Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Rise
The Room of Requirement flipped into a radio station the moment Azel stepped in through the doors. At the very centre of the room, a small and battered wizard wireless crackled to life as a Ravenclaw student leaned over the desk, adjusting the buttons and panels like a demon as the other teens surrounded the station.
"B. A., River here, do you read? We have a new report, Mackie is in course to the Fortress; I repeat, Mackie is in course…"
"Mackie?" Hiccup laughed at the brilliant use of nicknames as static noise broke from the radio sound. "When did ya'll build this?"
"It was Professor Longbottom's idea," A fourteen year old student from Gryffindor replied simply; "Back in the time he used it all over the country to maintain communication between the Castle and the Order… I suppose we had to do the same."
"That's brilliant," Another voice spoke from behind the group, and the sound made Hiccup turn in surprise and anger as Jack wandered over to the station, but their eyes never met as he joined the other teens without ever looking at Hiccup. "Though how can we know where she is?"
"She must be arriving at Hogsmead any moment now…"
"Then we need a way to get her in," he said, looking over to the others. "We need a group to go pick her up, immediately."
"With Auror's guarding every entrance?" Another student said.
"Then we'll make new ones." He stated resolutely. "We need a way to Hogsmead, now."
And the words had barely escaped Jack's lips when a deep rumble echoed from the depths of the Room of Requirement, and as all heads turned to the source of the sound, a huge crooked metal door materialised from the wall, the sound now escaping to the insides of the earth.
"Is that… a tunnel?" Astrid said, stepping away from the station and walking distrustfully towards the new door, wand in hand as she examined it. It took a moment before more sounds emanated from the radio.
"-showdown in Hogsmead, I repeat, five wizards have been spot fighting in the centre of the village-" more static.
"She can't win this one, someone go help her, see what's happening!"
"I'm going." Astrid said before sprinting towards the door.
"Don't!" Aster yelled before the girl disappeared behind the metal door. "Bloody stubborn…"
"You're not going alone!" A brunette boy from Slytherin who seemed oddly familiar spoke out before following the two into the end of the room.
"Someone needs to go get Professor Longbottom, we need him here, now." Merida ran the opposite direction towards the entrance door, followed closely by Azel. Commands and rushed steps perpetuated the Room, and Hiccup soon found himself standing stunned amidst other members of the Black Army for agonizing minutes until the entrance doors reopened, and Professor Longbottom walked in, Azel and Merida storming in on his heels as the most hope-driven look ghosted over his face.
"So it's real?" He asked, suddenly looking much younger than his forties showed. "She's coming here?"
"We've sent three of ours to Hogsmead to go after her, the Room must have opened a pathway straight here,"
"Her way in could also be theirs," Jack suggested, and a dark wave seemed to chill through every spine in that Room. "Keep your wands out, everybody."
And just as he said that, a thick and muffled explosion seemed to burst from the door where Aster and Astrid had pierced through. All wands immediately pointed up in a roll, all eyes dead locked on the dark end of the Room of Requirement.
Another rustle shook the door. Hiccup's knuckles whitened with the grasp he held on his wand.
Then the door swung open, and a sharp yelp rose when the dark wandless figure of the monstrous Auror revealed itself from the passage. There was a deafening scream of hexes and curses when hundreds of lightning bolts exploded in the Auror's chest, and he stood still like a statue for an endless second before his body jerked forward, and he fell lifeless against the floor.
"I would appreciate it if you kept your wands down now," The unmistakable voice said from the shadows when Minerva McGonagall stepped out of the door, revealing herself to the roaring army of students.
Hiccup stuttered on his words before finally processing what he was seeing. McGonagall was still alive, a deep bruise on the side of her aged cheeks and her travel cloak was chirmed and ripped at some spots, but she stood as fierce as a lion; Hiccup thought she had never seemed more magnificent.
"Professor, where have you been?" Hiccup asked, his face screwed in shock. "What's happened to you?"
"I'm sure there will be answers to give, Mister Haddock, but now I need you to listen. Hogwarts is in danger; we've been exposed."
A collective cry of horror crossed through the students. "How?"
"Who could've...?"
"We can handle these news later, let's work at the most urgent task right now. If we've been exposed, then the shield surrounding the castle may no longer serve us if the peril comes from within; all the Aurors are under the Imperius curse. They await the Order, that's our advantage, they don't think we can handle a whole bunch of imperiused Aurors; their ignorance is our leverage. So we must act first."
"We don't have a plan yet, Professor!" Longbottom took out his wand as well. "White has been watching every corner of the castle in the last months, Aurors on every entrance, and that bloody army of Slytherin minions of her..." He then noticed the small amount of Slytherins present who eyed him offense. "Sorry."
"That doesn't mean we cannot reach her. She'll come for me. But first, you must deal with the Aurors, and her… minions. Think you can manage that?" Most students took out their wands now, the most determined look on their faces, and a sudden feeling of pride washed over Hiccup. "Good. Now, N.E.W.T's students: stand on every possible entrance, delay the Aurors as much as you possibly can while I deal with White."
"What if I want to fight?" A Gryffindor student from the fifth year protested, and most Gryffindors and quite some Ravenclaws followed.
"If you are at least seventeen years old, you may go." McGonagall dismissed, and the boy gave an unamused humph. "Now, the rest of you must remain here and make the room safe."
"They'll try to join in, Professor!" The same student claimed. "The other students…. they broke down the Halls the other night… I don't doubt they'll butt in the fight."
McGonagall stared at them aflictuous. "Very well… If you think they're in similar battle standing, then O.W.L's may engage, only on other students. Don't try anything other than disarming or hexing…"
Before she could finish, however, the students took their stand, and in nearly orderly fashion, started to stomp out towards the corridors, gripping tightly on their wands, some of them looking back and wishing luck to the small group that consisted of Hiccup, Aster and Azel. Hiccup's eyes followed Jack's all the way as the boy walked towards the exit with an encouraging nod.
"I must say I'm impressed at how you've been resisting, so far no student has got killed." McGonagall said.
"We're just trynna survive here." Aster said darkly.
"And you've done a remarkable job at it." McGonagall adjusted her robes, mending the rips with the tip of her wand. "Now let's go. I've been wanting to put that woman to run ever since she stepped on this school, and I will do just that. And you, Professor Longbottom… Oh, am I proud of this day…" The witch seemed to bright up before following the last student that left the room, disappearing into the corridors.
"Do we go after her?" Aster asked, and Hiccup gave an incredulous look when the castle quaked under their feet.
The two boys sprinted out of the Room of Requirement, and not too long after they felt Hogwarts' walls vibrating; Hiccup knew then that the battle had started more violently than he could have predicted. It seemed that whatever surprise attack from the Black Army exploded on the lower floors, and seemed to travel all the way to the opposite ends of the castle. Soon, most of the students in the castle were storming the corridors with scared looks, filling the halls in a massive crowd. She realised the horror from White's ruling as she ran past the scared students with swollen eyes, emaciated figures and hollow cheeks, as if life had been drained from them.
Hiccup found McGonagall at the bottom of the stairs, stunning away a startled Auror he recognized to guard the entrance of the Clock Tower. He pulled the Labyrinth from the inside of his pockets, looking for White's name; then he nearly cursed in anger as he realised that the Headmistress had not even left her office. "She's not moving yet." He exclaimed to McGonagall.
"Then we will take the fight to her. Keep your eyes on your map, Mister Haddock." McGonagall said before disappearing in the mid of the panicking students, wielding her wand all the way as she ran.
A pair of hands pushed past Hiccup and Aster, and he barely recognized the golden beehive of Azel as she ran into the staircases. The two boys exchanged a conclusive look before they ran the other way. They had barely reached the Great Hall when they encountered a violent battle. Jack and Astrid were shooting spell after spell against a tall wizard that seemed to cast random hexes and jinxes against the walls, lighting the stones and rebounding on every direction; the green light nearly hit the students that scrambled away from the fight.
Hiccup pointed his wand, "Expulso!" And slammed on the Auror's face, knocking him out. The entire Hall was covered in dust and smoke, and a huge section of the ceiling seemed to be burned, as if struck by an explosive curse.
The entire deal of older students battling the Aurors had fallen short; Aurors still retarded by the Imperius curse began targeting any student that came too close, and soon another two Aurors appeared at the centre of the Great Hall, emerging through the terrified crowd of students.
First, Aster and Jack lined up left and right to Hiccup's shoulders, and then Astrid's blonde hair whisked on their sight as she threw the first spell, and their duel began; red and green flashes erupted in the hall, the two Aurors holding their four opponents with mastery that neither of the teens could top. A fifth wand appeared, and they all looked up to Quim Shacklebolt, joining the fight with such fury that the others stepped back. The professor took over the duelling, his first curse shattering the Auror's shield like glass, and soon their wands linked through what seemed like a violent string of fire, heat emerging on the point their wands connected.
The four teens focused again on the other Auror, who finally stumbled as he could not repel the multiple hexes and curses - all rules gone to rubbish. When he finally flopped to the floor, lifting dust and sand on his hard impact, Hiccup started running again, ignoring Jack, who yelled his name. Hiccup slipped through the Entrance Hall and back to the upper floors.
At every corner of the castle, the masks of the Aurors seemed to obliterate as they started to cast actual curses, and a sudden fear rose up in the boy before the shields formed from the members of the Black Army. On the moving staircase, Professor Longbottom fought a tall blonde wizard in black robes, an Auror with a strange twisted face that seemed half troll. They battled fiercely, loud eruptions of magic floating on the air, as they nearly seemed to dance in their duel.
"They're Death Eaters!" Professor Longbottom screamed as he shielded himself against the disguised Auror. Hiccup aimed an explosive jinx, not towards the Death Eater, but at the stairs, which smashed squarely under his feet, and the wizard was yanked down dozens of meters where he stood, the impact never heard amidst the fight.
Most teachers were joining the fight now. Even Sibila Trelawney started shooting her glowing silver globes from the top of the stairs directly at any Auror she could find wandering off beneath her position. Hiccup tripped over a stone gargoyle that had been hexed out of its place and smashed against the floor. "Oh, don't mind me, I'll just lie here and crumble," cried the ugly stone face.
In front of him, not only Aurors slash Death Eaters seemed to be the enemies now, but some students with the Slytherin robes started to sway their wands, the same ones that Hiccup deduced to have shattered the frames and attacked Aster not a week before. Nicholas Stonem was the first one to step forwards against the boy.
"Oh, you so don't want to do this." Hiccup spoke.
"Quiet, you freak…" Stonem screamed, his hand shaking as he prepared to cast his jinx. Hiccup only had to look once at his hand to recognise the wand he had disarmed away months ago. "I want to know what you did to my wand. Now!" He said, pointing the wand into Hiccup's face.
"I did nothing," Hiccup lied. "And I'll do nothing." And that wasn't a lie. "Go ahead."
"You don't think I will?" Stonem's face screwed up in anger while Hiccup's remained impenetrable. "Colocorpus!" He roared, but the ropes that broke out from his wand only casted backwards, and in a moment, Stonem was trashing on the floor, mummified by his own spell, betrayed by the wand that was once his.
"Accio wand!" Hiccup conjured, and the wand at Stonem's hand flew to him in a swift manner. Wielding two wands now, he stared at the other teenagers that seemed to coward as they stared in horror at what had just happened. As they started to run, though, another figure emerged:
"Oh, y'all folks aren't goin' anywhere." Two Slytherin boys raised their wands, one with platinous golden hair and a pointy face, the other with dark rebellious hair and vicious green eyes. "I was never a huge fan of our Slytherins mates; how about you, Al?"
"Not even a little, Scorpius." Said the other, ripping off the green insignia on his robes before chasing after them, brandishing their wands before being followed by Aster and Astrid.
"THEY FOUND IT!" A horrible booming voice screamed from meters beneath Hiccup's position. Hiccup looked down just then, as two fake Aurors erupted in black smoke, shooting upwards as hexes were cast at them.
Then, at every direction the Aurors or Death Eater, Hiccup could net yet tell, seemed to mimic the escape as they all blew into smoke, one by one shooting up against the exits, doors and even windows, smashing glass and bricks on their way out. Hiccup followed their trail all the way to the Entrance Courtyard, where now most students seemed to be gathered, staring off into the starry night as the noise of the fight gave way to the ovation and cheers.
"We did it!" The students started to yell. "No more corrupt Aurors here! The Black Army rules!" Claps and more cheers echoed from the castle, and for a moment Hiccup was sure that he had seen Aster and Astrid share an overly tender hug, their faces mashed together in what could be a kiss under the moonlight.
But Hiccup's mind was worrying far from the celebration. What had they found? He thought. Somehow in the middle of the frenzy students who laughed and yelled in ecstasy, he found Jack; or perhaps it was Jack who had found him. The smile plastered on the white haired boy's face dissipated when he saw Hiccup's worried frown. With no words, Hiccup grabbed Jack's hand, his fingers gripping the other's tightly before he pulled him away from the courtyard, up towards the stairs. His free hand reached for the Labyrinth again.
White remained in her office.
"What's wrong, Hiccup?" Jack stared at him deeply.
However Hiccup was suddenly unable to reply anything, only managing to focus on how a thick layer of soot covered Jack's beautiful face. As if moving on their own, Hiccup's sleeves reached up to clean the dirt. And then both boys froze.
The dust would settle and the battle would die and would there finally be a room for all they wanted to be? All they really were in the first place? Was that day the final day of their game of shadows?
But the sinking feeling still nagged at Hiccup's guts. And as Jack leaned closer to kiss him, Hiccup stepped away.
"White's office." Hiccup shook his head, yanking himself to now, and again the boy pulled him up, now running to the third floor with their lungs burning. This new hope, the fact they had just won this battle, that they could finally be together, it all fueled them like fiendfyre.
And then more thoughts raced his mind; Astrid and Aster had finally kissed, McGonagall would run the school again, no more discriminated persecution on Muggle-borns, Aster would be safe; The whole point of the Black Army had been worth it. Hope filled the boys like a Christmas morning.
As they sped up through the corridors, they started hearing the voices. At the very top of the spiralling staircase before White's office, McGonagall, Professor Longbottom, Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, Azel and Merida were standing in a circle in front of the wooden doors.
"…so she's trapped in there. We can't get in and she can't get out, the opposite walls are blocked with shield charms." Professor Flitwick said, his head the same level as Jack's thighs.
"She can't disapparate?" Azel asked, but Merida immediately replied that-
"One cannot disapparate from Hogwarts!"
"Unless you're me, that is." McGonagall interjected with a sharp note.
The two boys stepped closer, still breathing heavily from their race up the stairs. The group seemingly paid them no mind as they approached. "We need to bring in the Order now, Headmistress." Professor Longbottom said, his face completely covered in black dirt. "Most of the guards are gone now, we need ours here before they decide to bring back-ups."
"Yes, naturally… You and Professor Sprout go right back to the Room of Requirement and find out how to call the Order immediately."
Professor Longbottom nodded, turning then to Hiccup. "Nice shot back there, Haddock." And with that, Longbottom ran back down the staircase, sprinting off to the seventh floor.
"Are you alright?" Hiccup asked Merida, and the red haired Slytherin nodded with a victorious smile.
"Those oorors had no business on me and Azel here," She gestured to her friend. "We neerly got caught by those losers defending White. They're tossers really, couldn't strike a hex right even if it was standin' still in front of them."
"Merida was amazing." Azel nodded, and Hiccup noticed how her beehive seemed crooked on her head, some strands of her golden blonde hair loose and hanging until they brushed the girl's hips. "McGonagall helped us in the fight too, but White hasn't moved from her office this whole time."
"A coward move." McGonagall interjected while the dwarf professor Flitwick started conjuring a terribly complicated spell on the doorknob, trying to unlock it. "Hiding in a hole like a scared rat while the fight-"
An explosion erupted from the bottom of the stairs, as if the ground beneath them had waved like a tapestry, throwing everything upwards. As Jack flew on nothingness, he only had time to see Hiccup's hand hovering a few meters away from his, a weightless feeling as he reached up to protect the one thing that meant more to him than himself, hugging the smaller body against his chest as they rotated on the air before falling from the edge of the staircase, until they crashed on a pile of rubble.
When he opened his eyes again, the world was a mess of pain and darkness. Everything seemed to go on slow motion, the sparks and flames cascading over their tangled bodies; Hiccup's terrified face with his hands clenching Jack's chest, a fresh bleeding cut over his thick eyebrows as he tried to focus on the other's face.
"Are you hurt?!" His words sounded faint and barely discernible. It took ages until sounds made sense again, and Hiccup shook his head.
They struggled to stand up, off-balance, hands tightly clasped as they looked around. The tower was covered in wrecks, broken stones from the walls had piled up over the steps of stairs, some of which were now missing. Several feet beneath them, Azel cried in pain as blood leaked from a deep cut on her leg, Merida on her knees next to her friend, holding the blonde hair away from the girl's face as her own wild red hair spiked on every direction, burnt up in some areas.
Hiccup looked up where the door was, finally opened, but unscratched, indifferent to the colossal explosion that had just shook the tower. Next to them, McGonagall stood, supporting herself on the broken handrail, most of which had fallen to the bottom of the spiral stairs.
"Where is she?" The Professor hissed, gripping her wand firmly.
Professor Flitwick emerged at last from the rubble, his glasses crooked on his face, pointing his wand to the door where a strange sort of cold seemed to leak from the inside. A silver mist sipped from White's office, giving way for the short witch to walk out, wand in hand as she looked down to the disastrous state of the tower.
"Well, I must say I've hoped for better." She spoke in her usual high pitched voice as she stared up at McGonagall.
"Surrender your wand." Flitwick warned.
"Oh, you don't want me to do that." She replied, and only then Hiccup saw the silver flame dancing from the tip of her wand. "You see, he is really consuming my focus. Cast me out and he'll be let loose in the school."
"We can handle a Dementor, you old prick." McGonagall said.
"Is that so?" White gave a daring look at the wizards. "Finite!"
In a second, the Dementor burst out of the room, knocking Flitwick to the floor and advancing to the students. "Expecto Patronum!" Hiccup exclaimed, but nothing came out of his wand, and Jack's hand held even tighter on his. A silver and blue cat appeared however, as McGonagall casted her charm first, and the Dementor set off to the window, shattering and escaping to the outside.
Then the two witches roared into battle.
The blue lightning erupted from McGonagall's wand and struck White's shield in a storm of sound and sparks. Only then, Hiccup realised how much White had hidden away her own power. The shield broke into a wall of daggers, shot at McGonagall so quickly that the witch only had time to shuffle them to the opposite wall, the teens docking their heads as the metal blades fell over them and down the stairs into the abyss. McGonagall brandished her wand again, and fire ropes advanced against the other witch, ready to circle White on a lasso, until the other witch blasted it into smoke, which solidified and reformed into a gigantic snake, opening its mouth wide to McGonagall, ready to attack, bounding the witch dangerously close to the edge of the stairs.
"Minerva!" Said a squeaky voice when Flitwick again stood on his feet, his own wand now blasting stunning spells up against White.
The snake had turned into a cold black stone, exploding in sand after McGonagall slammed it back against the Headmistress, and the two duellist rounded each other again before Flitwick hexed the floor beneath White's feet, rolling her out of balance, and with a sharp tug of her wand, McGonagall knocked her out from the staircase.
"Levicorpus!" McGonagall summoned, and White gave a piercing scream before she levitated up in the air, hanging from her ankles in the centre of the spiralling staircase, over the dark abyss.
"Cowards!" White screamed and thrashed, "Cowards! Two against one!"
"You will do no more harm at Hogwarts!" Flitwick yelled back as he conjured the witch's wand with his own, "Reducto!"
"No!" White agonized in despair as he blasted her wand into ashes before her eyes. Looking down, Hiccup and Jack realised how most of the students had followed the sound of this last battle, filling the bottom of the tower and climbing up as much as they could to the witches, until a crowd formed on the stairs.
"He will not let me live through this!" White cried. "He'll know I've failed, he'll know…"
She shrieked in horror now, tears trickling down her cheeks. "Who are you serving?" McGonagall asked in a harsh tone. White had a demented look, now completely out of herself.
"If I tell you, he'll kill me." She spoke. "I cannot do this."
"There will be much more to kill for if you don't say anything." McGonagall warned, stepping closer to the edge of the staircase when something else brought everyone's attention. "Do something noble at least; courage, woman!"
A tremor shook the castle's grounds. The wind from the outside, seemed to intensify, as if intending to knock down a tower with its force. The small spots with fire waved and shrieked into sparks, and the crowd of students screamed. Another tremor occurred.
"He is coming." White said in a small pitched voice as more tears came down her face.
"Who is coming, Agatha?" McGonagall asked again, now worry and pity taking over hate for the witch before her. Agatha White shook in fear.
"The Order of the Seven," She said, her voice now barely a whisper. "I gave them what they wanted. They are coming… The Obscurus is coming."
And immediately her features twisted into a face of pain and madness, her eyes rolling in their orbits as she was suspended upside down on the top of the tower, her limbs pulling into a painful contortion as she screamed. And then she went silent, air still filling her lungs as her soul parted from her body, floating over the crowd who gave shallow whimpers she no longer could hear.
