2. War Stories

Battle Report

Date: 06-JUL-1998

Place: Hogwarts Castle, Scotland, GB

Author: Jayen Lynch, Senior Officer Auror, D3 Division

Read and accepted by Mara Goodwich, President of D3 Division on 28-JUL-1998.

We were told to land on the top of Elk Mountain, one of the three highest mountains overlooking the Hogwarts Castle from the north. Matheus Donnovan, Daniel Gershaw and me have separated to better appraise the battlefield.

The battle was raging for a day now, from what we have been told and it looked like British MoM was loosing it. We came as quickly as possible using the dragon-portkeying but now we weren't sure if there was anything to be done. The whole ground between the castle and the forest was empty except for bodies scattered on the grass and half of the forest was burned to the ground. The castle looked like its defenses has been breeched at least once – two of its walls were crumbling and there were also heaps of dead bodies at its entrance. But someone has managed to put up the defenses again because the only activity we were able to see was a numerous group of enemies trying to get into the castle and failing, the flashes of rebounding spells seen even from our place.

Our forces were still waiting in the mountain area, watching for an order to attack. But the enemy didn't wait. Suddenly there was an uproar and what we estimated to be at least two-third Voldemort's forces has fallen on us like a hawk on its prey.

There were giants, werewolves and a fair number of Death Eaters on brooms. My guess is they were expecting us and decided to engage us in a battle right there as to give them more time to completely break the Hogwarts protections.

Engage we did and it went pretty chaotic from that moment. While most of our forces, regular Aurors and dragon Aurors were fighting for their lives, we were given an order from General to try to approach the castle.

A dozen of Death Eaters on brooms have closed upon us. They were difficult targets, small and quick moving, shooting at us from every side. But it was obvious they have never fought with dragons and we took out half of them before they have realized that dragons, unlike brooms, have claws and breath magical fire.

I think we grew a little too self-confident at that and that was why we lost Daniel. He and Ashla were too focused on baiting two of Death Eaters to come close and they have never noticed a third one that came from above. He shot a Killing Curse which hit Daniel square in the chest. Ashla got confused for a couple of moments and started flying in circles, obviously trying to check on Daniel who was still striped to her back. But it didn't take her too long to realize what have happened and then she went berserk. I have never seen her behave like that and we asked our dragons to try to calm her but she will have none of it – she chased two of Death Eaters to the mountains and the next time we saw her she was being held in place by powerful binding spells cast by our field colleagues.

We continued with our mission and soon we were engaged with the enemy attacking the castle. Team 6 have joined our forces and together we quickly dispersed of a couple of giants that were here. Answering the question of President Goodwich, no, the giants posed no real threat to us. They are too slow to guard themselves from our attacks and while most of our battle spells were not able to get through their thick skin, dragon magical fire worked just well against them. When the flames hit the giant's head it burned like a torch. Quickly we got rid of them. Death Eaters were more difficult to fight, but in that moment the remaining British forces came out from the castle and helped us. It took no more than half an hour to win our fight. We have asked for Voldemort but it seemed that he stayed with the main forces in the mountains. Their Aurors told us that Harry Potter headed there half a day ago with an intent to kill him.

Team 6 have joined the main battle, as well as most of the British Aurors. Our team was told to wait at the castle, keeping an eye on the Hogwarts students who, to our horror and amazement, apparently also took their part in the battle. There were wounded and killed between their numbers.

The battle raged for a couple of hours more, until all the Death Eaters and Voldemort monsters were either dead or caught. Voldemort was killed by Harry Potter. I don't know the details but it appears that for some reason the Dark Wizard grew overconfident too.

Many of ours took part in the celebration that came next. We did not. We took immediately to US, taking the still tied-up Ashla with us. It will be up to our superiors what to do with her, but if I'm allowed to give my opinion, she is in no condition to work again. She is completely broken by Daniel's death, a sentiment that is shared by both of us. I think the best thing to do will be to let her fly.

POTTER DID IT AGAIN

By Rita Skeeter

Our esteemed hero managed to once again get the upper hand over his arch-enemy. And seeing as the result of the meeting was deadly for You-Know-Who, we can safely say that was the ultimate one.

It was a surprising turn of events and all around, suspicious. Mr Potter again failed to be killed by You-Know-Who even if everyone at the beginning believed his death. We saw his mourning friends, between them one Hermione Granger who was obviously hard-hit by his demise, shrieking, wailing and tearing at her considerably bushy hair. It is well known that there was a romantic interest between them and she was obviously taking on the loss of her lover. His Giant friend, one Rubeus Hagrid, was carrying the body of fallen Harry Potter to the Hogwarts and screaming obscenities at You-Know-Who and his followers. The spirit fell in the remaining Hogwart survivors when they saw their hero dead.

But he refused to stay dead for much longer. Like a true hero he has risen from the ashes and declared a no-surrender. The event of Harry Potter surviving yet another Killing Curse is getting a little weary round the edge. But we cannot stop ourselves from tackling into the mystery of his continuous survival. Why did it happen? Was You-Know-Who a stupid and overall incompetent wizard who cannot curse properly? Were there some mysterious forces preventing the spell from working? Or is it all one big fake, a plot to make us all believe that Mr. Potter is invincible?

"How did you survive?", asked the Dark Wizard with something akin to cold fury, facing the newly resurrected Harry Potter. Poor thing, we would have said if he wasn't the most feared person in the Islands. He was so obviously confused.

Then Potter have started on a long diatribe about how naïve You-Know-Who was to think that he was the more clever of the pair. He carried on with a long and frankly boring explanation about how the wand You-Know-Who possessed, which was supposed to be the strongest wand known to humanity (a ridiculous notion, are we living inside a fairy tale? ) did not recognize him as the rightful master because… Well your author got a little lost here about who killed whom and in which order but obviously it had something to do with Severus Snape not being the first to have a go at Albus Dumbledore. In short, You-Know-Who totally screwed it up and Potter survived because of Dark Wizard's malfunctioning wand.

Fine, we say, even if very lame, this might have been the cause. Wands sometimes fail and spells does not work properly. Of course, we have never heard about any famous Dark Wizard failing to perform correctly such a basic curse. But even then, why would Potter intentionally walk into a death trap? Even if he suspected that he may survive, how was it possible that he was so sure of himself? And even more interesting, what he wanted to gain by doing it?

"Remember his second year in Hogwarts?", said Draco Malfoy, Potter's peer, exonerated Death Eater and a clandestine worker for Good. "He had that special connection with Dark Lord even then. He could speak with snakes and have opened the Chamber of Secrets. People thought then that he was evil. Maybe people were at least partially right. I saw him talk to the Dark Lord. He was not afraid, none at all. I guess there existed some special connection between them. Some kind of mind-link. Maybe Potter knew what the Dark Lord was thinking."

Colin Creevey, one of Potter's friends, seconds this opinion by admitting: "I always felt that he was not an open person. He was hiding something and it was big." Answering your author's question: "Connection to You-Know-Who? Not sure about it. Harry is a true hero, if he felt his mind being close to that of this evil wizard… Sounds really terrible! Yeah, I guess… I guess he might have searched death then."

Proffesor Slughorn, Hogwart's Potion Master, laughed at that. "He was a clever boy, Harry Potter! I wouldn't be surprised if he all the time was leading the Dark Lord by the nose. My guess is he knew all along what will have to happen for us to win the war! Don't ask me how he knew! Connection to the Dark Lord? Impossible! He plotted it all with Albus Dumbledore, mark my words!"

So, there might have been a connection between our Hero and the arch-villain. But what was its nature? Was it possible that Harry Potter was so desperate to get rid of it to risk his life? Or maybe the very nature of this connection prevented him from dying?

What is sure, our hero is not the person we think him to be. We sincerely hope he explains himself. We are, after all, so sick of mysteries.

A CLEVER PUNISHMENT

By Lucia Greengrass

Our Ministry of Magic have dealt with the troublesome matter of imprisoned Death Eaters. To put them in Hinches and make them repay the atrocities they committed by hard, ungrateful work was a truly brilliant move. But society has its doubts ant they are not unfounded.

Many of us during the last months were wandering if the wrongdoers are again to be chucked into a prison guarded by Dementors. Many of us thought that way as dangerous to the society – after all not once and not even twice the same wizards found their way around Azkaban security and merrily went on the rampage. And we were fed up with Ministry's reassurances that the Dementors are doing a good job at keeping them in.

Now our allegiance with those dark creatures that have chosen to side with You-Know-Who has reached its end. And good riddance to them. We had enough evidence that they were no good, enough causalities to prove that such creatures cannot be tamed.

Those days even Azkaban proves unnecessary. All thanks to ingenious magical trinkets devised by the always-so-mysterious Unspeakables.

They were working at those for many years now. Combining magic and Muggle inventions they developed bindings that at the same time are suppressing the wizard's magic and drawing from it to kep him subdued. So, in short, the wrongdoers magic is working against him when he tries to step out of line, like trying to escape or attempting to harm the other person.

Those are the Hinches. And to alleviate any fear that our readers might feel, we asked about them one of their inventors, Arthur Lameduck.

"It's nothing too oppressive. Just two small rings of metal, like bracelets. Putting them on might be quite painful, especially if the prisoner's magic is strong because it is fighting against the Hinches, but no fear, we are doing it in whole-body anaesthesia. After that they might feel a little light-headed and lost, but it passes quickly. They can perform absolutely no magic. When the time of imprisonment is up it's relatively easy to take them off, too. They only have to come to us, as any unlicensed trial of removing them will have grave consequences."

Prisoners seem to be content with the change. "Finally, I feel alive", said Rufus Bernt (charged with 10 years in Azkaban for selling Dark Items). "Dementors are gone. Those bracelets are nothing compared. And no, I don't miss my magic. It was useless against them, anyway."

Excerpt from Readers' Letters section of "Wizards Today":

Author: nameless

I am the wife of one of the Death Eaters who were sold into slavery. There is no other word to describe it. I know that my husband may seem an evil beast and even I knew he wasn't the nicest person. But it does not mean he is to be treated like the animal.

He was caught with the others and kept in Ministry dungeons. There was a short trial from what I was informed. I do not believe it. I was never allowed to visit him, none of us, relatives, was. When I demanded an explanation from one of those big-headed Aurors, he sneered at me and said that they had to be 'tamed' first. He provided no further details.

I caught a glimpse of him only on the last day before they were shipped out to another continent. He looked catatonic. There was nothing human left in that face. I've tried to come closer but the Aurors stopped me.

Only the next day Daily Prophet have printed the article about what an asset to the humanity they became. How what they did to them made the existence of prisons unnecessary. A smart piece of magic that rendered them harmless, a dab of arthimancy and spellcraft that turned them into obedient dependant creatures… Slaves in short.

I think it's too cruel punishment even for a Death Eater. Maybe I'm alone. I hope that I am not.

Dear 'Daily Prophet',

No, I will be not discussing my involvement in war with you or any other journals. If you have questions, ask Dumbledore's portrait. I am sure he will be more cooperative.

Yes, I am starting the Auror's training.

No, I will not share with you my opinion about Albus Dumbledore.

Nor about Severus Snape.

Or any other person you would like to ask me about.

Yes, I will be shortly marrying Ginevra Weasley.

Yes, I believe the punishment was adequate for Death Eaters.

Good day to you all,

Harry Potter

A/N: Well, here goes a little of back up story. Those are the parts known to wide public, so they may seem overly light... But darker ones are ahead of us.

If you read the story and liked it, please leave the review! Any questions will be answered.

Leo.