Chapter Eight: Allegiance

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry yelled. A silvery white stag was formed from his wand. It came stampeding at the bird. The bird soared down at it. Harry's heart leaped. This might be it! The two were about to attack each other when stag ran right past the bird. They couldn't touch each other. Harry's heart failed and he lost concentration. The sliver stag disappeared.

"Think of something!" Ron cried at Hermione who stood paralyzed.

"I don't—"

"C'mon! Harry?"

"Dammit—" Harry stood looking up at the bird. "Maybe this might work—"

"What is it?" Ron yelled in terror. Harry raised his wand. His heart felt as thought it were to give out.

"Evanesco!" Harry yelled. The beast lingered for a moment, its fiery presence warming up the cold room. Then it vanished into thin air. Harry fell onto his knees.

"The spell Tonks taught us! Of course!" yelled Hermione sinking down onto the coach. Ron let out a moan of relief. Harry turned to see Ginny was on the floor clutching her arm.

"You okay?" Harry asked standing up.

"It's burnt." Said Ginny without showing even a hint of pain. Harry ran towards her and took her left arm up and raised his wand.

"It's cursed. The Fiendfyre's fire is cursed fire. You can't heal it like that. You have to just let it heal on its own." Said Hermione smartly.

"Oh," said Harry. "You okay?" Ginny smiled at him.

"Great. You know—getting attacked by a giant bird that's made of fire. Getting burnt. It's awesome."

"Ha! You're trying to be sarcastic. That's my job." Laughed Ron. He turned to see that they weren't alone. The whole house of Gyriffindor had awoken from the commotion. Harry looked around. The room was burnt and messed up, with ashes falling down upon them.

"My goodness!" came Professor McGonagall's voice. "What on in the name of Merlin happened here?"

"Got attacked by a Fiendfyre." Replied Hermione.

"WHAT?" exclaimed Professor Sprout who was standing next to McGonagall. "How did you stop it?"

"Vanishing Charm." Hermione answered her.

"That is very smart." Said McGonagall. "But we need to find out how it got here."

"I think—" said Harry standing up. "That it's the—" but Hermione had hit him on the shoulder. "What was that for?"

"Not here." She said indicating their fellow students. McGonagall too noticed the murmuring among the students.

"You four, my office. Now."

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"Yes, it could be him." Said McGonagall looking down at her wrinkled old hands. "Just one! One single Death Eater! And he's causing this much commotion!" The four of them were seated in her office.

"Like I said, great way to be starting my new year." Grumbled Ron who was examining Ginny's burn.

"Quit that!" she snapped at him and yanked her arm away.

"And we can't go into the forest. He could be anywhere! The last time three people got hurt."

"But, professor, what I didn't understand when I was there was, how he attacked both Ron and Professor Flitwick at the same time. I don't think there's just one in there. I believe that he has comrades." McGonagall sat looking at Hermione for a while, deep in her own thoughts.

"That is possible. But I just don't understand how he got into Hogwarts to begin with!"

"Maybe—" Harry said cautiously, "maybe someone let him in. Like how my godfather came in—"

"But who?" Hermione said. The one person came to Harry's mind immediately.

"Snape." He said.

"But why would he, Harry?" said Hermione.

"Yeah, mate," said Ron. "None of us like him either. He's a foul git. But I don't think he'd do something like that. He is a Hogwarts teacher after all. We got no proof against him."

"How about the Fiendfyre today? Why would he choose today to teach us that."

"Could be coincidence." Said Ron.

"Or," Hermione said cutting in. "He knew that something like that might happen. He told us to figure it out so that we might be ready when we meet it."

"Why didn't he just tell us then?"

"Does Snape ever tell us anything straight to our face?"

"That's enough!" yelled Professor McGonagall. "I have heard enough of your theories. I believe that Professor Snape is innocent in all this. However I will investigate to know the reason why he taught you that today of all days." She paused looking at each and every one of their faces. "You may go."

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Two month passed but no word came from Professor McGonagall. The weather begun to warm and leaves had begun to grow again. Flowers bloomed and blossomed. Tonks had returned from her vacation. She had gone and visited her parents for New Year's Eve. Hermione had told her of the wonderful tale of how Harry had remembered the Vanishing Spell she thought them and saved them from a fiery death. This made Harry blush uncontrollably.

Tonks resumed her classes with her usual carelessness of knocking things over, to which Harry grew more and more fond of. Stop thinking about her! He kept telling himself. But for some unknown reason, he found himself staring at her every class.

Tonks had begun teaching them to do spells silently. It required a great deal of concentration, to which Harry and Ron gave up after the first few weeks. Hermione, however, was mastering it beautifully.

"It's all in the concentration." Said Hermione who was turning her textbook into a wine goblet and back without letting a single word slip her closed mouth.

"So I've heard," said Ron rolling his eyes. "But it just doesn't work for me."

"Yeah, me neither." Said Harry. "I managed to do a few things. But it's really hard."

"At least you can do something. I can't do a thing." Ron said frowning.

"Concentrate!" Hermione yelled.

"If I hear that word one more time—"

"I still can't seem to do complex curses though. Its more difficult." Hermione said not paying attention to Ron.

"Yeah well I don't really see the point." Said Ron folding his arms and looking angrily at his textbook.

"Concen—" she was broken off by a high-pitched cry that seemed to have carried itself throughout the whole school.

"Wha—" Harry jumped from his seat, wand drawn. The three of them made their way out of the common room. Swarms of students were running, bumping into each other.

"What do you think's going on?" Ron asked Harry.

"I don't know," grunted Harry who was rubbing at his scar.

"Your scar's hurting?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, you don't think—"

"But your scar's been hurting ever since You-Know-Who's been back."

"Yeah, I know. But nothing like this." The lighting-shaped scar on his forehead was throbbing with pain. It burned. Looking around he caught a glimpse of Tonks running frantically outside. Harry caught a hold of Neville.

"What's happening?" he demanded still rubbing the scar.

"I don't know. Everyone just ran out of their classrooms when they heard the scream. Teachers couldn't even hold them in." Neville said looking at Harry worriedly.

"This way," Harry told Hermione and Ron. Neville followed them, as they exited the castle the way Tonks had gone.

Harry threw open the door giant double door that lead to a plain that Hagrid's hut to find most of the teachers running towards them.

"Defend the castle!" he heard Professor Sprout yelled. Behind them were swarms of Death Eaters, and still more coming out of the Forbidden Forest. Harry's eyes bulged. Among them were Lucias Malfoy, evidently had escaped from Azkaban, his wife, Necssisa Malfoy, and her sister, Bellatrix Lestrang. Soaring, yes soaring, above them was none other then Lord Voldemort.

"He's flying!" exclaimed Ron in terror. The teachers were getting closer.

"What on earth are you three doing here?" yelled McGonagall from far away.

"GET BACK IN!" growled Flitwick as he turned around and threw a curse at one of the Death Eaters. Harry immediately responded, taking Hermione's frightened hand. They all got inside and the teachers began murmuring enchantments and spells to prevent the Death Eaters from entering the castle.

"If they could get in the castle to begin with I don't think that's going to hold!" Harry yelled. "What happened, anyways?" Harry asked. No one was answering. Most of them were too busy to. "LISTEN TO ME!" he suddenly found himself enraged. Sparks flew from the clutched wand. It wasn't his anger. It was Voldemorts.

He found himself soaring above the castle looking down at it. "FIND A WAY IN!"

Then he was back. Harry looked upwards, imagining Voldemort there, flying above him. He looked back at the teachers who were all staring at him in complete bewilderment.

"What's happened?" He demanded again.

"Somehow the Death Eater got You-Know-Who in, Harry." It was Tonks who was answering him, though he had expected and answer from McGonagall.

"The only way's to fight!" hissed Snape. He was standing next to Tonks, looking too well satisfied. I know its him! Harry glared at Snape who didn't pay attention to him.

"We have to evacuate all the students first." McGonagall finally said.

"We can't. He's got us surrounded." Said Flitwick. Then it happened again. Through all the gazing eyes, Harry found himself about to do a curse.

"He's going to—" Harry began. But it was too late. The ceiling came toppling down on them. Harry threw himself, pushing Tonks out of the way as part of the ceiling fell down where she was seconds before. The wall was blasted in and the next thing Harry knew, he was surrounded by Death Eaters, with Voldemort himself flying down towards them. Bellatrix raised her wand at Harry but before she could do anything he had yelled, "Expelliarmus!" and her wand was thrown out of her skinny hand. That began the battle as the teachers and Death Eaters threw jinx and curses at each other, the room lighting up with multicolor sparks.

Voldemort had arrived standing among the pile of rubble. He raised his wand at McGonagall who turned around and stared at him in fright. "Deprimo!" Harry yelled pointing at the pile below Voldemort. The ground beneath it broke, but Voldemort remained, floating in midair. Voldemort raised his wand at Harry with an enraged expression on his pale face.

"Expelliarmus!" The spell came at Voldemort unexpectedly, but he flicked it away with ease. Harry turned quickly and found the caster. It was Neville with at least three fourths of the D.A. members.

Battle broke out again, this time the teachers were aided by the students. "We have to run!" Sprout yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Can we apparate now that the charms are broke?" Tonks asked firing a curse at Lucias who dodged it.

"I would think so!" Flitwick yelled.

Harry turned throwing a curse at a random Death Eater. He saw Snape shoot a curse, not at a Death Eater, but at Flitwick who jumped out of the way. He turned looking bewildered at Snape.

"What do you think your doing?" Flitwick growled. Snape smirked.

"Helping the Dark Lord. My true allegiance has always been to him. Now that Hogwarts fall I do not care about you Muggle loving idiots." Hissed Snape. Snape gave a bow to Voldemort. With a smirk on his lipless face, Voldemort pointed his wand at the ceiling. "Bombarda!" His voice echoed. The walls and ceiling toppled down upon them. Harry caught a glimpse of Tonks. She was half hidden under the rubble. Harry dived down and grabbed a hold of her hand. If only I had been allowed to learn to apparate…

He found himself thinking. But the next thing he knew, he was already engulfed in total darkness. The same sick feeling of being squeeze took hold of him.

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Harry awoke coughing. He didn't know where he was. He had done nothing. How was it that he was not at the school anymore? He jerked upright and turned around. Next to him, Tonks was lying, her legs bloody. She was unconscious. She must have used the last of her strength to get us here. Harry thought.

She moaned as she woke up. She opened her eyes to see Harry looking down intently at her. "Water—" she breathed threw her pale lips. Harry drew out his wand but she caught his hand. "If you use magic—the ministry will know. You—have to go find me water—" Nodding Harry got up and looked around. It was a small dark cave that they were in, with a large round exit. Light was shining in with all its might.

"Right," he said. "I'll be right back." He stumbled out of the cave to find them being surrounded by tall tropical trees. He strained his ears to hear water. There must be a stream nearby. Harry ran, tripping every now and then. He made it to a clear stream that glistened under the bright sun. He was about to conger a glass when he remembered about not being able to use magic. Cursing, he looked around to see if anything could hold water. Looking around he found a large, green leaf. Plucking it from the tree he folded it. This could only hold water for so long. He thought angrily as he tipped it down into the stream and scooped in the water. Instantly water began leaking. He ran back to the cave with barely one forth of what he had originally scooped. He tipped it so that Tonks could drink. After drinking it she sat up wearily and smiled. He looked at her leg. It was ripped and bloodied. He touched it gently.

"Does it hurt?" he asked. She smiled and shook her head reaching down to hold his hand. Their eyes locked once more. He, once again, had the urge to kiss her. He held it back. But somehow their lips met. It wasn't him. It was her. She was kissing him…