Harry Potter and the War of Souls

Chapter 20

The Sword of Gryffindor

Someone was shaking him and calling his name. "Potter! What is the meaning of this, you fool!"

His head felt like someone had pinched it in a vise and whoever was yelling at him was only making it worse. He groaned and felt for his glasses but could not find them.

"Reparo," the voice Harry now recognized as belonging to Snape said. He heard a small sound in the corner then saw his repaired glasses being handed to him. Harry tried to sit up then felt a screaming pain in his leg.

"I think it's broken," he said, clenching his teeth.

Snape crept over to him and pulled a board off his leg. "In more than one place judging from the angles where it's laying. What is the meaning of all this?"

"I destroyed another horcrux."

"And took with it my entire office. Why did you have to do it in here?"

"I didn't know anywhere else to go. Do you have something in here for pain?"

"If I did, you blew it up. Hold still." With an undisguised expression of disgust, Snape aimed his wand at Harry's leg and concentrated. After a moment, Harry felt a warmth in his leg and although it was still very painful and stiff, he found he could at least move it.

"Thanks," Harry said, sitting himself upright.

"How long have you been in here?"

"I came in on Christmas."

"Three days, then. If I hadn't revived you, you'd have likely died."

"Then I owe you one," Harry said weakly.

"If you knew the whole story, you'd realize that you owe me far more than 'one.'"

"At least the horcrux was destroyed." Harry bit his lip, then asked, "How do I recognize them, Professor? I was in the Room of Requirements earlier-"

"Looking for horcruxes in the room where things have been hidden over the years?" Snape continued. "Yes, I'm sure that is a favorite room of yours. I've often wondered what else you put there other than my old potions book."

Harry paused. "I had no idea what that spell would do to Malfoy last year."

"That was certainly obvious. But you needn't worry about that room anymore. I searched it thoroughly over the summer as, I might add, did Dumbledore last winter. I found plenty of evidence that there are many more students deserving of detentions and expulsions than have ever received them, but there are no horcruxes. And-" he added as Harry began to say something "-I have retrieved my old potions book for myself."

"Good. If it had fallen into the wrong hands-"

"It did, all last year." Snape stood and looked around the remnants of his office. "Perhaps it best you're here anyway. I want you to get a message to Professor McGonagall immediately. There is something planned for Hogwarts. Nothing on a large scale but something very important to the Dark Lord. I wish I knew more, but He is displeased with me right now and has excluded me from His plans."

"Then what do I tell her to do?"

Snape sneered. "You don't tell her to do anything, Potter. She's the Head of the Order and will rightly decide for herself what to do. You just give her the message. Now go and remain on your guard. You may not have much time."

Harry stood, brushed himself off, then hurried from Snape's office without looking back. He bit into his cheek to help ignore the pain in his leg and found it failed him every few steps, causing him to limp and stumble. But at least he could move forward.

He found a flight of steps that were going upstairs but realized as he was climbing that the stairs were moving him even further from McGonagall's office. He finally got to her floor, then hobbled toward her office, wincing with pain in every step.

However, as he approached, he quickly realized that something was very wrong. The rounded staircase to her office was open and a wisp of smoke was trailing from the room upstairs. He heard a loud crash upstairs, then forgetting his pain, ran up the stairs two at a time. He paused at her partially opened office door and heard McGonagall say, "You won't have it. I will not allow you to have a single thing from this room."

A voice said, "I'll kill you if necessary. Now this is your last chance!"

Harry burst through the door and aimed an Incarcerous spell at the person closer to McGonagall. She used the distraction to fire off a spell at one of the other three wizards in the room, knocking one onto the ground, unconscious. But as she looked up and yelled, "Harry! Behind you!" she was hit with a stunner in the abdomen that knocked her against the wall where she fell to the ground.

Harry didn't know how she took that blast. He had swung around and was face to face with the death eater he recognized as Theodore Nott's father. Harry was hit with a blasting curse at the same time as he cast a similar one in Nott's direction. From behind him, he heard the wizard who had got McGonagall begin to utter a curse and dove out of the way just as the words "Avada Kedarva" erupted from his lips. The spell missed Harry entirely but hit Nott square in the chest. With a flash of green light, Nott crumpled to the ground, not far from where Harry now lay.

Harry found himself hit by another curse that knocked his wand from his hand. "Accio wand," he yelled, and realized that the death eater he had sent the Incarcerous spell at had somehow freed himself. He had stuffed something under his cloak and grabbed the other remaining death eaters. They ran from the room, sending blasting spells behind them.

Harry tried to get to his feet but his already injured leg failed him this time and he fell back to the ground. Realizing he had no ability to follow them, he crawled over to McGonagall. "Professor?" he said, gently patting her hand. "Professor?"

She was breathing but he could not revive her. So he began crawling out of the office and in exhaustion, all but rolled down her stairs. Once he got into the hallway, a student with Hufflepuff robes on ran over to him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Go get Madam Pomfrey," Harry said weakly. "Professor McGonagall is hurt. Tell her we had death eaters."

The girl's eyes widened with horror, but she swallowed hard and said, "I'll be right back."

Harry closed his eyes and thought it must have been only minutes later when he heard footsteps running toward him. He struggled to his feet, and told Madam Pomfrey, "She's upstairs. She was alive."

Madam Pomfrey gave him a quick glance then she ran up the stairs. The Hufflepuff student knelt beside him and asked, "Can I do anything for you?"

"No."

But she sat beside him anyway and he found he was surprisingly grateful for the company. They said nothing and although she seemed to want to ask questions, she contented herself to nothing more than occasionally asking if he wanted a drink of water or something to stop the bleeding on his head.

Harry put his hand to his head when she asked it. He hadn't even realized he was bleeding but he did seem to be more hurt than he realized. Finally, Madam Pomfrey came down with Professor McGonagall lying on a carrier suspended in air. It followed Madam Pomfrey without tipping in the slightest.

She stopped at Harry. "Can you walk?"

"I don't think so. I broke my leg."

"Here?"

"No, down in - down in the dungeons."

"How did you get up here?"

Harry knew he couldn't say anything about who fixed his leg. That would be too difficult, if not impossible, to explain. Instead he said, "I repaired it myself."

"What? Mr. Potter, even I would never attempt to heal myself." Madam Pomfrey waved her wand and a second cot appeared beside him. "Get onto that."

Harry wondered whether he'd look more ridiculous being suspended by cot into the hospital wing or crawling there on his own.

"Don't be absurd, Mr. Potter, get on the cot. You've gone this way plenty of times, only you've always been unconscious before."

"How's Professor McGonagall?" he asked as he rolled onto the cot.

"Lay down or you'll fall off." Madam Pomfrey waved her wand and the cot floated up, following her down the hall. "Professor McGonagall is badly hurt, but she's resting comfortably. Any other woman of her age would never have survived the stunner she took. I don't know what the headmistress is made of, but she's as tough as they come."

The Hufflepuff student who had sat beside Harry gave him a wave and a soft good-bye. He waved back, then laid flat down. He tried to relax but there was too much adrenalin still running through him. He should've gotten to McGonagall's office sooner, then maybe they would have won. Whatever was taken, Voldemort had it now. Voldemort is winning...

Madam Pomfrey gave Harry what he was beginning to think of as his usual bed. She dimmed the lights in the room and shielded Professor McGonagall's bed from view. Harry told himself to stay awake and wait for news on how she was doing, but as he waited, he found his eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

When he opened them again, the pain in his leg was gone. His upper body still ached, but a quick test of his limbs gave him assurance that everything was working.

Seeing he was awake, Madam Pomfrey walked up to him and folded her arms. "I fixed your leg properly. The repair before was done rather well, but you must have tried to walk or even run on it too soon." She looked at him a moment. "Are you sure you did that yourself?"

He nodded. "Yes, why?"

"Self-repair jobs are always apparent, even when done properly. Was anyone else in the dungeon with you?"

"No. Am I well enough to go now?"

She pursed her lips. "You'll stay the night here. The rest of the Hogwarts students have returned tonight for dinner and there will be too much commotion. I don't want you getting caught up in that. I'll release you in time for classes tomorrow morning."

She turned and began to leave, then Harry asked, "Is Professor McGonagall any better?"

"She is, and in fact, if you are well enough to walk over to her bed, she's asked to speak to you."

Harry tested his injured leg and found there was almost no soreness remaining in it. The pain he felt in walking came from his upper body, but it was only a short walk to McGonagall's bedside.

She nodded curtly at him as he entered and said, "Sit down," motioning to a chair beside her bed. "How are you?" she began.

He shrugged. "No worse off than usual. And you?"

"Madam Pomfrey's going to find herself out of a job if she doesn't release me soon," McGonagall said. "There is a welcome back feast about to start very soon and I intend to be there."

"I'm here until morning," Harry said.

"I had a message from Remus Lupin a few days ago. He has asked if you could receive extra training in Defense Against the Dark Arts. If Professor Weasley agrees to tutor you, would you be able to train with him?"

Harry nodded enthusiastically. "I'd love to do that!"

She smiled. "You're a remarkable duelist, Mr. Potter, unusually good for your age. Without you, the damage might have been much worse."

"How did they get in?"

"Mr. Nott may be a death eater, but he has a son attending this school. Thus, he was able to get through the normal security barriers. He initially approached me claiming he wished to discuss his son's education, but then the others he had snuck through with him emerged. They demanded, and were able to get away with something you might find rather interesting."

"What?"

She frowned and looked steadily at him. "Mr. Potter, do you have any explanation for why four of Voldemort's death eaters would be so interested in obtaining Godric Gryffindor's sword?"

It took Harry a moment before he was able to speak. Finally, he said, "Professor, I've got something to tell you, but it's going to take long enough that you won't make it to that welcome back feast. Have you ever heard of a horcrux?"

-----------------------------------

The next morning, Harry was released from the hospital wing early enough to get in a much needed shower and change to fresh clothes. He didn't see Ron or Hermione until he was on his way to breakfast.

"Finally out of the hospital wing, are you?" Ron asked, clapping him on the shoulder.

Harry gasped slightly (there was still some tenderness in his back), then said, "You knew?"

"Not at first. It took asking enough people until Hagrid finally told us. We tried to get in to see you but Madam Pomfrey gave strict orders that nobody was getting in. We sort of heard what happened though. There was this girl from Hufflepuff House who told anyone who'd listen about her moment in the Harry Potter spotlight. She made it sound as if you two practically snogged."

"I never touched her! Does Ginny know?"

"Of course Ginny knows," Hermione snapped. "I don't know why you ever broke it off with her for the good it did either of you. Listen, we did hear something happened in McGonagall's office, but don't know what it was."

It's a long story." Harry pulled them aside and began with the locket from Aberforth Dumbledore.

"I thought they might be brothers," Hermione said.

"Oh, you did not," Ron said. "If you'd have thought that, you would have told us."

"I don't tell you everything I think, Ron, and in your case that's probably a good thing."

"Anyway," Harry continued. "There's more." He went on to describe the locket's destruction, Snape finding him and getting him to look for McGonagall, the death eaters in her office, and the battle that had taken place there.

"You killed Theodore Nott's father?" Ron asked.

"No!" Harry said. "The death eater aimed for me, but got him."

"That's not how it'll come out when people hear of it," Hermione said.

"What do I care?" Harry said, a bit too loudly. He lowered his voice. "People are going to believe what they want. The thing is, they came for Gryffindor's sword, and they got it."

"The sword you used in the Chamber of Secrets?" Ron asked. "Is it a horcrux then?"
"It can't be," Hermione said. "Harry, I don't think Tom Riddle ever had access to that sword. You summoned it, probably from the locked room beneath your parents' home. Since then, it's been in Dumbledore's office. It couldn't be a horcrux."

"But why would they want it otherwise?" Harry asked. "It doesn't have any real value to Voldemort, just the symbolism of having belonged to Godric Gryffindor."

"Let's go eat," Ron said, pulling Hermione by the hand. "Anything we need to figure out will be better done on a full stomach."

Harry found Ginny immediately once they were in the Great Hall. She was sitting across from Seamus but talking among a large group of friends so he hoped Seamus' presence near her was meaningless. He walked up to her and touched her shoulder.

"Can I talk to you a moment?"

She turned and her smile quickly faded. "Harry? I knew you were hurt, but I didn't realize how badly."

"No, I'm fine. Can we talk?"

"Sure." She swung around on her seat and followed him to an area of the table where nobody else was sitting. "I tried to get into the hospital wing last night," she began, "but Madam Pomfrey wasn't budging."

"It's okay. Listen, thank you for the Christmas gift."

"Did you get it? Was it what we thought?"

"Yeah. I can't believe you found that."

"He didn't admit to having it at first, but Hermione and Ron reminded him that they had seen him last year with Dung. Hermione threatened to turn him into the Aurors, which only made him angry. Ron asked him how much he wanted for it, which was double what we thought it should have been, considering he couldn't possibly know what he really had. But, I think what really changed his mind was this." Ginny pulled a small firework from her robes. "This is one of Fred and George's. I convinced him that I was going to let off a whole box of them right there in his bar. That's when he said if we got the gold to him within twenty-four hours, he'd get you the locket."

Harry smiled. "Ginny, you're fabulous. Who'd have thought the Weasley Wheezes could ever be used for good? Well, anyway, thank you."

"You're welcome."

"And hey, that Hufflepuff girl from the other day-"

"Her name was Rose."

"Oh. Well I don't know what she's been saying-"

"You don't have to explain anything to me. She had her chance with you. I understand what that's like."

"It wasn't like that."

"Don't worry, I never believed her. I know you too well to think too much of her story." She looked over to where Seamus was now casting obvious glances at her. He seemed concerned that her conversation with Harry was running so long. "Anything else?"

He shrugged. "Are you with him now?"

"I dunno. Does it matter to you?"

"You know it does."

"Then I guess the ball's in your court, isn't it?" She patted his shoulder. "I'd better get back."

He turned and was met almost immediately by Neville, who was making such an effort to appear calm that his anxiety was painfully obvious.

"You okay, Neville?"

"Yeah I - er, my grandmother said she talked to you when you were at St. Mungo's. She told you about the memory spell on me."

Harry nodded. Now he was feeling as uncomfortable as Neville looked.

"Gran doesn't think I'll ever get my memory back. Maybe I'll never be great at remembering everything, but the truth is, I've remembered about my parents for a few years now. It's why I'm fighting with you, Harry. I'm doing it for them."

Harry looked Neville in the eyes. "I'm doing it for my parents, too."

"Thanks, Harry. I'm really not sure why I told you that- " Neville flashed a quick smile "- Maybe I had a reason but I can't remember it. I guess I just wanted you to know I'm not afraid of my past anymore, and I'm not afraid to fight with you."

Harry felt strangely calm as he sat back down to eat. But Hermione, who was already buried in her morning edition of The Daily Prophet, changed that. "Just what I thought," she told him. "They don't care about the truth, only about how it can help them make sales."

Harry grabbed the paper and saw his picture on the front page. The headline read, "The Chosen One emerges in Hogwarts battle." Below the headline, he read a brief summary of Nott, a suspected death eater, coming to the school and sneaking in three other death eaters. "They are believed to have sought after some object located at the school, but our sources have refused to confirm whether or not this object was ever obtained. However, we have learned that Nott's death came at the hand of Harry Potter, who has been working closely with Minister of Magic this year in defeating He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"Rubbish," Harry said, tossing the paper aside.

"Does it matter so much?" Ron asked. "I mean, it's just as you said. People will believe what they want to believe."

"The rest of the wizarding world can believe what they want," he answered. "It's just that I felt I was finally on working terms with the Slytherin House. Now, if they believe this story, and they've got no reason not to believe it, everything will go back to the way it was when Malfoy was here."

"What bothers me is their claim that you're working with the Ministry," Hermione said. "I think people are going to believe you have answers to things you don't. There is one interesting thing, though. Listen." She read, "Our reporters did speak to one Percy Weasley, who is reportedly a close friend of Harry Potter's and a trusted official high within Ministry ranks. He has remained unusually tight-lipped about this latest matter, prompting The Daily Prophet to wonder what Potter is planning next."

"What Harry's planning next?" Ron began.

"That's not the point, Ron," Hermione said. "Since when did Percy remain tight-lipped on anything? Why do you suppose he's suddenly gotten so quiet?"

"I dunno. I'll ask him the next time he's over to dinner with the family," Ron said with a grimace.

"There's one more thing," Hermione said to Harry. "We did a lot of reading over the holidays, on Inferi and such. I think Ron's come up with a plan to get us past them."

Ron picked up the story. "We found a passage in a book that says Inferi are drawn to living things with the hope of making them dead things. That's how their armies multiply anyway. So we need to divert them away from the box, giving you the chance to get down to the box."

"And what? Hope you all get away in time? No," Harry said firmly. "You're not sacrificing yourselves. There has to be another way."

"What if there's not?" Hermione said. "We have to get that box somehow."

"I've fought them," Harry said. "I know what's it like. And if it weren't for Dumbledore, I would have lost before. We're not doing that."

"Okay," Hermione said with a shrug. "We'll keep working on it. C'mon now or we'll be late for class."

Within a few days, everything seemed to have returned to normal, or as normal as Harry figured it could be.

He generally attended his classes but spent most of his spare time studying spells, researching Inferi, or reading up on ancient magic. The only class he ever paid much attention to at all was DADA, which Bill taught with increasing confidence and frankness.

"It's open question day," Bill said one day. "I want to talk about whatever you want to know. You ask, I'll answer as honestly as I can."

There were a few moments silence, then someone from Slytherin House asked, "The Cruciatus Curse. Does it really hurt that bad?"
"To be honest, I've never experienced it," Bill said. "But there are some in here who have. Raise your hand please if the Cruciatus Curse has been placed on you."

Harry raised his hand and looking over, saw Neville had tentatively raised his as well.

"Mr. Longbottom," Bill continued, "would you be willing to discuss it?"

Neville stood and looked at the ground. "You'd rather die than go through even one second of it. It's like pain in every cell of your body. Endure it long enough and you can go insane."

"Thank you," Bill began to say but Neville cut him off.

"That's what happened to my parents," Neville continued. "When I was just a baby one of His followers did that. She left them alive, but their brains are so addled they don't even recognize me."

There was total silence in the room. Harry couldn't believe Neville had revealed that. The conversation they had shared was one thing, but telling the entire class was another. Maybe that's what he had meant about not being afraid of his past anymore. Maybe it was time he talked about himself. Harry did notice that when Neville sat, he seemed to be sitting taller, as if he was glad to have finally said what he did.

After several seconds, Bill said, "Any other questions?"

"Is Draco Malfoy a death eater now?" another Slytherin asked.

Harry knew the answer to that question. He'd seen Malfoy with Pettigrew back at Godric's Hollow. And it was Malfoy's treachery last year that brought the death eaters into Hogwarts.

"It certainly seems that way," Bill said. "There's been a lot of talk about the Slytherin House since that happened. More death eaters have come from Slytherin House than from any other. Does that mean being in Slytherin gives you a predisposition for evil?"

There was more silence, then Millicent Bulstrode raised her hand and said, "It's about choices, isn't it? I mean, Draco made the choice to do what he did. That doesn't mean any other Slytherin has to do the same thing."

"Exactly!" Bill said. "And the time has arrived for each of you to choose. The days are gone when you can sit in the stands and watch the war play out in front of you. You may never have to actually fight, but there is no middle ground to stand on anymore."
"I heard the war isn't going well," Lavender Brown said. "I heard all the non-wizard races are joining Him."

"Like the dementors, the giants," Parvati added. "And who was that group you were telling me about, Lavender?"

"The Inferi," Lavender said with a visible shiver. "I heard there were Inferi."

"The Inferi are frightening," Bill said. "They cannot be killed because they're already dead. Their realm is in the water, which is a difficult battleground for those of us who have to breathe. But for short periods of time, they can emerge from the water to attack."

"How do we fight them?" Seamus asked.

"You cast a fire between yourself and them. They will not cross it."

"What if you're fighting them in the water?" Harry asked. "Fire won't burn in the water."

"You have to modify the Incendio spell," Bill said as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "Of course, the challenge is surrounding them with the fire. The natural movement of water makes it nearly impossible to keep the ring of fire intact and in the water, they can come at you from any direction, so you'd need to completely encircle them."

"So how do you fight them?" Harry asked.

Bill stared at him, then said, "Meet me after class, okay?"

After class had ended and the rest of the students left, Bill said to Harry, "Why the curiosity about Inferi?"

"I didn't bring it up. I was just asking more about them."

"Let's not play games. Harry, are you expecting to be fighting Inferi? Because if you're asking how to fight them, I'll answer you this way. Don't. If they come at you, cast a ring of fire around them and then get out of there. But if you can avoid it, don't start the fight."

"What if I can't avoid it?"

Bill sat on the edge of his desk and sighed. "You are expecting to fight them, then?"

"If I have to, I want to know what to do."

"The one thing we know about Inferi is they're not exactly the most complicated creature. They operate primarily on instinct. In fact, their only real goal is to kill. I imagine they're following Voldemort now because He promises them more death to feed upon than they might otherwise get."

"Is this the good news or the bad?" Harry asked.

"If it were me," Bill continued, "I wouldn't hit them with something traditional because they know how to get around that. I'd hit them with something that's more of a distraction. You remember when Umbridge was here. From what I hear, she had an answer for everything she expected could happen. It was when Fred and George began hitting her with things she didn't expect-"

"-like the portable swamp-"

"-yeah, that things began to turn around. Now, I don't know what that nontraditional something is, but if it were me, that's what I'd do. You can go now, Harry, but do yourself a favor. Choose another battle. Don't fight the Inferi."

"Yeah, thanks," Harry muttered.

"One more thing before you go. Professor McGonagall has suggested I spend some evenings working with you on dueling and defense skills. Are you interested?"

"Definitely."

"We'll start tomorrow night, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks."

Rather than his next class, Harry returned to his dorm and pulled out his trunk. He began looking through his things, wondering if he had anything "non-traditional" to use against the Inferi. He had a couple of old Canary Creams and some fireworks, and the fake wand Ginny had given him. He stuffed them deep into the pockets of his robe, figuring he'd think about them later. He grabbed the book Hermione had given him for his birthday, Curses you Never Heard of and How to Stop Them.

He took the book down into the common room and began looking through it. Most of the curses seemed to be intended for purposes other than what he would need for the Inferi. The best he came up with was a curse that for as long as five minutes, made anything that touched you automatically blast away. It was called the Erupto Spell and suggested to the wizard that it not be used more than once in any twenty-four hour period as it tended to drain a wizard's energy very quickly.

"I was going to suggest a waterproof fire," Hermione said a few days later as they were discussing possibilities for a plan. "Like Bill said in class, those are easy. But I don't know how to get one all around us when we're swimming, and to stay around us."

"It's hopeless," Harry said.

"Yeah," they agreed almost simultaneously.

Harry looked up at them and frowned. "What now?"