Hermione made to push the lid open but Harry warned, "No! Wait!" in a whisper. Another troop of something marched past. Harry distinctly heard Macnair's voice behind them, saying, "Hold formation, lads, and don't kill anybody I know." The voice was muffled a bit, as though spoken through a mask. But then again, Harry found out just before last summer holidays that somebody named Macnair was a Death Eater, so the confirmation that the Macnair in the graveyard and the Macnair who came to kill Buckbeak were the same person didn't surprise him. The troop went away. Harry tentatively poked open the lid and peered out. There was nobody around. He let it shut again.
"All right," he whispered, "the best place to go from here is the Slytherin common-room. Ron and I know where it is, because of our Polyjuice escapade in the second year, and we know the password, because a couple of second-years just told us, so there should be no trouble. Once we're inside, we don't know how many other Slytherins are on the same side as Malfoy, so we need to be extremely cautious."
"Yeah." Ron agreed.
The trio lifted the trunk lid silently, and clambered out with a minimum of noise. They snuck around corners quickly, on their guard, moving towards the section of wall they knew the Slytherin common-room was hidden behind. They managed to get to it without detection, and Harry recited the password quietly; "Veritaserum." The wall section slid open, revealing an ornate stone anteroom leading into the depressingly-decorated Slytherin common-room. In it sat a group of guffawing Slytherins, several of whom stood up from their chairs to see who had come in, including Malfoy.
"I don't bloody believe it." Malfoy spat vindictively, drawing a 'borrowed' wand and letting off a curse in Harry's direction without provocation. Harry, Ron and Hermione immediately threw themselves behind adequate cover as the Slytherins rained curses into the room. Harry stuck his wand around the side of his cover and aimed with one eye, shooting a couple of curses of his own to keep their heads down. Ron and Hermione followed suit. The Slytherin curses became extremely intermittent as they chose to sit unmoving behind cover, while the Gryffindor curses kept on going, zinging into the room, stopping any attempt by the Slytherins to form up and fight properly. Eventually it ended up that the Slytherins would only perform the odd curse when its performer thought they had a good shot and a tiny chance of getting hit themselves, while the trio would have two people firing curses constantly for a short time while the third rested, then they'd switch so someone else could rest, etc. It was while Harry rested that he tried to strike up a conversation with Malfoy.
"So, Malfoy?" Harry called. "Were you annoyed when you found out I snapped your wand into quarters? Whose wand are you using?"
"Dunno whose wand it is." Malfoy shouted back. "I nicked it off the body of a dead Gryffindor." He spoke the final two words with malicious emphasis.
Harry sucked in his breath sharply. "You really are a bastard, Malfoy, and I'm going to kill you someday." He left off a stream of curses so Hermione could have a rest.
"What do you know about what's happening around the castle that we don't, Malfoy?" Hermione asked loudly.
"I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of knowing." he answered. "Just rest assured that it's a long-overdue purification of the wizarding community. Starting with this school, eventually going over the whole world, within a year the only people left alive anywhere will be pure- blooded wizards and some peoples too primitive to bother with." Malfoy let out a high-pitched giggle, then launched a particularly nasty hex, cracking one of the pillars at the side of the anteroom, which Hermione lay behind. Hermione retaliated with a Stupefication, which managed to hit Malfoy. It was the first curse cast in the common-room which actually struck something living. Malfoy fell backwards unconsciously, stolen wand rolling aside.
"Do we have to stay here attacking each other all day, or can we leave?" Hermione asked in annoyance, another charm from the enemy impacting the floor next to her foot.
"Trading hexes with Slytherins for an hour is still safer than tangling with a squad of troglodytes and a Death Eater." Harry replied logically.
"Harry, we both know that if we try and stay here for too long, our luck will run out and there won't be any more lucky misses from spells." she said. "We need to leave."
"If we try and leave now, they'll come after us, or at least alert the creatures to our whereabouts." Harry responded. "We're better off sitting here trading curses for a few hours."
Then Harry heard footsteps outside the hidden entrance of the Slytherin common-room. He heard a sinister voice on the other side say, "Veritaserum."
Harry started his cry of, "Stupefy!" when the voice was on the 'u' sound of 'Veritaserum'. His spell exploded out the tip of his wand the split second the door opened to reveal a lone Death Eater. With a snarl of annoyed surprise the Death Eater crumpled to the ground. His mask was jarred slightly loose, showing off a clump of neck-length greasy hair that was Snape's trademark. Harry heard animal cries along the outside corridor to the left, first questions and then responses.
"Time to go." Harry ordered breezily, throwing himself out the door looking left. Several things which appeared to be evil, overgrown tree sprites glared back malevolently. Harry barked, "Deflagro!" Two of them caught fire with a 'whump' sound. One of them ran backwards blindly, setting fire to two others.
"This way!" Ron shouted, already a good ten feet the other way down the corridor. Instead of answering Harry saved his breath as he sprinted to catch up with Ron and Hermione.
The trio pelted down the dank dungeon hallways which labyrinthinely criss-crossed the underground, passing through frequent ominous, slimy archways. It was down one of the longer hallways that Harry caught sight of Macnair and his troglodytes. Harry cast a Stupefication at the man, who rebounded it with the Shield charm. Before his charm returned, Harry had already ran around the corner.
"POTTER!" Macnair's voice spat the name with the same universal love enjoyed by Adolf Hitler. It shouldn't have echoed, but it did. Endlessly. Even as Harry ran up the stairs out of the dungeons he was chased by his name, not to mention a Death Eater, a platoon of troglodytes and a few incarnations of wood.
"All right," he whispered, "the best place to go from here is the Slytherin common-room. Ron and I know where it is, because of our Polyjuice escapade in the second year, and we know the password, because a couple of second-years just told us, so there should be no trouble. Once we're inside, we don't know how many other Slytherins are on the same side as Malfoy, so we need to be extremely cautious."
"Yeah." Ron agreed.
The trio lifted the trunk lid silently, and clambered out with a minimum of noise. They snuck around corners quickly, on their guard, moving towards the section of wall they knew the Slytherin common-room was hidden behind. They managed to get to it without detection, and Harry recited the password quietly; "Veritaserum." The wall section slid open, revealing an ornate stone anteroom leading into the depressingly-decorated Slytherin common-room. In it sat a group of guffawing Slytherins, several of whom stood up from their chairs to see who had come in, including Malfoy.
"I don't bloody believe it." Malfoy spat vindictively, drawing a 'borrowed' wand and letting off a curse in Harry's direction without provocation. Harry, Ron and Hermione immediately threw themselves behind adequate cover as the Slytherins rained curses into the room. Harry stuck his wand around the side of his cover and aimed with one eye, shooting a couple of curses of his own to keep their heads down. Ron and Hermione followed suit. The Slytherin curses became extremely intermittent as they chose to sit unmoving behind cover, while the Gryffindor curses kept on going, zinging into the room, stopping any attempt by the Slytherins to form up and fight properly. Eventually it ended up that the Slytherins would only perform the odd curse when its performer thought they had a good shot and a tiny chance of getting hit themselves, while the trio would have two people firing curses constantly for a short time while the third rested, then they'd switch so someone else could rest, etc. It was while Harry rested that he tried to strike up a conversation with Malfoy.
"So, Malfoy?" Harry called. "Were you annoyed when you found out I snapped your wand into quarters? Whose wand are you using?"
"Dunno whose wand it is." Malfoy shouted back. "I nicked it off the body of a dead Gryffindor." He spoke the final two words with malicious emphasis.
Harry sucked in his breath sharply. "You really are a bastard, Malfoy, and I'm going to kill you someday." He left off a stream of curses so Hermione could have a rest.
"What do you know about what's happening around the castle that we don't, Malfoy?" Hermione asked loudly.
"I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of knowing." he answered. "Just rest assured that it's a long-overdue purification of the wizarding community. Starting with this school, eventually going over the whole world, within a year the only people left alive anywhere will be pure- blooded wizards and some peoples too primitive to bother with." Malfoy let out a high-pitched giggle, then launched a particularly nasty hex, cracking one of the pillars at the side of the anteroom, which Hermione lay behind. Hermione retaliated with a Stupefication, which managed to hit Malfoy. It was the first curse cast in the common-room which actually struck something living. Malfoy fell backwards unconsciously, stolen wand rolling aside.
"Do we have to stay here attacking each other all day, or can we leave?" Hermione asked in annoyance, another charm from the enemy impacting the floor next to her foot.
"Trading hexes with Slytherins for an hour is still safer than tangling with a squad of troglodytes and a Death Eater." Harry replied logically.
"Harry, we both know that if we try and stay here for too long, our luck will run out and there won't be any more lucky misses from spells." she said. "We need to leave."
"If we try and leave now, they'll come after us, or at least alert the creatures to our whereabouts." Harry responded. "We're better off sitting here trading curses for a few hours."
Then Harry heard footsteps outside the hidden entrance of the Slytherin common-room. He heard a sinister voice on the other side say, "Veritaserum."
Harry started his cry of, "Stupefy!" when the voice was on the 'u' sound of 'Veritaserum'. His spell exploded out the tip of his wand the split second the door opened to reveal a lone Death Eater. With a snarl of annoyed surprise the Death Eater crumpled to the ground. His mask was jarred slightly loose, showing off a clump of neck-length greasy hair that was Snape's trademark. Harry heard animal cries along the outside corridor to the left, first questions and then responses.
"Time to go." Harry ordered breezily, throwing himself out the door looking left. Several things which appeared to be evil, overgrown tree sprites glared back malevolently. Harry barked, "Deflagro!" Two of them caught fire with a 'whump' sound. One of them ran backwards blindly, setting fire to two others.
"This way!" Ron shouted, already a good ten feet the other way down the corridor. Instead of answering Harry saved his breath as he sprinted to catch up with Ron and Hermione.
The trio pelted down the dank dungeon hallways which labyrinthinely criss-crossed the underground, passing through frequent ominous, slimy archways. It was down one of the longer hallways that Harry caught sight of Macnair and his troglodytes. Harry cast a Stupefication at the man, who rebounded it with the Shield charm. Before his charm returned, Harry had already ran around the corner.
"POTTER!" Macnair's voice spat the name with the same universal love enjoyed by Adolf Hitler. It shouldn't have echoed, but it did. Endlessly. Even as Harry ran up the stairs out of the dungeons he was chased by his name, not to mention a Death Eater, a platoon of troglodytes and a few incarnations of wood.