Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
The Time Meddlers
Chapter Twenty-Nine - Fighting Back
"Every night Aunt Amelia complains about how much the bureaucracy is holding the government back from fighting Umbridge, so we can't count on their help!" shouted Susan. "Why won't you accept help from those not bound by that, Harry?" She'd spent the last twenty minutes trying to convince Harry and Hermione to let the D.A. help them. Hermione seemed convinced, but her boyfriend was still resisting.
"I don't want them killed because of me," he replied stubbornly.
"If we die, it'll be because of Shadow, not you!" argued Susan. "You may not have noticed, but you're not the only one with a reason to fight back." Harry noticed that the scar above her left eye, a memento of her time as Umbridge's prisoner, hadn't faded at all, but didn't comment on it.
Hermione, looking like she'd just understood something, turned to Susan. "Could you allow us a few minutes? I think I know what's bothering Harry. It's kind of private."
Harry glared at his girlfriend. "What do you mean, bothering me? I just…"
"Alright. Five minutes. I'll be in that room." The young redhead pointed at a door and walked toward it. Once she was in the other room, Hermione turned to her boyfriend.
"This isn't about the D.A. This is about Cedric. You're afraid he's going to die and you won't be able to stop it."
"Can you guarantee me that that won't happen?" asked Harry, not bothering to argue with his companion of two lifetimes. She knew him far too well. "Not just to Cedric but all of them?"
"No," she replied, shaking her head solemnly, "but they have as much right to fight back as we do…some of them have more reason. And the fact is that we'll need help. We're not superheroes."
Harry let out a sigh. He knew she was right. He could either spend the next few hours arguing about it until he gives in, or spend that time planning how to avoid casualties. "Fine. Tox and Sky will be paying the D.A. a visit. Let's call Susan back in."
--TM--
"That'll never work!" declared Bartholomew Headon, an aging member of the Wizengamot. "We'll just lose more people. The Muggle-borns will have to tough it out." They were meeting in a classroom on the first floor of Hogwarts.
"In concentration camps?!" shouted Minister Bones. "The odds that anyone could survive a month in one of those places is negligible. We have the location of one now. We just have to…"
"There are casualties in every war," interrupted the representative of another ancient house, Timothius Caladron. Bones had long suspected he was a pureblood supremist, despite his family's neutrality in the Voldemort war. "That is what they should be considered."
"We must help those people!" argued Augusta Longbottom, also a Wizengamot member, but unfortunately her pleas fell on mostly deaf ears.
After that frustrating debate that ended in yet more non-action, Amelia decided to send a message to someone else…someone who might actually do something about the concentration camp that some of her remaining aurors had located. The atrocities they'd witnessed were horrendous, and that was from a distance.
--TM--
"These are the people who rescued me from that evil monster. They're fighting outside the government's limitations, and are willing to let us join them," said Susan, introducing her friends' alter egos. "This is Tox and that's Sky." Both were taller than their normal sizes wearing black robes obscuring their faces as they stood at the front of a D.A. meeting. Cedric had approved of Susan introducing her rescuers to the group.
"Obviously," said Harry. "Tox was not my birth name." He received a few chuckles. "I took on that name to protect my family and friends, and because I am toxic to my enemies. Sky sends them flying away, desperate to escape." He took a deep breath. "I was told that you want to make a difference in this war. We can help you with that."
"How do we know we can trust you?" asked Seamus Finnegan.
"If you don't trust us, that's fine," replied Sky. "You can stay behind while those of you who want to help raid a concentration camp to rescue over a hundred muggle-borns."
"I didn't say I don't want to help," argued Seamus. "It's just that we don't know you. Why don't you take off your hoods?"
"What's your name?" asked Tox, even though he knew his roommate well enough.
"Seamus Finnegan."
"Mr. Finnegan, we don't want to share our true identities with anyone. You all can feel free to hide your identities as well. Who we are isn't important. What is important is that one of our most reliable sources found the location of a muggle-born death camp. We can't successfully raid the camp on our own, so we need help. Based on how many of you want to help us, we'll come up with a plan." Harry/Tox looked at everyone in front of him. "This will be extremely dangerous, and I can't guarantee that all of us will even survive. We won't look down on anyone who doesn't want to come."
"I'll do it," announced Cedric.
"Count us in," said Fred and George Weasley together. Before long, over ninety percent of the D.A., including Seamus, had agreed to participate. That made fifty allies.
"Thank you," said Sky. "We'll return in two days with a plan, along with a map of the camp. In the meantime, I suggest you study up on lethal spells for the guards as well as healing ones for the prisoners."
--TM--
"I know it's necessary, but that doesn't mean I have to like it," said Harry. He and Hermione were about a mile from the concentration camp they'd been informed about through a letter from Amelia Bones, about to do some spying of their own.
"I know you like to do the most dangerous parts, but my form is perfect…"
"What if someone sees you and shoots?"
"That's highly unlikely, but if they do, then you'll have to crawl after me without revealing yourself." She took a deep breath. "I doubt anyone will suspect an innocent owl flying above the camp."
"I suppose," agreed Harry reluctantly.
"On the other hand, the prisoners are so hungry, they'll probably try to eat any snake that happens to crawl near them," replied Hermione with a smirk. "We've got to do this now, while we've still got daylight." She quickly kissed her boyfriend and turned into an owl. He quickly turned into a snake while she took off into the sky.
--TM--
"As promised, one complete map of the prison," said Sky the next day at a D.A. meeting. No one had noticed the two animals as they crawled around or flew above the concentration camp. Once they'd seen it up close, they were able to use their memories (in a Pensieve) to draw up the map. Of course, some of what they saw happening was worse than they'd imagined.
"We saw a dozen guards, but there may be more," added Tox.
"We've marked their locations with…" In lecture mode, Sky/Hermione explained everything on the map and explained their plan. They needed to get into position so that every guard was caught by surprise and killed at the same time. Then it would be easy to get the prisoners out of their cells.
"If you saw what I did," said Harry/Tox earnestly, "the way they treat their prisoners…especially the little girls…" His voice failed him.
"You'd know that killing them is making the world a better place," finished Sky grimly. "If they survive our raid, they'll simply abuse more muggle-borns. If any of you don't think you can kill a child-rapist/murderer, then don't come along. We'll understand." She waited a few moments, but no one backed out.
"Alright," said Tox, who'd found his voice again, "let's work out the details. We're going there tonight."
--TM--
It was a dark night with only a quarter-moon to illuminate the area at 1:30 a.m. A few trees were scattered around, with birds nesting in them. A small stream flowed nearby, and the sounds coming from the moving water was soothing. The location was so peaceful and deserted that it was truly hard to believe that it was less than half a mile from a horrendous Wizarding concentration camp, but it was.
A flash of light followed by the sudden appearance of more than fifty magical teenagers interrupted this scene, waking birds from their slumber and causing them to fly away. The teenagers were all dressed in black and holding a long rope which had acted as a portkey. Their shoes had been silenced before making the trip so that guards wouldn't hear them approach.
"Alright," said Tox. "We all know what to do. Everyone disillusion yourself and we'll start walking, oh, and try not to walk into each other." After a quick chuckle, they began performing the spell that would allow them to walk unnoticed by the guards. Cedric had drilled that charm into their heads until they could perform it in their sleep.
Quietly they marched toward the fence, passing through the anti-apparition/anti-portkey wards within a minute. Hermione had made the portkey to land them as close to those wards as possible. Once they got to the gate, Harry and Hermione started levitating everyone over it. Since they were looking for the distortions, they were able to find all fifty volunteers, getting them safely over the fence before joining them.
Just as the day before, there were twelve guards posted outside the structures. Nearly half of the D.A. members divided up into pairs of two and approached each guard while most the others went to the building that housed the Shadow's people. Harry and Cedric made their way to the prison houses where the muggle-borns were kept. Hermione turned into an owl and flew above the camp, using her enhanced bird eyesight to make sure everyone was in place. Once she had accounted for each member of her team, she gave the signal in the form of a, "Hoot, hoot!"
--TM--
Ulysses Sangleton and his partner, Francis Vladamour, were among the guards who were standing outside watching for any escape attempts. Ulysses was nearly asleep when he heard a sound.
"Did you hear that, Frank?" he asked.
"It was just an owl hooting. You're getting para…" At that moment, they were both blasted by, "Reducto!" spells being fired in stereo. What was left of the well-paid mercenary purebloods who'd participated in the takeover of the Ministry was not a pretty sight.
At the same time, the identical event happened to every guard posted outside while Tox and Cedric blasted the door to the prison open. The Hufflepuff winced at the smell. "I told you to use the bubblehead charm beforehand," teased Harry as he rushed in. He had to fight his urges to vomit, cry and scream as he, for the second time in two days, saw the condition of the prisoners. He looked around for guards and found only one. Unfortunately, he was in the process of raping one of the younger girls. "Reducto!" he shouted while aiming his wand at the naked pervert's head. He absently wondered how much extra therapy that part of the rape would force the girl to endure as he scourgified her before conjuring a new robe for the crying girl to wear. He and Cedric quickly emptied the cells when they heard spell fire outside.
--TM--
Meanwhile, Hermione/Sky was leading twenty-five D.A. members into the main building in the center of the prison camp. It was very distinct-looking both for its size (it was clearly the largest building there, with at least three floors) and design. It looked much like a muggle government building in London. All the other structures in the concentration camp looked like a newer version of the construction in Knockturn Alley (or the Burrow) - haphazardly put together with only magic making it stand. Sky pointed her wand at the door and began working on dismantling the wards protecting the building from attack while the D.A. protected her.
Within a minute after the twelve outside guards were killed, the doors burst open and Shadow troopers emerged, wands out and in their all black uniforms. These fighters who looked remarkably like traditional muggle ninjas gave no words of warning, immediately firing upon the group of invaders, who responded quickly.
"Reducto!" shouted half of the D.A. present while the others enlarged rocks to serve as barriers to absorb the unforgivable (at least to Amelia Bones' government-in-exile) curses that were fired at them.
"They're protecting the one in the middle!" shouted one of the Shadow warriors after dodging out of the way. "I think he's trying to take down the wards!" Hermione's grin was hidden beneath her unisex disguise, which, in addition to hiding her identity, hid her gender as well. She redoubled her efforts to take down the complicated wards while keeping an eye toward the army they were attacking, in case she had to dodge.
After fifty Shadow warriors joined the fight, the door to their headquarters was closed. "Avada Kedavra!" was shouted by several of Umbridge's soldiers, with a few of them hitting their targets. Hermione was about to stop her Spellwork to dodge one of the green light beams before one of her allies conjured a piece of granite in front of her. The rock exploded, with small pieces hitting her, creating small scratches and scrapes, but she could continue taking the final set of wards down.
"Thanks," muttered Sky to her protector, who she realized was Susan Bones. She was probably the only member of the D.A. who knew how to do that, thanks to her extra training with them. After the next volley of spells, which resulted in five Shadow warriors dying along with one D.A. member, the wards around the building glowed brightly for one second before falling. "Let's move in!" she ordered, and her troops started advancing, just as the original twenty-four guard-assassins joined them, evening the odds.
--TM--
Harry/Tox pointed his wand ahead of him as he opened the door to see the battle going on at the concentration camp's headquarters. He looked at Cedric, who seemed eager to join the battle. "Our job is to get these people out of here so they can be portkeyed to Hogwarts. Then we can join the fight. You take the lead while I take the rear." He kept his wand out and looked around for any threats while the newly-freed prisoners walked through the doors and Cedric told them the direction to go.
Just as the last of the muggle-borns exited the building, one of the Shadow warriors fighting Hermione's team noticed them in the distance and shouted, "The prisoners are esc…" He stopped talking when Tox fired a, "Reducto!" at his head.
While the now-headless enemy's intentions had been to help his group of fighters, it had the opposite effect. Seven of his allies were momentarily distracted, leaving them open to attack. The D.A. was quite happy to provide that attack, turning the tide of the battle in their favor while Harry and Cedric led the prisoners safely out of the camp.
Once they cleared the main wards of the camp, Harry and Cedric distributed portkeys to the refugees and returned to the fight, finding that the D.A. was now inside the building, the entrance of which was surrounded by corpses. Fortunately, most of them were from the Shadow's team.
He and Cedric entered the building to find the Sky-led D.A. searching through every room for records and anything of value. There were only a handful of people left inside the building when they'd entered, and those were the ones not good at fighting. Clearly the Shadow had not expected such a direct attack. Once the building was emptied of anything interesting, which they would later sort through, they burned it down.
Sky warned the D.A., "Don't expect the next fight to be so easy. Umbridge will be surprised at this news, but she'll double her security everywhere else to prevent a loss like this."
"She's right," said Tox before sighing. "Also, this battle has cost us some of our friends who will be mourned." He took a deep breath. "But this is a victory to be celebrated. They did not die in vain!"
In total, the D.A.'s losses were minimal. Only five of them died - Seamus Finnegan, Marietta Edgecombe, Michael Corner, and two older students that Harry didn't know. They brought the bodies back to Hogwarts for a proper funeral that included a toast to the victorious dead.
--TM--
"Crucio!" shouted Umbridge after one of her minions reported that one of their concentration camps had been destroyed and the prisoners freed. She was actually physically in better shape than she'd ever been before, thanks to the elixir of life she'd been drinking daily for awhile now. No longer would someone be able to compare her to a toad. While she was still ugly, she had lost weight and gained more endurance, so it was easier to hold a spell longer. When she finally let the spell go (and the minion shakily crawl away), she turned to her second-in-command. "Severus, I think it's time we taught our opposition the consequences of their petty resistance. Start planning the attack on Hogwarts."
--TM--
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