Chapter 18: Capturing The Spy

Author's Note: Sorry this one took so long to post. It's the chapter everyone has been waiting for. The Spy is revealed! This is not the end of the story, so keep checking for updates!

The footsteps drew nearer to Longfellow's group. Professor Longfellow could only see a vaguely humanoid shape, distorted by the cloak. The shape opened the wall, and started down the corridors, the passage door silently shutting behind her. She walked past Gene's group and continued towards the tower. Maria put her hand on the pommel of her sword. Gene put his hand on her shoulder. They were crouched, but needlessly so, since their cloaks made them totally invisible. The girl walked past the classroom where Filch was hiding, and past the alcoves where James and Samuel sat. She reached for the handle of the tower door and paused. Samuel wrapped his hand around his sword's pommel, and James tightened his grip on a wooden rod he held in his hand. Elanus pulled a small triangular object from his pocket and watched the girl carefully. The girl reached into her cloak and appeared to be checking her pockets for something. Sighing in relief she opened the door to the tower, and the sound of bat wings was heard.

"Are you hungry?" The girl whispered. After a few moments the sound of bat wings was heard again. Several minutes passed and the girl walked around in the tower a bit. James waved his hand at Samuel, who only shrugged in response. A small glass mouse crawled up on James' shoulder and whispered. "It's definitely her, she either knows we're here or she's in no hurry to get back to the dorms."

Finally the girl walked out of the tower door and carefully shut it behind her. As she turned around the shadows started changing and before her stood an indistinct conglomeration of blackness. Inside this blackness was Samuel, his sword drawn and ready. The girl shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times and looked back down the hall. The shadows had cleared, and she signed in relief. Slowly, the shadows reformed.

"Who's there?" she asked, in an obviously faked voice. Slowly her hand snaked into her cloak.

"We know who you are. Surrender and we won't hurt you." A voice from the shadow said. The girl pulled her hand out of her cloak, and a volley of darts sprang from her hand. Samuel easily dodged the darts inside his shadow. The shadows made aim difficult at best. A voice from the shadow laughed.

"Your tricks won't hurt me." Samuel said.

"You have made a big mistake." The girl said, drawing a long curved sword from her cloak. Samuel started to slowly dissipate his shadow and the girl ran at him, catching a glint of his cloak. The shadow dissipated entirely and the girl brought her sword down, deflected harmlessly by Samuel's blade.

"Professor Green!" the girl cried and slashed again. James slipped behind the girl, amazed at her speed. A flurry of steel glinted off the little light that was in the hall, and the sound of the clashes echoed down the hall. Gene's group became tenser, and Maria slowly moved further down the hall.

Samuel had little difficulty defending himself, but the girl was relentless. James watched for an opening and brought his staff down across the girl's ankles. The girl fell backward. Realizing his opportunity Samuel slipped the tip of his blade under the cross guard of her sword and disarmed her. The girl was dumbfounded for a split second, and then saw the staff. She kicked it hard before James could bring it up again. In a flash she was on her feet, holding a smaller dagger like blade in her hand and lunged at Samuel. Instinctively Samuel turned out of the way of the dagger, and the girl ran right past him. James was in full pursuit before Samuel could react. The girl ran hard, and then suddenly came to a halt; the tip of another sword was aimed at her throat. The other end of the sword was held by Maria. Her blade was not the blunted practice rapiers she taught her students with. The sword was a sharp, less delicate implement with a blade a little over three foot long, and an inch and a half wide. The girl quickly pushed the blade aside with her dagger but before she could run again Maria's blade was back at her throat.

"I suggest you surrender. I'm not as easy an opponent as Samuel."  Maria said.

The girl winced and pushed the sword away again. She was rewarded with a large piece of her cloak sliced off and dangling at the tip of Maria's blade. Seeing no alternatives, the girl pulled her wand from her cloak and pointed it at Maria.

"Avada Kedavra." The girl said, waving her wand at Maria.

"No!!!" McGonagall screamed. Nothing at all happened, and Maria disarmed the girl of both her dagger and wand. The girl tried to push by Maria in one last desperate move, but she felt two incredibly strong hands grab hold of her. Gene put his hand over the girl's mouth, and wrapped his arm around her chest, holding both her arms in place. Elanus ran up and quickly placed a triangular shaped device on the girl's neck. Her body immediately went limp.

"We got her!" the small mice relayed to the other groups. Gene carried the paralyzed girl down the halls and to Samuel's office. He was followed closely by the other groups, and Samuel and James walked in front of him, weapons drawn. When they arrived at Samuel's office they laid the girl on his desk and Flitwick cast a sleeping charm on her.

"Well?" Sirius asked impatiently. "Aren't we going to take her cloak off so we can see who she is?"

"Patience." Samuel said. "We'll wait 'til Dumbledore and the others get back. Besides we need Snape and his truth serum. You all might as well take a seat, it's going to be at least twenty minutes before they get back."

Everyone sat down, anxiously watching the girl on the desk, and the door for Dumbledore's arrival. Finally there was a knock on the door, Samuel opened it and Dumbledore, Snape, Harry, Hermione, Ginny and the Weasley boys walked in.

"I take it you captured the bat with no trouble?" asked Samuel.

"None at all." Dumbledore said, handing James a rolled up piece of paper that he had copied the message on to. "I see you captured our spy."

"Yes, sir." Samuel replied. "She gave us more trouble then the bat gave you I expect. We haven't revealed who she is yet. I didn't know how you wanted to handle this."

"Do you know who she is?" Dumbledore asked, staring curiously down at the girl.

"We have very strong evidence as to who it is yes." Samuel replied.

"Do you think it wise for the students to be in here?" asked Dumbledore.

"That's your call." Samuel said. "I think they should wait outside, but they'll find out sooner or later."

"Yes, might as well be now." Dumbledore said nodding to Snape. Severus pulled a small vial from a box he hand in his hand and nodded.

"I think Samuel should get to do the honors." Elanus said. "He's the one who found her."

Samuel looked around the room, and no one disagreed. He looked at Harry sympathetically and slowly pulled the hood of the girl's cloak off her head. Samuel sighed and stepped back, revealing the delicate face of Cho Chang. Harry stepped closer and screamed.

"NO! It has to be a Polyjuice Potion we need to wait an hour!" Harry cried. Dumbledore put his hand on the boy's shoulder and gently pulled him away from the desk.

"He could be right. I doubt it, considering who carried her back, but I'll try anyway. For the boy's sake." Snape said. Snape gently opened the girl's mouth and reached for his box. Seeing it was on the other side of the desk, he started for it but Hermione handed him the proper bottle. "Thank you, Miss Granger." Carefully Severus poured a drop of the liquid on the girls tongue. A slow minute passed and Snape shook his head.

"My boy, I'm afraid not." He said, in the most sympathetic voice he could muster. Harry bravely fought back tears.

"Shall I wake her?" Flitwick asked.

Dumbledore nodded. Flitwick waved his wand at the girl and her eyes opened. Elanus ran his finger along the device on her neck and movement in her head resumed. Cho started to scream but saw the people in the room, and thought better of it.

"Get on with it." She said angrily through her teeth. Snape administered the truth serum, and Cho took on a slightly glazed over look.

"She's ready." Snape said.

"Cho, are you a spy for Voldemort." Dumbledore asked flatly.

"Yes."

"For how long have you been following him?" Dumbledore asked.

"Nearly six years." Cho answered.

"When did you join the cult here?" Samuel asked.

"Six years ago, when I first came to Hogwarts." Cho replied.

"Why?" asked Samuel.

"They were friendly, they promised popularity, they told me they could make me pretty like my sisters." Cho said. "I joined them, and they kept their promise."

"I see." Dumbledore said. "When did you become their leader?"

"My third year, when Harry defeated the basilisk. Most of the group scattered, or graduated. I was the strongest, best able to defend myself, so I took the lead."

"When did you start sending the messages out?" Samuel asked.

"Last year, Lord Voldemort's messenger recalled our oaths." Cho replied.

"Did you know you were following Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked.

"No." Cho replied.

The people in the room murmured amongst themselves.

"How could she not know?" Sirius, who was trying to console Harry asked.

"We did not know how we came to be, all we knew is we had to swear an oath to a picture in the building to gain our powers." Cho said.

"Where is this picture?" asked Dumbledore.

"Down in the basement, it's near Slythern's Common room entrance." Cho said.

"Alright." Samuel said. "You knew about the attack right?"

"Yes." Cho replied.

"What did you think of it?" Samuel asked.

"Displeased, but nothing can be done." Cho replied.

"When will it happen?" Samuel asked.

"Next week. We were planning in inside strike as well." Cho said.

"Why?" asked Samuel.

"Because, we thought we could curry favour with Voldemort if we brought Harry and Dumbledore to him ourselves." Cho said.

Harry sobbed into his hands. Sirius put his arm around Harry's shoulder. The Weasley's and Hermione stood beside him, trying their best to comfort him. Fred and George even mouthed apologies.

"Is that why you sent the hydra?" asked Samuel. "And had him pushed into the lake?"

"Yes, but our attempts failed. Circumstance prevented them from working. We do not know why or how." Cho said.

"How many times did you try to attack him?" asked Samuel.

"Three." Cho said. "The first with the hydra, the second with the lake, and the third with a necklace."

"What was the purpose of this necklace?" Samuel asked.

"It would make him very sick. He shows no signs, I do not understand." Cho said. "I would be there for him. I would be his caring girlfriend."

"Would the disease kill him?"

"No, just weaken him so that we might offer him to our lord." Cho said.

"What are the names of your followers?" asked Samuel.

Cho started naming people, and Elanus wrote them down. Some of the names were surprising, what was more surprising were the ones not mentioned. When she was done Dumbledore motioned for Flitwick to put her to sleep again.

"We'll hold her in one of the guest quarters." Dumbledore said. "No window, and Flitwick, if you'd be so kind as to negate magic use in the room."

"I'll help with the room." Elanus said. "I've got some things for just the occasion."

"We'll figure out where to put the rest when we get there." Dumbledore said. "I do not know what we'll do to keep suspicion low when seventeen students are missing."

"Professor Dumbledore, Sir. We won't have to worry about that too much." James said.

"Why is that?" Dumbledore asked, stepping behind James and looking over his shoulder.

James turned his head back and looked up at Dumbledore. "She was right about the next week thing. The attack is going to be on Wednesday, Voldemort's army is apparently already out there somewhere."

"You're sure?" Dumbledore asked.

"Quite sure. It's all right here, I expect the owl tomorrow will have more to tell." James said, showing the decoded message to Dumbledore.

"Oh dear." Dumbledore said. "He's right."

The office erupted into a small state of panic. Samuel clapped his hands and the room became silent.

"This is not the time to panic." Samuel said. "We are as we can be, we know his plans, we have plans of our own. I figure we have exactly four days to get everything in order. Tomorrow we capture the rest of the traitorous children. Hopefully no one will notice Monday, or Tuesday. Filch and Elanus have drawn up evacuation plans for the children. If all goes well the worst that will happen is Voldemort kills us all and finds an empty castle. We'll be distributing things for the next several days to all the professors and I suggest that you all bring each other up to speed on the various subjects you teach."

"You sound very sure of yourself." Snape said. "I hope you aren't over confident."

"I hope not too." Samuel said. "I trust you'll be staying here the next several days?"

"Of course." Snape replied.

"Dumbledore, I think it would be wise if the students here are excused from classes for the next several days." Samuel said. "They need to prepare too."

Dumbledore nodded. "I will write the notes on the morrow."

"Alright people, get to bed the next few days are going to be the longest any of us have ever seen." Samuel said. "I pray they aren't the last."