Ah wondrous Thursday, what story shall we read today... Hello again my readers! So nice it is to meet with you again for the next installment of ANP. Please Read, Review and above all, enjoy the work I have put together for our mutual benefit!
Chapter Sixteen
Past, Present, and Future
The story of Fred and George's flight to freedom was retold so often over the next few days that Harry could tell it would soon become the stuff of Hogwarts legend: within a week, even those who had been eye-witnesses were half-convinced they had seen the twins dive-bomb Umbridge on their brooms and pelt her with Dungbombs before zooming out of the doors. In the immediate aftermath of their departure there was a great wave of talk about copying them. Harry frequently heard students saying things like, "Honestly some days I just feel like jumping on my broom and leaving this place," or else, "One more lesson like that and I might just do a Weasley."
Fred and George had made sure nobody was likely to forget them too soon. For one thing, they had not left instructions on how to remove the swamp that now filled the corridor on the fifth floor of the east wing. Umbridge and Filch had been observed trying different means of removing it but without success. Eventually the area was roped off and Filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was given the task of punting students across it to their classrooms. Harry was certain that teachers like McGonagall or Flitwick could have removed the swamp in an instant but, just as in the case of Fred and Georges Wildfire Whiz-bangs, they seemed to prefer to watch Umbridge struggle.
Despite the twin's departure, Umbridge's troubles were far from over. Inspired by Fred and George's example, a great number of students were now vying for the newly vacant positions of Troublemakers-in-Chief. Someone had managed to slip a Niffler into Umbridge's office, which promptly tore the place apart in its search for shiny objects, and leapt on Umbridge herself when she entered and tried to gnaw the rings off her stubby fingers. Dungbombs and Stink Pellets were dropped so frequently in the corridors that it became the new fashion for students to perform Bubble-Head Charms on themselves before leaving lessons.
But absolutely no one came anywhere close to the havoc Faykan unleashed upon the school. In his guise as a vengeance seeking shade, he soared through the castle, demolishing classrooms, setting massive wildfires or miniature hurricanes racing through corridors, flooded the entire fourth floor, herded the entire Owlery through the school, animated the suits of armor and sent them into battle against each other, waging a massive mock war in the Great Hall during dinner, and whenever he fancied a break, blew a massive hunting horn and set off after Umbridge as the large black Kitsune, breathing fire and lightning after her as he went on a rampage. It was a proof to the amount of power and concentration Faykan possessed that he managed to do all of it, and still attend lessons, training sessions and finish his homework before even Hermione.
None of the staff but Filch seemed to be stirring themselves to help her. Indeed, a week after Fred and George's departure Harry witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Faykan in his animagus form, and clearly heard her point out that Umbridge was currently near the library. As Faykan howled balefully and bounded away, Harry swore he heard the Transfiguration teacher giggle as she walked the other way.
To cap matters, Montague had still not recovered from his sojourn in the toilet; he remained confused and disorientated and his parents were observed one Tuesday morning striding up the front drive, looking extremely angry.
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Draco watched with Harry, Ron, and Hermione as Faykan strode into the Room of Requirement, a book in one hand and a black cloth covered orb in the other. Draco recognized the Palantír immediately, having seen it almost every other day for the last two years.
"We're going to do something slightly different today," Faykan announced as he gently planted the orb in the center of the table, pulling the cloth away to reveal the swirling blackness. He then sat behind it and smiled at them all. "Instead of training, or working on homework today, I think it would be beneficial for me to read to you all." As Faykan lifting the book and cracking it open, Draco glanced at the well worn and ancient looking pages.
"Read what?" Hermione asked, also glancing at the tome in curiosity.
"The history of the Third Age..." Faykan replied, gesturing at the lights around the room, dimming them slightly. He then held his hand over the dark Palantír, palm down, fingers spread wide. The orb flashed, the glowed, revealing images as Faykan began to tell them the tale. "It begins, with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the elven kings, under the sky. Seven rings for the dwarf lords, the great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings made for mortal men, who above all else desired power, and to escape their 'doom' of death. Within these rings was bound the strength and will to govern each race, but they were all deceived, for another ring was made. In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Orodruin, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret a master ring, to control all the others. And into this ring he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life…"
Faykan continued on, and Draco and the other Gryffindors listened in rapt attention. The Palantír showing visions of the mighty armies of the Last Alliance, then the decline of the Kings of Gondor and the finding of the One Ring by a halfling named Bilbo Baggins. He spoke, in a tone filled with fondness and a strange sense of familiarity, of the wizard Gandalf, and his guidance of the Fellowship of the Ring, that set out from the elven settlement of Imladris, consisting of Frodo Baggins, the halfling who inherited the Ring from Bilbo, along with his three friends Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Peregrin Took, as well as the dwarf Gimli, the elf prince Legolas, and two men, Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and Boromir of Gondor.
Harry, Ron and Hermione gasped when the Palantír showed the face of Aragorn, "He looks just like Sirius!" Harry exclaimed, but Faykan only smiled before pressing on with the story. Draco presumed questions were to be answered after, if at all.
The scenes flashed on, until Draco saw something familiar. The Fellowship had progressed to the underground realm of Moria, and Draco and Harry gaped as they saw the same scene they had witnessed two year previous, of Gandalf facing the Balrog of Morgoth, and falling into the darkness of Khazad-dûm. Hermione started to tear up upon hearing the death of the old wizard. But the story was far from over.
Draco felt a kind of kinship spark within him as Faykan told of the exploits of Aragorn, King Elessar, the heir of Isildur, son of Elendil of Númenor. The great hunt through Rohan after Merry and Pippen, then Edoras and King Théoden, followed by the battle of Helm's Deep and the later battle of the Pelennor Fields, cumulating finally at the battle of the Morannon and the fall of Sauron when Frodo destroyed the One Ring. Each event sang in Draco's heart, and at the coronation of King Elessar, Draco could almost envision himself and Ginny in the place of Aragorn and Queen Arwen Undómiel. The thought made is heart jump slightly, then burn as he remembered that Ginny was currently with Michael Corner and not him.
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Hermione watched as Ron, Faykan and the rest of the Gryffindor team zoom around the pitch, playing against Ravenclaw for the Quidditch Cup. Although Slytherin had been narrowly defeated by Hufflepuff in their last match, Gryffindor were not daring to hope for victory, due mainly (though of course nobody said it to him) to Ron's abysmal goal-keeping record. "You know," Hermione commented to Harry as the match started, "I think Ron might do better without Fred and George around. They never exactly gave him a lot of confidence."
"And they're off!" said Lee. "And Davies takes the Quaffle immediately, Ravenclaw Captain Davies with the Quaffle, he dodges Johnson, he dodges Bell, he dodges Spinnet as well . . . he's going straight for goal! He's going to shoot… and… and…" Lee swore very loudly. "And he's scored." Harry and Hermione groaned with the rest of the Gryffindors
"Harry," said a hoarse voice behind them "Hermione…"
They both looked round and saw Hagrid's enormous bearded face sticking between the seats. Apparently, he had squeezed his way all along the row behind, for the first- and second-years he had just passed had a ruffled, flattened look about them. For some reason, Hagrid was bent double as though anxious not to be seen, though he was still at least four feet taller than everybody else.
"Listen," he whispered, "can yeh come with me? Now? While ev'ryone's watchin' the match?"
"Err... can't it wait, Hagrid?" asked Harry. "till the match is over?"
"No," said Hagrid. "No, Harry, it's gotta be now... while ev'ryone's lookin' the other way... please?" Hagrid's nose was gently dripping blood. His eyes were both blackened. It was a rather grisly sight.
"Course," said Harry at once, "course we'll come."
She followed Harry as they edged back along their row of seats. "I 'ppreciate this, you two, I really do," said Hagrid as they reached the stairs. He kept looking around nervously as they descended towards the lawn below. "I jus' hope she doesn' notice us goin'."
"You mean Umbridge?" said Harry. "She won't, she's got her whole Inquisitorial Squad sitting with her, didn't you see? She must be expecting trouble at the match."
"Yeah, well, a bit o' trouble wouldn' hurt," said Hagrid, pausing to peer around the edge of the stands to make sure the stretch of lawn between there and his cabin was deserted. "Give us more time."
"What is it, Hagrid?" said Hermione, looking up at him with concern as they hurried across the grass toward the edge of the forest.
"Yeh… yeh'll see in a mo'," replied Hagrid, looking over his shoulder as a great roar rose from the stands behind them. "Hey, did someone jus' score?"
"It'll be Ravenclaw," said Harry heavily.
"Good... good..." said Hagrid distractedly. "Tha's good..."
They had to jog to keep up with him as he strode across the lawn, looking around with every other step. When they reached his cabin, Hermione turned automatically left towards the front door. Hagrid, however, walked straight past it into the shade of the trees on the outermost edge of the Forest, where he picked up a crossbow that was leaning against a tree. When he realised they were no longer with him, he turned.
"We're goin' in here," he said, jerking his shaggy head behind him.
"Into the Forest?" said Hermione, rather perplexed.
"Yeah," said Hagrid. "C'mon now, quick, before we're spotted!"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other, then ducked into the cover of the trees behind Hagrid, who was already striding away from them into the green gloom, his crossbow over his arm. Harry and Hermione ran to catch up with him.
"Hagrid, why are you armed?" said Harry.
"Jus' a precaution," said Hagrid, shrugging his massive shoulders.
"You didn't bring your crossbow the day you showed us the Thestrals," said Hermione, slightly frightened. She had only been in the forest once, back in first year, but from the stories Harry, Ron, Draco and Faykan told, she was very keen to never enter it again.
'Nah, well, we weren' goin' in so far then,' said Hagrid.
The path was becoming increasingly overgrown and the trees grew so closely together as they walked further and further into the Forest that it was as dark as dusk. Hermione had no idea where they might be going or why until they reached a small clearing made by uprooted trees. In the center lay a giant pair of mounds, and Hermione gasped when she realized what they were.
It was a giant.
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"I don't believe him," said Hermione in a very unsteady voice, the moment they were out of earshot of Hagrid. "I don't believe him. I really don't believe him."
"Calm down," said Harry.
"Calm down!" she said feverishly. "A giant! A giant in the Forest! And we're supposed to give him English lessons! I… don't… believe… him!"
"We haven't got to do anything yet!" Harry tried to reassure her in a quiet voice, as they joined a stream of jabbering Hufflepuffs heading back towards the castle. "He's not asking us to do anything unless he gets chucked out and that might not even happen."
"Oh, come off it, Harry!" said Hermione angrily, stopping dead in her tracks so that the people behind had to swerve to avoid her. "Of course he's going to be chucked out and, to be perfectly honest, after what we've just seen, who can blame Umbridge?"
There was a pause in which Harry glared at her, and her eyes filled slowly with tears. "You didn't mean that," said Harry quietly. "No... well... all right... I didn't," she said, wiping her eyes angrily. "But why does he have to make life so difficult for himself, for us?"
"I dunno…"
A great tide of students was moving up the sloping lawns from the pitch. Harry and Hermione turned, expecting a sea of green and silver, and were surprised to find a mass of red and gold moving slowly towards the castle, bearing a solitary figure upon its many shoulders.
"No?" said Hermione in a hushed voice.
"YES!" said Harry loudly.
"HARRY! HERMIONE!" yelled Ron, waving the silver Quidditch cup in the air and looking quite beside himself. "WE DID IT! WE WON!"
They beamed up at him as he passed. There was a scrum at the door of the castle and Ron's head got rather badly bumped on the lintel, but nobody seemed to want to put him down. Faykan squeezed through the crowd toward them, earning several hard pats on the back as he passed excited Gryffindors, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"And I thought you didn't like Quidditch…" Harry said teasingly, punching Faykan softly in the shoulder. Faykan smirked in return, and listened as Harry and Hermione explained their 'little' trip into the forest during the match.
"Well, that actually explains quite a lot…" Faykan said after they had finished, as they entered the Gryffindor common room. Harry wished they could tell Ron, but he was too far gone in revelry over the outcome of the match to listen properly to much else.
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Draco could smell the change in the air the first week of June. Their O. had come at last. The professors stopped giving out homework, devoting their time to revising and reviewing for the all important tests that were to come. Most students were giving all the free time over to extra studying except, not to any astonishment of Draco or his rest of the A.D.A., Faykan. They boy wasn't even planning on taking all of the O.W.L tests that the rest of the students had to, as his 'career' was already set. Professor Snape had stated that all he had to do was take the Herbology, Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration O. for his plan of becoming a Potions Master, unless he desired to take any others. None of them were surprised when he declined to take any others except for Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Professor Snape handed out the Slytherin's exam schedules the last morning before the exams, "As you can clearly see, your O. are spread over two successive weeks. You will sit the theory papers in the mornings and the practices in the afternoons. Your practical Astronomy examination will, obviously, take place at night. And I am warning each of you now. The most stringent anti-cheating charms have been applied to your examination papers. Auto-Answer Quills are banned from the examination hall, as are Remembralls, Detachable Cribbing Cuffs and Self-Correcting Ink. Every year some dunderhead tries to get around these rules and every year they are caught and severely punished. If I catch any of you as a guilty party to any form of cheating, expulsion will be the least of what you will have to worry about." Draco saw Nott, Crabbe and Goyle pale slightly under their Head of House's words.
Dinner that evening was a very subdued affair, the fifth and seventh years gloom leeching out onto the rest of the school. Draco saw when the examiners arrived, watching from the stairs that led to the dungeons. Professor Griselda Marchbanks was a tiny stooped witch with a very wrinkled face. She also seemed to be slightly deaf, she was talking with Umbridge very loudly even though they were only a foot apart, "Journey was fine, journey was fine, we've made it plenty of times before!" she said impatiently. "Now, I haven't heard from Dumbledore lately!" she added, peering around the Hall as though hopeful he might suddenly emerge from a broom cupboard. "No idea where he is, I suppose?"
"None at all," said Umbridge, shooting a malevolent look at Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were now dawdling around the foot of the stairs as Ron pretended to do up his shoelace. "But I daresay the Ministry of Magic will track him down soon enough."
"I doubt it," shouted tiny Professor Marchbanks, "not if Dumbledore doesn't want to be found! I should know... examined him personally in Transfiguration and Charms when he did N.E. ... did things with a wand I'd never seen before."
"Yes... well..." said Professor Umbridge uncaringly, "let me show you to the staff room. I daresay you'd like a cup of tea after your journey."
Once breakfast the next day was over, the fifth and seventh years milled around in the Entrance Hall while the rest of the school went off to their lessons. Finally, at half past nine, they were called forward class by class to re-enter the Great Hall, which had been rearranged with many single person desks and chairs all facing the platform the staff table sat upon. Professor McGonagall stood facing them all as they found their seats, arranged alphabetically by surname, and quieted. "You may begin," she said, and turned over an enormous hour-glass on the desk beside her.
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Climbing the stairs of the Astronomy Tower at eleven o'clock the second Thursday of their two exam weeks, Harry sigh with relief that it was almost over. Harry felt that he did extremely well for nearly all of his O. . Naturally, Divination was a bust, but other than that Harry was certain that he had at least earned 'A's on every other exam, if not 'E's. Both Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts however, Harry was positive that he had earned Outstandings. Both their regular training sessions with the D.A. and being able to ask Professor Snape questions whenever they pleased was very productive for them to know what would be expected of them on the tests.
The sky was perfectly cloudless and still when they reached the top of the tower, perfect for stargazing. The grounds were bathed in silvery moonlight and there was a slight chill in the air. Each of them set up his or her telescope and, when Professor Marchbanks gave the word, proceeded to fill in the blank star-chart they had been given.
Professors Marchbanks and Tofty strolled among them, watching as they entered the precise positions of the stars and planets they were observing. All was quiet except for the rustle of parchment, the occasional creak of a telescope as it was adjusted on its stand, and the scribbling of many quills. Half an hour passed, then an hour; the little squares of reflected gold light flickering on the: ground below started to vanish as lights in the castle windows were extinguished.
As Harry completed the constellation Orion on his chart, however, the front doors of the castle opened directly below the parapet where he was standing, so that light spilled down the stone steps a little way across the lawn. Harry glanced down as he made a slight adjustment to the position of his telescope and saw five or six elongated shadows moving over the brightly lit grass before the doors swung shut and the lawn became a sea of darkness once more.
Harry put his eye back to his telescope and refocused it, now examining Venus. He looked down at his chart to enter the planet there, but something distracted him; pausing with his quill suspended over the parchment, he squinted down into the shadowy grounds and saw half a dozen figures walking over the lawn. If they had not been moving, and the moonlight had not been gilding the tops of their heads, they would have been indistinguishable from the dark ground on which they walked. Even at this distance, Harry had a funny feeling he recognized the walk of the squattest of them, who seemed to be leading the group.
He could not think why Umbridge would be taking a stroll outside after midnight, much less accompanied by five others. Then somebody coughed behind him, and he remembered that he was halfway through an exam. He had quite forgotten Venus's position. Jamming his eye to his telescope, he found it again and was once more about to enter it on his chart when, alert for any odd sound, he heard a distant knock which echoed through the deserted grounds, followed immediately by the muffled barking of a large dog. He looked up, his heart hammering. There were lights on in Hagrid's windows and the people he had observed crossing the lawn were now silhouetted against them. The door opened and he distinctly saw six sharply defined figures walk over the threshold. The door closed again and there was silence.
Harry felt very uneasy. He glanced around to see whether Ron or Hermione had noticed what he had, but Professor Marchbanks came walking behind him at that moment and, not wanting to look as though he was sneaking looks at anyone else's work, Harry hastily bent over his star-chart and pretended to be adding notes to it while really peering over the top of the parapet towards Hagrid's cabin. Figures were now moving across the cabin windows, temporarily blocking the light.
He could feel Professor Marchbanks' eyes on the back of his neck and pressed his eye again to his telescope, staring up at the moon though he had marked its position an hour ago, but as Professor Marchbanks moved on he heard a roar from the distant cabin that echoed through the darkness right to the top of the Astronomy Tower. Several of the people around Harry ducked out from behind their telescopes and peered instead in the direction of Hagrid's cabin.
Professor Tofty gave another dry little cough. "Try and concentrate, now, boys and girls," he said softly.
Most people returned to their telescopes. Harry looked to his left. Hermione was gazing transfixed at Hagrid's cabin.
"Ahem… twenty minutes to go," said Professor Tofty. Hermione jumped and returned at once to her star-chart; Harry looked down at his own and noticed that he had mislabeled Venus as Mars. He bent to correct it.
There was a loud BANG from the grounds. Several people cried "Ouch!" when they poked themselves in the face with the ends of their telescopes as they hastened to see what was going on below.
Hagrid's door had burst open and by the light flooding out of the cabin they saw him quite clearly, a massive figure roaring and brandishing his fists, surrounded by six people, all of whom, judging by the tiny threads of red light they were casting in his direction, seemed to be attempting to Stun him.
"No!" cried Hermione.
"My dear!" said Professor Tofty in a scandalized voice. "This is an examination!"
But nobody was paying the slightest attention to their star-charts any more. Jets of red light were still flying about beside Hagrid's cabin, yet somehow they seemed to be bouncing off him; he was still upright and still, as far as Harry could see, fighting. Cries and yells echoed across the grounds; a man yelled, "Be reasonable, Hagrid!"
Hagrid roared, "Reasonable be damned, yeh won' take me like this, Dawlish!"
Harry could see the tiny outline of Fang, attempting to defend Hagrid, leaping repeatedly at the wizards surrounding him until a Stunning Spell caught him and he fell to the ground. Hagrid gave a howl of fury, lifted the culprit bodily from the ground and threw him; the man flew what looked like ten feet and did not get up again. Hermione gasped, both hands over her mouth; Harry looked round at Ron and saw that he, too, was looking scared. None of them had ever seen Hagrid in a real temper before.
"Look!" squealed Parvati, who was leaning over the parapet and pointing to the foot of the castle where the front doors had opened again; more light was spilling out on to the dark lawn and a pair of long black shadows were now rippling across the lawn.
"Now, really!" said Professor Tofty anxiously. "Only sixteen minutes left, you know!"
But nobody paid him the slightest attention: they were watching the figures now sprinting towards the battle beside Hagrid's cabin.
"How dare you!" the figure shouted as she ran. "How dare you!"
"It's McGonagall!" whispered Hermione.
"Leave him alone! Alone, I say!" said Professor McGonagall's voice through the darkness. "On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing, nothing to warrant such…"
Hermione, Parvati and Lavender all screamed. The figures around the cabin had shot no fewer than four Stunners at Professor McGonagall. Halfway between cabin and castle the red beams collided with her; for a moment she looked luminous and glowed an eerie red, then she lifted right off her feet, landed hard on her back, and moved no more. The second shape halted, the arched in a strange direction for a human and emitted a bellowing howl, and Harry realised immediately that it was Faykan, disguised as the vengeful Kitsune. Fire erupted as Faykan pelted toward the battle, baying like a mad hound after blood. Harry could almost feel the anger coursing through his friend as the black shape rammed into one of the people attacking Hagrid, biting and snapping at the man's limbs.
"Galloping gargoyles!" shouted Professor Tofty, who also seemed to have forgotten the exam completely. "Not so much as a warning! Outrageous behaviour!"
"COWARDS!" bellowed Hagrid; his voice carried clearly to the top of the tower, and several lights flickered back on inside the castle. "RUDDY COWARDS! HAVE SOME O' THAT! AN' THAT…"
"Oh my…" gasped Hermione.
Hagrid took two massive swipes at his closest attackers; judging by their immediate collapse, they had been knocked cold. Harry saw Hagrid double over, and thought he had finally been overcome by a spell. But, on the contrary, next moment Hagrid was standing again with what appeared to be a sack on his back, then Harry realised that Fang's limp body was draped around his shoulders.
"Get him, get him!" screamed Umbridge, but her remaining helper seemed highly reluctant to go within reach of Hagrid's fists; indeed, he was backing away so fast he tripped over one of his unconscious colleagues and fell over. The rest were too occupied keeping the Kitsune from tearing their limbs from their bodies. Hagrid had turned and begun to run with Fang still hung around his neck. Umbridge sent one last Stunning Spell after him but it missed; and Hagrid, running full-pelt towards the distant gates, disappeared into the darkness.
The moment Hagrid was safely gone, fire exploded upward from the circle of humans, and Faykan howled again, chilling Harry to the bone with the cold fury in the sound. The humans on the grounds ran, fleeing back to the castle, as Faykan pursued, belching fire and lightning after them, striking several wizard's shields and knocking a few to the ground.
There was a long minute's quivering silence as everybody gazed open-mouthed into the grounds as the group finally reached the castle doors. Then Professor Tofty's voice said feebly, "Um... five minutes to go, everybody."
The attack on Hagrid was all people could talk about the entire night. Most people were speculating as to why Umbridge would bother sacking Hagrid at this stage of the year, and Colin Creevey reported that Faykan, still in his animagus form, had carried Professor McGonagall back up to the castle, but she didn't look very well.
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Friday afternoon, Severus was teaching a group of third year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, with the assistance of Faykan, since he decided against taking the History of Magic O.W.L., when Harry suddenly burst into the room. Everyone looked over at him in surprise. There was still five minutes or so left until dinner, and Harry was defiantly not supposed to leave the Hall until the exam is finished. Faykan went over to question Harry while Severus restored order to the class and made his final rounds, keeping one eye on the pair of fifth years.
On seeing Faykan's face blanch, Severus grew worried. The moment the bell rang he strode over and herbed the two Gryffindors toward the teacher's desk, "What is it?" he asked in a low voice. Harry looked even paler than Faykan and he was shaking slightly. Faykan started digging into his pockets as he explained, "It's happened Sev. The trap has been baited. Voldemort has sent Harry a vision of Sirius in the Department of Mysteries, inside the Hall of Prophecy itself." The boy pulled out what looked like a Galleon, but emblazoned on it was a lightning bolt symbol, the D.A.'s mark. Faykan placed his wand to it and murmured under his breath. Meanwhile Severus turned to Harry.
"Tell me everything." He said, urging Harry to sit and handing him a calming draught. Hesitantly at first, Harry explained how he was in the exam, and somehow fell asleep, or something akin to it, and had the vision of the Dark Lord torturing Sirius in the Hall of Prophecy, trying to make Sirius take something for him. Severus saw it as a trap instantly, because not only did the Dark Lord not have Black, but he also knew that Black could not take the prophecy for him, as only he or Harry could even touch it.
Faykan turned back as Harry finished, "We need a plan. Firstly we need Umbridge out of the way, and the Order notified, so Dumbledore can spring his counter-trap, he believes that Harry will fall for the trick, and were going to spring the true trap, but on our own terms. I've called the entire A.D.A. to arrive here so we can formulate how to proceed."
Severus suddenly had a thought, and turning to Harry he inquired, "If you did not trust me, Harry, who would you try to contact first, aside from your friends here or Dumbledore?"
Harry looked confused, "Oh, I don't know, Professor McGonagall, but she's in St. Mungo's now. Sirius himself if I could I guess…"
"How?"
"No idea, maybe the Floo network…" Harry answered, unsure at what Severus was hinting at. But Faykan understood.
"Umbridge's fire, its perfect Sev! Yes, not only would Voldemort expect us to check first, but it's the perfect excuse to get caught by the old toad so we can get her out of our hair for a while…"
Just then, the entire group of Harry and Faykan's friends from the A.D.A. burst through the door, "Harry, Will, what's going on?" Cedric Diggory asked, concerned. The others had similar looks of worry and alarm on their faces.
"Our old pal Voldemort has finally made his move," Faykan said calmly, glancing at each of them in turn, "and we, that is to say, myself, Harry, Professor Snape and any who'll join us, are going to spring our trap on him."
Most of the crowd shuddered at the name, but none spoke up against what Faykan was insinuating. The boy closed his eyes in concentration for a few moments, his thoughts clearly shifting elsewhere, and then he looked up at the group of students again.
"What are we going to do?" Terry Boot asked, his voice shaking slightly, but his face determined. Faykan smiled at the boy before continuing.
"We need to get to the Ministry, specifically the Department of Mysteries, but we can't leave without being fully prepared for what might be waiting for us, and we need Umbridge out of the way completely… Now I have a small plan but I need some people to help lure her away from her office for a short time, before letting her return to 'catch' us using her fireplace…"
"I'll do it," Weasley piped up, "I'll tell her that, I don't know, Faykan's ghost is smashing up the Transfiguration department or something, it's miles away from her office…"
"I'll help you do that, it'll be more suspicious if there are two of us informing her," Draco added.
Severus watched in amazement as the rest of the group started planning out their respective tasks. While Draco and Mr. Weasley lured Umbridge temporarily away from her office, Miss Granger, Faykan and Harry would sneak in and use her fireplace, knowing that she had some magical means of detecting when people entered, and they would Floo call Grimmauld place, and Harry would act out as though he believed that Sirius was actually in the Department of Mysteries.
Meanwhile, Mr. Longbottom, Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood would reroute students away from the corridor to make it look more suspicious when Umbridge returns, and Zabini, Diggory and the three Ravenclaws would gather their things from the Room of Requirement and conceal them in an unused classroom off the Entrance Hall, waiting for the rest of the group to return after Umbridge is out of the way.
Severus would wait for Umbridge to call upon him, as Faykan guessed she would seek to force the truth of what they were up to out of Harry, using Veritaserum if she could, but Severus would conveniently be out. When she sent him away, he would wait for Faykan's sign that they had left, and signal the Order, triggering Albus to prepare his own trap for the Dark Lord. Then all he had to do was play out his role for Albus and hope for the best. Needless to say Severus didn't like it, but it was the best option for success, as both Dumbledore and the Dark Lord needed to continue to believe that they had their spy.
"All right," Faykan said finally when they were all ready, "Lets get going, Voldemort wouldn't like it if we show up late for his party."