Disclaimer: Harry Potter and associated characters belong to J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Chapter 16: The Crucible
The Death Eaters advancing on the house started firing curses at the two aurors guarding the entrance to the house. The curses hit them and both of them crumpled to the floor howling in pain as the Death Eaters continued to advance.
Harry ran back towards the staircase and he saw that everyone was crowding around Moody, who was standing up against the wall near it.
"We need to get out of here," Arthur said as Harry joined them. "Let's use the portkey you prepared Alastor."
"I remember Arthur, don't rush me," Moody said before he reached into his robe and withdrew a small package.
When he opened it, Harry saw that he was holding a small book. "This is the portkey - Miss Chang, since you have the information we need, you will go first. It should take you to Hogsmeade."
Cho stepped forward and touched it, but if anyone was expecting her to disappear and hear the howling wind that accompanied it, they were sorely disappointed.
"Why isn't it working?" Cho asked.
"I don't know," Moody replied. "I was sure I had the right item, though someone at Hogwarts could have easily replaced it with a fake."
"Great," Sirius said. "Now we're stuck here with three stunned Death Eaters."
"They don't have any wands on them?" Walter asked.
"No, I took them away and broke them," Remus replied and he produced three broken wands from his robe.
"So what do we do?" Arthur said, hurriedly.
"I'm not sure," Moody said, starting to walk down the stairs. "Let's go down to the second floor. Unfortunately they got us good. We were too busy searching everything to bother preparing for trouble."
They were about to go down to the second floor when the Count came running up the stairs to the third floor with Percy. Percy looked tired and was leaning up against a wall with his wand in his hand. The Count on the other hand was holding a bloodstained sword and didn't show any signs of exhaustion, or at least none that Harry could tell since his face was still hidden under the hood of his cloak.
"Don't bother going down there," Percy panted.
"Why not?" Sirius asked.
"They took over the first floor quickly. Everyone down there is either dead or dying," the Count explained. "The second floor is barely holding, but I don't know how long the aurors you left down there will hold off. They're trying to stop the Death Eaters from coming up the staircase."
"That won't hold for long. What should we do?" Hermione said, starting to panic a bit.
"Walter, did you bring the floo powder I told you to bring?" the Count asked. "That way we can go directly to the school."
"Yes, I did my lord," Walter replied and he took a small pouch from his belt, giving it to Arthur. "It's in that bag. There's enough for all of us, but there aren't any fireplaces on the third floor."
"There's one on the first floor," the Count stated. "It's in the room that you asked me to search earlier Alastor."
"How do you suppose we get down there?" Harry finally asked. "The place is swarming with Death Eaters."
"There is a way, but it puts you at great risk, Mr. Potter," the Count replied. "Are you willing to take the risk?"
"Of course I am if it means that no one else will get killed," Harry said firmly. "Why do you need me though?"
"Because we need two people to cover our escape once we get down to the first floor and you're the only other person who can conjure a shield strong enough to block most of the curses thrown at you," the Count explained quickly. "I will go down first with Walter. You will follow along with Miss Granger, but once we get down to the first floor, you will conjure a shield and cover any attacks from the right. I will do the same with the left side since the room is just across the hall from the staircase. Do you understand what you need to do?"
Harry nodded.
"Good, now follow me. Walter, I require your assistance," the Count said, motioning to Walter. "Let's go. I will lead the way. Mr. Potter, follow closely behind Walter and fire anything you can at any incoming Death Eaters."
With that, the Count went down the stairs with Walter, to the second floor. Harry, Cho, and Hermione followed as well while everyone else took up the rear. Sirius and Remus were dragging the three captured Death Eaters by the ropes that they had conjured earlier used to bind them. They stumbled down the stairs, still dazed from being stunned earlier.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When they got to the second floor, they saw that the aurors that were guarding the staircase to the first floor were lying on the floor, dead or badly injured and that the Death Eaters were approaching, wands raised.
"CRUCIO!" one of the Death Eaters yelled, his wand pointed at the Count as he came down the hallway towards the staircase to the first floor.
The curse shot from the wand towards the Count, but as Harry had seen in his first duel against the Count, a red circle with a red pentagram inscribed within it appeared below him and a shield rose up, reflecting the curse back at the Death Eater.
The Death Eater, being too slow to move out of the way, was hit by his own curse and he screamed in pain as the Count approached, thrusting his bloodied sword into the Death Eater's heart before continuing towards the staircase.
"Quickly, move!" the Count urged on as he slew another Death Eater, cutting him across the stomach and warm blood flowed from the wound, spraying onto the Count's black robes and onto the wall. The Death Eater fell down to the ground, dead.
Harry stepped over the body with Cho following, looking very pale in the face, and clutching the book in one hand, her wand in the other. It was a while before they reached the staircase to the first floor since the Death Eaters were climbing the stairs at an alarming rate. However, they soon got the idea to stay back after each Death Eater that came up was slain by the Count or Walter, who was throwing his spears at them with deadly accuracy in between the flares of the Count's magical shield deflecting curses. Harry on the other hand, was covered with blood from being too close to the Count. The stench was really getting to him and he had the urge to throw up, but he held it in. Since Walter and the Count were doing most of the work, he only had to fire a few paralysing spells at the Death Eaters that came too close.
When the got to the stairs, the Count walked down to the first floor, slaying a Death Eater that came too close. The body tumbled down the stairs, blood splattering on the walls as it fell. As much as Harry didn't like the sight of it and it made him sick that this was starting to turn into a bloodbath since the floor was covered in blood and dead bodies lining the hall, he was relieved that they were almost to their destination; the first floor. Arthur and Percy conjured up two stretchers and placed two of the aurors that were unconscious on the second floor and floated them down the stairs to join them followed by the others.
"Alright, now we're on the first floor," the Count said as his shield once again reflected several curses back at their casters. "Mr. Potter - Miss Granger, cover the right side. I will take the left with Walter. Miss Chang - go to the room across the hall - Moody, cover her and get yourselves out of here. Sirius and Remus, take the prisoners with you, we can interrogate them when we get back to the school. Percy and Arthur, get the injured to the school first."
Harry and Hermione ran to the right and Harry barely able had time to conjure a reflecting spell around them as several Death Eaters threw some curses at them. The reflecting spell worked as it was supposed to and it reflected the curses back at the Death Eaters, who fell to the ground with boils and tentacles appearing on them.
From behind his shield, Harry was firing ice bolts at the Death Eaters, who were frozen solid or cut by the ice shards as they flew past them. Hermione was likewise firing curses at the Death Eaters coming from the right and each one that hit, a Death Eater fell to the ground, stunned.
In the meantime, Cho, Moody, Arthur, and Percy were making their way across the hall to the room with Sirius and Remus following closely behind dragging the three captured Death Eaters along with them. Moody opened the door once they got to the room and Cho quickly went in, or tried to. She was immediately hit with a curse and fell to the ground screaming in pain. Moody looked up and saw that there were two Death Eaters in the room and that the window next to the fireplace was open.
Harry heard Cho's scream and looked behind him to see that she had fallen in pain but she was still moving. Then Percy and Arthur fired curses at the pair of Death Eaters, who both fell to the ground, stunned before they went on to the fireplace with the two injured aurors while Moody covered the window to make sure no more Death Eaters got in.
"Hermione," Harry yelled over the sound of curses being fired, "Cho's injured, let's withdraw."
"How? We need to cover this side," Hermione yelled back as she fired another curse, dropping another Death Eater.
"I have an idea, leave it to me. Go on and help Cho," Harry said. "Everyone's too busy to help her."
"You're going to use the elemental magic again aren't you?"
"There's no point in hiding it right now. Not when it will cover everyone's retreat. Now go."
"Alright Harry, good luck," Hermione said and she ran over to help Cho to the fireplace.
Once she was there, Harry then pointed his wand at the ground in front of him and said the spell for summoning a hydra.
The ground shook and the stone floor broke in front of him as a large snake like creature with two heads rose from the ground. The Death Eaters in the hall froze in terror at the sight of it and were just standing there with mouths gaping and eyes bulging in fear.
*Your bidding massster? * It hissed as it turned one of its heads to look at him.
"Keep the Death Eaters busy while we're retreating and don't kill any of them," Harry said to the hydra, but to the Death Eaters in front of him, all they heard was him hissing at the hydra.
The hydra then slithered towards the terrified Death Eaters who began to run in terror back down the hall, trampling over some of their comrades behind them as the hydra snapped at them. Soon the hallway was cleared and the hydra crashed through the door to chase the Death Eaters outside, slithering over some of the Death Eaters along the way.
Harry grinned at the sight and he conjured a force field to cover the hall, so that no one could attack them from that side. Then he turned around to see how everyone was doing. His grin disappeared and changed to a look of disgust when he saw that the Count and Walter were still fighting off the Death Eaters on the left and he could see that the entire left side of the hallway was covered in blood and there were dead bodies covering the floor. Walter was still throwing spears at the Death Eaters, piercing them through the heart as always, but Harry noted that the Count was now only using his sword whenever a Death Eater came too close. Instead, the Count had his hand raised in front of him, palm facing outward and red ghost like creatures were coming forth from his hand. Each time one of the ghosts hit a Death Eater; the Death Eater fell to the ground, shivering in fear, as if their soul had been attacked.
Meanwhile, Hermione had conjured a stretcher and placed Cho on it. Percy and Arthur went over to the fireplace with the two aurors on the stretchers behind them. They threw in a pinch of floo powder and each of them yelled 'Hogwarts' before entering the fireplace and disappearing with the injured aurors. Then Sirius and Remus came after conjuring ropes to bind the two stunned Death Eaters on the floor, adding two more prisoners. Sirius went in first, tugging at the ropes to drag the prisoners along with him.
"See you at Hogwarts," Sirius said, grinning and he disappeared into the fireplace along with the five Death Eaters.
"I'll take her, Hermione," Remus said. "Go ahead and help the others."
"Thanks Professor Lupin," Hermione replied and she went back out to see if everyone was alright while Remus disappeared into the fireplace with Cho, who was holding the book with the information they needed on her chest.
Hermione found Harry with Walter and the Count and went over to join them. She saw that Harry was firing ice bolts at the Death Eaters, freezing them and that Walter and the Count were still killing as many as they could in the hallway. All three of them were soaked in the blood of the fallen Death Eaters and Hermione couldn't resist throwing up at the sight of the hallway.
"Everyone has already gone. We should go now," Hermione choked as the Count plunged his sword through another Death Eater that had come too close.
"Alright, we will withdraw slowly," the Count said. "I'll, keep them busy. At least Mr. Potter was able to stop the ones coming from behind us so we don't need to worry about them. - Walter, help Moody defend the room."
"Yes my lord," Walter replied and he ran into the room to see how Moody was doing.
"Mr. Potter - Miss Granger," the Count said. "I'm going to back slowly into the room. Keep firing anything you can at the Death Eaters.
As the Count backed up, the Death Eaters continued to fire curses at him, but his shield always appeared and deflected them. Harry and Hermione were firing ice bolts at the Death Eaters from behind the Count's shield. Their bolts hit some of the Death Eaters, who were now starting to keep their distance to avoid having to fight the Count, freezing them in place.
Eventually they got to the door of the room and Harry was able to cast another one of his force fields to stop the Death Eaters from attacking them or entering the room. The Count closed the doors of the room just as the Death Eaters were starting to fill up the hallway just outside of the room. Harry cast another force field to hold the door in place and they could hear the sound of the Death Eaters attempting to get the door open, but to no avail.
"There, that should stop them from entering," Harry said exhaustedly.
"Alright, now we can go back to the school," said the Count, still unaffected by the battle, though his cloak was now drenched in blood and he still held his blood soaked sword in his right hand. "Alastor, let's go."
Moody stopped firing curses out of the window he was at and took the bag of floo powder from the floor where Remus had left it. He then went over to the fireplace and threw some of it in before disappearing.
"Now you and Miss Granger, get moving," the Count said.
"What about you?" Harry asked.
"I'll follow, now go," he replied.
"See you at Hogwarts Harry," Hermione said to him cheerfully before she too disappeared into the fireplace.
Harry too took a pinch of the floo powder and threw it into the fireplace before yelling 'HOGWARTS' and stepping in.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A few moments later, Harry appeared back in Dumbledore's office and he looked around to see that only Walter and Hermione were in the room, talking to Professor Dumbledore, however, the Count soon joined them.
"Hello Mr. Potter - Miss Granger," the Count said, getting up as well. "Glad that you both made it in one piece."
"So are we professor," Hermione said. "But I wish that we could have saved the other aurors that came along."
"That is unfortunate, but such is the cost of war," the Count said without a hint of emotion. "However, their sacrifice wasn't in vain. We have the information we need, thanks to Miss Chang."
"Where did everyone else go?" Harry finally asked.
"Miss Chang and the two aurors are in the hospital wing being checked by Madam Pomfrey. Miss Chang gave me the book with the information before Remus took her to the infirmary. As for Sirius, Moody, Percy and Arthur, they are all dealing with the prisoners in the East Tower. The rest of the students are also back from their trip to Hogsmeade," Dumbledore explained.
"Will they be alright?" said Harry.
"Yes, but you and Miss Granger must go to the infirmary. You'll want to get out of those blood soaked robes so that no one questions you. Walter will accompany you," Dumbledore explained.
"What about Professor Sepet?" Hermione asked.
"I will be staying here and give the headmaster a report of the mission," the Count said. "I'll go to the hospital wing afterwards."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Harry, Hermione and Walter arrived at the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey had just finished checking on Cho and the two aurors were lying on the two beds to her left but Remus was nowhere in sight. They walked in and Madam Pomfrey came over to them.
"You again?" she said to Harry. "I wonder what you've been up to Mr. Potter. A year hasn't gone by where you haven't ended up in here, but have a seat on the bed and I'll look you over. Same goes for you Miss Granger and you professor."
Harry went over to the empty bed next to Cho and sat down as Madam Pomfrey went into her office to grab some potions. But once he sat down, he finally threw up on the floor, from the stench that had been lingering on his blood soaked robes.
"I see that you couldn't take it anymore, Mr. Potter," Walter said, laughing as he took a seat in a chair next to Harry's bed. "Though I must say you lasted a lot longer than Miss Granger in holding your stomach. But don't worry, you'll get used to the smell eventually."
Hermione, meanwhile, had sat down on the bed next to Harry and he could see that she too was soaked in blood, but not to the extent that Harry was. She was looking green in the face and she eventually threw up on the floor as well.
"I hope you two don't do that anymore," Madam Pomfrey said, coming out of her office holding two red potions. "Miss Chang did the same thing and its hard enough keeping this place sterile without my patients throwing up all over the floor or leaving bloody footprints for that matter."
Harry looked at the floor and he saw that she was right, the blood on their shoes had left footprints on the ground and he wondered what the other students would think when they found their bloody footprints in the hallway.
"Here, drink these. They'll help you get better," Madam Pomfrey said, handing them the potions, which Harry and Hermione drank gratefully, before she went over to tend to Walter.
The taste was bitter, but Harry was glad that he wouldn't be throwing up anymore, as was Hermione. Harry then looked over at Cho to see how she was doing. She was sleeping peacefully and that her injuries were healed, however, the two aurors in the two beds on her left were still had scars from being attacked by the Death Eaters.
"How are you feeling Harry?" Hermione asked, drawing his attention back to her.
"I'm doing alright," he replied. "Though I think I'll still be smelling the blood for several days."
"I know what you mean," Hermione said disgustedly.
"Well Mr. Potter - Miss Granger," Walter said as Madam Pomfrey had finished with him. "I'll be taking my leave right now. I believe I have some prisoners to interrogate."
"What about your clothes?" Hermione asked. "Aren't you going to clean the blood off of it?"
"Yes, I will have to do that yes, along with my dagger," Walter said, getting up. "But I'll wait until I finish interrogating the prisoners to do that. I find that they are more willing to talk when I'm looking like this."
Walter started to leave when Harry called him again.
"Walter, what did you ever do with Malfoy that caused him to be replaced by Cho?" Harry asked curiously.
Walter turned around and smiled at Harry. "Ah, I was wondering when you would ask that. It was rather entertaining indeed. Pity that you couldn't have seen it. You see, after your little encounter with Mr. Malfoy in Professor Snape's classroom, I noticed how you much you two disliked him. Therefore I took it upon myself to replace him. With the way he was acting that day, I thought he might become a bit of a liability on our mission with his attitude."
"After you two left yesterday with Mr. Weasley, I had my skeleton soldiers drag the three to the dungeons where I kept my office. The look of horror on his paralysed face was priceless. I couldn't keep from chuckling to myself all the way to my office, but once they were there, I undid the curses you cast on them. They naturally came to, but when they fully came to their senses, they noticed the two undead soldiers at the door, they immediately back up against the wall, hugging each other like scared children," Walter continued, now chortling happily. "I gave them their wands, but since they knew how to cast freezing charms, I put some anti- freezing protections on my two soldiers. This way, if they tried a freezing charm, it would just reflect and they would freeze themselves. It makes things interesting don't you think?"
Large grins were now creeping on Harry and Hermione's faces as Walter continued his narrative of what he had done to Malfoy.
"Once that was done, I exited my office, leaving my minions to keep the three of the entertained, but don't worry, they won't kill them. I locked the door behind me and raised a bone wall on the outside. That way if they managed to destroy the two skeletons in there and open the door, they would still be trapped inside. After that, I went to go look for Miss Chang since I thought she would be the most reliable replacement and she accepted willingly," Walter said before sighing to himself. "Sometimes I wish I could pull more jokes on people like I did with Mr. Malfoy, it makes my job a lot more entertaining.."
"Speaking of which, I should go check on my prisoners down in the dungeons and let them out before paying a visit to the captured Death Eaters. I'm sure that Mr. Malfoy doesn't want to be left down there a minute longer," Walter said with a grin. "Good day Mr. Potter - Miss Granger."
With that, Walter left, leaving Harry and Hermione alone in the Hospital Wing, who were now laughing at Walter's story. Madam Pomfrey then went over to them again and looked them over.
"Really. That man is very unhygienic, leaving blood all over his clothes," Madam Pomfrey said, shaking her head. " - I had Remus bring you some clean robes since the headmaster said you would need them and he was right. Change into those and once I make sure that you're not suffering from any injuries, the headmaster says you may return to your dorms."
Madam Pomfrey had them change out of their robes and into some pyjamas until Remus could bring them their clean robes. Harry turned around while Hermione changed and she did likewise when Harry was changing.
"We should take our shoes off before we head back," Harry said, glad that the bloody robes were taken away. "We don't want to leave anymore footprints on the way back to our dorm."
"You're right, but what will people think when we go back in our socks?" Hermione questioned.
"We'll just say our shoes got dirty when we were serving detention and had to have them cleaned. Besides, I'm sure that the house elves wouldn't mind cleaning them for us."
Hermione glared at Harry for his last statement and he gave her an innocent look. "I'm sorry, I meant Dobby because he's paid for his work."
Her face softened a bit. "What about Ron? What do we tell him since we're back later than we should be? Getting out of that house took a very long time."
"We'll just say we had to do something for Walter in his office," Harry suggested. "That way he won't question us too much."
"That works, though we'll have to make up a story about our shoes. Perhaps we spilled something on it and it ate through our shoes, so we had to replace them," Hermione said.
"We'll have to leave our shoes here then and let Madam Pomfrey take care of them," Harry pointed out.
"That'll have to do then. I have an extra pair of shoes in my room," Hermione said. "What about you?"
"Yes, I made sure to bring a second pair of shoes with me in my trunk," Harry replied. "Oh Hermione - what did you want to tell me in person before we left?"
"Uh - I -," she started to say nervously, but she never got to finish because Remus Lupin entered the hospital wing at that moment with their clean robes.
"Hello you two," Remus said giving them a smile. "Glad that you made it back. Mission accomplished too."
"Hello Professor," Hermione said, turning to him. "Thank you for bringing our robes. We could do without the blood stained ones."
"You're welcome Hermione, and stop calling me professor," said Remus. "Its annoying enough having every phoenix member call me that."
Hermione gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Remus. I'll stop."
"Well, here are your robes," he said giving them their clean robes. "Now I need to go to see Professor Dumbledore. I will see you later."
"Bye Remus," Harry and Hermione echoed.
After Remus left, Harry and Hermione changed into their clean robes and made their way back to the Gryffindor tower barefooted since their socks were also soaked in blood.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When they got to the portrait outside the common room, they said the password and the portrait swung aside so that they could enter.
Once they got into the common room, they saw that everyone was there talking, playing exploding snap, or Wizard's chess. Ron was sitting in an armchair and when he saw them enter, he immediately ran over to them.
"Where did you two go?" Ron asked. "You have been gone for almost the entire day. I didn't think Dumbledore would give you detention for that long. I was starting to get worried that Snape did something to you both and you couldn't come back. Dinner will be starting soon."
"We had to do something for Walter again as our punishment for cursing Malfoy," Hermione said. "We were in his office down in the dungeons cleaning it up."
"Malfoy missed the Hogsmeade trip too," Ron said delightedly. "At least I didn't have him bothering me. You two must have done something really bad for him to still be in the infirmary. I should have paid him a visit to gloat a bit, but I figured he's not worth the effort."
"I'm glad that you didn't go to see him," Hermione said. "It's about time you realise he's not worth the trouble.
Harry looked relieved. Ron thought that Malfoy was still in the infirmary and he was glad that he didn't bother to go check. However, he was still feeling dirty from having been drenched in blood and wanted to shower.
"Well, I'm off to shower," Harry said walking upstairs. "Cleaning Walter's office can be hazardous. I'll see you at dinner."
"I'm going too, I feel dirty after having been down there," Hermione added and she too started going up. "See you at dinner Ron."
"Alright, go ahead, it certainly sounds like you need a bath. You both smell like death right now," Ron said, noticing the smell, but while they were on their way up, Ron caught the fact that they were both barefooted.
"Say - why are you both barefooted?" he asked catching their attention again.
"Oh, we melted the heels of our shoes when we stepped in one of Walter's potions that we spilled," Hermione lied. "Walter is going to repair our shoes for us and the socks got dirty also."
"Alright then, hurry up, it's getting boring without you both around and I want to play a game of exploding snap," Ron said and they continued on their way up to shower.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: So what'd you guys think? Walter and Professor Sepet make a good team, don't you think?
Message to people who reviewed:
Angelis: Glad you like my cliffhanger.
The Game: How I update so fast is my secret =)
Mikala: I'm glad I didn't disappoint you with the previous chapter.
".": Thanks for the review. Its good that people like the characters I added in.
GazzadaSpazza: As much as the frozen orb spell would have come in handy, it attacks everyone standing around you. That's why Harry had Cho lie on the ground before he cast it in ch. 14. This time, everyone's standing and Harry doesn't need the friendly fire, so I had him use the hydra instead. Besides it works well with Harry's parseltongue ability.
" ": Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you like the story.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Chapter 16: The Crucible
The Death Eaters advancing on the house started firing curses at the two aurors guarding the entrance to the house. The curses hit them and both of them crumpled to the floor howling in pain as the Death Eaters continued to advance.
Harry ran back towards the staircase and he saw that everyone was crowding around Moody, who was standing up against the wall near it.
"We need to get out of here," Arthur said as Harry joined them. "Let's use the portkey you prepared Alastor."
"I remember Arthur, don't rush me," Moody said before he reached into his robe and withdrew a small package.
When he opened it, Harry saw that he was holding a small book. "This is the portkey - Miss Chang, since you have the information we need, you will go first. It should take you to Hogsmeade."
Cho stepped forward and touched it, but if anyone was expecting her to disappear and hear the howling wind that accompanied it, they were sorely disappointed.
"Why isn't it working?" Cho asked.
"I don't know," Moody replied. "I was sure I had the right item, though someone at Hogwarts could have easily replaced it with a fake."
"Great," Sirius said. "Now we're stuck here with three stunned Death Eaters."
"They don't have any wands on them?" Walter asked.
"No, I took them away and broke them," Remus replied and he produced three broken wands from his robe.
"So what do we do?" Arthur said, hurriedly.
"I'm not sure," Moody said, starting to walk down the stairs. "Let's go down to the second floor. Unfortunately they got us good. We were too busy searching everything to bother preparing for trouble."
They were about to go down to the second floor when the Count came running up the stairs to the third floor with Percy. Percy looked tired and was leaning up against a wall with his wand in his hand. The Count on the other hand was holding a bloodstained sword and didn't show any signs of exhaustion, or at least none that Harry could tell since his face was still hidden under the hood of his cloak.
"Don't bother going down there," Percy panted.
"Why not?" Sirius asked.
"They took over the first floor quickly. Everyone down there is either dead or dying," the Count explained. "The second floor is barely holding, but I don't know how long the aurors you left down there will hold off. They're trying to stop the Death Eaters from coming up the staircase."
"That won't hold for long. What should we do?" Hermione said, starting to panic a bit.
"Walter, did you bring the floo powder I told you to bring?" the Count asked. "That way we can go directly to the school."
"Yes, I did my lord," Walter replied and he took a small pouch from his belt, giving it to Arthur. "It's in that bag. There's enough for all of us, but there aren't any fireplaces on the third floor."
"There's one on the first floor," the Count stated. "It's in the room that you asked me to search earlier Alastor."
"How do you suppose we get down there?" Harry finally asked. "The place is swarming with Death Eaters."
"There is a way, but it puts you at great risk, Mr. Potter," the Count replied. "Are you willing to take the risk?"
"Of course I am if it means that no one else will get killed," Harry said firmly. "Why do you need me though?"
"Because we need two people to cover our escape once we get down to the first floor and you're the only other person who can conjure a shield strong enough to block most of the curses thrown at you," the Count explained quickly. "I will go down first with Walter. You will follow along with Miss Granger, but once we get down to the first floor, you will conjure a shield and cover any attacks from the right. I will do the same with the left side since the room is just across the hall from the staircase. Do you understand what you need to do?"
Harry nodded.
"Good, now follow me. Walter, I require your assistance," the Count said, motioning to Walter. "Let's go. I will lead the way. Mr. Potter, follow closely behind Walter and fire anything you can at any incoming Death Eaters."
With that, the Count went down the stairs with Walter, to the second floor. Harry, Cho, and Hermione followed as well while everyone else took up the rear. Sirius and Remus were dragging the three captured Death Eaters by the ropes that they had conjured earlier used to bind them. They stumbled down the stairs, still dazed from being stunned earlier.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When they got to the second floor, they saw that the aurors that were guarding the staircase to the first floor were lying on the floor, dead or badly injured and that the Death Eaters were approaching, wands raised.
"CRUCIO!" one of the Death Eaters yelled, his wand pointed at the Count as he came down the hallway towards the staircase to the first floor.
The curse shot from the wand towards the Count, but as Harry had seen in his first duel against the Count, a red circle with a red pentagram inscribed within it appeared below him and a shield rose up, reflecting the curse back at the Death Eater.
The Death Eater, being too slow to move out of the way, was hit by his own curse and he screamed in pain as the Count approached, thrusting his bloodied sword into the Death Eater's heart before continuing towards the staircase.
"Quickly, move!" the Count urged on as he slew another Death Eater, cutting him across the stomach and warm blood flowed from the wound, spraying onto the Count's black robes and onto the wall. The Death Eater fell down to the ground, dead.
Harry stepped over the body with Cho following, looking very pale in the face, and clutching the book in one hand, her wand in the other. It was a while before they reached the staircase to the first floor since the Death Eaters were climbing the stairs at an alarming rate. However, they soon got the idea to stay back after each Death Eater that came up was slain by the Count or Walter, who was throwing his spears at them with deadly accuracy in between the flares of the Count's magical shield deflecting curses. Harry on the other hand, was covered with blood from being too close to the Count. The stench was really getting to him and he had the urge to throw up, but he held it in. Since Walter and the Count were doing most of the work, he only had to fire a few paralysing spells at the Death Eaters that came too close.
When the got to the stairs, the Count walked down to the first floor, slaying a Death Eater that came too close. The body tumbled down the stairs, blood splattering on the walls as it fell. As much as Harry didn't like the sight of it and it made him sick that this was starting to turn into a bloodbath since the floor was covered in blood and dead bodies lining the hall, he was relieved that they were almost to their destination; the first floor. Arthur and Percy conjured up two stretchers and placed two of the aurors that were unconscious on the second floor and floated them down the stairs to join them followed by the others.
"Alright, now we're on the first floor," the Count said as his shield once again reflected several curses back at their casters. "Mr. Potter - Miss Granger, cover the right side. I will take the left with Walter. Miss Chang - go to the room across the hall - Moody, cover her and get yourselves out of here. Sirius and Remus, take the prisoners with you, we can interrogate them when we get back to the school. Percy and Arthur, get the injured to the school first."
Harry and Hermione ran to the right and Harry barely able had time to conjure a reflecting spell around them as several Death Eaters threw some curses at them. The reflecting spell worked as it was supposed to and it reflected the curses back at the Death Eaters, who fell to the ground with boils and tentacles appearing on them.
From behind his shield, Harry was firing ice bolts at the Death Eaters, who were frozen solid or cut by the ice shards as they flew past them. Hermione was likewise firing curses at the Death Eaters coming from the right and each one that hit, a Death Eater fell to the ground, stunned.
In the meantime, Cho, Moody, Arthur, and Percy were making their way across the hall to the room with Sirius and Remus following closely behind dragging the three captured Death Eaters along with them. Moody opened the door once they got to the room and Cho quickly went in, or tried to. She was immediately hit with a curse and fell to the ground screaming in pain. Moody looked up and saw that there were two Death Eaters in the room and that the window next to the fireplace was open.
Harry heard Cho's scream and looked behind him to see that she had fallen in pain but she was still moving. Then Percy and Arthur fired curses at the pair of Death Eaters, who both fell to the ground, stunned before they went on to the fireplace with the two injured aurors while Moody covered the window to make sure no more Death Eaters got in.
"Hermione," Harry yelled over the sound of curses being fired, "Cho's injured, let's withdraw."
"How? We need to cover this side," Hermione yelled back as she fired another curse, dropping another Death Eater.
"I have an idea, leave it to me. Go on and help Cho," Harry said. "Everyone's too busy to help her."
"You're going to use the elemental magic again aren't you?"
"There's no point in hiding it right now. Not when it will cover everyone's retreat. Now go."
"Alright Harry, good luck," Hermione said and she ran over to help Cho to the fireplace.
Once she was there, Harry then pointed his wand at the ground in front of him and said the spell for summoning a hydra.
The ground shook and the stone floor broke in front of him as a large snake like creature with two heads rose from the ground. The Death Eaters in the hall froze in terror at the sight of it and were just standing there with mouths gaping and eyes bulging in fear.
*Your bidding massster? * It hissed as it turned one of its heads to look at him.
"Keep the Death Eaters busy while we're retreating and don't kill any of them," Harry said to the hydra, but to the Death Eaters in front of him, all they heard was him hissing at the hydra.
The hydra then slithered towards the terrified Death Eaters who began to run in terror back down the hall, trampling over some of their comrades behind them as the hydra snapped at them. Soon the hallway was cleared and the hydra crashed through the door to chase the Death Eaters outside, slithering over some of the Death Eaters along the way.
Harry grinned at the sight and he conjured a force field to cover the hall, so that no one could attack them from that side. Then he turned around to see how everyone was doing. His grin disappeared and changed to a look of disgust when he saw that the Count and Walter were still fighting off the Death Eaters on the left and he could see that the entire left side of the hallway was covered in blood and there were dead bodies covering the floor. Walter was still throwing spears at the Death Eaters, piercing them through the heart as always, but Harry noted that the Count was now only using his sword whenever a Death Eater came too close. Instead, the Count had his hand raised in front of him, palm facing outward and red ghost like creatures were coming forth from his hand. Each time one of the ghosts hit a Death Eater; the Death Eater fell to the ground, shivering in fear, as if their soul had been attacked.
Meanwhile, Hermione had conjured a stretcher and placed Cho on it. Percy and Arthur went over to the fireplace with the two aurors on the stretchers behind them. They threw in a pinch of floo powder and each of them yelled 'Hogwarts' before entering the fireplace and disappearing with the injured aurors. Then Sirius and Remus came after conjuring ropes to bind the two stunned Death Eaters on the floor, adding two more prisoners. Sirius went in first, tugging at the ropes to drag the prisoners along with him.
"See you at Hogwarts," Sirius said, grinning and he disappeared into the fireplace along with the five Death Eaters.
"I'll take her, Hermione," Remus said. "Go ahead and help the others."
"Thanks Professor Lupin," Hermione replied and she went back out to see if everyone was alright while Remus disappeared into the fireplace with Cho, who was holding the book with the information they needed on her chest.
Hermione found Harry with Walter and the Count and went over to join them. She saw that Harry was firing ice bolts at the Death Eaters, freezing them and that Walter and the Count were still killing as many as they could in the hallway. All three of them were soaked in the blood of the fallen Death Eaters and Hermione couldn't resist throwing up at the sight of the hallway.
"Everyone has already gone. We should go now," Hermione choked as the Count plunged his sword through another Death Eater that had come too close.
"Alright, we will withdraw slowly," the Count said. "I'll, keep them busy. At least Mr. Potter was able to stop the ones coming from behind us so we don't need to worry about them. - Walter, help Moody defend the room."
"Yes my lord," Walter replied and he ran into the room to see how Moody was doing.
"Mr. Potter - Miss Granger," the Count said. "I'm going to back slowly into the room. Keep firing anything you can at the Death Eaters.
As the Count backed up, the Death Eaters continued to fire curses at him, but his shield always appeared and deflected them. Harry and Hermione were firing ice bolts at the Death Eaters from behind the Count's shield. Their bolts hit some of the Death Eaters, who were now starting to keep their distance to avoid having to fight the Count, freezing them in place.
Eventually they got to the door of the room and Harry was able to cast another one of his force fields to stop the Death Eaters from attacking them or entering the room. The Count closed the doors of the room just as the Death Eaters were starting to fill up the hallway just outside of the room. Harry cast another force field to hold the door in place and they could hear the sound of the Death Eaters attempting to get the door open, but to no avail.
"There, that should stop them from entering," Harry said exhaustedly.
"Alright, now we can go back to the school," said the Count, still unaffected by the battle, though his cloak was now drenched in blood and he still held his blood soaked sword in his right hand. "Alastor, let's go."
Moody stopped firing curses out of the window he was at and took the bag of floo powder from the floor where Remus had left it. He then went over to the fireplace and threw some of it in before disappearing.
"Now you and Miss Granger, get moving," the Count said.
"What about you?" Harry asked.
"I'll follow, now go," he replied.
"See you at Hogwarts Harry," Hermione said to him cheerfully before she too disappeared into the fireplace.
Harry too took a pinch of the floo powder and threw it into the fireplace before yelling 'HOGWARTS' and stepping in.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A few moments later, Harry appeared back in Dumbledore's office and he looked around to see that only Walter and Hermione were in the room, talking to Professor Dumbledore, however, the Count soon joined them.
"Hello Mr. Potter - Miss Granger," the Count said, getting up as well. "Glad that you both made it in one piece."
"So are we professor," Hermione said. "But I wish that we could have saved the other aurors that came along."
"That is unfortunate, but such is the cost of war," the Count said without a hint of emotion. "However, their sacrifice wasn't in vain. We have the information we need, thanks to Miss Chang."
"Where did everyone else go?" Harry finally asked.
"Miss Chang and the two aurors are in the hospital wing being checked by Madam Pomfrey. Miss Chang gave me the book with the information before Remus took her to the infirmary. As for Sirius, Moody, Percy and Arthur, they are all dealing with the prisoners in the East Tower. The rest of the students are also back from their trip to Hogsmeade," Dumbledore explained.
"Will they be alright?" said Harry.
"Yes, but you and Miss Granger must go to the infirmary. You'll want to get out of those blood soaked robes so that no one questions you. Walter will accompany you," Dumbledore explained.
"What about Professor Sepet?" Hermione asked.
"I will be staying here and give the headmaster a report of the mission," the Count said. "I'll go to the hospital wing afterwards."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Harry, Hermione and Walter arrived at the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey had just finished checking on Cho and the two aurors were lying on the two beds to her left but Remus was nowhere in sight. They walked in and Madam Pomfrey came over to them.
"You again?" she said to Harry. "I wonder what you've been up to Mr. Potter. A year hasn't gone by where you haven't ended up in here, but have a seat on the bed and I'll look you over. Same goes for you Miss Granger and you professor."
Harry went over to the empty bed next to Cho and sat down as Madam Pomfrey went into her office to grab some potions. But once he sat down, he finally threw up on the floor, from the stench that had been lingering on his blood soaked robes.
"I see that you couldn't take it anymore, Mr. Potter," Walter said, laughing as he took a seat in a chair next to Harry's bed. "Though I must say you lasted a lot longer than Miss Granger in holding your stomach. But don't worry, you'll get used to the smell eventually."
Hermione, meanwhile, had sat down on the bed next to Harry and he could see that she too was soaked in blood, but not to the extent that Harry was. She was looking green in the face and she eventually threw up on the floor as well.
"I hope you two don't do that anymore," Madam Pomfrey said, coming out of her office holding two red potions. "Miss Chang did the same thing and its hard enough keeping this place sterile without my patients throwing up all over the floor or leaving bloody footprints for that matter."
Harry looked at the floor and he saw that she was right, the blood on their shoes had left footprints on the ground and he wondered what the other students would think when they found their bloody footprints in the hallway.
"Here, drink these. They'll help you get better," Madam Pomfrey said, handing them the potions, which Harry and Hermione drank gratefully, before she went over to tend to Walter.
The taste was bitter, but Harry was glad that he wouldn't be throwing up anymore, as was Hermione. Harry then looked over at Cho to see how she was doing. She was sleeping peacefully and that her injuries were healed, however, the two aurors in the two beds on her left were still had scars from being attacked by the Death Eaters.
"How are you feeling Harry?" Hermione asked, drawing his attention back to her.
"I'm doing alright," he replied. "Though I think I'll still be smelling the blood for several days."
"I know what you mean," Hermione said disgustedly.
"Well Mr. Potter - Miss Granger," Walter said as Madam Pomfrey had finished with him. "I'll be taking my leave right now. I believe I have some prisoners to interrogate."
"What about your clothes?" Hermione asked. "Aren't you going to clean the blood off of it?"
"Yes, I will have to do that yes, along with my dagger," Walter said, getting up. "But I'll wait until I finish interrogating the prisoners to do that. I find that they are more willing to talk when I'm looking like this."
Walter started to leave when Harry called him again.
"Walter, what did you ever do with Malfoy that caused him to be replaced by Cho?" Harry asked curiously.
Walter turned around and smiled at Harry. "Ah, I was wondering when you would ask that. It was rather entertaining indeed. Pity that you couldn't have seen it. You see, after your little encounter with Mr. Malfoy in Professor Snape's classroom, I noticed how you much you two disliked him. Therefore I took it upon myself to replace him. With the way he was acting that day, I thought he might become a bit of a liability on our mission with his attitude."
"After you two left yesterday with Mr. Weasley, I had my skeleton soldiers drag the three to the dungeons where I kept my office. The look of horror on his paralysed face was priceless. I couldn't keep from chuckling to myself all the way to my office, but once they were there, I undid the curses you cast on them. They naturally came to, but when they fully came to their senses, they noticed the two undead soldiers at the door, they immediately back up against the wall, hugging each other like scared children," Walter continued, now chortling happily. "I gave them their wands, but since they knew how to cast freezing charms, I put some anti- freezing protections on my two soldiers. This way, if they tried a freezing charm, it would just reflect and they would freeze themselves. It makes things interesting don't you think?"
Large grins were now creeping on Harry and Hermione's faces as Walter continued his narrative of what he had done to Malfoy.
"Once that was done, I exited my office, leaving my minions to keep the three of the entertained, but don't worry, they won't kill them. I locked the door behind me and raised a bone wall on the outside. That way if they managed to destroy the two skeletons in there and open the door, they would still be trapped inside. After that, I went to go look for Miss Chang since I thought she would be the most reliable replacement and she accepted willingly," Walter said before sighing to himself. "Sometimes I wish I could pull more jokes on people like I did with Mr. Malfoy, it makes my job a lot more entertaining.."
"Speaking of which, I should go check on my prisoners down in the dungeons and let them out before paying a visit to the captured Death Eaters. I'm sure that Mr. Malfoy doesn't want to be left down there a minute longer," Walter said with a grin. "Good day Mr. Potter - Miss Granger."
With that, Walter left, leaving Harry and Hermione alone in the Hospital Wing, who were now laughing at Walter's story. Madam Pomfrey then went over to them again and looked them over.
"Really. That man is very unhygienic, leaving blood all over his clothes," Madam Pomfrey said, shaking her head. " - I had Remus bring you some clean robes since the headmaster said you would need them and he was right. Change into those and once I make sure that you're not suffering from any injuries, the headmaster says you may return to your dorms."
Madam Pomfrey had them change out of their robes and into some pyjamas until Remus could bring them their clean robes. Harry turned around while Hermione changed and she did likewise when Harry was changing.
"We should take our shoes off before we head back," Harry said, glad that the bloody robes were taken away. "We don't want to leave anymore footprints on the way back to our dorm."
"You're right, but what will people think when we go back in our socks?" Hermione questioned.
"We'll just say our shoes got dirty when we were serving detention and had to have them cleaned. Besides, I'm sure that the house elves wouldn't mind cleaning them for us."
Hermione glared at Harry for his last statement and he gave her an innocent look. "I'm sorry, I meant Dobby because he's paid for his work."
Her face softened a bit. "What about Ron? What do we tell him since we're back later than we should be? Getting out of that house took a very long time."
"We'll just say we had to do something for Walter in his office," Harry suggested. "That way he won't question us too much."
"That works, though we'll have to make up a story about our shoes. Perhaps we spilled something on it and it ate through our shoes, so we had to replace them," Hermione said.
"We'll have to leave our shoes here then and let Madam Pomfrey take care of them," Harry pointed out.
"That'll have to do then. I have an extra pair of shoes in my room," Hermione said. "What about you?"
"Yes, I made sure to bring a second pair of shoes with me in my trunk," Harry replied. "Oh Hermione - what did you want to tell me in person before we left?"
"Uh - I -," she started to say nervously, but she never got to finish because Remus Lupin entered the hospital wing at that moment with their clean robes.
"Hello you two," Remus said giving them a smile. "Glad that you made it back. Mission accomplished too."
"Hello Professor," Hermione said, turning to him. "Thank you for bringing our robes. We could do without the blood stained ones."
"You're welcome Hermione, and stop calling me professor," said Remus. "Its annoying enough having every phoenix member call me that."
Hermione gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Remus. I'll stop."
"Well, here are your robes," he said giving them their clean robes. "Now I need to go to see Professor Dumbledore. I will see you later."
"Bye Remus," Harry and Hermione echoed.
After Remus left, Harry and Hermione changed into their clean robes and made their way back to the Gryffindor tower barefooted since their socks were also soaked in blood.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When they got to the portrait outside the common room, they said the password and the portrait swung aside so that they could enter.
Once they got into the common room, they saw that everyone was there talking, playing exploding snap, or Wizard's chess. Ron was sitting in an armchair and when he saw them enter, he immediately ran over to them.
"Where did you two go?" Ron asked. "You have been gone for almost the entire day. I didn't think Dumbledore would give you detention for that long. I was starting to get worried that Snape did something to you both and you couldn't come back. Dinner will be starting soon."
"We had to do something for Walter again as our punishment for cursing Malfoy," Hermione said. "We were in his office down in the dungeons cleaning it up."
"Malfoy missed the Hogsmeade trip too," Ron said delightedly. "At least I didn't have him bothering me. You two must have done something really bad for him to still be in the infirmary. I should have paid him a visit to gloat a bit, but I figured he's not worth the effort."
"I'm glad that you didn't go to see him," Hermione said. "It's about time you realise he's not worth the trouble.
Harry looked relieved. Ron thought that Malfoy was still in the infirmary and he was glad that he didn't bother to go check. However, he was still feeling dirty from having been drenched in blood and wanted to shower.
"Well, I'm off to shower," Harry said walking upstairs. "Cleaning Walter's office can be hazardous. I'll see you at dinner."
"I'm going too, I feel dirty after having been down there," Hermione added and she too started going up. "See you at dinner Ron."
"Alright, go ahead, it certainly sounds like you need a bath. You both smell like death right now," Ron said, noticing the smell, but while they were on their way up, Ron caught the fact that they were both barefooted.
"Say - why are you both barefooted?" he asked catching their attention again.
"Oh, we melted the heels of our shoes when we stepped in one of Walter's potions that we spilled," Hermione lied. "Walter is going to repair our shoes for us and the socks got dirty also."
"Alright then, hurry up, it's getting boring without you both around and I want to play a game of exploding snap," Ron said and they continued on their way up to shower.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: So what'd you guys think? Walter and Professor Sepet make a good team, don't you think?
Message to people who reviewed:
Angelis: Glad you like my cliffhanger.
The Game: How I update so fast is my secret =)
Mikala: I'm glad I didn't disappoint you with the previous chapter.
".": Thanks for the review. Its good that people like the characters I added in.
GazzadaSpazza: As much as the frozen orb spell would have come in handy, it attacks everyone standing around you. That's why Harry had Cho lie on the ground before he cast it in ch. 14. This time, everyone's standing and Harry doesn't need the friendly fire, so I had him use the hydra instead. Besides it works well with Harry's parseltongue ability.
" ": Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you like the story.