Chapter 12
Hogsmeade
The next morning, Harry awoke peacefully, then groaned as the memories of what had happened to him the previous night flooded back. Wormtail was at Hogwarts, Malfoy was in the hospital wing, and Ginny was mad.
It still wasn't clear what the consequences were going to be for Hermione and Harry taking an unconscious Malfoy to the hospital wing the previous night. Madame Pomfrey had been so angry about getting another patient so soon after returning Neville's arms to their proper position that she had only told them that she would wait until morning to inform the headmaster of what had occurred.
That day, Harry and Hermione were summoned to Dumbledore's office, but were not punished. Dumbledore told them that since he had not seen the actions that had landed Malfoy in the infirmary, he could not judge between guilt or innocence, but he made Hermione and Harry promise that they would not get in any more duels. Hermione shot Harry a meaningful glance, and both agreed that there would be no more duels.
After that, things stayed fairly quiet at Hogwarts for the rest of September and into October. Harry had been relatively well-behaved, doing his best to avoid confrontation. Malfoy decided to lay off as well, apparently wary that any action that he took could conceivably end with him unconscious on a Quidditch Pitch somewhere.
Ginny had not yet forgiven Harry for his lack of honesty with her, and the two did not communicate much outside of Quidditch practices. Although they Ginny had not officially broken up with him, Harry suspected that she no longer considered him her boyfriend.
Harry and Hermione remained on speaking terms, although she was annoyingly true to her promise of watching him like Filch to make sure that he did not end up getting in any more uneven duals. Overall, Ron was the only one of his friends who was not angry at him, and Harry was exceedingly grateful for that.
Meanwhile, Harry's progress with his Potions studies was coming along as well as could be reasonably expected. McGonnogal was able to teach just as well as Snape was, and by the end of October, Harry was learning more or less the same things at the same time as was Snape's N.E.W.T. class.
Harry's detentions with Tonks had continued, and had developed, as promised, into a Defense Against the Dark Arts style dueling club.
Overall, however, nothing of great import happened until the first Hogsmeade weekend of that year, on the last weekend of October.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were making their way toward the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeers when they came across Fred and George Weasley.
"Hey, how's it going guys?" asked Fred, when they all met.
After the basic cordialities were exchanged, George said,
"What's going on with Ginny? We saw her a few minutes ago, and she was just stalking off by herself. I tried to say hi to her, but I don't think she even saw me."
Harry had no idea what was going on, as Ginny had not said anything to him lately, except for making remarks when Harry would instruct her on a drill to do during Quidditch practice. Her remarks would go something like, "Wow, Harry, are you sure that I can handle that all on my own?"
He really didn't think that could have any relationship with what was going on right now, but for some reason Ron and Hermione were looking at him like they expected it was his fault. More to change the subject than anything, Harry pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket. It was one of the magical pieces of parchment that Lupin had gotten him for his birthday, of the kind that Harry was able to write messages to his friends on. He was just explaining to George and Fred the concept of the paper, and was about to suggest that they incorporate it somehow into a product at their joke-shop (perhaps by making a piece of parchment to take tests on that would cause the student's answers to be shared with everyone else in the class) when a message appeared on the paper.
It said simply, "Ginny. At the Shrieking Shack. Need Help!"
In approximately no time, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Fred and George, were setting off at a run for the Shrieking Shack.
When they got there, they burst in through the front door. Had these particular youths been in possession of any less courage than they were, they would have turned tail and run immediately. But these were Gryffindors, and so in spite of the sight that met them, they stood their ground. In the room that opened off the doorway was Ginny, surrounded by 5 dark wizards. Lucius Malfoy, the fathers of Crabbe and Goyle, Wormtail, and Bellatrix Lestrange. Ginny had been disarmed, and as her friends came in, it was obvious that the dark wizards were taking turns hitting her with non-lethal, but still painful, hexes and curses.
Harry quickly sized up the odds as he reached for his wand, aggravated at finding himself in a life-or-death situation for the third time in two months. Although his thoughts were becoming less than coherent as a result of his adrenaline rush, he just had time to register that at least this time, the duel wasn't his fault.
The battle would be 5 to 5. On his side were some of the best wizards he had ever met, but they had considerably less experience than their dark opponents. Luckily, they had a brief upper hand due to the fact that they had caught the dark wizards by surprise.
"Expelliarmus!" yelled Harry, aiming at Lestrange, who he considered to be the most dangerous wizard of the group, if only because she had been the one who had finished off Sirius. At that thought, Harry realized that he was fighting here not only to save Ginny (and himself) but also to avenge Sirius.
Unfortunately, Lestrange was able to recover her wand almost immediately, and Harry's shout had spent the element of surprise. The battle was on.
Each of the dark wizards found a youth to square off against. Lestrange took on Harry, Crabbe and Goyle faced the twins, Wormtail faced Ron, and Lucius, after treating Ginny to a spell that rendered her unconscious, battled Hermione.
Harkening back to the last time he had fought Bellatrix Lestrange (or Tonks disguised as Lestrange) Harry yelled "Debilatus" to prevent Lestrange from hurting him. Following his lead, Ron and Hermione did the same thing. Luckily, it seemed as if none of the dark wizards had encountered this spell before, and so they continued to try to use pain-inducing curses, which were rendered ineffective. This gave Ron, Hermione, and Harry enough time to petrify their opponents. Thus, the odds were considerably tilted in the young wizards' favor, leaving only Crabbe and Goyle to deal with. They were dealt with in short order.
Hermione quickly revived Ginny. The 6 young wizards looked around with satisfaction at the 5 petrified dark wizards standing around them. They were just about to levitate the bodies of the dark wizards in order to take them into Hogsmeade so that they could all be transported back to Azkaban when a noise at the door caused them to stop short.
The door opened. Draco Malfoy, the younger Crabbe and Goyle, and several of their Slytherin friends were at the door. There were ten of them all together. Harry's group was outnumbered almost two to one. Besides that, neither himself, Ron, nor Hermione were able to perform any pain inducing curses for the next 24 hours. This would be a tough battle to win.
However, Malfoy seemed to be less than confident as a result of his last run-in with Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron, and so said, "We'll let you go this time." He seemed to realize that the Gryffindor contingent was much more experienced than his Slytherin battalion. The odds would be tight.
With a sense of defeat almost as great as if he had just lost a Quidditch match, Harry realized that he would be stupid to take on such a fight. He thought he had a shot at winning it, but he knew that if he was wrong, the cost could be death. Besides, with 10 Slytherins there, it would not take long for them to un-petrify the dark wizards, at which point it would be 15 to 6 odds.
With great anguish, Harry led his friends out the back door of the Shrieking Shack, keeping his wand trained on Malfoy in case he broke his word, cursing himself for allowing Lestrange to remain free.
Hogsmeade
The next morning, Harry awoke peacefully, then groaned as the memories of what had happened to him the previous night flooded back. Wormtail was at Hogwarts, Malfoy was in the hospital wing, and Ginny was mad.
It still wasn't clear what the consequences were going to be for Hermione and Harry taking an unconscious Malfoy to the hospital wing the previous night. Madame Pomfrey had been so angry about getting another patient so soon after returning Neville's arms to their proper position that she had only told them that she would wait until morning to inform the headmaster of what had occurred.
That day, Harry and Hermione were summoned to Dumbledore's office, but were not punished. Dumbledore told them that since he had not seen the actions that had landed Malfoy in the infirmary, he could not judge between guilt or innocence, but he made Hermione and Harry promise that they would not get in any more duels. Hermione shot Harry a meaningful glance, and both agreed that there would be no more duels.
After that, things stayed fairly quiet at Hogwarts for the rest of September and into October. Harry had been relatively well-behaved, doing his best to avoid confrontation. Malfoy decided to lay off as well, apparently wary that any action that he took could conceivably end with him unconscious on a Quidditch Pitch somewhere.
Ginny had not yet forgiven Harry for his lack of honesty with her, and the two did not communicate much outside of Quidditch practices. Although they Ginny had not officially broken up with him, Harry suspected that she no longer considered him her boyfriend.
Harry and Hermione remained on speaking terms, although she was annoyingly true to her promise of watching him like Filch to make sure that he did not end up getting in any more uneven duals. Overall, Ron was the only one of his friends who was not angry at him, and Harry was exceedingly grateful for that.
Meanwhile, Harry's progress with his Potions studies was coming along as well as could be reasonably expected. McGonnogal was able to teach just as well as Snape was, and by the end of October, Harry was learning more or less the same things at the same time as was Snape's N.E.W.T. class.
Harry's detentions with Tonks had continued, and had developed, as promised, into a Defense Against the Dark Arts style dueling club.
Overall, however, nothing of great import happened until the first Hogsmeade weekend of that year, on the last weekend of October.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were making their way toward the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeers when they came across Fred and George Weasley.
"Hey, how's it going guys?" asked Fred, when they all met.
After the basic cordialities were exchanged, George said,
"What's going on with Ginny? We saw her a few minutes ago, and she was just stalking off by herself. I tried to say hi to her, but I don't think she even saw me."
Harry had no idea what was going on, as Ginny had not said anything to him lately, except for making remarks when Harry would instruct her on a drill to do during Quidditch practice. Her remarks would go something like, "Wow, Harry, are you sure that I can handle that all on my own?"
He really didn't think that could have any relationship with what was going on right now, but for some reason Ron and Hermione were looking at him like they expected it was his fault. More to change the subject than anything, Harry pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket. It was one of the magical pieces of parchment that Lupin had gotten him for his birthday, of the kind that Harry was able to write messages to his friends on. He was just explaining to George and Fred the concept of the paper, and was about to suggest that they incorporate it somehow into a product at their joke-shop (perhaps by making a piece of parchment to take tests on that would cause the student's answers to be shared with everyone else in the class) when a message appeared on the paper.
It said simply, "Ginny. At the Shrieking Shack. Need Help!"
In approximately no time, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Fred and George, were setting off at a run for the Shrieking Shack.
When they got there, they burst in through the front door. Had these particular youths been in possession of any less courage than they were, they would have turned tail and run immediately. But these were Gryffindors, and so in spite of the sight that met them, they stood their ground. In the room that opened off the doorway was Ginny, surrounded by 5 dark wizards. Lucius Malfoy, the fathers of Crabbe and Goyle, Wormtail, and Bellatrix Lestrange. Ginny had been disarmed, and as her friends came in, it was obvious that the dark wizards were taking turns hitting her with non-lethal, but still painful, hexes and curses.
Harry quickly sized up the odds as he reached for his wand, aggravated at finding himself in a life-or-death situation for the third time in two months. Although his thoughts were becoming less than coherent as a result of his adrenaline rush, he just had time to register that at least this time, the duel wasn't his fault.
The battle would be 5 to 5. On his side were some of the best wizards he had ever met, but they had considerably less experience than their dark opponents. Luckily, they had a brief upper hand due to the fact that they had caught the dark wizards by surprise.
"Expelliarmus!" yelled Harry, aiming at Lestrange, who he considered to be the most dangerous wizard of the group, if only because she had been the one who had finished off Sirius. At that thought, Harry realized that he was fighting here not only to save Ginny (and himself) but also to avenge Sirius.
Unfortunately, Lestrange was able to recover her wand almost immediately, and Harry's shout had spent the element of surprise. The battle was on.
Each of the dark wizards found a youth to square off against. Lestrange took on Harry, Crabbe and Goyle faced the twins, Wormtail faced Ron, and Lucius, after treating Ginny to a spell that rendered her unconscious, battled Hermione.
Harkening back to the last time he had fought Bellatrix Lestrange (or Tonks disguised as Lestrange) Harry yelled "Debilatus" to prevent Lestrange from hurting him. Following his lead, Ron and Hermione did the same thing. Luckily, it seemed as if none of the dark wizards had encountered this spell before, and so they continued to try to use pain-inducing curses, which were rendered ineffective. This gave Ron, Hermione, and Harry enough time to petrify their opponents. Thus, the odds were considerably tilted in the young wizards' favor, leaving only Crabbe and Goyle to deal with. They were dealt with in short order.
Hermione quickly revived Ginny. The 6 young wizards looked around with satisfaction at the 5 petrified dark wizards standing around them. They were just about to levitate the bodies of the dark wizards in order to take them into Hogsmeade so that they could all be transported back to Azkaban when a noise at the door caused them to stop short.
The door opened. Draco Malfoy, the younger Crabbe and Goyle, and several of their Slytherin friends were at the door. There were ten of them all together. Harry's group was outnumbered almost two to one. Besides that, neither himself, Ron, nor Hermione were able to perform any pain inducing curses for the next 24 hours. This would be a tough battle to win.
However, Malfoy seemed to be less than confident as a result of his last run-in with Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron, and so said, "We'll let you go this time." He seemed to realize that the Gryffindor contingent was much more experienced than his Slytherin battalion. The odds would be tight.
With a sense of defeat almost as great as if he had just lost a Quidditch match, Harry realized that he would be stupid to take on such a fight. He thought he had a shot at winning it, but he knew that if he was wrong, the cost could be death. Besides, with 10 Slytherins there, it would not take long for them to un-petrify the dark wizards, at which point it would be 15 to 6 odds.
With great anguish, Harry led his friends out the back door of the Shrieking Shack, keeping his wand trained on Malfoy in case he broke his word, cursing himself for allowing Lestrange to remain free.