~~ Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Final Hour, Part II ~~
There were protests, of course, and requests for explanations, but Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Lucius Malfoy, Eko Chang, and Alina Terringer managed to get all the Gryffindors out of the common room and upstairs into their dormitories. Their reason for doing this was so no students would attempt to follow them. Courage could get out of hand, and it frequently did with Gryffindors.
Once the room was empty, Snape looked at his companions and said, "Are we ready?"
"It doesn't matter whether or not we're ready," said Chang. "All that matters is Professor Dumbledore."
Snape nodded. "Very well, I can see we're all ready. Lucius, you have the Floo powder?"
Lucius held up a small sack containing the desired item. They all took a handful. Lucius put the sack in his pocket, and all five of them stepped into the fireplace. "Ready?" said Snape. "On three. One... two... three!"
"RAS DASHEN!"
"They're gone," Harry Potter said to Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley once the last teacher had left the staff room. "Let's go."
Ron pushed the closet door open, and the three of them tumbled out onto the floor. It wasn't easy for three people to hide in one small closet, and they were beginning to feel slightly claustrophobic.
"We've got to get Malfoy," Harry said, standing up and brushing off his robes.
"But how are we going to get into the Slytherin common room?" asked Ron. "We know where the entrance is, but we don't know the password!"
"On the contrary," said Harry with a mischievous twinkle in his green eyes, "we do. Draco and I thought something like this might happen, so we traded passwords when Dumbledore made everyone leave the Great Hall."
Hermione's eyes grew wide with shock. "Harry," she said sternly, "that's not allowed."
"You should talk, Miss Let's-get-the-invisibility-cloak-and-eavesdrop-on-the-teachers'-conversation," said Ron.
Hermione glared at him. He glared back.
"Hey, none of that," said Harry, and his two friends stopped shooting nasty looks at each other. "It's not about rule-breaking and what is and isn't allowed. This is about Professor Dumbledore's life. Icarus Knight is as deadly a foe as Voldemort, and if we don't help, someone's going to die. Knight already killed Trelawney, Fudge, Su Li, Draco's mother, an Auror, and Professor Terringer's parents. That list is long enough."
Ron and Hermione were now smiling, and Hermione said, "Let's get Malfoy."
The password "green serpent" let Harry, Ron, and Hermione into the Slytherin common room. They spotted Draco sitting on a couch by himself, reading. Harry nodded toward him, and the three of them slowly walked over to their friend. "Draco," Harry whispered, "don't move. It's Harry. Ron, Hermione, and I are underneath an invisibility cloak right behind you."
"You're really sneaky, Potter," Draco said softly, not even blinking.
"Yeah, I know. Come on, we've got to go."
Draco looked around the room, and then came up with an idea. "Follow me up to my room," he said. "As soon as we're out of sight, I'll get under the cloak, and then we can sneak out."
The three Gryffindors agreed to the plan, and Draco set his book down and told Victoria King that he was going up to his room. Victoria acknowledged his statement with a nod of her head, and Draco began walking up the staircase with his invisible companions right behind him. "Are you still there?" he asked once they rounded a corner and could no longer be seen by those in the common room.
"Right here," said Harry, and held up one end of the cloak so Draco could join them. "Oh, and watch your elbows. It gets really crowded with three of us under here, and you make four."
"I'm surprised it's still covering us," said Ron as they walked back down the stairs.
"Shh," said Hermione as they arrived back in the Slytherin common room.
They slowly made their way to the exit, and once out, began running as fast as they dared to the Gryffindor tower.
A wave of nausea swept over Minerva Dumbledore as the fumes from the Nundu's mouth entered her lungs, and she became so light-headed that she slumped to the floor. Her breathing and heart rate began to accelerate. She lifted her eyes and looked at Icarus Knight, who was laughing. "I told you I would win, Professor," he said. "Who's going to save you now?"
Even the Nundu seemed to be laughing. Artawny emitted a sound from the depths of his throat that sounded like a combination between thunder and an avalanche. The deadly creature turned his attention away from Minerva and walked over to Knight, who spoke again. "It looks like it's all over, Minerva."
"It's never over," she said. "It doesn't matter what you do to me."
Knight sighed wistfully and walked over to her. "He was always talking about you, you know," he said, sinking down to his knees next to his former professor. "How intelligent and resourceful you were, and how powerful... He loved you, Minerva."
"Who?" she asked. "Albus?"
He chuckled. So did Artawny, although the Nundu's version of it sounded more like falling rock. "Sorry, not Albus Dumbledore," Knight answered. "Tom Riddle. Voldemort."
Voldemort? She felt her stomach lurch. "No."
"Yes. He once told me about the first time he saw you. The first-years were walking into the Great Hall. I believe that would be your third year. Anyway, he looked over at the Gryffindor table, and he saw you. His heart just gave a little leap, and from that moment on, he was crazy about you. He always said the hat put you in the wrong house, that you should have been a Slytherin, but you know, I'm not so sure I agree with him."
Minerva was disgusted. So it must have been Tom Riddle that was sending her singing Valentines until she graduated. And all this time I thought it was Ludo Bagman, she thought, remembering another boy a few years younger who had a crush on her during their time as students. Ludo didn't seem like the type that would send singing Valentines, anyway. Not that Tom Riddle was, either, but...
Knight continued. "Why might it be, Minerva, that I think you made a better Gryffindor than a Slytherin?"
"Does it really matter?" she asked. "All my friends thought I should be in Ravenclaw."
"But the hat put you in Gryffindor," he said. "And as we all know, the hat is never wrong."
She didn't like the way he said "never"; his tone was mocking and patronizing. "As much as I admire Godric Gryffindor, I don't think his hat made the right decision with you, Knight."
"Oh, I think it did," he replied. "You see, the Slytherins, all they want is power. They don't care about loyalty. They'll turn away from someone at the first sign of weakness, as in the case of your friend Lucius Malfoy."
"Voldemort betrayed him," Minerva said.
"Wrong!" Knight said. "He betrayed Voldemort! He could see that the Dark Lord wasn't as strong as he once was and that it wouldn't be in his best interest to stay by Voldemort's side. So after the... incident last year with the Chamber of Secrets, Malfoy denied any and all connection with Voldemort. You can imagine how devastated he was. Lucius was his right-hand man."
Her heart rate stopped accelerating and began to slow back down again. Her body, however, was still demanding the same amount of oxygen as before, so her breathing came in short, quick gasps.
"But that was all right." He stood up and walked over the cage that formerly held Artawny and began drumming his fingers against the iron bars absentmindedly. "You see, Minerva, Tom Riddle was left-handed, both literally and figuratively. He knew he wouldn't always be able to trust Malfoy, so he recruited someone else: me." Knight stepped away from the cage and strolled back over to his previous spot, next to the Nundu. "After all, if you can't trust a Gryffindor, who can you trust?"
Minerva's breathing slowly returned to normal as well, but now her head was starting to throb.
"You're a good witch, Minerva," Knight said, "but you could have been great, and he could have made you so. He wanted to. He knew how powerful you were. He knew what you two could have done, working together, side by side. Instead, you chose to hide behind Dumbledore. You won't live to see it, but I can assure you that Voldemort will fall, and it'll even be one of your Gryffindors who defeats him; except I don't think it's the Gryffindor you had in mind... and I believe your time is now at fifty minutes."
Suddenly, a loud bang was heard, and a bright flash of light filled the room. Artawny roared. Knight held up his arms to cover his face. The blinding light forced Minerva to shield her eyes as well, and when she was able to open them again, she could have sworn she was dreaming.
In the fireplace stood Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Alina Terringer, Eko Chang, and Albus Dumbledore.
"It's over, Knight!" Snape shouted. "Surrender!"
"No, Severus, it's never over until it's over," Knight replied, "and believe me, this is far from over." He pointed his wand at Snape and said, "Crucio."
Snape hadn't endured such pain since his initiation into the ranks of the Death Eaters. His body felt like it was being ripped apart, and in his struggle to fight it, he lost the ability to stand and collapsed to the floor.
As soon as Snape fell, Lucius's wand was out, and he used a disarming spell to cause Knight's wand to fall out of his hand and Knight to fly backward into the wall. He hit the wall, and then dropped to the floor. "Not this again," Knight grumbled, and rose to his feet. "Artawny, finish them."
"With pleasure," Artawny growled, and stepped toward his enemies.
Dumbledore spotted his wife lying on the ground and began running toward her. "Oh, no you don't, Professor," Knight said, snatching his wand off the ground. "Impedimenta!"
The charm jerked Dumbledore to a stop. Minerva saw him approaching and feebly reached for him. She didn't have enough strength to hold her arm up for long, though, and it soon fell back down to the floor.
"We have to do something," said Lucius.
"But what?" asked Chang.
"There's a Nundu walking toward us," said Alina. "I'd say anything's good right about now."
Because he didn't have a better idea, Chang pulled out his wand and pointed it at Artawny. "Expecto Patronum!"
Out of his wand came a silvery, phantom-like image of a fox. Chang's Patronus charged at the Nundu. Artawny lifted one of his large paws and sliced right the through the ghostly fox, and it vanished, leaving behind only a few wisps of silver smoke.
"The Patronus Charm has no effect on a Nundu," Knight informed them. "Just thought I'd let you know."
"That's obvious," Chang grumbled. Artawny continued to advance.
Dumbledore broke through the Impedimenta charm and closed the remaining distance between himself and Minerva with a few quick strides. He dropped to his knees next to her and gently hoisted her into his lap. Knight looked at them, and a cruel smile crossed his face. "You two are so ridiculously endearing that I almost don't have the heart to seperate you in your last hour together," he said. "No, wait... make that forty-five minutes."
"How can this be possible?" Dumbledore said. "How can you be alive? I killed you."
Even Artawny stopped moving at that one. All eyes, including the Nundu's, went to Knight to see what his reaction would be.
An amused smirk crossed Knight's face. "No, Professor Dumbledore, you killed Peter Pettigrew."
There were protests, of course, and requests for explanations, but Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Lucius Malfoy, Eko Chang, and Alina Terringer managed to get all the Gryffindors out of the common room and upstairs into their dormitories. Their reason for doing this was so no students would attempt to follow them. Courage could get out of hand, and it frequently did with Gryffindors.
Once the room was empty, Snape looked at his companions and said, "Are we ready?"
"It doesn't matter whether or not we're ready," said Chang. "All that matters is Professor Dumbledore."
Snape nodded. "Very well, I can see we're all ready. Lucius, you have the Floo powder?"
Lucius held up a small sack containing the desired item. They all took a handful. Lucius put the sack in his pocket, and all five of them stepped into the fireplace. "Ready?" said Snape. "On three. One... two... three!"
"RAS DASHEN!"
"They're gone," Harry Potter said to Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley once the last teacher had left the staff room. "Let's go."
Ron pushed the closet door open, and the three of them tumbled out onto the floor. It wasn't easy for three people to hide in one small closet, and they were beginning to feel slightly claustrophobic.
"We've got to get Malfoy," Harry said, standing up and brushing off his robes.
"But how are we going to get into the Slytherin common room?" asked Ron. "We know where the entrance is, but we don't know the password!"
"On the contrary," said Harry with a mischievous twinkle in his green eyes, "we do. Draco and I thought something like this might happen, so we traded passwords when Dumbledore made everyone leave the Great Hall."
Hermione's eyes grew wide with shock. "Harry," she said sternly, "that's not allowed."
"You should talk, Miss Let's-get-the-invisibility-cloak-and-eavesdrop-on-the-teachers'-conversation," said Ron.
Hermione glared at him. He glared back.
"Hey, none of that," said Harry, and his two friends stopped shooting nasty looks at each other. "It's not about rule-breaking and what is and isn't allowed. This is about Professor Dumbledore's life. Icarus Knight is as deadly a foe as Voldemort, and if we don't help, someone's going to die. Knight already killed Trelawney, Fudge, Su Li, Draco's mother, an Auror, and Professor Terringer's parents. That list is long enough."
Ron and Hermione were now smiling, and Hermione said, "Let's get Malfoy."
The password "green serpent" let Harry, Ron, and Hermione into the Slytherin common room. They spotted Draco sitting on a couch by himself, reading. Harry nodded toward him, and the three of them slowly walked over to their friend. "Draco," Harry whispered, "don't move. It's Harry. Ron, Hermione, and I are underneath an invisibility cloak right behind you."
"You're really sneaky, Potter," Draco said softly, not even blinking.
"Yeah, I know. Come on, we've got to go."
Draco looked around the room, and then came up with an idea. "Follow me up to my room," he said. "As soon as we're out of sight, I'll get under the cloak, and then we can sneak out."
The three Gryffindors agreed to the plan, and Draco set his book down and told Victoria King that he was going up to his room. Victoria acknowledged his statement with a nod of her head, and Draco began walking up the staircase with his invisible companions right behind him. "Are you still there?" he asked once they rounded a corner and could no longer be seen by those in the common room.
"Right here," said Harry, and held up one end of the cloak so Draco could join them. "Oh, and watch your elbows. It gets really crowded with three of us under here, and you make four."
"I'm surprised it's still covering us," said Ron as they walked back down the stairs.
"Shh," said Hermione as they arrived back in the Slytherin common room.
They slowly made their way to the exit, and once out, began running as fast as they dared to the Gryffindor tower.
A wave of nausea swept over Minerva Dumbledore as the fumes from the Nundu's mouth entered her lungs, and she became so light-headed that she slumped to the floor. Her breathing and heart rate began to accelerate. She lifted her eyes and looked at Icarus Knight, who was laughing. "I told you I would win, Professor," he said. "Who's going to save you now?"
Even the Nundu seemed to be laughing. Artawny emitted a sound from the depths of his throat that sounded like a combination between thunder and an avalanche. The deadly creature turned his attention away from Minerva and walked over to Knight, who spoke again. "It looks like it's all over, Minerva."
"It's never over," she said. "It doesn't matter what you do to me."
Knight sighed wistfully and walked over to her. "He was always talking about you, you know," he said, sinking down to his knees next to his former professor. "How intelligent and resourceful you were, and how powerful... He loved you, Minerva."
"Who?" she asked. "Albus?"
He chuckled. So did Artawny, although the Nundu's version of it sounded more like falling rock. "Sorry, not Albus Dumbledore," Knight answered. "Tom Riddle. Voldemort."
Voldemort? She felt her stomach lurch. "No."
"Yes. He once told me about the first time he saw you. The first-years were walking into the Great Hall. I believe that would be your third year. Anyway, he looked over at the Gryffindor table, and he saw you. His heart just gave a little leap, and from that moment on, he was crazy about you. He always said the hat put you in the wrong house, that you should have been a Slytherin, but you know, I'm not so sure I agree with him."
Minerva was disgusted. So it must have been Tom Riddle that was sending her singing Valentines until she graduated. And all this time I thought it was Ludo Bagman, she thought, remembering another boy a few years younger who had a crush on her during their time as students. Ludo didn't seem like the type that would send singing Valentines, anyway. Not that Tom Riddle was, either, but...
Knight continued. "Why might it be, Minerva, that I think you made a better Gryffindor than a Slytherin?"
"Does it really matter?" she asked. "All my friends thought I should be in Ravenclaw."
"But the hat put you in Gryffindor," he said. "And as we all know, the hat is never wrong."
She didn't like the way he said "never"; his tone was mocking and patronizing. "As much as I admire Godric Gryffindor, I don't think his hat made the right decision with you, Knight."
"Oh, I think it did," he replied. "You see, the Slytherins, all they want is power. They don't care about loyalty. They'll turn away from someone at the first sign of weakness, as in the case of your friend Lucius Malfoy."
"Voldemort betrayed him," Minerva said.
"Wrong!" Knight said. "He betrayed Voldemort! He could see that the Dark Lord wasn't as strong as he once was and that it wouldn't be in his best interest to stay by Voldemort's side. So after the... incident last year with the Chamber of Secrets, Malfoy denied any and all connection with Voldemort. You can imagine how devastated he was. Lucius was his right-hand man."
Her heart rate stopped accelerating and began to slow back down again. Her body, however, was still demanding the same amount of oxygen as before, so her breathing came in short, quick gasps.
"But that was all right." He stood up and walked over the cage that formerly held Artawny and began drumming his fingers against the iron bars absentmindedly. "You see, Minerva, Tom Riddle was left-handed, both literally and figuratively. He knew he wouldn't always be able to trust Malfoy, so he recruited someone else: me." Knight stepped away from the cage and strolled back over to his previous spot, next to the Nundu. "After all, if you can't trust a Gryffindor, who can you trust?"
Minerva's breathing slowly returned to normal as well, but now her head was starting to throb.
"You're a good witch, Minerva," Knight said, "but you could have been great, and he could have made you so. He wanted to. He knew how powerful you were. He knew what you two could have done, working together, side by side. Instead, you chose to hide behind Dumbledore. You won't live to see it, but I can assure you that Voldemort will fall, and it'll even be one of your Gryffindors who defeats him; except I don't think it's the Gryffindor you had in mind... and I believe your time is now at fifty minutes."
Suddenly, a loud bang was heard, and a bright flash of light filled the room. Artawny roared. Knight held up his arms to cover his face. The blinding light forced Minerva to shield her eyes as well, and when she was able to open them again, she could have sworn she was dreaming.
In the fireplace stood Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Alina Terringer, Eko Chang, and Albus Dumbledore.
"It's over, Knight!" Snape shouted. "Surrender!"
"No, Severus, it's never over until it's over," Knight replied, "and believe me, this is far from over." He pointed his wand at Snape and said, "Crucio."
Snape hadn't endured such pain since his initiation into the ranks of the Death Eaters. His body felt like it was being ripped apart, and in his struggle to fight it, he lost the ability to stand and collapsed to the floor.
As soon as Snape fell, Lucius's wand was out, and he used a disarming spell to cause Knight's wand to fall out of his hand and Knight to fly backward into the wall. He hit the wall, and then dropped to the floor. "Not this again," Knight grumbled, and rose to his feet. "Artawny, finish them."
"With pleasure," Artawny growled, and stepped toward his enemies.
Dumbledore spotted his wife lying on the ground and began running toward her. "Oh, no you don't, Professor," Knight said, snatching his wand off the ground. "Impedimenta!"
The charm jerked Dumbledore to a stop. Minerva saw him approaching and feebly reached for him. She didn't have enough strength to hold her arm up for long, though, and it soon fell back down to the floor.
"We have to do something," said Lucius.
"But what?" asked Chang.
"There's a Nundu walking toward us," said Alina. "I'd say anything's good right about now."
Because he didn't have a better idea, Chang pulled out his wand and pointed it at Artawny. "Expecto Patronum!"
Out of his wand came a silvery, phantom-like image of a fox. Chang's Patronus charged at the Nundu. Artawny lifted one of his large paws and sliced right the through the ghostly fox, and it vanished, leaving behind only a few wisps of silver smoke.
"The Patronus Charm has no effect on a Nundu," Knight informed them. "Just thought I'd let you know."
"That's obvious," Chang grumbled. Artawny continued to advance.
Dumbledore broke through the Impedimenta charm and closed the remaining distance between himself and Minerva with a few quick strides. He dropped to his knees next to her and gently hoisted her into his lap. Knight looked at them, and a cruel smile crossed his face. "You two are so ridiculously endearing that I almost don't have the heart to seperate you in your last hour together," he said. "No, wait... make that forty-five minutes."
"How can this be possible?" Dumbledore said. "How can you be alive? I killed you."
Even Artawny stopped moving at that one. All eyes, including the Nundu's, went to Knight to see what his reaction would be.
An amused smirk crossed Knight's face. "No, Professor Dumbledore, you killed Peter Pettigrew."