Chapter Eight: The Struggle

With a wave, Bellatrix nudged Pansy, and – keeping together – they hurried past a stirring Inferious, and exited the hall via a side door. Their shielding spell faded as they moved away – but there was no time to follow them. The rising tide of the undead was closing in on the staff of Hogwarts.

Professor Flitwick began issuing orders to everyone present. The stone Inferi found themselves bombarded by magically-created water globules from different directions, which halted them in their tracks as their solidity weakened.

Harry quickly cast a levitation spell onto the Inferious stretching out for him – it was formerly one of the musicians. With a roar, the undead being found itself prised away from the floor, despite its attempts to sink into the stonework. Then Hermione cast jets of water at it. Moody finished it off with a small, conjured vortex of air that broke up the now-dissolving particles into scattered pools of mud.

"Yes!" Hermione gave a whoop of joy.

"Keep going, everyone!" Moody allowed himself the faintest of smiles, as they fought on.

Ron jumped across to them, avoiding the treacle-like arms now emerging from the floor underneath him. He reached Harry and Hermione, and blasted away with his wand alongside the others. The grisly tide of undead was gradually being cut down, but even more were emerging from the very fabric of Hogwarts…

Suddenly, there was a reddish-brown blur of movement, as the next Stone Inferious was set upon.

"Ginny!" Harry yelled, spinning round as he fought another of the horrors.

The she-wolf was snapping away at the Inferious with her jaws – using her fore claws to aid her. At first the horror was too rock-solid to be defeated – and it was now using one hand to hold Ginny at bay, whilst its other hand formed a battering fist. But then Professor McGonagall sprang out of nowhere and fired a jet of water at the Inferious, splashing both it and the werewolf. Ginny soon got her claws into the softened monstrosity before it could re-harden, and – with gusto – began to tear the fiend apart.

Roaring with fury, the Inferious slashed Ginny with its granite claws. The blood splashed onto the surface of the shifting rock-being.

Harry saw this in-between glances, as he kept his other eye open for further potential attacks. Shooting another jet of water at the next Inferious, he spun back to help Ginny – only to freeze in amazement.

A red stain from Ginny's spilt blood was beginning to spread down through the now-solid composition of the Inferious. The creature's movements were becoming jerky. The Ginny-wolf's wound was healing by itself, but now another cut was made as she flung herself at her inhuman opponent. Again, the latter was stained crimson from their contact, and the Inferious gave a cry that sounded like a bellow of anguish.

"Ginny!" Harry yelled to her. "Your blood! I think your blood is affecting it!"

The she-wolf cocked her head at him, paused, and momentarily backed off from the wounded Inferious. Then, with a series of bone crunches, she shifted into her wolf-girl form and sank her claws into the backs of each forepaw. Ginny quickly brushed the Inferious with the blood from her cuts.

The horror issued a deathly moan from its open mouth. Where they had soaked into the Inferious, Ginny's fluids were now dissolving the rocky texture of the monstrosity, turning it into a crimson sludge.

"Ron!" Hermione's widened eyes were acting in tandem with Harry's. "Werewolf blood slows them down! The infection within the Stone Inferi – the Blight…"

"…cannot live in the bloodstream of a lycanthrope… Our blood is poison to it! Brilliant!" Ron put down his wand and began to undress there and then. "Look after my things, will you, 'Mione? Thanks. Cover for me, guys!"

"Ron – what are you…?" Hermione's eyes, Harry considered, couldn't have got any bigger. Ron swiftly slipped out of his shoes, and he dropped his trousers.

"Hermione – watch the Inferi, not Ron! Cover for him," Harry snapped. He yelled as a re-solidifying arm pulled sharply at his leg, causing him to fall over. Hermione screamed, and shot a water globule at the half-formed Inferious on the floor.

They were exhausted now – their endurance being worn away by near-endless spell casting.

The latest Inferious rose, like a spectre, from the floor. It was – had been – Rita Skeeter. Now her open mouth hissed in delight, as she prepared herself to descend upon the collapsed young wizard, and smoother him with the cold embrace of her shifting form. There, he would suffocate – and then Hermione would be next, Harry thought, his heart sinking. Worse, she would be dragged into the stones of Hogwarts, and – still being human – then be infected with the taint of the Inferious' Blight, to later emerge as an undead, rock-like wraith herself…

Even when half-dead, Rita hounds me…! Harry silently cursed to himself.

"Aaaggghhh!" The cry was forced from the open jaw of Harry's assailant as the jar shattered into her lower back. Smoke began to hiss from the impact, and the Rita-Inferious' grip on Harry weakened. The creature began to crumble around her midriff. She slumped to one side, weakening. Within seconds, Rita Skeeter had died her second – and final – death.

Good riddance to you…, Harry thought as he recovered his wits.

"Grab hold of me!"

Hermione helped to free Harry. Gasping from their exertions, they looked up to see a relieved-looking Professor Slughorn nodding at them, before he carefully flung another jar of acid at a second Stone Inferious.

"Ahhh! Urr… Grrr…" The cries, just behind them, were deepening into a series of growls. Harry and Hermione spun round, to see a now-naked Ron Weasley transforming into his half-wolf form. His body was becoming enveloped in rolling waves of reddish fur, like his sister. Ron's ears, tail, and muzzle grew out together into their lupine positions, whilst the rest of him – bones and all – reformed into the frame of a bipedal, humanoid wolf.

Harry smiled at his friend. "Go get them, Ron" he encouraged him.

The Ron-werewolf gave a nod, then scratched the backs of his forepaws in turn, turning them red. With a howl, he launched himself directly at the Inferi attacking the rest of the staff.

The first of the wraiths screamed as Ron's blood was soaked into its semi-solid body. And Ginny had just destroyed her third Inferious, using her fangs to tear the weakened wraith into scattered, clay-like blobs. With a growl of satisfaction, Ginny loped over to Harry and Hermione, and panted, recovering from her exertions.

"We're finally winning!" Hermione hugged Harry and Ginny.

"It's not over yet!" Moody declared, as he wiped the sweat on his shiny forehead. "We have to locate and deal with the source of power that is animating the Stone Inferi. Until then, all the walls of Hogwarts are potential death-traps!"

"The dungeon level – Lupin's rooms! I sensed something down there," Harry reminded Moody, who gave a satisfied smile.

"Yes – you did. Track it down, Harry – and destroy it! You too, Miss Granger, Master Weasley, and Miss Weasley!"

"What about you?" Hermione asked in a wavering voice.

"I'll help to clear up the Inferi here – then join you, if I can! You four are faster than me. Now go!" Moody snapped at them. "And watch yourselves!"

Ron and Ginny exchanged a lupine look of what could have been anticipation, then they licked their fangs. Growling, they bent down and bounded out of the Great Hall on all fours, via the now-unguarded double doors. Harry and Hermione had to run after the humanoid werewolves, in order to keep up.

The passageway outside was deserted – but in the distance someone screamed. Harry's ears, keener since he became a lycanthrope, told him there was fighting still going on in the castle.

Against the Death Eaters, or the Inferi? He asked himself. Or both?

Ron and Ginny sniffed the air, as they straightened up. Suddenly, Ron – with an effort – forced himself to speak.

"Lupin… Greyback…," he growled. "Scents lead…to hallway. Faint, now…"

Ginny nodded in agreement, and snarled. "Bellatrix… Pansy… This way!" She loped over to the staircase leading down to the dungeon level – where the Potions classroom, and also Snape former rooms, were.

Hermione gave the Weasley werewolves a look of admiration. "You two are amazing!" She turned to Harry. "Can you talk when furred, as well?"

Harry shrugged. "I haven't tried," he admitted.

"Oh well. Let's finish this, then." Hermione's voice trembled. Wands held tightly in their sweaty hands, she and Harry headed downstairs with their werewolf friends.

"Wait up, guys!"

At the bottom of the stairs, the foursome turned to see Neville Longbottom and Alex Greenway racing down to meet them, wands at the ready. They regarded the werewolves with some trepidation, but there was a determined look in the eyes of both of the young men. Neville, who had called out to Harry's team, presented a sorry mess. One of his shirt sleeves was torn, and his trousers looked dusty. Alex looked similarly disheveled.

Harry's eyes narrowed at the sight of a Slytherin pupil and a Gryffindor apparently acting in tandem, with the same purpose in mind.

"What's going on, Neville?" Harry asked, somewhat curtly. He nodded towards Alex. "Why's he with you…?"

"Cut it out, Potter!" Alex Greenway snapped. "Just because I'm a Slytherin, it doesn't automatically make me the enemy, you know!"

Harry bristled, and found that he was pointing his wand at Alex. Hermione and Neville exchanged concerned glances. Ron let out a low growl, and Ginny sniffed at the tension in the air.

"Harry!" Hermione's hand gently pushed Harry's wand down.

"Right… I'm sorry, Alex. You're right." Harry forced himself to relax. "Tell us what's happening…"

"Monsters, Harry! Coming out of the walls in the common rooms. They snatched three Hufflepuff students, and…, and dragged them into the walls!" Neville panted. "I was looking for Charlotte – Alex's cousin."

"As far as I knew, she was seeing Professor Slughorn for advice on her potions project." Alex's jaw tightened. "We're both looking for her… And those blasted rock-things slowed us down… They're scattered around the school."

"Dobby was running around, raising the alarm. He said that Kreacher's former mistress and her kind were in Hogwarts." Neville gave Harry a meaningful look. "I know who that is! Is it true…?"

"Yeah. It is." Harry nodded.

Hermione regarded Neville and Alex with narrowed eyes. "You don't seem worried about our furry friends," she pointed out.

The two young men looked at Ron and Ginny again. Neither of the werewolves looked as though they were about to attack – but Ron scraped a rear paw along the floor, inpatient to move on.

"We can put two and two together, Hermione. And more!" Neville answered. "Now let's go find those Death Eaters!"

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The party of six – three humans and three werewolves (one of them in his human form) carefully advanced along the dungeon level, making as little noise as possible. Ron and Ginny had now assumed wolf shape in order to travel on all fours. They suddenly stopped and sniffed the air.

Harry put up his hand, signaling to the others to halt. Faint voices were coming from the Potions classroom. They noticed that the door was partway open.

Ginny held her dark nose aloft. Then, turning to Harry, she softly tapped the floor. Three times.

"Three people – inside there," Harry whispered, understanding the message.

They tiptoed over to the doorway. The noise of laughter filled the room.

"Not enough, Vinnie. I win that hand, too!"

"I got two Kings and two Tens this time! You can't be luckier, Greg!" a second voice whined.

"Here – look! Three Aces and two Queens. So that's three rounds to me, and one to you. I reckon I can claim our guest as another Queen, by the end of tonight!"

'Vinnie' sounded miffed. "Let's make it the best of seven rounds…"

Harry squatted down, and peeped around the door. What he spied made him angry. Two of the escaped Death Eaters, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, were lounging around Professor Slughorn's desk – wands close by. A female pupil was gagged and bound to the Professor's chair. Her wide, fearful eyes, turned around from Goyle as he leered across at her. Then she caught sight of Harry.

It was Charlotte Greenway – and the two cronies of Draco Malfoy were playing cards for the right to possess her, Harry realised.

Alex Greenway inched his head above Harry's. "Who's in there…? Charlotte!"

The exclamation alerted the captors. Startled by the fact that anyone had even got past the Inferi, Crabbe and Goyle yelled and snatched up their wands – only to be hit by a spell from Hermione, as she dived through the doorway into firing distance.

"Muffliato!" she called out.

As expected, the Slytherins hadn't yet mastered the art of non-verbal spell casting – and they found themselves unable to strike back.

"Stupify!"

With a yell of fury, Alex hit Gregory Goyle with a stunning spell, slamming him crashing into the nearest desk. Then the Ron-wolf bounded in and sent Crabbe flying, like a bowling ball striking a skittle. Crabbe banged his head, as he struck the blackboard – and he soon joined his friend in the land of nod.

As Hermione confiscated the wands of Crabbe and Goyle, Alex rushed in and released his cousin from her bonds. She embraced him, then hugged Neville.

They seem to be keen on each other…, thought Harry, as he watched Neville and Charlotte.

"Thanks everyone!" Charlotte gasped. "They took me by surprise, whilst I was waiting for Pro…"

"We know – where are their cronies?" Neville patted Charlotte's shoulder.

"Professor Lupin's quarters! I'll help you!" Charlotte retrieved her wand from where her captors had placed it.

"Okay. You're in!" Harry turned and gave Alex a dirty look. "Don't give us away next time!"

Alex scowled, but nodded. "Sorry. I'll do better in future… Harry," he declared.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

At a pre-arranged signal, Harry, Hermione, Alex, Charlotte, and Neville all burst into Professor Lupin's candlelit study at the same time. Five wands were swiftly pointed at their targets. The Weasley werewolves, now flanking the defenders of Hogwarts, bared their teeth, snarling.

"Hold it right there, everyone!" Harry spat.

The gathered Death Eaters and the House Elf were taken by surprise. Pansy Parkinson's eyes were wide with shock. The two next to her instinctively raised their wands – but they were halted in their tracks by the commanding tone of their leader.

"Wait! Redknapp, Draco – hold fast!" snapped Bellatrix.

The ginger-haired, cloaked man with Malfoy narrowed his eyes, but lowered his wand.

"The horrid Potter boy returns," Kreacher rasped. "I have been granted my freedom from you by a sock from my mistress! Now I serve who I chose!"

Kreacher blew a raspberry at Harry, who ignored him and locked eyes instead with the young man with the gelled ash-blond hair and haughty features – who, in turn, stared at Harry's party with an angry expression that slowly turned into a mocking, contemptuous sneer.

"So you fought your way through the Inferi! Don't think for a moment that you've won, Potter!" he hissed.

As Harry tried to think of a suitable remark with which to respond to Draco's taunt, Alex Greenway made his own anger felt.

"And don't think you'll never have to answer for Yasmin's death, Malfoy!"

Malfoy turned his attention to him, and narrowed his eyes as he stared at the colours on Alex's tie. He seemed to be surprised to be challenged by a fellow Slytherin. "Who the hell is Yasmin?" he snapped.

"My girlfriend! The lady you crushed to death by tumbling the library bookshelves over, on your last visit here! Remember that!"

"Oh, right…" Malfoy shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner. "She wasn't part of our cause. She just got in the way of our mission."

Alex's face muscles tightened at the young man's off-handed attitude, and he strode towards Malfoy. "You're going to regret what you've done…"

"No chance!" From underneath his dark robes, Malfoy quickly pulled out a black jet stone set within an amulet, which hung around his neck from a chain. A spark of reddish light suddenly shot from it, and struck Alex. He cried out, as he was hurtled back with force into Ron and Charlotte.

Pandemonium broke out. Redknapp fired the first spell – and Harry and company dived either way for cover. The spell struck the wall, shattering slivers of rock in various directions.

"This is for my parents, you wretch!" Neville yelled, finally dropping his dignified silence. Pulling out a small kitchen knife from his robes, he took careful aim - then threw it. It went spinning straight towards Bellatrix Lestrange.

She screamed and fired off a non-verbal protective spell. There was a blue flash as the blade struck the magical shield summoned. Then the knife bounced off, and – still spinning – struck another target on its way down, impaling him.

Kreacher shrieked and rolled across the floor with the impact. His eyes bulged at the sight of the handle protruding from his ribs.

Ron halted his advance as Malfoy swiftly called upon the power of his obsidian stone again, conjuring up a curtain of blue fire that divided Snape's former study – now Lupin's – into two halves. Ron and Ginny snarled at the meter-high flames, keeping their distance. Meanwhile, both parties were firing off spells at each other over and in-between the tips of the magical flames.

Malfoy cast forth a bolt of magic at Harry. He dodged aside, and it struck a cabinet nearby. The explosion sent Harry and the rest of his team off-balance, as they cried out in panic.

Charlotte was the first to recover.

"Aquamenti!" she shouted, letting loose a jet of water from her wand at the unearthly flames. The effect was like fighting a forest fire with a water pistol. Behind the roar of the flickering barrier, Harry and his allies could hear Bellatrix yelling. They strained their ears to listen.

"Kreacher!"

"Can't…move, mistress! Leave me…"

"My Lady – we need to move," an unfamiliar voice – Redknapp's evidently – was now saying. "Our back-up is coming! Your nephew's magic won't last for long…"

"All right, Redknapp! You and I will head for Salazar Slytherin's tunnel. Draco, Pansy – guard the Brollachan! And use it to summon another Inferious!"

"With pleasure, Aunt Bellatrix," Malfoy purred.

"Back-up?" Neville muttered.

"They're playing for time! We need to break through this barrier – now!" Alex yelled.

"Right," Harry agreed. He swept his head round to take in the faces of his worried companions. "Any ideas?"

"Yes…" Hermione looked uncertain. "I can think of a special spell which Professor Moody hasn't taught you yet… But the more people who cast it together at the same time, the greater the effect it'll have on that shielding spell. It will cancel out all human-cast magic in the room for several minutes. So we'll have to resort to other ways of fighting!"

"That's all right." Charlotte smiled and lowered her bespectacled gaze to Ron and Ginny, who were looking eager for action. "We've got two loaded werewolves."

"How come you know this spell, Hermione?" Harry asked, out of curiosity.

"I took on an extra teaching session with Professor Moody, during the last full moon," she admitted. "Whilst you and Ron were…otherwise engaged."

Harry nodded. "Just give us the word, and the signal, Hermione." He turned towards the rippling curtain of blue fire.

She whispered the magic word to the others. "On my mark of three," she breathed. "One. Two. Three. Nullandvoida!"

"Nullandvoida!" Harry, Neville, and the Greenways cried out simultaneously.

Five blasts of black light struck the blue flames at the same time. There was a flash - and the shielding spell was suddenly extinguished.

They were just in time to see Bellatrix Lestrange framed in the outline of the opened secret door, as she spun round – astonished at the trick that the trainee Aurors and their comrades had pulled off.

Ron pounced and leapt across the study, his target being the Death Eater who was about to follow Bellatrix into the secret tunnel. Seeing the shifting shadow of the werewolf, the prey twisted round –screaming – as he raised his wand…

Ron's weight bore the man to the floor. In an instant his jaws were working at his enemy's throat, even as his fore claws slashed away at the chest below.

Within scant seconds, Redknapp was similarly colourful in more than just his name.

Bellatrix drew in her breath sharply. Then she saw the female wolf leaping towards her. With a hiss, The Dark Lady slammed the secret door to behind her disappearing figure.

Ginny crashed into a solid-looking portion of wall. With a howl, she fell upon the floor – dazed for the time being. She panted as she recovered her senses.

"Where's Malfoy and Pansy?" Harry spat. His questing eyes then saw the door to Professor Lupin's private rooms lying ajar…

There was a cackle from the bleeding, broken body of Kreacher in the middle of the study floor. He gazed up at Harry, and spoke in-between his wheezing coughs.

"Mistress will become the power…behind the NEW Headmistress of Hogwarts… Yes, she shall…"

"Shut up, you dirty traitor! People have died because of what you and your 'mistress' have cast in motion!" Harry yelled at the pitiful-looking House Elf.

"Don't care… Only what my mistress – the Dark Lady – desires…is of importance…, Potter!"

"Listen!" Hermione held up her hand. Everyone fell silent.

A moan arose from nowhere, like the agony of a tormented spirit blowing on the wind. Suddenly, another Stone Inferious bulged out of the section of wall behind Harry, and attempted to ensnare him.

Neville's face turned white as he took in the rock-like face of the undead horror. It was that of a stern-looking, ageing woman.

"It's Madame Pince – the librarian!" he yelled.

"Harry – move!" Hermione pushed him out of the way of the advancing Inferious.

With a roar of malevolent hatred for the living, the Pince-Inferious swiped out with a stony arm. Hermione cried out as she was forcefully swept aside. She hit the floor, head-first, her temple gashed.

The others quickly raised their wands.

"Aquamenti!"

"Incendrio!"

Nothing happened. Their powerful counter-spell - which had no effect on the presence of the Inferious – was still working to prevent further spell casting in the vicinity of the study…

"Oh sh… Cobblers," Harry declared, in a small voice.

Kreacher sniggered. "Filthy Potter and his chums will die with Kreacher! Oh yes, they will…! Hehehehe…!"