The Wizard's Guide to Timelords and Other Demons Book 1: The Forgotten War

War Begins

"Sirius, behind you!" Tonks shouted as she thrust out her wand and blasted away several young Acromantulas that were bounding at her.

Sirius Black did the same to three more oversized spiders that were nearly upon him, and then spun about just in time to see a massive, wooden club dropping down on him from above. Sirius dove to the ground and rolled out of the way as the heavy club pounded the earth where he had been, leaving a large gash in the open field where they fought and causing mounds of dirt and bark to bounce into the air.

The huge mountain troll at the other end of the club wasted no time heaving his weapon high into the air for another strike. The club fell with great force and Sirius scarcely avoided being crushed as he once again dove out of the way at the last instant and was buried in a shower of flying dirt.

Still lying on the ground, he spit a glob of moist dirt out of his mouth and raised his wand as the club was about to descend on him a third time.

"Reducto!" he shouted, and the club exploded into splinters, knocking the troll backwards and causing it to fall to the ground, stunned.

Before Sirius could get up, another Acromantula leapt onto his torso, pinning him down. Sirius took hold of the spider's giant, venomous fangs and wrestled with them furiously as the creature was determined to plunge them into the wizard's chest. There was a flash of light and the Acromantula flew into the air and dropped to the ground beside him.

Sirius rose quickly to his feet and assessed his surroundings. The immediate area was clear of danger for the moment, offering them a desperately needed moment of respite. He looked down and saw the crumpled mass of tangled, twitching legs that had tried to murder him seconds ago.

"You do recall that Dumbledore asked us not to seriously injure anything, right?" he asked, breathing heavily from the struggle.

"It'll live," Tonks said with a smirk as she too struggled to catch her breath. "Oh, and by the way, you're welcome."

Sirius glanced over at his young cousin and nodded, gratefully. Just then they heard a voice cry out in the distance above the rumble of stampeding spiders and the roaring of angry trolls.

"A little help here! Someone!" It was Remus Lupin.

"I've got it!" yelled Tonks. "You stay here and take care of Junior!"

"What?" Sirius asked, a little confused. But Tonks was already gone. He turned around and saw a massive wall of mindless blubber coming at him at high speed—Junior, he guessed. It was the largest mountain troll he had ever seen, and it was not more than twenty yards away and closing fast.

It would have been an easy matter for him to simply jump out of the way as the charging mound of ugly troll approached, but Sirius and the other members of the Order were not there merely to avoid being pummeled, poisoned, trampled, or otherwise maimed in a variety of violent and colorful ways.

For some unknown reason, these creatures desperately wanted to get into the Hogwarts castle about quarter mile or so to the south, where over a hundred students had gathered in the Grand Hall under the protection of Professor Snape, Madam Pomfrey and a few other teachers and staff members. It was up to the Order and a host of other Hogwarts professors to make sure that did not happen. Sirius Black lifted his wand and took aim at the rapidly approaching Troll.

"Stop them, but don't kill them, Dumbledore says," he said aloud, making no effort to conceal his irritation. Then Sirius let loose with a barrage of different spells, hoping that at least one of them would do exactly that.

The Doctor stood in silence; his eyes fixed on a parchment map spread out below him on a small wooden table. It was one of several tables, lined up in a row, and situated at the edge of the field a safe distance from the fighting.