AN: I struggled to get this chapter done in time, but here it is. Let me know what you think, and as always thanks for the support.
Chapter 11
"So, how do you want to break us up?" Katie asked Harry and Jason.
It was the next morning and all the dimension travelers were in the newly expanded common area between the tents where all the intelligence, plans, maps, and boards had been laid out for a mass briefing.
"As much as I would like to keep us all together," Jason said with a sigh, "I trust everyone in this room to not take unnecessary risks, and plan and execute the missions needed to keep the Death Eaters off balance and help us reach our overall goal."
"You don't trust the Order in this world?" Sarah Spinnet asked curiously.
"I do to an extent," Jason said with a shrug. "Most of the Order are good people who are just trying to fight back, but them not really fighting back much is how they've gotten into this predicament. Albus has been too reactive, even after Riddle took over. It's not much of a difference with the rest of the Order except for Crouch's small faction, and they're the opposite; reckless, not to mention bloodthirsty. They'd happily sacrifice us all for a couple wins, even if doing so screws them over down the line."
"They just became too worried about the losses that would happen if they started going out on missions," Alicia agreed. "The ones who had lost their families were happy to go strike at Death Eaters, but none of them care if they survive. The rest of them have their families to watch out for, and that's kept them stagnant, even if I understand their reasoning or feelings."
"So, like Katie asked," Angelina said, "how do you want to break us up?"
"We'll split into two teams," Harry said. "One team will use Apollo to flame travel all over the world, striking at Death Eaters based abroad and using Severus's intel to ambush the giants, trolls, dementors, and Death Eaters that will be returning here to reinforce Riddle's position. That team will also try and recruit other resistances to come to England to fight or to at least increase their own attacks. The other team will stay here and continue to strike at the Death Eaters here in the UK, weakening Riddle's position, or at least maintaining the ground we've gained as some of those reinforcements inevitably arrive."
"licia, Izzy, Daph, mum, dad, Kate, Sirius, Neville, and I will be the team striking abroad," Jason said.
"Leaving Harry, Ron, Hermione, John, Sarah, Fred, Jamie, George, Angelina, and I back to continue our efforts here," Ginny continued seamlessly. "Where are you guys going to start?"
"Roughly half of the Death Eaters Riddle recalled have made it back to the UK in the six days since Severus gave us his intel, which means that there's nearly fourteen hundred Death Eaters in the UK, instead of nine hundred, like I mistakenly told you yesterday," Jason muttered. "We need to try and prevent the other half from returning. A portkey will be dropping thirty Death Eaters in France tomorrow at noon. Another twenty will arrive in Iceland around two in the afternoon, and ten will arrive in the Netherlands around three-ish. Those are the only ones within one portkey jump of arriving back in the UK. We'll try and hit all three tomorrow, as well as hit a few magical sites in each of those three countries. We'll continue to hit the reinforcements as possible wherever they have stopping points, and we'll try to ambush the dementors and giants that are on their way here. We'll try to link up with the resistances in any country we enter in order to gather some allies, but also to convince them to press the attacks on their own. Hopefully word will spread across the world, causing the flames of rebellion to ignite. We need more of this world to start fighting back on their own if we really want to stop the inflow of Death Eaters back here to England."
"We'll also probably hit a couple of those small island nations that have only a handful of Death Eaters acting as the population's police," Alicia said. "Wiping them out won't do much in the large scheme of things, but word will spread that the Death Eaters can't even hold them, and if Riddle will have to either send new Death Eaters to retake the island or accept the loss, and it won't really be worth it for him to send Death Eaters to retake many of the islands."
"How long are you going to be abroad?" John asked.
"No more than a couple weeks," Jason said. "We want to shake up this world, and increase the pressure on Riddle's forces, but the overall focus for us is Britain and Riddle himself, so we'll deal some damage, upset some operations, hopefully set some other attacks in motion through other resistances, and then return."
"Makes sense," Fred said, with a nod. "What are our targets going to be back here?" he asked looking at Harry.
"We'll strike at Death Eater homes, any reactionary forces they set up, the remaining brothel, and we'll probably set up some ambushes to trigger the taboo at, just like we did back in our world," Harry explained. "We'll hit their forces and hopefully wear them down enough that in a couple weeks when the rest of the Order is hopefully back in the fight and Jason's team has returned, we can strike at Azkaban and free all the prisoners therein."
"Oooh, prison break," George said, rubbing his hands together, a mischievous grin on his face. "I like it! Tommy was always breaking his mates out of prison in our world; it only seems fair we do the same thing."
"Tommy?" Isabelle said with a laugh.
"Yeah, forget calling him Riddle," George said with a derisive shake of his head. "He seems like a Tommy to me. Thomas when we're scolding him for being a troublemaker."
"Tom literally is his full name," Harry said in amusement.
"True, but lengthening any name always makes it seem worse when you're being yelled at," Fred defended George fairly. "Thomas Marvolo Riddle! You will clean your room at once!" Fred scolded in his best impersonation of Molly Weasley.
"But mum, I was going to conquer the world!" George continued in a whiny voice.
"You can play with your Death Eaters after your chores are done!" Fred said sternly.
Everyone started breaking down in laughter, and Harry felt a measure of peace, surrounded by many of his family and friends.
"When is our team heading out?" Neville asked after the laughter died down, looking at Jason.
"As much as I would like to relax for the rest of the day, I think we should pack up and head out as soon as possible," Jason said with a sigh.
"You and Alicia could do with a bit more rest," Isabelle said fairly. "You certainly look a lot better than last night, but I can tell you're not at full strength.
"True, but we could hit one of those small islands or two, and then recon the sites where the portkeys will drop off the Death Eaters, maybe even ambush any Death Eaters that are at those sites," Jason said. "The more we prepare, and the more time we give ourselves, the better our results will be."
"That does make sense," Isabelle said in agreement. "What small islands were you planning on hitting?"
"Ones he might not even notice he doesn't control anymore, and if he does notice, it'll just piss him off knowing there would be no point in sending Death Eaters to retake the islands," Jason said with a grin. "Places like the Aland Islands or Channel Islands."
"Where?" Ron asked in confusion.
"Exactly," Alicia said with a chuckle. "Both chains of Islands each only have one small magical village of like twenty people in them, and Tommy's stationed three Death Eaters at each island, or more likely they were the three dark wizards or families that lived there and simply took over when he started conquering the world, and the villages decided not to fight them."
"So, they hold no tactical value, but the fact he can't hold those little islands will just anger him, and word might spread about it," summed up Alex with a grin. "I like it."
"Yep, small victory that requires little effort, but will probably piss Tommy off more than it should," Jason said with a smile. "Well, guess we should probably get to it then."
"Get to what?" a voice said, and Harry looked up to see Rebecca, Madelyn, and Gabby entering the room.
"We're taking a trip," Jason said.
"Another field trip?" Rebecca asked eagerly, and Gabby and Madelyn's faces lit up, both having been rather disappointed that they hadn't gotten to go on the last one.
"Not this time," Alicia said, and the three girls' faces dropped.
"Does that mean we aren't going to have anymore lessons?" Madelyn asked, looking sad.
"Ginny and I will still be around to continue the lessons," Harry assured her with a smile. "Jace and Alicia just have some missions to do abroad."
"I could help with missions!" Rebecca said eagerly. "I'm ready!"
"We want to help too!" Madelyn protested, Gabby nodding eagerly.
"No," Jason said firmly, looking at the two younger girls, before turning to Becca. "Rebecca, you're old enough to come, but I think you should talk it over with your parents and think about what Harry and Ginny told you before you volunteer for this mission. This won't be like when you observed us breaching the Gaunt Shack."
"I'll still learn a ton, and I'll gain valuable experience," Becca fired back. "I'm of age, and I deserve the chance to fight for my freedom, just like you all did. I could learn so much joining you for your mission, and my parents will just say no."
"You should still talk to your parents," Alicia said sympathetically. "Trust me, we get it, but going to war changes you. Yes, you will learn a lot with us and gain experience, whether that's valuable is debatable, but the battlefield is not the place to be learning. People die, and we won't be only hitting easy targets. There's no guarantee that we can protect you at all times."
"Who are these girls?" Jamie asked, cutting into the discussion. "Other than Gabby, whom I recognize."
"Rebecca and Madelyn Black," Harry said, glancing at Sirius who stared at the two girls in shock. Surprise appeared on all his friend's faces, glancing at the two girls.
"Are you two really using her age against her to argue her coming with you?" Fred asked in surprise. "You four got yourselves in soooo much trouble, not to mention duels with Death Eaters and old Voldie a bunch of times before you were even of age. None of you asked for your parents' permission. Hell, you started hunting horcruxes, including tracking Tommy's whereabouts in Albania before you were of age."
"Fred, Angie, and I certainly didn't ask our parents permission before joining you on the horcrux hunt either," George said fairly.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean she has to go through what we did," Harry said wearily.
Alex and Isla chuckled softly, looking a bit sad. "Seems like they have found themselves in the position that we were in after we were cured. Children who are determined to get involved, no matter our wishes. I think you should let her make her own decisions, just like we did with you, especially since you really can't stop her if she wants to get involved."
Jason and Alicia leveled unappreciative glares at Jace's parents, but the elder Witcher's just smiled. Jason sighed, and exchanged glances with Alicia.
"Alright, you can come with us," Jason said, and Rebecca's face lit up, "BUT, you will talk to your parents first, and at least explain your reasoning to them."
"No matter their decision, I can still come though, right?" Rebecca asked suspiciously.
"Yes, no matter their decision, you can come, if you wish," Alicia said dejectedly.
Rebecca grinned, and rushed back out of the tent.
"What about us?" Madelyn said, leveling a pointed glare at the four original dimension travelers.
"No," Harry said firmly. "You're not of age, and there is no reason for you to be putting yourselves in a kill or be killed scenario. Not yet. We had no choice. I had to be the one that killed Riddle in my world, and my friends wouldn't leave me to face him alone, but the circumstances aren't the same for you."
Madelyn and Gabby both scowled and both girls stormed out angrily. Harry sighed.
"It was the right decision, even if it was a bit hypocritical," Sirius said, giving Harry an approving and sympathetic look.
"They don't know what it's like, not yet, and I'd like them to stay like that just a bit longer," Harry said softly, starting to understand Albus Dumbledore just a little more. Ginny put her arms around his waist, giving him support.
"Let's start packing things up," Jason said, glancing around at his team. "We'll try to get out of here within the next hour or so. I'd like to be out of here by two at the latest, so that we should have time to hit one or two of those islands before setting up a temporary base in France tonight."
Tear down was fairly quick, especially since they just left the bunker as big as it was, not bothering to start filling in the bunker since they would be back. As they were finishing up duplicating all of the intel the Witcher's had for Harry's team, Sirius (2) stormed in looking absolutely livid, Marlene and Rebecca on his tail.
"HOW DARE YOU PROMISE TO TAKE OUR DAUGHTER WITH YOU ON MISSIONS!" Sirius exploded at Jason and Alicia, both of whom winced, probably at the volume, but also at the accusation. "There is no way in hell she's going with you guys on missions, especially abroad for several weeks! What the hell were you two thinking?"
"Dad, I'm of age!" Rebecca said angrily. "I can go if I want to, and you can't stop me!"
"WATCH ME!" Sirius snarled back at her.
"Sirius," Marlene said hesitantly, looking like she didn't want to say what she was going to say. "She's an adult now, and if she wants to get involved . . . " Marlene sighed, "well then it is time we let her choose for herself."
"I don't care," Sirius growled out. "She is not going on missions yet. There is no bloody need for her to do so."
"I should be able to fight for my freedom, just like you all do," Rebecca protested heatedly. "I'm of age. You've protected me my whole life, but it's time for me to help out with the fight! Besides, this is what I want to do! I want to be an auror if we can get our world back together, and this is my chance to get real experience and guidance under some of the best aurors in two worlds. Even Mad-Eye and Kingsley say they're some of the best!"
"Rebecca, you don't know what you're asking for," Sirius protested weakly. "The experience you want is not something anyone should want."
"I know I shouldn't want it," Rebecca said firmly, "but it's what I've always wanted to do. Help retake our world, and beat the Death Eaters. This is my chance, and if I can get battle experience now, then maybe I'll survive later."
Sirius stared at her silently.
"You seemed to have raised a brilliant girl," Sirius (1) said softly, causing Marlene and Sirius (2) to look at him. "I understand not wanting to let her go into danger, believe me," he continued glancing at Harry, "but sometimes you just have to trust in them, and let them go."
"Trust us," Alex said with a somber look. "Your kids are going to get involved someday, whether you want them to or not. You might as well help them, support them, and do your best to get them out of trouble if they find themselves in it."
Sirius slumped down onto the ground, looking defeated. Rebecca went up to him and sat down next to him.
"I just want to keep you safe," he said quietly, looking at her.
"I know, and you've been incredible at it my whole life," Rebecca said, giving her father a smile. "This is something I need to do, for myself, and for my dreams."
"Alright . . . " Sirius (2) said despondently. "You better be careful, and you two," he said glancing at Jason and Alicia, "please, look after her."
"We will," Alicia said firmly, nodding at him, and he sighed glumly.
"You better go pack a bag," Sirius (2) said, giving a wane smile at Rebecca, and she smiled brightly before running out of the bunker.
"Please, look after her," Sirius said again, glancing at Jason and Alicia.
Both nodded. Conversation was fairly nonexistent for the next twenty minutes before Rebecca returned, a bag over her shoulder.
"I'm ready!" she said, looking eager.
"Nobody ever is," Alicia said, a bit sadly, and Becca's face fell.
"It's time for us to be off," Jason said, cutting in, looking at the time, before he looked back at those staying. "We'll keep in contact, and pass any intel or news your way as we come across it. Stay safe, and fight hard. We'll see you in a couple weeks."
With those words, Apollo swooped over and landed on Jason's shoulder. He grabbed hands with Alicia and Rebecca, Neville put his hand on Jason's shoulder, and Katie grabbed Alicia's other hand before the five of them flashed away. About thirty seconds later, Apollo returned and took Isabelle, Daphne, Isla, Alex, and Sirius.
"So, what are we going to do on this fine night?" George asked, looking at Harry.
"Tonight, we're going to use the Taboo against the Death Eaters," Harry said with a grin.
"Ooh, just like in our world," Fred said, whistling appreciatively. "Set up ambushes and say the name."
"Correct, though we'll throw a bit of a twist on it," Harry said. "The Taboo works exactly like it did in our world, which means that this time we can place a ton of traps around the ambush site, and in the areas that Death Eaters are likely to appear in, since we know how it works."
"Considering the reactionary forces that Riddle has created are getting bigger and bigger," Ginny continued, "I'd expect him to send a sizable group against anyone who says the name, since he'll probably expect a trap. A bunch of magical traps will help level the playing field."
"How big are his reactionary forces?" John asked.
"Unsure," Harry replied grimly. "They had nearly thirty Death Eaters last time. Based on their numbers and the amount of ground and the different things they're trying to protect, I wouldn't count on them being too large, otherwise they would have overrun us last night, but I would bet they are between fifty and sixty people."
"That's still more than we can hope to take in a straight up fight," Angelina said.
"True, but we aren't going to give them a straight up fight," Ron said thoughtfully.
"Exactly," Harry said, smiling.
Ron was one of their best planners in the aurors. He'd taken the experiences from the horcrux hunt, and subsequent battles, studied tactics hard during their early days after the war, when they were basically going through the academy on their own while hunting down Death Eaters, and had put his analytical mind to work. When it came to the grand scheme of things, and planning raids, Ron was one of the best, up there with Percy and Proudfoot.
"We'll strike once tonight, doing what damage we can, before retreating," Harry said. "I've got a meeting with Severus tomorrow, and we'll refresh our intel, and go from there. If all goes as planned, the other team will prevent any reinforcements from returning to the UK, and we'll be able to weaken Tom's forces here in country, allowing us to strike hard when Jace's team returns."
Harry glanced over, looking at Ron who had moved over to the maps, and was thoughtfully perusing the intel, and the map of the UK.
"Last time, we were trying to weaken Tom's forces by wiping out as many snatchers as we could, but they also operated in small teams, since nobody was standing up to them, and they were just rounding up muggleborns or lone Order members who had a slip of the tongue," Ron said. "This time, the chances are high that we'll be extremely outnumbered even if they only have thirty Death Eaters in each reactionary force. How many reactionary forces did they have?"
"Previously they generally had three groups, one in England, one in Scotland, and one in Ireland," Ginny answered.
"With their reinforcements, they should be able to support doing that again, though unless they want smaller groups, they won't be able to do more than that," Ron muttered, and Harry smiled, watching the familiar sight of Ron's mind buzzing with plans and schemes. "I doubt they do smaller groups though, since you've already been able to defeat them at that size."
"So, what's your idea?" Harry asked.
"Let's set up multiple locations for ambushes, like we did before. Except, we're only going to place traps at three or four locations. Just litter the area with destructive traps. Then, we have one person at one or two of those sites say the trigger word before immediately apparating to the location of the place we'll actually use as the legit ambush location. We'll still litter the area with traps, say the trigger word, and then ambush the Death Eaters as they come, and retreat when necessary. From there, I'd say we apparate to one or two more trap sites, trigger the taboo, and then leave. Might catch a few more fish, might not."
"I like it," Fred said with a wicked grin.
"Indeed," George said, giving Ron an approving nod. "A dastardly plan, worthy of the last name Weasley."
Harry snorted at the twins.
"Alright then. We'll split into three teams. Gin, you take George, and Angie to this location," Harry said, pointing to a spot they had used for ambushes in their war. Set up as many traps as you can before apparating to this secondary point," Harry indicated another spot, "and start setting up a location for us to actually fight the Death Eaters. Ron, Hermione, John, you three head to this point," Harry indicated a third spot, "and just layer the area with traps. When done, report to the same secondary spot as Gin's team. Fred and Jamie will come with me. We're going here," Harry indicated at one last spot. "We'll layer the area in traps and then report to the same secondary position. When we're done setting up the ambush spot, we'll send one person to Gin and John's ambush spots, trigger the taboo and then return to the secondary spot. We'll trigger the Taboo again, fight whatever Death Eaters turn up and then retreat if needed. After we leave that site, I'll apparate to the spot, Jamie, Fred, and I set up, and trigger the taboo one last time."
"Let's get to it," John said grimly.
He, Ron, and Hermione apparated away. Ginny winked at Harry before she, Angelina, and George apparated away. Harry nodded at Jamie and Fred, and they apparated to the location, one Harry still saw in his dreams sometimes. The site of the first ambush he'd done during the war, where he'd killed several snatchers and Death Eaters..
They got straight to work. Jamie and Fred weren't near Harry's level when it came to setting traps, but they were still competent enough, Fred having studied it a bit while on the horcrux hunt, and Jamie having studied Defense after the war.
She, Jason, and Alicia had gotten a place in the aftermath of the war, when it was apparent Jason had no intention of going back to Hogwarts. After living with each other for the whole horcrux hunt, Jason and Alicia had naturally wanted to find a place together. Jamie wanted to move out of her parents' place, but was uneasy with the concept of living by herself, her apartment having been ambushed twice, so they all decided to find a place together. They'd found a nice three bedroom apartment. They'd expanded the third bedroom by a lot, and then created walls to make a fourth room and third bathroom, which was for guests, and mostly used by Isabelle. They had then turned the third room into a study and library, and placed Jason's old trunk in it, making it so they had two extra bedrooms if needed.
You just can't live with Jason and Alicia and not learn things, especially when you have access to the Witcher library. Add in the fact that Jamie already wanted to learn more about Defense because of the war, and it led to her being fairly competent. She was actually a fairly decent warder, having taken an interest in the subject, her home having been attacked several times during and after the war.
They took nearly an hour, setting up traps all around the area, making sure the most likely apparition points, especially where Harry remembered the Death Eaters apparating in, were well covered, but they laced the area in a wider range than they thought they really needed. Severus would hopefully give them numbers on how many were killed or injured in these traps.
Harry was hoping that they would kill or injure quite a few, which would either force Voldemort to remove guards around certain areas, have smaller reactionary forces, or possibly even both. He was hoping that if the reactionary forces grew smaller, and if Voldemort had removed more Dementors from Azkaban, then with the Order's help, they'd be able to strike, and kill another large chunk of the remaining Dementors. He'd then just have to hope that Jace's team would be successful in stopping anymore Dementors from reaching the UK. If all went to plan, they'd be able to hit Azkaban when Jace's team returned.
Harry appeared at the location where they would engage the Death Eaters, seeing John's team already working on setting up defenses for them to hide or seek cover behind, reinforcing. Ginny's team was also there, but already working on setting up traps for the Death Eaters for when they triggered the taboo. Jamie and Fred went over to help John's team reinforce some battle positions for them, while Harry went to help set up more traps.
For an easy escape route, John and his team created a bunker in the ground that they could all duck into if they needed an escape and were unable to apparate or portkey away. Once out of view of the Death Eaters, they could all Shadow Travel away, without revealing the ability to the Death Eaters.
When they felt they couldn't give themselves anymore advantages, Jamie and Angelina apparated away before coming back only thirty seconds later.
"Death Eaters started apparating in immediately upon finishing the word," Angelina reported. "Traps were being triggered left and right. I apparated out to a separate location before coming back."
"Same here," Jamie affirmed. "They were definitely appearing, so our traps will get a few at least."
"Good," Harry said. "Everybody ready?"
He looked around, seeing his team, hunkered down behind conjured rock walls, or in bunkers low in the ground, and hidden by conjured shrubs that they could see through, but the Death Eaters would likely miss them. Jamie and Angelina quickly went to their own positions, and Harry sighed before moving to his own position."
"Voldemort," he said clearly, and like Angelina and Jamie reported, cracks of apparition came in almost immediately, but they were drowned out by the explosions and screams of the Death Eaters as the ones appearing started triggering traps.
Harry watched two appear and move forward four steps only to trigger a flesh eating curse that caused both men to scream as their skin started ripping away from their bodies. A nasty curse that Harry had learned from Bill Weasley.
All around them, explosions, acid curses, pocket dimensions with spears and conjured arrows, bone breaker pressure pads, and other various curses started going off as a quite large number of Death Eaters were obviously attempting to apparate to their location.
Harry finally saw four appear and move forward slowly, cries of shock coming from them as they took in their dead or injured comrades around them. Knowing they wouldn't trigger any traps where they were standing, Harry took aim.
'Apscido! Fulmen! Funem ignis!' Harry thought rapidly.
The cutting curse ripped into the first man's stomach, and blood burst everywhere as he collapsed, screaming. The lightning bolt hit the second Death Eater's chest, and he dropped without even a scream. The third and fourth Death Eaters managed to avoid his lasso of fire, but one of them was dropped by a blasting curse fired by Angelina. The remaining Death Eater fired back a killing curse, but Harry simply let it hit the conjured, and magically enforced wall he was shielded by before launching a volley of conjured knives that embedded themselves in the Death Eater's chest.
Death Eater's continued to pour in, and soon nearly all the traps had been used up, but they just kept coming. Harry noticed his friends falling back, as their protective cover was slowly destroyed by the volume of enemy spells
It was getting to the point that Harry could barely return fire much, so he followed his friends, and they all allowed themselves to be pushed along the protective trenchline they had built, and disappeared into the bunker, before Harry watched his team Shadow Travel away. He quickly put three explosive curses around the little makeshift bunker, and then put a wall of spikes curse on the entrance to the bunker before he Shadow Traveled to safety.
**HP**
Isabelle and Daphne appeared back at the bunker they had created the night before, after arriving in France. The previous day hadn't quite gone as smoothly as her brother had probably intended. Beating the four "Death Eaters" stationed at the Aland Islands had been laughably easy, all four having been residents of the islands, and only having been taught magic by their parents, and obviously not to an extremely proficient degree. However, it was after defeating them that things became a bit more complex. She knew that Jason had considered that the inhabitants of Geta on the Aland Islands wouldn't necessarily be happy that they had "freed" them from Voldemort's control, but probably not as much as he should have.
Sure, they hated the four Death Eater wannabes that had taken control of the islands when Voldemort's forces started conquering most of Europe. The village hadn't fought against the four Dark arts supporters when they said they were taking the island in Voldemort's name, since fighting back would have just been suicide. The men did whatever they wanted, and she was sure in a way they were glad that all four men were now dead, but that also meant that they might now be subject to an actual attack from Voldemort's actual forces, since all four men were technically considered Death Eaters.
Jason had tried to quickly shut that worry down to an extent, saying that the group of islands was too small and out of the way to worry about, let alone really notice in the grand scheme of things, not to mention that Voldemort would hardly want to divert his followers to the small island, since he'd have to possibly divert quite a few in order to breach the international magical borders.
That's where he'd lost the villagers, and they'd gone from irritated and slightly panicked to angry and very panicked. Apparently, nobody had ever set up magical borders on their island, which meant anybody could just apparate, fly, or portkey in whenever they wanted.
As much as Isabelle had kind of wanted to just tell the villagers to deal with it, and scamper off to the next location, she knew it wasn't the right thing to do. Jason had obviously had the same thought. So, instead, they'd spent the next three hours creating borders for the damn island Geta was on. Thankfully, the villagers had been more than happy to add their own power to fuel the startup of the wards, rather than force their team to do it, but still, it had taken a lot of time, for frankly very little reward in the scheme of things.
At least Rebecca had seemed to enjoy herself for the most part. She'd certainly looked sick when they dueled and killed the four Death Eaters, but she'd showed her grit, moved on, and jumped into help where needed, learning Hermione's universal translation charm so that she could understand Swedish in order to speak to the magical inhabitants. She'd then attached herself to Isabelle's side in order to learn how to place magical borders, and happily observed while Isabelle, Jason, Alicia, Alex, Isla, Sirius, and Neville set up the wards.
That had taken up the rest of their afternoon. Then, they'd decided to do the same thing with the Channel Islands. Thankfully, that had been a lot smoother, and the islands did actually have magical borders, so it had been a quick mission, even if the small population, once again, had not been happy about being freed.
From there, they'd moved to France, and set up a bunker for the night, and the missions the following day. It had been a nice night, catching up more about what had been going on over the weeks since Jason, Alicia, Harry, and Ginny had disappeared. The newer dimension travelers took the time to get to know Rebecca, curious about her because of her parents, but also just interested in someone who was now a part of their team.
Now however, it was back to business.
"So, how did the meeting go?" Jason asked, as he and Alicia annotated numbers and locations on a map.
Isabelle and Daphne had been tasked with meeting up with a few contacts of Bill and Fleur's in the French Resistance. The French Resistance was more active than the British Order. Isabelle wondered if it was because the French didn't have Voldemort in the country with them, or if it maybe had to do with them being more experienced with being occupied. Grindelwald's forces had occupied France before Dumbledore defeated the man, and the French had had a large resistance back then as well.
"Fairly well," Isabelle answered. "They've heard about your attacks, and successes. It's bolstered their own attacks since they don't believe Tom will leave England while he's dealing with your attacks. Word even reached them of when Harry stunned Tom, and they said their contacts in the Spanish and German Resistances have heard of the victory as well."
"That's good," Alex said. "If Harry and them can keep it up, hopefully word will spread further and resistances will grow bolder."
"What did they say in regards to our requests?" Alicia asked.
"They'd take it into consideration," Daphne said with a snort. "They did appreciate all the intel about Death Eaters in country that we gave them. I'm sure they'd do just about anything to get Severus working for them. I would also suspect that they do listen to your suggestions, but pride stopped them from admitting so to us."
There were chuckles around the room in agreement to Daphne's assessment.
"Well, if they increase their attacks, using our intel, then that will still be a big help," Alex said.
"True," Isabelle agreed. "What about the scouting mission?"
"Successful," Sirius said with a grin. "Witnessed the portkey reception area out near Dunkirk. Roughly twenty Death Eaters are watching the area, but they aren't all that aware of their surroundings."
"Good," Isabelle said. "The portkey will arrive in the next hour, so we should probably go take care of them, don't you think?"
"Yes, it is time," Jason said in agreement. "Izzy, you and Daph will appear here, to the south of the site. Mum, dad, Katie, take this location to the southeast. Sirius, Neville, here to the east. Becca, you're with Alicia and I, here, to the southwest of the site. Alicia and I will initiate the attack. Any questions?"
Nobody had any.
"Alright, let's get out of here," Alicia said. "Good luck, everybody."
With those last words, they all started apparating away. Izzy and Daphne appeared just south of the designated spot. They both cast cloaking charms on themselves, and then crept the hundred meters to the spot. They could see the Death Eaters lounging about all over the place, in groups of three or four for the most part with a few loners around, and one larger group of six Death Eaters clumped around a table.
From their position, they were closest to the group at the table, so she pointed her wands at that group, intending to take them out as soon as Jason and Alicia started the attack. Daphne took aim at one of the lone Death Eaters nearby. They didn't have to wait long, as two bolts of lightning and an explosion curse took out two groups of three Death Eaters to the southwest.
'Vallum sudibus glaciali!' Isabelle thought and a silver bolt left her wand, hitting the ground in the middle of the group. Large ice spikes sprung out from the ground impaling five of the Death Eaters. One escaped with an injury, but he didn't have long before Isabelle finished him off with an explosion curse.
Meanwhile, the Death Eaters all around were being struck down by explosion curses, blasting curses, conjured knives, and bolts of flame and lightning. Despite the fact the Death Eaters had superious numbers, they'd been caught completely unawares, and the destructive spells used against them just ripped them apart, not leaving a chance for them to counter. It had only taken five minutes, but all twenty guards had been dealt with.
"Alright, start emplacing traps!" Jason called out, and Isabelle watched her brother shadow travel to the marked portkey reception area.
Three portkeys were set to bring the thirty Death Eaters coming to the area. The first one came at noon and the other two were each offset by five minutes. Five Death Eaters in the first one, seventeen Death Eaters in the second one, and the remaining eight in the last portkey.
Isabelle Shadow traveled over to join Jason, along with their dad. Rebecca was standing off to observe and learn, and Daphne, mum, Sirius, and Neville spread out to provide security in case anyone came to check on the Death Eaters. Alicia flame traveled away with Apollo. She was going to use her animagus form to observe the portkey reception area in iceland. With her Falcon form, she should be able to scout the area and still make it back before the second portkey would appear.
According to Severus's report, there were only ten Death Eaters total in Iceland, Iceland not having a big magical population, only a hundred or so witches and wizards. The Death Eaters portkeying into Iceland were coming in from Canada and the US via Greenland to Iceland and then to England. If they could raise international borders on Iceland, it would be a lot harder for Voldemort's forces to return to England and Europe in general from North and South America. Greenland itself also didn't have a very large Death population, and had few Death Eaters garrisoned. It was on the list of soft targets that they would consider hitting in whatever openings they found in the coming weeks.
Isabelle, Alex, and Jason spent the next hour setting up a bunch of traps to be triggered in by the arrival of Death Eaters, though they altered most of the traps to only work after the arrival of the first five Death Eaters.
As they neared noon, their team spread out, keeping their wands aimed at the area that the Death Eaters would appear in. While the Death Eaters shouldn't stand a chance, since they would be grouped up, and unsuspecting, but they wouldn't take anything for granted.
This might be an easy mission, but it was only another step in a large campaign that would hopefully end with Voldemort's death and a trip home for the dimension travelers.