Emma Potter; Going to War

118: And so it begins. . .

"Oh, are we allowed to say the name now?" asked Luna with an air of interest, pulling off the Invisibility Cloak. This appearance of a third outlaw 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," I told Luna. "He already knows where we am."

 In a distant part of my brain, that part connected to the angry, burning scar, I could see Voldemort sailing fast over the dark lake in the ghostly green boat. . . . He had nearly reached the island where the stone basin stood. . . . 

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

 "We can't," said Harry. "There's something I need to do."

She sat up a little straighter. "Potters, it was madness, utter madness, for you to enter this castle —"

 "We 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 —" 

"I already told you--"

 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 him again with superb indifference to the Carrows' predicament, "if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named does indeed know that you are here —" 

As she said it, wrath that was like physical pain blazed through Harry and me, setting my scar on fire, and for a second I looked down upon a basin whose potion had turned clear, and saw that no golden locket lay safe beneath the surface — 

 "Potters, are you all right?" said a voice, and Harry and I came back: We were each clutching Luna's shoulder to steady ourselves. 

 "Time's running out, Voldemort's getting nearer. Professor, we're  acting on Dumbledore's orders, we destroy what he wanted us to find! But we've got to get the students out while I'm searching the castle — it's us Voldemort wants, but he won't care about killing a few more or less, not now —" not now he knows we're attacking Horcruxes, I finished the sentence in my head. 

 "You're acting on Dumbledore's orders?" she repeated with a look of dawning wonder. Then she drew herself up to her fullest height. "We shall secure the school against He-Who-Must-Not-BeNamed while you destroy this — this object." 

 "Is that possible?"

 "I think so," said Professor McGonagall dryly, "we teachers are rather good at magic, you know. I am sure we will be able to hold  him off for a while if we all put our best efforts into it. Of course, something will have to be done about Professor Snape —" 

 "Let me —" 

 "— and if Hogwarts is about to enter a state of siege, with the Dark Lord at the gates, it would indeed be advisable to take as many innocent people out of the way as possible. With the Floo Network under observation, and Apparition impossible within the grounds —" 

 "There's a way," I said quickly, and I explained about the passageway leading into the Hog's Head.

 "Ms Potter, we're talking about hundreds of students —"