Saturday 9:30 am
A slow chill gripped the castle suddenly as Hermione once again felt his presence, and felt as though he was trying to draw power of them all.
"He's very powerful," Sen said in a dazed voice as the candles too went out filling the room with blackness. Then, almost as suddenly as the blackness had covered the school, the light came back and the candles flickered back on.
"A brief show of power, perhaps?" Ginny asked her eyes wide.
"I need a box," Sen said, "A wooden one. Made out of ancient oak wood."
"We should be able to get that at Hogsmeade," Hermione told her, feeling that all of them were in a bit of a shocked state.
"Why?" Ron asked.
"To put him in, he's too smart and strong to be pulled into the portal," Sen explained, "If we can trap his soul in a box, we should be then able to burn the box within a protective circle and the ashes will fall into the portal which will drag him with it, infusing him with the ashes."
"Plan B?" Draco asked shakily and Sen nodded.
"I had hoped we wouldn't need it though," she said grimly, "I can get to Hogsmeade and back in about fifteen minutes, who wants to come?"
"I will," Ron said.
"We all will," Harry told her fiercely, but Sen shook her head.
"We don't want to attract attention. Whatever Voldemort was planning on doing, he's probably going to do it now. Which is actually good, because we've forced him to do it now, and not when he was ready," Sen said.
Ron and Sen stood up and Sen told them to keep the candles going and protect the circle. Then they were gone.
Ron jogged through the hallways after Sen when suddenly Snape stepped out from around a corner stopping Ron and Sen in their tracks. He frowned nastily.
"I was looking for you, I knew that you and friends had something to do with this, meddling in powers greater than you can comprehend once again," he said giving them a glare before continuing, "You'll be coming with me. Dumbledore will handle this. And, 25 points from each of your houses."
Ron gaped as he felt his face get hot with anger. Snape didn't even have any proof it was them! They had to get to Hogsmeade, otherwise Voldemort would do whatever it was he was going to do, Dumbledore had already said there wasn't anything he could do, it was up to them!
"No we're not," Ron told Snape, "We're not coming with you."
Then he grabbed Sen's hand and ran down the opposite hallway, leaving a dumbfounded Snape behind them.
Sen led Ron to the witch's hump and tapped it saying the words to make it open then clambered in. Ron climbed in after and they set off through the tunnel.
"How'd you know about that?" Ron asked.
Sen shrugged then said, "I think I picked it up from one of you. All people tend to broadcast their thoughts, sometimes I pick them up, in dreams too. Last night I dreamt I came here and said those words and ran through this tunnel to Hogsmeade."
"Wow, neat," Ron exclaimed then broke into a jog as Sen started running. A few moments later they came to the trap door and Sen pushed it open. They climbed out and hurried up into the shop then outside. The streets were almost empty, apparently the tremor had been felt here as well. Ron glanced over towards where Hogwarts castle loomed in the distance. A darkness seemed to be collecting over it, making the sunny day seem very dismal.
"Let's hurry then," Ron told Sen and she nodded hurrying down the street for a wood shop. Spying one down another street they ran towards it and pushed open the door. Five minutes later they left Sen carrying a almost fragile looking wooden box, so old it was. Though Sen had said it didn't matter how old it was or how weak it was, the spells would make it strong. The climbed back into the trap door just as Ron saw clouds cover the sky outside the shop, darkening everything. He closed the trap door and felt his way through the tunnel after Sen, who had not bothered with Lumos this time.
Hermione, Draco, Harry, and Ginny all stood up abruptly when Ron and Sen entered back into Firenze's classroom.
Sen set the box down then pulled out a knife and started engraving all sorts of symbols all over the box in a hurried manner.
"I want you guys to point your wands at each of these symbols and infuse them with magic, just send a bolt into each symbol," Sen told them. Almost immediately raw white magic started flying from their wands hitting the symbols. They glowed brightly they faded to a pale white glow.
When they were finished Sen set the box in the center of the circle and took a deep breath, "Okay same thing as before. This time we're not going to combine our minds, we all need our individual strength to hold him. Harry, you'll shut the lid once he's in. You should be able to close it by thinking, so you needn't worry about latching it or anything."
A strange sort of calm settled over them, fear so strong, it wasn't quite fear. There was some banging on the door of the classroom but they ignored and once again started calling Voldemort.
A large darkness seemed to enter the room, and Hermione realized that the lights hadn't gone out, the darkness had simply blotted them out. A intense chill made Hermione shiver, raising goose bumps on her arms and she quickly shielded her mind then said the words to turn the pentagram into a shield hearing the others do the same. This time, with no mind link, she felt very much alone. Harry yelled several words and Hermione felt Voldemort pull back and used her own magic to hold him. Then a solid form stepped down out of the air and held up a wand.
"That's impossible," Sen whispered.
Harry held up his wand as well, prepared to dual. Hermione remembered the prophecy, the Harry or Voldemort would die, one defeating the other. Voldemort was supposed to be dead, but was he really? Or just halfway dead, like he'd been for those thirteen years. Hermione brought up her own wand as well and willed Harry strength, willing her own magic to join his, as she felt the others doing the same. Magic also flowed from Voldemort as blasts of colors shot from his wand and Harry's, exploding when the hit each other.
Then she saw Harry fall, she yelled out and nearly ran to him, before remembering that she had to stay where she was, to hold the bubble shield. Voldemort walked over to where Harry lay on the ground then, she saw Harry's arm move and heard him whisper one final spell, at the same time she raised her own wand and yelled a spell as well. Six different spells hit Voldemort all at once then she saw Harry's spell separate him, his form turning back into mist. Then it was sucked into the box and Harry snapped it shut. The lights took focus again in the room just as Hermione's eyes clouded over black, exhausted from the battle.
A/N: To duochang97: I did realize that Dumbledore probably would have drawbacks about letting students do the whole Voldemort thing, but a story is a story. Its hard to keep everything just as it is in the books. I think I did put in something about why Dumbledore couldn't do anything to Voldemort in the state he was in. Also I don't think I gave Ron more power, just stronger mental capabilites, if you didn't notice he'd been learning a lot more from Sen than anyone else, and spending more time with her while his friends were off doing other things. :-P
To all reveiwers: if you see something being more unrealistic than need please say so in reviews! I try to keep my stories as realistic as possible, but everyone misses things!
Anyway, second to last chapter! I've started a part 3 but I'm not going to put it up until I have enough chapters to assure myself it'll be long enough to actually be a part 3. So you can expect it in about a month or so. I'm not sure how long.
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