A/N: Again sorry it took me so long to post the next chapter.
Chapter 18: Death EatersEveryone spun around and looked straight into the face of… Lucius Malfoy. He was wearing the usual gray Death Eater cloak but his hood was lowered, revealing his face. It seemed to them a lot thinner than it should have been. Azkaban had obviously not suited him well.
"Son… I would have thought better of you than to hang around with two mudbloods, a boy from the family that disgraces the name of all wizards and the oh-so-fabulous Harry Potter," Lucius said in a cold voice that made them all shiver. Draco and his father stared into each other's eyes, as if fighting a silent battle.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be in Azkaban, Malfoy" Harry spat, sounding a lot braver than he felt. Lucius turned his head and looked into those green eyes that Harry had inherited from his mother.
"I was, but as I won't let you five live long enough to read it in the Daily Prophet the next morning, I should probably tell you now: we broke out." Again that same cold and cruel voice, though this time it had a hint of madness in it.
"What? Who's 'We'?" Ron asked, trembling. He looked as if he was about to wet himself.
"All of the Death Eaters. It seems the Dementors have finally joined our side for good," he said laughing. "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you five now, you know too much already. Accio wands!" He shouted and the wands of the four Gryffindors and the one Slytherin flew into his hand. "Now, who is to go first?" He eyed everyone closely, first looking at Draco and muttering something about "Filthy traitor," and "Stupid wife." He then looked at Nora and Hermione, "Filthy mudbloods," then Ron, "poor useless wizards," and then Harry, "The boy-who-lived, and nearly killed my master… he shall pay"... "I think you'll go first, Weasley. It'll be better for the whole wizard world." Lucius raised his wand and everyone knew what was going to happen within seconds. Harry received a painful flash-back as he saw Cedric Diggory's body lie on the ground, his eyes open and empty, his mouth opened it surprise. Ron gulped and his eyes brimmed with tears. "Avada Kedav-"
"STUPEFY!" came a strong but trembling voice. Lucius was hit straight in the chest by a bright red light and he fell onto the cold marble floor. The five students spun around again trying to look for the person that had just saved their lives. They searched the room and slightly to their right, amongst students that were slowly waking up due to the yell, was…
"Neville?" whispered Ron "NEVILLE!"
"Shut up, you moron! People are trying to sleep!" yelled an angry Slytherin from the far end of the room.
"SORRY!" The Slytherin glared at Ron one more time, but he didn't care; he was running over to Neville, shaking his hand and patting him on the back. The other four joined soon and were thanking him.
"Neville, thanks. You were great. Really, you were," Harry said, Nora and Hermione nodded, still trembling. The two girls were holding each other for support. Draco was looking as furious as ever and still his eyes held a look of caution.
"But… wait…" Hermione started. Everyone looked at her.
"What?"
"Well, if the Death Eaters broke out of Azkaban, then won't there be more in the castle?" Everyone turned pale. She was right, they were probably all here, looking for that Amulet thing they needed.
"What do we do now?" Harry asked, looking around the Great Hall, trying to find anything suspicious.
"We could call Dumbledore," said Ron.
"How? I mean we don't know where he is and if we go searching for him we might run into other Death Eaters," Nora said, looking around the small group.
"I think we should risk it." Everyone looked at Draco.
"But we don't know where to look! For all we know we could keep missing him!" Hermione said desperately.
"Yes, but if we wait here we might all get killed by those Death Eaters that are still lurking around, and besides, we could split up."
"And how'll we communicate?" Hermione asked, hoping Draco didn't really want to go through with this.
"What?"
"Communication. If one group has found Dumbledore they need to have some way to tell the other group that they don't need to look anymore. Or if one of us is hurt, then we need to tell the others that we need help."
"Oh, well, I haven't really thought of that… uhm…" Draco looked at the others, hoping they had a suggestion, but the rest shrugged.
"See? We can't just go running around the school looking for Dumbledore. Anyone else got an idea?"
"We could try summoning him," Neville said.
"Does the summoning spell even work on people?" asked Nora.
"Er… I don't know," said Hermione. "We'd better not try if we're not sure."
"We could go into the Entrance Hall and starting calling for him," Ron suggested. Everyone looked at him as if he was insane.
"Yes, and that wouldn't draw the attention of the Death Eaters at all," Draco said sardonically, in his recognizable drawling voice.
"I know," Hermione said all of a sudden, perhaps a bit too loudly, receiving a few glares from the nearby Hufflepuffs who were looking very tired.
"What? Do you have an idea?" the other five asked, and Hermione nodded her head vigorously.
"Yes. Remember in Transfiguration, we learned how to change certain items into animals." Her friends nodded. "McGonagall also said that certain items could be changed into owls. I practiced the spell right after that class. So… how about we turn something into an owl, and then send it to Dumbledore and the other teachers."
"Hermione, you're brilliant," Ron said. "But what items can be changed into owls?"
"I think it was a feather, but I'm not really sure."
"Well, that would make sense… and there are plenty of pillows here, so how about we take one and then use all of the feathers in it and see if they can be changed into owls?" said Nora.
"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" Harry said, making his way through the sleeping students, in search for a vacant pillow. "Found one."
"All right, here it goes," Hermione said, grabbing a feather. "Wait, I think we should go into the Entrance Hall, otherwise the others might wake up." The others agreed and headed into the cool Entrance Hall.
"Wait, where's Malfoy?" Harry asked, looking around.
"I'm here."
"Not you, Malfoy. Your father." The others turned around and saw that the spot where Lucius had fallen was now empty. "I think we'd better hurry."
"All right." Hermione held the feather up, made a difficult wand movement that only she could do with ease and almost whispered: "Aviserio." A flash of yellow light shot out of her wand and hit the feather. There was a loud hoot and a few seconds later a brown colored barn owl was sitting on her hand.
"It worked!" said Nora, almost not daring to believe it.
"Yes," said Hermione, relieved. "Now hand me that note you wrote, Harry, so we can send this one to Dumbledore." Harry, who had just put down his quill, gave the note for Dumbledore to Hermione, who wrapped it around the owl's leg. It hooted happily and took off.
"How many more do we need?" Neville asked, still a bit shaky and looking around.
"I think about four more. One for McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick and Spring."
"Spring too? I don't think he'd be able to do anything if attacked by a Death Eater, other than faint," said Ron.
"Well, he is the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teach- What's that?" Hermione looked into the Direction of the Dungeons, where a loud creak had come from. There were voices.
"I swear to you, it was that fool of a Longbottom boy," came Lucius' voice. A few laughs were heard.
"I thought he was half squib?" came another voice.
"No, it seems he's got his parents' strength. He even fought off five Dementors at once and kept his Patronus going after he had passed out."
"What? Not even the Dark Lord could do that when he was young." Another gruff voice.
"Where'd you say those kids were, Lucius?" came a voice they thought they recognized.
"They were standing in the entrance to the Great Hall."
The six students looked at each other. 'Over here,' mouthed Harry and he sprinted up the marble stairs. The others followed suit. Just as they reached the top they heard one of the Death Eaters shouting.
"Up there! They're up there! Come on!" Nora and Hermione looked terrified and Neville gave a small whimper, but Harry, Ron and Draco had started running already, and the others hurried to keep up. They ran along every corridor they could find, trying to lose the Death Eaters, but I didn't work. They climbed staircase upon staircase and yet the Death Eaters managed to keep up. Finally, after turning into a dark corridor behind a secret passageway, they couldn't hear them anymore and the group stopped to rest.
"Are they gone?" Neville panted.
"I hope so," said Ron, who was doubled over. They were so busy catching their breaths that they didn't notice a tall figure gliding up to them. It was Draco who noticed it first.
"Who are you?" he said, drawing his wand, which he had taken back from his father while he had been stupefied. The person came nearer and as he stepped into the light, given by one of the few torches, they recognized the gray cloak and hood to be that of a Death Eater. But before they could do anything the Death Eater had muttered an unknown spell and all six students found that they could not move. They stood frozen to the spot as the man that could end their lives at any second drew nearer. He stopped in front of them, his face covered by the Death Eater mask. He muttered a spell and the students closed their eyes waiting for the impact, but instead, when they dared to open their eyes again, they saw that the tapestry to their left had opened. The Death Eater muttered another spell and the six were levitated into a small secret chamber, where they barely fit in.
"You will stay here in utter silence, and will not leave until I come and get you, understood?" The Death Eater said in a cold voice they recognized all too well. They nodded.
"Yes, Professor."
"Good." He muttered another spell and the six students felt that they could move freely again. The 'Death Eater' left, and everyone stayed silent. A few seconds later they could hear the voices of the other Death Eaters.
"Found anything there, Snape?"
"No, nothing at all."
"Right. Lucius, found anything?"
"No. Those filthy students, ruining the perfect son I raised."
"Yes, yes, we all know by now. Let's leave, it's not safe anymore. It won't be long before that fool Dumbledore and his faithful teachers find us." The six students heard a peculiar noised, which may have been the Death Eaters using a form of Apparation, and after that there was silence. Even though the Death Eaters were gone the six stayed silent and didn't leave their hiding spot beneath the tapestry.
"Someone's calling us, should we go out?" Hermione whispered a while later.
"No," Draco whispered back.
"Why not? What if it's Dumbledore?"
"What if it's a trap?" he snapped. "It's best if we stay here and just wait until Snape comes and gets us." Hermione gave a slight nod and looked around at her friends. Neville was shaking furiously, and was being comforted by Harry and Ron. Nora was fidgeting with her hands and kept looking at the ground. Draco was either staring at the ceiling or at the entrance of their hideout, as if he was expecting the Death Eaters to storm in any second. The voices were still calling their names, but they stayed put.
It wasn't until a while that Draco was proven right. The voices had stopped calling their names and were now conversing with each other.
"Where the hell are those children? How can they have escaped so fast?" One voice shouted in frustration.
"I don't know, those bloody mudbloods and mudblood lovers. Let's get out of here, you know we'll never find them now," said another voice. They heard the others agree and after that came the weird sound again that told them they were indeed leaving.
"That was close. Imagine if they had found us," Ron whispered. The others nodded, except for Neville, who started to tremble again.
"How long do you think we'll have to stay here?" asked Nora after a while.
"I don't know," Harry replied. They were all very tired now and Ron had even dozed off.
"I hope Snape comes back soon," said Nora frightfully.
"Why? Aren't you enjoying yourself? I certainly am," Draco said sarcastically, a glare in his eyes.
"Oh drop the attitude, you're better off without it," she snapped. Draco just shrugged. Neville had fallen asleep now too, along with Harry. Ron's head was on Hermione's lap. Hermione's head was on Nora's shoulder. Draco was staring at the entrance to their hideout again and Nora was studying him, though she didn't notice it herself. His eyes were a beautiful gray with light blue specks in them. His hair was a bit ruffled and had slightly too much gel in it, she laughed at this to herself. A loud snore erupted and Nora turned her gaze at Ron, who was now drooling freely into Hermione's lap. Nora took out her wand at cast a silencing charm on him, hoping his loud snoring hadn't woken up the others or given away their hiding place.
Nora rubbed her eyes wearily and noticed she was being gazed at, but she didn't dare look back at Draco, for fear she might lose herself in those wonderful gray eyes. Draco stared at her for a few more minutes before looking at the damp gray ceiling. Slowly she fell asleep as her head rested on Hermione's.
Harry woke with a sudden jerk. He looked around the tiny room before realizing where he was. He stared glumly at his friends and Draco Malfoy. His back was aching due to the hard wall and even though he had just slept his eye felt like lead. He saw Draco stir and moments later he too opened his eyes. They looked at each other. Harry with slight curiosity as to why Draco was here in this room with them, when he had expected him to be out there helping the Death Eaters, and Draco with a look of pain in his eyes that Harry had never seen before.
Harry thought about what Draco had said. About receiving the Dark Mark, but wanting to be an Auror. About Voldemort specially visiting him, his heir, during the winter vacation to allow him to be fully able to join the Death Eater club. About Voldemort being furious that the owl and Nifflers had not found the amulet. He looked at Draco again but now suddenly understood that the look of pain in his eyes was one of remorse.
"So you knew, then," he said, his voice low. Draco looked at him. "You knew they were going to invade Hogwarts." There was an eerie silence, then:
"Yes." But Draco did not say anything further and Harry himself was pondering it all.
Within the next half hour the other four students had woken up too.
"You know, this is the first time that I haven't heard Ron snoring," said Hermione, looking at the red head, who still had his head in her lap and had a little content smile on his face.
"He is, I put a silencing charm on him," Nora told her. Hermione grinned.
"I wonder where we are," she said, looking around the dark room. "I couldn't see in our hurry. I think maybe we're in the older part of the castle."
"How do you know?" Draco asked her, but looking as if he couldn't care less.
"Well, the structure of these walls, and the fact that the hall outside of our little hideout wasn't lit that well," Hermione said in a tone that said 'duh-isn't-it-obvious'. Draco nodded and looked away. Neville stirred and woke up.
"Wharewe?" He asked groggily, sitting up.
"Still in the room behind the tapestry."
"Still?" asked Neville, frightened. Everyone nodded, except for Ron.
"Should we wake him up too?" Harry asked, not really waiting for answers. He leaned forward to Ron and started shaking him. "Wake up, you little sleepy head, you." Ron opened his mouth… nothing came out. He opened it again, yet still no sound. He tried again, but still nothing. Hermione nudged Nora.
"I think this would be a fairly good time to stop gazing at Draco and perform the counter spell to the silencing charm," she whispered.
"What? I was not gazing at Draco," Nora whispered snappily, but as she performed the counter spell that little annoying voice in her head had started speaking again. 'You were too, now give in, because you're going to win this fight.' And somewhere very deep inside Nora knew it was right, but she didn't know how she could ever choose between Dean and Draco.
"Who put that silencing charm on me?" Ron asked angrily, looking at the group.
"Me, but I had too; your snoring was bound to have given away our hiding spot. You were really loud, you know that?" Ron looked away sourly, muttering things like 'I do not snore,' and 'I'm not loud, you're loud'. Everyone went silent again.
After a loud rumbling noise the first word was said since an hour.
"I'm hungry," stated Ron.
"Me too," agreed Harry and Draco nodded.
"So am I," said Neville.
"Boys," muttered Hermione under breath, but everyone had still heard.
"Are you telling me you're not hungry?" Ron asked her
"I am, but I don't care about that, I'm more worried about what happened to the other students."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the Death Eaters might have left us, but they could've gone into the Great Hall and killed the students there. I mean, if we get out of here, everyone else might have been murdered along with all of the teachers."
"What do you mean: 'If we get out of here'," Neville asked in a high voice.
"Well, what if Snape forgot about us, or they killed him."
"Well then we go out by ourselves."
"But what if they're guarding this corridor and we get killed. Or what if Snape has to wait days or weeks to get us out, because it isn't safe, and we die here out of starvation, and boredom, and tiredness."
"Hermione, that's a lot of 'what ifs'. I'm sure we'll be out of here in a few hours," Nora said, not really believing her own words, and in a large doubt because of Hermione's.
"What if…" Everyone groaned and looked at Harry. "What if we cast some spells?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I doubt anyone's around so they won't hear us if we cast a few spells to make this place larger and more comfortable, and maybe Hermione can even help us by casting a food charm or something."
"That's brilliant, how come we haven't thought of it before?" Ron said, looking at Hermione very sweetly, as she was the one who was in charge of the food.
"We are sorry, master…"
"Yes, we truly are…"
"Please, do not punish us, for it was not our fault…"
"Yes, please, have mercy…"
"SILENCE, YOU FOOLS! IT WAS A SIMPLE TASK, AND EVEN THAT CANNOT BE DONE RIGHT! I AM DISGUSTED! NOW WHAT HAPPENED? WHY DO YOU NOT HAVE IT?" the tall, thin man shouted. His voice was very high and had such cruelness in it that it made everyone shudder, even his followers.
"Sir, we did not have the time… we had to capture those six students… they knew too much," came the voice of Lucius Malfoy.
"But even that was not possible, you let six little children escape and now they are free to tell that old fool everything they know. I am deeply and utterly disgusted. What about the other task."
"The owls and Nifflers have found nothing." The thin man sighed and sat down in a tall black chair that stood against the middle of a wall. A snake was circling around it, hissing.
"Yes, Nagini, these men are foolish, but I need them." The man hissed back. "Yes, I need them all. I am afraid you need to go on the hunt yourself, my precious." And with that the snake glided away, into the darkness. The man turned to his followers who were still in front of him. "We will need another plan." The Death Eaters nodded. "And I'm sure it hasn't occurred to any of you that someone might be wearing the Amulet of Era's…" The Death Eaters looked at each other.
"So, can we? Can we use some spells?" Ron asked, hopefully.
"I guess we could try," Hermione said.
"Ok then, I think we should work on size first." The others nodded and Harry said quietly: "Maxilio!" Instantly the room started to grow. "How large do we need it to be?"
"I think pretty large: we need chairs, a table and maybe a sofa or two, if anyone knows how to conjure them."
"Well, then can you say when it's large enough?" Harry asked struggling, concentrating hard.
"Sure…" Finally, after a few moments, Hermione said: "That's large enough." Harry cut the blue beam that was still coming from his wand off, and the room stopped growing. "We need light, too."
"Yes, but Professor McGonagall hasn't taught us how to conjure candles yet."
"We'll just have to do with our wands then."
"So, what else do we need?"
"Food!" said Ron.
"But besides food."
"Drinks!"
"Besides that."
"Food!"
"Ron, be quiet."
"Food!"
"Don't make me put that silencing charm back on,"
"Food?"
"Silencio!"
…
"Ah, peace and quiet."
"We need chairs, and couches."
"Does anyone know how to do that?" Everyone shook their head, except for Ron, who was now spelling the word 'FOOD' with an orange light that came from his wand, much like Tom Riddle had done in their second year, in the Chamber of Secrets.
"All right, Ron!" Hermione said very annoyed, and she cast a spell. There was a flash of bright light and there in front of them was a very large meal, already prepared. Ron opened his mouth and he started drooling as his eyes went over the delicious cuisine.
"How'd you do that?" Harry asked.
"Well, it's in the back of our charms book. I read about it during our winter vacation, but it can only be used if there isn't anything else to eat or to prepare food with," she replied
"Can we eat now," Draco said, eying the meal too, though he wasn't drooling like Ron, or at least not as much. Hermione nodded. Everyone sat around the food that stood on the floor and grabbed a bit of everything, but as there weren't knives, forks or plates they had to eat with their hands and let their food sit on the floor, which was very unhygienic.
After they ate they just sat and talked for a while. So far this had been the best part during their captivity in the secret room.
"So, when do you think we'll get out of here?" Ron asked Harry. Nora had again relieved him of the silencing charm, as long as he didn't say the word 'food' more than once between fifteen-minute periods.
"I don't know," Harry replied, shrugging. "I hope it's soon though. We still don't have anything to sleep in or something to at least sit on." Nora and Hermione were talking about random things, anything that sprung to mind and distracted them, while Draco sat in cruel silence, glaring at his surroundings.
"Does anyone even know what time it is?" Nora asked the whole group shortly after. They all shrugged. They just sat there talking for what felt like hours. They had nothing to do, nothing to sit on and nothing to sleep in. Though at least the room was a lot larger now, and they all had some room for themselves. Slowly they began to doze off again.
Draco awoke suddenly, due to someone shaking him. He looked up and saw his potions master with a look on his face that Draco couldn't decipher.
"You must wake now, it is safe to come back out. Ah, good, you're awake, help me with the others." Draco got up and went over to Neville, who was nearest, while Snape went over to Ron. He shook Neville gently, feeling the vulnerable boy might die if he shook any harder. Thankfully that was enough and Neville too woke up. After Draco had woken up Harry, Nora and Hermione, he found that Snape was still busy trying to wake up Ron. It took nearly ten minutes before he did wake up.
"What? Oh, we can go? Finally!" Ron said as he stood up and walked out of the room into the still dark corridor, where the others were waiting.
"Professor, is everyone all right?" Hermione asked Snape nervously. Their Professor said nothing for a while.
"You'll see… soon." The look on Snape's face was one that they had never seen before. Nora and Hermione were clinging to each other as they walked into the area of Hogwarts that they recognized. As they descended stairs and walked through corridors the butterflies in the students' stomach began to increase. After fifteen minutes of walking, in unbearable silence, they descended the marble staircase and entered the Entrance Hall. The two girls screamed. There on the floor was Professor Spring's corpse, along with at least a dozen dead Death Eaters. They feared what would await them in the Great Hall, but they entered all the same. Hermione and Nora did not scream this time, but almost instantly they began to weep, for in the Great Hall were over two dozen dead students lying on the ground amongst the live ones. The wounded students were sitting amid them being taken care of by Madam Pomfrey and some of the teachers. The two girls ran over to Parvati, who was sitting with Lavender.
Harry and Draco stood still in the entrance to the Great Hall. Window panes were broken, there were large gouges in the walls where perhaps spells had hit them and the floor was a mess of sleeping bags, pillows, feathers and students, alive, injured or dead.
"You knew this would happen," Harry said, his voice low once more and filled with disgust. "You knew the Death Eaters would kill and you warned no one."
"Yes, I knew," Draco said, and his eyes were filled with such hatred that Harry was taken aback. Draco swept past him and made his way towards Blaise Zabini, not bothering to help anyone around him. Harry joined Ron, Neville who had joined Hermione, Nora, Parvati and Lavender.
"What happened?" Harry could hear Nora ask Parvati and Lavender fearfully as he walked over to them.
"It was awful!" began Parvati. "I remember Harry getting up and saying he needed to go to the bathroom. He had told me to go back to sleep, so I did, but when I woke up he wasn't back and you four were gone too, and I was soooo worried." Just then she spotted Harry. "HARRY! You're alive too! Oh thank god, I was so worried! I thought you were dead!" Parvati began sobbing onto Harry's shoulder as he held her close and Lavender was nearly killing Ron in all the bone crushing hugs she gave him.
"Then what happened?" Nora questioned anxiously, frightened of what would come next.
"Well, you guys never came back, and no one knew where you had gone, and then it appeared that Malfoy had disappeared too," Lavender said, continuing the story. "Dumbledore had ordered us to stay here, in the Great Hall, so we did and we spent the whole day stuck in here. When we went to sleep again you guys still hadn't returned and we almost knew for sure that the Death Eaters had taken you. The next thing we knew we were awoken by screaming and as we got out of our sleeping bags and stood up we saw three dozen Death Eaters in the doorway! The seventh year students, and a few sixth years, were trying to fight them, but the Death Eaters were too strong and then they began casting the worst of the Unforgivable Curses in every direction and we immediately lay down on the ground hoping we wouldn't get hit. It was so awful! I was so terrified and thought that you guys had been murdered!" Lavender broke down in sobs too. As Nora looked around the room she saw there were a lot of other students grieving the loss of their friends or loved ones.
"Hey," Seamus said looking very depressed and miserable. Nora saw that he had tearstains on his cheeks. Suddenly she remembered. How could she have been so thoughtless?
"Where's Dean?" she asked him urgently, her voice trembling, but by the look he gave her she already knew.
"Oh, Nora!" Parvati exclaimed, looking up from Harry's shoulder, her face wet with tears. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask…" And she broke down into sobs again.
"He… he was one of the sixth years who were trying to fight the Death Eaters…" Lavender said, trying hard to not cry even more. She gave a shuddering sigh. "He was hit in the chest by Avada Kedavra." Everything swam in front of Nora's eyes.
"W-what? Oh no… no. No, no, no, no, no!" And as an unwanted feeling of dread and torment washed over her, that nasty voice in her head said: 'At least now you don't have to choose between him and Draco.' Nora collapsed onto the floor, closed her eyes and cried, wailing in painful misery.
A/N: That was the longest chapter I've written so far, and the saddest. I hope you liked it, though. I got reviews! 10 of them all from: hp4all. Thank you! You gave really good advice, and I know the first chapters are a bit crappy, but I think I'm improving, at least I hope so.