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Chap 50: Let the Games Begin!
Now that he was free from the Weasley brothers' clutches, Harry morphed into his form of 'Hero of Diagon Alley' and made his way over to the Thatcher's Apothecary and was greeted immediately upon entering.
"A good day to you Lord Gryffindor." Mr. Thatcher said in formal greeting.
Harry looked up to see not only William, but also a couple of people there with him that looked more than a little slimy. Seeing the pleading look in William's eyes, Harry decided to play along.
"Good day to you too William. How are you this morning?" Harry asked politely, all the while giving off an air of nobility.
"I'm sorry, my Lord, but you will have to leave." commented one of the slimy men who was dressed in slick and most certainly over priced black professional robes.
"Excuse me?" Harry asked the man in an offended manner.
"No offense meant, my lord, but this apothecary has been closed." the other, who wore a small pair of round framed glasses which made him look like a cheep bookie, answered.
Harry raised an eyebrow, "What is the reason for the foreclosure?"
"The owner of this establishment has not been able to pay his rent for this space for the past several months, and so we are claiming all of his stock as collateral." the first sneered at a defeated looking Mr. Thatcher.
"How much does he owe?" Harry asked, feigning professional curiosity.
"500 galleons." the second man said, matter-of-factly.
Harry nodded, "Well then, it's a good thing I came today." He said before pulling out a bag of gold from a pocket in his cloak. Harry then opened the back and pulled out fifty galleons and placed them on the counter in front of Mr. Thatcher, and proceeded to hand the bag over to the one that looked like a corrupt accountant.
"The total bill came out to 550 galleons, so there are now 500 galleons in this bag. That should cover his debt. Have a nice day gentlemen." Harry turned to William and pretended to ignore the other two men, "The fifty on the counter is, of course, the difference for what I owed you for the potion supplies you've been supplying me with. We need to discuss a more direct form of payment for our future dealings however, as it is impractical for me to come down here and pay..." Harry then trailed off before turning to the two men who still stood behind him.
"Is there something else I can do for you gentlemen?" Harry asked them with a raised eyebrow, as he did a quick Legillimens scan of the two.
"You can't pay for him! This is our shop now and everything in it now belong to us." the first one sneered in a whiny voice.
Harry smiled, "I didn't 'pay for him'. As I said, the money was his for the ingredients he had sent me earlier. I'm sure you're friend here can tell you that you no longer have any legal claim to the contents of this building."
The first one nodded, but then sneered, "True, but the foreclosure stands. We had legitimate grievances against him, and as a result we are terminating the lease. He only has two more hours to vacate the premises at which time all items left on the property will be forfeit and belonging to us."
The other smiled in response.
"So be it." Harry said, before calling out, "Stewy, Dobby, Winky, Master Gryffindor calls you."
Immediately the three house elves appeared. Harry knew his friends were quick enough to pick up on that last bit that he said and would act appropriately. He had faith in his little friends, and they had never let him down before.
"Yes master Gryffindor?" Stewy asked.
"Stewy, you and the others are to move all belongings from this premises to the shop at 304 Diagon Alley." Harry ordered them.
The Elves nodded briefly and began transporting.
"You can't do that!" the slimy one whined.
"And why is that?" Harry inquired evenly.
"He...you...he can't pay you! How do you expect to be reimbursed? You're stealing from me!" the first man sputtered again.
"Listen, simpleton!" Harry practically roared while at the same time emanating a feeling of fear and trembling with his Empathic ability, which effectively silenced the shady characters, "What I do with my time and my servants is NONE of your concern! That I use them to help one of my business connections and suppliers, is also none of your concern! And if you think I will allow you to take possession of his belongings, which we both know full well would more than 100 times have covered the amount of money he owed you, you have another things coming.
"Now I would suggest you leave, and go tell your 'lord' that you have failed in your mission of acquiring his potion supplies and pray that he will be merciful with you, for I am telling you right now that the only reason I have not arrested you both is because you do not bear the mark, and have not yet committed a serious crime. If that ever changes, and I see you again, do not expect to be allowed to leave. Now, since this is still, for the next two hours, the property of Mr. Thatcher, you have no business being here and I'm sure he would like you to leave." Harry finished with a glare.
Realizing that this was a dismissal, they didn't even wait for Mr. Thatcher to agree with the intimidating man before them as they tucked tail and ran.
After they had made their hasty departure, Harry threw up a few magical locking charms and muttered, "Good riddance!"
He then cancelled his frightening mood and turned to Mr. Thatcher with a smile, "I'm sorry if I frightened you, William. I hope you will forgive me. But after a brief scan of their minds I realized that they were going to be using your supplies to help Voldemort, and I couldn't allow my major supplier to switch sides." he told the man with a grin.
"What was that, Mr. Potter?" William asked, still getting over the unnatural fear that had been surrounding him.
"The name's Harry, unless you'd rather me going back to calling you 'Mr. Thatcher'." Harry responded with a comforting smile.
William gave a weak grin of his own, "Of course not, Harry. That was just...well...very intimidating."
"That was the point." Harry chuckled, "It wouldn't have had the same effect if I would have sent out a feeling of warm fuzzies now would it."
"No...I guess it wouldn't." Mr. Thatcher responded, still not sure how he did it in the first place, but also unsure if he really wanted to know.
"So, are you even the remotely bit curious as to where all your stuff is going?" Harry asked with a mischievous grin.
William truly smiled this time, "Not really. I have full faith in you Harry." his smile waned slightly before he continued though, "You do know that they were right though, don't you? I wont be able to pay you for your help."
Harry waved him off, "No need. That's what friends are for. Shall we go over there and work out the details with the owner? I know for a fact that he'll charge you much less in rent than those buffoons did, and there's even a 3 bedroom apartment upstairs, so you can be close to work, and only have one rent to pay total."
"Really?" asked an astounded William.
"Yep. Shall we?" Harry asked as he held out his hand.
"Sounds good to me." William said as he grasped Harry's hand firmly to shake it, only to be flashed away, much to the surprise of the shopkeeper.
A split second later, when they appeared in the new shop, a shocked William asked, "What the hell was that!"
Harry laughed, "Sorry bout that, but I love to see people's reactions to it. That is a specialized form of travel that only I can do...well...kinda. It's 100 percent safe, and there are no possibilities of side effects."
"That was incredible!" William exclaimed.
Harry smiled at the man's enthusiasm, "Well, we should get this meeting underway, shouldn't we?"
"Um...ok. Where's the owner?" William asked.
"You're looking at him." Harry admitted with a grin that turned into a chuckle when he saw the dumbfounded expression on William's face.
Sitting in the unused classroom that they discovered during their first month of classes, the Gryffindor Outcasts, as the four first years had called themselves, sat around contemplating what their new role in the DA as members of the Castle Unit.
"So basically you think that we'll be sneaking around the castle and hitting death eaters from the shadows and then running away?" asked Mae, who being the most Gryffindor of the bunch, thought that to be a very cowardly course of action.
"Not exactly." corrected Elgin, "From what the assistant-headmistress explained, we'll be as much decoys as attack groups. Our job will be to confuse the enemies that make it into the castle as much as taking them out of commission, as the main group with the headmaster goes after Riddle." explained Elgin.
"So, what you're saying is that we'll be using a divide and conquer mentality." the Raven-dor interjected, "We'll separate them into small, more manageable groups and lead them places that we've already set up to incapacitate them."
"To what?" asked Chris, who hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation.
"Booby traps." supplied Mae.
"Oh. Ok." The young Huffle-dor responded before returning his full attention to the racing broom catalogue he had recently received.
"I don't see how you could spend so much time flipping through catalogues when there's a war coming to our front steps!" Elgin chastised.
Christopher closed the book, and responded, "I didn't think that sitting around guessing at what we'd actually be doing was very productive either, especially when we have a meeting tonight, but you didn't hear me complaining." Though he had sorted into Hufflepuff, his Gryffindor brashness tended to shine through quite often when spending time away from his more timid housemates.
"He does have a point, El. We're not accomplishing much either. Maybe we should actually be following his lead and relaxing a bit this afternoon. Who knows what the staff will throw at us tonight." the young Raven-dor, Lisa, added, before picking up a book on muggle Airplanes that Mae had brought down earlier.
"Actually, if we wanted to do something productive, we could always start to figure out how we plan on getting to the room unnoticed tonight." offered Mae.
"Good idea, Mae!" Elgin offered.
"OF COURSE it's a good idea!" she said in a godly, omnipotent type voice, in an attempt to quote one of her favorite movies. Unfortunately her friends were, as usual, completely lost.
"What that some sort of muggle humour? Cause I'm a little lost here." Christopher admitted, earning him nods from the other two purebloods in the room.
"Oh never mind!" and exasperated Mae sighed, "Let's just get to work."
"No need my friend. No need." piped in Christopher with a satisfied grin on his face.
"And why's that?" inquired a curious Mae.
"I have a plan." the Huffle-dor told his mates.
"A good plan?" asked Elgin.
"A GREAT plan!" Chris told them, as he emphasized his words with hand gestures, "Here's what we do..."
After a short time in verbal negotiations, Harry and William quickly reached an agreement and Harry left to pick up his girlfriend with a promise to return within the next few days with a written contract.
'Are you done yet love?' he asked Ginny mentally.
Yep. I'm back at the mansion already actually. Once I got started, it didn't take me very long to finish. She informed him, Oh, and we're all waiting for you before we start the game.
'Game?' asked a confused Harry, 'What game?'
You'll see. She responded mysteriously. Meet us in the Room of Requirement.
Needing no further prompting, Harry flashed directly to the hallway outside the room. When he opened the door, he was not totally prepared for the sight before him.
When she saw the door open, Ginny started her commentating.
"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Potter Mansion's first ever game of interactive Chutes and Ladders."
'That's what it is!' Harry thought to himself since he hadn't been able to place the 3 dimensional, man sized board upon entering. 'But wait a sec, those aren't game pieces!'
Upon closer inspection, Harry could see that the figures in the 'starting square' weren't game pieces at all, but fully dyed, skin and clothes, young men. The same young men whom Harry had left in the tender care of his girlfriend not more than a couple of hours ago. Each one was a different colour. Fred was red, George was orange, Bill was blue, Percy was pink and Charlie was charcoal, but all still had their telltale Weasley-red hair.
The game board was ten full stories high, hence the magical microphone Ginny was using, and the guys seemed to be trapped in there by a sheet of plexy-glass so that everyone else could see them, but also in their own man sized cage so that they couldn't escape.
"This is my little version of the popular muggle game, but this one will be used to teach a lesson." Ginny elaborated.
"What lesson would that be?" whispered Neville.
"The 'You should never mess with Ginny' lesson." Ron explained shaking his head, "It's a lesson I would have thought my brothers had learned already."
"Now aren't you glad you didn't go to your brother's shop this afternoon when they invited you?" asked Hermione in her best 'I-told-you-so' voice.
Ron snorted, but refused to answer verbal.
Ginny continued, "For those of you who don't know the rules I will give a quick synopsis. You five players," she began as she motioned towards Hermione, Ron, Athena, Neville and Demeter, "Will take turns rolling the dice. Once the dice is rolled, the 'piece' will be able to move the allotted number of spaces. Since the pieces are not here voluntarily, they will have...'motivation' to move to their destination as quickly as possible." she said with a smile.
"Is the audience ready?" Ginny asked the group in the bleachers, getting a cheer from those present. Harry could see Fleur, Tonks, Remus, Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Lee, Luna's ghost and most of the original DA.
"Are the contestants ready?" she then asked the five friends, who were each wearing a t-shirt that matched one of the 'pieces', and who stood at the edge of a long table with borders so that the dice wouldn't fall off the sides.
Once the five of them cheered, Ginny announced, "Let the games begin!"
Hermione went first, taking the dice and throwing them the length of the table. The dice stopped rolling, displaying a 4 and a 3, at which point Bill's cage door disappeared.
Bill tentatively took a step out of the cage to look around and as he did this, the whole cage vanished. It was at that point that a loud roar could be heard from the wall to his right. When he turned to look, the wall began to rise, and he could see the paw of a large jungle cat swipe beneath it.
"I would suggest you run, Bill." Ginny told him, "That fury guy doesn't look to happy."
Bill's eyes went large as the wall began to raise a little more, and the tiger started to force its way through the opening. Deciding to take his vindictive little sister's advice, he ran. He ran down seven squares until he got to the end. He could hear the tiger running behind him now, and so leapt on the ladder that appeared above him and climbed up several flights. He could feel that the tiger was climbing behind him, a little slower, but he would eventually get to the top too, so Bill quickly jumped into the cage provided and slammed the door shut behind him.
Ginny explained to the crowd that the animals were actually illusions, and no harm would come to the pieces, but she didn't share that information with her brothers.
The game progressed like that for a while. Different animals appeared and chased them. Each turn, the squares would change to another theme: Jungle (complete with trees, vines, wild growth and insects), Desert (arid, extremely hot, cacti and scorpions) underwater (the pieces were able to breath as though they had eaten gillyweed, there were coral reefs, schools of fish, the odd piranha and of course the shark that was chasing them). Sometimes they even had a broom provided and had to fly through rocky areas. As this was a room of requirement, none of the squares was a fixed size and could be changed to meet Ginny's whim.
By the end of the game, each of the pieces were winded, scraped and bruised, having had to run form the imagined dangers. Neville had won the game with Charlie as his 'piece', Hermione was second with Bill, followed by Athena who was rolling for Fred, then Demeter who controlled Percy, and finally Ron who cast the dice for George.
All the players and spectators claimed that it was great fun to watch, and looked forward to the next time the brothers did something stupid to their sister so that they could enjoy it again.
As for the brothers, you could say that they finally learned their lesson.
Later that night, Harry entered DA common room, and began getting ready for the meeting that night with the Castle Units.
As he was unfolding the door to his 'portable Room of Requirement', he noticed four small shimmers in the corner, which he knew to be the tell tale sign of a disillusionment charm, and by the size of the forms, it had to be his group of first year protégés.
'Resourceful bunch that one.' he thought with a grin.
Who? Ginny sent back from her dorm room.
'The first years, they're already here and hiding under a disillusionment spell. I told you that they'd be good.' he responded.
And I agreed with you. She retorted, It'll be interesting to see what they're like after we're gone.
'If they live that long.' Harry replied glumly.
Harry! Ginny chastised lovingly, Don't think that way! You're doing everything in your power to prepare all of us for the battle a head. Have some faith in your students.
'I do.' he replied with a mental frown, 'But we both know that at least a few students will die during these battles. I just wish there were another way.'
I know love. She thought in a comforting tone, Just remember that they're doing this voluntarily to make a stand just like you're doing.
'I know. It's just...never mind. You're right. Now is not the time to mourn those who aren't even dead yet.' Harry responded mentally.
Exactly. She responded.
'Yeah...there'll be plenty of time to do that afterwards.' he thought to himself privately.
After the room was prepared, Harry sat and waited for all the teams to arrive.
As per his instructions, all the groups arrived by midnight. A couple of the groups arrived as early as 11pm, this wasn't including the 'Gryffindor outcasts' who had gotten to the DA common room right before curfew that night.
When asked why they had come that early, they responded that the best way to avoid getting caught breaking the rules, was to not break them. But getting to the DA common room early, they weren't going to get caught wandering the halls after curfew.
The members of the Mansion group were the only professors present for the meeting, and after the initial greetings had taken place, they got down to business.
Harry began the discussion by asking the groups what strategies they had used to evade capture to get here that night. One group told him that they used a combination of silencing and chameleon charms, another said they used an angle charm to see around corners, still another group admitted to using an infravision charm to better see in the dark in combination with a disillusionment charms. Other groups used different combinations of the ones already mentioned.
"Tonight you have already used some of the tactics that we will be teaching you here in the Castle Group meetings. Not only will we be working on attack and defense spells, but we'll also be focusing a lot of attention on concealment and evasion.
"I'm not going to lie to you. The group we will be fighting against is bigger and has a lot more experience than we do. In order to win this, we'll need to use every advantage we have. In our case, we have home pitch advantage. We know this castle, and so we know the best place to set up ambushes and the best escape routes when a situation gets beyond our control. Some of you might be shaking your heads, and saying 'No we don't. I've been here for a couple of years and I'm still getting lost on my way to classes.' Right now, I would agree with you. But once we're through with you, you will know this castle almost as well as we do, and that training begins tonight." Harry said as he made a head motion to Athena to hand each group a sheet of parchment.
Looking over their newly acquired blank sheets, one of the fifth year Slytherins asked, "What are we supposed to do with these, sir?" It was a genuine question, but in true Slytherin fashion, it did have a bite of sarcasm accompanying it.
"These are your maps. Take your wand, hold it against the parchment and say 'To serve and protect.' If you don't like the password, blame Hermione, she thought that it appropriate, as it is the motto of the American muggle police forces, or something like that." Harry explained.
Most of the assembled students nodded in agreement before trying the password out for themselves. Soon after, gasps and 'wow's could be heard throughout the room. Each group was given a version of the marauder's map.
"This is an 85 percent complete map of Hogwarts: 100 percent of its used corridors and classrooms, and about 60 of all its hidden passages and forgotten corners. We decided to keep a couple of things a mystery for you to discover on your own in the next few years. The passages on the map are the most useful of the bunch, and will definitely help you with tonight's exercise." Ron told them.
"Another feature we should mention is that empty box you see at the top of the map. This is a message board of sorts. If the headmaster, or any heads of houses, have a message for you, they have the ability to post a message is that box. Be sure to check it every time you open." Neville interjected.
Harry then addressed the group again, "Your mission for tonight is as follows. Thanks to some hard work from the staff, we have a bit of a scavenger hunt for you to accomplish. Hermione?"
"You will all be given a list of locations inside Hogwarts. Each group will have these locations in a different order so that you don't try to follow one and other. At each of these locations you will find a letter painted on the wall. These letters will be hidden with magic, and you will need to cast a revealing charm before you are able to read it. Do not try to obscure the letter so that following groups will not be able to see it, do not attempt to lead other groups astray. Think of this as a drill. Each group is responsible for themselves, and themselves alone. We want to see how well you work together, and how quickly you can navigate through the school." Hermione explained.
Harry continued, "But of course, we couldn't make it that easy. There will be obstacles. The staff members that you see before you will be patrolling the halls of the school. They will NOT have copies of the map, but they do have the list of the room you are supposed to visit and may decide to stake them out. Some of the rooms will also have...challenges you'll need to face before, or while you are collecting the letters. Remain alert, attentive, and above all cautious. If you are caught by a member of the DA staff, you will return here immediately. If you are caught by one of Hogwarts' staff members or Mr. Filch, then you'll probably get detentions and point deductions, so stealth is of primary importance."
"If at any time you feel that you can no longer continue for whatever reason, injury, exhaustion, or other, you are to return here and wait for the other groups." Ginny added.
"Right. Almost forgot about that." Harry grinned, "You also have a time limit. You are to be back in this room by no later than 5 am. That gives you 4 hours to complete this. Are there any questions?"
"Are there any restrictions on what tools we can use, or spells?" asked on of the older Slytherins.
"No unforgivables. Other than that, everything is allowed, though I wouldn't recommend attacking one of the Hogwarts' staff members should they find you. They don't like that very much." Harry added with a chuckle.
"Can we attack the DA Staff?" asked another.
"I would expect no less. The only offensive spells you'll be able to cast in a duel against a DA staff member is the disarming curse and stupify and any defensive spells you can think of. You are both allowed and encouraged to fight back and attempt to incapacitate your opponents. Do not attack other groups though. You're all on the same team, just accomplishing similar missions. If I see anyone cheating in such a manner, I will disqualify you. You will be obliviated, and you will be reassigned to either the land unit or the air unit. And I will see if you do, you can count on that." Harry paused before continuing, "Are there any other questions? No? Good luck. You may begin when the clock chimes 1am, so you have 15 minutes or so to prepare. I would suggest studying the map, and planning a route."
At 1 am the groups were off and Harry flashed himself up to Godric's office to keep a close eye on the proceedings. With such a large map, and so few people wandering the halls at this hour so he was able to keep an eye on them all very easily.
Most groups did well enough in the end. None got to less than 6 of the 10 destinations before getting caught by a DA staff member. One of the group was unfortunate enough to be captured by Filch, after a fight with a rather large spider Harry had conjured in one of the rooms. Filch had accused them of dueling after hours and brought them to the nearest head of house, who happened to be professor Flitwick. As kindly as the diminutive man was, he apparently didn't like having to be woken up at 3 in the morning and ended up sentencing the offenders to 2 weeks of detention each. Luckily they had hidden the map, and it was not discovered by either teacher or custodian.
Other rooms had other obstacles. Taking a couple of notes from Ginny's punishment of her brothers, Harry had one room completely submerged in water, and the group had to find the spot where the letter had been written. Another room was a gladiatorial arena, with a Minotaur there waiting for them clad in mismatching pieces of armour and wielding one of the biggest swords the students had ever seen. Another was a jungle setting, complete with a small trip of pigmies who attacked the students with blowguns whose darts put the students to sleep if they were hit with enough.
All in all, it was a challenge. Only one team completed the whole mission, and that was a group of fifth and seventh years. The big surprise was the first year group who made it to 8 of the 10 before being taken down by both Blaise and Athena, who had to work together to do it.
After they were all back, and healed up, Harry debriefed all the teams. They did very much as they had at the beginning of the class and talked about the different tactics used, which ones worked best, which ones worked worse, and why. After an hour or so of that, Harry changed the room into a large dormitory with enough beds for all the team members, and told them to get some rest. He explain that this room could, for a short while, speed up time when you were in it, and so they'd be able to get at least 6 or 7 hours sleep before 7 am came about and then they could either head back to their dorm rooms, or down for breakfast. It was Sunday after all, so they could catch up on some missed sleep then.
Time passed quickly after that night. The students in the know went about their preparations, and the DA practiced and studied diligently. The Mansion group was able to keep the spy out of the loop despite his multiple attempts to gather information from them and other members of the club.
Before anyone knew it, it was the weekend before the attack. The mansion group was sitting in the lounge at Potter mansion, and trying to relax a bit as this was probably going to be one of the last times they'd be able to before the battle.
Harry, however, couldn't rest. His mind was working a mile a minute as he mentally went through the checklist in his head to make sure that everything was ready before the attack.
'New wards and anti dementor shields? - check. Medics and first aid gear? - check. Tactics and attack plans? - check. Guerilla units properly outfitted (portkeys, smoke bombs, maps, etc)? - check. Air units ready? - check. Main group's portkeys made and distributed?- check...'
Harry! Calm down. Ginny told him. We are all ready. We've already gone through your checklist twice as a group.
'Third time's a charm though, right?' he sent back in a defeated tone, 'I can't help it. I just feel as though I've forgotten something.'
You've done all you can. You need to rest now for a bit. Ginny said in an attempt to calm him a bit. There's nothing left to do but wait.
'You're almost right.' he sent back, suddenly realizing what he had forgotten, 'We are ready, but there is still one more thing I have to do.'
"I'll be right back guys." Harry told the assembled group as he got up from his chair.
"Where ya going?" asked Ron.
"I have to make a couple of visits. I'll be back tomorrow." he told them, taking into consideration that what will only be taking him a few hours in the outside world, will seem like a full day in here to his resting friends.
"Want some company?" Ginny asked halfheartedly. She wanted to be supportive, but at the same time, she was wiped out and really needed the break.
"No. That's ok Gin. You rest. I'll be fine." he told her, before giving her a quick kiss.
Harry then changed into his Lord Gryffindor persona, and flashed out of the lounge.
"I hate it when he does that." Ron mumbled, "He always makes the impossible look so easy."
Harry appeared in a clearing within the Forbidden Forest and began to walk around.
Ten minutes later, Harry had had enough, "I know you're there. I would ask you to show me enough respect to not spy on me, and face me directly if you have questions or concerns."
"My apologies, Lord Gryffindor." an elderly centaur said as he came out from behind the bushes, "It would appear that I am not as stealthy as I once was. Nor as courteous. Please accept my apologies."
Harry was pleased to see that the warning had given on his last visit had been taken seriously, and that they now recognized him for who he truly was.
"Your apologies are accepted, though I will not forgive the other four unless they too come out and ask for it." With his empathic abilities, Harry could almost see the tension rolling off the other four figures in the bushes surrounding him.
The elderly centaur motioned for the others to come out, before giving Harry a small bow of apology, "This, again, is of my doing. They are my guards, and were told to remain unseen as I spoke with you today."
"You knew of my coming than?" Harry asked, without letting his surprise show.
"Yes, young master, the stars told us of your arrival several nights ago." the centaur admitted.
"Than you also know why I have come." Harry told more than asked him.
"Yes we do. Mars burns brightly, and in one weeks time it will completely over shadow Jupiter." (1)
Harry nodded, "Yes. That is the reason. War is coming to Hogwarts."
"And what is it you ask of us, young lord?" the centaur asked, in an almost challenging voice.
"All I ask is that you and your brethren remain hidden throughout the battle. I have come to warn you of the coming attack and nothing more, though I should have realized that you knew of it already. I apologize for my lack of faith in your abilities to read the heavens." Harry said as he inclined his head in a form of apology.
"No offense taken, lord Gryffindor, though I admit at being surprised. Why is it that you do not order us to aid in the castle's defense? That is the reason your forefather had invited us to this land in the first place after all." the elder inquired.
Harry answered him honestly, "I would welcome your aid if it were offered, but I will not command you to do anything, even if it is within his power as Lord of this forest to do so. You are a sentient race, and you are more than capable of making decisions like this on your own. I am not as in touch with the lives and needs of the creatures in my forest as I would like to be, and so at this point, you know what is best for your herd, not I. Whatever the reason for my ancestor's original invitation, this has become your home as much as it is now mine. I seek only to insure the safety of all those who dwell in these lands to the best of my ability. That is all."
To say that the Elder and his guards were impressed and a tad shocked would have been an understatement.
"It is a rare occurrence that one of your kind treats us in this manner, as equals, especially one so young. We thank you for the warning, but I would not count on our aid in this coming conflict." The elder responded after some thinking.
"That does not matter to me at this point. My only concern is the safety of those on my lands, and so, in my care. I know that you can defend yourselves, which is why I have not offered to help you in that respect." Harry answered.
"You are truly a caring leader, young Gryffindor. I will discuss this matter with the whole of the tribe, and then consult the stars for their advice. If the heavens call us to battle, we may yet be seen fighting at your side. But it would be wise not to count on that outcome." The old centaur told the young human, much to the surprise of his guards.
Harry bowed in thanks and goodbye, "I have accomplished all I have come to do. May the heavens smile on you and your herd."
"And may they tell of good fortune for yours." The elder responded with a smile in the traditional centaur farewell, before bowing, and leaving the young man standing alone in the clearing.
Harry was now very thankful that he had spent those hours after his first visit in the library reading over all known customs and traditions of this proud people.
Harry proceeded to make a couple more stops in order to warn the unicorn herd and the Acrumantulas. As with the centaurs, he asked them not to get involved, as this was not yet their fight yet, but that if they wanted to assist, they were more than welcome to do so. He told them that it would more likely than not be the Dementors that came through the forest, and so they would be better off avoiding that section of the woods all together for the days preceding the attack for their own safety.
Harry then made his way towards the lake. Once there, he jumped in the water and transformed into his Hippocampus form, and swam down to warn the Merpeople of the impending attack as well. That visit went quickly as well, and without incident.
After his final visit, Harry thought of the visits he had just made, and thought to himself, 'Besides, I don't think this will be the final battle, and I have a feeling I will be needed all the help and allies I'll be able to get before this war is finished if we are to be victorious.'
"Witches and Wizards, boys and girls, welcome to the last match of this year's quidditch season here at Hogwarts." the third year Gryffindor announced.
The crowd started cheering, though if one listened closely, only less than half of the cheering was genuine excitement.
"In this corner, weighing in at a combined total of..."
"Hooper!" McGonagall interjected.
"Sorry professor, just thought I'd try something new." the announcer admitted before continuing, "Flying for Ravenclaw, we have Whistle, Corner, Quirke, Lobowski, Bradley, Boot and Captain Chang!" the cheering from the Ravenclaw section wasn't as loud as usual, but with everyone's attention divided, it could hardly be helped.
As Hooper announced the lineup for the Ravenclaws, the Gryffindor players were looking out into the stands.
"Where's Justin?" asked Ron as he scanned the crowd, "I thought Blaise and Demeter were going to sit by him."
I'm listening in on Demeter and Hermione, they can't find him. Ginny sent Harry, They can't find any of the junior Death nibblers either. They must have had orders to stay in the castle.
Harry sighed, 'We can't do anything about it now. This doesn't change anything though, so let's just stick to the plan and trust in that.' he sent back.
"Malfoy and his group is missing too." Athena pointed out.
"Ron! Send a quick message to all the Castle Unit maps telling them that any Hogwarts student they see in the castle is a hostile. I don't want any mistakes. Tell them to first use stunners to get them, but if they fight back using lethal force, they should do the same. Understood?" Harry asked.
Ron nodded in understanding, and took out his map immediately to send the message.
"Right. This is the big one people! Not only on the pitch, but off and around it afterwards. You know your jobs, and I know you can do it. So let's go out there and show them what TRUE Gryffindors are made of! We will be VITORIOUS!" Harry shouted to the other members of the quidditch team, which earned him a loud cheer. Usually it's the Captain's job to motivate the players, but as Ron was a little busy, Harry decided to help out a bit.
"And now for your Gryffindor Lions! Weasley, Bell, Granger, Longbottom, Kirke, Weasley aaaaand POTTER!"
The Gryffindors flew out amidst the cheers. They each knew their jobs. Harry, Ginny, were to grab Ron, Athena and Neville and flash them to the meeting place where Hermione, Blaise and Demeter would be waiting for them after having activated their portkeys. From there, they would go to Godric's office and figure out an attack strategy based on the location of the Death Eaters.
The D.A. Ground Units, after putting up anti-demetor wards that Ginny and Hermione have been working on, would go around and hand out portkeys to all the students who were not fighting which would send them to the atrium at the Ministry. Once all the innocents were gone, the D.A. would do the same as soon as the aurors arrived to take over the outer defenses.
The Air Squads would provide cover fire for the Ground Units to get their job done, and as soon as the Aurors arrived, they too were to activate their portkeys.
The Castle Units had their own special portkeys that would bring them to secret rooms all over the castle where they would open their maps and start their offensive. As soon as any one member of a team was injured, they were to activate their second portkey which would take them directly to St. Mungo's. No team was to operate short a member, so one goes down, the whole team evacuates.
Taking a deep breath, Harry returned his focus to the game.
The captains shook hands and the players took their position.
Harry hovered alongside Cho Chang as they waited for the whistle, "You ready for this Cho?"
"The game? Or the attack?" she asked, clutching her broom handle a little tighter.
"Both." he grinned, which set her a bit more at ease, "You're the best one we have on a broom, Cho. I've seen you in practice, you'll be great. Plus you're a natural leader. Just go out there and do what you've been preparing for, and you'll be fine." Harry encouraged.
"You used up your good speech in the locker room didn't you?" she retorted.
He shrugged, "Ya. Sorry bout that." he admitted with a grin.
Cho snorted, "Thanks anyways, Harry."
Just then, the whistle blew.
"See you after the game Cho." Harry told her as he zoomed off.
"Not if I see you first!" she shouted back good naturedly before speeding off in the other direction.
"Gryffindor has the quaffle. It's Weasley to Granger, back to Weasley, Shoots...SCORES! 10 nothing Gryffindor." announced Hooper.
No sooner had the news of Ginny's goal reached his ears, then Harry saw the snitch down near the ground at center pitch, and took off like a bat out of hell. He weaved through the attacking Ravenclaw chasers, before finally closing his hand on the golden winged ball. From whistle to whistle, the game had taken a minute and a half to play, and a good thing too.
The sound of the cheering for the Gryffindor win was exactly what the enemy had been waiting for as the dementors started surrounding the field.
Everyone in the stands were still cheering, but the cheering slowly died as the assembled masses began to feel the temperature dropping. It was at that point that the first of the children screamed as she pointed frantically to the forest were the largest group of dementors they had ever seen was descending upon them.
Harry quickly amplified his voice and shouted, "Air squad, in the air! Ground group, set up a perimeter and raise those anti-dementor wards. Order members, anyone who can, cast patroni and drive them back, castle unit? We're going hunting!" he concluded before muting his voice again.
On his way over to the Gryffindor hoops to pick up Ron, Harry muttered solemnly to himself, "Let the games begin."
AN: (1) knowing nothing of astronomy, I have no idea if it's even possible for Mars to block out Jupiter, let alone if it happened in that year. I chose Jupiter as he was the roman god of light, and head of the Roman Pantheon. I figured it would be more symbolic as the war was coming to the head of the light, Dumbledore (or Harry depending how you look at it) himself.
Good day my fellow readers and Harry Potter fanficfans. Tis I, Farfumsane, returned from the...well...not grave, but you know what I mean. I'm back. I have had a wonderful month and change (or has it been two months now?) since I last posted. I'm now a married man, and enjoying every minute of it. I figured I'd do my best to have this latest chapter up for this Canada Day long weekend in order to celebrate my great country, those of you who are American, pretend I did it for Independence Day...and those of you with b-days at the beginning of July...Happy Birthday :D this one's for you.
I'm working full time now, so my posts might be a little farther apart than they used to be, but don't worry, there's only 2 or 3 more chapters left anyways, and I should be done long before the summer's over, hopefully even having started the next one. :)
I hope you enjoyed the read, and sorry for all the mistakes and grammatical errors you must have found in here. As soon as my editors get it back to me, I'll be reposting this so as to eliminate the errors herein.
Thanks for stickin' around.
Farfumsane.
