Harry Potter
Lord of the Net
THE RETURN
Chapter 4: Battle for the Web
With a mad scream Voldemort erupted through a wall as Serene and Lunar Bard jumped into the portal, Wes, Stephen, Netsurfer, Harry, Ron and Hermione were still waiting to go when he landed right behind them. 'Move! Get into the portal!' Harry had time to shout this brief warning before a bright red spell tore apart the rock above his head and sent him flying across the small cavern. Acting with speed and quick actions rather than thinking Ron grabbed Wes and Stephen by the shoulders and pushed them through as Hermione directed a dazed Netsurfer who had been hit by a piece of the rock, they were about to run for Harry when Voldemort turned his attention to the portal behind them.
'Stupefy!' he shouted and rather than put the stunning beam into the young wizard and witch he sent it through the portal as it began to close, 'so much for your help Potter!' he shouted in his shrill voice as the beam diffused through the barrier.
* * *
'Whoooooooooaaaaaaaaaa-ooof!' exclaimed James as he rather loudly landed on top of Stephen and Wes who had just finished untangling themselves.
'I think all the bones in my body are broken,' Ashley muttered to Mark as they sat against a wall opposite the computer screen.
'I think all my broken bones are broken,' he said in return with a wry grin that swiftly faded as the screen in front of them turned a bright green, 'what the hell?!'
'It's a stunner!' Mysis shouted and tackled James as he stood up, but the others were too slow to move and the green spell enveloped them as it burst from the screen.
'Move!' Mark shouted to Ashley as it headed towards them and with a quick shove he sent her the other way as the spell hit the wall between them, leaving an ugly scar, 'ouch,' Mark said, whistling at the damage. Across the room Dumbledore was conjuring stretchers for Stephen, Wes, Katy, and Bandy [because I never gave her an actual name]. As he did this a dazed Beverly stumbled in from outside the room supporting Beth who had come flying out the screen and sent the both of them cart-wheeling into the hall. As Mark returned to his sitting position he looked back at the screen where the portal in the eye had now sealed itself up, 'um…where's Harry?'
'Go to the hospital wing,' Dumbledore muttered as the lead stretcher began to slowly move out of the room and was swiftly followed by the others, 'it appears Harry and his friends didn't make this trip, and now they're in trouble, I doubt it was them who sent that Stunning Jinx through the portal.'
'You're right,' James replied as he and Mysis picked themselves up, 'it was Voldemort, he arrived before me and Wes and Steve came through, I don't…know…what–' but the computer made him stop. The high pitched whining had suddenly stopped, it had been a startling presence for a while but only now did they all notice it's absence.
'That can't be good,' Ashley said as the monitor suddenly flashed out with a small 'blip'.
'Mysis?' Dumbledore questioned his Professor.
'I can run a computer Dumbledore, I can't fix it!' she replied with a tremor of fear in her voice.
'Good job we can,' mark said and dove under the desk where he found the mess of wires and cables that did not look good, 'I could use some help here guys…' and soon the remaining five of The Eight were at work on the silent machine.
'Hurry,' Dumbledore muttered to himself, 'hurry before it's too late.'
* * *
'Hermione,' Ron breathed as Voldemort stared at the closing portal.
'What?' she breathed back.
'RUN!' and with a burst of speed Ron sprinted across the cave grabbed Harry's body and tumbled into a handy crevasse as another of the red spells shattered the rock face above him. Distracted by this Voldemort missed Hermione run the opposite way, and back through the rock face he had emerged from earlier. 'Wake up Harry,' Ron muttered as small rocks began to shower down on him as Voldemort destroyed more and more of the cliff face above them, 'stop playing around and WAKE UP!' Ron shouted the last bit as a great cloud of dust envelope him and Harry as a giant rock tumbled to the floor beside them.
'Expelliarmus!' Harry shouted waving his wand wildly and Ron ducked the beam that shot out as his friend suddenly regained consciousness, but looking over his shoulder he saw another boulder shatter as the beam hit it, maybe it hadn't been a random wave.
'Nice shot!' he said to Harry who had moved to a sitting position as another dust cloud covered them.
'Compliment later,' Harry replied, giving Ron a quick shove out of the crevasse, 'run now!'
'Good idea,' and with a burst of speed the two wizards ran out of the crevasse as another large boulder smashed into the spot where they had been sitting a few seconds before.
'I see you Potter!' came a mad scream and diving to the floor Harry narrowly missed a green spell that wove a wild path through the dusty air, 'you and Weasley cannot hope to hide from me!'
* * *
'Move that connector to this port!'
'And…?'
'And what?'
'Well it needs to be plugged into something.'
'What do you think the damned port is for?!'
'I've got the monitor back!'
'Perfect, now I can see the code I have to break, fun guessing wasn't it though?'
'Yeah, fun like you mum cutting your hair, isn't that an reducing algorithm pattern?'
'Could be…'
'Hey! Where's the monitor gone?'
'Sorry! Sorry!'
'Back to guess work, at least we know what algorithm.'
'There's another end on this connector – where's that supposed to go – the same port?'
'No! This end to the port, that end to the thingummy!'
'Thingummy?!'
'Yeah!'
'Real technical conversation there guys.'
'Hey, you worry about the monitor and we'll do this our way – not that way!'
'You said thingummy and that's the flipping thingummy!'
'Monitor up!'
'Yes!'
'Monitor down!'
'No!'
'I think I've got the code sequence.'
'Good, now if I could see the entry log…'
'Turn the brightness up to max!'
'What good is that if the monitors gone?!'
'I don't know, but it can't hurt!'
'Okay, okay!'
'HEY, WHERE'S THE BLOODY POWER GONE?!'
'Turn it down! Turn it down!'
'The whole monitors wired up backwards!'
'Has anyone tried hitting it?'
* * *
With a thump the cavern Hermione had entered shook violently, but no more rocks fell and soon the witch found what she was looking for, Voldemort's lair, cut away into the wall of the cavern, surely this would tell her how to get out? Gingerly moving forward she stopped when two familiar yells reached her ears, turning round she was in time to see a massive cloud of dust explode through the wall she had come through, with Ron and Harry being ejected from it's body. 'Nice to see you,' she said as they landed at her feet.
'To see you nice,' said Harry, remembering the catchphrase from the little TV he watched at the Dursleys.
'I've found his lair.'
'Great,' Ron said as he lifted himself up, 'does it have any instructions on how to get out of here?'
'I don't know, I was just about to look when you two made a grand entrance.'
'Well hadn't you better start looking?'
'Well I will if you shut up!'
'QUIET!' Harry shouted before the two began a bickering match, 'lets just go and look before he gets here, huh?'
'Ok,' the duo replied quietly and moving quickly they found the entrance to a smaller cavern that led off from the main system of caves.
'Wow…' Harry whispered as they entered, the place was like, 'wow.'
'I've never seen so many computers,' Ron muttered, 'it must have been a Muggle place before he took it over.'
'It's like a mission-control base for a space program,' Hermione replied by way of agreeing.
'Or an evil megalomaniac control program,' Harry added as he noted the Dark Mark that appeared on most of the screens.
'Hey look!' Ron's sudden shout made Harry jump a bit but he went over to the screen that Ron had found, it was like a picture of the room outside the computer.
'This must be where Voldemort launched his curse from,' Hermione said to Ron while Harry continued to study the screen.
'It can't be, otherwise Mysis would have told us about all the computers,' Ron replied, 'this is something else.'
'I don't like they way he said that,' Harry muttered as he studied the screen, 'come on guys, what in the hell is going on out there?' but all further thought was stopped in Harry's head when a mad screaming suddenly echoed into the room, it looked like the battle for the web was on again…
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A/N: So kinda YAY! It isn't the final chapter, but kinda BOO! Is that things do not look good for the good guys, and I hope I got all the terminology right and you'll notice I didn't put names by the frantic fixing sequence. This was for two reasons: 1) some of you 'involved' may actually know how to fix a computer and 2) it's more fun. I hope you enjoyed this…but what happens next? [and possibly last?]