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Chapter 26 Waiting
Three days passed with no word about Charlie, Bill had arrived to take up his new position, but he was clearly unhappy with it. His face was tired and lined but his presence helped Ginny, who spent much of her time in his office with him after classes, obviously needing the closeness of her eldest brother.
Ron was withdrawn and mono-syllabic. Hermione had a hard time dragging him to classes and forcing him to do his homework. Every night, Harry withdrew to his room early and tried to hear Charlie; he didn't tell the others what he was doing because he didn't want to see the disappointed look on their faces when he failed.
Two of the injured Aurors in St Mungo's died, causing another fury of headlines in The Daily Prophet, proclaiming the growing power of You-know-who. It began to infuriate Harry more and more that they would not even write his name. Then in Friday's joint Defence lesson, Bill and Snape organised another raid like lesson.
Dumbledore was holding the fifth year students 'prisoner' in an isolated hut, in the centre of an illusionary forest. Bill had locked them in and it was up to the seventh years to rescue them. Harry once again led his group of Gryffindors, and he organised them into a unit. They trusted him and followed his instructions without question.
The Forest illusion looked, in essence, like the Dark Forest and Harry knew that most of his group were half convinced it was real. But Harry thought it was creepy. It lacked the energy of the real Forest, with no auras coming from the trees and plants.
Harry's group entered to the north of the hut and managed to bypass several traps laid out for them. They successfully countered an 'attack' from the sixth year Ravenclaws, casting stunning spells at them quickly and then diving for cover, awaiting the counter attack. Harry's instincts were not mistaken, another 'attacker' sprang out behind them and Harry bound him before he could even open his mouth.
Several incantations meant to disorientate them were placed in their path; the first was the 'ground reversing mist' which they all conquered immediately. The next was a new one, the stepped into a space and were engulfed in blackness; it was like stepping into a void, no noise or light penetrated. Harry heard a few of his team whisper, 'lumos' but the spell had no effect.
"Wait," Harry whispered, and focused his mind outside the spell. In his minds eye he could see them standing in the centre of a black cloud, he ordered them to take hands and walk together. He could see them take a step towards the front of the cloud, but the cloud seemed to stretch forward with them. Trying a different tactic, he ordered them to take four steps to their left, the world suddenly returned to normal colour.
"Nice one, Harry," muttered Seamus, then he was caught by a sleeping spell.
The group turned outwards in their tight circle and cast stunning charms around them. Then Neville shouted, "Stupefy," pointing his wand several feet of the floor. He was rewarded by a loud thump.
Harry could see an aura, the body hidden by a disillusionment spell. Leaning down, Harry checked that their 'attacker' was uninjured, after the fall from the tree. Harry removed the disillusionment spell and Neville gasped; Professor Snape lay unconscious on the ground.
"What have I done?" Neville whispered. "He's going to kill me."
"Don't worry, he seems fine," Harry straightened and sent up red sparks from his wand, indicating Snape's position, then motioned the others to follow him towards the hut. They reached the Hut and took several minutes to break through the complicated charms locking the door. As they entered the room the 'hostages' began throwing hexes at them, "imperious curse," Harry muttered, "Everybody stay low."
The fifth years were having fun, pretending to be under the imperious curse, hexing the older would-be-rescuers and Harry saw Dean, Parvati and Lavender had been hit. Crouching low on the floor, Harry gathered his energy and sent out a continuous wave of stunning spells, the spell rolled like fog along the ground and all the fifth years fell over, unconscious. Dumbledore stood alone in the centre of the room.
The Gryffindors threw two stunning spells, a sneezing charm and a tarantallegra at him, but
Harry stood and sent out a fiery rope, which bound the headmaster, protection shield and all. Dumbledore smiled and conceded. "You have caught me, well done Gryffindors."
With a wave of his wand, Dumbledore removed the illusion around the Great Hall and ordered them to wake their victims. All of the students were standing up and brushing themselves off, some looking quite sheepish. Neville was glancing around the room, looking extremely worried. Harry knew he was waiting for Snape to appear.
Dumbledore spotted his potions master, lying on the floor, and said, "Oh dear, what did you do to Professor Snape?" His eyes turned to Harry but Harry grinned and pointed to the now chalk faced Neville.
"I…um… stunned him, Sir. But he was up a tree at the time, I didn't think, sorry," Neville stuttered. The rest of the Gryffindors were having a hard time holding in their laughter. It had taken nearly seven years but Neville had finally gotten one up on Snape.
The Gryffindors were proud of their team, Harry was able to step back and let the limelight shine on Neville.
"See Neville, you are a Gryffindor Lion at heart," Hermione told him quietly.
Neville blushed at this and gradually the shock of what he had done wore off and pride in his defeat of the much hated Potions master took over.
As they waited for the Great Hall to be returned to normal for dinner, Professor McGonagall found them and led Ron and Ginny back inside to the headmaster. Tense moments later, she returned and opened the doors to the rest of the students. Harry and Hermione rushed in to find out the news.
From the distance they could see Bill nodding, with his arm around Ginny and his other hand on Ron's shoulder. Dumbledore was speaking to them quietly and for several seconds Harry feared the worst, but then Bill smiled and Ron 'whooped,' and Harry and Hermione relaxed.
"Charlie's alright," Ron rushed up to tell them, "he was trapped under the village, in a cavern, they had to dig them out, but he's fine, not even injured."
They hugged each other and smiled, and then Hermione said, "Why was there a cavern under the village?"
"Well apparently they suffered great loses years ago when Grindlewald was in control of Europe, and he targeted the Romanian Gypsies, so they built these tunnels under the village for the people to hide in. The house Charlie was visiting collapsed, but they fell through the floor into the old tunnels and were able to wait there, until they could be dug out."
They ate dinner and went to visit Bill's office to celebrate. Eventually, when Ginny fell asleep on his sofa, Bill rounded them up and sent them to bed. Harry slept properly for the first night since Charlie's disappearance.
Their happy mood was once again destroyed by the morning delivery of the Daily Prophet, there had been several bombs in Spain, which the Muggles accredited to a Spanish independence Group, but the Prophet had traced back to Voldemort. The pointless loss of life was beginning to haunt Harry's thoughts at every waking moment. Voldemort was wiping out large sections of the magical world, and killing hundreds of muggles at the same time. In addition, he was fuelling the natural hatred already in the muggle world, bringing attention back to old divisions.
Quidditch practice did little to distract him, much to Ron's displeasure; Harry failed to catch the snitch several times. The seven angry, muddy players eventually went to the showers when the April shower had grown into a full scale rainstorm. Harry mood was reflected in the dismal weather.
When they trudged back to the common room, Hermione handed him a letter from Moony.
Migizi,
I am relieved to hear your friend's brother
is well and I know you must been wondering
about our colourful friend. I visited this
morning and was relieved to see her looking
more herself. She is still in a lot of pain
but at least she is awake now.
How are you holding up? My job is getting
more exciting than ever, I hear we might be
doing some foreign exchange work soon,
but I don't have all the details yet. Take
care of yourself and write to me when you can.
Moony.
"I think Tonks is getting better," Harry related, "And he's glad Charlie's alright."
"How's he doing?" Ron asked.
"Okay, he might be going abroad with his job," Harry told them.
"That must mean Voldemort is planning more attacks in Europe," Hermione whispered.
"I guess so, I wish Moony could have come back to work here as well," Harry said.
"I don't think he would, look at Bill, he's desperate to go back out in the field, but he knows Mums had enough worry for a while," Ron replied. "I wish I could go out as well."
"Don't," Hermione said quietly, "I don't think I could bear it."
"It's going to happen eventually Hermione," Ron pointed out. "It's nearly the end of April; we've not got much time left."
Hermione shuddered at the thought and Harry stared out of the window, if only he could figure a way to end this soon, so none of his friends had to enlist. He was doing his best to teach them as much as he could but he was still afraid something might happen to them once they graduated. The heavy burden of his responsibilities pushed down on his shoulders, and he prayed to any God who could hear him, to help him defeat Voldemort, once and for all.
Sunday was brighter and the trio went outside after breakfast, Hermione was studying her Astronomy notes and Harry and Ron were playing exploding snap. After one particularly loud explosion, Hermione dropped her book and Harry reached down to give it to her. His attention was caught by a picture of Mars, he remembered Firenze's warning- Mars rises and the conclusion nears.
Harry handed Hermione her book and Ron said, "Oy, your go." Harry continued to look up at the sky for several minutes until Ron waved his hand in front of Harry's face and said, "Wake up, what's wrong?"
"What? Oh nothing, I was just thinking," Harry replied.
"You've been really out of it the last couple of days, what's going on?" Ron asked.
"I met Firenze, a while back, and he gave me a warning. But you know what the Centaurs are like, they never make much sense," Harry replied.
"What did he say?" Hermione asked.
"He said something about Mars rising, and the wars concluding."
"Well that's got to be a good thing, I mean the war concluding, don't you think?" Ron added.
"Well don't get me wrong - you know what I think of Divinations," Hermione answered, "I can work it out if you like, when Mars will be rising," she offered. Rummaging through her bag for a spare piece of parchment and her quill, she pulled open her book and started noting down a simplified star chart.
Harry watched her write down various numbers and keywords and just as she jotted down 11, 36 Harry realised something. He actually knew the answer to his question, he wasn't sure how he knew but the number 1136 had repeatedly turned up since he had read the Green Flame Torch.
"11:36pm on the 11th of June," Harry blurted out.
Ron stared at him in question, but Hermione kept up her scribbling for a few more seconds before she looked up and whispered, "How did you know that?"
"You mean he's right?" Ron looked at Hermione's paper but obviously couldn't make any more sense of it than Harry. Hermione nodded.
"I'm not sure how I knew, but the number has been chasing about in my head for over a year." Harry looked up at them and added, "Remember the story about Cassandra?" He waited for their nods, "I found out the volcano in the story had erupted in 1136, and a powerful witch actually died in it. Then when we were looking for information about Wenlereaks, the section in the book began at page 1136. For almost two years I have come across that number, and never really noticed until now."
"Yes but Harry, it could have been coincidence," Hermione pointed out.
Harry was tempted to tell them about the Elemental, who had died prematurely, in 1136 and how he had become an Elemental, but he held his tongue, "But I was right, so it has to be a sign."
"Alright, say you knew about the time being 11; 36pm, how did you know June 11th?" Hermione puzzled.
"I don't know, June is the 6th month I guess," Harry replied.
"Yes, but you lost a 3 somewhere," Ron pointed out.
"Heck, I don't know, maybe its all googledegook, but I guessed right anyway," Harry replied.
"But what do you do now, on 11th June?" Hermione asked.
"I think that I have to face him, here," Harry replied.
Hermione paled and Ron said, "How can you face him, Harry? After all the people he's killed, what would you do?"
"I'm not sure yet, but I know I have to get him here on that day or else it will be too late," Harry replied quietly.
"Well, I suppose if Dumbledore and the Order are here," Ron sounded sceptical.
"No, I have to do this alone Ron, you know that," Harry replied.
"No," Hermione seemed to have found her voice, "Harry, no you can't, it's too dangerous."
"Dumbledore told me a while ago that I couldn't change destiny, I wasn't sure I understood him at the time, but I think I do now," Harry said. "He said I would be called to choose between what was right and what was easy, and now I'm choosing."
Harry stood up and looked out over the lake, he was afraid of his decision, yet deep down he knew that it wasn't really his decision at all - it started long ago and now he had to follow his path, to the end.
"How…how would you do it?" Hermione trembled.
"I'm not sure, but I think I will know when the time comes," Harry replied.
"Well that plan sucks," Ron said. "What if you don't know when the time comes? Will you just stand there and let him kill you?"
"Don't," Hermione begged, "Please don't even say it; it's not funny."
"I know it's not bloody funny…..It's mental!" Ron snapped.
"Stop it both of you, I'm not telling you this just to sound like some poor hero," Harry hunched down beside them, "There has been a lot going on with me that I can't explain to you, No Ron, not because Dumbledore won't let me. I'm just not sure if I could explain it. You have to trust me, when I say, I will not stand before Voldemort and let him just kill me."
Hermione had tears slipping down her cheeks and Ron glared at Harry, but he stayed there, maintaining eye contact until Ron sighed and said, "I want to help you, anyway I can."
"Me too," Hermione muttered.
"Thank you, both of you," Harry replied, then thinking for a moment he said to Hermione, "If we wanted to lower the wards around the school temporarily, how would we do it?"
"I'm not sure, but I can find out I'm sure," She replied.
"Good, we'll start with that, and then once we have a solid idea, we'll go to Dumbledore," Harry said.
"But shouldn't we just go to him now, I mean if anyone knows about the protection wards, surely it would be him," Hermione asked.
"Probably, but I have my reasons for not wanting him to know yet," Harry replied.
In an unspoken agreement, they headed back to the Great Hall for lunch, and none of them mentioned their discussion for the next week. Though Harry imagined it was never far from their thoughts, much as it was never far from his.