CHAPTER 127: Hogwarts

Communication with the starship was only possible by patronous. And for the moment only Harry Potter could receive patronous messages. And there weren't left many who could send them. This left them nearly deaf to communications.

So when a raven appeared to Harry Potter and said in the voice of Professor Flitwick: "Hogwarts is under attack." it was totally unexpected. They knew the day would come, but not that they would be told it would come. It didn't help matters much that they were yet time locked and could not stop Hogwarts from falling. So the reply was "Get out."

But opportunity would not be lost. Alastor Moody had a plan. By phoenix he was set down in the forbidden forest so that he could walk in unseen. The time of revealing the phoenix was not at hand. He could not win this battle, but he could assassinate a few death eaters and get out. Under heavy dissolution and time turned back a full six hours he walked up to the castle. Since Hogwarts was barred against apparation he chose to prevent all time turned attacks by the most expedient way. Noting time turned could interact with his future for a full hour, which was more time than he planned to stay on the ground.

Yet before the attack he sent Michael Evans-Verres down alone with a phoenix to scout out the points within the forest by which they would use to come in and out. Alastor Moody could easily use Legilimency to determine the exact locations so there was no need to complicate the matter. On trying one drop point, Michael Evans- Verres heard a noise and casually bent a branch out of the way to see what might be there. He didn't like what he saw and there was fire. The branch, still bent, stuck on some twigs for seemingly no reason at all.

Michael Evans-Verres and Alastor Moody chose to spin the time turner only after setting foot on the ground. The first five hours were in an abandoned warehouse in London and the last in the forbidden forest itself. This required some careful phoenix juggling but would expose the minimum attack surface. Alastor Moody would be exposed for a little more than six hours but Michael only a few minutes. After Alastor Moody started walking towards the castle Michael casually bent another branch before using his phoenix to move the few hundred feet to the pick-up point. If you have no magical defenses, not walking in the forbidden forest is a wise idea.

Yet dissolution was not infallible. A green bolt shot past him. The death eater's aim was a little off but it that range it wouldn't have mattered. Nobody could get the drop on Mad Eye Moody. He retreated into the forest where he would have the advantage. Some of the death eaters were new recruits and did not yet understand battle. Several of them proceeded to advance on the forest. The Eye of Vance was a terrible artifact and they did not know how to oppose it. Mad Eye spoke "Avada Kedavra" and sent death through the trees at the trailing death eater. From his perspective the bolt appeared to come out of the tree trunk right in front of him. The others didn't notice his fall.

It was no battle. It was a slaughter. But the alarms in the Hogwarts wards were set off, and the dark lord reacted. His first action was to turn his time turner once, and only then move to the forest. On spying his quarry he spoke "avada ked-" and was cut off when he tripped on a root and took a branch to the face.

If by time travel an attempt is made that would result in a paradox, the laws of physics step in and prevent the paradox. The dark lord was held at bay by a mundane law of physics by which the laws of magic were not written to set aside.

But the dark lord was no fool. He walked away from the battle and looped around, preparing to catch Alastor Moody on egress from the forest and out of the Hogwarts wards. His battle-hardened death eaters would be arriving shortly and they would beat the game from the forest for sure. Mad-Eye was apparently alone, and there were limits to what he could do. Yet for all his cunning he was foiled, for his attack window was but thirty seconds wide and he knew not that Michael waited with a phoenix to take him out again.

The next day Gringotts fell. Alastor Moody did not oppose this one.

It was tense in St. Mungo's. Death eaters had moved in, displacing the primary security, but the healers were allowed to go about their business. It was explained to them, "The Dark Lord actually likes your work. Do not trouble us and we will not trouble you."

It was thirty minutes before it was time for Keith Williams to brief president George Bush when the phone rang. "International call" he muttered to himself as he reached for the receiver. It would appear somebody managed to bypass the switchboard or something. It was going to be one of those days.

"What can a starship do?"

"This had better not be a crank call."

"A starship has been in high orbit for the past four days now. I would have presumed its yours but you obviously don't know about it."

"If you know a starship is in orbit you have better information than I do. What can you tell me?"

"Only that they are fugitives from justice. If I were you I'd presume they stole it."

"Who are you?"

Click.

Keith quickly dialed the switchboard. "Trace that last call to my phone. We have an incident."

It was worse. Keith Williams was going to have to brief the president on their being a starship in orbit and somebody on the ground knows it and wanted information out of him.