Towers - Fred Weasley

91

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EBONY AND SLUGHORN ENTERED THE SLYTHERIN COMMON ROOM. Ebony made an alarm go off which made everyone leave their dorms and gather around them. Many were surprised to see the woman back in their common room, others looked confused. 

Ebony looked at Professor Slughorn to begin to speak. After all -- he was their Head of House. "I, well. . . it is like this. . . this day, er -- I want to. . . we all. . ." Ebony rolled her eyes and pushed the man aside. She lowered her voice to match the way she spoke to her Quidditch team at the time.

"Listen up, there is a gathering in the Great Hall! I expect every single one of you to move your lazy asses down the corridors and silently move towards the Great Hall! You will get more information over there! Understood?" For a moment it was quiet, everybody still seemed to be against her but then Blaise spoke up.

"Understood, captain!" With that, Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass followed.

"Understood, captain!" 

There was -- once again -- pride that bottled inside her chest. Soon, every Slytherin student followed her orders and began to move down the corridor towards the Great Hall. They were quiet and moved rather quickly. Slughorn was stunned.

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. Behind her stood the remaining teachers, including the palomino centaur, Firenze, and the members of the Order of the Phoenix who had arrived to fight.

"...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."

Many of the students looked petrified. However, as Harry 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," said 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.

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

Harry moved up the Hall alongside the Gryffindor table, still looking for Ron and Hermione. As he passed, faces turned in his direction, and a great deal of whispering broke out in his wake.

"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.