Chapter 14: The Warehouse Battle
Thanks for all the reviews.
It's a short one, but it felt right to end it there.
Hphphp
The warehouse was large and cluttered. It used to be a car factory. There are parts of assembling machinery everywhere. There was a large empty space in the middle where the cars used to sit. This is where the three groups met.
Tom's group consisted of 65 people, all dressed in their Death Eater robes, looking completely out of place in the muggle warehouse. Harry's group had about 50 people, dressed far more appropriately. While Dumbledore's group was 45 strong, looking like a mishmash of flea market attire and crazy people. None of them dressed completely correctly, bar Remus, who worked in the muggle world occasionally.
This made them about evenly matched people wise. Which will make for an interesting game play.
"Alright, listen up, everybody," said Harry. "This is how we're gonna play it. This is gonna be like a paintball game. How that is played is, you're going to tag everybody with paint spells. The people who have the most colors on them at the end of the game are the losers. Those that have the least colors on them are the winners. Dumbledore's group is yellow. Tom's group is red. My group will be green. Hermione, you're in charge of my lot."
Like he had said earlier, he wanted to be in the middle of the fight. He had thought of the game last night when he had been thinking about how to see how the groups could fight without an all-out battle. Stunners would be good, but then others would just revive them and then there couldn't be an accurate count. He'd heard of games like this on the telly and it was a good strategy.
"That sounds fair," said Dumbledore, running a hand down his beard, thinking he was going to be the winner. He could outmaneuver anyone for something so straightforward. Shielding was superior. "It is a simple enough game."
"Yes, even the simplest minded among you can play it," said Tom. He too was thinking he was going to come out on top. He and his were vicious fighters. They stood strong together. They had each other's backs. They knew when to fight and when to shield.
"It will also show how we can fight," said Hermione with a knowing smirk. This was just the type of game for her group's style of fighting, unlike her smug opponents. They were not cut out for something like this.
"If we're ready to begin," said Harry, going to stand with his lot. He was already masked and ready.
Hermione took her group to the east side of the factory. They were hiding among the machines and up in the rafters.
Tom took his group to the South. They too used the debris for shields.
Dumbledore took his to the North. They faced their foes with wands raised and spells on their lips.
Harry's group was better known for its stealth and hit and run tactics. While Dumbledore's group was better known for its standing and ducking. Tom's lot stood and shielded, they didn't even duck often. They were smug. Too smug. It was no contest. Harry's group won hands down.
It only took a matter of an hour before all of Tom's group was completely drenched in paint. Harry's lot got them from the rafters. It was easy. They never looked up and were caught unawares. They rained down the spells as one and got them all together.
It was another half an hour before Dumbles group was completely out. They were harder because they did use the machinery to their advantage. But in the end, they just weren't stealthy enough.
Harry's group hardly had any paint on them at all. They use the machinery to their greatest advantage. They ducked and weaved and used it as a shield. They used magic to sneak up on their opponent and doused them with paint whenever they could. That and they used height, which the other groups didn't.
It was slaughter.
"So, what did we learn?" asked Harry in a slow and condescending way. He was being self-satisfied. He knew coming in that he and his would be the winners. He gave his group a victory sign and they all cheered, which caused the other groups to frown.
"That your group cheats?" asked Tom, frowning at the cheering crowd and the smug Harry.
"Sneaking around and using things to your advantage is not cheating," said Harry, smirking at the disgruntled Dark Lord.
"It's a coward's way," grumbled one of the many Death Eaters. They looked quite colorful in their dayglow green paint.
"It won us the game, didn't it?" said one of Harry's group. They were quite content being one of the winning team. They had been practicing fighting for months now. They had been told they weren't doing well, so to be the winners was like a team booster they needed.
"It doesn't make it any less cheating," said another Death Eater, snapping at them for the audacity.
"It's going to win us the war," said Harry, snarling back at the older men. He thought that was the bloody point.
"It's a wise tactic," said Mad-Eye Moody, nodding his head in agreement. He was going over how he was going to train Dumbledore's Order in these tactics. They were far superior to what they had been doing in the past.
"Considering your group was taken out first, I think I would listen to them," said Hermione, primly. She too was smug. She was the general today and she thought she had led her team quite well. It was her idea to use the rafters and catwalk.
"Oh, who asked you, mudblood?" Tom said, though, there wasn't much heat in it. He was keeping up appearances. His Death Eaters needed him to be the man they thought he was. Then again, he was who he was, and they needed to accept him for who he said he was, not who they said he was. He was in charge, not them. He'd torture anyone who said something different. And if they defected, then he'd find new followers. It was that easy.
"You're just angry because I'm right," she said, sniffing. She could tell he didn't mean it. It was their banter.
"She's right, Tom. You are just angry because she's right," Harry said, laughing. He loved it when those two got together. Even if Dumbles thought the two were serious, judging from the disapproval on his face.
"Can you teach us these tactics in time before the Dark Lord gets back?" Dumbledore asked, changing the subject back to the original.
"Sure, they're not hard tactics to learn," said Harry with a shrug of his shoulder.
At least, that's what he thought. They spent the rest of the afternoon teaching the other two groups how to duck and weave among the machinery in the warehouse, and it was much harder to teach the purebloods how to sneak around then stand there and take it. Their habits were too ingrained for them to do what was asked of them. That and, many of them did not want to take orders from half-bloods and Mudbloods.
"This is fucking ridiculous," said Harry as he watched Goyle go down for the fifth time in that hour. The man just won't duck and weave. He used the shield charm, which blocked the spell in front of him, but not the bloke coming from the rear.
"You're telling me," said Tom, shaking his head at his Death Eaters' antics. Too many of them were falling for the same tricks over and over again. He was going to have a discussion with them tonight and they were going over battle strategies until they got it right.
"I guess you're gonna have to put some disciplines down tonight, aren't you, Tom?" the younger man asked, getting a knowing look on his face.
"Oh, they will be feeling my displeasure, that is for sure," The young Dark Lord said, a sadistic tone in his voice as he saw Yaxley fall for the third time. He just shook his head and groaned. The man was far too old for this to happen to him. They were all war veterans for Merlin's sake. They should not be taken down like this.
"I thought you'd given up your Dark Lord ways," said Dumbledore, there was much disapproval in his tone and visage. It was like he knew Tom Riddle, unlike everyone else in the world, in his view, could not change his ways.
"I've given up being evil, but I am still a Dark Lord," said Tom, scrunching his brow.
"I do not understand what that means," said Dumbledore, frowning in confusion. To him it was the same thing. Anything that wasn't Light was evil.
"And I don't feel inclined to explain it to you," said Tom with a sigh. He just knew there was no explaining pragmatism to the man. It was black and white to him, and he would not be dissuaded of that notion. Tom had known that since he was a teen and never felt like banging his head against that particular wall.
"Alas, I'm going to take it to mean that you're still evil," the old man stated in a calm voice as if he'd known it all along.
"Then you are a fool," said Tom, resigned. "I am no more evil, than you are." He waved a hand in the old man's general direction.
"Anyone who inflicts harm on another human being is evil," iterated the old man with a bit of heat.
"You're an idiot," said Harry. "That doesn't make somebody evil. However, I'm not going to get into a morals debate with you. You're too hardheaded and too set in your ways." He, like Tom, knew it was like beating a dead horse. There would be no changing that mind.
"We are going to have to disagree on that, that is for sure," agreed Albus, there was no twinkle in those eyes as he spoke to the two younger men. Well, teens. It was sad for him to see them so young and so… dark.
"But any rate is going to take more than one weekend to get your group into shape," said Harry, getting back to the matter at hand.
"Yes, I can see that," said the old man seeing his group was faring better than Tom's but not by much, as he witnessed Molly being taken down from a side hit.
"Shall we meet here twice a week? I think we should meet separately from Tom's group, since you two don't seem to get along. I don't want to have morals debate while we train," Harry suggested, knowing that there might still be a moral debate, but he could blow the old man off and go and fight with the men. Tom would debate with Albus Dumbledore, just to be contrary.
"I think that would be a great idea," said Tom, not wanting to see the arsehole any more than needed.
"I, on the other hand, welcome having debates with other people," said Dumbledore, though there still was no light in his eyes. Sure, he liked debating with people, but not this person. There was something about Riddle that he never liked, or trusted.
"Too bad it's not up for discussion," said Tom to the old man, then turned to the younger teen and said, "Let's say we meet up every Monday and Wednesday, while you meet up with Dumbledore every Tuesday and Thursday?"
"That sounds like a plan," said Harry completely agreeing it was a good idea. He had nothing better to do with his time. Other than school, however, they could do nights. He didn't much care if he graduated. Though Hermione might care about her grades. He'd have to check.
"Then we can all meet up every Saturday and have a grand session to get our groups acclimated with one another," the headmaster said. He wondered how the boy was going to get out of the castle every night when school started up again to get here, but it would be fun to find out.
"That is actually not a bad idea," said Harry going over the logistics.
"Have any of the seers actually predicted when the Dark Lord is going to be back?" asked Tom. He was quite concerned about that. He wanted them to be ready and judging from today's fiasco that wasn't going to happen.
"No, only that it's going to be towards the end of this year," said Dumbledore. He checked every so often just to be sure. But you can't force a seer to see, they either did or didn't.
"So, ending the Horcruxes hasn't changed that?" questioned Harry. He really didn't like the look that came over the headmaster's face with that question. What did the old man know?
"Alas, no."
"Fuck," the younger teen cussed.
"Indeed," said Tom.