Chapter 14 – Under Siege
"You know what its supposed to show you, right?" Holly asked.
"Er…." Ron tried.
"Have a guess…"
"Er…the natural mess-up in humans?"
"Got it!" she replied triumphantly. "It is a real masterpiece."
The sudden rumbling of the ground brought their attention to a tall figure standing a few meters away from then.
Dumbledore.
"Damn. Blast. Damn and Blast." Ron breathed.
"I'm sorry about this." Dumbledore waved his wand.
Suddenly , the whole world went blank.
The five of them woke up in a black room. It was really dark. The only thing that was glowing in the dark was Artemis's Cartier.
"Where are Holly and Root?" he inquired.
"Dammit, they got left behind!"
The sudden seriousness of the situation finally occurred to Harry. "Listen, I told you, Dumbledore was lying!"
"Yeah, so what?"Malfoy told him insolently, although the truth was prevailant.
"Listen, we need to get out of here. Lumos." The tip of his wand lit.
"Good idea, "the others said, and lit their wands too. The light was enough to see the small room they were in.
"What's that thing at the end?" They inched closer to it, and saw it was the painting of the Enlightening Angel.
"Great. A puzzle. Just to round it off, eh?" Ron said, irritated.
"Are we supposed to re-arrange it in order?"
"Wait!" Harry replied. "Move the light down!"
They did that, and what they saw shocked them out of their guts.
"It's a bloody computer!" Harry and Hermione said together!
"Computer?" Ron and Malfoy inquired, baffled.
"Computer," said Artemis.
"Look at the screen. What's the program?" Artemis asked.
"Adobe Photoshop 7.0. My god, I sure hope this isn't in Hogwarts." Hermione replied.
"I've had experience with this program. It's pretty simple. The picture of the angel has to be re-arranged."
"I don't believe that. There must be some catch."
Sure enough, a message appeared.
"D'Arvit," Artemis said. Around him, no one had no idea what he actually said, not him too.
This was what appeared.
Blaster Worm
This virus has infected your computer. In another 60 seconds, the computer will be restarted. All programs will be frozen 10 seconds before.
Courtesy of the Blasters
If there was one person for speed, Artemis was it. He sped through his controls, using the mouse, he quickly changed the picture. But then he realized, there was no button to accept it!
"Damn. IT has to be PERFECT."
Then he spotted the button below. ACCEPT.
He quickly pressed it.
Nothing happened.
"The Blaster began. DAMN!" Artemis cursed.
Luckily the computer restarted quickly, and the program loaded.
"Time for another go."
Slowly, he cut out the different face parts, exactly, precisely.
Then he joined then together. They did not match.
"Blasted thing, again?" Artemis said. "Where did I go wrong"
Time: 40 seconds left
"I forgot! Magic Wand!" Artemis yelled.
Magic Wand was a function in Photoshop where the particular part can be chosen. Photoshop had this ability to distinguish a lot of different things.
Time : 30 seconds left
"Let me do it, now!" He quickly chose all the parts and assembled them together.
Time: 13 seconds
"ACCEPT! ACCEPT!" He screamed like a maniac.
It accepted.
Holly and Root hovered safely and away from the time capsule Dumbledore had generated. "He sure had guts," Holly muttered.
"I had to do it. Hogwarts isn't safe anymore. Voldemort knows." Dumbledore probed himself.
Root looked sadly at Holly. "We should have been in the capsule. Now we are stuck."
"Not exactly. Let me check with Foaly."
"Foaly?"
"Right, here, doll, except when you go down in smoke, I'm way back in Haven."
"Sure. Tell me this. That video I shot a little while ago? Did anyone make anything out of it?"
"Yeah, Mulch was here a couple of minutes ago. He said it was called the Enlightening Angel, or something. It was said to predict the natural mess-up in humans."
"Yeah, and that was the only one there, right?"
"No. The Louvre has one too."
Root stepped in. "This place doesn't have only one. Look around."
She did that. Then she noticed at every house table there were 4 of those structures.
Then, the doors burst open.
"Oh gods," they said simultaneously.
It accepted. This registered in Artemis's mind.
"Yeah, way to go!" Harry slapped him a five on his back. Artemis turned around and gave Harry such an icy stare that even Harry cowered.
At that point, the ground suddenly turned upside down. They fell out.
They fell out into the Leaky Cauldron.
"Lucky us," Ron berated himself silently as he was wiping the soot off his clothes.
They had come through the chimney.
Death Eaters.
32 of them came in silently. The message was clear.
Hogwarts was under attack.
In the office, Dumbledore sent Fawkes to call for help. To a few friends.
It was a silent call of distress.
Holly looked incredulously at Root. "Who the hell are they?"
"They don't look like anyone, and they sure look mean, no-more-Mr-Nice-Guy type of Mud Men."
They flitted in silently, and the atmosphere changed completely.
Slowly, the colors of the hall changed to grey and green.
"Salazar Slytherin, divine of all!"
They turned around so fast their necks cricked.
In the doorway stood Lord Voldemort. Ready to begin.
"This doesn't look good at all. Him again."
"No time to complain. Wish I had the wizard's help."
"Don't be stupid. We are in a castle full of wizards." They cut their words short when they heard Voldemort's speech.
"Salazar Slytherin, divine of all!
You weren't responsible for the Dark Lord's fall,
It isn't exactly nice to see
Your most dedicated follower falling to he
Where was the protection of all Slytherins
Invisible at times, don't rinse your sins,
When it is time, it will be
Time to change some destiny
When will it be met, when will it try
Never to escape, never to die
For Harry Potter, we shall see
Will soon be ashes, in the sea
Life's full of surprises, time never waits
O Salazar Slytherin, lower your baits
For many of my followers have left me
But never have I, ever left thee
Or me, did I ever deserve this creed?
To see, to think, to be and not to achieve."
"It's time. We will fight. And we will make the world shudder!" roared Voldemort.
"Let's get out of here," muttered Root.
They had to. Their lives depended on it.
