I apologize, yet again, for the wait. My dad just got back from a two-week trip to China, so I spent a while with him, plus I had to clean my nightmare of a room. I also had writer's block on top of it all. :P Sorry about that. But I got it up now! :) Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Or Hermione Granger. Or Ronald Weasley. Or-you get the point.
Alex screamed as the four red spells collided with Professor McGonagall. She wasn't the only one, either; Pavarti, Lavender, and Hermione all let out shrieks as well, and Professor Tofty yelled out, "Galloping gargoyles!" If anyone in the group hadn't noticed what was going on, they did now. The entire class watched as Hagrid struck down all those trying to apprehend him. He ran off into the woods, holding the limp form of his dog, Fang, over his shoulder.
After an agonizing five minutes, the exam ended. Alex shoved her telescope away, threw her things into her bag, and rushed down the spiral staircase. The entire class was staying out in the halls, discussing what had happened. It had been horrible to watch. McGonagall wasn't exactly young, and four Stunning Spells would be bad for anyone. They could only hope that Madame Pomfrey would be able to set her right.
A similar discussion followed after arriving in the common room, but Alex didn't stick around for most of it. She was dead tired. Unlike most people, traumatic events only wore her out, instead of leaving her wide awake. Falling into a deep sleep, it took a lot of work for Hermione to wake her up the next morning.
Breakfast was followed by a large study session for the Gryffindor fifth years. Since their History of Magic exam wasn't until that afternoon, each one of them was going over books or notes in preparation. Alex was truly worried about this subject, because it was one that she hadn't studied much before coming to Hogwarts. She also found it difficult to pay any attention during class, so she used Hermione's notes to study.
At two o'clock, the exam started. Alex went through as best she could, but ended up skipping a lot of answers, and even the ones she did answer seemed either wrong or incomplete. Her head was heavy, even though she had slept well the night before. Without thinking about it, she shut her eyes, and was brought into another one of her dreams.
Once again, Alex found herself in the cathedral-sized room with self after shelf of spun-glass spheres. She hurried between the rows, a specific destination in mind. When she reached it, there was a dark shape on the floor. It seemed to be the indistinct outline of a man. Alex opened her mouth and spoke in a voice very unlike her own.
"Take it down for me. You can touch it, but I cannot. Get it, and you may be spared." The man simply shifted without replying. Raising her hand, Alex said, "Crucio."
The man screamed as he writhed in pain. A twitch of her wand, and it all stopped. The man groaned before meeting Alex's eyes.
"You'll have to kill me," Sirius whispered. Alex smiled.
"Oh, I will, but you will fetch it for me first. After all, we have hours, and no one can hear you scream..." A suddenly yell echoed through Alex's mind and her eyes flew open. She was still in the Great Hall, taking her OWL. One of the professors hurried down the rows of desks, as every head in the room turned to the person sitting behind her, who was...
"Harry!" Alex exclaimed, whirling around. Her brother was on the ground, clutching at his forehead. Professor Tofty brushed past her. He grabbed Harry by the arm and helped him out of the Great Hall, despite his protests. Alex tried to follow, but was held back by another one of the examiners.
"Come now, Miss Potter, he'll be fine. Come finish the examination," he said, in an attempt at a soothing voice. Alex whirled around to face him.
"He's my brother, and I'm going to go make sure he's okay!" No one else tried to stop her as she rushed out the doors, looking for her twin. She found him talking to Professor Tofty, and it sounded like he was insisting that he was okay.
All Alex caught as she walked up was an, "I'll do that," from Harry. Professor Tofty walked past her into the Great Hall, while she went up to her brother.
"You saw it too, right?" she asked urgently. He nodded.
"We should tell McGonagall." Together they rushed off to the hospital wing, only to almost make Madame Pomfrey drop the medicine she was giving Montague.
"What is it, Potter?" They looked at each other, not really sure which one of them she was addressing. Finally, Alex spoke up.
"We need to talk to Professor McGonagall." To their surprise and alarm, McGonagall had been transferred to St. Mungo's that morning. Instead, they ran back to the entrance hall, where the rest of the fifth year was only just exiting from the exam. It took a moment to pick Ron and Hermione out of the crowd, but as soon as they did, they found a empty classroom to talk in.
"What happened Harry? Are you ill?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"I'm fine, Hermione," Harry said in a rush. "It's Sirius we should be worried about."
"WHAT?!" Ron and Hermione exclaimed in unison. Together the twins proceeded to explain what they had seen. Hermione was skeptical, but finally they managed to convince her to at least try and contact Sirius. With the help of Ginny and Luna, they made their plan. Harry ran off to the dormitories to get his Invisibility Cloak. The rest of them made their way to the corridor leading to Umbridge's office.
Harry came back quickly, the Cloak tucked underneath his robes. He looked around at everyone.
"All set?" After they all had nodded in consent, he and Hermione donned the Cloak, while Alex and Ron slipped away. Ginny and Luna went out to clear the corridor. Glancing at Hermione, who nodded, Harry started making his way down the hall towards Umbridge's locked door.
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"Gotcha!" Malfoy exclaimed triumphantly. Alex whirled around, surprised. She had been assigned the task of keeping watch, but somehow she ended up getting sneaked up on by the Inquisitorial Squad. Luckily, she had no reason to be in trouble.
"'Gotcha' what, Malfoy? It's not like I did anything wrong." With a quick glance around, she noted that Crabbe, Goyle, Malfoy, and Pansy all had their wands pointed straight at her. If it came to dueling she stood no chance.
"I beg to differ," the pale blonde retorted with a smirk. "You see, Weaslby here told Professor Umbridge a lie about Peeves' antics, so we figured he was up to something. Something that most likely included Granger, Potter, and yourself." Alex hadn't noticed a large Slytherin (she thought his name was Warrington) holding tightly onto Ron. Before she could do anything, Pansy had snatched her wand and Malfoy had a firm grip on her arm, wand still trained on her. "Come on, let's take them to Umbridge's office."
Unfortunately, he hadn't seen the fire in Alex's eyes. If he had, he might've been more cautious. Before he could take two steps, she jammed her heel down onto his foot as hard as she could. It distracted him enough that she could twist her arm out of his grasp. They other Slytherins were so taken aback that she managed to snatch her wand away from Pansy and run. Several spells shot past her, but none hit their mark. Instead, Alex cast a charm between herself and them, keeping anything from traveling through it. With a quick wink towards Ron, she then continued down the hallway at a sprint.
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Harry did a quick look around, and immediately noticed Alex's absence. He glanced at Hermione, who looked as bewildered by this as he felt. Even Umbridge had a questioning look on her face. Malfoy stepped forward, embarrassed, holding Harry's wand.
"Alex got away." Everyone being held captive smiled at each other. Of course Alex was the one who escaped. Umbridge, however, looked displeased.
"She got away?" Malfoy nodded sheepishly. "It was how many? At least six of you, against one, and she got away?" Malfoy kept his eyes trained on the ground. "Do we at least have members of the Inquisitorial Squad looking for her?" He nodded once more. Umbridge sighed. "Very well." Her attention then turned back to Harry.
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Ron was left staring at the door while Harry, Hermione, and Umbridge went off to who-knows-where. Hermione had made up some story about a secret weapon, but now what were they supposed to do? None of them had wands, and the Slytherins were much bigger than all of them. It wasn't like they could just suddenly do magic wandlessly. He was just about to give up hope of escaping and saving Sirius when the door flew open. A red spell shot through and hit his captor squarely in the head, knocking him out instantly. Looking through the now-open doorway, he saw a familiar redhead smirking back.
"Need a hand?" Alex asked. The members of the Inquisitorial Squad all instinctively drew their wands, but forgot they were supposed to be holding on to their captives. Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna all grabbed their own wands from the various pockets of the Slytherins. There were multiple flashes, shouts, and bangs, but within seconds it was over. Three of the captors lay unconscious, one frozen, one wandless, and Malfoy was covered in bat-bogeys. Ron smirked at him.
"Who did the Bat-Bogey Hex?" Alex asked curiously. Ginny smiled.
"That would be me."
"Nice," Ron commented. He leaned down and picked up Harry and Hermione's wands from where they had fallen. "So, any idea where Hermione lead Umbridge?" All eyes automatically turned to Alex.
"Actually, yeah. They went into the Forbidden Forest. I only watched long enough to see where they went in though, 'cause I figured you needed more help than they did."
"Well, let's go then!" Ginny said. Without another word they all took off running to where their friends had disappeared.
Sorry again for the wait, guys! It really was kinda unreasonable this time, but any of you who have had really bad writer's block know how it feels. Anyway, still feel free to get mad at me in a review or PM. I did try to make up for it with the longer chapter, though! Heh heh...
Guest Review Replies:
Dragonslayer101: I only had that in so it can come back to bite him later... :)
Clarissa: Thanks! :) I'll try, but I'm not the best with endings, cliffhanger or not.
Alex Potter: If you're asking me, no.
Ellie: Thanks! Is that a good hmm, a bad hmm, or a thoughtful hmm? Hard to tell tones on the computer. :)
Reviews are the thing that keeps me going! :)