Chapter 5 : Sabotage at the Pick-Up Zones

Walking quickly down Harner Street, Harry looked at each of the house's numbers while darting his eyes along the street to check for danger.

"34, 35…,36, 37" Harry stopped counting. "238 Harner Street!" he exclaimed to himself as he ran towards the simple, yet elegant, house. He slipped up the stairs and desperately knocked at the door. A dark-haired woman looked through the window and opened the door.

"Yes? Who is it?" she asked timidly.

"My name is Harry and I'm here to see Hermione."

The lady shook her head. "I'm sorry, you must have the wrong house. A Hermione doesn't live here." Harry was confused, looking down at the letter in his hand.

"Is this not the Granger household?" asked Harry. The lady looked taken aback.

"Why… yes. But the person you asked for doesn't live here. I'm sorry." Harry only stood there as the lady shut the door in front of him. Thinking for a minute, Harry came up with the most logical conclusion.

Hermione used the Obliviate spell so her parents wouldn't have to worry. Another thought came to Harry's mind. What if she was caught and her parents are now pretending to not have a daughter because it was a disgrace…

No! Her parents were always very supportive of her wizarding career. From what he heard from her, they were the best muggle parents a wizard could have. He had to find her. Deciding the next course of action, Harry headed for Ron's house. It would take a while, but if he took some muggle trains, he would get there in no time.

After taking one or two trains, keeping his hood over his head, he started to walk down a street to catch a connecting train at a different stop. It was early evening, roughly 5 o'clock, and to Harry's surprise, no one was out on the streets. It was as if everyone decided to stay at home that day.

Rounding a corner, Harry skidded to a stop as he came upon a black truck with flashing lights. Shouts were heard by the truck and two officers were seen escorting a blond girl about Harry's age. Harry decided to wander closer, staying on the opposite side of the street to not draw attention. He overheard some of the things the girl was saying.

"But have you ever seen a giant before? Why I would say that one of my professors is at least half-giant." Harry gasped as he recognized the carefree tone of one of his fellow students.

Luna Lovegood continued talking despite the annoyance the soldiers radiated. "But giants aren't the only ones to worry about!" She looked at the two as they opened up the truck door. She smiled, "I would pick giants over nargles any day. They get in your ears, they do."

From Harry's perspective, Luna had a silver band around her head and her hands were cuffed behind her back. One of the soldiers had her wand in a plastic bag that was hanging from his belt. Harry knew what he had to do.

"Hey!" said Harry as he stepped out onto the street to cross towards the black truck. The soldiers quickly grabbed hold of their guns but Harry was faster.

"Stupify!" Blue streaks hit both of the men but they only stumbled backward. The vests on them glowed bright blue and slowly faded. They then aimed at Harry, one of them barked into his radio on his shoulder.

"North Hempstead, Johnson Street! We have a hostel wizard exchanging fire. Requesting back up!" They both shot at Harry as he ducked behind a car from across the street. Harry was feeling desperate.

"Expecto patronum!" A misty stag hopped over the car and ran straight into the men. It exploded into a blue cloud as it hit them, sending them staggering back. Harry peeked over the car but then quickly hid back down when he saw the weapons being aimed at him yet again. One of the men shouted at Harry.

"Give up! We have the witch at gunpoint! If you don't surrender, we will shoot her." Harry's face went white at those words. The man shouted again.

"The bullets we have caused extreme pain to your kind." He could hear a weapon being loaded. "Your choice." Harry heard a small whimper from Luna and that sent his blood on fire with anger.

Stepping out from behind the car he pointed his wand at the two men. The majority of him screamed warnings about this being wrong. Their smiles just made what he was about to do a whole lot easier. Closing his eyes he said the cursed spell.

"Avada Kedavra." It came out in a gentle whisper yet what came from his wand was nothing close to that. Green lightning struck the two men, as Luna dove behind the truck. Harry watched as the soldier's vests glowed green then cracked open. They both slumped to the ground.

Harry ran over to Luna and hugged her tight. She gave him a hug back but looked at the two men that lay dead on the ground in front of them. Her blank face showed a little sign of sadness.

Harry looked at them as well with regret.

"They didn't have to die," stated Luna as she made her way over to them. Running her hand across the soldier's faces, she closed their eyes shut. Harry gently guided Luna to stand up.

"We have to get out of here. They have reinforcements coming," said Harry as he handed over her wand and his hoodie. "Put this on, someone might recognize you in these parts. What were you doing here anyway?"

"Traveling and seeing what the muggles are all about these days. I wasn't aware of the ban that was happening. Quite sad really." She put the hoodie on and covered her head. Noticing the metal band on her head, Harry reached out to touch it. Luna recoiled a step back.

"Please don't. It's still very sensitive."

"What is it?" asked Harry.

"They put in on me when they caught me. Drilled it into my head." She pointed to the points along the band which had screws that went into her head. "It really hurt, I almost passed out."

Harry's regret about killing those soldiers quickly went away.

"Monsters!" At that, the sound of a siren was heard from a distance. "We have to get out of here!" Harry took Luna's hand and they went running into an alley. They walked down many streets after that until they came upon a train leading north. Harry bought the tickets and they both got on the train. Harry turned to Luna once they sat down, both catching breath after the long hassle.

"Do you know what the band is for?" Harry asked quietly.

"I felt drained after they put it in. Like all the magic just left me, leaving me tired and dull." She looked down at the pocket that had her wand. "I don't think I could even use my wand."

Harry looked around the empty train car. "Go for it. Try a Lumos spell." Lunna nodded cautiously, pulling out the wooden wand.

"Lumos" The wand didn't do anything and she tried again. Nothing happened. She then slumped over onto Harry's shoulder in exhaustion. Harry took the wand from her and put it back into her pocket.

"I can't do it." She whispered to Harry. Harry put his arm around her and let her rest on his shoulder. She smiled weakly, "It must be the nargles, I lost my necklace charm back with the soldiers." Harry smiled.

If only we all could be like you, Luna. He looked out into the black tunnel that they were in. Hope is a thing we all need right now.

Many children came far and wide around the UK to one of the five pick up zones that were given to them by their headmaster. In Hyde Park, a group of about fifty students gathered by the bird sanctuary carrying nothing but small backpacks and a wand. Most of them were sitting in the grass while others stood looking at the dark clouds. It was quite dark for a summer evening and the birds in the sanctuary were relatively still by the dark lake.

Neville Longbottom, who was consoling a group of first years, heard a sound coming from the trees around the field. He saw a glint of a gun barrel and then many more came out after that.

"Get together," said Neville as not to alarm his fellow students. The word spread around the group and they all slowly started to move closer together. "We can get out of here quicker if we stay together and use as many people as possible on a portkey."

A few of the older kids nodded while a bunch of the younger ones looked to them for guidance. Neville looked at his watch; 6:59.

"They will be here in a minute! Hang tight." Others around Neville nodded and looked back to staring at the soldiers that waited in the trees.

Waiting for what? thought Neville as he quickly looked around the group of scared kids. We're as vulnerable as it gets.

A whooshing sound was heard in the middle of the group. Kids parted to make room for the giant coated man. Shots were heard from the bushes and the soldiers started to fire at the group of wizards. The half-giant got hit in the arm with one of the bullets and he grimaced, but he didn't fall.

"Portkeys rollin' through!" shouted Hagrid as he rolled out multiple portkeys into the group of kids. The students dived towards the medal sphere and grabbed hold of the kids next to them. A few on the end fell down unconscious from the shots from the soldiers that kept on coming.

Sections of the group started to disappear and Hagrid started to hastily collect the fallen children along the outside. Getting hit in the leg, Hagrid stumbled onto his knees holding about five students. He looked up to see Neville who was dragging the fallen kids in a pile close to him.

"Hand me a portkey!" screeched Neville as he grabbed hold of everyone in his pile. Hagrid reached in his coat and pulled out a portkey and threw it to Neville, who caught it. Looking once more at the half-giant, Neville disappeared with the whole pile of students.

Hagrid looked around and saw that it was just him and the kids in his arms. A sharp pain came from his back and he fell onto his side, clutching to the kids so they wouldn't fall. Fighting the urge to welcome the blackness, he pulled out his last portkey and activated it. He disappeared.

The soldiers let out a murmur of disappointment at the thought of not even catching one wizard. An angry soldier walked angrily up to his team leader.

"We could have shot the kids before they all disappeared!" His leader sternly looked down at him.

"Our order is to try and capture as many older wizards as possible, not kids."

Another soldier fidgeted with his weapon, "What the hell was that thing! It took three shots to get it down!"

"I don't know, soldier, but from what I know, it won't be walking for the time being."

Professor McGonagall stood at the entrance of Hogwarts while fidgeting her wand. Once she heard the distance whooshing sound of portkeys, she barked at Sprout to get ready to pick up the second batch of kids after they talked to Hagrid. Students appeared in front of the school's entrance, some of them were crying while the older ones stared off into space, clearly in shock.

"Into the school with all of you!" commanded McGonagall as she started to help some of the children to their feet. "Into the hall! Madame Pomfrey will tend to your injuries if needed."

At that moment, Hagrid appeared curled on the ground with five unconscious children safely in his arms. McGonagall rushed over quickly followed by the short Flitwick, who just arrived. Hagrid staggered a breath and let the teachers take the kids from him. McGonagall was taken aback.

"Hagrid! In heaven's name happened!?"

"Muggle soldiers," Hagrid coughed, " 'round the students. Got shot three times, oh merlin…" He shut his eyes and laid his head back on the cobblestone. McGonagall let Flitwick levitate Hagrid off the ground to be brought to the hall.

"Rest now Hagrid. You got all of the students back safely. Pomfrey will take care of you from here." McGonagall watched as Hagrid and the rest of the children were taken inside. Once the entryway was clear she walked over to professor Sprout.

"You will most likely be fired upon. Get in and out as fast as you can. Hagrid could take some of the shots because he is half-giant and pretty resilient. Us on the other hand…" McGonagall felt a hand on her arm. She looked down to see the shorter woman smiling up at her.

"I will be fine Minerva."

Nodding, McGonagall watched as Sprout took her bag of portkeys and vanished.

The second group of children stood at the top of a hill in a park off on the side of town. A few first years jumped in surprise as professor Sprout appeared in front of them. Not even a second after she appeared, a great shield of roots and tree branches exploded from the ground, forming a shield around the group.

The sound of gunfire was digging into the makeshift shield. Rolling out the portkeys, the children grabbed onto the nearest one. All of them disappeared out of sight. Just as she was about to get herself out of there, a bullet lodged itself in Sprout's shoulder. She gasped as she hit the ground.

"Got the witch!" shouted a voice from somewhere around her, she couldn't tell, the whole world seemed to spin around her. Sounds of footsteps thundered towards her but it was too late.

The last portkey in her coat was activated and she was taken back towards safety.

Lupin's rescue was probably one of the cleanest so far. His patronus, a wolf, appeared in the middle of the group of kids, telling them to all link arms. All the children did as the wolf said and quickly linked arms.

Before the soldiers could even comprehend what was happening, Lupin appeared in the group by apperating and grabbed onto the two closest children. A second later, the whole group was gone.

Lupin collapsed at the Hogwarts entrance from an apparition with that many children, even if he had one of the smaller groups.

The fourth pick up zone was assigned to Professor Flitwick. He appeared in the group of children and to his advantage, he was too short to be seen by the surrounding soldiers. Rolling out the portkeys, he told the children in a hushed voice to grab onto them.

Once parts of the groups started disappearing, the soldiers started to open fire on the group. Many of the students made it out but some were unconscious near the outside. Flitwick ran over and started to try and pull the students into a pile for transport.

Aware of the bullets, he put his wand up and did a shielding spell, hoping it would hold. They however didn't. One of them sliced through the shield like butter and hit the dwarf in the neck.

Falling instantly, Flitwick tried to retrieve the last portkey from his jacket. Once he did, he rolled it over to a pile of unconscious students, hoping it would activate once it hit them. As the children disappeared, he was kicked in the side by a soldier that stood over him. That was the last thing he saw.

"We have one of the teachers and four children in custody." reported the soldier into his radio.

"Where is he?" asked Nevill Longbottom who was now wrapped up in a blanket and standing out on the steps with McGonagall. She shook her head sadly. A delayed group of unconscious children appeared but professor Flitwick was nowhere to be seen.

"That was the last portkey," said McGonagall. "We must continue on with the plan with or without him." Nevill looked dumbfounded.

"So we are not going to rescue him?"

"Mr. Longbottem, I suggest that you leave the adult matters to your teachers, otherwise, I suggest you go inside before you catch a cold out here." she motioned him to go inside and he did reluctantly.

Taking a deep breath, McGonagall counted the five portkeys in her pocket, bracing herself for what she was about to do.

They want powerful? She readied her wand and activated her portkey. Then that is what they are going to get.

It was dark at Mandale park as the children all sat, huddled in the grass. The older kids pointed their wands at the soldiers in the bushes but they didn't fire. Everything was at a standstill with both sides waiting for the other to make the first shot. Even if it wasn't the kids the muggles were after, they wouldn't hesitate if one of the small wizards made a move.

In a flash of extremely bright light, McGonagall appeared with her wand pointed above her head; a powerful luminous spell blinded the solders. She dropped the portkeys on the ground and kicked them off into the group. The soldiers shot blindly into the light and three children fell.

All the children were gone except the three children that lay on the ground. McGonagall, with anger in her eyes, cast a fire spell into the trees and circled it around her, surrounding herself and the students with a ring of fire. Taking hold of the three, she looked up to see a few soldiers running through the fire towards her, their suits resisting the flame. A shot grazed her arm and her mind fuzzed up as some of the substance in the bullet rubbed off into her.

Out of fear, she cast the killing curse. Two of the closest soldiers fell to the ground and both of their armour cracked open from the intensity of the spell. Using the last of her strength, she apparated out of the burning forest.

Once she was back at Hogwarts, she staggered into Rolanda Hooch's arms. The flying teacher levitated the three older students and supported the injured McGonagall into the hall.

Dumbledore was among the few teachers that were still standing. He rushed over when he saw that McGonagall was still awake, but in great pain.

"You got them all?" He asked her.

"Flitwick and four students were the only ones who didn't" she gasped as she clutched her bleeding arm. She tried to shoo everyone away as they came in close to help her. "It's only a...graze…"

She collapsed against Rolanda and it was only then that anyone noticed how pale her skin was.

"Get Pomfrey here immediately!" called Dumbledore to one of the older students who darted off towards the back of the large hall. He looked at the half-filled hall and saw the many traumatized children and flustered professors, or what was left of them.

Now they had to hope that Moody and Snape would follow through with their half of the plan and everything would be fine for the time being.

A loud tapping of heels carried through the office door as William sat down with his seventh cup of coffee that evening. He had two monitors in front of him with all split screens, each showing one of the five places the wizards intended to pick up their children. The office door opened and Umbridge trotted in with her head held high. William looked up at the proud woman.

"Ah Mrs. Umbridge, you must be wondering why I called you here this late," said William as he glanced at the clock that read 10:28 pm. "I was just reviewing how tonight's confrontations went and found that you didn't tell me everything."

Umbridge stiffened and she gripped her pink purse tightly. William turned one of the monitors so she could watch the video that was shot by one of the soldier's vest cameras. Fire was burning around a woman and three children who were all on the ground. Umbridge recognized the women.

"That's Minerva McGonagall, she is second in command at that school I was telling you about. She is one of the more powerful of my kind."

McGonagall raised her wand at the soldiers coming near her. Shouts and commands were heard over the roaring fire.

"The witch is raising her wand! Brace for impact!" Static was heard as the screen turned bright green for a second.

"Two soldiers down! Their armour broke!" The witch disappeared like the rest of the children leaving a scene of a bunch of soldiers kneeling over their dead comrades. Pausing the video, William glared at Umbridge.

"What the hell was that spell?" he said in his low growling tone.

"I… I never knew that she would dare use it on muggl…" Willaim cut her off with a frustrated yell.

"What is IT!?"

"It...it's the Avada Kedavra spell. Kills anything on the spot unless it is blocked." She trembled but kept her composer. "It is one of the outlawed spells that a wizard rarely uses, but given that they are under attack…"

"They are a threat to muggles, and don't you forget that! As for that spell, I want to know why it wasn't absorbed by the armour!"

"It is a very powerful spell. I can see you making something to block one hit but anything else after that will most likely be destroyed." she stepped back as William got out of his chair, his tall demeanour towered over Umbridge.

"Then I suspect that testing will be of order now. You will be requested to start assisting my team in testing a new type of armour for my troops. Is that clear?" She nodded at the doctor's commands.

"You may leave now. Come back at 6 tomorrow morning to start the testing."

Turning around quickly, she headed out of the office. He looked back at his screen and looked through the reports for that day. One caught his eye. Two officers were killed in the northern London area. They detained a small blond girl and was confronted by a teenage boy who was unknown. Both of the soldier's vests were cracked open.

William pinched the bridge of his nose and sat back in his chair. It was starting, the wizards were getting desperate. An attack from the wizards was coming soon, he could feel it.

Closing the reports window he opened up the design blueprints for the armour and started working. An attack of his own was already in motion. It was only in a matter of days.