Harry Potter and the Emerald Raindrop
AkashaWintersDisclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Harry Potter world. JK Rowling owns the Harry Potterverse anyone who doesn't know that should be exiled to Mars, I make exceptions only for poor penniless people in remote corners of third world countries, who cannot read and don't have the money to buy the overly priced one – thousand paged books. I make no money from my poor attempt at fanfiction. Also for this page, A necklace of raindrops was written by Joan Aiken, I do not own any of the rights etc.
Chapter 11
Late Arrival
"Come on Neville!" Ginny called from the carriage she Ron, Hermione and Luna had grabbed. The brown haired boy stumbled into the seat next to Ginny clutching a toad between two hands.
"He always does this", Neville replied gloomily, "you'd think he'd stay put 'cause he likes Hogwarts, but oh no, he has to cause a fuss".
Ginny smiled at him lovingly, "He's probably just nervous, you said he doesn't like lots of people around and Malfoy would make anyone nervous", she teased. Neville smiled back gratefully as the carriage began to move and they made their way through Hogsmeade to the castle.
"What was that?" Hermione asked peering out of the carriage window into the stormy weather.
"What?" mumbled Ron, stuffing another chocolate frog into his already overloaded mouth.
Hermione threw a disgusted look over her shoulder at him the pointed through the window at the sky. "Look! There it goes again! That flashing, it looks like fire. Look there's blue light too!"
Ron leaned over to look out of the window nervously, "it's coming from the road the other side of Hogsmeade? Do you think its Death Eaters? An attack on Hogwarts!"
"I can see something. It looks like there's something big in the sky, can you see what it is?" Neville asked pressing his face against the pane of glass.
"No, I hope everything's ok" Hermione replied as the carriage turned towards the gates of Hogwarts and they could no longer see the lights from the road.
As Harry and Jay tore through the gates of Hogwarts, the beasts above them stopped, hanging behind the gates them flames were stopped in mid flight, held back by an invisible barrier around Hogwarts, but one magical flame had sliced across his side before he crossed the threshold and the pain burned at him. Harry continued towards the castle, Jay in tow. As they neared the castle, the wooden doors flew open, Professor Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall and several member orders poured out.
Harry and Jay pulled up short in front of the group. "What happen Harry?" Dumbledore asked quickly walking swiftly beside him as Harry dismounted.
"Death Eaters, Sir! They're attacking the Gypsies!" Harry replied pushing his long wet hair out of his eyes.
"All right Harry," Dumbledore said gravely, pulling out his wand the twinkle leaving his eyes. "You stay here! Professor Flitwick, could you get ready to great the student, they will be arriving shortly."
The order members turned and ran off toward the gates, Snape gave him a loathing look before following them, the fire in his onyx eyes made Harry shiver, he was in so much trouble when Snape came back. He frowned indignantly at the thought of Dumbledore ordering him to stay behind, these people had become like family to him, even if he had know them for little over a fortnight. There was a noise behind him as Jay turned his horse around and began to move off.
"Hey!" Shouted Harry, throwing caution to the wind and throwing himself up onto his black horse and riding after Jay. "Wait for me!"
They soon arrived back at the wagons, the order had joined forces with the gypsies as they held the protective barrier above the wagons and threw curses up at the Death Eaters who rode the black and purple beasts throwing flames and curses at them.
"I thought the headmaster told you to remain inside the grounds Mr. Potter", snarled a familiar voice from his right, more Death Eaters had arrived on foot and had entered the barrier and duels had sprung up around Harry. Snape was currently duelling with a death eater to his right, Harry wasn't surprised to see he was using a glamour to hide his face from the Death Eater, he knew it to be Snape thought, he'd recognise that sneer anywhere.
The gypsies were holding their own, it was true that while they couldn't hurl curses at their opponents they were using the fall force of nature. Harry looked to his right to see a small boy conjure up a huge pile of rocks over the head of a Death Eater and let them knock him out, balls of fire flew about viciously and mini tornados and bolts of lightning appeared out of nowhere. Harry hurled a glowing ball of flames at the Death Eater duelling with Snape; being on top of Taz gave him the advantage of seeing more than those on the ground. Snape looked up at him in surprise as the Death Eater was knocked backwards and caught fire; he was quickly stunned as Snape continued to give him a measuring look, one eyebrow raised.
Suddenly Harry heard a familiar scream to his right. "Megan", he breathed tearing his eyes from Snape to see a Death Eater grabbing her around the waist and pulled away. A terrible rage built up in him and Harry took of towards the Death Eater, Taz nimbly dodged the burning debris that lay on the ground, as he neared the Death Eater he held out his hand and conjured up a hundred shards of razor sharp ice that shot towards the Death Eater holding Megan captive, the girl screamed at the oncoming arrows, but they passed around her sinking themselves deeply into the monster holding her. As the Death Eater slumped to the ground dead, he released his grip on Megan who fell to the group in a quivering heap, he canter up to her and bent down, scooping her up to sit in front of him on Taz's back, on arm slung around her waist he wrapped his cloak around her protectively.
Around him the Death Eaters were falling and the battle became less intense as the remaining Death Eaters on the ground retreated along with those riding the magical beasts in the skies above. Harry could see that along with the fallen Death Eaters there were some bodies of the gypsies as well. A tall dark man in a old velvet top hat lent peering over the body of the recently wedded woman; her husband lay beside her a pained expression of his face. He was alive but badly wounded. Harry climbed down from the horse taking his cloak off and wrapping it around Megan, telling her to hold on tight.
"Here." Harry said, pulling a blanket from the nearest wagon to wrap round the man.
"Clear the bed in the wagon", the tall man said, pulling out a wand and levitating the wounded man.
Harry continued to help the wounded until the ground was cleared and the wagons harnessed and ready to move. He spotted Jacob at the back of the precession, driving his uncle's wagon; an older man drove his own.
"Where's Gavin?" Harry asked concerned.
"He's in the wagon, he'll be ok", Jay replied his eyes clouded with sadness, they had lost five of the group in total and many had been wounded. The painful twinge in his side, reminded Harry that he had injuries of his own. Stopping for a moment he took out his wand and conjured up a bandage, he wrapped this around his mid section, wincing at the pain it caused, and then mounted the horse behind Megan continuing with the precession towards Hogwarts keeping a sharp lookout.
When they arrived at Hogwarts the wagons were pitched by the lake, the horses set free and the wounded taken to the Hospital wing, while the rest of the group were brought to a large room across from the Great Hall, where a large amount of food and a warm fire awaited them. After making sure that Megan was all right, Harry cast a drying charm on himself before returning to the Great Hall. As he pushed open the door of the hall, Dumbledore, who had obviously been making an announcement feel quite, maybe he should have been a bit quicker, Harry thought, noting that all the teachers where already seated at the head table, he had only stopped to talk to Jay. Harry looked down as he quickly made his way to sit next to Ron and Hermione at the Griffindor's table, apparently he'd missed the sorting, he hated making an entrance, thought Harry scowling. He quickly sat down, aware of a pair of onyx eyes boring into the back of his head.
Chapter 12…Mr. Petasus. We are introduced to a new character and Harry fills his friends in on recent happenings.