Flight of the Fat Lady
Briar went down to breakfast with Lee the next day and informed him on how the prank went. Grinning mischievously, she ruffled her hair smugly at the prank success, she couldn't wait for Snivillus' first lesson, which happened to be the Gryffindor fifth years, meaning Lee, Fred and George.
"It would have been good if you were there," Briar finished. "We haven't been handing out together lately."
"Sorry, I was hanging out with Alicia" Lee said offhandedly and Briar wondered whether he was sorry at all.
"Yeah, you've been doing that a lot lately." She commented.
Lee paused and looked over at her with slight concern showing in his chocolate eyes.
"Does it bother you?" he asked.
Briar thought for a moment. Did it bother her? She thought about how much fun she had when hanging out with the twins or with her brother when she would usually be with Lee and she realised...
"…no, it doesn't"
"That's not good is it?" Lee asked finally after a small silence.
"I don't think so" answered Briar, giving a sheepish smile.
In no time at all, Defence Against the Dark Arts had become most people's favourite class. Only Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins had anything bad to say about her Uncle Moony.
"Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy would say in a loud whisper when Moony passed. "He dresses like our old house elf"
Every time he made those types of comments, Briar would hit him with a trip jinx, it didn't take him too long to figure out the connection and stop. No one else cared that Uncle Moony's robes were patched and frayed. His next few lessons were just as interesting as the first.
After boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblin like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed: in the dungeons of castles and the potholes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludgeon those who had gotten lost. From Red Caps they moved on to kappas: creepy water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds.
Briar was often found smirking smugly in Potions classes. Snivillus was in a particularly vindictive mood these days, and no one was in any doubt why. The story of the boggart assuming Snivillus' shape, and the way that Neville had dressed it in his grandmother's clothes, as well as Briar repeat of it as a prank (much to Fred and George enjoyment) has travelled through the school like wildfire.
Snivillus didn't seem to find it funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Moony's name, which was why Briar bought him up as often as possible, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.
Briar had had her first Muggle Studies Class and found that she actually rather liked it, despite the incessant rants Professor Burbage would go on about joining the Wizarding and Muggle worlds together. Since she sat beside Hermione, who was muggle born, she often just got her to tell her the answers. Ancient Runes was just as boring as the first class, and she went out of her way to see how much Professor Vector would let her get away with before he gave her detention.
Nobody, not even Briar, really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action-packed first class, had become extremely dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence. They were now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence. She would even prefer to learn about garden gnomes than flobberworms.
"Why would anyone bother looking after them?" said Ron, after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the flobberworms' throats.
"They wouldn't." Briar replied dryly. "Do you think if I pretended to be allergic to lettuce I could get out of it?"
At the start of October, Briar was extremely pleased with the fact that Quidditch season was approaching. Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor team, called a meeting on Thursday evening to discuss tactics for the new season.
There were seven people on a Quidditch team: three chasers (one of which was Briar herself), whose job it was to score goals by putting the Quaffle through one of the fifty-foot-high hoops at each end of the field; a keeper, who defended the goal posts, and the seeker, who had to catch the Golden snitch, whose Capture ended the fame and earner the seeker's team an extra one hundred and fifty points.
Quidditch had to be Briar's favourite thing in the world! She could spend hours thinking up tactics and flying, feeling the wind through her messy black hair.
Oliver Wood was a burly seventeen-year-old, now in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. There was a quiet sort of desperation in his voice as he addressed his six fellow team members in the chilly locker rooms on the edge of the darkening Quidditch field.
"This is our last chance – my last chance – to win the Quidditch Cup," he told them, striding up and down in front of them. "I'll be leaving at the end of this year. I'll never get another shot at it"
"Gryffindor hasn't won for seven years now. Okay, so we've had the worst luck in the world – injuries – hen the tournament getting called off last year" Wood swallowed, as though the memory still brought a lump to his throat. "But we also know we've got the best team in the school," he said, punching a fist into his other hand, the old manic glint back in his eye. "We've got three superb chasers."
Wood pointed at Angeline Johnson, Katie Bell and Briar, who smiled smugly, ruffling her hair.
"We've got two unbeatable beaters"
"Stop it, Oliver, you're embarrassing us," said Fred and George together, pretending to blush.
Briar's eyes lingered on Fred for a moment, thinking about how cute he looked when pretending to be embarrassed, before she quickly shook herself out of it. What the hell was that about?
"And we've got a Seeker who has never failed to win us a match!" Wood rumbled, glaring at Harry with a kind of furious pride as Briar ginned and clapped her twin on the shoulder. "And me," he added as an afterthought.
"Don't be modest" Briar said, rolling her eyes, Oliver was a great Keeper, it wasn't often something got passed him.
"Yeah, we think you're very good too, Oliver" said George in agreement.
"Spanking good keeper," said Fred.
"The point is," Wood went on, resuming his pacing, "the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Harry joined the team, I've though the thing was in the bag. But we haven't got it, and this year's the last chance we'll get to finally see our name on the thing…"
Wood spoke so dejectedly that even Briar, Fred and George looked sympathetic.
"Oliver, this year's our year," said Fred.
"We'll do it, Oliver!" said Angelina.
"Definitely," said Harry and Briar simultaneously.
Full of determination, the team started training sessions, three evenings a week. The weather was getting colder and wetter, the nights darker, but no amount of mud, wind, or rain could tarnish Briar's love for the fame and her wonderful vision of finally winning the huge, silver Quidditch Cup.
Briar returned to the Gryffindor common room one evening after training, cold and stiff but please with the way practice had gone, to find the common room buzzing excitedly.
"What's happened?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione, who were sitting in two of the best chairs by the fireside and completely some star charts for Astronomy.
"Fist Hogsmeade weekend," said Ron, pointing at a notice that had appeared on the battered old bulletin board. "End of October. Halloween."
Briar grinned happily. She and the twins were unable to sneak into Hogsmeade due to the dementors and she was in serious need of some pranking material from Zonkos and some ingredients to further her help in experiments for the twins.
"Excellent," said Fred, who had followed her and Harry through the portrait hole. "I need to visit Zonko's. I'm nearly out of Sink Pellets"
"What did you do with the ones you had?" Briar asked as they moved away from Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"We stuffed them into the seat cushions in the Hufflepuff common room" George grinned mischievously and Briar let out a laugh.
"How had I not thought of that?" she chuckled, shaking her head fondly.
"OY!" Ron roared suddenly and Briar turned to see that he was seizing his bag as Crookshanks sank four sets of claws deep inside it and began tearing ferociously. "GET OFF, YOU STUPID ANIMAL!"
Ron tried to pull the bag away from Crookshanks, but Crookshanks clung on, spitting and slashing.
"Ron, don't hurt him!" squealed Hermione; the whole common room was watching.
"My moneys on the cat" Briar muttered to Fred, making him snort in laughter.
Ron whirled the bag around, Crookshanks still slinging to it, and Scabbers came flying out of the top-
"CATCH THAT CAT!" Ron yelled as Crookshanks freed himself from the remnants of the bag, sprang over the table, and chased after the terrified Scabbers.
From her left, George made a lunge for Crookshanks but missed. However, as Scabbers streaked, Briar was able to quickly grab the rat by the tail. Crookshanks skidded to a stop at Briar feet, narrowing her eyes at Briar and looked ready to pounce before Hermione grabbed him around the middle and heaved him away.
Briar looked down at the writhing rat in her hands.
She frowned as looked into the rat's water blue eyes. This was the first time she was in such close proximity to her friend's rat and there was…something. Wormtail, her brain supplied. Briar shook her head: she was being stupid, her uncle Wormtail was dead, now not only had she imagine Padfoot, but Wormtail too, she was starting to think she was going mad. It must be something else that made the rat so familiar. However, before she was able to come up with another link, the rat had been taken off of her by Ron.
It only took one second for Hermione and Ron to get into an argument and she and Harry shared an eye roll. Honestly, they fought like an old married couple.
Briar went up to the fifth year boys dorms to meet the twins not soon after in order to finally try her idea at getting a Muggle torch to only show it's light to them.
"-should just tell her how you feel" she heard George say as she reached the door.
Hears the tail end of George telling Fred to tell her he likes her.
"Ooaoo, does Freddie like someone?" Briar teased plopping down on the bed with them and trying to ignore the strange tightening of her chest at the idea of Fred liking someone.
Fred and George froze when she entered and shared a look. Briar frowned realising they were keeping it from her. She couldn't understand why as she constantly heard about George's crush on Katie Bell.
After much nagging on her part, the twin's still refused to tell her what they were talking about and she finally given up and decided to get back to the task at hand. They were sitting on Fred's bed with the torch in the middle, all three of them still having their wands out from the spells they performed on the object.
"Are you ready?" Fred asked when the spell work was done and she and George both nodded in reply.
Fred put down his wand and picked up the torch. He paused dramatically before flicking the switch. She shared a confused look with the twins when nothing happened. Fred frowned and flicked the switch a few times, but still nothing happened.
"Is it broken?" George asked.
"No, we checked it worked first, maybe we did the spell wrong" Briar said, flipping through the parchment with the notes on.
As she was looking Lee came into the dorm room and instantly squinting, throwing his hand over his eyes as he looking away from the three of them.
"Merlin, that's bright" he said as he made his way through the dorm to grab the books from his bedside table.
Briar frowned and shared a glance with the twins before the three of them groaned simultaneously. They had done the complete opposite of what they had meant to. The light was obvious to everyone but them.
"Great, we've got to start again" George groaned, taking the torch from Fred so that he could remove the spells they had put on it.
"What are you three even doing?" Lee asked as he put his books into his bag.
"We're trying to get the torch light to only show for us" Briar explained. "Do you want to help?"
Lee shook his head, and told her that he was going to study with Alicia. He gave her a small peck before quickly leaving the dorms. Briar stared after him for a moment and it wasn't long that she too left the dorms and instead went to her own dorms, where the only occupant was currently Hermione, who was doing her Ancient Runes homework (that Briar planned to copy later on) on her bed.
"Ugh, I don't understand. Lee has been spending more and more time with Alicia and I don't even feel jealous. Surely you should if your boyfriend was spending more time with another girl, right?" Briar moaned to Hermione, who sighed in annoyance as she attempted to focus on her Ancient Runes book.
"Maybe that's because you like Fred" Hermione said, not looking up.
"W-what?" Briar stuttered in surprise. "That's ridiculous, he's my best friend, I don't like him"
Briar paused.
She thought about Fred, saw him in her mind's eye. His fiery red hair and mischievous midnight blue eyes and the grin that was so often on his face. The way he twiddled his quill deftly between his fingers when he was thinking, or the way his hair fell into his face as he looked down at a piece of parchment, the marauder's map of course, heaven forbid you catch a Weasley twin doing homework in public. There was also that one stray freckle just above his upper lip that had to be the cutest thing ever.
"Merlin!" Briar gasped out suddenly.
Realisation hit her and she flopped back on her bed in response, covering her face with her pillow. She could believe it, couldn't believe she even felt it let alone not even noticed it.
She fancied Fred Weasley.
The next day Briar made sure to avoid Fred at all costs and instead spent her time with her twin. Ron was still in a bad mood with Hermione from their fight yesterday. He barely spoke to her all through Herbology (Ugh, she hated that lesson), even though he, Briar, Harry and Hermione were working on the same puffapod.
"How's Scabbers?" Hermione asked timidly as they stripped fat pink pods from the plants and emptied the shining beans into a wooden pail.
"He's hiding at the bottom of my bed, shaking," said Ron angrily, missing the pail and scattering beans over the greenhouse floor.
"Careful, Weasley, careful!" cried Professor Sprout as the beans burst into bloom before their very eyes.
Luckily, they had Transfiguration next, which was Briar's favourite subject. Harry had informed her of his plan to ask Minnie after lesson whether he could go into Hogsmeade with everyone else, since their Uncle Vernon refused to sign his permission slip.
Briar shared a glance with Harry when they noticed a disturbance at the front of the line.
Lavender Brown seemed to be crying. Parvati had her arm around her and was explaining something to Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who were looking very serious.
"What's the matter, Lavender?" said Hermione anxiously as she, Briar, Harry and Ron went to join the group.
"She got a letter from home this morning," Parvati whispered. "It's her rabbit, Binky. He's been killed by a fox"
"Oh," said Briar, feeling rather awkward at looking at the crying girl and unsure what to say.
"I'm sorry, Lavender" Hermione said.
"I should have known!" said Lavender tragically. "You know what day it is?"
"Thursday?" Briar put in, sharing a confused look with the others.
"No, the sixteenth of October! That thing you're dreading, 'it will happened on the sixteenth of October' Remember? She was right, she was right!"
Briar resisted the urge to roll her eyes when she realised that she was talking about a prediction made by the divination professor. The whole class was gathered around Lavender now. Seamus shook his head seriously.
Hermione hesitated; then she said, "You – you were dreading Binky being killed by a fox?"
"Well, not necessarily by a fox," said Lavender, looking up at Hermione with streaming eyes, "but I was obviously dreading him dying, wasn't I?"
"Oh," said Hermione, she paused again, then, "Was Binky an old rabbit?"
"N – no!" sobbed Lavender. "H – he was only a baby!"
Parvati tightened her arm around Lavender's shoulders.
"But then why would you dread him dying?" said Hermione.
Parvati glared at her.
"Well, look at it logically," said Hermione, turning to the rest of the group, "I mean, Binky didn't even die today, did he? Lavender just got the news today-" Lavender wailed loudly. "-and she can't have been dreading it, because it's come as a real shock-"
Briar raised her brow. Hermione was making a valid point, one that Briar certainly agreed with, but it was normally Hermione who scolded Briar on her lack of tact and not being careful of people's feelings.
"Don't mind Hermione, Lavender," said Ron loudly, "she doesn't think other people's pets matter very much"
Minnie opened the classroom door at that moment, which Briar found rather disappointing: Ron and Hermione were looking daggers at each other and she wanted to see who snapped first. When they got into class, Hermione sat to Briar's left and Ron to Harry's right, leaving the Potter twins in between them, and neither of them spoke to each other for the whole class.
"One moment, please!" Minnie called when the class made to leave once the bell had rung. "As you're all in my House, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me before Halloween. No form, no visiting the village, so don't forget!"
Neville put his hand. "Please, Professor, I – I think I've lost-"
"Your grandmother sent yours ti me directly, Longbottom," said Minnie. "she seemed to think it was safer. Well, that's all, you may leave."
"Ask her now," Ron hissed at Harry.
"Oh, but-" Hermione began.
"It's a stupid plan, you should just forge the signature or something" Briar whispered, knowing that if uncle Padfoot was loose and after Harry they wouldn't let him out of the castle.
"Go for it, Harry," said Ron stubbornly and Briar wondered if he only said it to disagree with Hermione.
Harry waited for the rest of the class to disappear, then headed nervously for Minnie's desk as Briar, Hermione and Ron waited for him.
"Yes Potter?"
Harry took a deep breath.
"Professor, my aunt and uncle – err – forgot to sign my form," he said.
Minnie looked over her square spectacles at him but didn't say anything.
"So – err – d'you think it would be alright, I mean, will it be okay if I – if I go to Hogsmeade?"
Minnie looked down and begun shuffling papers on her desk.
"I'm afraid not, Potter," she said. "You heard what I said. No form, no visiting the village. That's the rule."
Briar saw the instant look of disappointment on her twin's face and walked forward to step in.
"Oh, come on, Minnie, you must know how awful those muggles he lives with are, if you just said he could go-" Briar started, using her most charming voice.
"Miss Potter, do not call me that and I don't say so," said Minnie, standing up and piling her papers neatly into a drawer. "The form clearly states that the parent or guardian must give permission." She turned to look at Harry with a look of foreign pity on her face. "I'm sorry, Mr Potter, but that's my final word. You had better hurry, or you'll be late for your next lesson."
Briar signed in disappointment as she saw the dejected look on Harry face and held her brother's hand comfortingly. Ron called Minnie a lot of names that greatly annoyed Hermione; Hermione assumed an 'all-for-the-best' expression that made Ron even angrier.
"Maybe you can sneak into Hogsmeade, there's loads of secret passageways that the twin's and I always use. We haven't used them this year because of the Dementors, but they might not necessarily be outside the passage" Briar said as Harry looked sullen due to the rest of the class talking loudly and happily about what they were going to do first once they got into Hogsmeade.
Harry was about to answer, but Hermione cut him off.
"Absolutely not! Black could catch him, or worse he could get expelled!" Hermione snapped, glaring at Briar disapprovingly and Harry sighed.
"There's always the feast," said Ron in an effort to cheer Harry up. "You know, the Halloween feast, in the evening."
"Yeah," said Harry gloomily. "Great."
Later that day Briar was walking down the corridor (After using her wand to paint Filch's office a shocking shade of orange) when Lee came up to her, slung an arm around her shoulder and placed a quick kiss to her cheek.
"Hey, Lee" Briar smiled, her hazel eyes lighting up.
"Hey" He smiled. "You're coming to Hogsmeade with me right?" Briar was about to say yes when Lee added, "The twins said they would tag along.
Briar bit her lip. She wasn't ready to face Fred since Hermione made her realise she had a crush on Fred. He was her best friend? How could she have a crush on him? Not to mention she was going out with Lee. Briar thought that perhaps her biggest fault was that she couldn't stand the thought of being alone. and the idea that she could lose Fred because of this stupid, good for nothing, crush terrified her.
"Oh, I think I'm going to go with Hermione and Ron, try pick out something for Harry. He's bummed that he can't go" Briar lied, with a fake apologetic smile.
"That fine, I just feel like we've hardly seen you lately" Lee commented.
That because she was avoiding Fred, Briar thought, but she just smiled instead, not answering him.
On Halloween morning, Briar awoke with the rest and went down to breakfast, changing passing students hair colour (grinning in amusement when they glared angrily), trying to cheer up Harry, but it wasn't working that well.
"We'll bring you lots of sweets back from Honeydukes," said Hermione, looking desperately sorry for him and Briar nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, loads," said Ron.
Ron and Hermione had finally forgotten their squabble about Crookshanks in the face of Harry's difficulties.
"Don't worry about me," said Harry and Briar could tell he hoped for an offhanded voice, but Briar could sense his disappointment like it was her own. "I'll see you at the feast. Have a good time."
Harry accompanied them to the entrance hall, where Filch, the caretaker, was standing inside the front doors, checking off names against a long list, peering suspiciously into every face, and making sure that no one was sneaking out who shouldn't be going.
"Staying here, Potter?" shouted Malfoy, who was standing in line with Crabbe and Goyle. "Scared of passing the Dementors?"
"Oh I will end him" Briar growled, moving to storm over, but Hermione quickly held her back.
The trip to Hogsmeade was fun, although Briar found herself missing Fred and George, feeling it was much more fun to go about Hogsmeade with her best friends just like the year before. However, when she spotting the two of them a Lee, she quickly dragged Hermione and Ron into the three broomsticks to get a butterbeer in order to avoid them.
She picked up some sweets for Harry from Honeydukes, had a nose around Zonkos (After the twins and Lee left of course) and then went up to the Shrieking shack. Briar found it highly entertaining to hear Hermione to recount the myth, when Briar knew exactly what had made the noises in the 'haunted' shack. It was where her uncle Moony used to go during his transformations.
Briar and Ron shared many annoyed looks when Hermione insisted on visiting the post office, feeling it was extremely boring, but they perked up when they went back to the three broomsticks, they swore they saw an ogre.
When they got back at dusk, cheeking pink from the cold wind, the three of them instantly went to find Harry, feeling bad that he hadn't been able to accompany them. they found him sitting in the Gryffindor common room.
"There you go" Ron said.
"We grabbed as much as we could carry, you should thank me, it was extremely difficult to resist eating it" Briar smirked, a shower of brilliantly coloured sweets fell into Harry's lap as the three of them emptied their arms.
"Thanks," said Harry, picking up a packet of tiny black Pepper Imps. "What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?"
The three of them told him everything. Dervish and Banges, the wizarding equipment shop, Zonko's joke shop, into the Three Broomsticks for foaming mugs of hot butterbeer, and many places besides.
"The post office, Harry! About two hundred owls, all sitting on shelves, all colour-coded depending on how fast you want your letter to get there!"
"Honeydukes has got a new kind of fudge; they were giving out free samples, there's a bit, look-"
"Zonkos, was having a sale on colour bombs, I bought so many of them, I think I'm going to set them of in the Slytherin common rooms later"
"We think we saw an ogre, honestly, they get all sorts at the three Broomsticks-"
"Wish we could have brought you some butterbeer, really warms you up-"
"What did you do?" said Hermione, looking anxious. "Did you get any work done?"
"No," said Harry. "Lupin made me a cup of tea in his office and then Snape came in…"
Briar wasn't surprise uncle Moony had made Harry a cup of tea, she had told him how upset he was at not being able to go to Hogsmeade and she knew Moony wanted to get to known Harry more. Harry began to explain to them about the smoking potion in a goblet that Snivillus had given to Moony.
Ron's mouth feel open and Hermione's eyes widened, but Briar knew it was only the Wolfsbane potion. Her uncle Moony told her that while he was at Hogwarts Snivillus would be providing the potion and, though she loathed to admit it, she knew Snivillus was a great potion maker.
"Lupin drank it?" he gasped. "Is he mad?"
Hermione checked her watch.
"We'd better go down, you know, the feast will be starting in five minutes."
They hurried through the portrait hole and into the crowd, still discussing Snivillus.
"But if he – you know," – Hermione dropped her voice, glancing around nervously around – "if he was trying to poison Lupin – he wouldn't have done it in front of Harry"
"Yeah, maybe," said Harry.
"Oh, will you three calm down," Briar rolled her eyes. "Snivillus made him the potion because he gets ill a lot" she told them as they reached the entrance hall and crossed into the Great Hall.
The others nodded, but Briar noticed they looked slightly sceptical, although Briar didn't blame them, it was clear that Snivillus hated Moony.
The Great hall had been decorated with hundreds and hundreds of candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats, and many flaming orange streamers, which were swimming lazily across the stormy ceiling like brilliant water snakes.
The food was delicious, despite being full of Honeydukes sweets, she stuffed her face and even managed second helpings of everything.
The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. They popped out of the walls and tables to do a bit of formation gliding; Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, had a great success with a re-enactment of his own botched beheading. Briar was especially please when she was able to discretely give Malfoy rabbit ears when he shouted "The Dementors send their love, Potter!" as they left the hall.
Briar, Harry, Ron and Hermione followed the rest of the Gryffindors along the usual path to Gryffindor Tower, but when they reached the corridor that ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady, they found it jammed with students.
"Why isn't anyone giving in?" said Ron curiously.
"Give me a boost" Briar told Harry.
Harry wrapped his arms around her hips to lift her up and her eyes widened at the sight before her. The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely.
"The Fat Lady's been attacked" Briar explained, slightly pale, when Harry put her down.
Hermione gasped in shock and Ron and Harry tried to peer through the crowd with wide eyes, hoping to see the damage for themselves.
"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password – excuse me, I'm Head Boy-"
And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor.
They heard Percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick"
People's heads turned; those at the back were on tip toe, while she shared a fearful look with Harry, having already seen the magnitude of the damage. Who could do that to the Fat Lady? Who would want to?
"What's going on?" said Ginny, who had just arrived, and Briar quickly hissed the description of the Fat Lady to her, causing her to pale.
A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait; the Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and Harry, Ron and Hermione moved closer to see the trouble for themselves.
"Oh, my-" Hermione grabbed Harry's arms.
The other three looked at what was left of the portrait in horror. Briar knew her description didn't do the destruction justice. It looked so vicious.
Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes sombre, to see Minnie, Moony and Snivillus hurrying towards him.
"We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady"
"You'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice.
It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.
"What do you mean, Peeves?" said Dumbledore calmly.
Peeve's grin faded a little: he didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle.
"Ashamed, your headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw he running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between trees. Crying something dreadful." He said happily. "Poor thing," he added unconvincingly.
"Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly.
"Oh yes, Professor head," said Peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."