Lethal Darkness

Lethal Darkness

By Snitch Builder

Chapter Three

The Second Coming

"We'd better get back inside now...They come mostly at night. Mostly."

Rebecca (Newt) Jordan - Aliens

Harry pelted through the school, tripping over other students who muttered complaints, and ignoring the cries of "No running in the corridors" from indignant teachers. Who cares, he thought as he raced along. If this monster gets out, there won't be any school.

When he arrived at the doors to the Hospital Wing, he paused for a second and looked at them. In his dream, they had frosted glass in them, and the doors in front of him were completely solid. He shoved them open and looked urgently round. Some of the beds were occupied, and he felt sick at the thought of these young people being in the frontline of whatever was growing in Snape's belly.

Snape was in the side room where Harry had been last night and he walked cautiously through the door. Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey, and a stranger stood round Snape's bed. Dumbledore turned in Harry's direction and smiled.

'I think,' Dumbledore whispered, 'that you have rescued Severus just in time.'

Just in time! In a matter of minutes, there will be blood and gore spattered across the room, and a snake-thing will be snapping at legs to feed.

'Headmaster,' Harry panted, 'we have to get Snape out of here. Get him as far away as possible. Stick him to a Portkey and put him at the bottom of the ocean. Put him anywhere where he won't be a danger to anyone!'

Dumbledore looked affronted at the comment. 'Harry,' he said soothingly, 'this gentleman is from the Ministry. He is operating on Severus as we speak to remove the creature we know is inside him. Look.'

Harry walked over to the bed and could see that the man had opened Snape's chest and was removing a sleeping monster from his body. It was the snake-like creature he had seen bursting from Lavender's chest in his dream. But seeing it in the flesh was now even more repulsive. Its slightly open mouth showed a myriad of needle-sharp teeth. Where no blood had stuck, its skin was a sickly dark green and Harry noticed it had no eyes; veins pulsed on the side of its head, showing that the thing was very much alive. The man cut blood vessels carefully away from the creature's body, and then gently uncoiled its hideously scaled tail from Snape's chest. He placed the thing upon a table next to the bed and covered it with a cloth; blood seeped through the material in ever increasing patches. The man returned to pass his wand across Snape's wound. Harry watched in amazement as the wound was closed and sealed with healing spells that left a slight scar in a cross-shape on his belly.

'He's going to be fine,' announced the man.

The people around the bed sighed in relief as one, but Harry noticed something twitch beneath the cloth on the table. He reached out and pulled gently on Dumbledore's cloak.

'Professor,' he whispered. 'Professor-'

But the thing was too quick! Before anyone could react, it jumped from beneath the cloth and hurtled towards Harry. It hit him on the side of his head and the impact threw him across the floor - his head banged up the doorframe. Dazed and fighting to see through the multitude of stars erupting across his vision, he pulled out his wand and Dumbledore kicked it away from him; it rattled across the room to end up beneath Snape's bed.

'What'd you do that for?' Harry screamed as the thing shot out of the room leaving a bloody trail behind it.

'You were pointing your wand at Madam Pomfrey,' Dumbledore explained. 'You were dazed and disorientated. You could have done some real damage if you had launched a spell.'

Harry was annoyed, but maybe Dumbledore had just stopped him from killing someone. He got up and grabbed his wand from beneath the bed before going after the monster, but the stranger grabbed his arm. Harry spun round and looked at the old man.

'You cannot chase it like that,' he said in a low wheezy voice. 'This thing is a survivor and will do anything to keep living. Even this small fellow has enough power in those jaws to sheer your leg off at the thigh. No. We have to wait. Wait until it shows itself from the shadows. Then we can strike.'

'How do you know so much about it?' Harry asked as the man released his grip.

'We have been studying one like it recently in Brazil. It attacked an army barracks and killed a lot of soldiers before we managed to get to it and subdue it. Even with their Muggle weaponry they were unable to kill it.'

This revelation was something Harry just did not want to hear. 'You brought it back here, didn't you?'

'No,' replied the man forcefully. 'We had no idea about the creature here. The Alien we captured in Brazil was killed accidentally when it tried to escape. What was left of it was not worth keeping so it was disposed of.'

'Please don't tell me you want to keep this one?' Harry pleaded.

Dumbledore stepped forward and addressed the stranger: 'I think what Mr Potter is saying is that if the creature survives, his dreams will remain, and that is something he wants to avoid at all costs, is this not so?'

Harry nodded and the man's expression brightened. 'You have nightmares?' he asked Harry slowly.

'Yes,' Harry replied, but he wasn't going to tell him about them.

'Then you could be the key to capturing, erm, I mean, killing the creature.'

'I don't think you should mess with this thing,' Harry said darkly. 'I agree to help find it, but only if you intend on killing it.'

The man just nodded very slowly. 'Very well,' he said.

'But what can we do about finding it?' Harry asked Dumbledore.

'I will be instructing everyone to return to their dormitories,' he replied calmly. 'There they will be well protected, and we will search for the beast without fearing for our students' lives.'

'I can't imagine a portrait being much protection against something that powerful,' Harry pointed out.

Dumbledore smiled. 'Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick are, as we speak, visiting each house's portrait. They have been instructed to place a very old charm on each picture that will ensure that nothing, and I mean nothing, will get through them. The charm is very strong, and will seal each common room with the strength of the hardest stone.'

Dumbledore smiled briefly at Harry then swept from the room, leaving Harry with a feeling in his stomach that weighed him down like a lead balloon. Eventually he picked up the courage to speak to the stranger.

'You called it an Alien,' Harry quietly asked the stranger who was checking Snape's pulse.

The man placed Snape's limp arm back beneath the sheet and looked at Harry with a dark expression.

'These creatures are not of this planet, that's for sure,' he said calmly. 'The Alien is a race of being far older than the Earth and is stronger than any creature we know.' He suddenly looked through the door into the main ward. 'I will explain more later. If you could excuse me, I have business to tend to.'

Harry sat on the edge of the bed and looked back at Snape's face as the Ministry official walked briskly away. Snape was breathing better now, and he had a little colour, but it didn't reassure Harry that keeping these monsters was a good idea. He got up and slowly made his way out of the ward. He followed the trail of blood the creature had made until it petered out, and then made his way back to the Gryffindor common room.

Dementors! The most feared of all creatures on the Earth were drifting across the front lawn towards the castle. Dumbledore went out to meet them and Harry watched him talking to the largest one at the front of the group. From what Harry could see through the Gryffindor common room window, there were eight of them in total. The stranger from the Ministry also came forward and spoke to the group, who just stood motionless, listening to what was being said. A harder gust of wind blew rain up the window making the figures out on the lawn shimmer and writhe as the water ran down the glass. All the Gryffindor students were huddled in the common room now after being instructed to abandon afternoon lessons, and the low buzz of conversation was about the monster that was lurking somewhere in the school. News travels fast in Hogwarts. It has the best grapevine in the world, so now everyone knew all about the creature from students who knew patients in the hospital wing.

Harry turned his head slightly when he felt someone standing beside him.

'What's going on out there?' Hermione asked.

'I don't know,' Harry replied quietly. 'Perhaps Dumbledore thinks Dementors could find and catch the thing better than we can.'

'Has Dumbledore any idea what this thing is?' Hermione whispered.

'Apparently, the man from the Ministry knows about it. I spoke to him, but apart from finding out that they had been studying a similar creature in Brazil, that's all I got. The bit about it being not of this planet is interesting though.'

Hermione spoke lower when she saw a boy look in her direction: 'An Alien? From outer space? But what is it doing in a tunnel here?'

Harry glanced cautiously around. 'I have no idea. That's all he said. Perhaps I ought to go and see if I can find him and get some more information from him. No one else knows though. Try and keep your mouth shut about that bit. I don't think Dumbledore will be too pleased if he found out I had been blabbing about it.'

Hermione shuddered and Harry put an arm around his friend to comfort her. He had a sinking feeling that Dumbledore had lost his mind in calling for help from Azkaban. After all, it is only one small creature, but what if it grows into something much larger and deadly. There were over a thousand people at the school, all prime targets, and if the thing were hungry, it would be looking at a giant smorgasbord; dinner is served.

The Dementors drifted apart, as if spreading out to go to different positions in the castle. The mutterings from the students in the room increased and Harry turned to look at them. Flying round the room was a folded piece of parchment in the shape of a paper aeroplane. A first-year boy grabbed it and unfolded it, and then he read it out loud:

'From Professor Dumbledore, blah, blah, blah. All students are to remain in their dormitories until further notice as the creature roaming the castle is dangerous and we need to capture it as soon as possible. Meals will be sent up, and under no circumstances should any of you wander the corridors without permission. Anyone contradicting this order will be dealt with in the strictest possible manner. You will have noticed that Dementors are now patrolling the interior of the school. This is for you own protection, and under no circumstances must you approach any creature that is out of the ordinary. Please only communicate with myself about urgent matters, and do not feel tempted to ask too many irrelevant questions, as we need to concentrate our efforts in capturing the creature. Yours, Professor Dumbledore.'

He passed the note to another boy, who scanned it feverishly.

Parvati turned to look at Harry from the sofa and he could see she looked frightened out of her skin, so he sat beside her and put his arms around her. She smelled of wild flowers due to the shampoo she used and he let the smell linger in his nostrils for a moment. Ron was cuddling Lavender and Harry looked over to where Hermione was gazing sadly around the room. She had returned to a book she was reading at the table and she looked so left out. Harry beckoned for her to sit beside him. When she came over, Harry could see that she too was clearly frightened. Parvati didn't mind when Hermione put her arm round Harry, and he could feel Hermione tremble.

'What's going to happen if they don't find it?' Hermione asked, her voice quivering.

'Who knows?' Harry replied and he kissed the top of Parvati's head. 'I'm sure Dumbledore knows what he is doing. It'll be fine. Trust me.'

'You wont go off and do something stupid though, will you?' Parvati asked.

'No,' Harry replied gently. 'I've had enough of nightmares. I just hope that when they do find it, they kill it and -'

His voice trailed off. He had gone so very cold as though someone had sucked all the blood from his body and replaced it with iced water. He was going blind; darkness fell in front of him, and he could hear a woman screaming. Then, as suddenly as it started, it ended. Harry was slumped between the two girls who were shouting for him to wake up. He gathered up what little strength he had left and shook his head. He then realised what had happened.

'A D-Dementor's just passed outside the door,' he spluttered.

When he looked round the room, several other people had collapsed, and were being revived by their friends. Hermione stood up and collected a glass of water from the table for him. He sipped it slowly and it bought him round a little. Ron was now handing out bits of chocolate frog to revive his friends, and when he offered a piece to Harry, he grimaced at the sight of him.

'You look terrible!' Ron commented.

'Thanks, Ron,' Harry replied weakly and took the chocolate.

Harry sucked slowly on the chocolate and managed to stand, albeit slowly. He turned to the mirror above the fireplace and in the dancing light of the fire, he noticed his eyes had almost disappeared into their sockets, and his skin looked like it was going to drop from his face. The thought of more nightmares - possibly worse than previous ones now - and fighting off Dementors depressed Harry more than ever. He wished everyone would stop looking at him so he could crawl into a corner and die. But to enable him to die, he would have to close his eyes first. That filled him with more dread than he thought possible. He slumped back down on the sofa and Parvati cuddled him; her tears running into the top of his shirt collar.

'Its going to be okay,' she whispered.

'I know,' he replied tenderly. Hermione put her arms around Harry and rested her head on his chest. Sitting between the two girls made him feel a little better, but his eyes stung with tears as he imagined them being ripped apart by the monster and he kissed both their heads in turn. 'I know it will be okay.' But will it?

Nothing more could be done. The students tried to occupy their minds for the rest of the afternoon in the best way they could, but every conversation that was started always came back to the same question: will they get through the nightmare? Darkness had descended earlier than usual due to the thick black clouds that hung over the castle like a filthy quilt. Harry was still sitting with Parvati and Hermione when a small first year girl wandered over to him and looked at him with a tear-stained face.

'M-my brother's in Hufflepuff,' she whispered. ' Can you send a note to Dumbledore to ask if he is okay?'

'I don't think Dumbledore would be too happy,' Harry explained as tenderly as he could. 'Don't worry. No one or nothing can get through the portrait, and the walls are six feet thick. I'm sure he's as okay as we are.'

The girl burst out crying and Harry felt so guilty in stopping her from finding out about her brother. Harry looked across at Ron.

'We could have used the Marauders Map,' suggested Harry, 'but I lost it a couple of months ago. I can't think where it was. Could have been anywhere.'

Ron's face suddenly lit up. 'Hey! In that case, I think I saw it in Filch's office a week ago,' he said excitedly. 'I was dropping off a box of Dungbombs I had found. I thought it looked familiar, but I thought you still had it.'

'Perhaps we can go and get it,' Harry said nervously.

'Yeah, right,' Hermione snorted. 'So you go wandering about the castle with a killer monster on the loose and get a map! Well, if you're lucky, the monster will make a light meal out of you, but if you are really unlucky, Dumbledore will catch you, then you will be in real trouble.'

'You said that when we went after the Philosophers Stone, and that turned out all right in the end, didn't it?' Harry said.

'I suppose so,' Hermione agreed. 'But still, you only went up against Voldemort that time. This time you have something that will kill you as soon as look at you. Situation's a bit different, wouldn't you say?'

'But it would be nice for everyone here to know that their siblings are alive and well. It might give us a bit more strength to get through this,' Harry argued.

Hermione smiled affectionately at Harry and he returned the smile.

'Very well,' Hermione sighed. 'But I don't want you on your own.'

Harry looked at Ron and Ron's face dropped.

'Eh? You don't mean... okay, mate,' Ron said quietly. 'Bring it on.'

Harry jumped up and ran up to the boys' dormitory to find his Invisibility Cloak. He rummaged around in his trunk and quickly found the silvery material right where he had left it. He rushed back down the stairs and joined Ron by the portrait hole. Hermione took the Invisibility Cloak from him.

'Take care, both of you,' she whispered and threw the cloak over their heads.

Harry went through the hole slightly ahead of Ron and they both came out into the corridor together.

'Harry Potter!' the Fat Lady whispered from behind her chair in her portrait. 'I know it's you. I shall tell Dumbledore! I will!'

Harry looked at Ron and gave a snort. They started to make their way along the dimly lit corridor to the stairway. Ron peered over the edge of the landing as the stairs shuddered to a halt in front of them. Silently, they started a slow climb down the steps. It was difficult as Ron, being over six feet in height, was having to stoop quite low to keep the cloak from being lifted from the floor. But halfway down the stair, Ron suddenly froze.

'What's up?' Harry whispered.

'I thought I heard something!' he replied.

Harry listened carefully, and from behind them something could be heard moving: a click of a claw on the tiles could be heard. Ron started to shake, and Harry felt as though his heart would burst from his chest. He took his wand and with Ron, they turned round slowly. Something tinkled on the floor like a vase had just been dropped and Harry felt his heart stop.

'H-Harry! What is it?' Ron whispered.

Harry found his voice had vanished and then he saw something move across the top of the stairs. A shadow could be seen, its body pressed close to the floor.

'R-Ron,' he stuttered. 'Its up there! Get ready. I'm going to throw the cloak off us so we can use our wands.'

Suddenly, something rushed down the stairs and stopped a couple of steps down. Harry jumped and threw the Invisibility Cloak from them and pointed his wand. But he breathed a sigh of relief: it was only Mrs Norris, Filch's mangy cat.

'Its only a bloody cat!' Ron gasped. 'Go on! Shoo. Bloody thing.'

Mrs Norris just looked disapprovingly at them with her saucer-shaped eyes, before running back up the stairs. Harry picked up the cloak and threw it over them again.

'I wonder where Filch is?' Harry asked.

'Beats me,' Ron replied quietly. 'Come on. Lets get a move on.'

They got down the stairs as quickly as they could and were soon outside Filch's office. Harry craned his neck so he could listen for sounds of movement inside, but could hear nothing.

'Okay,' he whispered. 'No one's home.'

They rushed into the office and Harry slipped on something. They slammed the door shut and put their backs up against the door, and then they laughed.

'That's got to have been the most stupid thing we have ever done in our lives, Ron,' Harry said.

'Too right,' Ron replied. 'It even beats that time when-'

He stopped in mid-sentence and Harry turned to look at him. Ron looked scared to death.

'H-Harry,' he stammered and pointed at a corner of the room to Harry's right. 'F-Filch!'

Harry's heart sank as he thought Filch was standing right next to them and they were now in big trouble. His mind started racing as he thought of some excuses to say. But as he turned his head, he felt the nausea rising once more.

Filch was there, or rather what was left of him. He was slumped up a corner with his back against a trunk. His throat had been ripped out so deeply that the bones of his neck gleamed in the dim flames from the torches as his head was bent backwards. Something had opened his body and pulled out his internal organs; most of which had been partially eaten. The stuff Harry had slipped in was blood, which was everywhere. Ron was physically sick and was vomiting fit to burst in the opposite corner of the room. Harry waited until Ron had finished throwing up before saying anything.

'Come on. Let's find the map and get the hell out of here,' Harry whispered.

Ron finished puking and wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his robes before coughing loudly.

'Okay. I think I saw it on Filch's desk. Lets start there,' he mumbled.

They searched through all the paper and other rubbish that covered the caretaker's desk. There were all sorts of confiscated items, and Harry was trying to resist taking back some of the things he knew to belong to fellow Gryffindors. But a morbid fascination kept drawing his eyes back to the broken body of Filch. Suddenly, Ron called out loud.

'Found it!' he cried and Harry took the yellow parchment from him gently.

Unfolding the map, he laid it on a clear space on the table.

'Now,' he muttered, 'lets see if you still work. I solemnly swear I am up to no good,' and he tapped the parchment with his wand.

To his relief, a map of the castle appeared, showing a multitude of tiny dots, pulsing in and out to indicate where each person was at that moment in time. Below each dot a name was written. He looked across the map and could see a bulk of the dots were crowded into four areas of the castle: the four houses of Hogwarts. In the Slytherin dungeon, Malfoy was on his own, with Crabbe and Goyle sitting on either side of him.

'Malfoy's holding court,' Harry quipped and Ron sniggered when he saw what Harry was pointing at.

Harry scanned the map. In the some of the corridors, dots indicated where teachers were patrolling. He found Filch's office. Inside, there were three dots: two dots were pulsing, with Harry Potter written below one, and Ronald Weasley written below the other. The other dot had Argus Filch written below it, but the dot was not pulsing - it was static.

'It must stop pulsing when someone is dead,' Harry commented. 'Look. There's Nick and Peeves.'

'I don't care, let's get back to the common room before someone notices we're gone,' Ron whispered urgently.

Harry took one look at the map and just as he was going to fold it up, something caught his eye. It was another dot, moving slowly along a corridor near the dungeons, and this one was not pulsing. It had the word Dementor written below it and he shuddered. He took one last look at the Gryffindor common room, and saw something that took his breath away.

'You bloody stupid cow!' he exclaimed and pointed at a dot that pulsed in the corridor where the Fat Lady had her portrait; this dot belonged to Hermione Granger.

'What the hell is she doing?' Ron spluttered.

But then Harry felt his heart beat faster, as another dot appeared as if from nowhere. This dot was now sitting at the bottom of the flight of stairs directly facing the Gryffindor common room, and the word written beneath the dot was unknown.

'Get back into the common room you stupid idiot!' Harry snapped and clenched the side of the desk in frustration.

The unknown dot started to climb the stairs, slowly, stalking Hermione's. Another dot moved towards the inside of the portrait hole, and Harry breathed again as Hermione's moved back into the common room. But his relief was short lived as another dot moved along the corridor below the unknown one. Professor Sinistra was patrolling the corridor, and whatever the unknown was, was also aware of the Professor's approach as it moved into a recess in the wall to hide itself.

'Oh shit!' Ron exclaimed.

That exclamation summed up what happened next perfectly. The unknown dot raced from its hiding place at Sinistra's and the two dots merged. When the unknown dot raced off down the corridor moments later, Harry felt sick with anger, as the dot belonging to Professor Sinistra now no longer pulsed.

'I've seen enough,' Ron said.

Harry folded the map carefully and Ron threw the Invisibility Cloak over them before opening the door slowly. Checking that no one was around, they crept across the hallway and started to climb the stairs. The stairway seemed even darker now and the light from the torch flames threw every thing into a soft, dancing relief.

At the top of the stairs, Harry peered round the corner where they had seen Professor Sinistra's last location on the map. On the floor, they found her body. It had been ripped in two by something very powerful. Blood had sprayed up the walls and ran across the floor; dribbling in viscous strands over the top step of the stairs; her entrails lay scattered across the floor, and her head had been partially eaten. At least Ron hadn't got anything else to throw up when he wretched again.

They had one more flight of stairs to go and they made their way slowly across the landing - being careful not to slip in the gore - and up the last flight. But in the shadows at the top of the stairs, something moved.

'It's going to be Mrs Norris again, I bet,' Harry said trying to sound as convincing as possible.

Mrs Norris appeared at the top of the stairs and looked at them with her tail wagging from side to side.

'See,' Harry said. 'What did I tell you?'

But then, the cat turned slightly and hissed and growled. Her hair stood up on end all across her spine as she arched her back; her tail puffed up to four times its normal size and she started to back away very slowly. Harry threw the cloak off them and they both raised their wands. Mrs Norris was clearly upset at something, then the something moved. It was behind a statue in the corner of the stairway. Harry took aim and just before he let go with an Incendio Charm, Ron knocked his wand skywards.

'What are you doing?' Harry yelled, and Ron ran up the stairs and disappeared behind the statue.

The source of Mrs Norris' upset was found: it was Crookshanks.

'Bloody hell. Sodding cats!' Ron spat as he wrestled with the wriggling fur ball.

But then, Ron's expression changed. Both he and Crookshanks stopped fighting and Ron's eyes went very wide; Crookshanks let out a menacing hiss through bared teeth. Harry heard a familiar hiss from behind him. Slowly, carefully, he turned round. Just three flights of stairs below him was the Alien! It was not the thing that he had seen in the hospital wing though. It was bigger, but not as tall as Harry. It had grown and was starting to take on the appearance of a fully-grown adult; its legs and arms ended in lethal looking talons; the striking teeth oozed out on a bony rod; it swished a sharp-pointed tail across the floor. It turned and looked at Harry. For a second it seemed as though time itself had stopped. It turned to look through a window when a flash of lightning glared through the glass. Then, it ran off, its claws clattering on the stone floor.

Harry jumped when something knocked into his leg and when he looked down, he saw Crookshanks rubbing up against him. Ron had dropped him and was still staring down the stairs. When Harry reached him, Ron was gibbering incoherently.

'W-was that? Is it? Y-you k-killed?' he stammered.

Harry put his arm around his petrified friend and led him to the portrait. He gave the password to the Fat Lady and guided Ron through the hole. Crookshanks bolted through, nearly knocking Harry off his feet. When they entered the common room, the chattering faded and the other students turned to look at them. Ron was standing with his hands shaking wildly, and his eyes darted from corner to corner. Lavender came over to them and a look of concern fell across her face.

'What's wrong with him?' she asked Harry as she gave Ron a cuddle.

'We saw the creature a few seconds ago,' Harry replied slowly.

'You poor thing!' Lavender cried and led Ron away to a quiet corner.

'Did you get it?' Parvati asked.

'Get what? Oh. The map,' Harry said as he suddenly remembered what they had just risked their necks for.

He took the map from his belt and held it up for everyone to see. Some of the students cheered, but Harry was a bit worried about Ron, who had not yet stopped gibbering. But then, he remembered that someone here had done a very stupid thing and he felt his anger rising.

'Right, you,' Harry snapped to Hermione. 'What the bloody hell do you think you were doing out of the common room?'

Hermione was taken aback by the outburst. 'H-how did you know? Oh,' she replied as Harry waved the map at her. 'Sorry. I was looking for Crookshanks. He must have got out when you and Ron left.'

But his anger subsided a little when he saw her eyes start to glisten in the firelight.

'Okay, sorry.' He suddenly felt very sick as he remembered the two bodies they had found. 'It's just that Sinistra's b-been killed. W-what's left of her is on the landing below us. W-we also found what's left of F-Filch. We saw the creature sneaking about on the map, and then I saw you out of the common room. I thought you were going to meet it as well.'

He slumped down on the sofa and started to shake. Parvati put her arms around him and it seemed to calm him a little but he couldn't get the bloody images from his mind. Hermione passed him a glass of water and he drank some of it slowly.

'Thanks you two,' he said after a while. 'Now. Lets see what we can find.'

He got up and placed the map on the table and smoothed it out. Several students gathered round and Harry looked for the girl who had asked him about her brother earlier.

'What's his name?' he asked her.

'Robert. Robert O'Hara,' she replied timidly.

Harry took a quill, and after dipping it into an inkwell, he wrote the name of the student in a rectangular box in a corner of the map. All the dots dimmed to a light shade of grey, leaving Robert's pulsing dot pitch black. After a second or two, the writing Harry had added vanished and the dots returned to their usual black colour. The girl smiled briefly, and then started to cry again. Another student came up to Harry and he located the boy's Ravenclaw sister in the same way.

After half an hour, all the siblings, girlfriends, and boyfriends had been located, and at this stage, the Gryffindor students were happy that the others were okay. Harry had decided to remain at the table, staring at the map, waiting for the unknown dot to reappear. He subconsciously rolled an apple from side to side, feeling its irregular shape as it bounced slightly across the flat surface of the table. He had noticed that Dumbledore was out of his office and was making his way down the main stairs; Padma Patil was climbing the stairs to the girls' dormitory over in the Ravenclaw tower; Malfoy was still on his throne; McGonagall was patrolling the corridor outside the Gryffindor Tower; a Dementor was gliding beside the perimeter wall. But also Sinistra's dot had gone from the corridor, so presumably her body had been discovered and taken away somewhere.

Parvati joined him and plucked the apple from his hand. He looked at her smiling face as she bit into the fruit, sending juice shooting into the air in a fine mist.

'Nice apple?' he asked quietly.

'Yep,' she replied with a smile and munched loudly.

Harry looked out of the window as a strong gust of wind sent rain rattling hard up the glass.

'Do you think we're going to make it?' she whispered and offered the apple to Harry.

He took it and bit a piece before handing it back. He had no idea what is going to happen, so he simply smiled back at her and gripped her hand even tighter.