I do not own anything to do with Star Wars and Harry Potter, rights are currently held by Disney and Warner Bros respectively.
.
Information
.
Albus looked up in surprise as a familiar being appeared above his breakfast table in a swirl of fire.
"Fawkes! Do you have a message from me? Is Minerva resisting what is happening down there?"
Fawkes shook his head and swooped slightly, dropping an envelope, before landing on Dumbledore's shoulder and nuzzling against him.
"I recognise that writing." Albus said slowly. "It's Severus'."
Albus slowly opened the envelope and began reading the missive that his former spy and trusted agent against Riddle had sent him.
.
Albus.
Draco Malfoy came to me and asked for help in defecting. I am not certain myself how long I can last against the Imperius field. As such, we both wish to seek asylum with Lord Black's forces as they are apparently beyond the effect of the spell.
I offer my skills as a potion master and all the information I possess about Lucius and his plans. Draco has in his possession a runic array that he has been informed confers immunity to the Imperius field and will willingly let it be copied in exchange for refuge and a chance to strike back against his father.
Please respond quickly, time is of the essence.
Severus Snape.
Draco Malfoy.
.
Albus lowered the letter, his brows furrowing, then he stood, spun on his heel and vanished with only a pop of displaced air.
.
"…could be a trap!"
"A trap?" Sirius chortled. "Please. Luscious has the whole damned planet falling under his spell, why in the name of Merlin's beard would he risk his son in a trap when he coud simply send up all of the NASA spacecraft with orders to destroy our domes?"
Remus opened his mouth to retort, then he suddenly looked thoughtful and sat down again.
"I think the question is, can we afford to not bring them here?" Nicolas Flamel asked, attracting everyones attention. "Even with my knowledge, decoding the arithmatic signature of that spell is no easy feat. Having the runic array that counters it, even if only partially so, will let me approach this problem from a new direction. Combined with the readings we have so far, I believe that I will be able to simulate and deconstruct that spell."
"I agree." Ahsoka said, turning to the second-oldest man in the room. "Albus, may we borrow Fawkes to send a message? I know just how to get them up here…"
.
Draco stared at the message that his godfather was holding, uncertain as to whether to take the instructions seriously or not.
"The… Ravenclaw Lord's quarters? Why not the Slytherin? At least it isn't the Gryffindor one…"
"Harry Potter-Tano used those quarters while he was here." Snape said thoughtfully. "Perhaps there's a secret portkey or something hidden there. Regardless, we shall not find out what this is about by sitting here."
Draco nodded and rose from his seat, following Snape. As they walked, he decided to ask the question that had been bothering him since the first day of school, when he had seen Snape in his teachers robes.
"Uncle Severus, just how do you get those robes to billow like that?"
"Lord Potter asked me the same thing after the troll incident." Severus smirked. "I shall give you the same answer that I gave him. Practise."
Draco gave him a look that included both humour and irritation. Snape returned it with a superior smirk, then exhaled.
"Posture, Draco. Posture is the main thing. The fabric is important in how the robe billows, but without the correct posture, the billowing effect is soon lost and becomes little more than a slight swaying of the robes."
Draco nodded slowly.
"No wonder everyone failed in looking for the spells they thought you used to do that."
Snape smirked slightly as the duo ascended the stairs.
.
"Wow, these are nice quarters." Draco said looking round.
"Slytherin has similar ones." Snape shrugged. "Alright, start looking around for anything that… what the?!"
A trio of armoured figures piled out from the main bedroom without warning. The largest grabbed Draco and slung him over his shoulder while the other two grabbed Snape and hustled him back into the main bedroom, diving into the wardrobe with him…
Draco gasped as they emerged into a small high-walled room with stairs going up one wall. The man carrying him lowered him to the ground and quickly frisked him, taking his wand and placing it in a small, padded box.
"Professor Snape, Scion Malfoy." A familiar voice said and Draco spun to see a very familiar-looking brunette standing on the bottom step.
"Miss Granger." Snape identified her. "I see that you are well."
"I am here to escort you both to the Council Chamber." Hermione replied. "Please, follow me."
"A Rune Door disguised as a wardrobe." Draco marvelled, glancing back to see a heavy barricade slide into position to block the Door they had just traversed. "How did you come up with that idea?"
"A story called The lion, the witch and the wardrobe was the inspiration." Hermione shrugged. "If you want, I can get you a copy of the book series later."
"A wardrobe." Draco marvelled. "Incredible… what?"
Draco barely managed to avoid plowing into Snape, who had stopped at the top of the staircase. Looking round him, Draco's eyes widened at the view through the large dome and the odd green-blue-white sphere hanging just above the horizon.
"Merlin…" Snape breathed almost reverently. "We're actually on the moon!"
"What?!"
"You are indeed." Hermione smiled. "We found that the range on the Rune Doors was enough to let us relocate the Alliance Concourse here, rendering it immune from most attacks. Admittedly, we had to sacrifice the Longbottom Door as a group tried to attack through it, but since all the Doors are equipped with spells to destroy them if needed…"
"You have really put put some thought into this." Snape said in an approving tone and Hermione shrugged.
"Well, it was Lily Potter who first created those Doors, the rest of us just kind of ran with the idea."
Snape paused, then looked round.
"…thank you, Lily."
.
Draco slumped down into the suprisingly comfortable chair as Snape lowered himself with a great deal more diginty onto a matching one.
"Two aliens." Draco marvelled. "Two!"
Snape simply looked at Draco.
"I don't know what father is planning, but if they found us, others might." Draco sighed. "If that Empire finds us… we need to have our own space boats. Father may think that he can plan for large things, but one planet… compared to the ten thousand out amongst the stars… Dammit, we need people to be able to think for themselves, otherwise we'll just get swallowed up!"
"And what do you intend to do?" Snape asked curiously. Draco sighed and rubbed at his forehead.
"You mean what do I intend to do to help destroy that abomination that father had built, or after we've liberated the Earth?"
Snape raised one eyebrow slightly, causing Draco to sigh again.
"Flamel's copied the runes and is doing merlin-knows-what with them, that part I can't do anything else with. Sirius has promised to get someone to train me in using the wolfalorian spell-guns tomorrow. I fully intend to go with them when they attack… actually, on second thought, ambushing my father when he tries to escape would be better. And afterwards? I'll almost certainly be Lord Malfoy, so I'll use that by publically joining the Potter Alliance and investing in WolfTech. Beyond that… I'll see when I've had a chance to do more research."
"One thing, Draco." Severus said, looking sharply at his godson. "I think that you should wear more… appropriate clothing if you are going to undertake your planned energetic activities."
"What?" Draco said in confusion as he looked at his trousers. "What's wrong with these?"
"Tanned Hungarian Horntail hide is not very flexible." Snape sighed. "There is a reason that duellists don't use it despite its protective properties, after all."
.
Draco held the odd device in his hands as the Wolfalorian, who had introduced himself as Nara Hu, explained its functions.
"…and you can use the thumb selector to choose the spells you wish to fire. In training mode, you have a choice of colour-change, sting or stupify while in combat you can have slicing, bombarda, stupify or alternating, which cycles between the three spells. Try it out, set it to bombarda and fire it at those targets like I showed you."
Draco slowly lifted the rifle, pressing the stock to his shoulder and peering through the targeting scope. Bringing one of the targets into his sights, he took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.
The target exploded.
"Whoah!"
"Not bad, kid." Hu said in a congratulatory tone of voice. "Try on the other targets."
Grinning, Draco swung the rifle slightly and pulled the trigger again, causing a second target to explode, then a third and then a fourth.
"This is brilliant!" He half-shouted, completely forgetting his normal superior poise. "I love this!"
Hu gave a small smile as Draco engaged a second group of targets, whooping and hollering with joy.
.
Nicolas Flamel placed the leather circlet on the table with great ceremony as the assembled group looked at it.
"Thanks to Scion Malfoy," Nicolas began, nodding to Draco who swelled slightly with self-importance, "I was able to fully analyse the field covering the Earth. And I have found a problem with it."
The silence in the room was so intense that a dropped knut would have sounded deafening.
"The version of the Imperius used has an unfortunate side-effect. Within a month of the field reaching full strength, the effect will be permanent, even if the field fails. Furthermore, it would seem that Draco's runic array wasn't quite what he was told it was."
Draco frowned as he rolled his sleeve up and stared at the tattoos on his arm.
"While they do indeed protect him from the field to a degree and let him command those without the runes, the runes themselves subordinate him to the one with the master control runes, Lucius Malfoy. This means that to Lucius, there is no difference between those with the runic arrays and those without, he can command both equally."
Draco's expression was a mixture of shock, betrayal, outrage and rising fury.
"This means that we need to destroy the field generator within the next three weeks if we are to free the Earth from being permanently enslaved."
"Damn him!" Draco yelled. "Damn his soul to the Dementor's kiss! He told me that I would share in his power, but he lied to me! He turned me into just another merlin-damned puppet for him to play with! His own son!"
For a long moment, everyone stared at Draco until he took a deep, jagged breath.
"Sorry. I'm still furious, but I'll keep it under control. That man is not my father."
Another silence was his answer, a silence broken by Nicolas' cough.
"Anyway, since military planning is not my forte, I passed it over to the Wolfalorians. Watt?"
One of the armoured figures stepped forwards and removed his helmet, revealing a slightly scarred bald man.
"Theophilus Watt, my father was a soldier and he trained me in strategy and tactics."
"Aren't they the same thing?" Draco asked in confusion and Watt shook his head.
"Tactics are what you use to win a battle. Strategy is what you use to win a war. Our target is simple, Stonehenge."
As he spoke, an image appeared of the cluster of monoliths in question.
"We cannot use orbital bombardment since Stonehenge is surrounded by mind-controlled military personnel while a shield almost as strong as one of our Geodesic Shields protects it from aerial assault. The few recon flights we have managed to complete have shown that the protective shield is projected from these six points on the perimeter. Given the type of shield, it should fail once four of those points are destroyed . Once that is done, we can use bombardment tactics to collapse the structure, ending the threat.
"Our final staging post is just here, east of Stonehenge and behind the small copse of wood. The ridge will give us some cover as our ground forces attack. We will set our guns onto stun to try an minimise casualties. The Jedi and several Rangers will provide top cover in their new Fanblades and Delta-6's respectively, targeting enemy aircraft and heavy vehicles. Should they find themselves in position, they will also target the shield projectors.
"The mission of the ground forces is to destroy the shield generators and then fall back. Using our wolfshapes, the Wolfalorians will lead the dawn assault, using the rising sun to hide our infiltration of their position. To get there, though, we need to go in fast and low. For that, we'll fly up the Channel and turn inland just prior to the Isle of Wight, passing over Bolton-on-sea at rooftop height…"
.
.
.
.
.
.
Authorial Afternote:- Yes, those trousers were technically leather. Check TVTropes for an explanation (evil grin).
