Chapter Seven

The first week of school passed by mostly without incident, finally changing into the weekend. Sitting quietly in her favorite armchair Hermione starred out the windows of the common room and into the brilliantly blue sky. Not wanting to waste such a beautiful day by staying inside Hermione stood up and walked out of the common room towards the lake.

Reaching the exterior of the castle Hermione took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air. Looking over at the Quidditch Pitch she saw two figures riding their brooms, one was defending the goal posts whilst the other tried to get the quaffle into one of the three goals. Turning away from the Quidditch pitch she looked hopefully towards Hagrid's hoping that he would be there, but it was still deserted.

Feeling bored Hermione walked out to the lake and found a spot that was relatively secluded and had a tree of which to provide something to prop herself up against. Sitting under the tree Hermione watched the giant squid occasionally pop up from under the water. With nothing else better to do Hermione plucked at the grass surrounding her, and thought on the question that had been troubling her since day one of school.

What will you do when wands fail you?

Lying prone at the edge of the dark forest Dekker spoke into his Mic, 'Kilo 1-1 this is Juliet 2-5 over.'

'Two-five go ahead.'

'One-one, Delta Mike and gang approaching Hotel Golf, over.'

'Roger that Two-five, how many indigenous personnel around over.'

'One-one, more than I would like over.'

'Two-five, roger that. We're moving to your position now. Over.'

'Roger that.'

"Well, well, well if it isn't the perfect little mudblood," said Draco venomously.

Hiding her surprise Hermione looked up at the three Slytherins with a bored expression. "Malfoy."

'Sergeant Major, how're things lookin'?' Inquired Kit as he dropped down onto the ground beside Dekker.

'Not too good, got no teachers, doesn't look like anyone who'd stand up against Malfoy is around,' replied Dekker pulling his binoculars away from his eyes.

'Feth, I don't like this one bit,' Kit let out a sigh and turned to face the soldiers who were lying prone behind them. 'Stay sharp, if anything goes down fire over their heads do not aim to kill, hooah?'

'Hooah!'

Turning back Dekker handed the binoculars over to Kit. Taking the binoculars Kit placed them up to his eyes and watched the scene degenerate from bad enough to worse. Malfoy's face was redder than a quaffle and Crabbe and Goyle weren't looking too friendly. A wave of anger and hate swept through Kit's body, his eyes went dead and cold. His hands went dry and steady his breathing slowed. Through the binoculars he watched Malfoy say something to Crabbe and Goyle who lunged forward to grab Hermione.

Time slowed down, Kit threw the binoculars down to the ground and picked up his rifle.

Hermione braced herself as she saw Crabbe and Goyle grow tense and began to move towards her, then it was almost as if time stopped.

Harry had just thrown the quaffle towards one of the goals and Ron sped off to intercept it. Ron grabbed the quaffle mere inches from the hole. At the second Ron grabbed it a loud bang shattered the still air, Harry jumped a few inches off of his broomstick. Ron nearly fell off his broomstick.

Kit squeezed the trigger on his M16 and loosed a round. Immediately after he fired he fired another two rounds off. After he fired those three rounds every soldier began firing, though none of it aimed at anyone.

Malfoy was spun in a circle as the bullet pierced his shoulder; Crabbe and Goyle also took a bullet to the shoulder, each of them dropping down. Suddenly the air was filled with the sound of gunfire other students began screaming and tried to make themselves invisible by throwing themselves to the ground.

'Go, go, go!' Yelled Kit as he stood up from his position and ran towards Hermione, followed by all but a few soldiers who continued to pour fire into the air.

'Sergeant Major, get us an evac outta here now!' Ordered Kit.

'Roger that sir!' Responded Dekker before he turned and yelled into his mic, 'Super Two-four and Two-eight get yourselves in here, we need an extract yesterday!'

'Dunningham, smoke! Yellow, now!'

'Hooah!' Came the reply as he unclipped a smoke grenade from his web gear.

Harry and Ron hovered beside each other as they watched a plume of yellow smoke go up by the lake. Ron was the first to speak, "Bloody hell, you don't think…"

Harry cut him off with a nod and then said, "Yes."

"Should we try and help?"

"I don't know."

Hermione was pinned to the ground by a wounded Goyle, and was trying to make herself as small as possible when a pair of hands grabbed her under the arms and lifted her out from under Goyle.

Kit lifted Hermione out from under Goyle as two small helicopters flew over the grounds where they were.

'Sir! The Littlebirds are gonna cover our extract, Blackhawks'll be here a minute!' Dunningham.

Kit nodded then turned to Hermione and asked, 'Hermione are you hit?'

Hermione shook her head, tears were streaming from her eyes and she choked out a reply, "No, but I feel as though my legs have been crushed."

A smile broke out on Kit's hardened face, then he embraced Hermione in a bone crushing hug and said, 'It's okay Hermione we got an extract on the way, it'll all be over soon.'

Releasing Hermione he patted her on the shoulder twice then the smile on his face disappeared when he turned to look at the three Slytherins on the ground. 'Hermione, it'll be best if you don't watch. Sergeant Major!'

'Yes, sir?'

'Take Hermione to wait with Mara, and get Harry and Ron over here. You'll find 'em over there at the Quidditch Pitch.'

'Hooah, sir.'

Kit waited until Hermione was being walked away from the tree he then grabbed Malfoy by the collar of his robes and pulled him up by one hand, then thrust him up against the tree. Kit stepped onto Goyle's body and moved his face barely two inches away from Malfoy and let out a little chuckle. 'Look at you, you're the most pathetic thing I've ever seen in my life. If I were you, I'd show a little more respect to Hermione because she's the only thing that saved your life here today Malfoy. The only reason you're still alive is because she doesn't approve of killin' little worms like you, she's one for giving people chances, a much better person than I am.'

Draco tried to move and muttered something about "my father" Kit let out a blood-curdling laugh then stepped off of Goyle's body and kicked Goyle out of the way. 'Son, I don't know how old you are, but if you're depending on your father to fight your battles for you. Well he apparently didn't do too good of a job fightin' this one for ya now did he? And here's what I think of your father,' Kit swung his rifle off of his shoulder and hit Draco in the stomach with the butt of the rifle.

Seeing what was happening Dekker ran over, and pulled Kit away from Malfoy and said, 'Sir, Blackhawks'll be landing in a second. And as much as I'd like to let you continue I can't. I know you too well Kit; you'll kill him. And we can't have that,' he paused and cast a glance at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, 'Though I'll be the first ones to say we ought to, that way Voldemort won't have three spies inside Hogwarts. But we know the orders.'

Kit's face softened and he let out a deep breath, nodding his head he said, 'Yeah, roger that sergeant major. Roger that… Get these three loaded on the second Blackhawk, leave some guards and the rest of us'll take the first Blackhawk back to base.'

Dekker let go of Kit, saluted then left. Kit returned the salute took one last glance at Draco then spit at his feet. By this time the two Blackhawks were on the ground.

Harry and Ron were still hovering in the same spot when a helicopter flew right in front of them and hovered there. The two cast nervous glances at each other both thinking if they could out run it when a voice came over a loudspeaker on the helicopter, 'Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley land now.'

The voice on the loudspeaker left no room for questions, the two flew as fast as they could towards the ground. When they touched down two soldiers walked out to meet them, one pulled a smoke grenade from his web gear and threw it into the middle of the pitch, creating a pillar of red smoke.

A few minutes later a Blackhawk helicopter landed on the field sending dirt, grass and smoke into their eyes. The soldiers were wearing goggles over their eyes grabbed Harry and Ron and yelled into their ears, 'Leave your brooms, they'll be here when you get back!'

Harry and Ron immediately let go of their broomsticks, and were marched to the helicopter once they were directly under the propellers they could see clearly into the cargo area. Inside were several soldiers all with their rifles trained out of the helicopter. Several muzzles followed Harry and Ron all the way until they were in the cargo area. Once inside they were seated as far back as they could possibly be, the two soldiers who walked with Harry and Ron sat down in front of them. Once they were all seated the helicopter lifted off of the ground and sped off in the direction of the Dark Forest.

Looking over the soldiers' shoulders Harry spotted Hermione; she was sitting directly opposite of them. Her head was laid on the shoulder of one of the soldiers who had his arm wrapped behind her back and was patting Hermione on the shoulder. Hermione had tears streaming freely down her face.

Kit sat opposite of Harry and Ron. Hermione had laid her head on his shoulder and was crying freely. He was constantly patting her on the shoulder saying, 'It's okay Hermione it's all over, it's okay. Everything'll be fine don't you worry about it. Whether or not it's going to help, but I've been wanting to do that for a long time. Though I just wish it didn't have to happen that way.'

Kit paused patting Hermione's shoulder just long enough to remove his helmet and put it on the ground, then he continued patting Hermione's shoulder, rocking her back and forth repeating, 'It's okay Hermione, it's okay.'

Halfway to the base Hermione fell silent, Kit looked to make sure she was okay and found her asleep. He gave her shoulder one last pat, smiled and leaned back in the chair between the two crew chiefs that manned the miniguns. Resting his head against the top of the chair he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.