Chapter 26: The Battle of Newcastle

"Why do you guys ride your horses to North Port?" Susan asked as they made their way to the stables.

"North Port is quite close and it's a handy skill to know how to ride horses so we ride them to keep our skills." Harry responded as he got onto his horse.

"Yes it's very close," Susan said sarcastically.

"It's only an hour ride from Hogwarts to North Port." Ginny said as she got on Scarlet.

"Alright, alright, we'll go on horseback." Susan agreed before she got on her horse.

"Let's go, we have a meeting to go to," Draco said as his horse began walking.

When they arrived at North Port, Susan went to the medical department. The other four went to the main building where the meeting would take place. They got off their horses on the street made out of stone. They went to the large doors that opened once they stepped onto the stairs. They went up the stairs and into a large meeting room that was made out of oak wood. They sat down and watched as the other people attending the meeting arrived.

"We all have come to this meeting for one reason. It is to talk about the invasion of northern England and a little bit of northern Wales." Perla said as she took a sip of tea.

"Lord Potter, do you wish to do this invasion?" Lady Longbottom asked.

"I do. We will have to use our navy at Newcastle and Liverpool though." Harry said with a smile as he motioned outside the window that gave a clear view of their navy.

"That is fine, Harry." Sirius said as he wrote down the order to get the navy ready.

"When do you believe we can begin the invasion?" Draco asked Sirius.

"Around the 30th of this month. We'll tell you when." Sirius said.

They all talked for a few more minutes. They mainly discussed the plans of the invasion. They all left to prepare for the invasion while the four went back to Hogwarts to get their soldiers there ready for the fight.

Outside Newcastle Upon Tyne

December 1

5:00 AM

It was cold. Sure it wasn't Scotland cold but it was still cold. There was already snow on the ground they were preparing to fight on. Hundreds or maybe even thousands of pieces of artillery were being loaded for the barrage they were going to shoot. It wasn't hard to notice them but it was still dark. They received word that the bombers and fighters were at the closest airports.

"Does it always have to be cold when we fight?" Asked Neville as he walked towards the four.

"I don't know. I guess it's purely based on luck." Draco said, Harry snorted in amusement."What's so funny?"

"It's Sirius that chooses this weather." Harry said with a smile.

"The planes are coming," Growled Moody as he walked over to them.

"There they are," Luna Lovegood said as she pointed at a shadow in the sky. It only looked like one plane but if you looked closer you would see hundreds.

They watched them go over the city. The first bomb dropped out of the first bomber and soon more followed. A loud siren blared through the city and countryside as bombs began exploding on the city. They watched as fighters attempted to take the bombers out. The fighters were quickly destroyed by the Scottish fighters that quickly took them out with very little effort.

"When should we begin the barrage, Potter?" Someone asked from behind some artillery.

"Wait until the bombing run is finished," Harry said as he lit a cigarette.

"Yes sir," He said as he looked up into the sky.

"Do we really have to use cigarettes to be stronger?" Neville asked as he looked at Harry's cigarette.

"Unless you prefer meth then yes," Harry said seriously.

"Never mind, I'm just glad they are not addictive," Neville said as he lit one.

"Yeah," Draco muttered with a laugh.

"FIRE!" Tonks yelled as the planes overhead cleared. Red flashes of light appeared from all around. Red and orange explosions were seen in the city and fields as the barrage began. Lights began illuminating the sky like fireworks as more booms rang through the night.

They did not give the artillery a break. As soon as they loaded the howitzers they were fired. In total the whole bombardment lasted two hours and ended at 7:30 am. The whole sky was gray from all the smoke. Craters covered the ground everywhere. Rubble littered the streets and parts of the buildings were destroyed. Some houses and buildings were completely leveled. Harry looked back and saw that most of the soldiers were gone and were charging into the city.

Harry looked around for Daphne, Draco and Ginny. He quickly became amused when he saw them running on the field."Oh what the hell!" Harry said as he began running. He was quickly catching up on the three.

"How many people are in there?" Daphne asked as they ducked behind a fallen tree.

"In the city?" Draco asked.

"Yeah," Daphne asked after catching her breath.

"Like 20,000 in the city. Only a few tanks there though." Draco said as he looked over the tree trunk.

Harry caught up to them and ducked behind the tree as well before saying."A bit overkill. We're taking the city with 100,000 people against 20,000."

"True," Draco said as a person next to them was shot in the shoulder. He screamed in pain as the bullet ripped his coat and pierced his shoulder.

"Stay still." Ginny ordered as she took her first aid kit. She put on her head lamp and turned it on. Ginny tried to remember her medical training that was like intense healer training. She carefully took his coat off before numbing him. She took a piece of parchment out and cast a spell on his shoulder. The spell was like an x-ray except you could print it on parchment with your wand.

The spell would also make the bullet become blue and visible from outside the body. She carefully took out her tweezers and grasped the bullet with them. She slowly took the bullet out before applying phoenix tears on the wound. The wound closed, but there was still a scar. She carefully applied the essence of dittany to remove the scar before removing the numbing.

"Thank you," The soldier thanked before grabbing his weapon and running back into battle.

"How do you do it? I'm awful at healing but you and Daphne are amazing at it." Complained Draco.

"Stop complaining Draco. Life isn't fair. We should stay quiet to avoid detection from 15 muggles that are heavily armed and walking straight to us." Harry whispered in irritation. Harry decided to call in an airstrike. Harry quickly made a ditch for them to take cover in as the missile landed in an explosion in front of them, taking the muggles out.

"I'm pretty sure they're alive." Daphne said sarcastically.

"Let's go," Harry said as he jumped over the log and ran to the closest building. Once they all entered the building they began searching the place. After deciding that it was clear they went out to the street where there was a tank fighting another tank.

The Challenger two peeked around just to be shot at. The Merlin that shot at the Challenger missed but it still scared the Challenger's crew. The giant behemoth charged to where the Challenger was and shot it. A loud boom was heard through the city as the tank was destroyed. They all ran into an alley before sitting down in exhaustion.

"If it continues this way it will take a few days to capture the city." Draco whispered once he sat down.

"Imagine what it will be like in Manchester and Liverpool." Ginny said with a frown.

"I don't want to go into London anymore." Daphne groaned in annoyance.

"We'll have to capture London to win the war," Harry said as a group of five muggles ran into the alley way. What made it sadder was the fact that they all looked like they were around the age of 19."Drop your weapons! We don't want to hurt you." Harry ordered as he pointed his gun at them. They did as ordered because Harry was quite intimidating.

"On the ground," Draco ordered as he pushed one onto the ground.

"Bullying first years paid off, didn't it?" Harry said with a smirk.

"Don't remind me," Draco groaned with shame.

"Are any of you injured?" Ginny asked the five muggles with concern.

"I was stabbed in the stomach. I stopped the bleeding but the cut is still there." The tallest one of the five said. Ginny walked forward and removed the shred of cloth from his shirt and looked at his wound.

"We have to get moving before it gets infected." Ginny said as she wet a cloth with cool water and cleaned the wound.

"Why are you doing this? We're your enemies not allies." The wounded soldier asked.

"You were drafted here because you lost control of Scotland and northern England. Did any of you remove the knife?" Ginny asked after cleaning the wound and removing the blood.

"Yeah we did," A short muggle said with a proud smile.

"Idiot," Ginny muttered before addressing the confused look on his face."You were supposed to keep the knife there to keep the pressure and stop the bleeding from actually starting. He could've died from blood loss."

"Oh," He muttered quietly.

"That's as good as we can heal it. Were you guys going to retreat?" Daphne asked as she finished applying the bandage.

"Our general told us that we wouldn't retreat for anything and that if we kept fighting for a day the reinforcements would arrive to defeat you. We can't leave or we would be executed. We would have to defend the city until we all died." A muggle replied with fear in his eyes.

"When are the labor camps going to be done?" Draco asked Harry. The captured soldiers' eyes widened and the two girls gasped in shock. Harry picked up on Draco's train of thought and replied.

"They'll all be done by tomorrow. Better than death. You're all coming with us as prisoners of war." Harry said before rolling up his sleeve and making an order that would go to every soldier they had."Kill as little as possible and instead capture the muggles and death eaters for free labor."

"You had us worried that you would be like Hitler and imprison all muggle and minorities." Daphne said with a smile.

"Get up and follow us out." Harry ordered with his gun trained on them. The muggles stood up and gave them their guns and followed Harry and the other three out to the trucks where they would be transported by train to the camps.

"Watch them," Draco instructed a person working on the artillery who nodded.

"Yes sir," He said with a salute.

"Let's go," Harry said as he began walking back to the alleyways.

The fighting ceased for a few hours but nobody retreated. It was only until the next day that gun shots could be heard. Less and less people were getting killed or injured and they were getting more POW. Harry was woken up by Draco who pointed to a Merlin that was empty. Harry nodded and woke Ginny up as Draco woke Daphne up. Harry pointed to the heavy tank and ran over to it with the other three.

When they got to the heavy tank they opened the hatch and climbed in. Harry looked around and saw that it was abandoned after a muggle took the crew prisoner. Harry grimaced as he hit his leg on the tank. Harry got into the gunner seat while the other three got into their positions. Ginny turned the tank on with a turn of the keys before taking off.

"Already loaded," Draco said through their communication charms.

"Around the corner. 15 meters away. Aim higher. About to peek out from the corner." Ginny reported without stopping.

"Squeezing the trigger." Harry said in concentration as he aimed the barrel of the gun higher. Ginny peeked around the corner and stopped just on time to dodge a tank shell that exploded on the road. Ginny took the opportunity and rushed forward. Harry squeezed the trigger harder. He felt a strong pressure on his body as the tank was pushed back an inch or two as the enemy Challenger was destroyed.

"THERE'S A POWERFUL TANK AROUND THE CORNER. THIS TANK IS UNKNOWN!" Yelled Daphne as she looked through her sights.

"Does the tank's barrel have a fang like pattern on the end of the barrel?" Harry asked in a calm voice as Daphne looked again and answered positively."I thought that they would be used during the assault on Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds."

"What are you talking about?" Draco asked in confusion.

"It's our new tank model. They're called Panthers. The Panther tank is a medium tank. About 43 tons. 132 millimetre main gun. Less than our Merlin tanks but they are faster and more armored." Harry said as Ginny rode in the middle of the street to greet the Panther.

"Daphne, can you connect your radio to theirs?" Ginny asked as she got in front of the Panther. Five other Merlins were following behind them. Daphne connected the radio and passed it to Harry.

Can you hear me? The Panther asked.

I can. Panther 9 are you fully connected to the eastern tank radio? Harry asked.

We're working on it. We're in the model Panther B. The Panther responded.

Alright, join our two tank squadrons. Harry responded as the Panther went behind them.

Done. The Panther responded.

"Don't have to announce that. It's pretty fucking obvious." Harry muttered but unfortunately it went through the radio. When the people in the Panther heard it they burst out laughing.

Shut up.

"Tank up ahead," Daphne shouted through the radio and communication charms.

"That tank doesn't look like a Challenger." Ginny commented in confusion. All of a sudden a message came from North Port through the radio.

"The German minister of magic has been assassinated by Death eaters. They have full control over Magical Germany. Muggle Germany joined the fight with Muggle Britain." The voice of Sirius said over the radio. Harry swore in anger before staring more closely at the unknown tank. That was when he realized that it had the Iron Cross.

"SHIT! SHOOT IT!" Harry yelled at the Panther in urgency.

What the fuck happened? The Panther asked in confusion as they regained connection over the radio.

GERMANY WAS CAPTURED BY DEATH EATERS! Destroy that tank right now or I will destroy you and that tank. Harry ordered in a stern voice. The shot rang through the sky as the large gun destroyed the other tank.

Someone answer the fucking question. Someone who Harry realized as Neville said from the Panther. Neville opened the hatch to his Panther and stuck his head out as Harry did the same.

"What was that tank?" Neville asked as he pointed to the destroyed tank that littered the street.

"I…I saw the Iron Cross. That was a Leopard 2. Germany is fighting against us. Death Eaters captured magical Germany and Muggle Germany is on the English side. Not the Scottish side." Harry said with a sigh as Draco pulled him back inside.

"Listen to this," Draco said as he placed their radio in front of him.

"The Muggle forces in Newcastle have retreated. We have lost 12,000 soldiers and 1 Merlin tank while we have received 8,000 new Smaft 2 Panther B. Rendezvous in the center of the city." Sirius announced as all the tanks turned and went to the center of the city.