The Veil of Memories

Chapter 14

Red Sky at Morning

Ginny stared down at Ron for a long moment. She wasn't at all sure what to say; she didn't even know what to think.

It was Neville who finally broke the silence:

"I - I don't understand," he said. "What did I - wh - what's going on? I - I remember - Ginny, we're not - what's going on?"

Ginny looked up to see that all eyes had turned to her. With a breaking of glass and a flash of red light, the madness of her lingering memories had been reproduced many times over.

It was Luna who spoke, however.

"Isn't it obvious? Ginny was right all along. Someone stole all our memories and placed them in Neville's Remembrall - except it wasn't really a Remembrall, I suppose, just something very much like one. Then they gave us all false memories to replace the ones that had been taken." Luna reeved up her nose. "And I thought having one roommate was awful; now I remember I have four! I hope Pixie Proudfoot doesn't come back, though. She had the awful habit of - "

"But who?" demanded Susan Richards, "and why?"

Ginny looked almost pleadingly at Luna. Her friend shrugged and said matter-of-factly:

"You-Know-Who, I suppose, and I was sure it was the alien xenophobes. It would have just like them to - "

"Where are they?"

Ron's voice was so hoarse and raw with emotion that Ginny almost didn't recognize it was him speaking. Even Luna quickly stopped and looked across at him somewhat fearfully.

"Where's Harry?" Ron asked again, looking across at Ginny with eyes that seemed impossibly hurt, guilt-stricken, and accusatory all the same. "Where's Hermione?"

"They're in another dimension, Ron," said Ginny cautiously, as though talking to her brother was like walking on nails. "They're - they're beyond the - beyond the veil."

A half dozen different voices broke into an incoherent cacophony. Ginny quickly raised her own voice in response.

"They're not dead!" she cried out. "At least I don't think so," she added a little more quietly, seeming surprised to find that her own voice had silenced the others so effectively.

"But how do we find them?" asked Neville.

"I - I don't know," Ginny admitted, lowering her own head so she couldn't see the crestfallen expressions on the faces of her fellow Gryffindors. "We've got to find Dumbledore somehow. He's still in our dimension. He sent me a note. But first, we've got to be on our guard." Ginny looked up again, the sudden danger and urgency of the situation they were now in breaking her out of her reverie. "I doubt Umbridge and Malfoy have missed what's just happened."

"You don't think they could put another Memory Charm on us, do you?" asked Luna. "I only had to conjure the ball I made from the book after all. I suppose they could just make another one."

Ginny didn't answer for a moment. She frowned thoughtfully. "I don't think it would be that easy," she finally said. "Remember...." Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Yes, I think it must be true! They can only administer the Memory Charms at night; they always do it while we're sleeping." She looked to Luna for confirmation.

"It can be done during the day," she said in reply, "but whoever was doing it would have to be right in front of whomever they were doing it on just like I did with Ronald."

"What?" demanded Ron.

Luna ignored him and went on. "And, of course, that wouldn't work well for them. No, they'd really have to do it when we were sleeping if they wanted to get a wide enough range. And, of course, they have to get into all of our heads at once to synchronize the false memories or else we'd all remember something different. That's how the aliens did it."

"So as long as we're still awake we're all right," replied Ginny, flinching only slightly.

"Good thing you've mentioned it," quipped Ron. "I feel just like dozing off. Malfoy!" he cried suddenly. "Malfoy doesn't - he remembers - he's remembered all along! He - he didn't cast any spell on you at all, Ginny, h - he - he knew that a spell had been cast on - on the rest of us...." Ron's voice trailed off. "Oh, goddess." He buried his head in his hands.

"That's what I was trying to tell you all along, Ron," said Ginny quietly.

Ron looked up from the table and stared at his sister in disbelief. He seemed about to say something else when an all too familiar voice rang out around them.

"All students will report - report immediately to the Great Hall. There has been - there has been a - a most unfortunate magical accident. I - I - do not return to your common rooms. Do not delay. Come straight to the hall at once!"

Ginny smiled as she heard the terrified quiver in Umbridge's voice. But her pleasure was short lived as the content of the bogus headmistress's words sunk in. The Death Eaters might not be able to perform another mass Memory Charm but there were far nastier things they still could do.

She looked at her friends and housemates and found that all eyes were looking back at her. Ginny didn't know whether to laugh or cry: she had gone from lunatic to sage in ten minutes. But a far more sober thought won out: however strange, she was now their leader and it was her responsibility to take them well-prepared into the inevitable danger that awaited.

"We go," she said. "Staying here will only make things worse. But wands out."

There was no hesitation on the part of the others. One by one her housemates took hold of their wands as though marching into battle. A few doors opened around them and other Gryffindors emerged, all looking wide-eyed and wordless but each taking out their wands when they saw that the others had done so. Before anyone could do differently, Ginny walked to the front of the group and led them briskly out of the common room. But she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see the flushed face of her brother.

"I - I'm - I'm sorry," he said.

Ron looked so stricken that consoling words flew immediately to Ginny's lips but then a sudden rush of anger seemed to overtake them. She looked quickly away from Ron and then kept on walking.

"Ginny!" Ron took hold of her shoulder again and swung her around. She became uncomfortably aware that many of their housemates had stopped to watch.

"What?" she demanded angrily. "You've spent the whole year treating me like a refugee from St. Mungo's and you think you can just say you're sorry and that'll be the end of it?"

There was a significant pause. Ron looked down at his feet for a moment but then up again into his sister's eyes.

"No, but I thought it might be the beginning."

Ginny looked up at her brother and sighed as she felt her anger slowly ebb away.

"Look," she said, touching Ron's shoulder. "This isn't the time. We'll talk later, OK?"

Ron paused for a moment and swallowed. "OK," he finally said.

"Now let's go."

Ginny turned around and led Ron and the others out of the portrait hole. But neither she nor Ron would easily forget their aborted talk. In the weeks and months ahead, both would wonder whether it would turn out to be the last conversation they ever shared.

***

A beautifully clear night's sky carpeted the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall but the crowds gathering underneath it reflected nothing of its serenity. With the specter of Umbridge's cruel form of detention hanging over them, their customary assemblies in the Great Hall were normally devoid of even the slightest noise. But as Ginny led her house to the Gryffindor table, they found the hall anything but quiet. Most of the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin tables were nearly full when they arrived and buzzing with conversation. And everyone, including the other Gryffindors who had preceded them to the table, had their wands out and at their sides.

Only one group of witches and wizards remained ghostly silent, nor did they make any attempt to stop the conversations going on around them. The staff sat assembled at the high table, their faces blank and their mouths slightly open. They seemed only capable of looking down at assembled houses as though they had never seen students before. Looking up at the table, Ginny noticed that Umbridge's chair was still vacant.

Ginny quickly took a nervous seat and was flanked on one side by Ron and on the other by Luna and Neville who sat hand in hand. No one suggested that Luna return to the Ravenclaw table. Ignoring the buzz of conversation around her, Ginny quickly scanned the Slytherin table to find that Malfoy was not present. She found this made her far more nervous than relieved.

Ginny felt the sweat gathering on her palms. Umbridge had still not arrived and they continued to sit in place for several minutes that seemed to last a small eternity. Part of her still felt jubilant, relieved, and vindicated but, as time passed, Ginny found she was growing increasingly nervous and unsure as to what awaited them. Ron and Neville stared down at the tables in front of them as Ginny soon found herself doing. Luna kept looking idly around as though determined to uncover a few hidden aliens. Ginny wondered if they were all wracking their brains as she was to try to prepare for whatever Umbridge and Malfoy were planning to throw back at them or whether they were simply overwhelmed by the sheer emotional weight of their returned memories. She looked up at the staff table and was convinced that she found Professor McGonagall staring back down at her with what Ginny assumed was an equally blank stare. Twice she found herself on the point of approaching the table and conspiring with the staff to form a plan of resistance before Umbridge entered the hall and took control but she wasn't sure what they were really thinking and couldn't afford to wait and find out.

Ginny's mind was still stuck in circles when the hall grew suddenly hushed. She looked around quickly to see that all eyes were now focused up at the staff table. Dolores Umbridge had just walked through the side door and was approaching the table from behind as fast as her stubby legs could carry her. Her head was bowed significantly toward the ground, however, as though the only world she wished to be in was her own. So anxious was Umbridge to reach her throne that she stumbled on the way there, and had to make an elaborate pirouette in the air to stop herself from falling completely to the ground. None of the staff reached out a hand to help her, however, and none of the students laughed. By the time Umbridge had reached the center of the table, her height had rendered her once again invisible but for the ever-present bow on the top of her hat. This was still slightly askew from her near fall and gave the impression that the fly was about to tumble down into the toad's mouth.

"I - I - " she began and then cleared her throat. "It is my - my great concern - my great displeasure to announce to you that this school of ours has been attacked by a vicious burst of dark magic. It has - it has altered your memories, made you believe in things that never really happened. It - "

But Umbridge was forced to stop as the hall erupted once again into buzzing conversation.

"Calm yourselves, children, calm yourselves!" Umbridge's hands rose briefly above her head as she appealed to her listeners. "I know this must come as a great shock to you. I know - silence, I need silence, please! I know - I know you must seem very confused; I know the memories that have been implanted in your heads seem very real to you but they are very much false - I must have silence! HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO TALK IN MY HALL?"

But silence did not come. The once unnaturally hushed group of adolescents seemed to be finding their voices in greater and greater numbers. Ginny was heartened to find that the staff, too, seemed to have broken out of their shock and were now muttering to themselves, eyeing Umbridge warily. Though her view was partially blocked by the table, she saw McGonagall nod almost imperceptibly to Professor Sinistra, then reach slowly into the right pocket of her cloak.

"SILENCE!" barked Umbridge. "I must have silence! I must have order in this school! My dear children," she said imploringly, sounding every bit like a queen bee that had been cornered. "Can't you see that this is what our enemies and traitors want? Our confusion! Our division! Can't you see that they're trying to bring an end to our kind, that they want to exterminate us and our way of life, just as they did all throughout our history? Are we going to let them do that?"

If Umbridge had hoped to hear a resounding "no" in response, then she was about to be very disappointed. The growing melody of voices only increased in volume until one familiar Irish lilt silenced them all.

"If being a wizard means sitting in this school all day listening to you," declared a red-cheeked Seamus Finnigan, "then, yeah, I am going to let them do it!"

A rush of applause rose up from the Gryffindor table and this time Ginny could not restrain herself from joining in. The Slytherin table attempted to drown out the cheers with a series of boos but this proved unsuccessful as the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws joined in the applause. The bow swung quickly back and forth as Umbridge twisted her head from side to side as though refereeing a Quidditch match. It finally disappeared completely as the hat fell off her head.

"You!" she bellowed, pointing a bony finger in the air at Seamus. "See how the traitors incriminate themselves. In the end, muddied blood cannot hide, can it? There are your traitors!" she shrieked, her finger gesticulating wildly all down the Gryffindor table. "It was they who unleashed the dark magic! I call on the decency of the rest of you! Fall upon them in any manner you choose and your actions will be held up by future generations of wizard-kind! Ignore them and our race will cease to exist!"

Her heart pounding, Ginny felt Ron and Neville both take hold of her hand. Looking up and down the table, she saw that all of her housemates had joined their hands together. Then Hannah Abbot reached out across the Hufflepuff table and took hold of Parvati Patil's hand. Within less than a minute, a human bond had found its way across the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw tables. The Slytherins did not join in but neither did they appear especially eager to follow Umbridge's instructions.

Ginny looked briefly at Ron and then up again at the table where the loud sound of Umbridge stomping her feet up and down like a child in a temper tantrum could be heard even above the continued buzz of conversation in the hall. Both the staff and the students seemed to be waiting anxiously to see what Umbridge would say next. But then a series of dramatic and very unexpected events took place.

So intent was Ginny on nervously watching Umbridge and the staff table that it was not until Neville tugged on her elbow that she noticed that several house elves, normally unseen and unheard, had now poked their heads and ears to look out onto the hall from just behind the staff table. Considering the height of the table and the way they were teetering nervously, some of them must have been standing on the shoulders of others. No sooner had Ginny taken this in when she noticed that several of the house elves were climbing up two of the parallel stone pillars just behind the staff table. Her eyes widened as the elves kept moving up until the ones behind the table disappeared from sight, apparently to join them. When all was said and done, a good three dozen house elves had climbed up the pillars and a number of them had already reached the ceiling. Staring up into the rafters of the hall, Ginny could just make out something long and white that had been strung between the pillars at the height of the ceiling. The two house elves at the top of the chain were holding onto its edges as though ready to drop it down into the hall.

Ginny quickly scanned back to the students around the hall to see that everyone was now looking up at the house elves along with her. Umbridge, who remained too short to be seen, was apparently unable to keep her eyes away from the mutinous students, however, as her next question revealed.

"Wh - wh - what are you staring up at? What is - "

Umbridge's question was not yet completed when a noise like the closing of a hundred blinds issued from the rafters. In an obviously well-choreographed series of motions, the house elves tumbled an enormous cloth banner down from the rafters, the sides of which were quickly seized and held in place by the elves who remained spread-eagled on the parallel stone pillars. It was more than half the height of the hall and as wide as the staff table across and seemed to have been made from dozens of spare bed sheets tied together. Awkwardly splashed across the front of the tied sheets in large reddish-brown letters that looked like the crushed remains of leftover pies were written the words:

SEEZ HUR

Ginny's attention was quickly returned to the staff table by a great deal of hysterical shouting from their headmistress who had apparently turned around and read the sign.

"BEASTS! VERMIN! UNGRATEFUL ANIMALS!" cried the owner of a pudgy outstretched finger. "Arrest - arrest - arrest them all! Stop them! Bring them down!"

The house elves flinched nervously and held ever more tightly to their precarious pillars as though they feared that the hysterical noise ensuing from Umbridge's mouth would shake the very foundations of the hall. But to their credit, none of them moved or ran away. Neither did any of the students or staff.

"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?" Umbridge bellowed again, swinging around, her voice now slightly hoarse. "I ORDERED YOU TO REMOVE THEM!"

A deep silence then fell on the hall as though all of its occupants were frozen in thought as well as action. But only a moment passed when the sound of a wand being removed from a cloak seemed to resonate sharply.

"You all read the sign," cried Professor McGonagall, taking aim at the diminutive figure next to her. "Seize her!"

A split-second later, every one of the teachers had a wand raised in their hands and a half dozen hexes screamed through the air to the spot where Umbridge was standing. But none of them connected. A long red beam of light had reached clear across the hall and arrived at the headmistress first, sending her high into the air. Shouts of confusion rang out as the hexes missed their target and continued on to hit the other teachers, many of whom fell to the floor while Umbridge herself remained untouched. Ginny swung her head quickly around to find that Draco Malfoy now stood just inside the entrance to the hall. It was his wand that held Umbridge protectively above the table. His face was fixed in a fury as red as its beam.

Ginny was not at all sure what to expect next but what happened was the least of anything she could have imagined. While the rest of the hall including herself remained frozen, a fourth-year Slytherin girl stood on top of her chair and aimed her wand at Malfoy. She was probably no more than a dozen feet away from Malfoy but he hadn't seemed to notice her. Ginny didn't really know the girl well and she had spent very little of her time at Hogwarts considering that Slytherins were anything but Death Eaters in the making. Yet Ginny continued to watch spellbound as the girl launched a disarming spell at Malfoy. The hex hit home just below his shoulder. Malfoy flinched only momentarily but it was enough for his charm to lose its grip on Umbridge who tumbled to the ground with a cry. Sounds of rapid movement and shouting suggested that her pursuers were still trying to get hold of her. Ginny did not know for sure, though, because she found it impossible to remove her eyes from Malfoy and the girl.

Malfoy clutched his shoulder for a brief moment before turning in the direction of his attacker, a feral anger written across his face. Ginny wanted to cry out to the girl to run or hide but she continued to stand on top of her chair with her wand outstretched as though she were a match for the young Death Eater. His face still set in fury, Malfoy raised his wand at the girl. Malfoy mumbled something Ginny couldn't hear and a bright green light shot out from his wand. The girl tried to turn away but the curse moved too fast. She slumped back into her chair and lay crumpled in a heap, her lifeless eyes still staring back at her murderer.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" cried Ginny. Without pausing to think, she stood up on top of the Gryffindor table, raised her own wand and let off a cacophony of ill-formed hexes across the hall in Malfoy's direction. Both her curses and her words were drowned out, however, in a sea of like-minded retaliations, some of them from Malfoy's own housemates. There must have been dozens of curses sent Malfoy's way but he seemed to block or absorb them all with no apparent harm to himself.

"How could he - " Neville started but Ginny did not get to hear the end of the sentence. She found herself pulled hard to the floor by Ron as a hex from across the room sizzled over their heads. She looked up to see a good dozen Slytherins standing on top of their house table, volleying shots in the direction of the other three houses who retaliated in kind. Seamus and Jack Sloper quickly overturned the Gryffindor table in front of them to form a makeshift bunker. The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students mostly retreated to either side of their house tables, clearing a path for the Gryffindor shooters. Many of them continued to strike away at the Slytherins from there.

The room, which only moments before had been thick with the tension of an oncoming storm, now sizzled with the electricity of violence. Flashes of wand light in a rainbow of colors - red, blue, yellow - flew across the room to the Slytherin side only to return in equal measure and sometimes in green. The hall was filled with screams of agony and fear. Malfoy moved toward the back center of the hall, shooting down several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, and forcing the others to retreat. From there he joined his fellow Slytherins in launching hexes at the nearby Gryffindor table. Ginny watched as a small first-year Ravenclaw boy tried to run behind the Slytherin table and out toward the exit only to be hit on the leg by an errant hex. He lay exposed right across Malfoy, whose face curled in a malicious sneer as he prepared to deliver a killing blow. Just as he was about to strike, however, the Slytherin Quidditch captain Hall ran out from behind his own table and with one disbelieving look at his Seeker, swept the boy up into his arms and carried him back out of the door of the hall to safety, narrowly dodging the hexes Malfoy threw toward his retreating back.

"Get these - get all of these children out of here!" Ginny heard McGonagall cry above the fray. She looked up briefly from a heated exchange of fire to see that the teachers were still in complete disarray. Professor Flitwick was rolling around the floor in pain after having been struck with a hex aimed for Umbridge by Professor Harmon. Harmon himself huddled with Professor Sinistra behind one half of the table which had now been split clear in two. McGonagall was crouched behind a fallen chair. She looked as though she was trying desperately to get to the students, but she could barely manage to defend herself against a storm of hexes that flew at her from the Slytherin table.

The Slytherin table itself seemed in the midst of a civil war. The other students had succeeded in forcing them behind their table which they overturned into a bunker just as the Gryffindors had done. About twenty students - mostly sixth and seventh years - were now dug in behind the bunker, shooting at anything else that moved in the hall. The rest seemed to be trying to sabotage their efforts but they were often the first to be ruthlessly struck down. Many had tried to flee to the other tables. Some were hit; several had reached the Gryffindor table and joined in defending their bitter house rivals. Not a single Gryffindor had the time or inclination to question their loyalties. Many of the younger Slytherins were huddled in the upper corner of the hall near the staff table but still separated from it by the exchange of fire coming from their own housemates. They were joined by a number of young Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, their hands over their heads, hoping that the horrible battle raging all around them would somehow go away. And all this time Malfoy stood at the hall's far end weaving his wand back and forth like a maestro of chaos.

With Ron crouched beside her, Ginny continued to fire hex after hex toward the Slytherin table. She felt a rush of satisfaction as she successfully landed a stunning spell on McShane who fell back against the wall behind him. But no sooner had she done this when she heard screaming just to her right. She snapped her head around just as three unforgivable curses whizzed over the top of Luna's head and slammed into the wall behind her sending shards of plaster and stone all over them.

"She's the one!" she heard one of their attackers cry out. "She's the one who released the Mudblood memories on us!"

Luna screamed as part of the barricade under which she was hiding collapsed and her wand flew out of her hand and rolled out and under the Hufflepuff table. As Neville, Ginny, and Ron furiously threw hexes back at their attackers, Luna made a quick break for her wand.

"No, Luna!" Neville cried out. "You'll be - "

But it was too late. Luna grabbed her wand but as she tried to crawl back, a Death Eater struck her on the back with a nasty stunning spell. She rolled over, her eyes moving about wildly. Spittle rolled out of the corner of her mouth as though she was having a seizure.

"Neville, no!" cried Ginny as he got up beside her and ran over to where Luna was laying helplessly on the ground. But Neville ignored her. A hex clipping past his right ear, he made it over to Luna and smothered her under his cloak while still furiously launching defensive spells at the on-rushing Death Eaters. After several seconds of lightning-fast wand fire, Ron and Ginny had stunned two of them and the last had retreated back behind the Slytherin bunker. As soon as he had left, Ginny made her way over to Luna and Neville but Ron quickly seized her arm and pulled her down to the stone ground.

"Look out!" he cried.

Ginny didn't see what happened next. All she heard was another round of furious wand fire at close quarters. Finally, Ron released his grip and she got up to see him launching hexes up the fireplace behind them. She was shocked to see stunned bodies piling up in the fireplace, bodies of fully grown Death Eaters. Several large thumping sounds told her that more were trying to come down and had landed on top of their fellows when they couldn't get out. Ron quickly took a large handful of floo powder in his hand and threw it into the fire which enveloped the Death Eaters - both conscious and unconscious - in a bright green light. He hesitated for a moment, then cried out:

"Slytherin common room!"

Without pausing to see whether the floo had done its trick, he launched himself quickly back into the fray, volleying several stunning spells in the direction of the Slytherins, most of whom had seemed to retreat behind their fireplace.

"How did they get in here?" he asked, dodging a hex. "No one can Apparate into Hogwarts. I remember that now!"

"They were already here," said Ginny, suddenly realizing. "With Umbridge in control, they could have walked in through the front door. Oh goddess, look!"

Ginny pointed ahead to the fireplace behind the Slytherin table where more Death Eaters had now appeared to provide reinforcements to their student trainees. Before either Ron or Ginny could shout out a warning, one of them had launched a ruthless Killing Curse into the back of a confederate Slytherin who had been firing on his own Death Eater housemates. Ginny did not pause to feel anger or remorse this time. She ran straight forward to Neville and Luna who were still exposed just in front of the Hufflepuff table.

"Ginny!" cried Ron.

"Help me!" she shouted back anxiously.

Ron fired another quick hex toward the Slytherin side and then ran over to help Ginny push the Hufflepuff table up on its end to form a new bunker, pausing only a moment to shift an injured student to one side.

"Is she OK?" Ginny cried out to Neville, who righted himself and cradled Luna carefully in his arms behind their defense.

"I don't think so," replied Neville, white-faced, "not unless we can get her some help very fast."

Ginny looked down and was shocked to find that horrible purple blotches had appeared all over Luna's face. Some of them seemed to have burst emitting a nasty-looking sticky pus. Luna herself still seemed somewhat delirious. Her eyes were moving around in circles; she was murmuring incoherently but she was clearly unaware of what was going on. Ginny decided this might be just as well.

Looking back toward the Slytherin table, Ginny saw that three or four adult Death Eaters had emerged from the fireplace with apparently much better success than their counterparts on the Gryffindor side. Several of the older Ravenclaws had moved almost on top of the Slytherin defenses before they arrived. But as soon as the experienced Death Eaters joined in and began firing unforgivable curses indiscriminately, they beat a hasty retreat. At least one of them wasn't fortunate enough to make it back to his table.

Malfoy still seemed completely unscathed and continued to fire at the Ravenclaw table which was just in front of where he now stood. The left half of the table had exploded into rubble on top of several Ravenclaws who were either unconscious or doing a very good job of pretending to be. Ginny looked briefly across at the staff table to see that the teachers still seemed hemmed in; about half were now on the ground. Ginny didn't know if they were unconscious or dead and didn't want to think about it. She turned her attention back to trying to out-hex their resurgent opponents when a voice rang out behind her:

"I'll show them muddied blood!"

"Seamus, no!" Ron cried.

Ginny looked back at the last minute to see Seamus grabbing a handful of floo. He cried out: "Slytherin Table!" before disappearing into the fire. Both Ron and Ginny swung their heads to the other side of the room to see Seamus emerge through the fireplace. He felled several of the larger Death Eaters who were caught completely unawares before one of the student Death Eaters caught him with a hex on his right hip. He grabbed his side in pain and fell to the floor. The remaining adult Death Eater raised his hand, apparently poised for the kill, but a bright red stunning spell from the wand of Professor McGonagall, who had moved dangerously out in front of the staff table, felled his would-be assailant.

Seamus continued to lie dangerously exposed on the floor behind the Slytherin bunker, however, and this seemed to spur both sides into more insistent fire. Malfoy himself sprinted back in the direction of his own table and fired several hexes at Seamus but succeeded only in shooting down one of his own side. The battle raged on but it was clear that Seamus had scored an important victory. There were only four or five student Death Eaters left. Professor Flitwick hobbled to his feet and began firing at them with McGonagall as though the Defense Against the Dark Arts job should have belonged to him all along. Many of the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and loyal Slytherins had moved out into the open and were taking clean shots at their remaining opponents. Several Ravenclaws had jumped over the Slytherin bunker at its center and began taking out the remaining Death Eaters. Ginny joined their fire from her position behind the Hufflepuff table but at the last minute, something made her look to her left and make eye contact with Malfoy.

For a moment, the Slytherin continued to fire into the on-rushing crowds of students but then he stopped and looked over to see that his fellow Death Eaters were now separated from him by their broken defenses in the middle. His brow creased in consternation as he watched them close into a tighter and tighter circle. He turned around to look at Ginny far across the room almost as if he knew she would be looking in his direction. Then he raised his eyebrows once and disappeared out of the main door behind him.

"Malfoy!" Ginny cried. Shooting a few quick hexes to cover her path, she tore behind Ron and ran out toward the far end of the hall, stopping and nearly falling over when her brother grabbed onto her cloak.

"Let me go!" she screamed at him.

"No!" Ron shouted back as a hex hurtled between them and exploded into the wall behind.

Both brother and sister fired back across at the Slytherins at the same time that Ginny tried to remove her cloak and Ron held onto it tenuously.

"Don't try to stop me, Ron!" Ginny cried out, her face almost bleeding with fury. "I'm going after Malfoy! I have a score to settle!"

"Ginny, no, can't you see that's what he wants you to do? He'll lead you into a - "

But Ron did not get the chance to finish his sentence. With the angry cry of a tigress, Ginny yanked her cloak back and sprinted down to the back of the hall and then dangerously out toward the Slytherin table and the main door. All Ron could do was down a Death Eater who had been aiming at her exposed back and watch as his sister disappeared quickly out of the hall.

Ron kicked over a chair in frustration and continued firing shots over to the Slytherin side. He tried to run after his sister but the remaining Death Eaters had stunned several of their on-rushing attackers and proved far more resilient than he had hoped. Finally, they managed to stun them all but only after several precious minutes had passed.

An odd silence suddenly descended on the hall. The students who remained standing looked around at each other, looking uncertain as to whether any of the others would start to attack, the remaining Slytherins especially. They were still staring at one another, half in suspicion and half in disbelief when McGonagall bounded into the center of the room and stood up on the upper half of the Ravenclaw table, the only piece of furniture in the hall still left standing.

"Sonorus. All unharmed students fifth year and above will please join me. Professor Grubbly-Plank! Professor Sprout! I want you to take all injured students and all those fourth year and below, whether injured or not, to St. Mungo's immediately. You'll find an emergency portkey under the portrait in the antechamber off the front of the hall."

McGonagall had barely finished when as cacophony of cries, moans, and protests resounded around them. Most of the moans came from the injured. Several students wanted to stay with their friends but there was little time to lose. With the help of many of the older students, Grubbly-Plank and Sprout urgently carried the wounded back to the portkey. One voice, however, continued to cry out.

"Professor!" shouted Neville. "Professor, please!"

Ron ran quickly over to find Neville still holding Luna in his arms. Her face was now covered in crusty boils and nearly unrecognizable. Thankfully she still seemed unconscious, although Ron was very worried to see that she was no longer moving. Neville was completely beside himself. Tears running down his cheeks, he kept trying to revive her which Ron was not at all sure was a good idea. They were shortly joined by McGonagall who rushed over with surprising agility and studied Luna with concern.

"She'll never make it as far as St. Mungo's!" said Neville pleadingly.

McGonagall gave a curt nod in reply. "Weasley, Longbottom, get her into the fireplace and floo her to Madam Pomfrey. Then come back immediately. We need you!"

Ron carefully took hold of Luna's shoulders. Neville seemed in a momentary daze before taking hold of her feet. They quickly carried Luna into the fireplace and McGonagall threw a handful of floo inside.

"Hospital Wing!" she cried.

The chaotic scene in the Great Hall became shrouded in emerald smoke, then disappeared from Ron's eyes.

***

The corridors were eerily silent compared to the noisy cries of battle in the Great Hall. Ginny had trotted at first but then she realized that it was far more difficult than she had thought to pick up Malfoy's trail. He had gotten a significant head start on her no thanks to the over-protective chauvinism of her brother. As Ginny walked deeper down the corridors of the ground floor, however, she began to fear that Ron might be right. There seemed little hope of finding Malfoy and she might be walking into a trap. What was more, the battle in the Great Hall was far from over and her help was greatly needed there. She could see the door to the courtyard on her right and knew she wasn't far from the far end of the school. She was on the point of returning when she reminded herself that so much of the suffering in the Great Hall, not to mention the Memory Charms and the disappearing Muggles, had been caused by Malfoy himself. If he remained at large, then they could never be safe. Many more were going to end up like that girl.

Ginny felt a renewed surge of anger at the thought of her lifeless staring eyes. She clutched her wand firmly and turned to continue down the corridor.

Yet even as Ginny knew how important it was for her to find Malfoy, she scarcely knew where to begin. Perhaps she should try to make for the Room of Requirement. Hadn't Sirius said it was his main hideout? Or perhaps he had returned to the Slytherin common room?

No, both of these were far too obvious, Ginny realized. Malfoy could be anywhere in the castle by now and it was chillingly obvious from his performance in the Great Hall that the Death Eaters had trained him with a set of defensive skills which rivaled - if not surpassed - Harry's. If only -

Ginny stopped in her tracks again. Of course, the Marauder's Map! Why hadn't she thought of it before? The map wouldn't lie. That meant she had to return to Gryffindor Tower to retrieve it and she was now on the far end of the school, both in length and height. Nonetheless, it seemed her best choice. Her lips set in firm determination, she turned around to walk back again.

And then stopped for a third time.

It all happened very fast. There was a loud clatter just behind her. Ginny swung around and launched a quick volley of hexes. They just missed an unmistakable shock of a blonde hair before it disappeared around the corner of the corridor across from the courtyard door at a sprint.

"MALFOY!" Ginny shouted. She tore off toward the corner around which Malfoy had fled, her wand out in front of her like a gladiator's sword.

***

Ron flooed back into the Great Hall, a shaken Neville at his side. They had found Madam Pomfrey, who, it seemed, had had no intention of obeying Umbridge's request to assemble in the Great Hall. "I thought it was quite likely I would be needed here," she had told them. On seeing Luna, she had moved quickly into action. She had told a shivering Neville that Luna wasn't beyond hope but that she had been hit with a very nasty hex and that she couldn't make any promises. Following closely after Neville and Ron had been numerous other cases requiring urgent medical attention. Madam Pomfrey had darted around to each of them with superhuman speed. It looked very much like she needed help and both Ron and Neville had said so but Madam Pomfrey curtly shooed them away. Ron had led a reluctant Neville back to the Great Hall by floo.

Now that they had arrived back, things seemed almost more chaotic than when they had left. McGonagall had managed to gather all of the older students and many of the teachers but she was having difficulty calming everyone down. Ron was relieved to see Seamus among them although he seemed to be clutching his side and periodically wincing in pain. Many of the girls were crying and from looking around the hall, Ron could see that there were four or five students - most of them Slytherins - who had been beyond hope of taking to St. Mungo's. They deserved to be removed with dignity but Ron knew there wasn't time for that now. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Professor Harmon bending over Professor Sinistra, his head buried in his arms. It was obvious that there was nothing that could be done for her either.

Neville and Ron quickly joined the circle surrounding McGonagall, their voices adding to the protesting cacophony.

"I want to go back and stay with Luna!" Neville cried. "Madam Pomfrey can't do it all on her own!"

"What about Ginny?" Ron protested. "She tore off after Malfoy! I know he's led her into a trap!"

McGonagall's head darted around to all of the student appeals surrounding her, some to go on to St. Mungo's to look after their fallen comrades, others to be the first in pursuit of Umbridge, who had apparently escaped via floo early on in the battle. Others wanted to storm the Slytherin common room where they were certain the rest of the Death Eaters were hiding. Finally, McGonagall raised her wand in the air and succeeded in letting off an ear-splitting bang.

"Silence!" she roared. "We will accomplish nothing if we carry on like this!"

And silence quickly followed.

"Right," she added quickly. "Mr. Longbottom: if you want to help Miss Lovegood, the best thing you can do is help to stop those who injured her. I know from long experience that Madam Pomfrey can work wonders when no one harasses her and can do very little when they get in her way."

Neville looked about to protest again for a moment but then nodded reluctantly.

"Mr. Weasley," she added in a business-like manner, "you and Mr. Longbottom will go to look for Miss Weasley. Mr. Finnigan, do you feel up to joining them?"

Seamus quickly took his hand away from his side and straightened his back.

"Yes, Professor."

"Good. Mr. - wait!" she cried as Ron made to leave quickly, wand in hand. "I have not finished all of my instructions, Mr. Weasley. You're not going to help anyone by going off half-dressed for battle."

"What? But I - "

"Mr. Sloper, Miss Patil, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Hall, you will proceed cautiously to the Slytherin common room where you will find a number of stunned Death Eaters, courtesy of Mr. Weasley. Make sure that they remain that way. Professor Flitwick, do you feel up to joining them?"

Flitwick, who looked as though he was still limping, nonetheless nodded enthusiastically.

"Miss Abbot, Professor Trelawney, and Professor Harmon," McGonagall went on, "you will come with me - Pro - Professor Harmon?"

McGonagall swung her head around to find Harmon still bent over Sinistra. She swiftly but gracefully moved over to his side, knelt down, and touched his back.

"Counselo?" she said very gently. "Counselo, I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do for her now. We need to capture the ones who did this to her and prevent them from hurting anyone else."

Harmon hesitated for a moment but then got to his feet along with McGonagall. He looked back at her with an expression that seemed a horrible cross between bewilderment and sadness.

"I'm sorry, Minerva," he said after a pause. "You're right, of course. It's - well, it's all a bit of a shock. I remember we were friends for years but, of course, that's all a lie really, isn't it? I'm not really a Hogwarts teacher at all, am I?" Harmon looked back at McGonagall almost like a child hoping to discover that his fears were all make-believe.

McGonagall put a hand on his shoulder in response and regarded him with an expression that brooked no contradiction.

"Professor Harmon, whatever has or has not really happened, you are and will always be a Hogwarts teacher. Now, I need your help. Miss Abbot, Professor Trelawney, you, and I will go after Umbridge. I've an idea she might be hiding in her office because she thinks we won't be able to enter. She won't find it that simple, however," McGonagall added, her lips curling up in a hint of a smile. "The rest of you will stay here and keep guard. And as soon as we've flooed up to the headmaster's office, I want these fireplaces destroyed. I don't want any more uninvited guests dropping in. All of you be on the alert! We don't know how many of them there still might be or where they might be hiding. Understood?" McGonagall was met by a chorus of nods. "Good, now let's get on with it."

***

Ginny emerged around the corner of the hallway, her wand out first and firing blindly. As the rest of her body followed, she found that Malfoy was nowhere to seen. She stopped quickly and tried to listen over the pounding of her heart to what the clattering of her feet had obscured: Malfoy's own footsteps. It sounded like he must have already reached the other hallway around the next corner, though Ginny was amazed at how much ground he had covered in such a short time. She moved forward again but this time at a cautious trot rather than full speed. She was fairly sure there was nothing around that corridor but a dead end that led to a large window which overlooked the mountains behind the rear of the castle. She had him trapped and she knew that once cornered, he would be that much more dangerous to catch.

Ginny slowed as she reached the next turning. She had heard no crash of glass. She knew that Malfoy would be standing in the alcove waiting for her. She pressed herself against the stone wall at the end of the hallway and quickly peered around the corner.

But there seemed to be no one there. The rising moon just behind the window revealed every hidden corner of the alcove and none seemed to be hiding anything, let alone a person of Malfoy's stature. Carefully walking around the corner to look properly into the alcove, Ginny could see that if appearances were to be trusted, her quandary had vanished. Ginny's eyes darted quickly around the alcove to spot anything she had missed: there were no fireplaces so he couldn't have gone out by floo. Ginny clearly heard him rounding the corridor; there was no way he could have entered any of the empty classrooms she had just passed. She was fairly sure that even Malfoy couldn't Disapparate out of Hogwarts. A Disillusionment charm, perhaps? Ginny watched the walls in front of her carefully to see whether any of them moved. She was about to turn around and walk back down the corridor she had just come when her eyes rested on a small, ancient-looking wooden door just to the right of the window, slightly obscured in the shadows.

It seemed the only possibility really, though Ginny was certain that it didn't lead anywhere. It was small but not so small that it couldn't have admitted Malfoy if he had bent over. She crept toward the door and tried it only to find it was still ajar. Her heart accelerating quickly, Ginny pushed it open further and stuck her wand out into the open space. A winding staircase led up in front of her. The steps disappeared quickly around the corner but Ginny could still see the light from the moon behind them which meant that they couldn't go far.

Ginny hesitated for a moment, then slowly planted her right foot forward onto the steps as noiselessly as she could. She followed the staircase around to find that it quickly ended in what seemed to be a deserted classroom full of old Potions equipment. There were no lanterns in the room but it was fairly easy to see from the moonlight that shone through several windows stretching out across its horizontal length. Ginny considered adding her own wand light but then decided against it: she had been quiet so far and she did not want to alert Malfoy. She knew he must be in the room; there was no other place he could have gone.

Ginny stopped just inside the room and scanned the shadows carefully. When she could see no one, she crept forward very cautiously, wincing as her foot made contact with a creaky floorboard. She had no time to gasp when a large swooping noise rose suddenly up from behind her. She turned around to see Malfoy literally dropping from the ceiling like a bat, his long cloak pulled around him. A hex formed in her throat but her opponent was much, much quicker:

"Expelliarmus!"

Ginny felt her wand fly out of her hand and heard it connect against the far wall and roll to the floor. She was flung back as though pushed by a troll and landed hard on the floor against one of the classroom tables. Through a veil of stinging pain that smarted her eyes, she looked back up to see Malfoy standing in front of the door she had just entered, wand in hand and ghostly moonlight casting hideous shadows over his pale face.

"Hello, Ginny," he said.