In hindsight, the smartest thing to do would have been to go back to Remus' and hide where Voldemort couldn't get anywhere near me. The second smartest thing would have been to at least go back and get my foci. But in the moment, I really felt like I only had a limited time advantage having figured out the plot, and I needed to hurry. It didn't help that Mathilda and several of my other friends were still at school, using the break to study.
So I went right through the floo from the Ministry to Hogsmeade with just what I had on my back. I'd at least taken a moment to warn Moody on my way out, though I didn't get the impression he was taking my wild guess completely seriously and would probably waste time going to committee with Dumbledore's crew.
Trying to capitalize on my attempt to steal a march on the Death Eaters, I slipped as quickly as possible out of the inn and down the secret tunnel in the candy shop, hoping that I was less memorable without my staff. A few minutes' crabwalk down the passage and I let myself out of the statue of the one-eyed witch right into the middle of the castle.
Moody was right, though. They really needed to close up all these tunnels out of and into the school.
I wasn't alone. Two redheads were lounging against the walls near the secret passage. "Why Mr. Dresden, fancy meeting you here." The first twin said. Normally I'd assume it was Fred, but since I was trying to be more equitable after their argument, I decided he was George.
"Indeed, indeed. Not often you see students trying to sneak into the castle on their holidays," Fred observed.
"Aren't you both supposed to be home as well? I know Percy and Ginny were on the train," I asked.
"Never," George shook his head.
"We always stay for the spring hols," Fred explained.
"Fewer people in the way of research, development, exploration, and setup," George shrugged.
"Ron and his friends are here too. To study." Fred added.
"Hermione really is too good of an influence on those boys," George grumbled.
"Anyway, that's us. So why you?" Fred grilled.
"Tell me where McGonagall is right now, and I'll explain on the way," I said.
"Probably on her way back to the head's office after lunch," George allowed, after a brief, quiet conference.
"She moved in there for the time being," Fred added.
"Let's go, then," I told them, and we started heading up to the seventh floor. "Did I tell you about Nott?" I asked them. They shook their heads and I explained, "I'm pretty sure he's the skinny Death Eater that keeps attacking me. He just got the Wizengamot to shut down the school, pretending he was upset about Dumbledore getting attacked. I think he's trying to clear the place out so Voldemort can get in."
"The wards!" Fred realized faster than George.
I nodded. "We have to warn McGonagall that they're going to try to get her out of the way too, specifically."
The seventh floor was basically as good as new when we got up there, the evidence of Dumbledore's smashed obstacles already de-transfigured and repaired, though some of the stones looked smoother and cleaner than the others if you knew what to look for. We'd taken the stairs up to Gryffindor and cut over, retracing the path of the chase in reverse. So it was surprising to see another element of it repeated: Lockhart walking up out of the central stairway (also clear of rubble) with McGonagall.
"That does seem like a good idea, Gilderoy," she was telling him. "I don't see any problems with any of the lesson ideas you've proposed so far."
I glanced up and saw that the mirrors were still in their "safe" configuration of bronze this time, at least, but I still felt like once was coincidence, but twice was enemy action. Why was Lockhart so conveniently around to put first Dumbledore and now McGonagall in danger? Surreptitiously shaking my shield bracelet out so the twins would hear it jingle, I raised my voice down the corridor, "Hope we're not interrupting?"
"Hoss!" McGonagall stopped and turned, amused to see me here, "You're supposed to be away for the holidays." She then noticed my bracelet was free, and raised an eyebrow. "This is important?"
"Mr. Nott," I stressed the name, pretty sure that Dumbledore had clued her in on my suspicions, or at least that she knew he was likely a Death Eater, "convinced the Wizengamot to shut down the school. I'm worried that there might be an ulterior motive." I shot a glance at Lockhart, deliberately not meeting his eyes as had become my habit, but definitely saw a flicker of annoyance, his face losing the unconcerned air he usually put on. I also saw a wand slipping into his hand out of his sleeve, and I yelled, "Professor! Down!"
Give the aging witch her due, she'd been in a war. She saw where I was looking and didn't just drop, but shifted into her cat form and started racing toward me. Lockhart's hissed, "Stupefy!" sent a bolt of red light careening through where she'd have been impossible to miss at that range if she was still human-sized.
"Protego!" I said, raising my shield to protect me and the twins as the animagus covered the distance. For their part, the two had their wands out and were launching their specialty "prank" jinxes back down the hallway. They weren't as immediately fight-ending as a stunner, but might as well be if you didn't know the counter. And the two were fast.
Lockhart was faster, dodging several and doing some kind of point-defense shield to deflect those that would have landed. It at least caught his attention enough that his return fire was directed at us and splashed off my shield rather than targeting McGonagall. As soon as she crossed the distance, I started falling back around the corner, shield still raised.
"Gilderoy was cleared," she complained, returning to human form around the corner.
He had been. Dumbledore had been certain of it. And maybe he was clear, originally. I realized something, details crystallizing in my mind. "Summon his hat," I whispered to her.
Wand out, she gave me a look but shrugged and incanted, "Accio Gilderoy's Hat!" He grunted in surprise from around the corner. Nobody expects them to steal your hat in a fight. The baby blue pointed hat sailed around the corner into McGonagall's hand.
I stood on my tip toes and poked my head around the corner to get a glimpse, then jerked back as his spell smashed into the corner, at head level for anyone that wasn't incredibly tall. "I assume he didn't always wear a silver circlet with a big blue stone under the hat?" I asked. I was pretty sure he didn't, because while he usually wore a hat in the first semester, he'd always worn one since the holidays.
Wait, not since the holidays: since Pince was paralyzed. What I'd assumed was a red line on her forehead from the hat could just as easily have been due to constantly wearing the bit of jewelry I'd just seen around Lockhart's head.
"I think Pince was wearing it and he must have wound up with it. It's probably mind controlling him," I explained as the four of us continued retreating down the hallway. "Fred. George. Go warn people while we hold him off," I suggested. They grunted in agreement, and dashed off.
"I need to get to the headmaster's office," McGonagall told me. "Unlike Albus, I can't control the wards from just anywhere, much less notify the aurors without the floo."
"Too risky," I disagreed with her. With Voldemort somehow controlling an already-accomplished duelist like Lockhart, I didn't expect even McGonagall to accomplish much, and my offensive options were limited. I thought about trying the libertas on him, but it seemed like a big risk at the moment, since he could start firing killing curses. And the basilisk probably wouldn't be in play until it got dark, which gave us a few hours. "The other professors?"
"Most are gone for the holiday. No one left is a skilled duelist."
"Bunker in Gryffindor and send patronuses?" I suggested. We were almost there anyway, retreating backwards down the long hallway assuming that Lockhart was pacing us. Before McGonagall could answer, I heard a faint muttering from the stairway landing that sounded like, "Hide and stop Minerva if she comes this way." I glanced that way and saw a slight flicker of motion, so I yelled, "Down! Protego!"
I got my shield up before the vial of erumpent potion hit the wall above us, debris clattering off from the smashed stone. It was loud, and my hearing was momentarily shot. Across the way, the disillusionment veil slipped off of Professor Belby, his crazy potion-spiked hair wilder than normal, or maybe it was just the glassy, confused look in his eyes. He was reaching for more potions, and also had his wand in hand. "Damocles? What are you doing?" I thought McGonagall yelled at him, though I was only guessing from context due to the ringing in my ears. She seemed totally discombobulated by the surprise assault. At least I didn't see the twins nearby, so he must have ignored them as they ran past.
"Imperius!" I shouted, needing her war reflexes to kick back in. With Belby guarding the path to the stairs and Gryffindor tower, we stood back from our defensive crouch and dashed around the corner to the right before he could take another shot. I didn't know what else he had in his potions array, and Lockhart was probably right behind.
To McGonagall's great confusion, rather than making a break for Ravenclaw, I quickly juked up and down the hallway three times, thinking we needed a place to hide. I figured Lockhart might try to double back and catch us in the hallway, and hoped he didn't know about the Room of Requirement. I could tell my hearing was coming back because she gasped and dove after me into the doorway that appeared.
We had a Voldemort-possessed self-avowed professional monster hunter and an imperiused bomber after us, true. The most combat-effective backup in immediate range was probably either of said mind-controlled teachers, sure. But at least we had… a giant warehouse room full of mazelike stacks of furniture, broken objects, and other assorted detritus?
As the door started to rattle behind us, we sprinted off into the maze to hide.
