The silence swallowed us again. Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry and me, to hold us frozen in the glare of thousands of invisible beams. Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and I recognized Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed, "But they are! The Potters are there! Someone grab them!"
Before Harry or I could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of us had risen and stood facing, not us, but the Slytherins. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to us, all of them looking toward Pansy instead, and I, awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and from undersleeves.
I stood on the table, with my wand outstretched, and said, "Pansy bitch, I always knew you were the weak link."
Her face contorted in fear and her eyes narrowed at me in hatred.
"Quite enough, Miss Potter. 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."
McGonagall ordered the houses to leave, all of the underaged wizards left with a few of the of-age ones. Following Harry, I ran up to our old spot at the Gryffindor Table where the Weasleys sat.
"Where are Ron and Hermione?"
"Haven't you found — ?" began Mr. Weasley, looking worried. But he broke off as Kingsley had stepped forward on the raised platform to address those who had remained behind.
"We've only got half an hour until midnight, so we need to act fast! A battle plan has been agreed between the teachers of Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix. Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall are going to take groups of fighters up to the three highest towers — Ravenclaw, Astronomy, and Gryffindor — where they'll have a good overview, excellent positions from which to work spells. Meanwhile Remus" — he indicated Lupin — "Arthur" — he pointed toward Mr. Weasley, sitting at the Gryffindor table — "and I will take groups into the grounds. We'll need somebody to organize defense of the entrances of the passageways into the school —"
"Sounds like a job for us," called Fred, indicating himself and George, and Kingsley nodded his approval.
"All right, leaders up here and we'll divide up the troops!"
"Potter," said Professor McGonagall, hurrying up to us, as students flooded the platform, jostling for position, receiving instructions, "Aren't you supposed to be looking for something?"
"Oh— yes! Sorry," I said and grabbed Harry's hand, sprinting out of the Great Hall.
I sensed eyes following us as we ran out of the Great Hall again, into the entrance hall still crowded with evacuating students. I allowed us to be swept up the marble staircase with them, but at the top, we hurried off along a deserted corridor. Fear and panic were clouding my thought processes. I tried to calm myself, to concentrate on finding the Horcrux, but my thoughts buzzed as frantically and fruitlessly as wasps trapped beneath a glass.
"Where's Ron and Hermione?" I whispered, feeling great panic in my chest along with the ever-present pain from my scar.
"I– I don't know," he said.
Slowing down, we came to a halt halfway along an empty passage, where Harry sat down upon the plinth of a departed statue and pulled the Marauder's Map out of the pouch around his neck. Looking over, I could not see Ron's or Hermione's names anywhere on it, though the density of the crowd of dots now making its way to the Room of Requirement might be concealing them.
"Let me— I'm gonna try to focus on..."
"Okay," I breathed.
I felt Harry succumb to the pain and he leaned back against the cool stone wall. After a few moments, he snapped his eyes opened and looked excited.
"The ghosts!" he shouted and grabbed my hand, dragging me through the corridor.
Harry and I ran through the entire castle on a wild goose chase looking for the Ravenclaw Diadem. We'd met up with multiple Hogwarts' Ghosts and even found Hagrid. After a little argument, Harry had with Aberforth Dumbledore, we sped down the corridor only to run into Hermione and Ron, both with their arms full of large, curved, dirty yellow objects, Ron with a broomstick under his arm.
"Where the hell have you been?" I shouted.
"Chamber of Secrets," said Ron.
"Chamber— what?" said Harry.
"It was Ron, all Ron's idea!" said Hermione breathlessly. "Wasn't it absolutely brilliant? There we were, after you left, and I said to Ron, even if we find the other one, how are we going to get rid of it? We still hadn't got rid of the cup! And then he thought of it! The basilisk!"
"What the — ?"
"Something to get rid of Horcruxes," said Ron simply.
Looking down at the objects clutched in Ron and Hermione's arms, I realized it was a large fang from the dead basilisk.
"But how did you get in there?" Harry asked, staring from the fangs to Ron. "You need to speak Parseltongue!"
"He did!" whispered Hermione. "Show him, Ron!"
Ron made a horrible strangled hissing noise.
"It's what you did to open the locket," he told us apologetically. "I had to have a few goes to get it right, but," he shrugged modestly, "we got there in the end."
"He was amazing," said Hermione. "Amazing!"
"So we're another Horcrux down," said Ron, and from under his jacket he pulled the mangled remains of Hufflepuff's cup. "Hermione stabbed it. Thought she should. She hasn't had the pleasure yet."
"Genius!" yelled Harry.
"It was nothing," said Ron, though he looked delighted with himself. "So what's new with you two?"
"I know what the diadem looks like, and I know where it is," said Harry, talking fast. "He hid it exactly where I hid my old Potions book, where everyone's been hiding stuff for centuries. He thought he was the only one to find it. Come on."
As the walls trembled again, he led us back through the concealed entrance and down the staircase into the Room of Requirement. It was empty except for three women: Ginny, Tonks, and an elderly witch wearing a moth-eaten hat, Neville's grandmother.
"Ah, the Potters," she said crisply as if she had been waiting for us. "You can tell us what's going on."
"Is everyone okay?" said Ginny and Tonks together.
" 'S far as we know," said Harry. "Are there still people in the passage to the Hog's Head?"
"Tonks, why are you here? You need to go back to Teddy!" I said.
"He's safe," she smiled. "It's okay, s' don't worry about it."
"Anyway, I was the last to come through," said Mrs. Longbottom. "I sealed it, I think it unwise to leave it open now Aberforth has left his pub. Have you seen my grandson?"
"He's fighting," said Harry.
"Naturally," said the old lady proudly. "Excuse me, I must go and assist him."
With surprising speed, she trotted off toward the stone steps and Tonks followed her.
"Ginny," said Harry, "I'm sorry, but we need you to leave too. Just for a bit. Then you can come back in."
Ginny looked simply delighted to leave her sanctuary.
"And then you can come back in!" I shouted after her as she ran up the steps after Tonks. "You've got to come back in!"
"Hang on a moment!" said Ron sharply. "We've forgotten someone!"
"Who?" asked Hermione.
"The house-elves, they'll all be down in the kitchen, won't they?"
"You mean we ought to get them fighting?" asked Harry.
"No," said Ron seriously, "I mean we should tell them to get out. We don't want any more Dobbies, do we? We can't order them to die for us —"
There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione's arms. I looked over to see Hermione running at Ron as she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.
"Is this the moment?" I asked weakly, and when nothing happened except that Ron and Hermione gripped each other still more firmly and swayed on the spot, I raised his voice. "OI! There's a war going on here!"
Ron and Hermione broke apart, their arms still around each other.
"I know, mate," said Ron, who looked as though he had recently been hit on the back of the head with a Bludger, "so it's now or never, isn't it? Besides, I've seen your smacking face with Fred!"
"Never mind that, what about the Horcrux?" Harry shouted. "D'you think you could just — just hold it in until we've got the diadem?"
"Yeah — right — sorry —" said Ron, and he and Hermione set about gathering up fangs, both pink in the face.
It was clear, as the four of us stepped back into the corridor upstairs, that in the minutes that they had spent in the Room of Requirement the situation within the castle had deteriorated severely: The walls and ceiling were shaking worse than ever; dust filled the air, and through the nearest window, I saw bursts of green and red light so close to the foot of the castle that he knew the Death Eaters must be very near to entering the place. Looking down, Grawp the giant was meandering past, swinging what looked like a stone gargoyle torn from the roof and roaring his displeasure.
"Let's hope he steps on some of them!" said Ron as more screams echoed from close by.
"As long as it's not any of our lot!" said a voice: I turned and saw Ginny and Tonks, both with their wands drawn at the next window, which was missing several panes. Even as we watched, Ginny sent a well-aimed jinx into a crowd of fighters below.
"Good girl!" roared a figure running through the dust toward them. It was Aberforth. "They look like they might be breaching the north battlements, they've brought giants of their own!"
"Have you seen Remus?" Tonks called after him.
"He was dueling Dolohov," shouted Aberforth, "haven't seen him since!"
"Tonks," said Ginny, "Tonks, I'm sure he's okay —"
But Tonks had run off into the dust after Aberforth. Ginny turned, helpless, to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and me.
"They'll be all right," I said, though I knew they were empty words. "Ginny, we'll be back in a moment, just keep out of the way, keep safe — come on!" I said to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and we ran back to the stretch of wall beyond which the Room of Requirement was waiting to do the bidding of the next entrant.
Out of nowhere, the door materialized on our third run past.
The furor of the battle died the moment they crossed the threshold and closed the door behind them: All was silent. They were in a place the size of a cathedral with the appearance of a city, its towering walls built of objects hidden by thousands of long-gone students.
"And he never realized anyone could get in?" said Ron, his voice echoing in the silence.
"He thought he was the only one," said Harry. "Too bad for him I've had to hide stuff in my time... this way," he added, "I think it's down here..."
Walking around the room, we passed the stuffed troll and the Vanishing Cabinet Draco Malfoy had mended last year with such disastrous consequences, then hesitated, looking up and down aisles of junk.
"Accio Diadem!" cried Hermione in desperation, but nothing flew through the air toward them. It seemed that, like the vault at Gringotts, the room would not yield its hidden objects that easily.
"Let's split up," Harry told us. "Look for a stone bust of an old man wearing a wig and a tiara! It's standing on a cupboard and it's definitely somewhere near here."
Going through different aisles, I could hear the echoes of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's steps through the towering piles of junk, of bottles, hats, crates, chairs, books, weapons, broomsticks, bats...
Deeper and deeper into the maze, I searched for the little tiara. Looking over books and crates and other forgotten and hidden items, there is no avail, I couldn't find it.
My breath was loud in my ears, and then my very soul seemed to shiver: There it was, right ahead, the blistered old cupboard and on top of it, the pockmarked stone warlock wearing a dusty old wig and what looked like an ancient, discolored tiara.
"Yes," I cheered to myself.
I had already stretched out my hand, though I remained ten feet away, when a voice behind me said, "Hold it, Potter."
I gasped and spun around to see Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind me, shoulder to shoulder, wands pointing right at me. Through the small space between their jeering faces, I saw Draco Malfoy.
"Malfoy," I breathed.
"Where's your brother, Potter?" Malfoy sneered.
"Right here, Malfoy," a voice said to my left. Snapping my eyes to Harry, I saw him with his wand outstretched towards Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
"That's my wand you're holding, Potter," said Malfoy, pointing his own through the gap between Crabbe and Goyle.
"Not anymore," panted Harry, tightening his grip on the hawthorn wand. "Winners, keepers, Malfoy. Who's lent you theirs?"
"My mother," said Draco.
Harry laughed, though there was nothing very humorous about the situation.
"So how come you three aren't with Voldemort?" I asked.
"We're gonna be rewarded," said Crabbe: His voice was surprisingly soft for such an enormous person; I had hardly ever heard him speak before. Crabbe was smiling like a small child promised a large bag of sweets. "We 'ung back the Potter Twins. We decided not to go. Decided to bring yous to 'im."
"Good plan," I said in mock admiration. Slowly I began edging slowly backward toward the place where the Horcrux sat lopsided upon the bust. If I could just get my hands on it before the fight broke out...
Harry seemed to catch my drift because he decided to continue a conversation with them.
"So how did you get in here?" he asked.
"I virtually lived in the Room of Hidden Things all last year," said Malfoy, his voice brittle. "I know how to get in."
"We was hiding in the corridor outside," grunted Goyle. "We can do Diss-lusion Charms now! And then," his face split into a gormless grin, "both you turned up right in front of us and said you was looking for a die-dum! What's a die-dum?"
"Are you talking to someone?" Ron's voice echoed suddenly from the other side of the wall causing me to jump.
With a whiplike movement, Crabbe pointed his wand at the fifty-foot mountain of old furniture, of broken trunks, of old books and robes and unidentifiable junk, and shouted, "Descendo!"
The wall began to totter, then the top third crumbled into the aisle next door where Ron stood.
"Ron!" Harry bellowed, as somewhere out of sight Hermione screamed, and I heard innumerable objects crashing to the floor on the other side of the destabilized wall: I pointed my wand at the rampart, cried, "Finite!" and it steadied.
"No!" shouted Malfoy, staying Crabbe's arm as the latter made to repeat his spell. "If you wreck the room you might bury this diadem thing!"
"What's that matter?" said Crabbe, tugging himself free. "It's the Potters the Dark Lord wants, who cares about a die-dum?"
"They came in here to get it," said Malfoy with ill-disguised impatience at the slow-wittedness of his colleagues, "so that must mean —"
" 'Must mean'?" Crabbe turned on Malfoy with undisguised ferocity. "Who cares what you think? I don't take your orders no more, Draco. You an' your dad are finished."
"Maisey?" shouted Ron again, from the other side of the junk wall. "What's going on?"
"Maisey?" mimicked Crabbe. "What's going — no, Potter! Crucio!"
I lunged for the tiara, missing the curse, but it hit the stone bust, which flew into the air. The diadem soared upward and then dropped out of sight in the mass of objects on which the bust had rested.
"STOP!" Malfoy shouted at Crabbe, his voice echoing through the enormous room. "The Dark Lord wants them alive —"
"So? I'm not killing them, am I?" yelled Crabbe, throwing off Malfoy's restraining arm. "But if I can, I will, the Dark Lord wants them dead anyway, what's the diff — ?"
A jet of scarlet light shot in between Harry and me: Hermione had run around the corner behind us and sent a Stunning Spell straight at Crabbe's head. It only missed because Malfoy pulled him out of the way.
"It's that Mudblood! Avada Ked—!"
"No! Expelliamus!" I shouted and he was disarmed but caught his wand before I could. But the force of my spell was strong and knocked Malfoy's wand out of his hand into the mountain of broken furniture and boxes.
"Don't kill them! DON'T KILL THEM!" Malfoy yelled at Crabbe and Goyle, who were both aiming at Harry and me.
Harry took a page out of my book and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and Goyle's wand flew out of his hand, disappearing into the bulwark of objects beside him.
Malfoy jumped out of range of Hermione's second Stunning Spell, and I shot a full Body-Bind Curse at Crabbe, which narrowly missed him.
Crabbe wheeled around and screamed, "Avada Kedavra!" again. I leapt to the side to avoid the jet of green light. The wandless Malfoy cowered behind a three-legged wardrobe as Ron charged toward them, hitting Goyle with a Stunning Spell as she came.
"It's somewhere here!" Harry yelled at us, pointing at the pile of junk into which the old tiara had fallen. "Look for it while I go and help R —"
"HARRY!" Hermione screamed.
A roaring, billowing noise behind us gave me a moment's warning. We turned and saw both Ron and Crabbe running as hard as they could up the aisle toward us.
"Like it hot, scum?" roared Crabbe as he ran.
But he seemed to have no control over what he had done. Flames of abnormal size were pursuing us, licking up the sides of the junk bulwarks, which were crumbling to soot at their touch.
"Aguamenti!" Harry bawled, but the jet of water that soared from the tip of his wand evaporated in the air.
"RUN!"
Malfoy grabbed the Stunned Goyle and dragged him along; Crabbe outstripped all of them, now looking terrified; Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I pelted along in his wake, and the fire pursued us. It was not normal fire; Crabbe had used a curse of which I had no countercurse for: As we turned a corner the flames chased us as though they were alive, sentient, intent upon killing us. Now the fire was mutating, forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts: Flaming serpents, chimaeras, and dragons rose and fell and rose again, and the detritus of centuries on which they were feeding was thrown up in the air into their fanged mouths, tossed high on clawed feet, before being consumed by the inferno.
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had vanished from view: Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I stopped dead; the fiery monsters were circling us, drawing closer and closer, claws and horns and tails lashed, and the heat was solid as a wall around us.
"What can we do?" Hermione screamed over the deafening roars of the fire.
"What can we do?" I shouted.
"Here!"
Harry seized three heavy-looking broomsticks from the nearest pile of junk and threw one to me and Ron, who pulled Hermione onto it behind him.
I swung my leg over the second broom and, with hard kicks to the ground, we soared up into the air, missing by feet the horned beak of a flaming raptor that snapped its jaws at us. The smoke and heat were becoming overwhelming: Below us the cursed fire was consuming the contraband of generations of hunted students, the guilty outcomes of a thousand banned experiments, the secrets of the countless souls who had sought refuge in the room. I could not see a trace of Malfoy, Crabbe, or Goyle anywhere: I swooped as low as I dared over the marauding monsters of flame to try to find them, but there was nothing but fire.
"Maisey, what are you doing?" Harry shouted.
"They may be cruel, but they do not deserve to do like this!" I bellowed.
"Harry, Maisey, let's get out, let's get out!" bellowed Ron, though it was impossible to see where the door was through the black smoke.
And then I heard a thin, piteous human scream from amidst the terrible commotion, the thunder of devouring flame.
"It's — too — dangerous — !" Ron yelled, but I wheeled in the air. I squinted past the smoke, I raked the firestorm below, seeking a sign of life, a limb or a face that was not yet charred like wood...
And I saw them: Malfoy with his arms around the unconscious Goyle, the pair of them perched on a fragile tower of charred desks, and I dived. Malfoy saw me coming and raised one arm, but even as I grasped it I knew at once that it was no good: Goyle was too heavy and Malfoy's hand, covered in sweat, slid instantly out of mine —
"MAISEY IF WE DIE FOR THEM, I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF!" roared Harry's voice.
"RON GO!" I shouted and without a second thought, he flew towards the door.
Harry dragged Goyle onto his broom and rose, rolling and pitching, into the air once more as Malfoy clambered up behind me.
"The door, get to the door, the door!" screamed Malfoy in my ear, and I sped up, following Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Goyle through the billowing black smoke.
I followed Ron and Hermione out of the door and crashed into the stone wall, in the clean smoke-less air. Malfoy fell off the broom and lay facedown, gasping, coughing, and retching. Jumping up, I looked around for Harry.
"Where's Harry?" I cried.
Just as I did, Harry came zooming out of the door with an unconscious Goyle on his broom and a shining tiara around his wrist.
"C-Crabbe," choked Malfoy as soon as he could speak. "C-Crabbe..."
"He's dead," said Ron harshly.
There was silence, apart from panting and coughing. Then a number of huge bangs shook the castle, and a great cavalcade of transparent figures galloped past on horses, their heads screaming with bloodlust under their arms. I staggered to my feet when the Headless Hunt had passed and looked around: The battle was still going on all around us. I could hear more screams than those of the retreating ghosts.
"Where's Ginny?" he said sharply. "She was here. She was supposed to be going back into the Room of Requirement."
"Blimey, d'you reckon it'll still work after that fire?" asked Ron, but he too got to his feet, rubbing his chest and looking left and right. "Shall we split up and look — ?"
"No," said Hermione, getting to her feet too. Malfoy and Goyle remained slumped hopelessly on the corridor floor; neither of them had wands. "Let's stick together. I say we go — Harry, what's that on your arm?"
"What? Oh yeah —"
He pulled the diadem from his wrist and held it up. It was still hot, blackened with soot, but as I looked at it closely I was just able to make out the tiny words etched upon it: Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.
A bloodlike substance, dark and tarry, seemed to be leaking from the diadem. Suddenly the thing vibrated violently, then break apart in Harry's hands, and as it did so, I thought I heard the faintest, most distant scream of pain, echoing not from the grounds or the castle, but from the thing that had just fragmented in Harry's fingers.
"That must have been Fiendfyre," I breathed.
"Sorry?"
"Fiendfyre — cursed fire — it's one of the substances that destroy Horcruxes, but I would never, ever have dared use it, it's so dangerous — how did Crabbe know how to — ?"
"Must've learned from the Carrows," said Harry grimly.
"Shame he wasn't concentrating when they mentioned how to stop it, really," said Ron, whose hair, like Hermione's, was singed, and whose face was blackened. "If he hadn't tried to kill us all, I'd be quite sorry he was dead."
"But don't you realize?" whispered Hermione. "This means, if we can just get the snake —"
But she broke off as yells and shouts and the unmistakable noises of dueling filled the corridor. I looked around and my heart seemed to fail: Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts. Fred and Percy had just backed into view, both of them dueling masked and hooded men.
"Fred," I shouted and lunged forward to help, but jets of light flew in every direction and the man dueling Percy backed off, fast: Then his hood slipped and they saw a high forehead and streaked hair —
"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"Stupefy!" I shouted, aiming at Thicknesse.
Percy and Fred both looked at me, shocked at I had just Stunned the Minister of Magic. He fell in his spot, frozen.
"Mousey!" Fred laughed, "good going!"
Both of them began to jog over to me, Fred looked at Percy with glee.
"You're joking, Perce... I don't think I've heard you joke since you were —"
The air exploded. I had been running to Fred and Percy as they made their way to me, Harry, Ron, and Hermione behind me; all of us grouped together. Then in the fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was rent apart. I had been closest to Fred at the moment and I felt a heavy object hit me as I flew the air, and all I could do was hold onto my wand as someone gripped my upper arm.