Disclaimer: The rights of Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling and Warner Bros. I am making no financial gain from this story whatsoever.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I may not reply to every one of them, but they've been wonderful.

Chapter 14
Diagon Devastation

"This can't go on, your Highness," Harry pleaded.

"Think of what you're asking me," the Queen replied. "I cannot risk the magical community living in complete secrecy from the muggle one."

"We are dying," Harry said. "Our ministry's destroyed. Innocent civilians murdered in the streets. Some people apparently know some of the magical people in muggle areas, and are announcing them. We can't go on like this."

"The loss of life is regrettable," agreed the Queen. "However, we're now in a situation where we have both governments exterminated. Both! The people who have headed new the muggle government are out for blood. And now you tell me you have no government of your own."

"Then let me use the cave," begged Harry. "It will solve everything."

"It'll solve your problems, true," the monarch remarked. "But what about the wizards out for revenge, pray tell? What'll stop them from killing any muggle they had a fight with?"

"We'll rein them in," promised Harry.

"Why aren't they reined in, now?" countered the Queen. "Muggles have been killed, too, do I have to remind you? Including the parliament, with every member of parliament, the cabinet, the prime minister, and two nephews of mine? Why weren't they reined in then?"

"My deepest condolences," Harry offered. "But we are the minority. With strategic attacks, our entire population can be wiped out. We have no leaders, and our numbers dwindle by the day. We are becoming extinct."

"Do not be melodramatic," chided the Queen.

"Melodramatic!" spoke Harry loudly. "Soon there will be no witch nor wizard in all of Britain, and every new one who comes from muggle parents will have their magic removed by genetics. How melodramatic is that?"

"Harry, be reasonable, please," the Queen said. "By allowing you to use the cave, I could place the whole muggle population in Britain, and Ireland, into a slavery where they are run by the wizards."

"What will it take for you to agree?" Harry sighed.

"I'd have to see that you have no other option," answered the Queen.

"That'll only be too easy," Harry smiled sadly. "I'll return when I prove it. Good day."

He got up and walked to the door.

"Harry?"

"Yes, your Highness?"

"I don't want to seem cold," the Queen said. "But it is impossibly difficult to watch your nation split in two, and you being torn to decide the right course of action."

"I don't envy you," said Harry kindly. "But I will not be so understanding with the muggles attacking us."

"Whatever do you mean?" asked the Queen.

"Do you know what happens when a wild animal is cornered by another, larger, one?"

"No."

"They fight back," Harry said. "Savagely."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few days earlier

Harry and Hermione were seated in his office, relaxing after a long day of classes.

The door to his office slammed open. Harry got up to give a piece of his mind to the idiot who couldn't knock a bloody door.

"Ron?" Hermione asked. "What's the problem?"

Ron ran in the room, dishevelled, and a look of horror on his face. He took deep breaths, probably from running to the office.

"Muggle parliament, destroyed," he gasped.

"Sit down," Harry offered. "What happened?"

"A wizard entered the Prime Minister questioning from the MPs, and blew the whole room completely," Ron said. "Everyone in's dead."

Hermione got up. "We have to warn the Ministry," she stressed.

"Too late," Ron said. "I was working undercover as the head of the MI5 magical branch, so I could escape. But by the time I reached the Ministry of Magic, the building was finished."

"What?"

"They sent fighter jets to destroy the main building," Ron explained. "They knew that the Wizengamot was having a session, along with the Minister and head of departments. They bombed it to ground, literally. Nobody's survived that."

"How do you know all this muggle things?" Harry asked.

"I'm undercover, remember?" Ron said. "I had to learn how to live as a muggle. Took some time."

"Oh, Merlin," Hermione gasped. "McGonagall."

"What about her?" asked Ron.

"She's at the Ministry," Hermione wailed. "We have to save her!"

"Didn't you hear me?" Ron asked. "If she's at the Ministry, she's dead. We've got to save everyone else."

"Leave that to me," Hermione said. "I've gotten some contacts throughout England and Scotland in muggle areas. Consider it an underground group. Where do you want the wizards and witches to go?"

"Send them here," Harry replied.

"Hogwarts?" Ron asked.

"It's the only place I'll trust," Harry said. "With a thousand years of protections, not to mention the four founders' included, can you suggest a safer place?"

Hermione and Ron were silent.

"Very well," Hermione said. "I'm off."

"We'll head to Wales," Ron said. "There are some magical communities in muggle environments there."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"That went easy," Harry said to Ron.

"Unbelievably," Ron agreed. "Just head to Cardiff, send some announcements, and poof! We've gotten the evacuation started. We should come back a couple of days, to ensure we didn't miss anybody."

"We will," Harry said.

They were seated in a restaraunt, eating lunch. Something on the television caught their eyes. Harry asked a nearby waiter to raise the volume.

"Right now, the air over London has been passed over by many of the RAF fighter jets," the reporter on the scene said. "They have concentrated over Charing Cross Road, bombarding an unknown location. Strangely, while smoke is visible, we have no idea what has been hit. There have been no eye-witness reports of a struck location."

"Bugger me," Ron muttered.

"Let's go," Harry said, throwing a few pound notes on the table.

"Let's apparate into Diagon Alley," Ron suggested.

"Why?"

"I think the surrounding roads will be covered with muggle military," Ron said. "We can't risk that."

"Fair enough," said Harry. "Let's apparate in front of Gringotts."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hermione, on the other hand, had things difficult. She just went through a grueling rescue of a family in Liverpool, who were attacked by civilians. What compounded the difficulty was her and Kingsley's reluctance to use dangerous spells against the civilians.

"Damn the both of you!" cursed Draco, clutching his arm. "I should've knocked that idiot to the 19th century."

"Come on Malfoy," Hermione said. "That pebble wasn't thrown so fast."

"Pebble?" exclaimed Draco. "Perhaps I should throw that rock at you, and let's see you call it a pebble."

"Not now," Kingsley warned. "Who else do we have?"

"There's a wizard family in West London," Hermione said, reading from a parchment. "There's no-one the group knows nearby."

"Let's go, then," said Draco. "And let one other muggle attacked me. I'll be buggered if he doesn't get a lashing."

They apparated into a road. It was deserted. Strangely deserted.

"Wands out?" Kingsley suggested. Both Hermione and Draco quietly agreed.

They knocked on the house. No answer.

Draco opened the door. They walked in, trying to remain as quiet as possible. Draco moved his hand, indicating they split up. Kingsley's rapid head-shaking shot that thought down.

They entered the living room. Empty. They searched the kitchen, and found it devoid of souls. Draco pocketed a knife. He shrugged at Hermione's questioning look.

They went up the stairs, unable to stop the creaking of the wood as they applied pressure on it. They looked into the master room. Empty. They walked down the corridor, and heard scuffling sounds ahead of them. Hermione waved her hands about, indicating she'd enter the room first.

She opened the door slowly, and then quickly entered the room, wand facing forward. She quickly swept the room with her eyes. It seemed empty, until she saw the cupboard shaking. She walked slowly towards the cupboard, with Draco behind her, and opened the door.

Two young children were crouched in the small enclosed space. They drew away sharply at the door opening.

"Please," the girl said. "Don't take us, too."

"Where are your parents?" Hermione asked.

"Taken by the police," the boy replied. "They fought them, and I saw them dragged away."

"You magical?" Draco asked.

"Yes."

"Good," he said. "Let's go."

"Wait!" the girl said. "I heard them say they're coming back, after getting back-up."

"We'll apparate you," Draco said. "Hold my arm," he said to the girl, and then looked at the boy, "and the bushy-haired girl's arm, you."

"No."

"What?' sighed Draco.

"Could you check if our parents are with the police when they come back?"

Draco stared at them.

"Nope," he said. "We're only three people, against a group of policemen? Bloody madness."

"Please," the kids pleaded. "We can't leave without Mum and Dad."

Draco kept silent. Kingsley looked at Hermione.

"Your call," he said.

"Why me?" she snapped.

"You're the one with knowledge of muggle police," the dark-skinned wizard replied.

"Very well," she said. "We'll look into it."

Draco swore under his breath. "Then Kingsley should take the boy and girl with him. I'm not have them crying behind my back. No argument."

Hermione agreed, and Kingsley apparated, with each child holding his arm. Draco shook his head at her.

"You couldn't say no?" he spat.

"Not really," she replied. "And I didn't see you arguing too much."

Draco didn't dignify that with an answer. He walked to the door.

"We hide outside the door," he said. "And when they come back, if the parents are still with them, which is highly doubtful, we rescue them. If reality is still at work, and they aren't, we apparate out immediately. Fair enough?"

"Perfect."

They went down to the lower floor, and headed through the main door, opening outside the house. Draco stepped out first. He turned around to say something to Hermione. Suddenly, a great weight slammed into his chest, knocking him down the steps in front of the house.

"Fu-" he shouted, before his words were silence by the crack of gunfire.

Hermione didn't waste time, sending out as many stunners as she could. Malfoy, on the other hand, looked up, trying to see the surroundings from under Hermione's flailing arms.

Two police cars were in front of them, and four police officers stood behind open doors, guns out, and pointed at them. Draco struggled to look into the cars, but couldn't tell with his upside-down view. He grabbed, Hermione, and rotated, putting himself on top.

"Stupefy," he roared, and repeated it twice more, knocking out the three remaining muggle enforcers, while Hermione stunned one of them.

Malfoy saw more police cars screaming down the road, and apparated away, holding Hermione as he did so.

The two of them reappeared in a park, just as they left. Draco tried to get his breath back, after casting three spells in quick succession, and then immediately apparating away.

"I know this is a long time dream of yours," Hermione remarked. "But could you get off me?"

Draco growled, and rolled off.

"Please," he said. "I bet you'd love to have have platinum blond, bushy haired, Draco-lookalikes."

"Buggered idiot," she replied. "Why'd you apparate us?"

"I checked the cars," Draco said. "They were empty. There was no sign of the parents, so we had to go."

"We did the best we could do," she said, and then dug her hand into her pocket, drawing out a parchment. She read it quickly.

"Let's go," she said. "Something's up in Diagon Alley."

"Hopefully not as bad as the police," Draco hoped.

"Worse."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Bloody hell," whispered Harry as they appeared in front of Gringotts bank.

Diagon Alley was in shambles. Shops stood in shambles, smoke and fire engulfing them. The roar of planes sounded over them, the whistling of the high speed fighter jets, and occasionally, a boom of an explosion.

"Let's go," Ron said.

They saw Aurors trying to get the people still stuck in the rubble of their buildings out. They helped out for a period of time, but the results were mostly less than successful.

"Another casualty," Ron sighed, pulling a body out of the Quiddicth store.

"They probably didn't see it coming," Harry remarked.

They noticed Hermione and Draco popping in. Greetings were quickly exchange, scars shown off (from Malfoy mainly), and they then discussed what to do.

"Ron," an Auror came up to them. "There are sightings of muggle enforcers, planning to storm the place. What do you think we should do?"

"Tell your men to hide in the rubble," Ron said. "An ambush would be a smart decision. How long do we have?"

"A few minutes says one report," replied the Auror.

"Wait for the signal, before attacking," Hermione said. "Until then, nobody moves."

"Okay."

They quickly went to their positions. Ron and Hermione stood at one side of the Alley, while Malfoy crouched under a large sign on the other end.

Harry stood on top of Gringotts, looking at the Alley from an almost bird's eye view. He watched a large group of muggle soldiers stream through the destroyed wall beside the decimated Leaky Cauldron.

Harry watched silently, waiting for them to continue to slowly go through the alley. Seriously, who goes in a new environment in such circumstances, with no knowledge of the environment?

The whole group were in the alley, but Harry continued to wait for the opportune moment. Just when they were right between the two groups. Wait for it... wait for it... wait...

Now! He sent out a blazing trail of red light into the sky. The soldiers looked up in shock, and aimed their guns at him.

Streams of light blasted out from both sides of the alley, slamming into the soldiers. Harry sent a few of his own to the group. The soldiers turned and shot in all directions, but it was too late, they lost their heads in the panic.

Harry walked swiftly towards Ron.

"How many killed on our side?" he asked.

"Five killed, three severely injured," Ron replied. "But the injuries are nothing our healers can't fix."

"What about the muggles?" Harry asked.

"Twelve dead, and twenty captured," Hermione replied.

"What should we do with them?" Draco asked.

"Send them back," Harry replied. "After interrogating them on their other operations."

"What?" Draco spat. "Let them loose?"

"Do you have a better suggestion?" Harry countered. "We can't take them as prisoners. Not now. Perhaps, when we make a proper prison, we'll start."

They started to ask the captured soldiers on information, while Harry started to warn them to leave their posts.

"Should I ever see you lot again," he sneered. "I'll make the last few minutes of your life hell. We know who you are," he tapped his wand, "and it'll be better if you leave the army, and never bother us again."

"Harry," Ron said, waving a parchment at him. "We're lucky that there was a superior officer with these muggles captured. We got a list of other targets from him. Most have already been attacked, except for two. They're in process of being taken now."

Harry quickly looked at the list, and dropped the parchment.

"I've got to go," he said, turning around.

"Harry, wait!" Ron shouted. "What's wrong?"

"Cho's a target," he said. "I have to go help her."

"Won't you need back-up?" Ron asked.

"Take a group of Aurors to save one person?" Harry shook his head. "No, the other attack's a bigger issue."

"What?" Hermione joined in. "You think we'll leave you on your own?"

"Well," Harry muttered. "Cho wasn't a friend of you two."

"But you are," she replied. "And you aren't going alone."

"Draco," Ron said. "Go with the Aurors, will you?"

"Sure," Draco replied. "Best of luck."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They apparated into the hospital, with Harry guiding his friends to the location.

"It looks fine," Harry said, as he saw the hustle and bustle of the doctors, nurses, and patients moving about.

"It's a muggle hospital," Hermione said. "It might be a covert operation."

"Then ours must be, too," said Ron. "Until they notice our presence, of course."

"Lead the way, Harry," Hermione said.

Harry led them through the hospital towards Cho's office. As they saw the door down the corridor, they saw a three people trying to knock the door down. Harry dragged the other two to the side.

"Looks like we're late," he said. "Any suggestions?"

"Why doesn't she just apparate out?" Ron asked.

"She leaves her wand at home," replied Harry. "They don't know she's a witch."

"Damn," Hermione whispered. "Makes things difficult. Let's not waste more time."

She ran down the corridor. Ron and Harry quickly followed. They reached the office door as it was broken down. Hermione waved her wand, disarming one of the muggle law enforcers.

Harry saw Cho immediately. She was standing behind her desk, frantically dialing a telephone. One of the muggles pointed a gun at her.

"Get down!" Harry screamed.

Boom!

Harry watched in horror as Cho clutched her chest, looked up in shock, and then fall backwards to the ground. He quickly turned and disarmed the shooter. He must've put too much force into the spell, as the muggle flew back, slamming into the wall with a sickening crunch. Harry didn't notice Ron disarming the last muggle, instead running around the desk.

Cho lay on the ground, expressionless eyes gazing at the ceiling. Harry crouched beside her.

"Cho!" he yelled. Getting no answer, he started shaking her. "Cho!" He grew frantic, trying to feel a pulse. His hands were shaking too hard to notice if one was present.

"Harry," Hermione said, behind him. "She's... gone."

"No she's not, you idiot," Harry spat savagely, still shaking Cho's unmoving body. "She's just unconcious."

"Harry," Hermione said forcefully, grabbing his shoulder. "Let go."

Harry listened to her, and got up.

"We'll have to get her out," he said quickly. "We can't leave her here."

"We won't," Ron said, keeping his wand on the muggles. "What do we do with this lot?"

"Kill them," he replied.

"What?"

"You heard me," Harry said simply.

"We can't," Ron said.

"Avada Kedavra!" a green light engulfed one of the muggles. "See?" Harry shrugged. "Wasn't so hard."

"What the buggering hell are you doing?" Ron shouted.

"Avada Kedavra," Harry roared, and and screamed once more.

"Harry, please," Hermione stammered, tears in her eyes. "What has gotten into you?"

"Nothing," he replied, in an unusually calm voice. "They couldn't be allowed to live. Not after what they did to Cho.

"Could one of you side-apparate Cho?" he asked. "I'm not feeling too well."

Without waiting for a reply, he popped out of the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Harry?" Hermione asked tentatively, sticking her head around the door of his bedroom.

"Hmm?" Harry asked. He was standing next to the window, staring aimlessly at the school grounds.

"Are you alright?" she queried.

"No."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"When you do," she said, "I'm here for you."

"Okay."

The door shut.

Harry stood there, not noticing the time passing, except for the dull throbbing pain in his legs. The door opened up again.

"Harry?"

"Yes, Ron?" Harry didn't turn around.

"I came to see how you're doing."

"As you can see," Harry replied, "I'm magnificient. Goodbye."

"I'm not leaving."

"I rather think you are."

"No," Ron argued. "You can't be left alone. How are you?"

"Doing splendid," Harry retorted. "For one seeing a friend get killed, an innocent one."

"It wasn't your fault," Ron said.

"It was," Harry countered. "But it was even more the muggles' fault. They can't be reasoned with, those monsters."

"Harry, we are at war," Ron said soothingly. "These things happen. You can't call all the muggles that."

"These things, apparently, mainly happen to me. Look," Harry continued, "I'd rather be alone." He still didn't bother to look at Ron.

Thus, he didn't notice Ron walk up to him, and turn him around.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Ron said. "Believe me. But we can't let you break away from us. We need you."

"I can do this anymore," Harry shuddered. "Next time, it'll be you or Hermione."

"If it will be, it was meant to be," Ron said. "We can't live in fear of what we can't control."

"I'm scared, Ron," Harry whispered, tears in his eyes. "They outnumber us by so many."

Ron drew Harry into a hug.

"We'll get out of this," Ron said. "I promise you."

A/N: Harry may have acted irrationally, but he has displayed a dark streak in canon, like attempting the Cruciatus curse on Lestrange when Sirius was killed.