Harry Potter and the Sword of Gryffindor

Chapter 34

"Not dead, Harry," shouted Hermione at him, though her voice seemed to come from far away. "Gone, as in not there. He's not there."

Harry looked up at her, uncomprehending.

"He's not there?" he asked in perplexity. "How could he not be there. He could not have gone anywhere. He was too hurt."

"I don't know," said Hermione, kneeling beside him. Ron stood behind them as Fred and George piled out of the tunnel doorway.

"I-I-Is Professor Lupin there?" asked Harry with a quaver in his voice.

"If he is, I can't tell which one is him," said Ron and they were still for a moment, looking at the battlefield of still bodies lying in the still moonlight. Harry sighed and got to his feet. Where was Sirius and how had he gotten there? Harry thought of the still, limp body he had left not an hour before on the grass. He should not have left him. Had someone found him and carried him off? Was it friend or foe?

"Come on, Harry," said Hermione, who had also risen to her feet.

Numbly, Harry turned and followed her into the passageway under the tree. He suddenly felt weary again, ancient and spent and exhausted. Stumbling through the tunnel, he felt Hermione's elbow brush the back of his hand and he took it, allowing her to guide him again.

Professor McGonagall was waiting for them when they got back to Gryffindor Tower. Her shock at the ferocious werewolf attack rolled over Harry like a wave as she demanded to know what had happened to the castle that had been left in her care by an absent Dumbledore.

Harry did his best to explain.

"Professor Lupin took the wrong potion," he began, but the unexpected voice of Professor Snape, who Harry had not realized was in the room, stopped him.

"Foolish boy," snarled Snape. "I would not have given Lupin your potion if his life depended upon it, particularly after I found the remains of your Chameleon Tea Flowers in the bin. Don't you know those render any potion impotent?"

Harry's shoulders sagged with relief. He should have known that Professor Snape would not have been so careless as to use an untested potion and that he was smart enough to notice the Tea Flowers and guess to what use they had been put. For once he did not even mind Snape's nasty tone.

"Oh, then Lupin is all right?" he asked hopefully.

"He would have been, had you meddlesome Gryffindors left him alone," replied Snape icily. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and Snape retreated into a corner in silence, wrapping his heavy cloak around him like the sheltering wings of a great, black moth.

"So you went to his room," she said as if she was forcing herself to remain patient and calm. "I warned Dumbledore that it would not be sufficient to keep him safe during his, err, spells. What happened after that?"

"Well, err, Malfoy followed us," said Harry and Hermione interrupted him.

"And that little weasel pushed me down and opened the door!" Her voice rose with anger at the remembrance. Snape shifted and Harry could almost see his frown deepening.

"Anyway, Lupin came tearing out of the room and we followed him," continued Harry and stopped short. Now that he thought about it, he should have noticed at the time that Lupin wasn't mad; he hadn't turned to attack them but rather had run down the hall. Harry shook his head in confusion trying unsuccessfully to sort out what had really happened.

"Perhaps he'd gotten wind of the werewolf attack," said Professor McGonagall thoughtfully and then the pieces dropped into place in Harry's mind.

"Of course!" said Harry.

Lupin wasn't mad at all. Somehow he had found out about the werewolves' plan to attack the castle that night and he'd needed to escape his monthly prison to go get help. Was it Sirius he'd gone to? Had he run into the Forbidden Forest?

"So we followed him..." Harry said, hoping that she would not ask about the Marauder's Map and the secret tunnels out of Hogwarts. "And we ran into all the werewolves," he finished.

"You ran a terrible risk, fighting a pack of werewolves," said Professor McGonagall with a shiver.

"We didn't mean to," said Harry. "We didn't know they were coming. We just wanted to find Professor Lupin."

"How in the world did you manage to fight them?" asked Professor McGonagall curiously.

"I had this," said Harry, holding up the Sword of Gryffindor. He realized it was still covered with drying blood and he began absently wiping it on his robe as he spoke. "I got one right away with it. Then Ron led the rest out under the Whomping Willow..."

"Bloody well thought I was a goner, too," put in Ron.

Fred broke in. "Hermione figured out that a body-bind spell worked on them and Ron kept tossing silver sugar into their eyes."

"Silver sugar?" asked Professor McGonagall. "A creative use of your misdeeds in my class, I see." Her voice held a wry smile.

"Err, yeah," agreed Ron, shifting on the back of the chair where he perched.

George continued, "Harry skewered another one and the Whomping Willow picked off another. I have to say that yours truly had a hand in sending a couple off with a well-placed Risus Silensias spell."

Harry hadn't known about this. "What does that do?" he asked.

"Silent unstoppable laughter," said George smugly. "It means they can't move for as long as they keep laughing. Do it enough times and they end up suffocating."

Hermione made a noise of distaste.

Harry added, "Sirius and something else came out of the Forest and started attacking..."

He stopped suddenly, realizing that he wasn't supposed to know about Sirius and that Professor McGonagall certainly wouldn't. To his surprise, she did not react to his slip.

"Hopefully Mr. Black will come out of hiding now," was all she said.

Harry glanced toward the tall, dark shape of Professor Snape, standing quietly in the corner, still listening. He wished he could read his face, but it remained invisible and Snape said nothing.

Hermione broke into the story. "Harry, the something else was another werewolf, coming out of the Forbidden Forest. It attacked and I saw two werewolves battling one another." She shivered at the memory. "I think it was Professor Lupin."

"What happened to him?" asked Harry.

"I'm not sure. When we left, all the werewolves I saw were lying on the ground," she replied slowly.

Harry said nothing for a few moments.

Fred took up the story again. "More werewolves that hadn't followed us out onto the lawn were inside the castle, heading for the four dormitories. We caught two up by Ravenclaw Tower in a homemade swamp."

Professor McGonagall made a noise in her throat at this and Harry remembered the trouble she'd had at the beginning of the year with one of their swamps in a third-floor bathroom. In spite of himself, he grinned.

"Ginny, the little imp, took out one down by the kitchens and Hufflepuff House. I think one of the House Elves helped her but I'm not sure. She got pretty roughed up and her arm was broken but she said she hadn't been bitten," said Fred.

"I think you caught the one that was supposed to go to Slytherin," said Hermione to Harry. "Fred and George had it backed into a corner but it was a mean, big brute."

"How you all came through without being bitten is a wonder," said Professor McGonagall, crisply as their tale began to peter off. "Now we'll have to get another portrait to guard the entrance, here, while the Fat Lady is being repaired."

This was done and they sat around talking in the common room about the battle and the part each had played. At last, late into the night, Harry crawled into bed, too tired even to pull his blood-stained robes off.

A/N: I'm sorry this one is a little short, but it turned out this was a good place to stop. The next chapter will be up soon.

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