Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed... 531
Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry, to hold him forever in the glare of thousands of invisible beamsThen a figure rose from the Slytherin table and he recognized Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed, "But he's there! Potter's thereSomeone grab him!"
Before Harry could speak, there was a massive movementThe Gryffindors in front of him had risen and stood facing, not Harry, but the SlytherinsThen the Hufflepuffs stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to Harry, all of them looking toward Pansy instead, and Harry, awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and from under sleeves
"Thank you, Miss Parkinson said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice"You will leave the Hall first with MrIf the rest of your House could follow
Harry heard the grinding of the benches and then the sound of the Slytherins trooping out on the other side of the Hall
"Ravenclaws, follow on!" cried Professor McGonagall
Slowly the four tables emptiedThe Slytherin table was completely deserted, but a number of older Ravenclaws remained seated while their fellows filed out; even more Hufflepuffs stayed miu miu knock off behind, and half of Gryffindor remained in their seats, necessitating Professor McGonagall's descent from the teachers' platform to chivvy the underage on their way
"Absolutely not, Creevey, go! And you, Peakes!"
Harry hurried over to the Weasleys, all sitting together at the Gryffindor table
"Where are Ron and Hermione?"
"Haven't you found -?" began MrWeasley, looking worried
But he broke off as Kingsley had stepped forward on the raised platform to address those who had remained behind
"We've only got half an half an hour until midnight, so we need to act fastA battle plan has been agreed between the teachers of Hogwarts and the Order of the PhoenixProfessors Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall are going to take groups of fighters up to the three highest towers - Ravenclaw, Astronomy, and Gryffindor - where they'll have good overview, excellent positions from which to work spellsMeanwhile Remus" - he indicated Lupin - "Arthur" - he pointed toward MrWeasley, sitting at the Gryffindor table - "and I will take groups into the groundsWe'll need somebody to organize defense of the entrances or the passageways into the school -"
"Sounds like a job for us called Fred, indicating himself and George, and Kingsley nodded his balenciaga bag approval
"All right, leaders up here and we'll divide up the troops!"
"Potter," said Professor McGonagall, hurrying up to him, as students flooded the platform, jostling for position, receiving instructions, "Aren't you supposed to be looking for something?"
"What? Oh," said Harry, "oh yeah!"
He had almost forgotten about the Horcrux, almost forgotten that the battle was being fought so that he could search for it: The inexplicable absence of Ron and Hermione had momentarily driven every other thought from his mind
"Then go, Potter, go!"
"Right - yeah -"
He sensed eyes following him as he ran out of the Great Hall again, into the entrance hall still crowded with evacuating studentsHe allowed himself to be swept up the marble staircase with them, but at the top he hurried off along a deserted corridorFear and panic were clouding his thought processesHe tried to calm himself, to concentrate on finding the Horcrux, but his thoughts buzzed as frantically and fruitlessly as wasps trapped beneath a glassWithout Ron and Hermione to help him he could not seem to marshal his ideasHe slowed down, coming to a halt halfway along a passage, where he sat down on the plinth of a departed statue and pulled the Marauder's cartier picasso tank watches Map out of the pouch around his neckHe could not see Ron's of Hermione's names anywhere on it, though the density of the crowd of dots now making its way to the Room of Requirement might, he thought, be concealing themHe put the map away, pressed his hands over his face, and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate
Voldemort thought I'd go to Ravenclaw Tower
There it was, a solid fact, the place to startVoldemort had stationed Alecto Carrow in the Ravenclaw common room, and there could be only one explanation; Voldemort feared that Harry already knew his Horcrux was connected to that House
But the only object anyone seemed to associate with Ravenclaw was the lost diademand how could the Horcrux be the diadem? How was it possible that Voldemort, the Slytherin, had found the diadem that had eluded generations of Ravenclaws? Who could have told him where to look, when nobody had seen the diadem in living memory?
In living memory
Beneath his fingers, Harry's eyes flew open againHe leapt up from the plinth and tore back the way he had come, now in pursuit of his one last hopeThe sound of hundreds of people marching toward the Room of Requirement grew louder and louder as he returned to the marble stairsPrefects were rolex 18k watches shouting instructions, trying to keep track of the students in their own houses, there was much pushing and shouting; Harry
saw Zacharias Smith bowling over first years to get to the front of the queue, here and there younger students were in tears, while older ones called desperately for friends or siblings
Harry caught sight of a pearly white figure drifting across the entrance hall below and yelled as loudly as he could over the clamor
"Nick! NICK! I need to talk to you!"
He forced his way back through the tide of students, finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, where Nearly Headless Nick, ghost of Gryffindor Tower, stood waiting for him
"Harry! My dear boy!"
Nick made to grasp Harry's hands with both of his own; Harry felt as though they had been thrust into icy water
"Nick, you've got to help meWho's the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower?"
Nearly Headless Nick looked surprised and a little offended
"The Gray Lady, of course; but if it is ghostly services you require -?"
"It's got to be her - d'you know where she is?"
"Let's see
Nick's head wobbled a little on his ruff as he turned hither and thither, peering over the heads of the swarming students
"That's her over there, Harry, the young woman with the long handbags louis vuitton ha
