“What’s in the case?” A curious teenager asked his ‘grandfather’.
“I believe a tool similar to this was used to assassinate the French minister of magic.” Said enigmatic grandfather replied.
“You’re gonna make me ask aren’t you?”
“Of course I want you to think about this, not simply have me tell you. Why do you think most battles between wizards are close range skirmishes and not large scale battles.”
“Accuracy, power, and speed. It’s harder to aim at longer distances. You need more power to make sure a spell can make it longer and have a noticeable impact. Finally, the longer the distance the easier it is to react to a spell.”
“Correct, during the time when wizards were more common, and didn’t need to hide, this tool was one of the ways wizards got around those problems.” With those words, the grandfather opened up the case on the desk in between them.
Inside was a most unnatural bow. It was a recurve bow made from a strange blue wood with a pure silver string. Where the arrow would notch was a shaft of wood permanently attached to the string. It still had an obvious handle, but where the bridge would normally be, the ‘arrow’ was sticking through a ring just wide enough for the arrow’s shaft. Harry hesitantly reached out his hand and touched the string. “Is this… unicorn hair?”
“Indeed. Now my boy, shall we see if it still works?”
“Yes”
A smile graced Harry’s face as the memory played out across. The crack as the shield around Hogwarts fell brought Harry back to the present. Harry stood up atop the astronomy tower as he took the bow out of its case.
Harry stared down at Voldemort’s army as it advanced on Hogwarts. With a spell he temporarily enhanced his eyesight as he picked out the members of the inner circle, his lieutenants, before finally setting eyes on the big man himself.
Taking a deep breath, Harry raised the bow and pulled back. The string drew back with the arrow extending as the tip always remained just outside the ring. The moon came out from behind the clouds to shine down on Harry as the string seemed to glow with moonlight. The arrow started to glow with a violet light as more and more power was poured into it.
Finally he released the string as the energy along the arrow screamed forward in front of the string. The energy seemed to enlarge as it left the bow shooting across the sky like a comet nearly breaking the sound barrier. The violent energy struck at Voldemort himself as he hastily threw up a shield. The resulting explosion managed to take out many of the surrounding army. After the first spell many more followed of varying colors and effects striking at different portions of the army.
Omake: Harry: “CALADBOLG!”