Chapter Eighteen
Treachery to the Dark Lord
Llewellyn and Draco held hands, and now it was their time to pass through the fire. She turned to Rosalind and Lawrence.
"Roz, if I don't come back -"
"Don't say that."
"If I don't come back, just tell them I did it." She stepped into the flames.
"Did what?" called Rosalind frantically, but Llewellyn and her boyfriend were gone. The flames soon faded back to yellow-orange, proving Rosalind had accurate calculations of Floo amount and usage. Lawrence let the fire burn, both he and Rosalind hoping that the flames would soon be green, and their friends would be returning. When a tediously long period had passed, and the fire started to decrease in intensity, they both sighed.
"What do we do now? Find the professors?" asked Lawrence.
"No. We wait."
They remained there in the room, the fire burning low with a dire orange shade.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The eight emerged from a small hearth in a low, earth tunnel, which was dimly lit by a faint green phosphorous glow emanating from the walls. The first out were Harry and Cho, followed by Hermione and Ron, next came Neville and Ginny, and the last two were Draco and Llewellyn. She paled visibly in the low light as she looked around.
"What is it?" asked Draco. His voice seemed to become soaked up in the damp walls, as if they were listening to, or - even worse - understanding their every word.
"This is my dream," she whispered.
Hermione looked around. "I can't be sure from where we're standing right now, but I think we're in the bends of the body of the Serpent." She took a few steps forward, peered into the gloom, and added, "Yes, I can see the fork in the halls, where the head connects to the body." She walked back to the others, who were all looking around with apprehension.
"So, what do you want to do? Stick around here or go looking for him?" asked Neville.
"Let's go," replied Harry grimly. They walked on in the halls, and soon they reached the fork Hermione had seen. "Which way do we go?" he asked her.
"Either way. The tunnel connects back to itself."
The eight stood there for a few tense minutes, peering into the dim light to try and differentiate the two paths. Finally, Neville spoke. "We can split up. Ginny and I, and Harry and Cho, can go to the right; and Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Llewellyn can go to the left."
No one argued, as no one had a better idea. They divided, and began walking down their respective earthen corridors. Harry looked around cautiously, hyper-alert and sensitive to any noises they heard. Only once or twice did an odd sound break through the muffled gloom, but it was highly probable that it was just the other four's footsteps echoing through the damp tunnel. He wondered if they would find anything showing that this place was related in any way to Voldemort.
They came upon a turn that bent to their left sharply, and then curved out of sight. There was no other way to turn, but Harry felt his scar beginning to pinprick with pain. "Wands out," he whispered, and the four slowly drew them out. They slowly moved through the new passageway, each not wanting to tell each other that their face was pale and dead- looking in the eerie light.
Suddenly, Cho saw something on the floor, and she stopped the others to point it out. It was long and very shiny, with an ominous glint in the phosphorescent light. They took a few careful steps forward and saw that it was a broadsword, the wickedly sharp blade nearly four feet long. Neville had noticed the oddly-shaped hilt and was kneeling down to inspect it when he saw movement from the tunnel before them reflected in the blade.
He lept to his feet, his wand raised and ready, and Ginny, Harry, and Cho were right behind them. There were a few choked seconds of dead quiet, and then suddenly, "It's us!" came from the darkness. Ron and Hermione appeared, followed by Llewellyn and Draco. All eight of them took a deep breath and then refocused on the sword at their feet.
"That's the sword in my dream," said Llewellyn softly, "but it wasn't here. And it was broken." Draco knelt and looked at the hilt more closely than Neville. He whispered something under his breath, possibly a curse, and reached out to grip the handle.
The instant his hand came in contact with the sword, two very strange things happened. Blinding, white-hot pain flooded into Harry's scar, and he collapsed onto the ground, writhing in agony. Draco dropped the sword quickly in surprise, and Harry's pain instantly subsided. The other seven were so concerned with him that they didn't even notice the greyish-white light pouring into the tunnel until Harry got to his feet.
"You all right?" asked Ron. Harry nodded, and Cho kissed him on the cheek.
"Look!" said Ginny, pointing towards the new passageway that had appeared in the wall. It was earthen, like the other tunnels they had traveled, but it was much lower, and the moist walls didn't glow. Instead, it appeared to lead into another room, which was lit by a weird greyish light.
"That must be the egg of the snake," said Hermione, trying to be matter-of- fact, but sounding more than a little shaky.
They let their eyes adjust to the much brighter light, and then they went into the egg.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I can't stand this. We have to do something." Lawrence was pacing now.
"Settle down," whispered Rosalind.
"I'm doing to get the Headmaster."
"Lawrence!"
"They could be dying! What if all they need is a mature wizard to fight for them, otherwise they're all killed? I can't do that to my friends."
"We decided from the beginning that we would fight our own battles, remember? If there had been enough Floo, we would have gone too, and then no one could go and get the professors to save our butts. Now I wish I hadn't said that to them, because we had decided that we were going to try and find You-Know-Who by ourselves, and only ourselves. And now, we must face the repercussions of that decision." She took his hand.
"But," he began.
"No matter what they are."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The room was a few feet lower than the tunnels, oval, with a high ceiling, and yellow walls of clay. It was nearly the width of the Great Hall at its widest point. In the center of the room was a strange, closed hemisphere, tight to the floor. The dome was twenty feet across, slightly luminous and nearly transparent. It was a strange, milky-white color, and the surface swirled and flowed, with formations like angry faces and hands twisted in agony appearing in the mist.
Other than the unearthly hemisphere, there appeared nothing strange about the room. The eight were looking amongst each other, wondering what would happen next, when the surface of the dome started to bend and ripple. The students drew closer to each other as the dome contorted, now changing to a tear drop shape, with the pointed end right before them. They watched in horror as a distinct figure began to appear amonst the silently screaming souls of the dome. The nameless faces and hands clawed at the figure as it appeared, becoming solid, threatening, and the ultimate of nameless faces:
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
He brushed the wispy dome from his solid body, freeing his black robes from the desperate, indistinct faces with his long, chalky fingers. The dome shuddered and resumed its hemispherical shape. Voldemort then turned his red, reptilian eyes to the eight, a horrible expression something like pride playing on his snake-like features.
"So, Potter," he said, his voice dark and smooth. The students tightened their grips on their wands, each more unsure of what to do than the next. "You've arrived just in time, along with two wondrous presents for my little house party." He grinned, a terrible, cold smile that seemed to squeeze everyone's hearts into nothingness.
Harry didn't quite understand what Voldemort had said, and thought maybe he meant Ron and Hermione.
"You don't even know what filth you brought into my home?" sneered Voldemort, seeming to read Harry's mind. "The only pleasure these two will bring me is the look on their faces as I slowly kill them."
The Dark Lord turned to Draco. "Malfoy! You buffoon, you idiot, you mortal fool!" Voldemort's face contorted in rage. "Your father was stupid enough to denounce me when I met my downfall, and now he cries out for mercy as my slave. At least he had the courage to admit his mistakes, and now he is paying for his selfish, half-witted decisions with a mere few years' servitude.
"But you, on the other hand, Draco. You denounced not only me, but your whole family. Not only your whole family, but your whole past. You forgot what an ambitious, loyal boy you used to be. Now, you befriend Mudbloods, half-Squibs, wizard trash - and the one who somehow defeated me!
"What was your deal, Malfoy? You thought you could hide behind Potter when the time to live up to your perfidy came? Even Potter isn't immune to me now. Nothing can stop me now, especially treacherous, lying, rotten rats!" He raised his wand.
"Crucio!"
Draco hit the floor, curled up into a fetal position, screaming in agony. Llewellyn, tears in her eyes, knelt by him and tried to comfort him, but it was useless. Voldemort stopped the curse. "
Ah, just as I thought, you beast," he spoke harshly, nearly spitting "beast". "You found comfort in Malfoy's mutiny and decided to join up in his treason. I thought that if your parents left you to yourself, your heritage alone would awaken your loyalty to I, the heir of Slytherin. I kept trying to send you messages in your dreams to seek me out. When they only confused you, I had to make them clearer, but, apparently, your stupidity rivals even Malfoy's, and you couldn't decipher them without your new friends at Hogwarts.
"You did manage to wreak a little havoc there, didn't you? When you came in contact with the Handbook of Modern Dark Magic, written by my great-uncle Grindelwald, the dreams I sent awakened your tongue, which awakened the enchanted runespoor snake to attack the other girls in your dormitory. Fortunately for you, the snake venom was weak from years of disuse, and the effects lasted merely a day."
But it affected you, didn't it, Euryale? You knew you couldn't deny your family as easily as Malfoy. You knew you could be found out easily. You knew that, no matter what you did, She would live on in you in some way."
Hermione gasped. "Euryale was - was one -"
"Of the Gorgons. You have such a sharp mind for such a dirty heritage, Granger."
Hermione said nothing, and Llewellyn gritted her teeth. Voldemort stared at her. "What's the matter, beast? You can't deny it. You're a Dark Witch no matter what you do."
"No, she's not," said Harry boldly. "She's in Gryffindor, not Slytherin."
"Houses mean nothing!" screamed Voldemort. "You should know that by now, Potter. You yourself were supposed to be in Slytherin, but that bloody hat of Gryffindor's put you into his house."
Harry looked away from Voldemort, his scar and face burning. Now, the others knew. Voldemort glared at Harry piercingly, and he returned the look. Suddenly, the Dark Lord spat something in Parseltongue, and Nagini appeared from the entrance.
"Attack the Gorgon," Voldemort commanded the snake, and then he turned towards the glowing dome.
"Come, Harry," he called.
Nagini slithered to Llewellyn, fangs bared. The gorgon's descendent bit her lip and backed up a step warily. Suddenly, Nagini struck out at her, and Llewellyn could do nothing except scream "STOP!"
In Parseltongue.
Nagini collapsed onto the stone floor, docile.
Treachery to the Dark Lord
Llewellyn and Draco held hands, and now it was their time to pass through the fire. She turned to Rosalind and Lawrence.
"Roz, if I don't come back -"
"Don't say that."
"If I don't come back, just tell them I did it." She stepped into the flames.
"Did what?" called Rosalind frantically, but Llewellyn and her boyfriend were gone. The flames soon faded back to yellow-orange, proving Rosalind had accurate calculations of Floo amount and usage. Lawrence let the fire burn, both he and Rosalind hoping that the flames would soon be green, and their friends would be returning. When a tediously long period had passed, and the fire started to decrease in intensity, they both sighed.
"What do we do now? Find the professors?" asked Lawrence.
"No. We wait."
They remained there in the room, the fire burning low with a dire orange shade.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The eight emerged from a small hearth in a low, earth tunnel, which was dimly lit by a faint green phosphorous glow emanating from the walls. The first out were Harry and Cho, followed by Hermione and Ron, next came Neville and Ginny, and the last two were Draco and Llewellyn. She paled visibly in the low light as she looked around.
"What is it?" asked Draco. His voice seemed to become soaked up in the damp walls, as if they were listening to, or - even worse - understanding their every word.
"This is my dream," she whispered.
Hermione looked around. "I can't be sure from where we're standing right now, but I think we're in the bends of the body of the Serpent." She took a few steps forward, peered into the gloom, and added, "Yes, I can see the fork in the halls, where the head connects to the body." She walked back to the others, who were all looking around with apprehension.
"So, what do you want to do? Stick around here or go looking for him?" asked Neville.
"Let's go," replied Harry grimly. They walked on in the halls, and soon they reached the fork Hermione had seen. "Which way do we go?" he asked her.
"Either way. The tunnel connects back to itself."
The eight stood there for a few tense minutes, peering into the dim light to try and differentiate the two paths. Finally, Neville spoke. "We can split up. Ginny and I, and Harry and Cho, can go to the right; and Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Llewellyn can go to the left."
No one argued, as no one had a better idea. They divided, and began walking down their respective earthen corridors. Harry looked around cautiously, hyper-alert and sensitive to any noises they heard. Only once or twice did an odd sound break through the muffled gloom, but it was highly probable that it was just the other four's footsteps echoing through the damp tunnel. He wondered if they would find anything showing that this place was related in any way to Voldemort.
They came upon a turn that bent to their left sharply, and then curved out of sight. There was no other way to turn, but Harry felt his scar beginning to pinprick with pain. "Wands out," he whispered, and the four slowly drew them out. They slowly moved through the new passageway, each not wanting to tell each other that their face was pale and dead- looking in the eerie light.
Suddenly, Cho saw something on the floor, and she stopped the others to point it out. It was long and very shiny, with an ominous glint in the phosphorescent light. They took a few careful steps forward and saw that it was a broadsword, the wickedly sharp blade nearly four feet long. Neville had noticed the oddly-shaped hilt and was kneeling down to inspect it when he saw movement from the tunnel before them reflected in the blade.
He lept to his feet, his wand raised and ready, and Ginny, Harry, and Cho were right behind them. There were a few choked seconds of dead quiet, and then suddenly, "It's us!" came from the darkness. Ron and Hermione appeared, followed by Llewellyn and Draco. All eight of them took a deep breath and then refocused on the sword at their feet.
"That's the sword in my dream," said Llewellyn softly, "but it wasn't here. And it was broken." Draco knelt and looked at the hilt more closely than Neville. He whispered something under his breath, possibly a curse, and reached out to grip the handle.
The instant his hand came in contact with the sword, two very strange things happened. Blinding, white-hot pain flooded into Harry's scar, and he collapsed onto the ground, writhing in agony. Draco dropped the sword quickly in surprise, and Harry's pain instantly subsided. The other seven were so concerned with him that they didn't even notice the greyish-white light pouring into the tunnel until Harry got to his feet.
"You all right?" asked Ron. Harry nodded, and Cho kissed him on the cheek.
"Look!" said Ginny, pointing towards the new passageway that had appeared in the wall. It was earthen, like the other tunnels they had traveled, but it was much lower, and the moist walls didn't glow. Instead, it appeared to lead into another room, which was lit by a weird greyish light.
"That must be the egg of the snake," said Hermione, trying to be matter-of- fact, but sounding more than a little shaky.
They let their eyes adjust to the much brighter light, and then they went into the egg.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I can't stand this. We have to do something." Lawrence was pacing now.
"Settle down," whispered Rosalind.
"I'm doing to get the Headmaster."
"Lawrence!"
"They could be dying! What if all they need is a mature wizard to fight for them, otherwise they're all killed? I can't do that to my friends."
"We decided from the beginning that we would fight our own battles, remember? If there had been enough Floo, we would have gone too, and then no one could go and get the professors to save our butts. Now I wish I hadn't said that to them, because we had decided that we were going to try and find You-Know-Who by ourselves, and only ourselves. And now, we must face the repercussions of that decision." She took his hand.
"But," he began.
"No matter what they are."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The room was a few feet lower than the tunnels, oval, with a high ceiling, and yellow walls of clay. It was nearly the width of the Great Hall at its widest point. In the center of the room was a strange, closed hemisphere, tight to the floor. The dome was twenty feet across, slightly luminous and nearly transparent. It was a strange, milky-white color, and the surface swirled and flowed, with formations like angry faces and hands twisted in agony appearing in the mist.
Other than the unearthly hemisphere, there appeared nothing strange about the room. The eight were looking amongst each other, wondering what would happen next, when the surface of the dome started to bend and ripple. The students drew closer to each other as the dome contorted, now changing to a tear drop shape, with the pointed end right before them. They watched in horror as a distinct figure began to appear amonst the silently screaming souls of the dome. The nameless faces and hands clawed at the figure as it appeared, becoming solid, threatening, and the ultimate of nameless faces:
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
He brushed the wispy dome from his solid body, freeing his black robes from the desperate, indistinct faces with his long, chalky fingers. The dome shuddered and resumed its hemispherical shape. Voldemort then turned his red, reptilian eyes to the eight, a horrible expression something like pride playing on his snake-like features.
"So, Potter," he said, his voice dark and smooth. The students tightened their grips on their wands, each more unsure of what to do than the next. "You've arrived just in time, along with two wondrous presents for my little house party." He grinned, a terrible, cold smile that seemed to squeeze everyone's hearts into nothingness.
Harry didn't quite understand what Voldemort had said, and thought maybe he meant Ron and Hermione.
"You don't even know what filth you brought into my home?" sneered Voldemort, seeming to read Harry's mind. "The only pleasure these two will bring me is the look on their faces as I slowly kill them."
The Dark Lord turned to Draco. "Malfoy! You buffoon, you idiot, you mortal fool!" Voldemort's face contorted in rage. "Your father was stupid enough to denounce me when I met my downfall, and now he cries out for mercy as my slave. At least he had the courage to admit his mistakes, and now he is paying for his selfish, half-witted decisions with a mere few years' servitude.
"But you, on the other hand, Draco. You denounced not only me, but your whole family. Not only your whole family, but your whole past. You forgot what an ambitious, loyal boy you used to be. Now, you befriend Mudbloods, half-Squibs, wizard trash - and the one who somehow defeated me!
"What was your deal, Malfoy? You thought you could hide behind Potter when the time to live up to your perfidy came? Even Potter isn't immune to me now. Nothing can stop me now, especially treacherous, lying, rotten rats!" He raised his wand.
"Crucio!"
Draco hit the floor, curled up into a fetal position, screaming in agony. Llewellyn, tears in her eyes, knelt by him and tried to comfort him, but it was useless. Voldemort stopped the curse. "
Ah, just as I thought, you beast," he spoke harshly, nearly spitting "beast". "You found comfort in Malfoy's mutiny and decided to join up in his treason. I thought that if your parents left you to yourself, your heritage alone would awaken your loyalty to I, the heir of Slytherin. I kept trying to send you messages in your dreams to seek me out. When they only confused you, I had to make them clearer, but, apparently, your stupidity rivals even Malfoy's, and you couldn't decipher them without your new friends at Hogwarts.
"You did manage to wreak a little havoc there, didn't you? When you came in contact with the Handbook of Modern Dark Magic, written by my great-uncle Grindelwald, the dreams I sent awakened your tongue, which awakened the enchanted runespoor snake to attack the other girls in your dormitory. Fortunately for you, the snake venom was weak from years of disuse, and the effects lasted merely a day."
But it affected you, didn't it, Euryale? You knew you couldn't deny your family as easily as Malfoy. You knew you could be found out easily. You knew that, no matter what you did, She would live on in you in some way."
Hermione gasped. "Euryale was - was one -"
"Of the Gorgons. You have such a sharp mind for such a dirty heritage, Granger."
Hermione said nothing, and Llewellyn gritted her teeth. Voldemort stared at her. "What's the matter, beast? You can't deny it. You're a Dark Witch no matter what you do."
"No, she's not," said Harry boldly. "She's in Gryffindor, not Slytherin."
"Houses mean nothing!" screamed Voldemort. "You should know that by now, Potter. You yourself were supposed to be in Slytherin, but that bloody hat of Gryffindor's put you into his house."
Harry looked away from Voldemort, his scar and face burning. Now, the others knew. Voldemort glared at Harry piercingly, and he returned the look. Suddenly, the Dark Lord spat something in Parseltongue, and Nagini appeared from the entrance.
"Attack the Gorgon," Voldemort commanded the snake, and then he turned towards the glowing dome.
"Come, Harry," he called.
Nagini slithered to Llewellyn, fangs bared. The gorgon's descendent bit her lip and backed up a step warily. Suddenly, Nagini struck out at her, and Llewellyn could do nothing except scream "STOP!"
In Parseltongue.
Nagini collapsed onto the stone floor, docile.