Chapter Five – The Darkest Hour
~ "The darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn."~
Author's Note: Attention!! It looks like this story is going to be 7 (yes, 7!) chapters instead of 6…..Yeah – the battle ended up pretty much monopolising this chapter…Also, as you might have noticed, I couldn't find a song title that would fit with this chapter and I thought that this saying was perfect so I used it instead…FINALLY, just to let you know that I have enabled anonymous reviews, so if any of you who are reading this don't have an account on fanfiction or are too lazy to login (!), please still feel free to leave a review!! There's nothing more depressing than seeing loads of hits, alerts and favourites for your story and hardly any reviews! Sniff. I love to hear your thoughts about my story, so please review! It gives me the 'warm fuzzies' – he he.
Disclaimer: In case you haven't worked this out yet, I am NOT JK Rowling. Sorry to disappoint. All recognisable characters, events and dialogue belong to her. I do however own those you don't recognise;) The statue of the Friendly Vampire is all mine – mwahahaha.
When I arrived at the castle, everything was quiet as most of the students seemed either to have gone to bed already or to be in their Common Rooms. I made my way to McGonagall's office where it was arranged that we would meet and found that I was the first to arrive. Bill and Remus arrived shortly afterwards and fortunately there was no time for awkwardness between Remus and myself as McGonagall chose that moment to open her office door and invite us in. She assigned us to our respective corridors but also said that we should meet up every half hour just outside Dumbledore's office on the seventh-floor corridor just in case…..Strength in numbers, she said, and it wouldn't do for us all to be scattered around the castle if something went wrong. In between these meetings we were to alert each other in the usual way if we noticed anything out of the ordinary. And so the night began….
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The first half hour went by without incident. I patrolled the third-floor corridor quietly and saw nothing unexpected apart from a couple snogging passionately behind one of the statues. I reprimanded them and told them to go to their respective Common Rooms and stay there. Not that I have anything against snogging per se, but in these dangerous times, it is not wise to be engaged in such a distracting activity in an area that is so exposed. Other than that however, I saw no one and as the minutes silently ticked by, I began to relax. Tonight was going to be another uneventful night after all.
At the end of the half hour, I made our way to our pre-arranged rendezvous and found Remus and Bill already waiting.
"Anything out of the ordinary?" Bill asked me.
"No. Nothing. Well unless you count the passionately entwined couple behind the statue of the Friendly Vampire…..but that's not really out of the ordinary is it?!" I added humorously.
Remus looked at me with pleasant surprise – it was a while since I had cracked a joke. Maybe he thought that I was finally starting to get over him and move on. Ha ha. Actually, my humour was more a result from me coming down from my adrenaline high – I had been running on nerves and now that it seemed that there was nothing to worry about on any level, I was starting to relax. Cracking lame jokes was just a side effect of that relaxation.
However, it seemed that I had let down my guard too soon. Just as we were about to split and go our separate ways once again, we heard running footsteps and as we drew our wands to face whoever was coming, Ron, Ginny and Neville Longbottom rounded the corner, looking frantic. They came skidding to a halt when they saw us there and began talking all at once. "Death Eaters" "Malfoy"… "Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder" …"Must have been planning it for ages"… "Harry was right" …"Oh gosh, Harry."
Remus spoke first in a surprisingly calm yet authoritative voice, "OK, all of you, stop. Now one of you - Ginny, tell us what's happened."
"Harry told us to be on the alert because he suspected that Malfoy would act tonight. He said that Professor Trelawney had heard him whooping about something and Harry assumed that whatever Malfoy's been working on was fixed and that he was going to act tonight. He told us to alert as many other members of Dumbledore's Army as we could and to keep watch, using the Marauder's Map. Ron, Neville and I have been keeping watch outside the Room of Requirement where we assumed Malfoy was but when he came out, he saw us and threw what must have been some of Fred and George's Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder into the air, because everything went pitch black and we couldn't see anything. We tried to grope our way out of the darkness and we could hear people rushing past us, but daren't fire any curses in case we hit each other. By the time we managed to see again, they'd gone and we ran as fast as we could towards Dumbledore's office, hoping that he might have got back already and then we ran into you," Ginny finished rather breathlessly.
Remus, Bill and I looked at each other anxiously. "Dumbledore isn't back yet," said Bill, "and we can't count on him coming back any time soon. We need to alert McGonagall and the other teachers immediately, and we need to set up guards on the Common Rooms to protect the students there. We don't want them joining in the fight if we can help it."
Remus nodded and sent off a Patronus to alert McGonagall. I turned to Ginny and asked her if they could tell which direction the Death Eaters (as we assumed they were) had been going in, by the sound of their footsteps.
"I can't be sure," she replied, "but I think they were heading towards the Astronomy Tower."
"The Astronomy Tower?" I asked, incredulous. Why on earth would they be going there of all places? This sounded awfully like a trap, but of what kind I could not guess.
"Right," said Remus, pulling me out of my troubled thoughts. "If that's where they were going, then that's the direction in which we need to head too. I've alerted McGonagall and she will be able to alert the other teachers and set guards up on the Common Rooms. Wands at the ready and let's go now!"
We all grasped our wands more firmly and quickly made our way in the direction of the Astronomy Tower, our hearts beating a tattoo in our chests. We hadn't gone far when we could hear the sound of running footsteps ahead of us, and rounding a corner we literally ran into the group of Death Eaters with Malfoy. There was a moment of shocked silence before all hell broke loose and the dimly lit corridor was illuminated with bright flashes as spells began to fire in every direction. In situations like this one doesn't have time to sit and strategise and so I fired every nasty spell I could think of, pointing my wand in the general direction of the Death Eaters and hoping to goodness that I hit some of them. Certainly a few of the Death Eaters started to sprout some pretty strange stuff and one of them clutched his stomach convulsively and moaned loudly, so my spells can't all have missed. The others seemed to be having some success as well, because before long the group of Death Eaters broke away and scattered in all directions, whilst one of them, a small, thin man whom I vaguely recognised as a wizard called Gibbon, carried on towards the Astronomy Tower stairs and sprinted up them before one of us could fell him with a well-aimed curse. Deciding that it was more important to deal with the group at large than with a single straggler, we chose not to follow him (especially as we didn't want to be cornered on the stairs) and gave chase to the other Death Eaters instead.
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We fought frantically, sometimes back to back, fighting several Death Eaters at once and casting spells in every direction. My arm was starting to ache from holding my wand up for so long, but the fear pumping through my veins kept it steady and kept my tired brain awake and clear. All parts of my brain not concerned with remembering and casting spells were temporarily shut down and my lips were moving almost without conscious thought, muttering spell after curse after jinx. Being quite a young Auror, I hadn't actually been in that many fights with Dark Wizards, and certainly never in one as desperate as this, in which we were so horribly outnumbered. McGonagall had joined us before long and told as that she had alerted the other teachers and told Filius Flitwick to go and find Snape. Gibbon, the Death Eater who had run up the Tower stairs, had been hit with a Killing Curse on his way back down again; a Killing Curse which had nearly hit Remus, to my terror. However, I was so busy fighting for my life that I had only managed to feel a moment's fleeting fear for him, before it was buried beneath the overwhelming instinct to survive. And I was not about to make the same mistake that I had made before.
I heard a horrible, savage noise to my left, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Bill being mauled by Greyback. My heart twisted with horror and grief within me but there was nothing that I could do except carry on firing spells at the multiple Death Eaters surrounding me. Somewhere behind me, I heard a shriek of pain, which sounded like Neville Longbottom, but once again helpless to intervene, I could do nothing but carry on fighting for my own miserable life. Everywhere it was dark, the only illumination being provided by the flying curses, and I felt convinced somewhere in a dark corner of my heart that I was going to die tonight. At least, I thought bitterly, I would die with Remus even if I hadn't been able to live with him.
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Suddenly some of the Death Eaters broke away and ran up the Tower stairs, presumably after the Malfoy boy who had vanished. Neville, who was limping, bravely and rather foolishly tried to run up after them, but it appeared that one of them had blocked the stairs with some kind of curse, because no sooner had he reached the fourth stair up, then he got thrown into the air as though he had hit some invisible barrier, and landed with a sickening 'crunch' a few metres away from the foot of the stairs. A few others tried to break through with the same result.
However, despite the fact that some of the Death Eaters had now disappeared up to the Astronomy Tower, our difficulties were far from over. There were still plenty of them left, more than enough to go around, and one of the Death Eaters, a truly massive wizard, was firing jinxes all over the place, which were bouncing off the walls and passing within mere millimetres of us.
As I was beginning to truly despair of ever seeing another sunrise, I saw Snape come running towards us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ginny duck as one of the huge Death Eater's jinxes just missed her, and then Snape was gone. It appeared that he had gone up the Astronomy Tower stairs because I saw Remus try to follow him and then get thrown back just like the others had been. For a brief moment, I wondered how Snape had managed to get through the cursed barrier if Remus could not, but then I brushed this thought aside as I had more important things to focus on right now. Like trying to stay alive for instance.
As this thought entered my head, almost as if it were some kind of perverse signal, the big Death Eater fired off a hex which caused half the ceiling to fall in. I ducked and dodged as large chunks of masonry crashed around me, hoping desperately that it wasn't my fate to die squashed like a bug beneath a huge rock. Even the Killing Curse would be preferable to such an undignified and pointless death. However, luck it seemed was with me that night, and as the crashing ceased and the dust started to settle, I realised that I was still alive! And, even better, it appeared that the big Death Eater was not, having finally met an ignominious fate crushed between a rock and a hard place, as it were…
Things were starting to look up, as not only had the fallen ceiling not killed any on our side whilst finishing off the wand-happy Death Eater, but it also appeared to have broken the curse blocking the stairs. Those of us who were still standing ran forwards towards the stairs, only to stop when Snape emerged from the dust and rubble with the Malfoy boy in tow. Assuming that they were being chased by Death Eaters, we let them pass, and the next thing we knew was that Greyback and the other Death Eaters were back and we were fighting once more. However, this time fortunately, we did not have to hold out for long, because Snape shouted something (I couldn't make out what), and then they all turned tail and fled after him, leaving us feeling exhausted but victorious. We were alive! None of us had died (although Bill looked pretty bad). We were going to be OK. The only dampener on my feeling of success was the nagging question at the back of my mind as to why they had just listened to Snape and followed him. They were winning; they could have had us, so why did they just leave like that? However, my tired mind was in no fit state to deal with imponderables such as this, and so I pushed the thought aside and turned to survey the damage, thinking contentedly that Dumbledore would be proud of us for successfully protecting the students (the ceiling could be fixed magically, but lives could not).
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Lights were coming on all over the castle and doors were opening, students rushing into the corridors and coming down the stairs, voices murmuring in an amorphous buzz as the teachers guarding the Common Rooms deemed that it was safe to let them out. Remus and Ron lifted Bill together to carry them to the hospital wing, whilst I knelt down and helped Neville up – he was injured, but not too seriously and could walk slowly, leaning on my shoulder.
Flitwick was already in the hospital wing, having been knocked out, but Madam Pomfrey had almost finished with him, and he was insisting that he go and look after the Ravenclaws. After some half-hearted arguing on her part, she let him go and turned to examine Neville and Bill, clucking like an anxious hen as she did so. After a few seconds, she pronounced that Neville wasn't too seriously injured and would make a full recovery and then turned to look at Bill, mopping up the blood on his face, so as to better see the damage. Ginny and Ron looked anxiously on as she muttered to herself, scrutinising the gory wounds.
"Will he….will he be OK?" Ron asked awkwardly.
"He'll survive," she answered brusquely, and then continuing more gently, she added, "But he won't look the same anymore, I'm afraid. Bites like this leave nasty scars that no amount of skilled magic can heal. You say that Greyback was still human when he bit him?"
Ron and Ginny seemed unable to answer; both were looking very pale and Ginny's eyes were shining with unshed tears Remus spoke up for them. "Yes, that's right Poppy. Do you have any idea what the after-effects will be?"
Madam Pomfrey looked back at Bill and then up at Remus again, after casting a pitying look in Ron and Ginny's direction. "No, I'm afraid this is beyond my experience. I don't think he will become a werewolf, but I honestly can't say more than that."
A muffled sob broke from Ginny's throat and McGonagall turned to her, with an unusually soft expression on her face. "Ginny, why don't you go and see if you can find Harry? I think I saw him running down the stairs and outside after Draco. Bring him here, will you?" She said gently.
Ginny nodded and wiping her hand across her eyes, left the hospital wing hurriedly.
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After about ten minutes, we heard the door of the hospital wing open again and Ginny came in, holding Harry's hand. Harry looked awful – he had dark rings around his eyes and his face was pale and drawn like an old man's. As for his eyes….After one glance at them I had to look away again, for they were full of the most terrible pain and suffering, pain that a boy his age should not have had to experience. Hermione, who had been standing quietly with us all this time, ran to Harry and hugged him, whilst Remus moved towards him, looking anxious.
"Are you alright, Harry?" he asked, obviously having noticed the pain in Harry's face, in the same way that I had.
"I'm fine…" he answered wearily, and it seemed not altogether truthfully, "How's Bill?"
We all turned and looked at Bill, who was lying in one of the hospital beds, having Madam Pomfrey dab some nasty-smelling green paste on his face. No one answered. No one knew how to answer.
"Can't you fix them with a charm or something?" he asked Madam Pomfrey.
"No charm will work on these," she said sadly, "I've tried everything I know, but there is no cure for werewolf bites."
"But he wasn't bitten at the full moon," said Ron desperately, "Greyback hadn't transformed, so surely Bill won't be a – a real -?"
He looked at Remus, who was himself a real werewolf, and Remus replied gently, "No, I don't think that Bill will be a true werewolf, but that does not mean that there won't be some contamination. Those are cursed wounds. They are unlikely to ever heal fully, and – and Bill might have some wolfish characteristics from now on." He said this last bit as gently as he possible could, putting his hand on Ron's shoulder as he did so.
"Dumbledore might know something that'd work, though," Ron said, still desperately looking for a solution, "Where is he? Bill fought those maniacs on Dumbledore's orders, Dumbledore owes him, he can't leave him in this state-"
As Ron said this, I also began to wonder where Dumbledore was. He should be here by now. Where was he?
Just then, Ginny cleared her throat uncertainly, and replied in a heavy voice, "Ron – Dumbledore's dead." and my heart felt as though it had stopped beating.
A/N: Well there you have it! This chapter was not the easiest to write to be honest, and so I would really love to know what you thought of it. *Makes puppy dog eyes* So please REVIEW!! If you don't, I'll assume the worst:(