Chapter Six – The Vortex

Harry bent over the Gryffindor table, that evening, with his head in his hands, on the verge of screaming in pain. What confused Harry was that this time, his scar wasn't the source of the pain, this was internal, deep inside his head, feeling as though, it was go explode, and in Harry's opinion, worse. Everyone on the Gryffindor table, looked worried, he could feel it, as he screwed his eyes up with the pain. It was because of the powers, he had the headaches and at the moment, would do anything to get rid of them. He managed to open his eyes long enough, to see the top table in the Great Hall, which had now been extended to house not only the teachers, and Dumbledore, but the member of the Order of the Pheonix, but only Harry, Herimone and the Weasleys, knew this.

Ron had had to keep his head down, since both his parents came to stay at Hogwarts, a month ago, and when he tried to find out why, he got punished so badly, that he warned Harry and Herimone to go nowhere near them. Harry agreed, for he knew the Weasleys had their reason for being at Hogwarts, and no matter what they did, they wasn't going to tell them.

The pain was so bad in Harry's head, the pressure building, that he got off his food and was willing to do anything to get rid of it. His head was in his arms now on the table and could, just hear his friends, making suggestions on what he could do.

"Why not go to the nurse?" someone suggested.

"Tried that, didn't work!" Ron replied for Harry, sounding worried.

"OK, why not try and push the headache out of your mind!" Ron felt silent.

'It was worth a try!' thought Harry, who was now getting so desperate, with the intense pressure, now at breakpoint, that he would do anything. He wrapped his head in his armed and everything went almost quiet. He was breathing heavily now, his eyes closed tightly and in the darkness, felt the pressure, took in a deep breath, and pushed, with all the strength he could muster, the headache up and out of his head.

It was as though someone has let off a canon, inches from the ears, the resulting bang that followed, which was loud. He felt it resonate out from him, as people screamed, and something was raining down on them. Harry opened his eyes, but not before collapsing onto the floor of the Great Hall, almost passing out, not knowing how he managed to staying awake. He rested for a moment, the headache was gone, he was finally pain free, for the first in two days, did he notice that the floor was covered in shards of metal and glass, and that he, like everyone else, was covered in pumpkin juice.

He felt himself being helped back on the seat, still dazed, but looked around. Every single goblet in the Great Hall, including the top table had, at the same moment, been blown in pieces, sparing wine and juice everywhere. It seemed too that at the same moment, he had also managed to blow out every single window in the Great Hall as well, spraying everyone with glass.

"POTTER!" Harry knew he was in for it, as Professor McGonagall stormed over, herself cover in liquid and glass, and Harry had never seem her look to angry. But he could barely sit straight, Ron had to hold him up, he was swaying so badly, struggling to stay awake. Harry looked at McGonagall, towards the top table, feeling all eyes on him.

"Potter!" she said sternly, but broke off, almost immediately. She was staring in disbelieve, over Harry's shoulders, at the doors to the Great Hall, and her face full of fear.

"Potter?!" she said again, but this unable to hide the panic in the voice. What was going on? Harry, with some help from Ron, turned around, and saw what was happening. He looked up.

All of the clouds the ceiling of the Great Hall, made to look like the sky, were all moving towards the main doors and formed a large, thick black cloud, which was now sending lightning bolts across the ceiling, darkness setting in. Harry watched, with everyone else, in horror, as the cloud became larger and larger, sending bolts towards to the ground, blocking any escape.

"This isn't me, Professor!" Harry said, truthfully over the noise of the lightning. But he never found out if she believed him or not, as one of the lightning bolts, one the largest Harry had ever seen, struck midair, about a metre from the ground. Then before he could or say anything, the point where the lightning struck, opened up into a two metre circular porthole or vortex, of which someone could travel through, because could see what looked like clear moor land in darkness inside it. The circle itself was made from shimmering gold light which was moving very slowly in a anti-clockwise direction. Harry had to squint now, was the vortex had creating a gale, inside the Great Hall, sending glass and metal everywhere. People were screaming again.

'It's like a wormhole!' Harry though casually, fascinated by the vortex, but felt his hear almost stop when he heard a familiar voice through it.

"Potter!" the icy cold, hard voice sounded as all a sudden, green light, flew in all directions. It was Voldamort. Harry looked at Ron, he had gone white, we knew the voice too, but not many did. Then through the silence of the Great Hall, Harry heard a second voice, and a small group of people running towards them, as full speed.

"Go! through the vortex!" She shouted, rather coldly, and it was a voice he reconised, but couldn't remember where. The group of three people ran though the green light, piecing the air all around them, be they hesitated for a second, before they dived, one after the other, through the vortex. Then landed on the floor of the Great Hall, rolling on their backs before standing up. It was only then, did Harry realise who them were, and his jaw dropped.

It was Bill and Charlie Weasley, along with Fleur Delacour, the part Veela student, from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Harry last saw in his forth year, during the Triwizard Tournament. Bill and Charlie were both alive, badly cut and bruised, but alive and Harry heard a scream of delight from Mrs. Weasley behind him. But it wasn't over yet, green light was still be fired everywhere, some dangerously close to the vortex, threatening to come through to Hogwarts, as Fleur hugged Charlie, Bill shouted back through the vortex.

"Potter!" No answer. He looked at Charlie, fearing the worse. Bill called again, with all his might, Charlie holding him back, struggling to keep him from going back through vortex.

"POTTER!" he screamed, and saw a dark figure ran towards him, wearing a long black coat, long red hair blazed back, running towards them, closely followed by Voldamort himself. Without hesitation, she dived straight for Bill, just as Voldamort shot the Avada Kedavra death curve, straight after.

"Move!" she screamed. Bill grabbed her, as she came through the vortex, but she threw her legs out to the side, and took Charlie and Fleur, down with her, as the curse followed her straight through the vortex. What happened next, happened so fast, Harry barely saw it. Hawk rolled over the top of Bill and Charlie, telling them to stay down, and stood up, her dark, long red hair follow over her eyes. The curse was had passed straight over Bill, Charlie and Fleur's heads, all of them crouching in fear, and was now aiming right for Hawk. She stared at it, unphased, emotionless, her yellow eyes glaring, as she grabbed a round, solid sterling silver tray off the Ravenclaw table, tip the food off it, and use as a shield. She span round as the curse hit the silver tray, and deflected from the shield and whined harmlessly out of one of the broken windows.

She stood there, for a moment, spinning the tray in her hand. It seemed that Voldamort was in shock, with what she had managed to do. But there was no time, Voldamort and the Deatheaters were gaining on the vortex. Harry watched his cousin, spin round with the tray, very fast and let it rip through the air, horizontally straight at the vortex. It passed through it and aimed at Voldamort, who didn't see it. It landed straight between the his chin and his shoulders, right in the neck. It instantly grounded Voldamort, who was left gasping on the floor. The Deatheaters charged at the vortex.

"Bill, close it down!" she shouted, rather sharply, her temper was flaring badly, she was very anger, growling under her voice, which was cold and hard. Bill didn't need asking twice as he got out his wand, muttered a power incantation under his breath and the vortex turned into a two metre ball of white light before vanishing into the end of his wand.

Bill collapsed back on the floor, breathing heavily, his long hair down and over his face, his long black leather coat torn, relieved for it to be over, Fleur was in tears, badly cut, Charlie sat there white with shock.

Hawk was still growling, a look of death in her eyes. But Mrs. and Mr. Weasley ran past her to hug their son.

"Mum, Dad!" Bill and Charlie said, hugging them. The Hall was still silent from shock before erupting with loud muttering from all sides.

Hawk was still staring at the place where the vortex had been, paled faced with a sly smile and said with a emotionless, cold voice, that rang out across the Great Hall.

"Still human!" She spoke, with what seemed to Harry to be English, except for a lot of hissing and spitting like a snake. However, it was anything but, when he realised that the chatting across the Great Hall, halted incredibly quickly and everyone had a look of fear in their eyes. Harry felt some of the eyes fall on him, and looked round at Ron, for some sense of the situation. Ron has gone white, with both fear and shock, and when he saw Harry confusion, mouthed in silence.

"Parseltongue!"

Harry's jaw dropped, and Ron looked at him, as though to asked what had been said. Harry whispered the answer in his ear. Ron was non the wiser as Harry as to the meaning and they both continued at stare at Hawk. She hadn't moved, her strong posture still dominant in the Great Hall. After a few minutes of complete silence, she turned round to face the top table but met Moody's wand instead. Bill and Charlie noticed, and panicked.

"Moody, Potter!" Bill screamed as he and Charlie let go of their parent, ran down the Great Hall, to put themselves between Hawk and Mad Eye Moody. Moody looks stunned and he wasn't the only on. Bill turned round to her.

"Potter! Please go outside, we'll meet you there!" She stood there, the same height as Bill, almost six foot, well built, dressed in black from head to toe, folding her arms, giving Bill a stern look but didn't move. Bill wasn't surprised by this.

"Sam! Please!" he pleaded, "It's best if we explain, go through the doors, down the stairs, and out entrance hall!" She continued to look at him.

"Please, Sam!" Charlie asked this time and she was convinced, and left, rather swiftly, temper still flaring. Harry, guessed she didn't want to take on both Weasleys. Harry was unable to believe his eyes at the moment, and neither could anyone else in the Hall in fact. He gulped, as she looked like a not a person to be messed with, more then Professor McGonagall.

"Right!" Said Moody, eyeing the two Weasleys, "What is going on?" Mrs. Weasley went to protest, she had just got her boys back, but Bill put a hand up to stop her. Bill and Charlie looked at one other. How were they going to explain this? There was silence again before Moody spoke again in the same growled voice, pointing towards the main doors to the Great Hall.

"She's a Parselmouth!" Moody managed to say, trying to get a grasp of the madness of the sitution. To everyone surprised including Charlie's, Bill smiled and rolled his eyes.

"Well, yeah, so Parseltongue is a Potter trait! Big Deal!" He spoke as though this was obvious, as swapped it away with his hand as though this meant nothing, as everyone turned at look as Harry. Harry felt himself go white, as Bill continued to speak. He sighed.

"Don't mind Sam Potter, her personality will have soften up by the morning, once she as got some sleep."

"You hope?" Charlie asked, sounding unsure. Bill glared at his brother.

"Charlie! Potter has been watching over us night and day, since she recused us from the attack in Romania, fighting off You-Know-Who in a way I have never seen before." Bill saw the stunned look on his mother's face and sighed again.

"Yeah, Potter is the reason why me, Charlie and Fleur are alive today and able to talk to you. Man, we owe her our lives!"

Both Charlie and Fleur nodded in agreement, still looking frightened. Bill himself was severely shaken as he turned to Dumbledore.

"Please, all that I ask is that you cut the girl some slack. She has been fighting You-Know-Who, and the Deatheaters all her life and has properly been through the same amount as Moody if not more." There was a long pause, the whole Hall now listening.

"Please, believe me, I know Potter, she would rather die then work for You-Know-Who and I know this because she's my Fiancée!" This was a gasp from the Great Hall at this news. Harry though his ears was deceiving him.

"But Bill, she's a murderer!" Mrs. Weasley pleased, Bill was now getting angry.

It was at this point that Charlie hopped over to them, with a sprained angle, due to the vortex, and shock his head wildly, before collapsing on top of Fleur, who had tried to hold him up and failed. Bill went to help him.

"No, Bill! Go and find Potter!" Charlie said with a air of panic and pain in his voice and look towards the Entrance Hall, through the main doors. With one last at the top table, at the teachers, Bill ran out of the Great Hall, limping badly, calling for his fiancee, before anyone could stop him.

It took the best part of half and hour, to clear the Great Hall of rumple and students. Charlie and Fleur was taken to the hospital wing, and Harry, along with the other Gryffindors were sent back to the tower. The common room was buzzing with the events of the evening until the early and by the time, Harry had had enough of people asking him what his cousin had said in Parseltongue, what this had meant and if he knew anything, his head was on the verge of exploding. He was in deep shock, a feeling he had been in for most of the year, and to tell you the truth, he was fed up with it and just wanted to go to bed. Ron and Herimone decided to let him go and when Harry collapsed on the bed, he fell asleep before he even realised what had happened.