Complete and Utter Poppycock

Chapter 27: The Elder Wand

Chapter 27: The Elder Wand

Fred Weasley was dead. He couldn't be dead but here he was. George and I cried together, holding hands and clinging onto Fred's body as if it seemed that our tears would bring him back to life. The one thing I didn't want to happen, happened.

"Get down!" Harry shouted, as more curses flew through the night. Percy cling to Fred's body. I had let go. I had to fight. I had to fight for him. I'm fighting for Fred. . .

"Percy, come on, we've got to move!" He shook his head. "Percy!" Ron seized his elder brother's shoulders and pulled, but Percy would not budge. I was still sobbing but standing.

"Percy, you can't do anything for him! We're going to —"

Hermione screamed, and me, turning, didn't ask why. A monstrous spider the size of a small car was trying to climb through the huge hole in the wall. Ron and Harry's sleep collided and the monster was blown backward and vanished into darkness.

"It brought friends!" Harry called to us, glancing over the edge of the castle through the hole in the walls the Curses has blasted. More giant spiders were climbing the side of the building. We kept throwing spells until the leader fell back into the hole with the rest of them.

"Let's move, NOW!"

We moved and got into it, avoiding Curses flying at us from the grounds. Hermione screamed at us and pulled Ron behind a tapestry. They seemed to be wrestling each other, Hermione trying to restrain him after running after Percy.

"Listen to me — LISTEN, RON!"

"I wanna help — I wanna kill Death Eaters —"

"I do too, Ron! I know how you feel! But wait!" I was still crying. Fred's death haunted me.

"Ron, we're the only ones who can end it! Please — Ron — we need the snake, we've got to kill the snake!" said Hermione.

"We will fight!" Hermione said. "We'll have to, to reach the snake! But let's not lose sight now if what we'd supposed to be d-doing! We're the only ones who can end it!"

She was crying too, and she wiped her face on her torn and singed sleeve as she spoke, but she took great breaths to calm herself. She turned to Harry.

"You need to find out where Voldemort is, because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Do it, Harry — look inside him!"

He closed his eyes on her command. It was only moments before he opened them again with a gasp.

"He's in the Shrieking Shack. The snake's with him, it's got some sort of magical protection around it. He's just sent Lucius Malfoy to find Snape."

"Voldemort's sitting in the Shrieking Shack?" said Hermione, outraged. "He's not — he's not even fighting?"

"He doesn't think he needs to fight," said Harry. "He thinking I'm going to go to him."

"But why?"

"He knows I'm after Horcruxes — he's keeping Nagini close beside him — obviously I'm going to have to go to him to get near the thing —"

"Right," said Ron, squaring his shoulders. "So you can't go, that what he wants, what he's expecting. You stay here and look after Hermione, and I'll go and get it —"

Harry cut across Ron.

"You three stay here, I'll go under the Cloak and I'll be back as soon as I —"

"No," said Hermione, "it makes much more sense if I take the Cloak and —"

"Don't even think about it," Ron snarled at her.