CHAPTER 21

THE ATTACK

Victiore swore. "Min, Molly, get everyone out of Gryffindor Tower! Someone get McGonagall! James, Al, get out of here!"

"No way am I leaving you all to—" James protested.

"It's not a discussion, they're trying to kill you! Get out!" she yelled, and James grabbed his brother and ran out the portrait hole.

Molly descended the stairs then with all the girls following her. Most looked confused, but were clearly scared. Molly ushered them out as they ran out of the portrait hole as Scorpius and Rose followed them. Behind her, she could hear the boys beginning to come down the stairs. Rose looked behind her as everyone began shouting, Molly about prefects staying here and the younger children scrambling for the door. She saw Victiore, Molly, and Frank standing near the fireplace, wands out, with more prefects joining them. Lucy and Ava ran towards her and screamed, "Rose, go!" Scorpius pulled her through the portrait hole as she saw the flames turn green with the first invader.

The ones running out of the dorms ran towards the Great Hall, but Ava stopped halfway down the hallway on the sixth floor. "I can get the Ravenclaws to the Great Hall," Ava said. "You go find McGonagall, she'll evacuate the rest of the school!" Ava ran towards the other dormitories as Lucy, Scorpius, and Rose descended a different staircase to the headmistress's office. Rose realized that she didn't know where she was going when they reached the ground floor, but Lucy kept running down the west corridor, so they followed her. She stopped in front of a large gargoyle statue in an alcove at the end of the corridor.

"Password," it said sleepily.

"We're under attack, let me in!" she panted. The gargoyle seemed to gasp and revealed a large spiral staircase. Rose, Scorpius and Lucy ran up the stairs and started pounding on the wooden door at the top. McGonagall answered in a nightgown, looking reserved but about to be very angry.

"What on Earth is going on?" she exclaimed.

"No time to explain, but there's a lot of evil Animagi coming through the Gryffindor common room into the school. We evacuated Gryffindor Tower but the prefects are trying to hold them back—" Rose managed to explain this much before McGonagall pushed past her and into the hallway. They followed her into the staff room, which contained sleeping teachers waking up very confused.

"Minerva, what's happening?" Flitwick asked.

"We're under attack," she said. "Heads of Houses, start evacuating, Professor Rudomin, go help your prefects, they're fighting back the invaders in your tower." Rudomin quickly grabbed his wand and threw on his cloak before running out the door, briefly stopping to ask, "Death Eaters?"

"Order of the Cobra," Rose said quickly. Rudomin swore and ran quickly out the door. The teachers who were not heads of houses followed, and Flitwick and Mr. Longbottom ran off to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.

"Where is Professor Orion?" McGonagall exclaimed.

"He's one of them! The Order! He's been recruiting Slytherins this whole time," Scorpius exclaimed. "He tried to recruit me, Professor. He can turn into a snake, I've seen it."

McGonagall gasped, then angrily asked, "Is there a reason I have not been informed of this?"

"It—sounded a little far-fetched for you to believe, Professor," Rose said.

"Miss Weasley, after my experience with your family there isn't much I won't believe anymore," McGonagall told her, then asked, "Do you know anything else about this group?"

"They're looking for James and Al, but they don't care who they kill in the process," Rose said.

"Most of Gryffindor house is in the Great Hall, but if you want me to get them to go to the Room of Requirement, I know where it is," Lucy said.

McGonagall looked startled. "And how—"

"I grew up with James Potter, Professor."

"I see. Yes, thank you, Miss Weasley." Lucy ran off, then McGonagall turned to Rose and Scorpius. "Do either of you know where the Potters are?"

"Uh, no, they ran off, they're hiding," Rose said. "But they're probably in the Room of Requirement, now that I think about it. Though James does have the Map, so who knows."

"James Potter has the Marauders' Map?" McGonagall asked, sighing. "Merlin help me. All right, I think the priority is to find out which students are conspiring with Professor Orion and apprehend them. I'm going to the Slytherin dormitories, stay here."

"We'll come with you, Professor," Scorpius said. "We can't let you go alone."

"I am perfectly capable of handling myself, Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall said, and with that, she was out the door. They heard the door lock behind them.

"We're still going, right?" Scorpius asked.

"Of course," Rose said, then pointed her wand at the door and whispered, "Alohomora." The door stayed locked. "She must have locked it magically," Rose groaned. The two paced around, trying to think of a way out for a few minutes before Scorpius stopped suddenly.

"Get back," he said, pushing past her to stand in front of the door.

"Why?" Rose asked indignantly.

"Just get back," he said, then backed up himself and called out, "Reducto!" There was an explosion and Rose was knocked off her feet. When she stood up, the door lay in pieces in front of them.

"That's fourth-year magic!" she exclaimed. Scorpius laughed and said, "Yeah, whatever. I've been locked into rooms before. Let's go."

Rose decided not to ask and the two hurried down the hallway until they found the staircase to the dungeons. They ran past the Great Hall and saw the students being led by Lucy up to the third floor and the Room of Requirement. Rose hoped no one realized how it worked and just thought it was a bunker-style room, so it wouldn't be crowded and well-known. That could only end horribly. They ran down one of the only non-moving staircases in the castle to the dungeons, past one of the Potions classrooms, and up to a great stone wall. Scorpius shouted "Cobra" to the wall and the bricks moved around in a Diagon Alley fashion to reveal a passageway with green-tinged light. Rose had a feeling Orion set the passwords, and was possibly communicating with his recruits in this way. They ran down the passageway until they entered a grand-looking room with lots of black sofas and tables, and many Slytherin students looking confused. A lot of people looked at them when Scorpius and Rose entered the common room. "What's going on, Scorp?" Lexa asked, running up to him. Scorpius seemed to recoil and pushed her aside.

"Go away, Lexa," he said. "There are people attacking the school."

"What's going on? An attack? All I know is I'm missing students and I can't find Professor Orion," an older boy said, running up to them. "Malcolm Zabini, Head Prefect of Slytherin," he explained to Rose.

"Rose Weasley," she replied.

"There's an old wizard cult called the Order of the Cobra attacking the school through the Gryffindor common room. Orion's part of it, he's been recruiting within Slytherin for a while now, that's probably the students you're missing," Scorpius explained.

"You should probably evacuate," Rose added. "Take the house to the third floor and find Lucy Weasley, she's a third year Ravenclaw, she'll tell you where to go."

"Thanks," Malcolm said. "Let's go, everybody, we're evacuating!"

"Malcolm," Scorpius called after him, "have you seen McGonagall?"

"Yeah, she was looking for Orion too, she went down the hallway to the NEWT Potions room," Malcolm said. "Thanks, Scorpius, Rose." The Slytherins started to leave and Rose and Scorpius followed them out of the common room, then broke off down the hallway to the NEWT classroom. They reached a much larger, open classroom then their room, full of cauldrons bubbling over with unknown substances and supply cabinets bursting with strange jars. They hid behind a cabinet when they saw students sitting at tables, unmoving with dead expressions. They heard voices coming from the back room and listened.

"Let them go, Javius, they're children," McGonagall was saying.

"You don't understand, Minerva, they are the future."

"You've gone mad. I won't tolerate what you're doing to my students."

"They're so much better than before, don't you see? You're too soft, Minerva. You can't see the future of the world. You think by letting them be free, you'll achieve anything? You're wrong. They can be so much more than what they would make themselves. Please understand."

"I will never understand, Javius, I'm sorry. I don't want to fight you."

"I don't want to fight you either, Minerva, but I will. Just give me the Potter boys and I won't hurt anyone else."

"I won't give up my own students, I won't!"

Scorpius grabbed Rose's hand and she could hear his thoughts. Why are they looking for James and Al, not Harry?

Lyra said they might be more powerful. But how?

I don't know, Al's a Parseltongue, maybe they're looking for that.

Suddenly, Rose looked up and gasped as a fourth-year Slytherin boy came around the corner and saw them. He raised his wand.