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

Fighting Dirty (Wizard Style)

Despite Elise's heartfelt effort to educate the members of the Order of the Phoenix on the tactics of modern infantry warfare, they all chose, in the end, to fall back on the Wizarding World's most basic approach to close-quarter combat, which was: point your wand at the enemy and then yell something in Latin as loud as you can. Much to Elise's surprise, this strategy actually proved to be rather effective.

One major advantage of the use of magic in the battlefield was the ability to apparate. With the help of Lupin's map, it was a simple matter to materialize in the midst of a special forces unit hidden somewhere in the field, stun everyone, and then pop-out before they even knew what hit them. This tactic seemed to work quite well until one of the staff sergeants became wise to it and ordered a revised unit formation that effectively neutralized the approach. Fortunately, this did not happen before the Order had managed to take out most of the special forces positions, opening the door for a direct assault on the main body.

The troop count had reached well over three thousand before the teleportation operation seemed to come to a complete stop. This was curious to Elise because she was pretty sure the army the Beast had assembled in her world had grown to at least twice that size before she had left. Was the Beast holding back some of his troops for some reason? She thought. Or maybe he didn't have a choice?

Once again, Elise had been ordered to remain at the camp and babysit the Doctor. It was a task she was beginning to loath as she desperately wanted to be out there in the middle of the fighting. Still, she had promised to do what she was told, so she stayed at her post and kept quiet about it.

Fortunately, they had earlier given Elise a few minutes to pop-over to the Great Hall and check up on Growley, whose existence she was finally forced to admit when news of an enormous, floating pastry bar had reached Dumbledore's ears. Apparently, some of the younger students had taken to amusing themselves by gathering from off the floor as many desserts from the fallen cart as they could, and then throwing them at Growley, just to see how many more they could get to stick to his invisible pelt. When the floor no longer provided ammunition, they had moved on to some of the other carts which had not been toppled during the troll attack. Soon the hellhound had accreted quite a luxuriant coat of pies, pastries, cinnamon rolls, and other sticky delights that clung to his matted fur.

Growley was so happy to see Elise when she arrived that he leapt over to her and started nuzzling playfully, which resulted in the unwanted transfer of several chunks of dessert matter.

"Hold on there, big boy!" she declared while reaching around his wide face to scratch the fur on his neck. "You're shedding donuts on me!"

Elise had taken a couple of minutes to bring her faithful pet up to speed on what had transpired since they were last together, and asked him to stand by, ready to help in the coming battle should they need him. Then she popped back into camp where she returned to the Doctor's side, standing ready to protect him as she pried gooey chunks of strawberry jelly donuts from her hair.

To help balance the odds against so many soldiers, Professor Dumbledore had also returned to the castle to recruit as many teachers and staff members as he could for the battle, leaving behind a small contingent to watch over the students and keep them out of trouble.

Most of the invading Legion was under the direct influence of the Beast itself, while the few that were not had been basically following orders. That occasionally meant blurting out ridiculous mantras like, "We are the Legion of the Beast" and "Hail the Bringer of Despair", which they did find rather strange. However, they were soldiers of UNIT, and weirdness was something they were quite accustomed to.

Among those with coerced loyalty to the Beast were all of the senior officers that had been given charge over the incursion. Their objective was simple: secure the castle, round up the enemies of the Beast—namely the Doctor and Elise—and then deliver them to their Master. For their reward, the Beast would grant unto them great power and then together they would move on to conquer just about everything else in the universe and beyond.