Chapter 51
Later
On the roof stood fifteen proud, slightly slim looking, snow-dancing men or snow-dancing-women. Thanks to the skill of Albus, Amelia and Xander they had a cold spell in them to keep them from melting until the middle of summer.
They also were spelled with an animation spell. If anybody came within nine feet from them they would start to dance and magical music would start to play. For that Dawn had chosen Michel Jackson's Thriller.
"For some reason I think it's more frozen nights they are dancing to," Xander said as they left the roof. Albus laughed, that he could agree on, but he had fun. The joy in children eyes was something he never grew tired of.
Amelia nodded. "Indeed, it was a long time since I used magic on such a frivolous and fun reason."
As the day grew late Dawn pulled or carried all their friends up to the roof to show off her dancing snow group. They were all impressed and nearly froze as they looked at the surroundings.
Hermione looked pale as she watched the devastation around the castle. Neville and many of the pure blood could not really understand the power bombs had. Now they slowly started to get the idea. The broken Observation tower sure made them realize how dangerous technology could be.
Neville truly started to fear cars, bikes and other muggle vehicles that had a gas engine, because Hermione once said it was an explosion driven engine.
And all realized the Watchers and the Wiccan used technology and magic side by side, unlike they, the wand-users, did.
"Are they going to destroy Hogwarts?" Harry asked.
"Unless the Ministry surrenders completely, then yes. I talked to them on my phone. Those idiotic Aurors attacked a school with nineteen Dragon-ladies, most younger then Dawn," Xander said, while pointing at Dawn who was happy dancing with the Creeve boys and the snow-men dance group.
Hermione held hand in front of her mouth. "Oh no. How many died?"
"Twelve adults died, some of them belonged to the Wiccan White Council here in England and nine of the Dragon girls were killed. The other Dragon-ladies were abducted. Our wand users, our spies, told us the Department of Mystery and the International Ministry of Magic are experimenting on the Dragon-ladies, trying to control them or something."
Neville looked sick as Dawn was laughing loud while standing on one hand with the two Creeve boys trying and failing to do the same thing. "What are you going to do?" he asked.
"My best to make them afraid and to show them the error of their methods. The moment one of them insults Dawn or says anything like Mudblood is the moment I am going to kill a wand-wizard in an as gruesome and bloody way as I can. To prove a point and hopefully get them to learn a lesson," Xander responded in a cold way.
"Do you have to?" Katie wondered.
"The Wiccan and the Watchers are planning on making a living example of the English Wizarding world. Forcing the International Ministry to stand down on hurting dragon-girls and join the modern world or be destroyed," Xander explained and looked around.
"The new age will see more magic than ever before and it's coming to fast. Unless we stand together we will fall together. The Wiccan, the Watchers and the Dragon-girls had to fight demons vampire and monster all alone, while the wand-users have been hiding away in their little enclave. The Wiccan were royally pissed off when the wand users attacked them and those under their protection. There will be no more mercy from this point on. It's a fight against the forces of darkness and those wand wanking purebloods down there who are saying that they are so much better than other beings are now those dark forces," Xander said.
It was silent for while until Neville said, "I'm more and more beginning to think of myself as a Wiccan and High-wizard. The more I learn about the world, my birth world and the real world, the more ashamed I'm about being born a pureblood."
Fred and George nodded and added. "We so agree."
"Dad loves Muggle things, but after working for ever with it he still doesn't understand the most basic things about Muggle technology. It's like he just thinks it's amusing and not really important or useful."
As his friends were going to bed, Xander walked around listening to everything.
The whispering of fearful voices filled the castle. Wand-wizards and wand-witches, who had escaped the carnage in the alley and the ministry, all searched shelter here, as did the Hogsmeade civilians. All were put up in the far side of the castle, most living in homes far away from the sensitive areas moved home.
Arthur for example was safe. His home was in a wizard village yet to be discovered. Other purebloods living in other safe places walked home once their wounds were healed. Arthur was worried about the children and about his home. So far nothing had been seen and confirmed. Things had still been worry some. Foot prints were discovered not far from their home, from Muggle boots. The kind Muggle military sometimes used and hordes of Goblins where out there joining the Watchers.
Xander wandered through the dark halls of Hogwarts and near the hospital wing he heard something. In the corridor he saw a dark shape lying in the corner.
Xander frowned as he rushed forward and found Poppy Pomfrey. He looked around, nobody was nearby. A quick analyze spell showed that she was physical unhurt, just dehydrated and magically drained core. Why was she sleeping out here?
Once by her body Xander knew why. Her face had all the signs of a person that had been crying herself to sleep. "You poor, poor thing," Xander said. A stern hard woman that tolerated no nonsense and took her job seriously and treated all her patients like they where her own children. Young or old did not matter once inside the hospital wing, you were her child and she, like any mother, would not let you run around until she was sure you were well and fine.
And now the cursed bullets and the pure amount of wounded she had seen, were hurting here.
"Sleep," Xander said as he lifted her up in his arm and carried her away. Poppy fell deeper into a more restful sleep as the young man carried her away.
+T+
Later
"Ngg," Poppy said, as she turned around because the early morning light disturbed her. "My patients," she said worried.
"Are fine," Xander said. "You're forgetting that healers from St Mungo's Hospital are in the castle, but you madam are not fine, unlike your patients."
"Do not be foolish, I am perfectly fine," she huffed, as she started to stand up only to lose balance.
A levitation charm from Xander stopped her from falling. "A healer that has him or herself as a patient has a fool for a patient."
Sitting on the bed she sneered back. "I thought that was a lawyer. I have lives to save."
Xander look thoughtful about her comment. "That also works." He nodded. "Fact is you worked yourself over to collapse. Your magical core is drained to a dangerous level. The standard a healer recommends in this case would be up to four days rest. Do they not?"
Poppy looked with a stricken and hard look of no nonsense at him.
"I asked a healer and they checked you over. Then they told me that they don't have time to help you. So I took it upon myself to get you help," he finished and the door opened. A moment later Harry Potter sneaked inside and asked in a quiet tone. "Is she still sleeping?"
"No, she just woke up. Madam, I present to you one of you own private nurses. Mr. Potter. Miss Granger, Miss Weasley, Miss Bones and Miss Abbot followed by Mr. Fred and George Weasley all offered their support. I told Fred and George you would rest better if they were just moral support, but Miss Bones and Miss Abbot are going to help take care of you. Me, I'm going to sit back and make sure you don't run away until you are able to work without risking personal death," Xander told the nurse.
Pomfrey leaned back. "So I'm trapped here then?"
Xander grinned. "See it as protective custody. The kids love you and you need rest or you could die."
Harry tried not to smile. "Only because we care about you Madam, just like you trapped us when we needed somebody that cared about us. Now I have some soup, it's good for you," he said, smiling warmly at the lady that had cared for his many injuries over his time in Hogwarts.
Poppy slowly nodded and tried to relax. Damn it, she doesn't want to sleep, but it was so hard not to fall asleep. The moment food entered her she started to feel tired again and her medical training recognized it as a clear sign of the symptom of magical recovery going on. She would need food and rest and lots of both, no magic and no moving around. But her personal feeling was that she wanted to be up and working. She needed to go out and save lives. She didn't have time to rest, lives were being lost.
"I'll go out now. Hear the peace negotiators are arriving soon. Hopefully this war the wand-government started will end peacefully," Xander said while walking out.
Harry nodded and if not, they were all ready to make like a tree and leaf.
Hermione looked at him. "Are you really going to kill somebody if they say the wrong thing?"
"That depends. If the attitude in that room is that they are in charge, then yes. They have to understand. They are there to accept a letter of total surrender and not to give the opportunity to negotiate a better deal or to be dominated," Xander said while he shook his head. "Some of them are still talking about fooling them or making sure to guard their interest. They just don't understand. It's surrender or die."
Hermione gave him a quick hug. Outside with lots of adults hiding from the Wiccan army she was more than once got called Mudblood and some even tried to curse her. When she defended herself an Auror almost arrested her. Only the arrival of Xander and McGonagall stopped that from happening. And somehow McGonagall managed to stop Xander from hurting the Auror Dawlish.
Xander had become more angry lately, she did understand that. Whispers from the Aurors that Dawn should be taken care of and not letting a beast run lose. It made her furious. They could no longer let Dawn walk around alone, there were ministry people out there actively trying to provoke a confrontation.
Dumbledore had tried, he really tried, but the other fools overrode him.
She had understood now that the whole government, the whole society was so racist, so blind to anything outside their little bird cage they lived in that they refused to see. What was worse was that they truly believed they were the most powerful and intelligent of all beings on Earth.
Even with the Wiccan and Watchers knocking on the door they still believed and preached they would solve this problem once they found what dark magic was used. After all nothing could be as powerful as wand-magic. Sure there where ways to trick a wand user, but not for long.
With a sigh she wondered why she ever had been proud of being a wand-witch and she was not the only one. Neville the quiet and harmless young man had an analyzing mind once he started to think and now that he had started he remembered things he suffered while growing up, just because his own family believed he was a squib. Things like being pushed down the Black pier and through a window just to force the magic to show itself.
Things that a wizard's accidental magic would make him survive, but would or could kill a Muggle or a squib and there came the crux of the mater. Xander was explaining how the other magic powers had their advantages and how weak wand-wizards were.
Well she discovered one thing that the wand-wizards had and Wiccan or normal High-mages did not and that was accidental magic that would protect them from harm.
A Wiccan or a High-wizards magic would heal them faster and make them live longer and make them more resistant against sickness. Wand-users magic did all that and protected them from getting accidental damaged in the first place.
So it wasn't completely worthless. It also explained the somewhat careless nature the adult wand-users had about letting young children run around in areas that looked like a death trap waiting to happen.
Hermione shock her head. The lessons in High-magic were going well and she had discovered one strange side effect. She was beginning to sleep less and less now. Perhaps Xander's theory that someone from her mothers or fathers side had been a High-human was correct, because she was beginning to show the same ability as one. It scared her and trilled her at the same time.
+T+
The Great Hall
Silently Xander walked into the hall. He made no attempt to hide himself just silently walked in right towards the table. A detection spell showed him that there were four Death Eaters inside here. Three of them worked as law men. Xander looked around and found one of them.
A slow smile came as he cast a weak compulsion spell on the Death Eater turned Hit-wizard to speak his mind.
At the great hall Aurors and Hit Wizards stood ready for action. The current Ministry of Magic Amelia Bones sat in a throne like chair that rested on a raised platform with an oak table in front of it.
They were waiting. Xander looked around, nodded and said, "Interesting, you're planning to start the war again. A fight to the end that's what you are aiming for and death, your own gruesome death."
"What are you talking about?" Amelia asked him.
Xander pointed around. "The set up, a raised pedestal throne like chair surrounded by armed and curse happy men. The table on the opposite side is wooden and has uncomfortable chairs. With those sitting in them forced to look up to see you in the face and not being equal with you at all. All this is clearly saying 'We are stronger than you. We can defeat you, and you should bow to our wishes.' They are coming here to give you the terms of your surrender. Not to be treated like naughty little boys you have the right to scold and order around. You may be Minster of Magic, but only of wand-magic. They are also the leaders of great groups of magic users, just a different branch of magic. You are not their superior, in fact you have lost the war already and they are here to order you to surrender. Not to ask, but to order and you are setting up this meeting so that they will feel insulted. Are you guys' natural stupid or what?"
Amelia blinked as she looked around. "You are right." She looked around and then turned to her advisors.
"These guys will demand surrender no negotiation. You attacked them. You hurt their families, friends and loved ones first. Remember that. They are after blood and they have the power and ability to make your blood float like a river if you anger them," Xander said.
The Hit Wizard with the dark mark had enough and would speak his mind about this. "You little Mudblood, we're fighting them while you have been sitting safe behind walls. You think we're going to survive by rolling on our backs? What kind of traitor are you?" The room fell silent as all listened.
Amelia waned to cry, it was like watching two broom fliers collide. You could see it happen in advance, but could do nothing to stop the accident from happening.
"And attack them. We just removed some animal freaks like that lizard girl that runs around in the castle. She should be destroyed like all other half animals, but the headmaster apparently needs her service or something. Half animals like her should all be killed and that was what we're doing, cleaning up the world from those beasts and then these assholes attack us, using technology and dark magic. Mark my words we will find out their weakness and then we're going to make sure Mudbloods like you learn their place in our society…" before he could say more, he was interrupted by Xander voice.
"EXPLOSIVE FIRE BALL," Xander yelled, sending a small but lethal ball of fire.
As the ball impacted on the Hit-Wizard it threw him back five feet and then exploded with a rain of fire.
The Hit-wizards dragon skin robes were ripped asunder from the furious blast and his rib bones were crushed. He desperate tried to stand up when he heard the voice spoke again and a strong wind lifted him up and the blood started to flow.
"Slicing winds," Xander said, sending a wind blast filled with razor sharp magic blades at the Hit Wizard. The body was thrown up in the air sliced in parts spraying the floor and the walls with blood. He aimed his magic and said "Come to me," causing the arm with the dark mark to fly to him.
Around the hall people dodged in fear and terror.
Turning and looking around Xander spoke up. "Anybody else, who wants to hurt my friend Dawn or calls her an animal? I give you the chance now. I'm not going to let you live, but I give you the chance to fight me now and die painless. The next person after that will die after screaming for hours. I'm a High-Wizard and not a Wand Wizard. I hold no loyalty to the wand-magic and the wand government of England. Wand-magic is just a hobby, a way for me to earn the title High-Mage. My loyalty is to my loved ones, my friends and to some others. I'm not some little Muggleborn that jumps when you order me to out of fear and the loyalty I have to the Watchers and the Wiccan of this land is greater than any loyalty I have to you people." He looked around pointing the disembodied arm at them.
"Yes, your enemies are people who have most of my loyalty and they are not dark witches. Unlike you people who enslave elves, who force the Goblins to live like servants, forbidden to move around freely, who treat were-wolfs like monsters and call the Centaurs beast and you people who let murdering Death Eater run free. While real heroes like Sirius Black are put inside a jail while being innocent. Amelia I suggest whoever your advisors are, remove them. These people you have angered are warriors. Fighters that faced demons and monsters hand to hand, magic to magic and survived. They don't play political games. Its either surrender or die. No games. I don't play games and neither to they." He looked at the arm. "Here's another Death-Eater you do not need to arrest," he said and threw the arm in front of her.
He turned around and started to walk out. "By the way, if you are going to arrest me or curse me in the back, dig mass graves. I'm beginning to feel you people don't deserve saving." He walked out muttering angrily, surrounded by a white halo of power.
Inside the hall adult purebloods and older students invited to watch were shacking in fear and Albus sighed. "I told you to meet them eye to eye. Not from a position of power we don't have. That would only cause more bad blood between us. More bad blood then already exists." He was beginning to understand now. It was meeting between a superior group and the lesser group, but in this instance they were the lesser group, the weak ones or rather a meeting between winner and loser and they were the losers.
The wall and the floor looked like it had been painted read with lumps. He felt sick inside, another person dead without the chance to redeem himself.
Amelia nodded. "Let's do it and quickly prepare a better table. Somebody, remove that filth," she said, waving to the Hit Wizards left over spread out at the south part of the Great Hall.
"What? You're just going to let him get away with murder?" One Auror said afraid, hoping his own dark mark wouldn't be discovered.
Amelia turned to him. "That boy is perhaps the only reason they are talking to us you idiot. We have already anger the Wiccan and the Watchers. You have seen what happened with those two groups. Do you want to see what the High-wizards out there are going to do to us if we anger them? If we attack their herald perhaps they will also send an army. Do you think we could fight all three groups if they combined their powers? I wonder if anyone of us can survive an angry adult High-wizard, angry Wiccan or angry bloody Watchers."
She looked at the arm lying on her table. "One less Death Eater sounds like a good beginning to me. Do you want to make it two that die today?" she asked with her wand now pointing at the now scared Auror that walked away quickly.
Now it was silent in the room.
The sound of man clapping his hand was hard.
From the shadow a man walked out from strange moving shadows. He was around 32 or so. Not tall, but with broad shoulders and army cut hair so short you had no way of knowing his hair color. Beside him walked a shorter blond woman with claws, clearly a dragon lady.
"My name is Tiberius Travis, but I don't like the name, so please call me TT. I'm the diplomat the Watcher sends. I have to warn you that I'm not a good diplomat. In fact I am a trained killer, a fighter and a Wiccan. I spend more than twelve years hunting demons, dark wizards and other scum and killed them. I know more ways of torturing a human with only a fork then I know about being polite. So they asked me to give you our orders of surrender. Make no mistake, these are direct orders. Failure to obey will be faced with a direct attack and annihilation. Do you understand?"
He snapped his fingers and shook his head. "Right, at my side is the lovely Buffy Summers, little Dawn's big sister."
"I'm to angry to talk to them. They hurt Willow and Oz, Milly vanished and Rita died. Which asshole said my sister should die? Please may I kill someone? Xander did kill one. Can I do it too, TT?"
TT frowned. "Why don't you go and talk with Xander. I'm sure he would be glad to see a happy face." She was gone before he had the chance to finish the statement.
One Auror whispered something about his bodyguard being gone, when something arrived behind him. It was a tall slightly over six feet dark skinned man with balled head and his eyes glowed green TT smiled and said, "Hi Uraki. He is my real bodyguard. He is an African shaman and Witch doctor. You find they have unique skills. They deal with animal primal sprits. They summon and bind the spirit of an animal inside their own soul. That gives them strength and power many times that of a normal human. Uraki over there has a special bond with crocodiles. Anger Summers and she may kill you. Anger Uraki and he will kill and eat your family with you watching. Anger me? I'm a nice guy and your family is safe. I just torture you to death."
The Auror looked up in the eyes of the man and could only whimper in fear as he felt a warm wet feeling inside his pants.
Amelia swallowed. It seemed like Xander was correct. "Please let's try to do this in a peaceful way. I'm acting Minster of Magic Amelia Bones and behind me is the newly instated Wizengamot."
TT lost his smile. "That will not do. An acting ministers desiccations aren't permanent unless the later voted minster says so. From that I can only conclude you are trying to fool us, so good bye. Uraki let us tell them that the war continues unless they can cuff up a real Minster of Magic that we can make a lawful and magical binding agreement with."
Uraki nodded silently as he walked up to TT. "YES, LET'S GO." His voice thundered in the hall. TT had found that Uraki spoke only in two ways. Whispering, almost to quite, yet you still hear him even in a room full of talking people or with a thundering voice like a great storm breaking out. That could be heard in a room full of talking people and with Uraki in a building on the other side of town.
Now panic was breaking out.
"Wait, they can… they can vote a Minster in. They have full numbers for an emergency vote. So please stay," Amelia said quickly.
TT rested his hands behind his back. "Very well." On the inside he smiled and then added. "Twenty five minutes. I go and see if I can find Xander. I heard lots of nice things about that High-wizard."
"I DO NOT LIKE THIS. THESE POMPUS FOOLS SHOULD BE DESTROYED," Uraki said, disgusted with this people. The Witchdoctor was clearly annoyed. As the rules of magic had changed he had to leave his civilized home in the jungle of Africa and go to a meeting with the other Watchers in the lands of barbarians and what did he discover? Even more technology had been invented. Mobile phones were smaller then his hand now and so on. No, he longed back to the land of civilization where no electricity existed or was needed. Still he had his duty as a Watcher to follow.
It was awful being away from his little village in the jungle. They had always known about magic, wand type or Wiccan it was all treated like a gift.