Mafalda and four other Fourth Year Slytherin girls were sleeping in their dormitory. There was a knock on the door. Mafalda was a light sleeper, so she quickly woke up from her sleep. She looked at her watch on her wrist. It's 11 at night! Who in the hell is knocking on the door? The person knocked quickly got up from her bed.
"What do you want?" Mafalda said as she opened the door. Standing there was a Sixth Year boy. Mafalda noticed plenty of people in pajamas walking in the tunnel. She heard knocks coming from other doors. "What's going on?"
"Wake up everyone in your dorm. Professor Slughorn wants us in the lounge. It's an emergency!" The boy left the entrance and quickly went across the hall to the opposite door. Mafalda quickly ran to her bed and grabbed her wand. The other four girls were still sleeping. How could they sleep with all this commotion going on?
Mafalda went to her best friend, Kelly's bed, which was next to her bed. "Kelly, Kelly! Wake up!" She was shaking Kelly's arm.
"Mafalda? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Get up! Slughorn wants us in the lounge. Says it's an emergency!"
"Emergency?" But Mafalda went to the next bed. Kelly quickly grabbed her wand and saw what was going on in the tunnel. "Mafalda, What's going on?"
Mafalda quickly woke the other three girls up and went back to Kelly. "I don't know. But come on, let's go." The five girls joined the crowd in the tunnel heading towards the lounge.
"I heard that Harry Potter is in the castle," said a First Year boy.
"I think something has happened in the Ravenclaw common room," said a Sixth Year girl.
"Did you hear that?" asked Kelly, in Mafalda's ear. "Harry Potter might be in the castle."
"I heard. But why would he come to Hogwarts? He will be turned over even before he steps in the front doors!"
"Isn't your cousin Ron with him?"
"Yeah. But I don't know what they have done for the past eight months. Must be something important." A minute later, Mafalda and Kelly were in the common room's lounge. Professor Slughorn was standing right in front of the exit. Everyone was talking, wondering what was going on.
"Everyone. Quiet," said Slughorn. The chatter died down. "In a fashionably order, we must go to the Great Hall."
"What's going on?" asked Seventh Year, Blaise Zabini, standing right next to Pansy Parkinson.
"Professor McGonagall will tell you once we get there. Let's go, quickly." He walked out of the door, students following.
"Do you think something bad is going to happen?" asked Mafalda. "Like a battle or something?"
"I pray not!" said Kelly. A couple of seconds later, the two now walked out of the common room's door and followed the crowd into the dungeons. "Look, there's the Hufflepuffs." Another crowd of hundreds of students were being led by Professor Sprout down the hall. People were still wondering what was going.
"If Harry Potter is in the castle, then You-Know-Who might be coming," said a Seventh Year girl.
"Potter's a fool for coming back," said a Sixth Year boy.
"I heard a Dark Mark is in the sky," said a Third Year girl.
"A Dark Mark?! In the sky?! Someone must have been killed!" said Kelly, panicking.
"It might be a rumor. I'm not going to believe anything until McGonagall tells us."
"But, I heard from twenty other people saying that Harry Potter is inside this castle!"
"But that doesn't mean it's true!" A couple of minutes later, the Slytherin made it out the dungeons and walked into the Great Hall. The Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were already seated, while the Hufflepuffs just made it to their table. The Slytherins were now heading towards their table, while Professor Slughorn was heading towards the staff table. Mafalda and Kelly sat in the middle of the table.
"I'm kind of scared," whispered Kelly. There was chatter coming from all over the Hall.
"Kelly. You worry too much. Everything is going to be fine. Nothing is going to ha-"
"Attention!" Everyone looked to the front of the Great Hall at Professor McGonagall. She was standing where Dumbledore would have normally stood. Mafalda noticed that members of the Order of the Phoenix were at the staff table talking to the professors. "Hogwarts is about to enter a state of war."
There were gasps all over the Hall. Kelly clutched Mafalda's robes.
"Quickly, we must evacuate you from the castle. The evacuation will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organize your House and take your charges, in an orderly fashion, to the evacuation point."
Mafalda noticed Harry Potter was scanning the Gryffindor table. Who is he looking for? Where is Hermione and cousin Ron? She then saw a boy rise up from the Hufflepuff table, it was Ernie Macmillan. "And what if we want to stay and fight?"
There was a little amount of applause from Ernie's question. Harry was still scanning the Gryffindor table.
"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall.
"What about our things?" called a girl at the Ravenclaw table. "Our trunks, our owls?"
"We have no time to collect possessions," said Professor McGonagall. "The important thing is to get you out of here safely."
"Where's Professor Snape?" shouted a girl from the end of the Slytherin table.
"He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk,"replied Professor McGonagall. Cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws. "We have already placed protection around the castle, but it is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and do as your prefects-"
Another voice echoed throughout the Great Hall. It was a high voice. Kelly quickly grabbed Mafalda's hand under the table. People were looking all over the Hall to see where the voice was coming from, but no one source. People began to scream.
"I know you are preparing to fight. "Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood. Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you should be rewarded. You have until midnight."
There was silence all over the Hall. Mafalda turned to look at Harry, who was standing in the middle of the Hall's aisle. Everyone else in the Hall was looking at Harry as well.
"But he's there! Potter's there! Someone grab him!" Mafalda turned to see right behind her was standing Pansy Parkinson, who was pointing at Harry. Even faster than Mafalda can turn around, the Gryffindors, the Hufflepuffs, and the Ravenclaws stood facing Pansy, with wands pointing at her.
"Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said Professor McGonagall. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your House could follow."
Mafalda and as well as the rest of her House, with Pansy in front, left the Great Hall. "What an idiot, Pansy is. Everyone was about to stun her!"
"Didn't you hear Mafalda, You-Know-Who is coming! A battle is about to begin! Harry Potter is here!"
"I know, Kelly. I'm going to stay and fight."
"But you are not 17 yet."
"So? I want to fight against him. His hatred for Muggles. My mother is a muggle, what if he killed her? Like what he has done with other Muggle families? I was raised as a Muggle, they don't deserve that."
"I understand," replied Kelly. "So, where do you think we are evacuating?"
"Probably the Room of Requirement."
"The Room of what?"
"My cousin Ron told me about it. If you need something, like let's say you need somewhere to hide, you go to the seventh floor corridor, turn left, and walk past the wall three times. And a wall magically appears."
"You never told me this the past four years we've been here!"
"I'm sorry," said Mafalda. "But I just discovered that last year and it must have slipped my mind." The Slytherins were walking up the stairs, making their way to the seventh floor. The Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors were right behind them. Mafalda was able to pass a window, it was dark as night, stars were in the sky.
"What time is it?" asked Kelly.
"Fifteen minutes til' midnight."
"I hope Harry wins."
"Me too." They finally made it to the seventh floor. Mafalda finally decided that it was time to make her escape. "I gotta go. Be safe Kelly."
"You too. Be careful." Mafalda smiled and ran out of the crowd, she ran down the stairway, running to the Main Entrance.