Chapter 7 – The Comercian Portal
After the confirmation of the save, all of them pre pared accordingly. One problem they had was keeping up in their schoolwork. It seemed to be getting harder and they were being left behind. Professor McGonagall almost called Madam Pomfrey when neither Hermione nor Andrea answered a single question in their next Transfiguration lesson; Neville answered them all. Harry and Ron also were in active in classes.
"Now, let's see," said Snape at the next Potions lesson, "How many times do you grind a litilce leaf before placing it in the Condinal potion, Potter?" Harry, who didn't have the slightest idea what a litilce leaf was, acted like he was thinking. Then he heard a faint "6" from behind him. He thought it was Hermione so he looked behind him. She was no where behind him at all. Then he heard the faint "6" again. Could it be, Harry thought. He saw behind him Draco Malfoy. When Draco saw him, he winked and turned away.
Harry turned around and said questionably, "Six." Snape's smile faded and he said, "Correct, but 10 house points from Gryffindor for cheating. I know I heard someone whisper."
As the days went on, getting ready got more and more important. Harry and Ron had been packing a pack with things they thought they would need.
"Hmm…let me check," Harry said as they packed on Wednesday night. "Invisibility cloak…check. Marauders map…check. Lie-Detector Quill…"
"Lie-Detector Quill??" Ron asked. He was still suspicious about it. It seemed to be as good as the Pocket Sneakoscope he gave him. "Why would you bring that?"
"I don't know. It just feels like I might need it. Here it is," Harry said as he picked it up out of his trunk and put in the pack. At the peak of the night, they finally finished. As they put the stuff away, the door to their dormitory opened.
"Potter, Weasley," said Professor McGonagall sleepily, "What are you doing at this late hour?"
"Oh just some…extra curricular work for some house points," Ron thought up.
"Well, you should stop it now. It is awfully late, so off to bed you go. Go on, now," McGonagall said and no sooner was it said than done.
Saturday was getting ever closer and everyone had reported that they were ready. All they had to do now was wait, wait for the time to come that they make their move. On Friday, they met in an empty room to plan out the strategy.
"OK, everyone," Harry said to them all, "Tomorrow night is the night we make our move. All we know so far about what we are doing is that we are facing some Death Eaters and trying to save Dumbledore and Sirius." Andrea raised her hand as if in a class.
"Andrea, this isn't a class. You don't have to raise your hand to be acknowledged," Harry said casually.
"Oh, sorry," she said and started, "I'm starting to get scared. I mean, we are trying, and I emphasize trying, to go up against people who have been accepted to this project by You-Know-Who. Who knows if we could ever rise up to their powers. We don't know what they are capable of."
"I agree," said Hermione, "Those are Death Eaters. They could be trained far, far beyond our capabilities. They could take us all out in one blow."
"But that's not the point," Harry said, "The point is if we don't even try to stop them, You-Know-Who could take over anything and everything he wants. That forbidden gem could make sure that no one in the world would be safe. It could also make sure that everyone and everything that disagrees with him…dies." That comment made a further blow into their minds. Could You-Know-Who kill with a snap of his fingers? Could he be the overlord of everything?
"I'm with you all the way, Harry," Ron said to break the silence. Ron's tone of voice sounded like the comment hit him harder than the others. Andrea still didn't seem convinced, but she still was terrified by the thought of everything gone.
"I still am doubtful. I really believe in what you are saying and all, it just that I don't see how we could beat the Death Eaters. It just…" Andrea said but didn't finish. She had her mouth open for a while thinking of something that would help her. After a minute she closed her mouth and shook her head.
"Andrea, do you know who the first You-Know-Who would kill if he got to power?" Harry asked.
"No, who?"
"Me."
"What! You are the first on his list!"
"He has been ever since Harry didn't die the first time he did the Avada Kedavra spell on Harry and something happened," Malfoy piped up.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that Harry was the only person that ever lived after being hit by the killing curse. That's why You-Know-Who wants to kill him so much." Andrea was speechless after that. She looked at Harry for approval of the story, in which he gave her a slight nod without looking at her. She looked disgusted at herself. There she was saying it wasn't a good idea to go and fight the Death Eaters; yet if they didn't fight them at all, Harry would be dead, killed by You-Know-Who. It made her sick to her stomach.
"Are you okay, Andrea," Hermione asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. And I'm in for tomorrow, definitely."
"Great," said Harry and they started planning the course for tomorrow night.
The next day was very hectic. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Andrea re-reviewed the course for the night just to make sure that they knew what they were to do at the Gryffindor table during breakfast. The day passed fast and the tension was growing as it neared the time to go. The patience of them all was quite overwhelming. At noon, Harry and Ron went to the bathroom.
"The plan you came up with does sound possible…" Ron said.
"But…" Harry said.
"…but I am still worried about if we can do this," Ron continued.
"You don't have to be, I hope," Harry said.
"You hope?"
"Yeah. I hope. You guys aren't all wrong. Something may come up."
"At least you can see our side. That's a good sign."
"We'll need to have a lot more good signs than that for what we want to do."
The rest of the day was filled with work, work and a pop quiz from Snape that Harry knew he failed. The time had finally come at 7:30. The darkness of the hallways seemed to engulf them. They were first to go to the empty room to meet up with Malfoy and review. When they got there, Malfoy had been standing outside of the door with his ear to it.
Harry came over and tried to say "What are you doing?" but Malfoy clamped his hand on his mouth first. Malfoy them put one finger to his mouth and ushered the others to come over to listen.
"Hey, Marcus," said the same first voice from before. "Did you just hear something?"
"No," said Marcus, the obvious second voice from before. "Your mind must be playing tricks on you, Luke. Especially because we are finally going to get this done. I must say that I'm excited, too."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Well, there is no time like the present. Our Lord is waiting, you know."
"Yes, I do believe it is time." At that, they went out of the door. Luke stopped for a second to look behind him. He saw nothing down the hallway except for the glimmering statue of Rosalyn a few feet down it.
"Come on, Luke. We don't have all night," Marcus called and Luke turned back around and ran up to an annoyed Marcus. Once they were all around the corner, a large exhale was done by the courageous five. They then stepped from behind the statue.
"Thanks, Rosie," Ron said with a kiss to her cheek.
"Anytime, Ron," said the blushing statue. "I'm always happy to help someone who enjoys polishing me."
"All right," said Harry, "It's now or never." The fearful rest of them nodded their heads and stealthily followed Harry as they followed the two Death Eaters. The many hallways that they used went winding up and down until Marcus and Luke were around a corner away from Dumbledore's office. Luke pulled out his wand and said some garbled up words. He then pointed his wand at the already suspecting Remus as a wolf. Once Remus saw the person he ran toward him. Suddenly, a dark purple light flew out of Luke's wand and hit Remus. Remus then just stopped. He growled at Luke and Marcus, but could not move as they passed.
They then went up to the statue of the gargoyle. Marcus put his hand on it and also said some garbled up words. The door then opened. They went inside with smiles on their faces. Harry and the gang then went up to the open passageway.
"Here we go," Harry whispered and waved at Remus on the way in. Remus tried to move to stop them, but couldn't. They crept down the large, damp stairway until they got almost to the end. All of them pulled out their wands and listened. Luke and Marcus just stood there.
"Wake up, Dumbledore," said Marcus. Dumbledore and Sirius as a dog awoke from their slumber. Dumbledore looked relevantly cranky.
"Where did you come from? How did you get in here? Why are you here? I need answers right now, young man," Dumbledore shouted.
"There is no time for that now, old man," Luke said. Dumbledore tried to pull out his wand, but Luke had been quicker to it before Dumbledore had awakened.
"Lord Voldemort would like you to come join him and his circle of friends," Marcus said. With a quick hand movement, Marcus threw something that looked like a pill.
"No. No! You can't do this," Dumbledore said. Before he could do a thing, the tiny capsule opened. Out of it came what looked like a large abyss of color. Harry had never seen anything like it in his life. Suddenly, things started to be pulled into it.
"Yes. The Comercian Portal," Luke said. "We said that our Lord needed you and we won't take no for an answer." His smile then turned to a frown. He pointed his wand at Dumbledore, who was cowering away. He was then hit in the back of the head. Marcus looked behind Luke to see Sirius in his human form. Marcus said a spell and Sirius was forced to the floor.
"Looks like we have both of our Lord's needs. He will reward us handsomely," Luke said after getting up and rubbing the back of his head.
"Now!" yelled Harry. All of them ran from around the corner. Luke and Marcus turned around to see them standing there.
"Harry Potter! How did you get here?" Luke said. "I knew I heard something."
They all started saying all sorts of spells and curses. When they happened to stop, Luke and Marcus were laughing. The spells had done nothing to them. Its seemed like the spells had deflected off of them and into the portal.
"That's it," said Malfoy. He went into Harry's pack and got out his Invisibility Cloak.
"How did you know that was there," Harry asked.
"I'll tell you later," Malfoy said and put it on. Harry then heard Luke and Marcus getting punched. They both were trying to find him for a few minutes. Marcus finally hit Malfoy and he knocked him down and from under the cloak. Both Luke and Marcus picked him up and threw him in the Comercian Portal.
"No…" called out Harry as he saw Malfoy fly away until he was gone from sight.
"Now for all of you," Luke said and then said a mumbled spell into the portal. The portal then lit up and started pulling things in full force. Dumbledore was starting to get sucked in. He tried to call for his wand yet he couldn't. Sirius was getting pulled in his immobile state.
They then heard a loud growl from the door. In came Remus. The spell had obviously worn off. He tried to pull back Sirius from the portal, but was hit from behind by Marcus. Remus's unconscious wolf-form fell into the portal followed by Sirius, who could not move a muscle. Harry and the gang were holding on to the walls for their life. The force of the portal was getting stronger and stronger.
"Ahhh…" screamed Hermione. Her hand slipped from the wall and she was being sucked in. She was almost there when Harry's hard grip held her from the portal. If I could just hold on, Harry thought. His hands were just on the edge. Suddenly, Ron and Andrea almost went screaming off into the colorful abyss. They hung on to Harry's pack, which was also coming off. Harry was all that held them from the portal.
Dumbledore was getting ever closer to the portal. He had tried to run from it but the force had gotten too hard. The force, which had sucked almost everything in Dumbledore's office, was even now getting stronger. Dumbledore's grip then slid and he went falling into the portal, too. Luke then came up to the struggling Harry, whose strength was fading fast.
"Pitiful little scoundrel," Luke said. He then pushed off Harry's hand from the wall. They all screamed as the colorful portal sucked them in.
Harry could see Luke and Marcus laughing at him, at how foolish he had been to try to save his friends. Their faces faded more and more as they fell down the portal.
Then everything went black.