"Okay, people, this room is soundproof and invisible to creatures," Harry said loudly once the door was shut, "so feel free to make as much noise as you want." He then looked around the room. It was very similar to the Gryffindor common-room, with an identically-shaped mantelpiece and comfortable chairs set around a fire, though the room was somewhat smaller and there weren't as many chairs as the common-room. Harry walked towards the merrily crackling fire to warm his hands, which were still cold from his stint in the dungeons.
"Excellent idea, hiding in the Room of Requirement." Dean approved. "Hell, while we're waiting we could even practice a bit for Dumbledore's Army." His voice grew sombre. "Even if now it is a lot smaller."
"First of all, we've already had plenty enough DA practice just getting to this damn room." Ron retorted. "And second of all, I'm not sure sitting back and waiting is the best idea."
"You have a better plan?" Harry asked hotly.
"No, but that's the idea. We spend this time thinking up a better plan."
"That's a genius idea, Ron." Harry said, rolling his eyes.
"There must be some kind of an explanation for this." Hermione stated. "Now, the big question; is it really Voldemort organising this? Everything points to him, but it still could be somebody else."
"Like who? Professor Karkaroff?" Harry shot back. Ron and Dean laughed at the very idea.
"Now the little questions which branch off from it." Hermione continued. "How would Voldemort go about rallying every single kind of creature in the Forest to his cause? The centaurs aren't stupid enough to fall for such tricks as, 'Help us wipe out the school and we'll give you unlimited food' or anything like that, so it must be something really crafty. Why did the American soldiers come, and why do some of them shoot at us and some of them ask for our help? Most importantly, what can we do about it?"
"Look, Hermione, face it, we just haven't got a clue." Harry scolded her bluntly. "We cannot answer any of the little questions except the last one; 'Nothing at the moment.' This is something far beyond our understanding, we're in so far over our heads we can't even see the surface. The best thing to do is to wait for the wizarding army to arrive and sort it out."
Hermione held her tongue, grudgingly. Then suddenly she had an epiphany. "Hey, you know, when those Blood-Sucking Bugbears avoided our fake blood pool, they were directly disregarding an insatiable desire within them for blood. It was more than weird. It was suspicious."
"So?" Harry asked.
"What if Voldemort didn't make allies with the Forbidden Forest creatures?" she asked. "What if he took control of them?"
"Hermione," Harry said, "Voldemort doesn't have enough power to do the Imperius curse on every single monster in the Forbidden Forest at the same time."
Hermione shut up and thought hard.
Time passed slowly. Harry fidgeted in his seat, Hermione sat restlessly, Ron was in deep thought for a change, and Dean busied himself cleaning his Desert Eagle countless times, probably to keep his mind off Justin and Ernie, each of whom had died in front of him. The clock ticked, the clock ticked again, it didn't stop ticking. Nobody looked at each other.
Thirty, maybe thirty-five minutes passed as the party sat waiting for a miracle. Then all of a sudden, there was a scratching at the door. The doorknob turned and the door opened. Four soldiers bundled in, with the sounds of creatures in the distance. The door was quickly shut. Then, and only then, did any of them notice any of Harry or Ron's group.
Harry remembered that he had specifically asked the Room of Requirement to be a place where nobody who wanted them dead could find them, so he was quite at ease with the present situation. "Evening." he said mildly.
"Squad! We've got hostiles!" the one of the greatest rank and shabbiest appearance shouted. He brought up his shotgun, but another of the soldiers stepped in front of it.
"What is your malfunction, maggot?" the officer screamed. "Aiding the enemy! Get out of my way right now if you don't want a court-martial!"
"They aren't the enemy." the soldier said evenly. "The enemy is the anti-American asshole who ordered us to wipe out a school. And even if they were the enemy, they're just kids."
"You think I like killing kids?" the officer screamed. "I hate it! But that doesn't matter! They're called ORDERS for a reason, dirtbag! Only my life debt is stopping me from citing a court-martial on you right now! Excuse me now while I act like a soldier should!"
The officer stepped around the soldier and took aim with the shotgun. The soldier fired at point-blank range with his assault rifle. The officer's head exploded, and he crumpled to the ground sideways.
"Is he - dead?" Hermione asked, brown eyes fearful. She stood up, her invisible shaking magnified into visibility at the tips of her bushy hair.
"No, he's only pretending." another of the soldiers scoffed sarcastically.
"I'm not bothered that someone trying to kill me is dead, to be honest." Ron said.
The third soldier took the treachery somewhat harder. "You shot your CO in the head." he stated in awe.
The first soldier knelt down beside the man whose life he once saved and checked his pulse. There appeared to be no life signs.
"Fuck, they'll have heard the signature." he realised aloud. "Take up positions for a last stand, men." He overturned a heavy oak table and got behind it. He took all his magazines out of his pockets and put them on the floor next to his knee. He flicked the safety-catch to a different position. The other two soldiers did similar preparation.
"No, don't worry, nobody's coming!" Harry announced. "The room's soundproof."
"The room's soundproof?" The first soldier echoed. "How can it be? There's no seal on the door."
"The room you've accidentally found is the Room of Requirement. It only appears if you walk past it three times wishing for something. When you do, what you wish for appears in the room, which can also change for your tastes. When we got here first, I wished for a comfortable, soundproof room the creatures couldn't find, so it should be soundproof."
"And I kept wishing for a place to hide while I turned this way and that in the hallway." the soldier remembered. "Well, we've forgotten to introduce ourselves. I'm corporal Shepherd, and these are privates Sean and Brian. We have just become a pro-American splinter group within an anti- American splinter group within the US army."
"I'm Harry Potter," he stated, "and this is Hermione Granger - "who looked terrified, "- this is Ron Weasley - "who looked interested, "- and this is Dean Thomas." Dean looked nervous and sheepish as he continued cleaning his Desert Eagle. "We're some of the only survivors of this violent massacre perpetrated by Death Eaters."
"You aren't the first person to call those masked freaks Death Eaters." noted Sean.
"I think those assholes are responsible too." added Shepherd. "I looked into that massive dining hall and saw piles and piles of corpses, plus some nasty mythical creatures patrolling alongside those wizards."
"What I saw, about half an hour ago, was swarms of mythical creatures, soldiers, and Death Eaters marching up to the castle." Harry put in. "As we debated before you came in, it has to be Lord Voldemort's work."
"God damn it, you're on about Lord Voldeperson too!" Brian complained. "Who is he?"
Harry shuddered. Hermione broke in. "He's the most evil wizard in all of history. Many years ago he started using killing and intimidation to get power in the wizarding world. He succeeded for a long time, too. He killed anyone who stood in his way. He killed Harry's parents, then tried to kill Harry, because a prophecy foretold that Harry would be his greatest foe. But Voldemort's curse rebounded off baby Harry and turned him into a shadow."
"So you're afraid of a dead wizard?" Sean asked, confused.
"No. See, in the summer of last year, Voldemort's followers brought him back to life with a ridiculously complicated spell. Clearly Voldemort thought the first order of business would be to get rid of Albus Dumbledore, the only person he was ever afraid of, and Harry Potter at the same time, so it looks as though he somehow gained influence over the creatures who inhabit the Forbidden Forest and used them to attack Hogwarts. I guess his Death Eaters came along for the ride as well. But where do you soldiers fit in?"
"I'm still trying to figure that out myself." Shepherd told her. "Why would any senior army official want to take out Hogwarts?" He paused. "Unless - "
"They were being controlled by Voldemort too?" Ron chipped in.
"Imperius Curse." Hermione said, at last bringing together some of the pieces. "It makes people do exactly what you want them to do. In this case, a witch or wizard loyal to Voldemort probably used the Imperius Curse on one or two generals to bring in all you soldiers with orders to kill us all."
"It's slight overkill, though, isn't it?" Dean asked. "Send in all the nastiest bastards in the Forbidden Forest, and a few hundred marines, and all his Death Eaters, and maybe even come in himself?"
"He obviously didn't want to take chances." Hermione said. "Which is ironic, actually, because the soldiers ended up attacking the creatures and Death Eaters more than the students."
Suddenly Harry felt a jolt of pain in his scar. Crystal-clear he saw through someone's eyes into the Great Hall. Voldemort was ecstatic, Harry could tell because the joy he was feeling was unrelated with how he felt at the moment. In the background were patrolling Death Eaters and creatures, and so many studies cadavers Harry felt sick, even though he couldn't make out any of the details. Dumbledore was hanging upside-down in the air in front of Harry, howling in pain as an arm holding a wand in front of Harry performed the Cruciatus curse on the old man. He put two and two together. "He's here." Harry gasped. "Voldemort's in the Great Hall."
"Excellent idea, hiding in the Room of Requirement." Dean approved. "Hell, while we're waiting we could even practice a bit for Dumbledore's Army." His voice grew sombre. "Even if now it is a lot smaller."
"First of all, we've already had plenty enough DA practice just getting to this damn room." Ron retorted. "And second of all, I'm not sure sitting back and waiting is the best idea."
"You have a better plan?" Harry asked hotly.
"No, but that's the idea. We spend this time thinking up a better plan."
"That's a genius idea, Ron." Harry said, rolling his eyes.
"There must be some kind of an explanation for this." Hermione stated. "Now, the big question; is it really Voldemort organising this? Everything points to him, but it still could be somebody else."
"Like who? Professor Karkaroff?" Harry shot back. Ron and Dean laughed at the very idea.
"Now the little questions which branch off from it." Hermione continued. "How would Voldemort go about rallying every single kind of creature in the Forest to his cause? The centaurs aren't stupid enough to fall for such tricks as, 'Help us wipe out the school and we'll give you unlimited food' or anything like that, so it must be something really crafty. Why did the American soldiers come, and why do some of them shoot at us and some of them ask for our help? Most importantly, what can we do about it?"
"Look, Hermione, face it, we just haven't got a clue." Harry scolded her bluntly. "We cannot answer any of the little questions except the last one; 'Nothing at the moment.' This is something far beyond our understanding, we're in so far over our heads we can't even see the surface. The best thing to do is to wait for the wizarding army to arrive and sort it out."
Hermione held her tongue, grudgingly. Then suddenly she had an epiphany. "Hey, you know, when those Blood-Sucking Bugbears avoided our fake blood pool, they were directly disregarding an insatiable desire within them for blood. It was more than weird. It was suspicious."
"So?" Harry asked.
"What if Voldemort didn't make allies with the Forbidden Forest creatures?" she asked. "What if he took control of them?"
"Hermione," Harry said, "Voldemort doesn't have enough power to do the Imperius curse on every single monster in the Forbidden Forest at the same time."
Hermione shut up and thought hard.
Time passed slowly. Harry fidgeted in his seat, Hermione sat restlessly, Ron was in deep thought for a change, and Dean busied himself cleaning his Desert Eagle countless times, probably to keep his mind off Justin and Ernie, each of whom had died in front of him. The clock ticked, the clock ticked again, it didn't stop ticking. Nobody looked at each other.
Thirty, maybe thirty-five minutes passed as the party sat waiting for a miracle. Then all of a sudden, there was a scratching at the door. The doorknob turned and the door opened. Four soldiers bundled in, with the sounds of creatures in the distance. The door was quickly shut. Then, and only then, did any of them notice any of Harry or Ron's group.
Harry remembered that he had specifically asked the Room of Requirement to be a place where nobody who wanted them dead could find them, so he was quite at ease with the present situation. "Evening." he said mildly.
"Squad! We've got hostiles!" the one of the greatest rank and shabbiest appearance shouted. He brought up his shotgun, but another of the soldiers stepped in front of it.
"What is your malfunction, maggot?" the officer screamed. "Aiding the enemy! Get out of my way right now if you don't want a court-martial!"
"They aren't the enemy." the soldier said evenly. "The enemy is the anti-American asshole who ordered us to wipe out a school. And even if they were the enemy, they're just kids."
"You think I like killing kids?" the officer screamed. "I hate it! But that doesn't matter! They're called ORDERS for a reason, dirtbag! Only my life debt is stopping me from citing a court-martial on you right now! Excuse me now while I act like a soldier should!"
The officer stepped around the soldier and took aim with the shotgun. The soldier fired at point-blank range with his assault rifle. The officer's head exploded, and he crumpled to the ground sideways.
"Is he - dead?" Hermione asked, brown eyes fearful. She stood up, her invisible shaking magnified into visibility at the tips of her bushy hair.
"No, he's only pretending." another of the soldiers scoffed sarcastically.
"I'm not bothered that someone trying to kill me is dead, to be honest." Ron said.
The third soldier took the treachery somewhat harder. "You shot your CO in the head." he stated in awe.
The first soldier knelt down beside the man whose life he once saved and checked his pulse. There appeared to be no life signs.
"Fuck, they'll have heard the signature." he realised aloud. "Take up positions for a last stand, men." He overturned a heavy oak table and got behind it. He took all his magazines out of his pockets and put them on the floor next to his knee. He flicked the safety-catch to a different position. The other two soldiers did similar preparation.
"No, don't worry, nobody's coming!" Harry announced. "The room's soundproof."
"The room's soundproof?" The first soldier echoed. "How can it be? There's no seal on the door."
"The room you've accidentally found is the Room of Requirement. It only appears if you walk past it three times wishing for something. When you do, what you wish for appears in the room, which can also change for your tastes. When we got here first, I wished for a comfortable, soundproof room the creatures couldn't find, so it should be soundproof."
"And I kept wishing for a place to hide while I turned this way and that in the hallway." the soldier remembered. "Well, we've forgotten to introduce ourselves. I'm corporal Shepherd, and these are privates Sean and Brian. We have just become a pro-American splinter group within an anti- American splinter group within the US army."
"I'm Harry Potter," he stated, "and this is Hermione Granger - "who looked terrified, "- this is Ron Weasley - "who looked interested, "- and this is Dean Thomas." Dean looked nervous and sheepish as he continued cleaning his Desert Eagle. "We're some of the only survivors of this violent massacre perpetrated by Death Eaters."
"You aren't the first person to call those masked freaks Death Eaters." noted Sean.
"I think those assholes are responsible too." added Shepherd. "I looked into that massive dining hall and saw piles and piles of corpses, plus some nasty mythical creatures patrolling alongside those wizards."
"What I saw, about half an hour ago, was swarms of mythical creatures, soldiers, and Death Eaters marching up to the castle." Harry put in. "As we debated before you came in, it has to be Lord Voldemort's work."
"God damn it, you're on about Lord Voldeperson too!" Brian complained. "Who is he?"
Harry shuddered. Hermione broke in. "He's the most evil wizard in all of history. Many years ago he started using killing and intimidation to get power in the wizarding world. He succeeded for a long time, too. He killed anyone who stood in his way. He killed Harry's parents, then tried to kill Harry, because a prophecy foretold that Harry would be his greatest foe. But Voldemort's curse rebounded off baby Harry and turned him into a shadow."
"So you're afraid of a dead wizard?" Sean asked, confused.
"No. See, in the summer of last year, Voldemort's followers brought him back to life with a ridiculously complicated spell. Clearly Voldemort thought the first order of business would be to get rid of Albus Dumbledore, the only person he was ever afraid of, and Harry Potter at the same time, so it looks as though he somehow gained influence over the creatures who inhabit the Forbidden Forest and used them to attack Hogwarts. I guess his Death Eaters came along for the ride as well. But where do you soldiers fit in?"
"I'm still trying to figure that out myself." Shepherd told her. "Why would any senior army official want to take out Hogwarts?" He paused. "Unless - "
"They were being controlled by Voldemort too?" Ron chipped in.
"Imperius Curse." Hermione said, at last bringing together some of the pieces. "It makes people do exactly what you want them to do. In this case, a witch or wizard loyal to Voldemort probably used the Imperius Curse on one or two generals to bring in all you soldiers with orders to kill us all."
"It's slight overkill, though, isn't it?" Dean asked. "Send in all the nastiest bastards in the Forbidden Forest, and a few hundred marines, and all his Death Eaters, and maybe even come in himself?"
"He obviously didn't want to take chances." Hermione said. "Which is ironic, actually, because the soldiers ended up attacking the creatures and Death Eaters more than the students."
Suddenly Harry felt a jolt of pain in his scar. Crystal-clear he saw through someone's eyes into the Great Hall. Voldemort was ecstatic, Harry could tell because the joy he was feeling was unrelated with how he felt at the moment. In the background were patrolling Death Eaters and creatures, and so many studies cadavers Harry felt sick, even though he couldn't make out any of the details. Dumbledore was hanging upside-down in the air in front of Harry, howling in pain as an arm holding a wand in front of Harry performed the Cruciatus curse on the old man. He put two and two together. "He's here." Harry gasped. "Voldemort's in the Great Hall."