CHAPTER FOUR : DESTRUCTION
Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the next few days. Mrs. Figg started teaching them about curses. After that she moved to the Aflaterytes, creatures that had the power to curse everyone with a stupidity curse. The affected person was not thinking normally for a time, different from person to person and from the creature's age.
One day, while in the charms lesson, when they were practicing Haste, the speed charm, the door was opened with a loud noise. Professor Flitwick stopped talking and watched the door.
"Another mystery?" Harry asked himself. Then, his question was answered. No, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Sirius entered the classroom and told Flitwick:
"professor, do you allow Harry Potter to come with me to talk?" Sirius asked.
"In the middle of the class?" Flitwick asked. He paused. "Yes, of course. But wait to give them the homework. Do a short essay about speed charms."
"Harry, come!" Sirius told Harry, who stood up and exited the classroom. "Follow me!" Harry did so. "Viteza!" he said making a speed charm. He and Sirius had now a twice as normal speed.
Sirius lead him through several corridors and reached a dark one. The lights were on but they did not emit light at all. He could not see anything except the lights. "Lumos!" he said. The light at the end of his wand could be seen, but still nothing could be seen, exactly as with the corridor lights.
"No light will do anything." Sirius told him. "It is something you should see." He pointed his finger at a darker spot in the hallway. Harry realized what it was. That was another portal. This was a black one, and the smoke created by it prevented any light from lighting.
"You realized what it does?" Harry asked.
"No. Dumbledore told me you know a whole bunch of things about portals. And I think you will discover its secret. Dumbledore is nowhere to be found. So the only person to call was you."
Harry stood there, thinking. He knew some things about portals, and Dumbledore told him what to do with them. Then Harry, still not knowing exactly what to do if it is not a teleporter portal, said "Foccus!"
A jet of fire was shot from Harry's wand. It hit the center of the portal. There was a loud sound, like a pain scream, and the fire instantly froze. Was it a freezing portal? Harry tried a cold spell. But there were no strong cold spells he knew.
"Sirius! Do you know a strong cold spell that could hit the portal?" Sirius nodded.
"Arctic Velus!" he said and a medium-sized ice ball shot from his wand. It hit the portal. The ice melted.
That was a different portal. Harry did not know about these. "Show yourself, mighty portal creator!" he shouted at the portal, taking Dumbledore's idea. He waited several seconds. When he thought he did not do anything, he was stopped. He did it. The portal answered.
"Young Potter", a slow cold voice answered from the portal. "I wanted to meet you".
"Who are you?"
"My identity is secret now. You will find out if you step into the portal." The voice was frightening. Harry decided it was better not to enter the portal, maybe it was Voldemort. He did not say anything.
"If you do not want to meet me, I will promise that you will see me soon. And do not worry, as I am not an enemy. I want to destroy Voldemort. He almost killed me... Lucky he thought I was a muggle."
Harry did not know what to think, or what to believe. Then he heard "See you later" and the portal disappeared. The black smoke vanished too. Harry's wand still had the Lumos cast. "Nox", he said and the light turned off.
After the short talking with the mysterious person, neither Harry nor Sirius said anything. They stood in the corridor, thunderstruck, out of words.
They were there for fifteen minutes without saying anything. Then someone spoke.
"Well done Harry!". It was Dumbledore. "You have proven to be a very good decisive person, and I must congratulate you." Harry and Sirius continued to be quiet. "Sirius, you could not find me in my office because I hid myself. I wanted to see how Harry will do in a situation like this." he paused for a moment "You have done well."
Then Harry found words. "Who was the person who spoke?"
"The person is not known yet. But judging after what he said, you will meet him soon..." Harry thought again at Voldemort. "No it was not Voldemort at all."
Dumbledore again read his mind. He was as mysterious as the other unusual things that happened recently.
"Sirius, Harry, you can go to the Great Hall. The lunch began."
They both walked to the Great Hall. There, Sirius went to his usual seat, at the staff table. Ron and Hermione kept Harry a place.
"Hey Harry" Ron and Hermione said.
"Hello"
"What happened?"
"It was another portal. I had to deal with it myself this time."
"Yourself???" Hermione asked quite surprised. "And what did you do?"
"I managed to talk to the creator of the portal. It looked like Dumbledore wanted me to try it. I've met him just after the portal disappeared."
They talked more than they ate. Harry told them detailed everything he did with the portal. After they ate, they went to Divination. Professor Trelawney was waiting for them with some planet charts on the desk. All of them took seat.
"Today we will start with planet movement affecting the death age."
"You already told us that!!!" Ron said.
"No, Weasley. Today I will explain more advanced predictions. Those are almost all the time true."
"As true as the predictions of Harry's death", Ron said in a low voice, so Trelawney could not hear him. He and Harry started laughing. After Trelawney's every sentence, Ron had something funny to say. That made professor Trelawney angry. And she found a way to punish Ron.
"Weasley, the movements of Venus in comparation to the position of Saturn are not good at all... Looks like your life is short. Shorter than Potter's."
"He lives 80 years and I live 79!" Ron said. Trelawney heard him.
"Twenty points are taken from Gryffindor, Weasley!"
She never took points from Gryffindor before. Not from what Harry knew. After a short time, they gave them a lot of predictions to make for the next class.
"Stupid Idiot professor!" Ron said angry after they climbed down the ladder. "I will do anything to put her into trouble!"
Hermione saw them again. "I told you to take Arithmancy!" she said.
"Oh shut up!" Ron said angrily. "And imagine going to Arithmancy after two years!!! I think I would go if it were possible! This brainless idiot started predicting my death too!"
"Really?" asked Hermione before she started to laugh. "This is ridiculous!"
They stopped talking about that. They climbed the staircases, gave the Fat Lady the password and entered the room. Harry and Ron were very upset, especially Ron. They started doing their homework. They cheered up a bit by inventing death reasons for Trelawney. They quite enjoyed predicting funnier and funnier methods of dying. After about three hours, they finished.
"Three hours!" Ron said angrily. "If that idiot gives us another homework like this I will surely curse her!!!"
That evening they played different games with Lee, Fred and George. At midnight, Harry went to the bedroom. He thrown himself onto the four-poster bed and before he fell asleep, his scar was hurting. It was surely another of Voldemort's strikes.
Harry was in front of a wooden house. There was a strong wind which suddenly stopped. A man in a dark cloak apparated in front of the house. The wooden door burst open from the interior. Another wizard appeared on the door. It was Lucius Malfoy.
"Master", he said. "Our plans are ready. Arkatis is now after Harry Potter. He will surely get him for you."
"Good job, Lucius!" the cold voice of Voldemort answered. "If Arkatis will do his job, you will be forgiven. But if he fails" A strong wind started again. Voldemort created this. "You know I do not tolerate failures. Both you and Arkatis will be punished!"
A snake came to their feet. Voldemort was looking at it.
"Nagini! Where have you been?" he asked in parseltongue.
"We have bad news about the Hogwarts School!" Nagini answered. Only Harry and Voldemort understood him.
"WHAT?" Voldemort's voice was now full of fury.
"Dumbledore strengthened the Hogwarts' defenses. We can only penetrate them by destroying the entire school!"
"This is bad," Voldemort answered, "because Draco is at Hogwarts, too, and many who could join me!"
"Draco is not there anymore", Lucius told him, "I transferred him. Dumbledore did not allow him anymore. He is now at -"
The wind strengthened. Harry could not hear where Malfoy was. He could only hear Voldemort's voice saying "I will go. The wind is too strong for me now. My recovery is not complete yet."
The dream ended. He was in the bedroom; it was half an hour past midnight. This dream was no good news at all. He woke up fast, his scar was hurting a bit, and left for Dumbledore's office.
He never was at this time there. The staircase that lead to the office was lighted by candles with a red fire. Then he reached the stone gargoyle.
"Voldemort!" said Harry and the gargoyle started spitting fire from its nose. The fire on the candles expanded. Harry was in danger. "Inelus frostus!" he said, and an ice ring burst out of his wand and the fire was gone. It was dark, nothing could be seen. "Lumos!" he said and his wand started to light. He looked at the gargoyle and said again: "Voldemort!"
The gargoyle moved, and a wall of fire was in the place it was put. Harry tried many water or cold spells but with no effect. He shouted: "professor Dumbledore!"
The fire set off and the door swung open. Dumbledore stood there, half asleep.
"Harry, what are you doing at this time?" he asked.
"Another dream. Voldemort wants to destroy the school!"
"Explain."
Harry started to explain things quite detailed. He was happy because he wasn't drained again. Dumbledore looked quite surprised, but it looked as he had a plan already. The defenses of Hogwarts could not stop the way Arkatis would destroy the castle. But what was the way? Would he take some dynamites from the Muggles?
Harry could not ask anything because Dumbledore stood up and ran out of the office. Harry did not stay there alone, he went to the gryffindor tower. It was an hour past midnight. The Fat Lady did not like being woken up at that time. But that did not matter to Harry. He went to his bed and tried to sleep.
Lots of thoughts started moving through his head. He wanted now to sleep, but he wasn't sleepy. Where did Dumbledore extra enchantments at the school defenses? Or did he expect that Arkatis tried to destroy the school this night?
He stood more than an hour until he, at last, fell asleep.
Next day he was quite worried about the dream. He explained it to Ron and Hermione, and told them that Dumbledore hurried somewhere. Hermione thought like Harry, that he wanted to strengthen the enchantments.
They were in the Great Hall. Dumbledore looked as if he had not slept all night. He did not want to talk to anybody, as he usually did. The things Dumbledore did last night were obvious. There were a stronger magic in the castle; everyone felt it, except Neville.
"Harry", Hermione said, "where is Flitwick?"
Harry looked to the staff table, Hermione was right. Flitwick wasn't there. His chair was empty.
"Maybe he is putting some charms on the Hogwarts's defenses.", said Harry, "Hogwarts really needs some."
"But really it becomes harder and harder for us to stay here. The magic in the castle neutralizes lots of spells now. Only the classrooms are not protected, because it was impossible to teach us anything..."
"I wonder how could Arkatis try to destroy Hogwarts..." said Harry.
All three of them stood, thinking.
"I am sure Dumbledore will stop him", said Ron.
Then, Flitwick opened the doors with a loud bang. Everyone looked at him.
"The Death Eaters..." Flitwick said, "Are... Here!"
Even they did not know Arkatis's plans, lots of students were alarmed. Dumbledore said something, but no one heard. Then, his voice was magnified, maybe by a Sonorus spell.
"SILENCE AND DON'T PANIC!!!" he shouted, so everyone heard. "Quietus!" his voice was now back to normal. "Flitwick, is Arkatis one of them?"
"I haven't seen him, headmaster. But who knows what their plans are..."
"Sirius, Remus, Arabella, Mundugus and Fred, follow me!" said Dumbledore exiting the hall. The five went after him.
Harry felt like going there himself. But he had to stay, he couldn't imagine what Dumbledore said if he went after him. But he really felt like going to the Death Eaters. More seconds passed with him thinking of what to do next, and after that, he said "See you later" and hurried to the grounds.
He stepped to the entrance hall. There was definitely a stronger magic than anywhere. He could feel as he did not need to use his powers for a strong spell - the magic in the hall could do it for himself.
Suddenly, a wizard entered the hall and walked into Harry. It was none other than Lucius Malfoy.
"You!" said Harry pointing his wand at him. "What do you think you're doing?"
"None of your business!" he said and he tried to walk past Harry.
"Harzus!" Harry shouted and from his wand exploded some wooden branches that binded Malfoy to the ground. This was the Harzet curse he read from a book in the holiday. Then, he pointed his wand in another place and the branches moved Malfoy to that place. "You -- Never -- beat -- Harry -- Potter!" he said quite angry. "You want to destroy Hogwarts? No, you cannot do it!"
"How did you know?" Lucius asked.
"Does not matter" said Harry. Then an idea came to him. Could he use an unforgivable curse on a Death Eater?
He wanted to put a cruciatus curse on Malfoy, with the help of the magic in the hall. He left Malfoy there, binded, and he ran to the Great Hall. He wondered who to ask that. He knew what McGonagall would sound like if he asked her. Then he saw professor Flitwick sitting on his chair, waiting for Dumbledore to return. Harry went straight to him, and asked:
"Professor," he paused. He did know what to ask. "I caught a Death Eater in a Harzet curse, and I wanted to ask what can I do to him."
"You simply can bring him to one of us and we will deal with him." Flitwick's answer was not what Harry expected. Then, he couldn't ask about the unforgivables - but he had to do it... He did not know how Flitwick would react... Then, knowing his personality, he finally asked:
"Are the unforgivable curses allowed to use on a Death Eater?"
"An unforgivable one! You won't be able to do it - but yes they are allowed, but not to kill... Really you will try it in vain... You just know the incantation..."
Harry ran to Malfoy. He was that near him was Sirius. Sirius Black.
"Sirius!" he said.
"Harry! What happened to him?"
"He...", Malfoy could say, "cursed... me... with a Harzet b-bind!"
"What is with you Harry??? You start attacking Death Eaters?" asked Sirius.
"He - He went up... who knows what he could have done..."
"Right." said Sirius. "Mobilicorpus!"
Malfoy's body was now lifted up. Sirius walked to the Great Hall, Malfoy was floating in air. Everyone saw them, and McGonagall ran ot them.
Sirius left the hall after putting Malfoy there.
"Lucius Malfoy!" she said. "One of the Death Eaters...You'll just wait until Dumbledore comes, to see what he will do you"
Harry walked, and everyone thought he was going to the Gryffindor table. But, he changed his direction and ran to the entrance hall. He could hear incantations - there was a fight between the Death Eaters and the defenders of Hogwarts. He passed the entrance door and he had seen it.
In front of him were Dumbledore, Sirius, Lupin, Figg, Mundugus and Fred Thunder. They were dodging curses and shooting different spells, which hit Death Eaters quite easy, who were at a quite long distance from the others.
Harry looked around to see who he knew. Most of the Death Eaters were unknown. There were about forty of them. How could Voldemort find so much supporters in such a short time?
Harry saw Lupin shooting confundus charms on some Death Eaters. That caused them to attack each other. Dumbledore was more of a healer; every time one of the Hogwarts' defenders was hit, he would cast different spells on him, curing his wounds. Sirius was shooting ice balls. Mrs. Figg was not doing any spells, she was just dodging curses. Mundugus Fletcher used transfiguration mostly; he transfigured one weaker Death Eater into a stone. Fred Thunder was shooting lightning spells.
"Close your eyes!" Fletcher said. "Do not ask why - just close them!"
Harry looked to see what he was doing. Then he saw - One of the stones on the ground was changing size... It became a basilisk. It had to be a transfiguration spell used by Fletcher.
Harry instantly closed his eyes. The noise of the battle disappeared... He heard a loud bang, and Fletcher told them to open their eyes.
Harry did so. He had seen the basilisk dead on the ground, and lots of Death Eaters lying on the ground. Some were at a long distance; they could be seen running away. Dumbledore and the other defenders were looking attentively to the entrance to the grounds. Then suddenly -
"Come with me" said a man who was holding his wand pointed at him. Harry could not see him, he had to turn.
Harry had to listen to him. He did so. The man entered the school, still holding his wand pointed at Harry. He went upstairs, no one seen them. They reached the seventh floor. Harry knew that was the last one. But it wasn't. The stranger walked on thin air to another level. Harry followed him as he could. They reached a small room, with only one green light. There was a very strong noise that could not be heard from the seventh floor. In the middle of the room there was a table. On the table were three metal pipes, which had one extremity on the table and one in the air, and between them, there was a green spherical beam which emitted green beams throughout al the room.
"Ardelio!" the man said pointing his wand at the metal pipes. He pulled out of his pocket another metal package. It read "Danger. Magical Explosives"
"So... You are Harry Potter", he said. "I am Arkatis, one of Voldemort's most faithful servants. I have been sent to destroy the entire castle." He pointed his wand at Harry again. "You have no escape from me now. I may not destroy the castle, I have been sent to kill you mainly. But I have thought that here are Dumbledore and other strong wizards." He paused. "Oh I am not sent to tell you the circumstances. Activo!" The green light changed a nuance of purple. "Good bye!"
Arkatis stood there. After a time, he had a strange look on his face.
"No!!! I forgot... Anti-apparating protections... Oh..."
Harry wanted to take the opportunity. He wanted to kill now Arkatis. But it was not possible. He had first to stop the spell. Arkatis, being scared, did not look as confident as before. Harry took his wand and pointed it at Arkatis. "Tell me how to stop the spell?" he said.
Arkatis did not say a word.
"Tell me. NOW!"
"No, I will better die in my help for my lord... or maybe... not?"
"Tell me how to stop it and you won't die!"
Arkatis hesitated for a moment. Then he took his wand, pointed it at the purple light and said: Avada Kedavra!
The light did not move towards the light. It moved to Harry, who, seeing that, jumped to a side saying "Avada Kedavra" and pointing at Arkatis.
Even that he did not expect to do something as advanced as that, he did it. A jet of green light shot out of Harry's wand. Arkatis stopped thunderstruck, while the green light hit him. Next moment, he was dead.
Then, Harry thought, Arkatis was right... What could stop the destruction? He did not think too much and ran to bring a teacher there. And fortunately, at the sixth floor, he ran into Dumbledore himself.
"What is it? I felt something is going wrong..."
"Follow me!" said Harry. He led Dumbledore to the invisible stairs. But the place the stairs should have been was not solid anymore. "Oh..."
"What is it?" Dumbledore asked.
"The eighth floor..."
"There is no eighth floor!"
"Oh yes it is... and the stairs were invisible... They were just here! Arkatis used a spell and he said it would destroy the entire Hogwarts castle... I don't know how much time he have left..."
Dumbledore took his wand. He said "Appontrix" and a blue ring shot out of his wand, like at the Inelus Frostus, but this was a lighter blue. It grew bigger and bigger. It stopped at the place the stairs should have been. Then Dumbledore said again "Solido!" and the stairs became visible. They stepped through the ceiling wall, which looked solid, and they were in the purple small room again.
Dumbledore looked as if he knew what to do. He hurried to the purple thing in the middle, and said: "Etherus!"
The metal thing on the table exploded. The purple light disappeared. There was a complete dark. "Lumos!" both of them said at the same moment, and Harry saw that the table had a hole in the middle. He and Dumbledore stood there, quiet.
After a short time, Dumbledore started to talk. "It is good. I destroyed the explosives, but I used a charm that almost neutralized it. The threat has gone, but who knows what will come later..."
Harry started explaining Dumbledore what he did from the moment Flitwick announced the arrival of the Death Eaters. He told him everything - the meeting with Malfoy, how he had seen a small part of the fight, how Arkatis caught him, how they went to the secret room and what Arkatis told him. Dumbledore seemed quite impressed.
"You have shown, again, bravery there. And I do not blame you for being interested in the fight we had with the Death Eaters. And - Malfoy is in the Great Hall, you say?"
"Yes, professor."
They went to the Great Hall. Malfoy was still binded by Harry's curse. Dumbledore looked at him. He said "Lucius we will talk in my office. Mobilicorpus!". He exited the Great Hall, maybe going to his office, and Snape was floating near him.
Everyone in the hall except Harry looked confused. Sirius, Lupin and the other ones were back in the hall. Sirius and Lupin went straight to Harry. After that, Ron and Hermione, too.
"What happened?" Sirius asked him.
"I'll explain for everyone to understand." He told them exactly what he told Dumbledore. After he finished, he told Hermione and Ron they were late for class. They had Potions, and being late for Potions was not a good thing.
On their way Harry had seen Cho. He hasn't thought of her these days, not with all the trouble happening. He started thinking about her... He slowed a bit.
"Come on! We do not want to be late too long in Potions!" Run told him.
Harry tried to move faster, if he could. He didn't know how they reached the classroom. He had thought about Cho.
Snape took fifteen points from each of them. They brewed a resistance potion, that gave the drinker magic resistances. Harry did quite well at this, thinking that Snape did not have anything to say. Neville, who was a disaster at potions, used more ingredients than half of the class, because every time he cut something wrong, or put too much of them. Snape became really angry with this, and he took another twenty points from Gryffindor.
That class was a big loss for Gryffindor. 70 points were not nothing, and they thought Snape was now worse than ever.
The next days, nothing happened. But after some weeks, another thing started bothering Harry.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the next few days. Mrs. Figg started teaching them about curses. After that she moved to the Aflaterytes, creatures that had the power to curse everyone with a stupidity curse. The affected person was not thinking normally for a time, different from person to person and from the creature's age.
One day, while in the charms lesson, when they were practicing Haste, the speed charm, the door was opened with a loud noise. Professor Flitwick stopped talking and watched the door.
"Another mystery?" Harry asked himself. Then, his question was answered. No, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Sirius entered the classroom and told Flitwick:
"professor, do you allow Harry Potter to come with me to talk?" Sirius asked.
"In the middle of the class?" Flitwick asked. He paused. "Yes, of course. But wait to give them the homework. Do a short essay about speed charms."
"Harry, come!" Sirius told Harry, who stood up and exited the classroom. "Follow me!" Harry did so. "Viteza!" he said making a speed charm. He and Sirius had now a twice as normal speed.
Sirius lead him through several corridors and reached a dark one. The lights were on but they did not emit light at all. He could not see anything except the lights. "Lumos!" he said. The light at the end of his wand could be seen, but still nothing could be seen, exactly as with the corridor lights.
"No light will do anything." Sirius told him. "It is something you should see." He pointed his finger at a darker spot in the hallway. Harry realized what it was. That was another portal. This was a black one, and the smoke created by it prevented any light from lighting.
"You realized what it does?" Harry asked.
"No. Dumbledore told me you know a whole bunch of things about portals. And I think you will discover its secret. Dumbledore is nowhere to be found. So the only person to call was you."
Harry stood there, thinking. He knew some things about portals, and Dumbledore told him what to do with them. Then Harry, still not knowing exactly what to do if it is not a teleporter portal, said "Foccus!"
A jet of fire was shot from Harry's wand. It hit the center of the portal. There was a loud sound, like a pain scream, and the fire instantly froze. Was it a freezing portal? Harry tried a cold spell. But there were no strong cold spells he knew.
"Sirius! Do you know a strong cold spell that could hit the portal?" Sirius nodded.
"Arctic Velus!" he said and a medium-sized ice ball shot from his wand. It hit the portal. The ice melted.
That was a different portal. Harry did not know about these. "Show yourself, mighty portal creator!" he shouted at the portal, taking Dumbledore's idea. He waited several seconds. When he thought he did not do anything, he was stopped. He did it. The portal answered.
"Young Potter", a slow cold voice answered from the portal. "I wanted to meet you".
"Who are you?"
"My identity is secret now. You will find out if you step into the portal." The voice was frightening. Harry decided it was better not to enter the portal, maybe it was Voldemort. He did not say anything.
"If you do not want to meet me, I will promise that you will see me soon. And do not worry, as I am not an enemy. I want to destroy Voldemort. He almost killed me... Lucky he thought I was a muggle."
Harry did not know what to think, or what to believe. Then he heard "See you later" and the portal disappeared. The black smoke vanished too. Harry's wand still had the Lumos cast. "Nox", he said and the light turned off.
After the short talking with the mysterious person, neither Harry nor Sirius said anything. They stood in the corridor, thunderstruck, out of words.
They were there for fifteen minutes without saying anything. Then someone spoke.
"Well done Harry!". It was Dumbledore. "You have proven to be a very good decisive person, and I must congratulate you." Harry and Sirius continued to be quiet. "Sirius, you could not find me in my office because I hid myself. I wanted to see how Harry will do in a situation like this." he paused for a moment "You have done well."
Then Harry found words. "Who was the person who spoke?"
"The person is not known yet. But judging after what he said, you will meet him soon..." Harry thought again at Voldemort. "No it was not Voldemort at all."
Dumbledore again read his mind. He was as mysterious as the other unusual things that happened recently.
"Sirius, Harry, you can go to the Great Hall. The lunch began."
They both walked to the Great Hall. There, Sirius went to his usual seat, at the staff table. Ron and Hermione kept Harry a place.
"Hey Harry" Ron and Hermione said.
"Hello"
"What happened?"
"It was another portal. I had to deal with it myself this time."
"Yourself???" Hermione asked quite surprised. "And what did you do?"
"I managed to talk to the creator of the portal. It looked like Dumbledore wanted me to try it. I've met him just after the portal disappeared."
They talked more than they ate. Harry told them detailed everything he did with the portal. After they ate, they went to Divination. Professor Trelawney was waiting for them with some planet charts on the desk. All of them took seat.
"Today we will start with planet movement affecting the death age."
"You already told us that!!!" Ron said.
"No, Weasley. Today I will explain more advanced predictions. Those are almost all the time true."
"As true as the predictions of Harry's death", Ron said in a low voice, so Trelawney could not hear him. He and Harry started laughing. After Trelawney's every sentence, Ron had something funny to say. That made professor Trelawney angry. And she found a way to punish Ron.
"Weasley, the movements of Venus in comparation to the position of Saturn are not good at all... Looks like your life is short. Shorter than Potter's."
"He lives 80 years and I live 79!" Ron said. Trelawney heard him.
"Twenty points are taken from Gryffindor, Weasley!"
She never took points from Gryffindor before. Not from what Harry knew. After a short time, they gave them a lot of predictions to make for the next class.
"Stupid Idiot professor!" Ron said angry after they climbed down the ladder. "I will do anything to put her into trouble!"
Hermione saw them again. "I told you to take Arithmancy!" she said.
"Oh shut up!" Ron said angrily. "And imagine going to Arithmancy after two years!!! I think I would go if it were possible! This brainless idiot started predicting my death too!"
"Really?" asked Hermione before she started to laugh. "This is ridiculous!"
They stopped talking about that. They climbed the staircases, gave the Fat Lady the password and entered the room. Harry and Ron were very upset, especially Ron. They started doing their homework. They cheered up a bit by inventing death reasons for Trelawney. They quite enjoyed predicting funnier and funnier methods of dying. After about three hours, they finished.
"Three hours!" Ron said angrily. "If that idiot gives us another homework like this I will surely curse her!!!"
That evening they played different games with Lee, Fred and George. At midnight, Harry went to the bedroom. He thrown himself onto the four-poster bed and before he fell asleep, his scar was hurting. It was surely another of Voldemort's strikes.
Harry was in front of a wooden house. There was a strong wind which suddenly stopped. A man in a dark cloak apparated in front of the house. The wooden door burst open from the interior. Another wizard appeared on the door. It was Lucius Malfoy.
"Master", he said. "Our plans are ready. Arkatis is now after Harry Potter. He will surely get him for you."
"Good job, Lucius!" the cold voice of Voldemort answered. "If Arkatis will do his job, you will be forgiven. But if he fails" A strong wind started again. Voldemort created this. "You know I do not tolerate failures. Both you and Arkatis will be punished!"
A snake came to their feet. Voldemort was looking at it.
"Nagini! Where have you been?" he asked in parseltongue.
"We have bad news about the Hogwarts School!" Nagini answered. Only Harry and Voldemort understood him.
"WHAT?" Voldemort's voice was now full of fury.
"Dumbledore strengthened the Hogwarts' defenses. We can only penetrate them by destroying the entire school!"
"This is bad," Voldemort answered, "because Draco is at Hogwarts, too, and many who could join me!"
"Draco is not there anymore", Lucius told him, "I transferred him. Dumbledore did not allow him anymore. He is now at -"
The wind strengthened. Harry could not hear where Malfoy was. He could only hear Voldemort's voice saying "I will go. The wind is too strong for me now. My recovery is not complete yet."
The dream ended. He was in the bedroom; it was half an hour past midnight. This dream was no good news at all. He woke up fast, his scar was hurting a bit, and left for Dumbledore's office.
He never was at this time there. The staircase that lead to the office was lighted by candles with a red fire. Then he reached the stone gargoyle.
"Voldemort!" said Harry and the gargoyle started spitting fire from its nose. The fire on the candles expanded. Harry was in danger. "Inelus frostus!" he said, and an ice ring burst out of his wand and the fire was gone. It was dark, nothing could be seen. "Lumos!" he said and his wand started to light. He looked at the gargoyle and said again: "Voldemort!"
The gargoyle moved, and a wall of fire was in the place it was put. Harry tried many water or cold spells but with no effect. He shouted: "professor Dumbledore!"
The fire set off and the door swung open. Dumbledore stood there, half asleep.
"Harry, what are you doing at this time?" he asked.
"Another dream. Voldemort wants to destroy the school!"
"Explain."
Harry started to explain things quite detailed. He was happy because he wasn't drained again. Dumbledore looked quite surprised, but it looked as he had a plan already. The defenses of Hogwarts could not stop the way Arkatis would destroy the castle. But what was the way? Would he take some dynamites from the Muggles?
Harry could not ask anything because Dumbledore stood up and ran out of the office. Harry did not stay there alone, he went to the gryffindor tower. It was an hour past midnight. The Fat Lady did not like being woken up at that time. But that did not matter to Harry. He went to his bed and tried to sleep.
Lots of thoughts started moving through his head. He wanted now to sleep, but he wasn't sleepy. Where did Dumbledore extra enchantments at the school defenses? Or did he expect that Arkatis tried to destroy the school this night?
He stood more than an hour until he, at last, fell asleep.
Next day he was quite worried about the dream. He explained it to Ron and Hermione, and told them that Dumbledore hurried somewhere. Hermione thought like Harry, that he wanted to strengthen the enchantments.
They were in the Great Hall. Dumbledore looked as if he had not slept all night. He did not want to talk to anybody, as he usually did. The things Dumbledore did last night were obvious. There were a stronger magic in the castle; everyone felt it, except Neville.
"Harry", Hermione said, "where is Flitwick?"
Harry looked to the staff table, Hermione was right. Flitwick wasn't there. His chair was empty.
"Maybe he is putting some charms on the Hogwarts's defenses.", said Harry, "Hogwarts really needs some."
"But really it becomes harder and harder for us to stay here. The magic in the castle neutralizes lots of spells now. Only the classrooms are not protected, because it was impossible to teach us anything..."
"I wonder how could Arkatis try to destroy Hogwarts..." said Harry.
All three of them stood, thinking.
"I am sure Dumbledore will stop him", said Ron.
Then, Flitwick opened the doors with a loud bang. Everyone looked at him.
"The Death Eaters..." Flitwick said, "Are... Here!"
Even they did not know Arkatis's plans, lots of students were alarmed. Dumbledore said something, but no one heard. Then, his voice was magnified, maybe by a Sonorus spell.
"SILENCE AND DON'T PANIC!!!" he shouted, so everyone heard. "Quietus!" his voice was now back to normal. "Flitwick, is Arkatis one of them?"
"I haven't seen him, headmaster. But who knows what their plans are..."
"Sirius, Remus, Arabella, Mundugus and Fred, follow me!" said Dumbledore exiting the hall. The five went after him.
Harry felt like going there himself. But he had to stay, he couldn't imagine what Dumbledore said if he went after him. But he really felt like going to the Death Eaters. More seconds passed with him thinking of what to do next, and after that, he said "See you later" and hurried to the grounds.
He stepped to the entrance hall. There was definitely a stronger magic than anywhere. He could feel as he did not need to use his powers for a strong spell - the magic in the hall could do it for himself.
Suddenly, a wizard entered the hall and walked into Harry. It was none other than Lucius Malfoy.
"You!" said Harry pointing his wand at him. "What do you think you're doing?"
"None of your business!" he said and he tried to walk past Harry.
"Harzus!" Harry shouted and from his wand exploded some wooden branches that binded Malfoy to the ground. This was the Harzet curse he read from a book in the holiday. Then, he pointed his wand in another place and the branches moved Malfoy to that place. "You -- Never -- beat -- Harry -- Potter!" he said quite angry. "You want to destroy Hogwarts? No, you cannot do it!"
"How did you know?" Lucius asked.
"Does not matter" said Harry. Then an idea came to him. Could he use an unforgivable curse on a Death Eater?
He wanted to put a cruciatus curse on Malfoy, with the help of the magic in the hall. He left Malfoy there, binded, and he ran to the Great Hall. He wondered who to ask that. He knew what McGonagall would sound like if he asked her. Then he saw professor Flitwick sitting on his chair, waiting for Dumbledore to return. Harry went straight to him, and asked:
"Professor," he paused. He did know what to ask. "I caught a Death Eater in a Harzet curse, and I wanted to ask what can I do to him."
"You simply can bring him to one of us and we will deal with him." Flitwick's answer was not what Harry expected. Then, he couldn't ask about the unforgivables - but he had to do it... He did not know how Flitwick would react... Then, knowing his personality, he finally asked:
"Are the unforgivable curses allowed to use on a Death Eater?"
"An unforgivable one! You won't be able to do it - but yes they are allowed, but not to kill... Really you will try it in vain... You just know the incantation..."
Harry ran to Malfoy. He was that near him was Sirius. Sirius Black.
"Sirius!" he said.
"Harry! What happened to him?"
"He...", Malfoy could say, "cursed... me... with a Harzet b-bind!"
"What is with you Harry??? You start attacking Death Eaters?" asked Sirius.
"He - He went up... who knows what he could have done..."
"Right." said Sirius. "Mobilicorpus!"
Malfoy's body was now lifted up. Sirius walked to the Great Hall, Malfoy was floating in air. Everyone saw them, and McGonagall ran ot them.
Sirius left the hall after putting Malfoy there.
"Lucius Malfoy!" she said. "One of the Death Eaters...You'll just wait until Dumbledore comes, to see what he will do you"
Harry walked, and everyone thought he was going to the Gryffindor table. But, he changed his direction and ran to the entrance hall. He could hear incantations - there was a fight between the Death Eaters and the defenders of Hogwarts. He passed the entrance door and he had seen it.
In front of him were Dumbledore, Sirius, Lupin, Figg, Mundugus and Fred Thunder. They were dodging curses and shooting different spells, which hit Death Eaters quite easy, who were at a quite long distance from the others.
Harry looked around to see who he knew. Most of the Death Eaters were unknown. There were about forty of them. How could Voldemort find so much supporters in such a short time?
Harry saw Lupin shooting confundus charms on some Death Eaters. That caused them to attack each other. Dumbledore was more of a healer; every time one of the Hogwarts' defenders was hit, he would cast different spells on him, curing his wounds. Sirius was shooting ice balls. Mrs. Figg was not doing any spells, she was just dodging curses. Mundugus Fletcher used transfiguration mostly; he transfigured one weaker Death Eater into a stone. Fred Thunder was shooting lightning spells.
"Close your eyes!" Fletcher said. "Do not ask why - just close them!"
Harry looked to see what he was doing. Then he saw - One of the stones on the ground was changing size... It became a basilisk. It had to be a transfiguration spell used by Fletcher.
Harry instantly closed his eyes. The noise of the battle disappeared... He heard a loud bang, and Fletcher told them to open their eyes.
Harry did so. He had seen the basilisk dead on the ground, and lots of Death Eaters lying on the ground. Some were at a long distance; they could be seen running away. Dumbledore and the other defenders were looking attentively to the entrance to the grounds. Then suddenly -
"Come with me" said a man who was holding his wand pointed at him. Harry could not see him, he had to turn.
Harry had to listen to him. He did so. The man entered the school, still holding his wand pointed at Harry. He went upstairs, no one seen them. They reached the seventh floor. Harry knew that was the last one. But it wasn't. The stranger walked on thin air to another level. Harry followed him as he could. They reached a small room, with only one green light. There was a very strong noise that could not be heard from the seventh floor. In the middle of the room there was a table. On the table were three metal pipes, which had one extremity on the table and one in the air, and between them, there was a green spherical beam which emitted green beams throughout al the room.
"Ardelio!" the man said pointing his wand at the metal pipes. He pulled out of his pocket another metal package. It read "Danger. Magical Explosives"
"So... You are Harry Potter", he said. "I am Arkatis, one of Voldemort's most faithful servants. I have been sent to destroy the entire castle." He pointed his wand at Harry again. "You have no escape from me now. I may not destroy the castle, I have been sent to kill you mainly. But I have thought that here are Dumbledore and other strong wizards." He paused. "Oh I am not sent to tell you the circumstances. Activo!" The green light changed a nuance of purple. "Good bye!"
Arkatis stood there. After a time, he had a strange look on his face.
"No!!! I forgot... Anti-apparating protections... Oh..."
Harry wanted to take the opportunity. He wanted to kill now Arkatis. But it was not possible. He had first to stop the spell. Arkatis, being scared, did not look as confident as before. Harry took his wand and pointed it at Arkatis. "Tell me how to stop the spell?" he said.
Arkatis did not say a word.
"Tell me. NOW!"
"No, I will better die in my help for my lord... or maybe... not?"
"Tell me how to stop it and you won't die!"
Arkatis hesitated for a moment. Then he took his wand, pointed it at the purple light and said: Avada Kedavra!
The light did not move towards the light. It moved to Harry, who, seeing that, jumped to a side saying "Avada Kedavra" and pointing at Arkatis.
Even that he did not expect to do something as advanced as that, he did it. A jet of green light shot out of Harry's wand. Arkatis stopped thunderstruck, while the green light hit him. Next moment, he was dead.
Then, Harry thought, Arkatis was right... What could stop the destruction? He did not think too much and ran to bring a teacher there. And fortunately, at the sixth floor, he ran into Dumbledore himself.
"What is it? I felt something is going wrong..."
"Follow me!" said Harry. He led Dumbledore to the invisible stairs. But the place the stairs should have been was not solid anymore. "Oh..."
"What is it?" Dumbledore asked.
"The eighth floor..."
"There is no eighth floor!"
"Oh yes it is... and the stairs were invisible... They were just here! Arkatis used a spell and he said it would destroy the entire Hogwarts castle... I don't know how much time he have left..."
Dumbledore took his wand. He said "Appontrix" and a blue ring shot out of his wand, like at the Inelus Frostus, but this was a lighter blue. It grew bigger and bigger. It stopped at the place the stairs should have been. Then Dumbledore said again "Solido!" and the stairs became visible. They stepped through the ceiling wall, which looked solid, and they were in the purple small room again.
Dumbledore looked as if he knew what to do. He hurried to the purple thing in the middle, and said: "Etherus!"
The metal thing on the table exploded. The purple light disappeared. There was a complete dark. "Lumos!" both of them said at the same moment, and Harry saw that the table had a hole in the middle. He and Dumbledore stood there, quiet.
After a short time, Dumbledore started to talk. "It is good. I destroyed the explosives, but I used a charm that almost neutralized it. The threat has gone, but who knows what will come later..."
Harry started explaining Dumbledore what he did from the moment Flitwick announced the arrival of the Death Eaters. He told him everything - the meeting with Malfoy, how he had seen a small part of the fight, how Arkatis caught him, how they went to the secret room and what Arkatis told him. Dumbledore seemed quite impressed.
"You have shown, again, bravery there. And I do not blame you for being interested in the fight we had with the Death Eaters. And - Malfoy is in the Great Hall, you say?"
"Yes, professor."
They went to the Great Hall. Malfoy was still binded by Harry's curse. Dumbledore looked at him. He said "Lucius we will talk in my office. Mobilicorpus!". He exited the Great Hall, maybe going to his office, and Snape was floating near him.
Everyone in the hall except Harry looked confused. Sirius, Lupin and the other ones were back in the hall. Sirius and Lupin went straight to Harry. After that, Ron and Hermione, too.
"What happened?" Sirius asked him.
"I'll explain for everyone to understand." He told them exactly what he told Dumbledore. After he finished, he told Hermione and Ron they were late for class. They had Potions, and being late for Potions was not a good thing.
On their way Harry had seen Cho. He hasn't thought of her these days, not with all the trouble happening. He started thinking about her... He slowed a bit.
"Come on! We do not want to be late too long in Potions!" Run told him.
Harry tried to move faster, if he could. He didn't know how they reached the classroom. He had thought about Cho.
Snape took fifteen points from each of them. They brewed a resistance potion, that gave the drinker magic resistances. Harry did quite well at this, thinking that Snape did not have anything to say. Neville, who was a disaster at potions, used more ingredients than half of the class, because every time he cut something wrong, or put too much of them. Snape became really angry with this, and he took another twenty points from Gryffindor.
That class was a big loss for Gryffindor. 70 points were not nothing, and they thought Snape was now worse than ever.
The next days, nothing happened. But after some weeks, another thing started bothering Harry.