A/N. Well I was sitting here, feeling bored and decided to write another chapter. Assassin is no longer paused but resumed. I would like to thank all of the fans who have not lost touch. I am very free and open to any ideas that you may have so feel free to add something in a review or email me, more times then not I do add in your ideas, so you can actually greatly influence what happens in this story. Basically its like this, if you want me to get another chapter out faster give me some ideas to mix in with my own and some others and the chapter will come faster and with better quality then if you guys did not give any input. That being said, enjoy.
Coming Home
It burned, all of it burned. Lucias Malfoy watched his son's castle like mansion burn; it's once proud and powerful form now lay in ruins, sending ash and smoke clawing at the night sky like burned black fingers clawing for life out of devastation. For the first time in five years someone had dared to attack His loyal subjects, and not just any loyal subjects, His most loyal… That someone would pay very dearly… No one killed his son and got away with it, and dare he say it, kill The next Lord. Malfoy, he had a future ahead of him, a future of power, rule and domination.
Harry Potter and Jason Bourne slowly walked along the calm peaceful lakeshore, birds chirped from the nearby forest and something skittered just underneath the glossy surface of the water. They were discussing the next stage of their plan, well more like arguing.
"Just let me blow all those fuckers to hell." Harry fumed.
"And how exactly do you plan on leveling a fortress? Its built in the middle of a town, and whoever designed and placed it did their homework; this fortress is not easily accessible, it has three access points, all of them heavily guarded. Okay, so you get a couple of the nicest ALARMMs you can find - if you can find and get them. Then you fire them off and knock down a couple towers or put some nice holes in the thing. Then what? You'll have a few thousand deatheaters breathing down your neck in minutes, and for a fortress the size of a moderately sized city a few portable missiles aren't going to do shit. And do you really think that if you do damage the fortress substantially, somehow, in some way, that they aren't ready to repair it? These are wizards and from what I've seen repairs are done a lot faster and better then us muggles can. C'mon Harry you're just pissed, angry and emotional and it IS clouding your judgment, before I even checked that place out I didn't even know dragons actually existed. Even if you do kill Voldemort at this stage someone is bound to take over and continue on with a vengeance." Jason reasoned.
Harry wanted to say "Let me nuke the fucking thing." But he had to admit Jason was right, even if he did manage to kill Voldemort someone might take his place and then they'd still be dealing with a potentially much larger problem, a bunch of crazed suicidal deatheaters wanting nothing but revenge for their lord's death. After taking a few deep breaths Harry replied. "What do you suggest?"
"I talked to a friend of mine from the CIA and she put me in contact with an expert on large scale guerilla warfare. What he told me is that if you can knock out the leaders in an army fast enough the army will start falling apart. The way I see it we don't have the resources for an all out attack on anything worth attacking, we're lacking raw numbers needed for a victory, the moral will be there when people find out you're back but moral isn't going to fire off spells or bullets. So what we need to do is weaken the command structure so that it collapses, as soon as the command structure is gone you're left with a bunch of people with no direction and disputes for who gets promoted. Once Voldemorts chain of command is gone he will be left with a big army but with no effective way to communicate and manage them. As soon as that happens you kill Voldemort. With no one to take over, his army will collapse in on its self, or at least be disorganized and otherwise weak allowing our forces to clean them up with relative ease, or at least have a chance at winning." Jason explained.
"Okay, any idea on who to kill first?" Harry asked, agreeing with Jason's plan now that he had calmed down.
"Not yet, but Dumbledore told me that our spies should be coming in with the latest intel within the next few days, when they do we'll know more about what we're up against and how to deal with things, until then we just sit tight." Jason told him. "But now we have to go down to the great hall, Remus told me they were holding a weekly summary session of some sort, said it would be interesting. And everyone wants to see the legendary Harry Potter." Jason joked, emphasizing the word Legendary.
"I don't think so, not yet at least." Harry said, pulling out his invisibility cloak from a small backpack.
"Whatever you say Mr. Hero." Replied Jason, picking up the pace as they turned to head up to the castle.
Hermione slowly opened her eyes and looked about, at first she didn't know where she was but once she regained her composure she realized that she was at the Hogwarts hospital wing.
"Good morning dear." Said the friendly voice of Albus Dumbledore who sat on a nearby chair reading a book.
"Good morning…Um, who…how…Harry!" Hermione began to mumble as memories from the night before surfaced.
"First off, madam Pomfray has healed your ankle so you can walk and has given you a potion that re-grew any hair you may have lost. Secondly Mr. Potter saved you and yes he is very much alive and…firing. The other prisoners that were alive have been freed and are in good health right now. Jasmine did not do anything foul with your body while she impersonated you, she did a rather good job actually, I was quiet impressed." Dumbledore answered, anticipating any of the obvious questions she would ask.
Hermione smiled and fell back into her bed, and that's when a question formulated itself. If Harry survived the fire why didn't he show himself, to her at least? Seaming to read her mind Dumbledore said in a somewhat cautious manner. "Before we get on the subject of how Mr. Potter survived the fire that killed him, I would like to inform you that there is an invisible barrier between us, protecting me from harm." At this Hermione's interest was peaked.
"Yes Professor how is it that Harry is alive?" Hermione asked as she got out of bed and stood up, subconsciously searching for her wand.
"Well you see the fire was staged and the Dursley's memory modified. To make things seem real we needed everyone's reaction to be perfect and so only four people knew about this. Hagrid, Jason Bourne, Harry of course and myself. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused." Dumbledore apologized
"Inconvenience." Hermione said in a tone that meant she was far worse then angry, it was calm and yet forcefully loud at the same time. "An inconvenience is what you're going to have as soon as I get changed and get my wand from Madam Promfray. That will be an inconvenience." She threatened. People had made her take therapy to get over the loss, she had even written a book expressing her emotions and love for Harry Potter, she had done so many things to try and get over him, but alas she could not. And so she had felt as though a part of her had been missing the whole time, a part of her soul that would never be replaced. But now he was back, playing the hero and the missing part of her soul came back with him. Suddenly Dumbledore became the last thing on her mind as she realized that she would have to see Harry, how would he look? What would he be like? Would they still be as close as they always were? Would they just become friends? A thousand questions raced through her mind.
Luckily madam Pomfray came in and ushered her to a dressing room, telling her "One step at a time." She too seamed to realize what was starting to bother her.
When she was done she found Dumbledore waiting for her outside of the dressing room, an apologetic look on his face. "I am sorry Miss Granger" He apologized. "It was the only sure way to do things. I ask one thing and one thing only."
"Yes and what may that be?" She asked, still furious at him.
"That I receive my punishments, whatever they maybe tomorrow. If that is you still wish to give them." He said.
Well she could wait a day; he must have had a good reason for almost destroying her emotionally, and if he didn't…Inconvenience would plague him. "Okay." She replied.
"Excellent, now then I must inform you that today is Friday." He reminded her.
"Oh no!" Every Friday the teachers would gather all of the students, whom there were not much of and bring together all of the things that they had learned that weak into one class, like utilizing transfiguration for defensive or herbological purposes.
"You don't have to come down and teach, but the kids would feel better if they knew their favorite teacher was okay." Dumbledore explained. Hermione had become one of the favorite teachers at Hogwarts by far, a lot of it had to do with the closer relationship she shared with the Harry Potter who was now almost a legend. Everyone had read her book about what she experienced and once they found out about the real Harry Potter they absolutely loved him, his heroism, charm and sheer dumb luck coupled with very powerful latent magical abilities.
"No its okay, I will. Have they started yet?" She asked.
"They just started I believe." Said Professor Dumbledore.
Well she could stop help out a bit and then go looking for Harry, besides she was still very nervous about meeting him, perhaps teaching would calm her down a bit.
Upon reaching the great hall she saw that everyone was already there, not more than a hundred and fifty kids or so in total, and as soon as she came in was greeted with hugs and claps. "Yes I'm fine, and I missed you all terribly, not giving you any homework really bummed me out." She responded.
After a few moments Remus cleared his throat. "Ehem, now if we could please get back to the work at hand, or lack there of. Now then it seems that our guest has arrived, if you would all please welcome Mr. Bourne just as you did Miss Granger." Remus instructed.
Jason was not greeted like Hermione, but non-the less he was very welcome. As soon as the noise died down a bit a third year student blurreted out. "Are you the one who taught Harry Potter while he pretended to be dead?" The news of Harry's return traveled amazingly fast and so Jason wasn't at all surprised by the question.
"Yes I am." He answered.
"How much stronger is Harry Potter then you are, you must be pretty strong to have taught The Harry Potter?" Asked the same young boy.
"Well that is a hard question to answer, however I would say that what I lack in natural abilities I gain in experience. I must say though Mr. Potter is a very gifted apprentice, but not the most experienced." The answer was very true, Harry had excelled in everything he taught him, Jason figured it was probably due to him wanting to get back to his fight, and to his people and loved ones, that drove him so much to succeed and improve. But then there was the other side to the coin, Harry was twenty-five while Jason was more along the lines of fifty-five and much more experienced and knowledgeable. In the world of professional assassination experience and knowledge were sometimes more powerful then ability.
"What did you teach him?" This question came from Hermione. "And I want you to say the absolute truth, don't with hold anything or else."
"I taught him how to become an assassin. How to manipulate the environment and people around him, how to gain access to anything, how to detect, track, stay hidden, unseen, unheard and finally how to kill with any sort of weapon, be it a digital infrared sniper rifle or a pen. And I must say he has met and surpassed all of my expectations, he can kill someone with a tea cup." Jason told the room, adding in the last part with a good deal or mirth, astonishingly it was true.
Beside him, barely a whisper he heard. "You seemed rather surprised that day." To which Jason couldn't help but smile.
"Everyone you will have time to ask Mr. Bourne all the questions you want, but for now lets show him some magic. If would try to perform the Petronus charm." Remus instructed.
The room erupted in shouts of Expecto Petronum. Understandably the younger kids couldn't quiet get it, and none of the older ones produced corporeal ones either, but they were getting there, slowly but steadily.
"If I could point something out." Hermione called out, stopping the exercise. "You need to make sure to keep your wand steady and firm." Hermione pointed out. "And really put everything you have into the spell, remember it is very difficult and requires a lot of concentration so don't be discouraged if you don't get it at first."
"Wait you have to use a wand for that spell?" Jason asked in mock surprise.
"Yes of course you do, how else would you do it?" Hermione asked, the class turning to look at Jason.
"Well when this guy does it he never uses a wand. Why's that?" He asked, pointing to seemingly thin air.
"Because I don't have to use a wand." Replied Harry, audible to everyone in the great hall. Partly because his cover was blown and mainly because he wanted to talk to Hermione, Harry unleashed a perfect petronus, a silvery white stage erupted from what appeared to be thin air and ran around the room, bathing everyone in soft radiant white light. Taking off his invisibility cloak Harry said. "And that is wand less magic, and you knew perfectly well that I don't have to use a wand and why." Harry said turning to Jason.
Jason merely shrugged. "I couldn't help myself, besides you're the expert on this spell, teach the kids how to do it properly."
"Actually lets try the Firivilus spell, shall we?" Hermione announced, pointing her wand at Harry and mutter the spell. Needless to say the spell worked perfectly as Harry flew back a few feet and hit the wall rather hard. "Oh my god!" Her mood swing instantly gone Hermione ran over to Harry who was having trouble standing up. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Harry please be okay." Hermione sobbed running over to help him up.
"Good to see you too Hermione." Harry said gruffly, he felt like he had been hit with stun gun on the chest, but at the same time he didn't care all that matter was that Hermione was there.
As Harry and Hermione hugged and in Hermione's case cried the students in the room looked on in awed silence, although Harry didn't know, or realize it he was like a super hero to them, someone who could do no wrong and who would triumph over evil, he was a legend made manifest.
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