Chapter 8 Hecate

"Things aren't going well."

Harry resisted the urge to snort in amusement. That was an understatement if there had ever been one. Things were a shit show. In the past six weeks Moldova, Serbia and Macedonia had all joined Voldemort's Kingdom of the Pure. Moldova by choice and the other two by force. Apparently Greece had been the next target to add to the group. However, Greece's forces combined with the ICW Coalition was enough to stop Voldemort's advancement, at least temporarily. No one was sure how long it was going to last but every country in Europe and the Middle East were scrambling to amp up their defenses in case they ended up being next.

Though to be fair, things in the United Kingdom were relatively quiet. While the law enforcement numbers had taken a hit after the attack in Diagon Alley, so had the Death Eaters numbers. Azkaban was the home to a lot more inmates then it previously was. The Dementors had abandoned post weeks ago, and besides an occasional showing at small muggle villages on the northern Scottish coast, were barely heard of. Speculation as to where they were most of the time, and what they were doing were plenty amongst the newspapers and gossip circles, but the Ministry didn't have enough resources to commit to finding out.

Like most things that needed guarding, Diggory had decided to hire private security firms rather than assign the Ministry's depleted law enforcement numbers to the task of guarding the prison. Azkaban was given to Nundu Inc. an American group that consisted of former government Battle Mages and Sentinels. Other, smaller but still important jobs were assigned to smaller companies. It was all paid for with an increase in taxes, as well as the seizing of known Death Eaters' Gringotts accounts.

Of course, the seizing of those accounts increased the already tense relationship with the Ministry and Gringotts. Fights between Ministry employees and goblins had almost broken out on several occasions. Diggory backed up his actions by saying that the Ministry needed the money to fund its war, and he was correct in that statement, but the last thing they needed was another Goblin Rebellion on their hands, or worse, the goblins siding with the Death Eaters. It was a tight rope and Harry wasn't sure how long Diggory could walk the wire before tumbling off.

With several dozen jobs being passed off to private security firms and a recruiting campaign in the international dueling circuit that bumped up the ranks by almost a dozen, the Law Enforcement wasn't being pushed to the brink yet. That meant the Knights were able to continue with their training as scheduled. It was the second week of February, fourteen weeks into the intense and rigorous training program. That is fourteen weeks in real time but forty-two weeks for the trainees themselves.

From what Harry had seen, they were definitely going to be something to deal with. While most of them ranged from the ages of seventeen to twenty-one and would still be years from actually reaching their full potential, they would make up in skill and teamwork what they lacked in power. Plus, it wasn't like all of them were lacking in power. When the training had started, one of the Knight team leaders had reached his magical maturation. Since then, two more had reached it and another would be reaching it in a few more months. Some of the teams had a heavy hitter in their ranks, which would definitely help them out.

But while the Knights were continuing with their training, the Areani were not. Things might have been remaining stable for the past six weeks in the United Kingdom but the rest of Europe was on the edge of chaos. Diggory's whole reason for the Areani was that he wanted them to help manage situations going on in other countries.

The three of them would be sent on three separate assignments overseas, not that it was an issue for the other two, as Harry was the youngest by a few years and would have to do his best to not look like the sixteen year old he was. Each of them would be operating by themselves and only staying in contact with their handler; whom Harry only knew of his own handler, Rick. Rick would be his access to whatever supplies and assistance he needed, as he assumed the other handlers would be for the other two Areani.

One of the other Areani would be operating in the countries of the former Austria-Hungary Empire. Apparently, groups had formed to hunt down and capture the muggle-born refugees and bring them back to the countries they had fled. Those groups needed to be discovered and stopped before too many lives were ruined any further. Who knew what Voldemort's new pureblood led governments were doing to them.

The other Areani was assigned to Turkey, where rumors of Death Eaters visiting the numerous wizarding enclaves there had surfaced. If Voldemort could sway the isolated magical enclaves to his side, it would give him a position of power over the main government of the Ottoman Magi Empire, which had once stretched as far as the borders of it's muggle equivalent.

That left Harry to deal with the pending alliance between the Dragon Mafia and Voldemort. To be fair, Voldemort could easily crush the Dragon Mafia if he really wanted to. At this time though, he had his attentions elsewhere and didn't have the manpower to concentrate on two separate fronts. Harry knew, from his study of Voldemort life while he was suspended, that once his conquest of Europe was nearing it's end, Voldemort would kill the Don of the Dragon Mafia. He would then give the members of the mafia a choice, join him or die.

The backing of the Dragon Mafia would make things a lot easier for the taking over of central and western Europe. While the men of the Dragon Mafia weren't fighters in any way shape or form, they were still bodies. They did their work mostly through intimidation, only making a move when the numbers were in their favor or they knew the persons they were moving on would be too scared to do anything back. A few training sessions, and they'd be decent back up in an attack on the various Ministries.

"You know the assignment. We've been over it a few times already. Find out what you can. Any chances to weaken the Dragon Mafia; disrupting alliances, exposing bribed politicians, anything like that, do it. And make sure to keep in contact."

A rock was slid across the table. Harry picked it up, knowing that it was the portkey to take him to his new location. When the Dragon Mafia had picked the Weasley family as a target they had effectively chosen Harry as the Areani who would be working their case. He was going to do everything in his power to stop them from joining Voldemort.

"Where will I be?"

"Muggle apartment right outside one of the main areas of magical Paris. Everything you need will be there, provided for you."

"When do I –"

The room spun around him as Harry felt himself get lifted from his seat. He landed on his ass on a hardwood floor of an average looking apartment.

"Fucking hate portkeys," he murmured, standing up and resisting the urge to rub his sore ass.

They were right when they said everything had been sent before hand. It had been left in one big pile of crap on the living room floor. Boxes of food, materials and folders were scattered all about, along with his two trunks. He was going to have to put everything away.

First thing first though, he checked the wards on the apartment. They were standard Ministry safe house wards. He already knew of ways in which he could add to them but that would take a few hours. Right now he wanted to set up the apartment and make himself something to eat, as he was fairly hungry.

The apartment came with a eat-in kitchen/living room combo, stocked with a small table set for two, a couch, an armchair and a coffee table. There was a small entrance way with a coat closet perpendicular to the front door. The hallway that branched out from the main area led to two bedrooms and the bathroom. The bedrooms were the same size, just that one of them had a large closet where as the other did not. Both bedrooms were stocked with a bed and armoire.

Harry moved into the bedroom with the closet and put all his muggle clothes in the armoire. He hung up his robes and armor in the closet, along with his combat trunk and his two extra brooms. The other trunk was left at the foot of the bed. He hit the bedspread with a few charms to turn it from a bland beige color to a teal and white combo.

He decided to make the spare bedroom a studying space. The bed was transfigured into a desk and chair combo, while the armoire turned into a book shelf. He had to etch some runes into the transfigurations to hold the magic and prevent them from changing back into their original forms. He put the case of files on the desk, and stocked the bookshelf with various books, as well as carving materials needed for rune work.

He then proceeded to hide various uni-wands and knives throughout the apartment just to be on the safe side. A knife stuck to the night stand next to his bed. A uni-wand slid into a drilled out hole in the newly transfigured desk. He made sure one knife and one uni-wand was in each room.

Uni-wands were uniform wands, or wands that everyone could use to cast spells but wouldn't have nearly as good results with as they would with a wand they were compatible with. They were never recommended for use in the field, but if you needed something quick until you could get your wand, they were good enough.

While he didn't expect any trouble at his safe house, Moody's constant shouting of Constant Vigilance! had definitely left its mark on him. Once he was satisfied with how everything was set up, he put all the food away. Luckily, whoever sent it all over had enough sense to put the things that needed to be refrigerated under a cooling charm, otherwise the entire apartment would have smelled like warm milk.

He made himself a quick sandwich to eat and began the process of upgrading the wards. It took him a few hours, stopping only to have a few more sandwiches every now and then, but eventually he was satisfied with his work and the added protections. He was no expert but the Potter affinity for Ancient Runes had helped catch him up to NEWT year studies in only a few months.

Tomorrow would start the actual leg work. Tonight, Harry moved into the study and opened up the files he had set on the desk earlier. Reports on Dragon Mafia members in France, as well as all known associates stared at him. It listed recorded activities, businesses, locations, bribed politicians and dozens of other things Harry would need to know if he was to take on the largest and most powerful crime organization in the world; if only a branch of said organization. And the very folder on top was that of Lysander Malfoy; his arrogant sneer reminding Harry all too much of Draco.

"No matter the country or nationality, I still fucking hate Malfoys," he murmured as he began browsing through the folder.

Sirius yawned silently and stretched his aching muscles. Guard duty was never a fun time but it was necessary. Voldemort's forces may lay dozens of kilometers away but that amount of space was seconds for flyers to travel. He needed to remain as alert as possible. The marble wall in front of him was good cover but it wouldn't hold a Death Eater army off for long, especially if he wasn't alert enough to respond to their attack with spells of his own.

Whoever the informant that tipped off the Greeks were, that person deserved a damn medal. Told they were next on Voldemort's Countries to Conquer list, the Greeks took immediate action. They had erected some damn powerful wards around the countries borders, wards that took days to set up. The law enforcement had been militarized, its members had been turned into an official army and every unemployed witch and wizard above the age of seventeen and under the age of sixty was conscripted into a militia that was trained daily. Some of the extreme purebloods who had expressed their support for Voldemort and his Death Eaters had been rounded up and put under guard so as not to cause any problems; the rest had gone into hiding.

The Coalition forces had arrived at Greece's border with Albania, and had been let in to help bolster's the Greek defenses. Voldemort's forces had arrived in force, not aware of the extreme measures Greece had taken, at the border with Bulgaria and Macedonia. It took a week for the Death Eaters to create a big enough hole in the wards for them to enter into Greek territory. The first battle had lasted two days before falling into a stalemate, with both sides falling back and setting up their own defensive lines. The Death Eaters brought up their own wards and the Greek ones were repaired and adjusted to accommodate the new front lines.

It was a dance they had been in for two months now. The peace would last for a few days as both sides took care of their wounded and caught their breath, until the Death Eaters were able to create another hole in the wards to charge through again. At first, they'd be pushed back under the initial onslaught, but eventually the defenders would get their feet under them, and begin to push back themselves. That's when the Death Eaters withdrew and both sides went back to their few days of peace.

Over a hundred miles had been lost already. They were slowly losing ground. Albania would have been an easier target for Voldemort, to swing his army to the west and march into it's lands, but his pride would not allow him to rest until Greece rested firmly in his grasp. All that they had fought for would be lost, as the combined Greek and Coalition army would push back to the Greek borders, and build up the wards and defenses again.

And as he struggled to make it to the heart of Greece, other countries did their best to build up their defenses to Voldemort. It was good that Dumbledore had joined the Coalition, as without him they would have probably collapsed weeks ago. It wasn't that a small group of their most experienced and powerful fighters couldn't handle the Dark Lord in a fight, to keep him contained, it's just that left four of their best from not facing the Death Eaters best, and it would snow ball out of control from there.

"Flyers!"

Sirius' eyes snapped to the sky in front of him. It was starting to get dark, hard to exactly pinpoint black robed figures. He thought he could spot something in the distance, like specs of dust that seemed to be getting bigger.

Suddenly, a flare was shot into the air, illuminating the open terrain in front of them. Sirius was able to spot the flyers racing towards them at incredible speeds. He could also spot the mass of Death Eaters approaching them from further in the distance. He crouched a little lower behind his cover and aimed his wand toward the approaching flyers.

They were still out of spell range but would be in it quickly enough. Sirius knew he only had a moment to cast as many spells as he could before the flyers overshot the front line. With the main force of Death Eaters approaching on the ground, and at a much slower pace, he might be able to turn his body as the flyers flew past him to get a few more shots in. However, being on the front line meant his main duty was to stay focused in front. They would scramble their own broom riders to deal with the Death Eater flyers. He had to make sure the main advance didn't have an easy time just pushing over their lines.

Spells started to fly from the front line, either from those too overeager or those who had a bit more distance on their spell casting. Sirius waited a breath before he joined in, launching simple stunners into the air. Some chose explosion hexes, the burst of flames and energy pock marking the air. A few spells made contact and bodies fell from the air, tumbling down to the ground below them.

Sirius turned as the flyers shot over his head, beginning to cast their own spells on the defenders below them. He launched a few more stunners before facing his attention back to the hundreds of Death Eaters approaching them.

Their speed was much slower than the Flyers, and they were still a moment or two out of spell range. He heard the yells of fighting taking place behind him. He had to fight the urge to turn and help. There were a lot more people behind him than there were on the front lines right now. He took a deep breath and tried to center his magic.

Stunners wouldn't work like they did against the Flyers. A stunned Death Eater in the air would plummet to their death. A stunned Death Eater on the ground would be revived. A bit more lethality would be necessary in his next choosing of spells. Standard piercers, cutters and bludgeoners would be the way to go. Not as powerful as the other spells he knew but it would allow him to cast a lot without draining himself too quickly. He needed to save his energy for when the fighting got in close.

Magical exhaustion in drawn out battles was the main cause of half the casualties; whether it be the effects of the exhaustion itself or their magic failing them in a critical moment. People spent themselves too early in the fight, relying on power when they didn't need to.

It was one of the things Hit-Wizards were taught in training and was something he took to heart in all his years fighting. One on one duels were fine with overpowering spells and using the more powerful ones in your repertoire, but when it came to actual battles, simple was the name of the game.

"Concentrate your fire!" One of the Coalition Lieutenants shouted, the translation charms in everyone's ear pieces making it so everyone understood what the Swedish wizard was shouting. "Team leaders, designate a target and direct your teams spell fire at that target. Better chance at taking them down one at a time then if you all go off shooting spells at random targets!"

"Alright," Sirius shouted to his team, "I'm going to designate out a small pocket of Death Eaters with a laser pointer spell. Only aim at that area until ordered otherwise. Don't worry about anything too fancy. We'll overwhelm them with the number of spells, not the power of them. Conserve your energy for the close quarters dueling."

Sirius muttered the spell and shined the laser on a group of four Death Eaters directly in front of him. His team all muttered their indications that they saw the opponents he was designating as their target. He did it a few more seconds, just to be on the safe side and ended the spell. The ground forces were almost in his range.

He gripped his wand tighter in his hands. Things already seemed to be spiraling out of control way faster than they did the last time around. Realistically, from what Harry had told him, he knew there would be no stopping Voldemort's march across Europe. Only Harry could stop Voldemort, and right now the teen wasn't near ready enough to do that. Sure they could beat back the Death Eater armies for a time but they wouldn't last. Each country was too worried about their own security to commit the proper amount of fighters needed for a coalition force large enough, and strong enough to properly drive back the Death Eaters. Reports were already coming in of trolls and giants joining Voldemort's forces, and Sirius was sure they would see them on the front lines fairly shortly.

"The Death Eaters are in range. Cast at will!"

Sirius adjusted his arm and hand so it was in the proper position for the Black family style of dueling. He knew the chain he wanted to start with, simple spells that's movements flowed perfectly from one into the other without pause. The battle had begun.

Ron Weasley stretched his arms over his head and adjusted himself in the seat. He still had a foot left on the Charms essay, but needed to take a break from all the homework. He looked up to see some of the fifth year Gryffindors enter the Common Room. He nodded to Keith and Dave, two of Colin's roommates who had joined their training sessions a few days after Harry had left. They were two of seven new fifth years to join the morning sessions. Neville had taken the group of seven under his wing and was the one moving them along and teaching them all he could.

The new additions were far behind the main group, even their fellow fifth years, and so had to be worked with separately after Wayne went through the physical exercise part of the sessions. Neville taking care of them had made it easier for Susan, Marco and Hermione to lead the main group in the morning routine after the workout. They tried to do it just as Harry used to in the beginning but it wasn't exactly the same. When Harry introduced new things to the group, they were things he already knew and then passed on. Now when Susan, Marco and Hermione introduced things, they themselves hadn't really practiced at, so everyone was kind of learning things together.

For a brief moment, as Harry shifted his leadership of the group to the others, Ron he felt a tinge of bitterness. He was Harry's best friend, why was responsibility being shifted to others. Hermione he could understand, but the other three? Neville had helped him realize that first, he didn't have the patience to teach things. The second truth was, that while Ron was good, the others were better than him in each of the things Harry had left them in charge of. That second truth was a little harder to swallow.

There were debates about opening it up to some of the fourth years, like Ginny and the others had been when the sessions first started last year, but they decided against it. While it was true loyalties were being declared and sides were chosen amongst the student bodies, the younger years weren't too involved in it. At least not to the point where they were being targeted in the hallways. And with the Rangers of Avalon patrolling the halls every hour of every day, students attacking each other was something that rarely happened.

There was movement at the bottom of the boy's staircase and Ron turned his head to see Cormac McLaggen making his way through the Common Room in a hurry. McLaggen was one of the known Gryffindors to support Voldemort and as such was not welcomed amongst the rest of his house. He was only ever in the dorms to sleep. There had been talks of retaliation toward the Voldemort supporters but McGonagall had put her foot down on the issue. Hogwarts was a school for learning and was neutral grounds. That neutrality was to be respected by all, and so far since the declaration was made the night Malfoy fled the school, everyone had abided by it. Ron knew of eight other Gryffindors who were with McLaggen in that regard, and he was sure another handful more who kept their support quiet. The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw supporters were both a bit higher than Gryffindor, with Ravenclaw being the higher of the two. Then there was of course Slytherin, which was the inverse of Gryffindor.

Not that it was going to matter. Rumor was that at the end of the school year, if Voldemort was still ruler of his little kingdom, a lot of the more hardline supporters of the Dark Lord would be sending their kids to school in one of the Eastern European countries Voldemort controlled. Ron knew that meant classmates like Crabbe, Nott, Parkinson and Goyle would no longer be around. Slyherin was going to lose half its numbers next year.

Maybe with a lot of the more brazen of the pureblood bigots gone, Slytherin would be able to rebuild its reputation amongst the other houses. He admitted to being a bigot of his own against Slytherins back when he was younger, but Greengrass and Davis joining the training sessions had changed his opinion. He had been weary of the snakes at first, but didn't want to voice his thoughts on the issue since it was Harry who had invited them.

However, the two girls, as well as Tracey's younger brother and his friend, had become good friends of his. They bucked his idea of what all Slytherins were like and were clearly against You-Know-Who and his pureblood agenda. A new Slytherin, a girl in Angel and Derek's year had joined the group as well. While it was still only five Slytherins, compared to double the numbers for all the other houses, it still went a long way to improving some of the inter-house unity.

After flexing his fingers, Ron picked up his quill again and began the final foot of his essay. It took another forty minutes to finish. He leaned back in relief, massaging his hand, which ached a bit from all the writing he had been doing. He could only imagine what NEWT year was going to be like. He wondered idly if he'd be able to take the test early like Harry did. He shook his head, if Hermione wasn't able to, there was no way they'd let him do so. Besides, it wasn't like he'd be able to get an Outstanding on most of the test like Harry did.

"Did you see this?"

Ron blinked as Hermione threw the evening addition of the Daily Prophet on top of his Charms essay. He glanced down at the main article and immediately scowled. Death Eaters had attacked several muggle houses, including the homes of two muggle-born students, a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff.

"That's despicable," Ron muttered, as he finished browsing the article.

"And they did it during broad day light!" Hermione pointed out.

"Obliviators must have had their hands full."

Hermione sat down in one of the other chairs at the table. She rubbed the palm of her hands against her eyes. "Its been weeks since the Death Eaters have done anything. And they've left the muggles relatively alone so far. Why change now?"

Ron shrugged his shoulders, unsure of the actual answer but decided to take a guess. "You-Know-Who has done a lot to expand his power in Eastern Europe. This is making them bolder. A direct fight with Ministry forces might not be the best thing right now but in order to spread fear, why not go after a group of people who can't defend themselves?"

Hermione bit her lip and wrung her hands, something Ron had come to associate with extreme anxiousness in the bushy haired girl.

"What's is it Hermione?"

"What about my parents?" she asked after a moment. "Being friends with Harry, its put them in a lot of danger."

"Flitwick did the wards on their house and office," Ron reminded her.

"But wards can be circumvented, and what about when they're traveling to and from work, or out getting groceries?"

Ron frowned. He could tell this had been something worrying Hermione for a while. He felt some of her fear but knew with his parents being magical, they had a much better chance of surviving a Death Eater attack compared to the Grangers.

Hermione started talking, taking Ron's silence as his inability to properly answer her question and assure her of her parent's safety. "I was thinking of convincing them to leave the country. Maybe go somewhere like Australia or somewhere in North America."

"Would they go?" Ron asked.

He didn't know the Grangers all that well. He had met them a total of two times, once when he was twelve and then again a few months ago for Christmas. They didn't seem like the kind of people who would just leave Hermione behind, no matter the danger they might face.

"I … I could make them understand."

Ron snorted. He knew what she meant. "You mean use compulsion magic. On your parents."

"It's for their own good!" Hermione exclaimed, leaning forward, her face both worried and defensive.

Ron wondered when it had happened that he was now the rational one. "Before you go casting spells on them, why don't you sit down and explain things properly to them. Harry gave them a decent run down back on Christmas, but they still don't truly understand everything, do they?"

"What if they try to make me leave Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

Shrugging his shoulders, Ron moved the newspaper off of his homework. "You're seventeen years old Hermione. That's adulthood in the wizarding world. You don't have to leave if you don't want to."

Ron picked up his Charms essay and put it in his school bag that sat on the floor at his feet. He did the same with his quill and ink before looking at Hermione again.

"What you should also be concerned about Hermione, besides your parents safety, is your own safety. Muggle-born witch who is best friends with Harry Potter and showing up all the purebloods by being the highest ranked in her year? If your parents want to get you out of the country to somewhere safer, maybe you should listen."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest. Ron knew the arguments. He had heard them before, and they were similar arguments that he himself had used to his mother when she argued with him about his growing involvement in the war.

He held up his hand, causing Hermione to close her mouth and blink in surprise. "I'm just saying it is something to think about."

Ron got up and slung his bag over his shoulder. With one last look at Hermione he made his way upstairs to his room. What he said was something Hermione was going to have to think about. It was something everyone would have to think about. No one was obligated to join the war efforts. Decisions needed to be made by everyone. He had made his choice already, so had his family; much to his mother's chagrin.