"They have Sirius!" Harry cried, bolting upright. He was on the floor, surrounded by his friends who were looking at him with a mixture of concern and confusion.
"Voldemort has him!" he said again in an agitated voice. "I saw it! Just like the time with your dad, Ron!"
The others continued to stare at him blankly, but Ron and Hermione's expressions darkened with understanding.
"Slow down, Harry," Hermione said calmly, "and tell us everything you can about what you saw."
"I saw a door. The same one I've been seeing in my dreams, in the Department of Mysteries. And then I saw Sirius—tied up and covered in blood—and a bunch of Death Eaters and Voldemort around him."
Hermione and Ron looked at each other grimly. "Are you sure?" Hermione asked.
"Of course, I'm sure!" he practically shouted at her. He jumped to his feet and started towards the door.
"Harry, wait!" She grabbed his arm to stop him.
He shook her off. "I've got to save him, Hermione!"
"Harry, please just listen for a minute." She sounded as if she was on the verge of tears. "What if Voldemort meant for you to see this? What if he's only hurting Sirius because he's trying to get you?"
"So what if he is?" Harry spun around to face her. "I'm supposed to just sit back and let him die? Hermione, he's the only family I've got left."
He ran to the door with his wand and cried, "Alohomora!" but in the next instant he, too, was sitting on the floor with smoke spewing out of his wand.
"Like I just told Ron," Hermione said, "this room has been enchanted with an anti-magic jinx. Spells won't have any effect."
"What about the windows then?" Ron said brightly.
"That won't work. They won't open because of the enchantment, and even if they did, did you forget that we're on the third floor, Ronald?"
"I don't see you coming up with any better ideas," Ron muttered, his ears turning very red.
"There must be some way out!" Harry said desperately. Every second that he waited around here, his chances of saving Sirius slipped away.
"We don't know exactly what's going on—" Fred spoke up.
"But if it's a way out that you want—" George said.
"We've got it." They both held up hair pins that were the perfect size and shape for picking locks.
Harry looked at them both in amazement. "You guys are brilliant!"
They flashed a grin. "Magic is splendid and all, but we find that there is a certain ingenuity to Muggle tricks like these. You never know when they may come in handy."
"Thanks a bunch for the help, guys," he said once they had finished. "Just stay here and try to get some help if I'm not back in a few hours."
He went to reach for the door handle, but Fred and George blocked his way. "Just hold on a second," they said, crossing their arms over their chests. "You must be crazy if you think that you're leaving us behind."
The others quickly voiced their agreement.
Harry stared at them. "You all…want to come with me? You can't," he said, trying in vain to keep the panic out of his voice. "It's too dangerous. We'll be fighting real Death Eaters, maybe even Voldemort himself."
"That's what we've been preparing for all this time, isn't it?" Ginny said bravely, though her face was very pale.
"But this is different," he insisted. "This is my personal problem, I can't involve you all—"
"When are you going to get it into your head? We're in this together, Harry," Hermione said stubbornly.
He looked from one determined face to another before finally giving in. "Alright, then. Let's do this."