Through the use of their special contact lenses, Harry and Hermione silently watched a disillusioned man in a black cloak, wearing a Death Eater mask until Harry came up with a plan.
"Hermione," he whispered, "Keep an eye on him while I get help."
"How long will you be gone?" she asked with concern.
"Just a minute. I'm just going around the corner to call Dobby. If you scream, I'll hear you. Be careful. Oh, and put your hood and gloves on." He added that at the last second as he remembered the armor they were wearing. He followed his own advice, pulling his gloves out of his pocket.
He kissed her and hurried to a good spot. "Dobby."
He heard a small pop in front of him. "Yes, the Great Harry Potter sir is calling Dobby and Dobby is…"
"Dobby, tell Professor Dumbledore that I have just seen a disillusioned Death Eater in this area, and that Hermione and I are following him. Ask him to come and bring help. I'm afraid that they're preparing to attack. After that, get both mine and Hermione's invisibility cloaks and bring them to me."
"Yes, sir," the elf replied before vanishing with another small pop. Harry stuck his neck around the corner to make sure Hermione was all right. She was watching the Death Eater enter the book store and taking a few steps toward it when he hissed, "Wait a minute," causing her to stop and look at him. "We'll go in together once Dobby brings us something important."
-ASM-
Professor Dumbledore was sipping a cup of tea inside his office when he was interrupted by a frantic-looking Dobby. "Professor Dumbledore, sir."
"Hello, Dobby. What can I do for you?"
"Master Harry Potter is seeing a Death Eater being disillusioned and walking around Hogsmeade. He and his Grangy is watching the bad wizard and is asking Dobby to tell you and ask you to help. Master Harry Potter is believing that the Death Eaters is preparing to attack."
"Thank you, Dobby," the headmaster said as he rose to his feet. Dobby disappeared with a small pop. As though summoned, his wand appeared in his blackened hand and he began sending out Patronuses to various faculty members.
-ASM-
About a minute after Harry spoke to Hermione, Dobby appeared in front of them holding two invisibility cloaks. "Dobby is telling Albus Dumbledore Master Harry Potter's message and is getting the cloaks. Master Harry Potter, sir, here is your cloak and here is your Grangy's cloak."
"Thanks, Dobby." He turned to his girlfriend. "I believe this would count as an emergency situation to use your cloak in, don't you agree?"
"Give it here," she replied with a grin.
A minute later, both of them were entering the bookstore as a third year student they didn't know opened the door to exit. They looked around and soon found that the Death Eater was standing near the entrance with his wand out, clearly waiting for something. Deciding that it would be stupid to wait and see what the murderer was planning on doing, Harry pulled out his wand, got behind the Death Eater, pushed his wand out of the cloak just enough to aim and silently stupefy him. The criminal, still invisible, fell with a thud, hitting a shelf and knocking a few books down.
"What was that?" asked a lot of kids as Harry shot another spell at the Death Eater, revealing him for all to see as ropes were conjured around him.
"It's a Death Eater! How'd he get stunned? Who did that?"
Still invisible, Harry did what he thought was a reasonable course of action. He lied. Changing his voice as best he could, he began speaking. "Yes that's a Death Eater, and I stunned him because I'm an auror. We believe the village is about to be attacked, and this git was going to trap you in here. I suggest you all head back to Hogwarts calmly while I check out other businesses for more criminals."
He watched the students rush toward the door as he heard Hermione whisper with an amused tone of voice, "Good job, Auror Potter. Where do you want to go next?"
Facing the direction her voice came from, he answered, "The Three Broomsticks. It's likely to have more than one because most students end up there."
"We've got to hurry. I think those students will let the Death Eaters know we're onto them and the attack will start sooner."
"You're right. Er, um…" She heard him take a deep breath. "We won't have time to get everywhere. We'll have to split up and stop as many as we can while before the attack begins. You take this side of the street and go toward Madam Puddifoot's, and I'll take the other side. I'll start at the Three Broomsticks and go toward the Hog's Head. Go in every store you see. Take care of yourself."
"You, too. I love you."
"I love you, too, Hermione. We've got to go, now!"
-ASM-
While panicked students were running toward Hogwarts and Hermione entered Honeydukes, Harry made his way into the Three Broomsticks. He gasped when he realized how right he was. There were five disillusioned enemies inside, one of which was looking out the window. Harry started with her, knowing she'd notice the students running right past the pub. He put a silencing spell on her and stunned her so she fell silently.
He looked at the others for a response, but no one had noticed. He moved closer to the next one and did the same thing, only revealing the tip of his wand at the last possible second. The fourth one he stunned saw him at the last moment and shouted, "YOU!" just before being stunned. The crowd heard both the voice out of nowhere and the noise of him dropping. Harry didn't see the point of silencing him after he'd shouted.
The last Death Eater in the building panicked at that point and started throwing dark curses at random students for about ten seconds before falling down from a silent reducto sent by Harry, separating his head from his body and cancelled the disillusionment at the moment of death. Harry figured that once he started hurting innocent people, the Death Eater didn't deserve any mercy. He quickly surveyed the damage and noticed that a few students were bleeding badly, and one, Seamus Finnegan, was dead from the avada kadavra the now decapitated murderer had sent. Madam Rosmerta was trying to help the wounded.
Blinking back tears and taking a deep breath, Harry ran out of there toward the closest business – in this case the post office. Just before he went inside, he heard an explosion. He looked around and saw that what used to be Scrivenshaft's Quill shop was in ruins. He panicked when he realized that that was one of the stores he'd sent Hermione to check. He started running in that direction when he heard panicked screams from the much nearer post office. Looking between the two locations, he realized that the right place to go would be the post office, but he wanted to make sure Hermione was all right.
Before he made a decision, he heard a few dozen pops at the same time. For a horrible moment, he believed it was Death Eater reinforcements. Then he recognized the red auror uniforms as they stormed every building, including the post office. He also noticed Professor Dumbledore leading several teachers, including Sirius Black, into town as well.
Harry ran as fast as he could toward the remains of Scrivenshaft's and looked around as the others fought. After looking at victim after victim, he noticed his girlfriend lying unconscious with blood on her face. Most of her body was underneath a large layer of wood from the building. He didn't notice the battle ending with a victory for the good guys as he surveyed the senseless destruction. Pulling off his cloak, he levitated all the wood off of her body and set it to the side. Automatically, he grabbed her invisibility cloak, which had been covering her left leg.
"Mr. Potter," said a familiar voice behind him as he was nervously stuffing the cloaks in his pockets. He turned to see that Madam Pomfrey had spoken to him.
"You've got to help her! I told her to go this way."
"I will," she assured him as he moved out of her way so she could work. After about a minute, she turned to Harry. "She's got several bruises and a few broken bones, but she should be fine thanks to the dragon hide armor she's wearing. I'm going to portkey her to Hogwarts, where a healer should be by now, and look at the other victims."
"Can I go with her?"
"Of course."
-ASM-
Moments later, Harry found himself in the hospital wing with Hermione, still unconscious. She had appeared on a bed and he was lying on the floor next to that bed.
"Hello. I'm Healer Cochran. Do you know what happened to this girl," came a woman's voice from behind him as he stood up.
"She, she was in Scrivenshaft's when it exploded. She was under a lot of wood when I found her." He took a deep breath and forced himself to continue. He carefully repeated what Madam Pomfrey had said before he was shooed out of the room so Hermione could be thoroughly examined.
He waited outside for an eternal fifteen minutes, sitting on the floor and berating himself over and over for separating from his girlfriend. He tried to tell himself that she must have saved every person in Honeydukes, Zonkos, and Gladrags before entering Scrivenshaft's Quill shop, but all he could think about was the fact that he sent her in that direction and now she was hurt. Thoughts of Seamus' death that he couldn't prevent also added to his bad mood. He didn't notice when tears began to fall down his cheeks as he wished it had been him lying on the hospital bed instead of Hermione.
"Mr. Potter, you can come in and talk to Miss Granger for a few minutes. She's awake. I've just healed her injuries, but she's very exhausted. If you'll excuse me, I have several other patients."
"Thanks," he replied, getting up from the floor as he hurried to her bed. He saw Hermione lying down wearing a hospital gown with a sheet pulled up past her stomach. She grinned up at him.
"Hi, Harry. I'm told you found me. Thank you."
"I am soooo sorry that I didn't stay with you when…"
"We had to separate to help the most people. Did you get to the Three Broomsticks in time?"
Looking down, he answered, "No. When I got there, I found five Death Eaters."
"Five," she asked, shocked by the news.
"After I stunned the first four, the last one started hexing everyone he could. I think he hurt about five students. Seamus is dead."
"Oh no!"
"All because I was too stupid to…"
"Stop that right now, Harry! You did the best you could! There was only one Death Eater in every store I entered."
"But you got them."
"And got overconfident. When I entered Scrivenshaft's, I didn't see any Death Eater by the door where they usually were, so I walked further inside. I didn't think that there might be a reason why none were there. I should've had everyone leave instead of waste time looking everywhere. I was so sure I knew what their plan was. It's my fault all those people got hurt. It's my fault if any…"
"No. It's not your fault." For a brief moment, a half-smile crossed his lips as he repeated her words. "You did the best you could."
Harry sat there with her until Sirius visited fifteen minutes after Harry started talking to her. From him, they learned that Neville and Ginny both took out one of the two attackers at Madam Puddifoot's. Ron and Luna had been at the Hog's Head when the explosion occurred and the two enemies there began the attack. Together, they took out one while the bartender stunned the other. Four Ravenclaws had been in the building with Hermione when it exploded and were injured, but were all expected to fully recover. Hermione had taken the worst of the explosion, but her armor had saved her. A few owls were killed in the Post Office, but the aurors managed to save everyone else in there.
The teachers and aurors managed to subdue the rest of the attacking force, and very few escaped. Unfortunately, the ones that were captured or killed seemed to be new recruits to Voldemort's forces, so this attack was believed to be a training exercise.
Seamus was the only student killed, and only fifteen students were injured. All of the injured were expected to recover, although some of them got scars. Six Death Eaters were killed. A dozen were captured. At least five escaped, although there's no way to know exactly how many got away because they were, well, gone and couldn't be counted.
As Harry and Sirius were leaving the hospital wing after being kicked out when Hermione started getting drowsy. They met Neville, Ginny, Ron, and Luna, who were about to visit Hermione. Harry informed them that she was sleeping. When they went to the Great Hall for the next meal, they found that black banners were hanging in memory of Seamus. They slowly took their places at Gryffindor's table (Luna sat with Ron) as Dumbledore offered a toast in honor of, "Seamus Finnegan, the latest victim in this bloody war."