A/N: Here's part 2!
Chapter 23 - The State of Affairs - Part II
Corey Mullen reached into his pocket and withdrew the small, parchment-wrapped parcel he'd been given to use, once the darkness spell had been cast. He held it on his outstretched and open palm, gently untied the string, and let its wrappings fall away to reveal a cube of some sort of substance that looked like sugar. Max Stoner grinned in satisfaction, and used his fingers to flick the cube off of Corey's hand, in the manner he'd been taught would engage its magic.
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"Claritas maximus!" Lucius cast emphatically. He snapped his wand to release the large ball of intense light, then cast the charm again and again, until there were several worthless clusters of dim light in front of him that did nothing to illuminate the rest of the corridor. He looked around for Harry and Severus but neither was visible. Nothing was visible.
"Remus? Albus? Minerva?" He was yelling loudly enough to stress his throat.
Blast the bastards who are doing this! They'd engaged some form of silencing charm.
Lucius couldn't hear the others, and they couldn't hear him. He pulled his coin out and shouted his message, pressing his wand to it, but nothing came through. Silently then? That worked. But he was unable to read his own message on his coin! That was how thick and dense this darkness truly was.
How metaphorical.
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Harry remembered the bright light spell and wandlessly cast it with his right hand while he shielded himself with his left. This is bloody scary, he thought, like a muggle horror film. He felt his coin activating, but couldn't hold his shield and the light, and fish the coin out to read it. "Professor?" he called out softly, but he could see nothing beyond the very dim bubble of light his Claritas maximus was providing. There was something muted about the way his voice sounded. The darkness was impenetrable, and if he wasn't careful, he'd lose his sense of direction. He stepped slowly to his right, with that hand stretched out to the side, reaching for the wall of the corridor to get his bearings. There was nothing within his reach, so he took another step, and then another. Nothing!
I can't do too much wandlessly, he reminded himself. He could risk magical exhaustion before he'd reached safety. He kept his left hand out in front of him, holding his Protego shield, as he shook his wand from his right sleeve.
He tried one more step, as fear drove him to do what he did best under pressure: review all of the spells he knew. He realized he could cast his Patronus while still holding his full bodied shield. His stag appeared, but in the dense darkness, it had only a thready form of dull, milky light. Go check on Severus. It rushed off as Harry stretched his wand arm out to the side again, and reached one last time for the wall. Harry began to pant with anxiety, but then his wand tip hit stone.
He reached into his pocket for a vial of his potion.
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This darkness is damned paralyzing. Of course, the veil of silence was equally eerie. There was no point in calling for the others.
Remus gauged his location to be somewhere between Albus and Minerva, who were doubtlessly headed upstairs to assess the threat to the students, and Lucius, who'd lurked behind, waiting to be certain that Harry and Severus didn't have a bad clash.
Remus flicked his wand again and again, creating a very large pile of globes of extremely bright light, which, in normal darkness, could each individually light up an entire chamber. But in this unnatural lack of light, these intensely lit balls of bright white flame needed to work as a team to get their job done.
"Tripudio!" Remus swept his wand around, and around, like he was cranking a giant wheel. The globes shot into the darkness in a straight line, equidistant, and at high speed, briefly lighting the immediate space in front of him, before disappearing from sight after they'd traveled little more than a meter.
When he'd swept the last of the balls of white light down the path that should lead to his friends, Remus cast a Claritas maximus and began a slow jog into the dingy darkness.
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Severus had had the sense to dart forward a dozen paces immediately as the darkness had set in. Instinct told him the assailants were approaching from behind. So, unbeknownst to him, he did exactly what Harry had just done, and searched for the wall of the corridor so that he could trace his path toward the young teen, and get them both out of this trap, and up to safety.
He Occluded his fear and pressed ahead, wand hand tracing the wall, while his right palm tingled with its readiness to cast defensive - or, better yet, offensive - magic. "Harry," he said it as a statement of fact, since the magical field of silence obstructed the boy from hearing his approach.
ZZZzzzzzt!
A strip of magical energy sped by, close enough to ruffle Severus' (clean) hair, it's iridescent yellow-orange color telling him it was his own slicing spell, Sectum sempra. And he knew with absolute certainty that this was another ambush, orchestrated by Bellatrix LeStrange. Rage and disgust flared in his chest, drowning the shame and sorrow he'd been swimming in mere moments prior, as he spun back, whipping his wand arm viciously across his chest to cast one - two - three of the most powerful, broadly swathed Bombarda's he'd ever issued from his wand. The deafening silence refused to reveal whether his magic had made impact on the assailants.
Where the hell is Harry?
And damned if the boy's Patronus didn't appear at that moment. Clearly, Harry is fine.
Severus exhaled harshly, releasing debilitating tension. He cast his doe and sent it to reassure the teen. He pulled out a vial of the protection potion and downed it. Then he rethought his intentions. The danger was behind him, and would remain a threat, if he pressed forward.
"Enough!" He took flight and rushed back into the darkness, toward their assailants. This was ending now.
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Corey and Max had retreated around the corner after setting off the silencing "bomb." Good thing, that. Professor Snape was a bit cross with them just now. Those Bombarda's could have pulverized their bones into sawdust, had either of the rogue students been within range.
No matter, though. Their instructions had been to set the trap, capture or maim Professor Snape, grab ickle Harry Potter, and then head back upstairs via the back passage with its direct, but quite narrow, spiral staircase that accessed every floor.
Corey made the mistake of peaking around the corner to check on their captives, just as Severus reached it.
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"Sui levetate," Lucius said loudly, pointing his wand toward the floor and taking a very, very daring risk of losing his bearings entirely as he levitated his body up, up, up until his back made contact with the rough stone of the ceiling, some fourteen feet above the floor. His first priority was Harry, and then his friends, but he also battled a very paralyzing fear that his son was under attack somewhere else in the castle.
A globe of dim light zoomed past, a few feet beneath his prone body. That would be Remus' handiwork. Remus is unharmed, then. So far.
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Something had hit Harry's shield. He'd barely seen the fading spell, and could tell it had lost much of its power by the time it had gotten to him, but he knew it was that awful slicing spell that Strickland had casted at him, after he'd gotten free of Thicknesse. That scared him. That meant that Severus had been somewhere between him, and the caster of that evil spell. Had he been hit by a different round of it?
He saw a weird flash of light overhead that sped by, and then another and then another. After about a dozen of them had passed, one stopped over his head and hovered in place. Another stopped just before it, casting enough light for Harry to see a path forming. He didn't need to be shown a map to know he was expected to run towards that light. But he couldn't. He wouldn't. Not without knowing what had become of Severus.
As if the thought had triggered a direct response, a filmy doe Patronus ran right up to him and "nudged" his shoulder as if telling him to retreat. Now.
Fine.
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Lucius saw the barely visible form of Harry Potter run along the passage beneath, and back towards Remus and the others. He felt a wave of relief wash over him. Next he needed to find Severus. He also realized he could cast his Patronus without a message to find his friend, and hopefully induce a response. Moments later Severus' doe revealed itself in the dim light.
He knew his friend well enough to know that Severus would have taken flight by now.
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Severus' Claritas maximus had served him quite well, in that it had revealed the end of the passage, just early enough to prevent a horrible collision between his skull and the centuries-old stone. It had also revealed the shocked, goggled eyes of one Corey Mullen of Ravenclaw, thinking himself safely hidden around the corner, while poised to attack, but not expecting Severus to be flying several feet overhead.
"Pulsas." Severus said coldly, jerking his wand to cast the magic that blasted the seventh year brutally backward, and far, far down the stone passage behind him, into the inky darkness. Severus' right hand casted a Deflecto shield a split second later, although he had to guess where the next attack might come from, because his vision was again limited to what was in front of his face.
And there was no way Mullen had taken this on all by himself.
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Remus saw Harry running toward him and sighed in deep relief. He motioned for the younger wizard to stay close to the stone wall, and they stood, side by side, while Remus messaged Albus about how to counter the jinxes that were paralyzing them.
The darkness spell incantation was Tenebris, Harry added. He was still holding his shield with his left hand, but now had been able to take advantage of the dim light, and reach his other hand to hover over Remus' coin, while thinking the words he wished to communicate.
Albus' message came quickly and fortunately Harry had by then pulled his own coin out of his pocket and put it under Remus' light to read.
The counter spell to Tenebris….. is Perago….. the silence is likely caused….. by an enchanted parcel….. It will be quite small….. Try to summon it…. When you retrieve it,….. smash it underfoot…..
Harry looked at Remus and pointed to his eyes, and then to himself, and then drew his wand and cast as forcefully as he could, "Perago!"
Remus had simultaneously yelled, "Accio parcel!"
The darkness reversed, and the hall grew extremely bright from all of their magical lighting, combined with the normal torches that lit the passage. Harry saw it first, but Remus was ready. There was no mistaking the tiny white cube that soared like a bullet to Remus' open palm. He dropped it to the floor and smashed it.
"Well done!" they said to each other in unison as they turned to look down the corridor to see both Lucius and Severus in the air.
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Oh, thank Merlin, Lucius thought as the sights and sounds returned. He lowered himself down to the floor and broke into a run, chasing after where he'd last seen Severus. He could hear the running footsteps of Remus, and likely Harry not far behind him.
But when he rounded the corner, he saw no sign of his best friend. He saw only the crumpled form of a student in Ravenclaw robes, who clearly had gotten his comeuppance for his misdeeds.
"The back stairwell!" Harry yelled from behind him. Lucius spun and held up a hand, and a silent warning via his most stern expression, to suggest that young Mister Potter stay right where he was.
Remus charged past Lucius, knowing of the stairwell, as all professors did. Lucius followed at a jog, looking back twice to make sure Harry stayed put.
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Harry was shaking. No, he was vibrating with suppressed angst. He was scared for Severus, although something told him he needn't be. But still. He stood, helplessly watching while Remus attempted to open the passage to access the stairwell, but it had been enchanted tightly shut. Severus wouldn't have sealed us out like that….
Now Remus and Lucius both were running back toward him at top speed. Harry ran too, struggling to keep up with them, back past the section of the corridor they'd last gathered near while Dumbledore had explained his plans, and beyond, to another short stairwell that fed into the one from the dungeons, which took them to up to the school's grand entrance. It was right about then that the noise on the main level registered with Harry.
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McGonagall waited long enough to give each of them an appraising look, as Harry and the others reached the top of the stairwell, before bustling off. "Students! Students, be calm, please," She called out as she headed to the podium in the Great Hall. "The excitement is contained, thank you, and you are welcome to enjoy your evening meal now." Her attention was on something she was holding in her hands, but she had her back to them all as she moved forward.
A message came through the coin then: I may need to review….. with you how to emphasize….. the appropriate circumstances for….. defensive magic, Mr. Potter…..
"Wha-?" Harry muttered, confused and still quite distressed to not know what had become of Severus. And where was Dumbledore? Harry at least could tell by the expressions on Remus' and Lucius' faces that they were as much in the dark as he.
Harry caught a whiff of skunk.
"Wotcher, Harry!" Tonks said from behind him. Harry spun, along with the other two adult wizards, to see Tonks levitating the magically restrained form of Corey Mullen in front of her as she crested the top stair. Kingsley Shacklebolt was right behind her. Both were dressed in their auror robes and looked to be here on official Ministry Law Enforcement business.
"Where'd you come from?" Remus asked Tonks, his expression softening, just a bit, at the sight of her.
"Albus floo-called us about this bit of trouble," Tonks said, lowering the volume of her response so that the students in the Great Hall couldn't hear. "We came through his floo, and headed down to gather up this bloke." She looked Mullen over with a disgusted glare. "And this one wears the badge of a Prefect." A flick of her wand and a patch made of robe fabric formed, stitched messily with red thread, to cover what should have indicated honorable character.
"I think you nearly cracked his skull when you threw him through the floo, Severus," Mad-Eye Moody was saying from somewhere in the stairwell. A pair of extremely large, clownish feet appeared, and then the prone and levitating body and head of Maxwell Stoner emerged from the top of the stairwell, followed by Mad-Eye, and then an auror Harry had seen in Dumbledore's office not so long ago, named John Dawlish. Finally, after them, Severus appeared.
Without thinking about how it might look, Harry darted over to his professor, looking him up and down to see if he was injured, before stopping himself at the last minute. He hesitated for a full second before flinging himself at Severus and hugging him hard.
"You're alright," Severus said. It was more of a statement of fact, but said in a tone that would have allowed for Harry to contradict him, if necessary. He nearly laughed when the boy muttered something about the scent of skunk, as he set his chin on Harry's head for a second before squeezing him warmly and releasing him.
"I think I might be in some sort of trouble with my Head of House, though," Harry said as he pulled away, still shaking, but feeling immense relief.
Albus crested the top of the stairwell next and had to circle around his two favorite dark haired wizards, but the sight of them back on friendly ground eased his own angst. He had a rolled scroll in his hand, an announcement from the Ministry of Magic to share, but first he wanted to address Harry's concerns. "You're not in trouble, Harry, not at all," he said, smiling as the boy turned to look at him, but continuing to stay close to Severus. "There's just been a bit of an issue with a rather extensive delivery of chocolate frogs."
"Oh!" Harry exclaimed, clapping his head. "I'd forgotten! They're for the DA."
"Yes, well, some third years seemed to believe they needed to take it upon themselves to receive your delivery during the lunch hour," Albus continued, hiding his amusement. "I'll abbreviate the story by explaining that Professor McGonagall was unimpressed with the numerous spilled goblets, and the pile of collapsed bodies, Harry. Apparently, these resulted from extensive use of a large hands jinx, and the clown foot hex, among the students engaged in contest to demonstrate mastery of their skills as qualification." He finally allowed his smile to break through, while watching Harry wrestle with the desire to laugh.
"I'll definitely bring this up at the next meeting, sir," Harry said. "And I'll apologize to Professor McGonagall." He meant it, but he was unable to stop his eyes from rolling.
"I thought the rest of you would want to know that Cornelius Fudge has officially resigned from the Ministry of Magic," Albus said next. "I'm hopeful that his replacement, Rufus Scrimgeour, will be more friend than foe of Hogwarts."
