Samuel Wauford Samuel Wauford 2 0 2003-08-01T06:18:00Z 2003-08-01T06:18:00Z 1 2162 12328 102 28 14462 10.2625 Clean Clean MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
Chapter 10: Powerless
It was two weeks since they had found out about Madame Maxime's death. Hagrid was bouncing back better than anyone had expected. Hagrid's classes had not changed, not given any less excitement.
Training with Sirius started with a bang as well. Being the only level five hand-to-hand combat trainees, Sirius could teach them faster than any level one recruit. Sirius was teaching them combos of up to eight hits.
It was Monday, and it was another training say with Sirius. Harry was looking forward to this, because Sirius was teaching some really fun things, which could really benefit them in the long run.
He was helping Hermione out the door, because she hadn't really gotten used to the height.
"Harry, why did it have to be up here?"
"'Mione, you know that Sirius has the correct charms set up so you can't fall off." Harry said, holding her arm, leading her out of the door. Hermione's face was stretched, forming a look of fear on her features.
He walked her out of the door, into the lit paddock, where Sirius was standing in the middle of it.
"Come on in!" Sirius said cheerily. He then looked at Hermione, who was looking at him like he was crazy, "Hermione, you know that you can't fall off. Come in here."
Hermione looked at him apprehensively, and stepped into the paddock.
"Good. Right now we're going to review what we did last week. Alright, Harry, you pair with Hermione. You get to fight the training dummy." Sirius said, aiming his wand at the ground in front of Ron, "Createia Dumerio!"
A beam of red light came out of Sirius' wand, and started making a figure on the floor, making a human-sized figure, about Ron's height, standing in front of Ron.
"Alright, get into positions!"
Harry and Hermione stood a shoulder width apart from each other, looking into the opposite person's eyes. Suddenly, Harry felt a pang of something he never felt before. He wanted to protect her, hold her close. He wanted to make sure that she would always be safe.
Hermione looked deep into Harry eyes. God, they look so beautiful. Why can't he just ask me out! It's killing me!
Harry looked away, trying to figure out what went through him, when Sirius started to order them through the movements.
"Alright, left side attack! Right side defend!" Sirius said, pointing at both sides respectively. Harry would be attacking Hermione. All of a sudden he felt like he couldn't go full strength like Sirius had asked them to do, but he knew that Hermione would, and he didn't exactly care.
"One!"
Harry swung his left fist at Hermione's head. Slower that normal, but still fast enough for her to be able to move fast enough to dodge it. She ducked, and grabbed his hand, securing it in one place.
"Two!"
Harry turned clockwise, making Hermione duck under a backfist using his right hand. She ducked, and grabbed his right wrist.
"Thr- What the hell?!" Sirius exclaimed, looking toward Hogsmeade. Harry looked to see a black cloud of smoke coming from the residential district of Hogsmeade.
"Oh my god." Hermione whispered. Harry came up and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Oh, I think that we want god on our side at the moment." he said, looking at her. In an odd move, she pulled his arms around her, keeping her warm.
"You three, get to the common room, NOW!"
Harry, leading the way, Ron and Hermione not far behind, ran to the common room, while Sirius went outside and down the path.
"Summonaria Orderay Phoenixeo!" Sirius said, pointing his wand at the cloud of smoke. He continued down the path leading to Hogsmeade, where the village was starting to burn.
It took a few minutes to locate the source of the smoke. Twenty Death Eaters were attacking the village, burning everything in their path. Sirius ducked behind a low wall, dodging a killing curse that was sent at his head.
Sirius pointed his wand around the corner, and muttered a stunning curse. It hit one of the Death Eaters square in the jaw, breaking it and sending them backwards. Another Death Eater took his place, and sent more killing curses at Sirius.
Sirius looked up the street a little farther to see Dumbledore, walking up the street, looking like he had seen an old friend.
"Aim at the old bastard!" the lead Death Eater yelled. The Death Eaters moved their wands to aim at Dumbledore, and fired a line of killing curses. All of them got a foot from Dumbledore, and turned a different direction, either up, down left or right, killing curses flew everywhere, except at Dumbledore.
"What the hell? What's going on?"
"NOW!" Dumbledore yelled. Out of nowhere, Order members using invisibility cloaks came out from their hiding spots. The cloaks flew through the air, landing on the ground far from them.
The curses were flying through the air as abundant as raindrops fall in a storm. Walls of red and green were created by the number of stunning and killing curses that were thrown from a number of different wands.
Every few seconds, Sirius would dive out from be hind the wall, and send a few stunning curses until a few curses shot back at him. He got back behind his hiding spot to see Amelia Edenfranks get hit with a killing curse.
A wand landed near Sirius' spot. He looked up to see McGonagall, knocked out, flying through the air. He looked at the crowd to see a shield charm set up. Sirius aimed his own wand at the top of the shield.
"DUBRINKS!"
Blue light shot out of his wand, and hit the top of the shield. Seconds later, it exploded, killing the person who cast it, as well as a few others around it.
The leader of the Death Eaters was injured, and was calling a retreat.
"Get out of here! There is nothing more we can do!"
The Death Eaters Disapparated, leaving any fallen ones, stunned or dead. The part of the village that they were in was still burning. Dumbledore was telling people what to do.
"Sirius, Remus, search for survivors. Mundungus, Flitwick, Shacklebolt, Tonks, and I will start putting out the fires that are still burning. Let's move!"
Harry was pacing in the prefect common room. He couldn't sit still even if he tried. He was too worried about Sirius and the other members of the Order to even think about anything else.
Hermione walked over and put her arms around him. Suddenly, there was nothing else. Nothing that mattered, or even needed a care, except her.
"Stop pacing Harry. I'm sure Sirius will be fine."
"I know, but I can't help but worry."
"I understand why. He's the closest thing that you have to a father, and you don't want to lose him. Trust me, he'll be fine."
There were no survivors. Just the heads of every single person that didn't cooperate in that part of Hogsmeade on a sharpened stick that went straight through their heads. It was a sickening sight.
Sirius and Remus walked over to where Dumbledore was trying to put out the last fire.
"Professor, there's no survivors." Sirius told him, looking sick.
"Sirius, what's wrong?"
"You'd have to see it for yourself, it's worse than his first reign."
"You're kidding me."
"No, back then they just killed people, now they kill you as gruesomely as possible. All we can find is body parts."
Dumbledore just nodded. The fire was finally put out, and the ascent up the path to the school was starting. They all walked in silence, carrying either the body parts of the dead or bodies of the stunned or killed Death Eaters.
A couple of Ravenclaw Prefects that were patrolling the area saw the group coming in, and wondered what happened. They tried asking one of the people that was there, and they just said to not ask questions on stuff that they're not involved in.
They took the stunned Death Eaters to Dumbledore's office, and the dead ones to the hidden morgue inside the school, placed there back when the school was built, for magic was persecuted, and if there was a long shot that the Muggles every found a way around the magical barriers of the school and attack, they could have a place to store any of the dead.
When all of the members of the Order were in Dumbledore's office, Dumbledore called Severus up there to his office, with some of the strongest Veritaserum that he had.
Snape came in a few minutes later, holding a sack of six vials of Veritaserum. He poured a few drops down each of their throats, and waited for them to be asked a question.
"Besides the obvious, why were you attacking Hogsmeade?"
"Voldemort has now shown you, that he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and you stupid mother-fuckers are powerless to stop him!" he said, laughing.
"What is your name?"
"Garrison. Henry Garrison."
Dumbledore in turn asked each one of them their names. They had gotten five in all, including one in Voldemort's inner circle.
"Everyone, this makes a major shift in Voldemort's battle plan. He's trying to shift from dominated, to dominant, in a completely different way. A lot of people know about the order now, and if he gets any spies in here, we are going to be in serious trouble. Snape, what do you think is his plan?"
"As you heard, Voldemort is trying to prove he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and we're powerless to stop him. I think he is going to try to do that by attacking anything close to here, but will not try an attack on Hogwarts until he is absolutely sure that it is unable to protect itself."
"Well, we knew that from the beginning." Sirius stated, his distrust for Snape showing, "What we need to know right now is, what was the pre-investigation damage assessment?"
"Fifteen percent of the Hogsmeade residential community. We know that around fifty to one-hundred were killed, including around twenty-five aurors." Kingsley Shacklebolt said, just coming from the fireplace.
"How badly will the auror deaths affect the war?"
"Not much, just lower a trainee graduating class is all."
"That's still, not a good thing."
"What were the battle casualty figures?"
"Three Order members, Fifteen Death Eaters."
"Well, at least our fatalities weren't as numerous as theirs." Severus said.
"Hey! Those were living breathing people, Snape! Have a heart!" Remus yelled.
"Let's calm down. There is going to be no way that we are going to be able to solve what Voldemort is actually trying to do."
"We heard what he was trying to do. What are we going to do about it?"
"I do not think that the plan was to prove that the Order was powerless. No one except order members know about the Order of the Phoenix. Voldemort knows this. There is something else going on to deter us from what is really going on. Snape, have you heard anything?"
"I'm not in Voldemort's inner circle anymore, but I get rumors from the people that are in it. Voldemort is has been researching things from Merlin's time. He's trying to find something that happened or was created back then."
"I do recall a war between Wizards and Muggles, but that's about it." Dumbledore said, "I'll look into it, but I'm not sure I'll find much."
Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting in the Gryffindor common room, when Dalene walked through the portrait hole. They waved to each other, and Dalene walked up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. She didn't get far, when she fainted.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran over to her, "Dalene, you all right?" Harry asked when he got to her, holding her head up. In a raspy voice, she began to speak.
"Good is powerless."
Harry looked down at the girl with utter confusion, "What?"
"Good is powerless to stop the oncoming flood, unless good finds and harness's the Green Flame Torch. Unless they do that, everything that they have done to defeat evil will be in vain."
"What the hell is going on?" Harry asked Ron, who kind of had a clue what was happening.
"She has done this once before, after the sorting feast."
Dalene continued, "This time, there is no room for mistake. No room to leave evil alive. For if you do that this time, the power of evil will pass to a new shell, and will bring a new terror, too great to imagine.
You, pureblood, are the only one who can defeat the evil. With the help of your true love, you will overcome the challenges that you will face, and you will succeed in your mission. Goodbye for now, chosen one."
Dalene fainted again, leaving Harry, bewildered about the meaning of what was said. Powerless? Green Flame Torch? What the hell was she talking about? Harry thought, looking at Hermione and Ron.
"What was she talking about?"
"Harry, with all of the books that I have read, I've never heard anything about a 'Green Flame Torch'."
"Have you, Ron?"
"No, not at all."
"This is insane. I don't even think I'll know where to begin."
"Do we ever?"
"True."
"Look you two, why don't we go to bed, and think about things, and see if we can come up with an answer."
Harry was out the door before she finished.
A man in a black robe was sitting in an Chinese temple in the Wan Chi province of Mizaru. Cho Chang walked into the building.
"Sir! I've come for my briefing."
"Sit down, child. There is no need for the chain of command in the holy shrine."
Cho walked across the floor, and sitting on the pouf in front of her master.
"I know that you have told me not to ask, but how much does Harry know?"
"I know I have told you, but you can now throw that out the window child. His training is going to become much more intense. He will be learning more things in his world, then more people will ever know in a lifetime. In our world, his mind will be more honed than that of the Sovereign One's.
Many people do not like what we are doing here. They say that we should not interfere with their world, and let the events of their world happen."
"I am not going to sit here and do nothing, while the man that I love dies!"
"I know, child. I know. I also feel the same way, but in a different manner. I know that what ever happens in that world, will come in full force to ours. I know that if the evil there lives on, that we here will die."
"We can't die here, can we?"
"We can be hurt, and even killed. And if we die here, our soul is gone from everywhere."
Cho nodded, understanding what her master was saying, "I still haven't received an answer to my question. Could you please give me the answer, mother?"
"I could, and I will. He knows some about the Green Flame Torch, and about what he has to do with the torch, and that's all your father told me."
"Thank you mother." She stood up from the pouf, ready to walk out, when her mother asked her,
"Care to have some tea while you're here?"