Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die
Chapter 42 – Show Me A Hero And I'll Write You A Tragedy
This is more like it, grinned Harry.
I'm assuming you mean that this time we are the ones who are upstaging the unspeakable not the other way around? Aayla returned mentally.
Exactly
Then I agree completely
The pair were currently walking their way up the wide open hallway that led to the Minister's office, it was similar to the DMLE with a series of office for senior officials, albeit in a wider corridor, allowing both the jedi to swing their lightsabers with ease, with a large open area where general workers sat attached to it, they had rapidly cleared through the open office by using the many obstacles to their advantage. Unlike the DMLE there were no dividers, apparently because the Minister wanted to be able to see what all his underlings were doing, so they were easily able to vault over objects, especially because of the higher ceiling, to allow them to rapidly close on their opponents.
Given their poor showing in the last department Aayla and Harry had deliberately darted between the office furniture and had managed to Force knockout six workers before any of the others knew what was going on after which they had rapidly cleared up before the rest of their team, except the unspeakable, managed to take offensive positions which had earned them a nod and a 'touché' from the masked man. They could tell from the emotions that they could just feel from him, his Occulmency skills were impressive, that the unspeakable was both enjoying this game of one-upmanship they were engaged in and from the level of concentration rolling off him that he was studying their moves with clinical accuracy which they did not doubt would end up in a report for Croaker in a few days' time on how formidable jedi combat skills were.
Ducking a curse Harry sent a Force push towards the door that two aurors were using as cover, the door slammed shut knocking them both off their feet and giving the two jedi a chance to with a wave of their hands knock them out against the two walls of the office ending the resistance in that corridor.
"Do you three want to take the left and right passages," directed Aayla, "Harry and I will press on for the office itself."
Just as they went to nod a pair of stunners ricochet out from around from the left side passage that led to more offices, apparently the Ministers Office was the most overstaffed and bureaucratically over managed department in the whole Ministry.
"Ok scrap that," amended Aayla. "You three take the other one while Harry and I take this one, we'll reunite before we head for the office itself."
With a nod the others headed off as the jedi snuck towards the fight happening around the bend in the hallway.
As they came around the corner they saw at least six men in Death Eater robes firing spells into a pair of offices. Before they could even fully take that in the unmistakable sound of a blaster permeated the air.
"Alema," Harry gasped and although not loud enough to hear one of the Death Eaters did turn around at exactly the wrong moment.
"There's more, get them!"
Four of the attackers swung their wands around to attack the new targets but one was instantly felled by a blaster bolt from one of the offices. The other three fired at the jedi but never stood a chance as the pair launched forward with their lightsabers swinging instantly downing them.
"Clear," called Aayla.
A few seconds later Alema stepped out of one office while Kingsley and Fleur stepped out of the other.
"Thank goodness it's you Arry," beamed Fleur, "We were afraid they had summoned reinforcements."
"We thought that your entrance must have been blocked," remarked Aayla.
"Thank you for the rescue," nodded Kingsley as he gestured that they should proceed to the Minister's Office, "There were more of them that we anticipated, one of ours is dead the other is wounded and won't be able to advance with us so is remaining in the Undersecretaries Office. How's your team?"
"The Unspeakable and the others are just checking the other offices, we met stiff resistance in the DMLE but we were able to overcome it."
They met up with the other three members of the team in the hallway where they had separated and headed on towards the last office.
For the first time on Earth a speeder bike was powering through the forest of Hogwarts. Luckily for Coleman it seemed that the padawans had been wise enough to equip the Raven with a trio of speeder bikes; one had been destroyed during the crash, the second was running but only just and at a limited speed but the third was fully functional.
Coleman had taken Hermione, who had been tied to a stretcher which attached to the side of the bike, and was proceeding rapidly in the direction of Hogwarts, the castle may be aflame but if he got her to the defenders they could protect her while he returned to the battle.
Mace had elected to take the slower bike, as he did not have to defend an unconscious apprentice, and was proceeding at a much slower speed towards the rest of the battle.
When he emerged onto the grounds Coleman discovered a scene of utter carnage in front of him, a thick black smoke cloud was coating the field from a combination of the raging fires that had been set turning the mist that they had laid down earlier into a choking cloud of darkness. In every direction that he could see through the thick smoke he could see wizards, witches and spiders fighting each other accompanied every so often by the sound of a giant.
It seemed that the army had got so disorientated in the low visibility that they had started confusing their comrades for enemy combatants, although this was assisting the castle defenders somewhat those senior and more experienced amongst the army had started organising them and were moving as units through the battlefield taking out large groups of spiders as they went, as Coleman prepared to swing his speeder around he witnessed two of the inquisitors at the front of the pack levitate a pair of large charging acromantulas so as to stop their advance while another dispatched them with a pair of curses before letting their dead bodies drop to the ground making their smaller kin run from the organised defence.
Using the Force to orientate himself in the fog as he went out of visual range he pushed his speeder to maximum speed and began to unbuckle his padawan from the stretcher. As the last strap came away he lifted her gently off and over his shoulder before leaping clear of the speeding craft.
As he touched down gently he used the Force to pull on the steering column violently so that the speeder turned so sharply that it spun over and continued travelling spinning sideways as it disappeared into the fog. A split second later he heard the crash as it first hit the ground followed by the panicked yell as the large group of inquisitors got his at high speed by a seven foot wide hunk of Republic metal.
A cheer, or rather a round of excited chattering, went up from the surrounding spiders before they ran at the now broken defensive formation but Coleman knew that if one group had come together other groups would too and with no long range offence or defence the spiders would need his help if they were not to suffer huge casualties, but he had to get his padawan to safety first. Turning around he saw that they were not far from the burning castle and there were not that many battles taking place between them and his current position.
"You," called Coleman to the largest acromantula nearby who turned and looked at him strangely at being addressed by the odd being before scuttling closer, "Take her up to the castle where she'll be safe, if you can get someone to check on her legs." The spider clicked a couple of times in what Coleman perceived to be annoyance at being given a 'babysitting' job. "Look," he said firmly, turning on his full Jedi Master voice, "Your colony needs our ship yes? Right now it's in pieces because of that crash; she helped build that ship and is one of our best chances to get it flying again. I need to get her to safety so I can help you out here without worrying about her." The spider thought about it for a second before making a sound of agreement and taking the unconscious padawan off of him and running towards the castle, a couple of his clutch mates joining him as escort.
Coleman watched the trio of spiders run off dodging through the series of smaller battles that were occurring all over the field towards the imposing fortress. Trusting the spider to keep her safe Coleman drew his lightsaber and charged into the fight, the acromantulas needed support and it looked like he would have to be the one giving it.
Mace Windu was in trouble and he knew it, he deliberately had not told Coleman as they parted but he was suffering from the single worst migraine of his entire life and the Force was only doing so much to suppress it. After Coleman had taken his leave with Hermione he had had a quick look to see if he could find the cockpits medical kit but it had got torn away from the bulkhead during the crash, the same had likely happened to the others around the ship as well, he could not afford to waste time to find and retrieve one now, he would have to wait to get one from the ship later or get his head looked at by the wizard healers.
As he sped through the forest he could hear the sounds of battle ahead of him including, he believed, the distant sounds of a lightsaber, he had already sped past many injured spiders that were limping their way back into the safety of the forest but he was having his own difficulties now; his vision was being distorted. He originally thought it might be a curse, Harry had used something similar on him once during training but this was different, it wasn't as clear as the spell had been it was like when you got tired and your eyes lost focus causing him to see half doubles images of what was around him partially overlaid over each other, it was only thanks to his Force senses that he had managed to avoid slamming into several trees.
Passing through the edge of the forest he had to veer to one side to avoid being trodden on my a giant, thinking quickly as he passed he drew his lightsaber and slashed the back of the creatures legs, he did not wait to see it fall as he heard the scream of pain but instead started steering towards the centre of battle where he could hear the sound of a lightsaber before he got the feeling he was needed elsewhere.
Skidding to a halt he decapitated a pair of inquisitors and knocked out a reservist with the front of his bike as he came to a stop. Mace Windu was not like Qui-Gon Jinn he did not believe solely in the living Force but this was one occasion when he believed he was needed elsewhere, the sound of the lightsaber he knew had to be Coleman and normally he would go to his aid especially as he was protecting his injured padawan but the pull was strong and he knew if Coleman was in mortal danger the Force would tell him as such.
Changing his focus he readjusted himself and went to spin the speeder but paused when he felt an odd tingling sensation in his fingers. Looking at his hands in confusion Mace shook off the feeling before pulling his bike around and headed straight for the castle.
Cho and her group were in trouble, they had not expected the number or the skill level of those that had entered the castle, nor where they expecting the fire that has been set; It had been started by the fliers and they had used it to try to choke the defenders out and bubble head and flame freezing charms could only do so much against a magical flame.
They had detoured from their mission of stopping the inquisitors to battle the flames but their magical nature made them harder to fight and several of their group had already been overcome by the combined forces of smoke and heat.
That's when it really started to go wrong, the inquisitors came upon them while they were distracted by a stubborn fire and managed to fell several of their number before they could even acknowledge the direction they were firing from.
"Defence!" shouted Cho as her forces started to rally and move behind what cover they could, one of them pulling their blind leader to cover behind an upturned desk a fraction of a second before he got taken out by a spell.
"Take them alive!" came a shouted order from a voice that Cho recognised as belonging to their infamous Minister of Magic.
"Hold the line!" she called in response.
The defenders were not doing well for what Cho could not see was that Malfoy had with him at least thirty inquisitors, aurors and assorted ministry personnel whereas over half of Cho's force had already been taken out by fire, smoke and spell. The inquisitors and assorted Ministry personnel had pinned them in perfectly, they were behind a reasonable level of cover but being caught between smoke, spell and fire was far from an ideal position and the extra age and experience of the majority of the attackers was quickly swinging the fight in their direction.
Cho being blind was not very useful in a large fight and had to settle for holding a shield in front of her and a couple of others allowing them to attack more freely, she was completely disorientated by the fight all she was aware of was the sound of spells being cast, curses being thrown, impact sounds, the roar of the flames and the occasional hard tug in one direction of another as those behind her pulled her clear of curses that her shield could not stops.
It was an injured Harry and group that limped their way out of the Minister's Offices, after taking out the two guards guarding the Minister's Office one of their concealed allies made the mistake of trying to open the office door without checking it for traps which apparently it was covered with, that person had been killed outright by the traps and the others had all been blasted off their feet by the explosions. Apparently the Minister did not even trust inquisitors to guard his office and had trapped it to hell. It had taken a good thirty seconds for the group to regain any sense of orientation after the blast which appeared to have incinerated everything inside the office. The others had all got off with minor injuries and nothing that would really slow them down in a fight but they all had to undergo a round of healing spells in order to stem bleedings, stop pain or to push a couple of dislocated bones back in to place, it was a magic expenditure they could have done without.
They moved down to Level 8 quickly, it seemed that the other teams had all done their jobs as they did not encounter another conscious person until they reached the atrium where they could hear a large battle taking place. Barricades had been set up on the two sides of the room, their side where hunkered down behind the desks of the aurors that guarded entry which had been torn from their usual positions and had been fixed in front of the bottom of the stairs that led to the upper levels while their opponents had conjured boulders which were positioned in an arc in front of the other stairs that led down to level 9 and 10.
The first indication of the trench warfare that the group saw was when they rounded the corner of the steps that led down from level 7 to the Atrium on level 8 and were confronted with an intermittent wall of spells which cut the top of the staircase off from the bottom 8 steps and the floor below. Massive chunks of stone and marble had been blasted from the steps which went from being nice and smooth to being crazy paving for a half dozen steps.
"Wait there!" shouted a voice from the level below which turned out to be Neville as he leaned back from the barricade so he was visible from their position, "On my command leap then duck quickly."
Nothing happened for a few seconds then all those behind their barricade stuck their wands over and fired spells at once, pinning down their opponents for a few seconds.
"Now!"
The group as one jumped through the temporarily clear space and ducked down as they hit before, just as the return fire sliced through where they had just been.
"You took your time," remarked Neville.
"We had some problems with the Minister's Office," replied Kingsley. "How do things go here?"
"Stalemate," replied Daphne from her position beside her fiancé. "As soon as we destroy a bit of their barricade they rebuild it and vice versa, we've lost a few but so have they."
"What about the lift, could we not descend passed them in that?" asked Fleur.
"It's destroyed," explained Luna who was sporting a nasty gash to her forehead. "It's stuck on the floor above, it'll take hours to fix and besides it does not go all the way down."
Aayla did a quick head count and concluded that they had twenty one order members and six unspeakables with them. The gap between the two sides was about ten meters.
"Unspeakables please disillusion yourselves, I have an idea."
A couple of them turned to one another to see whether they should follow the order before seeming to come to some form of conclusion and doing as she asked.
"Right everyone else do what you did before to get us down the last few steps. When the gap appears the unspeakables, Harry and myself will jump over the sides of the barricades and spread out so that we are not in the direct line of fire. We approach as close as possible before attacking, with luck we will be able to overwhelm them before they have time to react."
As she finished a ghostly white shape rose through the floor and impacted one of the few inquisitors who had not concealed himself yet.
"The rest of the DOM are about to start their attack on the rear of their ranks from Level 9," he informed them.
"Good timing," smiled Harry as he prepared to Force Cloak himself.
"Ready?...Now!"
Mace flew in through the remains of the entrance and let the Force guide his movements, he rounded several bends and stairways before coming around a corner at speed before realising that the passage ahead of him which previously had been clear had mostly collapsed blocking the hall for most of its depth and his speeder was heading for it at full speed.
The acromantula that had been charged with Hermione's care was less than happy, he and his companions had started trying to scale the walls of the castle to the battlements where he knew that there were more of her kind who could take her off his back so that they could get back to the fight but no sooner had they started than a marauding giant started tearing them off the walls and crushing them under foot despite the valiant defence brought by those 'Friends of Hagrid's' friends atop the wall they were forced to turn back. They had then tried entering the castle via the main entrance and following the corridors towards the top of the walls but they kept running into fires or smoke blooms every time they got a couple of floors up and were forced to turn back or face choking themselves or their charge to death. Finally they had settled on travelling deeper into the castle where the fire had not yet spread before ascending but that had led them to their current predicament. Thoroughly fed up with the job assigned to them, not paying attention to their senses and not expecting to encounter any enemies they had charged round a corner and bowled straight into the legs of two dozen cloaked figures who were firing spells at who they guessed were their allies hidden behind some makeshift defences.
They impacted at such high speed that all three of the spiders ended up pinned to the floor as half a dozen people fell on them. Each of the suffered at least two broken legs from the crushing force of the cloaked ones as they fell on them though three of them fell permanently when they landed on the spiders legs and some of their dangerous hairs impaled throats.
"What just happened?" demanded Cho as she heard unusual sounds amongst the sound of spells.
"Acromantulas just ran into them but I don't think they intended to," advised her number two as he watched several of the inquisitors struggle against their fallen colleagues before firing killing curses at the writhing spiders stopping their movement forever. "As they need our help badly, they…they have Padawan Granger with them!"
"She's alive!" Cho exclaimed. "Hey wait, she's supposed to be with the ship how in Merlin's name did she get over here."
"I don't think she intended to she's unconscious and was being held on one of the spider's backs and if we don't move now they'll have her too."
Cho didn't have to be told twice, the spiders stumbling in had been an accident but it was also a distraction. "Go go go!" she called as she felt them guide her forward, they were still at a numbers disadvantage but she could not let them capture Hermione, Harry would never forgive her if they did.
Mace prepared to roll as flew over the mount of rubble, the explosion of speeder meeting the fallen stone work on the other side at high speed whipping around him briefly as they impacted.
Hitting the floor he was more than a little surprised when instead of rolling he in fact landed shoulder first and went tumbling over himself a couple of times before coming to a stop.
He did not move for a second as the event quite unnerved him. That jump had been relatively easy and few padawans would have misjudged that so why did he, arguably one of the most powerful and skilled jedi in the Order. Still a bit disturbed he tried to climb to his feet only for him to stumble sideways into the wall before he managed to stabilise himself. He was now convinced something was very wrong with him internally; his coordination was off as was his balance and his migraine had only gotten worse, the sooner he went where he was needed and got medical attention the better.
"We're in trouble," one of the others shouted at Cho.
"Can we retreated?"
"No, the fire is hemming us in. We're too exposed."
"We need to rescue Hermione,"
"We can't, too many-"
"How many of us are left?" she asked as she felt a spell bounce off her shield.
"Five, there are too many of them, we can-!"
The last Cho heard from him was the sound of an explosion which threw her sideways to the floor. When she shook her head and began to rise she was worried by the complete lack of spell sounds.
"Mick?" She tried.
"Andy?...Steve?"
"I'm afraid they are not in any condition to answer...it's Miss Chang isn't it? I wonder what Ambassador Chang would say about his daughter being part of a terrorist rebellion against the Ministry?"
"Considering the fact that your inquisitors killed my mother during the attack on the ministry," she retorted standing straight and tightening her grip on her wand, "I think he would be cheering me on."
Cho was completely turned around, she had lost her orientation when she fell and the only point of reference she had was Minister Malfoy's voice and that was assuming he had not moved while she had been down, if the other inquisitors had moved around she had no way of knowing.
"Be serious Miss Chang," replied Malfoy from a new direction though she did not turn towards him, "You put up a good fight but in your condition, you don't stand a chance against us."
"Then fight me by yourself then if you think it that easy."
She heard one of the other inquisitors hiss at the suggestion.
"Do you really think I am going to duel an under trained blind girl, I have a reputation to maintain and attacking you would be demeaning."
"Fine," she grinned madly, "Then I'll attack you."
She fired off three rapid spells in a spread to her fire o'clock position where she'd followed his movement before blasting out with a shock wave hex to her twelve and nine o'clock positions to clear the space around her of former friends and enemies and felt no small amount of satisfaction when she heard at least three people yelp as the spells hit them who then hit the floor.
Unfortunately all she could do now was wait, she knew Malfoy had either dodged or dived as she did not hear him hit the ground but she hadn't heard which direction he moved in if any as she took out the others who had approached her, now she needs to wait for a sound as she no longer had the element of surprise.
There! She ducked as she heard a spell fly at her from her ten o'clock position and was quite satisfied when if flew over her head before she fired one back which she could hear missed her target.
Cho knew she had no hope of winning, this wasn't a fight she could survive and she had no hope of getting to Hermione by herself, but she also knew that she could at least try buy time for others to come to Hermione's aid before she was taken and if she was to go down tonight she was going to make damn sure the inquisitors remembered that she wasn't going to make it easy for them.
No sooner had she thought that when she heard the crunch of boot on brick dust behind her, spinning she was too slow to stop what she imagined was a fist that collided with her face sending her to the floor.
The hit stunned her for several seconds so that when she went to move feet stepped heavily on the wrist of her wand arm and on the small of her back pining her down.
"A valiant effort miss Chang but ultimately futile."
She grunted as she strained to prise her wand arm free but the inquisitor just applied more weight making her cry out as her wrist got crushed.
"I admire your desire to fight on but you must know it's over, surrender now and I will grant you a quick death, keep fighting and I shall have you sentenced to Azkaban, there might not be many dementors left but the place is still hell on earth as my late son could attest."
"I will never submit to you!" she snarled through gritted teeth. "Regardless of what I will do you will take Hermione and I can't let that happen."
"Very well, you have made your choice."
She felt her arms getting wrenched behind her before she heard a sound like something powering up.
"What the?" She heard Malfoy exclaim before commotion exploded around her as her captors started casting.
Mace swung his saber through another inquisitor who he didn't retreat in time. Normally he would have tried to incapacitate the reservists but his body was in full revolt against him to such an extent that he was struggling to focus and killing them was much easier as it only required him to swing the blade, if it hadn't been for the fact that he was fighting to free Padawan Granger, the headmistress and her incapacitated colleagues he would not have dared enter the fight at all but he could not allow innocents to be killed because of his incapacity no matter what it cost him.
He rapidly cut through over a dozen of them before any proper defence started but he kept his speed up and kept randomly throwing Force Pushes out in every direction, not even bothering to attempt to aim, as he stumbled his way through them, he might have been in a running fall but at least he could keep them off their feet until he could get through the last of them.
He just heard the sound of skulls cracking on stone as he threw his fist out again taking out half a dozen with the Force impact.
Looking around again as he moved to the next he saw double distorted images of all his opponents, his vision and his headaches were getting worse by the second. Lashing out with the Force he saw about half the distorted images in front of him go flying and a few more thuds. He managed to swing his lightsaber haphazardly through two more enemies before his balance failed him and he landed on the ground, his lightsaber deactivating as it skittered away across the ground.
"Get him!" a voice shouted before Mace became aware or two pairs of hands grabbing him and hauled him upright. Although his vision was unfocused and doubled and his head, despite the Force, was suffering from the worst migraine of this life he was still just able to make out the man garbed in black with what looked like white hair striding towards him.
"Who in Merlin's name are you?"
"Master Wind.." he tried before realising his ability to speak was equally affected by whatever head injury he had suffered. "Master of…Jedi Orde.."
"Oh…You're one of the 'aliens' who came here and broker that murder Potter out of prison, well I guess it's my lucky day then. Not only do I have the chance to crush a rebellion and destroy those troublesome spiders but I also get to apprehend at least two terrorists and Potter as well assuming he's here."
"You…wi…not," he tried before his voice failed him completely.
"Oh wont I," laughed the man who now stood directly over him, "I don't think you have a choice in the matter."
Mace knew he was almost unconscious, he was barely aware as it was and now the remaining three opponents were gathered around him he had one last chance. Focusing on the last of his reserves he sent a Force Push out in a wave all around him with such force that when the two who had been holding him landed he thought he heard the stonework crack.
He sighed in relief as he slumped to the ground, his limbs refusing to function before he heard the sound of groaning as someone climbed back to their feet from within what appeared to be a pile of dead or unconscious wizards.
"You will pay for that you sword wielding fool; I was going to take you all in for trial but I think the public will understand that such dangerous enemies of the people could not be allowed to remain alive. So goodbye to whatever gods you believe in…Avada-"
"Avada kedavra!"
The only thing Mace was able to see before his visions faded was a flash of green following the shout and what sounded like a body hitting the floor.
Cho slowly lowered her wand as she heard the Minister of Magic's body slump to the ground, one of Windu's earlier attacks had killed her capture but he had fallen directly onto her, pinning her to the ground, it was only that last wave of magic that freed her enough to act, thank goodness the Minister felt the need to keep talking.
"Master Windu, are you alright?" she asked with a sigh when she realised that all the inquisitors must be down, but this slowly turned to worry when no voice replied.
"Master Windu?" she repeated louder as she started carefully walking her way towards where she heard his voice last, moving her feet slowly so as to avoid tripping over anybody.
"Hermione?...Anyone?"
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know a lot of you are REALLY wanting us to get this particular arc over with and get our guys back into space, I feel exactly the same way, but I've still got to try and make a good show out of this fight so I'm afraid there are still between 1 and 3 chapters (at my estimation) left before the guys leave.