Hold On - Dramione

Chapter 20

If Draco had been there, he would've said that Hogwarts was once like his home. He didn't mean metaphorically, he meant literally in that the grand castle had once been a place filled with light and laughter and hope. And now, under the crushing and debilitating darkness of the Dark Lord, all that light had been snuffed out.

Not only had what Neville told them been their evidence, but you could tell just from the way they walked through the castle. Even if you removed the fact that it was night, the air of evil that lingered inside the stone walls seemed to make it all the more darker.

The once-happy students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had been reduced to nothing more than mindless drones. Even without the pure wonder that used to be in the eyes of the muggleborn students seeing magic for the first time as they were no longer allowed to attend, any semblance of enjoyment that they once felt for their school had slowly been leeched, beaten and tortured from their bodies by the Carrows. But as a particular student weaved between the ranks of the Gryffindor students and laced his fingers with Ginny's, they realised that despite the mightiest methods of the Carrows, they may have taken their happiness, but they'd failed to rob the students of their hope.

While those who had been on Harry's side and hidden in the Room of Requirement knew why they were being summoned, the rest of the school was inherently curious as to why their headmaster wanted to see them when they hardly ever saw him.

Snape's long black robes billowed out behind him as he made his way to the front of the hall, the dais empty of the ornate golden chair that Dumbledore used to sit on. Now, Snape stood up there, a pillar of darkness as he was flanked by the Carrows.

"Many of you are surely wondering why I have summoned you at this hour," Snape began, not needing to speak up in the dead silence of the hall where you couldn't even hear the dying embers of the braziers' crackle. All of the students, even the Slytherins had their heads down, staring at their feet as he spoke. "It's come to my attention, that earlier this evening, Harry Potter was sighted in Hogsmeade. "

And the entire hall burst into whispers and murmurs, even those who already knew, lest they be caught.

Ginny, however, only squeezed the hand of the person standing next to her tighter, her heart beating in her throat with nerves.

"Now," Snape bellowed, his voice commanding silence as he spoke over the whispers. "Should anyone, student or staff, attempt to aid Mr Potter, they will be punished, in a manner consistent with the severity of their transgression. Furthermore, any person found to have knowledge of these events, who fails to come forward, will be treated as, equally guilty." His steps down the dais were eerily quiet save for the swishing of his robs as he moved, observing the masses gathered into the four corners of the large hall. "Now then, if anyone here, has any knowledge of Mr Potter's movements this evening, I invite them to step forward... Now."

No one dared move or breathe. Well, almost no one.

The whispers and murmurs that sounded before sounded again, but this time, they were amplified tenfold as Harry Potter himself stepped forward into the crossroads created between the houses and faced his former Potions master.

The Chosen One had his house robes draped over his body as he stared down the new headmaster, his expression riddled with anger, but he couldn't hide the smugness in his tone as he spoke. "It seems, despite your exhaustive defensive strategies, you still have a bit of a security problem, Headmaster."

The doors of the Great Hall opened to reveal his best friends along with what was left of the Order of the Phoenix, Kingsley at the forefront as they filed out and flanked him.

"And I'm afraid it's quite extensive," Harry continued. "How dare you stand where he stood? Tell them how it happened that night! Tell them how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and killed him! Tell them," he spat.