What Danger Means

Luna Lovegood looked around at the half-familiar corridor, allowing herself a small sigh. Her feet were cold yet again, and this time she just couldn't seem to find any of her socks.

Around the next corner she saw a splash of brilliant red-orange in the distance, and a black shape attached to it. Ginny? Luna ran.

It was indeed Ginny, filthy and haggard, entire body contorted as if in pain. And made of stone. Luna stared.

After a few moments' thought, and maybe a bit of quiet panicking, she reached a decision.
"Wingardium Leviosa."

Professor Flitwick would have been quite surprised to see Luna perform such a feat of magic, and so casually at that – she had been scrupulously careful to do no such thing in his class. Luna did in her own way pay attention to the world around her, and perhaps more so than her esteemed Head of House.

Pushing her one-time friend's ossified body in front of her at about chest height, Luna set out for the infirmary.

Poppy Pomfrey grimaced faintly as Luna entered her domain.
"Another one?"

Luna nodded.
"I found her on the second floor. Near Myrtle's toilet."

Pomfrey nodded, already guiding Ginny through the air to a spare bed.
"Just the one?"

Luna frowned.
"I think so, yes. I haven't seen anyone since they all went off to dinner."

"And why didn't you go to dinner with them?"

"Well, I thought I'd better find some socks first. You see, my feet do get rather cold after a while."

Poppy glanced down, frowned, paused.
"Do your possessions often go missing, Miss Lovegood?"

Luna's face was carefully neutral.
"Sometimes, yes. They always seem to come back eventually, but it is rather a nuisance sometimes."

Madam Pomfrey's face was also carefully neutral, now.
"Your Head of House is Professor Flitwick, yes?"

A nod.

"Would he be at dinner now, do you think?"

Another nod.

"Let's go have a chat with him, shall we?"

A long pause, and then Luna nodded slowly.
"I think that might be a good idea, yes."

Stepping into the entrance hall, Poppy stopped suddenly and held Luna back. The enormous ancient doors of the Great Hall were... not there. Missing.
"Stay behind me, Miss Lovegood – I don't know what this is."

Through the gaping doorway, woman and girl saw nothing but sleeping students, upper bodies sprawled awkwardly on their tables. A pause, and then Poppy strode through the doors with wand out and eyes darting everywhere. Luna followed in her wake, wand likewise in hand.

The Great Hall was peaceful, still. Poppy approached the nearest sleeping figure, a Hufflepuff first-year, to check his pulse with her fingertips. Magical diagnostics could be dangerous when facing a true unknown.

A pause, and then Poppy moved on to the next figure. And then the next.

After four students she turned back to Luna, face grim.
"Come with me, Miss Lovegood."

She strode out of the Great Hall, with Luna scurrying to keep up.

Back in the infirmary, Poppy was at the fireplace almost before it had time to spring to life. She tossed in a pinch of powder.
"Ministry, Director Bones."

A moment later she pulled back and stood up, dusting herself off as she stepped away from the fireplace.

Another moment, and Amelia Bones emerged from the flames. She seemed more puzzled than anything else, but her wand was in her hand already.
"What is it, Poppy?"

Poppy paused, then turned to Luna.
"Miss Lovegood... You've had a nasty shock. I'm afraid I must keep you here overnight, to be sure you suffer no lasting harm."

Luna nodded equably. Poppy absently transfigured the girl's clothing into pyjamas, and then went on.
"Please choose a bed, and then I shall give you something to calm your nerves."

Within minutes Luna was sound asleep, only then did Poppy Pomfrey even acknowledge the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
"Amelia, we have a problem."

Amelia raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Poppy went on.
"Throughout this school year, a number of students have been Petrified. We don't know how. And before you ask me why you knew nothing about this before now, let me assure you that I argued that precise point most vehemently to Albus. He refused to allow any word of it outside this castle, no matter how we argued."

Amelia nodded thoughtfully.
"That sounds like Albus. What changed?"

Poppy grimaced.
"Amelia, we have a bigger problem. Almost the entire population of this school is in the Great Hall right now, unconscious. I wasn't able to make certain, not with a first-year standing right behind me, but... Amelia, I think they're all dead."

Amelia, suddenly every inch Director Bones, stared at her old friend.
"You cannot be serious."

"I wish I weren't."

Amelia Bones emerged from her inner office, and caught her secretary's eye.
"Tell Moody and Shacklebolt, I want each of them to pick a team of about half a dozen Aurors. I want them here with their teams within five minutes, ready for anything. And if you happen to run across an Unspeakable, get them here too. Go!"

He went.

Amelia withdrew into her office, and went straight for a certain cupboard which only she could even see. She retrieved a floor-length cloak, sturdy-looking but unassuming, and shrugged it on. She muttered a few words as she tapped various parts of the cloak, and it glowed briefly. She nodded in satisfaction.

Amelia Bones never went anywhere without a dragonhide vest under her clothes, of course – she wasn't Mad-Eye's friend for nothing. She knew everyone thought he was paranoid and a bit mad, which is precisely why she didn't normally wear this cloak. But for something like this she would take all the protection she could get.

She returned to the outer office, and found Moody and Shacklebolt already waiting with their teams. At a glance, the teams seemed well-chosen.

She closed the outer door with a wave of her wand, and sealed it with a few more.
"Alright everyone, we're going to Hogwarts. There's an unknown danger there, and we think it's already killed almost everyone in the castle. It also Petrified a few people, for what that's worth. We need to confirm the bodies in the Great Hall, check for survivors anywhere in the castle, and ideally establish just what this danger is.

"If you run into the creature or whatever it is, you have my permission to run away. You're more use to me as a live Auror than a dead hero, understood?"

They all nodded, and she went on.
"If any of you have any protective items – armour, amulets, whatever – that you're not already wearing, say so now and I'll let you go get them. You'll look stupid now, but it's better than dying. Anyone?"

No one spoke up. More importantly, no one looked awkward. Apparently Shack and Mad-Eye had chosen well.

In the infirmary at Hogwarts, Amelia again addressed her troops.
"Right, for now this is Poppy's show. Kingsley, Alastor, follow her lead. If something comes up, Alastor take lead and Kingsley send me a Patronus immediately. The infirmary's our base of operations – I'll guard it, and I'll raise the alarm at the Ministry if necessary."

Mad-Eye chuckled darkly.
"Mucks things up if the Director gets herself killed."

The trip downstairs was uneventful, and soon Poppy found herself entering the Great Hall with a dozen Aurors at her back.

Nothing had changed. Hundreds of bodies sprawled casually where they had fallen, looking for all the world as if they were merely sleeping.

This time Poppy did venture a spell, on the same tiny Hufflepuff boy. Nothing. She frowned.

Another spell. Nothing.

A third spell, and for a moment the boy gained a dull red aura.

Another spell, and a pattern of coloured lights appeared. Poppy nodded grimly.
"Dead, and has been for about an hour. No sign of any injury at all, let alone anything life-threatening. Might as well be the Killing Curse, for all I can tell."

Moody nodded, and raised his voice.
"Right lads, I'm in charge now. Kingsley, send that Patronus off to the Director. Minister definitely needs to know about this."

Shacklebolt cast his Patronus, albeit on the second try. Meanwhile Moody led them all out into the entrance hall, then filled the gaping doorway with conjured stone. He led the group into a side room, then sealed the door with a series of spells.

He turned to the group.
"Alright, we need to figure out what we're facing. It's been Petrifying people all year, but that's not going to help us - if that was enough information, Albus would have figured it out.

"It's not the Killing Curse, because that can't kill hundreds of people at the same time. No one even had a chance to start running.

"What can kill a lot of people, instantly, without leaving a mark? Anyone?"

Auror Proudfoot spoke up, tentatively.
"Mandrake?"

Moody nodded.
"Possibly. You'd need someone running around with it very carefully, and of course it's straight-up mass murder if so. Anyone else?"

Auror Savage half-raised his wand.
"Basilisk? Seemed to me like they were all turning around to look at the door when they died, and it'd explain how the doors got smashed."

Moody looked thoughtful.
"Reckon you might be right there, Savage. Hasn't been a confirmed basilisk sighting in Britain for centuries, but they're easy enough to make if you know how. It'd have to be a big one though, to have smashed those doors like that. Probably hundreds of years old. Chamber of Secrets, eh?"

Among the aurors, those who had heard of the Chamber went pale.

Moody turned to Shacklebolt.
"Kingsley, send another Patronus to the Director. This is way over my head - we're all staying right here until she tells us otherwise."

Back in the infirmary, Amelia's face was pale as she watched Kingsley's second Patronus fade. It took her several attempts to cast her own, to summon her Aurors back to her. Then, she tossed a pinch of powder into the fire.
"Ministry, Minister's office."

Some minutes later, Cornelius Fudge stepped out of the fire in the infirmary – he had in fact been at home rather than in his office. He looked at Director Bones. He looked at the dozen Aurors behind her. He looked back to Bones.
"Amelia? What is it?"

"There's been an attack – we don't know for sure, but we think there's a large basilisk somewhere in the castle."

The Minister looked suddenly excited.
"I knew it! Anyone hurt?"

Amelia Bones did not look excited.
"Yes, Minister. Outside this room, we don't know of anyone still alive in the castle."

Corrupt he might be, but Cornelius Fudge was still a human being. He physically recoiled from the news. The colour drained from his face, and his skin slackened.
"The students?"

"One first-year student, currently asleep in this room. A few other students who were Petrified - they'll be fine eventually, and they're also here in this room. As far as we know, every other student is lying dead in the Great Hall."

Fudge sat down heavily on a convenient chair.
"The staff?"

"Poppy here raised the alarm, and she's fine. It's possible that someone missed dinner, but the staff table looked pretty full to me. Poppy?"

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips.
"Argus – that's Argus Filch, the caretaker. He doesn't usually take dinner in the Great Hall, so he may be alive. Other than that, no. They're all dead."

Fudge sighed.
"Even Albus? I know we've had our disagreements, but surely a wizard of his power..."

She shook her head.
"Even Albus. I didn't search the Hall, but I did notice Albus. He was certainly there, and certainly not moving."

He gave his head a brisk shake, as if trying to dispel something.
"The children? Really?"

Amelia dropped into a chair near him.
"The children, Cornelius. The children are dead. My niece Susan among them, barring some miracle."

He shook his head slowly.
"An entire generation of Magical Britain. Dead. This'll end half the Noble Houses, you know. At least. The Wizengamot's doomed. The whole country might be doomed, I don't know. I don't know what to do."

They sat in silence for what seemed like hours.

"I don't know what to do."

A/N: H/T White Squirrel - I got this idea from "Petrification Proliferation". I haven't read the story that WS got it from.