The Break In
Hermione walked into the room adjacent to her office, this was the workplace of the house elf rescue squad, Hermione had not yet met them and wanted to see if any actual progress had been made,
"Ah, hello Miss Granger." said one of the wizards in there, there was a lot of planning and mapping going on around her,
"Hmmm, you're very formal." she pointed out,
"Well, you are my boss." he said,
"What?" asked Hermione, shocked at this,
"Well, you run the S.P.E.W office and this is just an extension of that." he said,
"Oh," said Hermione, coming to terms with it, "So how's everything going?" Hermione asked,
"Rather well Miss, so far we've rescued five abandoned house elves and three abused ones." he said,
"What, really?" asked Hermione,
"Yes," he said, "In fact, we're planning a rescue mission tonight." he said,
"Oh, what for?' asked Hermione,
"Well, we've suspected this rich guy, Clement Hodge, of owning house elves illegally, we got someone in and we got pictures of house elves, locked in the basement, turning machinery, cooking non stop, it was awful." he said,
"What do you mean, owning them illegally?" Hermione wondered,
"Well, he stole them, from other people, he's sold out entire third world villages to import them overseas right under the ministry's nose." he explained,
"Wow," said Hermione, "So tell me Mr.…?"
"Grapple, Miss, Earl Grapple." he said,
"Right," said Hermione, "So tell me, Earl Grapple, what is the possibility of me accompanying the rescue squad tonight?"
"Well Miss, as our boss, it's your right to accompany us in any mission you like." he said,
"Great," said Hermione and she walked off to the planning.
Hermione stood with eleven members of the rescue squad outside of Hodge's mansion, it was a very big house, the last time Hermione had seen a house this big was when she was kidnapped by snatchers and taken to Malfoy Manor.
"Okay, everybody know the layout?" asked a wizard on the rescue squad, everyone else, including Hermione, nodded, "And you know the defences?" he asked, everyone nodded again, "Okay, deploy." he said, and they did so, they kept low and stepped onto a stone path that led to a large iron gate.
They were all dressed in black; Hermione wore a hat that controlled her hair. Hermione tapped the gate and an invisible shield rippled in the air, blocking their way in.
"Okay everyone, ready, and go." said a witch on the squad, all twelve of them aimed their wands at the gate and emitted blue lights from their wands, the shield got weaker and it was visible now, it was becoming blue and shiny, where the spells hit it, it rippled, they soon heard it creek and soon they saw it shatter and the parts that had made it up dissolved into the air.
"Reducto." said a wizard, and the gate lock exploded and it swung open, the hinges squeaking.
They all rushed in and stopped as they heard the stomping of feet coming towards them. Two suits of armour came from the exotic hedges, one was swinging a mace on a chain and the other was throwing an axe that came back to him like a boomerang. The suits of armour continued to strike down with their weapons, the axe swung in Hermione's direction, she ducked and narrowly missed being beheaded.
"Wingardium Leviosa." said Hermione and the axe came out of the armour's hand, Hermione controlled it and then she made it strike at the suit's neck, the helmet came off of the rest of the armour and the axe fell to the ground,
"Reducto." said a witch and the chest of the axe suit exploded and now had a hole through the middle, it dropped to the ground.
The other half of the group was handling the suit with the mace, it continued to spin around on its chain and people were only just avoiding the spikes of the ball. A wizard jumped onto the back of the suit and it dropped the mace so that it could use both hands to try to pry him off, he succeeded and the wizard flew backwards, it went to pick up the mace,
"Accio mace." said Hermione and it flew right into her hand, Hermione held it and now the suit was coming for her, she swung it around and the rescue squad ducked. She bashed the suit with the mace which made a large dent, and again, and again, and again, soon the thing was covered in dents, scratches and holes. Hermione gave it another swing and the chain wrapped around the armour's neck. The suit swung his hands and snapped the chain, pulled it apart with its bare hand. Hermione stepped back as the thing grabbed the chain on its neck and unraveled it, it threw the spike-ball at Hermione and a witch on the squad yelled,
"Reparo!" the spike-ball and the chain on it missed Hermione's body and reattached to the handle that she was holding, Hermione had the full mace again, she threw it with all of her force, it spun in the air and the spike ball went right threw the top of the suit's helmet and it caved inwards so that the mace and the helmet were in the suit, they soon tore through the other end and they dropped between it's legs, it fell apart and all of the parts tumbled to the ground with a clang.
Hermione led them onwards, past the front door, and to the right of the hedges, they were now in a garden filled with beautiful flowers. They crept along and soon a side-door busted open and ten security guards ran out, each member of the squad chose one to duel with, some of them paired up, Hermione had one all to herself, a wizard, Hermione had her wand ready and started firing stunning spells at him like there was no tomorrow.
He blocked all of the curses, hexes and jinxes that Hermione fired at him and started firing some of his own,
"Stupefy!" Hermione roared, the guard ducked, rolled and dodged it, he got up on one knee and quickly fired three stunning spells in Hermione's direction,
"Protego." said Hermione, an invisible shield came out of her wand, the spells hit it and fired back at the wall of the mansion and they left a crater in the side of it.
"Expelliarmus." said the guard and Hermione was too slow, her wand popped out of her hand, "Stupefy." the guard said, Hermione ducked to dodge it and in doing so, picked up her wand,
"Serpensortia." the guard said and a cobra came out of his wand, it slithered along the floor and headed for Hermione, the guard laughed and the snake snapped, Hermione thought fast and said,
"Diffindo." the snake came in half and lay dead on the floor, the guard didn't notice and was distracted by his laughing,
"Petrificus Totalus." said Hermione and the guard stood rigid and stiff and fell over.
Some other guards were unconscious and Hermione helped duel the ones that weren't, she surprised on by sneaking up on him and stunning him, soon only one guard remained and all twelve of the squad circled around him, they all yelled,
"Stupefy!" in unison and the spell came at the guard from all angles, he span on the spot but all of the spells collided with him at the same time and counteracted each other causing the guard to fly upwards, fall back down to the ground and pass out.
They all ran around the corner, alarms rang around the grounds; they made it to a window at the ground that gave a peek at the basement. Hermione crouched down and looked in it. House elves here making products that went along on conveyer belts, smashing down mallets, tinkering with trinkets and putting things together, others were turning large gears to make a machine work and they looked hard to pull, the larger house elves were doing it, others had so much cooking and washing up to do that they were unable to cope, some were scrubbing the floors and a couple sat in the corner in the fetal position, hugging their knees and rocking back and forth, back and forth.
"Oh my God." said Hermione,
"I know," said the witch next to her, that's how he makes his fortune, products like what they're making, come on, we're going in." she said,
"Reducto!" yelled a wizard and the glass shattered, the space was just big enough for a person to fit through, Hermione was the last to get in and drop to the basement floor. The house elves were shocked and surprised,
"What is you doings here?" asked a house elves squeaky voice,
"We're here to rescue you." said Hermione but they carried on working, "Did you not here me, we're here to rescue you!" Hermione now yelled,
"We can't leave," said an elf, "Or master punish us." he said,
"Well, we're going to take you away from him." said a wizard,
"It won't matter, he no need to be here to do it." said the elf,
"What do you mean?" asked Hermione, right then a man entered the room, Hermione knew from pictures that it was Clement Hodge,
"What an earth is going on down here!" he roared, "who are you!"
"We're here to save these elves." said a witch,
"You're trying to escape?" he asked,
"No, no, no." squeaked the elves,
"Right, punishment." Hodge waved his wand and the collars around each of the house elves necks emitted lightening, they screamed in terror and pain,
"Stop it, please, stop it!" screamed Hermione in tears, he did so and the house elves breathed heavily,
"Work, work." screeched one of them and they all continued with their work, Hermione thought the word 'Levicorpus' and Hodge was lifted by the ankles, he hit the door frame, banged his head and Hermione dropped him, he was unconscious, a man came up to the door and they saw a flash but a witch fired a stunning spell and he flew backwards.
"Come on; get out of here, now." Hermione begged the house elves; they shook their heads, scared,
"But he can't punish you now." said a wizard,
"We can't apparate with the collars." squeaked an elf,
"Alohomora." said Hermione to a house elves neck, nothing happened,
"Only the master's wand can unlock these." said an elf,
"Okay." said Hermione; she tiptoed up the stairs to the unconscious Hodge, his wand was lying next his open hand Hermione walked up to it and grabbed it, she stood up and something clutched her ankle, she looked down and it was Hodge's hand, he was awake, Hermione tried to shake it off but he pulled and she fell over. She dropped both wands and Hodge got up, a head wound thanks to Hermione,
"Give me my wand." he ordered, Hermione managed to grab her own wand and quickly yell,
"Impedimenta!" he tripped over and fell down the stairs, he was definitely unconscious now, and Hermione grabbed the other wand and saw that the man unconscious at the end of the hall was holding a camera, Hermione got up, both wands in hand, walked down the stairs, stepped on Hodge for good measure and made it to the elves.
Hermione aimed Hodge's wand at one of the house elves shock collars and said,
"Alohomora." the collar clicked and opened, all of the other elves' collars did the same, they were free and the cheered, they stopped working and the machines went still. Hermione snapped Hodge's wand on her knee and all of the house elves held hands as did the squad, Hermione touched a house elves shoulder,
"Where do you want us to go?" asked the elf,
"Ministry of Magic, the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures." Hermione told him,
"Okay dokay." said the elf and all of the beings in the room, human and elf, dissapparated to the Ministry, Hermione would consider her first mission a success.