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Harry Does Different CDXXXIII

Harry Potter Saves New York

US President Thomas Whitmore kissed his young daughter on the head and put her down "Go on Patty. Go stand with Connie."

"There you go munchkin." The speechwriter took the little girl's hand and began whispering along with her boss "My fellow Americans, the question of whether we are alone has been answered…"

Harry and Ginny Potter were on their honeymoon. This stopover had something of a double purpose in a little professional research for the bride. The evening would be dedicated to watching an American Quidditch game for pointers. She was looking forward to that. Right now, not so much, she clutched to her husband whispering "This can't be safe Harry. You said they don't use magic. How do they keep it from falling over."

"You read the pamphlet, Gin." Harry frankly enjoyed the feel of his new wife against him, he went on lightly "The Empire State Building has been standing since before your parents were born."

She pushed at his shoulder as she looked both down at the ground and up at the sky complaining "The bloody thing moves!"

"Merlin Gin, it's not even 400 meters. You've been higher than that on a broom." He scolded quietly.

She suddenly went all stiff and pointed out in the distance, to something over a bridge "Tha bloody'ell is that! Looks like the sky's on fire!"

"Looks like their President is talking about it. Let's go in and watch." Suggested Harry, pulling his wife back to the elevator room, which had a couple screens mounted on walls.

The newlyweds got there in time to watch a rebroadcast of the speech which concluded "…If you feel the need to leave these cities, please do so in an orderly manner."

"I don't understand, Harry. What is that huge thing?" the redhead was too ignorant to be afraid "Where did it come from? What magic keeps it from falling?"

Harry answered as best he could "Muggles like something called science fiction, which is stories about meeting people from other planets. Sometimes they're friendly, sometimes not. They call THAT a flying saucer. And I guess if they can fly all the way to Earth from wherever, they can keep it in the sky like that."

"I'm scared, let's get on the ground." Ginny insisted "Then maybe you can explain this other worlds thing to me."

Harry found that amusing "I'm going to have to catch you up on Muggles. And remember we know of goblins, merpeople and centaurs. They're not human. We'll go down soon enough. We can always apparate." He watched his calm storytelling ease his wife's anxiety.

Abcij

"Attention please, guests on the observation deck!" came from the speakers an hour later "The elevators to the 82nd floor have overheated and need a cooldown period of approximately two hours. There is no cause for alarm and evacuation will resume once the equipment is certified."

So Harry, Ginny and a hundred or so fellow tourists found places to relax as best they could. The TV screens went on showing various major world cities with similar giant ships hovering above. The wizard had surreptitiously placed a light calming spell on his wife. They couldn't simply apparate away because there was nowhere sufficiently private up here. He imagined she would be annoyed with him, but would worry about that later.

Little changed as time passed and everyone pretty much lazed about, when suddenly things changed. Video showed green lights coming from the saucers. It started with Beijing and spread east in minutes. Delhi, Tehran, Riyadh, Moscow, Paris, Brussels were all engulfed in flames. The screens showed the massive ships heading for other targets.

Everyone on the platform panicked. But any screaming came to an end as Harry looked up. Structures easily the size of skyscrapers swung open, revealing the same green light that preceded the earlier mass destruction.

"Let's apparate now! Harry! RIGHT NOW!" yelled Ginny, quite suddenly unconcerned with the Statute of Secrecy.

Harry's brain was in overdrive, he too didn't worry about those around them, his wand was out "I don't think there's much point, Gin. We could never go far enough fast enough. I have an idea. Stop it at the source. I want to cast something I thought of. It'll be even better with two …I think. We'll aim straight up and cast Protego Patronum. It'll create a shield made of our patronii. Hope it's enough."

"Protego Patronum!" the magical couple yelled, unheeding of witnesses.

The couple dozen others flinched away, instinctively from what was coming. But after a few seconds, looked at the pair in awe. The green beam whose twins that blasted cities off the map clashed with the silvery something these two youngsters were somehow producing from sticks.

What no one on the Empire State Building observation deck couldn't see was plainly obvious to anyone some distance away. The city destroying beam was being reflected back to its source. Which after a minute, was wrecked by massive explosions. Not to say New York City was undamaged as the alien craft fell into the Hudson River, but it was the first Human city to escape annihilation.