I own nothing but the plot, and not even all of that
"Wood saves another attempt by Slytherin to score," Lee Jordon announced, "and the quaffle is back in the hands of Katie Bell. Bell passes to Spinnet, back to Bell, over to Johnson... No! Slytherin beater Lucian Bole knocks the quaffle out of Johnson's grip. It's picked up by Graham Montague, he passes it to Flint, to Pucey, Pucey dives to avoid a bludger sent his way by one of the Weasleys, he pulls up and throws... Arrg! Slytherin scores! That ties the game, sixty to sixty."
The Gryffindors groaned while the Slytherins screamed their approval. The quidditch game had been going on for several hours. The two teams were well matched, and the score had stayed close for the entire game.
"Alicia Spinnet takes the quaffle," Lee continued, "Flint dives at her and she dodges, Derrick fires a bludger and it's blocked by the Gryffindor beaters, Spinnet shoots... she scores, Gryffindor regains the lead, seventy to sixty!" Lee clicked a lever which added ten points to the Gryffindor tally on the scoreboard.
"Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint takes the quaffle" Lee called. "Katie Bell tries to steal it.. That's a foul!" Lee's yell of outrage coincided with Madam Hooch's whistle.
"Slytherin is penalized for cobbing," Lee announced. "Katie Bell takes the penalty shot... she scores! Eighty sixty to Gryffindor! Mike Bletchly takes the quaffle for Slytherin, he dodges around Johnson... Wait a moment! Higgs and McLaggen are diving! One of them has seen the snitch! Higgs is in front! He reaches out and... Foul!" Madam Hooch blew her whistle again. "Cormac McLaggen is penalized for blatching. Slytherin gets a penalty shot, but the snitch has escaped." The Slytherins booed and hissed, while the Gryffindors cheered McLaggen on.
"Pucey takes the penalty shot for Slytherin," announced Lee. "He throws and... it's blocked by Oliver Wood! Wood throws it to Johnson, Johnson to... Wait, what's that?"
A loud, deep ringing from a bell began tolling. Madam Hooch blew her whistle to stop the gameplay. Headmistress McGonagall rushed to Lee Jordan and took his place at the megaphone.
"All students are to remain here at the quidditch pitch," she announced. "Heads of houses will accompany me to the castle, all other staff is to remain with the student body. This match is halted, and will likely be canceled." After exchanging some words with Oliver Wood regarding whether she actually could cancel quidditch, she joined Professors Flitwick, Snape and Sprout at the bottom of the announcer box. Professor Lockhart joined them.
"I'll join you, if you don't mind," Lockhart said.
"You are not a head of house," Snape objected.
"But I am the Defense professor," countered Lockhart.
McGonagall considered it. While she was usually distrustful of any Defense professor due to the jinx on the position, she had gained a large measure of respect for him over the course of the school year."
"Yes," she decided. "I would appreciate your help, Professor Lockhart."
Professor Snape snorted in disgust, but didn't otherwise object. The five of them hurried to the castle, where the bell was still ringing its alarm.
Harry and Neville shared a worried glance. Lavender Brown was standing behind them
"Where's Hermione?" she asked.
"Still in the castle," Harry said, softly. "We shouldn't have left her." The uneasy feeling he'd had since he and Neville had left the castle had exploded into a sense of extreme worry. He was berating himself for ignoring his feelings. The prefects were taking a headcount and asking which students were known to still be in the school. Percy approached Harry.
"Have you seen Ron or Ginny?" he asked.
"I saw Ron in the Common Room before breakfast," Harry answered. "He said he was going to wait for Ginny. I haven't seen her all day."
"Same here," agreed Neville.
"It's not like Ron to miss a quidditch match," Percy said with a frown.
"I hope everything is ok," Neville said, plaintively.
After Percy left to complete his headcount, Harry took out his communicator. He tried to get ahold of the troopers, but he received nothing but static.
Lucius Malfoy was met by Theodore Nott Sr. as he exited the floo at the Leaky Cauldron.
"Nott," Lucius said, acknowledging the older man as he brushed soot off of his robes.
"Malfoy," Nott replied. "We're due in twenty minutes. Let's walk there."
"As you wish," Malfoy agreed. Once they entered Diagon Alley, Malfoy cast a Muffliato on them.
"Why has the Board called a meeting?" asked Malfoy.
"The Board is removing you from the High Inquisitor position and reinstating Dumbledore as Headmaster," Nott answered, bluntly. Malfoy stopped in shock for a moment, they rushed to catch up with Nott, who had not stopped.
"May I ask why?" he asked, coldly.
"Circumstances have changed," Nott said.
"I have only just arrived there," Malloy protested. "I still have things to do."
"Not anymore," Nott said, not looking at Malfoy. Lucius grabbed Nott's arm and pulled him into an empty alcove.
"Tell me what has changed," Malfoy insisted.
"Dumbledore is giving up the Muggle Protection Act," Nott said. "Removing you and putting him back in place was his price. We're paying it."
"This is more important than the Mudblood fantasies of a blood traitor," Malloy hissed. "I can bring back our Lord!"
"You-Know-Who is dead," Nott said. "Harry Potter killed him."
"Whatever happened," Lucius said, "I doubt it was the infant. Regardless, I have the means to bring him back "
"Why would you want to?" Nott asked.
"What?" Lucius asked, staring at the other man in disbelief.
"I remember very well what it was like when he was in charge," Nott said. "I joined him because he said he'd rid our world of Muggleborn and muggle influences. We were supposed to have power. Riches. What actually happened? We poured our family fortunes into his coffers and licked his boots. We were tortured for failing. Hell, we were tortured for succeeding when we weren't told to. How many galleons did you give him last time?"
"I gave him everything, and would gladly do so again," Lucius said.
"Precisely," Nott scoffed. "And you'll be poor again, crawling on your belly in the dirt to kiss his feet. It's taken us ten years to recover what we gave him. Now you want him back?"
"The money doesn't matter," insisted Malloy. "Once we rid the Mudbloods from our world, we will be rewarded beyond the dreams of Croesus."
"We're already ridding our world of them," Nott said, "and getting rich doing it, too. Do you have any idea how much Runcorn has made providing portkeys to Muggleborns and their families to get them out of Britain? He charges half what the ministry does and still makes a fortune. They go elsewhere and leave their money here."
"My plan is already in motion," Malfoy said, getting more worried about the Board ruining everything.
"Then I suppose you best hope it fails," Nott said. He turned and resumed walking to the meeting hall.
The students waited impatiently in the stands. The professors who remained patrolled through and around the children. After a tense half hour, Headmistress McGonagall returned to the Quidditch pitch along with Professor Snape. They were followed by a few dozen students. Harry and Neville searched, but didn't see Hermione, Ron, or Ginny in the new group. Snape went to the Slytherin stands, whispered in Draco's ear, and guided him through the crowd. McGonagall climbed to the announcers box and activated the megaphone to address the students.
"May I have your attention, please?" she said. "There has been another attack. Hogwarts will be closing until further notice. We are making arrangements for you to be returned to your homes until this situation is resolved. You will not be returning to the castle, which is being evacuated now. The Hogwarts Express will arrive to pick you all up in a few hours. Please be patient and remain in the stands until you can be escorted to the station. Your belongings will be packed for you. If you are in fifth or seventh year and you have any questions about OWL or NEWT exam preparation or schedules, please owl them to myself or the ministry exam authority as soon as possible. Please trust that we will resolve this and reopen as quickly as and as safely as we can. Thank you."
Ignoring the explosion of questions and shocked faces, Harry and Neville made a beeline for McGonagall.
"Professor," Harry said, "where is Hermione?"
"I suppose you two should come with me," McGonagall said. "Stay close to me, though." She led the two Gryffindors out of the quidditch stadium and towards the castle.
Harry and Neville followed Professor McGonagall through the castle. Finally, they entered the hospital wing. Harry froze at the sight before him. Their wands outstretched, Professors Flitwick and Lockhart were levitating Hermione Granger and Pansy Parkinson onto hospital beds. Both of them had nearly identical looks of horror frozen on their faces. Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy stood by Pansy's bed. Snape had one hand on Draco's shoulder, giving the young Slytherin whatever emotional support he could.
"Hermione," Harry whispered. He began to breathe heavier, his emotions out of control. It suddenly felt like a motor inside his head had broken loose and was spinning out of control. Faster and faster it filled his head with an angry buzz like a swarm of bees.
"They were found together," Professor McGonagall said, "outside the library entrance. Unfortunately, they were not the only ones attacked today." She gestured to a corner of the room.
Doc was petrified, standing with a first aid kit in her hand, looking towards the Hospital entrance with surprise etched on her face. Rev, however, had been more prepared. He had clearly used Doc's frozen body as a shield. He used the cover she provided to try and attack the intruder. He had paid for it with his life, though. He had a small laser pistol in his hand and an arrow sticking out of his forehead.
Harry's emotions were spiraling out of control. He jerked his head to his left and saw the still petrified figure of Master Toma. His hands still grasping his lightsaber, his master was unable to guide him through the torment of fury that was flowing through him. He whipped his head to his right to see Madame Pomfrey standing near a hospital bed. She, too, was petrified. Her hands were raised in a defensive pose. It was clear she had tried to shield her patient at her own expense.
Ronald Weasley was also frozen. He was poised sitting on the floor, his posture indicating that he had been in a panic, scooting backward when he was attacked. Harry looked back to Hermione. He dropped to his knees, a scream ripping from his throat. A shockwave erupted from the very center of his being. Every person in the Hospital Wing was knocked to the floor except for Professor Snape. The Potions Master had been approaching Harry, and caught the full force of the blast. Snape was thrown into the wall by the the power of the wave. His head slammed into the stone, knocking him unconscious. As Snape sank to the floor, every window on the third floor of the castle blew outward as the wave blasted out. The stone underneath Harry's knees cracked and a tremor began to shake the room.
Throughout the the castle several portraits fell off of the walls, their occupants scrambling to neighboring frames. In a seldom used girls bathroom on the second floor, a sink whose faucet had always been broken suddenly broke free of the column that it had clung to for over two hundred years. It fell out and forward only an inch, but it was enough to reveal the black emptiness of a passageway behind it.
"Mr. Potter!" cried professor McGonagall. The tremors ceased. Everyone in the Hospital Wing except for the injured potions master and the petrified victims scrambled to their feet. Potion bottles had shattered with the shockwave, and their contents were dripping down cabinets to the floor. Professor Lockhart was holding a handkerchief to a small cut on his forehead.
"This ends now," Harry snarled. Standing up, he turned and stalked out of the hospital wing. No one spoke or moved for a moment, staring after Harry in shock. Neville raced after him. Finally, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick rushed to Professor Snape's side.
Draco gave Pansy's hand a squeeze, kissed her frozen cheek, and ran out the door following Harry and Neville.
"Mr. Malfoy!" Professor Lockhart shouted as he ran after Draco. "Stop!"
Lockhart ran after Draco, who dashed down the main staircase. He ran into the second floor corridor. Suddenly, the young boy skidded to a halt. Reaching out, Lockhart grabbed him by his shoulder, then saw what had st Draco in his tracks.
Commander Dameron, still fully ensconced in his battle armor, stood still as a statue, pointing his rifle down the hallway. Two of the troopers lay on the floor, either unconscious or dead. Broken arrows lay on the ground next to them. Ice was also petrified. Her helmet was off and next to her on the floor. She was on one knee by one of the prone men, her face uncharacteristically frozen in an expression of fear.
It wasn't the downed troopers that had halted Malfoy, though. Propped against a wall was a woman, clutching a small bow. At first, Draco thought something had fallen on her, since he could only see her from the waist up. She wore no clothes, with her only conceit to modesty being a leather strap fastened around her chest. It was not quite adequate to cover her breasts. A quiver of arrows was attached to the back of the harness. Just below the strap, a smoking hole gutted her abdomen. She had obviously been shot by one of the troopers.
The woman's hair was braided into thick, dark green ropes. It was only after seeing several of the braids twitch that Draco realized her hair was actually composed of once living snakes. The woman was dead, though, and the snakes were dying with her.
She wasn't only a woman, however. Draco saw his initial impression of a woman with something fallen on top of her legs was wrong. Just below her navel, the texture of her skin mottled and blended into green scales. She had the appearance of a woman from the waist up, but from the waist down she was a snake. Where her legs should have been was the long, tapering body of a serpent.
"A Gorgon!" exclaimed Professor Lockhart.
"More than one," Draco said, softly. Lockhart looked to where Draco was pointing and saw another of the half-woman/half-snake creatures lying facedown on the floor.
They saw movement at the end of the corridor, and observed Harry, Neville, and two of the remaining troopers entering a girls bathroom. Shaking off Lockhart's hand, Malfoy ran to join them.
"Blast it!" Lockhart protested, "Just stop, will you?" He rushed after the boy into the bathroom and found Harry and the troopers examining the damaged sink.
"What in Merlin's name is going on here?" Lockhart demanded. "I insist that the three of you return to the hospital wing at once!" The boys ignored him.
"Report," Harry ordered, addressing the troopers. The sergeant for Red Team took his helmet off and addressed Harry.
"Red team was standing watch, per orders, sir." Red Sarge reported. "The Commander was with us. Everything was going fine when four of those things came slithering out of this room. There was no warning. Commander Dameron ordered them to halt. One of them… shrieked at him. I don't know how it did it, but the Commander was frozen. The rest of us opened fire. Whatever those things are, they're fast. We took two of them out, but they got Red 2 and 4 first. The other two hostiles fled out to the staircase."
"That's probably when they attacked Pansy and Granger," Draco interjected. "They'd pass right by the library on their way to the Hospital Wing."
"During the engagement," Red Sarge continued, "we sent out an alert to the squad, but the firefight only lasted a few seconds."
"The quidditch stadium," Harry said. "There's something about it that interferes with my com. I never got the alert."
"Red 3 started first aid on the casualties," Red Sarge said, "but about two or three minutes later the hostiles returned. They'd taken a student and one of the hostiles was dragging her behind it by her hair. Poor girl was screaming the whole way."
"Description of the student?" Harry asked.
"It was the girl with the red hair and the book you've been worrying about," Red Sarge answered.
"Ginny," Harry said, then nodded for the trooper to continue.
"The hostiles froze Ice before she could even stand," Red Sarge said, "but I think that was just because Ice was in the way. Red 5 and I weren't directly in their path, and they did not engage us. We couldn't fire on them without endangering the hostage, though, and the hostiles took the girl in here. We followed, just in time to see the sink here seal up. Blue team arrived about then. We were trying to get through the wall when the entire room shook like there was an earthquake. The sink broke off the wall. You showed up only a minute or two after that, sir."
Harry turned from Red Sarge and examined the sink.
"Mr. Potter," Lockhart said, "now that we know where the entrance is, I must insist you leave this to the staff. I want you, Mr. Malfoy, and Mr. Longbottom to get back to the Hospital Wing at once."
"What are your orders, sir?" Red Sarge asked.
"Do not ignore me!" Lockhart protested.
Harry glared at the sink for a few seconds, then reached his hand out. He made a fist, then yanked it back to his body. The sink tore itself off the wall and clattered to the floor at Lockhart's feet. Harry peered down the black hole the sink had been covering.
"Red team, get your casualties to the hospital wing. Rev, Doc and Madam Pomfrey are all down, so do the best you can. Coordinate with Professor Sprout on how to get these Mandrakes from somewhere else. I don't care if its legal or not. Find out where to get it, take the transport, and retrieve it. Blue team, you're with me. Save the girl," he answered, "kill the beasts." Without another word, Harry stepped forward and dropped into the hole. Neville, intent on following Harry anywhere, immediately jumped after him.
The remnants of Red Team left the bathroom to follow Harry's orders. One after another, Blue team dropped in after Harry and Neville. Draco dashed forward and jumped in to follow.
"Oh, for crying out loud," Lockhart huffed as he walked to the hole and squinted down into the depths. "Gryffindors!" he yelled down the hole. "The lot of you!"
"Am not!" Draco Malfoy's voice drifted back up to him.
"Am not," Lockhart muttered in a childish, mocking tone. "You're bloody well acting like it!" he shouted back. He waved his wand, and conjured a length of rope. Two wand swishes later, one end of the rope tied itself in a loop, while the other end tied off to a broken pipe jutting over the entrance. Fitting his foot into the loop, Lockhart grabbed hold of the rope and tapped it with his wand. Gilderoy Lockhart stood straight and dignified as the rope magically lengthened, lowering him into the darkness below. "There's a proper way of doing these things, after all," he said to himself.
A/N I hate quidditch. I hope my commentary was enough to portray the action of the game.