Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize.
Chapter 12
It had been a week since Lizzie came to Hogwarts when Harry and she stood before the professors, with Hermione, to learn of what will happen. Apparently, ever since the night Snape dragged Harry out of his mom's office, they had been coming up with a plan as to how the three of them could defeat Zach. It had also been a week since Harry had spoken to Hermione. They were still running in the mornings. But, Hermione had gotten the unspoken message that Harry didn't want to speak, so they ran in silence. The evening meetings had been cancelled until now, when the three teenagers fidgeted under the glares of the six adults in the room.
"Mum?" Harry started, wondering why they had all been sitting in the room in silence for the past five minutes, "what's going on?"
"We're waiting." Was the only answer he got and she had fallen silent again.
Harry glanced at Lizzie who shrugged. Apparently she was just as confused as he was. The two had taken to talking late at night, when the two were supposed to be helping Severus put together potions that would be helpful during battle. It turned out that, as much as she didn't look like her uncle, she was that much more like him in personality. She loved potions, held grudges, and favored those she liked while putting down those she didn't. The only main personality point that differed between the two was that Lizzie was that she was bubbly, and not sinister or sarcastic.
The door opened about two minutes after Lily spoke, and Emily snuck through the door, followed shortly by Kyle, Draco, Katy and Ginny.
"No," Harry said, when he saw his little siblings walk into the office. He hadn't seen much of Kyle lately, as he had still been distancing himself since Sophia's death. "I won't let you do this." Harry grabbed Emily by the shoulders, and stood her in front of him.
"It's already been decided, Harry," James said. "I'm sure you three are confused as to why we sent for you," he said to the older three of the group.
Draco saw Harry, Hermione, and Lizzie and quickly figured out what was going on. The girls, however, looked lost.
"You all know what's going on at the moment," Remus started, "there's a war going on, and we need people to fight, we need to train students to fight. Harry has been training since he was eight, and Ms. Granger started about a week ago. The other young lady you see is Ms. Elizabeth Morrison, Professor Snape's niece. We have decided to up the group of three to a group of six. The more people we have, the better chance we have. The ultimate goal is to kill Zach, Bellatrix, and Mr. Granger," he paused, looking right at Hermione, who looked down at that moment.
"However," Sirius butted in, "we're not going to tell you how it's going to happen, or when it is going to happen. That you get to figure out for yourselves."
"You will be given the best training there is, and the tools you will need to defeat them, but that is all we can give you," James said.
"You will be trained by the five of us, not including Headmistress McGonagall, you will meet here precisely at eight every night from now on, you will never be late to a session, or else there will be repercussions," Severus added.
"Remus said you're upping the group to six, so why are Kyle and Emily here?" Harry asked, once he realized their speech had ended.
Lily bit her lip, as she thought of the best way to tell him, but James beat her to it, "So that you can say goodbye to them."
Harry was shocked, though his siblings seemed to know this was coming. "Where are they going?"
"They, along with Megera Malfoy, Kira, Becca, and Anna Granger, and Sara and Tracy Davis, are all being transferred to an American school."
"What?" Harry, Hermione, Draco, and Katy all asked, shocked that their siblings were being moved. "Why?"
"For their safety. The others should be here soon," Lily said, not being able to make eye contact with them. Harry had tightened his grip on Emily, thinking that if he held her there, they couldn't take her away.
"Haven't you always said Hogwarts is the safest place, why would you take them away from here?"
"Because, Bellatrix isn't dumb. She will find out who the six we are training are, and she will go after your families first. Just like they did with Sophia." Everyone fell silent as Lily mentioned her eldest daughter. Sophia was barely mentioned anymore, out of respect for the Potters.
"But Tracy is sixteen, you can't just send her away, that'll disrupt everything," Katy argued, breaking the silence, she had never been split up from her twin before.
"They will be back, once the threat on their lives is over," Minerva told them calmly, as a knock came on the door. The six girls mentioned before all walked into the office, causing it to be very cramped.
"They aren't taking it very well," Lily told the group.
"I brought Meg here, so that she could be safe, not so that you could send her to some yank school," Draco argued, as he grabbed his little sister the way Harry had Emily.
"What's wrong with the American schools?" Lizzie asked angrily, defending the only home she had ever known. Draco glared at her, he had nothing against the American schools, only the fact that they were sending Meg over there.
Hermione merely stood before her three younger sisters, and covered her mouth. She had been separated from them before, and they were being tortured by her father. She knew that they had the biggest threat on them, since their father was behind all the attacks. With tears flowing out of her eyes, she nodded to them, and the three were in her arms in a second. It was as if they had finally just realized that they were all each other had left.
"Draco, Meg will be safe in America, they won't attack there, they didn't last time, and if they planned to this time, they would have already," Severus told him. The students all looked at their professor as if he were crazy. All but two, had never seen his nice side before, and it was a little scary.
"Katy, you'll be fine without me," Tracy told her twin, who looked murderous, "I'll take care of Sara and we'll be back before you know it. I've always wanted to go to America anyways."
"But we planned to go together," Katy said.
"We will, I'll just plot out the real good points that we should see."
Katy nodded reluctantly and wrapped her arms around her sister.
Minerva stood up, and nodded to the group of kids who would be leaving. "We have to go," she said.
"In the middle of the night?" Katy asked.
"We can't have anyone know they are leaving. This is all a secret. No one but the people in this room will know where they were sent," Lily said.
Each of the siblings hugged each other again, and the six who were staying, watched their family leave them, not knowing when they would come back. McGonagall left with them, leaving the six trainees with their five mentors.
--
"Okay, so first and foremost, you all need to be in top physical shape," Severus said, looking primarily at Ginny and Katy, who were both very tiny and petite, and could use a little bit of muscle, "Therefore, each morning, all six of you will run together. I believe Harry gets up around five every morning, and you can all walk down together, and meet Draco and Lizzie in the Entrance Hall."
The six nodded. Though, you could tell Ginny was having second thoughts about having to wake up so early.
"As well, I will be putting you through a type of boot camp to make you stronger, faster, more agile and more flexible. It won't be easy, just ask Ms. Granger," Sirius told them.
"You'll be taught how to cast a truly silent spell, and how to do simple spells without a wand," Lily told them.
"And you'll learn advanced Transfiguration, so that anything could come of use during battle," James added.
"Lastly, you'll learn how to fight. You'll learn to dodge spells, and fight with your hands, and you'll do all this while still maintaining your grades in all classes," Remus said.
Harry listened to their speech and knew that everything he had already been taught would be taught to them all, and then some.
"So, tonight, we start," Sirius said, and made his way towards the door. The six teens knew to follow, and all but Harry looked scared of what would happen. Remus was the last one out of the office, leaving both Potters with Snape, to discuss what to do the next night.
--
As the night wore on, Harry laughed at his friends. Only he and Hermione seemed to be able to do any of what Sirius and Remus were shouting at them to do. Of course, after an hour of running up and down the Hogwarts' stairs, no one can really do much. Yet, they pushed them. Harry was faring the best, doing each push-up that they wanted him to. Ginny and Katy had collapsed long ago on the floor in the corner, and Lizzie was quickly joining them. Draco was trying his hardest to beat out Hermione, but she had gone through this once before, and had taken it upon herself to stay with Harry.
"Alright, stop," Sirius said, as Draco and Hermione both fell to the floor. Harry stood up and went to stand next to his godfather. "This is nothing compared to what you will normally do. Harry barely broke a sweat, and you won't either by the time I'm done with you." Sirius walked out, and Remus handed five potion bottles to Harry, and then followed his friend.
Harry shook his head at his friends, and handed them each a bottle. What they didn't know was that this was another test. They all gulped it down immediately, thinking it would cure them enough to get to bed. However, when Draco's hair turned pink, they all knew it was something else.
"Lesson one," Harry said, laughing at the rainbow of hair colors in front of him, "Know what you are drinking before you drink it. No matter who gives it to you."
Severus walked into the room, and laughed alongside Harry. "I'm most surprised by you, Lizzie, you should definitely know better. It will wear off by morning." He, too, walked from the room, and Harry was left to get his new teammates to bed.
--
It was nearing the end of March now, and the six teenagers were doing nothing but studying for their classes and training late at night. The school was getting ready to go into Easter Break, but the six would be staying at Hogwarts and training twice as much as usual. The break went by quickly, as they had no down time to just lie around and think about the time. The girls were slowly advancing in Sirius's boot camp, and that was their worst one. Every one of them had mastered silent spells, it was hard not to, when they were put under the silencing spell, then forced to fight.
James had them transfiguring grass into swords, just in case they might need one. Lily was teaching them all sorts of charms that would protect them against anything and everything. The one lesson that they all decided was worse than Sirius forcing them to run around the castle, was the one where Remus put them all under the Unforgivables. Each of the six teenagers now knew fully what it was like to be under the Cruciatus, and they all knew how to fight off the strongest Imperius. However, only one had been in an actual battle where the third Unforgivable was being used.
By the end of their break, the six were closer than they ever had been, and were meeting daily after classes to try to formulate a plan. They would then work on schoolwork, only to go to dinner and straight to training afterwards.
"Alright, here starts the fun stuff. You've learned the spells, and you've learned the techniques to fight, now you actually fight," Sirius told them one night. Harry smiled, when he learned he would be doing what he loved, kicking the asses of his parents, but the others looked scared. "Harry will show you what we mean."
Harry stepped forward, and was faced against both James and Sirius. Harry smirked, even though all three knew it had been a while since he saw actual combat. He finally had on his battle robes again, complete with an extra wand, and several weapons, he wouldn't dare use against his father of godfather. He had forgotten how comfortable those robes had been.
"Ready?" he asked, cockily.
"When you are," replied his father.
Harry shot the first spell right between the two men, he meant for it to split them up. He ducked as two spells went flying over his head, and shot one back at his father, incapacitating him for a few seconds, while Harry went after Sirius. The two shot curse after curse at each other, ducking, dodging and blocking when capable. Harry had forgotten his father was in the fight, until he got a blow to the back of the head, and turned around, punching his father in the left cheek bone. He heard the girls on the side of the room gasp. James stumbled for a second, before he attacked his son once more, going for a punch right to the nose. Harry grabbed his fist and twisted it, causing James to fall to his knees. Sirius waited for James to fall, then immediately grabbed Harry from behind, and pinned him to the floor. Harry shoved his knee into Sirius's thigh, which caused the older man to cringe, and allowed Harry up. He grabbed his wand again, and stunned his godfather, just in time to turn around and stop his father from pinning him the same way Sirius just had. A couple more spells between them, and Harry forced his father to fall into a trick he taught him, and James walked right into a body-bind curse, and he fell to the ground.
Harry looked around, and saw the four girls standing by his mother, Remus and Severus, shocked that Harry just kicked the crap out of two grown men. Draco was merely standing there, shaking his head. Harry undid both spells and helped his father and godfather to their feet.
"Get rusty?" James asked, as he pocketed his wand.
"That was rougher than normal," Harry admitted.
"I had you there for a second, I haven't pinned you since you were thirteen," Sirius bragged.
Remus shook his head, and walked before the group. "Who's next?"
They all looked at each other, as if trying to condemn anybody but themselves. Lizzie stepped forward after a few moments. "I'll try. Though, I wanna fight Uncle Sev." Lizzie walked into the middle of the room where Harry had just been, and Severus joined her.
"Good Luck, Lizzie," he said.
"Thanks," she said back, right before sending a curse flying in his direction. Severus merely stepped to the side to avoid it. He shot one back, which she barely managed to escape, by ducking. Lizzie stood up, determined to beat her uncle, and started shooting curses all around him. Severus recognized them as simple spells, and put up one of his more advanced shields, which protected him from every one. Lizzie gave up on those, and waited for her uncle to drop the shield. She tried to remember what Harry had done, but couldn't figure it out.
Harry watched as she backed herself into a corner, the worst move possible, especially against Severus. Harry knew from the second she said she wanted to fight him, she would lose. Severus was the last one Harry was ever able to beat. He watched as the Potions master took her by the wand arm, and flung her wand out of her hand, and twisted, until she went down. He had her at wand point, and both of her hands flew into the air.
"Rule number two," he said, as he helped her up, "don't back yourself into a corner." Severus retrieved Lizzie's wand from across the room and handed it back to her.
"Mia, you're up," Lily said, as she headed out, "Do you mind fighting me, or would you rather pick?"
"I'll fight you," she said, hastily, after watching Lizzie's defeat.
"Very well, whenever you're ready," Lily said, and stood in the middle of the room, waiting for her student to attack her.
Hermione's went slightly better than Lizzie's, but then again, Lily took it easy when she was fighting the kids. When it came to Ginny's turn, she caught Remus off guard at first, by some of her well-aimed hexes, but he quickly over came it, and took her down, almost as easily as Lizzie went down. Katy went up against Lily, and her fight was much rougher than Hermione's. She, too, lost, but she so far had the hardest time, sending curses to actually hurt people.
Draco was the last to go, and he opted to fight James. He held him for a little bit, but in the end, he ended up slipping during a spell, and walked into trap, the same one Harry beat James with, allowing James to shoot a stunner straight at him.
The five teens that lost looked extremely upset with themselves. The five adults just laughed, and Harry laughed along with them.
"Oh come on, guys, you think I won my first fight against these guys?" Harry said, motioning to the group of adults, who were pretending to look like angels. "I didn't beat them for a long time. It's gonna get easier. And the more you fight them, the more you know their moves. Like take dad for a second, his shields are pretty weak, (James acted as though he were hurt), you know they are dad, so if you can recognize it, and shoot a stronger spell at it, it goes right through."
"Yeah, but that doesn't help on the field, because we're not going to be fighting against your parents," Ginny said.
"Yes, but I know dad has weak shields, therefore, if I realize he needs help, I can help him. Sirius has a pretty nasty right hook, so you just stay far enough away where he can't punch your brains out, but in battle, you try to force a Death Eater into that range."
"So basically, what Harry is saying, is by fighting against us, and eventually each other, you'll learn weaknesses and strengths, that you wouldn't know otherwise, which in turn helps," James told them. "We'll see you tomorrow night, in here, at eight."
The six kids turned to each other, and walked out. Harry laughing at the defeated spirits he was walking with.
"We'll see you guys tomorrow," Lizzie said, as she and Draco headed towards the dungeons, and the four Gryffindors head towards the tower.
"Why'd they choose me?" Katy asked when they were almost the portrait.
"Why do you ask?" Hermione asked her, as Ginny said the password, and they walked into an empty common room. Though, it surprised none of them, each night they got back, the common room was empty.
"I'm never going to be as good as you guys. I'll just be holding you all back."
"There's a reason for everything they do, Katy, if they choose you, they did it for a reason. They just don't always tell us every reason," Harry told her, as he headed towards the boys staircase.
"Harry!" came Lily's voice through the portrait, "Get back here."
Harry at first thought he was in trouble, and walked slowly down the stairs, but the second he saw his mother's face, he sprinted across the common room, and followed her through the castle, meeting up with Remus, Severus, Sirius, and James in the Entrance Hall and together the six ran through the grounds, hitting the apparition point, and each disappeared, Lily grabbing Harry to guide him where to go.
--
They arrived at a small town that Harry recognized, but couldn't place, however, what he saw affirmed his suspicions as to why his mom dragged him out so late at night. The town they were in was on fire and it was burning so brightly, you could have forgotten it was nighttime. The townspeople were running frantically. They were all still in their nightclothes. Harry watched as a young mom carried her youngest daughter out of the house, while she had three little boys, slightly older than the girl, following.
"They're all muggles," Lily told him. "The Death Eaters have disappeared."
Harry then noticed that his mum was right. Not a Death Eater in sight. There were no robes being worn by anyone, and no flying colors from curses being sent.
"So what do we do?" Harry asked. As another young family went running past. He felt as though this were some play that was happening in front of him. None of the townspeople were noticing the group of people that just appeared behind the bushes.
"They'll be back," Sirius said, and pointed towards the largest building on the street, where everyone was heading to. "They purposely didn't burn it, so that everyone would go there. Then, they'll return and lock them all in, then burn the church as well."
Harry bit his lip, to keep from cursing Zach and Bellatrix. "Why? Why this town?" he asked; now as he watched the people go to their death.
"See that house over there," Remus said, and pointed to a house, that was almost falling down due to the fire. "That was the Granger's house."
Harry's mind went back a little over a year, and remembered landing in this exact spot, as he watched Death Eaters tear through that house. He knew now, however, that the attack was formulated on the inside, and everything they thought at that point was wrong.
"So we're just going to wait?" he asked, still staring at the church straight ahead, "why not tell the people not to go there, why not warn them?"
"Because, if we act now, the Death Eaters will know we're here. We need them to be surprised," Lily told him. "The aurors know that the second a spell is fired here, they need to apparate here immediately. Almost the whole force is waiting in the Ministry."
"Lil," Severus said, and pointed in the direction of the church. Almost everyone had gone inside now, and in the distance you could hear sirens. "They'll appear any second."
Harry watched and waited. He wondered what was going on inside the church at that moment. Were they somewhat calm again? Or was the whole town still frantic, making sure everyone was accounted for, not realizing that their safe-haven really isn't that safe at all. Nothing moved in the town.
Until screams came from the church.
A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger. I didn't mean for it, but the chapter got way too long, so I had to split it. Better news, the next chapter is done, and should be up fairly quickly.
The more reviews I get the faster the next chapter will be up. :)
