The Next (After the Flaw: Oligarchy, Chapter 36)

[kanedax]

Title: The Next (After the Flaw: Oligarchy, Chapter 36)
Author: kanedax
Spoilers: Previous Chapters
Rating: R for language, suggested nudity, and violence
Summary: Meanwhile, at Hogwarts...
Notes: I'm posting two chapters back-to-back this time. If you haven't read Chapter 35: Fight or Flight, please do before reading this one.
I own these characters. The others belong to JK Rowling.

Fight or Flight / Previous Chapters / Dualkey

"Wait! My Charms book!"

A collective groan erupted from the first-year Hufflepuffs as Hugo Weasley broke away from them and ran back to the House's door.

"Hurry up, Hugo," said Marion, the Hufflepuff prefect, glancing at her watch. "I'm not supposed to leave any of you wandering the school alone, and breakfast is almost over."

"It'll just be a minute!" said Hugo quickly.

"Fine, fine, go," said Marion, waving towards the door, her eyes never leaving her watch. Other Hufflepuff students were already streaming past the first-years, led by prefects and professors, and Hugo had to fight hard to swim against the current.

"The next time Hugo doesn't forget anything for class will be the first," said Scarlett Scamander with an amused smirk.

"We'll have to throw a party," said Harry Norley.

Hugo ran through the Hufflepuff Common Room, now emptied, and down the hallway to the first-year boys' dormitory. Four months at Hogwarts and he was still having problems keeping all of his gear together. He supposed family pressure had a lot to do with that. His dormmates gave him a lot of grief for staying up late, studying longer than they were, even reading textbooks in bed, textbooks that often ended up beneath his bed instead of back in his bookbag later.

But what could he do? He was the son of Hermione Weasley and the brother of Rose Weasley. Mum was easily the top of her class when she was at Hogwarts, and Rose was constantly vying with Kayla Macmillan for tops in their year. That was a heck of a lot to live up to, and, although the family insisted that Hugo only needed to do his best and they'd be proud of him either way, he felt that he had to be better than his best. Which meant a lot of hard work.

Hard work, he thought as he entered the dormitory. I suppose Hufflepuff was the right House for me, after all.

The room was empty except for Sasha, who was sniffing around Aiden Towler's piles of junk strewed around his bed: dirty robes to be picked up by house elves, a half-eaten apple (also to be picked up by house elves), a bag of Wizard Chess pieces, and enough Quidditch magazines to start a good fire in the Common Room hearth.

"Sasha, leave Aiden's stuff alone," said Hugo to his cat. Sasha gave her master a cat-like look of persecuted grief, then jumped up on Hugo's bed. Hugo let out a sigh of frustration, then bent over beneath his bed. This area of the dormitory wasn't much cleaner than Aiden's. Towels and robes and books and books and books were crammed under his four-poster. He stretched his arm as deep as it would go, scattering the books left and right.

"It has to be in there somewhere," he muttered. "It's only been three days--"

rip

"Sasha!" Hugo yelled, pulling his head out and turning around. "I told you to leave--"

Hugo came face to face with a group of black-cloaked figures. He barely had time to register that the faces beneath their hoods were as diverse as they were terrifying.

One of them (her face was a white sheet with black markings) raised her wand.

Hugo Weasley awoke two hours later, gratefully missing the rest of the events that followed.

---------

"Ten Sickles."

"No way."

"Fifteen."

"No!"

"Oh, come on!" said Chase Quentin, smacking Nick Hopkirk on the arm. "It'll be a blast! Furthermore, it's needed."

"Needed?" said Nick between mouthfuls of porridge. "How's that needed?"

"It's needed because everyone's on edge," said Chase, leaning in and whispering conspiratorially over the Great Hall breakfast din. "The school could use a good laugh."

"Right, because starting a food fight while all of our professors are on edge is something that's going to end with a lot of grins and backpats," Nick snorted. "Look, mate, I agree with you, the school could use a good laugh. Unfortunately, chucking a handful of bangers at the Purebloods is only going to end with Ogden shooting them out of the air and expelling us before we have a chance to explain ourselves."

"No way," said Chase with a grin. "No way would he do that. Not with this whole 'stand united' thing he has going."

"Ask James," said Nick. "Ogden wouldn't expel Potter's kid, not now."

"No," said James Potter from beside them.

"James, mate," said Chase, slapping him on the back, "you know this is all up your--"

"No," James repeated more firmly, glancing down the table nervously as he said it.

"Oh, bloody hell," said Chase with a snort. Down the table were Nancy Sprague and Melody Callahan, chatting away. "When are you and Nancy just going to snog already?"

"It's not that..."

"Look, you know I love you, James, you're my best mate. But I miss the old James! She likes you, alright? You don't have to pretend that you're not the bad ass you really are just to impress her!"

"It's not that," James repeated. "Just... drop it, yeah?"

Chase heard something in the tone of James's voice that sobered him up. "Alright," he said quietly. "I won't press you, then."

Chase might be right, James thought as he returned to his breakfast. Nancy might be interested in him. Hell, Nancy was interested in him. You didn't need to be an Auror to pull those pieces of evidence together. The nights they spent alone in the common room doing homework were enough. James could feel a tension, romantic, sexual, whatever, between he and Nancy, thick as the porridge Nick was shoveling into his mouth.

Why hadn't he ever actually asked Nancy out? He didn't know. Did he think he was too young? Hell, Cullen and Malfoy were together, And they were just third years. And Nick and Melody had been together since last year.

Maybe he was just scared of rejection, or of things not working out. After all, he saw what happened to Teddy and Caroline, dating since, well, since they were Meg and Scorpius's age. Even after all that time, it fell apart. He didn't want that to happen.

You're going to have to make a move eventually, he thought. Guys have been noticing her more lately. You've seen it. Wedgwood's been getting friendly with her lately. So's Piper. He may be a Slytherin, but he's also a Blood Traitor. Sprague doesn't give a rat's about House affiliation, just so long as they're decent people. He's not a Pureblood, and that makes him fair game. And was it your imagination, but did Hodgson give her a look a few days ago? Quidditch Captain? You don't stand a chance if he gets there first.

Yeah, he had told himself that over and over again. Yeah, he'd have to make a move on Nancy. And, yeah, if he did, he knew she'd jump at the chance to go out with him. Hell, if things were different, Nancy would absolutely cheer at the thought of James, Chase, and Nick starting a school-wide food fight in the Great Hall, detentions be damned.

But things were different. And could James help it if snogging Nancy Sprague wasn't at the top of his list of important life events right now? After all, when Chase caught him glancing down the table, James hadn't been looking at Nancy at all. He hadn't even been thinking of her.

James was looking at Matilda, the eldest of the First Year Weasleys, as that chunk of his family had come to be known through the last few months. She was sitting with Lily, and had barely cracked a smile in the last few weeks. Gideon Weasley, the youngest of the set, had been Matilda's closest compatriot through her first few months here at Hogwarts. Now he, and his brother, were gone, living with their grandparents while trying to straighten out their new lives without their mother and father.

He was looking at Albus, who had already been put in detention after dueling with Holden Harkiss in Potions. Al was sitting by himself, and where was Rose, anyway? The two third-years were usually attached at the hip.

They were why James Arthur Potter didn't want to start a food fight. Because, famous father or not, there would be consequences. Detention, possibly. A repremand, most definitely. A letter home? You bet your sweet bippy.

Mum was in a wheelchair, possibly paralyzed for life. Uncle Percy and Aunt Penelope were gone. Teddy and HC were divorced, and by all indications Victoire was what ended them. Things were going to pot fast, and the last thing, the very last thing, that Harry Potter needed was an owl from Headmaster Ogden explaining that his oldest son had been fucking around while there was a war going.

So James would keep his peace. He'd do what he could, of course, to keep people in a good mood, lighten the atmosphere whenever it was appropriate. But a disruption? Nope. No one needed that, especially with the Purebloods acting like they--

WHAM

James (as well as about half of the students in the Great Hall) jumped at the sound of the huge oak doors slamming shut. They all looked around at each other, laughing nervously. Some argument at another table, they reasoned. Someone got mad at someone else, stormed out of the Hall, slammed the doors behind them.

James thought that. So did the professors at the Head Table, apparently, as many of them gave each other looks of weary amusement that comes from years of dealing with teenage angst. Professor Ogden shook his head with a small grin and waved his wand to re-open the door.

Only the door didn't open.

Ogden shrugged and waved it again. Still nothing.

"Alohamora!" he said as he stood, in hopes that possibly his non-verbal didn't come across. Now there were a few students and professors standing to watch the scene that was unfolding. And as the spells were cast, James could see small sparks flickering across the face of the oak door.

Ogden gave Professor Allentide and Professor Bosh befuddled looks, and the three stood at once and marched down the aisle between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables. As they did, James saw Fred, Evan, and Tom huddled together at the Ravenclaw table and whispering to each other.

"Where are the Hufflepuffs?" he heard Fred ask. "The first-years aren't here. Where's Hugo?"

"We'll determine that soon enough," said Professor Allentide as she passed. "No reason to be concerned."

She wasn't doing a very good job hiding the concern in her own voice, James noted nervously.

The other professors at the Head Table now joined the trio at the door. They whispered quietly amongst each other, and Ogden waved his hand around the Great Hall. The others (Clavis-Longbottom, Tonks, Vector, and Skryer) nodded and left the three to deal with the door.

"What's going on?" James asked Andromeda Tonks as she passed the Gryffindor table.

"The door's not opening," she said under her breath, stopping within a few feet of where James, Chase, and Nick were seated. "Tiberius is asking us to watch stand guard in case there's a problem."

"A problem?" James asked. "Like... an attack?"

"It could be anything," said Tonks. "Might simply be a faulty protective charm. Breathe, James, alright?"

"Alright," said James, who couldn't help swallowing hard as Andromeda stopped halfway down the length of the table. Skryer stopped the same length down on the Slytherin side of the room, with Vector standing between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw table. All three had drawn their wands, and were scanning the room. Uri continued past them, eventually entering the antechamber by High Table.

In case someone tries to Floo in, James thought, a shiver of dread climbing up his spine.

Indeed, he was far from the only one whose nerves were starting to play on them. The murmur that had rumbled through the Hall when the doors slammed were now growing to cries of alarm and fear. And beneath those cries, from outside the door, came the sound of yelling voices and explosions.

A battle had broken out in the Entrance Hall, and they were locked in.

---------

"The Great Hall has been dealt with?" asked Prospero as he, Gungnir, and Altheda ascended the stairs from the Hufflepuff Common Room to the Entrance Hall, joining the other five members of the Circle of Thirteen that had joined them in the infiltration.

"For now," said Quipu, Mask of Lima. "The students we met?"

"Stunned," said Gungnir, looking back down the stairwell. "Stunned and moved into the room."

"You should have dealt with them properly," said Atrytone darkly. "They remain a loose end."

"They're harmless," said Manbo. "Eleven and twelve years old who will remain unconscious until long after we are gone. Unless you want to explain to the wizarding world why we slaughtered innocent children."

"We do not have to explain ourselves to--"

"Leave it," said Prospero sharply, shifting his gaze between the two witches. "No deaths unless absolutely necessary."

"The protective spells should hold for at least the next hour," said Ya-O-Gah, Mask of Quebec. "Unless Ogden is much more powerful than our studies indicate."

"He's not," said Quipu through her mask of knotted rope. "My locking spells are the most effective on the planet. They do not leave until I say they do."

"Is the Next with them?" Prospero asked. "Sangoma?"

"She is not," said the Mask of Harare. "Where she is, the Inner Eye cannot say. But she is not within the Great Hall."

"She is at the greenhouses," said a new voice, at the top of the stairs.

"Ah, Airmid," said Prospero, the smile beneath his mask hinted at in his voice. A black-cloaked figure, her face obscured with darkness like the rest of the Oligarchy's subordinate members, descended the stairs to join the group. "I'm glad to see you could join us. The greenhouses, you say?"

"Yes," Airmid explained. "I took pains to isolate her from the rest of the class."

"She is alone?" asked Atrytone.

"One or two other students," said Airmid, "and one professor. Neville Longbottom."

"Who we will leave unharmed," said Manbo.

"Only if he doesn't get in our way," Quipu interjected.

"He's not a major threat," said Prospero. "His wandwork was sub-par during the War, and he's grown soft as the years have passed."

"He holds the Sword of Gryffindor," said Altheda, pulling aside her robe to reveal her own narrow-bladed sabre. "I hope he is good with it. I could use some competition."

"He holds it in his quarters," Airmid corrected, "which are currently locked. Luna Lovegood is there, still asleep, and Professor Longbottom keeps it locked to make sure she doesn't run amok in her current state." At this, she gave an accusatory glance at Gungnir.

"Better than dead--!" Gungnir yelled.

"That is past," said Quipu sharply, heading off Gungnir's bellowing retort at the pass. "Any other obstacles? Are all of the professors in the Great Hall?"

"Nei."

With a flash, Quipu was lifted from her feet and thrown across the length of the Hall. As she slammed into a suit of armor beside the front doors, Professors Forseti and Sinistra ran down the stairs towards the Circle, with Cyril Penates, the Hogwarts caretaker, close behind. Seven spells flew across the Hall at once, and all but one was deflected, the fourth whistling past Aurora's ear.

As Forseti and Sinistra reached the floor, Penates raised his own wand.

crack crack crackcrackcrack crack

"The alarm!" came numerous voices from around the room. "Hogwarts is under attack!"

"They're just house elves!" yelled Atrytone as a dozen small bodies Apparated into the Hall, joining Forseti, Sinistra, and Penates. "Take them down! Kill them all!"

"Protect Hogwarts!" screeched Kreacher, Jr. "Protect your masters!"

The air was filled with ghosts, splitting off and racing through the walls to warn anyone not in the Great Hall. The house elves raised a high-pitched war cry.

And the battle was on.

"Ya-O-Gah, Altheda, Manbo!" Prospero ordered as the eight remaining Oligarchy members threw jinxes left and right at the Hogwarts defenders. "Follow Airmid! We'll catch up!"

The three Masks nodded and, with a simultaneous hex, blasted an opening in the house elf front. Airmid slipped through the gap, and the others followed, four house elves in their wake, chucking spells with their bare hands.

"The greenhouses are in the back of the school," Airmid explained as the four ran through the halls. "Longbottom's office is in Greenhouse One, but the Next could be in any of them."

"She will be found easily enough," said Altheda, barely breathing hard beneath her mask of infinite water. Sge spun on her heel in a sort of piruette, threw two hexes that killed two of the house elves, and resumed her run without breaking stride.

"What of the giant?" asked Ya-O-Gah. "We were told of Hagrid in the briefing. If we're heading for the greenhouses, his hut is--"

"If he's not in the Great Hall then he's in his hut preparing for his class," said Airmid. "His hut's on the other end of the school. Even if a ghost reaches him to warn him of the attack, there's no way he'll be able to reach the greenhouses before our job is done."

"And if he does," said Altheda as Ya-O-Gah threw two more hexes over his shoulder, "we'll deal with him. His hide may be impervious to magic, but it's not impervious to a blade."

"Hagrid is a good man," said Airmid. "I would be greatly upset if he were to be killed. As would Minister Weasley. They were close when she attended school here."

"I grow tired of cowtowing to the Ministry's desires," said Altheda. She stopped, spun, and sliced the head off the last pursuing house elf, who didn't even have time to put up a defensive spell. "If they disagree with our methods, then they can bow to us just as easily as the Muggles."

"That won't be an issue much longer," said Ya-O-Gah.

"We're almost there," said Airmid, slowing down.

"Stay back here," said Manbo to the spy. "Remove your mask if you must. It will rouse less suspicion."

"I understand," said Airmid, the darkness surrounding her face vanishing as she pulled down her hood. "If any come this way, I will divert them to other areas of the school as long as I can."

"Good," said Manbo with a nod. "Luck be with you."

"And with you, as well," said Mia Hahnemann, Hogwarts's resident nurse, as she pulled off the black cloak and threw it behind a nearby suit of armor. "All praise to the Next."

---------

"How are you two coming along?" asked Neville Longbottom as he entered the greenhouse from his office.

"Alright, I guess," said Scorpius Malfoy, gently setting another puffapod into the wooden crate. "That's, um, how many?"

"Five," said Meghan Cullen, scratching the number onto her piece of parchment. "Five in that crate," she added, looking at Professor Longbottom. "We've counted out forty-four good pods so far, five bad ones, and, um..."

"Four dropped ones," Scorpius finished, motioning to the floor, where four piles of flowers from exploded puffapods were now strewn. "Sorry, Professor."

"It happens," Neville said with a shrug, then checked his pocket watch. "I think we can say you two have officially completed your time. You'd better get moving if you want to get some breakfast before class."

"Are... Are you sure?" asked Meghan carefully. "I mean, our count could be wrong--"

"There's still, like, three other boxes to sort out--" Scorpius added.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake," Neville groaned, "this is supposed to be detention. You're supposed to not want to be here, right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess," said Scorpius reluctantly.

"But it's the only time I get to see him!" Meghan blurted out.

"Obviously, it's not," said Neville with an amused grin. "You wouldn't be here right now if Professor Reyburn and I hadn't caught you two snogging on the third floor at one in the morning."

"These rules are so unfair!" said Meghan. "The Purebloods won't let me see him at meals, the class schedule won't let me see him during the day, the curfew won't let me see him at night."

"If you could just, I don't know," Scorpius stammered, "give us some extra detention? We could finish this sorting in, like, the next hour."

"I have classes of my own, Mr. Malfoy," said Neville. "And in light of what you two are saying, what I really should be doing is giving you separate detentions. You're obviously having too much fun with this punishment."

"No!"

"Professor, you wouldn't--!"

"I said should," Neville said quickly, holding his hands up defensively. "That doesn't mean--"

There was a glass-tinged knock at the greenhouse door, interrupting the argument.

"Um, Professor?"

"Rose!" said Neville, turning to greet the Gryffindor. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at breakfast?"

"I know," said Rose, "but I'm not really that hungry."

"Where's your escort?" asked Neville warily. "You shouldn't be walking the halls alone, you know that."

"Madam Hahnemann gave me permission," said Rose. "It's all in the note. I need to borrow some herbs for a class project for Potions."

"A class project, eh?" said Neville, taking the note from Rose and reading it with a bit of a squint. Your eyes are getting old, he thought. You're going to need glasses soon enough. "Dittany, knotgrass, nettles... You're making Skele-Gro?"

"That's right, sir," said Rose.

"High-class work, Rosie--Miss Weasley," Neville corrected, chiding himself for still sliding into the name he called Ron and Hermione's eldest since she was a baby. Very unprofessional, that. "This is N.E.W.T.-level work, maybe even higher. Are you sure you're up to it?"

"Won't know until I try," Rose said with a modest shrug. "Professor Tonks is giving me extra credit for it, since I'm thinking about being a Healer someday--"

"Still two more years before you even have to think about that."

"--And Madam Hahnemann's offered to help me if I have any questions."

Neville continued to study the note, his lips pursed. Presently he gave a shrug. "Fair enough," he said. "You can have access to any ingredients that you need. I know you're good for regrowing them again should you take too much or pick them incorrectly?"

"Of course," said Rose.

"Alright," he said. "You wait here, then, while I get you your Screechsnap. Then Mr. Malfoy and Miss Cullen can talk to me about coming in to do some extra credit work around the greenhouses--"

"Really?" Meghan squealed, brighting.

"--and then I'll escort you three back to the Great Hall so you can join your Houses before class starts."

"Thank you, sir!" said Malfoy, with a smile so big that it looked like the top of his head would fall off. "Thank you!"

"For what?" said Neville. "You think I want to spend all my free time cleaning dragon fertilizer off the floors? It's the price you pay, kids." But he gave gave the two a wink before heading over to Greenhouse Three to collect Rose's Screechsnap.

"Oh, my God, he's so cool," said Meghan, the grin plastered to her face. "Professors aren't supposed to be that cool."

"It's Professor Longbottom," said Rose, her smile reflecting her friends'. "He's neat that way. So what were you two doing to get in trouble?"

"Rose!" Meghan gasped, her face turning beet red.

"Oh, come on!" said Rose. "Do you think I came up here just to talk to Neville? I have Herbology in two hours, I could have gotten the ingredients from him then. I wanted to see how you two were--"

A pearl-hued figure passed through the greenhouse glass and, with a cold chill, passed through the three students, cutting off Rose's words.

"Nick?" Rose cried, gasping in air in a shock like she had just been hit with a bucket of ice water.

"Children, yes, sorry," said Nearly-Headless Nick absently, his head wobbling precariously on his neck as he spun around the greenhouse in a panic. "Where's Professor Longbottom?"

"Greenhouse Three," said Scorpius. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong, what's wrong, what's wrong," Nick muttered under his breath, his gaze shifting between the students, the door to Greenhouse Three, and the door leading back to the school. He closed his eyes in thought, nodded once curtly (his head almost tipping over), then motioned to the trio. "Follow me," he said, passing through the glass wall and towards the third greenhouse.

"Not very bright, is he?" said Scorpius. "We can't exactly follow him through walls."

"Come on," said Rose, grabbing Meghan's arm. Meghan grabbed Scorpius's as Rose dragged her towards the door, and the three ran through Greenhouse Two and into Three, where Neville and Nicholas were talking quietly to each other.

"Here they are, Professor," said Nick, nodding to the students.

"Wait here," said Neville.

"What's going on, Professor?" asked Meghan as Neville passed them, moving quickly towards the exit.

"We'll find out soon enough," said Neville, pulling his wand. "You three stay right here. Find somewhere you can hide. I'm going to lock the door behind me."

"Professor?"

"Hide," he repeated, his eyes wide with... panic? Fear? Adrenaline? Rose couldn't tell. It was a look she didn't recognize on his face, although her parents would. Neville had worn the same look when he came face-to-face with Voldemort all those years ago, minutes before a flaming Sorting Hat was placed on his head and minutes before he beheaded Voldemort's Nagini, setting up Harry Potter's final victory.

It was, however, a look that commanded respect. Rose recognized that. So did Meghan and Scorpius. Without another word, they slid beneath the Herbology tables, Rose under one, Meghan and Scorpius across the aisle from her. She could see that their hands were still clasped, and she felt a momentary twist of pain and sad jealousy in her stomach. Neville was scared. Whatever was happening, it was big. It was dangerous. And while Meghan and Scorpius had each other for comfort, Rose had...

"Nick!" she whispered after the door had closed behind Neville. "Nick, are you still here?"

"Yes, Miss Weasley," said Nick, floating down through the floor until his everything below his shoulders were submerged and he was face-to-face with Rose.

If I don't have anyone, she thought, I at least have my brain to keep me distracted.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"I'm not quite sure, Miss Weasley," said Nick, a hand floating out of the ground to tug on his ruffled collar. "And I'm not quite sure I should be--"

"Enough secrets, already!" Rose hissed. "Who are we hiding from?"

"I believe it's the Oligarchy," said Nick, looking back towards the school. "Cyril Penates sent out the alarm. The Great Hall has been locked, with most of the students and professors trapped inside."

"With the Oligarchy inside?"

"No, the Oligarchy are in the Entrance hall," Nick explained. "I believe they locked the door so no one could get in their way. They're after someone, or something. They were battling Professors Forseti, Sinistra, and the kitchen elves when I left."

"A fight... in the Entrance Hall... Is Hugo alright? He's in the Great Hall, right?"

Nick swallowed hard, looking back towards the door. "Miss Weasley," he said carefully, "I'm really not sure--"

"Is my brother in the Great Hall?"

"I... I heard one of them mention that... a... group of first-year Hufflepuffs were attacked-- Miss Weasley! Wait!"

"Rose!" Meghan and Scorpius yelled as Rose bolted to her feet, sprinting across the greenhouse towards the exit. They were up, following her close behind.

"Miss Weasley, please!" Nick yelled, flying beside her. "Miss Weasley, please, hide, they're looking for someone called the Next and they're coming this way!"

Rose screamed and covered her head as the glass wall of the greenhouse shattered, a large something thrown through it and slamming into the tables.

"Oh dear oh dear oh dear Miss Weasley Miss Cullen Mister Malfoy please hide!"

"Well, that was easy enough," came a voice from a distance away. Rose looked through the hole in the greenhouse to see three black-robed figures approaching from the castle. "I expected him to be more of a challenge."

Him?

Rose spun around to look at what had been thrown through the glass. It was Professor Longbottom, wrapped in the vines that had been hanging from the greenhouse wall just seconds before. He was limp, bleeding, and lifeless.

"Professor!" Meghan yelled as she and Scorpius ran towards Neville's body. "Oh, God, Professor!"

"Is he alive?" Rose cried, falling beside him and grabbing at him aimlessly. "Oh God oh God oh God..."

"There's a pulse," said Scorpius, snagging Neville's wrist.

"Please!" Nick, now beside himself with fear, screamed. "Hide! Please!"

"Professor!" Meghan cried, grabbing Neville's collar through the vines. "Wake up! Please, Professor! Wake up!"

"She's in there," one of the three Oligarchy members said from outside.

"Stop shaking him!" Rose hissed, grabbing Meghan's arm. "He's really hurt and you're going to make it worse!"

"Oh God oh God oh God," Meghan was now chanting, her voice and body shaking with fear.

"I'll do... something," said Nick. "You have to leave! All of you! They're coming!"

"We can't leave him!"

"Go get help!" said Scorpius to the ghost. "Find Madam Hahnemann!"

"Is anybody in there?" one of the masked figures yelled. "Hello?"

"Run!" Nick said one last time before swooping off.

"It's one of the ghosts!" they heard from outside, followed seconds later by the sounds of spells being cast.

"Begone!" Nick was yelling, darting to and fro, colliding with the Oligarchy members as much as he could. "Begone from this place! I am a vengevul spirit from the other side! A curse on you all!"

"He's harmless," said one of them. "Come on."

"We have to leave him," Rose whispered to Meghan. "I'm sorry, but we have to."

"Oh God, we're going to die," Meghan whimpered. She couldn't stop shaking.

"No, we're not going to die," said Scorpius, grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet. "We're going to run, just like Nick said."

"Where? Where?"

"Away's a good start," said Rose. "Come on."

And so they ran, their hearts pounding in their chests in rhythm with the pounding of their feet.

But the Circle was prepared for their escape.

The three students only got as far as the door between Greenhouses Two and Three before they were blocked. A woman stood before them, clad in black. A wall of water shrouded her face, a continuously falling current of liquid that seemed to stop at her collar. In one hand she held a wand. In the other she held a sword.

"Hello there," she said calmly, her voice tinged with an Australian accent.

"Run!" Scorpius yelled, the three spinning around only to find themselves facing the horrible sight of a hooded bear skull.

"She is the one," it said, its jaw moving up and down without muscle or lips. "I can feel it. The power."

"She is the one," said a third, a woman in a white cloth mask, black marks shifting along her eyes. "I can see it."

"What do you want?" Rose asked. But she knew already, didn't she? She was the Minister's daughter. Of course they'd want her. Leverage against her mother. This was a kidnapping, plain and simple.

"The Next," said the water woman with a sigh of ecstasy. The three were all walking slowly, reverently, towards the students.

"Back off," Scorpius snapped, raising his wand. Beside him, Meghan was clutching his arm, paralyzed with fear.

"We do not wish to hurt you," said the white-cloth woman. "On the contrary, Meghan Cullen, we have come to save you."

"What?" Meghan asked, her voice barely audible.

"You are the Next," said the skull man. "You are our hope. Our future. Our victory."

"You're not taking her anywhere," said Scorpius, pulling Meghan behind his back. His voice was shaking, but his wand wasn't.

"She will come with us, Scorpius Malfoy," said the skull man. "You will not stand in our way now that we are so close to our moment of triumph."

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" said Scorpius. He glanced over at Rose. Tipped his head quickly, nearly imperceptibly, towards Meghan. Again towards the door. Run, he mouthed. He hoped to Merlin that Rose had understood him. Frankly, he wasn't even sure she had even seen him do anything. The three powerful-looking wizards and witches seemed to demand attention.

"You are expendable," said the water woman. "Your protection of the Next is futile."

"That's what I thought," said Scorpius. "Go!"

He charged headlong at the water woman. If Rose had moved, had grabbed Meghan, he didn't know it.

He slammed into the witch, hoping to knock her onto her back in order to give Meghan and Rose a few seconds to escape. He didn't care what happened to himself, just so long as they didn't take Meghan.

He felt sharp steel in his side.

"I told you," the witch hissed in his ear. "Futile."

Scorpius could feel a mist on his face from her mask. Could almost see the eyes behind the waterfall.

And the pain.

Oh, God, this hurts.

"Noooooo!"

---------

At the sight of her boyfriend impaled on Altheda's sword, a magical discharge erupted from Meghan Cullen's body, immense and immesurable. It threw everyone around her, friend and foe, backwards like rag dolls. The glass of all the Hogwarts greenhouses shattered with such violent force that, even after a cleanup crew had collected most of the pieces, Hogwarts students couldn't walk barefoot on that area of the grounds for the next decade.

The smoke Harry Potter viewed from the front gates at this moment came from the burning plants: Daisy and Devil's Snare, sage and Screechsnap, Mandrake and mallowsweet. Even Neville Longbottom's prized Titan Arum didn't survive the magical explosion, going up like a gigantic, putrid-smelling cigar.

"My God," breathed Prospero as he and the other surviving members of the Oligarchy approached the twisted, burning wreckage that had once been the Hogwarts Herbology classrooms.

"The Next," said Atrytone, clutching a bleeding arm. "It has to be."

"It is," said Gungnir, his golden mask smeared with black ash. He leaned against his sacred spear, and his voice shook with reverant awe. "It is her. It must be."

"Come," said Prospero, motioning them forward. Mia Hahnemann, her robe back on, her face once again shrouded, followed close behind.

Twenty yards from the greenhouses they came upon their first body.

"Manbo!" Gungnir yelled, running towards the white-masked witch. The snow around her was pink with blood.

"Leave her," said Atrytone impatiently. "The Next is inside that rubble, possibly cooking herself."

"Manbo... she's alive!" Gungnir said, pulling aside the mask. Her face was covered in blood, but her eyelids were fluttering over sightless eyes. "She needs help!"

"She will live if she lives," Atrytone said. "Come."

"I'm not leaving her behind."

"We have already left the bodies of Quipu and Sangoma," said Atrytone venomously. "Your countryman Forseti and those damn elves did them in. If we lose Manbo, it's no great--"

"Atrytone! Gungnir!" Prospero yelled, now standing before the buildings and hosing them down with a powerful jet of Aguamenti. "With Quipu lost, the locking spell could go at any time! Come!"

"I'll be there in a moment," said Gungnir to Atrytone, his voice stating that any further argument would lead to much violence.

"On your own head be it," said Atrytone, her eyes glinting beneath her helmet, but she relented. As she turned away, Gungnir reached into Manbo's pocket and pulled out the small cylindrical object. He placed it in her unconscious hand and closed it tightly.

"One, two, three."

Manbo vanished with a crack, the object falling lightly to the snow. Gungnir picked it up, put it in his own pocket, and joined the others at the scene of the explosion.

Four powerful Aguamenti Charms were enough to at least reduce the fire to a manageable level. They entered Greenhouse Three.

"My God," said Mia, running to the body of Meghan Cullen. She lay huddled on the floor, a flower-shaped char mark radiating from her own personal Ground Zero. Her hair was singed. Her clothing was shredded to near-nakedness. But she was otherwise unmarked.

"She's alive," Mia said with a sigh of relief, her fingertips on Meghan's throat. "The Next lives."

"What of the others?" asked Atrytone. But she knew the answer before she even asked it.

Ya-O-Gah, Mask of Quebec, was pinned against the wall, dead. A decorative metal rod, used by Longbottom and Sprout in more peaceful times for hanging potted plants, had been shoved through the back of his head. Its curled end was sticking out of the eye of his bear skull mask. Prospero was grateful he couldn't see the damage beneath.

The ever-flowing mask of Altheda, Mask of Sydney, had been forever extinguished. She leaned against one of the tables, her brown eyes staring sightlessly from beneath her hood. Her head was twisted at an unnatural angle.

"Who is that on top of her?" asked Gungnir, limping forward.

"Scorpius Malfoy," said Prospero. "Fought to the very last, I see. He and the Next were close. A true shame."

Prospero poked Scorpius with his boot. As he did, the boy elicited a small moan.

"He's alive?" said Atrytone as Mia ran forward. "But... Altheda's sword..."

"Missed his vital organs," said the nurse, examining the sword that had skewered the boy in the belly. "It hit his intestines. My God, the pain must be excruciating."

"There's a third student," said Gungnir, bending down beneath the one of the tables. "Here."

"Oh," said Prospero, a smile beneath his voice. "This is a surprise. A happy one, of course."

"Is that who I think it is?" asked Atrytone, bending down beside Gungnir.

"Rose Weasley," said Prospero. "Daughter of the Minister of Magic. What a crazy random happenstance."

"What?"

"Never mind," he said with a shake of his head. "She is burned badly, but she's still alive. She could be of much use to us, as well. A bargaining chip, perhaps."

"She needs serious attention," said Mia, examining Rose's arm, the sleeve of her sweater charred to the skin. "They both will, Rose and Scorpius. We need to--"

"They're through here!" the voice of Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington called from the castle. "Please hurry!"

Voices. Footsteps through the snow. Not here, but quickly.

"Gungnir, take Weasley," said Prospero, cradling the nearly-comatose Meghan Cullen into his arms. "Atrytone, take Malfoy."

"We can't!" Mia cried. "If he Apparates like that, on top of Altheda with a sword in his stomach, the odds of Splinching are--"

"We leave him!" Atrytone yelled. "If he lives, it's in their hands. If he dies, it's in the hands of Thanatos."

"Very well," said Gungnir. He reached into Ya-O-Gah's pocket and pulled out the pointed object. "Here's your ticket out," he said, tossing it to Mia.

The footsteps were closer now. Larger steps. Prospero could see the hulking shape of Hagrid approaching the greenhouse.

"Hurry!" Nearly-Headless Nick cried to the half-giant. "Please hurry!"

"Come," said Prospero as Gungnir lifted Rose Weasley, pulling his own Key out of his robe. Prospero held his own, as did Atrytone.

"One, two, three."

crack

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