Chapter Ten: Puking Pasties

With exams fast approaching, I had to find some way to concentrate. Unfortunately, the thought of Fred and George kept fighting its way into my head and I couldn't focus on my studies. I sat in the common room, hoping to read over my transfiguration textbook, but even looking at Ron's fiery red hair reminded me of his brothers. A voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Sara?" My nose lifted from my books to see Neville staring me down.

"Oh, hey Neville! What are you up to tonight?"

He shrugged and avoided eye contact with me. "I was just wondering if you wanted to come with me; I'm going to study in the library."

The library – that was constantly lacking in Weasleys! "Yeah, I'd love to!"

"What are you having troubles studying?" Neville had asked me once we reached the library. I'd chosen a very secluded corner and dumped the books from my bag onto its surface.

Picking up a surprisingly light Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook, I said, "Not doing anything in Umbridge's class is really making it difficult to understand."

Neville frowned. "I completely agree. I need to do things hands-on to learn, too. Let's take a look at that book, shall we?"

As he opened my textbook and flipped through its extremely basic contents, I sighed and leaned back in my chair. "This exam is going to kill me."

"Don't think like that." Neville cooed. "You'll do fine – you've just got to work hard at it. If you've no motivation to do it for yourself, do it for Fred." He must have noticed just how much his last comment touched home with me, because he appeared very self-conscious after having said it. "How much are you missing him, mate?"

"Oh, you have no idea."

Neville smiled and patted my shoulder, then began rubbing his flat hand in circles on my back. "You're almost done; then this Umbridge thing will be over with – well, for you, at least."

"Oh yeah," I chuckled. Neville still had two more years after I did. "Good luck with that."

Not much studying got done that afternoon, but later that night, I found myself with even less incentive to work. I ended up sitting in the common room with Neville, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry – joined not long after by Lizzy. I felt like I hadn't seen her much during the school year, but she had made friends with people her own age and therefore didn't give her much reason to hang out with me.

"Hey Ron, how's the studying going?"

Everyone laughed as he groaned and forced himself to slouch back. "It's horrible! I can't deal with this anymore."

"Ronald, take responsibility!" Hermione shook her head.

The sombre mood of the group gave me the feeling everyone was aware of a punishing fact that I was not yet involved in. "...Is something going on?"

Had it not been for the completely empty common room, I don't imagine they would have been so open with me. Harry took a deep breath and sighed. "You still don't know why what happened to Ron's dad happened, do you?"

I'd never seen a serious side to Harry before – not like this. "N-no."

"Apparently I've got powers even Voldemort didn't know about." Ginny and Lizzy grew anxious, but this definitely wasn't their first time hearing this story. "He's got some kind of mind connection with me that he may or may not know about. I've been taking Occlumency lessons with Snape so I can resist Voldemort penetrating my mind, but that's not going very well."

"Clearly, mate. Snape's a ruddy loon;" Ron said in all seriousness, "he'd kick you out for no good reason if he had the chance."

I still didn't understand. "What does that have to do with what happened to Mr. Weasley?"

"In the dream... I was the snake."

It was nearing exams and I was walking down the corridor to the library with Neville for one last study session.

"Do you hear something?" he asked nervously as we passed Umbridge's office.

"Like wh...?"

"Shh!" Neville pulled me aside so we could peek through the sliver of space the slightly-ajar office door allowed.

"Hello you two; who are we spying on?"
"Shh, Luna!" Neville pulled her down behind him and Ginny followed.

From outside, we could only hear Hermione's voice. "Don't you understand? We're in this together!"

Umbridge, who must have been behind them the whole time, said sternly: "That you are."

The four of us swivelled in our crouched position to see Draco and three of his cronies standing behind us: Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. They each put their wand to one of our throats and walked us into Umbridge's office.

Everything was so pink; my eyes almost went into shock. "We found these ones by the door – probably trying to keep an eye out." Pansy sneered, holding Luna's arms behind her back.

"Who were you trying to reach? Dumbledore?" Umbridge had Harry pinned to the wall with her wand.

His eye never leaving her short, stubby wand, he shouted, "No!"

"Liar!" she shrieked, slapping him hard across the face. Professor Snape came striding into Umbridge's office. "Oh good, you're here. Where's the truth potion?"

"I used up the last of my Veritaserum interrogating people, Dolores – Marietta Edgecomb, to be precise." His drawling voice somehow made me feel safe – like I had a second chance.

"He's got Padfoot!" Harry desperately yelled at Snape. Just by the way his ears perked up, I knew he understood what Harry meant. At the Order, we always referred to Sirius as Padfoot; it was his marauder name, because his animagus was a dog. "He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!"

"What is 'Padfoot'? What is he talking about?" Umbridge ordered.

Snape shrugged his shoulders once and tilted his head toward Harry. "No idea." The only words he uttered before he left kept Umbridge in her furious state.

"If you won't tell me who you were trying to reach from my fireplace, I guess I'll have to use drastic measures – the Cruciatus Curse."

"That's illegal!" Hermione screamed, causing Goyle to put his wand tighter to her throat. Umbridge was about to perform the curse when Hermione screeched, "If you won't tell her where it is, I will!"

"Where what is?" Umbridge asked, sounding intrigued by whatever it was Hermione had to divulge.

She let herself hang limp, only being held up by Goyle's left arm. "Dumbledore's secret weapon."

Once Umbridge, Harry and Hermione had left the office, my heart regained a steady pace. That witch was more powerful than these four Slytherins on her own. I exchanged a worried glance with Neville as Draco held us both back. "Don't look at each other!" he shouted, poking his wand into my neck. I coughed and expected a bruise there the next morning.

Ron pulled a box of candies out of his robes and set them on the table. "What is that you've got, Weasley?"

"Sweets," he responded simply.

The Slytherins cackled. "Bugger off, they're ours now." Crabbe let go of Ginny and Ron and ran to get the sweet box from the table. They took turns taking a sugar-coated sweet and gorging them down their throats. Little did the pesky fifth year Slytherins know, Ron had taken out a box of Fred and George's Puking Pasties. Within seconds, they were kneeling on the floor, leaving Umbridge a nice surprise for when she'd returned to her office.

The four of us ran as fast as we could down the corridor and to the bridge outside the castle. My heart was beating so hard I could barely breathe, but Luna grasped my hand and kept me going.

"How'd you escape?" Hermione asked as she and Harry bolted toward us on the bridge.

Ron handed her the empty box of Puking Pasties. "I told them I wanted a snack, they told us to bugger off and ate the entire thing themselves."

Hermione cocked her head to the side and grinned. "That's clever, Ron!"

I nudged Neville and we smirked at each other. It really was just a matter of time. Harry panted. "Thanks for your help, really, but I need to do this."

"We're helping you." Ron insisted.

I nodded in agreement. "You're not doing this alone."