The Weight of the World

Chapter 25 - The Battle for Hogwarts

Moody and his group waited patiently at the side of the castle. They were cloaked and couldn't be seen, but somehow Fawkes knew exactly where to find them. Moody looked up and saw Fawkes make a quick circle in the air, then fly away.

"Okay laddies, in we go,” Moody said as he unlocked the door with his wand.

- - -

Jax searched the skies until he saw what he was looking for. A few of the others looked up and saw Fawkes as well.

"It's time. You all know what to do. Make haste and use caution,” Jax said.

They then slipped through the door.

- - -

Moody looked at the map after they walked inside and saw three Death Eaters walking towards their position. He quickly pulled his cloak down and tapped the map showing the others of what was coming. Two of his team members took the lead and setup with their backs against the corridor wall so that they wouldn't be hit by the passing Death Eaters, and also so that they could slip behind them undetected. The Death Eaters weren't talking to one another, but it was clear that they weren't trying to be quiet. One of the two Aurors that had slipped passed them, pulled out his wand and tapped it on the wall gently three times, then pulled his hand back inside of his cloak.

The three Death Eaters stopped and turned around to see what had made the noise and not a second after they had done so, five of the team, including Moody, had already disabled them.

"Bind them and take them around the side of the castle. Quickly!"Moody said.

In less than a minutes time they were back. Moody pulled the map out from his cloak and studied it one more time.

"Split up from here. Team one, take the first patrol unit, up and to the left, one man. Team two, take out the other unit, downstairs, left corridor third door in the dungeons, three of them, they have hostages there so use caution. When you're finished, hide the Death Eaters and instruct the hostages to remain there. Phillips, go with me, we're headed for the Headmaster's office,” Moody said as he disappeared under his cloak.

- - -

One of the Death Eaters was walking down the stairs when the staircase moved causing him to get lost. He had never been in the castle before so he had absolutely no idea where he was now. The castle had an eeriness to it, and it was very quiet. He was walking down a corridor looking for another set of stairs to take him down, when he felt a breeze of wind across his face. He stopped to try to get a better idea of where the wind was coming from when he felt something touch his neck, and he fell to the floor. Two of Jax's team pulled the cloak off of their heads and drug the man into an empty classroom.

"I don't remember anyone patrolling here last night," said one of the Unspeakables.

"Probably lost. Let's clear this area and get downstairs," he said quietly as he bound the unconscious Death Eater and pulled his cloak back over his head.

- - -

The team that Moody had sent to the dungeons made their way down there without any resistance. They were outside of the closed door, that apparently contained three Death Eaters and the hostages, when they pulled their hoods down to talk with one another.

"You two know the drill, this is close combat, watch the hostages. McKinney, you're the striker, we'll assist," the Unspeakable said.

The three Death Eaters sat in chairs at the front of the dungeon classroom behind the professor's desk, while the hostages sat in the student's chairs. Madam Pomfrey and a couple of the other summer teachers were in the room along with several other maintenance personnel. They all sat there quietly while the three Death Eaters talked to each other with their wands out in front of them.

They heard the door click as though someone were trying to open it and all of them, Death Eaters and hostages, stared at the door to see if it were going to open.

One of the Death Eaters got up quickly from his chair and walked over to the door with his wand raised. The teachers and staff members watched with worry as he made his way towards them.

"All of you get against the wall!" the Death Eaters said pointing at the hostages.

They did as he said. All of them backed against the wall and watched as the door slowly creaked open. The other two Death Eaters were now directly behind the first one, one of them had his wand out pointing at the door, the other had his wand pointing at the hostages.

The door creaked and began to open slowly but then began to shut again. It looked as though the wind was causing it to open and close. The Death Eaters slowly watched as it opened again, this time fairly wide, and then began to slowly close. They could see that it was clearly doing it by itself but still were concerned. Finally the Death Eater that was closest to the door signaled to the other two that he was going to open the door. He crept up to it and violently swung the door open, but didn't see anyone there. He then made a quick step and was outside the door but didn't see anyone down both directions of the corridor. He then walked back in and closed the door and checked it to make sure it was closed firmly.

"Wasn't anyone there. Did you close the door well when you came back in earlier?" he said to one of the other Death Eaters.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it," he said in his defense.

"Don't think ya did mate,” Said the third.

"GET BACK IN YOUR BLOODY CHAIRS!" yelled the first one to the group of hostages.

They all hurried back into their seats, and looked terrified while doing so.

After looking at the door one more time with a puzzled look, the first Death Eater went back to the front of the class and sat back down next to the other two. He started reading a week-old Daily Prophet while the other two Death Eaters began talking about the possibility of the door blowing ajar. Madam Pomfrey was terrified before the event that just took place, but now she thought she might possibly suffer a heart attack if one more unexpected event took place.

That theory was then tested. She glanced up at the Death Eaters who were all facing her, and noticed three men magically appear behind them. These men were standing directly behind them and the Death Eaters had no idea that they were there. The three men had an object in each of their hands and quickly slapped the objects against the Death Eater that was in front of them, causing all three Death Eaters to fall to the floor unconscious. One of the men walked from behind the desk and addressed the hostages.

"Ladies and Gentlemen we are from the Ministry of Magic and are here to help you, but we must ask you to stay in this classroom until we can finish the clearing of the castle. It is not safe yet. You shouldn't be visited again by any dark wizards, but if you are, tell the visitor that the men left the classroom after they heard a noise. We will leave the wands of these three with you. Keep them hidden and don't do anything with them unless your lives depend on it. We'll take these three out and make sure they won't be found. Thank you for your cooperation."

One of the other Unspeakables gathered the wands that had fallen on the floor when the Death Eaters had been neutralized and brought them over and three of the staffers took them and hid them in their robes.

All three of the Unspeakables pulled their cloaks back over their heads, and Madam Pomfrey and the others watched as the three bodies of the Death Eaters appeared to drag themselves out of the classroom as the door closed behind them.

- - -

Moody and Phillips made their way to the base of the gargoyle staircase and Moody used the map along with his magical eye to survey the area. He gave a thumb's up to Phillips and then pulled the map out of his cloak. They both looked at it and saw dots on the map that represented Lucius Malfoy and two others names that neither recognized. There was no way for them to get into the room other than the single staircase, and since the staircase wasn't raised, they wouldn't be able to get up there without being heard.

Moody walked over and sat down for a second to think. He knew that if the staircase was raised, all three would be alerted that someone unexpected was making their way towards them, and even if they were wearing invisibility cloaks, he didn't want to take the risk.

They both stared at the map for a second until Moody spotted at dot inside of the Great Hall that made his magical eye almost jump out of his head with excitement. He looked over at Phillips and pointed at the dot named Macnair. There were two others in there with him, but the name Macnair, brought a smile to his face.

"You handle these other two, this one is mine," he said still tapping Macnair's dot.

They pulled the cloaks over their heads and headed into the Great Hall. When they got there, Moody and Phillips were still invisible behind their cloaks, but Moody pulled his cloak off just a second before he magically made the doors to the Hall burst open. When he walked in, all three dark wizards were eating and were caught by surprise. Macnair had his axe stuck into the table just a few inches from his hand, but he didn't go for it even when he saw that Moody already had his wand pointing at his head.

"Hello Macnair. Told ya I'd catch back up with ya one of these days remember that? You may have fooled the Ministry all these years, but I knew what ya really were," Moody said scowling.

"Nice to see you again too Mad Eye, it's been a long time hasn't it? What are you going to do here today Mad Eye, you can't handle all three of us,” Macnair said quickly glancing down at his axe.

"I don't need to handle all three of you Macnair," Moody said plainly.

Macnair stared at him puzzled for a bit, then looked at his axe again, and then back at Moody.

"You don't think they're just going to stand there and let you curse me do you?" Macnair said.

A smile came across Moody's face for a second as he saw Phillips appear suddenly and like a flash, disappear again, only to have both of the Death Eaters that he was standing between slump over onto the floor.

"I don't think your two friends are going to have much to say about it,” Moody said.

Macnair heard his friends fall and then stared at his axe again quickly and then back to Moody as he now knew that Moody and he weren't the only ones in the room.

"Go ahead and go for that metal there Macnair, it'll be easier for me to kill you,” Moody said.

Macnair stared at the axe for a second and then back to Moody. He knew that he didn't have a chance, not with the wizard that was standing somewhere behind him undetected.

"I didn't think so Macnair, you never did have it in the bravery category, but I never could say that you were stupid," he said.

Moody then smiled and shook his head at the Death Eater, then raised his wand and in one quick motion disabled him with an 'accido corpo' spell that made him fall from the bench he was sitting at. The spell didn't render you unconscious; instead it just made everything you did ten times harder. Walking, thinking, and even blinking were chores. The spell sort of sucked the usable energy right out of your body making you feel like you just ran a marathon. And this was exactly what Moody wanted, because he had plans for Macnair, and they didn't include him being knocked out or dead.

- - -

Lucius Malfoy sat in the headmaster's chair and stared at all of the wizards pictures that hung around the wall. Most of them were sleeping, but the ones that were awake shot him dirty looks or turned their noses up at him. They could tell very easily that he didn't belong there. He turned to one of the Death Eaters that was flipping through one of the old books that he had pulled out of the bookshelves.

"I could run this school and make it ten times more useful to the students than that fool Dumbledore," he said.

The Death Eater didn't say anything, he seemed to be caught up in his book, or at least was pretending to be. Lucius didn't take any notice, but kept talking anyway.

"Think of how powerful this school could become if we ridded it of all of the mudbloods and taught the students to serve the Dark Lord. Think of what we could do with an army of students at his command. Draco would have thrived here with the right teachers."

He stopped there. Thinking of Draco made him very emotional, but it wasn't sorrow, mostly just anger because he had blamed Draco's death on Dumbledore, not himself or Voldemort. He thought of Draco's death as some sort of accident that Dumbledore could have prevented. He didn't take even an ounce of responsibility for his son's death.

Lucius forced himself to stop thinking about Draco. He focused on the task at hand, and that was trying to hold down the castle while teams of Death Eaters tried to locate Potter and Fudge. Lord Voldemort had already killed the three Death Eaters that allowed Harry and Fudge to escape. He didn't just kill them though, he tortured them to death. He made sure that the others witnessed a man suffer so much pain that his body, mind and soul simply gave up and broke. Once this happens to a man, his life will leave him as well. The three men screamed a horrific scream, the sound was unlike many of them had ever heard before, and that was saying a lot considering most of them had been involved in torturing other wizards and muggles. Voldemort was angrier over this failed plan than he had been at any other, and the spells he tortured those three wizards with, reflected his anger, evil and sheer power that was thrown into them. Lucius had no desire to experience this pain and suffering so he wanted to make sure that he held onto the castle while they tried to locate Potter and possibly recover Fudge. He knew what was at risk.

Lucius jumped out of the small trance his thought had pulled him into when he heard the staircase begin to raise. He looked up at the other two Death Eaters to make sure that they were aware that he was concerned about this unexpected visitor.

They pulled out their wands and were at the ready but Lucius stayed sitting behind the desk. If it wasn't anything to be concerned about he didn't want anyone to think he was edgy or that he had any fear of something as simple as the staircase raising.

They all watched closely as they heard a single set of footsteps walking towards the office door. It opened and all three were put at ease when they saw Macnair walk through the door with his axe in hand down at his side.

"What is it Macnair? You know I gave you all strict orders not to leave your posts,” Lucius said.

"I do, but we have a problem. It seems as though we have two out of position, doesn't seem like anything to be worried about yet; I think they just got lost after they left the Hall for lunch."

"Is that all? Well just send someone to go look for them. There are several on assignment that went to school here. Surely the castle hasn't changed that much since they were here," Lucius said spitting.

"Yes sir," Macnair said as he started to turn away.

"Oh sir, there is just one more thing," Macnair said turning back around.

"What is it now?" Lucius said shaking his head and rubbing his forehead with is hand.

"Just this."

Macnair threw his axe across the desk and it landed squarely in the middle of Lucius Malfoy's head splitting his head almost in half. The blade had been magically sharpened and it could cut through just about anything including bone. Blood began to pour over what was left of his face as he slumped and twitched over Dumbledore's desk.

The other two Death Eaters were caught by surprise and didn't know what to do. They stared at Lucius and one of them turned their head to be sick because of the graphic site and sound of the blood pouring off of the desk onto the floor.

The other Death Eater pulled his wand out and immediately shot a spell that disabled Macnair who had been standing there with a blank look on his face at what he had done.

After Macnair fell to the floor, the Death Eater walked over to him and searched his cloak for his wand, but he didn't find one.

The sick Death Eater had just now turned back around but still had his hands over his mouth as though he was about to be sick again.

"What in bloody hell did he do that for?" he said with a high pitched voice.

"Think he just bloody went mad. Go down to the kitchens and get some of the damn elves to clean up this mess," he said.

He didn't hear him moving so he turned around, "Well what in hell are you waiting for?"

But he could immediately see why he hadn't moved after he turned around. The Death Eater was on the floor unconscious.

"Worse than a bloody woman, can't handle a little blood without fainting," he said shaking his head.

He stood up to walk towards the passed out Death Eater, and as soon as he did he felt something cold touch his neck, then nothing but black.

Phillips pulled his cloak off of his body and turned around waiting for Moody to do the same.

"I've never seen anyone do that much damage with the Imperius Curse before," Phillips said shaking his head.

"You've also never seen two men do more damage to a little boy in your life. The poor lad killed himself because of what they did to him,” Moody said referring to Draco Malfoy.

He then turned around and began to walk out of the room but stopped as he hit the door.

"Phillips, no one survived this fight," Moody said calmly.

Phillips looked up at him for a second, then down at Macnair and the other two Death Eaters lying there.

"Yes sir,” He said.

Moody then walked out of the room and down the stairs to meet the others in the Great Hall.

No one was in real trouble at any time during the cleaning of the castle. The Death Eaters were all disabled and were all held down in one of the dungeons that had been magically secured. Dumbledore and his group were given the signal that everything had been cleared and they returned to the castle to meet the others in the Great Hall.

Madam Pomfrey and the other hostages were hungry and tired, but all were seemingly okay. The castle had been recovered, none of the Unspeakables or Aurors were hurt or killed, and Voldemort had lost several of Death Eaters.

Everyone seemed at ease after the event, everyone except Dumbledore.

"This doesn't seem right,” Dumbledore said quietly to himself.

"What was that Albus?" Sirius asked.

Dumbledore was staring at the ceiling and continued to do so for a second after Sirius had asked him the question. He looked at Sirius for a second then spoke again.

"This situation, it doesn't seem right," he said again.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked him.

"This situation. Voldemort sent his men to this castle to capture Fudge and no doubt to quietly use it as a base of operations. This castle is certainly large enough for Voldemort and his followers to use it even during the school year. So when their plan failed and Fudge and Harry escaped them, why would they have stayed here?"

"You think he left them here on purpose?" Sirius asked.

"It is possible Sirius. He knew that we would take it back, and he had to have also known that after Fudge and Harry escaped, that the Ministry would surely know of his return."

"So if he left them here, he left him here knowing we would kill them or at least take them out of his service," Sirius added.

"Oh dear," Dumbledore said.

"What is it?" Sirius asked.

"It's possible that he left them here knowing that we would use a large force to win this battle."

"You think he used them as some sort of distraction then?"

Dumbledore didn't say anything but Sirius knew that this was in fact what he had thought.

"But distract us from what?" Sirius asked.

"The Ministry perhaps... or possibly..,” Dumbledore stopped.

Sirius felt his stomach drop as though he had just done a nose dive on a Firebolt.

"Harry,” Sirius said.