Chapter 58

11 weeks since the Toclafane invaded...

"You will need this if you are to have a hope in surviving the radiation pits Martha," said the woman. She had greying hair pulled tight into what seemed to be the beginning of dreadlocks and had suggested she was a friend of Harry's.

She had arrived with man who held a wand out as Harry and others of the Resistance had done. There was another woman with them clearly a solider.

"They're anti-radiation drugs?" She opened the box and looked at the contents. There was some sort of liquid capsules within the foil packets. The box was unmarked.

"We wouldn't want you to die of exposure before you're done preaching to the world," said the woman again. She'd only said her name was 'Judith', nothing more than that. Martha had initially thought it was odd, but her life, her world had long passed beyond odd.

"You don't believe in him either?" Martha addressed Judith. The other two she was with briefly directed their attentions towards them.

-/

Judith looked at the woman. She was relatively impressed by the stamina that Martha Jones had, what she had lived through thus far and the journey that lay ahead.

She would also need to suffer through the ordeal that was the anti-radiation drugs that had been in development since the late 1960s, they still weren't perfect.

"You don't believe in him either?" Martha Jones asked, almost pleading in her voice.

Judith believed in few things, only certain things.

She also understood Harry's perspective, the knowledge and understanding instilled in him by the same being, though different man that Jones believed in.

Harry and most of the Resistance had decided to use knowledge and understanding to think and act their way through and out of their situation. Science and reasoning, not faith.

Jones' 'plan' essentially meant sitting around for a year, watching their planet be destroyed on the whims of the Master while Martha Jones wandered the planet and the Doctor bided his time.

Jones couldn't even tell them what would happen after this, or if the Paradox Machine could or would be disabled. Just that she trusted the Doctor and that they all should as well.

Richard Dawkins seemed like he was ready to explode when he'd been told Martha Jones' plan Judith restrained a smile as she recalled that moment. She'd taken him for a cup of tea and a biscuit to calm him down.

"I understand from experience and history that the Doctor is a powerful being," Judith answered carefully. The Master too was powerful, if flawed. Although the same could and was said of the Doctor. Even more so in some cases than the Master. equally; powerful and flawed.

"I'm bringing hope to these towns, these people. You're helping too." She looked at her and to her associates. They were only half listening to Martha Jones.

It was true they'd been spreading around rumours, whenever the Resistance dropped 'assistance packages' to people who'd been captured by the Master, the slave camps and the factory camps. The Resistance couldn't liberate everyone, not unless they wanted to get killed and lose a lot of the Resistance.

But they could still help here and there, food, medicine, weapons, to help the human race survive. Should Martha Jones and her Doctor plan not work. The human race would survive.

They had, or rather Harry had agreed to propagate Martha's story that she was going to kill the Master.

'A knife through both the hearts would do it'. Harry had said cynically. She had helped him come up with a plausible enough looking gun. 'Something techy that she can carry around, breaks into pieces' he'd said.

"Which reminds me," Judith said as she dug into her pocket producing another piece of said gun for Martha to add to the few pieces in her bag.

Martha frowned for a moment before she realised what it was. "Thanks." She pocketed the item quickly. "Where's Harry, I thought he'd be here. He's usually my contact."

Judith smiled briefly. "Harry's busy."

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Harry couldn't help but grin as the small row boat came ashore, and he wrapped the woman who'd been on the boat and the on the ship that was in the small port in a heavy hug.

"Daphne." He sighed.

"Harry," she whispered into his ear.

-/

"So that's Daphne Greengrass," Ros Myers said to Ioan who had made the survey of the village of Portwenn. "Is everything cleared out and ready?" She asked.

"Yep, we've done a few aerial surveys of this and there's not been any Toclfane around, we're far enough from the shipyards and away from the mines to be unimportant."

"Hopefully," Ros mused.

"Yeah. Hopefully. It's all relatively free of Toclafane disturbances, we can move the stock out and bring people in if need be." He indicated around the small village.

"The Toclafane still took their shots."

"The surgery and the school house," he commented with some disgust.

"The Master's orders. The 'places of healers and teachers' as Potter says," she remarked. That was Potter's theory, the Master continuing to mock the Doctor. As if building giant statues of himself wasn't enough. She secretly wanted to blow a few of them up, but the Resistance had better things to use their weapons on than a few statues of the Master.

Potter and Greengrass had walked a short distance away from the beach as more boats went out to the large tall ship that had arrived in the bay.

"This is how you wizards move stuff around?" She asked Ioan. She'd meant to ask Potter, but he'd rushed off like a happy puppy when they'd apparated in.

Ioan nodded. "Mostly. High volume or delicate stuff."

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They'd spent the night in Portwenn. There was no reason to go back to the Resistance's village, and Daphne hadn't wanted to leave her ship.

Harry wasn't shocked when Daphne had raised what she intended to do next with him the next morning.

She'd already been out at the crack of dawn to go and speak with Ros.

Harry wanted to say 'it's too dangerous', but the truth was there wasn't anywhere that was safe, nowhere wasn't dangerous. Daphne might as well be moving stuff between there and the US or wherever.

The US had been the hardest of all hit by the Master and the Toclafane. From all their reports and the small Resistance forces in Canada and the United States the Master had been very thorough in his destruction of the US's armed forces. It seemed he'd spent a lot of time as Defence Minister in Britain finding out all of the US's bases both regular and secret. It was somewhat fortunate that he'd directed less of those intentions to the UK and the rest of the world. UNIT had always had to fight to have involvement in the US.

The Toclafane too seemed to go to great lengths to destroy much of the US. Someone, Harry couldn't remember if it had been Judith or not had remarked that it was a like a disaster movie there, only without the armed forces sweeping in and the inspirational music starting.

Maybe it'd be all wind machines and camera shake later.

For now it was just grim realities and bad choices to make.

"But also brief rays of sunshine," Harry said to himself as Daphne embraced him from behind.

"Talking to yourself again Harry?" She chided gently.

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12 weeks since the Toclafane invaded...

Hermione checked over the charges again. She'd already double and triple checked her calculations.

The tunnel was one of the biggest feats of engineering in the late 20th century. She'd ridden the train through the tunnel on multiple occasions.

It was also proving to be a vital transport link for the Master's plans.

Anything to slow down the Master and the Toclafane.

Hermione hadn't known at first what to do with the information that Harry and Richard had presented to the Resistance. The discovery Professor Dawkins had made of the Toclafane.

It made a twisted sort of sense.

She understood somewhat the paradoxes of time travel, but had not known that one so vast could be held up.

She knew of some badly documented theories of wizarding time travel and that small paradoxes might be 'blurred out', though with turns and twists in her life even before the invasion she'd never got around to looking into those things.

She wondered if this was how Harry had felt, knowing what Ginny did, that he had once been romantic with her, and now Ron. A man she'd shared a bed, her life with and now...a traitor to the human race.

They had memory vials full of memories of witnesses of what he and others had done.

So very few wizards had joined the Master's forces.

"Get creative." That had been Robert Townsend's order to few of the groups of the Resistance. For the moment there was still a lot planning going on for the 'big plan'.

They'd be hitting or attempting to hit the rocket ship yards and factories. Perhaps even stopping him.

No one really thought that was possible. Not with the amount of Toclafane that were on Earth. It was simple numbers. Even with all the weapons in the world, which they didn't have they'd only end up irradiating the planet. That might not even stop the Toclafane from what the Professors' discoveries indicated.

But they weren't going to give in without a fight.

Numbers, calculations and maths. Things she had to use when she'd been on archaeological sites, to make sure structures didn't collapse. Even wizarding structures followed rules and structure, although it wasn't as obvious as regular buildings.

They needed to disable the tunnel completely, they didn't want to just throw a small road block in for the Toclafane, the Master and, ultimately it would be the slaves who would be forced to clear the way.

They needed to completely disable to tunnels. As good as destroyed.

They had talked of collapsing them, but if, no when they defeated the Toclafane they would need various transport links.

But it needed to be disabled as good as destroying it. It was a huge feat of engineering that she wasn't sure she could destroy.

George was the one who had come up with a solution. A powder derived from a potion, created from some of the somewhat more volatile ingredients she'd picked up on her venture into France a few weeks ago.

They created two solutions each would create a cascading rebounding movement an explosion, but turning the air into a literal putty-like substance.

It was like a 'cluster bomb of spells and explosives and...bubble gum' George had said with a genuine smile. There were so few of those nowadays Hermione recalled to herself.

They had tested a scaled down version of what they were using in some old mines in Llanfairfach.

From there they'd tried to unpick what they'd done. Then they'd changed their procedure and ingredients so their spells would interact and combine but neither would know exactly how.

They had postulated that this would prevent any of the Master's wizards from picking apart what they'd done. Not even they would know how it was done. But with their creativity and knowledge they should, in the future be able to undo it.

Probably.

-/

Hermione decided that she couldn't check any more and rushed away from the entrance to the tunnels and back to their command post. It was a 15 minute run in the pitch darkness.

"We ready Jenkins?" She said as she got back, not really out of breath to their secure point.

"Ready and waiting." McGillop had an energy scanner set up and pointed at the tunnel. They couldn't have it ramped up to full power, just in case, but it'd still let them know how things went.

"Yep, counting down, five minutes now. We were getting worried," he said.

"I was too. I just wanted to check the last charges," she said as she took the box Jenkins was holding.

"Any action out there?" Hermione asked craning to look at the energy scanner's read out.

"Nothing. Been getting overflow from the factories though."

"That's expected," Hermione mused. The trains didn't run through the tunnels at night. It was that time that the Master's factories used even more power. Creating the hearts of the power drives that were within them. Along with something else, they still hadn't discovered what. Hermione hoped that Luna, Draco or even Rita Skeeta would find out.

"30 seconds," Jenkins prompted.

"Priming," she said and wondered if this is something Harry wanted to be doing. It seemed liked Harry spent most of his time planning and working in the village.

Hermione double checked the box in front of her, the spell cluster bomb needed 'a kick' to get it started. "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5," Hermione opened the switch as Jenkins counted. "2, 1."

As she flicked the switch they felt it, Merlin did they feel it.

The explosion pushed them backwards into the Earth and left a ringing silence in her ears.

Hermione almost felt like laughing from the rush of adrenaline and it took her several seconds just to push herself back to a sitting position.

"McGillop?"

"Just...just give me a moment," he said. "I think I bit my tongue."

Jenkins snorted.

"Realigning now. Wow."

Hermione looked over and got a quick glance at the scanner before the sirens and noises began. That was how you mixed conventional weapons and magic she thought with a small amount of satisfaction before forcing herself back into the realities of the situation.

"Pack it up," she ordered as she grabbed her own things and started shoving them into her expanding bag. "Time to leave."

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Harry pulled down several large leavers to ready the transmat pads. Sergey had completed the transmat relay and they were finally ready to test the transmat to the Moon.

The room was filled with a pleasant hum of nothing overloading or exploding which was nice.

A part of him wanted to be on Hermione's mission. But she had dreamt that up with George and it was a good one. Something he'd not considered.

Transport links were something that the Master still needed and used.

Getting rid of the Channel tunnel should delay things.

Their 'big plan' should also knock back things a bit more.

He didn't know how this would affect Martha Jones' countdown and plan. But frankly he didn't care. He had bigger things to consider than Martha and the Doctor's little plan. The Resistance had to consider the future of humanity and that rested in their own hands. Not a Time Lord's.

"Alright Moonbase. We're ready here."

"Is there anyone else there with you Harry or are you speaking in the Royal we again?" Liz asked in an amused tone.

"I'm here with him. Fire extinguisher at the ready," Judith called over from the second back of computers and equipment.

"Ah good. I wouldn't want to be the only witness."

"I will also endeavour not to panic Harry if it gets hot," said the Russian space commander.

"Sergey, don't worry. It shouldn't." Harry flashed a quick smile and flicked some switches.

"He's 80 per cent sure." Liz mocked gently.

"Powering up Professor Shaw."

"Rematerialisation room is clear and ready to receive. Moonbase is standing by for transmat."

"Alright." Harry exhaled and grabbed the leaver.

There was a hum throughout the room as he pulled the leaver down box of foodstuffs dematerialsed, fading away.

"Well. Harry Potter. You've done it." Said the awe filled voice of Liz Shaw.

"You didn't kill us Harry. That is fortunate."

"Knocking a hole in the side of the space station was never my intention." Harry said. He had kept the exact possibility of that happening to himself. Sergey knowing the exact numbers on what could happen helped no one.

It didn't even help Harry, not to sleep or in the lead up to doing this. Not that he had any way of testing it.

It worked, that was the main thing. It worked and they hadn't blown a hole in the side of the ISS, nor had the box of food stuffs exploded as it materialised.

Harry didn't know if any of that would happen. It had been Judith joking around that had put the thought into his head.

"We're checking the item now Harry." Liz paused and looked off screen, Harry presumed to Sergey. "Did you still want to get away today?"

"If everything is okay then yes Liz. While we are fed and watered the view from here is not..." Sergey paused. "Pleasant. We would wish to be away from here."

"Harry." Judith called him to look at something. One of the readings from their monitors. They'd hoped to push the transmat signal through so Sergey and his fellow cosmonauts could go to the Moonbase. But it looked like they'd be returning to Earth.

Harry relayed the information to the two on the video link.

"That is fine. Fine that we get away from this station."

"Everything appears good here Harry. We've got about 20 minutes more if you want to do this." Liz said.

"Indeed."

"You know the drill Sergey. Get into the section. No baggage carry on and make sure you're as close to the relay as you can get," Harry said as he settled down and reversed the polarity of the transmat flow to return it to Earth. They'd been through this earlier. Everything was linked into the station's power supply and all the components had been triple checked on Earth.

Once they got the cabinets to the Moonbase they wouldn't need to worry about the transmat link.

Magic could take them the rest of the way.

Even if it annoyed Richard in them just saying 'it's magic'.

"Standby."

Then, as if by...science the men and women from the ISS materialised in front of them, and immediately sagged as they were suddenly beholden to Earth's gravity.

-/

Later Harry and Judith were relaxing (somewhat) and undoing the polarity reversal that had fused some of the circuits. It was simple enough work and he was beginning to wonder if maybe he'd have a few days where nothing completely awful happened. He occasionally thought he'd get a week of something like that. But inevitably a report would come in of a massacre ordered or not and carried out, or not by the Toclafane. If it wasn't them it'd be the Master's own shock squad of idiots and goons.

"Thinking too soon," Judith said as the door opened the Robert strode in a grim expression on his face.

"Harry. Hogwarts has been attacked," He had a grim expression on his face.

Harry pushed himself up quickly.

Hogwarts had remained mostly untouched, the Toclafane had failed on their first bombardment to harm the castle.

"Who discovered it?" Harry asked quickly.

"We got word at our outpost in Glasgow," Townsend said as they walked quickly to the communications room. "Seems someone led an operation in."

"I see." Hogwarts had a lot of wizards, those who were too young or wouldn't join the Resistance. "We should offer assistance."

"I concur," Townsend paused.

"Hermione's still on assignment with the tunnel destruction isn't she?" Harry exhaled and leaned against the wall.

"Yes. Draco returned last night from an intelligence gathering mission," Townsend said as Ros approached them.

"I just heard. You're going aren't you Potter?"

Harry quirked a sad knowing smile. "Someone's got to go and inspire confidence in the remaining rabble," he paused. "We'll need a few wizards, and some military force, just in case. Hogwarts remains a useful resource. If that falls..." Harry trailed off. They didn't have room for people who weren't willing to work for the Resistance. Nor could they bring in people who weren't willing to accept that they were at war. That their standard of living was going to suffer. He didn't know how Hogwarts was continuing to feed and keep the wizards and witches within its walls to a standard that they had before the Toclafane invaded. But according to Hermione and Draco things seemed weirdly normal, mostly, when they were there.

"Laura Madley has been itching to get back out. Her burns have mostly healed," Ros mused.

"The same for Adrian Pucey, his and Private Harris' stab wounds have been healing quite well," Townsend commented. "They don't like sitting around."

"Don't we all," Harry commented. "I'll take them and Orla Quirke."

"Orla?" Townsend asked. "She's been helping the Professors with our Mars issues."

"She is also well versed in the protective fields used by the wizards," Ros interjected. "Go Potter."

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Hogsmede.

The remains of Hogsmede.

Cold and burnt.

Destroyed.

Looming upward from it Hogwarts Castle.

Damaged, burning. Battle scarred.

There was a silence that came from battle.

A silence that was broken as 15 people apparated in. One wizard and two non-wizards. The standard format for the Resistance. This time forgoing the scientists that often made up the trio. This time they were all soldiers.

Each of the wizards was well used to the process of side along apparating two others.

Despite everything they had seen the collected wizards drew in sharp breath upon seeing the scars of battle on Hogwarts, the holes in the brick work, the smouldering turrets.

The Toclfane weapons marks around it and...

"It seems someone's been firing some heavy duty spells around here," Draco mused beside him.

"I don't think the 'Red Man' has the fire power to do even this." Harry followed Draco's gaze as the soldiers fanned out and checked the surroundings.

"Sirs. Nothing in the vicinity."

"Thank you Private," Harry said. "Well. Time to return to Hogwarts everyone." Harry called as they began to walk up to Hogwarts.

-/

This time they weren't met at the gates.

From the spells he cast he could barely detect any wards present. There were scars on the earth around the castle where it seemed like when they had fallen they had expanded outward, destroying everything in their way.

Draco motioned to the soldiers who accompanied him, he'd worked with them before. All of the wizards had worked with most of the soldiers present with them. A handful of the soldiers within the Resistance were not able to adapt to the wizarding method of transport. But those issues were something he left to Potter, Myers, Blythe and Townsend. Draco did not envy the position those four were in, nor did he wish to be in Potter's position.

The men and women moved slightly further out. They were still a large target, but spreading out a little more, now that they were passing into the grounds proper they needed to be careful.

The last time they'd been here they'd taken everyone who wanted to leave, who was capable and willing to work in the Resistance.

-/

As they got to the main doors, still no one had greeted them. That was worrying Harry thought.

"There's very little left of the wards," Orla Quirke said from behind him. Her tone was very concerned.

"Should we be concerned of any backwash from the falling of the wards?" Adrian Pucey asked, also from behind him.

"I believe they were dropped intentionally, as an offensive measure," Draco mused from beside him.

"A very last ditch measure," Pucey commented.

"Well, let's see if it was worth it." Harry pushed the doors open.

Immediately they were confronted with a smell. It was a smell they had all become familiar with; a smell of energy weapons, fire and death.

"Check the houses. Make sure the enemy isn't remaining. Regroup in the Great Hall in half an hour. I'm going to the headmaster's office," Harry ordered.

Harry was half way to the headmaster's office when he saw Neville running towards him wand drawn. Harry didn't lower his wand, nor did the soldiers on either side of him lower their weapons.

"Harry?" Neville seemed surprised.

"We heard Hogwarts was attacked. I have teams checking the houses," Harry reported. "I was going to see whoever's in the head's office."

Neville wrinkled his face. "McGonagall was."

"Was?"

"You'd better come up," was all he said barely looking at the soldiers. When they reached the stairs to the headmaster's office there were the familiar (to the Resistance) laser marker from Toclafane weapons. No sign of any dead or destroyed Toclafane though.

Harry briefly considered telling the Sergeant and Corporal to stay and stand guard but motioned them to come with him. The castle still felt dangerous.

"Ah Harry. We meet again." Coughed a man who wasn't a man but a portrait. One that was burnt in several places.

"The cavalry that you so desperately wanted to come is here now Longbottom." Muttered another voice. "Aren't you pleased you waited and did nothing, with muggles as well. The world has fallen when even muggles are stronger than your pathetic reign."

"That's enough Phineas," Dumbledore said quietly.

"Mr...Potter," said a voice weakly from the front of the room.

It was only then Harry realised that there were two people at the front of the office. Distracted as he was by the presence of the portraits Harry still chastised himself for not noticing. Too much time spent in rooms planning, not enough time out getting shot at. Too long worrying about the fate of the human race Harry mused to himself.

"Mr Potter."

"Poppy," Harry greeted with a nod and looked to Neville who was standing around about the same distance as he was from the crumpled form that was Minerva McGonagall.

"You should rest." Pomfrey started.

"I am dying Poppy," she coughed. "They made sure of that."

"Wh-" Harry started.

But a voice from behind them started. "Our invaders." The voice was the portrait of Dumbledore. "The Toclafane and their allies."

"Wizards?" Harry looked to Neville.

"Half a dozen," Neville answered in a short tone.

"Was the Red Man with them?" Harry asked without thinking.

Both Neville and Poppy looked at him. "Who?" He asked.

"It's what they call Ron." He smirked a cold smile. "Ron Weasley is the Master's wizarding commander in Britain and probably Europe. Traitor and Enemy," Harry paused. "Kill on sight."

"Harry?" Neville started looking at him with an unreadable expression.

Harry shook his head he was not going to get into anything with Neville. Not about this. Not about him.

"Explain," Harry said to the room. He didn't know who was more capable of telling him. Unsurprisingly it was the portrait of Dumbledore.

"It was, Harry a mission of terror and destruction. We have become a safe haven, for those unwilling to join the Master or unready to help the Resistance. The Master's forces sought to change that. The wand style appeared to have a style common from East and Western Europe."

Harry nodded. "The European wizarding population has been greatly displaced by the rocket works." The Resistance in Europe had had some success collecting wizarding groups with the military and other people together. They had had better success in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Oceania the spread out populations meant they'd had more success hiding and conducting attacks. The further you got from the International Confederation of Wizards the more inclined wizards were to work with muggles.

Several of the wizards he'd chatted to; Orla, Hermione, Adrian and Roger had suggested to him that the ICW was strict in Europe and lost more and more power the further away you got from its seat of power.

Harry noted, though didn't really care about Dumbledore's slight at the Resistance 'unready to join'. This was not, as Hermione and Draco had reported to him when they had last come here a case of Voldemort Part II. That was what some wizards had thought.

"They murdered indiscriminately and...Minerva."

"I've tried everything, including a Bezoar," Poppy said taking up the story. "They injected something into her."

Harry tensed when he heard that and started stepping backwards, very slowly.

Harry noticed in the reflections around the office that the soldiers were also picking up his lead.

"Mr Potter?" Phineas Black sounded both annoyed and curious, which was something of a feat with only a title and a name said.

Psychic potential and energy potential.

They were two terms that had been thrown around by the students working with Richard and Brian trying to understand magic, transmats and everything in between.

Everyone had a psychic potential, more or less. Wizards more so.

UNIT's short lived Paranormal Division had even investigated some psychic applications, the Butler Institute had also pursued something similar in the mid-1990s.

Enhanced psychic potential.

Harry mused he should never have given Richard access to all the files they'd salvaged from UNIT and Torchwood. But the man was so damn curious.

"Magic. Harry is not an explanation," he'd said in an exasperated tone at one point. Harry was beginning to think Richard used his exasperated tone whenever magic was mentioned as an explanation. Either that or annoyance.

The Resistance didn't know of much experimentation on the Master's side of things. The Red Man. Ron Weasley had found favour with the Toclafane. The wizards that worked for the Master did seem, in some situations, maybe more powerful.

That Ron had survived that trick with the portkey that Luna did some weeks back was...surprising. That he'd risen to be the Master's number one wizard had also been surprising.

"I don't think there's anything that can be done for Minerva. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Harry said as he continued to calmly walk slowly backwards. He'd been in this room enough times to know where the door was so he didn't need to check behind him as he walked. "You should go Albus, Phineas," Harry looked briefly to the portraits, thankfully neither queried him, though Dumbledore, even as a portrait seemed able to quiz him with his eyes.

"Harry? What's going on." Neville asked.

"I...do believe Mr Potter has discovered what ails me," McGonagall coughed and Harry tried to think what would happen. In truth he didn't know. But if he had been setting a trap for someone, he'd have made it big, big enough to ensure certain damage. And big enough to take out whomever would come to investigate, and they would go an the head of the school first. Text book stuff really.

"I think you all need to get out of here carefully." As he said that Poppy Pomfrey did what was a stupid thing. She started to levitate McGonagall.

Then the elder Professor started to scream.

Harry didn't even bother trying to warn Neville. He grabbed the pair of soldiers with him and threw them out of the office and down the middle of the stairs. Casting a small charm to cushion their fall they rolled out of the door as the explosion took hold.

The stone was reigning down like snow. As Harry pushed away the stone he realised it was, just like snow. Like volcanic ash.

Something groaned some ways from him.

Neville had also managed to escape, seemingly unscathed, mostly.

Harry pulled the soldiers up. "Sergeant, Corporal?" Harry brushed off the stone and looked at each of them.

"Sir," they both answered.

"Alright?" Harry asked as they nodded. "Brush yourselves off and get to the Great Hall." He said, they'd been over the basic layout of the castle before they'd arrived. Harry massaged his shoulder as he walked over to Neville. They'd hit the ground with the minimal of charms with some force. Not enough for any bad damage, fortunately, just badly winded and bruised.

He paused and pulled Neville up to a standing position and they both looked up at the sky, at what used to be the Headmaster's office.

"That, was close," Neville coughed and spat out pulverised rock and ash.

No. That wasn't close. Not close enough. If he had been setting a trap he'd have made sure that had been close.

"Now you have to decide Neville." Harry had gathered that Neville, from the way McGonagall and Pomfrey looked to him was one of the surviving senior wizards at what remained of Hogwarts. "What do you do next?"

-/

"You used to be able to speak it Harry," Orla commented. They were both stood in a bathroom. A haunted bathroom. Whose ghost was nowhere to be seen. Which was odd. They'd not seen any ghosts in fact, no one had.

"It was a long time ago Orla and I had a horcrux in my head," Harry lamented as he removed his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and adjusted the settings and aimed it at the sink tap. "Is it just saying open in Parseltongue or is it being able to speak it?" Harry looked to Adrian who was sitting on the edge of the bath watching them work as he ate an energy bar.

It had been difficult work rescuing the survivors. "You're the expert Potter."

"I was." He craned around again. "Could say the same of you. Shouldn't you Slytherin boys know it all?" He asked with humour.

"You're in the perfect position for me to kick you Potter. That as you say was a long time ago. I detest being back here." Pucey said.

"In a girl's bathroom trying to open a passage to the Chamber of Secrets," Harry exhaled as he readjusted the screwdriver's settings. "Not even the sonic screwdriver's going to get me out of this one." He commented to himself.

Orla shrugged. "High explosives?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

Harry smiled. "High explosives I think Orla." Harry agreed.

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"Brings back memories does it Harry?" Neville looked around the chamber.

"None of them good." Harry looked around. It was, grim. But secure, and it was what Neville wanted. He had now inherited the position of Headmaster. There were some surviving Professors. None who wanted a position where people who took it kept dying, none of the last couple from old age.

"A few flowers some paint and it'll be lovely," Albus said cheerily from a portrait that Neville had brought down.

Harry wondered if it was possible for a portrait to have concussion or maybe it was just Albus trying to distract them from the way ahead.

Harry exhaled a sigh into the cold space.

This wasn't where they were going to completely inhabit, Neville had said this was a last resort. A bunker. There were other parts of the castle that had not been touched.

They still wanted to remain and they didn't want to join the Resistance. Or of course the Master.

Preserving the society that they once had.

Harry liked the idea. He however did not have the luxury of that. The Resistance had to work to preserve the human race and what remained of the Earth before the Master destroyed the Earth's environment and the Toclafane killed the population.

Nor could he wait on Martha Jones to do what she 'had to do'. The Doctor, the Doctors he had known would've encouraged him to do everything he could to fight, to work around this, to use humanity's collective intelligence to think and to fight their way out of this, not to sit around and wait for the end.

"Is he really with the Master and the Toclafane Harry?" Neville asked after some silence had past between them in the cool quiet of the Chamber.

He being their housemate, friend and whatever else Ron had been. He'd been asked by the survivors the same question. Some shocked that someone from these hallowed halls had gone to the Master's side.

Harry nodded.

Neville nodded slowly.

"Hermione held out hope, that he was playing. Double agent. Working to undermine the Master." Harry explained in short clipped sentences. "But..." He swallowed.

"But?" Neville prompted.

"We've gathered a lot of intelligence. His kill on sight is deserving," Harry explained, not wanting to think on what he had seen in the pensives, memories of things people had done. Like many things he pushed that into boxes and only thought on when he really needed to.

"I see." Neville breathed in and exhaled again. "I see." He repeated.

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A/N:

A little bit of nice stuff with Harry and Daphne. Plus some more grim stuff. It's an alternate universe, they're never without grimness, eye patches or a lack of shrimp.

I have been on the Harry Potter Wiki and Harry Potter Lexicon looking up various witches and wizards to include.

Originally I had Hermione destroy the Channel tunnel. But as I thought about it more destroying something like that seemed a little bit too much out of character for her. So I changed it to something a bit more Hermione and George.

Hogwarts is something I had vague plans for when plotting this arc out. It wasn't going to feature hugely in the story. But I definitely had its first appearance planned out. This second appearance is more of a follow up. It's not enough just to destroy Diagon Alley and burn down Hogsmede I thought I'd blow some chunks away from Hogwarts. Why not? It's an alternate universe.

A few readers have asked about Harry's memories and why this arc is as long as it is given it all gets 'reset buttoned' away at the end. The memories of this 'Year That Never Was' will continue on in some form into the main story timeline.

For that and moving forward there needs to be detail that I couldn't/didn't want to cover in few tens of thousand words.