Harry was dancing around curses as he dueled three death eaters, the sounds of racing coming from somewhere beneath his feet while the sounds of explosions echoed from a higher floor. Harry didn't know if it was skill, Felix Felicis, or a combination of the two but as soon as he and Dumbledore had exited the room that they had been hiding in, slash keeping Harry captive in, they had run into a group of death eaters who attacked them. That wasn't the part that had Harry suspecting the luck potion, it was that Harry hadn't put even a single step wrong. As soon as Harry noticed a curse coming his way he found he was already moving so it wouldn't hit him.
Dumbledore wasn't having anywhere near as easy a time as Harry was. Where Harry effortlessly danced around the curses like it was nothing, Dumbledore was frantically casting spells as fast as he could to deal with the onslaught of curses. Shields, counter curses, random flocks of birds conjured from nothing to take the hit. For every spell Dumbledore tried to throw at the death eaters he had to cast maybe two more just to deal with their attacks.
Harry was nowhere near as limited. Because Harry, possibly due to having younger legs that moved a lot easier, was dodging he had no need of counter spells and shield charms. That meant every spell Harry used was an offensive one. And while Dumbledore was limiting himself to stunning charms, incarcerous conjurations, and petrification jinxes, Harry had no such mercy for people trying to kill him. Harry used cutting and piercing hex's. Sure they were easily blocked by a simple shield charm but Harry could shoot off two or three of the spells in rapid fire, easily aiming for foes two or sometimes even all three of them causing them to stop attacking and defend themselves.
The entire fight changed as Harry found his moving around the spells had also taken him away from Dumbledore. There was now enough space between them that if one of the death eaters shielded against Dumbledore, he was still open to attack from the side by Harry. It took a little patience but soon Harry saw an opening and took it. A single cutting hex with a little more power behind it than normal and suddenly a death eater who had be shielding against a stunning spell from Dumbledore found that where there was once a hand holding a wand there was now stump of raw flesh that was quickly losing the vital blood that the death eater needed inside his body.
The man screamed, distracting the other two enough that Dumbledore was able to stun one while the other took a piercing hex from Harry straight to the chest. Harry was too wired to care about dying death eaters right then. There was a part of him that was very aware that if he survived today he was going to have to deal with the fact that like a bullet wound to the chest a piercing hex was just as deadly, the man may not be dead yet but it was a matter of seconds.
Dumbledore however did care and as he lectured Harry about murder and how it left a mark on your soul and how you should always try to avoid killing whatever possible, he stunned the death eater now whimpering over the stump that used to be his wand hand.
Harry however wasn't exactly in the mood to listen to a senile, mad, kidnapping, hypocrite who had literally brought Harry here to force him to kill or be killed. While Dumbledore was busy casting a spell to keep the murderer from bleeding out Harry felt a tug telling him that this was his best opportunity to move and he followed it and slipped away before Dumbledore could notice.
Harry moved quickly not knowing where he was going but still feeling like he was moving to somewhere with a sense of purpose. It was like the luck potion in his system just knew where the best place for Harry to be was and was guiding him there. He was just moving through a large room full of office desks when he heard it, there was a loud battle going on on the floor below him. There was a loud explosion and a large section of the floor fell away. When Harry cautiously went to look he saw a battle between Aurors and goblins on one side and more death eaters than Harry had ever seen in his life hiding behind a conjured wall of stone with a dragon in the middle wreaking havoc on the death eaters. It seemed it was the death eaters who had made the hole Harry was now currently looking down because he could see one of the death eaters using exploding curses on the dragon trying to kill it. One of the spells must have missed and hit just where the rock was thin enough to give Harry an opening. Lucky, or at least lucky potion.
Harry started to rain down spells on the death eaters, his angle gave him shots the death eaters weren't even covering from and his choice of spells was devastating to the death eaters formation. Because Harry wasn't dodging spells in that moment he had the opportunity to focus and cast his own explosive bombarda curse, only Harry's was aimed at the floor on the side of the wall the death eaters were standing as they used it as cover.
With a large section of the wall down, and a lot of the death eaters who hadn't just died to Harry's spell a little dazed, the goblins seized on the opportunity and charged the gap. Not all of them made it, plenty fell beneath the death eaters spells but still more made it through and and the best way Harry could describe what happened next was 'a frog in a blender' as goblin blades flashed, slashed, and stabbed.
Death eaters died, goblins died, Aurors took any shot they could and the death eaters' line broke and they retreated. Then Harry saw exactly what he was hoping to and so with a little care he jumped down the hole to the floor below.
-ϟϟϟ-
Charlus was not having a good time. While the dragon was a surprise for the death eaters it was a surprise for the wizards as well and while it had initially caused a lot of confusion amongst the death eaters the noise it had made had alerted every death eater in the Ministry to their attack. In Charlus's view a more stealthy approach would have been better. Sweep the Ministry floor by floor silencing each death eater they could before someone raised the alarm. Now they were facing a full out pitched battle.
Only two things that kept it from being an absolute shitstorm. One being the dragon, who seemed to always want to get as far away from the one goblin with the strange clanking contraption as it could. That often meant plowing through a large number of the death eaters. Not only was the dragon killing the death eaters but a lot of them were focused on the dragon as soon as they joined the fight.
The other was the goblins, they may have been the ones who turned this into a pitched battle but you couldn't say that they weren't prepared to fight one. They charged in with reckless abandon often cackling with glee as one of the death eaters was brought low by their blades.
With the help of the goblins and the dragon the death eaters were forced into an ordered retreat. They fell back to where someone had started setting up barricades that could hide behind while fighting. That was where all progress had stopped.
The Aurors and goblins weren't stupid enough to charge a barricade and the death eaters knew that the only way the Aurors and goblins were going to take the old ministry was to get past them. In the meantime the death eaters were able to focus on the dragon doing it a lot of injuries
They were using explosive curses and the dragon's roars of pain got many winces of sympathy from the Aurors. Then one of the explosive curses went wide and blew out a chunk of the ceiling. Moments later someone was raining bombarda curses from the new hole in the ceiling, only instead of aiming at the dragon they were aimed at the barricades.
The explosions tore through the stone walls and the death eaters alike. A few death eaters died, a lot more had their bell rang and it was taking them a few moments to refocus on the fight. The goblins, seeing the opportunity it presented, charged forward.
A trained wizard had the edge over a trained goblin in most circumstances. Wizards could attack at range before goblins got close. However here in the old ministry there were wards that prevented that. And while wizards had the advantage at range, when it came to close quarters combat the goblins were unparalleled. The goblins put on a display of just how effective their blades were when there was nothing to stop them but flimsy wizarding robes.
The fight moved on with the death eaters now in a disorganised retreat as they fled for their lives. Charlus and his group hung back. Their job wasn't to clear out death eaters, though all of them would happily add to the body count if they were presented with an opportunity. Their job was to find the kids, and any other innocents who happened to be there and get them out. That's when Charlus saw a pair of legs dangling from the hole in the ceiling. He had just enough time to see Harry hanging there from one arm pointing his wand at the floor when suddenly Harry dropped.
Charlus reacted as fast as he could trying to cast an 'arresto momentum' spell but he wasn't fast enough. Not that Harry needed it. Charlus had no idea what spell Harry cast on the ground, but instead of going splat, Harry bounced. Once, twice and then he was on his feet hurtling towards Charlus.
At seeing his boy, whole and unharmed, Charlus did what any parent in that situation would do and wrapped his arms around Harry pulling him into a hug. "Thank god, I was so worried. Are you okay? Are you hurt? None of the death eaters got to you did they? Where is Dumbledore? I'm going to kill him for taking you." The last part was said with such conviction that everyone there knew Charlus was serious about his declaration.
"I'm fine. Honestly. There are a few death eaters worse off for trying to stop me but I got away from Dumbledore. Last I saw him he was one floor up, but who knows where he is now." Harry said as he leaned into his grandfather's chest feeling safer than he had at any time since Dumbledore kidnapped him.
As the two Potter's broke apart Charlus turned to the Auror next to him and asked, "Tonks, can you take Harry back through the Gringotts entrance and get him out of here."
Before Tonks could answer Harry broke in. "No! I can't leave."
"Yes you bloody well can. The whole point of me coming here was to get you out." Charlus said sternly.
"No, you don't understand. I found out why Dumbledore has been acting the way he has. The old fool heard a prophecy. Apparently unless Voldemort kills me I am the only one who can kill Voldemort. 'Either must die at the hands of the other' Dumbledore pointed out that this raid is the best opportunity I will ever get. The odds won't ever be in my favor this much again. Dumbledore thinks I will die and then, after that anyone will be able to kill Voldemort. I think he plans to do it himself and reclaim the popularity he had after defeating Grindelwald. Only I think he is right about this being my best chance, I think if we work together we can defeat him and end this damn war here and now, and Felix agrees with me. It's encouraging me to climb back up that hole and take you with me."
Charlus was torn, every option sounded like a gamble. Harry certainly believed that he had gotten the truth out of Dumbledore for once, and if that was true the only way this assault had any hope of success was if Harry stayed and fought. There was a chance Harry would die, yet making Harry leave was also rolling the dice. If Voldemort survived he had shown a pattern of being far too interested in Harry. If the fight was inevitable perhaps it was best done when Harry had an army in his corner to fight with him. And according to Harry the Felix Felicis also seemed to think the best place for Harry to be was here, how much weight should he put on that? It was heavily affected by what Harry considered good outcomes and with Hermione probably here somewhere would Harry consider sacrificing himself so she lived a better outcome than Hermione dying? It was a difficult decision.
Then something happened that took the decision out in his hands. Director Bones had been doing a sweep when she saw Harry with Charlus and Tonks. "Harry, thank god you're safe. Have you seen Susan or any of the others?" With that one understandable question of a concerned parent, in role if not by birth, Bones had let the cat out of the bag and revealed to Harry that at least one of his friends was here. And if one was here, then there would be others. There was no way of getting Harry to leave now that wouldn't require an outright duel, and considering Harry was under the effects of luck potion right now Charlus didn't think he could win, at least not without resorting to spells he would never use on Harry.
"Where is Hermione? Where's Ron? Who is here all together?" Harry had placed together the obvious conclusion and now he was demanding answers.
"Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Susan and Hannah all disappeared after you did. They disappeared together, taking some things with them that suggested they left of their own choice." Charlus didn't bother trying to hide the truth.
"God damn stupid loyal fools. Why couldn't my friends be Ravenclaws, they never would have done this" Harry growled out. He couldn't help but picture all the bad things that could happen to the people he cared about because they were all here. "There is going to be a big fight at the lifts. We won't be able to get through there. We should use the hole in the ceiling I just came through" Harry said completely ignoring any idea that he was going to leave.
-ϟϟϟ-
Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Susan, and Hannah were all starting to regret their plan to come here. While the fireworks they had swiped from the twins provided a distraction they had taken down the death eaters in the atrium, but every time they tried to call the lift to go down a floor, a group of death eaters burst out of the lift.
Then after getting distracted for a few seconds by all the flashing and banging that was showing no signs of slowing down they would try and attack the very obvious non death eaters. By the time the fight was over the lift had been called away to another floor.
Four of the five teens had pretty much given up on the idea of going down the lifts. They instead used Transfiguration on the floor to create solid stone walls that were between themselves and the lifts and whenever the lifts opened spilling out more death eaters the teens were opening fire while the death eaters were still trying to see past the fireworks to where the threat was.
The collection of unconscious death eaters was steadily growing as was the small pile of broken wands that they were taking and snapping just so that if the worst happened the death eaters wouldn't have any wands to fight with.
Hermione however had a different plan. She pulled Harry's invisibility cloak from her pocket when nobody was looking and disappeared under it. Now invisible she moved around the wall of the atrium until she was right next to the lift doors. Then when the next pile of death eaters turned up as soon as they cleared the lifts she slipped inside hitting a random button in the middle.
The lift started to descend and Hermione pressed herself into a corner, her wand at the ready, wherever the doors opened she was sure there would be death eaters waiting to get in. There was a ding and the lift announced: "Department of Administration" and two robed death eaters stepped into the lifts. Two quick stunning spells took care of them. Hermione hit the button for the atrium to send the unconscious death eaters where she knew someone would deal with them and slipped out of the lift before the doors closed.
Hermione found herself on some kind of general administrative floor. She remembered enough about the ministry layout to know that the death eaters had already made some changes. There wasn't anyone in the immediate area, but the sounds she could hear told her that there was some fighting nearby. More below her but there were still some on this floor as well. Hermionie moved cautiously, always looking around, she didn't want to get hit with a stray spell just because she relied too much on being invisible.
She soon found herself in a room full of desks. With nobody around she decided to take a look at some of the paperwork laying on them. The things she saw were disturbing to put it mildly. There were drafts of new laws that would see muggleborn like herself reduced to little more than a Malfoy's idea of a house elf, laws that had a class based tax system based on blood status where purebloods would pay a token 5% half bloods 45% and anything a muggleborn managed to earn was taxed at 100%. That would basically make muggleborns into slaves dependent on other magicals for everything that cost money. And as it even included businesses that were owned by foreign muggleborns, that would make a lot of magical businesses withdraw from magical Britain and presumably leave room for some of the British pure bloods to open their own business in their place.
She found drafts of propaganda flyers that were designed to turn the public against the other magical races as well. It was clear that a government led by the false lord wasn't going to stop until every drop of magic in the country was directly under his absolute control. Hermione wanted to burn the lot but didn't want to light a fire and attract attention, she was here to find Harry, not to indulge her righteous fury over the death eaters' bigotry.
Hermione moved on still looking for any signs of danger or Harry. She found danger but while it was a number of death eaters they were too preoccupied with an even bigger problem to be any threat to her, because they were already dueling Dumbledore. Hermione hesitated; she wanted to attack Dumbledore for kidnaping Harry but she knew that would leave her to face the death eaters on her own. Besides, Harry wasn't here and the only one who could tell her where he was Dumbledore.
So Hermione came up with a sit and wait strategy, if Dumbledore ever looked like he was going to lose she would step in, however if Dumbledore won she would use the fact that she was invisible to get the drop on the man and when she had him at her mercy she would demand answers about Harry. It probably was the most intelligent strategy given that it was Dumbledore she was considering ambushing. The man was currently toying with three death eaters as they tried to kill him. Yet Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor for a reason, chips down her courage and drive were greater than even her prodigious intelligence, and the old bastard had the answers she needed.
She watched as the men dueled. Dumbledore used dozens of tricks to intercept and redirect their spells, the whole time giving a hypocritical sanctimonious sermon on choosing to do better going forward. In almost any other situation Hermione would have laughed at the absurdity.
Dumbledore kept drawing out the fight longer and longer but eventually not even Dumbledore could draw out the fight any further and he took them down with a combination of tickling and incarcerous charms before stunning them. He didn't try to hide them or take their wands or do anything that would stop the next death eater who came along from just reviving them and letting them rejoin the fight.
When Dumbledore started to move off Hermione followed, pulling out her wand ready to curse the man in the back. It wasn't honourable but he was a vastly more experienced wizard than she was and he was a kidnapper, he didn't deserve courtesy. Besides it wasn't like Hermione was going to attack him to hurt him, she was going to incapacitate the man and demand to know where Harry was.
Just as she was about to raise her wand Dumbledore spoke up. "You can stop hiding under your cloak now Harry, come on we have work to do."
Hermione's reaction was to immediately start casting spells. She opened with stunning spells hoping that moving quickly would catch the man off guard, unfortunately Dumbledore seemed to have anticipated that reaction even if he believed it was Harry under the cloak. "I'm disappointed in you, Harry. After I told you what was at stake that you would risk so much on a personal vendetta is not what I expected of you."
Hermione pulled the hood off so Dumbledore could see her face before she said. "I'm not Harry, you kidnapping arsehole. Now what have you done with my Harry!" and with that hermione started casting more spells flipping the hood back over her head as she did. She knew she had no chance to win even with the cloak, however running away she thought she might have a chance at. She began to move around the room, her training with Harry and the others screaming at her that staying in one place was practically a death sentence. However, despite the fact that she was moving around while invisible, it didn't seem to hamper Dumbledore at all. Every spell got deflected or countered just as easily as Dumbledore had dealt with the death eaters.
"I'm disappointed in you, Miss Granger, you should be in school. This is probably the most dangerous place in the entire world for you. You know what the death eaters will do if they catch you. You are supposed to be smarter than this."
"And you're supposed to set an example. Yet you lie, cheat, manipulate, steal, and kidnap. I'm starting to think the only reason you are against Voldemort is that you can't stand being Britain's number two dark lord. You want the top spot for yourself."
Dumbledore obviously didn't like being called a dark lord but it didn't slow down the fight one bit. Hermione slung spell after spell at Dumbledore and he kept deflecting them. Hermione was slowly moving around the room as she did this and at one point she tried launching a mix of random spells at Dumbledore to distract him while she dove for a door but as she did the door slammed closed and she could hear the sound of the door locking.
"Oh I don't think so Miss Granger. You see you being here presents me with an opportunity. You see Harry has run off and you will make the perfect bait to bring him back and allow me to guide him on the path to his destiny." Dumbledore said, sounding incredibly menacing to the young girl. "A few charms to change your attitude and you will be all too happy to help me end the reign of the dark lord and tell everyone that it was my guidance that brought an end to the war."
Hermione started to fight harder than she ever had in her life. The idea that someone was planning to mess with her thoughts terrified her. Yet Dumbledore had her completely out classed. She took a low power blasting curse to her chest and felt one of her ribs break, she went down clutching her side. A flick of Dumbledore's wand had the cloak pulled off her and her wand sailing across the room.
Dumbledore was now standing over her his wand pointing directly at her. "This is for your own good. You will be considered a hero by the end of the day. Now to make you forget this little fight. OBLI-"
Only Dumbledore never got to finish his spell as he was struck in the back by an overpowered expelliarmus and Dumbledore was sent crashing into a wall while his wand sailed through the air where it was caught by Harry who was standing in the doorway looking like an angel of war ready to enact a bloody retribution.