Chapter 19: The Message
Hadrian sat staring up at the roof of the Great Hall bored.
He'd finished his History of Magic exam in record time and he could tell from the set of Draco's posture in front of him that so had his brother.
He could see Neville across the hall still scribbling on his exam and with a look backwards he could see that Blaise had finished as well.
Harry had no intention of continuing History on in sixth year but he knew less than perfect scores would result in punishment.
A bell sounded and Harry watched as Neville smirked in relief that he'd managed to get the exam done before the bell.
"Ugh I'm so frustrated, why couldn't we get more time? I had at least five more points I could have put into that last question," Granger said, in front of them, as they were all dismissed.
"Relax, Hermione, I'm sure you've got the best scores in the year again," Weasley said calming the girl down.
"Yeah right Weasley. The only time Granger has had the best scores in the year was last year when Draco and I didn't have to take the exams," Hadrian smirked.
The two Ravenclaws and Ron stopped and turned around.
"Hermione has twice the brains that you two could ever hope for," Ron snapped.
"Keep dreaming Weas-"
Draco was cut off by a cold feeling washing over them and the high cold voice that followed it.
"Neville Longbottom, I request something of you on the 94th row. You will come to the Department of Mysteries and retrieve that that only you and I can touch, you seem to be missing a pretty little red head, you have until midnight or you will find her head on your pillow at sunrise, for every hour you take to come for her one curse will be cast at her,"
The group looked surprised and horrified.
Neville looked to the twins.
"Did-"
Knowing what he was going to say the twins shook their head.
"Not a peep," Draco whispered.
"What the hell did that mean? They have Ginny?" Ron demanded.
Harry looked around and noticed some students starting to glance at them.
He pulled them all into an empty classroom.
"You can't jump to that conclusion, Weasley," Draco said shaking his head.
"It isn't a conclusion, Malfoy! That bastard just said they had her!" Ron growled. "You might be alright in letting her die but I'm not!"
"Use your head, Weasley," Harry growled. "Red is like our little sister. Why would we want her dead? We need to search the castle, we need to make sure she isn't just locked up somewhere or knocked out before we go rushing into what's obviously a trap,"
"That will take ages!" Neville said frantically. "I can't let him hurt her, Hadrian,"
"Your map, Malfoy, couldn't you use that?" Indigo said calmly.
Hermione, Ron, Blaise and Neville looked at her in surprise.
Harry nodded though ignoring the imploring looks of Blaise and Neville.
He activated the map and asked for Ginny.
The map remained limp and unlighted.
"She isn't in the castle," Draco said unemotionally.
"It might be a glitch," Neville said hopefully.
"You know as well as we do, Hulk, that the map doesn't glitch," Blaise murmured.
"We have to approach this calmly," Harry said looking at Neville firmly. "You know it's a trap, the place will be swarming with Death Eaters and even the big gun himself. We won't be enough to overpower them. You either get Ginny and some of us die or you give him what he wants, put a price on your own head, some of us will still die but the pro will be you get Ginny out alive,"
"The choice is your life or her's, Neville," Draco added.
Neville seemed to deflate.
"Please, Longbottom, there has to be some goodness still left in your Slytherin heart," Ron pleaded. "Dumbledore will keep you safe,"
Harry ignored Ron and focused solely on Neville.
If it was him, he'd choose his own life but he knew Neville wouldn't be able to do that without it scarring him for life.
"There might be another way," Blaise said slowly.
Everyone looked at him.
"Dumbledore's Order. If you told them what was happening, if we could get some back up, we could all get out of there alive without Voldemort getting what he wants," he continued.
Harry knew it was the only option but fraternising with Dumbledore's order would put him and Draco in danger.
"Problem with that is that we have no idea how to contact them. Dumbledore is gone, McGonagall is in Hospital and the floo is all blocked off," Hermione pointed out.
"There's always Snape," Ron said hopefully.
"The floo isn't blocked in Umbridge's office," Indigo said at the same time.
The twins shared a look.
Either Snape was a convincing Order member when he was spying or the man was actually Dumbledore's spy.
Either way the man wasn't an option.
"We can't use Snape," Hadrian said shaking his head.
"Why not he's an order member," Ron snapped.
"Because, you fucking moron, it will put his position in jeopardy," Draco snarled.
"You four are talking as if you already know about the Order," Hermione said slowly.
"As much as I love this game of twenty questions we need to go to Umbridge's office and use her floo," Neville snapped.
"You four won't be able to use the floo to contact the Order because you don't know the secret," Ron stated.
"Then you three go, we'll keep an eye out for Umbridge and bail you out if she catches you," Neville retorted.
"Don't see why we have to bail them out if they get caught. They'll only get under our feet if they come anyway," Harry muttered as the three of them left.
He hated the thought of Indigo been so close to the Death Eaters. Even the slightest altering of his behaviour around her and the Death Eaters would know about his feelings for her.
"We need them, like you said if we can't get the Order then we're out numbered," Neville snapped.
"So you're going to do this?" Draco asked. "Risk your life for her,"
Neville nodded.
"Come on then we need to keep an eye on Umbridge," Blaise muttered.
"Might as well just use the map," Harry shrugged.
The four of them watched as only moments after Ron entered Umbridge's office, Umbridge herself started to march in that direction in a hurried pace.
"She has Nott, Goyle and Crabbe with her," Draco said pointing out the names.
"Obviously the idiots didn't think she'd ward her rooms after the Niffler attacks," Harry breathed. "Right Neville you go down to the dorms, get our darkest robes with the biggest hoods, if we're going there we certainly aren't going to be recognised straight away. Blaise you go up there and stun Nott, Crabbe and Goyle when Draco and I get Umbridge out of there. We'll meet back here once it's done,"
The three nodded and instantly got to work.
"Come on," Harry said to Draco running up the stairs.
When they got to Umbridge's office they were slightly out of breath.
Harry barged straight into the room.
"Professor come quick!" Harry said frantically.
"I'm busy Malfoy, what is it? Can another teacher not solve the issue? I'm about to interigate Weasley into telling me where Dumbledore is," Umbridge snapped.
Harry was slightly surprised to see Ron tied to a chair and Luna among the other two Ravenclaws that were been restrained by Nott, Crabbe and Goyle.
"That's just it professor, we've just seen professor Dumbledore!" Draco exclaimed shaking his head.
"He was heading into the forest professor. We were on the grounds and he passed us muttering under his breath about a weapon. That must be what they were flooing him about," Harry said his eyes wide.
Umbridge's mouth fell open before a smug smirk and a greedy look came across her face.
"So the old man thinks he can just waltz into my school does he? Well I'll show him. Show me which way boys, the Ministry will thank you quite handsomely for aiding the capture of this criminal," Umbridge smirked.
The twins rushed from the room, making sure that she was with them.
Indigo sat back in the classroom watching as Draco and Hadrian went further and further into the forest with Umbridge following.
They'd been gone an hour already.
"Can't we just go without them?" Ron demanded. "They're future Death Eaters anyway,"
"We can't hope to rescue Red without them, Weasley," Blaise snapped.
"Whatever! We can do everything they can," Ron growled.
"Oh so you can dismantle and control wards with a flick of your wand then, Weasley?" Blaise mocked looking surprised. "You sure fooled me considering you went rushing into Umbridge's office without even checking for wards,"
Ron opened his mouth to retort but Indigo interrupted.
"Just leave it Weasley. Zabini is right. We need them to get your sister and as many of us out of there alive," Indigo stated sharply.
"Well then something is obviously up why don't we go in there and get them? We're wasting time," Ron growled.
"The twins know what they're doing. Us going in there will spoil that. What we need to do is go up to the Hospital wing and get some healing potions. There's no telling what condition Ginny will be in when we get there," Neville said biting his lip.
Ron paled.
"I'll stay here and watch the map just in case anything happens. You take Granger and Weasley with you," Blaise stated his eyes not leaving the map.
He and Neville hadn't risked showing them just what the map could do. With Indigo already knowing about the map and Luna been like another little sister to them he wasn't bothered about showing them but he wouldn't let Ron and Hermione know.
AN: I am so so so sorry about the wait. My laptop hates me at the moment and it wiped everything off my memory. It took me a bit to find where i'd saved my back up files. When i redownloaded it this story was only two chapters long. After taking the chapters already posted on here and putting them back on my laptop i then had to re complete this story and make a start on book six again :( Anyway hopefully there will be no more crisis' and I'll be back to posting regularly :) Hope you guys liked it! :D
cocobyrd87 - Hell is what I call the twins working with Ron :L I'm so thankful for your continued support of this story :)
Dragons-Twilight1992 - More is definately going to come a lot quicker than this update did. Thanks for your support! :)
NCIS FTW - Don't be afraid, the twins will protect you ;) Thank you for your continuous support :)