CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

The Portkey took us to Mallaig, in Scotland. Mallaig is a port in Lochbar, on the west coast of the Highlands of Scotland. The local railway station is the terminus of the West Highland railway line, which also happens to be the train line the Hogwarts Express takes, and where the West Highland railway line ended, the hidden railway line to Hogwarts began.

Luna, having spent more time at Hogwarts then I did after the Carrows began their tyrannical rule of the castle, had warned us of the Caterwauling charm set on Hogsmeade. Our best chance, she had explained, was to Portkey somewhere close to the castle, close enough that we could apparate to the Hog's Head Inn.

I had been, and understandably in my opinion, confused by this bizarre instruction, and Luna had only smiled mysteriously, holding out her hands to Katie and I.

When we appeared inside the Inn, I was shocked to see it teeming with members of the DA. A grumpy looking old man who I recognized as the barkeep and owner of the Inn, Aberforth, was scowling at the crowd as they all made their way towards...

"Is that a tunnel?" I asked, surprised.

"It's the only way in and out of Hogwarts that the Carrows don't know about." Luna said, and her normally dreamy smile had more then a hint of fierce triumph in it.

The passageway looked like it had been there forever. Brass lamps hung from the walls and the earthy floor was worn and smooth; as we walked, our shadows rippled, fanlike across the wall. When we reached the end of the passage a small flight of steps led to a door like the one we'd gone through at the Hog's Head.

It was pushed wide open, and the room behind the passage was filled with people. It was like a dorm; enormous, and looked rather like the interior of a particularly sumptuous tree house, or perhaps a gigantic ship's cabin. Multicolored hammocks were strung from the ceiling and from the balcony that ran around the dark wood-paneled and windowless walls, which were covered in bright tapestry hangings. I can see the gold Gryffindor lion, emblazoned on scarlet; the black badger of Hufflepuff, set against yellow; and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw, on blue. The silver and green of Slytherin alone were absent. There were bulging bookcases, a few broomsticks propped against the walls, and in the corner, a large wood-cased wireless.

All around us, people were crying and cheering, greeting everyone with hugs, hair ruffling, pounding on the back, and shaking hands. Harry, Hermione and Ron seemed to be the most highly accosted, but a shrieking Isobel pushed her way through to yank both Luna and I into a rib-crushing hug. Isobel had dragged Sue after her, and both Luna and I gave her a hug as well.

"You're Cathy, right?" Isobel asked once she's released us, the fiery Scottish girl smiling at Katie. Her eyes were bright, and her skin was flushed- that seemed to be a common factor across the room. The excitement and anticipation in the air was so thick it was practically tangible. "You were one of the home-schooled kids that came to Hogwarts when the new law was put in place."

"Er, it's Katie, actually. Katie Marshall." Katie smiled, looking a bit timid.

"Katie is Angela's girlfriend, Sue." I say, and Sue perks up, smiling at Katie even as she blushes fiercely.

"Well, it's good to meet you again." Isobel says, "thank Merlin you got out of this hell-hole safe." Her words make my excitement at seeing her shrink as I take a good look at her. She's thinner then I remember, and there are purple smudges under her eyes and two scars on her left cheek.

She sees where I'm looking and grimaces, reaching up to brush her fingers along the raised lines. "The Carrows enjoy their discipline," she spits, eyes flashing, "I got involved in an argument in Muggle Studies. It's compulsory, now, and we have to listen to that cow Alecto explain how Muggles are like animals, stupid and dirty, and how they drive wizards into hiding by being vicious toward them, and how the natural order is being reestablished. When Neville asked how much Muggle blood Alecto and her brother had then, I may have laughed. A majority of the class did, and there was cheering too. We were all punished."

"That's horrible," I mutter, shuddering, and then Isobel is hugging Luna again.

"We all thought you were dead," she says, and her eyes have misted up. "When they took you from the train, I think that's the angriest and most terrified I've been in my entire life." Luna gently pats Isobel's back.

"I was not seriously harmed at any point of my incarceration." She assures her. Isobel sniffs.

"We're gonna make them pay, tonight." She says, and her eyes are steely with sheer determination and promise of retribution. A shiver runs down my spine.

"Luna! Isobel and Bella! Sue!" I turn around to a crowd of red-heads as Fred, George and Ginny Weasley climb through the hole in the wall. Ginny hurries over to us, a grin on her face, though it turns to something softer as she reaches us. "I'm glad you're all okay." She says, and then her expression crumples as she turns to face Luna. "Luna... I'm so sorry I wasn't there to help you," she said, sounding miserable. "If I'd been there-"

"If you had been on the train, you would have been captured with me at best, or you'd be either imprisoned or dead." Luna says sternly. Ginny nods, her eyes suspiciously shiny.

"Thanks Luna." She says quietly. Luna just smiles gently and touches her hand.

Before any more conversation starts, George speaks up loudly, his question pulling the attention of the entire room. "So what's the plan, Harry?" he asks.

"There isn't one," Harry says, and he looks pale and sweaty. His famous lightningbolt scar looks red and inflamed.

"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favorite kind." Fred says, with a grin.

Harry falls into a hushed argument with Neville, then with Ron and Hermione, before turning to the room at large. "Okay," he says, and everyone looks up at him, alert and excited.

"There's something we need to find," Harry said. "Something that'll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It's here at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone come across something with her eagle on it, for instance?"

He looked hopefully towards the group of Ravenclaws in his year level, but it's Luna who answers him, speaking up beside me.

"Well, there's her lost diadem. I told you about it, remember, Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy's trying to duplicate it."

"Yeah, but the lost diadem," said Michael Corner, rolling his eyes, "is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point."

"When was it lost?" asked Harry.

"Centuries ago, they say," said Cho Chang, a graduate. "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but," she turns to us Ravenclaws. "Nobody's ever found a trace of it, have they?"

We all shake our heads.

"Sorry, but what is a diadem?" asked Ron.

"It's a kind of crown," said Terry Boot. "Ravenclaw's was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer."

"Yes, Daddy's Wrackspurt siphons-" Luna begins to say, but Harry cuts across.

"And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?"

They all shook their heads again. Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, and I could see their disappointment. Cho Chang then spoke again.

"If you'd like to see what the diadem's supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room and show you, Harry. Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue."

Harry winced, turned and muttered something to Ron and Hermione, then back to Cho Chang. Cho had got to her feet, but Ginny said rather fiercely, "No, Luna will take Harry, won't you, Luna?"

"Oooh, yes, I'd like to," said Luna happily, as Cho sat down again, looking disappointed. My heart nearly stopped for a moment at the thought of being separated from her, but she reached out to grasp my hand, her fingers curling in mine, a clear indication that she wasn't going to leave me behind. Nobody complained as she tugged me after her as she made her way up to where Harry was.

"How do we get out?" Harry asked Neville.

"Over here."

Neville led the three of us to a corner, where a small cupboard opened onto a steep staircase. "It comes out somewhere different every day, so they've never been able to find it," he said. "Only trouble is, we never know exactly where we're going to end up when we go out. Be careful, Harry, they're always patrolling the corridors at night."

"No problem," said Harry. "See you in a bit."

We all hurried up the staircase, which was long, lit by torches, and turned corners in unexpected places. At last we reached what appeared to be solid wall.

"Get under here," Harry said, pulling out the Invisibility Cloak and throwing it over us all. Our feet were sticking out slightly, but in the dark it wasn't too noticeable.

Harry gave the wall a little push and it melted away at his touch. When we slipped outside, I glanced back and saw that it had resealed itself. We were standing in a dark corridor, and Harry pulled both Luna and I back into the shadows, fumbling in the pouch around his neck, and taking out what I recognized from the DA meetings as the Marauder's Map. Holding it close to his nose he searched, and appeared to finally locate our dots.

"We're up on the fifth floor," he whispered. "Come on, this way."

We crept off.

I had never felt this terrified while creeping through the castle at night. My heart pounded, and I felt like I was one shock away from hyperventilation.

"This way, Harry," breathed Luna, plucking at Harry's sleeve and pulling him towards a devastatingly familiar spiral staircase.

We climbed in tight, dizzying circles and at last we reached the door I recognized so well- a plain expanse of aged wood, with a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.

Luna reached out a pale hand, which looked eerie floating in midair, unconnected to arm or body. She knocked once, and in the silence it sounded to me like a cannon blast. By Harry's winced, I imagined he felt the same. The beak of the eagle opened and a familiar soft, musical voice said, "Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?"

"It's a circle," I say, hurriedly, "and a circle has no beginning."

"Well said," said the eagle, and the door swung open.

The deserted Ravenclaw common room made me want to cry. It looked exactly how I remembered; a wide, circular room, graceful arched windows that punctuated walls hung with blue-and-bronze silks, a domed ceiling painted with stars, echoed in the midnight-blue carpet under our feet, a scattering of tables, chairs, and bookcases and, in a niche opposite the door, a tall statue of white marble. Rowena Ravenclaw, the founder of my House.

Harry stepped out from under the Cloak and climbed up onto Ravenclaw's plinth to read the words etched onto the diadem. "'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'"

"Which makes you pretty skint, witless," said a cackling voice I recognized.

We all spun around, Harry slipping off the plinth and landing on the floor. The sloping-shouldered figure of Alecto Carrow was standing before us, and even as we raised our wands, she pressed a stubby forefinger to the skull and snake branded on her forearm.

Luna was first to cast the spell, sending Alecto falling forward, hitting the ground so hard that the glass tinkled. "I've never Stunned anyone except in our D.A. lessons," she said, sounding mildly interested. "That was noisier than I though it would be."

And sure enough, the ceiling had begun to tremble. Scurrying, echoing footsteps were growing louder from behind the door leading to the dormitories. Luna's spell had woken Ravenclaws sleeping above.

"Luna, Bella, where are you? I need to get under the Cloak!" Harry said, hurriedly, and Luna tugged up the cloak so our feet were visible. Harry had barely ducked back under as the door opened and a stream of Ravenclaws, all in their nightclothes, flooded into the common room. There were gasps and cries of surprise as they saw Alecto lying there unconscious. Slowly they shuffled in around her, a savage beast that might wake at any moment and attack them. Then one brave little first-year darted up to her and prodded her backside with his big toe.

"I think she might be dead!" he shouted with delight.

"Oh look," whispered Luna happily, as the Ravenclaws crowded in around Alecto. "They're pleased!"

"Yeah... great..." Harry said.

There was a rap on the common room door and every Ravenclaw froze. From the other side, Harry heard the soft, musical voice that issued from the eagle door knocker: "Where do Vanished objects go?"

"I dunno, do I? Shut it!" snarled an uncouth voice that I recognized of Amycus Carrow. "Alecto? Alecto? Are you there? Have you got him? Open the door!"

The Ravenclaws were whispering amongst themselves, terrified. Then without warning, there came a series of loud bangs, as though somebody was firing a gun into the door.

"ALECTO! If he comes, and we haven't got Potter- d'you want to go the same way as the Malfoys? ANSWER ME!" Amycus bellowed, shaking the door for all he was worth, but still it did not open. The Ravenclaws were all backing away, and some of the most frightened began scampering back up the staircase to their beds. Then a most familiar voice rang out beyond the door.

"May I ask what you are doing, Professor Carrow?"

"Trying- to get- through this damned- door!" shouted Amycus. "Go and get Flitwick! Get him to open it, now!"

"But isn't your sister in there" asked Professor McGonagall. "Didn't Professor Flitwick let her in earlier this evening, at your urgent request? Perhaps she could open the door for you? Then you needn't wake up half the castle."

"She ain't answering, you old besom! You open it! Darn! Do it, now!"

"Certainly, if you wish it," said Professor McGonagall, with awful coldness. There was a genteel tap of the knocker and the musical voice asked again.

"Where do Vanished objects go?"

"Into non being, which is to say, everything," replied Professor McGonagall.

"Nicely phrased," replied the eagle door knocker, and the door swung open.

The few Ravenclaws who had remained behind sprinted for the stairs as Amycus burst over the threshold, brandishing his wand. Hunched like his sister, he had a pallid, doughy face and tiny eyes, which fell at once on Alecto, sprawled motionless on the floor. He let out a yell of fury and fear.

"What've they done, the little whelps?" he screamed. "I'll Cruciate the lot of 'em till they tell me who did it- and what's the Dark Lord going to say?" he shrieked, standing over his sister and smacking himself on the forehead with his fist, "We haven't got him, and they've gone and killed her!"

"She's only Stunned," said Professor McGonagall impatiently, who had stooped down to examine Alecto. "She'll be perfectly all right."

"No she bludgering well won't!" bellowed Amycus. "Not after the Dark Lord gets hold of her! She's gone and sent for him, I felt me Mark burn, and he thinks we've got Potter!"

"'Got Potter'?" said Professor McGonagall sharply, "What do you mean, 'got Potter'?"

"He told us Potter might try and get inside Ravenclaw Tower, and to send for him if we caught him!"

"Why would Harry Potter try to get inside Ravenclaw Tower! Potter belongs in my House!"

"We was told he might come in here!" said Carrow. "I dunno why, do I?"

Professor McGonagall stood up and her beady eyes swept the room. Twice they passed right over the place where we stood, huddled under the cloak.

"We can push it off on the kids," said Amycus, his pig-like face suddenly crafty, and I felt sick. "Yeah, that's what we'll do. We'll say Alecto was ambushed by the kids, them kids up there," he looked up at the starry ceiling toward the dormitories, "and we'll say they forced her to press her Mark, and that's why he got a false alarm.... He can punish them. Couple of kids more or less, what's the difference?" I was about to throw up I felt so nauseated, and the Head of Gryffindor had turned pale.

"Only the difference between truth and lie, courage and cowardice," said Professor McGonagall, "a difference, in short, which you and your sister seem unable to appreciate. But let me make one thing very clear. You are not going to pass off your many ineptitudes on the students of Hogwarts. I shall not permit it."

"Excuse me?"

Amycus moved forward until he was offensively close to Professor McGonagall, his face within inches of hers. She refused to back away, but looked down at him as if he were something disgusting she had found stuck to the toilet seat.

"It's not a case of what you'll permit, Minerva McGonagall. Your time's over. It's us what's in charge here now, and you'll back me up or you'll pay the price."

And he spat in her face.

Harry's reaction stunned me. He pulled the Cloak off, raised his wand, and said, "You shouldn't have done that."

As Amycus spun around, Harry shouted, "Crucio!"

The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor. "I see what Bellatrix meant," said Harry, and I couldn't see his face, but I could hear the cold fury in his voice, "you need to really mean it."

"Potter!" whispered Professor McGonagall, clutching her heart. "Potter- you're here! What-? How-?" She struggled to pull herself together. "Potter, that was foolish!"

"He spat at you," said Harry.

"Potter, I- that was very- gallant of you- but don't you realize-?"

"Yeah, I do," Harry assured her. "Professor McGonagall, Voldemort's on the way."

"Oh, are we allowed to say the name now?" asked Luna with an air of interest, pulling off the Invisibility Cloak off us. The appearance of two more outlaws seemed to overwhelm Professor McGonagall, who staggered backward and fell into a nearby chair, clutching at the neck of her old tartan dressing gown.

"I don't think it makes any difference what we call him," Harry told Luna. "He already knows where I am."

"You must flee," whispered Professor McGonagall, "Now Potter, as quickly as you can!"

"I can't," said Harry, "There's something I need to do. Professor, so you know where the diadem of Ravenclaw is?"

"The d-diadem of Ravenclaw? Of course not- hasn't it been lost for centuries?" She sat up a little straighter "Potter, it was madness, utter madness, for you to enter this castle-"

"I had to," said Harry. "Professor, there's something hidden here that I'm supposed to find, and it could be the diadem- if I could just speak to Professor Flitwick-"

There was a sound of movement, of clinking glass. Amycus was coming round. Before Harry or Luna could act, Professor McGonagall rose to her feet, pointed her wand at the groggy Death Eater, and said, "Imperio."

Amycus got up, walked over to his sister, picked up her wand, then shuffled obediently to Professor McGonagall and handed it over along with his own. Then he lay down on the floor beside Alecto. Professor McGonagall waved her wand again, and a length of shimmering silver rope appeared out of thin air and snaked around the Carrows, binding them tightly together.

"Potter," said Professor McGonagall, turning to face Harry again with superb indifference to the Carrows' predicament. "If He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named does indeed know that you are here-"

Harry lurched, grabbing Luna's shoulder, face twisted in pain.

"Potter, are you all right." McGonagall demanded, and Harry seemed to come back.

"Time's running out, Voldemort's getting nearer, Professor, I'm acting on Dumbledore's orders, I must find what he wanted me to find! But we've got to get the students out while I'm searching the castle- it's me Voldemort wants, but he won't care about killing a few more or less, not now-" Harry didn't finish his sentence out loud.

"You're acting on Dumbledore's orders?" McGonagall repeated with a look of dawning wonder. Then she drew herself up to her fullest height.

"Then we shall secure the school against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named while you search for this- this object."

A thrill raced through me, unbidden. I was terrified and I felt sick, but I wasn't shaking from fear- I was shaking from excitement. This was it. Voldemort was approaching. The school was going into lock-down against him. The battle, the revolution, had officially started.