CHAPTER 7: Multiple Plans
Voldemort grinned when McGonagall's body fell onto the bottom of the boat, completely lifeless. He then hold out his wand over the water and said: "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Immediately, a skinny pale figure, almost looking like skeleton, rose from the water and landed next to Voldemort in the boat. The creature looked at Voldemort with an angry expression. He growled at him, but Voldemort just smiled and said: "Oh, you don't need to be angry at me. I'm going to help you. I'm going to give you a new life."
He then waves his wand and spoke a very complicated spell which ended with the Inferi getting sucked into McGonagall's body. The dead professor suddenly opened her eyes and Voldemort had a delightful smile on his face.
"Well, Professor. I think it's time to return to Hogwarts, don't you think so?"
Nagini walked out of the Barnabas' office, now possessing the body of the man himself. She didn't like this one, it was more uncomfortable than Rita Skeeter's body, but she needed this one to complete her plan. She walked up to the press room.
"SSSTOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND LISSSTEN TO ME!" she said loudly, immediately getting the attention of everyone in the room.
"Lisssten, you've all been informed that an article was publissshed about the dead of He-Who-Must –Not-Be-Named. However, thisss ssseemed to be debunked by the man himssself. But I got from a very reliable sssourccce that thisss man wasss merely an impossster playing a prank on usss. A rather inappropriate one, but one nonethelesss. Ssso, I want an article publissshed on thisss. The article will clarify you were wrong in the lassst article and the Dark Lord is truely dead. Isss that underssstood?" Nagini said.
Everyone nodded and they went to work while Nagini returned to the office.
With a loud bang, Voldemort re-appeared in Hogsmeade, accompanied by Minerva McGonagall who was leaning on his shoulder. Voldemort led her through the village back to the castle. When they stood in front of the gates, he spoke to her.
"Listen, I've given you back your life, something which many wizards would think impossible. I would expect you'd be doing something for me in return," Voldemort said.
McGonagall looked at him, not quite understand what he meant.
Voldemort continued: "Through use of a very dark powerful magic, I've let you possess the body of a living human. Her name is Minerva McGonagall".
"Minerva…McGonagall…" McGonagall spoke in a hoarse voice.
"She is a teacher in this school. She teaches Transfiguration. Now, I don't suppose you're familiar with the subject, but you don't need to be. All I want you to do, is go inside the castle and get the other teachers to come outside. One by one I will lead them to the cave, kill them and have them be possessed by one of your fellow Inferis."
"Which one must I get first?" the Inferi growled.
"Well, let's see. I would say the weakest one, but that's the caretaker and he's useless to me. No, I think Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, would do fine," Voldemort said.
"And what does she look like?" the Inferi asked.
"I'll point her out to you," Voldemort said and he opened the gates and made his way towards the castle.
Right after Voldemort and the inferi had walked through the gate, another loud bang could be heard in Hogesmeade, as Wormtail appeared. He was wearing a long black cloak, covering his face from view. The last thing he wanted was people seeing him in this form. He made his way towards Honeydukes and carefully snuck in through a backdoor, leading him into the back of the shop. Once inside the shop's empty kitchen, he could hear people talking, which he guessed would be the two owners of the shop. But the noise was vague and came from above the shop, which, he guessed, was probably where they lived. Trying to be as quiet as possible, Wormtail moved from the kitchen to the main shop, where he quietly unlocked the door to the storage cellar. He then made his way downstairs and into a hidden tunnel that led straight to Hogwarts.
Madame Pomfrey was putting away medicines in her office, when she heard footsteps coming out of the main wing. She left her office and saw McGonagall in the middle of the room.
"Minerva? What are you doing here?" Madam Pomfrey asked, slightly confused.
"You need to come with me to Dumbledore's office. Immediately!" McGonagall spoke.
"Why?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"Just come with me!" McGonagall demanded, speaking louder and more raspier then before.
"What's with your voice?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
McGonagall looked at her in confusion.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.
"Your voice, it sounded…weird. Raspier. Almost creepy I would say," said Madam Pomfrey.
"My voice is of no importance right now!" said McGonagall angry. "The important thing is that Professor Dumbledore needs to see you!"
"Right. I better get to see him then," said Madam Pomfrey, rushing out of the Hospital Wing.
Wormtail exited the secret passageway. He was now in a darkened corner of the castle. Now, it was time for the more difficult part of his plan. He carefully left his corner and looked around, the hallway was empty. He wanted to make his way to the staircase, but heard footsteps coming his way. Quickly, he hid himself again.
As soon as he was hidden away safely, he heard voices.
"I can't believe how much homework Professor Flitwick gave us," the first voice said.
"I can barely keep up with my History of Magic homework," a second voice spoke.
"And Potion's Class is yet to come. You know what Snape's like. Chances are we're barely going to be able to sleep tonight," said a third voice.
Wormtail heard that all the voices were girls and he carefully peeked around the corner, spotting three girls chatting with each other.
"Maybe I can ask my Won-Won to do some of my homework for me," the first girl spoke.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, Lavender. But I don't think that's option," said the second girl.
"Explain yourself, Romilda," said Lavender.
"Well, your 'Won-Won' is not exactly an expert at these subjects," said Romilda. "For all I know, he might not even make most of his homework himself."
Lavender was confused.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
Romilda looked at the third girl. "Are you going to tell her, Angelina?" she asked.
Angelina sighed and said: "Well, you see, I think that Ron has most of his homework made by Hermione. You know how close those two are."
"Don't mention it," murmerd Lavender.
The girls came close to where Wormtail was hiding, but he didn't mind. He let them come, as he had a plan in mind. When the girls were close enough, Wormtail tapped his fingers on a nearby statue, hoping it would draw attention. Indeed, one of the girls, Angelina, stopped in her tracks.
"Did you two hear that?" she asked.
"Hear what?" responded Romilda.
"A weird tapping noise. As if someone was tapping on a statue or something," Angelina said.
"You must be imagining things, Angelina," Romilda said.
"Besides, we're running late for Potion's Class."
"I'll be with you two in a minute. I'm just going to have a look, making sure it's nothing," said Angelina.
"Fine. Whatever you like," Romilda said and she and Lavender walked off.
Angelina made her way towards the dark corner.
"Hello?!" she asked. "Hello?! Is anyone there?"
Wormtail held tight his wand, not long now.
"Hello?! Anyone?!" Angelina voice called out.
Then, Wormtail jumped out of the darkness and before Angelina could react or do anything, Wormtail had knocked her out with a simple spell.
"Sorry, my dear girl," Wormtail spoke. "But I heard you're going to Potion's Class and coincidentally, that's where I need to be. So I'm going to have to borrow your clothes for a while. And a hair or two from you as well."
In the office, Voldemort was waiting for the inferi to return with Madam Pomfrey when the fire in the fireplace suddenly turned green and a man suddenly stepped out of the fireplace whom Voldemort recognized as Barnabas Cuffe. However, he was also quick to notice the yellow snake-like eyes of the Daily Prophet editor.
"I see you've changed bodies. Wasn't Rita Skeeter satisfying enough?" Voldemort asked.
"Oh, ssshe'sss sssatisssfying. Very sssatisssfying and if I had to chose, I would ssstay in her body, but cccircumssstancccesss forced me to take on thisss one. Onccce I'm finissshed, I do get back to Ssskeeter'sss body, though," Nagini spoke.
"Circumstances?" Voldemort asked curiously. "What circumstances?"
"Asss you may perhapsss know, Misssss Ssskeeter isss known for not alwaysss ssspeaking the truth and ssso when Wormtail had foolissshly told the Daily Prophet that you were ssstill alive, I tried to convinccce Barnabasss that that was a lie, but consssidering Missss Ssskeeter's track record, he didn't believe me. Ssso, I had no other option but to kill him, possssessss hisss body and tell everyone in the Daily Prophet that the lassst publissshed article was a missstake." Nagini explained.
"Very clever," said Voldemort with a satisfying grin. "I'd love to chat longer, however, I'm expecting a visit from Madam Pomfrey."
"The ssschool nurssse?" Nagini asked surprised. "What do you need her for?"
"You remember that spell I created recently?" Voldemort asked.
"The one with the Inferi'sss?" Nagini asked.
"That's the one. I'm working on a little army and my first subject was perfectly converted. Madame Pomfrey is second." Voldemort explained.
"Oh, very good," Nagini said satisfyingly. "I better return to the Daily Prophet now. I have to arrange a few thingsss. Announccce sssomeone new to the possst of editor, becaussse Barnabasss is dead. And after that, I'm finally going back into Ssskeeter'sss body. It will feel good to be out of thisss one," Nagini said, after which she stepped back into the fireplace.
Lavender and Romilda sighed in relief when they saw Angelina running towards them.
"Finally," Romilda said. "Potion's Class is going to start in a few seconds."
"So sorry. But due to these stupid moving stairs, I ended up on the wrong floor," Angelina responded.
"So, did you figure out the mystery of those noises you heard?" Lavender asked.
"It's like Romilda thought," Angelina said. "It was just my imagination."
"See. I told you," Romilda replied.
The three girls walked off to potion class. Well, three girls and a filthy rat in the disguise of a noseless pale powerful wizard which was covered up with ANOTHER layer of Polyjuice Potion that looked exactly like Angelina Johnson.