Title: Armageddon HP Style

Author: Jennifer

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, nor do I own any of the original scenes or dialogue from the movie Armageddon.

Chapter Thirteen: Secondary Protocol

"Mr. President, you've got to make a decision," said one of the president's advisors. "We can remote detonate the bomb for only another five minutes."

Back at NASA, the phone rang. General Abbott picked up. "Abbott here. Yes, Mr. President. I understand sir. Yes, we saw that too. But what if we—" his face grew solemn as he hung up the phone. "William, get them out of there. Evac right now."

"What's goin' on?" William asked.

"I've been ordered to override the system." Then, the elevator door opened and a bunch of scary-looking men in blue uniforms entered the room.

"Well what is this?" William asked.

"Secondary protocol."

"But they haven't even drilled the damn hole yet!"

The General sighed. "The President's advisors feel that the drilling isn't working."

"Well then the president better fire his so-called advisors because if we detonate that nuke on the surface, we waste a perfectly good bomb! And we have ONE chance to save this planet!"

Up in space, things weren't going too well. Colonal Smith punched in the key code that unlocked a safe…which held a card labeled "Secondary Protocol", and a gun.

Commander Teg could only watch in shock as he loaded and cocked the gun.

Meanwhile, things were going crazy at NASA. William was on the phone trying to talk the president out of his decision. "Yes, I understand that completely sir. But my point is very, very simple. I think you should trust me on this cause I know something about it. I guarantee you, if you do this, you kill us all. Yes sir. General, the president wants to talk with you."

General Abbott took the phone. "Yes sir…yes sir." He hung up the phone. "The orders are to remote detonate in thirty seconds."

Hermione ran up to him but two of the scary-looking men held her back. "You have not told them yet," she exclaimed. She struggled. "THAT IS MY BEST FRIEND UP THERE!" she screamed.

William turned to the General, his eyes filled with anger. "This is one order you shouldn't follow, and you fucking know it!" he turned to the two men holding Hermione back. "Let her go!" they released her.

One man took two keys off of a string around his neck. "Your key, sir," he said, handing a key to General Abbott. The General put it in the first keyhole.

The other man put his key in the second keyhole.

"God be with them," General Abbott whispered.

Up in the vast ocean of space, they were unpacking the next transmission when Draco heard a beeping noise and a machine turn on. He turned his head and his eyes went wide in fright. "Harry," he said meekly. "The clock on that nine-foot nuclear weapon is ticking."

"Oh my God…" Harry whispered. "SMITH! Get back here now!"

Colonal Smith came running in. "What is it?"

"It just came on all by itself!" Harry yelled.

"Secondary protocol," Smith murmured.

"Secondary protocol? What?"

"Secondary protocol! They're detonating this thing from Earth!"

"What do you mean detonating it from Earth? We haven't had time to drill the hole yet!"

"Get your helmets on now!"

"How do we turn this thing off?" Draco asked, fear residing in his voice.

"Get ready to evac right now!"

"Smith, I got two men out on that rock! We can't just leave!"

"I got a man out there, too! Prepare to evac now!"

"I'm not leaving my men!" Harry yelled.

"If they're not back by the time we're done, we leave without 'em."

"Okay why don't we just simplify things and turn the bomb off right now?" Draco asked.

"If you don't detonate that thing eight hundred feet on the fault line, all you're gonna have a real expensive fireworks show!" Harry yelled.

Draco almost collapsed from being so afraid. "This is turning into a surrealistic nightmare," he said to himself.

"Watson, listen to me," William said over intercom to a NASA official. "I want you to kill it. Kill the uplink."

Watson nodded and hurried back to his computer. It would take time…time they didn't have.

"Smith, give us the time and shut this bomb down, now," Harry said while trying not to throw up from fear.

"It's not my call," said Smith, working on unstrapping the bomb.

"Then whose call is it?"

"The order to detonate can only come from the president," Smith said.

"Smith, shut the damn bomb down now!"

"I'm telling you, it's not my call," Smith breathed.

"Well guess what," Harry said, grabbing a wrench, with the intention of smashing the bomb with it, "I just made the call for you!" he raised the wrench over his head.

Smith pulled out his gun and aimed it at Harry. "Don't," he said. "You could set it off."

"Jesus, what're you doing with a gun in space?" Draco asked.

At that moment, George and Oliver walked in. "Okay," George said. "What'd we miss?"

"I'm gonna give you three seconds to shut this bomb down. Then I'm gonna make you shoot me," Harry whispered.

Right then, the bomb stopped ticking. Everyone looked at it. Then at Harry, who still had the wrench over his head.

Smith lowered his gun, and Harry whacked him with the wrench. Then he opened up the wrench's jaws and clamped them around Smith's neck. "Come all this way just to blow me and my friends up, is that it?" Harry growled.

"It could start again. It could've been a warning," Smith choked out.

"Sir, the override. It's been overridden." One of the scary-looking men said to General Abbott.

William turned to another official. "I bought us a couple of minutes, so get that radio working, okay? Hurry."

The General looked at the screen. "Do it again," he said.

William sighed. "Keep trying."

Harry still had the wrench around Smith's neck when the bomb turned back on. "Oh, Jesus," mumbled Draco. "Here we go again."

"Why did you even bother to make the trip up here?" Harry asked.

"To do the right thing, to see that it's done," said Smith.

Harry opened the wrench and let go of Smith. Then he kneeled down. "For God's sakes, think about what you're doing," Harry said to him. "Why are you listening to someone that's a hundred thousand miles away? We're here. Nobody down there can help us. So if we don't get this job done, then everybody's gone."

"One minute," said Draco, staring at the bomb.

"I have been dealing with all sorts of dangers all my life. And I have never, never given up on that job, no matter how hard it is. And by God I am not going to give up on this one."

"Forty-two seconds," said Draco.

Smith stared in amazement. "You swear on your parents' graves, on my life, that we can get this hole dug?"

Harry closed his eyes. "I will make eight hundred feet. I swear to God I will."

"Then let's turn this bomb off."

Harry grasped Smith's hand and pulled him to his feet. Would they be able to do it in time?

They worked hard. First they had to open the control panel. Then they worked at disconnecting wires. They looked at the clock. Fourteen seconds. They had to work faster. The beeping on the bomb became faster as the time narrowed down.

5….

4….

3….

2….

Finally, they shut the bomb off. Draco breathed a big sigh of relief.

"Sir, the bomb has stopped at two seconds," someone said to the General. "Have we lost complete radio contact?"

"We got some magic happening!" an official said. "We were able to bounce signals of Russian and French military satellites!"

Then, Harry's voice came through the intercom and his face appeared on the screen. "Houston, do you copy? Houston, you have a problem. I repeat, you have a problem. See, I promised my best friend that I'd be coming home. Now I don't know what you're doing down there, but we have a hole to dig up here."

William smiled. Hermione laughed happily. Maybe there was hope after all.