Esprit de Corps

Chapter 12

Professor McGonagall was pleased to see them. She was amused to learn that Hermione had known about her all the time.

"You're the cleverest witch of your age I've seen, Ms. Granger."

Hermione flushed with pleasure. Every teacher has a soft corner for a particular student, and every student has one for a particular teacher - it was fortunate that McGonagall and Hermione shared this two-way bond. They were each other's favourites...the same way as Harry and Dumbledore.

McGonagall smiled at them, and they shyly munched on the delicious éclairs and mint tea that she'd served them.

"When are the O.W.L. results coming, Professor?" Hermione asked.

"Pretty soon, Ms. Granger. I happen to know that you have done rather well."

Hermione blushed again, and took a sip of her tea.

They talked about school and their career options. McGonagall was very helpful, giving them loads of information they had never known before. Finally, when they stood up to go, she said, "Hopefully you will come to visit me again soon."

"Sure, Professor," they intoned and left.

"No homework! Hurray! I actually enjoyed it, you know," confessed Ron.

"Yeah..." agreed Harry.

"We'll go again next week," said Hermione.

The boys nodded. Andrew dropped them at the door and drove away to the garage. They went in and had a quick shower. They had barely finished when they heard a huge crashing sound. All three of them ran out of their rooms simultaneously, hair dripping wet and wand in defensive stances.

"Who's there?" called Hermione.

There was a sound of cackling laughter and a female voice piped, "Ooh! The Mudblood is at home!"

Hermione and Ron caught Harry's hands from either side to prevent him from jumping to attack Bellatrix Lestrange.

"I'll go down first, all right? You two guide my back. Maybe she doesn't know that you're here...I'll try to find out how many of them are here and warn you," whispered Hermione but Harry grabbed her.

"You're not going out there alone," he said. His voice was strangely quiet and powerful.

"Harry, I..."

Harry shook his head.

"We have to get her out of the house," he said, "and the others, too, if there are any more."

His friends nodded.

"Come and get me, Bella!" cried Hermione loudly and ran down the staircase, straight out to the garden, in front of the Death Eater's eyes. She noticed that there were at least a dozen more standing behind Bellatrix. All of them ran behind her, firing curses at her. Hermione shouted "Protego mobilus maximus!"

A capsule of blue light encased her as she ran. The curses flung at her bounced off harmlessly. She started shooting curses at the Death Eaters as soon as she was outside. She kept running, though. Soon she had led them to a clearing surrounded by trees. Here they could not cause much harm. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Harry and Ron behind them, moving apart from each other as they fired curses. The clearing was a triangular area, and the three friends stood at the three ends, blasting the Death Eaters with all the spells they had ever learnt.

It was getting hard for the teenagers to dodge so many curses, though. The Death Eaters had recovered from their initial shock and had arranged themselves such that they were back-to-back. Harry, Ron and Hermione were outnumbered by five to one.