Chapter 26
"Harry? Oh Harry! Hey sleepy head!" Harry blinked and sat up, Ron was standing fully dressed beside him. "You plan to snooze all day?"
"What? A-a-a, n-no, of course not." He sat up quickly and grabbed his robes, dressed horridly and went downstairs.
"So Harry, had any dream recently?" Ron asked calmly, Harry tensed.
"No, not recently."
"Don't lie Harry, we know you too well, you were up last night." Ron replied, frowning at him, Harry sighed; they did know him too well. He explained his dream, for once not terrifying.
"Wow, wish I could have seen it, I hope this means that everything is going to be okay." Ira said once he'd finished.
"Not it's not okay, we have potions in five minutes!" Hermione said, grabbing their bags they hurried from the hall.
A sign on the door said that Snape was busy and couldn't be there for all the morning lessons so they went to the library, Harry back to work on his maps, trying to pinpoint the Elemental eggs before Voldemort got to them.
**
Harry spent the entire day working on and off; by dinnertime he was confident he had the location of some of the eggs. After dinner he went up to Dumbledore's office, Ron, heroine, and Ira wanted to come as well but Harry reminded them that they needed to be with the students, eventually they left.
"Professor?"
"Ah Harry, what's up
"I believe I have located some of the Elemental eggs."
"Should we go after them now and…dispose of them?" Dumbledore asked, Harry touched his mind without the other's noticing, Dumbledore was ready to go and wanted to get out of Hogwarts for a while.
"Since I have no way of knowing when the eggs will hatch without seeing what stage they are in that would be a good idea." Dumbledore called Sirius and soon Harry's godfather arrived with a few others.
"You found them? Excellent, we'll start out now then, sooner we get them the better, where are the maps?" Harry handed them to him, watching as they paled slightly, the eggs were very, very, close to New York over in America.
"All the more reason to hurry, lets go, yes you can come." Miranda said to Ron and Hermione and Ira, who had followed Harry, Harry shot them a look, which they ignored before leaving. They went outside, the others lowering the apparition wards briefly, Harry, who could still not apparate, went with Miranda. He had a brief sensation of tickling and swirling light, and then they were there.
"Now where?" Sirius examined the map then started off through the trees. They were in a heavily wooded area, and it was dark beneath the trees, and cold, unnaturally so Harry thought. The trail was very old, almost overgrown, but someone had passed here recently, there were fresh footprints. A sudden flash of pain from his scar made him slow down and stop.
"Harry?" Ron asked softly.
"Damn, we're late, he's already here!" Harry broke into a run, Sirius handed him the map, Harry took it and examined their route, they were behind Voldemort, but he didn't have the map. Up ahead the trail split, this was where Harry wasn't sure where to go.
"We'll split up, Severus, Remus, Harry, Hermione, Ira, Ron, you go straight, Miranda, Mundungus, Albus, Alanna, Sara, Lan, you go left, the rest of us will go right. Keep telepathic communication down to a minimum, Sarlan has evidence that Voldemort has discovered how to tap into them." Sirius said quickly, Harry took off down his trail.
The dark trees seemed to reach out, suddenly they rounded a bend and stopped dead. Hanging from the tree were two muggle hikers, both hung by their necks from the branches of the tree directly across the trail.
"Oh no," Hermione averted her eyes but Harry looked the hikers over carefully. From their packs they must have been hiking for a few days, and both were clean so they had bathed. And looking at their packs…there seemed to be nessecary supplies missing. Remus was examining the ground. Harry and Snape knelt beside him.
"See there? There was a large group of hikers, some of them were killed here, the others were taken prisoner." Remus pointed to drag marks and signs of a scuffle, Harry nodded in agreement. Harry hurried on, a sudden chill made them all halt, the wind whipped fiercely.
"Dementors," Snape murmured, searching the forest, a sudden crack from behind them made them all jump. A dark shape went behind a tree, a harsh breath came from behind them, Harry drew his and fired a Patronus as he turned, thinking hard of how nice a summer vacation in Hawaii sounded. His silver stag leaped at the hooded shape not two feet behind, making it stumble and flee.
"Crucio!" Ron's screams filled the air, Remus blasted the death eater off his feet, the others leaped back out of the way as the two began to duel. Harry summoned Ron out of their way. Snape stunned the death eater, Harry's Patronus had sent the dozen or so dementors fleeing. Another death eaters leaped out of a tree, landing on Snape's back and knocking him to the ground. Ira froze him and the fight stopped, Harry looked around, Ron was shivering and gasping.
"You okay?" Harry asked, Ron looked up and nodded.
"He's here, and he knows we know he's here, and so he'll be setting traps to slow us." Snape said, dusting off his robes.
"The we should hurry." Harry said and they were off again.
Harry's breath steamed, it was still winter really and cold, suddenly two things swung at him from opposite sides of the path, Harry threw himself flat and rolled under them. There was a thump and a horrid scream from behind him that was abruptly cut off. He leaped to his feet and whirled, and stopped. Two more bodies suspended form ropes, he could feel the remains of the spell he'd stepped on. Remus had his hand over Hermione's mouth; it was she who had screamed.
"They're wasting time, both of these people had their souls sucked out." Snape said, moving forwards and looking closely at the bodies.
"All the better, come on, they've still got a head start." Harry took off again, jogging along, trying to look out for traps.
He burst through some bushes and instinctively leaped, this would be a perfect place to dig a pit, behind him Snape was not so tuned in and crashed through the well-hidden trap. The others clustered around.
"Are you okay?" Harry called down, Snape struggled in the mud and stood up, wiping blood off a cut of his jaw. He ignored Harry's question.
"They're getting smarter." He levitated himself out, "well what are we waiting for?" Harry was about to say something, but thought better of it and turned and started off.
Harry ran, sniffing the wind and listening, slowly it occurred to him that he could hear the others, and one or two of them were running irregularly, limping, they'd only been going for about a mile. He knew that they were all in good shape, but maybe someone was tiring…or injured. *Probably Severus* He thought, well if he was badly hurt he'd tell them or try to levitate himself along, despite the energy this took, and he would definitely not appreciate Harry's asking. Harry realized that they could be running towards their deaths, but they had to get to the eggs, or atleast stop Voldemort form getting them. He jumped a tripwire, "Lumos Aparous," the wire lit up so the other could see it. Now they were running along a gorge, he could see holes in the rock…poisoned darts? Set so that they would fly from slingshot-like things as soon as they felt the slightest vibration? Or a spell maybe? Well they couldn't turn back and he could sense spells that made using magic here impossible. Harry ducked as he went through the narrow part, something whizzed by his ear, he dropped and rolled and a few more flew. Harry leaped and dodged and ducked, darts hissing about him, something hit his sleeve, but the sleeves were huge and it hung below his wrist. Harry yanked it out and tossed it away, finally they stopped and he as through, behind him the others followed, their path clear of darts. He stopped to wait on the other side.
"Harry! What were you thinking? You ran right through them! And don't say you didn't know they were there, you knew, and you till kept going? Sirius is going to have fits, so will Albus for that matter, you shouldn't have done that!" Remus was angry, but relieved, Harry ignored him, examining the wind with his senses, hoping to catch a trace of the Elementals, but nothing stirred.
"Someone had to clear the path Remus."
"You should have let Severus or I do it." Remus was looking away, up at the cliffs, Harry glanced at Snape and saw the other shift his weight a little. Harry's eyes met Snape's Harry glanced at Snape's leg again, then up at Snape, who pretended he didn't see him, Harry looked away again, Snape WAS injured.
"We had best continue, okay everyone?" He asked his friends, they all nodded, breathing hard, harry set off again.
They had only gone a little ways when Harry noticed something was wrong, someone was missing, there weren't as many footfalls as before. He stopped and everyone stopped too.
"Who's missing? Where's Ira?" there was silence.
"She was right behind me a second ago…" Hermione trailed of looking frightened. Harry opened al the mind links, and the others felt it as he searched for anyone else, not a thing, he shut out their thoughts and concentrated…Ira wasn't anywhere.
"If she's alive she's unconscious, I know her mind well enough to be able to find her from a quarter mile away, and she was with us last time we stopped."
"Should we go back?" Harry paused…they couldn't waste the time, but…
"You lot go back, I'll continue, start coming after me when you find her…"
"NO!" Harry glanced up, it seemed they had all spoken at once.
"I'll tell Sirius what happened, I'll be careful so Voldemort can't hear, I'll do it in code. We're on the right trail so the other groups can follow and find her." Remus said, he stopped, Harry could see his eyes unfocus, then he gasped. "Oh NO! Something's gone wrong he's hurt…Meria and Jerri are missing too, Sirius is…asleep? Unconscious? I-I can't find him…Miranda and her groups are coming, they'll split half come after us half go meet up with the other group. Let's go." Harry took off, he could sense panic, kept tightly in check, brimming in the two adults, they were worried, so was he. What had happened to the Phoenix?
The moon rose high, a half moon, they leaped a stream and Harry killed the snake Voldemort had instructed to delay them. A wall of logs blocked the path, Harry went around, Ron leaped and found himself falling into a pit, Harry caught him with a spell and got him out before he hit the sharp stakes at the bottom.
BOOM! Something exploded, Harry ducked away and rolled as a rock slide started from a steep slope. The rocks came pouring down at them, then he saw some figures running towards them.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Crucio!"
"Rahimvar!"
Harry leaped up and took the killing curse on his crossed arms just before it hit Remus, he saw blackness and collapsed heavily. Slowly he staggered up, Snape was dueling with one of the death eaters, he looked to his friends.
"Stupefy!" Ron shouted, pointing his wand at a death eater.
"Crucio!" Hermione dodged.
"Pyrocatem!" The death eater put up a shield.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry leaped and knocked them both to the ground, the curse went over their heads, making Ron cry out and Hermione gasp, it hurt that close!
"Freezius!" Hermione yelled.
"Akamob!" Ron shouted (the explosion curse)
"Petrificus Totalus!" Hermione gasped out as she ducked a curse.
"Gannin Arul, Expeliarmus," Harry said, the death eater didn't see the invisible hex coming and was hit, he was flipped through the air as it shot him off like a rocket into the air, his wand came to Harry's hand, the death eater apparated out just before he hit the ground.
The three returned, but now Severus was missing, they called and searched, but he was gone. At last they had to continue again.
They levitated across an abyss that Harry could have sworn was not supposed to be there, crossed another river, ignoring the illusion alligators, again Harry was sure that the river wasn't usually there. Finally they rounded a bend and found themselves face to face with two dozen dementors and three death eaters.
Their enemies were caught completely of guard; one death eater ran down into a huge hole in the side of a hill, the other two were killed, as were the dementors.
"Ron, Hermione, you stand guard, Harry and I'll go down."
"No way Professor! We're coming too!"
"Ron don't argue, no listen to me Hermione, we need someone to tell the others where we went and to stop more enemies coming down behind us." Finally the two consented and Harry and Remus hurried off.
Down the twisting passage they went, over taking and killing the fleeing death eater. Harry could sense the eggs, it hurt, the constant fear and stink of evil and destruction. He found he was breathing hard, eager to kill the eggs, and terrified of Voldemort getting them.
They emerged form the tunnel into a huge cavern, lit with reddish light. For a moment they stood perfectly still, staring in a sort of fascinated horror at the sight in the center of the room.
Ooooohhhhh! What do they see? Find out soon! Review please!
"Harry? Oh Harry! Hey sleepy head!" Harry blinked and sat up, Ron was standing fully dressed beside him. "You plan to snooze all day?"
"What? A-a-a, n-no, of course not." He sat up quickly and grabbed his robes, dressed horridly and went downstairs.
"So Harry, had any dream recently?" Ron asked calmly, Harry tensed.
"No, not recently."
"Don't lie Harry, we know you too well, you were up last night." Ron replied, frowning at him, Harry sighed; they did know him too well. He explained his dream, for once not terrifying.
"Wow, wish I could have seen it, I hope this means that everything is going to be okay." Ira said once he'd finished.
"Not it's not okay, we have potions in five minutes!" Hermione said, grabbing their bags they hurried from the hall.
A sign on the door said that Snape was busy and couldn't be there for all the morning lessons so they went to the library, Harry back to work on his maps, trying to pinpoint the Elemental eggs before Voldemort got to them.
**
Harry spent the entire day working on and off; by dinnertime he was confident he had the location of some of the eggs. After dinner he went up to Dumbledore's office, Ron, heroine, and Ira wanted to come as well but Harry reminded them that they needed to be with the students, eventually they left.
"Professor?"
"Ah Harry, what's up
"I believe I have located some of the Elemental eggs."
"Should we go after them now and…dispose of them?" Dumbledore asked, Harry touched his mind without the other's noticing, Dumbledore was ready to go and wanted to get out of Hogwarts for a while.
"Since I have no way of knowing when the eggs will hatch without seeing what stage they are in that would be a good idea." Dumbledore called Sirius and soon Harry's godfather arrived with a few others.
"You found them? Excellent, we'll start out now then, sooner we get them the better, where are the maps?" Harry handed them to him, watching as they paled slightly, the eggs were very, very, close to New York over in America.
"All the more reason to hurry, lets go, yes you can come." Miranda said to Ron and Hermione and Ira, who had followed Harry, Harry shot them a look, which they ignored before leaving. They went outside, the others lowering the apparition wards briefly, Harry, who could still not apparate, went with Miranda. He had a brief sensation of tickling and swirling light, and then they were there.
"Now where?" Sirius examined the map then started off through the trees. They were in a heavily wooded area, and it was dark beneath the trees, and cold, unnaturally so Harry thought. The trail was very old, almost overgrown, but someone had passed here recently, there were fresh footprints. A sudden flash of pain from his scar made him slow down and stop.
"Harry?" Ron asked softly.
"Damn, we're late, he's already here!" Harry broke into a run, Sirius handed him the map, Harry took it and examined their route, they were behind Voldemort, but he didn't have the map. Up ahead the trail split, this was where Harry wasn't sure where to go.
"We'll split up, Severus, Remus, Harry, Hermione, Ira, Ron, you go straight, Miranda, Mundungus, Albus, Alanna, Sara, Lan, you go left, the rest of us will go right. Keep telepathic communication down to a minimum, Sarlan has evidence that Voldemort has discovered how to tap into them." Sirius said quickly, Harry took off down his trail.
The dark trees seemed to reach out, suddenly they rounded a bend and stopped dead. Hanging from the tree were two muggle hikers, both hung by their necks from the branches of the tree directly across the trail.
"Oh no," Hermione averted her eyes but Harry looked the hikers over carefully. From their packs they must have been hiking for a few days, and both were clean so they had bathed. And looking at their packs…there seemed to be nessecary supplies missing. Remus was examining the ground. Harry and Snape knelt beside him.
"See there? There was a large group of hikers, some of them were killed here, the others were taken prisoner." Remus pointed to drag marks and signs of a scuffle, Harry nodded in agreement. Harry hurried on, a sudden chill made them all halt, the wind whipped fiercely.
"Dementors," Snape murmured, searching the forest, a sudden crack from behind them made them all jump. A dark shape went behind a tree, a harsh breath came from behind them, Harry drew his and fired a Patronus as he turned, thinking hard of how nice a summer vacation in Hawaii sounded. His silver stag leaped at the hooded shape not two feet behind, making it stumble and flee.
"Crucio!" Ron's screams filled the air, Remus blasted the death eater off his feet, the others leaped back out of the way as the two began to duel. Harry summoned Ron out of their way. Snape stunned the death eater, Harry's Patronus had sent the dozen or so dementors fleeing. Another death eaters leaped out of a tree, landing on Snape's back and knocking him to the ground. Ira froze him and the fight stopped, Harry looked around, Ron was shivering and gasping.
"You okay?" Harry asked, Ron looked up and nodded.
"He's here, and he knows we know he's here, and so he'll be setting traps to slow us." Snape said, dusting off his robes.
"The we should hurry." Harry said and they were off again.
Harry's breath steamed, it was still winter really and cold, suddenly two things swung at him from opposite sides of the path, Harry threw himself flat and rolled under them. There was a thump and a horrid scream from behind him that was abruptly cut off. He leaped to his feet and whirled, and stopped. Two more bodies suspended form ropes, he could feel the remains of the spell he'd stepped on. Remus had his hand over Hermione's mouth; it was she who had screamed.
"They're wasting time, both of these people had their souls sucked out." Snape said, moving forwards and looking closely at the bodies.
"All the better, come on, they've still got a head start." Harry took off again, jogging along, trying to look out for traps.
He burst through some bushes and instinctively leaped, this would be a perfect place to dig a pit, behind him Snape was not so tuned in and crashed through the well-hidden trap. The others clustered around.
"Are you okay?" Harry called down, Snape struggled in the mud and stood up, wiping blood off a cut of his jaw. He ignored Harry's question.
"They're getting smarter." He levitated himself out, "well what are we waiting for?" Harry was about to say something, but thought better of it and turned and started off.
Harry ran, sniffing the wind and listening, slowly it occurred to him that he could hear the others, and one or two of them were running irregularly, limping, they'd only been going for about a mile. He knew that they were all in good shape, but maybe someone was tiring…or injured. *Probably Severus* He thought, well if he was badly hurt he'd tell them or try to levitate himself along, despite the energy this took, and he would definitely not appreciate Harry's asking. Harry realized that they could be running towards their deaths, but they had to get to the eggs, or atleast stop Voldemort form getting them. He jumped a tripwire, "Lumos Aparous," the wire lit up so the other could see it. Now they were running along a gorge, he could see holes in the rock…poisoned darts? Set so that they would fly from slingshot-like things as soon as they felt the slightest vibration? Or a spell maybe? Well they couldn't turn back and he could sense spells that made using magic here impossible. Harry ducked as he went through the narrow part, something whizzed by his ear, he dropped and rolled and a few more flew. Harry leaped and dodged and ducked, darts hissing about him, something hit his sleeve, but the sleeves were huge and it hung below his wrist. Harry yanked it out and tossed it away, finally they stopped and he as through, behind him the others followed, their path clear of darts. He stopped to wait on the other side.
"Harry! What were you thinking? You ran right through them! And don't say you didn't know they were there, you knew, and you till kept going? Sirius is going to have fits, so will Albus for that matter, you shouldn't have done that!" Remus was angry, but relieved, Harry ignored him, examining the wind with his senses, hoping to catch a trace of the Elementals, but nothing stirred.
"Someone had to clear the path Remus."
"You should have let Severus or I do it." Remus was looking away, up at the cliffs, Harry glanced at Snape and saw the other shift his weight a little. Harry's eyes met Snape's Harry glanced at Snape's leg again, then up at Snape, who pretended he didn't see him, Harry looked away again, Snape WAS injured.
"We had best continue, okay everyone?" He asked his friends, they all nodded, breathing hard, harry set off again.
They had only gone a little ways when Harry noticed something was wrong, someone was missing, there weren't as many footfalls as before. He stopped and everyone stopped too.
"Who's missing? Where's Ira?" there was silence.
"She was right behind me a second ago…" Hermione trailed of looking frightened. Harry opened al the mind links, and the others felt it as he searched for anyone else, not a thing, he shut out their thoughts and concentrated…Ira wasn't anywhere.
"If she's alive she's unconscious, I know her mind well enough to be able to find her from a quarter mile away, and she was with us last time we stopped."
"Should we go back?" Harry paused…they couldn't waste the time, but…
"You lot go back, I'll continue, start coming after me when you find her…"
"NO!" Harry glanced up, it seemed they had all spoken at once.
"I'll tell Sirius what happened, I'll be careful so Voldemort can't hear, I'll do it in code. We're on the right trail so the other groups can follow and find her." Remus said, he stopped, Harry could see his eyes unfocus, then he gasped. "Oh NO! Something's gone wrong he's hurt…Meria and Jerri are missing too, Sirius is…asleep? Unconscious? I-I can't find him…Miranda and her groups are coming, they'll split half come after us half go meet up with the other group. Let's go." Harry took off, he could sense panic, kept tightly in check, brimming in the two adults, they were worried, so was he. What had happened to the Phoenix?
The moon rose high, a half moon, they leaped a stream and Harry killed the snake Voldemort had instructed to delay them. A wall of logs blocked the path, Harry went around, Ron leaped and found himself falling into a pit, Harry caught him with a spell and got him out before he hit the sharp stakes at the bottom.
BOOM! Something exploded, Harry ducked away and rolled as a rock slide started from a steep slope. The rocks came pouring down at them, then he saw some figures running towards them.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Crucio!"
"Rahimvar!"
Harry leaped up and took the killing curse on his crossed arms just before it hit Remus, he saw blackness and collapsed heavily. Slowly he staggered up, Snape was dueling with one of the death eaters, he looked to his friends.
"Stupefy!" Ron shouted, pointing his wand at a death eater.
"Crucio!" Hermione dodged.
"Pyrocatem!" The death eater put up a shield.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry leaped and knocked them both to the ground, the curse went over their heads, making Ron cry out and Hermione gasp, it hurt that close!
"Freezius!" Hermione yelled.
"Akamob!" Ron shouted (the explosion curse)
"Petrificus Totalus!" Hermione gasped out as she ducked a curse.
"Gannin Arul, Expeliarmus," Harry said, the death eater didn't see the invisible hex coming and was hit, he was flipped through the air as it shot him off like a rocket into the air, his wand came to Harry's hand, the death eater apparated out just before he hit the ground.
The three returned, but now Severus was missing, they called and searched, but he was gone. At last they had to continue again.
They levitated across an abyss that Harry could have sworn was not supposed to be there, crossed another river, ignoring the illusion alligators, again Harry was sure that the river wasn't usually there. Finally they rounded a bend and found themselves face to face with two dozen dementors and three death eaters.
Their enemies were caught completely of guard; one death eater ran down into a huge hole in the side of a hill, the other two were killed, as were the dementors.
"Ron, Hermione, you stand guard, Harry and I'll go down."
"No way Professor! We're coming too!"
"Ron don't argue, no listen to me Hermione, we need someone to tell the others where we went and to stop more enemies coming down behind us." Finally the two consented and Harry and Remus hurried off.
Down the twisting passage they went, over taking and killing the fleeing death eater. Harry could sense the eggs, it hurt, the constant fear and stink of evil and destruction. He found he was breathing hard, eager to kill the eggs, and terrified of Voldemort getting them.
They emerged form the tunnel into a huge cavern, lit with reddish light. For a moment they stood perfectly still, staring in a sort of fascinated horror at the sight in the center of the room.
Ooooohhhhh! What do they see? Find out soon! Review please!