Matilda didn't dare breathe.
She found herself standing among the still crowd of Hogwarts students from all houses, dressed in a Hufflepuff robe to fit in, focusing her stare on the floor and keeping her head low.
Snape had ordered all students to report to the Great Hall. It was dark there... dim... it was awful. She didn't remember it like this. It used to be bright, and welcoming... full of laughing kids and delicious feasts. Matilda stared at her feet.
Luckily, she was pretty far back in the enormous group of students. Everyone was lined up, remaining silent, waiting in fear for the new Headmaster to say something.
Matilda didn't exactly have a plan yet... but she knew she was getting Snape out of that Hall no matter what. She had to. She had to get him out before she did anything else.
She heard his slow, echoing footsteps pacing all the way at the front of the huge room.
"I have asked you all here... for a reason," he spoke in a cold voice. "I have been notified... that Matilda Matlock was recently spotted in Hogsmeade."
Matilda felt Luna squeeze her hand by her side.
"I'm here to ask the students of this school..." Snape went on, and Matilda heard his footsteps starting again, "...to tell me at the present moment... if you have heard or seen any sign of Miss Matlock's location."
The only sound that followed his words was the man's slow, steady footsteps fading closer; Matilda concluded that he was starting down the middle of the parted sections, waiting for a response... no one offered it.
"Really?" he said lowly, and Matilda's eyes barely flicked up without moving her head to spot his black shoes visible up ahead through the legs of students in front of her. "It seems as if everyone has gone... quiet. No one has anything... to say? To confess?"
The students around Matilda who had just been with her in the secret room of Hogwarts did not utter a word. She felt a certain affection for them at that moment.
But what she was more concerned with was how Snape was getting closer and she hadn't come up with a plan of how to get him out yet.
Think, she ordered herself, think, think, THINK... he's surely about to do something mad... think, for god's sake, Matilda, DO SOMETHING-
Matilda faintly saw Snape's feet shuffle to a stop just up ahead. She kept her head low.
And right before she thought the man was certain to grab her by the arm and haul her up to Voldemort himself, the enormous doors to the Great Hall swung open.
Matilda saw the students across the hall all turn their heads to look behind them, and when they did, there was a chorus of small gasps and whispers. She looked up, still hidden within the crowd, able to see Snape's face (a face she hadn't looked at for a pleasantly long time), but more importantly, the faces that had just arrived in the room.
Fred and George Weasley were sauntering into the room, clutching their wands and grinning as if it weren't a life-or-death wizarding war.
Matilda's eyes went wide.
"Ah, good evening, Professor!" George greeted.
"We hope you don't mind our drop-in..." Fred added, twirling his wand in one hand, "...it's always nice to come back for a visit. Well, this is the first time, but don't be too upset with us, mate."
"You..." Snape uttered, his voice nearly a sharp whisper.
Fred and George walked further in before they came to a casual stop directly across from the man, George with his arms crossed and Fred standing right at his side, face turning darker.
"You don't have to ask these kids if they have anything to say," Fred said cooly. "We'll answer for you."
"Matilda isn't here," George said in a firm voice.
"And why... should I believe... you?" Snape said.
The twins looked at each other, then back at him. Fred stepped forward.
"Because we don't have any reason to lie to you," he said, staring the stone-faced Headmaster straight in the eyes. "We're here now. You'll sick the dogs on us whether we tell you anything about her or not. Isn't that right, Sev?"
Snape scoffed, but his face barely moved.
"You boys made a poor decision coming here tonight," he spoke.
Matilda swallowed, heart racing in her chest. She tightened her grip on her wand.
"Aw, come on, Professor..." Fred cooed, "...we brought the party for you!"
That's when a whole swarm of footsteps was heard from the doorway of the Great Hall. Everyone turned again.
Matilda twisted around to see the Order of the Pheonix walking straight into the room, wands in hand, eyes fixated straight forward at Snape.
She felt herself smiling... and she heard Luna and Ginny both release a breath.
Snape blinked at the new arrivals but didn't dare allow his expression to falter. He shifted back on his feet while the Order was positioning themselves at the back of the Hall, the students spreading wider to allow them to take over.
"If you need someone to give credit to for the invite, it was my brilliant idea," Fred said with a smile.
Snape looked back at Fred standing a couple of steps in front of George. "You have no idea what you've done..."
It all happened in what felt like a flash of light to Matilda...
Snape quickly wound his arm back and threw a spell at the boy-
Only for Eloise Baker to lunge out in front of Fred and block it a moment before it even brushed his shirt.
Many students gasped. Fred had looked away from Snape and down at the girl slowly straightening up in front of him. Snape was recoiling his arm and staring, wide-eyed, a look Matilda hadn't often seen on the man, at Eloise.
"Oh, I like her."
Charlie's voice emerged from the back of the Hall. He was smiling.
Matilda couldn't let anyone else's life become threatened right in front of her. She threw off her robe and pushed past Ginny to step out into the opening.
There was a moment when Matilda and Snape locked eyes with one another, and she didn't care about the chorus of gasps and shocked exclamations and whispers, all she seemed to be focusing on was tightening her grasp on her wand and not breaking eye contact with the Professor standing about ten feet in front of her.
"Matilda... Matlock."
"That'll be enough for tonight, Professor," Matilda said.
"No..." he uttered, raising his wand, "...this will..."
And he fired a blast of light towards her before a woman came stepping in front of the girl, striking it away with a firm jerk of her arm.
Matilda gulped at the sight of Professor McGonagall standing directly in front of her with an arm out to shield her student.
She was staring down at Snape, who was slowly lowering his arm.
Matilda was still trying to process what to do next, whether to push the woman aside to safety and attempt to hex Snape herself or watch as two Hogwarts teachers went head-to-head right in front of her when McGonagall suddenly fired another spell at Snape.
Matilda stumbled back a little while McGonagall stepped forward after seeing Snape hastily block her attack.
Then she sent another one. Another one. Two more blasts of white, then red, then white again... Snape scrambled to deflect them, stumbling backward on his feet.
He didn't fire back, no, he was watching the woman closely as McGonagall furiously attacked and attacked and attacked while getting closer and closer, driving the man backward as Matilda watched in stunned silence...
And then Snape fired a spell, but not at McGonagall, at the floor... a small exploding charm to send dust and fragments into the air, clouding their view of the man...
Only a few moments after the dust had cleared just enough, everyone in the Hall was watching as Snape had morphed into a hastening black streak of smoke that was headed straight for the back window...
CRASH!
Matilda's hand loosened around her wand as she watched the perpretrator escape through the now shattered glass high up on the Great Hall's back wall.
There was a moment of silence after he had done so; after the man was gone, and no enemy was left in the Hall, they were safe, for now...
And then-
"Matlock! You're alive!"
An explosion of noise followed Snape's leave, kids shouting and cheering and running up to Matilda with gleeful smiles painted upon their previously grim faces. Matilda was swarmed with rejoicing children ranging from the age of eleven to seventeen, all eager to witness her return.
While McGonagall was lighting the torches lined across the Hall's walls with a few waves of her wand, Ginny pushed her way through the crowd to a weakly laughing Matilda to hold up her arms and shout, "alright, alright, give her some space, you numbskulls, we want her to stay alive, don't we?"
The kids began to move back a little, giving the long-awaited Chosen One room to breathe, and that's when she saw McGonagall hurrying towards her with an anxious yet firm expression.
"Matlock," the woman said when she had neared enough, "you're back."
"Glad to be," Matilda smiled in relief at the sight of her Professor. "Thought I should at least slip in a visit after skipping this term."
McGonagall half-laughed, half-sighed and touched the girl's arm affectionately. "It's good to see you."
"You as well, Professor."
"What do you need from us?" she asked anxiously.
Matilda looked at Ginny to her left, and now Luna to her right, who had just sidled up to the girl.
"Time," answered Matilda.
"A whole lot of it," Ginny added.
McGonagall nodded. "We'll give you all that we can. Do you know what you're doing?"
"Sort of," Matilda said, "kind of... not really... but I do. I've gotten this far, haven't I?"
McGonagall hastily shrugged in agreement, half-turned already to kick off orders and get to work. "Be careful, Matilda."
Matilda nodded now, even though she couldn't possibly assure that, considering the task at hand. She watched McGonagall go and immediately begin shouting orders, commanding students, ensuring safety, running about the Hall with wand in hand. She was ready.
After her Professor, Matilda found herself approached by multiple members of the Order pacing up to her. Charlie, James, Lily, and Bill.
"Matilda," James spoke first. "Are you alright?"
"For now," Matilda replied. "How did you all...?"
"Fred said he had heard you three talking about Hogwarts through the wall back at our place," Lily explained. "When he was on bed rest, you know, 'cause of his injury... apparently, George had snuck this bag with them with an extension charm that had those... extendable ear things in 'em. Fred used it to listen in and conclude that there was a chance your next stop would be at Hogwarts."
"He said we needed to be here," Bill added.
Matilda found herself smiling. She looked past Lily's shoulder to see Fred off behind them, standing with Eloise, beaming at her in relief as she anxiously cupped his face and checked his body for dire injuries.
"He is pretty incredible, isn't he?" Matilda said.
"I hate to admit it..." Ginny sighed, crossing her arms, "...but I think my brother's past proving himself as Weasley-child-of-the-year-award."
Matilda giggled and caught sight of Fred interrupting Eloise's worried inspection of him by cupping her face and kissing her, making her shoulders relax and her hands reach up to rest on his chest. They pulled away, smiled, and embraced. Matilda looked back at the group huddled around her.
"We need to win this," she said firmly.
She saw Fred and Eloise tighten their hold on each other, Fred shutting his eyes and holding the back of her head while the tips of her sneakers brushed the ground.
"For everyone," she added.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
Matilda, Ginny, and Luna hurried down the main staircase of Hogwarts while the craziness of everyone preparing for war was whirling around them in the castle.
"So, this goblet," Ginny said as they scrambled down the steps, "are we positive it's in the Room of Requirement?"
"Absolutely, unequivocally positive," Luna responded.
"And I wouldn't doubt you for a second." Matilda could hear the smile in Ginny's voice.
"I don't know how much time we have till they get here," Matilda said once they reached the main landing, turning to her friends. "And we don't know what the last two Horcruxes are yet."
"Surely, we can figure it out in time..." Ginny said with a hesitant shrug, "...right? I mean..."
She visibly gulped. Matilda inhaled.
"Let's focus on the first task," she said. "The goblet."
"Wait!" Luna said suddenly.
Both girls looked at her.
"The Wooden Bridge," she said quietly, fear in her voice. "They can... they can get over here in an instant with it. Someone needs to cut their access off."
"Or just blow it up," came Seamus Finnigan's voice when he had suddenly ran up to the girls on the way down the stairs.
Matilda looked at him. "Blow it up?"
"McGonagall's ordered me to," he said with a huge grin. "I said I'd be more than happy to get the job done."
"That's perfect," Matilda said, a small wave of hope hitting her. "Won't that be a little difficult on your own, though?"
"He won't be alone." Harry emerged at Seamus's side, wand in hand, hair disheveled already.
"Potter's giving me a hand," Seamus said, slapping Harry on the back.
Matilda looked at her boyfriend. "Promise me you'll be careful?"
"I promise," he replied firmly.
She touched his arm and had to swallow a little to say her next words. "Promise me I'll see you again?"
He cupped her face in his hands and pulled her into a kiss, causing Matilda to shut her eyes and savor it for the little time they had because she did not know if she would be able to receive another one by daylight.
He broke apart and looked her in the eyes. "I promise."
Matilda nodded quickly and he smiled just before Seamus patted him on the back again to get him moving, and the boys were off, Matilda watching them go and Harry touching her hand for as long as possible before he was out of reach, running down the steps alongside his whooping and hollering friend.
Matilda turned back to her two friends, heart racing nervously. Luna touched her arm.
"He'll be alright," she said soothingly.
Matilda swallowed and nodded. "Let's just get to the Room."
So the girls charged ahead, wands in hand and footsteps fast against the stone of the castle's floor. They weaved through hasty students running about the school, calling to each other, embracing before scattering in different directions, asking Professors how they should be helping. Students preparing for combat.
"This goblet better be patiently waiting for us on a table right by the door," Ginny huffed as they reached the seventh floor.
"The Room can shape into anything..." Luna said, "...You-Know-Who could've hid it in a crowded space to obscure it more easily."
"We're bound to face Voldemort at one point or the other, babe..." Ginny replied to the blonde, "...you might as well use his real name."
Matilda heard Luna inhale as they paced down the nearly empty hallway. "We're going to face Voldemort and we're going to beat him."
"That's my girl," Ginny smiled.
The trio reached the end of the corridor and turned to see the Barnabas tapestry draped upon the wall across from the blank one that always seemed to open for Matilda... it was always reliable for her.
They stopped in front of the wall, looking up at it.
"What if it doesn't open?" Matilda found herself saying, for every worst-case scenario was hitting her that day.
"You're the brains, here..." Ginny said, "...do you think it... won't?"
"Just wait," Luna spoke calmly.
There was a moment in that quiet corridor as the girls stared at the stone wall before suddenly, the bricks jolted to life before their eyes. Matilda smiled.
They watched in silence as the stone shifted against itself, rolling back and allowing for an opening to reveal a chamber door that stared right back at them.
The dust from the moving bricks settled, the door sprouted a handle, and Matilda stepped forward to coil her hands around the cool metal of it.
She turned to look at her friends standing behind her.
"What if it's not in there?" she said what she had been thinking about in a quiet voice. "What if we don't get the chance to destroy it?"
Ginny stepped closer to her best friend. So did Luna.
"Then we'll be here for whatever the next step is," said Ginny firmly.
Matilda swallowed, nodded, and looked back at the door, tugging it open a moment after.
They entered the room to find themselves engulfed in a sea of what looked like a crowded, untamed storage room. There were piles of objects, towering towards the ceiling, shelves and wardrobes and cabinets, hanging curtains but barely any windows, perhaps a few hidden somewhere due to the dim streaks of blue evening light, silver, metal and copper glimmering in the dark.
The door slowly shut behind the girls and Matilda looked around, gripping her wand and starting forward. She heard her friends' footsteps follow.
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through Matilda's scar and she groaned, clutching her forehead.
"What?" Luna asked quickly, touching the girl's shoulder. "What is it? It's hurting?"
Matilda bit her teeth, trying to calm the pulsing pain under her skin. She shut her eyes tightly and breathed in, letting it fade out a bit, just enough to speak without clenching her jaw.
"I... I think he knows I'm here," she managed to get out while the girls anxiously watched her. "I felt another emotion of his... I think... he's happy."
Luna slid her hand down to Matilda's arm, comforting the girl as she slowly straightened back up, inhaling steadily and regaining a sense of peace again... but only peace in her forehead. Not underneath it.
"All the more reason to find this thing, and fast," Ginny pointed out.
They began to search the area, peering into shelves and drawers, trunks and rolled carpets, scouring the area for a goblet of any kind.
"You were right, Luna," Ginny said, "he must've wanted it to be buried pretty damn well even after someone could've boiled the location down to this room."
"I know it's in here." Luna's voice was crisp in the quiet, echoey space as she peeked over a stack of books into a hidden pocket of space. "What else could he have been referring to when he wrote 'the place where all is found'?"
"The Holyhead Harpies' locker room?" Ginny smirked.
"Not sure if right now is the time for jokes, Gin," Matilda whispered, but she was smiling a little.
"It's always a time for female anatomy jokes," Ginny whispered back as she checked inside a dusty drawer.
"I just knew the Weasley girl was a dyke, didn't I, Goyle?"
The sound of Pansy Parkinson's voice caused all three girls to jerk back from scouring the surrounding space and turn forward.
Emerging from the shadows of the crowded room was Pansy Parkinson, Gregory Goyle, and Draco Malfoy, all with wands drawn.
Matilda slowly recoiled her hand from the trunk she had been searching inside and stood up, pulling her two best friends closer to her by their arms.
The three Slytherins stood across from them, Pansy's smirk as sneering as ever, Goyle reflecting this expression, and Draco in the center, clenching his jaw and blinking quite a bit as he stared at Matilda in front of him.
Her heart raced and she slowly removed her wand from her back pocket. Draco saw her do it.
"Aw, look..." Pansy cooed, "...I didn't even see that Looney was here too."
"Watch your mouth," Ginny growled through clenched teeth.
"What did you say to me?" Pansy retorted, eyes narrow behind her raised wand.
"You can call me whatever you want," Ginny seethed, then jutted her head to Luna, "but keep her out of your mouth."
Pansy clenched her jaw. "You little-"
"That's enough, Parkinson," Draco snapped.
His voice was quiet and cold. His eyes hadn't left Matilda's since he came into view.
"Long time, no see, Malfoy," she greeted cooly. "What brings you in here tonight?"
"I could ask you the same thing." Draco tightened his grip on his wand, but something told Matilda that he had no intention of using it.
Matilda merely shrugged. "Just thought I'd look around at the school one last time... in case I didn't get the chance again. You know."
She saw him swallow, hard.
"Drop your wands," Draco ordered.
Matilda did not blink.
"He said drop your bloody wands!" Goyle spat.
Matilda hesitated, then slowly lowered to the floor to place her wand down, glancing back at Ginny and Luna to signal for them to do the same. Ginny flashed her a brief look of you got a plan here?
They straightened back up. Draco shifted on his feet.
"Leave me be," he then told Pansy and Goyle hanging at his sides.
Pansy looked at him. "What? Why do you-"
"I want to deal with Matlock myself."
While Matilda's heart twitched in her chest, Pansy tried again: "but there's three of them in here-"
"I said... leave. Me. Be."
There was a moment; then, a glance shared between Pansy and Goyle behind Draco's head, before the two lowered their wands and stalked past the three girls facing the end of the blonde boy's wand and towards the door far behind them.
Once they had heard the distant shut of the chamber door, Matilda swallowed and awaited for Draco to step closer, to cast a curse, to do whatever he was to do in terms of "dealing with her".
This could be it, Matilda. The end of the road.
Draco's hand was still and firm as it clutched his weapon aimed right at her between Ginny and Luna. He hadn't looked away from her yet.
"The wardrobe."
Matilda blinked. Her heart was still hammering uncontrollably in her chest.
"...What?"
"In the wardrobe," Draco repeated, jerking his head to the right without tearing his eyes off of her.
Matilda looked at where he had motioned... the tall, dusty wardrobe standing near his left. She flicked her eyes back to him.
"The goblet," he said quietly.
She stared at him.
What?
He was... helping them?
She didn't speak... she just stared at him, trying to process all that was happening, trying to dig out some sort of emotion behind his dark eyes as they were fixated on hers. His nostrils were flaring a little in unsteady breaths. He was clenching his jaw but he didn't look angry. Maybe... just maybe... he was saying a lot at that moment without opening his mouth...
"Are you going to take it or what?" he spat, and that's when he flicked his eyes around the room as if there were surely Death Eaters buried in every nook and cranny.
Matilda swallowed and jerked back to life, pushing aside the insanity of it all and forcing herself to move towards the designated wardrobe.
Ginny and Luna eagerly shuffled after her and watched the girl tug open the double doors to peer inside.
There, lying on its side upon the wood shelf, was a rusty, silver goblet, in the very same shade and style as the plate and fork stashed in Tom Riddle's old orphanage bedroom.
Matilda's eyes went wide and she lifted the object, feeling its cool metal against her skin, feeling rejoice wash over her. She jerked around to look at Draco behind her...
Only to discover that he was gone.
She stared at the place he had stood only moments before. "How did he...?"
"That's it," Ginny breathed, grabbing the goblet from Matilda's palm. "That's... it... did Draco Malfoy just... help us?"
"I believe he did," Luna spoke softly, staring at the item in awe.
"You think that's why he didn't say why he was in here in front of his goons?" Ginny looked at Matilda. "Because he was helping us?"
"It doesn't matter now," Matilda replied, quickly shutting the wardrobe doors and turning around. "What matters is destroying that goblet."
"Right," Ginny nodded.
The redhead placed the cup upon the floor, right-side up, while Luna recoiled the Sorting Hat from her shoulder bag to hand it to Matilda, who was ready to retrieve the Sword.
But before she could pull it out of the floppy hat, Luna blurted out, "wait!"
The two other girls froze and looked at her.
Luna looked around the room and gulped. "There's... a lot of things in here. You know... towers and towers of... hard, potentially dangerous objects... and only one fairly small door to escape. Perhaps we should do this in a less vulnerable spot, instead of the potential blast of destroying this thing causing us to be buried alive, or knocked out cold?"
Matilda looked around and did indeed, see her point. She recoiled her hand from the hat and nodded. "Good point. Probably not the best place. We could try the courtyard, or... even the Great Hall."
"How do you think of this stuff?" Ginny shook her head in admiring disbelief at Luna, who simply blushed.
"If you looked around, you could see it too..." she teased the redhead.
"Come on!" Matilda urged, already heading for the exit.
The three girls hurried to the door and soon shoved it open, stumbling back out into the corridor, goblet in hand.
They straightened up and brushed themselves off a bit from the dusty room, hearing the ka-chunk of the chamber door behind them and the gradual shifting of the bricks breaking off access. Matilda glanced down at the goblet in her grasp and smiled in utter relief. One more found.
When she looked back up, she saw two people skidding around the corner in front of them... Hermione and Ron.
She smiled at the sight of them but her brows knitted in curiosity when Hermione was running up to her with something clutched in her own hand.
"Mione, what're you-?" Ginny started, but she was cut off.
"Tillie," she panted once in front of the girl. "I was looking for you. Did you find it? The goblet?"
Matilda lifted the cup for her to see. Hermione sighed in relief.
"Oh, thank Merlin, thank Merlin..." the girl breathed as Ron sidled up next to her.
"Is everything alright?" Matilda asked. "What's that in your hand?"
Hermione lifted her own item to reveal that it was a small vile with her thumb tightly covering the top. Inside was a tiny bit of clear liquid.
"This," Hermione said, "is snake venom."
"Not just any snake," Ron added grimly.
Matilda flicked her eyes between the two of them in confusion.
"He was here," Hermione spoke quietly.
Matilda's heart dropped to her feet. She didn't need to hear a name for "he".
"At least, we think he was," Ron added. "You see... we asked around, and a couple of the students who've been around here in the past year, you know, with Snape and all the scumbags walking the halls, have said that they once overheard him talking to another Death Eater about... Voldemort. And a snake."
"And we were just looking around the castle," Hermione continued on, "looking for any places that any possible Horcruxes could've been hidden, and, you know, checking on younger kids running about the halls and all that, and... well, we got to a pretty high floor when we heard something."
"Sputtering," Ron said quietly.
Matilda blinked. "What do you mean?"
"We followed the sound," Hermione said softly, and her voice seemed to be becoming more unstable. "And we found a girl up there. A young girl. In a back room. She... she was..."
Her voice broke off and she looked away, averting her eyes. Ron put a hand on her arm and explained for an attentive Matilda, Ginny, and Luna.
"She was dying," he said.
Matilda let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"She had blood coming out of her side," Ron went on softly, "and she was propped against a wall as if she had been pushed down. No one else was up there. It was too late to save her."
"What happened?" Matilda asked. "How could she have been...? There are no more Death Eaters around here, right? Snape left!"
Ron swallowed. "She had just enough left in her to tell us what happened."
Hermione sniffed and looked up again, regaining her ability to explain. "She said a snake attacked her. She said... that she was running to find her friends... she had lost track of where they were and she was searching... so she ended up pretty far-off from the main floors. And that's... that's where she saw him."
Matilda stared at the misty-eyed girl in front of her. "He... he was here?"
Hermione nodded. "Briefly."
"She barely got a few words out..." Ron went on, "...but she said he was there, he was there talking with Snape... and she tried to hide but they caught her. He sent the snake after her."
"She was so young." Hermione's tiny voice cracked.
Luna pulled the girl into a tight embrace. Matilda shook her head, raking two hands through her hair.
"I can't believe he was... just here..." she breathed, then looked up at Ron. "Why do you have the vile? Of the venom? How do you have it?"
"Hermione, as bloody brilliant as she is..." Ron laughed a little, a soft one while Hermione slipped from Luna's arms with another sniffle, "...collected some venom from the girl's bite after remembering how powerful it is. The little girl said it was a big, big snake."
"Remember Care of Magical Creatures?" Hermione asked quietly. "When Hagrid told us about the venom of Reticulated Pythons in the wizarding world? I concluded that it must've been that kind of snake from the girl's brief description... so I collected a sample."
"You really are brilliant," Ginny stared at Hermione in disbelief.
"Oh my god," Matilda breathed, staring at the vile. "It dissolves even the strongest of bonds."
"Bonds?" Ginny looked at her.
"Any bonds," Matilda said, taking the vile from Hermione. "Skin, organs, objects, metal, magical bonds..."
"Magical bonds... could be Horcruxes," Luna realized.
"You're amazing, Hermione," Matilda said to the girl, earning a small smile on her weak friend's face. "You're amazing, and... I need to test it."
"Test what?" Ginny asked.
"To see if it destroys the goblet," Hermione answered for her.
Matilda placed the goblet onto the floor of the corridor and motioned for the others to step back. They obeyed, watching her closely.
"I just need to see," she said, looking at the venom within the vile. "Maybe it can tell us how powerful this snake is."
They did not question her... they watched as Matilda stood up and turned to look back at them.
"Should I pour it?" she asked to no one in particular.
"Perhaps you should penetrate it, like a snake bite," Ron suggested.
"How do I penetrate it without anything to put the venom on?" Matilda scratched her head.
"I think I may have something..." Luna mumbled, digging through her bag.
She pulled out a small, glimmering dagger.
"You two really know what to pack in those things, don't you?" Ron flicked his eyes between Luna and Hermione.
Luna handed her the dagger and Matilda smiled a little and nodded in gratitude. She turned back to the goblet, inhaling slowly. She then dipped the tip of the dagger into the venom, recoiling it carefully so as to not get it onto even her jeans.
Before she crouch to the goblet, she heard Ginny exclaim, "wait!"
She turned to look at the redhead in question. Ginny swallowed.
"Let me do it."
Matilda blinked. "What?"
"Let me do it," Ginny repeated, stepping forward. "Tillie, destroying the first one nearly broke you. You need all your strength. Let me at least take care of one."
Matilda swallowed, standing back up. "But... Gin, you might-"
"Hand me the dagger, Tillie," Ginny said firmly, extending her hand.
Matilda felt worry sting her, but she saw the look on her best friend's face and it said I'm not taking no for an answer. Ron looked at his sister in a panic.
"Ginny... wait, Gin-"
"Can it, Ron," Ginny huffed, grabbing the dagger as Matilda stepped aside in silent awe.
"Ginny..." Luna pleaded softly, "...please... please be careful..."
Ginny stood before the goblet, knife in hand, stance firm and tall. Only when she lowered on one knee in front of the goblet did it waver.
"Let's hope this gives me bragging rights," she muttered.
Matilda watched her friend breathe in deeply as she stared at the cup looking back up at her. Her hand raised the dagger into position above the silver. Everyone else seemed to take another step back. Luna grabbed Matilda's hand and Matilda felt her friend's worry.
"You're a good friend, Ginny," Matilda spoke.
Ginny inhaled, raised her arm, and drove the dagger into the cup.
A blast followed her swing; one so strong that it sent everyone tumbling onto the floor and desperately covering their ears to muffle the screeching howl of agony that emitted from the swirling cloud of black smoke... a scream of frustration and defeat. It was not Ginny's.
Matilda felt her scar searing in pain... she was writhing on the floor, hearing herself shrieking in pain, but her voice sounded distant... the burning upon her forehead remained strong and persistent amidst the chaos coming from the shattered goblet.
Only after what felt like forever to Matilda did the cloud seem to settle, fading down and down and down, and with it, the pain in her scar pressing up into her fingertips. Matilda felt the cold, hard, floor of Hogwarts beneath her back and the long, strained breath that released from her parted lips.
It was getting quieter again. She heard the panting of her friends. She made out the scuffle of feet stabilizing themselves on the floor. And then, she opened her eyes to a hand. Ginny's.
Matilda felt weak but much better than when she had destroyed Voldemort's childhood diary. She took her friend's hand and was pulled up, slow and steady.
Ginny had dust in her hair and was heaving hard breaths, her hands trembling a little. Matilda stared at her in awe.
"You..." she tried to get words out. She couldn't.
Instead, she hugged her.
Matilda grasped the back of Ginny's hand and used her other arm to hold the redhead close to her; Ginny embraced her back just as tightly and Matilda made out her soft laugh that was a little muffled in the hug.
They pulled apart.
"Cheers," Matilda smiled.
Ginny laughed again... a tired one. "I do what I can."
Luna hurried to the redhead and brushed down her hair, cupping her face and inspecting her for injuries. Ginny smiled and hugged her too and ended it with a firm kiss on the cheek that had Luna smiling a little as well.
The goblet was laying far behind them, cracked down in the center, pieces of it scattered about from being destroyed. A tiny whisper of black smoke was drifting up from its split. Matilda turned back to her friends.
"You did it, Ginny," Hermione said to the girl. "You did it."
"One more down," Ron huffed.
"Come on," Matilda told the group. "We have to keep moving. No time to waste during war, is there?"
They started down the corridor, Ron and Hermione up ahead, the trio not far behind.
"Tillie," she heard Luna say softly, "that snake... I think that snake is more special than we believe it to be."
"More special than having the power to destroy Horcruxes?" Ginny scoffed.
"Exactly that," Luna said. Matilda listened attentively. "Wouldn't Voldemort want something as strong as that as at least one of his soul-savers? Something... always close to him?"
Matilda stopped dead in her tracks. Luna and Ginny did too... Luna faced the girl.
"Luna..." Matilda said quietly, "...you mean...?"
"I think the snake is a Horcrux," Luna said with confidence.
Ginny's mouth slowly opened.
"Think about it..." Luna pressed, "...Hermione and Ron were told by those kids that they heard about the snake and Voldemort together. Like they're a pair. He keeps it close. And after seeing what that venom could do to the goblet... surely, there's a reason he keeps it around...?"
"We have to kill it," Ginny said quickly.
"Don't have to tell me twice," Matilda breathed, her blood running cold.
But how?
The thought of having to kill that enormous, deadly snake that was always by Voldemort's side made her feel lightheaded. She walked forward again to keep herself moving and not passing out.
"We'll kill it," she said as the girls fell into step beside her once more. "We'll kill it one way or another. Like it or not, he and his army are going to get in here somehow... and when they do, we'll be ready."
They would be ready.
They had to be ready.
Matilda had to defeat him... for everyone.
For Odell... for Dumbledore... for her parents... for that little girl.
The only question lingering on the girl's mind as she paced down the corridor of the darkened school of Hogwarts was...
If they were right, and the snake was one of the remaining Horcruxes... what was the last one?