Chapter 13
Trouble back home
"Okay, the spell is Mutari followed by the metal. Who could name some of these metals for me?"
"Aurem for gold, Professor." Ernie MacMillan said
"Argentem… for… silver." Neville spoke hesitating, earning a nod and small smile.
"Ferrum for iron." Lisa Turpin answered.
"Plumbum for lead." Seamus was the last to speak.
The sixth-year Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students named several Latin names of metals. After that they paired up and started practicing the spell on each. The girls used more the gold and silver way, while the boy's favorite was lead.
Parvati aimed her wand at Lavender and focused when a wave of pain occupied her mind. Images followed soon. She let go of her wand and fell to her knees, pressing her hands to her temples. From the corner of her eye she saw Lavender do the same.
***
Minerva McGonagall walked over to girls who had fallen on their knees when both started to speak.
"No, professor. Don't do that. Don't hurt the little girl. Please don't. This isn't you. Professor, stop!" Parvati kept begging the unknown professor to stop whatever he or she was doing. "Don't… don't use Crucio…no!" The girl shook and cried, still crying out her pleas.
Lavender however was crying something else. "Hermione, watch out for the knife. He is behind you. Ron, help her. Well done…" She yelled a few more encouragements, but then she cried full pain. "No! Behind you… Don't die. Please don't die. Harry needs you. Ginny, please help him."
Suddenly both girls fell silent. A white light surrounded them and they lifted of the floor.
"The snake is powerful." They said together. "But it will be defeated. By…"
"Earth…"
"Water…"
"Fire…"
"Air…"
"Soul..."
"Body…"
"Spirit…"
"And Mind…"
Then the young women spoke together. "Daktor tsu't kavisha ney. Daktor ami-ah voneh hai."
The white light disappeared and both women fell on the ground unconscious.
***
Padma saw her twin sister falling to her knees from the corner of her eyes. She lowered her wand and listened and watched with wide open eyes what was happening.
When the white light disappeared and her sister and friend felt on the ground, she hurried towards them and kneeled down besides them.
She had chosen the Healing magic course and she was asked to become a medic on the Hogwarts Defense Force, so she had already had some medical training. Using this training, she quickly checked their vital signs.
Professor McGonagall had kneeled down besides her. "Miss Brucklehorst, get Madam Pomfrey. Mr. Thomas, Professor Dumbledore. Just get them. Don't tell anyone what happened. Everyone else remains here." Then she looked at the Asian girl.
Padma understood the unspoken question. "They are unconscious, but their vital signs are strong." Then she removed the ties and opened the two top buttons of the blouses to free the airways.
McGonagall nodded and both silently kept guard over the two girls until Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore hurried in.
***
"The training of the Hogwarts Defense Force is going well. We have started forming the special groups and the others are divided in units." McGonagall reported and gave more details.
"That indeed sounds good. I have finished ideas for the uniforms. Blue trousers, white shirts and black robes with belt and wand holsters. And insignias for the different groups. Monday we're switching to them. Harry, Ron and Hermione keep the order uniforms and I think Ginny can keep hers."
"We also have started a kind of defense training for the third and four years. They are learning a number of defensive spells they can use in emergencies. We organize it in the form of a dueling club. First and second years are trained what to do of an attack. Also first to fourth years get some basic medical training."
"That should work out next year. Then they will have a basis. And my talk with Fudge had success. The members of the Hogwarts Defense Force will be excluded from the Ban on Underage Magic… Minerva, what happened today in your class?" Alastor Moody asked.
"You know about the dreams of Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. Today they had very violent visions. Miss Patil was begging a professor to stop something. Apparently this person was torturing a child. Miss Brown saw something that happened to our missing members. Hermione was in knife fight and something happened to Sirius I think, for Lavender begged Ginny to do something. After that white light appeared, they lifted into the air and they said something." Minerva closed her eyes and recited: "The snake is powerful. But it will be defeated. By… Earth…Water…Fire…Air…Soul...Body…Spirit…and Mind. Daktor tsu't kavisha ney. Daktor ami-ah voneh hai." Minerva opened her eyes again. "They are both still unconscious in the hospital wing."
"I think it's safe to say that the last part was about defeating Voldemort. I have been trying to find out what 'Daktor tsu't kavisha ney. Daktor ami-ah voneh hai' means the whole after-noon, but I haven't had any luck yet." Remus said.
"Continue your work, Remus. Report as soon as you have found something." Dumbledore said.
"There is something else about this. Padma Patil came to me today, since Fillius wasn't available. She demands to know what is going with her sister. She was very insistent."
"We should tell her the truth, if she promises not to talk about it to anyone. But not without Parvati's consent." Dumbledore spoke. Then he looked over at Severus Snape. "Severus, are you ready for tonight? Minerva is going with you as backup."
Both professors nodded. "We have prepared everything."
"Then we can close this meeting. Anyone something else?"
"Actually, I do." Arthur Weasley spoke up. "This morning I was presented at breakfast with a group of insisted young men and women. Some names are Fred and George Weasley, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, Oliver Wood, Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson, Penelope Clearwater and Eloise Midgen. They have heard about the Hogwarts Defense Force and want to be trained also. But they had no interest in joining the Ministry."
It was silent for a few moments.
Then Dumbledore spoke. "We can use all the people we can get. Actually, we should have expected something like this. Alastor, could you work out some ideas for this group?"
Alastor nodded and Dumbledore closed the meeting.
***
Slytherin common rooms were empty. Students were in their classes. Except for one.
Blond hair and a narrow face gleamed in the light of the fire. A soft blue force field pulsed in front of the entrance, stopping anyone from entering.
"Something is going on, father. I am telling you. The Gryfs Patil and Brown collapsed today in transfiguration. There are all kinds of rumors. But the people who were present are all keeping silent. While some of the people present are some of the most gossipy of the school."
The head in the fire place was the head of Lucius Malfoy. The rumors went he was Voldemort's right hand. "For once you might haven given some useful information. Collect all the rumors. Find out more. Don't disgrace the Malfoy line!"
Draco raised his eyebrow. "Yes sir."
"However… when you work is rewarding, the Dark Lord might consider giving you one of the greatest honors."
"I would give him my deepest gratitude."
***
"Miss Patil, I insist you leave. My patients must rest. And even you should rest. It's four o'clock in the night." It wasn't Madam Pomfrey first attempt to get her out of the hospital wing, but Padma had remained very stubborn, even with already a week of detentions.
"Madam Pomfrey, Lavender and Parvati are the only ones here. They have been unconscious since they have been brought here. I don't disturb them by just sitting here. And when I am tired, I will sleep here, in this chair. I am not leaving my sister alone." Padma supported her words by standing up, transfiguring the hard wooden chair in a comfortable leather seat, taking a blanket and settling down again with the blanket over her legs.
"Miss Patil…"
"Leave her, Poppy. She isn't doing anything wrong. Her detentions will be dropped also." Dumbledore voice sounded.
The women turned their head to the headmaster that came marching in with large steps.
"Poppy, I need to speak with Miss Patil."
"Yes Headmaster." Poppy disappeared, grumbling about how she should care for her patients if everyone neglected her advice.
Dumbledore sat down besides the young woman. "How are they doing?"
Padma shrugged. "They still are both unconscious. There hasn't been any change since they were brought here… Professor, what is going on with my sister?"
"Professor Lupin told me you asked him that. I am afraid I can't tell you anything without having discussed that with your sister. But what do you know?"
"I know she has been having predicting dreams. And that Lavender also has been having the same kind of dreams. But I don't know about what. I have been doing some research. Does what happened mean she is a Seer? And Lavender too?" She showed him the book besides her, Study of Divination: who Sees by Cassandra Vablatsky.
"You certainly have been doing your research. The Ravenclaw spirit?"
"Perhaps. Professor, again, does this mean she is a Seer?"
"We can't say anything on this moment. But it's possible."
"I know the dreams mean is she a Clairvoyant. Perhaps even a Diviner."
"Have you told your sister about your research?"
"Parvati and Lavender know. We have been researching with the three of us."
"Then I can tell you this. Parvati and Lavender are indeed at least Clairvoyants, Padma. And they have a talent with divination techniques, so almost sure Diviners. But even Clairvoyants and Diviners have an occasional violent vision."
"Thanks for the explanation, Headmaster." A soft voice besides them spoke.
Both looked to their left. Parvati was looking at them with open eyes, leaning on her elbow.
"Parvati! Are… Do you…?"
Parvati held up her hand. "I am fine, Padma. At least when I know what happened."
"That's what I would like to know too." Another voice sounded.
Everyone looked tot the right to see Lavender looking at them. She was still lying down, but open eyes.
Dumbledore smiled at the two young women. "It's good to see awake. Padma, please fetch Madame Pomfrey."
***
When Padma returned with Madam Pomfrey, both Parvati and Lavender were sitting up, with pillows in their back. Both were firing questions at Professor Dumbledore.
Madam Pomfrey hurried over to her patients and started checking them over. Padma and Dumbledore took their seats, waiting till she was finished.
When the medi-witch was finished, Dumbledore spoke. "Do you remember what you saw?"
Both Parvati and Lavender frowned, but then nodded.
"Their was an attack around the place where Harry and everyone ended up. I saw Hermione in a knife fight. And… Harry's godfather was seriously hurt."
"What did you see, Parvati?"
"I don't want to tell."
"Parvati…" Dumbledore talked to her gently.
But finally when it looked like she wanted to talk, Remus came hurrying in. Two stretchers floated behind them.
Madam Pomfrey quickly went over to him. She threw one look at the stretchers, then called: "Miss Patil!"
Padma hurried over, also shocked when she saw the occupants of the stretchers. At Madam Pomfrey's orders she started to help.
***
Minerva McGonagall crept over to the abandoned manor. Severus was inside, at a meeting of Voldemort.
Their mission was to obtain a certain scroll with spells. Severus had to get it without being discovered and she would be smuggling it back to Hogwarts.
Her thoughts jumped a bit. People might think she was an odd choice to support Severus on a mission like this. But she had two things that were very handy. One, she was a cat animagus, so she could come closely to the house without being noticed. And the second was a fact that almost nobody knew. Her parents had been Aurors and she had also done the Auror training when she had left Hogwarts. She had even worked in the field for few years when Albus had approached her to become a teaching assistant. She decided to try it out and had worked as teacher since then. But that hadden't meant that she had let her skills atrophy.
She glanced at her watch, seeing it was eleven o'clock. Quickly she transformed, tippling to the house.
***
Severus hurried trough the dark hallways of the abandoned manor. It had taken quite some trouble before he could escape from the meeting.
Finally he arrived at the designated door. Quickly he glanced over his shoulder and seeing no one, he entered.
Inside he quickly glanced over the cabinets with scrolls, then grabbed the correct one. He walked back to the door and peeked outside. Seeing no one he transformed into his bat form, carrying the scroll in his claws.
He didn't see the dark figure following him.
***
The cat tippled over the bat, quickly taking the scroll into her mouth. She seemed to nod and wanted to run away.
Only then bright light filled the area. A high cackling laugh filled the area.
The bat and the cat glanced at each other with despair in their eyes.
"Animagi reverso." the same high voice cried.
Minerva and Severus took their own shapes. To their credit they had their wands out in seconds and started throwing curses immediately.
But how valiant they fought, how skilled they both were, in the end it wasn't enough. They were subdued by the much larger number of Death Eaters and laid stunned on the ground.
***
Severus was fighting trough fog to wake up. When he opened his eyes he immediately recog-nized his surroundings and cursed inwardly.
He was hanging in chains by his wrists. Glancing at his side he also saw his collogue hanging besides him.
"Why am I not surprised to see you hanging here, Severus? I should have known that you were the spy."
Severus glanced to the other side to see the red piercing eyes of Voldemort. Suddenly he heard Minerva moaning on his side. Severus looked back to woman besides him.
Minerva looked up and glanced around. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw Voldemort, but further she didn't show anything on the outside.
Voldemort stalked over to Transfigurations professor. "Hello Minerva."
Minerva raised her head. "Tom Riddle..." Hate, but also disgust was clear in her voice.
"I am the Dark Lord, Minerva… But I think this is a lesson that I will have to teach you the hard way. Crucio!"
The woman screamed, twitching in her chains.
Severus bit his lip, to stop him from crying out in anger. "Leave her. Just take me, Voldemort." he cried after what felt like hours.
Voldemort looked at him. He just let the curse on McGonagall for a few more moments, but then removed the curse. "So, you are willing to take her place. Well, if you want. I will deal with you later." the last was directed to Minerva.
Minerva managed to raise her head, despite the fact that the chains were the only thing to keep her standing and that she was panting hard. Severus nodded at her and mouthed something like: "I have gone trough this before."
This time male screams filled the small room.
***
This went on for more than an hour. Changing turns McGonagall and Snape were subjected to the Cruciatus curse and several other painful curses.
Finally several Death Eaters entered and Voldemort stepped away. "I have had my fun. Your turn."
Three figures unchained Snape and dragged him to the next room. Two others brought a little girl with a frightened look on her face in this cell.
Voldemort left the cell: "Have fun. But keep them alive. And at half three, dump them outside Hogwarts gate." Smiling he walked trough the hallway, shrill screams echoing behind him.
***
Padma directed the two stretchers to the exam table and levitated her two teachers over to the exam tables, while Pomfrey hurried to her office to gather her stuff.
"Where did you found them, Remus?" Dumbledore asked, worry clear in his voice.
"Just outside the gate… Albus, they are playing with us. Why else would they have… treated them as they did and dump them by the gate?"
"I must agree with you. Call everyone from the order together." Dumbledore ordered.
Remus nodded and quickly left the hospital wing.
Dumbledore turned back to look at Parvati. She was busy checking their vitals signs and also making sure their airways were clear.
She looked up when Madame Pomfrey hastily walked over to them. At the questioning look, she said: "They are both unconscious. Breathing is slightly labored, heartbeat is quite fast."
Madam Pomfrey quickly started to check them out thoroughly, while Padma arranged the things Madame Pomfrey had brought with her.
When she finished, both she and Padma took the disinfectant and Padma started to work Minerva, while Pomfrey took Severus, both cleaning and healing the various cuts on their faces.
"Poppy?" Dumbledore asked softly.
"Both have been subjected to Cruciatus several times. Add a number of other 'nice' curses with caused the most damage on Professor McGonagall and some physical violence to Professor Snape."
When Padma was finished, Pomfrey sent her to prepare two separate rooms. She in the meantime poured a number of potions into the troths of the unconscious professors. She also gave some more detailed info about the injuries she had found.
Remus entered, and he and Albus quickly left to go the meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. Poppy quickly finished up and made sure both professors were tucked safely in their beds.
Padma had sat down in the chair she had transfigured. Her sister and friend had longtime fallen back to sleep. She leaned back and closed her eyes for a second.
When Poppy entered a few minutes later she saw her young assistant sleeping soundly. And despite her mostly very strict demeanor a small smile played around her lips. She levitated the young woman in the bed besides her sister and carefully pulled the blankets around.
When she was at the door, she dimmed the lights and went to get some rest herself.
***
Next morning Remus was paging trough one of his books about time travel, when his eyes caught something.
"Of course. That we haven't seen that before." he exclaimed.
He read again trough the information, checked several references in various other books and then hurried towards Dumbledore's office.
***
Madam Pomfrey was up early that morning, despite the late hour she gone to sleep last night. But that was something she was used to and she could work with very little sleep.
At first she woke Padma and sent her to get cleaned up and to eat some breakfast. The two other girls were left sleeping. If they were fit enough she could eventually follow some afternoon classes.
She then checked on Severus and Minerva who were still asleep.
Silently, carefully not to wake the Gryffindor women, she walked around, setting things ready for day.
She was however not surprised when the two girls woke up quite quickly. She carefully checked them out, then summoned a house elf to get some breakfast. "After breakfast you will be released. Take this morning of. Professor Dumbledore wanted to see the both of you. If you feel up to it, you're allowed to attend the afternoon classes."
The house elf arrived with two trays and both girls started breakfast. Madam Pomfrey started to continue her work, when Parvati asked: "How are Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall?"
The medi-witch turned around, a small smile on her face. "They will be fine."
***
Later that day both Severus and Minerva woke up. Severus was tired, but completely coherent.
But Minerva… Physically she was recovering nicely. But mentally was a very different case. She didn't respond to any questions, didn't move or react in any other ways. She just stared before her, her face not showing anything. The only sign of emotion she showed was the occasional tear that slit over her face.
Poppy didn't hesitate to call Dumbledore over to the hospital wing for to inform him of the situation. When he arrived they sat down in her office.
"Professor Snape is recovering very well. Professor McGonagall is recovering well physically, but she is in a shock. She isn't reacting to anything."
"Is this because of the Crusiatus?"
"No. But I don't know the exact cause. I have been in contact with St. Mungo's. We think it's best to keep her in familiar surroundings and to keep talking to her in the hope that will bring her out of it. But if that doesn't work, she will have to be transferred to St. Mungo's."
Dumbledore nodded. "I will make a staff roster."
Poppy was silent for a few moments. "Normally I wouldn't suggest something like this, but would it an idea to add some of the older of the Gryffindor students."
Dumbledore contemplated it for a few moments, then nodded. "Good idea. I will also alert her sister and some members of the Order."
***
It was the start of a new week. Today was the first day that the new uniforms were worn.
Breakfast went as usual, except the missing Minerva. Gryffindor was slightly subdued because of this. Professor Snape had been released, but it would be a few days before he started teaching again.
Suddenly a blaring sound filled the Great Hall. It was chaos for a few moments, but then their came order into the chaos.
The first and second year students quickly went to specially secured dungeon. The third and fourth years spread out to certain points inside the castle. Those placed were covered, but chosen so that they could help to defend the school somewhat. The three oldest years gathered in the hall, quickly separating into their units.
Quickly they received their orders from teachers. The fighting groups moved out over the perimeters of Hogwarts, the student medics got their bags, unpractical brown leather bags, while the strategists and information gathers put their head together and started working on possible tactics.
During this practice Dumbledore watched from one of the towers to his students. He wished he didn't have to do this to his students, but it was necessary. The look on his face was grim, thinking about his Deputy Headmistress, his still missing students and members of the Order of the Phoenix, the stupid actions of Cornelius Fudge. But when he saw his students his heart became a bit lighter. They would make it.