countless scuffles, countless battles, countless wars
where did the art of communication go end result
some walk away with a feeling of victory
while many get to live the rest of their lives with loss
its been quoted to keep your friends close
and your enemies closer...
but who's to say who your real friends
and enemies are when...
many times you feel the kiss of Judas on your face..
September 12th 1:15PM Monday
Without a second thought I pushed open the door in front of me and rushed out into the corridor. Ginny was waiting for me in the hallway. She was surrounded by Ministry aurors but was doing a pretty good job of holding them back.
"We need to find the rest of the Brotherhood," I yelled at her and she nodded in agreement.
I pulled out my father's wand and began shooting out all of the spells I could remember from my dad's old schoolbooks. My first stunning spell hit its mark and one of the aurors went down. The rest of the aurors turned their attention to me but their spells seemed to arc away from me moments before impact.
"Hogwarts will protect me!" I called out to Ginny, "Let's go!"
I began running down the corridor with Ginny hot on my heels. She was running backwards to ward off the aurors behind us. I grabbed her cloak and pushed her in front of me.
"Just run!" I yelled. Ginny gave me a confused look from behind her mask before nodding her head and taking off down the hall. Neither one of us paused to look back as jets of light zipped by around us.
We ran through the castle corridors and rushed up and down stairs. I counted off the Brotherhood members as we came upon them. Most of them were cornered and barely holding off the teachers and aurors. I mentally berated myself for putting them in such a situation.
The members joined Ginny and I as we ran through the hallways and I breathed a small sigh of relief when I found Sirius in the Great Hall, which was now completely devoid of students. I did another quick count and was thankful that all nineteen members seemed to be just fine.
"Retreat!" I yelled loudly. A moment later the cloaked figures surrounding me began to melt into the shadows and then they were gone.
"I'm not leaving you here alone," Sirius called out as Severus shot a disarming spell at him. I jumped in front of the glowing beam and it bounced harmlessly away from me.
"Go," I growled, "Nothing can hurt me as long as I stay in the castle." He hesitated for a moment before nodding and retreating in the same manner as the rest of the Brotherhood.
Dumbledore was still standing at the staff table with his wand drawn. Severus stood beside him but I noticed that he had lowered his wand slightly and it was pointing toward the ground in front of me. I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted when a terrifying howl echoed through the castle. The windows of the Great Hall rattled in their frames as the sound reverberated off the walls.
"Lupin," Severus gasped loudly. My eyes widened in surprise and I took off out of the hall. I stopped outside the doorway when I realized that I had no idea where Remus was.
"Follow me," commanded a deep, male voice. I looked to my right and there was a ghost floating next to me. He was wearing a wide-brim hat and carrying a sword at his hip.
I nodded in reply and he floated off quickly down the corridor. I rushed to keep up with him as he flew up a few flights of stairs. He stopped in front of a set of double doors and I recognized the place immediately as the infirmary. I opened the door cautiously and cried out in despair as I took in the scene.
Remus Lupin was standing next to a hospital bed. On the bed lay a young woman with short blonde hair which was tinted red in the back along with the pillow underneath her head. Her cheekbones were high and pronounced and her lips were ruby red. Remus let out another howl and dropped to his knees next to the bed.
"I fear that one of your allies has fallen!"
"Nymphadora," I whispered softly as tears rolled down my cheeks.
When I had counted the members of the Brotherhood I had been so relieved to find them all okay that I had forgotten that there are twenty members, not nineteen. The one who had fallen was Nymphadora Tonks and what I was seeing now was what she truly looked like.
The aurors standing next to Remus noticed my presence as Dumbledore, Draco and Severus suddenly burst through the doors behind me. The two men had their wands drawn on me in seconds but Dumbledore waved them off.
"How did this happen?" the headmaster asked sadly as he looked down at the still form.
"She just turned and started firing spells at us," one of the aurors replied. "We went after her and caught up with her on one of the landings. There was a group of students behind her and we didn't notice until we'd already fired a stunning spell at her. Before we could do anything the staircase behind her moved and our stunning spells hit. She fell backwards and over the side before we could catch her."
"We have no idea why she suddenly started firing spells at us," the other auror added with a puzzled expression on his face.
"I'm sure you did all you could," Dumbledore stated as he gave me a pointed look.
I walked over and stood next to Severus. Remus was sobbing quietly into the bed sheets, his face pressed against the hospital bed. I stared at Nymphadora for a few minutes in silence as the realization of what I had done hit me like a sledgehammer.
"This is all my fault," I whispered softly and no one seemed to hear.
"In the eyes of the castle I am not only the headmaster but I am its master as well," he explained, "Its second master would be the teachers, then the staff members and finally the students that it protects. But, as I said before, it will do what it must to protect the students first and foremost."
I reached down with one hand and cupped Nymphadora's cheek with my palm. I didn't know why I was suddenly compelled to touch her but for some reason I knew I must. A moment later everyone gasped in surprise as a dark shadow descended over her body. I slowly pulled my hand away and shadow seemed to fold into itself until it disappeared completely, taking the young woman's body with it.
"What did you do?" Remus growled as he lunged over the bed and pushed me to the floor.
He was upon me before I could make a move to get away. I coughed and sputtered in an attempt to breathe as he held his hands to my throat. His grip slowly tightened until I was sure he would crush my larynx.
The castle seemed to sense my distress and I could feel a strange sensation underneath me. It felt as if the floor had turned soft and pliable. I pushed down into it with one hand and the wood seemed to overlap my fingers until they were completely submerged. I pushed down with my other hand and the same thing happened again. Without a second thought I arched up towards Remus, pushing my head and feet down as hard as I could. The floor continued to give and I sank.
I fell slowly and peacefully through a substance which reminded me of pudding. It was thick, brown and very cold. I continued to fall for quite some time and my lungs pounded fiercely as I held my breath. Finally I felt air around me and I took a deep breath which was knocked out of me when my body landed on hard, cool stone a moment later.
I groaned in pain as I turned over onto my stomach to push myself up but jumped back in fright as I found myself staring into the hollow eyes of a gigantic snake, or at least what used to be a snake. As I backed across the floor I could see it was the skeleton of a snake and it looked as if it had been dead for ages.
"Where the hell am I?" I asked as I tenderly rubbed the back of my head.
"The Chamber of Secrets," a voice answered from somewhere off to my right.
"Moaning Myrtle!" I exclaimed in surprise as I turned to look at the young female ghost floating above the ground a few feet behind me.
The chamber was dark and damp. A huge statue of a terrifying looking man stood at one end while smaller statues of serpents littered the path leading away from me.
"How in the hell did I get here?"
"You curse a lot don't you," the ghost replied with a giggle, "The castle brought you here and I was told to come here to find you."
"How do I get out of here?" I asked as I looked around for the exit.
"O the castle won't let you out yet," she explained mournfully, "You must stay here until the Ministry has left." I sighed in frustration and crossed my legs in front of me.
"So what am I supposed to do until then?" I asked angrily.
"I could tell you about my death," Myrtle offered with a wistful smile, "or we could talk about death in general, whichever you like."
"Er…no thanks…" I replied as politely as possible. Myrtle gave me a sad look before her eyes widened and she wore a large smirk as she floated down next to me.
"I could tell you a secret," she whispered into my ear.
"What kind of secret?" I asked curiously. Her smirk became even bigger at my question. She glanced around the chamber as if she thought someone might be spying on us.
"A really good secret," she stated, "A secret that no one else will tell you."
"And why won't they tell me?"
"They've sworn a Wizard's Oath," she explained, "so they can't speak of it, but I can."
"So what is it?" I asked as I leaned closer to her. She glanced around once more before answering.
"Harry Potter killed someone," she whispered happily. I groaned in annoyance.
"From what I've heard he killed a lot of people," I spat, "so where's the big secret in that?"
"I wasn't finished," she snapped and I waited silently for her to continue. She glared at me for a few seconds before floating even closer.
"It wasn't one of those Death Eater people," she explained with a catlike grin, "and it wasn't the Dark Lord." She paused for a moment to build the suspense. "It was a Hogwarts professor."
"What?!" I exclaimed in surprise as I jumped up onto my feet.
"That's right," she said as she giggled madly, "He killed a professor and the headmaster covered the whole thing up." My jaw dropped and all I could do was stare at her. "Even the Ministry doesn't know what really happened," she added.
"Who was it?" I asked softly as I ran through the names of all of the former professors that Ron, Hermione and Draco had told me about. Myrtle cocked her head to the side in amusement.
"Guess," she replied.
"Just tell me," I growled as I pulled my father's wand out threateningly. She eyed the wand for a moment and her expression turned to one of fear. Obviously she had no idea how completely useless I was with it.
"Okay, okay," she stammered, "put that thing away and I'll tell you." I nodded in reply and stuffed the wand back into my pocket.
"Well?"
"You're no fun," she pouted. An evil smile formed on her lips and my blood suddenly ran cold.
"It was Hagrid," she stated merrily, "Rubeus Hagrid, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"No," I mumbled while shaking my head furiously, "No…no…no…NO!"
"O yes," Myrtle giggled, "Harry Potter murdered his first friend." She laughed loudly as she flew in the air above me.
The laughter echoed through the chamber as I turned away and began to run. Her words ran through my mind as I fled to the other end of the chamber. I found a ladder and climbed up without a second thought. A large, circular door opened in front of me as I reached the top and I barely paused as I rushed through the doorway.
I clamored over fallen rocks and discarded snake skin as I blindly made my way through the tunnel. Animal bones crunched beneath my feet but I gave it no notice. Suddenly I tripped, my body spinning out of control before bumping against a few large boulders and coming to rest on cold, wet dirt.
Myrtle's laughter continued to echo through my mind and I clamped my hands over my ears to block it out. I turned onto my side and pulled my knees up to my chest. I shut my eyes tightly as rage built up inside of me. A scream escaped me and the stones seemed to shake all around me and the ground rumbled below me.
My eyes snapped open and immediately there was only silence. Myrtle was floating a few feet away and she flinched as our eyes met. She began to back away from me, shaking her head and pointing at my face.
"What is it now?" I sneered. Myrtle shook her head fearfully and quickly floated away.
I stared at her retreating form in confusion before dragging myself over toward the middle of the tunnel where a small puddle of water had formed from the moisture dripping from the ceiling. I stared down at my reflection and blinked twice. When nothing seemed to change I rubbed my eyes furiously and looked back once again. The reflection remained the same.
"NO!" I yelled loudly as I slammed one fist into the water and then watched in horrified fascination as the face disappeared and then returned, blood red eyes where emerald green used to be.
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NEXT CHAPTER: Jenny makes her escape from Hogwarts. How will she deal with the secret that was revealed when everyone who knows anything is sworn to secrecy? Also, the AWG (American Wizarding Government) makes a move that no one expected.