Sixth Year: The Steps Toward The End

by scaryisntit

After losing Sirius, Harry resolves to himself to become stronger, revive the DA and create his own 'army'. In one of the most trying year of his life, Harry will need everything he and his friends can offer to overcome the trails and tribulations before him.

11. First Fight

A/N: Thanks to chem. prof as always for making this chapter far more readable than it otherwise would be.

Chapter 11: First Fight

Over the next three weeks, which passed quickly, Harry assimilated back into life at Hogwarts. Between his classes and extra lessons, Harry would read through Hermione's third and fourth year books, mastering the spells one by one, and reading her notes on the lessons they had so far. The influx of knowledge was beginning to become difficult to absorb, but he persevered. He could scarcely believe the rate he was learning the spells now that he was putting his whole mind to the task.

His extra lessons with the Professors resumed the Thursday after he returned. Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Slughorn welcomed him back warmly and went straight back to work teaching him increasingly advanced and difficult spells and potions.

Snape was, of course, the exception.

"Now that you've decided to return from your mid-term vacation, Potter, maybe you would like to learn?" Snape sneered.

"I'm waiting for you to start teaching me," countered Harry impatiently. "Perhaps when you're ready?"

Naturally, Harry's response earned himself a few bruises by lessons end. Snape did not cover anything new. Instead, he retreated over what they had already learnt while occasionally firing spells off at him randomly. It did test his reflexes, but Harry did not like this method of teaching. Snape would always counter his protests by saying Death Eaters were likely to do the same.

Unfortunately, for the whole three weeks this treatment continued. Harry did not learn anything more of use, rather only got his reflexes finetuned and his patience tested. After the third full week without anything new, Harry took action.

"Professor," Harry said to the Headmaster in his office. "I request that the lessons with Snape end."

"Professor Snape, Harry." Dumbledore admonished.

"No, sir, its Snape," Harry countered firmly. "Calling him Professor is a sign of respect and general courtesy, neither of which I hold, or will hold for him." Dumbledore, for one of the first times Harry had even seen, looked surprised.

"Harry, this isn't like you. What is the real issue here?"

"For the last three weeks, since I returned, Snape has taught me nothing new. He has gone over what we have already learned three times, occasionally pausing to cast a curse at me out of the blue. All I'm doing in there is getting my reflexes and my patience tested. Before you try and defend him, he shows me no respect. He spends half the lesson insulting me, putting me down, attempting; fruitlessly I might add, to get my spirits down. It is simply a waste of time for both him and me." Harry paused for a moment. "As for his title, I will call him Professor or sir when he starts calling me Mr. Potter and not just Potter, and he stops insulting me and my father every other minute."

Dumbledore was pensive for a long moment. The change in Harry was remarkable over the past few months. He was direct, he was confident. He knew what he wanted and he sought it out, even if he had to step on a few toes in the process.

"Surely you are exaggerating?" asked Dumbledore diplomatically. "I'm certain Professor Snape has a reason behind his methods?"

"I'm sure he does, sir," replied Harry. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "I just don't believe it's the same reason you do. He's given me no reason to trust him, and no reason to respect him. At this point, our lessons serve no purposes but to degrade an already tenuous relationship."

Harry continued, before Dumbledore could respond. "I am very grateful for the effort you put in to organising these lessons for me, sir. However, I cannot learn from a man whose blind hatred for my father clouds his judgement. I managed to get an Outstanding OWL last year in Defence, and that was almost entirely on my own. I can continue forth on my own this year, too."

The entire encounter left Dumbledore a little off balance. The changes in the boy were not entirely unexpected, but the extent of which, from the loss of his godfather, was. The boy was growing up.

"Sir?" said Harry. "Your answer?"

"I'm very sorry to hear that you wish to discontinue your lessons with Professor Snape," said the Headmaster. "If you insist, I will let him know."

"I do," said Harry. "Thank you, sir."

Ending Snape's lessons served more than one purpose. The new free time enabled more time for the DA to meet, and Harry took advantage of that fact. With the extra time, the DA now met three times a week, and for several hours. It was hard work, but the effort was paying off.

Harry worked his hardest to relate whatever he learnt in his extra Charms and Transfiguration classes to the other DA members. He taught them everything he knew that would be useful in duels with Death Eaters, werewolves, Dementors, and even a spell or two for giants, including the Conjunctivitis Curse. Giants were an unlikely threat, but Hermione insisted on being at least a little prepared for them.

Unfortunately, personality conflicts still got in the way in their training.

Despite being outshined by everybody while casting the Bone Breaking Hex, Ernie still maintained much of his pomposity and arrogance.

While learning a spell to use against werewolves, one that created a silver projectile in the form of a rod or needle (christened the Silver Curse by Daphne), Ernie managed to mess things up a second time.

"Wave your wand like this," Harry motioned in a downward arc before flicking his wrist to the right. "And think of the incantation." Harry repeated the motion, concentrating on the spell. A sharp rod of silver ejected from his wand and flew across the room, penetrating deeply into the chest of the same wooden dummy from before. Once the silver rod finally stopped its progress, three quarters of the rod had pierced through the wood with only a small bit remaining visible on this end.

The power behind the spell was considerable, at least in comparison to the majority of the other DA members. However, Harry appeared to be pushing himself the most, inside and outside the DA, and the result wasn't surprising.

Padma had taken her turn next, casting the spell perfectly, with pin point accuracy, penetrating the wooden dummy with a rod only a few centimetres shorter than Harry's. Satisified, she smiled at Harry and went to the back of the line.

Susan had taken up the challenge next, her own spell manifesting as a rod thinner than Harry's and Padma's but far faster. To her delight, her own spell managed to penetrate slightly further than half way into the target.

Elated, Susan clapped her hands together and gave Harry and Hannah a quick hug, startling the former. Realizing what she had done, Susan quickly walked to the back of the line and hid herself from view.

Hannah, laughing at her friends' embarrassment over her loss of self control, took the next turn. Her own silver projectile turned out to resemble Susan's except it was slightly thicker and slower. Her shot connected with the dummy's shoulder, stopping about mid-way through the wood.

Hermione stepped forward next, her expression a mask of concentration. Her repeated losses against Harry in their duel had hurt her pride a little, even though she knew Harry was a superior dueller while she was more focused on knowledge not action, and she wanted to perform as well as anyone for Harry's sake as much as her own.

With the correct wave of her wand, Hermione cast the spell silently and was very pleased to discover her own silver weapon erupt from her wand and manage to delve two thirds of the way into the dummy.

Hermione lowered her wand and gave Harry a brilliant smile, evidently pleased with her performance. Harry returned it in kind.

Then, it was Ernie's turn. His determination was clear in his movement and expression, to outshine the four females who'd gone before him. The expression was the first warning sign.

Wary of what had happened last time Ernie was like this, everyone took a step back, Harry taking several more as he was in the most danger from his position. Not noticing the sudden retreat from his fellow DA members, Ernie raised his wand and cast the spell.

Predictably, the silver projectile flew towards the dummy and collided with it. It was what happened next that went wrong.

Ernie's silver weapon looked like each of the other's in general, however it was the shortest of the lot so far at a mere five inches. While the size of the weapon didn't matter as much as how much damage it would inflict upon the werewolf, the problem with that was that the silver rod only entered half way.

Harry, having taken a few steps forward to examine the wooden dummy, had to quickly retreat a moment later as a disgusted Ernie cast the spell a second and third time to receive much the same result. The only difference was his aim was far worse, the third one even missing completely and clanging against the wall a meter in front of Harry.

Without missing a beat, to try and ensure nothing more would happen, Harry faced the Hufflepuff. "Calm down, Ernie," Harry warned him. "You need confidence to perform spells correctly and to their full potential, but overconfidence is just as bad as none. Your spells become erratic and less effective the more frustrated you get."

Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had often told him this, ensuring that Harry remained level-headed and in perfect control of his magic to use it to his full potential. Overemotional wizards' magic was unpredictable. This was evident in Harry's childhood accidental magic, and because of that he found the explanation to make perfect sense.

Whether Ernie absorbed Harry's words or not nobody knew.

"Ernie," Neville said as stepped forward to offer his own advice.

Again, whether Ernie heard or absorbed the words, nobody knew. He erratically waved his wand, casting the spell a fourth time. Neville had to jump backwards to avoid being hit by a wildly thrown elbow.

The silver rod was another failure, missing the target completely. Harry banished the dummy into the spell's path, the rod impaling itself in the wood.

"Are you quite done?" asked Harry quietly, menacingly.

"Put it back, Harry," Ernie replied impatiently. "This is how it works. I'm sure of it. I just need another go."

Neville, attempting a second time to get Ernie's attention, walked up behind him and laid a hand on a shoulder.

"Ernie, mate, calm down, some spells are trickier than others," Neville placated him. Ernie, ignoring him, pushed Neville aside. Unprepared for the physical force, Neville stumbled backwards and only managed to stay upright when Katie caught and steadied him.

"What was that for?" exclaimed an angry Katie.

Still ignoring everyone else, Ernie straightened, aimed and fired his fifth attempt at the spell. The dummy, which Harry had just replaced in its original position, was hit by a silver projectile in the right forearm. The result was little better than his original attempt.

"Enough, Ernie," Harry spoke sternly. He stepped in front of the dummy, eclipsing it from the boy's view.

"Out of the way, Harry," Ernie said forcefully, gesturing at him to shove off to the side. "I can do this."

"Ernie, stop it," Susan called out from behind him.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" echoed Hannah.

Harry briefly glanced at the others, who were standing aside for their own safety reasons, although their wands were drawn. Curious though, was the calm disposition of Daphne.

"One more try," said Ernie, raising his arm. "I got this." Seeing his intentions, Harry quickly moved off to the side, out of the line of fire.

In the end, it wasn't needed. Ernie cast the spell and it missed by a good twenty meters, this time not of his own fault. Surprising the lot of them was Daphne. Out of her relaxed stance she had taken several steps and pushed Ernie's arm aside, causing the spell to fire off in the opposite direction from where Harry had moved.

Ernie looked at Daphne with anger laced in his eyes. "What was that for?" he exclaimed.

"While your performance is lacklustre on your best days, MacMillan," Daphne began maliciously. "Had you been left to your own devices, the rest of us would be sending Potter here to the Hospital Wing."

"Let me go, snake," Ernie snarled, ignoring her words and shaking his arm, trying to free it from Daphne's grasp. Harry, quickly closing the distance between the rest of the group and the dummy, saw Daphne's eyes flash dangerously.

In three swift movements, Daphne twisted Ernie's arm backwards, causing him to manoeuvre awkwardly to escape the pain, quickly switched the arm that was holding on to him and finally grasped his robes around the neck.

"Care to repeat that?" asked Daphne in a falsely sweet voice. Even in his state, Ernie realized when not to antagonize the opponent.

Harry appeared beside Daphne. She sent him a glance, daring him to intervene. He had had no intention of doing that before she had intimidated Ernie into silence.

"Just leave it alone, Ernie," Harry told him, letting Daphne continue to hold him. She was far more relaxed now; however one knew that she would react quickly if Ernie tried anything.

"I know you're a proud person, Ernie, and not performing as well as others probably hurts. However, that does not excuse you from losing yourself over something as silly as this. So what if your spell was a little weaker than the rest? Isn't practicing all about getting better, stronger? Who said a failure on your first try meant that you were weak?" Harry spoke calmly, quietly, resisting the near overwhelming urge to yell.

Ernie switched his gaze between Harry, Daphne and the rest, who all wore varied expressions, none too positive, minus Luna who looked the same as always. He relaxed slightly and stopped resisting. Daphne let go and shoved him aside, causing Ernie to stumble and fall to the ground.

"I don't know how you expect to win against Voldemort," Daphne said vehemently. Ernie, Susan, Hannah and Katie shuddered at the name. "When you cannot even control yourself around your allies," she continued, ignoring the shudders. "Or perform adequately at the most simple spells."

Susan and Hannah looked about to interrupt Daphne's dressing down, but Harry raised his hand in a halting gesture. Ernie needed this more than he needed to be defended.

On the floor, Ernie bowed his head and refused to look at anyone. He knew he deserved it, he'd very nearly hurt someone, yet his pride was willing him to talk back, not to accept that there were so many better than him at his own age or younger. Three times he nearly talked back but managed to control the urge at the last second. A small part of him was afraid, afraid that he would not survive if he wasn't strong, stronger than the five females before him had proven to be.

A quick glance at the rest of the group saw a number of disapproving looks directed at Ernie were still present. Harry sighed. He knew it would take a little while for everyone to get along with Ernie again. For the next week or two, he'd have to keep a tight leash on Ernie to prevent him making any other mistakes. It wouldn't do to have a falling out amongst themselves when they hadn't even gotten out into the world yet.

Over the following week, Ernie had become uncharacteristically subdued. When he did speak, and only when addressed, there was the conspicuous absence of any arrogance or even his trademark pomposity. His responses were quick and concise.

For a long time Harry pondered this new development, wondering whether the Hufflepuff would, or had, changed because of his actions. His performance in the DA rose slightly after he quieted down and focused more on the spells than what was coming out of his mouth.

Despite their personality problems, the progress of all eleven of them was rather astounding. Daphne and Su had not been a part of the DA the previous year, yet they were managing to keep up with new and old material just fine, even though they did have to learn a few spells the others had already learned from the previous year. If someone had told Harry last year that in two months, he would have a mildly well powered mini-army of his own; he would've scoffed and said the person was dreaming. Right now though, that's pretty much what he had.

Everyone got along reasonably well, aside from Ernie's occasional arrogant fits. Daphne kept her less desirable attitude in check for the most part and had managed to very slowly gain a bit of trust from each of her fellow students. More so than the rest, Harry had learned to trust the Slytherin. It wasn't complete trust. That was something that would take more time. Why he did was something he couldn't honestly say. There was, underneath the confrontational personality, a different person and Harry sensed that.

Still, some of those personality traits grated his nerves to a fine sheet. But she was a surprisingly genuine person every other time. Daphne was not one afraid to express her distaste for something, regardless of who it was directed at, including Harry himself.

It had taken her weeks before she had let down her attitude even the tiniest bit and not mouthed off at everyone. Deep down, Harry believed she was enjoying herself, whether mouthing off, learning or just proving how powerful she was. Due to old prejudices drilled into the brains from a young age, the rest were less receptive to her than Harry was, however she was managing to fit in to such a reasonable extent that there was little chance of internal problems stemming from her.

Su still barely uttered a word, preferring to use Padma as a medium to voice her thoughts when she couldn't get her point across to Harry or the others through her facial expressions and hand gestures.

Perhaps the most astounding person in the room had to be Luna. He had never seen her duel at the Department of Mysteries, though she had been the only one in Ron's group to remain unharmed when the six of them were separated. Her unique style of duelling, with a broad range of spells ranging from the usual standbys to other, less practical ones, rendered most people off balance. People didn't underestimate her anymore.

Progress was being made in other areas of significant importance, such as Occlumency. A few struggled to keep up, but, while not at adequate Legilimens, Harry had trouble breaking through everyone's protections. It would take years to truly master the Mind Art, but Harry was only aiming to keep the more subtle probes out. For the most part, their defences were adequate. Now all there was to do was wait for the pensieve.

Outside of the DA, Harry continued to improve his friendship with Padma and Luna, occasionally visiting them in the Ravenclaw common room after dinner, as well as Susan and Hannah who had, on occasion, sat with them for meals, most usually after classes they had together. In the Ravenclaw common room he still felt uncomfortable, but Padma insisted to meet there instead of her little hideaway every time the two of them wanted to talk. Anthony Goldstein had lost most of his dislike of Harry after the first few visits, mainly because most of the Ravenclaws genuinely had nothing against him being there as long as he couldn't come and go without an escort. Michael Corner still had a habit of glaring at him across the room. Harry couldn't help but wonder how he got all of his work done whenever he visited.

The biggest surprise in the Ravenclaw common room was Cho. She was unfailingly polite and friendly to him and he responded in kind, though their conversations were brief. Whenever this happened, Corner would give him a death glare which Harry ignored. When he asked Padma about the constant glares, she said that Cho and Corner had broken up after an argument soon after school started. The rumours were that Corner kept questioning her about Harry and his relationship with her until Cho just couldn't stand it anymore and ended it.

Harry wouldn't go as far to say that the two of them were friend. That was something that probably would never happen considering what had happened between them. However, they were no longer avoiding each other intentionally. Overall, it didn't matter that much, though it was nice to know he had one less person hating him in the school and to have closure on the entire affair.

Throughout the week he returned, he was pestered by three quarters of the school, asking where he was and what happened.

One person he had expected to see from, but didn't, was Malfoy. The absence of the threats, similar to what he had received after the Department of Mysteries the year before when his father had been captured, scared Harry more than he would ever have admitted. In a duel, Harry knew he would be able to defeat the bleached blonde ferret hands down. What scared him was the lack of retaliation, the lack of an appearance by his foe. That meant one thing.

Whatever Malfoy was up to was more important than his family pride.

And that had to be life or death important.

Over the month before Halloween, Malfoy was seen less and less by the DA members. He was steadily growing paler, somehow, and quieter. One time during Defense, Harry had purposely knocked into him. It had been his first close up look since he had Stunned the Slytherin, now three weeks prior. Harry noticed increasingly dark lines under his eyes. Whatever he was up to mustn't have been going well, but was important enough for him not retaliate.

Dumbledore's second private lesson was another memory. Harry had stepped into a memory of the Headmaster's and learned a bit about the orphaned Tom Riddle living in the Orphanage, where he found out about magic. After half an hour of back and forth speculation that followed, Harry had to admit that the Headmaster had an impressive deductive mind, even if his plans were not always stellar.

Their relationship was formal, which was entirely Harry's fault. The trust Harry held for the Headmaster had almost entirely vanished. He had not been forthright when he should have.

There was respect, but trust was different than respect. If he hadn't already, Dumbledore would notice sooner or later. Harry didn't have the attention span to try and maintain their former relationship. There was far too much else to think about. If the Headmaster decided to do something about it, he'd deal with it when the time came.

Voldemort's history was indeed interesting. Hermione agreed. Harry had taken to talking with her about everything again, except for his time in France. That remained something he would keep to himself as long as he could. Despite how interesting it was to learn the past of Voldemort, how exactly would this help defeating him? Harry was only learning some startling similarities between the Dark Lord and himself that he wished he had not known. There was one factor that kept him from becoming worried about these similarities, his choices.

Harry had chosen to become a Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat had said he would've done well in Slytherin, sure. That, however, didn't make him out to be another Dark Lord on the rise. He chose to become a Gryffindor, and therefore chose to be different to the young Voldemort.

Troubling, Harry found himself bothered by Hermione more than once. It was peculiar, usually occurring when he was close with his best friend, and didn't happen all the time, though it was picking up steam. There were feelings of distrust.

He was able to thrust aside the feelings, knowing that Hermione was trustworthy if anyone was. It was still troubling that these seemed to arise from nowhere.

Ron and Ginny were quite different in their attitude towards Harry. Ginny was genuinely nice to him, while Ron still avoided or didn't talk to him. In classes, Ron sat by himself whenever possible. Nobody bothered him and he didn't bother anybody. Quite often he was seen spending a lot of his time in his bed doing school work. He no longer had Hermione to help, nor Harry to joke around with and seemed to bury himself in his work because of that. The only time Harry interacted with him was during Quidditch practice which had started at the beginning of October.

In all honesty, Harry was very surprised that Ron managed to keep his spot on the team. There was more to the punishment that Ron had received than he knew of, yet his Quidditich position did not seem to be in jeopardy except through his own performance.

Practice was going well overall. Ron was performing as a Keeper, the two new chasers, Ginny and Demelza, were taking well to Katie's teachings, and the two new beaters were managing to hit their targets more often than not. Both still didn't have the upper body strength to perform at the top level but that would come with training throughout the year.

Although life was busy, nothing particularly important to the war happened until the third weekend in October. The Saturday was the first Hogsmede weekend. The first one had been postponed after the attack at Diagon Alley according to Susan and Hannah.

Filch, the ever sour Caretaker, was kept busy poking and prodding people with Secrecy Sensors. Harry found it odd that he was checking people removing Dark items from the castle, as that could only be a good thing, but wisely didn't say anything. Filch was temperamental on a good day. He wondered why the man worked here when he wasn't even a wizard.

Several painful pokes and prods later, Harry, rubbing several sore spots with his gloves, and Hermione were marching down the slope from the castle towards the gates to the castle. There were two reasons Harry wanted to go to Hogsmeade.

The first was for a break from the cycle of school work and constant training with the DA and McGonagall, Flitwick and Slughorn. The second was because of Slughorn. The oversized Potions Professor had stopped inviting Harry to his Slug Club dinners after he started the extra lessons; however he had, at the end of the last lesson, tried to ask him to a special Halloween dinner. Halloween had never been a good day for Harry, so he outright refused to do anything more to give the fates an opportunity to ruin another one of those cursed holidays.

At least that's what he told himself. Harry really found the Potions Professor to be unbearable outside the classroom.

Hermione on the other hand attended most of the dinners, only passing when homework or the DA would conflict. She claimed that they weren't all bad. Harry tried briefly to warn her all he wanted was future favors, since that was the purpose of the Slug Club to him, though couldn't dissuade her. She didn't trust Dumbledore implicitly anymore but had difficulty believing the same about any other teacher. One was shocking enough.

The darkened skies, covered with a thick layer of cloud, like it usually was for most of this time of year whether for rain or the snow season rapidly approaching, opened upon the Hogwarts students. Within a minute, the rain was at torrential levels. Harry cast the Impervius Charm on his glasses so he could see and ran into the town of Hogsmeade. Several dozen Hogwarts students ran with him, all seeking shelter from the sudden storm. A low rumbling noise indicated an incoming thunder storm.

The Three Broomsticks was the first building on the right past the train station. Most of the students made for the shelter the inn offered, and Harry joined them. He was already inside, dried off and warmed up, with two quick spells, when he realized that Hermione wasn't with him. His hands immediately went to the map, but paused, realizing he was in Hogsmeade, out of range of the map.

For some reason, all ill feelings cast aside, he was inexplicably worried for Hermione. It wasn't like they had never been separated before in the castle, but this was outside whatever safety the castle walls provided and something inside of him was ringing warning bells.

He scanned the customers in the Three Broomsticks, looking for the signature bushy hair that belonged to his best friend. She wasn't there.

The door opened behind him and someone barged past, nudging his side. Harry, not expecting the contact, stumbled and had to reach out to the wall to steady himself to prevent himself from falling. He pushed himself off, turned, about to mouth off at the inconsiderate person, and found nobody there. The person had vanished.

Invisible?

Homenum Revelio. Harry muttered.

A quick scan of the room deemed no newly visible adversaries or just plain rude people. Nothing had changed.

Whoever it was had either already left or had blended into the crowd too well.

Facing facts, specifically the fact that Hermione wasn't in the Three Broomsticks, Harry turned and threw open the door. He impatiently waited for two rain soaked students to walk inside that were at the door at the wrong time, and then exited.

The rain was harder than ever. Even with the Impervius Charm in effect, his vision was limited to mere meters.

Where was the last time he knew he was beside her? It was just before the storm started. He had just assumed she was beside or behind him when he took off when the storm began. All the other students were rushing to get out of the rain at the time; it wasn't careless of him to have not checked to make sure she was with him, or so he told himself.

He moved through the rain soaked village, sprinting between shelters, fruitlessly trying to find her. It was silly, really. She would already be inside.

No. She was outside. He was certain of it.

Harry continued for several minutes, completely at a loss for where in the town he was. He couldn't see anything clearly in the rain. Outlines of buildings on the opposite side of the main thoroughfare went in and out of sight; the occasional light that the lightning offered helped.

It wasn't until he was about to double back to where he had lost her that he saw something, a silhouette.

He could barely make it out through the rain, as whoever it was, was on the opposite side of the road. There was definitely someone there, though. Even if his eyes had betrayed him, he could feel it. It was the same feeling he felt about Hermione being in danger. It was instinct. The same thing he had relied on before in his previous 'adventures' and gotten him out alive.

"Excuse me, have you –" called out Harry, in an explicably stupid act. Startled at the voice, the silhouette jumped and disappeared in the other direction.

Relying on his instincts, Harry followed after the person, running back into the rain at full pelt. It took only ten seconds for Harry to locate the person again, though he still had a lead on him.

The two of them ran through the rain, mud splattering against their robes. They passed several more buildings before Harry nearly slipped and, while trying to regain his balance, lost sight of the person. He continued forward, cursing his luck.

A much louder reverberating sound filled the sky, quickly followed by a crack of lightning, indicating the close proximity of the storm. In the brief second that the lightning offered light, Harry looked around and saw the same silhouette running down a side road. It was enough. Harry ran after it, still not entirely sure why.

Harry nearly slipped twice more on the mud ridden trail. Briefly Harry wondered why the person did not Apparate away if they wanted to escape him. Although Harry could do it now, there was no way he could trace the person with no resources, if tracking Apparition was even possible.

Harry's breath was in his ears. His robes weighed several times heavier than normal, completely water logged. Even with all the training duelling with the DA offered, a heavy robe, such as his own, reduced his speed significantly and was a burden. When he left Hogwarts, he was switching back to Muggle clothes at the first chance. Robes were just too much of a bother.

Fortunately a moment later the silhouette turned and entered a building. Harry, once he reached the building, looked up briefly to see where he was, pausing in shock to find out he was at the Hog's Head.

The bar was shady, everyone knew that. Harry had come here the previous year at Hermione's insistence to organize the DA. Unfortunately he had been overheard. Since then, he hadn't returned, or even thought of returning. The pub catered to a clientele that went from adventurous students, to borderline Dark wizards and every odd ball in between. Harry drew his wand and stepped inside.

Like the previous year, the pub was unbelievably dirty. The owner clearly wasn't a fan of cleaning, or used the dirt and grime to turn away the more privileged clientele in favor of the shadier sort. Whatever the reason, Professor's Flitwick's advice to bring your own mug was a necessity to avoid any peculiar diseases lurking in the forever dirty mugs owned by the proprietor. Harry felt he had been lucky the previous year, when nearly thirty students were here and not one felt sick. He might have thought he was overreacting about the disease part, though didn't want to risk it. Wizards still got sick and drinking from constantly dirty glasses only would facilitate such an event.

Harry scanned the current occupants of the pub. The barman, who looked remarkably like Dumbledore, was staring at Harry. Perhaps he was dumbfounded at the serious expression on Harry's face, his appearance, or maybe even the shock of seeing him in here again. Whatever the reason was, it didn't matter. What mattered was finding the person he only knew as a silhouette.

Besides the barman, there were several Hogwarts students in one corner. Harry was surprised that they had made it this far before the rain came pouring down. Besides them, there were five others. One was an elderly man, not nearly as elderly looking as the barman though, wearing a purple robe, staring curiously at him. Behind him, there was the back of a head of a woman with long, light brown braids. Sitting opposite her was a young man, chattering with his female companion excitedly. Harry instantly dismissed those two. The man was too tall and the woman didn't appear to be out of breath at all.

In the far left corner from the entrance was a middle-aged man in deep need of a shave. He was passed out; at least Harry thought so, on the table surrounded by several bottles of what Harry assumed was Firewhiskey. That left one person.

At the bar was the final customer. He, and it was a he, was facing away from Harry, as if undisturbed by his entrance. He had long, straggly ginger hair. It was hair that Harry knew.

Harry cast the same Drying and Warming Charms he had used in the Three Broomsticks again and slowly approached Mundungus Fletcher. With every step, Harry watched the thief for any signs of a movement. Harry reached the bar, watching Dung out of the corner of his eyes.

"A Butterbear, please," Harry said to the barman, taking a seat at the bar. The barman, still staring at Harry, woke out of his reverie. He reached under the bar and pulled a relatively clean glass, which wasn't saying much considering the standards of clean in this place, and poured the drink. Harry paid the two sickles and sat down and started drinking.

Harry became very aware of his surroundings as he drank. That awareness included the fact that now everyone was watching him and the man seated two spots to his left. Harry didn't say a word, nor did everyone else, even the couple who had been chattering away just a moment ago.

Mundungus hadn't made a move since Harry had entered, except to breathe. A closer examination of him saw that he was wearing a hooded robe of black with bulging pockets. His features were all hidden except for the outline of his face, which was resolutely looking at anywhere but Harry. That was fine with him; he already could tell it was him by the hair, and, much to Harry's chagrin, the smell.

It was as if this was the calm before the storm. The analogy, to Harry, was highly amusing considering the conditions outside.

Behind him, the door opened to pub and several more Hogwarts students entered. A rather loud clap of thunder caused several of the patrons to jump. Harry could feel the stares move off of him to the newcomers and back over the next few seconds. Creepily, he had gotten used to the feeling of people looking at him. It now had developed into a sixth sense of sorts. It was unusual for sure, but useful nonetheless.

The students' talk quickly died down, sensing the situation but not knowing why. They quickly ordered drinks and sat down, to join the rest of the customers, waiting, watching.

Still, Mundungus hadn't moved. If Harry couldn't hear his breathing, he would've sworn he was dead. Harry took another swig from his Butterbeer, savoring the taste before setting it down, empty. He shook his head at the barman who was preparing to get a refill. It was time to get this over with.

Harry kept his gaze focused on the back wall. He licked his lips, the silencing pressing against his ears.

"Why are you running from me Dung?" Harry practically whispered, though his voice carried throughout the entire pub. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Mundungus tense up. There was no reply.

"You might want to answer," Harry continued with a little more edge on his voice.

Then the storm came.

Mundungus jumped out of his chair, the piece of furniture clattering to the ground behind him, and ran for the back exit at full pelt. In the time it took for that to happen, Harry already had drawn his wand out and cast a silent Trip Jinx. Mundungus, naturally, tripped, went flying through the air and landed spectacularly on the floor in front of the drunken, unconscious man. Harry jumped off his own chair, letting it clatter to the ground behind him, and calmly, but quickly, walked after Mundungus who had been stunned for a second from the fall, but now was scrambling madly to get to his feet.

Harry put his wand up his sleeve and grabbed onto Mundungus' robes. Using Dung's unstable footing, he threw him easily back into the bar. Several glasses were knocked over, landing with a smash on the floor behind the bar.

"Are you ready to talk yet, Dung?" asked Harry softly, menacingly. Dung stumbled trying to get to his feet. A second, louder, duller clattering sound caught Harry's attention. A silver goblet fell out from Dung's pocket and rolled along the floor towards him.

The entire bar watched, transfixed, as the goblet rolled towards Harry, drawing to a halt at his feet. Harry reached out to pick it up before recoiling in shock. The goblet had a crest on it, a crest that Harry was all too familiar with.

"What are you doing with Sirius' belongings?" Harry seethed, raising his gaze back to Dung. It was all he could do to keep from yelling at him. He wasn't sure if he could hold it in. There was no one around to stop him, abate the anger, nobody, just him and his hatred of the man before him.

Dung didn't answer, instead groaned as he tried to move too quickly and clutched at his head, trying to stand upright again. Harry took a step forward, grabbed his robes and threw him back to the floor, following through with a kick, a hard kick, to the side of the stomach with surprising strength, pushing the thief backwards a few meters. Several barstools were knocked to the side, one colliding with another and fell to the ground with a crash. There were several gasps throughout the pub.

"Really now, please restrain yourself…" the barman spoke.

"Stay out of it," Harry snarled. He reached down and went for Dung's still bulging pockets. Dung tried to get away, but Harry slammed a foot on his chest to keep him in place.

One by one, Harry withdrew item after item christened with the Black crest. With each one that passed through Harry's hands before being put on the ground behind him, Harry's anger only increased.

"You've got a fair bit of explaining to do, Dung," Harry said, filled with a rage at the thief. "And it had better be a good one. I'm not in a good mood, not at all." Dung remained mute, aside from the occasional whimper of pain from where Harry had kicked him. There was no remorse from Harry, not now, not yet, not in this state.

"Do you realize that this stuff belongs to me now?" Harry continued coldly. "Sirius left pretty much everything to me, so you've been stealing from me. How much more have you already stolen? How much have you sold off already?" With each sentence, Harry's voice grew louder and louder till he was practically shouting.

Incensed, Harry took his foot of the thief's chest and grabbed him again. He lifted Dung to his feet before slamming up against the bar. "Bloody hell, answer me," he growled.

"I-I-I didn't k-know that this was yours," Dung stuttered in a hoarse voice.

"So because Sirius is dead you thought you'd steal his stuff to make a profit?" Harry asked in a low, venom filled growl. Dung didn't answer. Harry pulled him back and then slammed him into the bar again. "Answer me," he ordered again, hatred and anger filling his eyes. Dung tried to look anywhere but at Harry, at those eyes.

"Y-Yeah, that's 'ow I get meself a livin'," Dung replied, fear evident in his voice. Harry had never been this angry, not even with Umbridge or Snape. This pathetic excuse for a human being was stealing from his dead Godfather, the last vestige of a parent he had.

Harry slammed him up against the bar a third time. A glass fell off the table from the vibrations and shattered on the ground with the others.

"Now, you're going to listen to what I say," Harry said false-calmly. "If I ever catch you stealing from me or my Godfather again, I will hunt you down and kill you. Don't think I won't do it. I will."

Harry took a breath and looked on him with a mixture of pity and hatred. "I don't know how you live with yourself, stealing belongings from a dead man, one that was a friend to you." Harry spared him one last, disgusted, look. "Now leave the stuff and get the hell out of my sight before I change my mind."

Harry let him go, pushing him back into the bar once more. Dung steadied himself, stood still, shocked, for a moment before running for the exit. He tripped over one of the fallen chairs and crashed to the ground. A second later he was on his feet and out into the rain again. This act wasn't seen by Harry, whose attentions were focused on what he had said and done.

Harry faced the barman again, barely registering the look of utter disbelief on his face. "Sorry about your glasses," he muttered. He waved his wand twice, muttering the spells, and the chairs resumed their previous positions. A third wave and the glasses had repaired themselves.

With that done, Harry turned to retrieve Sirius' belongings off of the ground. There were two goblets, a necklace, a locket that Harry recognized from the cleaning two summers ago, a small box that Harry didn't dare open, and a small collection of knives and forks, all adorned with the Black family crest, except the locket. Harry was about to study it more closely when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned on the spot and looked up to see Su looking at him.

"Su?" Harry asked dumbly. Out of all the Hogwarts students he would expect to see at the Hogs Head, Su was definitely not one of them.

"We should go," Su replied. To put it lightly, Harry was shocked. Those three words were the first he had heard from her that weren't whispers between herself and Padma. He had wondered if she even talked aloud at all before Padma reassured him that she did when they were alone.

"Right," said Harry. He picked up the items with the Black family crest and pocketed them. To his surprise, he felt something inside his pocket where there shouldn't have been. Harry reached deep down in the pocket and wrapped his gloves around something. He withdrew it and found an ornate, opal necklace that he recognized from somewhere.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Su adjust her gaze slowly, as if under the influence of something. Harry looked at her oddly for a moment. When Su began to reach out, as if captivated by the necklace, Harry acted.

"Don't touch it." Harry ordered, moving it away from the shorter sixth year. Su looked at him, her eyes glazed over, acting as if she was miffed at his words and the retreat of the necklace. "We need to find a Professor. We don't know what this is, and I don't trust it."

Su didn't respond, unsurprisingly. What she did do was shake her head several times, her eyes returning to normal, sent Harry and the necklace a confused glance and walked to the door and opened it for him. Harry stared after her for a moment before returning the necklace to his pocket and walking back out into the rain, which had now slowed to a gentle shower, leaving a number of shocked patrons in the Hog's Head.

What is that necklace doing in my pocket? Harry pondered. It must have been… Of course! It came to Harry. The necklace… he had seen it in Borgin and Burke's. It was the one that Hermione had asked about when they had been tailing Malfoy. That made it very likely that it was a very Dark object and dangerous object too. He must be safe from the affects with his gloves.

Through simple deduction, Harry figured that the person who had walked into him in the Three Broomsticks put the necklace in his pocket. The question was why? If he was the target, it would've been easier to press it to Harry's bare skin rather than hide it in a pocket on the off chance that he would touch it.

Then who was the target? Who else would go into Harry's pockets and touch the necklace unsuspectingly? If the target wasn't Harry then who was? Either way, the plan had been horribly thought out. It relied on complete luck.

Harry and Su ran briskly through the rain, passing under shelter after shelter back towards the Three Broomstick's. They were half way there when Harry remembered Hermione.

"Su, wait," Harry said, pulling to a stop, latching onto Su's wet robes. She stopped and looked at him questioningly. Harry had noticed over the past few weeks that she had a very expressive face. It wasn't often hard to know what she was after.

"I need to find Hermione. Any idea where she is?" asked Harry quickly. Su shook her head. "Great," Harry muttered.

"Are there any ways to track another wizard or witch that we can do?" asked Harry a moment later. Su, for several moments, went off into deep thought. When she returned to the present, she had a light in her eyes that was delightful to see.

With a quick movement of her hands, Su gestured into four different directions and then her wand. Harry stared at her, uncomprehending. Sign language, Su's version, was not something he was used to yet, regardless of how he could read her expressions. Su, patiently, repeated the motion a second and third time.

Then a spell came to mind.

"Wouldn't that be different to the original use of the spell?"

Su simply smiled and nodded. Harry shook his head and withdrew his wand. If she said it would work, he trusted her. She was smarter than him after all.

"Point Me, Hermione," Harry said aloud, his wand lay out in his palm. Originally it was used to help Harry in the maze as a simple compass spell, but if it could be altered this way… he could find Hermione.

There was only one problem. If, by chance it did work, the spell would only be able to locate her wand and not her person. Wandlore was a difficult and intricate art, one with many mysteries that still were unknown to the world at large. Relationships between wands were such a mystery. Somehow wands could find each other, yet sometimes they couldn't. It was how Sirius had found Harry that first night near Magnolia Crescent.

The wand spun a few times and pointed in the direction of the Three Broomsticks end of the village. Su smiled a second time at the success of the spell and pulled Harry along as they ran to the entrance of the inn. A quick search of the area found nobody outside in the rain, unsurprisingly.

In front of the building, Harry repeated the spell. His wand spun a few times, once less than before, and pointed out into the Forbidden Forest. What in the world was Hermione doing in there?

Harry stood still for a moment. Would going in there alone be advisable? He would be by himself. Was Hermione in danger? Why else would she be in the forest?

Instinct, and a dash of common sense, told him that Hermione was not in the Forbidden Forest for a leisurely stroll in the rain. Deciding he'd need, or at least preferred help, Harry cast the Protean Charm on the ring on his left index finger. The engraving on the inside of ring now read, 'Outside 3 B-stick. Now.'

A minute later, the door to the Three Broomsticks opened and Neville, Katie, Padma, Susan, Hannah and Luna appeared.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Padma asked, her voice louder than normal to be heard over the rain, seeing his solemn expression through the rain.

"Hermione's missing," Harry replied over the rain. Each of them was already soaked.

"Are you sure?" Susan asked wryly, crossing her arms, the rain already causing her long strawberry blonde hair to stick to her neck and robes. "You aren't always together you…" she stopped her kidding at the furious glare that Harry gave her.

"We got separated when the rain started," Harry said coldly. "According to my wand, she's in the Forbidden Forest somewhere. Excuse me for thinking she doesn't take walks in there, of her own volition, in the rain, often."

Susan took a step backwards, shocked and slightly ashamed with herself. Harry wouldn't ever say something like this if he didn't mean it. While he did joke, this was not something he would joke about. "I'm sorry."

Harry sighed, too impatient to hold a grudge. There was no time to be annoyed at her. "Are you coming or not?" Everyone announced their intentions to follow him.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Get a move on," a voice from behind Harry said. It was Daphne, with Ernie running towards them from behind her.

"Let's go," Harry said, turning towards the forest. As one, the nine other DA members followed behind him.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Hermione Granger was in a fix.

When the rain had started she had been running after Harry, who had only been a few steps ahead of her. She had only taken a dozen steps when she had slipped and fallen into the growing mud. Before she had managed to rise, she felt someone grab onto her arms and then felt the harsh tug of something starting to drag her, arms first, into the Forbidden Forest. Spitting amounts of mud away from her mouth, Hermione tried to scream, but no avail. Whoever this was had already put a Silencing Charm on her.

Then, she felt herself go rigid and rise off the ground. For ten awkward minutes, she floated along, rain pelting her face. Finally, she began to hear voices and her captor slowed to a halt.

There were voices she recognized.

"Here she is," Gregory Goyle said in his troll like voice.

"And with a guest!" Vincent Crabbe guffawed. Hermione felt sickened. She'd been captured by two of the biggest dimwits at Hogwarts. Whoever this third person must be had to be someone more capable, surely.

"It should've been delivered by now," Goyle said vaguely.

"He'll be back soon then," Crabbe added.

"So what do we do with her?" Goyle asked.

"Dunno," Crabbe replied.

"Should we tie her up?"

"Tie her up?"

"So she doesn't escape, you moron."

"Don't call me a moron!"

"Just tie her to that tree already," Goyle ordered. Crabbe grumbled a bit before drawing his wand. Hermione would have loved to have escaped while the two idiot goons were arguing but whoever was holding onto her was surprisingly strong and no amount of wriggling helped her. The person hadn't made a noise, nor had he or she acted on his or her own volition, making Hermione believe that whoever it was was under the Imperius Curse.

Crabbe took a step forward. "Put her by that tree," he ordered the person under the cloak. Hermione grunted as she was dragged further, this time in front of one of the hundreds of trees surrounding her and deposited in front. As soon as her arms were free, she put her hands to her pockets before being hit with an Incarcerous Spell.

Unbelievably, Hermione still hadn't been relieved of her wand. Hermione had purposefully put her arms to her pockets so she could reach her wand while still tied to the large tree. She was immobile but armed, albeit limited in her range and movement. Now all she could do was wait for the right moment.

Crabbe, Goyle and the unknown figure walked almost out of sight, between several trees, before sitting down to watch her. Hermione couldn't believe they left her so unguarded. It was too easy.

In fact, it was. Not seconds after she had touched her wand, she heard footsteps coming from behind her. Who was it this time?

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a voice she did not recognize said amusedly. Hermione tried to look to find the voice but couldn't see anything. Invisible?

Homenum Revelio, Hermione said silently, her hand on her wand. There was a shimmer on Hermione's left. She continued to look around as if looking for the voice, slowly making her way in the direction of the shimmer. Hermione had an advantage; she wasn't going to waste it.

The hidden figure, underneath a Disillusionment Charm, was a male, at least mid-thirties, who was smirking down on her. He was roughly ten meters away, watching her looking around frantically for the source of the voice. He had long dark hair and a face that could only be described as heavy and brutal.

"Where are you?" Hermione spoke to the supposedly empty woods in a fake panicky voice. Suddenly she let out a gasp. Her right ring finger had warmed up. Had Harry realized she was missing and was gathering everyone? Hermione had created the rings to only write messages from Harry's, and that meant he had something important to say if he was using the rings at Hogsmeade.

For a minute, there were no sounds except the rain crashing against the leaves and ground. Hermione was absolutely soaked and mud ridden. She started shivering. She dared not cast a Warming or Drying Charm for fear of being found out.

The man hidden underneath the Disillusionment Charm stood watching her. He didn't make any movements, not giving Hermione anything to find out his position. Or so he thought.

The longer he stayed still, not doing anything, the more time Harry would have to find her. If he had summoned the members of the DA, then he would have plenty of backup against this man, Crabbe, Goyle and the cloaked person. The DA was about to get its first taste of a real fight. Hopefully their training would be good enough in real life. Most of them were about to get their first ever unregulated duel.

There was just one problem.

Why in the world did they capture me?

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry was having similar thoughts.

The DA was created to learn Defense. Harry altered it to create his own army. Now it was about to get its first taste of combat. How would they perform? Was their training going to be of any use or was it about to prove useless?

Thanks to Su's idea, Harry's manipulation of the Four Point Spell made finding Hermione far easier than he would have dared hope. It had only taken a short amount of time from when the ten DA members met up to when they were deep into the forest, on the right trail.

Before leaving, the ten of them had cast Silencing Charms on their feet. The rain had created hundreds of puddles throughout the forest. Each one would be a giveaway of their position. That was something that they could not afford. They were meant to have the advantage with their unexpected numbers; being found out so easily would be wasting their chance.

Still, there was the lingering hope that Hermione was perfectly fine and just taking a stroll in the forest without telling him…

Yeah, right.

That left her been taking by force. That meant Death Eaters.

The Forbidden Forest was not uncharted territory for Harry, at least the section inside the school grounds. Surrounding the town of Hogsmeade were hundreds upon hundreds of acres of forest. Not all of it was inhabited by creatures, most choosing to reside within the protections offered by Hogwarts, but that didn't mean they were deserted of Magical life.

Fortunately, the section the ten Hogwarts students were in appeared to be deserted of Magical life. This would be a bad time to crash paths with the centaurs or Grawp.

"Harry," Hannah's voice brought him back to the matter at hand. "If Hermione is captured, why is she still nearby? If Death Eaters captured her, wouldn't they take her to wherever V-Vol-Voldemort is?" Hannah, like Padma and Neville, was overcoming her fear of the Dark Lord's name.

It was a good question. Harry had asked himself the same question for the past ten minutes. The only answer he could think of wasn't promising.

"They want me," Harry replied simply. "Everyone knows I'd rescue Hermione if it was within my power, and try even if it wasn't. Since they're still nearby, they must be waiting for me to find her and trap me." Harry paused, stopping in his tracks. One by one the nine behind him stopped.

"Harry?" Katie asked, worried.

"Is Hogsmeade warded against Apparition now, like Diagon Alley?" Harry inquired. Why hadn't Mundungus Apparated away when he'd been spotted? Whoever had Hermione wouldn't have Apparated away immediately because then there wouldn't have been any way for Harry to track her down. As far as he knew, Apparition was impossible to track.

However, this far into the forest, away from both Hogwarts and Hogsmeade would undoubtedly be out of range of the wards.

"As of last week, yes," Susan answered. Everyone turned to her, clearly showing their surprise. Nobody else had known. "My Aunt…" she looked down at her feet. Hannah put a reassuring hand on her shoulder from behind. "Had a lot of friends in the Ministry. They came around sometimes and we talked. One of them told me in a letter."

Harry cursed.

"Isn't that a good thing?" asked Neville confusedly.

"I can Apparate," Harry told them. There were surprised looks all round, including Daphne. Not even she had seen that one coming. "I took an extra day away from Hogwarts to get my license while I was away three weeks ago. Though since we're this far out, Apparition is probably possible here."

"Wait a minute, Harry." Padma's voice stopped him. "You can't get an Apparition license unless you're of age…"

"You've answered your own question," Harry said. "Come on, walk and talk." Harry cast the Point Me Spell again. Hermione, according to the Spell, was still deeper in the forest, however this time the wand only spun once. They were getting closer.

"Huh?" Ernie said stupidly. "How are you of age?"

"Sirius Black made you his heir didn't he, Harry?" Susan said solemnly.

"Yeah," Harry said quietly. He climbed over a fallen tree, turned and helped over everyone else. "How'd you guess?" he asked while helping her over.

"Auntie wanted to do the same for me," answered Susan, regaining her balance after slipping in a patch of mud. "She … she didn't get the time to change her will." Harry gently squeezed her shoulder as a reassuring gesture before turning his attention to helping Hannah over the log.

None of them said anything else for awhile after that.

"Point Me Hermione." Harry uttered the spell one last time. The wand in his hand didn't even spin once. It continued to point straight ahead.

Harry knelt down and motioned for the rest to do the same. "We have no idea the numbers or who we're up against. We could be up against one, two, three, or twenty." All nine of them nodded solemnly. "Everyone, Disillusionment Charms now."

The feeling of an egg cracking on his head and something cold running down his back was something that Harry still wasn't used to. He watched as all nine of them shivered involuntarily before returning their attentions to him.

"I'm not going to ask you to kill for me," Harry deadpanned. "If possible, I don't want to have to kill anyone in this war, but that is unrealistic and I'm sure each of you understands that. If the moment comes when you have to choose between killing a person and saving yourself or any of our lives, do not hesitate." The nine of them nodded solemnly after various lengths of contemplation.

"Susan, Hannah, Daphne, Su, take the right side." Harry ordered. "Move quickly but quietly. Our presence is probably already known but if we have the surprise, at the very least in numbers, we're going to make use of it. Daphne," Harry turned to the blonde Slytherin.

She cocked an eyebrow at him, daring him to order her around. He did. "Figure out your best plan of attack from your side. Use anything and anyone." Daphne nodded. The four of them nodded and moved off to the side, waiting for the word to move out.

"Padma," Harry said. Padma nodded, her attention fully focused on him. "Take Luna, Ernie, Katie and Neville with you. Use that fantastic mind of yours to think up your best plan of attack. If you can, scout the area to determine how many enemies there are."

Luna, Ernie, Katie and Neville moved off to the side. Padma didn't budge.

"What about you?" Padma asked accusingly, her gaze never leaving Harry's eyes.

She's too smart. Harry thought ruefully.

"I'm giving them just what they want," Harry explained with a slight grimace. "I'm going to walk straight up to them head on. What else would the hot-headed me have done?"

-x-x-x-x-x-

The element of surprise was one of the most basic strategies in any battle. Regardless of how powerful or destructive a weapon becomes, taking the enemy by surprise would result in an increased chance of victory. That's not to say that one person with the element of surprise could win against one hundred, that's just not going to happen. When the numbers were ten on an undetermined amount, the element of surprise would be vital.

Unfortunately, the man that was holding Hermione seemed to already know Harry was coming. How she knew this was simple. He had said so.

"Ah, here he comes," The man had said to himself. "Impressive. I thought he would've taken longer than this."

Hermione's head shot up in his direction. The man caught Hermione's eye, not realizing that she could see him. The truly magnificent thing about the spell she had discovered to reveal hidden beings was that the person hidden wouldn't notice. Bellatrix had seen her two partners revealed on the Hogwarts express and known her own protection would also be gone. Dumbledore had used the spell repeatedly to discover Harry under his Cloak over the years. The Cloak was protected by more powerful magic than a simple Disillusionment Charm and so only the caster could, for a few seconds, see where the hidden figures where. The only way Hermione knew that Dumbledore knew this was because of the occasions when the Headmaster would look directly at them under the Cloak. This had fuelled her research to find the spell. Thankfully the summer before sixth year bore fruition.

Harry came, I knew he would.

"Crabbe, Goyle," The man called to the two oafs who were still seated off in the distance. "Get ready; he's walked straight through the sensor. Nobody else passed through it. He's alone." The man turned back to face Hermione. "Your hero is not very intelligent is he? Walking straight into a trap like this… Bellatrix was right; he's a hot-headed runt. I knew I wouldn't need any backup."

Hermione felt a brief pang of worry. Harry was alone? There was no Ron anymore. Was he really alone? What about the DA? Or were they somewhere else?

At the very least, Hermione had her hand on her wand. She was ready to release herself at the right moment. The man had not come any closer to her, or inquired about the wand. Hermione correctly assumed that the man thought Crabbe and Goyle would've had it.

Speaking of them, Hermione watched the two goons stumble through the undergrowth towards her. The figure underneath the cloak followed as well. The man removed his Disillusionment Charm.

"Order whoever that is to attack Potter once the first spell has been fired, not a moment before," the man ordered. "Now get to your positions. He'll be here in a minute."

-x-x-x-x-x-

Padma quickly ran low to ground through the forest, brushing past dozens of branches that cut at her robes which she ignored, the rest of her team mere steps behind her. She had spotted Hermione tied up to a tree. It looked as if she was alone with just one captor…that was before she saw two very familiar faces.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were two of the stupidest students in the school yet she never had believed they would have gotten this stupid. Honestly.

Accompanying them was a medium height person under a cloak, their face not visible from their position. Padma couldn't determine who that was, not even their gender.

"The person under the cloak," Padma whispered to her companions. "Stun only. We don't know if that's a person under Imperius or not."

Katie kneeled down behind Padma, grimacing as her hands grew steadily muddier the more places she touched. "Right," she replied, part of her distaste making its way into her tone of voice.

Padma glared at Katie. "If you don't want to get dirty, you shouldn't have joined us." Padma chided the older girl.

Once upon a time, Katie would've retaliated with her own comeback; however the seriously of their situation did not pass over her head. Keeping as quiet as possible was a must.

Neville patted his hand on Katie's shoulder consolingly, unintentionally leaving a muddy hand print on the material.

Padma inwardly sighed, returning her focus to the matter at hand.

There was one other person in sight. He was a tallish man, whose back was to Padma and her group. He was standing roughly fifteen meters from Hermione. That was a problem. A misaimed spell from here could hit Hermione. Alerting the man of their presence would cause him to fire off at Hermione.

A distraction was needed.

Fortunately, that was exactly what Harry's job was.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Daphne was in similar mind to Padma, though not knowing it.

The four of them all saw Hermione tied to a tree with Crabbe, Goyle, a person in a cloak and a middle aged man guarding over her. Crabbe, Goyle and the person in a cloak turned and walked in different directions. The three of them hid behind trees.

Susan voiced her deduction that that was supposed to be their hiding spot crossed with cover.

Two of the stupidest students in the school replicated their intellect by not Disillusioning themselves.

Not that it would've mattered.

"See that person in the cloak?" Daphne remarked, gesturing the general direction of said person. "That person is probably under Imperius. Try to Stun that one, the rest are fair game."

Susan and Hannah glared at her.

"I didn't mean it that way!" Daphne backtracked angrily. She sighed to herself. Although she was getting along with them all for the most part, she wasn't stupid enough to delude herself about their skepticism of her. That would take a long time to change, if it ever did. For too many years the other three houses had hated Slytherin, only because the ambition and cunning of several Slytherins had resulted in the uprising of Dark Lord's, one after the other.

Even though she had joined Potter's side in the war, it didn't give her trust. At least Gryffindors, Huffelpuffs and Ravenclaws weren't that stupid.

"Potter's probably going to be the diversion," Daphne whispered to the other three. "After we take these three down, quickly search the area for anyone else then back up Potter and Granger. Be ready to make your move when the moment comes."

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry waited for a minute, making sure that everyone could have as much time as possible to prepare. He trusted them to be quick and quiet. Padma and Daphne were both very intelligent women, which was why he had left them in charge.

Very few people knew how much he had changed since the Department of Mysteries, regardless of what Lavender said the school was learning about him. The school, according to his fellow Gryffindor, knew that he wasn't the 'Boy-Who-Lived', but in fact his own person. That didn't translate into what his personality was like now or how strong he had, and was, becoming. After his outburst in Snape's class recently, Harry believed that the school probably thought he was still much the same as the previous year. At any rate, the Death Eaters would be unprepared for a much stronger, more intelligent Harry Potter. That was what he wanted to continue to prove by walking straight on into a trap.

Harry removed the Silencing Charm from his feet and closed the distance between himself and Hermione's supposed location. His wand pointed directly ahead of him. She was close.

Then he saw them. There was a man, medium height, staring directly in his direction, as if knowing he was there. That didn't matter. Since he wasn't looking around him, he wouldn't notice the nine students surrounding him. Were all Death Eaters this stupid or overconfident? Then again, he was supposed to be just one sixteen year old kid.

"What have you done with Hermione?" Harry yelled out. The rain had all but stopped. His voice carried the distance to the man easily.

"The Mudblood's safe," The man called back, smirking. Harry had to fight to not smirk back. He was completely underestimating his opponent.

"What do you want?" Harry demanded.

"The Dark Lord has requested a meeting, one that would result in the end of these games," the man replied calmly, authoritatively. "Come with me quietly and I'll let the Mudblood go."

"Harry!" Hermione called out. Harry quickly shifted his focus to her voice and then back to the man. He saw the ropes surrounding one of the trees twenty meters in front of him. Now he knew where she was. There was just one more thing he had to know.

"How did Bellatrix and the other idiots get on the Express?" Harry asked, returning his focus to the unknown Death Eater. This was one of the questions he had for Tonks, but she was still out of the country…or so he had been told.

The man smirked. "Bellatrix, the whore, went early in the morning, before your beloved Ministry protection arrived. It really is embarrassing how far the Ministry has declined due to the corruption of Mudbloods." The man shrugged. "It was easy as long as you knew when to arrive."

Harry failed to restrain a snort. "You blame non-purebloods for your own mistakes. In case you haven't noticed, all the positions of real influence are held by purebloods. That means that anything in every department has to pass through their hands. Unless I'm mistaken, that makes it your own group that made the mistakes."

Surprisingly, the man did not grow angry or retaliate verbally. He simply continued to smirk at Harry. "It is useless for us to be arguing, Mr. Potter. Are you going to come quietly and save your friend or are you going to make me force you and get your friend killed?" The man drew his wand and pointed it at spot out of Harry's eyesight, in front of the tree that held the ropes.

Harry was surprised that Hermione didn't say anything at this. There wasn't even a whimper of fear, a frightened plead for her life. Nothing.

Then understanding came to him. She would've felt the ring radiate heat when he created the new message. She knew he wasn't alone. Fortunately, the man didn't seem to know or care.

"Who are you?" Harry asked, stalling for just a little more time. The man looked surprised for a moment, the query an unexpected one in his eyes. "You weren't there at the welcome back party a year and a half ago." Harry continued. "That means you're new."

"If you must know, my name is Yaxley, a pureblood," Yaxley stated proudly. "Are we done with Q&A? Make your choice." He tightened his grip on his wand.

"Yeah, I've made a choice." Harry said calmly. He reached into his pocket and pulled his wand, leveling it between the Death Eaters' eyes. "You're going to have to beat all us."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement on both his left and right sides as the DA made their move. Since the Disillusionment Charm did not hide one perfectly; he could see the occasional shimmer. He couldn't make out any distinct figures however.

"Us?" Yaxley repeated, highly amused by this announcement. "You're alone, Potter." He shook his head. "Too bad, now the Mudblood dies." He raised his wand. "Avada Ke…" Yaxley stopped mid incantation. There was something wrong. His wand was missing.

"Are you so sure, Yaxley?" Harry taunted, his confidence radiating off him despite his worry over Hermione. They could do this. They could really do this. "Am I really alone?"

"Crabbe! Goyle!" Yaxley shouted. "There are more enemies!"

Harry raised his wand and cast a silent Reductor Curse at Yaxley, who just managed to get out of the way in time, the sounds of water splashing following him as he moved through numerous puddles. Harry quickly moved to release Hermione, but found she was already getting to her feet, wand in hand.

"You idiots!" Yaxley screamed, noticing the wand in Hermione's hand. "You didn't get her wand?"

Yaxley reached under his robes and pulled out a second wand, waving it once just in time to shield against Hermione, who cast a Cutting Curse at him. The shield dissipated a second later and the man sent back a different spell that Hermione dodged with ease. Harry, taking several steps forward, cast a Stunner followed by a second Reductor Curse in the Death Eater's direction.

Already Harry could tell that catching this person with a Stunner probably wouldn't work. They were too easy to shield and this man was capable, not at all like he had experienced against the Black Sisters in their anger-fueled state of mind. He had to try something different to render him unable to fight.

Yaxley parried both spells with practiced ease before rounding on him with a barrage of Dark spells Harry wasn't familiar with. Harry Banished a bunch of debris into the incoming spells path to intercept the spells. With a small explosion, the spells collided with the Banished objects and exploded in mid-air, the remains sprinkling to the ground almost soundlessly in the dying vestiges of the storm.

Harry moved off his spot, running to his left, his damp hair flailing wildly around his eyes, more than once interfering with his eye sight. Yaxley passed in and out of sight as he passed by numerous trees, each dropping various amounts of water onto him as he battled his way through the underbrush. Thankfully the man's attention had turned back to Hermione, who was now casting a rather large variety of spells that the Death Eater was able to dodge or shield himself against with trained precision. Despite starting the entire battle on the back foot, he had already proven he was not a pushover. At best, Hermione was stalling him.

Harry, seeing the man was entirely focused on dealing with Hermione, not anticipating the situation where his captive had escaped, on the run, cast a Bludgeoning Hex and a Blasting Hex at his opponent. The spells rocketed through the air towards the man's back unhindered by the dense foliage. Hermione dodged a curse that connected with a tree and imploded, the sound reverberating through the woods, saw the spells coming and erected a shield in case the spells missed.

For many wizards, that might have been enough to end the fight.

Unfortunately, Yaxley was not a pushover.

The man turned on his left foot, the wet leaf litter adding to the ease of his turn, cast a Shield Charm which absorbed both spells, and sent a Flame-Cutter Curse in Harry's direction. The spell's wide arc cut through several trees like they were butter.

However, the spell had been hurriedly cast and ended up a good ten meters to the right of Harry, who had kept on moving. A half dozen trees began to collapse, colliding and knocking several more over, creating a series of enormous crashing sounds, drawing Harry, Hermione and Yaxley away from the duel to watch in amazement, or, in Harry's case avoid, the falling trees. Dozens of birds screeched and took off at the loud noises in their habitat, blocking out small patches of light from the darkened skies. To finish off the destructive display of spellwork, many of the trees were set alight with several small, magical fires.

Once the last of the trees had collapsed, each of the three refocused their attention on the duel. Harry looked around quickly for where Yaxley and Hermione were through the rain soaked vegetation and found them resuming their duel. Yaxley, far more experienced than Hermione was, seemed to have finally gained the upper hand as Hermione was almost backed up against a tree, maintaining a shield desperately, a number of spells hammering relentlessly into it.

Taking a step forward, wand at the ready to aid Hermione, Harry's foot got caught on an exposed root and nearly tripped over. He reached out and steadied himself on a fallen tree. A quick, not altogether brilliant plan, but a plan nonetheless, came to mind.

"Get out of the way, now, Hermione!" Harry called out. He cast a variety of standard spells to distract the Death Eater and allow Hermione the time to recover. The spells were shielded or dodged with simplistic ease that was becoming the norm from this man, but the objective was complete. Hermione managed to scramble aside, her shield seconds from breaking, and raised her wand at Yaxley.

"Plecto!" Hermione yelled out, waving her wand wildly like a whip, and a sharp whipcrack sound emanated in the clearing. Yaxley, recognizing the spell, tried to move aside quickly, but was not quick enough to avoid it entirely. Instead of his wand arm, like Hermione had been aiming at, the spell connected with his left mid-section with the sound of whip hitting flesh. Yaxley let out a small yelp of pain and skidded a few meters to the side, the power of the spell surprising him, and barely missing a second Blasting Hex from Harry because of it.

Clenching his teeth together tightly, Yaxley stood tall once again. The spell must've hurt immensely, yet Yaxley was not one to take a hit and then be done for the count.

Hermione, as soon as the spell had connected, turned tail and ran, sliding once on the damp forest floor, from the small clearing she and Yaxley had been dueling in to the tree line and disappeared behind the first, reappearing for a moment to cast another simple Reductor Curse. Harry from his spot opposite of her was well aware of how much she must've put into her shield against Yaxley for it to protect her for so long. She was tired, physically and magically. It was a miracle that Yaxley had not thought to use the few spells in existence that could break a shield. That had been the last thing Flitwick had warned him about when discussing shield spells.

But that was fine. It was time for Harry to make his next move.

"Wingardium Leviosa," whispered Harry, too much in a hurry to cast the spell silently. That required a little more concentration than he was willing to spare presently. Silent spellcasting wasn't quite second nature yet, not in pressure moments.

"Depulso," whispered Harry, directing his wand in the direction of Yaxley. His plan was very simple and it was almost exactly the same as he had used in his first duel against Flitwick and then Hermione shortly afterwards. The only difference was that the objects he was effectively chuckling at the enemy were far larger and would hurt considerably more than simple twigs with a little extra weight.

Those times he was only attempting to prove a point, not to injure a person. This time, he was out to injure a person.

The force behind the Banishment Charm was considerable, and although several branches did try to slow down the spell, they were snapped, rather loudly, with incredible ease.

Yaxley turned to identify the source of the sound, his attentions formerly on finishing off Hermione by first destroying whatever protection a single tree offered her.

The Death Eater didn't pay her any heed once he saw what was headed straight for him. An incoming chunk of tree that he himself had knocked down with his careless curse earlier was a tad more important than a tired mudblood hiding behind a tree.

Harry had cast the Cutting Curse several times on several of the many fallen trees to create rather large and effective projectiles. It was a simple tactic and was the first thing that came to mind when Yaxley had so kindly played lumberjack for him.

Yaxley cast a Reductor Curse at the projectile, blowing the threat to smithereens, the pieces raining down to the forest floor. Splashes could be heard as larger pieces of debris landed in the many puddles.

A second and third quickly followed, both barely being able to be destroyed before colliding with their target.

There was movement behind Harry, who quickly turned, saw a shimmery outline and returned his focus to Yaxley immediately, flicking his wrist to the man's direction to cover his diverted attention. A fifth and sixth piece followed soon after, also finding themselves destroyed before hitting their target.

"Is that all you got, Potter?" Yaxley taunted, calling out over the thirty odd meters separating them. "After all the hype, I'm severely disappointed in you."

Harry ignored the taunt, continuing with his plan, Banishing three more pieces directly at Yaxley. Amidst the explosion noise, Harry called out instructions to the person who'd come up behind him.

Running out of pieces of fallen trees, Harry Banished the rest of his supply except for one and went on the move again, the sole remainder left in an easily accessible position for when he needed it.

Dispatching the last of the irritating projectiles, Yaxley followed the Potter boy's movements closely, taking his time to aim for this attempt. With a quick flick, the Death Eater cast a silent Nerve Cutting Curse followed by several more in a similar vain, including the standard Cutting Curse, in front of the boy's movements. He could not risk any permanent damage, for the Dark Lord would have his head if he killed the boy.

The first of the spells missed, Yaxley misinterpreting Harry's speed, while the following few either bounced harmlessly off, or cut down, more trees surrounding the runt.

Surprisingly, the boy was quick and managed to dodge each tree without much of a scare.

Harry jumped over a fallen branch, turned to face Yaxley and slid to a stop, nearly losing his balance again. A tree was falling right in front of him and with everything he could muster, and with a strong, furious swipe of his wand, Harry Banished the entire tree in the direction of the Death Eater.

The entire tree, minus a meter, from where the Cutting Curse had hit, shot off in the direction of Yaxley, who cast yet another Reductor Curse. The spell collided with the tree in the middle, blew it in half, showering the older man with dozens of chunks of wood, several cuts appearing on his face and bruising his skin.

It was at this time that several shouts were heard from around the clearing Yaxley was in.

Shaking free from the debris, Yaxley searched quickly for the source of the shouts, only to find a dozen spells flying at him from one half of the clearing. With fluid, well practiced movements, hampered by his heavily bruised mid-section, Yaxley ducked and shielded all that he could, being struck by a stray Bludgeoning Curse that dislocated his left shoulder towards the end of the barrage. A shout of pain was cut off by the need to vocalize and create a shield to defend against another incoming set of spells.

In his desperation to defend against the numerous spells, regardless of how weak or common they were, Yaxley never noticed Harry disappear from his previous position.

Harry had ordered the person under the Disillusionment Charm to get the others into an attacking position on one side of the forest and to cast spells as a distraction at an advantageous moment, thereby giving him the chance to end this. A combined total of eight wizards and witches was enough to put even the most experienced duelist on his back foot.

While Yaxley was busy fending off a large number of spells, Harry quickly summoned the remaining piece of fallen tree that he had cut before and positioned himself side on to the Death Eater. He would've liked to have been behind him, the man presenting a larger target there, but there was the occasional inaccurate spell that could have hit him.

"I must say, Yaxley," Harry said smartly, confidently, drawing the attentions of the man after the third barrage of spells. "You are single handedly the strongest Death Eater I have fought to date. Call it comforting words for when you're rotting in Azkaban."

Before he could retort, Harry waved his wand and sent the final piece speeding directly towards the twice injured man, followed by a simple Stunning Spell. There was no need for more, not this time. Had he been at full strength, Yaxley would've been able to blast the wood to pieces again and shield the simple spell. However, he had a dislocated shoulder and a whiplash on his side that impeded his movements enough. The man fruitlessly tried to turn in time to defend against the newest, and final, onslaught.

The Death Eater was struck head on in the chest with the tree trunk. A large, sharp yell of a pain escaped the man's lips before his voice was caught in his throat, winded, if not worse. A sickening crack was heard throughout the forest as at least one bone in the man's chest and stomach region broke underneath the massive power Harry put behind the Banishing Charm.

The Death Eater finally slumped to the ground, unconsciousness, but still very much alive. For a moment, Harry stood still, panting, wand still aimed at Yaxley's motionless body. There was no movement, even after a solid minute of being on guard. He took a step forward and, remembering, cast a simple Stupefy to ensure the man was, and would stay, unconscious. A ruffling noise to his right distracted him from anything more.

"Harry!" Hermione yelled. She ran out from a gap in the trees and tackled him in a hug, much like the one he received when he returned three weeks before. He managed to stay standing this time, though he was breathing rather heavily. "Thank you," she whispered into his chest, clutching at his thoroughly soaked through robes.

"No need," Harry replied honestly, trying to breathe in and out deeply and catch his breath.

There really wasn't. Hermione was his best friend. He'd meant what he had said to everyone not fifteen minutes ago. He would have gone after her whether he could save her or not, ill feelings or not.

"Thank you," she whispered again, tightened her grip on him slightly before letting him go and giving him a beautiful smile that contrasted with the greatly dirtied robes she wore. He smiled back for a moment, before beginning to feel uncomfortable. Then he remembered the rest of their party.

"Are we all done?" Harry called out loudly, his voice magnified by the environment. Hermione, remembering them too, quickly began a furious examination of the woods around them for any signs of life. There was a moment of silence before he heard a rustling coming from a ways in front of him. Seconds later, the DA members appeared levitating the unconscious and, in one case, bloody forms of Crabbe, Goyle, and a third person in a cloak.

Su, Luna, Ernie and Neville had streams of water from their wands extinguishing the small fires created by Yaxley's spell on their way to Harry and Hermione.

"We searched the area," Padma explained the reason for the delay, dumping the form of Crabbe unceremoniously on the ground next to Yaxley. "There's nobody else." She then let out a marvelous smile at Harry. "I'd say this is a successful rescue mission?"

Harry smiled back. "Definitely,"

Daphne dumped the body of Goyle on top of Crabbe, not realizing, or not caring, that the Stunned forms of the two were now effectively snogging each other. "We saw Hermione, this guy," she pointed to Yaxley. "Crabbe, Goyle and this other one," she pointed to the one in a cloak that Susan was levitating towards him. "And surrounded them. Goyle was closer to us, so we went for him."

"Crabbe was closer to our group, so we went after him," Padma added, while casting several spells on herself, the dirt, grime and rain soaked robes repairing themselves and warming her up.

"You should've seen Susan and Hannah here," Daphne laughed, having already done the same. "These two really know how to work together. This oaf," she nudged Goyle with her foot. "Got hit in the stomach with Hannah's Bludgeoning Curse, bent over in pain and got Susan's Bludgeoning Curse in the face."

"That explains the blood," Harry remarked offhandedly. Frankly, he didn't care if they were bleeding or not as long as his friends were safe.

Daphne nodded. "Su, here," she smiled at the short, silent Ravenclaw. "Then got him with an Obscuro Charm so he wouldn't see who we are, and then I Stunned him." Daphne then smirked at Harry. "He never even got a shot off. It was pathetically easy, really."

"Then we heard the sound of trees collapsing and I came over to see if you needed any help," Daphne went on. "I must say, that was a remarkably good show you put on, Potter."

Harry shuffled his feet uncomfortably. Praise was never something he had gotten used to, let alone from the confrontational one of the group. "Thanks. I doubt it was the most effective plan, as I'm not really much of a planner in a duel, but it was all that came to mind."

"It worked," Neville said cheerfully. "Who cares if it wasn't the most effective plan?"

"He's right," Susan said with a smile on her face. "As far as I can see, we're all unharmed and we have three Death Eaters and a…" All eyes turned to the cloaked person.

Padma stepped forward. "Neville, Luna and Katie teamed up against Crabbe while Luna and I Stunned and bound up this other one. We haven't checked to see who it is."

"Then let's find out," Harry said. Susan gently laid the body on the ground. The eleven of them surrounded the body. Harry knelt down and put his hand on the hood of the robe. He took a breath and pushed it aside.

"Madam Rosmerta?" Susan asked, shocked.

In fact it was the bartender of the Three Broomsticks. Her pretty face was lined with dirt and mud from the battle and the rain.

"Someone put her under the Imperius," Harry muttered more to himself than anyone. He looked at Crabbe and Goyle, instantly dismissed them as being able enough to use the spell and looked at Yaxley. Had he been the one?

"Rennervate," Harry whispered, a brief glow stemming from his wand. He then quickly muttered Diffindo and the ropes binding her were cut. Rosmerta opened her eyes, blinked several times and looked around in surprise.

"Harry Potter?" she asked confused. "What are you doing? What are we doing here?" Su helped her sit up. Rosmerta took in her surroundings, robes and the Stunned Death Eaters. "What happened?"

"You were put under the Imperius," Harry said quietly, in a hopefully reassuring voice. "You're okay now. Can you remember anything? Who put you under the Curse?"

Rosmerta thought for a moment, her eyes watering. "I remember preparing for the Hogwarts students to come to the inn…is it still Saturday?" Harry nodded and Rosmerta sighed in relief, wiping the unshed tears away, not realizing she had dirtied her face further. "Then the door opened a bunch of students came in. I went into the back room to bring out some more Butterbeer…and that's all I remember."

"Can you remember what the voice sounded like?" Harry prodded gently.

Rosmerta shook her head. "It was a male's voice…I'm sorry, that's all I can remember." Her eyes started to tear up again.

"That's alright, Madam Rosmerta." Harry put an equally hopefully reassuring hand on her shoulder and stood up. "Let's get back to Hogsmeade." Harry faced their three prisoners and cast a Stunner on each of them. Hermione added an Incarcerous to all three. Susan, Hannah and Ernie followed through by casting Levitating Charms on them.

The eleven Hogwarts students, a disoriented Madam Rosmerta, and three levitated Death Eaters marched, or floated, through the Forbidden Forest back to the town of Hogsmeade.

-x-x-x-x-x-

A/N: I've significantly upgraded Yaxley's power from canon. There needs to be some capable Death Eaters. I chose him here. His plan was a knock-off the big one from OotP and he did not expect Harry to have such a large support, hence the ease in which he was overcome.