At that moment, Ron and Hermione burst into the room.
"Professor Dumbledore!" they shouted so close together that their voices wove into one intermingling whole.
"Yes, yes. I've already heard." Dumbledore muttered, rising from his seat behind his desk and walking around to face them. "In fact, I was just about to summon the two of you here."
"Us, sir?" Hermione sounded startled as she gazed at the elderly schoolmaster.
"Yes. You four, yes, you too, young Miss Weasley, have the most experience of dealing with Voldemort's forces. And we have need of your unusual talent of surviving these encounters." Dumbledore looked troubled and kept stroking at his long white beard.
"What do you want us to do?" That was Harry, ever the serious one in situations of danger.
Dumbledore brought his eyes down from the ceiling and locked gazes with Harry. "We need someone to lead the defense of Hogsmeade. It needs to be someone who will inspire the young wizards and witches who go to battle this day."
"I understand. I'll be ready to leave in the moment." Harry nodded, turning on his heel and vanishing through the door.
"As for the rest of you, Ron, you and Ginny will be leading another force in a pincers movement in an attempt to stop Voldemort's insurgence once and for all."
"What about me, sir?" Hermione asked, anxious to be useful.
"You'll be with Harry serving in the same position as Ginny shall be with Ron." Dumbledore replied decisively, despite the fact that he didn't like what he was doing. "The various levels of testing you have been at the past several years have shown that you girls have a more powerful grasp on defensive spells than Ron and Harry. No offense, Ron, but yours and Harry's talents lean more to offensive techniques."
"If that's the case, then you should switch Ginny and I. I've been working more with Ron than Harry, and Ginny's defensive spells are more stable than mine."
"And what say you, Ron?"
"Much as I hate to send Gin into danger, Hermione's right. She'd be the best bet with Harry." Ron looked as if saying that was worse than pulling teeth.
"And you, young Miss Weasley? Do you have a problem with the new structure?"
Ginny's voice was soft as she replied, though firm. "I would happily die to keep Harry safe, Professor Dumbledore, sir. He means more to me than anything."
"So be it."
And then there were plans to be made and the time for talking was through.
July the twenty-first it was the year 2001
We met them at Hogsmeade
But they called it old Death Run
Old Pettigrew had orders
Our armies should not meet
But Weasely slipped around him
Insuring his defeat
So I'll lay ten galleons down
And count them one by one
If you'll just show me the one
That whipped Peter Pettigrew
That whipped Peter Pettigrew
"Forward!" Harry roared with every ounce of his being, thrusting his wand towards the dark, seething mass of the Death Eater army like a sword from his perch upon his Firebolt. From her vantage point on a Hogwarts' Shooting Star nearby, Ginny thought that he looked like nothing so much as a bold and daring knight from the old muggle stories of the time when wizards and witches and muggles all lived side by side without fear or having to hide their true selves.
"For Hogwarts! For Harry Potter!" the hastily constructed Army of Hogwarts cried back. Light glimmered and shone like a beacon from their congregation in muted counterpoint to the dark arpeggio of the Death Eater Army.
When Ginny looked back to where Harry had hovered just moments prior, she was startled to discover that he was no where to be found. Spinning about though, she soon found him hovering nearby with a strange look upon his memorable features. For a moment, she just stared at him, as if to somehow engrave his features into her memory, a fearful precaution against the battle that laid before them. But soon she found her voice and spoke.
"Where do you want me, Harry?" she asked with as much confidence as she could muster to reinforce her quavering spirit.
His eyes darkened with some odd emotion for a moment, then snapped with sudden fire as he made his reply. "Where do I want you?" he snorted, "I want you as far from her as possible, Gin! This is no place for you!"
She did not reply, but instead simply sat there and gazed determinedly at him with implacable repose. He sighed and shook his head, knowing when there was a battle he simply could not win.
"But since you obviously won't go back to Hogwarts, what I need is the best shield spell you've ever cast guarding those wizards and witches down there. Don't worry about me. Just protect them." He looked away from her towards where the first fleeting sparks of spell reflecting from spell were just beginning to show. "They don't deserve to die today."
Because he looked away, he never saw the resolve or pain written across her face. How could she ever not worry about him when he insisted on putting himself in danger all the time? It was times like those, when that mysteriously inexorable courage emerged and he put all thoughts of his own safety aside for the safety of others, that made her both love him all the more and yet, paradoxically, hate him with a vehemence all her own.
The Death Eaters were in London
Malfoy at their command
As cruel an Eater officer
As any in the land
Their cry of 'On to Hogwarts!'
Was heard from every lip
Except they didn't reckon
With the Army of the Light
So I'll lay ten galleons down
And count them one by one
If you'll just show me the one
That whipped Peter Pettigrew
That whipped Peter Pettigrew
The battle raged for what seemed like days. Neither side could seem to find a foothold in order to encroach upon the opposing force's position for more than fleeting moments. Light surged and broke against the Dark like the ocean's waves during a hurricane, tearing away at the caliginous allies and leaving shattered remains in their wake. Dark thundered and roared like a tornado through the forces of the Light, rendering the blameless innocents in wreckage underneath their tramping feet. Everywhere was strewn the dead and the dying.
Iron clashed and sparked from stones hidden in the ground beneath steel shod foot and cloven hoof. Brilliant lights flashed and glimmered in silent battle, deflecting and reflecting against and upon each the other. The still night air was rent with the moans and screams of the dying and wounded and the shouts of the wizards and witches still struggling on against deplorable odds.
In the skies above, a extraordinary aerial affray of the likes which had never afore graced the eyes of mortal man was plied by four warriors mounted upon steeds of wood and magic. They soared about through the crystalline air lashing out at one another with swords and lances of glistening light and spears and axes of the most malodorous of blackness. Few words echoed down from that immortal battle.
For there, high in the night above the battleground, flew the Champion of the Light and his gentle Companion against two of the inner sanctum of the Lord of Darkness.
No mere foot soldiers these hideous assassins, their mettle had been tested once before during the first war waged against the Lord of Darkness, and they had writ their names in blood. But not in honorable combat upon the battle field. No, these brief Champions of Darkness sent good men and women to their Maker in dark alleyways and back roads, never in the light of day, did these rank cowards venture. Then, seventeen years before, in the darkness of a night much like the night they battled in now, they caused the merciless demise of the parents of the Champion of the Light. Now, in the air above the Hogsmeade's battlefield, they found themselves facing their legacy.
And neither him nor his companion would ever, could ever, forgive them.
When Weasley reinforced us
And met with Old Man Crouch
Old Pettigrew was troubled
And took it very hard
For Harry Potter's forces
Where there to give him pain
His army was defeated
His charge was all in vain
So I'll lay ten galleons down
And count them one by one
If you'll just show me the one
That whipped Peter Pettigrew
That whipped Peter Pettigrew
The day had dawned for the second time over the weary warriors when the news came of reinforcements.
For a time, the Dark surged forward, confident of triumph. Then, suddenly, the Light was there and there was no longer anywhere for the forces of the Dark to go. For the reinforcements that the Dark force had so craved had been lead by old man Crouch.
Yet, it was a tow-headed man and a tousle-haired woman who lead the small army marching towards them, wearied, yet flush with victory. Weasley had met with Crouch on the road to Hogsmeade from London and his force had soundly trounced the devilish operation.
With renewed fervor, the forces under Potter crashed into the piecemeal remains of the Dark army and crushed them between the two branches in a classic hammer and anvil technique.
In the sky above, their was a brief flash of brilliant light and a scream.
All eyes turned up to see Lucius Malfoy plummet from his broom to smash into the ground with a sickeningly wet thud, prisoner to the totalicus immoblius from Ginny Weasley, followed shortly by two other brooms shattering into the earth. One a Nimbus 2001, the other a Shooting Star with the words Property of Hogwarts carved into the shaft. Peter Pettigrew soon came floating down to earth, bound to his broom.
Harry Potter was the last to descend from the sky. Cradled in his powerful arms, the sobbing form of Ginny Weasley, suffering from a bad case of shock from the results of her spell.
The battle was over. And slowly, the fallen began to be gathered to be prepared for burial. The Light had won, though not without great cost. Yet, it had been discovered where Voldemort was hiding. He was tucked away in the hills of the South of the United States of America.
Now it was time to take the battle to him.
Author's Notes: I do hope that you've been enjoying this Musical Odessy so far! Don't worry, it is going somewhere! (And if you're wondering, yes, I think it does need to go to the American South to work. Mainly because I'm sort of modeling it after the American Civil War, and I need to get Harry away from England, but I don't really know any other country well enough.) Promise! And even if it gets a bit angstsy (it will), I will at least go so far as to promise a happy ending for all H/G shippers, though probably not the kind you are expecting!. ;D If you are wondering, the song of this chapter and the songs used in chapters 7, 9, 10, 11, and 13 are modified at least marginally. They are actually old folksongs which originated during the American Civil War (except for the one in chapter 11 - that's actually about Captain A. B. Stormalog, still a folksong though.), and I've changed them a bit to be about the situation, so it makes a little more sense. But, if enough people ask me, I'll be sure to include an unmodified set of lyrics at the end of the Odessy. But, till then, I guess I'll just keep pounded my keyboard! ;p
-Siobhan Recca
The Cybernetic Ninja
PS: For those of you who reviewed my other song-fic (The Only Thing Wrong) and were wondering about the identity of Ginny's silver-haired husband: The Only Thing Wrong is a working sequel/coinciding story with The Greatest Man I Never Knew, wherein I mentioned Harry's prematurely graying hair, thus, the silver haired man is, in fact, Harry Potter.
