A/N- This fanfic is nearly over! There'll probably only be one more chapter after this one. Please review this chapter….
HeirOfSnakeThanks, and I will!
It's actually nearly scary to think that my first fanfiction is nearly over. It's a relief, too, though, because it's not easy writing a chapter everyday! (I know I don't have to, I want to)
Anyway, on to the story…
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(Dumbledore's POV)
Albus Dumbledore was worried. That had been happening more and more lately, and mostly it was because of Harry Potter. He stood staring out the window in his office, thinking.
He had a good reason for avoiding the boy, although he doubted Harry would see it that way. Undoubtedly Harry would have noticed by now.
And now Harry had disappeared. Vanished into thin air, it seemed, and had taken his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, with him.
They had disappeared from the library, according to Madam Pince and several students. They had gone in and never came out, although nobody had witnessed their actual disappearance.
Dumbledore turned and sat at his desk. He opened a drawer and took out a copy of that day's Daily Prophet, the wizarding world's favourite newspaper. He looked at the article on the front page.
Boy-who-lived gone missing?
Harry Potter has vanished from Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry with his two best friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, in what appears to be another attention-seeking stunt.
Everyone knows his tale, but it seems that surviving the You-Know-Who just isn't enough to satisfy Potter's hunger for fame. One would think that competing in the Triwizard tournament last year and allegedly being "attacked by dementors" this summer would satisfy a drive for fame enough so that he could, at least, finish the school year without any other major incidents, but apparently not.
Draco Malfoy, a classmate of Harry Potter, said this:
"Potter thinks he owns the place. He swaggers about and insults anyone who crosses him. Our new DADA teacher, Professor Umbridge has given Potter loads of detentions already but he still won't stop. He shouted at her and called her a liar once. This is probably some joke on his part. He'll most likely be back next week claiming to have fought off Voldemort and 20 death eater single-handedly again. As if. He's probably just hiding in the forest somewhere with his two friends."
We managed to get an interview with the new defence against the dark arts teacher and High inquisitor, Dolores Umbridge. She had this to say:
"Harry Potter is not exactly the nicest or best student in the school. There is noting remarkably special about him, except maybe his temper. Potter has argued with me several times over the course of this year and I have given him weeks of detentions, none of which he shall forget in a hurry, but there is no improvement in his behaviour. I have even banned him from playing quidditch after he attacked another student with others from his quidditch team.
I am sure that this is just another stunt to get attention, but until he is found we cannot be sure."
Potter has been missing from school for over twenty-four hours now and Albus Dumbledore does not seem to be making any progress in his search for the three missing students. Dumbledore was unavailable for comment at the time of writing."
Dumbledore sighed as he finished reading. Why had Harry, Ron and Hermione disappeared? He had long come to the conclusion that the three of them would not leave Hogwarts voluntarily or willingly, but the Daily Prophet didn't see it that way.
Just as he dropped the newspaper back into the drawer and shut it, he heard a tapping on the window. He looked up to see the most extraordinary girl hovering outside his window.
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(Holly's POV)
Holly was sure she'd found the right castle. She was doubly sure when she looked through a window and saw a blond-haired boy pointing his wand at another boy who was clutching a toad, both dressed in the same sort of robes that Harry, Ron and Hermione had been wearing, the only difference being that the blond was wearing a different-coloured tie..
She flew around the castle, glancing into all the different windows as she passed. She saw more students, the staff and even what looked like a ghost. However, she had yet to spot the headmaster.
She was about to give up when she looked into a room at the top of a tower on the south of the castle. She glanced in and to her delight, she saw an old man with long white hair and an even longer white beard. This must be Albus Dumbledore.
The man was reading a newspaper. Holly glimpsed Harry's face displayed prominently on the front page before Dumbledore folded the newspaper and placed it into a drawer in his desk. She reached out a hand and tapped on the window.
The man looked up, surprised. His eyebrows were raised as she came over and opened the window so she could enter the office.
"Are you Albus Dumbledore?" she asked.
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(Dumbledore's POV)
Dumbledore hurried over to the window and opened it, letting the girl fly into the room. She wasn't using a broomstick though, but some sort of mechanical wings.
She hovered at his head height, then opened her mouth to say something.
"Are you Albus Dumbledore?"
"Yes, I am." He replied.
"Good!" She looked relieved. "I've been looking for you."
Dumbledore gestured to his desk, "Why don't we sit down?"
After the girl had sat down in the chair in front of the desk and he had taken his place behind it, she started to talk.
"I'm Holly Short. And I'm a fairy. But you can't tell anyone that, alright?"
"I promise not to tell anyone." Dumbledore was shocked. Fairy? He had heard rumours of another civilization underground, but he had dismissed them as just that- rumours. "But why are you here? Why were you looking for me?"
"I'm here to tell you where Harry Potter is." Dumbledore stared at her. "And Ron and Hermione too, of course."
"Where are they? How did they get there?"
"Apparently they were studying in the library when Ron, I think it was, cast a spell wrongly and they got transported to Ireland. Fowl Manor, outside Dublin to be exact. They arrived on Artemis' birthday, and Butler found them in the hall. They said that they were just in the library one minute and the next they were there."
"Artemis?"
"Artemis Fowl. He's fifteen and a genius. They just appeared in his house." Holly shrugged.
"How do you come into this?"
Holly shifted nervously in her seat. "Promise not to tell anyone?"
"Yes, of course"
"Well, uh, thing is, I told you I was a fairy, right? Well, I live underground with all the other fairies, but a few years ago Artemis kidnapped me. I worked with the LEP, that's the police force down below. He abducted me to get gold from the fairies below ground. To make a long story short, I got out, we've worked together several times since and we're friends now. I was visiting him for his birthday when Butler found the three of them behind a suit of armour…"
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(Harry's POV)
Holly had been gone for hours and Harry was getting worried. What if she didn't find Hogwarts until it was too late?
He tossed and turned in his bed, trying to sleep, but it was useless. He kept going over things that could happen.
What if Holly's been attacked by Voldemort on the way? What if Voldemort knows where we are and gets here before Dumbledore? What if something's going on at Hogwarts, what if it's been attacked or something?
He tried to push these thoughts out of his head. Holly would be fine. She would be back soon, because it must take forever to fly that far. They'd get back to Hogwarts before Voldemort found them. Hogwarts was one of the safest places in the country. Voldemort wouldn't dare attack it with Dumbledore there.
Harry kept muttering that under his breath, but he wasn't altogether reassured. He closed his eyes and tried to relax.
Just as he was about to drop off, there was an explosion downstairs. So much for relaxing.
Harry leapt out of bed and grabbed his wand, then raced out through the door, colliding with Ron, Hermione, Artemis and Mulch, who had done the exact same as he did.
Harry automatically took control. He was the best in the school at defence against the dark arts and had faced Voldemort before, so Ron and Hermione had no problems letting him lead them downstairs.
The five of them silently made their way down to the main hall, where the noise was coming from. He stopped before the door to the hall and pressed his ear to it.
"Spread out and search." He heard Voldemort's voice clearly. "Bring Potter to me. Kill anyone else. Just before we leave, we shall send up the dark mark."
Harry heard footsteps coming towards the door. He stepped back and, pointing his wand at the door, muttered "Colloportus!" There was a thump as somebody ran into the door. Harry paused for a few minutes, still listening.
He turned to the rest of the group, all of whom were looking extremely pale. "Artemis, Mulch, you need to get everyone in this place out. You two don't have magic, so you'd be better going somewhere safe. Ron, Hermione, I'm going through there to hold him off. I won't force you to come with me."
"Don't be stupid, we're going with you." Said Ron determinedly.
"Yes, we're not letting you face him alone again." Said Hermione, but she was getting paler by the second.
Harry nodded to Artemis and Mulch. "Go."
Artemis ran off down the corridor and soon disappeared from sight. Mulch followed.
Harry looked at his friends. "Ready?"
They nodded. He pointed his wand at the door. "Alohamora!"
The door flew open and the three of them went in to face Lord Voldemort.
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(Still Harry's POV)
Voldemort seemed to have been waiting for them.
"Ah, Potter, we meet again. And this time you've brought your little friends too. How charming." He grinned, his red eyes widening, taking in the three teenagers, all in pyjamas. "This won't take long. Avada Kedavra!" He pointed his wand at Ron.
Harry pushed Ron out of the way with all his might, and it seemed to work, as Ron fell out of harm's way and the jet of green light sailed between the boys, reducing the door behind them to dust.
Harry straightened up, looking Voldemort straight in his merciless red eyes. It could have been his imagination, but Voldemort seemed to flinch slightly. Harry raised his wand.
"Stupefy!"
Voldemort blocked it easily. Harry made a mental note to find out how to do that when he got back to school. If he got back to school.
"This is almost too easy. Crucio!"
Harry fell to the floor. He was in agony, and his scar felt on fire. But he didn't scream. He wouldn't let Voldemort have the pleasure of that. After several agonising moments, the pain stopped. Harry jumped to his feet again, his wand back to pointing at Voldemort.
"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Stupefy!"
Voldemort dodged them all, but Harry could see that these weren't as easily dodged. If only he could keep Voldemort busy, then maybe Voldemort wouldn't have time to kill him or his friends. Harry could hear Ron and Hermione duelling death eaters behind him. Luckily most of them had left to search the manor.
Harry started shouting nearly every curse he knew at Voldemort.
"Densaugeo! Furnunculus!Incarcerous!"
Voldemort dodged them all, but he was getting slower, looking more tired…
Suddenly there was a crack! Someone had just apparated into the main hall. Who?
Harry instinctively knew who it was, and a glance up at the top of the grand stairway proved it.
"Dumbledore!"
Dumbledore was at the top of the stairs, with Fawkes and Holly by his side.
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The end of another chapter.
I got the last three curses off the Harry Potter encyclopaedia at My head went blank when I tried to think of a spell. So thanks, Mugglenet!
Its nearly the end….nearly! Please review and tell me what you think!
BTW, the next chapter mightn't be up tomorrow. I'd like more reviews, and school is about to start. I'll get it up the minute I finish it though!