Black Rose (Draco Malfoy)

Escape

Chapter 35: Escape

The final exam, History of Magic, was on Thursday afternoon. This was by far the hardest test. It looked like it would take me the entire time. When I was almost finished, however, I heard someone in the room scream.

I turned my head in alarm to see that it had been Harry. He was on the ground. Professor Tofty helped him up and led him to the Entrance Hall. I immediately returned to my exam. I needed to finish, and I could check on Harry later.

Alas, I could not find Harry once the bell rang, nor could I catch up with Hermione and Ron, who were, with no doubt, searching for him. I decided to roam the halls and release the tension the exams had given me. I smiled when I saw Ginny and Luna walking together. "Hey, guys," I said brightly. "What's going on?"

Before either of them could reply, I heard shouting coming from a nearby classroom, and the voice sounded a lot like Harry's: "WELL, I EXPECT HE'D SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT IF HE KNEW WHAT I'D JUST-"

I exchanged a look with my friends. Without a word, we made our way into the classroom where we found a very angry-looking Harry standing in front of Ron and Hermione. I had a troubling feeling this was about his outburst during our last OWL exam.

"Hi," Ginny said uncertainly. "We recognized Harry's voice. What are you yelling about?"

"Never you mind," Harry said roughly.

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "There's no need to take that tone with me," she said coolly, "I was only wondering whether I could help."

"Well, you can't," Harry said shortly.

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

Harry swore and turned away.

I frowned but my look was sympathetic. "What's wrong, harry?" I asked softly.

He did not respond.

"Wait," Hermione said suddenly. "Wait ... Harry, they can help. Listen, Harry, we need to establish whether Sirius really has left Headquarters."

"I've told you, I saw--" Harry started to say.

"Harry, I'm begging you, please!" Hermione said 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 to stop you. I'll come, I'll d--do whatever it takes to try and save him."

"Sirius is being tortured NOW!" Harry shouted. "We haven't got time to waste."

"But if this is a trick of 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. We'll draw Umbridge away again, but we'll need lookouts, and that's where we can use Ginny, Luna, and Crystal."

Even though I was struggling to understand what they were talking about (Sirius seemed to be in trouble), I said immediately, "Yeah, we'll do it," and Luna said, "When you say "Sirius", are you talking about Stubby Boardman?"

"OK," Harry said aggressively to Hermione, "OK, 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?" Luna said, looking mildly surprised. "But how are you going to get there?"

"Right," Hermione said, 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 ..."