Fighting Someone Else's War

Chapter Three - Standing Up

With the angry mob surrounding him he acted on his decision.

He dropped his carbine to the ground and held his arms up high. It was embarrassing for him to give up to a bunch of old men but he couldn't risk it. There were too many innocent young children around him and he didn't want to end their life all of a sudden. No, he gave up his M4 and pistol on the ground and let himself be taken away by the men in black robes.

Remembering survival training was difficult. They said something about not giving in but also to co-operate with your captors so you may gain their trust. Well time was running short for Ryan and he needed them to trust him now! But there was a slight problem to it… he had attacked and knocked out someone and accidentally barged into an occupied girl's bathroom. Looked like there was no trust…

'Here we are.' Looking up he saw a statue of a gargoyle. Could it be the same one that was guarding the girl's bathroom? No it wasn't because it hopped aside leaving a set of stairs in front of him. The group of people walked up with the Ranger following in the middle of them. He was led into a circular room with an old man behind a desk. He recognised the man in the hospital: "Albus".

'Ah! Hello there, my name is Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry,' introduced the man.

Witchcraft and Wizardry? Since when did magic become reality? A few hours ago he was living in a warring world where magic was nothing but a fable told in stories. But here, in this world, it was real. He didn't want to believe it but it was true, magic did exist. 'So what might be your name?' asked the old man. Remembering his survival training: co-operate but don't give in.

'My name is Ryan Andrews,' replied the soldier.

'Nice to meet you Mr Andrews,' said Dumbledore. 'Now I do believe there is a… well we must talk about what happened in the past few hours?'

'I guess…' Ryan said lamely. He didn't want to talk to this Dumbledore guy but he had to make sure that he would be trusted so he would give out enough information. So the next question that the old man asked him was: 'Where did you come from?' He simply replied that he was born in the 'land of the free' hoping that Dumbledore would catch on. The next question that came his way was: 'Why are you here?'

Ryan opened his mouth but closed it hastily. Why was he here? Oh yeah, now here remembered. He was fighting in a city when everything around him stopped and that's when he saw the portal and decided to step in and join the magical world of Peter Pan… yeah right.

'I'm actually an explorer,' he lied. 'I travel through universes fixing what's wrong to right and all the hero stuff. I actually have a good record you know?' He was trying to lie as much as possible but knew it would be hard to persuade. 'I destroyed the aliens that invaded the remaining human population when they landed on a new planet… away from the Covenants,' he said using the idea from his video game Halo. 'I did some other stuff but that's about it.'

The man remained silent and looked at him skeptically. Of course he wouldn't believe him. Since when did 'space explorers' exist? Dumbledore replied, 'Very well then, you can help us out in our situation.' Ryan looked at him stunned. He took the story? The fake story that just saved his ass? 'There is evil here and we need your assistance.'

'OK,' was more than Ryan had planned to say.

'We need you to command our ground forces as we throw back Voldemort's Death Eaters.'

'Death what?'

'Death Eaters,' began Dumbledore. 'They serve the Voldemort, the Dark Lord, with total obedience and are very ruthless. They are a danger to everyone and if they manage to take control of Hogwarts they may be able to overthrow everything.' Well that couldn't happen now could it? 'So I need you to help Harry organise and train our new force against the Death Eaters.'

Ryan was speechless and didn't know what to say. Him leading an army against a bunch of people? What the hell was going on? He needed to know but kept that from bugging him. 'OK I'll get on.' Great move. Real slick Ryan, just got yourself a handful to do you stupid asshole.

*

He managed to assemble his group of soldiers in front of the castle… when pigs fly. The scene in front of him made him look away in disgust. They weren't capable of being a soldier, not even half! They were all little, almost eleven to seventeen, they weren't built to be soldiers. They all were too pampered for their own good and he could say that if he wanted to. Because for Ryan, he had grown up differently. He grew up in an orphanage with no parents to look after him so he toughened up but these children didn't go through that. They didn't watch the new clips of CNN that showed the horror of it all…

'So let me get this straight. I'm suppose to turn all of you good-for-nothing, pampered kids into soldiers? Harry did I get that right?'

'Well yeah but they aren't good for nothing! I mean look: Hermione, that one there, is the smartest one of all! Ron, the one with the red hair, is strong and could really help out! And Neville… well… Neville's a good helper!'

Ryan looked at the disorganised group. 'Fine… if you want to be soldiers the first thing I want you to do is give my thirty push-ups and make 'em good!' he ordered. That was his first command it would be questioned, without a doubt, by the girl named Hermione.

'What now?' she asked. 'I'm sorry but push-ups don't show anything – '

'Thank you Miss Granger you just graduated to fifty! Now start now!' Ryan shouted at the group. They all went down and began. The Ranger began to laugh when half of them began to crumple at ten push-ups… how pathetic, was his thought. He waited until Hermione finished her set and stood up rubbing her swore arms. 'Well that was average… you can now do ten laps around this castle and I want you back here in under fifteen minutes!' No one questioned them as they left off.

Harry Potter turned towards Ryan and asked, 'I know you have to be tough on them but… why too tough?'

'There is no such thing as being too tough. These kids need to be hardened and I'll be damned if they ever become true soldiers… They can't even do ten average push-ups without collapsing in pain…'

The Ranger knew not to get attached to the group of soldiers. He was to make sure he trained them well and turned them into strong soldiers but he also had to find a way back to his world. A world where the whole European and Mid-East countries warred at each other, a nuclear war. What was happening now in his world? Did they liberate the city from hostiles?

Fifteen minutes later the tired and coughing group of children arrived. They were all about to collapse but to keep that from happening, the caring Ryan told them to do another thirty push-ups.

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Author's Note: So I made Ryan a little bit angry to a bunch of kids (I still haven't told you who were in the group). I believe you are wondering about 'Miss O'Toole'? Well she'll come in the next chapter.