Chapter 54
5 minutes after the Toclafane arrived…
They were all on their phones, getting people to evacuate, going to plans B, C, D and likely all the way through the rest of the alphabet in their contingency plans.
"Yes, a planet wide event," Harry calmly said on the phone. "I'm coming now we need to evac and get supplies hidden away. I don't know which contingency this was," Harry finally snapped over the phone. "Grab the gear," he said to Ioan who was standing by watching with worry. Harry knew Ioan had left almost immediately when the Toclafane had arrived and retrieved his wife who was now in the waiting in the Aidensfield Arms.
"Still not sure they're going to hold," Ioan his voice of ambivalent concern.
"We don't have much choice," Harry said of the their expanding bags, themselves made of an expanding material that were theoretically able to accommodate a small house. They still had integrity issues.
"Potter where are you-" Ros started.
"To help the military." Harry bit back quickly and tried to push the question of where Daphne was out of his mind. He knew she was on a ship with a cargo of delicate somethings. At the moment he had more pressing worries. Like the decimation of humanity.
2 weeks after the Toclafane arrived…
Harry looked out at the pitted lawn in front of the country house. The Resistance's command centre. They'd made the mistake of taking in everyone in the first hours and days of the Toclafane invasion.
The Master or his security teams or maybe it was the Archangel Network had worked on the people. A bomber had tried to walk in and destroy the house.
He'd been noticed before he'd managed to get close, but he'd still got too close.
They still didn't have much of a military force within the town, they couldn't afford to have one, their military assets, as well as their wizarding and other assets were busy setting up safe houses and other Resistance elements.
What was left of the man wasn't even enough to extract any memories from. Not that they had any way of viewing them, yet. Draco had said he might collect one when he was out retrieving some old friends of theirs. His gift to them having been utilised.
They were mostly relying on the fact the Toclafane couldn't see Aidensfield. They'd come up to the border of the town and gone around it. They'd found that out in the first couple of days. But it seemed the Master knew that a resistance would form and had put people in place to destroy them.
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"Are you done with your musing for the day?" Ros asked as she walked over to him.
"I've got to have some musing time," Harry commented. They had been working together closely. She was now the most senior person of what was left of the United Kingdom security services.
Their military representatives were as thin on the ground as the actual military.
What military forces they had they were deploying even more thinly. From what they could ascertain all the military bases around the world had been attacked by the Toclafane. Even the 'secret' ones. The Master having gathered plenty of intelligence during his time as Defence Minister.
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They, the Resistance that was had a handful of submarines that the Toclafane had been unable or uninterested in getting to.
Though even with the combined remaining submarine force it wasn't enough to effectively attack the Valiant as two Russian submarines and a German submarine had found out 6 days ago. They'd expended 6 surface to air missiles each, one had gotten close. Only to be shot down by the Valiant's defence systems. Alien-tech based.
"Any word from the UN?" Harry asked hopefully.
"Your friend arrived back last night, you didn't speak?" Ros asked.
"Which friend? You seem to think because they're wizards I know everyone." Harry dragged a hand through his hair and frowned and wished Daphne was here. She was, at least alive, just too far away to effectively apparate and safe enough in the middle of the ocean between Britain and Australia, from what he knew. That was enough.
"Geneva's a hole in the ground," Ros said without humour.
"The Master never held very high regard for the UN," Harry mused. "Time for another meeting I suppose," Harry sighed.
"The 'Resistance' needs to function Potter." Ros still seemed darkly amused that they were now the centre of the Resistance, by simply having been moderately on the ball and ready. A secure facility also helped greatly in that matter.
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Hermione sat alone and tried to relax. She'd tried that the previous night and failed. She'd tried the night before as well.
She watched as Draco Malfoy led two people, and man and a woman across the village green to the housing office that had been set up. He seemed relatively familiar with them and by the attention the man and the woman were paying to him they knew him. They certainly didn't look like wizards, nor had they been to this town before. That they also knew Draco Malfoy made her all the more intrigued.
Better that than all the other emotions playing through her. Hermione forced those thoughts away.
She'd not been able to sleep or relax since the Toclafane invasion, since the Toclafane had breached the Ministry and killed people randomly.
She'd been there concerning various new projects that were on hand for her department. The 'Archaeological Response Team' or ART as she had called it in her head, though no one else in the Ministry seemed to like the use of acronyms was to get a boost in scope and funding. According to the Minister "following the recent incidents the Ministry has decided that a funding increase across all departments will be implemented". He was just getting to explaining to her and those she worked with when the screaming started.
Then moments later a floating ball with blades and energy weapons burst in.
The Toclafane, a name she didn't learn until later killed the Minister and two people within the room with what sounded like a giggle.
She grabbed the woman next to her and threw them both at the fireplace, shouting something unintelligible. There was enough charcoal and floo powder residue kicked up as they entered to shove them roughly through the floo system out into the main foyer of the Ministry.
There they'd tripped over other Ministry employees who'd done the same.
"We need to get out, apparate," Hermione said as the woman beside her in a panicked state did so, just as she was about to continue to say 'on the surface'. If the Toclafane had forced their way in the Ministry's defensive measures would have engaged. The woman, her name was Lauren, spinched herself across the foyer. Hermione never got a chance to help her because another body came out of the floo system, someone she recognised.
"Katie?"
"Granger?" She was breathless and covered in soot. She didn't say more because Hermione grabbed her hand and pulled her out and away from the floo.
"Come on," Hermione said as another Toclafane vaporised people around them.
Hermione pulled her to a corner of the Ministry she knew was not covered by the new wards, a deliberate flaw she'd thought when she'd found it and something she'd meant to get around to telling someone.
She side-along apparated Katie Bell to Harry's house, or rather the road beside it.
There had been less, though not zero Toclafane around.
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Harry's house had been empty, but less than a day later Ioan had turned up and explained something of what had happened.
And now she was here, as was Katie Bell, who'd only dropped into the Ministry to sort out a mis-aligned floo problem that had been plaguing the house where she was living.
Was being the word of the moment.
'Was', that was the time before the Toclafane invasion. An invasion they didn't see coming, that they didn't even realise was happening.
Didn't realise that the Prime Minister was the one doing it.
She'd only realised after she'd been told, she hadn't needed knocking out, like Katie had, like most people, according to Harry did.
Honestly she'd not paid much attention to the election, she'd been too busy with other things.
Now, she wondered if she'd paid attention would she have recognised it, recognised Harold Saxon; the Master as an alien.
Why Harry hadn't was another question, one he hadn't fully explained only to say that he'd been 'away'.
Wherever he had been Malfoy had been there too. The connection between Harry and Malfoy seemed much stronger than the last time he'd seen the pair together, there was…a short hand between them. Almost, though not entirely like she and Ron had with him.
She didn't know where Ron was. Despite what had passed between them she still worried for him in this new and darkened world they now found themselves in.
The Resistance was very quickly trying to become organised and 'get boots on the ground'.
She had mostly been within the town here helping with the supplies, creating expanding bags based not on her designs but on Ioan and Harry's designs. They were much, much larger creations though made some sacrifices for their size and use. They were a little less elegant than what she had created.
Hermione had thought that this, this running and fighting was in the past, or at least on her own terms, in her own work.
But now, it looked like this was the future.
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3 weeks since the Toclafane invaded...
"We need more of your wizards," Air Marshall Robert Townsend said looking down at the map. It was one they'd grabbed from within the Aidensfield country house that was now the main base of the Resistance. They were currently inside the 'war room'.
"We need more of everything," Harry replied. "We still have far too many question marks surrounding the Toclafane."
"The Master's plans," Ros paused to click a button for one of the screens in the room. "Are already going into place."
Barely 3 weeks into the invasion and the Master was already beginning his plans. Rockets, huge interplanetary rockets. From the designs they looked almost comically 70s-eque along with industrial revolution sized factories to create them, with similar working conditions.
"We need to get moving as well," Harry said. They had in a quite short amount of time managed to set up other secure Resistance bases in Britain; Torchwood Four one of his other bolt holes that he'd not done anything with was their other big Resistance base. Except not as well hidden, the temporal tech that was there couldn't be powered up below a minimum in part because most of it had shorted and burnt away since he'd brought it back into regular space-time, but also because it seemed to make the Toclafane curious. It was one of a number of questions about the Toclafane that they wanted answering.
Though it wasn't the most pressing.
The most pressing were the dimensional instabilities that formed around where they'd destroyed Toclafane or where several of them had congregated. Harry had postulated it was something like what had happened at his house; a concentration of alien technologies made apparition impossible and port keying dangerous.
Unfortunately those two forms were the only efficient ways to move around. Although fast cars came a close second or third for escaping the Toclafane, though hardly useful for large movements of people or supplies.
"Hermione and Katie should be back from the safe houses and wizarding locations soon," Harry finally said.
"They're sending them all to Torchwood Four for checking I hope." Ros Myers and he had very quickly established that anyone who came into Aidensfield, the Resistance's town slash HQ needed to be checked thoroughly. They couldn't have another suicide bomber like the last one.
The security officer seemed quite interested with the mind probe that Harry had grabbed from one of the storage barns that they'd set up to get their collected stuff out of the expanding bags, lest their structure failed and their contents exploded everywhere.
The mind probe wasn't completely full proof, or completely working. But it could mostly give them a pretty sure idea if a person was telling the truth or not.
What they'd learned so far was there were a few types of mind control at work. There was the 'Archangel Effect' that was what they'd termed the low level effect of the network. It stopped people from questioning the Master too much, but it only worked if you didn't know it was there. You could only recognise it once you'd been 'woken up' from it. Taking someone in and knocking them out in a secured location seemed to do it. The exact specifics of which they were still working out. Locations like Resistance HQ, Torchwood Four and some wizarding sites seemed to do it.
He was still working on getting to Hogwarts to see if they could find more wizards there, but the last report he'd got from Draco was that Hogsmede was still burning. The Toclafane had taken a 'joy' in burning it down, attracted to it in some way or perhaps bombarding it from high up. Hogwarts, from what Draco could see was still intact and unharmed, although the Forbidden Forest was another matter, he'd spied several dead animals and centaurs.
Harry wished Draco and Hermione were here, and he even wished Ron were here. He didn't even know where Ron was, he'd not found any of the messages left at his house or in London. Neither were specifically for Ron, they were a catch-all coded message that would lead witches and wizards to the remains of Godric's Hollow and then on to Torchwood Four's catchment zone for wizards. Hermione had come up with several of these for other locations, cryptic and intelligent enough to prevent the Resistance from attracting anyone who might want to do them harm, hopefully.
A phone's ringing interrupted them. It was an old style phone with a bell and a rotary dial. Something that Judith's associates had helped them rig up around the town. They were working to get it set up further. The Toclafane and the Master monitored most wireless communications. The floo network had been drastically disrupted by whatever the Toclafane had done or continued to do. But the old school physical phone system, connected through wires and old style exchanges that still existed in most bits of Britain hadn't been as affected. The Post Office Tower had the relevant connections they'd need to set up a country-wide comms system they could use. But for now it beat having someone run around the town.
"I'll get it," Harry said leaving the Air Marshall and Myers to ponder the map and their numbers. Answering the phone he heard Hermione's voice. "Ah you're back Hermione." He said with a smile of relief. "Oh," he said. "Ah. Bugger. I hope…good." He paused as Hermione summarised. "I see. You'd better come up." Harry put the phone carefully down on the hook and walked back over to the two.
"Well?" Ros asked.
"Hermione picked up a few wizards, some of whom I used to run an army with," the Air Marshall looked up, amused though no longer surprised.
"You're full of surprises Potter, what else is hiding in your past?" Myers seemed amused.
"All manner of things," Harry responded mysteriously. "Katie was injured by one of the Toclafane."
"Badly?" Myers asked.
"No," Harry shook his head. "But I think we should move her back to air reconnaissance, even if she wants to be on the ground I think she'd more useful on a broom."
"Indeed. You know these people better Potter," Townsend agreed.
"When I was younger. Not now," Harry said in thought.
"And the other thing?" Ros Myers asked.
"Hermione found out where some of the scientists are being held," Harry explained, though didn't allow himself to get excited.
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Since the Toclafane invaded and the Master reigned over them what they'd been lacking was good science and theories from people with good or even vague science. Harry had the middle to latter, but what they really needed were people with some large smarts in their heads.
The Master and the Toclanfane had similar ideas. They needed some people with half a brain to build the rockets and the bits that went into them. But it seemed from the few scientists they'd found that they were also the first to work out the Archangel Network, but like everyone else before the invasion had just pushed it away. But now post-invasion it wasn't working as efficiently many didn't even need need knocking out or snapping out of it.
That made them hard to deal with, made them hard to deal with by the Master's human forces. The Toclafane were good at torture as well, but not so good at keeping their subjects alive.
The Resistance meanwhile needed scientists, not just to help them work out all the things that they had question marks above, which were numerous. But also to help them work out what to do next.
From the discussions they'd had with what military was left was basically; not a lot of options.
Their enemy had them outnumbered, outgunned and the Resistance's support in the general populous was low. That was at least their estimates at the moment.
At some point they would need to come up with far reaching solutions, what to do next, an endgame solution and ultimately how to ensure the survival of humanity. It was something he doubted factored into the Master's plans.
The Toclafane's killing of "One tenth of the population" under orders of the Master has been it seemed at least 'one tenth-ish'. There had been, and continued to be many celebrity killings ordered by the Master of people that had 'displeased' him and there were plenty more random killings by the Toclafane.
That in itself would have presented problems, not at moment, but Ros had mentioned something about that, the rates of death, not just from the Toclafane. Very quickly the world would 'turn to shit' as she put it, they would need to be ready.
The catch cry of the 21st century.
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Draco Malfoy checked around the area where he was stood under an invisibility cloak with his ominoculars.
It was still clear, as it had been for the past hour since a Toclafane patrol had passed by.
He had initially scouted the apparition zone beside the River Cherwell, but the Toclafane and the muggles loyal to the Master were using it as an easy location to dump bodes of those who hadn't cooperated.
This new position was not as secluded as his other selection, but it was free from Toclafane disruptions that made apparition dangerous.
Especially as Potter and the others that would be arriving soon would be side along apparating 2 muggles each. One side along was safe if a witch or wizard was capable, but 2 was something that, so the texts said 'mature wizards should avoid apparating anyone older than 9', they did not specify whether this related to muggles.
Shifting his weight between his feet he felt the oddly comforting ATR, the muggle weapon an 'anti-tank rocket'. The Resistance had found some success using them against Toclafane. Spells meanwhile seemed to have only a small amount of affect. The Killing Curse was completely ineffective, Harry hadn't been surprised only commenting 'spells and bullets, of course they don't work'.
After what they had both seen Draco wasn't entirely surprised either.
He had been and continued to be surprised that Earth had been invaded.
Draco felt it around a second before they apparated in; if you were particularly adept one could sense a group of wizards apparating into a position.
Although in a group the noise of apparition was tempered by the closeness of the group, the fact each wizard had two persons along for the apparition and the location where they were was slightly windy.
The muggles, all in military camouflage, the muggle military's clothing used to blend in with their surroundings. It was hardly as effective as a spell, even one a first year at Hogwarts could achieve. But as Draco continued to find out it gave the muggles an advantage that they exploited as far as they could.
These muggles, some of whom Draco recognised had been through the apparition 'familiarisation and experience' training that Harry had organised with Granger's assistance. Granger's observation, that Draco had never considered that muggles found apparition unsettling and therefore needed to experience it so they weren't off put. Or didn't vomit. That had been a most displeasing experience.
There were 4 wizards including Harry giving them 8 muggle military.
All the wizards Draco knew. They all knew one another, they'd all met on Harry's insistence and consumed a drink together. 'There could be no ill will or mistrust between them in the Resistance', so Harry had said. Potter's selection for today was interesting; Susan Bones a capable wizard, Graham Pritchard a wizard from his old Hogwarts house, though one a year or two younger who'd found his way to the Resistance by way of one of Granger's cryptic messages left in the ruins of the Ministry and Luna Lovegood who had proved herself a very capable at apparating. More so than her husband.
"Hello Draco," Harry said in his general direction. "All quiet?" He continued.
The wizards among them were not surprised by his casual conversation, though the muggles did seem curious. Though they were more focused on 'securing the area'.
"No Toclafane for the past few hours. They're still using the river as a dumping ground," he said as he pulled off the cloak.
"Malfoy." Bones looked at him, he nodded her 'greeting' with a nod.
"Well?" Harry asked, he was about to answer but Harry was addressing the muggles.
"No movement sir." Answered one of them, the most senior Malfoy knew. He had tried to learn their names, but hadn't been able to keep up with them all. He was amongst the muggles and grudgingly amongst the wizards of the Resistance to be more senior given his experience 'out there' and that Harry held him in such high regard.
"Well Malfoy, where are they being held?" Potter directed the question now to him.
Draco nodded and gestured quickly to two of the colleges. "They're holding some over there at the New College and more there at Mansfield College," he said summarising.
"And what about the people they execute? Are they held somewhere prior to-" Harry asked.
Draco shook his head. "Random as far as I can tell from here." He said. There was no suggestion that he should've gone closer. He exhaled sharply through his nose. "It's not as though they seem to have any reasons."
"Mad men never do. No discernible ones," Harry muttered. "Alright. Head back. Get some rest." He continued.
Draco nodded. He didn't bother to offer to stay. They each had their roles and he'd been out here for 3 days and slept for barely any of that time. There was only so much pepper ups could do before one began to make mistakes.
Before he left he added. "Some of the muggles were younger than others, maybe students."
"What about the executions Malfoy, students or teachers?" Bones asked.
"Both," he answered simply. He hadn't tried to get any closer than his omnioculars would allow, even those were disrupted somewhat by the Toclafane.
"Thanks Draco."
"Harry." Draco walked over to the same patch of grass that the group apparated into and disapparated leaving it in silence.
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Harry surveyed the area. They'd assumed from Cormac McLaggen's previous survey of the area here that they'd need to split up. That there were only 2 groups being held made life somewhat easier. They had originally formulated the plans predicated on there being 4 or more locations.
"Graham, with Luna. Susan with me," Harry ordered. None of them questioned him, in almost all situations he held authority.
He didn't need to order the assorted military men and women who'd apparated with them, they each knew which wizard they were attached to.
Each also had portkeys. Created by Ioan and his ex-Quidditch friends who knew how to create the best portkeys with fail safes or the wizarding equivalent to deal with close-in situations. More usually to deal with escaping fans or portkeying away from Quidditch games rather than rescuing prisoners or moving people around the country.
However, while portkeys seemed less susceptible to the Toclfane's disruptions they weren't immune, the Resistance had 'lost' 2 portkeying groups who'd used portkeys after sabotaging the Master's factories. From what they could ascertain the magical forces had interacted with the Toclafane or possibly their weapons and they'd been torn apart somewhere between their departure point and arrival point. They'd not been able to go back to the former to check for remains. That at least was their legacy.
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Luna nodded to Graham Pritchard, a Slytherin who had started Hogwarts a year or two after she had started. A Slytherin who like Daphne Greengrass and unlike Draco Malfoy at the time did not have any allegiances during those years when they faced the figure of Tom Voldemort.
Though none had foreseen this and none had foreseen what the Toclafane had done, continued to do.
It had broken Rolf's heart and had almost broken him as they discovered the genocides the Toclafane wrought against the magical population. From the Resistance's reports from near Hogwarts it seemed the Toclafane had murdered all of the unicorns and centaurs that resided in there.
No one had attempted to attend to Hogwarts itself, Hogsmede was still burning; a concerted effort by the Toclafane and their lord and Master. It was Harry had assured her the very next thing to be attended to, after this.
They all understood this. Hogwarts was protected from the Toclafane. Many magical sites were. Those that were purely magical. But the Forbidden Forest unknown to many ran off in most directions into muggle land, ancient covenants aligned it thus to allow the movement between the forest and other areas. The Ministry, built below a muggle site had been ripped asunder. Its heart, like that of Diagon Alley ripped and torn bloody against a canvas of terror and pain.
Rolf was part of the wizarding-science division of the Resistance, or what they hoped it would become. At the moment it was sorely lacking in science-smarts. Except what he brought, her husband.
Luna did not allow herself to become distracted by thoughts of him however. Distractions, be it chasing an unrecorded magical beast or stalking through the corridors of a muggle education facility could have disastrous consequences.
Luna felt the guards approach before she or Graham saw them; she grabbed him and pulled him around a corner. Gesturing to four muggle soldiers with a hand gesture to also hide.
They did so without question and silently, or as silently as they were able.
Graham, thankfully did not speak or make any noise either, instead allowed himself to be pulled by her.
One Toclafane and three muggle guards walked past, they were dragging a body that appeared to be dead, or possibly unconscious.
The muggle soldiers that were with her looked around looked over making eye contact with her, a query of whether to attack them.
Luna shook her head. The man might be alive or might more likely be dead, but they had a greater reason for being here and a great many more people to rescue.
She hated that this was the reality they were all now in. But in order to save many people they would need to choose their battles, and this was not one of them, as much as she wished to.
Wishes in this darkened future achieved nothing.
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Elsewhere in the university Harry with the assistance of Private Williams was stashing the remains of one of the guards in a broom cupboard while Susan cleared away the blood and bullet holes from the corridor. Harry had to hand it to her quick thinking at throwing up a quick spell to muffle the noise of the bullets that had been fired.
He wished they could all be outfit with invisibility cloaks, but those that the Resistance had were needed on more covert operations throughout the country and even further out into Europe.
They were in the process of connecting up with the Resistance movement in North America. They knew they existed, but they'd quickly found out from reports in Europe that the Resistance in the United Kingdom was the most organised. The other groups had, like other resistance groups throughout history had come together with like minded people.
But that wasn't enough, they had to start formulating plans and a concerted effort.
There was also the wild card. Not the Doctor. But the last person to see him, supposedly she was on a mission.
But it wasn't something he needed to worry about at this very moment.
Harry wanted to ask this guy why it couldn't just be the Archangel Network. There was subservience and then there was this. You needed some passion to fight as hard as he did.
"All clear?" Harry asked as they stepped back out into the corridor.
"It wouldn't pass a first year test, but it'll hold up," Susan said of the wall, which didn't look like it had a spray of bullets and the brains and body matter of an ill aimed spell from he and Susan at the same time that had turned the other guard's brain and body into a projectile spray.
Harry wanted to offer words of encouragement, but they'd wasted enough time with this.
He settled with a reassuring smile and saying "Good."
As they continued down the hall they came to two large exam halls that must were being used as holding areas. Large cells, guards on the inside of the rooms rather than the outside.
"If they're all scientists makes sense to keep watch from the inside," said a the Lieutenant beside him as he mused softly aloud.
"Indeed." Harry agreed. "You know the drill," Harry said, they didn't need to explain it again, they'd presumed that their targets would have been held in either a two or four cell arrangement.
A guard tripped an alarm just after they'd gone in and just after that a bullet was through his brain.
"Go," Harry ordered one of the soldiers who was shoving as many people around the loop of rope that served as the portkey, he had checked the general environment of the exam room and it seemed clear enough to enable a portkey.
"What the devil?" Said one of the scientists was frowning at the loop of rope they were all hanging onto.
A chill went down Harry's back as he heard the tell tale noise of the arrival of a Toclafane.
"Magic," Harry said as the Lieutenant beckoned him over quickly.
"There's a couple of others in workgroup, Professor Cox and" Harry shook his head to silence the student who was quickly talking.
"Where?" Harry demanded.
The Lieutenant looked to Harry and the others. "Go," Harry ordered. "I'll find them."
"Sir," he acknowledged.
The noise, the giggle again echoing through the corridors.
"Time to light the fuse Lieutenant." Harry grinned and dug out of his pocket the detonators triggering them.
There was a dull thud along the ground as he destroyed a wing of a prestigious university.
Harry ran out of the exam room as the Lieutenant and a group of scientists disappeared in a swirl of magic.
He had wanted to go with him, but they both knew he could move faster alone.
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Luna blasted the doors off their hinges.
The Private who had been with them had been shot, she'd patched him up as quickly as she could and sent him with the others and the portkey, it would not have been a smooth passage. There was significant magical disruption in this area of the building, likely a result of the Toclafane.
She almost ran into Graham who looked even worse than she did, a bullet scrape on his arm and what appeared to be blood spray on his leg.
"Theirs not mine. There's Toclafane here."
"Did you-?" She asked as he cut her off.
"17 of them, made them go alone. He's dead, shot by one of the guards," he said quickly as they rushed down the corridor away presumably from the Toclafane, or the remains of one, as Graham was missing the muggle anti-tank rocket that they all, at the start of this mission had against their backs.
They were running down the corridor they had come along when the doors at the end opened and a figure and two others came running.
One, the lead figure held a wand.
Not for the first time since this nightmare began Luna felt scared, she looked to Graham who looked relieved and then a wave of different emotions played across his face.
"Merlin, Luna! You're alright I heard you'd been killed when Hogsmeade burned," said a voice, that sounded worried. But wasn't. Not really.
"Is this the little one to play with, the magical one?"
"Is she here to play?"
"Is this the red one's friend, the lightning one?"
Two Toclafane appeared behind the man holding the wand asking their questions; the two muggle guards had their weapons pointed at Luna and Graham.
"And...Graham?" The man with the wand thought for a moment, grinning at them, his wand not lowered, not theirs either. "Thank Merlin you're all alright," he paused. "Is Harry here? I've heard some very special things about him. He's such a mate to you all," the man chuckled, his tone changing from what he likely thought was concerned to something else, something dangerous.
"The red one likes to please the Master, he's the special magic man."
"The top man. The red man," said another of the Toclafane.
"He's going to be ruler, ruler for the Master."
"Of course I am," said the man holding the wand.
"Hello Ron," Luna said casually as Graham tried to blast open the man's heart. Luna was surprised that Graham attempted such a powerful spell with the Toclafane around.
The man attempted to deflect the spell, but Graham was quite proficient and it ended up hitting one of the Toclafane, making it spin into a wall.
"That wasn't very nice Luna," said the man with the wand.
Luna put a hand behind her back and shifted positions, mimicking a duelling pose and hoped he would think that was what she was doing.
He laughed. "You think to duel me Luna?"
Luna smiled. She hoped he would think that, and couldn't risk chancing a look to Graham to see if he knew what she was doing.
She was actually positioning so she could grab at the portkey in her back pocket to try something that should never be done.
To destroy a portkey.
In an enclosed space.
With people near by.
Graham worked it out as she threw it and she didn't know if he was going to do something or not.
"That's not how you start a duel Luna, I shoot fir-" He started but didn't get to say anything because at that same moment both she and Graham fired spells with the intention of breaking apart the portkey's constructions and something somewhere else in the university exploded with some force.
The latter Luna didn't realise because as their spells his Graham was pulling her and they were running even when the explosion of magic was pushing them along, ripping and pulling at the floor and doing Merlin knows what else to the people who were standing nearest to the explosion.
Ronald Bilius Weasley and his guards and the Toclafane.
Luna was sure she was momentarily deafened by the explosion of magic, all she could hear was the blood pulsing in her ears and the idea of running. When a Toclafane appeared in their path some ways along the corridor it was practically automatic that she let the ATR swing around from her back and she fired at it.
The propulsion of it forced the Toclafane through the door it had come through.
Luna reflected in a part of her mind the muggle Captain who had instructed them would be proud, that was the reaction that was needed. Sometimes it had to be carefully calculated; the shot. Other times it needed to be instinctual.
"We need to get away from here," Graham was saying.
"Yes," she said. "But first." She paused at the door, the Toclafane wasn't destroyed, it seemed to have retreated, there were some panels and knives left on the ground. "We should do something in case Ron comes after us." She patted her pocket where she and she hoped he had some of the explosives they all carried just in case.
"The others already used theirs," he smiled grimly looking down the corridor which was now dark and filled with smoke of magic and normal fire. "It would be rude if we didn't use ours," he said pulling out his own explosives.
"On such a worthy cause too." Luna cast another glance down the corridor. She was sure she could hear something in the distance, aside from her own pounding heart.
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Harry rushed through the corridors to where the 'workshop' was supposed to be.
There didn't appear to be any guards on the door, but it was locked. He hoped that that meant they'd gone off to deal with the intruders; ie him and that they'd left the scientists locked in a room.
Quickly he unlocked the door and pushed it open; only to be grabbed by several people.
"Hang on, hang on, he doesn't look like he's one of them," said a soft, though still slightly rough voice. Rough likely from the situation they were in.
"He's not one of them," said another voice as Harry was let go of and the door closed.
"Sorry Prof," said one of the students who'd jumped him and whom Harry had almost blown apart.
He felt in his mind in situations like this he really should be defaulting to stunning spells, but the Resistance knew how limited stunning spells were.
It just meant the enemy would come back another day. That was the reality they faced now faced.
As he had discovered early in his life of magic; stunning people solved only so many problems.
Killing someone solved a few more.
"I'm with the Resistance." Harry stepped away from the door removing his wand and began casting diagnostic spells to the wonder of Professor Brian Cox whose career he knew something about and interest from Professor Richard Dawkins whom he knew of.
"Why were they keeping you guys here?"
"Separate, they wanted us away to work on their rockets and other programs. We were going to be transferred." Professor Cox explained.
Harry raised an eyebrow looking over as Professor Dawkins.
"I attempted to explain my field of expertise to our captors," he rubbed his side. "They were hardly reasoning."
"Transferred sounds like a rather nasty euphemism," Harry said as he tried not to frown as he looked up at the colours from his diagnostic spell and tried to ignore Professor Dawkins curious eye catching questions.
"There's been Toclafane in here," he said.
"Yeah, they're in here every so often we even tried," Said a female voice who sounded on the brink of cracking. "We tried to..."
"They killed him, and laughed, giggled just..." Another panicked voice.
"I'm here to help you escape," Harry said to the assembled group of about 12 people.
"May I ask how and what that is?" Professor Dawkins asked.
"Questions later Professor, we need to get out of here." Harry looked over at the woman and contemplated slapping her. Now was not the time to be getting hysterical.
There was a nasty explosion from somewhere else on campus.
"That's just my associates blowing up another part of the university," Harry commented idly as he pulled out the portkey. Something they couldn't use here. "This is your way out."
"A loop of rope?" Scoffed one of the students. He had a black eye and it didn't look like the first time the guards had had a go at him.
"A think it's rather more than that Gordon," Professor Dawkins said giving Harry his full attention.
Harry smiled briefly in thanks. "You can think of it as technology if you want it's like a transmat," Harry said forgetting himself, he wasn't talking to people who had even a basic understanding of matter transmission technology. Probably. "A matter transmission system. The Toclafane disrupt the systems so we'll need to get out of here. You all need to be holding it to escape."
"And if we don't?" Asked, nay, challenged Gordon.
Harry fixed him with a look. "Then you are left behind and you will likely die or be tortured by your captors," he said coldly. "When I tell you, and not before you need to say 'Slytherin'." He stuffed the rope into his pocket. "When I tell you to go, you need to grab the rope and hang on."
"And-" Gordon started.
"And if you don't hang on you're liable to be dropped somewhere or have your atoms ripped asunder." Harry looked around the group. "Anyone used a gun before?"
Not surprisingly none had. He considered giving the Professors a weapon and then decided against it. Someone who wasn't used to a weapon could just as easily blow a hole in their leg than help them. He wished briefly he'd brought his stun/kill weapons he had back at Aidensfield.
"Never mind," Harry said to himself and reached into his pocket and handed Professor Cox a smoke grenade. "Smoke grenade," he said as Cox took the canister shaped device gingerly. "Chuck towards the enemy."
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This had been a possibility in their planning, but none of them had liked the possibility of leading a group of people out of the university. It was meant to be in quick and out even quicker.
From the sound of that explosion Luna and Graham had encountered resistance.
Hopefully they were both fine.
"We didn't catch your name, but you obviously know ours." Professor Dawkins was up the front of the group with Cox at the back making sure they weren't followed.
"Harry," he said and then added. "Harry Potter," Harry said as he paused at a junction in the corridors.
"That leads to the staff offices and that to the outside," Dawkins helpfully provided.
"Deeper in and closer quarters or outside," Harry mused as he heard another explosion. "Outside," Harry said taking off at a short run, he was careful not to take off at a full run, not sure at how well the elder professors or the students could keep up with the 'mad dash run' that he'd perfected during his brief travels with the Doctor. He tried not to grin at the memory and the continued rush of adrenaline that he had.
"Those doors open to a courtyard," Dawkins said, seemingly easily running with him.
It was then he heard the noise of the Toclafane behind them.
"Everyone duck." Harry said in a very casual tone as he swung his ATR and did something the manual said you shouldn't do; fire it indoors.
Harry shoved the doors open not waiting to find out if it his its target or not.
"Come on get in there and clear of the blast." Harry grabbed the professors and summoned the group of students; pushing them through the door.
"Chuck the grenade Professor when you get a moment."
"Charming," Dawkins said opening the door for Cox as they both split their attention between what they were doing and Harry who began to cast spells a small distance away from them.
Harry cursed as he walked around the courtyard, which though it was bereft of Toclafane at the moment was somewhere they had been, leaving whatever magical transportation disruptions behind.
Hearing the Professors open the door and chuck the grenade in he made a pass back near it, waving a spell towards the door locking it to the surprise of the Professors.
Harry did two loops of the courtyard before he found one area where there was a dead pot plant that had been used to stub out some cigarettes where there appeared to be very little residue of Toclafane.
"Over here." Harry motioned and pulled out the rope. "Everyone grab on." Harry instructed. "Now say-" He was cut off as people, guards likely started shooting at them.
Thankfully no Toclafane for now.
The group had learned to duck and also roll.
"Go!" Harry shouted and felt though didn't see the group disappear, leaving two people behind. They'd either ducked or rolled not quick enough to grab back a hold of the rope as they'd been whisked away.
"How good are you two at running?" Harry said as he aimed an explosive curse at the ground of their attackers. The noise of which bounced around the courtyard.
"Just tell us where Mr Potter, I will endeavour to keep up," Dawkins said keeping his head down, even though there was very little cover.
"When I say run," Harry said as he aimed at the remaining soldiers and fired off several fairly basic and quite deadly spells he pocketed his wand and grabbed the hands of both the professors and pulled them away.
"Have you" Dawkins said, not questioning why Harry was holding their hands. "another of those rope matter transmitters?" He sounded quite discomforted with the phrase Harry might have noted where it not for the fact they were being shot at.
Harry wanted to say yes, but as he could hear without turning around there seemed to be Toclafane behind them and that casting the spells needed to check if they could use the portkey safely wasn't something he could do while running. Instead he just pulled them along and focused on feeling his way through the apparition process.
It was something Draco had mostly explained to him and something Hermione had suggested was a good way to get yourself splinched.
But needs must, he'd apparated a Dalek without much thought to his surroundings.
Harry stopped running and put his arms quickly around the two professors.
"Harry I-" Dawkins started to say.
"Shut up, I need to concentrate." Harry said and focused on the feel of the location and tried to ignore the bullets and the noise of the approaching Toclafane.
"What-" Cox started to ask.
"Just something a little different, try to exhale," Harry said as the professors did as he asked which was amazing and then they disapparated.
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A man, scarred from the recent magical explosion and injured from the equally recent regular explosion caught up with the Toclafane which hovered above the point where he had disapparated.
"The Resistance man has gone. Taking the science men with them."
"Who's going to be our practice now red man?"
"Who's going to help build the empire for our Master red man?"
"The Master has other camps readying the production," the red man said looking around wondering if the Resistance was still watching them. They'd taken the wrong side in this fight.
It was a pity that the Archangel Network seemed to work less on some people than it did others.
He'd made the choice.
One of his soldiers passed him a radio.
"Sir we sill hold the recent intakes, they weren't taken by the resistance."
The red man squeezed the button. "Kill one or two and inform them that is the punishment for not obeying the Master." He said handing back the radio.
"The red man is strong, not strong like our Master. But strong and special. We like the red man. He likes to play."
"The red man should find others who like to play, others like him."
Ron Weasley smiled at the Toclafane, it wasn't often he got to speak with gods.
One day he would stand like the Master; up above the gods themselves.
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Harry found Professor Brian Cox a little ways from the pub leaning against a low wall and looking up at the sky.
"Pondering the universe Professor?" Harry asked as he jumped up to sit on the wall.
"Brian Harry, as you said, first name basis. We're all in this together," he said looking to him and then returning his gaze to the sky.
"It's a lot to take in," Harry commented. "there'll be more tomorrow."
"Familiarisation and induction," Brian mused. :The Resistance is understanding the momentousness of this...this all," he continued.
"Richard looked like he was ready to explode with questions. I left Hermione with him." Harry smiled. Hermione was becoming quite good at explaining things to new arrivals. She was still keen on going out into the dangerous situations.
The old Hogwarts crowd hadn't lost, despite what they'd gone through against Hogwarts, they hadn't lost their drive and passion to fight for what was right.
"They said in there that you've been out there," he said his voice full of wonder and wander.
Harry made an affirmative noise. "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song," Harry snorted a smile sort of chuckle. "Just something a friend once told me."
"And where's he now?" Brian asked wondering.
"He's a...guest of the Master," Harry stumbled and then eventually got out.
"Oh...I see." He returned his gaze to the sky.
"Hopefully you and your entourage can help us work out what to do with this situation we're in now Professor," Harry said pushing himself off the cold wall. "Come on, come back inside and enjoy your pint of real 60s ale and I'll explain anything you want."
"Anything?" He asked returning his gaze to the sky once more.
Harry shrugged and smiled. "Sure."
-/
A/N:
It had to be Ron.
I did consider having Ron in the Resistance. But the temptation to write him as a genuine baddie was too great. After all, his sister made an excellent baddie. Maybe insanity runs in the Weasley family. Or perhaps they're just susceptible to having their beliefs challenged or changed more so than others.
I don't hate Ron, it's just his negative traits are quite well illustrated in the books, more so perhaps than his positive traits.
I've included Professors Dawkins and Cox because they're two professors who actually exist in the Doctor Who universe. Professor Dawkins appears in The Stolen Earth while Cox appears in The Power of Three. So I am using them in their capacity as existing within the Doctor Who universe because I wanted (and needed for later chapters) people with higher science smarts than Harry has.
I did consider making this 'Year That Never Was' one really, really long chapter, but at not even the half way point I was at close to 15,000 words and found that I needed to split it up just so I could work out the two banes of this story; pacing and event sequence.
I have fudged a couple of facts of the Toclafane invasion as they're not explained in a huge amount of detail.
In the one of the Doctor Who annuals it's stated that the Master carried out some 'celebrity killings'. From that I'm extrapolating that there had to be more than just those and the 'one tenth of the population' ordered by the Master in The Sound of Drums.
As the Year That Never Was universe doesn't look like an action disaster film something had to have happened to all the military bases, to knock out that option.
Update: This arc ended up being longer than I originally intended and some people have found that it goes a little dark and continues on a little too long. So, if anyone wants to skip the next few chapters you can re-join the story at Chapter 64 where the arc wraps up and the main timeline continues.
