Knocking the lead monster into its fellows, so that they rolled

Back down the building and out of sight. Then more curses came

soaring over Harry's head, so close he felt the force of them blow

His hair.

"Let's move, NOW!"

Pushing Hermione ahead of him with ron, Harry stooped to seize

Fred's body under the armpit. Percy, realizing what Harry was

trying to do, stopped clinging to the body and helped: together,

Crouching low to avoid the curses flying at them from the grounds,

They hauled Fred out of the way.

"Here," said Harry, and they placed him in a niche where a suit of

Armor had stood earlier. He could not bear to look at Fred a second

Longer than he had to, and after making sure that the body was well-

Hidden, he took off after ron and Hermione. Malfoy and Goyle had

Vanished but at the end of the corridor, which was now full of dust

And falling masonry, glass long gone from windows, he saw many

People running backward and forward, whether friends or foes he

Could not tell. Rounding the corner, Percy let out a bull-like

roar: "ROOKWOOD!" and sprinted off in the direction of a tall man,

Who was pursuing a couple of students.

"Harry, in here!" Hermione screamed.

She had pulled Ron behind a tapestry. They seemed to be wrestling

Together, and for one mad second Harry thought that they were

Embracing again; then hhe saw that Hermione was trying to restrain

Ron, to stop him running after Percy.

"Listen to me--LISTEN RON!"

"I wanna help--I wanna kill Death Eaters--"

His face was contorted, smeared with dust and smoke, and he was

Shaking with rage and grief.

"ron, we're the only ones who can end it! Please--ron--we need the

snake, we've got to kill the snake!" said Hermione.

But Harry knew how Ron felt: Pursuing another Horcrux could not

Bring the satisfaction of revenge; he too wanted to fight, to

Punish them, the people who had killed Fred, and he wanted to find

The other Weasleys, and above all make sure, make quite sure, that

Ginny was not--but he could not permit that idea to form in his

Mind--

"We will fight!" Hermione said. "We'll have to, to reach the snake!

But let's not lose sight now of what we're supposed to be d-doing!

We're the only ones who can end it!"

She was crying too, and she wiped her face on her torn and singed

Sleeve as she spoke, but she took great heaving breaths to calm

Herself as, still keeping a tight hold on ron, she turned to Harry.

"You need to find out where Voldemort is, because he'll have the

snake with him, won't he? Do it, Harry--look inside him!"

Why was it so easy? Because his scar had been burning for hours,

yearning to show him Voldemort's thoughts? He closed his eyes on

Her command, and at once, the screams and bangs and all the

Discordant sounds of the battle were drowned until they became

Distant, as though he stood far, far away from them...

He was standing in the middle of a desolate but strangely familiar

Room, with peeling paper on the walls and all the windows boarded

Up except for one. The sounds of the assault on the castle were

Muffled and distant. The single unblocked window revealed distant

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 573