CHAPTER 6: HOGWARTS BOUND
Dread gripped O'Bannon in its ice cold clutches. Spells sizzled and crackled around him as he stared at Tonks. He didn't want to believe that last statement. Tonks had to Apparate. She had to warn the Order.
"I don't get it." O'Bannon flinched as a spell burst against Jared's shield. "We're outside of Hogwarts. How come you can't Apparate?"
"The aurors probably cast a localized Anti-Apparation Field."
"You mean like they have around Salem and Hogwarts?" O'Bannon fired off Stunning Spells at a flying auror, forcing him to retreat. "I thought you needed a whole bunch of wizards to set up one of those."
"You do." Tonks pointed her wand at the ground and sent a small tidal wave of dirt at the aurors. It knocked one man off his feet. Another man stopped it with a counter-spell. "For a permanent one. A pair of aurors can set up a temporary one over a several kilometer radius."
"How temporary?" O'Bannon bit his lip, watching sweat pour down Artimus' face as spells battered his shield. "A few minutes?"
"Try a few hours."
O'Bannon slammed a fist into the leaf-covered ground. No way could they hold out that long, especially if the Ministry had more aurors on the way.
He kept shooting off spells, trying to come up with some brilliant idea to get them out of this. His Stunning Spells either missed or were blocked. Rosa and Tonks had similar luck with their attacks. Both Jared and Artimus gritted their teeth as spells exploded against their shields like a fireworks display.
O'Bannon cast everything he could. Stunning Spells, Impediment Jinxes, Body-Bind Curses, Rubber-Bone Hexes. He watched his bolts miss or get deflected. All the while he tried to come up with an escape plan. As the grain of an idea formed, he ducked to avoid a Stunning Spell. Another idea formed. Another spell impacted a couple feet from him.
"Dammit!" How the hell could he fight and think at the same time?
"Jimmy!"
He whipped his head toward Tonks.
"That Freezing Spell of yours. Can you make an ice wall with it?"
"Yeah, I think so. I don't know what good it'll do."
"You'll see." Tonks shot him a wry grin. "Do it."
O'Bannon paused, wondering how an ice wall would stop a squad of aurors.
Well, Tonks is an auror. She oughta know what she's doing.
Certainly better than you, Jimmy Boy.
O'Bannon lay on his side and crawled a couple feet to his left. He aimed his wand around Artimus' shield.
"Freezium!"
A white bolt radiated from his wand. He moved it back and forth. With seconds a thick ice wall seven feet high and ten feet long stood between them and the aurors. Any moment he expected a couple Redactor Curses to blow it to bits.
A thunderous crack echoed through the woods. O'Bannon turned away as the ice wall exploded.
Someone shouted an unfamiliar incantation. O'Bannon's head snapped up. Tonks had both her wand and free arm raised. O'Bannon's eyes darted toward the remains of the ice wall.
Shards of ice hung in the air.
Tonks shouted again. The shards streaked through the air like a swarm of large, white hornets. Shouts of surprise went up from the aurors. Shouts of pain quickly followed. Four aurors flailed and went down. One tumbled off his broom and hit the ground hard.
"Smoke charms!" Tonks ordered. "All of you! Now!"
Black smoke streamed from the wands of the quartet and Tonks. Absolute darkness fell over the woods. Only the cries of pain from the aurors pierced the black veil.
"This way!" Tonks held up her wand, which still produced smoke.
O'Bannon and his three friends followed.
"Where are we going?" asked Artimus.
"Secret passage to Hogwarts," Tonks answered. "And hurry. At best we bought ourselves a few minutes."
They hurried up small rises and around thickets of trees. After a minute they ceased their smoke charms. O'Bannon figured if they kept it up any longer, they'd just create a trail for the aurors to follow.
He took quick glances at their surroundings. That gnarled tree looked familiar. So did the big rock jutting from the ground that reminded him of the bow of a warship.
"Tonks. You know about the stone wall passage?"
She looked over his shoulder. "Me and my friends used it to sneak into Hogsmeade all the time to bring back firewhiskey."
O'Bannon's jaw fell open.
"What? Did you think I was a goody two-shoes when I went here?" She waggled her thin eyebrows.
Even while running, O'Bannon still had enough breath to chuckle. Tonks' coolness factor shot up ten-fold in his mind.
They reached a pile of stones about six feet high blocking the mouth of a cave. O'Bannon bent over, his lungs straining as he took deep, greedy breaths. Everyone breathed heavily, especially Artimus. As members of the Blazenrowe Hall hockey team, O'Bannon, Rosa and Jared were used to this kind of exertion. Artimus, however, had never been that big on exercise. The poor guy looked ready to keel over as he wheezed trying to refill his lungs.
"So . . . what now?" Jared inhaled more oxygen.
"Since I can't . . . Apparate." Tonks wiped her forehead and drew a deep breath. "We'll have to go with your plan. Sneak into Hogwarts and warn Professor Dumbledore."
"What, through there?" Rosa pointed to the big pile of stones. "How?"
"You'll see." Tonks raised her wand.
"Wait a minute." O'Bannon took a step toward her. "What if it won't work for people who aren't Hogwarts students anymore?"
Tonks snorted and stared off into the darkness for a moment. "Only one way to find out."
She approached the pile of stones and flicked her wand in elaborate patterns. A scratching, groaning sound came from the stones as they shifted around. Within seconds the pile rested quietly again, only this time it had a hole in the center. A hole shaped like the Hufflepuff Badger.
The entire pile rose off the ground. The mouth of the cave lay open before them.
"Sweet!" Jared blurted. "How did you do that?"
"Brilliant little charm on this." Tonks turned to him. "You have to reform the pile so the shape in the center takes on your House's animal. Since I was Hufflepuff, it would be a badger. Now let's go."
The five filed into the cave. They all cast Illumination Charms as the pile of stones dropped down over the entrance.
"Stand back," Tonks told them. She went about casting delayed action Constrictus Curses, Noisemaker Charms, Blurry Eye Hex Fields and Confundus Charms around the entrance.
"You never know. One of those aurors may know about this passage and check to see if we used it."
"Hopefully they won't," O'Bannon said.
"You can never be too sure. Always a good idea to be ready just in case."
O'Bannon sniggered. "Sounds like something Professor Moody would say."
"He's actually my mentor." Tonks smiled. "The real one, mind you, not the Death Eater in disguise you had."
"Yeah, I know." O'Bannon frowned and shook his head. "I still can't get over the fact that the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher I ever had was a friggin' Death Eater."
"Well, hopefully you can take what he taught you and use it against his friends one day. Nice bit of irony, that would be."
Tonks walked past O'Bannon and patted him on the shoulder. A tingle went up and down his arm and through his chest.
"Come on." Tonks waved for them to follow. "Let's get a move on."
They proceeded through the cave. Rosa bounded up next to Tonks. "That was so awesome what you did back there with the ice wall. How the heck did you do that? They never taught us anything like that in Charms or Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Most of the spells and curses they teach you in auror training aren't covered in school. At least, that's the case here in Britain."
"Merlin's beard." Rosa's face seemed to glow brighter than the tip of her wand. "If that's the case I so can't wait to start auror training."
Tonks softly chuckled. "You might think differently after your first week. The physical fitness part alone is tough enough. Never mind all the other stuff."
"I'm ready for it." Rosa squared her shoulders, her face a mask of confidence.
Tonks silently appraised her. "You know. I really think you are."
O'Bannon thought Rosa's smile would consume her entire face. She looked over to Jared, practically bouncing as she walked. She slowed her gait and allowed her cousin to catch up.
"Hear that," she whispered to Jared. "Tonks thinks I'm ready to become an auror. After what she did back there and in Ovenderburg, you know she's one kick-ass auror. She wouldn't say that if she didn't mean it. Is Tonks awesome or what?"
"Either that or she's just lying so she doesn't hurt your feelings." Jared snickered.
Rosa elbowed him in the gut.
O'Bannon stumbled a bit as the floor of the cave dipped. He caught himself just as a loud scuffling erupted behind him. He turned to find Tonks tripping and flailing her arms. Somehow, she managed to not fall on her face.
"You okay, there?"
"What? Oh yeah." Tonks straightened her robes. "You know me. Seriously clumsy."
O'Bannon chuckled softly as they continued on.
"Tell you what." Tonks scanned around her. "This is bringing back some memories. My friends and I sneaking down here with our boyfriends, passing around a bottle of firewhiskey, listening to the Weird Sisters and Devil's Snare on the Wizarding Wireless. Heh! I sure miss those days."
O'Bannon's gaze stayed on Tonks. Being around Rosa's parents and Jared's mom, he found it hard to imagine aurors being such party animals. Somehow, though, with Tonks, he could easily imagine her knocking back shots of firewhiskey while singing and dancing, and in her particular case tripping, to the latest Weird Sisters song. Were it not for the times he'd seen her in action in Ovenderburg or minutes ago in the woods, he never would have pegged her for an auror. Just a really cool woman.
"So . . ." She turned to him. "What's been happening in the wonderful world of Jimmy O'Bannon since I last saw you?"
"Nothing much." He shrugged. "Getting ready for graduation, mainly. I'm dreading the NEWKs."
"The what?"
"The National Examination on Wizarding Knowledge. Basically the U.S. version of NEWTs."
"Oh." Tonks nodded. "For a minute I thought you were talking about Muggle nuclear weapons. I was wondering what they had to do with the Wizarding World."
"Yeah." O'Bannon softly chuckled. "I heard stories of how in the Sixties and Seventies some Muggle-borns tried to get the Department of Magic to change it because they didn't think a test should be named after the most powerful weapons in the Muggle world. But the wizards and witches runnin' things back then couldn't believe Muggles could create something with the power to destroy whole cities. I wonder if anyone ever showed them pictures of Hiroshima or Nagasaki."
Several seconds of silence passed. O'Bannon turned to Tonks. "Oh. They were the Japanese cities the U.S. dropped A-bombs on in World War Two."
"I know about that. Remember, my father was a Muggle-born."
O'Bannon winced, the veins in his neck sticking out. "Oh yeah. I forgot. Sorry. So I assume you got a pretty good education on the Muggle world from your Dad?"
"You don't know the half of it." Tonks chuckled and shook her head. "Thanks to him, I developed a love for David Bowie and Genesis . . . Genesis when Peter Gabriel was their lead singer. I remember when I was nine, my mum went potty when I morphed my hair so it resembled Ziggy Stardust. I think she yelled at Dad more than me. Claimed all his Muggle music was having a negative influence on me."
O'Bannon laughed along with Tonks. For a moment, he forgot about his mission and the fight they'd just had with the aurors. He didn't think about trudging through a cave underneath Hogwarts. He was simply shooting the breeze and sharing a laugh with a really awesome woman.
And a really pretty woman to boot.
"So how's that Seeker of yours?" Tonks asked suggestively.
Tension spread through O'Bannon's shoulders. "Huh?"
"You know. The Seeker for your dorm's Quidditch team. I noticed you two quite a bit around Salem. You seemed to really fancy her."
Every jovial feeling O'Bannon had was ripped away. He lowered his head.
"Jimmy?" Tonks said. "Are you right?"
"Yeah. Fine. I mean . . . me and Rana broke up."
Tonks emitted a soft, short gasp. "Oh, Jimmy. I'm so sorry. It wasn't because of the Projection Potion, was it?"
O'Bannon nodded. A dark air of depression suffocated him. His mind propelled him back to that cold November day when a tearful Rana Rollingsworth told him she was ending their relationship.
"She talked about how the Projection Potion magnified existing feelings." O'Bannon continued to stare at the cave floor, his voice barely above a mutter. "And since this potion magnified even the smallest ounce of jealousy, I went nuts thinking Mister Salem Ladies Man Gregory Lancemore was trying to steal Rana away from me. When I lost it at the Halloween Dance and beat on Gregory, she got worried I'd always be jealous of any other guy she was around and decided she couldn't deal with that."
"Oh Jimmy."
He felt fingers encircle his wrist. He looked over at Tonks, who gave him a sympathetic smile. She squeezed his wrist, causing him to stiffen. O'Bannon fixed his gaze on her face. The more he took in her smile, the more he saw the compassion in her eyes, the more his depression stripped away.
"Oh!" Tonks whipped her head forward. "We're here."
A momentary wave of disappointment swept over O'Bannon as Tonks removed her hand from around his wrist. He pulled his thoughts together as he followed Tonks' stare. A large boulder sat in front of them. This time they didn't need any elaborate charms. With a simple flick of her wand, Tonks moved the large rock, revealing a set of rock stairs. The five climbed up about thirty feet before they came upon a small wooden door. Tonks opened it with her wand, started to crawl through . . . and bumped her head on the top of it.
"You okay?" O'Bannon whispered.
"Yeah, fine." Tonks rubbed her head and crawled the rest of the way through.
O'Bannon followed, his eyes firmly locked on Tonks' butt. What he wouldn't give for those robes to be . . .
"Is that . . . can it actually be?"
O'Bannon froze at the scratchy, high-pitched voice.
"Mistress Tonks! After all these years, Mistress Tonks has come back to Hogwarts!"
O'Bannon started to get up when he saw a small creature with a large head, bulging eyes and pointy ears launch itself at Tonks and hug her left leg.
"Oh, Mistress Tonks has come back to see Tookie and all of Tookie's friends."
Other house elves looked up from their baskets of dirty laundry. They jumped and squealed and skittered over to Tonks.
"It's good to see you too, Tookie." Tonks patted the elf on the head.
"Look. Master Jimmy is back to Hogwarts, too," another house elf cried out. "Oh, joyous day of joyous days."
"How are you, Fudrud?" O'Bannon smiled as the house elf jumped up and down in front of him.
"I don't believe it."
O'Bannon turned to find Artimus staring wide-eyed at the house elves gathering around them.
"They're . . . they're actually . . . happy."
"I told you these guys aren't like the servant elves back in the States."
"And we don't have to tip them?" Artimus appeared as though he couldn't believe such words came out of his mouth.
"Nope. These guys, you just ask them to do something and, well, they do it."
Now Rosa and Jared gave him bewildered looks. For American witches and wizards, not tipping elves was inconceivable.
"Yes, and we have something very important to ask of you lot." Tonks gently pried Tookie off her leg. "You mustn't tell anyone we're at Hogwarts. It's a big secret. Ssh." She put a finger to her lips.
"Yes, yes." Tookie clasped his hands. "Anything for Mistress Tonks. Mistress Tonks was always kind to us house elves here in the laundry room, even when Mistress Tonks returned from under Hogwarts all tipsy-wipsy." Tookie swayed back and forth.
Tonks blushed. O'Bannon stifled a laugh.
"Right. We have to get going now." Tonks smiled down at the house elves. "It was wonderful seeing you again, Tookie. All of you. Remember. It's a secret we're here. Ssh."
All the elves mimicked Tonks, putting a finger up to their lips.
"Bye, guys." O'Bannon waved to the house elves as he and his friends followed Tonks out of the laundry room.
The corridors were deserted. O'Bannon checked his watch. Dinner would be coming to an end in a bit. They should be able to make it to Dumbledore's office before students started filing out of the Great Hall.
They peered around every intersection they came to. They had yet to run into a single soul, either living or ghostly . . . or feline. O'Bannon made sure to periodically scan the floor around them for any sign of Mrs. Norris, the mangy cat that belonged to Hogwarts' Caretaker and all-around a-hole Mister Filch. Wherever that cat was, its owner always lurked close by. If Filch so much as caught a glimpse of them, that fartknocker would surely tell this High Inquisitor Umbridge, and she'd certainly alert the Ministry, who'd probably rush every auror they could spare to Hogwarts.
Thankfully, they didn't come across Filch or his damn cat or anyone else.
"So this is Hogwarts." Jared gazed at the various tapestries, suits of armor and stained glass windows that lined the various corridors. "I was expecting something, I don't know, more."
"What the hell do you want?" O'Bannon turned to him as they ascended another wide staircase. "King Arthur's spirit roaming the corridors waving around Excalibur and Mickey Mouse directing an army of brooms to clean the castle."
"I don't know." Jared shrugged. "But I mean, this is, like, the most renowned wizarding school in the world. You'd think it'd be more . . . impressive."
"Well I think it's charming."
Jared gave Rosa a bewildered look.
"C'mon," Rosa said. "We're in an honest-to-goodness medieval castle. Last time I checked, there weren't a lot of castles in the United States."
Jared just shook his head. Rosa made a face at him.
They slipped past the hospital wing and rounded the corner. O'Bannon held his breath when he saw the familiar stone gargoyle striking a fearsome pose. A plain brick wall stood behind it. But O'Bannon knew better. Behind that wall was the staircase leading to Headmaster Dumbledore's office.
Relief flooded his body. He didn't even try to stop the smile spreading across his face. We made it. We actually friggin' made it.
In just a few minutes he'd see Dumbledore and warn him about the Longathian Tunnel. The Order of the Phoenix would begin searching for it. Even if they couldn't find it in time, at least they'd be prepared for You-Know-Who's reinforcements.
"C'mon." O'Bannon strode toward the gargoyle. Shadows cast by the flames from the wall-mounted torches flickered across its deformed, stony face. A large tapestry of the stooped, sullen-looking Doolan the Downhearted hung from the wall opposite the gargoyle.
O'Bannon stopped in front of the gargoyle. He heard the others forming up behind him. He stared at the stone creature, then at the section of wall it guarded. A realization hit him.
"Crap," he hissed.
"What's wrong, Jimmy?" Artimus asked.
"We need a password to get in."
"Should we assume they've changed the password since you were last here?" Rosa asked hesitantly.
O'Bannon sighed and continued to stare at the gargoyle. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "Cockroach Cluster."
The gargoyle remained motionless.
"Aw well, it was worth a shot." Not that O'Bannon expected it to work. He seriously doubted Dumbledore would keep the same password from last year.
"So what do we do now?" A hint of panic crept into Artimus' voice.
O'Bannon shook his head. "I don't know any other way to get into his office. Maybe we should wait for him and see . . ."
"A-HA!!"
O'Bannon and his companions spun around. Three people burst out from behind the tapestry of Doolan the Downhearted. Two of them, a rotund balding man and a brutish young woman who could have been Millicent Bulstrode's sister, wore the robes of Ministry aurors. The third was a fat, toad-like woman wearing a pink cardigan. All three had wands pointed at them.
"I knew it!" the fat woman blurted in a high-pitched voice. "Professor Dumbledore is indeed sneaking foreign wizards into the country to create his own mercenary army. I can't say I'm surprised that one of his recruits would be the young man who sought to corrupt Wizarding culture by bringing a foolish Muggle game to this school."
O'Bannon narrowed his eyes. He never met this woman before, but from the descriptions in Fred and George's enchanted postcards, he had no trouble identifying her.
Jimmy O'Bannon stood face-to-face with the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts herself, Dolores Umbridge.
TO BE CONTINUED