DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and
owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to
Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros.,
Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is
intended.
((Okay, I know I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN FOREVER! But don't be too mad, my internet has been down, and thus I have been incapable of living up to my promise of new chapter at review #70, and for that I apologize. 1,000 thank yous to those who did. Now, here's the chapter!))
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I have not yet begun to fight!"
-John Paul Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hermione felt every muscle in her body tense. It was Draco Malfoy, her hated school enemy. Oh how she both hated and feared him. She feared him because during her school years he had hurt her worse than anyone. His cruel names he called her, "Mud Blood" being the worst. It magnified all the insecurities she had about being new to the world of magic where everyone else seemed so comfortable. She couldn't think of a worse way of dying than being killed by Draco Malfoy. She hated to think of the joy he would get from her death.
She glanced towards Ron, and saw he was still not moving.
"No one to save you this time Granger. The Weasel King is dead, and Potty died, oh, how long ago now?" He sniggered at his own joke, and she knew he was smirking that detestable smirk. "Turn around Granger." He said, shoving her against the wall and into another alleyway.
She did as he commanded, only so she could spit in his face. "When are you going to stop using baby names for Ron and Harry, Malfoy? Or are those just your pet names for them?" She smirked this time, and as he raised a hand to strike her, he found he could not bring it back down.
A tall dark figure had leaped from the roof of the building and landed gracefully amidst the chaos. He grabbed his enemies arm and pulled it back until it snapped loudly and the blonde ferret cried out in excruciating pain, falling to his knees.
Hermione instantly identified the attacker as none other than Harry Potter, and her heart swelled at the sight of him.
Harry grasped Draco around the neck and lifted him up into the air. Draco gasped and sputtered for air. Hermione cringed at the sight, but suddenly noticed Draco reaching for his wand.
"Drop him Harry." She said in a calm voice, despite the chaos. Harry did as commanded, throwing Draco down hard on the pavement, and turning to stop attacking death eaters.
Draco weakly stretched his good arm out, grasping the wand tightly. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" He yelled, but missed by a long shot, his vision blurry with pain.
"STUPIFY!" Hermione returned, her aim good, but a shield developed around Draco. Draco rose to his feet with much difficulty, uncorked a bottle with his teeth and downed it. Soon his arm felt good as new and he pointed his wand at Hermione with renewed confidence.
"So, Saint Potter isn't so dead is he?" He laughed, their wands pointed at each other as chaos ensued. "Too bad for him Mud Blood, because now he'll have to watch you die."
"You talk to much Draco." Hermione stated, and sent another stupefy hurtling at him he ducked under it, it just grazing his perfect blonde hair.
He quickly recovered, countering it with imperious. Hermione could hear his voice in her head, commanding her to come closer. It seemed to overwhelming in her mind, trying to push her to come walk towards him, but she fought it, keeping her wand out straight. An idea dawned on her, and she followed it.
Lowering her wand she walked towards him, though no longer under imperious. As she approached him he said, "you're too easy Granger. Makes this a lucky day for me though."
As he raised his wand closer to her, she quickly said, "bladise entrias." He gave her a confused expression, and then collapsed to the ground with a short screech of pain. He went silent, a glazed expression fixed upon his features.
Hermione port keyed him into the holding cell. He would wake up unable to understand why he was alive. With a serious expression masking inner joy, she left the alleyway and turned back to the battle, which was winding down. She thought with a grim pleasure about the spell she had used on Draco. She had learned it during her studies for the mission, and it made the person feel as though they'd been stabbed through the center and died. It was a dark and horrible spell, but one she knew he deserved. She had gotten revenge on childhood tormentor.
Just then she remembered the state Ron had been left in. She ran blindly through the dark alley, checking every crumbled body to see if it belonged to Ron. Finally she saw him lying slumped against the pavement, his red hair standing out like a distress beacon. She kneeled be Ron and flipped him on his back. Her hand shot to his neck and searched for a pulse. She pressed down firmly and waited. Suddenly, she felt the small clicking of his pulse beneath her fingers. She breathed a sigh of relief, and rested her head against him as she caught her breathe.
She felt him beginning to stir and he awoke groggily. "Where am I?" He asked, and for a quick moment she'd thought he had been hit by a memory charm. However he soon said, "ugh, I remember now, mind if I decide to just pass back out then?"
She laughed and brushed his red hair away from his eyes for him. "Don't move just yet Ron. You seem to have been hit by something that drained all the energy out of you."
He obeyed her, and laid still, looking exhausted as black half crescents appeared under his eyes.
She looked sadly upon him, knowing they'd need to be moving again shortly. She tried to brighten up, saying, "guess who I took out?"
Ron raised an eyebrow at her before it dropped from lack of energy, and asked, "who?"
"Draco Malfoy." She announced proudly.
"Alright!" Ron said, sounding a bit more like his old self. "Way to go Hermione!"
Just then Hermione caught sight of dark robes and prepared to pull her wand out when she heard Harry say, "Wait Hermione, she's not evil."
Hermione looked up from where she was sitting on the ground to see a woman in dark black robes with black hair and small silver braids standing next to Harry. The woman looked like a death eater, but Hermione trusted Harry enough to listen.
"This is my mentor, and a Sorcerer of the Stars, Altair Aquilla." Harry said, staring hard into her eyes as though inspecting her to make sure she was alright.
Hermione knew all about the Sorcerers of the Stars (of course) and had the situation been different she would have been asking the immortal who was thought to be a myth a thousand questions. Instead she looked at Ron and said, "His energies been drained. Is there anything we can do to get him back in on this or will we have to port key him to Madame Pomfrey?"
Altair kneeled beside Ron in one fluent and graceful motion. She placed her fingers to his temples and he closed his eyes as though thoroughly relaxed. "This may take a little while." Altair told them, and Harry helped Hermione up from her feet.
Once Hermione was up, Harry didn't let go of her hand, and they set off to see who had died and who remained living. They soon found Oliver Wood dead from the killing curse, and Harry port keyed him back to another place entirely, the dungeons. It had been determined that all bodies would be sent there, though they had hoped there'd be none. There was a port key to the dungeon for every one, and it was a sinister thought that yours might be used. They continued around the corner and found Viktor Krum lying on his back, eyes glazed. Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and buried her face against him. Smoothing down her hair and calming her, he went over to Viktor to find a pulse. Just as soon as his fingers brushed Viktor's neck, the young Quidditch player sat up bolt straight and panting, tears streaming down his face.
Once he'd caught his breathe he turned to Harry and said, "It vas a nightmare curse." Harry just nodded and helped the poor man up. Hermione gave Viktor a hug, relieved to see he was alive.
"Why don't you take Viktor over towards where the rest of the squad is forming? The death eaters should be back again soon, so we need to get moving." Harry said, his voice devoid of emotion as it had been when she'd first found him. "I'll go check though the bodies over there."
Hermione looked at Harry with concern. She walked over to him and kissed him. "Harry, remember your promise. I need you to come back to me."
He nodded and stared at her for a moment. Raising a hand he gently touched her cheek. "You'll be fine." He said, and kissing her on the forehead, he turned and headed back down the alley.
Several steps later he stumbled across the bloody and mangled bodies of Justin Finch- Fletchly and Lee Jordan. His stomach took a turn from the grotesque scene, and he quickly port keyed them away. His heart wanted to grieve over the lost friends, Lee Jordan who was as adopted Weasley Twin as some thought of it, and who Harry knew the twins could not be the same without. However, his brain forbade him from grieving, and he pressed forward. The next group of bodies were death eaters, and finally he came upon the Weasley twins who were just standing up from stooping over.
Seeing Harry, George spoke, "We just sent Cho Chang to Pomfrey."
"How bad was she hurt?" Harry asked, his heart aching for Ron and for Cho who had been Harry's first real girlfriend, however superficial his relationship with her may have been.
"She was hurt pretty bad." Fred answered, "But she'll pull through fine. I suppose we're regrouping?"
Harry nodded and walked with them to the collecting group, a squad which was now down to 15 members. Harry found the Special Task Force and they all continued on their separate mission.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A different sort of engagement was taking place right near the Death Eater club. Muggle guards were being shot off of their patrol be gun men running about in the dark, led by Chrome Granger. The bombs had been assembled and were about to detonate, but the cover fire the other gang members had needed to use to keep the men setting them up had been costly. A rapid skirmish of gun fire broke out between muggles, and an occasional wizard would send in some curses before being shot down.
Chrome was kneeling down and shooting off anyone who was not part of the mission and came to the alley. He had faced a good squad of armed men a half hour prior to the time, and had lost all the rest of the gun men who's been helping him. Now it was just him and two men putting the final touches on the bomb.
"We're all set." One of them said to him n a heavy Irish accent.
"Good, let's go then." He responded as they drew out their guns. They ran off to the place where the whole gang was supposed to meet once the bombs were ready to be detonated.
A gang of Muggle guards from the club spotted them and set off a volley of shots. One of the men took a bullet to the calf, and hit the ground hard with a long line of vivid profanities.
"Take him to the meet up point." Chrome told he uninjured man. "I'll cover."
The man didn't move, giving Chrome a confused look.
"I SAID GO!" Chrome shouted, showing his malicious side and sending the two men scurrying.
With an machine gun Chrome set to keeping the guards from advancing any further. He took a few down, but more pushed through, and he ran out of ammunition and was forced to take cover.
He let of a stream of vulgar language, cursing everything that came to mind as they drew nearer. He cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. "Time to show them what it means to be a Celtic Warrior" he thought. Stepping out in front of them, unarmed, he took them by surprise. One of the men grabbed for their gun, but Chrome was faster, grabbing the gun from him and pulling the butt of it into the man's face within the blink of an eye. The contact sent the man flying backwards onto the one behind him. Chrome expertly swiveled the gun around his finger and turned it to face the attacker who was dead in front of him. He shot him and then sent a powerful punch into the next one with a super human strength. Two more men charged him, and he threw his arms out, clothes lining them so hard they flew up into the air and landed on their backs. "Five down, five to go." He thought. All the while he knew that the firecracker had to be sent up and the bombs detonated.
A flurry of bullets was sent his way by machine gun, and he did an easy back flip to take undercover behind a set of concrete stairs. He quickly pulled out his cell phone and called Rex Carlet. "Detonate, and set off the fire cracker." Was all he said, and all he had time to say. A woman slowly rounding the staircase looking for him found him, but she was unable to pull the trigger before he shot.
He rolled out into the middle of the alley way once more, and began to take out the remaining four. Malice and a burning animalistic rage flowed through him, the blood of a warrior. His every punch and reflex was fast, furious and powerful.
After the last one was gone he heard the explosion of the Death Eater's Club and saw the fire works light the air in one large explosion. He ran with incredible speed to the rest of his gang, and drew them over to a one touch port key Dumbledore had set up. He glanced at their dirty and tired faces, each returning gaze filled with admiration and trust.
"That's it boys. Good work, now let's go." They all prepared to touch the port key when Chrome heard the sound of gun fire in the distance.
"WAIT!" He shouted, but it was too late. They were all gone and the rest was up to Chrome.
((Okay, I know I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN FOREVER! But don't be too mad, my internet has been down, and thus I have been incapable of living up to my promise of new chapter at review #70, and for that I apologize. 1,000 thank yous to those who did. Now, here's the chapter!))
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I have not yet begun to fight!"
-John Paul Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hermione felt every muscle in her body tense. It was Draco Malfoy, her hated school enemy. Oh how she both hated and feared him. She feared him because during her school years he had hurt her worse than anyone. His cruel names he called her, "Mud Blood" being the worst. It magnified all the insecurities she had about being new to the world of magic where everyone else seemed so comfortable. She couldn't think of a worse way of dying than being killed by Draco Malfoy. She hated to think of the joy he would get from her death.
She glanced towards Ron, and saw he was still not moving.
"No one to save you this time Granger. The Weasel King is dead, and Potty died, oh, how long ago now?" He sniggered at his own joke, and she knew he was smirking that detestable smirk. "Turn around Granger." He said, shoving her against the wall and into another alleyway.
She did as he commanded, only so she could spit in his face. "When are you going to stop using baby names for Ron and Harry, Malfoy? Or are those just your pet names for them?" She smirked this time, and as he raised a hand to strike her, he found he could not bring it back down.
A tall dark figure had leaped from the roof of the building and landed gracefully amidst the chaos. He grabbed his enemies arm and pulled it back until it snapped loudly and the blonde ferret cried out in excruciating pain, falling to his knees.
Hermione instantly identified the attacker as none other than Harry Potter, and her heart swelled at the sight of him.
Harry grasped Draco around the neck and lifted him up into the air. Draco gasped and sputtered for air. Hermione cringed at the sight, but suddenly noticed Draco reaching for his wand.
"Drop him Harry." She said in a calm voice, despite the chaos. Harry did as commanded, throwing Draco down hard on the pavement, and turning to stop attacking death eaters.
Draco weakly stretched his good arm out, grasping the wand tightly. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" He yelled, but missed by a long shot, his vision blurry with pain.
"STUPIFY!" Hermione returned, her aim good, but a shield developed around Draco. Draco rose to his feet with much difficulty, uncorked a bottle with his teeth and downed it. Soon his arm felt good as new and he pointed his wand at Hermione with renewed confidence.
"So, Saint Potter isn't so dead is he?" He laughed, their wands pointed at each other as chaos ensued. "Too bad for him Mud Blood, because now he'll have to watch you die."
"You talk to much Draco." Hermione stated, and sent another stupefy hurtling at him he ducked under it, it just grazing his perfect blonde hair.
He quickly recovered, countering it with imperious. Hermione could hear his voice in her head, commanding her to come closer. It seemed to overwhelming in her mind, trying to push her to come walk towards him, but she fought it, keeping her wand out straight. An idea dawned on her, and she followed it.
Lowering her wand she walked towards him, though no longer under imperious. As she approached him he said, "you're too easy Granger. Makes this a lucky day for me though."
As he raised his wand closer to her, she quickly said, "bladise entrias." He gave her a confused expression, and then collapsed to the ground with a short screech of pain. He went silent, a glazed expression fixed upon his features.
Hermione port keyed him into the holding cell. He would wake up unable to understand why he was alive. With a serious expression masking inner joy, she left the alleyway and turned back to the battle, which was winding down. She thought with a grim pleasure about the spell she had used on Draco. She had learned it during her studies for the mission, and it made the person feel as though they'd been stabbed through the center and died. It was a dark and horrible spell, but one she knew he deserved. She had gotten revenge on childhood tormentor.
Just then she remembered the state Ron had been left in. She ran blindly through the dark alley, checking every crumbled body to see if it belonged to Ron. Finally she saw him lying slumped against the pavement, his red hair standing out like a distress beacon. She kneeled be Ron and flipped him on his back. Her hand shot to his neck and searched for a pulse. She pressed down firmly and waited. Suddenly, she felt the small clicking of his pulse beneath her fingers. She breathed a sigh of relief, and rested her head against him as she caught her breathe.
She felt him beginning to stir and he awoke groggily. "Where am I?" He asked, and for a quick moment she'd thought he had been hit by a memory charm. However he soon said, "ugh, I remember now, mind if I decide to just pass back out then?"
She laughed and brushed his red hair away from his eyes for him. "Don't move just yet Ron. You seem to have been hit by something that drained all the energy out of you."
He obeyed her, and laid still, looking exhausted as black half crescents appeared under his eyes.
She looked sadly upon him, knowing they'd need to be moving again shortly. She tried to brighten up, saying, "guess who I took out?"
Ron raised an eyebrow at her before it dropped from lack of energy, and asked, "who?"
"Draco Malfoy." She announced proudly.
"Alright!" Ron said, sounding a bit more like his old self. "Way to go Hermione!"
Just then Hermione caught sight of dark robes and prepared to pull her wand out when she heard Harry say, "Wait Hermione, she's not evil."
Hermione looked up from where she was sitting on the ground to see a woman in dark black robes with black hair and small silver braids standing next to Harry. The woman looked like a death eater, but Hermione trusted Harry enough to listen.
"This is my mentor, and a Sorcerer of the Stars, Altair Aquilla." Harry said, staring hard into her eyes as though inspecting her to make sure she was alright.
Hermione knew all about the Sorcerers of the Stars (of course) and had the situation been different she would have been asking the immortal who was thought to be a myth a thousand questions. Instead she looked at Ron and said, "His energies been drained. Is there anything we can do to get him back in on this or will we have to port key him to Madame Pomfrey?"
Altair kneeled beside Ron in one fluent and graceful motion. She placed her fingers to his temples and he closed his eyes as though thoroughly relaxed. "This may take a little while." Altair told them, and Harry helped Hermione up from her feet.
Once Hermione was up, Harry didn't let go of her hand, and they set off to see who had died and who remained living. They soon found Oliver Wood dead from the killing curse, and Harry port keyed him back to another place entirely, the dungeons. It had been determined that all bodies would be sent there, though they had hoped there'd be none. There was a port key to the dungeon for every one, and it was a sinister thought that yours might be used. They continued around the corner and found Viktor Krum lying on his back, eyes glazed. Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and buried her face against him. Smoothing down her hair and calming her, he went over to Viktor to find a pulse. Just as soon as his fingers brushed Viktor's neck, the young Quidditch player sat up bolt straight and panting, tears streaming down his face.
Once he'd caught his breathe he turned to Harry and said, "It vas a nightmare curse." Harry just nodded and helped the poor man up. Hermione gave Viktor a hug, relieved to see he was alive.
"Why don't you take Viktor over towards where the rest of the squad is forming? The death eaters should be back again soon, so we need to get moving." Harry said, his voice devoid of emotion as it had been when she'd first found him. "I'll go check though the bodies over there."
Hermione looked at Harry with concern. She walked over to him and kissed him. "Harry, remember your promise. I need you to come back to me."
He nodded and stared at her for a moment. Raising a hand he gently touched her cheek. "You'll be fine." He said, and kissing her on the forehead, he turned and headed back down the alley.
Several steps later he stumbled across the bloody and mangled bodies of Justin Finch- Fletchly and Lee Jordan. His stomach took a turn from the grotesque scene, and he quickly port keyed them away. His heart wanted to grieve over the lost friends, Lee Jordan who was as adopted Weasley Twin as some thought of it, and who Harry knew the twins could not be the same without. However, his brain forbade him from grieving, and he pressed forward. The next group of bodies were death eaters, and finally he came upon the Weasley twins who were just standing up from stooping over.
Seeing Harry, George spoke, "We just sent Cho Chang to Pomfrey."
"How bad was she hurt?" Harry asked, his heart aching for Ron and for Cho who had been Harry's first real girlfriend, however superficial his relationship with her may have been.
"She was hurt pretty bad." Fred answered, "But she'll pull through fine. I suppose we're regrouping?"
Harry nodded and walked with them to the collecting group, a squad which was now down to 15 members. Harry found the Special Task Force and they all continued on their separate mission.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A different sort of engagement was taking place right near the Death Eater club. Muggle guards were being shot off of their patrol be gun men running about in the dark, led by Chrome Granger. The bombs had been assembled and were about to detonate, but the cover fire the other gang members had needed to use to keep the men setting them up had been costly. A rapid skirmish of gun fire broke out between muggles, and an occasional wizard would send in some curses before being shot down.
Chrome was kneeling down and shooting off anyone who was not part of the mission and came to the alley. He had faced a good squad of armed men a half hour prior to the time, and had lost all the rest of the gun men who's been helping him. Now it was just him and two men putting the final touches on the bomb.
"We're all set." One of them said to him n a heavy Irish accent.
"Good, let's go then." He responded as they drew out their guns. They ran off to the place where the whole gang was supposed to meet once the bombs were ready to be detonated.
A gang of Muggle guards from the club spotted them and set off a volley of shots. One of the men took a bullet to the calf, and hit the ground hard with a long line of vivid profanities.
"Take him to the meet up point." Chrome told he uninjured man. "I'll cover."
The man didn't move, giving Chrome a confused look.
"I SAID GO!" Chrome shouted, showing his malicious side and sending the two men scurrying.
With an machine gun Chrome set to keeping the guards from advancing any further. He took a few down, but more pushed through, and he ran out of ammunition and was forced to take cover.
He let of a stream of vulgar language, cursing everything that came to mind as they drew nearer. He cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. "Time to show them what it means to be a Celtic Warrior" he thought. Stepping out in front of them, unarmed, he took them by surprise. One of the men grabbed for their gun, but Chrome was faster, grabbing the gun from him and pulling the butt of it into the man's face within the blink of an eye. The contact sent the man flying backwards onto the one behind him. Chrome expertly swiveled the gun around his finger and turned it to face the attacker who was dead in front of him. He shot him and then sent a powerful punch into the next one with a super human strength. Two more men charged him, and he threw his arms out, clothes lining them so hard they flew up into the air and landed on their backs. "Five down, five to go." He thought. All the while he knew that the firecracker had to be sent up and the bombs detonated.
A flurry of bullets was sent his way by machine gun, and he did an easy back flip to take undercover behind a set of concrete stairs. He quickly pulled out his cell phone and called Rex Carlet. "Detonate, and set off the fire cracker." Was all he said, and all he had time to say. A woman slowly rounding the staircase looking for him found him, but she was unable to pull the trigger before he shot.
He rolled out into the middle of the alley way once more, and began to take out the remaining four. Malice and a burning animalistic rage flowed through him, the blood of a warrior. His every punch and reflex was fast, furious and powerful.
After the last one was gone he heard the explosion of the Death Eater's Club and saw the fire works light the air in one large explosion. He ran with incredible speed to the rest of his gang, and drew them over to a one touch port key Dumbledore had set up. He glanced at their dirty and tired faces, each returning gaze filled with admiration and trust.
"That's it boys. Good work, now let's go." They all prepared to touch the port key when Chrome heard the sound of gun fire in the distance.
"WAIT!" He shouted, but it was too late. They were all gone and the rest was up to Chrome.