London, Ministry of Magic, August 27th, 1999, 16.55 hours

"You called, sir?" Daphne Greengrass asked, standing in the doorway to his office.

"Yes, I did," Lucius Malfoy, Minister for Magic, said to his secretary, holding up a scroll of parchment. "Please send copies of this to all Department Heads. It's a memo about the recent changes to our security procedures."

"Of course, sir." The young witch approached his desk, and bowed, as she took the scroll.

"After you've done that, you can go home, dear." Lucius smiled at her.

The girl looked surprised. "Are you certain, sir? You generally work late on Fridays."

Lucius didn't frown, even though he found it annoying that the dumb witch had managed to remember this habit of his, and today of all days, instead of his other habits and preferences. "I'm certain. Your parents would not be pleased with me if I keep you up too late." And he'd rather not deal with rumours of him and the blonde having an affair. Narcissa wasn't as smart or talented as she thought, but she had the excessive pride of the Blacks in spades, and knew far too many dark curses.

"Thank you, sir!" The witch beamed at him. "We've got a family dinner this evening. Astoria's back from her trip to Scandinavia."

"Oh? It's a most fortunate timing then," Lucius said, faking surprise. He had known the date the girl's sister would return, of course. It wouldn't do to have a family member survive the attack of the Dark Lord, and in a few days it would be too late - Astoria would be at Hogwarts for her final year, safe from attacks.

"Oh, yes! She visited Oslo and Stockholm, and even Lapland." Greengrass smiled widely. "My parents didn't want to let her go alone, before her graduation, but she wheedled and pleaded all during the Yuletide holiday until they caved in."

Lucius smiled while the twit talked about meaningless drivel he had absolutely no interest in. It helped that she'd be dead soon. To think that Crispin Greengrass might have expected Draco to marry this girl! As if he'd let such witch pollute the Malfoy bloodline!

When the girl started to mention Astoria's friends from school - something about a Naturalist club, Lucius coughed, and rustled a few sheets of parchments.

"Oh, I'm sorry… here you give me the rest of the evening off, and I'm holding you up!" Greengrass blushed, fittingly embarrassed.

He smiled gently, hiding his scorn. "Do not dwell on it, dear. Family is important."

She bowed, and left his office.

He sighed when the door had closed behind her. He'd be able to hire a smarter secretary soon. Parkinson would be a good choice. She and Draco might even get over their unfortunate animosity if they had to interact regularly.

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London, Diagon Alley, August 27th, 1999, 19.45 hours

If a Wand wanted to go dancing, there wasn't much of a selection of venues in Wizarding Britain. The clubs that featured 'traditional wizard dancing' didn't admit muggleborns as a rule. Most of them didn't allow half-bloods inside either. That meant that the few locations where half-bloods and muggleborns could dance were always packed. Like 'Ebenezer's', a pub with a dance floor situated in a side alley of Diagon Alley. Hermione would be meeting Antoine there, according to the note an owl had dropped off in the afternoon.

Hermione spotted him outside the pub at once. Her friend was leaning against the wall, watching the people outside, both the guests taking a break, and the passersby. The witch was struck with how similar to a Wand he was acting, tense and observant. It shouldn't be a surprise, she thought, seeing as he had lived through a war. When he saw her, he pushed off the wall and met her halfway.

"There you are!" he said, then kissed her.

"Your note said a quarter to eight," Hermione said. She was perfectly on time, as a Wand should be.

"That it did." He looked her over. "You look fine today."

"A Wand's always ready for duty," she answered with a grin. Despite his compliment, she was feeling slightly defensive about wearing her regular robes instead of dress robes. Not that she had civilian dress robes. She had briefly, very briefly, considered transfiguring one set of robes into something a bit more fashionable, but she was a Wand of Britain, and she'd not hide.

He grinned, and offered her his arm. "And your duty tonight is to enjoy yourself!"

She had to giggle at that as they entered the pub. It was full of people - mostly half-bloods, she thought, with a few Wands and probably even fewer purebloods - smoke, and loud music. A privacy spell and a Bubble-Head Charm allowed them to talk to each other though. A few drinks later - Hermione stuck with butterbeer - they were on the dance floor.

"I thought you couldn't dance," Antoine asked, smiling, but implying a question.

"I meant traditional dances," she explained. Pureblood dances, very formal, very traditional. Very much not for muggleborns. She had thought and maybe hoped a bit that Antoine was talking about those when he had offered to teach her.

"Ah!" He grinned. "I think those here are more fun though."

She nodded just as the song changed to a slower one. A glance later, she was dancing so close to him, she could rest her head on his shoulder. He was right, she thought, this was more fun than the dances she had seen on guard duty.

Then she felt the enchanted coin in her pocket starting to vibrate. Hermione had created that one back in Hogwarts, during her fifth year, so she could contact Luna and vice versa. It didn't let them talk to each other, but it had three different vibrations Luna had dubbed 'Hey!', 'Let's meet later!' and 'Help!'. It wasn't of much use outside school, where they could easily use owls or the Floo, but it was a memento of their friendship, and so Hermione always kept it on her.

And she was very glad for that right now - her friend was calling for help.

"Luna needs help!" Hermione told Antoine as she turned away and started towards the exit, pushing past the other guests and ignoring their protests. They shut up quickly once they saw she was a Wand, anyway.

She gripped the enchanted coin. Luna had mentioned during lunch that she was meeting her friend Astoria Greengrass this evening. But would they be in Greengrass Manor, or somewhere else? Greengrass… the Minister's secretary was Astoria's sister.

She felt someone grab her arm and whirled around, wand at the ready, before she realised it was Antoine asking: "What happened, Hermione?"

She hadn't noticed that he had been following her! "It's Luna! She needs help! But I don't know where she is… of course, the Floo! I'm sorry, I have to go!" She hated to do this, but Luna needed her.

"Wait! I'll come with you!" Antoine reached for her again.

"What?" She shook her head. "You can't. This might be an attack by the Fanatics."

He hesitated, then asked: "And what if it's not?"

"If it's not I'll come fetch you. I'll know in a few minutes!"

With that, she apparated straight to the Ministry.

Hermione reappeared at the designated Apparition area, with two wands aimed at her. The Wands on guard there - Seamus and Sally-Anne today - were alert, as they should be - customarily, one entered the Ministry through the Floo or main entrance, not by Apparition.

"Possible attack on Greengrass Manor, I'm going to check the Floo connection. Seamus, alert the Corps!" Hermione barked at them, already rushing towards the lift. Seamus followed her a second later.

The ride down to level 6, where the Floo Network Authority was located, took far too long for Hermione's liking. Luna was in danger… even the wards on an old building like Greengrass Manor wouldn't hold off the Fanatics too long, as the attacks on Malfoy Manor and Nott Manor had proven. She almost blew the doors open when they were not quick enough for her.

There was no guard here, but there was a clerk on duty, looking as if she had startled him. Before he could ask what she wanted, she snapped: "Emergency, come with me!" and stormed past him towards the closest Floo connection.

She ignored his protest that those Floo connections were for maintaining the network, not actual use. It was an emergency. Kneeling down, she threw powder into the fire and shouted: "Greengrass Manor!"

The floo didn't light up. "Check the connection!" she ordered, standing up.

The clerk fumbled with his wand. She couldn't wait for the dolt, not with Luna's life on the line! She was halfway back to the lift when he finally yelled: "The Floo here is working properly, the problem is on the other end!"

Definitely an attack then. Or at least, she thought, there were more than enough reasons to assume one. Her slight guilt at thinking about covering her action disappeared when she imagined Luna trapped inside a burning house, or worse, captured by those animals.

Foregoing the lift, she sprinted up the stairs to the Wands' Headquarters, where brown-robed Wands were already gathered. "Greengrass Manor's Floo connection is down. Luna was meeting with their daughter and signalled for help!" she shouted.

The first squads were apparating out before she had spotted Dean and Colin among the Wands. Linking up with her team, she followed the next wave.

Those cowardly criminals would face the full might of the Wands!

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Kent, United Kingdom, August 27th, 1999, 21.15 hours

When Hermione and her team arrived in the field outside Greengrass Manor, the first wave had already conjured staggered walls to provide the arrival zone with cover and break the line of sight. Above them, a squad of broom riders had just taken to the sky. She couldn't help frowning at the memories of flying lessons that the sight brought back.

"With me!" Hermione ordered, and moved away from the arrival zone, Dean and Colin following her. It wasn't dark yet, so as soon as she was past the inner walls, she could see the first squads moving to envelop the estate, and trap the attackers between them and the wards of the manor - like in training. She still had fond memories of 'Exercise Audacity', where she had received a commendation.

A flash behind her startled the young witch. "Colin!" she shouted, "Don't do that!"

"Sorry," the youngest member of her team said, without sounding as if he really regretted it. He continued taking pictures too.

She was about to read him the riot act when Dean shook his head. "We're just reserves, like the youngest Wands. With all of us here, we won't be needed until it's time to bag the bodies.

Hermione frowned. While she shared his view, orders were orders. They might be members of the Investigative Branch, and one Wand short of their full complement, but they were members of the Corps, and every Wand did their duty. Before she could say anything though she saw spells flashing in the distance. "Contact at the gate," she said, pointing at the area and pulling out her omnioculars. "Stay here, Colin, or I'll stun you and portkey you straight to the brig," she added, knowing he was about to move towards the fight.

"We've got the area covered with anti-apparition and anti-portkey jinxes," Dean said unhelpfully, staring through his own omnioculars. Colin was still taking pictures.

"Looks like they have the situation in hand," Hermione said, as she saw three squads of Wands engage about half a dozen dark-robed and masked enemies. Outnumbered two to one, the Fanatics didn't stand a chance. A volley of Blasting Curses broke whatever formation they had, and the shaken survivors were taken down by Piercing and Cutting Curses. She hoped one of them would be stunned as well; they needed prisoners.

"There's another skirmish at the other end!" Colin said in a voice even more excited than usual.

Hermione turned around. Another two squads were engaged there. "Looks like that one's already over…" she started to say when the entire area vanished in an explosion. Bombarda Maxima, she realised, blinking, though how had one spell caught all of the Wands there at once? They had been spread out to avoid exactly that...

"Merlin!" Dean exclaimed.

Through the dust cloud thrown up by the explosion, Hermione could see the flashes of green spells. Killing Curses. "No one authorised them yet…" she said.

Two figures ran out of the cloud. Brown robes - Wands. She recognised one of them: Francis, one year above her at Hogwarts. He was casting blindly behind him, as was the witch next to him. A green spell hit him from behind, and he fell. The other Wand turned around, conjuring a wall in front of Francis and herself, then knelt down. Before she could check on her fallen comrade, the wall was blasted to pieces and her Shield Charm shattered under the hail of stone shards. The witch was about to cast again when a Cutting Curse sliced her in half and she fell down next to Francis, drenching both of them in her blood.

The dust cloud was still settling when a monster walked out. Pale skin, inhuman face, red eyes. Behind him followed more wizards wearing the Death Eater masks, and one witch Hermione recognised at once from the wanted posters and her file.

Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Merlin's Balls!" Dean cursed next to her. "That's Lestrange!"

"Switch to earthen walls and fortifications!" Hermione shouted, conjuring already. Others were not as quick, and the monster in the front sent spells at the stone walls shielding the Corps' command post, turning them into weapons against the Wands as slivers and fragments were sent flying through the air from explosions.

The voice of Wand-Commander Daniel sounded through the camp, amplified by a spell: "Emma, Rupert, centre! Evanna, Tom, flank!"

Hermione was busy conjuring earthen walls while the Wand-Leaders deployed their squads as ordered. She saw Emma and three more Wands run to a gap she had left between her last two walls, where they stopped to cast. Multiple explosions sounded from up front.

"That'll teach them!" Dean snarled, conjuring more walls himself.

Hermione wasn't certain, and created steps in the wall in front of her, to climb up. She needed to know what was happening. Colin followed her. The Wand was still holding his camera.

The blasting spells from Daniel's squad had left craters in the earth, but hadn't stopped the enemy's advance. The pale monster in front was striding forward, a wave of his wand filling the craters while spells splashed harmlessly against his shield. He seemed unstoppable, a force of nature. Hermione felt fear fill her.

Cursing under her breath, she fought her fear down and shouted: "His shield is withstanding multiple curses!" She saw the monster look at her, his wand flashing, and threw herself off the wall, taking Colin with her, a second before the earthen top exploded. Her shield caught the clumps of soil thrown at her easily. If that had been solid stone...

Both Wands landed hard, though Colin had it worse, with Hermione landing on top of him. He cried out in pain, and she thought she had heard at least one bone break. But it was better than getting hit by that curse. Rolling off him, she called to Dean: "Get him to the Healer!"

Her friend dragged the smaller wizard off, not bothering with a levitation spell. Another wall exploded, and more curses tore through the cloud of debris thrown up, striking two Wands who had taken cover there. One screamed, his leg cut off, the other made strangling noises with his intestines wrapped around his neck.

She heard more explosions from up ahead. The broom flyers had started to attack the Fanatics. She heard screams as well, so they had hit at least some of the enemies. A glance through a gap showed her that the monster and Lestrange were still advancing, seemingly unaffected by the bombardment, the dark witch cackling madly. The pale thing flicked its wrist, and shot a few curses up in the air. They burst into green clouds. One of the broom riders couldn't evade them, and flew straight through one. Hermione realised they were acid clouds when he started screaming, tearing at his blistering skin, and fell from his smoking broom, wildly jerking until he hit the ground.

The enemy's advance was halted by Keavan's and Sarah's squads attacking from the flank. The masked Fanatics behind the leading group were struck hard and driven towards the wards of Greengrass Manor. Hermione readied herself for the sally that would be ordered and transfigured the earth in front of Lestrange and the monster into a bunch of poisonous snakes to distract them.

Instead of attacking them though, the snakes turned around and slithered towards the Wands' positions. Hermione gaped, and was almost too late to dive behind cover again when the mad witch sent a few curses at her.

She rushed to the next gap while the wall next to her was crumbling from multiple spells, sending an unaimed Blasting Curse at the dark witch, who was already turning towards the Wands who were flanking them.

Why wasn't the commander ordering the sally? She sprinted towards the command post, around a still-standing stone wall, then recoiled. Wand-Commander Daniel and the Wands with him were down - dead it seemed, Daniel's bloody body held within the coils of a monstrous snake of giant size, fangs the size of wands piercing his neck.

Hermione didn't hesitate. She cast a Cutting Curse at the snake, slicing deep into its body and causing it to shriek in agony, further proving its unnatural nature, then vanished the earth beneath it, forming a pit to trap it.

Turning around, she cast an Amplifying Charm. "Wand-Commander Daniel is dead. Special Authorisation granted. Centre, move to engage the enemy! For Britain!"

The Wands behind the walls charged to the gaps or climbed the walls. Hermione herself rushed to the top of the closest wall thanks to conjured steps, pointed her wand at the monster and summoned all the hatred she felt.

"Avada Kedavra!"

All around her, green spells flew towards the enemies. For a moment, she felt elated. No one could dodge that many spells!

The monster was too quick though, and vanished behind a conjured wall himself. Even before the obstacle was shattered by dozens of curses, Hermione was already casting the next Killing Curse.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Another wall shattered, and this time, staggered curses followed it up. Hermione saw several of the Fanatics behind Lestrange fall down, struck. She aimed her wand at the centre of the enemy's formation, where a wall was stubbornly standing. Spell after spell hit it, and it would be destroyed soon enough, no matter what kind of magic kept it standing despite the onslaught.

Before it fell though, two figures shot up into the air from behind it. The monster and Lestrange, both flying without a broom. Hermione sent a spell after them, together with several other Wands, but she knew they wouldn't hit them. They were too fast, too far away.

The stragglers on the ground though… that was a textbook encirclement. No one had to give the Wands any orders as they cut the fanatics down with well-aimed spells.

And yet Hermione didn't feel satisfied, much less happy. Too many Wands had been struck as well, by that pale inhuman monster. With a sinking feeling, the exhausted witch realised that those had not been delusional Fanatics led by Lestrange. Whatever that… thing… had been, it had been far more powerful than any wizard she had ever seen.