Chapter 40 – The Third Battle Of Hogwarts

Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die

Chapter 40 – The Third Battle Of Hogwarts

The following morning the mist was lying thick over the grounds of Hogwarts it looked as though the castle was floating on clouds, if anyone had been flying above the site the forbidden forest would have looked like a large clump of bushes, the trees trunks having been obscured by the dense Scottish mist. The clouds were very dense with visibility as low as ten meters where the fog clung to the ground before slowly thinning out towards almost clear air around fifteen meters off the ground. Anyone who lived in the area would know that up in the Scottish mountains dense mists were common…but this fog was different, it was somehow blanketing, all-consuming and was somehow not entirely natural.

Out of the mist marched a figure...then another...and another. Hundreds and hundreds of shapes of men and women all with their wands drawn were moving across the mist covered lawn like shadows in the night.

Up on the castle battlements a group of Defenders were lined up behind the battlements watched the approaching army that appeared as nothing more than darker shadows in the low lying clouds.

"That's a lot of wizards isn't it?" remarked Cho, even through the thick castle walls the rumble of so many feet was reaching them.

"The mist makes it impossible to guess exact numbers but I believe those that were estimated the other day are accurate," commented Padma.

There had been quite some debate as to whether the twin was mentally fit enough to fight, in the end it was decided that she could help but she was forced to swear a wizards oath to immediately retreat if anyone on their side even made a comment to her that suggested she was out of control, this had of course forced her to reign in her fury at her sister's death but there was no way she was not going to let the big fight go down without her participation, she wanted revenge and she was going to get it.

"Is everyone in position?" asked Cho.

"Affirmative," came a whispered response from someone further along the wall. "The spiders are ready and the others are waiting for our signal."

"Very well, let them make the first move."

Down on the grounds an angry Lucius Malfoy wearing his best and most expensive duelling robes stepped up to the edge of the forbidden forest.

His son and one of his best servants were dead but inwardly he could live with both of these things; Umbridge while very good at her job could be replaced and there were potions that would allow his wife to have another son.

Everyone thought his fury of late was because of the death of his heir and he was very happy to let them continue to think that, Draco had always been stupid and far too reliant on him to bail him out of whatever situations he could not deal with, he never thought before he acted and it would be very difficult for his new heir to be any more stupid than him. What had actually made him angry was the refusal of his Lord to help him fight the acromantulas; it was the perfect opportunity to entrench themselves in the hearts of Wizarding Britain, Umbridge and his son would be martyrs, Lucius and his Lord would be seen as a strong leaders who defeated and took down a terrible threat to the wizarding public a threat that had already killed many Inquisitors and more importantly Reserve Aurors who were the wizard on the streets sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, their loss would turn wizarding Britain against the beasts and he would be seen as a Minister who did what was necessary and who had suffered greatly to ensure the safety of Wizarding Britain. It was exactly what they needed to get the public on their side and to make the troublesome Order of the Phoenix into a group of rebels and dissidents in the eyes of the population for attacking their heroic Ministry instead of freedom fighters they were to some at present, yet despite all this again his Lord refused to fight with him deeming instead to just legalise his actions within the Wizengamot.

It was not the first time this had happened, several times in the past his Lord had refused to fight and it had shaken the faith of Lucius and many of the senior Death Eater, it was for this reason that Lucius had begun speaking privately with the other senior Death Eaters and many had started considering himself to be their new leader as opposed to their former Lord who was turning into little more than a figurehead for the purist movement now. When he returned to the Ministry Lucius decided he would meet with the remaining senior Death Eaters and talk them into following him, some like Trixie would never turn but they could be left to guard their now increasingly useless figurehead as he passed the bills and laws that returned Wizarding Britain to its former glory.

As they neared the edge of the forest Lucius halted and waited for the majority of his army to close around him into a tighter bundle, he was not stupid enough to send a trickle of men into the forest, he knew he had to storm it in force or else they would suffer the same fate as the previous two attacks.

"Unit One advance," he ordered signalling for the first group of reservists to begin making their way into the forest, he was also not stupid enough to send his best troops or himself in first.

The first group of a couple of hundred reservists began creeping their way into the woods. He watched until the last of them disappeared amongst the fog and trees and all that could be heard was the occasional twig snap and the general sound of boots on earth.

Lucius was just about to raise his hand to signal the advance of the next wave when a yell went up from diagonally in front of him, then another to his right, a split second later loud cries and spell sounds filled the area as bright spells showed in flashes between the trees.

"Unit Two," he ordered, sending in the next couple of hundred this time including some aurors as well as the reservists. The second group went in quickly after the first following the sounds of the first group but Lucius did not have time to watch their progress as other things drew his attention.

He was suddenly alerted by the sounds of an explosion coming from behind him, had the spiders been clever enough to set a trap?

"Now?" asked Cho.

"Now," Padma confirmed standing and with a couple of others sending balls of fire off towards the grounds. They waited a second before the fire caught the trail of fuel and other flammable liquids that they had poured around the grounds in the carefully planned out shape of a curved capital 'E', the main length of the ignited ground cut the force off from the entrance to the grounds while the three prongs divided up the force making those surrounded on three sides panic and start to run as they lost their way and got disorientated in the combination of fire, smoke and fog.

"Send the signal," instructed the Headmistress causing Padma to point her wand skyward and to fire of an almost invisible ghost like shape which rose up into the clouds.

Aboard the Raven, the message spell that had just been sent passed into the cabin and collided with Hermione.

"They're ready for us Master."

"Then let's go," replied Windu pushing the control column forward and begin to bring the ship down through the clouds to emerge above the grounds. "On your order Padawan."

"Open fire."

The secondary guns on either side of the ship opened up on the ground forces and began strafing paths through them dividing them up.

There had been a lot of discussion about how the ship could be used to best effect, its main guns were far too powerful to be used against infantry as it would be like receiving automatic fire from an artillery gun but the secondary auto-guns that they had used during the last attack had been rewired on the quick by the jedi to a reduced power level that should hopefully be just enough to knock out and injure rather than punch blaster bolt size holes in the combatants; it would be no good freeing the Ministry if everyone who worked their innocent and guilty alike were dead. It also certainly would not endear them in the eyes of the public, as a result of this it was decided that after they rewired the ships engines to create an artificial but completely harmless fog cloud from its exhaust ports that the secondary guns would be controlled by Hermione and Coleman while Master Windu piloted the ship.

In the forest the Prime and his kin were barely restraining themselves, they had already taken care of the first waves of enemies and they were eagerly awaiting the next. They could hear the cries of panic as the fire and the 'Friend of Hagrid's' ship brought chaos to their ranks, the plan was proceeding perfectly, it would soon be their turn and they were ready for blood.

"Hold my brother, my sisters. Just a little bi…." he trailed of as the sound of great footfalls filled the forest.

"I do not like the sound of that," he said to the spiders around him.

Just as he spoke many of his younger brethren who had been waiting deeper in the forest behind them came charging in their direction, fleeing in panic to the extent that most just jumped or ran straight over those in front of them sending the forward ranks into disarray.

Regaining his feet after one of his younger brothers barrelled him to the ground the Prime stood and looked back through the misty forest only to see what appeared to be tree trunks walking through the forest.

"Run!" he bellowed.

"Padma?" asked Cho, "The spiders should not be moving yet should they?" she asked with her hand pressed against the wall.

"Not yet, why?" asked the twin pausing in her bombardment of the army below long enough to look at the other girl.

"Because unless there is another army with thousands of legs down there they are…As are something's which are much bigger."

Padma looked at her worried before looking out over the grounds towards the forest.

"Oh Merlin, they've got…"

"Giants!" called Hermione. "Where on Earth did they come from? How did we not know about them?"

"No time for that now Padawan," replied Windu, "They are driving the acromantulas out of the forest, target them before they do any more damage."

"Yes Master," she acknowledged before turning back to her gun as the Master wheeled the ship around so that she had a shot.

She fired a single bolt off towards the forest that impacted the chest of a giant and ricocheted off.

Scrunching up her eyebrows in concentration Hermione aimed again but this time, switching the gun into automatic firing mode, she sent a stream of blaster bolts his way, making sure that everyone hit its mark.

The giant rocked briefly as the first few shots hit, but after steadying himself they barely seemed to have any effect, he only looked up long enough to register the ships presence before going back to trying to stamping and clubbing the spiders to death. The weapons fire continued to fall on his back but caused no more harm than rain on a man's coat.

"Weapons fire non-effective," Hermione reported in puzzlement.

"How is that?" asked Coleman as he attempted and failed to take down his own giant.

Hermione adjusted the magnification on her gun sight and looked carefully at the apparently unharmed foe.

"Their skin is quite think but I never…" She paused in mid-sentence then pressed some keys on her console so that her sight adjusted to an even greater magnification. Focusing in on her giant she noticed something that the distance and the fog had prevented her from seeing.

"They're wearing armour, I've never heard of giants wearing armour," she exclaimed, looking back at her scope she could see that each giant was wearing what appeared to be sheet metal armour including helm, leg and arm protection. "They're reported to go into battle wearing their normal clothes why wear armour now?"

"Hermione," called her Master, not looking up from his station, "Are these spiders poisonous?"

"Yes, but why would tha-" she understood a second later. "It's protection against their bites, poison is one of the only way that the spiders would stand a chance against them, they've effectively neutralised their main offence."

"Will the main guns go through that armour?" asked Master Windu, bringing the ship around so that they were pointed directly towards the enemy.

"It looks quite thick," Hermione advised, looking at the scope in front of her again. "It may take several shots but yes."

"Then, I guess it's my turn then," he said flicking the cover up on the gun trigger.

The battle was going from bad to worse for Minister Malfoy, he had expected to lose reservists, they were cannon fodder after all only there to prevent his more valuable troops suffered more losses and to make sure the public were on his side when they heard about their brave sacrifice but then the fire had erupted behind them. The fire was definitely magical in origin as it had resisted all magical attempts to put it out or render it harmless and perfectly cut them off from the ward boundary. That was followed immediately by the rain of spells from the battlements, it was then that Lucius knew that he had been lured into a trap but still he did not panic whoever these people were, probably the Order of the Phoenix, they were enemies of the state and they could not possibly match the size of force he had brought with him, his losses may be greater than expected but if he could deal with two enemies at once and demonise them both all the better.

Malfoy was just about to redirect parts of his force towards the ruined castle when that flying machine had arrived and start strafing his troops with such fast volleys of spells that there must have been dozens of wizards inside the thing, they seemed to even be enough to confront his giants. He briefly worried whether his forces could stand up to the thing when his reserves decided to show up against his orders but nonetheless at just the right time.

The jedi on the Raven breathed in relief as the volley of fire from the main guns started toppling the targeted giant then after a couple of shots cut straight through the giants thick magic enhanced armour exposing its hairy chest. Windu stopped firing on him as he disappeared between the trees and as a cluster of spiders swarmed over their fallen enemy. He bought the craft around to confront another giant but he was distracted by something black rushing passed the cockpit followed immediately by three others.

"We've got fliers!" called Coleman as several more flew passed the viewports.

"Redirect your fire towards them, while I attempt to take out the remaining giants," Windu ordered.

As the other two jedi redirected their fire towards this new threat a question occurred to him, "Padawan, did you get the chance to add that those blaster resistance charms to the hull?"

"No Master, we did not have the time but I wish I had," she replied as several fliers went straight passed the gun sight she was using. "These fliers are too good; they have to be professionals, maybe conscript quidditch players."

"I would have to agree," concurred Coleman as another blaster bolt sailed towards one who dodged it with almost jedi like manoeuvrability before firing several spells that impacted the hull. "Shields at 90%, how are those fliers doing that much damage so fast?"

"They are not," replied Windu, "We are being fired on by the forces on the ground in large numbers but the individual impacts are so slight that the inertial dampers are preventing us feeling any vibration."

"It's not just the numbers," added Hermione, "It's the spells they are using as well, the shields are designed to deflect missiles and specific energy based attacks, they have never been tested against large numbers of different spells before. I think the large quantity of different spells is draining the shields more than normal."

"Prepare for evasive," alerted Windu. "I'm going to try to lose the fliers then get us into a higher attacking position where we will be harder to hit."

What those on the ground and on the battlements witnessed next could only be describes as an aerial back flip as the front of the Raven flipped over onto its back and continued until it was re-righted again but one entire ships length further back, four fliers that couldn't move fast enough were knocked out of the air as they slammed into the back of the ship and were sent plummeting towards the ground. The Raven then tilted skyward and after blasting a giant with its main engines shot upwards over the castle with the stunned fliers in hot pursuit.

Those on the battlements after pausing in stunned shock for a brief second at seeing this multi-ton ship do aerobatics quickly had other problems to deal with as the dozens of fliers who had appeared from the boundary and had started harassing the large ship stopped perusing it once it got passed a height of a couple of hundred meters and redirected their focus to those on the battlements.

"Duck and cover," shouted Padma as she pulled Cho into the shadow of the battlements as fire started raining down upon them pinning them to the walls, unable to fire back as major holes were blasted in the top of the walls and battlements. "Fire on the fliers when you can, there's no chance of us supporting the spiders until we can deal with the fliers!"

"Contact the Raven," ordered Cho.

"Mace, the fliers have broken off pursuit," informed Coleman.

"Excellent, I will bring us back in over the grounds but at a higher altitude so we can't be attacked from the ground, prepare to target any fliers who switch back to targeting us while I-"

The Master was cut off as a comms signal came in.

#Padma to Raven,#

"We hear you Miss Patil."

#The fliers that were following you have broken off and are attacking the walls, we are completely pinned down here and taking heavy casualties!#

"We're on our way Miss Patil," he confirmed swinging the ship around.

"But Master, the shields won't take the continued fire from the ground?" questioned Hermione, spinning around to look at the Master of the Order.

"They will last longer than our friends on the battlements will Padawan. I will keep us moving fast at a low level so they don't have time to target us but will allow the fliers to stay in pursuit. Both of you prepare to fire on them as we come back in for our attack."

"The walls won't take this much longer!" shouted Padma over the din of the continued fire from the fliers, the walls and battlements around them were crumbling fast under the bombardment of blasting hexes. If Hogwarts had been at full repair the hits would have done much less damage but the castle was so badly damaged that every blast was like burying a stick of TNT into each stone, many of the defenders had already been taken out or killed by the shrapnel.

Padma looked up just in time to see a group of the fliers descend towards the wall.

"Drop your weapons and st-"

He was cut off as a loud roar and a blast of air spun him and many of his colleagues through the air, several colliding hard with the walls and dropping to the ground.

Squinting to see what had happened they saw the Raven hovering over them its guns blaring as they strafed the ranks of the fliers.

"I think you got their attention Master," commented Hermione as a couple of the fliers started flying at speed and firing spells at the cockpit window.

"I think your right Padawan; let's see how manoeuvrable this ship really is."

Pulling back on the control column he flipped the ship over and dived low over the lawn and forest sending giants and Ministry troops diving for cover as they passed low over their heads with the fliers in hot pursuit.

"Most of the fliers are in pursuit," reported Coleman, "A little bit slower Mace, some of them are falling behind."

"Understood," he replied reducing the engine power slightly but compensating with more aggressive manoeuvres.

"Merlin that ship can move," exclaimed Padma as her and the other defenders dared to stick their heads back over the parapets and drove the remaining fliers away with their spells before resuming firing on the army on the grounds in front of them.

"How many did we lose?" asked Cho.

Looking around Padma did a rough headcount and sighed in defeat at the number she came up with.

"At least three dozen wounded or dead," how many more could they lose and still call this a victory if they won?

"Padma, we have a problem," remarked Cho with her hand against the stone of the walls. "There are vibrations of many boots on stone; none of ours should be moving around should they?"

"No they shouldn't, we have intruders."

"I'll take some of the defenders and go after them, you hold the wall," she decided standing and heading towards the nearest staircase.

"Cho!" Padma exclaimed in disbelief at the stupidity of the statement from the blind girl, but it was too late the other girl had already gone taking a couple of dozen of theirs with her.

Meanwhile out over the grounds the Raven was being spun around for its fifth low pass over Hogwarts, they had managed to keep the rest of the fliers with them but they were not having much luck taking them down, the brooms were much more manoeuvrable than the relatively large ship and despite the lethal accuracy of the jedi's aim the fliers following them were very used to dodging fast moving objects during games and despite the fact that the blaster bolts were faster than the standard bludger by the time brightly coloured bolts reached the pursuing fliers they had more often than not jinxed out of the way of the shot.

Despite this each time Master Windu had made a pass over the ground he had successfully managed to strafe a giant or two to the ground whilst dodging amongst the fliers who had become quite imaginative at thinking up ways to bring the ship down from levitating felled trees directly into the ships path which it just blasted through to flying at them on a head to head collision course to force them to dodge where they wanted them to go but a wave of a jedi's hand had thus far been enough to cause the fliers to lose their balance or spiral off course but that was about to change.

The next sequence of events happened so fast that few were quick enough at reacting to see them all and did not discover all of what actually happened until much later, those fliers chasing the Raven as it shot over the lake for another run at a giant got the clearest view. As the ship passed from the lake over the edge of the forest one particularly large and angry giant decided that enough was enough, launching himself out of the forest he flew through the air and caught hold of the back of the ship as it went passed.

As strong as the upgraded ship was it was not designed to hold the extra mass of a creature that was getting on for half as tall as the ship was long suddenly being dropped on top of one of the engine pods. The giant never actually made contact with the ship as the particle shields held but the effect of all that extra mass was the same nonetheless.

As soon as the giant hit at speed the back end of the ship pitched down and the left engine pod where the giant had caught a hold of dropped downwards sending the ship into a twisted barrel roll.

The next sequence of events took less than ten second to complete but seemed much longer for those on board the ship.

Inside the cockpit the impact of the giant was most definitely noticeable as the ship pitched violently over.

"What in Mer-"

The rest of Hermione's exclamation was cut off as they were subjected to enormous gravitational forces as the inertial dampeners were overwhelmed and they were spun around.

It took less than three seconds for the giant to lose its grip on the shields of the ship but the damage had been done. Master Windu managed to pull the ship out of the barrel roll but before he could correct the pitch the shields in front of the left and right engine pods caught the tree line and pitched the front of the ship sharply down into the forest.

The ship blasted through the forest, the particle shields taking the majority of the impact but being completely drained in less than eight seconds thanks to the continued pounding at speed by objects many times bigger than a standard ship-to-ship torpedo over the entire front, base and sides of the ship. As the shields gave out the ship which had already lost much speed really started taking a fierce battering, in seconds the transparisteel cockpit window shattered and allowed the torrent of trees to penetrate the inside of the ship instantly overwhelming the decompression shields that tried to plug the hole. There were great wrenching noises as parts of the ship were torn off by the violent impact. The last thing the last person inside the ship was aware of was one of the pilot's chairs flying through the air towards them before everything went black.

Padma and most of those on the walls watched in stunned silence as the Raven penetrated the tree canopy, after a second all that was visible were the tips of the trees as they were uprooted and ripped apart by the fast crashing ship. After two seconds the ship and the trees disappeared into the fog and all that remained was the screeching, crunching, roaring sounds of the ships tortured engine and of the ship felling parts of the forest, the last sound heard was a loud bang accompanied by a red flash before everything went quiet.

"What just happened?" asked one of the defenders asked shakily.

"I…" Padma tried, tears threatening, her fingers gripped so tightly around the battlements to stop herself falling that her fingers were turning white as the blood was squeezed out of them.

"I think Hermione's dead."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Really sorry for the delay guys RL got in the way for a while, well that and a combination of trying to make these scenes flow well. I haven't been inactive though as I have written several chapters for Phantom Menace, so as and when we get that far I will be able to post quickly.

Also I felt the I really needed to do a post now because as of the 25th September I have been writing this story for 2 years, doesn't it fly when you're having fun.

If you're wondering where Harry and the others got to we will get back to them in the next chapter, I'm finding their half of the battle much harder to write I'm afraid so please be patient. As always ideas for the battle or chapters are always welcome.