Chapter 9: On the Run Again

Ten minutes later, all the fainted women revived and the group of survivors packed the few things they had with them. They left the house as though they'd never been in there. Poppy and Terry were with them, wrapped in sheets, Sirius carrying Poppy's corpse, while Severus carried Terry's corpse. They were planning to give their two dead companions a proper burial in the school grounds, where most of the previous headmasters, including their most recent, Professor Dumbledore, were buried.

They crept out of the shack and into Hogsmeade, where there was the distinct chill of Dementors around. To the werewolves, the smell of fear in this village was so strong, that they had a hard time continuing on unhindered. Twice they stopped to rest and allow the werewolves to gain the strength to resist the urge to run around, chasing the smell of fear and kill those fearful people and animals.

Eventually they made it back to the Hogwarts grounds and found that the students that had gone home for Christmas were beginning to mill around the gates to the school.

"What's going on? Why are the gates closed?" one of the students asked loudly to the group, who'd managed to find a way into the grounds.

"You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters have attacked Hogwarts and have taken over. We're going to try and fend them off." Severus told them and a seventh year Slytherin boy spoke to the crowd of students behind him, and they yelled in agreement to what he said, even the Gryffindors, who usually hated the Slytherins.

"Let us in, and we'll help you get Hogwarts back from him." He told the group, who looked at each other, asking each other if it was worth risking the lives of all the students.

"Just agree to it. It'll work, because I could always get Dad here to help us as well." Paige said to her mother, who was the main person worried.

"And I could get my father and the other Aurors to help us as well as Remus." Christine piped up and Minerva sighed, reluctantly agreeing.

"Alright. We'll let them help us, but we'll need a place that we can use as our safe house. Unfortunately, the Shrieking Shack isn't an option, because he's already broken into that, and the secret tunnel was also discovered." Minerva said, thinking hard.

"We'll allow the other students in and then we'll think of a safe place." Christina said, looking briefly back at the growing number of students coming back to Hogwarts.

"But I'm not allowing anyone below their fifth year to help us fight. They can stay in the safe house and help us work on some plans to overthrow the dark side, but they're not fighting. I refuse to risk the lives of anyone below fifteen years." Minerva said and the rest nodded in agreement.

"Good call, because fifth year students will have at least a basic idea of fighting the dark arts." Martha said slowly, before turning back to the students at the gate.

"Okay, we've agreed to allow you to help us defeat the dark arts, but we can't allow any student below their fifth year to help us when we're actually fighting them. You can help us come up with plans to defeat them, instead." Severus said, allowing the students in. "Now follow us quietly. We want no noise at all, in case any of his Death Eaters find us." He added to them softly and they obeyed him, following the group towards the Forbidden Forest where they would hide temporarily from the Dark Lord.

"By the way, we're also going to have to bury two bodies. Madam Pomfrey and her husband are dead, and we need to give them a proper burial, because of their bravery against the Dark Lord." Filius said to the mass of students, who all nodded. "Martha, Sirius, come with me and we'll bury them." He added to Martha and Sirius, who both nodded, standing up and following the wizard to the graves of the previous headmasters and headmistresses. There, they dug two graves and lay the bodies in them, sighing as they said prayers to help them into the afterlife. After that, they filled up the graves with soil and placed gravestones at the top of them, with the names, birthdates and date of death on them. After that, they headed back to their companions.

"Okay, we need to figure out a place to stay that will be safe from the dark side, where we can keep the under-fifteens and stay at night, and when we're not fighting. Does anyone have any ideas?" Severus asked the students, who all racked their brains to remember any places.

"Actually, there's a secret passage just off the Ravenclaw common room. No one can find it unless you know where it is. I doubt that even the Dark Lord or any of his Death Eaters would be able to find it." Paige suddenly said, remembering the passage that she'd discovered while exploring the castle one night.

"Okay. Is it large enough to fit all of us here comfortably?" Sirius asked her.

"Yes. It's large enough to fit double the amount of students and teachers that we had last year in it." Paige said and everyone nodded slightly.

"Good, let's go. Does everyone have their wands on them?" Minerva asked the students, who all nodded. "Okay, we're off. Follow Paige everyone."

The now enormous group had been sneaking through the castle with their wands drawn and sticking close to each other. They'd been walking silently for half an hour before they managed to reach the Ravenclaw common room, and Martha gave the password. The portrait swung open and they entered the common room, walking quickly to the bookcase, which they pushed aside and found small hole in the wall. Paige placed her wand in the hole, which widened until it formed a huge tunnel. Everyone entered the tunnel and walked until they came to an iron door. Paige opened it and entered the room beyond. The entrance to the tunnel closed behind them and the bookshelf moved back to cover the hole. It was dark in the room, so Paige lit her wand. It not only looked large enough to house them all, but also extremely comfortable. Excluding the lack of light, the walls weren't at all rocky and the ceiling was nice and high. The room also had, instead of a rocky or earthy floor, a wooden floor made up of floorboards. Two small wooden doors in the sides of the room led to the bathrooms, one for men and the other for women, and there was an enormous round table in the middle of the room, with hundreds of chairs around it.

"So far, it looks good enough to house everyone in here for a while. In the way of food, however, it looks as though we'll have to create our own. And light could also be a problem." Minerva said, looking around.

"There's a large window about two metres below the ceiling, which will let in the light during the day, but its only dark in here because its night." Paige replied and Minerva nodded.

"Alright, well, this'll have to do. It not only meets our requirements in the way of safety, protection and size, but it's also comfortable. Men on that side of the room, women on this side." She said, and the men all went to the side of the room that the men's bathroom was. The women all went to the side of the women's bathroom. Minerva's husband, and Paige's step-father, Troy, however, stayed where he was.

"Minerva, what about the couples?" he asked his wife and she sighed, walking back towards him.

"The couples, I guess, can stay together at night." She said and Dean instantly ran into Martha's arms.

"Martha, Dean, you both remember the condition on which I'm allowing you two to be together, I assume?" Sirius asked them, walking over. Dean pulled away, pouting.

"Sirius, most of us know the condition you and Natalie made on them being together, but we're all sleeping in the one large room, so we'll all know if anything happens between them." Minerva told him and he sighed, hesitantly relenting.

"Fine, but nothing is to happen, okay guys?" Sirius asked his daughter and her boyfriend seriously.

"Okay Dad, I promise." Martha replied, rolling her eyes at her boyfriend, who was practically dancing with joy. Martha thought he could have hugged Minerva if she and Troy weren't in the room. "And Dean, behave yourself." She added to Dean, starting to laugh for the time since her grandparents' deaths.