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Return of the Lion by E. C. R. Potter
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Return of the Lion

E. C. R. Potter

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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"He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,"

2 Corinthians 1:10 Chapter 5: Deliverance of the Camp

Seamus Finnigan was looking toward one of the concentration camps from one of the hideouts. He was part of a wizarding resistance group that was on a mission to liberate the concentration camp. The hope was that they could then convince the liberated muggle resistances to join with the magical resistances.

"This is going to be impossible," muttered Seamus. His group was composed of former Gryffindor students who were all fighting the dark forces. They were in an underground bunker, which had a lookout post that was disguised as a rock.

"Way to go with the optimism," said Ginny Weasley with the sarcasm she had inherited from Ron.

"Well think about it though," shouted Seamus looking frustrated. "What hope do we have? Even if we can liberate this camp, how is that going to change the tide of the war?!"

"He's right," said Lavender Brown who was sitting in a far corner over a crystal ball. "My inner eye shows dark times ahead of us." Parvati Patil, who was sitting next to Lavendar, nodded her approval with a gloomy face.

"Are you out of your minds!" yelled Ginny, her red hair flailing around. "And you call yourselves Gryffindors! If you..." Ginny would've continued if a silent alarm hadn't suddenly ringing.

"W-what's that?" asked a groggy looking Neville Longbottom. He had just woken up in the sleeping bag in another corner.

"We've got an intruder," hissed Dean Thomas. He and the other's started to draw their wands. Ginny however, motioned for quiet.

"Don't worry," she said. "Fred and George designed all the traps in this bunker. We're perfectly safe." As if on cue, a scream was heard. "You see, that's the intruder getting caught in one of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes traps," said Ginny looking smug.

"Well let's go get this intruder, than," said Dean. The Gryffindors all made their way deeper into the bunker where the scream had come from. Sure enough, they found a young man struggling in a net that was glowing with a yellow light.

"Don't try breaking out of that," said Seamus. "It's a fool-proof dark wizard catching trap."

"Well it would work perfectly if only it had caught a dark wizard," said the man looking annoyed. Ginny immediately recognized him with a gasp.

"Ron?"

"Ginny." Ron grinned at his sister.

"W-what are you doing here?"

"I'd explain if I didn't enjoy being caught in some net."

"Oh, sorry," said Ginny. She muttered an incantation and Ron fell to the floor with a thud. He groaned in pain as Ginny helped him back to his feet.

"Ron? Why are you here?" asked Lavender.

"Oh I just figured I'd sell all of you to You-know-who," said Ron while grinning. When the others just stared at him, Ron sighed and said, "I'm here to join you guys."

"Good luck," said Dean. "We don't stand a chance against the wardens of this camp. They've got security trolls all over. And this one monster."

"Monster?" said Ron with a raised eyebrow.

"W-we think they've got a c-chimaera in there," stuttered Neville looking frightened.

Ron simply shrugged and said, "We can worry about that later. In the mean time, just get everyone here ready to attack the camp in about a hour."

"WHAT?!" shouted all of the resistance members. "You expect us to get ready in a hour?!"

"We mustn't!" said Parvati. "If Professor Trelawny were here, she'd predict how this sudden attack would end in disaster."

"Well, Trelawny's words will really discourage me," said Ron sarcastically. He grinned when Lavender and Parvati scowled at him. "Don't worry, everything will go fine. There's a bug in the camp right now, or should I say lion."

* * * * * * * * * *

It was past curfew in the concentration camp. All of the prisoners were locked up in the tiny bunks made of concrete. These bunks were designed for a maximum capacity of ten people, but were crammed up with at least thirty prisoners in each. Under the snow, the roads had gravel spread out over them that was painful for the prisoners who were bare foot.

Security trolls patrolled the camp, brandishing their clubs stupidly. These clubs were feared for knocking many a prisoner's head off for trying to escape.

A large lion was prowling through the snow in the camp that night. He was mostly moving around in the shadows, avoiding the trolls. With cat-like movements, he easily avoided the potential threats he encountered by slipping into places where no human could enter.

The lion was looking for the warden Death Eater who was in charge of the camp. If he could bring down the head of the camp, then the stupid trolls could easily be brought down.

Eventually, the lion spotted something in the center of the camp. A fat Death Eater, who was clearly the warden, was walking toward a young girl of about twelve, flanked by trolls. The lion also spotted prisoners looking at the girl from the windows, expressions of terror on their faces. The girl looked terrified as the Death Eater walked up to her.

"Muggle," hissed the Death Eater. "You stole some of the security tolls' rations. Did you not?" hissed the Death Eater. The girl was visibly shaking and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"P-please sir. My m-mother is s-sick. I o-only wanted to g-give her some f-food."

The Death Eater laughed. "Ah yes, well everybody must take care of their mother. But of course, you still broke the rules, therefore you must be punished."

"P-punished?"

"Death!" hissed the Death Eater. The girl shuddered and fell to her knees in front of the Death Eater.

"No, please!" she begged. "My mother! She needs me! She would die without me!"

"Well then, you have nothing to worry about," said the Death Eater. The girl wearily looked up into the grinning face of the Death Eater. "She'd be joining you soon anyway."

"No!" screamed the girl. As if that was the cue, the prisoners started rushing out of the bunks, curfew forgotten as they tried to make it to the girl before she was mercilessly executed.

"Do any of you fools really think you can save this girl," hissed the Death Eater. All of the prisoners abruptly stopped. "You'll all be punished for breaking curfew. But first, I'm going to finish this muggle scum before your very eyes."

The Death Eater raised his wand toward the terrified girl and started to mutter the killing curse. Suddenly, the lion sprung out of his hiding place and pounced on the Death Eater with a mighty roar! He covered his body over the frightened girl and growled at the trolls who were closing in on him, their clubs raised. The Death Eater slowly stood up, looking shocked.

"A lion? In England?" he wondered out loud. It was also clear that all the prisoners were thinking the same thing. However, they didn't really care since for some strange reason, this lion seemed to be against their oppressors. The girl hesitantly petted the lion as the lion gently nudged her. She was mesmerized but the beautiful emerald green eyes of the lion.

"Thank you," she whispered before she ran away. She disappeared into the crowd.

It didn't take the wizard long to figure out the secret of the lion. "Get him," he ordered the trolls. "He's an animagus!"

The trolls lumbered toward the lion, waving their clubs over their heads. The lion remained in a crouching position while the trolls lumbered closer. Suddenly, he leapt onto one of them and sunk his fangs into the throat of the troll. From that troll, the lion pounced onto another one and slashed his claws into its face.

Another troll swung its club down, but the lion rolled out of the way as the club crashed into the snow. The lion leaped forward and sunk his claws into the troll's arm. The troll howled and pain and tried to fling the lion off. In the process, the troll rammed its club into a number of the other trolls surrounding it. The lion simply clung out to the troll's arm, never letting go. Finally the troll fell down, exhausted.

That left only one troll. The troll swung its club down as the lion pranced back and forth, avoiding the club. Eventually, the lion pranced behind the troll, whereupon it leapt onto the troll's back. After much thrashing about, the troll sank down, exhausted.

The lion silently crept up to the Death Eater. "Don't think just because you beat a few trolls you can beat me," said the Death Eater. The quiver in his voice however, betrayed his fear.

The lion simply edged closer to the Death Eater. Suddenly, the Death Eater shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" The lion simply leapt out of the way of the green light of the killing curse, leaving behind a smoldering crater. The Death Eater fired a number of other killing curses and the lion simply dodged each of them. The Death Eater suddenly panicked. He pointed his wand toward the crowd. "Surrender or they die!" he shouted.

Before he could fire any curses however, the lion suddenly leapt in front of him and transformed! A gloved left hand grabbed the Death Eater's throat while a wand was pointed into the Death Eater's terrified face. What was previously a lion was now a young man in scarlet and gold robes, a black cloak, and a tattered black hat. Emerald green eyes shone behind a pair of glasses and a lightning bolt-shaped scar was clear behind messy black bangs. The Death Eater immediately recognized the wizard.

"H-Harry...Potter?"

"Whom did you expect?" said Harry with a sinister grin. The Death Eater looked positively more frightened than ever.

The Death Eater managed to squirm out of Harry's grasp and backed off. By now, the crowds were cheering Harry on.

"Don't think I'm finished yet!" yelled the Death Eater. He placed two fingers on his lips and blew a shrill whistle. A monstrous creature suddenly leapt in between the Death Eater and Harry.

It was a chimera. It had three monstrous heads. Its main head was the head of a lion: flames were gushing from this head. Its body was the body of the goat, including a goat's head right behind the lion's head. It had a snake's tail that ended in a snake's head, fangs shining menacingly.

The crowds backed away in fear. Harry however seemed unimpressed as he smirked at the chimera. Suddenly, he started hissing in parseltongue. He seemed to be conversing with the snake's head. Eventually, it seemed as if the snake's head was convinced that Harry was not an enemy. The lion's head seemed to recognize Harry's animagus lion nature and also recognized Harry as a friend. The two heads also appeared to have convinced the goat head as well.

The Death Eater recoiled in horror as the chimera wandered away. "W-what...what happened?"

"Oh I don't know," said Harry with a thoughtful look. "I guess all I have to say is...Stupefy!" The Death Eater slumped unconscious.

* * * * * * * * * *

"This had better work, Weasley," hissed Seamus. A small army of resistance wizards was gathered in front of the camp.

Ron grinned. "Trust me Finnigan," he said.

With a cry, the wizards and witches charged into the camp brandishing their wands. However, they were startled when they found all of the prisoners already liberated and surrounding something in the center of the camp; they were cheering. The Death Eater warden was tied up and was lying in front of all the trolls who were all piled up. Sitting in top of the pile of trolls, his legs crossed, was Harry Potter. All of the wizards and witches, except for a grinning Ron, gaped at the Boy who lived whom they hadn't seen in two years.

Harry simply beamed down at the wizards. "What took you so long?" he asked.

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A/N Did you like this chapter? I had quite a hard time writing it. But it still was a lot of fun. I hope you had fun as well. So R/R.