AN: Here is the next chapter. Please throw me a bone and review once you're finished reading.
Chapter 10
The past few days had been uneventful for Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood. After an abduction, a rescue mission, fooling the Gringotts goblins, and narrowly escaping an encounter with the dark lord Voldemort, the challenge of obtaining enough food to last until the start of the next Hogwarts' term was a welcome relief. Due to her adventures searching for fantastical creatures with her father, Luna had a deep knowledge of how to cook the various plants found near the cave in order to best utilize their individual flavors. As a result of this the group was able to avoid the pangs of hunger and Harry and Hermione were reminded how valuable Luna could be to have on their side.
Since Voldemort had returned to the Malfoy manor and found it vacant, Harry had found that his scar was bothering him more frequently than ever before. He assumed this was caused equally because of the presumed desertion of the Malfoy family, the death of Bellatrix Lestrange, and the fact that Voldemort now had evidence that someone was hunting his horcruxes.
Harry had been forced to watch and feel Voldemort's rage as he journeyed to the cave that had once housed his locket. Harry had felt the fury of Voldemort when the dark lord returned to his ancestral home to determine the fate of his the Gaunt family ring. Harry watched in awe as Voldemort razed the Malfoy manor searching for his journal.
In addition to the anger caused by the loss of his horcruxes, Harry was able to learn that Voldemort had indeed hidden a horcrux at Hogwarts: the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. In his fury, Voldemort had reiterated what the late professor Dumbledore had presumed to be true; the reason for Voldemort's increased level of control over his familiar Nagini was due to the fact that Voldemort had attempted to complete his magically significant set of seven horcruxes.
"Hello, Earth to Harry. Maybe we should call you loony," mused Luna as she waved her hand in front of Harry's face breaking him out of his trance.
"I think that the Prophet has beaten you to it a couple times by now, Luna," Harry joked while looking into the younger girl's baby blue eyes. "Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts for a while there."
"Harry, you were rubbing your scar and repeating 'she's gone,'" said Hermione looking very worried and somewhat diminished. "Who's gone?"
"I didn't realize that I was saying anything, over the past few days Voldemort has been extremely angry and I have been seeing more, and more, of what he's been doing. I tried to clear my mind to prevent myself from being drawn out, but was not prepared for the level of anger that he is consumed by right now," Harry explained. "I know that you want to lecture me but I found out that we have another reason to go to Hogwarts; it's where he hid the horcrux made out of something relating to Ravenclaw."
"Harry, I really hope that you aren't referring to the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. Rowena Ravenclaw and the Grey Lady would be awfully upset if they were to learn that such an artifact had been turned into a dark object," Luna said sternly before Hermione had an opportunity to voice her thoughts.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Luna, but that is exactly what he has done. It's in the room of requirement; if we can get in and destroy it, and the locket, then once we kill his snake, Nagini, he should once again be mortal," Harry replied with a determined look on his face. "The students will be arriving on the Hogwarts Express this evening. If we take the passage from the shrieking shack to the Whomping Willow we could probably sneak in with all the incoming students before making a break for the Room of Requirement"
"I wish it would be that simple but Snape knows about that passage, it was there that he had attempted to capture Sirius so that Sirius would suffer the Dementor's kiss. With us on the loose, he must assume that if we want to sneak into the castle that is how we would attempt to enter. We are going to have to figure another way to get into the castle," answered a somber Hermione. "Peter Pettigrew was a Marauder, just like Sirius, there is no way that the Voldemort didn't learn of the secret passages from him."
"That's true; this makes things more difficult," said Harry in a pensive tone. "There has to be some way into the castle. If Hogwarts bought the food that it served then we could sneak in with one of the shipments, but I'm pretty sure that the elves do everything involving food."
"Harry, that's it. You told me that Dobby helped you during the Triwizard Torunament, try to call him," exclaimed Hermione.
"Dobby," shouted Harry.
With a crack, the small elf appeared. "The great Mister Harry Potter, sir, has called for Dobby! What can Dobby do for the great Harry Potter, sir? Dobby is here to help, sir!"
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that to work… Hi Dobby. I was wondering if you knew of a way for us to get into Hogwarts without being detected," questioned Harry.
"The new headmaster not be wanting people sneaking into Hogwarts. Right now only the elves be able to come and go without causing alarm," Dobby said appearing to regret each word as it left his mouth.
"Good elf, would a person who is brought in by an elf trigger the extra protections that are in place," asked Luna.
"No, miss, elves be able to bring anything through the magic surrounding the castle," replied a confused looking Dobby.
"Dobby, could you transport the three of us into the castle," asked an excited Harry.
Realizing that he would be able to help after all, Dobby broke into an ear to ear smile while shaking his head up and down so forcefully that Hermione worried for his safety. "Yes, Dobby could do this for the great Harry Potter and his friends."
"Dobby, can you take us to the room of requirement on the seventh floor," asked Hermione
Dobby began to look worried again as he processed Hermione's request. "That is the one place in Hogwarts that Dobby can't be taking Mr. Harry Potter and friends."
"It's ok Dobby, if you could take us up to the seventh floor that will be fine," Harry quickly interjected before the elf could start punishing himself.
"Anything to help the great Harry Potter," Dobby squeaked as he grabbed a hold of each group member before disapparating with a crack.
When the group reappeared they were in a familiar corridor on the seventh floor of Hogwarts. Unfortunately, they were not alone. Down the hall were a woman and a man that Harry and Hermione recognized as Alecto and Amycus Carrow, respectively.
The Carrows had been appointed to Hogwarts by the dark lord, personally. In his rage over the disappearances of so many inner circle Death Eaters in addition to the death of Bellatrix Lestrange, Lord Voldemort sought to assure himself that any resistance would be stamped out at its source. With their penchant for violence, the Carrows were the perfect way to obtain the obedience that a lord such as Voldemort required of his followers.
The pair understood their lord's fervent desire to capture Potter and his traveling companions. The fact that Xenophilius Lovegood had gone underground had further incensed the dark lord in such a way that he and Luna had joined Harry and Hermione as two of magical Britain's most undesirable characters. The favor that could be gained by delivering Harry Potter, his filthy mudblood, and the Lovegood girl was a prospect that caused Amycus to raise his wand immediately upon hearing the crack down the corridor and fire a spell of his own creation.
Harry saw Amycus raise his wand and take aim at Hermione. Without stopping to think, Harry leaped in front of her and was struck by an indigo jet of light that caused him to gasp before slumping to the ground.
Hermione's world seemed like it was moving in slow motion. Amycus had raised his wand and sent a jet of indigo light at her and she froze. Her brain told her to move, but her body refused to respond. Harry moved in front of her, right before the curse would have struck, and intercepted the curse before slumping to the ground.
The gasp that Harry released before he fell was enough to jar Hermione back to reality; she was back and she was pissed off. Her classmates and professors called her the brightest witch of her age for a reason. Hermione prided herself on the amount of time that she had spent in the library reading ancient spell books and practicing magic in order to prove that being a muggle-born witch did not make her an inferior witch. During her studies she had found many rare and arcane spells that had fell through the cracks of time. It was one of these spells that she launched at the Carrows followed by a quick Muffliato charm, because she understood what would happen if the spell successfully hit its mark.
According to the spell book where she had found it, the Curse of the Buddha's Palm was a spell that forced the target to experience the effects of every malicious spell that they had ever cast on other individuals and magnified the strength of those spells three-fold.
Amycus had managed to avoid the spell, but his sister was not so lucky. As soon as the golden blast hit, Alecto began to scream. The skin that was exposed on her body began to decompose, her body jerked as if being controlled by an inexperienced puppeteer, by the time that she hit the ground she was nothing more than ash that would be vanished when the elves next cleaned this part of the castle.
Luna was not standing idly by as Hermione cast her spell at the Death Eaters. She had also taken her wand out and cast an Impedimenta Jinx in the direction that she thought it most likely that the man would dodge.
Very few witches or wizards could adopt this strategy and hope to encounter success; luckily Luna Lovegood was one of those witches. Alecto Carrow did not have time to cast another spell before Luna's jinx threw him off his feet, unconscious.
"Harry, Harry wake up," yelled Hermione as she knelt to the ground and pulled his torso into an embrace. "Harry, you can't leave me. You have to be ok."
"Hermione, we should go into the room of requirement. We need a place where we can treat Harry and where we can see if the caster of the spell knows the counter-spell," said Luna as she paced back and forth visualizing the room that they required causing a door to appear from what was a previously uninterrupted wall. Then pointing her wand at the downed Death Eater she pointed her wand and cast the Levicorpus spell. "Hurry, bring Harry."
Hermione was beside herself with guilt but she realized that it wouldn't due to be caught in the halls of Hogwarts with an unconscious Harry Potter. We must not be found, Hermione thought, completing their room, while levitating Harry to the door and nodding in affirmation at Luna.
When Luna saw Hermione give the affirmative, she opened the door and the girls were amazed by the sheer quantity of items in the room. There appeared to be no rhyme or reason to the majority of the room, but along one of the walls was a set of beds that looked like they belonged in a hospital. The girls made a bee-line toward the beds; as careful as Hermione was to make sure that she did not bump Harry's head on anything by accident, Luna was equally careful to run the Death Eater into as many objects as possible without straying too far from their path.