*walks in with Snape, nursing a large mug of mystery coffee* awww, he made me a whole night's supply of it for today's chapter! *bats eyelids up at him as Snape rolls his eyes*
Well well... things are coming to a climax... There are not many chapters left. Two, three at the most or so, I think. We will see. ;)
So, let's see what happens, eh? I am as curious as you are!
Chapter 19 *hits play*
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The ground seemed to be pulsating, rippling like a blanket covering forms tossing and turning. The slabs of stone shivered as they relinquished part of the soil enveloping the dead underneath them. Voldemort moulded the Clay that Snape had made for him, just as he had commanded. The whole graveyard emanated a sickly reddish yellow glow as the Clay merged with the soil engulfing it. The death-filled soil the numerous graves had donated under the compelling of the Death Eater wands fused with the blood-moulded Clay...
... and under the strong red-yellow glow, the deed was done.
Voldemort raised his hands, chanting to the earthish, large forms standing before him.
"Sanguis Obeir Ameth!" he said in triumph, and Snape felt even dirtier, even more a criminal than before, simply because he had aided the Dark Wizard. The word AMETH appeared in bloody-looking letters on the faceless foreheads of the Golems. Harry Potter's accusation burdened heavily on Snape's soul. You Death Eater... you Death Eater...
You will never know!
Snape had never really hoped absolution would be for a man such as himself. He straightened up, watching Tom Riddle complete the bond with the Golems, which was possible because of the blood, his very own, that he had given Snape to include in the Clay. For a moment, Snape held his breath, expecting the Dark Lord to turn to him accusingly. But Voldemort did not do anything of the sort. The Potions Master breathed. He had not been found out just yet.
His jaw set decisively. He had a mission to do, a task that he had chosen to undertake as the minimum compensation to the crimes of his youth-- and he would do it. He only hoped that the Parchment had reached the Order's Unspeakable in time... he had not had the time to warn Dumbledore himself. Had those he was truly loyal to been alerted in time?
You will never know!
"Ssseverus, the Multiplication Potion..." Voldemort commanded, and the Potions Master stepped forward with a light blue vial. He braced himself, as he stood dwarfed before the three Golems, earthen statues, soon to be turned into lethal, unbeatable warriors of the Darkness only because they had no soul nor mind. Flicking his wand, Snape coaxed the liquid out of the vial it had been resting in, and commanded it to divide in three equal parts-- then he shut his eyes behind his mask as he swished his wand, and the potion splashed against the Golems.
God have mercy on my soul.
***
The Unspeakable of the Order of the Phoenix wrote fervently with several dicta-quills, so that his handwriting would not be detected or traced back to him. There was no time to lose.
The Arithmancer of the Order of the Phoenix surveilling the rippling of magic in Nature had alerted the Unspeakable of the trememndous shift of magic in the Earth-- of the pulsating of great energy, of the trapping of it in far too little soil. The Golem was created, and this time it would not be a protector.
The Potions Master of the Order had sent to the Unspeakable the message in the special Apparating Parchment that the Clay was summoned. And so, the Unspeakable wrote in multiple letters to the ministry Aurors that the Order of the Phoenix was calling upon them in the name of the oath they had given to fight for the better good, their oath to protect against Evil.
And the Call of the Order was higher than any Minister.
So, the Unspeakable whispered in crisp staccato:
"The Order has decreed: The Golem is awoken, the Dark Lord is close to gaining the Power. The Night of all Nights is close at hand; The Attack will be at Hogwarts. Be ready for all, be prepared. Do not waste any time.
The Order Summons All Aurors and Fighters of Good Tonight. Do not answer this Call, and be forever Damned."
The apparating parchments popped away as the dicta-quills fell to the side, reaching every single Auror pledged to the Order throughout England.
The Unspeakable passed his hand over his face, allowing a brief fragment of a second for the dread of what might happen overtake him. Then he steeled himself. This was not the time for fear. This was time for upkeeping oaths and promises: An Oath to the Order, a Promise to his dead friend, a Debt to his godson.
Sirius Black shifted into the Grim, and ran towards Hogwarts at full speed.
***
Draco Malfoy received an owl after curfew. He frowned. Owls from his father at this time of the evening were never good. They always were about Voldemort, and about him delivering information that as a student he could know, about going to places Snape would not be supposed, as a teacher, to venture into without reason, about dirtywork that the full-fledged Deatheater that was heading his House looked down upon.
With a disgusted sneer, Draco opened the parchment.
Draco
The time to prove your loyalty to the Dark Lord, Master of Darkness and Magic has come. Get out of there, and take all true Slytherins with you. The rest will all die. If you want to be singled out and praised by our Master, try to weaken Harry Potter as much as possible but do NOT use anything lethal on the boy-- the honour of killing him is for our Master alone.
Your task, however is not the above. You are to cast the Dark Mark at exactly midnight tonight.
Do not mess this up or I will kill you myself.
Lucius Malfoy
Draco made a face. At least Lucius had not signed it 'your father' after the last, charming display of affection.
Draco leaned back, thinking to himself as he gazed into the fireplace, the flames burning his cheeks and forehead. What was going to happen tonight? What good would it do to cast the Dark Mark under Dumbledore's nose? Draco would not be led to believe that the Headmaster would be intimidated by such an act-- more likely alerted. Why would Voldemort throw away his element of surprise so flippantly?
Draco perhaps did not like Dumbledore, but he respected the man's perseverence... and the fact that he had already vanquished one terrible Dark Lord. Draco reasoned that now, with more experience on his back we could take on Voldemort and come out a winner as well. He read over the parchment once again. Weaken Harry Potter... but leave him for Voldemort.
Then, Voldemort was coming here.
The silver haired Slytherin had not yet decided what to do with his newly savoured deliverance-- he still did not like Harry and his obvious superiority to hardships that Draco would have folded under. He did not particularly like Dumbledore and he absolutely despised Lupin and his sugary compassion for everyone weak. And he wouldn't be too sorry if a couple of over frivolous mudbloods were scraped fromthe earth-- not because of their mixed origins, but because they were a disgrace to the intelligence of Man. He still admired Snape and the dark eeriness around the tall, sinister professor, his wit and cunning, his elegance and his unmitigated talent to the subtle Art he was teaching.
Truly, Draco did not know if he wanted to side with Dumbledore, when he did not like half of those consisting that side.
He sighed as he got up and exited the Slytherin common room without a sound. He had taken his decision as spontaneously as he had thrown away his ties of fear, but this time he was aware of why he was heading to the Headmaster's office with his father's parchment in hand.
Draco would die first before he allowed the Dark Mark to be burned into his arm, before he allowed his life, his essence and his soul to be enslaved to a snake-like abomination that couldn't even pronounce things properly.
***
A small fat rat with a glowing paw strutted quickly across the stone floors in Hogwarts castle, directing himself to Gryffindor tower. He did not need to go through a portraithole. Scabbers had spent a lot of time in this place, and he knew the little crack through which he could enter the Tower. He was sent to fetch someone, and he would.
The only thing that bothered him, was that there was a pestering Debt that could interfere with his mission. He did not know if it would, as he had conveniently forgotten to mention to Voldemort its existence.
***
Harry was sitting in the Gryffindor Common room, scowling into the fire. Ron and Hermione were occupying other chairs, trying to get him to talk to them.
"Harry, let us help you," Hermione said beggingly.
"You should be bouncing off the walls after that game, man, what's the matter with you?"
"RON! You git!"
"You want to know what is the matter with me?" Harry said in a low, dangerous voice. His two friends hushed, unsure. Hermione shifted unconsciously more towards Ron than Harry. When anger filled Harry's unmoving, unfocused, unforgiving eyes, chills went up and down her spine, as ache filled her heart. At those times, Harry seemed dangerous. As dangerous as Snape himself, Ron had once confided in her.
"Snape came to ask me a question, something important to him and I refused him! I let him go to where he can die and did not let him know what he wanted!" Harry cried out aggressively. Both his friends could see how the young Gryffindor was vexed and self-condemning.
"What was that, Harry?"
"I don't want to talk about it, 'Mione. It is even more obscene to have everyone know when I refused him the answer, after all he did for me, after covering for me all this time." Harry rubbed his temples. He breathed shakily.
"I knew this would happen-- I had found it in Divination. The stones had shown a Standoff-- and it came, a Standoff with Snape. I knew it would come, and I did not prepare, I did not prevent it. And now he might die with guilt he does not deserve." he said quietly, sadly. Hermione bit her lips, and knew better than to say Divination was bull. Harry added as an afterthought:
"I won't dismiss the other two predictions."
Ron opened his mouth to say something unflattering about Divination and Trelawney, when Harry shushed him, sitting up like a lemur, listening intently.
"What is it, Harry?" Hermione whispered, but Harry made a frustrated gesture at her to be silent.
"Shhh, let me listen!" he said, trying desperately to focus on the sound neither of his two friends could hear-- but by now they were well aware that Harry could hear many things they did not.
However, all three heard the 'pop'... but by then it was too late, as Peter Pettigrew had his wand already pointed to Ron and Hermione, and stunned them to the ground.
Harry had his wand pointed at the man by that time, but Peter said in a shaky, intimidated voice:
"Don't do it, Harry, or I will hurt you!"
Harry got up, a terrible expression on his face.
"You will not leave this place alive, Wormtail. Killer of Cedric Diggory and who knows how many other innocents! I am going to kill you!"
"No you won't!" squeaked Peter, "because your friends are now lying in front of me, and I will kill at least one of the two before your curse hits me, IF it hits me. You are blind! I know you are blind!" he added in his uncertain, fidgety, rattish way.
Harry's wand wavered. The rat was correct-- he could not be sure to aim correctly without saying 'Ento', and he would be sacrificing Ron or Hermione before Avada Kedavra hit Cedric's killer. But he could not allow this peril to befall upon his friends while he idly stood by-- Harry's eyes widened just a bit, making Peter a little more uneasy.
Friendly Peril...
Harry's eyes flashed. He would not dismiss the prediction.
"Do you think you can hurt me, you worthless piece of shit?" he spat at Wormtail, walking around him, smiling ferally. Peter did not expect that. He had heard of Harry's progress due to Hooch, Lupin and Dumbledore, despite Snape's attempts to crush the boy, but he had not expected to actually see a strong warrior in place of a 15 year old teenager.
"Do you think I can't see you? That I do not hear your heavy breathing, I do not smell your filthy sweat on you, that I cannot feel your eyes on me?" Harry continued saying in the silky, velvety, mesmerizing voice of a cobra hypnotizing its victim.
A voice that only Snape used to feature.
Harry heard the shaky intake of breath implying Peter's unpleasant surprise. And he acted in the lightning quick way he owed the Potions Master.
"Translocus Ron and Hermione!" he bellowed, the spell he used not needing aim. The prone bodies of his friends popped away before Wormtail had the chance to react. The blind Gryffindor had transported them to some other place within the enclosure... but Wormtail did not have the luxury to look for them.
He therefore acted on his initial threat with the most painful curse he could think of.
"Crucio!"
***
Remus Lupin and Albus Dumbledore ran to the Gryffindor tower, from where the screams of the Boy-Who-Lived came, bloodcurdling and horrible. Everything was happening so fast. Draco ran after them, if only because he was curious to see who had had the nerve and the skill to enter into Hogwarts undetected, all the way to Gryffindor tower, past the Portrait only to cast -Cruciatus- at Harry, instead of swiftly killing him.
That ruled out Voldemort.
Then, just as they were about to barge through the Fat Lady's portrait, the cries of pain stopped. Pitterpatter of terrified students was heard and the portrait was flung open. Pale, scared Gryffindors poured out, some to get help in the panic, others just to hide, and nearly all overlooking the Headmaster and the Professor.
Fred and George Weasley did not.
"Come quickly, a Death Eater has-- Harry, just come quickly!" they blurted out in variarions, as the two wizards barged through the sea of confused and panicky students and into the common room. Surprise was on both their faces at the sight they met:
Harry Potter was lying on the floor at an odd angle, spasms going through his body from the Unforgivable torture curse. His eyes were inverted, and Sasha, his coral snake familiar was fully visible around the convulsing wrist, hissing worriedly yet not fleeing. Harry's invisibility spell had ended when the boy was cursed unconscious. That was not what surprised them.
Opposite Harry was the crumpled form of Peter Pettigrew, his eyes wide in pain as he clutched at his heart, his life ebbing from his body. Remus grabbed him in anger, his wolfish eyes flashing yellow in his rage, but Peter only gasped:
"...wizard's debt... boy... used it cleverly..."
Then, nothing more was said. Peter Pettigrew was dead, the wizard's bond taking its toll when he disregarded his Debt.
By that time Dumbledore had charmed some energy and soothing in Harry, and his eyes opened, his breathing became a little less shallow.
"... did it work?" he asked in a whisper at the Heamaster holding him.
"Yes, Harry." Dumbledore said gently.
Harry smiled thinly as he felt himself slipping into the nurturing numbness of unconsciousness. He had thrown himself in Peril, but it had shielded him from Wormtail's plans for him... and in that sense, it indeed was more than friendly.
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There you go! *looks around nervously* do you hate me? Was it satisfactory? Gosh I am so nervous I can't sit still! Please tell me! I tried as hard as I could to get across what I wanted. Did your heart beat even a LITTLE bit faster? *Snape laces his mystery coffee with something even stronger*
As for my wonderful reviewers!
Pose: *bows* thank you very much!
Lord R: You flatter me *blushes* thank you. I hope this chapter is up to standard as well.
Lady Lunar Phoenix: No, Harry cannot affect the Dark Mark. It was just coincidence. Or fate ;) Whichever you prefer.
Barbara: Eh... up to you to decide. *s*
Bonnie Wee Dragon: *hands you a hanky* don't worry, I cry with stories too.
Angel Baby: For the readers, there is a reply to your question, if you can find it in the chapter... as to how guilty Snape is about Harry's sightlessness, I mean.
nightningale: Dumbledore indeed told Remus a LOT more than just dry facts. Which is why Remus feels for Severus as well. I think that Remus can understand Snape anyway, even from the PoA book, where he is even accepting to him, sorta. As for Draco being the unexpected ally... hmm... Couls be. Certainly looks like it, doesn't it? But why does it have to be a person? *snickers* I think the rest of the questions are answered by the chapter. *grins* Somewhat at least. And stop being nervous about me taking your questions or comments wrong. I LIKE your reviews. I wait for them every time.
chips challenge: I do believe that Remus was the brains behind the Marauders, Sirius the action and James the charm. Peter was probably the allibi. *laughs* With all the sniffling.
jaycee: Snape might never know, as Harry shouted at him... *very evil gleam in eyes* but you can have your answer by this chapter, if you find it... ;)
Sinner's Angel: *blushes* thanks! Now if only I could get an agent for my -own- book.
Jordan: I am studying for midterms and working full time... sorry if I delayed more than usual. But here I am. *ss*
kitty: like I said, answer can be found in the chapter.
Lee Lee Potter: *chuckles* Snape thought Harry would be confindent and strong enough to go back to that day at that particular time... he was mistaken *L* or wasn't he? Thanks for the compliments *dodges haddocks*
phreakreader: I agree, but I wouldn't not give Severus more alcohol than he already opts to drink. *chuckles* might end up being used in pyromanic ways. *Snape snorts and sips brandy*
Zardiphillian Beryllix: here you go! Hope the chapter answered questions.
Kaat Shadow Lover: hee hee, I need something strong too *chuckles and grabs the bottle from Sev's hands* *he scowls* Let's hope they DO live through this attack. After all, someone is supposed to die in this year, no? I am thinking if I should follow that hint JK has dropped.
fyre: Thanks! I hope this chapter is up to standard as well. As for Sirius, I think that just like Snape, he is a wildcard and could be anything. Just look what *I* did with him! *chuckles* No wonder Fudge was not allowed in Order meetings or given an Order member list.
Ethereal: um, thanks. *sag*
amadeus: *laughs crazily, even Snape smirks* gosh that made me laugh for quite some time! I will try to knit this in the story before it ends. Wonderful quote!
shitsumon: *chuckles* Captain Haddock would suggest duct tape, but the brat is a wizard. heh. *chuckles and gives Harry Aretha's pink slippers and white apron*
Tinuviel: *hands you a gold star* You were the only one that figured out where I got that scene from! Yep, that is indeed borrowed from when Andy finally escapes. Wonderful movie, the Shawshank Redemption.
sarah: sorry about the shortness of the chapters-- in my other fics, they are even shorter! I only have about 2 hours of free time in which to write this. I cannot make them any longer. Besides, I feel drained by the time I reach page 6, and the thematic unit comes to an end at about that time.
enahma: thanks! I'll try! I am almost done! *pants along*
Kemenran: yes, Snape is attached to Harry by now, and so is Harry to him, but they both have trouble admitting such a thing to even themselves.
Mikee: eh, not to me! *points to Voldie and the Death Eaters* to them! *chuckles* I only write what they choose to do.
Myk: *both Harry and Snape pout and stand back to back, hands folded* heh. Has the chapter somewhat answered your questions?
AirElemental101: Noooo! I do not want to have your death on my conscience! *races for chapter*
JaimynsFire: *chuckles* perhaps, perhaps, perhaps! *singing along*
Teigra: Yes he does. *chuckles* it's his hidden talent. Yes, I think he wouldn't expect a muggle attack from a wizard... but from a muggle? I'd be careful. *chuckles*
Phoenix Flight: I answered now! *chuckles* I really did!