Author Note These chapters will take a bit longer to write.
I've got an idea in my head of how I want this story to go but sometimes when you want to put an idea to paper that can be difficult at times.
I'm still working on it though.
These are also all real places in world I've been doing a bit of research for this story.
Chapter 55
July 25th 1995
Ayrshire, Scotland
Early Tuesday Morning Harry,Master Dao and a handful of others apparated to a windy hillside in the Galloway Mountains of Southern Scotland.
It had been a month since the Second Wizarding War had begun and it was not going well to say the least.
Voldermorts Death Eaters were gaining strength and were now thought to have somewhere around a thousand in their number although it was believed that not all of them were top tear combat personnel.
Regardless of how many Death Eaters Voldemort had, they still had more than three times the number of Aurors that were under Minister Bones.
The Death Eaters had been engaging with the Aurors several times now over the past month and even though the Aurors were holding their ground they were taking heavy losses that they could not afford.
In the First War the Rate of Aurors that perished in combat at the height of the war was over sixty percent.
And the Ministry now had fewer Aurors than it did two decades ago.
Minister Bones and the Aurors were doing what they could to slow down the Death Eaters advance but Harry knew that it was only a matter of time before the Ministry fell.
Albus Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge as well as Ludo Bagman were now dead.
Morale in the Aurors was low.
So Harry as the leader of the Archmagi had to do a lot of planning.
More people were joining the Archmagi after the Battle of the Third Task leading their number to be around four hundred individuals in the group.
More than the Aurors had in their numbers.
But Harry knew that they got lucky in June.
As a whole right now the Archmagi could not beat the Death Eaters in a pitched battle.
That had to change and that involved somehow training the new Archmagi.
Where could they train though and it had to also be someplace that they could go to escape the Death Eaters.
None of the homes in Magical England fit the bill to allow four hundred and probably more people to live and train.
No place in Hogwarts could accomplish that either.
They had to find a suitable place.
And that's when one of his group assistants Anthony Vacca came up with a solution.
Vacca was a Muggle Born who had moved to England from America as a child and his father had served in the American Army during the Vietnam War.
Anthony told him the stories that his father had told him about the Cu Chi and Vịnh Mốc where a series of 2,000 meter long tunnels were built in 18,000 working days using simple tools.
The idea was that with magic and bending they could do something like that in a lot less time
Harry liked the idea.
Doing the calculations came out to be that if they had at least fifty people working eight hour shifts they could get the project done in about a month and a half or so compared to the two years it took the Vietnamese.
That's why they were in the Galloway Hills as a good place to set up a camp.
Harry was now looking at a Muggle Map of the area that was about forty years old since this large area, despite having about a dozen or so small villages that dotted the landscape, was relatively unpopulated compared to the rest of Scotland.
That made it ideal.
There were also about two dozen hills in the Galloway's but the ones that interested Harry the most where Corserine,Cairnsgarroch,Tarfessock,Lamachan,Mullwharchar and Kirriereoch
They were also near the Rivers Dee and Nith and Lakes Trool,Neldricken,Valley,Enoch and Doon as potential water sources although there was the Water-Making-Spell Aguamenti to help them out in that regard and the Doubling Charm where if they had just a little bit of food they could make quite a lot more.
They also had a list of about twenty protective spells that they would need to cast around their base camp to defend against Death Eaters.
Walking with his group they soon reached the top of Corserine
"You think we can build a place inside this hill Anthony "Harry asked.
"Yeah,"Anthony said, pulling out a map of a Vietnam Tunnel system to show Harry and Master Dao ``We can easily make that here there's the land and we have the magic available to us".
Harry looked at Master Dao to see what his opinion on the ground was.
Master Dao was nodding "It could work "He said "When i was in Germany during the Grindlwald War we sometimes had to make caves' '.
After examining Corserine a bit more the group went down the hill to examine the rest of the area.
At the base of the next hill Cairnsgarroch there was a large forest.
Walking through the forest path Harry noticed that there were a lot of brambles and thorns on the side of the path that blocked one's sight.
The Forest would be a good place to train Archmagi.
In the future they would be engaging with Death Eaters at some point along the line and it would be a good thing if they were prepared to fight in any sort of climate.
And in the forest there were plenty of opportunities for camouflage and Harry saw the potential for launching ambushes that could cause a lot of damage.
That would be something that they would need to teach the new Archmagi recruits.
Secrecy.
How to fight in enclosed spaces and move at a moment's notice to beat the Death Eaters who wouldn't be expecting to move so fast.
Basically train the new Archmagi like Master Dao had trained him.
Master Dao seemed to be thinking the same thing.
"If you ever want to fight in the forest "He advised "You had best come up with a communication system or you'll never be able to pull anything off".
Harry agreed.
Phillips walked around a bit.
"There are definitely a lot of things that could prevent an ambush "He said, stepping on plenty of twigs and brambles.
"What do you think? "Harry asked Master Dao.
"This is ultimately up to you Harry"Master Dao said "You have mastered all the bending and magic that I can teach you and all I can give you now is suggestions as an advisor".
"I am reminded now"Master Dao said "Of an old Japanese Warrior named Takeda Shingen who came up with a battle standard called "Fūrinkazan" which means Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain".
"The basic idea behind this was to be as fast as the wind, silent as a forest, ferocious as fire and immovable as a mountain and if the Archmagi can follow that standard they should be able to beat the enemy".
Harry nodded.
"Ok"He said to the group "Let's finish looking at the rest of this area".
SCENE CHANGE
A few days later Harry arrived back in the Galloway Hills with a larger group of about a hundred people.
Edmund would be taking half of the number to work on casting defensive wards and Harry would be taking the other half to start working on carving out a place in the mountain for them.
Seeing his deputies' group move off Harry led his group of about fifty being flanked by Master Dao and Anthony.
When they got to a good place to start working Harry turned to Anthony "What spells do you think would work best for this "He asked.
"Bombara Maxima and Wingardium Leviosa probably".Vacca replied "Those seem like the best options and we would need something for supports".
Master Dao looked at Harry "Earthbending can help with that "He said.
Harry nodded and then looked at the group "Who here knows how to do Bombara Maxima ''He asked.
Hands went up.
"Ok"He said "Sancetta,Moroney,Pacanovsky,Hynes,Krizek and Wertzberger youll do our blasting and the rest of you can gather some wood that can be used as insulation and protection".
"The Gouging Spell could be a good idea as well"Davidson suggested.
"Ok"Harry said and the group followed him back to a safe distance where they could start firing spells.
"Ready"Harry called out "One,Two,Three"
"BOMBARA MAXMIMA".
The simultaneous spells blew apart a large amount of dirt from the mountain and then the rest of the group followed with cries of "Defodio'' and allowing them to gouge out specific areas of material.
Harry looked at what they had done so far.
Well this would take a bit of work
SCENE CHANGE
Minister of Magic Amelia Bones sat around waiting for news on the Battle.
The war had only been going on for three months now and things were not looking good.
In pretty much most of the engagements since the war had started the Death Eaters had come out on top.
And now with losses the Auror Corps was hemmorging people badly.
As well as the fact that the Death Eaters outnumbered them and that the only reason the Ministry had not been losing more ground was because of the frequent terror attacks that the Death Eaters were launching on Muggle Civilians.
The Muggle Government was doing the same thing they had done in the First War of blaming the Death Eater attacks on the Irish Republican Army, a Muggle Paramilitary Force that had no relations to any Wizarding Force.
They had also found out that the Death Eaters were using the Forest of Dean as a base again after much use of that area in the First War.
And then in order to strike a blow at a force of Death Eater recruits a large force of Aurors had been assembled to attack the camp enough where they would outnumber the enemy.
Since She could not lead the attack herself that duty had been left to her lieutenant Rufus Scrimgeour
And soon she got the information she was waiting for when Rufus entered her office bruised and bloodied.
That could happen in any battle though.
She looked at him.
"We lost, "Scrimgeour said softly and hung his head with more than weariness
"I'm so sorry," he murmured.
Bones looked at Scrimgeour her eyes dark with concern. "You…you lost? But we had to win this battle!"
"Yes, we had to, but we didn't!" Rufus snarled. Then he took a step back. "I'm sorry. You're right; we should have won. We needed that win."
Amelia then noticed the scrapes and cuts on his body "Have you seen the healers yet "She asked.
"No"He said "Of everyone that could escape the Forest I'm one of the least injured".
Amelia felt her stomach tightening "Casualties "She asked.
"Over a hundred dead "Rufus said "Dozens disabled and nearly everyone was injured"
Amelia stood up and paced her mind realizing the consequences their defeat had.
"Pretty much every Auror fit enough to fight had fought and the battle and they were all now either dead or seriously injured"
She then listened as Rufus described the fiasco.
It was amazing their losses were not worse
Amelia noticed the empty, defeated expression on the face of Rufus and she guessed everyone else was not much different.
There were now not many who could defend the Ministry.
Rufus and Amelia then looked out the window.
"They fought harder and better than us and it seemed that they wanted victory more than we did." Rufus said grimly.
Something stabbed deep inside Amelia's heart—she knew her Aurors had given everything they could, but they were outnumbered and outfought".
She then followed Rufus where they met with a group of those who were less seriously wounded.
It was heart wrenching to see the expressions on their face of defeat.
"I don't blame any of you for what has happened today. All I ask is that you look at what you did today, and see if you could have done any more. If the answer is yes, then work on improving at and there will be future battles and other chances to prove what it means to be an Auror."She said.
It was important that they did not feel anything about themselves for their defeat.
She had ordered the attack after all.
And she could see the Aurors lifting their heads and summoning up the remnants of their battered pride and thinking ahead to future battles.
She then went back to her office with Rufus.
"You think they're going to attack the Ministry soon? "She asked.
"It's a very real possibility "Rufus said "And we have to be prepared for when that happens"
A crack opened in Amelia's heart, and for a moment she couldn't breathe and felt just sadness, and shame that she couldn't have saved her country from falling to Voldemort's hands. Was this how her Ministry would end? With their democratic system destroyed and everyone who supported it forced to go on the run?
Rufus put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry Amelia. We should not have lost that battle. It is a defeat that the Ministry cannot survive."
Her mind then went to Harry Potter.
His group was the largest now to oppose the Death Eaters.
When they had spoken he had talked about starting the seeds of a resistance.
And sadly she knew back in July that those measures would be necessary at some point.
Everyone knew the Ministry was going to fall at some point.
Her goal had been to delay that for as long as possible to allow for people to make plans.
She hoped they were successful.
The Resistance against Voldemort would need as much luck as possible.