Here's Chapter 18. Please leave a review.
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Chapter Eighteen
The ten moved up daily, approaching 100-200 miles a day. Catching busses. While on the bus, Hermione would book a few rooms at the hotel.
They had worked out that they were only 50 miles or so from Hogsmede. They caught the bus up the next day, as close as they could get. On the outskirts of Inverness, next to the Scottish Highlands.
It was then, that they had been instructed to walk. By Hermione, of course.
The entirety of the walk, they discussed their plan. Draco, Blaise and Theo would go in first. Draco and Theo would do what they need to, Blaise was to take over patrolling the main door.
The rest were then to come in, with Blaise and head straight to the room of requirement. If they got caught, Blaise had the illusion of capturing the prisoners. At a worst case, Harry had brought his invisibility cloak.
The group found Hogsmede at almost 4pm. They had not eaten since breakfast and were hungry. But had no food, and could not very wall stroll into Hogsmede for a butterbeer and a bite to eat.
They had begun the walk up to Hogwarts. They were about 10 minutes away when Draco instructed the Slytherin's to walk on, while the Gryffindors stayed behind. They were to communicate with Blaise via mobile to know when it was safe to go up to the castle.
Theo, Blaise and Draco begun their treacherous walk up to the castle, mostly in silence, contemplating their plan. Upon their arrival at the front gates, they met Crabbe.
"Crabbe, my old friend. How are you?" Draco greeted pleasantly
"Malfoy, Zabini, Nott" He replied courteously, before allowing them in.
"Shift Changes are at 5am, 9am, 1pm, 5pm, 9pm and 1am. Draco, Blaise, Theo. If you can get in to the main castle before 5pm, there will be a shift change. Now there will be 26 guards around the site. One on the Main Gates, one on the Front Door. Now all passages in and out of the castle have been sealed. But there is one open from the Room of requirement to a pub in Hogsmede. So, there is a guard on the 7th floor Corridor. The prison is in the dungeons, so there will be, by my count 8 guards down there. There will also be 5 patroling the forbidden forest and a further 2 on the grounds. Then one on each floor 1 to 6." Hermione read from the battle maps; Draco had managed to swipe when he was brought to Malfoy Manor.
"At 5pm, the posting guards will change. Most likely there will be two sets of 26 guards. The first will be relieved by the second team and will go for a break. The Dark Lord is harsh but he understands the need for a break to remain vigilant." Draco explained
"The 26 not on guard duty will be on their resting period, but will probably still be doing jobs around the castle, so even if they are not on duty, they are still a threat" Hermione explained
"So Drake, Theo, Blaise, get in before 5pm. We attack the Main gate and front door at 5pm sharp. No one will know of the attack, until 9pm."
"It's 20 to 5" Hermione declared. The remaining 7 swiftly made their way to the main gates. Pleased to find Crabbe and Goyle on the gates, chatting.
"Expelliarmus" Hermione called. Rendered powerless, the spells had no effect, but was enough for them to be stopped, long enough for Fred and George to knock them out with large stones. All the time in the gym had paid off. The unconcious bodies lay on the floor. Fred and George tucked their wands in to Hermione's bag, and used some tope to tie up the bodies.
Leaving the Death Eaters bound, silent and wandless, Hermione and the others ran past up to the front door, where they were greeted by 2 more Death Eaters, whom they did not recognise. They received the same fate as Crabbe and Goyle.
"MALFOY!" Came a joyous greeting of an echo of voices, loudest of all, his aunt Bella.
"Aunt Bella" Draco greeted with a nod, noticing a clock on the wall. 4:35. Plenty of time for a chat.
"Well! What did you get out of them?" Asked Greyback.
"Not much useful I must admit. They were terribly slow in opening up to me. Eventually they gave in and told me what got you Hogwarts" Draco said
"How did you find out about the weakness in the spells" asked one of the Carrows
"It took a lot, But I managed to find Granger's weak spot" Draco said suggestively
"You disgust me. Dirtying yourself with such acts with a mud blood" Bella hissed
"All for the cause, dear aunt" Draco assured. Knowing that his back had now been covered, should be caught with her later.
The death eaters gathered around like baby chicks feeding on the gossip he was giving them. Most of it he, Theo and Blaise made up. Stating that they had all been camping for the duration of their absence, in unknown woodlands, apparating between locations, unknown to the Slytherins.
The Death Eater's curiosity had peaked and Draco, Theo and Blaise made up some rather elaborate lies which they lapped up like hungry cats.
Their stories had caused quite a large audience, and Draco assumed that approximately 50 Death Eaters were in the room. He caught another glance at the clock. 5:10. Good. It was time.
Draco reached into his pocket, subtly while Blaise was talking. No one saw him pull out the 10 devices. He released them, the room went black, with loud bangs. Distracted, the three boys ran from the room, as the gas started to become released, and the Death Eaters dropped to the floor, unconscious.
"Ok, once you get inside, talk to the Death Eaters, distract them. Make your presence such an occasion that they come from all over to hear your stories. Get as any in the room as you can. We strike the Front Gate at 4:55, when the Death Eaters are at changeover. 5 minutes for that cross over takes us to 5pm. 5 minutes to get to the front doors, with any luck we catch 2 more Death Eaters. 5:10. We have 5 minutes to go to the 7th floor, and eliminate the guard on that floor. Meeting outside the room of requirement at exactly 5:15pm. Slytherins, at 5:10, that's your cue to release these" Hermione said, handing round some small devices.
"These are some small flares, joined with tear gas, and black out powder. A Concoction of Fred and George. Black out goes pitch black. The flares loud enough to distract from the sound of your footsteps, the light only half a second's worth, so you know you're going the right way. After the flames have finished, a gas will begin to be released. A side effect from the gas and the black-out powder was to bring unconsciousness to those who breathe it in. Not harmful, but it guarantees 12 hours of unconsciousness minimum." Hermione explained
"Once the devices have been activated you have 2 minutes to get out, before it becomes unbreathable without being effected. Go out, use the key to lock the door, and make sure you use your jacket as a draught excluder, otherwise the gas will escape and they will come around too early" Hermione insisted.
Gas released, door locked, and jackets to stop any escaping, the three swiftly made their way to the seventh-floor corridor. Rounding the corner as they saw Neville and Harry tie up another Death Eater.
"Ready?' Hermione asked?
Draco nodded. He thought hard, and the door appeared. Inside the room, he spent no time in finding the diadem on the table. He knew where it was vaguely, but Harry's parseltongue confirmed it.
"What's the plan now?" Blaise asked
"Straight to the chamber of Secrets. We need to destroy these. NOW!" Hermione said. She led the way, and the ten walked down to the Third-floor girl's bathroom. Once inside, Harry opened the chamber, and one by one, down they went.
"This didn't seem so scary when I last came down here" Ginny said
"You were under a curse" Ron reminded her
"Don't remind me" Ginny replied They arrived and saw the remaining skeleton of the Basilisk.
"Fair play, Potter" Draco congratulated. Draco walked up, and broke one of the fangs out of the Basilisks mouth
"Right. We need to be careful here. There is a connection between the Dark Lord and Harry. As there is with the Dark Lord and his horcruxes. Harry must be the one to kill the horcruxes, and we must be no-where in sight. This means that the Dark Lord thinks Harry is alone but knows that he is in the castle" Hermione instructed. They all rounded a corner, and waited.
They could hear the clanging of metal, and the echo of Voldemort's voice. When Hemrione gasped loudly.
"Shh" Ginny hushed her
"I think we have a problem" Hermione said in barely more than a whisper
"What?" Draco whispered back
"Harry is a horcrux" Hermione said
"That's absurd" Theo responded
"Is it? He speaks Parsel tongue, when none of his family could, He was, at one point killed by the Dark Lord, it's not inconceivable" Hermione explained.
"You're saying, we have to kill Harry?" Ginny asked
"No. Only the Dark Lord can kill Harry" Draco said.
"Look, we only have the snake, Harry and Himself left. I say we split up. Slytherin's, you go down and release the prisoners. Ginny, Neville, Fred and George. You go kill the snake. Me and Ron will talk to Harry about him. We really need our full powers for this" Hermione explained
"I suppose" Came a deep voice from behind them, and out walked Dumbledore
"How long have you been here?" George asked
"I followed you down here. I wanted to see how far you had gotten. I say it's remarkable what you have been able to accomplish" He said, handing them all back their wands. Suddenly a drenched Harry walked up.
"They're gone" He said.
"You're wet" Fred commented
"He put up a fight" Harry said
"Well done, Harry" Dumbledore said. Harry jumped
"Sir" He replied
"Let's fight" Dumbledore replied, passing Harry back his wand.
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