A/N: I do not own anything
A/N2: Special Thanks to Shade .of. Grey13 for taking some time off of his schedule and reading through the draft
TWENTY FOUR
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Scotland
The dark night sky of Scotland was broken as beams of different colors shot out from the direction of the castle towards the Black Lake. The targets of the different beams of light were not exactly idle either, as every few moments, a burst of gunfire would come from that position.
On the location that Al and his men had taken over for the parking areas of their helicopters, four separate fires burned as the hulk of the destroyed helicopters – hit by some sort of curse that caused them to explode – collapsed on itself thanks to the heat being generated.
With only fifty men under his command, Al had been unable to send troops into the airfield – separated from the main camp just by a tiny stretch of land – to try to salvage the helicopters.
In a scene that was strangely reminiscent of the trench warfare of World War I, the bodyguards of Harry and Hermione Potter – armed to the teeth with modern firearms – were holed onto their hastily dug trenches as the wizard army that Albus Dumbledore had kept hidden and secretly moved to Hogwarts attacked them with their long-range spells.
Al was the first one to admit that he had seriously underestimated the enemy. The battle wizard had thought that the enemy would not possess the capability to cast their curses at ranges greater than twenty meters and he thought that his firearms would be able to take down their adversaries before the wizards could even come within their maximum effective range.
Looking towards the lines of the enemy – they had formed some sort of phalanx with their first line holding shield charms while their second and third ranks rain down curses against the holed up bodyguards – Al realized how much he had been mistaken.
The enemies that he and his men were now facing were armed with some sort of staff that had somehow allowed them to increase the range of their spells.
Taking this into consideration, Al was forced to order his men to man their trenches while he tried to think of another plan to force the issue. With their modified focus that allowed them to increase the range of their spells, Al knew that their adversaries had negated the only advantage that he and his men have.
As he clutched his P-90 sub-machinegun, Al turned his gaze towards Harry and Hermione, the two students that he had sworn to protect. The Duke of Gryffindor was clutching a silver-chrome pistol while the Duchess was holding her black-chrome pistol, and both looked ready to start blasting their targets.
Further down the line, Al spotted Neville and Luna. Although both had been training on how to use firearms, the two felt that it would not be wise to rely on their rather questionable skill with modern firearms for a battle like this and had instead opted to have their wands drawn.
On the other side of the line, Fred and George were in the same situation. The Weasley twins had been using firearms before but felt that they could do more damage with their magic for this fight.
"Al" Harry said after Al pushed himself off the ground so that he could fire a few burst from his sub-machinegun against the enemy. After emptying his clip towards the general direction of the steadily advancing enemies, Al dropped back to his relative safe position and snapped a fresh magazine onto the magazine well of his P-90.
"I sent a few men to try to pick up Susan Bones" Al explained as soon as he pulled the charging handle of his firearm, "We are waiting for them to report back and once they do, I am going to send everyone back to the ship"
Harry nodded. Involuntarily, his gaze turned towards the direction of the airstrip and Harry gazed upon the burning helicopters. With them gone, the only way that they could withdraw from Hogwarts was by using the ship.
At that moment, Harry caught movement from behind the burning hulk, he tentatively aimed his rifle towards the area, but stood down when he saw that it was a group of five men and two girls. What was more important was that the two girls were wearing the robes of a Hufflepuff student while the five men were outfitted in a similar manner to the rest of the men that Al had under his command.
Al seemed to have seen them as well, because at that moment, he ordered his men to start falling back towards the lake.
"Set up our firing positions!" Al ordered to the retreating men as the battle wizard had opted to lead the group of men who were to provide covering fire as the first group withdraws.
Having been drilled by Al numerous times, the withdrawal execution was supposed to be perfect. The first group would withdraw under the cover of the second group and when the first group reached their position, they would turn and offer covering fire while the second group withdraws to their own position. Once the second group gets to their position, the first group would withdraw to their next defensive position.
This time, however, there was the slight complication of enemy forces firing at them while they attempted to pull off this complex maneuver. Still, Al was reasonably certain that while he might suffer casualties during the withdrawal, he would be able to get most of his men back to headquarters in one piece.
The members of the second group opened fire with their personal weapons. They were not really aiming at anyone, they just hoped to force their adversaries to duck and buy some time for the withdrawing first group. As Al had expected, when his second group opened fire, their adversaries just stood there.
Confident with their shield charms, Harry thought as he watched the wizards – all of whom were wearing blue robes that reminded Harry and Hermione of the robes that Dumbledore wears – just stood there and accepted the punishment.
At first, nothing happened as the rounds fired from the guns of Group 2 were deflected by the shields, then the onslaught provided too much for the wizards and their shield charms started to fail. Within a few moments, the first rank – and several form the second rank – of the phalanx formed by the wizards started falling like sacks of potatoes.
After watching their compatriots fall, the surviving members of the wizard army dove for cover. Al was waiting for this since the battle began. A smile crept up the face of the battle wizard and his right hand retrieved a controlling device from within his combat jacket.
He showed the silver box with an antenna and a single red button to Harry and Hermione before he aimed the remote towards the open field and pressed the button.
There was a loud explosion that forced Harry and Hermione out of their cover so that they may look at the source of the explosion, and their eyes widened when they saw the wall of flame that separated their position from the position of their adversaries.
Anguished screams and panicked voices begging help – although most of them were in a foreign language – told Harry and Hermione that some of the prone wizards were unlucky enough to survive the booby trap.
"If they are prone, they cannot cast the flame freezing charm effectively" Al said by way of an explanation when Harry and Hermione looked at him, he smiled and said, "Let's go!"
"I think not" a voice from behind them said.
Harry, Hermione and Al turned their attention towards the source of the voice and their eyes widened when they saw Albus Dumbledore beam into the field in such a way that it reminded everyone of Star Trek.
Suddenly, the air was filled with bullets as everyone concentrated their fire upon the Headmaster of Hogwarts. A shield erupted around Dumbledore at the same moment, shielding him from the fired bullets. Unlike the ones that his subordinates had thrown around themselves, this shield held long enough to drain the magazine capacity of most of the firearms that the bodyguards were carrying.
Al charged forward, his sword suddenly at his right hand. The battle wizard held his sword at his hip in a diagonal position with the tip of the ninety inch saber pointed to the ground. Upon reaching his target, Al brought the sword up in a classic upward diagonal slash movement, but Dumbledore was also quick and was able to block the blow with a conjured sword.
"I did not think that you could be this violent, Mister York" the Headmaster said.
Al did not reply, instead, he pulled back. Harry and Hermione – and everyone else – watched as the battle wizard spun twice in the air before he landed. By the time that Al's feet touched the ground, he was already holding his wand. Mere milliseconds after his feet touched the ground, Al sent two stunners towards Dumbledore.
Dumbledore deflected the stunners with a wave of his hand and fired his own barrage of curses against Al. The battle wizard was as quick as the headmaster, however, and the curses sallied past Al's head as he evaded in a manner that reminded Harry and Hermione of a matador.
As he spun, Al brought his wand up and when he stopped spinning, Al sent four stunners and a banishing charm towards his adversary. Not satisfied with this, Al charged forward with his sword – again held diagonally with the tip of the blade pointing towards the ground – just right after he sent the curses.
Dumbledore evaded the curse, but he was unprepared for the physical attack. He was at least able to jump out of the way of the slash, but he was not fast enough to completely evade it, as evidenced by the neat cut that appeared on his face that suddenly became red as his blood started to spill.
There was a horrified gasp of shock that came from the assembled wizards who were under the command of Dumbledore. The horrified gasps told Harry and Hermione that the firewall – literally – had subsided.
Two figures charged out of the assembled observers, their wands in their hands and with the intention of helping Dumbledore. Harry and Hermione instantly recognized their former friends Ron and Ginny Weasley and moved to intercept them.
Both Harry and Hermione drew their wands and sent explosive hexes towards the two youngest Weasley children. Both had the presence of mind to jump back when they realized that a curse was on a straight collision course with them and only that action saved them from being decapitated there and then.
Harry ran forward to engage Ron while Hermione sent long-range curses down towards Ginny.
"Think you can take me on Potter?" the red-headed boy asked as Harry appeared in front of him. Ron sent a torture curse towards Harry, but he instantly evaded it and sent his disarming hex towards Ron.
The youngest Weasley boy evaded the hex and thought to taunt Harry a bit, "You can't kill me Harry" he said, "I am your friend, and good old Harry Potter cannot….uuuf"
"You talk too much" Harry said as Ron fell down after being hit by a high power reductor curse that tore a hole in the stomach of the youngest Weasley male. As he surveyed his handiwork, Harry commented, "What made you think that I cannot kill you, Weasley?" he raised his eyebrows and motioned towards the huge hole that used to be the storage room for the food disposing machine that is Ronald Weasley.
The red headed boy moaned in pain and Harry was about to finish off the bastard when he suddenly disappeared. "Damn" Harry said, "Portkey"
For her part, Hermione was raining down long-range – therefore, not really that lethal – curses down at Ginny while the youngest Weasley was forced to dance like a top in order to evade the curses that the Duchess was sending her.
At the same moment that Hermione was raining down those spells, she was also calculating her kill shot. "You can't hit me Granger" Ginny said, "You are just a mudblood, you cannot kill me"
Hermione did not comment, though she did stop firing her curses. Ginny stopped spinning and smiled towards Hermione, "Tired already?" she asked as she brought her wand hand up. She was about to send a killing curse when she suddenly found herself flying backwards and feeling pain at her torso.
Ginny turned her attention towards Hermione and saw that the older girl stopped casting her spell because her hand now held, instead of her wand, a metal object that Ginny recognized as a gun.
Hermione chambered a fresh round onto the bolt-action Remington R-700 sniper rifle that she used and at the same time, she said, "You're right, next time, I won't resort to magic to kill you, I'll just use guns"
Hermione aimed down the sights of her sniper rifle against Ginny with the intention of ending the red-haired witch – she was already wounded and, like her brother, was missing her stomach – but at the same moment that Hermione pulled the trigger, Ginny disappeared as her emergency portkey activated, saving her life.
Hermione cursed under her breath as her .308 round just hit the ground.
At the same time that they took down Ron and Ginny, Al and Dumbledore continued their duel. Neither was getting the upper hand against the other.
After he landed a blow against Dumbledore, Al attempted to follow up with a thrust, but the Headmaster, despite being shocked by the wound, was able to evade the blow by again jumping back.
Dumbledore sent a torture curse against Al, but the battle wizard, aware of the nature of the curse, just stood there and received the curse. This, however, did not seem to faze Dumbledore as the Headmaster of Hogwarts just sent an organ-expelling curse against the battle wizard.
Al evaded the curse that Dumbledore had sent him by spinning to his right. When he stopped spinning, his wand was back in his hand and he sent four stunners towards Dumbledore, who evaded them at the same time that he mocked Al, "Why don't you call your lightning stunners, Mister York, they might work"
"I've learned a long time ago not to trust a whiskered old man" Al replied with a smile as he evaded another stunner sent by Dumbledore by spinning once more, this time, to his right. When the battle wizard stopped spinning, he now held his sidearm at his hand and he quickly emptied the twenty round magazine of his sidearm at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore just summoned a shield to deflect the bullets. Al knew that Dumbledore's shield was powerful enough to shield against his bullets, so Al was not really hoping that Dumbledore would be felled by the rounds.
Al just fired his gun so that Dumbledore could be distracted while he ordered his men – Harry and Hermione included – as well as their guests to make a general withdrawal to the direction of the lake.
Dumbledore was not exactly idle as his shield deflected the twenty 9 mm. rounds; he was observing what his opponent was doing. The fact that Al ordered his men to withdraw to the general direction of the black lake had the old man worried.
At that moment, Albus Dumbledore found the reason why Al had insisted on housing his men near the Black Lake – aside from the obvious defensive advantages that they enjoyed early in this fight, of course.
Having realized this, Dumbledore turned towards Al and said, "I congratulate you for keeping that ship hidden even from myself, Mister York, but it would not help you" he snapped his fingers and eight dragons suddenly appeared in the air, "Fire burns wood, Mister York" he commented using a tone of voice that reminded Harry and Hermione of a teacher scolding a young student.
"True" Al replied with a smile, he then pointed his wand towards the air and then sent a spell, "but only if the fire is lit"
"I do not think that you can take down eight dragons on your own, Mister York" Dumbledore commented.
"You'd be surprised what I am capable of Whiskers" Al replied with a smile, he glanced towards Harry and Hermione – who were now with the rest of the men near the Black Lake – and smiled towards them before he turned his attention towards Dumbledore and said, "My mentor told me that when I am in a fight, I should not hold anything back" he paused, taking great joy at the look of confusion on the face of Albus Dumbledore, "Ever since I've committed the first of my grave sins, I have been holding back," he smiled ironically as he shook his head, "no more" he focused his power on his fifteen inch wand and then cast his most powerful spell, "Expecto Curator"
For a brief few seconds, nothing happened, then a flash of light shot straight towards the sky from the tip of Al's wand. Slowly, this thin strip of pure white light grew in diameter, until it was finally surrounding Al.
Harry and Hermione – as well as the others – watched as Al's wand glowed red for a few moments, before it started to disintegrate.
As the wood surrounding it started to fall away, the core of Al's wand – the hair of a nine-tailed fox that the battle wizard loved – started to make itself known. In short order, the only thing left of the wand – and Al was no longer holding it – was the hair that is floating in mid-air.
Suddenly, the hair disappeared. The white light disappeared and the darkness made itself known once more.
Al stood there with his eyes closed as Dumbledore's face split into a grin, his mirth coming from the fact that he knew that Al had failed the spell which he recognized as the summoning spell for a familiar guardian.
"It appears that you have failed, Mister York" Dumbledore commented.
Al opened his eyes and even Harry and Hermione – who were standing a good fifty feet away from Al – could see that the dark black orbs that were Al's eyes had been replaced by two flaming red orbs that reminded everyone of a fox.
"I would not be so sure, Albus Dumbledore" Al replied. It was the mouth of the battle wizard that moved, and everyone heard the voice of the battle wizard when he said that, but it was not just one voice that said those words, there were two distinct voices, one over the other, that came out from Al's mouth. Without warning, the white light erupted again and a figure appeared behind Al.
As he looked upon the seven feet angel that was floating above Al, Harry realized that she had seen the woman before.
"Veronica" the Duke of Gryffindor commented under his breath.
"A guardian familiar summoning spell?" Hermione asked with confusion evident in her voice. Her eyes widened when she suddenly realized what it meant when Al cast that spell and the spirit of Veronica appeared. "He was…" she began, "He was soul bonded with her"
"We are" Al and the spirit behind him replied. Both smiled and Harry could help but remark – to himself – that the smile that his bodyguard and the guardian spirit floating behind him had were nothing more but logical extensions of each other.
"That is all well and good, Mister York" Dumbledore commented, he snapped a finger and the eight dragons dove as one towards Al. Someone screamed for Al to get out of the way, but the battle wizard just stood there.
The eight dragons opened their mouths to spew forth their flames, but at that moment, Veronica moved. The dragons breathed and fire came out of their mouths towards Al.
Suddenly, however, the fires that came from the stomach of the dragons defied the laws of physics and gravity and turned in mid-air towards the dragons where they came from.
Newt Scamander's book on magical creatures – and every other book on dragons – would tell a First Year student that dragons are not affected by flames. This was widely accepted because dragons are creatures of the fire and to have them affected by flames would mean that they would be roasting themselves after a few months of their lives. Besides, everyone knows that a dragon cleans their wounds using fire.
Those who witnessed what just happened, however, suddenly understood that while those books may have been speaking the truth, they just have never met Alvin York and his familiar before.
The flames that the dragons spewed forth wrapped themselves around the dragons that breathed them. In short order, the dragons screamed in fury and pain as their very flames roasted them and within a few moments, their burned carcasses fell to the ground with a loud thump each.
"Al!" Harry shouted, but it was too late.
While everyone was busy watching the spectacle that Al had engineered, Albus Dumbledore sneaked towards Al. When he was in range, Dumbledore retrieved a knife from his robes and with all of the power that his body can muster, stabbed Al from behind.
"Let's see you try to survive that, Mister York" the Headmaster said, "That knife is cursed to cause you pain" he informed Al, "the longer that it is in your body, the more painful it becomes, but the moment that you remove it from your body, the killing curse would kill you"
Dumbledore looked dumbfounded, however, a few moments later. Al just stood there, and Dumbledore had fully expected the battle wizard to scream in pain. Al looked at Dumbledore and without warning, his sword streaked through and cut off both of Dumbledore's arms from the elbows before the aged Headmaster can react.
"Impossible" Dumbledore said as he attempted to stop the bleeding of both of the stumps that used to be his arms. He attempted to re-grow his hands using his magic, but found himself blocked, "Impossible" the headmaster muttered again.
"Alberich" Al said, hefting his sword, "is forged by the Goblin Master Forger Dragonbreath, whom I am sure you know personally, Lemon-Drop"
Dumbledore stepped back as soon as he heard that name and everyone can see the horror written upon the face of the Hogwarts' headmaster, "He enchanted the weapon with some of the most ingenious curses known to every creature of the magical world when I informed him that I would use it someday to cut off both of your arms" Al smiled, which confused Dumbledore all the more since Al should be screaming in pain, "In return for promising to cut off your arms, Dragonbreath have ceded the weapon to me and to anyone whom I deem worthy enough in perpetuity"
At that moment, the surface of the Black Lake began to boil. No one among the party of Harry and Hermione noticed, however, as everyone ducked when green light started to rain down upon them from the direction of the towers of Hogwarts.
"Snipers!" Irina screamed as she used her body to cover Hermione. A different guard did the same for Harry.
Al and Dumbledore continued to stare at one another as the killing curse rained down upon them. Several green light curses were sent against Al, but Veronica blocked them all, rendering them harmless.
"We need to take out those towers!" Irina screamed.
At that moment, there were multiple loud explosions coming from the Black Lake. Everyone turned their attention towards the direction of the sounds. Harry and Hermione – and the other students – blinked when they saw a gun-metal gray hull in the lake with several cannons pointed towards the general direction of the castle still smoking, indicating that they had been fired.
"That's no galleon!" Hermione screamed pointing towards the ship, "that's a World War II battleship"
The main cannons and the supplementing smaller cannons – relatively – of the battleship fired again, sending more explosive shells towards the castle. At the same time, armed marines from the battleship swarmed the deck of their battlewagon and opened fire at the general direction of Dumbledore.
Dumbledore, shocked by what he had just witnessed, apparated away, allowing a detached group – operating under Irina's command – to retrieve Al after the battle wizard collapsed.
The battleship turned her guns towards the enemy wizards still on the field and made them aware of just how pissed off she really was while her marines offered covering fire as the ground troops started to evacuate to the battleship.
Notes:
Expecto Patronum in Latin, means 'I expect a protector'
Expecto Curator in Latin, means 'I expect a guardian'
For those interested, Vanquisher is a Vanguard-class battleship.