Chapter 3 – Spying

Disclaimer: It all belongs to J.K.Rowling, apart from plot.

With thanks: To Orchid, my Beta, who's still fabulous. Also Sophie, my Gamma, who's not only fabulous but a birthday girl to boot. Happy 16th, Sophie! Now give me cake.

Thanks for 26 reviews goes to: willowfairy, mutsumi, Xtreme Nuisance, Hp1fan, jules37, CheRrI)*(DrEaMeR, Emerald Raven, Flexi Lexi, Rebecca15, willowwiccantara, Solemn Rayne, Saotoshi, aliveforever83!

Authors Note: Chapter three, on time and waiting to be read!

I have been behind with my writing of Magnanimous. Which is due in part to being ill over the weekend, in part to getting the new computer sorted, in part to school, in part to the rabid plot bunnies that are chewing on my ears (come on, inspiring me with two ideas while I'm working on Mag. is unfair!) and in part to laziness. However, this is why I wrote 5 chapters in advance. So I could be lazy and subject to natural disasters.

Anyway, I shall leave my rambling there. This is quite an important chappie… lots of Thing Happening. So enjoy!

~*~

Snape's dungeons were even darker than usual, the twisting passages unlit and the stone ice to the touch. Magic normally kept the torches burning and provided some semblance of warmth in the drab corridors, but since the attack of Voldemort, these spells had failed, leaving the dungeons unlit and bitterly cold.

It was odd, Harry reflected, how some magical things carried on working even inside the field of the Aculux curse. The portraits adoring the walls, for example, were as alive as ever, and the ghosts still hovered round, albeit with the same glumness that afflicted the whole castle. The staircases still moved, and the wards against entry were still in place.

Nothing else.

And so, the corridor was dark, almost pitch black. Their only light was the candle Harry had used in his fruitless search for the Invisibility Cloak – thankfully, Dean Thomas had developed a slight pyromania over the summer, and his bedside chest held a cornucopia of matches, candles and lighters.

Every shadow led to infinity: there was no way of telling where the darkness ended unless the candle was shone near them, and bringing it to one side only increased the darkness on the other. Their feet were near invisible, just pale phantoms in the darkness. The three unconsciously drew closer together, closer to the others, the sole evidence that there was a world of light and warmth and life outside this madhouse of darkness and corridors.

'Are we nearly there yet?' asked Ron, his breath turning to mist in the frozen air.

'This was your idea, Ron…' Hermione pointed out. 'We should be close, though. It's not that far to Snape's office after the portrait of Ulric the Oddball…'

'This should be it now.' Harry replied, as they reached a seemingly plain and ordinary door. 'It shouldn't be locked… the locking charms were all broken when the Aculux was cast…'

Hermione shivered at the mention of the curse, and even Ron turned pale, though no one could see in the dim light. Even the mention of the name reminded the three of them of the tremendous peril they stood in…

Harry turned the door handle, and true to expectations, it opened easily. The three of them shuffled inside, Harry holding the candle in front of him so they could see into the room.

Snape's office, as might be expected, was decorated in Slytherin colours; a deep, dark green and a silver that was almost grey. The furnishings were sparse; a desk had pride of place, parchment, quill and inkpot ready to use, all else tidied away. There were a few bookshelves in dark mahogany wood, stocked with rather ominous-looking books of potions. Strangely enough, there was also a thriving spider plant on one shelf.

And of course, standing on a small table, the Runespoor's cage.

'Go on, Harry.' Ron said, nudging him towards it. 'Go talk to it.'

Stepping forwards almost nervously, Harry cleared his throat and hissed, 'Hello?'

'We're sleeping.' hissed a random head, the third, from what Harry could tell. 'Go away.'

'To sleep, perchance to dream… to dream of fairytales… to dream of life… to dream of freedom…' added the second head, sounding already half asleep itself.

Harry licked his lips nervously. 'We want to offer you something…' he told them. 'We need your help… And in return, we can set you free…'

All three heads perked at this offer, eyes opening and swivelling to regard him. 'Then talk, human…' said the first head.

'The teachers are holding a meeting in an office, and we want to know what's going on.' Harry explained quickly. 'There's a ventilation system that leaves gaps between the walls…we couldn't get in there, but you could. So we want you to go and spy on them, then come back and tell us what you've heard. And then we'll help you escape.'

'Spying!' said the second head in an excited hiss. 'The drama, the intrigue, the excitement! Plots and plans, secrets and whispers like velvet…'

'Yes, yes.' The first head replied absently, 'but what of the plan? Do we do it?'

'Of course. Only an idiot would ask that. We lose nothing, we gain everything.' The third head said quite cruelly.

'Then we accept.' The first head declared, causing Harry to beam with relief, before turning to the patient Ron and Hermione.

'They'll do it.' Harry told them, having to consciously stop himself from hissing. 'They like the idea.'

Hermione and Ron smiled as well. 'Brilliant!' Ron grinned.

'And thank you all, very much, er… what are their names?' Hermione asked, realising she didn't know them and floundering in her sentence.

'My name is Gamma.' said the third head. 'I'm the smart one.' This earned him a baring of the first head's fangs and an angry hiss. 'My annoyed fellow head is Alpha, and this excuse for a middle head is Beta.'

'Alpha, Beta and Gamma, from left to right.' Harry reported back to Hermione, who frowned.

'Greek letters?'

Ron shrugged. 'Hey, Snape named them. Would you really expect him to name them Tom, Sammy and Alfred?'

'Good point.' Harry shrugged, going to the cage and undoing the lid. 'Are you ready?' He called through the top.

'Freedom's light shines ever brighter upon us, and into the light we boldly go!' Beta replied, which Harry took to mean yes.

~*~

The air tasted strange here. It tasted of dirt and decay, of forgotten places and misplaced dreams. Beta was singing shrilly, songs of suspense and excitement, of heroes and saving the world, the dramatized, Hollywood-James Bond version of spying - the dream of espionage.

 

Alpha and Gamma, more grounded in reality then their fellow head, snapped at him to shut up.

 

Light ahead, a hazy mist shining into their tunnel of darkness. They slithered towards it, eager now, for the sooner they heard this the sooner they were free. Gamma had suggested simply ignoring the humans' request and escaping by their own means, but Beta had set up such a racket about sacred honour and trust that they'd gone along with it.

 

They drew level with the grille, and peered down into the room. Yes. This tasted right. Three pairs of eyes glistened as they watched the proceedings, listening intently, tongues flickering to taste the air, observing and spying and all the while feeling the sweet, sweet freedom they craved draw nearer.

 

So soon…

~*~

As broom closets went, this was quite a large one. Shelves ringed the walls, brimming with strange bottles of cleaning potions, their labels yellowed and peeling, the glass caked with grime. Boxes littered the floor, dates and labels scrawled on in thick black script. Hermione had cautiously opened one, and found it to be brimming with old NEWT papers, saved to give students some practice. Now, deemed too old to be useful, they had been stored away here, forgotten.

'This is actually really interesting.' Hermione mused, flicking a page over. 'They have things on here that aren't even on the curriculum now, and they don't even mention some of the most common spells we're taught…'

'How can you be interested in exams at a time like this? Ron asked incredulously, leaning on a dusty stack of papers. 'How can you be interested in exams at any time, for that matter…'

The stack of parchment wobbled dangerously, unbalanced by Ron, who stepped back in alarm, trying in vain to steady the precarious pile. It overbalanced, an avalanche of parchment crashing down with the crackling, slithering sound of paper on paper, sending a vast cloud of dust into the air. Ron stepped well back, looking guilty.

'Well, that was clever.' Hermione said irritably. 'I just hope no one heard that. If Filch knew about this he'd murder you, Ron!'

'Good thing he doesn't know then, isn't it?' Ron replied grumpily.

Some of the dust began to settle, the majority of it hanging in the air in a thick cloud. From the general direction of the debris came a loud sneeze.

'Bless you.' Ron mumbled distractedly. Hermione looked up from the 1972 version of the History of Magic test with a frown.

'Why did you say bless you to yourself?' she asked.

Ron shook his head. 'What? It was Harry that sneezed, I said it to him. Wasn't it you, Harry?'

'No, I thought it was you…' Harry replied. 'I didn't sneeze, and it didn't sound like Hermione, so that only leaves you.'

Ron looked puzzled, casting a dubious look towards the dingy corner. 'No, it wasn't me… I think I'd have noticed.'

'Well it wasn't me.' Hermione said firmly. 'And it was a male kind of sneeze, so it had to be one of you two.'

'I guess…'

The discussion was cut off abruptly by Harry, who grinned suddenly and said, 'I can hear the Runespoor coming back.'

Sure enough, within a minute it had slithered out of the small ventilation hole and sat before them, curling itself into a coil on the filthy floor. Beta was still singing freedom songs, but was threatened at so violently by Gamma that he stopped mid-note.

'What did they say?' Harry hissed eagerly. 'What are they going to do? Did they say anything about how the spell works?'

Alpha took a breath. 'The old one with the long chin-hair spoke of what the spell does, yes. The spell does not affect permanent magic like your living pictures and moving steps, but it stops people casting any new spells. After three days inside the spell, it becomes permanent. The old one had a picture of how it works…'

He paused in his description to draw a diagram in the dust, his tail making quick work of reproducing what he had seen. A large circle with an H for Hogwarts in the middle. Around this, a triangle. From each point came another line, which ended in another small circle.

'This school is in the middle.' Gamma took over the retelling, using his tail to point at the relevant places in the diagram as he explained.. 'The triangle represents the field of the spell, the area within which it works. The three circles are towers, the control centres. The master tower is the important one, the one where the spell is powered, where it can be stopped.'

Harry paused to interpret the diagram to Ron and Hermione. 'So they're going to turn off the power source?' he guessed. 'Who are they sending?'

Alpha took over again, looking distressed. 'There was much noise. Much noise, much shouting. We tasted anger. We didn't like it.' He told them, looking as regretful as a snake can. 'The old one says it is madness to try it. He says that trying to turn off the tower would have a terrible effect on the person who attempts it. He does not know what the effect is, but he knows it is dangerous. He will not sacrifice anyone, he says, so they cannot try to turn it off.'

Harry translated. There was a pause as the three of them realised the implications.

'So they're not going to do anything?' Ron spluttered. 'They're just going to sit there and let us all become Squibs?'

Beta attempted to warble the beginning of some kind of epic song, presumably on the theme of losing in battle. Gamma snapped some extremely rude words at him, whereupon he stated sulking.

'The old one says they must find some way to escape the field.' Alpha recounted. 'But the others say this is impossible, that there are minions of The Dark Lord all around the castle. They say many will die. Then there is much arguing, much fighting. It all tastes wrong. We did not like it. We were glad when everyone left.'

'I don't believe this.' Ron shook his head in amazement as soon as Harry had related the Runespoor's words to them. 'Everyone in this school is in danger of losing their powers and Dumbledore's going to do nothing?'

'Not nothing, Ron.' Hermione pointed out. 'They'll probably think of some way to escape…'

'Brilliant choice.' He said sarcastically. 'Either most of the wizard kids in England lose their magic, half the school dies trying to escape, or one person gets hurt stopping the spell. And they decide to get half the school killed by sending us straight to the Death Eaters. Genius.'

'Ron, calm down.' Harry said shortly. 'Dumbledore's probably right… we don't know what will happen to the person who turns off the power source. And they'll get us out of here somehow…'

'Come on, Harry. This is Voldemort we're talking about.' Ron exploded. 'Do you really think he's going to set up this spell just to leave us a nice little back door to escape from? If we try, he's going to kill as many of us as we can while we're defenceless and can't use magic. It'll be a bloody massacre!'

Harry shrugged. 'They'll come up with something. Besides, there's nothing we can do.'

'Yes there is!' Ron protested. 'Look, all the years I've been your friend you've never said something like that. You're always the one who's willing to fight to stop Voldemort, to risk it all to stop whatever he's doing. This could be the worst thing yet, and you just sit there and say we can't do anything?'

Hermione glared at Ron, then spoke up. 'Ron, he's probably right.' She said. 'We don't even know which of the three towers is the master tower. We don't even know where any of the towers are. And even if we did, we don't know how to turn it off when we get there.'

'We could do research.' Ron pointed out, turning to her with a pleading look. 'In the library, it could be in one of those books… And if we find it we can stop it. We have to try…'

'I guess… you're right.' She sighed, shooting a worried look at Harry. 'We can't just let this happen… And we may as well research it.'

'No.' Harry said, quiet but firm, with a fierce look in his emerald eyes. 'We aren't doing anything. This isn't our problem to solve. The teachers will work it out, and I'm not doing anything.'

'Harry…' Ron was momentarily speechless. 'The teachers will end up getting half the school killed. There's no way out of here without passing through Voldemort's barriers. Do you really think he's going to let us escape without a fight? He'll kill as many of us as he can. And I won't let that happen.'

'WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO?' Harry shouted, losing his temper. The Runespoor gave an agitated hiss, curling up to get away from the rapidly building anger in the room. 'Let the teachers work it out, because I'm not going to get myself or anyone else in danger again!'

'Harry…' Hermione interjected, trying to calm him, but Harry ignored her.

'The last time I did that, Sirius died.' He said, voice low but angry, eyes alive with pain. 'I won't let it happen again.'

'You utter idiot.' Ron hissed, his voice low. 'When Sirius died it was because you were thick enough to race off into danger based on a dream. You knew those dreams came from Voldemort! You knew he was able to plant them there if he wanted to, you knew that, and you still raced off without bloody thinking!'

'Ron, stop it!' Hermione pleaded, looking white, but was again ignored. The Runespoor was hissing again, looking upset.

'This is nothing like that! We have to go and do this, because if we don't Voldemort will end up killing half the school or eradicating all our powers, and either way, we can't let him get away with it. And if we can find the information, where the master tower is and how to turn it off, we can stop him. Isn't that worth the risk?'

Harry's face was very pale, as if no blood ran through his skin at all. His expression was blank, but his eyes were raging as though fires burned beneath the surface.

There was a moment of absolute and utter silence. Harry's anger simmered, his ears ringing with Ron's words. Ron realised what he'd said, and his face began to tint red. Hermione watched with a worried frown.

And then a new voice split the proceedings. A young, male, drawling voice that was all too familiar.

'If I may interrupt this dramatic scene with something of historic proportions,' said Draco Malfoy, pulling Harry's Invisibility Cloak off his head, 'A momentous event has just taken place. I actually agree with a Weasley.'

~*~

Notes: What? You actually expected me not to leave you on a cliffie?

Hehehehe…

Well, at least you know where Draco vanished to, and you can probably guess that he's not going to be sitting out of the narrative much any more. Which I'm sure most of you will be grinning in delight at. Of course, he could only be hanging around in the narrative for a few more lines before he gets brutally murdered by Ron, whereupon Harry uses his innards to kill first Ron and then himself, and the entire last 10 or so chapters of the story consist of Hermione being angsty.

But that would be no fun.

So what will really happen? You'll have to wait till next week, of course! You could spend some of that time reviewing. Look at it this way: there are 10080 minutes in a week. A review takes approx. 2 minutes. So, if you left one review, it would take 0.01984126984126984126984126(recurring)% of the time between this chapter and the next to review. Rounded up, that's only 0.02% of the time.

Won't you spare 0.02% of your time to review?