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 students. He allowed himself to be swept up

The marble staircase with them, but at the top he hurried off along a deserted corridor.

Fear and panic were clouding his thought processes. He tried to calm himself, to

Concentrate on finding the Horcrux, but his thoughts buzzed as frantically and fruitlessly

As wasps trapped beneath a glass. Without Ron and Hermione to help him he could not

Seem to marshal his ideas. He 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 Map out

of the pouch around his neck. He 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 them. He 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 start. Voldemort 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

diadem... and 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 again. He leapt up from the plinth

And tore back the way he had come, now in pursuit of his one last hope. The sound of

Hundreds of people marching toward the Room of Requirement grew louder and louder

As he returned to the marble stairs. Prefects were 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 me. Who's the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower?"

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 407