Harry Potter and the Final Prophecy

-- Chapter Six -- Fall of the Castle

As they scanned the map for Sirius, Harry noticed an ink dot enter the grounds on the East side of the castle. But it was not labelled ``Sirius Black". Its label said simply ``Tom Riddle". An icy numbness filled Harry, all he could do was point wordlessly at the minute figure on the parchment to get the others' attention. Behind Voldemort two further figures now appeared, labelled ``Bellatrix Lestrange" and ``Lucius Malfoy". Ron and Hermione gasped in horror and for a moment they were all frozen in fear watching the dots move slowly towards the castle. Then Hermione leapt up saying `We must find Professor McGonagall!', they ran out of the common room and down the stairs towards her office. They knocked at the door but there was no sound or response.

`Perhaps she's teaching, or in the staff room,' Ron suggested. They ran down the corridor to the staff room, but there was no-one inside except Filch and Snape, who glowered at them for daring to storm in without knocking.

`What do you want?' he snarled at them.

`We're looking for Professor McGonagall, it's very urgent!' gasped Hermione.

Snape grinned malevolently. `She is away, so it will have to wait, won't it. Ten points each from Gryffindor for entering the staff room without permission. Now get out.'

Harry at last found his voice. `Voldemort is attacking the castle!' he shouted, `look!' He waved the map towards Snape, who snatched it out of his hands. As Snape and Filch craned over the parchment, Harry could see that Voldemort, Bellatrix and Malfoy had now reached the wall of the castle, and that other groups of Death Eaters were entering the grounds from all directions. Snape made a choking sound and Filch looked petrified.

`Potter, if this is another of your tricks, you will regret it for the rest of your days,' Snape growled, face white, `Stay here, all three of you, don't you dare interfere again. Filch, come with me, we'll see about this.' They swept out, wands raised.

Harry noticed the familiar pain in his scar beginning to grow once more. By now he would have known anyway that Voldemort was nearby, the map had given them perhaps five minutes extra warning, but would it be any use? Dumbledore and McGonagall away and only Snape taking any action. And Snape's loyalty was still very questionable, as far as Harry was concerned.

`He's crazy,' said Ron, `he can't expect to stop them on his own, Filch is as good as useless with a wand.'

`I expect he wants all the glory of defeating Voldemort for himself this time,' said Hermione cynically, `Harry's always got there first in the past and spoiled his chances of an Order of Merlin.'

`The only glory he's going to get from this is an unvisited grave ...' said Ron, peering out into the deserted corridor.

The pain in Harry's head was growing stronger. Snape had taken the map so this was now the only clue to what was going on. Fear and panic washed over Harry again as he looked around the dark panelled walls, they couldn't stay here just waiting for Voldemort to burst in and kill them all. `We've got to get out of the castle,' he said, `Voldemort will destroy everything once he gets past Snape. We've got to get to Dumbledore and warn him.'

Hermione opened her mouth to say they'd been told to stay here, but at that moment an agonised scream sounded in the distance and Harry clapped a hand to his scar as it suddenly burnt fiercely with pain. `Out, out,' he muttered, `up to the third floor, quickly.'

They dashed past groups of bewildered students emerging from lessons, shouting at them to get out of the castle. Harry led them to the statue of the one-eyed witch and they dived down into the dark tunnel, stopping in exhaustion only once they reached the steps up to Honeydukes. `Where can we go now?' asked Hermione, looking very lost and afraid, `They'll take over the village as well, won't they, once they've destroyed the castle? Where can we go that is safe?'

Harry couldn't answer her. Nowhere would be safe for long now, but they had to find somewhere to escape from Voldemort and the Death Eaters long enough to get back to Dumbledore and Sirius and the others.

`The ministry,' suggested Ron, `find Dumbledore and convince Fudge that he has to take action.'

`But the ministry is swarming with Voldemort's agents,' said Harry, shivering in the cold stale air of the tunnel. `He'll have us stopped before we can reach Dumbledore or Fudge, and Fudge won't believe anything we say anyway.'

`What about Sirius' old hideout, up in the mountains?' asked Hermione, `Voldemort doesn't know about that, no-one does except Dumbledore and Sirius, do they? We could stay there and send an owl to Dumbledore?'

`Ok, but we'll have to apparate there, as soon as we get out of the tunnel. We can't be seen going there.' He wondered where Sirius was now, whether he would recognise what was happening at the castle before it was too late.

Harry saw Ron open his mouth to object, but then change his mind. He was still struggling to master apparition, but was not going to admit he was scared of it, particularly not in front of Hermione.

They climbed the long series of stone steps up to the trapdoor into Honeydukes basement. Carefully Harry pushed the hatch open, but fortunately the basement was deserted. Once they were all out and the entrance to the tunnel closed invisibly against the floor, he whispered `Ready?' and seconds later they were back in the cave above Hogsmeade, or at least he and Hermione were, Ron was nowhere to be seen. A faint cry of `Harry!' came from outside, and they ran out to see Ron stuck up on a narrow ledge fifty feet above them.

`Come down here at once,' yelled Hermione, `what do you think you're playing at?'

Harry nearly laughed, but then he caught sight of the castle on the next mountain. Where normally it would be lit up with thousands of lights as the school went to dinner, now it was in total darkness. There was no-one visible, no sign of life. Even Hagrid's cabin was blacked out. He pointed it out to Hermione as Ron apparated down in a heap beside them. `What do we do now?' he asked.

`We'll have to borrow an owl. Wait for one to fly nearby and summon it to us. I've read about a spell to break an owls' messenger charm -- it's illegal though, of course,' Hermione admitted apprehensively.

They stared up at the darkening sky, which was as deserted as the black hulk of the castle. Only down in the village were lights showing and signs of normal life. `I'll wait at the entrance until it gets too dark to see,' she said, `we can try again tomorrow if I don't manage to catch one tonight.'

     *

The cave grew darker and darker, the last fading evening light issuing through the fissure in the rocks at its entrance. Harry shuddered in the gathering darkness, only now realising how cold and hungry he was. Ron had hardly said anything while they waited for Hermione, Harry thought he knew what was worrying him but couldn't think of anything to say without admitting his own feelings of guilt over the way he had hustled them out of the castle without trying to rescue anyone else. Anything he could say would just sound like excuses.

To his relief Hermione gave up watching for owls after an hour and came back into the cave. `Why are you sitting in the dark?' she asked.

`A light would give away that we're here,' said Ron, in a dull voice.

`Why not set up a cloaking shield, like this?' She pulled out her wand, muttered an incantation and a wall of opaque black mist sprang up between them and the entrance. She said `lumos' and the rest of the cave filled with light and warmth. Harry could now see that Ron looked very pale and withdrawn.

`I wonder what's happened at the castle,' said Hermione, sensing something was wrong with Ron but voicing exactly the question Harry thought was guaranteed to make him feel worse.

`Even Voldemort wouldn't kill the pure-blood students, he'd just drive the others out, and kill any teachers who tried to stop him taking over,' said Harry, wondering if Dobby and Hagrid had managed to escape, and if Snape had been killed or had simply switched sides once again.

`We could have tried to save Ginny.' Ron said, not raising his eyes to look at Harry or Hermione, `Malfoy was right, I don't deserve to wear this.' He took off the head boy badge and threw it disgustedly into a corner.

`I'm sure she'll be ok ...' began Hermione uncertainly, but Harry stopped her and said directly to Ron, `I'm sorry, I should have thought of her, I just panicked, it was like I was being driven out of the castle by the pain in my scar, I couldn't stop myself. But Hermione is right, there's no reason why she should be harmed, even if they start wiping out Muggle-borns and squibs.'

Ron looked at Harry finally and said `ok, I know it would have been stupid to hang around, but I can't help worrying about her. If anything's happened to her I'd never forgive myself.'

`Well _I_ had to leave Crookshanks behind ... ' Hermione began, but they both glared at her.

`How can you compare that to leaving Ginny there?' said Ron angrily, `I'm sure that animal is more than capable of looking after itself'. As he spoke the CRACK of someone arriving from apparition sounded and Sirius collapsed onto the floor of the cave behind them. Harry rushed over to him, but his exhausted face was only briefly able to register relief at Harry's presence before he lost consciousness completely. They carried Sirius into the circle of light. To Harry he looked as ill and ragged as when he'd first escaped from Azkaban. His robes were torn and dirty and fresh blood caked the right sleeve. Harry pulled back the cloak and they saw what looked like talon wounds cutting deep into Sirius' arm. Hermione performed a rapid series of medical incantations to clean and seal the wounds while Ron shook his head in disbelief at her apparent ability to memorise entire bookloads of obscure magic.

When morning came, Sirius had still not revived. Hermione tried several different spells without effect and finally stood up with a look of fear and despair, gesturing for Harry and Ron to stay away from the body. `There's something ... something that has come with him,' she said hesitantly, retreating slowly from Sirius, `it's still feeding on him, dragging him back down into darkness. I can't do anything to block it!'