CHAPTER FIVE: THE SNAKE IN THE SKY
Harry decided to go to the ball even though he had not asked Ginny to go – yet. He took out a dress he asked Hermione to help him pick out dress robes for her. There were also the necessary accessories. He wrote her a note and sent it to her room.
Harry got into his dress robes after making the 4th year girls not to tell Ginny anything but hang the dress on her dresser and point that out to her. In the end he won after promising the five girls they would each get a dance from him.
He got dressed and was about to try and flatten his hair with some gel, when Ron called out "Harry, you better take a look at this." Ron was standing, holding back the high scarlet curtains to Harry's bed. Folded neatly on his bed, once again, was his invisibility cloak. And again, in the same handwriting was a note pinned to it – Just in case.
"What do you think is going to happen this time?" Ron asked with some certainty.
"What do you mean?"
"Everytime, he does something like that, something bad does happen. And it usually involves You-Know-Who."
"Oh. I don't know, but let's bring our wands, to be on the safe side."
The five boys went into the carriage and it moved off towards the Hogsmeade Ball. With the invisibility cloak in one pocket and his wand in the other, he stared into space as the other boys in the same carriage were chatting about Quidditch and all their favorite teams. Though they were exceptionally loud, he barely heard a word they said.
His mind was on the note. What exactly is going to happen this time? Why didn't Dumbledore go straight to him? And Hermione. He had to let her know. Ginny would be safe. Once they got off, he needed to find Hermione.
Quite suddenly, the carriage jerked to a halt, causing shouts of protest and surprise from everyone. The candles in the carriage flickered, then went out.
With the instinct of his, he quickly looked outside. The teachers were hurriedly ushering children into their carriages and there was much excited and confused commotion. He got out after re-lighting the candles. He then noticed an awful lot of students were looking up. He followed their gaze and flinched as a searing pain went through his scar as he fought to bring it under control, almost falling backwards. Covering the dark, starry sky, there was a dark grey cloud, almost like smoke. And it had a face.
Harry knew that face all to well. It was hideous, distorted with rage, slits of eyes the color of molten lava and like a snake's and a black hole of a mouth opened wide enough to swallow them all…
He turned away, panicked, then saw Draco Malfoy cowering beneath their carriage, whimpering.
"What is it?" Harry snapped, "You have to get to your carriage! There's no time to be a coward."
To his surprise, he did not yell back, just rocked back and forth on his heels, still blubbering uncontrollably, his skinny body shaking.
Suddenly he spoke. But it was barely audible, barely a whisper, "He's calling me…calling us, just like dad said, he wants me to come…don't let him take me, please…PLEASE!" Suddenly, his voice rose and he whirled to face Harry, his own face red and bloodshot.
Draco gave a last, anguished cry, then faster than Harry imagined possible, spun around and fell onto the dusty road, quivering. Then, before his shocked eyes, Draco gave a last shuddering sigh, then finally laid still, looking asleep…or dead.
Harry pulled back, horrified. Finding his voice again, he cried out, "Professor! Hagrid! Please someone!"
Hagrid came puffing up; his great face worried and fearful, even under all the brown tangled thick hair.
"You okay there Harry?" he asked heaving Malfoy over a colossal shoulder with a pant.
"Yes…why aren't we moving?" he demanded, pointing, but avoiding looking at the sky.
Hagrid shuddered, "Dumbledore says its just a warning…from You-Know-Who…"he shivered again, "Damned scary one too. We gotta get back to Hogwarts, but Slytherins are everywhere, dropping into fits and runnin off in ter the night…they keep yowling about getting signals and such. All pretty darn spooky, if yer ta ask me!"
"Now, you get back into your carriage and be good, we don't need anymore trouble…" he took a deep breath, "Looks as though there may be some fightin later…you mind yerself, ya hear? Be good and STAY-OUT-OF-TROUBLE!" he spoke the last part very viciously.
He nodded, but as the half-giant faded from sight, Malfoy still limply draped over his shoulder, he ducked into the carriage and looked Ron straight in the eyes. "Look, Ron…there's danger. Real danger. I want you to stay here and keep the guys in the carriage…"
But Ron looked at Harry like he was joking and got out. Harry sighed, pulled out his invisibility cloak and flung it over both of them and they started to proceed, but had not moved more than twelve steps when they bumped into…
"Oh you!" Hermione said angrily, then reached a hand into the open and pulled the invisibility cloak off both Ron and Harry who stared at her.
"Hermione!" Harry hissed, "What's wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me?" Hermione cried, "What's the matter with you Harry Potter? And you too, Ron Weasley? You two could get killed sneaking off like that! How could you not even think about all the people who care about you? How could you? And where on earth did that invisibility cloak of yours come from, anyway? You did not seriously bring it, did you?"
"Which question should we answer first?" Ron said under his breath.
Hermione whirled on him, "You shut up, Ron, there's real danger here!"
"We know Hermione," Harry said quietly to her, but now even as he spoke, those amazing emerald eyes of his stayed glued to the sky, his fists clenched in silent rage, "but that…that…thing killed my parents. He doesn't deserve to live," he looked at her for a brief second, then back up at the sky, "as for this cloak, " here he ran an affectionate hand over the liquid like material, "someone had pinned it to my bed with a note saying I might need it. The handwriting looked like-"
"Dumbledore's." She interjected, "Look Harry, I know how much you look up to him, but if its going to get you killed, I won't let you do it."
"Hermione, you don't know what it's like to live with this burden. And the pain of knowing I've almost got killed by him when I met this beast, but it still lives! So I'm going, even if it does kill me!" he insisted.
"And I'm with him." Ron added firmly.
Hermione's mouth turned into a mere straight line and she looked mad enough to explode, but all she said was, "Fine, but if you're going to be killed, you're not doing it without me."
Harry's face was bland, but then lit up with what she said.
"Y-you will?"
"Of course," she retorted, "Is their room in that cloak?"
They shuffled together, then making sure no one was watching they threw it over themselves and slinked off behind some bushes, watching and waiting.
Already, the rest of the students had been herded into carriages and quieted. Dumbledore stood with some of the other teachers in a circle, talking in soft, fast voices.
"You're certain that the face in the sky is not…him?" Professor McGonagall asked, shuddering.
"Positive Minerva." Dumbledore replied evenly, his brow dipped in frustration at that face, "But we can't keep our guard down. First, we need to get the children back to Hogwarts…"
"And then?" asked the oily voice of Snape.
"And then there may be a battle for us to fight," Dumbledore sighed heavily, "I believe that he may be in the Hogsmeade Town building, where the ball was to be. There will be much danger, we must be very, very careful." And if Harry didn't know better, he'd say that Dumbledore looked right at the invisible trio when he spoke those last words.
"C'mon, let's go…" Ron hissed breaking into his thoughts. Harry was not pleased under his cloak. Not only were they about to face Voldemort (this being Harry's fifth time), but it seemed they'd all grown quite a bit since the last time they'd crowded under the liquidy cloth and it was a tight squeeze.
"Harry, can you see where we're going?" Ron hissed, as they narrowly missed yet another tree.
"Well, its hard when my glasses have been split in two by your elbow." Harry snapped back.
"Oh honestly!" Hermione sighed, " is their anyone around?"
"No one that I can see, but then I can't see much," he replied.
"Fine, then let's take off the cloak and just walk!" she snapped.
"Should we risk it?" Ron asked, stopping short and causing everyone to bump into each other and falling over. In a jumble of cloth, limbs and grumbled curses, they fell to the cold ground.
"I guess we'll just have to risk it," she replied, struggling to her feet and brushing off the dirt and attempting to regain her dignity.
Harry sheepishly pulled off the cloak, folded it up and tucked it inside the trunk of a tree. "Remember that the cloak is here…you know, just in case I don't, you know, make it back." He said bravely.
"Harry, don't talk like that!" Hermione reprimanded sharply.
"Yeah, if you die, we're dying with you!" Ron exclaimed brightly.
Hermione glared at him, "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind, Ron."
The three shivered in the cool night air, thoughts of the dark Lord himself their heads.
"Well, let's go." Harry spoke breaking their thoughts.
The group walked up the marble stairs of the Hogsmeade Town Hall steps. They reached the top of the stairs and looked down upon the silent village of Hogsmeade.
"They were all evacuated," Hermione said softly, looking at Harry, "I saw them run away. Some of them…had those weird seizures like the Slytherins did. I heard someone say it had to do with the strong bonds between You- Know-Who and his house."
There was silence. Than Harry reached into his pocket and took out the Muarder's map. He tapped it and said, "The teachers are ten minutes away. We well have to go on ahead."
They turned to face the tall beautiful Town Hall. Against the night sky, it was foreboding, almost evil looking. The face in the sky had faded and had been reduced to faint pink wisps of smoke and mist.
"Think he's in there?" Harry asked, a bit too loudly.
"One way to find out." Came Ron's reply
Wordlessly, they took out their wands and entered the building, not sure if they would ever come out.
Harry decided to go to the ball even though he had not asked Ginny to go – yet. He took out a dress he asked Hermione to help him pick out dress robes for her. There were also the necessary accessories. He wrote her a note and sent it to her room.
Harry got into his dress robes after making the 4th year girls not to tell Ginny anything but hang the dress on her dresser and point that out to her. In the end he won after promising the five girls they would each get a dance from him.
He got dressed and was about to try and flatten his hair with some gel, when Ron called out "Harry, you better take a look at this." Ron was standing, holding back the high scarlet curtains to Harry's bed. Folded neatly on his bed, once again, was his invisibility cloak. And again, in the same handwriting was a note pinned to it – Just in case.
"What do you think is going to happen this time?" Ron asked with some certainty.
"What do you mean?"
"Everytime, he does something like that, something bad does happen. And it usually involves You-Know-Who."
"Oh. I don't know, but let's bring our wands, to be on the safe side."
The five boys went into the carriage and it moved off towards the Hogsmeade Ball. With the invisibility cloak in one pocket and his wand in the other, he stared into space as the other boys in the same carriage were chatting about Quidditch and all their favorite teams. Though they were exceptionally loud, he barely heard a word they said.
His mind was on the note. What exactly is going to happen this time? Why didn't Dumbledore go straight to him? And Hermione. He had to let her know. Ginny would be safe. Once they got off, he needed to find Hermione.
Quite suddenly, the carriage jerked to a halt, causing shouts of protest and surprise from everyone. The candles in the carriage flickered, then went out.
With the instinct of his, he quickly looked outside. The teachers were hurriedly ushering children into their carriages and there was much excited and confused commotion. He got out after re-lighting the candles. He then noticed an awful lot of students were looking up. He followed their gaze and flinched as a searing pain went through his scar as he fought to bring it under control, almost falling backwards. Covering the dark, starry sky, there was a dark grey cloud, almost like smoke. And it had a face.
Harry knew that face all to well. It was hideous, distorted with rage, slits of eyes the color of molten lava and like a snake's and a black hole of a mouth opened wide enough to swallow them all…
He turned away, panicked, then saw Draco Malfoy cowering beneath their carriage, whimpering.
"What is it?" Harry snapped, "You have to get to your carriage! There's no time to be a coward."
To his surprise, he did not yell back, just rocked back and forth on his heels, still blubbering uncontrollably, his skinny body shaking.
Suddenly he spoke. But it was barely audible, barely a whisper, "He's calling me…calling us, just like dad said, he wants me to come…don't let him take me, please…PLEASE!" Suddenly, his voice rose and he whirled to face Harry, his own face red and bloodshot.
Draco gave a last, anguished cry, then faster than Harry imagined possible, spun around and fell onto the dusty road, quivering. Then, before his shocked eyes, Draco gave a last shuddering sigh, then finally laid still, looking asleep…or dead.
Harry pulled back, horrified. Finding his voice again, he cried out, "Professor! Hagrid! Please someone!"
Hagrid came puffing up; his great face worried and fearful, even under all the brown tangled thick hair.
"You okay there Harry?" he asked heaving Malfoy over a colossal shoulder with a pant.
"Yes…why aren't we moving?" he demanded, pointing, but avoiding looking at the sky.
Hagrid shuddered, "Dumbledore says its just a warning…from You-Know-Who…"he shivered again, "Damned scary one too. We gotta get back to Hogwarts, but Slytherins are everywhere, dropping into fits and runnin off in ter the night…they keep yowling about getting signals and such. All pretty darn spooky, if yer ta ask me!"
"Now, you get back into your carriage and be good, we don't need anymore trouble…" he took a deep breath, "Looks as though there may be some fightin later…you mind yerself, ya hear? Be good and STAY-OUT-OF-TROUBLE!" he spoke the last part very viciously.
He nodded, but as the half-giant faded from sight, Malfoy still limply draped over his shoulder, he ducked into the carriage and looked Ron straight in the eyes. "Look, Ron…there's danger. Real danger. I want you to stay here and keep the guys in the carriage…"
But Ron looked at Harry like he was joking and got out. Harry sighed, pulled out his invisibility cloak and flung it over both of them and they started to proceed, but had not moved more than twelve steps when they bumped into…
"Oh you!" Hermione said angrily, then reached a hand into the open and pulled the invisibility cloak off both Ron and Harry who stared at her.
"Hermione!" Harry hissed, "What's wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me?" Hermione cried, "What's the matter with you Harry Potter? And you too, Ron Weasley? You two could get killed sneaking off like that! How could you not even think about all the people who care about you? How could you? And where on earth did that invisibility cloak of yours come from, anyway? You did not seriously bring it, did you?"
"Which question should we answer first?" Ron said under his breath.
Hermione whirled on him, "You shut up, Ron, there's real danger here!"
"We know Hermione," Harry said quietly to her, but now even as he spoke, those amazing emerald eyes of his stayed glued to the sky, his fists clenched in silent rage, "but that…that…thing killed my parents. He doesn't deserve to live," he looked at her for a brief second, then back up at the sky, "as for this cloak, " here he ran an affectionate hand over the liquid like material, "someone had pinned it to my bed with a note saying I might need it. The handwriting looked like-"
"Dumbledore's." She interjected, "Look Harry, I know how much you look up to him, but if its going to get you killed, I won't let you do it."
"Hermione, you don't know what it's like to live with this burden. And the pain of knowing I've almost got killed by him when I met this beast, but it still lives! So I'm going, even if it does kill me!" he insisted.
"And I'm with him." Ron added firmly.
Hermione's mouth turned into a mere straight line and she looked mad enough to explode, but all she said was, "Fine, but if you're going to be killed, you're not doing it without me."
Harry's face was bland, but then lit up with what she said.
"Y-you will?"
"Of course," she retorted, "Is their room in that cloak?"
They shuffled together, then making sure no one was watching they threw it over themselves and slinked off behind some bushes, watching and waiting.
Already, the rest of the students had been herded into carriages and quieted. Dumbledore stood with some of the other teachers in a circle, talking in soft, fast voices.
"You're certain that the face in the sky is not…him?" Professor McGonagall asked, shuddering.
"Positive Minerva." Dumbledore replied evenly, his brow dipped in frustration at that face, "But we can't keep our guard down. First, we need to get the children back to Hogwarts…"
"And then?" asked the oily voice of Snape.
"And then there may be a battle for us to fight," Dumbledore sighed heavily, "I believe that he may be in the Hogsmeade Town building, where the ball was to be. There will be much danger, we must be very, very careful." And if Harry didn't know better, he'd say that Dumbledore looked right at the invisible trio when he spoke those last words.
"C'mon, let's go…" Ron hissed breaking into his thoughts. Harry was not pleased under his cloak. Not only were they about to face Voldemort (this being Harry's fifth time), but it seemed they'd all grown quite a bit since the last time they'd crowded under the liquidy cloth and it was a tight squeeze.
"Harry, can you see where we're going?" Ron hissed, as they narrowly missed yet another tree.
"Well, its hard when my glasses have been split in two by your elbow." Harry snapped back.
"Oh honestly!" Hermione sighed, " is their anyone around?"
"No one that I can see, but then I can't see much," he replied.
"Fine, then let's take off the cloak and just walk!" she snapped.
"Should we risk it?" Ron asked, stopping short and causing everyone to bump into each other and falling over. In a jumble of cloth, limbs and grumbled curses, they fell to the cold ground.
"I guess we'll just have to risk it," she replied, struggling to her feet and brushing off the dirt and attempting to regain her dignity.
Harry sheepishly pulled off the cloak, folded it up and tucked it inside the trunk of a tree. "Remember that the cloak is here…you know, just in case I don't, you know, make it back." He said bravely.
"Harry, don't talk like that!" Hermione reprimanded sharply.
"Yeah, if you die, we're dying with you!" Ron exclaimed brightly.
Hermione glared at him, "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind, Ron."
The three shivered in the cool night air, thoughts of the dark Lord himself their heads.
"Well, let's go." Harry spoke breaking their thoughts.
The group walked up the marble stairs of the Hogsmeade Town Hall steps. They reached the top of the stairs and looked down upon the silent village of Hogsmeade.
"They were all evacuated," Hermione said softly, looking at Harry, "I saw them run away. Some of them…had those weird seizures like the Slytherins did. I heard someone say it had to do with the strong bonds between You- Know-Who and his house."
There was silence. Than Harry reached into his pocket and took out the Muarder's map. He tapped it and said, "The teachers are ten minutes away. We well have to go on ahead."
They turned to face the tall beautiful Town Hall. Against the night sky, it was foreboding, almost evil looking. The face in the sky had faded and had been reduced to faint pink wisps of smoke and mist.
"Think he's in there?" Harry asked, a bit too loudly.
"One way to find out." Came Ron's reply
Wordlessly, they took out their wands and entered the building, not sure if they would ever come out.
