Hermione
"Where is Marik?" she shouted angrily at Harry who was sitting beside her. The majority of students in the castle had already made their way into the Great Hall to grab the good seats for the tournament and he was still nowhere in site. She let her eyes wander around the Hall as she spoke. Just like she and Marik had done last year she could see quite a few first years had notepads out ready to take notes on the magic they saw. The sight brought back a little bit of nostalgia.
"He said he would be here Hermione relax. He took my cloak to go into the restricted section last night to look for a book about the Chamber of Secrets because of your request. Knowing him he probably went looking through other books while he was there or went out exploring all night. He probably just overslept," Harry answered her in his best calm-down-Hermione voice. She had gotten used to that voice over the past week.
It was hard to believe that it was already the first week of December, and already three weeks since the day her and Marik had seen the writing on the wall about the Chamber of Secrets. It ended up that Miss Norris the cat had not been killed, but had been petrified and would recover in just a few weeks. The teachers all said that it was most likely a prank that someone took too far, however, since that day all of the professors had been much more uptight and strict about things around the castle. Marik had even received a detention from Kingsley, who everyone knew thought of Marik as his favorite student, for being ten seconds late to class a few days back.
Outside of the teachers seeming more tense nothing else had happened since the first event and for the most part all was back to normal inside the castle. Well at least for everyone else in the castle. For her the small amount of time since the day she and Marik had seen the writing on the wall had been the most stressful time she had experienced at Hogwarts to date. She would never admit it to Harry but he had probably been right when he said he didn't tell her about Dobby's warnings because he knew she would worry too much. The fact was she had indeed been worrying way to much.
Since that day she had been making the three of them do all the research they could on the Chamber of Secrets, any famous heirs, and petrification magic whenever they had a free moment. So far all of their research had led to zero actual amounts of useful information though. The only realistic living known famous heir they could find was an heir to the Grummins family who had dueled his own brother for rights to their family property. But both of them were put in Azkaban fifteen years ago as a result of the duel for killing a nearby observer and neither one had ever even attended Hogwarts so that ruled them out.
She had taken the lead on researching the Chamber of Secrets and had even gone so far as to ask a few professors about it. The only information she received from all of her research and questions though was that there used to be a rumor that Hogwarts had a hidden Chamber built by one of the founders. No one knew where it was, if it was real, or what was inside of it. Or if they did they were not telling her or the students. Basically what it all meant to her was that she had wasted her time over the past few weeks and gotten nowhere, which drove her insane.
Luckily Harry and Marik had found ways to break through her stress and still found time to help her study, practice, and most importantly calm down. She had no idea how Harry was able to act so calm all the time about everything. Especially since he was the only one of them who had actually been warned that something bad might happen. He seemed to only pay the situation attention when she asked him to, but when she didn't he acted as normal as ever like nothing was wrong.
The two of them had made up that day in the hospital wing. Looking back she admitted it was a petty reason to get angry at him in the first place and she had been a tad bit selfish. Thankfully though from that point on Harry seemed to be a lot more up front about a lot of things to her and their friendship had returned to normal.
At first Marik had told Harry as punishment for him not telling them about Dobby that Harry wasn't allowed to practice for the dueling tournament with them. It really wasn't punishment directed at Harry it was just that she and Marik had made a lot of progress on her dueling and spellwork while Harry was in the hospital and she had made Marik promise not to tell Harry about the spells she was working on.
In the end though Marik felt bad for favoring her over Harry and ended up splitting his free time between helping her duel and helping Harry practice. Damn him for being a good friend.
While she and Harry had made up and were good friends again, they were still as competitive as ever when it came to this tournament. Harry had been the one to knock her out of it last year, so this year she was excited to get her revenge.
High stress levels aside she had somehow managed to make a lot of good progress on her magic and dueling. She had practiced the gemino spell every day and her skill with the spell had increased greatly. Unlike during her first duel with Marik she was now able to summon a few more clones with less magic, control each one's movement better, and she had even managed to get her clones to move individually and follow formations. In her last practice session she managed to completely surround Marik with clones while she had hidden herself in the corner of the room and hit him with a stunner winning the duel.
Even though she may have only been practicing for the tournament for two months, she had been mentally waiting for this day for much longer. She was confident now that if it came to a match-up of her versus Harry that she would be able to beat him this time. For now though she was stuck sitting in the uncomfy stands waiting anxiously for the tournament to begin.
"Why did he have to wait until the day of the tournament to stress me out? He knows how important this is to me," she said frustrated.
"He always stresses you out Hermione. It's Marik we are talking about here. And Marik knows how important this tournament is to us. He will be here soon." Harry tried to console her.
She knew she was taking her stress out on him. For the past week Harry had been her personal stress punching bag. As bad as she felt for taking it out on him she really could not help it sometimes.
"So how are you feeling? Are you ready?" Harry asked from beside her.
"I'm fine Harry thanks. And yes I am ready. I've been working hard for a while to get ready for this. I won't be going down so easy this year! How about you?" she asked him.
"I barely slept at all last night I was so anxious. I ended up staying up reading all night. I was even thinking about practicing spells that would help me if I collide with the glass again this year," Harry joked.
"Well maybe if you do you will make another friend In the hospital this time too," she went along with his joke and gave him a wink.
"I think I got enough of those already. Look over there," Harry pointed across the Hall. "Daphne looks as focused as ever." Sure enough the ice-queen looked every bit her normal self as she made her way into the Hall with her usual crew of Slytherins. Outside of Harry, since Marik was not participating in this tournament, Daphne would be one of her biggest adversaries this time around. And from what Hermione knew about Daphne there was no way in hell she would go down as easy this time around.
"I doubt she will go down as easy this year. I bet whoever duels her will have to put up much more a fight," she said to Harry.
"Yeah, I forgot she went against Marik last year. She is probably looking for revenge this time around," Harry replied and she nodded in agreement.
"Her and me both!" Hermione said, giving Harry a mischievous grin.
The remainder of students from the castle filled their way into the bleachers in the Great Hall over the next few minutes. As the last few stragglers made their way in there was still no sign of Marik anywhere. Part of her was starting to get worried about him. Marik and her had been working way too hard for this day for him to be late. Even if he could be difficult sometimes Marik would never skip out on something like this. She knew even though he wasn't participating that he knew how important this was to the both of them.
She shook the worry away and tried to focus on the task at hand. She was always worrying too much. She would not let him being tardy keep her from winning the tournament this time around! The doors to the Great Hall began to close. The students in the Hall quieted as the Headmaster made his way up to the podium.
"Welcome all to the second annual Hogwarts dueling tournament. This tournament is being held again in the honor of our very own Professor Flitwick being crowned the dueling master of Europe again for the twelfth consecutive year. Please let us give him a round of applause," Dumbledore announced and the stands filled with applause. As a fellow Ravenclaw she made the extra effort to applaud louder than those around her for her Head of House.
"Before we begin I would like to go over the rules for the tournament. For those who took part in the tournament last year these rules will be similar so bare with me. First, you were all given the prohibited types of magic and spell lists for your year by your Heads of Houses, if any prohibited spells are used not only will you forfeit your spot in the tournament, but you may find yourself on the Express back home.
"The tournament will be divided by year level and in each level the tournament will follow a bracket style of randomly chosen matches until only a single student remains. Rounds will have a time limit of five minutes each. Any duels lasting longer than that will be ruled as a draw with no winner. As you were told before by your professors your performance, abilities shown, and spell usage in today's tournament will play a factor in your overall ability grade by your professors at the end of the term," Dumbledore said to the crowd of students and then continued.
"As well the winner of each year will also go on to represent Hogwarts in the second annual European Magic Students Dueling Championship. The winner of that tournament will have the opportunity to try and beat the winner of their year from last year's tournament and steal their title as the Dueling Champion of Europe. Now it is time to let the tournament begin!" Dumbledore announced to the Great Hall and the stands erupted into cheers.
Just as it had last year, a tournament bracket started to appear overhead of the teachers table. This time around she would have to wait on the first years before she got her chance to duel. At least that meant that this time she would actually get to watch some other duels outside of her year. The students in the Hall quieted as the first two names started to appear on the first bracket lines.
"The first duel will be between… Luna Lovegood and… Ginny Weasley!" Dumbledore announced the two first year names.
"I didn't know there was another Weasley at Hogwarts," she whispered to Harry. There had to be at least eight of them here it felt like. Momma Weasley sure was a busy women.
"Yeah, Ginny seems like she actually has her head screwed on better than Ron does though. I've seen her cast a number of spells in the common room before and she seems pretty good," Harry whispered back.
The two girls made their way up to the dueling platform, bowed, and retreated to their sides. The Weasley girl outside of the red hair did not resemble her brothers at all. Ron normally had a clueless look to him and the twins had a permanent laugh and smirk glued to their faces. This Ginny girl though looked much more hardened and almost gave off kind of a Daphne cold-type of appearance.
On the other side the Luna looked… well she looked like Luna. Being in Ravenclaw she had seen the girl multiple times throughout the year so far. Most of their encounters had been awkward and left Hermione confused.
Luna was a very pretty girl who just looked and acted different than most people at Hogwarts. Luna's school robes had been dyed to have a pink hue to them and as a result she stuck out like a sore thumb on the stage. Along with her robes, her glasses frames looked like they had been made for a princess in some fantasy movie with all the gems and stones on them.
The two duelists looked like complete opposites. However after seeing someone like Fleur, who looked more like a model than a duelist, duel over the summer she knew one should never count someone out based on appearances. Hopefully this duel would be a good one.
"One. . . Two . . . Three!" Dumbledore counted the duel off and it began.
"Expelliarmus!" Ginny cast the spell quickly and was off running immediately after Dumbledore said three.
"Finite incantatum!" Luna cast the spell and stopped Ginny's incoming spell at the middle of the platform where it shortly after vanished.
"Tarantallegra!" Ginny sent another spell flying at Luna as she continued moving.
"Densaugeo!" Luna cast the spell Hermione had never heard of towards the moving Ginny.
That's strange. Hermione thought to herself as the events unfolded. The strange thing was not Luna's spell though, but that Luna made no attempt to dodge Ginny's dancing spell. Instead the spell hit Luna and her body and she started dancing. Luna seemed to be enjoying it though as she was just smiling and going along with it like it was nothing. Ginny was looking on from the other side confused.
"Rictumsempra, engorgio!" The dancing luna continued to fire off spells at the confused Ginny. Ginny was able to barely dodge the incoming tickling spell after she recovered her composure. However the enlarging spell hit Ginny's foot as she tried to move again resulting in her left shoe growing about ten times in size. That seemed to annoy Ginny.
"Expelliarmus, petrificus totalus, immobulus!" Ginny fired off the three spells in anger. It wasn't a great spell chain combo but the fierce furiosity the spells were cast with resulted in the spells all being quite powerful.
"Protego!" Luna threw up the shield spell as she continued to dance. The first disarming spell collided with the shield but Luna quickly learned that a normal powered protego was only good for one or two spells. Ginny's next spell collided with Luna's chest and bound her, sending her body to the ground with a thud.
Ginny had won. The stands, lead by the Gryffindors erupted into applause.
"Wow. One duel in an already things have gotten interesting. That was a pretty good duel," Harry said from beside her.
"Yeah, they both were pretty good. I've never heard of someone taking a spell like that and just rolling with it like Luna did. It was weird for sure, but could probably be applied to other scenarios," she commented to Harry.
"Oh so you are finally talking strategies with me now huh?" Harry joked.
"Nope!" Was all she said in return forgetting that for the next few hours Harry was the enemy. The next two names began to appear on the bracket.
"The next duel will be between… Colin Creevy… and… Alina Black!" Dumbledore announced the next two names. She could see Harry perk up at the announcement of his cousin's name. Hermione was interested to see her duel too. One to see if she was anywhere near as good as her sister was; two because of the fact she had already seen the girl dueling in the hallways and was intrigued to see if she could beat other first years the way she beat that Hufflepuff boy.
A small lanky boy a few rows down from them got up from the stands and made his way to the stage. However he was the only one making their way up to the stage.
"Alina Black come to the stage! Must I remind you that this tournament will play a part in your overall grade at the end of the year!" Dumbledore announced from his podium. Still Alina did not stand up or appear anywhere in the Hall.
After a few moments of awkward silence and murmurs fluttering through the students the doors to the Great Hall opened swiftly. Mr. Filch was running through them towards the Headmaster. Mr. Filch was sweating profusely and his whole body was shaking.
Something was wrong. She thought to herself as she watched with worried eyes.
The Headmaster and Mr. Filch discussed something for a few moments. When it seemed their discussion was over the Headmaster moved to the teacher's table and began discussing something with them.
"Hermione what do you think is going on?" Harry quietly asked her, she could sense a bit of concern in his words.
"I have no idea Harry," she whispered back. The professors reactions to whatever the Headmaster was saying made it clear that something was indeed wrong. The Headmaster finished telling them whatever Filch had told him and made his way back to the podium.
"The dueling tournament has been cancelled. All students are to calmly follow the professor's down to the Hogwarts Express. Owl's will be sent to your family's at once informing them that you will be arriving at King's Cross station soon. You will be starting an early extended holiday break. As of today, until further notice Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is closed," Dumbledore announced. His words fell like a ton of bricks onto her and the rest of the students.
Hogwarts was closed…
They were being sent home. . .
The stands of students around her erupted into panic following the announcement.
"SILENCE! You will all now follow the professor's silently and calmly to the express. NOW!" Dumbledore shouted and the Hall silently began to follow his orders.
"Harry…" she started saying, but her voice was already cracking. She could feel tears forming in her eyes.
"Hermione come on. And no before you ask I don't know what is going on either," Harry responded. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up and along with him as the group of students made their way out of the Great Hall.
"Harry!" she shouted as they made their way out of the front doors to outside. It felt like she had just been hit with a ton of bricks.
"What is it Hermione?" Harry asked, looking concerned.
"MARIK!" she said his name and tears began to pour out uncontrollably.
Marik had never shown up at the Great Hall for the tournament. He had been in the restricted section or somewhere in the castle because of her. Now they were all leaving and he probably had no clue… Or worse… maybe he had to do with the reason the school was closing.
"Marik will be fine Hermione don't worry." Harry tried to console her. "There is no way he missed all of these people leaving the castle he is probably just somewhere in this group. We will find him on the train I promise," Harry said to her grabbing her tighter.
With the worried tears streaming down her face all she managed to do was nod. She hoped that Harry was right.
The large group of students slowly made their way down to the Hogwarts Express. Unlike the usual buzz the students had whenever they were leaving for home on the train this time it all was replaced by an eerie silence. No one seemed to be talking out loud, yet everyone's faces were saying the same thing. Why?
Why was the school being closed? Something bad must have happened, or was about to happen. But what? And where the hell was Marik!
They arrived after the short walk to the train were they patiently waited for the row of students in front of them to board. On the train Harry led her to one of the first empty compartments they could find. She got a seat next to the window so she could look out into the crowd and try to find Marik. As much as she tried to believe Harry and as much as she willed herself to be positive her gut had the strong feeling that Marik was not in the crowd. Deep down she knew he wasn't coming.
For the next half hour the two of them sat silently and stared out the window. Each time someone opened their door to see if their compartment was empty her heart broke a little inside. It took all she had not to break down into tears again. Thirty minutes of sitting and waiting and still no Marik.
"Hermione look," Harry was pointing up the hill. Bright pops of magic could be seen appearing all across the hill. Out of each pop emerged a witch or wizard, all of which looked to be wearing ministry or auror colored robes.
"It must be something really bad if the ministry and aurors are getting involved," she said as she and Harry watched a few more people appear. With each pop her worry level increased.
"I wonder if it has to do with the Chamber of Secrets, or if it is something else," Harry added.
"Do you think this is what Dobby was warning you about?" she asked him curiously.
"It might be. I still think the elf just had a screw loose though," Harry answered and stared down at his feet. He always did that at the mention of the house elf.
The conversation between them died back down as the last few students got aboard the train. She failed to hold back the tears this time. Harry came over to her side of the compartment and tried to console her but it was no use. Their friend was not on this train. Marik was missing.
The whistle that had brought her so much joy during their first trip from King's Cross station signaled their departure. This time the whistle only brought her pain. That made the tears worse. Their compartment shook as the wheels began turning and the view from their window began to change.
The sky outside of their window reflected the mood of the students inside the train. Dark clouds blotched out the sun and the sky was covered in a dark shade of grey. The castle was soon devoured by the mountains in their view and as the clouds began to burst and let rain fall. By then her eyes had already dried and began to ache as they searched for more tears.
"Potter!" someone from the door of their compartment shouted. She quickly jerked her head around with her hopes up. No luck though. It was just Daphne.
"Not now Daphne," was all Harry replied with, his voice cracking.
"Yes now." Daphne closed the compartment door and cast a silencing spell on it. "I can't find Alina," Daphne announced to Harry coldly.
"What?" Harry asked.
"I looked in every compartment, I waited by the door of the train, I even had my friends check the luggage racks to see if someone was playing a prank. Alina wasn't in the Great Hall for the tournament and Alina isn't here." For a second it looked like Daphne was about to cry. However, that face was quickly replaced by one of no emotions.
"Alina too?" Hermione whispered.
"What do you mean too?" Daphne asked the question and seemed to immediately come to the answer on her own as she looked around the compartment. "Where is Marik?" she demanded.
"We don't know," Harry answered. His voice was broken as he talked. She brought him into a hug. This was the first time she had ever seen him like this. It sort of reminded her of when they met in the hospital wing, though the feeling was much sadder this time.
"How don't you both know? You all are glued to the freaking hip. What the hell is going on?" Daphne was shouting now.
"He never showed up for the dueling tournament either. He was out last night so we figured he was sleeping in. But that doesn't seem to be the case," she answered, her voice weary.
"Why was he out last night?" Daphne asked curiously but before she could answer a student opened up their door. This time Hermione did not get her hopes up.
"Daphne!" The voice belonging to Pansy Parkinson called out.
"You found her?" Daphne stood up looking hopeful.
" No…" Pansy answered. Daphne's face returned. "But I heard something I thought you ought to know," Pansy said nervously.
"What is it?" Daphne snapped.
"Well. . . I think I should tell you in private," Pansy muttered out.
"Just say it damn it!" Daphne screamed at the girl.
"Okay. . . well I overheard McGonagall talking to Snape when I got on the train. I didn't hear everything but they were going over the train manifest. And… Well three students did not board the train. The only name I heard before I came here was your sister's…" Pansy paused.
The look that appeared on Daphne's face was one that she never thought she would see in her time. Daphne was crying. Daphne had her head in her hands and was shaking. Pansy moved to hug her but was pushed off from Daphne, who looked like she was trying to dry her tears quickly.
"Is that all?" Daphne asked coldly after a few brief moments. Her eyes seemed to be dry and have returned to their normal state.
"Actually…" Pansy paused. "Snape told McGonagall that your sister had been the one, taken into the Chamber. I don't know what it means but I thought you might," Pansy looked scared as she talked to Daphne. The compartment went silent for a while, no one wanting to break it. Daphne finally spoke up.
"Pansy leave now," Daphne ordered.
"Daphne?" Pansy asked.
"Now!" Daphne shouted. The girl in a panic turned and in a rush and made her way out of their compartment.
"Daphne I'm sorry," Harry said as the door closed.
"Shut up Harry! Don't feel sorry for me. Alina is your damn cousin too! And you heard Pansy. She said McGonagall said that there were three students missing. That means one of them is Marik too. We are all in the same boat here," Daphne snapped.
"We have to do something…" Hermione found herself saying.
"Hermione what can we do? The school is closed and we are already miles away from it now. Plus there are already aurors and ministry officials there," Harry replied.
"I don't know but we have to do something. Marik is our friend Harry and he might be in danger! I can't just sit by and hope. I have to do something," her voice was raising as she talked.
"I have to do something too. Alina is… So let's do something," Daphne acknowledged her. She was in a little bit of shock at Daphne's words. Not only was the ice-queen sitting in their compartment but now she was asking to do something with her and Harry.
"Do something like what?" Harry asked the two of them.
"Like find a way back to Hogwarts first. Then we can plan a way to find Marik and Alina!" she answered him.
"But Hermione the castle is full of ministry and auror officials. Even if we made it back there somehow we wouldn't make it far. I don't even have my cloak, Marik took it last night," Harry added. Daphne's eyebrow raised in curiosity when Harry mentioned his cloak.
"Then we will find a way Harry. We fought a fully grown mountain troll to protect each other last year! If we can stand against that what makes standing up against some politicians and aurors so different?" She found herself shouting the last few words out.
"That was you guys?" Daphne asked with her eyebrows raised again.
"Not now Daphne," she snapped. "So are you in Harry?" she asked with the most intimidating face she could make.
"That's not fair…" he said calling out the face she had put on. "Of course I'm in. Let's do this," Harry responded.
"Okay, first we need to figure out a way to get back to Hogwarts. We can't just leave the train now so it will have to be from King's Cross," she pointed out.
"All of our parents will be waiting there. So we will have to find a way to get past them or something," Daphne added the good point.
"Well none of us can apparate, we can't just walk the train tracks that would take too long so what does that leave us?" Harry asked.
"We can floo!" Daphne said looking hopeful. It was not a face that fit her.
"No we can't. Hogwarts has protections against incoming floo transportations," she rebutted.
"I know that Granger! But the Ministry has a few fireplaces that are connected and have access to the castle. My mother used one of them when she had to come meet with Dumbledore for work earlier this year," Daphne explained.
"That's great and would work, but if we can't get into Hogwarts how can we expect to get into the Ministry?" Harry asked. No one seemed to have an answer. They all sat their silently.
"Daphne!" She shouted as soon as the idea hit her. "Do you have anymore of that polyjuice potion left over?" she asked.
"At home I do why?" Daphne asked, looking unsure of where Hermione was going with this.
"We can use that to get in. We just have to snag some hairs from some ministry workers and then we can walk all around the ministry without drawing attention," she explained her idea to them.
"How are we going to get hairs? And how am I going to get you the potion let alone get to the ministry if I'm at home?" Daphne asked.
"Well… We can all just sneak out tonight and meet up… As for the hairs I'm not proud of it but I will come out and say I'm okay with stunning a few workers to save Marik. As long as we don't hurt them that is," she answered. Harry looked like he was seeing a ghost at hearing her words.
"Hermione Granger you surprise me everyday. As for the hairs I think I have an idea," Harry said with a smile that had been absent the entire train ride.
"What is it?" Daphne asked.
"Our parents Daphne. I can get one of my mother's hairs for Hermione and you can get one of your mother's hairs for you. That way at least you two have can try and get one for me once we get there," Harry explained his idea.
"Why would your mother's be at the Ministry?" she asked Harry.
"They both do a lot of their work there. I know for a fact they have to spend a lot of late nights there working so it would be a good cover story to be there so late," Harry answered her. So far that did seem like their best option, although Harry would need a disguise as well.
"Do either of you know how to get to the ministry… I'm afraid I've never been," she admitted.
"Yeah, we do," they both said in unison.
"I'm not sure about the locations of the floo fireplaces though. Although I guarantee the Minister's office would probably have one," Daphne admitted.
"Well if we manage to get into the ministry without getting caught by our parents, or ministry security I think we will be okay winging that part," Harry said.
"I agree," Daphne added. It was still weird having a conversation like this with her.
"Well it's a plan then… kind of… Let's work out some of the minor details before we arrive to at least make sure we are all on the same page," she told the others.
The rest of the train ride went by quicker than the beginning had and even the mood seemed to get a little better. The three of them went over directions and details for meeting up later that night. Luckily they all lived fairly close to each other and one of the ministry employee entrances was also nearby so it seemed like their plan might even be possible. That is if they managed to sneak out, meet up, break into the ministry, floo to Hogwarts, find Marik and Alina all without getting caught. Easy enough.
As the train pulled into King's Cross station her mood had totally changed. The tears in her eyes had been replaced with a fierce determination.
"We are coming Marik," she said to herself as the trained rolled to a stop and the whistle blew, this time its sound filled her with hope.
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