Lethal Darkness

Lethal Shadows

By Snitch Builder

Chapter Four

A Fight For Survival

"In the battle for survival the ignorant man has a considerable advantage."

Anon

Thunder rumbled across the sky as Harry sat on the sofa in the darkened common room. Most of the students had retired for the night, and only a handful were left: most sleeping, some huddled together talking in hushed voices. Parvati lay on the sofa next to him with her head on his lap, snoring gently. The fire was slowly going out and a rush of wind down the chimney disturbed some cinders that scattered across the front of the fireplace before dying quickly.

He gently stroked the top of Parvati's head and she wriggled slightly. When he looked at her sleeping face, he was jealous: jealous of anyone who could sleep. Her face twitched and she giggled. A pleasant dream, then, he thought. He couldn't remember the last time he had dreamed pleasantly. Hermione was leaning against him on his other side, and she had drooled slightly in her sleep, making a little damp patch on his jumper. He didn't care, because they had gone through so much in the last few years that a little drool was a small price to pay for her friendship, and he wasn't going to wake her for that.

The sound of the portrait swinging open drew his attention to the hole in the wall. Dumbledore walked into the room and after glancing round for a second, he went over to where Harry sat.

'How are you?' Dumbledore asked in a whisper.

'Fine,' Harry replied, even though he felt bad at lying to the old wizard.

'I just thought I'd let you know that the Dementors have not seen anything as yet. They have a special ability to see things like these, so I am confident that they will succeed in locating our new visitor.'

'How's Snape ... Sorry, Professor Snape?'

'Oh, he's fine. He has just eaten a meal, and he is now walking, thanks to your insistence that we go after him when we did. He sends his gratitude.'

Harry smiled, as he didn't expect that sort of thing from Snape, so presumably the comment was an afterthought by Dumbledore, but even so, he appreciated the gesture. Harry wanted to tell Dumbledore about the map, but as it was his only real defence against the creature, he kept quiet about it. But he still wanted to know about the dead teacher.

'Professor,' he asked, cautiously choosing his words, 'Have there been any... casualties yet?'

Dumbledore shifted uneasily. 'Yes,' he began darkly. 'Professor Sinistra and Filch have both been attacked and killed.'

Harry felt a lump come up in his throat. 'Where?' he asked.

'Filch was in his office, and Sinistra was on the landing just below this one. But don't be alarmed. The creature is not round here at the moment. We are checking and rechecking all possible places where it could be hiding.'

Harry had to get away from the subject of the Alien, as he knew Dumbledore could pick up on the slightest thing and he might learn that Harry and Ron had been wandering about the school without permission.

'How's everyone coping with their incarceration?' Harry asked, as he knew his other friends must have been going stir-crazy by now.

'Everyone's fine,' Dumbledore said with a smile.

The portrait swung open again and the strange surgeon entered. He had been out in the rain as his cloak left a speckled pattern across the floorboards.

'Dumbledore,' he panted, 'one of the Dementors has spotted the Alien and is going after it with two of the others.'

'Where?' Dumbledore asked.

The man leaned in close to the side of Dumbledore's head to whisper in his ear. Dumbledore's expression changed from excitement to horror with what the man had just said. Without speaking, the two men left the common room, the portrait creaking back into position. Harry tensed up a little as though to get up, and he turned to look at Hermione. He was startled to see she was awake, and he relaxed again.

'You're not going after it, are you?' she whispered with fear in her voice.

He was in no mind to lie to his old friend so he settled for a compromise: 'I don't know.'

'Please don't,' she pleaded. 'I don't know what I would do if you got killed,' and she returned to rest her head on his chest.

Harry was surprised about this statement and wondered what would have happened if she had accepted his advances two years ago. But the past was gone and he was with Parvati now. No good raking up the past. It only caused more grief and he didn't need that right now.

The night crept on and it was as though Hermione had stayed down in the common room to stop Harry from doing something stupid as she lay, whimpering slightly in her sleep with her head on his chest. Suddenly, his ears pricked up as he heard something: a scratching noise, like a cat trying to gain access through a door. It stopped and he relaxed a little. There it was again! But it had moved. It was coming from beneath the floorboards. The temptation to investigate what it could be was far too great. He had to find out what it was.

He had to get up, but with Parvati lying on his lap and Hermione with her head on his chest, the simple act of rising from the sofa was going to be a real challenge. He moved Hermione's head very slightly and she gurgled and coughed. Her eyes opened for a brief moment, staring blankly at him, then they closed again. More gently this time, he moved away from her, taking care not to wake Parvati. Somehow, he had managed to move forward a little so he could gently lower Hermione's head onto the back of the sofa. He then turned his attention to Parvati. He moved slightly to one side, and slipped from beneath her. Taking a cushion, he placed it under her head and she moaned slightly, but stayed asleep. It took some doing, but eventually he had been released from the girls and stood up, listening. The scratching was coming from near the portrait hole.

'Harry! What are you doing?' came a whisper from behind him.

He looked round and saw Ginny looking at him from the other side of the room.

'N-nothing,' he lied. 'Just stretching my legs, that's all.'

'Yeah, right,' she replied and closed her eyes again.

Harry looked at Ginny for a moment and even though she had her eyes closed, he couldn't help thinking that she was still watching him through the narrow slits of her eyelids. He sat down on a chair next to the table and the scratching noise came again, sounding like it was going out into the corridor. He had to find out what it was, but he was worried that someone would see him leave. Then he noticed his Invisibility Cloak was lying next to the portrait hole. Slowly he got up and moved towards it and bent down as though to tie his shoelace. He carefully picked up the cloak and stood up. He moved over to the stairway to the boys' dormitory, and once he was out of sight, he quickly threw it over himself.

Carefully, he made his way towards the portrait hole, and after taking one last look at Parvati as she took hold of Hermione's arm in her sleep - possibly thinking it was his - he stepped out into the corridor.

He was trying to see if he could hear where the scratching was coming from. He walked towards the darkened end of the corridor, and then he heard the scratching noise again. It seemed to be coming from inside the wall! Stooping down, he followed the noise for a short distance, before he realised that just up ahead, there was an opening in the wall.

Suddenly, the realisation of what he was doing fell on him like a ton of bricks. There was a mere metre between him and the small hole, and whatever was in there, would be making an appearance in a matter of seconds.

He drew his wand and started to back away very, very slowly. Sweat ran down his back, and his legs felt like lead. The scratching started to echo as it approached the opening. A shadow could be seen as its claws caught the edge of the opening. Harry raised his wand and got ready to release wand-arrows at whatever was crawling out of the pipe.

It dropped into the corridor and Harry saw in an instant it wasn't the monster that was lurking round the castle - it was Winky the house elf. He threw his cloak off and rushed to where Winky lay. When he turned her onto her back, he saw she had her eyes closed, and he noticed around the sides of her head were eight red marks like something had grabbed her hard, and deep cuts ran round her throat. She opened her large eyes and looked at Harry.

'M-monster!' she whispered with a ragged breath. 'Caught Winky. Choking! Choking!'

Harry frowned, as he couldn't make out what the house elf was trying to say.

'Shh,' he whispered. 'I'll take you to Dumbledore. He'll know - '

'Not - go - Dumbledore!' she gasped and grabbed Harry's robes. 'Kill Winky! Master Potter must kill Winky!'

'Don't talk stupid,' Harry snapped. 'Dumbledore will put you right!'

'But Master must,' Winky implored. 'Winky is not clean! Harry Potter must - '

Her expression suddenly changed. Her eyes became wider, trying to get out of their sockets. She screamed. There was a dull thud mixed with the sound of bone cracking; Harry was covered with a spray of blood.

'KILL WINKY!' she cried and her chest exploded, throwing flesh, bone, and blood all across Harry's face.

Winky's dead body twitched and in the middle of a huge hole in her chest was a monster similar to the one removed from Snape. There was something different about this one. It was definitely smaller, its head had two large bulges on either side, but it still had a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and no eyes. Harry reeled away from the monster and fell over. He kept his wand trained on the thing as it uncoiled itself from its bloody birthplace. It climbed slowly from the dead house elf and slithered to the floor. Harry tried to move, but his body felt like rigor mortis had set in. He glanced around and saw his Invisibility Cloak next to his hand so he threw it over himself. The monster seemed to be looking around, possibly in search of Harry, but when it couldn't see anything, it turned back to make a meal out of the dead house elf. Harry seized his chance. He raised his wand and sent a wand-arrow at the thing's head. But the Alien was too quick. It dodged the arrow and then, to Harry's surprise, it simply vanished!

He stood up, breathing hard, sweating, and trying to peer into the darkened corridor. His cloak fell to the floor. Lighting flashed across the corridor, blinding him for a second. He wiped some of Winky's blood - along with a fragment of bone - from his forehead that was irritating him. Sounds came to his ears. He heard scratching sounds. He spun round. Looked to and fro. Shadows danced in the torch flames. A breeze wafted from the opening in the wall. A hiss came and he spun round. The Alien was at the far end of the corridor! It vanished. It reappeared, but a little closer. It vanished again. It reappeared again, and was closer, but on the other side of the corridor. Once more it vanished. Harry lost all sense of reasoning and started to fire wand-arrows indiscriminately down the corridor. The noise was deafening. Arrows blew pieces of stone from the walls, set fire to curtains, and blasted holes in portraits. He laughed like a maniac as he attempted to kill the monster.

A hiss came from behind him! He spun round, letting wand-arrows fly like a demented gun-turret. Then, a bright flash carried him away. The last thing he thought was: That's strange; I didn't expect death to be like that!

Harry could see distant shapes before his eyes; dreamy shapes that flitted across his vision. He was floating gently along, comfortable on a bed of feathers. His sight swam, steadied, and then swam again. There was a female voice calling his name: Harry! Harry! Was it his mother? The heavy sound of water was rushing in his ears; a waterfall crashed somewhere below him. He opened his eyes wider and he could make out the blurred features of an old man with a long silvery beard. God? Is it actually you? Am I really dead? Harry wondered. He felt safe, comfortable. Heaven awaited him, and God had actually come to meet him in person.

But then his vision returned a little, and he could see the face of Dumbledore bending over him.

'Harry!' he whispered. 'Can you hear me?'

Harry tried to wake up a little more, but then he felt the nausea rising and he threw up.

'He's going to be okay,' Dumbledore announced.

Harry felt every muscle in his body twitch, and then go into violent spasms causing him to shake and jitter madly. He kept banging his head on the floorboards, making a dull thud every time, and made his head hurt even more. When he calmed down, he found that he was lying on the floor in front of the Gryffindor common room fire. It was blazing brightly and the heat from it warmed him a little. The stale stench of sick grabbed at the back of his throat and he tried to push himself away from what he had just puked up.

'Calm down, easy!' a voice said in his ear.

He turned his pounding head towards the voice and Parvati's face came through the writhing mist. He blinked to clear the tears from his eyes and stared at her. She was crying and sniffed loudly, as if to gather up something that might leak out. Harry let his stiff body relax a little and the pounding in his head, as well as the rushing water, subsided and he could see and hear clearly.

'W-what h-happened?' he croaked.

The pain in his throat was immense and he almost threw up again.

'Sorry, but I had to hit you with a particularly strong Stunning Curse,' Dumbledore explained gently. 'You were just firing away at anything. The creature had escaped and you just could not hear me at all. You will feel a bit groggy for a while, but you will be fine.' He stood up to address the rest of the students - who were coming down from their dormitories - in a very serious tone. 'And listen, all of you. Anyone, and I mean anyone caught wandering about the corridors during this time will be dealt with in the harshest way possible. Mr Potter here was lucky. I found him before he could do any more damage, or any damage could be done to him. But the next person who comes across this creature might not be so lucky. You have been warned!'

He turned to look at Harry sternly before sweeping from the room. Parvati helped Harry to the sofa while Hermione cleaned the pool of sick from in front of the fireplace with her wand.

'W-Winky's dead,' he muttered.

Parvati put her hand over her mouth and gasped. Ron came over with a glass of water and Harry gulped it down. The water quenched the fire that was burning in his throat and also dislodged some lumps that had got stuck.

'Winky? Dead?' Hermione whispered when she put her wand away. 'How?'

'Monster in her belly,' Harry explained hoarsely. 'Something had caught her and planted the monster in her. It burst from her chest!' He suddenly felt his eyes prickle, and then he couldn't help himself as he started to cry. 'She asked me to kill her and I wouldn't.'

He fell onto Parvati's shoulder and for the first time in his life, he cried in public. He didn't care anymore that the people who looked up to him saw him as a big crybaby.

'Shh, there, there,' Parvati said as her tears started again. 'Shh, don't worry about it. It's all over now.'

She rocked him gently backwards and forwards and it helped him get all of what has come upon him over the last month out of his system. He bawled, and it made his head hurt, but it was purging all the confusion and nightmares from him.

It felt like he had cried for hours, but a few minutes later he composed himself and wiped his eyes.

'Feel better?' Parvati asked.

'I do, actually,' Harry replied gently and sniffed hard. 'Whew. I needed that. S-sorry everyone. I bet you all think I am a big baby, crying like a girl.'

Mutterings from the students confirmed that none of them agreed with him. After all, he had just seen someone die in one of the most horrific ways imaginable; a few tears didn't really matter.

'But we now have a big problem,' Ron pointed out. 'There are two of the bastards now. I hope Dumbledore knows what he is doing.'

It didn't take long for Harry to recover and a little while later, the portrait hole opened again, and the strange Ministry official entered.

'Potter,' he said sharply, 'Dumbledore says you saw an Alien burst out of a house elf.'

The mentioning of the word "Alien" set the students muttering once more.

'Yes,' Harry replied cautiously.

'What did it look like?'

Harry didn't really know where to begin. 'Well, it was similar to the one from Snape, but it was smaller, and it had big bumps on either side of its head.'

'Anything else?' he asked sharply.

'Yes. It seems to have the ability to vanish and reappear at will.'

The Ministry official seemed to take interest in this statement and he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

'It's not Apparating, as you cant do that within the castle. It must be making itself invisible. Quick learning little bastard. It must have picked up some of the magical properties of the house elf and adapted them for itself. Very interesting. Thank you.'

The man turned to leave, but it was Harry's turn to grab him before he left.

'I need to know something,' Harry asked as he led the man to a corner of the room. 'Why can't we evacuate the castle?'

'Because,' the man started to explain but a flash of lightning interrupted him. 'Because of that,' and he pointed out through the window. 'The storm has gathered pace. Heavy lightning makes it impossible for those who can Apparate to do so safely. Also, the carriages would not be able to cope with such high winds. And I don't think it would be wise to be walking around while - '

He was interrupted by feint sounds of screaming. A collective noise, like is heard when someone scores a goal in Quidditch. The man looked around with a puzzled expression.

'Stay here,' the man growled to Harry and went through the portrait hole; the sound of the screaming increasing slightly, then faded again as the portrait closed.

The students started to mutter among themselves again. Harry watched the man leave, and then he went over to the table where he had left the map, and unfolded it once more. A strange sight greeted him as scores of dots were pouring from the Ravenclaw common room and into the corridor. The room emptied quite quickly, except for four dots that no longer pulsed while the other dots were spreading out across the school. One of the dots left in the room had the word Professor Flitwick below it and Harry banged his fist angrily on the table. But it was the sight of one of the other dots in the room that make his heart sink, as it was the unknown dot.

The frantic sounds of hammering and screaming from the portrait hole made Ron go towards it. As soon as the portrait swung open, about fifty Ravenclaw students piled into the room. Ron only just got away in time to avoid being crushed, and the Gryffindor students moved around to allow the others in.

Most of the Ravenclaws were uninjured, some had bruises, but others were more seriously hurt. The Gryffindors helped the others into the room, and bringing up the rear were some students with horrific injuries. One boy had lost an eye; another had lost his right hand. Parvati looked frantically round for her sister, and was asking all the people about her whereabouts, but they seemed to ignore her.

Students with worse injuries came in and Parvati gasped when Padma entered being supported by a taller boy; part of her leg was missing.

'PADMA!' Parvati cried and she helped Padma to a far corner of the room.

Harry went over to where the twins were and felt sick again. Her leg had been torn off just below her knee, leaving muscle hanging out in red strands and the splintered end of the bone was covered in a steady flow of blood from severed arteries.

'Harry,' Parvati pleaded. 'Please help her! Please!'

Harry looked at the pale expression of Padma's face and realised that even if they could get her to Madam Pomfrey, it would be too late. His own medi-magic skills were up to repairing a broken arm or sorting out a bloody nose, but re-growing legs is definitely a skill that he didn't possess. Instead, he decided to do something symbolic to help Parvati with the inevitable and he pulled the cover off a cushion. Keeping his mouth tightly shut against the nausea, he wrapped the cover around the bloody stump. Padma grabbed at Parvati's robes and tried to heave herself up, but then she passed out, collapsing back onto the floor.

'Don't leave me,' Parvati whispered and gave her dying sister one last hug.

Harry fought back his tears and put his arms around Parvati. His hand rested against Padma's neck and he noticed she had already started to go cold.

Blood splattered everywhere from the injured Ravenclaws and in the chaos, the Gryffindors tried their best to calm the panicking, and help the injured. Hermione was performing medi-magic charms on them, but some of the injuries challenged her skills to the limit. Ron singled out the seventh year Ravenclaw prefect, who himself was holding his hand over a particularly nasty cut on his head. Harry left Parvati and went over to them. He had to shout to make himself heard.

'What the bloody hell happened?' he bellowed.

'We were all down in the common room like you lot are,' the boy yelled back, 'and it dropped down the chimney! Even the roaring fire didn't hurt it! Took us all by surprise. It was bloody vicious, slashing out and biting anything that moved. It kept making itself invisible for brief moments. It was horrible, just horrible. We couldn't stop it.'

'But the one I saw was only small,' Harry said. 'How come it did so much damage?'

The prefect frowned back at Harry. 'It was bigger than Flitwick. Maybe not as tall as us, but it was so strong! And so quick!'

'What about Flitwick?' Hermione yelled over the commotion.

'He saved us,' the prefect answered. 'He fought like a bloody trooper.'

'Firing charms at the thing ten to the dozen,' added a first year girl. 'But none of them had any effect.'

'It took him by surprise,' added another Ravenclaw boy. 'Stuck its tail straight through him. Killed him instantly.'

'Yes,' interjected the prefect, 'but he did give us a chance a to get away. I hope his sacrifice was worth it.'

From the portrait hole came the sound of something heavy ramming into it. The room went suddenly quiet. Harry's blood ran cold and he reached for his wand. Again, it came. The first year girl who Harry had helped check on her brother with the map started to cry. Another bang came and some dust fell from the side of the portrait hole. Harry sniffed the air.

'Can anyone smell smoke?' he asked.

He looked over at the fireplace and saw that the smoke was starting to come back into the room, rather than going straight up the chimney like it is supposed to.

'The fireplace!' Harry snapped to Hermione. 'Put something over the fireplace!' He turned to the prefect. 'How come you didn't see any smoke then?'

Another bang on the portrait.

'I don't know,' he replied. 'Perhaps your chimney is narrower than ours.'

'Hermione!' Harry yelled. 'Do something with the bloody fireplace!'

'But ... But!' she stammered.

'No buts! Just do something!' Harry shouted as another more violent bang hit the portrait and more smoke came into the room making everyone cough.

Ginny fought her way to the fireplace and put the fire out with her wand. Hermione squinted through the thick smoke and steam to look up the chimney. She gave a scream and jumped back. Harry rushed over to take a look. He stuck his wand up the chimney.

'LUMOS!' he cried and his wand lit the chimney almost to the top.

Jammed towards the top of the tall chimney was an Alien. It had flattened its body to fit into the tight shaft, and it was making its way slowly down towards them. Its claws dug into the brickwork and it dislodged soot as it dragged itself towards them. He realised that this was not the same one that had dropped down the Ravenclaw chimney as it was struggling to fit into the tight space, and it was not becoming invisible.

'Hermione,' Harry shouted, 'I need your help!'

But Hermione was backing away from the fireplace. Her eyes looked like they would pop put of her skull at any moment and she shook her head sharply. Ron rushed over and stuck his head up the chimney.

'We need to put something up there to stop it,' Harry suggested.

'Repelling charm?' Ron said.

'No, something stronger!'

The hammering on the portrait was replaced by the nerve-wracking sound of claws being dragged across stone.

'Try this for size, you bastard,' Ron yelled. 'INCENDIO!'

Harry did the same and gouts of yellow flame rushed up the chimney to engulf the Alien completely. It screamed, but it was more a screech of annoyance rather than pain. Harry looked up again to see that it was more determined to get to them as it had moved a little further down. More scraping outside the portrait hole set Harry's teeth on edge.

'Ron, we have to do something,' Harry shouted, 'the chimney widens out just above us. If it gets there, it'll drop down on us.'

Ron shoved his wand up the chimney and let half a dozen wand-arrows fly. The arrows blew craters in the side of the chimney, and because the Alien had its mouth shut some of them ricocheted of its head and back down the chimney, blowing hot ashes over them.

'Not a good idea, Ron,' Harry spat as he knocked a lump of hot ash from his hair.

Something gave way outside the portrait hole and a girl screamed. Harry looked round and saw a tiny pinprick of light glinting from the side of the portrait.

'Its getting in!' a girl's voice screamed.

Someone yelled an idea: 'shrink the shaft! Crush the bastard!'

'But what if the spells hit the Alien?' Ron cried.

'But they don't work on it,' the Ravenclaw prefect spat back.

'It could be worth a try,' Ron replied and he looked at Harry.

'Can you remember the correct charm,' Harry asked nervously. 'I mean, I don't want you to expand the shaft. That would be a tad inconvenient'

Ron snarled and stuck his wand up the shaft and Michael Corner joined him. With Harry along side, they all uttered the incantation to shrink objects. Soot fell onto them as they kept saying the spell. The scraping outside the portrait got louder. Little by little, the shaft started to shrink. The Alien obviously felt this too, as it had stopped its descent towards them.

'More!' Harry yelled.

They kept saying the spell, over and over, and with each incantation, the shaft shrunk a little more. Grinding sounds reached their ears as the bricks in the side of the shaft continued to grow smaller. Harry concentrated as hard as he could. His scar burned. His wand hand felt like it was dropping off. Suddenly, the Alien gave a screech. It was jammed tight now, and the space was getting smaller.

'Keep - going,' Harry whispered.

The sound of the Alien trying to get in from the corridor intensified. Another Ravenclaw student joined them and with four wizards concentrating all their efforts, the shaft was shrinking rapidly.

Then, the sound of something cracking far up the shaft echoed down to them, and a drop of green fluid landed in the ashes, melting its way through the leftovers of the dead fire. Harry suddenly remembered what the Alien had for blood and any minute now, litres of the stuff would be pouring down the chimney. The Alien gave an ear-splitting scream.

'Get ready to jump back,' Harry yelled. 'Everybody get back! This thing has acid for blood!'

At that moment, the Alien's body was crushed to its limit and it exploded. Green fluid gushed towards them in a torrent along with large chunks of dead Alien.

'GET BACK!' Harry shouted as all four of them dived from the fireplace.

The blood splashed across the room, catching several students, and swamping the fireplace. A Gryffindor boy was sprayed in his face and he reached up with his hands and clawed at his face; his skin peeled away; his eyes boiled to steam. Harry jumped over to him, but the stuff had already burnt off the boy's flesh, leaving a grinning skull, shining whitely on the dead boy's body as the acid continued to eat away at the bone.

The pounding on the outside wall increased and the Ravenclaw prefect rushed over to where a small hole had appeared. He pushed the end of his wand through it.

'INCENDIO!' he yelled and the flames interrupted the pounding for a split second.

But then, suddenly, the pounding and scraping stopped. The room became quiet. Harry could hear his heart banging like a drum. He gripped his wand even tighter. Some of the injured students were whimpering. Most of the students had drawn their wands by now and were pointing them at the portrait hole. Harry was shaking from head to toe. He listened for anything from behind the portrait, but could hear nothing. From behind him, the sound of groaning came and he felt the floor shift very slightly. The acid had eaten its way through the floor, and was making its way through the supporting beams below it. The floor was starting to give way! It was old, and was designed to hold many people, but it was now trying to support an overcrowded room, and its beams were slowly dissolving.

When the sound of the portrait swinging aside came, everyone pointed their wands in the direction of the corridor. A shadow appeared in the hole.

'LET IT HAVE IT!' someone yelled.

Dozens of hexes, charms, curses, Stunners, wand-arrows, and other spells blasted through the portrait hole and wrecked the wall on the opposite side of the corridor. A few seconds later silence returned.

'You missed!' growled a familiar voice and Snape jumped into the common room.

'Oh, shit! Snape! Ron snapped.

'It's oh shit Professor Snape, Weasley,' Snape snapped. 'And five points from Gryffindor!'

Harry started to laugh. The thought of Snape taking points away from them in such circumstances was so funny. Snape watched Harry and snarled.

'And what's so funny, Potter?' he drawled.

Harry stopped laughing when a screeching sound like someone pulling a nail from wet wood came from the floor. He looked over to the fireplace and noticed that the floor was peppered with holes. Acid had eaten its way through one of the main beams and the floor dropped a few centimetres.

'Time to leave,' Snape muttered.

'Leave to where?' a small voice asked.

Dumbledore rushed into the common room with the stranger in tow.

'Oh dear,' he said as he looked around the wrecked common room.

'The Ravenclaw common room is intact,' Michael suggested.

'A good idea,' Dumbledore replied. 'Severus, can you go and check on the state of the common room please,' and Dumbledore tapped his nose.

Harry took this as Snape had to make sure that the bodies had been removed before they got there. But when he looked at Snape, there was something about the potions master that Harry just could not put his finger on. It was the way Snape was twitching and his eyes kept glancing at all parts of the room. Snape also had a jerky gait to his walk that made Harry very nervous. Snape jumped back through the portrait hole and his running footsteps receded very quickly.

By now, the mutterings and crying increased. Harry felt the floor drop a little more and panic started to rise within him. Dumbledore also felt the floor move.

'Listen, all of you. We must all proceed to the Ravenclaw common room. We will make sure the room is secure, and you will all be safe. Leave all your things, and we shall send them across as soon as we can.'

Another screech from the floor snapped everyone out of their dazed state and they all started to move towards the portrait hole. Harry went over to where Parvati was still holding her sister and from the colour of Padma it was clear that there was nothing more that could be done for her.

'She's dead,' Parvati whimpered.

'I know,' Harry whispered tenderly. 'I'm sure she didn't suffer.' He put his arm around Parvati. 'Come on. We're going to move in with the Ravenclaws for a while. I'm sure Dumbledore will take care of her.'

Parvati turned her face towards Harry and he could not stop the solitary tear from running down his cheek. She turned back to Padma and kissed her gently on her forehead. Then, whispering a prayer in Hindu, she laid Padma down and covered her with her bloody cloak.

'Come on,' Harry whispered, 'time to go.'

He took one last look at Padma lying in a pool of blood. Her blood had seeped away, taking her life with it and Harry could not stop the feeling of helplessness that filled him at that moment.

Another groan from the floor made the students move as one and they quickly made their way out into the corridor. Harry made his way out of the room and Ron was waiting for him in the corridor.

'Have you got the map?' Ron asked.

'Oh crap,' Harry snapped. 'I left it on the table.'

Harry waited until all the students had filed out into the corridor before going back in. Dumbledore tried to stop him, but Harry struggled free and dived into the room. He took a look round. The floor gave another groan as it started to crumble. The map could not be seen and Dumbledore called him from the doorway: 'Harry! Get back here!'

But Harry had to find the map. He spotted it beneath the table. He dived after it and ran back to the portrait hole. When he and Dumbledore got to the corridor, a massive groan behind them rented the air as the floor finally gave way and crashed to the classroom below.

Harry looked at the damaged wall around the portrait. The picture had been damaged slightly, but the charm placed on it had left it mostly intact from the hammering it had received. The wall had blocks torn away, and some of it looked melted.

'Harry,' Dumbledore said angrily, 'you are no good to anyone dead. In the future, I would appreciate it if you could co-operate just a little, please.'

Harry felt embarrassed at upsetting him.

'S-sorry, Headmaster,' he replied quietly. 'I will try and bear that in mind.'

Dumbledore smiled and gestured Harry to walk on ahead of him. When he got to the Ravenclaw common room, Snape was standing by the door, or rather he was holding on to a torch bracket that was about four metres from the floor; his feet resting up against the wall as he glanced jerkily around. Harry frowned at this strange stance and entered the portrait hole.

'Harry! Where have you been?' snapped Hermione as he stood looking round the room.

'Picking up the map,' he replied irritably.

'Parvati's gone upstairs to the dormitory,' Hermione replied sounding a little disappointed. 'She wanted to go to where Padma is ... sorry, used to sleep.'

Madam Pomfrey came into the room and started to use her skills to heal the injured students. Harry watched her for a moment, but then realised he was ignoring Hermione.

'Are you okay?' he asked.

'Yes,' she said back, but it was clear that she was far from okay as she wrung her hands nervously.

'Did you see Snape?' Ron asked.

'Did I just!' Harry laughed. 'Why do you think he was hanging off a bracket?'

'I dunno,' Ron said. 'Maybe he's turning into a bloody bat or something.'

Hermione's eyes went very wide. 'Maybe I have a reason,' she said slowly.