Chapter 10
“Hurry up, the both of you!”
Tony rolled his eyes at the order as he and Hermione followed the cloud of curls into yet another antique shop.
This one looked about the same as all the other ones they’d visited throughout the course of the afternoon, so Tony left Mi with the jewelry and took himself to the back.
Sherlock was grilling someone about a goldfish – which might explain why he and Mi were running around London with the man – and Tony kept half an ear on the conversation as he moved around the knickknacks.
There were snow globes around and a number of them showed three kids and their black dog in the snow, Tony vaguely wondering if he’d seen them before since they seemed so familiar. Moving on, there were beautifully skillful carvings of flowers and Tony could see them swaying – almost as if they were in a garden’s breeze.
He took a backward glance to see Mi move out of sight and approached a section of shelves that had small wooden boxes on display. He moved among them, admiring skillful designs and daydreaming about the things he could use them for.
He heard the bell jingle over the door and sighed. “Mi?” he called. “He’s flown the coop. Time to go after him.”
Tony himself was about to head over to the door when his leg bumped into the shelf of boxes and one of them fell to the ground. His ear caught the rattle of something inside and cursed as he picked it up.
“I hope I didn’t break anything,” he muttered. He looked for the handle and paused as a wave of sudden recognition rushed over him.
‘Strange,’ he mused as he found the split lid on top.
If he didn’t know any better, he’d have sworn he’d seen this box bef-
* **
He almost hit the ceiling as a loud blaring alarm jolted him out of a sound sleep.
Instinct took over and he finally came back to himself as he was looking for his gun while trying to raise McGee on his wallet.
“What?” he blinked at his wallet as the alarm blared again. Something was wrong with this picture.
He tossed the wallet back on the dresser and grabbed his wand, radio and flashlight and headed for the bedroom door, stopping when he found a blue light flashing from under it. Opening the door, the light flashed again and Tony could see the blue light bathe everything in a blue glow from where he stood at the end of his hall to the living room and kitchen.
A glance at the time showed it to be almost two thirty in the morning and he huffed in exasperation. If this was revenge for the glitter, Dumbledore hadn’t seen Tony prank someone yet.
It took a few minutes of searching to make him even more annoyed.
He couldn’t find any actual light or the alarm and not being able to shut anything off decided it for him. ‘Looks like I’m bunking in Gryffindor Tower tonight,’ he shook his head. No one would mind him spending the night up there while trying to figure out who to plan the imminent demise of. And maybe more than one night until he could find the light and alarm to make them stop.
Since he was effectively up and out of bed, he might as well check to make sure no one else was effected, though he doubted it.
Wouldn’t be the first time the new guy was hazed or the butt of jokes and Tony wasn’t so old that he forgot what it felt like to be the new guy.
Opening the door brought another alarm blare and another flash of blue light and it took a minute for him to realize that either he was the only one experiencing these phenomena or the school was under some sort of attack and the alarm system had been activated.
Unable to discount either scenario, he gripped his wand and moved out into the Teachers’ Corridor to see if anyone was out and about. For a long moment, he stood there and waited for half-dressed staff members to come racing down the hall past him in panic at something equal to ‘they were all about to die’ or were fully expecting a crowd to be waiting outside his door to laugh at him.
The fact that none of that happened was slightly concerning the more he stood there and waited.
The hall was empty, which made the intermittent flashes of blue light and cries of the alarm even more eerie and hair-raising.
Uncomfortable with standing out in the open, Tony wondered if he could shut this… thing off from Dumbledore’s office and couldn’t see how it would hurt at this point. He was already up and no one was offering answers, but then the thought occurred to him that maybe he was supposed to go to the Headmaster’s office where the aforementioned crowd would be waiting to laugh at him. And maybe the whole ‘elite members of the Order going away for the night’ was also a ruse to lower his guard.
‘Right,’ he let his head hang back on his neck and sighed deeply at the ceiling. ‘Okay,’ he straightened his head again and rubbed his eyes. ‘I’ll go suck it up, march up there, laugh at the whole thing, assure no hard feelings, extract information and someone will wake up in the middle of Hogsmeade in their skivvies,’ he grinned at the thought.
The question was how to play this.
Should he be surprised or should he be put upon?
‘Oh, that was you guys intentionally waking me up in the middle of the night because of the glitter?’
‘Yeah, yeah, okay. Ha, ha, ha. Seriously, turn it off.’
‘Hm? I haven’t seen him this morning. Have you checked Hogsmeade? I don’t know why he would be there this early, but I think it had something to do with ‘school business’, so you might want to check it out.’
He wasn’t sure if that was going to be the plan for any female mastermind or if he would exact his revenge on the guys regardless, but he was just ambling his way out of the corridor against the blue light/blaring alarm backdrop when a call from behind made him turn.
“Professor!” a Witch about his age flagged him down in her bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. The Muggle Studies Professor, if he wasn’t mistaken. “Do you know what’s going on?”
“Oh, so you can hear this, too?” he pointed up as the alarm blared again.
“Yes, and see the flashing blue light,” she nodded, coming to a stop in front of him. “Would you happen to know what this is all about?”
“Probably my comeuppance,” he shrugged. “Although – and you didn’t hear this from me -, I wouldn’t worry if someone disappeared off to the Village tonight.”
“I think someone is way ahead of you,” she stuffed her hair into a bun and wrapped her arms around herself. “I can’t find Sinistra.”
“And the others are supposedly still out. Alright, well. I was just heading up to Dumbledore’s office to see if anyone was up for a friendly game of interrogation. Want to come with?”
“I can’t do anything else until this alarm system turns off and I suppose we should see if it’s an emergency,” she pointed out.
Tony still thought this was revenge for the glitter, but nodded and let her lead the way.
As they walked the halls toward Dumbledore’s office, though, Tony couldn’t help the hair rising on the back of his neck as they failed to meet anyone. No ghost or teacher was nearby and even the portraits seemed unusually still and silent.
Joke or no joke, it was starting to become unnerving with just the two of them and the Muggle Studies Professor seemed to inch closer, too.
“It feels like we’re all alone,” she looked around nervously. “I’m glad I’m not the only one.”
“Yeah.”
By the time they reached the Gargoyle, Tony was slowly beginning to wonder if this was really a joke. Either British humor was a different planet from his sense of humor or there was actually something wrong.
No one meeting them in the hall didn’t mean anything, really. Either way, they were going to get some answers since they were there, anyway, and it was too late to turn back.
Although, now that he thought about it…
“Huh.”
“What?” MSP blinked at him.
He turned to look at her. “We have an alarm system?”
* **
Harry was drawn out of a dead sleep.
Frowning at his bed canopy, he wondered what woke him.
Around the room, the other four were starting to wake as well.
“What’s going on?” Neville yawned.
“I dunno,” he answered, grabbing his glasses as he sat up.
“Well, it’s got to be something,” Ron huffed. “We’re up, aren’t we?”
But whatever it was, none of them could figure it out.
“Think it’s just us?” Harry asked as he climbed out of bed.
“Dunno,” Ron answered as he got up, too.
Harry reached the door first and opened it to find Vince Muldoon across from him, blinking blearily at him.
“Is there something going on?”
Harry shrugged.
“Guess it’s not just us, then,” Ron mused as Harry turned to the Common Room. He found G Benson scowling at the fire as some others milled about, the single Triplet looking relieved when she caught sight of him, Ron and Vince as they came down.
“I wasn’t sure if I should wake one of you,” she told them. “Something woke us up a few minutes ago.”
“Do you know what’s happening?”
“No. All I know is that we can’t get back to sleep.”
Hermione and the other girls yawned their way downstairs not long after, but by that time, everyone began hearing a faint ringing noise.
“Is that an alarm?” Hermione moved to join them in front of G’s fireplace.
“We have one?” Harry frowned.
“Guess,” Ron shrugged.
“Why wouldn’t we?” Hermione posited. “The Headmaster probably wanted to know if we were under attack.”
“Well, we know that much,” Ron scowled. “Why would he want everyone and their cousin to know if we were under attack? It would’ve been better if the alarm was only contained to the teachers, so only they would know and we wouldn’t know anything.”
“But are we under attack?” Harry wanted to know.
“I don’t know,” Hermione shook her head, “but it’s best to assume we are.”
“We’re under attack, Harry?” they startled violently when Colin Creevey piped up loud enough for everyone to hear.
“We’re under attack?” one of the First Years questioned as everyone started to panic.
“No! No, we are not under any kind of attack,” he shushed, but everyone was too busy talking to pay him any mind.
“Harry, see if you can get Tony on the radio,” Ron told him. “We’ll try calming this lot.”
“I’ll get mine, too,” Hermione got Ginny to help Ron and some of the Prefects to calm everyone down as she and Harry went back upstairs.
Harry dug the Map out of his trunk first and activated it before grabbing his radio and Ron’s as an afterthought. He looked over the Map and found Tony and Hermione’s Muggle Studies Professor just leaving the Headmaster’s office, him going one way and her going the other. Once he saw Tony alone, he chanced trying to get him on the radio.
“Tony, it’s Harry. What’s going on?”
“Harry!” he sounded kind of panicky, which made him frown in concern. “Round up the Gryffindors and get them to the Great Hall. And while you’re at it, let the Ravenclaws out of their Tower. I’m getting the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs while… I never did get her name… gets the Hall set up after she stops off at her place. Hey, do you have the Map? I need to know where all the other teachers are.”
“Hold on,” Harry scoured the Map and his frown got progressively deeper as he looked in one place after another. “Tony… it … There are no other teachers.”
“I was afraid of that,” Tony didn’t sound very surprised. “There’s just two of us. Great. This just got more exciting. Merlin, I hate Friday the Thirteenth.”
*Tony, what do you mean there’s only two of you?* Hermione broke in from her end. *Where’s all the other teachers?*
“I don’t know! Look, the two of us were just in Dumbledore’s office and some sort of spell was activated, but I have no idea what it is. We couldn’t turn it off and none of the other Headmasters were in there, either. Even Fawkes flew the coop! Well, you know what I mean. Evacuate everyone to the Great Hall. MSP will meet you all there.”
When Harry returned to the Common Room, there were a lot more people there as others had been woken up and everyone was nervous.
“Well?” Ginny and Ron moved over to him as Hermione came from her dorm.
“We need to get everyone to the Great Hall and some of us need to get the Ravenclaws,” Harry turned to Hermione, who nodded.
They got everyone’s attention to explain their next course of action and Parvati Patil and G Benson volunteered to go get the Ravenclaws because their sisters were part of that House. Hermione sent Vince and Rosslyn with them as they started evacuating the Tower.
The Seventh Years led the way out of the Tower with the First and Second Years surrounded by the others in tight knots, the Prefects coming at the very end of the large group. Hands flew to ears as the blaring got louder and Harry was glad he remembered to dig his torch and Ron’s out before leaving. The halls were dark as they silently streamed to the Great Hall. Everyone had their wands and kept their eyes opened for any suspicious activity as they went.
It was very eerie and the blue light coming from nowhere- and yet everywhere at once - weren’t helping in the least.
They were a large group and Harry was aware of that as they walked down one corridor and staircase after another. As eager as Harry was to get to the Great Hall where Tony would hopefully be waiting with more information, they had to stay at a steady speed so that the group could stay together.
He’d never been so glad to get to the Hall outside of meal times as he was when they rounded the corner to see a vaguely familiar figure waving at them.
“Hurry!” she called over the noise between breaks. “Inside!”
Harry led the others to her and glanced down the stairs to see the Seventh Year Hufflepuffs making their way up. The House Tables were still out and Harry took a seat in the Trio’s usual area to wait for Ron and Hermione to join him.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” Ron dropped down next to him after what seemed like an hour, as the Hufflepuffs began to thin out.
“The Professor didn’t tell you?” Neville frowned as Hermione dropped down next to him and across the table from Harry and Ron.
“I honestly got the impression that he wasn’t sure what was going on, either,” Hermione shook her head.
The Ravenclaws and Slytherins got there at the same time and the friends watched the two Houses separate to get to their Tables, everyone in a mix of sleepwear, uniform or a combination thereof.
Tony appeared behind the last stragglers and Harry managed to catch his eye. Tony tilted his head in response and the Trio were meeting him at the door a moment later.
“Before you say anything,” he began as they clustered as close as they could to each other, “I have no idea what’s going on. No one was waiting in the Headmaster’s office and believe you me, we looked. As of right now, the best course of action is to believe that we are under attack because there’s literally nothing else I can think of to explain this. Hell of a time for Dumbledore to pull a Houdini on us and I can’t even begin to imagine where the others are, besides. And the Floo is out, so we couldn’t reach them even if we did know where they were.”
“So, what are we going to do?” Hermione frowned as the alarm blared again, though not as loud since they were in the Great Hall.
“Well, only the Headmaster can actually turn this whole affair off and turning this off is the first thing to do. And we tried things I didn’t even know existed in order to try. So, turning this off won’t be easy – if it’s possible -, but I’ll need to think a minute. In the meantime, we’ll try getting as much sleep as we can so we’ll be ready for anything that just so happens to come around. In the event that an attack doesn’t come before the first wave of teachers comes back, we wait for them to show up.”
“Well,” Harry scrubbed a hand through his hair, “it doesn’t look like we’ve got much choice either way.”
“No, we do not,” Tony sighed, eyes sweeping around. “I better get to the front so everyone has some kind of direction. You three better take your seats.”
Tony walked them to their earlier spots and headed for the front, waiting for everyone to direct their attention toward him. “Okay, everybody,” he waved a hand. “I know that everyone is tired and wanting to get back to sleep. You’re also probably wondering where the Headmaster is. Well, he, Hagrid and your Heads of House were called out at the last minute and are supposed to be back by breakfast, so all we need to do is stay calm and work together. I’m not entirely sure where the other teachers went, but I and your other Professor ask that you put aside your usual … differences so that things can run smoother with cooperation as we assess the situation as it develops. Now, all of you please stand while the tables are moved so that we can get whatever sleep we can get. All Sixth and Seventh Years will meet me in this little room off the Hall here,” he waved a hand toward the door that Harry had had to go through in Fourth Year. “Fifth Year Prefects will meet the other Professor near the doors.”
This entire thing reminded him of Third Year despite the noise. Even more so when the sleeping poufs started appearing.
He joined Ron, Hermione, Vince and the rest of the Seventh Years as they followed their younger Housemates to the front, all the others flowing after them.
Tony waited for them inside, directing them all to stand as close as they could so everyone could hear him when he shut the door and stepped into the middle of the circle he’d created.
“As you may have noticed,” he told them all, “the noise in here is a little muffled, though not by much. That’s either because we have muffling charms up or something to do with the charms and wards of the school. In any case, I want all of you to help layer as many muffling charms as we can get to stick. I can tell you right now that silencing charms are not working, but maybe we’ll actually make a difference with so many muffling charms. This will be a team effort, so I don’t recommend attempts at sabotage,” he looked at them all seriously, “or detention will look good. And because this is a team effort, I will be forming you into teams of eight. Ravenclaws, I want Sixth Year girls to line up in front of the Staff Table beginning from the far side and against the wall. Hufflepuff Seventh Year boys will line up right alongside them. Slytherin Seventh Year girls will join them. So, please line up outside now and I will call the rest of you out the same way.”
Harry and the remaining students waited until the others made their way out and waited patiently as the rest of them were called out:
“Gryffindor Sixth Year boys, which rounds out half. Ravenclaw Sixth Year boys.”
“Hufflepuff Sixth Year girls.”
“Slytherin Sixth Year girls.”
“Gryffindor Seventh Year girls. And that’s one group of teams. The rest of you will have to wait here for a bit as I go out and take care of them. Ravenclaw Seventh Year boys, how about you guys line up around the room here with Hufflepuff Sixth Year boys? I’ll be back in a moment.”
Hermione gave them a wave as she streamed out with the others and Ginny came up next to Harry and Ron as the first two Houses got themselves situated.
“Well,” she sighed, “this is a fine thing to happen to Tony not even a month in.”
“We probably shouldn’t remind him,” Harry pointed out.
“Have the Map?” Ron asked him. “Best keep an eye on the Astronomy Tower just in case.”
“Don’t joke about that,” his sister scowled at him. “G Benson was saying earlier that Tony seemed kind of sad and depressed and I don’t think the three of us need to wonder about that very hard.”
“We don’t know if he was thinking about Sherlock,” Ron shook his head. “Could’ve been something about Peter.”
“Yeah,” Harry slowly nodded. “And 9/11 wasn’t that long ago.” For all they knew, he was always like that around the tragic date. Peter had been not quite himself, besides, the change dramatic even with their limited exposure.
Maybe all Americans reacted the same way every year.
Vince was standing nearby and moved closer to join the group. “What do you think set this alarm off?” he wondered.
“Dumbledore would know,” Ron shrugged. “You heard Tony, after all. He doesn’t know, even if he wanted to.”
“Think the teachers have an alarm going off, too?” Ginny frowned. “They should. Especially the Headmaster.”
They thought about it, but none of them were actually the Headmaster nor teachers themselves so it was all theory by the time Tony returned.
“Okay,” he clapped his hands as he saw the already formed groups of two. “Slytherin Seven Year boys, go ahead and find a spot.”
Harry, Ron, Ginny and Vince watched them before Tony stepped next to them with a heavy sigh.
“Harry, keep an eye on the Map once in a while, okay? We still don’t know what set any of this off. I didn’t know there was an alarm like this when I signed up and I don’t even know what would set this off to begin with. The way my luck is going,” he complained, “it was probably an owl, a bat or a moth.”
Harry nodded, dutifully activating the Map and thinking that this probably wasn’t what the Marauders had in mind when they made it. They’d been troublemakers, after all, and not in the least interested in school security at the time.
“Gryffindor Sixth Year girls,” Tony sent an apologetic look at Ginny, “line up next. And you might as well get a little comfortable as you wait to be sent out. It’s taking a little time for the groups to make their way around the Hall and we need to wait before the next team can do anything. So, consider yourselves Shift Two.”
“So we’ll be in for a wait, then,” Vince sighed.
“Afraid so.”
Ravenclaw Seventh Year girls were allowed to line up before Tony shook his head.
“I don’t get it,” he frowned. “Only Muggle Studies Professor and myself are the only teachers on the grounds. The Headmasters in Dumbledore’s office are all gone, too, and they don’t normally make for the hills, do they?”
“Unless it’s some sort of mandatory thing,” Vince pointed out.
“Harry,” Ron turned to him. “You don’t reckon that what’s going on is what Hedwig was sensing, do you?”
“But if it is,” Tony shrugged, “why didn’t all the others go with her? That’s probably the only other thing that’s bothering me about this whole situation. And, you know, I really can’t be sure it’s related. You said she’s been acting off since before the wedding, right?”
Harry didn’t know what to think either.
He really hoped that this was something like clouds passing through an otherwise perfect night. Or year, in his case.
He’d thought they were done with this kind of thing happening.
Guess Hogwarts wasn’t done with him just yet.
The Hufflepuff Seventh Year Girls joined them not long after that.
The Slytherin Sixth and Gryffindor Seventh Year boys eventually found their groups and Tony looked them all over with a heavy sigh.
“I know this isn’t what you were all expecting when you went to bed – I wasn’t expecting it, either -, but thank you for pulling together for this. I’m hoping we’re going to get some answers very soon so we can all get back to bed.”
“Professor?” a girl raised her hand. “Do you think we’ll have to wake up tomorrow?”
“I sincerely hope not.”
Harry had found himself with Hannah’s group and watched as she sidled closer to him. “What?”
“I’m really glad he’s here,” she told him. “I don’t know what we would’ve done without him.”
“I don’t, either,” Neville agreed.
“What?” Tony paused as he walked past to check the groups.
“We don’t know what we would’ve done without you,” Hannah told him shyly.
“I’m sure you would’ve figured something out,” he shrugged. “You’re all smart. Frankly, I’m amazed the Trio didn’t take charge by now.”
“But you’re the teacher,” Ron chimed in. “You know more than we do.”
“Which isn’t actually that much more than nothing, but I see your point. Anyway, I’m going to walk down this line of groups before sticking my head out to see how far we’ve got left. Remember, you guys are Second Shift. First Shift is trying to get some sleep, but I don’t think anyone other than the younger kids are gonna get it if there is any to be found.”
“I know,” Hannah nodded. “I think I’m too awake now.”
“But I think I can hear the difference now,” Ron tilted his head slightly.
Harry could, too, which meant it was actually working.
Tony came back a few minutes later and got everyone’s attention again. “Alright, everyone, listen up. We’ve still got roughly half of First Shift left to go, but I’ll be sending a few of your groups out at a time. Once you are done, feel free to find some sleep if you can. The younger kids seem to be trying and some are actually asleep now.”
Harry was able to walk to the door and peek out to see most of the students on the floor and bundled up in their sleeping bags, including AJ.
The Second Year Hufflepuff had seemed more bemused about the fuss than alarmed, but she seemed to be napping, anyway.
The older Years were in their groups as one group at a time made it to the beginning of the circuit around the Hall and began to follow the groups ahead.
The Muggle Studies Professor was near the halfway point of that circuit and it looked like she kept checking to see how the Muffle charms were holding up.
“Doesn’t look like it’s far from dawn, does it?” Vince followed him and stood at his shoulder.
“No,” Harry’s eyes turned to the enchanted ceiling to see a bit of light beginning to make itself known as the sun’s arrival drew close.
They went back to their groups as Tony started to pick the first ones to go out and the MSP appeared not long after.
“Tony,” she frowned. “Shouldn’t the Headmaster have arrived already with the Heads?”
“Probably,” he sighed as Harry, Ron, Vince, Neville and Hannah listened nearby. “I’m not holding out much hope for that, though. The business they’re doing probably has the potential to go on for longer. I’m more concerned with trying to figure out what happened to the other teachers. Surely one of them should’ve figured out something was wrong and come running.”
Harry had let him have the Map, but every check revealed a furrowed brow, a deeper frown and a slowly tightening hold on the panic he suspected was hiding under the surface.
On the other hand, though, it meant that whatever tripped the alarm wasn’t going to happen. If no one was allowed to roam and Tony hadn’t seen any stragglers, then it wasn’t a well-planned attack since they were all in one place and nothing was really happening.
“You don’t think the wards accidently tipped themselves off, do you?” Harry suggested.
“Displacement?” Tony thought it over before shaking his head. “Oddly enough, I find that a little more harder to believe here than when it happened at the Burrow.”
“Do you think we should go out and look for any other teachers?” MSP nervously twisted a lock of her hair. “Or send for help?”
“We don’t know what’s going on out there,” Tony reminded. “Just because nothing’s happened yet, doesn’t mean that someone may not be waiting for one of us to let our guards down. And there’s no reason to suggest that maybe reinforcements aren’t already on the way.”
“Ye- yes, I suppose you may be right. I should go back out there,” she turned nervously on her heel and made her way out.
Eight groups made their way out after her, Vince and Ron included.
“What are we going to do about breakfast?” Hannah wanted to know as Tony stood nearby.
“I don’t know. If it’s all the same to you, though, I’m more worried about what the hell is going on because I’m slowly beginning to pass the panic stage and tumble into interrogation mode. And I’m beginning to wonder where Dumbledore is. McGonagall gave me the impression that they’d be back by dawn and she’s really good about timing.”
If there was any doubt before about dawn’s arrival, it was squashed when Harry, Hannah and their group walked out into a beautiful sunrise infiltrating the school.
Hermione was on the raised platform when they lined up nearby and she waved at them. “I hope something happens soon,” she rubbed her eyes. “I’m beginning to get hungry.”
It was definitely quiet enough to fall asleep, now, but some younger students were stirring by the time Harry’s group set off on their own circuit.
They were about half-way when the Hufflepuff Ghost, the Fat Friar, suddenly walked through the Hall doors.
“Good Heavens!” his voice echoed throughout the quieted Hall. “What are all of you still doing here?”
“What?” someone from the group ahead almost yelled back in shock. “You mean this was supposed to have happened?”
Tony and the Muggle Studies Professor were quickly summoned and the Hall erupted in conversation, students waking amidst the confused excitement.
“I can’t hear anything,” Hannah looked uncertainly at Harry, who scowled in frustration as he too tried to listen.
They watched the two Professors interrogate the Friar for long minutes before the Friar suddenly disappeared and the Professors had a short conversation before Tony turned to the rest of the Hall.
“OKAY, EVERYONE,” Tony called out with the help of a spell as the Hall fell silent. “HERE IS WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN. THE MUGGLE STUDIES PROFESSOR WILL BE LEADING THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS TO THE QUIDDITCH PITCH. THIRD, FOURTH AND FIFTH YEARS ARE GOING TO LINE UP AFTER THEY LEAVE. FOLLOW CLASS RULE NUMBER ONE AND FIND A GROUP OF OTHERS TO GO WITH. FIFTH YEAR PREFECTS IN THE FRONT AND THE BACK OF THE GROUP. NO ONE IS GOING ALONE, ARE WE CLEAR? EVERYONE ELSE IS TO STAY WHERE THEY ARE.”
The Muggle Studies Professor met the First and Second Years as they lined up and Harry lost sight of Tony as the older Wizard ducked out of the Hall a few minutes before the other teacher approached with her group.
The Third, Fourth and Fifth Years started grouping together in the middle of the Hall, but Harry’s radio got his attention and Hannah moved closer to his shoulder to listen in.
“Tony,” Hermione was saying. “What’s going on?”
“It turns out that our wise and all-knowing Headmaster, in his infinite wisdom, apparently forgot to include some important information in the New Teachers’ Guidebook. The Friar helpfully told us that this kind of alarm system goes off roughly every twenty to fifty years or so. Evidently, it went off five years too early. According to the Friar, this could also be considered a bit of an integrity test for any new teachers. The Headmaster and Heads of House would, however, have to actually be present so they could be whisked off to some secret meeting place on the grounds. The veteran teachers would follow until the new teachers would be left. The ones left – if any - would then be in charge of the students and their safety. Unfortunately the Headmaster is the only one who can turn the thing off, but that’s only if everyone has been accounted for and the area deemed safe from attack.”
“Think Dumbledore remembered it?” Ron sounded kind of doubtful. “Or maybe he wasn’t able to do it the last time or something.”
“I don’t know, but the Pitch is the way to this place and that’s why everyone’s being sent that way.”
“But all the Head teachers were out already,” Hermione pointed out. “Has that happened before?”
“I’ll put it on the list of things I’m going to ask about. In any case, should Dumbledore suddenly disappear, tell people that I’m off doing something important and don’t have any idea where he went.”
“You’re not going to hurt him.”
“Of course not. Not where anyone can see, anyway. Any of you heard of this kind of system?”
Harry turned to Hannah, who shrugged, as Ron answered in the negative.
“I know my family have been going to Hogwarts for ages,” he said, “but I don’t think any of them were around when anything went off.”
“I don’t know anything about this, either,” Hermione added. “This – none of this – was in Hogwarts: A History.”
“Mi,” Tony drawled. “You want to look in a public self-updating textbook to find reference of a secret – possibly - underground bunker somewhere, to hide an entire school in case of attack, because...”
“…oh. Right. Sorry.”
Hannah couldn’t help the slight giggle at that, Harry shaking his head.
“So, what now?” Harry wanted to know.
“Hang out at the Pitch until something happens, I guess,” Tony probably shrugged. “It would’ve helped if Dumbledore remembered to write this stuff down on his list of what to tell new teachers. Changing Defense teachers so many times in the last seven years didn’t help, plus all the other crap he’s doing and Merlin only knows what else.”
“But you said that it was too early to happen again,” Hermione pointed out. “He probably didn’t expect it to happen, either.”
“Do not assume that just because something isn’t supposed to happen, doesn’t mean it won’t,” Tony cautioned. “Something me and Buck learned the hard way a long time ago.”
“Who’s Buck?” Ron wanted to know.
“A Muggle I used to hang out with before NCIS. Sit tight, guys. Almost time to send the new group out.”
The Third, Fourth and Fifth Years slowly made their way out when Tony poked his head inside the door and waved them to head out, the Prefects in their places at the front and end of the large group.
Once they left, Tony looked around at the Sixth and Seventh Years he was left with and waved them all toward him as he absently waved the door closed to block out the noise.
“Okay,” he raised his voice so they could all hear. “I need the Head Girl and Boy to lead the Sixth Years, Seventh Year Prefects are to precede the rest of their peers. The Heads will take charge inside with the other Professor and work with her. The rest of the Prefects will either be in the stands or on the field with the Professor as the rest of you take your place in the stands. Find a group and meet me at the door.”
Harry found Ron and Hermione and they stood to the side as everyone else found people to go with. One of the first things Tony told them in class was to always find someone to go with, two people if possible.
“Don’t reckon we’ll figure out all of this school’s secrets this year,” Ron gave a half-hearted shrug as Neville and Vince joined them.
“Think Dumbledore even knows all of them?” Vince questioned.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Hermione frowned at him. “He’s the Headmaster, so he should know everything about the school.”
Harry doubted Dumbledore would tell anyone, even if he did know. Some of them might have been told to some of the Order members, because half the staff was Order, but maybe only some.
He wouldn’t be surprised if they stumbled across some of those secrets before the end of the year, at this rate.
“We all going together, then?” Neville asked.
“Sure,” Ron shrugged.
Hannah and Terry Boot from Ravenclaw started leading the Sixth Years and Tony had everyone lining up in their groups right behind the other Prefects.
“Ron, Mi,” he swung past. “I need you with the Hufflepuff Prefects. Meet me at the entrance to the Pitch. Harry, Vince and Neville, I’m going to need the three of you to stay with me. We’ll be the last ones out the door.”
Harry led the other two trailing after the larger group before Tony caught up with them again.
“Watch your ears,” he advised, the four of them leaving the Great Hall.
The noise was definitely unchecked the further they got from the muffled Hall, but it wasn’t long before they were walking outside and leaving it behind.
“Professor?” Neville spoke as they walked. “Did you know anything about this?”
“No,” he sighed. “And there could be any number of reasons why I wasn’t told when I agreed to teach. It was last minute and I was second choice, so I guess it’s possible that Dumbledore honestly forgot to say anything, but that doesn’t explain why no one thought to speak up. On that note, though, maybe I should be asking McGonagall about that. She is, after all, the second in command. Wouldn’t be a surprise if she was supposed to have said something instead of Dumbledore.”
Harry wasn’t sure when Tony caved in and agreed to teach, after having been so obstinate in his previous refusals, but he was glad he did.
It would’ve been nerve wracking enough without him.
When they got to the Pitch, Ron and Hermione met them at the entrance as Tony had requested.
“I guess we’ll go in, then,” Neville said uncertainly, glancing at Vince.
“No, you two will be volunteering to help,” Tony vetoed. “Mi, you and Neville will stay here. Vince will be with me and Ron will be with Harry. The two of us will go left, the two of you will go right. The four of us will be making three rounds around the Pitch to make sure nothing interesting is happening outside. Then we’ll come back and see if the Friar has any more information for us, like how to actually get to this super-secret place we’re supposed to get to. I want the radios on at all times and keep your senses alert. We still don’t know what set this thing off – or how, for that matter – and it’s better to be safe than sorry. Mi, if at any time the Friar gets back before we do, I want to know about it.”
“Of course,” Hermione nodded.
“Everyone else understand? Good. Harry, Ron, we should meet up about half-way. If either of our groups gets to the half-way point before the other, wait ten minutes before calling. Anyone finds trouble, send up red sparks.”
The terms agreed to, Harry and Ron made their way along their own appointed trail as Tony and Vince went their own way.
About five minutes later, Tony initiated a check-in on their channel and reports came back negative from everyone about nearby activity.
Harry was vaguely aware of chatter drifting from the Pitch as he and Ron slowly made their way around their side of the Pitch, alert to any changes they might encounter and ready to either engage or report as needed.
They met Tony and Vince at the half-way point and didn’t find anything interesting on either side.
“Keep going,” Tony told them. “Meet you back at the entrance.”
They passed each other and completed one circle as both groups reconvened with Neville and Hermione at the entrance.
Nothing was happening, so they went around a second time and met at the entrance again.
“Nothing,” Vince sighed.
“The Friar hasn’t come back, either,” Hermione added.
“Okay,” Tony nodded. “Ron, I want you to switch with Neville, so you and Mi will take turns heading back in to see what’s going on. Mi, head on inside and see if your teacher has any new information. Vince will still be with me, Harry with Neville. Same terms apply.”
Harry and Neville got up to ten minutes away before the latter huffed a sigh.
“Not sure why he wants me to be out here,” he commented. “I mean, neither of us are Prefects. And you’re Harry Potter, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you be, I dunno, under guard or something?”
“I think that’s one of the reasons I like Tony,” Harry couldn’t help admitting. “He knows I can handle some things without him or an entire unit of Aurors.”
“But what could I do in a situation?” he wanted to know. “I think all of us know by now how terrible I am with spells and things. Like Defense.”
“You’re not that bad,” Harry told him. “I think Palmer is worse than you are. And Tony’s been mates with him for ages, so maybe he knows more about what you can do than you think.”
“Maybe,” though he didn’t look convinced.
Almost to the half-way point, Harry absently glanced to the tree line and almost tripped as he saw a figure standing just inside the trees.
“What?” Neville stopped and tried to follow his gaze. “What is it?”
Harry narrowed his eyes at the figure watching them and felt cold when he recognized someone that looked like AJ. “Ron, Hermione,” he spoke into his radio. “Is AJ inside the Pitch? I think she got out somehow.”
“Where?” Neville frowned. “I don’t see anything.”
“Where are you?” Tony answered. “We’re almost to half-way.”
“We are, too. Ron? Hermione?” he asked again, startling slightly as AJ seemed to move deeper into the trees.
“Hold on. We- we’re checking,” Hermione answered.
“Check faster,” Tony advised. “Almost there, Harry.”
“I still can’t see her,” Neville swallowed as Harry shook his head.
“She’s right there,” he pointed. “How can you not see her? She’s standing right there.”
“I don’t know! You’re the one with the sharp eyes, Mr. Youngest Seeker in a Century!”
“Tony, she’s moving away,” Harry reported, torn between staying and going. He didn’t want Tony to lose sight of them, but he didn’t want AJ to get too far away.
Bloody hell, he didn’t even know if she was sleepwalking or not! He couldn’t remember if he saw her in the Great Hall or what she was wearing, even if he had.
While he didn’t know her well, Harry counted AJ as one of his friends – possibly a member of his family, at this point – and didn’t want her to hurt herself if she really was unaware of what was going on.
Didn’t someone say it was dangerous to wake someone who was sleepwalking?
He growled and reached up to tug at some of his hair in frustration.
Who let her out of their sight, anyway?
“Harry, we’re almost there. Go on, I’ll catch up,” Tony reluctantly approved.
“Right,” Harry felt kind of bad about not waiting, but nonetheless raced off after AJ as she seemed to get farther away. “AJ!” he called on the chance that she wasn’t actually sleepwalking. “Hey! Wait for me!”
She didn’t seem to have heard him, turning and continuing to walk away.
Harry wasn’t sure how far she’d been or how fast she was walking, but it didn’t seem like he was going to catch up.
He glanced back in time to see Tony and Vince hurrying into view and turned back to focus on catching up to AJ, knowing Tony was minutes behind him.
“I see you, Harry. Ron, Mi, come in. Did you find AJ, yet?”
No answer.
Harry kept after the Hufflepuff, not taking his eyes off her for a second as he followed her deeper into the trees.
He was pretty sure he passed through a small opening, but didn’t stop to look as AJ kept leading him forward into the trees without stopping.
“AJ!” he called again, getting more uneasy the further they got from the Pitch despite Tony radioing in that he was getting closer to him. “AJ, stop!”
Some distance away, he noticed that she finally did stop and felt a vice around his insides loosen in relief. Slowing in response, he let himself walk after her to give Tony time to catch up.
“There you are,” he heard Tony come up alongside him a few moments later. “Phew. Now, how in Merlin’s name did she manage to get out?”
“I don’t know,” he glanced over to see his friend frowning at AJ as they got closer. “Did you get an answer back, yet?”
“No. I’m going to have to give Ron and Mi a talking to when we get back. Vince and Neville are waiting for us to grab her and head back. Sleepwalking, you think?”
“I don’t know,” he said again. “I don’t think she’s been doing it lately. I think the Express is the last time I saw her do it.”
They kept walking and did start getting closer, but … it shouldn’t have been taking so long to reach her, though that might have just been him and his impatience to get back to the Pitch.
“AJ,” Tony called. “Come on. Back to the Pitch. I bet someone’s noticed you’ve gone missing, right? Don’t want anyone to worry.”
“AJ?” Harry was startled into picking up the pace as she started walking again, slowly disappearing from view. “AJ!”
Tony effortlessly kept up with him and they both tumbled into some sort of clearing minutes later with AJ nowhere in sight.
“AJ!” Harry called out again in panic.
“Take your eyes off a Hufflepuff for a minute,” Tony shook his head. “AJ, come on. We have to get back.”
“I don’t see her,” he looked around frantically.
“I don’t, either. Hey. Brown-eyed Susans,” he mused. “I didn’t think there were any around here.”
“What?” Harry glanced at him in question, Tony nodding at a bush of flowers in the middle of the clearing.
“Those. Mi has a hair thing, have you seen it? She has a matching dress, too. I gave it to her over the summer, while we were both in London.”
“I think I saw it,” Harry frowned. “Last night, at dinner. Is that really what they’re supposed to look like?” he eyed the drooping petals of the real thing in front of them. “Don’t look happy, do they?”
“I’m not sure why they look like that,” Tony shrugged, before turning his gaze to the trees surrounding them. “Where did she run off to? AJ! Not a good time to play hide-and-seek! Let’s go!”
Harry looked around at their surroundings, not seeing a hint of movement to indicate another person moving about.
Tony shook his head and raised the radio to his mouth. “Ron, Mi. Come in.”
No answer.
“Anybody?”
Nothing.
No matter how hard Harry concentrated on their surroundings, he couldn’t find any sign that AJ had ever been there at all.
For all intents and purposes…
No one else was out here except him and Tony.
It was eerily quiet, not even the wildlife making a sound, and a shiver ran up and down his spine.
“We should get back,” Harry suggested, not knowing and not caring if his voice shook at all. He suddenly didn’t want to be in the middle of a forest with only one other person.
If he absolutely had to be out in the middle of a forest, he wanted it with at least twenty other people because this seemed similarly enough to the Final Task to make the hairs stand up on the back of his neck.
“Yeah,” Tony agreed, not sounding very certain as he, too, glanced around and noted the lack of noise around them. “Maybe she bypassed us and doubled back? Neville and Vince probably caught her on the way back or something. Right?”
“Sure,” he nodded, feeling a little better as he moved closer to his friend.
Suddenly, this entire thing seemed unsettling and he tugged at Tony’s arm.
“So, we go back,” Tony slowly started moving back the way they came, Harry hanging onto him as they moved, “and once we find AJ, we never let her out of our sight for the rest of the year. Agreed?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, both of them immediately turning around simultaneously and making a run for it.
There was a slight niggle at the back of his mind, almost as if he was forgetting something that he couldn’t for the life of him remember, but he pushed it aside as he and Tony raced back to the Pitch.
There was also a vague impression that something was off, but that was more than likely a result of the circumstances and the fight/flight response working overtime.
Coming to the smaller clearing – the one that felt … safer … somehow - , Harry and Tony let themselves come to a stop with still racing hearts.
“Okay,” Tony panted, dragging in ragged lungfuls and Harry would’ve thought there was something wrong with his lungs if Harry wasn’t doing the same thing. Strange how it seemed that they’d just run miles as opposed to probably not even a full one. “Okay,” Tony repeated. “Ron, Mi,” he spoke into the radio. “Please respond. Did either one of you see AJ?”
Again, silence.
Tony sighed in exasperation before trying Harry’s radio, which obediently squawked in his hand.
“I don’t understand it,” the Italian shook his head, absently moving back toward the Pitch. “These were working on all ends before, weren’t they?” he frowned.
Harry kept looking behind them as he trusted Tony to not let him walk into a tree. “I thought they were. Could the alarm have something to do with it?”
“Possible. But I just upgraded some of the enchantments and, really, the only thing I can think of to affect the radios is distance, which doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense since they’re only inside the Pitch.”
Harry didn’t even know what all Tony had done to the radios, anyway, so he didn’t have a response to his mutterings.
They made it out of the tree line, only for Harry to crash into Tony’s side as they came to an abrupt stop.
“What is it?” he frowned up at him.
“Harry,” Tony was staring straight ahead. “Tell me that’s where we left Vince and Neville.”
He twisted around and recognized the place they’d come in from, Neville and Vince having watched them dart into the trees as they stayed in place.
Well, that’s where Harry thought they’d left them.
Harry stared dumbly at the empty space, no Vince or Neville in sight. “Where’d they go?”
Tony scanned their surroundings, turning in a full circle to do so. “Maybe they went after AJ as she came out from a different direction? In which case, I have to admit to being impressed by that kid’s drive. She certainly gets around, doesn’t she?”
“But Neville said he couldn’t see her,” Harry looked around, too. “He should’ve been able to see something; I saw her almost clear as day!”
“I saw her, too,” Tony scratched the back of his head. “Well, maybe they went back inside the Pitch. I wouldn’t begin to guess why. Someone should have come to get us if someone showed up.”
Harry sincerely hoped they were at the Pitch for some reason, having left them both in the woods.
A quick scan of the area they’d left the other two didn’t turn up anything, so Harry and Tony exchanged looks and started back to the entrance of the Pitch.
“I’m not saying it’s not impossible that they aren’t still running around, but Vince doesn’t strike me as someone who’d wander off without so much as a by your leave.”
“Maybe they went to find Ron or Hermione with their radios,” Harry shrugged. “And you are the one who keeps telling people to stay with at least one other person.”
“A message would’ve been nice. An arrow on the wall or something. Eames would’ve done it, even three sheets to the wind.”
“Have you heard from him since… the funeral?” Harry took the opportunity to ask.
Harry, Ron and Hermione talked about Eames and Watson since running into the pair in Diagon Alley.
While Harry and Ron didn’t really admit it as easily as Hermione did, the three of them were worried about the older Wizards in the wake of Sherlock’s loss. They didn’t worry so much about Tony since they were there to distract him, but who did the other two have?
Ron had suggested they get Tony to invite the pair to visit, but Hermione and Harry weren’t as readily able to think about it. Tony was in danger of being sent back into that melancholy from the week between the funeral and Harry’s birthday, but they didn’t want Eames or Watson to go without the support they needed.
Did they risk it, anyway? Did they have the authority to decide?
“Not recently,” Tony answered the spoken question as they approached the Pitch entrance. “Usually, I let him contact me because of some of the work he does that requires discretion. Hell,” he frowned suddenly. “I don’t even know what he knows about the ‘undercover’ thing or if he really bought it. I think I’m going to have to get a hold of Yusuf and contact him that way. Eames will probably want to look in on Watson, too, now that I think about it.”
“What about you?” Harry wanted to know. “How are you doing?”
“It’s not easy,” he shrugged. “But I got through Kate and I got through Jenny, neither one of which actually walked off a building. Jenny might as well have, though.”
While that was all technically true, in a sense, Sherlock was a different case entirely. Something Harry suspected even Tony knew.
Any response, however, dried up as they approached the Pitch entrance.
The empty Pitch entrance.
“Where’d everyone go?” Harry looked from one side to the other, hoping Vince, Neville, Hermione or Ron were about to jump out and laugh at them.
“Harry,” Tony frowned, head tilted slightly. “Do you hear anything?”
“No,” he absently answered. “Why?”
“Exactly,” they slowly looked at each other. “It’s quiet.”
All throughout their moving around, Harry heard the faint uneasy murmurings of the crowd in the Pitch. Now that Tony brought his attention to it, however, he couldn’t hear a thing.
“You think something’s wrong?” Harry looked through the entrance and into the actual Pitch itself.
“I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that when a crowd goes absolutely silent without a sporting event in progress, it’s not usually a good thing.”
Not knowing what was going on this time, Harry swallowed his nervous energy, held his wand steady and followed Tony as quietly as they could.
Upon actually getting into the structure and out onto the field, however, every though that Harry had – every feeling present – all coalesced into static as he stared wide-eyed around him, his stomach dropping to his shoes.
“Okay,” Tony whispered from in front. “I think this whole thing just got that much more complicated.”
Harry simply stared wordlessly around at the stands that had seated hundreds of students seemingly moments ago.
The silent, empty stands greeted his searching gaze.
The Pitch was abandoned.
* ** *