-Chapter Twenty One-
The Willow Race
For a split second everyone was frozen with horror at the sight of the Dalek ascending into the Common Room, then everyone screamed and ran for the stairs to the dormitories in a vain attempt to escape. With a cry of "Exterminate!" the Dalek fired at them, hitting a few students in the back as they fled.
Several students were stopped from fleeing by the Dalek's deadly ray nearly hitting them and resorted to diving behind the furniture instead. The Dalek moved towards them, blasting the chairs and tables apart as it went.
Having reached the stairs Harry saw the Dalek moving towards a table that Dean Thomas was crouched behind and reacted instinctively. "Here!" he cried, firing a quick "Stupefy!" at the Dalek to get its attention and throwing himself off of the staircase as it fired, landing behind a chair. However he misjudged the jump and lost his balance, twisting his ankle and inadvertently sending his wand flying away from him. Cursing, Harry looked up at the Dalek as it glided towards him…
Suddenly Dean leapt up from behind his chair, wand at the ready. "STUPEFY!" he bellowed.
The spell had no effect on the Dalek, but it distracted it before it could shoot Harry and it angrily turned to fire on Dean, who ducked back behind his chair just in time. Before the Dalek could move in for the kill, it was distracted by first Neville and than another student Harry didn't know (1) doing the same thing, thoroughly confusing the Dalek.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Harry flung himself towards his wand. The Dalek abruptly turned and fired, missing Harry by inches. Neville, Dean and the other student all kept firing spells at the Dalek, ducking between furniture to confuse it. Harry's fingers closed around his wand and he lea[t to his feet "Lectori-" Instantly his ankle exploded with pain, causing Harry to cut off his spell with a gasp of pain at exactly the wrong moment. He watched the Dalek turn to face him almost in slow motion, all thoughts of spells vanishing as he stared at certain death.
"Look out Harry, I've got this!" cried Dean, leaping to his feet and pointing his wand at the Dalek's back. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself.
The Dalek didn't even look back. Instead its entire midsection spun round to face Dean and fired. Dean screamed as he was hit and fell to the ground. Full of rage, Harry raised his wand again. "LECTORIUS SPARKUS!"
Electricity shot from the wand and hit the Dalek. It cried out as its body exploded in several places, but Harry did not lower his wand even after the Dalek's body was nothing more than a charred wreck and the spell had died away. Silence rang about room afterwards as everyone stared in horror at the Dalek's remains.
"Dean!" cried Ginny suddenly, running down the stairs and hurrying over to Dean's body. She knelt by it and held it tightly, quietly weeping. The rest of the students silently descended from the dormitories, hardly able to believe that it was safe.
Hermione gently took Harry's hand and lowered it for hi. "Harry… are you okay?"
Harry didn't look at her, his eyes rooted to the sight of Ginny holding Dean's body and Ron hurrying over to comfort her. "It's my fault. I could have taken it out but I panicked…"
"It's not your fault." said Hermione gently. "If you hadn't reacted when you did everybody would be dead. You saved us all."
Harry nodded. "You're right." He said hollowly. He forced himself to focus on the positive side of things. Everyone else was safe. Harry looked over at Ron as he descended into the room. "How many others are there?" he asked.
"Neville, Seamus, Lavender, a couple of the other sixth years and some second, third, fourth and fifth years. I think all of the seventh Years are still out there., reported Ron.
"No first years?" asked Harry.
"Didn't see any," said Ron, his face going pale at the implication. "You don't think…?"
But Harry was thinking hard as an even more disturbing thought occurred to him. "Hey… did we have the Sorting this year?"
Every face in the room clouded as they thought back to the night they arrived. "I… I don't think so," said Hermione in confusion. There was a general murmur of agreement.
"How did we not notice that?" asked Ron.
But now that they had noticed that Harry realised something else. "And lessons! We haven't been any lessons since our Defence Against The Dark Arts lesson! I've been so focussed on the Master and the Daleks it never occurred to me to go to any classes… And look outside!" he exclaimed, pointing to the window where the sun was shining in. "It's like summer out there! And we've been here for what, a month? It should be October!" A quick look at everyone else showed that they were thinking the same thing.
What was happening?
"So what do we do now?" asked Hermione finally.
"Yes, Potter," said a familiar voice from the entrance. "What's your plan?"
Everybody spun round in surprise. Standing in the ruined entrance was Professor Snape. He briefly examined the broken frame of where the Fat Lady had been, before turning to Harry. No one in the room said anything as he stepped into the room. Behind him came Professor Flitwick. "Well, come on Potter," drawled Snape, glaring at Harry with utter contempt. "What is your wonderful plan?"
"That'll do, Severus." squeaked Flitwick, stepping in front of him. "Is everybody here okay?"
He took in the entire room at a glance, shaking his head in sorrow at Dean's body. "Potter, give me your Map."
Harry handed it over to him, wondering vaguely how Flitwick had known about it. "Sir, Professor McGonagall…"
"We know what has happened to Minerva." said Flitwick sadly. "That's why Severus and I are here. Someone had to check up on you." He examined the Map, his expression grave. "It looks like you were right, Severus. something is seriously wrong with the school."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry, taking the Map back and looking at it. What he saw was unbelievable.
Everything on the Map had changed. Every corridor had changed direction and several of the rooms had changed or disappeared entirely. Even as Harry watched the entire map blurred as a staircase appeared here and a corridor twisted itself round, leading to who knows where. Harry's eyes were drawn to a section that seemed completely cut off from the rest of the school and appeared to be a constantly shifting maze. Heading through it at great speed was a dot labelled "The Master".
Suddenly everything made sense. "The Master's done this!" exclaimed Harry. "He's using it to allow him to do whatever he wants to without being disturbed! And I'm certain he's the one who's meddled with the school year."
"What do you mean?" asked Flitwick. Harry quickly filled him and Snape in on what he and the others had realised.
"Then this is more serious than we could possibly have imagined," said Flitwick gravely. Everyone fell silent. The thought of the Master being able to manipulate their lives on a whim like this was not a pleasant one.
"We have to stop him," said Harry. He waved the Marauder's Map in the air. "We can use this to get to him before he gets what he wants and stop him."
"Then go," agreed Flitwick. "I shall stay here and look after everything."
"What about the Houses?" asked Hermione.
"The charms I have put on the Ravenclaw Common Room will be more than enough to protect my students. Squeaked Flitwick assuredly.
"And my students are more than capable of looking after themselves," sneered Snape, smiling smugly (2).
"Severus will accompany you," said Flitwick. Snape's smile vanished.
In the corridors the Master cursed loudly. He was certain that he had travelled down this corridor before but they all looked the same. Not only that every corner he turned revealed more and more corridors branching off. Was he going in circles? Could it be that the school himself was trying to stop him? The Master dismissed such thought. Something had gone wrong with the Room of Requirement, that was all. The Master pressed on. He would not be stopped now he was so close to his goal.
Shortly afterwards Harry, Ron, Hermione and Snape stepped into the new corridors of Hogwarts. Everything certainly had changed; not only was the corridor much longer than it had been but Harry could also see several doors and corridors branching off that had not been there before.
Not only had the layout changed but the architecture didn't make any sense. On their journey they saw staircases that only ascended a few feet before abruptly vanishing underneath a half finished wall. In another spot they saw a door set into the floor of the corridor that when opened only had a short space underneath it that was full of water. Another door hung open in its frame, behind which was only a wall, and at another point they found a corridor that could be entered through a small letterbox-shaped opening in the wall. Looking through it revealed walls so bright that the looker was temporarily blinded for a few seconds. These were but a few things changed in the new twisted Hogwarts.
The four of them travelled in silence. They could still hear the sounds of battle in the distance, but apart from coming across a former battle site they did not encounter any Daleks, but did see several damaged portraits left vacant and various bits of furniture that had been destroyed. All four of them ignored any bodies of students or Aurors as best as they could. The only dangerous moment was when the altering of corridors meant they suddenly found themselves facing the McGonagall Creature. After a short chase they had been saved by Snape's quick thinking. He had shoved them into a tiny corridor that was so narrow they could barely fit in it themselves and merely spiralled into a blank wall. By going down it as far as they could go the McGonagall Creature was unable to followed them and had eventually lost interest, heading off to unknown parts of the Castle. Harry, Ron and Hermione did not thank Snape for this and he in turn did not make sure they were okay before continuing onwards.
Snape mostly kept quiet and led the way, while Harry focussed on trying to decipher the Marauder's Map, which was now changing so much it was beginning to look like someone had brushed it before the ink had dried and smudged everything. Snape did not acknowledge the three of them in any way, other than when the sounds of battle grew louder, at which point he would throw up a hand to stop them and only move again when he was sure it was safe. Harry was just glad he wasn't being his usual spiteful self.
On one occasion they had to cross a room that was full of the strange black substance, with a only a few stepping stones sticking out for them to traverse across. "This is what the Master was looking for!" exclaimed Harry. "I saw it on the Hogwarts Express as well!" He watched with trepidation as Snape knelt down carefully for a closer look at the stuff. "It is only ink, Potter." he said eventually. "This is not a good time for your usual attention-seeking, now come along." And with that he got to his feet and jumped to the exit without looking back, leaving Harry slightly nonplussed.
Eventually their luck ran out. They approached a corner and could hear the sounds of battle from close by but there seemed to be no other way forward. Indicating that they should stay where they were, Snape pulled out his wand and went around the corner. Fed up of being kept out of the loop, Harry and the others ran after him.
They were greeted by the sight of an uneven corridor. The floor kept rising up and then abruptly dropping away to its original height, like gigantic waves frozen on a body of water. The ceiling was in a similar state. At the foot of the nearest 'wave' was a group of Aurors, who were firing spells over the top of it. At the far end of the room Harry could make out a group of Daleks. They were unable to advance down the corridor due to the waves on both the ceiling and floor making the available space too short and had resorted to shooting the ground and ceiling. Harry was relieved to see that they were not making headway.
One of the Aurors beckoned them to come closer and Harry recognised him as Dawlish. He looked haggard and terrified, like a man struggling to cope when completely out of his depth.
"What's the situation?" demanded Snape. "Where's Diggory?"
"We got most of the students back to their Common Rooms," said Dawlish breathlessly. "I've not seen Amos in some time. Everyone was separated, I don't know what to do! The rest of the Aurors are all scattered over Hogwarts…" his voice began to rise in panic.
"Calm down," snapped Snape irritably. "Potter, find out where we need to go, if you can."
Ignoring the jibe, Harry looked at the Map as best as he could, but it was now verging on being completely indecipherable. He could still make out the dot representing the Master though.
"I think he's heading for the Entrance Hall," reported Harry. Perhaps what he wanted was outside? As far as he could tell The Master had nearly escaped from the maze. "We've not got much time, he's nearly there!" He tried to check on other areas but it was impossible. In frustration Harry pointed his wand at it and snapped "Mischief managed!" and wiped the Map clean, waited for a few seconds and then solemnly swore he was up to no good again, but only a jumbled mess appeared on the Map. "It's the Entrance Hall." He decided anyway. "Is there any other way we can get there?"
As if in response to his question a tremor suddenly passed through the castle and before their eyes two of the walls suddenly split part, revealing yet another corridor, apparently empty of any of the odd features they had seen so far.
"How very convenient," said Snape, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. Nevertheless it was either this or face off against the Daleks, so JHarry, Ron, Hermione and Snape set off down it, only to be stopped by a cry from Dawlish. "Wait! We're coming with you."
"But what about the other students?" demanded Hermione. "There's still some out there!"
"You say the Master is behind this. We stop him and all this ends." said Dawlish decisively, his eyes shining with purpose. Harry was going to point out that the Daleks still had to be dealt with but stopped himself. Perhaps Dawlish was right, whatever the Master was up to couldn't be good. If they stopped him it would be a step in the right direction. With a nod of his head they the small group set off, leaving the group of Daleks still fruitlessly attempting to blast their way down the corridor.
They made their way through the corridors carefully. They would occasionally hear the odd spell being fired and the firing of Dalek guns but other than that there were no dangerous encounters. The continued transformation of the Castle confused them but Hermione managed to keep them on track by use of the "Point Me" Charm to make their wands point north and by making sure they only took downward staircases. Harry was just glad they didn't have to explain themselves to the Aurors anymore (3). At one point they came across a group of Slytherins - lead by Malfoy - who were escorting a group of second and third years to safety. Malfoy, who looked pale and drawn, gave Harry a nod before quickly ushering the group on it's way.
Eventually they came across what was fast becoming a rare occurrence in Hogwarts - a window (4) - and we delight to see that they were finally on the ground floor! It had felt like hours since they set off from the Common Room.
"I think this actually looks familiar," said Ron uncertainly.
"You're right," said Snape, not looking at Ron. "As long as the layout of this area has not changed too much we should be there at any moment."
At that moment they all felt a tremor pass through the school. They had all become so used to it that nobody paid it any attention.
Except this one was followed by "Humans! Exterminate! Exterminate!"
The group spun round. Behind them a narrow opening had appeared and filing through it was a group of Daleks. One of them opened fire and one of the Aurors was felled instantly.
"Go!" roared Snape, shoving Harry further down the corridor. "We'll handle this. Get out of here!"
Harry, Ron and Hermione didn't need any second bidding. They ran for the lives down the corridor, the sounds of spells and death behind them.
But around the corner was something that made them forget all about Snape and the Aurors. They found themselves in the Entrance Hall and there, on the other side of the room, was the Master.
He was leaning on the doorframe he was standing in and looked like he had been running nonstop for quite some time, but at the sight of Harry and the others his whole body tensed and his wand was suddenly in his hand. "Harry, Weasley, Miss Granger. I see you were able to catch up to me despite everything."
"Afraid so," said Harry simply, raising his wand. Behind him Ron and Hermione did the same.
"Then it is lucky that I have more contingencies!" chuckled the Master. He flicked his wand almost unnoticeably and suddenly Harry and his friends fond their wands flying from their hands as they were flung backwards by a blast of air. Before they could get to their feet the Master had flung the front doors open with a blast of magic and was running out onto the front lawn. "Come on!" cried Harry, grabbing his wand and running in pursuit. The Master was not going to escape him again.
It was easy to work out the Master's destination as they ran onto the lawn - he was running towards the Whomping Willow. Harry was confused. Was what he wanted at the Shrieking Shack? There had been nothing particularly spectacular about it when they had visited in the Third Year…
He saw that the Master was nearly there. In desperation to stop him Harry tried his best to aim his wand while running. "Impedimenta!"
His spell hit the Master spot on, sending his legs flying out from underneath him. But they were so close to the Whomping Willow that the spell hit it too, and instantly the Willow sprang to life, pounding the ground around it. The Master had fallen within its boundary and quickly scrambled out of the way of a falling branch. He climbed to his feet and pointed his wand at Harry, Ron and Hermione drew closer.
"This world of yours continues to surprise me Harry, but I no longer have the time for it," snarled the Master.
"You're going nowhere," snapped Harry, wand at the ready. "This ends, now."
The Master smirked. "As you wish." He swiped the air and a wave of fire flew towards Harry, who flung himself to the ground to avoid it. Behind him Ron grabbed Hermione and pulled her out of harms way, not quite getting out of the way himself and screaming as his robes caught fire, although a jet of water from his wand quickly put them out.
Harry leapt back up to his feet with a cry of "Stupefy!", only to see the Master casually block it. A spell from Hermione had the similar effect. "You are taking on somebody with the abilities of one of the greatest wizards," sneered the Master. "This battle is pointless!" With a wave of his wand the ground suddenly shook as several vines erupted from the ground and twisted themselves around Harry, Ron and Hermione before they could react. They struggled with all their might but the vines seized up and they found themselves unable to move. The Master smiled, mockingly, enjoying their plight, before raising his wand. "Goodbye, Harry."
A blast of light suddenly sliced through the air, severing the vines instantly. Surprised, Harry turned around as he threw their remains off himself and saw Snape, Dawlish, and a few of the Aurors running towards them. Harry laughed. He never would've thought he'd be pleased to see Snape. "It's over," he said to the Master, grinning in victory.
Too late he saw the Master's hand flick a switch on his watch. Immediately several masked figures emerged from the depths of the Forbidden Forest.
Death Eaters.
Almost immediately they began firing spells at the Aurors, who returned fire. Harry rushed forwards to help, only to see the Master quickly grab a convenient branch off the ground (5). He pressed the knot at the foot of the Whomping Willow's trunk, freezing it instantly. The Master ran over to it and began to descend down the secret passage. Desperate not to let the Master escape again, Harry charged after him and began to crawl the tunnel. Behind him Ron and Hermione cried out and tried to follow, only to be cut off by the spells from the Death Eaters and by the Willow itself as it suddenly burst into life again. A voice in Harry's head urged him to go back and help, to get proper reinforcements, but Harry continued to descend. There was no going back now.
Deep in the cavern, the hooded Man and Woman watched the events unfold on a one of the bubbles of the ink-like substance as it floated before them. The image flickered, as if it was being viewed on a slightly out of tune transistor. "The Master has failed!" said the Woman in alarm. "He is drawing Potter here and has irreversibly damaged Hogwarts!"
"Calm down." said the Man, placing a comforting hand on her arm. "The damage he has done can be fixed, you know that. And as for Potter," he added, a hint of menace creeping into his voice, "Isn't it appropriate that we should all be together for the Grand Finale?"
Appendix
(1) This student was actually the legendary Barbus McTan, who would go on to write a book on his experiences. The book, My Struggle with the Alien! was critically panned due to numerous inaccuracies throughout, as well as Babus' insistence that HE had saved the day.
(2) This later went on to become a popular tongue-twister.
(3) Overtime Harry's tale would be told by many others over the years, and each one of them would have more and more embellishments and become increasingly inaccurate. The Master's role was eventually transferred to Dumbledore, making the kindly wizard into something of a bogeyman in the Wizarding World. Other events, such as Harry having to fight a gigantic lump of jelly that Malfoy set on him and Hogwarts being attacked by flying curtain poles and being visited by a time travelling carrot are simply not true… sadly.
(4) The only thing rarer was the mythical Painting of Immobility - so called because it never moved. Whether it is magic or not was never determined, although the pairing itself did seem to have a habit of moving from place to place apparently on it's own whim, but over the years sightings of it have become increasingly rare.
(5) Yes, it was the same branch from The Prisoner of Azkaban. And yes, it has been lying there all this time. Poor branch.