Chapter 25: The Defense of Hogsmeade
Harry was walking to Hogsmeade with the other three after yesterday. After a few classes with Umbridge or Umbitch as Ginny put it he put his foot down and made her teach magic. It was quite easy once you added the blatant threats he made and the wand pointed to her face also helped. She hadn't improved much but she at the very least taught magic now. Harry was laughing when all of a sudden a Patronus of a Grim appeared and began speaking.
"The British Muggles have invaded the shores north of Hogsmeade. The anti-muggle wards have fallen for some unknown reason. They are arriving at Hogsmeade. Defend the village." The voice of Sirius said as a line of their tanks drove up the road into Hogsmeade.
Harry pressed his Griffon mark which summoned a few hundred people. Most of them had muggle guns or wands while others had bows and crossbows.
(This is an entry from a journal my grandfather had)
Saturday, November 26th 1994,
Once Sirius' patronus faded away I saw our tanks. I walked into the village as I summoned a few hundred members of the army. They mainly had muggle guns. I motioned with my hand for the soldiers to get on the roofs to be ready for an attack on the village.
"It's fucking cold." Draco swore as his teeth were chattering. Indeed it was cold and even my strongest warming charms would be ineffective. I didn't have time to worry about the cold. I had to worry about the long line of soldiers marching out of the mountains with 20 tanks and many pieces of artillery.
"Shit," I muttered as I warned my soldiers of the looming threat that was marching down the mountains. I got even more worried when I saw that they stopped the artillery and were now setting it up. One…two…three…four…five. Five roars came from the artillery as they rained down artillery shells. Explosions tore through the village as the road exploded and crumbled under the heavy bombs.
The first gun shot rang out in the air as a muggle fell to a bullet in the head. The snow became splattered in red blood as he fell into the snow. The British muggles began running as the tanks rolled into the village and met our tanks. The tanks Amelia designed dwarfed the Challenger twos. The Merlin tank was about twice its size and could have easily destroyed it with a single shot. I pulled out his rifle and unleashed a few rounds into ten soldiers that fell under the rage that I shot.
I heard a loud scream that echoed through the valley of Hogsmeade. I turned around and what I saw was horrifying. I smelt the stench of burning bodies and was livid to see that one of our tanks was smoking from the barrel of its turret while a Challenger two was burning without a turret. When I looked around I saw the turret four meters away from the burning tank. I saw a charred hand reach out of the vehicle and try to grasp the side of the tank but failed and fell back in the blazing inferno.
I looked at the mountains and saw the artillery still standing. I grabbed the communication radio that we all had and called in an airstrike from a nearby patrol of 20 bombers. In a minute I heard a gust of wind as 20 bombers shot down from the sky and dropped bombs on the artilley and tanks. The places where the bombs hit lit up in an inferno of flames and sparks as they blew up. Many of my soldiers began dropping from the buildings and onto the street where they fought more directly.
I jumped down with Ginny, Draco and Daphne. We all had our firearms drawn as we rushed through an alley where at the end were a few muggles that were trying to get reinforcements. Draco quickly put an end to it as he shot them all dead in a matter of seconds before taking their radio and pocketing it. I grabbed the radio out of Draco's pocket and turned it on.
"300 dead at Hogsmeade. Lost artillery and we only have a few tanks. Requesting aid, how much do you have?"
"We only have 20,000 soldiers roaming the territory we have in Scotland. We failed the invasion of Scapa Flow. IN the invasion we lost…shit…we lost all 15,000 soldiers. We do…n…t…ha…" A gunshot rang through the radio.
"Hello? Hello? ANSWER ME. God damn it. I'm sorry"
"Our paratroopers are landing on the beaches of Scotland." Ginny said as she covered her mark up after receiving a message.
"We have to go back fighting," I said with a grimace as I watched someone's head be blown off by a machine gun a Merlin tank had.
"Holy shit." Daphne said in shock when she saw the large pool of blood accumulating a few feet away.
"No time to be watching blood, let's go." Draco said as he ran out of the alley with me.
The girls also ran but they were having trouble keeping up with the two of us. I rolled up my sleeve and told all of our soldiers to go on the offensive. The Merlins were rushing up the street and pushing the Challenger out of Hogsmeade while the soldiers that were being led by Neville were beginning to push the muggle soldiers out of the village.
"Push them out to sea or kill them all!" I ordered as a Merlin tank hit a Challenger on its front armor plate.
I felt the presence of someone near them. In a matter of seconds a loud shot rang out in the air as a bullet through my shoulder. I grimaced in pain as I poured our healing acid which destroyed the bullet inside of me and closed the bullet hole. I pointed my rifle back and shot a dark figure that was holding a gun that was aimed at my shoulder. The bullet ripped through the air as a splatter of blood appeared on the white snow in front of me.
"Saber, are you alright?" Draco asked as he looked at me with concern.
"No, the bloody Acid of Scotland hurts." I told them as they all laughed at me. I also found it quite funny but not funny enough for me not to notice our Merlin tanks stop moving and begin mowing down the British muggle with machine gun fire.
"Idiot," Daphne muttered as Ginny pulled me into a hug.
"That's not fair!" I complained as I put a gun to her shoulder. She jumped back in surprise when she felt the hot metal on her shoulder.
"Don't you dare." She threatened as a bullet missed her head and hit a Butterbeer bottle.
"That guy had great aim." I said in surprise as I emptied my rifle in the person that shot the bottle.
"Don't you think that's a little overboard?" Draco asked me as he stared at the body that was littered with puncture wounds.
"Too little." I admitted with a smirk.
"How do you control this one? He's bloody mental." Draco asked Ginny who laughed.
"You just do." Ginny said with a growing smirk.
"Very funny." I said sarcastically as they mounted their horses and rushed off to fight.
As we were galloping we saw terrible things. Ripped up clothes, blood, flesh, charred corpses and discarded weapons. As they approached the fighting we saw trenches dug and people lying on the ground with barbed wire outside the trenches. I looked around and saw Merlins driving over the trenches and many people jumping out of the trenches and racing to the enemy trenches.
"Look out!" Someone shouted while pointing up. When I looked up I saw five planes that I recognized as bombers racing to us. We all ducked down when we saw the planes. Bombs began raining down on our trenches.
The bombers looked very untrained. Most of the bombs were missing and the bombs that hit the trenches only made them deeper without damaging anyone except giving them a few burns and cuts. There was a loud sound of wind as a fast fighter jet shot a bomber down. The fighter kept shooting at the bombers that were trying to get away but they were too inexperienced and got shot down quickly.
I heard a sound of tank tracks crushing the snow and the sounds of engines quickly approaching. I looked up and saw an army of many tanks driving onto the field. When Daphne saw this she pulled on her sleeve and sent a message through the mark. The five Merlin tanks that we had turned and locked onto the oncoming tanks. I was shooting when I felt someone tap on my shoulder. I turned around and I saw Isacc.
"What happened, Isacc?" I asked him.
"We have a tank that doesn't have anyone driving it. Do you want to drive it?" Isacc asked as he pointed to a Merlin tank a few meters away.
"Sure," I agreed and Ginny, Draco and Daphne nodded as well.
"Alright, let's go," Isacc said as he jumped out of the trench. I followed him with the others.
"Get in," Draco said as he opened the hatch.
"Ginny, you drive. Draco, you be my loader. Daphne, you will fire the machine gun and help Draco load when needed. I will be the gunner." I said as I entered the tank and sat at the gunners chair. Ginny went to the front where she would drive while Draco and Daphne went to where they loaded the shells. Isacc ran back to Abigail in the trenches where he tended to the wounded with her.
"Ready?" Ginny asked as she turned the tank on.
"Ready, my turret is pointed to a Challenger on the far left of their formation," I said as I aimed my gun.
"Driving over the trenches," Announced Ginny as we drove over the trenches and onto the stretch of land where there were many craters and barbed wire.
"Load," I ordered, then Draco and Daphne loaded a shell into the turret.
"Ready," Daphne said.
"We're approaching 120 meters from our target." Ginny announced as they drove out of the cover of a boulder.
"Three…two…one fire!" I yelled as I squeezed the trigger. I felt myself be pushed back from the recoil as a loud boom shot out from the tank. I looked out of the tank and I saw that the Challenger we were targeting was engulfed in flames."Hit."
"Ready," Draco said as he loaded the main gun.
"Aiming at the center," I announced as I locked onto a tank in the center as five more tanks fell to the other Merlins. Suddenly a wall of soldiers rushed out of their trenches and charged towards ours.
"SHOOT AT THEM!" I yelled at Daphne as I destroyed a tank. Daphne squeezed the trigger tightly while aiming at the soldiers that were running. The tank began humming from the power that was coming from their tank. People began to drop under the onslaught of bullets they were put in front of.
I grew pale as I noticed that five Challengers suddenly became very interested in us. Of course they couldn't destroy Merlin tanks but it was still worrying. They all took aim at our Merlin before firing shells into the tank. They didn't do much other than ricochet or leave tiny scratches on the armor. Our other Merlins returned fire and knocked them all out. I decided to take matters into my own hands when I noticed Ginny was going quite slow for the max speed.
I got up and pulled Ginny out of the driving seat before I got on. I motioned for the gunner chair which she shot in and looked out. I kicked the tank into high gear. I directed the tank which crushed British muggles under the tracks of our tank. I heard cracks and I saw blood splattering everywhere. The remaining soldiers ran back to their trenches before retreating into the mountains. I ordered everyone to stop attacking as I realized that our paratroopers would take them all out.
I opened the hatch and got out after I turned the tank off. The other three did the same and got out. I walked back to the trenches where our horses were. When I reached my horse, Sunny, I got on her and began riding into Hogsmeade. The other three did the same. We left our horses at the stable before we walked back to the castle. When we reached the castle there were many people in stretchers in pain while many St. Mungos healers were treating the injured. Luckily we weren't hurt other than visibly shaken from the horrors we saw. We all showered before going to sleep. When I got into our bedroom there was a note there.
(This is where the journal entry ends)
Dear Harry,
We have driven the death eaters out of Cumbria but they lost less than we thought. They have retreated into Liverpool. We have decided to invade Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds. Tell me if we need anything more next meeting. We have 2 million soldiers ready for the invasion. We have 5,392 tanks, 58,987 bomber and fighter jets and 8,458 artillery.
Sirius Black
"What is it, Harry?" Ginny asked in a concerned voice as Draco and Daphne walked by. When they heard the question they both entered the room.
"We're going to invade Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle. He's asking if we have enough materials to go through with the plan." Harry said with a frown."We have enough materials. We just need to plan."
"I guess we do." Draco said with a smile.
"I find it weird that most action since the war against Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw has been during the winter." Daphne said with a realization.
"We train in the extreme cold. That's probably why," Harry explained with a smile.
"Well let's go to sleep so we can wake up bright and early to go to our meeting." Ginny said with a smile as she pushed Draco and Daphne out of their room before turning the light off and closing the door.
"We should leave before they shag." Draco joked with a smile.
"At least they had the decency to close the door." Daphne said as they went to their room.
