Chapter 30 : Assault on Hogsmeade
[Author note : If you're interested in reading more chapters, search for Cathbel on the Patréon website (replace the é by an e)
KoSP : 6 chapters
Iron Lad squib : 7-8 chapters
Enjoy !]
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For the first time since he's been back to his full capabilities, Voldemort, leader of Death Eaters and hypocritical murdering supremacist, had convened his forces to address them. Sure of their impending victory, despite the setbacks in his plans, he decided to relish in the moment. Finally, he would end the little nuisance known as Harry Potter !
Thinking of him and how young he was, he couldn't help his mind to wander to another child who had crossed him… Ned Stark. He wasn't happy with the men and women sent to the US. Not at all ! His men were forbidden to go after Harry Potter because his pride wouldn't let anyone else kill the little brat, but Ned ? He's sent several teams to try and capture or, if it proved impossible, to kill him, only for them to be defeated and jailed. The only thing they managed was to rally a few purebloods there who shared their ideals. Those people would hopefully be useful in the conflict to come…
Harry Potter, the person with whom he shared a prophecy, his fated enemy… A child ! The fact that the fates had the galls to lump him together with the young half blood angered him. But more so, it was the fact that he didn't know what the complete prophecy was. He had already made a mistake all those years ago by jumping the wand and attacking the Potters. If only he could have gotten his hands on the prophecy… But this attack could help him in many ways.
Since the ministry was surprisingly competent under Amelia Bones, with the Aurors office receiving an increase in their budget, their movement had lost a lot of supporters. But most importantly, they'd lost their wealth. Once they'd taken the castle, they would not only show the world that Voldemort and his people were still strong, they could also remedy their financial problems. In addition, Hogwarts was one of, if not THE, most warded place in Britain, on top of being a defensible castle. He just needed to tweak the wards a bit to prevent the Ministry from flooing there…
The most important aspect and objective of this attack, however, was the access it granted the Dark Lord. Two people he needed to… have a word with lived in the Castle. The half blood brat who made his life so difficult, and the person who prophesied their battle : Sybill Trelawney. Soon, he would know. But first… It was time to give a rousing speech to his people.
* * * * *
In order to prevent as much loss of life as Ned could, he left for Hogsmeade after he revealed the Death Eaters intentions. And now, invisible once more and floating in silence above the small village, he waited with a certain amount of apprehension.
He regretted not having been able to forge Eighth metal for this. Maybe it wouldn't have really mattered since he also had to understand its possible applications, but maybe it would have… It was supposed to act much like Goblin silver only… more. Its other properties could be studied further into the future. He just would have loved to have a little more of an edge in the coming battle. Voldemort was not to be trifled with, no matter what he pretended in front of his parents.
Sure, he was not Circe, an all-powerful, immortal goddess of magic. But, in his own right he was still an accomplished, and more importantly, extremely ruthless dark wizard. Oh ! And mad, too… Can't forget that. Moreover, compared to the rabble that went after him for the last past months, the entourage of Voldemort coming this time was more dangerous. His lieutenants were coming this time : the Lestranges, Dolohov, Malfoy, Snape… Some of them were pretty strong too. And they had the numbers on their side, since he couldn't quite team up with the people here…
Although his armor's system would help him in navigating the battlefield, witches and wizards were not used to dealing with technology. Ned didn't want to risk being targeted by his allies because they were frightened by a sudden sound or an unknown spell. Not to mention he hadn't exactly ever worked with his 'kind' before. Plus, he was much more mobile than they were, being able to fly and open portals. Therefore, he was left with no other choice on this board than to play as a solo player…
« That's fine. Yeah, it's fine ! » Ned tried to convince and pump himself up.
The armor he was wearing didn't possess as much combat capabilities as his usual one. However, for silent infiltration and moving around unseen, Ned was pretty sure that it was the best. And today was the first day it would come to play into a real crisis situation. A battlefield, no less. This added to his insecurities and the young squib had to remind himself of his contingency.
« I'll change if it doesn't work out… Tony does it all the time in the movies. He even does it a lot in Iron Man 3. »
Recently, the young man had another breakthrough in his researches. Inspired by… a lot of fictions to be frank, Ned had tried to recreate a way to shrink things (and have them still in working order, 'cause that was the most important) ! The Wizarding world actually had solved this problem in the past with two answers to it : a charm and a potion. And while the charm worked mostly on inanimate or 'dead' objects, the potion or solution could be used for living things… The downside of the second answer was that it was limited in time and you couldn't exactly control how and when to change the subject's size.
Even though potion brewing wasn't exactly Ned's expertise, he worked on studying the solution, and deconstructed the charm to understand how they worked. He also used the unaltered charms on objects and the solution on a number of things as part of his process. And now, he had partially succeeded. If he had succeeded completely, which he would have preferred, his current armor would have the function installed in order to improve its sneaking capabilities.
Unfortunately, he was currently unable to shrink both an object and a living being at the same time and same rate of shrinking. If he had used while inside an armor, he risked causing himself heavy injuries and possibly death. He was not ready to die such a foolish death…
So, he constructed an armored truck to carry his armors, shrunk it and gave it to Winston for safe keeping. Since he was basically connected telepathically to his children, as well as the truck and its systems, Ned was confident in being able to switch armors on the fly if he really needed.
Suddenly, an alert for movement was sent on his HUD from the drones patrolling the village. The Death Eaters were apparating everywhere, masked and wearing black, like so many wannabe Grim Reapers. For a while more, the silence of this night reigned still, with only the sounds of the winds, distant conversations and the occasional insects echoing… And then, chaos ensued. The cries and shouts of people panicking or calling for help, the maniacal laughter of some of these sadistic bastards. Suddenly, a dark cloud seemed to cover the village.
Under the face plate, Ned's face became grim and serious, his gaze focusing and taking stock of the situation. Clenching his fists in a faint sound of mechanical whirring, he whispered to himself :
« Rescue operation is go ! »
* * * * *
On this previously calm night, as people were going about their business almost everywhere in the world, in an island country just off the coast of France, things suddenly started becoming… hectic. Before the Death Eaters and their master started their attack on Hogsmeade, small groups of sympathizers had been sent to cause chaos across the isles. Hopefully for them, it would reduce the number of aurors available for when they attacked the village, and then the castle.
As his secretary told him of the sudden increase in destruction of property, assault, fighting and even murders in the UK, Rufus Scrimgeour felt like something was odd. Still, he didn't intervene at this time, as his subordinates knew how to deal with such situations. So, when words of the attack on Hogsmeade came to his ears, the head of the auror office finally understood the nagging feeling at the back of his mind… It was all a diversion !
That's also when he received intel from one of his people's confidential informant that… The Death Eaters objective was to take Hogwarts. Although the man doubted they could accomplish something like this, except maybe with their Lord's help, the implications were rather disturbing. If they managed to enter the castle, it could devolve into a messy hostage situation and a battle between the students and Hogwarts' staff with the Death Eaters. If they added aurors and hit wizards on top of it all and you basically had a recipe for a disaster. Maybe not disaster, exactly… But a tragedy, that was for sure !
When the Head of the aurors finally acted, he did swiftly and with decisiveness. He requested for all aurors and hit wizards currently in the ministry to meet ASAP for an emergency briefing and as soon as they were there, he started to speak about the situation and firing instructions.
Despite his quickness however, moving armies or groups of people had always taken a certain amount of time… Time they lost for the counterattack on the Dark Lord and his supporters. Time they used to make even more damage and accomplish their goal…
* * * * *
Diving underneath a green spell-fire shot from a jackass on a broom, Ned retaliated with his shoulder-mounted batteries, firing two couple of heat-guided bombarda spells. They were low-powered, just as much to avoid pieces of people flying and raining on the village than it was to conserve power. That, and this armor didn't have much in the way of firepower ; it was simply designed with power efficiency when it came to battle.
Ned was surprised that someone managed to even spot him since his armor was invisible. Sure, someone did conjure a small storm and the rain made him a little more noticeable but… He was still an indistinct form flying in darkness, while the streets down below were lit up rather well and the fleeing people made for good targets.
« Probably shouldn't complain that they target me instead of them, though… » Ned muttered to himself.
His spells struck true, sending the black-covered goon plummeting down and into the streets, or onto rooftops… Ned wasn't sure and the situation didn't really allow for him to pay too much attention. The squib actually preferred to think that he hadn't just caused the death of someone, even though he was probably dead. It was strange since it wasn't the first time he killed or caused someone's death but… Guess it never really got easier. Thankfully !
On the ground, his HUD highlighted a family of three running for their lives : a woman, along with two young children, a boy and a girl. They were chased by two Death Eaters, firing spells, and either missing or countered by the woman, who waved her wand toward the duo. The Silver Lad reoriented himself and flew over there, losing altitude swiftly as he did so. Switching from flight to hoverskates once he was low enough, he used the remaining momentum and extended his arms to the sides, locking them in place.
The supremacists never saw it coming and only felt like they just smashed into a metal pipe the size of their face. They groaned and tried to get up, only to be stupefied.
In silence and only turning toward the witch and her progeny to make sure they were safe, Ned nodded to himself before taking to the sky once more. The battle was only beginning !