Harry Potter and the Flying Squad (01) - Sahits

The last exchange had given Harry time enough to regain his balance. He said, "Please, Cho -
I'll have trouble enough telling you what's up, even without ..." He didn't dare finishing the
sentence, found help from an unexpected side.
"What he means," said Almyra to Cho, "is that your wisecracking doesn't improve things very
much. So please - shut up and let him explain."
To Harry's great astonishment, Cho stopped talking and just sat there, looking at him.
Almyra said, "Must be a hell of a story."
"Unfortunately," agreed Harry, "it is." It earned him the undivided attention of the two girls.
"Remember how the train was stopped two years ago, when they were looking for this
escaped prisoner?"
His audience nodded, while Harry forced himself not to look at the dog.
"Something similar will happen today, except it's much worse ... The train will be stopped by
the Dark Forces, and what they have in mind is not a single prisoner, quite the opposite ...
They plan to take the students as hostages."
He explained how the captured students should be used to blackmail the parents and, at the
same time, to discredit Dumbledore and Hogwarts from their reputation as a center force
against Voldemort. He told them that the plan, although desperate, was to defeat the attack
and to publish the event as a victory.
Cho's comment was the quickest. "I can see why they didn't go public before ... If the
attackers win, there's nothing lost because the Dark Forces could have captured one student
after the other at home. But if we come through, all students are much safer in Hogwarts."
She looked at Harry. "But what's so important for us being here?"
"I didn't tell the full story yet ... You know, a hostage is just good to put pressure onto
somebody else. What the Dark Forces want is to take over control of the wizarding world. So
they can use only students to pressure other wizards." Harry paused, searching for words.
Almyra's eyes went big. "Hermione, what kind of parents do you have?"
Hermione nodded. "Yes - you've got the point."
It took Cho some more seconds to understand. Slowly, she said, "Our parents are no wizards.
Blackmailing them would only be about money - Muggles money. That's useless."
Her head came around toward Harry. "And your parents are dead ... Those bastards are going
to kill us, right?"
"That's their plan - this is why the Muggles-born students need special protection ... It's you,
Hermione, and two younger boys - Fred and George are collecting them right now ... We
know that the Dark Forces are going to use Dementors for - er, for this part of the plan."
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