Harry Potter #7
Chapter #?
Voldemort's
Final Downfall
Part 3:
The Exodus of Hogwarts
Harry Potter led the Gryffindor students to the Entrance Hall where they met Professor McGonagall. "Oh, good," she said with a hand to her chest, "The last House is here." She ushered them out the doors and Harry turned to see Professor McGonagall snuff out the last candle with her wand and close the doors with an echoing clang. Harry half wondered if the echo with real or just in his head. Once he saw Professor McGonagall lock the doors shut with the biggest set of keys he had ever seen, he turned and stepped carefully down the stone steps with the others.
"Don't dottle!" Professor McGonagall called out. "Children, follow me! Because of the emergency, the carriages are not available for our use. Now keep up!" She made her way to the front of the group and led the way. Not far ahead, Harry could see the Ravenclaws strutting tiredly toward the Hogsmeade Train Station where the Hogwarts Express patiently waited. When Harry's scar began to prickle, his nerves went on end and he clenched his wand tightly within his robes.
At the back of the Ravenclaw group, Harry could unmistakably see Luna through the darkness. She turned and made eye contact with him and she smiled in her dreamy way. She also appeared sympathetic, as if she wished as much as Harry that none of this was happening. Harry returned her smile but kept his gaze on her long after she had turned away.
As the groups walked on, Ron quietly cleared his throat with a raised eyebrow at Harry.
"Hmm?" Harry whispered as he turned to Ron, "What is it?"
"You know what." Ron whispered back with a crooked smile.
"Wha—" Harry began. What was Ron saying? Harry thought, That I like Luna? "Ron," Harry scoffed, "What are you trying to get at?"
Ron's smile broadened. "I'm not trying to get at anything." He whispered, "Its Luna who is!"
Hermione gave Ron a sharp jab in his shoulder from behind. Then she sent him a look that Harry felt sure dropped the air temperature a few degrees.
"Ron," Hermione hissed, "Whoever Harry likes and whoever likes him is none of your business!"
"Hermione," Ron said with a disbelieving look on his face, "You should have seen the looks on their faces. It's obvious they've got it for each other!"
Hermione made a scoffing laugh, "Funny. I never thought you'd see a girl's hints!"
Ron's eyes bulged in fury. But before he could retort, Hermione came to a halt and met up with Ginny. The two of them quickly began their own discussion.
"Women!" Ron exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air.
Harry was grateful for what Hermione had said; it kept Ron from seeing his cheeks flush.
About a minute later they had reached the Train Station. Even though the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs had already taken their seats, there were still several people outside the train. One of these people spotted Harry and made his way toward him.
"Mr. Potter," his gruff voice called out, "Doing well, for now?"
Harry looked up into the stationary eye of Moody, who was fully clothed in his black Auror uniform and his wand was drawn.
"Uh," Harry stammered, "Um, yes. Yes, I'm ok."
Ron and the others started to board the train. The various teachers and Aurors outside the train were ushering them in.
"I doubt that." Moody said soundly, "Not with all that the Dark Lord's been up to since the attack on the Ministry."
"What?" Harry asked, confused, "What's he been doing?"
Moody's magical eye was turned backwards toward Professor McGonagall, who shot them both a sharp look. "Never mind that, now," Moody said, before adding in an undertone, "It's all in the Daily Prophet."
Moody shoved Harry roughly into the train and went back to his duties. Harry began looking into each compartment's window for Hermione, seeing as Ron would be up in front, dealing with the Head Girl, Pansy. In the third compartment, Harry spotted Hermione and slid the door open to join her.
Harry immediately saw that Hermione wasn't alone. Luna sat across from her, and they were both talking feverishly. As soon as they saw Harry, however, they went perfectly silent.
"Oh, hello Harry." Luna said in her usual misty tone. Hermione smiled up at him.
"What were you two talking about?" Harry inquired suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing," Hermione replied, sending Luna a small smile.
Ah, Harry thought to himself, 'Girl-Talk'. As soon as Harry sat next to Hermione, Professor McGonagall's voice rang over the speakers. "Attention all students! I would like to express to you my gratitude for getting here so quickly and on such short notice. I would like to ask you to stay in the compartments you have chosen for the entire duration of the trip. It is imperative that you do not open your compartment doors! Otherwise, the punishment would be far beyond any disciplinary actions of school. This is your only warning. I will speak to you again when we have reached platform 9¾."
"Whew!" Hermione exclaimed, "Now we can finally go the entire way without Malfoy barging in!"
Luna chuckled, "Yeah… No kidding…"
Harry smiled humorously; remembering well the duel he and Malfoy had had one year ago on the way back to the Muggle world. The three of them began chatting about old times, and Harry wished yet again that Ron didn't have to ride in the front of the train. But then it occurred to Harry that Ron and Hermione becoming Prefects had led him into meeting Luna Lovegood in the first place. She's a little weird, yeah, Harry thought, but honestly, where would I be without her?
The discussion about old times turned to Dumbledore, which quickly turned to Voldemort. Harry hadn't noticed it before, but he found that both Hermione and Luna felt perfectly fine with saying 'Voldemort'. How and when Luna had gotten used to it, Harry never knew, but he appreciated the fact quite a bit.
When Hermione inquired about Harry's cruel awakening, Harry told them both about what happened at the Ministry of Magic. Hermione gasped with a horrified expression on her face more than a couple times, but Luna just nodded as Harry unfolded each occurrence of the attack.
"Ah, yes," Luna mused aloud to herself, "Ghost Mist."
Hermione dropped the hand that had covered her mouth and scoffed loudly, "Luna, there is no such thing! 'Ghost Mist' was just a fairy tale told to make little kids' eyes grow big."
"But then again, Hermione," Luna quickly replied with a wise look in her eyes, "when you were ten years old, would you not have said the same things about witches and wizards?"
Hermione opened her mouth once, but didn't answer.
"What exactly is 'Ghost Mist' anyway?" Harry asked, "What does it do?"
Hermione sent a skeptical look at Harry before rolling her eyes and turning to look out the window toward the red glow of sunlight in the east. Luna did nothing to hide her excitement of sharing something she knew with Harry.
"Well," she began, "It's an ancient form of magic that goes as far back as history itself — it does!" she added when Hermione made a snorting laugh.
"But what does it do?" Harry inquired.
Luna thought for a moment. "You know the Dementor's Kiss?" she asked, "Well, think of the opposite of that. Instead of taking your soul and leaving an empty shell of a body behind, it takes that 'shell', or your body, and leaves the soul. So, naturally, it kills the victim. It breaks down all the elements that make up the person's body into miniscule pieces of each separated element. Voldemort obviously wanted to use this because when the dust stuff got sucked into his wand, he gained all of the victims' combined strength both physically and magically!"
Harry's eyes went wide. At this rate, Voldemort could quickly and easily become the most powerful wizard in the world! Then something occurred to him.
"Is there a catch to it? Like the one tagged onto the drinker of unicorn blood?" Harry asked.
Luna thought again, this time very hard. After a short while, she said, "No, no I don't think there is…"
"Wait a minute, Luna," Hermione asked skeptically, turning to her, "If Voldemort can do this 'Ghost Mist' stuff, why didn't he do it way back when he was strong? Or, for that matter, when he attacked Harry as a baby? What stopped him then?"
Luna eyed Hermione accusingly. "For the same reason you wouldn't if you were in his shoes. Because like you, he didn't think such a spell existed!" At this Hermione let out a huff and slumped back in her seat with her arms folded. "Besides," Luna continued, "Like Harry said, Voldemort and his Death Eaters did this. According to what I've learned about that spell, it's difficult for most wizards even in large groups! So Voldemort most likely needed all his followers' strength to back him up!"
Hermione gazed out toward the rising son again. That's when Harry remembered his plans.
"Oh, yeah," he said while looking down at the floor, "I, uh, I don't think I'll be getting off at the Kings Cross station with you two." Hermione and Luna looked at him curiously and Harry told them how he couldn't (and wouldn't, for that matter) go back to the Dursleys, but had to go somewhere with Aurors because of Voldemort.
"Well that'll be useless." Hermione said suddenly.
"How come?" Harry asked, turning to her.
Hermione picked up the Daily Prophet from its slot on the wall and showed Harry the front page.
Dark Lord Takes France
Spain Warned
Luna stood and joined Harry on the other side from Hermione. Upon closer inspection of the self-updating newspaper, Harry saw that the columns that normally bore news were completely blank. The only things on it were the lines that separated each column, a large picture of the Dark Mark and above it the headline which suddenly changed before their eyes. It now read:
Dark Lord Conquers Spain
Europe Nearly Fallen
How could somebody take an entire nation in a matter of minutes? Harry thought as his jaw dropped. He shoved it back to Hermione. "Put it back," he said matter-of-factly, "I'm going now."
Harry stood to apparate, but Luna stopped him. For the first time, she looked down to earth and serious. "Harry where do you really think you'll go? To the Order of the Phoenix's Headquarters? You'll be found and killed before you know it!"
"Then where should I go?" Harry asked, rounding on her. Harry immediately regretted it; he hated the hurt look she always gave him at such times.
"Harry," Luna said smoothly and sweetly, her eyes returning to their far away look, "remember last year when you told me why you were protected at your Aunt's house?"
Harry thought a moment. "Yeah," he said slowly.
Luna smiled a little. "Just because you're of age, Harry, doesn't mean you still couldn't use their protection."
"But because you're of age," Hermione added with a wry smile, "they can't give you any trouble."
Harry thought about this. As long as he was at the Dursleys, he was safe from Voldemort. Even though the protection around Harry was gone because he and Voldemort shared the same blood, the Dursley's house had somehow become completely off limits to him. But how that worked, Harry was sure he would never know. Harry sighed; he knew exactly what he should do.
"Alright, you two," he began, "We'll say goodbye once we reach Platform 9¾. Then I'll apparate back to Privet Drive. But I can tell you right now that the Dursleys will not be happy to see me again!"
Luna let out a snort of laughter and nodded. Hermione just looked down at the floor and turned to gaze out the window. Before any of them were ready for it, the train slowly came to a halt and Professor McGonagall's voice rang out.
"May I please have your attention?" she said, "I would like to express my thanks that nothing ill happened throughout the course of our journey. Please remain seated until your house is announced. At that time, you must follow the adult we put in charge of your house. We will leave in the same manner that we boarded, meaning the Slytherin House, lead by Mr. Moody, will go first. All Slytherins are free to exit their compartments now."
The three waited silently, knowing that in a few moments, they would leave each other – never to attend classes with either of the other two again. For a moment Harry and Luna locked eyes, but Harry quickly gazed at the floor, in hopes of not showing any signs of admiration of her.
The Hufflepuffs were called a few minutes later, and not long afterward the Ravenclaws were announced to follow "Ms. Tonks" to the platform. Harry smiled at how Professor McGonagall had called her "Ms." but the smile quickly faded as Luna stood and straightened her robes.
"Well," she said mistily, looking at each of them in the eye, "That's that." And without another word, she turned and left the compartment.
Harry and Hermione were silent for a minute or so. Then Hermione broke the silence.
"So, Harry," she asked slowly, "what's this between you and Luna?"
"It's—" Harry began. He had no idea how to explain that he thought her smart, kind, wonderful, and even kind of cute, but that he didn't like her like that. The truth was that Harry didn't want to admit his feelings for someone else even to himself. "It's nothing, Hermione. It's just nothing."
Hermione narrowed her eyes slightly with a bit of a smile. She then said, "Uh, huh. Alright…" Harry didn't like her tone. It told him that she knew a lot more on this subject than he did.
Before long, Professor McGonagall's voice rang out, "All Gryffindors may now exit their compartments. You will then follow Professor Snape through the barrier."
"Professor Snape?" Harry and Hermione said in unison. Harry remembered that Snape was not in Dumbledore's office when the decision to close Hogwarts was made. But where had he been?
Harry and Hermione left the compartment and closed it behind them. Up ahead, they could see Ron exiting from where the Head Boy and Head Girl sat in the front. And standing at the doorway of the train was Professor Snape, looking as hateful as ever.
As the other Gryffindors left the train, Snape just leered at them all. But when Harry walked passed him, Snape grabbed his shoulder and hissed, "You'll be staying with me, Potter."
By the look in Snape's eye, Harry could tell Snape didn't want this any more than Harry did. So as the rest of the Gryffindors passed by (trying not to look at Snape in the face), Harry and his Potions Master waited on. Once all the students had left the train, Snape took a step down and said, "This way, Mr. Potter."
The morning was overcast and gray. There was also the smell of rain in the air. Snape and Harry slowly made their way to the barrier and walked through.
The other side left Harry speechless. The Kings Cross Station was dirty and possibly grayer than the sky. Except for every Hogwarts student being kept there until every last person had come through the barrier, the place was completely empty. What surprised Harry the most were the Wanted Posters on some of the pillars.
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Called "Voldemort,"
But is also referred to as "Who-Know-Who"
And "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" by those similar to him
Below the "Wanted: Dead or Alive" title, a picture had been drawn of a man in a swirling black cloak, hood up to cover his face, and wand held high, as if he were about to bring it down while shouting a curse. The other students looked every bit as surprised as Harry to see the condition of the Station – or of all London for that matter!
Professor McGonagall stood in the front of the crowd and was about to speak over the chattering students, when she stopped. The ground began to shake slightly and all the students went silent. As the tremor grew, Harry found Hermione in the crowd and gave her a look that asked her what on earth was going on. By the look in her own eyes, he could tell she knew no better than he did.
The tremor grew and Professor McGonagall was thrown to the ground. That was when Snape yelled, "Outside! Everyone outside! Potter! Come with me!"
Amidst the trembling of the ground, every Hogwarts student left the Station. Snape was quickly lost in the crowd as Harry was pull with the other students. Being outside wasn't much better than inside: the shaking continued and billowing black clouds were gathering with intense speed as lightning constantly struck the ground.
The rumbling abated for a moment so Professor McGonagall ordered everyone to stay close together. But then there was a sound like an explosion that threw everyone to the ground. Harry looked up from the asphalt of the parking lot only to see that the swirling, black clouds were coming toward them from every direction, and were descending quickly.
Harry knew he had to act quickly and that whatever was happening was far from good. So, staggering to his feet, he shouted, "D.A.! Form out!"
This caused several things to happen at once. As soon as each D.A. member had stood and retrieved their wand, they immediately found themselves surrounded by every Slytherin at Hogwarts; Draco Malfoy conveiniently placing himself in front of Harry. The teachers, too, became alarmed and tried to make their way toward Harry.
"Not gonna get away with this one, Potter!" Malfoy sneered, "The Dark Lord will—"
Several spells discharged at once. Ron blew Crabbe away with a Binding Blinding charm, Hermione caused tentacles to begin sprouting from beneath Malfoy's nose, like a huge mustache, and Neville's Patronus slammed Goyle right in the chest, before fading away once more. But as the Slytherins raised their wands for a counter attack, an eerie, high pitched voice shook the air, seemingly from all directions.
"My fellow Slytherins," it hissed loudly, "You will have no need to fight. Your Lord and Master has arrived."
* * *