Chapter 5: Prologue: Resistance
An hour later, DILOGS had sent an agent to make a copy of Harry's memories of the conversation. It had turned out to be impossible to get a similar opportunity with Chronos, as if he had never existed in the past moments at all.
Soon, Hermione had gathered all of the Ministry's personnel and made an announcement: "From this day onwards, the Ministry of Magic will be renamed to the British branch of the Resistance. Gather your belongings and your families. We're going dark. Housing and necessities will be provided to everyone by the Resistance. Pray to Merlin, God, Allah and whoever else you can think of that we'll make it through this."
Harry was pacing again, but this time, it was near the Floo entrances of the Ministry, or the Resistance's headquarters.
Finally, he saw the most beautiful redhead in the world stepping through, shortly followed by two of the world's handsomest boys and the cutest little girl that ever existed. He responded to his wife's beaming smile with one of his own and said: "I'm so glad you made it, Gin. I've made some space in my office so we can set up in there. It has the highest-grade wards right after the Minister's office."
Ginny looked at harry with her eyebrows furrowed and asked: "What exactly is this about? You didn't say all that much in the message."
"The situation is much worse than we expected. New information came out and it turns out that those Invaders, or Titans to be more precise, have decided to use Wizardkind, no, the entire humanity as livestock. We have no clue if they have a grip on the Muggle telecommunications, so I decided to keep the information as limited as I could."
Her face paled at that while the children didn't look all that bothered, as if the affair wouldn't affect them. In some regards they were right, of course – as long as the Resistance stood, they would be kept safe.
After a while, she spoke: "We need to stop them! What can we do to help?"
"Boys, you set up the tent in my office. Gin, take Lily and help the others settle down. We'll be discussing action plans with the heads of the departments."
"Yes sir, mister boss-man!", Ginny replied with a grin. She then took a few steps toward Harry and gave him a hug and a peck on the lips.
A few voices could be heard saying 'Eww' from the side, but the two adults just ignored it.
"Just don't forget you get to order me around only because I let you.", she told Harry.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that.", he replied with a loving smile.
Ginny and the boys parted ways, going for their own tasks.
However, before Harry could leave, another person caught his attention due to almost running him over after rushing out of the Floo.
It was another redhead, but instead of being cute and lovely most of the day, he was rather annoying, especially now. "Harry! This just got so much worse!", he shouted while tripping and falling over.
After he had recovered to an upright position, he continued: "The Muggles, they've lost it! They tried to bomb one of the Invaders! It only got stronger from it!"
A while later, a memory was on display in the conference room. It contained a bright flash that was followed by a mushroom cloud, then a certain redheaded man flying closer on a broom to investigate.
There was one of the Titans, except it seemed to be sucking in all of the surrounding dust and orange lines appeared in its normally green cloak of aura. The next instant, it crouched down and jumped, causing a spiderweb of cracks to appear, several hundred feet in diameter. The Titan itself was launched up at an insane speed.
Next were reports from Muggle military bases that they were under attack by 'an unkillable giant'.
Harry's expression had become rather unsightly before he said: "Fucking Muggles, nuking everything they don't understand! Got them far, didn't it?"
If Harry was more in touch with the technology of Muggles, he might've even made a comment about adding atomized jet fuel to the fire or injecting a mixture of steroids and adrenaline straight into the enemy's heart.
Hermione turned towards Luna, the most accomplished Magizoologist of the current era.
"Luna, what's your analysis?"
The loveable blonde put on strange glasses with multiple lenses and looked around in the room while clicking various lenses in and out of place.
"What are those? I don't remember the joke shop selling anything like that! Have you bought a future product?", Ron asked.
"Oh, just making sure there are no uninvited guests in the room. Oooh, there's a ring-tailed Snorcack! I forgot to bring a cage for it!"
"Luna, tell us what you've found out about the Invaders.", Harry reminded.
"Harry Potter? Hello! I didn't see you there. You look different. Have you grown taller? Lost some weight? Oh no! The spell you used was forbidden magic! It still lingers on your body. You should avoid touching people for the next two weeks and definitely don't take the ring off.
Ah, the Invaders. Yes, they're the strangest creatures I've ever seen. It seems they feed on everything a living wizard possesses, their magic, soul and life force. They seem to store the food they've consumed in that fog that surrounds them."
"What about their weaknesses?", Hermione asked, paling a little at Luna's comment on her creation.
Luna thought for a while before saying: "I think it should be fine as long as you use something that targets the product of the three energies at once, only then can it be consumed without being able to resist. It seems Hermione's spell did that and so much more. Other than that, I don't know."
It was at that point the spell Luna had cast on herself expired and she turned the right side up, landing on her feet. It also signified that she had finished her presentation.
"Snape, do you have anything like that?", Harry asked.
"Who do you think I am, Merlin's right hand? How could I know if I have anything like that if I don't even know how the spell works?", Severus said with a scowl. He may have mellowed out a bit over the years, but the venom was still evident in his voice.
Hermione smiled at the man placatingly before addressing everyone at once and then a few individuals: "It seems we have our next task set out for us. We need to find out what part of the spell actually harmed one of the Titans.
Neville, get every Auror that has studied Spellcraft to help out with the research. The rest of them can do public safety. Have the Hitwizards ensure a constant food supply for the people.
Albus, you're still in charge of Hogwarts. Make sure it's properly concealed. Change the focus to Spellcraft, Artificing and Potions, have the masters teach only talented students.
Right now we don't need mass-produced wizards that know how to fumble their way through magic, but the best and the brightest. I have a feeling that this war will go on for a long time. Those with lesser talents can be taught by graduates."
---
A few months later.
Harry had spent more time working with Hermione than he had with his own family for the past month. It had gotten to the point where some groundless rumors had started spreading, but people gossiping was still better than them despairing about a seemingly hopeless future and doing something about it would just make things worse.
He woke up next to Ginny who seemed to have been awake for a while already, but it was hard to tell because her back was turned towards him.
He probingly whispered: "Hey, Gin!"
She turned to face him and whispered back with a smirk: "Yes, Harry, what is it?"
"I was just checking if you're awake. Otherwise, I might ruin your sleep with this.", Harry replied, giving her a peck on the tip of her nose.
"Hey, just because I'm a few months along doesn't mean I've been transfigured into glass!", she replied while pulling him closer for a proper session of 'good morning to you too'.
However, no matter how early it was, time was pressing and Harry left for work.
In a corridor between his office and the Auror office, which was the largest and had thus been converted into their research lab, Harry was stopped by a gussied up little reporter once again. "Is it true that you're planning to have a divorce with Ginevra? How are your children taking it? Have you set a wedding date with the Minister?"
Harry deemed replies to such uninformed questions completely unnecessary, sidestepped the young reporter that looked like she could be Rita Skeeter's daughter (if she managed to reproduce through some dark ritual) and continued to the office that was shared by the best and brightest of the generation, him, Hermione, Luna and, even if he wasn't part of the generation, Snape.
Harry wasn't actually that good with the research, but he was the only one that could operate the Elder Wand to its utmost, making him a necessity to the research – it seemed that it had actually been partially due to the wand that the spell had worked the way it did.
As it was still very early in the morning, Hermione was the only one that was working.
She was furiously scribbling away on a piece of parchment, rune after rune, apparently trying to crack another layer of the mysteries they were dealing with. A domain of spilled ink had formed around her, where the flying droplets had been suspended mid-air, no doubt through some charm that allowed reuse of such ink. There was a small, dried trickle of blood running down from her nose and a few splotches where it had dripped onto the table.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and waited until she looked at him. There were visible bags under her eyes, their power had grown too great to be suppressed by a glamour spell.
"Good morning, beautiful! You should go get some sleep, you're no good to us if you work yourself to death."
Hermione just stared at Harry as if she couldn't understand the meaning of his words. After a few minutes had passed, she replied: "I'll ᚱeᛋᛏ aᚠteᚱ I've ᚠiniᛋᚺed ᛏᚺᛁᛋ. I'm ᛋo ᚲloᛋᛖ!"
Harry took the quill out of her hand and said: "That's what you told me a week ago." His eyes landed on the empty potion phials that were filling a drawer and overflowing to the point it couldn't even be closed anymore. "Hermione, how many of those have you had? You're speaking in half-runic for Merlin's sake!"
Hermione looked at Harry as if he had personally burned her entire library of books, before her eyes locked onto her quill in his hand. She shouted: "Unᚺaᚾd ᛗy quᛁᛚᛚ!"
Looking her in the eyes, Harry spoke: "I'm sorry, Hermione. I'm doing it for your sake. Stupefy!"
With a flick of his wrist, Harry forced all the suspended ink back into the inkwell and laid Hermione down on the couch, then fed her a dreamless sleep potion.
As there wasn't much else for Harry to do in the lab, he decided to take a look at the residents instead.
Harry was slowly making his rounds among the tents that had been set up in the expanded Atrium and exchanging a few words with each of them to get a clearer picture, but suddenly he heard a loud argument.
Once he had gone past a few rows of tents, he discovered that Ron was being scolded by a rather chunky woman: "Would 'ave scared me to death, you would, setting that thing into my family's tent! Is private property no longer sacred 'round 'ere?"
"I'm sorry! I just wanted to cheer up the children around the place! They love those things!", Ron replied.
Harry stepped closer to his longest-time friend and said: "Ronald, the kids love your merchandise IF they get to choose when and where to use them. I suggest you just set up shop here again, having a miniature Diagon Alley in here would liven up the mood a lot more than whatever you tried to pull."
Ron replied: "What a brilliant idea, mister high and mighty. Maybe we should build a Quidditch pitch here as well?"
Harry immediately grew a thick smile on his face and exclaimed: "That's an excellent suggestion! I knew I could count on you to think of something to get the people's spirits up! How about you put a team together that's good at building things?"
"Fine, I'll do as your highness commands.", Ron said reluctantly, the corner of his mouth twitching. While walking away, he mumbled something about two wives.
The lady who had been standing on the side, said: "My family has always made a mean meat pie, you think we could sell 'em on that shopping street yer planning?"
Harry thought for a bit and replied: "Well, I haven't tried them, so I can't tell if they're any good, can I?"
"Wait just a moment!", the lady said and disappeared into the tent. She returned with a small basket with what looked like meat pies in it, and they all looked steaming-hot. "Try 'em out with yer family, it's a shame it's all we can give out to our 'ero. I'm tellin' you, that Weasley is a fool, he'll be breaking his family if he acts the same at home."
Harry thanked the lady for the goods and was about to head to his office for breakfast with his family when suddenly screams and wails broke out. Harry put on Death's cloak and used 'Ascendio' to propel himself high up in the air – he figured using a broom would've been a meaningless waste of time – and after an 'Arresto Momentum', he was standing still midair, getting a good overview of the situation.
There were humanoids covered in what looked like living shadows here and there, using stunners to knock people out. Seeing that, Harry used 'Sonorous' to amplify his voice and yelled out: "Wands! We're under attack! The assailants are in the perimeter of the living zone, keep cover and take them down!"
He finally took out his broom and zipped towards the area where the enemy forces seemed to be the most numerous. When he got close, however, he was greeted by a barrage of green bolts. Unsure whether they were the killing curse or something that looked similar, Harry quickly jumped off his broom, leaving his trusty ride to be blown into smithereens.
With a few silent spells, he had already landed and started casting spells that were both silent and mostly invisible to not give away his location, to try and take down as many enemies as possible. Except, an issue occurred – it seemed that just like with the Titans before, the spells were completely unable to penetrate the cloak.
At some point in time, Harry was struck in the head by a spell that he didn't see coming and crumpled onto the ground, unconscious.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone