A/N: It was only after I finished the previous chapter that it occurred to me that flooing into Muggle London won't work. So Sirius & Co went to the Leaky Cauldron.
The trio of wizards stepped out of the dingy wizarding pub and into the streets of Muggle London, drawing some odd looks as they did so – three men in cloaks stepping out of a back alley wasn't exactly common, but weirder things had been seen. Judging by the lack of screams and destruction, no giants had arrived yet.
"Looks like we're early." Remarked Aberforth.
"Now that we have a chance to speak," began Dumbledore, "Sirius, I implore you to see reason. Fighting a giant in broad daylight, in the busiest city in Muggle Britain, would be a tremendous breach of the Statute of Secrecy. The ICW-"
"Should be grateful that the Muggles learn about wizards when a group of them defeat a dangerous monster, instead of learning about them when said monster destroys their capital city. There is no way that they aren't going to notice a giant in London, Albus. The best we can do is make a favourable impression." Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Oh, and maybe save a few million people while we're at it."
"Millions, Sirius? Surely that is a slight exaggeration?"
"Does it matter?" Sirius shot back. "Lives will be lost, and we can prevent it. In my book that's worth the effort. Don't you agree?"
The pregnant pause that followed was interrupted by a distant crash and a load roar.
Aberforth looked his brother in the eye. "It's show time Albus. The giant is here."
With a nod Dumbledore apparated the three of them to the edge of the Thames. Opposite them stood a raging giant that towered above most of the buildings. To the wizards' surprise, several buildings actually stood slightly taller than the giant, and one or two completely dwarfed it. Apparently the giant was unsatisfied with this arrangement, as he made a beeline for a nearby tower that stood about a head (a giant's head) above him. With a roar of rage he swung a clenched fist into the building, shattering glass and metal, and with a roar pushed the now disconnected top of the tower over, letting it fall to the ground with a deafening crash. The screams were starting now, and still Dumbledore had not acted. He moved when Sirius slapped him in the face though.
"Get moving!" Sirius yelled.
The ancient wizard disapparated, reappearing behind the rampaging giant. Sirius and Aberforth apparated a short way behind him, watching for Jugson and Travers. Dumbledore shook his arms, loosening the sleeves of his robes as he prepared to take on a giant, alone.
First he cast a whip of fire, striking the giant in the heel. His spell failed to even break the skin, but it certainly got him some attention.
As the giant charged, Dumbledore cast an immensely powerful switching spell. The air right in front of the giant's feet disappeared, replaced with the piece of skyscraper that it had left behind it. His timing was perfect, just as the giant began to lift one foot the wreckage appeared in the way, causing the giant to face plant as it tripped over the unexpected obstacle. It was fortunate that giants had trouble managing their extensive mass, or else he may have recovered in time to keep his footing.
With the giant delayed, Dumbledore raced to find a suitable trick to defeat the giant. He recalled Severus asserting that giants couldn't swim. If he forced it into the river the giant might drown. An unfortunate way to go, but unavoidable if he wished to prevent further loss of life.
The giant was now once again barrelling towards him, this time with a club that used to be a skyscraper. Hurriedly backing away, Dumbledore lifted his arm to call Fawkes through their bond. In a flash of fire he was gone, reappearing to the giant's left. A flame whip regained its attention, and he began taunting it, slowly luring the giant towards a bridge. Every time it got too close Fawkes flamed him further back. A glance confirmed that the Muggles had abandoned the bridge, displaying more common sense than him. The Hogwarts motto may be 'Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon', but he had gone and poked an angry giant. What a splendid role model he was.
Backed up now to the middle of the bridge, Dumbledore waited carefully as the giant thundered onto the bridge as well. Once he was certain that the giant had cleared the banks of the river, he cast "Dissium Concentra!" with all his might. The Fracture spell caused cracks to open up in the bridge, extending outwards from his position and growing progressively weaker as they did so. When the giant didn't slow down Dumbledore allowed himself a small smile. As it drew close to him its pounding footsteps proved too much for the fractured bridge, and with a groan it collapsed into the river, Fawkes ensuring that Dumbledore didn't fall with it.
Two cracks sounded on either side of him as Sirius and Aberforth apparated over.
They both gave Dumbledore an appraising look.
"Not b-" began Sirius. He was rudely interrupted by a killing curse that shot past him, heading straight for Dumbledore. Thankfully Fawkes flamed in its path, swallowing it whole and burning up in flames, but Sirius still cursed himself for letting his guard down. Behind him were Jugson and Travers, and they immediately went on the offensive. Jugson demonstrated an impressive knowledge of explosive spells, causing destruction left and right as Aberforth ducked and weaved to evade the spellfire. Meanwhile Travers rained killing curses on Sirius, not much of a dueling style, but undisputably effective.
Sirius laughed as he dodged yet another killing curse. "What do you hope to achieve? Your little pet giant is dead, why don't you run home to your master and beg his forgiveness? You've already failed at your task."
Travers's eyes flicked behind Sirius, and a wide grin formed on his face. "I wouldn't be so sure of that."
Sirius didn't buy it – instead he nailed Travers with a knee inversing hex, and stunned him as he staggered backwards. Turning around, he gasped and swore violently at what he saw. The giant was still alive, with it's head just above the water. The river wasn't deep enough!
Dumbledore had also noticed the giant, but he had noticed something else: a huge muggle warship, bigger than even the giant. Tuning out the explosions in the background, Dumbledore gathered his magic, focussed, and animated the largest thing he had ever had to. The metal ship came to life, surging towards the giant and plowing into it with all the force a 600 foot ship could muster. With a crunch the giant went down, and this time it didn't get back up.
Meanwhile Jugson was having trouble with both Aberforth and Sirius. His destructive style, which had initially kept them off balance, now worked against him by providing Aberforth with plenty of material to transfigure. Swarmed by a variety of creatures, Jugson cast one Confringo a little too close, and was caught in the explosion. He landed in a badly burned heap, his wand flying into the air before being summoned by Sirius.
Dumbledore moved slowly towards him. A quick check of Jugson's vital signs told him that the man was not in imminent danger of death.
Just when he dared to hope that they had finished here, a large group of Muggles wearing blue stepped out in front of the wizards.
"PUT THE WEAPONS DOWN AND YOUR HANDS UP!" yelled one of the Muggles.
Through use of a quick sonorous charm Dumbledore replied, "Fear not, my good man, we mean you no harm."
Judging by the glances and muttering being exchanged, the Muggles weren't buying it.
"That's the problem with Muggles, Albus." snarked Aberforth. "They don't hang off your every word."
Dumbledore looked at his brother with a little less twinkle in his eyes than was usual, and replied coolly: "I am certain that they will see reason."
Sirius, meanwhile, was eyeing the Muggles with apprehension. They each seemed to be brandishing a short, stubby, black and yellow wand. Discreetly casting a listening charm, he heard one of them give the order to use – tacers? Taizers?
A series of loud pops sounded, and Sirius barely registered the sight of metal streaking towards him and the Dumbledores before pain hit and they collapsed to the ground, unable to move beyond slight twitching. As the muggles advanced on them, Sirius wondered if anyone else was in this much of a mess.
Rufus Scrimgeour eyed the two wizards in front of him sceptically.
"So you got a tip off, from a source you won't divulge, telling you that there would be a Death Eater attack, by the Carrows and the Lestrange brothers, on myself tonight?"
Kingsley nodded.
The Minister pinched the bridge of his nose. "After this we are going to have a talk about Dumbledore and his Order not leaving things to the authorities. Oh don't look so surprised. I was an Auror too, remember? A tip like that only comes from inside the group. And the only Death Eater that could possibly be a traitor is Snape, who only works for Dumbledore. I'm the Minister, not an idiot."
"Sir!" called Savage from an adjacent room. "Floo's been blocked and anti-apparition wards are up. We're being attacked by Death Eaters!"
Scrimgeour scowled. "Alright, let's catch them off guard. Most people stay quivering in their houses: we'll take the fight to them. Alastor, your intel good?"
"Aye, the Carrows and the Lestranges are out there." Confirmed Moody.
"Kingsley, Proudfoot, Savage!" called Rufus. "You three take on the Carrows. They're big on pain spells, so don't get hit or chances are you won't be willing to get back up. Alastor, it'll take both if us to beat the Lestranges. Let's go."
The two pairs of twins were surprised when the door swung open and Moody and Scrimgeour walked out. The wards still held, so they weren't able to fire yet, but that wouldn't remain true for long.
The Aurors had no intention of waiting though. Mad-Eye and Scrimgeour charged out of the wards and immediately went on the offensive, forcing Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange to focus on defending instead of attacking. At the same time, Kingsley, Savage and Proudfoot attacked the Carrows. All four Death Eaters were unhappy with the new set up – instead of having numbers and skill and their side they had to deal with two of the best Aurors in the Department, and were outnumbered too.
Alecto Carrow sidestepped a stunner from Savage and returned a blood-boiling curse that narrowly missed. Proudfoot made to hit her with a body bind but had to duck a Crucio from Amycus, who in turn was forced to dodge Kingsley's Reducto.
While those five danced around each other's spells Moody and Scrimgeour attempted to break through the Lestranges' defence. This proved difficult, as Rodolphus deflected a stunner from Rufus and Rabastan conjured a stone tile that absorbed Moody's Impedimenta. Another tile was smashed by a blasting curse before Rabastan dodged a stunner, any potential opening covered by Rodolphus's Protego. And so it continued. Moody and Scrimgeour threw spell after spell, while the Lestrange brothers blocked, shielded and dodged, covering each other's backs and waiting for a chance to strike. However, the Aurors got a breakthrough when Moody cast Ventus, blowing the slab conjured by Rabastan back at Rodolphus. He managed to throw up a shield in time to deflect it, but Rabastan was forced to defend himself from Scrimgeour's renewed attempts and was struggling to conjure more tiles at the rate Scrimgeour was casting stunners. Rodolphus was unable to aid his brother as he was occupied with trying to hold out against Moody. Now that their rhythm was broken, the Lestranges couldn't cover each others backs as well, and first Rabastan then Rodolphus were stunned.
Meanwhile the Carrows were still going strong. Proudfoot was dead: Amycus had hit him with an Acidiser Spell, a particularly nasty curse that transfigured the target's blood into acid. The twins were pressing Kingsley hard, and Savage was limping from a Flesh Rending curse that had torn deep gashes into his thigh. Alecto now followed up with a matching curse on his other leg. "Sarco Serratas!" she yelled, cackling as Savage collapsed now that both of his legs were essentially shredded.
Kingsley took advantage of her distraction to summon Alecto into the path of an incoming spell. She shrieked briefly as an intense bolt of electricity shot through her body, before the current stopped as Scrimgeour stunned Amycus from behind.
"Get Savage to St Mungo's." Ordered Scrimgeour. Kingsley nodded and dragged the now unconscious Auror out of the wards so that he could apparate them away.
Scrimgeour did a quick body count: one Auror dead and another hospitalised for at least two days, in exchange for one dead Death Eater and three captured ones. He wasn't sure if that was a decent trade-off or not.
First, he and Mad-Eye delivered the three unconscious Death Eaters to the holding cells and the bodies of Alecto and Proudfoot to the morgue. Then the Minister led Moody to his office.
"Alright, we need to talk."
"Damn right we do." agreed Moody.
Scrimgeour scrutinized him carefully. "How about this: you tell me everything I want to know about the Order of the Phoenix, and in return I won't prosecute you and Kingsley for joining what is effectively an illegal vigilante organisation. Sound fair?"
"Throw in Tonks and Black you have a deal."
Scrimgeour snorted. "I certainly won't go after Black. After spending eleven years in Azkaban as an innocent man he's politically untouchable. And as for Tonks, we need all the Aurors we can get. So I don't think that will be a problem."
"Then ask away."
"How did-"
"Oh, and don't think I'm unaware of the Dictaquill you have set up to record this."
"I wouldn't expect anything less. Now then, how did you know about the attack?"
"Dumbledore's spy Snape came to us and warned us You-Know-Who was planning an attack. A big one."
"A big one? Four inner circle members isn't that big."
"Try six inner circle members, six average Death Eaters and two giants."
Scrimgeour stopped and stared. "Two giants?"
"Aye. Snape did a good job though, much as it pains me to say it. He dealt with a giant and two Death Eaters before they could even reach the battle."
"And the rest?"
"Most are attacking the Weasley place, which is abandoned, and Dumbledore and Black were going to take care of the giant."
"Were going to?"
"I left before they finished picking their team."
"Who is the giant targeting?"
"Muggles."
"Where?"
Moody opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a portrait of a man bearing an uncanny resemblance to a frog.
"The Prime Minister of the Muggles seeks an audience with you."
"Tell him it can wait." snapped Scrimgeour irritably.
"He insists that it is of the utmost importance."
"Tell him it can wait." ground out Scrimgeour.
"He claims that he has three wizards in custody, one of whom is Sirius Black."
Scrimgeour slowly turned his gaze on Moody. "Where did that giant go?"
"London." Admitted Mad-Eye.
The Minister sighed, burying his face in his hands. "This day just keeps getting better and better."
A/N: Some good action there. More Death Eaters down, but Voldemort still has some tricks up his sleeve. More worryingly, the Muggles might find out about wizards. The board is changing, and so is the game. As always, please review, each one makes my day. Yes, I'm that bored ;)