Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 37 – Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
Draco Malfoy was dead.
Harry never really imagined what that would be like.
It might not have been so bad had he actually meant to do it; he had aimed for where he thought Draco's chest would be. Hitting him there the spell should have taken him out of the fight and given him a serious injury but not killed him. Those extra few feet allowed the spell to get that little bit higher that it could almost decapitate him.
It occurred to him that Draco was the first person he had killed that he actually knew, he had of course killed people before in his role as a jedi, regardless of how much he hated doing so it was a way of jedi life that could not be avoided, sometimes you had to kill in the defence of self or others. He began reasoning with himself that Malfoy made his choice and that he knew what he was getting himself in to but as much as he REALLY didn't like Draco Malfoy he had not deserved to be killed by a misjudgement on Harry's part.
"Harry!" came a voice through the trees that turned out to be Hermione with Master Windu and Daphne accompanied by a couple of Hogwarts defenders.
Hermione dropped to the ground beside him while Windu dropped to his knee in a more controlled fashion as the others moved into defensive positions around them.
"Are you alright?" she asked, but did not wait for an answer as she whipped out her wand and began casting diagnostic charms on him.
"Oh Harry!" she said angrily, "You've gone and done it again haven't you, you've got yourself badly injured again, why is it you can never...Harry!…Harry are you listening to me?"
She stopped lecturing and followed his eyes and the eyes of the others and for the first time saw the body of Malfoy and more importantly Daphne standing over it. They all watched in silence as Daphne very carefully knelt down beside him and looked into his now empty eyes and still grinning face before, much to the surprise of everyone present spat straight in his dead face, before turning and looking straight at Harry with a look that would have made a gundark wince.
Her stare was so intense that Harry had to stop himself flinching back when she directed it at him. Very purposefully she then marched over to him, threw herself to her knees in front of him and pulled him into an intense kiss.
The kiss was enough to stun Harry and all those around him for several seconds until she pulled back and sat back on her knees.
"That's for killing the bastard," she explained softly.
Harry went to reply but never got the chance as there was a resounding crack as Daphne pulled back and her palm whipped around and slapped him very purposefully across the face sending him down onto his back.
"Hey!" shouted Hermione as she looked from the cheek of her friend which was rapidly turning red to the unpredictable Slytherin.
"And that's for killing the bastard before I could make him pay for what he tried to do," she added standing and heading straight back towards the Castle, only pausing long enough to fire a cremation spell at Malfoy's body, starting an intense fire that would obliterate his body within a few minutes. She could not get him back in life but at least she could deny him a proper burial.
As the remaining five where left alone Hermione slowly restarted her lecture while she resumed casting medical spells upon Harry. He really didn't listen as he knew and had heard the 'don't endanger yourself stupidly' speech many times before, he was too busy thinking about the fact that he had killed Malfoy. He didn't like him in any way shape or form but he had never watch him dead, but mayb-
"Ooowww!" he exclaimed as his shoulder was forced back in. "You could have warned me."
"If you had been listening to me I might have done."
"Sorry," he replied, not quite meaning it completely sincerely, "But I just killed Malfoy…All the times we fought, all the times we faced each other and it came down to one badly aimed curse."
"He was a death- An inquisitor Harry; he has probably committed much worse crimes than those we are aware off. I didn't want him dead either but I believe he did deserve it."
"It's just…Hard to accept."
"I know Harry," she sighed finishing patching up some of his more minor injuries, leaving him with just his shattered leg. "Incidentally Harry, talking about things that are hard to accept, why are you holding a stick in your hand?"
"What stick?"
"Well you've only got two hands to choose from Harry so take a gander as I don't imagine it will take you very long to figure out which hand is holding it," she replied pedantically.
Looking at his right hand he saw he was gripping a foot long crooked stick that slowly tapered to a point.
"I...Well I must have...the spell that..." he tried unsuccessfully as he spotted is wand laying a couple of feet away, he must have mistaken the stick for his wand in the dappled light of the forest.
"Harry, are you saying you cast a spell without your wand?" Hermione asked stunned, her lecture and anger apparently forgotten.
"Err...I guess so," he replied, wandless magic was not something they had really focused on at the Temple, they could both cast silently but neither had really tried without their wands.
"We have much more training to do when we get back, we-"
She was cut off as another of the former students ran up to them from the direction of the castle, her head was hung and her body language was not that off victory.
"What is it?" asked Windu.
The girl didn't answer immediately, she opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out. The others rapidly came to conclusions about the reason why.
"Who?" asked Harry.
From a statistical point of view the battle had gone very well for the defenders; twelve dead inquisitors including Malfoy and Flint and eight captured reserve aurors, six of whom were forced conscript though the defenders insisted on Wizarding Oaths to prove their claims. On the defenders side they had fifteen lightly wounded due to the greater skill of the attackers, four seriously wounded (five if you included the missing bones in Windu's arm) including Harry and Aayla though Harry protested that his broken bones were not serious injuries as they weren't going to kill him much to the frustration of his friends and the few healers who were living in the castle who threatened to do the job for him if he did not start taking his injuries seriously.
What had changed the mood of those in the castle to both sorrow and anger was the news that there were three dead; two adults who had come up with another fifteen others from the Sanctuary when Padma had gone for reinforcements and who had arrived late to the battle. They had both jumped in front of students to save their lives when some of the last few attackers had got desperate and started throwing killing curses left right and centre. Their deaths had affected the students whose lives they had saved deeply much to their despair and shame as they wrongly blamed themselves for their deaths, but the most notable casualty was Deputy Headmistress Parvati Patil, Head of Gryffindor House.
Apparently when the charge was led through the doors after Hermione and Coleman caused their distraction she and Windu had led the first group of student defenders and the other young adults out after them before the later reinforcements had arrived. The battle had gone well for several minutes until three inquisitors led by Flint managed to overcome those around her and began forcing her away from the main group; according to some of the others who witnessed this but were unable to go to her aid she had held out well, constantly dodging and weaving to avoid curses, even throwing the occasional knife at them to keep them on their toes. She had managed to take one of them out with a well-aimed knife to the chest but in doing so the other two managed to outflank her and she got hit in the neck by a cutting curse. They had seen her fall, her hand going to her neck as she started to rapidly bleed out. Apparently Flint and the other inquisitor had been so confident that she was out that they did not even bother to finish her off which turned out to be their mistake as the dying Parvati managed to aim her wand at them and gasp out a final pair of blasting hexes one of which hit Flint in the back between his shoulders at the base of his neck and the other of which hit the other inquisitor in the back in the area of the kidney. Flint's neck had been broken by the blasting hex killing him instantly while the other had taken the other inquisitor out of the fight until he could be captured.
Her death had been much more devastating than anything else, she had been loved by almost all of Sanctuary's residence and in taking her out the inquisitors had also effectively taken out her twin who was inconsolable at her loss and had to be stunned to get her to allow anyone else near the body so they could take it inside to clean it up and to put it in the morgue with the others until such time as last rights could be performed upon it and the others who had come to rest there.
The centre of the main hall of the Sanctuary as well as the table area where the offworlders had been greeted had been converted for the overflow wounded from the 'Ward' which they had discovered was the replacement for the destroyed Hospital Wing. The Ward was actually the new name for the Under Hall which was a room the same size as the great hall in length and width but only just six feet in height directly under the remains of the Great Hall with identical table layout in it where the House Elves used to assemble the food before transferring it up to the tables in the Great Hall with their magic, but with the Great Hall's destruction the room had become irrelevant for that purpose and due to its large size it had been utilised by the residence as a large hospital area where the long term injured were placed for their care. It had shocked the jedi to hear this when they realised that the fire fight they had been engaged in upon their landing had only been a couple of feet above a hall of dozens of refugees and wounded.
As a result of this it was in a smaller room of the Sanctuary that surprisingly soon after the conclusion of the battle that a partially patched up Harry, Aayla, Windu and the rest of the offworlders along with Daphne and Cho were seated around a table planning their next move.
"It won't work Harry, it's a nice idea but apparation is closely monitored nowadays."
"Malfoy was able to do it why can't we?"
"Because firstly the wards that prevent apparation to and from the castle are still intact it's only those wards that prevent apparation within Hogwarts that are down so we would have to leave the grounds first in order to apparate away and a lot of the wounded are not easily moved. Secondly most of the former students and younger children cannot apparate and I and a lot of the older students have only had the most rudimentary lessons by people who are not professional teachers and we have only apparated a few feet and thirdly you're talking about a mass evacuation of everyone including the wounded and the unable to apparate and not only do we have no place to go but it would take longer than we have to evacuate that many people," explained Cho.
"Besides," continued Daphne, "As Cho already said apparation is closely monitored now and if the Ministry detects dozen of apparation signatures from here to another location then they are going to come and investigate."
"Floo network?" asked Harry.
"Communication is possible but travel is also restricted and they would stop us as soon as they realised where all the connections were coming from."
"We could use the Raven," suggested Hermione.
"Same difference," explained Daphne. "It would still take too long to transport that many people and it would not be long before they started hunting us."
"What if they did not know what had happened to their men?" asked Aayla.
"How do you mean?" asked Cho.
"Well if they thought the deaths were down to something else, an accident, a wild animal or something that they would not associate with people then they wouldn't know there was anyone to hunt and even better they would not feel the need to investigate further and might not come back again."
"It's worth a try," nodded Coleman.
"Agreed," nodded Cho, "But the only two groups of creatures that live in this locality that I can think would be capable of taking out twenty opponents would be the acromantulas and the centaurs."
"Unless the politics of the forest have changes since we were last here," interjected Hermione, "Then it would not really be fair to blame either species with their deaths. You'd basically be framing them for murder."
"The politics have changed quite a lot actually Hermione, the centaurs have been forced to retreat deep into the forest and although we are not at war they are in no way our friends anymore. As for the acromantulas they have grown very strong and have taken over most of the rest of the forest and have attacked us in the past and have taken some of us as prey."
"They sound like the perfect solution," stated Alema, "If they are sentient and hostile towards you they would be the perfect species to blame and if they diminish each other's numbers in the process it can only make things better."
"That's not the way the Jedi do things Explorer Ani," stated Windu firmly. "Or the Antarian Rangers for that matter, we are not trying to cause these two groups to start a war."
"WE ARE AT WAR!" shouted a voice from the doorway, causing them all to spin around and several of them to go for their weapons before they realised who it was.
Marching into the room was a teary eyed and makeup streaked Padma still in the same state she had been in when the battle finished.
"The Ministry has taken our families, our homes and our lives and the spiders prey on us whenever they have the chance, now is our chance to hit back at both by setting them on each other."
"…Padma," started Cho, "I know how you-"
"No you don't!" she snapped. "None of you know what it's like to have someone so close that you love torn away from you. She was my twin, we have been together since we were conceived, I have been able to hear her thoughts since we were old enough to remember having thoughts and for the first time in my entire life she is only a shadow in my mind so don't tell me none of you have felt what I feel now because you hav-"
She was stopped abruptly as Aayla, who should not even have been sitting up with the horrific brown stain to her skin from where the curse had hit her rose to her feet and closed on the girl before pressing her fingers to the girl's forehead. As soon as she had done so Padma trailed off and appeared to slump as she began to drop, Aayla caught her and with some difficulty laid her down in a chair before sighing back into her own.
"What did you do to her?" demanded Daphne, going over to examine her friend.
"I just knocked her out using the Force; she will be fine…Or at least as fine as she was."
"I didn't know they had linked minds," remarked Hermione.
"Some twins are born that way, it wasn't something they spread around even their parents did not know for certain," explained Cho. "I only found out when after I had been talking to Padma in our Common Room that I ran into Parvati a couple of corridors away and she slipped up and said something she could not have known as I had only just told her sister about it."
"Perhaps after this is said and done we might be able to send some Healers from the Temple to help heal the mentally wounded," suggested Coleman. "Many have experience with mental conditions and with their added jedi abilities they are normally better able to help than the average physician."
"That would be appreciated," nodded Cho. "But returning to our previous point I'm afraid I have to agree with Padma, we are at war and if we can deflect suspicion off towards the acromantulas then all the better."
"Very well," accepted Windu. "But the jedi will not be a part of this deception, we will help you fight but we will not assist in the planned massacre of many sentient beings."
"B-" began Harry only to be silenced by a look from his Master and a kick from Hermione.
"The decision is made Padawan," Aayla said firmly cutting him off.
"They will not need our help for this bit anyway Harry," remarked Hermione as firmly, getting the point across before her friend said something he would regret. "They will in defence if it goes wrong though."
"I'll do a quick census of those with the right skills to help us," announced Daphne, "After I have got Padma into a bed."
"Good," nodded Cho, turning her face towards the general direction of the others. "It will probably take us an hour or so to get that done and the Inquisitors won't be back that soon so as the inspection of the castle usually takes several hours, I would recommend that everyone who is injured goes and lies down for a bit."
"Admit it Harry, we're lost."
"Ok...we're lost," he huffed in defeat.
"Finally," sighed Aayla, pausing and leaning against a wall so as to relieve some of the pain in her side, the Force was helping keep the pain at bay but it was better to get used to the pain and only use the Force when necessary so as not to tire herself out, Harry was doing the same though his pain was only the ache from his bones being mended and his modified long handled lightsaber was working well as a walking stick and reducing the weight he was having to put on the former breaks. Thankfully it took a lot less skele-gro and time to mend a clean break than it did missing bones, he did feel slightly sorry that Master Windu's first taste of magical medicine and potions would be that horrible and painful concoction even if what is was capable of doing was remarkable.
The pair had been given directions to one of the smaller sleeping chambers in the back of the Sanctuary but after the third or fourth turn they had lost track of where they were and were forced to try and retrace their steps which got them even more lost.
"Contact Hermione and ask her to ask Cho to send help."
Harry glanced up at his Master's face and knew it would be no point in trying to argue his way out of it, but he could not believe he was actually going to have to ask for directions inside Hogwarts, it was embarrassing enough having to do that more than one month after starting but having to do it in an area of the Castle that he had rediscovered was just plain humiliating.
"Hermione," he spoke to his comlink, both glad and annoyed that Republic tech was not affected like human tech was by the magic around Hogwarts.
#Yes Harry?#
"Hermione..." he sighed, "Could you...could you ask Cho to send us some help we've...we've got a bit turned around down here."
#Sorry Harry, I must have misheard that, could you repeat?#
Harry growled under his breath at the mirthful tone to her voice.
"We're lost alright!" he snapped back. "Can you just send someone to find us?"
#A man asking for directions, and that man being Harry Potter no less, now I've heard everything,# came Cho's voice from the other end of the link, making Harry sigh even more at the embarrassment and was about to snap back when Cho put him out of his misery, #I'll send some help along to find you presently, don't go anywhere.#
"Very funny, thanks Cho," he sighed, terminating the communications.
A small chuckle from Aayla earned a look from Harry.
"They are only having a little fun Harry," she smiled, "Given the current situation and what's just happened humour is essential to moral and if a little harmless laughter at your expense keeps their minds focused away from those in the morgue I am going to support it fully."
"I suppose you are right Master," he sighed. "But it doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Of course not, just don't take offence to i-"
She was cut off by a popping sound which made both of them go for their lightsabers but not fast enough to stop a small bullet form wrapping itself around Harry's left leg.
"Mr Harry Potter Sir!" came an excited voice from the House Elf now attached to his lower half, "Dobby never so happy to see anybody."
"Dobby?" he asked in surprise, "Dobby, it's good to see you too."
"Mr Harry Potter sir is back, he's back," the elf wept, "And Miss Sec-ra too."
"Yes Dobby we're back," he reassured, "But I am also lost."
"Of course Harry Potter sir, follow Dobby," he beamed and led them down a pipe.
"So what have you been up to since I left Dobby?"
"Dobby is still working at Hogwarts," he replied. "Now Dobby in charge of secretly collecting food for Sanctuary from suppliers."
"That's an important job Dobby," smiled Aayla. "The Headmistress must have great faith in you."
"Headmistress heard that Dobby helped the great Harry Potter sir and put Dobby in charge of food stores as House Elfs move things secretly. Here is your room."
He directed them inside a small room only about three meters square, just large enough for two small bunk beds.
"Miss Granger says you are to both sleep now, Dobby will get you food and drink for when you wake," he announced before popping away.
The pair did not waste time in talking they were both eager to lie down so that their muscles would stop complaining and within a minutes they were both out, the lack of sleep over the last few days and the effort of the rapid healing they were forcing their bodies to go through having well and truly tired them out.
It was the crashing of trays and raised voices that awoke them both within a few minutes.
"I don't know what you are but only I serve dinner to the Master."
"I is a House Elf and Dobby told Harry Potter Sir that Dobby would bring him and Miss Sec'ra food and drink and Dobby is going to."
What Harry saw when he opened his eyes would have been more amusing if they had both not just woken up. In front of them was Alema, at her feet were a pair of trays of upset food and drink and popping in and out of existence around and on Alema was Dobby while the former spun around and tried to grab the latter as they fought over which of them was doing the serving.
"That's enough!" Harry shouted letting the Force resonate through his voice, causing his Master to open one tired eye and point it in his direction.
The call stopped both of the fighters still before both dropped to their knees.
"Dobby is sorry Harry Potter sir,"
"I'm sorry Master; I didn't mean to wake you,"
"Dobby is a bad bad House Elf."
"I only wanted to serve you your dinners Master,"
"Dobby will punish himself immediately."
"Stop!" he called again, cutting them both off. "Right now I am too tired to think about food so to stop you arguing Alema you get Master Secura her food and me a drink and Dobby you do the opposite, that way you have both served both of us."
"Yes Master."
"Yes Harry Potter sir." The two agreed before glaring at each other and going about their tasks and leaving the room.
"Well done, very diplomatic," complimented his Master whose eyes were once again closed.
"Thank you Master," he sighed before shifting slightly and attempting to get some more sleep.
It was only two hours later about thirty of the Sanctuary's defenders (including several of the adults as they were more skilled in what they were doing) were out on the grounds removing the bodies of the invaders, tearing holes in their abandoned robes to make the attack look physical not magical, enlarging the bodies of every dead spider that the House Elves could find around the castle and scattering the odd severed spider leg and body part around on the grass.
Creating the exact look of giant dead spiders was quite hard so Hermione had come up with the bright idea of enlarging those already in the castle, the fact that the spiders were from several different species did not matter, ninety five percent of wizards had never seen acromantulas so would not know whether they came in one fixed spider shape or many.
Harry and Aayla, having been ordered not to assist, were outside observing and keeping a lookout while the others worked, they were not completely healed yet but a couple of hours of sleep/meditation had allowed both to walk around freely without the constant need for rest or support. They were not expecting anyone to come and investigate yet which is why Harry and Aayla were outside instead of some of the non-injured jedi but they and Master Windu thought it would be beneficial to have some of them outside as an early detection system just in case the Inquisitors turned up early. Coleman and Hermione as the only uninjured jedi at the moment were going to be providing defence during what they considered to be the most likely house for attack and were due to come outside to relieve them in about fifteen minutes and to keep an eye out until they were done with the transfiguring.
Harry at this moment was being very quiet and was trying not to draw attention to himself knowing that one of his Master's infamous chastisings was likely very near and he really did not want to be subjected to it in the presence of thirty wizards and witches. He knew she had held off immediately after the battle and when they were both in need of rest but as they were now a lot more able than they had been a few hours before she would likely not wait much longer.
"Don't think I don't know what you are trying to avoid Harry," she accused, "You might be able to hide it down our link but your physical actions speak louder than words."
"Yes Master," he nodded, giving in to the inevitable.
"Don't worry, I won't embarrass you here but I will think up some suitable punishment for getting yourself injured again."
"Yes Master," he sighed, he could deal with punishments, they were far less embarrassing then lectures and he was used to doing menial tasks when he had to.
He did not have the chance to think long on this as something on the edge of his senses indicated the presence of something non-human (other than his Master) in the immediate vicinity.
"I sense it too," confirmed his Master before he had the chance to speak. "Do you know what it is?"
"I did not have knowledge of the Force when I was here before so I don't know what the creatures of the forest feel like through it but I have a suspicion that it's what I felt when I was pursuing Malfoy...And more than one of them too."
"Any ideas?"
"I have a suspicion but not one I want to test, but I would highly recommend that we speed this up because if I am right this could very bad."
"In that case we should sp-"
As she spoke both of their heads wiped around towards the entrance to the grounds.
"They're here," they said at the same time, gaining the attention of all those in hearing range.
"But we're not ready," exclaimed one of the defenders, "They might be able to detec-"
"It will have to do; we must get back into the castle."
"We don't have time," countered Aayla. "Is there any were closer?"
"Just the forest but we can't-"
"We don't have to," interrupted Harry, "There is somewhere almost as close but safer, this way quick."
The acromantulas in the eaves of the forest looked on with interest.
"What are the 'Friends of Hagrid' doing?" asked a younger one to the eldest present who had observed Harry earlier.
"They are trying to make the disappearance of the servants of the 'Monsters of the Chamber's' master look like our doing, that's why they are using our dead smaller kin as proof."
The younger one who was only the size of a large football hissed and smacked its fangs angrily.
"How dare they, we should-"
"We should watch and wait," called a deep and instantly recognisable voice among those of the colony. Turning the pair saw on the ground behind the trees the second largest acromantula in the forest as he carefully pulled his large bulk up into the large tree, his presence caused excitement amongst his younger kin and instantly silencing the younger spider. He was the size of a small car in length with a wider length span, he was far from the size of his deceased father or his even larger mother but he was the oldest and largest male spider in the forest, not the Patriarch of the colony as he was brother to all but his mother but the 'Prime' as the eldest of her children and that made him one of the two most important acromantulas in the colony. "Their plan is good for those that do not know our customs and eating practices but I fear that it will cause them much trouble if their deception is uncovered, I also rejoice that it will cause us much trouble and much feasting if it does not."
Several of his kin chattered in excitement.
"Young one," asked the Prime to the second largest spider in the tree, "Is that the 'Friend of Hagrid' you spoke of?" pointing with one of his legs.
"Yes Prime, he was one who came to the hollow years ago with the other when Hagrid got taken, he used Magic I have never seen before when he was hunting the other in the woods and was able to know where his opponent would appear."
"Interesting, this human might be of use to us. Come my brothers and sisters; let us watch what they do."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another lovely cliff hanger for you, aren't I nice. Sorry for the delayed posting, was having fun trying to work out exactly how to continue this story arc.
I know there was a lot of criticism of the last chapter and the way I handled the fight scene, I'm sorry if it wasn't to your liking, I was trying to find a way of having Harry and Draco duel it out without Harry easily defeating Draco and the only way I could think of doing that was to make Harry not use his lightsabers and for the fight not to be all out until Harry fell into Draco's trap otherwise we all know that one on one Padawan Potter would easily be able to defeat Inquisitor Malfoy.
I am sorry if any of you found Daphne's desecration of Draco's body disgusting, it's not something I would normally have done but when you consider what he tried to do to her I consider it justified.
For those that were wondering about the title of this chapter: "Inter arma enim silent leges" it is Latin and very roughly translates as "In times of war the law falls silent" it basically means that law often gets ignored in times of war. I first heard the phrase in DS9 and I always wanted to find a way to use it in a story. I though this chapter where the Hogwarts Residence are discussing framing the acromantulas for the murder of Malfoy in an attempt to dodge the blame and start a war and the others and where Harry's killing of a Ministry 'official' gets completely ignored was the perfect chance.
A couple of people asked when this is in relation to the movies, assuming I have not confused myself we are currently in 39BBY and PM is in 32 BBY so we have 7 years until the first movie.