In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*Quidditch

But luckily as she approached Gryffindor tower, it appeared she was not the only Gryffindor late to arrive, given the large crowd assembled on the stairs

"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice as he pushed through the crowd "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password — excuse me, I'mHead Boy —" And then everyone waited in silence as he reached the portrait, expecting him to say the password but there came nothing "Somebody get ProfessorDumbledore. Quick."

"What's going on?" Ginny asked from behind Briar

Suddenly, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping through them and towards the portrait. As he cleared a path, Briar was able to see through all the heads and could see that the Fat Lady's portrait had deep slices across it, with strips of canvas on the floor, and she was nowhere in sight

Professor McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape were quick to arrive and Briar saw the fear flash through her dad's eyes when he took in the scene

"We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at onceand tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."

"You'll be lucky!" Peeves the Poltergeist shouted from above

"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore asked

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw herrunning through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Cryingsomething dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing."

"Did she say who did it?" he asked

"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves, "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see. Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

Panic immediately spread through the crowd and Briar's head snapped to her dad. Mere minutes ago he had told her she was safe in the castle. Now she didn't think she was.

Dumbledore was quick to hustle all the Gryffindors to the Great Hall, where they were shortly joined by Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. They announced everyone would be sleeping in there tonight as the teachers searched the castle for any sign of Black.

So they pushed the tables to the sides of the hall and distributed sleeping bags, before they divided into teams and began their search

Briar and Ginny pulled their sleeping bags towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione's and as the lights went out, the buzzing conversations about how Sirius Black must have gotten into the caste quickly died too

But for days it was all anyone could talk about. Well everyone except the Gryffindors, who were all now furious about their new portrait guardian, Sir Cadogan, who spent his time challenging students to duels and constantly changing the password to ridiculous things

Briar and Harry though, had more pressing matters, such as the sudden increase of teachers or prefects tailing them everywhere, including Madame Hooch now supervising their quidditch practices, so neither of them had more than 10 seconds alone a day

At last though, they finally had something to look forward to and that was their first quidditch match of the season against Hufflepuff. Even the pouring rain and howling gale couldn't bring their spirits down

Luckily Briar wasn't starting this game since she was merely still the substitute, but from her spot in the tunnel, the rain was somehow still getting in and she too became soaked within 5 minutes 

Gryffindor seemed to be holding their own, being fifty up quite quick but Harry seemed to be bored in the air, still not having seen the snitch. 

That seemed to change though as Hufflepuff's seeker Diggory suddenly sprung to life, and Harry chased after him