Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!

Title: Mages of War (Working Title)

Posted Date: April 25 2024

Tags: Soldier Harry, Soldier Ron, War Mages, Gears of War Inspired AU

Possible Challenges: Grimm from RWBY, Interfering government, Neutral Amelia Bones, No Prophecy, No Horcrux

Possible Pairings: Ron x Hermione

The residential area was completely ruined from the ravages of war, streets filled with wrecked cars and rubble from the road or the collapsed buildings. What little vegetation left was miserable, and to complete the look, the air sirens were blaring out the warning of an imminent attack, the general silence of the area making it even more pronounced.

Yet one figure was cutting across the road with notable haste, making his way through the rubble to get to the other side of the area. He would have liked to Apparate to his destination faster, but the area had been placed under heavy wards on account of recent attacks and heavily enforced in preparation of the next one, so he had to make do by running on foot or risk splinching of his limbs. Not something he would want to encounter at the moment. The positive side to this was the wards hiding his presence due to the amount of magic being laid over to track any invaders, and as a member of the COM, he was granted some leeway on the battlefield.

And that was important for the task he had set himself.

It took a while, but the man got to his destination which was a prison that was called Hakea Prison, otherwise called the Slab. A prison meant to hold criminals or rogue mages, it was quite imposing with the stone work and spiked fencing even if half of it was wrecked from ongoing attacks, and it took a lot to break it down without including the factors of reinforcement spells and runes set into the bricks.

He was just thankful that he was not trying to break into Azkaban, that would have been an absolute nightmare to get into, and that was just on the basis of it being an island in the middle of the frigid ocean. He did not want to think about the soul sucking guards employed there.

The soldier paused to look about the place before he pulled out a stick and waved it, three small balls of light coming off the tip and flying away like ghostly fireflies. He followed the one going inside the facility, frowning at the damage he moved past that came from spellfire and other attacks. That frown got more pronounced entering the main hall where the blood splatters and Wall damage made it clear what had happened. He gritted his teeth and soldiered on to follow the ball of light that was heading to where the isolation cells were situated. For a while he had issues getting through one part of the corridor, and only succeeded in barricading himself after he got through. The man moved on and watched the ball of light move about and then hovered its way through a bolted door that he ripped off the hinges.

The ball of light hovered a little at the entrance, as if it was waiting for him and checking for something, before heading straight for the one cell that was still closed shut. The soldier gave an angry frown at the iron bar, bolts and even a sealing barrier to keep whoever was inside stuck there. None of the other cells had it, the warden wanted to make sure the occupant could not leave before they hightail out of the prison.

And given the arm left dangling on the latch, one of the guards died taunting the occupant.

He moved forward to open the hatch to look inside, squinting a little to see a figure sitting on the floor in a lotus meditation pose, clearly still alive. He raised his wand to conjure a small light inside to see better, and let a smile appear on his face.

He finally found who he was looking for.

"Dobby, help me rip that door open!" The space next to him shivered before a small metal golem appeared next to him, letting out soft sounds as it held up a hand and tore off the bolts and barrier seals like they were tissue paper, and then cut through the door lock with a focused flame. The soldier reached forward and with a grunt, pulled the door out to let in the light from the corridor into the cell. He waved his wand to illuminate the cell again, revealing the ceiling of the cell to be a mesh wire setup to have small creatures trying to get to him in their hunger, and were now leaving from the glare and the light burning their skin. The occupant opened his eyes and blinked before settling on him.

"Ron?" The occupant shifted his head to face him. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting you out of here, mate." The red-haired man hefted the duffle bag off his shoulder and let it hit the floor with a thud. "Here, put these on quickly. Not the best set, but they should fit you and you'll need them outside." The prisoner frowned as he felt out with his senses and confirmed it was his friend and not someone in disguise before he slowly reached for the bag. Opening it, he found a clean set of clothes along with combat armour parts for his limbs, a traveller's cloak and the standard COM equipment.

But he needed to be certain. It would not be the first time the guards played tricks on the prisoners for the excuse to beat them up, even if he had yet to fall for it.

"Sounds like Panama's shit all over again outside." The prisoner spoke casually while checking the items. "Like that time with the bulkheads."

"Yeah, if Panama had bulkheads instead of the rickety slum boats where we spent five nights with a bucket for our business because of the blackout." Ron answered with a raised eyebrow. "Passed your test?"

"Good enough." The man huffed while pulling the bag closer. "You could get into a lot of trouble for doing this." The man stripped off his dirty set of clothes without hesitation before grabbing the new clothes, taking a moment to check for any hidden surprises from the stitching or the cloth.

"Not any more, Harry. Things have changed since your time here, and not for the better." Ron looked about as the building rumbled and the dust came down from the ceiling ominously. "We should get going, the area is too hot for conversations."

"What about the other prisoners?" The prisoner asked while testing the combat gloves and doing something to make symbols appear on the surface. "While there are some who should not be out for whatever reason, we can't just leave them here."

"They are gone, all of them." Ron answered him while looking over his shoulder. "Bones went to pardon everybody in light of all that has been going on outside, so most have left as soon as they could. Only a few remain to help out in some manner." Ron scowled while recalling the information. "But your release papers were 'conveniently' misplaced by Fudge when they were sending them to the warden, and the second set was 'accidentally' destroyed by the Auror dealing with the papers. Bones was not going to send out another set, while Dumbledore is more concerned for those he wanted redeemed in his little project, and Fudge's advisors have been trying to stonewall your return. So I decided to speed up the process by coming to get you myself while everyone else buggered off. And I do have the papers for that just in case." The prisoner scoffed at that tidbit.

"Is that right? Not surprising." The prisoner stepped forward into the light, revealing a man roughly the same age as Ron with dark hair that had been cut short to handle his time in prison, and a light beard growing on his chin. He was still reasonably well-built despite being in the cell for close to 2 years, and the uniform he was now wearing still fitted him just fine. Pressing a rune on the booch holding the cloak up, lines travelled about his body before several bars of light lit up on the shoulder pads to show the protections were activated and he was in good health.

It was a sight that made Ron very happy to see again after what the idiots of the Ministry tried doing to his old friend. "Well that's a sight for sore eyes."

"Feels weird to be wearing this again." The man named Harry lightly shook his head at the situation.

"Sorry for the rush, Harry, but we really need to get out of here." Ron looked at the golem that let out a few beeps while pointing out. "We are cordoning off the area to make a barricade to slow the progress of the Grimm, but I don't think we are doing too good a job."

"Considering those creatures burrow deep underground and pop out of the ground like some creepy cousins of moles, that is saying something." Harry handled the collapsible staff in his hand to get a feel of it, seeing the manufactured gem glow briefly.

"Any chance your wand is intact?" That was rhetorical and they knew it, his wand having been snapped when he was brought in. The guards at the time made it a big affair, despite him looking downright bored at the action. After all, he was already more proficient in wandless magic that his wand felt like a restraint, and the wand that was taken from him had been one of his poorer spares.

"Depending on the direction, we can make a quick stop for one of my stash drops. If they are still around." Harry followed Ron out of the cell, taking a moment to consider the surroundings. They went out of the corridor and into the open hall that Harry had seen plenty of over the past couple of years in the prison, where the other two balls of light were hovering in wait. Ron stepped forward to let the balls touch him on the forehead, making him glow briefly while he hummed thoughtfully.

"So which way do you want to go?" Ron turned to look at him. "Much of the block got taken out, and the path I took to get in won't work. I did cast out some probes, so we have two options. One, we can go through the guards quarters to get to the courtyard slowly but safely. Two, we take the route to the prison blocks to get out by the west side, faster but it is straight into a fight." Harry hummed as he considered the situation he was in. He won't admit it, but he was a little out of it from the prospect of being free from the prison once more. Given what happened on his last mission that landed him in prison, he was pretty certain that he would not leave.

A part of him was still not sure about the wards actually down.

"Let's take the guard's quarters, I need to work out the kinks." Ron nodded at his option.

"Sounds good, better make sure you are not rusty." Ron led the way out of the isolation when they heard the sounds of something flying above. Ron paused as he turned back to look at him, specifically his left arm. "Oh right, I forgot about the restraints."

"I was wondering if you would recall that." Harry lifted his arms and pulled back both sleeves to show three black iron bands on each arm that had small runes glowing against the dark surface.

"They gave you six dampeners?" Ron asked with some heat in his tone.

"They tried to make sure I could not access my magic, and at least Bones would not let them try to scratch runes into my flesh. Not for the lack of trying, I can tell you that much. One of the guards whose remains you found outside my cell really wanted to make sure I would be reduced to a Squib. But since I was too high profile and I still got visits, they had to do the next best thing." Harry shrugged. Ron huffed while reaching into the cloak to pull out a rune stone that he pressed against the dampeners. Said items glowed brightly before the locks came off and they dropped to the floor.

Harry moved his arms to test the movement before taking in a breath to check for something, an act that made the air around suddenly go still and the dust to be pushed away from the floor around them. After a while, Harry opened his eyes and nodded. "Good thing I kept up my meditation, the influx of magic is going to take a while to get used to."

"At least you have your magic intact. Come on." Ron raised a hand to his ear that had an earring which glowed and a magic circle appeared by his ear. "Six-Four, this is Chudley 2. Hakea Prison is secured and we are en route. Over."

"Roger that, Chudley, making a flyby and beginning our run." The sounds got sharper before the building started to shake with glass breaking off the broken window frames and crashing to the ground with them below. This was followed shortly by some of the walls getting bombarded by the spells.

"Hey!" Harry raised an arm to stop any glass shards from hitting his face.

"Oui, Six-Four! Hold your fire! We are still inside the prison!" Ron yelled over the communication spell, and in a few seconds the hits stopped. Even from a distance, Harry could hear the responder sigh in exasperation at that order.

"Copy that, Chudley. Advise that you evacuate Hakea ASAP. Over."

"Roger that, over." Ron shook his head before looking at Harry. "If Command knew I was going to come get you, I would be in serious shit. Come on." The duo moved to the staircase that had the security gate broken off from the earlier bombardment and climbed the stairs before they reached their first hurdle in the form of a collapsed room. Before Ron could curse, Harry stepped forward with his staff raised and jewel crystal glowing warmly.

"Let me practise a little." Giving it a wave, the duo watched the rubble shifting before pieces of it started to move about, and like a video played in reverse, pieced themselves back together with cracks and discoloration fading away until the room was reformed and in one piece.

"At least I have not lost my touch too much." Harry lowered his arm to look at the room.

"Good thing too. Else things will get messier when we leave." Ron joked, but was internally glad that Harry still had his magic. "Well, you wanted practice, keep it up." Harry smiled in reply and they moved, with Harry continuing to use magic to repair or blast certain objects away while moving into cover and peeking around corners.

"Nice, you have not lost your touch for the simple spells." Ron smiled widely as they entered an area that Harry recalled being the open air corridor overlooking the west courtyard, only it had been wrecked with the walls missing chunks and the courtyard certainly looked like it had seen lots of action. A whistling sound brought his attention to the sky where he could spot a squadron of flyers moving about.

"What are those guys doing here?" Harry motioned with his head.

"That would be Hopkin's squad. They are clearing out this sector." Ron answered as he forced the wall blocking their way to the side to make an opening. Harry looked over the courtyard and frowned at the damage and the bodies strewn over the area, memories of past skirmishes fleeting through his mind.

"They are going to need more fighters." Harry turned and followed Ron out of the open and back inside the building on the first floor, cutting through much of the wreckage to get to the outside. There were some complications but nothing they could not handle, although one did spook Ron out.

"The fuck!" Ron jumped back from the door he had kicked open, the sight of corpses hanging from the ceiling by their wrists startling the soldier with the suddenness. Harry on the other hand merely looked at them briefly before moving on. "What the hell is going in this prison?"

"You do not want to know, Ron." Harry meant it. This place was not Azkaban, but the guards made it clear to all that Hakea was a bad place to be in. They had tried to take him out, but Harry was more than familiar with all the shit that would go on in prisons, having had to deal with rioters and the sort before entering the joint himself. Here though, they made sure that the others knew they were at their mercy.

All thoughts got interrupted when the ground rumbled in a manner that Harry could recall perfectly even in his time in the cell. Raising the staff, he gave a wave before slamming the end hard on the floor, lines of light erupting from the end and travelling all over the floor in geometrical patterns right as the floor cracked and almost exploded if not for the grid of light holding them back. That also gave time for the two to get into positions before Harry released the net. That allowed for the cracked floor to disintegrate and from the dust cover, four large wolf-like creatures burst out of them with white masks over their heads and sharp teeth wanting to tear them to pieces.

"Beowolves!" Ron threw a rune grenade in their path, letting it detonate to release an explosion that burned their bodies from the holy light that came off it. The one closest to the explosion exploded into black dust upon hitting the ground, with one heading for Ron and the other two going for Harry. Ron managed to duck and roll into a pillar before the Beowolf slammed on the floor where he was previously and cracked it hard. Ron jabbed the wand in its direction and fired off a red bolt that smashed into the creature and blasted it off the floor, using the immobilised state to hit it with silver stakes.

It let out a pained roar as one of the silver stakes got lucky to stab it in the eye, prompting it to turn and glare at Ron with the other eye with evident rage in it. Before it could attack, it got slammed by the other two thrown like rag dolls by Harry who rolled his shoulders with a grimace.

"Yeah, I am rusty. Going to need to work on my throws again." Harry then dropped his arms with a frown as he felt the ground rumble again. "We got more incoming."

"Yeah, just like old times." Ron came to his side and readied his wand only for Harry to raise a hand.

"Hold up, let's see if I can still use this spell." Harry took a deep breath with his eyes closed as his arms started to gain glowing lines that shone brightly. He raised them both above his head and almost immediately a pressure descended on the area around them with the Beowolves halting in their tracks before they managed to take a leap, their instincts screaming at them to get away from the human…

No, a monster in human skin!

Harry opened his eyes at that point, both of which were glowing a bright green that would make fellow mages shiver at the idea he could shoot the infamous curse out of his eyes. Then with a breath, he lowered both arms down right as a new emergence hole appeared to let out more of those creatures and in a blink of an eye, the world around them turned white. Ron had almost forgotten about the spell and barely remembered to shut his eyes while turning away to avoid the glare, and that honestly saved him from getting blinded from the attack that Harry unleashed. Even then, he was still seeing spots through his eyelids and he had to wait for a while before he could start blinking and turned to see the absolute carnage.

Boy, had he forgotten about that spell?

Where the exit was, the entire section of the building was effectively destroyed to oblivion with the ground super heated to the point of melting. The bodies of the creatures were strewn about with what appeared to be white swords stabbed into them and many more hovering in the air ominously for any designated to be Harry's enemies. And then to complete the look of judgement, the clouds that had covered the sector earlier had been blown away to let the sun come out with the blue sky showing for the first time in a year, and what appeared to be white feathers descending from the sky like the gates of heaven had opened.

Harry let out a sigh as he shook his arms to get the feeling back in them, his ears sharp enough to hear the communication circle come on to let the chatter fill the area.

"HOLY SHIT! What the hell was that!"

"Are those white swords hovering in the air with feathers dropping from the sky?"

"Wait a minute! Are you telling me the guy we are busting out is The Angelo of all people?!"

"Well, that cat is out of the bag." Ron placed his wand back in the holster while coming up to Harry who raised an eyebrow.

"You didn't tell them about this?"

"It was an unsanctioned mission but one I felt was needed. Since the higher ups don't want to get this war over with, I am doing it for them. And getting you out is the first step." Ron then smiled widely. "At least this proves one thing, you have not lost your touch." Ron placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Welcome back to the army, soldier." Harry looked about the mess he made and had only one thing to say.

"Well shit."