Chapter 37: War at Hogwarts
The cold halls of Hogwarts' dungeons sent a chill down Draco's spine. He stood near the potions classroom, waiting. Across the stone floor stood Nott, chatting amiably with a few others that had made it here already. Draco tried to keep the sour look off of his face but he was struggling to hold it back. Slowly more students in black cloaks filed into the corridor until all of the students were there. Draco coughed loudly. No one moved. He coughed again and he was certain that a few people heard him but the majority of the students continued speaking to one another. Anger coursed through him as he pulled out his wand and snapped off a simple charm that let out a loud bang. The students quickly turned to face him.
"Where's Ron?" A voice asked.
"He's busy with another mission right now," Draco said dismissively. He was glad at least that Ron was out of his way for the night, busy dealing with something that Alvar had asked of him.
"Tonight we shall be moving in on our mission. You are all to follow me as we surge toward our target," Draco told them.
"Who is it that we're after anyway?" Another voice asked.
Draco stifled a groan. More and more students had been questioning him, no longer would they simply go along with him. "The Dark Lord gave me a mission to kill Albus Dumbledore, you all shall be assisting me in this matter. We shall make our way up to the Headmaster's office. Kill anyone that crosses our path, be they teacher or student. Here," Draco tossed the bag he had behind him to Nott who was standing at the front of the students.
Nott opened the drawstring bag and quizzically pulled out a mask. "Death Eater masks, a gift from the Dark Lord and myself."
Excitement rang out among the students as they all took a bone white mask and placed it over their faces. Draco secured his own on and surveyed the crowd of students before him, now he had their full attention. "Tonight, the Dark Lord's greatest enemy shall be brought down to his knees before us! Complete this and the Dark Lord will willingly welcome each and every one of you into his service as Death Eaters. Hogwarts will be behind us as we shall be serving our Lord in his noble quest to eradicate this world from the impure! Now onward, to kill Albus Dumbledore!"
"Death to Dumbledore!" The students chanted.
Draco turned around and began walking down the halls, quickly activating an advanced ward on Snape's door to prevent him from leaving. Draco didn't want to take any chances of anyone stealing his glory tonight. As they neared the entrance hall they could hear a few voices but they had yet to encounter anyone. They emerged from the top of the stairs and Draco led them straight to the Great Hall. Professors Sinistra and Trelawney were seated at the head table and a few small scattered groups of students were sitting at their respective house tables. Professor Sinistra was the first person to see them and she let out a shill scream. Draco didn't know who launched the first spell but it was definitely one of his soon to be Death Eaters who did. Killing curses, explosive hexes, spells flew from either end of the hall. Draco ducked behind the end of the Ravenclaw table which provided some cover. He looked back at his allies and they were just standing dumbly out in the open, firing off spells. Draco rolled his eyes and immediately went back into battle mode.
He peeked around the side of the table and hit a young fleeing Hufflepuff with a killing curse. Curse after curse and soon he could see the bodies of students pilling up on the floor. He emerged out from his cover to find only a few students left, he couldn't see either of the teachers bodies so he assumed that they fled. "Why?" A student screamed.
Draco killed the Gryffindor without remorse. "We need to move fast, the teachers might already know about us," Draco told his allies.
He led them out of the Great Hall, pleased to see that not one of them was harmed. They moved smoothly to the grand staircase and began the ascent to the third floor where the entrance to the headmaster's office was. They could hear screams from the floors above as onlooking students were able to see the mass host of Death Eaters. The group marched onto the third floor and found themselves face to face with Dumbledore and McGonagall, speaking furiously to one another. "Albus Dumbledore!" Draco shouted.
Dumbledore turned slowly to face Draco and his host of students. He reached over and lightly touched McGonagall's arm and then held his hands out, showing that he didn't have his wand in them. "Hello Draco, a fine night out tonight."
"Spare me," Draco scoffed. "The Dark Lord has ordered your death and that is what shall happen tonight."
Dumbledore took a few steps forward, placing himself in front of McGonagall. "I remember you long ago, your first year, wide eyed and curious at everything that Hogwarts had to offer, where did that boy go, Draco?"
"Enough of this Dumbledore!" Draco pulled out his wand and pointed it at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore took a few more steps forward. "Surely you don't believe that you can kill me?" Dumbledore gasped as his arm was cut deeply, blood seeped into his robes. He took a step back and grasped his arm tightly.
"I can assure you Dumbledore that I have no reservations killing you," Draco told him coolly.
A bang was heard and suddenly many of the students behind Draco were sent flying down the stairs from a blasting hex from McGonagall. Draco lashed out with banishing hex but McGonagall batted it aside. Swiftly, Nott lunged forward beside Draco and launched a curse of his own. "No, they're mine," Draco warned him menacingly.
Nott nodded and took a step back but kept his wand in hand. Dumbledore began retreating back, still clutching his arm, moving deeper into the hall where his office was. "Flamma inpes!" Blinding flames flew from Draco's wand toward Dumbledore but McGonagall stepped in it's path. She split the large jet of flames down the middle, sending the jet to either side but Draco was prepared for this. With a twist of his wand the flames changed course and made for McGonagall's back. McGonagall conjured a large stone wall that came out from the floor and shielded her from the flames, unfortunately it wasn't enough. The flames burned through the stone and struck McGonagall's back. She fell painfully to the floor and Draco summoned her wand from her. "Avada-" Draco began. Draco locked eyes with Dumbledore who was standing just in front of the gargoyle that guarded his office.
"Kadavra." The green curse struck McGonagall's back killing her instantly. Draco could practically feel the disappointed stare from Dumbledore as he retreated into his office. "Now for Dumbledore," Draco said, mostly to himself.
He led the students forward to the gargoyle when suddenly. The gargoyle disappeared and a wall appeared in it's place. "Draco, look!" Someone shouted.
Every door in the corridor was suddenly replaced with a wall in it's place. Not a second later, a steel gate appeared in front of the walls where the rooms lay. "I'll get past this, Reducto!" A young Ravenclaw shouted.
"Don't!" But Draco was too late to stop it.
The spell rang out loudly against the gate and flung itself back at it's caster, hitting him directly in his head. His head literally exploded and many of the students were hit by his remains. Draco cast a cleaning charm amid all of the shouts. "Shut up!" Draco shouted. "All of you, we're going to search floor by floor to see if we can get in anywhere. Dumbledore will surely give himself up to save a few students. Nott go down to the Dungeons with half of the students, Zabini you take the other half and start at the top of the school."
"What about you?" Zabini asked.
"I'll be here trying to get into the Headmaster's office. Send a note on the coins if you see anything," Draco ordered.
The soon to be Death Eaters all left with their respective commanders and Draco was left alone in the hall. He turned and looked at the blank wall with a black steel gate in front of it. Well, best get started.
Darkness. That was all he could see, one of the few things he could remember. For so long it was just darkness. At first it was frightening, the blackness, but after a while it became comforting, the one constant. Every so often he thought that he could see something else, something that was not darkness, something else. Light? Ah yes, light, that's what he occasionally saw. But why? And then there were sounds. They made no sense to him however, they were just sounds. One he thought that he heard something but that was long ago. That sound, a name. He didn't know what name it was, only that it was a name that made him feel something, love, that's it.
It was still dark, only darkness all the time. But there was something else, light, it came back. It got brighter and brighter, it hurt. He blinked. Pain, his eyes. After a few minutes he tried to open his eyes again. It hurt but less than the first time. He opened his eyes fully. His vision was blocked somewhat but he could still see out from a couple of slits in front of his eyes. A light that seemed so bright right now but slowly it seemed to dim. He tried to move and he struggled with it but he was able to move a little. He was able to move back a little and make his head go up higher.
Suddenly things seemed to become clearer. He was lying on a bed, a soft bed. His head was on a big fluffy pillow. His name, what was his name. The man furrowed his brow. Black? Serious? Sirius Black? Sirius Black. Sirius felt a wave of memories come over him. A Death Eater. Ron Weasley. Sirius jolted up in bed but moaned in pain as he fell back down. He moved his arm to the side of the bed to lift himself up but he found that he could control his right hand. He ignored it for now, his left hand worked fine enough. He pushed himself up into a sitting position slowly and moved his legs over the edge of the bed. Slowly but surely he managed to stand up and after a half hour he felt that he was competent enough to walk around by himself.
He walked into Madame Pomfrey's office but it was deserted. Just as he turned to leave he saw a mirror, and his reflection. His head had bandages over the top of it where his hair would be and it covered his eyes as well. He gasped and subsequently choked and coughed as he saw that he was missing an ear. He grabbed a glass of water and shakily drank it to help parch his dry throat. The lower half of his face looked fine, almost normal other than a slight change to the skin. It seemed whiter than before.
He turned around and walked back into the hospital wing and moved toward the door. He opened it but found a stone wall directly in front of him. He reached out to touch it with his numb hand and found that his hand passed through. He walked into the wall and suddenly the wall disappeared but he found a large steel gate in front of him. "What the?" Sirius said aloud.
He touched the gate and it began to lower slowly. "Over here!" Someone shouted.
Sirius peeked his head around the corner after the gate was down and he saw a couple of Death Eaters further down the hall, making their way over to him. Sirius backpedaled into the hospital wing and was happy to see that the gate moved back up and the wall reappeared. But what now?
Alvar stepped through the large entrance in the stone wall and was faced with what lay beyond. A great big cave, the ceiling so high that he couldn't see it. A large black lake was placed before him and in the centre there seemed to be a greenish glow but it was too far out for Alvar to tell what it was. It was very dark in the cave, Alvar noted. Other than the mysterious green glow Alvar couldn't detect another source of light. He stepped forward onto the sand before the lake and shot his hand up and let the magic course through him to his hand. A ball of light emerged from his hand and flew into the air. Better, but not perfect. The darkness that plagued this cave was unnatural and even Alvar's magical light was unable to deeply pierce the darkness. "Whoa," Tracy said quietly.
Alvar turned to find that everyone had followed him in. "Look," Hermione pointed out a shimmer in the air that was beside the cave wall to their right.
"Astoria, help me with this," Alvar told her.
He walked over to the shimmer and gripped it tightly with his hands. Alvar could tell that it was something solid, a chain perhaps. Astoria stood behind him and did the same. "Three, two, one, pull!" Alvar shouted.
The two pulled hard and but to no avail. Astoria pulled out her wand and tapped the invisible object and a greenish chain suddenly appeared. "I'm going to try something," Astoria muttered.
She tapped the chain again and it began retracting from the water and coiling on the floor beside them. Soon enough, a small wooden boat was raised to the surface. "Now what?" Tracy asked as she walked closer to the boat.
Tracy stepped forward to the touch the boat as it floated in the water. She barely recognized the fact that her shoe touched the water when a hand shot out of the water and grasped her ankle. Tracy shrieked and Hermione quickly summoned her back to them but the hand and what was attached to it followed. As Tracy flew back through the air, a monstrous figure appeared. Alvar recognized it almost instantly, an inferius. The inferi are corpses that have been reanimated. The inferius was very skinny, skeletal even, and had grayish skin. Instantly, Alvar snapped off a quick severing charm which sliced off the inferius' grip on Tracy's ankle and then he lit the corpse on fire. It shrieked as it burned but eventually died.
Tracy was clutching her chest and breathing erratically. "What the hell was that?" She gasped out.
"An inferius," Alvar told her. "Be careful, there's bound to be more in the lake and there might be more around us even now on land. The only way to kill them is fire, these things are just reanimated corpses. Pain spells or anything like that won't do anything to them. Fire is the key."
"Thanks," Tracy thanked Alvar.
"Don't mention it. Astoria?" Alvar asked as Astoria returned to the group from the boat.
"Some rather advanced enchantments. As far as I can tell you can only have on witch or wizard on the boat at a time," Astoria said morosely.
Alvar scratched at the stubble on his chin. "Well we can't just send a single person across, there's no way any sane person would risk that. Could you find out what would happen if multiple witches or wizards were to be on the boat?"
"The boat would sink into the water, and it triggers something. A spell which leads things toward the boat. I assume that it would make the inferi move toward the boat."
"Why don't we bring it close to the shoreline and have two of us go in it, the other can be ready to kill the inferi?" Harry offered.
"What would that accomplish?" Alvar asked.
"Well what if it's only adult witches and wizards, those that are of age that are affected by the enchantments?" Harry added.
"Astoria?" Alvar asked.
"I couldn't tell," She shook her head.
"Well I suppose we could try. Astoria, you and I will be going in, everyone be ready to summon us and use fire spells to kill the inferi."
Alvar carefully jumped into the boat and seated himself down as comfortably as he could but suddenly the boat began to move steadily forward. "I've got it," Astoria called out and the boat turned and moved to the shoreline. "I may have played around a bit with a couple of the enchantments."
Once positioned, Astoria jumped in as well. Everyone was ready to launch spells but nothing bad happened. "Looks like your theory was right Harry. Well since I'm of age I think that covers who else can come. Hermione is of age so she's out. Harry's injured. Tracy, it looks like you get to come with Astoria and I," Alvar grinned.
"I'm not going near that water again," Tracy told them looking at the murky water with disgust.
"Oh come on and stop being such a baby," Astoria mocked.
Tracy huffed but gingerly stepped onto the boat. It was very cramped, Alvar was standing at the back of it while Astoria and Tracy were hugging one another in a crouching position on the floor of the boat, squished in between the sides of the boat. It began moving steadily forward across the lake toward the green glow. Alvar watched as they passed by the grayish white corpses in the lake, their bodies seemingly frozen in the dark water. Sure enough, after a few minutes of gliding across the mysterious water, the boat gently landed on the island from which the green glow was emanating. The island was made of smooth stone and the three walked to the top of the island where they found a stone basin filled with an emerald green liquid. Alvar peered deep into the liquid, trying to see anything within but all that was to see was the liquid and his own reflection. Alvar reached out with a hand to touch it but found his hand stopped in mid air.
"What's wrong?" Astoria asked.
"I can't touch it," Alvar said.
Tracy walked around the basin. "Can we just dump it out?"
"I doubt it, Voldemort would have accounted for everything possible, still…" Alvar conjured a cup and gently dipped it into the basin, noting that this time he could get his hand closer to the liquid. He then tried to dump the liquid onto the floor but it disappeared and reappeared back in the basin.
"It has to be drunk," Alvar stated firmly.
"Then we should leave, return with someone else, a Death Eater and force him to drink it," Tracy urged.
"No, it has to be drunk willingly, besides I don't know what other enchantments Voldemort has on this place. For all we know as soon as we leave it will alert him to the fact that we were here in the first place, then the horcrux will be gone for good," Alvar explained.
"I'll do it," Astoria said loudly.
"Here," Alvar handed her the cup.
"Wait, no!" Tracy shouted. "How can you just let her do this, this liquid could kill her, your fiance's sister."
"It won't kill her, Voldemort would want to know why someone was here and how they found this place, he'd want to interrogate them, kill them later. I trust Astoria as she trusts me, if this is something which she wants to do then I won't stop her, it's her decision to make not mine. She knows better than anyone here just how dangerous this could be and what this could do to her. Astoria?" Alvar gestured to her.
"I want to do this, Tracy. I'll be fine, I trust that you'll all take care of me afterward." Astoria let out a small smile.
Before Tracy could argue any more, Astoria dipped the cup into the basin and took a drink. Tracy moved to grab her arm. "Don't, she has to finish this," Alvar warned Tracy.
Tracy looked over concernedly at Astoria before shakily nodding and stepping back. Astoria shuddered and drank another cup of the liquid, then another again. At the fourth cup she fell to the floor, the cup falling from her hand and the liquid disappeared and reappeared back inside the basin. "Astoria!" Tracy rushed over and helped Astoria sit up.
Astoria was shaking, badly, her eyes were blank and she was breathing heavily. "Astoria!" Tracy shouted again, shaking the girl.
"Stop." Alvar picked the cup back up and filled it up again and brought it to Astoria's lips.
"Don't! Can't you see her?" Tracy pleaded but Astoria opened her mouth willingly and Alvar tipped the cup and drained the liquid into her mouth.
Stony faced, Alvar filled up another cup and brought it over to Astoria. She flinched away. "Drink," Alvar said gently and Astoria reluctantly obeyed.
Tracy watched the proceeding with tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "Again," Alvar told Astoria.
"I don't want… no more. Make it stop!" Astoria screamed and clutched her head.
"Hold her arms down," Alvar commanded Tracy.
"I can't," Tracy said shakily.
"You don't have a choice."
Tracy gently held Astoria's arms behind her back, struggling to keep them still. "Drink," Alvar said and Astoria drank.
"Please make it stop! Never again, never again. I'll never again. Don't hurt her-" Astoria cried out.
"This will make it stop." Alvar poured another cup into her mouth.
Astoria drank it and then screamed. "Daph, no, don't. Help, Daph. Daph?"
"Only a few more Astoria," Alvar said quietly.
Astoria flung herself forward but Tracy kept a hold of her. "Please, hurry," Tracy pleaded with Alvar.
Alvar glanced over at her. The tears that had been filling her eyes had broken free and ran down her cheeks freely. "I will."
"No, no, no, no. Kill me, kill," Astoria said quietly when she saw the goblet approaching.
"Two more, I hope," Alvar said aloud as Astoria drained the glass.
Astoria shuddered and struggled against Tracy but the witch's grip was too tight. Alvar scooped up another cup full but his hand shook and most of the liquid spilt back into the basin. He looked down at his still shaking hand before he forced himself to calm down. He filled the cup once more and quickly poured it in Astoria's mouth before she could say anything more. Astoria screamed and slammed her fists onto the stone on either side of her. "The last one and it'll be all over," Alvar told her.
Astoria drank greedily from the cup before falling limp in Tracy's arms.
"Astoria?" Tracy cried out.
Alvar performed a quick diagnostic on her. "She'll be fine, but we should get her back to Hogwarts."
Astoria stirred and lifted her head up off of Tracy's chest. "Water," she said weakly.
"Auguamenti." The water filled the goblet but as Alvar passed the cup to Astoria, the water disappeared.
"Damn it, he's set up an enchantment so the only water that can be drunk in this cave is water from the lake, and if we go in there right now then we'll be surrounded," Alvar stomped in frustration.
"Get the water from the lake then!" Tracy ordered.
Alvar rushed to the water's edge and filled the cup up with icy cold water but as he pulled his hand back he could already see the inferi in motion. The water churned as they moved from the lake to the surface and then to the island. Alvar ran back over to Astoria and gave the cup to Tracy to let Astoria drink. Quickly, he ran back to the basin and grabbed the locket that lay in the bottom. Alvar turned back around to face the oncoming threat and he was shocked to see that the inferi had already reached the island and were climbing up. "Fiendfyre."
The fiendfyre formed into a great big dragon. Alvar controlled it and sent it careening into the inferi that were ahead of him. Tracy screamed and Alvar realized his mistake, the inferi would be climbing from all sides of the island. With a flick of his wrist, the Draco turned to spin around the island, leaving a path of flames in its wake. "We need to get back to the boat!" Alvar shouted but his voice was drowned out by the fiendfyre.
He walked over to Astoria and Tracy carefully, making sure that he still kept control of the fiendfyre. He grabbed Tracy's wrist and lifted her up to her feet along with Astoria. He guided them back to the boat and let them get in first before he hopped in right after. The boat began to glide smoothly across the lake and the inferi followed but returned to their resting place beneath the water's surface. Alvar kept the fiendfyre around the boat just to be safe as they crossed the waves. As they neared the entrance to the cave, Hermione rushed over to the water's edge.
"What happened out there? All we could see was the fire," Hermione said, helping Tracy out of the boat.
"We can talk about it later, right now we need to get back to Hogwarts, we have the horcrux," Alvar told her as he helped Astoria out of the boat. She seemed to be getting better but she looked exhausted.
The boat sank back into the water as they moved to the cave's entrance. Alvar cut his hand again and smeared it across the stone. "I'll help Harry when we swim, Hermione I'll need you to help Tracy with Astoria," Alvar told her.
"Alright," Hermione nodded.
Alvar picked up Harry and carried him piggyback style out of the cave. Once they reached the water Alvar let Harry down gently and helped him as they swam. Outside of the crevice, Alvar had everyone join hands. "I'll apparate us to the rock we arrived on, then we can apparate back to Hogwarts. I don't want to try to apparate to Hogwarts from here else someone might get splinched."
With a pop the group of five appeared on the large rock they arrived on and then another pop brought them back to Hogsmeade where they took the passage from Honeydukes to the one-eyed witch. As they reentered Hogwarts, Alvar immediately knew that something was wrong. All of the doors were gone, replaced with walls and a steel gate in front of where they would be. "Wands out," he whispered to the group.
"What's going on?" Tracy asked.
"I don't know, an attack on the school? In any case we need to get back to the common room with Astoria soon or she's going to be in trouble," Alvar replied.
They walked cautiously down the hall to the main stairwell. Alvar gestured to his friends to remain hidden while he checked everything out. He crept along the cold stone walls till he reached the corner. He poked his head and around the corner and saw exactly what he feared. Death Eaters in Hogwarts.