Summary: After Harry defeated the Dark Lord in their last year of Hogwarts; the trio went their separate ways leading Hermione to a Muggle University. Yet after dark activity is spotted at her school, Harry and Ron come down to join her once again to solve the case. Unfortunately after Harry finally realizes his feeling for Hermione, he finds himself not only fighting for the wizarding world, but also fighting for the woman he loves.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to J K Rowling and Warner brothers.
Beta Reader: Erin Dray
College Life
Chapter 9: Taking Over
"My Loyal Supporters…. I welcome you to the beginning…the beginning of a new reign of power. No longer held back by the constraints of a half breed, we will show everyone what TRUE pure blood wizards are made of…"
There was a roar of approval over the extended crowed of black cloaked men.
"On this very hill, less then three years ago, our progress was set back. So many of us believed that we were over; but it was not our cause that ended that night, rather the one man separating us from what we should be and what we are… The same man that said he wanted the mudbloods to die, yet he was part one himself. And this weakness showed itself all to well those three years ago. A boy, not any older then my own son… A boy who had countless time escaped from him… A boy, already injured by my wand, killed our leader, but where he is weak, I am strong. I have the knowledge and the skill to see his faults and capitals on them. I will not let this boy get in my way because this time I have the upper hand. I have something more valuable to him then his own life. I have…his… girl."
At these words, two Death Eater came out with Hermione. Her head bobbed up and down as the two men slung her forward. The crowed erupted again in loud applauded for their new leader and his success. Lucius brought his hands up to call for silence among his masses.
"Not only have I taken her from him, I have also been able to persuade her to make a potion for me. One that will make me more powerful then Voldemort ever could imagine; and for an extra bonus, this little beauty," Lucius walked over to cup Hermione's face, "will be my eternal protection form that boy. By the end of this night, you will be able to see my transformation from a mortal man into a God…"
Harry, Draco, and Ron stood on the outskirts of the hill hiding themselves from the mob of Death Eaters. Although Lucius chose this location to represent his rebirth from the Dark Lord's ashes, it was originally Voldemort's chosen battleground. Harry could remember this place like he had fought there yesterday, but the three years had not changed its appearance.
Hell's Hill, as the locals called it, was located on London's outskirts where it had been rumored to be haunted by fallen soldiers who once fought here. The whole top of the hill was clear of any trees, giving it a great platform to look down upon your enemies, but what Lucius had not taken to consideration was the large amount of forest that surrounded the area. Voldemort had transferred both Harry and himself there so many years ago to insure that no one else would try to interfere with their battle, but Voldemort had never had to worry about trespassers because no one knew where they where. Lucius was not that lucky.
As they crouched in the bushes, Draco and Harry were staying as quiet as possible to make sure they could hear Lucius' every word. Unfortunately, Ron's had different enemies on the watch. As one moved toward him, Ron quickly jumped to his feet trying to get away as fast as he could.
Drawing his wand, Harry looked up to Ron and asked, "What's wrong?"
Ron keep dancing around looking very nervous, "A whole group of spiders about crawled on my foot, and they won't stop following me."
"Well, if you don't get down now, we will have more things to worry about than just spiders," Draco snapped, but I was a little too loud with his comment.
One of the watchmen heard some noise coming from the brush, and started coming their way. Luckily, Draco and Harry had enough sense to pull Ron quickly down before he could see him. To their misfortune, the Death Eater was coming straight towards them and their presence would not be taken so well by the rest of the group.
Harry quickly cast a disillusioning charm on the three of them so that they would not be noticed, yet you could still see their outline. The watchman got closer and closer until he was right in front of the bush that was hiding behind. Ron could sweat dripping off his nose, and he was dying to itch it.
"Braiden, what are you doing?" Another watchmen called back to the lost Death Eater, who was still completely focused on finding what had made that noise. Without even turning his head to address is comrade, Braiden called back, "I thought I heard something."
The other Death Eater quickly snapped back. "Well I didn't, so come back here. I don't want to be the one punished because you weren't listening."
Braiden scanned the area one last time before giving up, "Ok, I'm coming. I'm coming."
When the watchmen finally reached his post again, Ron blew out a sigh of relief. "That was a close one," he stated, still being held back by Harry and Draco.
Draco immediately pushed Ron away from him. "Well, if it wasn't for your insolence, we would have not been in this situation," he growled under his breath.
Ron, now released from both men, started to wipe the place were Draco's hand once was. Still working on his arm, he stated coolly, "Well, I'm not the one having daddy problems."
Draco, who was already getting tired of putting up with Ron, started turning red from anger. "At least I don't live in a pig pen."
Ron, whose concentration had long left the situation, started to point his wand in the direction of Malfoy. "Don't take your lack of fatherly affection out on me."
"You want to see affection, come here you little…" Malfoy lunged at Ron, going straight for the neck, but Ron had his wand ready for him. As Malfoy brought his hands up ready to strangle Ron, their was a blast that caused Draco to go rigid and fall to the ground, yet it wasn't from Ron's wand. Ron started to laugh at the surprised expression on Malfoy's face, but his laugh was interrupted as he too was hit with the same curse.
The boy's eyes wandered around searching for their enemy, yet the only man in sight was Harry, who had his arms crossed and his wand in hand.
Harry watched as they both fixed him with a deadly stare, as that was the only thing they could do in their current condition. Harry started to smile as he turned to face his task ahead of him. Now that he had his two companions under control, he could think of a plan.
For so many years, he had been working on trying to kill Voldemort and capture his minions. He had studied many defense strategies in the war against the Dark Lord, yet he had not studied much of attacking strategies. Plus, how was he going to drag Hermione away with her fighting against him all the way? 'Well, I guess that is how Draco can help,' he thought somberly. From there his mind wandered, 'What if I can't break the curse? What will happen if I do, and she still likes Draco?' but a swift hit to the back to the head interrupted these thoughts.
Harry turns to see who had come out of the curse first to be greeted by Ron waving at him and point to his mouth. Harry answered his unspoken question, "No, Ron, I can't stand to hear you to bickering any more. We came here to get Hermione back and the only way we are going to do this is by having a plan."
Ron started to wave his arms around and point to himself. This looked quite comical because he was frozen in mid laugh. Harry chuckled and gave his first real smile in the past month. Harry looked at his friend again and gave pity by taking the curse off him and Malfoy, yet Draco didn't find the humor in the situation. Draco stated plainly, "Can we just get this over with so I can leave you two?"
Harry scowled at his remark but continued on his train of thought. "We could ambush them."
"No, that would just make us easy prey. We are out-numbered almost 20 to one out there." Draco stated nonchalantly.
"Or I could distract the man while you two get Hermione."
"Well that would work, but you forgot about Lucius. He is not just going to let us come up there and take her. If I am the one to get Hermione, as I suspect the case will be, especially since she will only obey me, then Ron is the only one left to face Lucius and we all know how that would end."
Ron scowled at Draco, but stated, "If you would let me speak, I have a better plan."
Draco rolled his eyes, "Weasley has a plan. Come on, Weasley, you know food does not distract everyone like it does you."
Harry tried to gloss over Draco's insults with, "Yeah, Ron, tells us your plan."
"Well, first it does not involve food, but it does involve a distraction. You see, I could go to the other side of the bushes and make a big enough commotion to get all the Death Eaters to come after me. Then that will only leave you, Draco, to get Hermione, and Harry here to take on Lucius."
Harry immediately spoke up, "Ron that is suicidal. You can't take on that many Death Eaters at one time."
Ron looked back at Harry seriously, "Harry, to have any chance of saving Hermione, you will need to have as few as possible eyes on you, and I would love to help with that. Also, I'm a fully qualified Auror. I have been through all the training. Although I don't have much physical practice as you may have had, I still can do the job. Give me this chance."
Harry still looked skeptical, but Draco piped up, "I'm all for Weasley killing himself."
From the background came a big roar from the crowd "From this day forward, we will be respected. We will be feared. We will be Lords…." The crowed erupted again in cheering, while Harry's stomach did a flop.
Draco looked to the two of them. "That's our cue. It's either now is never."
Without a word, Ron got up and looked to Harry. Harry stared back knowing that Ron was waiting for his call. Ron eyes held Gryffindor spirit and Harry knew he could not stop him. He gave his nod, and Ron smiled as he quietly walked through the forest.
Draco looked at Harry then hit him on the shoulder. "Well, we can't just stand here, let's get her back." Harry nodded again, but gave a silent prayer for his friend going into battle, "God's speed Ron…God's speed."
*
Ron steadily crept around the trees trying not to make a sound. All the while, Lucius continued on his ranting. He raised the vial and called out, "This is our time. Time to unite and conquer all those who would oppose us. Those do-gooders that thought they could kill us by killing our leader will see what all they did was delay the inevitable. We will be powerful again. We will succeed in our endeavors. We will control the world." Just then Lucius lifted the vial to his mouth.
Harry and Draco jumped up in unison. "The idiot is going to be too late."
"Ron come on."
Everyone stood there in awed silence waiting for his transformation. Just when Lucius was about to down the liquid, the red head jumped out of his hiding place, but no one even noticed. Noticing the urgency, he called out over the hushed crowed, "Excuse me could anyone tell me where the bathroom is, I really need to go."
Almost in unison all eyes turned from Lucius to Ron. One of the men in the crowed shouted out, "That's Potter's friend. Let's get him." With that call to arms, the man went into action charging Ron.
The redhead readied himself by casting a quick protective shield as the men came toward him.
Once Lucius noticed who had made the interruption, he quickly called out, " Keep a look out. If Weasley's here, so is Potter." Lucius's elite stayed back, almost circling their master, as the rest of the Death Eaters went after the intruder.
But the men didn't have to look far because just then Harry came out of the green brush that hide him. "Looking for me?" he asked while he unsheathed his wand as if it was a sword.
Although Harry was now in the open, the majority of the Death Eaters were still encircling Ron. As Draco suspected, they were severely out-numbered, Ron taking on almost a hundred men on his own. It was a good thing he was good at his protective shields because as the men came forward, they each started to perform their own curses in turn. With each curse, Ron's shield became weaker and weaker. Life seemed surreal in his protective bubble as colors exploded all around him. Almost as if life was in slow motion, Ron watched the final curse hit his shield causing it to collapse. This sudden crash caused life to come back to speed in double time as Ron tried to dodge as many curses as he could. Ron, who had never been as athletic in karate or other sports as Harry had been, did have good reflexes. Unfortunately, a man can only go so far until his luck runs out.
Even though he was jumping around like a Spanish jumping bean, curse after curse still hit him. As he ducked a killing curse, a Death Eater from behind got him in the shoulder with a cutting curse. He instantly cried out in pain, but he could not think about the pain right now if he was going to get out of this alive. Out of frustration, Ron started to talk to himself, "Ron, what are you doing… You knew you couldn't do this alone?" Suddenly, it came to him in a flash of light, but this time it came from his wand rather then theirs.
In one smooth motion, Ron pointed his wand at himself and disappeared. The Death Eaters curse from the opposite side of the circle missed their target completely hitting the other Death Eater on the other side. This confused all the men in the middle, causing them to stop what they were doing. There was a cease fire among the men as they all stood there confused as to what to do, yet almost as if they had been waiting for it, a man from the back called out, " He must have put an illusion charm on himself. Keep shooting." As on cue, the Death Eaters started firing again. The men in the middle were bombarded by spells, taking them each out one by one.
Ron, who had apparated to the back of the circle, just watched with amusement as they followed the orders he had shouted from behind them. He smiled to himself, thinking, 'You know, when people listen to me, things really get done a lot faster.'
As the other Death Eaters were preoccupied in trying to find Ron, he quickly stunned the nearest Death Eater and stole his cloak. Now in his own dark cloak, he was unable to be distinguished from the other men. Since they were taking care of the middle for him, he went on the outskirts of the circle taking down the outer rim.
*
Thanks to Erin, I was able to get this out, but don't worry I have much more coming very soon. Please R/R.
Monday