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 3: An Attack on Godric's Hollow
"What's all that shouting?" asked Lin. She was reading a book in the Royal Nursery while James was swinging around a wooden sword. Virginia was asleep in her bed.
"I dunno," said James. "Maybe its New Years."
"James! New Years was a month and a half ago."
"I know that Lin." James stood up and made his way to the window. He looked out and gasped at what he saw. Lin clearly saw that look of horror that crossed her twin's face.
"James what is it?" she asked. When James said nothing, Lin also made her way to the window. What she saw was horrified her beyond belief.
The outskirts of the city were on fire! A lot of shouting could be heard and there were bright green lights flashing in the flaming zones. Screams were carried by the wind and heard quite clearly in the West Wing where the nursery was.
"Oh my God," muttered Lin. Her face was pale, her body was shaking, and tears started to build up in her eyes. "The city...all those people...what is going on?"
Before another second was lost, James ran out of the nursery and dashed down the steps. Lin shouted, "James, don't go! Stay here!" But James completely ignored his sister as he ran as fast as he could toward the city, evading panicking servants in the process.
* * *
Godric's City was under attack. Such an event hadn't happened for years, since the conclusion of the War against Voldemort. For this reason, the residents of the city started panicking as hundreds of mysterious cultists, calling themselves "The Children of Tempest", started putting buildings on fire and killing off commoners and muggles that lived in the city.
However, Godric's Hollow was the Greatest Fortress City in all of Magiterran and the capitol of the most military oriented kingdom of the Alliance. As a result, the cultists had to face the greatest soldiers and Mage Knights in all the Alliance.
Standing at the front line of the battle was General Oliver Wood, second in command of the Gryffindor military. It was Wood's cool organization that kept that Gryffindor forces from falling out of control. Wood himself was fighting cultists at the forefront, twirling his spear around skillfully. However, enemies soon started to overwhelm him and before he knew it, cultists surrounded Wood.
"Damn!" he cursed. Cultists swarmed around him brandishing their weapons and Wood twirled his spear around, mustering all of the self-defense techniques he knew. However, one cultist finally managed to kick Wood in the gut. Wood bent over in pain and the cultist was about to run him through when suddenly, a sword flashed and the cultist was decapitated. Wood looked up to see who was his rescuer.
"General Weasley," said Wood, instantly recognizing his commanding officer.
Ron helped Wood to his feet. "You OK?" he asked. When Wood nodded, Ron said, "Come on, we're needed elsewhere." He and Wood took off to sections where the fighting was thicker.
In another part of the city, Mage Knights Sir Angelina Johnson, Sir Katie Bell, and Sir Alicia Spinnet were fighting off cultists. During the duel, one of the cultist's battle-axes grazed Angelina's right shoulder. Angelina grimaced in pain and sank to her knees.
"Angelina!" Sir Katie stabbed the cultist whom had wounded Angelina and made it over to her friend. "Are you all right?"
"I'll live," said Angelina, despite her pain.
Sir Alicia was meanwhile fighting another cultist. After deflecting a few blows from the cultist's sword, Alicia made a flying leap over the cultist's head, kicked on the wall of a house behind the cultist, spun around midair and landed a kick with her right foot onto the cultist's face. The cultist was knocked out for the count.
It was then that Alicia noticed that there was another cultist about a hundred yards away, holding a dagger at the throat of a young boy about ten years old. "Oh my God!" she muttered.
Starting to panic, Alicia made a mad dash toward the cultist. But when she had only made a few steps, an arrow flew past Alicia's face from behind and hit the cultist between the eyes. The cultist fell over dead as Alicia gathered the crying boy into her arms.
It was Ginny whom had shot the arrow. She quickly placed another arrow into her bow and shot another cultist who was trying to ambush Angelina and Katie. Ginny made her way over to Alicia and asked, "The boy, is he hurt?"
"No," said Alicia. "But he's in shock. I'll take him to somewhere safe." Ginny nodded and Alicia carried the boy away from the battle zone. Ginny then made her way to Angelina and Katie. She inspected the wound on Angelina's shoulder.
"Its deep," said Ginny. "But not fatal. You should get it disinfected now."
"I can still fight!" demanded Angelina.
"If you continue fighting, you'll lose your arm to infection," said Ginny. "You've done enough, let us take care of the rest." Angelina reluctantly agreed and started to make her way out of the battle zone.
Ron's voice was heard saying, "There you are." Ginny looked behind her to see Ron and Wood make their way up to them. "There are more cultists down by the southern gates," said Ron.
"Lets go," said Ginny. She, Ron, Katie, and Wood started running toward the south where the battle was still raging.
* * *
A battle zone was not the place for a six-year-old child. There were some things that a six year old boy should never have to see and one of those things should be people being hurt and killed. But James couldn't just stand still. He was old enough to know what pain and suffering was and he could not just stay still in the palace while the citizens of the city suffered.
James had snuck out into the city on a number of occasions. He therefore knew the city backwards and forwards and had no problem making his way to the forefront of the battle. What he saw there were things that a child should never see. Yet, James was still determined to help people who were suffereing.
He came across a young woman and her baby. The baby was crying and the mother was trying to calm the baby despite the fact that her right leg was injured. James made his way over to the woman and took her arm.
"Come on, lets go," he said.
The woman was completely startled. "Your highness?" she asked, shocked to see the young heir to the throne out in the midst of a battle zone. "Your highness, you shouldn't be here."
"That doesn't matter!" hissed James. With strength that was amazing for a six-year-old, James helped the woman to her feet and started to lead her away.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" came a cold, cruel voice from behind them. James froze in fear, and he slowly looked behind to see a sinister looking cultist brandishing a sword. "Three more victims," said the cultist, "this must be my lucky day."
James's fear was suddenly replaced with a burning anger, which he had never felt in young life. He yelled as loud as he could and tackled the cultist! The cultist was completely caught by surprise and was bowled over by the small boy.
Not yet finished, James caught sight of a large dagger (which for him was a short sword) on the ground near by. He picked it up and started swinging it at the cultist whom had just got up.
The cultist was completely caught off guard the young boy with his short sword. James had a natural skill with swords, just like his father, and was putting up a good fight against the cultist. However, the cultist was far more older and far more experienced than the young boy, and he soon disarmed James.
James adrenaline rush cooled down and the fear returned. He stared, paralyzed, at the cultit's sword as the cultist lifted it over his head. "Too bad," said the cultist. "You would've made a great Mage Knight."
The cultist was just about to kill James when none other than Sir Harry Potter leapt from the side. In a roar of rage, Harry landed a flying kick into the cultis's face. The cultist quickly scrambled back to his feet as Harry readied himself for battle, his silver and scarlet Mage Knight armor gleaming, and the ruby-encrusted sword of Godric Gryffindor shining in his right hand.
James was floored by relief when he realized that his father had just saved his life. As he wearily sank to the ground, his mother came ran forward, wearing glistening Mage Knight armor herself, and pulled James into a strong hug.
"Oh James, are you all right? What are you doing here? Where are your sisters?" questioned a half panicked Hermione as she hugged James closey to her body, tears in her eyes.
James barely registered the fact that this was the first time he had never seen his mother in Mage Knight armor, though he had seen his father wearing the armor often. As Hermione hugged him fiercely, reality dawned on James and he slowly realized that he could've died because of his rash behaviour. He started to cry in Hermione's arms.
Harry meanwhile was dueling the cultist. The cultist vainly tried to fight the enraged Mage Knight off but Harry was far superior in terms of both magic and sword skill. The cultist tried to land as many blows as he could on Harry but Harry simply parried back and forth and deflected all the blows. Finally, caught the cultist off guard. He shouted, "Stupefy!" and knocked the cultist out for the count.
Having won the duel, Harry made his way to his wife and son. "James?" he asked, his emerald green eyes shining with worry and concern.
"He'll be all right," whispered Hermione. She gently lifted James up who did not seem to want to let his mother go. "I'll go take him somewhere safe. You go save the city."
Harry started to protest but Hermione cut him off, "You're a king, Harry! People are depending on you!"
Harry sighed. He would've much rather have fulfilled his role as father than husband than that of king but Hermione was right: the people needed him. "OK," he said. "Just be careful, alright?"
Hermione smiled at him and started to walk away from the battle-zone. Harry took a deep breath and started running toward the thick of the battle. Many Gryffindor soldiers recognized him as he came.
"The king!" they shouted. "The king is here! The king is here!" The soldiers and Mage Knights were suddenly boosted with morale and started fighting far more valiantly than they all ready were.
Harry fought his way over to Ron whom was keeping a whole battalion of cultists at bay. "Harry!" he shouted when he caught sight of his best friend. "Where have you been?"
"I was kind of busy," said Harry as he stabbed one of the cultists. He didn't think that now was the time to explain to Ron about the Crystal of Tempest.
"If you say so," said Ron. He blocked the blows of one cultist and slashed at another.
Harry shouted, "Reducto!" Blasted some twenty cultists away. The Gryffindor Mage kNights also started firing powerful hexes and curses at the cultists who were now getting over whelmed.
Finally, the cultists must have realized that they were fighting a losing battle and disapparated away. Most of the unconscious cultists also disappeared though some remained. There were still a lot of bodies of those that had been killed in the battle.
In this way, Godric's Hollow survived an attack of some nine hundred or so cultists.
* * *
The attack wasn't necessarily catastrophic, the damage done was still terrible. About seventy Gryffindor soldiers had been killed along with some thirty two civilians, including fifteen women and three children. Although this was nothing compared to the six hundred fifty one cultists killed, the damage was still felt.
Harry spent much of the night comforting the residents of the city whom had lost loved ones in the battle. It was his duty as king to care for the people he loved and many were grateful for having the king whom comforted them in their grief.
As Harry was looking in on some of the wounded soldiers, he caught sight of James, sitting on a log near one of the medical tents that were treating the wounded. James had a far away look in his eyes and was staring at nothing in particular. The normally hyper active boy was sitting very quietly and still.
Harry felt a lump forming in his throat and tears stung his eyes. James was too young to have experienced what he had that day. No one should've ever gone through what his son had that night. Harry gently made his way over to his son and whispered, "James."
"Dad," James whispered back.
Harry knelt down in front of his son and placed his hand on James's shoulder.
"Dad, they were hurting everyone," said James. "They were hurting everyone. Why Dad, why?"
"I don't know, son," whispered Harry. James didn't seem to have heard him.
"I saw those people, in those black cloaks. They were hurting everybody, Dad. They were hurting everybody. I wanted to stop them. I wanted to stop them. I tried. I tried to help, Dad."
"James..."
"Why do people hurt other people, Dad?"
"I don't know. But that's why there are Mage Knights. To stop people from hurting other people."
James looked up into his father's eyes, tears finally starting to brim on his emerald orbs. "I want to become a Mage Knight, Dad."
"James,"
"I want to become a Mage Knight, Dad. I want to stop people from hurting other people."
James had often said that he wanted to become a Mage Knight but that was mostly when he was dreaming and because of his craving for adventure. Now, as he stared into James's eyes, he saw the determination of someone far older than six-years-old who truly wanted to make a difference in the world. It was in that moment that Harry realized that James would indeed become a great Mage Knight.
Harry leaned forward and pulled James into a strong hug. As this was some kind of cue, James burst into tears and started sobbing on Harry's shoulder. They just remained in that position for a few minutes.
Hermione caught sight of Harry and James as she left one of the medical tents. She felt a lump in her throat as she saw Harry and James hug each other, James sobbing like the child he was. Hermione slowly made her way over to her husband and son.
Harry looked and caught sight of Hermione as she also kneeled in front of them. Harry gently switched a still crying James into Hermione's arms and he gently wrapped his arms around Hermione and James.
Slowly, James cried his emotional turmoil away in the arms of his parents. He had been through so much that night but he was now, already an older person, though he was still definitely a child. Exhaustion started to creep over him and he soon fell asleep in Hermione's arms.
Harry and Hermione noticed that James had fallen asleep. Wordlessly, they looked up a t each other and shared a passionate kiss. When they pulled apart, there was much sadness in their eyes, but there was also relief that James was OK. They gently got up and started to make their way to the palace.
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A/N Well, what do you know. I am in Oregon, my vacation is no where near over, and I still manage to get another chapter ready for the uploading! Dang, I'm so glad I decided to bring my floppy disks that contained this story!
So, how do you like this chapter? Was it good? Did I make James realistic enough? That's my number one fear, that James isn't acting realistically in this chapter. So please, tell me. Next: The trio embark on another mission.