Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters attached.

Reviewers:

Romulus Magnus: yeah, it sounds a bit like that.

Jasophelythian: the arm is as much a part of him as his real one was before it, so the only real effect on the animagus forms is colour and toughness of that limb. It's something else for me to clarify in the re-write.

AN: I've altered the last chapter a bit because in this chapter I need to make a reference to something that I forgot to put in. to save you time in looking for it, at the end of the conversation with Dumbledore, it should have this added on:

"Why are you teaching and leading them into a fight that they aren't ready for?"

"They are ready, just like every other witch an wizard, the difference is that we WANT peace."

"How is teaching them to fight going to bring them peace."

Harry sighed, he'd hoped that the professor would get the subtle reference, so Harry guessed that the phrase never made it into the wizarding world, or Dumbledore really was going senile.

"I know you understand Latin professor, I don't know if it's known in the wizarding world or not…I suppose it isn't, cause then you'd have less problems. There's a Latin phrase that is quite well known in the muggle world: si vis pacem, para bellum. A man who wants peace, prepares for war. We want peace."

Chapter 28: The Fall of Hogsmeade.

"HARRY!" the shout echoed through the great hall, causing the man in question to jerk his head around to look at the door, Rose was stood there out of breath, taking deep heaving gasps as she tried to calm her racing heart and ease her burning lungs.

"What is it Rose?" he asked as he shot to his feet, rushing over to help her. It was a Wednesday lunch time, so most of the school was stood there watching the exchange.

Rose opened her mouth to answer when professor Snape swooped down on them, not pausing to take breath as he went into a rant about disturbing the peace.

Harry just glanced at the amulet hung around Roses neck, indicating that he wanted he to use that to pass the message on, she didn't have to, one look into her eyes told him what the message was, the mix of apprehension, fear and excitement he was picking up off her merely confirmed it.

'Incoming portkeys: right were Ron predicted. It's begun.'

Harry looked around, he needed to warn Dumbledore and tell the DA to spring a trap without alerting the JR DEs to the fact until it was too late. He couldn't use the amulet as that left out Dumbledore and the order, but he couldn't use telepathy as that gave him a head ache trying to push the message to that many people.

On top of that he didn't want to waste time by sending the message more than once, so he stepped around Snape and shouted at Dumbledore: "Hannibal ab portus! Si vis pacem, para bellum!"

The words sent chaos through the hall, in an instant, all of the DA was on their feet, wands out and stunners had lanced across the hall, knocking out several students:

Marietta Edgecombe: seventh year Ravenclaw.

Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, Theodore Nott, and Pansy Parkinson: sixth year Slytherins.

There was also two seventh year and one fifth year Slytherin along with one-seventh year Hufflepuff.

All of them were junior Death Eaters…though two were also his spies.

The fact that there was no spies in Gryffindor made Harry a bit suspicious, there were some in every other house, so why not Gryffindor? But that was a question for another time.

Harry turned around to find a purple Snape facing him.

"What is the meaning of this outrage?" he bellowed, not noticing the hundred wands pointed in his direction. Harry grimaced as he realised that Snape hadn't cleaned his teeth that morning – the smell was disgusting.

"This?" he started as he drew his wand. "Professor Snape? This is where we reveal everyone's true allegiance."

Snape went for his wand, his eyes never leaving Harry, he'd barely gotten his wand out of the holster, when he went rigid and toppled backwards.

"Tut tut, professor, not very Slytherin of you is it, turning your back on an opponent." Rose said as she moved into the professors' range of view, her wand in her hand.

The last thing Snape heard before Rose raised her wand and stunned him was Potter beginning to give out orders.

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"Ron, suit up and head for command." Harry bellowed, effortlessly slipping into a commanding roll. "Red group, squad one, teams Alpha and Beta are operating the cannons. Charlie, take the Junior Death Eaters to our holding area and guard them. Squad two, evacuate the village and seal the passage A.S.A.P."

"Blue group, Green group, you're with me, we aren't trying to stop them, just slow them down, give red team long enough to evacuate the village and set some traps. Everyone, suit up and down a Felix before you put your helmets on. When I give the signal, red group grabs the cannons and Ron gets you out. The next signal I give gets the rest of you out. Understood?"

"Yes Sir!" they shouted. Harry just rolled his eyes and made a mental note to hit Colin Creevey the next time he saw him for starting the whole 'sir' business.

"Padma, get to the tunnel and prepare to activate the seal, Red two, once the Aurors arrive, I want alpha and beta to operate as a rear guard whilst Charlie guides the rest of the residents and the Aurors down to the tunnel, I want as few of the Aurors fighting in Hogsmeade as possible."

Two minutes later and the DA was suited up and all except for four of them vanished in a burst of flame.

He'd kept that ability secret until now. The DA amulet was a communications device, a health monitor, and an unlimited use, re-programmable (and remotely re-programmable) Portkey. Then, on top of all of that, there was the fact that it could also fireflash you wherever you wanted to go, regardless of any wards it encountered, made them one of the most powerful, and dangerous weapons in the DAs arsenal.

Harry had decided that the full scope of its abilities should be kept secret from the majority of the DA, as the possibility for abuse was huge. Given the right temptation, he knew that even the noblest of people would abuse such a powerful artefact.

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Harry, along with Green group and Blue group Appeared in several bursts of flame that looked like fireworks, in the valley between Hogsmeade and Voldemorts army that was to the east of the village which was due south of Hogwarts.

To the south of the village, were some virtually un-scalable cliffs, on top of that, there were several bursts of flame that signalled the arrival of Red One Beta with their cannon.

Inside the shrieking shack, on the top floor and hidden from everyone outside, were several more bursts of flame caused by Red One Alphas arrival.

At the western end of the village, near the train station, Red Two appeared in the same fashion as the rest of the black armoured figures.

To anyone watching in the aftermath of the bursts of flame, all they would have seen was pitch black armoured figures moving, and co-ordinating themselves with an eerily silent precision.

One of the figures in the street raised one hand into the air above it's head, palm up, and shot a pale blue bolt of light into the air. The light stopped about fifty feet up, spread out and fell to the ground in a barely visible dome that encompassed the entire village. After a moment the dome shimmered and disappeared.

While this was happening, one of the armoured figures ran through the village to Honeydukes, entered the shop, and headed down to the cellar while the owners stood there staring at the figure that, according to the prophet, was a murdering beast.

Back in the street, the figure that shot the light into the air broke their silence and spoke in a voice not unlike the one Harry used when addressing Voldemort, though distinctly different. "Residents of Hogsmeade, may I have your attention please."

The figure paused, checking to see if it had the surrounding peoples attention.

"A large force of Death Eaters is preparing to attack the village." The figure was forced to pause as the people screamed in terror, only succeeding in restoring order by setting off a loud bang with the casting crystal in the palm of his hand.

"Thank you, if you will all calmly head for Honeydukes, in an orderly fashion, one of my men will be waiting in the cellar to lead you all to Hogwarts through a secret passageway. Women and children first please."

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Harry smirked as the DA formed up around him; he was in between the Blue and Green groups. Looking ahead, he saw that the initial group of Death Eaters was already heading towards them, and currently about 800 yards away, behind them, more of Voldemorts followers were appearing, these appeared to be, judging by the rags they were wearing instead of clothes, werewolves.

Harry glanced back at the village to see the silencing barrier shimmer and vanish from view, showing that it was working properly.

He'd just turned back to the DEs, when he heard the distinctive thwack sound of a plasma cannon firing.

The burst of plasma lanced into the front of the Death Eaters, vaporising two before it even hit the ground, a moment later, an explosion of dirt and gravel ripped another Death Eater apart.

The angle of the shot showed that the cannon on the cliff had opened fire.

Moments later, a burst of energy shot directly overhead before slamming into the Death Eaters much like the first plasma burst did, Harry had to remind himself that the second cannon was inside the silencing barrier, so he couldn't hear it.

Harry quickly advanced the DA 400 yards forwards in the time it took the DEs to move 200.

There they stood, waiting, counting down the range to the death eaters.

175 yards. 'The cannons aren't as effective as we thought they'd be.'

150 yards. 'Only 15 DEs down so far.'

125 yards. 'Is it normal for them to move so slowly? …We need some longer ranged spells.'

100 yards. 'Giant are starting to appear, perhaps…no, Ron's dealing with it.'

75 yards. 'Almost time.' Harry thought as the cannon in the shrieking shack switched its target to the Giants; the first blast blew a hole straight through a giant, making it topple over, flattening a werewolf that didn't get out of the way fast enough.

60 Yards. 'Time.'

'Third Rank, raise Testudo shields now. First rank, kneel. First and second ranks, prepare to open fire.' Harry sent to the groups on either side of him, they were close enough together for the shields to join around him, leaving him protected by the strongest part of the shield.

50 yards. 'Now.'

'Open fire!' Harry screamed mentally.

As one, the DA raised their arms, and launched a spell through each palm.

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This wasn't what the Death Eaters had been expecting. They expected a few Aurors at most. But this was something new all together, they never thought it was possible to attack someone from so far away – the shrieking shack was a mile away, while the cliff was a mile and a half away.

So they had been understandably shocked by the cannons.

Now there was only one cannon blasting at them, they could concentrate on the defenders that were directly ahead.

They'd just entered spell range, when the entirety of the defending force vanished behind a wall of 96 jinxes, hexes and curses.

Battle was joined.

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"She's overheating!" the figure who spoke was, though hidden inside black armour, still distinctly female, and crouched down next to a large black device – a plasma cannon.

"How hot?"

"550 and rising."

"You sure Tracy?" the speaker, also female, had a distinct sound of panic to her voice.

"Yes, Hermione. 560 now."

"What do we do?"

"I don't know, if I did, I'd have done it by now. Why are you so worried about overheating anyway?"

"These cannons are made of titanium because it's so strong and light, but the problem is that it burns at 610 degrees Celsius. With the amount of energy contained inside this thing, it would explode violently."

"Oh, HELL! Erm…cooling charms?"

"No, already built in."

"Then WHAT?"

The person firing the weapon cut off Hermione's answer. "What do the cooling charms run on?"

"The energy put into it when cast."

"Then make them run off the heat that the cannon is generating."

"Ernie, you're a genius." Hermione exploded after a second of shocked silence.

Hermione quickly pulled off her right glove and drew her wand, earning her a confused look from the fourth member of the team – Colin Creevey. "The crystals aren't precise enough for this." She mumbled to appease his curiosity.

After mumbling a charm to reveal the Arithmancy of the cooling charms to her, she began the painstakingly precise job of changing how the charm was powered.

"590 degrees Hermione." Tracy said from where she was watching the temperature gauge.

Hermione was sweating now, if it got any hotter, it would explode, but if she made the slightest mistake, she could cause the charms to invert, making the weapon get hotter still.

"600. Hermione, hurry up, I don't want to be turned into barbequed Tracy Davis."

"Almost there." She groaned out, almost blinded by the sweat now dripping off her forehead. The metal was beginning to smoke now, or was it steam? What ever it was it stank, forcing the team to seal their helmets against the air and activate the air recyclers inside them.

Then she slumped. "It's done." She said.

"Steady at 604 degrees…dropping; 603…602, you did it!" Tracy screamed in relief, before collapsing to her knees.

"Pass the message on to Luna, they are firing slower than we are, so they have more time." Hermione gasped out, lying down to relax for a moment while her racing heart recovered.

Only to have a great big raindrop hit her square in the visor.

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Above the battlefield, the perfect conditions existed for a summer storm, however, with the magical battle raging below, those conditions were changing fast.

It started simple: increasing electrical charge.

Then the storm started to grow; it started to soak up the shear levels of excess magic being released.

The storm started to shrink, covering a smaller area. Large heavy raindrops started to fall as the sky rapidly got darker, but the storm still held it's fury back, content to let the magic build, feeding it.

Fuelling the storms growing reservoir of power.

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Hermione watched the growing storm in horror, she alone knew what was happening, she doubted even Dumbledore knew what was happening.

She'd found it in a book when she was travelling with her parents. It was one of the few books about Atlantis, written about two months after the island sank.

The island nation was made up entirely of magic users, whether they were Centaurs, Veela, Vampire, etc. it had once been peaceful, powerful and advanced, but that ended with the fall of the 5th century of it's empire's existence. They began to become afraid that their knowledge would be abused by those they had freely given it to, so they raised 5 legions to conquer those lands.

The first legion defended the island while the second and third marched on Egypt. The fourth and fifth were sent to central America to conquer the various nations there that had benefited from the knowledge.

Each legion numbered no less than a million warriors, all magical.

What followed was a series of battles that would cripple the magical world for millennia to come – the fourth legion was cut in half during an ambush by the Incas, while the fifth legion massacred two entire armies. Eventually, both legions were forced to retreat by an alliance of every one of the magical peoples in the Americas – north, south and central.

In Egypt, the second and third legions faced forces twice their size, but massacred them, while suffering relatively light losses; 4.2 million magical lives ended in two battles. The second legion was forced to retreat when the third legion was wiped out by an alliance of over five million magical warriors.

Shortly after they returned to the island, it was besieged by first the Egyptian led force, then the American alliance joined them; forming an army of nearly twelve million warriors.

What followed was the biggest disaster to ever strike the magical kingdom. During the battle, so much magic was released that a magical storm was generated. The storm kept growing, getting bigger, and bigger, holding in its load, - it's huge magical reservoirs that kept growing.

Then it released, the magic of the storm was so wild and uncontrolled that nothing survived it. The navies that had brought the invading forces were obliterated. The raindrops were so heavy that they smashed roofs on impact, crushed skulls and snapped masts. The lightning so powerful that it blew chunks out of anything it touched.

But the centre of the storm stayed silent, the eye settled over the centre of the island.

The storm contracted, drawing power into itself.

Then it released a lightning bolt so powerful that it blew a hole straight through two hundred feet of solid bedrock.

What happened next, ripped the island to shreds, and vaporised a huge chunk of the magical world; twenty five million people killed in seconds.

The lightning bolt had ripped a hole down to a magma pocket that had been building up for centuries, the sudden release of pressure caused an explosion that destroyed everything within a 15 mile radius.

Hermione was drawn back to the present by a second huge raindrop splatting on the visor.

She knew that witches and wizards had been getting more powerful since then, but didn't realise that it had gotten to such extremes; the mages of old must have been very weak compared to modern day ones.

She knew that all she could do was hope that the battle would be over before it reached that critical level that caused it to release it's load.

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Harry and the DA had been fighting for a nearly two and a half hours now and had slipped into an adrenalin fuelled calm, the DA had broken ranks shortly after the survivors of the first wave fell back, only to be replaced by werewolves.

The DA had been falling back slowly, trying to hold the werewolves back so that they couldn't use the weapons they were equipped with, but they couldn't fall back any further.

Harry ducked as a sword was flung at his head; a moment later he extended the wrist blades. Launching forward, he slashed the throat of the offending werewolf.

Moments later, he spun to the side to avoid a spear thrust. Moving inside the mans defences, he drove his right wrist blades up under the mans ribs and up through the diaphragm into his lungs.

Harry knew that the DA was struggling, and weren't going to hold on much longer; he was about to order for them to be fire flashed into the village when Padma's mind voice reached him: 'Harry, everyone's in and the doors are sealed. Get out before the Felix runs out.'

Smiling in relief, he ordered that the DA begin to be pulled out. A minute later several fireballs indicated the departure of the cannons and there crews. Harry had just given the order to retreat when a big, rangy man with matted grey hair and whiskers, and long yellowish nails leapt at him, driving him into the ground.

Harry vanished in a burst of flame, accidentally carrying his passenger along for the ride.

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'Hannibal ab portus' means 'Hannibal is at the gates', in later roman periods, it came to mean 'while the enemy is at the gates, we are wasting time.'