Matilda Matlock

The Next Step

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.