abcnovels
Chapter 574: The Chaotic Castle (2 in 1)
Chapter 574: The Chaotic Castle (2 in 1)
Chapter 574: The Chaotic Castle (2 in 1)
“Something’s happened?” Ron asked in a hushed voice, his hand unconsciously reaching into his pocket, where Harry knew his wand was stowed.
” Let’s talk outside.” Harry said in a near whisper. Ron and Hermione stood up and hurried out of the common room, as they passed Neville, he stood up and asked, “Ha-” but Harry quickened his pace and walked away, he is still uncertain about the situation, so it is best to leave the others out of it until the critical moment …
The trio pushed open the door of the common room and walked some distance ahead.
” Have they started the operation, Umbridge and Avery?” Ron asked impatiently.
Harry spread out the slightly crumpled Marauder’s map, and immediately both Ron and Hermione surrounded him, “It’s hard to tell, look here.” Harry pointed at a small dot, “It’s Umbridge, she’s heading towards the Headmaster’s Tower, I don’t know if she knows the password, but …”
“Hey, we’re on the seventh floor! With a few turns of stairs and corridors, we might be able to intercept her early.” Ron said excitedly.
“Good idea.” Harry said, “But there’s one problem, we have to split up.”
“Why?” Ron looked at Harry in confusion and then at Hermione, hoping for an explanation.
“Umbridge’s strange movements may be a sign that the operation has begun. But she’s not the whole picture, look!” She pointed her finger over the map, ” Avery is still in the great hall, and he hasn’t made a move – that’s not normal.”
“Where’s the Order of the Phoenix?” Ron asked.
“Two are guarding the great hall, two are at the front and back gates of the school, and the remaining two … Well, Alastor and Tonks are patrolling the school walls.”
“They’re guarding against the Death Eaters who might break into the school?” Ron muttered in surprise.
“It’s possible,” Harry said, looking down at the map, ” have you seen Malfoy?”
“Probably in the Slytherin common room, I’ll look for … oh no,” Hermione groaned, “he’s out and on his way up. At this time of day no less! Could he … be,” she asked uneasily.
“I don’t know.” Harry said, “So we need to split up, you guys take the map and keep an eye out for Avery on the way, since Umbridge has moved, he’s bound to do the same. But it’s a good thing we have Frank and Alice, as well as other professors in-”
“What about you?”
“I don’t need a map, the destination is clear.” Harry said briefly, “I just need to make sure no one slips into the Headmaster’s office, and it would be best if it’s just a false alarm – that’s why I didn’t alert anyone before, as we need confirmation.”
Ron and Hermione nodded silently as Harry walked up a different staircase from them; after passing through two turns, he knew he would soon arrive at the Headmaster’s office, as he had been there before and vividly remembered the huge Gargoyle statue standing in the doorway, which Harry hoped would still remain in its place.
A stone gargoyle stood at the centre of the empty corridor, with no one else in sight. Harry wondered if Umbridge had broken in, even if she, she couldn’t possibly have left on such short notice. At that moment the gargoyle suddenly moved out of the way, as the revolving staircase automatically curved down and a man appeared in Harry’s line of sight, to which Harry slowed his pace and looked incredulously at the man who had emerged from the Headmaster’s office.
It is Snape!
“Potter,” he said coldly, as he blocked Harry’s path, “what are you doing here?”
“I, er, Snape, Professor, I’m looking for Headmaster Dumbledore, I saw Umbridge approaching here, and it’s clear she’s trying to break into the Headmaster’s office!”
“What a load of crap, I just came out of there, the door was locked, and the headmaster wasn’t there.” Snape said coldly.
“But-” Harry opened his mouth, not sure whether Snape was telling the truth or not, and he looked back at the corridor he had come from; no one had appeared. Had he run too fast and appeared before Umbridge could arrive? And could he be able to intercept her by heading back?
Or was he too sensitive and Umbridge was just in a hurry to go to the lavatory and that’s why she ran so fast? As he thought about it, a suspicion that he hadn’t noticed before surfaced; instead of guarding Umbridge, the Order of the Phoenix had spread most of its men around the school and the castle …
Harry subconsciously took a step to leave, but he suddenly paused and looked at Snape critically.
“What’s the password? I want to go inside.” Harry asked.
Snape’s thin lips twisted together with a mocking smile and Harry felt very embarrassed. He knew Snape must be laughing at himself in his mind, but what if, what if Umbridge was one step ahead of him and hiding in the Headmaster’s office? Had she locked the door and that was why Snape couldn’t get in? Or maybe the two of them had colluded?
Harry didn’t know Umbridge’s target, but he knew that Umbridge had been sent by Voldemort, who must have an ulterior motive.
He ignored Snape and walked briskly towards the stone gargoyle, ” Iced lemonade? Pear crusty gummies, er – Liquorice Wands, Fizzing Whizzbees … I’m working for your master, can you open the door?” He trailed off in annoyance.
The gargoyle didn’t budge.
Snape looked at him mockingly and Harry stared into his deep dark eyes, uncertain of what to do. Normally he would have shouted at Snape, but this morning Hermione had inadvertently reminded him that no one could clearly see the whole picture.
This made him think: Since he could get part of the information from the others and privately rack his brains with Ron and Hermione to try and piece together the complete truth; it would be possible that Snape was doing the same thing.
This all provided in the premise that both he and Snape had been partially informed by Headmaster Dumbledore’s revelations and had seen a clue by chance …
Professor Hap’s reply also clouded Harry’s judgement. If the answer to the questions asked in that letter is ‘love’ – as Ron had said, ‘the answer is quite obvious’ – Harry’s breath stopped when he considered that; then Snape’s willingness to go undercover, despite the danger he had faced, could be explained in a way that made Harry uncomfortable.
Snape is inherently a bad person, it’s ingrained in his bones. Both his preference for Slytherin House and his undisguised hatred for Harry are simply a strong proof for this conclusion. The only difference would be that he loved someone deeply – Lily – and Lily’s death made him turn his back on his old master and completely fall to Dumbledore’s side …
But if Snape and Dumbledore were working together, why he didn’t have the slightest care about something so big? Harry thought with annoyance, didn’t he know that Voldemort was plotting outside? Harry stared at Snape, with intense anger. The intense and complex emotions churning inside him made it nearly impossible for him to think, and the Occlumency was hardly helping. Suddenly a spark of inspiration ignited the fog in his mind.
Voldemort …
Yes, Voldemort had returned, and if – Harry felt breathless. He shuddered at the thought that he seemed to know where Snape had gotten the information about the Death Eaters, not from visiting his Death Eater friends, not from writing letters, not from stalking them, but – he is one of them.
The boy who once lived a quiet life for over a decade has reassumed his Death Eater guise … and once again became an undercover agent!
Would it be the case?
If Snape is undercover, then Harry has absolutely nothing to worry about, even Umbridge is just a ridiculous tool to pass on false information. He was suddenly enlightened. But what if it isn’t? Harry looked hesitantly at Snape, who had already turned to leave, and Harry gritted his teeth as he chased after him, blocking in front of Snape.
Snape’s eyes were blank, his face was expressionless, as he looked at Harry condescendingly.
Harry was completely unable to tell what he was thinking.
“Potter, would you like me to give you a deduction? In my opinion, twenty points-”
“You know what’s in the Headmaster’s office, don’t you, silverware made by goblins, Pensieve, all sorts of precious books, even information about Voldemort and his Hor-”
” Shut up! Potter.” Snape interrupted him loudly.
“I didn’t mean to say it.” Harry said calmly, wondering inwardly at how quickly he had reacted. “But you didn’t seem surprised by it, you knew it, didn’t you?” He stared at Snape’s face, “Then you should know its importance, we’ve destroyed a few of them, like the diary, like the snake, and the ring … but maybe one or two still remain, Headmaster Dumbledore is trying to decipher its secrets, and it’s hidden in the Headmaster’s office at the moment. If Voldemort regains it back…”
“The snake? What snake?” Snape asked coldly.
“Don’t you know? A big snake used to follow Voldemort around before he was resurrected, and later it was killed, and it was one of those-” Harry said.
” One of … one of … those things,” Snape muttered, and then suddenly stared dead at Harry, his empty, cold eyes showing a look of horror.
Harry couldn’t understand that look, it held so many emotions, shock, suspicion, clarity, and fear … probably more complex than all the emotions he had felt from their first meeting to now combined, dark eyes stared into green ones, Harry suddenly lost the courage to meet Snape’s gaze, but he stubbornly refused to look away.
Snape made a frightening whirring, gurgling, and choking sound from his throat as if he was about to eat someone. Harry took a step back in fright, before forcefully bracing himself not to turn his head and run. He even admired his courage, and after an unknown amount of time, the complex and terrifying emotions in the depths of the opposite eye were hidden away and became undetectable.
Snape looked at him and gritted his teeth.
Harry clutched his wand uneasily.
BAM! A distant, dull thud interrupted their staring contest, and Harry looked out the window, the sound didn’t come from this side, he ran to the other side and pressed his face against the edge of the corridor window, squinting hard to make out a blaze of light rising from the edge of the dark, forbidding forest in the distance.
He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but Harry had the absurd notion. A huge hole had been blown in the school wall … Then a few red sparks appeared in the sky and hovered in the air, Harry’s heart tightened, it was a warning sign from the Order of the Phoenix!
Snape also stood at the window, his black eyes staring ahead. In addition to the red sparks, the fire that had first appeared disappeared and was replaced with rolling black smoke that climbed straight up high into the sky, then they heard a faint shout, and then a green light shot into the black smoke and twisted the smoke into a large, unmistakable skull pattern that shone with a haunting green glow.
“The – Dark – Mark.” Harry uttered word by word. He stared at the huge skull rising high into the sky, and instead of being obscured by the rolling smoke, it became clearer and alternated with the red sparks emitted by members of the Order of the Phoenix as a giant python squirmed eerily and grotesquely out of the skull’s mouth.
The Death Eaters are attacking? Harry thought incredulously, unable to accept it for a moment. The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with Dumbledore, Professor Hap, and a bunch of professors present is the safest place in the world, like a steel wall, how dare Voldemort became! Isn’t he afraid of being killed? Even if he had a Horcrux, it still would be too stupid …
A buzz and cacophony of noises rang through the castle and Harry knew that the others had also heard the commotion and were probably asking each other what had happened.
“Potter, go back to the common room.” Snape coldly said.
Harry ignored him, he knew that a part of the Hogwarts wall had broken off, and Voldemort would never do a useless job, the danger is here! His face pressed hard against the window, his glasses embedded in his skin, and his nose pressed hard, as he stared blankly at something, there seemed to be some sort of creature in the area where the wall had broken off, a Death Eater? But he wasn’t sure if it was just a reflection of the green, dark mark.
“Potter, I said – go back!” Snape shouted angrily, striding over with his wand raised to drag Harry away from the window – ” Hold on!” Harry shouted, his heart felt like it had been submerged in ice water abruptly and his body shivered. He could see a steady stream of creatures coming in through the broken wall, not black-robed Death Eaters, but some kind of pale, strange humanoid creature with a phosphorescent body that glowed brightly, like a cluster of dancing ghostly fires.
“Inferi.” Snape breathed in, his hand suspended in midair.
The noise in the castle grew louder, accompanied by screams and panicked footsteps, and Harry jumped up at once, remembering what Moody had told him a few days ago, that there might be a ruckus in the school … He left Snape behind and scurried outside.
A riot is happening, Harry thought as he ran.
A large number of Inferi had rushed into the school, is it a hundred or a thousand, or perhaps even more? It couldn’t be just the Inferi, he imagined an army of Death Eaters, dark wizards, werewolves, vampires, and dementors swarming in …
The more he thought about it, the colder his heart grew, wondering what happened to the members of the Order of the Phoenix who were guarding the outside now, had they fought or retreated? He became anxious, the only good news is it is almost dark, most of the students are staying in the castle, there is no danger for now, but it is not impossible for some exceptions to happen, in case there are students wandering around the edge of the Forbidden Forest … Harry’s heart jumped, he thought of Luna, she has a Centaur friend, the one called Firenze, she and Ginny occasionally went to the edge of the Forbidden Forest to meet him, in case … he dreaded to even think about it.
And Hagrid, Harry paused in horror, the broken wall wasn’t that far from Hagrid’s hut. Hagrid would have heard the noise and gone out to check it out, taking Fang with him. Unless he was staying with young Grawp, away from home.
He mentally prayed, hoping that Hagrid had a whim to be with Grawp, something like it was Grawp’s birthday, and he might need to accompany him today…
Harry was so overwhelmed by all the thoughts in his head, the Marauder’s Map is with Ron and Hermione, so he had no way to make sure they are okay. Fear continued to well up in his mind when he heard a familiar voice, “Harry!” Hermione and Ron ran up the revolving staircase, gasping for breath.
Harry found himself subconsciously running towards the door of the Gryffindor common room, and the next second, the portrait of the Fat Lad