Downside of Aging Potions - Chapter Twenty-five
"They say, that I must learn to kill before
I can feel safe
But I, I'd rather kill myself than turn into their save."
-The Rasmus, In the Shadows
Hermione arrived in a small room, lit only by a single candle on a table not far, but not close, from her.
The way her arm was bent under her stomach and her feet pointed towards the ground while she was lying down was, to say the least, uncomfortable.
Now she knew how Barbie felt.
She couldn't mover her head to see where the light came from exactly, but she had the feeling that she was not alone.
This did not help her steadily rising fear.
Snape arrived a minute later, no doubt harder to get him into a fireplace than herself. Harry followed shortly after, and then Mr. Malfoy himself.
He stood them all upright, and then kneeled in front of where the light came from. Hermione was right; there was someone there; observing.
"So the old fool took the potion?"
Harry gave her a frantic glance, but she was paying attention to him, rather what Voldemort had asked: the potion?
It clicked. Of course! Dumbledore looked so sleepy. And Malfoy had remarked to them, before he turned them to stone, how well wormwood and asphodel worked together. The Sleeping Death. Malfoy must've slipped into his chambers and drugged him. Dumbledore was too busy fighting the potion to realize Malfoy under the Invisibility Cloak in the darkest corner of the room no less. It all fit.
'Granger, you genius, and yet, you dumb ass.'
"Yes, my Lord-"
Yeah. Definitely Voldemort.
"-Although, he was resisting it very well. I have no doubts
they'll find him in a corridor passed out. He can't last long."
They chuckled, and Voldemort said, "Well done, Lucius. After the last
incident with Miss Granger, I doubted whether you'd come through."
"Thank you, my Lord."
A chair squeaked like someone was pushing it back, and then Lucius rose. Heavy footsteps walked towards them and looked at each in an inspecting manner, almost.
"Excellent. Tie them up before we break the spell."
"Yes, master."
Whatever was about to happen, Hermione was at least glad that Snape was there. Even if he were only in a seventeen-year-old body.
They put Hermione in the center between Harry and Snape, and the last thing Hermione saw, before powder was thrown into her face again, were the red eyes of Voldemort and silvery-blonde hair.
!
Hogwarts was, literally, in a state of chaos.
Minerva McGonagall was sweeping the fifth and sixth corridors making sure there were no more stray students not in their common rooms.
Just two hours ago, approximately at four AM, Peeves the Poltergeist found Dumbledore passed out in the corridor just outside his office. And not long after, Poppy Pomfrey declared that he had had the Sleeping Death put on him.
'Albus…' Minerva silently fretted. Albus would've known what to do. And here she was running around like a chicken with her head cut-off, everyone hanging on her every instruction.
Bah. She could do it on her own. She was… almost sure.
"It was Death Eater that done this..." Filch said as he went to search the Forbidden Forest, stumbling and slurring slightly.
And McGonagall agreed with him. Especially since Potter, Granger and Snape were missing and Dumbledore was under the Sleeping Death.
She had ordered all students to return to the dormitories and the Head Boy and Girl were to go around and take attendance for all four houses. Two Gryffindors and the 'mystery boy' turned up missing.
She couldn't get over it.
The teachers were running around and of course students were trying to get hold of their parents, fearing a Death Eater attack on the school.
And she'd kill the person who even told the students Dumbledore was not somewhere working his ass off to fix it.
Peeves, probably.
McGonagall turned to the stairs that led all the way to the second floor, where the teacher's lounge was. Flitwick was waiting for her and Sinistra to give the word, to close the hallways until they thought of something.
Of course she ordered ever protection spell to be placed on the school already, Hagrid was guarding the school with the centaurs and such, and now all they had to do was close the hallways, a measure that hadn't been used in over 40 years.
"Minerva, can we shut down the hallways?" Flitwick asked when she reached the teacher's lounge.
Everything must be done by Floo now. They must get the students under control, they must prevent a Death Eater attack, and they mustmustmust revive Dumbledore.
The fate of the school- and the students- depended upon it.
"Go on." McGonagall said, straightening her hat and keeping her composure. God knew no one else would if Minerva McGonagall didn't.
Flitwick turned on the locking charms for the hallways from a clever system invented years ago, when Minerva was in her mid-twenties, and that was that.
He used charm after spell, spell after charm, working up an ugly sweat. McGonagall waited.
The tiny Charms Professor wiped his brow and sat back in an arm chair, "Well," he breathed, "what now?"
!