Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.


CHAPTER TWELVE – Mistakes

The Dark Lord was at a loss on how to deal with Harry Potter. He was unable to make his way to Sanctuary even knowing where portals were. He couldn't even approach them, and that was an insult to his power. He decided he was going to get no response from Harry attacking wizards, so he had young Malfoy arrange a purchase of nundus from Egypt. He planned to use this as the perfect time to attack Hogwarts and take over the premiere stronghold of power for the light. He had the floo access blocked, and erected massive anti-portkey wards over the grounds. He was going to make this a show of power not cunning.

Albus felt the anti-portkey wards cascading over the castle grounds. Hogwarts was scared and worried. He alerted everyone to come to the Great Hall immediately. After a quick look outside he saw way too many Death Eaters marching calmly towards the castle. This was a force he would not be able to overcome, especially not with Tom there in the lead. He secured the Hall and most students had been accounted for. He assigned some teachers to maintain order, and took all the staff who were members of the Order and had them follow him outside. He was silently sending a message for Harry to come help them.

Harry had been incapacitating the Death Eaters when he heard Hogwarts' cry for help. He knew she was in danger and he had a duty to protect her. Finishing up with them, he quickly focused his mind and magic and apparated straight onto her front steps. Coming out behind him were the Headmaster and several teachers, including an older looking Professor McGonagall and a very frightened Hermione Weasley. Harry turned to Albus and said, "Get you and your people back inside and protect the children, because I'm not going to."

Albus looked at Harry and said, "You will need our help Harry, not even you could overcome a force like this one."

"Albus, I swore I would protect Hogwarts and I will. Now get inside. It's a lot easier blowing things up when you have no allies in the way. I will force you in if I have to."

Albus told them all to go back inside, and his staff looked at him like he was crazy. The Death Eaters were only about 100 yards away now. When they had gone back into the Entrance Hall, Harry said "Hogwarts, lock 'em down please." The air around the castle rippled and the stone walls all seemed to melt solid. Windows and doors disappeared until the whole castle was a giant sharply shaped rock. Harry mumbled out of the corner of his mouth, "if you're going to be this stubborn Albus, please just be quiet and stay invisible."

Albus was a bit surprised he had been spotted, but he knew Harry had probably accepted this when Albus agreed so easily to go back inside. Inside the students were scared when all the windows sealed over and the doors sealed shut after the rest of the professors were in and all the students had been accounted for. The torches all flared up and brightened the enclosed gigantic room now. Hogwarts seemed to take some initiative of her own though, and the wall facing towards the oncoming Death Eaters shimmered until it was transparent. The outside remained solid, and neither Harry, nor Albus, nor the Death Eaters knew they were performing before an audience.

The massive line of Death Eaters stopped approximately 50 yards away. The Dark Lord spoke up, "Potter! What the hell are you doing here? What do you care for a bunch of backstabbing children?"

Harry spoke up calmly, and was spinning his cherry wand in his hand. "I'm not sure all children can be condemned as backstabbers, but nevertheless, you know I must protect Hogwarts. Even in your black heart, if you carry the blood of Slytherin, you know you too must protect her. Why don't you just go home, consider this a learning experience, and we can all leave in one piece?"

Next to the Dark Lord was one of his most faithful Lieutenants, a heavily scarred Draco Malfoy. "Potter! You are going to die here just like all the rest of the mudbloods! You are not worthy to lick my boots."

Harry shook his head. "Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy. You raped your own mother for your initiation. How can you possibly ever think what you are doing is just or right? How does your mind seriously find that an acceptable example-"

Draco apparently didn't like the sound of this and interrupted Harry by yelling "Avada Kedavra!" and sending a killing curse straight at Harry. The Dark Lord seemed to be snickering at the madness young Malfoy had become since his initiation. It had certainly been one of his favorites. Harry was unperturbed, reached out with his free left hand, and caught the killing curse. He proceeded to squeeze it in and out like a stress relieving ball, which it may have been. Harry commented "Not bad Malfoy, I see your rituals have finally, officially got you to above average strength. It's a shame even with that you still are not even half what your master is or what Albus is." Draco was enraged but his fear at what Harry was doing kept him from making another move. Harry stopped his squeezing and clenched his hand into a tight fist around the still green glowing curse. He aimed his palm upward and slowly opened his hand. A lime green ferret burst forth straight out of the flesh of Harry's hand and scurried away along the edge of the castle wall. The Death Eaters were standing there in shock unsure what to do.

Harry broke the silence and said "The next idiot who attacks me will-"

And again, someone interrupted Harry. Way down, Voldemort's right flank a Death Eater screamed out "Avada Kedavra!" He seriously must not have been bright considering how well that curse worked the first time. Harry snapped into action and had pointed his wand straight at the man. He then wrapped his left hand around his wand and with a firm two handed grip, gave a violent tug like he was pulling a rip cord. He mumbled out "Accio moron" and the overeager Death Eater's body snapped forward like a bungee's apex had just pulled him. He flew threw the air at speeds much faster than his weak killing curse, and caught up with it and went straight into his own spell. Harry took one step forward and the Death Eater's now limp body flew straight behind him and smashed with a fleshy sounding splat into the castle wall. Harry's eyes never left the Dark Lord the whole time.

The rest of the Death Eaters were getting visibly nervous now. The Dark Lord spoke up, "You cannot defeat us all Potter no matter what party tricks you can do."

Harry smiled a bit and said, "Tom, you have-"

"Do not call me that filthy muggle name!"

Harry said insistently, "Tom, I respected your wishes to call you by your ridiculous made up name when I agreed to not be your enemy. When you are attacking Hogwarts, you are most definitely my enemy. And you seriously have no idea what I am capable of."

Harry locked eyes with the Dark Lord, and sent out a vicious Legilimens attack. The Dark Lord put almost all his mental strength into deflecting it, and was unprepared for Harry to come screaming along their curse scar connection and pillage straight through his defenses. Harry found what he was looking for, the control over the Dark Mark, and sent a sharp burst of pain to everyone with the mark burned into their skin. All the Death Eaters screamed out clutching their arms unprepared for this. Some of them fell to their knees. The Dark Lord as quickly as he could reasserted control and ejected Harry from his mind. He was forced to admit he was overmatched right now.

"This isn't over Potter. Not by a long shot." And with that the Dark Lord activated an emergency portkey he had that apparently could bypass the wards they had erected. About a dozen other Death Eaters, presumably the inner circle also disappeared shortly after. The remaining Death Eaters were forced to turn tail and flee, some of them on brooms.

Seeing them run, and realizing his bit of exercise was done, Harry decided he wanted to have a bit more fun. The Death Eaters running were not prepared for a gigantic ice dragon to chase them off of Hogwarts' grounds. Harry kept breathing frigidly cold fire on them enough to slow them down and piss them off but not incapacitate them. His only care was Hogwarts protection. He had no interest in catching these criminals.

Harry flew back to the Headmaster and transformed to his human state. He asked if Albus could deal with the single casualty of this attack. Albus merely nodded quietly, unsure how to respond. Harry thanked him, whispered something to Hogwarts who melted back into her normal state, and Harry disappeared with pop.

The hall just sat in silence after watching a single man scare away the Dark Lord and a couple hundred Death Eaters. When he transformed into a gigantic blue dragon and started breathing blue fire on them as they ran away they just kept sniggering to themselves. If there was any doubt, most all of them felt Hogwarts was even safer than they had previously imagined. When they doors reappeared and the stone seemed to melt away they broke into cheers and applause. Harry's only intentions were to protect the castle he swore he would. But in doing so he had assured himself a complete school full of allies, were he to ask for it.

Albus took lead in explaining the situation to the Ministry and they took away the Death Eater's body. Albus wanted to make sure it was clear, Harry was in no way supporting the Ministry or the side of the light. He was here to protect the school, not its inhabitants. But that without his assistance there would have been who knows how much damage and casualties.

Despite Albus's comments there were some editorials in the papers declaring Harry Potter again as the champion to the people he once had been. Opposing viewpoints tried to correct them, but others didn't want to hear it. Harry represented a hope to end this war that they were previously searching so long for. Harry of course did not care what they wrote, as he was still unconcerned with the majority of the affairs of wizards. His status as a citizen remained, but his Sanctuary existed outside of Britain's control or land. It existed unto its own form of government, and as long as he had that, Harry didn't care what they said about him.

Those who had been cheering his name before, eventually began damning him over the course of the next year. The Dark Lord's attacks were stepped up and focused only on wizards, intentionally avoiding anything that might incite the wrath of Harry Potter. The creatures were left alone, the goblins provided safety to those whenever Diagon Alley was attacked, and even the Death Eaters left the goblins alone. The society was destroying itself and the battles just kept coming. It seemed no one could stop the Dark Lord, and he kept searching for a weakness he could later exploit in Harry Potter. Many times Albus tried to get Harry's assistance, but Harry was firm in that those trying to force him to fight were the ones who should be fighting harder themselves. Tonks remained friendly with him, and never asked him to fight but you could tell she wished he would. They were asking him to protect a way of life that Harry didn't feel was worth saving. Nothing could change Harry's mind it seemed. It was about two years later, when something happened that did change Harry's mind. His brother Fawkes appeared with a letter in his talons addressed to Harry.