Chapter 14: Terror
Harry had been woken up by some screams around him. Several people started screaming and calling for help. Harry was still stunned by the spell the hooded person casted, but his powers slowly started to come back. After many unsuccesful tries, he managed to open his weak and heavy eyes.
It was dark outside. The only thing he could see was the moon, giving everything a weak light, but strong enough for Harry's eyes to penetrate the darkness. The Gryffindor Team and those who tried their best for becoming keepers were all around him, most of them were horrified. Harry hadn't seen such terror in the Hogwarts students since the Dementors entered on the Quidditch field in his third year.
Looking around and ignoring everyone's noise, Harry standed on his feet looking around for any possible hooded wizard around, but they were knocked out for too long -- he disappeared. He had enough time, whoever he was; and he needed no disapparition to get out of the grounds, or wherever he went.
Maybe he hadn't left the Hogwarts Grounds... maybe he was just hiding.
Trying to concentrate on other things, like talking to other people, he managed to forget the hooded person for a moment. He could see Fred talking with George hastily about something, and Harry guessed they were talking about the previous attack. He went near them to see what they were saying. But as he came by, they stopped.
"What were you talking about?" Harry asked.
"The attack," George answered.
"We were asking each other who the attacker could be," Fred continued.
"Yea sure," Harry added, "He surely is the same Death Eater who keeps -- cursing -- me these days. He is the Voldemort's second in assistance."
"Why do you have to say that name?" a student who just woke asked.
"That's why," Harry answered. "Because that's his name. It's no use hiding it."
"Yesh right..."
Then the student left them alone. "I bet it's Malfoy," said George.
"Voldemort has lots of Death Eaters," Harry contradicted him. "It can be anyone. All of them hate me the same." He looked at the csatle a bit, and continued, "We'd better go to the castle. I have to talk to Dumbledore." He had to know what happened, and he was sure that Dumbledore wouldn't forget the attack over that many students so easy.
"Everyone, let's go!" Harry shouted for everyone to hear. He could see several students nodding, and the entire group headed off to the Hogwarts castle. Harry couldn't not notice that a few students were still knocked out, and they were carried by the Mobilicorpus spell.
Their journey to the castle had no unusual events, and the first thing Harry did after he entered the castle was to hurry to Dumbledore's office. He wondered what Cho would say when he would tell her about that attack.
"Hello, Harry," Dumbledore said as Harry entered his office. "Let me guess. Something's wrong."
"Yes, professor."
"How can I help you?" he asked, but seeing that Harry didn't say anything, he asked more objective, "What happened?"
"We were choosing our new Gryffindor keeper --"
"Ah, Yes, Mr. Wood left two years ago..."
"Yes. And when we were coming back to Hogwarts... well, someone -- we guess that it was the Death Eater -- he attacked us."
"Who 'us'?" Dumbledore asked raising an eyebrow.
"The entire group." As Harry expected, Dumbledore now had a more than serious expression -- he never allowed something like that to happen at his school. "The Team and all those who came to the Selection Contest."
"All of you?" Dumbledore asked again, as his suspicions gre higher and higher with every moment.
"He attacked all of us, professor. One spell and we were all knocked out."
Dumbledore stopped to think. Harry understood that it was unexpectable that the Death Eater could be mad enough to attack more than thirty students at once, not to forget to meniton that they were on the Hogwarts Grounds! Anyone could see him -- actualy they did see him but that was of no use -- but he still attacked. He must have had so much self-confidence...
"Harry, you must understand that this is really serious." Harry nodded, because he already knew that. "I can not allow him do something like that -- putting Hogwarts students in open danger."
Then, Harry asked himself what did he do before -- why did Dumbledore let him all those years go in so many adventures, where his only help was from Ron and Hermione, in adventures he could die -- and he was surprised he didn't do it yet. But Dumbledore never did anything without a good thought -- maybe he was right all along for letting Harry clean up the evil from the school.
"We must take safety measures," Dumbledore continued after a few seconds. "I have to decide on them before. Could you, please, Harry, tell me the whole story?"
Harry started telling the headmaster everything he knew -- how Ron left before the Death Eater attacked, how somebody said it was a Lethifold, how everyone stopped when he said "Wait", and how he saw the attacker casting a spell.
"That's strange," Dumbledore continued.
"Professor," Harry said, something coming back to his mind, "What is a Lethifold?"
` "Lethifonds... they are terrible creatures. They have a shape of a black cloak that moves in the air, and when they attack they catch the target inside, not allowing it to do anything until it eats the poor victim. They only live in Equatorial regions, so don't worry about them here. Nothing can make a Lethifold come here. No one is known to survive its attack yet."
Harry felt like it was better not to ask that. It was all he needed -- to worry about those Lethifolds now... but, what could bring one to Hogwarts? He just concentrated on Dumbledore's words, 'Nothing can make a Lethifold come here.' He wanted to forget it, because if they only lived in equatorial regions there was no danger to him... only if Voldemort brought some. But they were not friendly creatures...
Harry's head was spinning with thoughts, half of it was saying that he was in another danger and the other half just said that it was nothing to worry about. Which one to believe, he didn't know. With Voldemort, Harry started to think that anything was possible.
"Harry, I'll go now, I need to make a meeting with all the staff."
The both of them went downstairs and Harry headed to the Gryffindor Common Room, while Dumbledore went to the staff room.
Because it was about 9 o'clock in the evening, the Common Room was still full of students. Almost all of the Gryffindors were terrified about what just happened, and Harry understood them immediately. He wanted to make everyone know how he felt like, but that was not possible; at least in those moments they were all acared -- maybe not even a quarter of how scared Harry was about what was about to happen.
"W-What happened, Harry?" Hermione asked. "I see that everyone talks about another attack --"
"Yes."
"I heard that he attacked all of you at once and with one spell --"
"Yes, that's right."
"Well, Harry --"
"I know I know, we are all in danger. Didn't we know it already? At least about me --"
"Harry!" Hermione stopped him seeing that he started talking about himself being in danger again.
"Yes!"
"Just..."
"Just what?"
"Calm down! We all know the danger we all are in --"
"No we don't. Even I don't, at least until I'll find something about that Shadow of Darkness. Knowing the Dark Book of Dark Arts by heart helps a bit -- at least I know the pain I'll suffer before death."
"Harry! Calm down, please!"
"Yeah, right."
"You're acting all strange, Harry! What's with you?"
"Everything. Those attacks drive me mad!"
"Yeah, sure," said Hermione. Then she did something unexpected; she took her wand, pointed to harry and shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!"
Harry's entire body turned to stone at that spell. That was a strange thing to feel, he was never put under that spell before. And he never expected the spell imprisoning him casted to Hermione.
"Just calm down, Harry. I guess if I'll let you stay like this you'll manage to think about everything and stop."
WHAT? Harry asked himself, mainly because he couldn't speak with a stone mouth. He knew that if he hadn't been petrified, his shout could be heard from the Dursleys.
Harry could see some students asking Hermione what happened. Whatever they did, she just repeated what she told Harry. "To calm him down. I guess if I'll let him stay like this he'll manage to think about everything and stop."
Harry thought he would stay petrified there for several hours. He was just asking himself what had gotten into Hermione. Just then, he saw Fred coming and saying a spell that unpetrified him.
With his body back to normal, he was about to jump to Hermione to ask her why she did that -- but he stopped knowing that she wasn't herself. He told anyone who would hear anout that, and when Hermione heard that, she seemed to be back to her own self. "Sorry," she said.
"It's not you who has to excuse. It's the Death Eater -- who knows what Rage spell he had casted on you."
"Rage spell?" Herminoe asked.
"Er, yes -- I read about it in the Dark Book of the Dark Arts."
Harry knew that Rage Spells could be of several types, just like every other Dark Art. Harry went cold only when thinking of one of them -- the worst one, which makes a victim attack everyone who he sees. Harry knew that Hermione wasn't hit by one of these, because if she was, all of the students in the Common Room would be unconscious because a wizard or witch with the spell placed on him would know every single Dark Art and he could use any of them, and the Gryffindors wouldn't be trained enough to deal with a Berzerk Hermione. She still was the top student...
"Do you think the Death Eater will ever be killed?" a third year asked.
"Sure... in the next ten years," Harry added sarcastically. He knew that the Death Eater was skilled enough to resist for a long time -- if he wasn't Dumbledore would have caught him long ago. He had hidden on dark corners and unknown places a lot until that day, so he would continue like that.
"Or maybe he will, sooner than you think," Harry continued. One thing just came to his mind -- if the Death Eater wouldn't get caught by himself, Harry would catch him.
He sat on a chait and told Hermione to sit near him. He was planning to tell Hermione about his idea to hunt the Death Eater.
"I'm going to find him," was all that Harry told her.
"No. You're not."
"Not me. You and Ron can help me, of course."
"We're not suiciding just like that!" said Hermione in a very annoyed tone. "Are you out of your mind, Harry? Do you think that we are good enough to deal with a wizard that managed to knock-out thirty students at once? Can't you imagine what powers he has...? Haven't you read the Dark book of Dark Arts...?"
"Hermione, if we won't catch him, no one will."
"Harry, something strange is happening."
"Sure, it always does."
"I mean with you, Harry! You're acting all strange --"
"And you aren't?" Harry asked standing up, raising his voice.
"I am, too," Hermione added, "but look at you! You are just going to kill yourself by... well, just don't go! Because I won't come either, and you know Ron's mood. He'll never help us these moments."
Harry's mind wasn't decided on what to do... what was better? Was it better to listen to Hermione?
Of course it was a lot more intelligent to wait and see what the Death Eater would do, and wait until he would do a mistake -- any mistake that could stop him...
But that was no option. Allowed to walk free all the time, a Death Eater in the Hogwarts Castle could do a lot of different things -- not only that he could attack anyone but he could spy, too. And he was Voldemort's second in assistance...
"I'm going," Harry said, walking to his dormitory. He just saw on his four-poster, looking at the wall on the other side of the room. Everything was dark -- there was no light turned on to lit the room -- and Harry liked it. He told himself that he would stay like that for a few hours, it was very comforting.
Just then, he asked himself what could be comforting in the darkness. But, he felt it; he just felt better. His worries lessened while staying in the dark, in the silenced dormitory, and the memory of seeing himself dark wasn't as haunting as before.
He supposed that was how he would feel if nothing would keep him under pressure.
After he stood there for about an hour, while nobody came to the dormitory, he was still looking at the opposite wall. Then suddenly, he heard something -- or did he? Was it just his immagination what gave him a chill on the spine?
He supposed it had to be -- he heard nothing after that, for about thirty seconds -- and then he was convinced that he really heard something. He had heard a voice. A cold, slow voice, a such evil voice that gave even his robes a fright.
He heard it again. He couldn't distinguish the words; he didn't even know if there were any words or it was just trying -- and succeeding -- to make him freeze in panic. Fear was penetrating his entire body, and with each passing moment he was becoming more scared. He felt like his entire body had gone cold.
Then he heard the voice again. Harry immediately imagined a monster -- the voice was even more terrifying than Aragog's. But what could possibly sound like that?
Next time when he heard the voice, he was about to jump out of his bed and run to the Common Room hoping that he would be safer there. But something stopped him -- he could understand the words... the creature, or whatever it was, spoke English. It said, "Fear is how I fall..."
"What?" Harry asked, hoping to get an answer. But all he got was...
"Confusing what is real..."
Harry didn't do anything than to wait and see what the voice said next -- maybe it was a message from Voldemort? No doubt it was something like that -- what could terrify a person more than something of Voldemort's? Maybe it was Voldemort's new voice...
And then he could hear it, again, but this time it was not anything that scared your wits off you. It was the same voice, but this time it was singing...
"There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface... Consuming, confusing... This lack of self-control I fear is never ending... Controlling, I can't seem to find myself again, my walls are closing in..."
Harry could just try to keep in mind some words. He could just think... lack of self-control... I can't seem to find myself again... 'Remember them, Harry,' he told himself...
And he realized that it was almost like a description of the problems he was in.
"Without a sense of confidence, I'm convinced that there's just too much pressure to take..." the voice continued. "I felt this way before, so insecure..."
The voice stopped there, and Harry stood frozen on the bed he was on. Who would tell someone to go and sing to him something? Sing with a voice that had no idea what singing meant...
He had no idea what happened. There was one thing to do... go and tell Hermione and -- not Ron -- Cho. Cho, because Harry knew she would understand and that she was intelligent enough to think better than him -- maybe she would manage to realize what exactly the voice was... if only she could hear it... because there were no words to describe that voice -- no one ever invented a word to describe that...
Then, he ran... he ran to the Common Room. It was barely ten o'clock, so the room was full of students. When he saw them, Harry remembered that they were all scared of the previous attack. It would do no good to say what he had just heard in public. "Hermione?" he asked, and showed her a chair she could sit on. "I've got something terrible to say."
Hermione's face just went more scared than it already was.
"I heard... a voice."
"Voice?" Hemione asked. "Like... the basilisk's?"
"It's a terrible voice -- I bet no one ever heard a voice more frightening than this."
"Voice?" Hermione asked again.
"Yes. It said some words... and then it started singing."
"Singing?" Hermione asked almost ready to laugh.
"Terrible voice... it really sang something, but it was still frightening... And the worst part is that I have no idea how I heard it, what said those words or who sent the one who said that..."
"What did it say? Can you remember?"
"It almsot described my situation. It said something about a never-ending lack of self-control, and... those words which I can't forget, 'I cna't seem to find myself again'. It fits, doesn't it?"
"It was a message," Hermione said. "A message. We just need to... decypher it and to know who sent it."
"And how."
"That's less important. It could have been a spell casted by someone on himself to sound like that..."
"It may have been a monster."
"Monster is a quite general word," Hermione added.
"Yes, and it perfectly describes what I want to say. A voice more terrible than Aragog's, and the fact that it was dark in the room made it even more frightening. I heard a few different sounds before the voice, that was when the monster closed the room... or flew... whatever."
"We can't know this. Yet. A good idea would be to go and talk to Cho... she may think about it, too; she's a Ravenclaw. Her advice may be vital."
"Yes, I guess I will," Harry added, thinking that he would talk to Cho the next morning. He was so tired after all the things that happened in only one day. He onlu hoped that he wouldn't hear the voice again while he was sleeping -- he wanted to rest that night, not to get even more tired.
Fortunetely, he could enjoy a good night's sleep, and when he woke up, he prepared to go to breakfast, after which he said he would have a very boring History Of Magic class.
At breakfast, he searched for Cho. She was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, enjoying her breakfast, unlike almost all of the Gryffindors, who were still terrorized by the attack over the Quidditch Team. Seeing them in that mood, Dumbledore standed on his feet and made a sign telling everyone to quiet.
"After the regretable attack over the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and a few more Gryffindors last evening, all the staff agreed to apply a few safety measures," Dumbledore said. "Because of that, we have decided that no student will go out of the castle without being accompanied by a teacher."
At those words, several students said a loud "Ohh," especially Fred and George.
"The second safety measure is... to stop everyone from walking on the corridors at midnight. For that, we have modified the way this kind of rulebreaking is punished. If a student is caught on the corridors without a permission from a teacher, he will be immediately expelled." Seeing the terrified faces of the students when they heard the word 'expell', Dumbledore added, "It is just for your own safety to not walk on the corridors at night.
"Those rules will apply until the Death Eater is finally found and taken care of." He looked at Harry, who seemed to be the most bothered of all students -- he wanted to go at midnight out of the Gryffindor Tower... but he had never been caught before, right? That is, if he didn't count the moment when they got rid of Norbert and they were stupid enough to forget the invisibility cloak up on the Astronomy Tower.
He continued his breakfast, and when he saw Cho preparing to leave, he sped up to talk with her before she left.
"Good morning, Harry!" she said as she saw him closing.
"Mornin'", he said.
"What's up?" she asked, seeing that he wasn't happy. "Oh, it's the attack..."
"Not necesarily," he contradicted her. "It's not the attack that bothers me the most, it's a... very strange and unexpected thing that happened last night."
"What?" she asked, being curious.
Harry started telling her about how he went to he dormitory and how he heard the scary voice. "You just can't imagine a voice as scary as that," he told her.
"I can't."
"Well, I want to decypher the message, or at least to know who sent it. Or what said it." He told her the words he could remember from the song, and then she asked --
"That voice -- sang?"
"Yes. Very strange, I know; I was surprised myself when it started doing that."
"So it fits quite well to your situation... he is gaining control over your person... with those spells..." She looked sadly into his eyes. "This is not good, Harry," she said in a very worried way. "Not good at all... we must stop him somehow."
That was exactly what Harry wanted her to say. It was his plan that could do exactly what they all desired. He would go and look for the Death Eater.
"I have already thought of that," he said. Cho's face brightened at the good news... well, at least good until Harry would tell him what he was planning. "I am going to search for him."
Cho's reaction was exactly how he pictured it.
"WHAT?" she asked surprised. "No, you're not. You'll die."
"I will have support. I won't be alone."
"Who will help you in this suicide?"
"Hermione will, maybe Ron, and... you, I guess."
Cho went silent. She didn't think about that, and Harry didn't blame her. She wasn't used to all kinds of strange situations as he was. She had never had adventures not even far as dangerous as Harry had in all his years. She had never been so close to death as he had.
"You will help, won't you?" he asked after a few seconds of pause.
but Cho didn't answer. It was so hard to decide for her -- and after that, she said, "I think I will." That surprised Harry very much -- he didn't think that she would agree... but, then, Why did she agree? Why did she put her life in danger for Harry?
"If we wait too much, it will be too late," Harry continued. "That means, if I stay and do nothing about it, I'll die. Then why shouldn't I do something? There will be a chance to survive in this."
"I see, Harry, but still I don't much like the idea."
"Then why did you agree to help?"
"Because... there is no alternative..." They stood there silent for several seconds, and after that, Cho said, "So have you talked to Ron and Hermione?"
"No,"
"Well, talk to them and we will discuss more about it."
"Okay."
"Well, see you later!" said Cho, while Harry answered, "Bye." She watched him as he left the Great Hall. He was heading towards the History of Magic Classroom, where the Gryffindors had class. Harry told Hermione the situation in the class, and she finally agreed.
The worse part was with Ron, whose sad mood was the first barrier to reach anything.
"Ron," Harry started, "I need to talk to you."
"What?" he asked, in the most sadistic way.
"We are going to search for the Death Eater --"
"You WHAT?" Ron asked, completely forgetting his bad mood.
"Hermione, Cho and I have agreed that it's better to catch him before he catches me. If I'll stay and wait for something to happen, it may... happen, and what will we to then, when it's all ready to be over. So..."
"Yeah, I understand, but I don't think I'll come," Ron said, returning to his bad mood.
"Why?" Harry asked. But Ron didn't answer, he didn't seem to bother answering either. The Ron of the last few days was back. "Why, Ron, For God's sake, what happened?"
He finally seemed to give up. He slowly searched in his pocket for something, and after a few seconds he took a piece of parchment -- a letter. He handed it over to Harry to read.
Dear Ron,
Very bad events have striked our house. Lately, your father started acting all strange, as he did at the Quidditch Cup in the summer. I have recieved a letter from the Ministry saying that it's not doing anything bad, but I know there is. He is put under a strong spell that keeps him from talking to anybody, and he is like hypnotized almost all day.
I think the Ministry has really lost everything when Fudge was taken away. Nothing's going good there, either. I heard that several people from the Ministry have disappeared for some time.
I can control Arthur, but he wouldn't listen to anybody. He uses to ignore us, and I fear that this is only the beginning.
Love,
Molly Weasley
When he saw that letter, Harry immediately understood Ron's bad mood. He was really touched always when something happened to anyone who he catred about. Harry took Scabbers the rat as an example. When Ron firstly thought he lost his pet, he wsa in a very bad mood, too. And he surely cared more of his father than of his rat.
Did that mean that he had to do the search only with Hermione and Cho?
Harry had been woken up by some screams around him. Several people started screaming and calling for help. Harry was still stunned by the spell the hooded person casted, but his powers slowly started to come back. After many unsuccesful tries, he managed to open his weak and heavy eyes.
It was dark outside. The only thing he could see was the moon, giving everything a weak light, but strong enough for Harry's eyes to penetrate the darkness. The Gryffindor Team and those who tried their best for becoming keepers were all around him, most of them were horrified. Harry hadn't seen such terror in the Hogwarts students since the Dementors entered on the Quidditch field in his third year.
Looking around and ignoring everyone's noise, Harry standed on his feet looking around for any possible hooded wizard around, but they were knocked out for too long -- he disappeared. He had enough time, whoever he was; and he needed no disapparition to get out of the grounds, or wherever he went.
Maybe he hadn't left the Hogwarts Grounds... maybe he was just hiding.
Trying to concentrate on other things, like talking to other people, he managed to forget the hooded person for a moment. He could see Fred talking with George hastily about something, and Harry guessed they were talking about the previous attack. He went near them to see what they were saying. But as he came by, they stopped.
"What were you talking about?" Harry asked.
"The attack," George answered.
"We were asking each other who the attacker could be," Fred continued.
"Yea sure," Harry added, "He surely is the same Death Eater who keeps -- cursing -- me these days. He is the Voldemort's second in assistance."
"Why do you have to say that name?" a student who just woke asked.
"That's why," Harry answered. "Because that's his name. It's no use hiding it."
"Yesh right..."
Then the student left them alone. "I bet it's Malfoy," said George.
"Voldemort has lots of Death Eaters," Harry contradicted him. "It can be anyone. All of them hate me the same." He looked at the csatle a bit, and continued, "We'd better go to the castle. I have to talk to Dumbledore." He had to know what happened, and he was sure that Dumbledore wouldn't forget the attack over that many students so easy.
"Everyone, let's go!" Harry shouted for everyone to hear. He could see several students nodding, and the entire group headed off to the Hogwarts castle. Harry couldn't not notice that a few students were still knocked out, and they were carried by the Mobilicorpus spell.
Their journey to the castle had no unusual events, and the first thing Harry did after he entered the castle was to hurry to Dumbledore's office. He wondered what Cho would say when he would tell her about that attack.
"Hello, Harry," Dumbledore said as Harry entered his office. "Let me guess. Something's wrong."
"Yes, professor."
"How can I help you?" he asked, but seeing that Harry didn't say anything, he asked more objective, "What happened?"
"We were choosing our new Gryffindor keeper --"
"Ah, Yes, Mr. Wood left two years ago..."
"Yes. And when we were coming back to Hogwarts... well, someone -- we guess that it was the Death Eater -- he attacked us."
"Who 'us'?" Dumbledore asked raising an eyebrow.
"The entire group." As Harry expected, Dumbledore now had a more than serious expression -- he never allowed something like that to happen at his school. "The Team and all those who came to the Selection Contest."
"All of you?" Dumbledore asked again, as his suspicions gre higher and higher with every moment.
"He attacked all of us, professor. One spell and we were all knocked out."
Dumbledore stopped to think. Harry understood that it was unexpectable that the Death Eater could be mad enough to attack more than thirty students at once, not to forget to meniton that they were on the Hogwarts Grounds! Anyone could see him -- actualy they did see him but that was of no use -- but he still attacked. He must have had so much self-confidence...
"Harry, you must understand that this is really serious." Harry nodded, because he already knew that. "I can not allow him do something like that -- putting Hogwarts students in open danger."
Then, Harry asked himself what did he do before -- why did Dumbledore let him all those years go in so many adventures, where his only help was from Ron and Hermione, in adventures he could die -- and he was surprised he didn't do it yet. But Dumbledore never did anything without a good thought -- maybe he was right all along for letting Harry clean up the evil from the school.
"We must take safety measures," Dumbledore continued after a few seconds. "I have to decide on them before. Could you, please, Harry, tell me the whole story?"
Harry started telling the headmaster everything he knew -- how Ron left before the Death Eater attacked, how somebody said it was a Lethifold, how everyone stopped when he said "Wait", and how he saw the attacker casting a spell.
"That's strange," Dumbledore continued.
"Professor," Harry said, something coming back to his mind, "What is a Lethifold?"
` "Lethifonds... they are terrible creatures. They have a shape of a black cloak that moves in the air, and when they attack they catch the target inside, not allowing it to do anything until it eats the poor victim. They only live in Equatorial regions, so don't worry about them here. Nothing can make a Lethifold come here. No one is known to survive its attack yet."
Harry felt like it was better not to ask that. It was all he needed -- to worry about those Lethifolds now... but, what could bring one to Hogwarts? He just concentrated on Dumbledore's words, 'Nothing can make a Lethifold come here.' He wanted to forget it, because if they only lived in equatorial regions there was no danger to him... only if Voldemort brought some. But they were not friendly creatures...
Harry's head was spinning with thoughts, half of it was saying that he was in another danger and the other half just said that it was nothing to worry about. Which one to believe, he didn't know. With Voldemort, Harry started to think that anything was possible.
"Harry, I'll go now, I need to make a meeting with all the staff."
The both of them went downstairs and Harry headed to the Gryffindor Common Room, while Dumbledore went to the staff room.
Because it was about 9 o'clock in the evening, the Common Room was still full of students. Almost all of the Gryffindors were terrified about what just happened, and Harry understood them immediately. He wanted to make everyone know how he felt like, but that was not possible; at least in those moments they were all acared -- maybe not even a quarter of how scared Harry was about what was about to happen.
"W-What happened, Harry?" Hermione asked. "I see that everyone talks about another attack --"
"Yes."
"I heard that he attacked all of you at once and with one spell --"
"Yes, that's right."
"Well, Harry --"
"I know I know, we are all in danger. Didn't we know it already? At least about me --"
"Harry!" Hermione stopped him seeing that he started talking about himself being in danger again.
"Yes!"
"Just..."
"Just what?"
"Calm down! We all know the danger we all are in --"
"No we don't. Even I don't, at least until I'll find something about that Shadow of Darkness. Knowing the Dark Book of Dark Arts by heart helps a bit -- at least I know the pain I'll suffer before death."
"Harry! Calm down, please!"
"Yeah, right."
"You're acting all strange, Harry! What's with you?"
"Everything. Those attacks drive me mad!"
"Yeah, sure," said Hermione. Then she did something unexpected; she took her wand, pointed to harry and shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!"
Harry's entire body turned to stone at that spell. That was a strange thing to feel, he was never put under that spell before. And he never expected the spell imprisoning him casted to Hermione.
"Just calm down, Harry. I guess if I'll let you stay like this you'll manage to think about everything and stop."
WHAT? Harry asked himself, mainly because he couldn't speak with a stone mouth. He knew that if he hadn't been petrified, his shout could be heard from the Dursleys.
Harry could see some students asking Hermione what happened. Whatever they did, she just repeated what she told Harry. "To calm him down. I guess if I'll let him stay like this he'll manage to think about everything and stop."
Harry thought he would stay petrified there for several hours. He was just asking himself what had gotten into Hermione. Just then, he saw Fred coming and saying a spell that unpetrified him.
With his body back to normal, he was about to jump to Hermione to ask her why she did that -- but he stopped knowing that she wasn't herself. He told anyone who would hear anout that, and when Hermione heard that, she seemed to be back to her own self. "Sorry," she said.
"It's not you who has to excuse. It's the Death Eater -- who knows what Rage spell he had casted on you."
"Rage spell?" Herminoe asked.
"Er, yes -- I read about it in the Dark Book of the Dark Arts."
Harry knew that Rage Spells could be of several types, just like every other Dark Art. Harry went cold only when thinking of one of them -- the worst one, which makes a victim attack everyone who he sees. Harry knew that Hermione wasn't hit by one of these, because if she was, all of the students in the Common Room would be unconscious because a wizard or witch with the spell placed on him would know every single Dark Art and he could use any of them, and the Gryffindors wouldn't be trained enough to deal with a Berzerk Hermione. She still was the top student...
"Do you think the Death Eater will ever be killed?" a third year asked.
"Sure... in the next ten years," Harry added sarcastically. He knew that the Death Eater was skilled enough to resist for a long time -- if he wasn't Dumbledore would have caught him long ago. He had hidden on dark corners and unknown places a lot until that day, so he would continue like that.
"Or maybe he will, sooner than you think," Harry continued. One thing just came to his mind -- if the Death Eater wouldn't get caught by himself, Harry would catch him.
He sat on a chait and told Hermione to sit near him. He was planning to tell Hermione about his idea to hunt the Death Eater.
"I'm going to find him," was all that Harry told her.
"No. You're not."
"Not me. You and Ron can help me, of course."
"We're not suiciding just like that!" said Hermione in a very annoyed tone. "Are you out of your mind, Harry? Do you think that we are good enough to deal with a wizard that managed to knock-out thirty students at once? Can't you imagine what powers he has...? Haven't you read the Dark book of Dark Arts...?"
"Hermione, if we won't catch him, no one will."
"Harry, something strange is happening."
"Sure, it always does."
"I mean with you, Harry! You're acting all strange --"
"And you aren't?" Harry asked standing up, raising his voice.
"I am, too," Hermione added, "but look at you! You are just going to kill yourself by... well, just don't go! Because I won't come either, and you know Ron's mood. He'll never help us these moments."
Harry's mind wasn't decided on what to do... what was better? Was it better to listen to Hermione?
Of course it was a lot more intelligent to wait and see what the Death Eater would do, and wait until he would do a mistake -- any mistake that could stop him...
But that was no option. Allowed to walk free all the time, a Death Eater in the Hogwarts Castle could do a lot of different things -- not only that he could attack anyone but he could spy, too. And he was Voldemort's second in assistance...
"I'm going," Harry said, walking to his dormitory. He just saw on his four-poster, looking at the wall on the other side of the room. Everything was dark -- there was no light turned on to lit the room -- and Harry liked it. He told himself that he would stay like that for a few hours, it was very comforting.
Just then, he asked himself what could be comforting in the darkness. But, he felt it; he just felt better. His worries lessened while staying in the dark, in the silenced dormitory, and the memory of seeing himself dark wasn't as haunting as before.
He supposed that was how he would feel if nothing would keep him under pressure.
After he stood there for about an hour, while nobody came to the dormitory, he was still looking at the opposite wall. Then suddenly, he heard something -- or did he? Was it just his immagination what gave him a chill on the spine?
He supposed it had to be -- he heard nothing after that, for about thirty seconds -- and then he was convinced that he really heard something. He had heard a voice. A cold, slow voice, a such evil voice that gave even his robes a fright.
He heard it again. He couldn't distinguish the words; he didn't even know if there were any words or it was just trying -- and succeeding -- to make him freeze in panic. Fear was penetrating his entire body, and with each passing moment he was becoming more scared. He felt like his entire body had gone cold.
Then he heard the voice again. Harry immediately imagined a monster -- the voice was even more terrifying than Aragog's. But what could possibly sound like that?
Next time when he heard the voice, he was about to jump out of his bed and run to the Common Room hoping that he would be safer there. But something stopped him -- he could understand the words... the creature, or whatever it was, spoke English. It said, "Fear is how I fall..."
"What?" Harry asked, hoping to get an answer. But all he got was...
"Confusing what is real..."
Harry didn't do anything than to wait and see what the voice said next -- maybe it was a message from Voldemort? No doubt it was something like that -- what could terrify a person more than something of Voldemort's? Maybe it was Voldemort's new voice...
And then he could hear it, again, but this time it was not anything that scared your wits off you. It was the same voice, but this time it was singing...
"There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface... Consuming, confusing... This lack of self-control I fear is never ending... Controlling, I can't seem to find myself again, my walls are closing in..."
Harry could just try to keep in mind some words. He could just think... lack of self-control... I can't seem to find myself again... 'Remember them, Harry,' he told himself...
And he realized that it was almost like a description of the problems he was in.
"Without a sense of confidence, I'm convinced that there's just too much pressure to take..." the voice continued. "I felt this way before, so insecure..."
The voice stopped there, and Harry stood frozen on the bed he was on. Who would tell someone to go and sing to him something? Sing with a voice that had no idea what singing meant...
He had no idea what happened. There was one thing to do... go and tell Hermione and -- not Ron -- Cho. Cho, because Harry knew she would understand and that she was intelligent enough to think better than him -- maybe she would manage to realize what exactly the voice was... if only she could hear it... because there were no words to describe that voice -- no one ever invented a word to describe that...
Then, he ran... he ran to the Common Room. It was barely ten o'clock, so the room was full of students. When he saw them, Harry remembered that they were all scared of the previous attack. It would do no good to say what he had just heard in public. "Hermione?" he asked, and showed her a chair she could sit on. "I've got something terrible to say."
Hermione's face just went more scared than it already was.
"I heard... a voice."
"Voice?" Hemione asked. "Like... the basilisk's?"
"It's a terrible voice -- I bet no one ever heard a voice more frightening than this."
"Voice?" Hermione asked again.
"Yes. It said some words... and then it started singing."
"Singing?" Hermione asked almost ready to laugh.
"Terrible voice... it really sang something, but it was still frightening... And the worst part is that I have no idea how I heard it, what said those words or who sent the one who said that..."
"What did it say? Can you remember?"
"It almsot described my situation. It said something about a never-ending lack of self-control, and... those words which I can't forget, 'I cna't seem to find myself again'. It fits, doesn't it?"
"It was a message," Hermione said. "A message. We just need to... decypher it and to know who sent it."
"And how."
"That's less important. It could have been a spell casted by someone on himself to sound like that..."
"It may have been a monster."
"Monster is a quite general word," Hermione added.
"Yes, and it perfectly describes what I want to say. A voice more terrible than Aragog's, and the fact that it was dark in the room made it even more frightening. I heard a few different sounds before the voice, that was when the monster closed the room... or flew... whatever."
"We can't know this. Yet. A good idea would be to go and talk to Cho... she may think about it, too; she's a Ravenclaw. Her advice may be vital."
"Yes, I guess I will," Harry added, thinking that he would talk to Cho the next morning. He was so tired after all the things that happened in only one day. He onlu hoped that he wouldn't hear the voice again while he was sleeping -- he wanted to rest that night, not to get even more tired.
Fortunetely, he could enjoy a good night's sleep, and when he woke up, he prepared to go to breakfast, after which he said he would have a very boring History Of Magic class.
At breakfast, he searched for Cho. She was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, enjoying her breakfast, unlike almost all of the Gryffindors, who were still terrorized by the attack over the Quidditch Team. Seeing them in that mood, Dumbledore standed on his feet and made a sign telling everyone to quiet.
"After the regretable attack over the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and a few more Gryffindors last evening, all the staff agreed to apply a few safety measures," Dumbledore said. "Because of that, we have decided that no student will go out of the castle without being accompanied by a teacher."
At those words, several students said a loud "Ohh," especially Fred and George.
"The second safety measure is... to stop everyone from walking on the corridors at midnight. For that, we have modified the way this kind of rulebreaking is punished. If a student is caught on the corridors without a permission from a teacher, he will be immediately expelled." Seeing the terrified faces of the students when they heard the word 'expell', Dumbledore added, "It is just for your own safety to not walk on the corridors at night.
"Those rules will apply until the Death Eater is finally found and taken care of." He looked at Harry, who seemed to be the most bothered of all students -- he wanted to go at midnight out of the Gryffindor Tower... but he had never been caught before, right? That is, if he didn't count the moment when they got rid of Norbert and they were stupid enough to forget the invisibility cloak up on the Astronomy Tower.
He continued his breakfast, and when he saw Cho preparing to leave, he sped up to talk with her before she left.
"Good morning, Harry!" she said as she saw him closing.
"Mornin'", he said.
"What's up?" she asked, seeing that he wasn't happy. "Oh, it's the attack..."
"Not necesarily," he contradicted her. "It's not the attack that bothers me the most, it's a... very strange and unexpected thing that happened last night."
"What?" she asked, being curious.
Harry started telling her about how he went to he dormitory and how he heard the scary voice. "You just can't imagine a voice as scary as that," he told her.
"I can't."
"Well, I want to decypher the message, or at least to know who sent it. Or what said it." He told her the words he could remember from the song, and then she asked --
"That voice -- sang?"
"Yes. Very strange, I know; I was surprised myself when it started doing that."
"So it fits quite well to your situation... he is gaining control over your person... with those spells..." She looked sadly into his eyes. "This is not good, Harry," she said in a very worried way. "Not good at all... we must stop him somehow."
That was exactly what Harry wanted her to say. It was his plan that could do exactly what they all desired. He would go and look for the Death Eater.
"I have already thought of that," he said. Cho's face brightened at the good news... well, at least good until Harry would tell him what he was planning. "I am going to search for him."
Cho's reaction was exactly how he pictured it.
"WHAT?" she asked surprised. "No, you're not. You'll die."
"I will have support. I won't be alone."
"Who will help you in this suicide?"
"Hermione will, maybe Ron, and... you, I guess."
Cho went silent. She didn't think about that, and Harry didn't blame her. She wasn't used to all kinds of strange situations as he was. She had never had adventures not even far as dangerous as Harry had in all his years. She had never been so close to death as he had.
"You will help, won't you?" he asked after a few seconds of pause.
but Cho didn't answer. It was so hard to decide for her -- and after that, she said, "I think I will." That surprised Harry very much -- he didn't think that she would agree... but, then, Why did she agree? Why did she put her life in danger for Harry?
"If we wait too much, it will be too late," Harry continued. "That means, if I stay and do nothing about it, I'll die. Then why shouldn't I do something? There will be a chance to survive in this."
"I see, Harry, but still I don't much like the idea."
"Then why did you agree to help?"
"Because... there is no alternative..." They stood there silent for several seconds, and after that, Cho said, "So have you talked to Ron and Hermione?"
"No,"
"Well, talk to them and we will discuss more about it."
"Okay."
"Well, see you later!" said Cho, while Harry answered, "Bye." She watched him as he left the Great Hall. He was heading towards the History of Magic Classroom, where the Gryffindors had class. Harry told Hermione the situation in the class, and she finally agreed.
The worse part was with Ron, whose sad mood was the first barrier to reach anything.
"Ron," Harry started, "I need to talk to you."
"What?" he asked, in the most sadistic way.
"We are going to search for the Death Eater --"
"You WHAT?" Ron asked, completely forgetting his bad mood.
"Hermione, Cho and I have agreed that it's better to catch him before he catches me. If I'll stay and wait for something to happen, it may... happen, and what will we to then, when it's all ready to be over. So..."
"Yeah, I understand, but I don't think I'll come," Ron said, returning to his bad mood.
"Why?" Harry asked. But Ron didn't answer, he didn't seem to bother answering either. The Ron of the last few days was back. "Why, Ron, For God's sake, what happened?"
He finally seemed to give up. He slowly searched in his pocket for something, and after a few seconds he took a piece of parchment -- a letter. He handed it over to Harry to read.
Dear Ron,
Very bad events have striked our house. Lately, your father started acting all strange, as he did at the Quidditch Cup in the summer. I have recieved a letter from the Ministry saying that it's not doing anything bad, but I know there is. He is put under a strong spell that keeps him from talking to anybody, and he is like hypnotized almost all day.
I think the Ministry has really lost everything when Fudge was taken away. Nothing's going good there, either. I heard that several people from the Ministry have disappeared for some time.
I can control Arthur, but he wouldn't listen to anybody. He uses to ignore us, and I fear that this is only the beginning.
Love,
Molly Weasley
When he saw that letter, Harry immediately understood Ron's bad mood. He was really touched always when something happened to anyone who he catred about. Harry took Scabbers the rat as an example. When Ron firstly thought he lost his pet, he wsa in a very bad mood, too. And he surely cared more of his father than of his rat.
Did that mean that he had to do the search only with Hermione and Cho?