The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|145| Fiendfyre

The silence swallowed us again. Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry and me, to hold us frozen in the glare of thousands of invisible beams. Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and I recognized Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed, "But they are! The Potters are there! Someone grab them!"

Before Harry or I could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of us had risen and stood facing, not us, but the Slytherins. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to us, all of them looking toward Pansy instead, and I, awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and from undersleeves.

I stood on the table, with my wand outstretched, and said, "Pansy bitch, I always knew you were the weak link."

Her face contorted in fear and her eyes narrowed at me in hatred.

"Quite enough, Miss Potter. Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your House could follow."

McGonagall ordered the houses to leave, all of the underaged wizards left with a few of the of-age ones. Following Harry, I ran up to our old spot at the Gryffindor Table where the Weasleys sat.

"Where are Ron and Hermione?"

"Haven't you found — ?" began Mr. Weasley, looking worried. But he broke off as Kingsley had stepped forward on the raised platform to address those who had remained behind.

"We've only got half an hour until midnight, so we need to act fast! A battle plan has been agreed between the teachers of Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix. Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall are going to take groups of fighters up to the three highest towers — Ravenclaw, Astronomy, and Gryffindor — where they'll have a good overview, excellent positions from which to work spells. Meanwhile Remus" — he indicated Lupin — "Arthur" — he pointed toward Mr. Weasley, sitting at the Gryffindor table — "and I will take groups into the grounds. We'll need somebody to organize defense of the entrances of the passageways into the school —"

"Sounds like a job for us," called Fred, indicating himself and George, and Kingsley nodded his approval.

"All right, leaders up here and we'll divide up the troops!"

"Potter," said Professor McGonagall, hurrying up to us, as students flooded the platform, jostling for position, receiving instructions, "Aren't you supposed to be looking for something?"

"Oh— yes! Sorry," I said and grabbed Harry's hand, sprinting out of the Great Hall.

I sensed eyes following us as we ran out of the Great Hall again, into the entrance hall still crowded with evacuating students. I allowed us to be swept up the marble staircase with them, but at the top, we hurried off along a deserted corridor. Fear and panic were clouding my thought processes. I tried to calm myself, to concentrate on finding the Horcrux, but my thoughts buzzed as frantically and fruitlessly as wasps trapped beneath a glass.

"Where's Ron and Hermione?" I whispered, feeling great panic in my chest along with the ever-present pain from my scar.

"I– I don't know," he said.

Slowing down, we came to a halt halfway along an empty passage, where Harry sat down upon the plinth of a departed statue and pulled the Marauder's Map out of the pouch around his neck. Looking over, I could not see Ron's or Hermione's names anywhere on it, though the density of the crowd of dots now making its way to the Room of Requirement might be concealing them.