Disclaimer: These people aren't mine
I hate to wait in line
The setting isn't either
I like the band called Seether
They belong to JK Rowling
I really hate bowling
The plot belongs to me
My brain is out to sea…
A/N It's almost one in the morning, I have to work tomorrow, and my internet is down so I can't post this. But it's done, dammit! I finished it! I overcame summer-laziness, not-being-home-edness, and writer's-block-edness! Hallelujah! Praise Brian! And if you don't know what I'm talking about….don't ask. Just move right along to the chapter…
Chapter 18 ~ Gryffindor Rules
Harry, Ron, and Hermione rushed out into the hallway after Draco into a scene from nightmare. Demons roamed the hallway, overturning suits of armor and shredding paintings from their frames. In some places, they'd even smashed through the stone walls and torn doors from their hinges. Against a far wall, the students of Hogwarts stood in a line, manacled together and guarded by three Death Eaters. A small group of Slytherins and a lone Ravenclaw stood in a group apart from the others, free and unmolested.
"Those are the children of Death Eaters," Draco's voice whispered in Harry's ear. Harry jumped and looked around wildly. He hadn't known there was anyone near him, and to his vision, there wasn't. Draco snorted with suppressed laughter. "What, you thought you were the only one with an Invisibility Cloak, Potter? Not likely. After all, my father still has more money than yours ever had."
Harry flushed with mingled anger and embarrassment. Sure, Draco was helping him, but why did he have to be such a git while he was doing it?
One of the Death Eaters caught sight of them. The black robed androgynous figure elbowed one of his compatriots sharply and suddenly the three Gryffindors were the object of three pairs of malevolent eyes.
"Stop!" one of them hollered and a sudden silence descended upon the wreckage of Hogwarts.
"Well," said another, "I guess our dear colleague didn't have the success he thought he would."
"We'll just have to pick up the slack," concluded the last one. "Again."
"Capture them!" the first one barked. The demons turned from their material mayhem to converge on the Gryffindors.
"Draco," Harry muttered under his breath. "Draco, you still there?"
"No, I ran off and joined the circus," replied the air beside him.
"Go get the rest of the Gryffindors. Tell them we need their help," Harry whispered through gritted teeth.
"Tell them that the demons are susceptible to one spell for about a minute, but after that are immune," Hermione chimed in. Ron simply stared at the approaching demons, face pale and jaw slack.
Harry took a deep, steadying breath and raised his sword before him in a kind of salute. It's blue fire flared threateningly and every demon winced as one.
"Move!" snapped a Death Eater, and the demons resumed their steady approach, though it seemed slower than before, as if they dreaded to meet this black-haired youth with his burning sword.
~*~
Ginny strained with all her might, building layer upon layer of glowing silver brick wall before the oncoming horde of demons. Her back muscles were in knots and her hands clenched in fists. She pulled glimmering strands of light from all around her and from within her, giving them the strength of steel and the weight of stone. Still the demons came on, but slower, slower…
~*~
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other in puzzlement as the demons slowed to a crawl, seeming to come up against a barrier, as if the air had suddenly thickened to the consistency of molasses in front of them. The demons snarled and slashed the air before them with long, ebony claws, as if there was something there to rend.
"What's wrong with them?" Hermione murmured, her brow creased in confusion.
"It's Ginny," Liandra said softly. "Ginny's holding them back."
All eyes turned to Ginny but she seemed unaware of them. Her eyes were unfocused and every muscle was as taut as a harp string.
"I've never seen anything like it," Liandra whispered in awe. "Such power…"
"Gin," Harry said gently. "Gin, can you hear me?"
"Mmhm," Ginny said distractedly.
"Gin, can you let one through at a time? Just one?"
"Sure," Ginny said in her musical voice. It sent shudders down Harry's spine.
Abruptly, Harry found himself face to face with a snarling, gibbering demon. It reached for him before he had time to react and closed its taloned hands around his neck. Their bony strength began to crush his windpipe and the talons bit into the soft flesh of his neck. With a spastic movement, his sword arm swung around, severing the demons arms at the elbows. The hands convulsed once more, leaving red slashes along his neck as they fell. Harry gasped and coughed with returning air.
"Ron," he wheezed, turning around, "I'm – sorry."
"What for?" Ron said in a voice that shook.
"For – trying – to strangle – you before. It's – no fun – at all."
"S'all right, mate, you weren't – look out!"
Trails of red-hot agony burned down Harry's back. He threw his head back and screamed. His ears were full of the sound of mad hornets and his vision darkened. Claws clenched within his skin, sending stabbing knives of pain through Harry's back.
Suddenly the claws were ripped away and Harry screamed again, sure that chinks of his flesh had been torn out.
"Immobulus!" Ron bellowed, but it sounded as if it was coming from miles away. Red sparks raced across his vision like a raging firestorm.
"Harry, Harry, wake up, please wake up!" Harry became aware of a rough, hard surface beneath his cheek, and realized that he was lying face down on the hard stone floor. "Harry, you have to get up!" The voice sounded frantic and he made an effort to open his eyes. The felt as if they were being weighed down by bricks. Hands began to desperately shake his shoulders, sending ripples of pain along his already overloaded nerves.
"Stop touching him," a new voice said sharply. "Move away!" Suddenly a blue-white light like clouds of ocean foam in the moonlight flowed over the angry red of his vision. The pain receded and he slowly opened his eyes to look upon Liandra's glowing form. "You've got to get up, Harry, or we'll all be lost," she said forcefully.
It seemed as if eons had passed in his pain-fogged mind, but it couldn't have been more than a minute since the demon still stood frozen, Harry's blood dripping from his talons. With an effort, Harry raised his sword just as the demon twitched and then came back to life. With a chilling howl, it leapt forward, claws outstretched—
--And implaled itself on Harry's sword.
"Not too bloody bright, are they?" Ron muttered, looking green.
Another demon immediately appeared before them, lunging for Harry, but Hermione was ready for it this time and shouted "Immobulus!" at the top of her lungs. The demon froze and Harry didn't even give it a chance to defend itself. He plunged his sword through its heart and watched it dissolve into helpless bluish smoke. The next demon flowed through Ginny's barrier almost immediately and this time it was Ron who froze it with a well-placed charm.
They got into a kind of rhythm, where first Hermione and then Ron would tackle a demon, freezing it so that Harry could kill it with the minimum effort.
"Where the hell is Draco?" Hermione muttered wrathfully as yet another demon fell. The three Death Eaters at the back were involved in some sort of argument, shouting and gesticulating wildly. Harry wasn't surprised – at least two thirds of their demon army had been decimated. At this rate, there wouldn't be anything left by the end of five minutes.
"Harry, watch out!" Liandra shrieked suddenly. There were two demons in front of him and he had to jump back abruptly to avoid the second one's claws. Hermione jumped in to stun the second demon and Harry parted both of them across the middle with one sweeping stroke.
Just when they were about to sigh with relief, not two but three demons forced their way through Ginny's barrier.
"Gin, what's going on?" Harry shouted.
"Can't hold them…" Ginny replied breathlessly, and then with a sound like tearing cloth, the barrier broke and the entire demon horde came streaming toward them.
~*~
Ginny felt her wall topple and her heart broke with it. She had failed. She looked at Harry as he bravely tried to fend off all the demons and protect his friends…he was doomed. So were they all.
With hardly a conscious thought as to what she was doing, Ginny began to gather in the shards of her broken wall. She drew all the glimmering light to her and took it inside of her until she blazed with incandescent fire. The only light left in the room came from Harry's blazing sword and with a cry of triumph, she dove into it, blending her fire with its own.
~*~
Harry didn't see anything except a flash of blue fire entering his sword, but suddenly the blade flared with a hundred times more power. The demons who had not been stunned drew back in fear.
"You've almost got them, you fools!" shouted a Death Eater, jumping up and down frantically. "Keep going!"
The demons moved forward cautiously. Harry's arms rose without his conscious direction until he held the sword straight up over his head. Suddenly, a blinding flash of sapphire light burst outward from the sword and the room was obscured by a thick curtain of dirty blue smoke. The filthy stuff invaded Harry's lungs and he coughed violently, tearing open the wounds on his back yet again.
Ron and Hermione edged closer to Harry and each slid a supporting arm under his shoulders. Harry sighed as he felt some of the strain leave his back.
"Don't forget, there's still the three Death Eaters over there," hissed Hermione. Harry groaned softly. He didn't feel up to much more fighting at the moment. His most fervent wish was to pass out again. The soothing blue light which Liandra had used to tend his hurts was beginning to wear off and his wounds throbbed with a vengeance. Hermione and Ron exchanged a worried look.
"Why don't you stay here, Harry? We can take care of the Death Eaters," Ron said with forced bravery.
"Yes, Harry, sit down and rest," Hermione agreed, looking terrified.
Harry would have protested, but his words were swallowed by a wave of dizziness. He nodded numbly and they lowered him gently to the ground.
"Be – careful," he croaked and then lowered his head into shaking hands.
Harry had thought that nothing could be worse than the endless tension of fighting the Dark Lord's demons, but the horrible blind wait was wearing his nerves to shreds. He wanted to jump up and scream and run around in circles just to disrupt the blank, eddying smoke that hid his friends from him. Somewhere, somewhere within that swirling, opaque smoke, Ron and Hermione faced off against three Death Eaters. Harry closed his eyes and prayed that the unequal battle would turn out in their favor.
Through the luminous smoke, wild laughter echoed and Harry shivered. The strangeness of his surroundings distorted the sound and made it utterly unrecognizable. It drew closer, and Harry wondered whether it was his friends returning victorious or the Death Eaters coming to finish the job. He clenched his jaw and peered into the smoke.
Ron and Hermione materialized before him, their faces wreathed in smiles. Harry sagged against the wall. He felt as though every one of his limbs had just turned to jelly in relief.
"Harry! We did it!" Hermione squealed, quite as if she'd just gotten 300 percent on an exam rather than taken on three Death Eaters and won.
"'Mione was brilliant!" Ron said proudly, making Hermione blush. "She put a mirror spell around the two of us and the Death Eaters ended up putting the Cruciatus Curse on themselves."
"Well, Ron was the one who figured out the key to the spell holding the other students hostage," Hermione shot back. "I never would have thought of 'Slytherin rules!'"
Harry then noticed that they were no longer alone. Behind Ron and Hermione stood a large group of students from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and, to a lesser extent, Slytherin. Ron followed his glance and said, "The rest of Slytherin is tied up against the other wall. They were the one's associated with the Death Eaters. 'Mione used a lock spell with the key 'Gryffindor rules.'"
"But where's Draco with the other Gryffindors?" Hermione asked worriedly. "Maybe we'd better check on him."
Harry nodded his agreement and started to stand up, but Ron knelt down beside him and put a restraining hand on his shoulder.
"You stay here and rest, mate. You've done more than enough already tonight."
Harry sighed, but settled back against the wall complacently. Ron did have a point, after all. He was absolutely exhausted, not to mention in quite a bit of pain. His back throbbed with a vengeance, and he could feel trickles of blood seeping from the punctures on his neck.
Several of the Ravenclaws volunteered to go with Ron and Hermione into Gryffindor tower in case anything untoward had occurred, and traditional inter-House secrecy was set aside without a second thought. The Hufflepuffs, who were usually adept at healing spells, gathered around Harry as his friends disappeared from sight again.
In fact, so many Hufflepuffs descended upon Harry that he began to feel claustrophobic and the press of bodies threatened to suffocate him. He felt his breath quicken…
"Clear off," someone shouted. "Give him some room to breathe! Sheesh, you'd think you'd never been around a hurt person before. Clear off, I say!" Gradually, the crowd moved back, and Harry saw that he'd never been in any danger of being smothered. His combat-heightened senses had merely made everyone seem closer than they were. He breathed a huge sigh of relief as cooler air reached his lungs.
Harry closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, he found another freckled face very close to his own.
"Hello," said Hannah Abbott. "You're rather beat up, aren't you?"
"Well, thank you for stating the obvious," snapped Harry.
"No need to get snippy," she said tartly, and Harry recognized the voice which had told everyone to clear off. "Now, I happen to be the best there is a healing charms, so I'm going to have a go on your back, if you don't mind. So, if you'll just lie down on your stomach, like so….good." And she whipped out her wand and went to work on his back without so much as a 'by your leave'.
"Those demons made a right mess of you, didn't they?" she chattered on as Harry felt a curious tugging sensation on his wounded back. He gritted his teeth on a sarcastic reply. After all, she was healing him. The least he could do was be courteous.
"So I'll just pull the skin together like…so…and then seal it together like…so," she said as Harry yelped in pain. "Sorry, but it'll hurt less in a second, I promise, and then you'll be back on your feet in no time."
"Sure," Harry gritted.
"You want me to look at your neck too?" she asked cheerily, as if she hadn't just caused him more pain.
"No thanks," he muttered.
"Well, I think I'd better, y'know, since you never know what crisis is going to come up next or when more demons are going to come. I promise it'll only hurt for a minute," she said, and Harry glanced up at her. Her expression was sympathetic in contrast with her clinical words. "Sit up so I can see better."
Harry sat up slowly, and marveled that his back felt as good as new. There was no tenderness at all. It felt as though he'd never been wounded at all. He looked at Hannah in wonder and she grinned at him, wrinkling her freckled nose. She tossed her long red-gold braid over her shoulder and said, "Well, let me look at your neck and I'll fix it up while we wait for your friends to come back, eh?"
~*~
A/N: I just had to put Hannah Abbott in there. I don't know if her description fits what was given in the book, and furthermore, I don't care. Hannah's me so I just had to use her at some point. Yeah, so now she's a healer, although, I, personally, have absolutely no interest in medicine. I might if I could heal people by magic though…oh well. I can in books, right? Anyway, thanks to my reviewers!
Bessorla: I reread what I wrote, and I'm tempted to agree with you about Draco being OOC. I plan on going through this entire story and editing it when it's finished (since I did start writing it over a year ago and I can't look at the first chapter without flinching anymore), so that's one of the things I'll change. It's easily fixed…just one spot deleted. Thanks for the heads up! Oh, and I'm no longer planning on doing a L/J fic after reading OotP…but I do have a rather amusing AU fic brewing in my twisted little mind…stay tuned!
Hplova4eva: Thanks!
Veldan: Hehehe, thanks! You lucky duck, you, always getting to read the chapters ahead of time…
Shinjai: Thank you! That's high praise indeed.
Fia: Well, thanks! I'm not quite sure what you want me to email you, but I've sent you a notice that the new chapter's up, so happy reading!
Eva: Yeah, Ginny and Draco are my favorite characters in this story. Thanks for your input!
Eedoe: H/G and R/Hr are my all-time favorite ships, though I'm not fanatical, and I don't think I could write my story any other way. Hopefully now that the fifth book is out, you won't be too busy to come finish Undead. *nudge, nudge, wink, wink* Thanks for the review!
I'vegonecrazyandi'mnotsureifiwillbeback: Please don't die! Quick, here's another chapter! Breathe! Breathe! I'm glad you like my story.
