Chapter 2
-----September 11, 2000----
The Death Eaters were slowly, but implacably, closing the distance to Hogwarts; now they were only a few hundred feet beyond the Quidditch pitch. At this moment, Dumbledore received his requested Aurors, two of his former students.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley. You are two of the many Aurors I requested?" he asked.
"We are, Professor Dumbledore," Harry replied. "I think there's two more coming."
"Call me Albus; you are no longer my student," Dumbledore corrected. "Now, to the matter at hand. I asked for all the Aurors that were currently available. Did you say only two more would be coming?"
"Most of the other Aurors are all out on missions at the moment," Ron explained. "I think Neville's available, though, and they're scrambling to find a dragon expert. Too bad Charlie's in Romania right now—he could deal with those dragons easily…"
Suddenly another two people jumped through the fireplace. Neville Longbottom landed on his feet with his wand drawn, then lowered it when he saw there were no nearby enemies. "Where's the Death Eaters—" he started to ask, but stopped when he saw the Death Eaters through the window.
The last person stood more slowly, and Dumbledore was the first to notice him. "Hello, Charlie," Dumbledore said politely, just as the others realized that this was Charlie Weasley, who was supposedly in Romania. "Long time no see. Are you the Ministry dragon expert?"
"And aren't you supposed to be in Romania?" Ron managed to squeeze the question in before Charlie started talking.
"I'm not officially on the Ministry's payroll, no," he explained, "Minister of Magic Bones just came by the Burrow and said there were dragons attacking Hogwarts, and asked me for help. Ron, I just got back from my Romanian expedition this morning, and we were going to surprise you when you got back from work. Anyway, where's the dragons?"
The others pointed out the window. Charlie looked over and saw the three dragons flying low over the ground, with Death Eaters riding them.
"Hmm. That doesn't look right, how did they get the dragons tame enough to ride them?"
Dumbledore cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. "Is this truly all the help that the Ministry would send? Very well. I only require you four to find a way to distract the Death Eaters for about fifteen minutes while I and my staff evacuate the students to safety." Then he calmly left his office, allowing the Aurors to plan.
"Wait a minute!" Harry exclaimed suddenly. Everyone looked up expectantly, paying him their full attention, as he then said, "Neville, where's your partner?" Ron and Charlie were clearly disappointed, having thought that Harry had just had some bright idea. Neville replied, "He's somewhere in the Irish countryside, I'm not sure where exactly. The Ministry's trying to find him, but it might be a few hours before he gets here."
"Oh," Harry said, "I was just wondering. Now how do we stop the dragons?"
"Wait, I think I've got an idea," Charlie said excitedly, "We have to stop the dragons and the Death Eaters. A dragon's hide is as strong as a standard Shield charm, so dragons are immune to many spells. But dragons have weak spots where their hide doesn't cover. They're vulnerable to any hex if it's aimed into a nostril, down their throats, or through a genital opening."
"So? Do we fly up to them and Avada Kedavra down their throats?" Harry asked. "Then what about the Death Eaters?"
"No, not Avada Kedavra," Charlie said, laughing despite his best efforts. "I'm sure, thanks to Fred and George, that you guys all know the Bladder-Buster Hex? No, I mean, dragons have bladders too. If we make them pee all over their Death Eater masters, that should be a good enough distraction for us to escape."
All four of them now burst out laughing.
"And for the serpents," Charlie continued, "we should check to see if they're basilisks. If they are, all we need to kill them is the sound of a cock crow. We could transfigure ourselves into cocks and crow at them."
About this time, the three Aurors, while all doubled over with laughter, realized that they were neglecting their job. They tried, with little success, to resume a straight face.
"We'll need to get broomsticks," Harry announced, "We have to get to the Quidditch Pitch!"
They dashed down the halls past the students now being ordered out of the school in neat lines by the teachers, reaching the Quidditch area in a minute. As they each boarded a Firebolt 2000 broomstick, Neville asked, "Wait, what about the Death Eaters riding the horses? And shouldn't we use Patronuses for the Dementors?"
"Cast the Patronus charm in mid-air over the Dementors after we hex the dragons," Harry responded as they shot into the air on their broomsticks. "The Dementors should scatter. For the horses—well, I—"
Ron broke in, "We can hex the hippogriffs too. Maybe even drag a hippogriff over the horses. Then the whole Death Eater group will get urine raining on their heads."
They were now coming up to the dragons already, having just passed over the heads of the Death Eaters on foot. They had been noticed, and very bright green bolts—clearly Avada Kedavra curses—were flying up all around them. Charlie raced right in front of one dragon's snout, pointing his wand at the dragon's nostril and muttering the hex, then swerving and pulling away to avoid the dragon's fire breath. The three Aurors followed Charlie's example with the other two dragons, and as Harry swerved off from the last dragon's nose, Charlie's hex on the first dragon took effect.
Screaming was heard from the Death Eaters on the ground below as large volumes of putrid-smelling liquid sprayed down from the dragon's cloaca, soaking the black felt robes. The Avada-Kedavra-ing from below ceased, but the Death Eaters riding the still-unaffected hippogriffs continued to fire the curses at the four men on broomsticks. However, as each hippogriff received the same hex, the riders had to turn their attention to getting their hippogriffs out of the way to avoid letting the urine fall on their compatriots below. Charlie and the Aurors swooped down towards the Dementors, using the hilarious moments they had just now experienced as the positive memories on which to base their Patronus charms. Together they swerved up to avoid crashing to the ground, shouting "Expecto patronum!" Four glittering, shiny silver animals appeared before the Dementors—a stag, weasel, wolf, and dragon—and the Dementors scattered off immediately, each seeming to glide along the ground away from the Patronuses.
Lord Voldemort looked on his Death Eater troops in disappointment. These were thirty thousand trained, pureblood dark wizards—and were now in total chaos against just four of the enemy! He himself was fortunately not affected by the distraction—the urine droplets all simply passed right through his ghost form—and he signaled to the mountain trolls, ordering them to charge.
The Aurors were now flying back to the school on their broomsticks, along with Charlie, when they noticed the trolls running for them at top speed.
"Hey, I think they're going to trample their own!" Harry called, pointing at the Death Eaters who were now struggling to avoid not just the mixed hippogriff/dragon urine but also get out of the way of the advancing trolls.
"That's good—wait, I think I've got an idea!" Neville shouted over the noise.
"What is it Neville?"
"Lure the trolls to where the Dementors are now. Then, lead them from one end of the Death Eaters to the other—"
"Neville, that's a splendid idea!" Charlie shouted back excitedly. "They'll step all over their own Death Eaters!" Suddenly he felt a presence behind him, and instinctively dived. He barely avoided the end of the massive club that whistled through the air, passing right through his former position. More trolls stepped up, whacking through the air at the four elusive broomstick riders.
Voldemort quickly realized what was about to happen. "Give me a Sonorus spell!" he commanded. The Death Eater pointed his wand at the Dark Lord and pronounced "Sonorus". Now, with his amplified voice, Voldemort shouted: "Charge towards Hogwarts! Spread out and move fast and you won't get stepped on by the trolls!"
"Get over to that end of the line!" Harry shouted, flying his own broomstick over. The others followed. The mountain trolls ran after them, just as Charlie and Neville had hoped. Now sounds of splatters and the crunch of bones breaking accompanied the screaming. The Bladder-Buster Hexes had largely worn off now, and the Aurors' group was facing Avada Kedavra fire from the hippogriff riders, but fortunately they all missed. Instead, one of the hippogriffs was accidentally whacked with a troll's club blow that had been meant for Ron's broomstick. The hippogriff's broken, bloody corpse plummeted to the ground.
Voldemort held up his hands towards the two riders falling from the dead hippogriff, and with a wandless cushioning charm to the ground, saved two of his followers from certain death. He then continued floating towards Hogwarts.
Ron, Charlie, Harry, and Neville returned on their amazingly undamaged broomsticks and ran up to Dumbledore's office, laughing all the way. Just as they arrived at his door, Dumbledore stepped out.
"The evacuation is done," he wheezed, smiling with the familiar twinkle in his eyes. "Thanks to your impressive antics, all students are safe and accounted for. The four of you have earned your place in history. Now, it is time to go. Spread the word—there will be an Order meeting this afternoon, four o'clock, Grimmauld Place."
Dumbledore led them to one of the secret passages, from which they proceeded to Hogsmeade.
The door from the Quidditch Pitch collapsed and thousands of Death Eaters swarmed into an empty castle. Lord Voldemort floated above the action, watching his troops finally behave as they had been trained: checking for traps and hidden enemies, securing the castle room by room. Hogwarts Castle had fallen to the Death Eaters. The first battle of theFourth War had been won—but it was a Pyrrhic victory indeed.
Seventy-four Death Eaters lay splattered on the grass outside Hogwarts, trampled over by their own allies in the worst friendly-fire incident the wizarding world had ever seen. It was a small loss compared to the total forces at Voldemort's command, but compared to the casualties on Dumbledore's side—zero—it was totally unacceptable.
Voldemort swore to himself that he would do better next time. And he recognized three of the four opponents on broomsticks from today's battle: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom—he had faced them three years previous, in the duel that had finally fulfilled the prophecy and rendered him a ghost. The fourth, by his resemblance to Ron, was clearly one of the Weasley brothers. Voldemort did not care at all which one it was. In his mind, they—and their families—were now on the Death Eater hit list, slated for a painful and disgusting end.