The Lord of Stone Tower

Chapter 16; To the rescue.

Hermione Granger stood beside Minerva McGonagle watching as the Aurors and the few muggles faced the ranks upon ranks of enemies, she could see Death Eaters in there black robes and white masks. Then there were thousands of Vampires, hundreds of trolls and at least twenty Giants. Even ignoring the Giants they were outnumbered five to one. They didn't stand a chance.

Hermione had been disappointed that Harry had only sent one set of troops. But their leader had insisted that they stay on the Hogwarts main walls as they had been ordered by Harry.

They heard a horn blowing in the distance and they saw the Vampires and Death Eaters running forwards, the Vampires gaining ground rapidly over their mortal companions. Spells started flying in both directions between the wizards and bullets cracked away from the Defence line mowing down Wizards all over the line. Most of the Vampires were fast enough to dodge the wall of metal but some got hit, but they were quickly back on their feet uncaring to their new injuries. Only the wooden shards sent from the Wizards did any real damage. And soon also the Death Eaters had thrown up Shields that stopped some of the Bullets but still some fell to stray bullets.

It was only a few seconds before the Vampires clashed into the Defence ranks and the superior numbers, speed and power of the attackers started to take a massive toll on the Aurors and Muggles, though more of the Vampires were killed by the stakes that all of the Defenders had been given.

"We can't hold them like this!" Arrows started flying from the top of the Wall and Minerva and Hermione added their own spells to the affray. The arrows killed the Vampires instantly if they hit their target in the chest or the head but many missed as the Vampires dodged, however with the close quarter fighting the enemy was having a harder time concentrating on dodging the arrows.

It was a tense five minutes of being pushed back before there was a sudden rush to retreat. The first attack had dwelled and been defeated but the defenders knew they couldn't survive another onslaught. They fell back through the gate and the Port-Cullis was dropped down. Everyone took their places lining the wall, the muggles setting up heavy machine guns and rockets whilst the Aurors started gathering in small groups so that they could combine their powers and launch war magic that Hermione had had a large part in researching and teaching.

The next attack came as predicted. The hundreds of trolls roared a battle cry and lunged forwards as a mass closely followed by the Giants. Volleys of War Magic flew at the first rank of trolls killing a few but trolls were hard to kill. Rockets and rounds of bullets killed a few more but they knew that the 20 metre high Giants would make short work of the wall and its defenders. Hermione motioned to Minerva and they levelled their wands at the nearest Giant which happened to be a slightly larger one than the others, maybe their leader and drew on their magic before chanting in unison.

'Certamen Ultimate Iuguolo'

It was a spell that Hermione and Minerva had been working on for the last year, it was a powerful spell but not something that could ever be used in close combat as it took five repetitions of the spell to build up enough Magic to successfully cast it. As soon as they had completed the last round both of their wands bucked up and it took their entire strength to keep their arms and wands aimed at the offending Giant.

Out of the two wands came a bead of five brilliantly glowing balls of white light, the two sets of five began swirling together after only a few seconds before there was a loud crack and the balls of Magic combined and streaked out across the battlefield where it successfully came into contact with its target. The two witches found them selves leaning on the battlements at the sudden feeling of being drained.

A brief silence covered the battlefield as the crack was heard, not because of the noise itself but because of the unknown feeling of power. Due to this most of the combatants were witness when the beam of Magic struck the Giant in the chest. At first it looked like the beam had been stopped before it did anything to the Giant as it seemed to collect itself on the Giants chest in a circle of white light.

The Giant looked down at the strange disc in bewilderment. After a seconds though this changed as the white circle suddenly became red and expanded like water over the Giants torso and seemed to soak into the Giant's body. Everyone was horrified at the screeches of pain that were torn from the mighty being's throat and could only watch in awe and a little fright as the Giant seem to bend in the light for a moment before exploding outwards into nothing. Nothing was left of the Giant as it seemed to have exploded leaving nothing behind.

There was a few more moments of stunned silence from most before the first of the combatants collected themselves and launched back into full out combat, headed by the Giants who screamed in fury at the loss of one of their own.

The two tired witches had no idea that when they had struck the final blow at Stone Tower had fallen and that even as the enraged Giant's blows cracked the stone of the castle's walls and the tide of the battle turned in the attackers favour even more, that help was soon on the way.

88

Harry, Alex and Drale were some of the first to arrive at Hogwarts. They had used a smaller portal to transport themselves rather than the Stone Ring in order to leave that free for the foot troops.

They had appeared on a rise to the side of the battle with a clear view of the Castle Wall on the right in front of them with the Stone Ring further behind that and the Enemy forces opposite the defenders on Harry's left.

"They don't look to well off do they?" Alex commented dryly, even as he spoke a green glow backlit the Castle wall as the Stone Ring activated. Soon there would be enough Elves and Men to hold that wall for at least an hour. The Giants however would batter through them regardless of the power of his own troops. They needed larger ordinance.

"That's what we're here for though Alex." Drale responded, Harry was busy looking through some Muggle Binoculars at the combat. Even with the Binoculars the Dark Elf still found what he was looking for first. "The headmistress's are in the centre of the line as usual."

Harry briefly turned that was and zoomed in on that portion of the wall to see them throw a few spells at the Giants closest to the wall before he turned across the length of the Battlefield to try to find the leaders of the opposition.

He found them on another hill across the Battlefield and slightly to the left of where he was. The three of them would take them out as soon as the larger ordinance had arrived. Harry shook himself and focused on what he had arrived here for.

He turned on the spot to look away from the Battle and down at the large clearing behind him and with no words needed started to set up a portal, exactly like the one in the Stone Rings but a one time thing that only he knew how to set up. His hands came together above his head and began to glow with a green glow, he then traced his arms down in front of him and then slowly out to the sides. He felt the drain on his Magic and was glad when he felt his bond with Hogwarts come alive in him and fill his reserves.

As he traced his hands through the air and green light appeared where he imagined it below him and about four hundred metres in front of them. Slowly it expanded to become a rectangle about ten metres high and over one hundred metres long. With one last stretch of his hands the portal flashed bright emerald before matching the glow that was still backlighting the Castle Walls almost two miles away from them.

Harry let Drale take some of his weight as he let Hogwarts replenish his reserves fully. Normally that type of Magic drain would have had him sleeping for a few days and he was glad that Hogwarts had seen fit to help or he would've had to resort to leeching off of Alex and Drale.

He was on his own feet soon enough and smiled broadly before grabbing hold of Drale as he apparated taking the Elf with him. Alex was close behind him.

As they left the shapes of Tanks began to emerge from the green light, eight at a time in a long line. Looking all the way as if they had come out of a sci-fi movie. Treads rattled across the gravel, dirt and rock and the sound of eight, the sixteen, and then twenty four tanks filled the air. The Tanks had just reached the top of the hill where their Lord had previously stood when the Portal closed up behind them. The tanks soon stood in one long line, each tank with five metres clearance on both sides so they easily looked an impressive sight.

Each tank looked almost identical to the tanks that had been used by the Muggle Armies, however instead of turrets on top of the main part there was first a disc which had a Gattling gun on it and several viewing ports of a bullet proof material and then seated on top of that was a almost downed shaped object, elongated slightly at the front where it obviously aimed and streaked with grooves around the sides to a lump on the back which was obviously the part that fed power into the object.

As strange as these tanks looked no body would dare call them anything other than weapons.

The commander in the middle most tank spoke across the radios. "All Leaders report in."

"Beta Leader reporting," came the first response, "Ready and awaiting orders, targets clear." The Gamma Leader on the Commanders left flank repeated his exact words.

A smirk appeared on the Commanders face as he gave his next order over the radio. "All Units, charge up." Immediately the air was filled with a white and blue light and a hum of power, a type never really heard of before. On the tops of all the tanks the grooves were suddenly filled with a whitish/blue light, almost liquid by its looks it flowed around to the front of the Dome before covering the whole thing in a four inch layer of Plasma. That was what it was, the Muggles from the Base on the island that had been Harry's first real victory had been working on it and found a way for it to be used in battle. And with great efficiency.

"Fire at will!" The Commander barked across the radio only five seconds after his last transmission and the air was filled with streaks of Plasma Shells. Almost as soon as the firsts shots were off the treads were crunching forwards and the Gattling guns on their platforms were spinning to warm up as the Plasma Tanks rolled towards their targets down the slope.

88

Minerva let the first real smile grace her lips as she looked away from the battle and down onto the lawns of Hogwarts and the green light that shone from the Stone Ring. She watched gratefully as rank upon rank of Dark Elves and Men marched through the Portal and immediately moved to assist in the defence of the walls.

She turned back to the main fight and the smile fell from her lips, even with the additional people they would still be over run. The majority of the enemy was still alive including over eighty trolls and seventeen Giants. The large beast just took to much energy to kill; anyone who expended that amount of energy like Hermione and herself had done would be left too tired to effectively stave off the rest of the fight. As for the Vampires and Death Eaters, they were falling faster than the defenders but there were still too many of them and when one fell more took its place.

To prove her point just as a new volley of arrows flew past her taking down Vampires and Death Eaters alike a Giant loomed up not five metres in front of them and drew back its club high into the air. People on the wall screeched in surprise and moved along the wall to avoid the inevitable blow but it never fell. To Minerva's surprise what looked like eight small white and blue comets hit the Giant's right hand side and exploded throwing the creature a fair distance onto the ground never to move again. Two blasts had hit its face, whilst the over six had struck its torso unprotected by its raised arm.

Screeches of pain and anger from three other Giants echoed across the field as similar strikes were made. One was killed by six hits and the other two were struck dead by five each. For a few moments the trails of the killing blows were left floating in the air before they faded but not before the majority of the defenders had followed their path back to the small hill to their left.

Cheers rose from the walls at the sight of the numerous tanks lit from their tops by glowing balls of white and blue. Even as they watched they began moving towards them and not five seconds after the first strike there came a second and then even before that one hit their targets another followed.

She realised that not everyone was staring at these machines when she was gently pulled back from the battlements with a polite 'excuse me.' She took in the figure before shaking herself and remembering the fight before her. A man leant slightly over the edge of the wall and then pulled something from a crate with the aid of another fighter, obviously both from Harry's army, and together they threw it over the edge. Minerva looked left and right and noticed similar things occurring all the way along the wall.

"Headmistress's?" Hermione and Minerva both spun around at the new voice and nodded at the heavily clad man before them, "My name is General Vale, I lead the Army from Stone Tower."

"We are glad you could come!" Hermione almost shouted.

"Yes," the man started to sound impatient, "We had our own issues to deal with, for now though can you have all of your men back away from the battlements, the initial shock may injure them."

"What do you mean; 'the initial shock'?" Hermione was curious. But the General just raised an eyebrow at her and then spun to shout at the Stone Tower contingent to fall back from the wall. Some of the Hogwart's defenders followed suit but most stayed at the wall firing into the mass of attackers.

"Hogwart's teams fall back from the Battlements!" Minerva figured that she should trust the men that had just come to their aid. It only took them a few seconds to comply along the whole length of the wall and then the General pulled a radio up to his lips and snapped through it.

"Charge the shield!" It was only then that Minerva and Hermione noticed the machines behind them as they started to hum; in fact they had been humming even as they were brought through the Stone Ring but now they actually noticed it. The two witches watched as now less than twenty men along the wall aimed large guns, each with several wires and rings of metal on them, down from the wall at the objects they had recently thrown into the field.

At once all of the guns lurched and a stream of electricity flooded from them and flowed down into the fight. Several of the attackers were caught by the lances and injured or killed but they eventually met their intended targets and after a few seconds they cut off and the men stepped back hastily.

Down below out of the sight of the defenders the enemy could only watch as along the length of the wall on the ground not three metres from the wall these object glowed and sparked with power before a bright light filled their vision as electricity joined all the objects and then grew into a glowing white barrier even taller than their own Giants. A few of their comrades were blasted back by stray bolt of electricity as it stabilised but eventually the barrier did nothing.

It was of course a Giant that was stupid enough to test it first. From General Vale's position he watched with a smirk as he saw the nearest Giant bring up his club. His Lord had already tested this and it had taken him five minutes to bring it down on his own and that was with extremely powerful spells. The Giant swung its weapon with all its might and there was a deafening crack at the club struck the shield. It even passed through slightly but then the Giant went rigid as sparks flew up its arm and the monster found itself stuck to the barrier and in immense pain as electricity shot through its body. This lasted for now more than two seconds before the electricity built up in the body enough to repel it from the shield and the Giant was sent flying backwards dead in an instant as sparks ran across its corpse.

The General laughed and shouted at his men, "Recharge at will!" A few of the previous men with the guns stepped forwards and aimed at the objects at the bottom and were soon steadily feeding more energy into it. It was capable of sustaining itself indefinitely but it used up power when something came into contact with it and needed recharging. They had found that even their Lord couldn't bring it down with force when it was being recharged. It did have one weakness though, but not something that he expected his enemy to ever spend the time experimenting to find. Its base supports, the things on the ground that fired the energy and were recharged could be destroyed and when they did that section of the wall would fall if the two nearest supports were not in range of each other.

That had been how their Lord had taken it down during the tests. Whilst he couldn't get his spells and attacks to penetrate the shield he had come up with the idea to take out the supports, just like you would take out the power source of any defence. The supports were still protected by the shield itself however their Lord had powers that no other did. In an instant he had called upon his Power over Stone and the ground literally opened up below one of the supports and it fell into it, effectively shutting down the field in that area. The shield itself had gone a bit haywire for a few seconds before the shield reconstructed itself over the space as the two nearest were in range of each other, but their Lord had easily brought it down after that. Luckily their enemy didn't have that sort of Power.

88

Across the field the Leader of the Dark Lord Voldermort's forces stood and watched the scene as it turned in the favour of his enemy. Anger and fury boiled inside him as first he saw the reinforcements fill the defending wall and then the green glows fill the air, from behind the wall and then from the right but brighter and he recognised that light as Harry Potter's trade mark. He snarled when he saw the attacks of the Muggle contraptions and then the shield.

"Sir, are forces cannot breech that shield!" Came a voice from behind him.

He didn't bother to turn but snarled coldly, "Redirect them at that new force then, we'll wipe them out and then work on the shield. I am betting that they can't fire out of that thing any more than we can fire into it!" Even as he watched he saw the last of his Giants fall to a bombardment of Plasma Shells, not that he knew that was what they were. His own forces turned and surged forward towards them but at that moment the other tanks weapons came into range.

The Leader heard gasps from behind him and assumed it was at the sight across from him as a loud roar of gunfire came across the air. What looked like a wave of metal came streaking across the field, far faster than the guns he himself had seen before. He watched as all three remaining types of his army were slaughtered by the weapons, even the vampires couldn't survive the sheer mutilation as their bodies were ripped to shreds. The Wizards shield didn't stand a chance.

He didn't become hopeful when one smart Captain Death Eater of his forces in the thick of things rallied some men, probably about twenty or thirty Wizards and cast a shielding spell that covered a half mile diameter. A loud screeching filled the air as the Muggle bullets cracked against the shield and ricocheted off to hit over targets. As if they thought with one mind more of the tanks turned their Gattling Guns against the shield but the orange shield held against the onslaught.

The Leader watched with glee as the Gattling Guns gave up on the shield and turned back to over targets and he laughed as he saw a huge spell launched from the safety of the shield. 'That Captain is going to get a medal after this!' he thought to himself as the spell hit one of the tanks and the tank disappeared in a fireball and was destroyed.

The victory was short lived however when he heard another hum over the top of the Gattling Guns and he suddenly realised that there were no Plasma Shells being fired from his enemy. He watched in horror as suddenly all of the remaining twenty-three tanks re-aimed there uppermost turrets towards the shield and in from the farthest from the shield to the closest they fired over the space of a second. The air was filled with white/blue comets as twenty-three super charge Plasma Shells, larger than those before them, lanced into the shield specially timed to strike at exactly the same moment. The shield crumpled like paper, able to hold against the Muggle Bullets but nothing against this new technology and the power behind it.

The combined force was way higher than anything before as firstly the light collapsed in to fill the shield killing everything thing inside it before blasting out for thirty metres around the extinct shields flanks wiping out everything in its blast radius. All that was left behind was flickering flames of white and blue and a huge hole in the middle of the attacker's army. The Tanks didn't even pause, they re-aimed their Plasma guns and continued to avenge the loss of one of their own, whenever an attacker became a problem or a larger shield was produced they would team up without a thought and destroy it.

"Kinneas! I want reinforcements!" He snarled in fury without turning to the subordinate he had addressed. "Kinneas? Did you hear me? Go!" Still nothing.

He spun in a rage to face his subordinate and his words died on his lips. Kinneas was dead on the floor his throat cut and Gunther was likewise dead on the floor, an arrow sticking out from the back of his head. Everyone in his control centre was likewise dead, and as he looked at the three men standing not four metres from him, he realised that the gasp he had heard was Kinneas's last sound as he was killed.

Harry, Alex, Drale and now Draco's ghostly form looked at the man in front of them in distaste.

"You managed to escape before, but that was nothing more than luck," Harry spoke icily, "This time you won't get the chance."

The Lord of Stone Tower, Dark Lord Harry Potter, held out a hand towards the newly arrived Draco and was rewarded by his friend giving him the Ra's Staff.

"Ronald Weasley, betrayer of your own family, you die here!"

88

A/N; All those that wanted to find out what happened to Ronald and Draco, you are soon to find out. The next chapter will start as a flashback of Ron's story since he escaped Stone Tower, then the last part of the fight, then in the chapter after that will be where Draco has been.

Like in Catcher, I need a new summary for this story but I can't come up with one. It needs to state that it has people out of character and a lot of concepts that are not in the Canon Books. Any ideas? Please send to me in a review!

Thanks as always to all my reviewers, I am glad that either the nasty people have stopped reading this or have learnt it is nicer to just keep their comments to themselves.