Chapter 18: Indecision
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any money from writing this. It is merely for my own entertainment. Harry Potter is the sole property of Warner Brothers and J.K Rowling.
"Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right."
- Albus Dumbledore
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When Johnny got back to Grimmauld Place, he collapsed onto a couch. The trip back was long, if uneventful. Granted, it was a hell of a lot faster than if he tried it on the overworld, but that was hardly the point. Molly and Arthur immediately tended to them. Tonks was having that cut on her head healed by the former, and Arthur was helping Kingsley fix up Sirius' dislocated shoulder.
He wasn't bleeding so profusely anymore, but his jacket, shirt, and jeans were stained.
Johnny missed the days were all he was after a night out was a little tired. It was exactly a happier time, per se, he had left James, was all alone, but it was a bit more simple. No magic, dark lords, or annoyingly curious girls.
"Let's fix you up, dear," Molly said, startling him out of his thoughts, wand held aloft.
He nodded his acquiescence, and she got to work.
Immediately he felt relieved as cuts healed. Molly handed him a small purple vial, "Drink up," she said, "blood replenishing potion."
He did, and while it tasted as bad as he expected, he didn't feel as lightheaded as he had before.
"I'll have these cleaned sometime tomorrow, Arthur and I have only just gotten back from the Burrow," she said gesturing to his clothes, "leave them in your hamper. Take it easy too, dear, you're going to feel quite sore."
Molly left him and went into the hall, he could hear her walking up the stairs.
Johnny eyed Tonks, and made to get up and walk over to her. He groaned, Molly wasn't kidding about the soreness.
With some effort, he plopped down next to the auror, who was staring blankly at the ceiling.
"What's up with you?" He asked.
She shook her head. "Nothin'," Tonks muttered.
"Bullshit."
Tonks looked at him, a flash of anger. "We played that like rookies, back there, waltzing in without a plan."
Johnny frowned. "That was the plan, we had to make it look like they'd ambushed us. Didn't have too much of a choice."
She shook her head again. "And that doesn't piss you off? Always being reactionary, never proactive in fighting Voldemort? The only time we've actually made headway was when you and Mad-Eye put a stop to his ventures in muggle London."
"Of course it does," he said, wanting desperately to tell her about he and Dumbledore destroying a horcrux. But the old man had made him promise to keep it quiet. And yeah, it did make him mad, hell, he'd nearly left them because of it. "But you know how it is, nobody's with us, nobody wants to believe us." It wasn't just the two of them that were upset, either, practically every Order member felt like they could - should be doing more, but they trusted Dumbledore's judgment. Maybe a little too much, but it wasn't like he was stupid. You didn't live over a century if you were.
Karkaroff chose that exact moment to come downstairs and start fixing himself a plate for supper. He did a double take as he took in the sight of Johnny's ragged appearance.
"What the hell happened to you?" He asked in Russian. Johnny opened his mouth to answer, but Karkaroff spoke again. "You're getting my favorite sofa covered in blood, you idiot! Up, up!"
"Stop," he said as Karkaroff tried to smack him with a rolling pin, "fuck off!" Johnny said indignantly. "It can be easily cleaned, you dick."
"I forgot that you can speak Russian," Tonks said idly, watching the exchange with amusement, the only positive expression he'd seen on her face all day.
Remus entered the room too, the front door opening giving away his entrance, but upon locking eyes with Tonks, promptly turned around and exited.
A terrible thought entered his head. "You didn't," he said, regarding her as if she were an alien.
Tonks buried her face into her hands, nodding feebly.
Personally, he wasn't surprised he'd shot her down, but felt it unwise to mention that. It made sense now why she'd been in a bad mood the last week or so. Though her points were valid, this made more sense. She had stopped changing her hair to wacky colors, her skin was paler. Was this what she normally looked like?
"Sorry," he said, wrapping an arm around her, and squeezing.
Tonks smiled softly. "S'okay."
He smiled back, before his eyes caught the smudge of blood his jacket had left on the back of her shirt and neck.
His face must have looked terrified, because Tonks frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he said innocently, "nothing at a-"
The fireplace turned green, the body of Severus Snape stepped out from it.
He looked at Sirius first, no malice or hate in his eyes for once, Johnny knew they'd been enemies in school.
"Potter's gone to the Department of Mysteries," he said, and then the whole room erupted into chaos.
Two hours earlier
His eyes swam and scar burned. Harry was beyond angry.
"But Harry - what if your dream was - was just that, a dream?"
Harry let out a roar of frustration. Hermione actually stepped back from him, looking alarmed. They were in an abandoned classroom, he'd just come down from the Hospital Wing. The exam didn't matter anymore, he was probably going to do poorly on it anyway.
"You don't get it!" Harry shouted at her. "I'm not having nightmares, I'm not just dreaming! What d'you think all the Occlumency was for, why d'you think Dumbledore wanted me prevented from seeing these things? Because they're REAL, Hermione - Sirius is trapped - I've seen him - Voldemort's got him, and no one else knows, and that means we're the only ones who can save him, and if you don't want to do it, fine, but I'm going, understand? And if I remember rightly, you didn't have a problem with my saving-people-thing when it was you I was saving from the dementors, or" - he rounded on Ron - "when it was your sister I was saving from the basilisk -"
"I never said I had a problem!" Ron said heatedly.
"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 you'd never have seen this -"
"IF YOU THINK I'M JUST GOING TO ACT LIKE I HAVEN'T SEEN -"
"Sirius told you there was nothing more important than you learning to close your mind!"
"WELL, I EXPECT HE'D SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT IF HE KNEW WHAT I'D JUST -"
The classroom door opened. Harry, Ron, and Hermione whipped around. Ginny walked in, looking curious, followed by Luna, who as usual looked as though she had drifted in accidentally.
"Hi," Ginny said uncertainly. "We recognized Harry's voice - what are you yelling about?"
"Never you mind," Harry said roughly.
Ginny raised her eyebrows. "There's no need to take that tone with me," she said coolly. "I was only wondering whether I could help."
"Well, you can't," Harry said shortly.
"You're being rather rude, you know," Luna said serenely. Harry swore and turned away. The very last thing he wanted now was a conversation with Luna Lovegood.
"Wait," Hermione said suddenly. "Wait, Harry, they can help." Harry and Ron looked at her.
"Listen," she said urgently, "Harry, we need to establish whether Sirius really has left headquarters -"
"I've told you, I saw -"
"Harry, I'm begging you, please!" Hermione said desperately.
"Please let's just check that Sirius isn't at home before we go charging off to London - if we find out he's not there then I swear I won't try and stop you, I'll come, I'll d-do whatever it takes to try and save him -"
"Sirius is being tortured NOW!" Harry shouted. "And so is Johnny! We haven't got time to waste -"
"But if this is a trick of V-Voldemort's, Harry, we've got to check, we've got to -"
"How?" Harry demanded, ignoring how fearful she looked at the mention of Johnny's name. "How're we going to check?"
"We'll have to use Umbridge's fire and see if we can contact them," Hermione said, who looked positively terrified at the thought. "We'll draw Umbridge away again, but we'll need lookouts, and that's where we can use Ginny and Luna."
Though clearly struggling to understand what was going on, Ginny said immediately, "yeah, we'll do it."
"Okay," Harry said aggressively to Hermione, "Okay, if you can think of a way of doing this quickly, I'm with you, otherwise I'm going to the Department of Mysteries right now -"
"The Department of Mysteries?" Luna said, looking mildly surprised. "But how are you going to get there?"
Again, Harry ignored her.
Umbridge had left, now was the time to act. Ron caused the diversion, Ginny and Luna were on the lookout, and he and Hermione were under his invisibility cloak sneaking into the Headmistress' office.
The garish decorations and pink colour palette was still there, unfortunately, and about one hundred little portrait's of cats followed them as they entered, even under the cloak. Harry whipped it off them quickly though, and dashed over to the fireplace. He grabbed a fistful of floo powder and threw it into the fireplace.
Emerald flames roared to life from the logs, and without missing a beat he shoved his head in, yelling "Number twelve, Grimmauld Place!"
Like most methods of magical travel, the floo call made his head spin, so much so that it was like he was on a rollercoaster. Ash blew all over his face, he kept his eyes screwed shut. Harry felt sick, but just before an overwhelming sensation to throw up overtook him, it stopped, and he opened his eyes to take in the sight of the living room at his Godfather's home.
"Sirius?" He shouted. "Sirius, are you there?"
No answer. The fire crackled, and there was a shuffling sound near the right of the fireplace.
"Who's there?" He called, hoping it was someone but fearing it was just going to be a mouse or something.
Kreacher, Sirius' house elf, stepped into view.
"The Potter boy has his head in the fire, what does he want, Kreacher wonders?" The elf muttered to himself, though Harry heard him clearly. He looked very gleeful about something, and both his hands were damaged, by the look of the bandages around his palms.
"Kreacher, where is Sirius?" Harry demanded.
The house-elf gave a wheezy chuckle. "Master has gone out, Harry Potter."
"Where's he gone? Where's he gone, Kreacher?"
Kreacher merely cackled.
"I'm warning you!" Harry said, fully aware that his scope for inflicting punishment upon Kreacher was almost nonexistent in this position. "Where's Johnny and Lupin? Mad-Eye? Any of them, are any of them here?"
"The muggle and half-breed aren't here," Kreacher said gleefully. "Nobody here but Kreacher!" He turned away from Harry, making his way to the door that exited the kitchen area. "Kreacher thinks he will have a little chat with his Mistress now, yes, he hasn't had a chance in a long time, Kreacher's Master has been keeping him away from her -"
"Where has Sirius gone?" Harry yelled after the elf. "Kreacher, has he gone to the Department of Mysteries?"
Kreacher stopped in his tracks, and Harry could feel his own heart beating a mile a minute in anticipation.
"Master does not tell poor Kreacher where he is going," the elf said quietly.
"But you know!" Harry shouted. "Don't you? You know where he is!"
There was a moment's silence, then the elf let out his loudest cackle yet. "Master will not come back from the Department of Mysteries!" He said gleefully. "Kreacher and his Mistress are alone again!" And he scurried forward and disappeared through the door to the hall.
"You - !"
But before he could utter a single curse or insult, Harry felt a great pain at the top of his head. He inhaled a lot of ash and, choking, found himself being dragged backward through the flames until, with a horrible abruptness, he was staring up into the wide, pallid face of Professor Umbridge, who had dragged him backward out of the fire by the hair and was now bending his neck back as far as it would go as though she was going to slit his throat.
Tracey watched in horror as Harry was yanked back into the office. Her heart was beating incredibly fast, Weasley was almost able to escape from her grip, which, admittedly, wouldn't have been very hard for him if she hadn't already hit one of his arms with a numbing jinx and his wand in her robe pocket.
They had been assembled by Umbridge once she'd gotten out of her office, the woman knew from the start that it was a ploy. Weasley lied about Peeves destroying the Transfiguration office, which was on the other side of the school, but apparently Filch had informed her of the poltergeists tampering with telescopes.
Warrington had nabbed Longbottom along the way, who tried to stop him from apprehending the other Weasley in the hall. Millicent had Granger in almost a chokehold, handing over her wand to Umbridge. Crabbe and Goyle both had Lovegood and the other Weasley, while Malfoy and Pansy simply stood there smirking at them.
She kept her wand jabbed into the back of Weasley, and Tracey prayed that he couldn't feel her hand shaking.
"So, Potter," she said, hand holding Harry's hair in a death grip, "You stationed lookouts around my office and you sent this buffoon," she gestured to Weasley, Draco laughed some more, "to lead me on some wild chase on the other side of the castle, yes? Who were you trying to contact?" Umbridge cut right to it. "Albus Dumbledore? Sirius Black? Certainly not Minerva McGonagall, I don't imagine she's up to much of anything lately..."
Tracey grit her teeth, Weasley tried to move again but she nipped that in the bud with another rough jab of her wand and a stinging hex. How could that vile woman joke about something like that?
"It's none of your business who I talk to!" Harry snarled.
Umbridge's falsely sweet façade faltered.
"I see," she said, and unpleasant look on her face, her voice dangerous, "I gave you the opportunity to tell me freely, but you refused. Now I'll have to force you."
Her words sent a chill down Tracey's spine. Umbridge turned to Draco; "Fetch Professor Snape for me, Draco."
Malfoy stowed Harry's wand inside his robes and left the room smirking.
The following silence was filled with tension, as they waited. Umbridge still kept a strong hold on Harry while the other members of the Inquisitorial Squad held onto their captives. Both Granger and Longbottom were turning purple from the strangling holds Warrington and Millicent had on them, Tracey feared they'd pass out soon.
"You wanted to see me, Headmistress?" Snape said as he entered the room, looking around at all the pairs of struggling students with an expression of complete indifference.
"Ah, Professor Snape," Umbridge said, smiling widely and standing up again. "Yes, I would like another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can, please."
His eyes locked onto Harry's. "I'm sorry," he drawled after a moment, looking back at Umbridge. "But you've used up the last of my stores interrogating Potter."
Tracey looked at Umbridge aghast. She had used veritaserum on Harry?
The woman in question looked furious that her smoking gun was being taken away from her.
"You can make some more, can't you?" She asked so sweetly it made Tracey cringe.
"Certainly," Snape said, lip curling, "in one month, it takes a full moon cycle, you see…"
"One month?!" Umbridge practically squawked. "But I have just caught Potter red-handed using my floo to talk to person or persons unknown! I need a vial right now!"
"Really?" Snape said lightly, totally indifferent, but his eyes flittered back to Harry's. "That doesn't surprise me, Potter's never had much regard for the rules." Snape kept staring at Harry, and as Tracey made to look at him, noticed that Harry was staring back intensely, his jaw clenched.
"I wish to interrogate him!" Umbridge said angrily.
"And I have told you," Snape replied coolly, returning his gaze to her, "that, unless you wish to poison him, which, I assure you, I would have the greatest sympathy if you did… I cannot help you."
"You… you.." Umbridge stuttered furiously, "you are on probation! You are being deliberately unhelpful! I am incredibly disappointed. Lucius Malfoy always spoke highly of you. Now get out of my office!"
Snape's eyebrows raised minutely, but he merely gave an ironic bow in response.
"As you wish, Headmistress."
He made to leave, but just as Snape stepped out the door, another voice spoke.
"He's got Padfoot!" Harry shouted. "He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!"
"Padfoot?" Umbridge cried, looking eagerly from Harry to Snape "What is Padfoot? Where what is hidden What does he mean, Snape?"
Snape looked around at Harry. His face was inscrutable.
Everyone else seemed just as confused as Umbridge, Tracey included. What was Harry talking about?
"I have no idea," he said, before turning on his heel and leaving, his robe billowing after him.
"Very well…" Umbridge fumed, looking quite mad, "very well… yes… I am left with no alternative… this has become Ministry business now… yes…"
Draco and some of the others had an almost hungry expression on their faces. Tracey looked at Daphne, who was wide eyed, barely even holding Weasley captive anymore.
"I do not want to do this Potter," Umbridge continued, "but you are forcing me. Sometimes the circumstances justify the actions, I'm sure the minister would understand…"
Tracey saw the manic look on Umbridge's face, and a horrible sense of dread washed over her.
"The Cruciatus curse ought to loosen your tongue."
"No! Granger shrieked, her voice cracked as she got out of Millicent's hold. Tracey nearly screamed too. "That's illegal, Professor Umbridge, you can't!"
"What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him…" Umbridge trailed off, pointing her wand at different parts of Harry's body, trying to decide where to start. "He never knew I ordered dementors after Potter last summer, but he was delighted to be given the chance to expel him, all the same."
"It was you?" Harry gasped. "You sent the dementors after me?"
"Somebody had to act," Umbridge breathed as her wand came to rest pointing directly at Harry's forehead "They were all bleating about silencing you somehow - discrediting you - but I was the one who actually did something about it. Only you wriggled out of that one, didn't you, Potter? Not today, though, not now…"
And taking a deep breath, she cried "Cruc -"
"NO!" Granger sobbed in a cracked voice. "Harry - Harry, we'll have to tell her!"
"What?" Harry cried, not looking away from Umbridge. "No way!"
Even Weasley shouted at Granger, Tracey didn't even bother trying to restrain him.
"Well, well, well!" Umbridge said, cutting Harry off, looking triumphant. "Little Miss Know-It-All is going to give us some answers! Come on then, girl, come on!"
Millicent let Granger go towards Umbridge, and the headmistress grabbed her by the arm.
"With whom was Potter communicating just now?" She demanded.
"Well…" Granger gulped into her hands. "Well we were trying to contact Professor Dumbledore…"
Weasley froze in front of her, even the other captives had stopped struggling. Something was going on here…
"Dumbledore?" Umbridge said excitedly. "You know where he is then?"
"Well… no!" Granger cried. "We've tried the Leaky Cauldron, the Hog's Head, but-"
"Silly girl!" Umbridge snapped, interrupting her. "Dumbledore wouldn't be sitting in a pub with the whole ministry looking for him!"
"But - but we needed to tell him something important!" Granger sobbed again.
"What was it you wanted to tell him?" Umbridge said, eagerness back.
"T-that it was ready," Granger wailed, "what he wanted us to do, it's complete."
Umbridge's eyes bulged. "What's ready? Tell me girl!"
"The… the weapon."
"Weapon? Weapon?" Umbridge said, and her eyes seemed to pop with excitement. "You have been developing some method of resistance? A weapon you could use against the Ministry? On Professor Dumbledore's orders, of course?"
"Y-yes!" Granger gasped. "We didn't really u-understand how it worked, b-but w-we just did what Prof-professor Dumbledore a-asked!"
Umbridge straightened up, looking exultant. "Lead me to the weapon," she said.
"I'm not showing… them," Granger said shrilly, looking around at Tracey and the rest of the Slytherins through her fingers.
"You are in no position to make demands," Umbridge almost snarled.
"Fine," Granger said, now sobbing into her hands again, "fine… let them see it, I hope they use it on you! In fact, I wish you'd invite loads and loads of people to come and see! Th-that would serve you right - oh, I'd love it if the wh-whole school knew where it was, and how to u-use it, and then if you annoy any of them they'll be able to s-sort you out!"
These words had a powerful impact on Umbridge. She glanced swiftly and suspiciously around at her Inquisitorial Squad, her bulging eyes resting for a moment on Draco, who was too slow to disguise the look of eagerness and greed that had appeared on his face.
"Alright…" she said quietly after a moment. "Alright then Granger, you'll lead me too it, and let's take Potter along as well, shall we?"
"Professor," Draco started, "I think it would be a good idea to bring me or another member of the squad along with you-"
"Nonsense, Draco," Umbridge cut him off, "I am a ministry official, perfectly capable of handling two unarmed teenagers, am I not?"
Draco made to speak again but Umbridge was already heading for the door, Harry and Granger ahead of her. "Watch over them," she gestured to Lovegood, the two Weasley's, and Longbottom. "I will be back soon."
Harry locked eyes with Tracey on the way out, a pleading look in his eyes.
The door shut, leaving just the others alone now. Draco shifted from foot to foot, unsure of what to do, Pansy also looked clueless.
Tracey couldn't care less, her mind kept replaying that look Harry gave her over and over again.
None of this was right. Umbridge was about to use an Unforgivable on him for Merlin's sake!
She'd let Harry down already - though unintentionally - Tracey was determined not to do it again.
Harry needed her help.
And Tracey had a terrible idea of how to give it.
Slowly, trying her best not to make it obvious, she slipped her hand into her robe and retrieved Weasley's wand. Surely her numbing charm had worn off by now? She took one last glance around the room, nobody was looking at her, before grabbing his right hand, pulling it behind her back, and placing his wand in it.
She went on the tip of her toes to whisper into his ear, he was way taller than her.
"Go for Draco, I'll take Pansy."
Despite his confusion and wariness, Ron didn't need to be told twice.
"Stupefy!" Their voices called out, and both Draco and Pansy were too shocked to defend themselves, dropping in a heap onto the floor.
The other Squad members were laughably easy to take down now, Crabbe and Goyle were more muscle than duelists, the same went for Bulstrode. Greengrass was an unknown but to him, Warrington was the only real threat, and he already has his wand out and pointed at Davis.
"Traitor!" He shouted, sending a stunner her way.
Ron erected a shield just in time, she had her attention on Goyle.
He sent back a few more spells that Warrington blocked, the guy was two years older than him, would surely be advanced… but he wasn't Harry.
Ron shot off curse after curse, even a few hexes. Warrington blocked or dodged most, but the seventh year couldn't land a hit on Ron either, it was a stalemate.
Until Ginny leapt onto his back and put him in a chokehold.
Ron's eyes widened at the display from his sister, but a moment later he sent a stunner at Warrington's chest that connected, sending both of them into the wall.
Ginny grunted, and with Ron's help, was able to extract herself from under the large Slytherin.
"Couldn't have disarmed him instead?"
"Sorry," Ron replied sheepishly. He turned around, intent on helping Davis, when he noticed that both Neville and Luna were tied together with ropes, and that Davis was taking on Crabbe and Goyle alone.
Bulstrode was out cold, slumped against a wall nearby, and Greengrass still just stood still at her spot by the door.
Ron ignored her for now, firing off another stunner at Goyle. It connected, but he was the one Davis was sending a spell at, the split second it took for her to change targets left her open for an easy shot from Crabbe. And the boy had his wand out too, a shout forming on his lips when a red spell caught him in the side of the head.
All eyes turned to the door, Greengrass had her wand pointed out, a look of shock on her face.
"I… I-" She stuttered. "Tracey, what have we done?"
Davis approached her friend as Ginny made to untie Neville and Luna.
"The right thing, Daph." Davis responded, lightly grabbing her friend's shoulders.
"She… I mean, she was going to use an unforgivable on him!"
"I know," Davis soothed. "That's why… that's why we're going to help him. Right now." She turned to the Ron and the others, who by now had their wands back and were by his side. "Right?" She asked, suddenly unsure.
He wanted to say no, years at this school, he should have said no. But Davis helped him, Greengrass too, though that might have been more for her friend than for them. Ron remembered Davis being Harry's friend too though, and he sighed.
"Fuck it, let's go."
The relief she felt was so bloody strong, Tracey could hardly stand up straight.
She spared her dorm mates one last glance, before running off. Merlin, things were going to be different next year.
"Do you even know where they went?" Longbottom asked Weasley as Tracey and Daphne caught up to them.
There was a grim look on his face as they jogged along. "I have an idea."
Several students looked at them oddly as they went by, and it felt weird to Tracey that they had no idea what had just transpired. They were moving about with their daily lives, and here she was on a rescue mission.
A familiar face greeted them when they got to the large double doors at the backside of the castle.
It was Blaise, running up to them in his robes from out of a classroom, a book bag slung around his back.
He raised his hands to sign something at Daphne and her, but before he could, four wands were pointed at him.
"Wait!" She shouted. "He's a friend! He's here to help!"
Blaise, looking stricken at the number of wands threatening him, turned back to Tracey with wide eyes.
What's going on? He signed.
"We've just fought with the rest of the Inquisitorial Squad," Daphne said, speaking so fast Tracey almost didn't understand. Several students had stopped to watch the exchange. "The headmistress has taken Potter and Granger somewhere, she was about to use the Cruciatus!"
Blaise's eyes widened even more.
"Look," Weasley interrupted, "you can come with us if you want, but we've got to get moving." He said. "Harry needs us, so make up your bloody minds!"
And without warning, the other four took off again. The three Slytherins shared a look, before following suit.
It was a testament to the seriousness of the situation that Weasley had basically invited Blaise along, despite his deep dislike for all things Slytherin.
They'd barely made it outside when Weasley nearly barrelled into Granger and Harry.
"Blimey!" He cried, stepping back. "We were just about to come rescue you!"
Harry and Granger were covered in dirt, with a few twigs stuck in their hair.
"What happened to Umbridge?" Longbottom asked.
Granger made to open her mouth, but Harry spoke first.
"Never mind that," he said, looking at the three newcomers, his expression so grateful as they locked eyes, but oh so serious. "How'd you get away?"
Weasley had an unreadable look on his face, before jabbing his thumb back at her. "Davis slipped me my wand, and we fought them."
She blushed under the look Harry was giving her.
"Thank you," he said sincerely.
"Of course," she managed, "If I knew you were leading that group Umbridge wanted to catch, I would have never helped her."
He nodded, and it felt like an enormous weight had lifted off her shoulders.
"Harry," Ron said, bringing his attention back to him, "what did you find out in the fire, is Siri-Snuffles, er, where we thought he'd be?"
The slip up confused her, she'd heard him make it once before on the train back from holidays.
Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"Yeah," he said, "yeah he is - listen," he started, looking at Tracey, Daphne and Blaise. "You helped them escape, and that means more to me than you could ever know. I don't have time to explain it fully, but basically, during the History of Magic exam, I had a vision of Voldemort torturing my Godfather at the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry."
This news was incredibly shocking, to say the least, Tracey never knew he had a Godfather.
"I can't ask you to follow me on blind faith, so you should head off to find Snape or maybe Flitwick, and let them know what happened." He seemed to think about it for a moment. "Yeah, definitely find Snape."
"Wait a minute," Tracey said, finding her voice, "you can't seriously be saying that you plan on breaking into the Ministry?"
"I am," Harry nodded, "Me, Hermione, and Ron-"
"Oi!" The other Weasley shouted. "We're coming too!"
"No you're not," the older one said angrily.
She didn't back down though. "We can hold our own! You can't just leave us out!"
An argument broke out, mostly between Harry and the two Weasley's.
After a few moments, Longbottom spoke up quietly, but his words were heard by everyone.
"We were all in the D.A. together," he said, "It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real - or was that all just a game or something?"
"No - of course it wasn't -" Harry said impatiently.
"Then we should come too," Neville said simply. "We want to help."
"That's right," Lovegood said, smiling happily.
"Us too," Tracey piped up, "we'll help you." Blaise nodded immediately, and she felt a rush of affection for her friend.
After a few moments, Daphne nodded hesitantly as well.
"It doesn't matter anyway," Harry said, voice laced with frustration. "We still have no way to get there."
"We could always fly," Lovegood suggested dreamily, looking at a spot above Harry's shoulder.
Weasley made to respond, looking very annoyed, when Harry suddenly shouted in surprise.
"Yes!"
Tracey turned to look where he had, but couldn't see a thing.
Harry looked like he'd won the lottery though, and rushed a few paces across the field with urgency.
"Everyone," he called, "mount a Thestral. We're flying to the Ministry."