A few minutes after Harry and Sean had entered Hogwarts, the werewolves and Dementors arrived to guard the outside of the school. It was a full moon that night, so the werewolves transformed. Voldemort's way of thinking was that by putting the werewolves out with the Dementors there wasn't any risk since the Dementors couldn't die. The Order of the Phoenix was not content to sit this one out, the members that weren't in the faculty at Hogwarts were to apparate to just outside the Hogwarts grounds, meet up with the Knights, then fight their way inside.
Bill and Kingsley would lead the group into battle and fight their way inside. Bill informed Lupin of Sean's insistence that he sit this out since he could not guarantee his safety around the Knights. Lupin grudgingly agreed and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley agreed to take care of him for the night.
Bill looked over the assembled group. There was Moody and Tonks, two well-loved friends of his family and brave and valued Order members. Kingsley was there and his large form towered over the other Order members. Bill's brothers Charlie, Fred, George, and even Percy were there and determined to see this to the end. Bill took a deep breath as the rest of the group arrived about the same time Harry and Sean made their presence known. They huddled in the cover of trees as Bill sent Charlie ahead to scout out the perimeter.
After he sent Charlie away, Bill saw three figures riding in on horseback. He figured they would be the Knights Sean had told him would come to his aid. The rider in front was the first to dismount and he made his way over to Bill. When he was close to him, he showed Bill his crucifix.
All three of them had long hair and were well built, they carried knives and guns and Bill could see that the rider in front was in charge. He dismounted and then spoke to Bill.
"My name is Tristan Bruce," he said with a thick Scottish accent, he then named the two men riding with him, "this is John McGregor, and David McAllen…we are Knights of St. George from Scotland and were sent here by Sean O'Sullivan to assist you in the coming battle. And may we say, that it is a great honor to fight alongside wizards once more."
"The feeling is mutual," Bill answered. Bill noticed that Tristan and the others looked closer to his age, all older than Sean. Tristan couldn't have been younger than thirty-one, and the other two Knights looked around the same age. Bill came to realize just how much of a rarity Sean was, and he wondered why these three men were so ready and willing to take orders from him.
"I am very glad that you are here," Bill said to the three men before him. "We are going to charge them head on, and it would be best if you could take care of the werewolves while the other wizards and myself handle the Dementors. Especially since you won't be able to see them."
"If we can't see 'em," John questioned, "how in the bloody hell are we supposed to fight 'em?"
Bill paused for a moment to contemplate his answer, "we'll just all have to trust each other."
Tristan and the other Knights had been given specific instructions to follow Bill's orders, so they agreed and gathered their weapons. All three of them were armed with heavy shotguns, and all of them were loaded with silver bullets. They finished loading and checking their guns, then uttered some quick prayers in Latin and fell into formation.
A few moments later Charlie came back and gave a report to Bill. Bill turned to Kingsley and the others to give them the gist.
"He says there are about forty werewolves and two dozen Dementors out there."
This was more than Bill had expected, and he wondered if the original plan would work out. He paused and focused his attention on Moody, who was the most experienced of the group.
"Allaster, what course of action would you suggest?"
"I think," Moody began, "that it would be best for us to send the Muggles in first to engage and destroy the werewolves, and when the Dementors come we charge forward into a frontal assault, use speed and surprise to get them before they can counter."
It was decided. Bill took a deep breath and muttered a simple prayer for the safety of his wife and loved ones. Bill then stepped forward and gave some final council.
"The three Knights will be going in first to engage the werewolves, then be ready with your patronuses and engage the Dementors. And remember that the wolves will go for your throats…so be prepared."
Bill paused and was about to give the command, but thought it good to share a few words first.
"My friends, family, and comrades," he began with as loud a voice as he could muster, "I don't have to remind you of what is at stake here. We are here on what will soon become a field of battle to answer the threat of all those who would threaten our peace and those we hold dear. I don't know if Harry and Sean will succeed in their mission. But I do know this, we will succeed in ours."
There were a few chants of approval from the assembled Order members at this. Bill continued, feeling more confident as he did.
"We all have much at stake on a personal level. So I implore all of you now, fight with all your might, with every last breath in your bodies. Fight now to end the uprising of the Dark Lord, here and now, once and for all time!"
The three Knights and the Order members raised their arms in the air and yelled their approval.
Bill then knew it was time and gave the order, "Tristan, John, David, move out."
The group waited for the Knights to get a head start, then moved out individually, they spread out so that they could confuse the enemies when the time came for battle, and concealed themselves behind the Knights.
The werewolves began to charge as the Knights made themselves known, but Tristan and the others quickly dropped to a knee and began to fire their shotguns at the beasts. They were all excellent marksmen and hit their marks with surgical precision.
They could each load five rounds into their guns before needing to reload. Tristan would fire three shots before John started to fire, and John would fire three shots before David would start. The three used this system to incredible efficacy, at any point, one or two of them would be firing and the one or two who weren't firing would be reloading or already reloaded. They dropped at least twenty wolves in this fashion, but there were just too many werewolves moving too fast for them to pick them all off from a distance.
"Hold fire!" Tristan ordered as John and David put their firearms away and drew their knives.
Each of them had a pair of knives like Sean's; except for instead of a straight blade with "teeth," they were curved like a small scimitar covering the length of their forearm with the tip of the blade at the elbow. They also had silver knuckle guards that the Knights could use to add power to their punches; the three of them drew one in each hand.
Tristan waited a few moments and then yelled, "charge!" and the three Knights ran at the wolves as fast as they could, having faith that the wizards would be warding off the magical creatures they had talked about.
At this time, the Order members emerged and instantly began warding off the Dementors, but a few of them looked at how the Knights were able to stop the werewolves and wondered how it was possible.
The Knights were now attacking them with only knives, but they were either dropping the werewolves or warding them off masterfully. Tristan, John, and David had all received some instruction from Sean on fighting in the past, so they would destroy the wolves with a brilliant combination of hand fighting and then finishing them off with the knives, by slashing, slitting, or thrusting.
All the Order of the Phoenix members who caught a glimpse of the Knights were beyond impressed. Bill could see why Sean insisted Lupin not be at the battle because the three Knights were almost barbaric in their fighting and killing the werewolves. At one point, Bill saw David plunge the blades of his knives into the throat of a werewolf and then pull his arms to the side, tearing out the wolf's throat.
David then stood up, raised his arms in the air with the blood-stained knives and in a loud voice proclaimed "I kill werewolves!" and then stuck out his tongue and yelled before moving on to more wolves.
Other members of the Order of the Phoenix noticed and were awed, but remembered to stay focused on the Dementors.
Bill shot off a few patronuses but kept an eye out for Greyback. He needed to find Greyback, for himself and the others. He knew that killing their leader would discourage the other wolves, and he had a bit of a vendetta against Greyback. He made his way through the werewolves, being careful not to get in the path of the Knights and their weapons, while Kingsley, Moody, Tonks, and some of the other Order members covered his path with patronuses. Bill looked and fought his way around a few werewolves, his strength and reflexes having become heightened and more primal since his last encounter with Greyback…and then he saw him.
Greyback was a rare breed of werewolf in that he was fully aware of his surroundings and conscious of his decisions when in werewolf form. He obviously recognized Bill because the two of them became engaged in a stare down. Greyback prepared to pounce and Bill readied his wand, forgetting about Sean's gift in his pocket. Greyback pounced, but Bill avoided it and spun around to try to get him with a curse.
"Petrificus total…" Bill began before Greyback swung one of his paws around, knocking Bill's wand from his grasp. Seeing Bill's wand and only means of defense gone, Greyback then stalked his prey as Bill stood facing his would be killer.
"Please keep her safe," Bill thought to himself as he dropped his arms in defeat, Greyback smiled inside and prepared to pounce at and destroy Bill. But Bill's eyes widened as he felt something in his pocket and he remembered. "Sean's gift" he thought to himself remembering the weapon he had in his pocket.
As Greyback pounced forward, Bill reached into his pocket and pulled out Sean's wedding gift. He gripped it like Sean had shown him, then he took careful aim and squeezed. The noise that went off was like nothing any of the wizards, werewolves, or Dementors present had ever heard and it attracted all their attention. Greyback had yelped in pain as the bullet from Bill's pistol struck him just above his left front leg. He fell to the ground and tried to move forward, but all he could do was limp. He stopped limping when his head came in front of the barrel of Bill's pistol, and Bill squeezed it again.
Greyback fell to the ground dead as a doornail. Many of the Order of the Phoenix members turned in Bill's direction, surprised to hear the gunshots coming from where he was standing. Bill thought quickly, he realized that the surviving werewolves would most likely leave soon due to their decreasing numbers at the hands of the Knights and the loss of their leader. He could see that the Dementors were still fighting strongly. Bill paused for a moment, closed his eyes, and thought back to not long ago when he was in the South of France with his beloved Fleur.
He then opened his eyes and shouted "Accio wand" and his wand came back to his hand. He then held it up and yelled "expecto petronum!"
A large aura emerged from Bill's wand and took the form of a huge dragon. This was even more powerful than the petronus Harry had used years ago to turn away the group of Dementors around Sirius. The Dementors scattered as the petronus became bigger and showed no signs of diminishing. Shortly after the Dementors all dispersed, the surviving werewolves literally turned tail and left, with Tristan and the others quickly gathering their guns and picking off as many werewolves as possible as they ran away.
Casualties had been minimal for the Order and none of the Knights had been hurt, but one of the Dementors had briefly attacked John before Tonks got it away with a patronus. The Knights' knives were soaked with blood as they got up to regroup. The stench of the dead werewolf bodies was everywhere as those left on the battlefield looked around at their surroundings. While damage was being assessed, Moody came up to Bill.
"What is that thing, and how did you muster that patronus?" he asked gesturing to the now uncocked pistol as his magic eye searched it up and down.
"A wedding present. And you'd be amazed how powerful a patronus you can conjure after you've been on your honeymoon." Bill answered calmly as he, Kingsley, Moody, Tonks, and the others made their way to the castle.
Hermione was leading the students to the stairwell and giving instructions for the first year students to follow the other members of their house. She stayed to ensure that the first years were moving along fine, after they heard the shots outside they froze for a moment before Hermione urged them forward and trusted them to continue on from there. Ginny had been the first one out of the Great Hall and had run for the staircase, making sure that some of the students could see and follow her. The plan was for Hermione to direct the students out of the Great Hall and then for Ginny to make sure they all got up the stairs.
Prefects stood by the different entrances and called out the names of the different houses. After all the other students had gone up the stairs, Hermione arrived at the stairs to meet her friend.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked Ginny.
"Yeah" she answered. "Who do you suppose those two people were who came in during the feast? They couldn't have been Snape and Bella" Ginny said this last part in a fearful tone, imagining the worst.
"I don't know" Hermione answered, "but I'm sure we both know who we hope they were."
Ginny nodded in understanding, "I hope that it was Sean and Harry," Ginny stated, "and that they succeed."
Hermione agreed, still taken aback by the thought of her Harry and his Knight guardian not succeeding and Voldemort waiting for broad daylight to perform the act that would strike fear and establish dominance.
"In any condition," Hermione stated, "we need to go and stay with the others in the Gryffindor Common Room until it's over."
They arrived there and saw the group huddled into a scared and confused mass, and then they heard another gunshot from outside. Neville was the first to come forward and ask what everyone else was wondering.
"What the hell is going on?" Hermione realized that there was no point in keeping it a secret any longer.
She paused for a moment while she considered what and how to much to tell them, and settled for starting with the wedding and talked about meeting Sean and learning about the Order of St. George, answering the question of why she was allowed at the meeting with, "they thought I could help the Order prepare for the battle." As she said this last part she gestured outside where they could see the battle between the Order of the Phoenix and the werewolves and Dementors coming to a standstill.
"So Harry went with Sean and we haven't seen them since then" Hermione said ending her account of all that had happened since the group of assembled students had last been together.
The Gryffindor students took all this in and were particularly astonished, they had known Harry.
"Harry's been training with a Muggle?" Demelza asked.
"There really is an Order of St. George?" a fifth year student asked.
"What were those loud noises outside?" a second year asked.
"Why wasn't I ever told about this?" Ron asked disgustingly.
"Look!" Hermione said with a loud huff, "the important thing right now is to stay here and stay alive…the rest will work itself out in time." Hermione paused before ending with "and should the worst happen, we need to think of a way to get out of here."
Hermione finished and went to sit down in an empty chair by the fireplace. As she sat down, she ran her finger over the bracelet on her left wrist; the one Harry had given her before he left. "Please be okay," she prayed in her mind, "please come back to me."