Harry Potter And Bellatrix Lestrange

Morning came, and with it a strange sight for a small town on Britain's east shore. If any muggle had been in the forests surrounding Southhallerton, they would have been witness to scores upon scores of strange people appearing out of thin air, groups of them holding on to miscalleneaous objects like old shoes, branches, ropes, and chains.

Most of them wore grey cloaks, some carried weapons, while others wore black cloaks with the Hogwarts crest embroidered on them - not that any muggle would actually recognized the crest for what it was.

Harry took a moment to gather his bearings after the portkeys had deposited him and Hiscophney's troops in the forest. Seconds later, Neville arrived via portkeys fashioned by Remus and Snape, with about a dozen members of Potters Legion, bringing their overall numbers to fifty, including Harry and Hiscophney.

Bellatrix had insisted on accompanying them, but Harry had pointed out that she needed to work on the potion to heal the mental damage done to the Longbottoms, and that, after reading Neville's letter, she was hardly in any state to do battle. Reluctantly, she had agreed, but not before extracting a promise from him to return unharmed.

" Tempus," Harry muttered, and the time appeared in glowing numbers at the tip of his wand. Seven-thirty in the morning. According to Hermione's prediction, Voldemort would attack the town between nine and eleven, giving them a two-hour window. Harry just hoped that the message he had sent to Mockridge had been received, and that the Aurors didn't arrive too late to do any good. Shaking the thought from his head, Harry turned his attention to Hiscophney and Neville, as the Count conjured up an ethereal map of the terrain.

"This," Hiscophney indicated, "is the area around the town. If Voldemort's men follow their usual pattern, they will apparate in close to the town square, and fan out radially to cause as much havoc as they can during the few minutes they will be here." Glowing red dots appeared on the map where the town center would be as he manipulated the projection.

Harry nodded. "We know he usually doesn't bring more than thirty or so Death Eaters, so we'll have numbers on him. Their attacks usually last ten minutes, to half an hour at most. That means we will have to attack them when they are close together, so we can take down as many as we can before they retreat."

"That would be dangerous, though." Neville frowned as both Harry and Hiscophney turned to him at his comment, causing him to explain further. "I mean, if there's more of them close together, they will be able to defend themselves better. Plus, if they're attacked close together, what's to keep them from just apparating out the instant they come under attack?"

"Good point," Hiscophney conceded. "I can have five of my people put up an anti-apparition ward the moment Voldemort and his people appear, but that would also prevent the Aurors from arriving."

Harry studied the map for a minute, before pointing at a number of streets that ran outwards from the town center. "Let's assume they stick to the roads, they'd have to fan out along these, right? So what if we let them walk a few hundred yards, then take them down in small groups? They wouldn't be able to warn each other, and we have numbers on them. Worst case a few of them apparate away, leaving the other groups unaware of an attack on them."

"I have an idea." Hiscophney stared at the projection of the town, and the red dots began spreading out along the streets. "We wait till they are relatively dispersed, then spring out assault groups on them." Blue dots appeared on the map, next to the spread-out red ones. "At the same time, we engage localized anti-portkey and anti-apparition fields to keep from from running."

As he spoke, translucent green domes spread across the concentrations of red and blue dots. "That way, the Aurors can portkey or apparate into the town center, and we have enough people to at least contain them inside the fields. I assume the Aurors are smart enough to follow their ears to the battle?" Hiscophney finished.

"Probably." Harry nodded, the plan sounded good. "Here's an addition to the plan," he said as he waved his wand and conjured up a box filled with necklaces.

"What are these?" Neville fished one out of the box. It was a simple copper pendant engraved with the crest of Polairix strung on a leather string.

"Charmed pendants," Harry explained. "Touch them, to activate, and say the receiver's name, or say 'all' to send to everyone, then speak. It's basically a version of the muggle two-way radio, so it should allow us all to stay in contact."

Hiscophney picked one out of the box and examined it carefully, then nodded in satisfaction. "Good. That will give us another advantage. We will be able to call each other and report, or call for help if necessary."

"Nice charm work, Harry," Neville commented with a grin.

"Not mine. Bella charmed them late last night." Harry shrugged. "I'm not anywhere near her level of skill when it comes to charms or transfiguration."

Hiscophney waved over one of his men, and ordered him to hand out the pendants to the sorcerers and the students from Potter's Legion. When the man had left, the Count returned to the map. "There are five main roads leading out from the town center. Optimistically, Voldemort will show up with thirty people, that gives us five-on-three odds at each interception point."

"Right. Station five people ahead of where you want to intercept the Death Eaters, and have the other five swing around to pin them down. That should hopefully keep them there. One person from each five-man group will have to trail behind, casting an anti-apparition or anti-portkey ward before joining the fighting, make sure they know that." Harry pointed at the green domes. "It's really important those wards go up in time."

The town clock chimed ten, and the town was now alive with people milling around the streets, shopping for groceries, catching a late breakfast, or an early lunch. Some people just returned to their homes after a night shift at work, while cafes and restaurants were busy opening their doors.

Unbeknownst to the muggles, ten teams of five wizards each were posted around the town center, and the tension at each of these was thick enough to cut with a knife. They had a lot riding on this attack - including Lord Polairix's public rehabilitation. If they could discredit Voldemort's attempts at branding Harry as the perpetrator of these attacks on muggles, his public influence would once more be a potent weapon against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Another twenty minutes passed, and Harry frowned as nothing happened. Could Hermione have been wrong? Maybe Voldemort, realizing that someone had been able to predict his pattern, had changed it? After all, he was aware that Hermione had already found him once, and he knew that the Ministry knew.

This was their best shot at putting an end to these attacks - after this, Voldemort would definitely know something was up, and he would change tactics, but if he didn't show, not only would Harry loose this chance, but Mockridge would also be taking some heavy flak, if he had indeed managed to divert the division of Aurors Harry had requested.

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