Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Inc., Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Raincoast, and any other affiliated party.
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Chapter 17: The Counter Invasion
Within five days, the Alliance armada landed on the coast of Durmstrang. There was no problem landing the armies of all four kingdoms on the snow-covered beach. Neville blew his trumpet as each commander walked off the flagship. By the time Ron came off the ship however, he had grown so fed up with Neville's trumpet that he yanked it out of Neville's hands and blasted it into pieces.
"Trevor!" cried Neville looking teary eyed. He cradled the pieces of the trumpet and started crying.
"Sorry about that," said Ron. He decided that he didn't want to know why Neville called his trumpet "Trevor". Ron said, "Reparo." and the trumpet were instantly fixed.
The Alliance militaries proceeded to march toward the royal capitol of Durmstrang. With the Griffin Riders circling in the air above them, they didn't need to worry about any surprise attacks similar to the one they had sprung on the Durmstrang army. Of course, the Alliance had already crushed the bulk of the Durmstrang military in the Battle of Little Hangleton and they were positive that there wouldn't be too much of a threat in the soldiers who had remained in Durmstrang.
As they neared the capitol however, the Alliance soon learned just how wrong they were.
Right outside of the city was an army. And not just any army, but the largest army of dark powers ever assembled. Besides men, the army was composed of orcs, trolls, dementors, dragons (mostly fireballs and vipertooths), and monstrous creatures that could only be demons. These demons were about the size of trolls, had black skin, heads shaped like an ox's with razor sharp teeth, two golden horns on their head, black full plated armor, and were carrying maces and war hammers.
Yet the most surprising thing of all was that this army was not rushing out to attack the Alliance armies. Rather, they were flying the green flag, which meant that their commander wished to speak with the commanders of the opposing side.
"Do you suppose it's a trick?" whispered Sirius.
Dumbledore studied the opposing side for a minute before saying, "I don't think so. I am sure that the other side is planning something but I believe that the commander of the other side truly does wish to speak with us before we fight." The other commanders nodded their acknowledgement.
Dumbledore, Sirius, Remus, Ron (representing Gryffindor in Harry's absence), Draco, Penelope, and Justin made their way to the center of the snow-covered field where the two armies were glaring each other from each side. Neville (who always went ahead of the commanders as herald) and Ginny (who wanted to stick by Ron) came with them.
As soon as the Alliance commanders had made it to the center of the field, the commander of the dark forces also made his way to the center on foot. As soon as he drew close enough to them to be recognized, all of the Alliance commanders gasped in horror. For the commander was none other than Lord Voldemort himself!
The Alliance commanders stared at the Dark Lord who had once held their homeland in an iron grip of terror and whom they had believed to had been dead for the past two years. Terror coursed through their bodies, and their faces paled as their eyes went wide. Voldemort simply grinned at them. "Oh come now, surely it cannot be that much of a surprise," he said. "You've obviously figured out that my Death Eaters had returned if you have even bothered coming here. To imagine that I too had returned shouldn't be that much of a stretch."
The commanders finally snapped out of their stupor. Ron was the first one to speak, "How could you be alive?! I saw you die with my own eyes!"
"Oh, and we can trust your eyes?" mumbled Draco despite the fact that he was visibly shaken by Voldemort's appearance. For once, Ron ignored him.
"What you saw was my old body being destroyed. Not I myself being destroyed," said Voldemort with a pensive look. "Lets just say that my curse halved the power of that patronus."
"You engineered this whole mess, didn't you?" said Dumbledore. His eyes had lost their twinkle and he was radiating a sense of extreme power that could make any dark force quell in fear.
"Oh, well spotted Albus," drawled Voldemort, almost lazily. "Of course I'm the one who engineered this whole ordeal. I've been working on it for the past two years, ever since I was exiled from Magiterran."
"But why?" demanded Remus.
"I believe I can answer that," said Dumbledore. "This is all an elaborate scheme to get a hold of the two rings isn't it? Those rings nearly destroyed you before. So you set up this whole scheme in an attempt to get them out of the picture. Without, the two rings, nothing could ever destroy you, and you'd eventually grow powerful enough to conquer the Alliance militarily again. Is that correct?"
Voldemort grinned. "I see that there is no fooling you, Dumbledore," he said. "That is correct. Viktor Krum always did have an infatuation toward Queen Hermione ever since he had heard rumors of the outcome of the War in Magiterran. I simply used that infatuation he had and twisted into mad lust and desire, with a little help of my modified Imperius Curse. And in that way, I placed my remaining Death Eaters in control of this land. I couldn't kidnap the Queen from Godric's Hollow palace where she is much too protected. However, the right opportunity arrived when Potter's twins were born. Being newly born, the protection wards hadn't been fully implemented yet to protect the twins from being kidnapped by my Neo Death Eaters. I used the twins to lure their mudblood mother out of the palace and into our hands."
"And get a hold of the Ring of the Phoenix," hissed Sirius. Voldemort smirked.
"After that, the rest was easy," continued the Dark Lord. "Harry Potter would walk through fire to get to his wife. Therefore, in the process of luring him to me, I also get a hold of the Ring of the Lion. Invading Magiterran was just something extra I thought. The Alliance was at its weakest point with Potter away and I just couldn't resist." Voldemort laughed his high-pitched laugh, which made the Alliance commanders shudder.
"And so it comes down to this," said Dumbledore. "One last battle where both sides gamble everything that they have for victory."
Voldemort grinned. "Oh, but you do realize that you cannot destroy me without the rings."
"Ah, but then the question is where are those rings?" said Dumbledore. He and Voldemort stared into each other's eyes for minutes, neither one blinking. It appeared that they were sizing each other up. Finally, Voldemort smirked and started walking back towards his army.
"Hey, just answer one more question," shouted Sirius. "Why did you even bother telling us all this?"
Voldemort turned to him and grinned. "I just wanted you to know who it was that destroyed all of you." He laughed as he walked back to his army. The Alliance commanders also tuned around and headed back.
"Why were Dumbledore and You-know-who sizing up each other like that?" asked Ron.
"Because," answered Remus, "we don't know what happened to Harry and Hermione."
"What?"
"Harry and Hermione haven't returned to us so we don't have the two rings. But there is a possibility that the Dark Lord doesn't know that; he may believe that we have the means of destroying him with us. On the other hand, we don't know if Harry was also captured and the rings were lost meaning that the Dark side is laughing at us right now as we prepare a hopeless battle. Whichever way, we don't know what happened to the rings and there is a possibility that the other side doesn't know either. That's why they were studying each other like that; they were trying to figure out what the other knew."
"I think I get it," said Ron.
Suddenly, as soon as the respective commanders had made it back to their side, the dark forces gave out a huge battle cry! Fully prepared, the Alliance armies also raised a great battle cry. Before, a single snowflake had fallen, the two sides rushed to the center of the field, their weapons drawn and ready. The battle of snow-covered fields had begun!
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A/N So, did you like this chapter? R/R and tell me. Next: It's the final battle and the climax of the saga.