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: First, take a look at the 'M' rating. There's violence in this chapter, quite a lot of it. A warning so you don't say you weren't told of it.
Jarno noticed that fighters usually tend to have a few styles ready, so Harry could've hid it. Now, I'd love to give an explanation as to how that would fit in the story, but I fear I may make a fool of myself. Instead, I'll point out that Ron has fought alongside Harry numerous times during the Voldemort war # 2, and as such would recognise a fair number of things Harry would've done even if he tried to change it. Also, that Harry didn't actually think his style would give him away, he was far more concerned about how he physically looked. I won't lie and say I have experience in knowing fighting styles and abilities to change them, but it is interesting. Thanks.
A warm thank you to DCoD as well for the reviews, and to the others.
Chapter 20
Target: Hogwarts
Blinding light hit Harry's eyes as he woke up, forcing him to quickly shut his eyes.
"I think I saw him twitch," he heard a voice say. Ginny.
"Do you think he's awake?" asked another voice.
Harry remained still as his head was pounding.
"I'm tempted to slap his burns right now," growled the second voice. Ah, it was Hermione. The only thing he had wrong now was the immense pain he had in his head, he felt only slight pangs on his skin.
"He even let me flirt with him as Wayne!" said Ginny in anger. Harry couldn't help grinning, he didn't take anything she said as flirting, did he? He couldn't remember and gave a shrug, and another sharp pain pounded the inside of his head leaving him to groan.
The voices stopped talking. After a moment, Harry rolled over and picked his glasses from the table beside him. He slowed his time in putting them on, and when Ginny and Hermione came into focus, he was unaware of who looked more annoyed.
"And how are my two favourite ladies doing today?" said Harry with a sheepish smile. Harry's smile disappeared at the words they threw at him.
"I can't understand what either of you are saying," Harry squealed, as Hermione threw a pillow at him. "One at a time, I was a man on fire, have pity."
"What the hell were you doing?" said Ginny. "Going off on your own?"
"I couldn't talk with the muggles in one hand, and then get caught in cameras fighting people," Harry said. "I needed some glamour spells."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Hermione huffed.
"Because I needed you guys, who are also known by the muggles," said Harry, "to display as much lack of familiarity towards me as you could, in case anyone watched us. If they saw you treating me as some sort of leader you took orders from, they'd either put two together, or figure Wayne was some high level person with power in the wizarding world, and as such every act I did would be blamed on all of us."
"How about telling a few of us?" asked Ginny.
"Which few? The moment I told one of you, there are three others who'll be angry. Besides, I needed those of you closest to me to not get along with Wayne. I didn't want anyone to get a hint at all." said Harry back. "Should I have told Ron or you? Which of the two of you should I have told for example? "
"Me of course," said Ginny. Hermione spluttered.
"You?" she said. "Why you over me?"
"You got to go to all those adventures with him," Ginny said, crossing her arms. "Besides, I saw Wayne first." And she gave Harry a lascivious look. "Couldn't you remain Wayne for now, Harry? I'm not against pretending, you know."
Harry noticed Hermione was not impressed in the least with Ginny's actions, and he felt a bit pleased at that. Ginny winked at Harry when Hermione wasn't looking.
Harry gave a sudden start, and pain erupted in his head, when he heard a massive explosion somewhere in the castle. Hermione and Ginny didn't seem surprised enough.
"What the bloody hell is happening?" Harry yelled.
"The muggles have been trying to infiltrate the building all morning," Hermione said sadly.
"What?!" said Harry, looking at his watch on the stand. "All morning? It's 2 in the afternoon!"
"Yeah, we know, we've been awake," said Ginny.
"How the hell did they find Hogwarts?" asked Harry.
"Polanar told them, maybe," shrugged Hermione. "Or maybe they always knew the general vicinity as we are under their rule."
"Not for much longer," said Harry. "This is breaking the bond."
"How far will they succeed before any of us gets a chance to reach the cave?" said Hermione.
"Let's go do something," said Harry.
"Ron and the others are dealing with it," said Hermione. "Nothing we can do, my back feels like hell spat on it..."
"I can't lift my arm because of my shoulder," said Ginny. "And you were flaming like a kebab."
"We can't sit here," said Harry. "If the muggles break through, who knows what they'll do to us."
"We can't do anything, mon cher," said Hermione. "This fight is not yours to do Harry. For once, you're going to have to sit back and let someone else do the crazy things."
They sat quietly for a time as the bangs occurred a few more times, but then there was silence. They could feel the castle still now. They looked at each other, not sure what to say now.
After another long pause, the door to the Healer room opened with a bang, and a number of Healers rushed into the room, conjuring new beds to squeeze into the old ones. Harry gritted his teeth. This was not good. And his intuition was right. Injured person after person kept coming into the infirmary, some he recognised, others he didn't. A few of them were quickly removed after realising they had passed away to leave the bed for another one that came in. The entire place was in mayhem, people getting each other's way, the moans and screams of pain, Healers shouting for supplies and potions, wand-waving spells and charms... and the blood, the blood.
Harry, Hermione and Ginny were told to leave their beds for the injured, and as they sat at the back in chairs, watching what was happening, none of them said what they feared was happening. Nobody had the time to explain to them if the muggles succeeded or not, or anything at all. Not until...
A massive whoop seemed to break the entire tense scenes as a new injured person was levitated into the room, a person with blood covering all over the top part of his shirt. It took awhile for Harry to notice the person was red-headed and not covered in blood in his hair too.
"Did you see that Dean?" shouted Ron. "I got the wanker. I got the wanker!"
"Yes, Ron," said Dean with a shake of his head. "I was there."
Dean looked terrible, and Harry realised why as he noticed that right after them, Seamus was levitated into the infirmary looking, while not as bad as Ron, terrible and unconscious. A large wound could be seen on his head.
"Don't worry about Seamus," yelled Ron, who Harry was now wondering if he was affected by drugs. "One muggle, two muggle, three muggle, four. Ron's got them all right at the door! Tell them all Dean, tell them all!"
"Yes, I shall inform the underground hip-hop scene," said Dean. "Should I also tell them if it's a freestyle or something written beforehand?"
"What in the blazes is wrong with him?" Hermione asked Dean, rushing towards him.
"He was hit with alot of bullets," explained Dean with a half-smile. "And the bugger tried to continue fighting by increasing his adrenaline by charming himself with one of those spells that give you a rush..."
"And he went overboard with the spell?" asked Hermione.
"No, not exactly," said Dean. "It wasn't working fast enough, so..."
"No..." said Hermione. "He spelled himself again?!"
Dean nodded, and Hermione swore. She turned and ran to the Healer to tell him about this. Dean looked at Harry, who shrugged in confusion as he saw the Healer's eyes widen and rush to the potion cabinet as Hermione quickly whispered as many spells at Ron's chest in the meantime, one of the first putting Ron to sleep. The Healer returned with a bottle and poured a potion into Ron's mouth, but Hermione grabbed the bottle and waved her wand to conjure up a syringe. She waved her wand again, and the contents of the bottle appeared inside the syringe. She then ripped open Ron's shirt, and stabbed Ron in the chest with the syringe.
"Holy shit!" shouted Dean.
Hermione quickly said to the Healer to heal up Ron's chest and she shakily walked back to Dean.
"The idiot almost killed himself," she said. "That spell needs a couple of minutes to reach the organs. To make it twice in quick succession created a massive risk for a heart attack. How long has it been since he made the spell?"
"Ten, maybe twenty minutes," said Dean. "I can't remember. Time seems different during the fight."
"We'll have to wait and see," said Hermione. "The fact he hasn't had a heart attack by now is a good sign, and some papers say an overdose may take forty-five minutes to an hour for it to be irreversible, but there's no sure consensus. He must've been somewhat wild," Hermione finished.
"He was a rabbit on speed," said Dean. "He didn't stop moving. In fact, that could've saved our lives as he ended up doing things no sane person would."
"The spell has side effects," said the Healer. "A burst of confidence is one of them, two bursts in this case. He should be fine after some time, but he'll be at the bed for days until his heart settles."
"Ron Bilius Weasley," sniffed Ginny, who had remained still with shock with all the events. He remained unconscious as she hugged him and sobbed hard into his still blood-stained chest.
"Four bullets," said the Healer, "multiple bruises, and was he cut in the chest?"
"Yeah," said Dean. "There was one muggle who took sadism to another level. The many other muggles seemed to want to secure the place. But that bastard went for blood."
"So, what else happened?" asked Harry. "Did you push back the muggles out of the castle?"
"Yes, but wait until Seamus and Ron wake up for more details," said Dean. "We were separated a few times, so I don't know what they did."
Dean entered the room that evening, with a trolley filled with food for the patients. Seamus and Ron didn't wake up yet. He saw Hermione, Ginny and Harry snuggled in two chairs in the corner, the only places available in the entire room. Ginny was asleep with her head leaning on Harry's shoulder, while Hermione was sitting sideways one Harry's lap, so her back wasn't toughing anything. Harry's problem was he couldn't move his head as Hermione was leaning on his other shoulder. A part of him wanted to complain, but the rest of him told it to shut up.
Harry's eyes opened as he saw Dean seated on the floor with a sandwich in his hands. He watched enviously as Dean ate, and Dean wasn't helping with his contented smile which sprang the moment Dean noticed Harry's attentions. Git, Harry mouthed to him. Dean further slowed his eating and closed his eyes.
After half an hour of persistent glaring from Harry, Dean and Harry finally found a way to get food into Harry's mouth which resulted in Dean feeding Harry. They were both stunned neither Hermione nor Ginny woke up. Harry's mouthed a thanks at Dean when he was done.
By the time nightfall came, Harry figured it must've been bad for his skin for Hermione to press into him for so long. Luckily, a few patients were discharged with relatively less serious injuries and three beds were free. Dean got Ginny to a bed, but Hermione held on to Harry and neither Dean nor Harry could get her off him. After she mumbled a refusal along with 'sod off', Dean raised his hands in defeat. Harry shrugged and carried Hermione to a bed and lay down with her. Dean went to take the third bed himself, too tired to go up to the Gryffindor common room.
Hermione's arm wrapped around Harry's waist as he lay down, and he could've sworn he heard a groggy, "Goodnight," from her before he fell asleep himself.
Early next morning, Ron and Seamus woke up first, and by the time Harry awoke, he saw them in deep discussion, each holding two sandwiches and a glass of orange juice. To mere mortals, that would be confusing to hold all that, eat and have a conversation. But to Ron and Seamus, it was too easy.
Harry saw that Ginny, Dean, and Hermione beside him were all still asleep. He got up and went over to Ron's bed, sitting on the end.
"How are you feeling, mate?" asked Harry in concern. "You, too, Seamus?"
Both answered with a fine, and Ron continued, "A Healer just told me that Hermione stabbed me near my bleeding heart. Is she mental?"
"Are you mental?" asked Harry. "Two adrenaline spells in a row as it wasn't working fast enough? Hermione said you could've had a heart attack."
"Bah," waved Ron aside. "Worth it, I say. Ended up rushing around like there was no tomorrow, and stunned some of the muggles into holding back."
"Dean said you separated," said Harry. "What happened?"
"Well," said Ron, "we'll need Dean to fill in his bit."
"We'll wait until he wakes up," said Harry. Seamus was confused.
"Wait?" said Seamus. "What for?" He crumbled a wrapper of one of the sandwiches and threw it at Dean. It missed. He threw another and missed. He leaned over to pick up a pillow and threw it at Dean, which hit it's target, who woke up with a start, looking left and right dazedly. Once he saw it was Seamus, he proceeded to swear viciously at him, including advice on what to do with a broomstick with a porcupine tied at its top.
"Never mind that," Seamus hissed. "Clean yourself and come over here."
Still muttering a number of swear words, Dean did just that and sat on the bed after ten minutes or so. He grabbed Seamus' last sandwich and the remaining contents of the flask of orange juice. Seamus held his cup away from Dean triumphantly, but Dean shrugged and proceeded to drink straight from the flask. After putting down the flask, he flipped the middle finger at Seamus for one final insult.
"So, why did I have to wake up?" he asked, and then took a bite of the sandwich.
"We need to tell Harry, and one another," said Ron, "what we did yesterday."
"Oh, yeah," said Dean. "You go first, since you got word we were going to get into a fight."
"Wait," said Harry. "How did you know this Ron?"
"I got word from the Ministry the night before yesterday," explained Ron. "They wanted you, or Wayne that is, after the damage he caused. It was that, or a conflict. I told them they could stuff it."
"Why didn't you tell me first?" asked Harry angrily. "I would've let them take me as Wayne to buy you guys time to get something done. I would've tried to escape too."
"I didn't tell you because one," said Ron, numbering with his fingers, "you were unconscious. Two, I knew you were going to accept and that was a no-no. Three, you weren't escaping anywhere once they broke your wand if you tried to sneak it along. Four, they would've injected you with whatever magic-blockers they had. And five, I wouldn't trust one of their over-zealous guards to not shoot you in the very first night. Good enough reasons?"
Harry kept silent.
"I didn't get woken up for this," said Dean with a yawn. "Come on Ron, start."
"Well," started Ron, " like I said I got word of their warning and I told them to stuff it. I left the castle to go to sleep for one more night as the muggles would have to prepare in the daylight first by the time my owl reached them. Thing is they came earlier than expected..."
And with Dean and Seamus filling in their bits, Harry got a glimpse of the day's events.
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Ron woke up the castle very early in the morning by letting out loud sounds. He really wasn't bothered to go to each common room to ask them to get up, that was Hermione's style.
A few of the castle inhabitants ran out into the Hogwarts corridors in their nightgowns and pyjamas wondering if there was an evacuation. Ron told them to get back, change and get to the Great Hall immediately.
"I'm not bloody joking," he yelled as he roamed in the corridors in a manner which might've made Snape himself proud. "And wake up the buggers who're staying in bed by using cold water on them if you want."
"Seriously, Ron," said a voice beside him. Ron looked to see it was Malfoy, who didn't seem like he was sleepy or that he even hurried to dress. "What's with the yelling?"
"Muggles, coming," was all Ron had to say for Malfoy to get it. "Get some anti-muggle traps in the corridors in case they break through. I'll deal with the outside."
Ron reached the Great Hall, and saw Dean and Seamus running down. He swiftly told them what was happening and told them to make as many spells and traps around the castle they could think of. Ron entered the Great Hall and sat down to have some breakfast until the people came down.
Once enough were there, Ron stood up to address the room.
"The muggles are going to hit us soon," he said. "I don't know when, but I figure it'll be today with yesterday's warning being a formality and them already prepared. Because of that, I don't have time to explain much apart from muggles are coming."
The murmuring became loud discussions at that. Ron yelled them to shut up.
"Those who wish to make a run for it," he said. "Go ahead. But I can neither tell you which direction to go. I got the Hogsmeade inhabitants to come over during the night, and as such you won't have anyone to contact there in case the muggles are already there. Anyone wants to go through the Forbidden Forest... feel free.
"To the rest, though," Ron continued. "We have no choice but to hold here. Any remaining children will go immediately to the Gryffindor, and the Gryffindor alone, common room and will not open the door for anyone! If the person on the other side does not know the password, they cannot enter unless one kid recognises the voice. The four founders have put immense protections at the four entrances so they will withstand whatever the muggles come up with. I have alerted the French Ministry of Magic that should Hogwarts fall, they would infiltrate the building and Portkey you out. Teenagers 15 and over, while you have the decision to stay and fight or go help the other children, I need you to remain with the youngsters to keep them calm and safe. Make up a new password for the Fat Lady the moment you get back there. We cannot spare any adults, so may you have peace if this is the last you speak with me.
"The muggles cannot get a foothold in the castle. At first, try to not kill them if possible, but if they seem to be winning, use any means necessary. If Hogwarts falls, all magical Britain falls, which could embolden muggles around the world to hit wizards and witches everywhere. A victory here will strike a warning at the whole world not to fuck with us.
"Put yourselves into groups of four and whatever you do, do not be separated!"
Ron didn't wait to see who would stay or leave, turning to leave the hall and to help with the enchantments. But as he reached the Entrance Hall, a massive explosion rocked one side of the castle. Running to the door, he saw Dean and Seamus rushing back so he held it open for them. Looking far ahead, Ron could see a number of helicopters flying along a large number of artillery units looming in front of the rising sun.
The muggles seemed to have planned for this for a long time.
Ron shut the door, and applied as many locks on it as he could come up with. He then waved his wand and said a long enchantment, and the door disappeared with a wall appearing in its place. Bricks appeared all around him and piled up on the ground as Ron walked quickly away from the wall, and soon, the entire Entrance Hall became a large stone structure.
He unwrapped the Marauder's Map and watched how the dots spread across the floors of the castle. Dean, Seamus and Malfoy were waiting for him outside the Great Hall; they were his group.
"So what do we do?" asked Malfoy.
"We wait," said Ron.
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A clinking sound echoed through the hall as a small object bounced on the floor to a stop. Nobody heard it as gunshots did not stop pounding their ears from all directions.
"Three muggles," screamed Seamus, pointing down a corridor, "down that way."
Malfoy's words were interrupted by the explosion the grenade made. Shaking his head from all the debris that fell on his hair, he tried to speak again, "Another five muggles down that way," he pointed in another direction.
Dean ran by them, and skidding to a stop, turned and joined them. "They've gotten in from multiple entries," he gasped for air. "We've got to bring our big guns now. There's this muggle who's shooting people at point-blank range, after they surrendered. He's a vicious son-of-a-bitch and we might want to make sure to get him."
Ron nodded. He pointed to Seamus, and pointed down one pathway, pointed to Malfoy and then pointed to a classroom. He pointed to Dean, pointed to himself and then pointed to another corridor. They moved out.
Seamus threw a spell which exploded in midair, and then he heard three bodies drop. Dealing with muggles individually was too easy, but they were coming into the castle by the hundreds.
Aircraft continued to pound the roof of the castle, causing great concern for Dean who stared upwards.
"Stop looking there," said Ron. "We'll have to deal with what we have in front of us."
At first, they faced nobody for quite some time. But after passing through the classroom Firenze taught Divination in their fifth year, they saw thirty or forty muggles in a large open part of the castle. Looking to their left and right, Ron could not come up with no one tactic to deal with them all. Dean looked at him and whispered they should split in either direction. Ron, reluctantly, accepted. He tip-toed to one corner and got took two slow, delicate, quiet steps when...
"Ruuuuun!" screamed Seamus rushing past them. Ron turned and noticed that a team was chasing Seamus and were already shooting. He swiftly made an illusory spell in front of them in mid-air, giving the impression there were wizards standing ready to shoot, while he made the same image for the muggles on the other side, the ones Ron and Dean were about to deal with.
Ron, Dean and Seamus ran for it as the outburst alerted the nearby muggles who swiftly turned to shoot the three, but got distracted at the apparent group of wizards who were pointing wands at them, and they shot as many bullets they could at them. On the other side, the other group of muggles were doing the same thing and shooting at their illusion.
Hopefully a good deal of them will be down before the spell disappeared, thought Ron as he pushed hard despite the sharp pain in his hip. A bullet had hit him. They continued to run down the long corridor, which ended at the staircase which led to the Potions dungeon.
Suddenly, they stopped. A small group of muggles pointed their guns at them at fifty feet or so. The three of them raised their hands, with their wands still being held. They looked at one another, unsure of what to do.
A shout came from above, and looking up they saw a person jump from the floor above onto the group of muggles. As Malfoy rolled over three of them which he collapsed, he yelled, "There's a massive fight up there, with that bastard too. Go! I'll deal with these guys."
Ron and Seamus didn't wait, but Dean remained behind and threw a few spells to help Malfoy out until most of the muggles were dealt with, and then turned to sprint upstairs and caught up with Seamus and Ron who jogged upstairs. As they ran upstairs, they heard explosion after explosion. At the top, they saw a stand-off of a large number of muggles hiding in the classrooms, behind desks, in corridors, everywhere really. Wizards and witches, though outnumbered, were putting up one hell of a fight with as many exploding spells as they could throw at the muggles along with a number of slashing spells going threw.
Ron raised his wand, but a hand suddenly appeared to his left, which smacked the wand hand back and then hit him in the face. Ron stumbled back, but still had the control to block the next punch.
This must have been that sadistic muggle Dean was talking about. His eyes displayed a maddening glee at the mayhem going on. Ron tried to throw a spell at him, but he kept blocking Ron's hand. The muggle didn't take off a gun at first, which was strange, but Ron wasn't letting him pull it off now, remaining as close to him as he could. It was difficult though, because while Ron had some hand combat skills through training, this muggle was clearly superior to him. Ron put his wand back in the holster and proceeded to use both hands when he could.
They stumbled into a classroom with the chairs and tables blown up everywhere. It was very difficult to move around, but Ron did not stop blocking the muggle.
Outside, Dean and Seamus cast numerous of spells to shut the doors of the many classrooms down the corridor ahead and lock the muggles already inside. Dean told Seamus to go help Ron and he'd stay there.
Seamus ran into the room a bit blindly, and got into the fight. The problem was, the muggle swiftly positioned himself between the two wizards and the door and continued to fight the both of them in hand-to-hand combat. Seamus, with no training in this regard, tried to help out as best as he could, but the muggle pounded him again and again with hits. In the middle of the fight, the muggle made a kick to Seamus' nose and while his foot was still in midair, he removed a small knife that was kept in the ankle of the foot that was midair. Seamus stumbled back in a daze, leaving Ron to deal with the muggle for a short while.
Ron tried to move back to take out the wand, but the muggle refused to give him the space, continuing to pound him back. As the muggle leaned down to elbow Ron in the midsection in an elaborate, unexpected move, he then quickly slashed upward with the knife in the same hand, making a large cut in Ron's chest. Ron fell to his knees, and the muggle took out his gun, aimed and...
Seamus' spell hit the muggle in the chest and as the muggle pulled the trigger, his arm was jerked back and the bullet hit Ron in the shoulder. The muggle ran out the door before Seamus could cast another spell.
On the other side, Dean was swearing quickly to himself. The muggles had shot through or blown open the doors and the entire corridor was filled with muggles in classrooms shooting at anything stupid enough to try to pass through the corridor. Dean suddenly became still as he heard a soft clinking sound through all the bangs of guns firing. He watched, paralysed with fear as a grenade fell five metres away from him.
Dean watched, stunned, as time seemed to lose all focus as a wizard (probably muggle-born knowing what it was) quickly left cover, grabbed the grenade and threw it back into the corridor. The wizard then jumped back around the corner as the grenade exploded in midair a few metres into the corridor. The gun fire stopped momentarily. Dean saw the wizard not get back up. As the wizard tried to jump back into cover, a bullet had hit him in the head, and the wizard remained still, a pool of red spreading on the floor.
"Which one of you wankers threw a grenade in close quarters?" screamed a muggle voice back there. "We have our own fighting down there too!"
"Go go go!" yelled Malfoy as he got up and ran into the corridor. This time, Dean didn't hesitate and jumped to his feet, rushing to catch up with Malfoy.
A rush of witches and wizards ran through the corridor, casting as many spells as they could into each classroom. The muggles were overwhelmed. Even if a classroom seemed to escape the worst of Malfoy and Dean's spells, the first to rush in the corridor, a number of wizards and witches running behind threw more spells into the room. Suddenly, transfigured furniture which turned into beasts were filling the room, loud bangs hurt the ears of any in the rooms, a few explosive spells ripped through everything in the room.
Dean turned back as he reached the end of the corridor to see their effectiveness. The entire corridor air was filled with dust and debris. He could barely see Malfoy run back through the corridor, sealing as many of the large holes which were door frames with stone. The other wizards and witches realised what he was up to and helped out with spells of their own. In the end, the entire corridor finally became silent.
"Are there any more left in the castle?" asked Malfoy.
"There were some near the kitchens," said one witch.
Malfoy waved that aside, "The house-elves would've finished them by now."
Ron coughed and reached Malfoy, "That crazy muggle is still around," he said, holding the Marauder's map. "There's only one group left on the map roaming the castle quickly, and he must have joined them because I don't see any individual moving right now. They're up two floors."
"Okay," said Malfoy, taking the map off Ron. "Now head to the Healers and get yourself fixed. You're in no shape to fight."
Malfoy and Seamus left with a number of other wizards and witches, but leaving the bulk of the people to deal with the defeated muggles. Dean remained with Ron for a bit as Ron started to mutter rebelliously, and waved a spell on himself. At Dean's inquisitive look, Ron explained it was only an adrenaline spell. Dean asked Ron if they'd get going before the fight above ended. Ron shut his eyes, leaning to the wall.
"One moment," he said. "It hasn't kicked in yet. Maybe it isn't enough."
"Ron..." said Dean cautiously, but Ron had already began waving his wand and saying the spell again.
After another 20 seconds, Ron pushed off the wall, shook his head quickly and his eyes burnt bright with anticipation.
"Now I'm ready," he growled, and ran off.
Dean chased him all the way two floors above, where another massive fight was occurring. The wizards and witches occupied multiple positions around a small group of muggle fighters, who had been pushed with their backs literally to a wall, but were unwilling to give up. The wizards seemed to be cautious to go close for fear of the muggles to throw caution to the wind and utilise grenades. To Dean's left he could see all the way down the many floors over a short barrier that reached his midriff. Malfoy was crouching behind a statue while Seamus was hiding behind an overturned table. He quickly ran for it, as it wasn't really effective in dealing with bullets, over to Malfoy. A bullet tore into his leg, though, as he ran and his fall ended with him hitting his head on the foot of the statue. He was out cold immediately.
Dean ran and then dove over to ground to push the lower half of Seamus behind the cover of the statue. He quickly crouched beside Malfoy, and pointed his wand around the statue and shot a few spells wildly. He turned to see Ron run right at the muggles.
"Bloody hell!" screamed Malfoy. "Give him cover!"
Ron was a bit of a cocky fighter, but this was ridiculous even for him, Dean thought as he made as many barrier spells he could come up with between Ron and the muggles. It held for now, but Dean couldn't tell how long he could hold it up.
The muggle who had given a beating to Ron and Seamus jumped over the muggle cover-spot and rushed to Ron, while the rest of the muggles dealt with the wizards and witches giving Ron support. Ron waved his wand and yelled "Expelliarmus!" which knocked the gun the muggle held in his had off. Before Ron could yell another spell, the muggle had reached him and slapped Ron's wand out of his hand. Ron growled and threw a punch at the muggle, who blocked it. Seamus threw a spell at the muggle, which missed him, but the muggle then swiftly stepped around to make sure Ron was between the muggle and the wizards. He also made sure to remain close to Ron so they wouldn't be able to risk casting a spell at the muggle for fear of it hitting Ron. This also prevented the muggles from attempting a shot at Ron, too.
The muggle kept beating Ron hard and harder on the face, but to the muggle's surprise, Ron came back for more, and hit him a few times too. Finally, Ron tripped the muggle and dove for the wand left on the floor. Turning round he saw the muggle back at his feet, and Ron threw a spell, which the muggle dodged expertly, and then threw another, which he dodged too. The muggles started to shoot at Ron, which while it gave an opening for the other wizards and witches to grab the upper hand of their fight, wasn't good for Ron obviously. A bullet hit Ron somewhere near where he assumed his right kidney was.
Groaning in pain, Ron pointed at the ground under the muggle and spelled it to be very slippery. The muggle immediately lost his footing and grabbed hold of the barrier which overlooked a number of floors below, and Ron got up, wincing in pain while doing so, and ran at the muggle. Right when he reached where he assumed the slippery floor began, Ron dove to the ground, and he slid quickly on the near frictionless floor until he reached the muggle.
Once Ron slammed into the stone barrier himself, he didn't hesitate and he grabbed hold of the muggles' two feet with each ankle held by one hand. Ron then, as hard as he could with no thought to the pain which got worse now, pulled back hard at it lifting the muggle over the barrier and the muggle fell through the many floors before hitting the ground with a thump.
Ron leaned at the wall and watched as the rest of the magical people subdued the remaining muggles.
A/N: Please review, criticise what you don't like and point out what you thought worked.
There's either one chapter or two chapters left in this story, depending if I decide to write an epilogue of sorts or end it as such and leave the readers with the impressions of where the story ends up with (the latter is what I normally prefer). There will be no sequel. This is one story, one plot, and I never even entertained the idea of this story having a sequel.
I've actually been thinking of the concept of a fan-fic ever since I read the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, yeah long time, and I've finally begun the first chapter of it. I may, or may not, post the first chapter before finishing this story. It's a completely different genre to this one. That one should be solely a drama piece. Harry is the centre of that story too, though, as that's how I roll.