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Omnem Familiam

The moment Max had noticed Silas appearing, he had sensed the impending danger and instinctively thrown himself to the ground. The killing curse just missed him, it hit a tree beside him. After falling to the forest floor, he closed his eyes, pretending to be dead. He had heard Silas disarm Catherine and realised he was probably planning on framing her for his own 'death'.

He crawled into the cave, deciding he could stop the ritual while Silas was distracted. He could help Catherine later, but for now it was most important to find Antonius.

Having discovered Antonius and released him, he lead him through to the entrance of the cave, but the entrance was gone! It was just a wall of solid rock.

"No, this can't be!"Max said.

He left Antonius near the place he supposed to be the entrance, and went to look for another way out; but a thorough examination of the caves revealed no way. The exit had been sealed!

He returned to Antonius and sat down beside him.

"Silas has beaten us!"he groaned, in despair.

"We can't let him win,"Antonius said,"not after everything he's done."

"I know, but what can we do?"Max said,"he's sealed us in here! There's no way out!"

Max tried every spell he could think of, to get out. He even tried some spells Antonius suggested. Nothing worked.

A silence fell, broken only by Antonius' irregular breathing. Even though Max had taken him out of the sacrificial chamber, therefore compromising the ritual, he was still dying from the wound inflicted by the poisoned blade. He was growing weaker and weaker.

Max knew that with every passing moment, the chances of them both getting out alive were fading away.

But then Antonius said,"there might be a way."

"What way?"Max asked.

"There's a spell connected to Catherine's family,"Antonius said,"only to be used in dire emergencies. It will summon every Carrow, and bring them to our location, but it can only be done with a Carrow's wand."

"Well, that's not much use then,"Max said.

"But I have Catherine's wand,"Antonius said, drawing it out,"she refused to take it when I tried to give it to her. She said Silas used it to kill Kenneth Brass."

"I knew Cathy didn't kill him!"Max said.

"I don't know if I have the strength to do it,"Antonius said, shivering,"take it. The incantation is 'Omnem Familiam, Carrow."

Max took the wand from Antonius.

"You need to summon them, Max, call them, and know you will be calling them all."

"Won't they be angry?"Max said,"we're not Carrows."

"I'm sure, under the circumstances, they'll understand,"Antonius said.

"Omnem Familiam, Carrow!"Max cried.

A jet of light shot from the wand, and then it stayed, pointing like a lazer beam.

"Keep it like that,"Antonius said,"now we just have to wait for them to come to us."

In Hogwarts, simultaneously, a dormitory in Ravenclaw Tower and three Slytherin dormitories were lit by a brilliant light, and then the hovering coat of arms of the Carrow family filled the rooms.

In the Forbidden Forest, in a glade where three 2nd Year girls sat, surrounded by centaurs, the same thing happened.

At the Carrow siblings' home, suddenly their parents were awoken by a light filling their room. Their grandparents were woken in the same manner.

In a room of Azkaban, where the confiscated wands of prisoners are kept, it was suddenly lit up by the light.

Everywhere a Carrow's wand was, there was the light and a hovering coat of arms. Knowing how serious it was, every single one of them that could, followed the call.

Anita, Jared and Dominic were scrambling around in their dormitories, getting hastily dressed and ready to follow the light, no matter what!

Lotty was the closest. She, Julia and Emily had been in the middle of a serious council with the centaurs. The centaurs knew of some of Silas' plans. They knew how he had managed to make a part of the Forbidden Forest inaccessible to them, but they hadn't known the way to it.

"Follow the light! We will take you!"the leader of the herd said to Lotty,"get on my back!"

The three girls, riding on the backs of centaurs, with Lotty guiding the way, following the light, rushed through the Forbidden Forest to the place where they were being drawn.

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"This is as far as we can go,"the centaurs said,"we cannot move past here. It is from this point that he keeps us out."

They dismounted and ran ahead, following the light. It took them to the cliff. They were the first there.

"There it is!"Lotty shouted, pointing to the Carrow coat of arms hovering above a part of the cliff.

They rushed towards it.

"The light is pointing through!"Lotty said,"it's inside the cliff."

They all tried casting spells at the cliff in front of them, to no avail.

"There must be something..."Lotty was just saying.

"Lotty!"Emily shrieked.

Silas, alerted by the snakes of the forest, appeared behind them. Lotty quickly ducked and rolled out of the way as he fired a curse at her. Julia shot 'Expelliarmus' at Silas, but he blocked it like it was nothing and disarmed her.

Lotty realised that even all three of them together wouldn't be enough to defeat him. She also remembered a spell the centaurs had mentioned concerning the enchantment Silas had placed on that part of the forest.

"Patitur Introitum Omnibus!"Lotty cried, dissolving the barrier Silas had created.

Suddenly there was the sound of hundreds of galloping hooves, as the centaurs were now able to rush beyond the vanquished barrier.

Silas, in a rage, fired the killing curse at Lotty, but she dived out of the way.

"Incarcerous!"Emily cried.

Silas blocked it. He tried to disapparate, but because his protective enchantment on this part of the forest had been broken, he could no longer apparate in or out of it, as the forest's own protection had been restored. He turned and ran.

Lotty, Julia and Emily chased after him, firing curses in his direction. Then the centaurs swarmed past them, in persuit of Silas.

"He won't get away from them!"Julia said.

Lotty rushed back to the cliff where the Carrow coat of arms was still hovering.

"What do we do?"Emily asked, running beside her.

"We have to look for a way in,"Lotty said,"Fode Terram!"

It didn't work.

She, Julia and Emily all tried together. Still, it didn't work.

"There must be something,"Lotty said.

After a while, they gave up trying and sat down at the foot of the cliff.

Meanwhile, Ed snook out from the Ravenclaw Tower and looked for a way out of the castle. He looked around briefly for any sign of the others, but couldn't see them, so he got on his broom and flew off in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

Down in the Slytherin common room, there was a commotion, as the summoning had woken everyone up in the three dormitories, and students had started to gather there. Dominic, Jared and Anita were already dressed and ready to go.

"What's happening?"Regulus asked.

"We've gotten an emergency summoning,"Jared said,"it's not happened in over a century, so it must be serious."

"We have to follow when it happens,"Anita said,"no matter what!"

"It means one of us is in grave danger,"Dominic said.

"Do you suppose it's Catherine?"Regulus said.

"It could be!"Anita said.

Priscilla Bulstrode and the Sanding twins came down into the common room.

"We heard a noise, what's up?"Amelia Sanding asked.

"We have to go now,"Jared said,"no time to explain! Come on, Anita!"

"I'm coming with you!"Regulus said.

"What is it? Is it Catherine?"Priscilla asked.

"It probably is,"Anita said, as she followed Jared out.

"Whatever you do, if you come, don't make a noise,"Jared warned the others.

Back at the cliff; Lotty, Anita and Julia were starting to fall asleep, when Ed arrived.

"What is it? What's going on? Lotty! You ok?"Ed asked, dismounting his broom.

"The signal is coming from the cliff,"Lotty said, getting up,"but we can't get in."

Ed cast a Revealing Spell. He managed to get rid of the illusion Silas had put on the cliff, and they saw what looked to be a collapse of earth and rocks. The four of them tried to clear it together. It did not work.

"There's some kind of sealing spell,"Ed observed,"we won't get through that. We need to try something else. Let's try tunnelling under it."

Together; Lotty, Ed, Emily and Julia began digging the earth around the crumbled cliff. This was also useless. The more they dug, the more the rockfall poured into their diggings and filled it back up, even without showing any signs of shifting itself.

Then Ed thought of flying to the top of the cliff and flying around, looking for another way in. That was when he found the hole that went down into the sacrificial chamber. That was also when Jared, Anita, Dominic, Regulus and the Sanding twins arrived.

"Hello!"Ed shouted down the hole.

Meanwhile, Max and Antonius had been waiting for almost an hour. Antonius was in a bad state, and Max was feeling hopeless, as nothing had happened and he had been sitting in the gloom of the cave, completely powerless, while Antonius' health rapidly deteriorated.

Then he thought he heard a shout coming from back within the cave.

"Hello! CATHY!"

Max heard it again.

"Hello!"he shouted back.

"Who are you?"the voice came again.

"Max Castellanos!"Max called,"who are you?"

"EDWARD CARROW!"the voice called back,"is Cathy down there?"

"No, I last saw Catherine outside with Silas!"Max shouted back,"but Antonius is down here, and he's dying!"

"What was that?"Ed shouted back.

Max got up and followed the sound of the voice into the sacrificial chamber. He saw Ed looking down through the skylight.

Max was startled to see him,"can you get us out? I didn't know that was there!"he shouted up.

"What did you say about Cathy?"Ed called down.

Now Jared's face appeared next to his brother's,"where's Cathy?"

"I don't know!"Max shouted up,"can you get us out?"

Ed tied a rope around a tree and threw it down.

"I can get up that,"Max remarked,"but I can't get Antonius up. I'll try to bring him in here."

Max disappeared. Jared climbed down the rope, followed by Dominic. They went to help lift Antonius and bring him up through the skylight hole in the ceiling.

"What happened to him?"Dominic asked.

"He's been poisoned,"Max said,"a cut from a poison blade. Silas tried to sacrifice him in a ritual."

"What!?"Jared and Dominic both exclaimed.

They tied the rope around his waist and over his shoulders like a harness.

"Antonius, we're getting you out of here,"Max said, lifting him up.

They managed to get Antonius through the skylight; then Max, Dominic and Jared climbed up.

"Does anyone have a Bezoar?"Ed called, as soon as he heard Antonius had been poisoned.

"As if someone's just going to have a Bezoar on them,"Regulus muttered.

But then.

"Actually,"Priscilla said,"I have a Bezoar."

"What?"

"I carry one out of habit, in case of emergencies and experiment with potions all the time,"she said,"don't look at me like that! If it saves him, just be glad of THAT!"

"Brilliant!"Ed responded, knowing exactly what to do.

Antonius stopped crying out and moving around. He relaxed and lay still on the ground.

"How are you?"Max asked, not wanting to touch him, in case it hurt him.

"I'm tired,"Antonius said.

"Do you feel any pain?"Max asked.

"It's gone,"Antonius answered, weakly,"I'm - tired."

"He needs to rest,"Priscilla said.

"He can't rest here!"Ed objected,"we're in the middle of the Forbidden Forest!"

"Let's get him to the Hospital Wing,"Amelia said.

"No! We need to go to the Ministry of Magic,"Max said.

"How!? That's all the way in London?"Amelia was the first to object.

That was when the Carrow parents showed up.