James focused on the girl as the she started to groan. He was the closest to her bed and could see as her eyes snapped open, as she grabbed her wand and almost flew out of the bed, ending with her wand at James' neck. James stiffened, feeling the smooth wood pinching the skin of his neck.
.
"Someone tell me where-" And then she really saw him & there was a sudden spark of familiarity in her eyes for him which eased her tension a bit.
It surprised him, because he was sure he had never seen this girl before in his life.
"Harry...". She started talking but then stopped abruptly looking at him intently. There was a sudden glint in her eyes.
She's a strange one alright, thought James, instinctively stepping back a little to get away from her scrutiny.
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For a moment Hermione was stunned looking at the person in front of her. Her mind was working at the speed of light. He looks like Harry but his magical signature is different, somewhat similar but different, she thought.
Someone is trying to fool me!? Trying to fool me into believing that this is Harr?! This thought suddenly made alarm bells ring insidide her. She flet a rush of adrenaline pump into her, prompmting her mind to start working at a dizzying pace.
Whoever planned this has worked really hard, she thought, because magical signature was like a finger print, unique to every individual. Whoever planned and executed this scam operation must have somehow made an artificial signature which was so similar to harry that for a moment it had her stumped. Even his face looked exactly like him. This was definitely not an amateur's job. No one short of Voldemort or maybe Dumbledore could have even thought of copying a person's magical signature. The amount of detail he must have gone into to create an almost perfect replica of a magical signature…. Hermione was amazed.
She looked over his shoulder and saw Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomphry looking at her with worried expressions on their faces. Almost instinctively she felt their magical signature and was even more shocked to find out that their magical signatures were exact perfect replicas of the real Dumbledore, McGonagall and Pompmhry' magical signature. Even better than Harry's replica!
Except that there was a slight bend somewhere and that was the best way Hermione could put it. They were perfect but still there was something which put them slightly off balance. Like watching the reflection of a person in a mirror, perfect but inverted.
But why was Harry's mirror image's signature wasn't perfect like the others? Hermione thought.
Ah, ofcourse, they didn't have Harry or his body to study and copy his signature, unlike maybe Dumbledore, McGonagall and Poppy.
Instantly, A flood of relief spread through her body at this thought. Harry was alive and out of their reach. If it weren't for the situation she found herself in, Hermione would have smiled. But looking at the remarkable bit of sorcery in front of her, she knew she was in deep trouble.
These impostors could walk straight in Hogwarts and be accepted by it as the real persons. Such was the perfection of the replicas. She grudgingly admired the skill of the wizard responsible for this. This whole operation must have required countless innovations and discoveries in various fields of advanced magic, including the magical core itself, the source of a person's magic.
If Vodemort hadn't gone down the path of darkness and had instead focused on developing magic further for the betterment of the wizarding world, he could possibly have been the greatest wizard ever after Merlin, Hermione thought wistfully. After witnessing this immense display of power, skill and knowledge, who's to say he already isn't?, a tiny voice in her mind offered.
But she had already wasted enough time analyzing the situation and had to react. No point in pretending to be fooled because she had wasted the time to pretend thinking about all this. If she pretends to believe them now, Voldemort would know in an instant, she thought. And anyway, she had no intention of going along with any plan that Voldemort and his croonies came up with. If they thought that they had something to gain from making her believe that all of this was real, then over her dead body would she let them get that benefit. It was time to act as fast as she could to get out of this insane situation.
Acutely aware of everyone looking at her, she carefully planned her next and decisive move. The reaction of this Dumbldore would prove without any doubt if he was the real dumbledore or Voldemort impersonating him.
With a loud growling sound, suddenly the roof of the hospital wing started coming down.
Hermione knew exactly what was going to happen because she was the one who instigated the downfall of the roof and rolled down under her bed in one quick move. The timing to her movement was critical. She had to move at the time when everybody was startled by the loud growling sound of the roof coming down, a lapse of one moment could have given away her plan. She had rolled the dice. The game had begun…
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Albus Dumbledore had been in many a fights, some of which were legendary. For instance, his fight with Girndalwald. As a consequence, he had been in many kinds of messed up situations over the course of his life but the situation he found himself into at that very moment was nothing like he had imagined he would be in when he walked into the hospital wing 5 minutes ago.
He knew the criticalness of this moment. None of his companions were fast enough or had enough magical power to stop a 1000s of tons of strong concrete roof from falling on their heads from a distance of 20 meters above and thegirl who he thought was helpless and needed their support to recover from whatever calamity that had befallen her had not only attacked the with surprising power but had actually played a blinder of a move. Dumbledore was loath to admit. She knew that only he would be able to stop the roof from falling on their heads and that gave her enough time to plan and execute her next move while he was busy saving the lives of his companions. A distraction to gain time.
It was a double whammy situation for Dumbldore. If he decided to save his companions from the falling roof then the time spent in stopping the roof would have enabled the girl to launch her next attack form her temporary hiding place of under her bed, which coincidentally gave her a clear view of the lower part of the body of all the persons inside the room including him. On the other hand, if he tried to lift their feet up to save them from the second attack he'd lose precious time and energy and as a result the roof would fall on them, instantly killing them all. But if he just stopped the roof from falling, he'd most probably lose all his companions anyway because of the girl's second attack from under the bed.
Dumbledore knew being a leader of an Army was tough and sometimes during war you had to make tough decisions. Sometimes you had to lose some tactical battles in order put yourself in a position to win the war. And this was one of those situations. Dumbledore knew he had to act fast because even though his mind was running at an astronomical pace, time was running out and the roof was coming nearer and nearer. He decided to let his companions be on their own for the upcoming 2nd attack from under the bed while securing himself by jumping upwards towards the free falling roof with his wand pointing towards it.
Fawks decided to make an appearance at that very moment, sensing that her master was in grave danger and needed her help. Dumbldore grabbed Fawks' tail with his free hand and hung in mid air to avoid being a target of the 2nd attack. The falling roof, as a result of Dumbldores spell, suddenly slowed down in its approach but still came a hair length away from Fawks' head before completely stopping in mid air.
At that very moment Dumbeldore heard the loud shout of Petrificus totalus and the unmistakable sound of several people being hit by the spell in quick succession and skulls being cracked on the hard surface of the hospital wing.
But he didn't have the time to care for them. He had a roof to stop from falling. It was a no win situation for him but he learned something very important about his enemy as a result of her latest move; she was unable to cast nonverbal spells anymore after her impressive display of making the roof fall because it had probably taken a toll on her already depleted magical , in a high pressure, time critical fight like this, non-verbal spells were the norm because the time spent uttering the words of a curse could easily prove to be the difference between life and death. With non-verbal spells, it was just a matter of pointing your wand and thinking about the curse. They also gave the spell caster an advantage over the enemy because the enemy could only guess which curse was coming towards him and when. She is most definitely very weak now, Dumbledore thought, otherwise she would not have given away her weakness by shouting out a basic 1st year body binding curse. She had already tried her best to crush them all to death under the falling roof, if she had the energy, she would have had no qualms throwing the powerful killing curse.
Incorporating this new info about his enemy into his ever evolving battle plan for this unexpected fight, Dumbledore performed some complicated wand moves and in an amazing display of non-verbal magic, 4 pillars started to appear from inside the roof itself and started reaching for the floor to support the structure of the roof.
Nonverbal magic was rare as it was and was mostly used for destructive magic, and Dumbledore knew that. But creating or designing something with non-verbal magic was almost unheard of. The artistic control required to produce any kind of recognizable shape let alone structurally sound concrete pillars with symbols of all houses of Hogwarts carved beautifully on all of them was something only a few wizards in centuries could even hope of achieving, and Dumbledore knew that too. It wasn't that he consciously did the house emblems on the pillar. He was such a master that this intricacy had become second nature to truly was a class apart from almost any wizard alive. The girl was nothing in front of him. There was difference of class between the two.
Sure, he was taken by surprise by the sudden ferocious attack by the girl and was forced to suffer the loss of 4 of his comrades as a result, but now he was somewhat prepared. He knew exactly where under the bed she was, he could feel her magical presence and to supplement that, she had completely given away her exact location under the bed by shouting the body binding curse. This allowed him to triangulate all the probable angles of attack she could take from her position. This meant that he could focus all his energy on her without worrying about his back. He also had an idea of how powerful she was and how much energy she had left.
'A surprise attack can only take you so far', thought Dumbledore gruffly.
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Hermione knew how little time she had before Dumbledore controlled the roof and paid attention to her.
The moment she slipped under the bed she knew exactly what she had to do. She could clearly see the legs of all the persons standing in the room, including the fake Dumbledore's, except that his legs disappeared in a flash. She knew Dumbldore was quick but this display of quick thinking and execution of an excellent but hastily developed plan to cut his losses and hoping for the best prompted her to proceed even faster with her plan, if it was possible. She moved her wand in a swishy movement, pointed towards the legs of all the people standing in front of her, begging to be attacked, shouting "Petrificus totalus".
The curse hit every leg in sight and each and every one of them fell face forward stunned because of the force of the spell hitting them on their legs from the sickening voices of noses being broken and skulls being cracked on the hard surface of the floor were heard.
Hermione knew she had taken a huge gamble by shouting off her exact location and not using a non-verbal curse but she also knew that she had to do it. If she had used a non- verbal curse at this moment in the dual, she would have completely drained her already near depleted magical energy and then would have been powerless to face a fully prepared Dumbledore.
This trick of non-verbal spells she had learned from Harry. They were especially useful in a situation like this where you didn't want your opponent to know when or which spell you were using. In clandestine operations, which had become the magna carta of their Anti Voldemaort campaign, since their discovery by Hermione, non-verbal spells had become their weapon of choice.
The only drawback they had was that one simple spell performed non-verbally required about 4 times the magical energy required for performing it normally. Performing non verbals was rewarding indeed but without careful planning and quick thinking before their usage, they could easily become a death trap for the users themslevs.
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McGonagall couldn't believe what was happening. One minute she was looking at the battered and bruised girl on the bed staring at James in amazement and the next second she heard a huge growling sound, like the roof was falling down. She only had the time to look up and see the roof which was coming down at an unnaturally alarming speed.
At that moment, death seemed inevitable to McGonagall. She realized that nothing that she could ever do now would make any difference because she simply didn't have enough time; the roof was coming down too fast. Even if she somehow acted fast enough and managed to pull out her wand, she didn't have enough magical energy in her to stop the 1000 ton roof from falling. She instinctively put her hands on her head for some semblance of protection and at the same time heard a loud female voice shouting the body binding curse.
She felt the curse hit her legs from the front with such force that she found herself stunned and down on the floor face forward. Fortunately she already had her arms on her head as protection otherwise she would have cracked her head open on the hard surface. This was the fastest McGonagall had ever been pinned down in a dual. She knew it was game over for her. Even though she had protected her head from cracking open, death was certain. The roof was coming down and there was no escaping it.
Although McGonagall had had a great life with everything she had ever wanted, good health, energy, adventure being an integral part of the order of the phoenix, rewarding and loyal friendships, exhilarating experiences, success and fame in her line of work, exciting travel, the sustained nourishment of her magical skills etc. But she was still not satisfied with the end of it all. Sure her colleague and leader Dumbledore may have thought that "death was not but the next big adventure", but for her, it was the end of everything she ever cherished.
The realization hit her like a rampaging hippograffthat she was going to die. It was fear so palpable that it took her breath away. It was hyper-vivid and preternaturally powerful. As in a nightmare, she felt trapped and unable to escape from something that she was also unable to face. A nightmare from which it was impossible to awake because she was already awake. All the mannerism and stiffness gave in and instincts took over, pure carnal instinct of self-survival but it wasn't of much help because it only helped her mind scream "No, No, No, No, Noooo!.".
But suddenly, something most extraordinary happened. It was the most wonderful feeling. McGonagall felt a floating sensation in every fiber of her being as every anxiety and fear in her mind was wiped away gently, leaving nothing but a weird tingly sensation of pure bliss.
The events happening in the hospital wing just a blur now, irrelevant and unimportant. She just laid there feeling immensely relaxed and content with everything.
As she heard an echoing voice from somewhere deep inside her relaxed brain:
"Get up".
And it felt like the most appropriate thing to do. Minerva McGonagall always prided herself in doing the right thing, and she most certainly wasn't about to change her ways now.
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The roof was now almost balanced on the four pillars that Dumbledore had conjured up from within the falling roof itself. Dumbledore himself was still hovering in midair hanging on to the tail of Fawks to avoid presenting his legs for target practicing to the girl under the bed.
'She is a smart one all right', Dumbledore thought, but enough of this nuisance, 'her time is u... Oh!...'
Suddenly Dumbledore's mouth parted open in surprise, Fawks had disappeared with a swoosh leaving Dumbledore with nothing to hang on to in midair. Something is very wrong, thought Dumbelore, unable to resist the pull of gravity anymore without Fawks. Fawks wouldn't do something like this without a very good reason, and fittingly enough, he felt waves of some powerful dark magic being performed behind his back.
But how could it be? The girl was still under the bed, her energy level was so low that she had to give away her exact location under the bed to perform a simple body binding curse and her legs were broken, she couldn't even feel them in her condition. No one else had breached Hogwarts defenses otherwise he would have been alerted immediately by the powerful protection wards around Hogwarts. No, it must be the girl, but how?
Milliseconds before falling down on the hard floor of the hospital wing in an unceremonious heap, Albus Dumbledore realized he had made a huge mistake. He had somehow misread the situation. He had broken the very first rule of war: Never underestimate your enemy.
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Performing a non-verbal Imperious curse on McGonagall and forcing her to perform an non-verbal killing curse on Dumbledore had taken its toll on Hermione and she was heavily panting now with exhaustion. But she also knew that it had to be done.
Surprising Dumbledore was the only way she could win against him. Taking him head on was not an option. He was simply too powerful and it didn't help that she was almost completely magically and physically exhausted and couldn't even stand up on her feet at the moment. Dumbledore knew where she was and was alert of any attack from her. The only way to take a successful hit on him was to attack from an angle he didn't expect to be attacked from.
Now her only hope was that McGonagall hadn't missed because it was getting harder and harder to keep the Imperius curse going and she knew it was about to break any second now.
Tapping into her deepest magical reservoirs she didn't know she even had, Hermione instructed McGonagall to point her wand at herself and do a body binding curse. She didn't have enough power left to convince her to do a killing curse otherwise she would have finished McGonagall's story then and there.
With this last ditch effort, she involuntarily closed her eyes and put her forehead on the cold surface of the hospital wing panting heavily. And to her immense relief, she heard the unmistakable loud thump of Dumbledore's body falling down on the floor and the racket of McGonagall's stiff form stumbling down like a tree trunk.
If she was in any better condition she would have at least smiled at her success in outsmarting one of the greatest wizards of all time but she was in very bad shape. Her whole body jolted with a sudden fit of choughs and she could taste the blood in her mouth as a result. She didn't have it her to open her eyes otherwise she would have seen little drops of blood on the floor where her face was. She knew she had pushed herself too far but any fate was better than getting caught by Voldemort and becoming a liability to Harry. She wouldn't stand for it. If she couldn't be helpful for the cause then she didn't want to be a hindrance either. Harry knew what he had to do now. Before their last mission they had gotten together as they always did before a mission and had laid out a detailed plan and path for the surviving person to follow in case one of them died.
They had the locations of all of Voldemorts horcruxs and both of them had been scouting them out for months to put together foolproof plans to get each of the horcruxes. Harry had wanted to storm the horcrux locations as soon as they found them out but she had convinced him to follow her approach for it.
'Harry is so rash', thought Hermione half frustratingly and half endearingly and a despite her condition, a small smile crept on her face. He is rash because she was there to keep him in check, if she's not there anymore, he'd come around to being more responsible. She was sure of it. He would follow all the plans they laid down together and he would follow every word of the SOP's she wrote down for them for attack and laying low. She knew it was time for her to follow the SOP's she herself wrote down now too for a situation like this. Eyes still closed, she brought her left hand from underneath her to grab the tip of her wand and with a rib cracking effort, snapped the wand in two, revealing its unicorn core. Her bit was done, and so a small smile appeared on her face. She had successfully outsmarted the fake Dumbledore i.e Voldermort himself..
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