Chapter 11

The choppers hummed as they flew towards their designated landing zone. Inside the lead chopper, Harry and the Grims with him said nothing as their faces were illuminated by a faint red light in the cabin. Harry checked over his rifle one more time, ensuring that it was fully loaded and ready for action, something he had done countless times before. One of the pilots turned around and called out to the cabin.

"Two minutes!"

Harry nodded and stood up, gripping a strap on the ceiling as he observed his squad.

"Alright lads, we're going to step off and approach the school on foot. Once the school is in sight, we'll split off into our assigned teams and move into breaching positions around the building. It's vital that we all coordinate our attack and breach the school at the exact same second. We've done this in our sleep, so I won't tell you how to handle close quarters, but we're here for these kids. So check your fire and maintain strict muzzle awareness at all times."

They all nodded in affirmation.

"And remember boys, Mors Canibus!"

"Mors Canibus!"

Harry smirked as his fellow Grims chanted the unit motto. Mors Canibus being Latin for Death's Hounds. The pilot looked over again.

"We're approaching the LZ, 30 seconds out!"

Harry nodded back to him and tightened his grip on the strap.

"Stand up! Once we're out of the choppers, I want a security perimeter established and the LZ secured!

"Yes Corporal!"

The Grims stood up and did last minute prep on their gear. The choppers touched down on the landing zone and the doors opened. The Grims moved out of the choppers, rifles at the ready as the first ones out quickly formed a circular perimeter around the landing zone, each man having his head on a swivel, scanning for potential threats. As the last of the Grims filed out, Harry took one last look around and grunted.

"Team, move out!"

The team wordlessly obeyed and began their march towards the school, with Harry taking point. They marched spread out from each other, the rear guard checking behind the team every 30 seconds, so far their approach remained undetected.

A short time later, they spotted the school in the distance, the team snipers setting up on the hill across from the building, running overwatch for the team. Harry and the rest of the team quickly approached the school and took up their breaching positions around the school building. Harry whispered into his radio.

"On my mark. 3,2,1, breach."

All at once, the team stormed the school. The soldiers of the Republican Guard being thrown into disarray as the Grims came at them from all sides. At the south end of the building, Harry led his team down a hallway, rifles at the ready. An enemy emerged from behind a doorway, Harry cutting him down before he could even aim his weapon. Behind him, another Grim was ambushed. However, the Grim's rifle jammed. Reacting quickly, the Grim drew his wand and cast a wordless killing curse, dispatching his adversary quickly. They continued like this until they reached a large classroom, rendezvousing with the other teams. The door to the class was being barricaded by the terrorists on the other side, the terrified cries of the children betraying their efforts to deter the Grims from breaching.

Harry looked to the other team leader standing adjacent to him in the doorway. He nodded to him and readied his rifle as the other leader prepped a flash bang. Harry flashed hand signals to the other Grims, relaying to them to draw their wands, which they immediately did.

One of the Grims aimed his wand at the door and cast a strong blasting hex, causing the door to go flying off its already rotten frame and crashing into one of the terrorists. Flash bangs were quickly tossed in immediately afterwards, reducing the terrorists to a state of disorientation, giving Harry and the other Grims ample opportunity to gun them down. With the last of the Republican Guard fighters in the school put down Harry and the children secured, the Grims quickly took a headcount was was thankful to see that the children were unharmed and that the intelligence had been correct in there being 60 children present. That was when Harry noticed a voice coming from beside a fallen terrorist, his radio.

"Fuck! They were able to call for help! We need to get these kids out of here, now!

One of the Grims radioed into command, reporting that the hostages were secured and that immediate extraction was required. As that was happening, the Grims who were fluent in Arabic spoke to the children, telling them to follow the team and to stay directly between the Grims at all times. As they were filling out the children, Harry saw a little girl attempting to drag a boy about her age with her. The poor boy was terrified beyond comprehension, sobbing and shaking his head at the girl's desperately growing pleas. Harry rushed over to them where the girl spoke to him in broken English.

"Pl…please..my..bro…brother."

Harry understood immediately, slinging his rifle over his shoulder and lifting the sobbing boy up with his arm, the little girl taking his other hand in hers, much to his immediate surprise. He didn't hesitate for long, as he led the children with the rest of the Grims outside the school and to an adjacent field where six large transport helicopters had arrived to extract the children and the Grims from the school. However, as they were loading the children into the transports, Harry heard the last sound he wanted to hear screeching towards them.

"RPG!"

The Grims used their bodies to shield as many of the children as they could as one of the transports took a direct hit, though thankfully none of the children had been loaded into it before. With one of the choppers out of commission, not all of the children could be taken back to base. Harry looked around, including his two, there were still eight children still unable to board, and in the distance a convoy of Republican Guard was quickly closing in. One of the pilots called out to Harry.

"We're all over capacity as it is! We'll have to come back for you Corporal!"

One of the Grims, Williams, protested.

"No fucking way! We aren't leaving him here! Nor any of the children!"

"Either we go now, or none of us get out of this alive!"

Harry looked around at the Grims and the children, making his decision.

"Take who you can back to base, I'll stay here with the rest of the children and try to hold them off until our extraction arrives!"

"What! Corporal, are you insane! You'll be killed, as will the remaining children!"

"If you don't go now, we'll all be killed! Go!"

"But Corporal!"

"That's a fucking order soldier!"

Williams grunted in frustration, but otherwise nodded and said nothing.

"Pilot, get them out of here!"

The pilot gave a respectful salute to Harry and quickly made to take off, the other transports following behind. Harry looked at the remaining eight children, including the two siblings clinging to his body, and thought quickly as the bullets began landing around them. He quickly ushered the children behind a large piece of wreckage from the downed chopper and drew his wand, casting a disillusionment charm over the small area, giving the children at least a temporary safe haven. As the convoy closed in, Harry drew his rifle and began returning fire. As he fought, a bullet tore through his right leg, causing him to fall to the ground before forcing himself back to his feet to keep fighting.

His rifle eventually ran out of ammunition. Realizing the uselessness of his rifle, he cast it aside and drew both his sidearm and his wand in each hand. He continued fighting on as another bullet tore through his right shoulder, causing him to fall to the ground yet again. At this point, the enemy had surrounded him, clearly intending to capture him rather than kill him. Once his sidearm had used the last of its ammunition, he held it as a club and continued using his wand. However, the blood loss and exhaustion was beginning to take its toll on the young soldier, causing his resistance to waver in its ferocity, but not in his determination. Although his will to fight had not abated, his body simply could not keep up the intense pace. As the terrorists encircled him and closed in, Harry fell to his knees, the combined factors of his wounds and exhaustion taking deadly effect.

As he sat on his knees, the commander of the terrorists casually walked up and stood in front of him, in well maintained Republican Guard uniform. Harry lunged at him with his pistol, attempting to bash his head in, only for his efforts to be repaid by the butt of an AK-47 crashing into his ribs and his pistol kicked out of his hand. In a last ditch effort to fight, he raised his wand, only for it to be knocked out of his grasp as well. At this point, Harry was barely able to hold himself up as he looked up defiantly at the enemy commander. The commander kneeled down to his level and spoke to him in fluent english.

"You have fought well Englishman, your defiance is admirable. Now, you must accept your defeat and tell us where the remaining children are."

"Fuck… you."

The commander backhanded him, causing Harry to spit up a sizable glob of blood onto the commander's uniform.

"Do not try my patience, Englishman!"

Harry prepared another snarky rebuttal, but as the words were leaving his lips, he heard a loud yelp come from where he had hid the children. He watched as the little girl who had begged him to help her brother had attempted to run to him from the disillusioned rubble, in a futile effort to help Harry. However, the other children held her back, but the damage was done. She had exited the charm area enough for the charm to no longer be effective.

The commander looked over to the area, barking out in Arabic for his men to seize the now exposed children.

"No! Leave them alone!"

Harry attempted to stand again, only for the butt of a rifle to strike the back of his head. The last thing he saw before his world went black was the eight children being dragged from their hiding place.

Back at base, the surviving transports had landed and the Grims quickly ushered the children out and into the care of the medical personnel on base, including a certain blonde nurse. Anna looked around, her fear growing frantically as she continued to fail in locating Harry. Eventually she spotted Williams and noticed him and the other Grims loading up back into a chopper.

"Williams, where's Harry? What happened to him?"

Williams and the other Grims looked at each other silently and then he looked back at her.

"Corporal Potter ordered us to leave him behind after one of the transports was shot down. He was protecting the remaining children. At the moment, we don't know if he's even still alive. We're about to go save him if we can."

"You left him behind! Why in God's name would you do that!"

"He ordered us to Miss Campbell, if he hadn't, the entire mission would've been a failure. We tried to talk him out of it. We were unsuccessful."

Anna held her hands up to her face, her eyes holding back tears.

"Find him."

Williams looked at her sympathetically.

"We will."

At that, Williams shut the door to the chopper and it took off, the Grims going to return to retrieve their lost comrade, no matter the cost.

Potter Manor, the next day.

Lily and Ginny Potter, as well as Molly Weasley hummed as they walked about the kitchen, preparing the meal for a family dinner. In the background, James. Arthur, Charles, as well as the other men of the Potter and Weasley families sat and talked about various topics in the living room as Charles bounced his three year old daughter Sara on his knee, laughing at her childish laughter. Ron and Hermione sat together on the couch laughing along as their own daughter, Rose, carried on in much the same way. This was nothing out of the ordinary for the Potters and the Weasleys. Every month, the two families would gather at either Potter Manor or the Burrow for a meal.

Such occasions were very much looked forward to among the Potter and Weasley clans, due to the festive nature of these dinners, as well for both the child and adult members of both clans alike to socialize and let off steam. It had become a tradition not long after the Battle of Hogwarts, and had only continued on after Charles and Ginny were married a year after the battle. In a way, it acted as a much needed support system for both families as they collectively tried to move past the traumatic experience of the horrors of the Second Wizarding War.

As the conversation carried on in the living room, outside the manor, two men in khaki uniform made their way up the walkway to the front door.. A captain who was a Casualty Notification Officer, and an officer chaplain from the Royal Army Chaplain's Department. They reached the front door and looked at each other somberly before taking a deep breath as the CNO Captain knocked on the door of the Manor.

Inside the Manor, Charles had heard the knock and had gone up to answer it, gently lifting Sara off of him as he stood. He answered the door and immediately took notice of the appearance of the two men in front of him. Army men. His stomach dropped below the floor. Harry. He knew something happened to Harry. He wasn't stupid, he knew the Army didn't make random house calls. While he wasn't an expert on muggle affairs, he was well aware of the ongoing war in Iraq and Britain's role in it. It would be of no surprise to anyone for Harry to be right in the center of it. He took notice of the two men, especially one of the men holding what appeared to be a muggle bible. No, this certainly was not good news whatsoever.

"Good evening sir, I'm Captain McCloud and this is my colleague Chaplain McGraw. Is there a Mr. James Potter or a Mrs. Lily Potter home at the moment?"

"Yes, they are. I'm Charles, their son. What is this about?"

"May we come in?"

"Yes, of course."

Charles stepped aside and let the two men into the home, taking off their caps as they did, with Lily and James meeting them in the hallway between the living room and the kitchen. By now, everyone in the house had gone silent, an eerie feeling permeating the air as the two men stood in the house.

"Mr and Mrs Potter?"

James wrapped an arm around Lily as they stood there and spoke to the men.

"We are. Gentlemen, perhaps you could join us in the living room?"

"Mr. Potter, perhaps we can speak to you in private…"

"Please, I insist, everyone here is family, you can say what you need to say here."

The two men looked at each other and hesitated briefly, before stepping into the living room, and into the full gaze of the entire Potter and Weasley clans.

"Mr and Mrs. Potter, I really think we should…."

"Just say what you came to say gentlemen."

Captain McCloud sighed in resignation as he straightened his posture, not looking forward to delivering this news to a room full of people.

"Mr and Mrs Potter, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second and the Military Secretary have asked me to express to you their deepest regret that your son, Corporal Harry James Potter, was reported missing in action yesterday in Ninawa province Iraq. While we are not authorized to disclose any further information at this time, we can tell you that your son performed valiantly in battle, as told by us by those who were with him."

Lily had gone pale, looking as if she would blow over at any second. James looked as if someone had forced an entire bowl of Dumbledore's lemon drops down his throat. Everyone else in the room was silent with shock. The children, although not understanding the gravity of the situation, picked up on the disposition of the adults and adopted an equally somber attitude. Given as Lily seemed too distraught to speak, James spoke up.

"You said that he's missing, not dead. That means he may still be alive, yes?"

"While I am not authorized to discuss the exact circumstances of your son's disappearance, I can tell you as much as I may regret to say so sir, that his survival may be unlikely."

The dam finally broke for Lily as she burst into loud sobs, collapsing to her knees as Charles, Ginny, and Molly, as well as Chaplain McGraw comforted her. James looked to Captain McCloud and took a deep breath.

"If you hear anything concerning the whereabouts of our son, please let us know."

"Of course sir. An officer from Bereavement and Aftercare will also contact you within the next twenty four hours to help you with what comes next."

"Thank you Captain."

"Again, our deepest condolences. On a personal note, I've heard of your son's exploits. He's a true hero. You should be proud of your boy."

James said nothing, but merely nodded and turned to comfort his wife as the two officers left the house. The festive mood in the Potter household had now completely evaporated. On the wall, Harry's official Army portrait hung on the wall among the Potter family, a reminder of what the Potters had lost.

AN: I'm back on the grind. Please review, review, review!