Disclaimer: Not mine, it is J.K. Rowlings…sheesh…we all know this by now!

Priori Incantatem  

By Mrs Grim

Chapter 2
"...this is the Ministry of Magic we're talking about robbing!!!"


They walked down the hallway and towards the cells. Getting directed to where Sirius was being kept was easy. Harry smiled stupidly in a perfect imitation of Fudge and the human guards told them the way to the room, all respectfully silent in the presence of the (they assumed) great Minister.  Harry commanded them to hold back the dementors. He'd begun to feel them; that horrible sense of unhappiness and despair...He wished never to feel it again. And Sirius had to live with that every day for 12 years.  He could KILL Peter.  And Voldemort.  If he couldn't use a killing curse, he'd beat them with his bear hands.  He clenched them now.

Soon, they reached as room where Sirius had been brought. Dumbledore and a man that struck a familiar déjà vu in Harry were in conversation with a frowning Sirius. All three of them turned to stare at them as they entered and closed the door behind them. Dumbledore saw them and beamed.

"Sit, sit down Ron, Hermione...and Harry." He answered the others surprised stares, "I know that Fudge returned directly to the Ministry." He looked thoughtful, "I think he's avoiding me."

The other man stared in disbelief, "Harry? Harry Potter?!"

Sirius smiled a little, recovering from the shock of seeing the repulsive Minister, "Polyjuice potion?"

Harry nodded, "It'll wear off in a half an hour. I can't wait!"

"It's spooky talking to you like this," Sirius mutterd, "Why are you here?"

"Well, we -er- wanted to see you, y'know. See how you were, if you needed anything..."

"What I need," Sirius remarked dryly, staring at a spot on the wall, "is a fair trial."

"So they told you what happened?" Hermione said quietly. Sirius nodded and looked down at the ground.  His jaw was clenched and face hard.

"And I see," she continued, "that you're considering something to do with wands. Priori Incantatem?"

"Well reasoned, Hermione," Dumbledore commended her, "You are certainly not the top student in the year for nothing!" Hermione blushed.

Wands? Something was jarring Harry's memory. Oh, yes! The man with Dumbledore was none other than Mr. Olivander, the man who made wands.

Ron frowned, "Can't Fudge- I mean, the Minister, can't he just make some excuse about Priori Incantatem too?"

Hermione looked ready to pounce on the answer. "Because, Priori Incantatem always works! Always!!" She spouted out quickly, "As long as it is used with the correct wands, that is, brother wands, it will work!"

"So," Ron asked, "Where's the brother wand to Sirius'?"

"Albus and I were just discussing that when you arrived," said Mr. Olivander quietly, in his mysterious (and rather spooky) way, "We seem to have tracked it down. We've traced it to Cornelius Fudge."

Harry's heart sank.  It hit the bottom of the ocean like a million ton weight.

"No way, "Ron said.

Hermione looked extremely worried, "He'd never let us have it!!" She cried, "He'd destroy it first!"

Harry felt suddenly sick, as if being Fudge at that moment was utterly wrong and disgusting. He fought for some good, anything to take away the hopelessness that he felt.

"Can't we, uh, get a court order to use it for evidence?" He tried.

"Yes," Dumbledore nodded, "But if Cornelius knew we wanted it you can be sure he'd burn it first thing. Or, he may not even admit to having the wand."

Ron mouthed soundlessly, like a frog.  The weights continued to fall to the core of the earth.

"The wand in question is in the minister's possession, but it is not technically his," Mr. Olivander explained. "It was his wife's."

"His wife?" Hermione asked.

Dumbledore sighed, "It is a ...complicated story, but it will help you understand Cornelius better. Cornelius got married to Mary about a year or so before Lily and James died. Mary's mother was a muggle and Mary was utterly devoted to her. After her mother was killed, Mary went into depression and died a short while later."

"Let me guess," Sirius said bitterly, "I killed her mother, right?"

"Yes, she was one of the 12 killed that day," Dumbledore acknowledged. "That is why he is so bent on convicting you. He truly believes that you did it and nothing is going to change his mind. In a way, I believe that he feels he's getting his revenge by convicting you."

"Poor man..." Hermione said quietly.  She realized this was not exactly the right thing to say.

Harry and Ron turned outraged stares upon her.  Sirius looked angry and confused at the same time.

"Well," she said quickly, wrinkling her forehead, "You can hardly blame Mr. Fudge too much for feeling that way."

Sirius made a disbelieving noise.

"Not for feeling murderous," Hermione corrected herself, "But for feeling so terrible that he lost a bit of his mind!"

"A bit?" Ron asked.

Hermione scowled at him in a quick change of temper, "You're not taking this seriously! There's so much to do! How will we even find the wand?!"

"Don't worry," Dumbledore told them, "we'll do everything we can. There's no need for you to worry about it."

*---*

Narcissa calmly walked down the hallway to Draco's room.  She missed him while he was away.  She worried about him day and night.  It was a wonder that her hair hadn't gone gray.

She tapped her fingers on the huge wardrobe that took up quite a bit of the east wall.  She was thinking.  Hard.  There had to be a way out of this mess she was in!  Sirius wasn't free- yet.  She wasn't really that worried.  She told herself that this was because Dumbledore was in charge and because not even Fudge could make a mockery of the justice system…at least she didn't think so.  She would see to it that he had a very painful death if he tampered with Sirius' life.

 She sighed.  It was almost more than she could bear being cooped up in this house!  Sure, it was huge!  Sure it had a whole lot of stuff.  But it didn't have what she really wanted.  What she wanted was in Azkaban.  Totally and completely out of her reach.

And would Sirius ever be the same again?  She knew he wouldn't.  Azkaban had changed him, but she prayed that he would still be as he was before.  She had a horrifying flash of a scene from Hamlet where Ophelia is lamenting at how great Hamlet once was.

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword,

The expectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mold of form,

The observed of all observers—quite, quite down!

She was no Ophelia…she'd never even cared much for her.  Shaking her head as if to loosen such thoughts from her mind she left the room.


*---*

The fire crackled merrily in the common room 5 days later.

"There has to be something we can do," Harry stated for the 20th time that night.

"Leave it to Dumbledore!!!" Hermione yelled.  I should just make a tape of that sentence, she thought wryly, then I could save my breath…

Harry blinked, "No need to yell, you'll wake everyone up."

Hermione yawned, "He'll get the wand!"

Harry felt a yawn coming also, " I hope so! But even if Dumbledore is powerful, he's, well, proper. He isn't about to go tearing into Fudge's office and threaten to blow him to kingdom come unless he surrenders the wand!"

Hermione has a sudden and ridiculous picture of Albus Dumbledore, dressed as Batman, shaking his finger at Fudge (who was dressed as the Joker).  She snorted.  Harry looked at her questioningly.

"Never mind…"


Ron let out a snore.

"C'mon Harry!" Hermione pleaded, "It's 12:48 and Ron's already asleep! Let's go to bed! It'll be better in the morning."

*---*

Hermione awoke to frantic pounding on her door. She rolled over and found that she was the last one in her dormitory.  Her watch told her that it was breakfast time.  She muttered to herself as she went to the door.

"What could be so important?" she mumbled, her annoyance magnified be lack of sleep.

She put on her dressing gown and opened the door only to be almost run down by her two closest friends.  She was relatively awake now.  She leaned against the wall.

"Harry, Ron," she said, breathing hard, "What on earth do you want?!"

Both looked absolutely terrified.  Harry looked a bit more calm.  His eyes were less wide at least. 

Ron spoke first, "Dumbledore's gone."

No one spoke for a moment.  Hermione was trying to keep from totally losing her mind and was losing the battle.

She looked shocked, "Gone? But- how?"

"Not like mysteriously gone. He left for London," Harry clarified the situation softly, but she could see the hurt in his eyes.  He's thinking of Sirius

"To get the wand?" Hermione asked, mostly out of hope more than anything. 

"To go to some 'ol meeting," Ron told her bitterly, "He won't be back until just in time for the trial!"

"Did he get the wand?" Hermione asked anxiously, though she had a feeling what the answer would be.

"Not that we know of," Harry replied.  Hermione could feel the disappointment in the air.  It was so thick it seemed to choke her.  Her calm façade broke.

"But- but what are we going to do??? The trial's tomorrow!"

"We're working on that," said a quiet voice behind them in the doorway.

Ron and Harry pulled out their wands but Hermione smiled, "It's only Professor Lupin."

They put their wands down, both looking confused, but relieved.

"Whatcha doing here, Professor?" Harry asked a bit more lightly than had spoken earlier.

Lupin smiled, "Call me Remus now that I am no longer your professor. I'm just helping out a bit."

"But profess- Remus," Hermione said with a slight frown, "It's almost the full moon!"

Ron looked at Hermione in disgust, "What didja do? Memorize the calendar?" Hermione gave him an exasperated look.

"Hermione's right, though," Lupin said with some regret, "I can only help today. Tonight, I become I werewolf."

"But we don't even know where the wand is!" Harry reminded him a bit sharply.

"No, Harry, that's not exactly true. It's in Fudge's office. Protected by God only knows how many spells deep inside the Ministry of Magic."

"Dear Lord," Hermione uttered, her eyes pained, "We'll never get it now."

Ron frowned, and tried to remain hopeful, "Sure we will! There has to be a way!"

Hermione, quite upset at this time, rounded on him, "'There has to be a way'?!" she fairly shouted, "Well, you seem to have forgotten that this is the Ministry of Magic that we're talking about robbing!! It's not exactly your average fast food restaurant!"

Ron opened his mouth, most probably to ask what a fast food restaurant was, but Hermione wasn't finished.

"And with only THREE of us!!!"

Harry sighed as he thought about it, "There only are three."

Lupin looked sad, "Harry, I-"

"It's not your fault," Harry cut in quickly and he truly meant it. "We'll find someone else." Where are we going to find someone who will actually go through with this harebrained scheme?! Someone who would help Sirius, he thought, not Snape...and he's the only other one who knows!

There was a tap on the doorframe and two identical redheads entered, grinning. 

"Did we hear someone say something about robbing the Ministry of Magic?" Fred asked with a mischievous smile.

"Oh, hi Professor Lupin," said George.

Ron looked at Harry who looked at Hermione who looked at Lupin. Well, it was help. Harry handed Lupin a certain map from his pocket. Lupin showed it to Fred and George with a smile much like theirs.  It widened as he spoke.

"Call me Moony."

*_*_*_*

After Fred and George had worshipped Lupin for a while, they consented to hear the story. For lack of time, they got a very abridged version telling them of who really betrayed the Potters and how Sirius was innocent of all charges.  Of course, the twins were thrilled with the idea of burglarizing the Ministry and making Fudge a bigger fool than he was already.  It took little persuading; they were raring to go.

They did the little planning that they could and soon, after their last class, it was nightfall. They'd gotten Ron, Fred and George out by writing a note supposedly from their parents (who were, in reality, visiting Charlie) telling some fantastic yarn to get them home. They then snuck to outside the Ministry.

Harry and Hermione left the castle by way of the invisibility cloak. They hopped a ride on Buckbeak and met the Weasleys at the gates of the Ministry of Magic.  Suddenly, that building seemed to loom up, for a moment, as if it were going to swallow them up.  Harry gulped and straightened.  It was up to them.

A/NL: I KNOW!!!  Not Siri/Narcissa fluff yet, but hey!  I've got to get him free first!  Thanks for reviews!  You guys are awesome!

Oh- Narcissa can't testify or leave the house.  Lucius, the evil bastard, would do something to Draco.  He's evil, yep! (Lucius, not Draco.  I am going to redeem Draco…Lord, I sound like one of my favorite characters…*shudder*)

This is six pages long.  That is long for me.  Be happy!

Review again! ^_^

Mrs Grim