"When you strike you have either won decisively or planned poorly." - Lucius Malfoy

Quietus.

Draco stalked the non-Forbidden Forest, feet shuffling along the ground. The starting gong had echoed off ten or fifteen minutes ago, so the enemy could be nearby. Walking normally meant stepping on leaves and that meant noise, quietus or no quietus. Pushing leaves around made less noise and Draco dare not advertise his position, not when he was outnumbered by ... however many it was now.

The second year army assignments had gone much smoother than expected: everyone felt outraged, in roughly equal measure.

The Generals hadn't aroused much complaint. Neville Longbottom took over as General of Chaos Legion to nobody's surprise.

Parvarti Patil had been named General, which annoyed Padma to no end. "She wasn't even a Lieutenant last year, much less a second in command! This is blatant favoritism by Professor Lockhart. He was annoyed that there were no Gryffindors in command last year," she told every Slytherin in first, second and most of third year in the day after the announcement.

As it happens Padma was perfectly correct in her assertion. The Headmistress would never dream of influencing anything so unimportant as Generals and hadn't done anything of the sort, apart from a friendly chat with her newest colleague-slash-employee, and may or may not have expressed interest in a full time position once this year's non-Professor job expired. Not that it had been necessary, the Head of House Gryffindor needed no encouragement. But everyone knew that Padma had not one shred of evidence. It was simply the latest in a never-ending war between twins. Her classmates merely rolled their eyes and listened quietly for the first day until she was pulled aside by none other than Pansy Parkinson and told to cool it.

Parvati took the name of Sunshine, which nobody can prove she did just to annoy Padma further.

That left General Zabini, who retired the name of Dragon Army in favor of Basilisk Army, that being the most deadly serpent not already claimed by a rival.

Draco took great pains to distance himself from the selection process. He'd publicly recused himself and - due to Zabini's elevation - most students felt he'd actually not been involved. But every former Captain, Colonel, Lieutenant, Squad Suggester or would be Brigadier of Sunshine, Chaos or (the now defunct) Dragon army felt slighted - at least a little bit - even if they hadn't wanted the job, hadn't expressed interest or demonstrated competence, and many expressed their unhappiness to Draco at some point in the last few weeks.

(Unremarked throughout the entire previous year: not a single soldier of any army among all seven years held the title of Private or Corporal, although General Diggory's troops nicknamed him Sergeant after his habit of barking commands in a very un-Diggory manner, but they meant it well. In fact, no armies in recorded history sported such a lopsided officer-to-enlisted ratio as the wizarding armies during Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts. As Offense Against the Dark Arts classes formalized over the years, the ratio slowly trudged towards an even balance of officers to NCOs, although never anything like a Muggle army would recognize).

So, the naming of the Generals caused some controversy, but everyone forgot that comparatively minor uproar after Professor Lockhart announced he'd assign soldiers randomly.

"But I was in Sunshine last year," wailed Daphne of Greengrass, along with most of the female contingent of Sunshine Regiment. "Why would I want to be in Chaos? Or Dragon oh you know what I mean Zabini, Basilisk whatever." Squad mates from all three armies wondered if they'd have to fight their former allies. Even Draco admitted that random assignments felt wrong. He almost lobbied for special treatment, but just proposed that Generals be allowed a few trades, assuming that all involved parties agreed.

Professor Lockhart just smiled and said "Oh, you'll pick teams later, in the Spring," without answering any followup questions.

Worse yet, the assignments weren't made right away. Again Professor Lockhart said something about "not wanting them wasting their time practicing." So several weeks of anxious speculation passed, which Draco tried to use effectively by ignoring the whole debate. Why waste time on events beyond my control, he thought. But he spent hours listening to complaints, unavoidable politeness which shouldn't have been required of his position, but accepted as part of noblesse oblige. Eventually, most students calmed down although the evening prior to the drawing Madam Pince threw Padma out of the restricted section of the library.

When asked what she was researching, Padma had only hissed "Contingency Plans."

Draco spent some time considering how to react to each assignment. Basilisk would be unpleasant, but at least then Zabini might ease up and just lord it over Draco for a few weeks and get it out of his system. Chaos and Sunshine each had their downsides, not the least of which was being in "Potter's" or "Granger's" army. Being in Sunshine would force him to walk on eggshells around Padma. Still, Neville had acquired a cachet over last year. And while they hadn't bonded, Draco and Neville had commiserated about family, so Draco felt relieved when he pulled Chaos's chit from the tumbler during selection day.

Yesterday. The day before the battle.

After selecting armies Professor Lockhart had announced that the first battle would take place Saturday.

"Tomorrow's fight," Professor Lockhart said to the shocked assembly, "will be a relatively simple affair. Well defined. Just a small battle to ease into the new year. Last year's battles suffered from a few flaws, primarily that you fought just to fight. Real wars, and real armies, have goals. Conquering a country, stopping a Dark Wizard, claiming a castle, stealing an artifact. Armies rarely just fight 'just because.' And while wars have goals, battles have smaller goals. Control of a key piece of terrain, kidnapping a hostage, and the like. We won't practice taking over the world any time soon, but for tomorrow's battle one army will defend a position in the forest against the other two armies. Will the Generals come forward?" Professor Lockhart motioned towards the bronze urn sitting on the lectern.

From the urn, General Zabini drew a red ball.

General Longbottom drew a black ball.

General Patil drew a second red ball.

"Chaos defends the forest and the treasure it holds!" said Professor Lockhart, handing a scroll to each general. "We begin at dawn! Feel free to practice anything, but standard curfew applies."

Draco froze and knelt down behind a fallen log when he heard voices. Two voices.

"Did you hear something?" That was Ernie MacMillan, now a Basilisk.

Ron Weasley said "I dunno, maybe from over there." Draco tried to move to get a better position, but when he shifted his weight he heard a small crunch under his foot. The voices stopped.

Damn. Damn Damn Damn. Draco heard a twig break crisply to his left. All three wizards froze. Draco saw a doe, frozen, staring off into the forest. Draco followed it's gaze and spotted the Basilisks. The doe paused, flicked an ear once, twice, then bounded away. Draco mentally kicked himself. I spent hours thinking and had totally forgotten about that spell.

Draco pointed his wand at his own head and said, as quietly as he could, "Anteoculatia."

Draco's hair stood on end and tied itself into a small pair of horns, prickling his scalp. The weight made his head feel odd and Draco hoped this worked; he'd look stupid dying like this. Draco crawled besides the log, stomping hands and knees into leaves, letting his antlers poke up, barely visible. After shuffling for a bit he heard the other two start moving again, and no spells were fired in his direction.

Thankfully everyone had some combat discipline; last year soldiers would shoot a deer - just because - even if it gave away their position.

Draco stopped, still mashing leaves with his left hand, and cast Ventriliquo on a tree near where the doe had been.

He said "I heard something" in a conspiratorial whisper and the movement stopped. Draco poked his head over the log quickly and saw MacMillan and Weasley both crouching besides a tree. Although from their point of view they were behind the tree, when judged by where Draco's voice sounded.

Stupefy Draco yelled. The sound still came from over to his left but the hex flew straight into Ernie's side and the Hufflepuff keeled over into crackling leaves. Draco cast again, but Weasley had seen the first hex hit and dove behind - actually behind - a tree.

"Over here! Over here!" Ron shouted. Draco quickly finited his antlers then pointed his wand skyward and sent up a solid stream of red flares. He could hear the crackling as footsteps approached. Draco set up a Prismatis shield and then bolted back into the forest, firing hexes blindly behind him for good measure.

After the selection, each General commandeered a nearby classroom. After warding the door to prevent eavesdropping, Draco joined the rest of the group. Neville, it turned out, had not prepared any inspiring speech or maybe just forgotten it. In any case he simply opened up the scroll and read it aloud.

"Your army is outnumbered. Defend your only hope, the Magical MacGuffin, from both other armies starting at 9am until reinforcements arrive, which are expected at roughly noon. Your army is allowed into the forest at dawn. The other armies possess compasses to track the MacGuffin. That is all." The Scion of Longbottom seemed nervous.

"What's a MacGuffin?"asked Hannah Abbott.

"I think it's a small statue," said Seamus Finnigan and for some reason Anthony Goldstein just shook his head and said "Doomed. We are all doomed."

"No, we just have to figure something out," said Neville. "We're in the forest again, so visibility will be low. What else do we know?"

"Can we move the MacGuffin?" asked Crabbe. Draco felt relieved that he had at least one real friend in this army, but reminded himself this was another opportunity to make more allies. Vincent's question had spawned a mini-debate on the exact nature of a MacGuffin, and how could they use it. Draco leaned against the wall and considered the problem.

They had two opponents, but the opponents weren't coordinated. Draco realized he'd just assumed that, and had no idea if they were coordinated or not. or what the other two scrolls said. This is the real test. We know the armies, but we don't know what anyone's goal is.

That brought options to mind. Could Chaos force the armies to fight over the MacGuffin? Was it useful, or just a flag to be captured? Could we move it? Draco didn't know.

"Merlin says 'Break into squads and come up with ideas,'" Neville suggested. Draco looked up, confused. "For those of you new to chaos, orders are just suggestions, unless I say 'Merlin says.'"

"You haven't assigned squads," Draco said. Neville just waved the room into four groups.

At least Vincent stood beside me, Draco thought as he glanced between Vincent, Anthony, Seamus, Hannah, and Padma.

Draco kept up a constant shout as he ran deeper into the forest, which was difficult, as he'd been running for nearly five minutes. A red hex flew three feet over his shoulder, high enough to miss his shield entirely and smash into a low hanging branch that Draco ducked under. He veered slightly to the right, still screaming, and jumped a small hill. He easily cleared Hannah, laying prone on the ground just behind the hill. Somewhere 20-30 feet to his right Vincent hid behind a tree.

Draco kept running until he heard Hannah scream x`!, then quickly turned behind a tree and bent over, heaving and out of breath, more from the screaming than running. I need to start working out with Vincent. Quirrell said we should learn physical martial arts anyway.By the time Draco recovered the ambush was over. He walked back. "I can't tell you how insulted I am that they never considered why I made so much noise," he said, between gulping breathes. Anthony Goldstein patted his back.

"Well done," Anthony said, as the first bolt came down from above. They dived as the three brooms flew overhead.

Draco let them all argue it out.

"Don't you have any ideas?" Anthony asked him. He'd been taking Draco's measure the whole time.

"Sure, but I'm not the General anymore. I'm relaxing." Draco had sprawled out in a chair, pushing the front two feet off the floor, leaning back. "How long would it take you to go through the forest, assuming you just walked it end to end and weren't worried about a battle? 30 minutes? An hour?"

They settled on forty five.

Draco continued, "OK, assume the MacGuffin is in the center, then that's twenty minutes to get to it for each army. Call it double that, since they'll have to move slowly. If we just sit and wait for them, no way do we last three hours."

"We ambush them as early as possible," said Hannah. "That will make them worry."

"We don't know what direction they'll come from. We'll have to scout out a position and spread out. How will we ambush them? If we concentrate they might move past us," Draco pointed out.

"Oh, I have some ideas on that," said Anthony.

Everyone dove to the ground, a few hexes flew into the treetops but the brooms were already gone.

"Gregory," said Vincent. "He waved as he went by." Gregory had drawn a Basilisk. He'd discussed it with Draco, prior to selection Wednesday night of last week. They both agreed not to go easy on each other. It would form resentment in the armies.

Gregory had added "And be less fun. Standard bet?"

Draco did not want to owe Gregory another Knut. They'd agreed to the standard bet, unless you personally dispatched the other, in which case it was a full Sickle. Draco wondered if Vincent and Gregory had a side bet as well.

Draco sent up some Red flares.

"I don't think anyone in Chaos can see that," said Seamus, who had been looking among the fallen to see if any of them had a compass, scroll, or something obviously useful and part of the game, before Ennervating Ron Weasley to wake the rest and send them off the field.

"Well, the guys on brooms may not know that," said Anthony, before Draco could speak up.

"Should I tell Neville?" Draco asked Vincent, who just nodded.

Draco took out his wand and got into the starting position.

Expecto Patronum! The rest of the squad, save Vincent, gawked. He ignored them and turn to his Patronus. "Find Neville. He's back at the MacGuffin. Let him know that we got five, no six, Basilisks but they've got at least three brooms patrolling. We're going back out."

Draco's silvery Blue Krait quickly slithered away, hovering a few inches above the ground. Draco turned back to the squad.

"What?" he said, in his most innocent voice.

"Does anyone know how to cast the Disillusionment Charm?" Draco asked the group, during their planning session. Nobody else knew. Malfoys started early on minor glamours to improve appearances, so this hadn't been much of a stretch to learn a few weeks ago, but Draco decided that he wouldn't reveal most of what he could do, not without good reason.

I should reveal my Patronus in the battle, he thought. It would make sense, be natural, provide a tactical advantage, and impress the others in a way that enhanced his prestige. Also, Draco's research into the Slytherin conspiracy against him had stalled, and this revelation would make people take sides publicly. Revealing his Patronus served several purposes. Revealing other important spells he knew didn't.

Draco considered what other charms he could use, out in the forest.

They were walking towards the eastern edge of the forest. "I don't see why everyone's so surprised. I was a General. Didn't I personally dispatch you in our 3rd battle last year Anthony? And that was a hell of a shot, and not a first year spell, either. So the one time it takes me longer than other people you just naturally assume I can't cast a Patronus." Draco put on a hurt look. "I'm not angry, just disappointed."

"You can quit with the act," said Seamus, motioning to the canopy above. "Let me have a look."

Draco nodded. Wingardium Leviosa. Draco lifted Seamus up besides a tree, keeping an eye out. The other four spread out, facing outwards.

"I see a few brooms, ah crap, they see – " Draco lowered Seamus as several red and green bolts snipped through the canopy, sending leaves floating gently down. Draco sighed and carefully placed Seamus' limp body to the ground. He could hear feet from the east. A lot of feet.

"Attack?" he asked.

"Sonorus!" said Vincent, wand pointing at his feet. (They'd learned you could amplify sounds other than your voice, thanks to some pre-battle experiments). He rushed forward, screaming, and the sounds of his feet echoed. Draco followed suit, charging slightly to the right. Maybe they'd make Basilisk think they were fighting the entire Chaos Legion.

Padma, Hannah and Anthony followed quietly between them, looking for ambush positions.

"Remember," Anthony whispered, "Retreat in two minutes. Tops." Draco spotted movement ahead and fired a breaking drill hex wildly in that direction. He spotted four, no five more shapes in his area. It was the whole Basilisk army. Draco figured he'd get two of them, maybe three. Assuming Gregory didn't spot him first.

He'd have to attack hard, to really sell the ambush when he retreated.

Draco smiled. He hadn't realized how much fun it was, having the odds against you, worrying only about the moment.

It removed the pressure. A bit. Draco saw Theodore Nott and aimed, mumbling "Got you."