Wow! Re-updated! Sorry 'bout the bad formatting, but it's the best I can do!
"SHOWTIME!"

Chapter 24

A Fiery Breeze

Partially completed Jester's Keep, meeting room of Ebony Flame. July 20th. Noon.
Seamus Finnegan looked down at the maps before him, trying to figure out what to do next. The attack in the Channel had went extremely well, with just one ship making it out, and the sighting of a new White Shore weapon was a good thing too; now that they knew about it, they could counter it. As Seamus looked at the maps on the table below him, he wondered what to do next. There really weren't any small units the Tide could harass; the Ministry had learned it's lesson and had bunched itself into large, tightly knit groups in easily defendable areas. Of course, the Tide could now launch strikes against almost any Ministry-controlled Wizarding city and demolish it in seconds, since there weren't any guards around most of them- but that would have been counterproductive. Harry wanted to rule everything, not burn it all to the ground. Flame and ash sounded all well and good when you were thinking about destruction, but when you wanted to rule...

Seamus stopped dead, as he thought about fire. He blinked twice, as if he was a computer rechecking it's banks of memory, and then looked down at the maps.

In the middle of the table, a map of England was displayed. And displayed therein was London.

Seamus ran out of the room to find Harry.

-

London, England. July 23rd. Dawn.

As the sun began to rise on the far coasts, the people of London were awoken by singing. Most of the people did not catch the words, sleepy as they were; but a few did, and though they did not understand what the words meant, they were scared.

Somewhere deep inside, they were scared.

The 23rd of that year was forever after regarded as one of the bleakest, blackest days in all of England's history. International aid arrived for weeks afterward, trying to restore the historic city to it's former glory.

But what has been touched by fire is changed forever.

-

Outside London, England. Same time.

Almost every great city has been burned at some time or another. Chicago burned, New York burned, and a million other big cities have at some point been burned by flame. London was no exception; the Great Fire of London created tales that perservered to the present time. With the technology they possessed, the Muggle firefighters thought they could handle any flame, and prevent another Great Fire from destroying the homes and lives of British citizens.

They were wrong.

An army of six thousand was walking towards London on the highways of the Muggle road system. Ordinarily, six thousand troops would get mopped up by the guard units around London; but this was no ordinary group.

They were Wizards.

At the head of the column was a group of Marauders, but behind them, the real warriors waited; the Purgers, Skullmakers at the ready, were marching, and as they marched they sang.

-

The Lyrics of the Purger's Marching Song, " A Fiery Breeze"

Every army has songs they sing while they march, songs generally called "cadences". Cadences run the gauntlet from hilariously funny to morbid and sad, but every army has them. How the Tide discovered their cadences, however, is something of a story in itself.

The legend goes that the Black Tide had no cadences until one day when Seamus was marching his troops in a practice formation. As he marched them, he found himself humming a Muggle tune he'd heard once, a rock tune that fit with their steps. As he hummed the tune, he found himself unconsciously singing it, and he noticed that it helped his steps stay in unison with those of his soldiers. Realizing that he'd stumbled onto something, he told his troops to sing with him, and soon afterwards the Tide discovered cadences. Many people crafted songs and sent them to Seamus, hoping to write "the song" that would become an official Tide cadence, but only one stuck out in his mind. It was a song an entire corps of Purgers had written together, and represented the essential heart and soul of the Tide. Seamus soon had Ginny (who was running most of the laws in the Tide by that time) write and pass a bill making it the official marching tune of the Tide.

Traditionally, units of Purgers always sing first, in recognition of having written the song.

The tune goes like this:

"A Fiery Breeze"

"We all laugh

As does our King

And as we laugh

We shall sing,

Of the burning road,

on the burning land,

and the flames that roar,

beneath our hand,

For you see,

the Tide has come,

and we won't leave,

'til the burning's done,

For though we are,

A Tide of Black,

Fire is a friend,

We do not lack,

And you can hide,

behind steel leaves,

you'll still get caught,

in a fiery breeze.

You drove us out,

and now we're in,

and we'll make this world,

a place of sin,

Because you thought,

to end us all,

We'll set you up,

for a great big fall,

And in you'll go,

to the darkest maw,

And see inside,

the horrors we saw,

So now hear us,

ye who threw us out,

and know right now,

no matter how you shout,

that you can hide,

in mighty trees,

You'll still get caught,

in a fiery breeze.

In a fiery breeze.

In a fiery breeze."

-

Outskirts of London, England. Dawn of the 23rd.
Seamus rode before his men, his spider mount covering the ground swiftly with it's long, hair-covered legs. As he rode, he sang with his men, reveling in the song and marching to it's beat. He'd debated getting drummers in the army, but decided that it would be too much of a strain on already thin forces to do so. Besides, the song didn't seem to need anything other than the singing of the damned to do it justice. The song was a heartfelt cry of the Tide, and it rolled on and on like water over fallen shores. As the army marched, cars coming out of London braked to a halt, and the inhabitants stared at the approaching army with mingled confusion and shock. Muggles, after all, were not used to seeing armies of spider-riding knights walking on their roads.

As the car drivers realized that what was happening was no hallucination (they discovered this at about the point the army began crushing the cars in it's way and killing the inhabitants), they began to scream and panic and honk their horns in madness and try to get away- but none of them did. One truck driver, who was partially drunk at the time, attempted to flatten the approaching army with his semi. Seamus vaporized him and most of his truck with his Bayonet. The newly freed wheels spun a few times and rolled off to the sides.

As the army began to reach the outlying suburbs of London, they opened up with their Skullmakers. Streams of fire arced through the sky over the ground and seemed to stroke the houses nearby, as if they were friendly fingers caressing a loved one. The houses soon burst into flames.

The army continued rolling on, heading to the very heart of London.

-

BBC Helicopter, skies over London, same time.

Dan McDale looked out over the boring sky of London. Every day it was the same damn thing. When he'd first gotten this job a few weeks ago he'd thought it would be great- and who wouldn't want to fly around in a helicopter all day, bitching about the weather and getting paid for it- but now he found that it was more boring than his deskjob had been. He almost wished he was back there now; at his old job, he could at least try and see if he could look up the skirt of the new secretary and get rewarded with a glimpse of her thong every now and then. As his job was now, the only person he could stare at was his pilot, and if that man didn't have a face only a mother could love, then Dan didn't know who did.

" Ready, Mr. McDale?" the old pilot said. Dan nodded, while privately fuming; the old bastard always said "Mr.", like he couldn't let protocol drop, even for a moment. Ooh, it made him so mad he could barely stand it.

" Okay, we're rolling in five... four... three... " the old pilot held up two fingers, then one, and finally closed his fist, indicating the camera was on. Dale waited a second to be sure, then began his daily weather report.

" This is Dan McDale, with the BBC weather report. In our news today... holy shit!" Dan screamed.

The pilot looked back at him, wondering what in the world had caused that ejaculation from him. As the pilot looked back, he saw the pillar of flame that had caught Dan's attention. It caught his too. This is Dan McDale, BBC news! There's an enormous cloud of fire that has engulfed a portion of the city! We're going there now-"

As the helicopter's engine roared and it began zooming off to the towering inferno on the outskirts of the city, Dan McDale forgot all about his boredom problems. This was more than just latebreaking news; this was an event, and events were the kind of thing that got you promoted to star reporter! Maybe even a cushy job as anchor!

" We're hearing ground chatter from the police now- and what the hell is that on the ground? It looks like... giant spiders! Holy shit! What is this?"

-

Outskirts of London, England. Same time.

As a general rule, Muggle forces are not and never have been equipped to deal with Wizards. Oh, sometimes Muggles will pull certain tricks out of their hat- look at the victorious U.S. Abrams unit, for example- but usually, they simply stop, stare, and get their heads torn off.

This happened to be on of those times.

The first units to respond to the flames suddenly engulfing lower London were, of course, the firefighter units, closely followed by police units. The radio chatter of that time is quite informative, and despite the flames that raged throughout most of London that day, a few recordings have survived.

Here is an excerpt of one:

" Unit P12-5, responding to fires in east sector, 13-12, assorted perps spotted in area, believed to be source of flames, am responding to see if I can make an arrest. Over."

" This is P12-3, I ain't letting you get the credit, you jackass. First one to round up the suspects gets a free beer. Over."

" You're on, ya ass. Course, that'll be if the firefighter squads don't run them over first- boy, those guys drive like bats out of hell. Over."

" With good reason, over."

" Alright, I can see some of the flames- holy shit!"

" What? Unit P12-5, come in!"

" I can't fucking believe this! What the (here, the radio fritzes out, as radios tend to do when shouted into, and his next few words are unintelligible). We're returning fire! Oh God, Barnes and Daniels just got wiped out! What the fu-"

Here, the radio completely cuts off; dead silence reigns for a few moments.

" Unit P12-5! Unit P12-5! Walls! Clive! Damn it! Where are you! HQ, do you read?"

" We read! We're sending in units now! What's the situation? Where are you!"

" We're following P12-5! I gotta find what happened to them! Oh shit!" Gunfire, screams, then a strange chittering noise.

" Unit P12-3! Are you alright? Unit P12-3!"

A clunking noise can be heard, then more chittering. The roar of flames, before a background noise, becomes far more audible. There are sounds of tapping, as if someone is tossing the radio back and forth in their hands. Then, the button is pressed, and this can be heard:

" Put that down. We've got work to do. Grab your mount and move it, soldier! We got burning to do!"

" But sir, there's this voice coming out of it. How the hell do you work this Muggle contraption anyway?"

" Huh? It works around us? That's strange. Give it to me."

There are some more tapping noises, then the button is pressed again, and a young man's voice can be heard saying this:

" This is General Seamus Finnegan. I represent the Black Tide. We Wizards have come to burn this land to the ground. And no one will stand in our way. Know that, ye who hear me. We have come. And we shan't leave until the burning is done."

Then, silence.

-

London, England. Same time.

Seamus thrust his Bayonet through the radio receiver and crushed it all to hell. He didn't know why those things still worked around a group of Wizards this large, but he did know how to make it quit working. After wiggling his blade and scrambling the parts inside the car some more, he turned and remounted his spider. The other Dusk Knight had already left, going hunting among the fleeing hordes. Seamus had warned his men not to kill any more Muggles than they had to; the whole idea behind this attack was to create a situation the Ministry couldn't cope with.

In other words, they were here to make the Muggle world know about Wizards.

Seamus grinned. There was no way the Ministry was going to be able to cover this up without withdrawing almost all of their forces from the rest of England. And when they did...

-

Wizengamot, Ministry of Magic. Same time.

A harried messenger ran into the room, out of breath and scared more badly than he thought he would ever be. The messenger paused for breath, getting air in great heaving gulps, and waved the guards back. They waited there, somewhat confused, and rather abashed at having been sent back by a single wave of the hand. Gathering their nerves, they walked forward, determined to throw this intruder out. Susan Bones waved them back.

" Hold," she said, and the guards, glad that their duty had been fulfilled, stepped back to the door. The head guard, who had been explaining to Susan that the spy they'd caught in the Ministry had revealed, after days of questioning and mental torture, that she was a White Shore spy, waited as well. The messenger coughed, heaved, gulped, and finally choked out:

" London's burning!"

-R and R everybody. And remember: Check out "Even a Serpent", my new HP story!