"Let's go," Kelly said quietly. "I don't want to be late. This sounds like it'll be really important."
Harry had never needed her words less. The two of them quietly crawled through the portrait hole, not bothering to reply to the Fat Lady's reprimand of "sneaking out in the dead of night where they could lose Gryffindor house points". They slipped on the cloak and were off.
They were surprised to find, however, that there was no need for the cloak at all in the corridors. There were no prefects or caretakers with maddening cats or poltergeists or ghosts about. They traveled through the halls with absurd ease. Harry and Kelly reached the Great Hall in a shorter time span than they had ever done on any night, with the absence of prefects. When they entered, it was also much fuller than they had expected; more than teachers were present.
Dumbledore sat at the head of one gleaming table in the middle of the hall; all the other tables had been cleared out and were leaning against the walls. Predictably, to his left was Minerva McGonagall, and next to her Severus Snape. A line of teachers followed along both sides of Dumbledore, followed by Filch and Hagrid, the Head Boy and Girl, and, to Harry's astonishment, the prefects. Ron was sitting near the end of the table, Malfoy and Pansy a little after him on the opposite side. How Ron had arrived before Harry and Kelly was a mystery to them, or how he'd known about the meeting, but Dumbledore stood up and they didn't word this suspicion to each other.
While minor chatting had been going on before, it ended abruptly as people realized Dumbledore was standing. "As you are all aware, Miss Hermione Granger has disappeared."
Several nods of acknowledgement ran across the room.
"We have received… a letter from Voldemort." Several shivers ran down the room, too, at Dumbledore's words. "It was a threat. If Harry Potter does not come to the Bryth on March thirteenth, he will kill her."
Several gasps went around the room, including Kelly. Harry had no idea what the Bryth was, but he understood that if he didn't show up, Hermione would die.
"Not… not the Bryth, Dumbledore?" Professor Sinistra asked, her voice shaking.
"Yes," Dumbledore confirmed sadly. "The Bryth."
"What's the Bryth?" Hannah Abbott asked down the table.
"It's a very bad place, very bad indeed…" Professor Sprout said. "No one good ever goes there for so many horrible people stay there. Hags, I've even heard trolls were there once, goblins, giants even, a lot of horrible creatures… Death Eaters, sometimes… and apparently the Dark Lord, now."
"So… if Harry went," Ron spoke up shakily, "then… then he wouldn't likely return?"
"No, Mr. Weasley, he likely would not," McGonagall said. "But knowing the Dark Lord, I doubt Miss Granger would, either."
A vast majority of people nodded in agreement.
"So what shall we do? March thirteenth... that's a Friday, is it not?" Madam Hooch inquired.
Professor Trelawney shrieked. "Friday the thirteenth! He mustn't go, Dumbledore, he mustn't go!"
"Oh, shut up for once, Sibyll," McGonagall snapped. "Although Potter really shouldn't go anyway, stop with all this thirteen nonsense! 'When thirteen dine together, the first to rise will be the first to die!' And now all this Friday the thirteenth rubbish! Do--"
"That is enough, Minerva," Dumbledore said quietly.
McGonagall became quiet, still glaring at Trelawney, who glared right back. Several prefects who took or had taken Divination glanced at each other and repressed snorts with difficulty. It was a good thing Parvati and Lavender weren't here, Harry thought vaguely.
"The question at hand is whether to tell Harry or not," Dumbledore said softly, looking around the room, pausing slightly at members of the Order. "If we don't tell him, he will, of course, not go, not being aware of the fact. If we do tell him, it is almost entirely guaranteed that he shall go to Miss Granger's rescue."
"We won' tell 'im!" Hagrid said abruptly. "We can' loose Harry!"
"I think we should tell Potter," Malfoy said quietly, though nevertheless everyone heard him.
"You do, do you, Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Vector asked.
"I do, Professor," Malfoy agreed. "I think Potter should make the choice on his own."
Harry could have sworn he saw Dumbledore and Snape briefly exchange significant looks.
"He will most certainly choose to save her!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed.
"So he may, but is that not his choice? Does he not have the choice to say 'no'? Are we going to make Potter's choices for him like the child he is, or let him make them on his own?" Malfoy sneered.
McGonagall gave Malfoy a scathing look at the child comment, but everyone else seemed to be thinking Malfoy's words over.
"Let's… let's tell him," Ron choked.
Everyone looked at him. He had been the last person they expected to agree with Malfoy, much less actually agree to tell Harry the ransom.
"Just… just this once," Ron said, though he seemed to be forcing the words out, "Malfoy's right. Harry can choose, even if… even if he probably will make the choice to save Hermione. Like he said, isn't … isn't that his choice?"
Some slowly nodded. It was Harry's choice to make.
"I say let's tell Potter," Professor Sinistra said.
"Yeah, tell Potter!" the Head Boy said, whose name Harry did not know.
"Tell Potter," Snape echoed softly.
Soon the only people who had not chimed in were McGonagall, Trelawney, and Dumbledore, who did not seem like he was going to voice his decision.
McGonagall, not wanting to have anything to do with Trelawney, reluctantly said that Potter should know.
Trelawney looked quite nervous at being the last one. "But… the thirteenth!"
"TELL POTTER!" several teachers roared.
"Oh… all right! Tell him, then!" Trelawney abruptly stood up and forced her chair under the table. "I will be crystal gazing if anyone needs me. I will go and see about the boy's death!"
She stomped away, almost running into Harry and Kelly under the cloak.
"So when do we tell him?" Professor Vector asked when Trelawney had left.
"He already knows," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling though they did not look in Harry and Kelly's direction. Harry had the sneaking suspicion that he had known they were there all along.
"What?" McGonagall asked sharply.
"Let's just say Harry has eyes everywhere," Dumbledore said, looking at Ron. Ron grinned in understanding. "Well," Dumbledore continued, "the meeting is over then! Harry knows of the ransom and the decision is his to make. I bid you all goodnight!"
The teachers and prefects except Ron and Dumbledore slowly got up, rather confused. As they filed out, Harry caught Dumbledore's eye and grinned mischievously. Dumbledore's eyes merely twinkled a little more brightly.
When it was only Ron, Dumbledore, Harry, and Kelly left in the Great Hall, Harry took off the cloak.
"So what will you do, Harry?" Dumbledore inquired quietly, looking him straight in the eyes, something Harry was rather grateful for; he had barely done it the year before when Dolores Umbridge had been there.
"I… I dunno, yet. I mean… I can't let Hermione just die…." Harry said.
"I'll go with you, if you choose to go," Kelly said, putting an arm around him. "I know this is a hard choice."
"And I'll go with you, too," Ron agreed, getting up and walking towards Harry.
Dumbledore smiled. "I suppose I should proclaim my support next?"
Harry grinned. "If you would like to come, by all means."
"So you're going then?" Ron asked.
Harry thought for a moment. "Yes, but I think I'm going to bring a few more friends than are here with me."
Harry smiled at the confused look on Ron and Kelly's faces. Dumbledore's eyes simply twinkled in understanding.