THE EIGHTH YEAR
CHAPTER 10
Unwelcome Guests
By: hermioneeeeeee
It was the morning after the Engagement Night and all of the eighth years were in the Great Hall, eating breakfast.
"So, what did you all do last night while we were gone?" Harry asked.
"Well, Astoria and I are really enjoying being together and we just spent the whole night together." Ernie said cheerfully.
"And Luna and I are finding that we like each other's company and so we went on a walk together and spent the rest of the evening with one another." Neville said.
"That's brilliant!" Hermione said, helping herself to some more toast. Professor McGonagall dismissed them and they walked upstairs to the common room.
"I've realized that the eighth year House Commons are rather empty. Since so few people came back, two are completely empty." Ginny sighed.
"Yeah, Hufflepuff and Slytherin are empty. For Ravenclaw, the only one there is Terry. Poor chap. I go down there sometimes so that he won't feel completely lonely. I don't want anybody else to quit eighth year." Anthony said sadly.
"Ron and I are the only ones in the Gryffindor Commons. It feels awkward most of the time." Harry said.
"I've got it!" Blaise said.
"What?" everybody asked.
"We just ask Professor McGonagall to make the Heads and Prefects Commons and Dormitories the Common Room and Dormitories for everybody! Surely she won't mind!" Blaise said.
"Of course! Who should ask?" Hermione asked.
"You. She'll say yes to you more likely than she would to anyone else here." Blaise said. Everybody else nodded their heads. Hermione took a deep breath and went to find Professor McGonagall.
"Professor?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, yes?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"I was wondering if maybe you could allow all of the eighth years to share the same common room and dormitories. Terry is the only one in the Ravenclaw common room and dormitory and Harry and Ron are the only ones in the Gryffindor ones. Barely anyone came back for eighth year and we thought that it would feel less empty if we were all together." Hermione said.
"Of course! Yes, I can do that. I wanted to do that anyway because I saw how few students had returned. I was just wondering how long it would take for one of you to ask me. Yes, dear. Most certainly. I will inform Mr. Weasley when he returns." Professor McGonagall answered. Hermione walked off to tell everyone and collected Terry on the way.
"We can! She said yes!" Hermione announced.
"Yeah!" they all shouted in unison. Anthony and Terry high-fived and started talking. A flash of light appeared and more beds materialized.
It was early evening and Professor McGonagall looked out her window. Suddenly, black flying clouds erupted out of the sky. They shot like bullets and transformed into people upon touching the ground. When the world had thought that all evil was extinguished, Death Eaters had to come along and spoil it all.
"ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS! DEATH EATERS ARE OUTSIDE OF HOGWARTS AND YOU MUST BE CAREFUL! THIRD YEARS AND UP ARE ALLOWED TO STAY. FIRST AND SECOND YEARS, PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDING WITH YOUR HEADS OF HOUSE!" Professor McGonagall announced. The eighth years were shocked. Where were the Death Eaters even coming from? Weren't they all dead? Harry and Hermione shared a look and then beckoned to the others to follow them. They ran downstairs and into the Great Hall. The front doors were being locked but it didn't seem to be working. The Death Eaters were yelling curses and incantations that were prohibiting the locks from locking. On the tenth spell, the door flew open and twelve Death Eaters stood outside. One Death Eater for each eighth year.
"How many of them are there?" Harry asked.
"Twelve? Yeah, twelve." Hermione answered.
"But that's one for each of us!" Terry cried.
"I know, and you're all great duelers. Right?" Harry said. Some nodded and some looked at him uncertainly.
"Well, you all know spells right?" Harry asked, annoyed. Now everybody nodded.
"Good. We're going to open these doors-"
"Open the doors? No! We're trying to stay alive! I'm sorry, Harry, but not all of us are as brave as you!" Astoria said and looked down, ashamed. Harry tried not to show his exasperation.
"Fine! Anyone who wants to fight can follow me."
Hermione, Ginny, Draco, Luna, Neville, and Blaise followed Harry. Harry opened the doors of the Great Hall and faced the Death Eaters.
"Just who we were looking for! Voldemort's little Potter!" one of them shrieked.
"Voldemort is dead! I killed him." Harry shouted.
"Ah, but we're still alive. Here to carry out his work. Destroying the muggle world, killing anyone but purebloods, you understand don't you?" another said.
"About that, how are you still alive? I though all of the Death Eaters died in the Battle of Hogwarts." Neville asked.
"You think a bunch of little kids could kill us?" a Death Eater asked.
"Well a 'little kid' killed Voldemort!" Neville retorted.
"He had help, didn't he? Once we kill off his friends, he won't have anyone to rely on. We are still alive because nobody killed us. We all look the same with these masks on. All we had to do was play dead and then no one touched us. Cowardly, perhaps. Clever, yes. And now we're back." the Death Eater explained.
"We can still beat you!" Neville shouted.
"You're outnumbered, Longbottom. Twelve of us and only seven of you."
"That doesn't mean you'll win. We destroyed you once and we can do it again." Luna added.
"Then try!"
"Avada Kedavra!" they shouted in unison, aiming at the seven. They all rolled under the green light. It was madness now. They split up and ran to different places in Hogwarts.
Harry had two Death Eaters chasing after him.
"Crucio!"
Harry fell and tripped over a rock. The spell hit him and Harry screamed in agony. The other Death Eater waited until the spell had worn off.
"Stupefy!"
The spell would have hit Harry in the chest but didn't because he rolled away from it. He had run to the Black Lake. Harry slid into the water and waited until the Death Eaters were in a good position.
"Ascendio!" he shouted. Harry flew up into the air.
"Stupefy! Stupefy!" Harry said, still airborne. The spell hit the two in the chest and both fell onto their backs simultaneously.
"Evanesco." Harry said and both bodies disappeared. He was lucky that he had defeated them. Two down, ten to go.
Hermione's Death Eaters were chasing her up the stairs.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Hermione ducked.
"Crucio!"
Hermione dodged.
"Crucio!"
That one hit Hermione on the back and she writhed in pain. The spell made her fall down the stairs. She tumbled all the way to the bottom with bruises all over. She muttered a quick Episkey and carried on.
"Brachiabindo! Immobulus! Glacius Tria!" she fired. Not realizing that she was still alive, the Death Eaters were immediately bound in ropes and stuck in blocks of thick ice.
"Bombarda!" Hermione yelled and the two ice blocks exploded.
Ginny was running as fast as she could. Only one Death Eater was going after her. Blasts of light went back and forth from the two.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Ginny dodged it.
"Incarcerous!"
Ginny fell and was stuck in ropes.
"Not so strong today, are we?" the Death Eater said.
"I'm plenty strong!" Ginny fired back.
"I'm going to leave you here. I'll ask the others if it's worth killing you or not." it said. The Death Eater left and let Ginny wallow in a helpless mindset.
"Would you look at that? It's Master Malfoy! And why, sir, would you be here to fight us? Your parents did serve the Dark Lord, after all. I heard a rumor that they only stopped because he wasn't treating you very well. Am I correct? Are you so special that your parents would stop their life's devotion for a boy?" one of Draco's Death Eaters rambled.
"Yes. Sort of." he answered.
"Well, that still doesn't explain why you're here right now."
"I'm fighting you because I have changed! You do bad things to innocent people. At least, you supported someone who did."
"Let's get on with it, shall we?" the Death Eater said menacingly.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Draco was not even an inch away from death. He realized that he wasn't as strong a dueler as he thought.
"Imperio!" the other Death Eater shrieked. It hit Draco right in the chest, making him sprawl on the floor. He regained consciousness and realized that he no longer had control of his body. It dawned on him that the curse was the Imperio Curse, the third of the Unforgivable Curses. The curse that allowed the caster to control its target's body.
"Hunt down the other people in your year who are also fighting against us." the Death Eater ordered. Draco didn't want to, but couldn't resist. He set off in search of his friends.
Luna was fighting as best as she could but it didn't appear to be enough.
"Stupefy!"
Duck.
"Levicorpus!"
Dodge.
Nothing worked.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Luna just missed it.
"Glacius!"
Of course, both of her Death Eaters avoided it somehow.
"Crucio!"
Luna fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of her stomach. After what seemed like years of torture, the Death Eaters left her and left discussing whether or not it would be good to kill her.
Neville was getting tired. None of his Death Eaters were getting hit by any of his curses. He wasn't getting hit by any of theirs, either.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Neville dodged it as fast as possible.
"Crucio!"
Neville got struck in the head and fell down with a hard thud. The curse ended and Neville sat up and rubbed his head. When they weren't looking, Neville uttered the full body-bind curse and the two fell over.
"Evanesco!"
The bodies were gone.
Blaise rounded a corner to find himself face to face with two Death Eaters.
"Hey! It's Zabini!" one called.
"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be helping us?" the other asked.
"No. Voldemort's dead! You must be stupid to carry on doing this. You're going to get killed. All of you. Besides, I've got some new friends who I used to look down on. It just goes to show that people change." Blaise said in a bossy sort of tone.
"Right, yeah. Okay. Let's duel then!" a Death Eater said.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Blaise was ready for that one. He ducked and let the spell fly off elsewhere.
"Crucio!"
Blaise had no time to dodge then. The spell hit him. He was flung into the wall, shaking with pain.
"Imperio!"
All three Unforgivable Curses? Blaise felt-. Nothing. Blaise felt nothing. Now that he was under the Imperius Curse, he could be controlled.
"Go kill the other ones who are fighting us. Only the ones in your year!"
Blaise blindly obeyed and walked off to hunt.
"Hermione! Neville! Ginny! Luna!" Harry exclaimed.
"Harry!" they all shouted at once. All five of them hugged.
"I'm guessing Malfoy and Zabini decided to go back to old Voldy's side." Harry said, unsurprised.
"Actually, I'm not so sure they did." Ginny said.
"Well where are they?" Harry asked.
"We'll split up. Again. Go, try and find them!" Neville said, already heading off.
Luna ran up the stairs to the Ravenclaw Commons in search of the two.
"AVADA KED-" Blaise began. Luna cast Stupefy on him. What could be going on? Maybe Harry was right and they had betrayed them. Luna left him there just in case.
Ginny went to the dungeons to see if either of the boys had been there. Sure enough, Draco was waiting.
"What are you doing here? Everyone was worried about you! Or, almost worried." Ginny said bossily.
"Going to kill you. AVADA KEDAVRA!" Draco yelled.
"Woah!" Ginny said moving her position slightly. Draco kept aiming at Ginny with all sorts of curses but she was able to dodge most of them. Draco soon tired of the game and went on to find the others. Ginny lifted her head up and saw him leaving. Why hadn't she agreed with Harry?
"Draco! Blaise! Come on! You can't be dead!" Neville shouted. He paused for breath.
"Expelliarmus!" Blaise shouted. Neville lost his wand.
"Blaise?" he asked.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" he said in a singsong kind of voice. Neville missed it by an inch as he tried to find his wand. He grabbed it and dueled with Blaise.
"Levicorpus!"
"Sectusempra!"
"Stupefy!"
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Crucio!"
"Glacius!"
"Bombarda!"
"Avada Kedavra!"
The boys were panting now. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Blaise non-verbally said: 'Stupefy!' and Neville felt his eyelids drooping and his back aching. He wasn't dead. He wasn't dead. He wasn't...
Harry ran to the classrooms. No sign of Blaise or Draco yet.
"Stupefy!"
Harry got hit. He tumbled forward and swore; his glasses were broken and his nose was bleeding.
"Occulus Reparo. Episkey." he said and thanked his lucky stars that he had met Hermione all of those years ago.
"Not going to get up, Potter?" Blaise asked.
"Believe me, you'd know if I was dead." Harry retorted.
"Yeah? AVADA KEDAVRA!"
"What is wrong with you? You were helping us!"
"No, not anymore."
"Well, get on with it. Kill me."
"Nah. You'll just waste my energy. But I can do this: Crucio! Crucio! Crucio!"
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
Blaise smirked and left.
There was only one more of the five left to find: Hermione. He ran. And ran. And ran. Until he came face-to-face with the person he was looking for.
"Draco! Oh, I was so worried about you!" Hermione cried, moving to hug him.
"Really? That's nice. Avada Kedavra!" Draco said, missing Hermione by only a few millimeters.
"What do you think you're doing? If this is some kind of joke, Draco, it's not funny."
"No, no joke. Crucio!" he yelled, aiming better this time. Hermione was blasted backwards, screaming.
"Draco, stop. Please." Hermione said sobbing.
"Crucio! Sectusempra! Crucio!" Draco taunted. Hermione was lying on the floor in a small pool of blood, unconscious. Draco looked satisfied with his work and stalked off to find the Death Eaters.
"I did it." Draco said proudly.
"And Zabini?"
"Yeah." Blaise said.
"Killed them all?"
"No." they both said.
"What? Never mind, they're probably as good as dead. Now, I must get going. Finite!"
The boys were released from their Imperius Curse.
"What are we doing here?"
"Did the others die?"
"No! Wait! It was the Imperius Curse, remember?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Well, let's go find the others."
"Yeah."
"Do you remember doing anything while you were under the curse?"
"Nope, not a thing."
"Me either."
They walked faster.
"What were you doing? You tried to kill us! All of us!" Harry yelled.
"We did?"
"YES!" they all shouted unanimously.
"That's what we did under the Imperius Curse!" Blaise realized.
"Imperius Curse?" Ginny asked.
"Yes. For some reason, our Death Eaters cast the Imperius Curse on me and Blaise." Draco said.
"Oh, that makes sense." Luna said.
"Great. Let's go tell Professor McGonagall that the Death Eaters are all gone." Harry decided.
"Not yet. You're forgetting someone." Neville said.
"What? Who?" Harry asked.
"Neville's right. Where's Hermione?" Luna asked.
"Hermione! Come on! We've got to go find her! Let's-"
"Split up? Yeah, on it." Ginny finished, already running.
"Hermione! Hermione!" Draco shouted. She didn't respond. He searched everywhere, but couldn't find her. He tried remembering where he had gone under the curse but he couldn't. Suddenly, just by the Charms classroom, he saw her. She was lying on the ground, bloodied and beaten up.
"Hermione! Oh thank Merlin!" Draco said running towards her. She was unconscious, but still alive. He picked her up and kissed her as he carried her to the Hospital Wing.
"HERMIONE! You're alright!" Ginny shouted, earning a look from Madam Pomfrey.
"Yeah, I am."
The girls hugged.
"Let's get you back to the common room." Ginny said happily. Hermione thanked Madam Pomfrey and left with Ginny.
"Hermione!" everyone shouted.
"It's good to have you back." Harry smiled.
"Thanks. I'm happy that I am." Hermione smiled back.