Ch 15 Ginny's Revenge
Harry opened his eyes and looked directly into the dark pools of Snape's eyes.
He jerked to sitting position and laid a hand on his cheek feeling a stinging sensation receding. "You slapped me!"
Snape nodded.
Harry started with sudden realization. "He's in the Shrieking Shack!"
Snape nodded again. This time he looked defeated. "He'll be here soon," he said calmly.
"He knows we were in his mind," Harry gasped. He got to his feet with Snape's assistance. The man had probably saved his life by holding on to him. He glanced at him and moved away.
Snape stood in one spot without speaking. His arms were folded over his chest and he waited.
Harry wandered around the classroom and touched various objects as he walked. He was thinking furiously about what they could do. He was responsible for getting them into a dead-end situation and he could see no way out except to run and hide. Even that would not get them far and he had no desire to run.
What he had just experienced- no, what they both had experienced-was horrible, beyond-belief-horrible. Harry could still feel the residue of the wizards' mind sticking to his like clotted cream. Voldemort was no longer human. What was inside was a cold, desolate, empty hatred and hunger; and no one was safe.
He turned and the hand holding his wand lay limply at his side. He was about to speak when the door to the room banged open and they both turned to look.
To Harry's surprise and wonder, Hermione and Neville struggled through the door balancing a large cabinet by their wands.
"Hermione! Neville!"
"Hello, Harry," Hermione was out of breath. "We've got very little time and lots to tell you. We met Ron on the stairs. There's a terrible fight going on outside. Over there, Neville." She nodded in the direction she wished to go. The two moved the object to the middle of the room. "Madam Maxine and some of the Beauxbatons are here with their carriage. Others are joining them. Victor Krum is on the way and many of his people. Remus has most of the Order surrounding the grounds and Hagrid has Grawp at the gates. We saw Oliver Wood and others downstairs organizing the younger students and taking them to safety. Ron is at the front doors with most of the D.A. He's got people at all the entrances."
"Hermione, you and Neville have to get out of here!" Harry rushed forward interrupting her recitation. "Voldemort is at the Shrieking Shack. They are coming through the tunnel even as we speak. You and Neville need to leave!"
Hermione stopped and took a breath before planting her fist on her waist and confronting both he and Snape. "I'm not leaving and neither is Neville. We've got a plan!"
"Plan..." Harry said weakly and looked at Snape. He looked back with an almost similar expression.
"What is your plan, Miss Granger? Tell us quickly," Snape spoke curtly, but not unkindly.
"Well, I put it all together when Neville told me about the wands," she said it quickly.
"Wands?" Snape asked.
"Harry, show him the wands," Hermione ordered. "You've still got them with you I hope."
Harry had forgotten that his inside pocket in his robe hung heavy with the three wands Neville had given him. "Hermione. It's not the whole solution. Madam Prince is most definitely a Horcrux and he wants the Potion's book and we don't know why yet. But he most certainly wants me."
"I know, Harry," she snarled at him and walked over to reach in his robes and begin to rummage through the pockets. He stood submissively with his arms out staring down at her. Then pushed her away. "Stop! All right!" He pulled the wrapped bundle out and handed it to her.
She unwrapped them and showed them to Snape and then handed him the Slytherin wand and Neville the Hufflepuff wand and took the Ravenclaw wand for herself. "Harry, you must use the Gryffindor wand."
Snape's head came up. "Gryffindor wand?" he said in shocked surprise. He was holding the black wand of Slytherin in his own hand as if it were a fabulous treasure.
"I found it at my parent's home..." Harry began and was interrupted by Hermione.
"I read the potion's book when I found it. Remember, Harry I put the sword and the Sorting Hat in the same place and then I saw that stupid book. So I read it. There were lots of spells I didn't understand and some were obviously very dark magic..."
"Miss Granger, we must hurry," Snape said through clenched teeth. He'd found the energy to set aside his astonishment and regain his composure.
"...and I found one," she continued and walked over to the desk, picked up the book and flipped through the pages. She handed the open book to Snape. "Now your mother," she nodded to Snape, "was a very clever witch. Actually, brilliant! She not only helped Voldemort perform the necessary magic to make the Horcruxes she knew other potent spells, too. The incantation you have in front of you is...?" She arched her eyebrow at Snape.
"To take over the body of another human being," Snape said quietly studying the book.
"Exactly. Not just possess but slip in and occupy another human being. He tried to do that to Professor Quirrell but did not have the energy to do it completely, not in such a reduced state. But now, he still has Horcruxes left, he will not want to stay in his body but take over another one- a healthier one. Your mother, Mr. Snape, can perform the encantation." She looked at Draco who remained transfixed in one spot. They all turned in unison to follow her gaze.
Harry was excited now and thinking about what she was telling them. "Yes, he did something to him!"
"Yes, obviously," Hermione said and then smiled apologetically. "He prepared him, I guess you could say."
"Prepared him?" Harry asked.
She nodded. "I think he possessed him for short periods of time to test him out. See if he wanted his body. The spell in the book says that he cannot be around the body of the one he wishes to possess for long periods of time. But the body can be used as a window of sorts. He could watch you and follow you. He was able to follow you here because I brought Draco along with me to Hogwarts." She looked at him apologetically. "Sorry Harry. Anyway, Voldemort was happy to let you take Draco with you, Professor. He never trusted anyone and he learned that you visited Mrs. Malfoy and didn't kill her."
"How?" Harry began.
"Her death was written up in the Daily Prophet. They wrote that Professor Snape did it. They've written that he's been on a killing spree all over Britain." She looked at him next. "It's going to be tricky clearing your name I think. Now!" She marched over to Snape who was looking at her in the same way he might study some strange creature floating in a glass jar in his laboratory. She peered over the top of the open book he held in his hands. "What does the charm say? What has to happen in order for him to occupy the body?"
Snape's eyes drifted to the page and he began to read the magical instructions, speaking them aloud as he went, " A potion is taken from a special cup..."
Hermione grinned at Harry.
"The Hufflepuff cup!"
Snape continued, "The essence of a woman..."
"Your mother! He has to kill her," Hermione said and waved at him to continue.
He dipped his head and read; "The body of the servant who has taken an oath of allegiance."
"Malfoy."
Harry thought about it. "But what about the Horcruxes?"
"They are clouding your thinking, Harry. They are getting in the way. You've been thinking all along that you must destroy them all before you can kill him. But that's not necessarily true." Hermione took the book from Snape's outstretched fingers and touched her wand to it , saying as she did "Inflamare!" The book burst into flame and was reduced to blackened ash in seconds.
"At least I don't think it is. Anyway, the Horcruxes are flawed. You can't make a Horcrux out of an animal or a Haunt."
"Hermione!" Harry gulped in astonishment.
She smirked and said…. thinking that Harry was astonished at her burning the book... "Well if he doesn't have the directions then it won't help him much. Or her." She kicked at the ashes. "She might remember them. So..." She walked over to Draco and gently guided him towards the cabinet. She opened the door and pushed him into the dark and closed the door behind him.
"Oh, and the Horcruxes. I told you they are flawed. Voldemort is turning into a snake because he shares a soul with a snake. And Madam Prince," she paused and turned to Snape and said softly, "she is a haunt. She doesn't know she's dead and Voldemort doesn't either. He's lost so much of his humanness he can't sense he's not human anymore. She died in her rooms many years ago. Dumbledore evidently didn't have the heart to tell her she was dead. So, in effect, the Horcrux is no longer viable. The vessel, the container has long since died."
Harry dropped into a seat, his mouth gaping open and was shaking his head in wonder.
"Where is Draco now?" Snape asked. His voice was mildly tremulous. He was ignoring what she had just said.
"This is the cabinet leads to Borgin and Burke's. It was how the Death Eaters got into Hogwarts to kill Dumbledore. The shop is closed so he'll be safe there until we fetch him." Hermione answered and tapped the door with her wand. "Now it's an entirely different cabinet."
"What good will that do?" Harry asked. He was trying to absorb the information and yet was being distracted by the noises coming from outside the castle and the flashes of light in the windows.
"He can't very well possess a body that isn't here," she said quickly but was nodding at Neville. "Hurry, Neville. Do it now."
Neville went to the door and opened it. Striding through it with the deepest and ugliest look on his face Harry had ever seen was Snape's doppelganger. An exact duplicate. Neville backed up and the twin closed in on him until he was not more than a step away. Neville pointed his wand and shouted, "RIDDIKULUS!"
At that moment, Hermione opened the door of the cabinet again and waved her wand. The Boggart was immediately and safely ensconced in the cabinet and Harry saw the cabinet wiggle before settling down and stopping on all four legs. Neville peered over at the real Snape and flushed a crimson red.
The four stood silently in the room and stared at the cabinet.
Snape was the first one to clear his throat and turn to her. He was about to voice his question when she jumped the gun and answered. "You see I thought to myself, what is it that scares Voldemort the most? And then I knew immediately. He's afraid of death! My experience was so horrible when I took my O.W.L.S. that I thought I might not pass dealing with the Boggart. Everyone gets surprised by them."
"We'll be in hiding..." Neville started to say, as if he knew that Hermione was off track, and Hermione interrupted.
"He can't know you're here with Harry, Professor. He'll kill you right away. We all have to hide so he thinks Harry is here alone. If any of us die before we can use the wands then we are lost."
Harry heard screams coming from the hallway and caught the movement of a serpent's head coming through the door. It was Voldemort's snake, Nagini.
Neville chimed in without realizing there was any danger, "He'll want to know where Draco is and when he looks in the cabinet..."
"...he'll be taken by surprise. There will be time for all of us to use the wands. We'll have to be synchronized.
Hermione cut in. "There will be a moment when he faces death and then and only then can we kill him."
"Neville...Hermione...be silent!" Harry watched as the huge snake slithered towards them and stopped in front of him. He heard the soft voice of the snake in his head. It was sensing him through the tongue that flickered out and through the connection left behind in Harry's mind by Voldemort.
The great yellow eyes of the snake stared unblinking at all of them and the tongue flicked from its mouth as it hissed. "I am the one called Nagini. I serve the Master."
Harry heard the words and stared back. There was a moment of shocked silence and then instinctively he ventured to speak, "Why does a creature of the forest serve a dark master?"
The snake swayed hypnotically in front of him and responded, "We have no choice in this matter. He will hurt us and we do not like pain."
"I will set you free," Harry hissed and slowly rose to his feet. "You do not have to serve this dark master any longer."
"Harry, what are you saying to it?" Hermione whispered ferociously.
"We can be free only when the part of us that hurts us is gone," the snake said.
Harry understood immediately. The snake felt the foreignness of Voldemort's soul-piece, felt the coldness- the agony-he himself had just experienced.
"If you let me kill your master you will no longer suffer," Harry said. He did it with as much conviction as he could muster. "You will be free."
The snake dipped its head and at that moment Neville shouted "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
"No!" Harry shouted. "No." But it was too late. The snake arched and dropped to the floor dead. Harry looked down at his feet and then slowly raised his head to stare at Neville.
Neville was pasty faced and stood frozen with his wand arm out still pointing the Hufflepuff wand in his had. It glowed with a strange warm yellowish green light and Neville remained unharmed. he stammered, "I...I knew...knew I could kill it. It was only a...a snake."
Harry sighed and said, "You did her a favor Neville. Now she won't suffer anymore."
"But he destroyed a Horcrux!" Hermione said. "Now there are only two left."
"Two?" Harry was still stunned.
"Harry, Madam Snape is dead. Her Horcrux is no longer there. Only he doesn't know it yet. There are two, the cup and the one inside of him. You've got to get him to open the door of the cabinet. It's the only chance you'll have so we can all use these." She showed him the Ravenclaw wand. "We all use the wand from the House we really belong in. Neville killed the snake because his true skills are revealed by the wand. There's no time to explain!"
Harry remembered the tale Hermione had told him about almost being sorted into Ravenclaw in their first year. He stared down at his own wand, the Gryffindor wand, and was about to speak when a voice sounded from the open doorway.
"I am so glad we are all here together."
Dementors were filling the hallways with a cold gloomy haze of fog. Students left behind on their way to safety were overwhelmed and dropped in their tracks. Older, more experienced witches and wizards, including Ginny Weasley, were fighting them off and making their way from floor to floor rescuing stranded students.
Ginny had stopped long enough in her flight to glance out the front doors of the castle and had seen Hagrid flying high on Buckbeak charging down two fire-breathing dragons and firing his pink umbrella at them as they swooped by. The grounds were shrouded in the haze of Dementors and the smoke from burning fires. Hundred of wizards and witches were now fighting. She watched in awe as Ron and Nymphadora Tonks struck down Fenrir and threw a silver net over him, pinning him to the ground. It had been Ron's idea to make the net and he had spent hours in transfiguring the metal into the finely woven net.
She was about to pull the doors closed along with Professor Flitwick when she saw Delores Umbridge making her way through the dark, and the snow. The woman was firing defensive spells off into the dark without really taking aim. As Ginny watched she saw the woman suddenly point her wand at an unsuspecting Auror and knock him off his feet.
She was stunned by what she was seeing. She's hurting our people! She's hurting our side! she thought and turned to look for help from someone around her. The large doors were swinging shut as a dozen wands were pointing at it and students were fighting the dark force stampeding in through the gap.
Ginny immediately knew what to do. She stepped out and ran towards the woman shouting, "PROTEGO!" Two wizards flew off their feet and she managed to grab the woman by the arm. "You shouldn't be here Madam Umbridge. You are too important to get hurt! Come with me and I'll help you!"
Umbridge looked at her and then around at the swarms of witches and wizards now almost at wand-to-wand combat and nodded hurriedly.
"Through here, hurry!" Ginny pulled her through the last crack in the immense doors and then down the hall, ducking as red and green flashes chipped flakes of marble from the walls. "Come with me I know a place you can hide."
Remus Lupin came running past and slowed only to shout at her, "Are you all right?"
Ginny nodded through the smoke.
"Get yourself to a safe place," he shouted as he headed down the hall.
The main hall was now burning and filling the hallways. Students were fleeing past them and teachers were shouting orders and spells simultaneously.
"In here, Madam!" Ginny threw open a door that led into a darkened classroom on the first floor.
"What is this?' Umbridge asked and stopped at the threshold.
"It's the Divination classroom," Ginny said with grave concern etched in her face. "Please you must hide! They are breaking through the doors!" They heard the doors springing open and slamming against the walls.
"Divination?" Umbridge said and began to back away.
"Oh no you don't!" Ginny placed her hands on the woman's back and shoved with all of her strength and then pulled the doors closed and locked them. She waited as long as she dared as she saw Death eaters entering the main hall. With her ear to the door she listened and finally heard a shriek. All Ginny could think of was the scar on the back of Harry's hand. "Serves you right, you horrible woman! Meet our new Divination teacher, Firenze!"
With that, she flew down the hall.