Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 38 – The Enemy Of My Enemy
They quickly ran across the grounds towards a solitary tree.
"But Padawan Potter, that trees the-"
"I know, but I also know how to get passed it," he replied back, moving ahead slightly so that he had enough time to use the force to press the knot before the tree stopped slashing out at the group who had all without exception come to a halt at the unexpected change in the trees demeanour.
"What are you waiting for!" he shouted, "Get in quick."
He pressed the knot a couple of times for good measure to make sure it did not wake up until they were all undercover giving him just enough time to get inside the tunnel before the tree tried to slash him across the middle with a vine.
Harry and Ayala crouched in the tunnel entrance with the others crowding around them so as to see what was happening out on the grounds.
The a while it seemed like no one was coming until they saw around fifty dark robed figures walking onto the grounds wands raised with one plump pink attired woman leading the way.
"Is that who I think it is?" asked one of those from behind him.
"Umbitch," growled another. "Let's kill her!"
"Keep your voice down," hissed Aayla, "And no one is attacking anyone, we need to stay here and not be noticed and then hopefully they will leave you alone."
"I just wish we could hear out what they were saying," Harry cursed.
"Wish granted," smiled one of those behind them dropping something that looked like an ear on a piece of string in front of them. "It's an Extendable Ear, the Weasley Twins invented it just after you left but they never had enough money to market them commercially. Many students bought them to spy on each other and teachers before they were banned. They were working on an Extendable Eye just before the castle was attacked."
"How does it work," Harry asked picking up the strange object.
"This is the mark two model, you stick one end in your ear and touch the ear piece with your wand before pointing it where you want it to go and it will cover the distance."
Shrugging Harry placed one end in his ear where it sealed itself before directing the other end towards Umbridge and watching fascinated as the few inches of string lengthened and lengthened to cover the hundreds of feet between them.
As he settled down to listen he pulled a pair of Republic binoculars out of his pocket and focused them in on the targets.
"You men, spread out," ordered a middle aged man, scattering the reserve aurors with his sharp words. Judging from his more formal blue uniform he was actually a fully trained auror rather than just a reservist. "Let me know immediately if you find any sign of our men other than scraps of material.
"But sir," a brave or more likely stupid reservist began. "It seems obvious that the spiders got them, what are we looking for."
"I am an auror boy and you are now reserve aurors we don't assume anything. Now get to it before I have you transferred to the Azkaban for a month's guard duty!"
"Yes sir, sorry sir," said the reservist quickly running after some of the others as they spaced themselves over the lawn, scouring the ground for clues.
"Very sorry about that Ma'am-" began the auror turning to the shorter woman who he obviously had the pleasure to serve under.
"Ahem," Umbridge coughed politely but poignantly as she stopped alongside him and sent him a firm look.
"- Ahhh... I mean Inquisitor General," he corrected quickly. "These reservists don't have the training and skills that us proper aurors do, I try to drill into them the finer points of law enforcement but some of them are so thick headed that nothing goes in."
"If that's the case Auror," replied the woman in a tone of sweet superiority that even through the extendable ear made Harry want to grind his teeth, "Maybe the Minister and I should place someone else in charge of the Reserve Auror Regiment, if you are incapable of properly training them then maybe someone else's leadership is needed, maybe it's time to remove you from such stressful duties."
"Oh no no no Ma'a- Er- Inquisitor General." The change in the man when talking to Umbridge was quite startling, it was like watching a barking sergeant major get suddenly turned into a nervous and panicking cadet. "I merely meant that err...That is it's a...It is a challenge, yes a challenge. One that I relish in, it's this sort of challenge that makes you feel alive."
"I'm glad you feel that way Auror, I would hate to be the one to tell the Minister that your men are so incompetent that not only can they not protect his son from a few overgrown spiders but they can't even find his remains if he is dead to allow him to have something to bury...We wouldn't want me to have to do that would we?"
"No no, of course not inquisitor General, we'll...We'll find the boy, no worries there."
"You might not have any worries Auror, but I do."
The Auror then bowed slightly and head off towards a group of reservists who weren't quite working fast enough in his opinion. Unnoticed the extendable ear followed him, its cord almost invisible amongst the grass.
"Reserve Auror Thomas!" he bellowed, as he approached one auror who was stationary and tapping his wand against his arm deep in thought. "This is not a tea break get investigating before I have you doing the longest forced march you have ever been on!"
"I am investigating sir," he replied, not as intimidated as his boss thought he should be, "There is something which is puzzling me sir that doesn't make sense."
"Is it relevant to this situation?" he demanded.
"Yes sir."
"Well let's hear it then!" the Auror ordered, not quite so confrontationally as he had been but still a lot louder than was necessary.
"Well sir, I know my magical creatures quite well, I was going to join their control office bef-"
"Get to the point!"
"Yes sir, sorry. The point is that acromantulas are not fussy about what they eat, they even eat their own dead to recycle the nutrients...If they really attacked our men why did they leave their own kin to rot?"
"Oh crap."
"What is it?" asked Aayla as Harry turned around and looked at the others in the tunnel.
"Please tell me that no one knew that acromantulas are cannibalistic?"
Several variations on words "Oh shit," came out of the mouths of at least three former students.
"I couldn't agree more," groaned Harry turning back to the field, why could not one of the people who knew that have remembered and said anything, "We're going to have to take them out before they can leave the grounds, they know it's a set up."
"Harry, we can't," hissed one of those behind him. "They outnumber us five to three and if we can't kill them like last time in case they are unwilling recruits they will have an even bigger advantage."
"Yes but we can't let them go either, that would be even worse," Harry replied.
"Master Windu," Aayla spoke to her comlink.
#I hear you Secura,# he replied as the holographic image of him appeared above the device making the others jump at the unexpected appearance.
"Our strategy has failed, they know the scenes a fake, we're going to try and ambush them to stop them from leaving the grounds but they outnumber us, we need support."
#Understood Secura, we're on our way# he replied before the image disappeared.
"Right we need to get into a position to block their escape," strategized Aayla.
"How are we going to do that," complained one of those behind them, "There is no cover from here to the boundary, we'll be spotted as soon as we emerge."
Neither of the jedi answer for a moment before an idea occurred to Harry.
"Disillusion yourselves, it should provide us with some cover unless they look directly at us, then crouch low and run to the area between the inquisitors and the boundary."
He got a series of nods as those around him began tapping themselves on the heads and they slowly disappeared from view. After doing himself he tapped his Master on the head between her lekku and watched her mental reaction through the link as she turned invisible.
"That feels absolutely horrible," she cringed.
"Yep," he nodded. "Everybody ready?"
He got a series of verbal confirmations before he told them to move out.
As he stepped out of the hole, aware of his Master behind him he pushed the knot that stopped the tree from reacting to them only to hear a thudding sound and several grunts from the hole.
Rolling his eyes he began to turn back to the whole to tell them to be quiet but the 'shhh' he heard from the hole and a mental comment from his Master drew his attention to a reservist standing less than one hundred yards from the tree and looking at it curiously.
Those in the hole had obviously seen him too as although he could not see them the lack of noise told him that they had all stopped moving and were remaining very quiet while the young woman continued to look at the tree area.
She must have seen the change in behaviour of the tree when he pushed the knot, the tree might not have been wiping around before but any and all moving branches had gone limp and were hanging straight downwards which it only did when those that knew about the knot pushed it. He began to raise his wand towards her but hesitated, he was reluctant to use it as some spells when cast or received could cause a disillusionment to fail, the same might be true of some Force techniques but his Master solved the problem for them.
"You saw and heard nothing important," she ordered, "Just a change in the wind, nothing to worry about."
He could not see it but he imagined his Master was waving her hand in the direction of the female reservist. He likewise could not hear her confirmation of the command but watched as she turned and walked in the other direction with a slight shake of her head.
Taking a silent breath he heard the sounds of moving bodies behind him.
"Follow each other's foot imprints in the grass," he instructed quietly. "Try not to walk directly behind each other, we don't want you tripping over each other and giving away our presence."
As quietly as they could the group began moving around to block their path. Harry kept a constant eye on the Inquisitors and watched as the Auror took the Reservist over to Umbridge and began talking to her, most likely passing on the reservist's observations and claiming it was due to his training.
"Here's a good place," announced Aayla as they came to a slight change in the contours of the field. It wasn't much nothing more than a slight raised wave followed by a dip in the grass that created a slight depression of less than half a foot from the highest point of the ridge to the lowest point behind it. It was such a slight change that if you were walking over the ground the only reason you would notice it would be if you were not looking where you were going and the unexpected change in the mostly level field would cause you to stumble. It wasn't much but it was enough for them to use as a trench to lie in to give them some cover. "All spread out and lie down behind the ridge and be ready."
There was a scuffling as everyone dropped to their knees and spaced themselves out.
"Now!" she ordered as a hail of spells started on their way to their opponents.
The Reservists immediately panicked at the unexpected curses with several of them throwing themselves to the ground.
In the distance Harry could just hear the tones of the Auror barking orders at reservists while Umbridge merely drew her wand and started casting some rather nasty hexes back towards roughly where she thought the spells were coming from but due to their disillusionment she was having trouble getting exact positions. It was clear that she had no idea how to take part in a real battle as she was standing stock still while she cursed, it was almost as if she was daring a spell to his her.
Several of the reservists were taken out very quickly but it did not take more than thirty seconds for the Auror to regain control before ordering the entire force to start bombarding their area with powerful blasting hexes.
Everyone's heads either ducked down behind the ridge or they raised shields in front or over themselves as twenty plus people started firing the magical equivalent of small calibre canon shells towards them. Very few of them actually landed very close to them but with dozens of these spells landing within a few meters of them every few seconds it was not the situation in which most people wanted to risk exposing themselves to more fire by firing brightly lit spells to highlight their position.
"We need to create a distraction," stated Harry as a cry of pain went up from one of theirs as they were hit and their disillusionment failed shortly before over a dozen spells silenced them for good.
"Agreed," nodded Aayla, "As soon as anyone fires they will be targeted. You go right, I'll go left and we'll draw their fire away from the group."
"Yes Master," he acknowledged, flipping himself onto his knees and then Force Jumping as far sideways as he could knowing that a person who is disillusioned is much easier to spot moving than they are stationary.
As he predicted no sooner had he moved when spells were turned in his direction, activating his lightsaber he immediately realised the chameleon like spell did not work on lightsaber blades as the silver tube of light was clearly visible in front of him, probably because it was generating its own light.
He started dodging and deflecting as fast as he could, sending the spells back into their ranks to cause chaos giving the rest of their guys the chance to start firing once again. Out of the corner of his eye he was able to make out several of their cover spells failing then for each to become a major target as the enemy spotted them. This momentary distraction allowed a bludgeoning hex to get through and hit his shoulder causing his own cover to fail and for him to become completely visible.
"Oh Merlin!" he swore as he took off at high speed over the grass, Force Jumping and dodging rapidly to keep ahead of the large quantity of spells flying his way.
Harry, he heard his Master call to his mind. Head for the forest, we can try and draw some of them into the trees were we can get close enough to them to take them out.
Yes Master.
Continuing his dodging and diving he put on a show of looking like he was struggling by stumbling and tripping as he ran, trying to make the reservist think that he was nearly defeated so that they would give chase.
It seemed to work as over a dozen started heading in his direction and another five or so started following after his Masters floating blade as she ran to meet him.
As soon as they entered the eaves of the forest Harry was aware of the presences above and around him just like he had felt the last time he was here but many more of them than before, but he could not afford to worry about that now, they only might be enemies Umbridge and her men definitely were.
Dodging behind the nearest tree he powered down his blade to prevent its sound giving him away. Cloaking himself in the Force he then and reached out with it to feel the approaching enemies.
He waited as the first two passed him wands drawn before striking out with a Force push at the third, slamming him into the nearest tree and straight into unconsciousness. Reigniting his blade he sliced straight through the wand of the next one as he spun around to face him causing a small detonation as the core exploded, taking the users hand with it effectively taking them out of the fight.
Spinning to the next he forced kicked the third into the disabled one and knocked them both to the ground.
Sensing another presence he brought his blade around to confront them only for another blade to meet his.
"Careful padawan."
"Sorry Master," he apologized bringing his blade away from hers.
"How are you holding up?" she asked as they moved deeper into the woods.
"Quite well Master, my legs aren't causing me too much trouble. How's your side?"
A pair of spells flew into the trees beyond them.
"Not bad but I think we have bigger problems right now."
Nodding they both darted further into the forest, as they moved both glanced up as they felt one of the earlier presences from the eaves of the forest dart by overhead and disappear into the trees.
"Any ideas?"
"Now only one Master, and if it's what I think it is I do not think they will be pleased with us for what we were doing before the Inquisitors turned up."
Another round of spells flew between them.
"Stop right where you are," sounded a shrill voice.
Looking at each other the pair turned and saw Umbridge and six reservists aiming their wands at them. At this range the horrible little women looked even less appealing than she had from a distance. Harry tensed ready to jump into action before his Master sent him a command to stop down their link. He was about to question why when he felt more presences in the trees around them moving slowly, his Master had obviously decided to play along until they could find out their purpose.
"You are under arrest for attacking Ministry employees and the attempted assassination of a senior Ministry employee."
"What employee would that be?" asked the still invisible Aayla, "All I see are a group or conscripts and a lackey leading them."
Harry had to press his lips together very hard to avoid the smile appearing on his face at the look of outrage and fury that flashed across the vivid pink woman's face.
"I am Delores Umbridge former Acting Minister of Magic and current Inquisitor General of the Ministry, you will cancel your disillusionment now, turn over your weapons and surrender immediately or I will authorise your immediate termination."
Receiving a mental nod from his Master Harry slowly reached over and cancelled the spell on her allowing her true appearance to become visible causing several of the reservists to gasp in surprise before both of them deactivated their lightsabers and threw them on the ground in front of them where one of the reservists quickly collected them and Harry's wand.
"Well, if it isn't one of the off-world spies that broke into Azkaban and freed Harry Potter. You are hereby under arrest and charged with espionage, terrorism, aiding the escape of a high security prisoner and attempted political assassination."
Raising an eyebrow Harry realised for the first time that they had not actually recognised him. Since he was last on Earth he had obviously grown a lot, his hair was just as unruly but it was now a little longer than it was before and it concealed most of his scar except for the newly extended part that continued down his cheek.
"If you are going to charge her, don't forget to charge me too," he smiled, using a flick of his head to move his hair aside so that his scar showed for a second before it fell back into place.
"Harry Potter," the plump woman smiled sadistically. "Capturing you will get me the Order of Merlin. You are under arrest for breaking out of a government facility, evading arrest and the rest of the same charges that I am levelling against your blue friend…Actually I think I would like it much better if you were to resist arrest."
Both Harry and Aayla knew that they could easily escape if they needed to but both were not quite interested in the presences that were continuing to close in around them and the large shadow that was descending behind Umbridge and the reservists.
"Actually I think you are resisting arrest, Reserve Aurors take them out!"
"Ma'am?" one asked as several of them looked on in confusion.
"Do you want me to suspect you of conspiring with the enemy, take them out and you might even get a promotOOO-"
She was cut off as the shadow behind the group struck as two fangs emerged through the front of the woman's chest just and several segmented legs wrapped around her and hoisted her skyward.
"Ambush!" one of the others shouted as more acromantulas of various sizes dropped down around the group.
Harry immediately launched his shotos out of his wrist and threw one at his Master, but paused in shock as she didn't immediately activate it and told him with a look to do the same.
"Wait Harry; don't assume that you know their intentions."
As he went to reply they both felt a vibration pass through the ground.
"But Master, the-" he began
"Just wait," she ordered raising a hand to him in another rare moment of traditional Master-Padawan rank pulling.
Reluctantly doing so he nonetheless turned to the sound of the approaching vibrations and readied himself for the next threat now that the threat of the Ministry 'lackey' was gone. Out of the darkness of the forest hundreds of sets of eyes appeared that a few seconds later were revealed to be mounted on the bodies of dozens of small to medium sizes acromantulas.
"Master," Harry warned, "We can't risk them getting out onto the lawn, they'll tear our friends apart."
"Be at peace Friend of Hagrid," came a deep voice from behind them, causing both the jedi to turn as the Prime lowered himself to the ground on the Hogwarts side of them, the now dead limp body of Umbridge dropped unceremoniously to the ground in front of him as the other spiders charged around them towards the rest of the fight. "My brethren are not after your friends…this time."
"Who are they after?" asked Aayla, summoning her own lightsaber back to her after handing Harry his shoto before he did the same.
"Those you were trying to deceive," he replied.
"I don't think we have been introduced?" asked Harry, still very on guard around the giant spider.
"No we have not. I am Eragog son of Aragog, when he passed and was consumed by the colony I became the Prime and lead the colony with my mother Mosag."
"Why are you helping us now?" asked Aayla.
"Our colony would not even exist if it were not for Hagrid bringing my mother and father here, they created the colony and we grew strong but at the request of Hagrid we did not take over the whole forest, we stayed in the areas that those in the school and that the horsemen did not use. After the death of Hagrid and my father we were no longer bound to that promise and we expanded out to fill the forest and when your government sent men to attack the castle they also attacked us and at that time you all became our enemies and targets to be hunted."
"What had changed now?" asked Harry.
"Our colony has a problem, although we were very grateful to Hagrid for helping our Patriarch and Matriarch set up the colony we are very far removed from any and all other colonies, as such I as the new patriarch-to-be have no one to take as a mate."
"Because the colony is entirely your brothers and sisters," concluded Aayla.
"Precisely…All colonies go through this at one point or another when a patriarch dies and there are no non-blood spiders in the colony but most can solve this by way of the Blood-Trade."
"What is the Blood-Trade?" asked Aayla who had almost completely stood down by this point, not fearing the spiders intentions any longer.
"When a colony gets to this point of its existence we send out scouts to locate other colonies, when they are found the oldest sons and daughters of the patriarch except for the very oldest son, the 'Prime', all divide up and go off to join the various other colonies, the other colonies in turn send us some of their sons and daughters in return so that we have a generations worth of mixed blood that then breed with each other to ensure that there is at least two generations worth of mixed-bloods in the colony, the older of which the Prime can choose from to become his Matriarch and so he can become the true Patriarch of the colony and the younger generation of mixed bloods ensures that if the Patriarch should die that his eldest son does not have to force the colony into a second Blood-Trade so soon."
"But you can't do that," concluded Harry. "Your colony is isolated as Aragog was smuggled into the country from elsewhere on Earth."
"Precisely, my brothers and sisters have scouted wide for others of our kind on these shores but none exist, that is why we need your help."
"Our help?" asked Harry.
"The ship," concluded Aayla.
"Yes, we have heard much of this metal craft that can fly fast and far and can transport our kind to the far corners of this planet where other colonies exist in the areas you call Indonesia, Africa and South America."
"I thought acromantulas only came from Borneo?" asked a confused Harry, it was a bit of information that Hagrid had told him after he had been released from Azkaban in his second year.
The spider let out a deep laugh.
"Do you really think that wizards are so wise as to know every colony on the planet? It is true that that is originally where we were from but others of your kind like the one that sold my father to Hagrid have tried to use our kind to guard their treasure, sometimes they did in exchange for food other times they didn't and our kind escaped into the wilderness where they thrived and although I have never been to any of these places myself we have blood memories of such things and Hagrid uncovered many stories, although never confirmed, of our kind in those remote areas when he travelled far to find our mother."
"Surely no colony in South America is going to be able to breed with another in Africa or Indonesia, or any of them with each other?" questioned Harry.
"Do not underestimate us Friend of Hagrid. It is true those of our kind in what you call South America are isolated from the rest of our kind but those in Indonesia can Blood-Trade with those in Africa when required though it takes many months for the journey to be undertaken and many are lost when it comes to crossing the seas. With your 'ship' we can not only Blood-Trade with all three groups of colonies but we can transport those from one continent to another to ensure strength of blood for generations to come."
"And what do you other in exchange for this help?" asked Aayla.
"I suggest we discuss that in the presence of those in the castle, we have been enemies in the past and we need to ensure that our help is wanted before we offer it. Consider what we have done for you this day as an offer of good faith on our part."
With that he turned and started moving towards the edge of the forest, obviously expecting them to follow. The pair looked at each other before following him out whilst trying not to think about the dead reservists on the ground around them and how many of them were forcibly conscripted.
When they emerged onto the grounds they were faced by the sight of a large number of acromantulas facing off against the combined forces of the castle and of the transfiguration team all of whom were on edge and were either pointing wands, lightsabers or fangs at each other.
"Hold!" Aayla shouted, letting the Force resonate through her words so as to get everyone's attention. "No one attack the spiders, they came to help us."
"Help us!" shouted one of the defenders as the crowd broke out in uproar at the statement. "Their kind eats us."
"They killed my cousin," shouted another.
"I said hold!" Aayla shouted again letting not just her words but her being exude the power of the Force which rather intimidated everyone into silence. "Regardless of past actions on either part the acromantulas just helped to defeat the Inquisitors and are willing to talk with us in exchange for their help."
Some of the crowd went to interrupt but Master Windu who was amongst the crowd got their first.
"I suggest the representative of the acromantulas and the ruling council of the school meet to discuss this while everyone else returns inside, one of the reservists was able to escape so it won't be long until they are back with reinforcements."
"How did one escape?" asked Harry in shock, how could anything out run a charging colony of spiders.
"Because we let it go," replied the Prime to renewed shouts of anger from the crowd.
"SILENCE!" bellowed Daphne with the aid of a sonorous charm from amongst the crowd having had quite enough of the arguing. "We shall do as Master Windu suggests, everyone get back inside the castle, no one is to harm a spider in the meantime am I completely clear."
The last words were a statement not a question as she turned ad gestured for the Jedi and the Prime to follow her.
It was a few minutes later in the remains of the Great Hall that Cho was led into the room and was sat down on a pile of debris by her carer who was then shooed out the room.
"Hello."
"Greetings human leader, at last we meet, I always wondered who it was who led the children of the castle, now I see you are no more than a child yourself and a crippled one at that."
"Do not mistake my blindness for incompetence spider," Cho replied, not letting herself be intimidated by the giant arachnid that she could not see mere feet away from her.
"Oh I do not," replied the Prime, "My father went blind in his last few years and that did nothing to dim or diminish his mind. I was merely surprised that one so young should be responsible for so many."
"Great men and women rarely seek power," quoted Daphne. "They have it thrust upon them and so it was with our Cho...Now, I suggest we stop trading pretty insults and barbs and start discussing what it is you are offering us."
"Very well human. As your friends have no doubt told you my brothers and sisters seek transportation to the far corners of this world. In exchange for this we offer to take the blame for the deaths of those that came to this castle after you today."
"How will that work if there was a witness who escaped?" asked Coleman. "The Ministry will know they are involved."
"The witness was isolated from the others when your attack began," explained the Prime. "He had gone around the side of the lake and as such saw not who was firing spells, the only beings he saw were a couple of my younger sisters who chased him out of the grounds, as such your enemies will already have been informed that both their forces were killed by our kind and in response they will come after us in retaliation."
"Surely that's a bad thing?" asked Hermione. "I mean hundreds of your kind will be killed."
"Yes many will," agreed the spider. "But many more will feast like we have not done ever before in their lives. Even with our expanded territory our kind has always been short on food in our hunting grounds. Hagrid used to bring us livestock to eat but when he died that was no longer possible. The inevitable attack will not only provide us with a bountiful feast but will also thin out the colony so as to prevent the strong from running short of food a long while."
"Natural selection," realised Hermione thinking aloud, "You're going to let the Inquisitors attack you so that the weak will be killed off."
"Exactly, in our native lands around the world there are dragons and other such creatures that prey upon us and constrain the size of a colony, here we have no predators save for the horsemen and wizards, this attack will let us have room to expand again and to prevent us needing to prey on those in the castle in order to stave off starvation. There can be peace between us again. As you can see this benefits us as well as you."
Most people's eyes swung back to Cho who remained in thought for a long moment before a question occurred to Harry.
"If you were being fed by Hagrid when I came to see you last why did you plan to eat me and my friend?"
"You told us that Hagrid had been taken, that meant our food supply was gone so we would soon be hungry…and we were. Besides if I were to hold up a plate of food before you of a rarely eaten and extremely tasty type would you ignore it?"
Harry did not get the chance to answer as Cho moved to reply.
"Assuming that the Jedi are willing to use their ship to assist you after the battle I am prepared to accept your offer of peace and of assistance at this time."