Chapter 1: Evacuation
Harry, Ron and Hermione were walking down the unusually deserted corridors to the Great Hall for their lunch with the rest of the students. They had just come back from Divination with Professor Trelawney. She had predicted Harry would be killed by a heard of rampaging Hinkypunks for his death this year. This didn't have the impact she hoped. It took several minutes for everyone to stop laughing, and Harry was scowling at her for the rest of the lesson.
Hermione thought Harry would never recover as he had changed his mouse he was supposed to turn into a pincushion into a pickle that was a strange blue colour. Ron hadn't done any better. His mouse just scurried around the table avoiding his wand.
"Hinkypunks" exclaimed Harry, "I'm seriously thinking about quitting Divination if she keeps this up."
Comprehension suddenly dawned over Hermione's face.
"You can't quit Divination!" she exclaimed, "It's so important for the next years!"
"Haven't you seen what that old bag was saying about Harry?" argued Ron, "Stampeding Hinkeypunks! Honestly!"
"But- you don't understand…" snapped Hermione, stopping, and pointing a shaking finger in Ron's direction.
"Shut up, you two!" shouted Harry, angrily, "Can't you get through one day without arguing? Sorry I even said anything!"
Hermione and Ron looked at each other, confused, as Harry continued to walk past them. Ron scrambled after him.
"What's up with you today?" he asked Harry. Hermione caught up to them, and walked along side Harry. He was taking long strides in his anger, and she almost had to jog to keep up. Harry then let out a strangled yell, stopped abruptly, and clapped a hand to his head. Hermione knew this was no ordinary behaviour for him.
"H-Harry! What's wrong?" Hermione asked, prying Harry's hands away from his forehead, and he gave out another yell, as if in pain.
"It's my scar," Harry gasped, hands still clapped firmly over his forehead, "It's been hurting ever since morning, but not as much as this."
Hermione gasped in horror, and Ron fell back.
"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Hermione asked, astonished. Harry shook his head, running a finger over his scar.
"I told Dumbledore already yesterday. He doesn't think it's a big deal," he said. Ron gapped open mouthed at him.
"B-but- you-know-who! H-he can't be here o-or near you, can he?" he said, voice trembling in panic. Harry didn't answer. He continued to walk down the charms corridor, without a back glance. They quickly made thier way down the strangely deserted corridors, running to keep up with Harry, who was still red in the face.
But then, they saw Professor McGonagall screech to a halt in front of them from around the corner, a look of utter fright on her face. She looked around, and spotted them.
"You three! What are you doing here?" she asked, skidding to a halt in front of them.
"Um, going to our classes," answered Harry, raising his eyebrows at her. Her mouth fell open.
"What? Go to your common room at once!" she shrieked, pushing them back to the way they were coming from. Hermione, with difficulty, pushed herself away, and joined Harry, who was starring at McGonagall with disbelief fixed on his face.
"Professor, what's going on?" he asked her. She looked at the three of them, as if to debate the time she had left to tell them. She gave out an uneven sigh, cleared her thought, and said-"You-know-who is after you, Harry. He's in the castle somewhere. Peeves saw him in the trophy room."
Hermione was not surprised that Harry was the only one who didn't look as though they might scream, and run away in the opposite direction. She could tell he was thinking hard the way his temples throbbed.
"Where's Dumbledore?" he finally asked. McGonagall shrugged.
"He received an urgent letter from the ministry this morning. He had to leave for London at once," she answered. Now Hermione was frozen solid in fright. Voldemort was in the castle? Looking for Harry? And Dumbledore's not here!
"I bring you back to the common room," McGonagall said, pulling the three of them down the hall. But Harry wrenched free of her grip.
"We'll be fine, Professor, you can go" he mumbled. McGonagall starred at him for a moment, shrugged, and ran back up the corridor without a backwards glace. Ron was furious.
"What did you do that for?" he asked, clearly shaking from head to foot, "He's after you again, Harry! He's not fooling around, you know!"
"Ron, he's always been after me! I'm really sorry for not telling you and all, but Voldemort wont give up until he's murdered me!" he yelled back at him, making Ron look very small. Hermione clapped her hand over her mouth, and muffled a scream. Before she knew what was happening, Harry was tugging on her and Ron's robes to follow him to the common room.
They ran down the corridor, until Harry ran into two students who were very short. It was a little first year by the name of Colin Creevy, and his younger brother, Denis.
"H-Harry!" they cried, lunging at Harry, and hugging his knees, "you-know-who's h-here s-somewhere!" With extreme difficulty, Harry freed himself from their grip.
"Come on, Colin. We're heading to the common room, too" he said, picking them up by the ruff on their robes. They flew down the corridor's, occasionally stopping to pick up Denis, you kept falling. Hermione was to horrified to notice where they were heading, and Ron just followed them, puffing and panting behind her. Harry wrenched open the nearest door, and revealed a pitch-dark room. Hermione finally realized this was the portrait of the fat lady, and the entrance to the Gryfindor Common room. But the fat lady wasn't inside the portrait. Instead, the canvas was slashed and burned. Beside her, Ron gave out a petrified scream, and now Hermione could see why.
Only two bright, red eyes were fixed in the door, starring right at them. Hermione didn't know who this person was; she'd never seen someone with red eyes before. But judging by Harry's attempt to push all of them behind him, he knew exactly who it was.
"Voldemort," he said quietly. Hermione couldn't help but scream now. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Then those red eyes spoke, a cold, high-pitched voice that filled the corridor with a dense coldness.
"Harry Potter," it said, as Harry forced Hermione behind him, his eyes fixed in the blackness, "I've searched your common room for you. Cleansed it, you might say"
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" yelled Harry, fists clenched in sheer rage. Hermione had never seen Harry look so angry before.
"Me?" asked the unpleasant voice, "You cannot convict me of anything, Harry. You know you had no chance with me. I do want to kill you, of course."
Then it finally hit Hermione. She was hearing the voice of Lord Voldemort in her ears.
Ron had figured this out too, as Hermione looked around. He only made a few squeaks now and then. Then, the eyes moved, into the light. Hermione covered her mouth to muffle another petrified scream. The most horrible sight had met her eyes. Those eyes weren't floating in mid air- they belonged to someone.
Hermione was starring into the eyes of Lord Voldemort. He looked dreadful. His pale skin was stretched so tight across his face, you could see the outlines of his skull, and upon his face were merely two slits for a nose, and a very small sneering mouth. His robes of black where filthy and torn, and looked as though he hadn't used any others. He starred down at Harry with a sort of mad hunger in his red eyes.
"Harry Potter" he said. But then Harry let out a howl of pain. He doubled backwards, clutching his forehead in pain. Voldemort let out a high, cold laugh, and reached for his wand. Before Hermione could know what was happening, she found herself and the others being steered out by Harry, behind Voldemort, and into the room that he came from. He pushed Ron and Hermione into the room, and then the Creevys.
A bright flash of red light enlightened the room, and Harry lunged to the ground, avoiding the curse completely. Harry retrieved his wand from inside his robes.
"GO TO THE COMMON ROOM! WRITE TO DUMBLEDORE!" he yelled, as more bursts of red and green light scattered around him, "DON'T COME BACK FOR ME! GO!"
With that, Harry had kicked the portrait shut, leaving him alone with Voldemort. Hermione stood there for a tense minute in the dark common room. It took her a while to notice Ron was pulling on her sleeve.
"Come on! Hurry!" he whined, voice shaking noticeably. Hermione scrambled to her feet, and gasped at what she saw. She was in what was left of the common room. It looked as though it had an explosion go off inside the room. The armchairs were burned to a pile of dust, and all the drapes were still burning on the walls. The floor was a crusty brown, making the room look deader. It was the most horrible sight that ever met Hermione's eyes.
"Y-you d-don't think…" started Colin, but hung his head sadly. Ron franticly dashed across the room.
"HEY! Anyone here?" he yelled, "GET OUT OF THE DORMS!"
Then, as if on command, the dormitory doors swung open, reviling the Gryfindor students, looking scared and pale. They slowly pilled out, shocked at what the common room was reduced to.
"You're not dead?" asked Dean, who bounded down the spiral staircase.
"No, but Harry might be," Ron answered. Then the Gryfindor's gasped in surprise.
"W-what?" shrieked Lavender, who just dropped out of a trance, "W-well… he can't be!"
"HE'S DUELING YOU-KNOW-WHO AGAIN OUTSIDE THE PORTRAIT!" Yelled Ron, face red in anger.
"You're kidding," said Seamus, "W-we've got to help him!"
Before he could lunge at the door, Ron seized him, and pulled him back.
"You can't," he said, "The fat lady's not there, and Harry locked us in so we wouldn't go looking for him. Do you honestly think you can take you-know-who in the first place?"
"He didn't hurt anyone, did he?" asked Hermione, stepping forwards.
"Other than the common room… he couldn't find us." Answered Parvati. Hermione looked desperately around for a piece of parchment and a quill, but nothing was visible in the thick black dust covering everything.
"We need to write to Dumbledore," she said, voice trembling.
"McGonagall already wrote to him," said Fred "Did it a while ago."
After a while, everyone walked around the room, examining the damage. Hermione couldn't cope with the fact that Harry was out there alone. She sat against the wall, starring at the door, waiting. Ron was pacing around the room, making her more nervous then ever.
There was no sight of Harry or Dumbledore within an hour, but Professor McGonagall was there, and nearly fainted when she had heard the news. She had to support herself on the wall to get her breathing back. Hermione tried many times to open the portrait door, but Ron would stop her or she just couldn't do it. It was too hard to bear. Something had to give…
…~'*'~…
A/N: I re-wrote this a bit so it doesn't sound so stupid at the end. It sounds a whole lot better now.