June 20…
Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and studied the happy students as they ate their dinner. Only a select few people knew that soon Voldemort's army would be attacking. Only a select few knew that in a matter of minutes Dumbledore would be portkeying the entire student body to a safe house in order to prepare for the arrival of the Dark Lord. Harry had suggested not telling the student body of the evacuation until the last minute, thereby making sure none of the students loyal to Voldemort would be able to warn him of their plans.
Clearing his throat Dumbledore rose to his feet and called the school to attention. Once he had their interest he briefly met Harry's eyes and began to speak.
"In a matter of hours an attack will occur upon our school," he began, waiting until the pandemonium had subsiding a little before continuing, "Due to this, the teachers and I have made portkey's that will take all students to a safe house where they will be looked after by a couple of volunteers and various wards we have placed for your protection. Due to safety concerns no student will be allowed to send or receive owls and you will be required to remain at the house until this situation has been resolved. The teachers and I, along with Aurors, and many volunteers will remain here to meet his forces."
Whispers broke out among the group. Some were scared for their teachers, other (mostly the older years) wished to stay and fight with them, and many of the Slytherins were angry that they wouldn't be able to contact their parents and warn them of Dumbledore's knowledge of the attack and their measures to counteract it.
"I know many of you wish to stay and help with our efforts, but its best if you were to leave and help keep the peace at the safe house." Dumbledore continued holding a hand up to forestall any protests he knew were coming. "This is not up for discussion, now if you will all please gather around your heads of house, they have your portkey's at the ready."
Grudgingly the students all gathered around their heads of house and ach placed a finger on the boots the teachers were holding out. By the end only the teachers, Harry, Ron, Jessica, Hermione and Draco remained in the great hall. Both Harry and Ron had pleaded with Hermione to go with the other students, but she wouldn't have it. She insisted on remaining with her friends till the end, so Ron had reluctantly agreed to let her help with the planning and execution of his ideas.
"Is everything ready?" Professor Dumbledore questioned looking at Harry.
Harry shrugged and nodded his head pointedly towards Ron, "Don't ask me, Ron's in charge, he's the brains of this operation."
Sighing gently Dumbledore repeated his question, this time speaking to the lightly blushing red-head.
"Um… yah, everything's set and ready to go. Fred and George are waiting upstairs for my signal. Did you make sure none of the others are arriving through the Entrance Hall?"
"Minerva and I made some portkeys that will bring specific groups to the spots you asked for, and they all know not to stray from their positions." Dumbledore assured the young Gryffindor, smiling at how the red head seemed to have come into his own.
"Albus…" Professor McGonagall said breathlessly entering the Great Hall through the door they had created because they were unable to go through the Entrance Hall, "I've just got word. Everyone's in position and you-know-who's army is almost at Hogwarts gate."
"It has begun," Dumbledore said gravely. "Hopefully 's surprise outside will help us gain the advantage," smiling gently at the red- head he turned to Harry, Jessica and Draco. "I wish you the best of luck, please be careful." His eyes full of sincere concern he studied each face as if trying to remember every detail. Clapping Harry on the shoulder he quickly led a slightly misty eyed McGonagall over to the other teachers who had just returned from dropping the other students at the safe house.
Ron watched as Jessica and Draco moved a respectable distance away, before taking a deep breath and sharing a solemn smile with his two best friends. Soon the battle the last five years had been leading up to would be upon them, and they all knew this might be the last time they would be together.
Steeling himself Ron held his hand out in front of him, smiling when Harry and Hermione instinctively placed their right hands over his.
"This is it," Hermione whispered tightening her hold on the boy's hands as if afraid they might pull away, "we're really going to do this."
"Yah," Ron answered softly, smiling fondly at Hermione as she tried in vain to stop her tears.
"You guy's can do this, I know you can." Harry put in strongly, having nothing but faith in his friends. "And one day you'll be able to tell your grandchildren the stories."
"We can do this," Ron corrected gently, including Harry "When this is over we'll all get together and throw a huge party, we'll party for days on end." Ron added gently squeezing his friends' hands and grinning goofily.
Hermione let out a half sob, half laugh before nodding and pulling the boys into a bone crushing hug, "Then let's get this over with."
The three friends shared one last smile before breaking away, dropping each others hands.
"Harry," a soft voice questioned placing a kind hand on the raven haired boys shoulder. "I'd like a moment with you and Jessica."
Harry smiled reassuringly at his friends before turning and following Greg and Jessica into a quiet corner on the far side of the Great Hall.
"I just wanted to wish you both the best of luck," the usually stoical man whispered kindly, "I'm very proud of you both and all of your accomplishments. When you come into full power there's no doubt in my mind you'll be the best Mystic Knights this world will ever know."
Grinning warmly Jessica said, "We learned from the best,"
Greg smiled and yanked the Gryffindor's into a brief hug before backing off. Seeing Harry's godfather and Remus heading their way, Greg wished them luck once more before walking away to join the other teachers.
Harry also noticing his Godfathers quick strides towards him sighed gently, knowing he would be in for a long lecture.
Meanwhile, outside Hogwarts gate…..
"The wards are down, Sir." A Death Eater told his superior quietly. "Do you wish to proceed?"
Garbe thought for a moment. When Voldemort had put him in charge, Garbe had known his job would not be easy, and that his decisions could affect the very outcome of the battle. Something seemed off to him, it was almost too easy getting into the supposedly least accessible place of all time.
"Zabani," he snapped his eyes roaming suspiciously over the grounds of the school.
"Sir?" the man questioned his voice cold and hard as he stepped forward
"Did your boy mention anything about Dumbledore knowing of our plans?"
"No, Blaise said everything was normal in the school. Dumbledore didn't have a clue what was going on. Many of the others children said the same thing. The old coot knows nothing."
Still feeling slightly uneasy, Garbe was at a loss on what to do. Sighing he pulled his pocket watch out and glanced at the time, 7:15 pm. In fifteen minutes his Lord would be summoning the Potter boy, and he had wanted Garbe to attack the castle as soon as possible, so when the time came, and Potter disappeared, in all the chaos no one would notice.
Sighing angrily the Death Eater nodded once, his mind made up. No matter what his gut instinct was telling him, he would always obey his master first. And his master had told him to attack as soon as he could. So that's exactly what they would do.
"Sir?" the Death Eater questioned again sounding a little annoyed because his question wasn't answered the first time, "Do we have your permission to proceed?"
"Yes," Garbe answered briskly, "Listen up," he yelled turning to face the massive army behind him, "It's time. This is the moment we've been anticipating. Our Lord wants us to go in there and show no mercy. Destroy everything and everyone. The children loyal to us have been advised to go to the fourth greenhouse behind the school and wait for us there. Nobody is to touch that particular greenhouse, understood." Murmurs of agreement sounded throughout the crowd. "Good now, let's go!"
The army roared with energy and moved forward as one, walking briskly towards the school in the distance.
Garbe first heard it as they had passed the gamekeepers hut, a faint ssswipp sound followed by a muffled scream and thud. Frowning faintly he continued to lead his men towards the castle picking up his pace just the tiniest bit.
He stopped short when the sound was heard again. Spinning around he looked back at the Death Eaters when he heard their alarmed cries.
"Sir," one panicked dark wizard cried pushing his way up to Garbe, "we lost the vampires and werewolves. One minute they were with us, then the next…just gone. Vanished, sir."
Garbe swore fiercely, "How many?"
The Death Eater sighed, "All of them." He muttered knowing neither Garbe nor his Lord would be pleased with this.
"ALL OF THEM!" Garbe roared, it was all he could do not to whip out his wand and kill the man. "How the hell did one hundred Werewolves and Vampires just…disappear?" he seethed clenching his fists tightly.
The Death Eater by this point had begun to shake in fright, though he tried to hide it. Being a rookie and all he knew Garbe would not hesitate to kill him, if so inclined.
"I don't know…" he said trying to slowly edge his way away from the furious Dark Wizard.
"Well I do," Zabani drawled.
"What are you on about," Garbe snapped spinning on his heel to face the man.
"I believe those are them," Zabani smirked pointing towards the forest; he had never liked Werewolves and Vampires, and had fully disagreed when Voldemort had wanted to bring them into their army. Of course, he had never said this out loud, he didn't have a death wish after all, and openly disagreeing with his Lord would have ensured an early burial.
Garbe followed the direction the man was pointing and felt his mouth drop open in shock. Dozens of large white sacs hung in the trees, some were swaying back in forth as if the things moving inside were trying to escape, while most others remained perfectly still. It wasn't the sacs themselves that shocked Garbe, it was the giant spiders that were dragging said sacs deeper into the forest before returning for more.
Catching movement in the corner of his eye, Garbe quickly glanced in that direction, just in time to see a spider quickly and gracefully wrapping a struggling vampire up in its silken cocoon.
"Bloody Hell," Garbe muttered backing away as the giant spiders all disappeared into the forest, disappearing as quickly as they had come, dragging the cocoons with them. Garbe knew better then to order his men to follow and save as many Werewolves and Vampires as they could, that would just be suicide.
"We move on without them," he roared to the startled Death Eaters as he continued to move away from the forest, "our allies are lost, they no longer exist to us."
The Death Eaters mumbled their understanding beginning to shuffle towards the castle again, a bit more apprehensive. Most knowing that the spider's attacks couldn't have been purely coincidental, as they were too quick and organized to have been a spur of the moment attack.
A startled cry and a curse shot from behind caused Garbe to spin around again, his eyes widening as the giant spiders moved swiftly towards the group again. As the Death Eaters around him started shooting curses left and right, Garbe watched in amazement as the arachnids gracefully dodged the curses. Yelping Garbe threw himself to the ground as a strand of sticky silk shot towards him. He felt the substance graze his head and pass over top of him. Rolling quickly to the side he watched as the Death Eater that had been behind him was yanked off his feet and dragged towards the Spider, the death eater could do nothing but claw at the ground looking for purchase and scream as more silken strands shot out and wrapped themselves around him.
Pushing himself to his feet he ducked behind another Death Eater and began running towards the castle at full speed, shooting a curse over his shoulder every once in a while, and calling out to his men to get to the castle quick.
Stopping so suddenly he nearly fell over, Garbe once again found himself staring in disbelief at the sight before him. Standing between his men and the castle stood rows of Unicorns, Centaurs and a couple other creatures he had never seen before. In front of the small army stood a beautiful black wolf. Garbe took in the wolf's appearance and realized he must be the Fire Wolf Lucius had sequestered many months before, and then lost to Harry Potter.
"Bloody Hell," he whispered again closing his eyes momentarily. Taking a deep breath he ordered his men onwards, telling them to get to the castle or die trying. With his army quickly losing ground Garbe couldn't help but growl angrily; it was obvious to him Dumbledore had known of their attack and was doing a damn good job of counteracting it. His Lord would not be pleased.
Sorry this post was late guys. But we're nearing the end so let me know what you think. Cheers!