Chapter 18: Wars without Frontiers
November 20th, 1943
Hermione sat limply at her chair in the library, her book laying on the table untouched. It was almost noon, but she couldn't bring herself to start reading. She could swear that the magical calendar, hanging just opposite of her table, was mocking her.
November 20th, the bright parchment read.
In her time, this day was marked in black to mourn the victims of the 1st wizarding war.
Hermione sucked in a deep breath, trying to push all the unpleasant thoughts out of her head.
It was meant to happen.
It has happened.
Defeated, her head dropped into her propped up palms.
November 20th, 1943 was in her time known as the day the great Albus Dumbledore defeated one of Darkest Wizards of all times, Gellert Grindelwald, in the battle of Hogsmeade. Many considered this day to be a glorious victory of light over darkness, but every victory comes with a price and this one was no exception. Grindelwald, desperate to lure Dumbledore out and settle the score, attacked where he knew it would hurt the most. Hogsmeade was attacked unexpectedly and very few were prepared to deal with advanced dark spell that were thrown at them by trained wizards of Gellerd's army. Even though Grindelwald wasn't a wanton murderer, many young students got caught in ruthless crossfire and lost their lives.
They did not deserve to die, Hermione thought bitterly.
She looked up at the old grandfather's clock nearby.
12:01
In less than an hour, Grindelwald and his followers will apparate into the main street and there will be no turning back. Hermione sighed.
She could change their fates. She could save them all.
But was few lives worth risking losing her disguise? How would she explain that she knew what is going to happen?
Another sigh escaped her lips.
An image of Ron came to her mind. Before the war broke out and before they went to hiding, he once told her that every innocent life is worth saving, because one never knows who will be the next one to join the Order. Despite her best efforts, she wasn't able save any lives. After all, she could barely keep herself alive. It was a selfish decision to stay hidden, she knew, but she was so scared then. She was scared to take a single step just so she doesn't mess anything up. Ron, on the other hand, was nothing like that. He would have blindly jump in front of a deadly curse if it meant helping others. Even though they broke up she still loved and admired him. She was a coward and he was a hero. She was alive and he was dead. Did his death meant anything? She would give anything to save him. To save Harry. To save Draco…
With that thought the young witch came to her decision.
Every life she can save is worth it!
Jumping up abruptly, Hermione grabbed her bag and ran out the door.
"Professor Dumbledore! Professor!" she banged her fist against the hard wood door of the old man's private chambers. After few seconds of absolute silence from the other side, she tried again.
"Professor, please! It's an emergency!" she cried desperately.
"I believe Professor Dumbledore is away on a business trip" worried voice of Minerva McGonagall sounded behind her.
"What? Where did he go?" Hermione spun on her heels to fully face the Head Girl, distress obvious in her tone.
"Uhm…"fumbled Minerva nervously, tugging a stray strand of her ashy hair behind her ear.
"Do you know where he is?" demanded Hermione again, trying to keep anger and frustration out of her voice.
The other girl sighed: "I think- I think he went to the Ministry of Magic…"
It was obvious from her tone that she was internally unhappy with sharing this information, but Hermione couldn't care less. The only thing she could think of was that Hogsmeade was about to be attacked and Dumbledore was nowhere to be found.
She was about to cry out something very rude, when a crazy idea striked her mind.
"Do you have some paper?" she asked Minerva, who immediately pulled out a spare roll of parchment from her school bag and handed it to her.
Hermione quickly scraped down the shortest possible explanation of the current predicament, which simply read: 'He is going to attack Hogsmeade. Hurry!', and returned the parchment to dumbfounded Head Girl.
"Take this to the owlery and send it to Dumbledore as fast as you can!" Hermione instructed in a hurry.
Minerva tried to protest, but before she even had the chance to get the second syllabus out, the French firmly gripped her shoulders and bend closer.
"This is very, very important." Hermione spoke slowly like she was guiding a 10-year-old through a difficult school subject: "Dumbledore needs to get the letter as soon as possible, understood?"
Minerva, for the lack of words, simply nodded.
Hermione attempted a half-hearted smile before running down the corridor, through the main gate and towards the small wizarding village.
XXX ABRAXAS's POVXXX
When the dark-cloaked wizards appeared, Abraxas immediately joined the Head Boy and other prefects who were dutifully helping younger students to vacate the street. With the 1st wizarding war at its peak, all perfects were preventively trained for emergencies like this, but from the looks of his school mates, Abraxas figured they never anticipated the battlefront reach so close to Hogwarts. Many wizards and witches ran mindlessly around like headless chickens and it was becoming painfully obvious how unprepared they were.
Turning back to check that no student got left behind, Abraxas stopped dead in his tracks. Just a couple yards away, stood Serena, partially leaning around the corner of a house, peaking at the group of black clothed wizards further down the street. How strange, he though. He could swear that she told him she wasn't allowed to Hogsmeade. Immediately, he raised his hand to wave her into their little hiding place, but the witch was not paying any attention. Why didn't she run like all the others?
He could see her looking around suspiciously, like she was making sure there were no witnesses. Then she pulled out her wand and mouthed some spell he did not recognize. As soon as the orange glow of her wand faded, her body slowly started to morph; her limbs lengthen and her face, slowly but surely, started to take on more mature, manly features until there stood an exact copy of Albus Dumbledore instead of foreign witch. The Malfoy heir frowned, unsure what the witch was up to.
He didn't have enough time to ponder about it, because Serena, now fully transformed to look like the Transfiguration professor, hastily stepped from her hiding spot into the street. None of the plundering wizards noticed her, still being busy capturing inexperienced students and whomever did not have a chance to hide. Grindelwald did not pay much attention either. Swiftly Serena flicked her wand and a flock of daggers sped straight towards the dark wizard. To Abraxas' surprise an invisible magic shield simultaneously appeared around the French wizard, effortlessly blocking all of the daggers. Grindelwald interrupted his shouting and turned in Serena's direction. The old wizard's face lit up to something vaguely resembling a very crooked, vicious smile.
"Albus, fancy to see you here, my old friend… are you ready to join me?" the word 'friend' was spat out with sour undertone, as if he was mocking the other mage.
Serena's hand clenched the wand little tighter: "Never"
When she spoke, Abraxas could tell she tried to make her voice as deep as she could to fit her Dumbledore look. "Let them go, Gellert." She frowned, motioning to a group of hostages, who were surrounded by Grindelwald's followers.
The older wizard's smile widened even more.
"Never." He mimicked Serena's previous answer and skillfully flicked his wand: "Too bad, Albus, we could have made history together."
"Let. Them. Go." Repeated the witch, her disguised voice trembling, but the older wizard seemed unaffected.
"Is it them you care for, Albus? Mudbloods?" Grindelwald grabbed one of the first-years by the collar demonstratively, his wand at the child's throat.
Serena leisurely waved her wand and a small otter partonus animal jumped out of the tip. But instead of attacking, as Abraxas expected, it took off towards the Hogwarts with an incredible speed.
"What was that?" asked the French wizard, raising his eyebrows delicately.
"Just notifying the authorities. They should be here any moment." Serena stated plainly. Grindelwald's face went from annoyed to angry, taking couple steps forward.
With a swift flick of his wand a strong gust of magic sped towards Serena, but she was ready, waving her own wand, creating a large fire ball, that smashed into Gellert's, throwing it of off its trajectory and crashing into the ground. The Slytherin witch didn't wait around and another fireball soon followed, ferociously clashing with Grindelwald's shield, and then another until the protective spell succumbed to the blasts and fallen apart. The older man just barely dodged the last flames as they easily pierced the remainders of the shield.
With Grindelwald's attention solely on Serena, there was nobody to direct his followers, who slowly started to disperse further and further apart. Malfoy smirked as he realized Serena's plan. The Dumbledore disguise was only supposed to serve as a distraction and surprisingly it was working. He hastily alerted Cygnus. Casting a simple invisibility charm, two Slytherins quickly sneaked past the attackers, who were far too busy either fighting or watching their leader's duel to notice them, and headed straight for the group of now-unguarded hostages. As fast as they could manage, they dispelled the binding charm on the students and quietly ushered them inside the first house they found. Once all students were safely put, Malfoy turned back to help Serena, but with horror found out that it was too late.
Grindelwald's spell crashed into Serena's shield with such power, it threw her backwards, good ten feet off of the ground until her body smashed into a brick wall of a candy store. Her, or actually Dumbledore's, body motionlessly slit onto the ground. Abraxas could see that the witch was slowly losing control of her transformation spell and her hands, legs, face and hair were returning back to their original form. Shaking, Serena attempted to stand up, but the last bit of consciousness left her and she fell back onto the stony sidewalk. Grindelwald angrily stormed up to her lifeless body, grabbed fistful of her dark mane and roughly pulled her up to inspect her face, angered by her deceit.
"I think that is enough, Gellert." The soft familiar voice broke the silence, and everybody who was still present turned to see the real Dumbledore, standing alone in the middle the empty street. His expression was calm, almost sad.
"Are you now sending students to fight your battles, Albus?" spat the French, while shaking Serena's head to prove a point. With that done, he dropped the unconscious body back onto the dirt. Abraxas noticed a small stream of blood trickling down from her lips, over her chin, disappearing somewhere in her hair. He couldn't help but wonder if she was still alive.
"It is over, Gellert." Sighed Dumbledore, and about thirty Aurors appeared all around, attacking the hooded man and securing the non-combatants. That's when Abraxas, and some other people, got shoved inside of a building and ordered to stay put until told otherwise. Through the small crack in window shutters he could see adults with wands running systematically around as the battle raged on. Due to all the havoc none of them bothered to check on the French girl still laying near the candy shop. Angry to be trapped without an opportunity to help, Abraxas sat down against one of the walls, head in his hands, and waited.
Almost an hour later, a middle-aged Auror with flushed face and sweaty hands finally freed them from the building and politely asked them to remain calm and return to their dorms as soon as possible. The danger has passed. Abraxas walked into the street and his eyes immediately searched for Serena. She was still unconscious and utterly ignored. He was about to walk over to her, when he noticed Dumbledore slowly limping in the same direction. Despite his emotionless expression, the older wizard look exhausted, his left arm and leg were bleeding and large part of his attire was either burned or torn. Still the old wizard stumbled to the girl, gently picked her body up in his arm and with an audible 'crack' apparated away.
TBC