The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall was dark and scattered with stars, and below it the four long House tables were lined with disheveled students, some in traveling cloaks, others in dressing gowns. Here and there shone the pearly white figures of the school ghosts. Every eye, living and dead, was fixed upon Professor McGonagall, who was speaking from the raised platform at the top of the Hall. Behind her stood the remaining
teachers, including the palomino centaur, Firenze, and the members of the
Order of the Phoenix who had arrived to fight.
"...evacuation will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organize your House and take your charges, in an orderly fashion, to the evacuation point."
Many of the students looked petrified. However, as you and the Weasley boys skirted the walls, Ernie Macmillan stood up at the Hufflepuff table and shouted, "And what if we want to stay and fight?"
There was a smattering of applause.
"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall.
"What about our things?" called a girl at the Ravenclaw table. "Our trunks, our owls?"
"We have no time to collect possessions," said Professor McGonagall. "The
important thing is to get you out of here safely."
"Where’s Professor Snape?" shouted a girl from the Slytherin table.
"He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk," replied Professor McGonagall, and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws.
As you passed, faces turned in Harry's direction, and a great deal of whispering broke out in his wake.
"We have already placed protection around the castle," Professor McGonagall was saying, "but it is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and do as your prefects —"
But her final words were drowned as a different voice echoed throughout the Hall. It was high, cold, and clear: There was no telling from where it came; it seemed to issue from the walls themselves. Like the monster it had
once commanded, it might have lain dormant there for centuries.
"I know that you are preparing to fight."
There were screams amongst the students, some of whom clutched each other, looking around in terror for the
source of the sound. "Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood."
There was silence in the Hall now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums, that seems too huge to be contained by walls.
"Give me Harry Potter," said Voldemort’s voice, "and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight."
The silence swallowed them all again. Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry, to hold him frozen in the glare of thousands of invisible beams. Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and you recognized Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed,
"But he’s there! Potter’s there! Someone grab him!"
Before Harry could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors
in front of him had risen and stood facing, not Harry, but the Slytherins. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of
them with their backs to Harry, all of them looking toward Pansy instead, and
Harry, awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled
from beneath cloaks and from under sleeves.
"Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your House could follow."
YOU ARE READING
One Of A Kind ||A Fred Weasley Fanfiction||
Fanfiction(Y/n) Black, the daughter of Sirius Black, was nurtured by the Weasley family, forming strong bonds with all of its members. However, her affection ran particularly deep for Fred Weasley, the older twin. As time went on and their lives became intert...
