The Story Continued….

I had hardly imagined I would see this again! It's been a long time since I've held this diary in my hands... It's been what….3 years since I last wrote in this thing? Ok, three years might not be a long time to you but so much has changed…so much has happened…. I feel I should finish this story and write it down, for history's sake…for my sake. So where do I start my tale? I suppose they would say that the easiest thing to do would be to begin where I last left off.

So there I was back in the Great Hall….where my world world was crumbling down! I remember how chaotic it was there…the muttering, the whispers amongst the students! What was happening? Had we really all been under a sleeping spell? Whilst most students were marveling at the amusing predicament that they had found themselves in, I knew better. There I was standing there amongst them left to ponder alone perhaps the biggest impending scandal of them all.

Hogwarts was under attack.

At least that was what I had concluded. If only to myself!

I had seen a mysterious figure lurking in the halls of Hogwarts the other night. I had taken it to be a student skiving in the night for a sneaky muggle smoke but Harry had told me that it had to be work of dark magic, why? Because this figure had been untraceable on the Marauders Map! And then that very morning, I had discovered that all the owls had been killed. All of them….a mass of blood and feathers flying. Who could have done such a thing?

And then as all the students were gathering in the Great Hall, Roger Davies had confided to me that all the teachers had vanished. And the one I had been counting on…Harry….He was supposed to have told Dumbledore about the mysterious figure… but I hadn't seen him anywhere. The alarm bells were ringing loud and clear, someone or something wanted to sever our main sources of communication and most importantly…. protection.

But who could have breached Hogwarts most famed protection charms, shields and illusions?

What did we have in Hogwarts that they (whoever they were) so desperately wanted?

…………………..

In the Great Hall….

Emily calmly walked towards the raised platform, to the place where Dumbledore would normally be when he wanted to address the whole school.

"Alright! Alright calm down everyone," her eyes looked around darkly,"We have found ourselves in a bit of situation but let's not panic."

"If this is not the work of dark magic then I will eat the sorting hat!" Marietta muttered to me.

Ah ha, so I wasn't alone in my suspicions.

"What do you mean by situation?" shouted a voice from the Hufflepuff table.

"QUIET PLEASE,' Emily said, "I know that all of you have pretty much had similar experiences this morning. I've had several reports of people having symptoms of being under a sleeping spell. This is untrue; we are simply all under an enchanted flu epidemic."

"I've never heard of an enchanted flu before," shouted Seamus Finnegan.

Emily looked up and moved a stray hair from her face, "Now Dumbledore is currently being tied up else where to get the medicine but we must control this epidemic and avoid spreading it so we are going to ban any outdoor excursions. Trust me, Quarantine is really for the benefit of everyone! So while we try to sort this situation out we want you to listen to your form prefects carefully for further instruction,"

Roger grabbed her by the arm. His eyes had widened and his face looked furious. She jerked her arm away from him. From the looks of it they were certainly having a very serious discussion but no one could hear.

"Oh my god….are we going to die?" squealed a young first year.

"Watkins, don't be so ridiculous," said Emily haughtily, "It's just highly contagious at the moment. Nothing serious at all…"

Emily was a good head girl but she was a seriously bad liar. Her reasoning did not explain where the rest of the teachers were.

Roger suddenly began edging his way towards the speaker's podium. Emily glared at him and attempted to maintain her spot but Roger, being much stronger than she was, simply lifted her from the spot she was standing in and moved her to the side.

He stepped forward, clearing his voice to speak to the rest of the Great Hall; he said gravely, "We think Hogwarts is under threat."

A great gasp rippled across the tables. Emily shot Roger a look and then threw her hands up in the air.

"I'm sorry Emily," He said raising his voice over hers.

Silence fell over the Great Hall.

"I'm sorry," His voice shook slightly, "as much as I understand Emily's stance on this matter, after all our main concern is to protect you all… but I feel this is the wrong way to go about. I believe that it is in your best interests if we are honest with you so that you can be prepared!"

Emily crossed her arms, "Yes Dumbledore is not here right now but he's dealing with the problem like I said!"

"Stop speaking in code and just tell us what's going on!!!" shouted someone from Slytherin.

Emily and Roger looked at each other.

Emily spoke up this time, "The Floo networks are down and the owls are…inaccessible to us. As of now, we do not have any contact with our teachers or the outside world."

"But let's not panic. It's just a minor technical hitch. Floo networks are so un-reliable these days," she said brightly.

"Emily stop pretending everything is ok. It's not," said Roger.

"Will you stop undermining me?" She hissed under her breath, "If we are divided we will lose control of Hogwarts."

As those two fought between each other, voices were rising and falling, whispering full of conspiracies and theories. Where were the teachers? Who was tampering with our communication networks? But I think most of us, particularly the elder students, knew what was really happening. It wasn't a question of who or what. Deep down, all of us knew…that the Second War was finally here and it was to begin at Hogwarts.

The Story Continued….

"IT'S ALL HIS FAULT!" shouted a voice. It was a boy from Slytherin.

He was pointing a finger at someone standing near the doorway of the Great Hall, all of our heads turned, following his gaze. It was Harry…. My Harry!

NEVER have I felt so RELIEVED in my life. He was fine! He was alive and that's all that mattered.

Harry was looking around quite nervously at everyone trying to dodge this guy's accusing gaze. He really never was that good at being centre of attention.

"You know what this is?" said the Slytherin boy. He was standing up from his seat, It's a sign, we all knew this was going to happen. You Know Who was going to come for him…because he always does…and unfortunately for us… The Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts and where Harry goes surely he will follow," he said shaking with his nostrils flared.

All eyes were on Harry now.

"Don't go blaming Harry!" shouted Ron from his side, "He's not the one with the problem. If anyone has a problem… it's all you slytherin types!"

"What?" said the boy shortly.

"Yeah you heard me!" shouted Ron, "The darkest witch and wizards are all the slytherins…if anyone had brought dark magic in here it would be one of you!" he said.

My mind raced back to the mystery lurker that night.

"OH….GREAT!" shouted Pansy Parkinson, "Just because we're in Slytherin doesn't mean we're like…I dunno….death-eaters or anything."

"You know maybe you have a chat with your boyfriend. Malfoy," shouted Parvati Patil to Pansy.

Pansy shot her a look and then looked around.

"Yeah where is Draco anyway?' said Lavender, "Up to no good no doubt. I bet he did this! He's got the connections and where's his father now? Oh that's right. He's in Azkaban.."

Pansy opened her mouth and then closed it again. She looked down the table.

"Leave my father out of this." Draco glowered. He was at entrance of the Great Hall with his friends, always working on his own time schedule. He sauntered down the aisle and took his seat at the Slytherin table, "like I would waste my time chasing after Potter! I've got better things to do."

"No one is accusing you of anything," said Emily, "Now I suggest we all go back to our common rooms. Listen to your prefects; we'll let you know as soon as possible if we hear anything."

She stepped down from the podium and walked ahead. Several prefects went up to approach her for their next move. Roger reached out to touch her shoulder but she dodged away from him.

I noticed Harry go up to her as well. So naturally I followed.

"I can help you" he said to her.

"Thank you Harry but I think I've got it all under control," she said.

"No offence but I don't you do," he said.

She spun round and stooped a little to look him in the eye. She was ready to verbally attack him. I could see it in her steely eyes but Harry quickly intervened quickly, "Just hear me out ok?'

She sighed and signaled for him to talk with the wave of her hand.

"I have an army well not a big army but we specialize in Defence against the Dark arts." He said.

"Oh no," she said firmly pointing a finger at him, "no, I know what army this is. I will not accept violence here."

Was she trying to channel Umbridge or what?

"Listen, I just know that when it comes to Voldermort. I'm pretty experienced in that department," He said to her.

"They'll come for us," she said, her voice softened considerably, "Someone, from the ministry of magic…they'll know about this….and anyway who says this has anything to do with You Know Who…."

"Voldermort and his death eaters have taken over the ministry," Harry lowered his voice, and whispered "We cannot lay our hopes on them any more…We're on our own and they are watching us."

"I have the upmost faith in Dumbledore. He will not abandon us," she said stiffly.

Harry swung his arms around, "Listen of course I think Dumbledore would do everything in his power to protect us but what if he can't. What if he lost control? Emily don't do something you might regret. We have to be ready. All of us…"

Emily shook her head and brushed past him down the Great Hall. Students were beginning to leave their seats.

"It's now or never." Harry said to me from the side of his mouth. I had no idea what he was talking about but Ron and Hermione were now standing by. They seemed to know what was happening as they exchanged nervous looks between each other.

Harry leapt up on the top of the Gryffindor table and shouted in a loud voice to the crowd that was leaving.

"STOP!"

Ron and Hermione clambered up as well. I guess for moral support. I wasn't really sure what he was going to say. I noticed the rest of Dumbledore's Army were gathering by him.

"I'm just asking for a moment," said Harry, "Just hear me out before you go."

"Please," said Hermione, "It's important."

I could see Emily Sawbridge at the end, staring at him coldly.

"There's no point denying it more. We know that Voldermort is back. We knew he was going to come back and we all know what his mission in life is…"

"Yeah, it's to kill you isn't?" said Dean Thomas innocently.

"NO!" said Hermione, "v..Vol..dermort." She shivered as she said it, "is trying to destroy something we believe in. He wants to bring this school down and bring it back to what it was."

"And that means he's going to want to be here and we have to be ready for it," said Ron looking at Hermione quite intently, "We have to be in this together."

"You're just saying that because he wants to kill you," heckled Malfoy to Harry 'Of course you'd want loads of people on your side….to protect you. So they'll all die first..and then you can run away…"

Harry ignored him and began to speak, "Well ok I have a history with him but it's more than that..he's threatening our school, he's threating muggles, he's threatening "half breeds" and what he likes to call "mudbloods"……he's destroying everything this place has ever stood for. Unity….and… I'm really no good at making speeches, but I know how I feel and this is going to end soon. I promise. I'm going to finish what was started all those years ago. We won't be afraid to say his name anymore because it won't mean anything……..but I can't do this alone. I'm going to need your help……."