Hogwartian Hell

Chapter 4

October arrived in a blaze of cold winds whooshing through the Hogwarts grounds. Chad and Martin were sitting in bed next to each other one cold Saturday, talking to each other and comforting one another. The dormitory was completely empty and Chad had been ill.

"It's just a cold," Chad sniveled. "You can go and hang out in the snow without me.

Martin put his left arm around his friend's bare back.

"I'd rather be here," he said, smiling. "You know, you're starting to get pale again."
"I British, what do you expect?" Chad responded. "You're just as pale as I am now."
"I am?"

Martin lifted his shirt and looked down at his own body.

"Okay," he laughed. "You win, I'm pale too."

The boys laughed together and shared more and more stories of smaller amusing pranks that the D.A had been practicing on Slytherins and, a couple times, the Carrows. They felt as though they were winning and the stakes were running high. The optimism in Hogwarts was even becoming larger in supply, especially from teachers.

Many of the Professors, especially McGonagall, knew exactly who had been in the D.A the last time and yet, they simply stated to the Carrows that they had forgotten. The strange thing was that if Snape knew anything, he seemed to consider it below his attention. The Headmaster was always locking himself in hi-…in Dumbledore's office. So, nobody truly ever saw enough of Dumbledore's murderer these days, and it was probably lucky as McGonagall's hand was always aching to whip out her wand whenever the Carrows were sliming about. God only knows if she'd be able to contain herself if Snape was in her presence.

Chad awoke suddenly from a dream, his eyes slightly unfocused and his body quivering. It was still afternoon and he found that his head was resting on top of Martin's bare torso. Martin smiled as he slowly woke up as well and looked down at Chad.

"Well, I didn't expect to fall asleep, did you?" he asked, amused.

Chad didn't answer but scooted closer to his friend. Martin put his arm around Chad and asked

"What's wrong, mate?"

"I…er….just had a nightmare, that's all. It was about Jacob."

"Oh," Martin replied, a little surprised. "Well, what happened?"

"He…he was dead. He was lying dead in some tent that was enchanted to become bigger. There was blood all over the place and he was lying there….just dead. And Harry, Ron, and Hermione were at the table with their heads down. I think…I think they were dead too."

Martin looked tense. After a minuet of stillness, he put his other arm around Chad's front and began to stroke his hair. Chad instantly felt relaxation come over him as he heard Martin whisper

"It was only a dream. Only a dream….only a dream…..only….only…..dream…"

It sounded miles away. Chad opened his eyes and found himself in a dark dungeon, one that looked familiar. Then, he realized what it was. It was the dungeon of Hogwarts. And….why was it so damn cold?

Chad felt discomfort down in his lower body and realized that he was completely naked. He stood up, his bare feet wincing as the touched the rough floor.

He walked into the small room where the detentions were held and saw a figure standing there. He too had been stripped of his clothes but was laughing lowly and darkly. The figure turned around and Chad saw that it was Theodore Nott.

"Hello, Chad," Theodore snarled, his lip curling. "I have been waiting for you…" he drew a breath "for a very…good…long….while. Where've you been little boy?'

Chad shivered. He wanted to run but he could not run. His feet were one with the floor and he was trapped.

Theodore laughed under his breath as he began to run his hands all over Chad's body.

"NO!" Chad shrieked…..and then…

AWAKE!

"Chad! CHAD! What's wrong?"

Martin shook Chad out of his sleep, his eyes wide with fear.

"Chad?" Martin said. "What's wrong?"

Chad propped himself up in the bed, scooting closer to Martin who put his arms around him again.

"Was it a nightmare?" he asked.

Chad nodded and told Martin what he had seen in the dream.

"Well," Martin started. "It was just a dream. A nightmare, honest. I don't think you need to fret about it, mate."

"But it felt…so fucking real," Chad whispered. "I felt like he was actually there…touching me."

Martin tightened his embrace on Chad and kissed him softly on the cheek a few times. He massaged him and let him rest on his chest, allowing Chad to sink into another sleep almost.

"I don't want any other nightmares," Chad murmured after ten relaxing minutes.

"It's okay, I'm here," Martin breathed tenderly into Chad's ear. "I'll protect you. I always will. I love you, Chad."

The boys both understood each other at that moment more than anything. Their relationship had started much more of a stress relief, a way to blow off steam. Never had they guessed it would blossom into what could be a true partnership, a real connection between to people…love.

They kissed each other and the troubles of the world were no longer there, in their minds. Lord Voldemort did not exist, Jacob and his friends were not on the run, and the Carrows had never stepped foot in Hogwarts….and yet…..every time a kiss ended, life seemed to come rushing back, each time worse than the other…..but there was always the next kiss….always the next one.

….

"Goddamn, I don't know why the hell I even agreed to this," Neville whisper-shouted at Ginny and Luna, the corridor slowly becoming darker and darker.

"It's okay, we'll get through this guys," Ginny snapped. "We can't turn back now. We need that sword. It's the best way to get back at Snape!"

"I'm not particularly worried," Luna began with nerve. "After all that's happened, breaking into Snape's office seems a lot less of a danger than anything else we've encountered."
"Yeah, but Snape wasn't the bloody Head of Hogwarts then, was he?" Neville observed.

"Well, at least he doesn't have any Heliopaths at his command," Luna thought aloud.

"Okay, what the hell are Heliopaths, again?" Neville retorted.

"Shh!" shouted Ginny, then her voice lowered. "Let's just go!"

They all approached the tall gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office that Snape had inhabited.

"Asphodel," Neville spoke, repeating the password that had been gathered by the D.A's spies.

The gargoyle moved aside to reveal a spiral staircase, moving upward like an escalator.

"Well," Luna muttered. "Here we go."

..

They stepped into the office, expecting to see it in complete black, its windows covered, or maybe dark objects on old potion tables. And yet, the office showed no signs of any changed resemblance. It was still Dumbledore's office. There were small tables with interesting objects, yes, but they were very non-dangerous things that the Professor had obviously collected in his travels of the world. The windows were actually open, the cool night air filing into the room. There was still a small astronomy observatory right above two flights of stairs that were standing on either side of the door to Dumbledore's living chamber. There was a desk in front of the door, large and still covered with old books and the sorting hat.

Even the portraits of old Headmasters and Headmistresses were adorned all over the walls. Neville glared.

"Why would the old murderer keep it exactly the same?" he queried.

"Maybe to relive the experience of killing Dumbledore," Ginny growled, her eyes narrowed as small tears leaked from her eyes. Her voice broke slightly as she continued

"The greasy haired git. The bastard!"

"Quiet!" Neville interrupted. "We don't want to wake any of the pictures."

"Look!" Luna said, pointing at a long, glass container propped on its side, sitting on top of a table near the desk.

Neville thought he saw Nigellas stir in his painting. He quickly turned around to see that the man had disappeared out of the portrait.

"Shit," Neville muttered to himself. "Guys, c'mon. We've got to get outta here. Let's get the sword."

He looked again at the sword. It was too the left of the tall figure standing behind the desk, his black robes falling around him, and his wand pointed directly at the three intruders.

Ginny gasped loudly and almost screamed.

"Don't," Severus Snape snarled warningly. "-make…a sound!"

The D.A trio stood there, sweat seeping out of the brim of their brows.

Snape moved from behind the desk and into the dim light. His face was still almost blocked by his long, black, greasy hair. His nose was pointed as usual and he had grown a dark goatee around his mouth and chin. He looked much more menacing then usual…a true Death Eater talent over the years.

"Well, well," Snape started. "Longbottom, Lovegood, and Weasley come to steal the sword of Gryffindor."

"Key word…'Gryffindor' which is what Ginny and I are and what you aren't nearly worthy enough to be, Slytherin," Neville replied bravely back.

"Careful Longbottom," Snape said. "You never do know how dangerous it is to cross a Death Eater."

A knife suddenly appeared around Neville's neck, a black gloved hand grasping the hilt.

"Have you met our new head of security?" said Snape. "His name is Levenski and he's very dangerous. A Death Eater as well, obviously."

Neville was pushed away so that he could turn to look at Levenski. He was not very tall but had long, dry looking brown hair and a pointed chin. He may have been in his mid-thirties at the least but that did not make him any less intimidating.

"So, this is just one of those D.A shits, then?" he alleged, his head nodding towards Neville.

"Possibly even the ringleader," Snape snickered. "Put them all in chairs. They must have a seat for this long discussion. We have to talk about their punishment."

….

Three days later, the three students trudged through the fog covered ground of the overwhelmingly dark forbidden forest. Neville saw quite a few botruckles speeding up tall trees, but he paid them no attention. They weren't the type of creatures he was supposed to be worrying about. He had expected Luna to talk about different kinds of fictional creatures she believed in that may be hiding out in the forest's blackness for he felt bad about snapping to her for her comment on Heliopaths earlier and felt he owed her an apology. And yet, she seemed too nervous to say anything.

The three had been in the forest in their fifth year, but this time seemed different. The darkness of the forest was even thicker and they seemed to hear more and more noises as they went along.

"Snape said that if we didn't bring back one smaller one dead, we'd go to the dungeons," Ginny reminded, a little unnecessarily.

Neville drew his wand that he had been lucky enough to have been given before his departure.

"We're getting there," Neville told as the trail of spiders started climbing on walls of webs, the slim dripping onto the moss.

Luna shivered and, for the first time since Dumbledore had died, looked terrified. She had been braver than any when the Death Eaters had taken over. It seemed like Luna was the strongest one of them all. Neville always told her that. He knew that if she was ever broken by the Carrows, there would be no stopping them.

Neville raised his wand so that the Lumos light showed him what he half wanted to never find.

He almost screamed.

There were about fifty or so achromantulas, most the size of Neville's head without their legs…some much larger.

The three continued to walk through, confused that the spiders had not moved yet.

One of the largest spiders, maybe the width of Luna, Ginny, and Neville put together, sat in a large hole near the end of the small city of webs.

"Well, well, well," the spider gurgled in a scratchy, high and cold voice. "You must be the little ones who some of my other siblings were tracking upon your entry to our side of the forest."
He wheezed a large breath and then looked at their uniforms with his six black eyes.

"Ah," he continued, avidly as his eyes widened. "Hogwarts students. How tasty. Allow me to introduce myself." He cleared his throat. "I am Verarik, the oldest of Aragog's children. Well, his living ones that is."

The spiders laughed, a sound that pierced Neville's ears. He started to sweat.

"We were sent here by Snape," Ginny said. "He wants us to kill one of your smaller siblings and take the body. But we don't want to do that. We thought you could help."
Luna could only nod.

Neville added

"You see, Snape and two other Death Eaters called the Carrows have taken over the school. They're torturing the students in the worst ways. People are going mental, we have no place to go, and nobody to turn to….nowhere is safe."

Verarik chortled.

"Heh! You think that I care for the fucking human pupils at Hogwarts? We have been treated like monsters for centuries! The old army of the dark wizard Sauron used one of us as a pet! They treated her like a machine that would kill whatever they sent into her web! The disgustingness of it all is revolting! I would no sooner help a human then give up the throne! In fact, I would sooner give up my rightful throne over my younger siblings. May your friends be tortured until they can bear no more and may you make a delectable feast for those of us who know what it means to be an achromantula…UNLIKE MY DEPARTED FATHER! KILL THE HUMANS!"

The spiders moved in faster than Neville could anticipate. He began to shoot spell after spell on them. Stupefy, Reducto, Relashio, Flippendo, and all the other ones he could conjure with the others. There were too many of them.

"SHIT!" Neville screeched as a spider leaped onto him.

He punched it and kicked it as it fell onto him.

The others fired more spells as all hope seemed lost. Neville listened as Luna screamed for the first time in his memory and as Ginny yelled for Harry.

Suddenly, all the spiders began flying through the air as a whole different wave of spells came at them from another direction.

"What in hell?" Verarik shouted.

Neville turned to see Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, and Madam Pomfrey all thrashing their wands about, sending spell of red, blue, and even purple at the achromantulas.

"NO!" Verarik screeched at he watched his siblings fall on each other's bodies from the crossfire.

He picked his humongous body into the air with his eight legs and jumped into the air, falling towards the students, his razor sharp pinchers open and at the ready.

"AVADA KADAVRA!" McGonagall casted at the top of her lungs.

The flash of green shot out of the tip of her wand, plummeting onto Verarik's chest faster than anyone could blink, sending the spider flying backwards in the air and slamming into his bed hole, this time on his gnarled and unmoving back as he lay there, dead.

"Good work, Minerva!" Flitwick congratulated as he stared widely around at the large clumps of dead oversized spiders. "What a damn shame. Hagrid will be very saddened."

"Yeah, and Ron will be overly pleased," Ginny commented as Luna laughed nervously.

"Well, that was a little dramatic compared to a Hogwartian student's usual walk in the forbidden forest," McGonagall said. "Snape will have to pay for this."
"He will in time, Minerva," Sprout assured her. "He will in time."

While Pomfrey checked over the students for any serious injury, McGonagall and Flitwick began talking to them.

"Now, we must hurry back before Snape realizes that we're missing," Flitwick reasoned. "We weren't supposed to help you. I guess he either wanted you dead or injured."
"I don't see how we would have made it out only injured if it wasn't for you," Neville responded. "Thank you so much."

"It's what we do, we're teachers," McGonagall noted. "Now, we must hurry. Poppy, can you find anything wrong with them?"
"No, they're just covered in that achromantula plasma," she remarked. "Otherwise known as slime. Well, let's get going then."

They made their way back the way they came through, this time swifter as they were guided by teachers. When they reached the edge of the forest, right next to Hagrid's hut, they saw him and Fang walking up to them.

"Please tell me the damage wasn't tha' bad," Hagrid slightly begged.

There was a pause before McGonagall said

"I'm so sorry, Hagrid. There were too many. I think we may have stunned at least thirty, killed another ten which was including their leader, and sent the rest on the run."

Hagrid sniffed and said

"Ah, I never liked them as much as their dad. Anyway, all that matters is that the kids are al'righ'. Come on inside, we've got to get to it."

"We are going to say we've been with Hagrid all evening," Sprout explained to Neville. "Talking about the old days, you know."
"It was the easiest alibi to think of," said Flitwick.

"Do you still have the body?" McGonagall asked.

Neville flicked his wand so that they could see the floating, dead spider above him.

Hagrid looked away as Neville led it back up to the school.

"Thank you so much for all your help," Luna said.

"In these desperate times, we all must stay together," McGonagall stated, simply. "Now, take that spider up to Sna- to Dumbledore's office and give it to Snape. I want you in bed right after that, very well?"

"Yes, ma'am," the three replied in unison.

They walked up the grounds and to the double doors where they were met with Levenski, his dagger in his right hand and his blackthorn wand in the left.

"Nice spider," he grinned, showing yellow, broken teeth.

"We have to take it to Snape," Neville alleged.

"Fine, then. Just to let you know, though…I am basically a very cruel version of Filch so watch your step afterwards."

They all walked up to the office and spoke the password as they had three nights before.

Once inside, they looked around for Snape and all started when he slammed the door to the living area shut loudly.

"Ah," said Snape, examining the spider. "Very good, very good. I didn't expect you to survive. That proves talent. However, don't get full of yourself. You're not the chosen one, like Potter."

He placed the body of the achromantula on his desk and enlightened them by saying

"I shall be using this body in certain Potion experiments. Now, get the hell out of my sight. Oh, and I forgot to take off points for your passed misbehavior."

He didn't even pause as he continued as if he hadn't even let it slip his mind

"Oh, wait. I forgot. We don't even have a house cup anymore. Boo-hoo." He sounded bored.

He waved for them to leave and they did so without any hesitation.