Chapter 4
-----September 12, 2000 (Continued)----
"How many Death Eaters did you say there were again?" Amelia Bones asked, after Dumbledore offered his eyewitness account of the Battle of Hogwarts.
"I cannot tell exactly how many," he answered, "Certainly more than twenty thousand, however."
"And we're supposed to fight that many of them?" one wizard demanded incredulously.
"There are only a hundred and twenty thousand wizards in our entire nation! If a quarter of our people are taking up arms in Voldemort's rebellion, there must be many more people supporting them! Who would be left to fight for our side?"
"Those people may not truly support Voldemort and his racist agenda; perhaps they merely joined out of fear. It is possible that Voldemort's core supporters are using intimidation and Cruciatus Curses to force others to join them," Dumbledore pointed out.
"But if that's the case, why haven't we gotten any reports from family or friends of the 'intimidated' people? What about the mountain trolls, the serpents, the dragons?"
"Beasts can be controlled, as they are not fully intelligent," Dumbledore responded, "and the Death Eaters may have drafted entire families into their ranks, keeping them quiet with threats. If they have done this quietly for the past three years, they may indeed have coerced a quarter of Great Britain. It is not over. We may yet recruit the other three-quarters of our people to fight. It would also be prudent to offer amnesty and protection to any Death Eater who did not become one of his own free will. This may draw many thousands of them to our side."
"And what if they don't desert? What if fear of Voldemort is just too strong?"
"We can still wage a successful guerrilla campaign. I can have the Order and our Aurors combine and hide them in each city undercover. The Aurors can pretend to be civilians, sniping at the Death Eaters from windows and then retreating, then attacking again wherever the Death Eaters are off-guard. Besides, let us have some faith in the Aurors we train. Yesterday morning at Hogwarts I watched three Aurors fend off twenty thousand Death Eaters for over fifteen minutes, inflicting many casualties while receiving none. They cleverly distracted the main body of Death Eaters by hexing the dragons, then lured the mountain trolls forward and made the trolls step on the human Death Eaters. With more Aurors, the result would have been better. I do wonder why only three were sent when I requested as many as possible…"
"The other Aurors were all on the trail, hunting people like Lucius Malfoy and Theodore Nott. Now we know just where these people are. I guess we can call back the Aurors."
"We've got less than a thousand Aurors. How is this going to work?"
"We should just surrender to Voldemort and beg for mercy."
Several of the Wizengamot members had already lost hope. Dumbledore looked suspiciously at them without moving his eyes. He wondered if they were the ones being bribed by the Death Eaters.
"We can win no matter how outnumbered we are," Dumbledore insisted, "see how just three of our Aurors did at Hogwarts. As long as the people are loyal to me," he had chosen the wording carefully, "the Death Eaters cannot win. Even if they take over the Ministry and begin a reign of terror, the hearts and minds of the people will be with us. The more oppressive the Death Eaters are, the more they will drive people to our side. What matters is the will to resist. I can already see several of us losing their will." He stared pointedly at the wizard who had suggested surrendering. "That is the one and only way to lose."
In the meantime, Hermione was at one of several tables in her laboratory. Suddenly her darkened fireplace flared to life with a green fire. Harry Potter rolled out of the flame and stood in one smooth movement, wand drawn before him. After looking around the room, he convinced himself there was no threat and put his wand back in his robes. "Hey Hermione! What're you working on there?" he asked as he walked up to her table.
"A telescopic gunsight," she replied. "It's supposed to attach to a wand. We can look through the scope and target distant things with spells." She picked up a hollow metal tube with a lens at each end. At the bottom of the tube, another piece of metal had been attached that contained a clip wide enough to hold a pencil. She stuck her wand into it and held the entire device to her right eye, closing her left. Harry quickly understood what she was doing.
"Is it supposed to be used for sniping at Death Eaters?" he asked.
"Exactly. I'm just trying to get the right magnification for the scope."
"May I try?"
"Sure." She took her wand out of the clip at the bottom of the scope and gave the scope to him. "I've set up a target at the end of the hallway. Just look through the scope, the place where the two lines cross is where the spell will hit."
Harry slipped his own wand into the clip and went out into the hallway. The target was simply a parchment with alternated red-and-white circles painted on it. Harry grasped the scope in his hand and held it to his eye.
"You've got to be touching the wand to cast a spell," Hermione reminded him.
He touched the wand with his other hand and sighted through the crosshairs on the scope, pointing at the center red circle on the target.
"Avada kedavra," he said softly. A glowing green bolt shot off the tip of his wand, embedding itself in the bulls-eye. The bolt disappeared, finding no human to kill.
Meanwhile…
Voldemort glanced at a nearby clock. It was already one o'clock in the afternoon. His army had spent all of the day before and this morning in Hogwarts, helping themselves to the food in the kitchens and the dormitories vacated by the students. He felt that his army was now clean enough to begin the next part of the plan, after they had been delayed by the battle of yesterday.
Flashback
The Death Eaters entered Hogwarts, quickly determining that all the students and teachers had escaped and that the school was safe. Voldemort ordered his non-human troops to camp outside the castle. He then ordered Bellatrix Lestrange, Draco Malfoy, and Blaise Zabini to conjure up corpses to feed the Dementors and acromantulas; he sent Theodore Nott, Lucius Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe Senior, and Rabastan and Rudolphus Lestrange to tie up and feed the centaurs and horses outside.
Inside, Voldemort divided his men (and women) into equal groups, ensuring that each bathroom was used equally. He allowed his troops to change out of their uniforms and shower, but required that each one take no longer than 15 minutes to shower. Those Death Eaters who hadn't yet showered, still sweaty and soaked to the bone with urine, eagerly enforced this rule upon anyone who was too slow in the showers. Even so, Hogwarts had not been designed to accommodate so many people, and it took five hours of continuous showering before all the Death Eaters were clean and in new uniforms. The dorms could not accommodate everyone, so many Death Eaters were forced to sleep in hallways, classrooms or even outside. It began to rain that afternoon, and sheltering the whole courtyard from the rain was a large task as well. Voldemort decided to delay the next stage of his campaign.
End Flashback
Now, the embarrassment of yesterday was past, and it was again time to move. Voldemort floated high in the sky, directing his troops into their formations. One thousand of his troops, including forty Dementors, remained at Hogwarts under the command of Rabastan Lestrange; the others marched for Hogsmeade.
At two o'clock Voldemort floated into Hogsmeade at the head of his army. The Death Eaters rapidly moved through the streets. They surrounded each house one by one and asked permission of the owners to raise a Dark Mark; they were never rebuffed. More and more Dark Marks appeared over Hogsmeade, each signaling that a house or store had been secured.
Satisfied, Voldemort handpicked five hundred Death Eaters, plus a giant serpent and ten mountain trolls. He then placed Draco Malfoy in command of the village and ordered the rest of the Death Eaters south of Hogsmeade.
Voldemort counted his troops again as they marched south: 28,500 humans (2,500 riding centaurs and 4,500 riding horses), 11 serpents, 1,800 house elves, 265 acromantulas, 290 mountain trolls, 17 hippogriffs, and 3 fire dragons. A quick roll call later that night proved that all was in order. No one had deserted their duty.
Voldemort was certain that he would control London within two weeks.