Extra wisdom never goes amiss, Potter, but I hardly think it would be much use in this

situation!”

“I only meant --- do you know where it is? Have you ever seen it?”

“Seen it” Nobody has seen it in living memory! Long since lost, boy.”

Harry felt a mixture of desperate disappointment and panic. What, then, was the

Horcrux?

“We shall meet you and your Ravenclaws in the Great Hall, Filius!” said

Professor McGonagall, beckoning to Harry and Luna to follow her.

They had just reached the door when Slughorn rumbled into speech.

“My word,” he puffed, pale and sweaty, his walrus mustache aquiver. “What a

to-do! I'm not at all sure whether this is wise, Minerva. He is bound to find a way in,

you know, and anyone who has tried to delay him will be in the most grievous peril---”

“I shall expect you and the Slytherins in the Great Hall in twenty minutes also.”

said Professor McGonagall. “If you wish to leave with your students, we shall not stop

You. But if any of you attempt to sabotage our resistance or take up arms against us

within this castle, then, Horace, we duel to kill.”

“Minerva!” he said, aghast.

“The time has come for Slytherin House to decide upon its loyalties,” interrupted

Professor McGonagall. “Go and wake your students, Horace.”

Harry did not stay to watch Slughorn splutter. He and Luna stayed after Professor

McGonagall, who had taken up a position in the middle of the corridor and raised her

Wand.

“Piertotum---oh, for heaven's sake, Filch, not now---”

The aged caretaker had just come hobbling into view, shouting “Students out of

bed! Students in the corridors!”

“They're supposed to be you blithering idiot!” shouted McGonagall. “Now go

and do something constructive! Find Peeves!”

'P-Peeves?” stammered Filch as though he had never heard the name before.

“Yes, Peeves, you fool, Peeves! Haven't you been complaining about him for a

quarter of a century? Go and fetch him, at once.

Filch evidently thought Professor McGonagall had taken leave of her senses, but

Hobbled away, hunch-shouldered, muttering under his breath.

“And now---Piertotum Locomator!” cried Professor McGonagall. And all along

The corridor the statues and suits of armor jumped down from their plinths, and from the

Echoing crashes from the floors above and below, Harry knew that their fellows

Throughout the castle had done the same.

“Hogwarts is threatened!” shouted Professor McGonagall. “Man the boundaries,

protect us, do your duty to our school!”

Clattering and yelling, the horde of moving statues stampeded past Harry, some of

Them smaller, others larger than life. There were animals too, and the clanking suits of

Armor brandished swords and spiked balls on chains.

“Now, Potter,” said McGonagall., “you and Miss Lovegood had better return to

your friends and bring them to the Great Hall --- I shall rouse the other Gryffindors.”

They parted at the top of the next staircase, Harry and Luna turning back toward

The concealed entrance to the Room of Requirement. As they ran, they met crowds of

Students, most wearing traveling cloaks over their pajamas, being shepherded down to the

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 587