The Dark Gryffindor

Please review! I am trying as hard as I can to write faster. But I am going on a semi-vacation this week. I am going to enjoy writing these chapters especially, as I find it very entertaining on my part. I am always trying to become a better writer. The final battles will be very violent but not any sex, cannibalism, or necrophilia. What I’m saying is nothing too sick.


Chapter Forty-eight: The Armies Assemble


All of night was cloaked in darkness and it enveloped Hogwarts Castle, ablaze with light. The light contrasted against the void above. The school was like a small municipality, so vast was it at this vantage.

Three figures stood just outside the school’s property at the high wrought-iron gates. At their sides were pillars with winged boars atop them. Voldemort stood with Valerie and Snape at his side. Both Snape and Valerie had crossed the boundary, and now could not reenter until Voldemort dismantled the school’s protection.

He said to them, “This conflict with the staff of Hogwarts shall not be prolonged. It shall dissipate before it meets the garish sun. On this, I can be sure, Severus.”

“That is excellent, My Lord,” said Snape.

Valerie and Snape watched as Voldemort once again fixated his gaze on Hogwarts. They could feel the cold intentions emanating from him. His red eyes were like contained flames, and his being was like that of a stalker in the night. It gave Valerie chills, even though it was not one bit cold out. She wondered how long it would be until Voldemort sieged Hogwarts.

The Catermole alert from Hogsmeade village went off, blaring so loudly Hogwarts could hear it too. It didn’t stop, but continued it’s warning trill, a clarion call for action.

Valerie wasn’t permitted to say much as the Headmaster and the Dark Lord discussed military tactics. Once again, Voldemort subjugated her, making her kneel, but this time further off from them. They spoke in low, urgent voices. All the while the Catermole Charm pealed like a great warning bell.

The two Wizards were conferring fluently in Latin (the predominant language of the archaic magic they were going to stump). Although they sometimes mixed it with English. The only words Valerie could glean were “neutralize” and the phrase, “destruction through conquest.” They were hoping to use their sorcery skills to neutralize the school’s stronghold of magical power. But on the details of the magical stratagems they promulgated, she could not guess.

After a long time, Valerie heard the beating of wings and they were ambushed by an onslaught of skeletal creatures coming out of the Dark forest.

The Dark Lord cowered, as the flock past overhead, and he brandished his old and trusty wand, not the new Elder Wand. He had not been expecting this, for they were not of his bidding. But almost instantly he relaxed, whispering to himself, “Ah, winged creatures of cannibalism. The guardians of death.” He might have believed that death was on his side, but he was wrong.

Their undulating bodies glimmered in the inky blackness like velvet. They sailed off to sit on the castle’s roofs. It was just like the Thestrals were crows that sensed death and the carnage to come.

And now, several trails of smoky tunnels materialized, coming from the sky. Within moments the hills were teeming with Death Eaters. Meanwhile, still far off, the sounds of tramped footsteps could be heard, but unseen in the darkness. It was Snatchers coming from Hogsmeade.

“Severus. Fetch me, Macnair.”

Walden Macnair was a Wizard who specialized in controlling magical creatures. Voldemort spoke with him very briefly and then the Death Eater went to do what he was told.

Giants came lumbering out of the Dark Forest, their footsteps giving the earth a pounding. And Voldemort treated them like brutes, not even bothering to converse with them.

With his wand he sent sparks at them, and maneuvered them in their direction. Then Voldemort spread the spells until it encircled the entire perimeter as a ring of fire. The Giants knew what this meant. Many of them meandered away, but a few stayed to watch the gates. Fifty giants had the castle surrounded, all three hundred and sixty degrees. But for Voldemort’s enemies it would inadvertently give Hagrid and Grawp a chance to sneak in undetected later that night.

The Death Eaters crowded together, across the barren dirt road. And with their Lord, they waited. They were not quiet, but spoke loudly with their cronies, getting excited for battle.

Lucius Malfoy finally arrived on the scene walking beside the long line of Snatchers as a separate entity, being a Death Eater he was much higher in rank. He had come from Hogsmeade with his wife, Narcissa Malfoy.

Valerie recognized the platinum blonde wizard and tugged on Snape’s sleeve. “It’s Lucius!”

Snape and Voldemort stopped speaking as Lucius approached. The line of Snatchers, walking in pairs of three stretched far down the road. Abruptly, they stopped their march to wait for further instruction. They were wearing their black and yellow robes of course. The insignia of two entwined snakes making “SS” gleamed on their chests.

Narcissa was stark white, and the woman joined Valerie at kneeling on the ground. The Witch’s little nose jutted high in the air, for she was most insulted at this inferior stance. It was because they not Death Eaters or Snatchers.

The Malfoy patriarch quickly raised his left forearm and stepped to Voldemort. “Hail the Dark Lord!”

But before any other exchanges, all turned to hear the great oaken doors at the front of the school heave open. Huge shafts of orange light spilled out, creating a massive square like a spotlight.

Valerie gasped when she saw the unmistakable form of Heinrick Scabior, Chief of Voldemort’s SS emerge, distinct in his unique uniform. The orange light spilt out from the door, his robes shining like gold. Head held high, he went down the school’s front steps. He went next, to cross the drawbridge.

He slowed his pace, now moving sedately. His men were cheering for him, it almost sounded like a chant. The Snatchers were loyal to him and he was a popular leader. No doubt Scabior had left his other unit held inside the castle in order to greet this additional band of Snatchers.

Scabior smiled a ruthless smirk. He saw Voldemort at the centre, right before the gate’s door. Scabior raised his arm in salute, and kept it raised. He wanted to be recognized and of course convey his loyalty.

Valerie felt a surge of terror rise up inside her. Scabior was going to see her, and he might find her and kill her later. Her fears may have been unfounded, but they were justified. This was Heinrick Scabior, the Death Eater whom had tortured students in the halls, and been in the paper for the most depraved atrocities at the ministry’s Death Camp. And of course, he’d nearly taken Valerie there to languish as a dissenter when she uttered the Taboo.

The hundreds of torchlight lining the drawbridge illuminated Scabior’s features, so that they could see him clearly.

Like a torrential rain, spells plummeted from somewhere above. Scabior’s head snapped up, searching for the source. His hand went for his wand at his hip, where he kept it sheathed like a bayonet.

The aiming was gradually improving and he knew he was the target, and yet could not place where it came. But from the distance, the Death Eaters saw it was from the Astronomy tower, situated behind Scabior’s vision.

Shouts of dismay and malcontent were heard from the Snatchers, who could do nothing to stop it. Scabior ran, and dodged an assortment of jinxes, hexes, and curses.

He was able to get past them, and at the same time protect himself with a Shield Charm. But the Shield crumbled from a green jet of light that impacted his back.

Right nearby, they watched Scabior fall, more curses raining down upon him, his arms flayed and he fell to his knees. As the Curse surged through he flopped backward. He had almost reached the gate in time and would have been safe had he done.

Like a fallen general, Scabior lay between the drawbridge and the gates, eyes open. He was dark in death - with eyes reflecting the dark above. Everybody had witnessed the Chief Snatcher’s demise from the other side, impossible to prevent, as magic would not penetrate the grounds.

Voldemort was angry, but he withheld the full extent of his disappointment, knowing his army was watching. Lucius, seeing Voldemort’s reaction up-close was greatly frazzled to see there was no anguish. How could he be so detached at the assassination of an important leader?

Valerie had been terrified to witness the man’s death. Secretly she was relieved. An uproar of disappointment and morale falling erupted from the Snatchers. But within minutes they transformed into an angry lot. It would be the fuse to make them fight harder.

It was the Order who had taken down Scabior. Remus Lupin came running from the Astronomy tower, crossed the grounds, the drawbridge, and stopped at the body. There lay Scabior, galvanized by his sudden death. The wild eyes were open, and the limbs sprawled apart, maimed by the many Curses that had wounded him in the seconds before he was finished.

Valerie and the hundreds of others saw the shadowy form of Lupin. Lupin, the one Purebloods and proponents of Voldemort reviled simply because of their prejudice against werewolves.

Lupin wielded a knife and with as much virility as his rage could muster, he mutilated the corpse of Heinrick Scabior. Hacking away at the flesh so that the blood of his enemy spurted out. Lupin’s visage was soon masked in blood, like red war-paint.

Voldemort decided he would not wait any longer. It was time to issue an ultimatum. He did not want his troops to start doubting their ability to attack. It was not good encouragement to have seen a powerful leader fall.

So loud the eardrums might burst the people outside the gates listened, whilst the people in Hogwarts heard it too, and even the people surrounding the countryside heard it.

“I know that you are preparing to fight…Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood…”

Voldemort paused and spoke again in his cold, clear voice, magnified a hundred times. “Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded.

“You have until midnight.”


*


They waited for the hour before the beginning of the end. Hogwarts was sealing the giant doors to the school.

Mcgonagall stood on the edge of the steps, shaking. She tipped her wand to her throat and spoke in a magnified voice, not nearly as strong as Voldemort’s charm, but enough for all Voldemort’s troops to hear.

“We are taking every measure to keep you out as long as possible,” her voice shook in tremors but she wore on with the rhetorical message, speaking to the night, and to all those outside in it. “You will not have an easy time fighting with us. We have numbers and the castle is still ours! We are assembling our own Army and I am sending out reinforcements as we speak. The innocents shall not be harmed. The children are being evacuated. We are using the hour you have given us well. And we can retreat if we must, for we will slip past your forces in ways you do not know. And Snape - Headmaster Snape! I know you are out there with him….If I find you, you will die by my wand!”

More and more forces congregated outside the grounds including Pius Thickness’s people from the ministry, coming to aid the Death Eaters. Dementors swarmed above, moving between the school and the grounds. The Giants, the Snatchers and even the Inferi were there as a swarming mass in the Black Lake.


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