A/N: Thank you to all those that have been reviewing. I'm open to suggestions to the story so please R/R. Thanks to my beta IamSiriusgrl for doing the beta work on this chapter.
Disclaimer: I wish I could be as good as JK Rowling but I'm not. This is her stuff and not to mention the influence that this story took from various fanfics.
Chapter 37
Alliance vs. Death Eaters
It took a while for the Death Eaters to realize that their back accounts were frozen. Many of them did not realize until the weekend when they tried to do some shopping. Most of the Death Eaters believed that their bank accounts being frozen were isolated cases until somebody starting talking about it after Death Eater meetings. When they started to talk to each other, they realized that they were being targeted and when word reached Voldemort about what was going on, he knew that the goblins had sided with the light.
Voldemort was furious because he was in the middle of negotiations with the goblins but the goblins were just leading him on. Voldemort spent time that night torturing more of his Death Eaters but not as severely as last time. Voldemort instructed Bellatrix to come up with a plan for a large scale attack on Gringott's and possibly have this attack as the crippling attack on the wizarding community.
Bellatrix planned for simultaneous attacks on Gringott's, the Ministry of Magic, and Hogwarts. Gringott's was important because that was where the economic center for wizards in Great Britain lies. The fall of the Ministry of Magic would cause widespread chaos and the fall of Hogwarts would strike fear into everyone's heart because it was suppose to be the safest place in the world. Every available resource was going to be used in this attack. Because of a spy finding out their plans last time, Bellatrix only let Voldemort and his inner circle know of their plans which left Snape out of the loop. Everybody else would be notified just prior to the attack with the added exception of those necessary to move their forces in the right location. It was planned that Gringott's would be attacked first to draw the Aurors away from the Ministry. The Ministry of Magic was set to be attacked next to draw out the Order and the remaining Aurors to leave the last target vulnerable which was Hogwarts. It was all staged with each attack starting half an hour after the previous attack. In summary, this will be the first Death Eater attack since the Alliance was assembled that the Alliance would have no clue as to what was going to happen.
It was two o'clock in the morning in mid march when Harry started to receive an urgent message through his watch and by house elves trying to wake him up. Harry was trying to get the sleep out of his eyes as he tried to get up and see what was going on. A house elf was shaking Harry's shoulders and yelling, "Harry Potter sir, wake up!"
Harry slowly got up and asked, "What's going on? Why are you here?"
The house elf said, "Gringott's is under attack!"
Harry became fully alert as his adrenaline kicked in. Harry started rushing around to put on his Patriots battle robes while sending urgent messages to all of the members of the Alliance and to the Patriots. In less than five minutes, members of the Patriots that belonged to Gryffindor House were rushing into Harry's room dressed and ready to fight. The group rushed down to the Chamber of Secrets so Harry could issue his last commands before he left to go help the goblins.
While all of this was going on, house elves across England were instructed to notify key members of what was going on like Mr. Weasley and Dumbledore. Dumbledore woke up to find a note on his desk in his office from Snape that said he was called away to a meeting. Dumbledore received Harry's message and immediately called the Order to meet at Grimmauld Place. The Ministry of Magic's high ranking officials and all on and off duty Aurors were notified to show up at the Ministry of Magic as soon as possible. The Order and Ministry knew their roles in this attack.
Down in the Chamber Harry sent half of his team to the Sanctuary and the rest on patrols at Hogwarts. The orders were to stay inside the Sanctuary or the castle and if an attack was going to come then prepare to fight at the entrances to the castle because that would be where the bottleneck will occur for the Death Eaters who want to charge into the castle.
Harry and Ginny used Harry's portkey to go to Gringott's. The two showed up in the middle of Gringott's main reception area. There were four groups of 30 goblins dressed in dark blue standing in formation awaiting the command to charge out of the main doors to the bank or to repel an attack that should make it through the main doors. The house elves were all standing to the side behind where the bank tellers usually stand. They were also lined up in formation ready to assist the goblins should the front doors be breached. Alpha and Houseman were near the rear of the bank behind the goblins talking when Harry and Ginny approached them.
Harry calmly asked them, "What's the situation here?"
The group was looking at a miniature size replica of Diagon Alley. The goblins started work on the replica when they realized that there was a possibility that they were going to be attacked. They created the miniature Diagon Alley to help them coordinate and plan attack and defense strategies.
Alpha calmly replied, "We have approximately 150 goblins ready to fight. 120 of them are here in the reception area while 30 of them are on patrols down in the caves. There are approximately 100 strike elves ready to support the goblins should it be necessary."
Houseman calmly carried on where Alpha left off, "We haven't engaged the attacking force yet. There is an estimated 90 Death Eaters out there along with 100 Dementors waiting to assist them and what we think are five Hungarian Horntails. Voldemort appears bent on taking Gringott's."
Harry was surprised that Voldemort sent that big of an attack force to Diagon Alley. Harry asked, "The two of you know the fighting abilities of the strike elves and goblins the best. What strategies have you two come up with?"
Alpha replied, "We were thinking of deploying the strike elves on the rooftops that line Diagon Alley. About five elves per roof top gives us about 20 rooftops and we wanted them on both sides of the street so we're looking at a defense range of about ten stores away from Gringott's. The strike elves' responsibility will be to attack the Death Eaters and Dementors from the rooftops and intercept the dragons should they get too close to Diagon Alley. The second part of our defense is the goblins. Approximately fifty goblins will charge out from the main doors of Gringott's and intercept the attacking force head on. When the fifty goblins have established some ground then fifty more goblins will be sent out to reinforce them and push back the Death Eaters. That leaves 20 goblins that will run medical aid for the elves and goblins."
Harry nodded and said, "What about the two of you? Where will you all be?"
Houseman replied, "We will be coordinating the attacks from here. When the strike elves and goblins take their places then they will show up on the replica of Diagon Alley that we created. We will be able to redirect forces if necessary."
Harry nodded and with an air of confidence said, "You two are in charge of the defense. I will lead the goblins attack."
Alpha shook his head and said, "We would prefer if you stayed inside Gringott's with us. We don't want to risk your life in the defense if we can avoid it."
Harry shook his head then said, "I believe that I can aid the cause best if I was out on the battlefield. Besides, I will be able to give and change commands out in the field should it become necessary. I have sworn to protect the goblins and elves. Therefore, I will fight along them on the battlefield because I can't let them fight while I stand here and watch."
Alpha nodded and said, "If that is the case then five goblins will stay with you to help protect you. It is a total mess out there and from what we were told. The London resistance has just engaged our foes and is not doing very well. The resistance did not have the numbers necessary to engage the enemy."
Harry nodded then said, "Then we should hurry up and get out there to help them."
Ginny took Harry's hand, looked in him in his eyes, and determinedly said, "I'm going to fight along side you Harry. There's nothing you can say that will stop me from doing it so don't try to argue with me."
Harry sighed in resignation because he knew that Ginny wasn't going to allow him to go out there all by himself. Harry gave her hand a squeeze, turned to Alpha, and said, "Send a security detail to help protect Ginny..."
Ginny was about to interrupt him but Harry shook his head and said, "If I'm getting a security detail to help protect me then so are you."
Ginny nodded and the two Gryffindors went to stand in front of the goblins ready to charge out the front doors. Harry and Ginny pulled out their rose wands and stood ready to charge with ten goblins coming up to flank them. The command to attack was once the strike elves left and took up their positions. A moment later, Houseman and Alpha yelled out, "Attack!"
The house elves disappeared, the front doors to Gringott's opened up, and Harry led the charge out into the streets of Diagon Alley. The security detail's whose job was to protect Harry and Ginny knocked the two of them down to the ground. Harry was about to say something when he saw hundreds of spells shoot out from Gringott's into the streets of Diagon Alley. Harry turned to look at Diagon Alley and saw about 40 Death Eaters fall to the ground as they were stunned. The rest of the Death Eaters managed to dodge the attack, summon a shield, or were standing behind a Death Eater that got stunned. The goblins counter attack was a surprise which was the only reason why so many Death Eaters had fallen. The Death Eaters that didn't get stunned were either trying to stand back up or were trying to revive their fallen comrades.
Harry saw as the Death Eaters were trying to revive their fallen friends, the strike elves were showering spells down on the Death Eaters from above the stores. He also saw the Dementors make their attack down the center of Diagon Alley. Harry and Ginny quickly stood up and summoned the happiest thoughts in their lives. At that moment, the two of them were holding each other's hands and thought about the night of the ball when they had their first kiss together. As if they knew what the other person was going to do, they raised their rose wands and yelled, "Expecto Patronum!"
A silver mist erupted from the two wands and a large silver misty shield as tall as Harry and running the length between the wands. When the shield finished forming, four figures busted out from the wall. White corporal forms of Prongs, Padfoot, Moony, and Harry's phoenix form shot out from the silver shield and charged down the Dementors. The Dementors were stunned when they saw the shield and many of them knew what was about to happen. The four patronus forms ripped into the Dementors when they were within range. Padfoot was biting, Prongs slashed with his antlers, Moony was clawing, and Harry was gauging with his beak. The Dementors let out sickening screams as they were being killed. With the death of each Dementor there was a glitter of lights that spiraled towards the heavens. The glitters were different souls that were finally freed from the Dementors. The Dementors were not used to being killed and when they saw ten of their numbers go down, the rest of them tried to make their escape but only a handful managed to get away because Harry and Ginny's patroni continued to chase down the Dementors.
While Harry and Ginny were holding their concentration on their patronus forms the goblins assigned to the two of them were standing in a circle around the two and taking turns casting overlapping shield charms to protect the duo. After fifteen minutes the patroni disappeared right before the silver shield turned to vapor and disappeared. When the patroni disappeared, the Dementors continued their retreat in fear of having to face a second round of Harry and Ginny's different guardians.
The fighting was brutal as many Death Eaters took to using explosion hexes when attacking the strike elves. The strike elves didn't have much room to run and many of them fell from the rooftops or died from being too close to the impacts. The command was sent for the remaining elves to pull to ground level and fight alongside the goblins because it was too dangerous for them to stay up there. The goblins were rushing at the Death Eaters head on with no fear. Many of them were instantly killed as several death curses were hurled at the charging goblins.
Once the goblins broke into the Death Eaters ranks, about 30 goblins were lying dead on the ground and many of them still had blood flowing from their body because after they fell, some of the Death Eaters thought it would be fun to mutilate the bodies with cutting hexes. Anarchy broke out on the streets of Diagon Alley as the London resistance was regrouping but was attacked by the low flying dragons that just entered into the fighting. The dragons attacked in a 'V' formation and lit up Diagon Alley with flames with disregard between friend and foe. Nightlight, Sunrise, and Sunset showed up and charged at the farthest dragon using a distraction style strategy which turned the dragons on each other. Bellatrix didn't send Death Eaters to drive the dragons but merely released the five hungry Hungarian Horntails on Diagon Alley. When one dragon would try to shoot flames or use its tail to hit the phoenixes, the phoenixes would use their fire flight abilities and disappear near another dragon. As a result the flames or the tail of one dragon would hit another and the two dragons would fight each other. When two of the dragons were finally taken down, the strike elves assisted the phoenixes by jointly shooting spells together so that it would have a greater effect.
Down on the streets, Harry and Ginny were facing off with four unknown Death Eaters. The Death Eaters repeated slashing motions that sent purple spells at the two Gryffindors. The Gryffindors repeated the use of the protego shield while jumping around on the ground just in case a spell did manage to break through their shields. After a minute of dodging spells, one of the Death Eaters hesitated, this gave Harry just enough time to go on the offensive. Harry fired off the precision bone and joint breaking spell that the Patriots used when they attacked the DA. The light blue spell hit one Death Eater in the wrist of the same hand that he was holding his wand. The Death Eater yelled in pain and Harry proceeded to break the Death Eaters other wrist and his ankles so he couldn't pick up another wand or escape.
After beating the Death Eater, Harry turned around to see that Ginny managed to get the two Death Eaters that were attacking her to turn their backs to him. Harry fired two explosion hexes to their backs which blew apart some of the Death Eaters skin and muscle revealing part of their backbone as the Death Eater fell to the ground in pain. When the two Death Eaters fell, Ginny fired a cutting hex just above Harry's shoulder hitting the Death Eater behind Harry who was about to fire a spell at Harry's back.
After defeating the four Death Eaters, a goblin ran up to Harry and urgently said, "Mr. Harry Potter, Alpha needs to talk to you now. He says that it is important."
Harry nodded as he and Ginny followed the goblin back to Gringott's. When they arrived inside of the bank, they saw ten goblins and ten strike elves standing guard over five Death Eaters that were taken prisoner. The five Death Eaters were sitting in the middle of the lobby in high back chairs that were uncomfortable. Their hands and legs were bound to the chair and all of them looked fairly beaten up with their robes ripped to shreds and blood dripping from various parts of their body.
Upon seeing the two Gryffindors enter the bank. Alpha approached them and calmly said, "We captured these five Death Eaters to try to get some information on if there were other attacks going on at the same time. We managed to shove some truth serum down their throats and they admitted that there were two other known attacks that were going to happen tonight."
Houseman came up and said with disgust, "It looks like all of these attacks were designed by Bellatrix Lestrange. The other attacks were to happen half an hour each other. The first was Gringott's, the second was the Ministry which just started, and the last known one will be Hogwarts."
Ginny took Harry's hand when she heard the words Hogwarts because of Kayla and Ministry because her dad and brother's were probably going to be there to help her dad defend the Ministry. Harry worriedly asked, "How are the situation here and the Ministry?"
Alpha calmly replied, "When we found out that there were two other attacks planned, we deployed a few strike elves to survey the scenes at both locations. Gringott's and Diagon Alley were set up to take the worst of all the fighting which is proving to be true. At last count we lost 62 goblins and 55 strike elves. The London resistance lost a total of 41 witches and wizards. We managed to capture 22 Death Eaters and kill or injure 30 more. All of the Dementors either escaped or were killed and the dragons are all too injured to fight anymore. The dragons are pretty much lying defenseless on the grounds and if we can get to them, they are being killed by use of swords and axes."
Harry nodded and motioned for Alpha to continue. Alpha continued on by saying, "All Ministry Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix have shown up to defend the Ministry of Magic building. When we were assembling our teams here to fight, they were assembling in preparation for an attack. Apparently, things are not going the way the Death Eaters wanted because they did not expect such a large force at the Ministry because some of the Aurors were supposed to be dispatched here. The Ministry is facing about 50 Death Eaters and 7 giants. I don't expect them to have too much trouble once they eliminate the giants."
Harry sighed, turned to Ginny, and apologetically said, "Gin, I'm going to need you to go back to Hogwarts and help Kayla defend the castle."
The fire returned in Ginny's eyes as her temper rose thinking that Harry would honestly believe that she would leave him by himself on the battlefield. She heatedly said, "Harry, I'm not going to leave you here all by yourself. If I'm going back then you're coming with me."
Harry shook his head and calmly said, "Gin, they're going to need our help at Hogwarts especially since all of the teachers have left or at least the majority of the teachers have left Hogwarts to defend the Ministry. I'm pretty sure that they don't know about the planned attack on Hogwarts. I'll be there soon. I just want to help clean up here a bit but one of us should go back and help coordinate the defense of the castle and the Sanctuary."
Ginny's temper continued to rise because she did not want to leave Harry by himself and she angrily replied, "You can coordinate the attack from here with your watch. I'm not going to leave you and there's nothing you can do about it."
Harry took Ginny's hand continued in his calm voice in an effort to calm Ginny down said, "Yes, I can coordinate the defense through my watch but it would not be as efficient as being there in person. There's nothing to worry about here, you heard Alpha and Houseman say that the things are starting to get under control here. I'll return once the attack on the castle begins but I need you to command the Hogwarts side while Kayla maintains the Sanctuary and coordinates the care for the injured. Please Gin, if anything I personally prefer that you stayed here because it will be much safer here when the attack at Hogwarts start but I know that there is nothing that I can do to stop you from defending the castle and fighting beside me."
Ginny didn't like want to leave Harry but knew that he was right. She managed to calm down and say, "Alright Harry, I'll go but you better not try to play the hero and do something stupid." She paused and continued with a serious look she said, "What do you have planned for the defense of Hogwarts?"
Harry was silent for a moment as he thought about a plan to defend the castle. Harry looked and Alpha and Houseman who were looking at Harry expectantly then everyone looked out at the battle that was going on out on Diagon Alley. He sighed and regretfully said, "I think that we're going to need lots of help and that includes the strike elves and goblins."
Houseman nodded and said, "It is understandable Harry Potter sir. We need to work together and if we manage to give a devastating blow to the Death Eaters at Hogwarts then we have pretty much decimated You-Know-Who's forces especially if the Ministry fighting is going as well as we hope. The house elves are always here to help."
Alpha nodded in agreement with Houseman and continued off where Houseman said by saying, "The goblins agree too. We can finish this together then there will be plenty of time to heal afterwards."
Harry nodded and looked at Houseman and Alpha when he said "Thank you for all your help." He turned to look at Ginny and said, "Here's the plan…"
After hearing the plan, Ginny shook her head and exclaimed, "Harry, there is no way I'm going to let you do that!"
Harry pleaded with her saying, "I'll be fine. I'll be there with some help. Besides you're going to be there with me shortly after I show up." Harry knew that he better come out of this fight safe and unharmed or else Ginny would kill him. Ginny ended up relenting and decided to head back to Hogwarts to organize the defense and to let the Patriots know the plan.
After Ginny left, Harry turned to Alpha and asked, "Alright, you heard the plan for the defense of Hogwarts. Do you know what the strength of the enemy's attack team at Hogwarts?"
Alpha nodded and said, "The odds are in our favor at Hogwarts. There will only be 30 Death Eaters storming the castle. They are counting on the students not being awake yet and the teachers leaving which means the only things really protecting the castle are the wards which have been broken before and will probably be broken again."
Houseman interjected, "With the centaurs and the Patriots waiting to setup the trap, we shouldn't have problems defending the castle unless something changes that we don't know about."
Harry nodded and after a little more talking about the elves and goblins that will be coming with Harry to defend Hogwarts, he headed back out to the battle to survey the damage. By the time he made it out on to Diagon Alley, most of the fighting was over as the remaining Death Eaters were trying to find a way to escape but the scene would bring anybody nightmare for days at the least. There were hundreds of bodies lying around and many of them lying in awkward positions with broken limbs and blood flowing from their bodies. You couldn't take five steps without running into a body whether it was a Death Eater, goblin, or elf. The house elves showed up and started cleaning up the mess. The dead where gathered in their respective rows that ran the length of Diagon Alley. The dragon parts were gathered near the Leaky Cauldron's entrance to Diagon Alley. There was smoke coming from various businesses with every business either damaged beyond repair or so heavily damaged that it would take days with magic to repair. There was the smell of burning flesh as some died because they were burned to death and there were many body parts scattered about that nobody knew who it belonged to.
The injured were being marked with a glowing light around them so rescuers would not miss their bodies. They were either glowing red for critically wounded or blue for non-critical wounds. There was lots of moaning as all the medical staff available by the house elves, goblins, and London resistance were working hard to heal the wounded. The Death Eaters that were not critically wounded were taken prisoners. Their hands and legs were bound with anti-apparition ropes, their bodies checked for weapons and portkeys as they were stripped down to their undergarments. They were lined up in the middle of Diagon Alley in two rows, on their knees, and facing the Leaky Cauldron looking at the bodies of the mutilated dragons and a few of their dead brothers at arms.
While the recovery was going on, Harry was part of the team that was checking Death Eaters for weapons and portkeys. It was the most dangerous job left seeing as the fighting had ended. Harry's robes were covered with dirt and mud as he turned over bodies of injured and dead Death Eaters to check their bodies. With every passing body, Harry became more and more tired as he used more magic and physical abilities to aid the recovery effort. After a while, he was hoping that the fight at Hogwarts would hurry up so he can get the fight over with before he was too tired but at the same time he was hoping that the Death Eaters found out about what happened at Diagon Alley and cancel their attacks because he did not want to see a scene at Hogwarts like what he was seeing here.
Meanwhile, back at the Ministry of Magic, the fighting was well underway. All of the Aurors managed to make it to the Ministry before the fighting started. There were two lines of defense setup for the Ministry. The first would be the Aurors who would be at the Ministry and take the assault as it occurred while the Order would be in hiding and attack the Death Eaters from behind.
The attack started when a stream of explosion hexes flew at the Ministry of Magic from the air. The Death Eaters were all on brooms because they knew that the Ministry would expect a head on attack from the ground but not one from the air because nobody had ever attempted a pure air attack. This caught the Aurors by surprise and within minutes a third of the Aurors were either dead or too injured to fight. A good part of the interior of the Ministry building was exposed due to all the hexes hitting it.
When the Aurors turned their defenses towards the sky, they started to feel what they thought was an earthquake but most disregarded it because they were too busy trying to shoot the Death Eaters down. It didn't take long for the Aurors to fall into chaos as word quickly spread that seven giants were making their way towards the Ministry. The giants were running straight at the heart of the Aurors defenses.
When the giants made it past the hiding Order members, the Order jumped out from behind them and concentrated all of their spells on one giant at a time starting with the last giant and making their way forward. Due to the vast size of the giants it took at least 20 spells that hit the giants at the same time in order to take one of them down. All of them were using the simple stupefy spell to stun the giants and hoping that they would stay stunned long enough so that portkeys that were strong enough could be made to send the giants back to their mountains where hopefully the other giants will take on the job of killing them.
The Aurors were depending on the Order to provide help with the Death Eaters but since the Order was tied up trying to handle the giants, more and more of the Aurors were falling to the killing curse. In their attack it seemed like the Death Eaters were only using two hexes. The first hex was the explosion hex which generated a red light while the other one was the killing curse which generated a green light. The explosion hex was favored in this attack because the Death Eaters were too far away to accurately aim a killing curse while maintaining the high altitude with their brooms. The Aurors needed the equivalent of the muggle sharp shooter to take down the Death Eaters.
Only a hand full of Aurors was left that had the ability to hit a target at that distance. The others deferred to using shielding charms to protect the sharp shooters. It took a while for the Aurors to come up with this strategy and when the Death Eaters discovered what the Aurors were doing, they descended to take the fighting head on. They knew that it was useless to stay in the air and hit magical shields but what they feared most was returning to their master for an unsuccessful mission.
When the Death Eaters landed to fight the Aurors head on, they were fairly even when it came to how many witches and wizards were there to fight. The Order had to resort to continually stunning the giants because the giants were regaining consciousness faster than expected. When the Order managed to stun all the giants again, they left 30 of their numbers behind to guard the giants while the rest of them went to help the Aurors.
All of the Weasleys were there with the exception of Ron, Ginny, and Molly. The kids were forming a shield around their father but they were in the middle of the fighting. Bill and Charlie were actively fighting the Death Eaters while Fred and George were shielding the group from spells. Arthur was balancing between attacking and defending. He didn't like that his children were protecting him but knew that there was nothing that he could do to stop them from being here to help him. Nobody knew where Percy was but had a feeling he was somewhere in the Ministry building trying to fight against the Death Eaters.
When the Death Eaters saw the Order with Dumbledore leading the way, a few of them ran in fear of having to fight their former teacher or Headmaster. Dumbledore was angry and anybody who looked at him could see the fire burning behind the eyes that were no longer twinkling. Dumbledore was using a combination of magic from his wand and some wandlessly. Death Eaters were falling every where when word that Dumbledore showed up and he was angry.
The last major offensive was from a group of Death Eaters who were given command of the attack on the Ministry. Avery and MacNaircharged at Mr. Weasley with a group of six Death Eaters and managed to make it to the Minister of Magic and his children. Bill, Charlie, and Mr. Weasley were fighting off two Death Eaters each while Fred and George had one a piece.
Avery was one of the men that were fighting Mr. Weasley. He was mad that his team was loosing to the Ministry which fueled his anger as he said, "Weasley, surrender the Ministry now and I'll spare your sons!"
Mr. Weasley was known to be a calm and collective person but when his family was threatened he can be just as protective as his wife, he roared back by yelling, "I promise you this Avery. If you harm my children I will kill you!"
Avery laughed and said, "What are you going to do Weasley? Especially after I kill your family one by one while you watch. Not to mention how much fun we'll have with your daughter."
Bill, Charlie, Fred, and George all heard what Avery just said and it only pushed them to fight harder. The four of them were slicing their wands horizontally which was followed by a burst of purple light. A few of the Death Eaters fell after giving off a sickening scream. They were on the ground clutching their sides where you could now see all the way down to the organs.
Avery looked sick for a moment but quickly recovered. He knew that he had lost the battle but hoped that he could at least kill the Minister of Magic so his punishment from Voldemort won't be as bad as a complete failure. Avery jumped away from Mr. Weasley and yelled "Avada Kedavra!"
Mr. Weasley's eyes widen in fear as he watched the green light shoot at him but at the last minute somebody jumped in front of him and took the killing curse for the Minister. After the shock of watching the killing curse speed towards their father, Fred, George, Bill, and Charlie shot stunning hexes at Avery who wasn't able to dodge them in time and fell. They turned back to see that their dad was cradling the head of the man that saved his life. It was Percy.
Dumbledore made it to Mr. Weasley shortly afterwards only to see Mr. Weasley cradling his son while the rest of the family present was trying to console their father with tears running down their faces. Dumbledore and the rest of the Order decided to back off to give the family time to grieve and form a perimeter around the Weasleys so they would be safe. About ten minutes after Avery fell in battle, the Aurors managed to regain control over the area and the recovery process started for the Ministry of Magic.
Half an hour after the attack at the Ministry of Magic, the attack on Hogwarts started. The Death Eaters were not expecting much of a resistance considering it was now three o'clock in the morning so all the students should still be asleep and little if anybody were on patrols. They also knew that most of the staff left the castle to help defend the Ministry of Magic. The plans were to take the castle and prepare for a counter attack from the professors but they would arrive too late and come to a castle filled with the corpses of students.
The Patriots were divided into two forces. The group in the Sanctuary was led by Kayla and their job was to provide protection to the Sanctuary and medical aid when the fighting started. They were already swamped with the wounded coming in from the battle at Gringott's. The group hidden at the castle entryways was led by Ginny who was anxiously waiting for Harry to show up. The Centaurs were tracking the assembled Death Eaters the entire time and waited for their cue to attack.
Instead of the Death Eaters surprising the students, they were going to walk into a trap. The Death Eaters were going to be admitted onto the open grounds of the castle just beyond the Forbidden Forest. When the Death Eaters make it half way to the castle, they will be left in the open with no where to take cover. That is when the centaurs will be lined up just behind the tree line and fire their arrows at the Death Eaters from behind. When the Death Eaters turn around to engage the centaurs, the Patriots would hit the Death Eaters with stunning spells. The idea was to capture all of the Death Eaters possible.
What the Alliance didn't know was that all of the Death Eaters sent in the attack of Hogwarts were carrying portkeys with them due to what happened the last time they attacked the castle. This was done just in case not enough of the professors left the castle. Nobody knew when Harry and his team would arrive either so everybody had to be careful that Harry's team won't appear right in the middle of the fighting.
When the Death Eaters made their move, Harry received word and took a team of twenty strike elves with him. At the last minute, Harry decided to leave all of the goblins there so they could help in the recovery of Diagon Alley. Harry and the strike elves were lying on the ground while disillusioned by the lake and waited for the excitement to begin. He didn't want to spoil the first two attacks by the Alliance.
The Death Eaters arrived at the midpoint between the castle and the Forbidden Forest. The centaurs were lined up and shot their arrows hitting about a third of the Death Eaters anywhere from their thighs to their heads. Most of the Death Eaters were injured and couldn't run but a few died. After the volley of arrows, the Death Eaters turned around to engage the centaurs when they were hit from behind by a volley of stunning spells coming from the Patriots hidden along the castle where they had a view of Hogwarts grounds.
After more of the Death Eaters went down, the ones that didn't tried to revive their fallen friends. That was when Harry led a charge directly at the center of the Death Eaters. When Harry led his charge about half of the Death Eaters were either too injured to fight, stunned, or dead. Harry's volley of spells as he charged took down a few more but the Death Eaters quickly recovered and formed a perimeter around themselves. They were watching for attacks from the castle, the Forbidden Forest, and from Harry's group. Upon seeing Harry's charge most of them remembered that they were to take Harry as a prisoner for their master.
Harry was using a combination of the Reducto hex, Stupefy hex, and Leg Locker curse. The strike elves were not as kind as Harry after seeing so many of their friends die on Diagon Alley. The elves were sticking to the cutting hex only and using it at maximum strength which resulted in the decapitation and amputation of a few other limbs. What nobody knew was that Voldemort was nearby along with Bellatrix and Lucius.
The three were standing near Hagrid's cabin. Hagrid was returning from retrieving Grawp to help secure the castle while the teachers went to help at the Ministry when he caught sight of them. Hagrid had his crossbow at the ready and fired off a few arrows while Grawp went charging at Voldemort. Nobody realized that Hagrid was fighting Voldemort until they heard Grawp's loud battle cry as he ran at the leader of the Death Eaters.
Hagrid was also running beside Grawp while firing his arrows but didn't get very far. Hagrid was hit by three killing curses at the same time when he shot his fifth arrow. Grawp froze for a moment as he watched Hagrid go down. Grawp tried to nudge Hagrid awake and kept crying out "Haggar! Haggar…!"
It didn't take long for Grawp to realize that Hagrid had died as rage built up inside of him. He turned his conviction for revenge on the three that killed his brother. Grawp was hit by killing curses continually but given his size it was going to take a few before it was going to kill him. Voldemort, Lestrange, and Malfoy were standing their ground when Grawp made it to them. Grawp gave one quick sweep of his hand along the ground to hit the three but missed. The three of them then shot three killing curses directly at Grawp's forehead which was just enough to kill the giant.
Grawp fell to the ground which caused a small earthquake. Voldemort and his group fell to the ground as Harry was rushing over to help Hagrid and Grawp. When Hagrid died, Harry froze for a moment then the fire behind his eyes flared as he realized that his first friend and the half giant that introduced him to the wizarding world just died in front of him while fighting against the man that was responsible for killing his parents, godfather, and friend. Harry's anger and mental control was lost once he saw Hagrid's only family get killed while trying to help Hagrid.
The magical energy was flowing off of Harry like water coming off of large waterfall. Everybody out there felt this including those as far away as the Patriots who haven't moved from their positions along the castle. Voldemort was the first to recover from feeling Harry's magical aura and quickly made his way to engage Harry. Harry was moving with ungodly speed as all fighting stopped to watch the duel between Harry and Voldemort.
Harry was continuing with his combination of attack spells with disregard to defense but he added a few of the more dangerous spells like the cutting hex. Voldemort didn't even bother to send any attacking spells instead he relied on dodging the spells or magical shields until the two were closer. Harry was surprised that Voldemort was so agile given his age.
Voldemort cackled, "Potter, it doesn't have to be like this. We can be allies."
Harry hastily replied, "You already know my response to that question Tom. Besides I know something that I know you would kill for."
Voldemort dodged another one of Harry's spells then asked, "Go ahead… do tell."
Harry said "The prophecy that you were so intent on getting last year. It was between the two of us…" he paused to let the information settle then continued on to say "Let's just say that one of us is going to die and I'll let you guess who."
Voldemort didn't bother to voice his answer and rationalized that it was going to be Harry because luck could only last for so long. Voldemort started firing the cruciatis at Harry which caught him a little off guard because this was the first time Voldemort retaliated. It was now Harry's turn to run and doge the spells.
When he found a slight break in Voldemort's offensive, Harry shot the cutting hex down to the grass which sent the blades of grass flying into the air. Harry then ran backwards as he started transfiguring the blades of grass into concrete walls. While doing this, Harry was using the X-Ray abilities of his glasses to see Voldemort's progress through the walls. Voldemort was firing explosion hexes after explosion hexes and all of the bystanders could only see a cloud of dust surround Voldemort as he made his progress.
Harry stopped his transfiguration work and waited behind the last wall for Voldemort to blow it apart so he could start his counter attack. What nobody knew was that Voldemort eyes were enhanced along with his other senses during Voldemort's countless rituals where he attempted to become immortal. This gave him the same span of vision as Harry had with his charmed eye glass. At the last wall, Voldemort fired off two explosion hexes in a row while Harry fired a cutting hex immediately after Voldemort fired the first explosion hex.
It caught both of them by surprise and Harry took the explosion hex in his left abdomen while Voldemort took the cutting hex along his left chest, just barely missing the heart. The two of them fell to the ground and looked at each other with hatred and shock at being hit. As the two of them were slowly and painfully trying to stand to continue their duel, several bursts of light shot into the sky and illuminated the battle field.
The Order and Ministry were rushing towards Harry and Voldemort. Voldemort and all the conscious Death Eaters used their portkeys to escape. Ginny was rushing towards Harry when she saw him get hit with the explosion hex. Ginny looked around and saw the Order and Ministry coming and whispered to Harry, "Go to Potter Mansion…"
Harry was in so much pain that he couldn't make out what she was saying. Shortly after Harry lost consciousness. Ginny was holding back tears but was also relieved because she still felt his heart beating. The strike elves formed a perimeter around Harry as Ginny levitated his body to rushing him to the hospital wing. While rushing to the hospital wing, Nightlight landed on Harry and was dropping tears into his wound.
When they made it to the hospital wing, Harry was placed in the bed that was located in the far corner of the room. The curtains were closed around him as Dobby, Winky, Ray, and Rain started the familiar job of healing him. The strike elves along with Nightlight, Sunrise, Sunset, and Blaze stood guard around Harry's bed outside of the curtains so that nobody could disturb him. Ginny sat by Harry the entire time holding his right hand in hers and kept whispering that he better come back to her and that she was going to hex him for charging against the Death Eaters like he did while tears were flowing down her cheeks.
The Order and the Ministry were put out at not being able to get in to help Harry. Another duel threatened to break out between the strike elves and the Ministry but Dumbledore called for order and resolved to just waiting for news of how Harry was doing while gathering the details of what was happening that night from other witnesses.
A/N: I know that many people did not like that I killed off Hagrid, Grawp, and possibly Percy but had to make this war a little believable after all, in a full scale attack somebody was going to die that was going to hurt Harry deeply. There is a reason to the madness. One reviewer got really close to what I was doing with the Alliance. I'm not modeling the Alliance after NATO but the United Nations. This will become clearer in the next chapter and you'll be able to see the correlation clearly. Many of you expressed dislike for the Order given what happened in the last chapter but keep in mind that it wasn't the entire Order and only the faction that was blindly devoted to Dumbledore and his inner circle that ordered the attack. The next chapter should clear up many questions.