Chapter 31 : Evolving battlefield
[Author note : If you're interested in reading more of my stories, or simply more chapters, come visit my page on the Patréon website (Replace é by an e). Look for Cathbel on their search engine. Enjoy !]
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Things were getting a bit hectic for Ned. As usual in battle situation, his power consumption was too high for comfort and for some reason…
« He's here ! Blast him ! »
…People kept managing to find him. He wondered if they even knew what they were firing at. Not that it mattered since the Death Eaters realized early on that someone was hindering their progress.
At the moment, the Death Eater's leader had yet to appear. Or maybe he just took a different route…
« What if those bozos were just another diversion ? »
The annoying thing with tyrannical madman was that it was very hard to know what they were up to. Even if Ned had found their hideout and used the knowledge to spy on their plans these last few months, there were things Voldemort just didn't share with anyone. Piss enough people off, and you start to wonder when they'll try and stick a knife in your back. Paranoia was actually a common symptom for these types of people… With reasons, of course.
« Any signs of them around the castle, guys ? »
« Sorry, Ned ! We're a little preoccupied at the moment ! » Winston's answer came through in his helmet, along with the disgusting sounds of squishing and mandibles clicking… Apparently, Mel and Winston were still on their mission to thin the acromantulas' numbers. Frankly, this was one of the reason why Ned was glad to have never gone to a magical schools. The professors were weird and Hagrid… Enough said !
Thinking of Hagrid, it seemed the half-giant had been exonerated by Amelia Bones before she became Minister. He was able to buy himself a new wand and didn't have to hide it in his umbrella anymore. Plus, he was apparently getting tutoring classes from whoever was willing to give them to him.
On a side note, Alastor 'Mad-eye' Moody had returned to teach DADA, or the longer and more annoying name Defense Against the Dark Arts. Returned might not be really appropriate since his 'first year' had been spent practically locked inside a trunk and it was actually his impostor, Barty Crouch Jr. who had given the classes. Was it caused by the curse or some other reason, Ned didn't know. In any case, the retired auror accepted to come back to Hogwarts to teach and he apparently spent some time teaching the former members of the DA about magical combat. Ned wondered how that went, since the auror might have been great at surviving, but he probably never heard of dodging… Seeing as how he was all disfigured and had a wooden leg.
Suddenly, Silver Lad was brought out of his thoughts by an alert on his HUD. Some kind of colored liquid was flying toward him. Assuming it was paint or something like it, he couldn't let it touch him ! He activated the phasing function of his armor and inwardly crossed his fingers that it worked, since he didn't have time to dodge… It did.
Ned heaved a sigh of relief as he took out the douchebag who tried to make him more of a target than he was. Back to the HUD, Ned had noticed that, for a while now, his thoughts drifted while he was in combat so he had set it up to nudge him out of his thoughts by sending him loud alerts. Okay, it was more like getting kicked or pushed off his bed… It worked at least !
As for the reason why he hadn't told anyone or even consulted a specialist… He was probably afraid, like many people, to be considered mentally ill. It was and still is a stigma in society, despite psychiatrists and doctors explaining otherwise. Besides, it wasn't as if it was debilitating. Dangerous, yes. But not debilitating. For now…
The fight continued for a while until the Ministry's forces finally showed up ! Since he didn't want to become a target of two groups, Ned decided to retreat and join with his children. It was for the best, as his armor's magic reserve were getting pretty low ! Flying to his destination, Ned wondered out loud :
« Do I change armor or not ? These magical people seem to have a kind of sixth sense to spot me even while invisible… Maybe firepower would be better in this case ? What do you think Bastion ? »
A sound of beeping and whirring noises answered him. He had programmed Bastion, along with Symmetra to fill in the spot previously held by Mel. And while Symmetra basically ran his family home, Bastion was in charge of helping him run the armors. Before this, he always wondered how people in the Star Wars universe could understand R2-D2 when he 'spoke'. Those bipping noises are a language ? He'd thought. Why not give him a voice ?
Although he probably should have done so, for Bastion, he didn't. Maybe because he wanted him as close to the original character as possible, or just because he wanted to know if he could decipher the language… Not very hard, all things considered. Especially when you programmed the language yourself. So, yeah… Now he could speak R2-D2… ish !
« That's what I thought too. This reactor's too depleted and it'll take too long to recharge. By that point, there'll be a lot of good people dead. Alright, then ! I guess the test was somewhat successful. At least, the phasing function works against certain spells. Let's find a way later for the environment not to give us away, deal ? »
« Bweeeeeeeeeoh. » Bastion agreed.
* * * * *
After Ned joined up with Winston, he had the gorilla-robot give him the shrunk truck and grew it. When he stepped in, the mechanized arms automatically started to remove the armor he was wearing, while another started to be dismantled in order to be mounted around his body. In under 5 minutes, the Silver Lad was now wearing something pretty much everyone was familiar with : the silver and blue armor.
Mel and Winston were currently resting, or rather, they were letting their reactors recover from the battle's energy expenditure. Winston sat on the ground, looking much like a gorilla would, if it weren't for his armor, weapon and the glasses he wore. As for Mel, she was lying on her belly, on a wide branch, looking through her scope for potential danger. It wasn't really necessary, since they were invisible flying drones hovering over their positions. Ned didn't point that out, however.
Using the legilimency function of his armor, Ned talked to his children.
« Any problems, here ? »
« Besides the magic consumption ? Not really. Perhaps the number of deadly oversized spiders in the forest… »
« Allons, Winnie ! Those spiders are cute ! It's a shame, really, that we have to exterminate them… »
Ned shrugged :
« Never was a fan of spiders myself… And besides, I don't want to exterminate them. I just want to reduce their numbers a bit… Aragog was a real horn dog ! Unless they started reproducing between themselves… And since in the original timeline, they joined up with the Death Eaters to bolster their numbers, if we can't prevent that, we can at least thin the herd.»
« As you say, Père ! Can I take their poison glands ? »
« Sure. It's no basilisk venom but their poison is still pretty potent. »
Reviewing briefly the drone's surveillance footage in fast-forward, Ned didn't spot anything strange with the forest. He knew, however, that the Death Eaters would use the Forbidden Forest to hide their forces and strike at the castle. As for why they attacked Hogsmeade first ? He could only assume that it was yet another ploy to decrease the number of aurors for the real attack on the castle.
The worst part of it was they couldn't not deal with those problems. They couldn't just ignore one disturbance over another, otherwise, the public would go berserk. Especially the ones who were involved by the people causing the troubles. In fact, even when the Ministry dealt with the problems, there often was backlash from the press because of loss of life, destruction of property… Even for something comparatively insignificant like light injuries.
It was just how society worked. People and the media didn't praise the government when they did a good job, but they nitpicked at every perceived mistakes.
« When you're ready to fight again, do so. However, if you spot any Death Eater or their nut-bag leader, fall back and retreat. Give me a heads up too, but that needs not be said, right ? »
« Understood. » Winston acknowledged and nodded. Mel just hummed.
« Alright ! I'll try to spot the giants. They should be hard to miss… »
Ned took off, piercing through the trees' canopy in one go. Winston glanced at his departure before he shared a glance with his sister. She answered his unasked question :
« I should be ready to go in 4 minutes and 39 seconds. »
« Alright. Then I'll wait… » Winston said as he retrieved the shrunken truck from the floor and hung it back on his waist.
* * * * *
Ned felt like he shouldn't haven spoken. Giants were… well, gigantic. They should easily be seen from the sky, like small mountains moving around. However, he couldn't spot a single one as he flew in circles around the castle grounds.
Was it possible for someone like Voldemort to disillusion an entire group of them ? Or did he have a way to apparate them all near Hogwarts ? If it was the former, he should still be able to somewhat tell if they were here as each steps would be like a small earthquake. But his sensors didn't detect any of that. As for the mass side-apparition… Ned doubted it. A portkey, then ?
« Possible… The Dark Lord knows the spell since his flunky used it on the Goblet of Fire in Harry's fourth year. And the ministry wouldn't be able to detect an illegal portkey before it was used. Damn… »
Suddenly, his sensors pinged something on his HUD. A distance away, on the forest floor, several humanoid presences had been detected. They were running toward the castle at relatively high speed for people running. However, what drew and alarmed the squib was that one of them, probably the leader since he was at the head of the group, was running on all four, like an animal.
Turning toward the night sky, Ned quickly located the moon and heaved a sigh of relief : it wasn't full. Not that it would really matter if what he suspected was true. He positioned himself and lowered his altitude in order to stand in front of the group.
Soon, both he and the group were in sighting range and while Silver Lad didn't move much, except for putting himself in a ready stance, the werewolf pack barely slowed down their advance. A few did falter seeing him, but they were probably much more afraid of their leader. It turned out, Ned was right… Fenrir Greyback had arrived !
* * * * *
Voldemort and his inner circle, guided by a rat-like wizard cowering at every noise and shadows, made their way inside a lumos-lit tunnel, rumored to lead to the castle grounds. According to Peter Pettigrew, the rat in question, that was… Although the Dark Lord didn't trust the little man, for he was a known traitor, his testimony was corroborated by his former spy and double agent, Severus Snape. While his less battle abled members were guarding the shack, the most powerful members of his organization were gearing up for the attack on the castle.
The Dark Lord simmering rage was, for the moment, numbed by a growing feeling of elation. Battle was at hand, and Tom had always loved to fight, overpower, torture and kill his enemies. The prospect of the fear and bloodshed he would unleash had him positively shivering with excitement. But more so it was the knowledge that soon, he would have everything he needed to be victorious…
The prophecy, Harry Potter and a way to kill him. It was time for the greatest Dark Lord of all times to get his hands on the greatest wands of all times. The Elder Wand was his !