Night Attack
It was a cold dark night and at ten o'clock frost was already setting on the grass, It was a full moon and all the stars were out. This didn't help the current mission for the order, they were to attack a death eater strong hold based in a small muggle town. Harry was standing just behind a tree, the moon showing the scars on his face and arms, a particularly nasty one showed just under his left eye, a parting gift from Bellatrix after he had stopped her killing Ginny from behind in a pitched battle. He has also toned up well, muscles stretching his t-shirt but they weren't big like a body builders. He looked like a man who had seen plenty of action which as a matter of fact he had. He looked over to the person standing behind the next tree down, it was a female, who looked back at Harry and smiled nodding her head, that was the signal to move. They both peered round the trees they were behind staring at the flat ground which led to the stronghold. The walls were made of wood and were ten foot high so totally unscalable for a normal wizard but for a wizard for a broom it was no problem.
"Hermione, be careful leading group one across that field, you'll be right out in the open try and stay unseen for as long as possible. Wait until I lead my team over the walls on brooms, well open the gates from inside,OK?" Harry Said.
She nodded again and moved off to the left, heading for her group to take to the gates. Harry sighed, he wished Ron was here. He wouldn't of refused point blank to get on a broom and it would of made this mission so much easier. Why did he have to get hit? He should have blocked, he saw the curse coming straight for him. Now he was being tended to by madam Pomfrey who said he couldn't really fight without any bones in his legs could he. Hermione was second best though, she knew her stuff and had seen more than she should have had to, she wasn't scared of many things but flying was one of them. Harry shrugged to himself and walked over to a group of twenty people every one of them holding brooms, the one closest to harry was holding two he passed one to him.
"Right you all know the plan, we get in mess things up again and get out, we want to destroy the stronghold and if possible kill the death eaters too" Harry shivered at saying this, he was so used to killing now he rarely gave it a second thought. In these times it was kill or be killed, he remembered his first kill. It was ten years ago, he was leading an attack on a group of death eaters who were holding several young students for torture because there parents were believed to be helping the order, Harry had barged in to the small house and five killing curses were shot at him he had ducked just in time to avoid four of them when one soared past him and hit the person coming in behind him. He was completely taken over by rage and anger, he fired the killing curse without thinking and the death eater dropped dead the satisfied expression on his face for achieving a kill dying with him. Harry had tormented himself for weeks after, not talking to anyone. He was over taken with shame at what he did, how weak he had been. But in the end he had accepted the fact and moved on accepting the fact that this is what it had come to. "were going to go over the walls, take out the sentry's and open the gates to let Hermione in. Everybody understand?" Concluded Harry.
There was a chorus of yes 'sir's' from every one.
"Right lets move out."
All of them mounted there brooms in unison and kicked off from the ground and soared into the air.
In a clearing of trees Hermione had just finished re briefing her group, they were to stay unseen for as long as possible. When they reached the gate they were to wait for Harry and his people to open the gate for them. Hermione had changed a lot since school, she had a well formed figure, and she had got a lot more confident. She had improved more magically as well, she was an excellent dueller and could hold her own against the best of them. When she sparred with Harry she could hold her own but in the end Harry was ultimately the better of them. She had been fighting for as long as she could remember, and some parts she would rather forget. She like Harry had killed, it was nine years ago in an ambush. She had been leading a troop like the one she was with now, they had received a tip off that Bellatrix Lestrange was going to attack a muggle orphanage, immediately Hermione had agreed to lead the ambush. They had arrived at the scene to see the dark mark over it. The orphanage had been utterly destroyed, the troop had all gone into building and before they could do a thing were attacked on all sides by death eaters. Hermione fought like a woman possessed but it wasn't enough, her friends were falling all around her, she knew they were out numbered and had to get out. She was fighting her way to the door with the remainder of the troop when five death eaters blocked her path, they all had wands pointing at Hermione's heart, she knew at that moment that if she didn't kill, she would be killed herself. It was like nothing she had ever felt, all her beliefs in the good and dark side were shattered, she was just as bad as Voldemort and his followers were. She did get over it with the help of Ron and Harry though, and in the end had gone back to the front lines. "Right is every one clear on what were doing?" Hermione asked them all. They all nodded there heads and with that they cast dissilousment charms on there selves and crawled through the grass towards the gate.
/
Harry was soaring, it felt so right to be flying and he felt so free because no one could touch him, or so it felt. He looked behind him and saw all his group following him. He was proud of each and everyone of them, he had fought with most of them for the last fifteen years and not one of them had ever let him down. He looked below at the fort he was descending too, there was a hive of activity down there, death eaters had there wands lit and was pointing them up into the air. He hoped Hermione would be able to stay undiscovered until he had opened the gate. He raised his hand and pointed down and in one fluid motion all of the riders went into a vertical dive. They were heading for the other side of the gate, the sooner they had that open the sooner they could finish the mission. Harry was diving so fast he was blinded by the water in his, he knew where he was going he had been studying the layout of the place for weeks before hand. He was twenty metres away, he drew his wand, ten metres away he picked out a running figure, one meter away he jumped to the ground and fired a curse at him. All around him the rest of the troop were landing around him firing curses at the death eater's, Harry knew his men could hold the death eaters. He sprinted to the gate and got to the lever which opened it and pulled, the gates swung open.
/
Hermione was crawling through the grass, her t-shirt was soaked and she was freezing. All the people behind her were cold, she could tell by the looks of her faces and the fact there teeth were chattering. They were nearly at the gate, it was five metres away.
"Stupefy"
Death eaters sprung up all around them firing spells into her troop, in a second her and the troop were firing curses straight back at them. She knew the death eaters were no match for her or any of the people following her, they were raw recruits. All the hardened death eaters had high positions at the ministry or they were abroad doing missions for Voldemort. It was over before it began, the remaining death eaters were being finished off, only problem now was the guards inside were alerted and stunner's were being fired from the battlements. She ran for the gate and as she got there it flew open and with a cry of relief she saw Harry standing there smiling at her.
Hermione and the others joined Harry's group and were fighting there way through the muddy tracks that went around the stronghold. The buildings in there were made of wood, they were roughly put together in haste. They must have known Harry was coming, there was no other explanation for it. Harry continued fighting and killing death eaters, he had shrunk his broom and put it in his pocket. None of them would be needing brooms once they were finished, the apparation wards would be down and they would be leaving quicker than they had arrived. Three death eaters jumped out of a side street towards Hermione, she was too slow to react because she was duelling two other death eaters. Harry sprinted and tackled them head on, they fell to the ground and Harry was sure he heard a crack as one of them fell on there arm. He moved on next to Hermione and started duelling one of the death eaters attacking her.
"We have to hurry this up" shouted Harry "there's going to be reinforcements for them soon, we cant take on an army."
Hermione looked at him and said "You go on, we can hold them back here and wait by the gate for you."
Harry nodded at her and motioned for his men to follow him, they broke away from Hermione's group and ran down a gap between two building's. There were no death eaters about which he was thankful for as it would make his job much quicker and easier. He was heading for the other side of the camp, once there he was going to start a large fire and help it spread they were then going to trap the death eaters inside the fort and leave. They were nearly at there destination. A few more feet and they would be there.
"AVADA KEDAVRA"
One of the young recruits behind Harry dropped dead, he was furious.
"AVADA KEDAVRA" Harry fired the curse without a second thought, he didn't expect no mercy so he certainly wasn't going to give any. There were no more curses being fired at them so Harry started firing the incendio spell at building's, he heard the rest of his troop doing the same thing. In no time at all the back of the fort was ablaze and they all started moving back and setting fires as they went. When they reached the main gate it was to find Hermione and the rest of them just finishing off the rest of the death eaters.
"We were ambushed, finished them off though. Are we ready to move then? The place is on fire and I cant see any more death eaters, considering all the effort gone into this it was quite easy." Stated Harry.
Hermione had a doubtful look on her face as she said "Yes it was easy, almost too easy. There has to be more to this, Voldemort's planning something. We should never have been able to take a place like this so easily."
"Always the optimist aren't you Hermione?"
Hermione just scowled at him and snapped "Let's just go shall we? Before any more of them arrive."
Harry knew that was the end of the conversation, so he just moved on towards his group and left the stronghold. When they were all a few feet away they all turned on the spot and apparated to head quarters.
/
Harry re appeared hundreds of miles away at the entrance of a cave in the middle of Scotland. The wind was fierce and the rain lashed at his face. The weather was always terrible here Harry thought, if it wasn't raining it was windy and if it wasn't windy it was snowing. Harry proceeded in to the mouth of the cave, water was dripping from the ceiling and green fungi was growing on the walls. He continued walking, he passed through an invisible barrier and was instantly dry and what you you saw once you passed the barrier was totally different from what you saw from the out side. It was astonishing what could be done in fifteen years with a little determination, what used to be a dingy little cave was now a very large village, the ceiling was even enchanted to imitate the weather out side. Harry walked down the street and was greeted by a few people he passed, including Ginny Weasley. The little houses they had made had smoke issuing out of chimneys, it wasn't Hogwarts or the Burrow but it was the closest thing they had to a real home. The front of the houses even had little lawns which amazingly never died, and a few wizards or witches who wanted there homes to resemble what it was like out side even had trees growing. Harry smiled as he looked around as he looked around at all this, he had helped create this and it made him extremely happy to see people enjoying themselves. There were about sixty homes inside the 'cave' and each one of them inside was homing about two families. Hagrid who said he couldnt leave Grawp to fend for himself went and found himself his own cave, twenty miles from this one. There was muggle repelling charms on on the cave, they had also made it un plottable, Professor Mc Gonnogal was secret keeper. They only let in the families who looked as though they were in the most need of protection, families Voldermort had marked for death usually found them selves picked up by one of the order and taken to a secure location before they were allowed into the cave. Harry was going to see Mc Gonnogal or Minerva as she now insisted she called him, she had wanted to see him after he completed the mission. He arrived at the house she was living in, as he was walking up the path the front door opened and Minerva came out with a worried look on her face and said
"Potter, we have a serious problem."