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The rest of the visit with Aberforth was thankfully more normal than the first part, but to Dudley just being in a wizard's home made him feel like there was always something odd going on. He guessed that his parents were feeling exactly the same way, considering the amount of shifting they had been doing in their seats.
When Dudley and Neville arrived back at the room of requirement, they noticed something unusual. Everything was silent. Neville frowned and began to walk faster. When they arrived in the centre they found it empty, which made Dudley think that something was very wrong. In a panic, the two boys ran around the room, only to find empty hammocks. When Dudley and Neville met back in the centre, they collapsed on the couch, breathing hard.
"There's no one here" Dudley reported. "What does this mean?"
"It means..." Neville began, catching his breath again. "It means that they've found us, school started early..." Neville gulped. "Or they've called an assembly".
"How do they call you for an assembly if they don't know where you are... and why don't they care where you are?" Dudley asked, clearly confused.
"Well, they've installed this magic speaker system. They use their wands to project their voice to these receiver things." Neville pointed towards an old-fashioned speaker on the fireplace. "And the room has provided one for us, since we need it. As for why they don't care where we are... They know we're in the castle because they have control of the ministry, so they can tell who's here and who isn't. Besides, they want us out of the way, so as long as we're here it's fine".
Neville simply nodded his head. "So what do we do?"
"Investigate. But one student has to stay in the room at all times..." Neville suddenly sprung up from the couch. "Which means that two students must be here!" He then turned to Dudley. "Come on, we need to find those people to find out what's going on".
"How will we ever find them in here?! The room's gigantic!"
"Well, we agreed on a few hiding spots, so that's where we should check first. The bathrooms, a little basement we have in one corner of the room and up on a small platform on the roof".
"Ok" Dudley nodded again. "Do we split up?"
"No, there's a reason we allocated two people to stay behind. You never go alone. Let's head over to the bathrooms first".
The two ran down the corridors, checking every male bathroom they could find.
"Ok" Neville said, panting. "So they're not in the male bathrooms... Let's check the trapdoors and the roof first, then we'll resort to the female bathrooms if all else fails".
So they ran down the back of the room to a trapdoor which led into an old, mouldy looking wooden room. It was empty. They then climbed a big ladder and checked the roof platform, but it was empty also.
"Great" Neville said as they were climbing back down the ladder. "We don't have much time now, so let's just go check the girls' bathrooms..."
When they arrived at the door to the first bathroom, Neville began to have second thoughts. "Um, I've never been in here before, so..." The two boys slowly walked into the bathroom, feeling very hesitant. Once they reached the middle of it, they relaxed and called out;
"Hello? Anyone in here?" There was no reply. So off they went to check what felt like a million more girls' bathrooms until they finally reached the last one.
"This was the one I was avoiding" Neville sighed.
"Why?" Dudley asked.
"Well, you see... This is the female teacher's bathroom... And the only teacher who knows about this room is Professor McGonagall, which means that she once needed a bathroom while she was visiting and the room stayed... no one has ever gone in there as far as I'm aware, but..." Neville's voice trailed off as he slowly pushed the door open. What they saw inside was definitely not what they were expecting... It was huge.
"Woah!" Dudley exclaimed as they stepped in. There were a few toilets, changing area, showers... but what shocked them was the big pool right in the centre of it. "Ummm... This doesn't seem so bad, Neville!"
"Stay focused, Dudley. We need to find the two students who..." Neville noticed something moving in the water, so he stepped forward to look over the edge. Suddenly, Cho and another girl, who Dudley recognised as the friend with the sick mother, popped out of the water. They spotted Neville and Dudley and immediately rushed out of the water. Cho was wearing a one-piece swimsuit that looked like something an Olympic swimmer would wear, while her friend was wearing a regular pink one-piece swimsuit.
"Why are you two here? Has something gone wrong? Our alarms didn't go off..." Cho said nervously.
"No, we were at Aberforth's and when we came back no one was here. What's going on?" Neville said, speaking very quickly.
"An assembly was called, so Olivia and I volunteered to stay behind-"
"So you could hang out in here?" Neville asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, we were looking for a hiding spot and decided we would brave McGonagall's bathroom. And now here we are".
"Ok then..." Neville frowned. Cho lowered her voice into a whisper and leaned towards Dudley and Neville.
"And I wanted Olivia to get her mind off of her sick mother" she whispered. Neville just nodded and bit his lip.
"Ok" he said. "Well Dudley and I are going to sneak in..."
"You might want to hurry; McGonagall's appointing the new headmaster! Remember when she told us she was threatened and forced to hand over her position?"
"And that's happening right now?! Dudley, let's go!" Neville turned and ran out, Dudley following closely behind him.
"How do we get out?" Dudley yelled as they ran.
"There's a hidden exit" Neville yelled back. They eventually came to a stop by a wall. Neville tapped the bricks with his wand, causing them to shift and form an exit. The boys dived through the hole and continued to sprint down the halls. When they reached what looked like the main staircase, Neville held out his arm to stop Dudley running around the corner. Neville stuck his head out and surveyed the grand entrance.
"Ok" Neville whispered. "This is where it comes down to luck. The Carrows will be patrolling up and down the corridors. If they happen to be in this area, we get caught. If not... we might just make it through that gap". Neville pointed towards a pair of huge golden door that were open just enough for them to squeeze their way through. "Let's go" Neville said, gulpSing.
They tiptoed carefully down the stairs and walked swiftly but quietly towards the two giant doors. Neville ushered Dudley in front of him so he could go in first. Just as Dudley was about to sneak through the gap between the doors, he heard an unfamiliar, gruff voice yelling out.
"Got you!" It said. Dudley turned around to find a very evil looking man dressed in black holding Neville by the t-shirt. The man began to grin and chuckle maniacally, revealing a few broken yellow and black teeth. The man took out his wand with his spare hand and held it to Neville's chest. Dudley froze on the spot, his head was spinning. He didn't have a wand; he had never been in this kind of situation before... All of a sudden, there was a flash of red light. He saw Neville's eyes roll upwards as he went limp. The last thing he managed to do before falling to the ground unconscious was slowly mouth one word. 'Carrow'.
Thanks for reading :)
Next chapter will also be up today!