Title: Code of the Griffin

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: From a war ravaged future, someone is sent back in time to change the course of the war.

Marie St Clair snapped to her feet as both Lieutenant Potter and Grand Marshall Granger entered the briefing room. With a heavy heart, mostly because of the casualties she had caused and that she had disappointed these two, she placed the Sergeant's Stripes on the table. She had removed them from her uniform during her wait with a quick severing charm.

"What's this?" Potter asked.

"I accept my demotion and are ready for any punishment that you issue." Marie said, her voice almost broken. "If I am to be executed, please don't have Sergeant Carter in the firing squad, I would spare her that."

"Why would you be demoted, let alone executed?" Granger asked.

"I got Smithers killed." Marie replied. "Davies will be permanently disabled and never fight again. Kowalski will be in hospital for at least six months."

"And then you rallied the rest of your squad, took decisive action to prevent further casualties and called for reinforcements." Potter pointed out. "Far from demoting or punishing you, I am recommending you for a commendation. I am also assigning you to sessions with Doc Wallace. The mission was traumatic, especially as your first combat as a squad leader."

"I agree." Granger added. "On both points. You will get your commendation and you will see Wallace. You did very well and now we know about the Vampires. And good thinking with the Incendiaries."

"Thank you, Grand Marshall." Marie replied. "I ordered the squad to take them because of the reports of Vampires."

"Shows planning and forethought." Granger confirmed. "You will go far. Now put those stripes back on."

Marie nodded in shock as Potter and Granger left. She was still staring at the stripes resting on the table a few minutes later when Jenifer Carter entered.

"Ri, you ok?" Carter said as she approached her friend.

"Yeah, Jen. I think I am." Marie replied in shock.

"So, what did the Boss and the LT say?" Jenifer asked.

"Commendation and time with the Shrink." Marie informed.

"Told you that you were nuts thinking they would demote you." Jenifer consoled, ruffling Marie's hair. "We're both off duty for today. I'm taking you drinking."

"Just one." Marie replied.

"Ri!" Jenifer almost whined.

Marie could not help but smile at Jenifer's tone.

"Am I really that harsh?" Hermione asked Harry once they were in private. "St Clair really thought I would demote and possibly execute her?"

"You can be hard at times, but no. You aren't that harsh." Harry replied. "I think it was part guilt, part stress and part disappointment in herself. Marie has been such a dependable soldier but she is still quite young. Remember she was only one year out of Hogwarts when we recruited her. She has never failed before. She was amongst the top of her class in Boot and the only reason she did not get Sergeant before now is the positions have been taken up by Originals or the older of the intakes. I think she took the injuries of her Squad harder than if she was injured herself."

"Things like that happen in combat." Hermione stated. "You can't control it, just how you react to it."

"Yes, you and I know that, but remember Marie was at the World Cup but she wasn't on the mission in Europe. She was on Champion Protection rotation, and this was her first time in overall Command." Harry pointed out.

"That's something we'll have to work on." Hermione mused. "Sniper teams aside, most of our Squad Leaders have never been in situations where they are in Command when something happens. Sure, we do a lot of exercises but there is always either Cedric, you or me in overall Command, ready to give orders when needed. Hell, the usual patrols around Hogwarts are uneventful, this is the first time anything has happened on one since it was just the Originals."

"Cedric and I have been working with the Squad Leaders, with the help of the Originals, but there is only so much you can teach by talking." Harry admitted. "We'll have to start running them through exercises on independent squad command."

Doctor Jennifer Wallace sat in her chair looking over at her newest patient, Marie St Clair. When she had taken this job, it was only for Harry Potter and Kate West to treat their trauma from capture and torture. She had partly taken it because it was Harry Potter, but mostly because it was a request by Jane Granger's daughter.

Jennifer Wallace had met Jane Granger almost fifteen years ago, during an incident that was so classified she could be shot for just thinking about it. When Hermione had first started exhibiting Magic, Jane and Peter had thought that they were going mad and had contacted Jennifer for an assessment. Jennifer had quickly assured them that they were not going mad and, yes, Hermione could do Magic, just like Jennifer could. Of course, then she had to spend five hours proving she was not mad or conning them and that Magic did exist, as well as avoid having her food and lodgings paid for by Her Majesty's Government at a fine Correctional Facility.

Later her patient pool had grown, starting with Luna Lovegood and Michelle Waters, with their very different abuse relating to their sexual orientation and their relationship. Soon enough Neville Longbottom and Samantha Skinner had come in to deal with the loss of their limb, an arm and leg respectively.

Now Marie St Clair who was dealing with the loss of troopers under her command. Marie's issues were a bit different from the others. With all the others, their trauma had been solely from external sources. Torture, persecution or having limbs taken, but with Marie she did not suffer such external focus, instead it was mostly internal. Oh, granted, such an ambush as what occurred can be traumatic no doubt, but it was Marie's own guilt and shame over a situation that was completely outside of her control that was the primary issue. In fact, Jennifer had plans for not only ongoing sessions with the two Troopers who were injured but also a few group sessions with the entire squad as a group. But for now, Marie.

"So how do we do this?" Marie asked. "Will you be telling me everything I did wrong or something?"

"No. There is no judgement here." Jennifer replied. "What I am here to do is help you work through and come to terms with what happened. As I understand it, it was a chaotic situation, so let's start simple. I was informed that you ordered your squad to take incendiary rounds, and that this is not a normal practice. Tell me what you were thinking when you gave that order."

"Well that was an obvious choice." Marie replied. "We had some solid intel that there were Vampires in the area. I guess it was a risk reducing our standard loadout, but a vampire would shrug off normal rounds. We did go a bit over our normal allocation of Magazines with the regular and Incendiaries, but it seemed worth it."

"Did you consider other options, such as ordering your squad to simply cast a fire charm?" Jennifer probed.

"Of course I did." Marie replied. "But you can only fire one Incendiary spell at a single opponent every, say, three seconds per wand. With the ammunition each trooper can effectively engage several enemies in that same period of time and send enough rounds down-range to ensure that they go up as well as an incendiary spell, and bullets are much harder to avoid and can be effective at much longer ranges."

"In that case why did you not order your squad to load Incendiaries from the start?" Jennifer pushed.

"Doc, you obviously don't know much about Incendiary rounds." Marie shot back.

"So, explain it to me." Jennifer prompted.

Actually, Jennifer Wallace knew a lot about Incendiary rounds and had seen first had what could happen to person struck by them, but this was about Marie working through her decisions and actions. The prompting questions kept coming and Marie kept talking until their session was up. It would take a lot more sessions, it always did, but it was a start.

TBC…