Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 36 – Grudge Match
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just a quick comment, if you did not see a pre-chapter Author's Note when you read the last chapter then you need to re-read it as parts of it were re-written after some reviews pointed out how weak I had made Harry and Alema in that chapter. I have since tried to toughen them up a bit and made the situation more difficult for them to deal with, enjoy.
Hermione sat in the remains of the Gryffindor Fourth Year Girls Dormitory, tear stains running down her face, cradling the remains of a pillow in her hands as she sat on what once had been her bed, Parvati sat beside her, her arm around Hermione's shoulder as they both mourned those that had passed away.
The room was mostly intact but there was evidence of a fight in the distant past as there were a couple of large holes in the wall letting the outside air whistle into the room and there were several small pools of water on the floor where the rain had got in.
"Hermione?" asked the familiar voice of her Master as he knocked and ducked into the room to prevent his crest striking the frame, "May I enter?
"If the Magic of this tower were still working Master, you would not even have been able to climb the stairs," Hermione sniffled.
"So I've heard," he smiled, "But I assure you I am not a teenage boy trying to sneak in to cause mischief."
Parvati let out a small giggle while Hermione snorted in an amused fashion at the comment as Coleman walked over and perched on the edge of the bed.
"If you do not mind a stupid question, how are you feeling?" he asked.
"Like my past has just been ripped away from me…(sniff)…I always imagined we would come back, that there would be a huge party, we would see all our old friends again…Now it just feels like we abandoned them."
He raised his hand to make a point but she continued.
"I know I know, we didn't abandon them, we had every right to leave that it's in no way our fault...but that's the way it feels."
"Survivors guilt Hermione," explained Parvati with a knowing look, "I have it to, so does Padma. We get it every time we look at Cho or anyone in the morgue. She got hurt and they died and we didn't. We can't change the past, but we can try to make the future better for those that remain."
"Wise words Miss Patil," smiled Coleman. "You would make a good-"
She was cut off as one of the ghosts passed through the floor and entered the room.
"Miss Patil," called Sir Nick. "Inquisitors on the grounds."
"Tell the others to get to cover," she ordered leaping to her feet. "Make sure-"
"Sorry to interrupt Miss Patil, but we have a bigger problem."
"The ship," exclaimed Hermione, realising the problem as she leapt from the bed and ran to one of the holes in the wall where she could see the Raven, her Master only a second behind her.
"Yes Hermione Granger. Harry Potter and Miss Alema are going to confront them now."
"Oh no, not again!" exclaimed Hermione, launching herself out of the room towards the stairs. "He's going to do it again."
"Do what?" shouted Parvati, running after her as fast as she could manage without a jedi's speed, reflexes and balance.
"Nearly get himself killed," she replied, not stopping as she reached the top of the dormitory stairs and leaping down the entire flight before hitting the ground running, much to the shock of the twin who came to a dead stop for a brief second in surprise, allowing Coleman to speed passed her and do the same thing whilst firing a comment at her as he went.
"He always does."
As Hermione landed at the bottom of the Hogwarts main stairway a minute later she fell into step with Ayala and Windu, her Master and the Parvati following a short way behind her.
"Where's Padma Master Windu?" she asked.
"She's gathering the defenders;" he replied. "We're to hold them here as long as we can."
"Do we know how many of them there are?" asked Coleman.
"We don't know for certain but we think around twenty."
"Seven of us against twenty," remarked Aayla. "Almost too easy."
Hermione had only a brief second to think that Aayla had just jinxed them before they emerged from the remains of the front doors onto the grounds and were immediately confronted by half their enemies who all seemed to be ready for them and a lot closer than they were expecting less than thirty feet away.
"Down!" shouted Hermione as a volley of more curses than the three of them could deflect flew at them simultaneously. Hermione was able to crouch and raise a shield in front of herself in time, but not all of the others reacted fast enough.
Aayla managed to activate her lightsaber and deflect a curse but two more got through and knocked her unconscious leaving a large multi-coloured stain on her exposed stomach. Windu gasped in pain as a curse caught him in the arm but didn't prevent him from dodging and deflecting the next three curses that flew his way.
Coleman and Parvati got to the door a second later and pulled Aayla back through and behind the wall out of harm's way, Hermione and an injured Windu covered them with wand and lightsaber before they too ducked back behind cover as Parvati started to scan Aayla with her wand.
"She's been hit with a rotting curse, assuming that her species reacts the same way ours does her body will rot through from the point of impact until it kills her."
"What can we do?"
"Her being unconscious makes it easier, it will naturally slow her heart rate which should slow the curse a bit but we need to get her to the Ward as soon as possible, our Healers and Curse Breakers should be able to cure her."
As she spoke a couple of the Castle's defenders ran in and immediately moved to pick up the injured twi'lek and levitated her out of the room.
"They'll take care of her," Parvati reassured Coleman, before taking a breath and they both moved back to where Hermione, Windu and a couple of the Castle's defenders were taking cover against the walls just inside the main doors.
From the count that they had managed to get when they briefly exited the doors there were approximately ten opponents out there which was easily within the skills of the defenders and the jedi to beat, the problem was that the attackers were keeping up a constant stream of curses towards and through the doors and no wizards would stand up to that bombardment for more than a few moments and no jedi not even Master Yoda or Master Yaddle with their smaller size could dodge through them all in the bottleneck of the doorway without being hit.
"What's the plan?" asked Parvati.
"We need to get out to Harry as fast as possible," stated Hermione as Parvati gave Windu's shoulder a quick scan.
"The bones in your arm have been removed, no permanent damage but it will take a night to regrow them, I'd recommend tucking it inside your robe for the time being unless you want to use it as a flail," she concluded with a smirk before turning back to Hermione. "Do you have any suggestions on how we do that?"
"We need to get out of this breech," recommended Coleman. "As soon as we are out in the open we can outflank and close on them."
"I'm ready when you are Master," nodded Hermione, igniting her lightsaber and transferring it to her offhand so that she could wield her wand in the other.
"How are you going to get out there?" asked Parvati, gesturing to the steady stream of spells that were passing through the doorway and making a mess of the opposite wall.
Hermione and Coleman exchanged a look from opposite sides of the doors before looking up to the upper spell free part of the large doorway and then looking back at each other.
"Run and jump?"
"Run and jump," nodded the latter.
"Are you serious?" asked Parvati.
Not waiting for a debate, Coleman and Hermione both nodded to each other took four steps diagonally back to keep out of the line of fire before running and leaping skywards towards the door.
"Wait!" Parvati cried before looking on shocked as the pair leaped through the doors their feet three meters off the ground as they crossed each other's path during the leap and flew straight over all the spells. Windu waited a fraction of a second until the number of spells had dropped as the attacks faltered at the sight of the flying jedi before pushing through the doors using his blade to block incoming fire but the twin was too shocked from what she was seeing to be of any use for a good couple of seconds.
As the pair dropped towards the ground almost directly in front of the six of their opponents they moved in perfectly synchronised movements and flung their hands out towards the group who were all blasted off their feet giving them the vital second they needed to land where spells had been flying a split second before. Not stopping their attack they spun around slicing partly into the legs of two others before twirling onto to face their next victims.
Parvati snapped out of her shock as more of her troops turned up a few seconds later and along with Master Windu advanced further through the door to properly face their opponents, she fell into step beside Hermione as their battle line caught up with them as the girl in question switched to using her wand, only using her blade for defence so that she could attack from afar.
"Don't kill those in the blue uniforms," she remembered to shout, knowing that a large number of the aurors were conscripts.
"Look," called one of the other defenders, pointing at the fight near the ship. Harry and Alema both appeared to have been captured by their superior numbers.
"Padawan Granger," instructed Windu. "Go and help Padawan Potter, we'll have these dealt with momentarily."
"Yes Master," she nodded before running back through the group and around towards her best friend.
"Mudblood," growled Malfoy, "Do that again and I will make sure death is slow and painful."
Harry looked passed Hermione and saw that the others were now beating back their opponents due to new reinforcements from the castle, Hermione had obviously come on ahead to aid them.
"I'd like to see you try Malfoy," she replied venomously, her lightsaber and wand flying from her hands to their holsters as she raising her hands to either side of her body with her fingers spread, purple electricity appearing to jump between them causing the Inquisitors to take a wary step back.
Realising what she was about to do Harry moved his artificial arm as far behind him as he could while he looked over to Malfoy, Harry saw his worried look at the sight of her hands just before Hermione threw them towards him and the other inquisitors who all dived for cover from the arks of purple electricity.
Harry didn't even flinch as one passed within inches of his head knowing that it would not harm him though thankfully it did miss his artificial hand which would have been knocked out by the Droid Disable technique.
Using the distraction, Hermione flicked her wand into her hand and gestured to Harry's confiscated weapons in the hands of the inquisitors and directed them into the air above her bound friend before casting a spell on the ground around his feet.
As Harry felt the ground under and around him liquefy again he Force Jumping a couple of times managing to escaped the gripping mud and leaping several meters into the air, catching his many weapons before coming to land beside his fellow padawan, very muddy but ready to fight.
"Nice distraction," he complemented, igniting one of his blades and wielding his wand in the other.
"I thought so," she replied, sending him a sideways smile.
"Don't kill the reserves, they may be-"
"I know, Parvati already warned us."
"Do you think you and Alema can take the others until our lot catch up? I want to have some fun with Malfoy."
"Take all the time you need, the defenders have virtually defeated off the other lot," she smiled, as the reserves and remaining inquisitors realised that the electricity had not harmed them and got back to their feet.
Force Jumping over them Harry landed behind Malfoy who was furthest away from Hermione and Forced kicked him in the chest as he stood back up, backing him away from the others by many meters.
"Touch me again Potter and it will be the last thing you ever do," growled Malfoy, his calm resolve faltering as his control of the situation faded.
"We'll see about that," smiled Harry, deactivating his lightsaber in front of him for Malfoy to see and switching entirely to using his wand. "Now let's have that duel."
The pair both stood there not moving for a second before they both leapt into action, Harry firing a burst of stunners off as Malfoy spun so he was standing sideways and raising a shield so that the spells passed either side of him or ricochet of his defences, he then immediately fired a trio of bludgeoning hexes back, one Harry ducked under, the second rebounded of his shield, the last Harry put a show on for and Force Jumped over.
"You've improved," Harry commented as he landed.
"So have you, are you sure you want to continue?"
"Definitely."
Malfoy immediately followed that up with a string of rather nasty curses, Harry dodged two but the third skimmed very close to his thigh, this caused him to very quickly come to a nasty conclusion; It had been a long time since he had duelled against any opponent other than Hermione, he had got too complacent and confident in his own skills and knowing exactly how his opponent thought. Draco's own skills were evident, Harry might have had a whole library of spells to help him but he had only had one opponent to practice against and he knew exactly how she fought, Draco had probably been trained by Death Eaters and was the more skilled duellist of the two of them, and Harry had said he would only use his wand and Harry being Harry meant that was exactly what he would do.
Fortunately Harry was not at a total disadvantage; his reflexes and the speed and awareness of the Force levelled the playing field, it was a battle of skill versus speed.
Far from the usual style of duel where the pair stay roughly in the same area but move around one another they actually started a running battle with both of them dodging and ducking around spells thrown by the other as they ran and moved away from the rest of the battle. In a way this style of battle felt more right than a standard duel, this was more like how the two of them usually fought, at high speed, the only thing missing were the brooms and a snitch.
As they moved the true reality of the battle became clear to Harry, he had a much more varied arsenal of spells than Draco but Draco used the ones he knew much more efficiently and his reactions and reflexes were good even for someone with no knowledge of the Force other than Magic, this was particularly clear when Harry landed a tripping hex that caught his opponent but Draco simply rolled out of it as he hit the ground and went straight back into a run.
The battle went on for a couple of minutes, the pair moved around each other, running, jumping, occasionally slowing to a brief walk for a few seconds as they changed direction sharply, neither really going all out, both seeming to want to tease and to test their opponent and not wanting the battle to end just yet knowing that the rest of the battle would continue regardless of their participation.
It took Harry longer than it should to realise that they were moving towards the forest and that Draco had deliberately led him there. Their battle paused for a moment on the borders as Draco fired of a large string of well-spaced out dark curses that forced Harry to dive to the ground giving Draco enough time to smirk and dash into the trees.
Harry cursed himself inwardly for allowing Draco to control the battleground as he pursued. He ran no more than five steps before stopping and realising that this would be a trap; Draco led him hear either to fight or flee, if the former he must have a plan and charging in would be a very bad idea.
Stilling himself he thought of his options, his cloak was a possibility but it was awkward to use when the fight resumed, it was the reason that most jedi shed their robes before going into battle because they got in the way, besides the fact it was still lying out on the lawn where Alema had dropped it. This did not worry Harry as there was an alternative jedi technique that did not require the use of a lightsaber.
Stopping still for a moment he centred himself before concentrating on the Force.
A few feet away a medium size acromantula about the size or a European lynx waited in the hollow under its tree, the forest had belonged to its creatures since the 'Friends of Hagrid' had fought the servants of the 'Monsters of the Chamber's' master several cycles ago. The colony had expanded out towards the castle and now their kind filled most of the forest that was not inhabited by the Horse-Men.
This one looked on eagerly as the trip lines he had laid and then covered over vibrated as something ran over them. Crawling to the edge of its hollow the spider looked out and saw a human in the distance running through the forest before hiding behind a tree.
If a spider could it would have smiled as it prepared to crawl out of its burrow, the human was too far away to attack from here but an acromantula of his size could move like a ghost over the forests floor. As it prepared to move out it felt another vibration run down a different trip line, much closer than the first before another human came into view.
Even better thought the spider, he would not even have to move to a better position to get this one; he was only thirty feet from his hollow. Preparing to pounce the spider suddenly stopped dead as the figure in front of him seemed to fade and disappeared right in front of him. This made it more difficult for the spider but not impossible, its kind knew of the two legs 'cloaks of mirrors', the spider had other ways to track his prey. Inhaling deeply he searched for the scent only to feel that slip from him as well as if the two leg had stopped existing.
The spider backed into its hollow slightly so that if anyone shone a light into the hole only its front most pair of eyes and the tips of its legs would have been visible and decided to observe, it could not attack an enemy it could not sense.
The spider nearly jumped as it felt vibrations on its lines but with no visible presence making them. The spider's eyes followed the route the invisible person was taking but the only indication it was there was the vibrations it could feel and the leaves on the ground that moved.
As soon as the two legs left it decided it would go and see the patriarch; this two leg was something new and they needed to know more about it.
Harry cautiously walked through the forest, he had to be very careful as he proceeded, he might be Force Cloaked but it was a technique that required a lot of concentration and he wasn't very good at, if he was up against even the most average Force user they would have seen through his cloak in seconds. His Master was herself an expert at this technique having been taught it by her own master but this was one area of Force manipulation he had never really got the hang of.
But in a small way he was relieved; Draco didn't know anything of the Force and therefore didn't have a clue he could do this, besides if whatever the intelligence was under the tree to his right that had stopped feeling excited and started putting off feelings of confusion and worry when he vanished was concerned then Draco didn't stand a chance.
He wound his way cautiously through the forest until he spotted Draco's robe poking out from behind a tree. Before he advanced Harry took the time to check his surroundings and realised the strategic advantage that Draco had given himself; he had manoeuvred himself into a little geographical feature in the forest where the ground split with part of it rising and another part falling which had created an arc of raised ground around a lower area like a small cliff only a few meters high, it might have some point have held a pool of water that had long since dried up. The earth had fallen away from the higher ground creating a ledge about eight feet high around the depression with exposed earth below it making the area quiet a good for mounting a defence as Draco had cover to the rear thanks to the high ledge which had a lot of densely packed trees and brambles on it making it hard to mount an attack from.
Harry slowly made his way closer circling the tree as far out as he could manage while still being within the depression. He made it until he was almost parallel to Draco's position when the unexpected happened; as he placed his foot down on the ground on a patch of fallen leaves a shockwave blasted up through the bottom of his foot and up his leg, this resulted in a sound like a small sonic boom followed by a loud snapping sound as Harry was knocked off his feet. In that second his concentration fell and he snapped back into sight, sound and smell of all those around him, causing Draco to jump at the sudden burst of motion so close to him.
As Harry hit the ground he was acutely aware of the intense pain in his lower leg but knew he had to ignore it as he rolled as best he could using only three limbs so that he could defend himself from Draco who had moved further around the tree out of sight instead of attacking.
"Bone Breaker Trap," announced his hidden opponent, his voice oozing superiority and smugness, "Did you think I didn't know about your invisibility cloak Potter, I knew you might try to use it to flank me so I set a couple of traps up in case…I don't need to explain what that trap did do I?"
Harry didn't answer but could tell that his lower leg was almost certainly broken by the pain he was experiencing. Using the Force to numb the pain he turned to face the tree that Draco was hiding behind and cast a diffindo at the trunk.
The loud crack that emanated from the trunk as well as the deep gash in one side of the tree gave some indication of the power of the spell which was immediately followed by the sound of splintering wood as the rest of the trunk decided it needed the bit of the tree that was no longer there and started pitching over.
Harry aimed his wand ready, only to hear a pop as the tree started to fall away from the vertical and headed towards the undergrowth, as it hit the ground Harry was alarmed to see that Draco was not there.
He heard a laugh behind him which forced him to roll over so that his back was towards the bank, the movement saved him as a spell flew and landed exactly where he had just been and Draco disappeared behind a tree on that side of him.
Harry's mind briefly went into a panic, it had not occurred to him that Malfoy could apparate, that was the only way he could have moved that quickly, and even worse he had not realised that the Anti-Apparation Wards were down over Hogwarts, that gave Malfoy a huge advantage, Harry was not only crippled but also untrained in the art of apparating so he could not flee easily.
His line of thought was cut off as Malfoy started a game of cat and mouse with him, spells would fly at him causing him to duck, painfully dodge with Force Speed or deflect them but by the time he had cleared them Malfoy would already have apparated to another location and was firing again.
Malfoy was obviously still toying with him as none of the spells sent his way was truly lethal though many of them hurt a lot as they clipped or collided with his body. He managed to keep going until a bludgeoning hex caught him in the shoulder dislocating his free arm, leaving him with just one leg and his wand arm to manoeuvre, the effect of this was tremendous as the next three spells hit him easily, the first two of which were designed to hurt and the last of which was a disarmer that sent his wand and his visible lightsabers flying away from him in all directions for the second time in this battle.
"Is this how you imagined it Potter," came Malfoy's taunting voice from round the side of one tree before he apparated with a pop and his face appeared around the side of another. "Your death, (pop) crippled and crawling on the ground (pop) waiting for someone to put you out of your misery."
Harry tuned Draco out at that point; he knew he did not have long before he decided to finish him off. He had tried calling his Master but he got no activate response, she must have been unconscious. He could hope that the others would get here sooner but knowing his luck they would arrive exactly ten seconds too late. He was determined to defeat Malfoy without using his lightsabers but at the moment he might have to or face death.
"...all those years of Quidditch games, (pop) all those years of being humiliated..."
It was during the last sentence that he realised he had a chance of winning and not using his blades; he had never tried to apparate but knew it required concentration and being able to visualise yourself at the destination. He had just noticed that just before each jump Malfoy would look in the direction that he was about to apparate to which meant he could attack first. He began crawling backwards making it look like he was trying to flee, his wand blended in with the other twigs and sticks on the ground so Malfoy hopefully wouldn't notice that he was crawling toward it.
"You can't run Potter, my inquisitors and our puppets will have destroyed or captured your friends, all that is left is for me to finish you. My Lord will reward me handsomely for this victory...and so at last I say...Goodbye Harry Potter," his opponent announced raising his wand.
Harry's hand closed around his wand as he caught the flick of Malfoy's eyes to the area near the small cliff.
As Harry saw him begin to apparate he used Force Speed to rapidly and very painfully flick himself over, so fast that Draco hadn't even disappeared from his original position until Harry's wand was aimed.
"Reducto!" he shouted as the curse flew from him towards his invisible target and he prayed he had got the distance that Draco would appear at right.
There was a brief moment of Force Speed when Harry saw the spell pass through the place where he thought Draco would be and he started to curse thinking he'd missed only for the Malfoy in question to reappear a couple of meters further back just as the spell reached the level of his neck.
Malfoy did not even have time to react as the spell hit his neck directly under the chin and slammed up into the back of his skull, creating a red mist of blood as Draco's spine was severed and the back of his head was blasted outward.
The grinning face of Malfoy seemed to hang there for a moment before the body crumpled and fell into a dishevelled heap on the ground.
Draco Malfoy was dead.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope that the last chapter was a bit better for you all than the first draft of the last one. The problem I know have is that I need to make the situations believable but also not painfully easy for our jedi friends to face which is an awkward thing to balance without making the odds fifty to one.
I've unfortunately got to the point where I am running out of momentum as regards this story, I mean I know how I want the end and the film bits to go but I haven't really got anything to fill in the intervening gaps without skipping years which I don't really want to do so any scenes, plot arcs etc that you can think of PLEASE let me know as I am almost at the point of stopping writing until I can think of any after this one is finished.