The Lightsaber
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#18: Call to Action!

MagiTech HQ, Centre Point Tower
April 5, 1996

The clash and crashes of two blue energy blades rang, sparked, and sizzled as they were bashed relentlessly against each other. The speeds they were moving at was remarkable, leaving the blades themselves as little more than blurs of light. But it was quite clear that one was a great deal faster and stronger than the other, pounding mercilessly against the weaker one.

Dudley was moving as fast as he could get his exhausted body to move. He had long since passed the stage of fighting with tactics and strategy in mind, instead falling back into a purely instinctive defense. Though it was clear that he was going to drop from sheer exhaustion fairly soon, his conscious mind was no longer listening to the complaints and agony of his body, essentially willing himself to keep fighting on. In some ways, it was like when he was lifting weights in the gym, pushing himself as far as he could go and then pushing even harder to press on past that point until his mind just numbed out the pain and responded to his sheer force of will.

Swinging his blue saber back and forth, he was able to catch, deflect, or block the rapid sweeps, slashes, and stabs that were thrown at him, knocking them harmlessly to the side. After one especially strong overhead chop that he caught, Dudley was forced to his knees by the overpowering strength of the blow. But rather than be cowed by this, he mustered his flagging strength and heaved upward. With a mighty shove, he knocked the attacking blade away as he rose as quickly as he could, sliding his body sideways and angling his upraised elbow. The physical strike didn't hit anything but air as Harry clearly anticipated it and smoothly dodged to the side, sliding away from his cousin with almost mocking grace. Then, in a deft swing, the lightsaber in Dudley's grasp went tumbling to the side, deactivating as it left his hand. Within a heartbeat, he was on the ground with a saber point just under his chin as he panted for breath.

"You win…again," Dudley said, annoyed and more than a little angry. "Can we…stop now? We've…fought for…two hours now!"

There was an uncharacteristically dark look in Harry's expression, even as he pulled away his saber and helped Dudley up to his feet. "No, I need to be better, Dudley. I…lost that fight! I was dead by rights. If not for Dobby, I should be dead!"

"I get that…really, I do!" Dudley said. "So why…don't you train…with him? Or…the Lycans?"

"As skilled as he is, Dobby isn't a good sparring for me to have," Harry said, glowering in angry exasperation. "He'd let me win. He wouldn't want to hurt me in any way, if not outright refuse it. And there's only so much I can learn and do by self-training. I need a partner! The Lycans are busy with MagiTech and I don't want to bother Hendrick. He may have been a soldier, but not a swordsman. No one is nowadays."

"Maybe you should go to Japan," Dudley offered. "I hear they still teach swordsmanship there."

Harry blinked in surprise for a moment as the idea was processed. "Maybe…If I can't find anyone here to help."

"What about that Tonks lady?" Dudley asked as he walked weakly over to the side for a nearly empty bottle of water. "She's got a lightsaber." He gestured slightly towards to the weapon he'd been using, before it leapt up from the ground and into Harry's outstretched hand.

Smiling somewhat down at the oddly colored, sectional hilt with an exotic blue pommel stone that had Tonks' unique brand of artistry and magical signature saturated in it, he shook his head again. Even without her physical presence there, the aura of her crystal within the weapon was almost enough to lighten his dark mood. "She's an Auror, a magical policewoman. She's not accustomed to using a sword. Plus she can only miss so much work at a time. Still, it was nice of her to loan her saber to us."

Tossing the hilt back over to Dudley, he said, "Let's go again, half-speed this time if we have to."

"Half speed, double speed, hyper speed, what's the difference?" Dudley grumbled irritably. He really disliked it when Harry got like this, which thankfully didn't seem all that often but was often enough. Despite the low tone he'd mumbled it in, he saw a smirk pull across Harry's face and knew that he'd heard him. Sighing heavily in resignation, he brought up the borrowed blade and prepared for a repeat performance. If nothing else, this was excellent endurance training for himself. However, before either boy could move to attack, a sudden commotion sprang up outside their little training room.

The new owners of Centre Point were still working around the clock ever since they'd purchased the old tower, repairing and updating the slightly outdated and decrepit building. They were clearing out entire floors, reinforcing the foundations and structural points, adding in new additions of their own creation and design. Seeing as they could use magic discreetly for a good portion of the job nowadays, the work had been going at an accelerated pace that would've put even the best of carpenters and construction workers out of work and green envy. The way of the building's new design was the bottom 7 floors were meant to be used as display and shopping areas for the customers. Floors 8 to 12 were for security, maintenance, small temporary apartments for their workaholic employees, and a lounge for the employees. Floors 13 to 31 were dedicated solely to research and minor manufacturing of their products, strictly forbidden from customers unless possessing special passes. Granted, nearly all of these floors were still under construction since MagiTech's management was more concerned with selling their current items than expanding their inventory list, especially since they were already developing dedicated factories elsewhere in the world to meet their contract demands.

The upper three floors were for MagiTech's executives and 'special guests', possessing luxuries that were usually found in high-end flats such as a gymnasium, swimming pool and hot tubs, a small bar and rec room, and several king-sized bedrooms. Suffice to say, the level of more blatantly used magic increased with each floor one ascended. And it was within one of those gymnasiums that the two cousins had been training in. And since the top floors were as restricted as the research and development floors were, the fact that a commotion was taking place outside their gym was definitely worth catching their attentions.

"That sounds like Hector," Dudley said, identifying the voice of MagiTech's Chief of Security, a former Greyback Pack member. "But who's the other?"

"Feels like Magorian," Harry said, sounding concerned as he switched off his lightsaber and hurried to the door. "He's a Centaur from up by Hogwarts. What's he doing here?"

'More like, how did he get here?' Dudley thought, more than a little curious as he hurried after his cousin. When the doors were opened, he couldn't help but flinch back in surprise as he looked up, up, and up some more at the especially large and tall creature that was quite obviously a Centaur warrior. Even if he'd never known anything about magic and the Wizarding World, just the sight of this tall and powerful creature would've been enough to convince him of its existence without pause or dispute.

The Centaur was lightly dressed with some leather and armor upon his humanoid upper body, with some rather unique tribal braids and weavings interwoven within his golden hair and clothing. Strangely, the blaster rifle and a shaft of iron hanging behind the Centaur's back only seemed to enhance the creature's imposing figure. Even the tree branch he held in his grasp as a walking stick somehow didn't seem out of place.

"Magorian, what's wrong?" Harry asked, moving forward with the ease of familiarity with the Centaur that Dudley was very envious of. "Why are you here? What's going on?"

"You know this creature, Potter?" Hector asked, speaking up before the Centaur could respond, not lowering his blaster rifle until he heard confirmation.

"Yes, don't worry, he isn't here to cause trouble," Harry answered quickly, holding up his hand comfortingly to weary Lycan.

"No, I'm not," Magorian said with a tone of irritation as he glanced down at the aggressive wolf. Though he'd never met Werewolves in person outside of their transformed state, it was pretty clear to him that this one was very in touch with his more primal side, aggressively protective of his territory and pack members, which clearly made for a good combination in a sentry and guard. Glancing over at Harry once the Lycan had reluctantly lowered his rifle, the Centaur warrior continued speaking, "But I bring bad news, I'm afraid."

"What news?" Harry asked, his annoyed anger resurfacing again. What else could go wrong?!

"The Ministry knows about our new weapons," the Centaur said bluntly, ignoring the flinch of surprise and look of unease on his companions' expressions. "Bane believes they will be back, in force. He requests your presence immediately."

"On my way," Harry said immediately.

"Not without me!" Dudley chimed in, meeting Harry's gaze challengingly.

"And I'll inform Mr. Black," Hector said, turning and hurrying off towards the Black scion's new office.

Magorian held up the tree branch he was holding and the two boys grabbed it firmly, vanishing into a vortex of magic.

Centaur Village, Forbidden Forest

There was a flurry of activity not like anything Harry had yet seen that buzzed throughout the Centaur village. As he idly helped Dudley back to his feet following the portkey ride the three of them had taken, Harry had to take a moment to center himself. Anxiety, fear, anger, excitement, and bloodlust hung heavily in the air, permeating from each individual in varying amounts. The sheer scale of these emotions slammed into Harry like a ton of bricks and left him momentarily breathless.

"Bane is waiting for you in the village center," Magorian said as he discarded the tree branch that was the expired portkey.

Gesturing the two smaller humans to follow, Magorian started leading the way done the path between the stone, mud, and wooden huts that made up the entirety of the village. Unlike with human settlements, the Centaur village was not laid out in a grid pattern or contorted to the lays of the land. Instead, it consisted of a series of chaotic interlinking and sometimes concentric circles. Some of the circles were entirely disconnected and stood apart as their own entities, but near enough to be considered as part of the overall village. There were dirt paths between the huts and along major walkways that could've been tentatively called 'streets' with enough space for several Centaurs to traverse through without too much difficulty. From what little Harry had come to understand of this strange layout, each circle of huts belonged to a specific family group or clan, with the larger clans have multiple circles surrounding the head family and clan leader. At the very center of this messy setup was the village center which had multiple uses as a market, social gathering place, and for political debates. Given that there were about four hundred Centaurs in total that resided within this village and called the Forbidden Forest home, it could get pretty crowded pretty quickly.

Although Harry had seen the village multiple times, Dudley was gazing around with curiosity mixed with weariness. His caution was understandable since a lot of the Centaurs were staring at the blonde human stranger with open suspicion and even outright anger in their eyes. It must've been the mounting stress of the coming battle, Harry figured as the cause of this. Yet thankfully none of them moved forward to confront Dudley due to his close proximity to both Magorian and Harry, a human they'd reluctantly come to accept as friendly.

Entering into the village center, they found it be every bit as crowded as Harry guessed it would be. Many warriors were gathering in the area, carrying their weapons in preparation. The sight made for an interesting clash of medieval spears, bows, and arrows mixed with their new lightpikes, blasters, and the still uncommon bowcasters. And Harry noted that many of them were also wearing or being outfitted with mail or armor plating. Some of them were speaking in hushed tones over various subjects. Others, whether family or friends or lovers, were holding each other in embraces and trying to give comfort and support.

Following their guide, the two boys made their way to the very center of the open area. There they found Bane, Tanja, and several other Centaurs gathered around a high table. In a remarkable display of magic, there was a glowing green model of the Forbidden Forest hovering over the table top like a hologram. A quick glance at the map showed Harry three red areas that stood out starkly against the map. The first was quite clearly the Centaur village which was located in the midst of the central portion of the Forbidden Forest. An especially large red area dominated the entire south that was just as obviously the area where the grounds of Hogwarts met with the forest in the south. But the last area was in the far west and didn't seem very familiar to him, regardless of his lack of familiarity with the forest.

Harry's attention as quickly torn from the map as the gathered leaders of the Centaurs noticed the boys' arrival. "Bane, Tanja," Harry said in greeting. "What's going on?"

"We're preparing for war," Bane stated, somewhat unnecessarily as it was pretty obvious to everyone.

"Has the Ministry made any more threatening moves against you yet?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice calm and level, devoid the slight fear and uncertainty he was feeling. He wasn't ready to fight against his fellow countrymen and Wizards. Voldemort, his Death Eaters, and this 'Consortium' that the Vampire had mentioned were one thing. But this…this was something else entirely. "Have you tried to talk to them and explain what the misunderstanding was about…? It was a misunderstanding, right?"

"From a certain point of view," Tanja said, her glance and tone telling Harry that she far disapproved of what was done but was unable to alter it. "A group of Wizards entered our lands and encountered one of our patrols. But one of them grew curious about our…accessories—" Here she gently rubbed the glowing green gem she wore around her neck as a pendant, pointedly clarifying what she meant. "But when we refused to hand over our possessions and have them examined, things…escalated."

"We don't keep in contact with your Ministry of Magic," Bane said, speaking once it was obvious that Tanja didn't wish to continue on the topic. "Once, long ago, we did so out of spite. But the truth of the matter is we also can't. There is no place we can go to talk with the Ministry as we are forbidden from leaving the lands of the forest. And due to our own…actions in the past, if we tried to speak with anyone in the castle or the Wizarding village, it'd be seen as an act of war."

Harry and Dudley both blinked in surprise and a good deal of angry disbelief. It was Dudley who spoke up first. "So they basically caged you all inside this filthy forest with no means of speaking with anyone else on the outside?! What a bunch of lack-witted, selfish prats!" That statement drew several chuckles from the gathered Centaurs, causing Dudley to flush slightly in embarrassment.

"Indeed," Magorian said beside them. "The only way we can speak with the Wizards' Ministry is when they come to us."

"By which point, they will have already made their own decision on what the situation is and how it should be handled, whatever it may be," Harry said quietly in contemplation.

"We are under no illusions they will see us as the threat and the ones at fault," one of the other Centaurs said. "They will invade our lands, raid our village and homes for contraband, and likely set up lethal wards and spells to keep us contained within the village for a time. It is what they have always done in the past."

"But in the past, you never had magic-amplifying crystals, lightpikes, and blasters," Dudley observed, more to himself than the others. "They will expect bows, arrows, and spears. They will probably think they can just march into the village with no real opposition and throw their weight around."

"You said the Ministry knows about your new weapons," Harry said, looking at Magorian. "Which ones were used that they know of?"

"The blasters and our pikes," the Centaur said, gazing levelly at the dark-haired teenager who flinched at the lightpike's mention. "Something wrong?"

"The Ministry knows a bit about the 'magic' of the lightpike," Harry said, reaching up to hold the back of his neck in awkward unease. "They know I created the lightsaber. They know it's a dangerous weapon that can repel spells. And they will likely think that since you suddenly have similar weapons, that you're in league with the new 'dark lord' that fought off over two dozen of their Aurors last year."

"Then the Wizards will most assuredly come, and they will be coming not to contain us, but to destroy us," Bane said, grimness written all over his face. "We have hard enough times dealing with just a handful of Wizards before we got these new weapons… We're not ready for a new war against an army of Wizards."

"You won't be fighting alone," Harry quickly said. "I'll fight with you if they attack. This is, in part, my fault."

"Mr. Black and the Lycans are also learning about what's going on here as we speak," Dudley said, his confidence starting to build as he grew accustomed to the situation. "I'm sure we could get a few volunteers from them to help. Or, if not, we could always lend you guys some of our prototype war-tech that we're developing. Some of that stuff will definitely give you an edge!"

Bane nodded in contemplation. "The Wizards are already aware of our two biggest secrets. Some advantages are better than none." Looking down at the boys, he asked, "How soon can we get this new technology?"

"I can return and gather up everything I can in less than half of an hour if things go smoothly," Harry said confidently. "Quicker if I get some volunteers to help."

Harry left soon after that to gather everything that could reliably be used. Dudley remained in the forest, brainstorming with the Centaur leaders on ways to better defend the village and sharing what he knew about some of the technology he guessed Harry'd be bringing back.

When Harry returned to the village more than an hour later, he was accompanied by nearly a hundred Lycans, including Hendrick of the Alba Pack. Each of the hundred volunteers were lugging about a crate filled with various goods and supplies, some of which the Centaurs recognized but most that they didn't. With help from weary Centaurs, the Lycans began heading about, passing out weapons and setting up some of the strange devices at different locations. Harry and Hendrick moved over to the village center to speak with the leaders.

Walking up to the central table with its hologram still in place, Hendrick glanced between the different Centaurs, his nose visibly twitching as he took in the scents of those gathered. Turning to Bane, who he somehow knew was the leader, Hendrick threw him a crisp salute, "Hendrick of the Alba Pack, former muggle military and soldier. I have considerable battlefield experience with both tactics and strategy. I and my Lycan volunteers will offer whatever support we can give."

Bane looked momentarily uncertain just what Hendrick was speaking of. But he recovered very quickly, nodding his head in acceptance as he waved his hand over the glowing image. "This is what we have to work with. Our village here, the forest's boundaries with Hogwarts, and the Acromantula nest." He pointed out each red section as he named them. "And farther south is that Wizard village."

"The castle is a school for children, right?" Hendrick asked, immediately focusing on the map and the terrain's layout, only briefly glancing over at Harry as he asked his question.

"Yes," Harry acknowledged. "I'd say it's unlikely that the Ministry will be approaching from that area. They wouldn't want to put the students into danger somehow."

Nodding in contemplation, Hendrick eyed the map silently. Reaching out for the map, he briefly touched a small portion of it where a small river was shown. At his touch, a soft blue spot was highlighted, which he used to draw a small circle around a specific area. "We'll have to place a small group to watch this stream. It flows right up to the village, and could provide a fairly easy route for the Wizards to take." Reaching over to the other side of the village, he traced a blue line along the outer perimeter. "The forest is thinner here with such an open field there. This would probably be the easiest way for large numbers of them to reach us the quickest." Lowering his hand, he traced a pair of lines across a path through the forest that went south towards where Harry knew Hagrid's hut was. "And the most direct route to the village, probably the first path they're going to try taking. We'll need a series of defenses to guard this path to slow or stop their advance, assuming they don't decide to brave the forest itself and go around them. And, of course, this isn't even taking into account if they decide to fly straight here."

"An astute observation," Bane commented, nodding in agreement with the various points that Hendrick highlighted. "My people know this forest best, we can easily scout these areas for intruders."

"And you can leave the air to us," Hendrick said. "It'll give us some good practical experience with some of our new equipment and machines."

"We should probably set up shield generators around the village," Dudley said. "Just in case the Wizards make it this far."

"Already doing it, Dud," Harry said, nodding at his cousin.

"What about the women, children, and those not able to fight?" Dudley asked, looking between Bane and Hendrick. "If the Wizards really are such prats, they'll probably keep pushing until they get their way. We need to protect those that can't or won't fight."

"A good point," Hendrick said. "We shouldn't assume that we'll be capable of stopping them." Looking over at Bane, he asked, "Do you have any secret safe areas we can put them to keep them out of the fighting?"

"No," Magorian answered, shaking his head. "We've never had the numbers to see the necessity of building a second village and the safest area was always the village itself."

There was a lingering silence around the table as the different leaders contemplated this problem. "I've got an idea." Dudley offered, looking somewhat hesitant. "But…you probably won't like it, sir."

"Let's hear it, boy," Hendrick said, gazing at the boy with interest.

"We could always load them into one of our new ships and fly them completely out of the area," Dudley said. "If that doesn't work, we could always hide them in the higher levels of Centre Point. Most of the tower still isn't open to the public after all."

"Centre Point? Tower?" one of the centaurs said. "What are you talking about?"

"We recently bought a large tower in London," Harry explained calmly, smiling at his cousin encouragingly. "It's to be a place where we can expand our business and factory to build MagiTech. But, like Dudley said, most of it is still under construction."

"You want to bring our elders and children into the midst of a Muggle city and hide them inside a tower?!" the centaur demanded hotly. "Are you daft, boy?!"

"The idea does have merit," Hendrick said, turning his attention back to the hologram as he thought about it. "The Wizards would never even consider looking for them in the center of the city, since they'd stand out quite blatantly. They'll assume that they've been hidden somewhere in the forest and waste time looking for them. And even if we don't keep them there, we can always hide them on our ships and keep them moving. A moving target is always harder to find and hit… What do you think, Bane?"

Bane looked somewhat uncomfortable as he considered the idea, no doubt feeling the weight of his fellow Centaurs' glares and gazes. "I'll consider it."

"Don't take too long," Hendrick advised. "The longer you take to decide, the less time we'll have to do anything."

Nodding, Bane reached forward and tapped the spots that Hendrick had crossed off on the path. "What ideas do you have for fortifications here?"

"I've got a couple," the Lycan grinned, somewhat sinisterly as he glanced at the Centaur.

"Tell me," Bane ordered.

Ministry of Magic
April 7, 1996

Nymphadora Tonks was in a very bad mood. She had heard about what had happened in the Forbidden Forest, everyone had at this point. It was all over the Daily Prophet. Though she was sure that what they were hearing about was an overly inflated and incriminating version of what had really taken place. That over fifty Centaurs had launched an unprovoked vicious attack and killed nearly all members of an honorable squad of Aurors and Ministry personnel who were only trying to do a simple routine inspection of their lands and village.

Truthfully, the attack itself was almost nothing out of the ordinary. Centaurs were highly-aggressive and territorial, holding a well-deserved and deep-seated grudge against the Ministry of Magic and Wizards in general. It was a very risky venture to journey into the Centaur lands on a good day, even disregarding that they lived in the Forbidden Forest. Attacks on inspectors and visitors happened quite frequently. But that wasn't what the Daily Prophet and the Ministry was up in arms over, oh no. It was the fact that the Centaurs seemed to have come into possession strange new artifacts and weapons, specifically a new spear that emitted a blade of light identical to the hated and feared 'lightsaber' that Potter had used during his escape from Hogwarts.

If she were honest with herself, Tonks would admit to being very surprised, angry, and more than a little hurt when she heard of this news. She knew that there were things that Harry did when she wasn't around that he never told her about, but she had thought that she knew him well enough to guess just what it was he was up to. But the idea of him giving the Centaurs his new lightsaber technology had never even crossed her mind. He never spoke of any dealings with the herd, never hinted at making semi-regular trips into the forest, and certainly hadn't referenced that he was so close to Hogwarts when it was very dangerous for him to be anywhere close to the Wizarding World. To find such overwhelming evidence that he was doing all of this without telling her had struck a sensitive chord in her heart. They were friends and he certainly had no obligation to tell her anything and she was more than willing to forgive him if he apologized, but it still hurt.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Tonks looked around the chamber she was in. She and almost every available Auror in the Department were gathered in an auditorium that was used as a debriefing room, with a podium at the back on a raised dais and with rows of chairs lined up in front of it. There were enough chairs to seat two hundred people and every one of them was taken. This left the three hundred remaining Aurors standing along the walls and in the aisles, practically shoulder to shoulder in the cramped quarters of the room. The din of having so many people in one room was quite overwhelming and the room temperature was rapidly rising from all the body heat, Tonks had already had to cast a Cooling charm on herself when she felt the beginnings of sweat starting to collect on her body.

Slouching against the wall near the entrance doors, she crossed her arms and sighed heavily in the musty air. It was a very rare occurrence when the entire Auror Corps were called in for a debriefing like this, usually during times of war and unrest. But Tonks could already guess just what they were doing here and she knew she wasn't going to like it. There were a lot of loud conversations going on around her and all of them were focused on the recent events that had taken place. In a way, it strongly reminded her of the Hogwarts rumor mill, just much more blatant and loud. Yet, for all the noise, it wasn't quite as loud as it could've been. There was a sizable chunk of the Department missing after all.

Despite the tense atmosphere that was prevailing through the room, Tonks couldn't help but to glance around the room curiously. She had noticed something odd occurring in the Department a few months ago and the mystery of it was slowly eating away at her curiosity. That being that certain members of the Auror Corps had been disappearing. It had started slowly with specific individuals leaving their duties to attend to 'personal matters at home' at regular and increasing intervals, until about three months ago they just stopped coming to work entirely. Then this strange habit had begun spreading among the Aurors until nearly fifty of them had become culpable to the phenomenon. While it wasn't necessarily something that could be investigated without a justifiable reason, Tonks found it very interesting to note that many, nearly all in point of fact, of the people missing were Purebloods with known opinions of bias against Muggleborns.

Though she and Kingsley had reported it to Dumbledore, the Order of the Phoenix, like the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, were unable to find any leads or evidence to suggest anything nefarious had happened. It was like the fifty missing Aurors had just packed up and left Great Britain entirely. Was Voldemort to blame? Possibly, but there was no discernable reasoning for the strange actions of the Aurors beforehand. And killing outspoken, proud, and very pro-Ministry Purebloods went against his typical mode of recruitment and operation.

Though it was an admittedly vain reason, Tonks had first become aware of this strange situation five months ago. As a young, beautiful, and skilled Auror and (most importantly in some circles) Metamorphmagus, Tonks had quite a few of interested parties who wanted to get 'acquainted' with her. As she told Harry a few days ago, most of those involved wanted her for some pretty X-rated activities and a lot of them were pretty relentless in their pursuit of her. One of the most determined and outspoken of those was an Auror named Benedict Novik, some ten years her senior. His absence had been the first clue because, on a typical day, she literally couldn't go a full day of work without him making at least three passes at her. In a way, it was very flattering that she was so desirable to so many. Of course, having grown accustomed to this behavior all of her Hogwarts career, it was also extremely annoying at the best of times. Though she wasn't concerned for his well-being, his ongoing absence was starting to really get to her.

"Quiet down you lot," a familiar Sonorous-enhanced voice called out through the din. Instantly the attentions of the 500 Aurors presently available were drawn to podium where Madam Bones and Minister Fudge were standing, the former with a wand to her throat. "Quiet down, so we can get started on this emergency meeting the Minister has called." There was no hiding the unhappy and demanding glance that her boss shot at Fudge, clearly also wanting to know the reason for this meeting.

As the gathered Aurors quieted and settled down, Fudge took center stage as Bones stepped aside and lowered her wand. "Thank you, Madam Bones. Now, the reason for this meeting is quite simple. As I'm no doubt sure you're aware, there's been a vicious and unprovoked attacked in the Forbidden Forest by the Centaurs on some of our personnel."

There was a wave of murmuring and nodding heads among the collected magical policemen. That news was the chief subject they'd been speaking of moments ago after all. "What you may have also heard are rumors of those creatures also using a terrible new weapon… This is a fact."

He snapped out the last word as though trying to drive home a point and appearing decisive. To Tonks, he looked like a childish fool about to throw a tantrum. "And this weapon has only ever been seen once before…in the hands of the youngest criminal in our entire history! You know what this tells me? That he's allied the Centaurs to his cause and plans to make a move against us! He is giving them deadly new weapons and powers, trying to build up an army. He wants to overthrow the Ministry! And what will their first target be? Why the closest and easiest one within reach: HOGWARTS!"

When Fudge paused in his speech, there was a sudden burst of conversation among the crowd as numerous heads leaned over towards one another. Tonks, for her part, could only stare at the Minister in open-mouthed surprise. How could the Minister have come to these conclusions? He couldn't have known the Centaurs' plans or what Harry was doing at the moment. He was too busy trying to vilify everything about the boy and his mentor, Dumbledore. There have been no attacks, no demands of surrender or promises of conflict. In fact, except for the incident itself, there hadn't even been any true contact with the Centaurs for several decades. How could he know what they wanted to accomplish with these new…light-spears? Light-pikes? Light-javelins? Yeah, lightpikes sounded much better.

"We are not going to give them the chance to attack our beloved school!" Fudge cried out, ignoring Bones' quiet questions and request for a private conversation. He would not be swayed from his choice! "We will strike first! We will enter their village, take any and all contraband items, and we will send any that resist to Azkaban! They will learn to never again interfere with the affairs of any Witch or Wizard for the rest of time!" Though Madam Bones tried to object, there was a sudden cry of approval from many of the gathered Aurors in response to what was blatantly the Minister's declaration of war on the Centaurs.

As Tonks was trying to figure out if the Minister had a good point about protecting the school by attacking preemptively, she felt a sudden tickle of suggestion across her Occlumency barrier. Though the art helped her immensely with using and controlling her Metamorphmagus abilities, Tonks was not a skilled practitioner of the mental arts by any means. The best she could do was create a passive barrier that protected her surface thoughts and emotion, but even a relatively weak Legilimency probe would be enough to penetrate it. But the fact that she did have this very rare skill is what immediately jolted her from her contemplations of the Minister's words and desired action.

Looking around her, Tonks saw that there was an almost universal approval and agreement on the faces of the many Aurors around her. Returning her gaze upon the dais, she blinked in surprise and then rising anger as she watched Madam Bones' face begin shifted from concerned and a disapproving frown to contemplation to finally accepting and even approving. 'Fudge is using some kind of Legilimency aura to influence everyone into agreeing with his plan! This is SO illegal, it's not even funny!'

Then she glared at the man himself, who was now extending his speech into an increasingly long one, probably to further increase the power of his influence over those gathered. But, to her critical observation, the man didn't seem to be actually casting or maintaining the mental spell over the mass. In fact, she was practically certain that the man didn't even have to skill or power to use or maintain any of the mental arts magic at all. 'So someone else must be helping him from behind the scenes. But who and why?'

Unfortunately, Tonks could do nothing but smile and nod her head in apparent agreement along her hypnotized comrades at the various exclaimed points of argument that Fudge was making. Any type of use of magic from her in locating the mystery helper or helpers would likely result in consequences she wasn't likely ready to deal with right now…or ever, really.

(Author's Note)

Alliances have been made. Sides have been chosen. Each side preparing for a fight that they are both equally confident of winning, battle plans and weaponry are being primed. Manipulations and forbidden magic being used left, right, and center to enforce the desired outcome. There is a storm coming. But what will be the spark that ignites the powder keg?

For those who are feeling creative, I've got something of a request for you readers. If you've got any particular ideas for possible weapons and technology the Lycans could've brought over from MagiTech, feel free to share them! I'll of course give credit where credit is due. But please, nothing too outrageous. Remember, MagiTech has only really just gotten started on expanding into the military applications, so a lot of their stuff is going to be experimental and limited. But I'm more than willing to consider them if you suggest them.

For those who are curious, I'm using the map of Hogwarts & Environs provided by 'THE HARRY POTTER LEXICON' in this particular story. That should give you a fairly comprehensive picture of the battlefield's layout.

www hp-lexicon org /atlas/hogwarts/atlas-h-large-map html