“Now, it has come to my attention that one of our worst fears has come true,” Dumbledore began. “Voldemort has set up a league of junior followers, so to speak, here at Hogwarts. Now, we must of course investigate this and inform the Order. Although I’ve been informed that we still have a month until a positive attack we need to be on our guard immediately.
“Minerva, you will stay here and assume your duty as Deputy Headmistress. Severus, Sirius, and I will return to Grimmauld Place and help the Order arrange a battle plan.” Dumbledore took a breath but then paused, “Severus?”
Snape clutched his arm painfully, a worn grimace coming over his countenance. Sirius gazed on, a small smirk coming over his face, the first smile since he had encountered Harry and Hermione.
“I think Severus has somewhere else to be,” remarked Sirius coldly. Snape glared back, looking as though he had something to say though he said nothing. Dumbledore looked sharply at Sirius, who acknowledged his glance but kept a small grin nonetheless.
“Please go, Severus, don’t delay,” instructed Dumbledore. Snape nodded, exiting the room, still clutching his arm and shooting a look of death at Sirius, who brushed his arm in return.
“That is that, I suppose,“ muttered Dumbledore thoughtfully. “All right, we are ready to go, something is definitely happening. Stay on your guard, Minerva. You two know what you must do,” continued Dumbledore, speaking this time to Harry and Hermione, who looked back at him doubtfully. “Mr. Weasley, it is imperative that you listen to what they have to tell you.” Ron looked bewildered throughout the whole conversation, continuously glancing at Hermione, who was trying very hard to avoid his eyes.
“Come, Sirius, it is time.”
Sirius stepped forward and they both touched the rolled up pair of socks that lay discarded on a shelf to the left of Dumbledore’s desk. There was a moment of silence in the room before Professor McGonagall spoke.
“Would you three please remain here until I return, I need to grab some effects from my office and do not wish to miss any messages from the headmaster.”
Professor McGonagall exited the room, curtly nodding to Ron and Hermione on her way out.
“What the hell is going on here?” asked Ron in a raised voice.
“Ron, sit down,” said Hermione in a pained voice, biting her lip uncomfortably, her eyes full of concern. Harry’s head was still rested on his right hand.
“Let me tell him, Hermione.”
“Tell me what?” asked Ron, exasperated.
“Kira is a Death Eater, Ron,” replied Harry sullenly, still not looking up. Ron’s face twisted into a look of confusion and disbelief.
“Really, Harry…”
“Let me finish, Ron,” continued Harry, “I didn’t just make it up, I had a dream. One of those dreams--and Kira works for Voldemort.” Harry stood up. “I gave her orders; I told her when to destroy me. While I was Voldemort, I mean, if that is what I mean. She told me how foolish you were and how blind we’ve all been. I’d give anything to make it not true. I’ve never seen you so happy as when you’ve been around her. I’m really sorry, Ron.” Harry leaned on one of the shelves, looking at Ron pointedly, hoping he would believe him.
“You never liked her,” remarked Ron coldly, his face in an expression of disgust.
“Ron, look,” said Hermione, taking his hands and looking up to meet his eyes, “it nearly broke my heart when I saw you and Kira together today at the tea shop. I knew that we’d have to tell you this, and I saw for myself that it’s not real love, at least not on her part. You deserve better.” Ron looked at her, shocked and then disappointed. The thoughts filling his head were so intense and swirling that he slumped down to the floor, leaning against one of the large cabinets. He placed his face in his hands, completely in shock.
Then Ron stood up abruptly, “I can’t stay…I have to…go…somewhere.”
Hermione watched sadly as he left the room in a rush.
“This is all my fault,” muttered Harry angrily. “It’s always my fault!”
“Harry, you can’t put this on yourself, you had nothing to do with Kira,” replied Hermione solemnly.
“But if it weren’t for me, Kira wouldn’t have bothered him in the first place. If it weren’t for me, Kira wouldn’t have done this to him!”
“Harry, don’t be stupid! Do you think that he…that we hung around you this long and didn’t know the risks? It is not your fault; it’s Voldemort’s! Harry! Don’t you see that? Voldemort is doing this to us, to you, to me, and to Ron. It has nothing to do with you, except you have to stop him,” replied Hermione.
“What if I can’t?” asked Harry faintly, voicing the thought that had been haunting him the whole year. This was the question that was always unasked but implied by everyone and everything around him.
“Of course you can,” whispered Hermione, staring at him, her eyes brimming with tears. She threw her arms around his neck, “I know you can.” She released him after a moment and stood beside him, gazing into the blank space of Dumbledore’s office.
They didn’t have to sit there too long, because Professor McGonagall returned with a briefcase and another couple stacks of paper in her right arm. She nodded curtly to them, dismissing them from the headmaster’s office. They walked silently down the halls that were still quiet, but slowly filling with students that were starting to come back from Hogsmeade.
“What about Ron?” Harry wondered aloud.
“I think we should leave him alone for a while,” replied Hermione gravely. Both Hermione and Harry remained quiet and thoughtful, and soon they realized they had been mindlessly walking around, missing the common room several times. After finding their way back to the common room, Harry sat dejectedly next to the fireplace and Hermione sulkily placed herself on the couch, bringing her knees to her chest and thinking deeply.
“You two look especially cheery,” noted a female voice from the corner. Harry turned to see Ginny Weasley writing on a piece of parchment on the back table by the staircases. In Harry’s dazed state he didn’t even wonder why she wasn’t at Hogsmeade.
“Oh Ginny, I don’t think…” started Harry wearily not really wanting to explain what was going on.
“You know what Harry, I don’t think you should leave me out of this,” retorted Ginny before he could refuse to tell her. She stared at him from her corner. He looked back at Hermione, who gazed at him and shrugged her shoulders.
“I suppose,” murmured Harry, motioning for her to join them. He wearily explained to her about the dream, Kira, and the next attack.
“Well, we’ll be ready then, I suppose,” remarked Ginny coolly. Harry looked at her with an expression of shock.
“That’s all you have to say?”
“There isn’t much else to say, though I suppose Ron didn’t take it well,” she replied simply. Harry just shook his head, still in wonder about how she was handling the news.
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll deal with him,” remarked Ginny standing up.
“You know where he is?” asked Hermione.
“Of course I do, I’m his sister. I live with him. He went somewhere to get away from everyone, a place where no one would think of looking for him.”
“And that place is…” prompted Harry.
“The library, of course,” grinned Ginny, leaving the Common Room.
Hermione and Harry stared at the door as she left, and spent the next few hours in reflective silence. Harry sat dreadfully, expecting the worst; something was not right. His scar tingled ever so slightly, like an itch he couldn’t get rid of. He ran upstairs and got his Invisibility Cloak and Marauders Map, neither of which he’d used all year. He sat next to Hermione, who peered over his shoulder.
“I solemnly swear I up to no good,” murmured Harry, glancing at the map that now lay before his eyes. He looked around for Ron and Ginny; they were moving rather quickly away from the Library. He looked around the map for any other people of importance.
“Harry look,” gasped Hermione, pointing to a dot labeled Peter Pettigrew. This dot was scurrying across the empty Great Hall, and then stopped approximately where the teacher’s chairs were. And what Harry saw after that, made his stomach turn but it wasn’t something he didn’t expect. Peter had stopped in front of a group of dots; all labeled with names of people Harry wished didn’t exist. There must have been fifty Death Eaters gathered in the Great Hall: Kira Sideria, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle…but he didn’t see their leader.
“Where is he?” muttered Harry, now scanning the map for their leader, but he didn’t see the Dark Lord anywhere.
“I don’t see him,” murmured Hermione, going a little pale. Since Harry was looking at the Great Hall, he didn’t see Ginny and Ron running up towards the Gryffindor Tower. They suddenly burst through the portrait, out of breath with a sense of urgency.
“Harry,” gasped Ginny, holding her hand over her heart, ”Bellatrix is planning to lead a full blown attack on the school.”
Harry looked at her for a moment as if he didn’t understand her, but then looked between the three of his friends carefully. He needed a plan, he needed help, and the students would be coming back from Hogsmeade now. What were they going to do? There was no Dumbledore, no Sirius, nobody here, they needed people, what they needed was the Order. Harry clutched the Invisibility Cloak in his fist tightly.
“Someone needs to tell McGonagall to keep the students from coming back to the school.” Harry looked around at them for a volunteer.
“I’ll do it,” offered Ginny grudgingly, “but if I miss some real action, you’ll regret it, Harry Potter.” Harry grinned at her wit and was thankful for her sacrifice.
“Here, take these,” said Harry giving her the map and cloak. “Don’t get caught.”
“Oh darn, and I was planning on it,” retorted Ginny sarcastically before she disappeared under the cloak and out of the common room.
“What are we going to do Harry?” asked Ron in a hoarse voice.
“I don’t know, have your wands ready though. I wish I could talk to someone that could help; maybe I should have gone,” wondered Harry aloud.
“Harry,” said Hermione. “What about the mirror Sirius gave you? Do you think that would work?”
“I completely forgot!” exclaimed Harry, running upstairs to get it and bringing it back down again.
“Sirius,” he spoke clearly into the mirror. The mirror turned white and remained that way for a couple seconds, and then he saw Sirius’s face appear with a look of concern.
“Is everything okay, Harry?” he demanded.
“There are a bunch of Death Eaters at the school,” Harry replied bluntly.
“Are you hurt? Have you see them? Is everyone okay? What about the students?” asked Sirius. He went a bit pale. He turned from Harry a minute, addressing someone in the room he was in, “Yes well…I think it can wait a moment, there is something happening at Hogwarts…Don’t talk to me like that…” Then the mirror was set down on Sirius’s side. Harry sighed; he didn’t have time for this. Finally Sirius came back on the other side of the mirror.
“We just got news from Minerva, and we’re on our way. Stay right there, and please for heaven’s sake don’t do anything stupid, Harry,” pleaded Sirius, who then disappeared and was replaced by white whichwhite that faded back into Harry’s reflection.
“He doesn’t even know where we are,” stated Ron.
Harry tossed the mirror across the room. “That was no help at all! We can’t just stay here!”
“Harry, calm down,” pleaded Hermione, rushing over to pick up the mirror. “We might need this later, and we are safer right here. I’m sure it won’t take them long to get here.”
“We may be safer here, but what about everyone else Hermione? Are we going to leave them to the wrath of the Death Eaters? You of all people should know what that is like,” remarked Harry coldly. Hermione looked at him, obviously hurt. Harry looked at the ground, embarrassed; his anger wasn’t intended for her.
“I’m sorry Hermione,” he apologized, “I didn’t mean that…”
He never got a chance to finish his apology, because at that moment the Fat Lady swung open to reveal a dozen Death Eaters. Hermione gasped, Ron let out a strangled cry, and Harry’s heart sank. This was exactly what he had been trying to avoid, being cornered. The Death Eaters were being led by Bellatrix, and from what he could tell they were the twelve people who wanted Harry dead the most, because they couldn’t have looked happier to be there.
“Now, Potter, if you all come with us now, there will be no reason for us to hurt any of your little friends,” said Bellatrix grinning, obviously hoping he would object.
“Stupefy,” bellowed Ron from behind Harry, but the hex didn’t hit Bellatrix; it hit Nott, who was standing behind her to the left. He fell back a little as the curse hit his left shoulder. Harry wasn’t expecting that in the least, he wasn’t really planning on anything yet; at least Ron knew what he wanted. Then Harry realized whom Ron was aiming for. Kira stood shrewdly behind Bellatrix, cornered in by four other Death Eaters.
“I was hoping that was what you’d pick,” grinned Bellatrix, and she threw her first curse. Harry didn’t really hear it, he was already planning a shield. But as the shield drew up around him, he realized the attack wasn’t aimed at him and Ron fell to the ground next to him. Ron grimaced in pain but Harry realized it wasn’t serious; Bellatrix was just teasing them.
“Incendio,” spoke Hermione a bit warily from Harry’s right. Her spell also missed Bellatrix but instead hit Nott again. The sleeve of his black robes caught on fire, but the spell wasn’t strong enough to do any real damage and he quickly doused the flames. Harry looked around the room, wishing they had more resources. Hermione and Ron were scared, so their spells were going to be weak. They realized the odds they were up against, three against twelve full-fledged wizards. Not to mention neither of them were hitting Harry’s main target. Someone had to stop Bellatrix.
“Expelliarmus!” shouted Harry angrily at Bellatrix. This spell hit her directly and she fell back, dropping her wand. Harry sighed with relief, but looked between his two friends warily. The battle had really begun, and he wasn’t sure they were ready.