Chapter One: The Impossible Happens!

~*~*~*~5:00pm~*~*~*~*~
Harry screamed loudly as he looked out the window of the castle to see the red, burning liquid coming straight for them. The fear that clawed at him, had him pushing his hands over his mouth in horror at what he was witnessing. This couldn't be true could it? His mind was playing tricks on him right? Even as he thought it, he knew it wasn't the truth. He could see the steam rising up from the intense heat on the ground, and he could swear that he could literally hear it. Coming down the mountain towards the castle was a steady flow of what looked like red water. But he had remembered studying this when he had been in muggle primary school. No one had told him when he came into the magical world that this was common.

His arms unconsciously hugged himself, his eyes going wide as they took in the scene in front of him. The fire was consuming everything it passed, he could see Hagrid's hut from where he was and the lava demolished it within seconds. He only hoped that the friendly half giant hadn't been in there. He refused to let himself think otherwise, as he knew now was certainly not the time to panic. He turned around to see that all the students behind him were now drawn to the window as he was.

He could see just down below that there were students coming back from Quidditch practice, it wasn't Gryffindor, otherwise Harry would have been down there. He could see green on their robes, so he knew they were Slytherins, but that didn't matter to him right now. Now that he was looking he could see a bit of blue, so there was some Ravenclaws as well. Didn't they see the lava right behind them? Didn't they know what kind of danger they were in? He had barely pulled up the window when he heard a scream come from below.

"Run! Get to the Castle hurry!" He screamed at them, who were looking at the scene behind them stupidly. He knew it was probably the fear that had them frozen in shock, but unless they wanted to live they had to move. He knew that and so did his classmates around him as he could hear their terrified screams joining his. His heart skipped a beat when it seemed like the straggler of the group was going to be engulfed in the lava, but the boy suddenly took to the air on his broom, heading towards the group.

The others followed suit, and Harry was breathing a sigh of relief, until he saw something. One of the boys had flown back down to grab something they had dropped and had got too close to the lava, and they could see how hot it was as he was screaming and it wasn't even touching him. His broom started to catch on fire and Harry gasped before he pushed himself away from the window. He couldn't see this, nor did he want too. He screwed his eyes tight as the screams of the boy mixed with the ones of his peers around him.

Soon enough though the boy stopped screaming, but Harry didn't look. He wanted to know if he had made it, or what happened but he couldn't make his voice work. He noticed now that some of the students were starting to cough as the air in the castle got thick with the gases coming from the lava.

"Close the windows!" Ron yelled, taking the words right out of Harry's mouth, and each person hurriedly complied to his words, all on autopilot for the most part.

They hadn't realized the extent of what they had been hearing from their teachers. Not until Harry himself had screamed and he found amidst all the pandemonium that was going on around him that couldn't wrap his head around it. Was this really the end? Is this how he was destined to die? Surely this couldn't be all it took right? Something in him started to break, if this was the end then where did Voldemort really fit in this? And what the heck was that whole thing about Sirius Black? If it wasn't one thing it was the other. He swallowed thickly as the lava got closer to the castle, it really was going to end like this, wasn't it?

He couldn't stay here, it was like he waiting his impending death, he was the boy who lived for a reason right? At the moment, he still didn't know why but that was but he knew that it didn't mean much at the moment. He needed to find his friends, and they had to get the hell out of here. He had a hunch that the castle wasn't going to protect them much longer like he had originally thought. Without a second glance back through the window Harry took off for his Tower as fast as he could to get his cloak and his map and his photo album. He couldn't bare the thought of something happening to his most precious items.

As he ran he became aware that the hallways were a bit devoid of noise and he had to wonder where everyone was. He didn't know that the students he had been with a couple minutes before along with the rest of the student population were being evacuated from their teacher's office via floo as fast as they could; nor the skepticism of the teachers that they wouldn't get all of the children out in time. Harry gave the password to his tower and opened it, a gasp escaping him as he realized that no one was here it seemed. He had been running downstairs after grabbing his small pack with his beloved treasures in it from his dorm, when he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

He could see from the steps that the lava was at the entrance door, and quite suddenly he could smell it. That alone had him coughing as he struggled to remember the charm Snape of all people had taught them in a potions a few weeks ago. He could see smoke rising on the outside of the window and he suddenly felt extremely alone, but that was nothing how he felt when the lights suddenly went out and all was black.

A scream resounded in the darkness, one that wasn't his own so he had a moment of relief that he wasn't as alone as he thought. Though that relief was short lived as he heard what sounded like grinding noise from Hogwarts herself, he had to wonder how they hadn't seen this coming; when today had been the perfect day.

~*~*~*~*~*~!2:00pm, just after lunch time*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The day had started fairly normal for October the weather had been mild. If one closed their eyes, it still seemed like it was still summer. The leaves around the castle as colorful as they were made you aware that it was still fall and they still had a few months until winter break. Harry sighed happily as they sat around Hagrid in their Care of Magical creatures class. The half giant was in the middle of lecturing about the Runspoor he had caught earlier that week. Surprisingly the Slytherins hadn't made a single disruptive noise this entire time and Harry had to wonder why. Harry knew that he would probably be called up to the front of the class, because of his ability to speak with the reptiles; so maybe that was it. And really regardless of what everyone else thought of it, he truly liked his ability.

He knew that most of the students were probably jealous, or scared of what it represented but he didn't care. He also knew that Draco Malfoy would kill for this ability, the prat. He shook his head as he focused back on his lesson. The weather was perfect and once more it seemed that his attention was drifting to the sky. He wished they could do another lesson with the Hippogriff but after that stunt Draco pulled, he knew that was next to impossible. Harry shook his head, he only wanted to feel free. It had only been a few days since they had all come back to school. He had been forced to spend his winter holidays with the Durselys.

All because of Sirius Black attempting to get into the Gryffindor house at the beginning of the year. The Headmaster had deemed the Castle unsafe and wanted to up its wards. And apparently the only way to do that was to have all the children gone so their magic wouldn't get in the way. Harry had thought it was a good idea, until he realized that he had to go back to his so called family for a week. Everyone but him had been happy for the impromptu vacation. He sighed as he carefully lifted up his the sleeve on his cloak. He knew that the majority of his classmates were wondering why he was the only one who still had his on. He knew if one of them still had one of theirs on he would look at them crazy as well. The sun was practically beaming on them, and he could feel the sweat on his head as he wiped his brow.

He knew why he couldn't take it off, he had hand shaped bruising all over his arms from where his Uncle had constantly grabbed him in his anger. And he could just imagine the looks of disgust he would get, not to mention some horror if someone were to see. You would have to be blind not to realize what they were and what they were caused by. And he knew that this would probably reach the teachers and he had no plans to let his most kept secret ousted over something stupid.

It seemed that the Durselys hadn't been thrilled with his unfortunate vacation plans and Vernon of course took it out on him. It wasn't like he chose to do it, he was forced too. He sighed once more, wishing for once that someone would look just a little bit closer. He almost let himself get lost in thought before he was shaking his head; and pushing the thoughts away. He couldn't afford to think on that, he knew even though he was a wizard that wishes still had no meaning; especially ones like that. He had just turned back to the lesson when he heard it.

It started off like a low grumbling as if someone was extremely hungry, but then the noise got louder. He looked around his classmates to see that they all quieted and were staring around at one another in silence. Harry found himself standing up as the noise seemed to engulfed them, and then the ground started shaking. His first thought was that this was an earthquake, but he knew somehow that whatever this was; it was bigger then that.

He looked around to see the horror etched on each and every face as they all tried to figure out what the hell was going on around them when they heard this loud hiss. It would have been comical if one had seen it, as every single head turned as one to face the source of the noise. Harry found his mouth dropping open wide as he turned, to see what looked like smoke coming from a mountain not to far from them. He frowned for a moment, looking immediately to Hermione who seemed to be trying to figure out just what the heck was going on as well when he nearly jumped out of his skin.

He had been about to ask her what she thought might be happening when suddenly a loud boom resounded in the air. A few kids screamed, Harry being one of them and years of Dursely training had him hitting the dirt. Which was good in this case actually as rocks seemed to be raining from up above. He instinctively covered his head as he heard more kids screaming as they got hit by them. He was afraid to look up because of the thumps that were coming from the rocks let him know that they weren't small ones like they tended to throw at one another.

"Everyone get out of here! Get up and run!" Hagrid yelled, his voice sound hazy to Harry's ears.

He wasn't fully sure why he couldn't hear as great as he usually could, unaware that the blast had probably popped his eardrums from how close he was too. He scrambled to his feet, looking around in shock as he noticed that he was probably one of the lucky ones. He could see a bloody Neville being levitated by Hermione and he saw a few more students following her lead to pick up their fallen classmates. Harry reached for Ron who seemed to be looking around in the same daze he was before taking his hand and running as fast as they could away from the clearing. He could hear the grumbling sound again, and he knew now that whatever it was, it wasn't good.

Harry was only looking forward, knowing that turning around could mean anything was behind him, and he hated to fall in this situation. His heart was pounding in his chest and stopped for a split second as a second boom sounded the air. He could hear the steady feet behind him so he knew that his classmates were running. He hoped Hagrid had gotten everyone out of there. He could see the castle coming into view but he still didn't slow down, if anything he went faster especially when he smelled it.

It smelled like sulfur and he had a hunch that something was burning somewhere. As soon as he had the thought he the final boom echoed in the air and this time he found himself stopping to look behind them to see what it was. He gasped on his breath as he saw the thick red liquid coming out what he thought was a just a plain ole mountain. He had remembered seeing a documentary on this when he had been in primary school. He even had to build one out of paper mache, and then present it to his class. Of course Dudley had smashed his and he had gotten an F on the assignment but nonetheless he had never forgotten what it was.

"Oh Merlin," he breathed out as he saw the eruption. "This can't be real,"

"What is it Harry?" Ron panted out as he looked at the erupting mountain.

"Don't you know what's happening Ron?" He asked, horror filling his body, like a rush of cold water even more so. If they were this close to it, didn't that put them and everything and everyone else they knew in danger? They had to tell someone about this!

"No I don't, what is it?" Ron asked. He knew what natural disasters were of course, but they weren't covered like they were in the muggle schools, because magical beings tended to have more things to worry about then Mother Nature.

"A Volcano, we have to tell Dumbledore," Harry told him anxiously before he started back running towards the castle.

It took Ron a moment to fully grasp what his mate had just said to him, but when his mind had processed it, he nearly choked on air. "Bloody hell," he breathed under his breath before he took off after Harry. They had to warn everyone, he knew that once the lava decided to move, there would be nothing to stop it, it could and would destroy everything in its path.