Dark Lords Daughter 3: Secret of the Moon

Total Lockdown

"Hey, you look happy." Harry commented his lips twitching into a half smile. I gasped in mock shock and swiped at him playfully we continued to climb the stairs.

"I'm always happy." I protested giggling slightly, but it was true my mood had vastly improved from the last few weeks.

"Okay okay I'm sorry." Harry laughed, our climb slowly coming to a halt as the crowd massed on the stairs.

"What's going on?" Harry wondered aloud, craning his neck to see to the front of the crowd.

"Probably Neville's forgotten the password again." Ron groaned.

"Hey!" Turning I was shocked to see the round face Gryffindor stood next to us.

"Oh, you there." Ron shrugged and returned his attention to the increasingly crowded staircase.

"Hi Neville." I greeted smiling at the accused boy, he  parted his lips to reply when he was cut off.

"Let me through, please. Excuse me, I'm Head Boy..." I was pushed sideways as Percy shoved past, he looked tense.

"Get back! All of you!" There was a sudden surge that sent myself and my friends stumbling backwards down a few steps. I listened carefully to the shocked whispers rising from the crowd.

"No one is to enter this dormitory until it has

been fully searched!" Searched? Searched for what? I turned to Harry and met his emerald gaze. Something was wrong. The crowd parted slightly and from it emerged Ginny her eyes wide.

"The Fat Lady... she's gone."

"Gone? She's a painting." I was baffled, what in the world was she talking about. Gone?

"Serves her right. She was a terrible singer." The second youngest Weasley sniggered.

"That's not funny Ron." Hermione scolded, the fizzy haired girl appearing from nowhere. I must ask her how she did that. From the front of the group Percy's attempt to keep the growing group calm fell on deaf ears. I felt someone's arm wrap around my chest and pull me to the side, against the large stone railing of the stairs. Peeking up I smiled gratefully to Ryan and began to untangle myself from his arms as two figures hurried past. Filch marched on in front of the second figure, causing shocked children to jump out of his way. Thinking quickly I ducked out from behind Ryan and rushed forward through the closing gap. Something was going on and I wanted to know what. Harry and the rest of my friends followed my lead as we surged to the platform at the top of the stairs. Dumbledore stood his back to us simply staring in shock. I soon found out why. Ducking u set the elderly wizards arm I gasped. Where the Grand Lady would have sat, her nose turned up and mouth drawn into a distasteful scowl, now was bare. Her frame ruined, the delicately painted greenery and stone pillars damaged beyond repair. Three long slash marks fouled the canvas stretching from corner to corner. Who would do such a thing?

"Mr. Filch." The Headmaster seemed to boom in the quietened stair.

"Round up the ghosts. Tell them to search every painting in the castle to find the Fat Lady." I glanced to the caretaker, but found his ragged brown coat staring back at me, his attention directed elsewhere.

"There's no need for ghosts, Professor... The Fat Lady's there." He lifted a boney finger , pointing across the vast expanse of the stairwell. In a sudden desperateness to see the missing woman the tangled mass of confused students surged forward in a tsunami of stumbling feet. I was swept up into the current. The close proximity of my fellow house members made me begin to panic as I lost control of my direction. Over the crowd I could hear Percy, his stern voice drown out by the march of flat bottomed shoes.

"Hey- mind where you're going! Slow down! You listen! I'm Head Boy!" I tried to pinpoint the familiar voice, spinning within the moving crowd. My heart raced and my breath grew shallow, a chilled sweat rising on my skin. I needed to get out.

   Spotting the third oldest Weasley, stationary in the corner of the moving mass, I called to him.

"P-Percy!" I stuttered the wind knocked out of me by a passing elbow. Hearing my plea he reached over and plucked my shaking form from its unplanned travels. Placing me behind him away from the danger of the stampede. Peeking out I searched for any sight of Dumbledore or my friends in the finally still crowd and I watched the conversation between the headmaster and the Gryffindor guardian. My heart tugged in empathy for the woman as she emerged dirtied and disgraced from behind a muddied hippopotamus.

"Dear lady," Dumbledore cooed.

"Who did this to you?" Her tear stained was red a puffy, her eyes terrified as they flickered over the crowds.

"Eyes like the devil, he's got. And a soul as dark as his name." She wailed, her previous gandeur and grace gone.

"It's him, Headmaster. The one they all talk about." Oh no.

"He's here, somewhere in the castle!" Please not-

" Sirius Black!" I sucked in a sobering breath, looking to my right I met familiar glass covered eyes their sparkling emerald, now dull and bleak. Harry's expression said it all, a mixture of fear and interest. We knew he was in danger, we knew there was more to the story of Sirius Black. Harry was in peril and once again it was due to on of my relatives.

"Secure the castle, Mr Filch." Dumbledore frowned, stepping back towards our group his worried eyed focus on mine. His sparkle gone and his age showing in his tire expression.

"The rest of you...to the Great Hall."

(AuthorsNote- Phew! Finally finished this chapter :) had to write it twice due of a saving problem, but never mine :P Hope you guys like it :D Thanks for reading xx)