"Beings?" muttered a startled Jurgis. "More like small monsters with large swords. Hob, Marcus, Peter! Hold the mules! The rest of you weapons out and prepare to fight to the last!"
The goblins whooped and shouted in their own language, which, fortunately, none of the students watching the events unfold understood (there were a lot of good-natured swear words directed at the humans). Then they descended on the caravan, three goblins in the lead with their swords drawn and already in a downward arc.
"Lacarnum Inflamare!" shouted Jonathan McAndrews.
Fire immediately shot out of the wand at the three goblins, hitting their shield but also consuming the oxygen they had within the shield, forcing them back to drop it and get some much needed air. Jonathan immediately followed it up with a freezing spell.
He didn't pause to see if it had any effect on the goblins, instead choosing to battle the ones following them.
Harry noticed the repeated use of fire and ice spells from both older wizards against the goblins. The third man, Michael, stayed behind and used a blasting hex on any goblin that got past those two and headed towards the animals.
The shields caught the first two blasts that he shot and he quickly changed tactics to using the blasts to chew up the dirt in front of them, causing them to trip over the terrain, sometimes to even fall in new holes he created.
The odds being in the goblins' favor, they quickly got a couple skirmishers past the wizards and went towards the caravan. The horses and mules, frightened at all the pyrotechnics flashing about, were even more nervous at the sight of unusual humans.
Two goblins headed for the remaining muggles, swords gleaming and evil smirks on their faces.
"Saints preserve us!" a man called out. "'Tis demons we face today!"
"Aye, Seamus, it is. Now make him pay for taking us to Hell!" With that, Jurgis raised his own blade and brought it down to where the goblin stood. The blade never connected with him, instead stopping about a half meter away, resting on an invisible shield.
"Die, humans!" the goblin muttered, and then jumped back a bit, dropped his shield, allowed the human swords to continue their arc towards the ground, and then pounced forward, slashing at the first man, Seamus.
The goblin sword was made of much finer metal than mere steel and was honed to razor sharpness. Seamus didn't stand a chance and quickly fell to the blade, his body at least falling towards the goblin who needed to pause in his attack to push it aside.
That was all the instant that Jurgis needed to hack at the unholy beast again. This time he wounded it in the arm, causing him to fall back. Regrettably, his friend was near to assist and the same situation began again with the fresh goblin attacking the humans.
Several students near the three muggles guarding the animals heard the one called Hob say, "I'm not surprised at these dark being, Marcus. I'd always heard this here forest was evil."
"True, Hob. But I tell you, if we survive this, I'm going to want a bonus before taking this caravan any further."
The wizards were able to finally drive the small horde off with the strategic use of blasting curses, bludgeoning hexes (once the shields were dropped), and fire spells to set parts of them on fire (mostly directed at those goblins attacking the muggles since they were the most interested in dropping their shields during the fracas).
"By the gods," Robert intoned, a sweaty hand mopping an equally sweaty brow.
"Aye, Robert," Jonathan replied, clapping his fellow wizard on the shoulder. "That was a particularly bloodthirsty bunch. Come, we have much to do. We have driven them off, but I fear they are not gone for good."
"Aye, my friend, I think you are right. Let me check on Michael and then set up a perimeter alert."
"I'll check up on Jurgis and the rest of his men. It looks as if some of the horses have run off. I'll get the remaining muggles on it."
The two men went about their duties. All told, three muggles and a mule were killed in the fighting. Mr. Jurgis was slightly wounded on his right arm but appeared to rally the remaining men to their jobs. "Hob!" Jurgis called. "Track down those remaining horses and get back here as quickly as you can. The rest of you, calm those animals down. They're going crazy with fear."
Hob went in search of the missing pack animals and the image stayed with him as he trekked through the forest and its trees. He followed broken branches and impressions in the muck and grass for nearly a half hour before finding them in a clearing eating some grass.
He calmly walked up and gathered their reins, taking them back to where he'd left the caravan.
He returned to find all his friends and the three strange men dead. Mr. Jurgis was also found, although his head was about two meters away from the rest of his body.
As expected, the cargo was gone. All that is except for the packs on the three horses he had with him.
"They must have come back quicker than expected," he muttered as the scene began to dim, then grew dark, then the light of the classroom flickered back to life as if nothing had happened.
"And thus, the only remaining survivor of the McAndrews team returned back to Aberystwyth and reported all that had happened." Harry wasn't sure, but it appeared that the professor was showing just a little bit of emotion. Possibly shock or elation. It was hard to tell.
"It was never proven that goblins finished off the McAndrews crew, but evidence points that way as their cargo ended up in the markets within several months and was sold by goblin merchants in France. This in turn led to a boycott of 913 AD in Meaux which we'll discuss next time. For homework, please read chapter one of your texts. Mr. Potter, please remain behind while everyone else may leave."
Hermione was still in a little bit of shock after seeing that much close quarter combat and, white-faced, looked at Harry. He noticed her appearance and softly said, "Go to the common room. Ask a prefect for something called a Calming Drought for all the students here. They may need to go to the school nurse, Madame Promprey. Tell them what happened. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Uh… okay, Harry."
She and the others left, almost all of them looking a bit nauseous.
"Yes, Professor?" Harry said to the ghost.
A real emotion flashed across the ghostly image and he smiled at his student. "Mr. Potter, I cannot tell you how extraordinarily pleased I am to have you in my class. I wasn't sure until we started the history lesson if you were capable of it, but I can see my ability to read auras still exists in my death."
"Sir?"
"Mr. Potter, you are what we call a natural channeler. In this case, you can channel history as easily as a muggle can fall down stairs since they don't believe in cushioning charms. Odd that. Anyway, it has been a long time since I've seen anyone channel history as effortlessly as you did today. And the images you procured were top notch. Why, the only person I thought could do it that well was myself when I was alive.
"As an apprentice, I would be very grateful if you considered taking history through your NEWTs. Who knows, if you pass your NEWTs, and I have every assurance you will, my work on helping another channeler reach their potential will be done and I can move on. I have waited a long time to find someone who can help others understand history like I once did. And you, Mr. Potter, are going to help this class immeasurably.
"And just you wait until we get to the real juicy goblin rebellions. Now that's going to be some action in the making. And to think, we can see all of that first hand thanks to Hogwarts' newest apprentice."
Harry didn't know what to say, so he wisely kept his mouth shut.
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