The Gryffindor Five

Part Two

Chapter Five

By danu40k

The New Year started, and with it came Riddle. He had gathered what he thought he needed and had decided it was time to take the message home.

He had enough people to help him break his loyal followers out of Azkaban. Its fall would signal the rise of Voldemort.

~ooOoo~

Harry woke from his meditations with a start and quickly headed to Dobby. "Dobby! I need you to take a message to Minister Bones. Tell her we need to meet immediately. It's an emergency. Tell her that Riddle is back and is going to attack Azkaban."

Dobby's eyes grew wide as he nodded his understanding of the message. 'Porting away as soon as Harry was done talking to him.

Harry went to get the others.

~ooOoo~

After everyone was in the room, Harry began, "Riddle is back. He's planning on attacking Azkaban soon. When he finds out all of his people have been quietly executed for their crimes, he's going to go ballistic"

"Shite." Said Ron. "We didn't count on him being back so soon. He was supposed to stay away for at least another year."

"Yeah, he seems to be doing that a lot. It's almost like he can read us" Replied Ginny.

At that, everyone looked at Harry wondering if maybe Riddle could be reading them.

"No, I doubt he is. I think he is doing this for his followers. I don't mean the ones in Azkaban, but the ones he has now." Ron replied.

At their look, he continued; "These aren't his old followers. Unlike them he needs to prove himself to them before they will completely follow him. Terror tactics won't work here. At least not against them. What better way than to attack and take over a place that's supposed to be impregnable"

"Then what? Where does he strike next when he finds out that he has no followers here anymore?" Ginny asked.

Harry shrugged. "That one's easy. He'll hit the Ministry in revenge for his followers. He'll have too to keep his new followers."

"Either that or he'll hit Diagon. Or both. But I think Harry's right; he'll go after Minister Bones and her administration first." Continued Ron.

"So what are we going to do about it?" Asked the twins as they finished coming down the stairs into Harry's trunk.

"What are you doing in here?" Demanded Hermione.

"We came down to watch videos. It's our marathon night. Heard you talking…" They said.

"And waited, listening in on a conversation that has nothing to do with you." Countered Hermione.

The twins shrugged. "So, we take it that this is not a game." Asked Fred.

George continued the questioning, "Want to explain just how you know all this?"

Harry looked at Ron and Ginny. They nodded their heads. They had known that sooner or later the twins would get involved. "Right, I'll let Hermione explain it to you while I get the pensive."

~ooOoo~

When Minister Bones arrived in the meeting room, she was surprised to find not just the group, but the twins as well. At her raised eyebrows, Harry told her what had happened.

She nodded and told them that Mr. Weasley was seeing to Azkaban. The Auror force was being called up to deal with the coming attack. And security was being beefed up at the Ministry.

"What about Diagon?" The twins asked.

"We've been slowly increasing security there. Plus we have rebuilt the atmospheric wards over the alleyways. It won't take much to turn them on. Once on, they will make it impossible to apparate or portkey in or out of the alleyways. They also absorb spells cast against them which will make it harder for Death Eaters to attack." Minister Bones answered them.

Harry took over the discussion. "As an heir to two of the houses I've been able to access the center of the castle and have been doing ward maintenance. Making them as strong as possible. The same as Hogsmead. This summer, I'm going to have the construction and repair people back in to finish what they were doing. After they are through, I'll have the house-elves go through and give the place a thorough cleaning. We'll be hosting students who have a bad home life, or who just want to stay and study, over the summer as well." Harry rubbed his eyes. "I have counselors coming to talk to all the students individually to see who needs to stay. After that, the Head of Houses will be talking to each student to see if any wish to stay so that they can continue to study using their wands, or get some extra tutoring in." He finished.

"So what now?" Ginny asked.

"Now we wait. I keep an eye on Riddle and keep everyone else updated with what I find. Until then there's not much that we, as students, can do. It'll be all up to the adults right now." Harry stated tiredly.

"Harry, I would like to see the information you have. Do you mind if we use the pensive?" Minister Bones asked.

Harry shook his head and pulled out the memory for her to use. Ten minutes later, she came out and nodded to Harry, who put the memory back. "I want to know as soon as you do as to where they end up camping. The more we can capture the better." She told him.

Harry nodded his understanding. She then dismissed them, heading back to the ministry.

~ooOoo~

The news hit the next week. Voldemort was back, and had attacked Azkaban. The ministry had been able to stave off the attack with only a few losses. While Voldemort's forces suffered many casualties and captures. For obvious reasons the ministry was beefing up security with a State Force. This will act as a military force and be activated in times of crisis/war. The ministry is asking for volunteers for both the Aurors and the State Force.

The news hit the Wizarding community hard. They had all thought that their troubles with Voldemort were over. But now that he was back…There were a lot of people signing up for both the Aurors and the State Force. They figured that this was the best way to help keep their families safe.

~ooOoo~

After the attack, the twins began to train with the group. Harry also had them working on pranks and cantrips just in case.

After a while, Harry decided that things were to tense, if things didn't let up soon they would burn themselves out before they even faced off with Riddle. He decided to restart the prank war against the twins.

The opening salvo was a water bomb on the twins at the entranceway to the main Hall. That way everyone could see it. This was no ordinary water bomb. He had been watching Ramna ½ with the twins and had spelled the water to not only change them into girls, but to change their outfits into schoolgirl clothes. Complete with short skirts.

The spell went off without a hitch. Peeves was more than happy to help with the water bomb and the twin's reaction was priceless. Harry had the group ready with cameras to take pictures of them in their schoolgirl outfits. Their red hair curled just so. The sign above them stated that the entertainment was brought to you courtesy of Chaos Incorporated.

The twins vowed revenge. Once they returned to normal that is.

~ooOoo~

Unfortunately, they had to wait; Harry received another warning while doing his evening meditations. Riddle was going to hit Diagon. He felt that there was too much security on the ministry right now.

Harry had summoned Minister Bones and they began to plot.

~ooOoo~

The morning of the attack, they had everyone evacuated and Aurors and State Force people taking their places. Harry was on top of the tallest building with the twins as his bodyguards. They hadn't had time to learn how to fight effectively in battle, so they were going to do what they did best. Long range mayhem.

The attack came at noon. Everyone was out as though they were out to lunch. The Death Eaters came first. Attacking the so called civilians. Then trying to light the buildings on fire. Unfortunately the civilians fought back and the new spells that Harry had had put on the buildings kept them from being burned. Once Riddle arrived the atmospheric wards came up. Making it impossible to apperate or portkey.

The various entryways were blocked off and the Floos were turned off. As far as the Ministry was concerned, this was going to be the final battle against Riddle.

Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny, were in their element. They had trained many years for this. And Parkour was made for close order fighting. The Death Eaters didn't know what hit them. Every time they thought that they had one of them cornered, they would do the impossible and run up the building. Attacking from above.

The twins were at their best. The pranks and cantrips causing as much mayhem as ever. They had spells they learned off of the books Harry lent them. They had even figured out how to do the spells Harry had used to do a Ramna.

Finally it was up to Harry. He sank down into his meditation form knowing that the twins would watch out for him and went astral.

~ooOoo~

From outside it looked as though an Eagle had emerged from Harry and dived down hitting Riddle and disappearing. Fighting slowed as they heard Riddle scream in pain and collapse on the ground then turn into ashes as the Eagle flew out of his body screaming its victory. Darkwood's Own clenched in one claw and a dead snake in the other.

The crowd watched as the Eagle slowly returned to Harry and entered his body. The shield over Diagon pulsed and the form of a griffin appeared roaring its success, before dimming and returning to its opaque looks.

Those Death Eaters that had been marked died a painful death when their master died. The rest were taken into custody. Once clean up was over the shield was brought down and the shopkeepers allowed back in checking out their shops.

~ooOoo~

The crowds went wild at the news that Harry had once again defeated Riddle. Celebrations were held throughout the Wizarding communities to acknowledge the fact that Riddle's second reign of terror was over. And that this time he really was dead.

Harry was forced to give a news conference where he told them that how he did it was a state secret and that yes Riddle was truly dead this time.

For his efforts the ministry gave Harry the Order of Merlin First Class.

The group including the twins received Order of Merlin's Second Class for their work in the Battle of Diagon.

~ooOoo~

Finally it was over. The school year had finally come to an end and with it freedom.

Harry went to stay at Darkwood for the summer. With Mrs. Longbottom holding him to his agreement to hold Fete's at both the Manor house and at Darkwood. She also forced him to show up at other parties. Many of which, he dragged at least one of the group to.

London Con came and went. They had taken second place in the masquerade with their depiction of a training class for Jedi's.

While in the background a figure watched and plotted.

Fini