Hi everyone! Thanks for reading! Enjoy! -Kelly

CHAPTER 21

THE ASTRONOMY TOWER

They entered the History of Magic classroom and were shoved into the desks at the front, with Yates standing in front of them. "Lock the door," he told Travers, and he did so as Yates started to pace in front of the four of them. His eyes rested on Rose and smiled a little, seeming as if he had gone a bit mad in the last few minutes. "All right, then. Let's start with Miss Weasley; watch the others." Travers walked over to them as Yates grabbed Rose, simultaneously silencing the others, and dragged her into his office off of the front of the classroom. He locked the door behind them and shoved her into the seat. Yates opened a drawer in his desk and placed their wands inside while taking out a vial of liquid. "I suppose there's no harm in showing you now, you'll never be able to prove it. Prince will cover it up when he sees what we've done."

"You won't get away with this," Rose said, though she knew she was merely hiding her fear with bravado in learned Gryffindor fashion.

"I really think I will," Yates said, and attempted to force open her mouth. Rose resisted as best as she could, but he eventually plugged her nose and after a while she had no choice but to open her mouth, and almost choked on the purple liquid dripping down her throat. She knew that it didn't take much of the potion to produce the desired effect, and she'd taken at least twice of the needed dose. "Where's Lucy?"

Rose couldn't do anything to stop the words coming out of her mouth as she said, "London, at the protest."

"Pinkstone's?"

"Yes."

"All right, then. We'll be on our way. I'd better knock you out, though." Rose quickly had an idea and made the only plea for help she could think of.

Al, Yates trapped us in his office, he's going to kill Lucy.

Yates forced her to drink another phial of liquid, this one a deep blue, and Rose recognized it as a Sleeping Draught before she slipped into a deep sleep.

When she immediately saw the inside of the Potions classroom, she knew that she must have entered Al's mind. Al snapped his head up from the desk, alarmed by Rose's thought. He glanced at Prince and said, "Er, Professor?"

"Yes?" Prince asked, seeming distracted. He continuously checked his watch. The clock read 7:18 p.m. "Have you finished sorting the fangs?"

"Yes, actually," Al said, and Rose wanted to tell him to tell Prince, that he wasn't in on this, but Al seemed as if he didn't know that. "Er, I just remembered, I was supposed to see Professor McGonagall tonight."

"Really? About what?" Prince asked.

"She didn't tell me, sir, only that I should come at 7:15, so you see I'm already late…"

Prince seemed annoyed and said, "Do you have a note for me?"

"No, sir, she didn't give me one."

He glanced at his watch again and said hesitantly. "Well, very well. I… believe I last saw her in the Astronomy Tower? She was going to meet with Professor Sinistra, I believe you'll find her there. Come back as soon as you can, Mr. Potter."

"Thank you, sir!" Al said, and dashed out of the room as quickly as possible. He ran up several flights of stairs, so much that he had to stop to catch his breath more than once before he reached the Astronomy Tower. It was strange, watching this occur from Al's perspective, as he was a bit faster and a significant amount taller than she was. He ran into the classroom at the top of the tower only to find that he was alone. He was about to leave when he started to hear something rattling, a kind of muffled sound. He looked for the source of this sound and found that coming into view, appearing slowly, was a small golden ring rattling on the floor. A cloud of black smoke started to billow up from it, and Al began to hear a voice. The voice was speaking in Parseltongue, but through Al's mind, Rose could understand it.

Open the pathway, let me go through. Open the pathway, let me go through.

The smoke condensed until it could almost be called solid and a man stepped through. His face was hidden by a long black cloak, and he held his wand in a hand clothed in an emerald green glove. Al gasped as Rose realized that it was the Order of the Cobra. "Albus Potter," the man said in a deep voice. "You will follow me."

"Doubt that," Al said. The man shook his head.

"I know that you believe I will hurt you. But you're wrong. We want to help you, Albus."

"It didn't seem like you wanted to help me last year when you were trying to wipe out my family."

"There have been… developments since then," he replied. "Javius Orion was too quick to anger, not nearly logical enough in his methods. He gave us a great gift, however. You will be quite useful to us in the coming years, Albus. You must trust me."

"Well, not to be rude, but I don't think I do."

"That will change. Soon you will understand. Your father has done things that you would never believe. The only way to stop him is through you."

"So now you want me to turn against my father?" Al asked. "You're mad."

"And you're a child," the man said. "You don't understand yet, but with us you and your companions would have power equal to that of the Brothers themselves."

"Whatever that is, I'm not interested," he said, raising his wand, and the man laughed.

"It would be foolish to resist," he warned, but Al shrugged and continued pointing his wand at the man. He shrugged and sent a jet of light towards him, which Al blocked with a quick Shield Charm. He seemed frozen, trying to think of his next move, as the Charm held back a few more attacks from the Cobra man. Just as the Shield began to disappear, Al raised his wand again, his hand shaking, and suddenly a jet of purple sparks came flying over his head and blasted the man back into the wall.

"Stupefy!" a voice called, and as the man slid down to the ground unconscious, Al turned to see Leah Shafiq, wand raised and out of breath, in the doorway. She crossed the room to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You okay, Al?"

"Leah—how—?" Al asked, and she smiled.

"Long story," she said. "I'll tell you while we get wherever you're going. What's happened? Did Prince try something?"

"Not Prince," Al said. "I don't think. Yates, Travers, and Williams, they've got James and Rose and—"

"Where?" Leah interrupted.

"History of Magic classroom," Al said, and she ran out of the room, with him close at her heels. "They're trying to find Lucy, and Rose thinks that they're going to be able to."

"Is this about Potter's Army?" Leah asked, and Al gaped at her.

"How did you—?"

"Al, I'm an Auror, it wasn't that hard to figure out," Leah said.

"…You left the program," he said hesitantly.

"Not really," she said. "I've been assigned to keep tabs on the MET by your dad—and to watch you, for that matter. We've been on the Order's track for a while now; we think they're working with Nott somehow. I've been corresponding with Teddy Lupin for information—I'm pretty sure Rose and Lucy have too, correct?" Al nodded and she continued. "Sorry we couldn't tell you, but we had to make it seem like we were on Prince's side, so he wouldn't suspect anything."

"Right," Al said, "but it isn't just about the Army, it's about the essays, too—"

"Rose's work?"

"Damn, what don't you know about?" he breathed. They had nearly reached the History of Magic classroom.

"Where is Lucy?" Leah asked. "Is she in the castle?"

"No, she went to the Progressive Union gathering," Al said. "She's supposed to be speaking in half an hour—"

Leah swore. "So Yates is probably already gone." They reached the door, where they could hear muffled shouting from inside. Leah ran up to the door. "James? Rose?"

"Who is that?" James's voice called out.

"Leah Shafiq, who else is in there with you?"

"Stephanie and Aidan—and Rose is in Yates's office, but we haven't seen her in a while!"

"Are they gone?"

"Yeah, can you get the bloody door open?"

Leah muttered, "Alohomora," but the door remained closed. She sighed and pushed Al backwards a few steps. "Get back!" she warned the people inside, before saying, "Reducto!" The door blew off the hinges and landed with a loud bang on the floor.

Rose's eyes flew open and she was staring at the ceiling of Yates's office again. She quickly stood up, and almost immediately felt dizzy but made it to the door as Leah was running up to it. "Rose, you okay? I'll explain later, but I'm going to go protect Lucy."

"What about the others? Williams is with them in the Room of Requirement," she told her, and Leah thought for a moment.

"I'll send a message to Victor, he'll take care of it," she said, and quickly cast a Patronus to which she gave a message. The hawk figure flew down the hallway and out of sight while the students watched in awe. "I need to get you all to McGonagall."

"We're coming with you!" Rose exclaimed, and Leah shook her head.

"It's much too dangerous—"

"Are you really going to give us that crap?" James asked incredulously, and Leah hesitated before shaking her head.

"Fine. But stay close to me, and don't attack anyone unless it's in self-defense, the paperwork alone would be a nightmare. We have to leave quickly, though. Every moment counts, and pretty soon there'll be Officers following the sound of the explosion. If we get out now they might think it was Peeves for a while…" The six of them raced down to the entrance hall, and as they emerged out onto the castle grounds, headed for Hogsmeade and the edge of the anti-Apparition charms, Aidan slowed down to where Rose was running at the back of the group.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "What did he do?"

"I'm fine," she said, trying to forget about any dizziness that may have still lingered. "Just Veritaserum. I can't believe I gave up where she was…"

"It's not your fault," he said immediately. "There was no way for you to prevent that. How did Al know to find us?"

"It's a long story, we can talk later," Rose said.

"You're not hurt? You don't feel faint or anything?"

"I'm fine, Aidan," she said firmly, and he backed off.

"All right, just… you don't have to come with us," he said, but Rose shook her head.

"Of course I do," she said. This is my fault, she added in her head, but didn't bring it up; he'd only deny it and make her feel worse. When they reached the end of the grounds' extent, Leah stopped.

"James, you passed your Apparition test, right?" James nodded and she said, "Good, take your brother, and Stephanie can take Aidan and I've got Rose." They took a few seconds to get ready and she said, "They're at the Ministry, got it?" When everyone affirmed this, Leah held out her arm to Rose. Once she grabbed it, Leah spun around and they Disapparated.