Ternion || Oliver Wood

Chapter 140

Path to the Chamber of Secrets

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.

"...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." uttered Professor McGonagall,

Many of the students looked petrified. However, as Harry and I skirted the walls, scanning the Gryffindor table for Ron and Hermione, 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," answered 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, who I think to be one of the Langston twins, Lilith's friends.

"He had, to use the common phrase, done a bunk," replied Professor McGonagall, and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws.

Harry and I continued walking alongside the Gryffindor table, still looking for Ron and Hermione.

"Rose!" I shouted, getting Rose's attention who was standing beside the Gryffindor's table, talking to the other Gryffindor.

"Agape!" she called back.

"Have you seen Ron and Hermione?" I asked, she looked around before giving an answer.

"I haven't!" she shouted back.

"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. I immediately looked around, scanning the Hall, looking for the source of the sound in terror.

"Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to spill magical blood." the voice continued.

There was silence in the Hall now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums that seemed 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."

I gulped.

"You have until midnight."

The silence swallowed us all again. Every head turned, every set of eyes in the place seemed to have found Harry who was just beside me, frozen in place from the glare of thousands of sets of eyes. Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table, who I recognized was Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed, "But he's there! Potter's there! Someone grab him! What are you all waiting for?!"