Madison Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Chapter 15: Castle on the Hill: Part One

Madison Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Chapter 15: Castle on the Hill: Part One

I stood in front of the entry to the Head Boy and Head Girl's dormitory.

"Password?" The lady in the painting asked me.

"Montague," I mumbled. The foot swung open and I stepped inside of the room.

I plopped down on the couch in front of the fire. Anthony Goldstein looked up from the book he was reading while he sat on the arm chair.

"You're back," he stated plainly, obviously still waking up from a night's rest.

"Yeah... I'm sorry I was gone so long."

"McGonagall informed me, so you're good. But I've scheduled a meeting for the DA for tomorrow night."

My eyes widened. "You've had meetings?"

"This will be our first one since the Holliday's ended. We waited for you. You know more than any of us combined."

I sighed and ran my hands over my freckled face. "I don't know more than you guys— I've just had more experience, and that's it."

"No, you're the one who got nearly all O's on her OWLS in fifth year," he rolled his eyes.

"It's mostly the experience."

"It's in your blood, too. I've done some research on the Potter family, because in fourth year we had to choose one wizarding event to write a paper on in order to get extra credit in A History of Magic. You're father was going to be an Auror, and so was your mother."

I scoffed, "Well, they're dead now, so it didn't matter whatever research you did. Let's just... let's get to class."

Together, Anthony and I walked up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts— wait, I mean the Dark Arts— classroom.

"Potter, Goldstein... you're late," Carrow said, a sneer on his face.

"Won't happen again, sir," I replied.

"I'll make sure it won't. Potter, Goldstein, you'll serve one one hour detention tonight at 8, in this classroom. It's in your best interest to not be late," he grinned manically.

It was 7:59pm, and I stood outside the door with Anthony and about five other students ranging from first years to seventh years.

Carrow opened the door and all of us filed in.

We each sat at a desk, where I found myself holding a quill and writing a statement on a piece of parchment: "I will not be late for class".

It was a blood quill, and I felt pain through every single stroke I made. The palm of my hand was red and it stung like hell. Everything was a blur, and even though the hour was soon up, I knew that this detention would leave a permanent reminder of how I disobeyed the rules, and how harsh this world was.

I would never be late again.

Months flew by, and soon enough it was in the early hours of the evening on May first that it all began to happen. It all began to end.

We were in the secret room, all of us, the entire DA, sitting anxiously in a circle. I had had a feeling earlier this morning, and it wasn't a good one. I proceeded to call a meeting and we just say in silence. Deadly silence. Silence is deadly.

Ginny broke the silence, "What's going to happen Madison?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. All I know is that something is going to happen, and it's going to happen soon."

As soon as I said it, the portrait door at the other side of the room creaked open, and it was dead silent.

Out of the portrait hole came Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Hermione ran up to me first, and we hugged one another so tightly that I felt as if my circulation would be cut off.

"Hermione you look disgusting," I said, my nose shriveling up at the scent of her.

Hermione was sweaty and had grease in her hair, her eyes were carrying bags underneath them, her mouth was chapped, and her body itself looked thinner.

"Thanks, Madison, but I could say the exact same thing about you," she retorted.

She was right, of course. I smelled disgusting— I probably smelled like blood, iron and all metallic like (I suppose). I had bloodstains on my white button down shirt from when I had gotten my stomach carved into by the Carrows (it now says above my bellybutton that "I shall not disobey my elders" in a scratchy font that you could only get from a knife). My hair was messy and now reached my shoulders, and it was uneven and choppy.

"I guess best friends tell each other when they look disgusting, don't they Hermione?" I laughed.

Hermione gave a laugh and nodded.

"What happened to your hair?" Ron asked, obviously full of tact, while giving me a hug.

"The Carrows," Anthony answered for me.

"I have a mouth Goldstein and I can answer all by myself," I snarled. "Basically, I did something "punishment" worthy and they cut my hair."

"That's terrible," Hermione gasped.

"Harry?" I asked, waiting for him to come over to me. Instead, he and Ginny were looking at one another with so much love I thought I would barf from all the cuteness.

"Madison? Madison!" Harry snapped out of his trance and looked away from Ginny with a blush and walked towards me.

"What's the plan?" I whispered.

"We need to find four things: a diadem, his snake and two other things."

"You don't know what the other two look like?" I asked him.

He shook his head.

"Speak up and tell all of them," I said.

He looked at me with astonishment. "Hell no! You're obviously in charge here and they'll listen to you better!"

I rolled me eyes. "Yeah, because a group of people are more likely to listen to a 17 year old who isn't a male."

"Just tell them, Madison," Harry whined.

"Fine," I grumbled as I stepped onto one of the chairs by me.

"So now that my terribly missed brother and his two goonies— I mean his goon Ron, because Hermione has standards even though she hangs out with my brother— are here, Harry has just told me what the objective is, because I think we all have the feeling that something is going to happen tonight, and it's not going to be pretty.

According to Scar Head, we need to find four things: a diadem, You-Know-Who's little pet snake, and two other things that none of us know the appearance of. Any questions?"

Nigel raised his hand, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes and thankfully, I won.

"Yes Nigel?"

"What's a diadem?"

"It's like, a crown. A tiara. We don't know the location of any of the things we need, but all I do know is that it's nearly time for dinner and we need to all get into our lines. And Harry, Ron and Hermione? Get these robes on and try not to make yourselves stand out in the crowd, okay?"

"Got it," the trio replied at once as they started to put on their Gryffindor robes.

I locked eyes with Harry and he stood next to me in line.

"We've made friends and lost them through the years, and now it's time to fight for them," I told him.

He nodded, and faced forward.

"Ready Madison?

"Ready Harry."