I recently rented Chromehounds from Blockbuster. It's the most fun on my X-Box 360 in a while. You can only play Gears of War for so long before it gets boring.
I don't own Harry Potter. Why do I have to keep telling you that?
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Chapter 4 - Taking Out the Trash
Ever since Harry had arrived at Hogwarts, he and Hermione had fallen into a routine. They would sleep on opposite sides of the bed, only to wake up in each other's arms (to his eternal embarrassment, he had woken up aroused a few times as well), then they would eat breakfast before physical training. After hours of training, they would have lunch before they went to Archie to help Harry with his power problem. However, despite his best efforts, Harry continued to discharge more power than was necessary, so they quickly abandoned that effort, instead talking about the various strengths and weaknesses of the Ministry of Magic headquarters. Then they would eat dinner and talk for a while before falling asleep and repeating the process.
Much to Harry's surprise, Hermione began teaching him how to shoot a gun to conserve his magic.
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FLASHBACK
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"You're sure about this?" Harry asked as Hermione opened a small vinyl bag and pulled out a black pistol along with several magazines of ammunition.
"I'm sure, Harry," Hermione said as she threw the empty bag onto a table that the Room of Requirement conjured. "We both know that by the time you control your magic to the level it need to not be wasteful, you'll probably run out, so we need an alternative." She held up the empty weapon and entered her lecture phase. "This is a Colt forty-five caliber; I can't remember the model number right now. This weapon is similar to the standard issue weapons given to American police, and can pack quite a kick.
"Some safety rules: firstly, unless someone gives you the gun in a sack full of pieces, never assume that it's empty. Whenever someone gives you the gun, check to make sure you can see light through the slide, see?" she asked, pointing to the hole made by the locked-back slide. Harry looked through the opening to see that it was clear and nodded. "After that, stick your finger in there to check if there's a bullet in the barrel." She demonstrated by sticking her pinky finger into the slide for a moment before extracting it.
"Secondly, unless it is physically impossible, never point a gun at anything except what you intend to shoot, because unlike a wand, guns can discharge on their own if you're not careful. If you can't do that, then aim it at the least important target in the area.
"Thirdly, never put your finger on the trigger if you don't intend to fire. Got all that?" Harry nodded, but Hermione refused to hand him the weapon. "Repeat what I said then," she demanded.
"Always assume a gun is loaded, only point it at your target and never put your finger on the trigger unless you intend to shoot," Harry recited. Nodding in satisfaction, Hermione handed Harry the gun. After he checked it to make sure it was unloaded, she continued.
"Okay, firing," she began, handing Harry a magazine. "Slide this into the bottom of the grip, like so," she said, demonstrating with her hands. Nodding, Harry slid the magazine into the gun with a click. "Now, push that tab there," she continued, pointing to a small tab on the side of the gun. Harry complied, and the slide snapped back into place with a loud click. "Okay, right now the gun is in an unsafe position; notice how the hammer is cocked back?" she asked, pointing to the relevant part. "To make it semi-safe, push down on that tab right there." Harry pushed the tab down, and the hammer slid back into a closed position. "See that switch there by your thumb? Flip that. Your weapon is now ready to be fired." The Room of Requirement conjured two pairs of earmuffs, and Hermione placed one on Harry's head before donning her own. It also conjured a mannequin for a target.
"Okay, to aim you take those two little yellow dots on the sides of the gun and line them up so they're level with the little yellow dot in the middle," Hermione yelled so that Harry could hear her through the earmuffs. "Are they lined up? Okay, cock the hammer back and pull the trigger softly until it resists." While Hermione stepped back, Harry cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger back. "Okay, slowly pull it the rest of the way back." Harry slowly pulled the trigger back. Slowly...slowly...
BANG!
The gun fired, and the bullet struck the mannequin on its right side, near the navel.
"Not bad for a first try," Hermione yelled. "Just keep practicing; I enchanted those magazines to never run out of bullets." Hermione watched while Harry fired a few more bullets, striking the mannequin in various places before ejecting the magazine and setting it down.
"How did you learn to fire a gun anyway?" Harry asked as they took off their earmuffs. "It doesn't seem like something that you would be into." Hermione snorted at his words.
"It's not. My father taught me when I was thirteen `just in case,'" she said, quoting her last words with her fingers.
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END FLASHBACK
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Harry was interrupted from his thoughts by a knocking on the door. He opened it to show a winded thirteen-year-old Ted Lupin.
"Aunt Hermione sent me to tell you that there's a meeting in the Ravenclaw tower in five minutes," the
brown-haired teenager panted. "Go, I just need to catch my breath for a minute," he gasped, seeing
Harry's concerned look, and the older man rushed by him to the nearest Vanishing Cabinet.
"Okay, Ravenclaw Tower, that's...dark blue," Harry muttered, twisting the knob on the side until it
showed the appropriate color and climbed into the cabinet. When the doors opened, Harry jumped out and dashed towards
the tower, and rushed into the meeting room with mere seconds to spare. "Sorry I'm late," Harry panted as
he sat down in the nearest chair.
"Not at all," Hermione said. She waved her wand and the torches in the room dimmed. She tapped a stone in her hand with her wand, and a crystal embedded into the table they were all sitting at projected a three-dimensional blueprint of the Ministry of Magic.
"Now that we've broken Mister Potter out of Azkaban, we can work on damaging the Ministry itself," Hermione spoke in a professional tone. She tapped the stone, and the projection changed to show a diagram of the Ministry hierarchy; Harry noticed that most of them was those who sent him to prison. "We don't have enough information to annihilate them in one go, so we'll have to deal with them out slowly and quietly. We'll spirit them away, extract information from them, obliviate them and return them; if we have too many `accidental' deaths, Umbridge will become suspicious. The exceptions, besides Umbridge herself, are these three." She tapped the stone, and three portraits were highlighted and enlarged. "Anyone who was in Hogwarts between 1991 and 1996 will probably know why these three are of particular interest to us." Another tap of the stone, and two of the portraits receded, leaving only the scruffy-looking brunette. "Seamus Finnegan is currently head of Sewage Treatment-" everybody in the room chuckled, and Harry grinned at the appropriate position for the traitor. "...Which is the lowest head position, and therefor the easiest to capture. In addition, as a half-blood in a hierarchy full of purebloods, I'm sure that if he were to...disappear, he would not be missed. Your duties are in your folders; we leave at 1420 hours. You're dismissed." As the other members of the mission milled out, Hermione walked up to Harry.
"What did you think?" she asked him.
"You're a great commander," Harry said honestly. "So, Finnegan eh?" he continued, raising an eyebrow. Hermione simply shrugged in response.
"You know, we have space for one more..." she began, trailing off.
"Where are we meeting?" Harry asked immediately. Hermione grinned and told him to meet at the Great Hall at 2:20 before handing him a folder and leaving to prepare.
"You might want to put on some glamour charms as well," she added as she left.
At 2:18, a now blonde-haired Harry arrived at the Great Hall where Hermione and three other men stood.
"Here," Hermione said, giving him a black watch. "It doubles as a communications device; just bring your wrist to your mouth like this," she continued, demonstrating. She also gave him an ear bud that looked like it came from a music player. "This allows you to hear other communications. Your watch also activates as a portkey, which will take us to our destination right about...now." As she spoke, Harry felt the familiar tug of a portkey transport them to a dark side-alley. "Tap the face with your wands to reactivate them. You three, go into there and order something," Hermione ordered to Harry and two other men, pointing to the small restaurant they were hiding behind. "You, go up there until your mark," she ordered a man that dressed and smelled like a drunk homeless man. "You have ten minutes to take your positions, move out." Harry and his two teammates walked into the restaurant and ordered separate tables, neither too close or too far from each other, but all facing the door.
"Drunken Monkey is in position," a voice rang into Harry's ear.
"Silver Hand is in position," Hermione's voice responded.
"Average Joe in position," another voice said.
"Average Mike in position," the fourth voice said. Harry propped his hands up and leaned to his wrist, but realized that he didn't have a codename. Shaking his head, he whispered, "Snake Charmer is in position."
"Confirmed, Snake Charmer, target should arrive in approximately six minutes," Hermione responded. Harry ordered a bowl of soup and a cup of tea and slowly drank while he sat and waited, staring at the door. Eventually, Seamus walked in and sat down at a table.
"Dirty Scotsman has entered target zone; Drunken Monkey, execute plan," Hermione ordered. Two minutes later, the "drunken" agent came stumbling into the restaurant, singing loudly. He laughed giddily and slurred incoherently as he harassed several patrons before collapsing on Finnegan, giggling. In his disgust, Finnegan failed to notice the agent slip a sickle into his pocket.
"You're very pretty," the agent said, giggling. Recognizing the code phrase that the operation was successful, Harry and the other two agents got up from their seats and grabbed the drunken agent and forcibly threw him out of the restaurant before returning to their meals.
"Tee-minus two minutes," the drunk groaned into his watch. "Merlin, did you have to throw me so hard?" he groaned as he dragged himself out of sight.
"Sorry, Jim, but it had to look convincing," the voice of "Average Mike" said apologetically. They watched anxiously as Finnegan continued eating, unaware of what was going to happen to him. As he was about to take a sip of his tea, he disappeared as the portkey in his pocket activated, scaring some of the other restaurant patrons. Throwing down the money to pay for their meals, Harry and the two agents walked out and gathered back to the alley where they appeared and reactivated their portkeys to take them back to Hogwarts. As Hermione made to leave, Harry placed a hand on her shoulder.
"When you're done with him, I want a crack at him," Harry said softly.
"Will do," Hermione said, patting his hand. "You did well back there, I'm proud of you," she said honestly as she walked to the dungeons to interrogate Finnegan.
Several long hours of interrogation later, Hermione stepped out of the interrogation room was with a green crystal in her hands to see Harry standing there, his hands behind his back, under his robe.
"How long have you been standing there?" she asked as she closed the door.
"A few minutes," Harry said. "My turn?" Hermione nodded and stepped aside so he could open the door and walk in. Inside was a bare room: no carpet, no furniture, just four stone walls, a ceiling and a floor. He also saw Finnegan fidgeting nervously in the far end of the room. "It's been a while, Seamus," Harry said calmly.
"Harry! It's good to see you, mate!" Seamus exclaimed, failing to keep the nervousness out of his voice. "What are you doing here?" Harry shrugged as he stepped closer, his hands still behind his back.
"Prison was a bitch, so I got out," Harry said conversationally as he stopped about ten meters away from Finnegan. "I've got something to ask you now," he continued, pulling a gun from behind him. "Why did you betray me?" Harry asked coldly.
"Whoa, Harry, think about this," Finnegan said, panicking. Harry laughed icily at the terrified man.
"`Think about this?' I've spent thirteen years in hell doing little else than what I'm going to do with you and the others one I get my hands on them. I'll ask you one more time, why did you betray me? You have until three to answer. One," Harry counted, flicking the safety off on the gun. "Two," he continued, cocking the hammer. "Thr-" he started, but was interrupted by Finnegan's panicked scream.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you!" he screamed. "I don't know why Ron or Ginny turned against you, but I did it because, well, I guess deep inside, I still thought you were crazy, and with You-Know-Who gone, you'd be the next Dark Lord. It's stupid, I know, but it's the truth." Harry eyed him carefully before lowering his gun, shaking his head.
"Finnegan, that has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life," Harry spat. "You know, when I stepped in here, I couldn't decide whether I should shoot you or not, but now I've come to a decision." Without warning, Harry quickly raised the gun back up and pulled the trigger.
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Ooh, Harry's pissed.
The safety and firing rules demonstrated at the beginning are from my first (and so far, only) experience firing a gun. However, should you decide to try it for yourself, be sure to hear the rules from a PROFESSIONAL first!
Don't forget to read and review!
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