Disclaimer: The characters used within this are mostly the property of others. I have a few originals, but the vast majority are not original. Everything here is fiction. This is for entertainment only and not for profit.
-=oOo=-
To Green Angel Tower - Chapter 8
-=oOo=-
Amelia Bones waited patiently at the Chinese Embassy for over twenty minutes.
"The head of the mage guild will see you now."
"Thank you."
He nodded and led her inside and down a long hall to a very intricately appointed room. She watched her guide and stood where he indicated waiting to be addressed.
"Please ask my assistant to fetch copies of the records we have developed for the incident," the man behind the desk said.
Her guide immediately left to do so. She continued to wait.
"I thank you for your prompt journey here."
"How could I not? I don't know whether I can use your evidence or not, but I have to know where the problems are, so I can find something I can use."
"Nott, is the primary. He managed to elude your other work. Additional money was provided by the Crabbe and Goyle families."
"Thank you. Is there anything you require of me?" asked Amelia.
"Please be more diligent in preventing the rise of destabilizing elements."
"I'll do my best. I swear it."
"That is all. My assistant will return shortly to return you to the port key area."
"Thanks again."
Amelia was never so glad as to when she got home. The Chinese wizards were known to be ruthless, and the order to end that mercenary group was a controversial one, since they ended up working in other countries, with only the barest of permissions. That all being said, no one protected the mercenaries. In truth she was more than a little freaked out when Harry Potter went all wrath of god on them. She supposed Voldemort or Dumbledore in rage might have matched it, but it was still scary as all hell to look at.
The Triwizard winnings were, in the end, split between Beauxbatons, Hogwarts, and Durmstrang tuition assistance. The Headmaster was as good as his word, and with the others he contacted they each got three thousand Galleons.
-=oOo=-
"I just wanted to let you know we now have control of the money donated from China. The books are also available to anyone, so you can see what we spend on things," said Kevin.
"Thanks," said Fleur.
Kevin walked off.
"So, you kissed him for all of Hogwarts to see," mused Adriane.
"Damn right I did. Hermione and also Daphne did as soon as we got back."
"Harry, or both of you?" asked Adriane in amusement.
Fleur blushed, but didn't answer.
"I think you did all Veela a bit of good. The whole transforming to save your man bit."
"I can't believe I did that. In no way did I need to transform to fly like Harry did. I just wasn't thinking."
"It's fine. People might overreact more, if you transformed to defend Harry, because, well, people are stupid, but to save him, I don't think you will have a problem. I assume you can all fly now?"
"Hermione is a little uncertain, but Daphne is decent. It uses so much magic. There must be a better way."
"I'm sure there is," said Adriane.
"So what is next?"
"We are hiring a few more people. We need to finish the duplicate of what we had, but after that we need to build our own craft. They call the new design hypersonic magic emergency response vehicle, or HMERV for short. It is going to take some time, but we are pretty sure it will work."
"No progress on figuring out how to use electronics then?" asked Fleur.
"You weren't gone that long, but no, or rather not enough. We do know we can do it. So far the engineers don't see the benefits of adding all the weight they would have to add to make it work."
Fleur nodded. "Since the flight thing is out of the bag, and since this area is secure, I'm going to go practice a bit."
"I'll join you. Not in the air mind you."
Fleur smiled and nodded.
-=oOo=-
Daphne was sitting in Harry's arms with Hermione in hers when Fleur rushed in.
Daphne raised an eyebrow.
"We are needed."
"Figures," muttered Daphne as they all got up and followed Fleur.
Ken came running in. "Kevin is still on the other side of the country visiting family. Dave should be in the craft. We have a A330 flying somewhere near a recently active volcano. We are going to try to find them, and if they are alive, try to keep them that way."
They rushed into the craft even as others opened the giant doors.
As soon as everyone was strapped in with the four feeding energy to the magical array Kevin said, "Punch it."
They were driven into their seats as the craft went from zero to rotation speed in under ten seconds before climbing into the sky.
"We need a port key for Peorth Australia. The flight was heading from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia," said Kevin.
"I remember that one. I'll make it," said Daphne.
"We are at cruising height," said Dave.
Daphne muttered Portus and tapped her wand against the side of the aircraft. After a very long moment they vanished.
"I really hate port keys," said Hermione.
"Everyone does. Dave, you okay?" asked Adriane.
"Yes. I'll be glad if you finally figure out how to make those not horrible."
Adriane did several gestures with her wand and a real time map appeared. She did several more, and nothing happened.
"I can't get a ping on the craft. Fleur you try," said Adriane.
She set her wand in her palm and said, "Point me." Her wand turned just barely to the right.
"Adjusting course. Do you have any idea of distance?" asked Dave.
"Not sure. Farther than the desert was wide, I think."
"Repeat every five minutes," said Kevin.
Fleur nodded.
"Increasing to Mach 2," said Dave.
"I think our latest does suppress most of the shock wave," said Adriane.
"That will help," agreed Dave.
The ship shuddered, but quickly recovered. There was no change until nearly a half hour later, and then they shifted a bit to the left.
"We are well above their flight level, so we should be okay, but distance numbers would be handy," said Dave.
"What is that?" asked Harry as the front of their window started to have blue lightning dancing across it.
"Volcanic ash is causing a St. Elmos fire effect. It shouldn't hurt us, beyond adding weight, but the other craft may be in severe trouble," said Dave.
"I think we are closer. Turn a bit to the right," said Adriane.
"Reducing speed."
Adriane tried again and got an active magical tracker working for the craft. A blue dot shown on the magical display.
"That helps. I'll get us to them soon, but what then? The ash will weigh them down and disable their engines and all their sensors," said Dave.
"Daphne and I will apparate aboard, and get them to hold onto a portkey, unless someone sees an alternative," said Hermione.
"I don't think that will work. People will freak out. There may not be time," said Kevin.
"Try repairing spells on the engines not running. It might work," said Dave.
"We can try it," agreed Fleur.
"There is it. They are a glider. All engines out and not remotely in range of a landing zone."
"Featherweight the craft. Then try the engines," said Adriane.
"I'll apparate and do the featherweight from inside," volunteered Daphne.
"Go," said Adriane.
Daphne disillusioned herself before vanishing with a soft pop.
Daphne appeared at the back of the craft, still invisible. She tapped her wand against the hull and spend several minutes casting a very overpowered featherweight charm. The craft immediately started to climb.
"We are going to die!" screamed several passengers. Daphne invisibly slipped through the chaos casting calming charm after calming charm where it would not be seen. Once things were calmed down a bit she looked for anyplace she could work in piece. She found the bathroom and slipped in before casting a locking charm. She then started etching runes on the outer wall before giving them a small charge and apparating back to their plane.
"How is it going?"
"Adriane went over and confounded the pilots. Now anything too strange isn't. You?" asked Harry.
"Featherweight, a bunch of calming spells and a small array to provide some lift for an hour or so in the bathroom. It's locked, but there better be obliviators wherever this lands."
"There are," said Kevin.
"The attempt to repair the engines failed," said Fleur.
"They now have enough glide range to potentially land, but its chancy," said Dave.
Adriane sent a message with her patronus and then said, "And now we wait. I suspect we will get the order to try to get them to land in the ocean and then portkey the plane to someplace remote on the coast of Australia."
"Probably. Even with the help you gave, I wouldn't bet highly on landing that in one piece. There is a lot of ash on that plane gumming up everything," said Dave.
Five minutes later they got the order.
Kevin apparated over with Adriane. She pointed at what he wanted disabled. Adriane then pointed her wand at fired a stunner at them. They were destroyed. The pilots were still confounded and calm. Adriane canceled the spell.
"What the hell?"
"Remain calm. We are all going to get out of this alive. Now, I need you both to slowly and gently land this in the ocean."
"We have glide range yet," said the co-pilot.
"I know, but it isn't enough, and we are kind of secret. Don't worry, you will just have to sign forms," Kevin lied.
"How the heck are we still in the air anyway?"
"We fixed some things, then managed to accidentally destroy your engines the rest of the way, not that it took much. They were eating volcanic ash."
"What? That is what that was?"
"It was. Just calmly put her in the ocean and we will get you out of this."
"Fine. It doesn't seem like we have any real choice anyway."
Fifteen minutes later they calmly slid into the ocean. Right after that Harry and Hermione worked together to portkey the plane to a remote Australian beech. Ten minutes after that Australian wizards arrived and took charge of the situation, leaving the French team to depart after briefing them. Their plane port keyed back home, as did Harry and Hermione.
Daphne looked at their now very dirty plane. "We can't seem to have nice things. Shall we give our plane a bath?"
"Why not?" asked Harry as he started with the water spells.
Not just the wizards, but everyone that could get free there helped out with soap water and rags and helped make sure their jet was ready for its next mission.
-=oOo=-
"You know, we never did get our Newts," mused Hermione.
"Well we could do that, or," teased Harry.
"Or?" asked Hermione.
"They got permission for two people to visit the Library."
"Library?" asked Hermione in wonder.
"The Library of Alexandria."
"What?" screeched Hermione. She then added, "That's impossible. They let almost no one in there. I barely know the place exists!"
"The plan was to send you and Adriane. You get a month."
"What, I'm not prepared. I'll need lots and lots of notebooks and and ..."
"Calm down Hermione. They have all that and you two are out best bet. You have a month."
-=oOo=-
Harry sat in Fleur's arms while Daphne was in his.
"Your getting a bit taller," noted Fleur.
"Good food. Good friends," responded Harry.
"And no Dursley's," added Daphne.
Harry nodded.
"You know Hermione will probably give us all massive headaches trying to teach all she learned to us when she returns," said an amused Slytherin.
"You're looking forward to it, aren't you?" asked Fleur.
"Very much so."
"Fly with me?" asked Fleur.
"Sure," they both responded.
They were up in the air for almost fifteen minutes when Fawkes flew over to greet them. Fleur held out her arm for him to land on, even as she continued to fly.
"He has a message," said Harry.
"I've got it," added Daphne. She carefully removed the letter and unfolded it to read. "Dumbledore wants us to teach a few classes."
"Defense?" asked Harry.
"it doesn't say. It just says feel free to stop in and teach a few classes till Hermione gets back."
"I wonder if he had anything to do with them getting access," added Fleur.
"What will we do?" asked Daphne.
"They can reach us at Hogwarts and we can port key back fast. I see no reason not to at least try to teach one," said Harry.
"Am I imagining things, or has the cost of this flight magic decreased?" asked Daphne.
"It has, substantially. We need to keep practicing. Perhaps we can improve it more," said Fleur.
Harry turned to Fawkes. "What do you think? Wanna play tag your it?"
Fawkes chirped and jumped in the air before vanishing in flames.
"I see him," shouted Daphne before flying straight for him. He burst into flames again. This time Harry zeroed in. Again. This time Fleur. They played aerial tag for the better part of an hour before a huffing Fleur said, "You win Fawkes. You've tired us all out. We will stop by tomorrow."
Fawkes trilled his triumph and vanished in fire again.
-=oOo=-
"Hey Luna," said Harry.
"You have been having a lot of fun it seems. The nargles have left you."
Harry laughed. Fleur and Daphne's faces pinked slightly.
"No comment," said Harry.
"So what will you teach us?" asked Luna.
"We have no idea," admitted Harry.
"What would you like to learn?" asked Fleur.
"Teach us to fly."
"Alright. It is quite hard, but it seems if you do enough practice it gets easier. I'm. Wait. We need to figure this out," said Fleur.
"You use a lot of metal. Why is that?" asked Luna.
"It is fairly easy to cut with muggle tools and works well to hold arrays," answered Daphne without much thought.
"Why not dragon hide for some things?"
"That would work, wouldn't it?" asked Fleur.
"It would, depending on what you wanted to do," said Professor Babbage.
"Could we make a dragonhide set of clothing that would help with flight?" asked Harry.
"Maybe. I think we got spoiled with Adriane around to check all our work," said Fleur.
"I am also a Runemaster, as is Septima. We may not be in Adriane's class, but we are still experts."
"Let's give it a go," offered Daphne.
"I expect everyone to do what they can," said the professor.
They quickly got to work designing the sigils to be etched into the dragonhide. Draco, surprisingly, kept providing the high quality dragonhide without complaint. Several weeks and a lot of dragon hide later Hermione and Adriane walked in the door to see their latest attempt.
"My, what have we got here? Are you three trying for a mastery while I'm gone?" asked Adriane in interest.
"They didn't make lesson plans, and this kind of snowballed," offered Septima Vector.
"Harry, your offer to teach a course, and you didn't make lesson plans?" chided Hermione.
"This is very good work. I see you two are quite good, or at least I assume you had help from the professors here."
"We did," replied Fleur.
"Have you tested it yet?" asked Adriane.
"We tested four of them prior to this. We did so over the lake. Different students ended up needing fished out all four times," said Septima.
"I cannot find any significant flaw, though it will take me some hours to study this."
"What are the minor flaws you see?" asked Septima.
She began listing them. Septima and Bathsheba started writing, several times looking thoughtful. It was an hour in before Adriane stopped.
"I knew we missed some details, but I did not think it this much," said Septima.
"I still don't honestly see any reason this will not work. That was some extremely pedantic nitpicking. I'd address those things, but I'm certainly willing to try this, at least down by the lake that is."
It took a half a dozen tries and a few more lessons from the others for how it was similar to their flight spell before she rose into the air and circled above the lake a dozen times before landing once more.
"Well done. I'd say this group stands to make a very great deal of money. I'll put you in contact with my legal representative, to help you on this one, providing you agree to pay his fees."
"You don't want any?" asked Septima.
"No. This is your work. You can take my thoughts and improve it, but you had the hard part done before I got here."
"Draco will deserve a cut for funding all our supplies," mused Harry.
"Talk to my solicitor. He can help figure out what is reasonable."
-=oOo=-
Harry met Draco in the Headmaster's office.
"Hello," he said neutrally.
"I was curious as to why," said Draco.
"Why what? You put up about two hundred Galleons in high quality dragon hide. It wasn't something Daphne and the others couldn't have got, but it helped. We repaid you one thousand Galleons and donated another one thousand Galleons in your name to St. Mugnos. Was that not reasonable?"
"I didn't donate the hide to make money. I donated it because I wanted one."
Harry shrugged. "We are going to make much more from the sales, though we will probably donate a lot of it. We still have to figure out how to mass produce the clothing. Dragon hide is too rare, if we can avoid it. Most likely if you want the original outfit you can probably have it once we have made more."
"I do want it."
"Fair enough. We already know we can improve the design in fairly small ways, but we are, like I said, honestly trying to figure out a more reasonable material."
"Do you really think muggles will have a material that will hold magic as well as dragonhide?" asked Draco skeptically.
The Headmaster looked on in amusement, then continued his paperwork.
"Actually, we think we already have," said Harry.
"Really?" asked the Headmaster in surprise.
Harry pulled out a small half a foot roll of black fabric and set it on the table. It was perhaps two feet in total when unrolled.
The Headmaster picked it up and examined it. "What is this Harry? I don't recognize the material."
"Carbon fiber. Its pricey, since it is hard to make, even by muggles, but still far cheaper than dragon hide."
"How do you etch runes into it?" asked the Headmaster.
Harry pulled out a small roll of silver thread and set it on the table. The headmaster picked it up and unrolled a little.
"Silver, but a bit more flexible. A touch of magic," noted the Headmaster.
"Yes, it came like that. It is very little magic, but just enough to make sewing it into the carbon fiber feasible before the initial array activation."
"Then you have what you need?" asked the Headmaster.
"Well, we also need to make the runes to a precision we can't currently automate, but we are working on it. Once that is done, we will be able to make the clothing relatively low cost, but we also have to be sure no one dies using this, so it might be awhile," said Harry.
"You don't even know that this combination will work," said Draco.
"True. Our tests so far have been small scale."
Draco hesitated before saying, "Well let me know when I can pickup my set," before walking out the door.
"I thought you might have offered him a job," said the Headmaster.
"We might bring him a set of the newer version with the older, but I'm vary wary about showing him where we work. He credibly wanted me dead too many times, to say nothing for Hermione, or for that matter the others peace of mind."
"He wasn't involved in this latest mess."
"And we appreciate that, just not enough to risk our safety."
Albus nodded.
-=oOo=-
Ken walked back into the main work area in the development building. Only Adriane was there at the moment.
"I just thought I'd let you know that we are setting up the work to recreate the flying suits in another area. Everyone is of course welcome to work there, but you need a different set of specialty machines to do this task."
"Are you sure this is a separate task?" asked Adriane.
"You mean, could we possibly make the aircraft out of carbon fiber? We looked at that, and yes, at normal heights that is possible, but we don't think it will work at the speeds we are considering. Most likely we are looking at titanium, which is pricey, but for such small numbers of ships is fine. Really the fact that you can affect weight makes things so much easier. We can design more towards safety, and still be fine."
Adriane nodded. "When will you have a rough design?"
Ken looked at her thoughtfully for a ten count.
"Would you mind signing a secrecy document? It isn't magical, but we do have something more ambitious planned. Ideally we need all of you. There is a very great deal of work to do."
"I have no problem with that. I have often been required to do so for other work."
-=oOo=-
She apparated them to northern France. They were picked up by a government car until they drove into the side of a mountain after another identity verification.
"This used to be where we had defense command, but it was too much of a pain. We still use it for top secret research. Everything you see here is under what you signed, unless you know otherwise. You cannot discuss it with the others, unless they also sign."
They took a golf cart deep into the mountain and turned right before he signed her in, and one of the guards also signed her in. He then used his badge to unlock a closed area. Inside was, well, a lot of computers and equipment. On the table was a plastic model.
"Is that it?"
"Yes, it is loosely based off the model in a game. It's code name is the same as the model. It is the Tempest. The full thing will be nearly one hundred feet long and will be a mix of muggle and magical technologies. It is, also, not an aircraft."
"What? But surely, with that shape."
"No. It is France's first ship designed to seriously explore at least our solar system. With your help, we hope to leave Earth and take people with us."
"Can we do that?" she asked in suprise.
"The numbers say we can. The fact that you can accelerate without formal engines is a game changer."
"Have you solved the problems integrating muggle technology?"
"No. We are where you think we are, more or less, save in one or two ways. This design lab hasn't been online that long. We are still working on where this will be fabricated. This is all French government money, not the others. We had to let a few more government officials into the secret of the magical world to allocate this much money, but that was going to have to occur anyway."
"I may have some ideas on that problem."
"From your research in Alexandria."
"Yes, though in fairness, this is more Hermione's ideas than mine. She will be needed."
"We want your whole team."
She nodded.
"So the new aircraft?"
"Oh we are still building that for all the reasons we said. This is a parallel development effort. The jet will be built first. We will build this with what we learned from the jet, unless we need to test something. Then we will build whatever is required. The big thing here is we really really want to integrate technology. For what we are doing with the jet, we don't actually need to, particularly with all you and the others have created."
The others came the very next day after suitable paper signing.
-=oOo=-
"This is intolerable," said Cornelius in a private meeting with Dumbeldore in the Minister's office.
"What was intolerable again? I forget," lied Albus.
"You know perfectly well what I mean. Harry Potter. Harry Potter is working for the French!"
"Yes, I vaguely recall hearing that," said Albus as he spent some time working on the crossword he brought with him.
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Me? He is breaking no laws. He did take the international owls, and did fine. Really, there is nothing to do about it."
"He killed two dozen people!"
"Oh really Cornelius. First of, all that was within China's jurisdiction, so not our laws. Second, they were trying to kill them. Defense is always justified and before you say he should have spared their lives. He ran out of energy right after that, so I'd say, as regrettable as it is, that lethal force was justified. Besides, how exactly would arresting him help? If you go to France, you potentially start a war, and Harry and his friends probably still win. If you do it here, I honestly don't think it changes much. Hmm six letter word for a sport."
"Soccer," said Cornelius absently before scowling.
Albus filled it in.
"What about a job or some other inducement?" asked the Minister.
"Tried that. Brought them in to teach a course. They ended up developing the next generation in magical toys. Not many learned much, since few could keep up with them. Two of my best teachers now have offers for their services that I honestly can't match, which is kind of annoying."
"Your not getting any more money," stated Cornelius.
"I did get an offer from France to help us afford replacement teachers, provided they could actively recruit our best students."
"You will not do this!" half yelled Cornelius.
Albus shrugged. "I have to get people somewhere. You think competent teachers in Runes and Arithmancy are easy to find?"
"Fine. We will find you some more money from somewhere. But no French recruitment."
Albus smiled. He glanced down at his crossword. Five letter word for easily misled idiot. He filled in Fudge. He was moderately surprised it fit with everything else. His crossword was complete. He looked over at the minister. "Did you have anything else Cornelius?"
"I ordered those misled boys released."
"Foolish. I'll be going now."
-=oOo=-
Albus knocked on Amelia's door.
"Cornelius says he ordered you to let them go."
"I didn't."
"He will then be calling for your ouster. We probably need to get a new minister."
"That much is obvious. I tried to get proof of the latest bribe, but so far have not. I also don't particularly want the job."
"Scrimgeour?" asked Albus.
"He does check the box of better than Cornelius, though I'm doubtful he is one that should get that kind of power. How about someone you know? We might be able to get them in."
"Bill Weasley could probably do the job, if he wanted to, but I've no doubt he wants to do so less than you do."
"You could do it, if you gave Minerva the Headmaster position."
Albus grimaced. "I have no great problem with giving Minerva the position. It would, for instance, be fun to get back to teaching. I, however, really don't want the minister job. Amos Diggery could work."
"Possibly. It sort of depends on who the others put up. Can you talk to Daphne and ask her to get her father onboard with this?" asked Amelia.
"I can try. Let's go try to collect him and maybe visit France."
-=oOo=-
Cyrus Greengrass and his daughter Astoria, who demanded to go along, joined Albus and Amelia as they stood outside of the Delacour wards. Appoline walked out to meet them and let them in.
"Pardon, we weren't expecting you. What is this concerning?"
"We were hoping to talk to Harry and the others too," said Amelia.
"They are still working I'm afraid."
"It's what near seven pm," said Cyrus.
"They do tend to work long hours. Let me send them a message." She drew her wand, cast a Patronus and whispered a message.
Daphne arrived with a pop inside the wards. The other three followed shortly after. She ran and gave her dad and then her sister a hug.
"We apologize for interrupting your routine," said Albus.
Adriane's cat Patronus appeared near them. "You are required. There is a mission."
"Oh Fudge!" cursed Hermione.
Albus smiled at her new curse word, then asked, "What kind of mission?"
"Come if you want, though not Astoria. Too risky. We don't have time. We can side along everyone else," said Harry.
"I will watch Astoria, if you wish," said Appoline.
The others quickly agreed to tag along.
As they arrived the big doors were opening up. "Hurry," said Kevin.
Harry and the others piled into the aircraft. Albus, Amelia, and Cyrus did as well, making it a little crowded.
"We need takeoff power," said Dave.
Harry and the others took their seats and began streaming magic into the systems. The magical displays, which had improved again started forming in the front.
"We are at threshold. Taking off."
They were shot to the back of their seats as the plane rapidly accelerated.
"Rotation speed and climbing. Thirty seconds to safe port key point," said the captain.
"There is an EF6 tornado in the middle of Amsterdam. The casualties are expected to be huge. We need a port key for near there," said Kevin.
"I've got it," said Fleur.
"Ready," said Dave.
Fleur reached out her wand and after a very long moment they were now cruising through new skies.
"Invisibility matrix is normal. Everything is normal," said Dave.
"So now we just need to stop a tornado. You don't ask for much," muttered Hermione.
"Arresto momentum again?" asked Harry.
"The problem is that for that to work we need time we do not have. It is already touched down," said Kevin.
"What is the most important area?" asked Daphne.
"A sports stadium," said Kevin.
"Harry. You can't," said Albus.
"We are not going to let those people die!" exclaimed Harry.
"I know how to do it," said Hermione softly.
"No!" snapped Adriane.
"It is our lives we risk. How many people are there?" asked Hermione.
"About eighty thousand," said Kevin.
"We can do this. I know we can. Will you learn from me Harry, Daphne, Fleur?" asked Hermione.
"Always," they said as one.
"One hour should be enough. No longer. What you consider is dangerous enough," commanded Adriane.
They nodded and then all joined hands and seemed to become lost in each other as their magic flowed evenly through them all.
"Adriane, we are going to run out of energy in about five minutes with them preoccupied. We should land, one way or another, close to where we need to be," said Dave.
"I'd rather not try to add energy into the matrix till theirs is gone. Once it is, I'll try to carry it."
"No need. That much I believe I can do, though I do agree on waiting," said Albus.
Six minutes in Albus started supplying the energy they were using. Eight minutes in they were over the site and circling.
"Come on. We are cutting it fine. It is almost here," said Cyrus as he looked out the craft.
Twelve minutes in they all came out of their semi trance.
"Slow down. We are getting out," said Fleur.
"Coming to relative halt. Thankfully this bird hovers just fine."
Daphne disengaged the lock and opened the door outward and all four of them jumped. before taking flight. They quickly fanned out to cardinal points around the stadium. They then landed as one and then a rainbow of colors were cycled through as the entire stadium vanished.
"What did they do?" exclaimed Cyrus.
"They shifted the stadium and all to a slightly different dimension. They should remain there for the hour I asked. That was a guess. I hope the tornado is gone by then. I hope that isn't too long," said Adriane.
"It should be," said Kevin.
"Climbing above this mess before we get hit by it," said Dave.
"Are you good with this?" asked Kevin of Albus.
"An hour is going to be quite tiring. Can we not land somewhere?"
"I still have to climb to avoid this mess, but we can find a landing spot after."
"Adriane, kindly send a message for obliviators to be here when they get back," said Albus.
"Hopefully they don't notice much, but I agree they are needed." Adriane sent a patronus. They shot way up in the sky, and landed in an empty field ten minutes later. They then waited with the obliviators that began to trickle in, eventually numbering over a hundred in total.
"Tell me again what we are expecting?" asked the lead obliviator.
"The references to this magic were vague. The region was said to be darker and possibly with an orange color. Hopefully that is all they notice. We planned to test this way before using it," said Adriane.
"I suppose you can't predict when you get killer hurricane's popping up targeting eight thousand people," he muttered.
"No, unfortunately not."
The effect broke at forty six minutes.
"I have a monitoring spell on those four. I'll take you to them. They just collapsed," said Adriane.
She grabbed the nearest one, apparated him to Harry then apparated back and repeated three times before walking over to Harry who they had apparated back here. She felt for a pulse.
"He is breathing. Just out cold."
Fleur appeared with another. She directed them to lay side by side in the grass. Then Daphne and Finally Hermione. She kept directing them to lay them touching each other. They were all breathing, but all out cold.
"They ran out of magic. Let's hope that is the only price," she muttered.
Albus pulled a candy bar out of his pocket and muttered portus before vanishing. Five minutes later he was back, and more than a little out of it by the long distance trips. A somewhat more together Poppy was with him. She immediately started checking them out.
"I think they will be okay. What the devil did they use all that magic for?"
"They just saved probably a good chunk of eight thousand lives," said Adriane tiredly.
Albus turned to the leader of the obliviators. "They have no idea what happened. There is too many to obliviate. They didn't see the magic. Mostly they just noticed the lights going out and it getting dark."
"Good. I. Well I'm really glad you didn't have to do anything."
"Us too, but calling was the correct move."
Albus nodded.
"How many do we think died outside of the stadium?"
"We have no information," said the head obliviator.
"My phone is fried. Again. I have nothing," said Kevin.
A dog patronus from an unknown wizard came up to Adriane. "Reports indicated that you were successful. Early reports suggest significant deaths outside the protected area, but we don't know much else. Recommend return when you are able. Contact us if you need assistance."
Adriane sent back, "We are alive, but too exhausted to return right away. We are secure for now. Will return when we can."
She turned to Albus. "I'm going to setup temporary wards around the craft. We can move them there and tend them."
"Would you like some help?" asked Albus.
"Please."
"Once you secure your area we will depart," said the head obliviator.
"Thank you again for your service," said Albus.
"We aren't wild about the risks, but people are people, and you minimized it and saved lives. Good job yourselves. This all still seems impossible, but it worked."
-=oOo=-
They were back two weeks later to get both the Order of Merlin they had been dodging, as well as a second of Merlin which they refused to accept if it didn't contain the names of their entire team. They eventually relented and put all the names on there.
-=oOo=-
"Why exactly are we here?" asked Harry to the Minister who had summoned them to stand in front of the full Wizengamot.
"You are here to stand trial for the eleven wizard you killed in China," said Cornelius gleefully.
"No he is not," snapped Amelia as she charged in.
"What is this? I didn't ask you here."
"No, but I did ask everyone else to come. Cornelius Fudge you just falsely charged a two time order of Merlin winner with murder. I call you unfit, and demand the vote!"
"You want my position do you. Well, you shall not have it."
"Actually, as the one calling for your removal, I am ineligible."
"Albus then?"
"Not interesting in the position, but you need to go."
"I second the motion," called Cyrus Greengrass.
"Third," called Draco.
"A sufficient number having called, we shall hold the vote," said Albus simply.
They started voting.
"One moment," said Amelia.
"For what reason do you raise a question?" asked Albus.
"A member is not in his seat, yet is here."
"Quite right. Harry, your seat is over there. As you are here, and not under arrest, you must vote," said Albus.
Harry sighed and nodded, before walking to his seat and voting to get rid of Fudge. It wasn't necessary. They got over two thirds of the votes. Amos Diggery got the job.
"Now that that business is done, is there any other business?" asked Albus.
Harry rose.
"Mr. Potter."
"So, could someone kindly explain how I was being charged for defending myself and my friends, or for that matter why?"
Amelia stood. "There is an open investigation into former minister Fudge's campaign financing. I'm afraid I can't answer more."
"Do you have any more questions Harry?" asked Albus.
"Actually yes. We are about done with the flying suits we developed. They are almost through France's magical Ministry's approval process. How exactly do we get them through this ministry's? I don't want an elaborate answer. I just want to know where to begin."
"You will want the Department of Magical Transportation. I'll take you there afterward. I'm afraid it might take them a year or more to fully test your invention."
"So they will not take the French reports as a starting point? Isn't that a waste of time and effort?"
Albus shrugged. "We can ask, but I do not believe they will."
"They won't," added Amelia.
"I don't suppose I could trade an Order of Merlin or two, for not having to deal with more bureaucracy?"
Albus laughed.
"I'd like to see it," said the new Minister.
"I suppose I can show you after. Perhaps I can bring the people from the department as well, to simplify this."
Albus grinned and said nothing.