Twilight

Twilight

L.S. Song

Chapter Twenty-Four - United We Stand

"What in the name of Merlin are you guys doing here?" asked a very confused Ron Weasley at the sight of Neville and Luna in the Great Hall.

Word was that Neville had been taken into Luna's family by her father - they were quite rich, and Neville's grandmother had been abducted by the Death Eaters in one of the earlier campaigns - leaving him with either a choice to leave the country and go to America with his refugee relatives, or else stay in London with Luna.

He chose to stay with Luna, helping her father with writing articles for the Quibbler, which had now served to supply the wizarding population with laughs and rumors. Entertainment was much needed in times of war and suffering.

However, on this day, Neville, Luna, and Luna's father were both standing outside the Great Hall with Snape and McGonagall.

"The house... its flooded..." said Luna sadly.

Her father patted her on the shore consolingly.

Harry noticed that all three of them were soaking wet, Neville shuddering with the cold.

"What's going on here... Neville! Luna! What are you doing here?"

Hermione had just come down the stairs with Ginny, smiling warmly at Neville and Luna.

"We're here because the house has been flooded," repeated Luna.

"Granger, Weasley, Weasley, go in and have your breakfast. Potter, come with us, we have something to show you."

Harry, with a meaningful glance at Ron, left with Snape.

"Potter, a letter arrived for you this morning. Apparently it is not jinxed, as Professors Flitwick, McGonagall, Moody, and myself have tested it for any spells... it seems perfectly safe... besides for its peculiar packaging - would you like to open it?"

"Err... I suppose so," said Harry cautiously.

"It is in Professor McGonagall's office, you may go there now yourself. The password is Animagus, as I'm sure you know. Inform myself or any other Professor if there is any useful information."

"Yes, Professor," said Harry, and walked by himself to McGonagall's office.

On the way, he saw Peeves glide around sullenly, silent and inactive for once. Harry supposed that Peeves must've suffered during Voldemort's reign at Hogwarts - he had been like this for a long time now.

Shaking his head, he said, "Animagus" at the gargoyle and walked into McGonagall's office.

On McGonagall's desk was a black letter with gold rimming around it.

He cautiously moved his hand to open it.

Relieved that nothing had happened, Harry took out an old yellowed piece of parchment out of the envelope.

Potter.

At the Summit lies the Cure.

Come get it if you dare.

The letter burst into flames right in front of Harry's eyes.

Harry, frantic to write down what he had just seen, grabbed a piece of parchment lying on McGonagall's desk and a quill, and copied down the short message on the parchment.

He knew this was no childish prank.

This was serious.

***

"So do you know what this means?" asked Harry.

McGonagall, Snape, and Moody raised a hand to quiet him.

Harry was growing exasperated.

For the last half an hour the three adults had been staring at the parchment, and debating in hushed whispers.

"I believe, Potter, this was from Lord Voldemort himself."

Harry sighed. "Well that much was obvious!"

"Quiet, Potter, ten points from..."

"Hogwarts isn't running right now, Severus," reminded McGonagall.

"Yes... yes... okay..."

"Now this part of the message is intriguing... 'At the Summit lies the Cure'."

Hermione, who had been sitting with Ron and Ginny, whilst Harry paced furiously around the room, spoke up.

"I think its to do with the plague..." she said thoughtfully, "but where is this Summit?"

"The Summit... I thought I'd never hear that phrase again after Albus... well... the Summit is the last earthly link to the Pandemonium Citadel..."

"What's the Pandemonium Citadel then?"

"Hold on, hold on, I'm getting there... now where was I..."

"THE PANDEMONIUM CITADEL!" cried Harry and Ron.

"Right... the Pandemonium Citadel is a surreal place linking our realm to the mysteries of the Unexplored... or as the muggles call it Heaven, or Hell."

"Where is it?"

"No one knows for certain. Rumors are that it lies at the peak of Atlantis..."

"Codswallop," said Moody.

McGonagall gave him an icy stare.

"I've been there myself. It's in the Himalayas."

"And you know this because..."

"Didn't I just tell you? I've been there myself."

"No mortal has..."

"You're lookin' at one right now."

"ENOUGH!" came Snape's voice. "I believe we have the message now. Lord Voldemort is obviously trying to lure Potter to the Summit... and using the cure for the plague as bait..."

"The question is, what do we do?" wondered Hermione.

"We?" asked Harry, whipping around to face Hermione.

"Of course we, what are you thinking, that you're going to go yourself?"

"No one's going until we find out if this is a trap or not..."

"Of course it's a trap!" cried Harry.

"Then you don't go," said Snape, and started to go out of the room.

"No."

Snape turned around.

"We have no choice. Within weeks, the muggle-borns and the muggles will all be dead."

Hermione couldn't help but make a slight offended noise at that.

"Listen here, Potter. You're going to risk your life on Voldemort's word?"

Harry sighed, resigned at the six pairs of eyes glaring at him.

"I suppose not."

But the wheels and cogs in Harry's brain had already started working.

By the cover of the night, he'd leave.

Any way to stop the plague, he would gladly take.

***

"Dobby. Can you help me?"

"HARRY POTTER, SIR! HARRY POTTER! Dobby was fearing that you would not come back but you has!" cried the house-elf, and immediately cannon-balled into Harry's stomach.

"Dobby. This is urgent. I need a spellbook which has information on how to conjure food."

"Certainly, Harry Potter sir! I is being right back!"

***

The Summit is a mysterious place, little known to wizard kind. It is rumored to be the sole gateway to the Pandemonium Citadel, a place heard of only in the great tales of old, a surreal place where spirits pass through on their journey in the afterlife.

What is known of the Summit is that it is of incredible danger, both natural and magical hazards, from the diary of General Reneziger of Norway in the Demon Extermination campaigns, written in 239 B.C.

There are creatures which are said to have come from another dimension lying at the Summit, and it is said that the sun never shines there...

An adventurer by the name of Trevent was the last recorded person to have reached the Summit, although he had gone insane four days after returning.

No one has come back alive since.

Harry shut the book.

***

It was almost midnight.

Harry had secretly prepared everything he would need for his journey to the Summit, drawing information out of Moody, reading about the herbs that grew in the Himalayas, grabbing his Firebolt, the cookbook from Dobby, the Invisibility Cloak, his wand, Fortuna, magically shrunk and lightened food that would last him at least two weeks (the cookbook was just a precaution), and traveling cloaks and a thick black cape for protection against the cold - should the warming charms not be appropriate for use at some stage - for example a frozen pond.

Harry knew nothing about the Summit, besides for that the co-ordinates, the fact that it was very cold, and that there were many dangers along the way.

He looked out into the moonlight.

He saw the Quidditch field illuminated by the pale moonlight.

He saw the stillness of the Forbidden Forest.

He saw the warm flickering lights from within Hagrid's hut.

He turned away.

It may well be the last time he would ever see these things, he thought to himself.

He sighed.

Now he would have to do what he dreaded most.

He turned and looked at Ron.

"I'm sorry mate," he whispered. "I hope that you'll live a happy life with Hermione, whether I come back or not."

His touching words were ignored by a snoring Ron, who had tossed in his sleep and murmured, "No don't touch the cinnamon firecrackers, Ron Junior... seven sickles apiece... buy your Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes... no Hermione, house elves don't like toilet brushes..."

Harry couldn't help but smile at that.

With one last glance at the tall, gangly redhead, he took his baggage with him and gently closed the Head Boy dorm door.

Dropping his things on the couch upon entering the common room, where the fire was still burning merrily, he walked up to Hermione and Ginny's room.

Gently sliding open the door, he walked in.

Had it been under any other circumstance, Harry would've felt very awkward about it.

He walked to Hermione's bedside first.

"Sis," he whispered, "I want you to be happy also, Hermione. Thank you for everything you've done for me, I'm going to try and pay you back..."

Memories flooded his mind.

The numb feeling he had gotten when he heard that Hermione had been petrified back in his second year... the fright that she had been dead earlier this year when they were at Riddle Mansion... the worry he had felt when Malfoy bewitched her...

He kissed Hermione's sleeping form on the forehead, and slowly turned to Ginny.

He stood for ten solid minutes staring at her sleeping form, moonlight shining on her, illuminating her hair and face.

"Ginny..." he choked out.

Harry couldn't think of any words in which to express his innermost feelings as he watched Ginny turn over in her sleep.

All the small things, he thought.

Things like this.

That's what I'm fighting for.

"And that's why I must go," he whispered aloud.

Turning to leave, he allowed himself one last glimpse at Ginny.

He soaked in her peaceful image, lying in her bed, deep in sleep.

He walked over and planted a small kiss on her cheek.

For the road.

"Goodbye, Ginny," he said.

Ginny twisted violently in her sleep.

Harry watched for another minute before gathering the resolve to leave.

As he walked down out of the girl's dorm, and to the portrait hole, carrying a rucksack, his Firebolt on his shoulder.

Fortuna jumped onto his shoulder.

"Are you ready, Fortuna? We're going now, say goodbye to it all..." said Harry, stroking Fortuna.

Fortuna purred.

Smiling, Harry turned to the fireplace, when a voice made him jump a meter into the air.

"And where do you think you're going, Harry?"

Damn.

It was Ron.

The boy sure did have a thing for interrupting Harry in the middle of something important, whether it be a passionate kiss or this, an escape from Hogwarts to try and save the world of muggles and muggle-born.

He must've gotten up to get a cup of water or something.

"Ron. I have to go."

"No, Harry! You don't know anything about... you can't just... HERMIONE!" he hollered.

Now Harry was in trouble.

I never should have said goodbye.

Seconds later, Hermione came sleepily, followed by Ginny down the staircase.

"S'matter, Ron?"

"He tried to leave!"

"Leave? Quidditch?" mumbled Ginny sleepily.

"NO, don't you remember the letter?" exclaimed Ron.

Ginny seemed to all of a sudden snap awake.

"I KNEW IT!" she cried. "I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO GO... but even YOU aren't THAT stupid to leave without preparing anything are you?"

"I have prepared things," said Harry, slightly annoyed that Ginny dismissed his entire day of hard work.

"Oh yeah?" said Ron, stepping in.

"Yeah."

"So what is at the top of the Summit?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Harry was struck dumb. He didn't do any research on what he would actually find in the Summit, just how to get there.

However, he wasn't going to let Ron outwit him.

"Dementors," he said, saying the first thing in his head.

"Damn I wish I knew if that was right..."

Harry laughed, despite having three angry stares on him.

"We're coming with you."

Harry sighed.

This was what he had been dreading.

"No. You don't..."

"Understand?" Ron almost yelled. "We understand you better than you understand yourself!"

"This is a trap, Ron."

"And we're going to get trapped with you if your damn stubbornness makes you walk knowingly into one."

"Ron..."

"He's not the only one," said Hermione, standing next to Ron. "Harry. We've been with you the entire way... we'll be with you till the end."

Harry's resolve was slowly weakening, tears threatening to form as he watched his two best friends staring him resolutely in the eye.

What have I done to deserve such friends?

"No one, not one person, has come back alive for a century..."

And then Ginny spoke up.

"If you don't let us we'll follow you. We'll follow your tracks like dogs on a hunt. You either let us come willingly with you, or you make us chase you."

As Harry lifted his eyes to Ginny's, he knew he had made a mistake.

More than any Veela magic could ever do, the determination in her eyes melted the last of the resolve he had.

When he spoke, it was in a dry croak.

"All right."

"Okay, give us a few minutes to pack what we need."

"Hermione. Ron. Ginny. We need to go to Diagon Alley. You guys will need supplies."

"Yes, of course," said Hermione thoughtfully, getting up and going to the staircase. "Please Harry, let's do some more research before..."

"No, Hermione. Every day thousands of people get infected with the plague. If the Cure really is at the Summit the sooner we go, the sooner the plague is stopped."

"But we don't know what's there!"

"That's why we bring every last gadget we can think of," said Harry, waving at his bag.

Hermione stomped up the staircase, ignoring Harry's last comment. Ginny was at her heels.

Ron had already disappeared back up the boys' staircase.

Harry slumped down on the couch, defeated.

He never wanted to drag anyone with him through his adventures; they always seemed to want to come along. Harry didn't know what would happen if one of them got hurt, or even worse, died.

People said he was the hero.

How wrong they were.

It was his friends, always his friends that were the ones who stuck through it, through thick and thin. They were the ones who helped him through everything, they were ones that kept him sane.

It wasn't him that was the hero, he thought, dimly observing Ron coming down the staircase.

It was them.

"Ron?"

What had I done to deserve such friends, he thought again.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"For what?"

Nothing... nothing at all, thought Harry.

"Everything."

***

A small girl of eleven tossed and turned in her bed.

She had been dreaming of a big wedding, of feasts and ceremonies, of music and joy, when an unbidden shadow penetrated her mind.

She saw flashes of images.

A lion roaring.

Snakes flying.

Screams... unearthly screams.

And a pair of bright green eyes.

She mumbled in her sleep.

"At the Summit, the end will come."

No one was there to hear it, and the new Prophecy was lost.

***

It was around three in the morning when Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron finally set off.

"Okay, we floo to Diagon Alley first to buy our supplies..." said Harry, grabbing a fistful of floo powder from the shelves and threw it into the flames.

Green embers erupted.

"Diagon Alley," he said, and carrying his rucksack, broom, and Fortuna, he whirled in the fireplace, tumbling out at the other end.

He never would like traveling by floo powder.

Ginny appeared a few seconds after him, followed closely by Ron and Hermione.

"C'mon, Quality Quidditch Supplies first. We need to buy you three the best brooms there are. We could very well need them."

Ten minutes later, Harry's Gringotts account was a whole lot emptier, as Hermione, Ron, and Ginny came out clutching brand new Firebolts, Ron stammering his thanks in an incoherent ramble of words.

"Next, we go to the dark market."

"Err... Harry?"

"Yes?"

"Dark market?"

"Yes... what we need next we're not going to find in Diagon Alley."

"What do we need next?"

"An invisibility cloak."

"Oh... that's not going to come cheap," murmured Ginny.

"I'll manage," said Harry, and led them down to Knockturn Alley.

"Pull your hoods up... we don't want to be recognized."

Even in the early hours before sunrise, the market was bustling.

Harry walked up to a frightening vampire and growled in a deep voice, "Do you know where the invisibility cloaks dealers are?"

The vampire stared at him for a second, and hissed, "There's only one cloak dealer... and you're looking right at him. Now how much for an invisibility cloak?"

"State your price."

"I'm looking for a fair lot of money on this one... ten thousand sounds about right to me..."

"Ten thousand?" yelped Ron.

Ginny kicked him.

"Taken," said Harry, handing over a bank note.

The vampire waved his hand, and a massive wardrobe appeared in front of their faces.

He grabbed a silvery one near the end and tossed it at Harry.

"Take it and be gone," he said, and with another wave of his hand, the wardrobe disappeared.

Harry tried it on.

"Work?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Let's go. Good doing business with you," he added to the vampire, who turned away.

"What now," whispered Hermione after they had left Knockturn Alley.

"Now we go," said Harry.

"Put a finger on the portkey," said Harry, taking out a chocolate frog.

"Portus," he said.

The frog glowed blue for a second, and then stood stationary.

The four of them placed a finger on the frog, and with an incantation of 'activatio', they whizzed away from Diagon Alley, and to the bitter cold of the Himalayas.

The four arrived, shivering.

Flinging on their cloaks, they looked to the mountains.

It looked like a difficult trek indeed, even on broomstick.

Snow covered the paths, jagged rocks blocking the views. The Summit could not be seen, as Moody had warned Harry. They would have to continue the majority of the journey on broomstick, and the final stretch on foot.

Clouds gathered overhead, and thunder roared.

"We better get going," said Harry, and mounted his Firebolt.

The four teenagers flew forwards.

No one noticed the maniacal eyes burning holes through their backs.

No one noticed a lone shadow follow.