Chapter 58:
Harry was escorted out of the Great Hall by Professor Tofty. Alicia was still sitting with her hands grabbed at her skull. The forcefulness of the vision from Harry into her head made her feel like she wanted to pass out. But the pain was subsiding like the burning in her neck was.
"Dear?" Alicia suddenly looked up and the women looked shocked by the tears streaking down her face. "You shouted. Are you alright?"
Alicia shook her head quickly.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to… I mean, I was just…" she couldn't get her thoughts arranged to answer.
Sirius. Sirius was he… he was being… but how could he have…?
Her mind was reeling.
"Come on dear," she was helped from her seat and escorted from the hall after Harry and she glanced Hermione and Ron staring at her but didn't do anything to explain.
"I think you need to just breath, calm down, get a glass of water," she suggested "You may return when your ready." Alicia shook her head
"No, no I… I can't do much more." she lied, though she had been rather far into the exam she had not finished.
"Alright then, I suggest you go and lie down yes?" Alicia nodded and turned for the marble staircase.
Harry had clearly gone as Professor Tofty had walked in as she'd walked out. But where he'd gone she couldn't fathom right now. Her thoughts whirled through what she'd seen and her exams, she couldn't make any sense of it all. She needed to calm down and just take a breath, let her mind catch up, but her heart was beating much too fast.
Alicia didn't go to the common room, she knew it was full. She needed to think and for that she needed quiet.
She ended up on the seventh floor and in the Room of Requirement as the bell rang, the same library look it held was present when ever she was within the room by herself.
"Voldemort has Sirius." she whispered "No. He can't have. Sirius isn't stupid enough to leave Grimmauld Place. And Voldemort can't get in, only Dumbledore could let him." she whispered as she tried to make sense.
"Even if he did have Sirius, why Sirius? How on earth could he help? He could take any wizard and make it so much easier to get in to the Ministry, any Order member. Sirius is too smart to let this happen to him." Alicia mumbled "And if Voldemort can't get what ever it is than how on earth could Sirius?"
Alicia wanted to go an tell someone, but she had no idea who to go and talk to, Dumbledore wasn't here, McGonagall was…
Alicia left the room for the Hospital Wing. But when she arrived Madam Pomfry told her she'd gone to St Mungo's.
"What is it with you and Potter?" she demanded and Alicia looked at her surprised before she turned and left. Instantly she pushed her way into Harry's head and found him in a classroom where he was yelling at Hermione as Ginny and Luna walked into the room.
"There's no need to take that tone with me," Ginny said coolly. "I was only wondering whether I could help."
"Well, you can't," said Harry shortly.
"You're being rather rude, you know," said Luna serenely.
Alicia walked in behind the two and shut the door.
"Where have you been!?" Harry suddenly demanded at her as though she was in serious trouble and didn't have her priorities right.
The anger that flashed through Alicia at his tone made everyone step away from standing between them.
"Are you kidding me?!" she said her voice very soft. "You run off to the Hospital Wing without telling me and then hide in a classroom and have the gaul to tell me off!?" she demanded her voice getting more shrill. "If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have had to leave my exam early before finishing, I wouldn't have had my skull feel like it was going to blow open as you pushed that damn vision into my head!" she advanced on Harry as she spoke.
"That doesn't matter!" Harry believed "Sirius—"
"No." Alicia returned and everyone stared shocked, but not nearly as surprised as Harry. "Just no. I will not believe that Sirius is in the bloody Ministry where he will get the dementors kiss the second he's found or that Voldemort managed to sneak him in. I will also not believe that Sirius is stupid enough to leave Grimmauld Place."
"We saw what happened!?" Harry shouted again
"Yeah and you know what this time it was different!" Alicia shouted back and Harry looked outraged.
"Exactly Sirius is in trouble and you don't even care!" Alicia actually made a reach for her wand and both Hermione and Ron grabbed her arms instantly to stop her, fear showing in both their faces as they looked between the two.
"Every time you fall asleep and have a stupid vision of this hallway, which you want to see the outcome of, I see it too. You didn't want to block that hallway out you wanted to see what it was Voldemort wanted because no one would tell you. When dreaming there's less defences to keep me out of your head, but also to keep Voldemort out. I however actually practiced Occlumency and gave it a try unlike you, who just let his emotions cloud his mind and ended up failing and loosing the only teacher he could have because of his stupid nosiness!" Hermione and Ron looked between the two confused, still holding Alicia's arms. "So I don't go wondering into your mind and I can have some corridor-less sleeps if I want. This time however you actually forced that damn scene into my head. I felt it when you started watching and my head began to pound like my brain was too big for my skull and it was going to explode! You — forced — your — way — into — my — head!" Alicia said strongly, and slowly, so he'd get the picture. "Now considering you can't even do Occlumency there's no way you can do Legilimency without trying. You have never been able to get into my head. Nor have you tried so how did you shove this vision into my head for me to see?" she demanded.
Harry was staring at her and she could see she'd ticked him off, at the same time however, she knew he was thinking.
"I will not believe Sirius is in the Ministry because it's stupid to think so. But also, Snape told us that Voldemort was aware of the connection you two had, so tell me, what's to stop Voldemort planting something into your mind?" Alicia asked.
Everyone stared surprised.
"This vision could have been a complete fake!" she snapped and Ron and Hermione released her as she looked at Harry.
"Yeah and how can you prove that?" Harry now snapped back "Do you really want to take the chance that it is. Even if he did force it into my mind and then into yours, that doesn't mean it's fake, it means he wants us to grab this weapon!"
"Another thing, why the hell can't he touch it? And if he wants it and we're the only ones who can get it than are you seriously going to give him that chance of having this weapon?" Alicia said.
"You want to take the chance of letting Sirius die!?" Harry shouted in her face. Alicia shook her head as she ground her teeth.
"He cannot be in the ministry!" Alicia snapped back and Harry looked at her.
"You're just afraid he'll die." he responded
"No shit!" Alicia spat back "He and you are the only family I have left and you seriously think I want to believe he's in some life threatening danger?" There was a period of silence and Alicia took a breath.
"Look, every year so far something's gone wrong and it's only gotten worse because we didn't have enough knowledge on it. We let Peter escape, we ignored the signs that Moody was an imposter, we didn't realise Ginny was possessed and we suspected Snape instead of Quirrel just because we hated him." Alicia said "Last year it got someone killed and I do not want to go running off again just so that can happen again. We don't know what the weapon is, and we are not running off unless there's proof that Sirius is in trouble. And how are you going to find that out?" she demanded.
"Wait," said Hermione suddenly. "Wait… we can find out, and they can help." Alicia, Harry and Ron looked at her to find her pointing to Ginny and Luna.
"Listen," she said urgently, "Harry, we need to establish whether Sirius really has left headquarters —"
"I've told you, I saw —"
"Shut up!" Alicia snapped at him and he looked at her angrily.
"Harry, I'm begging you, please!" said Hermione 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!" shouted Harry. "We haven't got time to waste —"
"We are checking this first!" Alicia snapped "We are not running off to the ministry of all damn places without absolute proof."
"If this is a trick of V-Voldemort's — Harry, we've got to check, we've got to —"
"How?" Harry demanded. "How're we going to check?"
"We'll have to use Umbridge's fire and see if we can contact him," said Hermione, 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," and Luna said, "When you say 'Sirius,' are you talking about Stubby Boardman?"
Nobody answered her.
"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?" said Luna, looking mildly surprised. "But how are you going to get there?"
Again, Harry ignored her. But Alicia turned and had to think too… they couldn't Apparate they were too young and they'd get lost taking brooms, in which Harry's was confiscated and Hermione wasn't very good. They could use Umbridge's fire if they made it that far…
"Right," said Hermione, twisting her hands together and pacing up and down between the desks. "Right… well… One of us has to go and find Umbridge and — and send her off in the wrong direction, keep her away from her office. They could tell her — I don't know — that Peeves is up to something awful as usual…"
"I'll do it," said Ron at once. "I'll tell her Peeves is smashing up the Transfiguration department or something, it's miles away from her office. Come to think of it, I could probably persuade Peeves to do it if I met him on the way…"
It was a mark of the seriousness of the situation that Hermione made no objection to the smashing up of the Transfiguration department.
"Okay," she said, her brow furrowed as she continued to pace. "Now, we need to keep students away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin's bound to go and tip her off…"
"Luna and I can stand at either end of the corridor," said Ginny promptly, "and warn people not to go down there because someone's let off a load of Garroting Gas." Hermione looked surprised at the readiness with which Ginny had come up with this lie. Ginny shrugged and said, "Fred and George were planning to do it before they left."
"Maybe we should do it anyway while we're at it?" Alicia mumbled
"Okay," said Hermione, "well then, Harry, you, Alicia and I will be under the Invisibility Cloak, and we'll sneak into the office and you can talk to Sirius —"
"He's not there, Hermione!"
"He might very well be! You can't tell the difference before a real memory or a fake now can you?" Alicia snapped back
"I mean," Hermione said quickly to stop the two fighting again "you can — can check whether Sirius is at home or not while I keep watch, I don't think you should be in there alone, Lee's already proved the window's a weak spot, sending those nifflers through it."
Even through his anger and impatience Harry recognised Hermione's offer to accompany him into Umbridge's office as a sign of solidarity and loyalty.
"I… okay, thanks," he muttered.
"Right, well, even if we do all of that, I don't think we're going to be able to bank on more than five minutes," said Hermione, looking relieved that Harry seemed to have accepted the plan, "not with Filch and the wretched Inquisitorial Squad floating around."
"Five minutes'll be enough," said Harry. "C'mon, let's go —"
"Now?" said Hermione, looking shocked. Even Alicia looked at her surprised.
"Of course now!" said Harry angrily. "What did you think, we're going to wait until after dinner or something? Hermione, Sirius is being tortured right now!"
"I — oh all right," she said desperately. "You go and get the Invisibility Cloak and we'll meet you at the end of Umbridge's corridor, okay?"
Harry did not answer, but flung himself out of the room.
Alicia pinched the bridge of her nose and began to pace, taking a few breaths.
"Alicia?"
"It just doesn't add up. Voldemort would take Sirius to get to Harry and then force the memory into Harry's head so he'd come charging out to the Ministry, that makes more than enough sense. Voldemort would do that seeing as he's so desperate for this…" she sighed
"Do we even know what it is?" Ron asked
"I think it's a memory, but I have no idea what memory he could be so desperate for to be yearning over it all year, because it's that yearning that's drawn Harry in to the dreams. He and I can feel what Voldemort feels in those moments. This time was different though, I didn't feel any emotions to memory. And it was forced into my head, worse than when Snape forced his way in. I'm surprised I didn't pass out." she ran a hand through her hair.
"You don't think Sirius is there either?" Hermione wondered
"I have no idea why he would be. He's not stupid, and I feel the first person who would know if and where Voldemort was and if Sirius wasn't at Grimmauld Place it'd be Dumbledore. Regardless of where he is I swear he'd know that. He's Dumbledore." Alicia said before taking a breath. "But I can't prove the memory was real anymore than I can prove it's fake." she whispered.
It was that that terrified her. She could apply logic and reason and previous experience and understandings to it, and believe there was no possibility it was real and that it was likely a coo, but she wasn't willing to take the chance without first checking.
"Come on, we'd better meet Harry." Ron said and Alicia nodded before following them out. "By the way, watching you and Harry argue is very scary." he added to Alicia and she smirked slightly.
They stood at the end of the corridor of Umbridge's office and waited for Harry to return. Hermione organised a signal with Ginny and Luna for if Umbridge turned up before he did, the invisibility cloak and the knife Sirius had given him in his bag.
"Got it," he panted. "Ready to go, then?"
"All right," whispered Hermione as a gang of loud sixth years passed them. "So Ron — you go and head Umbridge off… Ginny, Luna, if you can start moving people out of the corridor… Harry, Alicia and I will get the cloak on and wait until the coast is clear…"
Ron strode away, his bright red hair visible right to the end of the passage. Meanwhile, Ginny's equally vivid head bobbed between the jostling students surrounding them in the other direction, trailed by Luna's blonde one.
"Get over here," muttered Hermione, tugging at Harry's wrist as Alicia moved into a recess where the ugly stone head of a medieval wizard stood muttering to itself on a column. "Are — are you sure you're okay, Harry? You're still very pale…"
"I'm fine," he said shortly, tugging the Invisibility Cloak from out of his bag. Alicia said nothing, she could feel the ache in her scar and knew his was the same, but it wasn't bad enough that, in the case what they'd seen was real, Voldemort had yet dealt Sirius a fatal blow. It had hurt much worse than this when Voldemort had been punishing Avery…
"Here," he said. He threw the Invisibility Cloak over the three of them and they stood listening carefully over the Latin mumblings of the bust in front of them.
"You can't come down here!" Ginny was calling to the crowd. "No, sorry, you're going to have to go round by the swivelling staircase, someone's let off Garroting Gas just along here —"
They could hear people complaining; one surly voice said, "I can't see no gas…"
"That's because it's colourless," said Ginny in a convincingly exasperated voice, "but if you want to walk through it, carry on, then we'll have your body as proof for the next idiot who didn't believe us…"
Slowly the crowd thinned. The news about the Garroting Gas seemed to have spread — people were not coming this way anymore. When at last the surrounding area was quite clear, Hermione said quietly, "I think that's as good as we're going to get, Harry — come on, let's do it."
Together they moved forward, covered by the cloak. Luna was standing with her back to them at the far end of the corridor. As they passed Ginny, Hermione whispered, "Good one… don't forget the signal…"
"What's the signal?" muttered Harry, as they approached Umbridge's door.
"A loud chorus of 'Weasley Is Our King' if they see Umbridge coming," replied Hermione, as Harry inserted the blade of Sirius's knife in the crack between door and wall. The lock clicked open, and they entered the office.
Alicia hated the sight of the office more and more every time she saw it but she followed Harry to the fireplace as Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, the three having pulled off the cloak.
"I thought she might have added extra security after the second niffler…"
Hermione hurried over to the window and stood out of sight, peering down into the grounds with her wand out. Harry dashed over to the fireplace, seized the pot of Floo powder, and threw a pinch into the grate, causing emerald flames to burst into life there. He knelt down quickly, thrust his head into the dancing fire, and cried, "Number twelve, Grimmauld Place!"
Alicia took a breath as she kneeled beside him and closed her eyes, she saw Grimmauld place and saw that the cold kitchen was empty. She took a deep breath, the house was large, he could be with Buckbeak.
"Sirius?" he shouted. "Sirius, are you there?"
His voice echoed around the room, but there was no answer except a tiny scuffing sound to the right of the fire.
"Who's there?" he called.
Kreacher the house-elf came creeping into view. He looked highly delighted about something, though he seemed to have recently sustained a nasty injury to both hands, which were heavily bandaged. Alicia wondered if he'd done something against his orders and had to injure himself… if so what was it he'd done to anger Sirius that required such…
She ignored the lump that rose in her throat with the worry and fear that began to fill her. What if Sirius really wasn't here?
"It's the Potter boy's head in the fire," Kreacher informed the empty kitchen, stealing furtive, oddly triumphant glances at Harry. "What has he come for, Kreacher wonders?"
Alicia didn't like how happy Kreacher was… she didn't want to think that perhaps he'd done something to Sirius he believed the man deserved or if…
"Where's Sirius, Kreacher?" 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!" said Harry, fully aware that his scope for inflicting punishment upon Kreacher was almost nonexistent in this position. "What about Lupin? Mad-Eye? Any of them, are any of them here?"
"Nobody here but Kreacher!" said the elf gleefully, and turning away from Harry he began to walk slowly toward the door at the end of the kitchen. "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. Harry could just make out the back of his bald head through the forest of chair legs before him.
"Master does not tell poor Kreacher where he is going," said the elf quietly.
"But you know!" shouted Harry. "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 — !"
Alicia felt pain in her head before she found herself on her feet as she was yanked by her arm. She turned to find Malfoy behind her. Hermione was pinned to the wall by Millicent Bulstrode and Umbridge was reaching into the fire, grabbing Harry's hair and yanking him out by it. She bent his neck back so that he was staring at the celling, almost like she planned to take a knife to his throat.