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: This is somewhat like a co-chapter with the previous one, so it works out well with them coming out one day apart.
Chapter 19
Mayhem amongst Muggles
Harry sat down at his table tiredly after finishing another long day. He had lifted his feet onto the table when a knock sounded at the door. He interrupted each word with a swear word as he told the person at the door to come in. Malfoy entered the room sheepishly.
"You said you wanted to talk to me, Harry," he said.
"Have a seat, Malfoy," Harry said.
As Malfoy sat, Harry continued, "What was it you were telling Lisa today at breakfast? I didn't hear much, but it sounded intriguing."
"I was telling her I heard from a few ex-Ministry contacts some very odd rumours," he said.
"Go on."
"Well," Malfoy rubbed the back of his neck, unsure how to go on. "It sounded like they stumbled upon some potion that would affect only muggles and not the rest of us."
"And?"
"They're planning to pour it into the River Thames," Malfoy said. "But I know my potions, and haven't heard of one like that before. I've searched through as many Potion books today as much I could, but no reference. In fact..." he stopped as he saw Harry take off his glasses and wearily rub his eyes.
"You won't find it there," Harry sighed. "The muggles came up with it. A few tonnes of it were stolen by wizards."
"Oh shit!" Malfoy snarled. "Those idiots. Do muggles drink from the Thames?"
"Fuck do I know?" Harry replied.
"Even if not, it could get into the vegetation..." Malfoy mused.
"I don't know how it works," Harry said. "And I doubt those buggers know for sure either. We don't have time to check either. Get Hermione and Ron over. I'll look for possible areas they'll strike. Did you hear of any location?"
"Well, we're in luck there," said Malfoy. "I distinctly remember him saying he was in Oxford at the time. We could follow their trail from there."
"What idiot would tell you what they were doing?" Harry asked in some surprise.
"He's a long-time contact in the Ministry," Malfoy said. "Besides, I doubt they think they'll be stopped by wizards, right?"
"Anyways, find Hermione and Ron and anyone else you can find in short time in the castle," Harry said, getting off his comfy chair reluctantly. "I'm going right now to Oxford, and I'll meet you there."
On his way out, Harry bumped into Ron himself. Quickly telling him that he was needed in Oxford, and that Malfoy would explain all that, Ron grabbed Harry's arm before Harry could walk away.
"Hang on, you're not going?" Ron said, clearly confused.
"Of course I am," Harry said, shaking off Ron's hand.
"Harry, the muggles know you," Ron said. "They consider you the only person they could negotiate with now with the Ministry gone. If you're seen in an attack scene, and they don't believe the idea that you were trying to stop things from happening... things could get ugly."
"If the attack occurs, it'll be a moot point," Harry shot back. "They'll want all our heads."
"Hermione and I will deal with this," said Ron. "We'll get Dean and Seamus to come along too."
"So you want me to sit and do nothing?" asked Harry. "I don't do sitting and doing nothing."
"You're a leader now, Harry," Ron said. "Leaders delegate."
Harry grumbled what he'd like to delegate Ron to do with a broomstick, but kept silent. Ron said nothing but grinned as he waited.
"Fine, go off before I change my mind."
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"Thank Merlin we're dealing with stupid wizards," Ron said. "With the outfits they were wearing, we've gotten enough eyewitnesses in Oxford to track their path along the river."
"One of them wearing a poncho," said Hermione with a grin, "the other wearing a cowboy hat. They couldn't be any easier to find."
They were walking outside the city of Oxford, south of it beside the river. So far, they couldn't find many other clues so they decided to follow the river's flow until they see something. After half-an-hour of walking, to Ron's disgust, Hermione finally agreed to use broomsticks.
"At this bloody rate," Ron spat as they kicked off into the air, "the wizards could be in London for all we know."
They flew low, in order to keep an eye on the ground, following the course of the river. They flew over Reading, and it was quite some difficulty trying to not be seen, until Malfoy said there really wasn't anything they could do about it and they should stick to the job at hand. Still, they each gritted their teeth when they noticed a person on the ground in the town look up and see them flying over.
About another thirty minutes after they left the town, they saw something on the ground and quickly flew down. They saw a group of wizards throwing spells at something. Touching down on the ground behind a few trees, they crept up to see what was going on.
Thirteen or fourteen wizards and witches were sending spells ferociously at a tree, and the tree kept holding firm at all the spells. Puzzled, it was only after a minute or so when Ron noticed an arm appear around the tree and spells cast from the wand attached.
"Let's go," Ron said.
"But...?" Malfoy said in question.
"Whoever it is," said Ron, "the person is fighting them. So he can't be that bad."
"He or she," corrected Hermione. "Wait... that's Wayne!"
As Hermione and Malfoy moved to enter the fight, Ron grabbed both their arms and pulled.
"What the bloody hell man?" Malfoy swore. "Now you want us to not go in?!"
"I've head Wayne fought a few times," said Ron. "I always wanted to see him in combat."
"Oh, that's positively Slytherin of you," Hermione snapped.
"I take offence at that," Malfoy shot at her.
"But strangely you don't deny it," Hermione sneered.
"Shut up and let's watch," said Ron.
And, to Hermione's disgust, they watched how Wayne fought with the wizards. It was quite messy, she thought to herself, Wayne moved with less grace and more brute force for her liking. She much preferred a graceful movement that helped her keep her balance. She noticed Ron seemed bothered by it.
Ron couldn't understand what he was seeing. He knew he saw someone fight like this before, but he couldn't tell who. The more the person fought, with his endless ducking (which was done far more often than needed) and usage of punches seemed to remind him of... remind him of...
"Oh bollocks," Ron hissed as he jumped over a bush into the fight.
Hermione and Malfoy, caught off-guard, quickly followed. Upon seeing reinforcements, the wizards decided to make a run for it, apparating away with numerous pops.
Wayne looked to his side finally and saw them. "Ah, the cavalry has arrived," he said with little humour.
"A thanks would do," said Malfoy.
"Now why should I thank you when you scared them off?" Wayne said back.
"They left the barrels, that's why," said Malfoy, nodded his head in direction of the large barrels standing beside the bush.
"What shall we do with it?"
"Destroy it, of course," said Hermione.
"We'll take them to Hogwarts and destroy it there," said Ron.
"I'm half tempted to pour it all around Hogwarts,"said Wayne. "So if the muggles ever put us under siege, they'd drink from the rivers and streams, eat from the vegetation and au revoir."
"Yes," was Hermione's reply. "How ingenious."
"Really?" asked Wayne, surprised.
"No, not really," said Hermione. "Sarcasm isn't one of your strong suits, is it?"
"You're really good at it," Wayne shot back.
"Who on earth told you about this?" she said coldly. "In fact, who invited you here?"
She threw a glance at Ron, and a glare at Malfoy, both of whom quickly shook their heads and Ron raised his arms in surrender.
"This is the first I met of this bastard," said Ron, with Malfoy nodding quickly.
"There could've been hundreds of muggles watching you fight!" Hermione yelled.
"Didn't notice any frankly," mused Wayne, stroking his chin. "Though I was distracted. Not too distracted not to notice you lot watching."
"We didn't want to cause more bangs for muggles to see us," said Hermione quickly.
"Right," said Wayne. "How's my sarcasm there for you?"
"We were planning to stealthily stop them!" growled Hermione.
"Sorry, luv, don't do stealth," said Wayne, who turned around to walk away. "I prefer the bangs meself."
"Luv?" Hermione gritted her teeth, and pulled out her wand. "Why you..." and proceeded to throw out a few swear words that made Ron and Malfoy raise their eyebrows in shock.
"Temper, temper, Miss Granger," said Wayne after chuckling, strangely enjoying himself far too much. "You never want someone to know they've been going under their skin."
Hermione huffed, and looked to Ron to say something, but was confused at Ron's face. He was positively loving this, holding his sides trying to somehow rein in his laughter, seated on a fallen tree. When he saw her looking at him, Ron tried to shrug confusion, but it couldn't come out well with the massive grin on his face.
"If you'll excuse me, then," said Wayne. "I'll dispose of the barrels."
"Eh?" said Ron, hopping to his feet. "That's coming with us to Hogwarts. You can bet your last Knut that the muggles are watching us this very minute, and we're going to have not arouse their fears."
"I need to check it out," said Wayne. He needed to check with the scientist if a sample of each barrel accounted for what was stolen, or if some were still missing. He didn't want to have them hovering over him as he investigated, and the barrels were going to Hogwarts anyways, just nowhere they could find it. "I'll give it to you at Hogwarts afterward."
"Sorry, tough luck," said Hermione, feeling pleased at Wayne's displeasure.
"Three against one, Mr. Wayne," said Malfoy quietly from the tree, the only one not moving. "Not good odds for you, I'd say."
"Then you weren't watching me fight very well, Mr. Malfoy," said Wayne, who's brown eyes flashed brightly as he pointed his wand at all three of them.
Hermione raised her wand again, while Malfoy jumped forward with his wand in his hand. Each of the three waited for the other to do something first.
"Oh come on!" said Ron, exasperated. "I've been biting my tongue for so long. But if you're going to start cursing one another..."
"What are you talking about, Ron?" said Hermione, worried.
"Oh come on," repeated Ron. "You really didn't notice?"
"Notice what?" asked Hermione. Ron saw Wayne turn his wand to the barrels and was about to say a spell...
"Hold your hand still, Harry," said Ron with a sigh. "Seriously!"
Hermione and Malfoy's mouths fell open. Harry's wand remained still in mid-air, but Harry's head turned to Ron.
"Fucking waste of time, this is," Ron sighed. "The muggles could be taking over the world, and you're bleeding going undercover and not telling us?!"
Harry looked at Ron shrewdly, and was about to deny it but changed his mind.
"What gave me off?" he said, tilting his head.
"You're fighting," said Ron, tilting his head. "Surely you couldn't have changed your style. I'd recognise you through your fighting if you pretending to be a female."
Hermione was getting a headache, Malfoy was actually rubbing his head.
"H-h-Harry?" said Hermione, looking hard at him.
"Guilty," said Harry, looking around, "but don't make me switch back here. Ron seems to have noticed muggles watching us, but I can't spot them."
"There are two across the river while..." Ron never finished the words, because at that moment a massive red spell hit Hermione right between her shoulder blades. Falling down to the grass in a sickening crunch, Harry quickly turned his eyes at the assailant, and shook in fury.
Polanar.
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Harry, Ron and Malfoy dove to the ground as Polanar threw three more spells at them and then flew over the them and over the river on his broomstick.
Harry dove to his pocket and removed a pouch, and took out his wand from it. (Useful things, the wizards could come up with, small pouches that could hold unbelievably larger objects)
He jumped on the broomstick, and turning back, yelled at Hermione to take Ron to safety. Ron protested Malfoy could do it and he could help.
"Unless either of you has a broomstick, get Hermione and every single one of those barrels to Hogwarts," Harry yelled.
"Harry!" yelled Ron jogging closer to Harry. "Let me get my broom. I can come later."
"I'm not coming back until Polanar stops breathing," Harry growled, and made a shove on Ron's shoulder. "Now go! Hermione needs you. You're in charge of Hogwarts if I don't return."
Harry stayed for a moment, but kept his eye on Polanar, who was flying high above, seemingly waiting for Harry to fly over to him. Harry waited until Malfoy spelled all the barrels out while Ron apparated Hermione out of the vicinity. Harry winced for Hermione, apparating in that condition must've been painful.
He wasn't kidding this time, Harry thought as he flew high into the air with the high speed which would make most wizards and witches sick but rarely fazed him. Polanar was an anomaly in the system; loyal to none but himself and playing by rules only he cared about, he could not be trusted nor reasoned with. The mere idea of a muggle-born wizard siding with Voldemort only to side with the muggles now would've been so laughable had someone told him about it.
Polanar looked to his watch as Harry reached him.
"About time, Wayne," he said with a sneer. "Any longer and I'd have thought you simply buggered off with that lass."
Polanar quickly moved his broom away from the red curse curse Harry sent him. "Tsk, tsk, not one to talk? I was curious as to who you were."
Harry wasn't interested now, having talked enough previously. He simply threw another curse.
"Temper temper," said Polanar, who suddenly flew east.
Harry followed him, pushing his broomstick as fast he could. Polanar wasn't a bad flyer, but Harry was another league. Harry smiled as he thought that Polanar wouldn't have dared used a broom if Polanar knew it was Harry he was dealing with; he completely changed the battlefield to Harry's advantage.
Harry wondered if Polanar was beginning to realise this when he saw Polanar's confusion at Harry's ease at matching Polanar's speed, and Harry was doing it with one hand as his other had a wand. Harry grinned as he threw another spell at Polanar, who barely dodged it by pulling up hard on his broom. Harry followed upwards, and quickly changed directions when he saw Polanar pull down.
Harry matched Polanar all the way down, almost playing a broomstick version of chicken with who'd pull up first, Harry wasn't pulling up and displayed no interest in doing so while Polanar's eyes widened in fear. Harry would bet every single Galleon in his vault that Polanar never even dreamed of pulling a Wronski Feint.
Just as Harry suspected, Polanar pulled up quickly with another 50 meters left until reaching the ground. But as Harry pulled up lazily, he noticed they had reached London. Harry had no doubt that Polanar would not hesitate to use muggles as targets to distract Harry, but Harry had to force Polanar to keep moving. At this speed, Polanar would not risk apparating; he'd splinch every limb of his body.
As they flew over London, Harry had to force Polanar away from the direction of the Heathrow airport, of which they were approaching very closely. Harry wasn't sure what it was like flying near a plane, and wasn't interested in trying at the moment. Quickly flying to Polanar's other side, Harry swung towards Polanar, forcing Polanar to alter his course. It succeeded to go away from Heathrow, but they both flew deeper into London to Harry's fear. The muggles were going to be furious.
Polanar threw a few spells over his shoulder at Harry as they continued to fly fast, with Harry dodging all of them and easing back further from Polanar so as to not get caught off-guard. Harry sped up close to Polanar and threw a spell at his back, but Polanar moved to the left right before it hit.
Polanar seemed to think he could use the muggles to his advantage, as he suddenly flew downwards much closer to them. While the many houses were still below them and of no threat at the moment, buildings were fast coming in their way. Harry put his wand back into his shirt and handled the broom with both hands again. Keeping as close to Polanar as possible, Harry decided to wait as patiently as he could until he could somehow curse Polanar off the broom.
At one point Harry had his eye on Polanar and only realised something was in front of them when Polanar pulled up again. Looking forward, Harry saw a bridge fast approaching, and not having any time to pull up, Harry rolled over his broomstick until he was hanging upside-down and pulled up on the broom (up in his view would be down in the normal way), and Harry flew under the bridge.
Polanar saw Harry make the Sloth Grip-like roll he moved even more erratically for a time, and threw curses at as many stone structures as he could, to break large chunks to force Harry to go down and help the people. Harry tried to slow the fall of some of the breaking pieces, some of them as big as a car, but he held firm to chasing Polanar; to do otherwise would let Polanar escape and he did not know if he would get another chance.
However, Polanar had to slow down to take out his wand, and this gave Harry the chance to take out his as well and scream, "Expelliarmus!"
Polanar's wand flew off his hand with a shout from him, and Harry grinned; he had Polanar now trapped. Without claws too.
Or so Harry thought. Polanar stopped his broom and turned to face Harry who was fast approaching him, and swiftly moved his hands in maddening directions. Harry suddenly felt his chest burn. Smelling smoke, he squeaked a yelp as he looked down to see his clothes on fire.
In his utter concern at the fire on his clothers, Harry forgot to slow his broom and continued to fly at top speed at Polanar, who realised that far too late. With a scream from Polanar, the front of Harry's broom slammed into Polanar's chest, knocking him clean off his broom with the cracking sound of broken bones from Polanar's ribs.
Harry saw Polanar fall down to the city and despite his wand movements incapable of putting out the fire, he did not move until he saw Polanar hit the ground. When he saw that, Harry concentrated hard, and spun on the broom, apparating himself away to Hogsmeade. He had to concentrate hard despite the immense pain, because Harry was apparating himself and not the broom which was on fire at this point and beginning to fall.
Harry was apparating without his clothes, either, which is a rather tricky manoeuvre to do at the best of times.
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The muggles authorities got the testimonies of as many witnesses to today's events as they could. At the night, they reported to their superiors, who reported it to their superiors, who reported it to their superiors.
"Enough!" said the person at the head of a table early that evening, slamming his hand on the table. "This has gone on for far too long!"
"What can we do?" said another at the table. "We've hit their government building, their shopping district and the safe-houses we were given during their fighting with Voldemort. There's only one place to hit."
"Then hit it we shall," said the man. "This person has been seen attacking our buildings for information, seen at a fight near a river with barrels of stolen chemicals which harms us humans, fighting over London and not assisting when stone slabs fell and harmed a good number of our population. What more do we need?"
"Sir, there are serious consequences to that," said a quietly spoken man, who didn't even look up the table, his eyes focused on the table in front of him.
"Do I look like I give a damn about that mumbo-jumbo magic nonsense?" sneered the man.
"At least hear them out," said the softly spoken person, who was about to continue but got interrupted by the head of the table.
"No, no, no!" was the shouting reply. "Send word to that... school," he spat the word like a disgusting swear word, " that unless that broom flyer is sent to us immediately, it's effing war!
Meeting adjourned," he said, not waiting to hear anything and walking out of the room in fury.
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Dean and Seamus walked near the Entrance Hall, each holding a plate of sandwiches and a flask and stumbling as they tried to walk to the Gryffindor common room.
"We're bloody wizards," chuckled Seamus, "and we're struggling with carrying them?!"
"Don't look at me," said Dean. "I was raised a muggle as a kid. I'm used to carrying stuff. What's your excuse?"
But Seamus never got a chance to reply as he saw the Entrance door open and someone stumble in. Squinting hard, he could've sworn it was...
"Harry?!" he exclaimed, dropping the sandwiches all over the ground as he put down the flask, while Dean did the same as they rushed to him. He was wrapped in a blanket.
"Why on earth is he smoking?!" yelled Dean in shock.
"I don't know, but let's get him to a Healer, and fast," said Seamus, who got us and waved his wand, "Mobilicorpus."
Dean ran ahead to warn the Healers that another was coming fast in need of assistance, with apparently multiple burns all over the body.
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Late that night, very late into the night, Ron got a letter from his owl from a contact in the muggle world who would send him some information from time to time.
Authorities are furious. They want that wizard who was flying all over London, also seen fighting outside a cafe before which caused damage and injuries, and they want you guys to hand him over immediately.
Any resistance, and the muggles declare war.
The letter was unsigned, as usual. Ron looked for a quill, dipped one in ink, and then quickly scrawled on a parchment.
Then by Merlin's saggy left nut, let's have a war.
Ron stared at the owl for as long as it was visible under the brilliant moonlight. It wasn't a mystery what the muggles were going to do. There was only one distinctively magical location left in Britain.
No point waking up the inhabitants of the castle right now. They'll be pretty nervous come the morning, and they might's well have one more night of sleep.
A/N: I've got the end in mind, but I'm still debating with myself.
Please review.