Combat

Chapter 17: 23 April 2:00 PM -- 29 June 5:00 PM – Combat

The emergency message arrived Wednesday just before afternoon tea. It contained the coordinates for the mobilization point. I'm becoming a Brit, I thought. I was irritated the emergency hadn't waited until after tea. I dashed to my dorm room to get my stuff.

"How many wands do you have?" asked Shan, standing in the doorway to my room.

"Three," I said. "One for each hand and a spare." Verdammt. Where did she come from? Will I never escape the eagle eyes of these girls?

Shan and I took a brisk walk to our favorite willow tree. I had been keeping an irregular schedule, including skipping meals. I would not be missed for some time. "I expect to be back by morning," I told her.

I ran through the tunnel and jumped to the mobilization point where I found four wands pointing at me. I identified myself.

The rumor among those waiting was that a German witch or wizard or both had penetrated one of the Death Eater groups or become a Death Eater's lover or had stolen documents from a Death Eater safe. Whatever might have happened, there was now a small group of German spies with information. They were surrounded by Death Eaters eager to kill them and retrieve the information. This ring of Death Eaters was surrounded by German spy wizards determined not to let that happen. I would be part of a defensive perimeter facing outwards to stop Death Eater reinforcements. I was paired with an old wizard named Emil. We were given the challenge and recognition signals. We were then assigned a street, told not to hurt any innocents, and cautioned not to let anyone past. The ring of German spies was strong enough to prevent magical entry. Any reinforcements would have to walk or fly in. Emil said he would post himself in the street to turn back innocents while I hid and watched. I positioned myself to be behind anyone stopped by Emil. Several hours before midnight, a couple strolled down the street.

"I'm sorry," said Emil, "but there's been an accident up the road."

The wizard of the couple said, "I'm sorry to hear that ... AVADA ..."

I hurled two, quick, one-syllable curses at the pair. I heard their spines snap. I saw the two of them and Emil collapse. I had revealed my presence. I cast a detection spell. It revealed my position, but my presence was already known. There were two people lurking in the alley across the street. I flung a counter spell and challenge sign at them. No response. I flung another counter spell at them, and then I charged towards them, hurling curses. I saw a mundane communication pole splinter, bricks disintegrate, and dust bin lids fly as I hurled my curses. I felt myself falling. I rolled and came back up. I could not use my right arm. I continued to charge and hurl curses with the wand in my left hand. I staggered into the alley, stumbled over two crumpled forms, and passed out. When I regained consciousness, I discovered that one of the forms was dead, but the other was out cold but still alive. I looked at the one still alive, knew I was going to pass out again, and knew what I had to do.

I killed her.

I regained consciousness again as I heard the scouts approach. I gave the challenge sign. They responded with the recognition sign.

"Here's another live one," I heard them say. Emil, too, had survived.

I told them to gather my right hand wand as they carted me to central command. They placed its pieces in my hand. I received emergency medical care and was taken to the haunted hut just after dawn. My attendant asked if I could make it back by myself. I stumbled, nearly passed out, and said I couldn't. He took me through the tunnel. I told him there was a good chance people would be waiting for me at the end. When we reached the end of the tunnel, I poked my head out.

"He's here," I heard Luna say.

I thanked my escort, gave him all my wands, and asked him to dispose of them. He nodded. I pleaded with him to dispose of the wands. He said he understood me the first time, it was a sacred trust, he knew what these wands had done, and these wands would not fall into the hands of Hogwarts scum. He waited a short distance into the tunnel to make certain my help had actually arrived.

I crawled out of the tunnel on two knees and one hand. "Good morning," I said to Shan and Luna.

They shrieked. I told them they couldn't do that at this end of the tunnel. I thought that was funny.

I must have been delirious. Much to the girls' dismay, I was singing.

"Looked over Hogwarts and what do I see,

Coming for to carry me home,

Two pretty angels coming for me,

Coming for to carry me home."

As they hauled me to the infirmary, I told them that I had slipped and fallen. I told them to pick out a good place for me to have fallen. Luna chose a place on a stone stairway. We all nodded agreement. I told them to agree on a coherent story. They told me they weren't stupid.

* * *

I awoke to find Pansy standing beside the hospital bed and holding my hand. I reached up and ran my fingers through her hair. I was about to tell her that I was glad to see her again and that I had missed her.

"Don't touch me!" Pansy snapped as she jumped back and ran out of the room.

* * *

When I awoke again the nurse told me it was Friday morning and I had been out for twenty-four hours. The Headmaster wanted to see me. If what people had told me was true, the old coot would want to let me know the cover story for my predicament and would want to tell me that he knew better of course. If what people had told me was true, the old coot would want to convey the information in an oblique manner. Let him do want he wants, I thought. The fact that I was alive meant that the German spy wizards had kicked Death Eater ass.

"I'm told you'll be out of here tomorrow morning despite the severe injuries from your fall," the Headmaster said.

"Shan Li and Luna Lovegood said they noticed you weren't at breakfast and wondered if something had happened to you during one of your early morning walks. The two separately identified where they had found you, a treacherous spot. I was surprised they were both able to identify the spot so precisely. Usually, the shock of finding a friend injured causes confusion. The nurse said she had never seen such extensive injuries from a fall."

I nodded. It had been a hard fall.

"I received a message from the German Minister asking me to overlook any irregularities in your recent behavior."

I cocked my head in surprise.

"This morning's newspaper has a number of articles about gang warfare involving the Death Eaters. It seems a gang attacked a Death Eater group for some unknown reason. A very tough gang, I might add. No Death Eater survived, and no body of a gang member was found. The death toll is high enough that the Ministry of Magic is worried about what is happening within our borders. Unofficially, I can tell you that it would have taken our entire corps of Aurors to do that much damage to the Death Eaters in one night."

My expression conveyed polite interest about internal British affairs. If you like our spies, I thought, you'll love our assault teams.

"Shan and Luna are reading the articles with great interest."

My expression conveyed satisfaction that Hogwarts students were taking an interest in national events.

The Headmaster passed his hand over me.

"The physical damage will heal quickly," said the Headmaster. "The mental scars from extreme actions can behave in strange ways."

"You might develop a sense of adventure," he added. He thought that was amusing.

"The profession of Potions master has never looked better," I said. "I'm even thinking of teaching at some quiet school where nothing ever happens."

White Potion Master speak with forked tongue.

"One last thing, a package arrived for you this morning," the Headmaster said, handing it to me and leaving. The package looked the right size to contain two wands.

Draco appeared after lunch. He had thoughtfully brought our books and notes. We had made steady progress throughout the year and had only two potions remaining in our independent study. We wanted to finish them this weekend, which was a month before exams began. We did not want to sit an exam immediately after a psycho-active potion accident. Draco had put in enough extra effort that it appeared my injuries would not delay the potion work. Barbara and Shelly arrived to take Draco to tea. They knew where he would be.

As they were leaving, Shan and Luna arrived each carrying one small flower and a teapot. I threatened to eat the bloody flowers if they didn't supply some bloody biscuits.

"With gifts, it's the thought that counts," they said, "and the manner in which the gift is received."

Under their combined glares, I agreed to accept the tea and not eat the flowers. They told me their version of finding me sprawled on the stone steps after my fall, and then in a jumbled and disjoint manner, each of them told me what she had been doing the last two days since I had gone down the hole. I was surprised by how pleasant it was to hear about the ordinary details of their lives.

It must have been the medication. I kept thinking how their different hair would feel in my hands and face. I thought about their legs. It must have been powerful medication. I wondered how their faces would look in the midst of passion. I decided that for today's menu I would like Luna before dinner and Shan before bedtime. Tomorrow was Saturday. I could get an earlier start and be more leisurely. What about Shan before breakfast and Luna before dinner? Alas, no such thing was going to occur.

As they say in the Durmstrang Boys' Dorm, "No nooky for Batman."

The nurse insisted they leave, which I considered a mistake. Girls have more healing power than potions. I was left to the melancholy contemplation of the huge difference between my reality and my fantasies. I questioned the purity of the Hogwarts potions. I should not have been having those thoughts about Shan and Luna.

The newspapers Luna and Shan brought me were full of speculation: "One Hundred Deaths in Gang War." Most articles were human interest stories: "Widow's Flower Bed Trampled," "They Stupefied My Husband and Our Kids Didn't Notice," and "Our Family Hid in Terror."

The note with the wands, when decoded, had an accurate report. The information stolen from a Death Eater cell had remained in the hands of the German spy wizards. The German casualties were eight dead and eleven injured. The German spies were in no position to take prisoners, and the Death Eater toll was forty-nine dead. The Death Eaters were caught by surprise, and they swaggered in thinking that only they would dare use deadly curses.

There was one more piece of information in the note that confirmed what I had already guessed: The Death Eater cell had been located from the financial trail uncovered by my operatives. If Patricia and Penelope went to German Wizard Spy Headquarters and identified themselves, they would each receive a medal in a secret ceremony.

* * *

A little after midnight I heard soft footsteps approaching my bed. I grabbed my wands, dived from under the covers, rolled, and crouched behind an empty bed.

"Gottverdammt, Hermann," whispered a female voice. "Who did you think it was? Hermione?"

"Hello, Li Shan. When did you start swearing in German? And I scooped Hermione twice in Transfiguration last week."

"I'm picking up bad habits from you. Twice? No wonder you're hiding behind the furniture."

"Uh, could you turn your back until I get back in bed? I'm not decent."

"Oh, listen. You're shy around me. You weren't worried when you thought it was Hermione. And just the Hermann bits she'd want to hex, too."

"Li Shan!"

"Just because I'm a Hufflepuff," complained Shan, turning her back, "doesn't mean I can't be naughty."

"I peeked, by the way," she said later. She was lying on top of the covers as a chaste Hufflepuff should. I was running my fingers through her hair and feeling much better. "I like the oriental version of my name when you say it," said Li Shan.

* * *

Saturday morning I walked down to the Slytherin common room to meet Draco and finish our Potions project. I walked into a Slytherin common room in mourning.

"Oh my gods, thank goodness you're here," said Jessica, grabbing me and dragging me to a couch to sit beside Pansy.

"She needs you," said Jessica.

Jessica and some other girls sat me beside Pansy and draped my arm over her. Pansy didn't seem to be aware of anything.

"Hermann is here," they told Pansy.

Pansy stared into space.

"Her parents were killed," said Jessica. "She just found out."

The Slytherins watched as I cried – first, silent tears, and then wracking sobs.

* * *

By Sunday noon, Draco and I had finished our potions for independent study. We would take a rest break and begin the final report that night. When we arrived in the Great Hall for Sunday lunch, we discovered it had been snowing all Saturday and Saturday night. We hadn't noticed. The girls wanted to build snowmen. Shan and Luna wanted to do more than that. They had built a snow column and were now carving it. For their model they had taken the poster from my room that I had for the 'Maltese Falcon.'

I saw Pansy walking alone. "Her parents were killed," I told the girls. Shan and Luna looked at each other. They knew what that meant.

"Would you rather be alone?" Shan and Luna asked Pansy as she stood looking over the countryside, not seeing anything. There wasn't any real response. Shan and Luna took Pansy in hand, and the three girls finished the snow sculpture. It was my job to hold the poster of the falcon. Shan and Luna led Pansy to Ravenclaw Tower, which was empty and warm. Pansy sat cuddled between Shan and Luna on a couch in front of the fireplace, and the three girls had brandy and sweet biscuits for tea. Shan and Luna held her and comforted her and cried for her.

"I'll get them," I heard Pansy say as I left. "Whoever did this, I'll get them."

* * *

A number of Hogwarts students attended funerals for friends and family. If the Death Eaters weren't aware that the resistance against them was organized, then the Death Eaters would openly attend the funerals of their fallen friends and families. The German spies would be there in full force, photographing and getting the names of everyone. The net would spread wider.

There were four new orphans at Hogwarts.

* * *

To my relief, a professional operative took over my spy job. I had exams coming and couldn't spare the time. I also was glad to not have any more information. I already had located two more Death Eater cells from the information Patricia and Penelope had provided me.

The combination of insider information on financial backing obtained from the New Year's Eve gathering, access to all the English Ministry's files that Patricia and Penelope Clearwater had obtained, and knowledge of private financial arrangements obtained from Penelope's bookkeeping business was laying the Brits open to full-scale invasion.

'One spy is worth a thousand soldiers.'

My guess was that in about two months the German Ministry would have located all, or almost all, of the Death Eater cells and be ready to strike. They would use assault teams and strike all the known cells at once. There would be a hundred Dark Wizards and several hundred assault team troops ready if the Dark Lord appeared. Finally, if the Dark Lord appeared and all else failed, the Potions and Arithmancy masters would destroy several square miles of England including its inhabitants in an effort to eliminate the Dark Lord. It would not be a joint operation with the Brits since we didn't trust the Brits and the British Auror Corps was too weak and unreliable. Even the Hogwarts Headmaster had admitted that a ragtag group of German spies was more effective than their Aurors. We would be at war with England, and we would be the invaders, but the pressure to strike at the Death Eaters would be too great to resist. Because of what the wizard spies had done, the War Department would be chomping on the bit.

It was out of control. Espionage could verify that Mrs. Malfoy, Mrs. Nott, and their sons were not Death Eaters, but a military assault could catch them in the cross-fire since they had friends and family who were. Patricia and Penelope Clearwater were the deadliest opponents the Death Eaters faced, but the Clearwaters had become foreign agents paving the way for the invasion of their country.

I hoped it would take more than two months to mobilize and train the assault teams for an invasion of England. I didn't want to be here when the strikes were made.

None of this, I thought, would do any real good. Not even a precision strike that eliminated the Dark Lord would do any good. The basic problems that created the Death Eaters, and gave them their allies, would still be there. Durmstrang should have sent its history and social studies students to Hogwarts, not me.

In the midst of these uplifting thoughts, it occurred to me that Harry Potter was supposed to be the Brit's 'precision strike' against Voldemort.

(Come in under the shadow of this analysis, and I will show you something different from Harry Potter striding behind you or Voldemort rising to meet you. I will show you despair that it does not matter.)

I will put these thoughts temporarily aside and be a school kid faced with exams. After the exams, I will think about Draco and me being destined to face each other across a battlefield.

* * *

It was another quiet, but tense, late evening in the Hufflepuff common room. I was quietly reading until Li Shan wanted to go on Prefect patrol, while the Hufflepuffs were glaring at the psycho-active oddity in their midst. Draco and I had finished all our special brews, but the Hufflepuffs had discovered I wasn't normal, and they weren't going to forget that anytime soon. Li Shan had adapted to my Ravenclaw habit of focusing on the task at hand while the rest of the world went by, and she had become adept at recognizing when I was taking a mental break. I finished the chapter and looked around to see if anything was happening.

Li Shan stood up and said, "Okay, let's go."

My study habits had added an irregular element to her patrolling, and initially, she was catching more people out after curfew. It was a nuisance, but the students soon learned to give Li Shan a wider margin. Now we could take an undisturbed walk.

"You're not doing your 'correspondence' anymore," said Li Shan.

"No, I'm not," I admitted, when I realized what she was talking about. The 'correspondence' was all the spy stuff, which I had only done in the Ravenclaw common room when no one else was around. Somehow, Li Shan not only knew that I had been doing it but knew that I had stopped. Either I was a poor spy or Li Shan was observant.

I recalled that the official secret services investigated anyone close to any of their agents. Was Li Shan close to me?

"Hermann," said Li Shan, "I've tried not to think about it. I know it's your secret. But I think about it all the time. I can't help myself."

"Did you want to talk about what's bothering you?" I asked.

"Hermann, the night you were gone and came back injured, was that a German raid?" asked Li Shan.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Luna and I are keeping your secret, but we've been reading the newspapers, and a lot of Death Eaters were killed. We don't know any group in England that could do that. I talked to Harry and Hermione, and they're as surprised as anyone else. But if other Germans are like you, they could do it."

"You overestimate me," I said.

Li Shan wasn't listening to me. "Why are you doing this, Hermann?" asked Li Shan. "You're a student. You shouldn't be doing these things. Why do the Germans care what's happening here? Why are they killing us?"

Li Shan had a grip on my arm that hurt, really hurt. I decided to tell her why the Middle Europeans were involved.

I spoke to Li Shan in American, "Your fucking Voldemort isn't a fucking Dark Lord until he's killed a fucking million people."

The enormity of what I said slowly penetrated Li Shan's consciousness, and she released my arm.

"We're scared, Li Shan," I said quietly, "really scared. We're not worried about a sociopath and a gang of thugs. That's bad enough, but that's not what we're afraid of."

"What?" she said.

"We're afraid of a sociopath with the resources of a country behind him – a national treasury, efficient administrators, eager warlords."

I continued, "The Middle Europeans believe that if Voldemort defeats Harry Potter, then the rest of you Brits plan to give up. You will serve the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord will not be happy with England. He will want the continent as well, and he will invade with the resources of England behind him."

Li Shan started to disagree, but then she remembered her aunt and uncle and their attitude towards her half-blood status.

"But Vol ... but he's one of the most powerful wizards ever," said Li Shan. "Harry Potter is the only one who can stand up to him."

"That might be true," I said. "Harry Potter is the only one, but is he the only ten, or hundred, or thousand? It might be that Voldemort can defeat several thousand German wizards at once, but we're going to try anyway."

"Then will you finally give up?" asked Li Shan. "After all that useless killing?"

I should not have continued talking. I should have given an equivocal answer. "We don't know what the Ministries have in mind, and we don't know what the European wizards will decide to do, but at Durmstrang we do not think that will be the end of it."

"How can it not be the end of it?" asked Shan.

I said the most terrible thing to Li Shan that she had ever heard. "If we can't destroy Voldemort, we will try to destroy his national resources."

"You mean you will destroy us, all of us."

"No," I said, "we will try to destroy Wizard England as a power. That's not the same as killing everyone."

"I don't think there will be much difference," said Li Shan. "The power of Wizard England is based on having wizards."

"Not entirely," I said. "There's your government, your manufacturing system, your transportation system, your communication system, your educational system, your potion and medical system."

Li Shan was looking at me in vacant-eyed horror.

"That's what we'll try to destroy, but history says these systems are resilient. History says the other side fights back. The most likely outcome is a long war that destroys the countries involved."

"Then why would you do it?" asked Li Shan in utter desperation.

"We've experienced Dark Lords, and we've decided a long destructive war is better."

That was the last time I talked to Li Shan.

I'll remember Li Shan's last words to me for some time.

"Did you kill anyone, Hermann? I think you did."

* * *

It's tempting to end this chapter with a young wizard damned and abandoned by the girl he has come to love – with her accusations ringing in his head, reverberating with the guilt of murder – with her words and rejection leaving deep, searing scars. But in the midst of my betrayals, let me remain true to the Durmstrang tradition of intellectual analysis. Let me recount the minority position at Durmstrang that agrees with Shan Li.

It's okay if Voldemort kills Harry Potter. In fact, that's the preferable outcome.

There are two parts to the argument. First, there is general agreement that if Voldemort kills Harry Potter, then Voldemort can rule the Brit Wizards. If the Brit Wizard society and government are this weak, then they can easily be ruled by any tyrant, and sooner or later, they will be ruled by a tyrant. Second, since Brit Wizardom is destined to be ruled by a tyrant, it's better for us Middle Europeans that they be ruled by a weak tyrant. Voldemort is weak because he supports a minority (purebloods) against the majority and because he indulges in cruelty towards, and torture of, the majority. Voldemort will never have the whole-hearted support of the population, and he will drive the best and brightest away.

As Thucydides says, "Only a democracy can be an imperial power."

The logical extension of this argument is that we should not wait for that stumblebum Voldemort to kill Harry Potter. He keeps botching it. Our assault teams and a few Dark Wizards can eliminate Harry Potter and his friends.

I am a weak person. Despite the logic of the position above and the obvious ease of doing so, I am glad no one requested that I assassinate (or set up for assassination) Hermione, Harry, and Ron. We may all live to regret this lapse.