Harry Potter and the Prism of Light

by Leaky Cauldron

Harry is in his fifth year. Strange things begin happening to Harry and his friends and enemies - no Snape, a mysterious curse, and a too-strong spell are just some of the strange things. Eventually the pieces of the puzzle come together to form... the

4. Chapter Four

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling and Scholastic own the characters and settings and all that. I just own what I made up.

A/N: Okay, this chapter is where the story starts to get interesting (even though it doesn't seem like it at first). I actually wrote most of this chapter before anything else in this story; it was the first idea that came to me. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I'm really grateful! Everyone - please review! Even if you only review one chapter, that's enough for me! Thanks so much for reading and reviewing (hopefully). Enjoy the chapter!

Harry Potter and the Prism of Light

Chapter Four

The next day was the day of the wizarding carnival. Everyone in the school, including all of the teachers, was going. When they arrived at Hogsmeade, it was bustling with people.

The carnival was to take place in the town square. It was dusk, and the sun setting across town left a rosy glow on Hogsmeade. An enormous white and gold arch read "Dimple and Hither Wizarding Carnival" in large letters. Once inside the arch, Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked around in awe. Large booths with tent like, multi-colored roofs were lined up in rows. In the booths, food and souvenirs were sold, games were played, and people entertained the wizards and witches.

One booth made Harry laugh. At a Muggle carnival, there would be a magician, doing fake magic tricks. At this wizarding carnival, there was a "Muggle" (really a wizard), who showed people how to do Muggle things - boil water, turn on a lamp, use a hammer, and many other things that Muggles (and Harry) found simple.

Another booth housed "Miwdappler's Treats". There, he and his friends enjoyed candy, butterbeer, and a warm, sweet, doughnut-type food filled with anything imaginable - ice cream, chocolate, crushed peppermints, caramel, peanuts, and practically anything else you wanted - called a Delectable.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione also played a game called "Wendy's Water Blast". It was much like a game played by Muggles. Players stood behind a waist-high barrier. House elves stood inside the barrier on a long white table with their mouths open. When the operator of the game let out a burst of sparks, you began shooting water out of your wand and into the mouth of the house elf in front of you. Once the elf's mouth was full, it spit the water into a bucket. Whoever filled their bucket first won the game. The catch was that, if you hit the elf somewhere other than its mouth, it spit the water into someone else's bucket.

Harry and Ron played the game along with Professor Sprout and a sixth year Ravenclaw. Hermione refused to play, since she was a supporter of house elves' rights, but watched and cheered Harry and Ron on. Ron won (his prize was a fake wand with a very familiar logo on the side - the logo for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It seemed that Fred and George were supplying the prizes for the carnival); it seemed that his house elf had the largest mouth, and therefore the easiest target.

While at one of the booths that sold things, Hermione bought a book (naturally). It didn't seem particularly interesting to Harry; it was actually very old. The brown leather cover was worn, ripped, and peeling. The faded title read "The Prism of Light".

After spending hours enjoying the festivities, it was time to go back to Hogwarts. Exhausted, Harry collapsed into bed and fell asleep, a content smile on his face.

***

After vacation, the teachers really started to pile on the work. Harry, Ron, and Hermione also were working hard preparing for their OWLs, which would be taken in late May. Before they knew it, it was late February, and it was cold and blustery. Little did they know exactly how cold it would get.

***

Harry awoke one Saturday morning with a start. He kept his eyes shut tightly; it seemed far too early to be waking up on a Saturday, but something seemed wrong. He fumbled for his glasses on his night table, and they felt cold; this wasn't anything strange, since it was frigid in the castle in winter, but Harry had a strange feeling in his stomach.

Harry put his glasses on and blinked. "What in the world is this?" he said to himself, surprised. The red drapes that surrounded his bed were encased in a thick, solid layer of... glass? The drapes were frozen in the position Harry had left them in the night before, but they were covered with a clear, bluish tinted layer of... something, that was at least two-inches thick. Harry touched it and tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge.

Harry rubbed his eyes. "This can't be right," he murmured.

When he looked back again, the strange substance was still there. Harry slipped out the narrow gap he had left in the drapes the night before, and stepped onto the carpet. But it wasn't carpet. It, too, was covered in a thick layer of glassy matter. Looking around the room, Harry saw that everything there- except for his own belongings, and Ron's- was also enclosed in the shiny substance.

Harry rushed over to Dean's bed on his own bed's left. Visible through a gap in the drapes was Dean, still asleep- but he too, was encased in whatever the stuff was. Harry tried to wake him up, but his efforts were in vain, and it seemed that the substance put him in some sort of coma, or something like that.

A feeling of panic was beginning to overwhelm Harry, and he checked the other boys' beds. He couldn't stop thinking that maybe, just maybe, Voldemort had finally come to kill him. Harry checked all the beds, and everyone was barricaded in the glassy substance like Dean, except-

"Ron," Harry said, breathing a sigh of relief. Ron was sleeping peacefully, but he wasn't imprisoned in glassiness like everyone else was. Harry woke him and quickly explained everything he knew so far, and Ron, eyes wide, got out of bed to explore the room for himself.

Harry had his eyes closed and was thinking about the situation when he heard Ron's sharp intake of breath.

"Harry- look," Ron said, pointing out the window, his face as pale as Nearly Headless Nick's.

Having an idea of what he was about to see, Harry walked over to the window. The entire grounds of Hogwarts, from the Forbidden Forest to the Quidditch hoops to Hagrid's cabin, was trapped in the clear stuff.

"M-maybe someone else is awake. M-maybe we can find Dumbledore or someone who can tell us what's going on around here," Ron said, his voice shaking. Harry hoped that everyone else in the castle wasn't like the boys in the fifth years' dorm.

"I hope so," Harry said. "Let's go down to the common room. If anyone from Gryffindor is awake, they'll most likely go down there."

The two boys grabbed their wands, slipped on their sneakers and, too hurried to change out of their pajamas, went down to the common room (it seemed that, though covered with at least two inches of a solid substance, doors still opened). It was in the same state as the dormitory, but there were three things in the room that surprised them.

"Hermione, Ginny, Aurora!" Ron exclaimed. The three girls were standing in the room, looking around worriedly, until Ron shouted this and they spotted him.

Their faces flooded with relief as they saw Ron and Harry. "Oh, I'm so happy!" Hermione said, running over to hug the two boys tightly. "I thought we were the only ones in the whole school that were unfrozen!"

"D'you think there are any other Gryffindors who are awake?" Harry asked anxiously.

"No," Aurora said sharply, staring at the ground, shaking her head slowly. "They would've come down by now."

"Shall we look around the rest of the school and see if anyone else is awake?" Ginny said in a hushed voice, speaking for the first time.

"Yes, that seems like the best thing to do. And, it'll be all right, Ginny, don't worry," Harry said. He could tell that she was terrified; she looked close to tears.

The five Gryffindors went out the portrait hole, making sure to leave it open so they could go back in if they needed to (the Fat Lady was frozen in her painting).

"Hello?" they shouted, going through the halls. "Is anyone awake?"

They reached the Great Hall. "Wow," said Hermione. The entire room was encased in whatever the mysterious stuff was, just like the rest of the school, and it made a spectacular sight.

"I reckon that no one else is awake," Ron said glumly.

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong," said a nasty voice behind them. They quickly turned around to see Draco Malfoy standing there.

"Draco!" Aurora said, glad, for once, to see her brother.

Malfoy, as always, tried to be cold and distant, but Harry could tell he was relieved by the look on his face. "Oh, it figures you would be the only other people awake. Anyway, I heard you shouting and followed your voices. I hadn't thought anyone else was awake."

"Well, I don't think anyone else is," Harry said.

"Oh, yes, and Potter's always right in what he thinks, so let's all listen to him," Malfoy said sarcastically.

"Come on, we have to work together," Ginny said, looking around at everyone, "if we want to fix this... problem... spell... curse... whatever it is."

"I'm not sure what it is," Hermione said uncertainly.

"Well, that's a first!" Malfoy said. Aurora elbowed him in the stomach.

"I... I think it's glass. Do you think maybe the person who did this used a Glass-Confining Charm on the school?" Harry said.

Malfoy rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Not glass, Potter. The spell that did this was not the Glass-Confining Charm. It was the Glacialis Mundus Curse."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Oh! I've... I've heard of that spell...," she muttered, closing her eyes to think. A few moments later, her eyes snapped open. "I remember now! Oh, no... that means... oh, this is bad... very, very bad..."

"STOP saying that this is bad!" Ron said. "You're not helping my nerves!"

Hermione looked up and around at the others. "All right, I'll explain it to you. We haven't learned about the Glacialis Mundus Curse yet, that's why you haven't heard of it in school. And it's a very rarely used spell, so you normally wouldn't hear anyone talk about it outside of school, either. Malfoy, I don't know how you knew what it was. But why did someone use this spell in the first place? And why... why not us? Why didn't it affect us?" she said, becoming lost in thought again.

"Hermione, can you just tell us what the spell DOES, and how we can change everything back to normal?" Harry said, exasperated.

Hermione looked up at them slowly, biting her lip, and hesitantly answered, "This stuff isn't glass, Harry, like you thought. It's ice. Whoever cast this spell turned Hogwarts into ice. And I don't know how to change it back."

Ron's eyes widened and he looked back at Hermione skeptically. "Okay, that's impossible for one reason. That reason is that even if this is the Glacialis Mundus Curse, or whatever you said it was, you HAVE TO KNOW THE COUNTERCURSE! YOU'RE HERMIONE GRANGER, AFTER ALL!"

Hermione glared at him and turned to Malfoy. "How did you know that it was the Glacialis Mundus Curse? I wouldn't have expected you to know that curse," she said.

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "I've got more brains than you think. And, anyway, my dad taught it to me a few summers ago."

"Oh, so it's Dark magic," Ron said coldly.

Malfoy snapped back, "Weasley, take that comment back or I'll shove it up your-"

"Ron! Draco!" Ginny shouted.

The other three children, who had all been watching Ron and Malfoy with great interest, along with Ron and Malfoy themselves, stopped abruptly and turned to look at Ginny. It was a quite rare occurrence for her to raise her voice, as she was usually very shy and quiet.

Now that she had their attention, Ginny lowered her voice back to normal. "If we want to unfreeze Hogwarts, we've got to work together, otherwise we'll get nothing done. And that means we've got to stop arguing, and start thinking."

"Ginny's right," Harry said quietly.

Ginny blushed, since she had always had a bit of a crush on Harry, and looked down at her feet bashfully.

"Yes, we do have to work together," Aurora agreed. Hermione nodded, and Ron and Malfoy didn't look too happy, but said nothing.

"Ginny, why don't you tell us what to do?" Hermione suggested.

Ginny's eyes widened. "Oh- I- well, all right. Um, first off, anyone who knows anything about this Glacialis Mundus Curse, tell us what you know."

Hermione frowned. "All I know is that Glacialis Mundus is a curse, a Dark Arts curse." She glanced at Malfoy and Ron. Ron was defiantly staring at Malfoy, who had his arms crossed and was glaring back at him. She continued, "It is used to freeze all the objects and people in an area. Long ago, Dark wizards used it to freeze an area and kidnap or steal someone or something they wanted. They simply froze the area that whatever they wanted was in using the curse, found what they wanted, and took it. I remember reading about a countercurse somewhere, but I can't remember what it was, or even where I read it!"

"All right, now, Draco, could you please tell us what you know?" Ginny asked.

Draco thought for a moment, then nodded. "I suppose I'll have to work with you if I went everything back to normal, so here goes. Hermione was right about everything. Yes, I'll admit, it is a Dark curse, but come on, I come from a Dark family, and you know that. The curse is complicated, and, in order to freeze all of Hogwarts, at least ten wizards would've been needed. Depending on if they froze Hogsmeade, too, more could've possibly been needed. Whatever they came here for must be pretty important to them to go to all this trouble. You say 'glacias' and whatever you want frozen while you are on the grounds. I won't use my wand, but this is what I'd do if I wanted, say, this room, the Great Hall, frozen. I'd say 'glacias Great Hall ', and that'd be it. But you need a great deal of concentration, power, and practice."

"Do you know anything else? Like the countercurse?" Ginny asked hopefully.

"No."

"Do either of you know if the people who perform the curse are frozen, too?" Ginny asked.

"They're not," said Draco. "It has no effect on them."

"Speaking of effects, will this spell affect anyone frozen in it? Does- does it hurt them? Or... worse?" Ginny asked worriedly.

"No, it won't hurt them," Malfoy said. Harry could've sworn he saw a glimmer of a smile on Malfoy's face, but it could've just been his imagination.

"Will it hurt us?" Ron asked.

"No," Draco said.

Harry suddenly noticed something. "Er, Draco, I think you're wrong," he said faintly, staring at his watch. The other five children peered at it. The single, gold hand was pointing to "In Mortal Danger".

"What could we be in danger of?" Ginny asked worriedly.

Just then, they heard the doors to the school open and a voice speaking. A very familiar voice.

"Master, the plan is going quite well, all thanks to you, of course," a squeaky voice said.

"Peter Pettigrew. Wormtail," Harry whispered. All six children stood against the door, listening, holding their breath.

"Of course it is. Now, we must find the Potter boy and get him out," a loud, cold voice said. Harry felt a jet of pain in his scar, slid to the floor, clutching his forehead in agony.

"Voldemort," Harry told the other children in horror.

"Yes, Master," Wormtail said. Harry heard one set of footsteps fading up the stairs. He assumed that Wormtail had gone to retrieve him, and Voldemort remained just a doorway away from them.

Harry looked at his friends. Ron was pale, eyes wide, looking around the room, terrified. Aurora was biting her nails, her eyes filled with worry, clenching her fists in fear. Hermione, of course, was scared, but was patting Ginny's back, trying to calm her down. Ginny was completely petrified; she was crying silently, rivers of tears trickling down her face. Malfoy, for once, looked nervous. His eyes were wide and he held his wand tightly, ready to attack.

Voldemort began speaking again. "Oh, this plan is working out perfectly." He laughed, and it sent shivers up Harry's spine. Voldemort's laugh sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

Harry heard another voice - the voice of Lucius Malfoy. "Master, this plan is brilliant!" he exclaimed.

"I know," Voldemort said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to pay a little visit to old Dumbledore," he said, laughing cruelly. "Stand guard here; make sure that everything goes according to plan."

Ginny gasped, and Ron clapped a hand over her mouth.

Hermione took charge. "Look, if we want to save Dumbledore and the school, we've got to act, and we've got to act fast."

She stopped because she was staring transfixed at a window. The bright light poured in, but it was in a strange shape - a triangle, or more like a prism.

"That's it," she whispered. "The Prism of Light. That's where I read about Glacialis Mundus!"

"It is?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded. "Yes. Have you heard of the Prism of Light?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Well, there's no time to explain it, but anyway, in the book, there was a list of spells, and Glacialis Mundus was one of them. That's where I read the countercurse! We've got to get to that book. Oh, I hope it's not frozen shut!" Hermione said frantically in a low voice.

A plan formed quickly in Harry's mind. "All right, I've got a plan. Hermione - you, Aurora, and Draco go find the book and the countercurse. Ron, Ginny, and I will stay here and do the rest."

"I think Ginny should go with Hermione to get the book. It sounds a lot less dangerous than whatever you're planning on having her doing, and she's terrified. I doubt she'd be strong enough to do any fighting or whatever you're doing," Aurora said.

Harry sighed. "Well, the reason I want you and Draco to go with Hermione is because I don't think you'll want to do what we have to."

"What is it?" Draco asked. "I'd probably handle it better than you can!"

Harry looked back and forth between Draco and Aurora. "We need to Stun your dad."

Aurora looked worriedly at her brother, who looked back, biting his lip thoughtfully. They turned toward Harry, seeming to reach a decision telepathically.

"We're both coming with you," Draco said determinedly.

"Yes," Aurora said. "Hermione, Ginny, and Ron can go to get the book. That way, at least Hermione and Ron will be able to fend off Wormtail for a little while. If they do get in trouble, they can make something explode. We'll hear it and come save them, hopefully."

Harry nodded. "If you want."

Everyone looked at each other.

Harry spoke quickly and quietly. "You three going to get the book go out the back door of the Hall and sneak up the stairs by the North Tower. You can get to Gryffindor Tower that way, and you'll avoid Lucius Malfoy. You might come across Wormtail though, and I doubt he'll be happy. After all, I'm not up there, and I'm what he's looking for. Aurora, Draco, and I will stun Lucius and go to Dumbledore. Voldemort's probably going to kill him, and we can't let that happen. Voldemort'll run into some trouble figuring out the password to Dumbledore's office, so that'll give us some extra time, but we've got to hurry. Let's go."

Ron, Ginny, and Hermione headed toward the Hall's back door, walking briskly. Harry turned to the two Malfoy children. "Ready?" he said. They nodded silently.

Draco threw open the doors out of the Great Hall. Lucius Malfoy turned sharply from his perch on a step of the stairs.

"Draco? Aurora? Potter?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"Father," Draco said. "I just want you to know that I'm not sorry for what we're about to do."

"STUPEFY!" Harry, Draco, and Aurora yelled in unison, pointing at Lucius. He dropped to the hard stone floor, Stunned.

"Does this mean you're not a Dark wizard?" Harry asked Draco as they ran through the halls to Dumbledore's office.

Draco answered only when they arrived at the entrance to Dumbledore's office. "Obviously, Potter. But it doesn't mean that I like you any more than before," he said dryly.

"Voldemort's not here," Harry said. "He must've already found a way into the office."

"But he was careless," Aurora said, gesturing at the gargoyle that guarded the entrance. It seemed that Voldemort had left it wide open; they wouldn't need to figure out the password.

"We don't have much time," Harry said. "Let's go."

They hurried up the staircase and arrived at the door that was the entrance to the office itself. It was wide open, but swinging; it seemed that Voldemort was just ahead of them.

They raced into the room and looked around. Nothing suspicious was there (except the ice, of course; even Fawkes the phoenix was frozen), so they peeked through the only other door in the room, which was ajar.

They saw Voldemort, with his pale white skin, tall, thin figure, snake-type nose, and scarlet slits for eyes. He was leaning over a bed in which Dumbledore lay, but he turned quickly when they entered the room. He looked mildly surprised.

"Of course," he said scathingly. "Potter." He looked at Aurora and Draco. "And the two Malfoy children. Well, well, well. How kind of you to join me."

"Expelleramius!" Harry yelled.

"Crucio!" Voldemort shouted. Harry dodged the spell.

Around him, Aurora and Draco were also shooting spells at Voldemort. Great bursts of light flashed around the room, and Harry could hardly think, everything was going so quickly. He fired spell after spell at Voldemort, but nothing seemed to work.

Harry was becoming frustrated. He shouted one last spell at Voldemort, but his voice was joined by five more. "STUPEFY!" he, Aurora, Draco, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny shouted together.

A blinding white light flashed, and when it faded, Voldemort lay on the floor, his eyes closed. He was Stunned.

Everyone was quiet. Harry broke the silence. "I didn't see you come in," he said to Hermione, Ron, and Ginny.

"We found the countercurse," Hermione said weakly, staring at Voldemort.

"Well? Let's say it, then!" Draco said impatiently.

"How did we do it?" Hermione asked softly.

Harry looked at Voldemort. "I don't know," he said.

"What do you mean?" Draco asked. "We all said 'Stupefy' and he was Stunned. That's it."

"No, it can't be. You-Know-Who - oh, well, Voldemort, he's right in front of us, it can't hurt to say the name - is too strong. He's not human. Six teenagers can't just Stupefy him," Hermione said.

"Well, whatever it is, let's just unfreeze this place and let Dumbledore take care of it," Ginny said, shivering. The ice was making the school colder every second.

"There are still more Death Eaters outside, aren't there?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged. "I doubt it. Voldemort probably told them to flee once the spell was performed."

"Well, let's perform the countercurse, shall we?" Aurora asked.

Hermione nodded. "The word you have to say is 'Tabidus'. Ready?"

Everyone nodded. "One, two three!"

"TABIDUS!"

Before their very eyes, the ice melted away (it didn't, however, turn into water and cause a flood; instead, it simply disappeared).

Dumbledore stirred and woke up. He stared at the six teenagers with questioning eyes, and they went into his office to sit down. They filled him in on the whole story.

"Where did you find the countercurse?" Dumbledore asked when they were finished.

"Oh, I found it in a book," Hermione said.

"May I see this book?" Dumbledore asked.

Hermione nodded and gave him the book.

"The Prism of Light," Dumbledore said. "I was suspicious of this…" he trailed off. He looked up. "Go get Professors McGonagall and Figg. Bring them here."

When McGonagall and Figg arrived, they were out of breath from hurrying. They were told about the story, and Dumbledore showed them the book.

McGonagall gasped. "You don't think... not them!"

Dumbledore nodded. "I think so."

She looked at the six teenagers in awe. "Of course," she said. "It makes so much sense."

Figg nodded. "Yes, of course! Why didn't we think of this before!"

"Think of what, precisely?" Aurora said, jumping into the conversation.

Dumbledore looked at each of them carefully. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, Miss Malfoy, and Miss Weasley, this is something very important. We are not positive of this, but it seems logical."

"What seems logical?" Hermione asked.

Dumbledore hesitated before going on. "You are the Prism of Light."

A/N: Oooh, cliffhanger! What is the Prism of Light? That will be revealed in the next chapter! Please review, and thanks for reading!