Cast A Shadow Skyward
Ron had slept little during the long night. He was simply too tense to allow himself to relax. He figured there would be time enough for resting when it was all over. Luna had been nestled in his arms and it made him feel very protective of her. Not that she needed his protection, but nevertheless that was how he felt. He gently laid her head down and pulled himself up. The sun was going to rise soon and he wanted to get an early start. He gathered all the teachers for a quick meeting.
Most of them said nothing and just nodded at his concerns and commands. Dumbledore took Ron aside and offered some advice.
"Ron, I can tell you that our time is very short. Hermione will be finding Harry quite soon. You must get at least a small group there as soon as possible. Perhaps you could send me as well as a select few to see if we can locate them quicker."
"Hmmm, I would agree with you up to a point. We do need to send a scouting group ahead. However, I need you here. The students are very worried and I can see that whenever I issue an order they turn and look at you for reassuring confirmation. I propose something a little different. I'm going to send the only person I know that either of them would listen to. I'm going to send Ginny. Myrtle will go with her as a guide, since she has an idea of where Harry is. I'll have one of the Gryffindors give up their broom to her and he'll take her place on the ground with the others."
Dumbledore stood there for a moment and ran his fingers down his snow white beard.
"Alright Ron, you are the leader here. We'll do this your way. Just make sure of what you're doing before you do it. I don't think I need to remind you what is at stake here."
Ron shook his head, "All too well. So, why aren't you taking over this little army anyways?"
"I have always had a great faith in the student's at Hogwarts. They always come through in the end. Right now, I fear they have lost faith in their elders. Too many times those in the ministry, their teachers and even myself have failed them. I think they see something in you. You give them a great confidence in themselves. If they were following me, they would not have that. They would merely have confidence in me. I truly believe that their belief in there own ability to shape destiny will give them the courage they need. I fear the worst when we must face Voldemort. Everything will hinge on them stepping up as a unified force."
"Well, you could kill Voldemort right?"
"Ron, I think you misunderstood all of this. I cannot kill Voldemort. Only Harry can. A prophecy is nothing to take lightly. Our presence will merely be to aid Harry in anyway we can. And of course, to ensure that Hermione is safe as well."
Ron stared hard at Albus Dumbledore. "You knew that Hermione was going to do this didn't you?"
"It is foolish to think that I know everything Ron. However, I must admit that I had my suspicions about Ms. Granger. Her grief has been a difficult burden for her. The journey she is on now is about more than just finding and doing what she feels she must. She is on a road to throwing off the awful weight she has been carrying with her since the night that Harry disappeared. On a very deep level, she believes that Harry left because her love was not strong enough to keep him with us. That is why she feels she must be the one to take his life. That way, in her mind, the guilt of murder would be on the soul that caused all of this to exist in the first place. It is a difficult thing to forgive yourself, Ron. Even if it is something that is not truly your burden to carry. Harry is where he is now, because that is how his story was meant to unfold. I believe, in the end, if we all survive, then we will learn what our destiny has in store for us."
Ron pondered the things that Dumbledore had told him. Some things were beginning to make sense, but he still felt confused. Was this really how it was meant to be? But, why? The answers eluded him. He watched as the student's were gently awoken by the teachers and house-elves. A warm breakfast had been conjured up and many of them were talking excitedly. What were they doing out here, Ron thought? Why were they following him?
Cho looked up from her circle of Ravenclaw friends; she waved vigorously and yelled out, "Hi Ron! We're behind you one hundred percent!"
A cheer went up from all the students around her. He felt a lot better after that.
--- ---
Ginny was on the borrowed broom looking over the countryside. She felt a little guilty about leaving the other students behind, but Ron had given her a direct order. She should have been in air support anyway, but she wanted to be near Luna. They had become good friends over the past two years. Her thoughts wandered back to Ron and she laughed. If he had given her an order even a week ago, she would have ignored him or started an argument. Now things were far different. Harry and Hermione needed Ron to do this. It was her duty to help him in anyway that she could.
"The last I saw Harry, he was near a cave about twenty kilometers that way," Myrtle said with her arm extended out.
"Well, I guess we'd better get moving then. I'll let Ron worry about Hermione right now. With Luna and Dumbledore there, they should be able to reason with her. Somehow I fear that Harry really needs a friend right now. You ready?"
"Ready!" Myrtle said with no small degree of excitement.
Ginny tipped herself forward and kicked off towards the cave that hopefully Harry was still occupying. It was going to take a bit to get there, so she settled in and took in the scenery around her. A last look back and she saw Ron and the air support students quickly being left behind. Then it suddenly dawned on her. Something had been nagging her for quite awhile, but she could not quite place it. Now, it hit her… where the heck was Hagrid?
--- ---
Hermione had left the meadow and been running for the past hour. When she awoke the unicorns were both there, but said nothing to her. She thanked them and began her journey. Now, here on the hunt she felt her blood begin to pump again. Her steady heartbeat intermingled with the sound of the deep forest. Then it hit her like a physical blow. She could smell him. There was no doubt in her mind at all. She would know that smell as clearly as she knew her own. Harry had been past here. After carefully sniffing at the air, she determined he had come by within the past day or two. She was in his hunting area. It would not be too long before he would know she was there. She held on to the hope that she would be the one to find him first. It could make all the difference.
In the distance she heard a crashing sound as a large limb had fallen from a tree. She stopped and listened for any follow on sounds. There was a flurry of small animals scurrying and a pair of nesting birds chirping loudly as they flew off. She tried to keep her frustration down. The extraneous sounds were preventing her from hearing something that might be important. She was downwind from the direction of the sound, so smell was useless here. She strained to hear anything at all, but there was nothing else. She ran through all the possibilities and settled on the most likely, a dead branch had finally plummeted from its perch.
She again sped out into the wilderness. She was confident that she had run past one of Myrtle's described landmarks. There was no doubt that she was approaching Harry. She began to wonder if he was happy out in the forest. She had such terrible visions of his life out here, but now that she had embraced this place, she began to think that it was not nearly as bad as Hagrid had made it out to be. There was a reason that the centaurs called this home. She felt that if the opportunity presented itself, she might consider it a home as well. Only time would tell.
She looked up into the brilliant blue sky and slowed down to a jog. She could not remember a time when the sky seemed more azure than it was right now. It almost seemed unnatural to her. Something was wrong. She stopped and tuned all her senses. The sky seemed a bit darker blue than it had just a moment before. She stared hard and could detect a distinct change. It was definitely getting steadily darker. She looked around to find cover. Seeing none she ran towards the nearest tree and climbed it as quickly as she could. Climbing the rope in physical education a few hundred times certainly paid off, she thought. Sitting on the topmost branch that could hold her weight she looked across the forest canopy. The few birds that were in the sky were quickly diving into tree branches. They could sense it too, she noted.
The sky was now the color of late afternoon, though the yellow disk of the sun was just crawling to mid morning. She felt a sense of panic permeate her body. Hermione forced a calmness to wash over her. Her breathing forced to a slow and steady pace. Her heart beginning to slow slightly. The danger of becoming so aware of everything around you, is that when things are not right and you cannot find the source of it, one begins to become overly nervous. After bringing herself back to normal, she could see that now the sky was approximately at early evening. At this rate, it would be completely dark in well under a half hour.
"Is this you Harry? Are you doing this?" she whispered.
She had not planned on having to stop here. She had little in the way of protection against the creatures of the night. This was not good. Not good at all.
--- ---
Ginny was feeling a sense of dread. The sun was still right where it was supposed to be, but it was as if someone were drawing a dark filter over it. The light coming from it was not enough to provide full daylight. So much so, that the sky was practically at twilight. She could actually make out a few evening stars dotting the sky. What was happening?
"Myrtle," she said in a panic, "have you ever seen anything like this?"
Myrtle was quiet for a moment. "Yes, once before. Quite a few years ago back during the first war against Voldemort. From what I remember, he had discovered a way to cast a spell that would darken the sun over a substantial area, so that it would appear to be night. He only did it one time. I heard Nearly-headless Nick say that it was because it required the sacrifice of a human life, and an enormously large amount of preparation time."
Ginny looked pensive, "I think I remember hearing that Peter Pettigrew had never been caught. That he had somehow eluded everyone at the ministry of magic. Is it possible that he found Voldemort? Would Voldemort be willing to sacrifice his last death-eater for this? Why would he do that?"
Myrtle had a look of concern, "I know a reason why he would do it. To kill Harry. If he can make it night, then he will be able to come out before Harry is ready for him. Harry said that their battles were so terrible that he needed the whole day to recover. If the Dark Lord were to cut his time short… Ginny… what do we do?"
Ginny was getting angrier by the second. "Myrtle, you need to get to Harry right now! Go to him and warn him. Make sure he's okay."
"What about you?"
"You let me worry about myself. You just get to Harry right now and stay by his side. Hurry, Myrtle, hurry!"
With that Myrtle began to speed towards were she had last seen Harry with all the haste her little ghost self could muster. Ginny watched her go and carefully noted the direction she was heading. She had to be able to follow her trail. She watched as Myrtle swooped over the treetops and made mental notes of anything out of the ordinary about the trees themselves, or anything that she could visually lock on to. She carefully committed it all to memory. The sky was awash with dark purples. She guessed that it was about ten in the morning, but the sky said otherwise.
Then in the far distance Ginny saw something very strange. It seemed like the tops of the trees were moving. Some trees seemed to shake, while others were bending over. It seemed to be happening in pockets, but the pockets were not standing still. They were moving and quite quickly. One of the pockets of movement was heading towards an open patch. She squinted her eyes. It was getting much harder to see now as the light in the sky grew dimmer. It was just coming in to view. She could almost make out what it was.
Ginny's whole body slumped down onto her broom. It felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She counted again to be sure, but estimated that there were about fifty of them, maybe more. The death-eaters had been captured and imprisoned, or killed. There was however, another ally of the Dark Lord that appeared to have been forgotten. They were here now though, and Ginny had to get back to Ron and warn him. The giants were coming…
--- ---
The darkness that had settled over the forest had put a severe damper in the ability for the troops to move forward. They had made little progress this morning and he was already about to have to call halt altogether. Ron was furious. If he could find out what was responsible for this unnatural night he would strangle them with his bare hands. He had already had to ground the flyers. He was not willing to risk anyone getting hurt, because they misjudged the top of a tree.
Dumbledore and Snape were both walking quickly towards him. If Snape was concerned about it enough to want to talk to him, he knew it was bad.
"Mr. Weasley," Snape said with worry in his voice. "We must get some fires lit right away. Firenze just informed me that this is a highly dangerous area at night and even the centaurs avoid it like the plague."
"He's right Ron. I believe it is imperative that the safety of the students be our number one priority," Dumbledore added.
Ron was not about to throw the towel in now. Harry and Hermione needed him. He asked Dumbledore to make sure that all the students could hear him clearly. Dumbledore cast a quick Sonorus spell on Ron.
"Everyone, please listen to me. As you all have probably guessed Voldemort is behind the sky turning to night like this. I can only believe that it is because he is planning something. I fear the worst, but I simply cannot allow him to win. I have been told that I should put your safety first. I agree with that. I however, cannot stay here and let this happen. Fires will be started and around the clock guard duty will be carried out until it is light again. You will be safe here. If there are any of you who wish to press on with me, then I would welcome you by my side. Those of you who wish to stay behind, then please get your assigned duties from McGonagall. She will be heading up the effort to setup camp. If any of you wish to see this through, then simply stay here with me."
Ron waited patiently for the students to begin forming groups around McGonagall. No one seemed to be moving. Ron continued to wait.
"Um, yes just to clarify. If you wish to stay here then form up near McGonagall and we'll get fires started and…"
"We heard you the first time!" Seamus yelled.
"We're with you Ron!" yelled Neville.
Cho did as well, "You know where we stand Ron Weasley. We're here to see this to the end."
"Yeah, what she said!" barked Draco.
"Right then," Ron said. He hid it well, but on the inside he was feeling pretty emotional about the whole thing. "Wands out!"
Each and every student pulled their wands out.
"Together now! Lumos!" Ron ordered.
A thousand voices cried out in unison, "LUMOS!"
In this small portion of the forest, there was a glow bright enough to light up half of London.
--- ---
Hermione was still clinging to the tree as the sky turned dark as midnight. She was sure that she would hear the movement of nocturnal hunters coming out to find prey, but there was nothing. The forest was silent.
Then a sudden bolt struck her. She could smell Harry. His scent was very strong and very near. She could not see him or hear him, but she knew. She slowly slid her wand out and she waited. Sooner or later he would show himself, or make a noise giving him away. When he did, she would be ready for him. Now, it was just a matter of time.