DISCLAIMER – This story is based on the idea of the television program The Walking Dead. It was created by Frank Darabont. That doesn't mean I am going to use his characters. Time will tell, right now I'm just using the zombie aspect of it and such. The same could be said for the Resident Evil series.
DISCLAIMER 2 – Harry Potter is the sole property of JK Rowling.
DISCLAIMER 3 – This story contains slash. This means male on male and possible female on female. I do NOT go into specifics, but I do have them show love to one another.
PAIRINGS – Harry/Seamus, Hermione/ Draco, Neville/Luna. Others will be determined as the story goes along. This story will contain a neutral Dumbledore and Voldemort. This will also contain Weasley bashing as I love to do so.
NOTE – The characters will be OOC. This is fan fiction. If I wanted the characters to behave like Rowling portrayed them then I would write in her fashion. As I don't want to be sued for plagiarism, then the characters will behave as I want them to. If you want them to behave a certain way, THEN WRITE YOUR OWN STORY.
Chapter 3 – Getting Started
Hours later, Harry and his group were flying over the city of New Orleans. With a call out to the dragons, they landed on the roof of the Super Dome. Once everyone was out, he had the dragons place the boat on the ground outside. The walked around and looked at everything. They could see the zombies walking all over the place. They even took some time to get rid of those that were in the building and general vicinity.
"We are about a mile away from the French Quarter," reported Hermes appearing next to Harry. "Some of your more powerful magic users will have to carve a hole in the roof of this building or figure out how to open it to allow the dragons to get safely in and out. My suggestion would be to double up on the backs of the dragons and make a sweep over the Quarter so that you can get a feel of the layout of the area. This will keep you all safe until you get organized."
"We'll do that," answered Harry. "The sooner we get over there, the sooner we can get things set up. We have to figure out how to house everyone as well. Do you have information about living quarters and such? The more information we have, the easier things will be while we are working."
"There are houses and apartments all over the place," stated Hermes. "I recommend you use one of the apartment buildings or hotels and house all of you together once you clean it out. You can spread out later as you find more survivors in the area. They are there even if they're few and far in between. For now I wouldn't go any further out with a defensive section than Canal Street to Elysian Fields. I also would go from Rampart Street to the river and stop. The more you can keep your lines defended the better it will be. As the zombies and such don't eat anything but people, I suggest that you find supermarkets and such to be able to get food and so forth."
"Let's get started then," said Harry turning to his companions. "There are twelve dragons. I suggest that we do two people per dragon. Seamus and I will take Onyx. I suggest that Severus and Aunt Petunia ride Norberta. He can make sure she stays safe and such. I think that Minerva and Filius should team up. Bellatrix and Draco should fly together. I think that Dan and Lucius should team up. Jean Granger and Remus should fly together. Narcissa should team up with Neville. Fred and George, you should take one together. Mrs. Finnegan and her husband should fly together. Poppy and Luna should team up. Hermione, you are with Hagrid."
"All of you are to be careful and not pose any problems while on the backs of the dragons," said Bellatrix. "Master Griphook, I suggest that you and your warriors and family members start heading for the Quarter. One of us will fly circuits around the sky over you until you reach the area. Grawp will go with you as will Hagrid's giant Cerberus. Lord Hermes, I'm sure that you can talk with the other parties and send us magical animals such as unicorns, thestrals, hippogriffs, and so forth. A few gryphons wouldn't hurt either."
"Destroy anything that doesn't look alive," reminded Severus to Griphook and his goblins. "Please be careful. You are just as prone to be turned as we are should you not stay alert. We want as many of you to make it there alive as possible. There should be no reason that two hundred and fifty goblin warriors with a giant and Cerberus can't make it safely to where we are going a mile from here. Let's move out now."
Getting assurances that everyone would be safe and sound, the group all headed out. Those mounted on the backs of the dragons kept one eye on the sky and the other one where they were going. The Angels seemed to know what was going on, but with the appearance of the Archangel Michael, they were relatively safe from an airborne attack. It wasn't long before everyone made it safely to the Quarter. Once they landed on the corner of Canal St and Bourbon Street, the dragons landed as close together as they could.
"Bellatrix, have a dragon stand at the entrance to this street," instructed Harry looking down at his map that Luna drew for him. "From there post one at the entrance to each street to either side of us. Make sure that you stop at North Rampart and North Peters Street. We will move down this street for now and clean out all problems. There are some city buses just sitting there. I suggest that we move them to the entrance of each street as a form of blockade. From there, we can move cars and such to the other side of them as a second form of defense from anything coming in. Get some flyers in the air on brooms and find me some more buses. Don't go to high as we don't want the war between the Angels and demons to hit us."
Nodding her head, Bellatrix got started. Severus and Filius both took to the air on brooms to find as many buses as possible. When they found one, they would bring it to the front of a street and place it at the entrance blocking anything from getting in. While they were doing that, the others got to work on placing cars and other abandoned vehicles bumper to bumper behind the buses blocking anything from getting in. They even went so far as to flip cars upside down and place them in the sections between hood and trunk of the cars. The third group started the clean out of all zombies that were in the area they were working on.
Building after building was entered and if anything moved that was already dead, it was summarily destroyed. Harry and Hagrid went out personally with Ollivander and made a huge hole in the center of a ruined area to have a massive burning grave for the zombies that were killed. They got Onyx to stand near the grave to keep the fire going if it was needed. They knew she could and would incinerate anything and everything that looked like a zombie should they try and get to her.
It wasn't long before they got the block between Canal Street and Iberville St cleaned out for human habitation. The elves were busy making sure that no lingering odors or germs were left behind. From there, the group headed out to clean between Iberville St and Bienville St. It was hard work in some areas and buildings, but the teams had lots of success with their projects. Filius and Severus had the street between North Rampart and Burgundy blocked off on Canal Street. From there, they blocked off the next street of Dauphine. Together they went and got more buses and street cars and blocked off Bourbon Street, Royal Street, Chartres Street, and Decatur Street. They worked hard trying to figure out how to get from North Peters to the actual banks of the river. As they were discussing it, they got help from an unexpected source.
"Just blow up a building over there and move the rubble into that area," suggested Hermione flying into view. "A large enough pile of debris should keep them out for now. We just need to get the streets surrounding the Quarter blocked off so that we don't get new zombies added to the ones that are already here. Harry and his group are making loads of progress. They have made it from Bienville to Conti Street. The last I saw before I came to help you was, them working on St. Louis and Toulouse Street."
"When we are done here, we can always start closing off the streets along North Rampart," stated Filius as he turned and caused the building across Canal Street to blow up. If you would be so kind as to help us move this rubble into this dead space, I would appreciate it. The sooner we are done here, the sooner we can close up the entrances to the other streets. I have no doubt that should the zombies find Harry and his group, they will be in for a fight as the zombies will multiply in numbers just as fast as we destroy them."
"Harry has Minerva and Lucius moving cars to join up behind the buses and such," said Hermione pointing to the two that were causing the vehicles to pile up on each other. "With so many cars and trucks around, it was kind of easy to make a barrier. This way we can use the stores and such that are on Canal Street as well if we just block the streets off at the sidewalks. I think he has others doing the same by removing the vehicles out of the Quarter and to the outside of our perimeter."
"It's about time he starts letting us see his intelligence," muttered Severus. "That boy is loads more intelligent than he let on in school. I, for one, am proud of his actions since we got here. He is already proving to be a very able leader. Even Bellatrix is working with him without question. I think we are just about done here. Have the Weasley twins and Remus meet us on Rampart and Iberville Street if you would please, Hermione. With more of us working on closing off the entrances, the better it will be. Have Harry send a couple of dragons to watch our backs."
Nodding, Hermione went off to make her report to Harry. He quickly took care of the request Severus sent. Not only did he send the twins and Remus, but he sent Hagrid and Grawp as well. The goblin warriors were already splitting off into teams of twenty to go into the buildings on Dauphine Street on the left of Bourbon and Royal Street on the right. They were doing the same thing that Harry and his group were doing on Bourbon Street. They were wiping out all zombies found and having them brought via dragon or elf to the burning pit.
Once Harry and his group finished with the area between St. Louis and Toulouse Street, they made their way to St. Peter and then Orleans Street. Once they were done there, they moved on to St. Ann, Dumaine, St. Phillips Street, Ursulines, Governor Nicholls Street, and then Barracks Street. Once they finally made it to Esplanade Ave, they called for a halt. Harry sent runners to get his entire group back together. It wasn't long before all parties were together again and waiting for word.
"We have Bourbon Street cleaned out of all zombies," reported Harry. "We actually found about twenty survivors in the buildings. Poppy checked them and they are healthy if a bit malnourished. We have them in a quarantined building. We want to make sure they stay human. Has anyone been to St. Ann and Burgundy yet?"
"I did," said Draco. "Mother and I went there and we moved all of the supplies to the building called the Bourbon Pub on St. Ann and Bourbon. There are trunks full of food, clothes, potions supplies, weapons, and many other things like pillows and blankets and such. We checked out the bar thoroughly and it will house all of us there for the night comfortably."
"Some of the elves are already cooking us something to eat at the Clover Grill on Bourbon and Dumaine," reported Pomona. "They will bring the meal to us at the Pub. I took a small group and cleaned all the way around the block from Bourbon to Dauphine, down to Dumaine, and back to Bourbon. All of the buildings are cleaned of anything dead and undead. The elves that are not cooking are already cleaning the places so that we can have a base of operation and work our way out. With having close to two hundred elves, we have more than enough to help with all sorts of cooking and cleaning. We even have some of them building up barricades so that we can move out later from the Quarter if we want."
"We have the entrances to the streets blocked off with buses, streetcars, and moving trucks and such," reported Severus speaking next. "With the help of Hermione and Lord Hermes, we were able to get enough to make sure they don't get into the Quarter itself. We can work on the project that Lucius was working on again tomorrow. The sooner we get that done, the sooner we can ensure that our lives won't be wasted if we get attacked from within."
"We did move lots of cars out of the Quarter itself," added Minerva. "It wasn't that hard with the help of the elves. We just moved them outside when we found them. We even went so far as to place them one on top of the other so that we can stand in certain spots and shoot spells through the gaps. However, with the weight of the vehicles, nothing is getting in from what we did. It didn't us too much longer to do what we did on Canal Street and copy it on Rampart."
"I was able to get two dragons to help me do some of the same thing on Esplanade Ave already," said Luna surprising everyone with her forethought. "Thanks to their strength, I have that street done. They just picked up the cars and put them where I asked them to. I don't know how they understood me, but I think it has something to do with us being god and goddess blessed. We just need one more bus for right here on Bourbon Street. If Severus and Filius want to go find one it would help out a lot."
"Thanks Luna girl," said Harry causing her to laugh at her nickname. "You are pure Ravenclaw with that one. My guess is that it will take us about two weeks to completely cover the entire Quarter and clean it out of anything undead. My suggestion would be to place a dragon at any weak spots that we have so that we don't get overrun between now and morning. I'm going to sit right here for now until Severus and Filius gets back. If one or two of you wants to stay with me, I would appreciate it. The rest of you can go to that bar that Draco and Narcissa worked on."
Bellatrix, Seamus, and Petunia stayed with Harry. Severus and Filius took another flight out to get the last needed bus. An hour later, the two wizards were putting the bus into its place and the group headed back to the bar. When they got there, Harry had to laugh as Dobby was standing behind the bar with a chef's hat and apron on serving everyone a drink. Winky was standing next to him handing each person a plate and directing them to the buffet along the back wall.
Everyone ate and drank and enjoyed getting to know one another better. It was common knowledge to all that they were to call each other by their given names. Titles were no longer welcome in the group. Each knew that survival was more important. They knew that Harry was the leader, but other than that, no one wanted to get into who had what position and so forth. Harry listened to each person as if they were leaders as well. This is what earned him the most respect amongst those that were older than he was.
The next day, a tired Hermes showed up. Following him was another boat that had people on it. Harry and company went out to see who had arrived with the boat and God of Travels. When the door opened, Colin and Dennis Creevey were the first to come out. Both were as excited as they usually were. Harry made a mental note to have someone older talk with the boys so that they didn't get themselves killed due to not paying attention and focusing on the wrong thing. The parents of the boys followed behind them and looked around with interest.
Katie Bell and a nervous Millicent Bulstrode stepped out of the door next. Both girls looked around and smiled when they were welcomed warmly. Oliver Wood and Rolanda Hooch stepped out next. Both were carrying a trunk that they explained carried more supplies from Diagon Alley. Angelina Johnson, Irma Pince, and Aurora Sinistra stepped out carrying another trunk. Irma explained that the trunks contained books from the library at Hogwarts. Emmeline Vance stepped out next walking with four centaurs that Harry and Hermione were very familiar with. Bane, Ronan, Firenze, and Magorian stepped out and joined the ranks of those that were going to save the area. Other centaurs were there as well, but those were the four stallions of the group. Following them, were the thestrals, unicorns, and hippogriffs that Bella had mentioned she wanted to have join them.
"Let me first and foremost welcome each and every one of you to the area and to the team," called out a very smiling Harry Potter. "Your presence and assistance are more than welcome. Please don't worry if you are from a different house in school, or a different species. This team is a team that supports each other no matter who we are or what we are. In this group, it doesn't matter if you are human, elf, giant, dragon, or now centaur. You are all equal here."
"We have had some small skirmishes with the undead here, but it hasn't been that bad yet," called out Bellatrix next. "We are working in an area that is seven blocks wide and fourteen blocks deep. We have done what we could in the time we had yesterday to make this area as safe as possible. With that being said, we need you all to team up with those of us that are already here and spread out to wipe out any undead that we find. NEVER go anywhere alone. Travel in groups of three or more until we fully get the French Quarter under our COMPLETE control."
"You were all there when the gods stated that we are just as susceptible to being turned as anyone else," reminded Severus. "The more we work to wipe out all that are undead, the better we can live while we work on the outside of our area. We already have made sure that no more undead can get in our living area. We have NOT gotten all of the undead out of here yet. So with that being said, we can divide equally and get to work. If you haven't eaten yet, then please head down one block and get something from the elves. They have taken over the Clover Grill and turned that into their kitchen."
"We will start again in about two hours," called out Harry again. "Just head down this street to Canal Street and meet us there. From there, we will send parties out to the two streets on the Rampart side and four streets on the river side. We start at the beginning and work our way down. We want to make sure that each building is checked, cleaned, and examined from top to bottom. Leave NO door unopened and no closet or storage room unchecked. Once you get a good number of undead bodies, call for the elves to deliver them to the fire pit where Lady Onyx will incinerate them for us so that we don't have illness or carrion."
"What is our ultimate goal here?" asked Aurora. "We know that we are here to begin to wipe out the zombies, but what are our short term goals? What are we after first and foremost?"
"We are here to set up living quarters for us and those that we find that are still alive," answered Minerva. "We will set up a specific building that will house newcomers until we know for sure they won't turn and become one of the undead. We have Poppy and those that have some skill with healing working together to make sure we don't make a mistake and bring someone who will become one of those beasts within our ranks. We want to make sure that we have place to live and house everyone. Stores will become homes once we start finding other living people."
"I found a small jail across Rampart Street," reported Draco. "We can use that if we carefully move out and surround that section. It's not going to be that hard to do it we work at it carefully. I'll get a team together and work on it if you want. We can do the same thing with the cars and such that we did on the actual Quarter. We are just surrounding one more block. My team will even clean it out of all dead and undead."
"I'm not that worried about anything on Bourbon Street, but we will double check that something didn't manage to get in during the night," said Harry after giving Draco the go ahead. "We cleaned out the entire street, but we don't know if there are other ways to get in. So we are going to concentrate more on the other streets and have a small party go through Bourbon again to make sure our hard work from yesterday held. We don't know if these zombies are smart enough to open a door or whatnot. After watching them for a while yesterday, I would say no, but I'm not taking any chances with our safety. So I would like for Griphook to take twenty goblins and go through Bourbon Street to make sure that we weren't taken over while we slept. I suggest that we get started."
"I want Harry and Seamus to get a team with twenty five goblins and work on Burgundy Street," called out Bellatrix taking control as the lead defender of the group. "Severus, I want you to grab a team and twenty five more goblins and get to work on Dauphine Street. Filius, I want you to do the same on Chartres. Minerva, you have Royal Street with your team. I am going to work with a larger team to wipe out both Decatur and North Peters. Everyone else, get a team together and get to work. Luna, I need you, Neville, Pomona, and a small team to fly on the dragons or brooms, and keep an eye on our perimeter. Make sure you report to us if you see any breeches in the defenses we set up yesterday. Hagrid, I need you and Grawp to check on all the defenses and make sure that if they look weak that you fix them to the best of your ability. Take Lucius and Narcissa with you. Oliver, I want you with Harry's group."
People quickly got involved in what they were doing. All understood that time was not hurried, but the sooner they got their area under control the sooner they could go to other places and help those that needed it. They also knew that the sooner they got their living area cleaned out the sooner they could have a safe haven from the zombies when they wanted to relax from the war effort.
Charlie decided to help Luna's group. Remus decided to help Harry and his group. The Weasley twins decided to help Hagrid and the Malfoys. Hermione asked Bellatrix if she could work with the non magicals to get an apartment building ready for people and with a smile, the older witch quickly approved it on the condition that she sent word if they ran into any trouble.
Soon the newcomers were fed and ready to help. They looked at the map that was drawn up for everyone to look at. They quickly mounted up on brooms and went to the assistance of the other teams. Some of them even teamed up with others and started on the opposite ends of the streets from those that were starting on Canal Street.
Hours later, the groups all made it back to the central point for lunch. While they ate, they were able to give each other the reports that were ready to give.
"I have a team of goblins that are locating all metal that can be used to make fences," reported Griphook. "We noticed the fence surrounding the area known as Jackson Square. We can make more and move them to certain areas where they can be used as defense. The more we make the more we can use that instead of trying to move the vehicles that we are using now. Once we get the fences up, we can move the set up out further and so forth while we take over more space."
"The defenses are holding up," reported Luna next. "We were able to stop in spots and hit the zombies with Bombarda spells. If you hit them in the head, they stay down. From there, it was easy enough to get the elves to send them across the street to the burning pit. I had a second dragon sit and blow the smoke into the opposite direction from the Quarter with his wings. We don't want the smell of burnt flesh infiltrating our homes."
"Speaking of homes," said Harry speaking next. "My team has finished clearing out a couple of spots that were holding small pockets of zombies. Not only did we get them out, we have the homes ready for human occupation. Seamus and I are going to live in the house that held our supplies for when we got here. Dobby and Winky will be with us as my elves. I will be more than willing to help others find a place to live and so forth."
"You are better at DADA than most of us," stated Neville. "Let those of us that are more passive in magic take over helping everyone find a home of their own. You can continue to clean out the Quarter with those that are fighters. Pomona and I will take over a spot on the other side of Decatur and begin to remove the cement and start a farm for fresh fruits and vegetables. The more we can do for ourselves, the better."
"Good thinking," replied Harry. "There is no reason we can start fishing in the river and so forth for food as well. I'm going to suggest caution as we don't know if the zombies will be able to get through the water. Make sure that the fences that Griphook and his team are making goes as far out into the water as we can so that the zombies can't go around them and get back into the quarter."
"We can make sure that we go across the river from time to time to scout out for supplies and such," stated Bellatrix. "We can transfigure pieces of wood into arrows for Bane and his group so that they can shoot at the zombies. We all know that centaurs are expert marksmen. The more they can take out the better. We can build them a ramp so that they can get on top of the buses and such and shoot from there."
"I can get Buckbeak and the others to start picking up the zombies and dropping them into the fire pit," suggested Hagrid. "Thanks to Andromeda, it's better now and won't take on water. Minerva and she fixed it like it was in the old days. Every now and then we can just stop burning and banish the ash and such. It will keep things easier for us that way."
"An excellent suggestion Hagrid," assured Severus. "It's one that we will positively use. We want to be able to breathe without choking on burning ash and such all the time. We can even create a fire pit on the other side of the river so that we can just have the elves pop the bodies of the zombies over there instead. I will bring a team out tomorrow with Minerva and a couple of others and create a larger one. We can use some of this stuff and make sure that we have what we need to grow things."
"Everything will start to fall into place for us more and more," assured Luna with eyes glazing over slightly. "We have what we need to make an effective fighting force. We also have what we need to be creative and live in comfort. We should have our vaults and such brought over and store them here. We don't need them now, but we will want them in the future to set up trade and such. I have no doubts that Griphook will see to the safety of what we own."
"Try not to use your foresight too much," advised a goblin mystic coming up to her. "Take it slow and easy so that you don't fry yourself using it. Obviously you are going to get visions, but try not to force them. It will hurt you if you do. Your gift will grow with you. She is right in that the vaults should come here so that you can have them. We can take that tall building over there and turn it into a bank. I think it's called the Hyatt Regency or something. With it being so tall, we can just use the different rooms as vaults."
"Well, I suggest that for now, we finish cleaning out the Quarter," stated Harry. "The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can turn our sights to other things. We also need to find more living people. Poppy make sure that our survivors are still human. The sooner that Draco clears out the jail, the sooner we have a better solution for them. Let's get to work please."
With that, everyone got together and formed teams to make the sweep through the Quarter to get rid of all dead and undead beings.
AUTHOR'S NOTE – I will stop right here. I want to get the Quarter cleaned out and set up before we start with the fighting with the undead. Let it be known that there are skirmishes between them and the zombies, but not much as the Quarter is relatively small in comparison to the rest of the city and such.