Isabella watched as the Harry and Hermione left the room, Umbridge following close behind with her wand trained on their backs. Malfoy looked moody, his lip pouted out as he kicked the chintz armchair. Isabella watched, trying to look as though Malfoy had her full attention. In reality, her hand was inching towards Pucey's pocket, where she could just see her wand poking out.
"Well, Weezle-bee, this looks like the end of the road for you," Malfoy sneered, apparently having decided to vent his anger on Ron. "You'll be expelled for sure. What will your dear mother say? Not that you had much hope, with brains like yours... You must get it from your stupid father."
The Slytherins guffawed loudly. Isabella's fingers brushed against her wand, pretending to watch Ron's face grow redder. Malfoy continued to taunt Ron as Isabella slid the handle of her wand into her palm. She had never had to pull off a spell without speaking, but the gag in her mouth and the current situation might create a great enough need for her to succeed.
"Oi! What are you doing?" Pucey had noticed Isabella as she pulled her wand from his pocket. Suddenly, Malfoy's nose bulged dangerously and bogeys, equipped with small bat wings, poured from his nose. They surrounded Malfoy, attacking his head. Without any further prompting, the five captives broke free, snatching wands back from the Inquisitorial Squad.
Ron ducked Warrington's surprised jinx, pulling off his gag and shooting a Stunning Spell at the Slytherin, who dodged. The spell ricocheted off one of the kitten printed plates and hit Crabbe in the face. The Slytherin's eyes rolled up into his head and he crumpled to the floor, releasing Neville.
Neville scrambled for his own wand and stopped Pucey in his tracks with an Impediment Jinx. Luna disarmed the tall Slytherin girl who had been Hermione's captor, then Stunned her. For a moment, Warrington, Pucey, Goyle, and the other Slytherin girl advanced on them.
"Abe segnis!" Isabella shouted the incantation, waving her wand wildly. The Slytherins shrunk with a series of small pops, and their skin became greenish yellow and slimy. Five slugs squirmed on Umbridge's carpet. The bogeys that had assailed Malfoy gave up, circling the slug he had turned into lazily.
"I wish I had salt," Ginny said, curling her lip in disgust.
"They're cute," Luna rebuked, kneeling down and plucking up the Goyle-slug.
"Luna, don't do that," Isabella sighed in exasperation; Neville took on a distinctly green tone. Ron stooped and picked up the wand Malfoy had been tossing in the air, he also tugged another wand from the Stunned girl's robes.
"Come on, let's find Harry and Hermione," he said, pocketing their wands.
"I think they went into the Forbidden Forest," Luna told them, plucking all the slugs off the carpet and placing them tenderly on Umbridge's desk.
"Why on earth would they go in there?" Ginny asked, peering out the window into the dusky half-light.
"I have a really good idea," Ron said, watching as a flock of birds suddenly took flight from the forest and clattered away. "I just hope I'm wrong." They walked down onto the grounds, carefully edging past the Great Hall where dinner was finishing up and running down the steps.
When they came to the edge of the forest Isabella and Neville hung back, looking at the dark trees uncertainly.
"Did you really see them go this way, Luna?" Isabella asked, eyeing the woods with trepidation.
"Oh, yes," Luna said skipping ahead cheerfully. Isabella gave Neville a look that was half exasperated and half resigned. She followed Ginny and Ron into the forest, Neville and Luna close behind her.
"Do you know where we're going?" Neville asked, his face sweaty and pale.
"Pretty good idea," Ron said, pushing his way around a bush.
"How do you think Harry intends for us to get to London?" Ginny asked Ron quietly. Isabella frowned, confused. Last she had heard, Harry was attempting to contact Stubby Boardman, wizarding rockstar. No one had said anything to her about London.
"Us?" Ron glowered at his younger sister over his shoulder. "You aren't coming."
"Don't be silly," said Ginny, her sweater getting snagged on a branch. "We're all coming."
"It's too dangerous!" Ron argued, stumbling around a thorn bush, his hands getting cut on the spiky branches.
"I thought that's what the DA was about," Luna said in her dreamy voice. "Defending ourselves."
"Yeah defending ourselves, not going off looking for danger," Ron muttered coming to the far side of the thicket.
"Will someone tell me what is going on?" Isabella demanded, gasping slightly in pain as her hair tangled in a low-lying branch.
"Yeah, me too," Neville panted, stopping for a moment, his hands on his knees.
"And don't give me all this nonsense about Stubby Boardman and Padfoot and - and whatever else it was," Isabella said, swatting away a few gnats. Ron and Ginny took turns explaining everything on the way.
Isabella now knew that mass murderer Sirius Black, who had been blamed for the recent Azkaban break-out, was actually innocent, Harry's godfather, and being tortured by Lord Voldemort in order to gain some sort of weapon hidden in the Department of Mysteries.
"And you know this... because Harry's got a headache?" Isabella confirmed, skeptical.
"I don't exactly understand it," Ron said. "But it's got something to do with Harry being able to see into You-Know-Who's mind. And yeah, it makes his scar hurt."
"Hmm," Isabella hummed, decidedly not convinced.
"But that still leaves the question of how we're going to get to the Minsitry," Neville wheezed, tripping over his shoelaces.
"Look, you lot aren't coming!" Ron insisted. "Just me, Hermione, and Harry."
"Shh," Isabella hushed them. "I think I hear voices." She nodded discreetly up ahead and everyone fell silent to listen.
"... anyway, Harry, how exactly were you planning to get all the way to London?" Ron grinned when he heard Hermione's voice.
"Yeah, we were just wondering that," he said. Harry and Hermione, in a glade just ahead of them, moved together instinctively and peered through the trees. Isabella noticed that the two of them were covered in some sort of thick liquid; she strongly suspected blood, though clearly not their own for lack of injuries. Ron pushed aside a low-hanging branch and moved into their view.
"So," he said, holding out Harry's wand. "Have any ideas?"
"How did you get away?" asked Harry, clearly amazed and taking his wand from Ron.
"Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx," said Ron airily, now handing Hermione back her wand, too. "But Ginny and Bella were the best. Ginny got Malfoy - Bat Bogey Hex - it was superb, his whole face was covered in the great flapping things. And then Bella turned the lot of them into slugs - Luna was all for keeping them as pets..."
"No I wasn't," Luna argued. "I just thought they looked charming."
"Anyway," Ron said, rolling his eyes, "We saw you out of the window heading into the Forest and followed..."
"We?" interrupted Isabella, arching her eyebrow and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Fine, Luna saw," Ron consented. "What've you done with Umbridge?"
"She got carried away," said Harry. "By a herd of centaurs."
"And they left you behind?" asked Ginny, looking astonished.
"No, they got chased off by Grawp," said Harry.
"Who's Grawp?" Luna asked interestedly.
"Hagrid's little brother," said Ron promptly. "Anyway, never mind that now Harry, what did you find out in the fire? Has You-Know-Who got Sirius or -?"
"Yes," said Harry. "And I'm sure Sirius is still alive -"
"Un momento," Isabella said, holding up one finger. "I thought this connection or whatever it is was certain. You don't know if You-Know-Who has Sirius or not?"
"Look that's too complicated to explain right now," Harry said impatiently. "I still can't see how we're going to get there to help him." They all fell silent, looking rather scared; the problem facing them seemed insurmountable.
"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?" said Luna, in the closest thing to a matter-of-fact voice Isabella had ever heard her use when not discussing Crumple-horned Snorkaks.
"OK," said Harry irritably, rounding on her. "First of all, 'we' aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that, and second or all, Ron's the only one with a broomstick not being guarded by a security troll, so -"
"I've got a broom!" said Ginny.
"So do I!" Isabella exclaimed indignantly. "And don't talk to Luna that way!"
"Yeah, but you aren't coming," Ron said to Ginny angrily, ignoring Isabella.
"Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!" said Ginny, her jaw set so that her resemblance to Fred and George was suddenly striking.
"You're too -" Harry began, but Ginny said fiercely, "I'm three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Philosopher's Stone."
"And it's because of me that the Inquisitorial Squad is sliming up Umbridge's office," Isabella said haughtily.
"Yeah, but -" Harry tried again.
"We're all in the DA together," said Neville quietly. "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 -" said Harry impatiently.
"Then we should come too," said Neville simply. "We want to help."
"That's right," said Luna, smiling happily. Harry looked at Ron, and they shared an annoyed look.
"Well, it doesn't matter, anyway," said Harry through gritted teeth. "Because we still don't know how to get there -"
"I thought we'd settled that," said Luna maddeningly. "We're flying!"
"Look," said Ron, his anger simmering just under the surface. "You might be able to fly without a broomstick but the rest of us can't sprout winds whenever we -"
"There are ways of flying other than broomsticks," said Luna serenely.
"I s'pose we're going to ride on the back of the Kacky Snorgle or whatever it is?" Ron demanded.
"The Crumple-Horned Snorkak can't fly," said Luna in a dignified voice. "But they can, and Hagrid says they're very good at finding placed their riders are looking for."
They all turned and looked in the direction Luna was pointing. There were two trees on the far side of the glade, standing a little way apart and making the impression of two pillars.
"Yes!" Harry whispered, moving forwards toward them. Harry stretched out his hand eagerly and patted the thin air in front of him.
"Is it those mad horse things?" said Ron uneasily, staring at the empty space next to Harry. "Those ones you can't see unless you've watched someone snuff it?" Isabella thought this a fairly crude description, but she still couldn't see anything next to Harry.
"Yeah," said Harry.
"How many?"
"Just two."
"Well, we need three," said Hermione, who was still looking a little shaken, but determined just the same.
"Four, Hermione," said Ginny, scowling.
"I think there are seven of us, actually," said Luna calmly, counting.
"Don't be stupid, we can't all go!" said Harry angrily. "Look, you four -" he pointed at Neville, Ginny, Isabella, and Luna, "you're not involved in this, you're not -" They burst into more protests and Harry looked pained.
"OK, fine, it's your choice," he said curtly, "but unless we can find more Thestrals you're not going to be able -"
"Oh, more of them will come," said Isabella confidently.
"What makes you think that?"
"Because, in case you hadn't noticed, you and Hermione are both covered in blood," she said cooly. "And I know my father lures Thestrals with raw meat. That's probably why these two turned up in the first place." Harry looked down at his sleeve, which was damp with blood.
"OK, then," he said. "Ron and I will take these two and go ahead, and Hermione can stay here with you three and she'll attract more Threstrals -"
"I'm not staying behind!" said Hermione furiously.
"There's no need," said Luna, smiling. "Look, here come more now... you two must really smell..."
"All right," Harry said angrily, looking through the trees and clearly irritated that some plan to leave Luna, Ginny, Neville, and Isabella behind had failed. "Pick one and get on, then."
With that, Harry clenched his fist over something in mid-air, placed a foot on a stump nearby, and scrambled onto his invisible mount. He settled himself there for a moment and looked around. Neville was heaving himself onto some unseen back and Luna sat serenely in midair. Ron, Hermione, Isabella, and Ginny, however, were still standing motionless on the spot, open-mouthed and staring.
"What?" Harry said.
"How're we supposed to get on?" said Ron faintly. "When we can't see the things?"
"Oh, it's easy," said Luna, sliding down from her levitating perch and marching over to them. "Come here..."
She pulled them to different places around the clearing and helped get them onto their invisible steeds. She wound something thick and glossy into Isabella's hand and she gripped the unseen mane tightly and squeezed her knees tightly.
"This is mad," Ron murmured, moving his free hand gingerly up and down in midair, evidently petting his Thestral's neck. "Mad... if I could just see it -"
"How about I drop dead for you?" Isabella said, her mouth dry.
"You'd better hope it stays invisible," Harry agreed. "We all ready, then?" They all nodded and Isabella tightened her knees' grip. "OK..."
Harry looked down and nervously said, "Ministry of Magic, visitors' entrance, London, then." For a moment nothing happened, then there was a snapping noise, like wings sweeping open.
Isabella screamed as she felt herself rocketed upwards so fast and so steeply that she had to clench her arms and legs tightly around her invisible horse to avoid sliding backwards off it. She closed her eyes and pressed her face into its warm but see-through mane as they burst through the topmost branches of the trees and soared out into a blood-red sunset.
Isabella did not think she had ever moved so fast, not even when she had once stolen Roberto's Silver Arrow racing broom. She streaked over the castle, the cooling air slapping her face, and her eyes screwed up against the rushing wind. She kept her face forward and focused on where Hermione, screaming at the top of her lungs, was being hurled through the evening sky.
They were over the Hogwarts grounds, they had passed Hogsmede; Isabella could see mountains and gullies below her feet.
"This is bizarre!" Ron yelled from somewhere up ahead. Isabella silently agreed; she was frozen and her body cramping from the cold, but she dared not move. Finally, her eyes closed to block out the dizzying height which they had ascended, she buried her face in the invisible mane of her Thestral and did not open them for the rest of the journey.