Twilight

Twilight

L.S. Song

Chapter Twenty-Five - Hope

At Hogwarts, the Order was assembled.

The disappearance of Harry Potter and his friends caused an enormous uproar.

"We have to follow them..."

"No."

"What do you mean, no?"

"If we leave, Hogwarts might be attacked."

"But Potter! The Prophecy!"

"He is ready. Many have sacrificed to buy him the time. This last road none of us can help him on... he has left our range."

"How do you know this is the last road?" exclaimed McGonagall.

"Because," said Moody. "No one leaves the Summit. It'd take a miracle... and Potter better well provide one."

"You left the Summit," started someone, but was abruptly cut off by McGonagall.

"But what do we do in the mean time? Surely He Who Must Not Be Named won't attack Hogwarts if this is all a trap for Potter?"

Moody paused, sliding his hand over his scarred face, deep in thought.

Snape stood.

"Strike them from behind... trap the trappers..."

"Won't You-Know-Who be prepared for that?" asked Tonks, frowning.

A silence followed this statement.

"Yes, he will," said Snape. "But we've got advantage in numbers..."

"We cannot hope to gather any of the muggle support! With the plague about, I doubt any dare go to the core of it all!"

"You fool, Diggle," snarled Snape. "Don't you understand? Potter's gone off on his own little solo journey, leaving us in a very nasty position. We don't have a choice."

"And why not?"

"Have you not been listening for the past two years?" shrieked McGonagall all of a sudden. "The Prophecy!"

"How do we know that it's not a trap for us, not for Potter?"

"We don't. But think about it logically, Diggle... what is more important to Lord Voldemort, removing the only threat that could harm him, or attacking an empty fortress?"

The man named Diggle bowed down low and took his seat.

"All in favor of going to Potter's aid, whether by catching up to them or by diverting You-Know-Who's forces?" asked McGonagall.

Almost all hands were raised.

"Mad-eye, you do know how to get there don't you?" asked Tonks, yawning widely.

Several people glared at her.

Moody sighed.

"Yes," he said. "But I don't ever want to go there again..."

The old Auror shuddered, much to the surprise of the whole room.

A deep sense of foreboding took them all.

No one spoke.

"I'm afraid you'll have to," said Snape heavily at last. "As you said, this is the last road."

***

Harry swung his broomstick on his shoulder and continued on foot.

They had come to a tunnel in the mountains, too dark to fly.

"Lumos," the four of them said.

The pale beams of light shone a path in the darkness.

It was the afternoon after they had first set off on their trek to the Summit.

Harry did not think it would have been as difficult as Moody had described it as. There were jagged rocks along the mountainside, the rain which had started to pour around mid-day pounded had pounded on the four of them whilst they sped up the mountain on their Firebolts.

Soon, the rain had turned to snow, and then to hail, which poured down at such a speed that cuts covered all four of their bodies, Fortuna the only unscathed, as the mysticat had been sleeping in Harry's rucksack.

Harry felt Ginny shiver slightly next to him in the darkness.

"Here," he said, handing her a thick overcoat he had bought.

"Thanks, Harry," she said quietly.

An uncomfortable silence took the four friends after that.

The feeling of impending danger was upon them - Harry knew only too well that they were very lucky indeed that none of the hideous creatures Moody had told him about had appeared yet.

Harry pointed his wand at the walls.

Seeing the sight, he grimaced.

The walls were stained red, what looked horribly like remnants of torn apart human skeletons littered the floors beside them.

No one spoke still, although all of them had seen it.

Turning his wand away from the walls and towards the slippery mountain path, Harry continued onwards.

All of a sudden, his scar flared with pain, and clutching his head, he slipped on the floor, hitting his head hard on the icy floor.

"Harry!" cried Ginny, Ron, and Hermione's voices.

Three beams of light shone on him.

"It was Voldemort," he gasped, rubbing his head.

Blood covered his fingers.

Harry didn't know what compelled him to say his next words, but as soon as he said it, he knew it was true, just like how he could sense Voldemort's mood.

"He knows we're here."

***

"How many are we?"

"Three hundred and twelve, Professor Snape, sir!"

"How many are muggles?"

The errand boy stopped and frowned.

"None."

"Very well. Please inform the Supplies division of the numbers, so they can hand out equipment..."

"Yes, sir!" cried the boy, and sprinted off.

Severus Snape was busy making a rough map with Mad-Eye Moody.

Out of the rough sketches Snape had right now, it did not look like an easy trail.

It was like a labyrinth, twists and turns in the path where one could get lost and wind up in a place far, far away from the mountains.

Moody also warned of creatures and ancient enchantments placed on the road to the Summit.

It looked like a dark journey indeed.

"Mad-eye, call together everyone we have now. We will go over the plans, and all that are fit to leave shall leave."

Snape swept out of the room, grim-faced, leaving an equally foreboding Mad-eye Moody standing in the room himself.

He hobbled away, shaking his head.

***

"Okay, let's make camp," said Harry, motioning to a dry patch of ground under a small cliff.

They had barely got out of the tunnel by midnight, and they were hungry, cold, and tired.

"Where do we sleep?" asked Ron with a frown.

"Why, in the Leaky Cauldron, let's just pop down there now why don't we?" said Hermione sarcastically, who was in a bad mood from the cold and the long march through the tunnel.

"Oh great!" said Ron, before realizing the bitter sarcasm in her voice.

"Idiot," muttered Ginny, also in a foul mood.

"Summune tent," said Harry, and before them a big, squashy looking lime green tent appeared.

"I daresay this'll be good enough," said Harry, walking into the tent first.

It wasn't anything close to the magical tents Mr. Weasley had got when they visited the Quidditch World Cup - it was a one-roomed tent with four sleeping bags, and a small table.

"This reminds me of something..." said Hermione thoughtfully, surveying the surroundings, her eyes sparkling.

"This is Remus' tent," said Harry quietly.

Three pairs of eyes shot towards him.

"He gave it to me last year."

Another silence took the four as they wordlessly took out the prepared food they had brought.

Hermione muttered a quick charm to heat the food, and sitting at the small table, they started on an uneasy dinner.

Now that they were warmed up and had food in front of them, the mood took an upturn.

Hermione and Ginny were laughing about something, and Ron was licking his lips, diving into his plate of food.

"Mmm..." said Ron, munching on his fish and chips.

Harry would've laughed, as Ron discreetly took a piece of fish from Hermione's plate as she looked the other direction, had it not been so serious of a situation.

"Hey Ginny, can I have some?" said Ron, holding a fork in one hand and a piece of fish in the other.

Ginny shot Ron a slightly disgusted glance and nodded.

"Fanks, Ginny!" said Ron, beaming, and spitting out a piece of fish onto the table.

As they finished their meager meals, Harry motioned to the sleeping bags.

"You three sleep first... I'll take lookout duty."

"Lookout duty?" asked Ginny.

"We're not in a safe place anymore," said Hermione, nodding to Harry. "You're not planning on running off and stranding us here are you?"

Harry gave her a penetrating stare in response.

To his consternation, she giggled.

"You know, I never would've thought that I'd be at the legendary Harry Potter's side, walking knowingly into a trap..."

Harry's eyes were sad as he looked at Hermione.

Strangely, her face held no blame - rather admiration, for reasons unknown.

"I never would've thought I'd turn out to be a Veela, a hero even!" finished Hermione, a dreamy look on her face.

Although Hermione smiled at this, Harry felt such a strong feeling of guilt that he never experienced before.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, downcast. "I'm sorry I dragged you all into this..."

He didn't deserve them, he thought again.

"Oh, Harry," sighed Hermione and Ginny, both sitting down next to him and wrapping their arms around him in a sisterly fashion.

"Hey, what about me?" said Ron, who was still munching on the remnants of Ginny's dinner.

He burped, then smiled.

"Eww!" the girls said, and scampered away from Ron jokingly.

Harry couldn't help but smile.

Even in times like this, going on what was most possibly the most dangerous journey anyone has taken for years, his friends could still joke and have fun.

He turned his sight to Hermione and Ginny.

Ginny was still busy giggling, but he could've sworn Hermione caught his eye and winked, smiling.

Indeed, his friends were extraordinary.

***

"We're ready."

"Excellent," said Snape, a grim smile on his face. "Mad-eye?"

The auror nodded.

"Everyone... portkey out!"

Neville grabbed the copy of Hogwarts, a History, shooting a glance at Luna, who stood resolutely next to him, holding a potato.

"MULTIPLICUS ACTIVATIO!" shouted Snape, and Neville found himself being whizzed away from the warmth of the Hogwarts halls, where he had been sweating like mad just a few seconds ago and into the bitter freezing cold of the Himalayas.

Immediately he regretted his rash decision to join the party to find Harry - if he and Ron, Hermione and Ginny were still alive, that was.

However, seeing the grim determined faces of his friends and professors, he found courage he had never known existed before, seldom tapped into.

He looked around.

Next to him was Luna and Seamus, and around them were Parvati, Lavender, Dean, Ernie, Cho Chang, and a couple of others that Neville only knew by appearance, despite having many meetings with them, he couldn't remember their names.

All were here to help save Harry, whilst the majority of the forces had been sent across the other side of the mountain, led by Snape and Moody to try and smoke out Voldemort's Death Eaters.

Neville raised his head towards the Summit, much like Harry had done a few days ago.

"We're coming, Harry," he said solemnly.

Luna snatched his hand, her eyes also focused on the stormy top of the mountains.

"Let's go," said Neville.

And so they went, the core of the original Dumbledore's Army, off to find their General.

***

Harry glanced outside through a small window in the magical tent.

The moon and stars shone bright outside.

He turned and surveyed his best friends sleeping peacefully in the sleeping bags on the floor.

It was three o'clock in the morning - his shift was over.

Nonetheless, as he saw Ron snoring slightly, a smile plastered onto his face, he couldn't bear to ruin whatever dream his best friend was having - they were willingly coming into this with him, the best he could do was at least let them get their rest.

Yawning, Harry turned to Fortuna, who was stretching luxuriously over his invisibility cloak, a bowl of milk in front of him.

All of a sudden, Fortuna meowed and hissed, jumping to Harry's shoulder, the feline's eyes glowing blue.

"What is it, Fortuna?" asked Harry quietly, knowing all well the cat couldn't answer.

He walked up to the window and looked outside.

"You can stop looking, I'm right here," said a girlish voice he didn't recognize.

Thinking extremely fast, he whipped around and cried, "EXPELLIARMUS!"

"Protego," said the girl lazily.

His own jet of light flew back at him, and he only barely dodged it, as it hit his bag, food began to fly out.

His yell had woken his friends up.

"S'matter," mumbled Ginny.

Ron and Hermione, however, were quickest to survey the scene in just a few short seconds, grabbing their wands and turning towards the intruder.

"EXPELLIARMUS!" shouted Hermione and Ron.

The girl once again raised her wand, and flung the spells back towards their casters.

Ron and Hermione's wands flew out of their hand.

But the girl, in doing this, took her eyes off Harry for a second too long.

"EXPELLIARMUS!" he cried again, and this time, the girl's wand flew out of her hand.

Much to his dismay, however, she whipped out another wand from her pocket, and with a wave, Ginny's wand joined Ron and Hermione's in a neat stack on the table, and Harry found his wand being tugged very forcefully away from him.

Must hang on, he thought.

Can't let that Death Eater win...

"Serpensor... SERPENSORTIA PRISONE!" he bellowed, and suddenly found that his wand was in his full control again.

Just on time, he pointed it at the girl, and screaming, she was bound tightly by magical snakes.

However, after she fell over, apart from the initial shock, she didn't look remotely scared at all.

"You know, they always said you were the best dueler, Harry."

Laughing slightly to herself, she muttered an incantation and the snakes released her.

"Don't move," he snarled, aiming his wand right at the girl's eyes.

Now having time to see just who this intruder was, he saw she looked rather like Ginny, only her eyes were ablaze with the fire of one who had suffered, one that was searching for revenge. She had red hair, a slender, curvy body. She looked like she would've been extremely attractive had she not had a nasty smirk plastered on her face.

"Who are you... who sent you... what are you doing here?" he asked.

"First question first?" said the girl, rolling her eyes, not at all bothered by the four wands that were pointed at her.

"Cut the crap," growled Ron.

"My name is Hope Weasley," she said.

"Liar!" proclaimed Ginny. "You're not a Weasley! I know all of our family members... Mum made us memorize it all!"

Ignoring Ginny, she continued, "No one sent me, I've come by myself..."

All of a sudden, she looked at Ginny.

"So you're Aunt Ginny!" she murmured to herself.

"Who the hell are you!" cried Ron, obviously itching to hurl a hex straight at the girl.

"I told you, dad, I'm Hope."

"Huh? Dad?" Ron said, scratching his nose, looking rather insulted.

"Load of dung this is... er... Hope was it?" said Harry, drawling in such an attitude it would've made Draco Malfoy himself proud.

"You know, I don't think I like you," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"You're the one with four wands pointing at you, I'd keep my comments to myself if I were you."

"MULTIPLICUS EXPELLIARMUS!"

All four wands, including Harry's flew out of their hands.

"You'd think you would've known to watch out for a spell your own mother invented. Enough of this," said the girl called Hope.

"Just let me talk," she said, placing her wand down.

"We're listening... you're the one armed, after all..." snarled Harry.

"I'm going to say this once, and only once. My name is Hope Virginia Weasley, eldest daughter of Ronald and Hermione Weasley, Second Head Witch of the Phoenix Resistance... but you don't know about that... well... I am from the year 2020, and things aren't going too well."

"Dung," spat Hermione. "We've done time-travel, traveling in any means besides a time-turner will open up a separate timeline and..."

"But you invented a new spell," said the girl, smiling slightly.

It was a sad smile, much like one Harry had found himself giving in times he'd rather not think about.

"You. Are. Insane."

Ron had dived for his wand, and turning to the girl, yelled, "STUPEFY!"

The girl, caught at unawares, fell unconscious onto the floor.

"What the bloody hell is this?" yelled Ron.

"Death Eater," said Harry coldly, looking upon the girl with distaste.

"The girl... I just realized something... she didn't try to harm any of us... just disarmed..." started Ginny.

"Let's see what she has to say," said Hermione fairly.

"No."

Hermione was shocked, her mouth hanging half open in mid sentence at the hardness of Harry's voice.

"We can't risk it."

"You don't have a choice," said Hope's voice.

They whirled around and all started shouting incantations.

"Don't... please... I'll tell you why I'm here."

They stopped halfway through their spells.

The four friends glanced at each other, their wands still trained on Hope, and after what seemed an age, nodded to her.

"Say we are to believe you... say you really are from the... future," said Harry, "How do we know who you are who you claim to be?"

"The hair and freckles not enough?" said Hope, with a hint of a smile tugging on her lips.

Harry, however, was dead serious.

"Show me who you are."

"How?"

"Like so."

Grabbing her wand from her hands, he turned it to her.

She didn't move.

How very trusting of her, thought Harry.

"Memoirtransverto." (A/N: Now you didn't really think I was going to put all the brain to brain communication stuff in the story for no reason did you?)

The girl reacted similarly to James and Lily when he had used the same spell on them early in his seventh year, when things had been so simple.

Tears welled up in Hope's dark blue eyes.

Harry shrugged.

"Day in the life of the Boy-who-Lived."

"Okay... you want proof? I'll give you some."

Taking back her wand, she did exactly the same as Harry, and with a cry of "Memoirtransverto," Harry found himself drowning in memories that did not belong to him.

A dinner table with eggs and ham.

Mum and Dad standing over me, feeding me soup from a tin whilst I spat it out.

A boy pulling on my pigtails.

A picture of a black-haired boy with a scar on his head.

A crazy woman Mummy told me was my aunt.

My treehouse.

A scream of pain.

Crimson eyes.

Blood... more blood.

Mummy's lifeless eyes staring back up at me...

Daddy's anguished howl.

More blood... more death...

A high-pitched echo of laughter.

A greasy-haired man falling in a flash of green light.

A phoenix and a cat speeding across the lands, chasing a snake.

"Run, Hope, run!"

Those eyes again.

More blood.

And Harry snapped back into his mind.

***

Ten minutes later, all of them knew that what Hope was telling was the truth.

She took a deep breath and started telling them why she was here.

"Something bad happened today... something that will change the course of history..."

Hope broke off, rubbing her eyes.

"What?" asked Harry, glancing into the girl's tortured eyes.

She didn't lift her head.

"What?" asked Harry again, this time more forcefully.

"You died," she whispered in a strangled voice.