Xenith
---
"I touch the fire and it freezes me,
I look into it and it's black.
Why can't I feel?
My skin should crack and peel . . .
I want the fire back.
Now through the smoke [he] calls to me,
To make my way across the flame
To save the day
Or maybe melt away,
I guess it's all the same . . ."
~~~Buffy
---
Chapter Thirty-seven
---
BOXING DAY:
"Can we PLEASE stop?" Harry groaned, his head falling into his hands.
"This is our millionth game and we've only won three times all day. And against Fred and George, no less!"
"Aww, well, we let'em win," Fred nudged Ron in the side with a wink.
"Ginny's even deserted us! This is boring," Harry moaned again. "I'm tired, I want to go to bed." He said again, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Fred and George snorted with repressed laughter.
"This'll be our last game, I promi---hey! That's an illegal move!" Ron scoffed, examining the chess board.
"It's not illegal if you weren't looking, Ron." Hermione grinned mischievously over the board at him. Harry, Fred, and George all laughed as Hermione leant down to lift Crookshanks from the floor and Ron mumbled 'Mobiliarbus' thus forcing every chess piece to take up a new square.
"What are you three laughing at?" She pulled the cat onto her lap. "Ron!" She'd caught sight of the board. "Ron, now that's defin---" They were cut off, though, by a huge bang at the fireplace on the opposite end of the common room accompanied by a blinding flash of green light.
The occupants of the common room screamed and ran towards the portrait hole. Harry and Ron had leapt to their feet knocking the board to the ground.
"Dean!" Seamus hollered, trying desperately to fight his way over to the fireplace.
"Where's Ginny?!" Harry, Ron, Fred and George pushed through the frantic Gryffindors towards the point of the commotion.
"Ginny!" Fred bellowed.
"Fred! Harry! Help, it's Dean!" They could see her now, a flash of red trying to hold an absolutely frantic Seamus back with the help of Neville and the Creevy brothers. "Neville! Go get help!" The round-faced boy leapt, with amazing speed and agility, out of the portrait hole.
The common room was nearly empty now, holding just the nine of them and Dean on the floor.
"What's wrong with him?" Seamus shouted desperately. "Get UP, Dean! Oh God, make him get up." Hermione knelt by him, muttered 'Enervate' and checked his pulse. She shook her head up at Harry, her face deathly pale. Seamus sunk to the ground; the Colin's efforts to comfort him failing miserably.
"Ginny, exactly where did the attack come from? Exactly." Harry demanded, trying not to look at Dean.
"The fire." She answered quietly.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"We have to get out of here." Hermione whispered as the fireplace beside him began to rumble and glow green once more.
From that point on everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Two Death Eaters stepped out of the towering green inferno and into the common room. Hermione managed to stun one of them long enough to get up from the floor and roll behind one of the scarlet sofas. The second Death Eater blew the furniture away sending Hermione sprawling across the room. Ron sent every curse he could think of at the Death Eater but all were deflected. The first revived the second as Fred and George tried to drag their sister out of the way. Both dark wizards started in on Harry and just like in his nightmares Harry found himself completely unable to breathe, let alone curse anything.
"No!" Ginny screamed, wrenching herself away from the twins and flying at the first Death Eater. The man grunted and went smashing into the wall. He aimed his wand at the small female darting away from him. "Avada Ked---" George smashed into his other side, knocking the wizard's mask away.
"Harry!" Ginny screamed again as the first Death Eater levitated an unconscious Harry Potter into the air in front of him. "Ron, help!" George leapt into the air and grabbed a hold of Harry, pulling him roughly back to the ground.
The two Death Eaters, one recognizably Lucius Malfoy, were standing before the fireplace. The common room filled with screaming as they hit both George and Hermione with the Curtacious curse, and were in the process of levitating Harry again when Colin started yelling curses at the Death Eaters.
That's when they attacked.
Colin had provided distraction enough as to allow Ron and Fred to go flying into the two wizards, knocking them into the massive emerald fire. With a whoosh, like air being sucked through a tunnel, they were gone.
But so were Fred and Ron. They too had fallen victim to the transportation flame.
Harry woke with a hard shake from Ginny and looked around the room. "Where are Ron and Fred? What happened? Where'd those two Death Eaters go? Where're Ron and Fred?" He stood frantically, glaring across the room at a trembling Hermione. "Where's Ron?" He demanded.
"They fell in---" She started off quietly, crawling from her corner to stand by the fire, hugging her arms to her chest as she tried to quiet her breathing.
"What do you mean 'they fell in'? Into the fire? Where's Ron!"
"Damn-it Harry!" Hermione shouted at him. "I don't know! They didn't say anything when they went in! They just vanished!"
"Why?" Harry grabbed fistfuls of his hair and kneaded his scalp. "Why?" He couldn't handle this. His nightmares had been more persistent lately; he should have known something was going to happen. Why the hell hadn't he known!
"They were going to take you Harry. What else were they supposed to do but try and save you?" Colin offered.
"They should have let them take me! All of you should have! Then they wouldn't be there! There wouldn't be two of us caught! Only one! Why'd you let them do that?"
"Fuck, Harry!" George swore, finally managing to get to his feet. "What would you have done if it were Ron that they had been after? Huh? Don't you dare tell me you wouldn't have done the exact same thing to try and save him---or any one of us for that matter?!"
"Oh, God," Harry fell to the ground holding his head in his hands. "This is all my fault." Ginny was next to him in an instant, holding him as close as she possibly could.
"No, Harry." She shook him roughly. "No, this isn't your fault and don't you dare, for one second, think it is."
"Ginny---"
"Listen to me, Harry," she pulled his face up. "And don't you dare interrupt." He nodded feebly, having no reserve of strength left to argue. "They would have done that for anyone. Anyone. This time it just happened to be you."
"It always 'just happens to be me'." He wrenched away from her and crouched by the fire. He examined it for a moment before dipping his hand, unfeelingly, into the flame.
"Harry!"
"What are you doing?!"
"Have you gone completely mad?!"
Harry didn't reply but he pulled his hand out of the fire completely unharmed. That alone quieted the common room. Harry rubbed his fingers together, searching for the burns that should have been there. //I want the fire back.// He waited for someone to say something. Anything.
"Harry, we have to go to Dumbl---" Ginny began weakly but at that moment the Headmaster smashed through the portrait hole to the astonishment of all present. He was closely followed by a fraught and livid McGonagall and Snape and a determined, shaking but determined, Neville Longbottom.
Harry leapt to his feet.
"Dean . . ." McGonagall breathed rushing over to the fallen Gryffindor.
"Was it him?" Dumbledore asked immediately.
"Yes," Hermione answered quietly. "Ron's gone."
"What?" McGonagall snapped round, looking to the corner that Hermione had tucked herself into.
"He's gone, they took him. Both of them."
"What? Who? Who else is gone? Who exactly took whom?"
"Minerva, please," Dumbledore interrupted. "Quiet. I need to hear."
"Dean . . . he . . . they . . ." Seamus stammered out, hyperventilating.
"Hermione?" Dumbledore came in, turning his head to the girl. But Hermione just sat there, shivering like mad, and completely unable to speak.
"The fire turned green," Ginny stumbled in. She felt braver now, now that the moment of truth had presented itself she felt the courage Gryffindor's, were assumedly, known for. "There was a figure in the fire for an instant and then he said it---the killing curse. Dean leapt in front of Lavender and Parvati and me, we were playing Exploding Snap in front of the . . . it was cold," she felt a need to explain everything exactly, they had to understand. To realise why Dean was dead, why her brothers were gone. "He jumped . . . he jumped in front of us---to save us."
"And then everyone went running, no-one stayed to help. Then the figure was gone and then two more, two different figures, took its place. Everyone was gone, I told Neville to go for help---but Harry was there then. Harry and Ron, Hermione and George an---and Fred . . ."
"We were playing chess," Hermione pushed in, regaining her voice. "There was a bang and everyone was screaming."
"I couldn't get to him." Seamus stammered. "I---I couldn't reach him in time, I---I couldn't . . . I couldn't save him I didn't get to him . . . It's my fault . . . all my fault . . ."
"No, no it's not, Seamus," Hermione tried to sooth. "It's no-one's fault but You-Know-Who's---"
"No, Hermione. It's my fault---"
"Don't say that, Harry---"
"No, it is my fault---" He continued quietly.
"Harr---" Ginny tried.
"Fuck, Ginny! It is my fault---"
"Harry!"
"Shut-it, Hermione. I don't want your pity or your damn fake comfort. And I don't very well need them."
"Harry James Potter!"
"I'm not an idiot! I know it's my fault---Cedric, my parents, Dean---everyone! Fuck, Hermione, I'm the reason that everyone's dying. The only reason! You know why my parents died? To save me! Why Cedric's gone? Because of me! I was the one with the stupid idea to take the cup at the same time. It was me. Always me. He wants ME and everyone's going to die until he gets ME! The single damn problem with his whole FUCKing plan is the fact that when he's killed everyone he's not going to have anyone left to rule!" The large picture window taking up nearly an entire wall at the end of the common room imploded in on all of its occupants. Everyone ducked as large shards of glass blanketed the tower.
"Harry---" Professor Dumbledore tried to calm him, knowing very well the chaos Harry's wandless magic might bring. The room started swirling with scarlet rain.
"No! Don't you dare try to say anything to me! I know he wants me and I know that everyone's going to die unless he gets me and he's not going to stop. Not ever. And you want to know something Professor? You want to know what I'M thinking about doing next? Next for the ORDER?" There was another explosion as an ancient stained glass window shattered over their heads.
"What Harry?"
"I'm going to go! To find him and get Ron and Fred back. There's no way---no POSSible way that I'm going to let Voldemort have him." The rain was freezing now, chunks of blood red hail thrashing around their heads.
"Harry, you can't stop him. Not by yourself. Not yet."
"No!" Harry pointed an angry finger in the Headmaster's face. "No. No-one can make me stay here and do nothing!" An ink bottle near Hermione, undoubtedly left by one of the students, burst, covering her in indigo ink and slivers of glass. "Not even you." The hiss he ended on wasn't anywhere near human.
All was silent except for a cracking coming from the brick above the fireplace.
"Harry," Dumbledore finally cut in.
"What?" He snapped.
"You can't go---"
"Not even you, _Albus_, could make me stay." The crack was growing, spilling over onto the centuries old walls and ceiling.
"Do you realise why he wants you, Harry? Why he needs you to succeed?"
"Damn it! Without me he's nothing!" Another ink bottle exploded, this time striking Colin.
"No, Harry. Without you he's everything. With you gone, Voldemort has nothing standing in his way."
"I'm not leaving them there. That," he pointed desperately at the dancing orange flame. "That is not going to stay." He hissed again, as the ceiling groaned ominously in.
"Do you realise what you just said, Harry?"
"What?"
"Harry, we can't understand you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" He let out another long, low, hiss.
"You're speaking in Parsletounge, Harry." Ginny was pale and terrified at seeing Harry looking so . . . so evil.
"What?" Harry didn't realise he was hissing. "What are you talking about?" He snapped at Ginny, eyes flashing. "I am not."
"Harry, you're scaring me," she whispered.
"I'm not doing anything!" A brick toppled from the towering fireplace followed closely by a second and a third. Gryffindor Tower was collapsing in around them.
"Stop it, Harry," her voice quaked.
"Stop what? All I want to do is save my friends!"
"Stop it, Harry! You're scaring me!" She screamed, backing away from him.
"Oh god," he breathed, his voice slipping back to English. "Oh god . . . shit . . ." Harry fell back to the floor---he couldn't breathe. "Oh god . . ." he pressed his palm to his scar; one hand pulled at the hair at the back of his neck desperately trying to block out the pounding that was running rampant though his forehead. The omnipresent reminder that served as a terrifyingly vivid landmark of his seemingly doomed life. "No . . . no . . ." he was panting now---lying curled on the floor, his head pounding, hyperventilating. No-one came to his aide, no-one hugged him close and told him it was all going to work out and his friends would be safe. Harry didn't want them to come. He had to deal with this. He didn't cry. He wouldn't cry.
"Harry, we do not know why Voldemort is after you, but we can't let him have you. Not ever." Professor Dumbledore said softly behind him.
"I'm not giving up on Ron." Harry mumbled into his hands, managing to collect his breathing again but not getting up from the floor.
"I'm not asking you to."
"I _have_ to do SOMEthing."
"I understand."
"Albus," it was Snape.
"Yes, Severus?"
"Should I go to . . . ?"
"Yes. Leave immediately." Snape nodded and left the tower. "Minerva," the Deputy Headmistress looked prepared to faint but she stood resolutely nonetheless.
"Yes, Albus?"
"Notify the Thomas'," She nodded. "They mustn't come to the school, reassure them that his body will be taken care of and returned to them at the appropriate time. Contact the Weasley's---inform them of the kidnapping. They too must not come. Molly should take in the Thomas', but even so, ask her. Do you understand?"
"Yes Albus."
"Take Dean to the Hospital Wing."
She managed to peel Seamus off of Dean and levitated him out into the corridor.
"I want the rest of you to repot to the Great Hall. The rest of the students are already there and they will presume the worst if you do not show up. I will send someone to escort you down, I would but I must see to other matters. They shall arrive shortly." He examined the Gryffindor's somberly. "I do not want ANY of you to leave the tower before they arrive. Do you understand." Neville nodded for them all. Dumbledore waved his wand at the falling celing, walls, and fireplace, repairing them instantly before sweeping out of the room, the portrait slamming behind him.
The silence that followed was defining.
The quiet was shattered by George screaming and hurling a table across the destroyed common room before completely breaking down. Collapsing onto the floor with a howl anguish. No-one moved to him.
Not even Ginny.
Several minuets later the portrait hole opened again and a very ragged looking Timothy Jameson entered, beckoning, with a curt wave, that they should follow.
--
¸..· ´¨¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ ·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ -:¦:- tbc -:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*
---
"I touch the fire and it freezes me,
I look into it and it's black.
Why can't I feel?
My skin should crack and peel . . .
I want the fire back.
Now through the smoke [he] calls to me,
To make my way across the flame
To save the day
Or maybe melt away,
I guess it's all the same . . ."
~~~Buffy
---
Chapter Thirty-seven
---
BOXING DAY:
"Can we PLEASE stop?" Harry groaned, his head falling into his hands.
"This is our millionth game and we've only won three times all day. And against Fred and George, no less!"
"Aww, well, we let'em win," Fred nudged Ron in the side with a wink.
"Ginny's even deserted us! This is boring," Harry moaned again. "I'm tired, I want to go to bed." He said again, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Fred and George snorted with repressed laughter.
"This'll be our last game, I promi---hey! That's an illegal move!" Ron scoffed, examining the chess board.
"It's not illegal if you weren't looking, Ron." Hermione grinned mischievously over the board at him. Harry, Fred, and George all laughed as Hermione leant down to lift Crookshanks from the floor and Ron mumbled 'Mobiliarbus' thus forcing every chess piece to take up a new square.
"What are you three laughing at?" She pulled the cat onto her lap. "Ron!" She'd caught sight of the board. "Ron, now that's defin---" They were cut off, though, by a huge bang at the fireplace on the opposite end of the common room accompanied by a blinding flash of green light.
The occupants of the common room screamed and ran towards the portrait hole. Harry and Ron had leapt to their feet knocking the board to the ground.
"Dean!" Seamus hollered, trying desperately to fight his way over to the fireplace.
"Where's Ginny?!" Harry, Ron, Fred and George pushed through the frantic Gryffindors towards the point of the commotion.
"Ginny!" Fred bellowed.
"Fred! Harry! Help, it's Dean!" They could see her now, a flash of red trying to hold an absolutely frantic Seamus back with the help of Neville and the Creevy brothers. "Neville! Go get help!" The round-faced boy leapt, with amazing speed and agility, out of the portrait hole.
The common room was nearly empty now, holding just the nine of them and Dean on the floor.
"What's wrong with him?" Seamus shouted desperately. "Get UP, Dean! Oh God, make him get up." Hermione knelt by him, muttered 'Enervate' and checked his pulse. She shook her head up at Harry, her face deathly pale. Seamus sunk to the ground; the Colin's efforts to comfort him failing miserably.
"Ginny, exactly where did the attack come from? Exactly." Harry demanded, trying not to look at Dean.
"The fire." She answered quietly.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"We have to get out of here." Hermione whispered as the fireplace beside him began to rumble and glow green once more.
From that point on everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Two Death Eaters stepped out of the towering green inferno and into the common room. Hermione managed to stun one of them long enough to get up from the floor and roll behind one of the scarlet sofas. The second Death Eater blew the furniture away sending Hermione sprawling across the room. Ron sent every curse he could think of at the Death Eater but all were deflected. The first revived the second as Fred and George tried to drag their sister out of the way. Both dark wizards started in on Harry and just like in his nightmares Harry found himself completely unable to breathe, let alone curse anything.
"No!" Ginny screamed, wrenching herself away from the twins and flying at the first Death Eater. The man grunted and went smashing into the wall. He aimed his wand at the small female darting away from him. "Avada Ked---" George smashed into his other side, knocking the wizard's mask away.
"Harry!" Ginny screamed again as the first Death Eater levitated an unconscious Harry Potter into the air in front of him. "Ron, help!" George leapt into the air and grabbed a hold of Harry, pulling him roughly back to the ground.
The two Death Eaters, one recognizably Lucius Malfoy, were standing before the fireplace. The common room filled with screaming as they hit both George and Hermione with the Curtacious curse, and were in the process of levitating Harry again when Colin started yelling curses at the Death Eaters.
That's when they attacked.
Colin had provided distraction enough as to allow Ron and Fred to go flying into the two wizards, knocking them into the massive emerald fire. With a whoosh, like air being sucked through a tunnel, they were gone.
But so were Fred and Ron. They too had fallen victim to the transportation flame.
Harry woke with a hard shake from Ginny and looked around the room. "Where are Ron and Fred? What happened? Where'd those two Death Eaters go? Where're Ron and Fred?" He stood frantically, glaring across the room at a trembling Hermione. "Where's Ron?" He demanded.
"They fell in---" She started off quietly, crawling from her corner to stand by the fire, hugging her arms to her chest as she tried to quiet her breathing.
"What do you mean 'they fell in'? Into the fire? Where's Ron!"
"Damn-it Harry!" Hermione shouted at him. "I don't know! They didn't say anything when they went in! They just vanished!"
"Why?" Harry grabbed fistfuls of his hair and kneaded his scalp. "Why?" He couldn't handle this. His nightmares had been more persistent lately; he should have known something was going to happen. Why the hell hadn't he known!
"They were going to take you Harry. What else were they supposed to do but try and save you?" Colin offered.
"They should have let them take me! All of you should have! Then they wouldn't be there! There wouldn't be two of us caught! Only one! Why'd you let them do that?"
"Fuck, Harry!" George swore, finally managing to get to his feet. "What would you have done if it were Ron that they had been after? Huh? Don't you dare tell me you wouldn't have done the exact same thing to try and save him---or any one of us for that matter?!"
"Oh, God," Harry fell to the ground holding his head in his hands. "This is all my fault." Ginny was next to him in an instant, holding him as close as she possibly could.
"No, Harry." She shook him roughly. "No, this isn't your fault and don't you dare, for one second, think it is."
"Ginny---"
"Listen to me, Harry," she pulled his face up. "And don't you dare interrupt." He nodded feebly, having no reserve of strength left to argue. "They would have done that for anyone. Anyone. This time it just happened to be you."
"It always 'just happens to be me'." He wrenched away from her and crouched by the fire. He examined it for a moment before dipping his hand, unfeelingly, into the flame.
"Harry!"
"What are you doing?!"
"Have you gone completely mad?!"
Harry didn't reply but he pulled his hand out of the fire completely unharmed. That alone quieted the common room. Harry rubbed his fingers together, searching for the burns that should have been there. //I want the fire back.// He waited for someone to say something. Anything.
"Harry, we have to go to Dumbl---" Ginny began weakly but at that moment the Headmaster smashed through the portrait hole to the astonishment of all present. He was closely followed by a fraught and livid McGonagall and Snape and a determined, shaking but determined, Neville Longbottom.
Harry leapt to his feet.
"Dean . . ." McGonagall breathed rushing over to the fallen Gryffindor.
"Was it him?" Dumbledore asked immediately.
"Yes," Hermione answered quietly. "Ron's gone."
"What?" McGonagall snapped round, looking to the corner that Hermione had tucked herself into.
"He's gone, they took him. Both of them."
"What? Who? Who else is gone? Who exactly took whom?"
"Minerva, please," Dumbledore interrupted. "Quiet. I need to hear."
"Dean . . . he . . . they . . ." Seamus stammered out, hyperventilating.
"Hermione?" Dumbledore came in, turning his head to the girl. But Hermione just sat there, shivering like mad, and completely unable to speak.
"The fire turned green," Ginny stumbled in. She felt braver now, now that the moment of truth had presented itself she felt the courage Gryffindor's, were assumedly, known for. "There was a figure in the fire for an instant and then he said it---the killing curse. Dean leapt in front of Lavender and Parvati and me, we were playing Exploding Snap in front of the . . . it was cold," she felt a need to explain everything exactly, they had to understand. To realise why Dean was dead, why her brothers were gone. "He jumped . . . he jumped in front of us---to save us."
"And then everyone went running, no-one stayed to help. Then the figure was gone and then two more, two different figures, took its place. Everyone was gone, I told Neville to go for help---but Harry was there then. Harry and Ron, Hermione and George an---and Fred . . ."
"We were playing chess," Hermione pushed in, regaining her voice. "There was a bang and everyone was screaming."
"I couldn't get to him." Seamus stammered. "I---I couldn't reach him in time, I---I couldn't . . . I couldn't save him I didn't get to him . . . It's my fault . . . all my fault . . ."
"No, no it's not, Seamus," Hermione tried to sooth. "It's no-one's fault but You-Know-Who's---"
"No, Hermione. It's my fault---"
"Don't say that, Harry---"
"No, it is my fault---" He continued quietly.
"Harr---" Ginny tried.
"Fuck, Ginny! It is my fault---"
"Harry!"
"Shut-it, Hermione. I don't want your pity or your damn fake comfort. And I don't very well need them."
"Harry James Potter!"
"I'm not an idiot! I know it's my fault---Cedric, my parents, Dean---everyone! Fuck, Hermione, I'm the reason that everyone's dying. The only reason! You know why my parents died? To save me! Why Cedric's gone? Because of me! I was the one with the stupid idea to take the cup at the same time. It was me. Always me. He wants ME and everyone's going to die until he gets ME! The single damn problem with his whole FUCKing plan is the fact that when he's killed everyone he's not going to have anyone left to rule!" The large picture window taking up nearly an entire wall at the end of the common room imploded in on all of its occupants. Everyone ducked as large shards of glass blanketed the tower.
"Harry---" Professor Dumbledore tried to calm him, knowing very well the chaos Harry's wandless magic might bring. The room started swirling with scarlet rain.
"No! Don't you dare try to say anything to me! I know he wants me and I know that everyone's going to die unless he gets me and he's not going to stop. Not ever. And you want to know something Professor? You want to know what I'M thinking about doing next? Next for the ORDER?" There was another explosion as an ancient stained glass window shattered over their heads.
"What Harry?"
"I'm going to go! To find him and get Ron and Fred back. There's no way---no POSSible way that I'm going to let Voldemort have him." The rain was freezing now, chunks of blood red hail thrashing around their heads.
"Harry, you can't stop him. Not by yourself. Not yet."
"No!" Harry pointed an angry finger in the Headmaster's face. "No. No-one can make me stay here and do nothing!" An ink bottle near Hermione, undoubtedly left by one of the students, burst, covering her in indigo ink and slivers of glass. "Not even you." The hiss he ended on wasn't anywhere near human.
All was silent except for a cracking coming from the brick above the fireplace.
"Harry," Dumbledore finally cut in.
"What?" He snapped.
"You can't go---"
"Not even you, _Albus_, could make me stay." The crack was growing, spilling over onto the centuries old walls and ceiling.
"Do you realise why he wants you, Harry? Why he needs you to succeed?"
"Damn it! Without me he's nothing!" Another ink bottle exploded, this time striking Colin.
"No, Harry. Without you he's everything. With you gone, Voldemort has nothing standing in his way."
"I'm not leaving them there. That," he pointed desperately at the dancing orange flame. "That is not going to stay." He hissed again, as the ceiling groaned ominously in.
"Do you realise what you just said, Harry?"
"What?"
"Harry, we can't understand you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" He let out another long, low, hiss.
"You're speaking in Parsletounge, Harry." Ginny was pale and terrified at seeing Harry looking so . . . so evil.
"What?" Harry didn't realise he was hissing. "What are you talking about?" He snapped at Ginny, eyes flashing. "I am not."
"Harry, you're scaring me," she whispered.
"I'm not doing anything!" A brick toppled from the towering fireplace followed closely by a second and a third. Gryffindor Tower was collapsing in around them.
"Stop it, Harry," her voice quaked.
"Stop what? All I want to do is save my friends!"
"Stop it, Harry! You're scaring me!" She screamed, backing away from him.
"Oh god," he breathed, his voice slipping back to English. "Oh god . . . shit . . ." Harry fell back to the floor---he couldn't breathe. "Oh god . . ." he pressed his palm to his scar; one hand pulled at the hair at the back of his neck desperately trying to block out the pounding that was running rampant though his forehead. The omnipresent reminder that served as a terrifyingly vivid landmark of his seemingly doomed life. "No . . . no . . ." he was panting now---lying curled on the floor, his head pounding, hyperventilating. No-one came to his aide, no-one hugged him close and told him it was all going to work out and his friends would be safe. Harry didn't want them to come. He had to deal with this. He didn't cry. He wouldn't cry.
"Harry, we do not know why Voldemort is after you, but we can't let him have you. Not ever." Professor Dumbledore said softly behind him.
"I'm not giving up on Ron." Harry mumbled into his hands, managing to collect his breathing again but not getting up from the floor.
"I'm not asking you to."
"I _have_ to do SOMEthing."
"I understand."
"Albus," it was Snape.
"Yes, Severus?"
"Should I go to . . . ?"
"Yes. Leave immediately." Snape nodded and left the tower. "Minerva," the Deputy Headmistress looked prepared to faint but she stood resolutely nonetheless.
"Yes, Albus?"
"Notify the Thomas'," She nodded. "They mustn't come to the school, reassure them that his body will be taken care of and returned to them at the appropriate time. Contact the Weasley's---inform them of the kidnapping. They too must not come. Molly should take in the Thomas', but even so, ask her. Do you understand?"
"Yes Albus."
"Take Dean to the Hospital Wing."
She managed to peel Seamus off of Dean and levitated him out into the corridor.
"I want the rest of you to repot to the Great Hall. The rest of the students are already there and they will presume the worst if you do not show up. I will send someone to escort you down, I would but I must see to other matters. They shall arrive shortly." He examined the Gryffindor's somberly. "I do not want ANY of you to leave the tower before they arrive. Do you understand." Neville nodded for them all. Dumbledore waved his wand at the falling celing, walls, and fireplace, repairing them instantly before sweeping out of the room, the portrait slamming behind him.
The silence that followed was defining.
The quiet was shattered by George screaming and hurling a table across the destroyed common room before completely breaking down. Collapsing onto the floor with a howl anguish. No-one moved to him.
Not even Ginny.
Several minuets later the portrait hole opened again and a very ragged looking Timothy Jameson entered, beckoning, with a curt wave, that they should follow.
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