Harry Potter 1. Prologue

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Fighting Someone Else's War

Prologue

It was like a separate chapter leading to the conclusion. There was a problem and a conclusion with events happening at the same time as well. Here he was fighting for something he _didn't_ believe in. Death was awaiting him if he took the wrong turn, a turn he didn't want to take. Firing his M4 like no tomorrow, he shot at anything that moved. An old man walking? Not anymore after he shot him dead by force of habit. He was getting jumpy as the sound of gunfire escalated. 

Stuck in the middle of a warring city was the last thing he wanted to do. He fired his M-203 into a house window. The explosion blew almost everything out of the room. Shards of glass and pieces of wood from a desk were ejected from the room. A scream was heard and he felt sure that there would be one less person trying to kill him. 

Bullets were kicking around him in his desert fatigues. His flak vest would stop a 9mm bullet but the bullets that were kicking up were the rounds of an AK-47, not a 9mm bullet. Call him a coward but he knew that stepping around the corner would be his last action on Earth. The rumbling sounds of tanks were assuring but were they Abrams tanks or some old Russian behemoth? Well he'd find out later… hopefully not. 

Going with his instincts, his act of stupidity and heroism, he ran out of his cover and into the fray. Five rebels looking his way. Not anymore. He ran and ran, it seemed forever until he reached the next bullet-filled house. Here and there were a group of untrained, amateur rebels running and shooting their AK's at him and missing. Aiming his M4 he shot all four them with single shots to the head. He was amazed that he was still intact and not dead by a bullet. 

Trusting himself again he raced towards a destroyed house. He kicked the door down and hid in the backroom to refill his M4 and orient himself in the ruined city. He needed a break and here's where it comes. It all began when Europe and all it's countries went to war with each other. God knows how but it happened and Canada and the United States of America were going to fix it from getting worse. It was like a World War III except they were dealing with not only the national armies but rebels as well. How could all this have happened? He needed the answers now but right now the only thing he received were bullets raining on him. 

He dropped his M4 to the ground and took off his K-pot. He needed to relax, to be calm and fight smartly not like the amateurs he just killed. He was trained to be the best of the best and he was the best. He was more than a regular, he was a Ranger. He was part of a group of guys better trained than the regular Army. They were the last thing an enemy would see. 

Feeling that he was ready to face the son-of-a-bitch that was trying to kill him he put on his helmet and grabbed his M4/M-203 and headed outside. The fighting had cooled down and the sounds of the tanks were gone. The gunfight at his area was dead but the fighting over at the east sector was still large. He could here and see the routine Cobra and Apache helicopters doing their runs back and forth. They would hover a bit to spot their target then nose down and unleash their mighty cannons on the rebels. He felt the same way as the rest of the army felt, the helicopters in the sky kept them calm. The helicopters were like their eyes in the sky. They could see farther than a soldier on the ground and could provided cover fire for a team extracting.

Running for about three blocks he stopped and looked around. He couldn't find his platoon. Where were they? Their mission was to secure the city but he was separated when an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) landed near him forcing him to go the wrong way. The rounds of the enemies aided his retreat to a safer place… but all that was three hours ago. It seemed to him that the whole city seemed secure enough, well enough to stay open for five minutes without getting shot at. 

The Ranger began to find his way back to his platoon. Guessing that where the fighting was also was where his friends were, he headed to that direction. It seemed that the streets were so safe that he didn't have to hide for cover anymore, he was free to walk in the middle of the street without a single bullet being fired at him. But there was horror in every direction he looked. Dead bodies here and there. He saw and body… or what used to be a whole body. The arms were missing and the stomach was cut wide open by a machine gun probably. Death was everywhere. If an Apache or a Cobra did their runs you would be sure to have a safe street. No one would stick their head out during the gun runs by the helicopters. 

The sound of the fighting increased and he knew he was getting close. Bullets were ripping around him causing him to hide for cover behind mailboxes or anything solid that would conceal him. There was no one on the streets so that would mean there were people trying to kill him inside houses. He took a breath in and ran to the nearest house. He was almost there when a rebel jumped out and shot at his direction. The bullets kicked up around his feet as he brought his M4 up and pulled of three shots to the head. The bullets went smack into his head almost tearing it right off the neck. Not looking back he kicked the door of the house down and entered inside. 

He pulled up a chair and sat down. No one was inside the house or either that they were hiding somewhere. Looking out the window he witnessed the disaster that had befallen on the city. The clean and commercial and residential area was ripped up. The glasses of the houses were shattered and the walls were painted with bullet holes. Bodies littered the street and the smell of blood filled the clean air. A normal life had become hell in this part of the country now that the U.S and Canada were through with it. The two North American countries had just liberated the city from a great threat but to the locals they were conquerors. To them the two armies came and caused death. They took life away like it was nothing but to the Canadians and Americans, these people were killing each other off and someone had to stop it. 

After reorienting himself the Ranger stepped out and headed off towards the fighting. Just as he took five steps out of the house an amateur that was firing his pistol in the air was taken down by his M4. The Ranger continued to walk when suddenly he noticed something. The world around him had become eerily quiet. The shooting had become mute and time itself seemed to have come to a stop. Shaking his head a bit to clear his mind a few thoughts came to him: either had grown deaf from the fighting or the fighting and everything else had stopped. If the fighting had stopped then it was all over and Allied forces were going to sweep through the city one more time to make sure. If he was deaf then he would have to be careful in the city for stray bullets.

Deciding to get moving he ran as fast as he could to the nearest intersection when all of a sudden the unbelievable happened. He was facing a bluish light portal thing. To him it looked like a Stargate from the mini-series he watched and from the movie… without the co-ordinates though, it was just the liquid looking part. Deciding that the world had gone crazy and jumping trough would send him to another world he did it. He stepped in and was soon sucked out of his present world.

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Author's Note: I see you like or sort of like Band Of Brothers. Well you can read it at Schnoogle because you see... well I like to do it in HTML style so... well I hope you like this one equally. It's a shame I stopped it one FanFiction.net but the one at Schnoogle is uh... error free at least... I think. Harry and friends will come in in Chapter One. Oh yeah, I do edit my work now... I think I edited it enough.


	2. A New World

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Fighting Someone Else's War

Chapter One

Harry Potter was planning to make his move. He had lost all of his chess pieces to Ron and his pawns, three of them, were his last line of defence before Ron's pieces would overrun them and attack his King. Unwise moves got rid of his pawns and Harry's King was taken in no time. Well you couldn't beat Ron unless you knew his every move and Ron had talent and Harry didn't for Chess. 

A few tables over was Hermione Granger working hard on her Transfiguration essay. She only needed three more lines but they seemed so far! She decided to take a break and closed up her book and essay and brought it up to her room. She began to walk up to her dormitory when she heard a crash in the sixth's year room. Hermione dropped her bag and books to the ground and hurried up to her room. She took out her wand and began to open the door…

*

Private Ryan Andrews faked his age and got into the army. The black haired, brown-eyed soldier took Ranger training and made it with the Rangers. His fake age was eighteen-years-old but in real life he was two years younger. His parents had died while on their vacation at France and all of his relatives had no idea so he was sent to the orphanage. Refusing to go he decided to fake his age and join the allied force that would soon bring justice to those who have none. He wanted revenge but he also wanted to fix things so some other son or daughter won't end up in his position. So after all of his hard training he was in the fight, his third week in action. They were currently trying to liberate Iraq and hold it until reinforcements arrived. Well they did liberate the country after a few days but rebels attacked and retook a city that forced the U.S Army to call upon the Rangers and take it back. Well they were done but for Ryan, a new situation opened up to him. 

Crashing to the floor he stood up and looked around bringing his carbine up. The room was dark and he wasn't sure where he was. Just a few minute ago he was fighting a war, now after being transported by portal of some sort he was in some sort of bedroom. He began to reach for his night vision goggles when he suddenly realised he left it back at the base. 'Shit!' he cursed. He began to walk for the nearest door when he heard a door handle being opened. In alarm he realised that, in a way, he was breaking and entering. Of course he didn't break anything and he didn't mean to enter someone's house. 

The young Ranger jumped behind a bed and tried to keep quiet as the door opened. Ryan was sweating under his desert fatigues and his flak vest was making matters much worse. Breathing quietly had become a problem since his thoughts were mixed in confusion and panic. 

He could here a voice, a high voice with a British accent, probably a female and probably somewhere in Great Britain. The girl began to say 'Who's there?' continually until he heard a sound of a cat. Thank god they cat was their to save his ass. But just as the heroic cat came to save him it also turned on him.

'You mean someone's behind that bed?' asked the girl.

Great, the cat, his saviour, had just given away his position and now he had nowhere to hide. So in the very short moment options were made: he could shoot her, which seemed less likely, or knock her unconscious and make his escape. Deciding to go with plan b he began to reach for his pistol. He would hit her in the back of the head with the butt of his pistol and make his getaway. Just when things seemed to according to his quick plan, the cat jumped out of nowhere and dug his nails into his legs. His pants were made out of thick material but the claws were sharp enough that it scratched his skin. 

Ryan was about to hit the cat away when a head popped over him. The Ranger jumped out his hiding position and lifted his M4 up. He wasn't going to shoot her and his plan failed because his pistol was on the ground. Now what was he going to do? The two didn't talk or made a move at each other. Ryan just stared right on to the girl. She had bushy brown hair and that was all he could make out in the dark. Everything seemed to have stopped again so he figured that he could escape during the time freeze… too bad it never happened. 

'HARRY!!!' shouted the girl. 

'Oh shit!' Ryan said and pushed the girl aside and ran to the door. Was Harry her father? If so then this 'Harry' would probably try and kill him with his bare hands or shoot him dead with a shotgun. The young Ranger ran out of the bedroom and down the stairs that followed. He could hear voices from the bottom and knew that he would end up having to run and beat his way through a hoard of people… people that probably wanted to kill him. Well that was a chance he was going to take.

Ryan pulled out his last flashbang with a plan on his head. He would toss the flashbang right into middle of the whole group. The loud noise and flash would disorient and confuse the group while making them temporarily blind while he escaped and organised himself. 

The sound of the crowd was getting louder and he could see the last step. Pulling the pin from his flashbang he tossed it down and into the crowd. The loud explosion made his ears ring even though he wasn't ten feet near it. He could hear the people scream in pain as their ears were hammered by the deafening sound. Taking his chances Ryan ran right into the group. He was surprised to see that there was no adults around. The people around him looked about eleven to eighteen years of age. 

The soldier pushed people aside as he made his way through. Just to make sure no one tried to stop him he shot bullets into ceiling from his M4 to scatter the people even more. He learned the useful tactic during his second mission. It was best to try and confuse your enemy as much as you can. Ryan didn't like to kill people so he tried to take them prisoner as often as he can. However he learned on his fifth mission that some people didn't want to be a prisoner and rather died than be captured. So then he had to kill the enemy before he too got killed. 

Rushing through the crowd he saw the back of a portrait for a door. He opened the portrait/door and rushed outside. A hallway and paintings all around and, to his amazement, he saw the figures in the paintings move. Maybe he was hallucinating? Well he just warped to another world so anything could happen now. 

Ryan ran as fast as he could until he reached an intersection of hallways. Which way should he take? The noise of the angry mob was escalating and he was sure that if they captured him, well too bad for the soldier. If worse came to worse he would resort to violence but for now he would have to keep the angry mob at bay. Deciding to keep going straight he ran. The voices began to fade just as he made the clear. 'Good. Now time to think.'

It suddenly hit him that he was inside a very large mansion or castle. The walls were stone and the ground was paved by shiny marble stones. Looking out the window he saw an ocean, no wait, it was a forest. An ocean of trees being loomed over by the full moon. Well he didn't want to be loomed over by angry faces so he ran some more, running to nowhere. Ryan didn't have the slightest clue on which direction he was going as every hallway looked the same. Ranger training didn't train him for a situation like this. Here he was, stuck in a castle with an angry group of people on his tail. 

Ryan took a left turn and was running when he suddenly felt numb. He stopped moving and his world around him suddenly began to spin. He was getting dizzy, how he didn't know, and fell forward on the ground. He crumpled for some freak reason after something had slapped him on the back with a force that matched a fat hammer. Suddenly the dark hallway became a pitch black.

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Author's Note: Chapter 2 coming soon… just give me some time.


	3. An Ally or an Enemy?

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Fighting Someone Else's War

Chapter Two – An Ally or an Enemy?

His body still numb and for an unusual reason his head was ringing. Why? Well he didn't know and he didn't want to know… well actually he did. But that wasn't what he got, what he got was his eyes opening to meet a crowd of people around him. His captors didn't seem to notice the Ranger gaining consciousness as they were all occupied talking about someone… someone like him, Private Ryan Andrews. Deciding to spy a little bit he remained unconscious. 

'…he's a threat and should be executed immediately!' said a harsh voice. Not someone too friendly and someone definitely wanted him dead. 

'Now, now Cornelius. Should we actually perform this act of barbarism?'

'Albus this isn't barbarism, it's too keep the secret from the Muggles' attention. We don't want to whole world knowing about us and I'm sure you don't want the Muggles on your tail as well?' There was silence so the voice, the voice of Cornelius continued. 'Now this is the procedure. We shall kill him in his sleep therefor he will not know and will not suffer.'

There was silence in the air. Although no one said it the feeling was there. It was the feeling of shock and horror mixed with the feeling of agreement. They knew that it was necessary but the idea was too horrible to imagine. To them it was pure murder without honour… as if murder had any honour in it. The group found the plan an act of the dark side but Cornelius found it necessary. 

'Alright. Shall we do it?' No one answered so Cornelius took it as an agreement. 'Very well then. I shall do it.' 

Peeking through his eyelids he saw the man hold up his hand with something in it. Shocked, Ryan opened his eyelids and scared the people around him. Everyone gasped as the soldier suddenly regained his consciousness. The man named Cornelius opened his mouth to say something but it was too late. Ryan dove towards the man and knocked him down. He took out his pistol, to his amazement that they hadn't stripped him from his weapons, had smashed it's butt to the mans temple knocking him out. With that he left the room as fast as he could. Looking back he noticed that no one was following him and kicked down a door and hid in. 

Checking his equipment he noticed that he still had his flak vest and helmet strapped to his head. He reached for his rifle but noticed its presence was missing. So they did strip him from something, his buddy in combat, the M4.

He heard noise of footsteps rumbling down. There were people shouting at each other about his whereabouts. Ryan was ready for what was coming his way but what he wasn't ready was this: someone telling him that he wasn't dreaming. The young Ranger was trying to get himself to believe that this was a bad dream and everything went to hell. If it was real life… well then hell was definitely around. 

'Check the Great Hall! I'll look for him in the corridors!' shouted a voice. 

Footsteps died into the distance, no one was left in the hallway outside. For now no one would be on his tail but in the end someone would surely check his hidden room so to keep away he would have to keep moving. With that in mind Ryan left his hideout and into the empty hallway. Like checking a busy road intersection he looked left and right then headed off straight again. 

After a few intersection of hallways he decided to hide out in another room. He ran down the corridor until he suddenly stopped in his tracks. There on the ground was his M4/M203 carbine. The Ranger picked up the weapon, checked the ammo, and kicked the gargoyle for no apparent reason only to be answered: 'What is the password?'

Ryan checked his ears just to make sure he wasn't dreaming and asked the gargoyle: 'What password?' The gargoyle responded that those with the password may enter the secret chamber. Secret huh? Well Ryan needed to hideout, to be low and stay out of view. So taking a shot in the dark he said "mountain freshness". To his surprise the gargoyle began to stir and hopped aside leaving the frame of a doorway. The soldier took the chance and entered to the secret chamber.

The secret door opened and let the Ranger pass inside and closing behind him. Ryan didn't look into the chamber, because after entering he checked his carbine to make sure it was still working. He unloaded his magazine then loaded it again and cocked it just to make sure. After that he checked his equipment just to make sure he was prepared to go up against uneven odds. Deciding that he was ready for anything that came his way he turned and looked at the sight in front of him: a pool and lots of bath tubs with drapes around the and… someone looking straight back at him.

He was looking right back at the person, at her to be more exact. She had blonde, almost golden, waist length hair that covered the back of her slight tanned body. Her shocked eyes were crystal blue and he noticed, just recently, that all she had on was a towel covering herself. Deciding that this was the girl's bathroom and he left immediately.

He exited the bathroom and took two deep breaths in. 'What just happened?' was one of his thoughts. Clearing that out of his head he ran to the next intersection of hallways and took and left and then right, another right, down a flight of stairs then a left turn. He ended up outside a dining hall with hundred of students eating and chatting unaware of his presence. The Ranger concocted a plan: he would leave when the students left and… except the only way out seemed to be the door on the other side or his way. 

'… Miss O'Toole said that he left this way…' said a distant voice. 

Looking back he knew that they were on their way and were close behind. There were two options that were presented: shoot everyone and die or scare all the kids in the dining hall and make it to the door on the other side. Either way he was screwed so he decided to do an early Halloween. 

Ryan charged into dining hall surprising everyone around him. They all looked at him in silence for a minute before shouting out in shock and getting out of his way. The Ranger heard the familiar snapping sounds of bullets but they weren't ammunition, they were jets of light. 

The soldier ran to the door and tried to kick it open but it was locked. He looked back and noticed that all the adults had him surrounded and the students had their 'sticks of wood' pointing at his direction as well. He was trapped and there was a decision to make…

'Put your weapon down!' shouted a man with greasy black hair.

Time was running out and he needed to do something. He wasn't going to be taken prisoner without a fight, which left him with choices: fight his way out or surrender to his enemy. If he fought his way out there would be a chance that he would run out of ammunition but if he surrendered then they would ask him questions and he wasn't willing to co-operate with them. So it looked like there was only one thin left to do, the noble thing…

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Author's Note: This is the third chapter of FSEW. Review please!


	4. Standing Up

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Fighting Someone Else's War

Chapter Three - Standing Up

With the angry mob surrounding him he acted on his decision.

He dropped his carbine to the ground and held his arms up high. It was embarrassing for him to give up to a bunch of old men but he couldn't risk it. There were too many innocent young children around him and he didn't want to end their life all of a sudden. No, he gave up his M4 and pistol on the ground and let himself be taken away by the men in black robes. 

Remembering survival training was difficult. They said something about not giving in but also to co-operate with your captors so you may gain their trust. Well time was running short for Ryan and he needed them to trust him now! But there was a slight problem to it… he had attacked and knocked out someone and accidentally barged into an occupied girl's bathroom. Looked like there was no trust…

'Here we are.' Looking up he saw a statue of a gargoyle. Could it be the same one that was guarding the girl's bathroom? No it wasn't because it hopped aside leaving a set of stairs in front of him. The group of people walked up with the Ranger following in the middle of them. He was led into a circular room with an old man behind a desk. He recognised the man in the hospital: "Albus". 

'Ah! Hello there, my name is Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry,' introduced the man. 

Witchcraft and Wizardry? Since when did magic become reality? A few hours ago he was living in a warring world where magic was nothing but a fable told in stories. But here, in this world, it was real. He didn't want to believe it but it was true, magic did exist. 'So what might be your name?' asked the old man. Remembering his survival training: co-operate but don't give in.

'My name is Ryan Andrews,' replied the soldier. 

'Nice to meet you Mr Andrews,' said Dumbledore. 'Now I do believe there is a… well we must talk about what happened in the past few hours?'

'I guess…' Ryan said lamely. He didn't want to talk to this Dumbledore guy but he had to make sure that he would be trusted so he would give out enough information. So the next question that the old man asked him was: 'Where did you come from?' He simply replied that he was born in the 'land of the free' hoping that Dumbledore would catch on. The next question that came his way was: 'Why are you here?'

Ryan opened his mouth but closed it hastily. Why was he here? Oh yeah, now here remembered. He was fighting in a city when everything around him stopped and that's when he saw the portal and decided to step in and join the magical world of Peter Pan… yeah right. 

'I'm actually an explorer,' he lied. 'I travel through universes fixing what's wrong to right and all the hero stuff. I actually have a good record you know?' He was trying to lie as much as possible but knew it would be hard to persuade. 'I destroyed the aliens that invaded the remaining human population when they landed on a new planet… away from the Covenants,' he said using the idea from his video game _Halo_. 'I did some other stuff but that's about it.'

The man remained silent and looked at him skeptically. Of course he wouldn't believe him. Since when did 'space explorers' exist? Dumbledore replied, 'Very well then, you can help us out in our situation.' Ryan looked at him stunned. He took the story? The fake story that just saved his ass? 'There is evil here and we need your assistance.'

'OK,' was more than Ryan had planned to say.

'We need you to command our ground forces as we throw back Voldemort's Death Eaters.'

'Death what?'

'Death Eaters,' began Dumbledore. 'They serve the Voldemort, the Dark Lord, with total obedience and are very ruthless. They are a danger to everyone and if they manage to take control of Hogwarts they may be able to overthrow everything.' Well that couldn't happen now could it? 'So I need you to help Harry organise and train our new force against the Death Eaters.'

Ryan was speechless and didn't know what to say. Him leading an army against a bunch of people? What the hell was going on? He needed to know but kept that from bugging him. 'OK I'll get on.' _Great move. Real slick Ryan, just got yourself a handful to do you stupid asshole_. 

*

He managed to assemble his group of soldiers in front of the castle… when pigs fly. The scene in front of him made him look away in disgust. They weren't capable of being a soldier, not even half! They were all little, almost eleven to seventeen, they weren't built to be soldiers. They all were too pampered for their own good and he could say that if he wanted to. Because for Ryan, he had grown up differently. He grew up in an orphanage with no parents to look after him so he toughened up but these _children_ didn't go through that. They didn't watch the new clips of CNN that showed the horror of it all…

'So let me get this straight. I'm suppose to turn all of you good-for-nothing, pampered kids into soldiers? Harry did I get that right?'

'Well yeah but they aren't good for nothing! I mean look: Hermione, that one there, is the smartest one of all! Ron, the one with the red hair, is strong and could really help out! And Neville… well… Neville's a good helper!'

Ryan looked at the disorganised group. 'Fine… if you want to be soldiers the first thing I want you to do is give my thirty push-ups and make 'em good!' he ordered. That was his first command it would be questioned, without a doubt, by the girl named Hermione.

'What now?' she asked. 'I'm sorry but push-ups don't show anything – '

'Thank you Miss Granger you just graduated to fifty! Now start now!' Ryan shouted at the group. They all went down and began. The Ranger began to laugh when half of them began to crumple at ten push-ups… how pathetic, was his thought. He waited until Hermione finished her set and stood up rubbing her swore arms. 'Well that was average… you can now do ten laps around this castle and I want you back here in under fifteen minutes!' No one questioned them as they left off. 

Harry Potter turned towards Ryan and asked, 'I know you have to be tough on them but… why too tough?'

'There is no such thing as being too tough. These kids need to be hardened and I'll be damned if they ever become true soldiers… They can't even do ten average push-ups without collapsing in pain…'

The Ranger knew not to get attached to the group of _soldiers._ He was to make sure he trained them well and turned them into strong soldiers but he also had to find a way back to his world. A world where the whole European and Mid-East countries warred at each other, a nuclear war. What was happening now in his world? Did they liberate the city from hostiles?

Fifteen minutes later the tired and coughing group of children arrived. They were all about to collapse but to keep that from happening, the caring Ryan told them to do another thirty push-ups. 

----

Author's Note: So I made Ryan a little bit angry to a bunch of kids (I still haven't told you who were in the group). I believe you are wondering about 'Miss O'Toole'? Well she'll come in the next chapter.


	5. Point of View

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Fighting Someone Else's War

Note: This chapter is based on… well her point of view of things. Now just to make sure you're not mixed up here's what happened so far: Harry's in his sixth year, which makes her a year younger OK? You'll also notice that in the story I jumped a few days ahead. It's just too exciting, can't wait to write the end. Good, now on to the story.

****

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Chapter Four - Point of View

She watched them train almost daily. Every morning at 5 a.m. the whole group of volunteering Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws would do there exercise and training until lunch then continue after that until 9 o'clock at night. All this was under the watchful eye of Ryan Andrews, _the universe explorer_. Honestly, she didn't believe any of the trash that Dumbledore had told them at the Great Hall evenings before. She was a fifth-year Ravenclaw and knew better then that. 

Kelly O'Toole had blonde, golden hair that travelled to her waist and crystal blue eyes. She was the most beautiful in her class, maybe in her whole year but that didn't reflect her personality. She was a prefect and that meant she held great responsibilities that was easily handled by her. However, when someone really ticked her off the last thing they would see was the end point of her wand… like a Venus fly trap luring in its prey… Well almost, she wasn't that bad. She was a kind hearted person when you really got to know her and it was surprising to the whole Ravenclaw fifth-years that the famous Harry Potter didn't like her… she didn't care.

Kelly knew, unlike the other Ravenclaw girls, never to meddle in with someone else's business. She learned to give them their space and in return they will do the same. However her _space_ was violated when she decided to take her usual bath in the Girl's Prefect's Bathroom. She was about to enter the pool when the door slammed open and entered a soldier. At first he didn't realise that she was there because he was too busy checking his own equipment only until he was done did he see her. The took locked eyes for a moment before he realise where he was and left hastily. 

But all that was a few days ago. Now Ryan was like a normal person you would see every day. It occurred to her that Ryan was dressed in desert camouflage and she talked to him, briefly, on changing his uniform. He said: 'Look, I would if I could but I don't have green camouflage on hand.' With that Kelly cast a spell and changed his desert uniform to green. It would be during their brief talking did a sudden feeling hit her in the stomach. She began to… well she didn't want to say _love_, no, more like… wanting to be friends or… Well they were both the same, almost, they were both muggles. 

She kept watching the soldier do his duties. She watched him treat everyone harshly turning them into someone new. Kelly watched shocked as he tripped a fifth-year Gryffindor by the name of Ginny Weasley telling her to get up faster. He did that ten more times until she could get up before he could knock her down. Ryan was impressed but not quite enough. He then told the whole group to get down and try to get up without using their hands to help. It took them over five seconds, three seconds too much. Ryan said: 'When someone's shooting at you, whether it's a spell or some crap, you have to get up quick. You have one hand on your wand and the other for guard so that leaves you using your legs only. I want you to get up without the aid of your hands in less than two seconds!'

The Ravenclaw watched him take guard duty when everyone went inside. He was so _different_. When everyone ate he stayed outside to take guard. He was told by the Headmaster that Death Eater activities had been increasing since the Tri-Wizard Tournament that had taken place two years ago and it would be easy to enter Hogwarts since Hagrid had taken guard on the east side. Aside from guard duty he would clean his weapon _every_ day as though it was something special to him. He would disassemble it and clean and then disassemble and assemble with his eyes closed. Another thing that separated his lifestyle with everyone was that he trained day and night striving to become better than everyone else. They say Harry Potter was the one who was going to defeat Voldemort but now she wasn't so sure. For one thing Kelly, as a muggle, knew for a fact that his weapon was more lethal than a wand and that the speed of a bullet was faster then that of the Killing Curse. 

Kelly watched him that afternoon as he entered the Great Hall. His flak vest covered his new green camouflage fatigues and helmet and she noticed that he seemed to look her way most of time… or was that her imagination? Whatever it was he never ate when everyone else did and he wasn't much of a public speaker. Just the other day he was talking to everyone in the Great Hall and everyone had to cram up front to hear what he had to say because he was… well shy maybe? That she was going to find out when he left the Great Hall.

Just as usual she saw him enter to make his normal reports on Death Eater activities to Dumbledore. 'It's still cold.' She wished that he didn't talk in the military sense of way, in code and all. After three minutes he left and Kelly followed him. She followed him until they were outside in front of the school.

'What's up soldier boy?' she asked.

'Huh?' he said realising that he wasn't alone. 'Nothing going on. Just the same as usual… quiet and all. I guess they see how I'm training this new batch of future soldiers and are too scared to come here huh? Anyway why didn't you volunteer for the new army? Not the soldier type? No matter, you could do well with the intel division I'm setting up. Hermione's with them.'

'I'll think about it,' she said. Obviously Hermione would be leading their intelligence division, she probably gave Ryan the idea. Probably can't handle the training, Kelly thought. It wasn't that she hated Hermione but sometimes the older girl would be damn annoying, but other than that Hermione seemed like a nice person. 

'Say Ryan, how 'bout we go on a little mission?' she asked not really thinking.

'What?' he asked surprised. 'Listen O'Toole, I think you should rethink what you just said and stay behind. Because if anyone's going on a mission it's me and only me!'

She didn't care if Ryan called her by her last name. 'C'mon! Just check the forest that's all. It's not like a whole pack of Death Eaters are in there.' There was an awkward silence but in the end they both burst out laughing. Death Eaters in the Forbidden Forest? Hagrid would have sent Fang chasing them all away by now. 'Please?'

She watched as he thought about it. Kelly knew that he would give up and say 'yes', the answer was already made up and the only reason that was holding him back was to stall time. In the end he gave in as she planned and Ryan said, 'Fine let's go but remember this: stay close and if anything happens _get out of the forest_.'

Kelly went back to her dorm to grab equipment of her own. She brought a backpack filled with maps, potions and other stuff and her weapon: the wand. Ryan asked her to double check just to make sure although he said that to burn off more time but in the end: 'Alright let's go but don't forget.'

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Author's Note: OK so Kelly's beginning to like Ryan and whole new plot develops and blah, blah, blah… Well all that can happen later because the next chapter, I swear, will be the best of them all so far… I think. I'd also like to thank the people that reviewed (what a little group, review please!):

Katameran, Shandethe Sanders and killaria ()


	6. The Patrol

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Fighting Someone Else's War

Chapter Five – The Patrol

The Forbidden Forest was dark, even in the afternoon; the light struggled to pass through the towering trees. It was mid-October and the weather was pleasant, not too cold and definitely not overheating, just right. This would have been a romantic walk in the park except for a few factors. One of them was that the forest was infested with strange and hostile creatures and a soldier carrying an M4 didn't really show any sign of romance. 

Kelly was walking casually but Ryan was keeping a watch for everything. On a few occasions Kelly giggled to herself the way her friend was behaving, he was _so_ paranoid. She saw him stop every time he heard something crack and Kelly would show him the broken stick that he stepped on. After the little embarrassment he would continue on doing the same for the next ten minutes. 

The sky above them darkened down and light became less visible. The Ranger forgot his NVG (night vision goggles) back at the base so their only source of light depended on Kelly's wand. They were about an hour into the forest and now there was absolutely no natural light except for the very little shine of the moon. Although she didn't show it Kelly was scared inside. She had never been in the Forbidden Forest before and now she knew why. In the afternoon it was peaceful but at night it was practically freaky, scary.

Feet by feet she began to inch her way towards Ryan. Now she wished that she were back at the castle. Why did she have to open her big fat mouth and asked him to bring her to the Forbidden Forest. It was scarring her a lot. 'Ryan… how 'bout calling the patrol a day huh? Let's go back?'

'Scared are you?' he asked amazed. 'You're the one who told be to bring you here.'

'I'm not scared and yeah… I guess. But let's just go back, we can go another day.' Kelly really didn't feel like being in the forest at this time of hour. She looked back to her watch, it read 8:02 PM. Dinner at the Great Hall was already over but they knew that she was patrolling the Forest with Ryan to Professor McGonagall's displeasure. 

'Fine, we can go back in ten more minutes OK? Don't worry no one's going to attack us,' said the Ranger. _Yeah right_, thought Kelly. He was the one with the gun and all she had was a piece of wood that shot sparks to scare away people. Ten minutes was too long. She wanted to head back to the castle immediately before she went insane. The silence of the forest had a deadly tone to it. There was no wind in the air, no movements (except for them) and definitely no life in sight. 

They decided to head back to the castle when Kelly's plea began to become more desperate despite the meaningless patrol. They were on their way back when there were movements heard. 'Probably stepped on another stick Ryan,' said Kelly. But that wasn't true. There was something out their – _BOOM!_ An explosion blew in front of them. Both of them fell to the ground. Ryan jumped behind a broken down tree and Kelly followed. She had a deep nasty cut that went across her right arm, blood was pouring out. 'A piece of the tree must of hit me,' she said.

__

BOOM! Another explosion rocked behind them. Soon the air was filled with spells being shot over their heads and Ryan finally saw his first action in days. Turning over he shouted to Kelly, '_Shoot red sparks into the air!_'

'What?' she shouted back over the noise.

'_Shoot some fucking red sparks into the fucking air now, goddamnit!_' he shouted back at her. He brought up his M4 and squeezed off a shot. As it turned out the gun went on full auto and unleashed seven rounds into the direction of one of their ambushers. 'Shit! I think I left this on rock-and-roll!' 

Kelly held her wand up and shot multiple red sparks high into the air. Hoping that someone would see it she turned back towards Ryan and asked, 'What do we do now?'

'We fight these son-of-a-bitches!' he replied. He switched his selector to semi-automatic and fired even shots towards the direction of his attacker. Once or twice he heard some of them scream in pain. It wasn't a pretty scream either. It was agony beyond any other, a howling pain, the Ranger must of hit him where it hurt.

Another explosion blew behind them. A sharp piece of wood stabbed him in his left arm and Kelly was slashed across the back, both were drawing blood. The two were hiding behind a broken down tree and it didn't seem to help them at all. When a spell hit the tree in front of them it would send splinters into their faces. 

Turning left he saw a Death Eater running his way. Aiming his M4 towards him he pulled of three shots. The bullets smacked him in the head blowing off his mask revealing the bloody head. Half of it was missing and parts of the brain were visible. His next action he pulled the trigger on his M-203 grenade launcher. The fat round flew and exploded near where he saw spells were cast earlier on. No more spells were cast from that direction afterwards.

Another Death Eater ran his direction; he was taken down by a shot to the head. They were outnumbered ten to one but thanks to Ryan they were being held back. To lighten things up Kelly shot a spark into the air that exploded acting like a flare. The whole area was completely visible. The Ranger spotted a Death Eater leaning around a tree, he was taken out by an M-203 round. The explosion exploded the tree in front of him that sliced his body in half. Two more Death Eaters came from behind shooting spells wildly; both were taken down without hesitation. The area around them became littered with dead bodies of Death Eaters. 

Soon whole hordes of Death Eaters began to make a frontal assault. Ryan switched his selector to fully automatic and took down the whole crowd. He fired an M-203 blindly into the forest exploding somewhere. As the sound of the battle began to increase a spell broke a tree down so it covered Ryan and Kelly's back. They now had cover on both north and south, all they had to worry about now was to be over runned. 

As the time passed on he became increasingly worried. Where was everyone? Where was their backup? Where was Dumbledore? The Ranger began to become more jumpy as the battle wore on. He tried to keep his calm but it was too hard. People were shooting spells from all direction leaving him confused. He wanted to shoot back but he didn't know where they were. He fired blindly at the direction he thought. 

Firing another grenade into the air the explosion lit up the area for a short time. He heard screams and saw a Death Eater running into the battlefield with his right arm missing. He ran in circles until Ryan decided to take him down. 

'Argh!' Kelly yelped in pain. Ryan turned his head to Kelly and saw her slump back to the ground. He wasn't sure whether she was dead or not; he'd find that out later. For now he had to concentrate on covering both south and north but he wanted to see whether she was all right. Risking seeing if she was alive or not meant leaving him exposed for a short minute… he'd take the chance. 

He ran over to the limp body of Kelly. He took of his gloves and placed his index and middle finger at her throat to feel her pulse. Still beating. Good, she was alive then, probably stunned. He put his gloves back on and went back to fighting the stupid Death Eaters. The Ranger killed three Death Eaters that were running at his direction. Another guy he blew apart when an M-203 round exploded when hitting his body. Fragments of his body parts flew in all direction. This was the most gruesome fight the Ranger ever fought. 

In the next ten minutes he killed another thirty Death Eaters. Where were they all coming from? He was running low on ammunition and if help didn't come soon he would be captured. One of the Death Eaters that tried to kill had had his head blown off when three rounds were placed squarely on his face. Another guy was killed when he shot him in the nose. The bullet blew a whole through and exited at the back of his head. This was truly a gruesome fight. 

Every once in a while he would go check on Kelly's stunned body. She had her eyes closed, at peace; it couldn't help remind him the soldiers he saw dying on the battlefield. When someone died they had the look of peace on their face… but they were dead. Their life ended abruptly when a bullet hit them causing them pain for hours or minutes then the end. They were dead. He turned his attention back to the battlefield.

He had five magazines left and he'd run dry in another twenty minutes. He had three grenade rounds left and decided to use them wisely and not waste them. His selector was switched back to semi-automatic so he could conserve his ammunition and not chew threw it in less than a minute. 

A sharp spell drilled into his right arm this time. It was like needle that went right through his arm leaving a whole. It killed and he dropped his carbine to the ground. Another spell made a gash across his chest but luckily for his flak vest it wasn't deep. He began to grow tired as he lost more blood. He couldn't hold on any longer. He picked up his M4 with his weak arms and began to fire so inaccurately that he wasted ten shots on one guy. 

A curse drilled into him delivering the finishing blow. Ryan fell back to the ground and saw the bright light above him. What was going on? Light above him? His vision became blurry before he blacked out into nothingness. So he was dead? Probably… life never was really fair. 

----

Author's Note: Well that's the end of Chapter Five. Review please!


	7. Getting Better

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Fighting Someone Else's War

Note: The first part of this chapter is a bit… gruesome. I suggest that you read parts of it if you don't have a strong stomach. Oh yeah this one is longer than the usual chapters.

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Chapter Six - Getting Better

He looked straight up to the morning sky. It was hard to tell the difference between night and day in the Forbidden Forest but the sense was there. He continued to look up at the towering trees… some of them had their limbs blown right off while some were in pieces, scattered across the area, and the stench. The foul smell that polluted the fresh air. He heard flies somewhere away from him but he knew they were feeding off the dead bodies. 

Was he still alive? Probably yes which was a good thing but he couldn't move. He had lost a lot of blood the night before and that showed. The ground around him was inked with his blood and… Kelly's as well. He regained his sense and tried to get up. He collapsed after his arms crumpled below him. He was too weak he couldn't hold himself up. Remember what he taught his new batch of soldiers: '_…without the aid of your hands…_' He used his legs and pushed up and was finally on his knees. He turned back and saw her in the same state as the night before. 

Looking down at himself he saw dry blood all over his flak vest and green fatigues, slashes and cuts here and there… he was a real mess. His face was scarred by splinters of wood that flew into it and his sleeves were slashed and covered in dry blood. The battle-worn soldier finally stood up and surveyed the carnage. The previous night he couldn't see a thing. The area was dark but today, in the morning, where the sun shined and the light glowed, he saw it all. Bodies littered the ground like leaves that had fallen off the tree. It was whole bodies as well, some of them were decapitated while others were in pieces. He caught sight of the body he blew apart with his M-203. His arm was right in front of the log Ryan was hiding behind, his head was nowhere in sight and his chest was ripped open showing his insides. What horrible sight… 

He marched over to where Kelly was stunned. He kneed down and checked her pulse to see if she was still breathing. Still beating. Good, her pulse was there and she was still alive. Wonder when the stun will fade away, he thought. Ryan didn't know how long he was standing up looking around. His head was empty, he just couldn't think. He had no memory what happened after he was knocked unconscious. All he remembered was a lot of pain, losing blood, then fading out. Now in the morning it showed more carnage than normal. He saw all the broken pieces of trees that exploded after he let loose his M-203. He saw dead bodies and flies feeding on them and nothing more. He just couldn't think. 

It seemed as though he was standing there for eternity, everything had gone to hell. Deciding to do some good he began to look for Kelly's wand. He was searching for almost thirty minutes when he spotted the stick some twenty feet away. It hit him that Kelly must have been hit by a powerful curse. He walked over to Kelly and was about to pick her up when his hand went moist. He turned the girl over and saw blood all over her back. She must have been hit by two spells. The first had impaled her in the back while the stun had pushed her back to the ground. Ryan went pale and didn't know how long it would be before Kelly was going to die. The Ranger picked up his Kevlar helmet that was on the ground and put it on. He picked up Kelly and began to walk back to the castle… whichever direction it was. He only took a few paces when he was stopped by three people landing around him. It was Professor Dumbledore, Snape and Professor McGonagall. 

'What happened here Ryan?' asked Dumbledore. The Ranger remained silent, he just jerked his thumb back towards the littered ground full of bodies. 'I see… well no time to waist. Snape, you take care of the girl and Ryan you can ride on the back of broom,' said the Headmaster. 

Snape, the usual sour one, became awfully pale when he felt the blood on her back. Ryan spoke in a low hoarse voice: 'Be careful, she took a bad hit last night. Don't want to make things worse than it already is.' With that they all took off and back to Hogwarts…

*

'Again may I ask why you failed?' said an icy and unpleasant voice. 'You have failed me again Lucius Malfoy. Twice in a row and you ask me to forgive you?'

'No, My Lord…' replied the voice of Lucius Malfoy. 

'Consider yourself lucky that we have shaken up Hogwarts no matter how many we lost. But I want your side of the story. What happened out there? Why did we come back with five when I sent out fifty of our finest Death Eaters?' asked the voice of the Dark Lord.

'We saw them coming. He, the new boy, was there doing his routine patrol but unlike before he was accompanied by a girl.'

'And that girl aided your defeat?'

'No My Lord! We subdued the girl - '

'After you had lost over forty of your men? You needed forty lives to take one? To subdue a girl, a mudblood? Lucius, Lucius… my you disappoint me.'

'It wasn't just her! The boy! The boy had some sort of special weapon! He could attack us and we could not see! He could also - '

The voice of Voldemort butted in. He seemed to have found all this enjoyable, explaining to Lucius Malfoy all of the little details. 'That boy does not belong there Malfoy. That boy is an outsider. I have no logical explanation for his reason at Hogwarts but in any case he is a threat. The weapon you talk about his a Muggle weapon, a gun. I know a lot about Muggle weaponry growing up in an orphanage, listening to all they other boys talk. 

'In any case you should be careful. The Muggles, especially the Muggles from North America, are dangerous. They are well equipped and well armed than us wizards and witches and must not be taken for a fool. What you have witnessed so far dear Lucius, is nothing until we invade North America. You will find a challenge there…'

'Should I prepare another assault group?'

'_You?_ You'll probably botch it again Malfoy!' Voldemort laughed, a high and frightening laugh. 'No, the boy is smarter than he looks, probably smarter than you. Before we can attack Hogwarts we must neutralise the boy.'

'And how do you plan on doing that My Lord?'

'The first thing we must do is to lure him in. The next thing to do once that is done, we must ambush him. He will expect it but he expects it to come hard and fast. Well we will attack him slow and weakly with uneven pattern… He will not expect it.'

'Who will we use to lure him in?'

Voldemort smiled evilly, 'The girl. We shall use the girl.' 

*

Ryan felt it was his fault for getting her all cut up. It was his first time leading someone and he failed… and he suddenly felt an urge to turn down training the new batch of soldiers. He felt that if he couldn't save Kelly then how was it possible for him to save the lives of ten to thirty others? The Ranger visited her daily bringing her get well cards from time to time and on an occasion, some flowers. However it was a hard task to bring in the flowers because everyone visited Kelly through out the day and Ryan was busy doing his guard duties. 

However on once occasion he finally made an arrangement for a private visit. Kelly had recovered from her wounds; she was expected to be up on her feet in another week or so. Her cuts were beginning to heal away and she was almost back to her old self.

'So how's it like being wounded?' he asked her.

'Why ask?'

'Because I've never been wounded in my time in service,' replied the Ranger. 'Anyway I wanted to ask you whether you'll forgive me or not on letting you down out there.'

She looked at him shocked then said, 'If anyone has to apologise then it would be me. Remember I'm the one who asked you to bring me out… and… well let's just say I'm glad to be back in one piece.'

'Yeah… glad you are…'

*

Harry scribbled furiously on his piece of parchment. How was he supposed to predict his future? What was he supposed to say: '_Dear family and friends. Today I have decided that my life is unworthy therefor I shall- _' kill myself, he thought? Well Trelawney would love that. Anything that involved his death was grade A work. The only reason he remained in Divination was that it was too easy to get excellent marks. All he had to do for full marks was to make up some trash story about how he would be killed some way or another. 

He looked over to Ron's work. '… as I was hacked up by a murderous elf…' it read. Hmm, how original, thought Harry. It was hard concentrating on Divination but it was especially hard after he learned that a daily patrol conducted by Ryan ended up in an ambush. He wasn't alone of course, Kelly, who wanted to tag along ended up badly injured and the sight of Ryan made him gasp.

Their leader was slashed with dried blood all over his torn up uniform. He was completely exhausted and needed immediate medical treatment by Madam Pomfrey right after Kelly. Harry and everyone else in the school, with the exception of the Slytherins, wondered whether Kelly was going to make it or not. It turned out that a severe spell had missed her lungs by mere millimetres and that it was lucky that she was not dead, to the disappointment of the Slytherins. 

'Alright, class dismiss everyone,' Professor Trelawney finally said.

'Finally…' Harry said. 

'Yeah… finally. This was probably the worst class ever!' exclaimed Ron as they both got up. 'Did you believe her? She asked me to right a _four_-page essay! _Four pages!_ This is totally bias!' 

'Guess so… Say, you wanna check out Kelly? See if she's OK?' suggested Harry.

'Why? She's only in Ravenclaw?'

'So? Gryffindor or not she's still a Hogwarts student so I don't see why.'

So they both agreed and left to the Hospital wing. They were half way to the infirmary when Hermione appeared from the corner to greet them. She had just came back from Arithmancy Class.

'You both going to the Hospital wing?' asked Hermione.

'Yeah,' replied Harry and Ron in unison. 'So what are we waiting for? Let's - '

'Actually we are waiting for someone,' interrupted Hermione. They didn't need to think long to find out whom. They were waiting for Ryan to get out, that way they didn't have to interrupt him and no one liked and annoyed or angry Ryan. 

They hanged around the Hospital wing out of sight. After a few minutes they saw Ryan leave and waited to hear until his footsteps died away before entering the hospital. They entered the Hospital wing and saw Kelly lying on her bed turned away from them. It didn't seem like she heard them so perhaps she was asleep? Deciding not to wake her up they left and decided to return tomorrow.

'Poor Kelly,' Hermione said after they left the infirmary.

'Yeah… it's not everyday you end up fighting a whole pack of Death Eaters,' said Ron.

'At least she hasn't seen Voldemort, that's a good thing for sure,' Harry added. 

*

It was another day at Hogwarts. Everyone seemed to have gotten over the battle in the Forbidden Forest and continued on with their daily life. For Kelly it was back to her classes and for the Ranger it was back to his guard duties and training the new batch of soldiers.

'Today I have good news everybody,' started Ryan. This was a first, there was never good news during their training this must be something good. 'I'm glad to say you don't need to be studying for any magical work for one _month_!' Everybody cheered and shouted with glee, everyone except Hermione. 'Why you think? The answer is simple. Since you volunteered to be part of my unit, I asked Dumbledore to cut you some slack and he did. So no work for one whole month.'

There was cheering again, the Ranger waited for the noise to subside. Once it did he spoke again, 'Of course you still have to do my training. And since you won't be needing to go to your classes anymore there's no reason for you to be sleeping in your dorms.' Everyone suddenly stopped murmuring and looked shocked.

'Grab a shovel and start digging. You'll be living in foxholes for one whole month. You will not return to Hogwarts until then so don't even think about leaving -' he stopped. 'For those who want to leave you can leave now.' No one budged. Ryan knew that if Harry stayed then so will everyone else. 'This is your last chance to leave.' No one did. 'Alright this is how it works. You will sleep in the foxholes you dig for one whole month. You will eat what I give you and trust me, they aren't good. You'll probably get a flu or some disease but nothing to big…' Everyone turned pale at his last words. He loved it when they were in shock, it was just damn funny.

'Well? What are you waiting for? Grab a shovel and start digging!'

Everyone grabbed a shovel and did just that. They were digging for hours and Ryan was sure that if he did this in the morning they wouldn't be staying up late night. The Ranger already dug his foxhole, it was the most professional he ever did and if his captain ever saw it… his captain. He was stuck in a world he didn't belong to and he wondered about his parents, about his friends and his fellow soldiers, what was going on now?

After three long hours they were done with the digging and were lying in their holes tired. Now they suddenly wanted to quit but they had their chance and now they were stuck doing hard, dirty work for a whole month. Hogwarts homework was more fun then digging holes; they would choose homework over digging holes without hesitating. 

*

'No we could use their help,' said Dumbledore. 'I have already asked Dobby and he said he'll do the best he can to convince the rest of the elves.'

'If that fails?' asked Snape. 'If the elves do not wish to fight then who will help defend us against this upcoming attack? Hagrid and his pet monsters can't hold all of the Death Eaters back and the giants are now in a tight spot.'

'If that is the case then we will have to resort to…' Dumbledore trailed off. No one needed to know who they were referring to because it was quite clear. If no one would step up to defend Hogwarts than Ryan's unit would have to step up. Of course they weren't ready and an attack right now would surely surprise them. 'Minerva, tell Ryan and Harry to hurry up and train their unit. Time is of the essence.'

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Author's Note: So how you like it? Developing a bit huh? I still need reviews people! It wouldn't hurt just to review would it?


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