Begin to Hope

I woke up the next morning feeling exhausted and irritated. I was really wondering if Klaus came up with an idea, or if he was just lying in order to get me to go to sleep.

However, when I awoke, he wasn't in the room. Maverick was still sleeping, and I roughly shook him awake.

"Hey, Maverick, where's Klaus? Do you know where he went?"

He tried to swat me away. "He left last night. After you fell asleep. Said he was working on his plan." He snuggled under the covers and made cooing noises.

I took his pillow from him and hit him with it.

"Damn him! Maverick, tell me what he's up to!"

BOOM! A loud thundering shook the castle walls, alarming me.

Maverick jumped up from his bed, flailed around, and hit his head on the bedpost.

"What was that?" He asked, holding his head and grimacing.

"I don't know. It sounded like--"

BOOM! Again we heard it, and it was louder this time. It seemed to fill the entire room, making me jump.

I ran to the door and whipped it open, peering out into the hall.

There was a copious amount of people roaming the hall, looking about in various degrees of fright. Most were shouting and carrying on, although none of them seemed to know what the loud booming noises were all about.

I spotted Marcie peeking out of her dormitory door, with a strange smile plastered on her face. I watched her for a moment, and she looked scarily out of place. She didn't move, but only stood in the doorway of her room, watching the people moving about wildly in the hall.

I called to her. "Marcie! What is all this ruckus?"

She blinked at me several times like she had been dozing. "Oh--I don't know! I heard a loud noise--thumping, I think. Maybe--" her eyes shone with a wild gleam as she spoke. "--maybe someone released a troll into the castle!"

I laughed, thinking how preposterous that notion was.

"Marcie, I highly doubt that--!"

"Trolls! A herd of them!" Voices began screaming all around and pandemonium erupted in the hall.

Marcie darted into the crowd before I could call her back and ask how she knew it had been trolls.

I tried to peer after her and follow her, but she was gone before I could take a step in her direction.

"What's going on?" Maverick asked behind me, looking over my shoulder into the hallway. "Where is everyone running to?"

"Apparently someone let a bunch of trolls wander into the castle."

"Really? Geez. Someone's been slacking on the job." He made a face. "How could someone even let a troll into the castle? Wouldn't you have to be a dipshit not to notice a twenty-foot tall smelly being roaming around?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Unless it was an inside job."

"What a big risk. Who would do something like that?"

"I don't know. They would have to be a total dipshit."

The idea hit Maverick and I at the same time. We both turned to each other with the same horrified expression on our faces.

"KLAUS!"

We both scrambled to make it out the door before the other. We dashed out into the hallway, and looked both ways, noticing that most people were heading towards the right.

"The troll must be this way," I called over my shoulder, immediately pushing through the throng of people towards the left. Maverick followed behind closely, trying not to lose me.

We managed to wander down the hallway, down two flight of stairs, and along three more hallways before we came to an area that was not crowded with people.

"Geez, I had no idea there were this many people living in this castle!" I exclaimed to Maverick as we again began to hear the thumping noise.

He shuddered. "Why would Klaus do this?" He quickened his pace as we turned towards the thumping noise. It was coming from the rear end of the castle, where the entrances were most guarded and the most Death Eaters were stationed.

"He's Klaus. Does he need another reason?" We rounded a corner and came face to face with a roomful of trolls. There they were, standing a mere few feet in front of us, a ton of them. I counted at least fifteen, but there may have been more behind them, standing around dumbly as swarms of Death Eaters swooped around, trying desperately to knock the poor trolls unconscious but to no avail. The trolls only seemed irritated, batting at the Death Eaters as if they were cumbersome flies.

"What do we do?" Maverick shouted at me over all the commotion in the hall.

"I don't know!" I yelled back, my hands over my ears. "This sucks!"

Suddenly Maverick and I were pushed out of the way by a rough set of hands, just in time to watch a troll fall over right where we had been standing.

I rolled over and looked to see who had been our savior -- Jeremy!

"Jeremy, are you okay?" I crawled over to where he was lying on the floor.

He moaned once and sat up slowly, rubbing his head. "Yes, I'm fine. That was close, though. You two were almost goners!"

He made a move, one hand grabbing his stomach and I noticed he was covered in blood. "Jeremy, what happened?" I shrieked, helping him into a sitting position.

"N-nothing. I'm fine. You'd better get out of here. The trolls are going to get you--but they won't get me. Get out of here!"

"But Jeremy, we can't leave you here like this--" Maverick started to protest.

"Just go! I'm fine!" He pushed me away and I jumped to my feet unsteadily, worrying about Jeremy. I grabbed Maverick's arm and we started to run through the room, dodging the trolls' large feet as they bumbled about the room. We had almost made it to the farthest edge of the room when the Death Eaters noticed us.

"There are the perpetrators!" One of them yelled, pointing his wand at us. "Get them!"

Immediately twelve Death Eaters began to stormed after us while the remaining ones tried in vain to bring down the rampaging trolls. The Death Eaters ran after us, and I pushed Maverick forward.

"Run!" I screamed.

We dove under the remaining trolls' legs and tried to lose the Death Eaters, turning left at the next corner, only to find ourselves face to face with dozens of more trolls.

"Holy shit!" I heard Maverick say, holding his wand out in front of him. "Klaus couldn't have done this -- he doesn't know this many trolls!"

"We have no time to discuss how many trolls Klaus knows; they're right behind us!" We again ran through the hall, narrowly ducking death several times as the trolls began to move forward, coming our way.

We ran until we were out of breath, finally collapsing several hallways down. We stopped short in a dingy dark walkway, where we were pretty sure we wouldn't be found.

I sunk to the floor, breathing hard and clutching my wand. "Maverick, there must have been over a hundred trolls that we passed. Klaus could not possibly have done that."

Maverick wiped his forehead with his sleeve, looking around to make sure we had fully lost the Death Eaters. "Then who would it have been? It's not like anyone else is in this castle, trying to--" He stopped talking and looked at me, his eyes alight. "Unless...

I looked at him curiously. "Unless what?"

He lowered his voice and leaned close to me, his words warming my cheek. "What if that other group -- the one from France, from Beauxbatons? -- what if they had the same idea we had, that some of them should come here and see what the enemy is up to?"

My mouth dropped open. The idea had never occurred to me before, but obviously it had some merit.

"And what if that other group--"

I finished Maverick's thought. "--was the one to let the trolls in!" I got excited, jumping up and pacing the cramped corner. "But who could it have been? There was nobody else around here when we came through, except for -- Jeremy!"

"Jeremy? Do you really think so? But he--" Maverick scratched his head, thinking. "Didn't he mention that he's lived here in whole life, though? Or, at least since he was young?"

I stopped pacing and replied slowly, "Yeah, he did...well, it wouldn't hurt to talk to him, though, would it? We could do it in code. You know, mention Dumbledore casually to him or something. Let's go back and find him!" I went to go back where we had come from, but Maverick grabbed the back of my robes and stopped me.

"No, wait! We can't go back yet. The Death Eaters will find us and they think we're the ones that let the trolls in. The best thing for us to do is go back to our dormitory and wait for Klaus to return."

Just then an announcement came on over the loudspeaker. A woman's voice, sounding shaky yet clear, began to speak.

"We are sorry to inform everyone that there has been a little mishap on the second floor, and we are now asking all to evacuate the building until further notice. Do not go farther than a mile from the castle grounds. Please stand by for further instructions. Thank you."

Maverick and I looked at each other. "What the fuck does that mean?"

"We'd better get out of here." Maverick stood up and brushed off his robes. "The only thing is--how the hell do we do that?"

The truth is, I hadn't thought about that. We hadn't seen any real daylight in a while, since we first stumbled in Voldemort's lair, and that was from falling through that bush and into their meeting room. But how were we to get back out?

"Now I wish we hadn't run in the opposite direction of everyone else." I mumbled under my breath.

Maverick led us back towards where we had come from, listening closely for any signs of Death Eaters or trolls. "I don't even know where we're going." he remarked stupidly. "Why am I leading?"

"Because you're the boy and you can hex people. Now get on with it!"

Glaring at me, he kept moving forward hesitantly. We rounded several corners, still without coming in contact anyone else. Finally, upon going several hallways past where the trolls had been, we came upon a group of people huddled a thick wooden door. They were beating at it and calling out.

"Open up!"

"Let us out!"

"You can't keep us locked in here forever!"

Maverick sidled up to a fat chick and snuck an arm around her shoulder. "What's the problem here, pretty lady?" he asked, laying on the charm.

The fat girl batted her eyelashes at him. "We want to get out of the castle before the trolls come, but -- " At this point she stopped for a second while she looked back at her even fatter friends and gave a high-pitched giggle. "--the door won't open!"

"Man, that sucks," Maverick said, faking some empathy for her. "Any way I can help?"

"Yes, get this door open for us! Before we die!" Another giggle.

"Stand back, stand back!" Maverick commanded, shoving people to each side of the door. He took out his wand and aimed a curse at it. "Confringo!" The door immediately exploded, shards of wood blown everywhere.

"Damn it, Prosper!" I yelled as pieces of debris hit my face.

"Wow, thanks!" The fat chick gave Maverick a kiss on the cheek. "Why didn't we think of that?" Her and her fat friends waddled out the door, screaming for joy.

The only comment I could think of was "ew, that was totally gross", but Maverick was holding his cheek and gazing out the blasted wall where the fat chick had wandered out like he had just been kissed by a movie star.

"Ugh, let's go." I grabbed him by the elbow and guided him out of the castle. Blinking back the first sunlight we had seen in days, I put a hand up to shield my eyes, looking about. As far as I could see, people were spilling out of the castle and heading in every direction, trying to get as far away as possible, paying no heed to the 'stay within a mile' rule.

"Come on, we have to find Klaus." I urged Maverick, and we began weeding our way through the groups of people in order to find the missing piece of our trio.