AN: *Insert huffy disclaimer here*
AN2: Most of this chapter is one giant battle… Those of you not interested in such things could probably afford to simply not read this chapter and not miss any plot.
-:-
Chapter Twelve: Morbid
The parlay party arrived back at the quad with little ceremony save for Hermione launching herself into Harry's arms where they clung to one another for an endless moment, their thoughts and minds becoming one again, obliterating those lines of separation so that they could truly be a whole, singular being. The three adults moved past and the moment was broken, the two teens retreating into their own minds leaving their somewhat deeper than normal connection that they maintained when in combat or preparing for it. A single line of speech passed each of their lips simultaneously.
"I love you."
They broke apart and Harry glanced behind them, the mass of undead was already moving, but it would take them nearly five minutes to cross the length of the bridge, never mind the wards. Turning he faced the assembled regiment, everyone was present for this, not just the active elite, but everyone in the daily training groups, while they wouldn't be on the front line they would be healers, reserves. Parvarti moved from her position to stand with her squad mates as the Regiment formed up into their ordered columns. Fred Weasley caught Harry's eye and gave him a cocky grin but said nothing.
Harry just stood there for a moment feeling the pride for these amazing people well up in his chest, and Hermione's. He took a breath and began speaking.
"I came to this school four years ago, an orphan, friendless, unaware of the power that lay beneath my fingertips. I gained a friend in Ron Weasley, and another in Hermione, I befriended many of you, Gryffindors to start with, then Hufflepuffs, then Ravenclaws, and finally some Slytherins. I've seen so many of you grow alongside me; becoming great wizards and witches both."
He stepped forwards, glancing between faces, looking as many people as he could in the eyes.
"Some of you I didn't know till this year, some I've known since I entered this world. Some of you I've become close friends with, and will remain so until the day one of us no longer stands on this earth. When I came here, this school was a place of wonder and mystery, now it's a place I can call home, and while I have a family now, the friends I've made here will always be a part of it, every one of you I call my brothers and sisters, even Hermione, but that gets a bit weird."
A ripple of laughter rolled through the massed ranks and Hermione squeezed his hand, mirth roiling through her.
"I can honestly say that I am proud of every single one of you, proud to be your friend, proud to be your teacher, your leader, your brother. Arrayed against us today is an army of darkness the likes of which hasn't been seen on Britain since Morgana's dark reign, and the man who leads it stole another of my brothers. Ron Weasley isn't here today, he died protecting my love, my Hermione, that man, Valmortis, stole him from me, stole him from his family, and stole him from this world."
He locked eyes with Fred again, this time the look was fierce; Harry knew that if he spoke the word Fred would have gone to try and kill Voldemort's lieutenant this very second.
"But it wasn't just Ron was it? It was Dean, and Katie, and Justin, and Lucas, brothers and sisters all. He stole them from us, but I pledge this to you now, I'll not stand by and let him take a single one of you from me again!"
The entire regiment stood stock still after Harry's impassioned statement.
"I would give my life for any one of you, for any one of my brothers and sisters, I love you all. Now gird yourselves, because all this training wasn't for nothing. Fifteen thousand undead are going to come marching across that bridge, thralls, vampires, Inferi, skeletons, and there's been rumours of a Nosferatu. Not one, not a single undead, will make its way past the quad. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"
The roar of the regiment's reply nearly blasted him off his feet.
"SIR YES SIR!"
"Remember Ron Weasley. Remember Katie Bell. Remember Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Lucas Stratton. Remember every family member and friend this monster has taken from us, they had their lives taken, some were offered up in place of the lives of their friends, some were ripped harshly away, but none shall be forgotten. YOU, ONE AND ALL, ARE THE FIRST HOGWARTS REGIMENT, AND YOU WILL NOT BACK DOWN, FOR OUR FRIENDS, FOR OUR FAMILIES, FOR THE FALLEN!"
The answering roar of defiance shook the very foundations of the castle with it's furor.
-:-
Severus Snape was standing amidst the auror battalion watching Potter give his speech. Long ago he'd seen the boy's father give a similar impassioned declaration before a fight with the death eaters. He'd been on the other side of the conflict then and he had been stuck in reluctant awe then as now. Whatever issue he had with the Potter men, it could never be with their charisma and leadership qualities.
Hunching down behind the barricade at his back and leaning against it the sallow faced man took several deep breaths, calming his nerves as best he could. He was an accomplished fighter, and was not stricken with fear, but adrenaline was a strange thing and it did strange things to people.
"Severus, are you alright?"
Looking up Snape locked eyes with Minerva McGonagall, he had been at odds with the strait laced woman for many years but now, today, he was going into battle side by side with her. It was a strange feeling. Unsure of how to respond he simply nodded and took a deep breath before standing and looking out over the gorge to the approaching undead. They had met the ward line and Severus was shocked to see them spending themselves en masse. Dozens of undead were disintegrating upon contacting the ephemeral barrier; it was an impressive show of force that Valmortis would spend his forces so lightly.
Minerva moved to his side and looked out with a stern eye, glancing at her he asked the obvious.
"It won't hold for long will it?"
The ageless Scotswoman shook her head discreetly
"No, they are reinforced with magical protections, the wards are spending themselves quickly to hold them back, maybe two hundred will perish before the wards fall, but it is a mere dip in the ocean in such a colossal force."
Looking back out Severus unknowingly echoed Dumbledore's plea from earlier.
"Merlin save us."
-:-
Fred and George Weasley were watching the wards flicker with baited breath, they'd been given the go ahead to booby trap the bridge and hoped that they would be able to thin the ranks they'd have to deal with all too soon. They were in their flanking position barricade near the middle of the defensive line on the left flank of the quad, somewhat behind the front line, where they could best wreak havoc. They shared a thought, calming each other like they had done countless times before.
The soul bond between twins was not based on love like most soul bonds, but it was no less potent. Between them they could overpower anyone in the school, save Harry and Hermione, and possibly the Patil twins. Fred idly wondered how Padma was handling being away from her twin in such a dangerous situation. He knew that if it were him who was on the medic lines where Padma was and George was in the command squad he'd be worried sick, a reassuring thought from his twin assured him of the reciprocal nature of George's feelings.
He looked across the quad to Harry's location with the rest of the command units, Hermione on one side of him, Parvati on the other. It awed Fred to see the young man like this, Dumbledore was there, Alastor Moody was there, a bloody auror captain was there, but Harry commanded the sight line of anyone looking in that direction like a vision of Ares, or Heimdall: A god of battle made flesh. Harry's eyes darted and found Fred's unerringly across the courtyard and some force of will from that young man passed into one half of the Trickster twins of Gryffindor. The red head felt like all the weight from the world had been lifted from his shoulders. He sent a thankful nod across the courtyard, and received one in turn.
A sharp cracking sound from high above caught his attention and he looked upward to see a visible split in the ward dome. He was slightly awed at the sight of the ephemeral barrier splitting down the middle before it shattered into innumerable pieces. Moments later a thunderous all-consuming sound overwhelmed his ears as the sound from the wards breaking reached him. The sound dampening spell the Regiment wore into combat barely deadened the sound of the immense wards snapping under the strain of whatever those undead were.
An instant of time passed where the entire defensive line was stunned into silence, then Harry's voice boomed out girding Fred's mind for battle.
"Wands out and ready! Steady yourselves!"
Fred's hand was steady indeed as it whipped his wand from the holster at his waist, Harry had explained to them all how holding such a thin piece of wood for an extended battle would eventually begin to cramp the hand of the user, as such it was a good idea not to draw it until absolutely necessary.
"Busybodies! Ready those traps!"
Next to Fred, Lee took out three small orbs of glass and handed one to each of the Weasley brothers. Fred took his and started waving his wand in tight patterns over the surface of the glass, allowing it to hover in front of him, spinning it with the fingers of his other hand as he carefully tuned the traps set on the bridge. Light played across the surface of the orb, streams of runic information flowing in via the auspices of transcription and detection runes set into the bridge itself, giving the three members of busybody squad the vital information they needed to configure the magical booby traps.
Such things could not be set in advance and be expected to operate with maximum efficiency, certainly they could have set proximity activated concussion hexes or some such, but that was so amateur as to be abhorrent.
The masterfully crafted traps the twins had organised over the last few weeks were clusters of one shot runes that would fire a volley of two dozen blasting hexes. Each sorcel would target centre mass on a different undead, efficiently wiping out whole groups of the blasted things. They'd set over a hundred of the runes and with Harry's help charged specially tuned crystals to hold the power for the spells.
As Fred synchronized the many different traps to all target a different undead with each of their twelve spells he heard a sharp 'Ready' from each of his sides. Lee was responsible for the barricade spells that should massively obstruct the advance of the undead along the bridge, and George was configuring the firestorm traps. Fred's job was somewhat harder, they knew vampires were mixed in with the other undead and would be able to avoid the blasting hexes easily, hence the firestorm traps, so Fred had to ensure that each of his traps not only targeted a different undead with each of their spells, but also that he wasn't targeting any vampires for maximum effect.
Furthermore there were far too many traps to activate at once, so he'd have to be working on the timing of the traps almost all the way through the battle if he was going to get maximum effect, hence their position staggered back from the front line.
He tapped the globe in front of him one more time before looking up and speaking clearly.
"Activate"
-:-
Harry watched the advance of the undead with a steady eye while Hermione kept an eye on the twins; this needed to be timed right. If the concentration of undead on the bridge was less than optimal they (the traps) would waste much of their surprise and power. His left hand was on the barricade in front of it and a part of his focus was dedicated to not letting any of his power leak out of his hand and into the fortification. He was aware of his issue with control during times of stress and it needed to be constantly monitored. When he let loose though, that would be something he wished he could record to watch later, if only to really see what everyone else kept talking about.
The lines of undead were now fully entrenched on the bridge and moving forwards and Harry nearly muttered the word himself as Hermione saw Fred cast the activation command for the first wave of traps. Instantly the bridge was consumed with flames and the shrieks of dying vampires could be heard up and down the quad. While modern vampires, strengthened with magic, were immune to the rays of the sun, they were vulnerable to fire, and they burned.
Barricades sprang up along the bridge at varying intervals tossing corpses into the gorge below and blocking any kind of movement backwards or forwards for the entrapped attackers. Grimly Harry watched as the entire bridge was consumed with fire, quietly he whispered a prayer for the souls of those who were being cremated.
-:-
The fires burned for several minutes while they consumed the bodies of the undead on the bridge. A communication message came from the twins that they had eliminated maybe four hundred undead, it was a start. From now on the traps would be constantly activating throughout the battle thinning the ranks of the undead as best they could.
Eventually though, the flames died down, and when they did the undead started marching once more. The firestorm traps were spent, they had only been good for one shot anyway and while the remaining blasting traps would decimate many of the undead attackers, it was now time for battle to be joined.
Hermione clutched her wand in one hand tightly as the ranks of attackers marched slowly forwards, breaking down the barriers as they went to make it easier for those who would come after them. At her side Harry's voice rose up in the quad even as Captain Fletcher and Moody gave the same order.
"Ready wands!"
All around the quad witches and wizards hunkered down behind their barricades and brought their wands up into casting positions. Most of them would be casting sorcels to begin with as they could be cast from a motionless position with enough skill allowing for more offensive power to be put forth much more quickly. Spells would be brought into use when the undead closed as they inevitably would.
Hermione herself would be conserving her strength alongside Harry and the rest of the command squad that would eventually break any real foothold the undead made in the quad. That was their job; line breakers, to sally forth from the lines of defence to pit themselves toe to toe with the vampires and thralls that would lead the charge. The undead marched implacably forwards and Hermione took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She shared one last look of devotion and love with Harry before he yelled into the quad.
"BEGIN CASTING!"
-:-
Neville could feel himself tiring, they had been fighting for over an hour already and he and the rest of Purepower squad had been casting nonstop into the middle of the undead advance. They were tasked with picking off any strays that broke through the otherwise overwhelming wall of eldritch fire that poured forth in constant volleys from the defenders. He had long since lost any sort of horror or revulsion for these beings, at first he had been stricken by the sight of flesh peeling from bones and skin rotting away. Now they blurred into each other, a nonstop stream of targets marching into the unending wall of oblivion.
It was an incredible sight even viewing it from inside the storm. At first the magic had been sorcery and the air had rippled and scorched with the sheer energy rippling through it, then it had become spell fire as the undead had closed. When in tactical discussion Parvati had explained to them all that because spells were typically less taxing to cast and were just as effective as sorcels against undead at closer ranges, especially into massed ranks, that once they were in range they should switch to spells to conserve energy.
For the last half hour Neville had been casting piercing hexes nonstop, it was one of the very few spells he could cast non-verbally and he was thankful for that now as he was sure his throat would have been raw from the constant repetitive incantation of 'percutio'. Within the first ten minutes a pile of undead had begun to form at the end of the bridge where the undead marched headfirst into the incoming sorcery and fell where they stood, blocking the path of their comrades. Two squads of aurors near the bridge were tasked with moving the bodies into the gorge so that even if they were only incapacitated they would be permanently out of the fight.
The mountain of bodies was both a blessing and a curse, for it did slow the advance of the undead and frequently gave the defenders a breather, but it also concealed vision of what was coming and several times vampires had broken free of the ranks of marching undead to rush the defensive lines.
That was where Purepower squad came in, Neville had lost count of the vampires he had personally killed that day with piercing hex after piercing hex aimed for the head. It was a difficult spell to aim at the best of times but he Seamus and Thomas had been training casting at knuts for the last five weeks. They were accurate, and they were deadly.
But Neville was growing tired, and he wasn't sure how long he and his squad mates could keep up this defensive fire picking off the closest targets, they needed a break to recover their strength. Turning he signalled Harry with a wave of his wand, before turning back to the wall of approaching corpses.
-:-
Harry saw Neville's signal and spoke loudly and clearly.
"It's time, Hermione, have them split the wall, Parvati, inform Dumbledore, then ready yourself, Tyrant squad, Aegis, Vixens, you ready?. "
He was met with firm affirmations and turned to the front coiling his body for the charge as a heavy hand fell on his shoulder, turning he saw Dumbledore's grim face, wand out.
"Allow me to accompany you."
Nodding tightly Harry spoke a short clipped sentence.
"Stay close, right shoulder."
The hand clapped his shoulder once before withdrawing and Harry felt the indomitable prescience of the ancient fighter at his flank and slightly behind.
"Hermione we good to go?"
"Yes, let's move."
Harry took a deep breath before raising his wand and yelling a single word.
"CHARGE!"
-:-
Tracey watched in awe as the force of nature known as Harry Potter fell upon the undead ranks. She watched as a vampire lunged at him only to be vaporised by a flick of the teen's wand as it whipped through the air. His eyes were glowing a pure white and power was flowing from him like water from an open dam. Undead were ripped apart just by approaching him, or rather by being in his way. She felt her heart flutter at the sight; crushes were hard to get rid of after all.
At his side was another force of nature, where Harry was the flood, indomitable, relentless, overwhelming, Hermione was the tempest, reaching out with arcs of magical energy to obliterate any who would assault her man. They worked as a pair, seamlessly engaging every threat to stand before them.
Parvati, while not as awe inspiring as her two companions, was still a sight to behold. Tracey knew that she was siphoning and incredible amount of power from her twin as she cast sorcels that tore apart entire columns of undead with each flick of her cherry wand. Around all of them was an incredible wall of shifting threads of magic, a powerful shield maintained by aegis squad that was in the middle of the sallying force.
Tyrant squad was doing what they did best, throw lots or raw power about. Occasionally she would see one of them stand in place and unleash a veritable hail of sorcels from the tip of his wand obliterating everything in front of him. The vixens were like greased lightning, moving as a single unit to isolate particularly adept vampires and slaughter them, to split packs of undead from the whole and burn them to ashes. They were the embodiment of precise, efficient, war.
Then there was Dumbledore. It was in those moments that she truly understood the stories about his duel with Grindlewald. While he did not display the raw power of Parvati, or Harry and Hermione, or even Tyrant squad, he was nonetheless an incredible power unto himself.
His wand moved in indescribably precise motions, bringing about flares of freezing cold, then intense heat that shattered dozens of undead into tiny pieces. Lances of light flared out from his wand that simply vaporised that which they touched, burning holes clean through anything audacious enough to attack him directly. Furthermore he wasn't even striding forwards, but rather levitating above the press of battle where he could get clear shots deep into the advancing ranks, obliterating undead still marching across the bridge.
The image of those ten witches and wizards stemming the tide of encroaching undead with power to rival the elements of nature would be one that would be seared into her brain until her dying days.
-:-
Harry's mind was perfectly blank, a clean slate of concentration and focus as he moved forwards across the gore slicked cobblestones of the quad. One moment he would twist, his wand spinning about one finger to conjure a cluster of projectiles to obliterate a mass of undead, the next he would lunge forwards his wand sprouting a blade of white magic to spear through the heart of a vampire. One moment he would charge his magic before unleashing a torrent of power ahead of him, the next he would fire a precisely aimed jab to decapitate a thrall breaking free of the press.
All around him he could feel his magic reaching out and annihilating enemies with impunity, like the many arms of the giant squid each fighting its own war. His eyes passed over an undead that imploded upon itself, ceasing to be and wrenching dozens of others off their feet with the sheer force of the vacuum such an event created. A vampire simply ceased to exist as it lunged for one of the members of Tyrant squad, another was incinerated to ash in an instant when it sought to flee.
By his side Hermione was systematically destroying every threat that Harry's onslaught missed, cherry picking targets of opportunity to obliterate with exacting blasts of eldritch fire from her wand. She had told him once that his eyes glowed at times like this, the physical manifestation of his power. Hers was her hair, it floated about her as though it were submerged in water, sluggishly moving about through the air and often hovering in place where she had whipped it about. To Harry's amusement it never got in her way.
His attention was wrenched back to the present as an enterprising vampire leaped over his fellows and tried to attack from above. He reached out with his open palm to vaporize the creature but it disintegrated as it hit the annihilator shield dome the Aegis squad had erected. He glanced about and saw a brief lull in the battle and halted to catch his breath, the rest of the sallying force imitating him seamlessly, only Dumbledore missed the wordless signal but he was above them anyway and simply drifted back into position.
Harry looked about taking stock of the situation; the undead were pushed back into the bridge, right now Harry was standing about fifteen meters out over the gorge with his two squad mates at his sides, Vixen Squad to their right and Tyrant squad off to their left. The Undead had been pushed back for the time being, they had their breather, but he felt drained, the sheer effort of breaking this attack had been taken out of him in a toll of energy far higher than he had anticipated. The Aurors would have to take the next sally, he needed rest.
"Right, back to the lines everyone, we've given the defenders a bit of time to drink refresher potions and have their break, we need to get out of her before they advance again."
Turning he looked Dumbledore in the eyes, and spoke with gratitude in his voice.
"Thank you sir, always nice to have an extra wand at my side."
As they moved back towards the defensive lines at a trot Dumbledore replied with true emotion.
"Always my dear boy, always, you need only but ask and my wand will be there to aid you."
-:-
The lull in the battle lasted longer than Harry expected, the undead weren't advancing yet and he wondered why, sending a message to Seamus who was in control of the observer drone high above the battle he requested a sitrep. Seamus came up in person to deliver the news.
"Harry, we've cleaned out over a thousand of them. Whatever's going on out there looks like a reorganization but for the moment they stopped."
The young raven haired sorcerer must have stood there for a solid ten seconds gaping at his friend. Hermione reached over and closed his mouth with one finger before replying to the Irishman.
"Are you sure Seamus?"
The other boy nodded grimly.
"Aye, but there's more than one side to this, we've cleared out a thousand, but we're already waning in strength, we need to rest and it's only been an hour at most."
Harry sat on the barricade beside him and rubbed his forehead with one hand grunting in annoyance at the slight headache that refused to abate.
"We don't have much choice; we're going to have to keep fighting. Parvati can we bring any reserves in or switch the lines around to ease some of the stress?"
The dark skinned girl looked thoughtful for a moment before replying.
"It's going to depend a lot on how many vampires are still in that army, at the moment Squad Purepower is picking off any stray vampires that break through the fusillade. Without a squad to fill that position we're going to be overrun."
Harry knuckled his forehead partly in frustration and partly to try and relieve the tension there. Hermione rubbed his back soothingly, understanding his pain, though he was shielding her from it.
"Are any of the Aurors fresh? Two pairs could do the same job that Purepower's been doing till now."
Padma shot a look at Captain Fletcher who was listening into the conversation. He made a so/so gesture.
"No one is fresh, no one except the medics anyway, and bringing them up defeats the point of having fresh medics. We could rotate in the reserves but honestly there's a reason why they're in reserve, they're a last resort. What we really need is enforced bed rest for the point man squads and proper Intel, can that surveillance automaton single out what composition and ratios that mass of undead is?"
Harry shook his head
"I never thought it would need the functionality, didn't even occur to me. That said it will definitely be something I add to it once we're out of this mess."
Fletcher shot him a sharp look
"You believe we're going to be victorious?"
Harry shot him an equally sharp look
"We're not on the losing side of this conflict captain. The man on the other side of that bridge has an awful lot of mindless drones and superhuman berserkers out there. The vampires were feeding the other night, but I bet they're still hungry, hungry means desperate and desperate means unskilled. This whole army is just a giant meat grinder that he's throwing at us to tire us out. There's a deeper plot at work here but I don't know its design. What we need to be concerned with isn't winning; it's winning without any deaths on our side of things; that is the real struggle."
Fletcher's sharp look morphed into a curious one
"So you're arguing that this army isn't a weapon of lethality, but rather one of attrition?"
Harry shrugged
"It's still lethal, that's why getting us all out of this in one piece is a struggle, but ultimately it's to wear down our edge, to blunt us for whatever is coming next. Why do you think he marched a ponderous army all the way across Britain? There was no chance we'd miss it, meaning we would have to redeploy forces to defend against it. We gave him his heavily defended target to throw himself against, and what is he getting out of it? The Hogwarts wards are broken and will take weeks to repair, and years to return to their full strength, the aurors and regiment members here are going to end up wounded, maybe some fatalities, and at the end of this everyone is going to be exhausted, probably magically. This whole thing has been staged to expose our vulnerabilities."
Fletcher looked like he wanted to smack himself upside the head.
"How is it that a teenager deciphers this when the analysts at the ministry missed it?"
Harry grinned at him before replying
"I live inside the head of the smartest person alive."
He then got promptly smacked upside the head by Hermione who was chuckling.
"Right you, back to the task at hand. We need Intel, which we can't get; we need rest for Purepower, and probably Tyrant, Vixens and Aegis after that sally. What we need then is someone to plug that gap. What resources do we have? There are four pairs of Aurors that might be able to fill the position, but if we need to sally again we're going to be undermanned, we have the whole of the Hogwarts staff who are all fresh, save Dumbledore. They were of course going to be held in reserve till later but we're out of options, we need to get Minerva and Filius in there."
Harry nodded and stood, glancing about.
"You're right; of anyone they can do that job. Right, here's what we're going to do, Captain, bring your reserve auror units up to sally as a last resort, Parvati get our squads out of there and into the medic tents for a half hour of dreamless sleep potion. We need to set up a rotation so that we keep fresh people on the front as much as possible. Later we'll see if we can push our luck and get forty five minute shifts in to alleviate the fatigue of the fighters who've been out longest. Hermione I need you to go and retrieve Minerva and Filius; I'm going to go inform Dumbledore and see if he has any insight. Seamus, get back to your surveillance equipment and get word to me the moment the undead are moving again. We have a reprieve for whatever reason but I doubt it's going to happen again."
The impromptu war council broke up but before Harry could move away Hermione took him by the elbow and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
"Thank you Harry, your confidence inspires me to this day."
He squeezed her arm gently before heading off, he didn't need to reply; she knew his thoughts.
-:-
Dumbledore wasn't hard to find, even at peace the man was a giant of charisma, at time of conflict he was a titan. Harry found him standing near the edge of the quad, looking out over the gorge to the massed undead. He greeted Harry quietly as the teen approached.
"You have news?"
Harry nodded, coming up beside the headmaster. It was a strange thing, the relationship they had now, once upon a time Harry had held near reverence for the ancient scholar, then it was tinged with anger, grief, sadness and sometimes rage, now it was mostly ambivalent, with a hint of grudging respect and supressed resent. Throughout it all Harry had received nothing but polite and sometimes even earnest support from the Headmaster.
Now here they were in a wartime situation and Harry was the one talking with auror captains and organising defence strategies, while Dumbledore seemed to have graciously receded into the role of simply another powerful fighter, and perhaps a spiritual leader for the forces of light. There were hints of the guard changing in the way he and Harry interacted now, and the young teen wasn't sure how he felt about it all.
"Seamus said we've shaved a full thousand from their number."
The piercing gaze of the headmaster fell upon him as he turned from the waist high wall.
"You have achieved a great thing today by providing your regiment a powerful incentive to fight, the staff heard you too, as did the aurors and no one has so much as flinched from the duty you have set forth Harry. Your charisma is unbounded, as was it for your father, and his father before him. I theorized long ago that it was part of the Potter family magic that their sons would be charismatic and strong leaders, but I have no definite proof. Regardless you alone have inspired greatness in these men and women today."
Somewhat abashed Harry looked down into the gorge where he could vaguely see several bodies still burning. Quietly he spoke.
"I just want them all to come out of this alive."
The hand that was laid upon his shoulder was a comfort Harry had not expected.
"And that is what makes you great my dear boy. We have thinned a thousand from their ranks, this is to the good as I guess you have realized, in a mere hour of fighting we have shoved this abominable army back from our doorstep. Mr Krum will be reconsidering his plan of attack and reorganizing his forces to provide the most formidable and indomitable front they can. Expect less cannon fodder now and more of his hardened and magically fortified undead, skeletons, elder vampires and other such creatures are now before us. He will seek to overwhelm our weakened defences with these elite troops, and then flood us with the weaker swarm; this must not come to pass."
Harry nodded along to what the man was saying, it made sense.
"Now more than ever it is imperative that the foremost defences we have are not breached, for if they are we will not be able to push back. I will join the centre of the defence; you and Miss Granger should consider either taking a flanking position or joining me in the middle."
Harry shook his head
"We're drained from that sally sir, we need time to rest and recover for if another sally need be made to push them back. Would Minerva and Filius be adequate substitutes?"
"None are adequate substitutes for you and your bond mate Harry, you are uniquely skilled and powerful fighters even at your young ages, and I only expect to see that potency increase with your years. But Minerva and Filius will certainly do for our purposes today. I shall wake you from your recuperation if the battle needs your attention or aid."
Once more slightly abashed Harry retreated from the conversation and made his way to Hermione and Parvati who it seemed had regrouped.
"Everything sorted?"
He received affirmative nods from both girls and nodded towards the medic tents.
"Right, we're all getting shut eye, half an hour each, we need to be ready for what's coming next."
Harry's heart was heavy with nerves for what was to come, but the dreamless sleep potion obliterated all of those doubts and he slept peacefully.
-:-
He awoke after his half hour of rest and was immediately curious as to the lack of battle sounds and rose swiftly to get to the front. Sure enough battle had not yet been joined but the Undead were marching again, providence it seemed had timed things in his favour. Hermione and Parvati joined him seconds later.
"Back into the midst, shall we relieve Minerva and Filius?"
Harry shook his head at Parvati's question
"No, they're fresh and the reasons why they are there instead of us in the first place are still valid even though we now are somewhat rested. Can you go and make sure that the other Regiment squads assigned dreamless sleep recuperation are still resting even if they are not asleep? We need them as fresh as possible when Minerva and Filius need to fall back."
The dusky skinned girl nodded before retreating to the medic tents, Hermione shot an inquisitive thought over to him.
"What's on your mind love? I can feel the tension there but you're shielding it from me. What's coming down that bridge?"
Harry squeezed her hand before replying with the memory of his conversation with Dumbledore and she shot a frown at him.
"You are nuts if you think I'm not going to be in that front line, they need me there Harry, they need us there."
He nodded taking her hand in his and kissing the back of it.
"I know I could never ask you to go from my side, and I know they need us in the thick of it. But what happens when we get fatigued? Who's going to be there to make sure the line doesn't break? They have to be able to do this love, Filius and Minerva can do this."
Hermione's glare dissolved into a thoughtful look.
"Sometimes I wish I'd never given that time turner up."
Harry chuckled before looking back to the bridge.
"I know what you mean; another few more hours could do a world of difference here."
He paused turning back to look her in the eye.
"This is about to get serious, people are going to be hurt. They might even die and my promise is going to be broken, and I don't know if I can handle that love."
She cupped his cheek with one hand before brushing his lips with one thumb, they were dry and cracked from the harsh Scottish winds but she didn't seem to care.
"You must my love, because you are the centre pin around this entire defence. Dumbledore could fall, Minerva could be struck down, Alastor could be flung from the battlements, but as long as you remain standing the rest of this defence will stand."
She took his face in both her hands looking into his eyes with the laser like stare she often attributed to him. Those eyes cut through his mild panic like that self-same laser, cutting through every worry he had ever had. Then she spoke, speaking with a quiet impassioned fervour, speaking to his soul, to the part of him that she and only she had ever known, would ever know and would know for the rest of time.
"You are Harry fucking Potter. You will not back down from this because you are better than that. You're the best man I've ever known, will ever know, why? Because all of these people, every single one of them, is here because of you. Not because of Dumbledore, or that murdering bastard Valmortis. They're here, holding the line, because of you."
Harry felt the breath catch in his throat as she really let rip, the words coming from her were only half the story, in their minds she was bombarding him with images of how she saw him, how other people saw him, of him as the leader he was.
"You are the man who will lead us out of this Harry. Now go be the leader I know you are."
-:-
He stepped forwards and wrapped her in his arms, silently thanking her for the kick up the pants she had just given him. Their relationship dynamic was strange, having no real examples of relationships to draw from as role models save Emma and Dan Harry had always taken it as rote that he would learn as he went, and Hermione had been more than happy to coach him through the early stages of their relationship.
But as Harry had begun to truly come into his own as a person, as his personality grew, he began stamping his own image on their relationship. Hermione had been worried at first, worried that he had heard something from another boy somewhere about how to act, so sudden was the spike in his confidence. But it was there, and as time went by she grew less and less worried, Harry began to make decisions for them taking the reins of leadership into his hands.
She had watched him grow into a powerful leader of men, and he was still only on the cusp of his seventeenth year. He had decades, maybe even centuries, of growing to do. She had watched him stare down vampires, undead, and seen his memories of him standing down Voldemort himself. He was fearless, powerful and a dominant soul. He took control of situations without even thinking about it, people looked to him for guidance.
Despite his age he was already shaping up to be one of the most powerful leaders of the wizarding world. And he was indubitably the leader of their relationship, they existed mostly inside one another's minds but at the end of the day Harry was the one, the only one, she trusted enough to defer to in life or death situations. He was the one she trusted with their futures. Because Hermione knew that beneath her veneer of intellectuality and book smarts she was a fundamentally flawed emotional human being.
When shit hit the fan, ninety nine percent of the time Harry was a rock of indomitability in the rivers of chaos, even while his mind was spiralling with rage he would keep a level perception of events and plot out a course of action, it was something distinctly and inherently masculine about him that she couldn't help but defer to, to let him take her life in his hands and mould it like the very dust of creation. But sometimes, he was that broken little boy under the stairs. He was the child battered by hundreds of hours of abuse and emotional torture.
It was those times, like the time just before, when he needed her to reach deep inside their combined soul and tug the leader back to the surface with the ruthlessness that comes with unconditional love. He needed her to be totally uncompromising with him, to break down whatever bullshit he'd erected to keep him safe, to wrench him back to reality.
So she did, and she would every day for the rest of eternity if it meant she got to have this wonderful man by her side.
She felt him pull away from her and so Hermione watched him step back from their embrace, draw his wand, and march to the middle of the defensive formation, prepared to take on whatever came. At that moment she knew that not a single regiment member would die that day, he wouldn't allow it.
-:-
Neville watched the whole encounter between the two people who had shown him a new way to live, a better way, free of the bigotry that had lingered in his heart.
He watched as Hermione took Harry into her arms and a moment later Harry strode into the middle of their fortifications, his aura visibly pulsing and his eyes shining with the ephemeral glow that burst into existence whenever Harry's magic was close to the surface. He didn't say a single word, he didn't have to. Everyone who was manning those fortifications saw him as he stepped out into the quad and stood there, a staunch bastion against everything that was about to sweep across them.
The first lines of undead were in sight now, no longer just a simple black blob on the bridge Neville could actually make out individuals in the swarm. What he saw shocked him to his bones, these weren't the nondescript corpses from before; these were skeletons, dripping in black tar with flames licking at their feet, scorching the stones of the crossing.
The young pureblood gulped as the first row burst into red flames, then the second, then the third. Then they broke into a pounding sprint and the young man in the quad stared them down.
Harry Potter stood stock still as the skeletons dashed towards him with magical speed, Neville didn't shout, or cry out a warning. Harry knew they were coming, he could see them; he knew exactly what they were. He looked back to watch Harry's soul mate and saw a steady gaze locked not on the onrushing ranks of infernal undead, but on the lone young man standing afore them.
The look in Hermione's eyes wasn't one of concern, but rather grim expectation. Turning Neville caught the start of Harry starting to move. In the days to come Harry would earn another title, this one not from his childhood or by the providence of prophecy, but of his own achievement; that name would be the Sorcerer of Hogwarts.
-:-
Harry had looked about the massed teenagers and aurors and seen the fear in their eyes, the doubt of success written plain on their faces. Harry knew that these men and women, young and old, could hold this bastion of magic against anything that might come against them, even the nigh endless hordes of the Necromancer couldn't shove them from these walls. His eyes were locked on the enemies rushing towards him, well aware that the defenders of Hogwarts needed something to bolster them against these unholy creatures, to remind them of their mettle.
Decided now upon a course of action he drew into himself all the latent magic still floating in the quad, many spells had been cast that day and the air was tingling with power. So harry took that power within himself and felt his own power surge in response. Now it was time to show Hogwarts exactly who was leading them.
He could feel the eyes of Dumbledore and his Soul mate on him as he began to move. This sorcery was powerful, and would make his final blow against Victor Krum look like the sting of a honey bee by comparison. He moved his whole body to sketch out much stronger magic than he had ever done before he swept his right leg back, his left hand forwards and his right swinging out, not only to steady himself but also to draw a semi-circle arc in the air.
His body stilled every muscle tensing as he let his magic out to play, filling the air around him with a swirling mass of purples ribbons of pure energy. The air hummed with power and set the teeth of all those watching on edge. The sound was incredible, like the sonorous droning of some leviathan from the deep of the ocean brought to land. In that moment the young man seemed to grow in stature, appearing for all the world like a titan of magic.
Straining as if against a physical barrier he brought his wand forwards, pushing it through the air like it was the thickest pitch. Sweat broke out on his brow and the muscles on his arms corded as the magic began to condense in front of his wand, swirling about it and forming a ball of magic so potent it seemed to suck in not only the very air around it, but also the gaze of everyone in the courtyard.
There was an audible cracking sound like the retort of a gun and the bridge was abruptly filled with a roiling beam of purple energy that pulsed once before violently expanding with all the force of a bomb. Skeletons were yanked off their feet, disintegrating in mid-air as they were sucked into the beam and annihilated utterly. Vampires were obliterated instantly and Inferi and thralls were wiped from the face of the planet. Then, just like that, the beam vanished with a violent snapping sound and in its wake was simply nothing.
In the middle of the courtyard Harry straightened up and took a steady breath, magic still flickering about him like arcs of electricity. He brought his legs together and seemed to let out a breath, his muscles relaxing and once more he was just a boy, a young man standing alone in the middle of the courtyard.
Silence fell upon the quad as everyone began to understand the magnitude of the power Harry had just unleashed. Every undead marching on the bridge had been wiped from existence, decimated in a blinding instant never to walk the face of the Earth again. And there was Harry standing steady with the air rippling around him as magic poured from him, the overflow from such a colossal sorcery still filling the air before being sucked back into him to refill his magical core.
Harry felt tapped; his magic was running on dregs after such a sudden and massive surge of power. His wand was trailing wisps of steam from the moisture in the air being vaporised by its passing. Such a show of power was threefold in purpose, despite its cost to his strength it was well worth it.
Firstly it showed the defenders of Hogwarts that these undead were not invincible, those fiery scions of the pits of hell were nothing more than animated bones with fancy effects splashed about. And in the fact of true power they crumpled like so much wet parchment. Secondly it was a statement to Valmortis; his elite troops were wiped out in an instant, and so long as Harry was still standing not a single one would cross the threshold of the castle doors. Lastly it gave them a greater reprieve, the strained magic of the front line squads now had more time to recuperate, and that which they would have to deal with now would more likely be the constant swarm of undead they had encountered before.
Harry was under no illusions that the battle was over; Valmortis still had thousands of undead here, most of them feeding off his magic to be maintained. He would need to pit them against the defences of Hogwarts, if only to save him the effort of transporting them hundreds of kilometres back to another target of interest that he could assault. Way out here in the moors of Scotland Valmortis had only the options of victory or defeat, retreat was out of his purview and would be the end of his one chance at the castle in this war.
Harry staggered the effort of what he had accomplished catching up with him. He heard running and after a moment there she was, his Hermione, holding him steady like she always did, like she always would. Her pride in him bolstered his flagging strength and let him stand tall to walk confidently from the quad, a single sentence rolling from his tongue in a rich baritone augmented by the magic still pouring off him.
"Hold the line."
-:-
The undead did not stop. Valmortis barely halted the advance of his hordes and now it was a constant torrent. Constantly they packed the bridge with their foul bodies, and even though many of the elite of his force had been annihilated, there were still some to threaten the defenders. Every now and then a flaming skeleton would leap from the press and bear one of the regiment or an auror to the ground before they were blasted apart and the injured fighter was hauled from the front lines to the medical stations.
The casualties were few at the start, though their numbers grew as more and more of the reserves were forced to the front as the day wore on. Several students passed out from fatigue. Tony, from squad nine, had to be stretchered away in magic restricting cuffs as a stray chip of undead bone had pierced his chest and was wreaking havoc with his ability to control his power. Aegis squad became magically exhausted when they were forced to hold back a force of magically fortified vampires who had tried to force their way through the shields and into the back line. Hermione had dealt with the offenders personally.
The minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into an eternity of battle as no longer were their breaks, simply an endless tide of the dead throwing themselves almost heedlessly into the wall of magic being thrown at them. Once Harry had recuperated he strode back to the front with Parvarti, Hermione, Dumbledore and Tyrant squad at his side; where they proceeded to hold the middle of the defensive formations for the rest of the day, beating back everything that tried to make entrance into the inner sanctum of the courtyards.
Many acts of heroism came from that day: Such as Purepower squad volunteering to single headedly hold the right flank so that the other squads could take time to rest. They held for fifteen gruelling minutes before the other squads had to relieve them. Harry's Angels threw themselves into the battle time and time again alongside Bitesize, Squad Twelve and the Vixens to clear a space for the medics to get in and patch up anyone who was suffering from caster's cramp or other extended battle afflictions.
The Aurors really came into their own in the second half of the day when most of the regiment was on their last legs. They moved forwards as a unit and held the undead on the bridge for over an hour while the teenagers recovered and the Hogwarts staff stepped forwards to aid the Auror line. Victoria Umbridge spent time weaving enchantments across the whole of the quad that tore the souls from Vampires and thralls as they stepped off the bridge, leaving them to flop to the ground as inert corpses, or crumble to dust.
But for all that there were wounded. Harry was forced to watch as Daphne was pierced with a spear of some kind wielded by a vampire who had leaped over the press of the battle. Parvarti had screamed in shock and shared pain as Padma was nearly torn apart by a pair of skeletons before the rest of her squad had cleared them off her. In the months to come Harry would agonise over the decision to bring the reserves that had been working on the medic lines forward and whether one of the regulars would have been injured in the same way. Padma would walk with a limp from that day forward.
Towards the end of the battle, when nearly everyone was at their limit and many had been pulled back from the front; Captain Fletcher and his partner had sallied with two other squads of aurors and Alastor, doing their best to clear a gap as had been done so many times before. They accomplished their goal, but the success was bittersweet; Captain Fletcher was ripped apart by a vampire who ducked under his guard and tore him from shoulder to groin. He was the only death on the defenders side that day, but he would be mourned and remembered for years to come.
In the end though, there could only be one result.
-:-
Darkness had fallen by the time the last of the undead had been felled, Harry let his wand fall from its raised position and stared in disbelief at the bridge, it was clear, glancing at Seamus he waited anxiously for confirmation and received it a moment later.
"That's it! They're gone! There's no more of them! WE'VE WON!"
The cheers across the quad were thunderous and Harry felt himself engulfed by first the arms of his beloved, before more and more bodies piled in, desperate to touch the young man who had held them together through the fires and strains of nearly seven hours of unyielding battle. Someone in the back of the group started up the school song and Harry couldn't help but join in, raw though his throat was. Celebration came naturally to them that night as the teenagers and aurors rejoiced in their victory over the forces of darkness that had battered at their gates.
-:-
The dawn broke bloody the next morn. And a solemn procession marched from the doors of the mighty castle towards Hogsmeade. Captain Fletcher's body was borne on the shoulders of his comrades and while there had been great celebration the night before, no one was cheering that morning. Harry hadn't known the man long but Captain Fletcher had that same indomitable spirit as Alastor, or Albus, Harry wondered if the letter 'A' was a powerful one, for Alain Fletcher had been a giant among men much like his colleagues. He would be sorely missed.
The day seemed hollow to many of the inhabitants of the castle after that, the battle had been won, but it still felt as if in the end they had lost. It was a hard feeling to shake, especially when Harry had a sense in the pit of his stomach that the worst was yet to come.
-:-
AN3: o.o This update, it's actually not super late. I'm proud of myself. I won't lie this chapter was the most fun to write to date. The combat, the strategy, it all just sang to me, and yet I can't help but think that it fell a little flat, give me a heads up on your opinion of how this went, feedback is always welcome.
AN4: Review Responses:
God of All: Thankyou! I'm glad you think so.
Joelfong: I'm one of few? O.o I was unaware.
Imortalgee: It's a burden, but I'll do my best to suffer through your glowing praise. AS for your question the series is at the moment a minimum of four stories; World of Deceit, Web of Lies, Falsehood Ploy and The Perception Annihilation. But I'm thinking of writing at least one more story afterwards chronicling the events following the war.
Jkarr: Glad you think so, I was slightly concerned as to how that would be handled.
Pairingmatters: Well… there was one death… Thanks for your review regardless.
Vegasman: I'd already written the twin's traps when you sent me this, great minds think alike huh? I'm still tossing up whether to include guns in this, there is a certain satisfaction to the idea, but we'll see. I do like the cinematic nature of magic compared to firearms though, much more interesting to write about.
Anotherboarduser: The next chapter should cover the questions you have, Fleur's nature will be fully revealed by the end of this story (Web of Lies) I promise.
Shadow Dragon: Some good ideas, I'll see what I can do with them.
Beyondthesea: Shhh you'll give the game away, the full plans of Valmortis won't be revealed till late in the next story, but some of what is to come should sate your curiosity, I hope.
Hoo boy that was quite a battle wasn't it? There's about a month left in the storyline and the next chapters are going to be chock-a-block. Tune in next time for: Chapter Thirteen: Answers; whereupon Nosferatu are finally detailed and the aftermath of the battle is detailed, both for the defenders, and the forces of darkness. Thanks for Reading and other Shenanigans. See you next time!
LGreymark