Title: Code of the Griffin
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: From a war ravaged future, someone is sent back in time to change the course of the war.
Harry had one of the biggest smiles that Hermione had ever seen plastered across his face.
"Here?" he asked.
"Two branches to the right." Hermione responded.
Harry moved the bauble two branches to the right and hug it.
"What about this?" Sirius asked.
Hermione was sitting in the lounge chair watching and directing the two Wizards as they trimmed a Muggle Christmas tree.
"That goes on the mantle. Right side between the two photos." She replied.
Yesterday Harry, Sirius and Peter had spent the whole day shopping for the Christmas tree.
"Hermione, Harry, Sirius. Lunch in five minutes." Jane said from the dining room.
"Coming mum." Hermione called back.
The current residents of the Granger household sat around the table, Peter at the head of the table with Jane on his right at Hermione on his left. Harry sat next to Hermione with Sirius opposite him next to Jane. Good food and good conversation followed.
As dinner progressed a small, bitter-sweet smile graced Hermione's face. She remembered so many Christmas' with Harry. A few like this one with her parents in later years and just out of Hogwarts. Their first Christmas after they started dating, a tablecloth spread out on the floor of their small apartment for a picnic, the fireplace blazing. Dinner with Neville and Luna. A Christmas alone because Harry was working. A cold, uneaten dinner and a screaming match. Christmas with the Weasley's to celebrate Alicia's first pregnancy, but with a few noticeable absences, Ginny dead, Ron in St Mungo's, Arthur….
"You ok?" Harry whispered from next to her.
"I'm fine." She replied.
Her eyes caught Sirius' across the table, he understood. She was haunted by the memory of things yet to be.
A knock came on the door.
"What is it?" the man behind the desk asked, not looking up from the stack of papers in front of him.
"Ah, Sir. You have some visitors." The secretary said.
"I don't have any scheduled." The man responded. "Can it wait?"
"One of the visitors is the Queen, Mister Prime Minister."
At this the Prime Minister's head shot up, his eyes wide.
"Send them in." he said putting his papers to the side.
Three people entered the room, The Queen, an SAS General and a distinguished older lady who kept to the back.
"Your Majesty." He said bowing to the Queen, and when he rose he got a better look at the other lady and went pail. "So which country is planning to Nuke us and what incursion plan do you have for me to approve?"
All three of his visitors looked at each other in confusion.
"None that I am aware of. Why, what have you heard?" the lady asked.
"Don't play games, M. That's the only thing I can think of that would warrant the Crown, the SAS and MI6." The Prime Minister replied.
Two hours later the Prime Minister sighed, looking at the briefing material he had been handed.
"I wish it was someone Nuking us." He said wearily. "This our best course of action?"
"Yes, Sir." The General replied. "The other option outlined has less than one in ten thousand chance of working."
"Ok. With your approval, Majesty, I am ordering the implementation." He said.
"Of course." The Queen replied. "The basis of the plan was my idea, quite a while ago. Once things progress a bit the Palace may be able to help more directly."
The formal farewells were made and the Prime Minister sat alone in his office.
"I need a drink." He muttered to himself, in shock.
Hermione sat in Transfiguration class, with Harry sitting next to her. Neville was sitting with Dean and Ron was partnered up with Susan Bones. Professor McGonagall was doing Conjuration theory on the blackboard.
Hermione was working on the firearm proficiency reports from yesterday's Order qualifications. All of the Order members had qualified on the rifle course, although Fred and Susan were borderline. Luna was an expert shot and well on her way to being a fully qualified Sniper. Cedric was also a keen shot. While Susan was not great with rifles she was deadly with pistols. Hermione was starting to list down what weapons to assign to each member.
"Miss Granger. Are you paying attention?" Professor McGonagall asked.
Hermione glanced up at the board before looking back down at her list.
"You are explaining the outdated theory that when conjuring something from nothing it is created through the manifestation of the person's magic. Which of course completely ignores that fact that the same item conjured by two different wizards or witches are completely identical." She replied still not looking up.
She marked down Luna to being assigned an L96A1 Sniper rifle and settled on assigning Susan an MP10 and a pair of pistols.
"Would you care to clarify that statement, Miss Granger." The Professor asked.
Hermione sighed and put down her quill, and looked the professor in the eye.
"Very simple. Under your theory, if someone very powerful, such as the headmaster and someone like a first year both conjured, say a white Rose, then the Headmaster's rose should be more intricate than the first years, yet if you do it one thousand times, the quality of the two roses will be identical."
The entire class, except the Order members, were staring at Hermione in shock.
"If it is not a manifestation of the Witches or Wizards Magic, then where does the conjured item come from?" Dean asked.
"A parallel universe. Look, what the professor is teaching is mostly accurate, and I don't have ten years to teach you all the precursor physics and quantum physics to even begin to understand the theory." Hermione responded, going back to her list.
Maybe a P90 for Harry? He did well with them in the qualifications.
Dinner was in full swing. Everyone was eating and enjoying themselves. It had been several weeks since the incident during the transfiguration class. All of the Order members, at their separate tables, were eating much more than they used to, a requirement of their training regimes, although Ron still occasionally shovelled his food and Luna still loved pudding more than almost anything else.
"I'm just saying it should be a good match." Ron said. "The Hufflepuff's have greatly improved. Harry versus Cedric will be interesting."
Suddenly a loud siren was sound through the hall, causing chaos.
"Quiet!" Dumbledore screamed, silencing the hall.
"What is happening, Albus?" McGonagall asked, getting a shrug from the Headmaster.
"Hogwarts, Report." Hermione commanded.
A space shimmered in front of Hermione, hovering over her plate. She waved her wand over the space, changed the image and muttering "clear" on each image.
"Got it. Death Eaters, coming in through the Forrest." She said, waving her wand to dismiss the window and raising from the chair. "Order of the Griffin on me!"
The other five Gryffindors, two Hufflepuffs and one Ravenclaw followed Hermione to the main door.
"What are you waiting for, Headmaster." The Grand Marshall ordered into the Great Hall. "Get the students to their Common rooms."
"Priority Lockdown. Granger-Six-Alpha-Three." Hermione Ordered. "The castle is secure."
They were all dressed in jungle camouflage, with combat vests. Harry and Hermione had their family swords sheathed in the back of their combat vests. Luna, Susan and the twins had darkened their hair, and all the girls had their hair kept back in tight ponytails.
They all checked their assigned weapons. Luna checked the sight on her sniper rifle while Fred checked the box cartridge on his M249 SAW. Susan and Ron were crosschecking their MP10's. George was loading shells into the spare drum clip for his AA-12 automatic shotgun. Neville spammed home the clip and cock his stock issue M16 while Cedric checked the M203 under barrel grenade launcher on his M16.
Hermione was checking the red dot sight on her P90 while Harry was checking the straps securing his spare P90 clips to his vest, letting his own P90 hang from the securing clasp on his vest.
"Everyone ready? Let's go."
The twenty Death Eaters were making their way through the forbidden forest. Johns was a young recruit, his father had insisted that he go on this raid, to spread proper respect.
"Johns, South. Go find the right path." The leader said.
Johns grumbled but took off in front of the main group with South. They were a few hundred yards ahead but in this particular section of the forest there was a reasonable amount of ground cover so they were out of sight of the main group.
"What's that?" South said.
Johns heard something off to his left and turned to check, but after a second of seeing nothing he turned back but found South gone. Drawing his wand, Johns spun, trying to find South.
He was about to call back to the main group when a gloved hand clamped over his mouth. A second later he felt the knife enter his ribs.
The last thing he saw as he dropped to the ground was a young girl, with long dark hair held back in a pony tail, in strange greenish cloths. She reached up and touched something black around her throat.
"Scouts down." She said.
Then everything went dark.
TBC…