"Dark Elves are not a species that will work willingly with another," Thor stated with a frown.
"That's what I thought," Harry frowned. "Do any of you know some way to track them?"
"Not that I know of," Jane replied. "Erik?"
"No, nothing like that's ever been invented," he added.
"I can ask Heimdell," Thor said, "but if, as you say, there are seidhr involved, it is quite likely that they would be hidden from his sight."
Harry frowned. "That's what I thought. Looks like we'll just have to wait until they surface again and go from there."
"You are nots alone in this, my friend. It will be an honour to fight by your side to protect the innocents," Thor said, giving his hammer a swing for emphasis.
ooo00ooo
"What the hell?" Darcy exclaimed, shying backwards in her chair to the point that she fell to the ground with a thump.
Harry spun around, his wand instantly snapping into his hand. Across the room, Thor held out his hand, making Mjolnir fly across to him where he instantly held it up, ready.
The gleaming silver animal cantering into the room was enough to have Harry lowering his wand.
"It's okay," he said. "It's just a patronus."
"A what?" Jane asked, edging closer to get a better look.
"Harry. Hogsmeade is under attack by those alien creatures you told us about along with some wizards. Come quickly," the horse patronus said in Susan Bones' voice.
Standing, Harry fished his cloak out of his pouch and swung it on.
"What was that?" Jane asked, still staring at where the silver horse had just shimmered out of existence.
"Magical way of communicating; I'll explain later, if you like," Harry replied shortly before turning to Thor. "You up for some smiting?"
Thor grinned at him, giving Mjolnir a twist in his hand. "Always."
Wandlessly, Harry summoned the empty pop tart packet before tapping it with his wand, making it glow blue.
"Grab on, this'll take us where we need to go," he instructed. "Um, this could be uncomfortable."
Then, with that warning, he waited until his partner had taken hold before tapping the packet again.
Instantly, the world swirled about them as the portkey took them from London to Scotland. Landing on his feet, Harry noted that Thor looked quite at ease, glancing as he was around the deserted town street.
"No ill effects?" Harry asked.
"Not at all," Thor replied. "Your seidhr form of transportation is not unlike a crude form of the rainbow bridge."
"Glad to hear it," Harry replied absently.
A distant scream sounded, alerting the two to the direction that they were obviously needed. Looking that way, Harry could make out a column of smoke rising about the nearby buildings.
Sharing a grim look, Thor began rapidly spinning his hammer. At the same time, Mage produced his broom before enlarging it and mounting. Together, the two rocketed off, Thor allowing Mage to take the lead.
From the air, it was easy to see the battle lines that had formed.
A dozen red-robed aurors were fanned out across a street, houses to either side of them. On the other end of the street, almost like an old-time western, were the 'bad guys' – in this instance, made up of a combination of Dark Elves and black-robed wizards, more houses and the occasional shop to either side and behind them. These, though, had all suffered damage – windows blown in, facades destroyed, doors hanging from hinges, multiples of them ablaze.
The combination Elf/wizard forces seemed to have been split into three groups. The smallest of them, only containing five Dark Elves, stood in the middle of the street. The other two groups, each with half a dozen Elves, were close to the buildings, using rubble from the partly destroyed buildings to guard their flanks.
What really caught Mage's attention was the fact that for every Dark Elf, there was a wizard at their back, shielding them from the spells that the aurors were throwing at them.
Seeing the danger that the aurors were in, being so vastly outnumbered, Mage dropped into a dive, only pulling up at the very last moment, a shield charm already cast, and catching a pair of dark red bolts of energy shot from the Elves' blasters at the aurors.
Barely without a thought, he jumped from his broom, shrunk it wandlessly and put it away, all while catching another bolt before recasting his shield to stop another pair of bolts from hitting the aurors behind them.
To his side, Mage could see Thor a short distance away, catching bolts with Mjolnir before striking back with a jet of white-hot electricity. A pair of wizards and an Elf went flying and Mage took the opportunity to let loose with a plethora of spells and curses of his own into the breach that Thor had created.
Only Mage's amazing peripheral vision, forged from his years of Harry Hunting and perfected on the quidditch pitch, saw the small, silver sphere heading his way. Snapping out his wand, he batted it away with a spell, making it flying past erratically.
A sudden explosion and a great gust of wind ripped into him from behind. Feeling his feet beginning to slide out from under him, Mage dug his heels in and glanced back. What he saw had him dropping to the ground and digging his fingertips in to make sure that he wasn't going anywhere.
A great ball of swirling energy was sucking everything that it could into itself, including the forms of four aurors. The men flailed around in mid-air before the ball of energy suddenly imploded, taking the men with them into nothingness.