Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

The Inquisitorial Squad

"You're being rather rude, you know." Luna sighed.

"Harry, wait." Hermione tugged on his arm, "They can help. We need to establish whether Sirius really has left headquarters-"

"I've told you, I saw-"

"Harry, I'm begging you, please!" She whined. "Let's just check that Sirius isn't at home before we go charging off to London. And if we find out he's not there, then I swear I won't try and stop you, I'll come. I'll do whatever it takes to... to try and save him."

"How?" Harry demanded. "How are we going to check?"

"We'll have to use Umbridge's fire... try to contact him..." She answered, looking petrified. "We'll draw her away again. But we'll need look outs." She glanced at Luna and Ginny and I nodded.

"I'll help too." Harry's green eyes flashed to mine. Ginny agreed.

"When you say 'Sirius,' are you talking about Stubby Boardman?" Luna asked, looking confused.

"Alright," Hermione spoke again, everyone ignoring Luna. "One of us has to go and find Umbridge and send her off in the wrong direction, away from her office."

"I'll do that." Ron offered at once. "I'll tell her Peeves is smashing up the Transfiguration department or something. That's miles from her office. "Come to think of it, I could probably convince Peeves to do it if I run into him along the way."

"Okay..." Hermione agreed without a second thought. I had never seen her like this. Plotting. "Then we'll need to keep students away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin's bound to go and tip her off..."

"Luna, Cassidy and I can stand at the ends of the corridor," Ginny suggested, "and warn people not to go down there because someone's let off a load of Garroting Gas."

Hermione shot her a strange look before Ginny explained.

"Fred and George were planning to do that before they left."

"Okay, then. Harry, you and I can sneak into the office under the invisibility cloak and you can check whether Sirius is at home or not while I keep watch." Hermione nodded, mostly to herself. "But even if we do all of that, I don't think that we can bank on more than five minutes. Not with Filch and the wretched Inquisitorial Squad floating around."

"Five minutes'll be enough," Harry agreed. "C'mon, let's go."

"Now?" Hermione practically squeaked, my heart picked up speed. Obviously I had known it was now, if Sirius was in trouble now. It didn't make it any easier to began this plan which would most likely land us in detention for the entirety of next year, or worse, expelled.

"Of course now!" Harry was screaming once again. "What did you think, we're going to wait until after dinner? Hermione, Sirius is being tortured right now!"

"Right, all right." She agreed, "You go get the cloak and we'll meet you at the end of Umbridge's corridor, okay?"

Without a nod or a single word, Harry practically flung himself out of the doorway and into the hallway, disappearing into the crowd.

"This is mad." Hermione whispered, looking more stressed than she had for exams.

"Let's get going." Hermione led the way through the students and up towards Umbridge's corridor where we stood anxiously for what could only have been minutes.

"Got it." Harry appeared. "Ready to go, then?"

"All right." Hermione dropped her voice to a whisper. "Ron, you go and head Umbridge off. Ginny, Luna and Cassidy, start moving people out of the corridor. Harry and I will wait until the coast is clear."