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Krysta · 09-07-2008, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MsMorgan

EDIT: and now that I have an avvy of a masked death eater, I find the above comment to be extremely funny. . .

Yes poor Krys has suddenly been replaced with Cho Chang.
Here's the rest of the Chapter:

Chapter 21, part 3
"Tell me who they are, girl. Or do I have to convince you some more?" Dracus asked in a cool, quiet voice. She looked up sharply and heads suddenly turned as a high-pitched squeal broke the din. There was a small commotion and gasps and cries of dismay were echoing around.
"Oh God." Moaned Hermione covering her mouth with her hand as many others were doing. Voldemort had snatched another child from the cowering crowd and was holding them aloft as they struggled, gripped with a fear Harry knew they had never felt before. A rage was brewing in him, seeing the helpless boy hanging there, frightened to struggle, frightened to stay still. It spread through his bloodstream raising its temperature until in boiled in his veins.
"It would be just so easy to take that life." Crooned Dracus, moving his face closer to Krysta's. Her eyes were shut tight now as were Harry's fingers closing tightly around his wand. An insane fury that was not a part of himself Harry knew was sweeping furiously through him.
"Tell-me-who-they-are." Demanded Dracus once more, speaking each word slowly and deliberately.
0A
The conversation broke in an instant as a loud crack and a thump met everyone's ears. Several students, girls and boys screamed in panic and fear as the boy's body dropped to floor, lying motionless. But something was wrong. Dracus' head had snapped around in surprise just as everyone else's had. He was staring at Voldemort a little surprised.
"Tom I…" he began but stopped dead as the body on the floor began to move. There were gaps of relief as the boy half scrambled, half crawled back into the crowd as fast as he could. Faces were twisted in confusion, including the adults and including Dracus. All except Voldemort himself who had his hand raised awkwardly in the air.
"Where's his wand?" whispered Ron, shaking with excitement and fear. Harry shook his head but his question was answered in the most peculiar way imaginable. Someone had stepped forward from the crowd of students and was standing shaking at the front of the chamber. Hermione gripped both Harry's and Ron's arm in shock and panic.
"My God, it's Neville." She hissed in horror. Harry's mouth fell open in shock. He was shaking before the awkward looking figure of Hugo Dracus who regarded the boy with an amused kind of interest. Voldemort snarled through his hooded cloak, clearly off guard. He was clearly not accustomed to being disarmed by a school boy - not counting young Mister Potter.
"That was not very polite, young man." Dracus spoke breaking another uncomfortable silence. Krysta was staring a t the boy in horror, as was Hermione and anyone else who knew Neville.
"What's he doing?" she hissed and Harry had had to clamp her arm again to stop her going to Neville's aid as she always had done for as long as she had known him.
Neville was shaking so violently and Harry suddenly realised it wasn't from fear. Neville was in a violent fury.
"You killed my parents." He hissed and Harry's mouth dropped again. He heard Hermione whisper a prayer under her breath. Krysta had stood up straight for the first time for what seemed like hours but Dracus was staring intently at the boy.
"Your parents?" he asked thoughtfully. "My dear boy, I have killed many people's parents. Am I to remember yours?" he asked casually.
"And my sister." Neville added. By now a look of vague understanding was beginning to reach the furrows of Dracus' features. Harry frowned however. Neville had a sister?
"I see." Dracus engaged Neville properly turning his whole body towards him, acknowledging him completely.
"You understand boy, I had no choice."
"No Choice!" Neville spat. "You had every choice. I understand my Mother." He blurted out, clearly now beyond distressed and approaching insanity. "But my Dad? Why him? Why my brother? They were no threat to you!" he screamed and Dracus' demeanour changed. Was that a hint of regret? Surely not.
"I didn't know about your sister. And technically I did not kill any of them."
"It was your orders! Your wish: their command. You killed the m just as you killed Harry's parents, just as you killed Kye. You're a coward." He screamed until he was almost hoarse.
Harry was experiencing a strange feeling. Neville was confronting the murderer of his family. And Harry had a strong compelling urge to join him. He noticed slight movement to his left and spotted Voldemort reaching for his wand, which had landed several feet behind him as a result of the rather powerful charm Neville had finally managed to cast successfully. He acted quickly.
"Accio wand!" he cried raising his wand high above his head. To everyone's amazement and Voldemort's screech of anger the wand was snatched out of the Dark Lord's reach and was caught deftly by Harry who looked at with interest. Next to his own wand it was almost identical bar a few scratches and grazes. A bizarre humming passed through Harry's left hand and a slight smile touched his lips. He looked up and his gaze met Neville's. He nodded to him and took a bold step forward to stand next to his friend.
"You killed my Mother and My Father." He said coldly finding the courage to look Dracus firmly in the eye. Dracus tilted his head to one side.
"Mister Potter I presume?" he asked and there was a mild diminish in the sickening confidence in his voice. It was only a mild diminish but Harry wasn't the only one to notice it. Sirius had moved closer.
"You killed my little girl." He growled and Harry suddenly realised who Kye was. He looked at his Godfat her with deep sympathy for a moment. Harry had had no idea that Sirius had had a daughter. When he'd mentioned Krysta's loss he hadn't put two and two together. Krysta and Sirius had clearly been far more than friends once. Krysta had joined the small group now.
"You killed my Mother. You killed my sister. My Grandmother. My whole darn family. It stops here." She spoke in a strong, clear voice, her eyes ablaze. The atmosphere was electrical. Dracus seemed to ponder this for a second.
"I don't think so." He suddenly announced casually folding his arms firmly across his chest and the spell had been broken. Neville and Harry exchanged a horrified and panicked glance and the distinct sense of panic and spread back through the crowd again. Something had gone terribly wrong. Krys faltered and took a slight step backward.
"You think you can threaten me with this little display of bravado, my dear. Do you think these children scare me?" he asked gesturing lazily to Harry and Neville who had sunk back into the crowd again. Hermione latched onto them both thankful they were both still alive.
"I want those girls, Krysta." He said, matter-of-factly. "I give you until the full moon to hand them over. Or you can all rot down here…that is, if my friends don't get hungry." He finished and just as Harry was wondering what he meant by that there was a loud scream from within the crowd and everyone was looking around in horror. They were surrounded, entirely by what Harry cou ld only assume were vampires. His heart flipped in his chest and even Ron was gripping the back of his jumper now. Why did everyone cling onto him in a crisis?
"Dracus…" Krysta warned him pointlessly as she took a step backwards and sideways looking in every direction around her. Dracus was moving backwards towards the ladder laughing wildly. Voldemort gave Harry one last loathing-filled glare, his eyes lingering on the wand Harry still held and disappeared up the ladder like a ghost. Harry was sure his unseen feet never even touched the rungs.
"Until tomorrow night then, my dear." Dracus announced before leaping effortlessly and stylishly onto the platform, and with one final bow to his nemesis, he disappeared through the door. As it clunked loudly shut behind him with a boom that shook entire the chamber, each and every soul in the crowd felt the door slam on their tomb.

As the echoes rang in diminishing circles around them, the students of Hogwarts moved closer and closer together, inching their way as far from their dark, pale-faced captors as they possible could. Nobody knew which way to look, so completely surrounding were they. The larger and the older kids were pushing the smaller and younger behind them, protecting them as best they could. Like most hunters, a vampire would pick off the weakest first.
Automatically Ron and Harry pushed a stubborn Hermione behind them, standing at the edge of the crowd she seemed so vulnerable to Harry. Harry's e yes darted around him from one monster to another, wand at the ready. But after the initial shock had passed the immediate threat seemed to disapparate with it.
The vampires weren't even watching them. There were just lingered in the shadows of the huge statues, seemingly unwilling to venture any closer.
"What are they doing? Why don't they attack?" asked Ron suspiciously.
"Maybe they're on orders not too. I think Dracus wants us all to himself." Suggested Harry, growling his words. Ron nodded, but was clearly not confident enough to lower his wand yet.
"No, I think maybe they're a little scared. Afraid what may happen to them if they do attack anyone." Said Hermione from behind them. Ron nodded again.
"Yeah, I certainly wouldn't want to disobey orders if Dracus was my boss." He agreed. But Hermione shook her head.
"No, not afraid of Dracus. Look at them. See how they're sticking to that end of the chamber mainly."
Harry and Ron and a few students in earshot to their conversation looked around them and they all saw Hermione's point. In general the vamps were denser towards the other end of the Chamber to where they were standing near the doors and was it Harry's imagination, but they seemed to be casting very wary, red eyes in their direction. Harry tried to follow their gazes but could only tell it was in the direction of the remaining teachers.
"The staff?" he asked, still slightly puzzled. He could understand in a way. What was a bigg er threat, a bunch of school kids regardless of their number, or a collection of extremely experienced witches and wizards. But Hermione tutted and shook her eyes again.
"Imagine: you're a vampire, you drink blood, you don't need to breathe, not much can kill you and you're a ruthless, relentless killer. What scares you?" she asked. Ron scratched his head.
"Fire?" he asked, thinking back to their Defence Against The Dark Arts class.
"Sunlight?" asked Neville who for once seemed to have absorbed some information from their lessons.
"The Vampire Slayer?" asked Dean with a not-too-confident smile and Harry grinned. Dean was still obsessed with that television programme.
"Oh!" cried Neville a look of illumination crossing his face. Hermione smiled and nodded.
"They're afraid of Krys." She said and Neville beamed, clearly pleased with himself. "Vampires are really superstitious, their culture is full of myths and legends. They're terrified of the Coven. They know who Krys is and that somewhere amongst us, there are three others."
Harry looked down at her a stab of guilt passing through him. It was clear that Hermione wasn't aware, didn't know what he knew. Right now he was glad of that.
Some people close to them were looking in Krys's direction and sure enough she was slowly strolling up and down glaring threateningly in the direction of any vampire who dared make eye contact. Her arms were folded firmly across her chest, her head tilted down slightly so she was glaring at them upwards, which seemed to make her stare even more threatening.
"Wow, she could melt lead with that look." Murmured Dean.
Harry scanned the room again and noticed that his fellow students had calmed down considerably as it became increasingly obvious that the vampires meant no immediate threat.
"Well that's great." said Ron, sounding sarcastic. "But unless someone..." he glared in Krys's direction "...thinks of something pretty drastic in the next 24 hours, Dracus will change his orders and that lot will start picking us off one-by-one." He announced in a quiet voice, so as not to alarm anyone close to them unnecessarily.
Hermione 'hmph'd a little but Harry couldn't help but agree with Ron. What was she going to do? Just stroll up and down the chamber until tomorrow night?
"What time is it?" asked Hermione sounding frustrated. Harry checked his watch.
"2:30." he announced.
"a.m. or p.m.?" she asked and he looked blankly at her. His watch was analogue and he'd lost all track of time since they'd been down here.
"p.m." announced Dean holding up his digital watch for them to see. Hermione checked it pointlessly as though Dean may have misread it.
"So we have little more than 24 hours then." She said, confirming Ron's previous statement. Harry looked back over to Krys. She was now talking to Professor McGonagall who was talking animatedly but seemed to be trying to remain discreet at the same time. Even at a fairly close distance, Harry couldn't tell a word of what they were saying. Ron stuffed his hands in his pockets with a deep sigh.
A conversation someone was having in the crowd somewhere had met Harry's ears and a new look of concern crossed his face.
"What's wrong?" asked Hermione, the first to notice. He touched his ear and nodded his head behind him. Hermione discreetly moved closer and tilted her head to one side as though trying to make the conversation more audible.
"No it can't be. Professor McGonagall's standing right there." said the voice.
"I'm telling you it's him."
"No, it can't be."
"It is! My dad put up the wanted poster on the kitchen wall so we'd all know what to look out for."
Hermione too adopted a worried expression as she realised who they were talking about. Ron still looked a little confused until the last comment about a 'wanted' poster and then alarm appeared on his face too. Sirius was a known criminal, a pretty famous one at that and he had just materialised right in front of the entire school. Harry swallowed hard. Even if they did get of this alive, Sirius would undoubtedly be arrested. But a comment one of the voices had made struck him as a little odd.
"Hey they're right. McGonagall's standing right there and hasn't said a word about Sirius." he whispered to Ron and Hermione. Hermione looked over at the Deputy Headmistress a little curiously.
"Maybe Dumbledore told her all about what really happened and convinced her that he's innocent." she suggested and Harry thought about it and nodded slightly.
"You don't think it's true do you?" she suddenly asked sounding desperate and upset. He looked at her strangely.
"What do you mean?" asked Ron.
"About Professor Dumbledore." she said in a tiny voice and Ron and Harry looked at each other, their eyes wide. Both suddenly looked sick as Hermione looked pleadingly at them, chewing her bottom lip.
"I...I don't know, Hermione."
Their conversation was suddenly cut short as someone extremely short bumped into them.
"Excuse me, Miss Granger, Mister Weasley." squeaked Professor Flitwick disappearing into the crowd as quickly as he had appeared. They watched him go out of view amongst the legs of the other students and looked at each other in astonishment, the distressing nature of their conversation instantly forgotten.
"What's goin' on?" asked Dean in a voice that was more cockney than normal. They turned to look at whatever he was staring at. The found themselves looking in several directions. The teachers had split up and were moving amongst the crowd and spreading out. Hermione seemed to catch on immediately.
"Look, they're taking vantage points around the room." she whispered. Sure enough each of the Hogwarts teachers that had made it down to the Chamber with them were discreetly positioning themselves at equal distances around the perimeter of the crowd of students. Krys was staying near the door and when Harry looked for Sirius he seemed to have disappeared.
"There."20said Ron who had guessed Harry's thoughts. Harry followed his pointed finger and was just able to make out a dark shape moving on all fours to the back of the chamber. He watched Sirius leap from rock to rock until he was standing practically at the top of the great statue of the Serpent at the far end.
"He's obviously the look-out dog." Hermione commented. "He must be able to see every single vampire from up there. My guess is, one bark from him and any advancing vampire is as good as a pile of ashes." she added and Harry half-smiled at her analogy.
"Where'd Professor Flitwick go?" asked Harry trying to peer over the heads to locate him. All three of them scanned the entire room but couldn't see him.
"I'm here!" came a squeaky voice from seemingly nowhere and they looked at each other in surprise.
"Up there!" cried Seamus with a grin. They looked up and Saw Professor Flitwick floating quite comfortably above their heads.
"Which is Snape, and which is the Vamp?" asked Dean and everyone laughed as they saw Professor Snape snarling at a vampire that had ventured a little too close to the Slytherin first years for his liking. From this distance it was very difficult to tell them apart. Harry gazed around him.
"Well Hermione, you're the brains of our operation." He said and she looked up at him questioningly. "What are they going to do?"

09-07-2008, 06:56 PM	#220 (permalink)
Krysta Jarvey Join Date: May 2008 Location: Leicester, UK Posts: 567 Hogwarts RPG Name: Krysta Hedwig Sixth Year	Quote: Originally Posted by MsMorgan EDIT: and now that I have an avvy of a masked death eater, I find the above comment to be extremely funny. . . Yes poor Krys has suddenly been replaced with Cho Chang. Here's the rest of the Chapter: Chapter 21, part 3 "Tell me who they are, girl. Or do I have to convince you some more?" Dracus asked in a cool, quiet voice. She looked up sharply and heads suddenly turned as a high-pitched squeal broke the din. There was a small commotion and gasps and cries of dismay were echoing around. "Oh God." Moaned Hermione covering her mouth with her hand as many others were doing. Voldemort had snatched another child from the cowering crowd and was holding them aloft as they struggled, gripped with a fear Harry knew they had never felt before. A rage was brewing in him, seeing the helpless boy hanging there, frightened to struggle, frightened to stay still. It spread through his bloodstream raising its temperature until in boiled in his veins. "It would be just so easy to take that life." Crooned Dracus, moving his face closer to Krysta's. Her eyes were shut tight now as were Harry's fingers closing tightly around his wand. An insane fury that was not a part of himself Harry knew was sweeping furiously through him. "Tell-me-who-they-are." Demanded Dracus once more, speaking each word slowly and deliberately. 0A The conversation broke in an instant as a loud crack and a thump met everyone's ears. Several students, girls and boys screamed in panic and fear as the boy's body dropped to floor, lying motionless. But something was wrong. Dracus' head had snapped around in surprise just as everyone else's had. He was staring at Voldemort a little surprised. "Tom I…" he began but stopped dead as the body on the floor began to move. There were gaps of relief as the boy half scrambled, half crawled back into the crowd as fast as he could. Faces were twisted in confusion, including the adults and including Dracus. All except Voldemort himself who had his hand raised awkwardly in the air. "Where's his wand?" whispered Ron, shaking with excitement and fear. Harry shook his head but his question was answered in the most peculiar way imaginable. Someone had stepped forward from the crowd of students and was standing shaking at the front of the chamber. Hermione gripped both Harry's and Ron's arm in shock and panic. "My God, it's Neville." She hissed in horror. Harry's mouth fell open in shock. He was shaking before the awkward looking figure of Hugo Dracus who regarded the boy with an amused kind of interest. Voldemort snarled through his hooded cloak, clearly off guard. He was clearly not accustomed to being disarmed by a school boy - not counting young Mister Potter. "That was not very polite, young man." Dracus spoke breaking another uncomfortable silence. Krysta was staring a t the boy in horror, as was Hermione and anyone else who knew Neville. "What's he doing?" she hissed and Harry had had to clamp her arm again to stop her going to Neville's aid as she always had done for as long as she had known him. Neville was shaking so violently and Harry suddenly realised it wasn't from fear. Neville was in a violent fury. "You killed my parents." He hissed and Harry's mouth dropped again. He heard Hermione whisper a prayer under her breath. Krysta had stood up straight for the first time for what seemed like hours but Dracus was staring intently at the boy. "Your parents?" he asked thoughtfully. "My dear boy, I have killed many people's parents. Am I to remember yours?" he asked casually. "And my sister." Neville added. By now a look of vague understanding was beginning to reach the furrows of Dracus' features. Harry frowned however. Neville had a sister? "I see." Dracus engaged Neville properly turning his whole body towards him, acknowledging him completely. "You understand boy, I had no choice." "No Choice!" Neville spat. "You had every choice. I understand my Mother." He blurted out, clearly now beyond distressed and approaching insanity. "But my Dad? Why him? Why my brother? They were no threat to you!" he screamed and Dracus' demeanour changed. Was that a hint of regret? Surely not. "I didn't know about your sister. And technically I did not kill any of them." "It was your orders! Your wish: their command. You killed the m just as you killed Harry's parents, just as you killed Kye. You're a coward." He screamed until he was almost hoarse. Harry was experiencing a strange feeling. Neville was confronting the murderer of his family. And Harry had a strong compelling urge to join him. He noticed slight movement to his left and spotted Voldemort reaching for his wand, which had landed several feet behind him as a result of the rather powerful charm Neville had finally managed to cast successfully. He acted quickly. "Accio wand!" he cried raising his wand high above his head. To everyone's amazement and Voldemort's screech of anger the wand was snatched out of the Dark Lord's reach and was caught deftly by Harry who looked at with interest. Next to his own wand it was almost identical bar a few scratches and grazes. A bizarre humming passed through Harry's left hand and a slight smile touched his lips. He looked up and his gaze met Neville's. He nodded to him and took a bold step forward to stand next to his friend. "You killed my Mother and My Father." He said coldly finding the courage to look Dracus firmly in the eye. Dracus tilted his head to one side. "Mister Potter I presume?" he asked and there was a mild diminish in the sickening confidence in his voice. It was only a mild diminish but Harry wasn't the only one to notice it. Sirius had moved closer. "You killed my little girl." He growled and Harry suddenly realised who Kye was. He looked at his Godfat her with deep sympathy for a moment. Harry had had no idea that Sirius had had a daughter. When he'd mentioned Krysta's loss he hadn't put two and two together. Krysta and Sirius had clearly been far more than friends once. Krysta had joined the small group now. "You killed my Mother. You killed my sister. My Grandmother. My whole darn family. It stops here." She spoke in a strong, clear voice, her eyes ablaze. The atmosphere was electrical. Dracus seemed to ponder this for a second. "I don't think so." He suddenly announced casually folding his arms firmly across his chest and the spell had been broken. Neville and Harry exchanged a horrified and panicked glance and the distinct sense of panic and spread back through the crowd again. Something had gone terribly wrong. Krys faltered and took a slight step backward. "You think you can threaten me with this little display of bravado, my dear. Do you think these children scare me?" he asked gesturing lazily to Harry and Neville who had sunk back into the crowd again. Hermione latched onto them both thankful they were both still alive. "I want those girls, Krysta." He said, matter-of-factly. "I give you until the full moon to hand them over. Or you can all rot down here…that is, if my friends don't get hungry." He finished and just as Harry was wondering what he meant by that there was a loud scream from within the crowd and everyone was looking around in horror. They were surrounded, entirely by what Harry cou ld only assume were vampires. His heart flipped in his chest and even Ron was gripping the back of his jumper now. Why did everyone cling onto him in a crisis? "Dracus…" Krysta warned him pointlessly as she took a step backwards and sideways looking in every direction around her. Dracus was moving backwards towards the ladder laughing wildly. Voldemort gave Harry one last loathing-filled glare, his eyes lingering on the wand Harry still held and disappeared up the ladder like a ghost. Harry was sure his unseen feet never even touched the rungs. "Until tomorrow night then, my dear." Dracus announced before leaping effortlessly and stylishly onto the platform, and with one final bow to his nemesis, he disappeared through the door. As it clunked loudly shut behind him with a boom that shook entire the chamber, each and every soul in the crowd felt the door slam on their tomb. As the echoes rang in diminishing circles around them, the students of Hogwarts moved closer and closer together, inching their way as far from their dark, pale-faced captors as they possible could. Nobody knew which way to look, so completely surrounding were they. The larger and the older kids were pushing the smaller and younger behind them, protecting them as best they could. Like most hunters, a vampire would pick off the weakest first. Automatically Ron and Harry pushed a stubborn Hermione behind them, standing at the edge of the crowd she seemed so vulnerable to Harry. Harry's e yes darted around him from one monster to another, wand at the ready. But after the initial shock had passed the immediate threat seemed to disapparate with it. The vampires weren't even watching them. There were just lingered in the shadows of the huge statues, seemingly unwilling to venture any closer. "What are they doing? Why don't they attack?" asked Ron suspiciously. "Maybe they're on orders not too. I think Dracus wants us all to himself." Suggested Harry, growling his words. Ron nodded, but was clearly not confident enough to lower his wand yet. "No, I think maybe they're a little scared. Afraid what may happen to them if they do attack anyone." Said Hermione from behind them. Ron nodded again. "Yeah, I certainly wouldn't want to disobey orders if Dracus was my boss." He agreed. But Hermione shook her head. "No, not afraid of Dracus. Look at them. See how they're sticking to that end of the chamber mainly." Harry and Ron and a few students in earshot to their conversation looked around them and they all saw Hermione's point. In general the vamps were denser towards the other end of the Chamber to where they were standing near the doors and was it Harry's imagination, but they seemed to be casting very wary, red eyes in their direction. Harry tried to follow their gazes but could only tell it was in the direction of the remaining teachers. "The staff?" he asked, still slightly puzzled. He could understand in a way. What was a bigg er threat, a bunch of school kids regardless of their number, or a collection of extremely experienced witches and wizards. But Hermione tutted and shook her eyes again. "Imagine: you're a vampire, you drink blood, you don't need to breathe, not much can kill you and you're a ruthless, relentless killer. What scares you?" she asked. Ron scratched his head. "Fire?" he asked, thinking back to their Defence Against The Dark Arts class. "Sunlight?" asked Neville who for once seemed to have absorbed some information from their lessons. "The Vampire Slayer?" asked Dean with a not-too-confident smile and Harry grinned. Dean was still obsessed with that television programme. "Oh!" cried Neville a look of illumination crossing his face. Hermione smiled and nodded. "They're afraid of Krys." She said and Neville beamed, clearly pleased with himself. "Vampires are really superstitious, their culture is full of myths and legends. They're terrified of the Coven. They know who Krys is and that somewhere amongst us, there are three others." Harry looked down at her a stab of guilt passing through him. It was clear that Hermione wasn't aware, didn't know what he knew. Right now he was glad of that. Some people close to them were looking in Krys's direction and sure enough she was slowly strolling up and down glaring threateningly in the direction of any vampire who dared make eye contact. Her arms were folded firmly across her chest, her head tilted down slightly so she was glaring at them upwards, which seemed to make her stare even more threatening. "Wow, she could melt lead with that look." Murmured Dean. Harry scanned the room again and noticed that his fellow students had calmed down considerably as it became increasingly obvious that the vampires meant no immediate threat. "Well that's great." said Ron, sounding sarcastic. "But unless someone..." he glared in Krys's direction "...thinks of something pretty drastic in the next 24 hours, Dracus will change his orders and that lot will start picking us off one-by-one." He announced in a quiet voice, so as not to alarm anyone close to them unnecessarily. Hermione 'hmph'd a little but Harry couldn't help but agree with Ron. What was she going to do? Just stroll up and down the chamber until tomorrow night? "What time is it?" asked Hermione sounding frustrated. Harry checked his watch. "2:30." he announced. "a.m. or p.m.?" she asked and he looked blankly at her. His watch was analogue and he'd lost all track of time since they'd been down here. "p.m." announced Dean holding up his digital watch for them to see. Hermione checked it pointlessly as though Dean may have misread it. "So we have little more than 24 hours then." She said, confirming Ron's previous statement. Harry looked back over to Krys. She was now talking to Professor McGonagall who was talking animatedly but seemed to be trying to remain discreet at the same time. Even at a fairly close distance, Harry couldn't tell a word of what they were saying. Ron stuffed his hands in his pockets with a deep sigh. A conversation someone was having in the crowd somewhere had met Harry's ears and a new look of concern crossed his face. "What's wrong?" asked Hermione, the first to notice. He touched his ear and nodded his head behind him. Hermione discreetly moved closer and tilted her head to one side as though trying to make the conversation more audible. "No it can't be. Professor McGonagall's standing right there." said the voice. "I'm telling you it's him." "No, it can't be." "It is! My dad put up the wanted poster on the kitchen wall so we'd all know what to look out for." Hermione too adopted a worried expression as she realised who they were talking about. Ron still looked a little confused until the last comment about a 'wanted' poster and then alarm appeared on his face too. Sirius was a known criminal, a pretty famous one at that and he had just materialised right in front of the entire school. Harry swallowed hard. Even if they did get of this alive, Sirius would undoubtedly be arrested. But a comment one of the voices had made struck him as a little odd. "Hey they're right. McGonagall's standing right there and hasn't said a word about Sirius." he whispered to Ron and Hermione. Hermione looked over at the Deputy Headmistress a little curiously. "Maybe Dumbledore told her all about what really happened and convinced her that he's innocent." she suggested and Harry thought about it and nodded slightly. "You don't think it's true do you?" she suddenly asked sounding desperate and upset. He looked at her strangely. "What do you mean?" asked Ron. "About Professor Dumbledore." she said in a tiny voice and Ron and Harry looked at each other, their eyes wide. Both suddenly looked sick as Hermione looked pleadingly at them, chewing her bottom lip. "I...I don't know, Hermione." Their conversation was suddenly cut short as someone extremely short bumped into them. "Excuse me, Miss Granger, Mister Weasley." squeaked Professor Flitwick disappearing into the crowd as quickly as he had appeared. They watched him go out of view amongst the legs of the other students and looked at each other in astonishment, the distressing nature of their conversation instantly forgotten. "What's goin' on?" asked Dean in a voice that was more cockney than normal. They turned to look at whatever he was staring at. The found themselves looking in several directions. The teachers had split up and were moving amongst the crowd and spreading out. Hermione seemed to catch on immediately. "Look, they're taking vantage points around the room." she whispered. Sure enough each of the Hogwarts teachers that had made it down to the Chamber with them were discreetly positioning themselves at equal distances around the perimeter of the crowd of students. Krys was staying near the door and when Harry looked for Sirius he seemed to have disappeared. "There."20said Ron who had guessed Harry's thoughts. Harry followed his pointed finger and was just able to make out a dark shape moving on all fours to the back of the chamber. He watched Sirius leap from rock to rock until he was standing practically at the top of the great statue of the Serpent at the far end. "He's obviously the look-out dog." Hermione commented. "He must be able to see every single vampire from up there. My guess is, one bark from him and any advancing vampire is as good as a pile of ashes." she added and Harry half-smiled at her analogy. "Where'd Professor Flitwick go?" asked Harry trying to peer over the heads to locate him. All three of them scanned the entire room but couldn't see him. "I'm here!" came a squeaky voice from seemingly nowhere and they looked at each other in surprise. "Up there!" cried Seamus with a grin. They looked up and Saw Professor Flitwick floating quite comfortably above their heads. "Which is Snape, and which is the Vamp?" asked Dean and everyone laughed as they saw Professor Snape snarling at a vampire that had ventured a little too close to the Slytherin first years for his liking. From this distance it was very difficult to tell them apart. Harry gazed around him. "Well Hermione, you're the brains of our operation." He said and she looked up at him questioningly. "What are they going to do?" __________________ Last edited by Krysta; 09-08-2008 at 07:50 AM.