Chapter Fifty Five

Harry could of kissed Ron when he said he would help lure Umbridge away from her office for long enough for Harry and his friends to slip in and use the fire to call home with the floo network.

Ginny, William and Cho had also agreed to help, they were already on their way to the large swamp to get themselves stuck, needing Umbridge's help to escape.

Ron was white faced and shaking slightly as he took small, scared steps to Umbridge's door and knocked on it.

"What is it Mr Weasley?" Umbridge asked, opening the door and looking confused at him, "I was just doing some marking."

"There… there's…" Ron stuttered.

Professor Umbridge huffed loudly, "I am rather busy, Mr Weasley…"

"My sister is stuck in the swamp!" Ron said quickly, "And two others, Chang and Culpeck. I think they went to try and help her and ended up stuck themselves."

Professor Umbridge blinked, "What?! Are they all right?"

"I think so but they can't get out." Ron said, "How deep is the swamp? Ginny isn't the best swimmer..."

"Well aren't there any other teachers who could help?" Umbridge asked, "Surely it is fairly simple to get them out."

Ron shook his head, "No, no sorry. They all said that they couldn't help and to come and get you right away."

Umbridge huffed loudly and disappeared back into her office for a moment before returning without the paperwork she'd had in her hands and left, flicking her wand at the door behind her.

"Draco and I will be look outs." Neville said.

Draco nodded and walked quickly to the other end of the corridor. Pansy flicked her wand at Umbridge's office door and it swung open.

"After you." Hermione said.

Harry rushed into the room and knelt down by the fire. There was a pot of bright green floo powder on the mantle piece.

He took a pinch and threw it into the fire, waiting for it to glow green before sticking his head into the flames.

"12 Grimmauld Place." He said clearly.

There was a rush of wind around his face before he could clearly see his, empty, sitting room.

"Hello!" Harry yelled as loudly as he dared, "Hello!"

Harry could feel the panic raise in his voice as his calls went unanswered.

"Please, someone! Anyone!" Harry yelled.

"Master Harry?" Kreacher said, pushing the door open, "What is yous doing in the fireplace? I justs cleans that!"

"I'm sorry Kreacher, look I can't explain right now." Harry said, "Where's Sirius?"

Kreacher looked confused, and slightly concerned, "He is being with Bellatrix, his cousin came over. Should I..."

Harry gasped, "No! Look Kreacher tell Mum and anyone else in the Order you can that Sirius is being held in the Department of Mysteries, at the Ministry, Voldemort is torturing him. And keep Danica with you, don't let anyone take her from the house!"

"Master Harry! Wait…" Kreacher said quickly.

Harry didn't wait though, pulling his head from the fire and standing up quickly, "Kreacher said Sirius is with Bellatrix, we need to get there now!"

"Kreacher will tell your Mum," Hermione pointed out, "They can send adults to go and get him."

Harry shook his head, "No, I mean yes, with any luck, but it's not enough. We have to go as well."

"I just think we need to think about this." Hermione said quickly, "And get out of this room before we get caught."

Harry nodded and they quickly left Umbridge's office, grateful that the cat plates wouldn't be able to talk; Pansy relocking the door behind them.

"Well?" Draco asked, spotting them and coming over from his look out post.

"Kreacher said that Sirius is with Bella." Daphne said, her face as white as a sheet.

"Look, I'm not asking for anyone to come with me, I know how dangerous this is going to be." Harry said, "Death eaters aren't going to play nice just because we're kids."

"Of course we're coming with you!" Neville said, sounding slightly offended, "Did you manage to get a message to someone that Danica was in danger as well?"

Harry nodded, "Yes. Kreacher is going to stay with her, no one's getting to her." that was one thing he didn't need to worry about at least.

"Right." Hermione said, trying to think logically, "We first need to find Ron and the others, make sure they know we're free and clear. Next we need to work out how we're getting to London."

"Well, the Floo network is out; as you said, Umbridge will have enough monitoring on even her fire to stop that." Draco said, "The last thing we need is to get arrested."

"Although, it would get us into the Ministry." Daphne smirked, "Then it's just a case of knocking out the guards."

"Let's try and think of another option." Pansy suggested, "We don't have enough brooms, plus I don't think I'd be confident enough to fly so far."

"We're looking at nearly six hundred miles…" Hermione said, "There's no way I'd be OK on a broom for half of that."

"We could fly though." Neville said, "The Thestral things, they can fly can't they? And they're used to carrying people about, remember Hagrid said something about Dumbledore using them for journeys?"

Harry nodded, "Good idea, very good in fact."

They headed quickly down the hall towards the swamp. Ron, Cho, William and Ginny were coming the other way talking between each other quickly.

"It worked then?" Ron said, still white faced but a little less shaky.

Harry nodded.

"And?" Cho asked, "Is it true?"

Harry nodded again, "Yes, Kreacher said that Sirius was with Bellatrix. We have to get to the Ministry."

Cho, Ginny, William and Ron all nodded.

"We're coming too, of course." Cho said, giving Harry's hand a quick squeeze.

"Yeah, definitely." Ron nodded quickly.

Harry looked at him awkwardly, "Ron… I'm really, really grateful for your help, but you can't come."

"Why?" Ron asked, crossing his arms, "Ginny is younger than me and apparently she can come!"

"Because Ginny is trained, at least a little." Pansy pointed out, "She came to the DA meetings, she might be able to not die too quickly. You have no chance."

"Pansy!" Daphne hissed.

"What? It's what everyone was thinking." Pansy pointed out, flicking her hair.

"Pansy is right." Harry said, kindly, "Look I know you would try and help but you've got no chance and I can't take the risk that one of us would get hurt trying to protect someone who can't defend themselves."

Ron nodded and sullenly kicked the floor with the tip of his shoe, "I get it. Is there anything I can do here then?"

"Yes." Draco nodded, "Talk to all of the pictures you can and see if they can get hold of anyone from the Order of the Phoenix. Also find a picture of Miriam Longbottom, she's a great aunt, or Grandmother in-law or something. She's got short Auburn ringlets, and is wearing a green dress, and in her early twenties. She has another portrait at Malfoy Manor, get her to tell Mother and Father what is going on. Her picture is around the potions lab I believe."

Ron nodded, "Of course."

"Also watch out for Umbridge. We don't want you to get into trouble." Daphne told him.

Ron, Cho, William and Ginny grinned.

"Oh, we don't need to worry about her for a while." Ginny said, waving her hand dismissively.

"She must have had an alarm or something on her door, maybe her fireplace? Anyway it went off when she'd just gotten to the swamp. She yanked us out and was frog marching us back to her office, ranting about us and you and possibly criminal charges so Ginny just sort of…" Cho said.

"I pushed her into the vanishing cabinet, you know the one on the first floor? No idea where she is now but when we reopened the door, she wasn't there." Ginny smirked.

Harry grinned, that was the best news he'd heard in weeks and one huge less thing to worry about now; of course there was every chance that he was going to die in the next few hours but that was a problem for later.

"Go and get warm clothes." Draco said, "Five minutes and meet at the Entrance Hall."

Harry glared at him, "We're on a bit of a time scale here!"

"Harry, we know and if you shout at us once more I'm going to slap you." Pansy said, fairly calmly, "We're trying to help and we're all going to be far more able to help Sirius if we get to the Ministry warm and dry."

Harry nodded, he didn't want to admit that they were right but he knew that they were. He rushed to the Slytherin common room, knocking several students out of the way. He grabbed his thickest cloak and a warm pair of socks before heading back down stairs.

Pansy and Daphne had quickly changed, leaving their school uniform behind and changing into comfortable jeans and tops.

"I don't think I've ever seen you in trousers before…" Draco asked, looking them up and down.

"Oh shut up!" Pansy laughed.

Harry knew they weren't trying to annoy him, they weren't being insensitive or nasty, he just couldn't explain how worried he was, he honestly felt like he was going to throw up at any moment.

Cho, Ginny, Hermione, Neville and William had also changed and were waiting for them by the slightly open door.

"Ron's already set off to find Miriam." Cho told them.

Harry had a quick look around before they slipped out of the door and into the cool air. It wasn't even sunset yet but thankfully it was heading for dinner time so the grounds were fairly empty.

They headed straight for Hagrid's hut and Harry unlocked the door, the tip of his wand glowed softly for a moment before fading.

"It's already unlocked." Harry whispered.

He reached for the handle and slowly pushed the door open.

"Luna? What are you doing here?" Neville asked.

"Oh, hello Harry, and friends." Luna smiled, "I was just looking for some meat."

"What do you need meat for?" Daphne asked.

"Same as you I would imagine." Luna grinned, "Going to see the Thestrals. I go fairly often and Hagrid said that should anything happen I was allowed to keep going, as long as I was careful but they know me pretty well."

Harry smiled, "So you know where they are then?"

"I know how to find them, yes." Luna nodded, putting a couple of dead ferrets into her arms, "Why do you need them?"

"We have to get to London?" Harry said, not wanting to worry her, he wasn't sure how she would react; Luna could be a little unpredictable after all.

"Is someone in trouble?" Luna asked, frowning and taking a step forward.

"Yes." Hermione nodded, "And this is very important."

"Let's go then." Luna said.

"You don't have any shoes on." Neville pointed out, following Luna through the forest, surprised at how easily Luna could move over the rough ground.

"Oh me?" Luna said, looking at their feet and double checking she was the only one without shoes, "Yes, I very rarely wear them."

She lead them to a clearing and paused for the others to catch their breaths.

"So we need… ten?" Luna checked, doing a quick head count.

"Are you coming?" Cho asked.

Luna nodded "Of course. It's what my Mum would of done."

Harry couldn't argue, he could hear the fierceness in Luna's voice, "Luna, you can come, of course. You did pretty well in the DA but… but it's going to be really dangerous."

Luna smiled and shrugged, "So is crossing the road."

Luna laid the dead ferrets down in the clearing and they stepped back. Harry could hear the minutes ticking by painfully loudly in his head, every minute they waited was a minute longer Sirius was being tortured; there was no guaranty that Sirius would be able to hold on much longer.

"There!" Cho said, pointed to where a few long faces were peaking out, heading to the ferrets.

"You can see them?" Harry asked.

Cho nodded, "Yes. I was five when my great grandpa died."

The Thestrals increased in number as they spotted Luna, several came over and nuzzled against her shoulder.

"You really must come here a lot." Draco said.

Luna nodded, "Yes. It's quiet and it gives people a break from me."

"That's not fair." Draco said, sadly, "People shouldn't need a break from you."

Luna smiled and patted the Thestral closest to her, "Come on, let's get you up."

It wasn't easy to get everyone on to their mounts; neither Draco, Pansy, Daphne, Neville, Hermione, William nor Ginny could see the Thestrals and had to rely on Harry, Luna and Cho's help to get them settled.

Harry climbed up onto his own patiently waiting Thestral and looked around, "So we just tell them where to go?"

Luna nodded, "Yes. They're very intelligent."

"Right then, last chance to back out guys." Harry said, he didn't know how to live with himself if something happened to any of them.

"We're coming." William said firmly.

"London, Ministry of Magic." Harry whispered to his Thestral.

The large, strong body beneath him rose its wings and took of into the sky.