The Lord of Stone Tower
A/N; Like I said in Catcher, I have decided to grit my teeth and work on these stories, hopefully that way I can make some head way on them…I'd like suggestions from people please to help. This story is going to be wrapping up pretty soon but the other ones have got a way to go. This one was always going to be short.
I am going to be starting a Charmed/Harry Potter crossover with a HP-the-whitelighter theme so any ideas would be great.
Chapter 18; The Dark Citadel.
"Are all the repairs complete Drale?" Harry asked.
"Yes Sir," was the reply.
"How about Hogwarts?" This time he asked one of the Captains that he had put in charge of the troops, healers, and engineers that he had sent there to overlook the repairs and clean-up.
"Also completed, Hogwarts repaired herself, it was only the few additional buildings that had to be rebuilt and obviously the clean-up."
Harry was holding a meeting to organise the soon-to-be offensive against Voldermort, he wanted to cut the head off the enemies' hierarchy, literally if he had to. Then finally the world could get onto fixing itself. He and his spy were confident that with the death of Voldermort the opposition would lose all moral and either fall apart or in Harry's opinion be destroyed. He had studied recently with the help of Albus and the Lady of Darkness and come to the hopeful conclusion that with Voldermort's death the Dark Mark would suck all life from his followers in the hope of staving off Voldermort's destruction. Something he was sure that Voldermort had neglected to tell his Death Eaters when they were initiated.
Harry had had trouble sleeping for a few nights after he had killed Ron and it was only with Alex's help that he was up and about again after only three days planning his arch-enemy's downfall.
"Right, onto business." Harry drew himself up and motioned to the table before him. A hologram rose from the table's surface to form a small castle surrounded by an open space of about half a mile from the Castle and then a forest stretching to the edge of the 'map.' "This is the Dark Citadel as Voldermort calls it. It is located about fifty miles north west of London centre. Its main defence was the fact that no-one knew where it was. It is unplottable but that was no match against Ra's staff. Draco managed to find it after weeks of tailing Death Eaters and has gotten enough information to make it possible to attack.
"We will do this by splitting into four parties. Group one will consist of Lucus' Knights. Groups two and three will consist of the Dark Elves and Army mixed. Group two will be led by Quasir and three will be led by Vale. Lastly group four will be the Dragon Riders along with Alex. Any questions so far?"
He received no answer so continued. "Group one will be the front of the attack as it would be better to kill who we can without be noticed or tracked. They will enter first and will create a blind spot somewhere in the defences of the Citadel with which Group two will enter. Group one with move further into the Citadel using stealth and hopefully not being noticed. Group two will be the distraction, your job will be to destroy the defences and wipe out as many Death Eaters as you can. One will assist you by flanking enemy positions and confusing the enemy."
He let this settle in before continuing. "While this is happening Group three will have surrounded the Citadel staying within the tree line. Your job is to make sure that no-body escapes. You will also double as backup for team two if necessary."
He received a nod from the Muggle General. "Group four's main job is to covers us through out the whole operation. I will be setting up an anti-transport ward to prevent any magically means of transport within twenty miles of the Citadel so you will keep an eye on everything within five miles of the Castle. Alex will remain near to the citadel to coordinate movements of group three if they are need to enter the Citadel and also to strike at the roof defences with the help of any nearby Dragon Riders. If group three enters as backup then it is group fours responsibility to stop anyone from escaping. Remember that no Dragon can be in the air before group two makes its presence known. Therefore you must enter on foot."
He received nods from all around as they watched what he just described unveil on the hologram in front of them.
"What if we need to escape, do we have a plan for that?" Alex asked.
"Getting out wont be a problem as with group three covering two they won't be cut off and group one won't have any problems escaping." He looked at Lucus for confirmation and received a smirk in response. "We better bring some of the Plasma tanks to stand ready; if we have to bail out they can destroy the place easy enough. Actually they can torch the place anyway once we confirm Voldermort's Death."
"And what daft job have you given yourself?" Alex asked impishly. Some of the generals gave him strange looks at the tone. Harry knew that he was only trying to sound that way but he could tell he was worried for Harry.
"I will go in with group one as I can keep up with them but as soon as we confirm Voldermort's presence then I will confront him. Group one will split so that they can kill any Death Eaters in his presence or at least keep them busy." He paused to allow Lucus to snort quietly at the idea of them not being able to take care of a few Death Eaters. "Lucus will have to join the team that does that so you will have to pick someone to head up the remainder of group one."
"What do you want us to do once we've taken care of the Death Eaters with Voldermort?" Lucus asked.
"Some of you can return to the rest of team one but I'd like Lucus and a few of your best to remain in case Voldermort pulls something or to get me out if I am too badly injured afterwards. However do not interfere and try to be inconspicuous, I don't think that Voldermort will be able to escape but I don't want him to feel like he is being ganged up on and decide to leave if he can. And I don't want anyone to try to go in for the kill because I am the only one that can deal the killing blow and I don't want any attempts to backfire. Understood?"
He made sure he received a nod from Lucus who he knew wouldn't be happy sitting on the sidelines.
"Anyone got any questions?" Nobody said anything, "Good, get your teams together, we attack at seven fifteen tomorrow morning when the sun is up so we can move into place under the cover of darkness. Be ready and at the Dark Ring at five thirty tomorrow."
The following day; Forest near the Dark Citadel
A green light lit the canopy of the forest, hidden from above by an illusion charm of Alex's making. Harry, Lucus, Alex, Quasir (the Dark Elf) and Vale (the Muggle General) stood before the Portal as troops flooded through it. First Lucus' Knights flooded the area, fifty men highly trained, fast and skilled killers. The ultimate assassins. Lucus saluted Harry and slipped into the Darkness to join his comrades.
Following them was two divisions separated by a small gap, Muggle infantry on the right armed with pistols, hand held machine guns and gas masks. On the left was a division of Dark Elves. All wore the traditional Black Armour and over the top dark cloaks of dark green, they were armed with knives, swords, bows and arrows. Amongst them was five Magic Practitioners armed with the normal swords of the Dark Elves hanging on one hip and a Mage Staff on the other.
They marched to either side of the small group of leaders. And Harry turned to Quasir with a nod, he departed to speak with the Captain of the Muggle division under his command.
An almost identical group exited the Portal next, the only difference was that the Dark Elves held a spare Quiver of Arrows each showing that they were their as ranged infantry. The same showed for the Muggle division, many of the men held larger machine guns, sometimes carried between two. A few carried boxes of ammunition and some with the mortar tubes to use that ammunition. All of these men had forgone the gas masks of their earlier counterparts and wore heat detecting goggles knowing that the enemy had the ability to prevent the naked eye from seeing them but not always the ability to hide their body heat.
"Vale, you have your orders and you know the signals for victory, retreat and reinforce. See you after the fight." Harry received a respectful nod in return before the man turned to walk beside the Dark Elves' Captain.
As Group three cleared the area the portals edge was broken by ten Plasma tanks as they rolled through, their tracks almost completely silent. The tank crews had spent much of the night oiling and silencing their tanks as well as grudgingly dirtying the gleaming metal to make them harder to spot in the darkness of the dense forest. As soon as they were through they paused and then split to the sides. Five turned left and the other five turned right to take positions around the three line.
Lastly, as only Harry and Alex stood under the tree, the portal was broken again as twenty formidable creatures stepped through. They were an odd sight when forced to walk. They kept low to the ground, their heads down to clear the canopy and their bodies stream-lined so that their riders weren't smacked on the head by the odd low branch. The Dragons copied the movements of the tanks which had come before them and split to take up positions again around the tree line but deeper into the forest. They kept in pairs as they always flew in pairs.
Two Dragons were riderless and crouched to the ground before them. On Harry's left sat Elina, Alex's Dragon and beside her was Griever, Harry's own, almost too big to fit under the canopy above them.
"Griever! You weren't supposed to be here, I can't take you inside with me!" Harry sighed, he had told the Dragon to stay but he never believed Harry was capable enough to keep himself out of trouble.
'It's only a small castle' his voice echoed in his head, 'I'm sure if you need me I can get in easily enough. The roof can't be that strong. I'll just fly with Elina and Alex till you need me to bail you out."
Harry laughed and then shrugged. "He's going to fly with you Alex. Which reminds me, stay higher than the other Dragons so you can see more and also so that your shapes are the same size as the others so you're not picked out and targeted." He said this as much to the two Dragons as to Alex and received three nods in response.
"Right let's get into position." Alex said as he turned to walk beside Elina to avoid the odd branch being decimated behind her. "You better stay here Griever, your too large to walk through the forest without the noise reaching the Citadel, we'll be close and can meet up in the air."
Griever settled down with his head on the forest floor to wait and Harry absently stroked behind his jawbone the way he knew his Dragon liked before heading off into the forest with a small wave.
He quickly found Lucus at the tree line along with the Knights, they were placed at the closest part of the tree line to the outer wall.
Harry watched as he saw a flash from the trees to his left signalling that group three was placed where they should be. Group two waited patiently on the Knights right ready to use the opening given to them.
As seven fifteen approached Harry reached out with his Power and sensed the walls of the building that were telling him anything he wanted to know about the guards at their target.
He turned to Lucus, "There are sixteen guards that we need to take out. Eight are on the roof top in pairs, evenly spaced between those two towers. There are two people in each tower but they are blocked off from the walkway by large doors. Two are in place behind the door and then another four asleep in a room just below the right hand tower only accessible via a trap door in the tower floor."
Lucus thought for a minute before forming a plan. "Six pairs to scale the wall; One for each pair on the walkway, and the other two pairs to take out the right hand tower to take out the guard team and then to kill the ones in the room below. You're with me, we'll take out the left tower and then head down to clear the doorway. You can break the wards and then hey presto, group two are in."
"What about the rest of group one?" Harry asked. He'd left the Knights' entire plan of attack to Lucus as nobody knew their powers better than him. Even Harry didn't know all of their gifts.
"They can follow us up the wall, from their we'll kill the guards on the walkway to the left of the left tower and find a way down into the main part to flank any resistance that group two finds."
"Ok, Its time." Harry nodded, in fact it was seven fifteen and Lucus had already explained his plan to the rest of the knights and delegated the roles.
"First wave forwards, no cries or shouts. No one is to know we were even here." Lucus started forward with Harry on his heels. As the thirteen Knights were about to step into the red light of the morning sun they darted forward too fast to see. Harry didn't wait for them to reach the wall however and pulled up his Power to become the rock in the ground below him. He felt the stone of the Citadel pull at him and allowed his essence to travel through the ground to the closest part. He then travelled along it to the join of the wall and the left tower and stepped out. Stopping abruptly as he nearly head-butted Lucus.
Lucus sighed almost too quietly to hear at being beaten to the wall but it was quickly forgotten for a less important moment. They both look up and then along the wall. Lucus crouched low and leapt up, copied by the six other pairs along the wall. Harry allowed his hand to meld with them wall and climbed up the wall.
Only one Death Eater on the wall saw what happened next. He had just turned to stare incredulously at his partner as the latter finished reciting a rude joke, when two dark figures jump up onto the battlements, looked around and jumped forwards. One at him and the other at his partner. His partner died as a knife entered the back of his knife and he himself saw the dark hood of his assailant before a sharp pain shot up his neck. The last thing he saw as his neck was broken was the scene to his right. Six bodies fell lifelessly to the floor at the same moment.
The Elf let the mans dead body drop to the floor and turned to survey the area as four people jumped over the battlements and head silently for the door to the Tower. His own friend and partner joined the attack on the tower, wiping out the two guards and then dropping down through the hatchway and killing the four men in the room below as they slept.
On the other end of the wall, Harry climbed over the edge of the wall as the Dark elves were pulling the eight Death Eaters into the shadow created by the battlements by the low sun. So that anyone looking across the compound would only see the absence of guards and hopefully assume them to be slacking off.
Harry saw six Knights enter the far tower and turned to Lucus then gripped his arm as he placed a hand on the wall giving the younger man a significant look. Lucus grabbed Harry's other arm and allowed himself to be pulled through the wall to the room inside. They appeared out of the inside wall of the tower and were greeted with the back of two Death Eaters, their hoods down as they wore no masks.
Harry grinned at Lucus and lifted his hands and tapped both men on the shoulder nearest the other. They both span around instantly, their hands going for the wands. They just got a glimpse of their attackers before Harry and Lucus both jabbed out with their hands and crushed the Men's throats. Letting them fall to the floor to suffocate. They were Death Eaters after all.
Harry opened the door to their side to show the gather Knights that the tower was clear before grabbing Lucus and sinking through the floor and along the walls to the side entrance. Nobody was guarding this door as it was covered with an illusion on the outside to be a plain wall and it was also seamless on the outside meaning that the only way to get in was to batter your way in, thus alerting everyone to your presence and bringing guards running. Or you could just sneak in like they had and open the door like a common thief.
Harry felt like a thief as his grinned and pushed on the doors letting them swing open. He was greeted by Group two who had followed the rest of the Knights to the wall as soon as the blind spot was created. He was just marvelling at how well balanced and quiet the doors were when a blaring alarm sounded throughout the citadel.
Perfectly matching the plan…Group twos assault had officially begun. Harry laughed softly before grabbing Lucus again and heading back to the walkway above.
It didn't take them more than five minutes to clear the east wall of the Citadel and find their way into the main building. 'Really!' Harry thought to himself, 'Is Voldermort so arrogant that he thinks nobody else in existence can form a strategy?' He heard laughter in his head and realised that Griever must have heard him and sent a mental smirk at the Dragon. He received a feeling of joy in return and realised that the Dragons must all be in the air.
To prove that fact the Knights all suddenly lurched into alcoves as from the side of their current corridor a door burst open and a figure came tumbling down. A blast of fire followed him through the door. As soon as the fire retreated the Knights were moving again, killing the prone man on their way past. They move twice as fast as any man as they scouted the area.
Harry could see signs that the Death Eaters were focusing solely on Group two, twice on their journey they came across side corridors with Death Eaters firing down them towards Elves or Muggles at the other end. Both times they snuck up on them, showed themselves to their allies at the other end of the corridor to prevent friendly fire and then killed the Death Eaters and obliterated the defences before their opponents knew what had happened. They'd wave at the members of Group two and then disappear down the corridor again.
As they travelled deeper into the Citadel Harry received an almost constant version of events from Griever and in return he relayed messages to Griever to update Alex on the situation in the Citadel.
It was almost fifteen minutes into the fighting that Harry's team reached the centre of the Citadel. Harry knew that Voldermort was too far into his arrogance to be anywhere other than at the centre and was seconded in that conclusion by the magic he could feel emanating from it. They found a large door and Lucus told Harry, rather unnecessarily, that it was heavily warded. One of the Knights' abilities was detecting magic, normally only if it was highly concentrated, but in the case of Lucus' level of power, any level of magic could be detected.
"Split up!" Harry told Lucus. Once the majority of the group had left to cause more chaos, Harry turned back to Lucus. "According to Griever, Death Eaters are trying to escape the citadel. They're not getting far though but it shows that we're winning."
Just as he said it the sound of mortars and heavy machine gun fire reached their ears. Harry paused to listen and to receive the image from Griever of Death Eaters fleeing through new holes in the Citadel walls and being killed by either bullets, arrows or blown apart by mortars.
"I'll take out the doors, nice and showy like, you take you men through there and I'll go through here," he put a finger on the wall, "so that I can surprise old Voldie."
He waited for the nod before concentrating on his Power again, about six feet before the door the flagstones began to rise into the air and meld together. He could've just overpowered the wards, but not only would it have drained him more than this but also this way he could shock all of the Death Eaters and thereby maybe Lucus' men could take them out without incident. When he had a couple of tonnes collected the object begun to change shape forming a cone shape with an extremely sharp point.
He put one hand on the wall and with the other made a sharp motion. He disappeared into the wall just as his cone shaped weapon splintered through the doors pulling the wards down also. He reappeared at the back wall of the room in time to see Lucus and five other Knights sprint into the room, their shapes barely more than vague blurs. By the time the cone had reached the other end of the room, spearing one Death Eater through the chest before embedding itself into the wall next to where Harry had reappeared, six Death Eaters out of the thirty present were dead. Trust Voldermort to keep his most powerful nearby to protect him when his army was being wiped out.
Harry saw Voldermort through up a shield around himself to protect himself from the intruders even though Harry knew that none of them would attack him. Harry grinned at the abominations back. He recognised the shield as one capable of blocking even the most powerful of magic's and therefore picked the one spell he knew to be able to go through it. He pointed the top of Ra's staff at Voldermort and yelled at the top of his voice.
"AVADA KADAVRA!"
A/N; Now there only really two things that could happen now…any ideas?
Warning…this story IS ending soon!
Upmoose99; Draco didn't want to become a death eater and tried to rescue Harry in chapter giving his life in the attempt. That would make anyone grow on me.
Lucifer's Following; Yes I do and yes some of it is. Didn't mean to originally just realised that after you said it. Lol.
Jumping-jo; Never really tried to write romance, I might try it on my new charmed-HP story but don't know yet.
Thanks everyone, please review, it makes it much easier to write chapter when you know people are reading them!