Parseltongue Disclaimer: Haaashhhhiiiisssssssslaaathhhh tthhhhiiiiiissssssssttthhhhaaaalllll lllaatthssssssssss! (It's not mine, it's JK Rowling's!)
Chapter Twenty-two –
The Honeydukes Passage
The pool of blood surrounding Bellatrix' head ran along the lines of bricklay in the floor like an ever expanding demonic halo. No one moved, or uttered a word as her body shuddered a few times from half dead and dying nerves.
The silence in the pub persisted until the halo of blood reached the hearth of the fireplace and began to slow its progression.
"That's it." Wormtail mumbled, seeming to come to some sort of conclusion at the sight of the Dark Lord's murdered faithful servant. He turned to Harry, and quickly removed the gag and ropes with a wave of his wand. As soon as he was set free, Harry grabbed up his wand from the floor where it had fallen, and without pointing it away from Wormtail, performed a freeing charm on Ginny and the two teachers with a wave of his left hand.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Harry yelled at the now cowering form of Peter Pettigrew in front of him.
"I'm rescuing you." Wormtail muttered sadly, looking longingly at his silver hand. "Something I should have done a long time ago. I have a debt to you if I remember correctly."
Harry stared at him as though he might have lost his mind.
"What are you talking about?" He yelled angrily. "It's too late for that, don't you see?" he jabbed his wand in the man's face threateningly, and Wormtail wimpered in fear.
"I know!" He said, blubbering through his fingers. "I'm going to let you go now, because I haven't got anything to lose! The Dark Lord has ways of knowing... I'm doomed anyhow. It's too late... you were right..." He dropped his wand, and knealt beside Bellatrix Lestrange's mutillated body, imprinting his knees in the puddle of blood. "Oh James! You've always been right!"
Harry stared at him, horrified at the sound of hearing Pettigrew say his father's name. He wasn't sure if he was actually apologizing to his father's memory in his mind, or whether he had really snapped, and was calling Harry James.
Pettigrew noticed Ginny standing beside him pointing her wand at him. "Oh Lily! I'm so sorry!"
"So what do we do?" Ginny asked in a terrified whisper.
"We leave him here." Harry said. "As soon as he tells us what his master's intentions are."
Wormtail reached his human hand out, and touched the side of his victim's face. He began to sob, and looked back up at Harry. "You have no time for questions! Get out! They'll kill you if they see you here! Please James!..."
Harry eyed the mad man appraisingly. He nodded to the two shaking professors in the shadows. "What did Voldemort want with our professors? I know why he wants me, but why them?"
"He wants to know the prophecy! He knows she can provide it! Now GO!" He practically screamed, standing up and waving his now bloody hand in Harry's face with no apparent regard for the wands pointing at him.
Harry backed away as he heard voices approaching outside the front door. He grasped Ginny's hand, and beckoned to his shivering teachers, and with one last nod at the insane traitorous rat, they all scurried through the kitchen and slipped out the back door into the snow.
"What about Luna?" Ginny whispered to Harry as they hid behind the dustbins out the back of the pub.
Harry reached into his pocket and felt the beads he carried. All six were warm, and he double checked, making sure he hadn't missed one. He would for sure have felt it if one of them were burning hot. No one had been hurt.
"Don't worry, she knows to stay hidden until she's sure the place is clear. I'll go back for her once we have some help from Dumbledore. We need to get them to Honeydukes." He nodded his head towards the strangely silent teachers they had following them. Harry could see that Trelawney was still a little too drunk to know just what was going on, and professor Vector was muttering to herself under her breath. Harry couldn't blame her wide eyes and pale complexion. She had just witnessed four people being murdered, and she was probably just waiting to fly off the handle. He didn't want to be near her when she did.
He had to get them all to a safe place as soon as possible.
"I don't understand it." A low growling voice made Harry duck and cover.
One of the Death-Eaters was talking to six others, as they walked quickly toward the Three Broomsticks.
"Before all of this started, I had a room full of mudbloods all rounded up and ready to dispose of. Honestly! I was going to burn the place! I just go out to grab a few more, get slightly distracted by the fight with Potter, and when I go back, they're all gone! I've been around the town three times already and it looks like the whole town has disappeared! It makes no sense I tell you. The wards are still in place, as far as I can tell, so What happened?"
Another Death Eater beside him nodded. "Our Lord is not going to be pleased."
MacNair shrugged. "Well, we've got him what he really wants, haven't we?" He smiled through the mask, and Harry shivered. They moved off, and the conversation became inaudible as they passed to the front of the pub.
Harry quickly surveyed the scene of Hogsmeade.
One building was burning, and smoke rose from the horizon. From what he could tell, it looked like Madam Puddifoot's tea shop, and he hoped no one had been hurt. It was a favourite place for students to go when they wanted to snog. Harry himself didn't think the shop too much of a loss, but he hoped Neville and Ron had gotten everyone out before the Death-Eaters had returned.
Other than that, the streets were strangely deserted.
"Ready?" Harry whispered. "We're going to head across the street to the back of Zonko's right now, then around Scrivenshaft's and into the back door of Honeydukes, all right?"
Only Ginny nodded, so Harry took hold of Professor Trelawney's arm, and dragged her to the front of the house where he could see better. Ginny followed, dragging the pale professor Vector behind her. Professor Vector's many bracelets jangled loudly, and she seemed to wake up a bit at the sound.
"Take those off, and leave them here." He said to her. She immediately complied, taking them off, and burying them in the snow against the wall of The Three Broomsticks.
The group of Death-Eaters opened the pub door, and they slipped inside.
He looked from side to side down the street, then watched as the last of the Death-Eaters walked in to the Three Broomsticks entrance. "All right, get ready... Now!" Harry whispered as he pulled Trelawney behind him through the snow, and across the street. He kept his wand trained on the ground behind them all to obliviate their footprints. Ginny did the same for both herself and Professor Vector.
It was a terrifying run. Harry knew that at any moment, a Death-Eater could look over and see them. They were wide in the open now, and if a battle were to start, there was nothing to hide behind. As it was, he heard a roar of anger from inside the Three Broomsticks pub, and realized that the Death-Eaters had just discovered their disappearance and Wormtail's treachery.
He put on a burst of speed, and the four of them arrived safely at Zonko's joke shop just as the Death-Eaters emerged once more and began to spread out. He didn't stop running however, and kept dragging his teacher behind him until they made it to the back door of Honeydukes.
Before running inside, Harry pressed his ear to the door, checking for voices.
"We have to go back and help!" he heard Ron's muffled voice exclaim, and Harry knew it would be safe to enter.
He made certain not to bang the door as it opened, and he shuffled the group in before him, waving his wand at the footprints in the snow, and closing the door softly. He and Ginny made a beeline for the stairs to the basement storage. The shivering teachers followed.
"Ron!" Harry called quietly. "We're here! We're safe!"
Ron and Neville's heads appeared looking alarmed from the top of the storage room stairwell.
"What is my Patronus?" Ron asked suspiciously.
"A falcon." Harry answered quickly. Understanding his friend's hesitation.
Ron sighed in relief, hugging Ginny quickly, and pushing her down the stairs. Neville's eyes darted from them to the empty door they had come in. "Where's Luna?" he asked, looking concerned.
"Stickyfoot's all right." Ginny answered letting him know that she had hidden in her animagus form. "She knows not to show herself until everyone's gone. We'll get Dumbledore to go back and get her."
Just as a precaution, Harry checked the ward beads again. Still, everyone was safe. He showed the beads to Neville. "I'll know if something happens, but for now, she's safe." The group started down the steps.
"Did everyone get out of the town safely?" Harry asked them nervously.
Neville nodded. "Everyone except the people who were in the Three Broomsticks, and there was a whole bunch of Death-Eaters burning down Madam Puddifoot's. All of the Death-Eater's seemed to center themselves around there and then moved on to The Three Broomsticks once they realized what was going on. I got people's attention by..." he stopped abruptly, looking pointedly at the teachers behind them, and Harry understood that he had barked to get their attention. "by making that sound that Wrinkles makes, and we came into here and they went down the passage. There were about sixty or seventy people in all, I would guess. Maybe more. Eyespy let them in at the other end while Sidetrack and I made a last circuit around the town. We couldn't see anyone else."
"Excuse me, but what passage are you talking about!?" Professor Vector asked, the enthusiasm seeping back into her voice.
"You'll see." Harry told her. "We need to keep going."
"All right." Ginny led the rest of the way down the steps to the storage basement at Ron's insistent pushing. Harry lifted the trap door, and they all descended into the earthy tunnel that led to Hogwarts.
Both teachers looked around themselves wonderously as each of the pack lit their wands, and they began the journey down the crampedtunnel.
Harry was the first to stop, and extinguish his wand. "Lights out!" He commanded, and immediately all four lights flickered to nothing without a word.
"What's happened?" Whispered Ron.
"Voices." Harry muttered to him, and they all stopped to listen.
Voices were certainly travelling through the long corridor, and after a moment of heartstopping silence, he realized they might be coming from in front of them rather than from behind. As the voices grew louder, Harry felt more and more certain of this, and recognized who it was moving towards them.
"It's Dumbledore!" Ron whispered. "I'm sure of it!"
It did sound as though Dumbledore had discovered the passage, and was now almost on top of the students.
"Lights!" Harry commanded, just as the lit wands of six others approached their position from around a bend.
They all lit their wands, including, Harry noticed, the two teachers behind him.
Professor Dumbledore started a little when as he saw the flared wand lights. "Harry! Thank goodness! And you have professor Trelawney with you! Good!" Harry paid particular attention to the fact that he hadn't been all that worried about professor Vector or the other students.
Of course, he thought. Trelawney is the one who is in danger. Wormtail said they wanted her to tell them the prophecy. How did they know she was the one to tell it? And why didn't Dumbledore tell the rest of the Order that Trelawney was in danger?
Remus clutched at his chest, and moved forward in the small passage to hug Harry tightly.
Hermione did the same to Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Harry as soon as he was free from Remus' grip. "Thank goodness you're all okay!" She gasped.
"Headmaster! Luna's still out there somewhere! She was hidden somewhere in the Three Broomsticks the last we know." Neville looked at Professor Dumbledore pleadingly, and the professor wasted no time pushing past them towards Honeydukes. His face was pale and his lips thin and white. "Neville, I will find her. Please go with your schoolmates up to Gryffindor tower, and I will meet you there shortly." The headmaster swept off followed quickly by professor McGonagall, Remus, Kinglsey Shacklebolt and Tonks, who smiled encouragingly at them. "The rest of the Aurors are on their way." She mumbled, then turned and stumbled over a hidden tree root.
The students went to the end of the passage, and slipped out through the opening in the statue of the hunchbacked witch.
A huge crowd of people had gathered around the witch statue and chattering voices assaulted his eardrums when he stepped free of the witch's hump. They were all students, townsfolk and proprietors of Hogsmeade. Harry only then realized what sort of a mission they seemed to have singlehandedly accomplished. Most of these people were here only due to Neville and Ron. They had successfully evaded the Death-Eaters, and permitted all but three or four townspeople to escape a possible massacre of the whole town.
Trelawney leaned back against the wall, her eyes wide as saucers beneath her bulbuous glasses. She slumped to the floor, seemingly hyperventillating. The panic had only just hit her.
Professor Vector nodded blankly at Harry and his friends, and went to comfort her colleague.
A woman scurried up to Harry, and shook his hand enthusiastically. "Oh, thank you mister Potter! I would never have gotten out of that if it hadn't been for you and your friends!"
Harry stared at her. "You were in the Three Broomsticks?"
"Yes, and as soon as you kids started firing hexes, My friends and I were able to slip out the back door! Yes indeed, you are truly a hero! I was so worried that you wouldn't be able to make it out of there in time! How ingenius of you!"
Harry looked at her a little confused, and slightly angry. What right did she have to assume he had done it all? As far as he was concerned, Ron, Neville and Hermione had done the whole thing, and he and Ginny had bought them time. It wasn't much to be proud of, and he certainly shouldn't be getting the praise. "You realize, of course, that three civillians are even now lying dead on the floor of the Three Broomsticks?" Trying to save you, he added silently with simmering anger.
The woman looked suddenly horrified. "Oh no! I didn't know! Oh my! I came that close! Thank you mister Potter! You've really saved my life!"
"It wasn't me, it was-"
Harry was cut off by a sharp jab in the ribs from Hermione.
"And to think." The woman continued as though he had not even spoken. "I was brought to the passage under Honeydukes very mysteriously! I didn't even know there was a passage here until those dogs showed me where to go!"
Harry smirked. "I think you actually mean a pug and a red fox, right?"
Harry saw Ron and Neville blush brightly behind him.
"Oh, that's exactly it! How did you know?"
"I've seen them around town together before. They helped me find my wand earlier when I lost it in the snow." Ron and Neville looked embarassedly at their feet.
"Well, they're ever so helpful!" The woman gushed, and turned to tell her friends about the conversation.
Harry turned to the rest of the pack. "I think we should get up to Gryffindor Tower before anyone else stops us." He was so tired of people assuming that he was their hero. He just wanted to be somewhere else.
They all nodded, and pushed their way through the crowd only stopping once or twice when Harry was grabbed by people who wanted to thank him for his courage. He tried not to let them ramble on too much, and fidgeted nervously with his ward beads while he thought about where Luna might be, and if she was safe.
Apparently the mysterious pug and fox were already being cited as unknown heroes for those who had not been in the Three Broomsticks. Those who had witnessed Harry's defiance in the pub were convinced that he was the hero. None of the others were mentioned, except as 'Harry Potter's friends'. The comments seemed to set Harry boiling, even though the others only smiled a little at the reference.
The head boy and girl, were nervously trying to round everyone up, and send them into the great hal for a bit of soup and sandwitches the house elves had scrounged up. From the cacaphny of noise coming from the hall, it sounded as if the rest of the school had been sent there as well. The Pack made sure to escape as quickly as possible, and await Dumbledore in the tower as he had commanded.
They all collapsed into the soft chairs and watched the clock on the mantle tick away the seconds, or rather, tick away the moon phases. Harry wondered if the clock hadn't been placed there specifically for Moony when he was at Hogwarts. The thought made him wonder what Moony was doing in Hogsmeade right now, and he shuddered to think that he might be in trouble.
At least we're not at the fight now. Harry thought to himself. As much as I want to join in, I'm certainly not ready. We've left the real fighting to the professionals. It'll be okay.
After a few minutes, Ron spoke up. "So how did you guys get out of the Three Broomsticks? I thought you were goners for sure!" He patted Ginny's shoulder, probably to reassure himself that she was real and that she was safe.
Harry did not want to tell them what had happened in the pub with Wormtail and Bellatrix. He still had the image of Wormtail's silver fist and Bellatrix's bleeding head imprinted on his mind. Ginny was obviously thinking the same way, and they shared shivery looks of apprehension. Ron seemed to understand, and didn't look as if he really needed an answer.
The wait seemed interminable. Each of them had worn their own circling paths into the red and gold Gryffindor carpets. Harry was trying to meditate by the fire while Ron and Ginny spoke in low voices on the couch. Nevile sat at one of the tables, his leg jangling, and his fingers nervously drumming on top. It looked like he was trying to finger a song, except he was going at four times the speed he'd ever even try on his cello.
Hermione sat on the girl's staircase, with her chin on her fist, and changed the chandelier into a low hanging punch bag, and then back into a chandelier without moving a muscle or saying a single thing. It seemed she needed to vent some frustration, because she quickly moved on to turning couch cushions into quiddich bats and bludgers. She was absently watching as they chased each other around the common room, occasionally crashing into each other, sending the bludgers pelting at the chandelier which was a punch bag again.
The sun was now touching the horizon outside the window, and Harry had been contemplating the possibilities that awaited Luna and Snape. He held the ward beads tightly in his fist, and kept rubbing the purple one, making certain that it had not gone any hotter. He was very close to leaving the tower to go and find Dumbledore when the door opened, and professor McGonagall and the headmaster himself stepped through, along with about twenty haggard looking students.
"Mister Potter, I must see you alone." Dumbledore's voice was cracked, and his eyes looked tired and old. He looked as though he was thoroughly disappointed with something and Harry hoped he wasn't angry with him.
The others gave Harry sypathetic looks before they were ushered away by an incredibly stressed out professor McGonagall. They disappeared into her office, and Harry followed their movements with his eyes wistfully.
Dumbledore escorted Harry out the portrait hole, and down many corridors until they arrived at the stone hippogriff gargoyle.
"Blood lollies." Said Dumbledore, and the gargoyle leapt aside to reveal the familiar rotating stair. They both ascended the staircase, and entered into the sanctuary of the Headmaster's office.
"Now, Harry. I believe you have something important to tell me?" Dumbledore asked as he lowered himself into the chair behind his desk. It was only then that Harry noticed the streaks of mud and what looked like soot on the Headmaster's robes and face.
Harry wasn't certain where he should start, or even if he should start. He just stood there, staring at the Headmaster nervously for a second.
In order to tell Dumbledore all of the important things that had happened tonight, he needed to first reveal that they had all become animagi. He had made the promise to Luna that he would not tell anyone... did this count? Harry touched the beads in his pocket, and they all still had the same luke-warm worried feel to them. Luna would know if he told.
He decided to test the waters a bit by changing the subject. "Where is Luna sir? Is she all right?"
Dumbledore sighed heavily, and rubbed at his brow with shaking fingers. "We haven't been able to find her. The Order and a few trusted Aurors from the ministry are searching through the rubble, but there has been no sign of her."
Harry's heart sunk deep into his stomach, and he felt it painfully skip a beat. "Rubble!? It wasn't rubble when we left! What happened?"
Dumbledore sighed."Hogsmeade... it has been razed to the ground Harry."
Harry blinked a few times in horrified disbelief. "How could it have been? All of it?"
"A few buildings were spared; Zonko's, Honeydukes, the apothecary, but most are now just smoldering piles of ash. The Death-Eaters were alarmingly thorough."
"The Three Broomsticks?"
"It's gone." Dumbledore answered. "The Death-Eaters decided to move their attack up a week, and change the venue. We had no way of knowing."
"No." Harry said, his legs beginning to shake with terror. "No." He repeated. "Luna was..." He could barely finish. "What about Snape?" he asked, "What about all of those people who were lying on the floor?! You can't tell me they're all...It's not possible!" He pulled out the ward beads and looked closely at the purple one. It had not changed. Had he performed the ward correctly? Did the warding not work when someone was in animagus form?
Harry couldn't ask Dumbledore any of these questions without giving something important away. "Was it because I signed up to leave for the Christmas holidays? Is that why they moved it up?" Dumbledore did not answer, and Harry could only assume it meant that he was right, and it was his fault. In the back of his mind, he was able to give himself adeqauate leeway in in his guilt, since it would also have been his fault if the school had been attacked. But those people who had been killed were people he didn't even know! How had his life degenerated so quickly to the point where people he didn't personally know were being murdered for his sake?
Harry collapsed onto a soft wingbacked chair opposite his headmaster.
Dumbledore absently brushed at a smudge on the sleeve of his robe."There is evidence that Professor Snape was lucky enough to be taken with the Death-Eaters when they went. I can only guess that they thought he was with them that night only under cover or something. He hasn't contacted us yet, but I'm sure it shouldn't be too long before he does." Dumbledore's face showed such despair that Harry understood he was trying to look on the bright side of things, and that there was the possibility that Snape had been taken away because someone had discovered his true allegiance.
Harry didn't want to think about it.
"How many are dead, sir? I need to know." He pleaded.
"Six dead, three still missing, including Professor Snape and your friend Miss Lovegood." Dumbledore seemed to have adopted a serene expression of neutral hopelessness and inevitability on his face, and Harry strove to do the same.
"Are there any other students that are dead or missing?"
"Just Miss Lovegood." Dumbledore assured. "The rest were Hogsmeade civilians. We suspect the third missing civillian may have joined forces with the Death-Eaters."
"Bellatrix Lestrange is dead." Harry said, very matter of factly, and Dumbledore's eyes snapped over to focus on Harry's.
"Not by me." He assured his headmaster, although Harry knew in his subconscious that he might at least have been partly responsible.
"Bellatrix tried to kill me, and... Wormtail... he stopped her. He knocked her in the face with his silver hand. She flew backwards into the fireplace, and cracked her head on the stone..."
Dumbledore nodded, closing his eyes, and pinching the bridge of his nose above his half-moon glasses. "You say it was Peter who saved you?" He asked.
"Yes, and he's probably dead now too. He said that Voldemort would know he had killed her, and would murder him too. He... he let us escape."
Dumbledore nodded. "And the reason you've all become animagi without telling me?"
Harry's heart nearly stopped beating then. "How did you know?"
"While we were searching through the rubble of the Three Broomsticks, Remus was intelligent, and might I say distraught enough to mention that we could possibly be looking for a gecko body rather than a human body. He wouldn't tell me anymore, but I deduced that since Remus knew of her abilities, it was you who had told him. Following that thread, it only makes sense that she was not the only one who had accomplished the transfiguration."
Harry's eyes filled with tears, and he bode them to stay where they belonged until he could be alone. As it was, his voice cracked when he spoke.
"She showed us how."
"Really?" Dumbledore said sympathetically, but not looking at all surprised.
Harry felt the lump in his throat expand to the point of bursting. He desperately tried to swallow. "Yeah, she had all the manuals, and we'd been working on soundless and wandless magic in DA. We thought that the six of us might need to be more stealthy if we got into trouble again, and... she was right." The tears he had been holding back spilled over, and he felt his voice crack as the pressure from the lump in his thoat became too much. He did not reach up and wipe the tears away, but let them collect around the base of his glasses. For the first time in what felt like forever, he let Dumbledore see his pain.
"I should have gone back for her. I should have called out to her or something before we left... she could have come with us."
"Now there, Harry. We still have no proof that she has been killed. We will continue to search, and as soon as I know for sure what has happened, I'll let you and your friends know."
Harry nodded, and sniffed. "Okay."
"From what I've heard, you had a very tense battle today." When Harry nodded solemnly, he continued. "As proud as I am of your accomplishment, I'm relieved to hear that you didn't have to face Tom."
A shiver passed down Harry's spine, and he realized that he had never told Dumbledore the contents of Professor Trelawney's third prophecy.
"Sir, there was another prophecy that you don't know about. I'm afraid that it might have something to do with you."
Dumbledore tensed, but his eyes stayed soft and comforting. "I thought as much, since professor McGonagall had asked me about three, and I had to admit that I only knew of two."
Harry then spilled to Dumbledore the contents of the third prophecy, and about the help his friends had given him to resolve the first one in his mind.
Dumbledore nodded sagely. "There is no way to tell just what that might be referring to until it happens." He said. "For now, be content that you have resigned yourself to making the proper choice, and we will put it out of our minds."
Harry nodded, and clutched at the purple ward beads again.
"By the way Harry, if you don't mind me asking, what is your animagus?"
Harry lifted his head from observing the floor, and stared directly at his headmaster with sad eyes. He said nothing, but slipped down onto all fours as he let himself be taken over by Greymane. The sadness he felt was used to power the transfiguration, and he felt a ripple of pure anguish roll down his back along with the tufts of sprouting fur.
He blinked up at Dumbledore, and salty cat tears rolled down his face and clung to the tip of his cold black nose.
The headmaster looked completely unfazed. "There there." he consoled while he lightly patted the black mane, and traced the grey lightning-bolt. "We all need to escape ourselves every once in awhile. I understand that you and your friends need some privacy where this is concerned, so I will not inform the ministry."
Greymane's eyes widened, and he stared intently at the professor.
"I would however, like professor McGonagall to check your transfiguration over, just to make certain that you have done everything correctly."
Greymane nodded, and looked once more at the floor.
Dumbledore chucked him under the chin, and he was forced to look back up into his headmaster's eyes. "It's a very handsome animagus for you. The lion is known as a protector. It's the same one Gryffindor himself bore, and I'm very proud and impressed... I thought for a moment there that you might have been a pug or a fox." He smiled warmly at Greymane who purred, even though hot tears were still falling from his eyes.
Harry changed back into himself, returned the smile and turned to leave the office.
Just before disappearing back down the rotating stair, Harry called sadly back. "I think you should ask Neville and Ron about the pug and fox."
