Chapter 297: Chapter 297: Budding Roles
If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.
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29 November 1994, Rome, Italy
Before Harry could process this, he heard hundreds of cracks arriving at once and hundreds of wizards atop brooms appeared… As bad as it was, that was when the roaring started. He turned around and five fucking flying dragons of all things, screeching at him in challenge.
Well, fuck.
He hadn't realized he had said this out loud, but Hermione gave him an annoyed look. Seriously, they were being attacked and she cared about his language of all things. That girl really was messed up in the head…
Harry casually conjured a piece of ice to stop a killing curse by one of the attackers, while trying to create a semblance of a plan. Hermione was able to counterattack easily enough and stunned one of them. After this display, she spoke up, "Their target is obviously McGonagall. They want to ground the dragon for some reason. We need to get back…"
Harry shook his head while dodging a beam of light, "No, my wards and age line should stop most of the attack and Daphne will help organize the defence properly. We can't remain on the defensive, especially against these numbers and with hours left till we get to Durmstrang."
"We don't have to wait hours… We just have to wait for the Aurors to come after detecting the mass apparition that just happened."
"I took a look at one of the detectors once. The enchantment only reveals the longitude and latitude, not the height. And considering the speed we're moving at; they won't be able to track anything for a while. I'm guessing at least an hour until someone knows that it happened in the air, and another hour to track us down. Do you think we'll be able to hold them off whilst on the defensive for that long?"
The muggleborn muttered something, "Fine. But what can we do about something like this?"
"I have something in mind. We need to take care of these idiots first. I'll give you a few openings. Try to take them…"
He didn't even wait for her to respond as he conjured spikes of ice in the air above his enemies. The ones that were in the clear were able to see the spells and sent a few spells at them, trying to save their comrades. Hermione used this to knock them out…
Harry followed up by casting a sticking charm at his and Hermione's feet, gluing them to the ground, before temporarily altering gravity around them to the left. The remaining attackers lost their footing, and which was enough for Hermione to tag a few of them… Right as he was going to finish them off, he felt a Dragon leaping at him with a beam of fire. Harry was thankfully able to warp space enough to alter its trajectory, making the fire miss completely. Unfortunately, the distraction allowed the few remaining attackers on the metallic dragon to apparate away.
A few wizards on brooms began to leap towards him and he growled, "Hermione, cover me. I'm powering up something…"
She nodded and he used his Arcane Hearing to analyse the enchantments of the dragon. He slowly crafted a big stunner modifying its layer to incorporate the counters to the dragon before sending it at the beast.
The dragon had obviously not expected the spell to do anything, but it was frozen in mid-flight and started to fall down…
The battle froze entirely, no one had expected the dragons to suffer any damage. He gave them all a bloodthirsty smile and waved his wand conjuring a huge fog that hid the metallic dragon immediately…
A few groups of wizards came at the fog, ignoring the fog entirely, only for Harry to wave his wand one more time, condensing the fog into a thick cloud that he electrified.
Dozens of wizards were surprised by the attack and were electrocuted by the current going through the cloud, taking out a huge chunk of the coming forces. Finally, a few intelligent wizards worked together to create a giant gust of wind that blew the cloud away, and they flew in formation towards Harry and Hermione, casting a multitude of curses at them…
Only for them to pass through them entirely…
The metallic dragon melted away into nothing, revealing itself to be an illusion, one that Harry had crafted. Instead, there was some kind of glowing globe that kept spinning, until it exploded into a giant telekinetic wave to take out most of the close attackers.
It took one of the other dragons screeching and falling back into the ground for the forces to realize that the metallic dragon was behind them.
Harry winced as his magic circuits burned slightly and channelled it towards the resurrection stone to manage his casting better. That was a good chunk of the forces gone. Almost half of the wizards and two of the three dragons.
He turned towards Hermione, hoping to ask her to take the lead on the flying wizards, only for the muggleborn to stare at him with a dumbfounded expression on her face, "Hermione, I'm about to deal with the dragons. I need to keep the wizards off my tail."
"What?" she stumbled, "How did you just… The illusion…"
"Enough, Hermione, can you do it or not?"
The muggleborn stiffened, "The dragons… Sure… Try not to get yourself killed."
Harry smirked as he used his Arcane Hearing to modify another spell. No two magical creatures were equal. Every spell to penetrate magical defences had to be crafted uniquely. It was probably why no one had ever created a spell to generally take out magical creatures. It was also why he took more time to take out each dragon.
Still, just as one of the dragons was trying to fly up towards him, trying to take him by surprise, Harry cast the spell right as he reared his head, knocking him out immediately, "Don't worry, I know how to take care of myself."
That was what he said until he jumped out of the dragon. He conjured one of his magical circles behind him to propel him into the air, whilst warping space to appear right above one of the remaining dragons' heads. Honestly, before this confrontation, he didn't know dragons could be used for attacks like this. There were historical accounts of battles rumoured to have had dragons fighting, but they stopped at Camlann at the latest.
Then again, Dragons could theoretically be tamed if they were raised from the moment, they hatched. It was how Dragon Reserves were able to stop the beasts from flying off and killing off muggles at every opportunity. But that was it… This degree of control and coordination was completely unreasonable. There was a reason why the ICW invested so much when creating the Leviathans and similar flesh-crafted beasts instead of relying on dragons…
Harry shook his head; this was not the time to make even more theories. He had to make sure that everyone was alright first. He cast another stunner at the dragon's head, knocking him out and warping space in front of him to get him to fall in the middle of the regrouping attacking forces…
He conjured another magical circle to propel himself in the air once more before warping the space to be above the last dragon, which happened to have been heading towards Hermione. Instead of stunning it, he warped the space directly in front of it, making the wave of fire that the dragon breathed head towards its own allies instead. Harry followed up by stunning the dragon one more, taking out a few other flying wizards…
Harry leapt away once more and jumped at one of the flying wizards, kicking him off his broom, and quickly carved a giant exploding runes on the broom, sending it towards the group. He created another magic circle to propel him back to the metallic dragon and warped space to make it more efficient.
He gave Hermione a nod as she took out one of the wizards trying to take him by surprise. She was still shocked at his performance, "What the fuck, Harry?"
He hummed, "What? The dragons are done. You did a good job covering me, by the way."
Harry wasn't even lying. Hermione had done a good job at distracting the attackers before every jump. She was able to understand the rough outlines of the plans, which was to take out the dragons, and made herself a very dangerous distraction while he kept doing his thing.
He noticed the final group of wizards – around ten of them survived his onslaught – preparing a spell. Now, how should he handle it? Oh, he had almost forgotten the broom. Harry quickly activated the exploding rune which took out the remaining attackers…
He turned towards Hermione who was still gaping at him, "Well, that was a thing. I'm more interested in knowing who is responsible for this…"
Harry's first instinct was to blame it on either Dumbledore or Grindelwald. These kinds of forces, especially five dragons, aren't easy to sneak past most countries. However, there was one small thing… Dumbledore was there in the schools. Someone attacking the express mid-flight must have wanted to avoid the security that the ICW and the hosting schools would provide… Dumbledore had access to the schools and most of the ICW information. If he wanted to pull something, he would have done so without risking an aerial battle which was inherently risky since stunning anyone could easily kill them…
Oh, he had forgotten about that. It was likely that everyone who he had defeated was dead. He knew that those were probably mercenaries of some sort, considering the arsenal of curses that were sent at him, but he had almost killed a hundred people in minutes…
He steeled himself. No, he would deal with that later… Now, he wanted to know who made him stain his hands so…
Harry waved his hand towards one of the bound wizards on the plane. He remembered him being the main instigator. The man groaned as he woke up from his stunner before stiffening when he saw him. Harry ripped off his mask and he was slightly disappointed by what he saw.
The man was just so ordinary… So normal… He wouldn't have picked this man out of the crowd as a murderer and yet, he was. Harry gave him a merciless stare, "Why were you attacking us…"
The man was trembling, but Harry didn't care, "Don't look around, look at me. Your forces are gone, your dragons have fallen… There is no need for distractions… The only way you get out of this alive is if you talk…"
The man tried to lash out with his hand and Harry telekinetically blocked it and unravelled whatever magic the man was trying to make. He quickly noticed the glowing beneath his sleeve and pulled it back, to see the glowing form of a small dragon, "A family crest… My guess would either be about dragon taming or dragon control… A very useful and deadly ability… But you haven't answered my questions."
"Fuck you," the man rasped.
Harry nodded, "Alright, you're the one who made me do this."
For the first time in a very long time, Harry met someone's eyes and entered their mind. It wouldn't be lying to say that Legilimency was an art. There had to be for someone to tease certain ideas, certain mind links, to reveal hidden information. A simple stray thought could be the key to everything…
Harry hadn't teased out anything, he demanded information, but there was something blocking him… Of course, there was… The man had a family crest, and it offered an inherent protection against mind attacks… But Harry kept pushing until his family crest was draining him dry to protect his own mind…
And just like that Harry stopped, letting the man breathe, exhausted. Right as the man was relaxing, he used an imitation of the Veela allure, one that promised comfort and peace, having taken inspiration from his mother, "Why don't you tell me who sent you, dear? And it all would go away… Just say their name…"
He wasn't really as good as his mother at it, having deceived Daphne without any trouble. But a tired mind, and exhausted body, did not have the instinctive resistance to this type of magic. This was proven to be correct when he mumbled, "Lord Voldemort…"
The moment he said this, Harry felt a curse take hold of the man and saw him convulse in pain. In mere seconds, the man's skin blackened and withered away until it turned into dust that flew in the wind…
But Harry had barely processed what he said. Voldemort? Why would he attack them? The only reason would be… Neville. He wanted Neville's blood to resuscitate himself. That was all of this was about…
Hermione interrupted Harry's musing, "Harry…"
"Yes?" he replied.
"Look at them," she muttered.
Harry followed Hermione's gaze and saw the stunned attackers also wither into dust…
He really needed a shower and a nap. This really was a fucked-up day…
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AN: I hope you like this chapter, it took a lot more time to write... Anyway, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
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