MMA Under Attack

Sunday, 3rd September, 8 p.m

22½ days after the start of Harry's trial

The Gryffindor common room, Hogwarts SOW&W

Ron Weasley, like all fifth-year Hogwarts students, had much homework that he had been assigned over the summer now ending—homework that he would be handing in to the professors, beginning tomorrow.

Unlike most fifth-year students, Ron's summer homework was not complete.

Two days ago, Ron had boarded the Hogwarts train naively presuming that, sometime between Friday morning, 1st September, and Monday morning, 4th September, Ron could browbeat and guilt-trip Hermy into letting him copy off her parchments.

But Hermy was not here to browbeat and to guilt-trip. Hermy would never again be here to browbeat and to guilt-trip.

Horrified Ron realised: He was facing his three most difficult years at Hogwarts, with Hermione Granger elsewhere. And right now, Ron had an essay to finish, and an essay he had not even started, both due before Monday morning!

Ron felt raw panic then—the last time he had been so frightened for his future had been when he had faced a mountain troll that had been three times his size.

Then Ron got a brilliant idea: Surely he could persuade Hermy to do his homework for him by owl-post. Hermy would not let Ron repeat fifth year, right?

****

Twelve hours later

Monday, 4th September, 8 a.m The Great Hall, Hogwarts

Ron received an owl-letter from Hermy—

You want me to "help you with your homework," even after I've transferred to MMA. We both know what you actually mean is "do your homework for you."

Are you mental?

Grow up, loser.

****

One hour later

Monday, 4th September, 9 a.m

The first day of classes at MMA and at Hogwarts Manchester Magical Academy

Harry and Hermione were given their timetables by Deputy Headmaster Meadows. The teens discovered that they had only one class in common, Potions, which was on Wednesday.

Harry's first class on Monday was Survey of Science. He walked into the classroom and was met by the professor, Hollingsworth. Six other students, of different ages, already were in the classroom; they looked at Harry when he walked in. Only the eleven-year-old looked at Harry merely with curiosity, instead of Ohmigod, that's the famous Harry Potter.

Harry was walked over to a lab table that had a faucet and sink built into the top, and had a framed, frozen photograph of Professor Hollingsworth by the desk's one chair. Hollingsworth showed Harry how to work the three runes in the photograph-frame: Putting the tip of his wand to the green rune cast an area of silence round Harry and his lab table, and "woke up" the photo; putting his wand-tip to the yellow rune dropped the area-silencing and made the photograph stop talking, when Harry wanted to speak with the real Professor Hollingsworth; and the red rune ended the area-silencing and returned photograph-Hollingsworth to his beginning-of-lesson face. The red rune accepted Professor Hollingsworth's wand anytime during the lesson, but the red rune would accept Harry's wand only after photograph- Hollingsworth said, "This completes today's lesson."

Before Professor Hollingsworth would let Harry activate the green rune, Harry was led over to a side wall where different sorts of safety equipment hung from pegs. Harry saw wraparound goggles, tinted goggles, latex gloves, padded oven mitts, plastic aprons, rubber

aprons, and things he did not recognise. Harry wondered, Why did Snape have none of this protection-stuff in his Potions lab?

Then Professor Hollingsworth led Harry back to his lab table and told Harry to activate the photograph-frame's green rune. Harry did, then photograph-Hollingsworth began to lecture Harry about what exactly were the differences between animals and plants.

A few minutes later, Harry looked away from both photo-Hollingsworth and from his own paper notebook, to look briefly about the room. The eleven-year-old girl was listening to her Hollingsworth-photograph's lecture and was taking notes; whereas a sixteen-year-old boy clearly was setting up a chemistry experiment.

****

Lunchtime

Hermione was joyous. When she saw Harry walk into the lunchroom, she rushed over to him and gave him an overpowered Hermy-hug. "Thank you for suggesting this school, Harry, it's brilliant."

It was Harry who suggested that he and Hermione introduce themselves to the other MMA students in the lunchroom. This was not a time-consuming task, since there were only thirty- seven other kids in the lunchroom (by Hermione's count).

Thankfully, nobody went all fanboy/fangirl on Harry, though two kids looked awestruck at Hermione, calling her "the Girl Who Beheaded." But over half the students that Harry and Hermione met, said something like "You came from Hogwarts? How could you spend four years there? Sally-Anne says the place was horrid!"

Then Sally-Anne Perks herself walked into the lunchroom. She began blushing tomato-red when dozens of students called her over to (re)meet Harry and Hermione.

Harry recognised the fifteen-year-old version of his former Hogwarts yearmate, but that was about all he could say about her.

****

Sally-Anne at Hogwarts had been quiet and painfully shy. She had been so unnoticeable that, until Hermione had pointed out that Sally-Anne was gone, a remark that Hermione had spoken a month into second year, Harry had not noticed Sally-Anne's absence.

It turned out that Sally-Anne as a Hogwarts firstie had been bullied by the Slytherins, particularly Pansy Parkinson, and had been utterly miserable at Hogwarts. It also turned out that Sally-Anne had cousins living in Manchester; and during Summer 1992, those cousins had persuaded her that they all would bike-ride to "the haunted factory where all those people burnt to death."

The cousins and Sally-Anne had biked to the chain-link fence that surrounded the factory; but seconds later, the cousins had pedalled away whilst screaming in terror. Sally Anne had

watched them leave, puzzled as to what they were scared of, when Ghost-Emily had appeared to Sally-Anne.

Ghost-Emily's first words to the shy twelve-year-old girl on a stopped bicycle had been, "Do you know you have magic? Do you know you're a witch?"

Less than a week later, the Perks parents had sent a letter to Hogwarts, notifying the school that Sally-Anne was transferring to MMA. Deputy Headmistress McGonagall had made no attempt to talk Sally-Anne's Muggle parents out of their Muggle-born daughter's decision.

****

Now after hearing Sally-Anne's story, Harry and Hermione looked at each other. Then Harry said to Sally-Anne, "Hogwarts actually has gotten worse since you left. Headmaster Dumbledore is a bloody, buggering moron."

The MMA students who were listening in, all gasped.

Interestingly, Hermione did not rebuke Harry for his language. Instead, Hermione looked at Sally-Anne and said, "Harry is right. Hogwarts truly is a disgrace as a school now, not merely a disgrace as a magical school."

****

That evening, in Grimmauld Place

It had taken two full months at Hogwarts before Harry's life had begun to turn to shit; but Harry's ordinary life at MMA ended after only two days of school.

Monday night, hours after Harry had portkeyed home from school, he received a warning letter from Gregory Goyle—

To Harry Potter, hoo is Lord Goyle and Lord Crabbe and Lord Parkkensin,

Demodocus Cooper is a Deth Eter who was not at Malfoy Manner when yu killd evrywun

there. He is callin tugethir a grupe of uthir Deth Eters yu dident kill, along with kidds hoo yu killd their fathres (Vinnie Crabbe and Pansy Parkkensin). They plan to attak yur neu skool

sumtiam this weak. Thats all I no.

Pansys a rite bint, but Vinnies just stoopid. Pleeze dont kill Vinnie if its possabul.

Yu killd my Pa tu, but its not like yu wokd into the dynnin rume wilst he was eetin with me and Ma and Galina and yu AKd him in the bakk. Yu killd Deth Eters and Pa wuz a Deth Eter. But thin yu saivd Galina frum bekummin a hoar, and I liak it yu did this.

Gregory Goyle

Immediately Harry wrote a letter of warning to Mersey Norwood, headmistress of MMA, and sent the letter with Hedwig.

****

Almost three days later Thursday afternoon

Manchester Magical Academy

Harry was in Charms class when his photograph-professor suddenly went back to her default face, and the area-silencing spell that surrounded Harry's desk ended.

BOOM! Harry heard to his left, somewhere outside the classroom.

A voice came from the ceiling: "This is not a drill. We are under attack. All students calmly and quietly walk to the hidden door that is south of the Computer Literacy building. Bring your books and papers. This is important: Ensure you have your personal Portkey with you."

Harry shoved his Biro pen, notebook and textbook into his book bag, then put his book bag on his back. Professor Sharpton, the Charms teacher, was standing in the doorway, making sure all the students left the classroom. When Harry got close to Professor Sharpton, he saw that she looked scared.

Seeing the fear on this woman's face, Harry's resolve hardened.

When Harry walked out of the General Magic building, he noticed immediately that the outside light was different. Looking about, he realised quickly that the purely decorative brick walls that surrounded the school, which usually were only a foot and a half tall and were easily stepped over, now were sixty or seventy feet tall, and they had a guard tower at each corner. MMA now was at the bottom of a huge, open brick box.

The "hidden door" by the Computer Literacy building, Harry soon discovered, lay horizontal, not vertical, and usually was covered with grass. Now with the door open, uncovered was a deep underground room with a yellow, fibreglass, corkscrew playground-slide in one corner. The top of the slide was at ground level.

Standing on the lawn by the slide was Headmistress Norwood, holding a clipboard. A queue of children, each one wearing a book bag, led up to the yellow slide. Sally-Anne Perks was in queue, second from the front.

Hermione, her beaded handbag at her feet, was talking to Headmistress Norwood. Hermione was not in queue.

Hermione looked angry. If Harry had to guess, Hermione was livid because the Death Eaters had dared to interrupt a class!

Each student, when he or she reached the front of the queue, showed his or her Portkey to Norwood, pocketed the Portkey, then grabbed the crossbar and slid down the slide, whilst Norwood marked her clipboard.

Harry heard Norwood say to Hermione, "Get in queue!" Hermione shook her head. Harry walked over to Hermione, who immediately hugged and kissed him.

BOOM! came from the western brick wall. This made the students in queue look even more scared. Harry thought, I need to get moving.

Harry asked Hermione, "What's at the bottom, where the slide ends?"

She replied, "A tunnel. It goes beyond the boundaries of where the Death Eaters' anti- Portkey wards work, so we can portkey home." Hermione glanced at Headmistress Norwood and continued, "I asked the headmistress—"

Harry suspected another ten-minute Hermione-lecture was beginning. He held his hand up and said to Hermione, "You need to get in queue."

Norwood nodded, but Hermione asked suspiciously, "You'll be right behind me, right?" Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "No."

Harry took his book bag off his back and set it on the grass; the headmistress frowned as Harry removed his Portkey from his pocket and put the Portkey in the book bag. Harry said to Hermione, "It looks like the Prophecy is only 99-percent fulfilled, not completely fulfilled. I need to finish this."

"What Prophecy?" asked Norwood.

Harry replied, "The Prophecy that begins, 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.' The Prophecy whose prophecy-sphere in the Hall of Prophecies turned black when I killed Voldemort, not quite a month ago. But so long as Death Eaters are bothering nonmagicals and first-gens, Voldy isn't yet totally vanquished."

Then Harry said, "Dobby."

Pop. Dobby appeared, Harry ordered Dobby to bring Harry his Firebolt, Dobby popped away, then Dobby returned, holding Harry's broom. Harry dismissed Dobby, who popped away.

All the while, Hermione was looking resigned.

Norwood, meanwhile, was glaring at Harry. "Harry Potter, I'm the headmistress here, and I'm ordering you to leave here. Whether by Portkey or house-elf is your choice; but fighting the Death Eaters is for the professors to do, not students!"

Harry said calmly, "Ma'am, you are the headmistress, yes, but I am the Chosen One of prophecy. Until yonder clowns with the silly masks"—Harry waved toward the sounds of battle—"all portkey away or they all die off, I won't take orders from you today."

Harry mounted his Firebolt, then said to Hermione, "It's time for you to slide on the slide, love."

Suddenly Ghost-Emily appeared. The ghost held her hand up towards Hermione, then towards the headmistress, palm out in a Stop gesture.

Ghost-Emily turned to Harry and said formally, "Sir Harry, the second half of my postmortem destiny is to give you a message: To vanquish more evil, today you must take your betrothed with you on your broom. "

Headmistress Norwood stared at the ghost, open-mouthed. Hermione looked just as surprised.

Harry said, "No. If the price of completely vanquishing Voldemort is putting Hermione in danger, I won't do it. That's Greater Good, Dumbledore thinking."

"Take me along, Harry," Hermione said calmly. "Dumbledore never gives anyone a true choice, only a choice between what he wants you to do and something nightmarish. I faced down thirty-two Death Eaters who were Voldemort's most loyal; today I choose to take on a mob of reserve-bench Death Eaters, if my help will finish the job we started twenty-five days ago. Dobby!"

Pop. "The Great Harry Potter Sir's Miss Grangy calls for Dobby?"

Hermione squatted down so that she was more or less at eye level with Dobby. She said, "In a minute, Harry will fly into battle."

Dobby's ears drooped.

Hermione continued, "I'm going with him. Please bring me a vial of motion-sickness potion. Okay, Dobby?"

"Dobby will do!" Pop.

A second later—pop—Dobby returned with a potion vial. Hermione quickly drank down the potion, then gave the vial back to Dobby.

Harry said, "Hermione, please. I'm about to do things that might get me killed—I don't want

you killed too."

Hermione shook her head. "If you're going to pilot a broom and fly towards the enemy, you need a gunner. Meaning, you make the moves to make Wronski faint, and let the angry bookworm cast the curses. Those inbred wand-wavers are cutting into my class time!"

Headmistress Norwood looked at Ghost-Emily and asked, "Sir Harry and Hermione truly are

destined to help my professors and me battle the Death Eaters today?"

Ghost-Emily said, "Yes, Mersey, they are. Together they will vanquish much evil."

By now, all the students except for Harry and Hermione had ridden the slide to the bottom; only Harry, Dobby, Ditty (MMA's head house-elf), Hermione, Ghost-Emily and

Headmistress Norwood stood by the yellow slide. Norwood squared her shoulders, looked at Harry and Hermione, and said, "Good hunting."

But instead of mounting his broom, Harry turned to Hermione and said, "You're worth more to me than an hourglass full of rubies. Stay whole."

Then Harry kissed Hermione like he meant it, right in front of the headmistress, the ghost and the house-elves.

****

Once the technical problem was solved, of preventing Hermione from falling off a broom that would be making insane moves, Harry and Hermione lifted off on his Firebolt. Harry was in front, and Hermione was behind, with her wand-hand's wrist resting on Harry's shoulder.

Now the two of them floated, four feet above the lawn that was by the sunken room, the yellow escape-slide and Headmistress Norwood.

Harry asked Hermione in a murmur, "Are you scared?"

She huffed, by Harry's ear. "They're reserve-bench Death Eaters. They should be scared of

us, two of the three Slayers of Voldemort."

Harry suspected that Hermione was not as confident and fearless as she was pretending. Harry was scared—but not for himself, for Hermione. Yet he made his broom rise up.

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