Chapter 4: Snakebite

Hermione Weasley waved goodbye to Harry Potter as he left and went back through the gate which was serving as an entrance to the Ministry of Magic. She had come up with the idea of a moving ministry defense which was actually based on Voldemort's horcruxes. Those were hidden in varied locations across the country, locations which were important to him. Her locations were locations which she felt would be easy to defend from magical attack. She had also been inspired by the fact that one had to destroy all of Voldemort's horcruxes in order to destroy him. One couldn't just get lucky and find the "right one" to kill him. This was a vital part to the plan which Hermione and Harry had placed into action. They had been telling everyone, even their own defenders that the entrance to the ministry floated between each of the five entrances they were guarding. As long as Voldemort picked wrong, even if they failed, he wouldn't be able to enter. The truth was that the magic which guarded the entrance to the Ministry was connected to each of the five entrances. Voldemort would have to destroy all five entrances before the entrance to the ministry would finally open. And only Harry and Hermione knew that. She hadn't even told Ron.

Harry had come to check on the entrance that Hermione was charged to defend. She had brought along all of the Hogwarts staff and had been reinforced by a small number of the volunteers from the British Army. In all, she had about forty people to defend the gate. She believed this would be enough if Voldemort split his forces. After all he only had about a hundred Death Eaters after the Battle of Paris. If he didn't split his forces, she would be able to put a dent in his army before retreating.

She was guarding the Tower of London, and specifically the Traitor's Gate below. The tower had been built around 1000 AD and throughout its history it had been used by the Kings and Queens of England as a fortress/home within the city walls. It was built to defend against ground attack. She had magically sealed the river around the tower so Voldemort couldn't use the same trick he had in Paris. He would have to fight his way through the fortress and descend the wall in order to destroy the gate itself.

She watched Harry row through the gate on a boat he had created and then turned her gaze back to the fortress. A dark, black cloud was creeping over the city, casting a shadow upon the entire city. Firenze approached her.

"That is not natural," he said.

"No. But it may not be a problem either," she replied.

The cloud passed over the Parliament Building, another of the locations she had used for an entrance. As it did, blood red tornadoes descended from the cloud surrounding the building. It was the sign Hermione had been waiting for.

"It's an attack, battle stations!" she screamed. "Fire on the cloud as soon as it comes in range of your spells." She began to run around the fortress, barking out orders as the cloud continued to approach extremely quickly. The storm had passed over Parliament now and it had stopped dropping tornadoes. Hermione could see flashes all around Parliament as if fireworks were going off around its base. But Hermione knew better. It was the spells of the defenders around the building, led by her husband Ron. But this was good. Voldemort was splitting his forces which meant that he was beatable. He would only be dropping about fifty on her. She felt confident.

The storm was much closer now, heading up the river toward the Tower of London. She saw her forces begin to shoot spells at it, small spells. They fell short of the cloud. Some more erupted from the front of the Tower and they hit the front of the cloud. Every time they hit, a blood red tornado would shoot out of the cloud toward the city below. Some would continue falling and slam into the ground. Others would stop halfway down and twist themselves back up into the storm.

Hermione's second line began shooting spells. Hermione watched as the cloud came to about 100 yards away. Finally the cloud began to create its own tornadoes, each falling slowly to the ground. Hermione couldn't see where they hit the ground but she did notice that they would simply disappear when they did rather than return to the cloud. She didn't know much about tornadoes though, and wasn't sure if this was normal or not.

She sent a stunning spell at the cloud. It missed but hit one of the tornadoes which was descending from the cloud. The tornado seemed to lose focus and accelerated, slamming into the ground a few feet in front of the Tower. She noticed a body lying where the tornado hit, a body which had not been there before. A body which was mangled as if it had just fallen several feet to its death. She turned to Firenze. "Their people," she said. "Each one is a different person apparating."

"But that's not possible," Firenze said. "There have been almost a hundred of them just here, not to mention the ones which landed near Parliament. He doesn't have that many soldiers."

"It's not possible, but it's true," Hermione said. Hermione had not prepared for an aerial attack. Now it was too late. She had underestimated her opponent. It would not happen again. The cloud passed over the Tower walls and went nuts. Tornadoes seemed to erupt from it. It seemed to be raining Death Eaters onto the courtyard and they drained into the actual fort itself. Her forces were putting up a good fight, but forty against two hundred was not a fair fight. She ran down toward the courtyard but was stopped short by three tornadoes appearing before her. She shot one with a stunning charm before he fully formed and he flew over the edge of the fortress into the river below. The other two formed and pulled out their wands.

It was not the first time that Hermione had fought two people at once, it happens a lot when you're an auror. However, it might have been the easiest. There was something wrong about the two people she was fighting, as if they weren't quite all there. As if someone else was thinking for them; someone close but definitely not in front of her. She easily dispatched the two Death Eaters and eyed the storm.

It was significantly smaller than it had been before, as if it had been made up of the bodies now fighting throughout the Tower of London. But to make a cloud that large would take over five hundred people. Voldemort just wasn't supposed to have that at his disposal.

A cracking sound brought her back to the situation at hand. The entire front wall of the fortress had collapsed as if the very supports had been sabotaged from within. They were destroying the fortress and there was nothing Hermione thought she could do. The storm reached the river's edge and passed over it. If Hermione had thought that the storm couldn't get any more active, she was about to be proven wrong. The entire cloud seemed to fall from the sky in one massive blood red waterfall. Or Death Eater fall. But before they reached the river a massive roar filled the sky as four large dragons flew up the river toward the death eaters. Hermione watched as someone on the lead dragon waved his wand and countered Hermione's magical protection. Only one person was able to do that, and he had been fighting at Parliament. The dragons swooped in. Several Death Eaters turned back around and seemed to swerve mid-fall to avoid the dragons. Those that didn't were quickly fried by the dragon's fire. The dragons dropped off their load, about twenty witches and wizards, before returning to attempt to fry the falling Death Eaters. However, they weren't completely successful, and at least thirty found the safety of the water and began to swim toward the Traitor's gate.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked as Ron approached next to Albus and James Potter.

"Parliament is lost, and it appears the Traitor's gate is too," Ron said.

"We need to regroup," Albus said. "Voldemort has taken the army from Travers. He now controls that too. My friends will be coming but they will be a bit. We need to reorganize. The gate is lost, don't lose any more lives than we need to."

Hermione started to respond, but soon realized that they were right. She put her wand to her throat and said, "Retreat. Rendezvous at gate four." Her voice rang out across what was left of the Tower. She allowed Ron to steer her onto one of the dragons with Albus and James behind her. She realized that Charlie Weasley was driving the beast. They pulled away and climbed into the air.

She looked back at the Tower. Most of the building had collapsed and there seemed to be no signs of a battle going on. Either all of her forces had successfully retreated or they were all dead. Hermione hoped for the first option. As she watched, the riverside wall of the Tower folded in on itself as if it was being intentionally demolished, crushing the Traitor's gate. The entrance was destroyed. And if Ron was to be believed Parliament's entrance was destroyed as well. Two down, three to go. And they hadn't really even put up a fight.

"Where to?" Charlie asked.

Hermione waited until they were a safe distance before responding. She pointed to a landmark further up along the river. "There, the Eye of London. That's gate four. Drop me off at the top, I have to get Harry and adjust the plan."