Chapter Seven: In Which People Are Saved
"But Harry, you've just said it," Hermione said fiercely. "Dumbledore wanted you to learn to shut these things out of your mind, if you'd done Occlumency properly —"
"DON'T STAND THERE AND PRETEND YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO HAVE SNAPE READ YOUR MIND OVER AND OVER, PRETENDING THAT HE'S ACTUALLY TEACHING SOMETHING WHILE HE'S TAKING PLEASURE IN THE FACT THAT IT IS HURTING ME!"
Silence greeted this statement.
"You have no idea how it is. . . ."
"You . . . This isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do . . . sort of . . . I mean — don't you think you've got a bit of a — a — saving-people-thing?"
"Oh sweet Merlin! Harry's in a frenzy over his godfather being tortured, and the best thing you can say is that? That was probably the worst way to phrase that, and that's saying something considering I'm something of an expert in blunt and rude statements," said Ron.
Hermione's mouth fell open.
"Well? Don't you have something to say to Harry?" said Ron, looking at her expectantly.
"Er — yes. I'm — I'm sorry, Harry."
Harry deflated. "Well — now what should we do?" he asked.
"This whole thing screams setup, but we should check anyways. What sort of methods of communications do we have with Sirius? The Order might have one, the Floo is being monitored, owls take too much time. McGonagall is gone, so is Dumbledore. That leaves . . ."
"Snape," Harry said, horrified. "There's no way we're going to Snape, he'll probably be happy to know Sirius is dying —"
"I know that. Did Sirius give you something to contact him? Anything at all?" she asked, biting her lower lip.
"No — yes! He gave me some package, saying to use it in case I needed to talk to him or something! I never opened it, cause I didn't want him to get caught. . . ."
"I don't think he can get anymore 'caught' than the situation we are dealing with! Let's go!" said Hermione, bursting into action.
They ran all the way to Gryffindor Tower, climbed through the portrait hole, climbed the stairs and flung Harry's trunk open. Harry tore apart the package to reveal the mirror inside.
"Sirius!" shouted Harry.
It turned black.
"It's no good. It probably went bad during Azkaban or wherever it was," said Ron.
Harry screamed in frustration.
"Harry?"
It was his voice. Sirius' voice!
"Harry?"
The trio stared at the mirror. A close up of Sirius Black had appeared on its surface.
It was Hermione who spoke first. "Sirius? Are you in the Department of Mysteries right now?" she asked frantically.
"No. Why would I be anywhere other than Grimmauld Place?" he said bitterly.
Hermione pumped her fist in the air.
"I'm disappointed you never used this mirror, Harry. I thought you actually cared about me," said Sirius, frowning.
"I — well — that is —"
"Oh, ignore him, Sirius. He was under some delusion that caused him to never even open the package containing the mirror. The reason why it was finally opened is — Voldemort's sending him visions of you being tortured," informed Hermione.
"In the Department of Mysteries?" asked Sirius, his eyeballs nearly popping out of their sockets.
"Yes."
"Well that's where the —" Sirius lowered his voice to a whisper "— weapon is! Thank Merlin you didn't go there half-cocked!"
AN: 1) Hermione's been nagging him about Occlumency, which irritates me because — a) She has never learned it herself and b) She knows Snape was terrible to Harry.
2) Really, Hermione? Saving people thing? She's rubbing salt into his wound! He's going crazy because his godfather is being tortured by Voldemort, and that's what she says?
Harry was being reckless and going all Gryffindor on them. One should calm him down rather than provoking him. Seriously.