FicWad

The Heritage - Chapter 60
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A/N: Editor for this chapter is Dave
A/N: Scene from the last chapter.

In the mean time the greenish purple ball of death was approaching the dragon and disappeared into the blackness. Harry and Su stood still and watched for that what had to come. Harry was nervous, because these spells were strange and evil, the Stroke of Death spell was truly scary and the Soul drain was even worse.

Suddenly the blackness was ripped apart by a green explosion of light within the blackness; nobody could hear anything because of the roaring of the dragon, but the explosion of sickening greenish light was very noticeable.

The roaring stopped suddenly, and there was silence. The green light disappeared and everyone was now waiting for the things to come. Suddenly a huge crash and the ground shook. And Harry discovered the huge head of the dragon sticking out of the cloud of blackness and laying flat on the ground.

Oh Merlin, the dragon is defeated at last.

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Suddenly there was a noise, a very strange rhythmic noise, like the noise of marching men, and Harry looked confused around him, but did not see any source of that noise. Su was also looking confused and she was watching the approaching solders from the shred ... she wondered who was with those men, because she saw red beams of magical energy flying towards the dragon. A very foolish act it was, and dangerous too.

Suddenly Su saw something very strange ... and gasped.

Harry was looking everywhere confused for the source of the marching people but could not discover anything strange, and the sound only became louder.

Suddenly he noticed that the approaching soldiers from the shred were now running, and he became alert again. He looked at the running soldiers, and suddenly he became aware of a ... wall ... a wall of moving people? He saw hundreds ... no ... scrap that ... thousands of people marching towards them and the castle in ordered rows.

The sound of guns firing took his attention towards the running people. He saw four people standing still ... while the rest of the people continued to run. When he looked more carefully, he recognized the figure of Hermione and Pansy, they were surrounded by soldiers and the four soldiers behind them were firing with everything they got.

Su was motioning him to come to her, and Harry hurried.

"Harry, those things over there are not people, they are undead," she said breathing heavily. Harry could not help then to gasp. "And that monster was an undead as well?" he asked.

Su nodded. "A very strong undead creature, Harry, some very strong necromancer is at work here."

"Voldemort," said Harry with a straight face.

"He is attacking the castle with his undead creatures, there is nobody else who is as strong as he is, and he is able to bring the dead back to life," said Harry tensely.

"Those dead people are not alive, Harry. They are still dead, but their bodies are being 'borrowed' by the necromancer," said Su.

"You need to help me with this, Harry. I will teach you a spell, but it will drain you of your magical reserves when you use it too many times," she said. "Are you willing?"

Harry nodded immediately.

"Is that spell going to destroy the undead?" he asked.

"Only very limited quantities of undead," she said. "Otherwise I would have already tried it on the dragon," Su said and looked again at the marching army of the undead.

"Listen carefully. The name of the spell is Smite, and the incarnation is Percello with the following wand movement," Su said tensely. She showed Harry the wand movement.

"What does it do?" asked Harry.

"This spell is called Unmake Undead. It creates a blast of mystical cobalt blue fire that doesn't affect anything but the undead. Essentially it returns undead to the state of just being dead," answered Su. "The range is hundred meters and you can start firing the curse when they are fifty meters distance from you, because it will have the maximum effect with that distance."

The soldiers had already reached the position where Harry and Su were standing, and Harry sent them into the castle. Hermione wanted to stay with Su and Harry, but Harry pointed his wand at her and looked threatening. "If you don't go into the castle now, I curse will you," he said menacingly. "I mean it."

Hermione hesitated, and it was clear that she wanted to ask Harry questions.

Pansy was pulling on her arm, but Hermione shrugged her off. "I want to stay here with Harry and help him," she said.

Harry was irritated, because it was not the time and place to go into discussions and who the hell did she thinks who she is?

"Sorry, Hermione, we are in a battle here, and there is no time to talk. Do you see the undead coming?" Harry asked and looking irritated at Hermione.

Hermione flushed.

"Shall I conjure a chair for us and maybe some tea and then we can discuss the undead? I think we have five minutes before we will be joining them," said Harry harshly.

Hermione huffed, and she walked towards the castle with her nose in the air.

The marching army from the undead was simply marching ... no other reaction was noticeable. Now Harry could see some more details, and what he saw made his heart shudder and a feeling of fear surfaced. He could not help it, because the air radiated evil ... great evil ... it was worse then dementors.

The feeling of absolute dread became noticeable.

The four soldiers were running now to their position, probably they were out of ammunition and passed Harry and Su; they were looking strangely at them, but said nothing and continued to walk towards the castle.

The sound of thousands of feet became closer and closer, and Harry held his wand tightly in his hand; sweat was dripping from his neck and dripped over his back, even that it was not warm and that feeling of approaching doom and dread became only worse.

Now the distance was almost fifty meters, and Harry looked briefly at Su. Also she had a hard time to keep her composure and she was sweating worse then Harry; that view of his wife made him feel a bit better, because he was not the only one who was sweating tears and was afraid.

Su suddenly pointed her wand towards the masses of undead.

"Superna," she yelled.

A brownish wide beam burst from her wand and traveled fast towards the approaching army of undead. When it reached the first rows of undead, the beam collided with the first rows of undead, and it was the first time that there was a different reaction with the undead then the soldiers got when they were shooting them. The first row of undead shrieked terrible cries and dissolved into the air in a brown puff of smoke, and the brown beam continued to travel at least twenty meters through the lines of the undead. She destroyed at least twenty undead with her curse.

But Su was breathing hard, that curse took a lot of her magical energy, and she was looking at Harry with almost despair.

"It doesn't work," she panted. "I have maybe the power of one such spell, and then I'm finished," she said almost crying.

Harry looked at the undead and concentrated.

"Superna," he roared.

The already familiar brownish wide beam burst from his wand and traveled extreme fast towards the approaching army of undead. His beam was much wider then the one of Su's, and when it stroked the first rows of undead, they literally exploded into brown swollen clouds, but no shrieks were heard. Harry managed to destroy at least ten times more undead then Su! The hole he created in the approaching rows of the undead was much deeper, and the army of undead seemed to falter for a moment, but then continued their march. The distance was now twenty meters.

Harry grabbed Su and both of them walked back towards the castle. "I hope that the castle will keep those things out, because it is impossible to stop so many undead," said Harry and looked over his shoulder toward the castle. He saw several people standing in front of the entrance, but the rest looked quiet.

"I have an idea, Su," said Harry, and looked briefly at the approaching undead. Shit, now the distance was still twenty meters and they walked at least ten meters back.

"What Harry?" Su panted.

"How do I create a skeleton from every corpse around us?" Harry asked.

Su looked incredible at him. "Why do you want to know?" she asked.

"It will buy us time and it might save us our lives. Don't question my intentions and I don't want to have discussions at the moment when our lives are in danger," snapped Harry.

The incarnation is 'Ab Iaceo Legio'," she said and showed him the wand movements. "You need to concentrate on an area from about twenty meters and the range of the spell is about fifty meters," she said. "The skeletons you will raise are your slaves and you will need to order them what to do. The best way is concentrate on what you want to tell them that you want. That must do the trick."

Harry nodded, and pointed his wand towards the first row of the approaching undead.

"Superna," he roared. The first rows of the undead exploded almost in front of their faces, and the beam traveled through the ranks of the undead.

"Ab Iaceo Legio," roared Harry, pointing his wand towards the same place where the 'Smite' curse had destroyed the undead.

Suddenly skeletons rose from the ground, where previously the undead walked and were destroyed. Hundreds of skeletons were standing passively for several moments, and the undead reacted immediately by change course and attacked the skeletons. Harry concentrated on what he wanted.

"Attack and destroy them," he yelled at his skeletons and immediately the skeletons came into action. The skeletons were taller then the undead were which was very strange. All the new undead were of the same height, not taller or smaller than the old undead. The skeletons though were at least two meters tall, their bones had a unreal glance and they were very fast. The skeletons immediately attacked an undead and tore it apart with their bony fingers and teeth, and Harry winced. But he saw already that his skeletons were far in the minority, and already his first skeletons were being torn apart by the undead, they seem to be enormously strong to rip a skeleton apart like that.

There was no sound from the skeletons, but the undead shrieked when they were attacked or when they were attacking ... the attacks of the undead was primitive, but effective. They did not move faster or slower, they simply held out their arms until they could get hold of something in their fists and started to tear and squeeze. Every time when they had a skeleton in their fists, the bones of the skeleton pulverized.

"Ile murus," yelled Su behind him, and ten undead were surrounded by an odd looking wall, which seemed to move ... like it was breathing. Shrieks of the undead were noticeable behind the wall and the wall seemed to constrict.

"Ile murus," yelled Su gain, but this time only five undead was surrounded by the wall.

Harry had no idea how he must cast this spell, so he tried. He pointed his wand towards the undead and prepared himself.

"Ile murus," he screamed, but nothing happened.

He looked at Su, and she was showing him the wand movement and he turned back to the battle between the undead and skeletons. He pointed his wand and repeated the spell.

"Ile murus" and the effects were immediately noticeable. A large area was walled off with at least hundred undead and the screeched began and he grinned. That would teach those suckers to mess with them, and then his smile faltered. There was no end of the rows of approaching undead, everywhere were he looked he saw rows after rows of undead, and there did not seem to come an end of it, and Harry swallowed.

Well, what Voldemort did, he could do as well, he thought and he prepared to turn the tides.

"Superna," he snarled. Several rows of the undead exploded immediately and the beam traveled further through the ranks of the undead, leaving destruction behind its path.

"Ab Iaceo Legio," yelled Harry, pointing his wand towards the same place which he cursed before and skeletons rose from the ground and he ordered them to destroy the undead.

After repeating several times the combination of spells, he managed to gather a small army of hundreds of skeletons around him and Su, and he sent them towards the approaching undead, and Harry started to feel the strain of the magic he had performed here.

"You are right, Su. It is impossible to continue like this, let's go back to the castle," he breathed heavily and they both walked quickly to the castle, while behind them the two armies were battling for survival.

Harry looked back and watched the battle of the skeletons and the undead. He saw that his skeletons were far in the minority and were already being slaughtered, but they left behind big holes in the approaching undead. Harry could still not see any end of the approaching undead, and he wondered where Voldemort found so many dead corpses to create those undead and he shook his head sadly. He must explain something to the Muggles, and it was very hard to explain something like that without getting very scared for his or her life.

"Harry, I know another spell, which will be much better, but this spell is rare and it takes a lot of your magical power," she said. "The spell is called Death walking. This spell has nothing to do with zombification, it is far more powerful then that. Death Walking creates a powerful creature of the Living Dead; sentient, capable of rational, cognizant thought, and much more enhanced then a zombie or the Undead." Su breathed heavily.

Harry looked at her briefly. "Let's eat and get some energy back," he said. "Then we look into this spell. I must shutdown the castle in battle mode."

"Wait!" exclaimed Su. "I want to leave something behind for the undead, and I want to see them burning," she said.

She turned her wand towards the undead.

"Flamma Murus," she yelled and a beam of liquid fire came from her wand. The beam traveled for twenty meters, right before the first marching undead. The beam of liquid fire exploded on the ground, but then suddenly something strange happened. Su switched her wand sharply horizontal, and the liquid fire beam changed into a horizontal wall of fire.

"This is the Firewall spell, which creates a wall of fire. Not usable near humans, because it consumes too much oxygen, which might suffocate humans, but for this distance, it is perfect," she said with a grin. "Look!"

And Harry saw that the undead simply marched into the firewall, and were immediately in flames. The bodies of the undead kept marching, even when they were on fire, but after five meters the bodies collapsed on the ground.

"Now you try, Harry. A circle with your wand and a sharp spike in the center," Su instructed.

Harry did what Su told him.

"Flamma Murus," he yelled. A bright and thick beam of liquid fire burst with violence from his wand and collapsed fifty meters from their position, He almost forgot the ending movements of his wand and he made his horizontal movement. A large wall of fire appeared which burned very intense. Every undead near the wall of fire was burned instantly.

Su's eyes widened. "You have an enormous magical power, Harry. I did not realize your power potential. When we are back, I will start the instruction of the battle magic, with all the spells I have demonstrated here and much more," she said, breathing deeply.

The both of them reached the entrance door and they met with Hermione and Pansy. Within the entrance hall Harry could see all his fiancées, and he knew that they needed to talk, but there was no time at the moment. A first thing first was their safety, and then he would see if he was forced to evacuate the people in the castle.

"I'm so sorry, Harry. You were busy battling those things," said Hermione totally upset, tears in her eyes.

"It is not a good idea to start discussing things in the middle of a battle," whispered Su softly in her ear, but smiled. "But I understand."

Hermione looked at the smiling Harry and she sighed relieved. "Alright, why didn't you use the Solar flare spell?"

"That is too draining," Su answered immediately. "There are simply too many of those undead here, the only way to battle them and the dragon was by using Battle Magic," said Su.

"But that is Black Magic!" exclaimed Hermione.

Su looked briefly at Hermione. "If you don't like it, then don't. Please go away to your parents; this is an adult situation, where creatures of the underworld are being summoned and being used as undead. Those creates will continue to come non-stop and there is nothing what you can do about them, other than only using Black Magic."

Everyone looked with wide eyes to Su.

"How do you know that?" asked Harry shocked.

"It is the only logical explanation," said Su. "If you look correctly, there are rows after rows of undead; we are not talking about hundreds of thousands of undead, but millions," she said.

Harry blanched and Hermione paled.

"How are we going to defend ourselves against that?" asked Harry.

"How do you know that?" asked Hermione.

"Voldemort simply summons them from the dead," Su said. "He is doing this whole the time. "When we kill ... let's say thousands of the undead, he simply summons them back. The energy it takes to summon one is much less then it takes us to destroy, so at the end he wins, unless we do something unexpected. "

Harry turned. He was deadly pale, but what could he do at the moment. Nothing.

"Gidi," said Harry loudly.

A nervous Gidi appeared in front of Harry.

"Yes, Master?" she asked.

"This castle must be in a lock down," he said. "What must be done?"

A very upset Colonel George Burleys was grabbing Harry's shoulder to get his attention, and Harry was already nervous, grabbed his hand from his shoulder and looked intently at the man.

"Colonel, I am going to shut-down this castle, if you do this again to me, I will curse you, do you understand me?" Harry growled, his magical radiating from him in huge waves, and the poor Colonel bounced back several steps.

"Eat-my-bullet," he said flabbergasted and shocked at the same time.

Harry turned to the little elf.

"Gidi?" asked Harry caringly.

"Harry!" exclaimed Hermione. "How could you use allow to use Black Magic!"

"QUIET!" roared Harry.

"The first one who interferes again I will throw out side with the undead," he roared. "DO I MAKE MYSELF PERFECTLY CLEAR?"

Everyone gulped and Hermione started to cry.

Harry turned to the scared Gidi.

"Gidi, tell me please?" he asked with a normal tone.

"You must keep your right hand on the inside of the outer wall of the castle and you must concentrate on changing the castle into battle mode," answered Gidi with a small voice.

"Alright, Gidi. Thank you so much," Harry said and smiled at the little elf. "Will this wall do?" He pointed to the wall next to the entrance doors.

"Yes, Master," she said. "But everyone needs to leave the entrance hall, because it will be transformed as well," she said, looking scared at the wall and the people in the entrance hall.

"EVERYONE, LEAVE THE ENTRANCE HALL IMMEDIATELY," Harry roared again.

Everyone hesitated, and Harry heard scratching sounds of nails scratching the doors. "The undead are already here, trying to break open these doors. When they manage to do that, we will all die, now get out of here and enter the castle," screamed Harry.

"But Harry, why don't we talk about it," began Hermione.

Harry looked incredible at Hermione. "Hermione, if you don't leave this entrance hall this instant, I will curse you," he said, and he pointed his wand at Hermione threatening.

Hermione huffed and she walked quickly out of the entrance hall. Harry heard a loud crack behind him and he saw that the undead already had managed to dash a hole in the doors. It would not take longer then several minutes before they would be in the castle.

Harry ran back to the wall next to the door and slammed his right hand against the wall and he concentrated. Behind him everyone was leaving the entrance hall in haste, except Hermione, who refused to be cowed by Harry. She was standing next to the door, which gave entrance to the castle itself and watched Harry closing his eyes.

Then her attention was drawn to a hole in the entrance door, and then she saw that a clawed dirty hand appeared in the hole. Then two arms appeared through the hole and was quickly followed with five. Hermione's eyes went wide from dread; those terrors would be in the castle in several minutes already. How could they destroy so fast a door of twenty centimeters thick magical hardened wood?

One of the arms was grabbing the steel strip of the door and tore it from the door like it was plastic, and Hermione could not help but to scream in fear.

Harry was still concentrating on the idea that the castle must change into battle mode, and after some time of concentrating, he had the feeling that he made contact with something he only could describe as a being ... the castle it self.

Instantly he knew that the walls of the Gryffindor castle were impregnable and indestructible, but the doors and windows were different. The wards were already up and functioning, but only against magical attacks, any physical attacks could only be addressed in battle mode. Harry ordered the castle to change into battle mode.

Harry released the wall and wanted to walk towards the other end of the entrance hall, when he saw that the undead almost had managed to break open the outer doors. Before Harry could do something about it, he heard the sound of stone moving against stone, and he bolted. Harry ran towards the end of the corridor, where the door was still open and he could see already people standing behind it, monitoring what he was doing.

When Harry was almost near the door, he noticed a small figure standing in the corner ... Hermione ... the stubborn Hermione. When he looked at her face, he suddenly understood what was going on. She was in shock, and she needed help instead of scowling. Harry grabbed her hand and dragged her with him and they left the entrance hall via the door. The door slammed close behind him. Immediately he heard someone murmuring locking charms and he looked up.

"Tonks!" he exclaimed happily. "For Merlin sake, I am so happy that you are here," he said.

Everyone froze in fear, because the castle started to groan and crack, terrible sounds of closing and falling things, the sound of stone on stone was very loud now, and the girls started to shriek and some of them were already running further into the castle in panic.

"People," screamed Harry above the sound of the castle changing into battle mode.

Nothing helped, Harry saw the soldiers preparing their weapons; they did not panic, because they were trained not to do that.

"Sonorus," he said, with his fingers against his throat. He forgot to use his wand, but he was not aware.

"People," screamed Harry again, and this time his voice was many times enhanced and everyone froze again.

"The castle is changing into battle mode and is locking down. That means that the sound you hear is from the castle. It will take about ten minutes before the castle is ready and we are safe against the undead," yelled Harry.

With his fingers he switched off the Sonorus charm and looked happily at Tonks. Tonks laughed and hit him on his head. "Oh Harry, what must you do without me," she said smiling.

At that moment the sound of moving walls intensified and he could hear nothing anymore for a time. The sound of the moving walls was dominating any other noise, and Harry placed his hands over his ears, and suddenly everything was deadly quiet. No sound was heard, everything was quiet.

"Harry?" a hesitating voice appeared next of him and Harry looked.

"Su, how are you?" asked Harry worried. The girl looked very pale. "Not well, I really need something to eat and to rest," she said.

Harry nodded. "Let's all of us go to the foyer and we will discuss the whole thing," he said. "But first I need to know if we are safe," he said.

Harry walked towards one of the rooms next to the entrance of the entrance hall and looked outside. What he saw shocked him. Everywhere he looked were the undead, except the space of hundred meters around the castle ... which was totally empty. He saw thousands and thousands of bodies lying unmoving in the circle and he assumed that the castle erected shields, which killed the undead.

A flash took his attention and Harry looked better. He saw several undead walking towards the castle and at the moment they entered the circle, they were burned and dropped immediately. Harry's eyebrows went up. Those stupid undead kept coming and they kept dying ... he was wondering how long the castle could hold up its shields.

From the position from where Harry was looking outside, he looked over the heads of all those thousands of undead, which were blocking the view of the ground ... not even a spick of green could be seen, not even the road or trees ... everything was covered b y the thousands and thousands of undead, who were everywhere. When someone would start walking over the heads of the undead, he could continue walking without falling ... it was unreal!

Harry went back from the window into the corridor.

"Let's go to the foyer," Harry said loudly. "There we talk." He stepped to the nearest fireplace and floo'd to the foyer.

When he arrived at the foyer, he saw that most of people were already there. Most of the girls looked nervous outside, then at him and he swallowed. Then he saw the Queen sitting with a face like nothing happened, even the Princes were looking stoic, but Zara was something else. She stood up immediately and came to him, taking him into a hug.

"I saw everything from my window, and it was terrible. How you and Su fought against those mean monsters is beyond me, because I would bolt as fast as possible," Zara said.

Harry saw refreshments arriving and he smiled inwardly. The elves started to get to know him, and he was happy about that.

Harry saw the two military commanders sitting next to the Queen. That was good, because he needed the help of the military in order to kill the undead and preferable Voldemort as well. Then he looked to the girls, because Harry remembered that the whole thing started with the crazy soldier, and Harry had no idea if someone was hurt or ... maybe killed?

"Gidi," said Harry quietly.

"Yes, Master?" asked Gidi equally quiet.

"Were there any people hurt during the battles?" asked Harry.

"Yes, Master," answered Gidi.

Who was hurt?"

"Ms. Bones and Abbott were treated, and already released," said Gidi thoughtfully. "Then there is the Ms. Romilda Vane and Ms. Angelina Johnson who are still in the sickbay under observation; they are expected to be released this evening, and then we have Ms. Minerva McGonagall, who is heavily wounded, but not in danger anymore. She is stable at the moment and we expect that she will recover fully."

Harry nodded, and he was suddenly aware that several people were watching him intently. The people near the Queen and the Queen herself were watching him intently, and so was Su and Hermione, and when he looked closer, he saw several soldiers watching him with unbelievingly expressions on their faces. He mentally shook his shoulders and focused on Gidi again.

"And the soldiers?" asked Harry sadly.

"I do not know, Master. The soldiers are taking care of their own wounded," she said.

Harry nodded, and he knew he wanted to change that. Magical healing was much faster then conventional healing.

"And the elves?" asked Harry.

"We lost eleven elves, Master. Four elves are still under medical care," she said unhappily.

"How do I know what the status and state of this castle is?"

"I don't know, Master," said Gidi with her ears down.

"Do you know anyone who knows?" asked Harry friendly.

"No Master," said Gidi.

"It's alright, Gidi," said Harry and patted the little elf on her head. "How could you know? When is the last time that the castle was in battle mode?"

"Never, Master," answered Gidi.

"Aha, you see that it was impossible to know this?" asked Harry.

"Well, there is the core of the castle, Master. The core of the castle is only accessible by the Master of the castle and that is you, Master," said Gidi.

"What's in the core of the castle, Gidi?" asked Harry curious.

"We don't know, Master," said Gidi, looking at the floor.

Harry smiled, bowed over and kissed her on her head. Gidi promptly blushed and plopped away, and Harry heard Pansy and Ginny laughing.

Harry waved with his hand and promptly all conversations stopped. He walked toward the Queen and waved his hands again to follow him. He arrived at the Queen and smiled.

"Grandma? How are you?" he asked.

The Queen looked at him with an unreadable expression on her face for several seconds and began to chuckle.

"My, my, you are changed," she said. "And for the good as well, if I may say so."

Harry bowed for the Queen and chuckled himself, he winked at Zara, who instantly blushed.

Harry turned and everyone else who was in the foyer and sighed.

"Colonel Burleys and General Gunn, I want to have your wounded in our sickbay. They will be treated there and be released as fast as possible; it might be in several minutes, or maybe in several days." Harry looked to the two commanders, who were looking at him with their usual poker faces.

"Grandma, tell them to comply," Harry asked the Queen.

The Queen raised an eyebrow and then turned to her military commands. "Gentlemen, you heard Lord-Baron, after the meeting you transfer all your wounded and sick to the magical sickbay."

Both commanders nodded shortly, and that was all the reaction he got. Well, as long as the soldiers were being treated.

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A/N: Editor for this chapter is Dave