Chapter 5: Headhunting

Albus Potter was impressed with the defenses he saw. However, he also knew that the defenses would never work with Voldemort's new strength. Voldemort seemed to have brought the entire army and he seemed to have added a few of his own recruits.

The dragon dropped Hermione off at the top of the Ferris wheel known as the Eye of London and Albus watched as she touched the top compartment and vanished. The dragon brought the rest of the group down to the ground and they hopped off next to Professor Longbottom.

"What's up Neville," Charlie said as he dismounted. "Long time no see."

"The world seems about to end," Neville replied. "Other than that, pretty boring actually."

"The world's always about to end with you around," Charlie teased.

"Nice of you to join us, Potter," Neville said, addressing Albus. "Keeping up on your Herbology, of course."

"Yes Professor," Albus responded. "When I'm not saving the world."

There was a snapping sound and the Eye suddenly began to move until the carriage which served as the Ministry gate was at the bottom. As it came through the bottom and began to rise again, Hermione and Harry materialized next to it and approached Albus, Neville, Charlie and James.

"You're supposed to be in America," Harry said. "What happened?"

"Voldemort cast an Imperious Curse on Travers. He has taken the army here to fight you. I followed the army," Albus said.

"How do you know this?" Harry asked.

"Dream, how else," Albus replied.

"Harry," Hermione stepped in, "I saw the army. He must have had over 500 people between Parliament and the Tower. There is no way he had that available in Paris. He must have gotten new recruits, this is a plausible explanation."

"Why would Voldemort even think to do that?" Harry asked.

"He knew where to go today," Hermione said. "And he knew that he needed to destroy the gates. He didn't even try to enter mine, he just demolished the building."

"And he didn't even waste the time to stick around for mine," Ron said. "He went straight to Hermione's gate."

Harry finally leaned back against a nearby pole. "It just doesn't make sense," Harry said. "Why waste him time on Travers?"

"Because he is Voldemort," James said. "You said that Death sent the soul of Voldemort back, forced it back past Travers's little spell. If that is the case, then Voldemort would have gone out of his way to ensure that there was no one alive who could claim that they controlled him. He would want Travers out of the way."

"But so would Grindelwald. What's stopping him from taking Travers out? Travers left Voldemort alone in England, why the rush?" Harry said.

"Because Grindelwald is dead," Albus said. "Died dueling me. In the dream Travers had called Voldemort to replace Grindelwald as head of the army in America."

"And," Hermione said, "I don't think that either Grindelwald or Voldemort would kill Travers before they had used him for everything that they needed. Travers gave them an army which could really help them achieve their goals. I think they were biding their time, waiting to gain immortality before getting rid of Travers."

"Ok," Harry said. "That explains why Grindelwald waited. He didn't have all three Hallows yet. But Voldemort got what he needed from Travers. Travers showed him how to raise the dead, so why not kill him now?"

"Wait," Neville said. "Old Snakeface can raise the dead now?"

"Yeah," Albus said. "I saw Travers teach him a few weeks ago. Voldemort got him to raise an old Death Eater while he watched. Some woman named Lestrange."

Neville's hands closed into fists. "I'm going to kill him," Neville said.

"What?" Albus asked.

"Neville has a history with Bellatrix Lestrange," James said so only Albus could hear. "She tortured his parents. I think he was rather happy she was dead."

"But his parents just died a couple of years ago," Albus said.

"That's right," James said. "Bellatrix tortured them until they went crazy, not until they died."

"That still doesn't explain why he didn't just kill Travers," Harry said, loud enough to bring them back to the larger conversation.

"I think I know that answer," Albus said. "In your sixth year, Professor Dumbledore cast a spell on you right before he died." Harry winced remembering. "When he died, the spell broke, right?"

"Yes," Hermione said. "All spells break when the castor dies."

"Well," Albus continued, "that would include the spells which Travers cast on the army. If Voldemort killed Travers, then the army would die with him. Voldemort needs Travers alive in order to control the army, which he needs to break into the Ministry. Why is he breaking into the Ministry again?"

"To raise the body of Nicolas Flamel which he needs to become immortal," Harry said. "So, what do we do now? We can't fight that many."

"Could you use some help?" a voice said. They all turned to see the smiling face of Bill Weasley looking back at them. "Some guy at the Leaky Cauldron said I could find you all here," he said. "The French Army has decided to come and help you defeat Voldemort. We will go where we are needed."

"Thank you, we will take the help," Harry said. "But it still might not be enough. We still will be outnumbered almost two to one."

"We have a chance," Albus said. "We need to consolidate to one location though. Voldemort's strategy points the way. If Travers is killed, the army dies with it remember. This isn't about fighting army against army; we will never win that way. We have to go for the head. If we can kill Travers and Voldemort, than their army will either die or stop fighting."

"You think that will work?" Harry asked Hermione.

"It might," Hermione said. "But we will have to change our strategy. We will want to avoid the battle lines idea which we had been focusing on. If we are going head hunting we will want chaos, the armies interwoven together to force Voldemort and Travers to join in. Otherwise they will just stay in the back and orchestrate the whole thing from afar like Voldemort did in Paris."

"It's your call," Harry said.

Hermione looked up at the Eye of London. "I don't want to put all of our eggs in one basket," she said before turning to Bill. "Bill, you guard here, we will guard the Gringotts entrance. Neville will be your communication. If you get attacked, let us know and we will come and help you. We expect you to do the same for us."

"What about the museum?" Neville asked.

"We'll have to destroy the Rosetta Stone, but I think it was going to be destroyed anyway," Hermione said. "I'll instruct Luna to destroy the entrance and move her forces to Diagon Alley. I hope this works," she finally said to no one in particular.

"You heard her, Neville and the French stay here. Everyone else to Diagon Alley," Harry said. The forces obeyed him. "You," he said to Albus, "you have some explaining to do."