AN: *Insert huffy disclaimer here*
AN2: A very minute smut scene towards the end, nothing scandalous
-:-
Chapter Fifteen: Captain
"How exactly are we going to get mum and dad here Harry? This place isn't hooked up to the floo, for good reason, Portkeys can't go through the fidelius and we can't apparate. I don't know if I'd want mum apparating, pregnant as she is, anyway."
Hermione's swift and logical response made Harry rub his face with a hand. Not a word had been spoken aloud; this conversation was in their minds.
"I hope you have a better idea than mine then love; because we need him here and I can't see another way to achieve it."
Hermione's mind whirled into action identifying and discarding options faster than Harry could spot them in the stream of her thoughts. After a few seconds a single thought came to prominence.
"The car"
-:-
It had been a few months since Dan and Emma had seen the nondescript time travelling car enter their street. But there it was, in the middle of the school term, driving towards them.
Dan was watching from the window, aware that something was going on. They had received a message from Harry and Hermione the week before telling them that they had escaped the castle after it had become a hostile environment and the story of why had annoyed the two adults, but not really shocked them overly; it seemed exactly the kind of thing an ancient man with everything to lose would do.
The car door opened and to their surprise it was Sirius who exited the vehicle rather than the young woman, Tonks. Emma greeted Harry's godfather and brought him indoors where he wasted no time appraising them of the situation. Dan couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"At long last Harry needs me for something rather than you honey." The teasing remark made Emma grin, Harry often came to her for help.
"Well I guess we'd better have Dobby pack us? Or will he arrive later with our things?"
"I need you to come with me both now, we can catch up when we arrive there but it needs to be fast. I've spent the last twelve hours driving too and from Wales and my location is probably well and truly made. We're safe here but they could potentially attack the car before we have a chance to leave, trapping us here. Dobby will bring your things later."
They wasted no time in getting into the car and cinching their seatbelts. Sirius fiddled with some contraption in the roof of the car and a moment later they experienced the disconcerting sensation of having the world outside the car literally melt around them. When everything settled they were halfway along a driveway heading towards the largest and most elegant manor either of them had ever seen, it easily rivalled the houses of parliament for sheer size.
The engine was started quickly and Sirius had the car travelling at a steady pace down the driveway in to time at all. Dan felt he had to ask the question he guessed was not only his mind, but his wife's as well.
"This is Harry's house?"
Sirius only chuckled at Dan's incredulous question and the Ex-Military man simply sat back, figuring he'd get more from Harry when they reached the mansion.
-:-
The reunion with Harry and Hermione had been a tearful one; it had been some time since they had seen one another face to face and a lot had happened since then. Harry was encased in Emma's embrace as was Hermione in her father's. They switched after a moment or two and Dan found himself hugging his adopted son unabashedly.
When they had adopted Harry there had been a part of Dan that was detached from the lad and as a result Emma was the one he had grown closer to. Here though was tangible proof that Harry had really missed Dan despite the inferior development of their relationship compared to the one the boy had with Emma.
They all parted for a moment and Dan noted with satisfaction that Hermione went straight back to Harry's side and wrapped an arm about his waist. It was a comfortable, easy gesture that the teens had clearly practised many times. They were comfortable with each other, happy. It was all he could ask for his little girl. Focusing, he asked the question Sirius had laughed at.
"Is this your house Harry? It's a bit big isn't it?"
The scowl on Hermione's face and the mirth in Harry's eyes let Dan know something was afoot, his daughter's annoyed reply confirmed it.
"This whole house is too tall dad, all the chairs, the doorknobs, the stairs. I feel like a child again with the way this place is proportioned, you probably won't like it much either mum. Yes, this is one house Harry owns, but neither of us thinks it will be our home."
Dan sometimes forgot that Hermione would be marrying Harry one day, it was easy to forget when they already interacted like they'd been married for decades. It was hard to remember to treat them like teens, when they acted like adults. Maybe that was a good thing, he reflected dryly.
"We've got something to show the two of you while Sirius sleeps off his journey. He's going to be time turning back to just before he left so no one notices the gap."
He turned and headed towards one of the outbuildings along a fairly wide cobbled path. Dan noted that the driveway looped around to pass next to the structures they were heading to, garages of some description perhaps?
When Harry hauled open the roller door Dan was floored, squatting in front of them with all the grace of the mastiff was a Centurion 7/1 main battle tank. As far as Dan could see it was in good condition, but actually running it would be another question entirely. He was about to open his mouth and state this when Harry walked straight past the vehicle before heading towards the back of the building.
Following curiously Dan soon spotted the rows and rows of gun cases open with their weapons displayed. Here was something he was more familiar with.
"Harry, where on earth did you get all of these?"
Emma's arm around his waist squeezed him sympathetically; clearly she wanted to know too.
"That would be Sirius' doing, so ask him for the details. But where we got them isn't why we need you here Dan, rather we need you here as to why we got them; we fought a battle recently; you know this, against thousands of undead. There were so many of them that almost every single one of us was completely worn out at the end of the day, and several nearly died from magical exhaustion.
Having access and training in non-magical forms of combat would give us the advantage in any situation where we could potentially be embroiled in extended combat. Why? Because casting spells takes energy, firing a gun only takes bullets. It gives us a massive advantage over other magicals. That said I doubt firearms are going to be any use at close range against a skilled duellist. Bringing them to bear would take too long when a magical can do something like this."
Dan blinked and, with a sharp crack, Harry was gone and Emma let out a small shriek. Instantly he felt a wand pressing against his back, both Dan and Harry knew the wand being there was unnecessary, but it made its point. Another crack and Harry was back and looking grim.
"Regardless we need your help to learn how to use and maintain these weapons; we're in the dark here. I can train the Regiment to use magic for combat easily, but I've no idea what I'm doing with non-magical weapons."
Dan nodded as he looked back over the weapons; there was everything they'd need there, service rifles, support weapons, handguns that would probably end up being used more for shooting practise than anything else. He just had two questions before they got started.
"First, what exactly have you got here in terms of numbers? And what about that tank you have Harry? Is that going to be something we're working with?"
Dan wouldn't deny that there was more than a hint of excitement in his voice when he spoke about the tank. He'd worked briefly with Challenger battle-tanks in training but had ended up in infantry instead of the armoured division; as such he was more than a little excited to be working with some mobile armour.
Harry looked wistfully up at the massive battle tank but shook his head ruefully as Hermione smirked from beside him.
"Between Hermione, the twins and myself we've more or less concluded that the tank is too big and unwieldy to use in combat against anything smaller than a giant. More to the point it's too hard to disguise from the non-magical community, and too hard to deploy; it's impossible for us to move something like this quickly enough to respond to a magical attack. Then, if we did deploy it, the tank would rapidly bring the attention of the non-magical community's police or military.
At best it's a hobby piece, or if we get attacked here, God forbid, it would be a potent defensive weapon; I don't think even Voldemort could dodge a shot from the tank's main gun."
Dan nodded trying to hide his disappointment as Harry finished his answer
"As for the weapons, we have thirty each of the service rifles and handguns, and ten each of the minimi's and the sniper rifles. Fred and George are working on expanding our store of munitions.".
Dan rocked back on his heels a bit, thinking quickly.
"We'll need a firing range post haste. About what distance to you feel more comfortable drawing your wand than a gun?"
Harry shrugged
"I'm not totally sure yet, but let's say about twenty meters, we can fine tune it from there."
Dan nodded to himself as he was thinking.
"I imagine it wouldn't be too hard for your elves to reposition targets along distinct lines?"
Harry shook his head.
"If you mean for different ranges then no, no trouble at all."
"Alright then, let's get to work."
-:-
They very quickly got a firing range set up and began testing the weapons. The big thing they needed to check was how the bullets interacted with magic. Fred and George quickly came up with rune stones that projected a dome of a particular shield or ward for Dan to shoot into. The results had been quite startling.
While a shield charm properly angled could deflect a bullet from the service rifle with ease, a direct hit would shatter any charm or mid strength ward they cared to try it on. The bullets would still travel with lethal force even after penetrating the spell. The higher strength wards would often disintegrate the bullets from the sniper rifles and service rifles. But when Dan opened up on one of them with a Minimi it rapidly overloaded and flickered out.
It was universally agreed that the weapons would be effective and Dan made sure that both Harry and Hermione would carry a pistol around with them in case they lost their wands. As later would too the specialists.
-:-
The whole Regiment was out on the grounds, sitting on benches with a low table in front of them. The wounded had recovered by this point and were eager to get back into the swing of things. Dan was at the head of the area with his son next to him demonstrating as Dan instructed him.
It took several days of four hour training sessions before all of the Regiment were familiar with how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble their weapons. Even though it could probably be done with magic Dan was adamant that they become proficient at the task. It was less about the actual task, and more about learning respect for your weapon.
The Regiment was now running in the morning with their weapons on straps around them to help them get used to the weight, Harry and Dan had experimented with feather light guns but it made controlling the recoil almost impossible and accuracy degraded rapidly as a result. In the end the Regiment had just accepted that they would be getting used to running with more weight from now on.
It was now early June and the entire Regiment was on high alert; while they were training with these new weapons, Voldemort and Valmortis were biding their time and recovering. Harry had oft wondered if Valmortis was far more drained than anyone had thought as most everyone had expected the next attack to come rapidly on the heels of the last, keeping them as off balance as possible.
But both sides of the conflict had retreated to their corners to lick their wounds and it set Harry's teeth on edge that they had no information on what was going on. At least they had something to take their mind off the absence of action.
-:-
"Fire! Fire! Fire! Keep the tempo, one shot, one breath, fire!"
It was the third day of accuracy training and the squads were lined up along the firing wall of the shooting gallery. Each squad member would be up, firing their weapons alternately; one of them would fire, then the other while the first took a breath to keep tempo, the third would be between the two ready to shield against stunners flying out from the shooting gallery fired by Fred and George's rune traps.
When the other two squad members had to reload the third member, the one normally shielding, would pick up the slack and keep up a double pace barrage of bullets. In such fashion each squad would fire one bullet a second at all times from their service rifles.
Dan had drilled into them how important accuracy was, every shot had to be a kill shot, if you don't have a target when it comes to be time for you to fire, fire at the place where you think they're going to come from. More important even than accuracy though was rhythm, it would be vital in a combat situation for each squad to keep their calm and an even tempo of fire, if anyone began firing wildly, or stopped shooting; it would give the enemy an opening to exploit.
"Cease fire!"
As one the Regiment stopped firing and turned to Captain Granger as he was no known, who was looking over them all with no small measure of pride.
"You've got the tempo, you've got the accuracy and you've got respect for your weapons. I have nothing left to teach the majority of you, however there are fifteen of you who've been picked for additional responsibility. Ten squad members, instead of a service rifle, will be given a Minimi Light Machine gun, these weapons are extremely deadly, and should be treated with the utmost respect. Pavarti, could you show them how it's done?"
Down the line Pavarti brought her Minimi up and placed it down on its bipod on the small shelf in front of her facing the firing gallery. After sighting quickly and bracing she opened up, holding a six second burst of fire that, if not for selective sound dampening charms, would have deafened all present. Her chosen target was a mess of torn paper by the time she was done with it. The Captain spoke as Pavarti reloaded.
"This is a support weapon that you will deploy when defending a superior position against greater numbers, or when you're simply in need of a way to supress a large number of entrenched targets, or when you need to engage a large magical creature such as; a troll or chimera. I've had a look at these creatures and this kind of weapon would be idea for dealing with them, Hermione could probably give you more details. There aren't enough of the service rifles for all of you, we're about ten short in fact, and these weapons will be replacing them. We'll be giving you some additional training to go with the weapons for things like maintenance and battlefield discipline."
He looked around the squads locating those he would be calling on.
"In each squad, the following members have been chosen to carry this weapon: Pavarti Patil, Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson, Susan Bones, Ernie Macmillan, Seamus Finnegan, Terry Boot, Cho Chang, Grady Pierce and Spoon. Elves are getting your weapons to you now."
He looked about and identified the last five people he was going to call upon, locking eyes with his daughter briefly.
"Finally five of you have showed exceptional accuracy, missing no more than five percent of your shots collectively across the training period. These five people have been chosen to also carry a L118A1 sniper rifle, these weapons are to be carried and used only when the Regiment is expecting to be combatting enemies at extreme range, or if a particular target needs to be eliminated with precision. It may be possible to use this weapon to eliminate the commanders of the enemy force when you encounter them across a field of battle and they are hanging back from the fight. I imagine you'd all appreciate that."
The line of nodding teenagers was no surprise to Dan, none of them wanted to be fighting and any chance to end the conflict more quickly would be ideal for them.
"The five people I'm about to call will be given additional training and will be expected to be able to carry this weapons with them alongside their service rifles for when the time comes where they are needed; Hermione Granger, Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Neville Longbottom and Knife. Daphne and Tracey, with both of you in the same squad Harry and I decided to have your squad fill a purely support role when it comes to firearms and you'll only take your service rifles with you on missions where it's unlikely there will be any chance for your L118A1's to be of use. Clear?"
Thirty odd voices yelled clearly
"Clear Sir!"
Dan nodded and waved Harry up; as Harry got to the small raised section of ground where Dan had been speaking from he spoke up.
"I'm very proud of all of you; you've shown these weapons a great deal of respect and I've personally observed all of your making a concerted effort to become proficient with them. From now on we'll be changing our routine up a bit: General exercise in the morning at oh six hundred hours, followed by two hours of weapon drills at oh six thirty. Breakfast, and then at oh nine hundred we'll practice fire team exercises with both firearms and wand work for three hours then break for lunch at twelve hundred hours. Two hours break for lunch and recreation before academic study at fourteen hundred. Finally we'll wrap the day up at seventeen hundred hours and you'll be free for dinner and general free time, finally lights out at twenty two hundred hours. This will be six days a week; Monday through Saturday with Sunday free except for morning exercises. Clear?"
-:-
The Regiment confirmed and then as it was close enough to the time, broke up and headed to lunch. Pavarti shot off to Padma so that they could have some sister time while Dan, Harry and Hermione ambled over to where a gravid Emma was reclining in her seat. The informal dining hall of Potter Manor was a fairly large room, not a patch on the great hall at Hogwarts but it was more than enough for the needs of the Regiment.
Harry had been quietly talking with some of the elves and Hermione about building a Regimental barracks on the grounds so that they would have a permanent base of operations if things went south and they had to house refugees of the war. But that was discussion for another time as they sat near their mum and Emma immediately wrapped both of the teens in a hug small tears dripping down her cheeks. Neither teen needed to ask to know what was wrong.
Harry, concerned, wiped them away gently before reassuring her.
"We'll be fine mum. We're the most highly trained people on the continent Aurors excluded, we're already battle proven and none of them are going to stand down from this war. I couldn't rightly do that either, especially when I have a family and a future to be fighting for."
She fair launched herself at him, pregnancy hormones making her much more emotional than she would otherwise be, especially with her usually logical mind. Typically Harry would have expected her to be understanding about the situation but quietly upset. Here she clearly understood, but the upset was anything but quiet.
"You promise me you'll both come home safe."
Harry looked over Emma's shoulder at both Dan and Hermione who looked slightly grim. After a moment Dan gave him a nod and Hermione reassured him in their mind.
"I promise Mum. We'll come home to you."
Deep inside him Harry felt his magic take hold of that promise and start spinning something great out of it.
-:-
Days came and went and the weekend rolled around full force. Dan and Emma had gotten settled into the Manor without much trouble. Emma was remaining mostly sedentary as travelling from place to place in the overlarge structure was mostly just an annoyance. Instead she stayed put in the library for the most part and enjoyed the serenity of the place.
The Regiment was working hard with the specialists learning the quirks of their new weapons and the rest of the members working hard to improve their overall accuracy and ability to work together with the weapons.
In the evenings Fred George and Lee had been working on the auxiliary concerns for the weapons. It hadn't been too hard to make the magazines feather-light, which had the added advantage of not making the ammunition itself too light to fire. When the cartridges game out of the magazine they regained their former weight.
Silenced weapons were another thing that had been easy for them to achieve as silencing the weapon didn't affect it's firing in any way. They were sure to only silence the barrel however so that if a malfunction occurred in the weapon it could still be heard.
Ammunition it turned out was quite hard to transfigure; each bullet had a great deal of detail and inner working. In the end it became easier for the elves to simply make the ammunition with transfigured raw materials.
It became common practise for each squad member to carry a pack around with them. The pack contained a great deal of ammunition for the weapons, water, food, etc. Essentially things they couldn't conjure or transfigure on the move. All in all it made each squad able to operate for days at a time away from a home base. If they ever needed to scatter or hold an extended engagement over several days this would see them in good stead.
Dan had been rather impressed with how long each squad could be out and away from base for, after a quick review of what they carried in their packs it was obvious why: In the muggle military each person would have to carry sleeping gear, a first aid pack, cooking equipment, etc. Most of the things that took up space in the pack of a muggle infantryman were easily replaced by a wand. Sleeping and cooking equipment could be conjured; the entire Regiment knew magical first aid. Digging and climbing gear could be easily replaced with spells. Add that to the ability to make the packs themselves much lighter than normal through magic and it was easy to see how they were able to carry more food, water and ammunition than an equivalent muggle infantryman.
The silenced weapons had raised some concerns for Dan; hearing a weapon's discharge was often something that alerted not only enemies, but also allies, that something was going on. Without radio contact and silenced weapons one of the squad could come under attack without anyone knowing about it. After discussion with Harry and Hermione, and then later Fred and George, they had come up with simple clasps that could be attached to a lapel or collar and would transmit and receive sound magically. Essentially radios. The kicker was that only the person the clasp was attached to could hear what the clasp was transmitting.
When the Regiment lined up in rank and file before morning drills Dan couldn't help but compare them favourably to other infantry forces he had seen in his military career. They were younger, certainly, and they had only a fraction of the training that muggle military men and women went through. But for what they had, and the time they had achieved it in, they were very impressive.
The only thing really that was missing was a uniform.
-:-
Hermione was sitting on the edge of their bed in the manor looking at Harry with pride. He was standing there in front of the mirror wearing the new uniform of the Regiment and he looked very, very smart.
The Patil twins had taken a nod from the Unspeakables when designing the regimental uniform. A smooth black cuirass of magically reinforced steel was the dominating feature on Harry's chest. It covered his torso from just below his chin down to his abdomen with two segmented plates falling to either side of his hips covering the outside of his thighs. His legs were covered by a pair of brown cotton trousers that had pouches sewn into them where he could store magazines for firearms. Around his waist was a thick belt from which hung four more pouches and a holster for his pistol.
One of the pouches held a knife that Sirius had given him on a whim, another was empty but could hold an additional wand if he ever acquired one, for the moment it held his practise wand. The other two held two of the twin's inventions. The first being a squat cylinder that had a powerful optical magnification charm on it that could be used for recon.
The second was a piece of magically reinforced steel about a hand's length long and about an inch wide; a small cylinder was in the middle of the plate. It was a cross guard that could be slid onto the end of a wand when Harry (or any of the regimentals) used the now signature sorcery that allowed them to project focused magic in a tight blade in front of their wands, essentially giving the wand a magically affixed cross guard that surrounded the wand with an aura of rigidity and fortification that would prevent the wood from bending or breaking at an inopportune moment.
Under his cuirass was a white linen shirt that Hermione had initially protested as standing out like a sore thumb, but they were shock troops, not stealth units, and after seeing it on him she really couldn't complain. A pair of hessian boots similar to the ones Victoria Umbridge wore and black rawhide gloves rounded out the standard uniform. Harry's, as commander of the Regiment, had several additions; the first was a pair of metal pauldrons on his shoulders that were more to denote rank than actually provide protection, from them a black woollen cloak hung to the floor, it was charmed to stay out of his way but he could remove it easily if he felt he needed to.
Finally a black steel, open faced helm sat comfortably on his head. It wasn't particularly elaborate, just a padded skullcap of smooth metal that swept down to cover the back of his head and flared at the base to accommodate his armour. The cheek guards swept down from the top and back of the helm to end about three inches apart. It looked vaguely roman in nature and honestly it hid the, now somewhat long, hair that Hermione so loved.
She could put up with it though for the absolutely dapper look that the entire uniform had on her man. The entire ensemble screamed military power, and intimidation. And when she saw the entire regiment in the uniform tomorrow she was sure she'd be awed by the appearance.
Harry had shown particular appreciation for her in her own version of the uniform; it was mostly the same but without the cloak and helmet. She did note that he hadn't pinned his clasp to his lapel, but she guessed he would do that when it was time to actually wear it for an operation. As he turned back to her she ran her eyes over him once more and took note of the Potter crest on the left breast of his cuirass and the Hogwarts crest on the right.
It was a statement she thought, that all of the wizarding world would understand when they saw they uniform of the regiment. The Potter crest taking pride of place over the heart would be a clear message that the loyalty of the Regimentals was to Harry first and the castle second. She wryly wondered if Pavarti and Padma had understood this when they were designing the uniform, then discarded the question a moment later and answered it; of course they knew.
He would take his cloak off and store it inside his pack when it came time to wear it. As for his rifle the Weasley twins had charmed a series of straps to wrap around the rifle when it was pressed against the side of the pack, and then to release it when it was pulled, allowing it to be brought to bear quickly. All in all the uniform, and the assorted paraphernalia now associated with the Regiment, looked and functioned in a very professional manner; the cuirass was not only magically reinforced, but also charmed with protective spells that would neutralize harmful gasses in the air around the wearer, deflect minor spells and sorceries, and even apply some automatic healing magic to injuries the wearer sustained.
Hermione helped her man out of his uniform before pulling him to bed; the thought of him being injured at all had risen a lump in her throat and she had need of his comforting presence, in the darkness he whispered to her quietly.
"I'll never leave you my love, not for death or heartbreak."
Understanding the unspoken words she snuggled into his side and quickly allowed herself to fall to the realm of Morpheus. Not only would Harry never leave her, but he would never let her leave him either, he would protect her, and she would protect him, until the end of time.
-:-
"Remind me why we're in uniform again Dan?"
"To give you all a sense of professionalism, you should all be exercising in those uniforms day in day out. No point exercising in lighter clothes if you have to put heavier ones on to fight."
Harry nodded; the uniforms had a plethora of charms on them to make them comfortable for exercise; cushioning charms on the boots to prevent blisters, aeration and drying charms on the linens and cotton to help sweating and heat. And of course the women, especially the well-endowed ones, had expansion charms on the insides of their cuirasses to save them from hours of discomfort.
In short there was no reason for them not to exercise in full battle dress, so they did.
When Harry had seen the Regiment lined up in rank and file in uniform with their rifles and packs on it had been something of a revelation. This was real now, they were a professional military force, all that needed changing was a salary paid to each member, and that could be readily organized. What really drove it home though was the potter crest in white paint over the heart of each of the Regimentals, he had the loyalty of these brave young men and women, they would follow him into hell and back if he but gave the word.
-:-
To a man/woman the regiment refused a salary on the grounds that they were volunteers, and if they were paid their loyalties might be called into question; were they loyal to Harry or to the gold he paid them? No one wanted that on their conscience. He housed them, clothed them, fed them, and gave them a profession they could be proud of. They needed no other payment.
Their uniforms became a point of personal pride for the Regimentals; each and every one saw the cuirass as a badge of honour and they all wore them with the understanding that they would lay down their lives for one another.
It had been quite expensive to source the metals and fabrics for the uniforms but Harry thought it was well worth it, especially when the Potter elves proved capable of forging and sewing to such a professional level.
Harry felt satisfied that they were ready for anything; they were near experts in wanded combat, they could engage and defeat a variety of targets at range with their muggle weapons and they had the determination and bravery to face down hordes of undead, as proven in combat.
There was only one thing left to investigate; Harry wanted to get that tank working.
-:-
It proved to be much harder than anyone thought possible, the tank was in pretty poor shape and needed to be completely rebuilt from the inside out. The elves proved to be invaluable here as they custom forged parts for the tank with an amazing level of skill and precision that Harry was beginning to expect from them. The original metal of the tank was taken, melted down, and reforged into the mechanisms and armour that the males of the Regiment needed to reconstruct the metallic beast.
The construction of the vehicle itself raised a lot of problems, what would normally be done with teams of men working together to fit the heavy armour plates together had to be done with magic. And magic was somewhat ineffectual on the metals of the vehicle that the elves had enchanted while forging to not only resist wear and tear but also be resistant to magic, further increasing their defensive capabilities.
In the end Fred and George managed to come up with a series of jury rigged supports and cranes that the Regimentals then used to coax the tank together. Rivets and bolts normally fired home with power tools were instead hand cranked and beaten with magically enhanced hand tools. It took nearly a solid week of effort but they eventually got the entire tank back together and in working condition. Then came the next challenge.
The tank wasn't like a car; you couldn't simply sit down and drive around in it. It needed preparation, oiling, daily maintenance, and a crew of three people to operate not only the tank's driving mechanisms but also the turret and main gun, normally an additional crew member would be required to operate the radio but with the radio clasps that Fred and George had developed such a device was utterly unneeded.
In the end it was decided that all of the squads would be trained in operating the tank. If anyone attacked Potter Manor then whoever got there first would need to be able to have the vehicle operating and ready to repel whatever was threatening them. The main gun on the tank was a bit big for anti-infantry work but against giants, trolls, manticores, or other such massive creatures it would be ideal. Meanwhile the fore mounted machine gun and coaxial machine gun would be ideal for wiping out death eaters or massed undead. Someone could even pop out of the top hatch with a Minimi or service rifle and do some real damage. Harry up there with a wand was also on the cards.
The ordinance the tank would fire; namely 105mm high explosive shells, was in production by the elves but no one felt comfortable with a single teenage witch or wizard manipulating the heavy shells by hand inside the close confines of the tank. Therefore the loader would be assisted by one of the Potter elves, a rather excitable elf by the name of Cranky, so named for his love of mechanics rather than his demeanour. With a bit of practice the crews could get fair accuracy even while on the move with about a ten second gap between firing shells. Harry privately hoped they never needed to use the vehicle but it was nice to know they had it if they needed it.
In the Command squad Hermione was the only one anyone would trust driving the tank; Padma was far too timid on the controls and it took too long for her to get the tank lined up properly, and Harry had a terrible sense of size and often clipped things when trying to drive between them. Padma worked well with Cranky and happily settled into the loader's position which she quickly expanded to a role where she also ensured that Harry and Hermione were kept cool inside the tight confines of the tank. Finally Harry found his seat in the gunner position where he took great pleasure in punching dirty great holes in the concrete targets the elves whipped up.
It was a successful but not overly useful project, but while it did not bring much offensive military power to the Regiment it did spark ideas in Fred and George's minds how to change that. Furthermore it brought the Regiment closer together now that they had a mascot, a large bulky metallic mascot, but a mascot all the same. Tyrant squad proved to be the most proficient while driving the beast and so it was named after them. Tyranny sat in the courtyard of the Manor now between training sessions looking like the metallic beast of war they all knew it to be. Tyrant squad even had a white tank emblem painted onto their cuirasses.
-:-
One thing the tank's restoration project did do was demonstrate to the purebloods exactly how dangerous non-magic folk were and how far they had come without magic. Between the awe inspiring destructive force of the tank's main gun, it's utter imperviousness to magical harm, and the service rifles they all carried around with them now the purebloods had a much greater respect for Muggle warfare.
It had been eye opening the first time they had fired the main gun on Tyranny and watched as (with a miss) the shot had sailed far over the intended target and torn a hole in the hillside behind it. No one was under any illusions what that weapon would do if aimed at a human being. Or even something bigger like a giant. Quietly many of them wished they had had these weapons for the battle of Hogwarts, it would have been a cakewalk.
-:-
Early in June reports had started to come from Hogwarts that the Veela contingent across the channel had begun to put real pressure on Britain. With no official open line of magical communication between England and France the situation was deteriorating rapidly. It seemed that the French were not bluffing and should Harry not turn himself in to trial they would in fact blockade the island.
After an initial period of suspicion over how Dumbledore was receiving this information the truth was made rapidly clear; the French had made a direct appeal to Dumbledore at the latest meetings of the ICW but had refused his claims that Harry was needed in England. Apparently no one over the channel believed that Harry was telling the truth about Voldemort, and Harry privately doubted that they would have believed he was needed here anyway; boy who lived or not he was still only fifteen.
More than that though the Veela had their blood boiling over the death of Fleur and were listening to no reason, they wanted a reckoning for the death of one of their heirs and apparently Harry was their target.
Unfortunately as the situation got worse Harry grew less and less confident that he would ever leave France's borders if he went there for trial; war or not the Veela wanted his head. He had been quietly incredulous that they didn't have any agents who witnessed the battle of Hogwarts. Even the muggles had figured something was up but with the number of obscuring charms on the army nothing concrete had been known by the non-magical governments.
Whether they knew about the conflict was becoming less and less relevant, what had originally started as a worry that Britain would end up indebted to the other countries that came to 'save' them from their dark lord. Harry was begging to worry more and more that they would simply try to use their position to overrule the magical government in Britain with superior numbers and execute a hostile takeover.
While the political situation in non-magical Europe was fairly steady, and had been for nearly fifty years, the magical world was still teetering on the brink of war; Grindlewald had not risen to power on the dregs of his country like Riddle had, rather he had the full might of magical Nazi Germany behind him. The problem was that while the non-magical Nazi's had been completely shut down by the allies at the end of the war, only the magical Nazi leader had been neutered. The followers were still very much active.
Britain's location was strategically powerful for a defending magical force, as an island it was easy for defenders to repel magical invaders by simply warding the coast line. If the remnants of the magical Nazi's were to invade and take over the country it would be much the same if Riddle had, if not worse. The French, and probably the Spanish, would try to take Britain for themselves if only to stop that from happening.
If the conflict in Britain was known to the greater world and they decided to intervene things could go from bad to worse very quickly. Privately Harry wondered if the blockade was really that troublesome; the magical community lost a lot of its trade, but all they were losing was luxury goods and a bit of income, they still had food and essentials, though potions products would probably begin to peter out as the conflict raged. Either Harry went to France and got executed, or the rest of Europe invaded a country at a time trying to hold Britain for themselves.
Harry was concerned that even if they managed to somehow defeat Voldemort for good; they would still have the rest of magical Europe to deal with.
-:-
Hermione was busy pouring over Lily's journal; what had initially been a passing interest in the deeper workings of the Potter family magic had become an obsession about the understanding of the Potter male souls. Hermione had quietly figured out that pureblood wizarding families sought not to coax magic down the same family lines, but to coax the same souls into familiar bodies.
Magic was largely down to luck in terms of power and it was based only loosely on the body of the person. Mostly it was based on the soul: Most witches and wizards in pureblood England could trace their family histories back to one of the Knights of the Round Table or Merlin himself. This gave them a definite pedigree and a baseline of power that they all sought to return to. The souls of these original founding members of British Magical society were incredibly powerful, and as such it was fair to claim that their souls, probably still floating about in the afterlife, were very powerful individually.
Hermione also knew that souls did not simply live once; they came back to this plane of existence many times to live life again and again. Evidence of this could be traced through Merlin's soul, and existing soul bonded couples cropping up over the centuries. Where this became squirrelly was the conjecture that souls tended to reside in bodies similar to ones they had previously inhabited. It was called the Affinity Conjecture and Hermione had studied it in depth for many hours where Lily had painstakingly copied it down into her journal.
By the looks of it Purebloods had taken the conjecture the wrong way centuries ago, believing that if they bred between themselves, therefore keeping mostly the same appearance and not bringing any new blood into the families, they would coax the souls of their ancestors into their children and bring about the second age of merlin or some such rubbish.
What it seems none of them had really cottoned on to was the fact that the soul had an effect on the physical body's appearance. Hermione had proof of this with Harry; while the soul fragment of Voldemort had been attached to him he had shared several startling appearance traits with the man. Genetics had to be thrown out the window when dealing with this and Hermione had to remind herself several times to keep an open mind.
What did all this have to do with the Potter family magic? Lily had wondered the same thing (Apparently in reaction to something she had read in Harry's grandmother's journal, gifted to Lily for the same purpose Hermione now had hers). Researching the subject further Lily had discovered that Potter men seemed to share souls across several generations; James appeared to be the spitting image of his great grandfather, his father was the doppelganger of James' great, great grandfather, and so on. If the theory held true Harry should look much the same as James' grandfather Mortimer.
Hastily getting up from her seat in the library she headed back into the corridors of the gargantuan Manor and made her way to the formal Dining room where portraits of recent relatives of the current Lord Potter resided. Harry had initially been excited by the chance of moving magical portraits of his family but apparently they didn't wake up until Harry came of age.
It was annoying at the time but now Hermione didn't care, she trotted rapidly through the halls until she reached the room, and there stood dumbfounded. While Harry was very similar to James in appearance he was almost a carbon copy of Mortimer Agrippa Potter's twenty year old self, minus some growing up time. If the theory held true, Harry would share this man's soul, and his first born son would share the soul of Charlus Potter; Harry's grandfather.
She sat heavily at the table and stared into the distance as she ruminated on the consequences of her discovery, namely that once she had access to the Potter archives she could trace Harry's soul back through the generations, perhaps even to the round table itself. How the Potter men shared souls so regularly was a mystery but it seemed to be the cause of the Family's unwavering dedication to the same moral values for over a millennia.
Then it hit her. Her soul would be bound to the Potter line for eternity. If Harry's great grandchild carried his soul, then the girl who carried her soul would inevitably be the one who caught his eye. A fat tear of happiness rolled from the corner of her eye as she couldn't wipe the grin from her face. She would get to be a part of this wonderful family for the rest of time.
She needed to celebrate.
-:-
Hermione was doing that thing again, that thing where she forgot that he couldn't hear her thoughts when she was focused on whatever that Fidelius kept secret was. It both bothered him and comforted him that the charm his mother had cast was as powerful as to even restrict communication between the members of a soul bound coupling.
It bothered him for the obvious reason that this was one aspect of Hermione that she kept a secret from him. It comforted him that his mother's secrets were so perfectly safe. The assumption that this was his mother's Fidelius was just that, an assumption. But Hermione had seemed happier of late that he had made the connection. Now that he thought about it there had been many times that she had felt guilty, though in each instance he had brushed it off as nothing more than her own internal musings as he would have been well aware if she had done anything to be guilty about.
He was currently sitting in the bath letting his muscles and scars soak in the hot water after their exercises and drills that day. He figured he would probably seize if he didn't. While normally he would be fine with the level of exercise they did he was conscious of the fact that his body was not normal and it took a while longer than most to recover. Hermione had recommended him taking an hour or two for himself in the evenings while she did the same. Living in one another's minds for the last two years or so had given them fairly unparalleled knowledge of each other, but it had also erased some of what made them unique.
-:- Smut begins -:-
He was slightly bemused when the door to the bathroom opened and a naked Hermione slid into the bath and cuddled up to him, grinning like a loon. Whatever she was thinking about was still off limits, but that was made up for the hand that slid between them and firmly grabbed him under the water.
Her body was mostly flush against his and he groaned as she used her hand and the cheeks of her arse to stroke him under the water. He stilled the ripples on the surface of the bath with a thoughtless spell to stop the water sloshing everywhere and simply lay there and enjoyed her touch. After a while her mind opened back up to him and they meshed together instantly, both having missed the contact.
Soon the light stroking Hermione had been performing devolved rapidly into Harry thrusting against her arse while his hands played eagerly with her body. It was all Hermione could do to make sure he didn't spear deep into her folds with his cock on each thrust and simply hang on for the ride as she was 'dry' humped to a satisfying finish.
It was a strange sensation having Harry's cock sliding along her arse cheeks underwater, it felt exaggerated somehow by the liquid, but she loved it. What she loved more was when Harry did that thing with his fingers that drove her completely bonkers and she twisted in his arms until she was facing him so that she could bury her head in his neck while she groaned her orgasm out.
Grinning mischievously she pushed him deeper into the water and straddled him. While one hand held the edge of the bath for balance and the other held his cock flat against his stomach she ground along him with her folds, creating the delicious friction that he had been almost demanding earlier with his thrusts against her bum.
He was very worked up and it took no time at all for him to jerk beneath her, jets of cum sullying the bathwater between them. An automatic spell cleared the water of the salty evidence and Hermione slumped forwards against him, still grinning and happily snuggling into his chest.
-:-Smut ends -:-
His hand came up and stroked the shell of her ear for a moment as he caught his breath, when he had however his mental question was not long in the coming.
"As much fun as that was, what brought it on?"
He felt a mental start from her as she tried to tell him before a frustrated mien came over her.
"I can't tell you Harry, not yet, but I promise that when I do tell you it'll probably be just before you claim me properly for the first time, and we'll be able to appropriately celebrate."
Appeased he shuffled into a more comfortable position and simply held his bond mate as they drifted into a half waking slumber.
-:-
The school was in a shambles really; With the departure of the Regiment the rest of the students felt desperately vulnerable and the news of why they had left had been polarizing to say the least.
On the one hand many of the students (especially the pureblood ones) had families who ran businesses that would be directly affected by the blockade, on the other hand Harry was a well-loved member of the student populace and few wanted to see him in any kind of hurt, moreover the students in that camp had been signing petitions and sending them to Dumbledore via owl for him to go to France personally and sort this out.
The issue with that of course, that Albus could see, was that the Veela nation could equally hold him in guilt for what had happened to Fleur, he was after all the one who had organized the tournament to start with.
Going to France was a terrible idea, staying in Britain was a terrible idea; letting Harry stay in Britain was a terrible idea (albeit an unavoidable one). They couldn't win this war without him, but more accurately they couldn't win a war against the rest of Europe, if Harry going over there stopped them from coming down on Britain like an angry hammer then that was the price they needed to pay.
Dumbledore leaned forward and cradled his head in his hands with his elbows on his desk. So many things could be laid at his feet, and he could fix none of them in retrospect: If only he had been quicker stopping Harry from leaving, if only he had been quicker getting the story to the French, if only he had discovered the plot last year, if only he had stopped Riddle in the first war.
If only he had never gone to that orphanage and left Tom Riddle to rot.
-:-
While Harry Potter was enjoying a bathtub romp with his lover, and Albus Dumbledore was lamenting his own mistakes, Lord Voldemort was preparing the next stage of Their plan.
Riddle manor was its ordinary stately self; now that the hideous spikes had been removed from the driveway it was looking very mundane. The creature that was Voldemort was secretly pleased the undead army Their Lieutenant had created had been wiped out; They were well aware of Valmortis' ambition and with the death eaters mostly annihilated Voldemort would have been hard pressed to deal with an entire army of undead on Their own. Even They had Their limits.
They felt a crawling sensation on Their right hand and looked down to see the skin there roiling as if in anger. Clearly Potter's magic was growing again, the bond to that mud blood bint expanding and deepening, it was fit to make Them sick.
The power tracking charm They had placed on the boy as he fled the Graveyard that night was all They could do, it was locked to the boy's magic and so needed no perfect accuracy to cast, that being the only reason They could place it at all. It had been desperately frustrating though, while They could tell that Potter's power was increasing, there was no exact way of telling how much.
They rose from Their throne and stalked down the entrance hall of the Manor with the gliding gait of some ethereal spectre. The darkness of the building was complete but it hindered Voldemort not as They travelled unerringly through the corridors. While They walked They reflected on the servants They had lost; it was little more than a list of names, but it was still extensive.
Malfoy, senior and junior; the spawn was neutered inside the castle as he was, it was like a prison. Avery, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Rosier, Parkinson, Greengrass… That name was sour on the tongue, lost to hormones rather than battle. Everett, Lestrange, Carrow, Mulciber, Rowle, Rookwood, Snape… Snape, They had never thought the man had backbone enough to be a spy on both sides of the fence, but now his allegiance was clear, hiding away in that castle as he was.
The list went on and on, hundreds of names, most new recruits. A pale hand pressed against a door deep in the manor and it swung open to reveal a single girl, bound and silenced with magic against the wall. They approached her, ignoring the look of veiled disgust and terror. Leaning down They pressed one pale forefinger against her forearm.
"Valmortis has his brainwashed servant, We'll have Our own. Tell me girl, what is your name?"
Silence, cold like the grave
"Imperio. Tell me, your name."
She had power enough to resist Them, even in this state, impressive. It was a shame They weren't really trying.
"Tell me, your name!"
It would have been easier to simply wrench the information from her mind, or to exert Themselves on one of Their own beings, but this was so much more, satisfying."
The girl tried, she really did, but Azkaban was not meant for someone so young, and besides, her mind was already familiar to Them, although only in echo. When she finally did tell Them her name, a wide horrific smile came upon Their lips, filled with hundreds of needle-like pointy teeth.
Perfect
-:-
AN3: Argh very late, so sorry. Meant to have this out a couple days ago
AN4: Okay, things going down in this chapter… quite a lot, and yet very little has actually walked forwards. This feels a bit to me like a filler chapter, and yet everything was necessary… Thoughts?
AN5: Review Responses:
WhyAreTheGoodNamesGone: Going to tackle this one first in a break from tradition (usually I respond to reviews from least recent to most). Mostly to apologise for NOT having this out on your birthday. Consider it a belated gift, I did intend to have it out earlier but life got in the way.
In answer to your question I need to clarify something that I explained poorly in the chapter. While the soul is not bound to the Nosferatu's body, it is still their body, and it is influenced by the soul of the creature that resurrected it, hence the Voldemort and Fleur appearance. As for her mental actions the reason she still has that connection with her soul is because all Nosferatu do, without a soul completely they would be little more than a drone, but because the soul is not anchored to the body, but rather connected loosely, that creates the terrible hunger that Nosferatu suffer.
Dbzgtfan2004: Thank you for your review :D
Noble Korhedron: I don't think stupid is the right word here, pig headed is more accurate, and it's less the French themselves and more the political pressure being put on them by the Veela nation, and the Veela are very, VERY hot headed.
God of all: Thanks as always for your review.
Jkarr: Now that would be telling
Tellur: it is Pavarti ;.; It's so easy for me to use Padma when I'm writing instead because it starts with the same letter and it's quicker to write. Ugh, I'm really going to have to go back one day and sort that out by redoing all the chapters that use the wrong name. Otherwise I think the chapter answered most of your questions, there's more at work here than was apparent at first examining. I like to write my characters as if they were real people, i.e making snap decisions on information they can think about at the time. Later when they have a good long think about it, like Harry does in this chapter, more eventualities come to mind.
Anotherboarduser: Thankyou :D Always good to hear your insights on the latest chapter.
Vegasman: They could, or they could see what happened to Fleur as a massive insult and go batshit, who knows with those things.
Shadowdragon: Good to hear from you again, you'll probably like my Harry/Fleur story that I have in the works: Harry Potter and the Isiah Strain. It'll probably have a first chapter up sometime around April.
Beyondthesea: I hope this answered most of your queries, there is more at stake here for everyone than just the one trial. I'm sorry there wasn't more 'hard-core training on the proper use of firearms' stuff in the chapter but after having written it a couple of times it just came across as being very boring, so I did it in summary instead.
B. Oots: Great! Thanks for taking the time to review
Okay that about wraps this chapter up. I just want to clarify a couple of things here that I don't know if I made clear last time: This story isn't going to halt/stop/otherwise cease being a thing, even if my schedule does force me to update later. Secondly I'm still not completely sure on this whole muggle weapons thing, clearly I'm approving it for the story but we'll see how it impacts things. I might end up retconning the whole lot if it takes the story in a direction I don't want.
Tune in next time for Chapter Sixteen: Response; whereupon Umbridge joins the Regiment and Valmortis and Voldemort make their next moves. As always thanks for Reading and other Shenanigans. See you next time!
LGreymark