Harry Potter and the Silent Siege

Chapter 18

The Final Siege

Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron drew out their wands and moved cautiously toward the door of the bathroom, their argument forgotten immediately. Ron was first to the door. He pushed it open with his foot, and eased out into the corridor. After a moment's pause, he motioned the others to follow him.

The corridor was now eerily silent, absent the slightest echo of the thundering crash they had heard only moments before. Like the bathroom they had just left, however, the lanterns in the corridor were guiltless of light. Moreover, while the bathroom had still been lit through the light from the window, the corridor ahead of them was considerably darker.

Hermione nervously pointed her wand out in front of her.

"Lumos," she said.

Nothing happened.

Ron tried his next and then Harry and Ginny but the result was the same each time.

"What's going on?" asked Ron.

"I don't know," replied Harry.

"What's that sound?" asked Ginny.

Harry strained his ears to listen. It sounded like a low howling sound was coming up the corridor. A gust of wind blew up and ruffled Ginny's hair.

"It's the wind," said Harry. "And it's coming from down over here."

He pointed his wand back in the direction of the main entranceway he had burst through less than an hour before.

"Maybe someone left the main door open," said Hermione, but she did not sound very certain.

His wand outstretched, Harry headed briskly up the corridor into darkness, trailed closely by the others.

"Harry, be careful," said Hermione. "We can't see very well what's down there."

"It's getting lighter," Harry responded.

Indeed, as they walked more quickly toward the end of the corridor, they could see soft sunlight playing across the far wall. Ron, Harry, and Ginny each considered in their own minds what Hermione had said, but they also knew that the main door was windowless and very nearly always shut.

Harry reached the end of the hallway, turned the corner, and then stopped sharply causing Ron, Ginny, and Hermione to almost bump into him.

None of them spoke.

There could now be very little question what had caused the crash. Harry's immediate impression was that the gates of hell had opened up to swallow the one secure foundation left in his life, literally as well as figuratively. For where once had stood the main door to the school, there was now only a gaping hole that stretched up from the remains of the door to the second-story ceiling. Wind rushed in through the gap, blowing an assortment of leaves and dust out into the corridor. They could see clear through to the midday sun shining brightly on the peacefully swaying trees of the grounds and the rich lawn of green. It was almost grotesquely tranquil.

But as Harry looked more closely, even this image seemed strangely distorted, like someone had turned up the hue on a television too far to the right. As he started to walk up the corridor toward the remains of the door, followed now at a cautious distance by his friends, he could see that the stone slabs that had once lined the front of the building seemed to have been pushed roughly away by someone or something with enormous size and strength. There was something odd about this, too, though, apart from the obvious fact that their school was now missing a large chunk of what had once been its wall. It wasn't until they had reached the opening and looked out across the threshold of the gap to the school grounds beyond that Harry realized what it was: the slabs now lay strewn around the grass in front of the opening like the ruins of a stone circle. But that meant -

"The wall has been pushed out from the inside," said Hermione. "Whoever did this was already inside the castle."

None of the others responded. But they knew that what she had said was right even if they didn't know how or why. Harry squinted. The scene outside was still the wrong color, if that was possible. The green of the leaves and grass looked like it had been painted on. Harry was reminded of an unusually large storm that had once swept in from the sea and toppled the power lines on Privet Drive like matchsticks. Then as now sky and earth had looked strangely green.

Harry was struggling with how to convey his strange impressions to the others when a hand touched his shoulder. He looked down to see Ginny who pointed his head toward the sky. He looked around to see that Ron and Hermione were doing the same. Still, none of them spoke.

With a horrible gnawing sense of dread, Harry looked up himself and beheld the single most horrifying display of magical power he had ever seen. The only thing he could compare to his terrified awe was the time he had first seen Hagrid stoke the fires of the Dursleys' shack on the sea with his umbrella and he had known without a doubt that there was such a thing as magic. But on that occasion Harry had been filled with the wonder of a new world open to his eyes for the very first time. Now he couldn't help but think that everything he loved and believed in was closing in around him.

For blanketing the sky around them was the grotesque snake-like face of the Dark Mark, higher and wider than any Harry had ever seen. The bleeding green glow seemed to stretch for miles over the forest and the mountains around them, capturing the horizon completely. But despite its size, Harry could see that the horrible face at the center of the mark was pointed directly at them. Whoever had cast the mark had done so from very near the point at which they now stood.

It was Ginny who broke the silence first.

"Where are all the people?" she asked.

"What?" asked Ron.

"The students," Ginny replied. "All of the students were out on the lawn. Now they're gone."

Harry looked out to see that Ginny was right. But now that Harry thought about it, the lawn had already been deserted when he had run up from Hogsmeade. Harry was certain, however, that he had not imagined opening the main doors when he had made his way back inside the school. Whoever had cast the Dark Mark and blown out the doors of the school had done so after he - and Ron and Hermione for that matter - had left for the bathroom. It seemed almost certain that the blowing out of the doors and the casting of the Dark Mark (which now that Harry thought about it, might well have come from a single curse) was the cause of the noise they had heard just a few moments before. But then who had conjured the Dark Mark and where were they now?

Hermione broke into Harry's thoughts.

"Well, look," she said, a little brusquely. "What are we going to do now?"

Ron looked nervously between the blown out door and the grounds outside.

"Well, we've got to get out of here, haven't we?" he seemed to decide. "I mean we can't just hang about in here with You Know Who and his goonies around. I mean, they're obviously in here, aren't they? Winky was right."

"How are we going to do that?" retorted Ginny. "We can't very well go running across the lawn. We'd be easy targets if anyone was up in the castle watching us!"

"Perhaps we should find out where everyone else went," suggested Harry.

"How are we going to do that?" said Ron. "We can't very well go and ask, can we?"

"Oh, dears!" said a voice behind them.

The four Gryffindors spun around, their wands out. Professor Dibble raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Oh, put those things away, children!" she cried. "No," she said suddenly, her eyes widening in alarm. "On second thought, you'd better leave them out. Oh dear, we are in terrible trouble! But thank goodness I've found you all! We'd hoped Mr. Potter hadn't gone to Hogsmeade. Now, come along! Quickly!"

None of the others moved right away.

"Professor Dibble," said Harry, uncomfortably aware that he was looking for answers from a witch whose greatest skill to this point had been burning holes in desks and students' shoes. "What's going on?"

"The Death Eaters have attacked the school! They're Apparating in and out of everywhere. I don't know how it's possible but they are. We've gotten everyone upstairs in the Astronomy Tower. It seems they still can't reach us there. Now come on before they find you."

Whatever their recent disagreements, Ron and Harry now shared a glance and each could see that the other was thinking the same. Winky had told them what Voldemort was planning and the mightiest evidence so far supported her story: the safest place for Harry to be was as far away from Hogwarts as possible. But on the other hand, there was no telling what might happen if he tried to leave.

For the moment Harry was trapped, along with his friends, which was perhaps what Voldemort had planned all along.

Dibble led them along the darkened corridor. It seemed that she had fared no better than any of them in getting her wand to cast light. They walked back in the direction they had come, past the bathroom and on toward the secondary staircases that eventually led up to the Astronomy Tower. With every quickened step, they found themselves pitched ever further into darkness until all of them relied more on years of memory of the school's twisting pathways than anything they could see with their eyes.

"Professor," said Hermione, struggling to keep pace with Dibble. "Why won't our wands work?"

If Hermione was seeking reassurance from Dibble, she did not find it.

"I'm afraid I don't know, dear," came the uneasy reply. "It must be some form of dark magic. Oh, we are in terrible trouble, I'm afraid."

At this, Dibble quickened her pace even more, causing the others to follow at a trot. As Harry jogged quickly across the stone hallway, he felt a shiver run up his body and he visibly shuddered. It still felt cold in the castle, even with the summer heat outside, but he doubted it was the temperature that had caused him to shake. He mustn't lose his nerve now!

Just as Harry thought this, however, he felt a small hand take hold of his own and looked down to see Ginny, who seemed to have been watching him closely, walking alongside. And just as his feeling of cold had not been the cold of the castle around him, so Harry now felt warmer than the simple sensation of Ginny's hand against his should ever have warmed his body. If only they could somehow get through this, he thought, alive and together.

"Scared?" he whispered to Ginny so that only she could hear.

Ginny shook her head with conviction, her eyes not leaving Harry's.

After a long moment, Harry forced his eyes away from Ginny's and back to the hallway ahead. It seemed much darker now than it had been earlier when the sunlight from the hole in the castle wall had shone the way ahead. Harry was having trouble seeing very far in front and hoped there was only an empty corridor ahead. He tried not to think that if what Professor Dibble had said was true, a Death Eater could Apparate out of the shadows at any moment and there would be little that any of them could do.

But even as Harry thought how dark it was, he swore he could see an even blacker silhouette standing in the corridor ahead of them. At first, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him but as they grew closer, he felt sure it was not his own imagination. There was definitely someone standing in front of them, dressed completely in black.

Harry was about to open his mouth to warn the others when he heard Dibble say in a nervously quivering voice:

"Who's there? Come out and show yourself!"

There was a shuffling sound and the black-clad figure withdrew a hood to reveal a face as pale white as the wearer's cloak was dark.

Dibble sighed loudly.

"Oh, headmaster, you gave me such an awful fright!"

"Forgive me, Professor," replied Snape, oddly stressing the last word as though it belonged only within a set of quotation marks. "I was anxious not to be seen by any of the Death Eaters. You've found Potter, I see."

"Oh, yes," replied Dibble. "Oh, it's awful, headmaster! There are Death Eaters everywhere and our wands won't work!"

"I think you'll discover your wands are still very much functional, Professor," replied Snape, his voice as calm as Dibble's was anxious. "Someone has used dark magic in this hallway to ensure that no object can produce its own light. However," Snape took his right hand out from behind his back to reveal a glowing tip on the end of his own wand. "My own wand is protected by certain - counter curses."

Harry was sure Snape had smiled for a moment.

"Oh, thank heavens, headmaster!" replied Dibble airily. "Well, we'd better be off then."

But none of the students moved.

"How do you know this?" asked Hermione neutrally.

"Miss Granger!" retorted Dibble. "The headmaster - "

Snape held up a hand. "Not to worry, Professor," he said, in a tone that reminded Harry of a purring tiger. "I have long grown accustomed to Miss Granger's infernal questions. As it so happens, girl," he said slowly, "I am well versed in defenses against the Dark Arts, considerably more so than any of the witless succession of Defense masters you have suffered these past few years."

"I wonder why Dumbledore never gave you the job then?" asked Ron acidly.

Snape turned to him and simply stared for a moment, then, as if exerting no small amount of self-control, said:

"I haven't the faintest idea, Mr. Weasley. Perhaps you'd like to ask when you next see him. Now, if you wouldn't mind, I suggest we get moving. We'll have plenty of time to chat later if and when this castle is secure."

Professor Dibble didn't need to be told twice. The light from Snape's wand had revealed the secondary staircase almost directly in front of them. Breathing a sigh of relief, she grabbed hold of the banister and began making her way noisily up the stairs.

"I wouldn't go up there if I were you, Professor," said Snape. "As I came down here to inform you, this particular path has been blocked by Death Eaters. It's quite simple, really," he added, as if explaining arithmetic to a child. "The Death Eaters know that the Tower is secure. They are expecting you to follow this path as it is the only one they know of. Fortunately, however, I am aware of one other." Snape gestured to the dark open hallway ahead of them.

Dibble quickly took her hand away from the banister as though she had found it on fire and walked down the steps and out to the corridor ahead of them. She had walked several paces again when Snape's voice said:

"One more thing, Professor."

Dibble stopped walking and turned around.

Snape looked to the other students.

"Is Miss Weasley among you?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked around to see Ginny emerge from where she had been standing just behind Harry, into the faint light cast by Snape's wand. She looked up at Snape with such an expression that even the normally implacable acting headmaster seemed to step slightly backwards.

"Why do you want to know?" asked Harry, an icy coldness reflecting in the light of Snape's wand on his eyes.

"I am naturally concerned for her safety," replied Snape laconically. "She was missing. I'm very glad to find her here with you. Now if you wouldn't mind, Mr. Potter."

Snape stretched out the long hand that held his illuminated wand in the direction of the dark corridor ahead of them.

***

Abigail Wright peered closely from her half-moon spectacles at the tall, handsome, long-haired man in the curious cloak inspecting the bus sign as though it was an alien artifact. She was sure she'd seen his face somewhere before. It was true he looked a bit of a tramp but Abigail was certain this was a cover.

"Arthur!"

Abigail grabbed hold of her husband's shoulder.

Arthur Wright, who had been immersed in the Mobil Field Guide to British Birds looked up with the suddenness of a dog that has just sniffed a bone.

"Eh?"

"Pay attention, dear," Abigail whispered in his good ear. "And don't shout so! I think that man over there is a pop star!"

"Eh?" said Arthur again loudly.

"Sssh! Keep your voice down, dear. Come on."

Abigail took hold of a bewildered Arthur and led him over to where the pop star was eyeing the bus routes, looking very puzzled.

"Excuse me, sir," said Abigail, in her best imitation of the queen.

The man jumped.

"Oh, dear," said Abigail, in a tone of voice that suggested she was reciting lines for an elocution course. "I didn't mean to startle you, but I'm sure I've seen your face somewhere before, on television or in film, perhaps?"

"Actually," the man replied. "I think you might have seen me on the news. I'm a wanted mass murderer."

Abigail's face fell for the briefest of moments before she broke out in a tittering girlish giggle, which was followed closely by the man's own slightly hollow laugh.

"Very drÃ'le, sir," she said. "Very drÃ'le indeed. But tell me now." Her eyes narrowed then slowly widened again. "No, don't tell me," she decided. "Let me see." She closed her eyes again, deep in thought, then opened them like a door.

"I've got you, sir!" she clucked.

The man's face fell suddenly.

"You have?"

"Yes," declared Abigail, wagging her finger. "You're not a film star but I have seen you on television! It's Brackham, isn't it? Sir Eustace Brackham. I remember your estate well. British Gardener? The television program?" she added when Sir Eustace looked blank.

Sir Eustace's face folded into a reluctant smile.

"It seems you have found me out, madam."

"Oooh!" Abigail hopped up and down on her feet like a schoolgirl. "Fancy that! And Arthur here thought you were a tramp!"

"Eh?" Arthur used his finger to adjust his hearing aid.

"But do tell me, Sir Eustace," Abigail went on, beaming from ear to ear. "Whatever are you doing here? At a bus stop?"

Sir Eustace seemed to hesitate.

"Actually, I'm afraid my, er, my carriage driver's feeling a bit ill and I - "

"Oooh," tittered Abigail again. "Fancy that, Arthur! He still rides a carriage. Such breeding!"

"Eh?"

Sir Eustace's face seemed to fall again for a moment but then quickly recovered.

"Yes, madam, I do. I see your husband there has some kind of map."

He pointed to the AA Guide to Greater London which protruded from Arthur's day bag.

"And I wonder," Sir Eustace went on, "whether you might be so kind as to tell me exactly where we are at the moment so that I can call for a new carriage with my hand - hand - " Sir Eustace put his hand to his ear blankly.

Abigail frowned from a moment, then smiled.

"Your secret's safe with me, Sir Eustace," she whispered conspiratorially.

Sir Eustace seemed a little bewildered.

"It is?"

"These mobile phones are so crass. Wouldn't at all seem in keeping with the character of your garden, now would it? Still, you're an important man, so I suppose you ought to own one of those dreadful things."

"What - oh, er, yes." Sir Eustace chuckled.

Abigail chuckled in response.

"Er, the map?" said Sir Eustace after a moment's pause.

"Oh, dear, yes," said Abigail. "Hurry, Arthur, dear."

Without waiting for her befuddled husband to respond, Abigail fished the map out of his bag herself and handed it to Sir Eustace.

"There you are, Sir Eustace."

Sir Eustace anxiously unfolded the map and peered at the lines and roads, apparently baffled.

"Bless him," said Abigail, clasping her hands together. "He's probably always had someone to do it for him. You see," she said, drawing up alongside Sir Eustace. "We're here." She pointed to a spot on the map, "which makes us thirty-odd miles from Westminster which is here and - "

"Thank you, madam." Sir Eustace looked up smiling. "You've been a tremendous help."

"Not at all, Sir Eustace," replied Abigail, her face glowing with pride. "Actually," she went on, looking down to stuff the map back into Arthur's bag. "I hope you won't feel this forward of me - oh, do open the bag up wider, Arthur - but I was wondering if I could invite you to one of my - "

Abigail looked up and suddenly stopped talking.

"Oh, dear," she said, looking around. "Oh, dear, oh, dear. Wherever has he gone?"

***

Snape led Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Dibble further down the first floor corridor. They had passed two other staircases but Snape had chosen to take neither of them, claiming he knew a safer path. Finally, they reached the end of the corridor entirely and a small door. Without hesitation, Snape opened the door and started to walk down a narrow set of steps. The corridor in which the others still stood sank slowly once more into darkness and their only source of light began to disappear in front of them.

The others hesitated.

It was Hermione once again who voiced the obvious question the others were thinking.

"Why are we going down the stairs when we're supposed to be going up to the Astronomy Tower?"

Snape turned around.

"It may seem difficult for one with such a narrowly logical mind to understand," he replied cuttingly, "but the passages in the castle are rarely straightforward, as I think you and your friends have discovered on your many illicit journeys through this school."

There was no immediate response from the others. Hermione sensed Professor Dibble fussing behind her like a mother hen.

"Come on, children, really! Down you go. Follow the headmaster! Quickly!"

Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron looked at each other nervously and then Harry, Ginny, Dibble, and Ron followed Snape into down into the pit of a staircase even darker than the hallway they had just left. After a moment's reluctance, Hermione followed.

As they walked, Hermione found that the steps grew steeper and steeper the further they went and she and the others were forced to walk slowly. At the same time, however, Snape's own pace seemed to quicken, lengthening the distance between her and their only source of light. This in turn made things much darker and the steps even harder and slower to descend. Then, after it seemed like they had walked for some way, Ron stopped in front of her. She was too far away to see Snape and his wand light now but she heard him say:

"Alohomora."

Hermione heard the sound of a catch unclicking. A door in front of them opened with a slow creak. Then the group ahead moved on.

Finally, Hermione followed the others through a small doorway and into a short but wider low-ceilinged room. Level with the others, she could now see Snape and the light in front of him. From this, she could see another door. Snape moved slowly toward it. His hand closed on the handle but then a familiar voice rang out from somewhere in front of Hermione.

"Step away from the door."

It was Harry.

Snape turned around, and Hermione could see from the light of his wand which he now pointed slightly upwards and back toward them that he wore a slightly amused look on his face. She could also now see that Harry was pointing his own wand directly at Snape.

Hermione moved cautiously to the side of the others and could see an expression of fierce determination on Harry's face. Neither Ron nor Ginny seemed particularly surprised at Harry's defiance and Hermione wondered what she herself looked like at the moment. Dibble, however, who seemed to step further away from the others, looked back and forth between Harry and Snape in complete bewilderment.

"Mr. - Mr. Potter, what on Earth?" she said. "Mr. Potter, put that thing away!"

"No," said Harry evenly. "Not until he's told us exactly what he's doing and where he's taking us."

"Headmaster Snape has already explained to Miss Granger," retorted Dibble. "The way is not so direct, I'll admit, but the Headmaster is trying to save our lives. The least you could do - "

"I wonder if this indirect route leads us straight to the original room," Harry interrupted, "where we know Voldemort is hiding this very moment!"

"Do we now, Potter?" said Snape idly, his wand continuing to light part of his face which now looked like a melting candle. "I wasn't aware we knew anything of the sort. And how may I ask did you come across this information?"

Harry looked quickly back at the other students but it was Dibble who spoke up next.

"The original - " she spluttered, still looking at Harry with an expression of complete incomprehension. "The original what? What's he talking about?"

Hermione thought quickly. She tried to trace in her mind where exactly it was in the school they were standing at the moment. The kitchen was still in the other wing but, of course, there was another entrance to the room, wasn't there? That's what Harry had found out from Malfoy during their duel and that was how Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had found their way into the room that day, wasn't it? And given how large the room was -

Hermione could see right away that she was not the only one thinking along these lines for at that moment Ron and Ginny raised their own wands at Snape.

Snape raised an eyebrow in Hermione's direction.

"Not you, Miss Granger? But of course, you must hold onto the pretense of adhering to school rules until it becomes convenient for you to break them."

In response, Hermione raised her own wand.

Dibble shook her head.

"I don't know what you children are thinking but we're wasting time! The Death Eaters - "

"I would save your breath, Professor," said Snape conversationally. "This isn't the first time Potter and his friends have tried to stop me from saving their lives. I've said it before, Potter, but I see it bears saying again: you are so very much like your father. He, too, was always surrounded by a witless gang of supporters, all of whom hoped to feed off something of his imagined glory on the Quidditch pitch. As I told you in my letter, I could care less if you or any of your friends survive this day, but I would prefer to save myself and Professor Dibble, so if you don't mind - "

Snape moved toward the door again.

Hermione gasped as a bright streak of green light flew past Snape's right ear and blew a hole in the stone wall just above the door.

"I SAID KEEP AWAY FROM THE DOOR!"

Snape turned around again.

"We are not moving from this spot until you have answered several of my questions," said Harry with authority before Snape could speak.

Hermione could see that Snape still had an amused expression on his face. It had taken the combined curses of Ron, Harry, and herself to disarm him during their third year. She wasn't sure how they would fare this time if Snape really tried to be aggressive in return. She wondered if Harry was thinking this, too.

"How did you know where to find us?" Harry demanded.

"I have learned to look for you and your friends where trouble is most being caused, in this case, right underneath where the Dark Mark was cast."

"I think you cast that mark while we were in the bathroom, then ran back to stand by the stairway so that you'd be there when we arrived."

"You'll hardly make even a passing Auror at this rate, Potter. Didn't you hear Professor Dibble? Anyone could have cast that mark. Death Eaters are Apparating and Disapparating all over the building every minute, which is why - "

"How did you know Ginny was with us?" asked Harry, his voice rising. "Why did you think to look for her? She could have been in Hogsmeade."

"You may have been blind all these years, Potter, but others - "

"You sent me that note!" cried Harry. "Dumbledore and Sirius don't know anything about that, do they? You wanted me to stay in the school, not to keep me safe, but to make sure no one was here to rescue me!"

"And what do you think I am trying to do now, Potter?" said Snape with a tone of one very near the end of his patience.

"I think you're trying to take us to Voldemort."

It was over very quickly.

They could hear but not see two doors opening on either side of them. Masked, darkened shapes slid into the room with such graceful stealth that their feet hardly seemed to touch the ground. Before any of the others had time to react, the Death Eaters had seized each their wands and grabbed every one of them.

Everyone, that was, but Snape who continued to stand unmoving, his expression unchanged, his wand still pointed up to his face and away from the others.

No one spoke for a moment. It was if they were all rooted to the spot like wind-up toys whose acts had wound to a close.

"H - H - Headmaster," stammered Dibble finally. "What's going on? W - Who are these people?"

But before Dibble had even finished her question, Snape was already rolling up the sleeve of his left arm, his face curling in a horrible approximation of a smile. The lines on his waxy face grotesquely exaggerated in the dim light of his wand, Snape looked hardly more natural than Lord Voldemort himself. As Snape gradually exposed the Dark Mark etched in his forearm, Hermione had the horrible feeling she was looking at him for the very first time.

"Isn't it obvious, Professor?" replied Snape, a leery edge to his voice. "These people are Death Eaters. And as you can see, so am I."

Dibble's eyes bulged at the sight of the mark on Snape's arm.

"I - I don't understand."

"I didn't suppose you would," Snape retorted. "As it so happens, Potter was right about me. It has pained me a great deal to see you destroy my laboratory this year, Professor, as it has been to serve under Dumbledore all these years finally to gain the naíve old fool's trust. But at last I was able to assume the position where I could serve my Lord most effectively, to where I could deliver both Hogwarts and Potter to him, which I intend to do this very afternoon."

"I always knew you couldn't be trusted," said Harry. "I knew you had never really left Voldemort."

Hermione realized that Harry was right. Harry had refused to trust Snape even after Dumbledore had confirmed his double agent status on the night of the Third Task. He had consistently refused to tell Snape anything that had happened to them this year, even after Dumbledore - and Hermione herself - had repeatedly told him he should.

But Snape was shaking his head.

"On the contrary, Potter," he said, in a strangely methodical tone, as if explaining a procedure in the potions classroom. "You have always trusted me really. You were wary of me, yes, but just like Dumbledore, you had the arrogance to believe that anyone with enough experience and sense would eventually be swayed to the self-righteous life of the Gryffindor. That I could be, somehow, redeemed in your eyes from whatever my past sins may have been. But no one remembered, especially not Dumbledore, and not even you, that I saw the swaggering hypocrisy of the Gryffindor way when I was a student myself and I've never forgotten the lesson.

"Still I confess my amazement at the degree to which Dumbledore continued to trust me. He knew much more than most what I'd done, how close I'd been to the Dark Lord. He gave me the keys to this school. He even depended on me this year to mix potions for him to deceive the Dark Lord into thinking he had gained access to Hogwarts. But it was never my Lord whom I truly deceived. The Dark Lord always knows when someone is lying to him; Dumbledore, on the other hand, would nurse a lion to health, believing it had never really meant to attack him.

"And you're just the same, Potter. Unlike Professor Dibble here, you and your friends have seen this mark on my arm before but you were too blind to understand what it really meant. One never leaves the service of Lord Voldemort. You never doubted my intentions in sending you that note telling you to remain in the castle. For all your childish games at rule-breaking you never stopped to think for a moment that I would really betray you or Dumbledore and his witless crusade against the Dark Lord. I thought that leading you here would be the hardest part of my plan, but you even let me take you to the very threshold of the chamber where my Lord awaits you, believing all of my feeble lies about finding another route. You always thought I would really protect you. You really believed I had saved your life from that fool Quirrell so that the Dark Lord wouldn't take you, but let me get one thing straight, Potter."

Snape's voice started to quiver and rise. His eyes watered as he looked across at Harry with the unblinking eyes of a fanatic.

"I kept you alive all these years for one reason and one reason alone: so that one day I could deliver you to my fully strengthened and returned Lord and Master! And now that day has come."

Snape's lips straightened as he motioned quickly in the direction of the still open door. Hermione was grabbed from behind by one of the Death Eaters. She tried to twist out of his grip but still felt herself half-carried, half-shoved to the entranceway. She looked around to see that the others were not faring any better. A mane of silver hair from the back of a Death Eater's mask walked into the light of Snape's wand. Lucius Malfoy had hold of a struggling Harry and tried to take hold of Ginny with his other arm when Snape put up his hand.

"Miss Weasley stays here with me."

Malfoy let go of Ginny's arm. Harry started to struggle even more but Malfoy kept both of his arms wrapped tightly around him in a vice-like grip, all the time poking Harry's own wand into his back. Hermione winced as her own captor followed his example.

Even as he kept hold of Harry, however, Malfoy stopped and stared at Snape. Behind his mask it was not possible to see what was written on his face but Hermione had the sudden impression there was no love loss between them.

"The Dark Lord wishes it," Snape replied to Malfoy's unasked question.

Malfoy still did not move forward. The other Death Eaters stopped, too, holding their captives at bay but clearly uncertain what to do and where to go next.

"Do you doubt my loyalty still?" Snape's voice rose sharply. "Perhaps I should give you a little demonstration, just so you can feel sure."

Hermione felt the bile rise in her throat. She was very sure something awful was about to happen and desperately did not want the next moment to come. She suddenly hoped Malfoy would say something - anything - to ameliorate Snape but she also knew he had no interest at all in doing so.

Hermione stopped struggling and saw that Harry, Ginny, and Ron had done the same. It was as if they all hoped that Snape's attention would be diverted elsewhere. Only a single asynchronous sound of shuffling struggle could still be heard. Like an animal sensing only the movement of a prey too frightened to remain standing still, Snape raised his bony arm. The Death Eater who was guarding Professor Dibble quickly let go of her. Dibble tried to make a clumsy leap for the door to the stairs. The Death Eater did not move to follow. And then in a horribly cold hoarse voice, Snape cried out:

"Avada Kedavra!"

The darkened room was suddenly lit full with a bright flash of blue light from Snape's wand. Dibble was hit squarely in the back. For a moment, she seemed to keep moving forward but then with a sick cry that ended in a gurgle, she crumpled to the ground and lay there motionless in a darkness that returned as swiftly as it had been broken.

No one said a word. Snape's wand returned slowly to his face.

"Lumos," he said softly.

The wand lit up again and Hermione could see that Snape still wore the misshapen expression that passed for a smile. She was certain she was going to be sick.

Malfoy stared at Snape for a moment, then pushed Harry forward with his wand. Snape turned around and grabbed hold of Ginny's shoulder and pulled her further back into the shadows away from the door. Hermione felt horribly numb when she saw Harry's face as he watched Ginny slipping away from him.

"What do you want with her?" Ron demanded, struggling against the Death Eater who held him again.

"I'm not going to let you take her!" Harry cried.

He wrestled himself free of Malfoy and tried to launch himself at Snape. He was inches away when Snape's still lit wand caught him on the bridge of his nose.

"Need to I remind you, Potter," he said icily, "what this wand can do?"

Harry clenched his teeth and did not move.

Snape raised the wand and seemed about to open his mouth when Ginny's voice cried out from the shadows:

"No, Harry, don't! You can't stop him, not now! Just go!"

Harry turned to look in the direction of Ginny's voice, a terribly hollow look in his eyes.

"Please, Harry," said Ginny again. "I love you."

Harry looked like he was opening his mouth to respond in kind but only a soft moan came out. And Hermione realized that there was nothing Harry could say to express the emotional eddies that twisted inside him.

A low rumbling sound filled the room like a distant thunder. It took Hermione a moment to realize the Death Eaters were laughing behind their masks.

"I love you," mimed a mocking voice in Hermione's ear from the Death Eater holding her, which she recognized as Marcus Flint's.

The Death Eaters laughed again, much louder this time, but Snape did not seem interested in partaking. He continued to point his wand at Harry's head, his own attempt at a smile now having faded from his mouth. Harry himself seemed unfazed by the jeering. He merely looked beyond Snape to Ginny's half-hidden face as if trying to remember what it looked like should he never see it again. Finally, he was forced away when Snape poked his wand roughly at his forehead just below his scar. As Harry fell a step backwards, Malfoy locked his arm around Harry's throat and turned the handle to the door in front of them.

"Lumos," she heard Malfoy say and the light from his wand filled a musty corridor just like the one that had led from the kitchens when they had first explored the hidden room. Snape trained his own wand back to the others. Malfoy held Harry's wand at his back in his left hand while holding his own aloft. He shoved Harry forward hard through the door.

Harry had walked no more than a few steps forward into the corridor proper when he let out a small gasp and fell to the floor, clutching his forehead in pain.

Malfoy pointed Harry's wand at his back, his body tensing for fear that Harry's pain was a ruse but Snape merely muttered to no one in particular:

"The Dark Lord managed to set up a thought shield after Potter's last attempt to rescue Miss Weasley, with some help from me, of course."

"You bloody little bastard," Ron spat suddenly, as Harry slowly dragged himself to his feet, clutching his forehead. "I'll make sure you rot in Azkaban forever for this, if I don't kill you myself!"

"And I'll make sure you never have the chance to put me there," replied Snape calmly.

The Death Eaters laughed again. The one guarding Ron shoved him through the door behind Malfoy and Harry so hard that Ron hit his head on the low ceiling.

Hermione felt a prod in her own back and Flint's horrible rancid breath on the side of her face. She moved forward to follow Ron and the Death Eater guarding him. She looked back briefly at Ginny but saw only Snape's silhouette pointing his wand now in Hermione's direction, Ginny behind him. Hermione turned away and looked up at the hallway she was entering. She felt the footsteps of Flint just behind hers and twisted against his arm which gripped her midriff. A further sound of footsteps told her that the Death Eater who had been guarding Dibble had now fallen in step behind them. She knew they were much too bunched up for any one of them to try to escape now. All they could do was continue to move forward.

Hermione fought hard to repress the feeling of claustrophobia that gripped her like a glove as the Death Eaters walked them all forward. She could hear her heart pounding somewhere in the region of her throat as the corridor grew narrower and sloped slightly downwards just like the other. Then, when the walls had grown in so close that Hermione almost had to walk sideways to fit, the hallway leveled out and widened to a small alcove. From the light of Malfoy's wand, Hermione could see a wooden door in front of them with a brass handle in the shape of the Hogwarts crest.

They stopped for a moment. In the silence, Hermione could sense the door vibrating every few seconds. She found herself starting to shake. There was no doubt in her mind where this door led and who was waiting behind it.

Malfoy's cold crisp voice cut through the small air of the enclosed space as if he had been reading Hermione's thoughts:

"Let's not keep the Dark Lord waiting then."

Malfoy reached past Harry and turned the brass knocker to the right.

Hermione sucked in a breath and closed her eyes. She was about to meet the creature of all of her nightmares.

The door opened.