"What are you doing, you git!" Hastings asked. Falcon was curled in a ball, clutching his gut, and positively howling with laughter. "Petrificus Totalus!" she yelled. He suddenly stopped moving, and still curled in a ball, he fell out of the cabinet. Looking behind him, she saw darkness, as though a hole had been dug inside the cabinet.
"Do you have a feeling that there are a bunch of Gryffindors in there?" asked Odessa.
"And perhaps two male teachers?" Hastings said.
"Let's go." Both of them illuminated their wand tips and climbed into the cabinet. Immediately, they were sliding down a long, steep shaft, and it was only when they were totally out of control that they thought twice about the wisdom of such an action.
"Do you think they'll find us here?" asked Gabe.
"I'm sure they will," said Sirius. "Too bad Puddingwaste got away when we cursed him.
"True, mate," said Gabe, "But at least he'll have a stomach ache from laughing so hard."
"Yeah," said Sirius, "But now we're stuck down here. I couldn't climb up that shaft again if my life depended on it. My dad was lucky enough to have a Phoenix available to him. How'd Falcon get back up?"
"I don't know," said Gabe, "But what about exploring here? I'm almost certain the Gryffindors are around somewhere." Just then, something crashed into Gabe, and he toppled onto the floor, something heavy on top of him. Shaking his head to clear it, he looked up and said, "Well, Hello, Hastings."
"Hi," said Hastings, embarrassed about landing on him. She shoved herself up, then fell again when Odessa rammed into her.
"A most unusual evening," Gabe said, "Two women falling for me."
"Keep dreaming," said Odessa, who stood up and offered Hastings a hand. "Steep slide, that. It's a long trip from the tower."
"Yeah," said Sirius. "Too bad you didn't come a little earlier—you might have stopped Falcon from shoving us down this stinking hole."
"Well, we did… er, incapacitate him," said Hastings.
"Yeah," said Gabe. "Apparently, a laughing curse doesn't stop the guy. Noted for future reference."
"He's not going anywhere now," said Odessa. "He's petrified… effectively. I wonder how we're going to get out, now we've found you."
"Yeah," said Hastings, smiling at Gabe. "I never thought you'd be the damsel in distress… but we did rescue you."
"I don't think this is what I call being rescued," Sirius said wryly. "Actually, I don't think we're alone down here. I think the children are here."
"All of them?" asked Odessa.
"All the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws, anyway," said Gabe. "The git probably has the Slytherins somewhere safe."
"Falcon wasn't even a Slytherin while he was here," said Odessa. "He was a Gryffindor. That bloody, traitor!"
"How many times must I tell you, Miss Grace? A student's house has nothing to do with their affiliation to the dark arts." Everyone turned around to see who spoke, and from the shadows emerged Professor O'Reilly.
What are you doing here?" Odessa asked rudely.
"The same thing as you, Miss Grace, trying to figure a way out."
"Where are the students?" Odessa asked.
"I'm afraid that I don't know the answer to that," O'Reilly said. "After our…unfortunate parting in London-"
"Speaking of-" Sirius started to say.
"Not now Mr. Potter, we have more important things to worry about," O'Reilly said. "After I left London I realized that you would never believe me when I told you it was Professor Greene. I've worked with that woman for a long time and I've learned just how cunning she is. She is a master at potions-"
"She is not!" Gabe interrupted.
"I assure you, she is," O'Reilly said, "which leaves me to my next point. She is also a master of deceit. She is the daughter of Voldemort and has some fancy idea that she's going to take over the world since he wasn't able to. She has also decided that his fatal mistake was not taking over at Hogwarts first, which is what she is currently doing. Lucky for us, she has nowhere near the level of talent her father had."
"How is she taking over the school?" Hastings asked.
"Well first, she took control of that fellow, Puddinghaste. He never had much moral fiber to begin with, it was easy to take him over. With his help, she took over certain numbers of students at a time – using a blood lily potion. She was testing to see how many she could control at one time. Between her and Puddinghaste they could control about half of the school."
"Which half did she choose?" Hastings asked.
"Gryffindors and Ravenclaws," O'Reilly replied. "He wanted smarts and bravery. Hufflepuffs are to nice and Slytherins care about themselves a bit to much. I'm sure you noticed that they kept coming in sick?"
"I have to confess that I didn't notice they were all Hufflepuffs and Slytherins," Gabe said.
"Greene was trying to find the correct level of sickness to incapacitate the students without harming them. She hopes to have them on her side in the future, but she doesn't want them in the way right now. How she plans to use the younger years is anyone's guess."
"So where are the students?" Gabe asked.
"As I said before, I don't know" O'Reilly said. "I confronted Greene hoping to either overpower her or be taken to where the students are. I ended up here, quite alone until you came along."
"What do we do now?" Odessa asked.
"We get out of here," Sirius said. "And we need to work together," he added, glaring at O'Reilly. "At least for now."
"Make sure you do, boy," O'Reilly said. "I'm not as feeble as I look."
"How do we get back up though?" Hastings asked, looking at the gaping tunnel above them.
"Hogwarts has many chambers," O'Reilly said. "As a student in Slytherin you learn about the underground ones. I haven't been in this particular chamber, but I know there are a series of tunnels that connect. All we have to do is find one I recognize and we can get out."
"That could take days," Odessa said.
"Do you have a better idea?" O'Reilly asked. The four of them shook their heads. "All right then, try to be thankful that I hadn't already left before you arrived. Let's go."
Together, the five of them trudged along the underground tunnel—a maze of passages that soon had their heads spinning. O'Reilly alone seemed to be undaunted by the confusing route. Hastings, who'd never liked dark, enclosed spaces, was feeling dizzy. "I hope we get out soon," she said.
"It's all right," said Odessa, "I'm sure we will soon. Try to think of something else."
Gabe took Hastings' hand and interlocked their fingers. "It's okay," he said.
"You must think I'm an idiot," said Hastings. "I get sick at blood and become a coward in a cave."
"Everyone has fears," said Sirius. "Nothing to be embarrassed about."
"What are you scared of," asked Odessa.
"The pressure of having a celebrity as a father," said Sirius.
"I don't like heights," said Gabe.
"I hate bugs," said Odessa. "Especially the crunchy ones."
"What about you?" asked Hastings, tapping O'Reilly on the shoulder.
"I refuse to answer that," he said. "And you should be quiet… I hear something."
"Well, aren't you just a right foul git," said Hastings, but Odessa shushed everyone.
"Listen," she said. "I hear something too. It's voices… from… from the other side of this wall."
O'Reilly walked up to the cave wall and knocked on it with his fist. "Funny," he said. "The rock is weak here. There a… curse protecting it though. It's a blood curse. It requires blood to get through."
"Well, I don't know about that," said Hastings, thinking about the smell of blood and feeling even sicker. "We could find another way."
"It will only take a few drops," said O'Reilly, pulling out a pocket knife.
"You should really allow me," said Sirius, reaching back to punch O'Reilly in the nose.
Odessa grabbed his arm and said, "That's not going to help."
"So?"
They heard a slicing sound and O'Reilly gave a grunt. O'Reilly wiped his bleeding hand on the rock, and it opened into another cave. Inside, there were about two hundred students, huddled together on the floor.
"Are you okay?" asked Gabe of Hastings, who had turned green.
"I'll live," she said, sounding sick. But what is that?"
Looking along the wall, they all saw why the children were huddled. Inside the room there were no less than six Dementors.
Immediately, there was a change in the teachers as well. All felt as though the happiness was being sucked out of them. Hastings closed her eyes and thought of a good memory… there were so many, if only she could remember. She thought of her sister… then thought of how she died—she heard her screaming. That wouldn't work… then she remembered how happy she'd been when she found out she and Odessa would be working at Hogwarts with Sirius and Falcon… but then, Falcon had turned traitor… that wouldn't work either. Finally, she remembered Odessa, Sirius, herself and Gabe sitting at a table in the Three Broomsticks during the Christmas season. Everything had been perfect. Now, that was a good memory.
"Expecto Patronum!" she shouted. Suddenly, her wand tip ignited with a silvery fire, and jolting from her wand came the figure of a mighty Thestral, sweeping through the cave. It was joined by three other patronuses. They easily fought off the Dementors, scattering them far away.
"Come on," said Hastings, feeling braver than she ever had before. "Let's get out of here." As the students began to file out Odessa and Sirius tried to do a mental count.
"Looks like first and second years from all four houses, and the rest of Hufflepuff and Slytherin."
Sirius nodded in agreement, "Okay everyone," he said loudly. "I need one person to tell me what happened." He looked around the group and pointed at a seventh year Hufflepuff, "Miss Locke, how did you end up in here?"
She shrugged her shoulders, "I'm not completely positive. We were in our common room last night when all of the lights started to flicker and go out. When we tried to relight them nothing happened. There was talking and several thuds, but I just figured that people were running into things. Then I fell over, in a full body bind, and then I was silenced. Within a few minutes everyone in our house had been bound."
"Simple yet effective," Sirius mumbled to himself. "Is that what happened to the rest of you?" He asked, looking around. The students nodded.
"Did you see who it was?" Professor O'Reilly asked. This time the room was full of shaking heads.
"It'd make it easier to control them later if they didn't know it was Greene," Odessa whispered to the rest. "I think we should leave the younger ones down here until things are worked out. We should take the sixth and seventh years with us."
"And put them in that kind of danger?" Hastings asked.
"There's only five of us, do you have a better idea?" Odessa asked, looking around. No one said anything. "Okay then. We need someone to stay behind with them." Once again she eyed the group, everyone avoided her gaze. She sighed, "All right, I'll stay behind. But if you three become heroes without me…" she waved her wand at them in warning.
"Enough of this chatter," O'Reilly broke in, "we need to find Greene."
"Listen up everyone," Hastings said. "Professor Greene is trying to take over the school," she paused for a moment as gasps and murmurs of surprise filled the room. "I want any sixth and seventh year who is willing to come with us to help take the school back. Please realize that this is a dangerous mission, we don't know to what lengths Professor Greene is willing to go to keep the school." She paused and looked at the older students in the eye, "I cannot promise that you'll come out of this with your lives." The silence that followed was deafening.
"I'll go," a tall, blonde man in green robes stepped forward. Slowly, more followed.
"Who's going to stay with the younger years?" A voice called out.
"I want to fight," another said.
Hastings held her hands up, "I don't want any of you to fight, but I don't know if we can do this alone. Professor Greene as bewitched many of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws to act on her behalf. That's too many people for five of us to handle. Professor Grace will stay with the younger years. I want the fifth years to help her protect this area if it comes under attack. More likely than not, it will be ignored for now."
"We need to get going," Sirius said. He leaned over and whispered in Odessa's ear, "Are you going to be okay?"
She gave him a brave smile, "Yes. But I think I'll teach them the bat bogey hex while we wait." Sirius smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "Let's go," he said to the others. Odessa and the younger years watched them march out of the cave, Professor O'Reilly in the lead. Sighing, she turned.
"Hello everyone. While we wait, I'm going to teach you a few easy curses, most of them childish pranks, but rather useful." She watched as grins broke out around the room. "However," she added. "If I catch you using these curses on other students or professors after this is over, I will make sure that you fully understand what it is to live life as a muggle maid. Understood? Okay then, let's get started."