Out of the Fire
Disclaimer: I don't own Hp.
In about a week's time Harry's OWLS started. Kitty barely met Harry, for he, along with Ron and Hermione was busy studying or revising notes.
Kitty, Vandyll and Luna were sitting on the grounds when they saw Harry, Ron and Hermione rushing towards them.
'Harry, what're you doing here? How was your History of Magic Exam?' said Kitty getting.
'Kat,' said Harry panting and very pale, 'I just saw him. I just saw Voldemort. At the Department of Mysteries. And he's got Sirius.'
Luna, Vandyll and Kitty stared at him.
'You mean you had a vision?' said Kitty fearfully.
'Yeah, saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam.I dunno how, but I know exactly where. There's a room in the Department of Mysteries full of shelves covered in these little glass balls and they're at the end of row ninety-seven ... he's trying to use Sirius to get whatever it is he wants from in there ... he's torturing him ... says he'll end by killing him!'
'How're we going to get there?' he asked them.
There was a moment's silence. Then Ron said, 'G-get there?'
'Get to the Department of Mysteries, so we can rescue Sirius, of course!' Kitty said loudly.
'But ...think about this,' said Hermione, taking a step towards him, 'its five o'clock in the afternoon ... the Ministry of Magic must be full of workers ... how would Voldemort and Sirius have got in without being seen? Harry ... they're probably the two most wanted wizards in the world ... you think they could get into a building full of Aurors undetected?'
'I dunno, Voldemort used an Invisibility Cloak or something!' Harry shouted. 'Anyway, the Department of Mysteries has always been completely empty whenever I've been-'
'You've never been there, Harry,' said Hermione quietly. 'You've dreamed about the place, that's all.'
'They're not normal dreams!' Harry shouted in her face, standing up and taking a step closer to her in turn. He wanted to shake her. 'How d'you explain Ron's dad then, what was all that about, how come I knew what had happened to him?'
'He's got a point,' said Ron quietly, looking at Hermione.
'But this is just -just so unlikely!' said Hermione desperately. 'Harry, how on earth could Voldemort have got hold of Sirius when he's been in Grimmauld Place all the time?'
'Sirius might've cracked and just wanted some fresh air,' said Ron, sounding worried. 'He's been desperate to get out of that house for ages-'
'But why,' said Vandyll, 'why on earth would You Know Who want to use Sirius to get the weapon, or whatever the thing is?'
'I dunno, there could be loads of reasons!' Harry yelled. 'Maybe Sirius is just someone Voldemort doesn't care about seeing hurt-'
'OK,' Hermione said, looking frightened yet determined, 'I've just got to say this-'
'What?'
'You ... this isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do ... sort of ... I mean-don't you think you've got a bit of a-a-saving-people thing?' she said.
He glared at her.
'And what's that supposed to mean, a "saving-people thing"?'
'Well ... you ...' she looked more apprehensive than ever. 'I mean ... last year, for instance ... in the lake ... during the Tournament ... you shouldn't have ... I mean, you didn't need to save that little Delacour girl ... you got a bit ... carried away ...'
A wave of hot, prickly anger swept through Harry's body; now could she remind him of that blunder now?
'I mean, it was really great of you and everything,' said Hermione quickly, looking positively petrified at the look on Harry's face, 'everyone thought it was a wonderful thing to do-'
'That was different Hermione,' said Kitty angrily, 'Sirius is our family, we have to go save him.'
Hermione began again, 'I'm trying to say -Voldemort knows you, Harry! He took Ginny down into the Chamber of Secrets to lure you there, it's the kind of thing he does, he knows you're the-the sort of person who'd go to Sirius's aid! What if he's just trying to get you into the Department of Myst-?'
'It doesn't matter,' said Kitty, ' It doesn't matter whether Voldemort's got Sirius to lure Harry or not. Point is, he's got Sirius, and we have to go.'
'But Harry-what if your dream was-was just that, a dream?'
Harry let out a roar of frustration. Hermione actually stepped back from him, looking alarmed.
'You don't get it!' Harry shouted at her, 'I'm not having nightmares, I'm not just dreaming! What d'you think all the Occlumency was for, why d'you think Dumbledore wanted me prevented from seeing these things? Because they're REAL, Hermione-Sirius is trapped, I've seen him. Voldemort's got him, and no one else knows, and that means we're the only ones who can save him, and if you don't want to do it, fine, but I'm going, understand? And if I remember rightly, you didn't have a problem with my saving-people thing when it was you I was saving from the dementors, or-he rounded on Ron-when it was your sister I was saving from the Basilisk-'
'But Harry, you've just said it,' said Hermione fiercely, 'Dumbledore wanted you to learn to shut these things out of your mind, if you'd done Occlumency properly you'd never have seen this-'
'IF YOU THINK I'M JUST GOING TO ACT LIKE I HAVEN'T SEEN-'
'Sirius told you there was nothing more important than you learning to close your mind!'
'WELL, I EXPECT HE'D SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT IF HE KNEW WHAT I'D JUST-'
Ginny who was nearby heard Harry shouting and hurried over.
'What happened?' Ginny asked.
'Never you mind,' said Harry.
Ginny raised her eyebrows.
'There's no need to take that tone with me,' she said coolly, 'I was only wondering whether I could help.'
'Well, you can't,' said Harry shortly.
'Wait,' said Hermione suddenly. 'Wait ... Harry, she can need to establish whether Sirius really has left Headquarters.'
'I've told you, I saw-'
'Harry, I'm begging you, please!' said Hermione desperately. 'Please let's just check that Sirius isn't at home before we go charging off to London. If we find out he's not there, then I swear I won't try to stop you. I'll come, I'll d-do whatever it takes to try and save him.'
'Sirius is being tortured NOW!' shouted Harry. 'We haven't got time to waste.'
'We'll have to use Umbridge's fire and see if we can contact him, said Hermione, who looked positively terrified at the thought. 'We'll draw Umbridge away again, but we'll need lookouts, and that's where we can use Ginny, Luna and Vandyll.'
Though clearly struggling to understand what was going on, Ginny said immediately, 'Yeah, we'll do it,' and Luna said, 'When you say "Sirius", are you talking about Stubby Boardman?'
Nobody answered her.
'OK,' Harry said aggressively to Hermione, 'OK, if you can think of a way of doing this quickly, I'm with you, otherwise Kat and I going to the Department of Mysteries right now.'
'Right,' said Hermione, twisting her hands together and pacing up and down. 'Right ... well ... one of us has to go and find Umbridge and-and send her off in the wrong direction, keep her away from her office. They could tell her-I don't know-that Peeves is up to something awful as usual ...'
'I'll do it,' said Ron at once. 'I'll tell her Peeves is smashing up the Transfiguration department or something, it's miles away from her office. Come to think of it, I could probably persuade Peeves to do it if I met him on the way.'
'OK,' said Hemrione, her brow furrowed as she continued to pace. 'Now, we need to keep students right away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin's bound to go and tip her off.'
'Luna, Vandyll and I can stand at either end of the corridor,' said Ginny promptly, 'and warn people not to go down there because someone's let off a load of Garrotting Gas.' Hermione looked surprised at the readiness with which Ginny had come up with this lie; Ginny shrugged and said, 'Fred and George were planning to do it before they left.'
'OK,' said Hermione. 'Well then, Harry, Kitty, and I will be under the Invisibility Cloak and we'll sneak into the office and you can talk to Sirius-'
'He's not there, Hermione!'
'I mean, you can -can check whether Sirius is at home or not while I keep watch, I don't think you should be in there alone.'
'I ... OK, thanks,' Harry muttered.
'Right, well, even if we do all of that, I don't think we're going to be able to bank on more than five minutes,' said Hermione, looking relieved that Harry seemed to have accepted the plan, 'not with Filch and the wretched Inquisitorial Squad floating around.'
'Five minutes'll be enough,' said Harry 'C'mon, let's go-'
'Now?' said Hermione, looking shocked.
'Of course now!' said Harry angrily. 'What did you think, we're going to wait until after dinner or something? Hermione, Sirius is being tortured right now!'
'I-oh, all right,' she said desperately. 'You go and get the Invisibility Cloak and we'll meet you at the end of Umbridge's corridor, OK?'
They sped towards the castle. A couple of minutes later, Harry joined Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Vandyll and Kitty who were huddled together at the end of Umbridge's corridor.
'Got it,' he panted. 'Ready to go, then?'
'Ron's gone to head Umbridge off ... Ginny, Luna, Vandyll, start moving people out of the corridor ... Harry, Kitty and I will get the Cloak on and wait until the coast is clear ...'
Ginny's vivid head bobbed between the jostling students surrounding them in the other direction, trailed by Luna's blonde one, and Vandyll's dark brown one.
'Here,' Harry said; he threw the Invisibility Cloak over the three of them and they stood listening carefully over the Latin mumblings of the bust in front of them.
'You can't come down here!' Ginny was calling to the crowd. 'No, sorry, you're going to have to go round by the swivelling staircase, someone's let off Garrotting Gas just along here-'
They could hear people complaining; one surly voice said, 'I can't see no gas.'
'That's because it's colourless,' said Ginny in a convincingly exasperated voice, 'but if you want to walk through it, carry on, then we'll have your body as proof for the next idiot who doesn't believe us.'
Slowly, the crowd thinned. The news about the Garrotting Gas seemed to have spread; people were not coming this way any more. When at last the surrounding area was quite clear, Hermione said quietly, 'I think that's as good as we're going to get, Harry-come on, let's do it.'
They moved forwards, covered by the Cloak. Luna was standing with her back to them at the far end of the corridor. As they passed Ginny, Hermione whispered, 'Good one ... don't forget the signal.'
'What's the signal?' muttered Harry, as they approached Umbridge's door.
'A loud chorus of "Weasley is our King" if they see Umbridge coming,' replied Hermione, as Harry inserted the blade of Sirius's knife in the crack between door and wall. The lock clicked open and they entered the office.
They pulled off the Cloak; Hermione hurried over to the window and stood out of sight, peering down into the grounds with her wand out. Harry and Kitty dashed over to the fireplace, seized the pot of Floo powder and threw a pinch into the grate, causing emerald flames to burst into life there. They knelt down quickly, thrust their heads into the dancing fire and cried, 'Number twelve, Grimmauld Place!'
Kitty opened her eyes to find herself looking out at the long, cold kitchen of Grimmauld Place.
There was nobody there. 'Sirius?' Harry shouted. 'Sirius, are you there?'
Kreacher the house-elf crept into view. He looked highly delighted about something, though he seemed to have recently sustained a nasty injury to both hands, which were heavily bandaged.
'It's the Potter boy's head in the fire,' Kreacher informed the empty kitchen, stealing furtive, oddly triumphant glances at Harry. 'What has he come for, Kreacher wonders?'
'Where's Sirius, Kreacher?' Harry demanded.
The house-elf gave a wheezy chuckle.
'Master has gone out, Harry Potter.'
'Where's he gone? Where's he gone, Kreacher?'
Kreacher merely cackled.
'I'm warning you!' said Harry.
'What about Remus? Mad-Eye? Any of them, are any of them there?' said Kitty.
'Nobody here but Kreacher!' said the elf gleefully.
'Where has Sirius gone?' Harry yelled after the elf. 'Kreacher, has he gone to the Department of Mysteries?'
'Master will not come back from the Department of Mysteries!' he said gleefully. 'Kreacher and his mistress are alone again!'
And he scurried forwards and disappeared through the door to the hall.
'You-'!'
Kitty felt a great pain at the top of her head; she inhaled a lot of ash and, choking, found herself being dragged backwards through the flames, until with a horrible abruptness she was staring up into the wide, pallid face of Professor Umbridge who had dragged them backwards out of the fire by the hair and was now bending their necks back as far as they would go, as though she were going to slit their throats.
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