonas ever listened to. Harry had to admit that it was true, but the problem was that he couldn't get away from Hogwarts easily. Dumbledore would never allow him to leave. The old man was too content with having Harry under his thumb, well he thought so at least, again. While Harry could sneak out easily, or pull rank as Lord Potter, it would only cause problems and he couldn't afford to give anybody ammunition against him for no good reason. And he really didn't want anybody to find out about his twin brother yet. It would be a massive problem if either OZ or Dumbledore found out that Jonas and Harry were twins. They would try to catch one to blackmail the other.

So Harry wrote back to Relena that he didn't see any possibility to come, as he was stuck at his boarding school.

Jonas was in trouble. While he had got Wing back, and, after the duel between him and Zechs had to stop, thanks to some former Alliance soldiers turning up to fight Zechs, simply to gain favours with the Romefeller Foundation, had managed to escape, he now needed to find a way to hide his Gundam properly. It had been a real surprise that Relena had appeared in a private plane and all to deliver a letter from Mrs Noventa to him. As he had to leave, he didn't know what was written in it, but an e-mail from Harry told him that he had asked Relena to send the letter to him and that he would scan it and send to Jonas via e-mail. So he waited until Harry got the letter.

He had hidden Wing in an old bunker close to London before returning to Harry's flat. From what Sirius could tell him, Voldemort was still lying low, even if there were some signs that he was active. Jonas decided that, as Dumbledore didn't want to act against the Death Eaters properly, he would do it. It wasn't as if he had anything really useful to do right now, and with his training he could easily infiltrate a house and blow it up. Sirius had looked at him shocked and then helped him plan the mission. The target was chosen by the most damaging potential towards Voldemort's side, which made Malfoy Manor their destination. Sirius could tell him lots of things, as his cousin Narcissa was the wife of Lucius Malfoy and she had bragged more than once when they were younger what kind of protections the manor had.

Jonas simply needed to get in, place his bombs and get out. With electronics probably being fried by the magic of the wards, they would use a runic sequence that Harry had come up with. Sirius was still sometimes baffled how good his godson was at using runes. Jonas had a distinct talent with them as well and carving the ones they needed into their bombs was well within his capabilities, even if he hadn't put great priority on them, as learning spells and about dangerous creatures was more important for him.

Hence why he was now placing the sixth bomb at the manor. The building would only be a bad memory once he was done. The problem was that somebody had noticed that there was an intruder at the manor. He was finished placing the bombs, but he couldn't apparate out with the wards preventing that. It had been difficult enough to trick them to let him inside. Then it hit him. Harry had said that Dobby had once been a Malfoy elf. That must mean he could get in and out of the wards no problem. And elves could take wizards with them when they did their own form of apparition.

"Dobby," Jonas called out in a low voice and heard the pop of the elf appearing.

"Master Jonas?" Dobby asked.

"Can you get me out of here after I trigger the bombs?" Jonas asked.

"Yes, Dobby can do that," Dobby said happily, "Can we get the house elves out before the explosion?"

Jonas pondered the question.

"Would they try to stop them or simply get out?" Jonas asked knowing that getting rid of the manor and the Death Eaters that were here was very important to help Harry.

"If they don't know about the bombs, they wouldn't do anything against them. We could tell them that bad wizards would shoot nasty spells at them if they stayed. House elves often leave and only return when they aren't in danger anymore, except their master's order them to be around. And bad old master never wants elves around except if he has a job to do," Dobby said.

"Then do that and then get me out of here. I don't want them to die. They are innocents in this war," Jonas decided and Dobby nodded happily.

He popped away and reappeared shortly after. He then nodded to Jonas who activated the runes by sending an activation spell at the last bomb that he had placed. The others would get the signal as well and explode in two minutes. Then both elf and boy disappeared from the manor.

Harry watched Draco Malfoy being approached by Snape. He knew from Jonas' mail what had happened. Jonas had placed six bombs at Malfoy Manor and completely destroyed the building. He had read in the e-mail he got after Jonas was back safely that he and Sirius had planned the attack to take away one of Voldemort's biggest supporters and as many other Death Eaters as they could. While they didn't know who they got, as Jonas hadn't really looked around who was there, it was safe to say that at least one of Draco's parents had been among the victims. Probably both. While Harry could somewhat feel sorry for Draco, this was war and it was better that the ones wanting to lead it were the ones dying than innocents.

He suspected that the whole thing would be a great headline in the Daily Prophet tomorrow. This would be interesting to watch. Malfoy was the biggest financial supporter of Voldemort and the one to bribe Fudge. Without him pulling the strings at the Ministry, things would become easier for the light to win. And until Draco turned seventeen, there wouldn't be anything he could do to support Voldemort if both Lucius and Narcissa had indeed died.

True to his suspicions Draco was led away by Snape. But not only him, after Snape had approached Malfoy, he went on to Theodore Nott and then Gregory Goyle had to follow Snape as well. That meant that their fathers must have been at the manor as well. Umbridge looked curiously at the scene, but with her not being included in meetings between a head of house and a student, there was nothing she could do to find out really. She would have to wait until she was told what had happened. Harry looked at Dumbledore and he looked saddened. Harry only hoped that he wouldn't do something stupid like letting the boys get away with bullying to get over their grief. If he did, Harry would step in and protect the students that would be their targets.

Snape let the three boys sit down in his office and put a bottle of calming draught into his pocket from his potions cupboard before turning to them.

"I have asked to come here because I have important news for you. Last night there was an attack on the supporters of the Dark Lord," Snape started.

"Were our parents involved?" Nott asked.

"Sadly yes. I have the sad duty to inform you about the deaths of all your fathers and your mother, Draco. The attacker used some kind of explosive to completely destroy Malfoy Manor and it killed all of those that were inside," Snape said.

The three boys were shocked. Especially Draco. His home and his family were gone?

"Who did it?" He asked heatedly.

"We don't know. The attacker managed to get into the manor unnoticed and placed the explosives. He somehow got out before triggering them. There is only a big load of rubble left. The Dark Lord has promised that he will personally kill the one responsible for the attack, once we find out who was responsible," Snape told them.

"It was that stupid old fool with his followers!" Draco shouted.

"Hardly. As you know, I spy on Dumbledore's group and I know that he would never sink that low. He doesn't believe in killing people. Which is why he won't win against the Dark Lord, despite his powerful magic," Snape replied still calm.

Nott and Goyle were more shocked than angry like Draco. They hadn't believed that their fathers could die just because they followed the Dark Lord.

"What will happen now?" Nott asked finally.

"You are excused from school to go home and help your mothers arrange the funerals, Nott and Goyle. For you, Draco, it's a bit different. You still get to leave the school, but as the manor is destroyed, you first need to get information on any other inhabitable houses and get the one you choose ready for living there. I will assist you, if you wish it, in arranging for your parents' funeral. The Dark Lord wishes to let you know that he will let you take revenge once you are ready," Snape said.

The three boys nodded and shed some tears thinking about their dead parents. While they had been raised to not show emotions in public, they were among their peers and they still were teenagers. They just realised that a war wasn't only fought with one side suffering losses. Both sides equally suffered and for once they wondered if cleaning the world from mudbloods was really worth losing your family, because somebody decided to not use the soft methods but to fight fire with fire.