Chapter 9 – Of Rescue Missions

"Remember, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose; it matters whether I win or lose" Darrin Weinberg

The students of Hogwarts were stunned. Slimy, snarky Snape was no longer Head of Slytherin. The new Head of Slytherin was now going to be Professor Killian.

Of course many students were asking: why the change? There was no answer the question. Not that they were complaining. Snape was always blatant in his favouritism, and they knew by the way Killian treated students in her classes, that she would also be fair whilst she was the Head of Slytherin.

Potions classes were also the talk of Hogwarts. Even though Snape was the same snarky bastard he always was, he didn't take points from any of the houses. Nor, did he award any to his former house, the Slytherins, always a plus. This news made many ecstatic.

Looking towards the house point counter, the students realised that all houses were ahead of Slytherin, by more than 50 points. Just one day had made the difference, and they realised that Snape was always awarding his house points unfairly. They hoped now that all houses had an equal chance to win the house cup. After the peculiar stand still when all house points were equal, now Ravenclaw were well ahead of the other houses, whilst Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were neck and neck. The students of Hufflepuff were really happy at the turn of events and worked harder than ever to stay ahead of Slytherin.

It looked like things were looking up at Hogwarts and thing were definitely getting interesting.

Draco looked around the crowded common room. Professor Killian had left a notice on the board for all Slytherins to meet in the common room after dinner, or she'd personally track down anyone who was missing. Draco's first loyalty within Hogwarts was to Snape, who had helped Draco since he started the school. True, Severus didn't have much time in the last few years, especially since the Dark Lord came back. But Severus made time for him whenever he thought necessary; he was his godfather after all.

Although, Draco did actually like Killian. She had quickly become one of his favourite teachers, even though her lessons did make him roll about in the mud like a common muggle. But he had never felt more physically fit in years, especially when he was practicing Quidditch. He knew many other Slytherins liked Killian as well. But they were torn as to whom to support now that she's replaced Snape. Not that they liked Snape all that much. Draco knew that Snape hardly liked many of the students in his own house, but outside, to the others, he put up the charade of protecting them all. Those who didn't like Snape were glad that he was replaced. He'd be keeping an eye on them.

Draco looked around again. He knew many of the students whose loyalty lay with Snape were boycotting meeting, locked up in the dorms. Close by to get an immediate report, but absent enough to demonstrate which Head they supported.

Draco was lost in his own thoughts when he realised everyone had quietened down at the sound of the opening of the portrait. Killian walked through with the Bloody Baron, and for some reason… Peeves, floating along behind.

Peeves, though he was oddly subdued, still had a maniacal grin on his face. Killian looked around at everyone's expectant faces, occasionally her gaze resting on a particular individual. The gold gaze slowly turned silver, as it was rumoured to do when she had a vision. Her last vision had saved the Hogwarts Express. What would her vision be of this time?

Her eyes turned back to their original colour, and she spoke quietly to the ghost, and Peeves.

"Baron, Peeves, there are some students missing, hiding in their dorms. Please bring them down. And Peeves," she called back the expectant poltergeist, "there's no need to be gentle."

Peeves let out a cackle. The sound grated on Draco's nerves, and he almost felt sorry for his housemates.

They didn't have to wait long until there was a crash, and a yell, and the missing seventh years came running down, tripping over their own feet, and pushing each other in their haste to get away from the poltergeist. Killian just smirked.

They seventh year boys tripped on the last step and landed painfully on each other.

"If you had come down at the requested time then you wouldn't have been subjected to Peeves' unorthodox methods" Killian said without sympathy. She turned to address the rest of the common room. "I know most, if not all, of you are not happy with the change of Head. I don't expect you to come to me immediately with any problems you may have. But I want you to know that my door is always open. I understand that all of you have had Professor Snape as your Head since your first year, and you feel more comfortable with him. I don't think that you should stop thinking of him as your Head either. If you feel more comfortable with Professor Snape, then by all means you can talk to him instead of me.

"However, I do recommend you meet with me at least once. Just once. After that it's up to you, if you want to come to me. Just so you know, I am going to take a more active role as Head of Slytherin, and I will have regular checks. I will come unannounced to the common room, when I feel the whim, or in the words of the esteemed Professor Trelawney, whenever my Inner eye guides me," she added the last sarcastically. "So be prepared for any time I come down. I also want to meet all prefects, once every fortnight, starting Sunday evening. It may not sound like it, but I am being quite lenient. Failure to comply with my guidelines will not bring pretty results. Consider yourself warned."

"What if we don't do as you say? What can you really do?" Tyler Zachary said, one of the seventh years against Killian.

Killian turned away from the door. She looked nothing like the teacher who was ready to laugh at a good joke. She looked formidable. Her gold eyes shined, her white hair glowed. She did not look pleased. Draco almost felt sorry for them again. It didn't last long.

Killian looked at Zachary, who stood with his legs firmly apart, her arms crossed defiantly against his chest, in the eye.

Suddenly his feet left the ground by six inches, and he floated towards Killian, letting out an undignified and startled yelp.

Even though her voice was soft nobody had any trouble hearing her every word.

"I absolutely hate repeating myself, especially to imbeciles like yourself. But because you didn't make yourself listen, I am going to make myself perfectly clear," she said enunciating each word. "You will meet me once before the week is over. I will be doing regular checks in the common room, whenever I please. If I think that things aren't going my way, I will not hesitate to do anything about it. Do you understand?"

Zachary nodded; clearly alarmed at the way the teacher had so easily levitated him. Without a wand too. He was dropped to the floor, stumbling a little and straightened up quickly, trying to hold on to his dignity.

"Remember this, all of you. Sunday is your last deadline. You can come on your own, you can come in little groups, but you will come…"

With that Killian walked out without looking back, the ghost and the poltergeist floating behind, with Peeves blowing raspberries.

Over the course of the week may of the Slytherin students were seen entering Professor Killian's office. Most of the first years entered together, and many others came in groups. Draco visited Killian mid week, not to go early so he didn't seem eager and supportive, nor going too late so he was seen as defiant. So far he was neutral.

By Monday evening the Slytherins found a notice on the board. On the parchment was a list of ten names, Tyler Zachary included, who hadn't gone to Killian's office as requested. Draco scanned the list of names, and recognised some them. A few third years, one fifth year, but most were Zachary's mates.

Killian assigned detention to all students who didn't make an appointment. The detention started tomorrow, and would last all week. They were told to wait in the common room after dinner wearing their sports kit.

Draco wondered what she would make them do, if they had to wear their sports kit. He decided to be present in the common room when they came back.

That night it seemed that the whole of Slytherin were going to stay in the common room until the Killian let the others come back. Looking around he saw Blaise Zabini sitting near the fireplace, talking to his first year sister, Erica Zabini. Her friend Samantha Mitchell was also there, busy doing their homework. He saw a few seventh year girls, no doubt waiting for Zachary and his mates. Millicent Bulstrode and Pansy Parkinson were there also. A fifth year waiting for his friend to come back from Killian's detention. And most of the thirds years that stayed up out of curiosity.

By nine thirty most of the first and second years had already gone up.

It was nearly eleven thirty by the time they heard the portrait open, and most students falling asleep in their seats.

Draco heard two voices arguing.

"I don't get it Killian. What the hell could you have done that knackered them out like this?"

"I didn't do anything. These lot just don't have the stamina to do a few laps around the Quidditch pitch."

Draco saw the poor souls practically crawl through the portrait hole. He wondered how many laps Killian considered a few.

"A few laps? They can barely walk. They looked like they've been dragged backwards through the Forbidden Forest," came the incredulous male voice.

Zachary the leader of the rebellion, was limping on one foot, supported by Gallagher, and was trying to hide his winces unsuccessfully. The others supported each other, looking like they wanted to fall to heap on the floor.

Gallagher helped Zachary to a chair.

"Madam Pomfrey is on her way down to look at that foot Zachary," Killian said, propping his foot on the table in front of him. There was a strong smell of sweat and grass that overpowered anyone unlucky enough to sit near the offenders.

The unlucky ten had damp shirts that clung to their bodies, drenched in their own sweat. Their faces and necks still glistening with sweat and lined with a healthy bit of dirt, their wet hair plastered to their skulls as if they had put on too much gel. They didn't make a pretty sight.

Draco was interrupted in his observations by the arrival of the Hogwarts Matron. She took one look at the smelly sweaty students and exclaimed, "What on earth happened?"

"Take a look at Zachary first. He fell a little awkwardly on his foot. And some of them need their shoulders examining," Killian said, ignoring the question. Pomfrey took a look at Zachary first and announced, "Nothing serious. Just a cramp, but you'll need to keep off the foot for while and soak it in some hot water."

Zachary leaned back against the sofa, closing his eyes.

Pomfrey examined the rest of them and told them she'd send down the house-elves with some salve to counter the bruising on their shoulders.

She took Killian to one side and they walked in angry whispers, well Pomfrey talked in angry whispers whilst Killian nodded every do often.

With a general "goodnight" the common room, the matron walked off.

Killian ignored the glares Gallagher sent her.

"Pity," Killian sighed. "I had something planned for every night for the rest of week."

Gallagher opened his mouth, but quickly snapped it shut when she raised an eyebrow in his direction.

"The lesson may have been harsh, but I hope you've learned it. Tonight I was lenient, believe it or not. It was practically effortless compared to what I was going to have you do tomorrow. Just watch out next time you oppose me. As it is, you'll only be aching for days, as a reminder. Which is why I'll be kind and forget the rest of the week. But you will make an appointment by Friday, won't you?"

The smelly students nodded tiredly.

Killian smirked as the house elves popped I with jars of the salve sent down by Pomfrey. The house elves helped the students to their dorms, and everyone watched as they disappeared.

She told them good night and walked out.

Gallagher shook his head and snorted. "Poor sods," he said before he skipped after her.

The rest of the Slytherins looked at each other and slowly gathered up their possessions and headed up to bed for the night.

Harry and the DA were practicing hard. Harry always made it point to spend a portion of their time to review the spell they had practiced the previous week, before moving on to new ones. This helped the students who were having trouble with any particular spell catch up, in case they needed help to improve on it. Of course practicing so much also helped in Defence lessons, which earned them lots of house points. At least for those members of the DA.

And, inevitably they were worked extra hard during Killian's class, and though they were less sweaty after lesson, it made Killian feel as if they weren't working hard enough. But Harry didn't mind. For the first time he had some muscles, and it felt great every time he flexed his arms.

Neville also looked better than ever. He had lost most of his plumpness and worked out just as much as Harry, joining him for jogging every morning without complaint. Harry's morning group had also expanded. Along with Neville, and Ginny- who only joined them occasionally, the Creevey brother had also joined, when they had heard Ginny complaining about getting up so early. And to their surprise Dean Thomas had also asked to join in as well. And of course there was Luna, who always met them at the entrance, and the only student from another house who joined.

Over the last few lessons with Killian he had learned how to do gymnastic sequences, and she had hinted that they might start doing martial arts. Harry wished they would, because learning from is books was different than doing it practically. Harry had wanted to learn martial arts when he was little at the Dursley's. But they didn't want him to go wandering about. They had done a six-week course of judo during lunch times, for which he had gained a certificate and a small medal. But Dudley had snatched them off him, throwing away the certificate with his name on it, but keeping the medal and pretending it was his. Harry's skills, unused for so long were forgotten.

But Harry loved his defence lessons. They had learnt more in a few weeks than they had all of last year, not that that was saying much. And due to all the DA practices they were doing, anyone from the DA always came top in Defence.

He couldn't wait for the Hogsmeade though. He would have a bit of a break and enjoy the weekend some. He couldn't wait to taste butter-beer again. And after Halloween there was Gryffindor's first match against Slytherin. Harry snapped out of Quidditch practice when he saw Killian waiting for them outside the pitch.

"All right troops, I want you all to split into four groups," she instructed them once they had all gathered round.

Everyone automatically split into his or her House groups.

"Cute," she grinned. "How did I know you'd do that? Right! You are not going to be working in house groups. I'll divide you up a little more fairly."

She took out a little black bag and them to pick out a ribbon but not to put it on yet.

One by one they all pulled out a black ribbon, with a different animal attached to it. Harry's animal was a bronze coloured eagle made of stone. Everyone else had something different though. Ron had a black crow, Hermione had a red rooster and Neville had a white owl.

"Ok, everyone split into the group with the same animal as you."

Harry moved to the group with all the eagles. The eagle team consisted of Dean Thomas, Padma Patil, Hannah Abbott, and Harry sighed, Draco Malfoy and Millicent Bullstrode.

Across him Ron had joined the crows with Lavender Brown, Terry Boot, Susan Bones, Crabbe and Pansy Parkinson.

Hermione and the other roosters included Parvati Patil, Many Brocklehurst, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Ernie Macmillan, and Goyle.

Neville was with the owls, along with Seamus Finnegan, Lisa Turpin, Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini.

"Look at the people around you. These are the people you are going to be working with until I say otherwise. Now, before you tie the ribbons around your neck, I want you to check your animal for the green dot. One of you should have green dot on your animal, and can whoever has it step forward."

Everyone looked for the green dot on their animal. Harry found it on the head of his eagle. He put up his hand, wondering what he'd have to do.

"OK now. Come stand by me."

He walked over to her side and felt his feet leave the ground. From the gasps he heard he suspected that everyone else's did too.

She levitated them all up to the Quidditch stands and turned around to see the Quidditch pitch was no longer a Quidditch pitch.

"As you can see I have constructed a maze on the pitch," Killian explained.

The maze on the pitch was almost as big as the one for the Tri-wizard tournament had been. The hedges were thick and very tall. Harry thought there could be a fully-grown mountain troll in there and you wouldn't know until you encountered it.

"The maze is collapsible, so you will get your Quidditch pitch back. It has six entrances and exits. I have places four keys shaped like your animal. The objective is to find the key and free the prisoner. There are many enchantments and obstacles in the maze, but everything should be well within your limit. Your prisoner will be placed in the centre of the maze, locked up in a cage. You will find your key and make your way to the centre to free him. Of course you do have a time limit. Your animal will flash 3 times with 3 different colours; red, yellow and green. When your animal flashes green that is when your time is out and you have failed your objective; your prisoner is dead. Everybody get ready."

They all split into their teams and started discussing what spells they'd have to use.

"As an added incentive, whichever team wins will gain 50 house points each, and the losing team will have to do laps around the pitch for all of next lesson."

They all groaned. Harry knew that they'd all work hard to avoid that. Nobody liked doing laps around the pitch. Hermione had a determined look on her face.

Eagles

Draco entered the maze with his "team". He didn't care much for Potter. There was obviously no love lost between them. But he wouldn't mind the points. Even if he did have to share them. And he would win. He was a Malfoy, and Malfoys always won.

As he walked through the maze, he ignored everyone except Millicent. The Ravenclaw was useful, but she too much like Granger, too bossy. Still they were all useful. He let them go in front, if only because they could find the obstacles first. They walked for ten minutes before the encountered anything.

Patil saw it first.

"There!" She pointed. They all looked in the direction she was pointing. It was small, on the ground and it had many legs. They pointed their lit wands towards the ground, but the creature, whatever it was, had disappeared. They looked around on the ground and although they couldn't see the creature they could hear a strange clicking sound. It jumped down from the hedge, right in front of Millicent who screamed.

It was an acromantula. Draco felt like screaming himself. Even for a baby acromantula it was quite big. It obviously had some growing to do still but it was very fast on its many legs already. And as Draco saw the light reflecting off its pincers, they were very scary.

"Stupefy!" Thomas shouted.

The spider dodged, clicking its pincers as it crawled towards them.

"Diffindo!" he heard Abbott shout.

Together they cast any curse they could think of, but the spider just dodged, or else they curses just bounced off. Thomas finally cast a banishing charm, which made the creature fly into the hedge.

They didn't move for a while, waiting to see if it would jump down on them again. Then they heard the faint sound of its pincers, but fading away.

"Come on, we're wasting time," he said, and lead the way, turning left.

Ten minutes later, their animal flashed red. They hurried their footsteps.

Crows

Ron was uneasy. The animal had already flashed red and they hadn't even found the key yet. He wished he were on the same team as Harry and Hermione. Then the three of them could have put together a better plan, hopefully.

His face was streaked with sweat and he had mud on his hands and face, not to mention his clothes. They had been walking along the maze, more concerned with the twists and turns, forgetting about the obstacles Killian had told them about. So of course they didn't pay where they were walking, or what they were walking in. They hadn't paid attention to the odd squelching sound, not until they had heard Terry Boot and Lavender scream, that they realised they were walking near a marsh.

They spent precious minutes trying to pull them out, and in the end, not one of them escaped getting dirty. Of course Lavender and Terry were worse off, their legs covered with mud, as they had sunk in the marsh up to their waists. Ron did know one thing though; he never thought he'd be grateful to Crabbe. His brute strength did make things quicker and easier.

They turned the next corner and froze. Instantly Gilderoy Lockhart's first lesson came to mind. In front of them was nest of sleeping pixies. They were everywhere, blocking the whole about, nearly a hundred of them. Ron was right about Killian. She was a sadist.

Roosters

Hermione took a deep breath. Their roosters had just flashed yellow, which they didn't have much time left. It meant that the end was near. Hermione couldn't lose. She just couldn't. She didn't want to run laps for the whole lesson. She hated doing for even part of the lesson. Running laps didn't accomplish anything. There were no books to read, no new spells to learn. There was simply no productiveness in it.

She couldn't believe so much time had passed. And she didn't like her team members. Parvati and Mandy had spent most of their time arguing. Ernie just spewed out all the spells he had learned, pompously announcing what his tutor had taught him over summer. They hadn't encountered much yet. They had barely entered the maze when an animated hedge attacked them. They had cuts and nicks all over their arms and faces, and rips and tears all over their clothes from trying to escape. Then they had gotten lost a few times when Mandy and Parvati tried to lead the way. Parvati just wanted to get out as quickly as possible and decided to take her own turns, and Mandy kept arguing with Parvati about her selfishness.

"I mean, we could fail if we don't do this right," she kept saying. And Parvati kept complaining about the twigs and leaves in her hair, and kept stopping to take them out. That had slowed them a lot.

Hermione looked ahead. She hoped it was only her imagination, but she thought that the incredibly long pathway seemed to get darker with every step. Even their wand lights seemed dimmer.

She heard a strange sound in the distance. It sounded like a clop clopping. Like a horse. Killian couldn't have put a horse in the maze, could she? She saw a distant figure. It seemed to be walking slowly, as if it had limp. She heard Mandy whimper behind her, she turned to ask what was wrong. The clop clopping got louder. She turned back in time to see hooves about to descend on her. She screamed and ducked. She hated Killian.

Owls

Neville and the other from the team ran as fast their legs could carry. Thanks to Killian's lessons, that was quite fast. They were currently trying to battle a troll. Neville didn't know any spells to use against a troll. From the looks on his teammates faces, they didn't either. They had tried to use many spells, blasting curses, stunning curses, cutting curses. But none had worked. They all bounced off the troll, and only seemed to get it madder.

"Look!" Seamus shouted.

Neville looked in the direction he pointing at, behind the troll.

It was the owl key, dangling on the hedge behind the troll. They had to get past the troll to get to it. His heart sank. The others saw the key as well, and they tried to come up with a plan to get it. Neville teamed up with Lisa Turpin, and they volunteered to get the key. The others had to distract the troll so that it wouldn't get them whilst they went for the key. Neville wished they could have found the key near the devil's snare. It was so much easier to handle. He had tried summoning it but it wouldn't budge.

He took a deep breath and tried to dodge behind the troll with Lisa whilst the others did their job.

Harry walked into the Hospital wing with a limping Ron draped all over him. He had never seen the Infirmary so full with patients. Every bed was occupied with at least three students. He couldn't wait to get the story of what happened to everyone. He wished he could have participated a little himself. Except for what had happened at the end, he had quite enjoyed the challenges of the Tri-wizard maze.

He dumped Ron on the nearest bed, which happened to be where Neville and Hermione were sitting. Hermione had cut and nicks all over her face, and a healthy bit of mud. She was quite subdued as well. Neville had a flush to his face, and sweat pouring down his face. He had a massive black eye where he had been thumped by the devil's snare, and a large rip in his shirt where he had been hit the troll's claws. The troll had missed his skin and snagged his t-shirt instead. Other than that he was only just exhausted.

Killian entered the Hospital wing last. But before she could say anything Pomfrey started berating her immediately.

"Never, in all my years at Hogwarts have I ever had so many students in the hospital wing, as I have since you started here," she said sharply. "Such dangerous stunts. Battling trolls, and pixies and such. Do you not care for the students' safety?"

"Relax, Poppy. The students were perfectly safe. I was watching over them whenever they tripped the alarm for the enchantments. If there had been any real danger then I would have been there to help immediately."

Pomfrey harrumphed, and walked to her office to get more supplies.

Killian gave them the results. The eagles and the owls were the only ones who came come close to winning. Of course they hadn't made it before the green flash went off, but they at least retrieved the keys. The crows had found the key but hadn't been able to get anyway near the centre as they were still being chased by pixies. The eagles could have won, but they had been accosted by the acromantula they had seen at the beginning, and this time, it brought along a few friends. The roosters had never found the key. Instead they had gone past it when they were battling the boggarts.

Killian expressed her disappointment and told them that since they had all failed then they would all have to run laps for the whole of the next lesson.

"Pity, I had such a fun lesson planned for next time," she sighed.

Ignoring the glares, she walked out with an amused smile on her face. Harry settled down to listen to the stories his friends had to tell.