Scott woke with a start. He had fallen asleep in his favorite armchair in the Ravenclaw Common Room, which was empty as most of his fellow students were celebrating the end of their exams, particularly the fifth and seventh year students. Once Scott's eyes had adjusted, he noticed what had woken him up: a Patronus in the shape of a doe that had appeared right next to him.

"Come quickly," the doe said in Snape's voice. "My office."

With that, the doe faded. Scott stood up and stretched from the armchair and made sure his wand was stowed away in his robes. He rushed to Snape's office, ignoring confused looks from fellow students as he walked outside the Great Hall. He burst into Snape's office.

"Thank goodness you came so quickly," Snape said hurriedly. "We don't have much time."

"What's happened?"

"It seems that Potter had a vision of the Dark Lord capturing Black. He went to Umbridge's office to try and contact him, but he was caught, along with several of his friends. She tried to get me to use Veritaserum and he managed to convey the message to me."

"What do we need to do?" Scott asked, his face determined.

"Potter and Granger went with Umbridge to the Forbidden Forest. I have no idea why, but it could be Potter's way of distracting Umbridge. You are to go to Umbridge's office and free the others by any means necessary. Then, go and find Potter and Granger. Head off Umbridge if you need to. I suspect Potter will try to execute a rescue mission. Go with him if that is what he is doing. I am going to alert the order and contact Dumbledore. It's possible the Dark Lord planted that vision in Potter's head and is gathering his forces."

Scott nodded and turned to leave the office.

"Remember your orders from the Dark Lord," Snape said. "Maintain your cover at all times. Even if the Dark Lord himself appears, you are to maintain cover. Defend yourself and the others from the Death Eaters as you need to."

"I will, Professor."

"Then good luck," said Snape. "And be careful."

Scott rushed back up the stairs and toward Umbridge's office on the third floor. He was relieved that nobody tried to stop him along the way. Finally, he reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, which was deserted. He ran up the stairs to Umbridge's office and burst into the room.

"Ah, Scott, what brings you here?" asked Malfoy.

Scott subtly drew his wand out.

"Well, Draco, I'm afraid to say that I am here to take these students out of your hands," Scott said calmly.

"What are you talking about?"

Scott grinned as he pointed his wand at Malfoy, who didn't react fast enough as Scott shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and Malfoy's wand flew out of his hand.

"What the hell?" Malfoy shouted.

"You see, Draco, I was never loyal to Umbridge or the Inquisitorial Squad and certainly not the Ministry. I was a spy for my friends here, which is how we stayed hidden from you lot all along." Crabbe and Goyle made to shoot spells at Scott, but Scott was quicker and shot stunning spells at the both of them and they fell to the ground with a thud. "Nice try, boys. Anyway, I was always a loyal member of Dumbledore's Army and I'm sorry to tell you that your time in the Inquisitorial Squad has come to an end."

With that, Scott shot a stunning spell at Malfoy, who tried to dodge it, but wasn't fast enough and fell over. Pansy Parkinson, who was holding Ginny, let her go and shot a stunning spell at Scott.

"Protego!" Scott cried, sending Pansy's stunning spell right back at her. She fell to the ground with a scream.

Once all of the Slytherins were down, Scott stood up straight, putting his wand back into his robes. He turned to Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna, who all had stunned expressions on their faces.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed. "I didn't know you could do all of that, Scott."

"Well, I'm pretty sure I got an 'Outstanding' on my Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.," Scott said, grinning. "It's nice to see I can put all those spells we learned in the D.A. to use."

Ginny handed Ron his wand and shoved Neville and Luna's into their hands.

"We've got to go for Harry and Hermione," said Ginny with a sense of urgency. "They went into the forest with Umbridge. Then, we can make a plan to rescue Sirius. But before we do, how the ruddy hell did you know we were here?"

"I ran into one of those Slytherin blokes who was in the Inquisitorial Squad," Scott lied. "He said Umbridge had finally cornered you lot, so I decided to go see what happened. Good thing I did."

Ron nodded.

"All right, then," said Ron. "Let's go get Harry and Hermione. Umbridge won't be able to take the lot of us."

Ron led them through the castle and out the front doors. They were running along the bridge to get to the forest when they spotted Harry and Hermione rushing toward them.

"How'd you get away?" Hermione asked breathlessly.

"Scott," Ron said, turning to Scott with a grin. "He came in and took down Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson all by himself."

"Really?" asked Hermione.

"You sound surprised," Scott said with a grin.

"Well — I just thought you'd —"

"That I'd be a little more banged up?" Scott finished for her. "Come on, Hermione. Crabbe and Goyle can barely string two words together and I was quicker than Parkinson."

"So," said Ron, handing Harry's wand to him, "what happened to Umbridge?"

"She got carried away," said Harry, "by a herd of centaurs."

"And they left you behind?" asked Ginny, looking astonished.

"No, they got chased off by Grawp," said Harry.

"Who's Grawp?" Luna asked interestedly.

"Hagrid's little brother," Ron said promptly. "Anyway, never mind that now. Harry, what did you find out in the fire? Has You-Know-Who got Sirius or —"

"Yes," said Harry, "and I'm sure Sirius is still alive, but I can't see how we're going to get there to help him."

They all fell silent, looking rather scared.

"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?" said Luna.

"Okay," said Harry irritably, rounding on her, "first of all, 'we' aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that, and second of all, Ron's the only one with a broomstick that isn't being guarded by a security troll, so —"

"I've got a broom!" said Ginny.

"Yeah, but you're not coming," said Ron angrily.

"Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!" said Ginny.

"You're too —" Harry began.

"I'm three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Philosopher's Stone," she said fiercely, "and it's because of Scott that Malfoy and the others are lying around in a stunned heap."

"Yeah, but —"

"We were all in the D.A. together," said Neville quietly. "It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real — or was that all just a game or something?"

"No — of course it wasn't —" said Harry impatiently.

"Then we should come, too," said Neville simply. "We want to help.

"That's right," said Luna, smiling happily.

"We're with you all the way, Harry," added Scott.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway," said Harry frustrated, "because we still don't know how to get there — "

"I thought we'd settled that," said Luna maddeningly. "We're flying."

"Look," said Ron, barely containing his anger, "you might be able to fly without a broomstick, but the rest of us can't sprout wings whenever we —"

"There are other ways of flying than with broomsticks," said Luna serenely.

"I s'pose we're going to ride on the back of the Kacky Snorgle or whatever it is?" Ron demanded.

"The Crumple-Horned Snorkack can't fly," said Luna in a dignified voice, "but they can and Hagrid says they're very good at finding places their riders are looking for."

Scott whipped around, looking around for whatever Luna was talking about. When he realized he couldn't see anything, he knew what he was looking for.

"Yes!" Harry whispered.

"Is it those mad horse things?" said Ron uncertainly. "Those ones you can't unless you've watched someone snuff it?"

"Yeah," said Harry.

"How many?"

"Just two."

"Well, we need three," said Hermione, who was looking shaken, but determined just the same.

"Four, Hermione," said Ginny, scowling.

"I think there are seven of us, actually," said Luna calmly, counting.

"Don't be stupid, we can't all go!" said Harry angrily. "Look, you four —" he pointed at Scott, Neville, Ginny and Luna — "you're not involved in this, you're not —"

They burst into more protests.

"OK, fine, it's your choice," Harry said curtly. "But unless we can find more thestrals you're not going to be able —"

"Oh, more of them will come," said Ginny confidently.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because in case you hadn't noticed, you and Hermione are both covered in blood," Ginny said coolly, "and we know Hagrid lures thestrals with raw meat, so that's probably why these two turned up in the first place."

"OK then," said Harry. "Ron and I will take these two and go ahead, and Hermione can stay here with you four and she'll attract more thestrals —"

"I'm not staying behind!" said Hermione furiously.

"There's no need," said Luna, smiling. "Look, here come more now...You two must really smell..."

Harry turned and seemed to see more thestrals gathering around them.

"All right," he said angrily, "pick one and get on, then."