Nagini's Break for Freedom
Hermione:
Hermione wished they hadn't destroyed the horcrux from the ring. It would have been so helpful to transfer it to some other small, living creature. A mouse, perhaps, that she could transfigure from something. And then she could have another test subject other than Nagini. Because if Nagini died… well, there goes their one test subject.
Until they got the cup, at least.
Rosalie had begun her math on one whiteboard. Small print, very neat and clean. Hermione could follow the first few steps. But then, she pulled a formula Hermione had never head of before. She began diagramming different shapes. She pulled from hers and Draco's work, and then suddenly there were four whiteboards. Four. And they were all filled.
It was a tangle of numbers and letters and shapes. Hermione was above average on math – as was Draco. But as far as either of them were concerned, the math that Rosalie did was nearer to interpretive dance than Arithmancy.
It wasn't terribly hard to believe Rosalie may have a submission pending for the successful solving of an unanswered math problem somewhere when she looked at the whiteboards.
When Rosalie finished, she had confirmed that there were seven horcruxes broken off from the original soul. Which was a relief, because it meant that they knew what every single one was. The diary had been the first, and had had the largest fragment inside of it. Then the ring, which had been massive. Rosalie suspected the cup was next, then the locket, then the diadem. Then Nagini… and Harry.
"I don't think he meant for you to become a horcrux though, Harry," Rosalie theorised when she'd finished the problem. "Otherwise, why would he be trying to kill you?"
Harry began trying in earnest to peer into the Dark Lord's mind. Draco coached him through this. They had gotten Harry's shields sufficiently strong enough that they were not worried as much about the Dark Lord peering back and discovering their plans. So Harry spent a lot of time breathing and focusing as Draco tried to help him find the Dark Lord.
They found Godric Gryffindor first.
"Ay, that's it! That's my boy! You got this!" Hermione had suddenly heard from Harry one day. She'd spun around so fast she thought she'd left a skid mark in the carpet and had seen, where Harry had just been sitting, Godric Gryffindor. He looked remarkably close to what his outline had been when they'd gone to Privet Drive. Hermione had not seen Godric that day, but Harry had explained the sensation of being taller and that Tonks had not recongised him. Since Hermione had now been possessed, they had a better idea of what had happened.
Godric was also shorter than expected, with a very full and thick red beard and bright red hair. He had brown eyes, like Hermione's, but a very round face. His clothes reminded Hermione of a woodsman's. Very simple and durable and many shades of brown and red. He was smiling merrily.
Draco looked down at Godric from the Legilimens book he'd been referring to and shook his head. "You're not who we wanted," he said, quite plainly.
Godric raised an eyebrow. "Ditto," he replied.
Draco shut the book and swung at Godric's head. No hesitation. Hermione heard the whoosh of air as the book moved. Godric disappeared at the last second and Harry received a face full of textbook, which knocked him back into the carpet.
"Oh!" Rosalie yelped. "Draco!"
Hermione dashed over. Harry's nose was bleeding, and his forehead was red, but his glasses were fine. She sighed and summoned an ice pack.
"I think Godric's got a sense of humour," Harry said, holding the ice pack Hermione had conjured for him to his nose. "I don't think he meant it, Draco."
Draco called Godric an unfavourable word and left to sulk at his own workstation, over the cabinet panel he'd nearly finished. He only had about two inches worth of carvings left and then to stain the entire thing and test it.
"You have to admire," Harry whispered to Hermione, "That he was dead-set on hitting Godric Gryffindor in the face. Without any hesitation or thought of self-preservation."
"That's what you admire?" Hermione asked. "You're such a Gryffindor!"
Rosalie looked torn between Draco and Harry and in the end, went to go touch Draco on the shoulder. He did not say anything, so neither did she, but seemed a bit disappointed.
Harry took a deep breath. "I'm going to try that again," he said. "Don't let Draco swing a real weapon at me if Godric comes back, please."
He left to clean his face quickly. Hermione got back to her feet and went to looking over all of Rosalie's math on the horcruxes. She also had the list of spells Rosalie had made up to attempt to remove a horcrux but… they were all a little too rooted in Latin. They all did something, but a very little something. She might as well just try and say the word in English to see if it'd work.
Draco, once Harry had left, must have sensed a conversation incoming. He put his headphones on and a pair of eye protectors and began drilling away.
Rosalie came to sit beside Hermione and handed her a piece of parchment. The outside was stamped with the ministry seal. Hermione tapped the seal and the charm on the parchment activated so that the letter would read itself.
"Dear Ms. Charlotte Aimerson," the letter began. "I hope this letter finds you well. My name is Ben Heresy and I am the lawyer for Ms. Delores Umbridge and the Ministry of Magic. I am writing in response to the lawsuit filed by your client, Rebekah Barnes, on February the 25th, against my client. I understand the seriousness of the matter and wish to address it promptly and amicably.
"After careful consideration, I believe that an out-of-court settlement would be in the best interest of both parties. Settling this matter outside of court would save us both time, legal expenses, and the stress associated with prolonged litigation.
"I am open to discussing the terms of a settlement that would be fair and satisfactory to both parties. I propose that we arrange a meeting at your earliest convenience to negotiate a mutually agreeable resolution. Please let me know a suitable time and place for this discussion.
Respectfully submitted, Ben Heresy."
The letter collapsed onto the table, quiet.
"Did you charm it to do that?" Rosalie asked. "What's that spell?"
"All ministry envelopes come pre-charmed to read aloud," Hermione explained. "I assume your lawyer passed this on?"
"Yes," Rosalie agreed. "It seems that the ministry knows they'll lose. But I'm not terribly sure I want to settle. Sure, they'll pay me handsomely, but I won't get to destroy Umbridge's career and prospects." She sighed and stared at the letter. "I'm rather disappointed. They're taking all the fun out of it."
"It seems to me that you're, in fact, terribly sure you don't want to settle," Hermione said. "What are you hoping for?"
"A newspaper article, at the least," Rosalie said. "If I settle, they'll likely have me sign something saying I won't speak about this matter again. I wanted Umbridge banned from working with children and I wanted her to pay out to everyone she tortured and I also wanted her barred from any high-up positions in the ministry."
Hermione shrugged. "I'd do what you want," she said. "If you're confident you can win."
She looked down at her math and sighed. "I have no idea how to get this horcrux out of Harry's head."
There were pictures from the heat gun and the radar gun spread alongside notes and maths. The heat gun was easier to understand and terrified Hermione. Near the ring, the temperature had reached -30 C. Near the tip of the wand, it was 50 C. Temperatures that would wound Harry either way. And the radar gun had indicated a type of microwave, meaning there was no radiation danger in being around the horcrux, but it still gave off a decent amount of energy.
"Have you tried casting the spell on Nagini?" Rosalie eyed the snake distastefully. "Does it not work?"
"I want to make sure it won't kill her before I do," Hermione said. "She's our one live test subject."
"You could be worrying yourself over nothing."
They looked over to Nagini's enclosure. She looked to be asleep. She hadn't touched the last mouse Hermione had put into the enclosure, but Rosalie had advised her that Nagini probably wouldn't be hungry for a while. They don't eat much.
Draco's drilling into the cabinet door made her jump.
"We've also got to figure out…" Hermione said slowly, "how to touch her without her escaping."
"Didn't Draco use stupefy?"
"No. He used some sort of trapping spell he learned in our Care of Magical Creatures Class. That's not one of your electives, is it?"
"No." Rosalie wrinkled her nose. "I prefer studying animals from a distance."
Hermione got up and approached Nagini's cage. Across the room, Harry reappeared, took a few steps in, and then paused. "Are you doing horcrux work?" he asked. "Because if so…"
"It might be better for you to go up onto your bed," Hermione said grimly. "I'll send you a text when we're done."
Harry quickly backtracked.
Hermione felt the glass corners of the cage and traced the outline of the enclosure. Nagini glanced up – apparently she wasn't asleep. Near the bottom of the enclosure and on the top corner, Draco had drilled tiny sets of holes to let air in. They weren't big enough to fit a wand through.
Rosalie didn't follow Hermione over, but instead examined the pages of content on the table. She held her finger beside her head and traced patterns in the air with her wand tip, muttering occasionally.
Hermione withdrew her wand out of her pocket and pointed to one of the holes at the base of the enclosure. "Engorgio," she whispered.
She had to be careful about this. She grew the hole until it was an inch and a half in diameter. Nagini immediately withdrew and scrunched herself into a ball at the other end.
Hermione sat on her heels. The box was longer than her wand no matter what she did. She could shrink the box and make it impossible for Nagini to move… but she also needed to make sure Nagini wouldn't break her wand.
Hermione stuck the wand in through the hole. "Stupefy," she whispered. But the curse bounced off Nagini's scales without any effect. She drew it back out as the curse hit the glass and dissipated.
Why wouldn't it work?
Hermione used a hand on the box to wrestle to her feet and head to Malfoy. Rosalie, meanwhile, made her way to a whiteboard with half of its space still unclaimed and began scribbling notes.
Hermione crossed to the other side of the board where Draco could see her clearly. Approaching this way eliminated the risk of him being startled and potentially ruining his carving. Still, he did not react for another five seconds as he carefully came to a pausing point and switched the tool off, ensuring it had stopped before he set it down and looked up. He held onto his headphones for a moment and then looked at her. "Yes?" he asked.
"Can you hear me okay?" Hermione asked, peering at the earbud still in his ear.
"Transparency mode. I can hear you just fine."
"Right. Clever. I was wondering what spell you used to cage Nagini. I just tried Stupefy on her and it rebounded."
Draco frowned. "Rebounded? That's odd. I just used a-"
Behind them, there was the sudden sound of glass breaking. Hermione leaned to the side and Draco whirled around just in time to see Nagini's tail as she slithered to the Gryffindor door at a break-neck speed.
The wall of the glass box where Hermione had enlarged the hole had the entire side broken off. In the two minutes of Hermione walking over to Draco, Nagini had managed to break the entire panel – probably by forcing her tail tip through the hole.
"Stop her!" Draco bellowed and began to run after it, wand in hand. Up at the top of the aisle, Nagini disappeared into Gryffindor's room. Surely she'd be stopped by the second door?
Hermione broke into a run as well and was only seconds behind Draco when he entered the room. In front of them, the Gryffindor door to the common room was creaking open slowly by itself – Nagini had just left! Harry must have left the door slightly ajar for Draco to get in and out of his own accord.
People screamed in the common room. "Snake!" There were shrieks and yells of surprise. Hermione and Draco jumped to the door at the same time and flung it open.
"Where is it?" Draco thundered.
"Do not open the portrait door!" Hermione yelled.
Angelina Bell was balancing atop an end table and pointing underneath one of the couches. However, Alicia Spinnet had one foot on either armrest of an armchair and was pointing under a different couch.
We need dragonhide, Hermione thought. We're unprotected. If Nagini strikes… we're dead.
Draco stalked further into the room. He paused and listened, turning slowly. Waiting.
The portrait hole opened and Dennis and Colin Creevey appeared with a Muggle phone each in their hands. Hermione leaped towards them in slow motion. "No!" she yelled.
From underneath the couch closest to the door, a black and green blur shot out and through Dennis's legs. Angelina and Alicia and four other Gryffindors screamed. Draco yelled, "Reducto!", and a massive slash appeared in the wall. It terrified Colin and Dennis, but did not stop Nagini as she raced out of the portrait hole to freedom.
Hermione and Draco wasted no time in sprinting out after her, shoving the two Creevey brothers into the common room as they passed. They paused outside the hole, but could not find the snake anywhere. It had disappeared without a trace.
"Blast!" Draco yelled. "It could be anywhere in the castle!"
"It doesn't want to be in the castle!" Hermione said. "It's trying to escape!"
"Use Parseltongue!" Draco demanded. "Call it back!"
Hermione was about to say that she didn't know Parseltongue yet – that Salazar hadn't taught her a thing. But this word appeared in her head. She couldn't explain it, but she knew it was a word, even though it sounded like a hiss in her head. She tried it, but the sound came out jumbled and unclear.
"Now would be a great time to take control, Salazar!" Draco screamed in frustration at the ceiling.
Harry rushed out of the portrait hole behind them. He was covered in a red glow. "I heard… screaming… Nagini?"
"Harry, call the snake back!" Draco demanded. His ears were starting to glow yellow too.
Harry jumped and then thought and then made the sound as Hermione had envisioned it in her head.
But there was no answer.
"We're wasting time!" Hermione said. "We need to board off the entrances and exits. Where's Rosalie? She was in the room with us!"
"I think," Draco looked embarrassed for a moment, "She had her headphones in too."
"Go get her!" Harry exclaimed, and Draco jumped and rushed back into the ajar portrait hole.
Hermione rushed to the nearest wall and put her hands up on the stone. Felt out the grooves and divots. Come on, Hogwarts, she thought. Come on.
The front door. Brick it up. No one goes in or out.
The exit by the Greenhouses. Lock and fasten the door.
The Quidditch locker rooms. Brick it up.
She felt as if her brain was a mess of gears and by reaching out for help from Hogwarts in this way, she'd turned one a single tooth's width.
"I'm here!" Rosalie announced as she and Draco appeared. "What do you need?"
"I need you to find the snake," Hermione said with her eyes still closed, fingers feeling the wall texture. "Ask Hogwarts where it went… close the wards to keep it from escaping if you can."
"Wards keep things out, not in!"
"How are we going to kill this thing?" Harry asked. "We need a basilisk fang or-"
"If we kill it," Rosalie said, "We have nothing to test removing a live horcrux from."
Harry went quiet, though Hermione couldn't afford to focus on him much. She was too busy feeling out the gears of the castle. Then, Harry said, "It's hiding on the third floor, come on. I think it knows you shut the front entrance."
That was enough to pull Hermione out of her daze. "What?" She demanded. "I closed the entrance?"
Harry had his eyes closed and his fingertips up by the sides of his head, just underneath his hairline. His glasses had slipped down his nose a bit to make room.
"Fantastic," Draco said, patting Harry on the back. "Keep that connection open as much as possible and let's go! Hermione, Harry said the entrance is closed?"
"Yes, it feels like it," Rosalie said. She had her wand in her hand but was shaking. Harry grabbed her arm, eyes still closed.
"Upstairs, my nightstand has a picture of my parents on it." He mimed turning in the direction of his bed. "In the drawer, under the copy of "Muggleborns in the Magical World, there's a piece of folded parchment about this big, unfolds to be this big. Go grab it – the password is 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'." He pushed her back towards the open portrait hole and the common room. She went, gladly.
Hermione was still pressing her fingers against the wall. "I need to see the exit," she thought. "I need to see-"
She was suddenly sucked into the wall. She saw the entrance room in front of her, as if through a window. Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout, and Professor Vector were standing in front of the door – and it was completely bricked off. They were casting reducto curses at it. "Don't destroy it!" she yelled, but they could not hear her.
She was sucked back to her body and leaned against the wall with a gasp. Her eyes were spinning in their sockets. Judging by Harry and Draco's not paying her any mind, her body had stayed in one place and her mind had been siphoned through the castle. "Professor McGonagall… she's trying to destroy the front entrance! We need to get to her!"
There was a grinding, shifting noise to her right, around a corner. Hermione, Draco, and Harry all peered around. A new stairwell had appeared and Hermione could just see the beginnings of a polished banister. "Right," she said to Harry and Draco. "You both find Nagini. Draco is the one who was successfully able to contain her last time. I'll seal off the exits and make sure no one opens another escape. Go!"
Harry and Draco took off in a dead sprint down the hall. Hermione jumped into action, just as fast, and sprinted to the new staircase. She needed to go fast… needed to go fast…
The stairs vanished just as her foot was about to land on the first stair and Hermione slipped. She landed on her rear end. Momentum brought her to the wall as she zoomed down a steep slide. She could only hope this spit her out somewhere near the entrance… that it wasn't a dead end… and that she wasn't sick on the way down!
Her robes snagged on the rough castle walls, and one edge cut her sleeve and arm as she zoomed by. She scarcely had any time to be in pain before she was spat out at the end of the stairwell in a heap with such force she rolled and tumbled across the floor.
"Why, Ms. Granger! Where did you come from?"
It was Professor McGonagall, who paused in trying to destroy the wall to stare at her once-star student.
"Don't destroy the wall!" Hermione blurted out, struggling to her feet. "Voldemort's snake is loose in the castle – we can't let it escape!"
A tone played in the walls, echoing in the halls. "Attention, students," a voice said, emitting from the new speakers the elves had installed. "A large and dangerous snake is loose in the castle. Please make your way to any secure spot, such as a classroom or dorm, close the door, and do not open it until further instructions are given. Do not engage the snake."
The voice was British, and authoritative, but Hermione didn't recognise it until she heard the quiver in the voice near the end. It was Rosalie, using a different accent. She almost sounded like the Queen.
The Professors stopped firing at the wall. It was quite badly damaged already, but there were no holes. "We need to seal off the exits," Hermione decided for everyone, "and account for all the students. Harry and Draco are hunting Nagini. She's very poisonous and we can't let her hurt anyone!"
"Where was she?" Professor McGonagall asked, red in the face from the effort of attacking the wall.
She was in the Gryffindor common room. This staircase should take you all the way up…" Hermione paused and stared at the slide. "Well, it was a staircase." She put her hands against the wall again. Staircase… staircase… she saw little edges appearing.
Honestly, though, that was a lot of stairs. A better idea would be an elevator, or an escalator… Hermione closed her eyes in focus. Then, she heard a hum and the grinding of stone on stone. She opened her eyes. There was the staircase, and the stairs were rotating upwards in a spiral.
Not all of the students were Gryffindors, but Hermione pointed to the spiral. "Password to the Gryffindor rooms is Wheat Rolls – run!"
It was only when she saw her outstretched hand that she realised she was covered in a green light. Odd, because she wasn't thinking of anything particularly ambitious at the moment. Just escalators in Hogwarts.
"Hermione," a voice came into her mind. She recognised it immediately – it was Salazar Slytherin. She looked down. He hadn't possessed her again. Her hand still looked like her own. "I built this castle," he continued in her mind. "Do you think wit, bravery, or loyalty cared one bit about how grand a structure this was? No, it was all ambition. I built this castle, and I added the Chamber of Secrets. And I can help you get to where you need to be now."
Hermione pointed to a blank wall. "I need Rosalie," she said, and a doorway opened up to the Founder's rooms. Hermione jumped through and found Rosalie sitting on the floor with a microphone and the Marauder's Map spread in front of her. She was completely shrouded in blue light. She had her finger on the map when Hermione's feet landed on the carpet and the wall sealed up behind her, as if there'd never been an entrance.
"How'd you do that?" Rosalie gasped.
"Same way you do the wards," Hermione gasped, putting her hands on her knees. "Where's Nagini?"
"I don't know how, but she appears in this map, moving… she's near the library now, heading north…"
"Give me your headphones!" Hermione held her hand out.
Rosalie was shaking. She pointed. "Over… table…"
"Accio earbuds!" Hermione flicked her wand towards the table and the rose gold earbuds soared into her hand. She put one in her ear and took her personal phone or off her pocket. She unlocked it and went to the phone app. Rosalie's number had been put on her favourites list yesterday. She called herself and then handed the phone to Rosalie. "Give me your phone, so I don't go out of range, and tell me where Nagini is. I'll get the boys."
Her voice echoed painfully in her ears. Rosalie said something, eyes wide, but Hermione couldn't hear. "I gotta go!" she said and pointed at the wall. Another passage appeared straight into a staircase, with the stairs cutting off the bottom part of it. Hermione leaped through, jumping over the portion that was cut off, and was kicked in the gut by Harry as he and Draco leapt down the stairs. He yelped and all three of them crashed to the bottom of the stairs in a pile. They looked like a heap of Christmas lights. Red and green and yellow.
Luckily it was only a short trip down. They were only a bit bruised. Hermione sat up and shook her fist at the ceiling. "Not funny, Salazar!" She shouted.
"Where'd you come from?" Harry demanded, looking angry because of the red light even though his face displayed no fury.
Hermione pointed, but the passage she'd come through had closed. She groaned. "The Founder's room. Come on, Rosalie says the snake's near the library!"
"She tried a window!" Rosalie's voice came in her ear. She's retracing the way she came. She's now heading south by the library."
The end of the staircase had let them out on a landing connecting three flights of stairs. The one they'd fallen down and then two on either side. There was a wall they'd barely avoided slamming into. Hermione flung her hand at it. "Come on, library!" She called. An open arched passageway appeared. Harry hauled her to her feet and they all ran in.
They were immediately shrouded in bookcases. Thousands and thousands of them. "Shoot, we're inside," Draco said. "Where's the entrance?"
"I can't see you… oh, wait, there you are. Go the direction Harry is standing in the way of!" Rosalie shouted in her ear.
"This way!" Hermione, still holding Harry's hand, hailed him down a row of bookcases. Each shelf seemed twelve feet tall. Hermione didn't think she'd ever been in this section of the library. It looked as if no one had for many years. Some of the books were rotting on the shelf. Their spines dangled from the pages.
With one hand, she struggled to turn the volume down on Rosalie's phone. "Say something, Rosalie."
"Madam Pince is up ahead with… fourteen students."
They turned the corner of one of the bookcases and spotted the group huddled by Madam Pince's desk. Madam Pince was astonished to see them. "Where'd you come from?" She demanded.
Draco rushed to the doors and tested them, but Madam Pince had locked them. They only shook. "We landed on the wrong side of the doors, Hermione," he called.
"I'm sorry – I'm still figuring this out!" Hermione cried. "Rosalie, where's the snake?"
"Professor Flitwick has intercepted on the staircase outside the library… no, Nagini is now moving down the stairs… Professor Flitwick is not pursuing!"
Harry pulled a knife out of his robe's pocket. It was the knife Sirius had given him, Hermione recalled. He ran the blade into the crack where the door latched and pulled the door open. "Madam Pince," he called, "Look this behind us, please!"
Madam Pince huffed. "I already locked it! And you shouldn't have-"
But Hermione and Draco were already rushing out the door sprinting towards the stairs. Professor Flitwick was leaning against the wall, badly wounded, gasping for breath, and holding a hand to his stomach.
"Hermione," Draco said, very seriously, "Pass me Rosalie's earbuds. Get him to the hospital wing."
Hermione pulled the earbuds out of her ears and gave him the phone. As she hurried down the steps, she heard Draco say, "Rosalie? Me now. Tell me where it's at."
Professor Flitwick's arm was pressed firmly against his side. Hermione bent down beside him, peered at the wound, and realised he was not holding shredded skin. He was covering the absence of his side. Nagini appeared to have taken a bite of his side before fleeing. She flicked her wand at him. "Levicorpus," she whispered. "Let's get you to the hospital wing, Professor."
"It's no use, Ms. Granger," Professor Flitwick said in a feeble voice. "I'll never make it in time."
Hermione gestured to the wall he'd been leaning against. A door appeared. She opened it and stepped into the sterile hospital wing. Professor Flitwick, despite his mortal state, squeaked in surprise when Madam Pomfrey appeared. "Oh! I suppose… if you do that."
The door thudded shut behind her, but remained visible. "The snake that attacked him is extremely poisonous," Hermione told Madam Pomfrey as she settled Professor Flitwick onto a bed. "It only just happened."
Madam Pomfrey pulled Professor Flitwick's arm from the side of his body. It was a very good thing Rosalie was staying in the Founder's room. She would not have handled the sight well.
"Shoo," Madam Pomfrey said to Hermione. "He will be okay."
"We may have more," Hermione said, stepping back. "We may…" her hand landed on the handle of the door she'd come through. She turned it down and appeared in a different hall a floor down from where she'd been before. It was dark and quiet and smelled like water.
"There you are!" Harry exclaimed, hurrying down the hall. "Draco's run off! Nagini is in the dungeons!"
"You can still find her?" Hermione demanded. "Where is she?"
"Not far from the potion's room. Come on, let's-"
Hermione opened the door she'd just come through right back up and pulled Harry through. They burst into the Potion's classroom where a class of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw second-years had been abandoned. Everyone stared when they appeared and smacked into the student supply cupboard. Hermione's head hit the side. Poor Harry held his hand over his nose, and then removed his hand to reveal his second nosebleed of the day.
"Where's Professor Snape?" Hermione asked.
"He left," One student said. "Where'd you come from?"
Hermione rushed the door and tried the lock. It was shut tight. "Alohomora!" She flicked her wand at the door. She tried it, but nothing happened. Snape was better at securing a room than whoever had charmed the door Fluffy the three-headed dog had been behind their first year. Go figure.
Harry put his hands on her shoulders and moved her aside. Out came the knife and down went the lock. Before he could open it, Hermione stopped him. "She's not outside, is she?" They couldn't risk Nagini injuring these students.
Harry shook his head after a moment and opened the door to an empty corridor. Before they left, Harry told the students, "Lock this behind us. The spell is colloportus."
The speakers up above them cracked. "Students," Rosalie announced in her extremely posh accent. Some feedback made Hermione's ears ring. "Do not open any windows or doors!"
They stepped out into the drafty corridor and heard panting. Draco turned a corner to their left at a sprint. "This way!" He said to them and took off running the other way.
They left the dungeons. The speakers crackled again and Rosalie's voice came through, frantic and worried. "Students, close all doors and windows! I repeat, close all doors and-"
Draco took a left – were they headed to Ravenclaw tower? But no, they were still on ground level. They skidded down a hall Hermione had never needed to wander down and Draco began counting doors. "Four… five… six." He seized a handle and tugged on it. It was locked.
"Alohomora!" Hermione said over Draco's arm, and the door sprang open.
The first thing that registered was a draft. A window was open, and a brisk May wind filled the room. Nagini was not inside, but beside the open window stood Pansy Parkinson.
The next chapter will be called Into the Dark Lord's Mind.