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 5 – Taking Back the Marigny
The next day saw the groups heading out again. Griphook was true to his word and got his goblins to begin taking down more buildings and such to build walls along Canal Street. It was easier as they just had to start building right there on that side. They decided that Harry had the right idea originally and built their fences on the opposite side of the street from the Quarter. They had done the same thing on Rampart and would do the same thing all the way down to the Basin.
Ginny seemed to take to being part of the team fairly well. She was a quick study and even brought forth ideas to Harry the following morning. Apparently she loved her new home as it was already pretty much set up. With the help of Hermione and a few other female magic users, she had the color scheme set up for her tastes alone. She had sat at her desk in her home and wrote down some of her ideas and how she could expand upon them. Harry and his advisors looked them over and quickly approved of them.
Basically, she wanted to get a small group of the younger witches and wizards that had at least three years of training under their belt and fly them over the groups that were working outside of the perimeter. This way, they could bombard the zombies from the air that were a bit further out than those that were busy chopping off the heads.
Each person that was part of their community was all given reports of happenings both good and bad daily. Hermione was the one that was mostly in charge of that portion of things. She had one or two magic users with her to help as from time to time, she went to battle like everyone else. Ginny took the initiative and read the reports and found ways to keep people like the Creevey brothers busy and safe at the same time. Being a quidditch player, Ginny was comfortable on a broom. This idea was right up her alley while proving she could be a part of the group in an effective way.
"We are going to do this on a trial run," Harry told her while Bella nodded. "If it works and your team doesn't get complacent, we will use it from now on. HOWEVER, if it doesn't work, we will scrap the idea and try something else. Choose your team wisely. We have plenty for you to choose from. Make sure you express to your team how imperative it is that they cooperate and PAY ATTENTION."
"You got it boss," she said cheekily before heading out to get a team together. Harry and Bellatrix both laughed at her exuberance. Both were willing to give her the chance and she was taking the bull by the horns and going with it. It wasn't long before she came back with five other flyers. Colin Creevey was the only one of the two brothers there. Joining him and Ginny were Millicent Bulstrode, Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, and Michael Corner.
"Ok," said Harry looking over at everyone. "We will be heading out in about ten minutes. You are to fly a low circuit over us. We still don't want to go to high. Arch Angel Michael said while the war is slowing down, the Angels can still hurt you if you go to high. Lord Zeus is protecting us as much as he can, but he is only able to do so much as the Angels are out of his domain to control. So I'm thinking you should fly about six feet over our heads. Go no higher than ten if you are doing a scout out to see how many zombies are heading our way."
"Thanks to the efforts of everyone, we have the perimeter set up between Elysian Fields and the Basin," said Severus. "We have the vehicles moved and in position to stop anything new from coming into our area. We can begin the clean out now. It should take us a few days to do it, but it can be done. I suggest that we just sleep in tents out in the area so that we don't have to worry about being overrun when we are done. We can just do guard shifts and so forth."
"Let's do this," exclaimed Harry. "The more ground we cover, the fewer zombies there are. Michael said that most of the explosions and crashes that we heard during the night and over the last few days are buildings being destroyed in their war. Most of the buildings in the city above a certain height have been destroyed. The Hyatt is the only one that is still standing in the uptown area. I believe that it's due to a combination of the wards the goblins have been putting on it and Michael's protection."
"When are you heading back to Britain or Scotland?" asked Hermione. "I know you were planning on going, but you never told us when you were actually going to do it. You know that we can handle this while you are gone. Bellatrix has been training some of us for a while now in the art of chain spells. With people like Filius and Minerva, not to mention Severus, we have good fighting force if you want to head out and talk with Tom and Albus."
"Seamus and I will head out later today," answered Harry after a moment of thought. "Aqua said she could take us both. I do need to head out there and see what's going on over there. If the other leaders are sending us people from their teams, we need to know if there is something wrong, or if they are just making that good of progress. I can find out everything that I need to know in one visit."
"Well, let's get to work for the moment," suggested Bellatrix. "The sooner we take over this area from the undead, the sooner we can take a small vacation and enjoy the fruits of our labors. I am going to be sending out a search party soon to see about locating pockets of survivors. Dan Granger said he can drive a bus so that we have something to load them into. With the gates that we now have we can drive the bus into the Quarter and unload before we go off again."
"Make sure you and Luna talk with Michael and see if he can tell you where some of them are," suggested Harry. "Luna and he seem to get on nicely. We do need to start rescuing people. Send Uncle Vernon out in a different bus and have him hit the different grocery and clothes stores and such. That way Aunt Marge can start making sure we have everything that we need both for food and something to wear when the clothes we have now starts to become ruined and such."
"I'll talk with Uncle Vernon for you," stated Hermione. "I can see that dad is already chomping at the bit to get started. I can have it organized with Aunt Petunia before the day is out. We could even get some of the other non-magical people to join the two parties. Having a couple of magicals riding on top of the bus during the loading process will give us a better opportunity to make a path through the undead."
"Make sure that everyone stays safe," warned Harry. "We don't want to lose anyone due to them being foolish or acting the hero. We want supplies, but not at the cost of our lives. Despite my childhood, Uncle Vernon and Dudley are good at what they do. If any two muggles can get us what we need, they can. With Aunt Petunia and Aunt Marge making sure that things get stored properly, I can see our stuff flowing soon."
With a nod and a smile, Hermione and Dan left. It wasn't long before her otter patronus told them that the teams were off and on their way to retrieve supplies. Harry and his team were busy cleaning out the streets and homes of anything that was undead. It was gruesome work, but they did what they had to do to ensure that their lives would stay theirs and that they wouldn't become the mindless beings that they were fighting with.
About an hour later, Harry sent word to the team leaders that he and Seamus were going to head to Scotland and get on with the meeting between him and the other two leaders of the war parties. Getting a positive response telling him to go that things would be done as he asked caused him to smile as he and Seamus both grabbed a tail feather of the phoenix and flashed away in a burst of water.
Upon landing in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, they were greeted warmly by those that were in the Dumbledore regimen. They soon sent word to Tom who made an appearance and the three leaders got down to business.
"We are going at a slow pace, but we are being effective in what we are doing," reported Harry. "We have all of the French Quarter under our control as well as most of the surrounding area. We have teams being sent out on foraging parties to get needed food and new clothes and such. My muggle relatives have been gifts from the gods in that endeavor. Uncle Vernon has been enjoying his role as lead scavenger. He learned how to shoot a gun and is very accurate with where he places his bullets. We are currently working on taking back the Marigny."
"You have only been there for a couple of months and you have taken back so much land already," stated Tom looking at the map Harry provided and highlighted. "We have made lots of headway quicker, but we are losing troops. What are you doing that has yet to see you lose anyone?"
"We are staying together and not spreading out further than we have to," answered Harry. "We only take what we can before we get tired. Then we go home and rest. We have different things we are working on while we are fighting. We are not so focused on just slaughtering the zombies that we forget to live while we are at it. We have a bar set up for us to be able to go and have a drink when we want one. We have food cooked at all times for those that are hungry. If you need new clothes or something for your home, you go to Aunt Marge and state your case. We have a system set up that lets us enjoy our hard work."
"That's an interesting theory," mused Dumbledore. "Much like Tom, we have been working hard on eliminating the threat. We have also lost troops much like he has, but not as many. We are actually losing ground here. I believe that this area is one of the safest in the United Kingdom at the moment. It may be best if we just all team up together and work as a unit rather than three separate entities. How are you screening your rescues?"
"We place them in jail," responded Harry in a frank manner. "We leave them there for as long as a week. If after a week they don't turn, we put them in the community and let them become part of a team somewhere. Either they work inside the Quarter and help out there, or they learn how to wield a weapon and help us by taking the fight to the undead."
"Ingenious," remarked Tom. "I hadn't thought about that. We lost some good people because we didn't know that they were infected. As much as I hate to admit it, I think the old fool has the right idea and we should all team up and join forces. This will keep us alive longer and so forth. We can work on clearing out that area for those that want our protection and so forth."
"Well," remarked Harry thoughtfully before pointing to the map. "I have Severus and Filius finishing up cleaning the Bywater. I have Bellatrix and Ginny working on the Marigny. Of course we have both teams working in sync with one another as well as the elves, centaurs, goblins, and others. The Bywater is directly behind the French Quarter. The Marigny is beyond that. One of you can take over that spot while the other moves into the Marigny. Once we are all settled, we can start taking over more area and so forth. We are using the muggle vehicles that are there as barricades and so forth until Griphook and his family can get the fences built and set up. From there, we just move the vehicles back a block at a time until we clean up the block. From there, we just move certain fences and have people man the perimeter."
"You are a very intelligent young man," stated Albus with pride in his voice. "You and your team are doing way better than we are. We would be honored to come and join you and your team and help out and such. I can't speak for Tom, but I would be honored to fight by your side and help eradicate this plague."
"It WOULD be nice to work with you rather than against you," responded Tom with grudging acceptance. "You are a hard person to kill. So rather than fight against you, I would like to work with you. Your mind is a wonder as it's so full of intelligence. It reminds me of myself when I was your age."
"Excellent," said Harry giving both the coordinates to where they could apparate or send their troops. "By the way, whose bright idea was it to send Ronald Weasley to me? He wasn't even there for five minutes before we had him arrested. He is a pest and I want to kill him myself for his stupidity. I think a couple people hexed him for his mouth. I swear if I get called a faggot once more, I will remove his head from his shoulders."
"Ah," said Tom moving a little way from Harry. "That would have been me. Lord Hades said I couldn't kill him. I sent him to the one person that has more patience than even Dumbledore in hopes that the foolish boy would just do what he is told. I placed the fool under the Cruciatus Maximus five times and he STILL ran his mouth about his pure blood."
"We are considering just throwing him over the walls of our defenses and let him fend for himself against the zombies," grumbled Harry glaring at the older wizard. "I so despise stupid people and he is one of the stupidest that I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. I despise him with everything within me to despise him with, and that's saying something as you and I have been fighting since I was born."
"Come on now Harry," said Seamus with a laugh. "One has to have a brain for the zombies to be interested in them. We all know that Ronald doesn't have a brain in his head or he wouldn't be able to survive. I had to hex him yesterday as Draco wanted to choke him with his bare hands. We do need to do something about his mouth. I currently have him hexed so that his mouth doesn't work at all unless one of the ones in charge of the jail allows him use it to eat."
This broke the ice between the three parties as each person present was able to laugh at the stupidity of the red headed menace. Even Tom was chuckling though he did it where he thought no one was looking. This of course, didn't fool Harry or Albus in the slightest. Seamus gave a wink to the Dark Lord before he went to talk with some of his former classmates. Harry and the other two leaders quickly hashed out a plan and went with it. Once it was approved by the gods, Harry and Seamus took their leave and headed back to their own area.
Once they got back, the two young wizards rolled up their sleeves and began to help the teams that were still cleaning up the undead from the new area. Bellatrix smiled as both Harry and Seamus took down some zombies that came up out of the home she was about to enter. Ginny and Colin were busy circling the area while the other three broom riders were relaying a message to Minerva in her area and Filius in his. Once they had done six blocks further in, Harry called the teams together for a quick meeting of the minds.
"Dumbledore and the Dark Lord are both bringing their teams and heading this way," he told them when they were all gathered. "They are losing people too fast due to not having our sense of self preservation. The pantheon has approved and both should start arriving any time now. I know they are bringing as many people with them as possible. We will have more magical fighters and other non-magicals to help as well. Uncle Vernon, I need you to set up some charts of the different areas that you and your teams can hit to get more goods and such for our growing community. Aunt Marge, I need you to grab a couple more magical people and a couple of non-magical ones to help you organize the supplies once they are brought in."
"We'll get right on that," promised the Dursleys. "We can make sure that we have as much as we need. Right about now, we have more supplies than we know what to do with. That Wal-Mart not far from here was a huge hit for us. We wiped out the entire store thanks to the help of some of the magical people you sent with us. The elves have been a great asset in that plan as well. There are more stores we can hit soon as well when we need to. There aren't many things that can stand up to an angry elf or werewolf."
"What are we going to do about Weasley?" asked an annoyed Draco. "That fool just doesn't learn when to shut up. All he does is complain and bitch about you not saving your 'best friend'. I cursed him three times yesterday and he STILL keeps on talking. I had to reseal his lips closed because I was tired of hearing him. The other people we found are still human for the most part and even they are tired of hearing him and they don't know who is who yet. We did have one turn. I destroyed it before I had Tam bring it to the pit for Onyx to burn. The rest seem to still be doing alright thanks to the help from Poppy. I have our potions supplies restocked and ready for the next batch of survivors or fighters that need them."
"Excellent work Draco," stated Harry. "As for Weasley, we may just have to bring him to the other side of the river and let him fend for himself. He can't get back here as we have the bridge closed off and you need to be part of the team to access the gates. He won't be able to do much without a wand either. Let's just send him across with a startup pack and a sword and let him fend for himself. This will get him out of our hair. I doubt that he will be alive for long as he is too lazy to do anything other than eat and complain."
"You will do no such thing," said Molly Weasley walking up drawing her wand. "You will let my son out of prison and you will give him his rightful place in this community or I will make you sorry that you were ever born Harry James Potter. You will end your unholy relationship with that freak and you will marry my daughter. From there, you will treat us like royalty. You have no say in the matter anymore. I will make sure that you are punished for the trauma that you have caused my family."
"Not this again," hissed Ginny in anger before Harry could speak. "I am not now, nor will I ever marry Harry mum. He is SOULBONDED with Seamus and his relationship was blessed by the Lady Hera. I am dating Collin Creevey and I am very happy with him. He and I started dating before all of this began. We just picked up where we left off when I got here. I do love Harry, but as a brother and nothing more. I am the leader of my own team here and I love my job. Leave Harry alone for once."
"You listen to me and listen to me VERY WELL, Molly Weasley," hissed Bellatrix striding over to the woman with her wand drawn and aimed at her. "If I EVER, hear you open your mouth to discredit Harry, Hermione, Seamus, Ginny, or anyone else in this team ever again, I will make YOU sorry YOU were ever born. As team leader of the defenders of Team Potter, I hereby place you under arrest. As you seem to love your son so much and share his beliefs, you can also share his punishment. Professor McGonagall, would you please remove the wand from the hand of the banshee so that those of us that are upstanding members of this group can get back to important things?"
"I thought I told you to call me Minerva," reminded the stern witch as she summoned the wand right out of the hand of the fuming Weasley woman. "As team leader of the Guards of Team Potter, I second the arrest warrant assigned by Team Leader Lestrange. You are hereby under arrest. Open your mouth to me, and I will transfigure you into a bull's eye and let the centaurs use you for target practice."
"When did we have so many titles around here?" asked a confused Harry as he stood next to Bellatrix. "Did I miss out on a meeting somewhere?"
"Actually you did," said Ginny with a laugh from her broom. "We met yesterday during your nap and assigned ourselves some titles. Aunt Marge is Team Leader of the Distribution team. Uncle Vernon is Team Leader of resource location team. Aunt Petunia is in charge of your health and sanity. Uncle Filius is Team Leader for the perimeter watch team. Uncle Severus is Team leader of the magical team. I'm team leader of the Air Strike Team. Draco is team leader with Poppy of the rescue team. Hermione is team leader of the Research and organization team."
"Just let us do our jobs Potter," called out Neville. "That's what you get for sleeping. You miss out on things. Of course we wanted you there, but Aunt Petunia said that whoever woke you guys was in for a world of serious hurt. We decided for our safety to let you guys sleep. Your Aunt is scary when it comes to defending you guys. Even Dudley was standing behind her cracking his knuckles."
"Huh," was all that Harry said before he and Seamus headed out to clear some more zombies. "Well as you guys and gals seem to have everything in control, just let the new comers know what we are doing and send them to a team somewhere. I'll just go and get rid of some more zombies with my hubby. We know when we are not needed."
"Why you cheeky little brat," said Severus pulling out his wand and giving chase. "We see how you are Harry James Potter. You should be grateful that we do what we do for you. You would do well to remember that we are what we are due to you and your cheeky answers. Just for that, I'll have Minerva place a bull's eye on your arse and let the centaurs use it for target practice."
"No not his ass," yelled Seamus taking off after them. "It's his greatest asset. I need that thing. Please Uncle Severus. I'll do anything. Anything I tell you. Just don't harm the ass."
By now, everyone was in hysterics. Even Bellatrix was giggling like a school girl. This was how the team functioned. Each person did what they knew to do and everyone fell into line knowing from the get go who was to do what, with whom, and where. Molly was led to prison by Draco and Narcissa. Both were still fighting to control their laughter. Harry, Severus, and Seamus had effectively added salt to the wound of Molly Weasley. Ginny nearly fell off her broom as she was laughing at the three men. Thankfully Bill flew over to her and caught her before she could do herself harm.
It wasn't long after that, the other teams started to arrive. Albus had found a way with the help of Tom to get large groups of people to one spot by use of both dark and light magic to move lots of people at once. This worked out well as many of the people didn't have magic. The one thing that many witches and wizards wanted was to see the integration of magical and mundane working hand in hand. The Apocalypse was the cause of many getting their wish. Over the next twenty four hours, portkeys flared as groups of people came in from both other factions to the area. By the time everyone arrived, Harry and his group had long finished cleaning out the Marigny and was busy helping get things organized for the new arrivals.
"We are here today to get everyone their jobs, places to live, and everything else," called Harry the next day standing next to Albus and Tom. "We have managed to create a safe haven for those of us that are willing to work together to see humanity survive. We can only hope that we have few problems as living should be more important than who has what or who is sleeping with whom. For those of you that want to cause problems please speak up now, and we can send you across the river. We already have two that are more interested in what I'm doing rather than what they are supposed to do."
"As team leaders, it's our jobs to protect you," spoke Albus next. "We can't do that if you don't cooperate with us. We dislike punishing people, but we will do what we have to in order for us to live. There will be a constant fight for survival. We came here in hope that what Lord Potter is doing will work for all of us. Since all of this began, not only has he NOT lost a living soul, but he has found other pockets of survivors and integrated them into his growing community. We want that for all of our people."
"While we are leaders, he has the right idea," said Tom speaking up next. "He is making far greater headway than we have where we were. We will NOT allow anyone to harm him verbally due to what he has, who he is, or who he is sleeping with. I was there when Lady Hera blessed his relationship. I will not allow anyone to harm my relative. The only thing that Dumbledore said that wasn't true is that personally I do enjoy punishing people. If you want to find out just how much, be my guest and try and harm Harry Potter or Seamus Finnegan Potter. It may just be the last thing that you ever do."
"Like you have any room to talk," hissed Ronald. "You have been trying to kill him for the last sixteen years. Just because you aren't trying to kill him now doesn't make you some kind of saint. You are the Dark Lord for crying out loud. Harry, how can you side with this freak over your own best friend? You are a disappointment to me. You should have just married Ginny and gotten it over with. Things would have been so much better if you had just cooperated."
"CRUCIO!" screamed Ginny in fury hitting him fully with the spell. "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT I AM NOT GOING TO MARRY HIM? I think the two of you are brain dead between your ears. I am in love with Colin Creevey. Harry and Seamus are just perfect for one another. You are a loser Ronald and I wash my hands of you as family. I hope that the zombies eat you and not get indigestion from your corpse. You are a pathetic excuse for a wizard. You are even more pathetic as a friend and human being."
"When did you learn how to cast that spell?" asked Harry as he led her away to calm her down. "Have you been training under Bellatrix again? That was a well-aimed spell Missy. You should learn to control that temper of yours. You could have killed him."
"What are you talking about Potter?" she asked petulantly. "I MISSED! I was aiming for his genitals. I wanted to insure that he never reproduced. One idiotic stupid dead man walking is all I can take."
This caused many of the men in the vicinity to grab their crotches protectively. Rudolphus was holding his wife upright as she cackled in amusement. Many of the other women were in pretty much the same state as she was. Voldemort and Albus both looked on in amusement. Albus gave the order for both Molly and Ronald to be brought across the river. Marge came forth with a duffle bag full of food and clothes for the two.
"Be lucky I am under orders," she told the two. "Harry and Seamus are good men with solid minds. You should be lucky that we just don't have you killed and burned like we do the other undead. At least you will get a fighting chance. I hope that one of you knows how to use a sword. That is the only weapons we are giving you."
With that, she dropped both bags at their feet and headed back to Jackson Brewery to get back to work. She had close to two hundred more people to stock up. She may have not liked Harry much when he was younger, but in the months she had been here, she saw a remarkable young man who had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He didn't hesitate to get in there with rolled sleeves and help any and every person who needed it. More than once she had to team up with Petunia and Vernon to get him and Seamus to stop long enough to eat, sleep, or clean up.
"I would so love to kill you myself," stated Tom as he grabbed both of them. "Lord Hades asked me not to or I would have already. Both of you are not worth the effort. After today, if I ever see either of you again, you will not live long enough to tell the tale to anyone. This is the last time you will be warned to leave Harry alone."
With that, the most feared Dark Lord in history apparated the two of them to the other side of the river. With one last malicious grin at the two, he left them to their fate and returned to the other side of the river.
AUTHOR'S NOTE – this is a good place to stop. I wanted to add a little humor into the chapter so that it seems like Harry and company are still human. I needed to bring the teams together and make it in a way that left the three working together but still all being able to be a leader and so forth. Yes I know I said I would have Ronald as werewolf food, but I needed to change that so that the upcoming chapters would blend better.