Note: I had a lot of trouble with this chapter, that has during C&I's life been two chapters, one chapter, cut altogether, hastily put back, cut again, changed completely, made into a flashback chapter, had its flashbacks taken out, had its flashbacks put back in, and was finally scrapped and started over. And I am at last happy with it. Hope you get on with it too. (Spot the part one film quote.)
Chapter Forty-Eight
Sides Are Drawn
Minerva took a certain gluttonous pleasure in spending time in the transfiguration classroom. In the wake of everything that had happened since she had become headmistress, she had more than once found the process of coming down from the claustrophobia of Albus's office to teach (she could never call it her own when she felt as if the walls were pressing in on her and she fancied she could feel the portraits breathing down her neck) to be a therapeutic one. She could shrug off the worries that the school's management piled upon her and settle into an old and comfortable role for however short a time, until the lesson was over and she was required to secret herself away in her secluded hideaway at the castle's centre, overseeing the proceedings as best she could. For those hours in which she taught she was no longer the head of the school, no longer the figurehead of a resistance that she'd had precious little contact with for the past couple of months. She was simply Minerva McGonagall, animagus and transfiguration tutor, imparting the mysteries of her chosen art to rapt and not-so-rapt audiences of willing and not-so-willing students. As contrary as the image seemed, the noise and bustle of the main school was to her a haven far more tranquil than the snore-broken silence of the office in which she was now spending as little time as she could afford to without the school collapsing in on itself.
The post was the worst part. She could not go a week without at least one letter arriving to inform her of deceased or missing relatives of her pupils, more pupils than ever under the Ministry's new regime, more pupils than ever to try and protect and keep away from the perils of the terrible world that lay beyond the gates, a world so bound up in corrupt legislation that it had become lawless. They were the sole boat floating in a sea of sharks, and Minerva dreaded to think what would happen if they should chance to spring a leak. She dreaded to think what would happen come the Easter and summer breaks when the students would leave the sturdy protection of the school's thick walls and venture their toes into the dangerous waters.
When she taught, however, she could ignore all the papers requiring her signature, all the messages requiring answers. Minerva had been a teacher her whole working life; education was her passion and she could think of nothing that she would have done had she not followed this path. Sitting in the office it was far too easy to forget that, and she needed the time in the classroom to remind her why she was there.
She was sitting at the front desk marking before the arrival of her first class of the day (fifth-years beginning OWL preparation), simply enjoying the atmosphere of the classroom. She had not been expecting any interruptions and she was indeed surprised when a voice called her through the open door at the back of the room.
"Minerva."
She looked up; Filius was standing there, looking slightly pink and out of breath as if he had run to find her. His face was such that Minerva knew immediately the tidings he brought her were not good ones, and she marvelled at the maxim 'bad news travels fast'.
"What's the matter?" she asked, half-rising from the desk, unsure whether she should prepare for a fourth-year prank gone wrong or a full-scale invasion.
"They're here," said Filius. "They're on their way. The Ministry, among others."
Minerva's blood ran cold. Whilst it was not Voldemort himself come to pull down their walls, it was an embodiment of his might sent on his command. She would be lying if she said that she had not been expecting a visit from the Ministry, and she would certainly not admit to having been lulled into a false sense of security. Far from it. She had been awaiting this inevitable visit ever since the first representatives had been sent, far back in the previous summer, when they had as good as lost their library to them. The problem was, that despite the ample time spent stewing and waiting, Minerva still did not have a strategy for dealing with the interlopers when they did deign to show their faces, as they had decided to do now.
"Who, how many, where are they?" So many questions and obviously not enough time in which to make suitable plans for dealing with all the answers. There were some fallbacks in place – Irma could hide her contraband works at the drop of a hat – but the problem was the suddenness with which they had to act. Minerva was uncharacteristically flustered and extremely angry with herself at having been caught off guard, and she knew that had she been in the office rather than slightly more relaxed in her private domain, she would have been more on the ball. For a split second she wondered if Voldemort had timed this visit specifically to coincide with her teaching timetable.
"Umbridge at the head, as is to be expected," said Filius, regaining his breath. "At least three Death Eaters with her and about ten generic goons at their command. And they're right outside."
It was not an army, but it was undoubtedly a task force. It was enough for a skirmish. They'd seen a fight with those numbers at the end of the previous year, and this time there was no Order to help them. Hogwarts would have to defend itself, and as Minerva glanced out of the window and saw the black-clad convoy headed by lurid pink making its way up the drive towards the main door, she knew that Hogwarts would succeed. An anger long suppressed began to rise in her veins, and she strode out of the door, past Filius, who had to begin jogging again to keep up with her.
"What shall we do, Minerva?"
"We shall do what we always do, Filius. Keep calm and carry on as normal. If you could pass the library on your way to your classroom and mention to Irma that it might be worth taking some precautionary measures; that will save some bloodshed."
Filius had to stifle a bitter laugh; there was indeed no way on Earth that the Ministry would get their hands on Irma's stock whilst she still had breath in her body, not after what had happened last time and certainly not after the terrible tragedy that replenishing her shelves had engendered, but he was soon serious again.
"Do you think it will come to a fight?"
"Not if I can help it, but I get an awful feeling that we will not have much choice in the matter."
Filius nodded his understanding and hared off in the direction of the library and his own classroom. Minerva made it to the main door and opened it just as Umbridge was raising her hand to knock, and the headmistress scored one mental victory point. They did not have the advantage of catching them unawares, or at least, the school could make it look as if it had not been caught unawares despite the short notice that they were acting under.
"Dolores," she began pleasantly before the smaller witch could speak. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"
Umbridge's piggy eyes narrowed at this unexpected display of welcome, and Minerva scored herself half a point for outwitting the enemy before giving up the wholly inappropriate notion of tallying points and focussing on the task at hand – getting the Ministry and Voldemort's influence as far away from the school as quickly as possible. Like the spread of a viral disease, once the school was tainted it would succumb; and Minerva would not stand for the institution to be infected. They had but one advantage at that moment in time, against the might of the government and the law and the sheer vastness of the evil that they were facing, and that was that the school was completely secure; Severus's presence there was not the threat that Voldemort hoped it was.
"It's bad business I'm afraid, Minerva," said Umbridge, her voice equally sweet as she withdrew a neat roll of parchment from her hideously pink handbag, the Minister's signature still glistening at the bottom. "We of the Ministerial Committee for Re-Education…" here Minerva looked at the minions that accompanied Umbridge and raised an eyebrow pointedly "… are very worried about falling standards at Hogwarts. We are certain that in its autonomy from Ministerial control, the institution has become weakened, a minefield of illicit and illegal activities that have been allowed to thrive whilst the staff turn a blind eye to the terrible consequences that are but round the corner for these young rebels."
Minerva made no comment, merely folding her arms in a position that she hoped conveyed the message that Umbridge would have to do better than that before being allowed in.
"As you know, the Ministerial Committee for…"
"Yes, I know the name of your office," interrupted Minerva. "What is it that I apparently know?"
"Ahem. As you know, we now have the power to conduct unannounced checks on educational establishments" (Minerva felt this rather rich considering Hogwarts was the only educational establishment) "to monitor for signs of insubordination that could be damaging to the school and, of course, the Ministry. You are of course aware, Minerva, that failure to co-operate will not be taken lightly."
Minerva must have let her unease show in her otherwise passive face, as Umbridge gave a saccharine smile that increased her resemblance to an overfed amphibian tenfold.
"You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide," she added sweetly. "And believe me, Minerva," she continued, not quite as sweet and in fact revelling in presumptuous triumph, "if you have something to hide, then we will find it."
Her disarmingly mild manner returned.
"Now then, there is naturally an awful lot of paperwork to be discussed and signed; I think it best if you and I take a look at it whilst my colleagues perform the necessary checks."
Minerva did not think it best at all; she knew that if Umbridge caught her up in paperwork then she would not be there in amongst the school, doing what she could to help her staff and students evade the clutches of the rest of Umbridge's committee. She recognised the Carrow siblings, unchanged from their own days at Hogwarts except that they had completely lost the last vestiges of awe that they had once held for the building. All she could do was to hope that word had got around the school. Listening to the sounds of the pupils heading towards their first lessons, she surmised that it had; that Filius had taken matters into his own hands as she had hoped he would do and sent a warning around. There was no chatter in the corridors, just the noise of feet assiduously avoiding the entrance hall where the tense confrontation between headmistress and unwanted visitors was playing out. Perhaps the castle itself had sensed their presence and was performing its unspoken duty to help the inhabitants, keeping them out of harm's way. But as sentient as the school often seemed to be, it could not protect them forever. This time, Minerva knew that the only way to defeat the fox would be to step into its lair, to play along to its traps and hope. They were a school of over three hundred against just fourteen. The odds were in their favour, but what would they lose should they choose to engage in a fight? Minerva knew that despite their numbers now, they would not stand a chance should this brief skirmish become a complete battle.
"Very well, Dolores. If you would care to follow me."
Minerva turned on her heel and made her way back towards her transfiguration classroom. She glimpsed her class briefly, an exhausted-looking Aurora taking the register at its head having obviously been hastily drafted in as cover – not for the first time that term, Minerva noted guiltily. The two teachers' eyes met and a mutual understanding passed between them. Minerva continued along the corridor into a chamber that had long since fallen out of use thanks to its cramped confines making it unsuitable for its original purpose.
"We should be undisturbed in here," she said, motioning for Umbridge to take a seat as she shut the door, looking out into the corridor to see Yaxley giving orders to the rest of the group who dispersed silently before he disappeared, as she had expected him to, in the direction of Severus's office.
"Not your office, Minerva?" Umbridge enquired lightly, although they both knew the reasons for the seemingly odd choice of venue. Whilst the head's office was at the heart of the school, it was also very isolated from the classrooms and the main body of the building where anything untoward might happen. If they were in the office, then Umbridge could keep Minerva nicely cut off from what was happening elsewhere, something that the headmistress wanted to avoid categorically. If something, anything with the slightest hint of a discrepancy about it occurred, Minerva wanted to be within easy reach. She made no reply to the short witch and sat down opposite her, one eye on the door, letting Umbridge's voice drone on in her ears as she looked at the documents without seeing them, her mind totally elsewhere.
"As you know from decree number four-hundred and twenty-two…"
Minerva had long since given up trying to keep up to date on the Ministry's many decrees that had been passed at short notice and completely illegally, so she neither knew nor cared for what Umbridge was attempting to explain to her. She was certain that the repulsive woman was here for the sole purpose of keeping her distracted whilst her less-than-respectable colleagues performed even more underhand dealings than the ones that were being spread out in front of her with official Ministry seals. She was in half a mind to stun Umbridge and investigate what was happening in the rest of the school, but she did not want to think of the repercussions. For the moment, she would sit, and wait, and listen.
As with everything it seemed, the cataclysm came all of a sudden. There was the sharp crack of a curse connecting, the thunder of running feet from above them, and a yell of 'Professor!'
Minerva was out of her seat and towards the door within a second.
"Minerva!" Umbridge called after her, but she was ignored for her trouble. The headmistress careened into the hall, meeting Aurora from the next room, and she heard the footsteps of the other staff pulled almost magnetically from their lessons by that single word, 'professor'. It was a cry for help, not specified, just a cry for help going to anyone who heard it. And in their heightened state of awareness, Minerva was sure that even the teachers at the other ends of the building would have heard it.
They met with Horace and Filius in the entrance hall and the latter's appearance made Minerva breathe a sigh of relief;whatever had happened could not have occurred in the library since Filius would have passed it and duly intervened.
A Ravenclaw sixth-year came tearing down the stairs, her hand clutched over her upper arm where blood was oozing between her fingers.
"Fetch Poppy," Minerva ordered Aurora, who sped off without a word, suddenly awake and alert. The two men ran up the stairs unprompted, and the headmistress cast a first aid spell that would hold up until Poppy's professional potions arrived. "What happened, Ruth?" she asked the girl, sitting her on the bottom step.
"I was on my way to the common room, I've got free at the moment, they were arguing with the statue, I thought I could get away but they noticed me and made me open the door; I was scared and forgot everything so I did it, they barged past me and started turning the place inside out, one of them saw some of Carrie's muggle magic books from home and they thought they'd hit the jackpot and I said that they couldn't take them, they're Carrie's and they're all she's got left of her mum now, and then they cursed and I ran."
Ruth ran out of breath at the end of her hurried tale and looked gratefully past Minerva at Poppy, who was running from the hospital wing. In the time that it had taken her to relate the story, Minerva had been aware of movement in the rest of the castle, upstairs, downstairs, along corridors, and it was obvious now that magical combat had most definitely broken out.
Minerva rose to join her staff and found herself face to face with Umbridge, whose triumphant smile was in place.
"Muggle magic, indeed," she said, and tutted softly. "This is the sort of thing that requires stamping out, Minerva. It appears that we have arrived not a moment too soon."
"Oh shut up, Delores." Minerva cast a spell to silence the odious vision in pink and set off up the stairs. Halfway she met Alecto Carrow, her filthy paws clutched around Carrie's treasured books. "I'll be taking those." She vanished the books to safety and Alecto stared dumbly at her empty hands for a moment before coming to her senses and attacking. What the dumpy witch lacked in skill she more than made up for in enthusiasm, and in this respect she had not changed at all from her schooldays. Minerva managed to disarm her with a little creative spellwork. Some Death Eaters, she decided, were at a slight disadvantage when fighting their former teachers, most of whom had memories like elephants and knew that the weak points they'd had during their schooling were unlikely to have been completely ironed out no matter how many people they maimed and killed in their chosen career path.
Alecto was not completely stupid, however, and her stumpy legs could carry her quickly when they wanted to. She pushed past Minerva towards the entrance hall and the headmistress let her pass; wandless she was no real threat and there were others to be worrying about. She continued up the stairs and ran past Filius duelling Alecto's brother in one of the rooms off the corridor that led to his house tower. Minerva did not stop; Filius was an expert in his field and if she didn't know better she'd say that he was quite enjoying the bout. She stopped short to avoid tripping over a stunned heap in generic black and found herself face to face with two of the other legmen that Umbridge and the Death Eaters had brought with them. She raised her wand to defend herself but no attack came. Coming half a step closer, she saw the faraway, slightly pearlescent sheen to their eyes and immediately recognised the imperius curse. Whoever was controlling them had given them no orders to attack and they were standing dumbly, staring at their fallen comrade. Minerva was in half a mind to curse them and put them out of their misery when they appeared to come to their senses then and raised their wands. The brief respite over, Minerva decided on offence as the best line of defence and attempted to stun, but her spells were blocked. That was a less well-known and more dangerous effect of the imperius curse; since the person under control was in effect channelling the mind and wishes of the caster, they inherited a certain measure of the caster's ability, rendering usually inept wizards that deciding bit more powerful. Gradually though, her vehemence had the intended effect and her attackers seemed to back off, wheeling round in the direction of the main entrance hall and an escape route.
A spark of hope suddenly flickered in Minerva's heart. It would have been so easy for them to turn this into the beginning of the end, so easy for them to call for reinforcements – far easier than it was for her to call the Order – and yet faced with several angry staff who would not let violence against their students go unavenged, they were retreating. She surmised that their reconnaissance had never been intended to become a battle. It had been intended to lower their morale before a later attack, to find out the lay of the land before an all-out assault. She heard footsteps from behind her and turned to see that Umbridge had caught her up.
"Minerva," panted the shorter witch, "we have known that there have been problems at the school for some time now, but gross insubordination on such an unprecedented scale, staff attacking Ministry representatives at random, well, the Minister will be told, and I can assure you that he will not tolerate…"
"I thought Professor McGonagall told you to be quiet?"
A curse hit Umbridge from behind, causing her tongue to loll out as if it had become a lead-weight. Looking past, Minerva saw Neville and a group of the core DA members standing, wands at the ready.
"Well, we thought you might need assistance," he said by way of explanation. Before Minerva could reply with either reprimand or gratitude, there was the sound of a particularly violent curse connecting and Amycus was thrown out of the room in which he had been duelling Filius, rolling down the stairs and coming to a stop at his sister's feet. Umbridge, knowing herself to be outnumbered and remembering the DA's wrath from her short-lived teaching career, hastily followed her colleague. Filius appeared from the room, brushing imaginary specks of dust from his robes.
The other staff were appearing now, hounding the rest of the poor, unfortunately imperiused goons into the entrance hall, helped along occasionally by a surreptitious spell from Neville or Ginny. At that moment, Yaxley rushed onto the scene. He took one look at the gathering crowd of Hogwarts' defenders and the pathetic state that his task force had got itself into, and he visibly decided that a tactical retreat was his only option.
"IMBECILES!" he roared, throwing the Carrow siblings through the door with a spell. "You were under strict orders to curb your enthusiasm for later!" A grand sweep of his arm caused the rest of the group to move in the same direction, and once they were all through the doors – Umbridge still with her tongue hanging out like a drooling dog – Minerva took great delight in hearing the door slam with a heavy clang.
There was silence for a long time, no-one daring to move lest this retreat be simply a feint. The staff began to move towards the doors, through the increasing crowds of students who had started gathering to witness the finale to the spectacle in the absence of teacher supervision.
Minerva reached the doors and looked at the foreboding wood, the only line of defence separating them from the evil that had attempted to bring them down that day. The silence did not break for a long time, everyone subconsciously expecting the doors to burst open with an attack of renewed intensity. Finally she heard heavy footfalls on the stairs.
"They've gone," said Aurora, coming down from her tower. "I counted them out of the gates and out of sight."
"What do we do now?" asked Filius.
"What can we do?" replied Horace. "There's only one option."
"This is it, Minerva," said Pomona. "We already know that there's no turning back now, so there's no point in delaying the inevitable."
Minerva nodded, and slowly turned to face the staff and the pupils who had congregated in the main hall and on the stairs, watching her intently.
She cleared her throat. She had known since August that this time would come; she had known she would have to make the speech that she had prepared long ago, but that did not make it any easier to begin.
"After the actions of our so-called government this morning, I will not be at all surprised if many of you believe that Hogwarts is no longer safe. We must now prepare ourselves for an attack that we do not know when it will come. It may be tomorrow, it may be weeks, it may only be a matter of minutes. We must either evacuate, lock down, or both.
"A concentrated attack on the school will be dangerous; the forces we are against hold no qualms about using violence against children. We know this from experience. I am sure that none of my fellow staff will disagree when I say that we could not have it on our consciences should an attack come when the school is at its full capacity as it is now. However, an evacuation could prove just as terrible, if not more so. It is hard to evacuate a school unnoticed. For many of you, especially those from muggle backgrounds, the Hogwarts Express is the only way for you to return home. Should an attack be launched against it, I dread to think of the consequences, even if the train was defended as best we could." Minerva thought of the Order, and she wondered how many of their already overstretched forces it would take to protect her students. She forced herself to continue. "This castle, as old and magical as it is, offers some of the best protection there is – I am sure you have all heard of the Room of Requirement. I am therefore proposing to lock down the school until suitable arrangements can be made for the evacuation of all under-age pupils; those of age I cannot force to leave. If anyone would prefer to leave immediately, then arrangements will of course be made."
No-one moved to argue. The school was silent until one voice spoke. Neville moved forward from his position in the crowd.
"Professor McGonagall, I think I speak for all of us when I say that whilst Hogwarts may not be infallible, it is still safer than anywhere else in the country at the moment. I understand that you don't want us all to be sitting ducks when the time comes, but I don't want you or anyone else to think that we don't trust the school and the staff to protect us when the time comes, or that we are not prepared to protect ourselves and our school."
Minerva couldn't speak. She had no reply to Neville's heartfelt words. There was nothing that she wanted more than to keep all the students there in the school where she could watch over and protect them, but she had already proved that she could not protect them all the time.
"Thank you, Mr Longbottom," said Filius, saving her. "Your faith is honourable."
By an unspoken mutual consent, the crowds began to disperse until only the staff remained in the entrance hall. Minerva was still dumbstruck, and for the first time during that horrendous morning she felt herself to be on the verge of breaking down.
Someone touched her arm lightly, she looked round to see Pomona smiling at her sadly.
"It's time, Minerva."
She nodded and turned to the doors. Once the spell was performed, the main castle building would become not completely impenetrable, but certainly less penetrable; it was more often used to keep people in rather than out, but as with the majority of such spells it worked both ways. The doors were sealed and the majority of the main fireplace network was shut off from the outside Floo; some chimneys would remain open and have to be either sealed separately or warded. As she cast the spell, the stone itself seemed to bristle, tense, prepare itself for an imminent attack. It only took a few moments, and then the creaking of the door bolting itself began, an impressive and chilling sight in one.
The school was preparing for a battle. The last standing institution was still standing, but who knew how long for? Only one thing was certain.
Hogwarts had entered the war.
Note2: For everything that the films did wrong, I do like the lockdown scenes. I just love that door.
Note 3: The next six or so chapters were written a while ago whilst I had the block for this one, so the updates will come less haphazardly for a couple of weeks!