Chapter 15: Midnight Hunt
They have entered october after a few days. The weather was getting colder than before and in his visits at the lake, Harry had to take warmer clothes. On the second day of October, after they finished the classes, he decided that the day to search for the Death Eater had to be...
"Today," Harry told Hermione and Cho, because Ron didn't accept to come even with all of Harry's and Hermione's pleads. "If we wait a few more days, I know that the Death Eater will do something..." He thought a few moments about the last attack on the Quidditch Field. There were quite a few days since the Death Eater had become idle. "I know he will do it soon -- he hadn't done anything lately."
Hermione nodded, and Cho's face seemed to show a deep express of worry. Harry had to agree with the fact that what they wanted to do was quite dangerous -- Very dangerous at the second thought. The Death Eater seemed to use the dark spells a lot -- spells Harry hadn't heard of before Voldemort had risen again.
"Do you think this is the best option?" Cho asked.
"Well, from what we know, yes," Harry said. "We have no other alternative... think of one if you want..."
"But there is no other alternative!" Cho exclaimed. "I don't think I will come..."
Harry felt like he would die soon. As if it wasn't enough that Ron wasn't helping... If Cho didn't want to help, he thought it was better for him to just wait until the Death Eater attacked... or to talk to Dumbledore about the search... but that was stupid. He couldn't imagine Dumbledore telling him that they would search for the Death Eater...
And another question popped in Harry's head. He didn't feel asking Cho, but he was wondering why she wouldn't join.
After thinking some seconds, he had finally found an answer at that question. Cho was not a Gryffindor so she wasn't as brave as Harry, Ron or Hermione was.
"Cho," Harry said slowly. "We just... can't do it if we are only two."
"I know, and we won't be able to do it even if we are three."
"Then why wouldn't we go and force Ron to help us?" asked Harry. Hermione's face darkened. "I was just joking, Hermione."
"You are joking again when we are in such important moments!" Hermione replied, reminding Harry of the last time Hermione said that. In those moments she just left... "It's not the first time --"
"Hermione stop that!" Harry told her, having no time for Hermione's speech. "We have something to talk about."
"Or joke about," Hermione added.
Fortunately, she didn't leave them there, and after a few seconds of waiting to see what was happening, Harry heard Cho say something.
"I really would help -- but -- it's too dangerous."
"If you want, I'll tell you how many adventures i went into and how I survived them all, again." Harry didn't want to give up that wasily, even though something told him that he shouldn't complain against Cho's decision. "Honestly, you shouldn't worry so much about this --"
"NOT WORRY?" Hermione blew up. "Damn it, Harry, this is something even worse than --"
"Worse than a duel with Voldemort himself?" he asked. "Is it worse than that?"
"It may be."
"Yes, it may be, but this time I won't be alone if you two will help."
"I think we will talk about this until tomorrow," Hermione continued. "We should just say -- shall we do it or not?"
Harry looked at Cho. She seemed to be thinking hard about it. Harry understood her, and what she felt about that -- fear could be very convincing a lot of times. And Cho was not a Gryffindor...
"I will," Cho said after a while. Harry's spirit seemed to birth again. Hope came back to him, if he had Cho's help he was more sure that they would bring their plan to a good end. She had many adventages -- being a Ravenclaw meant that she could give a lot of good advice. She knew more spells, because she was one year older than Harry, and that could help much. And, she just seemed to boost Harry's morale when she was around -- and Harry knew why...
...only because he liked her so much... and he wanted her to help him.
But then something popped in Harry's head again. Why did she accept to help him? He didn't have enough time to think of that, because Cho continued:
"Well, how will we do it? When?"
"Tonight," Harry said firmly.
"Tonight?" Hermione asked.
"Tonight," Harry answered.
"Okay, so let it be tonight," said Cho. "I'll... I'll get ready..."
"Get ready? There's nothing to do except to meet sometime in midnight --"
"Midnight," Hermione repeated slowly. "If we'll get caught, we will be in more trouble than ever! Remember what Dumbledore said? We will get expelled!"
"Not if we will be careful," Harry said. "So, then, what if we'll meet this evening at 9 o'clock so we will be able to -- think -- a good plan?"
"There is nothing to plan, Harry! With something like this, we will only meet the unexpected! Everywhere... We won't be able to know where each teacher will be."
"And we'll have to be sooo careful to avoid them, even with invisibility cloaks! Talking about invisibility cloaks, how will we go?" asked Cho, thinking that both she and Harry had one.
"Well I guess one of us will take Hermione inside," Harry answered. "I will, I am used to that..." He looked aroud to see if anyone could have heard them talking. They were on a corridor where anyone could come at anytime.
"I still do not think that this is a good idea," Hermione brought back the subject.
"Yes I know that this is not a good one but it's the only one," Harry continued. Harry was very surprised to see that Cho nodded. "So, Cho, you will be here at 9... Hermione and I will be here, so we will start making a plan... if there is anything to be planned. But I know there has to be something, something that we can expect. Take as an example, we should think of what may happen IF we meet the Death Eater..."
A short time after, they said bye and Harry and Hermione went to the Gryffindor tower. Hermione didn't like the idea at all, and Harry didn't blame her at all, not with all the Dark things that were happening at Hogwarts -- but it was for the best. If they would do their best and manage to catch the Death Eater -- but only IF -- all of the Hogwarts students would be safe again. At least until Voldemort would find another Death Eater to send.
All he hoped was that they would tryumpf in the search and be able to do a good job. And there was one more thing he hoped: that Dumbledore wouldn't punish him for being out at midnight...
As 9 o'clock was closing, Harry started feeling more and more troubled about the actions he had decided to do. It was that moment when he understood all of Hermione's fears and he thought of not attacking anymore -- but then he just convinced himself that it was the only alternative. He remembered the Cruciatus he managed to cast on Avery -- and hoped that he would manage to do it again, because both of them were Death Eaters. Or maybe he wasn't the one who casted it, maybe it was casted by another Death Eater through Harry? If that was possible at all...
At 9 he took Hermione and lead her to the corridor they talked earlier. Cho was already there when they reached, and she said that she had just arrived a few seconds before, too.
"So, what will we do?" Harry asked. "Have you brought your invisibility cloak?"
"I did,"
"So did I. Now, we should search every place."
"Yes, He may be invisible, so I have prepared a True-Seeing Potion," Cho said.
"You always think of everything," Harry said. "Thank you for this. If you hadn't thought of it, we may have done all of this in vain."
"You seem to not be able to do things alone. I start to wonder how did you manage to do all those things in your previous years."
Another thing they had to consider was the fact that Dumbledore could see through Invisibility cloaks. He only thought that they had a True-Seeing potion and that they could see Dumbledore even if he was invisible, so they could stay away from him.
They talked about the order of corridors they would explore. Cho told them about some secret corridors even they didn't know. That moment Harry was reminded of a lost thing -- The Marauder's Map. He wished he still had that wonderful Map of Hogwarts at him, he wished he hadn't given it to the supposed Mad-eye Moody. He wished he would have had it back.
Cho observed that he was thinking of something else, and asked, "Harry! Are you here?"
"Yes, I am," he continued. "I was just thinking of the Marauder's Map."
"The What?" Cho asked.
"It was a Map of Hogwarts I had lost the last year. Moody -- I mean Crouch -- took it... and I haven't seen it ever since. It was a beauty; it showed the position of every person -- it was my best friend when I was trying to sneak out of the Gryffindor Tower at night. I wonder where it is now."
Cho looked at Harry for a few seconds, surprised by what he said, and then asked, "You had a map of Hogwarts? That was -- cool!"
"It was. I have no idea where it is now." He remembered of the creators of the map -- Lupin, Sirius, Pettigrew and... his father. His mind immediately slipped on thinking about his father, making himself forget what big night was about to happen at Hogwarts. A night where two things could happen: Either they would catch the Death Eater, or the Death Eater would catch them.
They talked about the Marauder's map for a few minutes and then they remembered why they were there for. Considering the Marauder's Map lost, they returned to making the plan -- where they would go. They decided they would search the Grounds, too, because that was the place where most of the attacks took place.
It was about eleven o'clock when they decided to start their search. Even though they planned to leave at twelve, they didn't have the patience to wait another hour.
Only when they left, Harry realized that it was so stupid to try searching the entire castle for the Death Eater -- he could be anywhere. And he could change his position so they wouldn't meet him at all. It all seemed so stupid, so useless. But something told him that they had to do it; something told him that they would meet the Death Eater that night.
He couldn't wait to find out who he was, to find out who was terrorizing Harry, and lately, the entire school. It was the moment he should pay.
They searched the 7th floor first, and they decided to search all the floors in order, and then they would go to the Dungeons. After that, they would search out of the castle. The towers would be searched when they would reach an entrance to each.
"We'll manage to explore all the known castle in a few days," Cho said.
"Yes, I know," Harry continued. He was lucky with the True-Seeing Potion so he could see her even through those invisibility cloaks.
As they walked, he wished he was alone with Cho. That thought was so stupid, Harry thought, he wondered how did it come to his head. They had so few chances if they were only two... and adding his feelings for her, he would have stood no chance against the Death Eater becuase his mind would have raced elsewhere.
The 7th floor was clear. They headed to the 6th floor, where they had lots of rooms to search, but with no success there either.
They searched all the floors in a hurry, and met nothing, except Filch, who heard Hermione's footsteps and they had a hard time to get past him on the 3rd floor.
Then Harry had an idea. He called Cho to come close, and whispered,
"Maybe he knows of the secret tunnels that lead to Hogsmeade."
"Secret tunnels?" Cho asked.
"Yes, there are seven in total, but only a few are still avalabile. Should we search them, too?"
"Not now," Hermione answered. "I don't think he knows of them. Only the Marauder's Map showed them, and if you don't have that map it's a low chance to know about them. And Moody had no time to tell Voldemort about them."
"Did he?" Harry asked. That was terrible -- maybe Voldemort actually knew.
"I don't --"
"That's what owls are for!" Harry said. "I bet he told his master --"
"Worry later, we have to search for someone now," Cho stopped them. "Let's go, we have the dungeons and the grounds. It's three o'clock, I am sure that we haven't searched too well until now."
They decided to go and search out of the castle, but they didn't find anything. He wasn't in the dungeons, either.
Because it was still just five, they searched the tunnels, too. Harry told Cho about the passage under the Whomping Willow, becasue that was a better place to hide in. There were so few people who knew about that, and everyone was still frightened about the shrieking shack. But the Death Eater couldn't possibly know that; even Moody had no idea about the Willow's knot that froze it.
Unfortunately, he wasn't there either.
As they were heading back to their common Rooms, almost falling asleep while walking, they heard another sound.
"Oh, it's nothing, we have heard many sounds today," Hermione said.
Harry looked around. And there he was, the Death Eater heard them and was walking on the corridor. Harry pointed to him. "T - There!"
Hermione and Cho looked at him, too. He couldn't see them and that was a good advantage.
For Harry, it was time for revenge. He couldn't see who the Death Eater was because his face was hidden. His black cloak was exactly the same as the one he wore while he attacked on the Quidditch Field.
Harry, feeling brave and ready, raised his wand, and shouted as loud as he could, "STUPEFY!!!"
The Death Eater heard him, raised on his feet, and dodged the spell Harry casted.
"Hermione! Cho!" Harry said, "Let's do it!"
Hermione and Cho pulled their wands, and each of them casted a different spell. Harry didn't know exactly what to do. Seeing that the Death Eater wanted to dodge Hermione's and Cho's spells, Harry casted another Stupefy where he thought the Death Eater would be after a short time. But he was fast enough to stop, and dodged all three spells at once.
All three let go of their invisibility cloaks and left them on the ground there.
"You didn't think three students will be able to do anything to me?" he asked.
Harry was sure that he heard that voice before. It was all too familiar. He knew he did hear it somewhere, and not only once. But who could it be?
It wasn't a Death Eater who he heard at the Little Hangleton Churchyard. It was a voice he had heard before, and it was not a voice introduced by any spell -- he knew it.
"Who are you?" Harry asked.
"You don't care. Crucio!" he shouted, pointing his wand at Harry.
Very strong pain filled Harry's body, it felt like thousands of needles were piercing his skin. All he wanted was for the spell to stop, or for him to die...
The pain left his body after a few most painful seconds. "What are you doing here?" the Death Eater asked. "Why aren't you in bed, sleeping like the other students?" Seeing that Harry didn't answer, he continued, "Maybe you wanted to be hurt, didn't you? You wanted for the Cruciatus My Lord casted on you to be casted again? Did you miss the pain?"
Harry still couldn't recognize the voice, but he knew that he had to do something before the situation got any worse.
"Or did you want to see it from the outside again?" he asked. Then, in less than a second, he pointed his wand at Cho, casting a Cruciatus on her.
Harry felt as bad as he would have felt if the curse was casted on him. It felt as if he was put under the Cruciatus himself. He couldn't stand seeing Cho suffering that kind of intense pain, and that made him say to the Death Eater, "STOP!"
"What, Potter, you care about your friends? Ohhh how nice... Let's see it again, won't we?" he asked, casting a Cruciatus on Hermione this time.
Harry casted a Stupefy on the Death Eater while he was busy torturing Hermione, and after that he was out. Hermione and Cho raised on their feet again.
Harry was looking, painfully, at Hermione and Cho. He knew how much it hurt, he knew how bad it was. And he couldn't accept seeing any of his friends under that curse.
"Are you alright?" he asked them.
"Well, after that, I'd better say no," Cho answered. "What should we do now?"
"I know," Harry said, "Help me to tie him up," and they casted a few spells that kept the Death Eater tied to the wall. They took his wand, so he wouldn't be able to do anything. "Now, we whould question him."
"Shouldn't we call Dumbledore?" Hermione asked.
"Are you mad?" Harry asked. "I still have three more years to learn at Hogwarts!"
"Yeah, right," Hermione continued.
"Ennervate!" Harry said, pointing his wand at the Death Eater, who immedialtely was returned to consciousness. "That's it, who are you?"
He walked forward, ready to uncover his face.
"You'll never see who I am, though you know me. Everybody should."
"Who do you think you are," Harry said, and then he was ready to uncover his face, but --
Only the next second Harry felt that he was flying on the corridor. The Death Eater had a protection, so nobody could uncover his face. Harry landed on the floor, barely remaining conscious.
Hermione and Cho were hurring towards him, worried. "Are you okay?"
"I am," he answered. "I think I am anyway."
As he said that, he opened his mouth in horror. He saw that the Death Eater was exactly at the backs of his friends. He raised his wand, which Harry let go while he was thrown back, and in less than a second, he pushed the girls aside and pointed his wand at Harry.
"If anyone does a move you'll be dead, Potter."
It was hard to decide what to do at that moment.
"You underestimated the Dark Magic," he said. "It's such a pity that you do not have enough brains to think that you should never try to channelge the Dark Side.
"It's so lucky for me and My Lord that you are as foolish as this. We don't have to bother searching for you, because you come in our hands! I didn't know how stupid you could be, Potter. And your friends actually did as you told them."
Harry just asked, "Just tell us what is the Shadow of Darkness! I want to know what that is before I'll die."
"Does it matter anymore?" the Death Eater asked. "You're already dead, Potter. You know you are. The Shadow didn't help much, or maybe it did? I wonder. I can't find this out, but it doesn't matter at all. My Lord will be pleased. His second in command had done an excellent job in catching you. And it was so easy..."
Harry didn't care much about what the Death Eater said. He only wanted to talk with Hermione and Cho about a way they could get out of that. But it was almost impossible to talk to them. An idea came to Harry then.
"It's me who you want. Just leave them alone," he said.
"That's too risky. I bet one of them recognized my voice. If none of you did, then you really have a bad memory."
"You have done it. And you didn't even use the Shadow of Darkness on me... I am so stupid."
The Death eater started to laugh. "To use it?" he asked. "Me?"
"Yes, you."
"Well I really see that you have no information about that spell. To use it? And it was affecting you all the time... and not only you! No, you are really wrong to believe that I cast the Shadow of Darkness -- no way."
Harry observed that while he was talking to the Death Eater, Hermione and Cho were secretly saying something to each other. Maybe they were planning to escape already.
He decided that they were intelligent enough to think of a good plan, and gave them more time by keeping the Death Eater busy.
"So you say I know who you are," he continued.
"Everyone should know me -- at least by name. Every wizard, I mean. That is so stupid of you to not know who I am -- and I will benefit from that. If you find out who I am, many things will change and I will be disadvantaged."
"Then why do you tell me all these? Now it's logically that everyone will look for you and will try to know who you are."
"No, that's wrong. You won't tell anyone that finding me is so important -- because you won't ever speak to anyone. It's your end, Harry Potter. These are the last moments of your cursed life. I know that you hate all the events that happen to you, and I don't like you to be alive... well, there is a thing we have in common right? What if I'll stop them? I've mastered the curse already. Beliefe me, it's not so painful... Nothing compared to the Cruciatus."
"Never!" Harry said. "I know that no people would want to be me, but I know how important I am to the wizarding world."
"Important?" he asked. "Important? You say you are important? I don't think so. Voldemort didn't try to kill you because you're important, he just wanted revenge --"
"YOU LIAR!"
The Death Eater got angry. He was preparing himself to do the deadly curse, and then Hermione and Cho got up. The Death Eater was distracted, but it didn't stop him from casting the Avada Kedavra curse on Harry.
Hermione casted a Stupefy spell on the Death Eater, and Cho did a thing that he would have never expected. He looked at her wand which cast a stupefythat was directed to him. It had to be one of her brightest ideas, that spell pushed Harry aside and the curse hit the floor.
Harry saw the Death Eater being stunned, and in less than a second, he was stunned himself.
A few moments later, he was revived by Cho's ennervate spell. She had tears of joy on her face. "We did it, Harry! We did it..." One second later, he found himself being hugged by Cho, who was so happy about what they had just done. She let go of him when she realized what she was doing.
They looked at the Death Eater who was lying on the floor. "What should we do with him?" Harry asked.
"Let's see who he is --"
"No, that protective spell will always be active. We won't be able to do it even by magic. I guess calling Dumbledore would be still a better idea."
"No, he will still punish us," Hermione said.
"He won't," said Harry. "So many times have I been warned with expulsion, and he never did that --"
"Harry! This is different!"
"No it's not. It's still the same thing -- We've done a heroic thing again and helped all the students to lessen their fears now that we caught the Death Eater. We only have to figure out who he is."
They decided after all that they shouldn't tell anything to Dumbledore. They binded the Death Eater to the ground and made sure that he wouldn't wake up until the next day. They had one idea in mind: to leave him there until Dumbledore, or somebody, would pass by him. Of course, Dumbledore would find out that it was Harry's and hid friends' job.
Despite the fact that it was getting morning, they went to their Dormitories and slept well, missing the Defense Against the Dark Arts and the History of Magic classes completely...
They have entered october after a few days. The weather was getting colder than before and in his visits at the lake, Harry had to take warmer clothes. On the second day of October, after they finished the classes, he decided that the day to search for the Death Eater had to be...
"Today," Harry told Hermione and Cho, because Ron didn't accept to come even with all of Harry's and Hermione's pleads. "If we wait a few more days, I know that the Death Eater will do something..." He thought a few moments about the last attack on the Quidditch Field. There were quite a few days since the Death Eater had become idle. "I know he will do it soon -- he hadn't done anything lately."
Hermione nodded, and Cho's face seemed to show a deep express of worry. Harry had to agree with the fact that what they wanted to do was quite dangerous -- Very dangerous at the second thought. The Death Eater seemed to use the dark spells a lot -- spells Harry hadn't heard of before Voldemort had risen again.
"Do you think this is the best option?" Cho asked.
"Well, from what we know, yes," Harry said. "We have no other alternative... think of one if you want..."
"But there is no other alternative!" Cho exclaimed. "I don't think I will come..."
Harry felt like he would die soon. As if it wasn't enough that Ron wasn't helping... If Cho didn't want to help, he thought it was better for him to just wait until the Death Eater attacked... or to talk to Dumbledore about the search... but that was stupid. He couldn't imagine Dumbledore telling him that they would search for the Death Eater...
And another question popped in Harry's head. He didn't feel asking Cho, but he was wondering why she wouldn't join.
After thinking some seconds, he had finally found an answer at that question. Cho was not a Gryffindor so she wasn't as brave as Harry, Ron or Hermione was.
"Cho," Harry said slowly. "We just... can't do it if we are only two."
"I know, and we won't be able to do it even if we are three."
"Then why wouldn't we go and force Ron to help us?" asked Harry. Hermione's face darkened. "I was just joking, Hermione."
"You are joking again when we are in such important moments!" Hermione replied, reminding Harry of the last time Hermione said that. In those moments she just left... "It's not the first time --"
"Hermione stop that!" Harry told her, having no time for Hermione's speech. "We have something to talk about."
"Or joke about," Hermione added.
Fortunately, she didn't leave them there, and after a few seconds of waiting to see what was happening, Harry heard Cho say something.
"I really would help -- but -- it's too dangerous."
"If you want, I'll tell you how many adventures i went into and how I survived them all, again." Harry didn't want to give up that wasily, even though something told him that he shouldn't complain against Cho's decision. "Honestly, you shouldn't worry so much about this --"
"NOT WORRY?" Hermione blew up. "Damn it, Harry, this is something even worse than --"
"Worse than a duel with Voldemort himself?" he asked. "Is it worse than that?"
"It may be."
"Yes, it may be, but this time I won't be alone if you two will help."
"I think we will talk about this until tomorrow," Hermione continued. "We should just say -- shall we do it or not?"
Harry looked at Cho. She seemed to be thinking hard about it. Harry understood her, and what she felt about that -- fear could be very convincing a lot of times. And Cho was not a Gryffindor...
"I will," Cho said after a while. Harry's spirit seemed to birth again. Hope came back to him, if he had Cho's help he was more sure that they would bring their plan to a good end. She had many adventages -- being a Ravenclaw meant that she could give a lot of good advice. She knew more spells, because she was one year older than Harry, and that could help much. And, she just seemed to boost Harry's morale when she was around -- and Harry knew why...
...only because he liked her so much... and he wanted her to help him.
But then something popped in Harry's head again. Why did she accept to help him? He didn't have enough time to think of that, because Cho continued:
"Well, how will we do it? When?"
"Tonight," Harry said firmly.
"Tonight?" Hermione asked.
"Tonight," Harry answered.
"Okay, so let it be tonight," said Cho. "I'll... I'll get ready..."
"Get ready? There's nothing to do except to meet sometime in midnight --"
"Midnight," Hermione repeated slowly. "If we'll get caught, we will be in more trouble than ever! Remember what Dumbledore said? We will get expelled!"
"Not if we will be careful," Harry said. "So, then, what if we'll meet this evening at 9 o'clock so we will be able to -- think -- a good plan?"
"There is nothing to plan, Harry! With something like this, we will only meet the unexpected! Everywhere... We won't be able to know where each teacher will be."
"And we'll have to be sooo careful to avoid them, even with invisibility cloaks! Talking about invisibility cloaks, how will we go?" asked Cho, thinking that both she and Harry had one.
"Well I guess one of us will take Hermione inside," Harry answered. "I will, I am used to that..." He looked aroud to see if anyone could have heard them talking. They were on a corridor where anyone could come at anytime.
"I still do not think that this is a good idea," Hermione brought back the subject.
"Yes I know that this is not a good one but it's the only one," Harry continued. Harry was very surprised to see that Cho nodded. "So, Cho, you will be here at 9... Hermione and I will be here, so we will start making a plan... if there is anything to be planned. But I know there has to be something, something that we can expect. Take as an example, we should think of what may happen IF we meet the Death Eater..."
A short time after, they said bye and Harry and Hermione went to the Gryffindor tower. Hermione didn't like the idea at all, and Harry didn't blame her at all, not with all the Dark things that were happening at Hogwarts -- but it was for the best. If they would do their best and manage to catch the Death Eater -- but only IF -- all of the Hogwarts students would be safe again. At least until Voldemort would find another Death Eater to send.
All he hoped was that they would tryumpf in the search and be able to do a good job. And there was one more thing he hoped: that Dumbledore wouldn't punish him for being out at midnight...
As 9 o'clock was closing, Harry started feeling more and more troubled about the actions he had decided to do. It was that moment when he understood all of Hermione's fears and he thought of not attacking anymore -- but then he just convinced himself that it was the only alternative. He remembered the Cruciatus he managed to cast on Avery -- and hoped that he would manage to do it again, because both of them were Death Eaters. Or maybe he wasn't the one who casted it, maybe it was casted by another Death Eater through Harry? If that was possible at all...
At 9 he took Hermione and lead her to the corridor they talked earlier. Cho was already there when they reached, and she said that she had just arrived a few seconds before, too.
"So, what will we do?" Harry asked. "Have you brought your invisibility cloak?"
"I did,"
"So did I. Now, we should search every place."
"Yes, He may be invisible, so I have prepared a True-Seeing Potion," Cho said.
"You always think of everything," Harry said. "Thank you for this. If you hadn't thought of it, we may have done all of this in vain."
"You seem to not be able to do things alone. I start to wonder how did you manage to do all those things in your previous years."
Another thing they had to consider was the fact that Dumbledore could see through Invisibility cloaks. He only thought that they had a True-Seeing potion and that they could see Dumbledore even if he was invisible, so they could stay away from him.
They talked about the order of corridors they would explore. Cho told them about some secret corridors even they didn't know. That moment Harry was reminded of a lost thing -- The Marauder's Map. He wished he still had that wonderful Map of Hogwarts at him, he wished he hadn't given it to the supposed Mad-eye Moody. He wished he would have had it back.
Cho observed that he was thinking of something else, and asked, "Harry! Are you here?"
"Yes, I am," he continued. "I was just thinking of the Marauder's Map."
"The What?" Cho asked.
"It was a Map of Hogwarts I had lost the last year. Moody -- I mean Crouch -- took it... and I haven't seen it ever since. It was a beauty; it showed the position of every person -- it was my best friend when I was trying to sneak out of the Gryffindor Tower at night. I wonder where it is now."
Cho looked at Harry for a few seconds, surprised by what he said, and then asked, "You had a map of Hogwarts? That was -- cool!"
"It was. I have no idea where it is now." He remembered of the creators of the map -- Lupin, Sirius, Pettigrew and... his father. His mind immediately slipped on thinking about his father, making himself forget what big night was about to happen at Hogwarts. A night where two things could happen: Either they would catch the Death Eater, or the Death Eater would catch them.
They talked about the Marauder's map for a few minutes and then they remembered why they were there for. Considering the Marauder's Map lost, they returned to making the plan -- where they would go. They decided they would search the Grounds, too, because that was the place where most of the attacks took place.
It was about eleven o'clock when they decided to start their search. Even though they planned to leave at twelve, they didn't have the patience to wait another hour.
Only when they left, Harry realized that it was so stupid to try searching the entire castle for the Death Eater -- he could be anywhere. And he could change his position so they wouldn't meet him at all. It all seemed so stupid, so useless. But something told him that they had to do it; something told him that they would meet the Death Eater that night.
He couldn't wait to find out who he was, to find out who was terrorizing Harry, and lately, the entire school. It was the moment he should pay.
They searched the 7th floor first, and they decided to search all the floors in order, and then they would go to the Dungeons. After that, they would search out of the castle. The towers would be searched when they would reach an entrance to each.
"We'll manage to explore all the known castle in a few days," Cho said.
"Yes, I know," Harry continued. He was lucky with the True-Seeing Potion so he could see her even through those invisibility cloaks.
As they walked, he wished he was alone with Cho. That thought was so stupid, Harry thought, he wondered how did it come to his head. They had so few chances if they were only two... and adding his feelings for her, he would have stood no chance against the Death Eater becuase his mind would have raced elsewhere.
The 7th floor was clear. They headed to the 6th floor, where they had lots of rooms to search, but with no success there either.
They searched all the floors in a hurry, and met nothing, except Filch, who heard Hermione's footsteps and they had a hard time to get past him on the 3rd floor.
Then Harry had an idea. He called Cho to come close, and whispered,
"Maybe he knows of the secret tunnels that lead to Hogsmeade."
"Secret tunnels?" Cho asked.
"Yes, there are seven in total, but only a few are still avalabile. Should we search them, too?"
"Not now," Hermione answered. "I don't think he knows of them. Only the Marauder's Map showed them, and if you don't have that map it's a low chance to know about them. And Moody had no time to tell Voldemort about them."
"Did he?" Harry asked. That was terrible -- maybe Voldemort actually knew.
"I don't --"
"That's what owls are for!" Harry said. "I bet he told his master --"
"Worry later, we have to search for someone now," Cho stopped them. "Let's go, we have the dungeons and the grounds. It's three o'clock, I am sure that we haven't searched too well until now."
They decided to go and search out of the castle, but they didn't find anything. He wasn't in the dungeons, either.
Because it was still just five, they searched the tunnels, too. Harry told Cho about the passage under the Whomping Willow, becasue that was a better place to hide in. There were so few people who knew about that, and everyone was still frightened about the shrieking shack. But the Death Eater couldn't possibly know that; even Moody had no idea about the Willow's knot that froze it.
Unfortunately, he wasn't there either.
As they were heading back to their common Rooms, almost falling asleep while walking, they heard another sound.
"Oh, it's nothing, we have heard many sounds today," Hermione said.
Harry looked around. And there he was, the Death Eater heard them and was walking on the corridor. Harry pointed to him. "T - There!"
Hermione and Cho looked at him, too. He couldn't see them and that was a good advantage.
For Harry, it was time for revenge. He couldn't see who the Death Eater was because his face was hidden. His black cloak was exactly the same as the one he wore while he attacked on the Quidditch Field.
Harry, feeling brave and ready, raised his wand, and shouted as loud as he could, "STUPEFY!!!"
The Death Eater heard him, raised on his feet, and dodged the spell Harry casted.
"Hermione! Cho!" Harry said, "Let's do it!"
Hermione and Cho pulled their wands, and each of them casted a different spell. Harry didn't know exactly what to do. Seeing that the Death Eater wanted to dodge Hermione's and Cho's spells, Harry casted another Stupefy where he thought the Death Eater would be after a short time. But he was fast enough to stop, and dodged all three spells at once.
All three let go of their invisibility cloaks and left them on the ground there.
"You didn't think three students will be able to do anything to me?" he asked.
Harry was sure that he heard that voice before. It was all too familiar. He knew he did hear it somewhere, and not only once. But who could it be?
It wasn't a Death Eater who he heard at the Little Hangleton Churchyard. It was a voice he had heard before, and it was not a voice introduced by any spell -- he knew it.
"Who are you?" Harry asked.
"You don't care. Crucio!" he shouted, pointing his wand at Harry.
Very strong pain filled Harry's body, it felt like thousands of needles were piercing his skin. All he wanted was for the spell to stop, or for him to die...
The pain left his body after a few most painful seconds. "What are you doing here?" the Death Eater asked. "Why aren't you in bed, sleeping like the other students?" Seeing that Harry didn't answer, he continued, "Maybe you wanted to be hurt, didn't you? You wanted for the Cruciatus My Lord casted on you to be casted again? Did you miss the pain?"
Harry still couldn't recognize the voice, but he knew that he had to do something before the situation got any worse.
"Or did you want to see it from the outside again?" he asked. Then, in less than a second, he pointed his wand at Cho, casting a Cruciatus on her.
Harry felt as bad as he would have felt if the curse was casted on him. It felt as if he was put under the Cruciatus himself. He couldn't stand seeing Cho suffering that kind of intense pain, and that made him say to the Death Eater, "STOP!"
"What, Potter, you care about your friends? Ohhh how nice... Let's see it again, won't we?" he asked, casting a Cruciatus on Hermione this time.
Harry casted a Stupefy on the Death Eater while he was busy torturing Hermione, and after that he was out. Hermione and Cho raised on their feet again.
Harry was looking, painfully, at Hermione and Cho. He knew how much it hurt, he knew how bad it was. And he couldn't accept seeing any of his friends under that curse.
"Are you alright?" he asked them.
"Well, after that, I'd better say no," Cho answered. "What should we do now?"
"I know," Harry said, "Help me to tie him up," and they casted a few spells that kept the Death Eater tied to the wall. They took his wand, so he wouldn't be able to do anything. "Now, we whould question him."
"Shouldn't we call Dumbledore?" Hermione asked.
"Are you mad?" Harry asked. "I still have three more years to learn at Hogwarts!"
"Yeah, right," Hermione continued.
"Ennervate!" Harry said, pointing his wand at the Death Eater, who immedialtely was returned to consciousness. "That's it, who are you?"
He walked forward, ready to uncover his face.
"You'll never see who I am, though you know me. Everybody should."
"Who do you think you are," Harry said, and then he was ready to uncover his face, but --
Only the next second Harry felt that he was flying on the corridor. The Death Eater had a protection, so nobody could uncover his face. Harry landed on the floor, barely remaining conscious.
Hermione and Cho were hurring towards him, worried. "Are you okay?"
"I am," he answered. "I think I am anyway."
As he said that, he opened his mouth in horror. He saw that the Death Eater was exactly at the backs of his friends. He raised his wand, which Harry let go while he was thrown back, and in less than a second, he pushed the girls aside and pointed his wand at Harry.
"If anyone does a move you'll be dead, Potter."
It was hard to decide what to do at that moment.
"You underestimated the Dark Magic," he said. "It's such a pity that you do not have enough brains to think that you should never try to channelge the Dark Side.
"It's so lucky for me and My Lord that you are as foolish as this. We don't have to bother searching for you, because you come in our hands! I didn't know how stupid you could be, Potter. And your friends actually did as you told them."
Harry just asked, "Just tell us what is the Shadow of Darkness! I want to know what that is before I'll die."
"Does it matter anymore?" the Death Eater asked. "You're already dead, Potter. You know you are. The Shadow didn't help much, or maybe it did? I wonder. I can't find this out, but it doesn't matter at all. My Lord will be pleased. His second in command had done an excellent job in catching you. And it was so easy..."
Harry didn't care much about what the Death Eater said. He only wanted to talk with Hermione and Cho about a way they could get out of that. But it was almost impossible to talk to them. An idea came to Harry then.
"It's me who you want. Just leave them alone," he said.
"That's too risky. I bet one of them recognized my voice. If none of you did, then you really have a bad memory."
"You have done it. And you didn't even use the Shadow of Darkness on me... I am so stupid."
The Death eater started to laugh. "To use it?" he asked. "Me?"
"Yes, you."
"Well I really see that you have no information about that spell. To use it? And it was affecting you all the time... and not only you! No, you are really wrong to believe that I cast the Shadow of Darkness -- no way."
Harry observed that while he was talking to the Death Eater, Hermione and Cho were secretly saying something to each other. Maybe they were planning to escape already.
He decided that they were intelligent enough to think of a good plan, and gave them more time by keeping the Death Eater busy.
"So you say I know who you are," he continued.
"Everyone should know me -- at least by name. Every wizard, I mean. That is so stupid of you to not know who I am -- and I will benefit from that. If you find out who I am, many things will change and I will be disadvantaged."
"Then why do you tell me all these? Now it's logically that everyone will look for you and will try to know who you are."
"No, that's wrong. You won't tell anyone that finding me is so important -- because you won't ever speak to anyone. It's your end, Harry Potter. These are the last moments of your cursed life. I know that you hate all the events that happen to you, and I don't like you to be alive... well, there is a thing we have in common right? What if I'll stop them? I've mastered the curse already. Beliefe me, it's not so painful... Nothing compared to the Cruciatus."
"Never!" Harry said. "I know that no people would want to be me, but I know how important I am to the wizarding world."
"Important?" he asked. "Important? You say you are important? I don't think so. Voldemort didn't try to kill you because you're important, he just wanted revenge --"
"YOU LIAR!"
The Death Eater got angry. He was preparing himself to do the deadly curse, and then Hermione and Cho got up. The Death Eater was distracted, but it didn't stop him from casting the Avada Kedavra curse on Harry.
Hermione casted a Stupefy spell on the Death Eater, and Cho did a thing that he would have never expected. He looked at her wand which cast a stupefythat was directed to him. It had to be one of her brightest ideas, that spell pushed Harry aside and the curse hit the floor.
Harry saw the Death Eater being stunned, and in less than a second, he was stunned himself.
A few moments later, he was revived by Cho's ennervate spell. She had tears of joy on her face. "We did it, Harry! We did it..." One second later, he found himself being hugged by Cho, who was so happy about what they had just done. She let go of him when she realized what she was doing.
They looked at the Death Eater who was lying on the floor. "What should we do with him?" Harry asked.
"Let's see who he is --"
"No, that protective spell will always be active. We won't be able to do it even by magic. I guess calling Dumbledore would be still a better idea."
"No, he will still punish us," Hermione said.
"He won't," said Harry. "So many times have I been warned with expulsion, and he never did that --"
"Harry! This is different!"
"No it's not. It's still the same thing -- We've done a heroic thing again and helped all the students to lessen their fears now that we caught the Death Eater. We only have to figure out who he is."
They decided after all that they shouldn't tell anything to Dumbledore. They binded the Death Eater to the ground and made sure that he wouldn't wake up until the next day. They had one idea in mind: to leave him there until Dumbledore, or somebody, would pass by him. Of course, Dumbledore would find out that it was Harry's and hid friends' job.
Despite the fact that it was getting morning, they went to their Dormitories and slept well, missing the Defense Against the Dark Arts and the History of Magic classes completely...