Chapter 10
Attack
Ginny looked up by the chime. She had been working from Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions. Hermione was out on her date with that Cadet.
She walked over to the door and opened it. The door slit aside to reveal Beverly with something in her hand.
"Doctor Crusher, come in. What can I do for you?" she said, stepping aside.
Beverly entered and sat down on the couch. Ginny put her work away and joined her.
"All alone here?"
"Hermione is out with that Cadet. And the boys were having a guy's night or something like that. And I had some work to do. But was there something I could do for you?"
"I have something that might come in handy for you." Beverly handed Ginny the gray kit she was holding. "You know how to use this. Time for your own."
Ginny opened the kit, revealing a collection of medical tools. She recognized them all, having learned all about them the last few weeks.
"Thanks Doctor Crusher."
***
Next morning Hermione was lying relaxed in her bed. She was thinking about the date she had had last night. It had proven to be quite a pleasant evening. Damien Baker was amiable companionship. He could keep up an intelligent conversation.
He had also behaved very gentlemanly. He had picked her up at her quarters, completely with flowers. Then he had escorted her to Ten Forward, where he pulled her chair out. Later he had brought her back to her quarters.
Harry and Ron hadn't been glad with the fact she had gone out on a date. Even when she insured them it was pure friendly. Especially Ron had grumbled. But a few glares of his sister had silenced them.
Suddenly her combadge chirped. Hermione took it from her nightstand and taped it. "Hermione here."
"Mione, this is Harry. Meet us in ten minutes in my quarters, full battle outfit."
"Understood. Is Ginny with you already? Do I need to bring her stuff?"
"Gin is here in battle outfit. But if you bring her med-kit. Harry out."
After that last sentence Hermione jumped out of bed and grabbed her Order uniform. Eight minutes later she hurried to Harry's and Ron's quarters, in the mean time wrapping the elastic band at the end of her braid.
***
When she entered Harry's and Ron's quarters the other four were already sitting around the table. Hermione walked over to an empty seat. "What's wrong?"
"Voldemort is up to something. My scar is been hurting whole night. I just don't know what."
Suddenly alarm claxons sounded through the ship.
"Red alert!" Ginny said.
A few seconds later the ship shook. Again a few seconds later a ship-wide message was sent out. "The Enterprise has been boarded."
The five looked at each other.
Ron quickly closed his eyes, reaching out with his magical senses. "Dark magic. There are Death Eaters on board. I can't sense how many."
Ginny gave him her hand and reached out also. "There are about eight Death Eaters." The siblings let go of each others hands and stood up, just like the other three.
"Wands out. You know what we have to do." Sirius said.
All five ran out of the quarters.
***
"How much do we know?" Minerva McGonagall asked.
"With the dreams of Miss Patel and Miss Brown we have been able to disconcert that they are in the year 2376. We have been searching for several spells we can use to get someone to them and to get them back. And we are busy trying to find out which spell is the best one to use." Dumbledore reported towards the other members of the Phoenix.
"Who will go when we find out whiz spell is best to uze?" Fleur asked.
"We will determine that when come to that point."
"By the Daily Prophet more and more crazy theories are coming forward. I can barely stop them from appearing in the paper. It's lucky that we don't have Rita Skeeter on the paper anymore. We must hurry with getting them home. I don't know how much longer I can keep this up." Anna Cochius, the connection with the Daily Prophet said.
The other members voiced their agreement.
"Another point, Dumbledore. How is the training of the students progressing?"
"Progressing according to schedule. In slightly more than two weeks time the students have learned quite some dueling spells. We also have started to see which students will be best to join the more specialized groups." Minerva reported.
The meeting continued for some time.
***
They met the first enemies just a hallway away. Five aliens with gray skin and heavy bone ridges in the neck. Immediately when they spotted the five they started firing at them.
Ginny, Hermione and Ron dove aside. Harry and Sirius remained standing, wands out and cast together: "Defendo circulaire."
"What the heck are those?" Ron asked, while he stood up, strengthening the incantation.
Hermione and Ginny did the same. Both cast the same incantation the males had cast, creating a very powerful shield. It stopped all compressor fire.
Hermione studied them carefully. "It are Cardassians." she declared.
"Cardi-whats?" Ron exclaimed.
"I don't have the time to give you a long rundown on them. Just keep in mind that they are a very aggressive species." Hermione said. "They are stopping with firing."
All five raised their wands again. As soon as the latest fiery streak had been absorbed, all five cast: "Release."
A blast of green power fired back, knocking the Cardassians out. Hermione immediately put full body binds on them.
"Are we leaving them just here?" Ginny asked.
"We will put them out of the way." Ron walked over, tied them up for extra security, cast 'Mobilicorpus' and floated them to a niche in the hallway.
After that Harry whipped out his invisibility cloak and all got under it.
***
They steadily sneaked trough the hallway's, encountering one more group of Cardassians. They quickly took them out with a few powerful stunners, bound them and put them also in a niche.
They didn't encounter any Death Eaters yet, they knew that they had to get to the bridge as soon as possible. As they could sense the dark magical energy from the Death Eathers, the Death Eaters could sense their white magic.
Arrived by the turbolift, Harry quickly keyed in the special code they had gotten to use in emergencies.
***
"Return fire, Mr. Tarzar. Full spread of quantum torpedo's." Picard ordered. "Mr. Data, how did they get in so easily?"
Fingers flew as Data worked his console. "I am detecting several energy signatures. They match with energy signatures when magic is used." he reported.
"Voldemort and Cardassians?" Will Riker asked.
"Doesn't seem impossible to me." Deanna added.
Suddenly turbolift doors opened. Picard whirled around, but didn't see anyone. However, he heard footsteps. Then he heard a swishing sound and their magical guests were revealed. Harry was holding some kind of silvery cloth.
"What is going on?" Harry asked. "We have encountered some of Car… what did you call them, Mione?"
"Cardassians. They are stunned and bound in niches. We also know that there are eight Death Eaters aboard."
"They have been teleported in by magical means. We have detected several magical signatures over the ship." Data told them.
Captain Picard gave a quick overview what had been happening. While talking Enterprise and the three Galor class warships on the viewing screen kept exchanging shots and the security teams of Lieutenant Tarzar started with cleaning up Cardassians. After the short overview Ginny and Rpm both reached out to search Death Eaters again.
When Ginny opened her eyes again, she spoke quickly: "The Death Eaters are quite close together. Might I suggest that the five of us go and try to take them out?"
"Okay."
"Wait. Can I place a shield around the bridge which stops Death Eaters from entering? Everyone else can enter." Hermione asked.
Picard quickly gave his permission and Hermione moved out to the middle of the bridge. She took her wand out, closed her eyes and started to speak softly. It was a long spell and it seemed to be several languages.
A few moments later a gold glow was released from Hermione and it covered the bridge walls. Hermione opened her eyes again and left quickly with Harry, Ron, Ginny and Sirius.
***
Outside the bridge they quickly checked if their probe was still right and then started moving in the direction of the Death Eaters.
The few Cardassians they encountered were easily stunned. However, that changed when they ran into a group of more than fifty Cardassians who were listening to some orders.
Ron and Hermione remained behind to keep them occupied, while the other three continued.
***
"Sir, a message from Starfleet in San Francisco."
"Tell them that we will call back in a few hours. What is the status of the ships?" Will called.
"Shields are weakening on the main vessel. Weapon arrays of one other ships are destroyed." Data reported.
"Target the weapon arrays of the other vessels." Picard ordered quickly. "What is the status of clearing the Cardassians?"
***
"Ron, any bright idea's?" Hermione called as she and Ron circled the Cardassians.
"How about just hitting them hard and fast?" Ron called back.
"Will do for now… Expelliarmus!" Four or five Cardassian compressors flew towards her. Then she started sending Stupify's in the crowd.
Ron in the meantime chose a bit more aggressive approach, sending severing curses into the group.
"Take it a bit easy, Ron. These are living beings. Perhaps under Imperius."
"Sorry mother. Mione, look out!"
Hermione swiveled around, just in time to see a Cardassian approaching with a large knife. "Is this necessary?" she called.
The grey alien just grumbled a bit.
"I take it is."
Then the Cardassians was upon her. First he hit her wrist, knocking her wand away. Hermione dove under the second punch and snatched her boo staff from her belt. Expanding it on the rise, she was just in time to block a vicious downward stab.
Hermione blocked the swipe, stood upright and took a small step back to get a better position.
"Mione, hurry up a bit. I can't keep over forty of them of your back forever." Ron called.
"I know." With that Hermione turned into a whirlwind of movement.
***
Ginny, Sirius and Harry ran the rest of their way. Luckily they encountered no further obstacles. The Cardassians were probably busy with Ron and Hermione.
"Why did Lord Voldemort sent us here? I can't understand this… device."
Sirius suddenly stopped, holding up his hand. Ginny and Harry stopped a step later.
"That doesn't matter. JUST DO YOUR JOB."
"Avery, you try this."
"It appears to be three Death Eaters." Ginny whispered.
"What about a little game?" Sirius said.
"What did you have in mind?" Harry inquired softly.
Sirius quickly whispered his plan to the two teens. Slowly two small smiles emerged.
***
Hermione finally gave the alien a big whack on the nose, knocking him out at last. "Sorry it took so long."
"Doesn't matter. Just get your wand and give me a hand here."
Hermione held out her hand, focused and her wand flew back to her hand. A trick they had spent quite some practicing in their free time last summer.
She swiveled around again, standing at Ron's side. Over thirty Cardassians were lying on the ground, but the remaining twenty looked menacing enough.
***
Avery looked up from the console he was tinkering with after hearing footsteps. His companions did the same. They were a bit surprised at the sight.
Harry Potter was standing in the middle of the hallway. He was smiling happily at them and he was waving his hand.
The three men immediately reached for their wands, but Harry didn't give them the time to aim at him. As soon as he saw their hands moving he disappeared around the corner.
The three men ran after him, but just after rounding the corner they fell out of pace. Harry, Ginny and Sirius were standing there, wands out and faces grim.
***
"Aegis!" Ron firmly cast a different form of shield spell. This spell kept shots inside, but spells could penetrate it. They had been avoiding shots for several minutes now and the spells they fired weren't having enough success.
"Why didn't you think of this before?"
"I was trying to keep your skin intact. And we know quite some spells. It takes some time for a good one to pop up."
"At least we can wrap this up. Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!" Hermione started sending a volley of spells into the bubble with the contained Cardassians.
"This is a lot more effective." Ron said. "Stupefy!"
***
"Status of the ships, Mr. Data?"
"Shields down on two vessels. Weapon arrays on one ship destroyed, severely damaged on the two others." Data reported.
***
"Well, well, well. Looking for a little battle, guys?" Sirius snarled.
"If you think you're up to it. Crucio!"
Sirius quickly jumped aside and Harry and Ginny jumped into action.
"Expelliarmus!" both shouted.
Two of the Death Eaters jumped aside, the third ones wand flew towards Ginny. She caught it and safely tucked it away in her belt. "Something for Mione to look at later. Mutari Aurum."
Her spell hit the unarmed Death Eater and the plump, short figure changed into a golden statue. "Not really a smart. But then again, most of them aren't too smart…" Ginny commented softly to herself.
Harry and Sirius had in the meantime engaged in a fierce duel. Each handled a Death Eater. The fight was vicious, since the Dark side was using Unforgivable Curses.
***
"This should finish them." Ron commented.
He and Hermione had stunned all remaining Cardassians. Then he had nullified the shield and now they were using some massive binding spells, closing of with an untouchable charm.
Hermione glanced over her shoulder. "Ron, small group of Cardassians coming up behind us."
Ron also glanced over his shoulder. "Let's run for it."
Immediately both ran away, in the direction their friends had gone.
***
"Avada Kedavra." Harry ducked the spell thrown at him and quickly countered with a severing curse.
It hit the Death Eater full one, but even with blood staining the white mask he wore, he didn't want to give up. "Deslavo."
The ball of light exploded before Harry's feet, blowing him back into the wall. He lost his wand in the few seconds everything became black. Then his head cleared a bit, just in time to roll aside from the down ward knife slash.
Quickly reaching under his green robe, he grabbed his dagger…
***
Sirius in the meantime had nearly missed several Crucio's and one Avada Kedevra.
Suddenly he heard running footsteps behind him. Ducking he glanced over his shoulder. Ron and Hermione were approaching fast, a small group of Cardassians following them.
Behind him he heard Ginny catching the Death Eater Harry was fighting with a stunning spell.
He heard two faint 'plofs' of Hermione and Ron hitting them the ground, them calling out a warining, three more 'plofs' of Ginny, Harry and the Death Eater before him.
Then there was only searing pain in his chest and everything became black...
***
Harry saw Sirius getting hit by several blasts of the Cardasssians compressors. He heard him yelling of pain and the thud on the ground.
And a rage flames up in his mind.
***
Ginny crawled to Sirius side in seconds. One glance was enough to tell him that he was going to die if she didn't act.
She pulled out her wand, drew a pentagram on Sirius' forehead, and pointed the wand at her own heart. Then she muttered "Vivante." Directly she started to feel the tickly feeling flowing to her heart and then flowing out.
Then she directed the wand before her, focused on Sickbay and muttered: "Pario Foris." A whirlpool of light appeared before them and it transported them to Sickbay.
***
Harry came quickly to his feet. He put his dagger away and summoned his wand to his hand.
Shots were still being fired, but somehow a very powerful shield around him had sprung to life.
Hermione fired a quickly stunner at remaining Death Eater, then stared at Harry. She had seen the fire in his eyes before. She glanced at Ron and knew he had recognized it also.
Harry had flames dancing inside his emerald green eyes. Suddenly flames around his feet sprang to live.
Hermione summoned the Death Eaters towards her. Ron also scooted over and both cast a powerful shielding charm.
The flames continued to grow until they surrounded Harry with their fiery blaze.
"Flama Tempastas."