I don't' own any of the Harry Potter Characters, they are the rightful property of JKR. No harm is meant by the writing of this fanfic.
Chapter 32: Incredible Victory
The cheers sounded throughout the trench; Bellatrix Lestrange's army was in full retreat. The Nasserites, however, were not about to let them get away. Three hundred Nasserites landed to the North, cutting off their route to London. These three-hundred managed to wreck havoc on the retreating army, while the Remaining BWLA resistance fighters, joined by the American Broomsmen and about a hundred Nasserites, left the trench and attacked from the south. Although still barely outnumbered the BWLA/American/Nasserite forces now surrounded Voldemort's army.
Ron, however, was in a state of panic. He had last seen Hermione standing right next to him until an explosion from somewhere threw him off of his feet. He now had no idea where she was as he combed the trench looking for her. Finding her nowhere in the trench, he made his way into the battle, attempting to fight Voldemort's forces and look for his wife at the same time. He searched frantically, fearing the worse, praying as hard as he could that it had not happened again; that he had not just married Hermione only to lose her again.
Harry and Reverend Ewls entered the Battle as part of the three hundred Nasserites assigned to cut off Lestrange's retreat back to London. They arrived atop their brooms, and upon coming close enough to the retreating formation, joined the other Nasserites in leaping off of their brooms, drawing their swords and deflecting unfriendly curses in midair. Upon arriving at the ground, both Harry and Reverend Ewls began to slash into their enemies, along side the other Nasserites.
Fear had gripped Lestrange's army as the Nasserite Juggernaught sliced through their lines. A good portion of them, unwilling to surrender but not knowing what to do in the face of these powerful wizards simply froze in a state of panic and fell where they stood. Roaming around the formation, attacking members of both sides was the werewolf Fenrir Greyback. Both sides tried to kill him but failed.
Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, both trained Nephesites, gave what Nasserites who challenged them a decent struggle. Lucius took on three Nasserites at once, killing all three of them in a matter of two minutes, before Severus Snape approached him.
"And now Lucius we have unfinished business," said Snape, his face angry and resolved.
Lucius Malfoy assumed a defensive position with his sword, eying Snape with an equally resolved and angry expression.
"So it was you who organized this rebellion," said Malfoy. "I thought you had such potential for a half-blood, but I think I always knew, deep down Severus, where your loyalties lay."
Snape moved to within a meter of Lucius Malfoy, who thought that he was somehow being incredibly stupid as his sword was now capable of slashing into him quite easily.
"Now that our cards are on the table Lucius, let us begin."
With an arrogant smile on his face, Malfoy began to swing his sword for Snape's neck. Snape, however, leaned back with his feat leaving the ground, in order to drop-kick Malfoy's sword out of his hands. Malfoy was temporarily unarmed, going for the wand which resided in his robes, while Snape, who had fallen to the ground, quickly came back to his feet with his wand in hand.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Lucius Mafloy anticipated the curse and dove out of the way at the last second.
Within sight of this duel were Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom who were dueling with two enemy wizards. Upon seeing his father, a look of rage grazed the face of Draco, who immediately killed the wizard with whom he dueled, and walked at a quick, determined pace toward his father. Upon arriving less than three meters from his Father's position and taking aim in order to begin the killing curse incantation, Lucius caught his son out of the corner of his eye. Before his son could begin the incantation, Lucius' wand turned from Snape to his son.
"Avada Kedavra!"
A green light hurled from Lucius Malfoy's wand, hitting his son in the chest, pushing him back several feet, dead before he hit the ground.
"NO!" shouted Snape, whose expression yielded a definite look of sadness. Lucius had, to his great disadvantage, let his guard off of Snape who began the incantation before he even knew what was happening. "Avada Kedavra!"
From Snape's wand came a blinding green light, which was the last thing Lucius Malfoy saw, before being thrown several feet in the air by the force of the killing curse, and coming to a crashing stop on the ground, dead. Snape ran to Draco's body, realizing rationally however, that there was nothing he could do. As he looked down at the expression of horror upon the face of his companion for the last year, a tear escaped his eyes and rolled down his cheek. He was suddenly joined by Neville Longbottom, whose face did not bare any tears but did have a hint of sadness. After a moment of mourning from both of them, they each returned to the fight.
It did not take but a half-hour long before the army which had previously been composed of a thousand men had dwindled to less than half that number. The losses sustained by both the BWLA and the Nasserites were miniscule; the mood among the now certain victors was one of elation. Ron however, continued to look for his wife frantically, calling out her name amidst the duels taking place around him before he heard a voice calling to him in response.
"RON LOOK OUT!"
For a brief instant before turning to look behind him, Ron was relieved; the voice was indeed from Hermione. His relief, however was replaced by terror when he saw the renegade Fenrir Grayback in wolf form charging at him. It was too late for him to react; by the time he had turned to see the Werewolf's advance, Grayback was only feet away. The Wolf jumped into the air and landed—paw-first—on Ron's chest, forcing him to the ground, sinking his teeth into his chest.
"AAARRRGH!"
"NO! RONNIE!"
The wolf slashed into Ron's torso with his razor sharp claws, manhandling him as if he were a children's toy.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
A green light from Hermione's wand hit the back of the werewolf, throwing him off of her husband. The Damage was done however, Ron had been bitten. Blood spewed from his wounds as Hermione arrived at his side, kneeling down next to him, frantically moving her wand over his wounds, muttering incantations under her breath which caused the wounds to seal up.
"It's okay Ron," she said with tears streaking down her cheeks. "It's okay, I'm here, I'm here."
"I thought… (gasp) I thought I'd… (sob) lost you again," Ron struggled to whisper.
"I'm so sorry Ron."
Hermione sobbed as she covered the body of her husband protectively with her own. They were now safe as the battle had now moved several meters away from them, Hermione stroked the face of her husband which was wet with tears. Ron started suddenly to breath heavily, a look of fear came into his eyes.
"Oh my God I'm a werewolf!" He moaned.
"It's okay," whispered Hermione comfortingly, stroking his cheeks gently. "I'm here, I won't leave you, ever."
Ron began to moan and sob, as Hermione lay on top of him protectively, holding his head tightly to her shoulder. Tears streaked down her cheek as well; while the battle's finishing stages raged only twenty meters north of them, they held each other, attempting to comfort each other as best as they could.
"I'm so sorry Ron," sobbed Hermione. "I tried to find you, but I couldn't, I don't know what happened."
"It's… (sniff) It's not your fault."
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The smoke rose from the various craters which had been caused by the artillery. The wreckage of destroyed wand-cannons, downed broomsticks, and dead bodies lay strewn around the three-square kilometer battle-field. After four hours of carnage, the Battle of the Southern Outskirts was over; more than half of its participants were killed or wounded. Of the thousand-person army lead by Bellatrix Lestrange, less than a quarter managed to escape.
Hermione carried her husband to a tent which was erected next to the BWLA artillery line as a make-shift hospital. It was here that the healers who looked at him confirmed, there was nothing that could be done for him; the contamination was irreversible, he would become a werewolf. It would be a few months however, while the contamination fully set in, before he would begin to transform.
As Ron lay atop a cot in the hospital tent, among other wounded men and women, Hermione knelt beside him and held his hand. Her other hand stroked his face gently; occasionally she would remind him that she would never again leave him, which always brought tears to his eyes and a hint of gratitude to his facial expression. As the two sat together and passed the time, Harry and Barnabas McNamara entered the tent, helping a bleeding Walter Mickey into a cot.
"I told you that I was the better swordsman, but no!" said McNamara in jest. "All those practice duels didn't convince you and you had to go out and almost get yourself killed in order to prove me wrong, well whose the man now Walt!"
"Fuck you Barney!"
Both Harry and McNamara laughed as they laid him on the cot. Harry momentarily looked up and saw Hermione kneeling next to Ron's cot. A sudden look of worry came to his face as he stood and walked to her. Upon seeing Harry, Hermione beamed; she stood and ran to him, taking him into her embrace.
"Harry! I'm so glad you're alright."
"Hermione, what is it?" said Harry. "What happed to Ron."
The two broke apart, a grave expression came to Hermione's face.
"He's been bitten by a werewolf, Harry."
Harry's face assumed a look of sympathy.
"He'll be alright, Harry," said Hermione. "We'll be there for him, we'll help him live a perfectly normal life. How is my son?"
Harry's expression of sympathy now took on a hint of annoyed humor.
"He won't shut up will he?" said Hermione whose voice also bore some semblance of comedy.
"Not until I started to…"
"Stroke his cheek?" came Ron's weak voice from the cot. "Yeah I was the first to discover that, it calms him right down."
Harry then knelt beside the cot of his friend, noticing the marks of red indicating where tears had fallen from his face.
"How are you feeling?" Harry asked.
"I've been better."
"Look, everything's going to be alright you know," Harry responded. "You're going to live a normal life, and…"
"Harry please stop trying to cheer me up," Ron interrupted, his voice bearing the slightest hint of frustration. "I know I'll be alright, I just wish that…"
"I know, Ron."
"There's just so much that I wanted; now I'll probably never be able to get a decent enough career to support a family," Ron started. "I wonder if we can even have children now."
"Ron, the contamination doesn't pass from generation to generation," said Hermione. "We can still have children."
"But I wonder if we should, Hermione. It'll be dangerous, every month…"
"I'm willing to take that chance," said Hermione resolved. From the look in her eyes it was quite clear that her mind was clearly made up.
While Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued their reunion, a deliberation was held outside of the tent between Severus Snape, Alastor Moody, General Coulter, Father Bates, Reverend Ewls, and Nymphadora Lupin, who bore an expression of rage.
"We should continue the pursuit into London tonight," encouraged Father Bates, instead of his usual cold expression of pain, he seemed oddly relaxed and calm. "It's only a matter of time before the Dark Lord can escape the ministry."
"I agree," said Reverend Ewls who immediately turned to General Snape. "You've lost half your forces Severus, you can't continue to wage war much longer, this battle will have been for nothing if we don't capture Voldemort, we have to move quickly."
"But as you said we've lost half of our forces," pointed out Nymphadora Lupin, her expression still angry and hateful. "If we try to enter the city our losses will be even heavier."
"That's exactly why we must not fail to capture Voldemort," said Snape resolved, as if this was the final word on the matter.
"It's settled then," Said General Coulter. "The Nasserites and the American Brooms will enter the city first and cover your advance from the air."
"What about the last horcrux," broke in Reverend Ewls. "You know the last one that Dumbledore found was a decoy."
"Mr. Malfoy and I destroyed the last Horcrux," replied Snape. "Voldemort will be completely vulnerable to a killing curse."
"Our goal should be to secure a perimeter in the section of the city above the ministry," said Ewls. "Then move our wand cannons into position to punch a hole in the ground leading to the ministry."
"There's just one problem," Moody broke in. "We can't use disillusionment charms on our broomsmen, they have to be able to see each other in order to…"
"There will be no disillusionment charms," said Snape. "Unfortunately the existence of our world will be revealed to the muggles very shortly, there's nothing that can be done about it, it is necessary."
There was a short pause as the implications of this statement finally sunk in.
"Well what in blazes are we doing standin around here?" barked Coulter. "Let's get our asses moving."
The six people broke apart. Immediately after the meeting, Snape approached Nymphadora Lupin.
"Captain Lupin, can I trust you to command the artillery?"
Nymphadora didn't even bat an eye, she merely returned with an expression as powerful as even Snape had ever seen.
"Those bastards killed my husband," she said. "You can bet your wand I'll give em hell."
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While the preparations for the final assault on London, and the take offs for the opening broom attacks on the city were taking place, Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued to enjoy their reunion; that is until Alastor Moody entered the tent, and addressed the wounded.
"May I have your attention please," Moody began. "I know that you all are wounded in one way or another, but I must ask that anyone one able-bodied and capable of wielding a wand stand and come with me right now, we are about to make our final attack on London, and we need all the help we can get."
With this, while several of the less wounded men and women in the room began to stand and walk toward the exit of the tent, a hint of sadness came into the eyes of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, as they realized that their reunion would now give way to the continuation of the war. At that moment, Reverend Ewls entered the tent; unable to say hello to either Ron or Hermione for the sake of time, he simply gave them a nod and approached Harry.
"Harry, let's go to work," he said. "We're advancing into London."
As Harry nodded, Ron suddenly sat up, placing his feet on the ground.
"Ron no, you need your rest," Hermione protested.
"Hermione, I'm hurt," Ron responded. "I'm not dead. Besides, you heard Moody. 'Anyone able-bodied and capable of wielding a wand…' I'm not in any pain and I can still run."
"You two will be joining us in about an hour or so," said Ewls as his expression turned resolved. "Snape got the last horcrux Harry, time to kill that dark lord and end this war."
Knowing what this night probably meant for him, Harry's expression became suddenly nervous, yet he maintained his resolution to fulfill what his God had called him to do.
"I'm with you."