Everything went spectacularly wrong in three seconds. Crabbe and Goyle, the idiots, had finally had an original thought and sucker punched Ron in the face before he could set off his detonators. Ginny, being the wonderful, loyal sister she was, bat bogeyed the boys. That wasn't enough as Pansy was able to stun her. There was a short skirmish where the Inquisitorial Squad came out the victors. Draco, knowing he had to play his part, grabbed Ginny by the arm.
"There's another one stalking outside your office. The mudblood one." Pansy told Umbridge, her voice imperious.
"We'll head that way then, won't we, children." Umbridge squeaked out.
"What the hell are you doing?" Ginny muttered under her breath.
"Looking for an opening." Draco murmured back as they arrived at Umbridge's office.
"What do we have here? Get her." Umbridge ordered. Goyle, who didn't have a hold of anyone, grabbed Hermione by her arms and dragged her into the office with the other members of the DA.
"What are you doing, Mr. Potter?" Umbridge asked. Harry refused to answer as she threw him into a chair. "Tell me, or I'll send for some veritaserum."
Harry remained silent, challenging her with his eyes. "Very well, Mr. Potter." With that, a younger member of the Inquisitorial Squad ran off to find Professor Snape.
They waited in tense silence for a solid ten minutes before Professor Snape entered the room. "Why, pray, have you sent a student to disturb me?" He glared at the pink encrusted woman in front of Harry.
"He's got it!" Harry shouted at Snape. "He's got it in the room where it's hidden!"
"What was that? Some kind of code?" Umbridge whipped her head back and forth between the two.
"If it's code, madam, it's one I don't understand." Snape drawled. "Nor do I have an veritaserum. Not, of course, that it would work on Mr. Potter. He's so oblivious to the world that he wouldn't know if he were lying or not."
Harry and Snape shared a glare with each other. It was an odd time for a family feud, but Harry supposed there was never a good time for those.
"If that is all, madam, I have potions to brew." Snape bit out before billowing out of the room.
"If there's no veritaserum, we'll just have to do this the old fashioned way. No one will believe the house of Black, anyway." Umbridge's voice took on a slightly maniacal tone. "Cruciatus curse, it is, then."
"He's contacting Dumbledore." Hermione burst out. Umbridge glared at her and Goyle slapped his meaty hand over her mouth.
"Why are you contacting Dumbledore?" Umbridge asked calmly. Harry looked around the office wildly, trying to figure out what Hermione was doing.
"Ow! Fuck!" Goyle exclaimed suddenly, waving the hand that had covered Hermione's mouth. "She bit me."
"He's trying to figure out where the secret weapon is!" Hermione explained hastily, even though Goyle looked like he wouldn't be putting his hand near her mouth again soon.
"Where is this secret weapon?" Umbridge questioned the girl, thinking she was the weak one present.
"In the Forbidden Forest, of course." Hermione turned wide, guileless eyes on Umbridge.
"Show me." Umbridge challenged.
"Well," Hermione blushed, "I don't know quite where it is. Harry was the one contacting Dumbledore. He would know better."
Umbridge looked between the two teens, sizing them up. "Both of you with me."
Harry and Umbridge blindly followed Hermione, unaware that she was leading them straight into centaur land. They were surrounded before they even knew what had happened. Words were exchanged faster than Harry could follow, and soon Umbridge was being restrained by the herd of centaurs. Before they could go, she turned to Harry.
"Mr. Potter, tell them. Tell them I mean no harm." Umbridge nailed him with a look that promised death if he didn't comply.
Unfortunately, Harry was immune to death threats. "I'm sorry, Professor," he spat. "I must not tell lies."
The centaurs left after that, literally dragging Umbridge through the mud as they ran back to their dwellings. Hermione and Harry stared at the space left behind. Before they could turn back to the castle, Grawp appeared, wanting to know where Hagrid was. They explained, as best they could, that he would be back soon. Then, they started running back to the castle, only to be met at the forest's edge by their friends.
"What are you doing out here? How did you get away?" Harry asked, looking Ginny over.
"Neville fed Goyle a Nosebleed Nougat. I told the rest of the Inquisitorial Squad to get him to the hospital wing before he bled out. They left, then we left." Draco said with a shrug.
"We've got to get to the Ministry. I think that Voldemort has Sirius in the Ministry of Magic." Harry said.
"How do we get there? We're in Scotland, that's in London. We can't floo and the train would take too long." Neville asked.
"What about the Knight Bus?" Ginny asked.
"We're not suicidal, Gin," Draco said with a roll of his eyes.
"The thestrals." Luna said evenly. "We'll take the thestrals."
"Um, we can't see the thestrals." Hermione reminded the blonde girl.
"Harry and I can." Luna shrugged. "We'll help the rest of you."
"Harry," Hermione asked as the others mounted the invisible horses. "What if this is a trap? What are we going to do then?"
Harry stopped short, not having thought of that.
"Harry, if Sirius was safe, he would have answered you at Grimmauld." Draco pointed out. "He didn't answer you, did he?"
"No. No one answered me. Sirius, Hes, everyone was gone. I don't know if they're safe." Harry looked lost.
"Then we go," Draco said, making a decision for the group. "If there's even a chance, we go. We both know that Severus won't help Sirius."
With that, Hermione reluctantly mounted her thestral and they set off for the Ministry of Magic.
Hours later, they landed in London. The Ministry was eerily quiet; no one was in sight.
"This is too easy," Ron said lowly. "This is gonna be bad."
The rest of the group refrained from commenting as they followed Harry through the deserted halls towards the elevator. Once they reached the Department of Mysteries, they all took a deep breath. Trial and error led them to start marking doors when the were through with each room as the whole hall seemed to rotate upon closing the doors. They found Harry's room of shelves and followed him to where Sirius should have been.
"He's not here." Harry barely whispered.
"These are prophecies," Ron said, looking at the shelves closely. When everyone turned and looked at him, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Harry, this one has your name on it." Neville pointed to one of the glowing orbs.
Harry reached out and grabbed it, wondering what he was supposed to do with it.
"Hand it over, Potter." A chilling voice demanded.
"Not a chance, Death Eater scum." Harry sneered.
"Draco." The voice demanded. "Be a good son and retrieve the orb from Potter."
Draco didn't have time to make a decision before Ginny cast the first bombarda, destroying rows of shelves, and sending prophecies to cloud the air. Hermione, shoving Harry aside, took a dark curse from Dolohov, but not before she silenced him. She fell hard, and Neville picked her up. The rest of the teens ran for the entrance of the prophecy room and scattered throughout the Department of Mysteries, taking the death eaters on a wild goose chase through spinning rooms.
Ron, Ginny, and Luna lured several into a room containing a brain in a jar and a desk. They fought brilliantly… for about three minutes. Then, Ron was hit by a confundus spell that sent him into a loopy mess. He grabbed the brain from its jar, laughing about how funny it felt. He didn't realize the brain was trying to strangle him until it was almost too late. Ginny and Luna, in a desperate bid to protect him, were knocked backwards over the desk, throwing them into unconsciousness. They were saved as Fred, George, and Charlie appeared in the room almost magically.
"Shit, Ron!" Fred shouted, grabbing the brain and prying it off of his brother.
"Get the girls and Ron and find the bulk of the fight. I've got these idiots." Charlie ordered the twins. George cast a renervate on the girls and led them to the Veil room, Fred and Ron following closely after.
Meanwhile, Harry, Neville, and Draco were managing to stay alive, if only just, against their death eaters.
"Never got to do this to Mummy and Daddy. Better luck this time!" Bellatrix crowed, casting the cruciatus curse on Neville. Hermione, still unconscious, was hidden from view near him.
"I hope you have some kind of miraculous backup plan, Potter because I don't intend to die down here!" Draco threatened, sending a stunner at his aunt's husband. Rodolphus LeStrange went down hard.
"I have no idea." Harry shook his head, holding off what he had identified as Lucius Malfoy.
Just then, Sirius, Remus, Molly, Arthur, Bill, Fleur, and Tonks appeared with Mad-Eye Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"Fleur, Tonks, get the kiddies out!" Sirius demanded, pointing at Hermione and Neville.
They each took a teen and apparated away. Kingsley grabbed Luna's arm as she was hit by another stunner and apparated her away as well. The others continued to valiantly fight as they waited for rescue.
Lucius Malfoy sent a dark slicing hex at Arthur Weasley. Arthur went down hard and there was no way they could get to him in time. The Weasley boys, most engaged in battle with other Death Eaters, watched in horror as their father bled out too quickly.
"Did'ja see that?" Ron laughed, clutching his stomach. "His neck looked like a fountain!"
"Ron, shut up," Fred warned, not knowing about the confundus curse.
Molly, however, didn't see her husband die. She was too busy defending Ginny against an outraged Bellatrix LeStrange. The last thing Molly Weasley was heard to say was, "Not my daughter, you bitch!" as the flash of green light hurtled towards her. Ron laughed even harder as both Molly and Bellatrix's cold bodies hit the ground, both women successful in annihilating their opponent. Ginny nearly passed out from hyperventilation.
Gabs and Kat: Yeah… We don't own anything.
XOXO
Gabs & Kat
